Had the best weekend... but I'm not going to share it all ;)

You just had to be in the experience, but suffice to say it was a terrific Friday, Saturday, Sunday.... and now rain. I am thrilled for the rain and embrace it full-force!

Love Is a Mix Tape

Life and love, one song at a time. Its amazing what song can do to us. Hearing a particular tune can take us right back into some particular moment like a time machine.


Love is a Mix Tape is written by Rob Sheffield, writer for Rolling Stone and a friend of my friend Ed. The book tells the story of Rob & Renee as chronicled in part through the tapes they made for one another. It takes me back to going through the record bins at Plan 9 in Richmond and Charlottesville.

The music and cultural references are a great time capsule of an amazing era in music and pop culture. Remember putting scotch tape over those holes on the cassette to record over it? Were you alive then? ;)

Ed, who sent me the book before Christmas, also got a little group of us back into making mix tapes for one another--though they are on CD now. Its the best feeling to get that little treat in the mail, rip open the envelope, and take it all in. Much cooler and more intimate than downloading.

LA--Awards Season

There are a couple of months in this town where you hear non-stop talk of "awards season." Its basically like deb balls and parties every night. Stylists are on high-pressure to create some of the most critiqued looks of the year for their clients.

I was actually doing some work on a Sunday night so I was a wee bit late getting to one of my most favorite LA hotels, The Sunset Tower (love the Tower Bar and having brunch poolside on a Sunday), for the Audi pre-Golden Globes party last night hosted by Vampire-loving Anna Paquin and designer vintage king Cameron Silver. Events at the Sunset Tower are always so lovely as the space lends itself to just the right number of people. There were some very sculptural Gianfranco Ferre gowns on display which we admired while sipping Moet. Love Dita's hair up and dress to the floor. Its nice to see a lady in blue instead of black.

Karl knows no age

Press release from Chanel. Amazing that Vanessa Paradis has worked with the brand for so long. I always loved her whistling commercial. Also interesting that one of the most important launches for Chanel this year isn't a handbag or shoe. Its a $30 lipstick. Beauty in numbers.

"Rouge Coco is one of the most important launches from the House of Chanel in 2010," John Galantic, Chanel's U.S. president said to WWD.

Dear Folks,

i just wish we wrote more letters. the excitement of greeting the postman and tearing open an envelope instead of messages in the inbox.

Seeing Things | Johnston Marklee and Walead Beshty

Coming up at the Italian Cultural Institute is the exhibition "Later Layer" with contemporary artist Walead Beshty and architects Johnston Marklee.

From T Magazine, NY Times
By Brooke Hodge

“Later Layer” is on view at the Italian Cultural Institute Jan. 16 to Feb. 28.

Courtesy Johnston Marklee Architects. Models of buildings displayed on a series of plinths at the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles are the result of a collaboration between Johnston Marklee Architects and the artist Walead Beshty.

Architecture and art come together in the exhibition “Later Layer,” which opens next week at the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. Johnston Marklee Architects and the artist Walead Beshty have collaborated on a site-specific installation that transforms the IIC’s gallery and public spaces into a microcosm of a much larger project they are involved with for Italy’s Depart Foundation, a new entity dedicated to contemporary art. Click HERE for the rest of the article.

Home is Where my Heart Is

Its true what Dorothy said. There is no place like home. I am incredibly blessed to have such a loving family in Virginia who keep me balanced and who raised me to never give up and to be a patient and loving person. Sometimes I fail, but I do try. I am also blessed for dear friends on the West Coast that are my family here. Here is my great aunt Dorothy Maine. Her grandmother was English and her grandfather Irish. They were married in London and then traveled to Nova Scotia where my great grandmother was born.

Dorothy Maine wore a size 4.5 shoe. She married a man 8 years her senior, seen here (odd scan), which was a bit of a scandal for the family at first. Look at that moment of adoration, and yes, great style hopefully runs in my mixed up blood.

I love going home and visiting my grandmother. Hearing the stories of our relatives from decades gone by. The stories of my great uncles stepping foot onto French soil to take back the country from the Germans. The stories of her beautiful and stylish sisters. A lot of strong women. Our family that fought in the Civil war to defend Petersburg, where civilians were quite brutalized by the Union army (my great great grandmother swooshed some Yankees out of her home with a broom!) I don't take it for granted that I grew up surrounded by such history, playing on battlefields. This is from Colonial Heights.

The first time I went to Paris, I felt very at home. Many of the same plants and a similar topography as where I grew up. The sky looks quite the same as well. This is the skyline in old town Petersburg.There is also that common bond of rivers running through the land of Paris and where I grew up I think.
The last night in VA, I took pause as my 11 year old brother slept, to enjoy these last moments of him being a child. Bedside are a few things I have given him over the past several years. I don't take for granted that he finds them special. Ox the Ugly Doll, the solar-powered bobbing smiley from Japan, and the rubberized light-up ghost.
We had some fun in the woods with his new Red Rider BB gun, just like A Christmas Story!
Last moments by the tree and harp with one of my dad's paintings in the background.

Calling for Style Fascists. NY Times Op-Ed Guest Columnist Ten for the Next Ten by Bono

This is pretty witty.... I am not a "car" person nor am I a major Bono fan. When friends start talking about whatever Mercedes class, xyx edition whatever car, and all that, I have no idea. But....I do like a sexy ride in the sense of a smart and interesting design. I think the Prius could have been a lot sexier, instead of reminding me of a hand-held vacuum. Maybe I am a car person in the sense that a muscle car or a boxy vintage car really strikes my fancy. The romanticized idea of the great American road trip. This is what lead me to my choice in a Mini. But I digress. Any op-ed that wishes for a style fascist gets a gold star by me.

Return of the Automobile as a Sexual Object

How is it that the country that made us all fall in love with the automobile has failed, with only a few exceptions, to produce a single family sedan with the style and humor and grace of the cars produced in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s? Put aside the question of whether those models were male (as in longer, lower and wider, Dr. Freud) or female (as in fender skirts, curvy belt lines and, of course, headlights). Either way, they all had sex appeal. (In Ireland in the ’70s, it was the E-Type Jag that made sense of puberty.) Today, however, we have the mundanity of our marriage to the minivan and the S.U.V. and long-term relationships with midsize cars that are, forgive me, a little heavy in the rear cargo hold.

Are aerodynamics to blame? Economics? Or that most American of inventions, design by committee? It hurts me to say this about democracy (and I know because my band is one), but rarely does majority rule produce something of beauty.

That’s why the Obama administration — while it still holds the keys to the big automakers — ought to put some style fascists into the mix: the genius of Marc Newson ... Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive from Apple ... Frank Gehry, the architect, and Jeff Koons, the artist. Put the great industrial designers in the front seat, right along with sound financial stewardship ... the greener, the cleaner, the meaner on fossil fuels, the sexier for me. Check out the Tesla or the Fisker Karma car, designed by the same team that gave the world the Aston Martin.

Read the rest here