And if I broke your heart last night, it’s cause I love ya mo-ost of all.

Oh Ryan Gosling. You sure do know how to pull my heart strings with those sad eyes of yours. (Yeah, I’m not talking about that Notebook movie.) Half Nelson slayed me--it was so damn sad. And Lars and the Real Girl was sweet; sure maybe a little contrived, but I still loved it and got choked up watching that, too.

But this new film Blue Valentine with Michelle Williams might be his most heart-wrenching yet. I think Williams is a really amazing actress, too. I suspect it’s going to be a little like an “Eternal Sunshine” storyline—a nonlinear tale of a couple’s deteriorating relationship made all the more tragic with the juxtaposed images of a simpler time when they were delighted by each other.

God, all you’re really watching in the trailer is a bleary-eyed, sad couple, yet I feel like slumping over my desk just watching it. And I just can’t get the song out of my head...

What's a Girl To Do?

I’m lucky to have many talented, artistic friends whom I should blog about more often. So with that, I wanted to give big props to my friend Ben, whose latest comic, The Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd, is blowing up all over the place (Gawker, The New Yorker, The Atlantic... even Fox News!). I can’t wait to read it!

Here’s a great review/plot description from Robot6:

Told in Marra’s inimitable, po-faced ’80s-trash throwback style, TIFAoMD’s preview pages exhibit Dowd — winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary and recently named the eighth-largest hack in journalism by Salon’s Alex Pareene — lounging in lingerie, battling burglars, flirting with fellow Times columnist Tom Friedman, and trying to blow the lid off the Valerie Plame scandal before her huge date with George Clooney. And for a political junkie like me, it’s basically heaven.

Ben’s an amazing illustrator (his other comics include the awesome Night Business and Gangsta Rap Posse) and you’ll see I posted some examples of his art below. I think his work has a heartbeat, albeit an irregular, pounding one. His style jumps out at you immediately—colorful, shellacked, hyper-muscular figures that pulse and breathe with life. His subject matter includes Sci-Fi, Blaxploitation, Sexploitation, Epic Hero tales and Fantasy (and now apparently the D.C. political scene). But he’s not just talented. He’s warm and totally hilarious and charming. You can’t help but want to be around him. So I’m so glad he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves! Check out more of his work at his website www.benjaminmarra.com.

Intermission: Where is YOU?

Well, here I am. I’m going to try to include more of myself in my blog (which admittedly has the potential to end up boring and disastrous, but oh well here goes?). Last night, the rain was so loud on my skylight that I couldn’t sleep at all. As I lay in bed, I tried to think of topics to blog about. And I guess lying in bed lent itself to thinking about dreaming and how strange and interesting dreams are. It’s obvious how much of our dreams are remnants from our day. We weave together unresolved arguments and worries, fragments of images we saw on TV, people we passed on the street. But what struck me as interesting is how our waking lives sometimes mimic our dream states.

DC was a strange period of my life. Moving to a new city is always a challenge, particularly when you’re an adult settled in your life with your friends. I was comfortable in Pennsylvania, but too comfortable, and going back to school was a needed change (or at least I thought so at the time). I tend to have a lot of dreams where I’m exploring, so living in a new place and exploring new surroundings tends to automatically remind me of my dreams. Anyways, I was thinking last night of this odd freelance job I took while I was in DC with a mapping company based in San Francisco. My job was to literally “ride the rails”: each week I visited a list of metro stations and took notes mapping the exits, the number of elevators, accessibility for the disabled, etc. I found the task surreal and dreamlike because I rode up and down different lines without a real destination. Never mind the fact that the DC metro is one of the craziest, most awesomely dreamy and futuristic-looking transit systems around! I’d get out at the stations and maybe poke my head outside occasionally, but in general I spent most of my time riding the train or waiting at the station for the next one to arrive. Sometimes I’d be stuck waiting for a half an hour at a station. So I would read articles for school when I was feeling industrious, but often I just caught myself people watching and thinking.

Maybe these waiting periods were also what seemed so dream-like to me. In some ways, really, our dreams are our waiting rooms until we wake. Our lives are our waiting rooms before we die. And then maybe we hit another waiting room after we die ...? 

Cute (nerd) boys alert!

My nerd boyfriend introduced me to the blog nerdboyfriend.com. One can peruse photos of cute boy celebrities wearing looks from all different eras and then follow the links to the contemporary clothes and accessories that would let you recreate their looks. I like Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill hanging out at what looks to be their grandmom's house. 

Pardon me, but could you happen to tell me how to get to Scarborough Fair?

Don't all these monsters look like they're asking for directions? My friend Dylan clued me in to this great artist. Very Edward Gorey in the fine ink detailing (and creepy/comic subject matter).

BORN IN DENMARK 1978. I WRITE AND DIRECT TELEVISION SHOWS FOR KIDS. I HAVE A SET OF TWINS AND NOT MUCH TIME FOR ANYTHING. BUT WHEN I HAVE TIME I DRAW MONSTERDRAWINGS ON POST-IT NOTES...IT IS A LITTLE WINDOW INTO A DIFFERENT WORLD, MADE ON OFFICE SUPPLIES.

(from the amazing mind/imagination/blog of John Kenn )

Delightful Voluptuousness

Looove this cookbook! Sophie Dahl is just adorable first of all. She was beautiful when she was big and voluptuous and she's beautiful skinny (and uh, still voluptuous).

Does she still model? I'm not sure, but I think she's found a new calling. Here's a soup that's cooking on my stove right now. The cookbook has great recipes and, as a bonus, some great storytelling by Miss Dahl (yep, she's also a writer taking after her grandpa, Roald Dahl).
Spinach barley soup
Recipe by Sophie Dahl from Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights
Serves 4-6
-3 tablespoons of olive oil
-1 onion, chopped
-2 large fresh sage leaves, chopped
-6 1/2 cups of vegetable stock
-6 cups of spinach, washed and chopped
-3/4 cup of pearl barley
-Salt and pepper
-1/2 cup of grated Parmesan

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, put in the onion and sage leaves and cook n a low heat for about 5 minutes. While that's cooking, heat the stock in another pan. Stir the spinach into the onion mixture and cook for another few minutes. Pour in the hot stock and cook, covered, on a low heat for 10 minutes. Add the barley and leave it cooking for another half an hour or until the barley is soft. Season to taste. When it is ready, ladle into bowls and sprinkle the Parmesan on top.

Vertical Swiping

I want him to wrap me up in that moustache. The end.