Otherworldly Connection

Kim Soo-Hyun & Jun Ji-Hyun

Being told to stay at home is never tough for a homebody and thus I’m digging the time to read, write and like everyone else in this strange situation…stream some cool shows. Recently I’ve been getting into Korean dramas that can be viewed through the Rakuten Viki app. Last year I got hooked on the show Na-ui Ajeossi or My Mister in English. It’s a darker piece revolving around three brothers navigating challenges in their lives and a streetwise young woman trying to outrun her past. It’s a bit sad, but very good. This time I went with a lighter show called My Love from the Star… It’s about an alien (yeah-I know…lol) stranded on earth for 400 years and the connection through time between him and a now famous girl. It’s pure and simple fun… And right now we could all use some of that.

Current Faves… Quarantine Edition

So, from where to where have we come in a few short months…sigh. If there is anything positive in all this craziness, it’s the coming together of people from around the world to cheer and entertain each other through free online classes, Tik Tok fun vids, etc. It’s a beautiful thing. So I have compiled a few of the ways I’m keeping busy (besides cleaning, cooking and organizing)…

Lifestyle Hacks

• FAB Coconut Primer – Being couped up indoors can be really drying to skin and I am loving FAB’s Coconut Primer, (face) which is a lightweight moisturizer that doesn’t cause breakouts.
• Walmart Pick Up – A safer way to shop at the moment and extremely easy to use. Download the app., sign up, choose an available time, enter credit info and get shopping. Once you set a time, they give you plenty of time to add/delete items on your list. They email you when your order is ready and you click when you are on your way. When you get there you get a text asking which numbered pickup parking space you are in and car color. They are out in just a few minutes and right now give the option of signing it themselves to protect you. Easy, and honestly I may just keep it up after all this madness is over.
• Great Value GF Brownie Mix – Whether you are gluten free or not, this mix from Walmart is so good. It only requires an egg and one stick of butter. Side note for those GFree, Walmart’s Great Value Flour Mix is awesome, just add to regular recipes, like Toll House Cookies or Muffins and it tastes just like regular ones.

Entertainment

• Books: Currently reading “You are a Badass at Making Money” by Jen Sincero & “The Success Principles” by Jack Canfield. Do you sense a theme? Yeah, I’m trying to stay positive and both of these are really good, especially Jack’s book – he’s the author of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series and it’s full of encouraging tips and real life success stories.
• Spotify/Echo Dot: Been running Spotify on my iphone & Roku to keep my spirits up using different playlists for everything from housework, dinner, nighttime routines, etc. There are so many playlists on Spotify and Echo Dot will chose from Pandora if you give her an artist to start with or vibe you’re looking for. Echo: I ask Alexa for dinner music and it’s a terrific light jazz that makes you feel like you’re in New York at a dinner club…and I use a Lounge playlist on either for evening reading or getting ready for sleep…
• DVD’s – Breaking out my favorite series collections and alternating for Marathons, or nightly eps. Currently on rotation: Covert Affairs, Mad Men, Castle & Rescue Me.
• Streaming: I recently got rid of my Netflix account because the content basically wasn’t my style, too dark and I prefer more character driven pieces and also I found myself gravitating toward the free streaming services to watch tons of old films that I still love. Pluto, Tubi, Crackle and Roku have a lot of good old ones like Baby Boom, Get Shorty & Be Cool (cheers to Dutch!), New in Town, 007 films and old Hitchcock & Cary Grant classics.
• Instagram Lives: This is where I spend most my time, have to admit…at least lately. It’s so cool how everyone is coming together as I said to offer up their skills and to keep everyone engaged and moving. You can take a ballet class from New York City Ballet’s Principal, Tiler Peck or The Cindy’s a.k.a. American Ballet Theatre’s principals, Isabella Boylton & James Whiteside – or take a dance class with Maks & Peta of DWTS’s fame… There are a ton of great free live exercise classes from yoga to Tracy Anderson right now. You can brush up on your cooking skills and get ideas for meals from famous chefs from Giada and Ina, to the Kitchen alum. (Katie Lee!)
• Learning: There are some good classes you can take online and I have tried out a few of them.
  • Masterclass: At $90/Class or $180/Unlimited – it’s a true bargain. Learn from the Masters in Writing, Photography, Playwrighting and Acting to name a few. The class can be accessed indefinitely when you buy and offers up downloadable notes.
  • Duolingo: Can’t say enough about this one, whether you want to start learning a language or to finally master one you’ve struggled with for years. Duo can be accessed by website or apps and you can choose as many as you want and toggle between them. I’ve donated all the old language learning books because I’ve never had better success learning languages any other way.
  • Cooking Classes: I’ve not taken them but Food Network does offer an app where their famous chefs stream live videos for you to learn from.
  • Skillshare: Another I’ve not tried but hear so many good things about. They do offer some free classes but essentially it’s a paid service learning platform with many, many classes to choose from.
  • Fit On: This app is wonderful – full of great timed workouts that you can stream through their app on your tablet or phone. There are banked and live classes starting at 10 minutes – even I can commit to that!
• Vlogs: I love watching this style of video, it reminds me of Cinema Verité, and I find it very relaxing. As I’ve increasingly moved to a much more Minimalist lifestyle myself, I love that type of content with tips and tricks to save money and reduce unnecessary buying. I enjoy Lifestyle vloggers like Aileen @ Lavendaire, and MuchelleB. Here are my faves at the moment:
  • Kyra Ann – Minimalist
  • Rachel Nguyen – All time fave, her videos are stylistically such high quality & creative – mainly vlog style.
  • Renee Amberg – Vlogs, Lifestyle, Book rec’s, Exercise, Day in Life
  • Lavendaire  – Lifestyle, Book Rec’s, Encouragement to follow your dreams
  • MuchelleB  –  Same as above…only Australian life
  • Ashley Brooke – Vlogs, Fashion, Transplanted Texan documents New York Life
  • Myka Stauffer – Vlogger w/Husband – home life
  • Madeleine Olivia  – Minimalist, Vegan, life in England

Well, there it is, hope it wasn’t too long a read – and I hope you all are staying home if possible and staying well. These are just suggestions, honestly the first week or two I just felt out of sorts and didn’t accomplish much except helping a family member with their taxes, taking short walks and staring at the TV totally lazy and that’s okay too. Times be strange, try your best to roll with it and get through this thing in one piece. Peace!

 

 

 

Eyes Wide Shut

“People tell you who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.” ~Don Draper, The Summer Man.  (Written by: Matthew Weiner)

My Inspiration

Harper’s Bazaar asked Chloe Sevigny some questions about her creative inspirations and I’ve decided to post my own answers to some of their questions, plus a few more…

First album bought: Must have been The Eagles. My brother and I were both listening to them a lot – their harmony is amazing.

Most re-read book: There are two: The Garden of Eden (Hemingway) & The Lover (Duras). (Pic: from film based on Dura’s “The Lover.”)

Fav. Film: Sofia Coppola’s, “Lost in Translation”. I just “get” this one completely – what it’s trying to say and the wit.

Fav. Film Quote: “We let it happen – that’s how we choose.” From: Violets are Blue, written by: Naomi Gyllenhaal.

Guilty Pleasure: Going to see a film on a weekday afternoon. It just feels decadent.

Fav. object: A sapphire ring from my mother.

Fav. time of day: Midnight. The world gets quiet, no ringing phones, music sounds better and I can think, write, and read with better clarity and inspiration.

Dream lunch date: Without question, Henry Miller. He was a great conversationalist and I would love to sit around the table all afternoon and into the night talking to him about, well everything really. (Pic: Henry Miller & Hoki-San Tokuta Miller)

Signature dish: Not sure why they asked this but it’s spaghetti. Whether homemade sauce or store bought and doctored – I rock it.

Fav. TV show: Mad Men was a real stand out – original and never boring. Matthew Weiner is a very talented writer – talk about creative.

Fav. Band: Aerosmith. They’ve always just done it for me and there is no one I’d rather hear play guitar than “Joe Fucking Perry”.

Fashion Inspiration: Think Bohemian. This is not something I give a lot of thought to – I make it my own, but I am inspired by: Jane Birkin – love the boho lace crop tops, jeans and sixties style dresses…

Alison Mosshart – she has great style.

…and Joe Perry – the hats, scarves, cool jackets, shades, ripped jeans…love it. All three have inspired me in some way. (photo: Zack Whitford)

Dogs or Cats: Again, not sure why they asked this but…dogs – cats are creepy.

Fav. room: Bedroom, where I keep my favorite books, music & photographs nearby.

Bedside table: A few photographs, an odd little ceramic entwined newts I bought when I was in high school, an old pink salt used as a ring holder, Berts Bees Baby Bee Solid perfume and books including Henry Miller’s My Life, Paul Auster books and currently Alexa Chung’s “It”. (Pic from HM’s My Life & Times.)

Favorite artist: Thomas Wilmer Dewing (pic: The Spinet)

Fav. Sculptor: Camille Claudel. (Pic: The Age of Maturity)

Fav. Photographer: Henri Cartier-Bresson but I’m most inspired by anyone’s old photographs of families or old buildings.

Well, there you have it, some of my enduring creative inspirations.

 

 

Mad Love

Jon Hamm & Jessica Pare as Mr. & Mrs. Draper – AMC’s Mad Men

It’s nearly time for Mad Men’s Season six 2-hour premiere on April 7th….can’t wait. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…brilliant writing. If you grew up in the sixties, this show resonates to the core. I truly admire and am perhaps a bit jealous of Matthew Weiner’s ability to write characters who are deeply flawed and therefore, deeply interesting…it never bores. From the moment I watched the ep where Betty shoots the birds, I knew it was something very different from what has gone before.

Just when I thought Matthew had reached the pinnacle with the episodes “The Suitcase” & “The Summer Man” then last season brought the deeply moving “The Other Woman” & “The Phantom”. In The Other Woman, when Don shows up at Joan’s apartment to dissuade her from trading herself so that they might land Jaguar and she might secure herself a place at the men’s table, she sweetly thanks him for his act of chivalry (something new for Don), when we as viewers know as Joan does that he’s too late. I remember having conversations with my girlfriends and we all had the same dramatic responses to that episode.

The season five finale was memorable for me mainly due to a poignant scene between a guy we’ve been set up to dislike from the beginning, Pete Campbell and the object of his affection, Beth. Pete seemingly has everything and yet in a prior ep, he tells Don sadly…”I have nothing” and you realize that he very probably has made choices based upon what seemed socially acceptable at the time and not upon real passions. The conversation he has with Beth in the hospital is truly memorable when he explains his life with his family was some temporary bandage on a permanent wound” .

As we dive back into the world of Mad Men, with Lane having made a rather abrupt exit, will it be Sterling, Cooper, Draper… Holloway? Or as my friend Steph and I hope…Olson, as we want Peggy to come back into the fold. I can’t wait to find out what they’ve been up to. Who’s in?

A Million Reasons for Being Anywhere…

“When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere, just ask him. If you listen, he’ll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going, and that he woke up. If you listen, he’ll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel or dreamt of being perfect. And then he’ll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn’t perfect. We’re flawed, because we want so much more. We’re ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had.” ~Don Draper

*Quote from AMC’s Mad Men/Episode “The Summer Man” – written by: Lisa Albert & Janet Leahy and Matthew Weiner
Don Draper’s narration, The Summer Man

One who really knows me….

Photo: Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss ©Niche Media LLC

I always knew it was there, lurking in the shadows but now it’s official…I am completely jealous of Matthew Weiner…. generally speaking because of his brilliant creation, Mad Men but specifically for “The Suitcase”. Somehow he is able to bring out the psychology and truth of his characters and force them to reveal themselves in ways that are quite out of the ordinary. The episode built on itself slowly, as Don and Peggy chose to trust each other enough to reveal some more of themselves to probably (now) the only person on earth either of them trust. Don and Peggy are such similar creatures and as the only woman who knew everything about him passes out of life, she smiles at Don, lying there with the one who will take up that mantle in his life. Amazing writing.