my sorta liked / sorta didn't emmy dress list

Am I the only one struggling a bit to find favorites at the Emmys? Is this really the year to call Kim Kardashian best dressed?

I loved the embellished neckline on her Marchesa gown and the back as well.

My sort of liked, sorta didn't list

Because the dresses were overall so blandly bad I'm fond of this year's risk-takers.

The usual on-spot January Jones in Atelier Versace is fun but a bit of a miss for me (the color) though I love the Miu Miu shoos:

I also kind of felt Anna Paquin's Alexander McQueen.

Tina Fey in Oscar de la Renta.

Padma Lakshmi in Carolina Herrera. I love the color and the top half. Not sure about the slit.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Narciso Rodriguez. I love her but can she pull this off? I appreciate the earrings.

close ups

Some photographs by Jessica Craig-Martin. See more here on the Greenberg Van Doren Gallery site. Taken at benefits and elite parties, the titles lend some garishness to the images.

madonna & miu miu

Miu Miu F/W 2011 Ad, directed by Madonna.

teenage dream

OK, I think I found my newest guilty pleasure: Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. I never really felt her that much before but the new album is so fun and catchy. There are some irritating moments and much of it is way too overproduced (as was Christina Aguilera's overblown release this year... I wish that pop producers would just scale back a bit with their noise. Songs like "Single Ladies" have been hits for being refreshingly spare). Is Teenage Dream deeper though than what the critics think? Yes, "Peacock" is ridiculous--it will surely piss off straight-male music critics but it's really a harmless inversion of misogyny. Like Ke$ha, Perry is sometimes cloyingly over-knowing and embracing of her manufactured pop identity. Calling Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" clip sacrilegious over Twitter makes me suspect of Perry's limitations as an artist. Yet on this album, Perry shows she has more of an edge than previously expressed--an independent woman ("I'm not gonna stay / and watch you circle the drain") with a bit more attitude. It's an uneasy world and like Perry, in her late-20s, I can relate to seeking that lost "teenage feeling." The album is about not wanting to grow up but facing reality as well.

Also loving:

MGMT - "Congratulations"

CEO - "Illuminati"

two poems in mipoesias

I'm so happy to have two poems, "A Letter in Annie Hayworth's Red Mailbox" and "Barbara Billingsley," (on pg. 23) in October's MiPOesias. Editor Didi Menendez does great work--it's a beautiful journal and I'm grateful to be amongst such good company.

shoutouts

I'm no longer in my 20s and now I know why I'm so depressed... my brain is changing! The epic 20-something article in the New York Times is worth a read.

Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, A Safe Place and more on one Criterion collection? Moon in The Gutter has the scoop.

New issue of MiPOesias, edited by Bob Hicok.

Review of Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child on Movie Dearest.

Vintage plates from The Storybook Rabbit on Daydream Lily.

Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings from James Baldwin on Mary - A Literary Quarterly.

Interview with Rosecrans Baldwin on You Lost Me There (novel I'm reading now) in Black Book.

ali macgraw

If I were going back to school this fall, I would dress like Love Story.

julie christie, bunnies, paperclips

Art by Elad Lassry. See also Elad in Interview and Flash Art.

on the road, soundtrack

So this weekend I immersed myself in Jack Kerouac's On the Road. I followed it up with John Leland's Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of 'On the Road' (They're Not What You Think) which not only deepened my appreciation of Kerouac's novel but cleared up a lot of misconceptions about the book and Kerouac. One of my favorite aspects of the novel was the music and Leland compiled a great list of songs that Kerouac references. I thought I'd share.

The film version is in production now with director Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) attached. I can't imagine anyone else who would be able to bring this to the screen but him.

Lover Man - Billie Holiday


Central Avenue Breakdown - Lionel Hampton


Cement Mixer - Slim Gaillard


Duke Ellington - C-Jam Blues


Red Norvo - Congo Blues


Perez Prado - Mambo Jambo


Blue Skies - Frank Sinatra


A Fine Romance - Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers


Hallelujah I'm a Bum - Al Jolson


Beethoven's Fidelio

some obama love

lost in the stars

Abbey Lincoln (1930 - 2010)