Fashion show! Fashion show! Fashion show at launch!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm very proud to introduce a new venture. Rachel and I have teamed up to start a fashion blog. I give you...

...Lake City Lake!



Please stop by and check it out! In a nutshell, the blog will include "what I wore" posts, inspiration posts, "what I wish I wore" posts, and basically anything else pertaining to style. What makes this fashion blog different from all of the rest? Us. Booyah.

The best possible information

I just checked wikipedia for some quick facts on the Great Depression. Here's what it had to say in it's opening paragraph:

The Great depression in the United States began on "Black Tuesday" with the Wall Street crash of October, 1929 and herpes rapidly spread worldwide. Asians everywhere were dying.

What? Now, I don't find Asians dying funny or the worldwide spread of herpes funny (the latter is a blatant lie), but I just gotta say that wikipedia is full of comic gold. Gold, I say!

Justice has a name and the name that it has, besides justice, is Captain Hammer

How can I be so slow on the uptake?

About a month ago, my friend Brian told me that he had just watched Joss Whedon's new internet series on iTunes and that I had to check it out. Brian and I have killed many hours at work geeking out on our love for Joss (I could talk about Buffy for hours), but for some reason I totally ignored him when he told me that I should really watch Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.



It's a couple months later and I've finally remembered to watch it. And you know what? AMAZING! Why? You want reasons? Fine, here we go. Neil Patrick Harris. Neil Patrick Harris singing and video blogging. Done.

Best of all, you can watch it for free at Hulu!

Black Forest (Tra La La)

Listen up, non-Madisonian readers (that means you, Seattle)!

My friends and favorite local band Pale Young Gentlemen are kicking off a nationwide tour to promote their new album Black Forest (Tra La La). They've received a lot of really great press, both locally and nationally, and are on their way up up up.

You need something more descriptive than me just saying that they're great? Well, there's a reason that I haven't attempted to be a music critic, but I'll do my best despite any of my skills to apply adjectives now flying out the window.

Their genre has been dubbed chamber pop by someone who is a lot better at this than me. To break that down a bit more, it’s a mix of orchestral elements (like the cello), driving pop beats, and literary-inspired lyrics (think Beruit + Brahms + The Decemberists + Andrew Bird). Mixing all of these elements together makes their sophisticated work seem equally at home at a pre-war cabaret, your local hipster dance party, or your tweedy lit professors house where he sips sherry and debates Ford Maddox Ford.

If you are totally lost (how can I blame you), you can check out their myspace page and have a listen for yourself.

And another thing! Tour dates are listed on their website, but they have also started a tour blog!

Hopefully my poor music reviewing skills haven’t turned you off. I would hate to be the ruin of their whole tour (yes, I have that much influence over you).

Go see cool people play cool music and be cool.

PQK OUT.

P.S. Guess who finally figured out how to add a blog roll! Holla at your girl!

Your week in Barack

I don't know how my mom keeps finding these amazing photos. Does she Google Image search "Barack Obama looks effortlessly kind, capable, and sincere while spending time with beautiful and happy young children?" Is there a blog she knows about where they just post picture after picture like this?



Speaking of adorable kids, she also passed on this photo of school children in India celebrating Gandhi's birthday this Thursday.



I've gone over my suggested intake of adorable. Now, I'm gonna puke puppies.

Solid As Barack

My mom is going to feel totally victorious when she sees this here, but I just had to.

Every Woman is a Marilyn or a Jackie

It’s back to school, so, first and foremost, that means a month long absence of blogging, but, secondly, it means the return of fall fashion. Bloggers galore have been hailing the return of tights and layering. I, being the Sconnie girl that I am, have the sense to realize that long underwear season follows tights season, so I guess the anticipation of fall is a little bit lost on me (didn’t winter only end here, like, a month ago?).

Despite my distaste for the return of long-johns, pants, puffy and shapeless coats, frostbite, windburn, etc., etc., I can’t stop my heart from skipping when I’m able to pull out my Mad Men-inspired cardigans and pencil skirts. Seriously, Bryant Park can suck it—all I need is Joan Holloway telling me what to wear and I’m set. Big sixties hair? Yes, please. Bright lips? Sure. Fake eyelashes? I’m there…Well, I would like to be there anyway.



I have one fashion mantra this season: embrace the pretty. After a couple years of trying to pull off super-skinny pants, trapeze tops, and irony, I realized that I’m doing my body and myself a disservice. It’s like a romantic comedy. I’m Kate Hudson (only I’m cool) and I’ve been in and out of crappy relationships that are humiliating and full of hijinx (much like pant shopping at H&M) and I finally have a choice to pick between two relationships, the trendy pleated khakis that have sprinkled across transatlantic fashion blogs across the globe or the flattering A-lined skirt dress that’s been hanging in my closet for the past five years (always available and faithful). It looks like I’m about to make the wrong choice as I try to see if tapered khakis look good on anyone who isn’t 5’11’’ and doesn’t weigh 72 lbs, but, down to the wire, I choose the timeless vintage silhouette and we escape together on a city bus. Wait. Now I’m doing The Graduate. Maybe I should steer clear of movie analogies.

I’ve been thinking about injecting a little more fashion into this ol’ blog for a while now. Ideally, I’d like to post photos of outfits I’ve come up with. There are just so many great fashion bloggers out there and it’s a little intimidating. And I don’t know how to use the self-timer on my camera. And I’m too lazy. What do you all think? I mean the theme of this blog is pretty set in stone. Can I afford to veer off of it? Can I… Oh, I’m thinking of someone else’s blog.