On the RUN !

So, um, Jesse and I are heading out to the airport in about ten minutes to Kansas City. We're going to Trevor & Ang's wedding, and we're stoked for it!! Then we'll spend a few days with Jesse's mom in Missouri as well. I meant to write this all up yesterday, but it was quite hectic at work and afterwards. Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend if you're in the states & otherwise!

PS Rushed pic as well...but I actually haven't posted a pic of the both of us in a while. I've been good to your gag reflex.

Worse that can happen is I spill some on my $3000 suit. Come on!

(via whateverlolawants)

Dudes in stylish and tailored suits...love it. It's kind of tragic seeing a man in an unfitting suit - the worst is when the jacket & its shoulders are just too big for a guy's smaller frame.

Also, something I love from Mad Men = the square-topped sliver of the pocket insert, as opposed to triangled.

Um, this was Jessica being sartorial.

PS This is actually what me being sartorial would look like: CATORIAL !

My Top Artists of the Week (Aug 18 - 24)

(via my last.fm)

Ah, She & Him reign supreme! I was a bit lazy last week, though. I didn't listen to anything new and most of the week I played my iPod on shuffle. I spent a lot of last week tired due to Jesse being back in town*, and so my commutes (aka music-listening time) were spent taking naps. I put my iPod on shuffle and skipped anything I didn't know the words to. Ha.

This week I've been listening to a few new things. Rick sent me The Dark Knight soundtrack a couple of weeks ago, and I just got to it, and it's quite good. I have a secret love of movie scores (my favorites - Shakespeare in Love, The Usual Suspects). It's eerie and explosive, as it should be; I was incredibly alert on the subway ride home after work yesterday - ha. But that's next week.

Also, Valencia's latest A Reason To Believe was released yesterday, and you should get into it if you haven't already. Buy it here. It's weird to say it, but it's old-school pop-punk. And yes, by old-school, I mean late 90s/early 2000s. See? Weird.




*It's called me going to work at 7am every day and him sleeping in and ready to "start" his day when I get home at 6pm. Just as I want to crash. Love every minute of it, though. :)

Truth is not just in the now.

After the epic weekend with my friends and family in Massachusetts, I trudged to work yesterday...wait, scratch that. I did not trudge - I treaded lightly as possible, because my whole body was sore from all the running, jumping, climbing trees activities of this weekend. I didn't know wiffle ball could take it out of me that much. At one point yesterday, I walked into a meeting and my boss noticed my curious manner of walking (like someone on stilts but still short) and laughed heartily at my tale of wiffle woe and oh yeah, those are two mosquito bites ON MY FACE.

But, like I said, I had a great amount of fun.

As I sauntered gingerly into the apartment after work, Jesse took care of me like the geriatric I apparently turned into overnight. He helped me sit down and made me tortellini and let me watch Friends.

Not willing to give into the routine of an old biddy, we decided to see Tropic Thunder. Usually Jesse stays away from such fanfare, as his critical mind demands much higher levels of sophistication in his personal media consumption (except for fart jokes, he always has a laugh for those...and giving them out). We found ourselves laughing a lot, but most especially at Robert Downey, Jr. Oh, RDJ, how happy you continue to make me. He's hilarious, has great timing, and I would never have read that role and been like, "Robert Downey Jr would be perfect for this!" - but he was. And yes, yes, other things were good about the movie, and it's really just the same schtick that Stiller loves, and I LOVE RDJ. Also, interesting fact, I was suprised to see Justin Theroux's name as co-writer on the film during the credits. Ah, an old love. But back to RDJ.

That is all.

After the movie, Jesse and I headed to our friend Bruce McDonald's party at Bowery Electric - he's been living in New York for 14 years and well, he has some great stories. Jonah Bayer was there, too, and I'd tell you more about that if he wasn't so boring and once again, NOT Mark Ronson...(jk Jonahcakes). So we had our Guinesses and laughs.

There's a really great story I want to tell you - but this is public forum. I wouldn't want the person in the story to suddenly seek me out via some networking site and find me laughing (goodheartedly) about them here. I will say that my engagement ring is really big, and it's a funny thing when somebody doesn't notice it, and I start looking like a posing mannequin in the middle of a bar. Even that, was probably too much. OH WELL!

Tonight some mysterious fameballing will be happening at Trainwreck, so get your butt there if you ever wanted a shot at being real. What?

Saturday broseph hangs into the night !

The famz, the bro and his bros, Steve made the trip, wiffle ball, booze, bocce ball, deck hangs, my faves, near perfection, and more evidence via Jiscilla and Erica coming soon :)

-- via hip crazyfuntown top

Train ride on Friday !

Yeah, my friends rule. Sean and Jesse were butt buddies all weekend...as I think you can tell here.

-- via hip erica gaby kells jiscillz fianz seans top

Why don't you say so?

I tried sending a myriad of posts regarding this weekend from my phone, but they didn't show up - lame. So, for now, I'll give you this pic Jesse took of me and Erica's dancing turn for All Time Low's video on FNMTV. I think they're spot on with the "hot mess" label, and also, yes, that's me in the air...flailing slash "dancing." You may have seen this gem on tv last week. Awkward, as always.

I know all the tricks from Bricks to Kingston.

On Wednesday, Jesse recieved an email from a friend inviting him to some Nike store opening in SoHo Thursday night. Jesse replied sure and got me on the list, too. We both didn't know exactly what it was, but figured it might be something like other store openings or retail parties are like (free booze, clothes, fun).

I got back from work yesterday and we decided to go out to dinner near this other party we'd been invited to for InSound, except when we got near the bar there was literally nowhere to eat. So, in my new purple heels, we trudged around many a block to finally find a restaurant that didn't have dead animals hanging in the front window. The food was good, but not great. I can't even remember the name of the place.

We cabbed it back to the InSound party (um, blisters plus that's how far we walked), and got some tasty free margaritas along with Jonah and Keller hangs. I mentioned to Keller we were going to some Nike party and he was like, "WHAT?! You got into that??" and described the certain exclusivity of garnering entrance to the soiree. Interesting.

Non-phased, Jesse and I headed to 21 Mercer Street, except it was blocked off. Because Nike closed down a block of Mercer to have a block party for it's store opening. Jesse and I looked at each other like, hm, this looks like it's a big deal, I wonder if we're still okay to get in...

So we get to the "door" and get ushered in by Jesse's friend without a hitch. His friend passes us off to a runner that takes us to the "Nike carpet" to get our picture taken. EEP. I'm wearing jeans, my Radiohead tee, purple H&M heels, and no makeup. WTF. Was not prepared for that. I posed awkwardly and then we were led into the other half of the block where two giant countdown screens were poised alongside the doors to the new Nike Sportswear store. There was free hot dogs, corn dogs, pop corn, ice cream, booze, etc., etc., etc. It was insanity.

Jesse kind of flipped out because Kobayashi of the Hot Dog Eating Fame was there and he was regretting not having his camera to take a pic with him. Ha. There were a lot of random celebrities there, and Mark Ronson was dj'ing, and there were a lot of people I recognized but couldn't place them.

I ran to the bathroom at one point, and when I got back there, there was a whole marching band's drum line standing post. Hm. Jesse went to the bathroom and all the dudes from Brand New (except for Lacey) were in there (together??) and were like, "Hey! Motion City Soundtrack!" Hahahaha.

Back at the party, the countdown clock winds down to 00:00 and well, then we hear the drum line. It was hot. Srsly. So they march from the back to the doors and then after their little performance, Spike Lee appears on the steps of the doors and hollers at the boroughs (biggest one was for BK, obvs) and then he introduces Roger Federer (oh hi) and they open the doors and craziness ensues.

Jesse and I opted out of trying to get in the store - looked like packed-in bad news. We hung out in the stadium seats acquired for the event and just people-watched and drank the free beer. Jesse has several pics on his iPhone that I will share at some point. For now I will just show you some other people who were there (via this site.)

Old friends. Whatevs.

Ronson in the same place Jesse and I got our pics taken.

I did not look as put-together as Maria Sharapova, therefore I'm glad I didn't find the pics of Jesse and I when I searched Getty & WireImages this morning. Phew.

Edit: Here's a bit more about the party on HypeBeast!

I actually can't wait to tell my brother that I was at a party with Maria Sharapova. I mean, sure, I didn't meet her or even see her, but whatever. HA. This weekend six of my friends and I are heading to my parents house for a weekend extravaganza for my brother's birthday. There will be backyard sportage and a keg. Reporting to commence probably when we all get our beers at Grand Central waiting for MetroNorth this evening. :)

Jesse got a (hot) haircut.

--via hip things that may or may not be influenced by my love for mad men top

JetBoo.

Things that suck: Jesse got nearly $1000-worth of his belongings stolen out of his bag in his cross-country flight yesterday. Thank you, JetBlue, again. This included his iPod. On the last tour, his hard drive containing all his music broke and now his iPod is gone along with all his music and now my face is sad. JetBlue isn't fessing to anything, so he's in contact with JFK. It's so frustrating! And I'm also sad & angry, and helpless to do anything - I wish I could storm into the airport, grab the turd who stole the stuff by the collar and shake all the goods out of him like a superhero. And hold him like that until the police got there and watch him get cuffed. Grrrrrrr!

Stealing is just all sorts of unfair and besides the money Jesse lost out in terms of the actual music, if he never gets a reimbursement for what was stolen, he will most likely re-buy. Then that's just more money. And it's hard. It's hard to have to re-spend money, you know? At least for me.

On a brighter note, I'm incredibly excited about this weekend. Times a million. My entourage, my family and outdoors fun. More on that later.

My Top Artists this Week (Aug 11 - Aug 17)

(via my last.fm)

First of all, my iPod started scrobbling again. But it didn't scrobble everything - like when I listened to three albums by Say Hi To Your Mom.

Second of all, She & Him is apparently taking over my life. I'm so obsessed.

Third of all, I am so utterly tired today I can't even write a common sensical post. I'm fried. Jesse slept on the futon last night because it was so hot in the apartment and I ended up getting about two to three hours of sleep. I definitely saw the hours of 3, 4, and 5 in my waking moments. So, in lieu of yesterday's post about being unable to focus, I am again, finding it hard to concentrate due to completely different reasons. Perhaps when I rest up after work I'll be able to tell you about our reunion and my wifey cooking powers I broke out yesterday for his arrival. Perhaps.

Two hours til home.

I have been waitin' for a long, long time.

(gwendolynkraehenfuss)

I can't focus, focus, focus at all. I diligently finished all my work today; but that doesn't make his plane arrive quicker. It's always the same. It's always so incredibly joyous in that moment of reunion, though I occasionally envy the continuous, routine physical coexistence in others. I'll have that one day, I know. It's why I don't take his presence for granted...and the reason I never will. Really, the yes came when I looked at him and saw all the ways I'd be happy not just now, but for the rest of my life. And it doesn't fade with the miles; it's still as bright and blinding as that first time.

I want you to pull my hair, ravish me, and leave me for dead.

I love Mad Men. I think it's one of the most incredible television shows on right now, and perhaps ever. It's far removed from the other tv shows I watch, without a doubt. It's a show that's doing it differently, and I can't even compare it to anything else. There are many shows I find amazing and captivating (Lost, Veronica Mars), but Mad Men is simply enthralling in every aspect. From the talented ensemble cast to the wardrobe (I envy) to the cinematically perfect filming to the intellectual storylines and the rich characters that are the most three-dimensional I've ever witnessed...Mad Men is quickly becoming my favorite television show.

I really do love the cast, and the characters - what girl doesn't wish she had the cool confidence of Joan? And how is it that Don Draper is so magnetic, that even though he cheats on his wife and generally lies, he's an amazing protaganist: we're on his side. Also, Don Draper might be the best character name of all time. Okay, okay, maybe not of all time, but it's so perfect.

That said, I recently read an interview with Jon Hamm, who plays Don Draper, in The Advocate. It's a great interview, and I learned a lot about him, which was easy, because I know next to nothing - he's been dating Jessica Westfeldt of Kissing Jessica Stein for ten years, he's from St. Louis, and he's in the upcoming movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

And then, Don Draper - THIS DUDE:

Talks about THIS DUDE -

What about Keanu Reeves, whom you worked with on the upcoming remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still?
You look at Keanu Reeves and you think, You gotta be kidding me. I think I’m a pretty good-looking guy, but c’mon, man, that’s not fair! And he couldn’t be nicer or more laid-back or more of a regular cat. It’s like, Wow, you’ve got the whole package? Really?

Reactions:

1. KEANU!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. "more of a regular cat"

3. Does John Hamm man-crush Keanu?

4. A part of me wonders if this answer is completely and wholly sarcastic.

5. I'll probably hear from Keanu about this. And soon...

Burnin' up on my phone.

Found these on my sk from this past week's hangs with Joyce...and Erica's Metro Station poster. Erica didn't find it in the trash, though, like the JoBros one. :)

-- via hip you will never make me "shake it" to metro station top

Jesse loves small dogs.

Matt e-mailed me this pic to make sure I knew who else Jesse's cuddling!

I've had it up to here.

Gaby, me, Perry.

"Just a Girl" provided by The Dagger & Keller.

Picture taken last night by Meik!

Explains a lot, no? SO much fun.

I lied. I did.

Okay, sorry to break it to you all, but I have ONE MORE THING to say about the Jonas concert. Robert Schwartzman of ROONEY and THE PRINCESS DIARIES rose out of the center of the stage with a piano and singing an "unreleased" song with the three dudes. SRSLY! Okay, at first, I was so confused because of a conversation Lauren Ashley and I had regarding Mr. Schwartzman and Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet (I decree Robert winner) and then I realized it was actually MY fave on stage, and not LA's, and this is a really weird post, amirite?

I had a really fun night. I sang and skanked around to Erica's Trainwreck set of "Just a Girl" right into "The Impression that I Get" and then screamed, "YEAH 1995!!!!!" and everybody laughed and then some old dudes hit on me and then I flashed my ring and said, "What's up?!" and then got on the subway home and then did that whole "What's up?!" routine again and now I am home and had a lovely video chat with Jesse (and the rest of MCS idling by) and I am really very happy even though it was a stressful day, and sometimes I enjoy writing in run-on sentences, and lookatme! I am an excellent inebriated typer.

Good with vocab too.

That's the impression that I get.

-- via hip totes skanked and yelled 1995 tonight top

My Top Artists this Week (Aug 4 - Aug 10)

(via my last.fm)

Last.fm decided to suck it last week and didn't scrobble anything I had listened to on my iPod. And I basically ONLY listen to music on my iPod. So, I only have four top artists this past week. Though Ryan Adams was listened to a whole bunch, #1 probably would have been She & Him. Oh well.

Today I started listening to Say Hi to Your Mom, a recommend from both Lindsay and Rick. I've listened to one album so far, but it seems pretty mellow, Postal Service-y stuff. We'll see if I get as addicted to it as my friends.

The show last night was girl-screamingly loud and intense. I've decided (since, c'mon, this is what you DO with boy bands) that I have a prediliction for Joe. If I were fifteen years old, that is. Because otherwise, not really. I thought back to my past boy band crushes (Jordan Knight) and Joe fits the description best. Plus, Nick's Billy Joel storytelling-whilst-playing-piano bit was just a little too sentimental for me. Oh yeah, he "cried," too. Anyways, Jonas mania is over and I probably won't be writing about them much anymore here, so don't worry to anyone rolling their eyes at my last post. :)

Tonight should be lots of fun, and if you can, you should come -

I'm obviously going for the friends, the free Sparks, and not for the bands the afterparty is actually for.

I'm slippin' into the lava.

The weekend started out relatively calm. Colleen arrived from San Francisco on Friday and came over to the apartment, along with Gaby and Lauren Ashley. We watched the amazing Olympic opening ceremonies while discussing dudes, music, Warped, crazy people, etc. etc. etc. I wish it was on video for the sheer hilariousness.

Okay, I have something to admit: my mind has been changed about the Jonas Brothers. I KNOW! So, I've written previously about how I didn't know any of their schtick, and then Erica and I decided to watch Camp Rock and were seriously underwhelmed. Thing is, my friend Joyce is in town because she's on tour for those kids. She asked me if I wanted to stop by Madison Square Garden on Saturday to hang out while she worked. I said sure and found myself in for Jonas Brothers Mania.

[Jonas Brothers plus Zac Efron, ha]

See, Joyce and her friend Misty work for a tour sponsor that's in charge of picking three contest winners each day for a Jonas meet-and-greet. So, usually Joyce and Misty have a tent in which the contestants line up and show off their "Go Green" posters for a chance to win. Joyce said that there's usually 600 people in line and they take an hour to judge them. Well, Madison Square Garden is a bit of a different venue than the fields and stadiums in other tour stops - there's no room for a tent. So they met at the box office, in an area in the plaza. There was no line, just a crowd of people. There were 300 or so girls (and their mothers/fathers) clamoring for Joyce and Misty's attention so they could meet the teen dreams.

I didn't realize what was going on, or if this wasn't the usual happening, and I just stood off to the side watching their stuff. Joyce came over to me at one point to hand me something and went back to taking the pictures and keeping the crowd calm. All of a sudden a father starts asking me questions about the contest and why it's so unorganized and I'm just standing there like, "uh, I don't know..." - I'm just standing there! And then Joyce runs over to me, grabs her hoodie and puts it on really fast and the father turns his attention to her and starts asking her questions in a strong tone, and then Joyce looks at me and says "GO!" and we run around the side of MSG, as she's pulling her hood down and trying to cover her sponsor tee.

Apparently security came around to Joyce and Misty during the chaos and told them it was getting too rowdy (yelling, screaming, pushing) and that they should leave immediately before the crowd anger escalated. Misty ran in the opposite direction and was chased down by a few mothers, including one that was berating her pretty forcefully before she got past the security barrier.

Woah.

These people were SERIOUS. Joyce and Misty didn't stay for the entire hour, but had gotten enough entries and pictures that they picked three winners. They called them, politely saying on the phone, "You've won the contest - DO NOT SCREAM." If others caught on to where the winners would be picked up, there might be more commotion. And funny enough, when Joyce, Misty and I went downstairs to the meeting place, there were a bevy of contestants who did not get chosen, and the irate mothers. Misty and Joyce couldn't show their faces, so I volunteered to go out there and escort them past security because nobody would scream at little anonymous me.

We got the first two winners no problem. The third winner hadn't shown up yet. Misty decided to show her face and come out to the crowd to try to find her. Big mistake. As soon as Misty showed up, the mothers started yelling at her. I couldn't believe it. Legitimately screaming. Misty ran behind a barrier and crouched down to be out of sight. It was ridiculous.

Eventually the third winner showed up and they were all escorted to the meet-and-greet where they could meet those three teens.

Contestants outside crowing Joyce & Misty.

Inside, the angry mob of contestants being held at bay by security in the background.

After that craziness was settled, Joyce and I went to the production office to grab some stuff and as we were heading back out in the hallway, we stopped to make room for the actual Jonas Brothers to pass. Big Rob, who used to be security for Britney Spears, is now JB security. Saw him, then the three boys who were all very cute and nice - they said, "Hey girls" to us (I strangely kind of squealed inside, I think from the hype and craziness, you know?? Contagious?) and then their bassist, a young man by the name of Greg Garbowsky (lol please look at that pic), pointed at my Radiohead shirt and was like, "Did you see them last night??" and I was like, "nah, saw them last weekend at Lollapalooza.." and he goes, "They are amazing!" and continued on his way. It was pretty sweet, cause Nick turned around with a look on his face like, "uh, what is he talking about with this girl?"

Wow - that last paragraph sounded total fangirl, huh? Whatever.

My passy pass pass.

Joyce enjoying a cold one after the craziness. Yeah, there's a pretzel stick in that handle.

After that, Joyce and I chilled and then she wondered if I wanted to see some of the show. So we watched the first twenty minutes and it was insane! I was blown away by the pyro and boys flipping on stage, but mainly by the sheer decibel of the teenage screaming. I felt like it was a sleepover with 16,000 girls. It was actually really rad. And their songs? Kind of legit. Just sayin'. Guilty pleasure central.

Joyce and I got to really catch up after we left, and we met up with Gaby and Adam at Barcelona Bar for a night of shots. It quickly evolved into Olympic watching on the screens and then me bantering about how weirdly awesome I now find the Jonas Brothers. We crashed at Joyce's hotel near MSG and woke up at like 9 am for a jaunt around the city.

When I decided to head home to Brooklyn, Erica was finally returning from her weeklong vacation in Maine, and we caught up for the next few hours with Gaby and Colleen at the apartment. Then we met up with Joyce after the meet-and-greet and got some drinks. Apparently Sunday was better. Good stuff.

It was my first weekend home in a couple of weeks, and it felt good to be having fun with awesome people whom I usually don't see! And of course, my friends here rule as well.

Oh, did you hear the Jonas Brothers are playing three SOLD OUT nights at MSG? Yeah, well, guess who's going to catch the entire show tonight because apparently the end is amazing and apparently I now love the brothers Jonas.

These soles are useless without you.

And so it is Friday, and I'm finishing up the update about last weekend. Ha.

On Sunday we were in Shakopee, Minnesota. My plane was at 5pm, so I had to leave by 3, way before their set and only a few hours after we woke up. We went to catering, I helped Jesse wash his hair in the parking lot, and then we just hung out by the bus until it was time to go.

At one point, I went on the bus to grab my backpack, and when I came back out the dudes were like, "Where are you going?!?!?!" - they were so surprised that I was already leaving. And they got in a line to give me goodbye hugs, not kidding. It was really cute and made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Then they were off to a signing and our friend Tiffany drove me to the airport, cause she rules. And the planes were all on time, thankfully. It was such a completely fun weekend, I didn't want to leave. Jesse, true to form, was like, "then don't go," and I may have seriously contemplated skipping work again, but they were heading to Canada. He'll be back soon though, and that's how it is for us - there's always something to look forward to.

Tony staying far away from the likes of me.

Brian camping out in front of Shwayze's bus. (You know I'm kidding.)
[P.S. I saw far too much of Cisco Adler that weekend. And way too much of his hands touching girls...like, all the time.]

Jesse testing out Brian's new bike.

Hangs. Matt, literally.

Bye, bye.