Missoni Spring 2011 Collection - Milan Fashion Week

I could never get away with wearing any of this (ready to wear my ass) but I think it is kinda fabulous.

The King's Speech - Trailer

Colin is on a roll.

The Beauty of Mad Men #4

Season 3, Episode 3, "My Old Kentucky Home"

Saturdays with Hedy Lamarr #24

West of Here - Book Review

West of Here by Jonathan Evison

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was lucky enough to score an ARC of Jonathan Evison’s West of Here and I have to admit that it surprised me. I knew the man could write, his first novel All About Lulu was a lovely coming of age story told with a unique voice that I liked a lot. But Lulu in no way prepared me for the staggering scope of West of Here.

Set in the fictional town of Port Bonita, Washington, the book follows two timelines. The first timeline begins in 1889 and focuses on Port Bonita's founding and the damming of the Elwha River which gave the town its identity and life. This timeline is filled with men and women of vision and purpose, the world wide open to them if only they can make the right decisions. The second timeline is in the modern year 2006 and follows the descendants of those original founders. But for them, Port Bonita is no longer thriving, the dam no longer their salvation but their downfall. These men and women would like to have the same sense of purpose their ancestors did, but first they must somehow reconcile their past with their future. It might be time for Port Bonita and its inhabitants to make a change.

Jonathan Evison writes colorfully with a lot of humor and genuine affection for his many characters – not one written with anything less than absolute vibrancy and depth. The Washington wilderness itself is a character and his descriptions of it are so effortless and beautiful, you trust that he KNOWS this landscape. He makes you feel it.

The story itself is propulsive. At the beginning you will slowly begin to know the characters and follow them on their paths, learning more and more about them as you turn the pages, then the plot will start to take a strong hold and pretty soon you will be unable to put the book down until you find out what everyone’s destinies will be, until you are finished with the book and sad that it’s over.

I am intrigued by the amount of research that went into the writing of this novel. What is factual and what is imagination? I want to look into the history of the area myself and learn everything I can about it. It’s that pioneer spirit and sense of adventure that captures my attention and imbues in me a childlike sense of wonder at the vastness of things.

So, thanks to Jonathan Evison for writing such a spectacular book. I think this novel is going to be big for him. I’ll definitely be buying at least one copy when it is officially released and I encourage you to do so too.

View all my reviews

The Beauty of Mad Men #3

Season 3, Episode 8, "Souvenir"

[These images taken from http://projectrungay.blogspot.com/]

Ryan Reynolds in GQ Magazine

The boy cleans up nicely, doesn't he?

[I first saw this spread on projectrungay.blogspot.com (credit where credit is due) and the images are from gq.com]

Saturdays with Hedy Lamarr #23

One of my favorite real life couples

Johnny and June Carter Cash

They were adorable.  I really think Johnny died of a broken heart over losing June.

The Beauty of Mad Men #2

Season 2, Episode 11, "The Jet Set"

For Jowanna.

Don Draper Has a Sad

My new favorite tumblr?

Sad Don Draper (click here)

Here's a sampling of the funny:

Let's Get Lost

I just watched Let's Get Lost, Bruce Weber's 1988 documentary portrait of Chet Baker. It's stunning. Really truly stunning. With incredible footage of the young beautiful Chet juxtaposed against the footage of a worn Chet at the end of his hard lived life (he would die later that year falling from a hotel window in Amsterdam). But his voice!  And his trumpet playing! He never lost the pure, sensual, laguid beauty of those two instruments.  This portrait of Chet includes incredible live performances that will knock you over, but this isn't just a loving tribute to a genius musician.  It is loving, yes, but it shows the bad sides of Chet too especially in interviews with the long suffering women in his life.  He was a junkie after all. 

I encourage you, all of you, fans of Chet Baker, and even those of you that have never heard of him, to watch this.  And to make it easy on you, here it is in its entirety on youtube:

Saturdays with Hedy Lamarr #22

The Beauty of Mad Men #1

So I've decided that every week or so I will post a new image from Mad Men.  There are so many beautiful shots in this stunning series that it should be a very long time before I run out of Mad Men images to post.  This week's image is from the most recent episode.

Season 4, Episode 7, "The Suitcase"

Now we'll paint a happy little spartan right over here. . .

[I stole this directly from Cinematical.com]

The Avett Brothers - The Ballad of Love & Hate

I have no words to describe how good this song is.

Saturdays with Hedy Lamarr #21

Rolling Stone - Behind the Scenes of Mad Men

The new issue of Rolling Stone features Elizabeth Moss, January Jones, Jon Hamm, and Christina Hendricks of Mad Men on the cover and features a fantastic spread of behind the scenes photos inside. Even though I've seen all the photos and am posting some here, I will absolutely be buying a physical copy of this issue!