The Charles and Ray Eames ethos is synonymous with modern design, and their work has been instrumental in establishing a union between functionality and aesthetics in furniture.  The Eames chair has become symbolic of the later half of the 21st century, and it is has a magnetizing catnip effect on designers.  It is widely recognizable, and has earned its place in museums and…Mad Men.  The chairs are still sold through Herman Miller, or for those whom lean towards impracticality, I’m pretty sure that KidRobot once sold miniature versions.

First Run Features has created a documentary on the team (Eames: The Architect and the Painter), which is screening in the US this fall.  Unfortunately I’ll miss all screenings, but you should go!  Even, at the very least, just to hear the sultry voice of James Franco, who narrates the documentary.  (Did you see Howl and were you compelled by James Franco’s reading of the poem?)  Here’s the trailer:

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1. LADY GAGA’S BAD ROMANCE. I know, I know — and yet, she does write her own songs, and she has her own sense of style (the wheelchair/invalid dance in Paparazzi?!), and you can play this song over and over if you’re caught in a bad roma-roma-ramma… etc. Oh, and the monster dance moves? Go ahead, watch the video now. I’m breaking out my monster claws at the next party.

2. PRESIDENTIAL FLASHCARDS. Go to the “One Spot” at Target where everything is a dollar, and get this set of Presidential Flashcards with a prez portrait on the front and fun facts on the back. I spent yesterday memorizing all of the presidents in order. I’m sure that will come in handy… never. (Whose the dude with the cool hairdo in the pic above? ANSWER BELOW.)

3. BIG LOVE. Rumor has it, the fourth season just began, but, as an HBO-less human, behind on the times, I just finished the first season ($26). There is a voyeuristic thrill in watching this rendition of modern-day polygamy, which, according to this one time I flipped on Oprah, still happens outside of crazy, fundamentalist-Mormon compounds. Oh, and it stars Gennifer Goodwin as one of the wives, and Amanda Seyfried as one of the daughters.

4. PENGUIN DELUXE CLASSICS. The covers of the Penguin Deluxe Classics almost make we want to read books I loath, such as Ethan Frome, which has its very best heartbreaking/hysterical scene immortalized on the cover. Many of the covers instead immortalize scenes in comic strips, including Chris Ware’s (you should know him) cover for Candide:

5. TRUE BLOOD (watch the trailer!). So, I was totally not on the vampire bandwagon until I watched the first season ($45 on amazon.com, but I think it’s on sale at Target!) of True Blood (the second season didn’t do it for me, so I didn’t finish it, but I still recommend the first) about a near-future world in which Vampires have come out of hiding to attempt to peacefully co-exist with humans (and have hot, naked HBO-sex with them). Sookie (Oscar winner Anna Paquin! Love her!), a minding-reading southerner, falls in love with Vampire-Bill (hot, but pale). Best of all, it’s produced — with some episodes written and directed by — Alan Ball, Oscar-winning writer of American Beauty. Finally, the title sequence runs like a music video about redemption and sin (read about it on Wikipedia):

ANSWER: William Henry Harrison! If you can’t remember anything about him, don’t worry, he was only president for thirty-two days!

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A good year. Some favorites…

1. Favorite short story: “My First Fee” by Isaac Babel
Links: The Complete Works of Isaac Babel on amazon.com ($30)
Text of Isaac Babel’s (great) short story “Guy de Maupassant”

2. Favorite album: Up From Below by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Links: Up From Below on amazon.com ($10)
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros on MySpace
Song “40 Day Dream” Live (youtube)
Official Video for “Home” (youtube)

3. Second favorite short story: “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff
Links: T. Coraghessan Boyle reads “Bullet in the Brain” on the New Yorker Fiction podcast
Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories by Tobias Wolff, amazon.com ($11)

4. Favorite gift: Aerial 7 Matador headphones
Link: Aerial 7 Matador Headphones, amazon.com ($50)

5. Favorite novel: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Links: Lolita by Nabokov, amazon.com ($11)
Great Review of the Novel from The Second Pass

6. Second favorite novel: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Link: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, amazon.com ($10)

7. Favorite TV Show: In Treatment
Links: In Treatment Season 1 Trailer (youtube)
HBO’s Offical In Treatment Site
In Treatment: The Complete First Season, amazon.com ($55)
In Treatment- The Complete Second Season, amazon.com (for pre-order, $55)

8. Favorite actor: James Dean
Link: S&D Guide to becoming A Rebel, Without a Cause (including trailer, etc)

9. Favorite song: Skinny Love by Bon Iver
Links: Bon Iver playing Skinny Love live (youtube)
For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver, amazon.com ($13)

10. Favorite historical figure: Napoleon (thanks, PBS)
Link: Empires: Napoleon DVD, PBS Documentary w/David McCullough, amazon.com ($17)

11. Favorite (newish) movie: Rachel Getting Married
Links: Rachel Getting Married Trailer (youtube)
Rachel Getting Married DVD, amazon.com $17

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I know we’ve been semi-lame lately, but Tricia is mad-busy, and I’m packing packing (my poor room is beginning to look so very empty). Also, there were a few WordPress upgrade problems, all of which hadven’t been fixed. In time. In time.

But while and between packing I’ve been happily entertained by several new (er, okay, only new to me) and inexpensive products of the entertainment industry. REMEMBER in addition to books, libraries also usually have lots of DVDs and CDs, so there is no need to spend a cent, unless you are lazy like me and have Netflix.

1. Enchanted. So two years ago? Yes, but I’m still Enchanted. Hee hee. This movie is great for me for three reasons: (a) It takes place in NYC, a place I’m Currently Obsessed with because I’m Currently About To Leave It; (b) It makes fun of Disney movies while BEING a Disney movie at the very same time (very meta); (c) great musical numbers (nominated for several academy awards, but beaten out fairly by Once), case and point:

2. Bon Iver. I just discovered this new band via Adele’s musical selections in a recent issue of Oprah Magazine (*air high-five with Tricia*). His song “Skinny Love” blew me away. (I also love: For Emma, Blood Bank — alright, I like most of them). Check it:

3. Shakespeare in the Park! This is the deal. Central Park in NYC puts on a FREEEEEEEE summer series (two plays, one always Shakespeare). It is a professional production, this year starring Anne Hathaway as Viola in Twelfth Night.

This was the best Shakespeare production I have ever seen. If you are afraid of Shakespeare (“I don’t know what’s going on!!! What language are they speaking!?”), fear not! This is so well done that you won’t have to struggle to understand. To get tickets, you have to get online early in the morning (ex. I got online at 8:30 and was safely a ticket-getter), though late-comers sometimes get lucky. Bring something to sit on and games to play for the line — you can’t hold a spot for a friend whose coming later, either. They hand out tickets at 1:00, and everyone is entitled to two. The show is at 8pm, and it’s outside so bring appropriate clothes! Twelfth Night runs until July 12 2009. (PS A raccoon tried to crawl on stage during the performance!)

4. Colbert Goes Commando. I love that Colbert is making it fashionable to support the troops while not necessarily supporting the policies that got them where they are. If you haven’t heard, Steven Colbert of the mock news show The Colbert Report recently voyaged to Iraq, entertaining the troops by filming a week of episodes on location in one of Saddam’s old palaces.
Full Episodes from his trip to Iraq are available on Colbert Nation. The first episode, from Monday June 8, is especially good.

5. Persepolis. Yes, I’m also years late on this obsession, but I’ve been thinking a lot about this autobiography / graphic novel concerning a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. I’m disappointed in myself for being so generally uninterested in foreign affairs (though I do think it’s my duty, as a human, to be informed), so I’m thrilled that this “novel” makes the plight of people in other countries seem so personal and real.

6. Marlon Brando. Last week, I really let my Netflix account go. Suddenly I was getting movies in my mailbox that I had meant to keep forever on the bottom of my Netflix queue and never actually receive. So there I was with A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. In order to get my next movies, you know what I had to do. I had to watch them. What did I discover? Old movies are hella well-written, and Marlon Brando is hella hot. Also, you will get to see one of the most famous scenes in movie history, which I think is much better in the context of the movie, but here we go:

So, go enjoy yourself with all your new entertaining suggestions! (And let me know if there is anything I should add to my list!)

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This week’s craft is effortless: wall art!  It’s an easy way to update a wall, and you can painlessly swap prints as often as you would like.

Supplies

Canvas! Craft stores usually sell inexpensive beginner/value pack canvases .  The canvas used above is 16″x12″.  For those of you who are more ambitious, you can build your own wooden frame with wood and nails.  But I’m a sloth, and that route demands too much effort.

Fabric! Choosing the fabric will probably take longer than assembling the wall art.  Below is a sample of fabrics that I’ve used.  The left is an OLIVIA (!) print from eQuilter, which I picked for a friend who loves Olivia.  The print on the right is Joel Dewberry‘s “Sparrows.”  If you don’t live near a good fabric store, eQuilter (Quilters. LOVE. FABRIC) and REPRODEPOT FABRICS have great selections.

Iron!

Stapler!

Steps

1.  Cut fabric so that there is an inch of fabric around each side of the frame.

2.  Iron fabric.

3.  Turn canvas over, and staple the fabric to the frame.  Make sure that the fabric is taut (and not crooked)!  Yes, my staples are purple.  Five years ago I had an essay to staple, and no staples.  I went to the school store, and discovered that everyone else  had ALSO ran out of staples.  The lonely staples that remained? Purple.  Since boxes of staples seem to last eons, purple staples will scar my documents FOREVER.

4.  You’re done!  Hang your new creation on the wall.

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Here are some of my favorite videos that include music and ASL. I think you will find them beautiful and interesting even if you don’t know any ASL. (Yes, there is some discussion about the irony of how much hearing signers seem to enjoy translating music into ASL.) (If you don’t know anything about ASL, check out some fun facts at the end of this post.)

(1) Sia’s music video for Soon We’ll Be Found is not only unique and creative (glow in the dark sequence! painted hands!), but also is a very cool and very loose, interpretive ASL translation of her lyrics.

Lots more after the jump!…

(2) D-PAN (Deaf Performing Artist’s Network) has created awesome translations of contemporary songs, including Beautiful and Waiting on the World to Change, but their best work comes in the form of a music video that looks exactly (except for the signing!) like Fort Minor’s real video for the song Where’d You Go. You can watch it here on the D-PAN web-site.

(3) This Russian group sings Grease in English and signs along in ASL (not always the lyrics, exactly, but the emotions at least).

(4) I think this is a pretty cool rendition of the ipod commercial featuring a shadow and ASL, though it would be a kind of bad irony to actually use ASL in a commercial for a product that Deaf people can’t really enjoy.

(5) What I’ve gathered from the comments section is that the performers of this song, All I Want, are a couple — the male half signing, the female signing. The female, Rosa Lee, also has a one-woman Deaf show. In the beginning of the video, when you see the words, Rosa Lee signs the lyrics in SEE (Signed Exact English). After that, she goes into ASL and signs her own version of the lyrics (which are not a translation of the actual lyrics). I think it’s cool (and a good way for non-signers to see a bit of the difference between SEE and ASL) and pretty professionally well done.

(6) This is the same Sia song, Soon We’ll Be Found, but this version is from David Letterman. It’s a unique performance that speaks back to the music video.

(7) Another movie I would embed, if it were allowed, is Marlee Matlin on Sesame Street with Billy Joel (and Oscar the Grouch!). Marlee Matlin won an academy award for her role in Children of a Lesser God (here is an excerpt of a great, ASL-filled scene!), was recently on Dancing with the Stars, and (not nec a highlight of her career…) had her own Mac ad.

If your still interested, feel free to check out my personal ASL playlist with more great song translations and whatnots.

A few random ASL facts:

1. A lot of people confuse SEE (Signed Exact English) with ASL, but ASL has its own grammatical structure which is markedly different from English. ASL is more visual.
2. Deaf people tend to think hearing signers are the equivalent of “monotone” because they are not expressive enough. Facial expressions are also part of the grammar in ASL.
3. ASL is not a universal language. In fact, FSL (French Sign Language) is more similar to ASL than ESL (English Sign Language)!
4. “Deaf” is capitalized when speaking about the Deaf community because it has its own culture (and they are proud of being Deaf). There is a university for the Deaf in Washington DC called Gallaudet.
5. TRAIN-GO-SORRY is my favorite idiom in ASL. It has a meaning similar to English’s “You missed the boat.”

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Had to share immediately for some reason. Where the Wild Things Are trailer (“I didn’t want to wake you up. But I really want to show you something.” HAHAHA). Check out all the cool people involved (ie Dave Eggers, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker) on the IMDB page.

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The Criterion Collection Release of Wes Anderson’s first movie, Bottle Rocket (which Owen Wilson & Wes Anderson wrote together) was one of the most exciting DVD releases of my life, partly because Bottle Rocket’s original cover was one of the most horrendous I have ever seen:

When I learned Ian Dingman (remember when we interviewed him?) would be doing the cover art for the Criterion Collection, I knew that Bottle Rocket would finally get the justice it deserved. And now that I’ve seen the work in real life, I am more than satisfied.

One reason I love this DVD so much is because my FAVORITE part of the film, when Dignan (Owen Wilson) shows off his “75-Year Plan” after Anthony (Luke Wilson) gets out of the mental hospital and they decide to pursue a life of crime, is an intricate part of the specialness of the Criterion Collection:

The DVD insert is both the “notebook” describing the 75-Year Plan as well as the DVD booklet, containing credits, little essays by the likes of Martin Scorsese, and extra drawings matching those in the movie, such as Andrew’s doodle of Inez and a map for their bookstore robbery.

Besides the booklet and the inside and outside of the DVD cover, Ian Dingman has drawn fabulous images for all the on-screen DVD menu pages.

The DVD itself has lots of special features and footage, like the original black and white short that started the whole thing. The DVD commentary is a bit of a bust (Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson can’t seem to remember anything about the film, but it’s entertaining enough if you’re a big fan), but the Making Of feature is pretty informative, and really gets into how these nobody-boys ended up making a movie that… failed miserably, but later became a kind of cult classic and started the careers of some great writers (Wes & Owen), a director (Wes), and actors (Owen, Luke, Andrew — the three Wilson brothers who all appear in the film).

Further Info:

• Purchase Bottle Rocket – Criterion Collection on Amazon.com ($35)
• Checkout all the features and watch a high-quality clip on the Criterion Collection page
• Lots of screenshots from the DVD, along with a comparison of old & new versions
• Ian Dingman’s web-site
• Our interview with Ian Dingman
• The Rushmore Academy, a great Wes Anderson fan page

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At the moment. I’m sick of green.  A kryptonite river. Harassment by trashy green tourists that walk at a snail’s pace.  The burgeoning green grass of the Great Lawn at Millennium Park (YES, I AM A HATER.  I have allergies.).  Despite these negative green-laced events, green is one of my favorite colors, and frames five things that I am currently obsessed with.

1. Stickers and Donuts loves Maira Kalman.  Featured in the NY Times this past Friday, The Robin Hood Foundation has renovated libraries in 62 schools throughout NYC.  With the aid of Pentagram, a global design firm, the project commissioned several established artists (Maira Kalman, Cristoph Niemann, Stefan Sagmeister, Yuko Shimizu)  to create murals for the libraries.  I encourage you to flip through the slide show in the NY Times article, because the murals are amazing!  Below is a picture from Cristoph Niemann’s mural.  THE DINOSAUR’S TEETH ARE BOOKS!!@#@!#@!:

2. As my last post mentioned, I traded Chicago for NYC a few weeks ago.  I had many new experiences (befriended a synthesizer-playing scientologist..which I THOUGHT WAS A NORMAL NYC THING, but after consulting with various natives, apparently it is an anomaly, went to the American Museum of Natural History and Babycakes…), and I notably visited Uniqlo for the first time!  Chicago is imperfect in many ways, and here’s another complaint: There is no Uniqlo in Chicago.

Walking into Uniqlo is like sticking your head in a sanitary barrel of Runts.  So many colors!  All neatly stacked!  I am convinced that Uniqlo is the best place to purchase excellent basics (and neat graffic t-shirts).  I’m apathetic towards American Apparel: the sub-par quality clothes are overpriced, it often has questionable (borderline-costume-y) clothes, nothing fits me properly, and Don Charney disturbs me.  Uniqlo has cheaper, better quality clothes, and they fit me!  Also, if you purchase pants, they will tailor them within two hours for FREE!  I returned to Chicago with half a suitcase full of Uniqlo purchases.  (I reasoned that the sales tax is cheap in NY, and that THERE IS NO UNIQLO IN CHICAGO.)

3.  Ira Glass, oh how I love thee.  For me, Ira Glass falls in the “older male crushes of Tricia” category; a category which also includes Jarvis Cocker and Anderson Cooper.  His voice is so melodious that when I listen to This American Life, I feel like a sorority girl listening to male a capella.  I trudge through the voids between new episodes by catching up on the old episodes, which aired when I wasn’t yet cool enough to listen to the show.  My current favorites: #328- What I Learned from Television (where Ira Glass gushes about being a die-hard OC fan, and his reaction to Seth and Summer’s conversation on This American Life) and #374- Somewhere Out There (full of unconventional love stories).

4.  Whereas seemingly everyone was downtown getting drunk for St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday, I went to Knee Deep Vintage, a store that I have wanted to go to since I returned to Chicago.  Knee Deep Vintage is the best vintage/thrift store that I have ever been to.  Located in wonderful Pilsen (even the manholes are glorious, and you can get both Mexican hot chocolate AND chilli lollipops), Knee Deep Vintage is full of treasures.  The store’s great selection is reflective of the owners’ exceptional taste.  Apparently, they go on adventures across the country to gather things for the store (source: nice stranger who spoke to me on the train).  Everything is priced reasonably, well-organized, and neutral smelling.  I bought one navy and white dress (pocket!), AND THE MOST MAGNIFICENT KELLY-GREEN BELT.  It’s made of lots of metal plates that are sewn on an elastic band.  It’s a little heavy, but if I ever get attacked, the belt will be an effective weapon!!!

5. Yesterday, Kitsune Noir featured the new movie poster for WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.  I am very excited for the release (I do, after all, own a Where the Wild Things Are journal), however, scary kids movies (Coraline, good grief) traumatize me.  I am determined to find someone willing to see the movie with me.

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