Happy All Hollow’s Eve!

MUUUUUUUAAAAAHHHHAAAAA HHHAAAA HHHHHAAAAAA

Yes it’s that day when ghosts and goblins come out to dance with witches and black cats, BEWARE, or a witch will cast her evil spell and turn you into a pumpkin! I love this holiday for it gives us a chance to step out side our dull adult lives of duty and good behavior and dare to be someone different.  A game of masquerade, perhaps a beautiful ball gown with feather perforating a black masks, a super hero

cape with tights, a tutu with frilly pink and ballet slippers, for a one night we put aside all our daily tasks and let our imagination and by extension our appearance be entirely mysterious and unknown while we celebrate the harvest of autumn’s change and the full moon tonight.  I think often we forget going into a store what hard work people put in to harvest those crops, this holiday used to be a great celebration of our agricultural heritage swiftly being over turned by pasta-in-a-box with chemical thyme and peppers.

These people and we do today enjoy treats of all things yummy and delicious and tricks that teach us to laugh at ourselves, stopping for a moment to stop taking ourselves so serious.  We know there are days ahead of cold and doldrum but today, be a child, imagine and remember all those delightful memories of childhood and days gone by of silliness and most of all the ability to be light at heart. Be thankful for the harvest of summers harvest, for imagination, for adrenaline rush of scary tales  when we truly believed and let our imaginations go wild.

I wish you all a Happy All Hallow’s Eve.

Classic Author With Some Not So Classic Cats!

Meeeeooow!!! One of my all-time favorite short stories is Cat In The Rain by Ernest Hemingway. Matter of fact, he was known for his cats, apparently even a book has been written on this subject. A week ago while perusing for a doggie I discovered the coolest cats on the planet. They are called polydactyl cat aka a Hemingway cats. Polydactyl cats have opposable thumbs! Yes they can grab your hand with their paw just like a human can, only fuzzier. These curious felines can have up to 7 toes on each foot, they are quite curious creatures. This is your random fact for the day!

Hey people… WE REALLY ARE AT WAR!

This is not a test, I repeat this is not a test! So sit up straight and pay attention. Though most of us are desensitized by media over stimulation of war photos and action, so much so that the twin towers falling seemed to most Americans the newest Jerry Bruckheimer stunt, we forget real people, friends, (citizens, good ones at that) are DIEING! So while your busy bitching that you can’t get the new car you want, or go to Starbucks as much, our soldiers (politically induced or not) are spending their days fighting a war, a real one.

NY Times featured an article today on the state of the war in Afghanistan. Check it out: Stanley McChrystal’s Long War

Classically Evoking.

Evoke began my day and thus it has continued to remain today. Today, while listening to Visage, Fade to Grey, I found these amazing blogs on my search for a cool photo for my a new site I’m blogging on…

ilikethisonealot

I swear I next time I get my friends all in the same place we are doing a down and dirty life photo shoot. This blog is just a collection of photos and videos, whomever it is, loves M83 which is got to be my all-time favorite running music, (though to be honest I’ve not really delved into this area of music much) and they like Olivia Bee, whom I just blogged on.  I mean the girl has vision and her photography is filled with SO much life. So, if you get a chance peruse this site, and check out the list of blogs followed, they are all super funky and super cool.

Eastside Bride

This girl probably has the coolest wedding site I’ve seen, though I don’t go looking for them, she seems to have her head on straight and has a great sense of classic style mixed with artistic funkiness. She posted the photo above, from this great photographer Stephanie Dangoor. Check out her series above on the White Dress. She is a London law student with a passion and eye for this classic art. Lovin it!

Which again brings me back to my bride-to-be Evoke… Who’s doing the ish right now on style and ettiquette of the wedding day, and like all things there are no rules, well maybe in the Naval Academy but they are there to break remember?

Updike’s Classic Eastwick Meets Lipstick

Just when I thought I’d cried my last tear over the loss of Lipstick Jungle my favorite star of that show join forces with Ugly Betty’s Rebecca Romijn, in ABC’s new com-drama Eastwick. Now, one thing is for certain, Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday (though Christmas is a close second) it is a mysterious, luscious, filled festival in gorgeous golden tones, fresh air after the hot summer, yummy candy, fun mascarades, twinkly lights! But most of all harvest and pumpkins and everything yummy. As such I’m obsessed with a charming noreaster seaside village, namely Salem, Massachusetts and drive there any chance I can get, this I assume is Updike’s “Eastwick” though to be shamefully honest I’ve not read Updike’s classic tale.

Anyway, enough about me. Rebecca Romijn but more importantly Lindsay Price (Lipstick Jungle) joined forces to become two of the three witches of Updike’s classic tale. The show is really charming if you like these types of chick-flick-mock-u-dramas, it is cute, mysterious, luscious in color everything that Fall, Gaelic and Halloween should enrapture. Most importantly, Lindsay is back and she’s just as charming as ever, only this time instead of Joe Bennet’s fashion-designer-sex-kitten she’s a tough, sexy librarian type who’s gutsy investigative reporting-slash-seductive witchcraft combine for a slightly different take on Victoria Bennet. Eastwick is a great way to take enjoy your evening as you approach this holiday season! So check out this John Updike 1980’s movie-made-tv-show remake, Eastwick, Wednesdays or online at ABC.com!

the love game!

My good friend Sharon Denney says I always find the great finds on the internet, but as i’ve been spending less and less time on the internet, she’s out found me… he he, that and… she actually knows the two guys who composed the score for this lovely little film short. The two guys are Alf and Peter Bishai, two rather classic and charming New York men who clearly summed up this film’s music to a tee, both played the love game themselves at one time and won.  They also won here! Alf is a musical composer who teaches at NYU and Peter his brother, is a film director himself.  Watch it on the link below and hey vote for them while your at it!

THE LOVE GAME!

in training…

So, I am begining training for Marine Corps OCS, which will commence next June.  I hope to be ready for my PT by the end of the month, included with that I must loose 6 lbs. but I’m hoping to be down 15 lbs. so I spend the whole of my week on a very strict diet.  But when I give myself a break on the weekends, Cognac has become my newest infatuation. Yum! Slurp! Of course being Irish, I only drink Hennessey and they have some thing common, the few and the proud, Cognac is a much smaller pool of makers.

I mean after all I’m going to have to compete with the platoon’s drinking habits and you know the reputation Marines have!

classically modern

Call me strange if you’d like but I find this new concert hall being built in Hamburg, Germany as absolutely stunning and mysterious. In the dark I imagine it looks like an enormous pirate ship floating across the bay. It’s so otherworldly and so fresh, which is Herzog + de Meuron’s specialty! They also built that “Bird’s Nest” thing for the Olympics in China!

With a friend in the concert hall business, I’ve known about it for sometime now, but today while reading the daily updates by Inhabitat.com, listening to Smetana’s Moldau on the radio, looking at these pictures I couldn’t help but share the project!

Running as Art

Myself being an avid runner and someone who is training for several big life competitions, I found this article in a New York Times, “The Big Draw of a GPS Run.” Obviously to most running can get boring really quickly, so for those looking to get into running I found this a really fun and creative way to see new places while getting great exercise. Everytrail.com and gpsdrawing.com lists thousands of running, hiking and biking trails throughout the world, but a certain handful of people have made their physical regiment artistic and fun. Its like Jackson Pollock on foot, making art of human movements not otherwise duplicated exactly by anyone else, only this is measured and recorded in space sent down to your computer and then put on the www for everyone to see!

For those of you with IPhones…. there are several applications you can use that are effortless in making this vision a reality, like RunKeeper and MapMyRun. The great part is you have your music, track keeper, gps device and phone should you need it.

“Simply” Classic

On my last trip to IKEA I found a book the company called America: The Way We Live, which highlighted and exposed many unusual and some normal places we call home.  Dee Williams, featured in this book was on a mission for a green and more simple life.  A life with less material things, so she could use her money for greater purposes primarily her family and friends, built herself this 84 sq foot cabin on wheels.  Built entirely of reclaimed materials this classic lady made it her personal mission to get what we all want, more time, less hassle and freedom from debt.

You can view just how tiny it is here on this 5 minute news interview. Check it out!

Dee Williams 84 sq foot lifesaver!