Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Polvo, the Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Madonna. One of these things does not belong with the others.
Watching: I recently saw Summer Hours, the Olivier Assayas film, and I thought it was just wonderful. I was sort of over family dramas, but he's such a good filmmaker that the film managed to be both light on its feet and incredibly intelligent. I'm also still making my way through "South Park."
Reading: Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas, which is sort of my subway reading. For my real-reading, I decided to shelve I Am Charlotte Simmons for a moment and read instead Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, which seems more seasonally-appropriate. But I might shelve that because I got a copy of Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog waiting in the wings and I'm very excited to read it!
Wearing: A pair of skinny jeans, a tank top, a scarf, some beat-up Minnetonka moccasins. I need shoes I can kick off super-easily.
Wanting: This week it got hot, and coincidentally I started thinking about what I would like for fall.

+ Liz

Listening: I met Sir Star Child walking down Vine yesterday and he freestyled something about me shopping at Forever 21 in my cowboy boots. I am "Miss Red-Hot Liz." Also: a lotta Michael Jackson still, a lotta Bruce Springsteen still.
Watching: I'm way late on the Keyboard Cat uptake and have been trying to catch up. (BTW: I can't believe the Keyboard Cat is no longer with us! How sad!) And last weekend I saw Year One, which was so fucking terrible I can't even talk about it. It's cool that Felicia from the "Girlfriends" episode of Flight of the Conchords was in it, though, I guess.
Reading: Rapt by Winifred Gallagher
Wearing: As I Twittered at 10:48 a.m. on June 30, "this $23 forevs21 sundress is really working out for me so far: mega-comfy + makes strangers in cafes say nice things." ALL STILL TRUE.
Wanting: to try Ben & Jerry's horribly elusive Mission to Marzipan (sweet cream ice cream with almond cookies & a marzipan swirl!)

Helen Hunt does coke, then jumps out the window, then the Keyboard Cat shows up in a Hall & Oates video:

+ Laura Jane

Listening: The Small Faces; Muswell Hillbillies by the Kinks; Wings; Blueberry Boat by the Fiery Furnaces.
Watching: I watched 40 minutes of The Hangover and then walked out of the theater; all six installments of The Kinks on At the Rainbow, from 1972 (I think they might have been "At the Rainbow" again, in 1977? For Christmas?)
Reading: Pretty much nothing. I'm a stoner now, so I mostly just listen to music. Reading makes me sleepy.
Wearing: My shower is broken right now. My stance on it is "Awesome! Dirty hair is sexy! I wouldn't be caught dead with clean hair!" I'm a stoner now, so I mostly don't give a shit what I wear. I wear stoner clothes, and they look awesome. I love that black t-shirt dress thing in the picture below; I'm wearing it right now. It's convenient. I wear it every day. I like wearing yeller jumpers, too.
Wanting: Several billion dollars

I MEANT TO WRITE "SHIRT," BUT "SHIT" WORKS TOO:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Michael Jackson, obviously. Also, Crystal Antlers, Magnetic Fields, Company Flow, Swell Maps, an Ethiopian 60s blues compilations.
Watching: The thoughts flitting across the absorbed face of a young Berliner. And "South Park," season four.
Reading: I have been reading Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, which I admired but did not enjoy. It is rather strange -- on the page, you would think I'd like this, but I found myself oddly distant from the book. I felt like I were reading about a landscape with people moving through it, rather than people moving a landscape. This is theoretically interesting, but it makes for a book in which the characters barely registered with me. Now I'm reading parts of Chuck Klosterman IV on the subway, and I just started I Am Charlotte Simmons, which I read ages ago and am re-reading again. I am also reading the new manual for my new Blackberry, which I had to get because my last phone got smashed. I think this device is really changing my life, and for that I'm grateful.
Wearing: The Seattle-esque weather that graced New York City these past few weeks is sadly coming to an end, so now I'm just wearing a super-old Vanessa Bruno dress I got at Beacon's ages ago and a cardigan, because super-cold air conditioning is making me feel icky.
Wanting: Mit der wahren Liebe ist's wie mit den Geistererscheinungen: alle Welt spricht darüber, aber wenige haben etwas davon gesehen.

Inmates in a Filipino prison performing the dance from "Thriller" -- a YouTube classic:

+ Liz

Listening: First Bruce Springsteen's Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. all the time, then all kinds of Michael Jackson all the time.
Watching: Recently finished up Weeds season 4, which rattled my nerves but mostly in an exciting way.
Reading: L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad. I like a challenge.
Wearing: Lately I'm into wearing these halfway ratty cutoffs with my plaid flannel and Vans and really big hair piled on top of my head and white-framed cheap sunglasses and very red lipstick. It feels good.
Wanting: I want to read some really crackerjack commentary on season 4 Weeds that does not involve the writer unironically addressing Nancy Botwin as a "dirty whore," as Salon's Heather Havrilesky did in her really irritating finale wrap-up.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: The Beatles Anthology
Watching: Last Saturday, I discovered that there was an entire disc of Season One of Mad Men I hadn't seen yet! Which is annoying in the "late fees" department, but cool in every other way. My favorite Mad Men scene of all is when Don Draper gets stoned with his Greenwich Village Bohemian friends, and Don Draper gets up to leave, and the Beat poet dude says "No! You can't leave! The cops are outside!" and Don Draper says "You can't, but I can," and then tips his hat at the coppers and says "Good Evening, Gentlemen," and he is SUCH A CLASS ACT!
Reading: My own Twitter; other people's Twitters
Wearing: I accidentally did this sort of Farrah Fawcett/roller derby tribute look today, it was hot.
Wanting: How could I want anything in the world? Yesterday was the best day I have ever lived! Hella THX to everybody who in indulged me in drawing out my 24th birthday festivities for two weeks (It'll never happen again! I promise!), and my most sincerest THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU goes out to everybody who read what I wrote yesterday, and wrote me a kind and supportive comment or e-mail (or txt, or Twitter @ message). I have spent my entire life making up stories in my head about having that kind of thing happen to me, and yesterday, it did! In the future, I will remember these days, and I will wish that today could be yesterday.

Oh, "George Harrison's sitar-lesson with Ravi Shankar"- will I ever tire of boredly watching you while bumming around on the Internet?

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Nirvana, whatever's on WFMU, a ton of other stuff that I can't think of right now.
Watching: "South Park," really, usually 1-2 eps late at night on my laptop. I haven't had time to watch a lot lately!
Reading: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sachs, which is a fascinating group of character sketches of people living with various neuropsychological disorders... some of the fastest non-fiction I've read through in recent weeks; the Sienna Miller issue of Vogue, which makes me wonder why they keep persisting in putting her on the cover. It's been like three times and she's still a B-list actress! Come on, folks, it's beating a dead fashionista horse!
Wearing: Grey v-neck t-shirt, jeans, black Chucks, basic.
Wanting: To figure out why I hit a great wall of tired at the 20-minute mark on my 5K runs in the morning.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: I've been listening to the new Fiery Furnaces a lot, and the Beatles, and the Kinks, and I am going to spare myself the trouble of making up a lie about other music I've been listening to, since it doesn't exist
Watching: Since last Snapshot Day, I have watched every episode of Mad Men: Season One. It is my favourite thing in the world. Just like everybody, I am deeply, deeply in love with Don Draper.
Reading: The same Carson McCullers book I was reading last week. I also read the issue of Harper's Bazaar with Jolie on the cover and the Sisi Vogue. They both sucked, especially Bazaar.
Wearing: A bunch of dirty crap; Mad Men-colored lipstick; my stupid "Ringo Starr in HELP! haircut
Wanting: It is going to be SO NASTY HOT OUT on my birthday! That is so perfect! I wish it was that day.

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Adam and the Ants, Kings of the Wild Frontier, probably my favorite New Wave album ever; Moderat, who sounds like a more rubbery Aphex Twin; The Phenomenal Handclap Band; Marvin Gaye, Let's Get It On; the new Sunn O))); whatever's on WFMU is generally awesome with me.
Watching: Up; Blade Runner, the final cut; still drillin' through old episodes of "South Park." I just watched the one where Starvin' Marvin goes to space -- awesome.
Reading: I finished reading Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje and it was such breathtakingly beautiful writing. It's one of those books where a turn of a phrase can capture so much that it kind of knocks you out. Then I re-read The Keep by Jennifer Egan, which I enjoyed a lot. She's such a whip-smart writer. Both books had sort of "narratives-within-the-narratives" that reflected upon one another in interesting ways, so reading the pair was an interesting exercise in seeing how two very different writers used the technique.
Wearing: The weather is sooooo schizo in NYC now, but I love it. I am wearing my favorite Uniqlo skinny jeans, a pair of weird loafer type shoes from Kenzo, and a stripe-y shirt from H&M, I think.
Wanting: I'm owed about $3,500 from various freelance gigs, and I really want that money to come to me soon 'cause I NEED IT. Gimme my money!

Adam Ant, the best cheekbones of 1980:

+ Liz

Listening: The Greatest by Cat Power; this recording of a Girl Talk show from a couple months back; Check Your Head and Ill Communication by The Beastie Boys; Their Satanic Majesties Request by the Rolling Stones; Frijid Pink
Watching: Snow Angels, which I liked more than the book, although it was still really hard to watch. Mostly I was just psyched that the narrator-boy is played by Michael "I Cutely Date Kristen Stewart, Was Awesome in Lords of Dogtown, and Should Probably Be Way More Famous Than I Actually Am" Angaro. Oh, and it's got Eric Van Der Woodsen as this greasy jerkface stoner-kid! And for once Amy Sedaris didn't bug the hell out of me. I'm also in the midst of season 4 Weeds, which I find unnerving thus far.
Reading: A Likely Story by Rosemary Mahoney. And I'm rereading parts of Chuck Klosterman IV, including his "Robots" essay, which features one of my favorite of all Chuck Klosterman paragraphs in the history of Chuck Klosterman: "I'm not sure how we all became convinced that machines intend to dominate us," writes Chuck. "As I type this very column, I can see my toaster, and I'll be honest: I'm not nervous. As far as I can tell, it poses no threat. My relationship with my toaster is delicious, but completely one-sided. If I can be considered the Michael Jordan of My Apartment (and I think I can), my toaster is LaBradford Smith. I'm never concerned that my toaster will find a way to poison me, or that it will foster a false sense of security before electrocuting me in the shower, or that it will politically align itself with my microwave. My toaster does not want to conquer society." GAHHHH...Comedy gold!
Wearing: jeans and this dumb/awesome Forever 21 shirt that says "Malibu" and then "Local's Only," because apparently Forever 21 can't tell a possessive from a plural. Ack! And I was wearing my blue-sequin Converse, but then I left them in Emily Richmond's car when we went surfing last night. Ack again! But surfing at twilight was heavenly heaven, so that all makes up for it.
Wanting: I want to wish my dear friend Precious Redwine a very very happy birthday, even happier than this panda's special day:

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Revolvskies, I mean, Revolver, or do I mean Revolvskies?; "Car Thief" by The Beastie Boys; also, the new song called "The End Is Near" by that band of merry thieves I love so well, The Fiery Furnaces. It's so good, right? Especially that killer kicky part in the middle. The verses are kind of meager. I feel like Friedberger does not perform to the best of his vocal abilities.
Watching: I like when I come over to my Dad's house with Thai take-out at 7:30 and we watch Jeopardy! together. The thing that annoys me about Jeopardy! is that, when you take the time to think of it, the Answers and Questions often don't add up, or make sense.
Reading: A biography of J. Edgar Hoover. Just kidding! That's a total lie. In no way true. I'm reading Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers, and I really like Luxirare and Double Takes and our Summer Fashion Concepts, and my e-mail. I check my e-mail 100 times a day.
Wearing: A little McCullers, a little Teenage Laura Bush, some girly shit, some less girly shit, and I am golden brown. But not so much "Golden Brown," by the Stranglers.
Wanting: As much as I want to eradicate anorexia forever, I've mostly moved on to my latest social advocacy campaign: ERADICATING PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR FOREVER. Seriously? Can we just make passive-aggression, like, GO AWAY? Forever? Starting RIGHT NOW? Yes? Please? I also want some shit from J.Crew, and sangria on a patio tonight. If it's eleven in the morning, does drinking sangria count as "alcoholism"?

I just ate this; it was a let down. I highly recommend it if you're looking to eat peanut butter that in no way tastes like white chocolate:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Moderat, Kitty Wells, Lady Gaga, Nurse With Wound, Crystal Antlers, the Phenomenal Handclap Band...basically the most random mix you could ever imagine.
Watching: I recently discovered that every single episode of "South Park" is available online at southparkstudios.com and have been plowing through those. "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" Love it! Also: Terminator Salvation, Aguirre: Wrath of God, Roman Holiday.
Reading: I finished John Henry Days, finally! I'm not sure I'd recommend it as an intro to Colson Whitehead, but dude, the man can write. Something about the ending of John Henry Days made up for the circuitousness of it, but perhaps not enough for the casual reader.
Wearing: Somehow it feels more like early March in NYC than early June...what's up with that, global warming? So oddly I'm wearing Uniqlo skinny jeans, my trusty Martin Margiela sweater and some ballet flats. Boss.
Wanting: I WISH YOU COULD ALL COME TO THE SCREENING OF MY SHORT FILM "PHOEBE, 2:13AM" TONIGHT IN NYC! It's part of a NYC Downtown Short Film Festival Audience Choice screening. But if you can't, hopefully it will have a good festival run and perhaps will come to a theatre near you. If you have a film festival in your town that you think I should submit to, please let me know!

Shitty things happen in "Phoebe, 2:13AM," but luckily it's only 11 minutes so you won't hurt too long:

+ Liz

Listening: this really dope mix CD that's got "Doctor Doctor" by The Who, "Low" by Flo Rida, "Cheated Hearts" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "I'm Straight" by the Modern Lovers, and many more hits from the '60s, '70s, '90s, and today.
Watching: I saw Terminator Salvation with my brother last weekend and thought it was awesome, which maybe means I'm stupid and/or have bad taste, but I don't give a fig! I also watched about seven minutes of "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" on Monday.
Reading: the issue of New York with Larry David and Woody Allen on the cover. (I put Larry David's name first because I care about him five times more than I care about Woody Allen.) And Nylon, I guess, I don't know.
Wearing: my Amsterdam shirt, with which I have just been gleefully reunited, and these really dark-wash bootcut jeans that always rub dye onto my hands and then I get scared that I've contracted argyria. I'm also wearing incredibly dirty two-toned hair.
Wanting: more of the wild mushroom empanadas, plantains, and blood orange caipirinhas I had last Friday at Orinoco. If you live in the greater Boston area, I'd highly recommended eating there a.s.a.p., even though the bartender is the meanest person I've ever met in my life.

A SLOW LORIS GETTING TICKLED:

+ Laura Jane

Listening: The only moment in all recorded music of any relevance to my life is when Ray Davies inexplicably pronounces the word "almanac" as "almanyac" in "Autumn Almanac" by the Kinks.
Watching: Rebecca, and it was the first time I've ever seen Sir Laurence Olivier act in a movie, I think. He's a good actor. He's got charisma. He's got in droves.
Reading: Luxirare; Carson McCullers; my new notebook; this blog post about school lunches from around the world (the ones from Korea look so healthful and YUM, I also like how in France they give you mussels)
Wearing: Yesterday I tried to motivate myself to wear all black because I hate it, and ended up wearing white jeans and a yellow t-shirt and a yellow-cardigan and grey shoes and a gold headband and a white flower in my hair. I hate black.
Wanting: Duhsville! I want you to HELP ME HELP ERADICATE ANOREXIA FOREVER

TO FIND OUT THE MEANING OF LIFE, SCROLL FORWARD TO TWO MINUTES AND EIGHTEEN SECONDS:

MY NEW NOTEBOOK:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Liz

Listening: I'm almost over listening to "Deathbed Confession" by Chain and The Gang 97 times a day, which kind of makes me sad. Getting over being obsessed with a song is like falling out of love, except not at all. Now I'm listening 97 times a day to the song that plays in Point Break when Keanu Reeves catches a wave for the first time. It's called "I Will Not Fall," and it's by Wire Train.
Watching: I watched "Daisy of Love" for 12 minutes on the plane yesterday; it made me sad about at least three things in life.
Reading: Snow Angels by Stewart O'Nan, which I just discovered was "adapted for the screen" by David Gordon Green, so that's exciting.
Wearing: my sister's pajamas
Wanting: to summon the energy to walk a mile down the road and get a coffee at Dunkin Donuts. And an egg sandwich, but not from Dunkin Donuts. I also wish I didn't have to work today, so I could spend 2 or 3 hours at the Cambridge St. Salvation Army aka Sally's Boutique.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: This week's Kinks songs of choice: "Dead End Street," "Lavender Hill," "Denmark Street," "Autumn Almanac," and "See my Friends," especially "See my Friends."
Watching: Invincible, but I fell asleep during it. That time, I didn't dream about Tim Roth, but ever since, Tim Roth makes a cameo appearance in almost all of my dreams. I also watched the Beastie Boys on Jimmy Fallon. It made me happy, except for MCA, who is nightmare-ish, but not in a Tim Roth way.
Reading: I really like this blog Stray Cat Blues, especially the post she wrote about beards. Also, a "veritable slew" of new celebrity Twitters have popped up in my life: Mike Skinner's Twitter (highlights: "I'm in love with a piano," "i can't stop watching YouTube videos of old raves," and "roadies are often compensatorily clearly spoken. almost as a rebelion to their image amongst other professionals"), David Schwimmer's Twitter (sort of boring), and Chandler Bing Matthew Perry's Twitter ("Just found out that gym is short for gymnasium...so cool!")
Wearing: This week, I have been exploring the weird sartorial intersection between Laura Jane in Rishikesh and Haute 14-year-old Stoner Boy: Vetiver t-shirt, t-shirts over dresses, big floppy hat I found on the street, rolled-up jeans, bare feet, moccasins, knitted hat made by Vanessa of The Whispertown 2000. I should be nicknamed "The Slouchmeister."
Wanting: A dinner date with Ginnifer Goodwin at Caravan of Dreams; a pygmy jerboa

STUFF I WEAR THIS WEEK:

A PYGMY JERBOA:

RAYMOND DOUGLAS DAVIES:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Company Flow, Dr. Dre, Wu-Tang, the Misfits, Nirvana, Maximilian Colby, Unwound, Ratatat, Serge Gainsbourg, live Sinead O'Connor from 1988
Watching: The "Gossip Girl" season finale, which I enjoyed heartily despite the perpetual idiocies that plague the character "development" on the show; Terminator: Salvation (the first two films are better, but the Terminator series in general kind of rules); How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (incredible film; it's a 1971 Brazilian historical black comedy, ostensibly about cannibalism but really about colonialism in Brazil, a lot more mild in execution than it sounds. Serious cineastes should look it up, really.) Oh, and this short from this year's Cannes: it's fantastic how emotionally engrossed you get in just four minutes. Poor little voodoo doll!
Reading: God, I'm still reading John Henry Days. This is the longest it's ever taken me to get through a work of fiction. It's fitfully compelling, but when it's on, it's totally on. Also: the issue of Vogue with Cameron Diaz on the cover, a bunch of scripts, "Hedda Gabler" by Ibsen (ooh, what a great character)
Wearing: a white tank top, Frye boots and this super-old pair of Earls that I've had since, oh, 2002? Straight leg, dark rinse, rise in the perfect place...best jeans ever. So sad they don't make them anymore.
Wanting: Life's good, dudes, what more do I need?

This is Sinead doing "Troy" live back in, hmmm, 1990? Intense...

+ Liz

Listening: I saw Ian Svenonius's band Chain and the Gang last night and they put on a good show but it all seemed horribly dated. But everyone else seemed to dig it, so maybe I'm just an asshole. Oh, and Calvin Johnson opened and I hated it.
Watching: the "Gossip Girl" season finale, which I didn't really understand, which possibly means I've gone stupid.
Reading: STYLE ICONS, PART DEUX (aka The Only Thing People Should Read Ever)
Wearing: my bougainvillea-pink short-sleeved silky button-down top with cutoffs and Iron Maiden vans, which my chiropractor said she's going to steal from me. Plus: Pigtails! Charm necklace! Baby-pink lipstick! So cute!
Wanting: a pink ouija board from Toys R Us! Exactly what every adorable satanist needs in her life.

HORRIBLY DATED, OR AMAZINGLY AMAZING?

(You could also pick option C, which is "Whatever, who cares?")

+ Laura Jane

Listening: The Remember version of "1917" by the Fiery Furnaces; mid-level lame shit like Luna and Edith Frost (Oh! Ah! It all makes me feel so contemplative); psych-y stuff for the summer, like "Backwards and Forwards" by December's Children and Present Tense by Sagittarius
Watching: I saw a Vetiver concert: unlike the Vivian Girls, Vetiver do not suck. The opener, The Papercuts, were really good too, only I can't stop calling them the Paperclips in my head. I also saw Taken with Liam Neeson, but does anybody care about that? I don't. Oh yeah, and James Franco as Justin Bobby.
Reading: STYLE ICONS, PART DEUX (aka The Only Thing People Should Read Ever); also, my new favourite website: Is It Iced Coffee Weather?, even though today it says it is not iced coffee weather, which is wrong, because I am drinking iced coffee right now, and it is perfect. This is the first time isiticedcoffeeweather.com has let me down, though. so I forgive it.
Wearing: Vans & a tan
Wanting: I wish today could be tomorrow? Just kidding! Today kind of rules.

JAMES FRANCO: MORE JUSTIN BOBBY THAN JUSTIN BOBBY, SOMEHOW:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: I am all about Madonna lately, particularly early Madonna. And of course, the ultimate Satanic mixtape we made yesterday. And this strange rotation of Debussy, Unwound and the first Fiona Apple record. I'm in a weird, weird mood lately.
Watching: If I could wire my brain to create an endless loop of Spock from the new Star Trek, I totally would. Duuuuuuuude. My libido gets confused on whether or not I'm really hot for Spock or Zachary Quinto (who possesses my ideal dude eyebrows), but it's a happy confusion that I'm willing to exist within for awhile. All that said, the new Star Trek movie is thoroughly awesome and enjoyable, and I'm really amped that people still listen to the Beastie Boys in the distant future. Also: "30 Rock" episodes, Singin' In the Rain (such a great movie musical), the last few eps of "Gossip Girl" (which seem way better lately, is it just me?), and I'm looking forward to seeing the new Olivier Assayas film, Summer Hours. Assayas = awesome. (See Irma Vep if you haven't already!) Also, lots and lots of art. I love life when the semester is over!!!!!
Reading: I'm still making my way through Colson Whitehead's John Henry Days, which is more a series of fictional riffs than a story. (Although some are pretty amazing -- his whole riff on Altamont and the Rolling Stones is pretty effin' brilliant and riveting.) I took a detour and read Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje, which I loved before and still love now. Really gorgeous language, you feel like you're dreaming about Buddy Bolden instead of just reading about him.
Wearing: I always wear the same thing lately, which is a boy's oxford shirt (or a Martin Margiela sweater), skinny jeans and some kind of boot...this week it is a pair of black lace-up boots, kind of like a cross between combat boots and a Victorian thing. I find having a uniform comforting these days and will miss it when the season changes and it gets too hot to wear skinny jeans.
Wanting: I told you my three wishes! Someone could give me $12K and I really would be quite grateful!

Spock, stealer of my heart (I have actually dated dudes with this haircut before, though not these ears):

+ Liz

Listening: new Mika Miko songs; "Low" by Flo Rida; Steely Dan, Can't Buy a Thrill; the Dirty Dancing soundtrack
Watching: Oh god, so much: I'm dogsitting and can't seem to get over the novelty of having cable TV. Most importantly: this week's "Gossip Girl," which kinda bummed me out, despite the presence of Dick Casablancas and my childhood husband Andrew McCarthy - I think it's mostly cuz that Brittany Snow is a horrid, horrid creature. But it's still sad that the spinoff got axed.
Reading: the ish of W with Madonna on the cover, sort of; Juliana Hatfield's Twitter; Cost by Roxana Robinson
Wearing: my hot-pink sundress, for the first time evs. So cute!
Wanting: this really pretty dress, which I would probably love even more than the dress I'm currently "wearing"

TOTALLY BUY THIS RECORD!

+ Laura Jane

Listening: The Breeders like crazy since Liz posted the "Cannonball" vid last week- mostly Last Splash, and mostly "Saints" and "Drivin' on 9"; KINKSIE KINKS KINKS I LOVE THE KINKS- all the Kinks songs on all the Kinks albums, well up to Muswell Hillbillies that is. Sorry, The Kinks Present Schoolboys in Disgrace.
Watching: I saw the Vivian Girls live last week and would like to say that they are a bad band, and I am not in support of liking them. If you want to like the Vivian Girls, like Dolly Mixture instead. I've also been watching lots of Entourage, which means that I'm in love with Ari Gold again. And the season finale of LOST, which was extraordinary in many ways, but mostly because it was revealed that Benjamin Linus is a Pisces!!!!! THANK YOU, WRITERS OF LOST!!!! I LOVE THE WORLD!
Reading: Sorry, I don't really know what you mean by that.
Wearing: Well, for starters, I have recently taken to rocking the uber-pathetic weenie ponytail that women resort to when growing out their short hair. I call it "My Little Pony." Next up are two insanely killer Zara scores: my sort of "The one-armed drummer of Def Leppard meets Gwyneth Paltrow" denim vest, and my sparkly flats, which I am pleased to report I have officially broken in (it took many a bloody heel, but I made it!); lastly, a long black vintage nightgown that I thought looked really classy on me, but, according to my ex-boyfriend, looks like Elvira. I HATE DUDES! Yay or Nay, readers of nogoodforme.com?
Wanting: For Raymond Douglas Davies of The Kinks to take me on as his much-younger lover. I would move to London to live with him. He would finance all my creative endeavors, and buy me lots of dresses. We'd drink tea and smoke nicotine inhalers, and he'd be surprisingly libidinous for his age. That's ALL I want. Is that SO much to ask!?!?!

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: In my building, someone is listening to some really weird noise music and it is kind of cool. Also: Bat for Lashes, Two Suns. I have nothing more to say about this record here, but perhaps I will expound upon it later.
Watching: Let the Right One In (one of my favorite films of 2008; holds up after repeated viewings, if only for beauty of the visuals and the elegance of the direction...but of course it's still a tender, if creepy, story, and aaaggggghhh, such perfect shots at the end!) Oh, and lots and lots of "30 Rock." My life is now seriously complete.
Reading: John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead, in anticipation of reading his new book, Sag Harbor soon. CANNOT WAIT.
Wearing: Agnes B. grey oxford shirt, skinny jeans, ballet slippers, same old, same old and I kind of don't care. I am all for the uniform these days.
Wanting: WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN? A hug would be a good start.

This is the first thing that pops up when you type "Asian kids being cute" in the YouTube search box:

+ Liz

Listening: Tonight's the Night by Neil Young has become my new sleepytime music. And Cat Power's You Are Free is my favorite springtime record, maybe. But mostly I just listen to radio and a "quick mix" of my Breeders, Belly, and Sonic Youth stations on Pandora.
Watching: the ADULT SCANDALS of Gossip Girl. And I've had Slumdog Millionaire for like 80 years but have yet to watch it, which I feel vaguely lame about. Though in a way it's fun to be one of five people on the planet who's yet to see Slumdog.
Reading: I'm going through a super-sad-YA-novels phase - first was The Year Without Michael by Susan Beth Pfeffer, and now I'm on A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry. Also: that Elle story about the woman who moves into a cave but can still bake cake.
Wearing: a wetsuit, or at least I did for five hours yesterday, 'cause that's how long I was in the ocean!
Wanting: my new surfboard to get here! And it's so summery and I want lavender-avocado vegan gelato, or at least Coldstone.

ISN'T IT WEIRD HOW SOMETIMES YOU FORGET THAT THE "CANNONBALL" VIDEO IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD????

+ Laura Jane

Listening: "You May Know Him" by Cat Power; Wonderwall Music by George Harrison
Watching: The episode of Entourage featuring Whitney Port on drums where Ari Gold tries to do business at a funeral (PS: Networking at LJ's Ultimate Deathfest 20?? is both permitted and encouraged); Kung Fu Panda, which was lame. However: my Dad and I have been trying to motivate ourselves to watch it togeths for a while month, but always flake out- so much that it has become a "thing" for me to say that something is the Kung Fu Panda of something else. Something is the Kung Fu Panda of something else when you don't really want to do it, but it's not that annoying, so you don't put enormous pressure on yourself to get it out of the way, and then it looms over your life for a month, until you watch Kung Fu Panda last night.
Reading: I really love Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier- I am about 2/3 of the way through it and totally sucked in, but I hate the narratrix. Why can't she be more self-confident?!?! Why can't she be more like Rebecca?!?!? Her inferiority complex is called for. Also: this Pipeline post about Mommies with good style is really rad.
Wearing: I haven't bought clothes in forevs, but I bought a bunch of clothes this week. I don't want to write about them, though, because my summer fashion concept will most likely be "The Clothes I Bought This Week" and I don't want to ruin that for Future Laura. In other news, I finally received the Ralph Lauren Crossbones Style LJF Polo I bought myself for Christmas, and it's the best-fitting polo evs. Hooorrrayyyyyskies.
Wanting: For everything to always work out exactly the way I want it to for the entire rest of my life starting this exact second.

SO J.CREW ON J.CRACK; ALSO- I'M SMILING IN A PHOTO!!!!

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The Misfits, New Order, old and new mixtapes, plus all the bad yet glorious 80s metal that I listen to when I go running in Riverside Park
Watching: Man, nearly every film in my school's film festival -- that's a lot of films! But I'm going to watch "Gossip Girl" later today after I deal with all my piled-up freelance work and everything will be better.
Reading: The Keep by Jennifer Egan, who I think is really one of my favorite contemporary authors. She's just so damn good, smart, risky, and there's always something in her work that is subtle but utterly riveting.
Wearing: I'm just wearing Uniqlo skinny jeans, a Martin Margiela sweater and ballet flats (I feel like this is my uniform), but the best thing of all is Frederic Malle's Carnal Flower perfume, which is hands down the best tuberose fragrance I have ever smelled. I am usually not a tuberose fan, but this is really beautiful...kind of demure yet voluptuous, and it develops beautifully on the skin. I'm more a woodsy/oriental girl when it comes to perfumes but this may be the one floral fragrance that I am deeply in love with.
Wanting: Obvs, a bottle of Carnal Flower!

I like to listen to Ratt's "Round and Round" in the last 15 minutes of my run. The philosophical question is: am I running with the song, or am I really running away from it because it's so deeply cheesy? And dude, this video features a cross-dressing Milton Berle! Score!

+ Liz

Listening: I actually wasn't just being funny when I said I only ever listen to the same CSNY record on repeat all the time. It's true.
Watching: Gossip Girl and The Hills. And then I immediately read the recaps on Gawker, aka my favorite ish in the world right now. Maybe the best bit from this week's GG write-up: "Yeah, Rufus showed up at the Give Gideon Money to Make This Episode Happen party, and he sadly asked to invest his savings. Gideon blinked at him and said 'You want me to invest a Mac Perfoma and a framed headshot of Liv Tyler?' And Rufus nodded gravely." Or, perhaps: "Meanwhile on the Upper Beast Side, Sereenz was having sex with a wooden clock that someone put a magic spell on and made animate. All Gideon does is tick-tock with his big stupid cuckoo face, and Serena falls crazy in love with him. Everything about him is perfect! Except for everything about him." Gahhh!!! SO GREAT! Plus State of Play (in a word: "Good!").
Reading: Aziz Ansari's Twitter, which I love mostly because he eats a lot of really awesome food (like, yesterday he had CHOCOLATE DONUT ICE CREAM, and I'm still not over it). BTW, remind me to tell you my Aziz Ansari story sometime. It's actually not very exciting, but maybe you'll be mildly amused. I'm also reading all of LJ's amazing posts from the last week.
Wearing: my "post-surf uniform" of cutoffs & Vans & beanie & a non-zip-up-style hoodie advertising a now-defunct bank from my hometown
Wanting: to catch a wave, man! And I want Johnny Depp's character on SpongeBob to be my surf teacher.

"HAIL, OH GREAT SWAMI OF THE GNARLY POUNDERS!"

(I'm totally Patrick in this situation, FYI.)

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Os Mutantes; Curt Boettcher, There's An Innocent Face (this is a very lovely and floral and subdued album that I recommend to anybody who thinks nature is cool); "Bats Over the Pacific Ocean" by Jaguar Love (if you want to be more like me, you can listen to this killer song yourself right this exact second (!), because Elizabeth Barker played it in our most recent installment of Heavy Rotation.
Watching: As per usuelle, I watched "LOST" and "America's Next Top Stupid Dumb Loser," but otherwise, I haven't watched a single thing this week! Well, that's not necessarily true- I watched the streets, many dogs, buildings, flora, people sitting across from me, the numbers on the elevator, and my face in the mirror.
Reading: My favourite Yoko Ono Twitter (sorry, I refuse to say "tweet") yet: "Let's report to the Universe how glad we are that our planet is part of the most beautiful Universe"; the polar opposite of Yoko Ono's Twitter, Nicole Richie's Twitter, which I am, quite frankly, obsessed with. She's way less dumb than I thought she is; it's really fun to read old nogoodforme.com posts: the other day I re-read my entire Ultimate Fashion Challenge, and also every Heavy Rotation ever. DUDE, WHERE'S OUR BOOK DEAL?
Wearing: Anni Albers sweatshirt; grey knit harem-y pants; Kill City tie-dyed jeans; Black San & Soni trousers; Josie Maran tinted moisturizer, AKA the BEST SHIT EVS.
Wanting: I wish it was today, which it is, so that's nice for me. To take my wish one step further, I wish it was seven hours from now, so that I would be drunk and eating at Utopia Cafe, which anybody with all five senses intact would realize is the best restaurant in Toronto; I also want to go on a date to an NBA basketball game.

A VERY POOR QUALITY VIDEO OF "PANIS ET CIRCENSES," MY SECOND-FAVOURITE OS MUTANTES SONG (If you can guess my first-favourite Os Mutantes song, you win a prize, I swear it):

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere; Lync, These Are Not Fall Colors; the awesome mix tape (YES A CASSETTE) that my friend gave me last week full of metal-y goodness; and a bunch of other things I will tell you about later this weekend
Watching: The seder episode of "Gossip Girl," which didn't make me want to kill myself as per usual, although it was pretty teeth-gnashing-inducing anyway. Maybe I am getting used to the ludicrosity of the show now? Also I watched The Other Boleyn Girl and thought it was just ridiculousness all around, although I do love a good costume drama. And the "trailer" for my school's film festival afterparty below.
Reading: Oooh! Lots to report here: "A Doll's House" and "Hedda Gabler" by Henrik Ibsen, which naturally I both adored; Shopgirl by Steve Martin (why did I not read this earlier? It's super, really, effin' good...); the models-centric issue of the new Vogue, which I threw across the room in an effort to combat boredom (although a big yay for the THIRD MONTH IN A ROW that a woman of color is on the cover...I guess they are making up for lost time); and I'm still dipping in and out of How I Grew by Mary McCarthy
Wearing: Dry cleaners actually did save my favorite stripe-y Veronique Branquinho shirt, so I'm wearing that in celebration, along with Uniqlo skinny jeans, ballet flats and a cropped pea coat-y jacket from Armani.
Wanting: I want you all to come to the afterparty after my film screening next week in NYC! The Dove Parlour in NYC, 10:30pm, 4/30/2009! DO IT. Oh, and to see Star Trek. Hello, Zachary Quinto!

I suspect this is too full of inside jokes to be funny to most people who don't go to my film school, but I had Directing 1 with this man and this is like a weirdly distilled version of what I learned in that class:

To make up for the inside joke-y stylee of the above clip, here is a clip of "Frantic" live in the studio from Metallica. Also I would like to formally announce that Some Kind of Monster made Kirk Hammett my favorite member of Metallica and made me never want to be in the same room as Lars Ulrich. And that Guitar Hero: Metallica is really, really fun:

+ Liz

Listening: Icky Thump by The White Stripes; Desire by Bob Dylan; Tonight's the Night by Neil Young (in a bookstore in Venice)
Watching: that Britney Spears video where she's almost the same as Will Ferrell impersonating Harry Caray (It never gets old!)
Reading: catching up on the New York issues I missed whilst in Massachusetts
Wearing: jeans + hot Vans + scoop-neck tank + flannel + beanie + pigtails + everything awesome as always
Wanting: This week I had much quality BFF time, sort of surfed, consumed pancakes and eggplant pizza and magical fish tacos and Emily Richmond's french fries (not all at once), got a full-body massage, went to the beach at least three times, drank beer by the ocean in Malibu at sunset, and ate a fancy imitation Hostess Cupcake at Joan's on Third while spying on Oscar from The Office (who, incidentally, was really adorable and "Office-caszh" in his hoodie and jeans). I WANT FOR NOTHING.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO TIME TRAVEL SPEED?

+ Laura Jane

Listening: IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, by The Beatles, is what I'm listening to, I mean; and Absolute Classic Masterpieces Vol. 1 by Felt
Watching: OMG I binge-watched every episode of The Hills Season 5 on Monday, that was killer; The Reader, which is boring to talk about because it's not trash; I'm totally into this "cycle" of America's Next Top Model, though on Wednesday I swore that I would literally commit suicide if Natalie got voted off, and she did, and I didn't commit suicide, so I'm not that invested
Reading: The TV& Showbiz section of dailymail.co.uk, which RULES; Really into Oak Glasses; Life is beautiful/life is depressing (from A Cup of Jo)
Wearing: I am growing my hair out, and it is at The Awkward Length- in between boy-short and a bob, AKA the ugliest hair length that no one would ever have if they weren't growing out their boy-short haircut. My two coping mechanisms are 1) pinning all my hair up in the back and then teasing the front into a pompadour, which is sort of fly, and 2) EXTREME HEADSCARF DEPENDENCE; also, the foliage-y swing coat I am wearing in the picture where I look like I am about to cry. People can't get enough of this jacket, but I'm mostly indiff.
Wanting: To be reunited with my Tamagotchi; for Michael Ian Black to add me back on Twitter for crying out loud; this, though I am creeped out by the presence of Vegenaise

THE PRESENT STATE OF MY HAIR- At left: What every single picture of me would look like if I were a contestant on America's Next Top Model, I bet; At right: Why are you so sad, Laura Jane? Is it because your hair is at an awkward length, or because it is drizzly, gloomy jacket weather? Or both?

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Liz

Listening: I bought A Woman a Man Walked By but I haven't really listened yet, except for the first four or so songs on the ride home from Newbury Comics. And: The Fly Girlz! And I'm kinda going through an Imperial Teen thing right now, especially Seasick.
Watching: LJ's mention of Oliver & Company reminded me that my 6th grade dance recital was set to a song from the O & Co. soundtrack - which, in turn, reminded me that that was the year I had the same dance costume as Jessie Spano's in the "Caffeine Pill Freakout!" episode of Saved by the Bell. I also saw I Love You, Man again, and have watched the season premiere of The Hills about 8 times.
Reading: The Condition by Jennifer Haigh, which is a damned good read.
Wearing: I left my Amsterdam t-shirt that I love so much in Massachusetts! I want to cry!!!
Wanting: Give me my Amsterdam shirt back!

CAFFEINE PILL FREAKOUT!

+ Laura Jane

Listening: The Kinks; Acid Mother's Temple live
Watching: Twilight (campy, entertaining, Robert Pattinson is hot as Edward the Zombie, but in real life is lame, stinky, and unhot); "Iron Chef America: Battle Freaking CHOCOLATE (!!!!!)" starring Iron Chef Bobby Flay on the drums; Old Yeller, since our Beloved Cinemanimals post called attention to how I'd never seen it before. The ending was really sad.
Reading: I finished Rabbit Remembered by dead John Updike, which means that I will never again read another all-new sentence about Harry "Rabbit Angstrom; I am now reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier; the Zac Efron issue o GQ
Wearing: Chloe perfume; a striped Oxford untucked over high-waisted Cheap Mondays, and unbuttoned from after where the waistline of my jeans hits, if that makes any sense; the blue and black calf-length leggings I wore on the morning of Spirit Animal House when it was raining
Wanting: I wish I would stop stressing out about commas, and fall in love, and that the dude I was in love with would be so in love with me that he'd take me to go see 17 Again, and then we'd get drunk and make out. To recap: less comma stress, love, alcohol, more love, 17 Again, making out.

"OH, NO... NO TRAVIS- PUT DOWN THE GUN! HE'S YOUR FRIEND! HE'S YOUR YELLER!"

PS: I wish Arliss from Old Yeller was my son:

PPS: God, Zac Efron, how you are so hot?

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: PJ Harvey & John Parish (still); New Order, Power, Corruption and Lies; godspeed! you black emperor; Victoire, A Door in the Dark (still); the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, which holds up really, really well.
Watching: my own movie over and over again until I want to gouge out my own eyeballs
Reading: Mary McCarthy, How I Grew (making my slow but steady way through McCarthy's memoirs); the barely legible notes I scribbled during the epic color correction workshop I took during the week
Wearing: United Bamboo dress that makes me feel like I belong in a very glam convent or library, thick black stockings, really old Via Spiga ankle boots, a pretty necklace a dude gave me
Wanting: I was gonna say: EVERYONE TO COME TO MY FILM SCREENING on 4/30 at the IFC Center here in NYC, but alas, it has sold out! In the same day! How did that happen?

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Winter Women by Matthew Friedberger. This time of the year marks the one year anniversary of my falling desperately/debilitatingly in love with Winter Women by Matthew Friedberger. It will always be the most perfect early-April record for me, which is moderately ironic, I guess.
Watching: A shitload of Hills eps- my favourite moment of all Season 4 is when Justin Bobby describes sitting by the ocean as being "zen-ful." Also: Dexter, and Rachel Getting Married, the episode of House where Kumar kills himself, and so on and so forth.
Reading: I finished Rabbit at Rest this week, which upset me, because I don't want to be finished with the Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom tetralogy. Thusly, I started reading Licks of Love, a book of John Updike short stories that finishes with Rabbit Remembered, a "coda" to the rest of the Rabbit books, as it were. I was initially forcing myself to read all the boring short stories that precede Rabbit Remembered so that I could really "earn" reading it, but then I realized how dumb it is that I force myself to do things I don't want to do for no reason, so now I'm reading Rabbit Remembered, for real.
Wearing: Some beautiful jewels (ginormo-rama crystal pendant; clunky chain-link bracelet with crown-esque charm) I bought from the St. Lawrence Sunday Antique Market (as pictured below); ballet flats; Dalmatian-spotted turtleneck
Wanting: A little of this; a metric fuck-ton of that; for it to be socially acceptable to punch people in the face if they suck; an increase in my general fame level; to not have the world's deadest love life; Perhaps I should go into law enforcement?

I AM SO HAPPY I RESCUED YOU GUYS FROM THE PAST:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Animal Collective, Victoire, the Dream Syndicate, a bunch of other stuff I will tell you about soon
Watching: Crazy, hyper people go in and out of a restaurant bathroom getting more, ahem, crazy and hyper. Also: Bring It On, aka the best movie of all time after Barry Lyndon and Beau Travail.
Reading: I finally finished Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster by Mike Davis, which was full of interesting info but got to be a bit of a slog -- till you got to the hilarious and sarcastic chapter on Angeleno disaster fiction. Also, I finished Mary McCarthy's Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, which was pure WIN. Mary McCarthy's so smart, dudes; that woman's intellect was sharp as a Ginzu knife. I am now starting The Luxe, by Anna Godberson, which is like reading a combination of Edith Wharton and "Gossip Girl." I predict I'll be done with it over the weekend and forget it by Monday.
Wearing: Maison Martin Margiela sweater, Uniqlo jeans, ballet flats, stripe-y scarf.
Wanting: A NEW GODDAMN BLOG PUBLISHING PLATFORM GODDAMN GODDAMN!!!!

+ Liz

Listening: "Foundations" by Kate Nash, a lot a lot a lot. And the Catherine Hardwicke edition of KCRW's Guest DJ Project, which is so wonderful. I can't wait to turn into Catherine Hardwicke when I grow up.
Watching: Happy-Go-Lucky, which I loved so much. I want lace tights! And a bike!
Reading: I accidentally picked up Less Than Zero the other night and read the whole thing in one sitting. It's still great.
Wearing: Iron Maiden Vans + skinny jeans + short-sleeve grey hoodie + new blue beanie (yay!)
Wanting: Lace tights! And a bike! And some new running shoes - these'll do quite nicely!

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Holy Ghost Language School; Holy Ghost Language School; Holy Ghost Language School; "Free Advice" by the Great! Society (isn't it cool when you've listened to a song like 50,000,000 times, and then you finally figure out how the lyrics go, and it totally reinvigorates the listening process?)
Watching: Synecdoche, New York, which is (in my opinion) crappy crapskies craps; The Hills (Audrina is really growing on me); Season 3 of Dexter; something else, possibly
Reading: Is Drew Barrymore the Ben Affleck of Romantic Comedies? (I'm barely reading that, but I like the sentence); Ben Affleck's bio on IMDB; cuteotters.com; Martha Stewart's KICKASS Twitter
Wearing: I've been trying really hard to wear clothing that isn't my Paul McCartney t-shirt, but am yet to succeed. Actually, that's a lie: right now I'm wearing a black tank top, but only because I wore it underneath my Paul McCartney t-shirt last night.
Wanting: I've decided that I want Seth Meyers to be my boyfriend. I mean, I've known this for a really long time, but I was in hardcore denial about it until this past Wednesday. Now, it's all I think about. Seth Meyers is the new Michael Showalter. They even have inverse initials! Let's all put our heads together and figure out a way to make Seth Meyers fall in love with me! Anybody?

THE CLOVERS AWESOME ROUTINE FROM "BRING IT ON." GABRIELLE UNION IS SO GONNA KICK YOUR ASS (Apparently you can more easily post copyrighted material on YouTube if you name it with a foreign language):

"FOUNDATIONS" BY KATE NASH

(Why have I never watched this video before? It's so delightful!)

Here is Seth Meyers sporting a dashing red tie/camel sportcoat combo. The dude on Seth Meyers' right is Josh Meyers, Seth Meyers' older brother. I cannot figure out if Josh Meyers is attractive in an accountant-y way, or creepy.

Would a dude who dated Rashida Jones date me?

Here is Seth Meyers with some other dudes who I generally like. Will Arnett looks hotter than Seth Meyers in this picture, but Seth Meyers looks hotter than Andy Samberg. Actually, who doesn't look hotter than Andy Samberg in this picture?

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Ladyhawke (awesome show!); the Fire Engines; the Fall
Watching: The Sundance winner Sin Nombre, which was pretty good, pretty violent, and pretty intense...I was really distraught through much of the movie, in a kinda good way when you're sucked into a movie even though you can guess its plot from the beginning. The acting and direction are so adroit, though, that it still completely involves you. I just wish it didn't have ill-defined girl characters that acted idiotically for plot convenience. Seriously, this is the 21st century; you'd think we'd be over this by now?
Reading: Mary McCarthy's Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. I gotta thank LJ for turning all of nogoodforme onto The Group. I mentioned The Group to The Most Literary Person I Know, and she said that McCarthy's essays and memoirs were a knockout as well. And she's right; they're great reads, really smart and sharp and fierce (not "fierce" in a fashion way, but "fierce" in an iconoclastic way). She's just got such a tough intellect. I ordered a ton of McCarthy's nonfiction from Paperbackswap and am wending my way through the small pile.
Wearing: I'm saving all my exciting clothes for next week: this week it's just a black and white buffalo plaid flannel, riding boots and J Brand jeans.
Wanting: Someone to help me untangle myself from the wreckage of my first act of my zinester epic screenplay. Revision is hard.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Fausty Faust Faust Faust: mostly So Far, but also Faust and Faust IV. Life is so much better when it is spent listening to Faust. I love Faust! Faust are the second-greatest band of all time after the Beatles! FAUSTTTTTTT
Watching: I Love You, Man, which was the greatest film of all time; Role Models, which was definitely not the greatest film of all time (it was surprisingly bad, actually; what's the deal, David Wain? Why can you not direct a funnier movie? You're David Wain! You're a funny dude!); Season 4 of The Hills, binge-ily on DVD. My favourite moment of the season is when Stephanie Pratt doesn't know whether she owns a hamster or a guinea pig, and tells LC, "She used to be a hamster, but now she's a guinea pig!"- such flawed logic, She-Pratt!
Reading: Rabbit at Rest by John Updike; The Daily Puppy; Yoko Ono's Twitter
Wearing: Purple hoody, red Le Tigre polo & brown wingtips from Honest Ed's
Wanting: Spring for realz; also summer; maybe both

STEPHANIE PRATT IS SO VERY CONFUSED:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Willie Isz! Dudes, whoever came up with the idea of combining shoegazer with hip-hop is an effin' genius. Dirty South! Also: The Duke Spirit, the Walkmen, the Wipers, Lil Wayne. And...PJ Harvey and John Parish, A Woman A Man Walked By! LOVE IT. "When you call out my name in rapture / I volunteer my soul for murder." Damn!
Watching: Duplicity, which I found really, really awful, despite some funny bits and some good scenes with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. Also, this episode of CNN: Revealed featuring Carine Roitfeld. It's not particularly insightful, but she's completely super-adorable. And to complete the PJ Harvey content quota, the video for "Black Hearted Love," which you can catch here. If you ever wanted to see Polly bounce in slow-motion on a inflatable thingamabob in the middle of the forest, you're in for a treat. For art fiends, it's also directed by Jake and Dinos Chapman.
Reading: Ecology of Fear by Mike Davis. Brilliantly researched and insightful but kinda paranoid-inducing. I really dug his City of Quartz, which was more on the urban studies tip about Los Angeles. In Ecology, he tackles the abuses of L.A.'s natural resources and it's enough for me to fly the nogoodforme eco-friendly private jet to L.A. to rescue Liz. Liz, don't live in Malibu! Also: the Vogue issue with Beyonce on the cover! Wow, two black women in a row on the cover of Vogue -- what kind of strange new world is this?
Wearing: Balenciaga dress, leggings, these shoes, which look better in person than they do in pictures. Parties tonight, woo ha...
Wanting: To become the morning person of my dreams.

+ Liz

Listening: old mix CDs that I keep finding in my closet, many with Blood Brothers songs
Watching: Last night I saw Kenneth Lonegran's This Is Our Youth performed by Mark Ruffalo and Josh Hamilton (not the dude from the Texas Rangers, but Grover from Kicking and Screaming, which is probably my 23rd favorite movie of all time). Now I'm more in love with Josh Hamilton than ever before; it's really nice and fuzzy-feeling. Mark Ruffalo's pretty goddamn adorable too.
Reading: the "Gossip Girl" issue of Rolling Stone and the Michelle Obama issue of New York
Wearing: clothes + my new Iron Maiden slip-ons
Wanting: to marry Josh Hamilton, or maybe just be good pals with him. I could see us having a really fulfilling we-used-go-out-but-now-we're-just-buds kinda relationship, actually. The show last night was a radio play and he was wearing this grey plaid flannel that I'd love to borrow.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Faust, So Far; The White Stripes, Elephant; the new Vetiver album, which I am too lazy to stand up and check the name of
Watching: Milk; Little Children (A+); Kicking and Screaming (why was this movie an exact rip-off of Metropolitan? It annoyed me. People don't talk like that!); Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which was a really weird experience for me- I have this glitchy TV/DVD player combo that subtitles every movie I watch, and I lost the remote control so I can't fix it. But with Nick and Norah, it didn't subtitle the dialogue- it subtitled the DVD commentary. So as I watched the movie I was simultaneously reading quips and witticisms from Michael Cera and the rest of the cast. SO CONFUSING!!!
Reading: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, which was entertaining, but crappy compared to his other two books. I wish he'd eliminated the last chapter, which was about his mother- it was self-indulgent. Yes, Malcolm, we get it: your Mommy is awesome.
Wearing: Dalmatian-print turtleneck; purple cloche; today I am wearing Miss Sixty Radios, my Union Jack muscle tee, and a black crewneck sweater, it's kinda fly.
Wanting: Summertime; love; a million dollars; Dear Matthew Friedberger: I bet you need a personal assistant! Okay, okay, you don't have to twist my arm. I'll do it. Peace be with you, Laura Jane

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Hole, Celebrity Skin (i.e., the greatest concept album of all time); Unwound, The Future of What (I've been kind of on an Unwound kick again lately); WFMU, the best radio station in the world; all the stuff I wrote about this week
Watching: That epic six-overtime college basketball game between Syracuse and UConn. That really was some of the best drama I have seen all year. Nearly four hours of play, tons of last-minute shots, players wobbling with exhaustion down the court! It was crazy to watch; I totally got sucked in. I also re-watched Dangerous Liaisons (the Stephen Frears version, with Glenn Close and John Malkovich) and totally remembered how much I super-love that movie. Now that I've gone through film school and honed this ability to remember entire sequences shot-by-shot, I can now appreciate how amazingly well it's directed in terms of camera and performance. It's hard to make a movie where people basically sit in rooms and scheme to be dramatically dynamic, but it's totally done here to great effect. Sigh. I realized recently how much I'm going to miss film school, where I'm surrounded by people who talk this nerdily and passionately and technically. It's totally insane.
Reading: I finished all the Anton Chekhov plays -- my favorites were "The Seagull" and "The Cherry Orchard." My next playwright to tackle is Henrik Ibsen -- anyone have a favorite play they want to recommend by him? I just started Slouching Toward Bethlehem, which I've read before but one never tires of reading Joan Didion, no? Also, for something light, I zipped through a book called Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro, which I got through a random recommendation in PaperBackSwap.com, which is probably my fourth favorite website in the world. I was expecting something really "chick-lit," and in some ways it was -- but it was also surprisingly sad, dark and somber, especially in the beginning.
Wearing: A short, flared faux-denim skirt from American Apparel, a Lacoste polo shirt, a grey Uniqlo cardigan, leggings, riding boots.
Wanting: For everything to be fine when I fly out tomorrow.

+ Liz

Listening: Yesterday I remembered that "Blueprint" by Fugazi is the best song ever, so I've just been listening to that all the time.
Watching: Zack & Miri Make a Porno (wicked cute!); Vicki Cristina Barcelona (wicked boring, except for Penelope Cruz!)
Reading: I'm currently obsessed with reading many magazine articles about Bernie Madoff.
Wearing: Lakers shirt + jeans + plaid flannel + cowboy boots + charm necklace
Wanting: to go back in time and get let into that Fugazi show I stood outside of for, like, 13 hours in 1999

NEVER MIND WHAT'S BEEN SELLING, IT'S WHAT YOU'RE BUYING:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream (it's been ages since I listened to it, I forget how good some of the songs really are); WFMU, i.e., THE BEST RADIO STATION EVARRRRRR. They're having a fundraising drive, if you like noncommercial awesome radio that plays everything from 50s doowop to French hardcore to your average indie stuff, donate!
Watching: Waltz With Bashir, which was freckin' fantastic.
Reading: Those damned Chekhov plays; some screenwriting book
Wearing: I'm on a film set for most of the weekend, so it's jeans, either boots or sneakers and some kind of t-shirt layered with cardigans and/or hoodies.
Wanting: TODAY IS THE GREATEST DAY I'VE EVER KNOWN.

+ Liz

Listening: "Cave Mouth" by Clues; "Amoreena" by Elton John; Comes a Time by Neil Young; Joanna Newsom; Bobby Dylan
Watching: the Veronica Mars episode with Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Reading: re-reading Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman
Wearing: yellow + black but not like a bumblebee
Wanting: to ride Space Mountain when I'm Disneyland-adjacent today. It's not gonna happen but at least I get to go to Benihana, which a first I'm really stoked about. I also want my first Cadbury Creme Egg of the season.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Electric Frickin-Frackin Arguments; "Love You To" from Revolver because it's chill
Watching: Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which made me want to puke all over myself, especially ScarJo; Into The Wild, which was sad to me because now I know the truth about Sean Penn: he is dumb; The House Bunny, which was worth watching because Anna Faris is totally awesome and I wish she was my best friend; The Kinks: At The Rainbow
Reading: My own Twitter, and other people's Twitters. Who needs books when you have Twitter? I don't, apparently.
Wearing: It was a really cold week here in Toronto, so I've pretty much been sticking to my uniform of jeans/t-shirt/two sweaters/jewelry if I'm feeling moderately less lazy than usual.
Wanting: I will be in NYC this weekend, which is damned exciting. I just want it to be here now, so I can do all the fun NYC things I like to do, and see all my NYC buddies. Hi, NYC buddies! See y'all soon!

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Helium, Pirate Prude (I always love the opening heavy bass chords of this record); Nirvana, "Scoff," which popped up during that iPod meme that was going around for awhile under "What I like in a guy" or something like that and oddly has become my new favorite Nirvana song -- maybe my music player is smarter than I think?); Lily Allen, It's Not Me, It's You (I don't care, it's a charming pop album); a bunch of PJ Harvey b-sides to get stoked for her upcoming record with John Parish
Watching: The Class, directed by Laurent Cantet (soooooo French, pretty good); old episodes of "Buffy"; oh, and the new Depeche Mode video, which is kind of INTENSE.
Reading: I'm still wending my way through a book of plays by Anton Chekhov and reading Twyla Tharp's autobiography. She's one tough lady.
Wearing: I am wearing the usual J Brand jeans, riding boots and a pretty Vera Wang top I got on a Gilt Groupe sample sale with a Uniqlo grey cardigan.
Wanting: I would just like to understand, that is all.

DEPECHE MODE'S VIDEO FOR "WRONG" WHICH KIND OF GETS REALLY NUTSO AT THE END HERE:

+ Liz

Listening: U2, R.E.M., Mary J. Blige, Bob Dylan's Desire
Watching: The Pessimist (An Apocalyptic Romance)
Reading: Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
Wearing: favorite blue dress + blue-grey stockings
Wanting: to go see Kime Buzzelli's new show at Gallery Space!

NOW I REALLY WANT TO WATCH LESS THAN ZERO:

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Paul Revere & the Raiders; Blur, The Great Escape; The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds (and other Beach Boys, too); I really liked it the other night when my iTunes shuffle played me "The Negotiation Limerick File" by the Beastie Boys
Watching: Tropic Thunder, which was unlike any other movie I've ever seen; Paranoid Park, which was totally fucking awesome. Taylor Momsen is an obvious genius. Her performance was inspired, detailed and immaculate. Rock on, Taylor Momsen!
Reading: Apparently I haven't read a single word since last week. Ew, am I a Normie or something?
Wearing: BROWN HAIR!; my Built by Wendy Gene & Gilda hoody, which I lent a pal in August (I was mid-UFC; what did I care) and didn't get back until yesterday and is the best fitting hoody of ever; Kings & Queens Aztec King Vanilla Pear shower gel, the coolest beauty product I've ever had; OMG OMG OMG MY NEW IRON MAIDEN VANS HI-TOPS!!!!! (The slip-on version of these were going to be my Christmas gift for Liz Barker, but I fell through on my promise and bought her gift for myself instead. I'm terrible.)
Wanting: Dude, I have Iron Maiden Vans. What more could I possibly want?!?

IF YOU DON'T THINK I'M COOL, GET READY TO HAVE YOUR OPINION CHANGED:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: A mix of early Madonna, New Order's Power, Corruption and Lies, Universal Order of Armageddon and some of Depeche Mode's Some Great Reward thrown in for good measure.
Watching: The Reader (I thought it was well-done, if a little opaque at times); and tonight I think I'm seeing The Class.
Reading: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger; Daisy Miller by Henry James; still reading some Chekhov plays.
Wearing: A black sweater from Martin Margiela, dark J Brand skinny jeans, the new pair of riding boots from Farylrobin that I picked up for a song at Clarabella!
Wanting: I really want certain behaviors explained to me, because I just don't get things sometimes!

+ Liz

Listening: Mika Miko + Ludacris. And a song from The Go-Getter, which hopefully you've added to your Netflix queue by now.
Watching: The Go-Getter. And I like to look out my kitchen window and "watch" my new car in the driveway, cuz it's so awesome.
Reading: A Family Daughter by Maile Meloy, and I just finished How Far Is the Ocean from Here by Amy Shearn, which is my favorite book I've read in a really long time. And the new issue of Elle, which I accidentally bought twice.
Wearing: beautiful blonde hair. I love my beautiful blonde hair, especially when it's professionally straightened! Why can't it last forever???
Wanting: practically every pair of boots made by Luxury Jones.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Tons and tons of Paul McCartney & Wings, especially Wild Life, Red Rose Speedway, and "Band on the Run" (the song more than the album, though I'm also really into "Jet" right now); "Nobody Told Me" by John Lennon; 1910 Fruitgum Co.
Watching: This week's episode of LOST really knocked it out of a Universe-sized ballpark with this past Wednesday's episode; The episode of Flight of the Conchords directed by Michel Gondry
Reading: I forced myself to read a hefty ton of John Lennon: The Life this week- I've gotten out of the habit of reading regularly, and I feel guilty about how I'm slacking off on my LJ ON JL column.
Wearing: The exact intersection between my Winter Fashion Concept (haute- 14-year old stoner boy) and my yet-to-be-revealed Spring Fashion Concept
Wanting: Paul McCartney's home phone number

LIZ LUVS BEAUTIFUL BOOTS:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The Walkmen x 10,103,053 to the 10th power.
Watching: He's Just Not That Into You (not that into it); Suspiria; The Bird People of China. I cannot believe that the dude who directed the ultra-violent Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q (i.e., the WEIRDEST FUCKING MOVIE EVER, like, the eeewwwwwiest film I've ever watched) also directed this really kind of lovely, profound, downright beautiful movie. It was so relatively mellow compared to the rest of Takashi Miike's work that it kind of blew my mind. Cineastes, help me out here! Discuss!
Reading: The Major Plays, Anton Chekhov. Also: fmylife.com. Completely ridiculous. I guarantee you something from my life will end up here one day.
Wearing: Plain old skinny J Brand jeans, a grey v-neck t-shirt from American Apparel (evil; I kind of never want to buy anything from them again), riding boots, Armani Exchange cropped pea coat. Back to old-school...
Wanting: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13th!!!!

+ Liz

Listening: my amazing Valentine's Day '09 mix! Drop me a line and I'll send you the link.
Watching: Kittens Inspired By Kittens! Flight of the Conchords! 30 Rock!
Reading: catching up on all the issues of New York magazine I've been neglecting over the past few weeks
Wearing: in my mind I'm wearing the most Valentine-perfect red dress; in reality I've yet to find said dress
Wanting: one of those Love Buns Nigella Lawson was talking about on NPR this morning

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Paul McCartney & Wings, Band on the Run; The Merry-Go-Round; Faust; The Fiery Furnaces; blah blah blah
Watching: LOST, the Best Show In The World; Season 2 of Flight of the Conchords!; Singles for the first time: I'm really inspired by Bridget Fonda's style in it, and also by Jeremy Piven's brief appearance- Piv just can't help but steal the show!; I took myself out to a matinee of Coraline: it was merely okay.
Reading: crosswords
Wearing: Hella new Thrift Scores that I'll post about soon, including a plaid knit beret and old lady moccasin-slippers; a really dope blonde hair/brown roots combo
Wanting: For that movie where Matthew Perry turns into Zac Efron to be in theaters TODAY; a Beastie Boys t-shirt; a hundred billion Diptique candles; summertime; nachos; New York; etc.

PIV IN SINGLES

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Liz

Listening: semi-stupid bands I liked a lot in college, like Free Kitten and Boss Hog; a dance remix of the Christian Bale rant (cuz I'm real easily amused); Led Zeppelin; Jimi Hendrix; Bob Dylan; the radio
Watching: the YouTube video of the little boy coming home from the dentist; Six Feet Under
Reading: How Far is the Ocean from Here by Amy Shearn
Wearing: Zuzu Luxe lipstick in Femme Fatale, which is the first lip stuff since my beloved, long-discontinued Lady Tatami lip stain by Fresh that I've been truly crazy for. And my black knit hat, cuz it hides the fact that I'm long overdue for some QT with my colorist. Also: clothes.
Wanting: to time-travel back to UCB Theatre's performance of Pretty in Pink! Jack McBrayer as Duckie! Michael Showalter as the dad! OMG! This photo alone is turning my whole world upside-down.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: This punchy lil version of "Mean Mr. Mustard", my favourite irrelevant Beatles song; "Kilroy Was Here" by The Move; Dolly Mixture; The Who Sell Out; Electric Light Orchestra's entire catalogue
Watching: 1/2 of Affliction; LOST; this video of Paul McCartney on The Colbert Report that I was planning to embed in my Snapshot but is no longer on the Internet because of copyright restrictions
Reading: I'm too famous to read- HA HA HA
Wearing: A seriously sweet stash of new underwear from American Eagle Awesome; Fresh Strawberry Flowers perfume, which smells exactly like my general Life Concept of 02/09: sweethearts and English gardens, whimsy and dreaminess, smiles and springtime.
Wanting: Well, when I bought my underwear at American Eagle Awesome, I signed up for their A-List card, which entitles me to a free gift every single month, and two on my birthday! Today I got a free lipstick that smells like cherry and some hand cream. How could I possibly ask for more than that?!?!

IS THIS REAL LIFE?

LJ'S ADORABLE AEA HAUL:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: My super-favorite thing to listen to right now is WFMU, based out of Jersey City. It's seriously become my favorite radio station ever. Telepathe, Dance Mother. Psychic Ills, Mirror Eye. (Shamanistic, trippy, drone-y, basically the perfect album to listen to when imbibing painkillers for a stupid injury you incur doing semi-stupid things in the name of art.) Andrew Bird, Noble Beast. (Yes, I have joined the Bird train. I totally have a crush on him. How could I not? He's pretty foxy and he lives in a farm in northwestern Illinois!) Department of Eagles, In Ear Park. (I totally missed them a few weeks ago at Bowery Ballroom, boo hoo!) Swell Maps, Jane From Occupied Earth. (Two words: experimental punk. One word: awesome.)
Watching: Lately I like old movies, especially old Preston Sturges ones like Sullivan's Travels and The Palm Beach Story.
Reading: I finished The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, and it was so fantastic that I re-read it again. Highly recommended -- it's one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read, for realz and seriously. Also been reading Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America by Ann Powers. It's interesting, but it's taking me forever for some reason. (I've been reading it on and off for the past few months, which is rare -- usually I zip through books like mad.) I need a good contemporary fiction recommendation that isn't written by an overtly clever white dude -- anyone?
Wearing: I am in love with this bright red cashmere sweater I got from Uniqlo a few weeks ago. I just wear it with J Brand dark skinny jeans, a dove grey scarf and MY NEW VEJA SNEAKERS THAT I GOT HALF OFF AT EKOVARUHUSET. (Yes, that's a plug. Go get Veja shoes, they're fair trade, awesome in the extreme and currently 50% off till February 1 in New York.) In the winter it becomes kind of exhausting to deal with clothes.
Wanting: BOWLING!!! WHO WANTS TO GO WITH ME?!!!!

+ Liz

Listening: mostly just the new John Frusciante still, plus a lotta Pandora (especially a "QuickMix" of my Rolling Stones and Mary Timony and Neil Young and PJ Harvey and No Age and White Stripes and Stooges stations - love it!)
Watching: rewatching Weeds season 3; WALL-E; stupid boring Tropic Thunder
Reading: Oh god, I've been reading the same book forever; it's so embarrassing.
Wearing: blackblackblack skinny jeans + my Johnny Thunders "Born To Cry" t-shirt + black knit hat + slouchy heeled black boots
Wanting: After deciding that our 3 Dream Musical Collabos would make the perfect lineup for nogoodforme's next party, I came up with the idea that LJ should go all Lorne Michaels and make a video asking the Beatles to headine. Then I realized that would be super-tasteless.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Fairytales and Fantasies: The Best of Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra; The Beatles, "It's All Too Much"; Electric Light Orchestra, "Mr. Radio"; Del Shannon, The Further Adventures of Charles Westover (this is one of my favorite phony-psych albums of all time); The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees by the Monkees (obvs); George Harrison, Wonderwall Music (the second-best album to listen to while blogging, trumped only by Faust IV)
Watching: Episodes of My So-Called Life on DVD; episodes of Top Chef on Youtube; LOST; Short Cuts, which was obviously great, though it dragged on a tad too long for my toddler-esque attention span
Reading: John Lennon: The Life; this database of all the psychiatric conditions, which I realize is kind of a weird thing to be reading, but it's "crazy" (ha ha!) entertaining.
Wearing: Grey knit harem pants; this red-and-white striped day dress I bought on July 18th, 2008; the other day I wore Citizens of Humanity Simone jeans with a blue-and-white striped Oxford and burgundy checked sweatervest to work- one of my co-workers had the audacity to tell me I looked like "90s Tommy Hilfiger", so I tattled on him. My boss told me I looked like "Timeless Ralph Lauren" to make me feel better. I did.
Wanting: This imaginary dress I've made up in my head that I need for spring: short-sleeved, collarless, pencil-skirted, button-up bubblegum pink satin. I feel like it should be made by Banana Republic, but, like, it's not. WHY???

Kat's favorite picture of Andrew Bird:

If you are yet to go through your "Being Crazy Obsessed with Nancy & Lee" phase, it's probably time to get on that. Their "Jackson" vid (below) is the coolest thing in the world, WATCH EVERY LAST SECOND OF IT!!!!

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Adam and the Ants, Kings of the Wild Frontier; Fever Ray (Karin from the Knife's solo project -- it's good, less dance-y than the Knife but still kind of fierce and dark); R.E.M., Murmur (I'm way into early R.E.M. lately)
Watching: Smart People, Becoming Jane, Pan's Labyrinth, It Happened One Night -- I'm totally in love with the Watch Instantly feature on Netflix. Oh, and the latest issue of "Gossip Girl," i.e. "Chuck Bass, I Heart You"
Reading: Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin (this is actually more like a philosophical treatise than a sort of lame how-to book or something -- it's quite rich in thought to read, and I recommend it to anyone who's interested in the intellectual roots of sustainability); The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. (This book is SO RIVETING: it's about the conflicts between the medical community and Hmong refugees over a severely epileptic Hmong girl and the way the two cultures collide with one another. Heartbreaking, intelligent, balanced and compassionate -- a great read.) And lots of inauguration coverage -- whoo hoo OBAMA!
Wearing: I've reverted back to the indie-gamine thing from my later collegiate years -- I'm wearing skinny jeans, t-shirts, cardigans, Converse All-Stars. Which works, because I'm currently in San Francisco and everything's casual, y'know?
Wanting: To have dinner at Herbivore later tonight.

+ Liz

Listening: John Frusciante's The Empyrean; The Empyrean by John Frusciante; this record John Frusciante just put out that's called The Empyrean. Also: John Frusciante, The Empyrean. Oh, and The Empyrean. By John Frusciante.
Watching: GossipGirlGossipGirlGossipGirlGossipGirlGossipGirlGossipGirlGossipGirl. And YouTube videos of Our President dancing.
Reading: Teeth by Hugh Gallagher; the Vogue with Blake Lively on the cover; the February issue of Elle; that fantastic What do Christian Bale and Kermit the Frog have in common? post from ohnotheydidnt.
Wearing: Obama shirt + jeans + sparkly Converse + my John-Frusciante-in-the-"Under the Bridge"-video hat that my pal Ian got in Ecuador.
Wanting: that gorgeous dress Lily van der Woodson wore to the opera Monday night! (And I am so loving Lily right now, btw. Sigh...)

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Edwards Hand, Edwards Hand (hella chillax, George Martin-produced vaguely-psychy late 60s folk; comes highly recommended by Laura Jane); Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home (I'm learning to cope with my intense hatred of Bob Dylan as a person in the name of loving "Subterranean Homesick Blues" ridiculously a lot); the shuffle function on my iTunes is really obsessed with forcing me to listen to Curt Boettcher's California Music, which is a terrible album.
Watching: Winter Laura is SO into watching shit: Idiocracy (A+); The Happening (B-); Lagerfeld Confidential (C, blah, I hate him); the LOST season premiere (A++++ x 1000000)
Reading: John Lennon: The Life, and nothing but: I never read more than one book at once, or else I end up losing interest in all of them.
Wearing: Since penning an ode to Embracing Crappy Winter Style on Tuesday, I've actually stepped it up a bit: burnt-orange sweaterdress with my Thakoon for Target t-shirt and camel necklace; madras short-alls over black stockings layered with a purple skull-print See by Chloe sweater. And then some crappy winter shit.
Wanting: I WANT COMMENTS. What is up with the Great Comment Drought of 2009? I promise that, starting today, I will respond to every comment left on this blog. How's that for incentive?

ONE OF THE BEST THINGS ABOUT BEING ALIVE IN 2009 IS THAT YOU CAN WATCH THE "SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES" VIDEO FOR FREE WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE IT:

AN EXCERPT FROM KERMIT BALE:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The Walkmen, You & Me
Watching: Doubt; "Gossip Girl"; whatever films I can watch through the whole "Watch Now" feature on Netflix
Reading: the latest issue of Domino with Zooey Deschanel on the cover
Wearing: It's fucking cold out -- so Uggs it is, along with skinny jeans and piles of sweaters. But I am okay with this.
Wanting: A full night's sleep; to catch the coelecanth in Animal Crossing

+ Liz

Listening: Flight of the Conchords, which is weird to listen to at the gym because you start laughing to yourself on the elliptical and maybe your fellow elliptical-ers think you're crazy but you mostly don't care
Watching: Flight of the Conchords; The City
Reading: Teeth by Hugh Gallagher; the January and February issue of Vogue, both of which I've found surprisingly non-awful (although the TEN-PAGE fashion spread with Agyness Deyn and short-haired Albert Hammond Jr. kind of wigs me out).
Wearing: my new blackblackblack skinny jeans + Loomstate's Tequila Sunrise tee (in white, with the sleeves rolled up) + black knit hat + my new slouchy heeled black boots
Wanting: Keep Company's owl hoodie, to wear with the above outfit when the weather drops back down from 80-whatever to a chilly 68 or something. And I want it to be tomorrow so I can be on my way to Santa Cruz! Yay for spontaneous road trips!!!

+ Laura Jane

Listening: The Beatles, Let It Be; The Beatles, Beatles for Sale (especially "No Reply" and "Honey Don't", for the part when Ringo Starr says "Oh, Rock On, George, one time for Ringo")
Watching: ThunderAnt.com- ThunderAnt is Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney and Fred Armisen's comedy duo; it's pretty fantab. Make sure to check out "Feminist Bookstore" and "One Man Show" in addition to "The Perfect Song" (as seen below). Fred Armisen is clearly a genius. Once, he and I were at the same Fourth of July party.
Reading: John Lennon: The Life, obvs; the Cosmopolitan Bedside Astrologer (FYI: According to the Cosmo-cosmos, In April I should invite "the girls" over for a bagels-and-Bellinis brunch party!)
Wearing: My new Perks & Mini pom-pom bag! But, besides that, TOTAL GARBAGE, because it is stupid winter and I'm freezing and all I can wear without wanting to die (or maybe even actually dying!) is stockings under jeans and ten sweaters. I also have pink eye right now, so I guess I'm sort of "wearing" that.
Wanting: To not have pink-eye; for winter to be over

"The Perfect Song" by ThunderAnt:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Fennesz, Wu-Tang Clan, Beyonce and of course the Fall
Watching: Mon Oncle; Salo; You've Got Mail, and either Bride Wars, Gran Torino or Doubt tonight. Or maybe Waltz with Bashir. I really want to see that, actually; it looks amazing.
Reading: Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father; Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend
Wearing: Black Balenciaga knit shirt, really old Earl straight-leg jeans, Miss Sixty ankle boots, a grey buffalo plaid humongo scarf
Wanting: I want light tan plaid pillow shams.

+ Liz

Listening: the stuff in this week's Heavy Rotation; Led Zeppelin II
Watching: the season 2 premiere of Flight of the Conchords! And you can watch too! It's online now!
Reading: I'm With The Band + Marie Claire which I generally hate but there's a really cute interview with Kevin Connolly who Laura and I saw last Saturday in a bar and now I adore him more than ever
Wearing: PJs
Wanting: big black boots

+ Laura Jane

Listening: How's this for some seriously awesome life-soundtracking- I played the Fiery Furnaces' "Here Comes The Summer" as my plane touched down in Los Angeles nine days ago, then listened to the Fiery Furnaces' "Up In The North" as I alighted in Toronto last night. SO PERTINENT! Other than that, I'm really into Bringing It All Back Home by Bob Dylan right now, and then also the gunshot part of "Paper Planes" by M.I.A.
Watching: I watched The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 on the way to L.A and The X Files: I Want To Believe on the way back to Toronto. They were both equally awesome.
Reading: Michael Ian Black's blog, as in, NOT Michael Showalter's blog. Michael Showalter's blog sucks. I'm just being honest here- It's a bad blog. Showalter must be dumb or something. I would never, ever, never date him, not in a million, trillion years.
Wearing: My amazing, beautiful new FORTY-DOLLAR Karen Walker t-shirt dress from Creatures of Comfort, which is the actual Happiest Place On Earth, in my opinion; Cory Kennedy's cheetah hoody; Alphabet Bags "F" tote
Wanting: I have thought of a very important Pt. II/amendment to my New Year's Resolution, which is that I want to start making really grand, braggy claims about myself, just like my heroes Q-Tip, M.I.A, and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz. For instance: I am the James Joyce of fashion bloggers, I wait for no man; I do what no man can; dudes love me (for myriad reasons); I'm so conceptual, I make Yoko Ono look like Hilary Duff; I drink so hard, I make Dylan Thomas look like a toddler sipping a baby bottle full of apple juice; etc.

The trailer for Waltz With Bashir:

A clip from the season 2 premiere of Flight of the Conchords:

Below, left: the only thing in the world that makes me remotely envious of Cory Kennedy's "life"; below, right: two things that would make me really envious of myself if I weren't myself- take note of the crazy-long sleeves of my Karen Walker dress! Beautiful! FORTY BONES!

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The Stooges, Funhouse (for, oh, the last two days on repeat); The Fall, This Nation's Saving Grace; the "Cincinnati Monster" version of "Lollipop" with Kanye West
Watching: Juno; Linda Linda Linda
Reading: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski (pretty epic, beautifully written, and anyone who loves dogs should read it...they're described so wonderfully, it's astonishing); Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Wearing: For NYE, I wore a one-sleeved silver Malene Birger dress with black leggings and the Miss Sixty Balenciaga rip-off ankle boots I've been wearing foreverrrrrrrrr...
Wanting: I woke up at 3pm and haven't left my room all day 'cause I'm sore from dancing all night at Santos Party House...I'm a bit too zzzmmmzzz to actively pursue a want here.

+ Liz & Laura Jane (TOGETHER, LIVE, IN LIZ'S APARTMENT, RIGHT THIS EXACT SECOND)

Listening: U2, Zooropa; "10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1" and "RIP Jett Travolta" by Laura Jane Faulds and Emily Richmond
Watching: Pillz; a glass of wine; Boone's Farm (Fuzzy Navel); each other!!!!!!!
Reading: Emily's Tumblr!
Wearing: LIZ: a black hoody with the hood up, a really cute "LBD", a silver necklace that looks like a snake, forest green stockings; LAURA: really sick boots, JEAN SHORTS, Albers belt, tie-dyed Thakoon for Target t-shirt, a necklace that is either two camels in love, one camel following another camel, or two camels going their separate ways
Wanting: WHERE'S KAT AT?????

LIVE FROM LA!!!! IT'S NOGOODFORME.COM!!! ON SATURDAY NIGHT!!!

Snapshot: Listening, Reading, Watching, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Crystal Stilts, the Raveonettes, Palms, Linval Thompson, Beyonce's "Halo" and "Diva" and the Cole Porter songbook recorded by Ella Fitzgerald
Watching: The Wrestler (amaaaazing performance by Mickey Rourke; the movie as a whole is pretty brutal in parts but quite compelling); The Tale of Despereaux (so gentle and charming!); making my way through "Twin Peaks" on DVD; Howl's Moving Castle
Reading: A book about Elizabeth I; the January issue of Vogue with Anne Hathaway on the cover; Shakespeare's Cymbeline (I don't go around reading Shakespeare in my spare time or anything like that -- a friend asked me to do a stage adaptation of it)
Wearing: J Brand jeans, riding boots, Vera Wang loose cardigan sweater, old Depeche Mode t-shirt, big ol' knitted scarf and my favorite Helmut Lang coat
Wanting: I'm thinking London in the spring...

+ Laura Jane

Listening: John Cale, "Barracuda"; the Anthology version of "Piggies" by the Beatles
Watching: Catching up on Season Five of Entourage
Reading: JOHN!; The Best of 2008 issue of People magazine (cool, huh?!?!); Nubby Twiglet; thetrendygirl.net; MAXIMUM LAURA JANE
Wearing: Now that I'm blonde, I'm really into wearing tons of white and gold so that I look like The White Witch, or a glass of champagne; but also a black high-waisted skirt by Wilfred (which apparently is nowhere to be found on the Internet) and Jeffrey Campbell Square 2s; THIS WEEK HAS MARKED THE RETURN OF MY DREADED SOREL BOOTS
Wanting: DRUNKED AT THE TROUBADOUR

The TROUBZ:

Snapshot: Listening, Reading, Watching, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Billy Idol, Guns 'N Roses, Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden.
Watching: Footage.
Reading: Things I can't tell you about because I signed a confidentiality agreement.
Wearing: Pajama bottoms and a t-shirt that says "Fuck this and fuck that" which I can only wear when I'm at home
Wanting: To make sure that my flight takes off ontime and that I actually have a seat on it!

+ Liz

Listening: my pal James's Christmas mix, which includes such goodness as "My Santa Daddy" by Kay Martin, "Feliz Navi-Nada" by El Vez, and "The Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come" by The Church
Watching: Flight of the Conchords, Gone Baby Gone
Reading: a bunch of stories from Burning Your Boats by Angela Carter and Grimm's Fairy Tales
Wearing: I already told you! Also, I like my new Van Halen shirt a lot.
Wanting: for my hair to always look the way it does after my hair dude straightens it. I also want a copy of David Lee Roth's Crazy from the Heat (the memoir, not the album), and a bottle of Demeter's Reese's Peanut Butter Cup perfume (not to actually wear - supposedly it smells like "burning plastic and breakfast sausage coated in Ovaltine," according to Scrangie - but because I find the Reese's logo really aesthetically pleasing and would be happy to see it on my bathroom shelf everyday), and maybe a bottle of the Dots perfume as well.

(Dudes, Van Halen just makes me gnash my teeth and go grrrrrrr!!!!!!)

Snapshot: Listening, Reading, Watching, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Um, the mix tape I wrote about for Heavy Rotation; Ladyhawke; Guns 'N Roses, Chinese Democracy; Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine. I think it's high-time to revisit the oeuvre of Trent Reznor.
Watching: Making my way through "Twin Peaks"; Juno, the latest episode of "Gossip Girl" (OMG, Chuck Bass ultimate emo, and what is up with that turtleneck sweater, Rufus? Poor Rufus and Lily!)
Reading: The "art" issue of Interview with Cate Blanchett on the cover
Wearing: My new favorite black jeans from Corpus (actually, they're not new, but I wear them now more than my trusty old J Brands), black silver-studded belt, this dove grey wool funnel-neck jacket from JCPenney (!!) that looks a little YSL F/W 2008-ish (it's kind of cocoon-y), crazy-high black ankle boots I got at Beacon's Closet.
Wanting: To be on a normal sleeping schedule like the rest of the world. It feels very isolating to be off-sync with everyone else sometimes.

+ Liz

Listening: PJ Harvey, White Chalk + Madonna Hard Candy. Those two titles look/sound hot together.
Watching: Flight of the Conchords (OK, I get it now! It's really funny!!!); Gossip Girl (and I'm really proud of myself for being able to guess the secret about Lily and Rufus. Seriously, this is probably only the second time I've ever "guessed the secret," the first being season 2 of Veronica Mars. I'm really bad at guessing secrets.)
Reading: I'm jumping back and forth between Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction in a really haphazard manner at the moment. It's borderline reckless, really. The literary police should arrest me.
Wearing: I just discovered that my Lakers t-shirt looks pretty great with my new-ish cardigan, so that's nice.
Wanting: for James Franco to win the Golden Globe for Pineapple Express! I'm so happy he got nominated; that was so my favorite performance of the year. (Sorry, H.L.: I still love you best.)

+ Laura Jane

Listening:Helium, The Magic City; "Louie, Louie"'; this weird mix I made myself of songs ranging from Madonna's "Hung Up" to "Brimful of Asha" to "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies. As far as mixes go, it's absolutely terrible.
Watching: Shamefully enough, last week I watched Samantha Ronson perform live in concert. God, Dirty December, why you gotta be SO damn dirty?
Reading: Shark Vs. Bear, but only cuz I'M ON IT; Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace (RIP, bro); I don't know- my e-mail?
Wearing: dirty hair; Kill City tie-dyed jeans (they are not exactly those; mine are way subtler and cooler); sundresses over black leotards and stockings; my sailor hat; lots of colour to kick winter blues
Wanting: THE PERFECT RED CARDIGAN. Can somebody help me with this?

Nine Inch Nails performing "Terrible Lie" in 1989! Dude, I saw this show in Chicago on the same tour and it was soooooo fun to yell "HATE GOD!" with about a million other people in a teeny tiny rock club. Oh, to be young and clueless again! (P.S. - Nice shorts, Trent.)

OMFG LJF FROM NGFM IS SO FABULOUS:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Ladyhawke, Shock Cinema, plus I found this awesome box of actual mix tapes during Thanksgiving break that I lugged back with me to NYC and am listening to pretty much all day. (Some of the tapes are from our own beloved Liz and Laura Jane!)
Watching: I'm debating on whether I want to go to a screening of The Wrestler tomorrow. I kind of would rather go see something lame like Four Christmases or something. I'm pretty fried.
Reading: The Keep by Jennifer Egan. The new issue of Domino!
Wearing: Geren Ford tunic tucked in as a shirt, J Brand skinny jeans, Miss Sixty Balenciaga ankle boot rip-offs. Dude, I love these boots so much.
Wanting: A shoulder rub. For like three hours.

+ Liz

Listening: Neil Young, Tonight's the Night; David Bowie, Low; The Velvet Underground, Loaded (all of which I bought used at my precious Newbury Comics last week). Plus At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash.
Watching: mostly just Gossip Girl. It's been a stressy week and only Chuck Bass can ease my soul.
Reading: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, and I'm re-reading Girl by Blake Nelson for about the 800th time (it's Kat's fault)
Wearing: like, winter pajamas and my American Apparel purple fleece-lined hoodie and fuzzy socks cuz my apartment is SO COLD
Wanting: for The State box set to come out, like, NOW! Big huge thanks to Ant for letting us know about it...

The opening theme to The State, which is the best opening theme there ever was. And lookit ickle baby Showalter! Although Ken Marino is so much more the man for me...

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The Raveonettes, Beauty Dies (if you thought that Lust Lust Lust was their Magnum Opus this year, you would be wrong. It is this EP and it is totally the sex and utter dark pop perfection); a 60s Motown girl group compilation mix CD that a dude gave me, although I lost the insert he made and I don't know what anything is!; "Science Fiction" by French Miami; "Heartbeat" and "Miles Away" by Madonna
Watching: The first season of "Twin Peaks"; Bolt (I enjoyed it, but my biggest complaint is cast John effin' Travolta as the voice of the dog. It just makes no sense); The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (it's not out yet, but it's pretty good in that "WE WANT OSCARS" way. But don't let that distract you; it's actually a bit heartbreaking. And it has both Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton in it, which is like Total Great Actress quotient dream fulfilled.) I saw Slumdog Millionaire, which is probably the most likeable film this year, although if you think about it for more than ten seconds, it kind of falls apart. And I did finally see Let the Right One In and it is pretty much my favorite movie this year. Legitimately great filmmaking, beautiful images, great screenplay, super-affecting and still SCARY SCARY SCARY. Oh, and my world is basically filled with a 2-year old and 8-year old that like to dominate my attention and laptop this Thanksgiving, so my niece and nephew are responsible for me watching lots of bits of "Yo Gabba Gabba" and Teletubbies. "Yo Gabba Gabba" is legitimately awesome, though: what other kids' show combines East Village 80s pop surrealism, mad moves, that whole Kid Robot aesthetic and insanely repetitive catchiness? I totally need MORE.
Reading: The Jennifer Aniston issue of Vogue; all my sister's back issues of Harper's Bazaar; Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Wearing:: I'm travelling lots at the moment and I'm kind of stuck with either J Brand or Corpus jeans with whatever is clean. I did pick up one of those Jonathan Saunders for Target t-shirts for $8, which is total yayville. Oh, and I just ordered a Daryl K dress from Revolve Clothing for $29 (!!!!) Dudes, use the code NOTCOTLOVESREVOLVE for an additional 25% off your order!!!!
Wanting: I'm pretty happy; I don't want anything. I just need to eke out some funds to buy my plane ticket home for Christmas and I'm SET.

+ Liz

Listening: stuff I downloaded from Napster onto my exboyfriend's computer 8 years ago, like "Moonchild" by King Crimson and "Camel Walk" by Southern Culture on the Skids and "Volcano Girl" by Veruca Salt and a few other songs you probably downloaded from Napster onto your exboyfriend's computer 8 years ago too
Watching: Madagascar 2; The Dark Knight again; The Hills; Gossip Girl; the first third of Wayne's World, which remains awesome as ever
Reading: Boston newspapers
Wearing: my sister's pajama bottoms and my stepdad's 20-year-old Southside Johnny shirt that I plan to steal sometime soon
Wanting: cardiovascular exercise, a massage, warmth

+ Laura Jane

Listening: The Great! Society, Conspicuous Only in its Absence; The Slits, Cut; The Zombies, Begin Here; The Kinks, "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?"
Watching: Not counting the DYLSTLJ? quadrilogy, I haven't watched anything in AGES. As such, I am going to change the "watching" category of my this week's Snapshot to "eating". In that case... remember when I investigated the best and worst of Toronto Thai food? At that point in my life, I had not yet eaten at EAST!, the greatest Thai restaurant in the history of all mankind. I now live across the street from it, and am probably going to go broke from getting takeout there every night. The green curry with tofu & veg and sticky in place of steamed rice is quite possibly the best non-sweet meal I've ever eaten.
Reading: Don Juan's Reckless Daugher; crossword puzzles; me stupid; me no know nothing
Wearing: Natural Comfort wedges; my red merino "L" sweater; green ruffly Topshop minidress over pure-blue stockings; corduroy Richard Chai for Target walking shorts over black stockings; Cardigan #4; hella fedoras
Wanting: All I want in the entire Universe, besides all the things I actually want, is a pair of MISS SIXTY RADIO JEANS. Actually, if I'm going to be logical about this, what I want is for it to be next Thursday so that I can get paid and go buy them. Even more, I want it to be next Friday, so that it can be LJ Premieres her MSRJs Day. Oh, wouldn't it be nice?

l to r: EAST!; Miss Sixty Radio Hotstuffs; Some Kinks shit:

The near-legendary "Party in my Tummy" song from "Yo Gabba Gabba":

The "Moonchild" tap-dance scene from Buffalo 66:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Boris; the Walkmen; Beach House, Devotion still
Watching: Dudes, I'm going to watch Slumdog Millionaire AND Let the Right One In tonight and report back to you this weekend. I am SO EXCITED to see this Swedish vampire movie/pre-teen romance, it will hella better than Twilight.
Reading: Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America by Ann Powers; The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead again; I read it so fast the first time I wanted to re-read it again and really appreciate it. Restores my faith in contemporary American fiction.
Wearing: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Balenciaga dress; leggings; motorcycle boots; winter coat. BRING IT ON.
Wanting: I get to go home soon! I don't want nothin' else!

+ Liz

Listening: Ever since watching the fourth episode of Gossip Girl season 2, all I do is listen to "Shove It" by Santogold and daydream that I'm the music supervisor responsible for this genius little moment.
Watching: Mad Men; Steel Magnolias; Gossip Girl; Point Break
Reading: the new Rolling Stone & Spin & Elle and this brilliant Topless Robot post on the 8 Most Underrated Muppets
Wearing: I have this really fantastic dream outfit all worked out in my head, but I'm missing three of the key elements, but I'm on a clothes-shopping fast right now and it's all very frustrating and I don't want to talk about it.
Wanting: for my car not to be stolen anymore

Fraggle Rock's Uncle Traveling Matt, the eighth most underrated Muppet of all time:

The trailer for Let the Right One In:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Crystal Stilts, Alight of Night; Throwing Muses, The Real Ramona; Unwound, Fake Train; The Raveonettes, Beauty Dies
Watching: Neil Young: Heart of Gold; Sex and the City: The Movie (finally; I dunno, man, I'm glad I waited for it on DVD, I think I'm over the eternal child-woman that is Carrie Bradshaw); The Palm Beach Story (LOVE Preston Sturges, and LOVE Claudette Colbert. People always compare Sturges with Wes Anderson, but Sturges is so much more of a nimble filmmaker); Linda Linda Linda (AWESOME. SEE IT. YOU WILL LOVE IT. How can you not love a movie about a group of Japanese schoolgirls who start a band? It's the best thing ever!)
Reading: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankel (intense, man, but very good); My Blue Notebooks by Liane de Pougy (essentially the diary of a courtesan at turn-of-the-century France, and it is incredibly smart and hella salacious.) Oh, and I finished The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead. Dudes, the Jonathans (Lethem, Safran Foer, Franzen) have nothing on Whitehead. This guy ROCKS: funny, unexpected, clever but with real intellectual chops and not hung up on proving his dudeness. AND he's won a MacArthur.
Wearing: Royal blue Lyell top, old H&H cardigan, these wide-legged jeans I got from a mall in New Jersey, Miss Sixty rip-off Balenciaga ankle boots
Wanting: I am debating whether I should buy new window sheers or not. I just want to redecorate my room, but I'm wondering if this is a symptom of some other psychological urge. Oh, and I can't wait to CUT MY HAIR.

+ Liz

Listening: a lot of David Bowie
Watching: Jennifer Aniston on 30 Rock! Love her!! Plus Road House, which was way grosser than I expected. And Say Anything with commentary by Cameron Crowe, John Cusack, and Ione Skye.
Reading: my own amazing Magnum Opus. God, I'm so amazing.
Wearing: my new purple-ish grey C & C California organic-cotton tank dress that's so soft and snuggly and everything else everyone always says about organic cotton. It's so snuggly it's snoogly. It snoogles me.
Wanting: a Macadamia Coconut Rum Banana brownie, and a Butterfinger brownie, and a Joyful Almond brownie, and a Dark Chocolate Snickers Brownie, and a Southern Comfort Spicy Pecan brownie - all made by some dude named Randy

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Remember by the Fiery Furnaces; Julian Cope; Kevin Ayers; SF Sorrow by the Pretty Things; Message to a Harlequin by Tim Hollier (totes awesome psoft-psych); MIKA!!!- I'm a little late on the uptake. Dude's a GENIUS!
Watching: Sweeney Todd, which sucked; Smiley Face (by the way, this link is to a post Liz Barker wrote about Smiley Face, not just shitty IMDB or something)- obvs the best movie ever, except for the fact that I kind of think I should have played Anna Faris' role. Not that Anna Faris did a bad job by any means, I just think I could have done it a tad better. Also: the episode of Entourage where they take mushrooms! Oh my God! Could there BE an episode of Entourage more ideally-suited to my needs? The Ari Gold-and-Lloyd freak-out convo was, um, GOLD. By the way, there is a dude at my work who I recently learned can do a spot-on Ari Gold impression. Could my life rule any harder if it tried?
Reading: This totally brilliant new article by my second-favorite writer of all time. First place goes to me, by the way. We're all really self-involved over here.
Wearing: The best outfit I wore this week was my Incredible String Band hat with my cream crocheted minidress from H&M for babies and my Big Fat Leather Belt and my long camel cardigan and light brown cable-knit stockings and brown Gentle Souls stacked-heel Beatle boots. God! My post-UFC style is so off the chain that the chain just fell apart and broke.
Wanting: The Beatles are coming to a video game console near ME? Sign me up, bitches.

The most obviously killer scene from Smiley Face, which Liz Barker posted about, like, a freaking year ago. I am so lame compared to her.

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The new Gang Gang Dance record (it's really good); No Age, Nouns; all those reggae songs about Barack Obama (practically a sub-genre)
Watching: I caught the fantastic Catherine Opie exhibition at the Guggenheim; Happy-Go-Lucky (very charming movie);
Reading: The Soul's Code, James Hillman; The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead (this book is FUCKING FANTASTIC; why did it take me so long to get into Colson Whitehead? And did you read his op-ed in the New York Times? Hilarious.)
Wearing: An oversized Beau Soleil grey sweatshirt dress; black Sworn Virgins leggings; a buffalo plaid scarf; cowboy boots
Wanting: REPEAL PROP 8 IN CALIFORNIA

+ Liz

Listening: Freak Illness Your Fellow American's Election Selection, with a few more victory songs added in, including "I Just Want to Celebrate" by Rare Earth and the epic last 90 seconds of "Play Your Part (Pt. 2)" by Girl Talk. (KEEP YOUR HEART; PLAY YOUR PART.)
Watching: Gossip Girl, Marie Antoinette
Reading: election commentary, like this piece in which Salon asked many thinky-type people to tell them - in just one sentence - what Obama's victory means
Wearing: yoga pants + jet-black furry slippers + my Camp Alottafun t-shirt + BANGS
Wanting: the same thing Kat wants. Plus more of my "victory meal," which was Real Food Daily's Real Food Meal (brown rice, red beans, greens, autumn vegetables, pressed salad, and peanut sauce) + an Earl Grey tea with soymilk & honey from Le Pain Quotidien + the most to-die-for raisin oatmeal cookie from 3 Square Bakery in Venice.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Martha & the Vandellas; Drag City & "Norwegian Wood" by Jan and Dean; Turquoise, the best rip-off-y Kinks band EVER
Watching: Our recent psychoanalytical Andy Samberg-fest motivated me to see what dude's deal really is. I don't know, but shit: Ras Trent is REALLY FUNNY.
Reading: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max, which is vapid and disgusting but easy to read on the train; Sage Astrology; Male-Mode: the Too Dude For You of blogs; the new issue of British Vogue, which is boring, though at least Kate Moss looks hot on the cover of it. (Really, Laura? Kate Moss looks hot? WEIRD!)
Wearing: A really good hair week; black Gentle Souls stacked-heel Beatles boots: so comfortable I could die! I've never been able to wear heels before! I love Gentle Souls! ALSO: Whatever the Helen Keller I want! OMG post-UFC life is so good!
Wanting: For Kat, Liz and I to all wear matching Dahl & Dane t-shirts that read I HEART NGFM.

Surf City by Jan and Dean: Whoa! 1963! SO MIND-BLOWINGLY OLD-TIMEY!

Watch an entire Girl Talk show online (it's Friday!):

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Neil Young, After the Gold Rush; The Dead C, Harsh 70s Reality; Moss Icon, Lyburnum (people are always like "Slint! Slint!" but Moss Icon were mining that same vein at the time as well, although in a screamier way); lots of random songs
Watching: "Gossip Girl"; Margot After the Wedding (really good, reminds me of old Louis Malle or Eric Rohmer films); Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (super-cute, although in honesty it's no John Hughes film -- for one thing, a John Hughes film has less mediocre music)
Reading: Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen, Influence (actually a nice collection of interviews. For real, how did they score a frickin' Richard Prince interview?); Harvard Business Review; the new issue of ELLE
Wearing: A black Erin Fetherston for Target dress, a wide leather belt, black Sworn Virgins leggings, gladiator sandals.
Wanting: OBAMA FOR PREZ. PLEASE GOD. I BEG YOU.

+ Liz

Listening: John Frusciante, The Will to Death; Neil Young, Comes a Time; The Death Set; King Khan
Watching: Gossip Girl; It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Reading: finishing up Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott
Wearing: my totally cute new organic-cotton C & C California tank top with a lovely little ocean scene painted across the front, plus my new Jay-Z jeans and duh trusty old cowboy boots
Wanting: I want to have a very happy election night. And I want more people to greet me just like that random painter dude on the street did yesterday, which is by piping out a chipper-yet-genuine "Hi-ho!" (And no, there was no comma between the two syllables, like: "Hi, you crazy ho!" HE TOTALLY MEANT IT LIKE THE SEVEN DWARVES.) And I also want to go back in time eight days so I can see the goddamn original lineup of Jane's Addiction play a show at La Cita. How could this have happened? Why didn't you tell me?????????

+ Laura Jane

Listening: "Laura of Arabia" by Ver Sacrum
Watching: A Harry Nilsson documentary on Youtube
Reading: Last night on the train home, I read an issue of Life & Style; I learned all about the feud presently taking place between Carrie Underwood and Jessica Simpson. Carrie Underwood called Jessica Simpson fat, which is totally bitchy and uncalled for, but then Jessica Simpson took the bait and wore a t-shirt that said "Real women eat meat," an obvious dig at Underwood's longtime vegetarianism. I'm on nobody's side.
Wearing: My "slutty cat" Halloween costume, which nobody can tell is a Halloween costume.
Wanting: It is perfect gorgeous weather out today; I'd like for it to stay like this and not turn to winter. I also wish that Snickers bars would be vegan, or that some healthy/organic candy company could make an exact vegan replica of a Snickers bar. Maybe that's what I should do with my life! All problems SOLVED.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE OLSEN TWINS:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: I recently made a six-volume mix CD anthology of EVERY SONG I HAVE EVER LOVED IN AN ENDURING AND NON-IRONIC WAY. It's really the most genius, epic thing I've ever done, and has involved herculean efforts like hunting down hardcore tracks formerly available only on vinyl on record labels run by kids out of their dorm rooms in, like, 1995. Now my goal is to make a movie that will match this masterpiece of a soundtrack.
Watching: My nonthesis film. Over and over again. I hate it so hard, I can't even tell you, yet somehow I keep watching and watching it hoping to find the magic edit that will make it all happen. Oh, and I watched "Gossip Girl" and Beau Travail, the most beautiful film in the world by Claire Denis.
Reading: I've oddly been in a non-reading mood lately. I like things to be tactile, or I like to engage with processes that use my hands, mostly because I find myself on the computer a lot lately and it's sucking my soul. But I am reading the November issue of VOGUE, which I still hate as a magazine and fashion institution -- but there's always one article in there that interests me, and this issue I like reading about art curator Louise Neri's shopping decisions, mostly because she's an innately cool, inteligent woman. I would like to have read more on her curatorial decisions, but whatever, it's VOGUE. And I'm still dipping in and out of Balzac's Lost Illusions. (The book is nearly 700 pages. It's a lot to take on!) Balzac novels = the first soap opera ever? Discuss.
Wearing: For a visual, refer to my Superlative this week. I really wear that shit! SUPERLATIVE IS REAL.
Wanting: Someone to tell me my nonthesis film is done. Please. Now?

+ Liz

Listening: Ever since seeing Patti Smith for the eighth time last Saturday, I'm listening to a lot of Patti Smith (especially Twelve, her covers record). Also: Girl Talk, Feed the Animals; Neil Young, On the Beach; The Strokes & Kings of Leon ("This sex is on fire" is the dumbest lyric ever, but that song kind of owns me right now).
Watching: The Daily Show every morning & Gossip Girl & this week's episode of The Office which, awesomely, did not suck.
Reading: Earlier this week I had ideas that I might, as Sookie Sapperstein would say, "dip into some Rilke." But that didn't last too long so now I'm reading Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lammott and rereading Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. And New York's feature on product integration in television is grrrrrreat and really unnerving.
Wearing: dresses, again. I'm bored with this section; maybe I'll start replacing it with "Wishing" or "Wondering" or some other "W" verb. "Wading Into"? "Walking Off With"? "Whipping Up"? "Whisking Away"? "Wising Up On"?
Wanting: Tomorrow night I'm going to see Girl Talk; I want that to happen RIGHT NOW.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: The Electric Prunes; "Ms. Fat Booty" by Mos Def when I'm walking to work to pump myself up; Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, The Firstborn is Dead; Buffy Sainte-Marie; Neil Young, "Cinnamon Girl"; the first Electric Light Orchestra album; there was a time in my life when I listened to cool music but that time is not now
Watching: Too fab to watch shit
Reading: The New York Times, but generally still too busy being fab to read shit
Wearing: The crappiest, ugliest, dirtiest, stained-est, most aggravating and low-self esteem-inducing dregs of my wardrobe
Wanting: For winter to never arrive; for there to be better Mexican food in Toronto; to live on a beach in Mexico and drink sangria and eat guacamole all day (I am about 95% sure I have included that sentiment in the "wanting" portion of a Snapshot before, which means it must be true, and also it addresses both other components of my this week's "wanting", so it's actually really relevant and smart of me to include it for a second time)

"10538 Overture" by Electric Light Orchestra; this is one of my most watched Youtube videos of all time, yet I still cannot remember the order of the numbers in the song's title:

The main reason I mentioned that New York article was so I could post this 30 Rock clip of Jack Donaghy doing his brilliantly awful product intergortion integration video:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Crime and the City Solution, Shine
Watching: Synedoche, New York, the new Charlie Kaufman film. It's ambitious, has some great performances, and really lingers with you, but it's so unwieldy of a film and there was just so much "fat" that needed to be trimmed that I found it a little agonizing to sit through.
Reading: Still reading Jennifer Egan's The Invisible Circus. It's fantastic; she's such a great writer.
Wearing: Right at this second: J Brand skinny jeans, black Vera Wang t-shirt, vintage navy blue boys' jacket, rip-off Balenciaga boots that I will probably change to ballet flats later.
Wanting: I TOO WANT A MASSAGE.

+ Liz

Listening: Neil Young, Harvest Moon; talk radio
Watching: Gossip Girl; Rachel Getting Married
Reading: The Group still; the new Elle (which has a profile on Catherine Hardwicke, yay!!)
Wearing: crinkly turquoise empire-waist sleeveless dress + my new YSL lipstick that I love
Wanting: a 9-hour-long upper-back and shoulder massage followed by a 12-hour-long jaw massage

+ Laura Jane

Listening: John Lennon's Imagine outtakes; The Moon, From the Earth to the Moon; Mahler's Fifth on headphones; Paul Simon; George Harrison Beatles songs
Watching: Carmex lip balm; skylines; Jack Berger-era Sex and the City
Reading: The New York Times Friday crossword- I got, like, SIX clues! That is amazing and you should all be really proud of me.
Wearing: I underdressed for the weather today, so I went to Forever 21 and bought myself an orangey-red hooded vest with reindeers on it (totally Liz Barker Chic), which I am not wearing this exact second (because I am at a FedExKinko's and it is warm in here), but will be wearing momentarily. As per usual, BLOGGING HAPPENS IN REAL TIME, BITCHES.
Wanting: To not be in FedExKinko's anymore, or at very least for someone to come up to me in FedExKinko's and say "Whoa! Are you Laura Jane from nogoodforme.com writing your Snapshot in this FedExKinko's?" and I'll say "Yeah! Isn't that a trip?"

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Bjork, Medulla; Junior Boys, So This is Goodbye; Steven R. Smith, The Death of Last Year's Man. I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that the aforementioned Steven R. Smith is pretty much my all-time #1 music crush -- for reals, forever, 3 am eternal-style. I listened to his latest record as I drove through the Icelandic landscape at dawn and it was the one of the most intensely beautiful experiences of my life. It felt like being in the land that time forgot. Such a rare feeling these days.
Watching: On Icelandair the movies are unfortunately un-free, but they have a tv comedies channel that is. So all I got to watch were episodes of The Simpsons" (still pretty funny) and "Malcolm in the Middle." (Whatever happened to Frankie Muniz? Is he having his post-child star meltdown yet? And does anyone think he could be Lindsay Lohan's little brother? They have similar weird scratchy voices.) I got to attend the Reykjavik International Film Festival, and while I saw many fine films, the one that stays with me the most is a film from Kazakhstan called Tulpan, which won the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this year. It's so good: really warm, funny and visually astonishing, and the performances are so good and unaffected. It also has lots of incredible animal cameos, and a super-adorable Kazakh toddler that kind of steals every scene he's in. The film has such life and energy that even when the story lags, you're still so interested. Very good use of camels, too.
Reading: The issue of NYLON with Zooey Deschanel on the cover, the issue of Domino with Kelly Wearstler on the cover and I'm starting Jennifer Egan's The Invisible Circus.
Wearing: Sweaters, sweaters, sweaters. They really work.
Wanting: To go back to Reykjavik, eat some of the lobster soup by the harbor and have tea and write all day in one of the city's many, many cafes. Perfect!

+ Liz

Listening: Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue; Sleater-Kinney, The Woods; The Fiery Furnaces, Gallowsbird's Bark
Watching: Stardust Memories; Michael Clayton; the first half of the "Family Guy" episode where Peter won't stop singing "Surfin' Bird" Reading: The Group by Mary McCarthy; the 40th anniversary of New York (soooo killer, especially that Jay McInerney piece on "the rise of the yuppie"); "John McCain: Make-Believe Maverick"
Wearing: my new Obama shirt. And shorts. And shoes.
Wanting: skirts, dresses, textured tights, etc.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: I just listened to "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe about thirteen consecutive times. I've also been listening to "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison a lot, only pretending he is singing "My Sweet Laura," and that his love for me is so intense that it sends him into a state of religious fervor.
Watching: I watched Barack Rock and saw some bands play there. One of the bands I saw there was the Fiery Furnaces. If I could describe my opinions about the Fiery Furnaces in one word, it would probably be "indifferent". HEAVY SARCASM. Also, last night I dreamed I met Paul McCartney! So I "watched" that, too, kind of.
Reading: I'm too fabulous to read.
Wearing: Not a Barack Rock t-shirt; pants- not so often!; my beautiful Tadaaki Wakamatsu tropical ice cream ring, which I recently bought myself as a "Don't kill yourself because the Ultimate Fashion Challenge is cramping your style!" present.
Wanting: I am generally satisfied with the State of the Union of my life right now. This is new for me. I'm not used to it. I don't want to be jinxy and ask for too much right now, but something I would really like would be to have my own reality show where I'd shadow different celebrities for a week and try to learn lessons from them. Some celebrities I would like to shadow are: Michael Stipe, Sandi "Pepa" Denton, Lauren Bacall, Tucker Carlson, and Dr. Phil.

Kat loves Steven R. Smith, nyah nah nah nah nah:

MY SWEET GEORGE:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: John Fahey, The Best of John Fahey, 1959-1977; Neil Young, After the Gold Rush; The Child Ballads, Cheekbone Hollows; Junior Boys, So This is Goodbye; Unwound, The Future of What; The Clash, EVERYTHING; Various Artists, Rough Trade Shops: Post-Punk Vol 01
Watching: The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Margot at the Wedding
Reading: The October issue of ELLE; This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald; the latest issue of Lula
Wearing: My new favorite outfit is a slight variation on my uniform when I was half my age: grey denim cutoffs worn over black tights, tan Frye boots, a nearly two decades-old Depeche Mode t-shirt, vintage navy blue boys jacket. Back in 1992 I would have worn it with combat boots and a grunge-y cardigan. Things change, I supposed, but the song remains the same.
Wanting: By the time you read this, I'll be in Reykjavik, so I want for nothing!

+ Liz

Listening: Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue; Fleetwood Mac, Mirage; R.E.M., Out of Time; Jolie Holland, The Living and the Dead
Watching: The Last Picture Show & the debates. And on the plane to Florida yesterday I watched Baby Mama & "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" & some weird VH1 special about Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist.
Reading: The God of Small Things still
Wearing: my new cobalt-blue Krisa dress that's really hard to explain (but it's lovely!!)
Wanting: to be Paris Hilton's new BFF. Oops, I mean Michael Cera's.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Really atypical stuff this week: Berlioz, Dies Irae; Mahler's Fifth, Sharleen Spiteri's totally lame new album that is catchy and, I suppose, my latest "guilty pleasure"- though, like Chuck "Chuckeroo Klosteroo" Klosterman, I generally do not believe in guilty pleasures; Kid Creole; Mazzy Star; Nouvelle Vague's cover of Making Plans for Nigel by XTC (it makes me cry kind of)
Watching: The season premiere of Dexter; Entourage religiously; Nick Cave LIVE, which was mind-blowing. How the Helen Keller can a) a human being be THAT charismatic? and b) a 51-year-old exert so much energy? I think Nick Cave benefits from "Keith Richards Syndrome"- treating your body like such horrible shit that you become kind of invincible or something.
Reading: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Katie DiCamillo, which is lovely (and about a bunny, no less!); The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard, which is a really tough read & necessitated that I cut my reading it with a lovely children's book about a bunny; the British Issue of UK Harper's Bazaar, which is as generally boring to me as every other single fashion magazine in the world (I way prefer nogoodforme.com) except for that it has a really sweet picture of Stella McCartney resting her chin on Ringo Starr's shoulder, which cutes me out like you would not believe.
Wearing: I'm having a fun week. I like clothes.
Wanting: For Blue Area Cashmere to manufacture this sweater-dress thing with a picture of Yoko Ono or Betty Davis or pretty much anyone less lame or overdone than freaking Twiggy on it.

Hi Nick Cave! You're sexy; I'm desperate. Could the stars be more aligned in our favor if they tried?:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Ratatat, Junior Boys, Lil Wayne, Augustus Pablo, Goldfrapp, Psychic Ills, the Child Ballads
Watching: La Jetee/Sans Soleil (dir. Chris Marker); this week's episode of "Gossip Girl," which brings things back to the bitcheries of high school. Thank God! Clearly the show needs the strict social structures of high school in which to frame its melodrama. I was beginning to get worried there for a moment. Although, come on, man -- let's get Little J something more interesting than intern dronehood as a storyline.
Reading: Paint It Black by Janet Fitch, which is a really great lbook to read on a lazy afternoon post-hangover. It's got semi-trashy but beautifully written, featuring suicide, drugs, punk, doomed love and all kinds of sex: mindless sex, sad sex, great sex and really icky sex. Fitch's books always make L.A. seem like this darkly glamorous place. If I were to do my own Ultimate Fashion Challenge, I'd recreate some of main character's Josie Tyrrell's glam-punk outfits. But I'm not a skinny-teeny bleached blonde, so I'm not so sure it'd work. Plus I sold about 1/3 of my wardrobe yesterday, so I have no clothes!
Wearing: My post-Spirit Animal House sartorial treat for myself was getting a Camilla Norrback shirtdress, which I wear with my leggings, slouchy brown suede ankle wedge boots and a Velvet cardigan. Riveting, right? The Velvet Marni cardigan is genius, though -- clearly the best thing in my wardrobe right now.
Wanting: I'm going to be in REYKJAVIK, ICELAND next week! I gotta get a guide book or something!

+ Liz

Listening: Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue; Giant Drag, Hearts and Unicorns; High Places, High Places; The Darjeeling Limited soundtrack
Watching: The Darjeeling Limited; The Namesake (OMG, I'm in love with Kal Penn as teenage Gogol, especially when he's thrashing around to Pearl Jam in his bedroom); WarGames for the first time in about 15 years (it's still so good!); Fred & Sharon's "Who Needs a Movie?"
Reading: The God of Small Things; October Vogue & Nylon
Wearing: I'm keeping up with my wear-summery-dresses-all-the-time-till-there-ain't-no-summer-no-more plan, and the other day when I had on my most boring black frock a man at Nature Mart told me I looked like "a princess in a Ukrainian fairy tale," which seems like a good personal fashion concept to run with from now on
Wanting: a cerulean-blue cardigan, still! Oh and I found a photo of a very stressed-looking 18-year-old me wearing my long-lost Kurt Loder sweater; here it is (and please note that I've got a PHISH SHIRT on underneath - good lord!!).

+ Laura Jane

Listening: George Gershwin; Dolly Parton; The Arrows; My Bloody Valentine, Loveless (I skipped their stupid fifty-dollar concert at a hockey arena last night and feel oddly guilty about it, so I've been listening to lots of Loveless to as cosmic compensation); John Cale, Vintage Violence (which would be a really lame album title in 2008, but is a really good album title for 1970); Faust IV (this is the majority of what I listen to right now; Faust IV, that is. It covers all the bases. I especially love Faust because their band name sounds like my last name. Cool!)
Watching: 9 to 5, the greatest movie of all time; Son of Rambow, the second-greatest movie of all time (watching wee British boys decked out in scrappy-militia-chic really kicked my maternal instinct into full effect. I WANT TO HOLD THEM) Oh yeah, and Ed Westwick is a genius, not to mention dead sexy.
Reading: Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman, which is as entertaining & hilarious & addictive as everything else Chuck Klosterman ever wrote. A+, Chuckeroo! I don't know if anybody else ever does this, but sometimes when I read books I imagine that they will in the future be made into a Major Motion Picture starring me as the female lead, and I'd be a really great actress (which is weird, because I don't want to be an actress at all. I'm just egocentric)
Wearing: NARS Jungle Red lipstick: this week has been the first time I've ever worn red lipstick in my life (I required it to better articulate a UFC Week 8 concept). To everybody I ever aggressively contested when you told me red lipstick would look good on me: I WAS WRONG, OKAY??? It happens sometimes.
Wanting: Either for the UFC to be over, or for the UFC to never be over. I can't figure out which. If it was over, I could go shopping, which would rule. But at the same time, it's been going on for so long I can't imagine a life without it.

Here is a video in German about Faust. This one's for the dudes, Dudes:

"Who Needs a Movie?" (My favorite is the witch!!)

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Palms, It's Midnight In Honolulu; Bjork, Vespertine; Helium, Pirate Prude; PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Watching: This week's episode of "Gossip Girl," which was simultaneously weak and awesome. It was weak because the whole Dan-Serena thing is lame and watching them deal with their relationship "drama" is lame. Um, unresolved class issues are their problem? For real, and NOT Dan almost-sleeping with Georgina and Serena constantly lying? Whatevs. But the episode was also awesome because of those creepy yet entertaining tweens in the park confronting Dan and Serena about getting back together. At first I thought it was some really weird dream sequence, that's how bizarre the whole exchange was. And the whole Blair-Chuck thing is still kind of hot. And I also went to a screening of The Duchess, which I enjoyed heartily and found pretty engrossing. I always have issues with most "bio-pics" because the scripts always feel so "connect the dots" instead going into any real depth of the character, and this particular film suffers from some of this. But it's got great costumes and makeup and beautiful settings, and I have to say, this is the first time I have ever enjoyed Keira Knightley in a movie -- she's pretty good and heartbreaking at all the right points. And Ralph Fiennes is great in the role of a cold, remote dude who throws his weight around and dominates, but still feels kind of bad about it. That man is just a superb actor; it's uncanny how truly great he is, and what he does with such a character of seemingly limited emotional horizons and make it seem rich and complex.
Reading: Still pegging away at Balzac. But I did finish Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs on the plane coming back from San Francisco. You want to know how to be left alone on a flight? Laugh out loud at something to yourself.
Wearing: A Rogan t-shirt and really old Seven jeans.
Wanting: A new jacket for fall. I'm thinking this one from my new secret favorite store.

+ Liz

Listening: The Rolling Stones, Their Satanic Majesties Request; Joanna Newsom, Ys; The Beatles, Revolver
Watching: The Simpsons Movie (and "In every marriage you get one chance to say: I need you to do this with me" is now my favorite line of movie dialogue ever, or at least this week). I've also been watching The Daily Show on Hulu at breakfast every morning, 'cause Jon Stewart is so comforting even as the news increasingly horrifies me.
Reading: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (lovelovelovelovelovelove); the JLo issue of Elle; the comedy issue of Rolling Stone, which should've been great but instead it's really half-assed and disappointing
Wearing: dresses, lots and lots of dresses
Wanting: a massage, plus many things from the Built By Wendy's latest collection (though I'll probably restrict myself to one item at the most when I head to the fall shopping party tomorrow morning)

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Bridget St John, Ask Me No Questions (if you like Vashti Bunyan, you'll LOVE Bridget St John); Thurston Moore, Psychic Hearts; Faust IV; Amon Duul II, Yeti; The Fiery Furnaces, "Wolfnotes"; RAM
Watching: Mr Holland's Opus, the lamest movie in the history of the Universe (the word 'lamest' in that sentence could just as easily read 'awesomest'); my local news; Friends
Reading: Daddy Likey; magic spells that keep you from growing up (Here is my favorite: Know all the questions but never the answers/Look for the different instead of the same/Never walk where there's room for running/Don't do anything that isn't a game!)
Wearing: stuff
Wanting: this sweetie-pie plaid Gap dress; electric-y blue Monrow motorcycle jacket that Rachel Bilson is wearing in US Weekly: I think it's totally genius (well, maybe just sort of smart) to make a motorcycle jacket in cotton. All the badass hotness of the silhouette, but none of the dead animal flesh!

Rachel Bilson wearing Laura's jacket; the cutest Gap dress I've seen in years:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Fleet Foxes, Madonna, Violens, Fight Bite
Watching: The Darjeeling Limited; the latest episode of "Gossip Girl," (I still don't get Chuck's hair -- was it to separate him a bit from his real true love, Nate Archibald? I don't know...); I'm Not There (Cate Blanchett's performance kind of gets more and more obsession-producing with each viewing)
Reading: Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman; Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac. For a book that was picked up on the reasoning of, "Oh, I suppose I should read some Balzac in my life," it's pretty awesome!
Wearing: Sweaters! Jeans! Boots! Jackets! Fall is here (for now!)
Wanting: The weather to stay like this FOREVERRRRRRR....

+ Liz

Listening: "fall music," such as Ys by Joanna Newsom, Mountains by Mary Timony & Moon Pix by Cat Power
Watching: I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall for the third time on my flight from Long Beach to JFK last week and did not love it as much when I saw it in the theater, but Jason Segel's self-hating piano song is still one of my 10 favorite things to happen so far in 2008
Reading: still working my way through Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation
Wearing: I'm spending the weekend at my parents' cottage in Maine; WHO CARES???? (But I will tell you that the yellow Pink Floyd tee looks pretty great with my Grimace-purple hoodie)
Wanting: for "What's your spirit animal?" to become the Hot New Pick-Up line (someone tried this one on me at the party the other night, and it didn't work, but I was charmed)

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Remember by the Fiery Furnaces (it's really perfect for having quietly on in the background while I slave away over UFC-collaging); Back to the Story by the Idle Race (who are sort of the second-greatest band of the sixties, but I don't really believe that because the Kinks are, but playing third-banana to the Beatles and the Kinks isn't too bad, now, is it?)
Watching: Friends; this incredibly offensive and barf-worthy "cycle" of America's Next Top Model; the first episode of Season Five of Entourage- why do Entourage episodes have to be so short? It should be an hour. And approximately 78% of said hour should be devoted to Ari Gold and Lloyd's relationship.
Reading: The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder; the Zac Efron article in Teen Vogue (he is SUCH a great guy!)
Wearing: My amazing, gorgeous, amazingly functional, and VEGAN Stella McCartney for Le Sportsac canteen bag, which was my "Congratulations on being cool and rocking Spirit Animal House, Laura Jane" present to myself. Thanks, Laura Jane. You're too generous.
Wanting: I want to get to see Kat & Liz every day, to move to Los Angeles, and to sit in my Los Angeles apartment in my Spirit Animal of Chairs, which is a Wiener Werkstatte-era babelicious beauty that nearly reduced me to chair-tears when I saw it at my recuperative post-Spirit Animal House jaunt to the Met on Wednesday.

Some of my favorite bits from Cate Blanchett's performance in "I'm Not There" (there's also a fine little bit from David Cross playing Allen effin' Ginsberg):

Jason Segel playing piano so tragically and stealing my heart over and over again - I LOVE YOU JASON SEGEL:

The Kolomon Moser & Josef Hoffmann-designed chair that knocked LJ's socks off at the Metropolitan Museum of Art two days ago:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Blonde Redhead, Misery is a Butterfly; "Tape Song" by the Kills; some random tracks from Dub is a Weapon; Speck Mountain, Summer Above; just the usual random stuff. And I also think our Heavy Rotation jukebox this week is especially fun and very us.
Watching: Over Labor Day weekend I recovered from a hellish week by watching the entire third season of "Weeds", which was quite a whirlwind. That Nancy Botwin, man, she's a fluttery thug; the season premiere of "Gossip Girl," which made me fear for a Dan-Serena rapproachment. Is it just me, or are they the more boringest couple ever? Real-life couples should never play couples on t.v. Also, I have been abusing the Netflix "instant viewing" feature -- it's better than late-night cable! I've re-watched Threesome and Breathless and made it through half of Suburban Girl through this.
Reading: The September issue of ELLE, which rules ten times more than Vogue. It's nice to see their fashion content getting ten times better, which, being a total fan girl, I attribute to the promotion of ELLE editor Kate Lanphear to Style Director. Also, I'm reading Honore de Balzac's Lost Illusions, which is surprisingly really juicy in its allusive early 19th-century way. Balzac has a fixation on clothes and interiors, and his descriptions of outfits can get pretty astonishing, especially in regards to men's fashions at the time.
Wearing: Heat and humidity has returned to NYC, which completely sucks. I'm over summer, I just want it to go away. But the good thing is that I'm having a "summer dress last hurrah" right now.
Wanting: SPIRIT ANIMAL HOUSE night to come. Oh, and I want pictures of you for the nogoodforme-curated art show we are doing for October and November at the gallery at Clarabella. Come on, my budding starlets, don't hide your beauty! (By the way, the show up at Clarabella now features some g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s work by Seattle artist Marianne Goldin. Check it out if you are floating around on the Lower East Side.)

The flyer for the Marianne Goldin show:

+ Liz

Listening: that new Franz Ferdinand song; Stereolab, Emperor Tomato Ketchup; Radiohead, The Bends; Black Tambourine
Watching: I had food poisoning over Labor Day weekend and spent about four days in bed, during which time I watched all of the fourth season of Entourage and rewatched nearly a third of the entire series of Six Feet Under. Two hotness-centric observations made during the course of that delirium-inducing experience: (1) The unshaven, in-desperate-need-of-a-haircut, totally-losing-his-shit Nate Fisher at the end of SFU season 3 is definitely Peter Krause at his foxiest; (2) Although my lust for Billy Walsh pretty much completely repulses me, I look forward to addressing silly people as "fruit cup" as often as possible in the very near future.
Reading: Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller, but only the Carly Simon parts; CNN.com's Q & A with Dan Savage at the RNC
Wearing: my cute new Loomstate tee I got from Gilt Groupe, plus other things
Wanting: to see your cute little face at Spirit Animal House on Tuesday. I'm totally going to pinch your cheeks!

The repulsively lusty Billy Walsh:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The Walkmen, You & Me. I really, really love this record. It's dark and mysterious yet still kind of joyful. I almost feel bad neglecting my other records, because lately this is all that I listen to. I also have been listening to the Fiery Furnaces' Widow City lately, and I keep going back to my Boris records.
Watching: GOSSIP GIRL! Um, I can't wait for two things in my life: our Spirit Animal House party and the "Gossip Girl" season premiere. Seriously, there's gotta be some bar that's hosting some viewing night or something, because I want to be nursing a cocktail when it comes back on and I also don't want to the one person sitting in a room shrieking at Chuck's shenanigans. OMFG!!
Reading: I blasted my way through the entire Harry Potter series in about a week and guess what? I still cried at all the parts that I cried at before. I'm a wuss. I have also been reading Jennifer Egan's Emerald City. She's such an elegant writer, it's slightly intimidating. I really want her to do a nogoodforme.com interview, but I'm too shy to ask. I always imagine she'd get to our spirit animal question and just raise one perfectly arched eyebrow and then roll her eyes. But she's still a great writer, and she's always mentioning my hometown of Rockford, Illinois, all the time, which I love.
Wearing: It's so not hot outside anymore, which thrills me to pieces. So my most notable outfit this week witnesses the return of my skinny J Brand jeans. I also got this top from Armani Exchange on sale and have been wearing it tons. Sometimes I feel like Armani Exchange is my secret favorite store because there's always at least one killer item in there amidst all the somewhat Eurotrashiness that I love and wear for years and years and years and it's not crazy-expensive. And their stuff is always going on sale. Oh! And the Urban Outfitter sandals in black suede with the fringe that I got after Pitchfork Music Festival destroyed my favorite ballet flats. People, never wear ballet flats to a muddy, hot rock festival. What was I thinking?
Wanting: Being slightly insane, I took this lowly yet crazy documentary job and now I pretty much never sleep because I work a 16-hour day. So all I really want this Labor Day weekend is to have 20 hours of blissful, wonderful sleep. Each. Single. Day. Of. The. Weekend.

+ Liz

Listening: My two favorite songs right now are "Violet Hill" by Coldplay and the 8-and-a-half-minute version of "I Will Possess Your Heart" by Death Cab for Cutie. (This is odd, as I generally hate Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie. The only possible explanation has to do with how I've recently become addicted to Twizzlers after a lifetime of believing them to be the grossest things in the world, and so maybe my Twizzler love has turned the entire universe upside-down.) I'm also listening to Oracular Spectacular by MGMT.
Watching: Me and You and Everyone We Know; Pineapple Express for the third time (and I forgot to say this last week, but James Franco is so adorable it should be AGAINST THE LAW).
Reading: rereading Echo by Francesca Lia Block; the fashion issue of New York
Wearing: my favorite summer sundress, which I'd been "saving" all season but then I realized the other day that summer's nearly gone (waaaahhh...)
Wanting: a new bag, new jeans, many many Twizzlers

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Speck Mountain's Daytrotter sesh; Ver Sacrum songs that nobody has ever heard, but everybody will hear on SEPTEMBER NINTH; "We All Stand Together" by Paul McCartney, and some other bad Paul songs too
Watching: Now that the Olympics are over, I'm back to watching only nothing and Friends. Oh, and sometimes I watch Two and a Half Men reruns with my parents. Sorry, I'm totally failing at being a tastemaker right now.
Reading: From Russia with Love by Tara Bursey; Fashion for Writers (I can't believe we scored into having such a cool intern! You rule, Meggy! NOW GO GET ME A COFFEE)
Wearing: You know the drill.
Wanting: For YOU to win prizes, and for animals to be saved! I also want to be dating Ross Gellar, but whatever.

The Walkmen, "In the New Year" video, looking very "Nosferatu" there, boys:

Sir Paul indulging his weird English lameness to the absolute max:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Au (I was lucky enough to catch this band at Monkeytown a week or so back and they were really mesmerizing. Animal Collective fans, take note! They do the same drone-y, Americana-inflected psych type of thing. Although I thought Au were a bit more dynamic live than the times I've seen Animal Collective); The Walkmen, You and Me
Watching: Vicky Cristina Barcelona (I really liked it; I tried not to, but I really did, it's quite a charming film and most of the performances are excellent all-around and it's pretty funny)
Reading: I was so disappointed upon hearing that they delayed the Half-Blood Prince movie that I started reading all the books again.
Wearing: Just whatever, man...lots of jeans and pretty t-shirt-y kind of things.
Wanting: I'm going to Iceland in October! Does anyone know of cool fashion-y things to do in Reykjavik? Does anyone know of cool anything is Reykjavik? I'm sure there is no dearth...but tell me what I should know at kat ( at ) nogoodforme.com.

+ Liz

Listening: The Hospitals; Joy Division; Jaguar Love; the radio
Watching: Some Kind of Wonderful and A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. The latter is a perfect/unfortunate example of what happens you don't keep a close watch over your Netflix queue: I think I'd originally added it 'cause I was curious to see if it's really as bad as I remember from when I first saw it in 1988, and guess what? It's like 8 kazillion times worse, although the bit with Matthew Perry rubbing baby oil on the back of Ione Skye's upper thighs is kind of amusing. Moral of the story: Always trust your ten-year-old self!
Reading: the September issues of Vogue and Elle, the race issue of New York, one of the 85 copies of Fashion Rocks that have arrived in my mailbox over the past week.
Wearing: these painters-pants-type shorts that are pale purple, with my stupid faux-vintage Pink Floyd shirt that I adore (it's hot-pink and yellow and completely distracts me from the fact that the only Pink Floyd song I've ever loved is "Jugband Blues," and maybe "Learning to Fly")
Wanting: tickets to see Neiler at The Forum in October!! Preferably the kind of tickets where Death Cab is not the opening act, if those are somehow available.

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Remember by the The Fiery Furnaces; The Kinks, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire); our best friends Speck Mountain; "Milk Shiek" by Lizzy Mercier Descloux; the endless chatter of Canadians justifying our poor Olympics performance; myself rehearsing Ver Sacrum songs while sitting in front of the computer and/or washing my hair; The Bee Gees, Horizontal
Watching: Friends; the Olympics; the terrific new installment of TOO GOOD FOR YOU: it's so good, it's even too good for me!
Reading: All the mean and ignorant reviews of Remember (Guess what? The Fiery Furnaces STILL don't sound like Natasha Bedingfield! Weird!); the shitbox hellhole we call US Vogue; Sonja Ahlers' blog and Sonja Ahlers' website- Sonja Ahlers totally rocks it, and rocks it doubly because she is donating to the out of control fabulosity we call the Spirit Animal House raffle! SPIRIT ANIMAL HOUSE! FOREVER!
Wearing: Y'all know you're just going to have to tune in Sunday to find out the answer to this question.
Wanting: I want it to be September 9th with some September 9th on the side, smothered in gallons of September 9th with some Chateau September 9th vino, and for dessert, I want September 9th. Wait- what's happening September 9th? SPIRIT ANIMAL HOUSE!!!!

Here is a little crappy video I took of Au at Monkeytown. You can't see them, but you can see the cool video projections and get a small sense of their sound:

Here is a funny video of my best friends The Fiery Furnaces being cool. Dear The Fiery Furnaces, will you please come to Spirit Animal House?

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Fight Bite, Emerald Eyes; Joanna Newsom, The Milky-Eyed Mender and Ys
Watching: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and the Tangerine
Reading: Howards End by E.M. Forster; Emerald City by Jennifer Egan
Wearing: It's been so excitingly NOT THAT HOT in NYC that I've been wearing my favorite J Brand skinny jeans a lot. And also the new Agnes B. grey silk oxford shirt I got from Beacon's Closet.
Wanting: You to come to Spirit Animal House.

+ Liz

Listening: Rilo Kiley, More Adventurous; Juliana Hatfield, How to Walk Away; MGMT; The Smithereens; and I can't stop listening to "Homecoming" by Kanye + Chris Martin and now I maybe even like that stupid Coldplay song that's on the radio all the time ("Violet Hill"???)
Watching: Pineapple Express x 2 (LOVE!); season 3 of The Hills
Reading: I'm home so instead of reading I watch Nick at Nite and my brother's TiVo-ed episodes of Family Guy
Wearing: my new charcoal clamdigger-type long shorts that I love + layered American Rag scoop-neck tank tops in various colors
Wanting: the same thing that Kat wants!

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Elastica by Elastica (my #1 favorite album of the 1990s); 2 by Darker My Love, courtesy of fellow Britpop enthusiasts S&G of Modern Guilt
Watching: The episode of Sex and the City when Miranda and Steve first meet; the opening credits of Funny Games (I didn't watch the rest of it because the phone was for me, but the moment when Naked City starts playing is the most punk rock moment I've ever seen in a movie, except for the Sleez Sisters' rooftop concert inTimes Square, or when Will Hunting solves the equation on the MIT blackboard. Just kidding about that last one)
Reading: The Accidental by Ali Smith, which is a) avant-wack and b) killer through and through. Her prose is experimental but accessible, which is the best thing in the world, in my opinion. Sort of like if James Joyce was commissioned to re-write Bridget Jones' Diary. I wonder if Ali Smith would smile or puke if she knew I said that about her. I've also been checking out The Textile Blog on a daily basis. It's my new favorite blog on the entire Internet (I stole the backdrop for my UFC Week One collage from here but forgot to credit it, but I am now, so that's cool)
Wearing: Tune in Sunday!
Wanting: I want the entire series of Friends on DVD, lined up perfectly on a shelf. And I also want the thing the other two want, too, but I don't want that to detract from just how badly I wish I owned the entire series of Friends. I also want a hundred Babycakes, but not if it means having to be on death row. I like life.

Here is Elastica performing "Connection" on the Jools Holland show. They are so cool it gives me chills. I would wonder if I was Justine Frischmann in a past life if it weren't so obvious that I'm not. HOW COOL DOES SHE LOOK IN THAT WEIRD UGLY ZIP-UP HOODY?

Patti Smith: Dream of Life premiere at Sundance:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Yeasayer, All Hour Cymbals; Mary Timony, Mountains; Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet; the Breeders, Mountain Battles, and as always, our Heavy Rotation for the week. This week's particularly fun!
Watching: Lust, Caution; A Scanner Darkly (um, how much do I love Keanu? LOTS);
Reading: Howards End by E.M. Forster; Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, which I wrote about before and am revisiting. Sometimes summer brings out my inner nihilist.
Wearing: Since my baggage was lost, all I have now are boots and heels. So this has been my Inadvertent Fashion Challenge Week: How I REALLY Learned to Walk in Heels ('Cause Boots Make My Feet Too Hot). I wear my most vertiginous pair and a sort of boho minidress from Forever 21. ('Cause most of my summer clothes are gone as well.) It's kind of hippie vamp. But I still want my sandals and tank tops back.
Wanting: My lost baggage to be returned to me. THANKS A LOT, U.S. AIRWAYS.

+ Liz

Listening: anything off The Big Chill soundtrack that's available for halfway legal download, especially "Tell Him" by The Exciters. (P.S. I'm really grateful that I'm just a few years too young to be wildly disdainful of The Big Chill's boomer nostalgia. It's nice to have the freedom of disliking the movie simply because it's kind of boring, and because it's maybe the one instance in which Jeff Goldblum isn't the hottest guy in the room.)
Watching: Hellboy 2; The Big Chill; and, in anticipation of both Pineapple Express and the first disc of The Hills season 3 (which should arrive in my mailbox momentarily), I'm repeatedly rewatching the James Franco/Mila Kunis Justin Bobby/Audrina parody seen below
Reading: No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Wearing: cutoffs + tank tops + glittery slip-on Converse
Wanting: to magically finish all my work before I jet off to Boston Tuesday night!!

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Brigitte Fontaine; The White Album; "Apache" by the Sugarhill Gang
Watching: I saw The Dark Knight and had my mind thoroughly blown. After it was over, I felt all out of sorts, locked myself in a bathroom stall, and cried about Heath Ledger's death. I never really cared up until now, but really: I often struggle with perceiving acting as being a legitimate art form, but that performance was his was 100% artistry. I hate the stupid artistic temperament! It kills way too many geniuses. Also: last night I was watching my customary 2 AM Friends episode while working on a crossword and fantasizing that I was doing the crossword with Fictional Man-o'-my-dreams, then it cut to a scene of Chandler and Monica filling out a crossword together! Mon was on Bing's lap, and I was SO jealous.
Reading: nogoodforme.com; Teen Vogue; I just finished The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak- it was gorgeous and creative, and the ending tear-jerked the Helen Keller outta me.
Wearing: You will all find out on Sunday (!!!); rest assured, it's tres exciting.
Wanting: I want to move to Mexico and sit on a hot beach with a hot babe drinking sangria and eating guacamole for the rest of my life; I'd also take a hot babe without the Mexico, sangria and guac; Batman's sick high-speed motorcycle with the giant wheels; one of those $1.99 Beijing Olympics mascot cups you can get at McDonalds- I tried to get one last night, but the stupid Union Station McDonalds was all out. Not cool, McDonalds, not cool at all. Oh, and did I mention a hot babe?

Hot animated super-emo Keanu at his Scanner Darkly best:

"Like, literally, I don't give a fuck":

OMG THE OLYMPICS MASCOTS ARE SO CUTE!!! I'm especially partial to Nini and Jingjing, though Beibei has the cutest name. Actually, Nini's a pretty sweet name in its own right:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The Casual Dots; Moss Icon
Watching: A Scanner Darkly; pretty much all the Lord of the Rings movies. That's a lot of Hobbit-time right there.
Reading: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Wearing: Tank tops and these super-old, baggy bootcut jeans from Paper Denim + Cloth -- I'm pretty much feeling a slouchy, falling-off-your-hips type of jean these days
Wanting: More hours in a day. And a way better Internet connection.

+ Liz

Listening: lotsa late-90s hip-hop, like EPMD and Wu-Tang Clan and Biggie, but mostly just 100.3 The Sound (aka Radio for Gen-Xers Who've Mellowed With Age). Right now they're playing "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" by the Rolling Stones, and that's just fine by me.
Watching: Moonstruck, which I now love so much more than when I was 9 and saw it in the theater with my mom. Also, Mermaids (it's a Cher movie marathon, yay).
Reading: I started Francesca Lia Block's new-ish book Quakeland, and then 36 hours later there was an earthquake, and now I'm scared to keep reading it. OMG I'M SO RATIONAL.
Wearing: the cheesiest faux-vintage Rolling Stones shirt ever, with a really pretty pale-purple & gauzy scarf plus the old standby of jeans + cowboy boots
Wanting: a new album-cover frame to replace the one that fell off my wall and shattered into many pieces during the earthquake! (It held Mary Timony's The Golden Dove, in case you were wondering.)

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Chandler Bing (my new iPod!); The Blossom Toes, We Are Ever So Clean
Watching: The Truth About Cats and Dogs; The Font Conference (see below)
Reading: nogoodforme.com
Wearing: $10 sparkly grey tank dress from Old Navy Kids
Wanting: Caudalie Grape Water, as championed by the almighty Liz Barker in our superlative this week; twenty billion things at Forever 21 and H&M; the Universe to explode (just kidding!)

The infamous Font Conference video:

The "If You Wanna Be Happy" bit from Mermaids (and I can't believe Christina Ricci was ever this charming):

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Lil Wayne, a bunch of random stuff off downloads or YouTube (dude's middle name is "random," I swear); Boris, Pink; GZA, Liquid Swords; Depeche Mode, Some Great Reward; some tape I found with a lot of old industrial music on it like Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Die Warsaw, etc.
Watching: I am embarking upon Season 2 of "Weeds" and pretty much think Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin is the master of the universe right now
Reading: Rob Sheffield, Love is a Mix Tape; Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (oddly one of my favorite books ever, I sort of can amble within it for days)
Wearing: Just a pair of those trouser wide-legged jeans from Rogan's line for target and a white racerback tank -- je suis en vacances.
Wanting: To destroy my email so that no one can reach me ever again. And a pony.

+ Liz

Listening: Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War); Liz Phair, Whip Smart
Watching: There is only The Dark Knight.
Reading: a book about surfing
Wearing: that dress I was coveting a couple weeks back
Wanting: an almond butter crinkle and fresh-pressed apple juice from Nature Mart. (If I ran a daycare center, I would serve this as post-naptime snack every afternoon.)

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Covers of Norwegian Wood
Watching: The Christian the Lion reunion video (see below)
Reading: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, which is a very special book; the Kate Moss Vogue, which sucks moderately less than most issues of Vogue because it's Kate-related, and I guess the Karen Elson as Grace Coddington spread is pretty cool too. But then you come across a sentence like, "For chubby knees like mine, the best treatment is liposuction," and you just want to chuck your Vogue issue out the window and go set off a Molotov Cocktail at the Conde Nast building. Or I do, at least.
Wearing: I've devoted a lot of my life to mulling over whether I am a Yankees fan or a Mets fan, but now that I've found my all-time favorite t-shirt and it happens to be a Mets shirt: GO METS!
Wanting: For the New York Mets to win the World Series this year. GO METS!

Killer Mets shirt:

Christian the Lion! (this made me cry a little):

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Bjork, Debut (mostly for "The Anchor Song," which may just be one of my favorite songs of all time); Neil Young, Mirrorball; Flying Saucer Attack, Distance; Calla, Scavengers; lots of Boris
Watching: Maxed Out, that really kinda scary documentary about debt and the credit card industry; episodes of "Weeds"; the assembly edit of my non-thesis film again and again and again...kind of like a recurring, looping nightmare!
Reading: I re-read Francesca Lia Block's Echo after doing our interview with her; Slouching Towards Bethlehem and Miami by my literary obsession Joan Didion, plus these Paris Review interviews with her; and The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling by James Hillman. I also finished Mary McCarthy's The Company She Keeps and the verdict is awesome. It's very different from The Group, which LJ wrote about so eloquently, but it is equally astonishing in its own way and perhaps even a bit more satisfying since it revolves around a central character, the cynical bohemian intellectual Margaret Sargent. McCarthy is so smart and bitter and dark and yet jaunty at the same time. Read it!
Wearing: I'm either wearing Old Navy racerback tanks with my old Earl jeans or the brightest, hippie-est dresses in my wardrobe. There is no compromise.
Wanting: Can someone please remind me that next time I book a flight I should never get one that leaves early in the morning? Why do I do this to myself? Argh!

P.S. - This weekend I'll be at Pitchfork Music Festival, so if you find me, say hello!

+ Liz

Listening: The Raconteurs; Notorious B.I.G.; Catcall; Fleet Foxes; Suede; Modest Mouse, Good News for People Who Love Bad News; lots of songs from the soundtrack to Valley Girl, which I saw at Hollywood Forever Cemetery last Sunday and it was truly dazzling (of course).
Watching: The Wackness, which compelled me to re-watch Igby Goes Down (that whole angsty/lost boy in New York City thing, I guess). I feel like I'm the only person in the world who really likes Igby Goes Down. Also, I heart Kieran Culkin with all my love, and I find Jeff Goldblum and Amanda Peet to make an irksomely attractive pair.
Reading: that Wired cover story on Julia Allison, the new Vogue and Elle. And I'm rereading bits and pieces of Drugs Are Nice by Lisa Crystal Carver. And I'm still not through with Up Through the Water by Darcey Steinke.
Wearing: The most Snapshot-worthy thing I'm wearing right now is Acquarella's non-toxic, water-based nail polish in "Mahalo" (i.e., blue), which I acquired via a manicure at an EcoStiletto party on Tuesday. I love! And it maybe kinda goes with the blue satin dress I keep wearing all the time (which is from a Bad Place but not the Worst Place).
Wanting: for it to be 10 o'clock tonight so I can be watching The Dark Knight already! Hot damn!

+ Laura Jane

Listening: Harry Nilsson, Pandemonium Shadow Show, Skidoo, and The Point; the Fiery Furnaces and the Beatles, which you can always assume is true of me, because it is.
Watching: I watched a couple installments of The Beatles Anthology last weekend because I was bored and depressed, and watching The Beatles Anthology is the only known cure for that; No Age and High Places at the Horseshoe, which was beyond fantastic. I danced alone for most of the night and felt really punk rock for it.
Reading: A really pointless and boring book called The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark which I don't recommend to anybody; Modern Guilt; this thing that nobody in the Universe cares about except for me; The Idiot's Guide to Bartending
Wearing: The same-old same-old; a pink ribbed tank advertising the Miami Seaquarium that I have been wearing on a semi-regular basis since I was approximately six years old; new track shorts from American Eagle Awesome
Wanting: To exist in a permanent state of "being at a No Age concert"; for the impulse to bite off all my nails to disappear (I fell off the wagon that day I watched The Beatles Anthology)

Bjork singing "Anchor Song" in Icelandic (Iceland is the next country where I'd like to go):

(Liz showing off her manicure/gigantic hands, indicating how many minutes we got to save the world. Also shown: overworn blue satin dress, magical nail polish.)

LJ's Miami Seaquarium tank and A.E. Awesome trackies:

Also: Laura's new favorite ginger-haired scamp performing "1941" on the BBC:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Erase Errata, Nightlife; A Fine Frenzy, One Cell in the Sea; Portishead, Third (still, I know, but it's so good, it's like Krautrock meets torch music); Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not; and those demos for Belly's Star that Liz posted about. They're awesome! Thanks, Liz! Also, my temporary Billy Idol fixation flared up again. It's kind of like allergies or something, only a lot more fun. And my friend Rob sent me this brutally awesome black metal mix CD that kind of rules my world at the moment, and now I am totally excited to go to that restaurant in Chicago that names its burgers after metal bands.
Watching: River's Edge; episodes of "Weeds" and "Gossip Girl"; Broken English; Tomb Raider; Wanted (kind of on a big Angelina-Jolie-as-last-action-hero fix); I am also watching this really funny "10 Dopest Shoes Ever" video because 1. I am really into anything with the word "dope" in its title these days because I really want people to bring that word back and 2. it is SO 80s and has a BRITISH KNIGHTS reference in it. BK 4 EVA!!!! Aaaaah!
Reading: Mary McCarthy, The Company She Keeps. It's not quite the tour de force that The Group is, but it's still pretty wicked and smart and a bit racy. It really makes me wish I was a bohemian intellectual in 1930s New York. Instead I'll have to settle for being a blogger in the noughties, which just doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
Wearing: I just keep wearing the racerbank tanks I got at Old Navy in either white or black, with either a black denim pencil skirt or jeans. Those tanks are cut pretty ingeniously, I must say, being nice and long and cut well at the shoulder and around the arms. Old Navy, FTW! Who knew?
Wanting: The heat to end. Sorry, Laura, but I'm totally summer-averse. Of course, this is coming from someone whose dream is to go to Antarctica one day and look at penguins and fly in a helicopter over plains of glaciers.

+ Liz

Listening: Team Sleep; Dengue Fever; Devendra Banhart, Nino Rojo; The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan; Kanye West, Vivian Girls; Cold War Kids. And I keep playing "Foundations" by Kate Nash with such an insane frequentness you'd think I'd just been dumped nasty by some wastoid loser.
Watching: over the past few weeks I've been rewatching season 2 of Veronica Mars, whose finale made me shed a few tears into my orange-flavored sparkling mineral water. It's an emotional rollercoaster rivaled in intensity only by "Charlie Bit My Finger".
Reading: Up Through the Water by Darcey Steinke (and I luff it so far)
Wearing: a shirt with a big, big butterfly on it, cutoffs, my navy-and-white No Age bandana, Converse slip-ons
Wanting: the Kimchi & Blue dress I almost bought yesterday

+ Laura

Listening: Austin James Band, who prove why it is a really good idea to try and write all the songs that Paul McCartney never did; Lispector; Luna, Bewitched; "Lazy Old Sun" by the Kinks; "The Irony of it All" by my maybe-non-boyfriend Mike Skinner (I think we'd have a really fun relationship!)
Watching: Last night I scored into watching a documentary about Vienna in 1900 on TVO, which is either the best or the worst television channel in the world, I can't decide; otherwise, I watched five minutes of Rain Man and maybe twenty minutes of Be Kind Rewind- what can I say? I have the attention span of a two-year-old.
Reading: I just finished reading Switch Bitch by Roald Dahl, which was weird because it is a book for grown-ups. His prose is so familiar, but normally when I am reading it I am reading about giant peaches and the like, so it felt kind of perverted for that voice to be telling me about sex.
Wearing: tribal-print shortalls; Marc Jacobs Chicago t-shirt; a little boys hoody with a dinosaur coming out of the kangaroo pocket
Wanting: All I want out of life is to be living it.

"10 Dopest Shoes Ever" video from Liquid Generation (oh my God, so many bad shoe commercials from the 1980s conveniently packaged in one video for you):

Liz's butterfly shirt and almost-purchased dress:

Laura's Chicago t-shirt, tribal-print overalls, dinosaur hoody, and tattoos:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Joni Mitchell, Ladies of the Canyon; Kristin Hersh, Hips and Makers; Dirty Three, Whatever You Love, You Are; Genius/GZA, Liquid Swords
Watching: WALL-E! Also, Freeway, one of those great early Reese Witherspoon performances before she became a rom-com queen. The movie feels really late 90s, but it's still awesome in certain ways.
Reading: The Group by Mary McCarthy. (I began the book, then put it down and got distracted, and now I think it really rocks. 50 years later and it's still kind of incisive and sharp and all kinds of racy.)
Wearing: You remember that white Kate Moss for Topshop dress with the one shoulder and the kick pleat in the skirt? I finally got that and then dyed it this dusty mauve-grey and now it really works for me. Sorry, I couldn't deal with the white; you feel like you're going to make it dirty every time you step out your door in NYC.
Wanting: FIREWORKS

+ Liz

Listening: The White Stripes & The White Stripes. And Beck, Midnight Vultures; The Geraldine Fibbers, Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home; Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers. And the White Stripes.
Watching: Taxi (the TV show, not the movie!!); Dave Chappelle's Block Party; Wattstax; and the pretty new No Age video
Reading: the issue of New York with that creepy John-and-Barack-by-the-sea photo on the cover.
Wearing: my power animal pin that Kat and Laura sent me from New York last week! It's on my Roxy Marj bag. Also right now I'm into wearing my new black tie-dye tank from American Rag; I like that it simultaneously appeals to both my hippie and doom-and-gloom sensibilities.
Wanting: I had a vanilla/red bean/green "twist" cone the other night at an ice cream shop in Little Tokyo; I want some more of that. I also want another one of the chocolate-chip-and-mini-marshmallow cookies I had last week at the No Cookie Left Behind bake sale. And another one of the vegan raspberry tollbooth cookies that Laura sent me with the rabbit pin: They really are all they're cracked up to be.

+ Laura

Listening: This portion of my weekly Snapshot lives to torment me! This week, I don't think I have listened to any music in the world besides our Heavy Rotation jukebox, "Hey Jude", "Poet's Problem" by Blondie, and the Fiery Furnaces' Widow City and Bitter Tea (especially "I'm Waiting to Know You") over and over again
Watching: Persepolis; The French Connection; Vincent by Tim Burton (so stupidly adorable I can't even take it)
Reading: The Little Friend; this thing about Pam Anderson's favorite vegan eateries in Los Angeles (from Vegan Foodism); Vegan YumYum (I especially like to browse the Desserts category really late at night and promise myself I'll bake something tomorrow- this hasn't happened yet.)
Wearing: Clothes that are as comfortable as pyjamas, but aren't.
Wanting: I want it to be August 19th, 2008, so that I can go to a store and purchase the Fiery Furnaces' new live album, Remember, on the very day it is released. Being such an enthusiastic sixties fanatic, it's really rare that I get to have a legitimate "buying a record on the first day it came out" experience, so that's exciting. Also: I'll take a hundred bucks, if you've got it. Even fifty would be fine.

Me looking like a meanie and my "destroyed" Kate Moss dress:

Liz's Roxy Marj bag with Power Animal pin (the other pin reads "Iowa 'Fucking' City," FYI) + hippie-goth tank top:

Vincent by Tim Burton:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Depeche Mode, 101 (I was almost at this show that this album was recorded at, and every time I listen to it, I'm like, THAT COULD'VE BE ME SCREAMING DURING "SOMEBODY"!!!); Fleet Foxes (I'm super into this record and I think a lot of you would be as well, especially if you are fond of a '60s-style melodic sense); Billy Idol, duh
Watching: Lots of footage of Laura Jane capering about NYC and asking people charmingly impudent questions; Wall-E (I loved it! It's got cute robots and a very pro-green message!)
Reading: The White Album by Joan Didion, which completely rocks; Nantucket Solitaire by Roy Flanders; La Perdida by Jessica Abel, she of Art Babe fame (this is a fantastic graphic novel and I highly recommend it if you are into the genre)
Wearing: It's my bird-day, so I'm going to wear my favorite dress of all time, this hot pink Marc by Marc Jacobs dress with navy blue Pop Art rose pattern all over it. But not while I'm riding horses up in the Bronx, which is really how I'm celebrating my birthday!
Wanting: A PONY!

+ Liz

Listening: lots of Bowie still; Girl Talk, Feed the Animals; The White Stripes, Icky Thump; High Places; Treat Her Right; Morphine. And I'm half-assedly trying to get into Todd Rundgren.
Watching: Get Smart; The Sonny and Cher Show; The Lost Boys. (I went to that special screening the other night and I was right: Corey Feldman was there! And totally charming. And the movie reminded me that my dream home really is a seaside cave decorated with skulls, torches, many candles, bejeweled wine bottles filled with Kiefer Sutherland's blood, lace curtains, surfboards, and a REALLY BIG poster of Jim Morrison.)
Reading: Rebel Heart by Bebe Buell
Wearing: this dress. Beat the heat!
Wanting: the aforementioned seaside cave

+ Laura

Listening: The Beatles; Matthew Friedberger; High Places
Watching: Seriously: nothing. I just watched the insanely cool video of Kat & I picking out nogoodforme's power animals, but besides that: nothing.
Reading: The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, who also wrote The Secret History. The Little Friend is a big fat giant mammoth of a second novel; I feel like I'm going to be reading it for the rest of my life. But that's fine, because it's REALLY REALLY good, and I would like to state for the record that it would make an awesome beach read, as would The Secret History. Donna Tartt, you are good at writing books.
Wearing: My "Laura" nameplate necklace; Stella McCartney for Adidas yoga shorts that I think I may have once shouted out in the "Wanting" portion of my Snapshot; if such is the case, then this is officially the first time I have ever gotten what I wanted. At least in the context of a nogoodforme Snapshot, I mean. Or maybe even not!
Wanting: I really want this APC t-shirt that says something along the lines of "Listen to Brian Jones: A Fish Should Not Eat Another Fish". I want it so bad that I set up a jug with a sign saying "Contribute to the Help Laura Jane Buy an APC Brian Jones T-shirt Fund: every penny counts!" at my birthday party last Monday, but I think it just irritated people. Anyway, APC is too dumb to put a picture of this t-shirt up on their website, so if y'all are interested in knowing what it looks like, y'all are just going to have to use y'all's imaginations.

Footage of nogoodforme.com's 'Power Animal Self-Portrait':

The video for "Icky Thump." (I find Jack excessively charming here. Isn't it weird that he's tall? I feel like he should be short, but everyone says he's tall. These are the things I think about.)

What Laura Jane is wearing:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (it's my Lil Wayne week, get over it), The Notwist, The Devil, You + Me, Portishead, Third; The Replacements, Don't Tell A Soul
Watching: Footage, footage, footage.
Reading: White Oleander by Janet Fitch; The Keep by Jennifer Egan
Wearing: Rogan for Target wide-legged trouser jeans; a long-sleeved t-shirt with a scarf printed on it I got from some street market in Thailand; vintage Alaia heels
Wanting: A day where I can do nothing

+ Liz

Listening: the new Girl Talk, almost all the time. And "Dirty Water," because I love Boston. And The Idiot by Iggy Pop, and "My Brave Face" by Paul McCartney over and over.
Watching: The other night I had the extreme misfortune of watching several episodes of Californication. I hated it. I wrote this haiku (aptly titled "Californication: A Haiku") and sent it to my Californication-loving friends: I'm watching it now/Why do you like it so much?/It's so fucking dumb. That pretty much sums it all up. And I saw The Hulk; it was whatevs.
Reading: the Elle with Mary-Kate on the cover and the Vogue with Nicole Kidman on the cover, and this awesome British surf/skateboard magazine Huck that I just discovered.
Wearing: umm, it's like 8 million degrees and one of my fans just died this morning, so I'm wearing my Hurley boxers and an old Urban Outfitters tank top that's got a winged elephant and lots of butterflies on it.
Wanting: an express trip to Boston so I can join in the Celtics-celebrating and then eat some burnt-sugar ice cream at Christina's

+ Laura

Listening: Nothing! I have jetsetted off to the Big Apple this week, and it's like my thirty dollar discman somehow intuited that I have relocated to New York City, i mean iNYC, and killed itself out of the constant shame of having to compare itself to iPhones or whatever.
Watching: the wheels.
Reading: I read Klosterman IV by our fantasy ngfm dude correspondant, the almighty Charles "Chuck" Klosterman. Reading Chuck Klosterman is the most relaxing and low-pressure literary experience a person could ever ask for; my only complaint about Chuck is that he doesn't write about the Beatles enough. But in my opinion, nobody writes about the Beatles enough. Except me. I write about the Beatles enough.
Wearing: Predictably, I have been sporting various variations of my summer uniform, though tragically my Jakarta bag fell apart the other night while I was out being a party girl. So yesterday I was forced to carry around a Canadian flag grocery bag that I bought for the people I'm staying with as a cute joke; it actually looked kind of awesome, a bit reminiscent of Built by Wendy's general aesthetic. But it would only ever work in America; wearing a Canadian flag tote bag in Canada would just be dumb.
Wanting: A hot dude in a loose mood with a cool attitude; an iPhone; also: I want to apologize to the class from Bowen, BC who unfortunately did not make it into nogoodforme.tv's Too Good For You video- you were charming and adorable, gang. Especially Jack.

The Replacements, "Bastards of Young" video:

The kind of Californication Liz much prefers: two guys from a certain band talking about stuff they wanna do to PJ Harvey:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Santogold, Madonna, Pussycat Trash, the Clash, Neil Young, Colder, Professor Murder, the Kills...really, just whatever pops up randomly on my computer
Watching: Kung Fu Panda. I still haven't seen Sex and the City -- what the hell is wrong with me?!!
Reading: Writing, Directing and Producing Documentary Films; Eat, Pray, Love (again -- I'm trying to see if I'm as annoyed by Elizabeth Gilbert as I was the first time I read it); Nantucket Solitaire, which is this great book of poems and poems by Roy Flanders which is all about drugs and sex and the inability to connect, set in the late 70s/early 80s Cape Cod. Lately I love that period of existential ennui in literature -- and this book totally makes me want to live by the ocean in New England and drink red wine and have a bad affair or something.
Wearing: A long Rick Owens skirt, a black tank, a wide belt, these vintage Alaia sandals I scored on Ebay. Sometimes it's good to have otherwise annoyingly tiny feet.
Wanting: AN AIR CONDITIONER, REAL BAD.

+ Liz

Listening: The Teenagers; The Strokes; White Mice; Bjork, Vespertine; Luscious Jackson, Natural Ingredients; Afghan Whigs, Gentlemen; BOWIE (Young Americans & Ziggy Stardust & Hunky Dory)
Watching: Weeds season 3 still
Reading: re-reading We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk by Marc Spitz; that story about breakfast in this week's New York (which I really wish I'd written)
Wearing: Last weekend I dug up this long-sleeved button-down plaid peach-cobalt-and-gold cowgirl-ish shirt from the back of my closet, so I've been wearing that with the sleeves rolled up to my elbows and a pair of jean cutoffs and pretending I'm the girl Neiler's singing about in "Country Girl" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I might stick some straw in my hair too, just to accessorize.
Wanting: for it to be Saturday already so I can go swimming at Zuma for the first time this year!! And some Go-Go's records.

+ Laura

Listening: Two half-finished songs that I am in the middle of writing and feel like I will never finish because whenever I sit down at the piano I become overwhelmed by an intense paranoia that I sound exactly like Norah Jones; The Nightmare of JB Stanislas by Nick Garrie (thanks to Margot for the rec!); "It Won't Always Be the Same" by the Millenium, which is my theme song for this week of June '08 because I like to imagine that the lyric "There's a change coming soon, can you feel it?" refers to how my life is going to become seventeen billion times more fun and fab any day now.
Watching: Stella again; Project Catwalk, my devotion to which is mostly motivated by my endless fascination with Kelly Osbourne and every breath she takes, as well as the half-formed, indifferent crush I have, or maybe don't have, on this dude named Ross Hancock who is really hard to find on the Internet.
Reading: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, which is totally the O.G. "angsty teenage girl" novel and comes highly, highly recommended by your old pal Laura Jane; also: my ninth grade diary, which is by far the most entertaining book I've read all year, though it is slightly disturbing how my life features almost the exact same cast of characters as it did when I was thirteen.
Wearing: A really extreme tan; shorts and tank tops, which apparently I don't have enough of, unbelievable as that may seem.
Wanting: More shorts & tanks; a date with Sho still; a facial, a massage, a pedicure, and- what the hell- I'll take a colonic too, while I'm at it.

That crazy ending from the second episode of Weeds season 3:

Here's the dude from Project Catwalk that Laura has a half-assed crush on:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Magazine, Real Life; Pere Ubu, Dub Housing; the Replacements, Pleased To Meet Me
Watching: "Spongebob Squarepants"
Reading: The Diana Chronicles, still wending my way through Miranda July's No One Belongs Here More Than You
Wearing: Sweatpants and a Gap RED t-shirt that is actually yellow, but I'm dashing off to a wedding later so I obviously need to change soon
Wanting: I have achieved Zen equilibrium and want for nothing at the moment. I think the sweatpants have a lot to do with that.

+ Liz

Listening: Bowie, Bowie, and more Bowie! But really just Hunky Dory.
Watching: season 3 of Weeds, OH MY GOD. I've only gotten through the first two episodes, but: OH MY GOD. I also watched Allison Anders's first movie Border Radio the other night and I didn't really get it but now I'm kind of in love with John Doe, not to mention pretty impressed with his acting ability. And: Game 1 of the NBA Finals. (Yay Celtics!!! My faux-vintage t-shirt may be purple and gold, but my blood runs GREEN.)
Reading: Let's Spend the Night Together by Miss Pamela Des Barres; the Nylon with Scarlett on the cover; this Newsweek article about how "criticism of Sex and the City is mostly sexist." (Really gross/unnerving. And also, if you're gonna hate the Sex and the City movie, why not hate it simply because it was super-lame? I'm not even including it this Snapshot, because we don't have a category titled "Painfully Enduring.")
Wearing: my long-lost favorite shirt, which I recently unearthed from one of my closets after several years of believing it to be gone forever. It's just this simple little black tee I bought at Coney Island a couple weeks before I moved to L.A., but it fits perfect and has lots of sentimental value.
Wanting: to get back the two-and-a-half hours I spent watching the Sex and the City movie. (And I'd like to point out that I'm so not an SATC-hater: For better or worser, I pretty much loved the show. But that shit was just joyless, depressing drek. Boo to you, Scary Sadshaw.)

+ Laura

Listening: early Beatles; Winter Women; Curt Boettcher; "Being Geri Halliwell" by Geri Halliwell; I listened to Elvis Costello's cover of "Days" by the Kinks because I was curious to hear what it sounded like. My verdict is: so-so. He's just repeating the lyrics, whereas Ray Davies sounds so tragically earnest! Gosh, I sure do love tragic earnestness!
Watching: This American Life; The Baxter, starring my mean, neglectful boyfriend who hates me; myself; some more of myself; boy do I ever love myself
Reading: I only just got around to reading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris- I'm a little late on the uptake. I thought it was funny and good, but really, when it comes right down to the nitty-gritty of it, I think nogoodforme.com is WAY funnier. Also: longtime nogoodforme pal and comrade Melanie has started up a vegan food blog, Vegan Foodism, which rules and makes me want to run away to Austria so I can experience its exotic and multitudinous vegan goodnesses.
Wearing: These insanely redonkulous yellow sweatpants/clamdiggers from H&M that nobody in the Universe would be caught dead in except for me and maybe an aging Northern California hippie.
Wanting: A DATE WITH SHO; A Thelma headpiece; these Stella for Adidas dance shorts; to fall in love with some killer rekkid I've never heard before- if you have any suggestions, let me know!

A scene from Miranda July's movie, Me and You and Everyone We Know -- pretty much the best one, I think:

John Doe hotly reading the newspaper in Border Radio:

Laura's super-stupid yellow pants:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The Kills, Midnight Boom; Anne Briggs; Keith Hudson and the Soul Syndicate, Nuh Skin Up, a superb dub album that gets really psychedelic and unhinged in parts -- genius!
Watching: Witness; "The Golden Girls"; anything on cable television -- I'm on vacation, dudes
Reading: The Group, Mary McCarthy; No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July; a bunch of books I will tell you about next week!
Wearing: Sworn Virgins leggings; old baggy Depeche Mode t-shirt; cowboy boots, scarf.
Wanting: I really wish Liz and Laura would stop fighting with each other over that Showalter dude. It's getting really ugly!

+ Liz

Listening: the new Madonnsky, The Chapin Sisters, The Damned, The Eyes, The Housemartins, Frank Sinatra, a bootleg of The Ramones' first London show, St. Vincent, Neil Young, Wu-Tang Clan
Watching: As I already informed our Laura in a sharply worded email fired off on Wednesday, her attempted theft of my imaginary boyfriend Michael Showalter leaves me no choice but to throw myself into the arms of longtime Sho comrade David Wain. To that end, I'm catching up on his Web series "Wainy Days". Also: Mayor of the Sunset Strip!
Reading: Oh god, the Emily Gould NYT thing and everything having anything to do with it, going all the way back to that New York piece on Gawker I forgot to read last year. Gimme gimme more, gimme more, gimme gimme more.
Wearing: I think I already told you this, but I'm really into my grey jeans lately. There's this picture of Eleanor Friedberger where she's wearing grey jeans, cowboy boots, some kind of green top, a black-leather jacket, and a pink scarf. I'd like to wear that too, but it's kinda warm out and I've only got the grey jeans and the cowboy boots anyway.
Wanting: a thousand pounds of the chocolate rugelach I had at Canter's on Wednesday night. And a patchwork quilt! Do you know where I can get a really gorgeous patchwork quilt? Preferably one that incorporates bright colors such as hot pink, even though that's bad bedroom feng shui?

Liz's boyfriend and Laura's boyfriend, together again:

"The Golden Girls" buy condoms at a local grocery store -- HILARIOUS:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Madonna, Hard Candy, which I've fallen hard for -- the record is officially awesome; Tricky, Maxinquaye and Pre-Millenium Tension (these records completely stand the test of time, they're totally rad); Prince, Sign 'O' The Times, especially "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker"; Slayer, Reign in Blood; Psychic Ills, Early Violence. The radio is also playing "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins and I have to admit, it's kind of awesome. Now I really want to go watch Top Gun!
Watching: "Class of 2008" on BBC Switch, featuring the only model I'm really interested in, Daisy Lowe; Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian; Iron Man. OH! And I found the Situationist film "Can Dialectics Break Bricks?" on YouTube WHICH YOU MUST WATCH. Any film that detournes a martial arts film into a narrative on the destruction of state capitalism is just awesome.
Reading: Finally finished Snow by Orhan Pamuk, which I loved; now I'm onto The Group by Mary McCarthy, which comes highly recommended by our own Laura Jane!
Wearing: Aquamarine burnout tank from Rogan for Target, J Brand skinny jeans, bronze metallic ballet flats, black-and-white thin-striped fabric knit scarf from Jatujak market in Bangkok, Thailand, Vera Wang long cardigan.
Wanting: A long ride across the plains on a beautiful horse

+ Liz

Listening: Ever since seeing Iron Man last weekend all I listen to is the Black Sabbath song and "4 Minutes" by Madonna back to back and over and over while pretending I'm a superhero, which is funnest on the treadmill. I think I'm about three steps away from turning into the dude from that Onion article.
Watching: IRON MAN!!!! And I'm Not There, which I bought even though I'm still not sure if I actually like it. And more of Dr. Katz, which is really so endearing and makes me laugh out loud like a big weirdo all the time.
Reading: The Vanity Fair issue with RFK on the cover, and Pete Hamill's "The Last Hours of RFK" in the new issue of New York, and now I really want to read Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years.
Wearing: black jersey sundress and my sparkly slip-ons
Wanting: more of the OMG-I've-died-and-gone-to-heaven muhammara I had Tuesday at Carousel

CAN DIALECTICS BREAK BRICKS? Part Un:

(Parts Deux, Trois and Quatre are also on YouTube!)

Dr. Katz & a sea cow:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The sound of people moving furniture upstairs, and freaking out that it will happen during the scene I'm shooting today
Watching: The Terminator (I think this is a genuinely awesome movie)
Reading: My short script, over and over again
Wearing: The grottiest clothes ever, but with my long-coveted Keep slip-ons! Perfect directing shoes...
Wanting: A full night's sleep!

(By the way, I did my portion of this entry through my mobile phone! Which is why there is no niftiness from me at the end...)

++ Liz

Listening: Silver Apples, The Plimsouls, Buddy Holly, Free Kitten, Isobel Campbell And Mark Lanegan
Watching: Valley Girl; Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist; Michael Cera on The Michael Showalter Showalter
Reading: the new issue of Vogue (you know, the one with that two-page spread of Mr. Big eating Carrie's face)
Wearing: dark-grey jeans and light-grey rouched-neckline tank top and black-satin ballet flats
Wanting: a house by the sea, but what else is new?

++ Laura

Listening: I listen to Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces over and over again every single day at a really loud volume from the other room so it sounds like normal volume in here, but kind of hushed and murky. When I listen to it any other way, it sounds like the wrong album. On Tuesday I walked around Toronto with The Fiery Furnaces' EP on my headphones and felt sick and got a weird sunburn inside the indentations of my collarbone. On Wednesday it rained and I listened to Everybody Knows This is Nowhere by our Neiler, which proved my point that the worse you feel, the better Neil sounds. Not that this required any proving. I knew it was true all along.
Watching: I watch two consecutive re-runs of Friends at 2 A.M. every night because I am incapable of going to bed before three in the morning; it's becoming problematic. I like when I lapse in watching Friends for four to six months, then watch it again and have my mind totally blown by the comedic genius of David Schwimmer.
Reading: I read A Taxonomy of Barnacles by Galt Niederhoffer, which was total fluff but pretty entertaining and I would highly recommend it if you are looking for an easy-peasy piece of crap to read on a plane or at the gym or something.
Wearing: Right now I am wearing my Beatle boots, a pair of baggy knee-length patchwork shorts, a white long-sleeved t-shirt, and a shrunken green little boys' Polo sweater. It's seriously the most unflattering outfit I've ever seen a person wear.
Wanting: I want all my best friends who are scattered across this great continent to live together on one street in one city. We could all keep our front doors open and run around like children or thieves. There would always be somebody cool around to play Scrabble with, though I can't promise I wouldn't totally beat their sorry selves into the pavement.

Michaels Cera & Showalter, together at last:

The Small Faces, "Tin Soldier":

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Portishead, Third (yay!); Madonna, Hard Candy (more yay!); No Age, Nouns (even more yay!); and to be honest, that's pretty much all I can handle these days.
Watching: GOSSIP GIRL. OMFG indeed!
Reading: I'm still reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk and it's pretty amazing.
Wearing: Daryl K tank top, J Brand skinny jeans, my trusty brown suede slouchy boots, the grey flannel schoolboy blazer I always wear. Dudes, I'm just trying to get through my week here.
Wanting: A real vacation, like for realz.

+ Liz

Listening: Madonna, Hard Candy; No Age, Nouns; Ver Sacrum, "Coco General Mdse."; a few tracks off Pacific Ocean Blue by Dennis Wilson; a few tracks off the new Oasis record. And for some reason I keep listening to "New Age Girl" by Deadeye Dick, that reason probably being the line in the chorus that goes "She don't eat meat/But she sure likes the bone" (yay for stupid genius). And this doesn't really make sense to include here, but can I just tell you how WEIRD it is when you walk past Hooters and they're blasting "Possession" by Sarah McLachlan???
Watching: Back to the Beach (BEST MOVIE EVER); the trailer for Pineapple Express
Reading: Rolling Stone's riveting feature on The Hills; The List still
Wearing: I'm pretty much still into that get-up I broke down for yall the other day: superthin green-striped deep-V-necked hooded sweater over Billabong tank + blue jeans + Converse Glitter Skimmer Slip-Ons. The shoes are funny: wicked ridiculous, and wearing them makes adorable English girls strike up conversations with me at traffic lights and adorable skater boys stop me on Vine Street to ask if I like their pants. Kinda fun.
Wanting: a chocolate peanut butter Moonpillow mochi truffle (it's "creamy chocolate-peanut butter ganache enrobed in cocoa mochi" - hello, heaven)

+ Laura

Listening: The Small Faces, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake; Curt Boettcher, Chicken Little was Right; assorted awesomeness and/or total garbage via the sweetest (double entendre!) mp3 blog on the entire Internet, Bubblegum Soup
Watching: Last Year at Marienbad; I rented Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story because I wanted to watch the Beatles part. The Beatles part was really good. I am now officially participating in a fantasy relationship with Paul Rudd as John Lennon. Our chemistry is off the chain.
Reading: The Great Gatsby; the RFK issue of Vanity Fair: for the RFK, not the Vanity Fair. VF sucks, but RFK is another fantasy boyfriend of mine, though in actuality I wouldn't want to have much to do with the Kennedy Curse. The Laura Curse is tough enough as it is.
Wearing: Beatle Boots; little boys' brown corduroy blazer (it fits like a dream, except the one downside of wearing so much little boys' clothing is that the sleeves are always too short!); my super cool hearts & keys headscarf from Amerikan Beagle Mousefitters- it's the prettiest raspberry milkshake colour. It really brings out the green in my eyes, in case you're interested.
Wanting: I want my beloved "In Memory of John" pin back. I lost it today, somewhere between Future Shop and the organic food store. I scored it in an aggressive eBay duke out a year ago and have managed to incorporate it into my outfit pretty much every day ever since (I enforce a "two pieces of John Lennon flair MINIMUM" rule within the madcap landscape of my personal style, not counting my Lennon tattoo). It has a lot of sentimental value and it breaks my heart to think that it's dying in a gutter somewhere, although maybe some other Lennon lover will find it and have the score of his or her life. See? The Laura Curse is real.

You know you love me:

RFK being hot:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: The Fiery Furnaces; the Wipers; Unwound; SANTOGOLD!!! which is utterly awesome and you can read my treatise about it next week; the imaginary soundtrack of the screenplay I'm outlining now which features everything from Sonic Youth to Bell Biv Devoe to Danzig. You can guess what kind of movie it will be. Or...can you?
Watching: A lot of short films in the Columbia University Film Festival. Go! Oh, and "Gossip Girl." Yes, people, I'm hooked!
Reading: I finished Jennifer Egan's Look at Me and I am really stunned by it. Not only is it an interesting novel of ideas about image culture and identity that would make Don Delillo proud, but it is set in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois. I mean, NO ONE writes about Rockford. It's amazing! I knew exactly what Egan was writing about in the novel when she mentioned something Rockfordian. It is a really uncanny feeling when you read a book that knows your hometown so well. I'm also in the middle of Raymond Carver's Cathedral and Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Someone wrote in once and asked me how I have time to read so much; well, I don't know -- I'm an insomniac and I read fast. That must help.
Wearing: Beau Soleil sweatshirt dress worn as an actual sweatshirt; Sworn Virgins leggings; brown suede slouchy boots.
Wanting: Oh, God, I cannot wait till I am done shooting my non-thesis film for school.

+ Liz

Listening: Richard Ashcroft, Alone with Everybody; Jane's Addiction; Cold War Kids; Bananarama; Roy Orbison; Yeasayer
Watching: Oh, mostly just Entourage and The Hills; what else is there, really?
Reading: I randomly picked up The List by Tara Ison off the shelf at the library the other day, read the first page, and decided to take it home. I like it so far.
Wearing: this dress
Wanting: a really old Jane's Addiction shirt and a tree bed

+ Laura

Listening: I woke up this morning and knew in my heart of hearts that nothing in the world would sound as good as Feelin' Groovy by Harpers Bizarre (the omission of an apostrophe in that band name drives me CRAZY, by the by), so I did, and guess what? I was RIGHT.
Watching: Eight billion episodes of Top Chef on Youtube; I hope Bravo doesn't read this and sue me.
Reading: A book so ridiculously uncool that I can't even talk about it for fear of damaging my reputation forever; The Penguin Pocket Rhyming Dictionary
Wearing: I am the luckiest person in the world because yesterday, after a lifetime spent wishing for a pair of legit Beatle boots, I found a pair for $40 at a creepy Payless knock-off-y place. So who even cares what else I'm wearing? I don't! I'm wearing BEATLE BOOTS!
Wanting: For my broken digital camera to be fixed so I can post the hundreds of thousands of No Good For Me posts that require its skills! And maybe an iPod Nano?

Santogold:

Liz's dream bed:

Here is a video of Harpers Bizarre performing "Feelin' Groovy" that will probably annoy everyone in the world except for me and possibly a few weirdo die-hard Harpers Bizarre fans who happened to stumble across this blog:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville. I listened to this record a million times this week in this very historico-analytical way, trying to figure out how it is of its time and beyond its time. I also listened to a lot of Will Oldham, but then I