macaron love

yay! someone understands my adoration of the macaron! and they made a book!

xoxox

I used to live in a psychic city...

Yacht - Psychic City (Voodoo City)

i work in a place where they play music from relative unknown locals to Jay-Z and this one song is my fave - one of the lesser knowns. it's catchy and weird. recently i saw the video for said catchy song and it made me consider my preferences for weirdness. don't judge! nonetheless this video is frickin weird...like 'i made a doll out of your hair will you be my date' weird. whatever makes me smile (but at the end i cringed).




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what does chanukah smell like?

Was in über home decor store and noticed all the holiday home accents.  you know the candles, centerpieces of dried unidentifiable shrubbery and nuts, stockings and the like...Yankee Candles pulled at my heartstrings reminding me of Christmases past with smells like, home sweet home, mistletoe, Christmas cookies.  then there are the glittery apples and balls and leaves in unnatural colors like blue for the Sophisticates' Christmas, which drew me to the Chanukah side of the accent aisle.  and looking through all the blue candles and sacks, the dreidels and gold coins, i couldn't find it.  i couldn't find a Chanukah smell.  and there were no alluding accents to nature or leaves or food or whatever.  then i thought, well, what does Chanukah smell like??  does it have a smell?  

joy is useless unless SHARED

and this is definitely worth sharing...

PUPPIES DRESSED AS CATS!

thanks coco...

xoxoxo

and my creativity is feeding me.

i love food and like to cook at home and lately my cooking skills have been ON.  i was so impressed by my reawakened domesticity that i had to document it.  thanks to the internet and chance (totally went dada on some recipes) it seemed insanely simple: mix uncooked noodles, milk, cheese and some melted butter in a pan and bake for an hour.  to be honest i stopped reading the recipe after i read the ingredients and skipped to the bake an hour part.  i wasn't even certain that anything more was involved.  before i popped it in the oven i had reservations; it looked like someone puked after eating fettucine alfredo or some junk.  but i had faith.  to top it off i shortened the recipe and came out with a single serving the first night.  the next night i was able to get leftovers for a couple more meals and it came out perfect with crunch edges and everything.  YAY!  i added some diced onions and fresh spinach on top and well, here it is...

˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚

Wish i could make these but i haven't tried to yet.  Occasionally i treat me self and on my way from NY Burger I ran across this cute place called Madeline's Patisserie.  Needless to say these gems in the window caught my eye i heart them!  i think the colors attracted me, then i ate one and loved them so now years later i'm all about the ever elusive macaroon.

There were so many kinds at Madeline's, that they had a menu just for them.  these were the most i ever paid for them so i got just a few - no need to blow all my money on sugar (i was still sipping on a vanilla milkshake from burger place).  of course i got pistachio ones and a praline.  This is my dessert to my insanely easy mac & cheese dinner.  fridays at my crib - you will get fed...

ohhhmmmm

Taking time out is important.  That's why I took off a couple of days and finally slept in for the first time in weeks...

I'm also getting really good at throwing out things that are no longer useful: brochures from a million different yoga places nowhere near my job, scraps of tracing paper and gift bows from like six years ago.  i decided to do something fun with the bows before turning it into garbage...

 xoxo

From Russia with Love.

Someone very empathetic told me today in their wonderfully soothing russian accent that they have a saying that life is like a zebra.  They pointed to my striped sweater with the light stripes contrasting the deep blues intimating, sometimes life is light and sometimes it can be dark.

let us play with your look some more

thank you jimmy fallon...again.

stuff i find and run into...or something.

The Government of The Future (?)

l. to r.: the guy from Robocop, Kyle McLaughlin, Lynch and Bowie.

I saw Kyle in chelsea a few days after I found this photo on, well, fffffound.

ahh synchronicity...

too busy. no can make blog

I’ve been­ busy with sleep deprivation, moving, writing papers and studying. Pulp Fiction was apt background to studying Futurism. I managed to find time to watch Sam J. being quite awesome on Youtube. He also is a big sports fan so I’m not surprised finding this.

(the center of the universe)

I helped Roman Ondák measure the universe...

(freewebs.com)

today i thought it was the 70s again when i saw an obviously pregnant lady smoking on the street.
i also feel like a baby trapped inside a mom who smokes; i'm self-protective.
i just can't wait to get the hell out and be free...but until then, i'm kickin ribs.

and ho! yonder, thee sentimentality...

i believe that when you give someone a book and never get it back, you've inadvertently given them a message they needed to receive. i've given by accident, "breathe, eyes, memory" a good book for any woman to read.
i've also never returned a great book, "women who run with wolves". and maybe because i've never returned it, i remember the guy who i borrowed it from. he's an artist who makes sculptures out of typewriters and wax and baby doll heads among other things...

let us play with your look.

skit or performance art. Jimmy Fallon and Will Farrell made me laugh so much today and reminded me of pscyedellic 60s art fringe pop a little. the entire show was good (eat it like a flute!) but i just gave you the look.

xoxo

i'm going to the uncanny valley

I asked my teacher would taxidermy be considered realism and he said it's uncanny. Someone actually made a chart exemplifying this:

This unicorn (like all!) is spectacular...

It's by Børre Sæthre. I love things like this and being that I love diaromas too I should probably go to the Natural History museum soon. Any takers?!

I remember one spring break while everyone else was boning locals in Cancun I took myself to the Natural History museum in Philly (where I was going to school at the time). I just geeked it up that year...

THIS is also awesome!

since my weheart feed doesn't seem to want to cooperate i'm posting a few bits i hearted. yes, hearted is a verb now.

hair...

and this is why brown girls are awesome.

take note.

love us.

we love you.

a smattering of my own photos

fresh & green

a plain white tee

sparkly balls

a tutu! awwww!

xoxo

­McG How do I love thee…

Let me count the ways...

Strong kick ass women characters who are unabashedly feminine.

The gratuitous use of pristine muscle cars.

Stylized action sequences.

Classic rock (which now also includes 90s grunge) prominent.

Prominent Browns (usually musicians, usually awesome).

Guys who are guys and love the aforementioned strong women.

so over damien hirst

i used to like Damien Hirst now I'm not so into it. It's not that i'm a hater now it's just that i'm seeing it in a different way than before. i'm not so impressed by it. back when i first realized who/what i was looking at in 2007, i thought it kind of genius. mother and child or the thing with the cows stuck with me - in fact most of the formaldehyde animal cross sections intrigued me. i saw it as: hey mother and child yet somehow this is very sad and creepy. like their dependency on each other is somehow their demise. maybe it's just a predisposed awe with the connection it had to scenes from The Cell (a visually stunning movie with a whatever canned plot) which took a lot of artistic references from works of art and an REM video. but anyway NOW it seems a lot are not liking him anymore. maybe he broke the dam that flooded the art market with dribble (sorry for the metaphor) overshadowing (drowning) some really exceptional emerging artists in its wake. i'm not sure i'm a sophomore at this. aesthetically i am over hirst though. there's only so many ways one can cover a skull in non-organic material and he's not innovative to me now.


i had this conversation with a guy i worked with in the village over the weekend. turns out he studied art and worked the industry yet he's so over new york and can't find a gallery job so he's booking farther north. when i said damien hirst is over rated he got a second wind like i'd said what he's been waiting to hear for a while. then he asked me what i did like and all i could think of was Fragonard. i think i like the colors and the flirtatiousness of it. it's not very sad and it's very organic.

i think a modern day version of this would be lastnightsparty or nickydigital where you see a slice of life that's very carefree and not at all moralistic. ha, Merlin is Fragonard...or is he caravaggio? hmm.

i didn't think i'd like renaissance all that much but i'm liking and re-liking some of the artists in that time. after all they are still influencing todays artists.


I saw something soooo absurdly amazing on BOOOM - where I get a dose of art every day (most local and emerging) -by artist Joshua Bronaugh and there seemed to be minimal brush strokes yet you knew exactly what it was... amazing.

random wants

ooh i want the post secret book so bad. xoxo

hi, snark how are you?

NOT SO LOVED HARD
it does nothing more than burn me up to read some of the entertainment news and today i saw something entitled "gals of summer" and yet again there were NO brown actresses. Megan Fox with an orange tan doesn't count as a brown girl. Brown girls are ALIVE, they are awesome they went to Julliard! propaganda is still among us and it glitters, man.

STYLIZED NON-CONFORMITY
once i was so fed up i emailed urban outfitters about all the distinctly ubiquitous models and they wrote me back right away. i was somewhat relieved that they requested a portfolio of models i had in mind - an actual response and a cooperative one. too bad i didn't have any clients to propose to them. anyway, maybe in the future. i always see beautiful faces in the streets but i better act fast cos the swimsuit models they had this year made me want to poke my eyes out with a fountain pen dipped in lemon juice. not exaggerating. no form, no curves, no ass and no color. i won't be buying any of their swimsuits on that marketing faux pas. okay i could see not a lot of people having beautiful curvaceous asses, but c'mon they looked like13 year old boys! no curves anywhere.
the only thing my eyes did enjoy seeing in frivolous news is the new character in the latest Terminator movie. holy shit, Sam Worthington is perfect! and he has an australian accent. good lord...ironically this last bit seems to negate my vehement opinion on the narrow visual representation in fashion and film. but, i know what my eyes like and i think that even if there were more browns in media i'd still like the worthingtons out there. but, whoever let Iman slip in there...thank you. and i'm sure Bowie is thanking you too...

MA|Art Market Principles show FIT.

Peter Kreider:

Christina Gundersen

I like the painterly strokes in this.

Jeana Baumgardner

Mary Temple:

an illusion of sunlight when there is none.

art at FIT

Queens: woohoo! worthy

talk about trying to find a balance!  i have to work tomorrow but i really want to go to QUEENS.  that other borough i've been avoiding since 2005 (along with the Bronx).  i don't think i've been there in like three years when i visited my friend at Flux Factory.  so yeah, this better be gooood...there's a show at the Queens Museum, Queens International 4 that has a plethora of artists, Queens artists, bikes and shenanigans at the closing ceremony.  New friend is co-curator and I definitely want to check it out...and old friends are band playing the event - The Unstoppable Death Machines!  I hope to make it! 

a message from the universe.

i really am taciturn when it comes to internet expression cos so many randoms stalk me.  but i figure, this is sooooo beautiful not to want to share.  

i got a totally out of the blue email from an old friend.  the only thing i edited were the brackets:

I have to admit, I have always been in awe of you, starting in high school. To me, you were that person that I wished I had the balls to be. You were original, funny, nice, and you had a ton of great friends. I was not like that, I was a follower who pretended to be, well, not a follower.
I saw you on [SG], probably more than a year ago, and I freaked! I sat there and told my fiance basically what I just typed. I pulled out a poem I had written that you illustrated. It was one of those moments that kinda just froze. Looking at the pictures, thinking "wow, that's Selina, I know her! She's outstanding!" I sat there, in awe all over again! Finding you on here and getting the opportunity to read your blog has been great. You are creative with your words, very descriptive when you write. I love that, I write the same way when my brain is working correctly. Your photography is outstanding! You have talent. I don't know what you have done between high school and now, but I'm sure it's been a great adventure for you. I think you continue to be someone I would love to have the balls to be, someone I envy! I love being a momma more than anything, don't get me wrong, but I have never been anything else and sometimes that's depressing for me.
No, I am not some strange stalker, I just always have to let someone know when they have affected me in some way. Just thought I'd let you know.
Continue being you!
Liz

Liz is awesome.  My response to the email was pretty much, thank you from the bottom of my heart...  

cos lots of times you feel things and believe things and hope that you're getting across to people the way you intend and when someone is affected in a positive way by what i did it's like Divinity giving me a reassuring nudge. I'm listening.  

ambassadors of cute

this is real!  this is better than pushing your kids to become beauty paegant winners.  do you think you get free parking for singing in a swimsuit?!  no...being ambassador is the way to go and now it's easier if your cuuuuute!

and you know what else would make a great title...

Ambassador of Cool 

...and who would be a perfect one.  

Sam J. (pff, obviously)                                      

        

Fafi!

My first introduction to Fafi was entirely random (or just a cunning eye for the next whatsit!). I went to Colette in Paris and saw this shirt that had a girl on it with macabre maracas and it was enough for me to want to pay $40 for it. I thought, 'I'm in freakin Paris when am I ever going to see this again?' It was a shirt by an artist called Fafi and little did I know she'd reach blowin-up-shit proportions later across the pond.

She'll be exhibiting along with other ladies who are mostly in the street art set at McCaig-Welles in Williamsburg. I'm going to try to make it out there next Friday but can't promise anything...

If anyone is into illustration or street art: the genre, should take a look though.

grandma cookies in the sun.

This is what I had for lunch today. It's a pack of butter cookies that were heaven in my mouth and a large hot chocolate I got across from FIT. I sat in the sun and enjoyed every remaining minute of my break. I figured since I've been overindulging in the lamb gyros for a few days I can skip a few meat food groups for a day.

One thing I've learned to accept about my tastes is that I loooove grandma cookies. I call them grandma cookies but they are really called butter cookies. They come in a tin sometimes with chunky sugar on it and sometimes they come in horseshoes german style with almonds. doesn't matter i love them. snickerdoodles are another story...

what i saw in one day

everyday i see hearts in everything.  this is not a lie.  and as i walked out down my block to go to work i saw this on the ground and decided to finally take a picture of said phenomena.  later in the day i also saw what appeared to be two lamp posts leaning into each other as if kissing but my picture did not capture it.  i guess it was for my eyes only...

i liked this style so much i had to take a picture of it.  i think this was Bergies or Henri Bendel.  I like to see the windows during christmas time too but occasionally i stop and look at a good window.  this is totally me...

my sister used to say i loved anything sparkly when i was a kid.  holograms, glitter, iridescence.  i guess i'm still into it...

i was walking along Lexington on the way down to 59th street cos it was so nice out and i noticed someone had dumped some ice in a storm drain - which is normal, but the way it came to be caught my eye.  

squeeze

there are not enough hours in my days! i hope to go see some work by Caitlin Hurd. i can relate to the suburban ennui it looks like she represents in a lot of her artwork. i love her aesthetic and colors. also i want to see Lisa Lebofsky's work at the gallery in BK.

working 7 days and going to class in the eve is time consuming. i don't know how long i'm going to keep it up but i'm surprisingly not that tired, but i'm going to try and squeeze in some art things this week: looking at and creating some; i have an idea i want to do thanks to a certain Muppet i saw last week. There's something comforting about sitting around watching Muppets.

and here is a picture of my Blue Russian

cat wearing my legwarmer as a gentleman's scarf...

he's handsome.

true love is fleeting

First and foremost - this crowd was great!  i met and re-met some interesting artists (some with anime eyes!) and ran into a sort-of-ex-roommate i haven't seen since i moved out.  had a great conversation about the luxury of simplicity.  

i got to Leo Kesting Gallery after work and ran into my friend S who is an SVA alum.  There were works from Nick Dyball also SVA alum.  there was glorious cheese and as the night went on (and we closed the exhibit) more people packed the place and awed and had a great time...

it seems apt to have an exhibit named true love is fleeting near valentines day.  there's so many things that are fleeting: time, opportunities, feelings, but why does love get all the attention?  maybe it's cos everybody needs it and they're willing to spend crazy money on st. valentines to prove it. (i saw so many people with flowers today like they were going out of style). there's no way you can schedule love it just kind of happens and when it does there's no tangible way to hold onto it.  you can't beef up your resume to sustain it or tie it to your sleeve.   just to remember how it felt i guess is the best you can do when It is so fleeting that way you can recognize it when it comes back at the right time...so i'd like to believe.  

Nick Dyball.

and i looked at this soooo long...

Donna Cleary's monoprints.

Diane Dwyer

Brenda Buck's polaroids are best in person cos you can see all the 

faint messages in the white part of the "polaroid".

 

pictures that are not mine.

i fill up my moments of free time/idling at work with various websites and i find stuff like this.  did someone read my mind about how awesome sam j. is and make this painting...?  do chubby kids holding pigs always look this cute?  will that girl on vacation in africa ever redeem herself?  

i've added another link in the sidebar so you can revel in pleasantries such as this...  there are tons more though...i am only one person.

juliana hatfield playing in the background will help us solve this

The terminally reflective 90s... when we'd all listen to college radio and remember all the obscure band's names whose lyrics were too personal. we'd watch sitcoms that all seemed to have that low-level indie music playing in the background (what was up with that!) while they had deep conversations about life. i miss those shows...where nothing blows up every two seconds and you could hear every tortured inflection in Angela's musing about Jordan Catalano or the trials of the party of five, and mustn't forget Dawson's creek or alien/human romance in roswell. I'm starting to see even more red hair, doc martens and nirvana tees cropping up in nyc than last year and incoming freshman look like they stepped off the train right from hot topic or the salvation army and conspicuous peace signs are back. still waiting for the Jordan Catalano hair to catch up with the guys though. c'mon guys get layered! just leave the hemp chokers at home, i don't think I'm ready for that yet...

and on another note so not the 90s but someone at work mentioned how 70s sitcom theme songs have a way of describing the entire synopsis of the show. hilarious! I immediately thought of Fall Guy. this makes me so happy.

you're walking through my heart once more...

hooray! i went to the Met for my birthday and am now in love with Greek statues. i can spend two hours in there and it'll feel like two minutes! Hercules is my new fave (the younger version). I can appreciate the aesthetic much more now. i used to not even go in the Greek wing of the Met but i'm opening up to a newer perspective and this is an example.

I'd still like to hold onto my ability to find the beauty in everything...even a wall patterned by schrapnel. i was a little devastated when i realized this wall 'art' was made as a result of gunfire.

but, then i saw this photo of a dingy industrial space in russia and all of the sudden it was a little ethereal when the lights were turned on.

and i just luv this so hard.