All content copyright 2009 by Holly Gleason. Web design by Lauren Carelli.
Yeah, the reviews haven’t been great and Selma Hayek isn’t what we’d called a nuanced actress. That said, this is visually as intoxicating as Baz Luhrman’s best work (think the Clare Danes/DiCaprio “Romeo & Juliet” or “Moulin Rouge”)—and it captures a lost moment, an artist struggling with her doubts and pain and trying to transfer it all to canvas and self-expression. This was a life writ large, and if it’s been a bit Hollywoodized (muralist/twice husband Diego Riviera was a great source of pain and betrayal), there is enough here to inspire further research.
Yeasty, sweet goodness, stacked high, dripping in some honeyed carmelized goodness. Bits of macadamia and brazil nuts with rich vanilla ice and whipped cream melting into the warm mountain of return to the womb with buttery melt-in-the-mouth comfort food. And that pool of caramel sauce it’s sitting in… I could be suspended in that to wait for the rapture.
If you wanna be common and reductionist, it’s either the way-more literate Ya Ya Sisterhood or the Big Chill goes Huck Finn and Female. The fictionalized reunion trip (in the name of scattering a friend’s ashes) is the device to recount an actual trip Southern literatist Lee Smith and some of her Hollins classmates actually took on a raft down the Mississippi River. Empowering for women, enjoyable for men… It’s a light story that illuminates the choices made, the prices paid and the things that happen along the way. Without preaching, Smith helps us make peace with what’s been done and seek something more…
Warm. Crisp. Invigorating. A bit nostalgic for snack time. This department store body creme makes you soft and smooth and yummy. And it’s just one item in a whole line of products that’s guaranteed to make you smile, put you in the holiday frame of mind and feel just the tiniest bit pampered as the rush-rush of the Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukkah axis approaches.
The killer vocalist gets the re-mix treatment from Kenny Dope, Mantronix, awayTEAM, Groove Armada, Superfunk, Nighmares on Wax and that ilk - making a wow! kinda atmospheric party soundtrack that will add wicked-cool points, tapping martini fingers and a vibe that’s euphoric without chemical enhancement. As bossa nova, baby as it is technocentric.
http://www.amazon.com/Remix-Album-Diamonds-Are-Forever/dp/B0000589U9
Much has been written about Dr. Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. It’s deals with training oneself to see the glass as half-full, and recognizing the not-so-bleak reality of one’s place in the world. This web site—where confidentiality is given in the name of expanding his research—one can take their mental/attitudinal temperature in the privacy of their own home. Note of caution: the questions are general and sometimes the answers aren’t even close to what you might do. But the results often leave you feeling like you’re doing better than you thought—and who couldn’t use an objective dose of “it’s okay” during the stress of what’s to come?
www.authentichappiness.org
Editted by former Rolling Stone.com-er (and quiet, music-steeped Texan) Richard Skanse, this is to Texas music as Trouser Press was to punk back in the day. Texas music, for the uninitiated, is a culture unto itself—and to find a publication dedicated to the fierce individuality of its denizens, particularly some of the best story-tellers American music has to offer, is pretty heady stuff. The graphics and lay-out are occasionally the stuff of underestaffed start-up, but the writing is passionate and committed, the stories run the gamut and the evolution of the publication evident from issue to issue. If you love any Texas music—be it the Butthole Surfers, Guy Clark, Flaco Jimenez to Destiny’s Child, Waylon Jennings or Pat Green—it’s all here and seen from the roots up without guesswork.
Colorado-based company that invented diamond snaps. These are as populist, as rural, as hip as any high priced designer shirt out there (can you say Guess? Ralph Lauren? DKNY City? sure you can). Wanna look like the heart of Saturday night, the fade of a roadside motel, the muse of Sam Shepard or a cowboy(‘s sweetheart)? Buffalo Chips in New York sells them, as do several stores in the City of Angels. Or you can go direct to their website: www.rockmount.com
Whether you do it nodding off from the tryptophanic overdose that is the Thanksgiving meal or as a way to cope with the travel snags that’re a given as part of the season, this is a good time to take a long hard look at all the blessings we’re given. It’s so easy to fall trap to the what we don’t have, what didn’t go right, what they’ve got… and we miss sight of all the things that are grace and goodness and absolutely make us richer. And if you’re feeling ready for the super-advanced edition: look at your petty annoyances and find the beauty to them. Spam from people I love, for example, shouldn’t be viewed as a waste of my time, but someone trying to reach out and let me know they’re out there, because they value me and want to reach out. If you see it through those glasses, maybe the frustration, anger and annoyance would fade!
A record that doesn’t require work, just immersion into the sonic soundscapes. Easy and easing… Moments and emotions drift by. Hypnotic in an active sense. Another one of those records—from the people who brought you “Yellow” on their breakthrough Parachutes—that combat seasonal overload on the party circuit, but offer solace to the senses in private. Also, these UK musicians, who ply the almost low-fi evocative sonic massage, work a decidedly high minded reality in their own lives. Crusading without haranguing for fair trade with under-developed countries, they list sites to expand their listeners’ social consciousness and horizons with knowledge, facts and arguments. Put it on and find peace. Check out the information centers and get a whole other kind of piece of mind.
Greedy geezers, trolling the earth like hedonistic dinosaurs reaping and raping what they can ‘til its time to die? Or greatest rock & roll band ever? If the thought of 60-something rockers leaves you pale, consider the body of work. All gathered here: from the blues-based revved up rhythms to disco frolics to honky tonk simmers to reggae-flecked rock, 40 Licks reveals that even when we weren’t cognizant of the moments, the Stones full-immersion musical witness captures the past x-number of something years with shocking clarity—for an often blurred and whirling reality that was as much who we as a culture was as they were as a band. “Satisfaction,” “Miss You,” “Wild Horses,” “Waiting On A Friend,” “19th Nervous Breakdown,” “Angie,” “Emotional Rescue,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”... you’re getting the idea, right? Plus 4 more than worthy new ones!
Sure, I’m just now wrapping myself up in chocolate browns, natural beiges, a long dove gray hand-knit scarf and yesm even black! But there’s nothing happier than the pictures of clothes for spring in easter egg colors: lemon yellow, bubblegum pink, kelly green, lilac and lavender, even turquoise blue. When you’re making your new year’s resolutions, try to lose your fear of color. As someone who usually looks like performance art meeting an accident in a paint store, the smiles i get aren’t derisive, but truly happy… and if one can sow joy merely by what they’re wearing, then it’s giving as good as it gets.
It’s easy to take clients for granted—especially when they consume your life. This half-spoken, half-sung witness to the choices made or avoided is a quiet rumination on the real cost of regrets: lives fractionally lived, opportunities lost, relationships never allowed to be what they should or demonstrated in ways that would’ve conveyed the depth of love. As we enter the season for jocularity and faux connection, this Bill Anderson/Dean Dillon gem reminds us that regrets are the most expensive tax we pay. With a new year not that terribly far away, it’s time to think about getting out there and letting people know we care, doing the things that bring us joy and sowing all the grace and beauty we find in exponential ways. Someone once said: love is only so strong as what’s given away. There you go.
W, December, James Reginato’s 3 page “The Diva’s Last Stand,” which lets Joni Mitchell be her opinionated self. Aside from a lean insight into the reality of today’s music business that morphs into Mitchell’s larger truth: “They’re not looking for talent, but a look and a willingness to co-operate. And a woman my age, no matter how well preserved, no longer has the look. And I have never had a willingness to co-operate,” we see the reality from both sides now. Hilarious. Profane. Willing to be honest where most won’t—and seceding from a business she feels at odds with, Reginato’s paints the conflicts and motivations of the talented songstress with clear eyes and a genuine lack of exploitative journalism. Allure, December, Jennifer Tung’s “Party Central.” A how-to for holiday interaction survival for the social-phobes, shy-natured and genuinely exhausted by the sheer volume of human contact amongst us. Simple tips that make negotiating any party situation an auto-pilot gift from the mascara and moisturizer bible. Even if you’re the life of the party and can’t get enough human contact, there’s something thoughtful in handling the annoyances to be learned here. Whether it’s what to wear, eat, say or avoid!
The Sunday New York Times, Nov. 24, [So Much To Read, So Little Time!]
Arts& Leisure: David Hochman’s “From Popcorn Movies to a Diet of Salty
Politics,” which explores the evolution of 52-year old blockbuster director
Phillip Noyce from big Hollywood movies to more personal films with a
definite point of view—moving from “Patriot Games” and “The Bone
Collector” to the soon to be released “The Quiet American,” an adaptation of
Graham Greene’s novel foreshadowing American involvement in Viet Nam, and “Rabbit-Proof Fence,” which traces three members of Australia’s “stolen
generation”‘s—children taken from their Aboriginal families to be
socialized for “white society”—escape from their re-education camp and
return to their people.
“I’d sort of had enough of the system I’d been part of,” he explained of
his priority-shift and the decision to make more personally committed
stories. “Working on all those studio movies had involved a horrible amount
of compromise.”
Week In Review: Eric Effron’s “Word For Word/Gotta Serve Somebody” If
politicians love invoking God and Springsteen, here’s the one-stop for Dylan
lyrics and the speeches they were meant to enhance. It’s amazing that a voice of social challenge has been embraced so wholly by those he seeks to indict, but then subtley and accuracy in the name of a buzz point is so 5 minutes ago! And no, nobody embraced “Only A Pawn In Their Game” or “Clean Cut Kid.”
National Report: Jeffrey Gettleman’s “A Family’s Love Turns To Grief on
an Alabama Road.” Beautifully written sketch of tragedy, circumstances and
the way life is beyond the metropolitan center. With a lead of “There is
fate. There is tragedy. And then there is love,” this is the story of two
sisters dying in a head-on collision with each other on a winding Alabama
two-lane. Makes you consider everything about your life.
Sports: Buster Olney’s “Science of Coaching” paints the walk-up and
mental preparation a coach goes through en route to Sunday as the herculean task it is. Analysis, strategy, meetings, lessons, putting into practice—and that’s just ‘til Thursday. In the moment and the glory, the back story often gets lost. Here it is.
Sunday Magazine: “I think the concept of fame is like a disease or one of
those flesh-eatting viruses,” Jack Osbourne tells Tom Beaujour in his profile
of the youngest Osbourne Family member. “It starts in the finger and it just
spreads.” The piece does more to indict our culture’s infatuation with fame
and paint a picture of the soul-tax on a young boy tossed about on the
betrayal of the famereality than a hundred hours of Simon, the mean judge on
“American Idol.”
“The Kid Stays In the Pictures” is the Marshall Stella cover story about
Leonardo di Caprio’s return as an acting force in the face of becoming more
Page 6 bold-faced name than respected practitioner of craft. The perils of
being known and the stakes of the game at the highest levels are shown—
and by virtue of scheduling in sharp relief to the Osbourne piece.
The Tennessean, 9/22,
Peter Cooper’s Randy Newman profile, that compares the ironist, satirist and ad hoc social commentarian to Eminen. A provocative argument, an interesting parallel - and something definitely worth checking out. www.tennessean.com
Yes, I rave about their Bonnard Bomb bath fizzies and their feather-light body powders and their amazing homemade soaps. Now, ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, the catalogue for the States (for this British-based company) has added a buncha stuff even I didn’t know existed. www.lush.com—and get on the list! But in the meantime, rather than my doing a whole yummy list devoted to their products: visit and order whatever looks good, then start getting your own catalogue. Because, quite frankly, if you’re getting this list, you deserve to be on their’s!
Nicole Kidman, almost unrecognizable and utterly consumable on the cover of Vanity Fair. Katherine Zeta Jones in a little lip gloss and gorgeous eye brow arch on the cover of Elle. Renee Zellweger as the embodiment of sunshine and good health on Allure’s new cover. There’s a trend away from preened and preening, hyper-groomed glossy perfection. What great news for Midwestern girls who feel anxiety over eye-lash curlers and heavy foundation…
Be who you are. Live life to its fullest. And let that joy be the glow that makes you stand-out. If we can shift the beauty paradigm, we’re on our way to an even better adjustment than the chiropractor offers!