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 usually do. And N.W.A. is still on rotation here and there.
Watching: Maxed Out; The Women; Stage Door. Oh, and I rediscovered Miss Muffy and the Muff Mob. Dudes, Strawberry Shortcake crossed with gangsta, scored by the Pharcyde? It's still kind of classic.
Reading: This week I read what I like to call "vintage chick lit": Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann, which was just plain fun trash, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos. The latter is particularly and peculiarly brilliant and quite funny!
Wearing: This Target dress, bronze metallic skimmer flats
Wanting: I really would like to go back to Europe. Lisbon in particular was incredibly beautiful and I didn't spend nearly enough time there! I would also like my spring allergies to go away soon. No more exploding head feeling!

+ Liz

Listening: Jay-Z, The Blueprint; No Age, Nouns; Emily's Sassy Lime; The Damned; Stereogum's Bjork tribute record. I also keep playing "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton over and over and wanting badly to karaoke it, even though I haven't done karaoke in about 14 years.
Watching: Forgetting Sarah Marshall x 2. And Laura's got me all re-obsessed with Entourage, so now I'm tearing through the first couple of seasons again. Oh, and The Office, which has maybe officially jumped the shark, and that makes me so sad.
Reading: Summer Crossing by Truman Capote; re-reading bits of Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces by Angela Carter; the L.A. issue of Nylon (which is cool and all, but some of the geography's so screwy and makes me go, "Grrrr, El Conquistador is in Silver Lake, not Echo Park!" as if things like this actually matter)
Wearing: my new Lakers t-shirt and this groovy charm necklace I bought at a really stupid store in the mall, and jeans and cowboy boots 'cause all I ever wear is jeans and cowboy boots.
Wanting: a really cute summer hat. I require extra special sun protection, and the people tell me I should be wearing a hat with a four-inch brim. However, I cannot find a four-inch-brimmed hat that looks/feels like something I would actually wear. It's annoying. I also want the original Jane's Addiction lineup to play another reunion show, preferably in my house.

+ Laura

Listening: Electric Light Orchestra; Van Dyke Parks; the Fiery Furnaces; myself
Watching: Boy, do Dead Meadow ever put on a great show. But why didn't anybody tell me that the lead singer was actually Billy Walsh?
Reading: The trend towards vintage chick-lit continues: The Group by Mary McCarthy, which is KILLING ME with its brilliance. I am not and never will be as cool as Elinor "Lakey" Eastlake, but I think I'm probably equal in coolness to Helena Davison, so that's fine. I've also become strangely addicted to looking at this database of Depression-era slang.
Wearing: I alternate between "cute sherbet-colored day dress" days and "crappy-scrappy jean shorts" days. They are both equally awesome in their own rights.
Wanting: This vibrant blue playsuit from Insight. I'd been looking everywhere for a good mechanic-style playsuit to wear every single day of the summer- I found this, fell head-over-heels in love with it, and then couldn't afford it. I wish I hadn't found anything at all, because now I'm really preoccupied with how good things could be, if only...

Miss Muffy and the Muff Mob:

Jane's Addiction playing "Ain't No Right" (Perry Farrell hates Birkenstocks!):

ELO doing "Turn to Stone":

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Silversun Pickups, Carnavas; Public Enemy, It Takes A Nation of Millions..., N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton...I'm in a kind of 90s hip hop mood.
Watching: Never Been Kissed, An Inconvenient Truth, The Corporation
Reading: I can't stop reading the "Stupid Questions with Flavor Flav" interview in last week's Entertainment Weekly with the super-awesome Tina Fey on the cover. For reals, the Flavor interview is the funniest thing I've read in ages. What do you expect from a dude who wears a humongous stopwatch around his neck? Just a sample:

Don't look down. Quick -- what time is it? Time to get busy!
Is daylight saving time your busiest day of the year? That's the only time I start trying to save daylight. I take all the daylight and put it in my clock so when nighttime comes, I just touch this certain button on my clock, and daylight comes out.
Huh? What just happened? Anyway, you have a new sitcom in which you play an ex-con who shacks up with his corporate-suited brother. Why should we believe the hype? Yo, yo -- believing the hype is better than smoking the pipe!

See what I mean? Total awesome.
Wearing: Misericordia t-shirt, super-old Paper Denim + Cloth jeans, electric blue ballet flats, natty little jacket
Wanting: I'm praying that my flights to London and Lisbon will not be cancelled. I'm so excited!

+ Liz

Listening: I can't stop listening to the song "Hospital Beds" by Cold War Kids: I heard it for the first time on the jukebox at The Well last week and now it's my world. (And it can be your world, too, if you go to The Last Pop Song and download the mp3.) Other than that, lots of Replacements, De La Soul, Jimi Hendrix, Chili Peppers, that new Wolf Parade song that's floating around the blogosphere, "The Electric Love Letter" by Langhorne Slim, and a recently unearthed mixtape from a high school love (which includes not only songs taped off the radio, but also four-track recordings by the boy himself - oh, man: high school!).
Watching: Heathers (yay) and Saved! (boo). And A Visit with Truman Capote and Meet Marlon Brando, presented by Albert Maysles himself at UCLA last week. And I'm pretending it's the early '00s and revisiting all those RatherGood.com videos with rock-and-roll kittens - the "Immigrant Song" one is my favorite.
Reading: The other night I re-read Wasteland by Francesca Lia Block, for the first time since I first moved to L.A. (in lotsa ways, this one's kind of my favorite). And now I'm re-reading Guarding the Moon. And Wednesday afternoon over a big bowl of tofu bibimbap at Farmers Market, I read the latest installment of "Chuck Klosterman's America" from the issue of Esquire with Jessica Simpson on the cover.
Wearing: hot pink + cerulean blue
Wanting: plants. I'm trying really hard to make my house pretty and more homey right now, which means my idea of a good time is "Hey, let's go to Target and buy biodegradable lavender-scented cleaning wipes!" But yeah, more than anything I want plants. I think maybe I'll go for a cactus next. And a few aromatic plants of some sort.

+ Laura

Listening: "RISHIKESH/MARRAKECH" BY VER SACRUM; The Great! Society, Conspicuous Only in its Absence; "Days" by the Kinks, because apparently I enjoy the sensation of broken-heartedness enough to subject myself to it every two minutes and fifty-four seconds, all day and all of the night.
Watching: Kinks videos on Youtube; Season Three of Entourage, episodes of which I have taken to referring to as "Ari Golds" (ie. "Do you feel like watching an Ari Gold?") because I love Ari Gold so much. Last night my boyfriend said to me, "I think you and Ari Gold would have a really functional relationship" and I said "OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOU!"
Reading: I'm almost done X-Ray: what a long, strange trip its been. I think at this point I love Ray Davies more than any other person in the world, except Ari Gold.
Wearing: A $200 Eugenia Kim beret with $20 Wal-mart jeans and a $2 little boys' baseball t-shirt: I only wear items of clothing priced in multiples of two.
Wanting: The winter is finally over! Actually, knowing Montreal, it probably isn't. By the time I wake up tomorrow, I'm sure we'll have had a surprise April snowfall and it will be minus a million degrees below zero. I guess what I really want is for that depressing premonition not to come true.

Public Enemy, "Fight the Power":

Viking Kittens from RatherGood.com:

The Kinks performing "Days" in 1969; I'd give an arm and a leg for the stripey t-shirt Ray is sporting in this vid:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Etc.

+ Kat

Listening: So much random! Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Vol. 4 and Paranoid (on a bit of a Sabbath kick lately), older Blonde Redhead, a bunch of King Tubby, Guns 'N Roses' Appetite for Destruction, Neil Young's On the Beach (see, true love never dies), Satisfact, Justin Timberlake, Abbey Lincoln...MUXTAPES. ALL OF THEM!
Watching: My bank account deplete itself after doing my taxes
Reading: Laura talked up Motherless Brooklyn awhile back, so I picked that up and am enjoying it heartily.
Wearing: I am wearing a boy's grey and white striped oxford shirt and Kate Moss Topshop flared leg jeans with platform sandals and an army green parka.
Wanting: I'm praying that air travel won't be so crazy when I go to London and Lisbon next week

+ Liz

Listening: No Age's cover of "It's Oh So Quiet" by Bjork (download at their MySpace); Kat's muxtape, Kritty's muxtape, Teri's muxtape, Erin Sodafine's muxtape, my own muxtape; The Lemonheads, Car Button Cloth; new Breeders stuff; DJ Shadow, "Walkie Talkie"; the GTOs
Watching: DiG! (not quite what I was hoping for, but still great - and now I have a crush on Joel Gion and it feels so weird); The Hills and Rock of Love (usually I don't take much pleasure in trash TV, but these two are all I really want right now). And Wednesday night I went to see a work-in-progress documentary about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which fully confirmed my suspicions that they are the most endearing, adorable, fun-hearted, fuzzy-hearted, magically delicious, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious band in all the world. And now I keep watching the "Tell Me, Baby" video over and over (cuz the movie goes into how no one in the video knew the band would be there until they actually ran into the room, so the psychedness at the second verse is all very genuine - so cute! I got teary-eyed).
Reading: rereading Eat Pray Love; the Elle with Madonna on the cover
Wearing: Cleaning out my closet last weekend, I found this kelly-green suede jacket I'd totally forgotten about. It's got green fake fur along the collar and cuffs and makes me feel very funk, which is a good way for me to feel at the moment.
Wanting: to find out where the hell all my Pavement CDs went! Seriously, did someone break into my house and go, "I'm here only for the Pavement," and then make off with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Slanted and Enchanted and every other record I really want to hear right now?

+ Laura

Listening: The Friedberger madness continues! Also: Paul McCartney's RAM; "Atlantis" by Donovan; "Would You Believe" by the Hollies, which is either the most pathetic or the most beautiful love song ever writ. Probably both.
Watching: I finally watched Young Frankenstein last night: I've been hell-bent on seeing it since purchasing the Built By Wendy Gene & Gilda hoody, which I wear with alarming regularity, but every time I go to rent it, I look down and notice I have Professor Fronkensteen's face emblazoned on my chest and chicken out. Oh yeah, and that U2 3D concert iMax thing. The 3D glasses were so Enid Coleslaw.
Reading: Still X-Ray- I'm, like, seven months away from Village Green and am DYING in anticipation.
Wearing: This amazing t-shirt I bought off the street by Union Square with the cover of John & Yoko's Sometime in New York City on it: not only do I get to promote John & Yoko, but I also get to shout out Elephant's Memory and Angela Davis! Life is good.
Wanting: For Lifethyme Natural Market to open up branches in every city I reside in for the rest of my life so that I can subsist entirely on vegan raspberry tollbooth cookies & banana cream bars until the day that I die (of malnutrition).

"Tell Me, Baby" by Red Hot Chili Peppers:

The image on Laura Jane's new all-time favorite t-shirt:

This is the "original" video for Black Sabbath's "Paranoid," from 1971:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Etc.

+ Kat

Listening: The best thing about doing "Heavy Rotation" is that I get to listen to all the songs on it for a few days before putting it up, so yeah, whatever's playing at Heavy Rotation. A week ago I was at a bar in Chinatown and heard Interpol's "Pioneer to the Falls" blasted loud on the stereo and it sounded awesome, so I've been revisiting Our Love to Admire since then. (Sometimes I like to hate on Interpol, but in truth I know if I was fifteen I'd be obsessed with them.) Oh, and people's various Muxtapes! I'm obsessed! If you have one, send me the link; mine is here. Sharing is caring, yo!
Watching: I've been hanging out with a two-year old and an eight-year old all week, so my world is full of "Little People" episodes and "Caillou" and "Spongebob" (who I do love on my own). The result is that now I'm half-obsessed with the "Little People" theme song, which is sung by Aaron Neville -- whaaaaa? Other than that, I did manage to watch Shopgirl again; I haven't figured out why I'm obsessed with that movie yet, but I am.
Reading: I finished all the books I was reading (Stones from the River and Worldchanging); now I'm going to re-read the whole Twilight trilogy again and try to picture that kid from Harry Potter playing the hottest teen vampire of all time and see if that works for me.
Wearing: Rich & Skinny black straight leg jeans (which, by the way, you do not have to be rich and skinny to wear -- they are hugely flattering), a Misericordia t-shirt, a grey schoolboy flannel blazer, humongo black scarf, bronze ballet flats. I'm mish-mash.
Wanting: My beau to get back from tour

+ Liz

Listening: Driving home from the gym just now I heard "Triumph" by Wu-Tang Clan on Power 106 and practically drove off the road in happiness. My favorite song right now, however, is "Let It Rain" by Eric Clapton. Other than that: Carla Bozulich's new band Evangelista; "Candy Shop" by Madonna; a bunch of weird Nirvana stuff, like their cover of "Do You Love Me?" by KISS; The B-52s; the I-can't-believe-how-awesome-this-is Real Emotional Trash by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.
Watching: Laurel Canyon with commentary by the fabulous Lisa Cholodenko (which makes me wish, yet again, that I were Catherine Hardwicke - in this case it has to do with wanting to hang out with Lisa Cholodenko and be in charge of amassing all the vinyl that's used to decorate the Laurel Canyon set); Be Kind Rewind (not what I'd hoped, and it kind of weirds me out that Mos Def is so adorable here that I want to address him as "Schmoopers," a nickname usually only reserved for my cat and one-year-old babies); Mean Girls and Mean Girls and Mean Girls (I seriously watched it about four times while I was home last week; now my sister and I ask each other "What are you saying about?" at least once per conversation)
Reading: picking through The Glimmer Train Guide to Writing Fiction and the new Nylon and Vogue and the oddly typo-filled April issue of Spin
Wearing: I've actually worn the same outfit on maybe four occasions in the last week: Apparently I'm a bit of a creature of habit. Anyway, it's my fave jeans and cowboy boots and a super-faded black t-shirt with a drawing of a cool old car that's got wings, plus my black sweatshirt vest with the fake-fur hood and a ratty old black sweatband cuff and some black jelly bracelets. I might wear it again tonight too.
Wanting: tickets to see Devendra Banhart at The Bowl!!!!!!

+ Laura

Listening: Matthew Friedberger's Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School- I could probably write a novel about why I love this album, but instead I'm just going to point out that every one of the eight billion rock journalists who classifies Holy Ghost... as being "noise" must have missed the memo about the actual musical genre called "noise", which Holy Ghost has as much do with as Merzbow does with "vaguely grimy but incredibly catchy pop music." GOT THAT??
Watching: I'm presently engrossed in both Season One of Dexter and Season Two of Entourage, which are equally good in totally opposite ways. Michael C. Hall is the greatest actor of his generation: when I first started watching Dexter, my peabrain struggled with comprehending how David Fisher had turned into a heterosexual serial killer; now I'm all like, "David Fisher WHO?"
Reading: I just finished Esther Freud's gloriously sweet Hideous Kinky, which was charming and also inspiring: I copped a whole song's worth of lyrics from the five-year-old narrator; am now working on the utterly ridiculous X-Ray, Kinks frontman Ray Davies' (and I quote) "unauthorized autobiography," set in a Dystopian future where the entire world has merged into a giant mega-corporation... Whatever. It's beyond my capabilities to explain the premise in less than thirteen paragraphs. Anyway, it's surprisingly addictive considering what a giant piece of crap it is.
Wearing: Ripped jeans and a black leotard; at least the weather is getting moderately warmer and I don't have to wear boots every day. Instead I only wear beat-up Vans slip-ons. Rejoice!
Wanting: I get to visit New York City this coming week, and you know what? I'm satisfied with that.

"Triumph" by Wu-Tang Clan:

The "Caillou" theme song in French! (He's originally Quebecois, so there you go.) He also goes on to sing more songs in French. This whole thing makes me love children. If the world could be filled with cheerful, French-speaking toddlers -- wouldn't that be dope?

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Etc.

+ Kat

Listening: Lush, Ciao! 1989-1996; Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Zuma; Blonde Redhead, 23; Various Artists, Disco Not Disco 1974-1986 (an awesome early 80s electro compilation)
Watching: The Simpsons Movie, Last Year at Marienbad, "About A Girl," a short film featuring the most interesting usage of a Britney Spears song ever. It will kind of amuse you and then kind of destroy you in the last minute.
Reading: Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld; Stones from the River, Ursula Hegi
Wearing: Beau Soleil sweatshirt dress; J Brand skinny jeans; brown suede wedge ankle boots. I should stop filling this out, it's kind of boringsville if you're craving perpetual novelty. I kind of mastered the whole "wearing the same things in a million different ways" trick, but it doesn't translate well to a blurb, you know?
Wanting: My upstairs neighbors to stop having such disturbingly loud sex at 5 in the morning. Yes, we get it, your orgasms are ear-piercingly intense, but there's no need for the whole building to know.

+ Liz

Listening: Immediate SXSW nostalgia is making me listen to Monotonix, The Mae Shi, Yeasayer, Foot Village, and Ima Gymnist all the damn time. Also: John Maus!! And lots and lots of Sonic Youth, especially Murray Street.
Watching: On my flight from L.A. to New York Saturday morning I watched Juno for the third time, and guess what? I really really like this movie! I'd been experiencing some self-doubt over the past couple months, after having had a series of conversations with girls of a certain disposition, many of whom seemed to feel betrayed by the film because Juno and her best friend talk really annoyingly. And yes, I too am/was annoyed by so much of the script, and there's at least three things about the movie that I'm hugely uncomfortable with, but I just don't share those feelings of betrayal. I guess it's because I'm old now and I don't feel so compelled to identify with the 16-year-old simply because she wears shirts from Urban Outfitters and digs The Stooges. Rather, for better or worser, I identify most with Jason Bateman's character (just as I identified most with Paul Rudd in Knocked Up). But in the end I'm totally pulling for Jennifer Garner, and on third viewing I still completely teared up when she first meets her baby. So there you go: my very own little anti-Juno-haters rant, all hidden safely inside this week's Snapshot. (I also rewatched Friends With Money the other night; I give it about a B+.)
Reading: I dragged down all these early-90s issues of Spin and Details from my parents' attic and I'm eating them all up: Yum, yum, and more yum!
Wearing: new almost-blondish hair!
Wanting: a little bit of self-control so I can stop eating all the chocolate-covered Peeps and coconut cupcakes and Girl Scout Cookies that keep taunting me from the shelves of my parents' kitchen

+ Laura

Listening: I've been on a major John Lennon kick this past week; I mean, I guess it could be argued that my entire life has been one giant John Lennon kick since that fateful day my four year old self heard "Eight Days A Week" and never looked back, but whatever. My four year old self totally didn't get it like my super-savvy twenty-two year old self does. I'm talking about heaps of "Gimme Some Truth" and "Crippled Inside" and "I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama" peppered with a constant internal dialogue of "John UNDERSTANDS". Oh yeah, and a lot of this really amazing Lennon-influenced boy/girl slack-psych duo called VER SACRUM.
Watching: Last night I watched the last episode of the last season of Veronica Mars so if you've ever watched V.Mars obsessively you'll understand why this is all kind of difficult for me to talk about right now.
Reading: THIS really engaging and informative Neil Aspinall obit by the O.G Beatles biographer Hunter Davies. Neil Aspinall was a great man, Man.
Wearing: A lot of scarves tied around my head (not all at once, but I'm really into doing this new tying-a-scarf-around-my-head look, and I just mean to say that it is no longer limited to only one scarf); a vintage Nike tank that reminds me of what maybe Sandi "Pepa" Denton would have worn in 1983; big tortoiseshell sunglasses- why can't I get over the stupid giant bug-eye sunglasses thing? Even Nicole Richie's pretty much over it, and she's way lamer than I am.
Wanting: Shorts and a sweater weather; jeans and a t-shirt weather; ballet flats and no socks weather; sundress weather; SUMMERTIME

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Steven R. Smith, Sun City Girls, Pere Ubu, the Misfits, Lush, the The's Dusk
Watching: Ever After (The Godfather for little girls); Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (frothy, silly and modestly awesome); CJ7 (a Chinese E.T.! What more could be better?); Paranoid Park (beautiful, elliptical and haunting)
Reading: A lot of Chuck Klosterman at the moment. Also, the Bust with Eve on the cover, and Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
Wearing: The new fancy t-shirt I DESIGNED (???!!!) at zazzle.com (made on an Edun Live t-shirt, natch); worn-to-death skinny jeans; worn-to-death vintage riding boots; long cardigan sweater from Vera Wang.
Wanting: More time to Zazzle!

+ Liz

Listening: Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream (why oh why does this album make so much sense to me right now? It's disconcerting/comforting); The Lemonheads, It's A Shame About Ray; The White Stripes, "It's My Fault for Being Famous"; Canned Heat, "Amphetamine Annie"; various songs off the Singles and Trainspotting soundtracks (esp. "State of Love and Trust" by Pearl Jam and "Mile End" by Pulp)
Watching: In the Name of the Father (which I hadn't seen in a long time and which seems much more heartbreaking now, and I'm possibly even more in love with Daniel Day-Lewis here than I was when I was 15); End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones (also heartbreaking, albeit for very different reasons). And on a lighter note: Repo Man and, umm, the Will Arnett/"Mary Kate Olsen" sex tape. And this Bunnyshop post reminded me of the Dana Carvey stand-up special that played on Comedy Central, like, every hour of every day my senior year of college. This is my favorite clip, for the bit at the end where Dana sings "every Neil Young song you've ever heard."
Reading: the Elle with Amy Adams on the cover and the "Who Says Women Aren't Funny?" issue of Vanity Fair
Wearing: the latest addition to my hopefully continually expanding collection of flowy hippie-ish tops, purchased last night at the beautiful Glendale Galleria. And while shopping I made a wild discovery: You can drink beer at the mall! Or maybe that grizzled-looking biker dude just brought his own bottle of Budweiser - I'm not quite sure.
Wanting: I want a severely faded grey t-shirt that's got a sort of marbley look to it and is printed with the crest of some important university. Do you catch my drift? I also want a pair of Vans, which I would pair with the coveted t-shirt and my Chip and Pepper cutoffs and wear all the time during the day once the temperature consistently stays in the mid- to upper-70s.

+ Laura

Listening: The Kingsmen; The Idle Race; The Easybeats; the Veronica Mars theme song
Watching: Veronica Mars; live Flight of the Conchords videos on Youtube
Reading: Journey to an 800 Number by EL Konigsburg; more Claudia-narrated Babysitter's Club books than you can imagine
Wearing: THIS cutie-pie Eiffel Tower print jupe I fell in love with and bought for $5 at Value Village before realizing on the subway home that it's totally Agnes B. (pour Petites Filles)! SCORE!!!
Wanting: A Whitney Biennial-related trip to New York; a haunted mansion-related trip to Savannah, Georgia; a "No more language barrier!"-related relocation to Toronto; FOR WINTER TO BE OVER (I am getting to a point where I genuinely believe that this will never happen)

Kat's t-shirt:

The Flight of the Conchords performing Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros live:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: In preparation of my theoretical new DJ gig as DJ Double Dutch: Johnny Gill, Bell Biv Devoe, Heavy D, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Al B. Sure and basically any new jack swing I can get a hold of. My imaginary DJ night would be essentially themed after a "7th Grade Dance" concept and would mix new jack swing, Miami freestyle and booty bass. Oh, and the Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust. That's kind of booty music, no?
Watching: This is England on DVD (the movie holds up to a second viewing for sure)
Reading: The latest issues of Lula and Amelia's
Wearing: Uniqlo skinny jeans, old H&M long grey v-neck sweater, boots, shrunken leather jacket. Uniform!
Wanting: I honestly wish I had about three more extra hours in the day to do all I need to do

+ Liz

Listening: Alice Cooper, Love It To Death (especially "Sun Arise" - who knew Alice could be so pretty??); The Doors, Morrison Hotel; The Wipers and Urge Overkill and The Raveonettes; "Elmo Delmo" by Stephen Malkmus (perfection; get it at Fluxblog). And I'm revisiting Pre-Millennium Tension by Tricky and wishing I had another copy of it besides the cassette an ex gave me for Christmas in 1996.
Watching: Smiley Face!!! I also tried watching that Brothers and Sisters show but then I died of boredom. Then I came back to life to watch St. Elmo's Fire, in celebration of having run into Rob "We Should All Look This Good At 44" Lowe in a Starbucks in Malibu on Thursday afternoon.
Reading: the last three issues of Vogue, which for some reason all landed in my mailbox right around the same time, and Alice Hoffman's Property Of and Fortune's Daughter
Wearing: this great French Connection sweater I got used at Gotta Have It in Venice last Sunday; it's angora and charcoal and probably only the 3rd or 4th sweater I've loved in my post-Boston life.
Wanting: Lately I'm feeling this weird urge to play tennis, which I haven't done since college. I also want the It's a Grind coffee shop I'm currently sitting in to stop playing Death Cab. Oh, and if someone could hook me up with an mp3 of Liars doing "Leather Prowler" live, that would be sooo peachy-keen.

+ Laura

Listening: I am going to try and refrain from devoting the "Listening" portion of my weekly Snapshot exclusively for self-promotion; that being said, I would totally be lying if I failed to mention that I hadn't been listening to Ver Sacrum's killer cover of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" ad nauseum for two days straight (YOU should too!); also, lots and lots of Lizzy Mercier Descloux and the first Nuggets boxed set- all the best music ever made compiled into four compact discs!
Watching: American Gangster, which was awesome because a lot of it was filmed on my exact old street in Bushwick, Brooklyn! One day I woke up and my entire block was decked-out to look like late-sixties Harlem: finned cars, the Dunkin' Donuts blacked out to look like an old-timey bodega, and dozens of sexy extras wearing bell-bottoms in muted tones. It was pretty much the best day of my life.
Reading: I just finished The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov- amazing. The entire first half is written in the first-person narrative of a stray dog who lives on the streets of Moscow! And the second half is about a botched operation where he turns into a scary human/dog hybrid!
Wearing: Cheapie twenty-buck knock-offs of the $300 Tom Ford pink-lensed Whitney sunglasses I've been wanting forever; also a really beautiful silk scarf printed with a map of the south of France that I felt almost guilty about paying $2 for at Value Village. This whole super-cool upper-body look can be seen HERE.
Wanting: A record deal; FOR WINTER TO BE OVER

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Etc.

+ Kat

Listening: Cyndi Lauper, She's So Unusual; Unwound, Fake Train; Goldfrapp, Seventh Tree (Alison Goldfrapp has one of my favorite voices of all time); and the new Beach House record, Devotion, which is so goddamn lovely and soothing during the mid-winter doldrums
Watching: In Bruges, which is both amusing and tiresome (I mean, really, how many midget jokes can one movie have?); Persepolis, which j'adore, but read the books, too; Come Early Morning (I really liked this movie even though not a lot happens; it's a nice character sketch and made me wish that Ashley Judd did more roles like this)
Reading: Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wearing: Edun black funnel neck tunic, J Brand skinny jeans, black vintage riding boots
Wanting: I really want to be a morning person. I'm trying really hard!

+ Liz

Listening: my favorite song right now = "I Love L.A." by Rilo Kiley, which is not a Randy Newman cover. Actually, that might not even be the real title of the song. If you too love L.A., you can listen/watch here and download an mp3 here.
Watching: waaaay too much Sex & The City, but it's really the only thing for my severely cold/flu-addled brain.
Reading: the issue of New York with Lindsay Lohan on the cover and the new Nylon and "The Lies and Follies of Laura Albert, aka JT Leroy" from L.A. Weekly
Wearing: pajamas all the time!
Wanting: to not be sick anymore, please. And to see Be Kind Rewind. And for that Olga Kapustina empire mini dress to stop taunting me from the racks of The Kids Are Alright and magically make its way into my closet.

+ Laura

Listening: Sam and the Plants; Salt-n-Pepa's throbbing and rhapsodic Heaven or Hell, one of the most substantial and important songs that has ever been put to tape; oh yeah, and VER SACRUM
Watching: Whit Stillman's Metropolitan, which is charming, restrained and entirely not annoying which is surprising since the whole movie consists primarily of dialogue from snooty New York U.H.Bs (Urban Haute Bourgeoisies) AKA the thing in the world that I tend to find most obviously grating
Reading: Just finished The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster- normally I dislike Auster's novels-- he seems like he would be a crotchety jerk-off in real life, I am mega-resentful of his daughter, and also, he doesn't seem to love words very much (considering he's a novelist and all). But this book is captivating and also heart-warming. I sincerely recommend it.
Wearing: Keep Company Junipers!- I've wanted these forever and finally they are mine all mine. Unfortunately my wearing of them is presently confined to indoor spaces as there are ten inches of snow on the ground outside my door.
Wanting: Until winter is officially over, it is hard for me not to fill out this portion of my snapshot with: For winter to be officially over! There is no material good on the planet that could possibly compensate for how badly I want it to be shorts weather-- except for maybe a theremin. But that's it. So: summer and a theremin.

Liz's coveted Olga Kapustina dress:

Laura's coveted theremin:

Kat's current favorite record:

(Beach House's "Heart of Chambers"

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Etc.

+ Kat

Listening: Music, Madonna (crazy dance songs followed by a perfect comedown record); Madonna, Madonna (a near-perfect dance music masterpiece that proves disco is the perfect post-nuclear sound); Like A Prayer, Madonna (Madonna goes Devendra before Devendra was even Devendra); the first half of Erotica, Madonna (a brilliant concept album about sex in the post-AIDS era); Ray of Light, Madonna (a remarkable treatise on fame-as-spiritual-development); split 12" on Troubleman Unlimited, Rye/Karp (pure glorious post-hardcore noise). This pretty well represents my anima/animus split.
Watching: I am only watching things that target over-imaginative six year-olds as their audience because mentally that's where I'm at. If I have to watch one more amazingly directed but depressing Eastern European film, I will slit my wrists.
Reading: A "friend" got me a copy of a book called Bohemian Manifesto, saying that it reminded them of me. I was so insulted! Real bohemians don't need manifestos! I am beyond words!
Wearing: The only thing that matters is Araks underwear.
Wanting: Magnolia Bakery opened an uptown branch of their little empire of sweetness and it's kind of my undoing now because I love their red velvet cupcakes and anything with lavender-colored frosting. It's so wrong but so seductive and my dentist is going to kill me.

++ Liz

Listening: Drug Rug; The Lightning Seeds; Luscious Jackson; Rilo Kiley, More Adventurous (especially "I Never," oh lordy lordy me); Smashing Pumpkins, "Sweet Sweet"; Bruce Springsteen, "Valentine's Day"; Automatic Baby, "One"; The Klaxons' cover of "My Love" by Justin Timberlake; lots of Tom Petty
Watching: Friday Night Lights, which I don't totally get yet, but I'm hangin' on. And the trailer for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, starring my girlfriend Kristin Bell and my soulmate Paul Rudd and my cousin Jason Segel.
Reading: Cien Sonetos de Amor by Pablo Neruda. And, as I'm telling everyone, I'm currently and desperately seeking recommendations books about fucked-up romantic passion, preferably with a female protag, preferably slightly trashy but ideally about three degree less trashy than Janet Fitch. Email me?
Wearing: my latest Crossroads find, a half-sleeve lavender t-shirt printed with the head of a steely-eyed tiger. Also: Pacifica's sooooo yummy Malibu Lemon Blossom perfume.
Wanting: a Dalmation cupcake from Big Sugar Bakeshop (it's "velvety white cake studded with chocolate mini morsels" - heaven!) and a haircut and a copy of Love It To Death by Alice Cooper

++ Laura

Listening: The Essential George Gershwin (if you squint, he sounds just like Paul McCartney!)
Watching: Planet Earth: do you know how many obscure cute animals there are in this world? Check out my new favorite animal, the pudu: the world's tiniest deer. Aww!
Reading: The Secret History by Donna Tartt- totally addictive, also "well-paced" (to quote the New York Times). I'm completely sucked in to Tartt's mysterious world of Greco-obsessive Gatsby-inspired scholars, and also really thankful that my reading this book coincides with the five-hour train trip I'm taking this weekend!
Wearing: Yayoi Kusama for Uniqlo tank top (white with a gold silkscreen of some sort of apple/pumpkin/gourd hybrid); Navy/green/white/red Adidas Top Tens.
Wanting: All from J.Crew for boys: Striped mockneck Henley, Maritime rain slicker, and Vineyard lighthouse boxers (I'd wear these as shorts with a striped polo with the collar popped). About 90% of my wardrobe comes from various little boys' departments across North America. Fits like a glove, and for half the price no less!

(Madonna as Devendra as Madonna, a pudu, Liz's tiger shirt, cupcakes for all)

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Etc.

+ Kat

Listening: Dead Meadow, Old Growth; the Jesus and Mary Chain, Darklands; and of course testing out our fancy new jukebox!
Watching: Hairspray. Dudes, I just watched an amazing but harrowing movie about abortion in 1980s Romania (4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days). I need a serious antidote. Oh! And I saw U2 3D, which was wickedly awesome. Go, wear the crazy glasses and be kind of amazed by the whole thing!
Reading: I'm still reading that Carl Jung book; it's taking me foreverrrrrrrrrrr, it's seriously dense.
Wearing: A grey Martin Margiela tunic thrown over leggings, my tan suede Frye boots, a long grey cardigan. It's called a uniform, you know?
Wanting: Someone to knock my block off and make me finish my thesis script rough draft.

+ Liz

Listening: VER SACRUM!!!. Also: Patti Smith, Radio Ethiopia; "Gone Gone Gone" by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (I feel like I'm probably supposed to feel weird about loving this, but I don't - I think it's grand); R. Dean Taylor, "There's A Ghost in My House" (recently discovered via Jonesy's Jukebox; I never knew The Fall's version was a cover); The Frogs, "I Don't Care If You Disrespect Me, Just So You Love Me"; Bob Dylan & Neil Young, "Helpless" segued into "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," live in 1975; KISS, "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" (when they make the movie about my life I want this to play during the closing credits, and I want it to be the kind of closing credits where they replay flashes of the movie along with the cast credits, like in Top Gun)
Watching: Billy the Kid (and you should watch too; here's the trailer); Come Early Morning; The Last Waltz; Hearts of Darkness.
Reading: primary coverage and not much else; my brain hurts from working too much
Wearing: all sleeveless, all the time: L.A. = 80 degrees every day! But the most important thing I'm "wearing" right now is my hair down and unstraightened, troublesome curls everywhere. It's a maddening but ulimately fulfilling, possibly Pam Beesley-inspired experiment and all about self-acceptance, or something.
Wanting: dinner at Pace in Laurel Canyon, plus a house in Laurel Canyon. And lots of more flowy hippie tops like the silk/macrame one I'm currently in danger of wearing to death.

+ Laura

Listening: Toughen Up by the Arrows ad nauseum- check out the video below if you like seriously strutty, sexy rock-n-roll swagger (muchos gracias to my pal Mandy of sweetie-pie-pop duo Garbo's Daughter- totally my fave new band of '08!- for turning me onto this record)
Watching: The Odd Couple (Team Felix!!); Mo Rocca 180; am currently averaging about four episodes of Season One of Veronica Mars per night.
Reading: Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach- I recommend that every girl/woman/man too/whoever in the world read this book. The tragedy of it all is that this book was written in 1978, yet all of its core themes (the epidemic of self-hate/body image issues/eating disorders in women) are still entirely relevant. I also read The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden, which is hella sweet, though not necessarily imperative for all of humanity to read this second.
Wearing: Oh, just t-shirts.
Wanting: I'd take just about anything from Rodarte, Matthew Williamson, Louise Goldin or Christopher Kane's Fall/Winter 2009 collections (also the thick halo-style headbands from Marc Jacobs); Cloud B's Lavender Lab, a plush yellow-lab puppy that is scented with lavender aromatherapy to help you fall asleep! Talk about fashion meets function!

Jesus and Mary Chain's "Darklands":

Patti Smith singing "Ask the Angels" live in 1976:

The Arrows:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

++ Kat

Listening: "Indian Summer" by the Doors (yes, I know, but it's such a lovely song); "Forest on Fire" by Tiny Vipers; "Road to Axum" by Roots Tonic; Belief, Nitzer Ebb
Watching: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (remarkable and harrowing, should have been the best film of 2007 but it's being released now); the Agnes Martin show at Peter Blum Gallery, Soho (amaaaaaazing); various episodes of "Spongebob Squarepants"
Reading: Still reading Carl Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections; the February issue of Vogue (I'm so behind)
Wearing: J Brand skinny jeans, black faux-Balenciaga boots by Miss Sixty, a long black t-shirt from Old Navy, black leather Kate Moss for Topshop jacket - I'm happy to be enjoying cold-weather clothes again!
Wanting: I want someone to fly me to SXSW, too! Also, if anyone has hotel recommendations for Lisbon, I'd love to hear them.

++ Liz

Listening: Sam Cooke, "Cupid" (live!); Stephen Malkmus covering "Ballad of a Thin Man" (surprisingly inoffensive!); The Carpenters, "Rainy Days and Mondays"; Little Richard, "Lucille"; Steve Miller Band, "Jet Airliner"; Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine; Neil Diamond, "Solitary Man" (and Johnny Cash's cover of it); Jimi Hendrix's blues version of "Voodoo Chile"; The Mae Shi, "I Get Almost Everything" (I feel like I'd been waiting to get my hands on this song for a thousand years, or at least since I first heard it live a year or so ago, and now there's an mp3 here and I'm just pleased as punch). And I can't stop listening to "Levon" by Elton John, as it's probably the most fantastically emotionally manipulative song I've heard in forevs.
Watching: Fast Times at Ridgemont High; Factory Girl; Ghost World
Reading: I will probably never finish Shakey. I also got the new Zoetrope: All Story, which has the screenplay for Hotel Chevalier and lots of great Bob Dylan-related art.
Wearing: I went to Buffalo Exchange for the first time in a long while on Saturday and ended up with this real pretty t-shirt that's peachy-orange and got some weird scene involving magic mushrooms and swans (in hot-pink and cornflower-blue). So I'm wearing that a lot.
Wanting: for someone to pay for my plane ticket to SXSW, or least for JetBlue to start flying from L.A. to Austin so I can use the JetBlue gift card I got for my birthday! And: a copy of the very out-of-print Cry of Love by Jimi Hendrix.

++ Laura

Listening: Side C of The White Album
Watching: The new episode of Lost and the first five seconds of the Penny Lane video when John Lennon is walking down the street looking sort of depressed and schoolmarmish but impossibly cool nevertheless.
Reading: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, which is serene, pale, graceful and written with such incredible skill that I find myself thinking thoughts like "Can you just write one awkward sentence PLEASE?" as I'm reading it.
Wearing: My New York Knicks t-shirt; my New York Mets t-shirt; my Chicago Cubs t-shirt
Wanting: For stupid Punxsutawney Phil to have not seen his shadow that winter can conclude sooner rather than later and for the barometric pressure in the air to chill out so that my five-day migraine will finally dissipate and I can cease to write such uninspired Snapshots?

Tiny Vipers and Jimi:

"Penny Lane":

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

++ Kat

Listening: various tracks from the Wipers, Sun City Girls and Pylon; trying to decide whether or not I like Vampire Weekend. So far the answer is "meh," but maybe that's because everytime it comes up on my headphones I forward to the Wipers
Watching: The Guardian, that totally bad movie starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher as U.S. Coast Guards. (I'm at the mercy of whatever channels my hotel rooms get!) God, please don't watch it -- there's no way even a sense of irony can redeem it.
Reading: Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung
Wearing: Seriously, at this point, it's whatever is clean and not covered in sand and/or insect repellent; I'm hoping my personal fashion situation changes once I get back to New York since all interest in style and fashion goes out the window the minute I step into a hot, tropical country -- I'm like, "God! It's so hot and humid! I never want to wear clothes ever!"
Wanting: The skirt with the bodice belt from the upcoming Christopher Kane capsule collection from Topshop; whether or not I get it remains to be seen 'cause I'm like, "Is it really worth 95 frickin' pounds? Shouldn't I be saving that money for an awesome hotel room for when I hit up Portugal in March?" Such are my sartorio-philosophical debates these days.

++ Liz

Listening: Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited; live Joanna Newsom (courtesy of No Words); Billy Pilgrim, "Try" (this is the last song played on the "World Happiness Dance" episode of My So-Called Life; download if you don't really care about dancing either); Neil Young singing "Helpless" with The Band; Jimmie Dale Gilmore, "Braver Newer World"; The Incredible String Band, "First Girl I Loved"; lots of Gram Parsons; trying to get into the new Cat Power but pretty much failing
Watching: Thirteen; Woodstock; 30 Rock Me Like a Hurricane
Reading: re-reading all the Zack Sternwalker zines that I own (soooooo brilliant, especially Death: The Most Dirty Dance: everybody's favorite Dirty Dancing parody zine); Shakey still
Wearing: this red silk top with macrame along the neckline and cap sleeves - wicked flowy and maybe two degrees too hippie. Plus the same jeans and boots I wear all the time.
Wanting: Blue Dahlia's artichoke & ricotta bruschetta and for someone to send me an mp3 of Canned Heat doing "A Change is Gonna Come" at Woodstock

++ Laura

Listening: Salt-n-Pepa's Very Necessary (my second favorite album of the nineties, trumped only by Elastica's self-titled debut); Take a Picture by Margo Guryan-- this album is from 1969 and I've heard it described as "the first trip-hop album" which I personally can't hear. Just classically great psych-y whispery girl folk in the vain of Judee Sill, Linda Perhacs, Bridget St. John, et al.
Watching: Taco's uber-controversial video for Puttin' on the Ritz' (I listen to this song about twice a day every day, FYI)
Reading: Just finished Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (I picked off the Oprah sticker). I'm probably going to hold a seance and talk to her from beyond the grave soon. Carson, I mean. Not Oprah.
Wearing: A semi-ugly color-scale necklace I made using the giant tub of wood beads that I bought for $3 at a thrift store; my boyfriend's almost-but-not-quite-dead Adidas Smashes (I like that they're specifically designed for playing squash); freshly-dyed black hair (it's like I'm fourteen again!). CLICK HERE to see the whole shebang, IRL.
Wanting: A gold and diamond nameplate necklace reading "LUCIFER". Yeah, I know, nameplates are sort of played out, but Lucifer? That's classic.

Pylon:

Neil Young & The Band:

Taco:

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

++ Kat

Listening: The Nation of Ulysses, Plays Pretty for Baby; Adam Ant, Kings of the Wild Frontier; a bunch of Portuguese kids singing "The One I Love" really loud and drunkenly
Watching: whatever shitty movie is playing on Star Movies in the hotel room; this usually means movies starring Cole Hauser
Reading: finished Portrait of a Lady on the train from Chiang Mai
Wearing: whatever is clean; traveling can be so grotty sometimes! I mean, I'm reduced to wearing old cargo pants with flip-flops, for God's sake. It's fashion-horrible, but unless you strike a balance between wearing clothes that keep you cool and those that keep you covered enough to not get eaten by mosquitoes, what do you do?
Wanting: A really hot, steamy shower is really the most beautiful thing on earth
Sending: All my love from Chiang Mai

++ Liz

Listening: The Mamas and The Papas; John Frusciante singing "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" by Simon & Garfunkel (guaranteed to grow your heart three sizes bigger); The Replacements, "Bastards of Young"; The Beach Boys, "All Summer Long"; a bootleg of Hole playing Big Day Out in '99 (got it at Licorice Pizza; it's a blast and a half, and the between-song banter is so classic Courtney)
Watching: 30 Rock has taken over my mind grapes. Also: Sweeney Todd and Gimme Shelter and American Graffiti (je t'adore, 1973 Harrison Ford). And Diani & Devine's fabulous new short film, "Girl's Night Out" (please click and vote now!!).
Reading: Tom Petty's Los Angeles by Daphne Carr (from L.A. Weekly); starting Shakey: Neil Young's Biography, which is like 9 million pages long and thus will probably appear in this field for weeks to come.
Wearing: oh God, I'm a total schlub lately and just keep wearing wicked-old band t-shirts I pulled out of my parents' attic last time I was home, like this really great Tom Petty one that's got a cow jumping over the moon. Apparently I'm having a Tom Petty moment.
Wanting: some kind of audio recording of Tina Turner singing "I've Been Loving You Too Long" as in Gimme Shelter & more of the fruit-punch-flavored faux-Twizzlers sent to me from Iowa City last week

++ Laura

Listening: Julian Cope.
Watching: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: is anybody in the world more charismatic than Dame Maggie Smith? I honestly doubt it. Brodie and her Girls are the style icons I've spent my whole life waiting for. Bicycling around Depression-era Edinburgh in tweed is totally the new black.
Reading: Julian Cope's opinions on vegetarianism- if I weren't a vegan already, I'm confident this Q&A would have convinced me. A+ for brilliant use of the term "Father Corporation".
Wearing: Being broke and dead-sick of every last garment I own, I've recently been finding solace in the transformative powers of accessories. Click HERE to check out a fly-ass triptych of my current favorites: vintage lace-up Frye boots (totally worth the fifteen minute time investment required to thread the laces into all seventy billion eyelets); weird Robocop-esque sunglasses that I think may be meant for the blind; my wacky-as-all-get-out shoulder bag I found at Zara of all places- it looks to me like an young alien's lunchbag.
Wanting: I'm crossing my fingers that this Stella McCartney checked tunic dress will be marked down 90% by springtime. And despite my raging ornithophobia, I think I might be more motivated to cook if I had these geese-shaped measuring cups from Anthropologie. Probably not, though.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie & Kings of the Wild Frontier:

"Girl's Night Out":

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

++ Liz

Listening: Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Deja Vu; The Clash, "Death or Glory"; Suicide, "Ghost Rider"; Liz Phair, "Divorce Song" (live, and segued into "Emotional Rescue" by the Rolling Stones! Go here); Olivia Newton John, "Magic"; Cat Power's cover of "New York" by Frank Sinatra (boring); Devendra Banhart & Noah Georgeson's cover of "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis (exciting)
Watching: Lately I just want to watch movies about cocaine trafficking, like Beverly Hills Cop and the admittedly subpar Blow; I'm not sure why. During the former I realized that, about a third or maybe even half of the time, I dress almost exactly like Axel Foley.
Reading: Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood by Michael Walker; David Byrne's big thing on "the changing face of the music industry" or whatever in the January issue of Wired; The Denver Warbler
Wearing: All I'll wear in 2008 is whatever goes with my cowboy boots. I'm also really into my newish Terranova red tea & cocoa perfume at the moment. And this purple hoodie that makes me feel somewhat Grimace-esque.
Wanting: for my new Neil Young/Stephen Stills shirt and the 200 bags of organic fair-trade Earl Grey tea I just bought to arrive sweetly at my doorstep. And to see Point Break Live!

+ Laura

Listening: Serge Gainsbourg, Aux Armes et Caetera; Julian Cope, Fried; Jean-Claude Vannier, L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches; Buffy Saint-Marie's Cod'ine: quite possibly the most haunting song I've ever heard. Donovan's way-famouser cover pales in comparison. Click here to watch a video of Buffy performing the song at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival; quite a score.
Watching: I just binged on the entire second season of The Hills with my boyfriend, which somehow eclipses everything else I've watched of late. Um, Wow?
Reading: Rabbit Redux by John Updike. This book is gripping, mesmerizing and gorgeously written (a little over-wrought at worst, but I forgive him). I am enjoying it about ten zillion times more than I did Rabbit, Run, but it's kind of a Catch-22: you can't really enjoy the second without reading the first.
Wearing: I recently dropped a huge portion of my Christmastime cash-in on the sale section of J.Crew's website, snapping up hella inexpensive goodies including but not limited to this fly yellow zebra-print cardigan and this seasonally inappropriate coral polka-dot Rivoli blouse. Not pictured: my little boys corduroy dog-print waistcoat!
Wanting: It's quite surprising to me that I recently acquired a fashion tip-off from Life & Style magazine, but there's a spread in this week's ish about who wears cooler rings, Mary-Kate or Ashley (isn't that relevant???). They recommended copping MK's style by wearing this sick (in the good way) Kenneth Jay Lane zebra-head ring. So hot, right? They totally sold me on this one. Congratulations, Life & Style fashion editor. And, since my Snapshot this week turned out to be weirdly zebra-oriented, I may as well add that I would very much like to adopt a Zebdonk foal, as seen here. Zebdonks are what happen when you breed a donkey with a zebra, and prove that the theory of hybrid vigor applies to cuteness at the very least.

(Left: Olivia Newton John in Xanadu. Right: what a Zebdonk looks like.)

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Um, Wizard Prison. What more do I need at the moment?!! Okay, sometimes it helps to alternate it with the best dub record ever: Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Evil Vampires. It is as evil and as awesome as the title suggests. Listen to it and your head will slowly melt, even without m-a-r-i-j-u-a-n-a.
Watching: I'm at my sister's practically inhaling all the bad cable I can before I have to leave and go back to my television-less urban existence. This means lots of "Golden Girls" re-runs and movies like Gone in 60 Seconds, which is sort of an unredeemable bad movie. Why are Nicholas Cage movies so bad now?
Reading: The default answer for the next few weeks is Paradise Lost or The Ambassadors. (You try getting through English epic poetry or Henry James quickly.) But I'm going to start Libba Bray's The Sweet Far Thing tonight because the only thing better than the classics are books about magically-gifted teenage girls in Victorian England with the hots for wildly sexy, broody Indian boys.
Wearing: Obnoxious pink flannel pajama bottoms that my sisters got me from Aeropostale, with this sort of pink trellis design, and a red hoodie with pink owls and skulls on it. It's so undignified yet totally fun.
Wanting: Since I got a Kuromi card case from Sanrio for Christmas, my heart desires nothing else. I love Kuromi; she's got brattitude but is still boy-crazy.

+ Liz

Listening: the three long-desired Neil Young CDs I acquired over Christmas (Zuma, Comes a Time, and On the Beach); Patti Smith, Twelve; Jay-Z, American Gangster; Michael Cera and Ellen Page singing "Anyone Else But You" (off the Juno soundtrack); Wizard Prison!!!!
Watching: I got the My So-Called Life DVD box set for Christmas and watched that nonstop for many days with my little sister, who finds Angela Chase overly angsty and somewhat ridiculous. I've been trying to convince her that Sharon Cherski's actually pretty okay, but she doesn't believe me.
Reading: Chuck Klosterman IV and that Vanity Fair feature on Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake
Wearing: this awesome pink hoodie that a friend got me from a surf shop in Puerto Rico, and mostly just my new Hello Kitty pajama pants
Wanting: more of the Marshmallow Mermaid Pie my sister and I made last week before watching Waitress

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Etc.

+ Kat

Listening: Robert Wyatt, Comicopera; Gang Gang Dance, Rawwar; Beach House, "Gila" (which you should download now right here; it's incredibly wonderful, and their new record Devotion, out in February, is the prettiest thing I've heard in ages)
Watching: The Celebration; Persepolis; Buffy, Season Seven (the odyssey continues)
Reading: Paradise Lost by John Milton (I'm not joking; it's pretty incredible); and I'm wondering where the hell is my issue of NYLON this month. NYLON, what up?
Wearing: Rick Owens cardi-jacket (it's kind of a combination, as is his wont); super-battered navy American Apparel t-shirt; old Earl straight leg jeans tucked into Frye boots; big houndstooth scarf I bought from the vendor at 112th and Broadway
Wanting: Someone to make a decision for me, quick: Istanbul or Lisbon?

+ Liz

Listening: U2, Zooropa; Ice Cube, The Predator; Rolling Stones, Black and Blue (esp. "Fool to Cry"); The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow; Marianne Faithfull, "Guilt"; various renditions of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" (Darlene Love's and U2's are my favorites - boo to Death Cab)
Watching: lots of Freaks and Geeks with commentary; Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer truly are an irresistible pair); early-90s videos like "Numb" by U2 and "Wicked" by Ice Cube. Oh, and that "Saturday Night Live" Christmas song clip that I like to play at least three times each holiday season. (BTW: Remember when Jimmy Fallon was someone we all kind of cared about?? Watching his hair here, I'm worried about what the future might hold for John Krasinski.)
Reading: Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman, for the first time in 10 or 15 years; the "Year in Culture" issue of New York magazine
Wearing: more like trying to figure out how to wear this scarf I got for six bucks Friday in Shell Beach - it's Italian silk and covered with roaring tigers and could be magic or could be just wrong
Wanting: more and more White Chocolate Dream soy lattes from Coffee Bean. And another faux Hostess Cupcake from Joan's on Third

+ Laura:

Listening: The Dukes of Stratosphear, Chips from the Chocolate Fireball; Betty Davis, They Say I'm Different; Bridget St. John, Ask Me No Questions
Watching: Dog Day Afternoon; The Golden Compass; Network; Bedazzled (the one with Dudley Moore, not Elizabeth Hurley OK?)
Reading: Carson McCullers & Willa Cather & Isak Dineson AKA the Baroness Karen Blixen
Wearing: I haven't quite figured out how to do "Existing-in-a-blizzard Chic" as of yet, and thus wear some variation of a hoody, my camo-print little boys thermal from Target, thermal leggings, thermal socks, and/or heavy-duty Sorel winter boots every single day
Wanting: A lifetime supply of Simon & Schuster crossword anthologies; this recycled wood treehouse toy or at the very least a child to buy it for; for winter to be ending instead of only beginning

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Etc.

+ Kat

Listening: Music for snow and cold! The Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas; Mi and L'au, s/t; Bjork, Vespertine; Burial, Untrue
Watching: The Golden Compass; Close-Up, directed by Abbas Kiarostami; The Palm Beach Story, directed by Preston Sturges; still truckin' through season six of Buffy
Reading: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Wearing: Super-ancient black Club Monaco sweater over a boys' oxford shirt; J Brand skinny jeans (I'm a total convert, these jeans are genius), tucked into Frye boots
Wanting: The chocolate pot de creme dessert at iCi in Fort Greene...it's super-yummy!

+ Liz

Listening: "Anyone Else But You" by The Moldy Peaches; Jim James and Calexico's cover of "Goin' to Alcapulco" from the I'm Not There soundtrack (it's a real heartbreaker); Panda Bear, Person Pitch; Quincy Coleman, "Give It Away" (the song that plays during the birth scene in Waitress - another big heartbreaker); Barbara Manning, Lately I Keep Scissors; The Figgs, "Favorite Shirt"
Watching: Juno (OMG, Michael Cera singing the Moldy Peaches! Double OMG, Jason Bateman singing "DOLL PARTS"!!!) The Salton Sea; The Sure Thing
Reading: Far by Victoria Lancelotta; the Al Franken profile that New York magazine ran about a month ago; and Teri's wonderful new zine, Cement, Flour, Saints
Wearing: anything that works with my new cowboy boots, cuz I'm in love with them
Wanting: a surfboard; I'm ready

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Etc.

+ Kat

Listening: Low, I Could Live in Hope, pretty much nonstop and all the time lately; Mirza, Last Clouds; Neil Young, "Safeway Cart"
Watching: Beau Travail because Claire Denis is one of my favorite directors ever; Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season six (the emo season); and I'm eagerly awaiting Juno and The Golden Compass
Reading: The New Yorker, as always; the whole Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer, although is it just me or is Bella Swan completely annoying sometimes?
Wearing: One of my beau's plaid flannel shirts with skinny Cheap Monday jeans tucked into brown suede wedge boots from Old Navy, swaddled in a huge houndstooth muffler
Wanting: Time, always and evermore

+ Liz

Listening: lots of Bob Dylan (especially "Ballad of a Thin Man"); Devendra Banhart, Oh Me Oh My; X, Los Angeles; Snoop Dogg, "Sensual Seduction"
Watching: No Country For Old Men (duuuuuuuuude...); I'm Not There (I'm withholding commentary till I see it again, but it generally blew my head off); Waitress (once at the Adrienne Shelly Foundation fundraiser last week, once on the DVD I just bought); Badlands; and, of course, Bijou Phillips's book club's dance performance of "Dirty Diana" by Michael Jackson (thanks again, Cathy!!)
Reading: the 'conversation' between Bruce Springsteen and Win Butler in the new issue of Spin (pretty awesome, halfway restoring my faith in Spin) and not much else besides many reviews of No Country For Old Men and I'm Not There
Wearing: black sleeveless hoodie with ridiculous faux-fur hood, skinny jeans, $3 black tee, and my beautiful new cowboy boots
Wanting: a whole lot of Freshly Baked cookies (especially the Nutty Bavarian Love Biscuit) and to find my long-missing copy of Astral Weeks by Van Morrison

Snapshot: Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

+ Kat

Listening: Lots of Neil Young, random noise bands that my boyfriend somehow downloaded onto my laptop and tons of sound effects from freesound that I'm culling for sound design
Watching: How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, Vidas Secas, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Reading: The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton; The Keep by Jennifer Egan; the issue of Lula that Kirsten Dunst guest-edited
Wearing: Dark green Rick Owens jacket over white American Apparel t-shirt and black leggings with Ann Demeulemeester ankle boots (feeling very late 90s in terms of my wardrobe these days)
Wanting: To go back to Prince Edward Isla