new years eve costume research. yes. queerest of them all is a fantastic pictorial resource.

Classy Weimar Prostitute is the new Lady Gaga

hey gino!

i have been wanting to visit gino for years years years, and today i finally got the chance. magical! all the tuxedoed waiters speak italian and call you princess as they administer fresh ground pepper to your spaghetti with clams. the menu is hand-written in grandpa-script and the clientele is a SIGHT. jackie and i had the best lunch. caprese salad, seafood pasta, prosecco, espressos - it was just the tops. and the margot tenenbaum wallpaper! i died.

i highly recommend a visit

(ps: sorry for the poor picture quality. taken with my phone)

really?

abby pointed me to this outlandish urban camouflage via japan. i mean....

seriously? you're not fooling anyone! we can see your feet, dude. pretty impressive that this fake vending machine is made out of a skirt though.

charlie and the chocolate christmas car ride

yes, the mom is wearing a confederate flag shirt, the dad is the indian wayne newton, and the little girl has no neck, but besides that it's very christmasy.

this is how the affair began

had dinner at alta tonight and there were highlights y'all. blue crab risotto, warm veggie salad, skirt steak, lamb meatballs, and the brussels sprouts of joy.... it's hard to know when to stop eating in that type of situation.

also on my new list of hot tickets: roses. i know. I KNOW. i hate roses. but all of a sudden i love them. there are a few (gasp) bodega roses in here even, and they just look and smell and feel like a delicious meal.

mmmmmm

we would be warm below the storm

it's cats and dogs out there today. luckily i was holed up with some fancy champagne and a bevy of hotties in celebration of elizabeth's impending mom-hood. congrats e!

here was my offering:

(side bar: where can a person buy those itty bitty scissors that victorians used to craftily cut those silhouettes of their lovers with? you know, the ones you and your brother got done at disney land and are still in your parents' den? the kitchen shears aren't really hacking it)

brandy, anyone?

via mpwa. yes they were.

feel-good tuesday jam

the chills

i should not be this excited about the design elements of an abandoned autopsy theater at a state mental hospital. it's like a wes anderson bizarro land hospital fantasy. though i could probably do without the bone saw thingy in the foreground.

photographer christopher payne, managed to gain access to this gloriously creepy place, and many others like it in his new book Asylum, which has just wormed its way onto my christmas list. (via the lens)

weekend epiphany

with obvious inspiration from a california girl, and some paper scraps, it's actually possible to make invitations to a baby shower sans diapers, storks and baby animal imagery.

side bar: remember when you had to do handwriting exercises in 3rd grade and you wrote cursive for so long you thought your hand was gonna fall off, and you thought surely when you're grown up, you won't have this problem because you'll be so practiced at the art of drawing letters on paper that you'll develop super-human writing muscles? turns out it still hurts write a lot. damn you keyboards.

mary in the san fran sky

this is probably my favorite song

by what is undoubtedly my favorite band

the Defibulators - Hearty Laugh from BoB Coon on Vimeo.

helen!

jeepers! the moves! the dedication! the peel-away outfits that reveal flesh-colored mid-sections!

if i could be anything in the world, i would be helen.

Love that Lucy

i made this for my littlest friend. she's only about 20 lbs and doesn't

say much, but the girl's got moxie.

McG

okay. can we talk about ryan mcginley for a sec. i mean. woah. these pictures! i have intense caveaphobia, especially in the nude (i'm pretty much afraid of doing anything nude. what if you fall and get stalagmited?) but this makes the whole proposition seem like a soft-core 70's sci-fi flick where everyone has names like skylar and gryphon and they're in the future... or are they? and i would so watch that.

all from his moonmilk series

bit & bob

a practice & a left-over from alex's wedding.

i think i'm going to be a gypsy for, the 7th time this halloween. is this normal?

Gems

when 100% of the light in a room is coming from candles (or candle-like objects) you know it's good. Gemma is on my top-10 list of restaurants-i'd-like-to-flower.

the most

like in the last waltz when neil young is all "it's one of the pleasures of my life to be on stage with these people" – that is the feeling that you feel when alex & alexis ask you to take part in anything they're doing. especially nuptials.

via the phenomenal di bezi

i love these people. majorly.

mama's back

this is how i'm feeling. it's a good feeling to have.

via daily beast

mannequin - a cautionary tale

when we were little, my sister wanted to grow up to be a mannequin.  Jen: thank god you decided to get that degree in graphic design, because the recession would surely have taken its toll had you decided to stick with that career route.  you could have been just another poor cha-cha at the doomed virgin megastore, corralled in the basement, getting grab-assed by the other ladies:

(which i guess doesn't really look that bad, but still)

and remember that twilight zone episode "the after hours?" god it's good.  hint: it's about mannequins. i urge you to watch, and thank your little stars that you didn't go down this road.

quiche & t.rex

my night went something like this:

baking eggs into a pre-made pie crust and listening to mark bolan croon about his lizard leather boots.  basically the height of pleasure.

(added fun: in this interview with soundcheck the other week, t.rex producer tony visconti discusses who, in his opinion invented glam rock, how he co-produced bowie's "low" though everyone thinks it was brian eno, and spins some good rock history yarns. i'm a sucka for this stuff.)

simples

orchid, jasmine, lace & mint geranium leaves

ode to an L

oh brown ikea sectional

you are not settee-sexy 

you do not posses the right balance of horsehair and springs 

that could have landed you in a much bigger apartment

you have no curvy camel-back qualities 

no one blogs you under "lust" or "loves it"

and yet

you hold so many party guests!

i cannot forsake you

you are my L-shaped savior 

without you i could not have tons of people over on easter to get tipsy

and have an indoor easter egg hunt

thanks to jeff & diana for the images!

i believe the scientific name is tulipa deliciousa 

urban landscape

my mom took these great shots at central park and the botanical gardens this weekend. thanks for sharing, mom! (good to see you!)