Links 4/07

I hope you had a lovely Saturday. I took a forty minute detour to claim a vegan cinnamon roll, visited the Louvre’s special Delacroix exhibition, and ate a pizza (also vegan).
Keep an eye open for an upcoming ‘best vegan pizzas in Paris’ post. The sequel to the Boston edition- we’ve relocated.

So here’s what’s happening on the interwebs, carefully avoiding the trend for snorting condoms.

• The city of lights from the sky
• I’m fantasizing less about these outfits and more about the swoon worthy descriptions of spring weather
• Body glitter is now the only appropriate use for the Kira Kira filter. I am entranced.
• What happens when you add illustrations to those random snippets of overheard conversations
• I would stay here– books and beds are the only things I need in life
• For it to really be Paris he would have an accordion
• Infernal Affairs and The Departed– for me The Departed wins because Boston, but I have yet to see Infernal Affairs (it’s been on my list SO LONG) so that’s not worth much. It does look excellent, doesn’t it?
• If you’re a Royal Wedding fan, maybe you want to enter this social media contest to suggest its defining ice cream flavor?
• The unstoppable rise of veganism, about which I have mixed feelings (more people want to eat my cinnamon bun but more places sell vegan pizza).
• The benefits of a plant-based diet for health and the environment.
• Congrats to Yale and congrats to Nathan Chen.
• An interview with my favorite makeup artist
• A follow up on the Orientalism inherent in Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, and in the broader world of American cinema (with a very interesting segment on 2015’s Met Gala theme).
  “It’s Japan purely as an aesthetic — and another piece of art that treats the East not as a living, breathing half of the planet but as a mirror for the Western imagination.” And perhaps the only thing that will lead to a more fair, just, and equal portrayal of Asians in cinema and pop culture is the spending power of that huge sector of the world population.
• Turkish Rondo in finger snaps
• Molly Ringwald reflects on the problematic legacy of John Hughes movies in the era of #MeToo

Links Actually on Friday 12/15

TEN DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

I’m so ready.

Here’s what’s happening:

• Some shit-talking about the Golden Globes and their (sometimes absurd) nominations. Get Out is a comedy? Rly?
• How to sell cruise tickets? Carnival thinks tropical scents in a can might work. Aruba, Jamaica, oooh I wanna take ya.
• If John Boyega wasn’t already the cutest, here’s proof he’s also a family boy. Does he have a dog too?
• An odd but amusing card game.
• And given my love of hot seat, this seems totally up my alley.
• A computer-generated Harry Potter chapter? I mean, I miss new books being released that I’ll take whatever I can get.
• The New Yorker article “Cat Person” is taking the internet by storm. It’s really relatable.
• Here’s why.
• Polish and French Nature Word names. Some are out there, but I would totally name a cat Coquille.
• I’ve fallen in love with Raymond Peyote’s illustrations (even with the obsession with boobage), see the example above.

Links not Words

Look at me doing two posts two days in a row like I don’t currently have 134 raw materials to study and an illness to recover from! 😀

No excuses, I have reaped enough links from the inter webs now to share them and I’m missing sharing my thoughts more often, so I’m going to work on making time for this blog/diary/list compendium more of a priority.
For the children, you know.

• Pixar’s released a TEASER TRAILER FOR INCREDIBLES 2! I’ve been waiting so long. And I am so ready for destructive apocalyptic Jack Jack and stay-at-home Mr. Incredible. (And Edna Mode. Please, Edna Mode).
• One of my favorite makeup artists (Violette, check out her youtube channel) has released a trio of lip colors with Estee Lauder. I’m sorely tempted.
• A scholarly discussion of Rankin & Bass Christmas specials; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Finally convinced me to finally watch Jack Frost, which I had somehow missed during all of my childhood ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas. Here are some highlights.
• A program to help you find the word that’s just on the tip of your tongue.
• Guys, there’s a new horse movie coming out, Lean on Pete.
• The American Film Institute has released their list of top 10 films of 2017. It’s a pretty good list. I’ve seen 4/10 so far, time to get cracking.
• Yale’s released a new admissions video, “That’s Why I Toured Yale”, replacing cult icon “That’s Why I Chose Yale”. The weirdest thing? I recognize people in the video. (I see you at 9:26-9:33, ballroom team!)
• NPR’s guide to the best books of 2017. Be right back, adding about 20 to my list. have you read any?
• New York Times film critics on the best movie performances of 2017. So much agreement and so much anticipation for films I haven’t seen yet (like Ladybird, The Shape of Water, and Call Me By Your Name).
• The magic of big cities, an illustration.

Happy December (!) Links

I changed my desktop background (finally!). I was feeling the need for something pink and fluffy with unrealistic eyelashes.

• A brilliant deconstruction of the “woman are possible to understand” trope. Why women might have to be good dissemblers.
• The Lion King on a budget. I hope this is what the live action remake looks like.
• On discovering your story: “Obstacles you face come back to your belief system. They wouldn’t be obstacles if they weren’t challenging something within us.”
• “If you find yourself having to regularly indulge in consumer self-care, it’s because you are disconnected from actual self-care, which has very little to do with “treating yourself” and a whole lot do with parenting yourself and making choices for your long-term wellness.” What ‘self-care’ really means.
• Turning towards instead of away: the secret to an enduring marriage?
  Skip the first four intro paragraphs.
• Meet Liu Yifei, the new Mulan.
• I’m a sucker for Miss Piggy. What will she wear?
• Three Christmas markets in Paris! A vegan one?

Two seconds with Russell Crowe

I watched the remake of 3:10 to Yuma last weekend and really enjoyed it much more than I was expecting to (insert horrible pun about eating crow/Crowe here).  And it made me realize that Russell Crowe is actually a pretty good actor? And one that I kind of enjoy watching?

So I took a trip through his IMDb page to take a quick account of the films he’s done, what I’ve seen, and my final plus/minus sheet.

Watched and enjoyed:

• 3:10 to Yuma: Don’t get me wrong, this film is NOT as good as the original. And they change the ending.  But it’s a good film, a good modern Western (and there are so few) (GUYS I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE HOSTILES), and the fact that he plays outlaw Ben Wade with a capability even approaching that of the legendary Glenn Ford… good on you Russ.
• A Beautiful Mind: Math O.O
• Gladiator: “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!” Reader, I was.
• LA Confidential: Yep, sure.

Watched and didn’t enjoy so much:

• The Nice Guys: Like LA Confidential, but irritating and worse.
• Les Miserables: Les Miserables is a great book. Les Miserables is a great film (1998, Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush). Les Miserables is a great musical. Les Miserables should not be a book turned into a musical turned into a film. It’s not sustainable. Hefty and overdone, tbh.
• The Insider: This was too ‘manly’ for me, honestly. Kind of like Se7en. That should be a separate list. I need to think about what it means to me when I call a film ‘too manly’. Because that’s not a helpful description, but maybe you get me?

Things Get Confusing

At least I’m not the Yalie who was called out recently on Facebook for conflating renowned scientist and victim of radiation-poisoning Marie Curie with similarly-yet-differently renowned singer and diva Mariah Carey.

But I do have equally embarrassing things that I confuse with one another. Here are a few of them.

Familiar Film Faces

For a person of 20-going-on-21, this list is… um…. a bit embarrassing.
I like old movies (classics, please) just as my literature preferences lean more toward the 19th century.

Naturally, my favorite actors and actresses are similarly timeless/currently deceased.  Mostly.
And my favorite actors are not necessarily the ‘best’ actors, but rather the people I am always happy to see on the screen.  Just as when a book is written by my favorite author I try to read it, if a movie has one of these people in it, I try to watch it.

Jimmy Stewart: I date my film obsession back to when my grandmother showed me Rear Window the summer before my freshman year of high school.  In reality, it had probably been seething beneath the surface before then- but the breathtaking combination of Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly (see below), and director Alfred Hitchcock caused a veritable explosion in my conception of what films could be.  I like Jimmy Stewart for his self-effacing, foot-shuffling charm, whether he’s bringing it to a screwball romantic comedy (Philadelphia Story), a Western (Destry Rides Again), or the quintessential Christmas film (It’s A Wonderful Life).