BestBlogPosts

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 03:51:39 GMT

Swapping It Up

The clothing swap/Boston blogger mixer on Thursday was positively epic. I started the night a bit bedraggled due to the intense wind that determinedly buffeted my hair around and blew up my dress as I trudged around Porter Square.

I wore a dress from Nordstrom, my trusty Steve Madden combat boots, and Target socks. My studded bag is Nine West.

My friend

The blogger mixer was fun, but the real excitement was the swap! We spent a few hours gazing over the balcony at the calm before the storm.

....and then the swap started. It was an absolute madhouse. The rows and rows of racks were devoid of clothes within minutes. Every time I blinked, I swear some item I was eying disappeared. It was all gone so fast!

So what did I score? Here are the highlights:

A long gray loosely woven sweater, layered lace top, and printed tunic.

Pink skirt by

In addition to swapping, there were a few vendors in attendance. I was gifted the raddest

As the evening wound down, the bloggers gathered in a makeshift dressing area to put together outfits made of swap items. It was not easy! We then walked the runway to the cheers of watching swappers. It was an experience, to say the least. Lots of smiles.

Elizabeth"s outfit consisted solely of swap items. It was very "70s.

My outfit was entirely swapped too. And yes, that is a jacketless hood on my head. No big.

Phew, what a night! We left tired but happy. Check out The Swapaholics on flickr to see more snaps from the night, including the chaos of the swap itself, the amazing looks put together by other bloggers, and a photo of me on the runway in which my face looks like a grandmother"s. Posted by: Kori      Read more     Source

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:03:24 GMT

The Way Back

by Vadim Rizov



When you have-as with The Way Back-an old-fashioned, grueling trek odyssey with plenty of far-off shots of tiny figures crossing a vast landscape, there"s a danger in making it sound like an awards-season anachronism for the old folks. Describing the difficulties he had getting financing for his first film in seven years, director Peter Weir sounded surprisingly like a man who feels out of time: "One [studio exec] said "We aren"t in that kind of business anymore." I thought what kind of business? Show business?" Truly, Weir has more to offer than mere old-school, impress-through-sheer-scale spectacle. That same sound byte might"ve been uttered by David Lean at his most peevish; when Lean was interviewed by Gerald Pratley on the CBC in March 1965 (collected in the out-of-print, Andrew Sarris-edited anthology Interviews with Film Directors), he sniped the kitchen-sink realism and other "obscure" films rising in awards prominence. Doctor Zhivago would be his last great success, and the kind of sweeping epic he"d come to specialize in was on the way out. "I, personally, often worry about being old-fashioned," he said. "But I like a good strong story. I like a beginning, a middle and an end." Posted by: ahillis      Read more     Source

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:11:25 GMT

Kylie Minogue Almost Back to Pre-Cancer Best

Kylie Minogue finally feels like she is returning to normal after living in a "stranger"s body" for five years since her cancer battle.

The Spinning Around singer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 andunderwent surgery and chemotherapy to beat the disease.

She tells Britain"s Glamour magazine, A lot of people have said to me recently, "You"re looking really well, back to your old self

She was given the all-clear the year after (06), but the singer admits she has struggled to get her body back to normal after the ravaging treatment.

She tells Britain"s Glamour magazine, "A lot of people have said to me recently, "You"re looking really well, back to your old self." I just need to get my fitness up. Then I"ll almost be back in my own body. "I felt for such a long time that I was in a stranger"s body".
Tags: Kylie Minogue, Glamour, Glamour, Fitness, Glamour, Breast Cancer Posted by: Melissa      Read more     Source

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:03:02 GMT

Easy Riders, Hold the Raging Bulls

by Steve Dollar



Not everything we take for granted in a moviegoing life was always a fait accompli. Though it encompasses seven films released between 1968 and 1971, America Lost and Found: The BBS Story may feel like a fin-de-siècle time capsule of the Sixties-now variously fossilized, romanticized and idealized-but it"s also a jolt. The shotgun blast that ends Easy Rider, the most mythologized film in the collection, may have symbolically killed off an era and its utopian concepts of freedom, but it also signaled the arrival of a surging wave in American movies. The New Hollywood, if you will, emergent with all its anxieties, ambivalences, confusions and candor ratcheted up to a definitive pitch.

The production house as countercultural engine room, BBS took its name from the first initials of its three principals. Writer-director-producer Bob Rafelson and producer Bert Schneider, who had made a bundle hijacking my childhood with The Monkees-a fab faux of madcap moptops with amazing pop smashes penned by Boyce and Hart-and producer Steve Blauner, who joined the team in 1969. The 112-page booklet that accompanies the Criterion box set offers a hit parade of histories and appreciations, tracing the curious pop-cultural arc that connects the impressively subversive Head (the 1968 Monkees feature, cowritten by budding 29-year-old hyphenate Jack Nicholson) to Hearts & Minds, the 1974 antiwar documentary that won the Academy Award, crowning a by-then defunct BBS in posthumous glory. Posted by: ahillis      Read more     Source

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:00:26 GMT

Plot 94

I’m so excited because over the weekend I was offered a plot in a local community garden. I was waitlisted at three gardens and had pretty much given up hope of getting a plot this late in the game. But it turned out there were some openings at Foxpoint Community Garden, so I showed up this morning, plunked down $25 and claimed Plot 94, the most beautiful 8 ‘ x 4′ -ish patch of dirt that you ever did see.

For those of you that don’t know, my husband and I sold our house last summer and are temporarily living in an apartment with no yard or garden. I’ve been trying to get my gardening fix with houseplants and it’s not the same (although I do enjoy my beautiful bougainvillea). I’ve really been dreading the approaching summer with no garden to play in, so Plot 94 is a great joy to me.

This week I’ll put down some compost and do some planning, and buy some bamboo poles and any other supplies. I don’t exactly know what I’m going to plant yet….tomatoes, peppers, herbs, cucumbers, just basic stuff I guess. I want some annuals too, so I can have have some flowers to tend to.

I wasn’t prepared for a day in the garden today…it was a fairly last minute notice and I didn’t know what to expect; I wasn’t wearing gardening clothes; and I didn’t have any tools or compost. Plus the weather was cool and drizzly. But all of a sudden there I was, just me and Plot 94, and I wanted to do something besides turn around and go home.There were some weeds–nothing serious, just a few. So I weeded–and it felt so good to get my hands dirty! Posted by: Caroline Brown      Read more     Source

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:53:35 GMT

500 Million Opinions

by Vadim Rizov



Everyone who sees David Fincher"s The Social Network feels they have an opinion that simply must be counted, a piece of context no one else does. That kind of urge to spontaneously fact-check rarely happens: most mainstream studio releases are so out of touch with the real world they might as well be science-fiction. Consider Life As We Know It, Friday"s upcoming Katherine Heigl-Josh Duhamel rom-com in which the mutually loathing pair are brought together when friends die and leave them tasked with care of the leftover baby, at which point they dutifully fall in love. It"s a premise so outlandish it might as well be a parallel universe documentary about the mating habits of Martians. Posted by: cphillips      Read more     Source

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:57:27 GMT

Wyethia helianthoides

A brief interlude from the "Plant Biodiversity of China" series (and only a brief entry), since I"m presently concentrating on trying to repair the weblog software after an "upgrade" yesterday morning. I think I have the notification system working (we"ll see with this entry, and sorry about the new entry notification yesterday due to a spam comment(!)), but I still have to fix the commenting system -- so, no comments on today"s entry or previous entries until that is repaired.

For those of you who have received duplicate notices about today"s entry, I apologize. I had to give up on an attempt to "upgrade" the software that runs Botany Photo of the Day because it broke more things than it fixed. So, after publishing today"s entry with the upgraded system (and seeing how much it broke), I decided to revert to the old system, with a database backup from Monday at 2am local time (no comments were lost, though, since there hadn"t been any). So, while I sort out what to do next, we"ll stay on this version of the software for the time being.

Wyethia helianthoides is known as white mule"s-ears or white-rayed wyethia, and is native to the northern Great Basin region of the USA. Additional photographs are available from CalPhotos: Wyethia helianthoides and the Malheur Experiment Station: Wyethia helianthoides. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:55:41 GMT

Whose neighborhood?

Gang injunctions; solution or political theatre

The city of San Francisco is known all over the world for its natural beauty, gourmet restaurants, and booming nightlife. When people think about San Francisco, they don"t often think about gang violence. But that"s just what"s been plaguing the city"s mission district for many years.

On this edition, Making Contact intern Joaquin Palomino spoke to former gang members, and other mission residents, about gang injunctions, a controversial legal strategy that"s divided the community. Some call it a solution, but many believe it"s an ineffective measure that does more damage than good.

Greener Magazine

Featuring::

Renee Quinonez, Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth (H.O.M.E.Y.) executive director; Renee Saucedo, La Raza Centro Legal community activist and lawyer; Dennis Herrera, San Francisco City Attorney; Nancy Hernandez, H.O.M.E.Y. youth mentor; Francisco, Mission resident and artist; Ruben Palomares, Conscious Youth Media Collective student; Mike Trigger, H.O.M.E.Y. artist.

Executive Producer/Host: Tena Rubio
Contributing Intern Producer: Joaquin Palomino
Producer: Andrew Stelzer
Associate Producer: Puck Lo
Interns: Samson Reiny and Elena Botkin-Levy
Executive Director: Lisa Rudman

This program was produced as part of National Radio Project"s internship program. Go to our homepage and click on "Get Involved" to learn more about it.

For more information::

Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth
1337 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-861-1600
http://www.homeysf.org/

La Raza Centro Legal
474 Valencia Street, Suite 295
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-575-3500
http://www.lrcl.org/

PODER
474 Valencia Street #125
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-431-4210
http://www.podersf.org/

Conscious Youth Media Crew
1337 Mission Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-250-5552
cymc2000@yahoo.com
http://www.consciousyouthmediacrew.org/

Homeboy Industries
130 West Bruno Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
323-526-1257
http://www.consciousyouthmediacrew.org/
http://www.homeboy-industries.org/

Music:

Lady Tragik: Release my Pain
Native Guns: Hammer
People Under the Stairs: San Francisco Knights Posted by: Greener Magazine      Read more     Source

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:40:05 GMT

Coda

We’ve been stomping around the fields and forests of Roundrock for more than a decade, but even after all of that time, I’m still not sure that I’ve set foot on every one of the 83 acres. There are possibly parts of it that I just haven’t wandered into. That’s something I want to work on for the next ten years and beyond.

Ahead lay discoveries. I’m sure there are types of trees growing in my woods that I never knew I had. Others that I’ll finally learn the names of. Critters prowling the place that I’ve never seen. Flowers that will be first-time discoveries for me. And microscopic life: I want to turn the lens of a microscope on a drop of water from the lake to see what new wilderness there is to explore. There isn’t much evidence of human use of this land, but maybe I’ll come across the foundation stones of an old cabin. I’d love to find a cave, even if it’s just a small one.

I’m not an expert on plants or wildlife or geology or local history or chainsaws or photography or rural living. But I don’t claim to be. The only thing I can consider myself an authority on is myself and my adventure through life. And I think there is plenty of adventure ahead.

Maybe I’ll finally find an arrowhead. Or another ancient horseshoe. Or an Ozark Howler. And plenty of really fine round rocks. Who knows what strange and mysterious surprises await in the meteor impact structure where Roundrock sits. For me, there is no other place like Roundrock in all the world.

Someday we’ll raise a house out there and move in full time. We’ll get the dam fixed and settled, the road improved, the lake properly stocked. We’ll work on timber stand improvement, culling some trees so others can thrive. We’ll continue to introduce critter-friendly plants throughout the forest and then see how they do. We’ll get to see the pecans bear nuts and we’ll get to walk in the dark under the towering pine trees. We’ll be stewards of the land; maybe we can make a difference in our little patch.

And I’ll spend my quiet moments sipping iced tea (unsweetened, of course), sitting in my comfy chair on the shady porch overlooking the sparkling lake in my little bit of forest on the edge of the Missouri Ozarks.

Missouri calendar:

• Stinging nettle is tall enough to sting; jewelweed is big enough to relieve the burn.

I wish all of you well. Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 03:29:43 GMT

Todd Solondz

Think of this as an addendum to our podcast recorded during last year"s New York Film Festival, in which Armond White, Andrew Grant and myself (along with party crasher Sylvia Miles) debated Welcome to the Dollhouse and Palindromes auteur Todd Solondz"s newly released Life During Wartime:

Part sequel, part variation on his acclaimed and controversial Happiness, the newest film from celebrated director Todd Solondz assembles an amazing ensemble cast including Allison Janney, Shirley Henderson, Paul Reubens, Michael Kenneth Williams, Ally Sheedy, Charlotte Rampling, and Ciáran Hinds in an utterly hilarious exploration of the boundaries of forgiveness, family, and love.

Ten years have passed since shocking revelations shattered the world of the Jordan family, and now sisters Joy (Henderson), Trish (Janney), and Helen (Sheedy), each embroiled in their own unique dilemmas, struggle to find their place in an unpredictable and volatile world. The past now haunts their family both literally and otherwise, and jeopardizes the future. Alternately hilarious and tragic, outrageous and poignant, Life During Wartime is an audacious comedy with unexpected resonance.

I met up recently with Solondz at the SoHo Grand Hotel Lounge to discuss his thoughts on forgiveness, The Wire, the political undertones of his new film, being accused of misanthropy, and whether (as I once heard him say in 2002) he still disliked filmmaking as the medium for telling his stories.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (16:44)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Talking Heads: "Life During Wartime (Alt. Version)"
OUTRO: Daniel Rey: "Welcome to the Dollhouse"

[Life During Wartime is now playing in limited release and on demand. For more information, please visit the official site.] Posted by: ahillis      Read more     Source