The Impact of Movie Lines on Feelings About the Approaching Season
“Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
So goes one of my favorite lines from the 1998 Tom Hanks / Meg Ryan classic, You’ve Got Mail. Today feels like the perfect day to buy school supplies. It’s overcast and drizzly, summer is almost gone, and I just got back from a big vacation abroad. How very Bonnie Wheeler of me. (Bonnie was my medieval studies professor at university who always spent her summers in France at a monastery with her likewise professorial husband.)
There is something magical about this time of year. The urge to be intellectually and creatively productive is immense.
I also just bought a new blazer that will be perfect for fall and a puffy coat that would have been perfect for life in Boston. So the desire for autumnal weather is strong.
Go buy yourself some new pencils. It will feel good.
Where The Wild Things Are Contest
Grand Prize: two tickets to the New York City big screen premiere of this beloved children’s story, travel and hotel accommodations for two, and one $500 Urban Outfitters gift card, all courtesy of the hipster megastore. Donning of super-duper skinny jeans optional, but encouraged.
All Vacations Must End
Singing whilst whistling summoned brightest thoughts from the lady on her last day of summer vacation. She would remember the day as it was, as it should be, rather than whine that it must end. Undo appropriation of gloomy thoughts would ruin the day, be it rainy or not, she thought wisely. We shan’t do that. No no. We shan’t do that.
French Day at Chateau Shuker
The Blankenships are in Luton, England outside London visiting our good friends the Shukers. We planned to go to Paris one day, but missed the cheap train. In lieu of oui Paris, we celebrated French Day at Chateau Shuker.
Viva la créativité!
Mandy + Grad School = ???
So I’m considering graduate school for fashion design. Having given up the dream of being a university English professor (because I finally realized I hate literary criticism), I returned to the childhood dream of being an artist.
And now, being a “self-employed” artist person, dabbling in mixed-media paper goods and fashion, with the occasional return to photography–a return that will soon, God-willing, be permanent because of a friend’s generous darkroom donation and the purchase of a new computer (one that won’t bark like a rabies-infested dog whenever I attempt to use the internet and iTunes at the same time)–I have the epiphany that FASHION is where I’d like to focus a lot of my attention. But I feel I have reached the ceiling of what I can teach myself.
I want an actual CURRICULUM to study, with a teacher to whom I can ask questions–not the “go-and-find-a-pattern-and-I’ll-help-you-read-it” method of the community college / fabric store here in town. But of course, to be accepted to a graduate program for fashion design, I have to build a portfolio OF my own fashion designs. This is a Catch-22, is it not?
The Atlanta campus of the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD, in whose graduate program I am interested) has some community education classes I plan to take this fall to build my portfolio. And thank God, Amtrak has a train to Atlanta from a nearby station (because I HATE the drive to Atlanta).
So, dear friends, I’m asking for your advice, insight, and general opinions. What would you do in my situation? And, perhaps more importantly, how would you PAY for it?
Razing Cities
The recession is forcing law makers confront yet another difficult question: what to do with ever-declining cities? Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, Michigan, says some need to be returned to nature. While his solution might seem “defeatist,” Kildee “insist[s] it [is] ‘no more defeatist than pruning an overgrown tree so it can bear fruit again.’ ” I think I might agree.
Daddy’s Girl
Model Coco Rocha and her dad, Trevor Haines, do a smashing rendition of The Jungle Book’s “I Wanna Be Like You.” Louis Prima would be proud.
Check out Coco’s blog here.
How To Get Kids To Help You Do Chores
While friend Meg Wilson swears her son Gardner LIKES to help with the chores, playing pretend never hurts in the cause for a cleaner house. I remember imagining myself as the cloistered Cinderella while dusting or vacuuming per Mom’s directive. My hardship became justified yet romantic.
Dr. Mercola on the Rise of Gluten-Intolerance
If you’ve noticed more people complaining of food allergies in recent years, it’s not just because of mass hypochondriasis. Naturopathic guru Dr. Mercola blames the Standard American Diet. As a person with a significant gluten-intolerance, I can definitely attest to the woes of thoughtlessly eating grain rich foods. It doesn’t just cause digestive trouble, it DESTROYS my immune system.
No Impact Man Movie
One man, “his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle[,] and their two year-old daughter” are living for a year without making any environmental impact. Author Colin Beavan takes his family on quite the journey in this new movie, coming to theaters September 4. While I question the do-ability of their endeavor, I’ll certainly be entertained watching them try.
