the look-see

turn on the bright lights

2010-06-20T15:49:00.003-04:00

Jil Sander
Spring 2011

I'm not one for fluorescent colors, but how can you resist after you watch that?

fall back

2010-06-18T17:10:00.002-04:00

Kai-aakmann
Fall/Winter 2010
For whatever reason as it's being warming up, I can only think about Fall/Winter 2010 outerwear. There's a Fall/Winter 2010 leather jacket that I saw back in January that made my mouth drop and I'm literally counting the days until I can wear it, but another outerwear piece I've been wanting for the longest is a solid trench coat. I think you have to be a certain age to look comfortable and effortless in a trench. A mac is one thing, but a trench is something I associate with my dad wearing. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but a boxy London Fog or Burberry trench is not what I'm looking for. Enter, this Kai-aakmann trench pictured above. There's something about it that makes it not your dad's trench. Impossibly cool and with all the details you want out of standout outerwear piece (my weakness for epaulets unashamedly continues), this is one of the items that makes you wish Fall was here a little sooner.

song of the week: the ghost who walks

2010-06-15T01:13:00.003-04:00

Karen Elson
"The Ghost Who Walks"
directed by Jack White

This is the perfect music to enjoy while sitting next to a fan and cooling off. Trust me, I'm doing it right now.

25

2010-06-13T22:11:00.006-04:00

My dad once told me about when he saw Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" when it was initially released in theaters in 1971. It was rated X and was shown in one theater in Louisville, Kentucky that also doubled as a porno theater. He said at the time it was very controversial and most people considered it cheap exploitation, devoid of any substance, and an assault on taste and the boundaries one should explore with sex and violence on film. Now, it's considered a masterpiece. I don't think you could ever know if you're watching what will become part of the cultural lexicon and the quintessential canon of "best of..", but it is worth chewing on the endless possibilities. The first ten years of the new millennium is a fascinating space of time because it stills feel present and difficult to define. The images that are projected on the screen are stories that connect to us and define us. Sometimes they're ugly, sometimes they're far removed from reality, and sometimes they cut right to the bone and say something so true and honest that you can't help but have those images seared into your memory. Some of the best works from filmmakers new and old were able to do that from 2000 to 2009. Maybe decades from now it will be easier to assess what is truly the best of that time, but each of the films that I think were the twenty-five best reflect something personal and profound, and that is the timeless quality of good art. Here are the twenty-five best films from 2000-2009:

1. There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (2007)

2. Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuaron (2006)

3. Talk to Her, directed by Pedro Almodovar (2002)

4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, directed by Andrew Dominik (2007)

5. 24 Hour Party People, directed by Michael Winterbottom (2002)

6. The Bourne Identity/The Bourne Supremacy/The Bourne Ultimatum, directed by Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass (2002) (2004) (2007)

7. The New World, directed by Terrence Malick (2005)

8. Before Sunset, directed by Richard Linklater (2004)

9. Zodiac, directed by David Fincher (2007)

10. The Station Agent, directed by Tom McCarthy (2003)

11. City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles (2002)

12. About a Boy, directed by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz (2002)

13. Mulholland Drive, directed by David Lynch (2001)

14. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, directed by Michel Gondry (2004)

15. 2046, directed by Wong Kar Wai (2004)

16. Wall-E, directed Andrew Stanton (2008)
17. Dogville, directed by Lars Von Trier (2003)

18. Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola (2003)

19. The Piano Teacher, directed by Michael Haneke (2001)

20. 25th Hour, directed by Spike Lee (2002)

21. Adaptation, directed by Spike Jonze (2002)

22. Kill Bill Vol. 1., directed by Quentin Tarantino (2003)

23. Traffic, directed by Steven Soderbergh (2000)

24. The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by Wes Anderson (2001)

25. Far From Heaven, directed by Todd Haynes (2002)

dvd pick of the month: red desert

2010-06-12T10:32:00.002-04:00

"Red Desert"
directed by Michaelangelo Antonioni
1964
And the best part of this release besides the obvious (the tetralogy is almost completely on Criterion!) is this clip on the site. I love how the trailer looks like a cheeky, farcical 60's couple romp of a movie when in fact it perfectly fits in the cannon of provocative, confrontational, and quietly sexy that Michaelangelo Antonioni does so well. The quail egg scene in the red room is unforgettable. When, oh, when will Criterion put "La Notte" out and make me a truly happy man? "Red Desert" is out on DVD and Blu-Ray on June, 22nd.

first look: somewhere

2010-06-12T10:22:00.003-04:00

"Somewhere"
directed by Sofia Coppola
December 22, 2010

Let's hope the movie is as good as the poster.

goop

2010-06-10T00:29:00.002-04:00

Gywneth Paltrow in Stella McCartney
at the Stella McCartney Resort 2011 Presentation in New York
Remember the summer of Gwyneth and the mini? I miss those days, but there's something to be said about a woman in a blazer and a pair of pants. Gwyneth, you can cook for me any time.

gqmf

2010-05-23T14:10:00.004-04:00

Ryan Gosling in Band of Outsiders
I haven't been shopping in three months and this image of Ryan Gosling heading to Cannes for the premiere of his new movie, "Blue Valentine", makes me think two things: my first purchases should be a new cardigan and a new pair of black slim cut jeans. I've been wanting the Band of Outsiders cardigan he's wearing since I saw it at Odin a couple months back. It's so simple and yet so stylish. I also need a pair of black slim cut jeans after I destroyed my Shipley & Halmos pair while playing kickball in January (long story). Can't it be Christmas in May and someone just give me these things?

via JustJared

everybody in khakis

2010-05-16T20:47:00.007-04:00

Rag & Bone
Blade II Chino, $265
Save Khaki
Classic Chino, $110
Topman
Vintage Wash Chino, $60
There was a period in my life where I almost exclusively wore nothing but khakis. I had every shade imaginable from Gap and J. Crew. But then suddenly one day, I decide NO MORE. I wish I could be that strict when it goes to stuff that's actually bad for me (alcohol, fast food, crushes from a far), but like any old habit, the desire to wear a khaki pant has come back. I wear jeans every day of my life and I like the comfort, ease, and practically that denim provides. They can be worn with literally almost anything to look super casual or super dressy and that universal quality is key to how I think about what to wear on a daily basis. Khakis, on the other hand, can be difficult because they can look too utilitarian or too Soccer Dad. The length is so important as well as the fit through the leg. I want something slim, but not ultra-skinny and with a little weight, but not linen or super light. Something with a stain resistant would be nice. I own two pairs of stain resistant khaki shorts from Gap that look like the day I bought them almost five years ago and I couldn't treasure them more. The search is officially on. Next thing you know, I might make a return to sweatpants. Or not.

three lovers

2010-05-16T19:23:00.003-04:00

"La Collectionneuse"
directed by Eric Rohmer, 1967
Two guys and a girl in St. Tropez in the late 60's. It's the perfect setting for a story brimming with sexual politics and erotic tension. It's also innately stylish. Patrick Bauchau stars a man hellbent on achieving nothingness in an idyllic summer home. Enter the coy temptation that is sexual youth and abandonment played by Haydée Politoff. Oh, and his friend, Daniel Pommereulle, is staying with him too. Masterfully measured, the morally vexed tale of repression and release plays wonderfully and cruelly in such beautiful settings. The wardrobe is at times distracting because it seems so precise. Oversized cuffed shirts with extra long shirt tails, terry clothed sweatshirts, caftans for days spent lying in the brush, and of course, bikinis to eye at for days. There certainly isn't a timeless to every wardrobe choice, but the ones that do resonate last just as much as the power of Rohmer's art.

seeing red

2010-05-16T18:42:00.003-04:00

Givenchy
Camp Shirt, $285
There are a handful of colors I tend to stay away from; orange, brown, yellow, anything day glo, and mint green. I try to lump red into that category, but I find myself time and time again trying to find a place for it in my wardrobe. I have one red Lacoste polo and the days when I decide it's time for it to come out of my drawer, I still somehow feel... not right. I think red looks best on me in stripe or plaid form, but red as a sold can be difficult because it can either make you look bold and badass or like the Kool-Aid man. I was doing some online window shopping and came across this Givenchy short sleeve button down. Wouldn't this look cool with a pair of khaki shorts and some sort of stripe cardigan? And I love the hidden button down detail save for the bottom button. The Givenchy woman looks good in red, why can't the man?

lessons in the man tote

2010-04-09T02:49:00.004-04:00

BillyKirk Hobo Toe
$253, RevolveClothing.com
I try not to develop real feelings for inanimate objects, but I must say that I'm quite taken by my Pabst Blue Ribbon tote bag. Unfortunately, it's on its last leg after weathering a couple of seasons and the wear and tear of my man tote needs. And then, what do I find? The BillyKirk tote bag pictured above. I've been wanting to upgrade my man tote to something that feels and looks well designed for all year round usage. No leather, no canvas, and narrowed my search and of course it has to be large enough to pack a twelve pack, but discreet enough to not look like you're carrying around travel luggage. Happy medium has been found and I can't wait to put it to the ultimate test (fill it with an eighteen pack and see how it holds up).

2009

2010-04-03T17:55:00.003-04:00

It might seem after the fact that I'm writing about a year in film that ended three months ago. It was an unusual year for film and not the year I was anticipated or had hope to close the first decade of the 21st century, especially for American film. In a year in which Sandra Bullock and Mo'nique can win Oscars and the wam-bam Hollywood blockbuster with intelligence was no where to be found, suffice it to say it was a mix bag year. Major vehicles for big stars fell flat ("Duplicity" and "Public Enemies" immediately come to mind.), reliable favorites weren't so reliable (Almodovar was running in circles with "Broken Embraces" and Von Trier's "Antichrist" was a bizarrely pretentious void I'd care not return), franchises were not so eloquent as they were in 2008 ("Terminator Salvation" will never be "The Dark Knight", no matter how badly McG wants it.), and I didn't even bother to touch "Avatar." I love American film, especially big, bright Hollywood movies that work, but they were few in far between in 2009. Thank goodness for foreign language film to satiate my starved cinema belly. It was a strong year for film not in the English language with beautiful, explosive, original works coming from all over the globe. The films that truly resonated with my eyes were films that felt daring and personal--a passion project without the vanity. These are the ten best films of 2009:

1. Gomorrah, directed by Matteo Garrone
From the opening massacre in a tanning salon to the image of a bulldozer full of dead bodies at the film's perfect climax, "Gommarah" grabs you by the throat and shoves you into a world where everyone is the enemy and people are as disposable as trash. Violent, moving, and utterly breathtaking (literally), "Gommarah" is a movie I still can't stop thinking about.

2. The White Ribbon, directed by Michael Haneke
No other living filmmaker is so in-tuned to all things macabre, aberrant, and dangerously human as Michael Haneke. In its slow burn of an operatic scream, "The White Ribbon" is an incredible allegory of terrorism and a seething damnation of a patriarchal society. Played with a light hand, but strong eye, "The White Ribbon" is a disturbing look a small town gone mad. The plague of suspicion, dread, and death is plainly pessimistic, but it's also a shock of truth that feels very of the moment.

3. I Love You, Man, directed by John Hamburg
I really liked Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding." It was an astute portrait of sibling rivalry and the tender, yet tumultuous relationship between women. It made me realize I've never seen a movie that attempted to articulate the nuances of male friendship without veering into the sappy or sophomoric. The codes of male friendship are vastly different, but definitely worth exploring and that's what makes John Hamburg's "I Love You, Man" so damn good. In its hilarious reveal we know now the awkwardness of platonic relationship making between two straight men.

4. Where the Wild Things Are, directed by Spike Jonze
A friend of mine joked about which auteur will tackle the children's novel. Will we see Gaspar Noe adapt a Judy Blum book or Alexander Payne take on "Maniac McGee"? Who knows, but I will say that Spike Jonze's idiosyncratic version of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" has set the standard. Deeply personal and far removed from anything classically associated a "kids movie", "Where the Wild Things Are" is a blithe movie about the triumph of a child-like spirit in face of the harsh world ruled by adults. Beautifully photographed and acted, "Where the Wilds Thing Are" is reason enough why Spike Jonze should be make more films than once every three to five years.

5. The Informant!, directed by Steven Soderbergh
The genius of Steven Soderbergh is his unpredictable pedigree. What interest and inspires him as a filmmaker is seemingly endless. He's worked in almost every genre with every kind of budget and for the most part, the product is always watchable and of some value. I didn't care for "The Girlfriend Experience" because like many of his more indulgent choices, it felt too hermetically sealed in its own experiment. However, his oddball follow up, "The Informant!" was just the tonic needed to forget about Sasha Grey's poor attempt at "film acting." A movie about paranoia, lies, deception, set to an upbeat, jaunty Marvin Hamlisch score is bold, but it's Damon's unforgettable turn as a man drowning in delusion that feels bold and fresh from not only Soderbergh but the highly underrated talents of Mr. Damon.

6. Summer Hours, directed by Olivier Assayas
Why are the French so good as movies about fractured families? Taking a break from his pyscho-sexual multi-national thriller/b-movies, Oliver Assays delivers a somber portrait of what happens when a family disintegrates and tries to rediscover who they are. After the death of the mother, a sister and her two brothers who live in various corners of the world and are too busy with their own jobs, families, love lives, etc. must come to terms with what family means to them and what to do with the summer home that symbolizes their roots and family togetherness. It's great to see a filmmaker such as Assays explore worlds and feelings beyond the kink (not there's anything wrong with that).

7. 35 Shots of Rum, directed by Claire Denis

Kathyrn Bigelow rightfully won the Academy Award for Best Director, but unfortunately she has a small community of American contemporaries. The rest of the world seems to have more working female filmmakers who make films beyond the obligatory romantic comedy. Claire Denis' "35 Shots of Rum" is a subtle display of human connection and the beauty of attraction, missed opportunities, and the bond that breaks between parent and child when the child has to grown up and grow out of the home. Denis has a gift for placing the camera in such original and specific points that enhance the experience of watching her tell a story. One of the best scenes of the film is set an empty restaurant on a rainy night. Dancing, drinking, and eating ensues in what results as some of the sensual and sensuous images you never knew could be achieved through film.

8. The Headless Woman, directed by Lucrecia Martel
What would you do if you might have caused an deathly accident to which you were the only witness? That psychological state of repression, grief, disappointment, and confusion engulfs the lead character in Lucrecia Martel's "The Headless Woman." Unable to exist in the world of her eccentric and eclectic family due to her distraction of having possibly murdered a boy, dog, thing by accidentally hitting them with her car. Watching her deal with the initial shock dares the audience to immediately decide on whether she's a good woman who made a mistake or a terrible person for not reacting in the way she eventually chooses. Stunning and slightly surreal work from beginning to end.

9. A Single Man, directed by Tom Ford
I never would have thought the big debut filmmaker of the year would be a fashion designer infamous for a collection that inspired an ad featuring pubic hair trimmed in the brand's logo. Tom Ford's "A Single Man" elegantly articulates feelings of love, loss, and earth shattering disappointment. Fully realizing his Renaissance man potential, it will be interesting to watch Ford's career as a fllmmaker begin to develop.

10. Inglourious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarentino
I wouldn't call "Inglourious Basterds" a return to form for Quentin Tarentino, but rather a return to making interesting, solid work. His brief detour with the mindless self-indulgence that was "Death Proof", Tarentino reinterpreted the Holocaust film into the ultimate revenge film in pure Tarentino speak. The "Cat People" sequence, bar sequence with Michael Fassbender and Diane Kruger, and the opening are clear indications that Tarentino is as inspired as ever. That's one thing most contemporary filmmakers don't have on Tarentino. His encyclopedic reservoir of film knowledge seeps into his films in the most unexpected and satisfying ways. "Inglourious Basterds" is no exception.

Honorable mentions:
The Fantastic Mr. Fox, directed by Wes Anderson
The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Il Divo, directed by Paolo Sorrentino

man vs. dog

2010-04-03T16:37:00.002-04:00

Buffalo Trace
White Dog
I had the distinct pleasure a few months ago to visit the Woodford Reserve distillery in Woodford County, Kentucky. Amidst horse farms and grass that isn't quite blue, but was certainly very green, me and a group of friends were treated to a private tour of the distillery to see how one of the best tasting spirits is produced. Aside from it being very informative and proud that my home state produces such a fine product, it was also a chance to catch a buzz in the early afternoon. Our lovely tour guide, MollyAnn, allowed us to taste the clear beast that is know as White Dog. It's the bourbon fresh from the still before it's barreled, aged, and allowed to mellow out. It's 125 proof. Yes, 125 proof. It has a slight citrus taste and it's definitely warm going down. The strength of its punch will linger on your palette for a bit, but it's worth the sting. Buffalo Trace bottles it and I'd be curious to try it again, but definitely at my own risk.

serge

2010-03-29T02:06:00.002-04:00

"Mr. Iceberg"
Serge Gainsbourg
1979

I now have permission to not wear socks until the fall.

joan

2010-03-20T13:43:00.005-04:00

Joan Smalls
Fall/Winter 2010
I love it when a model with honest looks has a breakthrough in a season. Joan Smalls doesn't look like an alien, baby doll, depraved Eastern European, or Sarah Plain and Tall. She's a total babe, but high fashion babe, and sometimes that's all you need.

dries

2010-03-13T23:53:00.003-05:00

Dries Van Noten
Fall/Winter 2010

If only every woman had a closet full of Dries Van Noten and the score from Hitchcock's "Vertigo" as the soundtrack to their daily lives, we could only be so lucky.

staying alive

2010-03-06T15:39:00.002-05:00

I'm back. I promise. To make it up to you, here are five songs that I can't live without at the moment:

Hot Chip, "We Have Love"

Miami Horror, "Make You Mine" (Fred Falke Remix)

Hercules and Love Affair, "I Can't Wait"

Holy Ghost!, "Hold On"

Kid Cudi, "Enter Galatic (Love Connection Pt. 1)"

the student

2010-01-20T00:35:00.002-05:00

Iselin Steiro, model and student at Architecture and Design
I've had to look at this image a lot lately because of work. Every women's fashion magazine has their own specific way of educating their readers on how to achieve the head to toe denim look (How to wear denim at the office! How to wear denim dresses! How to mix light and dark denim!), apparently a big trend for Spring 2010. I could care less about what Norwegian model, Iselin Steiro, is wearing. Her messy mop of blonde hair and angular bone structure are a captivating combination. It was her bread and butter for Spring 2010. Here, here, here, here, and there. In the immortal words of Bobby Caldwell, "Got a thing for you and I can't let go..."

turtle, turtle

2010-01-17T22:06:00.004-05:00

Turtleneck, Uniqlo
$39.50
I wore a sweater every day last week to work. Yes, the bitter winter had me firmly in its clutches. Luckily, I found my the best weapon to ward off the cold--the turtleneck. Out of most necklines, it's one of the more deceptively tricky ones. If you're neck is too short, it can make you look stumpy, if you're neck is too skinny, it can make you head look huge, and if you're French, you look like a cliche. I've always loved them and wear them proudly. It's like wearing a scarf all day without being labeled that obnoxious person who refuses to remove their scarf in doors because they matched it to their twin set. Paired with a blazer, I feel especially like a bad ass. And when this guy doesn't look bad in one either, it's time for everybody to embrace the turtleneck.

last man on earth

2010-01-09T14:42:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite Tom Ford collections was his Yves Saint Laurent Spring 2003 meditation on the fetishization of the body. Everything was either cut extremely close to the body in varying shades of flesh, taupe, and sheen or ballooned out to expose what was underneath a sheer black dress. The breast on a jacket curved just so and if you couldn't tell already, well there was a button on the nipple in cased you missed it. As a model would turn, a rib cage or a the shape of a buttock were printed on delicate silks. And yes, this was also the collection in which the models' nipples were painted a deep plum color and some were lucky enough to wear necklaces in the shape of a human heart covered in Swarovski crystals and pendants in the shape of a penis. Obviously, Ford has a obsessive, compulsive relationship with the body. You almost have to have it to be a successful fashion designer, but does that same eye for the aestheticizing the mundane make you a successful filmmaker? Ford's debut film, "A Single Man" certainly shows promise.

Film and fashion might seem closely related, but the beauty of fashion is that it's ephemeral and the beauty of film is that it lasts forever. Film has become part of our collective experience so much so that we attach certain memories to films that were relevant to the time. Do I remember when I bought my first cashmere sweater? Yes, but I also remember discovering Federico Fellini and thinking how myopic my life experience had been up until that point. Film provokes an emotion, a thought, a release where as fashion presents an excitement, a temporary rush, an impulse that soon fades. Ford is a smart enough designer and first time filmmaker to realize filming purple nipples for two hours would not be the wisest use of his talent (although I would like to see that film), therefore what he does explore is true to film--emotion and the body.

The key scene when Ford's talents as a filmmaker become impressive is when George (Colin Firth), a professor living in Los Angeles in the early 1906's, learns the news that his lover, Jim (Matthew Goode), has tragically died in a car accident. Colin Firth's face is in extreme close up for the uninterrupted scene. You see shock, anger, despair, and the loss of love drain from his face. It's a chilling scene that sparks the narrative. George decides he can no longer live without Jim and will proceed with his day with the full intention of ending with a bullet to the head. It's an interesting proposition. What would you do your last day you knew you were going to be alive? Ford's melancholic, but tender point of view is heightened by of course, the visual swirl of a world he creates for George's last day. Things either appear especially drab or blindly bright and attractive. George's impeccable bachelor pad is a den of OCD perfection. He lays out all of his parting trinkets and gifts for his housekeeper and best friend, Charley (Julianne Moore). George proceeds with his day in a daze of malice and contempt for a world in which he's not only free to love who he wants, but also a world in which his lover is no longer present. He acknowledges his neighbors, he buys the bullets, he goes to the bank to take out his savings. He makes arrangements to have dinner with his former lover and now friend, Charley wonderfully played by that blithe presence that is Julianne Moore. Her character indulges in pink cigarettes, spending hours getting dressed up, and Tanqueray gin because she likes the color of the bottle. With their plans for dinner, George must stop at school first for one last class.

George's activities leading up to the dinner are when Ford bears the signatures of his influences. At times you feel like you could be watching a Wong Kar Wai film with Ford's love of holding the camera on stolen glances and people pining for what they truly want to stay. George meets an eager student, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), who expresses an interest in him. The ambiguity of their relationship is fascinating to watch in how skilled Ford creates a chemistry between these two actors, but doesn't give or show you what you might expect. In a similar chance meeting with a Spanish hustler outside of a liquor store, Ford begins the scene with pure pop delight with a shot of George pulling up in his Mercedes and parking in front of a blown up "Pyscho" poster. The choice of film poster not only pays homage to perhaps on his favorite filmmakers, but it's also a film that expresses a different form of madness, despair, sexual longing and ambiguity. George and the hustler have a sensual exchange that could have been out of a Bernardo Bertolucci film. Ford breaks up the scene with tight close ups of the curls of cigarette smoke pouring from the hustler's lips. This compulsive love of the body makes you wonder if Ford painted his nipples purple underneath his James Dean-esque t-shirt. Ford's intentional or unintentional appropriation of the genius of other filmmakers isn't a sign of hackneyed unoriginality, but rather a filmmaker discovering his own voice through the aesthetic and mood of filmmakers that he perhaps feels a kindred spirit.

When "A Single Man" is at its most singular is when you see Ford focuses on the loss of George. I'm not sure the technique he implores too often in the film of shifting the color saturation when George feels something because Firth is good enough to have you feel what he's feeling. However, in the scenes between Goode and Firth told in flashback, there's a sense of impending doom. They love each other very much, but Firth's protective eyes suggest that love is perhaps not eternal. When he's with Kenny (sensitively played by Hoult), George is liberated, but again that the liberation is only fleeting. "A Single Man" on the surface might imply that nothing lasts forever, but through Ford's appreciation for present moments (the hustler at the liquor store, Charley applying make up all day in preparation for dinner, skinny dipping in the ocean), the movie's statement is actually quite optimistic. The idea of nothing lasting forever is debatable, but what does last from "A Single Man" are the perfectly articulated and manicured traces of a burgeoning filmmaker.

the end: 2008

2010-01-02T18:23:00.004-05:00

2008
Ballast, directed by Lance Hammer
Wall*E, directed by Andrew Stanton
The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan
Reprise, directed by Joachim Trier
Happy-Go-Lucky, directed by Mike Leigh
A Christmas Tale, directed by Arnaud Desplechin
Tropic Thunder, directed by Ben Stiller
Flight of the Red Balloon, directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou
Synecdoche, New York, directed by Charlie Kaufman
The Wrestler, directed by Darren Aronofsky
Paranoid Park, directed by Gus Van Sant
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, directed by David Fincher
Silent Light, directed by Carlos Reygadas
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, directed by Woody Allen
Che, directed by Steven Soderbergh

the end: 2007

2009-12-31T17:02:00.003-05:00

2007
1. There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
2. The Assassination Of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford, directed by Andrew Dominik
3. The Bourne Ultimatum, directed by Paul Greengrass
4. Zodiac, directed by David Fincher
5. Michael Clayton, directed by Tony Gilroy
6. I'm Not There, directed by Todd Haynes
7. The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, directed by Julian Schnabel
8. 2 Days In Paris, directed by Julie Delpy
9. No Country For Old Men, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
10. Killer Of Sheep, directed by Charles Burnett
11. Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, directed by Sidney Lumet
12. Superbad, directed by Greg Mottola
13. This Is England, directed by Shane Meadows
14. No End In Sight, directed by Charles Ferguson
15. Southland Tales, directed by Richard Kelly

the end: 2006

2009-12-31T11:58:00.002-05:00

2006
1. Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuaron
2. Half Nelson, directed by Ryan Fleck
3. Little Children, directed by Todd Field
4. Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola
5. The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese
6. When the Levees Broke/Inside Man, directed by Spike Lee
7. Casino Royale, directed by Martin Campbell
8. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, directed by Michael Winterbottom
9. Pan’s Labyrinth, directed by Guillermo Del Toro
10. Volver, directed by Pedro Almodovar

the new years dilemma

2009-12-30T13:09:00.002-05:00

Robert Geller Tuxedo Shirt
Short Sleeve, $207
Long Sleeve, $235 (currently on sale at Odin for $69)
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will refrain from repeating the story of how I got home for the holidays. Let's just say there were flight and train cancellations, public transportation workers with terrible attitudes, and tiny seats that don't allow for much comfort, but I made it back to Louisville and I couldn't have been more relieved when I could put my things down and fall into my queen size bed. In a fit of frustration and rage directed at Southwest Airlines for canceling my flight and not refunding my money, I decided to take a quick trip to Odin to pick up something for New Years before my rescheduled flight was to leave on Christmas Eve morning. The racks parted and there was a Robert Geller long sleeve tuxedo shirt on sale for $69. Not much thought had to go into the purchase. I saw the short sleeve version on Confederacy's website a couple of weeks ago (pictured above), but the long sleeve version will be better suited for the sub-freezing temperatures predicted for the big night. I've seen people in New York wear tux shirts casually with a pair of jeans or even shorts in the summer time, so I can hold on to this shirt for all occasions. Maybe wrecked travel plans aren't so bad.

the end: 2005

2009-12-30T12:25:00.002-05:00

2005
1. Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee
2. 2046, directed by Wong Kar Wai
3. The New World, directed by Terrence Malick
4. The Constant Gardener, directed by Fernando Meirelles
5. Junebug, directed by Phil Morrison
6. Match Point, directed by Woody Allen
7. King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson
8. Capote, directed by Bennett Miller
9. A History of Violence, directed by David Cronenberg
10. (tie) The Beat That My Heart Skipped, directed by Jacques Audiard/ Head-On, directed by Fatih Akin

the end: 2004

2009-12-24T20:24:00.002-05:00

2004
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, directed by Michel Gondry
2. Before Sunset, directed by Richard Linklater
3. The Motorcycle Diaries, directed by Walter Salles
4. The Door in the Floor, directed by Tod Williams
5. Dogville, directed by Lars Von Trier
6. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring, directed by Ki-duk Kim
7. Closer, directed by Mike Nichols
8. Bad Education, directed by Pedro Almodovar
9. I Heart Huckabee’s, directed by David O. Russell
10. The Incredibles, directed by Brad Bird

want: kaboom

2009-12-24T20:01:00.003-05:00

Christopher Kane Explosion T-Shirt
$248
I normally wouldn't say my tastes are aggressive, but there's something immediately appealing about this t-shirt. Christopher Kane's graphic approach to womenswear is the kind of evocative design that you wonder why no one has ever thought to do what he's created. I really loved the "Planet of the Apes" show from Spring 09 and the creepy nuclear clouds from Resort 10. That same intensity has obviously translated to menswear in which the image of a mushroom cloud is at once strikingly bold and in your face, but oddly minimal, bare, and discreet. I'll throw this on my last minute wish list that a very wealthy Santa should leave under my tree.

attack of the 50 ft. woman

2009-12-24T00:04:00.003-05:00

Doutzen Kroes
photographed by Philip Riches

To my darling little Doutzen,
Happy Holidays and warmest wishes for the new year.
With all my love,
W.

final countdown

2009-12-23T23:49:00.002-05:00

"Le Mans"
directed by Lee H. Katzin
1971

Things to note about this movie:
1. Steve McQueen.
2. There's not a touch of dialogue for the first thirty-seven minutes of the film.
3. This scene might seem indulgent, but damn if it's not entertaining.
4. Steve McQueen racing cars.
5. Early 70's Steve McQueen.

song of the week: one life stand

2009-12-23T23:41:00.002-05:00

"One Life Stand"
Hot Chip
directed by Roel Wouters

The shoulder seesaw dance is the new Chicken Noodle Soup with the soda on the side.

the end: 2003

2009-12-23T23:29:00.003-05:00

2003
1. Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola
2. 21 Grams, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu
3. Kill Bill Vol. 1, directed by Quentin Tarentino
4. The Station Agent, directed by Tom McCarthy
5. City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles
6. American Splendor, directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
7. Spellbound, directed by Jeffrey Blitz
8. Capturing the Friedmans, directed by Andrew Jarecki
9. Whale Rider, directed by Niki Caro
10. Triplets of Bellville, directed by Sylvain Chomet

the end: 2002

2009-12-12T18:09:00.006-05:00

2002
1. Talk to Her, directed by Pedro Almodovar
2. 24 Hour Party People, directed by Michael Winterbottom
3. About A Boy, directed by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz
4. Y Tu Mama Tambien, directed Alfonso Cuaron
5. Bowling for Columbine, directed by Michael Moore
6. Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki
7. Punch Drunk Love, directed Paul Thomas Anderson
8. Far From Heaven, directed by Todd Haynes
9. Catch Me If You Can, directed by Steven Spielberg
10. 25th Hour, directed by Spike Lee

song of the week: night by night

2009-12-10T00:07:00.002-05:00

"Night by Night"
Chromeo
directed by Jeremie Rozan/Surface 2 Air

Midday dance party in an abandoned warehouse with multiple partners? YES, PLEASE!

want: tequila sunrise

2009-12-08T00:21:00.002-05:00

Corzo Tequila, $48
Yes, a nice,warm adult beverage can get you through the cold doldrums of a long, dreary winter, but I've found that tequila still has that warm sting when you drink it any time of the year. I wish I was more of a tequila connoisseur (a New Year's resolution for 2010, perhaps?) and knew more about the complexities of the spirit, but it was Corzo's simple, yet bold bottle design that struck me enough to be worthy of a try (Fabien Baron designed it, 'nuff said). And the best part is you can have your name engraved on the bottle, a big proud red flag that this elegant bottle is all yours. Consider this my ideal stocking stuffer.

the end: 2001

2009-12-04T08:48:00.004-05:00

2001
1. Waking Life, directed by Richard Linklater
2. Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan
3. Ocean’s Eleven, directed by Steven Soderbergh
5. Royal Tenenbaums, directed by Wes Anderson
6. Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman
7. In the Bedroom, directed by Todd Field
8. Mulholland Drive, directed by David Lynch
9. L.I.E., directed by Michael Cuesta
10. Donnie Darko, directed by Richard Kelly

the jacket (pt. 286)

2009-12-04T01:40:00.004-05:00

Shipley & Halmos
Belgrade Two Button Blazer, $395
The perfect movie. The perfect t-shirt. The perfect drink. The perfect weather. The perfect bacon cheeseberger. The perfect pair jeans. Will I ever be satisfied? Probably not, but the fun in searching for the perfect fill in the blank is the quest of trying each new candidate on for a size that will someday embody the title of perfect yada yada yada. In my eternal quest for the perfect black blazer (because yes, a black blazer is very different than a navy, gray, or khaki blazer and requires a different set of detective skills), I came across Shipley & Halmos's Belgrade Blazer from Fall 2009. Cotton twill, cut slim without drawing comparisons to sausage casing, unexpected, yet cool slant pockets, and without vents, it felt like my sartorial aspirations were realized. It's the perfect seasonless piece that I could own forever, or until the next life-changing black blazer comes my way and with this blazer currently in my closet, I don't see that happening for some time.

wanted: the cardigan

2009-11-27T10:19:00.006-05:00

Marled wool Shawl-Collar Cardigan
J. Crew, $138
I have a theory that J. Crew has gotten too expensive since it has received the Obama seal of approval (seriously, why does NOTHING go on sale at the men's shop on Broadway?), but I can't resist this cardigan. I don't know if it's age or the fact that I shopped a ton this year, but I can't think of too many things I want for Christmas, but this cardigan has shot to the top of the list. Boardgames and Moon Shoes just don't do it for any more. However, this cardigan with the marled black and white knit looks like something Steve McQueen might have worn next to a fireplace in his chalet après-ski on the set of "Le Mans" and in my constant quest to steal any drop of his cool factor and impeccable style, I must have it. I won't participate in Black Friday, but the link will quickly get forwarded to Santa (a.k.a. my parents).

the end : 2000

2009-11-23T00:10:00.003-05:00

2000
1. Traffic, directed by Steven Soderbergh
2. Erin Brockovich, directed by Steven Soderbergh
3. Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry
4. Best In Show, directed by Christopher Guest
5. Nurse Betty, directed by Neil LaBute
6. Dancer in the Dark, directed by Lars Von Trier
7. State and Main, directed by David Mamet
8. Pollock, directed by Ed Harris
9. Tigerland, directed by Joel Schumacher
10. Before Night Falls, directed by Julian Schnabel

song of the week: "heaven can wait"

2009-11-22T22:51:00.002-05:00

"Heaven Can Wait"
Charlotte Gainsbourg feat. Beck
directed by Keith Schofield

More reason to love French women and Beck.

the end

2009-11-14T20:44:00.007-05:00

With the first decade of the 21st century coming to a close, I couldn't help but think about what we'll consider great filmmaking in that pivotal period. My dad told me that at the time of "A Clockwork Orange"'s release, people hated it and thought it was offensive trash. Thirty some odd years later, it's lauded as an iconic film about the frisson between the monsters we are deep inside and the monsters society can construct us to be. I believe in new film and I think over the past ten years there have been some striking, affecting work that will hopefully resonate not only in their current beloved state, but will be considered a part of that iconic pantheon of artistic verisimilitude.

I've made a top ten every year since 1999. Over the next couple of weeks leading up to the new year, I'll reveal my lists for each year, ending in my list of the ten best films of the past decade. I know that 1999 was technically the end of the 1990's, but it's a good place to start to see what preceded the new millennium. Please note that when I was sixteen my palette was a little different than what it is now and the lists represent the films that I saw that year. I still feel that some of these films are important works that perhaps didn't win a plethora of awards, but say something about the late 90's/early 2000's of economic boom and downfall, the exploration of the self in the new frontier, and the changing face of heroism, themes that are topical for the moment, but resonate for an eternity.

These were my ten favorite films of 1999:

1. Magnolia, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
2. Fight Club, directed by David Fincher
3. The Talented Mr. Ripley, directed by Anthony Minghella
4. Notting Hill, directed by Roger Michell
5. The Insider, directed by Michael Mann
6. Run Lola Run, directed by Tom Tykwer
7. Three Kings, directed by David O. Russell
8. All About My Mother, directed by Pedro Almodovar
9. Dogma, directed by Kevin Smith
10. The Matrix, directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski

the search continues...

2009-11-13T00:17:00.006-05:00

Jimmy Choo for H&M
$299
The shape I love.
The color I love.
The price tag I do not love.
The fact that I would always have to say, "It's Jimmy Choo for H&M", every time someone asks where I got it, I do not love.

Perfect leather jacket, why must you elude me?

model of the week: r'el dade

2009-10-18T23:53:00.003-04:00

R'el Dade
Marilyn Modeling Agency
Tall, Texan, and this editorial in Numero. Do you need to know anything else?

the dreamers

2009-10-15T00:52:00.004-04:00

Fashion month has officially ended. New York. London. Milan. Paris. Gone and on to the next season in February. What does it all mean? Does anyone really care? The relief is akin to coming down from a sugar rush or the feeling of elation after a really good film. It was all fun, fleeting, but over in a flash and it's on to the next thing. In Matt Tyrnauer's "Valentino: The Last Emperor" and RJ Cutler's "The September Issue" the vortex of fun, fleeting, and flash is looked at from a distance as if it were on display at a museum, which isn't necessarily a criticism, but maybe a reality of a business and art that's based on dream building and intangible ideas that are purely superficial with a glint of reality. The paradox in both films is that the audience is treated to the world "The Devil Wears Prada", but under the guise of it being a serious documentary, but is everything we're seeing serious? Weekend getaways in Gstaad and tennis games with Louis Vuitton carry alls is not exactly serious material. Maybe that's not the point, but "Valentino" and "September Issue" raise interest issues of beauty, access, wealth, power, and the factory of dreams that is film and fashion.

The first thing to note about both films is that neither is terribly great, but good in ways that were perhaps unintended. They're reasonably entertaining portraits of a world most are unfamiliar with and for those that are familair with, the world seems even more glamorous, immediate, and tantalizing. For those who are fashion obsessed these two documentaries are the equivalent of Holly Golightly standing in front of Tiffany's on an early morning midtown rise. The dream of fashion is within reach, yet still has the distance that makes it so appealing. Exclusive with the promise of inclusive. Cinematically speaking both films look flat, with the exception of a wonderfully quiet moment in "The September Issue" with Grace Coddington in Versailles looking pensively into the distance as her mass of flame colored hair blows in the wind. What does work and what makes them such engaging films is their depiction of class, wealth, and power. Valentino Garavani and Anna Wintour are living high above in the proverbial Ayn Rand tower, doling out glamour, beauty, and illusion of wealth. Whether that's a dangerous threshold of power to have, where would we be without Valentino red or knowing how to mix and match designer labels? The arbiters of fashion teach us how to dress and essentially live. If we are what we eat, then we are also most certainly what we wear.

"The Devil Wears Prada" is an interesting turning point for a lot of things. Meryl Streep's unstoppable career was solidified with David Frankel's farce of fashion and work place antics. It makes you wonder why the wealth of important leading roles aren't going to Streep's contemporaries like Diane Keaton, Jill Clayburgh, Jane Fonda, and Sally Field, who are either stuck in romantic comedy film hell as the unattractive mother in law or some dreadful television serial. It was also the first major summer movie in the 2000's that connected to women that didn't rely on the star 90's big names Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock, or Demi Moore, nor their unsuccessful next in line replacements like Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Biel, or Jessica Alba. I'm not sure it made a star out of Anne Hathaway, but it sure promised. It was also film about full on fashion. The numerous costume change sequences, the coat and bag throwing sequences, the inevitable gala sequence in which we see the stars all gussied up. Living in a post-"Sex in the City", fashion obsessed blogosphere, and celebrities as models world, fashion is enjoying a bit of a pop cultural zeitgeist moment. "The Devil Wears Prada" was at the right place at the right time and said something about fashion that had not quite been articulated before. One of the best scenes in the film is when Anne Hathaway's character naively claims fashion is just fashion. Not important. Not real. Not influential. Streep in only the way someone who has played everything from Woody Allen's lesbian ex-wife to Julia Child, gives a fantastic speech about how the blue sweater Hathaway's character is wearing is the result of the carefully crafted minds of magazine editors and high fashion designers who set the trends that trickle down to the affordable clothing most people who think they don't know or care about fashion, are actually just as complicit in fashion as those that pay thousands of dollars for over the knee boots and 80's revival mini-dresses. It's an excellent point that drives "Valentino" and "The September Issue." We laugh at the pugs wearing diamond earrings in the excessive world of Valentino set to the unironic tune of Nino Rota's score from "La Dolca Vita" or find the caricatures of the fashion magazine industry endlessly compelling for their one liners and seemingly religious dedication to their artifice, but as Streep articulates, everyone participates in fashion whether they're aware or not. The worlds of these two documentaries present the extreme side of fashion, but it's the extreme that feeds and influences the mainstream. Dream, beauty, money, power, rinse and repeat.

Beyond the influence of trends and the power of decisions and money, "Valentino" and "The September Issue" also try to penetrate the two very guarded people that once the lights go up and the credits roll, I wasn't entirely convinced I knew them better or more intimately, but the attempt is honorable and there are scenes in both films that are more revealing than perhaps intended. In "Valentino", Mr. Valentino gleefully recounts his childhood spent watching American movies of the 30's and 40's that present glamour with such unashamed joy and exuberance. Diluted isn't the right word and too harsh to describe the state of euphoria Valentino seems to be in and live in, but his work became his life and that parade of red dresses was not only the red carpet but also his real life. It's a rare way to live, but to Valentino it's the world he's created and it's the world the movie wants its audience to be seduced by in the same way it has seduced Valentino. Does the movie tell us anything about his family? No. Do we learn about a hidden softer side? Not entirely. Do we care? Why would we when his life is an endless platter of pretty dresses, pretty people, and really good parties? One of the film's great scenes finds Valentino frustrated by the creative control of not only his upcoming ready to wear collection, which would be one of his last, and the filmmakers capturing his world in between the not so controlled moments. He throws a fit like a child that he isn't being filmed enough or in the right way and that the hair tests on the models is nothing like he imagined. Perhaps Valentino has bought into his own dream too much. Can he always be the star in his own show in the way the women he adores from a bygone film era once were? It's humorous and ultimately human.

When a film includes one of its characters exclaiming, "My eyes are starved! There's a famine of beauty! A famine of beauty, honey!" you might not expect to glean much from the work other than there are some in this world that truly believe there is a famine of beauty. RJ Cutler's "The September Issue" is a film that is primarily about trying to penetrate the impenetrable. Cutler was graciously given access to the inner works of the offices of Vogue magazine, but the best scenes take place outside of the magazine in worlds in which viewers have never seen before. Early in the film, Wintour attends a breakfast meeting with the retailers from top department stores like Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, and Saks, in which her vision of the upcoming trends for the season are considered very seriously in terms of what the buyers will put on their floor. Essentially, Wintour will decide on the blue sweater that ends up in the discount bin we will all purchase. Everything comes back to "Devil Wears Prada" so it seems. Another scene worth mentioning is when Cutler probes Wintour about her family. She cautiously and carefully describes how different her profession is compared to the work of her siblings who work in public service and more tangibly significant work. You get the sense that Wintour loves what she does and understands its importance, but maybe she recognizes the dreams she creates with Vogue are in fact dreams. Although fashion evolves and yet cyclical in the same breath, there is an end. Dreams only last as long as we're asleep. Film only lasts for its running time and fashion only lasts each season. The money, the influence, and the honest passion of those in the fashion industry are illuminated in "Valentino" and "The September Issue", and that's what sticks. In that context, the clothes are the eye candy to gorge on for an hour and a half, but after the sugar rush is over, these films leave traces of the realities of an industry easily lampooned, but as Streep says at the end of "Devil Wears Prada", it's a world that everybody wants to be a part of.

wanted: gomorrah

2009-10-15T00:23:00.005-04:00

Gomarrah
directed by Matteo Garrone, 2009
Available November 24, 2009
Criterion Collection
"Gomorrah" is a great film on many levels, if not solely for its perfect opening and closing scenes. Everything else in between is pretty good too, but the violent opening and closing moments are some of the most beautifully cinematic and chilling scenes I've seen all year. This is high on my list of gifts I'd like to find under the tree this year.

song of the week: "irm"

2009-10-11T21:13:00.004-04:00

I've heard nothing but good things about Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist" from the brave who saw at the New York Film Festival. For whatever reason French actresses are especially astute at portraying quiet hysteria and beautiful madness (as evident by Isabelle Huppert's fantastic turn in Claire Denis's "White Material, a festival pick I saw and loved) and from what I hear, Charlotte Gainsbourg really goes for it and then some in Von Trier's brutal satire of liberal bourgeoisie and the horror of grief and loss. Gainsbourg has a new album due out early next year that already had my interest piqued with the news that it would be a largely collaborative effort between her and Beck, another fearless performer willing to explore new territories in his own continually spontaneous art. One of the first singles from the album is "IRM", French for MRI, is a curious source of inspiration. Gainsbourg was involved in a serious water skiing accident that caused her to endure six months of rehabilitation after a brain hemorrhage. The drone of MRI's is conveyed with the bouncy clash of mechanic sounding blips and kinks. It's groovy and yet part of a dark personal history. You can listen to the song here. I can't wait for her performance in "Antichrist" and the follow up to her phenomenal last album, "5:55."

"and all i saw was sock."

2009-10-11T20:13:00.008-04:00

Vanity Fair, "The Hollywood Issue
April 2003
Take a look at those socks. Look closely. Go on. It's Jude Law's right ankle. That subtle flash of pink amongst the otherwise neutral palette is style defined. That image of subtle sartorial impact had a big effect on me when I bought this issue almost seven years ago. I'm not interested in copycating the look, but I bought a couple of pairs of socks at Uniqlo today in shades of kelly green, blue-grey, and stoplight red and I'm waiting for the moment that I can carefully have my pant leg expose a shot of color. Jude Law might be a movie star that never became a true movie star, but style is style and you can't ignore that peek of pink is pretty badass.

tribute: the eye

2009-10-10T10:59:00.005-04:00

Gisele, New York, April 1 1999
Photographed by Irving Penn

I think this was the image that secured my love for Brazilian supermodels. Rest in peace Irving Penn and many thanks.

W.

l'enfer

2009-10-01T23:34:00.002-04:00

3 things:
1. GOOD. GOD.
2. How was this movie never completed?
3. Why didn't I get tickets to the documentary about this unfinished would be masterpiece at the New York Film Festival?

the coat

2009-10-01T08:47:00.003-04:00

Billy Reid
Peacoat, $675
The air is a little more crisp this week, which means the oppressive heat of summer is behind us and fall/winter is starting to settle in. It's not cold enough to break out the heavier outerwear yet, but when that day comes I want to be prepared with this Billy Reid peacoat. Made in Italy with a high quality wool and an impeccable fit, it's the embodiment of an "investment piece." That might be a big buzz phrase for the current trend of reinterpreted classics, but what's good is good and this is a fine piece of outerwear.

last days pt. 1

2009-09-26T14:41:00.006-04:00

I have not forgotten to express my undying jubilation about the recent Criterion Collection DVD release of Whit Stillman's genius take on youth and nightlife in "The Last Days of Disco." Although it happened over a month ago, my brain is still trying to compute that I met him and his muse, Chris Eigeman at the Lincoln Film Center screening timed with the release of the DVD. Once I'm able to fully put together my thoughts I'll of course share it with The Look-See. Until then, I've compiled my list of five songs that could have been on the already brilliant soundtrack. I can only imagine Charlotte and Alice awkwardly swaying off beat to these personal favorites:

"Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)
Chic

"Disco Nights"
GQ

"You Can't Turn Me Away"
Sylvia Striplin

"Wordy Rappinghood"
Tom Tom Club

"We Got the Funk"
Positive Force

roll call

2009-09-16T00:53:00.002-04:00

Where have I been? Busy.

carry all

2009-09-05T01:16:00.004-04:00

Man Tote, Price Upon Request
Pabst Blue Ribbon
The ultimate man tote and it's all mine!

i saw the light

2009-09-04T08:35:00.004-04:00

Peek Table Lamp, $29.99
cb2
Don't ask why, but it took me forever to settle on a lamp I liked for my new apartment. It's the only one I wanted for my room, so it had to be jusssssst right. This lamp from CB2 is coolly designed with a partially transparent metallic shade that illuminates my room in a soft, calming light. Now I'm free to see the world!

song of the week: 90% of you

2009-09-04T01:49:00.002-04:00

"90% of Me Is You"
Gwen McCrae
1974

Good stuff.

the return

2009-08-22T08:48:00.004-04:00

Fitted Chambray Button Down Shirt, $44.50
1969 Premium Jeans: The Straight Fit, $54.50
Gap
I remember the first thing I ever bought at the Gap. It was the summer before freshman year of high school and I had a job of which I spent every penny on nothing but clothes, candy, movies, and magazines. That doesn't sound too far off from how I spend my money as an adult, but I remember really saving my pennies to finally make the pilgrimage to the brand that defined a decade. Minimalist, straight forward classics, and accessible for everyone, Gap was good in its prime. Before American Apparel they were the go to go brand for the perfect basic t-shirt and before designer denim really took off in the late 90's and early 00's, the cool mid-range jeans to own were Gap. I went for the summer basics for my first purchase: a tomato red pique polo and a white t-shirt with a black and gray stripe that ran horizontally on the chest. I paid full price and felt very accomplished. That was then and now I rarely fall into the Gap. My attention has returned to the brand in the past couple of years with the appointment of Patrick Robinson as creative director, but can one man re-invent the wheel? With the re-design of their denim category, it's a strong possibility.

Gap has smartly hyped the return to fit for their denim. The emphasis on fit, cut, premium denim treatment, but at an accessible price point has led Robinson to declare Gap jeans to be the "best-fitting jeans in the world." That's a bit of a stretch, but they're certainly better than what I remembered. I went to the Gap last weekend and tried on the Straight and Authentic fits. I went with the Straight fit because it embodies everything I want out of a jean. They're slim cut but not super skinny, very comfortable in the seat, and have a good weight to them without feeling like I'm wearing a big bulky pair of pants. I went with a traditional dark wash, but I would certainly want them in black and gray, of which they're not available. The rest of the men's apparel wasn't terribly interesting with the exception of a denim chambray button down. It's light and treated to feel like you've owned it forever and it has a nice trim cut. Robinson is on his way to making Gap covetable again, but I hope if he can fit another Bill Withers song into the mix.

first look (i know i'm late): tron legacy

2009-08-22T00:30:00.003-04:00

"Tron Legacy"
2010
directed by Joseph Kosinski

This could be amazing or really fucking stupid. The Daft Punk soundtrack already has me intrigued, but these brief minutes are something to behold.

finger lickin' good

2009-08-18T00:34:00.003-04:00

Scallop Roll, $14.99
Chatham Fish Market
I think I still have sand in my hair. I spent the weekend in Providence, Rhode Island with one of my best and oldest friends. Pics are on their way, but the stand out of the trip was the discovery of the Scallop Roll at Chatham Fish Market in Chatham, Massachusetts after a quick afternoon at Lighthouse Beach. Tender and crispy, it was a mouthful of Cape Cod supplied perfection. Oh, and I accidentally squeezed lemon on the side of fries. It. Was. Life. Changing.

slow motion for me

2009-08-08T10:47:00.003-04:00

There's no point to this post other than to say it looks like Jennifer Connelly is getting back to babe territory after the last time I saw her (pay attention to her side profile and her legs). She hasn't quite returned to her "Career Opportunities" days, but it's a good bikini shot nonetheless.

via Egotastic

first look: a serious man

2009-08-08T10:44:00.001-04:00

"A Serious Man"
directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
October 2, 2009 (limited)

Is this the one that will finally make me a fan?

song of the week: "moments in love"

2009-07-31T03:19:00.002-04:00

"Moments in Love"
Art of Noise
1984

the greatest

2009-07-28T00:02:00.004-04:00

Very few artists have perfect careers. John Cazale is the exception to the rule. His filmography is brief, but important. "The Conversation", "Dog Day Afternoon", "The Godfather", "The Godfather Part 2", and "The Deer Hunter" are seminal works of not only their time, but of the early, developing careers of some of the greatest filmmakers of the last half century. They're also what would become Cazale's varied, dimensional, and faultless career on screen. Lanky with a recessed hairline that stopped to reveal a prominently carved out forehead and brow, Cazale was not leading man material. However, his performances were never lost in the shadows of his big name co-stars.

It's hard to say which one of his performances is my favorite, but I love how diametrically opposed his singular portrayals of the turncoat brother in "The Godfather" and the blue collar Average Joe effected by his friend's war traumas in "The Deer Hunter." I wish the New York Magazine article on Cazale's legacy was a little more fleshed out, but it does make me excited about the documentary short on Cazale's life to be released this year.

"The Godfather Part 2"
1974
directed by Francis Ford Coppola

"The Deer Hunter"
1978
directed by Michael Cimino

the beach

2009-07-25T09:20:00.001-04:00

Hold my calls, please. I'm headed to Coney Island for the afternoon...

the jacket

2009-07-18T22:15:00.002-04:00

Washed Leather Jacket
Tim Hamilton, $2000 (originally)
It might not be leather jacket weather, but I'm on the hunt for one to sport this fall. I went to the Tim Hamilton sample sale today and I came across this beauty. It was on sale for $400, which is a bit steep, but for a jacket with such thoughtful and functional design, I'd be willing to pay just about anything. I especially like this style because of it's easy, clean lines and zipper details. The leather was so soft and rich that I considered it for a moment, but these are tough times for everybody, so I only made off with a button down. Oh well, the search shall continue...

soul man

2009-07-10T22:56:00.003-04:00

Soul Train has its own YouTube channel. It's limited, but what's there is definitely worth a watch. This is how it's done.

"The Popcorn Dance"
1974

Stevie Wonder being a genius.
1973

Rick James geeked out of his mind.
1980

A mustached James Brown and a young Al Sharpton. How does it get better?
1974

the next big thing?

2009-07-09T22:11:00.004-04:00

"Sea Within A Sea"
The Horrors
directed by Douglas Hart

I don't want to like this band, but it's so hard to resist. Damn them and their shoegazing and Joy Division appropriation. However, maybe my damnation should be aimed at Yves Saint Laurent for continuing the streak awesome music choices. I just hope they don't end up like The Libertines. Yeah, remember them?

first look: alien

2009-07-09T00:39:00.002-04:00

"Alien"
directed by Ridley Scott
1979

I know what I'm doing this weekend...

t

2009-07-08T00:30:00.002-04:00

Burn Out Raglan
Alternative Apparel, $24.99I could wear a t-shirt every day and be totally happy. I've been on a big Rogan kick recently because they're impossibly cool and super soft (surprisingly a tough combo), but Alternative Apparel's Burn Out Raglan could very well fit into my t-shirt collection. I used to own jersey cotton t-shirt sheets and there's something really comforting about being swathed in t-shirt fabric as you sleep. I guess it should come as no surprise that a certain brand now offers bedding.

naomi, naomi, naomi

2009-07-06T22:11:00.004-04:00

The wind was calm, the sky was blue, and the next thing I know, Naomi Watts walks by me on the street this afternoon. All the real babes are in this city.

via NaomiWatts.org

god bless america

2009-07-04T14:50:00.005-04:00

10 things I love about America:

Hilary Rhoda
The collaborative works of Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah
Bacon Cheeseburgers (on a sesame seedless bun, of course)
Converse All Stars
Bulleit Bourbon
J. Crew Button Downs
70's era Stevie Wonder
Whit Stillman
Mid-Century Modern Art
New York City

Happy 4th!
W.

"femme fatale"

2009-07-03T10:44:00.003-04:00

Beck and the Record Club
"Femme Fatale" (Velvet Underground Cover)

Nico, who?

second impressions

2009-06-27T14:45:00.005-04:00

It's late. A film that immediately registers as familiar catches your eye as you're flipping through, but it's a film that upon first viewing was dreadful, overreaching, off putting, or just plain obnoxious. But then something clicks. You stop and you continue watching and new layers begin to reveal themselves and all of a sudden you're watching a new film that leaves you with the most hyperbolic of excited and satisfied feelings. But wait, wasn't that the movie you saw five years ago and hated? When a film and its tacit viewer meet again after the initial film viewing experience, a rare spark of re-discovery can occur in which the film can take on a new, more impactful meaning. Phillip Lopate wrote an interesting piece in this month's issue of Film Comment about how over the course of time our strongly held negative opinions of a particular film can evolve into a place of cinematic joy upon second or thirty-second viewing of a film. Noted critics wrote complementary mini-essays on films they initially wrote off and have since re-considered to exhibit shades of greatness. Here are five films that when I first saw them I was either bored to tears or thought they were silly and pretentious:

The Graduate, 1967
directed by Mike Nichols
The first time I saw "The Graduate" was around 1998 when I was obsessed with watching the American Film Institutes's 100 Best Films of all time list. I thought it was dated, impenetrable, and dull. I was 14, what did I know? I watched it not too long ago and was taken with its wit, its perfect direction, and its prescient take on lost youth who aren't quite sure whether they want to be conventional adults (i.e., their parents, every young person's worst nightmare but inevitable model for adulthood) or content with remaining idly adrift until they find their bliss. A movie of its time, but classic and gave way to a new definition of the film hero, "The Graduate" remains a masterpiece of American cinema.

The Shining, 1980
directed by Stanley Kubrick
Somehow I manage to avoid this horror classic until I was in my twenties. I saw it on the big screen with my mom at a Kubrick revival a couple summers ago. Perhaps it was the effusive mood of the captive audience, but I thought it was especially cold for a Kubrick film and oddly boring. I saw it again in a film class in college and was immediately hooked into its bizarre spookiness. Jack Nicholson gives a performance unlike any film he's every done. He's genuinely possessed in a tour de force that can only be the result of the notoriously rigorous directing method of Kubrick. Shelly DuVall is never better in her unglamorous role of the wife avoiding being murdered by her crazed husband. Eerie imagery and the tight suspense elevate Steven King to a high art hybrid where the psychological and the horror meet, once again proving Kubrick's masterful and twisted touch on genre.

American Psycho, 2000
directed by Mary Harron
I think I was one of two people who saw this in theaters. The other being Eric from Gold Digger. We bought tickets to "Viva Rock Vegas" to sneak into the controversial Bret Easton Ellis adaptation because we weren't old enough to purchase rated R tickets. We both thought it was stupid and almost walked out. I've seen it on it television a bunch of times since its original release and watched it on YouTube not long ago and found it to be amusing, biting, and a great vehicle for Christian Bale. The strangely assembled cast that includes Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, Justin Theroux, and Willem Dafoe, wonderfully embody bottomed out 80's Manhattan milieu. It couldn't be more relevant these days and perhaps it was too ahead of its time to be appreciated. I'm certain anyone who saw "Viva Rock Vegas" probably felt the same as well.

The Virgin Suicides, 1999
directed by Sofia Coppola
I remember I couldn't convince anyone to see this movie with me when it originally came out. I rented it when it finally came out on DVD and wondered who could relate to such feigned, unsympathetic material. It made me reticent to see "Lost In Translation", but thank goodness I didn't let my poor judgment effect my decision because I fell in love with that film and as a result, re-watched "The Virgin Suicides" and saw what Coppola was building towards. She has a knack, unlike most her contemporaries, for capturing moods, the air in a room, and the indescribable feeling of loneliness in a relationship. Kathleen Turner is devastating in a role most forget, Josh Hartnett is wonderfully cast as the dopey BMOC, and Kirsten Dunst received her breakthrough as the burgeoning, but doomed sexpot Lux Lisbon. Breathtaking and nostalgic, Coppola's debut film is an excellent tale of suburbia malaise.

Last Year at Marienbad, 1961
directed by Alain Resnais
I can't think of a more frustrating movie to try to love. I tried watching Alain Resnais' trip of a movie four times and fell asleep within the first ten minutes on each viewing. The fifth time I watched it on my computer with my headphones and by the film's end I felt punched in the throat. Having the film's disorienting dialogue poured directly into my ears and to have the screen to up close to my face put me in a trance-like stance. That's an apt way to describe watching Resnais' poetically astounding film. Sexy, hypnotic, and wholly original in its cinematic language, "Last Year at Marienbad" is a polemic take down on lust and memory.
L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961)
Added

blockhead

2009-06-26T01:22:00.004-04:00

Marni
Spring/Summer 2010
Easy, without pretense, sublime. Something to look forward to next spring...

tribute: mj

2009-06-26T01:00:00.003-04:00

That's how you wear a fucking tuxedo. Thanks Michael for doing you.

tribute: lucien ballard

2009-06-20T17:21:00.005-04:00

"The Party"
directed by Blake Edwards, 1968

"The Killing"
directed by Stanley Kurbick, 1956

"Junior Bonner"
directed by Sam Peckinpah, 1972
These three films could not be more disparate formally or narratively, but in their exact detail and the careful framing of their specific worlds, the visionary eye of cinematographer Lucien Ballard reveals a connective tissue that binds them together in his impressive body of work. I watched Sam Peckinpah's "Junior Bonner" recently and I was blown away at not only Peckinpah's ability to make a movie about tough guys and the American West without a single gun shot in the whole film, but the film's absorbing visual palette. The richness of a small Arizona town as seen through the lens of Ballard's realistic and mood-induced cinematography becomes emblematic of an idyllic and yet dying America. Rodeos, patriotic parades, and mountains of cowboy hats seem ancient and somehow integral to the survival of the film's characters. Without out their outdated idea of America, where would they be and more importantly, who would they be? Ballard's eye guides us in that ambiguous direction.

dancer in the dark

2009-06-16T01:30:00.001-04:00

"At Home He's Tourist"
Gang of Four
1980
Does anyone know of any good summer concert series?

three the hard way

2009-06-16T01:17:00.002-04:00

"Le Combat Dans L'Ile"
directed by Alain Cavalier
1962
Once again, proof that all you need for a film is a gun, a girl, and Jean-Louis Trintignant.

“he was bad, he was trouble and he was beautiful.”

2009-06-16T00:55:00.003-04:00

"Let's Get Lost"
directed by Bruce Weber
1988

Thanks to an ever so beneficent resource, I gave my dad a DVD copy of Bruce Weber's "Let's Get Lost" for Father's Day. I hope he enjoys it as much as I enjoy watching the trailer.

"cinegasm"

2009-06-07T14:23:00.003-04:00

"Zabriskie Point"
1970
directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Available at Amazon.com, $14.99
Why did no one tell me this finally got released on DVD???????

legs, legs, legs

2009-06-03T21:43:00.003-04:00

Dear Chloe,
I like yo steez.

W.

call me

2009-06-03T01:15:00.002-04:00

I think this card would cause Bateman to sweat. I'm officially a grown ass man.

the quiet belgian

2009-06-02T00:49:00.006-04:00

Photography by Alex Salinas
for Veronique Branquinho
Sadly, another designer bites the dust. It wasn't until recently that I came to appreciate Veronique Branquinho. I always thought she was too esoteric or too..tortured Belgian artist, but her Spring 09 show seemed to capture that feeling of a light ocean mist against your face while digging your toes on a sandy beach. It's practically summer and isn't that exactly what we want our clothes to make us feel like?

performance: on the run

2009-05-29T02:21:00.004-04:00

If the guns, sex, '70s grit, or the film's middle-finger-to-the-world point of view isn't seductive enough, please watch the opening credits sequence to Sam Peckinpah's "The Getaway".

the comfort zone

2009-05-25T15:48:00.003-04:00

I'm firmly planted next to my fan and my favorite summer indulgence, vanilla bean ice cream and fresh blueberries, enjoying the day off. These kind of holidays are best experienced with classic comfort food. After gorging on Avedon at the ICP, I stopped at Shake Shack for my first ShakeBurger. Needless to say, it was worth the wait. The cheese was perfectly melted and blended well with the firm tomato, crisp lettuce, and juicy burger. The strawberry shake I ordered helped me wash down the golden crinkle cut fries that had just the right crunch. Next up on the comfort food kick? Root Beer Bourbon Floats and Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs with Avocado at home.

Enjoy the holiday!

computer love

2009-05-24T19:26:00.002-04:00

Motherboard Tee, Red Amethyst
Rogan, $39 (On Sale at Barneys)

I can now look like a cast member of "Tron."

the look

2009-05-24T11:01:00.005-04:00

Avedon Fashion
1944-2000
International Center of Photography
The lines, the composition, the glamour, the sex, the energy--what more could you want?

enter the void

2009-05-23T10:04:00.004-04:00

"Lust for Life"
Nathaniel Brown and Paz de la Huerta
photographed by Nan Goldin
V, 59
Nathaniel Brown and Paz de la Huerta are the stars of Gasper Noe's latest foray into the trippy and disturbing in "Enter the Void." The film debuted at Cannes this week and tells the story of a dead drug dealer who looks over his sister as she grieves in the neon lit world of Tokyo. I've seen his last two films, "Irreversible" and "I Stand Alone", both of which are deeply unsettling films, but at least are consistent in their shocking tone and artful construction. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times had this to say about "Enter the Void":

What largely distinguishes it, beyond the stunning cinematography, is that this is the work of an artist who’s trying to show us something we haven’t seen before, even while he liberally samples images and ideas from Stanley Kubrick and the entirety of American avant-garde cinema. The grungy milieu and calculated shocks might have been designed to make you flee — even while your attention is tethered to the camera — but, really, these aren’t the point. The point is the filmmaking.

five and dime

2009-05-23T00:23:00.003-04:00

Thom Browne's five favorite films:
"Death in Venice", 1971
"The Garden of the Finzi-Continis", 1970
"2001: A Space Odyssey", 1968
"The Thomas Crown Affair", 1968
"Barry Lyndon", 1975
Good taste or obvious taste?

down by the bay

2009-05-19T21:09:00.003-04:00

Don Siegel's 1979 film, "Escape from Alcatraz" (playing as a part of the Film Forum Con Film Festival) still wasn't enough to make me an Eastwood believer, but damned if the the hard ass squint of 70's Eastwood (when he seemed less aware of his iconic status) didn't make a strong case. Watching the percolating, creased face of Eastwood burn to a slow boil as he devises the ultimate plan to escape from the ultimate prison was the film's strength, but leave it to an uneven and surprisingly non-engaging level of suspense to make the film fall a little flat by the time the boys break loose (it's not a spoiler, the film is based on a true story). Post-film I spotted Lauren Hutton looking lovely in a leg brace and smoking a cigar of some sort and asking what was playing next. A definite welcomed respite after a movie with no female eye candy. The beautiful, famous women most grown on the non-existent trees here because I keep seeing them left and right.

the straight and narrow

2009-05-17T21:16:00.004-04:00

Helmut Lang
Raw Selvedge Straight Leg Jean
Thanks to the Save Fashion Sale, I now own Helmut Lang jeans. My life and wardrobe are finally complete. For now.

variety lights

2009-05-17T20:44:00.007-04:00

Yayoi Kusama
Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2009
Mixed media installation
now at the Gagosian Gallery

I saw Kate Winslet on the street about ten minutes after I stepped out of this installation. I still can't decide which was a more eye-popping experience.

all plaid out

2009-05-16T00:44:00.004-04:00

Light Cotton Zip Parka
Uniqlo, $49.50
I just can't get enough.

first look: the road

2009-05-15T22:50:00.002-04:00

"The Road"
directed by John Hillcoat
October 16, 2009 (limited)

I. cannot. wait. for. this. movie.

ssshhh!

2009-05-14T09:18:00.003-04:00

A friend of a friend of a friend of a friend confirmed to me that a certain unsung classic will finally gets its due with a release on the Criterion Collection later this year. I'm not at liberty to discuss how I know this or what film will get this prestigious honor, but let's just say it's a masterpiece of epic proportions that's wildly sardonic and captures the cultural zeitgeist in the most nuanced and profoundest of ways. You can start guessing now.

the new girl

2009-05-10T23:21:00.004-04:00

This past Friday marked the last day for one of the interns at my work and to celebrate we went to La Esquina for cocktails and a light dinner. I had the octopus tostadas served on crisp tortillas and more margarita's than perhaps I should've had. In short, it was delicious. Not only was the food excellent, but mid-meal I spotted model Lakshmi Menon and good God she's a stunning creature. Cheekbones as high as they could be and an inimitable cool that separated her from the rest of the mere models dining and cocktailing, she's obviously very pretty, but she radiated depth and intruige (How many models can you say that about?). I love that this city is filled to the brim with beautiful women.

king of cool

2009-05-10T22:51:00.005-04:00

"Yesterday’s Loner: Steve McQueen"
Film Society of Lincoln Film Center
May 20-26, 2009
I. WILL. BE. THERE.

new romantic

2009-05-09T22:46:00.005-04:00

"Ghosts"
Japan
Live on "The Old Grey Whistle Test"
1982

Yet another post-"Lost" treat. I think the best part of this is the fact that lead singer David Sylvian doesn't get up from his chair. If you were that cool, would you?

jealous of an eight-year-old

2009-05-09T16:53:00.003-04:00

Crewcuts by J. Crew
May 2009
I think swishy pants and shoes that lit up as you walked were big when I was in elementary school. If only I had Crewcuts at my disposal I could have been a young sartorial star like the "Mad Men" creator's son.

first look: whatever works

2009-05-09T16:27:00.001-04:00

"Whatever Works"
directed by Woody Allen
June 19, 2009 (limited)

Those Southern accents are so distracting!

cover girl

2009-05-08T00:08:00.005-04:00

"Models are about high heels and short dresses."--Gisele Bundchen
making a good point in custom Versace
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute
Gala Opening of the "Models as Muses" Exhibit
She couldn't have said it better.