je les adore! je les aime! je les veux!

I'm going absolutely nuts for these fantastic thigh high boots by Roberto Cavalli. They are from his Fall 2009 collection and I'm convinced that if done with just the right balance of subdued sexiness and fashion forward thinking, the effect will be dream worthy.

Can you imagine strapping a pair of these babies on for a night out? It harkens back to those gorgeous Chanel boots that one lucky Devil Wears Prada girl wears. I'm not ashamed to admit that I envision myself wearing these while being greeted by my own curly haired, dark eyed boyfriend.

While Cavalli's version is a sleeker and more wearable option for the average girl, I am completely in awe of the Rodarte boots of the same season. The wrapped leather look gives it an erotic spaceman vibe that I dig.

My only hesitance is my worry that bending my legs will be near impossible. Can you even sit comfortably with what are essentially leather leggings? This is one trend that I'll road test before I buy. No fashion piece this stunning deserves to sit in a closet unworn. Now I just need to find the right color...

~Ferdinando

I love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gosling

While I was sitting here, contemplating the world, I was struck with the brilliance to have a side of cupcake in order to help the pessimism go down. Now, I’m back home for summer, so my proximity to the best cupcakes I have personally been sanctified to taste is nonexistent. If you have ever been to Magnolia Bakery, you know that the hype is not just hype. These cupcakes are awesome - like the 8th wonder of the world awesome. I do not lie, my friends, not about such important matters.

My personal order is made up of vanilla with pastel pink frosting and the blissful red velvet. The red velvet must be their most accomplished cupcake ever, if accomplished is a word that can be used to describe a cupcake. Topped off with some chocolate milk and I’m in business.

While it’s too late for me, I’m doomed to my own homemade cupcakes in order to satisfy my craving, you can still be saved. So, if you ever find yourself stumbling through Manhattan, on accident or for whatever other reason, take time out of your wandering to enjoy the famous cupcakes of Magnolia Bakery.

Oh, and if you are one of the few people in this world who have not seen it, check out the Andy Samberg’s SNL skit Lazy Sunday. Warning: you may find yourself craving cupcakes and surfing the interweb for more of the king of shorts work.

~Ferdinando

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

I have been waiting for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus for forever it seems. After the shocking death of Heath Ledger in January 2008, it seemed like the film would never be completed. Terry Gilliam, director of The Brothers Grimm and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is a man who is sort of known for his bad luck on sets. Thanks to the generosity of Jude Law, Johnny Depp, and Colin Farrell, the film was finally finished despite all the odds it faced. I knew there was a reason I loved those guys. Sadly, the release date isn't comfirmed as of today for the US. Cross your fingers for Ledger's last film project to be in theaters sooner rather than later.

Good news, however, is that Empire Online posted a few clips from the film right here. Seems to me like a great film is in the works. What do you think?

~Ferdinando

One of the best live acts I've seen. Terminal 5, NYC

~Ferdinando

"I think in music right now people like to talk about how screwed up the world is, but they don't attempt to talk about it in a way that tries to make sense of it."

- Nathan Willett, Cold War Kids, in an interview with UK newspaper The Independent

Arctic Monkeys New Album

No reason to get excited, there's still no word yet on the Arctic Monkey's new album. So instead I have to make do with what they have already released and dream of the wonders I’m sure will be revealed on their next record, which is rumored to go public this August.



They were in NYC not too long ago, actually, recording in Brooklyn. I’m pretty sure it was in March because I was busy with school and midterms around then. It was a bit of a struggle not to jump on the subway and ride it all the way to next borough. How I wish I had run into them on the public transportation that is New York though. I wonder if they are recognized here in the States…?

Other opportunities to see them this summer in the US of A: All Points West in Jersey, Lollapalooza in Chicago, then back in October for ACL in Austin. Do I hear ROADTRIP?

So I’m not going to leave you without a little something for paying attention. You want new Arctic Monkeys? Well Matt Helders, the drummer of said band, updates a video blog on the Arctic Monkey’s site and in a recent one, The View from… The Birthday Boy, we get a little preview of what’s to come.



It’s not much, but it gets me through my day. And apparently it gets Hans through hers too.

~Ferdinando

JUNE 6 UPDATE: August 25, 2009 for the US!

Just The Thing You Need

I don't know how most people feel about it, but for me, music has got to be one of the most relaxing things ever. As I am currently trapped at home, rather than in the city that I love, I've found that continuously listening to my ipod helps keep my restless nature in check, so that, for my families sake, I appear like I am enjoying my stay. (Don't get me wrong, I love my family but it is so boring in this town...) I am currently enjoying the epic sounds of the Arctic Monkeys. But as my ipod shuffles through everything from Landon Pigg, The Hush Sound, The Kooks and many, many others I realize how much music means to me. It has away of eliciting emotions in me and keeping the thoughts of jumping on the next plane out of here at bay. So I suppose Fritz (my trustworthy ipod touch) will remain permanently around my neck for the duration of this so called "vacation". I highly doubt I could survive without it.

~Hans

restless schemers, restless ambition, restless subjects

Some days I wake up and I feel deep into my bones a restless need to move. To change. To be something else.

I thought moving halfway across the country would be enough. The change was liberating. I recommend it to anyone who ever felt that need.
I was restless still.

Oh but what a city to be restless in! Every street whispers to its inhabitants to stop, run, listen, don’t think. So I do that. I run. I don’t think.

I’m back home for a visit. The streets have changed. It reminds me of being younger. Still, I wish I was back in that city again.

I probably wouldn’t even be restless…

~Ferdinando

Dark Casanova

~Francois

ANTM offers birthday wishes to Porizkova then gives her the axe

Looks like Tyra Banks finally got rid of Paulina Porizkova. Ironically, that's what we are all talking about now, instead of the season finale last night. On May 12, when she was a guest on the Late Late Show on CBS, Paulina told Craig Ferguson the producers fired her over the phone and on her birthday. You think they'd slow down a bit, but I guess they didn't feel like it was enough. So then they told her she had a big ego too. She was dispensable.

I personally wasn't a huge fan of her, but her remarks as a judge could be quite insightful. Though her bluntness came off quite rude, her ego didn't seem as all-encompassing as some... it was nothing like Janice Dickinson's "THE FIRST supermodel, not just one of the first" or Nigel Barker's "You liked his photograpy more than MINE?!" I'm editting of course but you get my point. So who do you think will replace her next season? and is Paulina's exit from the show a good thing or a bad thing?

~Ferdinando

Hypothetically...

Chuck Klosterman has been arguably one of the most relevant pop culture writers in the last ten years. He has written for Spin, many other magazines, and don't tell me you Generation Xers that you haven't heard of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. One of the things that I thoroughly enjoy reading of his are his hypothetical questions. What can I say, I'm a "what if" kinda person. Don't judge me, just join me.


Think of someone who is your friend (do not select your best friend, but make sure the person is someone you would classify as "considerably more then an acquaintance"). This friend is going to be attacked by a grizzly bear. Now this person will survive the attack; that is guaranteed. There is a 100 percent chance that your friend will live. However, the extent of his injuries is unknown; he might receive nothing but a few superficial scratches, but he also might lose a limb (or multiple limbs). He might recover completely in twenty-four hours with nothing but a great story, or he might spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Somehow you have the ability to stop this attack from happening. You can magically save your friend from the bear. But his (or her) salvation will come at a peculiar price: if you choose to stop the bear, it will always rain. For the rest of your life, wherever you go, it will be raining. Sometimes it will pour and sometimes it will drizzle-but it will never not be raining. But it won't rain over the totality of the earth, nor will the hydrological cycle de disrupted; these storm clouds will be isolated, and they will focus entirely on your specific where-abouts. You will also never see the sun again. Do you stop the bear, accepting the lifetime of rain?
(Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas)

~Ferdinando

When the Sun Goes Down

BONDAGE: yay or nay

~Francois

“Beam me up, Scotty!”

Right. So the line was actually never said, but being a completely oblivious soon-to-be trekkie, I needed to take advantage of whatever information would put me ahead of the curve. So at dinner the group of people I was going to see the movie with, amongst them Francois and Hans, collected what little we knew about the Star Trek franchise and collaborated.

We knew painfully little. Live long and prosper. The Vulcan salute. Beam me up, Scotty. And isn’t Spock half-human? Yes, I believe so. Pitiful you may say, but we weren’t dissuaded. In fact, we were more interested. Could we, outsiders of the Star Trek enterprise (pun unintended…seriously), enjoy the movie. YES! It was a blockbuster adaptation that, from what I could tell from other hard-core fans in the audience, was both mainstream and fan-worthy. I had very high expectations on Star Trek and I was not disappointed. While my generation can be quite a cynical bunch (which can be seen in the sales of the Dark Knight) Star Trek left me, with its strangely acceptable level of hope, literally leaving the theatre with, hold on to your hats kids, a feeling of optimism.

At one point a man turned to me and asked if I was here for the movie or an actor. I tend to get that a lot, frustratingly. No, surprisingly, I am actually interested in the film. Do you want me to critique X-Men too, sir? And Chris Pine wasn’t even in that one…

~Ferdinando

The kings of Mexican Cinema ( if not the indie film scene all together), Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal, premiered their new movie Rudo y Cursi last weekend in the U.S. Being deeply, madly, truly in love with Mr. Bernal, Ferdinando and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to catch the film in Soho ( Hans opted for Little Ashes).

It wasn't your typical film produced by Cuaron, Del Toro, and Inarritu. Sure it made references to problems in Mexican society ( drug lords, class discrimination, poverty), but its purpose wasn't to attack those problems. Many of those who went and saw the film expected just that: the typical Mexican indie with metaphorical undertones criticizing social problems. Well we got the complete opposite, a film satirizing those problems entirely. A comedy. A really funny one at that.

~Francois

An Introduction...

I'm currently sitting in Francois' apartment, talking with Francois and Ferdinando. They just got back from Starbucks and were standing behind Whatshername from ANTM. You know, the Russian one from a couple of seasons ago (apparently she has big lips) They say she wasn't as tall as you would think..

Living in New York over the last year, we have had a couple of run-ins with different celebrities. Usually, when we encounter someone we can never figure out how to react. Should you go up and ask for an autograph or should walk by and pretend you don't notice? We have read that many celebrities like the anonymous feeling that comes with being in New York, so as a fan, do you recognize their wishes or go crazy fan girl on them? Imagine, if you will, if everyone in NY went crazy fan girl on them-we run the risk of scaring them all away, therefore, we would lose the luxury of being able to name drop..."Hey mom, guess who I just saw..." we would have nothing to call home about, forcing us to talk about our grades and make up lies about what we did over the weekend. 

If you were a celebrity, would you prefer if your fans approached you or just left you alone?

~Hans