27 is One Goddamn Sexy Number

The embedding isn't working, but if you want to see your 2009 World Series Champions celebrate like school boys (in the best possible way), clickety click!

Five Things I Am Loving Right Now

1) These pants. After weeks of trying to find a pair that fit me, Gap finally came through. I am wearing them now and they are pretty much the most comfortable things I've ever put on. I'm serious, it's like wearing pajama pants to work except these have nice detailing and no drawstring. I am probably going back this weekend to get another pair in navy. They are to die for.

2) Northern Lite Turtle Lattes. I'm not even sure what flavor "turtle" is, but I know it is delicious and sugar-free. Not sugar-free (but also worthy of love) is Swiss Miss' new Pick-Me-Up hot cocoa, which has all the caffeine of a cup of coffee. Somebody has a direct link to my brain, it seems.

3) Yankees Playoff Baseball. OMFG, are you watching this team?!?! Three- THREE- come from behind wins to clinch the ALDS in three and now up 2-0 in the ALCS. A-Rod is having a clutch post season, pitching has been stellar, the games have been close (Saturday's game: 2-2 from the fifth on and tying it back up 3-3 in the ELEVENTH? Scoring on an error in the THIRTEENTH?! Are you kidding me with this?)...my god, I love this team.

4) October. It is cold! And almost Halloween! And all of this is just tip-toeing us ever closer to my favorite red-cupped holiday...

5) Anyone I have seen in the past month. For serious, I am having the BEST time with the old crowd. I am being completely and utterly spoiled by my wonderful, amazing friends.

The Lost Art of the Movie Poster

One of the many, many things I like to whinge about is the art of the movie poster. I think teaser posters tend to be vastly more interesting because they're more psychological and subtle. For example...is a great poster. Simple, deliciously creepy, gets a lot of the movie in a single eerie image. Whereas, in my mind, this...

leaves me kind of cold. There's too much going, it's somewhat in elegant and...I don't know. I'm a snob, I guess, but I have kind of a problem with posters using photographs of people...even photography in general, sometimes. I'm a fan of bold, clean, simple graphics for movies that can double as art.

Which is why I highly enjoyed this posting featuring 25 re-imagined movie posters that are entirely graphic. No photos! All art! I would hang any of these on my wall. Here is my favorite of the bunch...

So. Cool. And yes, I did use a 'Dark Knight' poster at the beginning of this post to illustrate a 'good' poster, I still think that this is a really awesome alternative. They both achieve different things, I just wish we saw more of the second!

Step Away from the Computer

A sure sign I spend too much time on the computer? Last night's dream, which centered around the tragic car crash that (in my dream) Chris Lehman and David Rosenthal.

Who are these people?

Chris Lehman used to write for Congressional Quarterly (I think) and is married to Ana Marie Cox. I follow them both on Twitter.

David Rosental is the husband of a girl who was two years above me in high school and who I haven't talked to in years. The reason I know who her husband is? Facebook.

Yeah. Maybe I need to cut back a bit.

Why Charlie Fink Needs a Girlfriend

I am a big, big Noah and the Whale fan, so I was super stoked to get their new album The First Days of Spring. I had high hopes considering how utterly awesome Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down was and I have to say, though not disappointed, it's not what I was expecting. The main reason I like them is that, if you listen to Peaceful, it's not really a happy album. Even '5 Years Time' acknowledges the possibility of today's happiness disappearing, and '2 Atoms in a Molecule' is really just a meditation on the inability to be with someone else. But the key is that these songs sound happy. They reflect my own personal cynicism without making me want to kill myself. FTW.

But Spring doesn't really do that. Spring is just straight up sad. The girl is gone, the boy is alone, if things ever do get better...it will be a long time from now.

And it's for this reason that having Spring be my main soundtrack for this past weekend's endless road tripping would have been a horrible idea WERE IT NOT for one key track. 'Love of an Orchestra' still contains the pessimistic lyrics I tend to love ("if you gotta run, run from hope") and is based on the idea that one doesn't need people, really, because music is just as good, but it lays all of this out over a totally infectious string-driven base that makes me grin and lunge for the repeat button.

Here, check it out:

On the actual album, the track before it is actually an extended instrumental intro which I recommend incorporating into your daily listening. Really, just go get the album. Sad or not, it's still pretty great.

You've Come a Long Way, Baby

Yes, women are still often underpaid, discriminated against and generally have not yet reached the perfect equality with men we strive for. That doesn't mean we haven't come a long way! Case in point? This 1943 hiring guide for women, via Claire (or Qlayre, if you're using her reality TV pseudonym).

If the promise of truly hilarious (and yet terrible) sexist employment guidelines doesn't lure you to take a peek, here's a preview:

3. General experience indicates that "husky" girls - those that are just a
little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their
underweight sisters.

Oooooh yeah. It's that good.

Things I Listen To and Where They Came From

For no rason other than I am at work, need to pass the time and haven't had quite enough caffeine to begin slogging through more Shakespeare annotations, I will now record for your reading pleasure a random list of the music I rock out to and where said music was discovered:

1. A Fine Frenzy
Sound: laid back female piano rock
Found: in the September issue of Vogue
Key Track: 'Almost Lover'

2. The Weepies
Sound: pretty, layered chill out music; good for driving home at night in a quiet mood
Found: JC Penny Christmas commercial
Key Tracks: 'All That I Want,' 'Slow Pony Home,' 'The World Spins Madly On'

3. Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit
Sound: British traditional meets American twang
Found: in the program notes of a production JF was acting in
Key Tracks: 'Brown Trout Blues,' 'The Wrote and the Writ'

4. Frank Turner
Sound: guy-and-a-guitar but with a harder edge and more profanity
Found: by listening to Radio Caroline, a British station broadcast off a boat
Key Tracks: 'St. Christopher is Coming Home,' 'Photosynthesis,' 'Long Live the Queen'

5. Noah and the Whale
Sound: peppy songs of heartbreak with a kind of electronic filter vibe
Found: opening for JF&tSW at the Lock Tavern
Key Track: '2 Atoms in a Molecule'

6. Bob Dylan
Sound: oh, you know
Found: everywhere, but most recently rediscovered on an episode of 'Mad Men'
Key Tracks: 'Don't Think Twice, It's Alright,' 'It Ain't Me, Babe,' 'Simple Twist of Fate'

7. Ingrid Michaelson
Sound: female singer/songwriter; more talented than Jewel, warmer than Ani
Found: opening for Matt Nathanson in CT
Key Tracks: 'The Chain,' 'The Hat,' 'You and I'

8. Jack's Mannequin
Sound: Something Corporate changes it's name and rocks a wee bit harder
Found: through SoCo, which is turn was found through mix cds my friends made me in high school
Key Tracks: 'I'm Ready,' 'Hammers and Strings (A Lullaby),' 'Into the Airwaves'

9. The New Amsterdams
Sound: The Get Up Kids' more melodic and less electronic side project
Found: Vagrant records sampler purchased during my Hot Topic glory days
Key Tracks: 'All our Vice,' 'Spoils of the Spoiled,' 'Turn Out the Light,' 'Idaho'

There should be 10, because that would make it a nice, rounded list. But you know what? Life isn't like that. That, and I'm indecisive.

Coffee has kicked in. Illyria, here I come.