Mission Impossible 4 & Rise of the Planet of the Apes were the only “blockbusters” I saw, both were surprising highly entertaining. Two documentaries which I recommend are about New York Times – Page One is about the media department, Bill Cunningham NY is about the man behind the lens of every Sunday edition’s Style sections. Both fascinating.

Here’s a quick list of 2011 releases I meant to catch but haven’t: Beautiful Boy, Sleeping Beauty, Cracks, Love, The Double Hour, The Time That Remains, Exporting Raymond, Carnage, Certified Copy, Tabloid, The Perfect Sense (!!), We Need To Talk About Kevin (!!), Weekend.

This is the caught-my-attention-with-quirky-poster list: Margaret, Textuality, Seconds Apart, Love Etc, Chameleon, I Melt With You, Love Crime, For Lovers Only (catch the pattern?), Hello Lonesome.

After the cut are movies I’ve seen, in a loose order of which I liked.

…

Last Night
MI : Ghost Protocol
Beginners
Life In A Day
Anonymous
Midnight In Paris
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Perfect Host
Bill Cunningham New York
Page One
Moneyball
I Don’t Know How She Does It
Another Earth
Contagion
Monogamy
The Muppets
Source Code
Trust
Young Adult
Something Borrowed
The Dilemma
Thor
Bellflower
Unknown
3
The Tree of Life
The Devil’s Double
Incendies
Straw Dogs
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Friends With Benefits
Crazy Stupid Love
Bad Teacher

In the year 2011 I decided to go all out with holiday presents. Top of the list is the most important, yet most difficult. What should I get for the man who has everything he wants and needs? Here is the official list: NoPattern ”Dark Light I” 20×30 poster, vintage ashtray, and a bottle of cleverly-named Sheep Dip Scotch Whisky. If these aren’t mans’ man presents, I don’t know what could be. I’m typing this a week before the big day, so fingers crossed.

What I’ve realized about the holidays is I have a good idea of what to get for the loved one in my life, yet when asked what I want in return I stumble. I want: jewelry, giant stereo system, HD camera, and tattoo.

My two favorite thing in November are After Claude by Iris Owens and The Slits’ Cut album. Both were released in the 70′s, which just makes me dream of time traveling and being a stuckup punk rocker. That is it.

xo

Fell in love with Lost Lander the other night. They’re from Portland, OR, and include 4 members, I think? Whatever here is their debut video. Here’s info about it:

“Jonnie Ross put together this bizarre and beautiful montage of images that he pulled from one night of television watching, using only his iPhone’s video camera to capture the images off of the screen”

“Hanging On”

“Playing House (Featuring How To Dress Well”

The bad news is that I haven’t fallen in love with Active Child until today. The good newsis that I will be seeing them/him perform live when they roll into town alongside M83 next month.
So haunting, so beautiful. One of those albums you instantly love and can’t understand how you’ve survived without. His vocals remind me of Fever Ray (and The Knife’s more recent more experimental outcomes), it’s not for everyone… The beauty lays within the layers of his choir-like vocals and keyboards and harp and drum machines.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good news! I’m in love!

Sitting here under the coldest A/C in all of Phoenix listening to indie rock and enjoying the best damn cup of coffee ever. It’s called “pour over” and it’s basically a personal cup of joe Giant Coffee baristas will make for you! There are revolving flavors to choose from – I picked the Eithiopian one which had the more distinctive scent. All of their coffee is direct from the coffee plantations – no middle man! Nice. They have goodies that look mouthwatering, including plump bagels, sweets, and biscotti. The location is amazing – walking distance from lightrail AND library. The space is very urban, huge ceiling-to-floor windows that ask to be opened once the weather outside permits. It’s a nice unpretentious modern coffee shop which shares the space with a little boutique. New favorite spot.

GIANT COFFEE
Customer service : 4.5/5
Coffee : 5/5
Sweets selection : 4/5
Atmosphere : 5/5

Today I read Nora Ephron’s hilarious book “I Remember Nothing”  cover to cover. She might be my new favorite author. I highly suggest checking out her 2010 book, her previous bestseller – “I Feel Bad About My Neck“.

What I liked most about it – beside being a breezy charming read –  was the fact I found a lot about the author in a small timeslot. After finishing her book, I feel we’ve spent an afternoon together. She ordered a bottle of Pellegrino, told me a few lessons in life (about divorce, cheating men, and having children) only a more mature woman could.

If her name doesn’t ring any bells – shame on you! She wrote “When Harry Met Sally…”, ”You’ve Got Mail” and “Sleepless In Seattle”. She also directed the later two. She cowrote a handful of other films. Is there anything this woman can’t do!? Apparently dessert, but you’ll have to read her book to find out what I mean!

Nora Ephron’s 6-word bibliography : “Secret to life, marry an Italian.”

Everyone under the California sun was wearing a maxi skirt (not so much dresses, as I have imagined this trend wouldn’t last). Maxi skirts remind me of hippie days of 1970′s (Stevie Nicks is wearing one on the cover of Rumors).

Talking about celebs, Fearne Cotton is as cute as botton! Spotted her presenting the Reading Festival on BBC, and just fell in instant love. Her fashion (and hair) style is so spot on too.

For energy boosts at work, I’ve been drinking Starbucks Via Instant Coffee. It dissolves in cold water, add ice and voila!

I originally spotted these platform shoes (Via Spiga Ecstacy) in the beginning of summer. They’re cute for summer heat, comfortable because the heel isn’t very high, AND are an absolute blessing for petite girls like me.

Roasted Seaweed from Trader Joe’s has been my latest snack. They’re not for everyone, but they are delishious! I’ve also been eating edamame quite often. I need all the iron I can get now that I’ve cut red meat out of my diet.

My new favorite photo. I die.

Psst, more pictures from FYF can be found at beatcrave.com

Over the last weekend, I have done the following:

~ dipped my feet in the Pacific Ocean
~ laughted my ass off during our entire trip
~ saw the Walt Disney Concert Hall
~ drank with fellow baby angels at Cha Cha Lounge in Silverlake
~ drank at least 3 $5 PBRs at FYF
~ peed in porta-potties like 2034982048 times
~ ate the world’s worst burger
~ made up for that stupid burger at amazing Los Angeles cafes: Twain’s restaurant in “The Hills”, Lemonade, Gelato Bar in Studio City, pizza at Joe’s on Sunset Blvd, Homegirl Cafe, late from some random (and disgustingly awesome) coffee shop, & a burrito outside of Cha Cha
~ watched the amazing performance of bands at FYF (Local Natives are my favorite live band, possibly ever)
~ bought a “souvenir” bracelet at Fred Segal
~ got my #1 purchase for the fall10/winter11 : a velvet blazer (!!!!!)

These give me a chuckle, so I’m sharing.

Previous commercial posts: Old Spice, old faces.