A Dream Come True….Mad Men

Once again, I apologize for my long absence.  We went on a little trip to Door County, Wisconsin & have spent the rest of the time engrossed in our new little entertainment purchase – Mad Men.  We just finished season one last night & I CANNOT WAIT for the season 2 premiere next weekend.  Everything about this show is fabulous; the acting, direction, casting and writing are all superb.  But what has really been blowing me away is the spectacular set design, props & stunning costumes:

I can’t get over this show.  I almost want to start watching it right away again.  Maybe this time I won’t interrupt every two minutes by squealing over lamps, wall hangings, office equipment, phones, dresses, shoes, & headboards.

I LOVE that headboard.  It almost makes me want to be a 1960′s era housewife.  ALMOST.  I think I’d miss the women’s liberation & the Diet Mountain Dew way too much.  Have a great day & go watch Mad Men right now!!!!

Dressing Room Decor

I know I said I wouldn’t be posting any more this week, but since I learned that legendary stage & screen actor, Paul Scofield, died on Wednesday; and I found this interesting article in the New York Times, I decided I couldn’t resist. 

I’ve always loved theatres.  When I acted in college and high school my favorite moments rarely happened onstage, they happened backstage, often in the dressing rooms.  There is something special about putting on make-up in front of a mirror, making your character come to life.  I adored putting on the various costumes and seeing someone new when I looked in the mirror.  I even love the smells.  The make-up, the powders, the mustiness of the costumes, even the hair spray.  It was all part of the magic.  So, today when I read the article about Broadway actors & how they designed their dressing rooms, I was moved.  I loved seeing Andrea Martin’s dressing room for Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein:

(Photo by Tony Cenicola, New York Times)                         

And Sherie Rene Scott’s dressing room for Ursula in The Little Mermaid:

(photo by Tony Cenicola, New York Times)

If you get a chance, & you love theatre as much as I do, read the article.  There’s also a slide show & a wonderful picture of the amazing Harvey Fierstien‘s dressing room.  So much fun.  Anyhoo, this is it for me this week.  Have a hoppy weekend. (Get it?  Because of Easter I said hoppy!) 

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

For those of you who don’t know, Sunday night was a big night for me.  Usually, if I’m asked what my favorite TV show is, I might try and play it cool and say Six Feet Under, The Wire, The Office, or Arrested Development.  Or, I might even own up to my Buffy the Vampire Slayer, America’s Next Top Model, The Hills or Real World/Road Rules Challenge guilty pleasures.  But in my heart of hearts, my favorite TV show has always been the Academy Awards.  I can remember meticulously writing down the winners ever since my third grade year.  It was always one of the rare school nights we were allowed to stay up late.  I loved the speeches, the funny unexpected moments, the film clips & seeing the glamourous stars in all their glory.  One of my very favorite parts of the show has always been the clothes.  So, I thought I would do a little rundown of my favorite and not-so-favorite fashions from Sunday’s show.  (Please note: I was unable to source these photographs, but most of them are AP photos from the ABC website.  If you are a photographer who sees your photo, please send me an email via the contact page & I will source your photo.  Please don’t hate me!)

All in all, it was a pretty good night.  One dress stood out to me as being very special:

I love Heidi Klum in this dress.  I love the red (obviously a big theme for the night) & I love the drama of the neckline.  If you are a size nothing, and drink obnoxious amounts of Diet Coke, this dress will be the prize in the Diet Coke Women’s Heart Health campaign. 

So pretty.  As for men, one of my favorites was this guy:

First of all, can we just talk again about how excited I was when Javier Bardem one?  I was whoopin’ & hollerin’ up a storm.  And then when the Coen’s won Best Director & No Country For Old Men took the Best Picture, I couldn’t have been happier.  Okay, back to his suit:

I adore the longer jacket with the shorter lapel.  I don’t know what it is, but I love it.  My husband & I both agreed that it was a very masculine look & I thought it was dead sexy. 

(More of my picks after the jump.)

Darn!

Hey everybody.  I am working on a big wrap-up of Oscar fashions from the wonderful show last night.  But I just got handed a huge project at work; & I also need to research where I got all my fabulous Oscar Fashion photos from. (I want to make sure I’m sourcing the correct photographers!)Tomorrow I should be able to put up all the Oscar goodies I collected.  In the meantime, of course I was excited about this:

Javier Bardem won!  I guess I won’t have to boycott the Academy Awards next year after all.  It was very nice having my favorite movie & my favorite directors take home some well-deserved statues.

It truly was the Best Picture of the year for me, and I’m glad to see that the Academy agreed with my opinion.  See you tomorrow!

Favorite Fashion Inspiration

I was so excited today when I read this article in the New York Times.  It appears that big name designers are looking back to one of my favorite fashion eras, the 50s, and to one of my very, very favorite fashion icons, Grace Kelly, for inspiration.  I can see why:

We had a book when I was a kid, Life Goes to The Movies.  It had all the pictures that Life magazine published about movies & movie stars.   I pretty much wore out that book staring at the pictures of the beautiful stars in their gorgeous clothes.  I obsessed over this picture:

I still love this photo.  That color! That draping!  That immaculately styled hair!  Swoon.  This dress would be a star on any red carpet today.  That’s the thing about ladies like Grace Kelly & Audrey Hepburn.  You could plop them onto the red carpet today & they would still stop everyone in their tracks.  Much like they did here backstage at the 1954 Academy Awards:

(My favorite source for Grace inspiration is after the jump!)

Craving Coens

Specifically, the fantastic brothers that have this guy seared into my dreams:

It has been almost two weeks since I watched No Country For Old Men, and I still can’t stop thinking about it.  I left the theatre with so many images haunting me:

This is Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh, hands down one of the best villians I have ever seen in a movie.  He is fantastic, but so are Tommy Lee Jones & Josh Brolin.

I love the vastness of the dry Texas land and the violent storm beginning on the horizon.  This movie’s landscapes really made me homesick for Wyoming.  Anyway, I now have a new favorite Coen Brothers  film, which is quite a feat.  I love so many of their movies, from Fargo to the Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona to Blood Simple.  With this film, they have mastered their craft and made something that will provide chills, thrills and philosophical introspection for generations to come.  I guess it is apparent that I highly recommend No Country For Old Men.  If you’ve seen it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

My Bad Taste & BCBG-Spring 2008

I am slowly learning about fashion. I just pick out the looks I like and try to emulate it at home for CHEAP. I had no clue that Gwen Stefani’s work was so abhorrent to the fashion community as this article pointed out. Guess I prefer the “blob” & “ditzville”. I just thought it looked fun. Oh well, it’s not like I’m going to be on any worst-dressed lists in the near future. Maybe this is more high fashion, the BCBG Max Azria Spring 2008 collection:















(Photos by IMAXTREE for New York Magazine)
I do love this collection. It looks light & airy, & the colors are soft and pretty. The entire collection works as a whole. Now to go read more about fashion!

Mary Had A Little L.A.M.B.

And, it turns out a raging Benedryl buzz. Arrggghhh. Allergies again!!! Anyway, here are some of my favorite pieces from Gwen Stefani‘s Spring 2008 L.A.M.B. collection:












(Photos: IMAXTREE from New York Magazine)

And here’s the cool lady herself:

I’ve always loved her style & I really like this collection. It does feel a little more Fall to me than Spring, but it’s not too shabby at all. I adore the sweaters.

New Orleans & Green Building

I can’t forget what happened two years ago today. I was horrified by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina & the complete ineptitude of our government. There is still so much work to be done to rebuild one of America’s most beautiful & historic cities. I found the piece below from the Today Show to be very inspiring with a peek at what a celebrity (In this case it’s the super fantastically hot Brad Pitt) can do to help. There are so many interesting Green Building ideas in this piece. I have added the Global Green site to my links on the left & I can’t wait to learn more about the important new technologies in this industry.
Brad Pitt Global Warming Issue & New Orleans Project

It’s All About The Parker!

I love hotels. I even have a weird fondness for seedy hotels. I think it’s the love of Charles Bukowski I have deep down inside that I can thank for that! But, I especially love gorgeous, top-end hotels & resorts. Hence, my new Bravo favorite, Welcome To The Parker. It’s a fun look at the behind the scenes life of a hotel, The Parker in Palm Springs, CA. I would love to be able to afford to stay at a place this gorgeous:




The inside is just as gorgeous as the outside:







I’m fascinated with the entire place. The David Mann architecture is amazing. But the interior design by Jonathan Adler is what has me so intrigued. I love his quirky style and sensibilities & I adore that he’s a potter. I highly recommend Welcome to the Parker. You get to ogle at the fantastic decor & architecture without actually shelling out the dough to stay. Perfect!