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Yum.

My brother-in-law is irritated that I have never blogged about him. Funny. I try not to blog about people I know because I think they might enjoy their privacy.

Let me just tell you this: He's an amazing cook and when you watch him in the kitchen, it's like seeing someone completely in his element. He really just needs to chuck it all and start working in a restaurant somewhere.

He made these treats for Oscar night. Little servings of creme brulee in spoons. Delicious. And clever. Go Tom.

Bubbies.

omg, why didn't anyone tell me??? Amazing.

Neko does Harry.

If I could sing like this, I would sing everything. All the time. All day. Every day.

Seattle people.

This ad played before A Single Man, which we saw this weekend at the Harvard Exit theater.

Very loud hissing from the Seattle audience. The Stella Artois ads are kind of pushing our limits. I don't think the LVMH people (or their ad agency) really understand their markets, you know? You can't tell Seattle people that the $1000 Keepall 55 is really about "the journey."




HERE.

(The trash bags are so hilarious... what I would give for LV toilet paper or LV trash can liners.)

Oh, youth.

I love these songs. Haven't heard them in ages.

Make lemonade.

Nia commented today on THIS old post and I thought I would throw it out there for comment.


The implied premise here is that if you aren't willing to spend $700, you won't get a quality product. I don't buy that.


Price isn't always an indication of quality; sometimes it's merely an measure of arbitrary mark-up... or economies of scale (or lack of). If you want something custom, or if you're buying bench-made shoes, one component of price in the shoe example might be the creation of the last. You need to make & sell a certain number of shoes from it before you can cover the cost of your capital expense. This is probably the same with lighting. There's this initial cost to get the item into production and then you have the benefit of economies of scale, right?

But when this topic comes up, no one can actually explain to me WHY the light at Veritables is better quality than a knock-off at Restoration. I am not interested here in discussion why one should or should not buy a knock-off. What I am interested in discussing is, on what basis could someone look at a $700 light from Circa and tell me with this much certainty that a $400 light wouldn't be just as good in terms of quality and function?

Can't wait to see this.

I'm a sucker for documentaries.

HERE.

Wow.

HERE.

It's Thursday, and you know what that means... The New York Times practically writes my post for me. (Thanks, Big T!)

I present to you this Las Vegas treasure in all its glue-gunned glory. You can't really hate this place or these people. PURE LOVE:

Mr. Hart, a singer and composer whose gospel musical, “Sisterella,” counted Michael Jackson among its producers, created all eight bedrooms: the four-poster swags made of bed sheets; the ruched silk ceilings; the gold-leafed armchairs, which he bought 30 years ago for $10 apiece and gold-leafed himself.

“All my family has a black belt in shopping, and we have radar when something is 70 percent off,” Mr. Hart said.

Understood. But why so much?

“I’m just from Texas,” Ms. Hart said. “I like it big.”


And:


On arrival, though, it was clear that informal is something the Harts do not do. A round table had been set in the grand foyer with a printed menu, and red napkins were stuffed into black patent-leather stilettos on each plate. Tiny glass slippers had been hot-glued to the side of wineglasses from the local Dollar Tree store (a precarious gig for the reporter’s slipper, which fell off in her hand). More glass shoes had been glued to a six-foot silver-and-faux-candle candelabra.

Holy shit!

Mr. Hart wrote a song called “Big Hair Gets You Closer to God." I just thought you should know.



More from the article:


Ms. Hart began renting out the house for weddings in the mid-’80s, though she also officiated at Las Vegas chapels. She’s had her share of celebrities but is proud to say she’s always been discreet.

But weddings can be grueling, and disgruntled modern brides, aided by the Internet, vicious. “Totally run-down, tacky fake flowers everywhere, roaches, brought-in food and located in a horrible part of town with no outside ambience,” groused one, under the name travilyaya, on tripadvisor.com, with the heading “Do NOT Do It There.”

That review hurt Ms. Hart horribly — it was “not remotely accurate,” she said. But since she is getting on and is sick of mopping all those floors, she recently put the Hartland Mansion up for sale, for $8.5 million.

Larry, who now runs an events company called Botanica Las Vegas with his partner, Michael Flach, lives in a town house in the suburbs, and Ms. Hart often stays at her condo at the Las Vegas Country Club. The 34-pound bedspread in her grand bedroom at the Hartland Mansion is too heavy for her, she said, and when she does stay there, she sleeps in a workroom littered with bills.

The only family member who still lives at Hartland full time is Garry, in a suite off limits to reporters and reportedly utterly free of pearls.

Fancy.

I am at a questionable hotel, stranded in Pittsburgh due to some flight cancellations. This is my bed. That thing draped near the foot of the bed should be a blanket, right?

IT'S JUST A STRIP OF HEMMED FABRIC. What is this? A dickey? A bed dickey? Seriously? A belt? A sash? A giant eye patch? A tourniquet? Does this have any purpose? Maybe to keep shoe scuffs off of the bed for people who, uh, don't take them off before taking a nap? I don't get it.

Keep it classy, Marriott!

Disco

Can't stop listening to this. It's so jumpsuit-and-Chloe-Sevigny-with-a-little-coke-on-her-nose.

A few things to discuss with you:

1. Let's talk about this lamp (image pilfered from HouseBeautiful.com). There's a problem here, right? I don't like it when I can see so much of the... what do you call it? You know what I am talking about. The shade is short. It's like the lamp is wearing clamdiggers or something.

Is there a rule of thumb about this sort of thing?





2. "I like to do this myself at least once a year. Take every last loose piece on every surface — photos, vases, candlesticks, books, magazines — whatever is cluttering up your vision and chances are you no longer even see. Put them on a counter in the kitchen, then redeploy in new arrangements. But only use half of them. Put the rest into a closet for a free shopping spree the next time around." -Jamie Drake

I am totally going to do this. One of these days, anyway.



3. It was sunny today. SUNNY. And warm-ish. First day we mowed the lawn since god knows when. Sun + early cherry blossoms + smell of grass = total bliss.

Did you watch?

Who watched How to Make It in America? (New HBO show produced by Mr. Entourage, Mark Wahlberg.)

HBO will let you watch the first episode on You Tube HERE. (You have to sign in first.)

The music is really good. In order to get suckers like me to talk about the show, HBO is offering up free download of show music HERE, provided you become a "fan" of the show on Facebook. It's worth it. Especially for Alec Blacc's "I Need a Dollar," which is also the theme song for the show.

I liked the show. Gawker does not. (Gawker hates everything, which is sort of its charm...)

The first episode is sort of slow and uneven, but the last 10 minutes started to go, and now that we know what Ben and Cam are up to, I am really excited for episode two.

Let me know what you think of it.

I'm excited to have a new show now that I have officially divorced Lost and The Office.

This comment just in about the previous post:

Discuss.

In other news, the Canlis cocktail "Our Lady of Thermidor" is hereby renamed "Our Lady of the Raging Hangover."