mad for men.

mad men, that is.

mad men returned with season five about a month ago,
following a year & a half hiatus.

i was a little worried it might not live up
to its prior level of spectacular indulgence.

i needn't've worried.
it's still incredible.

so much so, it inspired me to mad-men-myself anew:

& while, naturally, myriad disturbing things
have already happened this season,
some fistpump-worthy moments have unfolded, as well.

joan dumped her abusive, absentee, not-baby-daddy, bad-spousal-choice, dr. rapist.

lane punched pete in the nose on all of our behalves.

& maybe the most memorable moment came smackdab in the middle of the first episode,
as we shared don's gobsmacked-ocity watching megan's coquettish performance
of the sex kitten's birthday song, "zou bisou bisou."
[which translates to "oh, kiss kiss," by the way.]

i recently discovered a wonderful website
for m-squared fanatics such as myself:
natasha vargas cooper's mad men unbuttoned is a self-described
"cultural catalogue/romp through '60s america/footnotes of mad men."

she comments on the show, but also posts historical information about
the cultural references that come up during each episode —
real products scdp is pitching, literary references & their significance,
memoirs of ad men from that era — it's fascinating, really.

& how i learned more about the french new wave of feelings & yeye,
& discovered this music video of zoobi as performed by miss gillian hills, ca. 1962:



returning to our regularly scheduled program . . .
roger still slays me just about every time he opens his mouth.

& while i like the progressive addition of don's black secretary, dawn,
[i hope they give her a storyline!],
i must confess, i still miss dearly departed miss blankenship
& all the sh*t she gave roger.

here's to you, ida!! ;D

image sources: geek amour, tauntr, amc.

ella + marilyn.

ella fitzgerald & marilyn monroe listening to jazz at hollywood’s tiffany club, 1955.

“i owe marilyn monroe a real debt.

it was because of her that i played the mocambo,
a very popular nightclub in the ’50s.

she personally called the owner of the mocambo
[who had refused to book fitzgerald because she was black]
& told him she wanted me booked immediately,
& if he would do it, she would take a front table every night.

she told him — & it was true, due to marilyn’s superstar status —
that the press would go wild.

the owner said yes, & marilyn was there, front table, every night.
& the press went overboard.

after that, i never had to play a small jazz club again.
she was an unusual woman — a little ahead of her time, & she didn’t know it.

~ ella fitzgerald~
who would have been 95yo today.


image source: oldhollywood.

george the giant.

have you seen giant george?
he's difficult to miss. & ginormously darling.

george is both the tallest living dog & the tallest dog ever,
according to guiness world records.

born november 17, 2005, george was the runt of his litter.
adopted as a pup by david & christie nasser, the blue great dane now measures
43 inches at the withers, is 7'3" nose to tail, & weighs 245 pounds.
he lives with his family in tucson, az.

at home, he loves riding around his 'hood in a golf cart,
he has his own queen-sized mattress to sleep upon,
& he eats about 110 lbs. of food a month,
typically a combo of rotisserie chicken, yogurt & dog food.

he's rather huge with the media, too.

he's been on numerous news shows, &, ahem, oprah.
he's got his own website.
he's got his own facebook page [almost 123k fans].
he's got his own twitter feed [over 2,500 followers].

& now, he's got his own life story,
giant george: life with the world's biggest dog.

so you can read about george, follow him, like him or visit him.
& of course, join his official global fan club.

i'm sending off for my membership today. woof! i mean, WOOF!!!!!!


image source: facebook. :)

i moustache you . . .

. . . a question: can you feel it??

i do. i feel another etsy collection coming on.

for some reason, moustaches are very en vogue at the moment.
& for some reason, i find them tres amusant.

so, without further frenglish frasing,
i present a baker's dozen of fabu facial-hair fenoms:

mr. moustache baby mobile
100% recycled paper & premium nut veneer
by jaell & tofta [germany]
$28

mustard moustache fabric fat quarter
18 x 27", lightweight canvas 55% linen | 45%cotton
by new mom designs
$12

moustache wall wear
3" hoop
by nea jewelry & stitching [canada]
$38

eggmen series: mr. blooey eggenmeire
5x7" fine art photograph
by happee monkee [australia]
$13

a field guide to typestaches poster
18 x 24", frame not included
by old tom foolery
$24

banana with moustache tote
recycled cotton, 15.75 x 12"
by kikichoo [england]
$11

moustache vinyl decal
135mm x 40mm
by oh, dear molly [england]
$3

handcut felt moustaches on a stick
set of 15 party pack
by red bird makes [england]
$30

10 fantastico chocolate moustaches
also available in white chocolate
by swankk
$11

blond moustache stud earrings
100% renewable bamboo
by isette
$10

just under your nose moustache ring
sterling silver
by melanie favreau [canada]
$55

rango the cowboy of love sock monkey
18" top to toes
by tweeling [canada]
$35


top image source:
brown moustache nuk
bpa-free pacifier, 6 months & up
by creative cuteness
$9

equal pay day.

just like tax day, it comes around each year,
& is always a little depressing.
equal pay day.

49 years ago, president john f. kennedy signed
the equal pay act of 1963.
today, women still must work until mid-april of this year
in order to earn what the average american male earned last year.
yep — today's the day we catch up with where the men were january 1st.

according to the latest u.s. census stats,
full-time working women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
& naturally, the gap is wider for women of color.

*heavy. sigh.*

ok. so, the better-than-nothing news is,
president obama has flagged equal pay as a priority.
in fact, in his 2012 state of the union address, the president said,
" ... an economy built to last is one where we encourage
the talent & ingenuity of every person in this country.
that means women should earn equal pay for equal work."

so, what is the president doing to walk that talk?

1) he created the equal pay task force.
since its creation two years ago, the eptf has helped:

:: increase enforcement actions;

:: increase recovered money for women seeking
their fair share for doing the same work as men;

:: increase outreach to employers & employees alike,
with rewarding results; &

:: make sure the full weight of the federal government
is centered on closing the gender pay gap for good.

2) the department of labor is gathering & distributing good pay-gap info.

:: a solution to the gender pay-gap problem has been difficult
in large part because access to essential information has been limited.
the equal pay app challenge invited software developers to use
publicly available data & resources to create applications that provide
— greater access to pay data, organized by gender, race & ethnicity,
— interactive tools for early career coaching or online mentoring, or
— data to help inform pay negotiations.
the winners of the challenge have been announced, &
soon, anyone with a smartphone, tablet or computer
will be able to easily access the info they need to make sure they're paid fairly.

:: the dol has also just published two new brochures
to educate employees regarding their rights &
to ensure employers understand their obligations
under existing equal-pay laws.

let's hope once more americans know better,
more americans will do better.
until then, tip your waitress an extra 23% today,
in "celebration" of equal pay day.


image source: fringepop.

elmo knows it.

for all its faults, the interwebs occasionally amazes me utterly
by helping human beings express how incredibly clever + creative they can be.

for example:



you can visit the correlating "i'm elmo & i know it" facebook page
to download ringtones or get tees/onesies.

great work, jeff c. & family!! :) :) :)

ashley judd's face.

it's practically a tale as old as time . . .
beauty vs. the beast.

actress stars in new tv show.
actress promotes new tv show.
actress' appearance seems slightly different ["puffy," according to some].
media presumes actress has had plastic surgery.
media feeding frenzy ensues.

except this time, the actress was ashley judd,
& you don't mess with ashley judd.

judd promptly penned a piece for the daily beast,
condemning the current "conversation" about women's bodies
as "the assault on our body image,
the hypersexualization of girls & women
& subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades,
& the general incessant objectification" —
i.e., misogynisitc bullshit.

the whole essay is well worth reading, & you should.
but what really hit home for me was the portion in which,
as jezebel.com writer lindy west says,
"ashley judd just dunked on us so hard."

my dunking/aha! moment:

"that women are joining in the ongoing
disassembling of my appearance is salient.
patriarchy is not men. patriarchy is a system
in which both women & men participate.

it privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys & men
over the bodily integrity, autonomy, & dignity of girls and women.

it is subtle, insidious, & never more dangerous
than when women passionately deny that
they themselves are engaging in it.

this abnormal obsession with women’s faces & bodies
has become so normal that we
(i include myself at times — i absolutely fall for it still)
have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly.
we are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers,
or as abusing other girls & women.

a case in point is that this conversation was
initially promulgated largely by women
a sad & disturbing fact."

sad & disturbing, indeed.
& oh, so common.

in fact, if i'm truly honest, then i must confess
one of my first knee-jerk [emphasis on the jerk part] reactions to
the buzz about ms. judd's altered appearance was
something along the lines of a resigned "like mother, like daughter."
[ashley's mom, country singer naomi judd, has copped to a facelift or two.]

but like jezebel.com's lindy west,
i hope along with growing older, i'm also growing wiser,
deeper & much more accepting.
i hope i'm growing into a better feminist:

"i'm certainly not innocent of celebrity body-snarking ... .
but i find that the older i get the more consciously i avoid it,
& the more i reject the notion that when you profit from being a public figure
you become public property.

we've locked celebrities [female celebrities in particular]
into this impossible position —
they lose five pounds & they're anorexic;
they gain that weight back & they might as well
call maury povich to airlift them out of their trailer.
so what the fuck are they supposed to do?

there's a line between reasonable attention & unreasonable scrutiny,
&, for my part, i'd rather sacrifice a few good jokes
about the flavor-of-the-week's gaping coke nostril
than contribute any more to the commodification & dehumanization of women.

my feminism doesn't end where your celebrity begins."

dear ashley judd,
you are a beautiful woman.
a woman with a beautiful face & body, yes.
but much more importantly, a woman
with a beautifully brilliant mind.
a beautifully brave spirit.
& a beautifully open heart
[click here for more on her humanitarian work,
which includes extensive global efforts
to fight aids & poverty, & — not surprisingly —
to advocate for women's rights].

not to mention your beautifully eloquent &
hopefully moving [as in moving on, moving forward] words for all of us:

"who makes the fantastic leap from being sick,
or gaining some weight over the winter,
to a conclusion of plastic surgery?
our culture, that’s who.
the insanity has to stop, because as focused on me
as it appears to have been, it is about all girls & women.

in fact, it’s about boys & men, too,
who are equally objectified and ridiculed, according to
heteronormative definitions of masculinity that deny
the full & dynamic range of their personhood.

it affects each & every one of us,
in multiple & nefarious ways:
our self-image, how we show up in our relationships & at work,
our sense of our worth, value, & potential as human beings.

join in — and help change — the conversation."

doing my best, ms. judd. & still promising to do better.

yours, mine & ours,
me


image source: unknown.

god says yes.

i asked god if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
i asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
i asked her if i could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
thanks god i said
and is it even okay if i don't paragraph
my letters
sweetcakes god said
who knows where she picked that up
what i'm telling you is
yes yes yes

"god says yes to me" by kaylin haught.
from in the palm of your hand by steve kowit.

image source: lovely sparrow & co. @ etsy.com.

hello, april.

hello, april.

hello, wildflowers.

hello, easter.

hello, bunnies + birds.

hello, egg wars.

hello, giant italian chocolate eggs.

hello, readying the front porch + yard for warmer weather.

hello, esperanza [yellow bells].

hello, bird's nest [sansevieria].

hello, big beautiful new pot for phil o'dendren.

hello, dirt.

hello, again, my nemeses mosquitos.

hello, feeling a little summer coming. but not quite yet.

hello, april.

i'm a fool for you.


image source: sparrow nest script @ etsy.com.

madcap recap.

march came to central texas, indeed, in like a lion, out like a lamb,
leaving a blanket of beautiful wildflowers in its wonderful wake.

while we've got our fleeting transition time between freezing & searing,
we do our best to embrace it. which means march is an madcap month for us,
abundant with springful activity.

here's a little glimpse — an iphone recap — of how our march 2012 delivered . . .

my springtime placemat delivers a reminder for me to be positive + accepting.
[love our chalkboard placemats & chalk ink markers —
all of the doodling delight, none of the chalk-induced shivers!!]

a railroad tie delivers a first persistent spray of spring.

a spring break daytrip to san antonio delivers
a family of peruvian bird whistles to our home.

sxsw + anthropologie deliver a free concert [& snacks! & drinks!]
with ingrid michaelson — & yes, we really were this close to her!

another daytrip — to westcave preserve — delivers
this moment of presence & centeredness.

eat ice cream for breakfast day delivers a great way to make morning more palatable.

the star of texas fair + rodeo delivers, as ever — the tilt-a-whirl,
pizza-on-a-stick, & our favorite element — the critters!

bahama freeze delivers the first frigid, slurpilicious snowcones of the season.

me & my creative crust-carving skilz deliver a springtime potpie.

my sweet husband delivers #57 wishes a la cupcake candles.

& finally, central texas delivers a bumper crop of bluebonnets, ready for their closeups.
they're our harbingers of warmer weather — but we welcome them anyway!!