Across the Universe

I just came back from seeing "Across the Universe," and oh, what an ode to the Beatles, one of my all-time favorite bands. Yes, this movie was a cheesefest, what with the sappy love story, some really ridiculous dance numbers, and not-meant-to-be-funny-but-I-laughed-out-loud moments. Still, I love how the music was incorporated into the storyline, and the actors were all great, especially since they had to sing their own songs, and thank God they didn't butcher any of the classics. Jim Sturgess was very likeable, and it didn't hurt that at a passing glance, he could've passed as Paul McCartney's (my fave Beatle!) doppelgänger .

The theatre I went to kind of sucked when it came to both the screen and the audio. The film was grainy and the sound had some glitches in their speakers, so it kind of ruined the magical aspect of what the movie was meant to do, but this only means that I need to get a copy of the DVD when it comes out.

I am SO getting the soundtrack. (There are two versions, pre-order the deluxe edition to get all the songs!) The covers for all the songs were all really wonderful.

I read that hype for this movie has been slow, and I wish they actually did a little more marketing for it, but DO go see it if you get a chance, it's really a film worth supporting. There were plenty of Beatles references thrown throughout for the rabid fan, but also a lot of humor and quality performances for the movie lover. Throw in the CG effects, and it's eye candy throughout.

Go see it!!! :D

Pretty Brady

This post is for my honey, 'cause he's a HUGE fan of the New England Patriots. While celebrities shilling for fragrances and colognes are a dime a dozen, I HAD to post this because we love Tom Brady, and we're happy that he finally got a sponsorship deal!

It's about time, really. While watching the Pats game last Sunday, we lamented the fact that we see Peyton Manning EVERYWHERE (cocky SOB), but poor Tom never gets anything. All he gets are bad press about his cheating coach, or his relationship woes (child born out of wedlock to an exgf, while dating hot new supermodel gf), etc., etc. But let's face it. He's a talented QB. He's hot. And he's a nice guy. He deserves any money that comes his way. And it appears that someone out there was willing to be that sugar daddy.

Coty Beauty has signed Tommy boy as the face of Stetson Cologne for two and a half years, and the new ads are out! This is a side of him I've never seen. Normally, he's either in his Pats uniform, or nice and clean-cut in a suit. They really went for the whole "I'm-sexy-smell-me-buy-Stetson" look where he's just gazing seductively at the camera (and thinking about how this will help pay for child support). But I digress. I think he looks great. It's the cross between the Marlboro man and an Ambercrombie & Fitch model. Sexy, rugged, innocent, really.

But let's get real. I don't know anyone who actually buys Stetson (do you?!), so is he helping Stetson build up their brand equity, or are they pulling him down? Think he could've done better? Except that this is somewhat of an all-American brand, maybe he could've associated himself with a more luxurious brand? What do you think?

Well, here's to many more sponsorships, Brady! And bring us home another championship!!!

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Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize!!!!!

I know that this is supposed to be a forum about the more light-hearted things in life, such as fashion, art, and books, and maybe you really don't care about my political stance, but I can't contain my glee. Al Gore is sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)! Congrats to them all for bringing such wide attention to the effects of global warming and climate change!

His film, "An Inconvenient Truth," really moved me, and I am now more aware of the carbon footprint I leave behind. Even talking with friends, we discussed in what ways we can try to help the environment. As this world is so precious, we really need to do more to preserve it for the future. When there's a heatwave in the middle of October in New England, you know that the world is changing, and not for the better.

Anywho, I've been plotting for several years now to think of a way to contribute, maybe create my own organization to help with the cause. I have this idea, but it hasn't come to a full fruition yet, so in the meanwhile, I will continue to help by doing other little things.

My interest in the environment doesn't lie with just climate change, but the effects of a lot of human manipulation and intervention that affects every step of the ecological chain. This is why I'm currently reading Alan Weisman's "The World Without Us." I want to learn more about how far we've affected the planet, and if we all disappeared, how quickly will Mother Nature take over. It's all about balance in the world, and the work that Gore has done really shows that whatever needs to be done should be done now.

Again, congrats, congrats. I'm so happy!!! (Can you tell I'm a big supporter? :P)

Murderous Shoes

By logic, men should never design women's shoes. Because they will never be the consumer, they allow themselves to create under the pretense of high design, pushing the envelope, if you will, but the results are pure sadism and fetishism. There is zero sympathy for the woman in question.

In the New York Times, they highlighted the impossible shoes that marched across the runways recently. One look at these shoes, and you KNEW that a man designed these. Even for a runway show, yes, fantasy is the norm, but I also think there's some sort of condescension coming from the designer, where they objectify the woman and subject her to painful shoes, which is highly unnecessary.

The one shoe that maddened me the most was one designed by an Antonio Berardi, an Italian-English designer. It is a platform shoe with a non-existent heel! “When you walk, it is almost on tiptoe. You look really dainty.” What is he, smoking crack? Make a REAL shoe, and I'll applaud your efforts. Maybe he secretly wanted to see one of his models wipe out. :P

Some other shoes that made me cringe: Yves Saint Laurent shoes where the bottom of the feet are balanced on thin soles that barely support, and these horrid Alexander McQueen geisha-on-steroids clogs.


After I finished reading Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Fan, I am grateful that we live in a world where feet are not subjected to torture. Set in 19th-century China, one of the more memorable scenes in the book are of the process of foot-binding. I have seen photos online of the foot after it's gone through the process, where the end-result is a "golden lily" foot that is about 3 inches long, the toes hideously curled under the foot. Imagine walking on a stump for most of your life! I don't think I could've beared it.

But how far have we gone when men continue to feed their sexual fantasies by subjecting woman to shoes that are just ludicrous? I know that shoe fetishes exist. An exbf had one, and although he taught me to appreciate the beauty of a fine-quality shoe, there were also those moments where if the shoe doesn't fit, if it hurts, then you stop wearing it. Sorry, my feet are mine, and I won't force them in.

Painful shoes are now a commonality for a lot of women. I'm not even talking about stilettos or platform clunkers. I've had ballet flats pinch me in a spot so hard that at the end of the day, my little toes were numb. I used to be very bold with my choice of footwear, wearing 4-inch heels, or shoes that had funny-looking wedges, even slingbacks that I teetered-tottered on 'cause they looked zexy. But as I've gotten older, sensibility took over. Or maybe my pain tolerance gave way. Whatever it is, I still love a nice shoe, but please, let it not hurt. And will someone please tell that to the guys?

Opals are a Girl's Best Friend

I've loved opals for many years now, and have been searching for the perfect opal ring, but never quite found what I've been looking for. I love the all the crazy colors they come in, from deep turquoise blue, to white with flashes of orange and red, or blacks that eminate purples and golds. No other semi-precious stone astounds me in quite the same way. I dream of owning a big fat opal that I can wear proudly on my forefinger on my right hand. Where are you, my dream ring?!

Opal is widely available, but that's where I think the problem lies. Because the stone can be sliced thin to accomodate many kinds of designs, the stone itself has been devalued over the years, and no one makes NICE opal rings. I don't know the whole history of opals, but it's sad to see how such a beautiful stone gets relegated to some pretty gaudy designs. Whether it be of the dreary mid-western look, ethnocentric native-American styles, or kitschy icons of the beach (dolphins, clamshells, palm trees), it seems like opals are treated like third-class citizens in the world of semi-precious stones, and I really wish that some fantastic jewelry designer will see the potential and create a dream piece of jewelry.

Obviously, this is not a stone that can be polished to sparkle like a diamond. But I see high probability that with the right designs and marketing, this stone can be elevated to first-class status. Look what Mikimoto did for pearls, and Tiffany did for diamonds. These days, Van Cleef & Arpels sells pieces made with onyx, turquoise, and mother-of-pearl by the dozens. Right now, Australia owns the claim to fame for opals, and you can bet that it's not the fashionistas who are buying the pieces, but tourists who want to bring back a reminder of the world Down Under. Usually paired with (boring) sterling silver, opal just hasn't been given too much thought as the ultimate gemstone.

So imagine my delight when I opened up my October issue of Self, and dressed on Sarah Michelle Gellar, was a big, fat, bee-yoo-tiful opal ring. Framed in gold and diamonds, the opal is a wonderful orb that dazzles in multitudes of blue. I so want it! But dare I inquire as to the price? The ring was created by Fred Leighton, so one can imagine how costly this would be, tantamount to anything else designed by FL that would be exquisite but also extraordinarily expensive.


I have emailed them to inquire the cost. Will let you know if I hear back. I know it's not within my price range, but I'm nosy like that! Argh, it's so gorgeous!!!

UPDATE: This beautiful "fine Australian opal and diamond ring" can be had for the grand price of $25,000. ;P* Me want so bad!!!

Vuitton in Technicolor

It's no secret that bags are the big revenue generator for Louis Vuitton. While the classics bring patrons back, it's the shock value that bring LV free publicity. So for Spring 2008, in what appears to be free reign over the collection despite the bottom-line, Marc Jacobs went ballistic, and in collaboration with artist Richard Prince, devised the most insane line that I've ever seen Jacobs do. They have really pushed the boundaries between commercialism and art.

To start off, the palette was inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants. What you end up with is a very nonsensical but uniform array of neon and acid colors, where some bags appear to have been spray-painted on, others imprinted with text, and in some cases, there is a Warholian effect with the color inverse of the famous LV logos and flowers.

The show itself was a very straight-forward inspiration from Prince's work. Models dressed as nurses were inspired by Prince's Nurse paintings.

The colors of SpongeBob permeate the line of clothing, starting with the bright yellows, melding in with the soft dreamy blues, creams, exploding with the red, and finally, ending with the darks, as if entering the bottom of the ocean. The collection ends with your eyes descending on the myriad of purses that look like they fell out of a rainbow on crack.

Even the self-references on some of the bags made me laugh. It's like the painting on the wall in a museum, and you need to look at the plaque to read the name. So when I look at this bag, not only is it a bag, or that it's an LV bag. You can now call it by it's catalog name. It's really going beyond branding, and re-assessing the identity of the piece. (Think I'm bull-shitting? This is what the art world's all about, my friend.)

The big question is, would you buy it? I think there's something so fundamentally free to be playful and just let all proper wisdom go out the window, and create something really edgy and zany and not be apologetic about it. But beyond "art," can the same view be that this is less about the artist, and more about capitalism at its worst? Now that Jacobs has taken the classic house of Vuitton and turned it upside down, but will charge you double or triple the norm, how do you take this piece of art and not look at it with some sort of distaste, as if the joke isn't so much the humor of taking something so dowdy as the classic monogram and having fun with it, but that the joke's on you 'cause you bought into the hype and mass hysteria for a bag that aesthetically, is, quite honestly, pretty ugly?

How different is the bag below from the Coach Scribble line? Who copied who, since Coach was copying inspired by Murakami's Multicolor Monogram? Why not buy the Coach instead, if "art" is really what you're after? (Yes, I really don't like Coach, which is why I bemoan the fact that you would even compare the two. Coach cannot replace LV!) When do you hit yourself on the back of your head and say that this is all a scam? Do these artists really believe in their work, or do they think that the can keep pushing, and no one can ever push back?

I have no idea which of the actual pieces will be available for sale, but I would love to see it in person. I have read comparisons of this collection to the Murakami collections in the past, but I thoroughly disagree. Murakami's pieces were of a very decisive, simple, direct, feminine, and clean aesthetic. Prince went the opposite. He didn't reign anything in at all, it's in all directions, some pieces still running with the ombre fades that was influenced by Vermeer, others mocked the proper printing of the logo on canvas, and yet others had really bad cartoon art on it. Seriously? Seriously.

If you catch me carrying one, would you call me an art collector or a sucker?

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Kanye and Murakami are in love...

Just kidding! But the way these two guys have been gushing over each other in the open media, you would think they've just met their soul mates. I guess if they can't be lovers, they can be co-designers. Kanye West is apparently in collaboration with Takashi Murakami to create a jewelry line.

Kanye wore a proto-type to the Givenchy show in Paris this past week, and he posted some pics on his blog. Squint, huddle towards the screen, and you might be able to make out the giant pendant he's wearing.

If you can't tell what it is, let's just say that based on a sketch Kanye did while on a trip to Murakami's studio in Japan, the collection might be a lot of robots and manga characters.


Apparently, these two kindred spirits began working together when Murakami designed the covers for Kanye's latest album. They no doubt probably also bonded over their LVOE of LV, as Murakami has famously created limited edition designs for the luxury house, and Kanye sings about LV in his hit songs.

In August's Harper's Bazaar, Kanye posed with his fiancée in his office decked out with giant Murakami flower pillows (I so want them!!!), and of course, LV trunks. So you see, these guys have so much in common. No surprise that they are now friends (but not lovers).

I actually loved the line of cartoon pendants Murakami did for LV several years ago, but mind you, they were completely out of my budget, so I could only admire them from behind the glass cabinet in the LV store on 5th Ave. I wonder what the outcome for this collaboration will be, but probably really gaudy bling. Stay tuned!