Unique Beauty and Renaissance Woman

Isabella Rossellini is so inspiring in her fierce individuality. She does the projects she wants to do and always with grace and humor. Whether starring in a David Lynch film, making short films about animal mating habits, or guest starring as the Arby’s roast beef loving ex of Jack on 30 Rock, Rossellini is constantly entertaining and one of our most interesting beauties – a woman who puts the rail thin vacant eyed stars of current young Hollywood to shame.

Most recently she’s been lending her eye to a line of Bvlgari handbags that are lined with her own snail print design. While I can not dream of affording the simple but slightly funky bags, I love that she’s making them and keeping her career interesting.

If you want to have a mini Isabella festival I recommend Blue Velvet, The Saddest Music in the World, and her Green Porno series and go ahead and throw in one of my favorites of her mother, Ingmar Bergman’s filmography, Gaslight.

Click here for the rest of Isabella Rossellini

See more: Style Icons: Female Actresses Artists Models

Be the first to leave a comment →
Posted on July 18, 2010

Hibiscus Tea Juice, can be found at Vamos al Tequila at 162 Franklin Street

Let me introduce you to the most refreshing summertime beverage you’ve never heard of (and if you have, I envy you – wish I had known about it sooner): Jamaica Agua Fresca. It was introduced to me at the new, quite good Greenpoint Mexican restaurant Vamos al Tequila (picture below from New York Shitty). Our sweetheart of a waitress described it as a hibiscus made juice that is similar to cranberry without the tartness, and that’s pretty accurate. I am not sure how available this drink is, but it’s worth seeking out while we endure these heatwaves.

See more: Drinks Greenpoint Juice Mexican

Be the first to leave a comment →
Posted on July 18, 2010

Film Scouting in NYC

Shaun turned my on the Scouting NY, a fascinating and beautiful blog described by it’s author thusly:

“For the past four years, I’ve worked as a New York City location scout finding locations for feature films. I’ve been pretty much everywhere, from the highest rooftops to the deepest subway tunnels, from abandoned ruins to zillion-dollar luxury penthouse apartments.

What always amazes me about New York is how much there is to see if you take the time to look. Every street has a hidden gem or two, and yet they go largely ignored by thousands of passersby daily who simply don’t have the time to pay attention.

As it happens, my entire job consists of paying attention, and I’ve started this blog to keep a record of what I see.”

The images are amazing and it’s great to learn about all the secret hidden gems in and around the city that we walk by every day. He’s even made a google map of all the places featured on the blog, if you care to no longer walk pass them without a second glance and really take in all the interesting and marvelous locations that are virtually around every corner.

As a bonus web entry this week, also in the vein of abandoned, beautiful buildings.. here’s a great flickr series sent to me from that amazing Adler Hotel Jim and I visited a while back.

Click here for the rest of Scouting NY (and an Adler Hotel Update)

See more: Web Sites Blogs Brooklyn I Love NY Manhattan Photography

Be the first to leave a comment →
Posted on July 18, 2010

Craziness

I love this. The Kenny Rogers get up made me laugh out loud… does this mean I am becoming a Spencer Pratt fan?

See more: Laughs Television Personalities

Be the first to leave a comment →
Posted on July 18, 2010

by Bret Easton Ellis (2005)

I can kind of understand why some Bret Easton Ellis fans told me not to bother with Lunar Park. It’s a love it or leave it (The Boston Globe said it may be the worst novel I’ve ever read) book that really depends on how much you’re willing to go with him on a journey, not fueled by sexy young things, drugs and privilege (well, OK there is a bit of that) but on a journey that most closely resembles Poltergeist meets faux self loathing. Yes, Ellis has pretty much created a straight up horror summer reading book with loads of meta meta meta.

The main character is Bret Easton Ellis, and while most of his life story and persona are true, the skyrocketing fame and parties of the real Ellis are well known, much of the biography of this “Bret Easton Ellis” is purely made up. (I was one of the clueless who looked up the book version of Bret Easton Ellis’ girlfriend, Jayne Dennis to see if she was real – she’s as real as Dorsia – which I also looked up). He is a world famous, controversial author now living the suburban life with his wife, her daughter, and his estranged son while reluctantly teaching at his alma mater and trying to carry on affairs with his students.

There’s cocaine, there’s alcohol, there’s clever cynicism.. even Jay McInerney shows up – but the book takes on something entirely new for Ellis when the McMansion he lives in starts to show signs of being possessed. Lights begin to flicker, footsteps burn themselves into the carpeting, a Furby like doll turns animals inside out, and a hairy creature crawls up the stairs. Patrick Bateman , the serial killer from American Psycho also makes an appearance – killing locals based on the novel and young neighborhood boys are (willfully?) disappearing. I’m not surprised that he says the book was an homage to Stephen King because it shares much more with those genre books than I think most fans were interested in.

It’s sometimes complicated, sometimes melodramatic, often cinematic (you can easily see many of the scenes played out in a movie) and definitely surreal but it’s mostly about the pain of bad father and son relationships. Well, that and violent ghosts.

Best to enter this one without expectations and a love for the horror book genre.

See more: Books 2000s Fiction Horror

Be the first to leave a comment →
Posted on July 18, 2010