Burlesque

My wonderful husband went to see Burlesque with me on the day it came out. Cheerfully, I might add, and he liked it (or at least pretended to).

I have split feelings about the movie; I think it movie would have been really great if they had just filmed the whole thing inside of the club, because the non-musical real-life scenes were a little lacking (especially in the wardrobe department) but the club scenes were beautiful. You know, how good of actresses can you really expect Cher and Christina Aguilera to be? Still, I would've seen and loved this movie no matter what. And Alan Cumming and Stanley Tucci were especially fabulous in it.

I could live inside of this set. I think I missed my calling.

Now I am dying to go see Cabaret on Broadway.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a quiet little Thanksgiving weekend we had, just me and the husband. We woke up and got all dressed up and walked over to the church that's now a cafe and bar.

It was a tiny bit strange to be surrounded by strangers on Thanksgiving, instead of family and friends.

But, there were mimosas and a mostly traditional meal (with the addition of tamales, although I couldn't actually bring myself to eat one on turkey day) and for the first time ever actually taking a nap after lunch instead of just talking about how nice a nap would be..

It was nice to get to have turkey and stuffing and all that without having to do one bit of the shopping or cooking or cleaning, but I have to admit it wasn't exactly right. Little things like the sweet potatoes with marshmellows were too runny, and the green bean casserole wasn't at all like my mom used to make. The funny thing is I kept thinking each dish was wrong, and husband thought it was exactly like his mom made (except her cornbread stuffing is much better!).

A couple of years ago I cooked my first (and only) Thanksgiving, and it was fun to collect up all the recipes from my mom and find ones on the internet that matched what I remembered. Here's, for me, the "essentials" of a Thanksgiving meal, and cooking it isn't too hard since my mom was sort of a Sandra Lee, before Sandra Lee of course:

• Turkey and gravy
• Cranberry sauce (right out of the can)
• Stove-top stuffing (jazzed up with some chicken and chicken broth)
• Honey Glazed Ham (I actually like it better than turkey)
• Green bean and artichoke casserole or artichoke balls
• Baked macaroni and cheese
• Sweet potaoto cassserole with mini-marshmellows
• Pumpkin pie
• Pecan pie

I've already baked a pumpkin pie, and now I think I'm going to cook each of the other dishes one by one until I get Thanksgiving out of my system.

What's cooking for fall...

So, since it's just the two of us for Thanksgiving, there will be no cooking involved with the exception of a pumpkin pie over the weekend. Instead, we are going to walk over to a nearby restaurant/bar for a "traditional holiday buffet" and screening of Alice's Restaurant:

In leiu of that, here's a roundup of all the fall recipes I've tried recently (and don't forget the oyster and artichoke soup!):

Crab-meat and Parmesan Stuffed Mushrooms (adapted from here.), much easier than I expected!

Acorn Squash with Parmesan (sooo good!)

Acorn Squash with Sweet Bread Crumbs (can't find recipe, but the one above was better anyway...)

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

Chicken with Artichoke and Mushrooms

And lastly, two tries for the perfect pumpkin bread: 1 and 2

Ok, I'm not a fan at all of cat pictures, no matter how cute they may be, but this little guy really cracked me up (via):

And now, I want a hamburger.

In the Realms of the Unreal

I just watched this documentary on Henry Darger. It's fascinating; such an incredible and sad life story. His art is so innocent and weird:

The Albert Einsteins are here

Oh my, I love these Alberts so much!

We got the brainstorm for this awesome art project a while ago, and finally realized it. And it's just as good as I imagined.

They are hanging right by our front door, and every single time I come in, I say out loud: I just love these Alberts so much!

So, the art is all creative-commons-licensed photos from Flickr, which in this case meant we could print a copy for non-commercial use (as long as you attribute it). The awesome thing is that we've seen one or two of these Einstein graffitis in real life. So cool that you can search Flickr and find the photos that you missed taking!

Here's the photos we used:

Photo by Locace.

Photo by Jakedobkin.

Photo by Setlasmon.

Photo by Jonas B.

Photo by Indrasensi.

Photo by Peter John Chen.

christmas is coming...

The other day, I listened to Christmas music in the morning, while I was getting dressed and doing stuff around the house, specifically the Elf soundtrack. And while I was drinking my eggnog-creamed coffee. I am ready for Christmas. Don't judge.

I felt only the slightest bit creepy, until I went outside and it was actually the first day ever (since last year) that you could wear a jacket during the day! (I guess really you only needed a long-sleeve shirt, since I wore my jacket over a tank top, but still.) And then at the grocery store, I saw this:

And knew it wasn't just me. Usually it aggravates me that Christmas is out next to the 75 % off Halloween decorations, but this year I am loving it.

Annie Leibovitz

I've been watching Life Through A Lens a little bit at a time for the last few days, and it's amazing to see Annie Leibovitz' journey and influences. What an inspiration!

I'd never thought too much about her, knew she was famous but didn't quite realize the breath and reach of her work. I also didn't realize that she was the photographer behind two of my absolute favorite fashion spreads of all time...

Like Natalia Vodianova as Alice in Wonderland (from Vogue, 2003):

And Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antionette (from Vogue, 2006):

I love her portraits, they are just so breathtakingly beautiful and well-executed.