So! This week is basically an all-too-long countdown to my trip to Paris (or “Purris,” as JB and I have been calling it). I’m short on time and always seeing things that interest me, so, here’s a quick round-up.

Clockwise!

Alyson Fox’s “A Shade of Red” series is “a collection of portraits of about 150 women, all linked by the same shade of lipstick: Revlon Certainly Red.” Gorgeous photography, beautiful women. [Via Where the Lovely Things Are]

My bookshelves are lined with historical biographies, and I am eagerly awaiting Eva Braun: Life With Hitler. I can’t say I have sympathy for Eva Braun, but I’m fascinated by her life and the choices she made. (I feel the same way about all murderers, psychopaths and other historical weirdos. Just wanna get in their heads!) [Read more at T Magazine.]

Miss Moss is the undisputed queen of the Internet, and I was tickled to be asked to contribute to her latest genius project: the GIRLS playlist. Lots of awesome bloggers and music to explore.

Isobel and Cleo Knits: I want them all; this cardigan, especially.

Leslie Williamson — an all-around awesome photographer and blogger — shares memories of her grandmother. I love a woman in a turban. 91 years old!

And I’m off!

[Via Duskin]

I love smart advertising. If you haven’t seen this commercial, do yourself a favor and watch.

Eastbound and Down is pretty much my new favorite show…after Strangers With Candy, that is. (Jerri 4ever should be tattooed somewhere on my body.) What can I say? I’m fascinated by any and all entertainment that focuses on despicable characters with no discernible self-awareness — The Real Housewives, Bridezillas, Curb Your Enthusiasm…most of reality TV, really. My shameful secret is out!

Needless to say, I’m pretty impatient for the next season to start. Quotes like “You have clothes like a fucking dickhead” don’t just grow on trees.

Magic!

[Via Today and Tomorrow]

Heeee!

Woot! JB and I are in our new place (and getting kittens tomorrow!). However, this may mean no internet service for a while, so my blogging abilities may be a bit on hold in the interim. I’ll just look at the photo of this tiny dog and rock myself to sleep with no internet. (This is going to be traumatizing, I can tell.)

Full speed ahead.

Today is the two year anniversary of meeting Jeff, my good mang — and the love of my life. Our first date was a truly momentous occasion that took place in a seedy hole in the wall, the Holiday Cocktail Lounge. The hair on my arms still stands on end when I think of how nervous I was! I have Danielle to thank for setting us up. (Don’t worry, I got her a cupcake for her efforts.)

I love you, JB! To our future.

End sappy transmission.

“Smoking cigarettes gives me that wonderful liberating feeling that can only be compared with voting and breathing after I let out the corset strings. Am I right, suffragettes? Where are my uber-feminine purse fit Virginnie Slims, anyway?”

All snideness aside, this is a pretty amazing commercial from the days before tobacco was banned from television. Sterling Cooper, I salute you.

Also, I must add: “Tailored for the feminine hand.” Nice.

[Via Bobster855 on Flickr (my new favorite)]

“Does beauty need a reason?”

[Via wild goose chase]

So! Last week JB and I went down to the Tampa to visit his parents and take in the sites (i.e. go thrifting, wander on the golf cart and be faux retirees for a week). I’d never been down south before and the terrain and wildlife blew my mind: specifically, Spanish moss, which was everywhere. Every non-palm tree was festooned with billowing nests of the stuff. It certainly sets a swampy, alligator with snapping jaws behind every willowy veil, Flannery O’Connor vibe, and I am now totally obsessed with it. I actually brought a big bag of moss back with me and I plan on hanging it in my apartment — perhaps from my new mantle. It’s ever so creepy fun!

Another highlight? We also saw the tiniest armadillo up close — like, six feet away. It was just toddling over the bulge of a golf green, minding its own business, while heading back to its ample hole in the side of the hill. The cuteness! Its skin was a mixture of snake scales and nature’s version of Medieval armor. Rat meets turtle meets snake! (It doesn’t sound appealing, but it really was.)

I can’t take credit for all of the photos above. The big tree that Jeff and I posed in front of is, in his words, “The ideal backdrop for a metal record cover photo.” I gotta agree! Click through to see all of the origin photos.

Skate witches rule! Get a rat or get out of my way!

I <3 Danny Plotnick’s Warts and All compilation.

The rest of the issue is a must see: all of the fashion spreads, editorials and even the ads are such lovely eye candy! This is a magazine is full of women I admire, and I’m so flattered to have an opportunity to be a part of it. Check it all out here.

P.S. That “If you wanna be my lover…” sentiment? Not a joke. If you can’t get down with dolls, that’s a deal breaker.

A three dimensional kitty is always a good thing. This stereoview animation is one of many to be found on the Square America blog.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

xo,
Alison

I recently got an invite to Svpply, the social shopping // bookmarking site. I’ve been finding all kinds of goodies I didn’t even realize I wanted (needed?) via the handy recommendation tool, such as the “Why me?!” Conroy and Wilcox rings at Erie Basin, vintage card catalogs, Ole Mathiesen watches and the United Bamboo kitty fashion calendar (I don’t even care that it’s already 2010; I just need large scale versions of these in my apartment.) As wise man Wayne Campbell once opined, “She will be mine: oh yes…she will be mine.”

Find me on Svpply and let’s share our internet treasures! (Thanks for the invite, Libby!)

This video is “shut.the.f.up” material. It’s grounds for shushing a friend in public. My jaw is stuck to my chest like there’s a thin layer of honey wedged between all of my many angles and as each gyrating pelvis comes pulsating into view, decked out in backless dresses, an ocean of acid wash and fastidious fades, it seems as though A Different World never dropped out of syndication: it’s that good.

Apparently Aka Tak was a Ghanian nightlife singer that’s finally found his niche in the land of milk and honey, twenty years after the fact. If dancing down a line is wrong, I don’t wanna be right. Awesome Tapes from Africa is now my go-to resource for music that puts me in linear formation. Let’s jaaaam!

P.S. I’m a sucker for a good pair of Dwayne Wayne glasses.

[Via WFMU's Beware of the Blog — thanks for the heads up, Tara!]

The Disney animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first of its kind when it came out in 1937. However, the animators needed human inspiration so their characters could be less Mickey, more human; naturalism doesn’t come easily! This lead to the process of rotoscoping, where dancers were filmed as motion study models for Disney animated characters.

One such model is Marge Belcher Champion. She was plucked from her father’s dance studio at fourteen-years-old to serve as the basis for Snow White — and look how cute she was! She continued dancing for the rest of her long life and still is to this day at ninety-years-old, which is pretty dang amazing. Check out Marge and her model compatriots square dancing, yodeling and dressing as large-headed dwarfs below. (Definitely worth a watch!)

Read more about the history of Disney on the Huffington Post.

I started a Formspring page as an experiment. Ask me anything you’d like: I want to be an open book. Fire away!

[Photo by Simple Tess]

My cat lust is reaching critical mass. Must.acquire.cats.soon. (The squishier, the better.)

[Photo by kimhas7cats (for now)]

My plant obsession grows faster than the succulents I slowly murder (damn black thumb), but that just nurses my fascination and makes me more determined than ever to successfully grow something. I recently came across the Botany Society of America’s photo library in the course of my internet trawling and some of the close-ups are more abstract art than recognizable plant (however, some of the photos are on the molecular level, so…yeah). Mother Nature, you are a bewitching mistress.

So, in short: do you have any tips to keep my garden alive? I’m struggling with my jade plants and they’re supposed to be unkillable. Maybe my apartment is cursed?

P.S. Definitely check out the carnivorous plant collection.

Jeff sent me this video a few days ago and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since. It is so ridiculously bizarre! (Like, the kind of bizarre you watch over and over again, not the kind that haunts your dreams….yet.) A life-size, overweight pig in a suit coat seeks a strumpet’s affections; she spurns him, only to make him strip to dance with her? He seems to enjoy getting down in the buff, they synchronize their feet and a good time is had by all while the piano player does his thing.

Entitled “Le Cochon Danseur,” this short film was based on a popular Vaudeville act in the early 20th century. It’s kind of crazy to realize how much humor and theater has changed in a mere one hundred years. (I can’t help but connect this to clowns and the circus. Does anyone sincerely adore clowns anymore? No one that I know of…and if they do, they haven’t seen It yet, a.k.a. the movie that instilled my childhood fear of toilets, sewers and the aforementioned clowns. Ack.)

Also, when he shows his teeth and sticks out his tongue at the end: I may take back what I said about nightmares. Slightly traumatizing.