Guys. I know no one looks at this anymore, but I just wanna say that Amy W died like, right after I posted that. Just Sayin. I probably killed her.

On Accutane. My face is so dry it feels like it's falling off. Like this.

Crackle Action!

Katy Perry can do no wrong.

Her latest success: Shatter nail polish.

I feel like such a badass.

Super Cheap New Books!

Guys, Borders is going out of business... And I'm reaping all the benefits.

PS- I have decided to make this blog into a "Things I've Bought That I Love"-type thing.

by special request...

a fantastic pretzel recipe. these were so ridiculously. if you don't have a pastry brush, may i suggest using a misto or even pam before you throw the pretzels in the oven. also, i kept my pretzels in the oven a bit longer (an extra 5-7 minutes) than the recipe suggests to make sure they were nice and brown on the outside, but my oven is usually a bit slow. try it! it's easier than it sounds!!!

delicious pretzels (slightly altered from alton brown's recipe)

ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c. warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 T sugar
• 2 t. salt
• 1 package active dry yeast (don't be afraid)
• 22 oz. flour (about 4 1/2 c.)
• vegetable oil (for coating pan)
• 10 c. water
• 2/3 c. baking soda [I made these once in a baking soda bath, and once in just regular salted water, and it worked either way. If you have it use it, if not, don't worry!]
  
• 1 large egg yolk beaten w/ 1 T water
• pretzel or coarse salt

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. [Note: I hand-kneaded this and it didn't take long at all, so if you don't have a stand mixer, mixing this dough together isn't nearly as daunting as it sounds.] Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed [or hand knead!] until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes [or 10]. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture (or pam/misto) and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes

I aam a bookworm we are all bookwoorms!

Guys!
Ive been obsessed with listening to NPR on iTunes. Particularly, and most importantly, this little gem I came across while stuck on the 101 in August. Each week, I thirst for Thursdays...when the muffled yet nasally Michael Silverblatt hosts the insatiable "bookworm", a weekly show on KCRW.
Listen to it nOW. Every book I've read he raves about is extraordinary.
Site:
http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw

Ferguson!

This morning, I suddenly thought, whatever happened to the Ferg Face?

I looked at his imdb bio, and learned a great deal. I'm pretty sure he wrote it himself:

Jason Zimbler, aka Funky Ferg, was born on July 27, 1977 and weighed in at a bulky 7 lbs, 7 oz. At the age of two, he moved to the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. At the age of 6, Jason began a long and storied career in the entertainment industry.

Gainful employment began on the long-running, little-watched, and soon-forgotten soap opera, "The Edge of Night" (1956). Following a one-year tenure on the show, after which the show was canceled, the family moved to Livingston, New Jersey.

Soon after high school began, Jason was cast as the annoying little brother (some would say a part he was born to play) in a Nickelodeon pilot titled "Clarissa Explains It All" (1991), were he played the role of Ferguson. Once the show was picked up for an extended run, scheduling conflicts arose between taping the show in Orlando and high school, and Jason was forced (reluctantly) to enroll in an all-girls school near his home.

After two and a half years, Jason was ready to leave the nest for college. Just as the show ended its run, college began for Jason in beautiful, temperate South Bend, Indiana. Despite having survived countless perils to this point, college was no picnic. A veteran of thrice-changed majors and numerous cocktail parties, Jason emerged relatively unscathed and ready for the real world.

So jealous of you DCers

joaquin phoenix

+ = ?

What happened here? Has anyone seen I'm Still Here? It's a commentary on celebrity? Ha Ha? I'd like to know your input.

OMG you guys, Harry Potter facts.

I just found 10 facts you may not know about Harry Potter:

1. Hermione’s name was almost “Hermione Puckle.” It has a sour tone to it, doesn’t it? J.K. Rowling thought so, too, and changed to something that suited the character better. Rowling has said that Hermione has a healthy dose of herself in there, as she was quite the know-it-all herself as a child. Hermione was originally going to have a younger sister, but Rowling never found the right moment to stick her into the books.

2. Gilderoy Lockhart, the insufferably vain professor and celebrity from The Chamber of Secrets, was based on someone Rowling knows in real life. The rumor is that she based him on her ex-husband, but she has been quite adamant about denying that. “He used to tell whopping great fibs about his past life, all of them designed to demonstrate what a wonderful, brave and brilliant person he was. Perhaps he didn’t really believe he was all that great and wanted to compensate, but I’m afraid I never dug that deep,” she has said. “He’s probably out there now telling everybody that he inspired the character of Albus Dumbledore. Or that he wrote the books and lets me take the credit out of kindness.”

3. Hedwig, Harry’s Snowy Owl, isn’t entirely accurate. After the first book was accepted for publication, she found out Snowy Owls are diurnal. And it was during the writing of book two that she realized that Snowy Owls are silent, meaning that Hedwig’s knowing hoots and conversational noises weren’t quite true-to-life. She admits this was just a research hole on her part, but says readers should feel free to assume that her unusual talents are just part of her magical ability. Incidentally, although Hedwig is female, she is played by a male in the movies because females aren’t wholly white like males are.

4. Collecting unusual and interesting names and words has been a lifelong habit for Rowling. She has said that she loves reading lists of them, from war memorials to baby name books, and made it a point to remember her favorites. Some of them found a new home in the Harry Potter books. She makes up some of the words too – “quidditch” is a Rowling original. She filled up five pages of made-up words that started with “Q” before she hit on one that sounded right. “Voldemort” and “Malfoy” were also invented.

5. If a muggle were to happen across Hogwarts, all they would see is nothing but a ruined castle with large signs on it saying ‘keep out, dangerous building.’ This might sound a bit suspicious to those of us in the States, but it seems like the U.K. is rife with castle ruins.


6. Fred and George Weasley were born on April Fool’s Day. Go figure. While we’re talking about the Weasleys, there was a Weasley cousin named Mafalda who got edited out of The Goblet of Fire in order to make room for the love-to-hate-her invasive “journalist” Rita Skeeter. That’s probably best – Ginny Weasley is supposed to have been the first girl born to the Weasley family for several generations, so scrapping Malfalda supports that backstory.

7. Harry, Ron and Hermione all have wand cores based on their birthdays: the Celt assigned trees to people based on that kind of like we assign gemstones today. She had already assigned Harry’s holly-based wand when she discovered the Celt tree calendar and found that she had accidentally assigned him the “right” type of wood. She did the same thing with Draco Malfoy (Hawthorn wood). But Ron and Hermione both purposefully received wands based on their birthdays – ash for Ron and vine wood for Hermione. She didn’t carry this convention out for all of the characters, though.

8. Filch’s cat, Mrs. Norris, takes her name from the Jane Austen book Mansfield Park. Fittingly, Austen’s Mrs. Norris is also rather sour and bitter.

9. Snape was partially based on a teacher J.K. Rowling once had. She likes to write him, though, because she finds him such a pathetic creature.

10. As you probably know, King’s Cross station is where young wizards hop on the Hogwarts Express to get to school. What you might not know is that the station holds special meaning for J.K. Rowling: it’s where her parents met. They were coincidentally both headed to Arbroath in Scotland when they met on the train. King’s Cross was intentionally chosen as the gateway to Hogwarts in homage to Rowling’s parents.

Mascara update!

Dear friends, I have discovered a glorious new mascara - thanks in large part to compulsive consumption of fashion magazines (I now subscribe to 3 - Lucky, InStyle, and Vogue. Someone save me from myself). You should ALL try out Revlon GrowLuscious! It has a huge brush that makes application easy and it really works wonders! Plus, it's way cheaper than DiorShow - which is, for all you aficionados out there, really the best.. but sadly not so accessible at $25/tube. TRY IT!!

SOS

Hey guys! So I moved into my new studio all by myself! It is still kinda spooky at night. Especially when I came home the first night and realized that there are no lights in my entire apartment. Yep. Never noticed. It had always been day! So I fumbled around in the dark, looking blindly through boxes, and finally found a single lamp. And plugged it in. Then there was light. What is the reason for this post? Because my apartment is going to be... JUSTICE themed! Yep. And kind of covered-wagon themed. I'm looking for black and white photos of men signing things. Any one have any craft/dIY/decorative/blog idea suggestions for me!???



http://www.progressivepioneer.com/progressive-pioneer/

LA Jesus

Yet another reason to come back to LA: we have Jesus.

http://www.isawjesusinla.com/

Get ready for lots more of this...

I hear Lydia has an excellent Sangria recipe. Please, Lydia, inform us. I made some recentrly, and it just tasted like the plastic cup I was carrying it around in. yuck.
Help!

World Cup!!!!

i feel like everyone around me all of a sudden has embraced the world cup like never before. i am going with the flow. last weekend I drank liters of beer and ate pretzel rolls and cheered for germany and spoke to an old german couple that recently moved to maryland at a lovely little biergarten haus. i just like the way that phrase looks. biergarten haus. silly. the benches are all imported from lithuania? why? i don't know.

i'll be there bright and early this weekend as well. mack. germany v. argentina @ 10 AM EST.

FIFA

Can someone help me understand HOW I figure out who is playing when in the World Cup?

Not like anyone CARES about what blog anymore.... jeez....

And what the hell is a Fifa?

Pictures.

Friends. I will be home on Friday, and then Delaney will show me how to put my Costa Rica pictures on the internet to share. Yep. I can't figure it out.

Mack OUT.

I just realized how quickly we all strayed from making this blog about Important information to share, to silly pictures. It's JUST like Rumor Has It, a great moment in cinema's history. We're all from Pasadena...

Here is what I am reading right now. I just listened to "Assassination Vacation" and am now reading "Pass the Cannoli." Both are wonderful. I highly recommend. Who else has read Sarah Vowel?