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Fall Eyewear: Oversized Cat Eye
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Those of you who think sunglasses are only for summer are the same ones who develop early crows feet. Sunglasses provide mystery, protection, and glamour year-round. The look for Fall 2010: oversized cat eye. Think Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface.
Remember, the look is OVERSIZED. That means your eyebrows don’t show. These red Carmen shades by Derek Lam exemplify the proper scale. 
Experiment with gold, green, tortoise, or black. This shape works in a variety of colors and textures. Werk Palermo!
Can’t go wrong with Tom Ford.
For the love of Christ, retire the Ray-Bans.
JULIA ROBERTS: THE GOLDEN YEARS
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
So many of you will be rush, rush, rushing out to see the new Julia Roberts movie Eat, Pray, Love, opening mañana. The book evokes derisive, polarizing, debate for a variety of legitimate reasons. Regardless of personal opinion, never have so many approached me as when I read this book on vacation a few years ago. Eat, Pray, Love lives in the realm of white female privilege. If you can get past that, the kundalini discussion is pretty interesting. So yeah, in honor of Mz. Roberts, please enjoy a retrospective of her earlier guilty pleasures.
Satisfaction, a 1988 cult classic staring Justine Bateman as the lead singer of Mystery, and Liam Neeson as the curmudgeony barkeep. Julia Roberts embarrasses herself with her rhythm-less, pouty portrayal of Daryle, the slutty bass player in a nearly all-girl band. This marks the beginning of a string of roles where Julia plays the lovable, ditzy skank. The soundtrack, while hard to find, contains some memorable moments – consider tracking it down.
Also right outta ’88, let’s enjoy a slice with the gang from Mystic Pizza. Strong performances by Lili Taylor and Annabeth Gish challenged Julia to step up her acting a notch in her portrayal of Daisy Arujo. Julia captures Daisy’s yearning to abandon her towny-waitress life by using her significant wiles to leverage her ivy league boyfriend as a ticket to the good life (remember, this was the 80′s). Don’t even attempt to watch this without your favorite pizza handy.
Steel Magnolias marked a shift in the public perception of Julia Roberts. Abandoning slutty to play Shelby, Julia proved she had acting chops and gravitas. Julia’s humility allowed her to learn from those around her, and she obviously absorbed a great deal from the talented cast that surrounded her in Steel Magnolias. It is still the gold standard for conjuring laughter through tears.
Turning towards slightly darker fare, Sleeping With the Enemy is a well-paced, (if slightly cheesy) thriller about an abusive husband and his long-suffering wife who escapes to reinvent herself. Divided into essentially three parts, this movie delivers a little of everything: great interiors, a makeover montage, and a well-thought-out plan executed with a little luck and a lot of preparation.
1997′s My Best Friend’s Wedding still holds up as the best of those misogynistic wedding-themed movies. Julia brings true star power to this role, filing up the screen with her toothy mopish grin. She creates fizzy chemistry with Cameron Diaz and Rupert Everett, proving she can magnanimously share the laughs. My Best Friend’s Wedding marks the last film Julia made before she lodged that giant self-righteous rod up her ass. 
LOLITA
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
While you may think you know the story of Lolita, if you have not read Nabokov’s literary masterpiece, you are missing out on one of the most brilliant, touching, perverse, and entertaining books of the last hundred years.
A meditation on youth, loss, trauma, and sexual manipulation, Nabokov employs wry humor and presents his characters without judgment. This subject matter could have easily drowned in the obvious cultural taboo of pedophilia, but Nabokov accesses an emotional purity that artfully bypasses such cliches. Woven into the story are little winks and nods which keep it from suffering under the weight of itself.
Nabokov wrote the screenplay for Kubrick’s 1962 film adaptation, and there is also a 1997 version with Dominique Swain, Jeremy Irons, and a memorable Melanie Griffith. In this case, the book is better than the movies. Lolita is well worth your time and deserves a space on your bookshelf. 
Better than Salt
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Truthfully, since Angelina and Brad have gotten together neither of them have made movies worth seeing. Brad’s on his anti-sex-symbol-legitimate-actor trajectory, and Angie keeps churning out the same mindless action movies. Instead of plunking down dough for Angelina’s latest recapitulated offering, why not revisit some of her more worthwhile work? 
Like Gia, Jolie’s award-winning, seminal portrayal of a rebellious, drug-addicted supermodel. It is easy to resent Angelina’s recent, lazy, phoned-in, performances when compared to her authentic embodiment of the complex and unpredictable Gia Carangi. 
a single man
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
In keeping with our Tom Ford theme, let’s discuss A Single Man, his gorgeous directorial and screenwriting debut. Now much of this movie looks like a luxury cologne ad, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Julianne Moore, as usual, sublimely delivers a layered performance as Charley. Watch for the dance scene between her and the protagonist George, played by Colin Firth. 
Impeccable fashion, hair, and make-up are a given with Mr. Ford at the helm, but his filmmaking doesn’t rely on style over substance. Firth’s nuanced performance captures the deep grief and profound sense of loss that comes from unexpected death. 
While Ford’s use of color saturation for dramatic and emotional emphasis created visual interest, his use of heavy-handed sound effects is distracting. Overall, a well-acted, well-written, and well-directed film. Smooches Tom Ford.
ADVENTURELAND
Saturday, July 10th, 2010
Summertime brings on an itch for the amusement park, rather than actually interact with children, visit Adventureland. No movie better encapsulates the airbrushed corn dog nostalgia of the local crappy fun park of your childhood.
Obviously, I’m obsessed with Martin Starr, so as a selling point let’s start with him. He somehow manages to slip a Gogol reference into every role he plays. Where Martin Starr goes, I follow. Unlike those God-awful Twilight movies, Stewart doesn’t make me want to gouge my eyes out in her performance as Em. 
In addition to the stellar cast, this movie has an excellent soundtrack including The Cure, Crowded House, and The Velvet Underground.
For You to Watch: Drop Dead Gorgeous
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Drop Dead Gorgeous is an ahead-of-its time 1999 faux-documentary set in rural Minnesota. Kirsten Dunst, Kirstie Alley, Ellen Barkin, Allison Janney, Brittany Murphy, Amy Adams, and Denise Richards all contribute to the ensemble in this hilarious parody of small town beauty pageants.
Several of these underrated female comics turn in fantastic performances in the vein of The Office years before Michael Scott was on the air.
Denise Richards‘ acting career peaked with Becky Ann Leeman; you will love to hate her as Kirstie Alley’s crown-hungry daughter. 
A thick-accented Kirstie Alley kills as a pushy stage mother and pageant organizer vicariously living through her snotty over-privileged daughter. 
Kate Plus Eight: Leave the Dolphins Alone
Monday, June 7th, 2010
Last night, Kate and the kids returned to TLC for their new show (sans Jon), Kate Plus Eight.
In a cross-promotional bonanza, Discovery Cove invited the Gosselins down for the sextuplets’ 6th birthday.
If you have seen the award-winning documentary, The Cove, you know why these dolphin experiences contribute to the mass capture and killing of dolphins around the globe. The only thing your kid will learn from Discovery Cove is how to exploit animals and corrupt the balance of nature. 
While Discovery Cove obtained most of its dolphins from captivity breeding and not wild captures, by patronizing dolphin experiences you condone and promote the imprisonment, abduction, and ultimate destruction of these beautiful mammals. Resist the temptation to believe that all living things are on this earth for humans to use and discard.
“A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages.”