Writing for couture in the city

If you don't already visit le-fashionista blogs you're crazy.

Today I got an email from Angelique Sims, the ultimate fashionista who created and edits the sites, including my personal obsession Couture In the City. She came across my rant about The Departed and asked if she could post it on LePaparazzi and of course I said go for it. I also asked if she needed any help with her sites and she said she loved my writing style (which I've always known is much more Vogue than Time) and that they could use contributing writers.

So now I actually have an excuse to whittle away hours on catalogues looking at dresses and handbags. I get to be a fashion/gossip maven! So read bitches.

Heat vs. Departed

I'm so tired of people saying they don't want to see Scorsese's latest work of brilliance The Departed. This is arguably his best film since Goodfellas and features some of the greatest actors of our time.

The Departed reminded me a lot of Heat, another amazing movie. I think the latter was a bit long and drawn out, true to director Michael Mann's style, but well done nonetheless.

Both movies juxtapose two men who sit on opposite sides of the law. Where The Departed takes this to a whole other level is that these men sit on opposite sides of the law while embedded in each others' environments. The parrallels are obvious but without being gimmicky or cheesy.

First off - Jack Nicholson. It was refreshing to see that somebody other than DeNiro, Pacino, Pesci or Depp could NAIL the gangster role. It was also nice to see the Boston Irish in the spotlight for once and not the usual Itialian New Yorkers.

Although not one of the leading men, Mark Whalberg made the movie for me as an unlikely anti-hero and asshole extraordinaire who provides much-needed comic relief when things get too intense.

Matt Damon does a really good job playing one of those characters that you're not sure if you hate or sympathize with. You're rooting for Leo all the way, but you secretly hope it works out with both of them on top.

Lastly, my beloved Leo...oh how you never fail to disappoint me. Leo is so much more than a childhood crush to me. I honestly believe he is incredible and gets robbed of Oscars year after year. He's come a long way from playing Romeo, and for all he's done, I think we can forgive the epic disaster that was Titanic. In The Departed, Leo shows he can rock the Boston accent but he also embodied a man on the edge. Through Leo we felt the entire film and the intensity and stress of the whole situation.

This movie is what Donnie Brasco tried to do, put couldn't pull off nearly as well - showing a man lost between crime and the law. Here, Scorses proves that you don't need the shock-value, blood and gore to stand amongst the great films that tackle the organized underworld. He uses just enough violence to give us insight into poor Leo's high anxiety scenario. Instead well-written dialogue and superb acting is used to weave in and out of Matt and Leo's stories.

Both Heat and The Departed feature a heavyweight cast and end with a showdown between our ying and yang. If you liked Heat at all, go see this film already! You won't be disappointed - it's entertaining at the very least.

Sorry papa, no picture

I went to Paris and it was amazing. I haven't wanted to talk or write about it yet because Pat forgot the camera in our hotel room. We called the hotel immediately when we got back and they said they found it. They said they would mail it. We have been harassing them for months now. Finally I got a package TODAY. I was so happy I jumped up and down yelling "yaaaaaaaaae" like an asshole. It was somebody else's camera. Someone else's memories.

My heart is officially broken. I called the woman at the hotel and this was the only camera she had...she said she found it in the lobby. Nobody else has reported a missing camera and the chambermaid bitch never returned any found items from the bedroom. I hope the chambermaid bitch bought herself crack cocaine with the money she made off Pat's cell phone and the broken camera. I hope she overdoses on it and dies. We have no pictures from our amazing trip and the pictures were amazing. I want to go back asap and retake them all with my new fucking camera. I am keeping this fuckup camera...that at least makes me feel somewhat better. I could send it back but it would never get to its owner anyways, not in a million years. The chambermaid bitch would just sell it for more crack. Fuck them.

I would trade this camera and another one and a thousand dollars to get those pictures back. We took incredible pictures of some of the most beautiful places and things in the world that my seriously flawed memory could never do justice.

Pinchy's Crapple Chicken Salad

Pat and I thought it would be cute to surprise his family by throwing a thanksgiving dinner together at their house for when they got back from the cottage. It was quite fun...we definitely cut corners...buying "add water" stuffing and ready-to-go movenpick rotisserie chicken. I wanted to make my delicious russian potato salad, complete with kosher pickles and all but we had enough food anyway. I made yams, asparagus and other veggies...a tomato-cucumber and shrimp appetizer and delishus deviled eggs.

We spent about 2 hours or so preparing dinner and, other than Pat's delicious whipped cream and chocolate waiffer cake - really, who can compete with dessert? - the best part was my "Crapple (Cranberry-Apple) Chicken Salad," a recipe I pretty much randomly made up on the spot. Most food I make tastes like bum, but this turned out so good I'm going to share my "secret" with y'all so you can impress your future mothers-in-laws.

EASY Crapple Chicken Salad consists of:

Chicken Boobies
Mixed greens
Macintosh Apples
Dried Cranberry Raisins (or "crazins?")
Can of cranberry sauce
White Chedda
Honey-Dijon salad dressing


Flatten the chicken boobies and slice them up a bit...dump them on a skillet with about half a can of cranberry sauce, cover with lid and "simmer" on low to medium for however long it takes for it to not be raw. I would say like 20-30 minutes.

Wash some baby romain, ecoli-free spinach, etc. and chop up several apples into little cubes. Add a bit of the cheese (grated) and handfuls of the crazins. Put in as many apples and whatever else you like.

When the chicken tits are done, they should be a nice purpley pink from the cran sauce and the sauce should be all caramelized. Put it all in the salad, chicken tits, sauce, everything.

Add a bit of the honey-dijon salad dressing and you're done.

Optional - if you're not allergic to nuts (like me), walnuts or something would probably be a good addition to this Waldorf rip-off salad.

Enjoy! (BAM!)

So this is why people go to Korea

Sometimes I just want to kick my own ass for not doing an undergrad thesis this year. But then I read 80 pages of academic journals and realize that so much of it is irrelavant and circular. People spend their whole lives studying this one tiny specific thing and in the end they never prove anything, because someone else has spent their entire careers trying to prove the opposite. And maybe both studies have their limitations but hell, if you want to prove that dogs can talk, current scientific methods allow you to do that. It can get quite rediculous.

But I think I'm doing the right thing. I am so sick of being a student. I want to be a person. If I work and save some money for a year or so, nothing will stop me from going back on my original track, toward an MA or PhD in psychology. If it turns out that's what I'm supposed to do. But PR sounds enticing. So does HR. Even government...and community outreach...family/addiction counselling...or writing for a fashion magazine. hahaha I'm ALL over the map.

So now I'm faced with answering the hardest questions. I don't really know what my values are anymore. I'm not sure if it's important for me to help people or make money. If I want to influence people, work with others, have fun at work or make a difference... I'm not sure if I want a 9-5, if I'm willing to work long hours, if I'm willing to stop working at some point so I can raise some kids...I'm not even sure if I want to do that anymore.

I keep hearing about people going to Asia to teach English. Now one of my friends is seriously considering going after this year. I always wondered why or how people do that...wondering "aren't you anxious to start your life?" But what is there to be anxious about? How can you start your life if you don't really know who you are?

Maybe I need to go away after school...get away from everything and everyone that has created this "noise." Because I can't hear my own voice anymore.

song

(this is better with music but until i start to post songs...)

Life comes down
in drops
Hits the ground
and stops
Making oceans in
the street
My emotions at
my feet

That's how I learned to breathe
under water

I supply
the hurricanes
Both the eyes
are on my face
If you can make it
to the roof
Maybe you can fake
the truth

Or you can learn to breathe
under water