Snow in October

it snowed yesterday. 
october 29th. 
in its honor: 

I Can Breathe Again - Baywood by jbamn

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

After just finishing a pretty complicated Murakami novel that took me months (on and off) to read, I was impressed by the fluidity of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I could not put it down and read it in three days. 

Admittedly, I picked up the book to ensure that I had read it before the movie adaptation hit theaters - and so I could then compare the two. There's no doubt in my mind that the movie will not be able to do the multiple layers and characters' sentiments full justice. 

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

by Jonathan Safran Foer

Williamsburg: EGG

Luminous fall morning light woke me up from my friend's couch Thursday morning. I could see the bright oranges and yellows on the trees outside and could feel the sharp late October air. I wanted to treat myself to a leisurely breakfast and continue reading my book. 

It was a treat to finally eat at Egg, a restaurant I have been planning on going to for over a year now but had never made the trip once moving out of North Brooklyn. Though I was seated by the window and had too keep my Barbour on and the waitress was quite slow, the meal and tea were worth it. I indulged in the Eggs Rothko (an egg cooked to perfect runniness inside a thick piece of brioche with broiled cheddar cheese on top), but stuck to the side of kale instead of bacon so I wouldn't feel toooo guilty. 

Egg

135 North 5th Street

at Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, New York 11211

I'm Peter Pan up in the sky

© Martin Karplus

Tongue Tied by Grouplove. 

Foster the People, more

I beg radio stations to please stop playing Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks." Yes, it is a good song - at least it was last spring before getting terribly overplayed. 

So delete that track from your iTunes/playlist/whatever and replace it with this one:

"Life On The Nickel (Mansions On The Moon Remix)"

Foster the People - Life On The Nickel (Mansions On The Moon Remix) by The Kollection

Teaser: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I was originally quite skeptical of the American remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (can't Americans sit through a foreign film?!), but this teaser trailer actually got me pretty interested, even pumped. Trailer cutting at its finest - tells you nothing but is exhilarating nonetheless. 

Rihanna: We Found Love

The ever controversial Rihanna has done it again with the new racy music video for "We Found Love" (featuring Calvin Harris). Leave it to Rihanna to make complete destruction look cool. 

"I can't tell if it's glamorous or depressing."
- friend/rihanna fan

Watch it here. 

Harvest Feast

Grilled steak.
Spicy butternut squash with lentils and goat cheese.
Salad with apples, walnuts, and cheese.
Homemade apple crisp.
Washed down with some pumpkin ales (see below). 

Pumpkin Beer

it's hard to know which beer to buy when every brand's own "unique" pumpkin or harvest brew inundates the liquor store's refrigerator around this time of year. i did some taste testing last weekend and here's my rundown:

best fall flavor: shipyard - pumpkinhead

best for drinking: ufo - pumpkin

the rest:

1. sam adams - harvest pumpkin ale

2. smuttynose - pumpkin ale

3. cisco brewer's inc. - pumpkin drumkin

4. wolavers - pumpkin ale

Bohemia Leather Satchels

...and the birthday list begins being written.

on the top of the list: bohemia's leather satchel in one of the above neon colors.

just hoping that the english brand's perfect bag fits my laptop. 

How To Make It In America, Round 2

Been a little slow on my TV watching lately, but finally started (and caught up with) the long anticipated second season of HBO's HOW TO MAKE IT IN AMERICA. 

I may have started off the first season (oh so long ago) a bit skeptical, but by episode 8 I was hooked. So far, the new episodes have kept up the pace - the music is still just as good (check out mix tape 2), Scott Mescudi has a bigger role, CRISP's quality makes me wish it were real, and that opening credits scene is still so freaking good. 

HBO

sundays

10:30pm

RIGHT NOW: LANA DEL REY

it was like james dean, for sure

© chuck grant

no questions asked. no explanation needed. if you haven't, just discover it all below. 

On Jools Holland.

Blue Jeans.

On Tour.

Monday, December 5th - Bowery Ballroom 

Video Games.  


Drama. 


Lolyta.

Drake Would Rather Take Toronto Back

From the sounds of DRAKE's "Club Paradise" the rapper has had enough. It's only been a couple years but has the limelight life proved too hard already or is he just getting started?

"But I bought it though, I believed it

Yea, I thought it, and I achieved it

Yea, so show me love, show me fucking love!'cause I thought it was all I neededYea, Clearly I was wrong about it all alongAnd this will be the year that I won't even feel shit..."
Cue Bob Marley

Review: My Week With Marilyn

I will be the first to admit that I know little about Marilyn Monroe...even though she remains arguably the most iconic blonde figure in all of American pop culture. So I will not critique Michelle Williams' performance as Marilyn in Simon Curtis' newest film My Week with Marilyn for historical accuracy. 

Instead, I will say Williams played the Hollywood starlet almost exactly as I would expect her to act. I was impressed by Williams' range of erratic emotions from timid, self-conscious actress to doe-eyed man eater to stoned, emotional temptress. And her ability to hold within her eyes an incredible gaze that simultaneously captured me as a viewer, searching for what she was thinking about, but also seemed to show that she (as Marilyn) didn't give one care to what was going on around her and that all that was up there in her head were clouds and butterflies.

The film is without a doubt schmaltzy. A young man new to movie making's charms is wholly seduced by both the business and the star of the set he's found himself on. And as any man coaxed right into the arms of America's biggest, boldest, and sexiest actress, he falls in love. Of course the boy's up against the impossible, including Hollywood and Arthur Miller. But the story is real, which may make it better than any ol' narrative forbidden love story. 

See this for the performances, take the rest for what it is. *

*Kenneth Branagh plays Sir Laurence Olivier, Eddie Redmayne plays Colin Clark (the sorry bloke who choses Marilyn), and Judi Dench plays Dame Sybil Thorndike 

october tunes

© Stefen Chow

bedroom eyes // dum dum girls

someone like you // adele

bermuda locke† (dawn golden and rosy cross remix) // †††

club paradise // drake

amor fati // washed out

moves like jagger // maroon 5