SAG Dress Success

Can I just say that this might now be my favorite awards gown ever? I don't know what it is about yellow dresses. I suspect it is because I could never ever pull one off that I love them so. Whatever the case, this mustard Jason Wu gown is AMAZING on Diane Kruger. She wins the entire night for fashion, hands down, so I am not even going to bother discussing any other dresses.

Let me also plug Inglorious Basterds while I am on the Diane Kruger topic. She was not my favorite person in that movie, but the film was great.

Tonight is the Grammy's, which is often a "fashion don't" kind of affair, but I am looking forward to scanning the red carpet anyway. Maybe Lady Gaga will show up wearing a frock made of shrunken human heads. Can't wait!

Rabbit, Run

Well, Rabbit was on my mind when I started this blog a few weeks ago, and so I feel I must return to discuss him as promised. However, I must say my enthusiasm has...waned.

I think the most interesting thing for me was the portrait of 1950s America Updike paints. I think in many ways that the American novel, at least of the 20th century, is the novel of disappointment. This is expected in the works of the Lost Generation novelists like Fitzgerald, but few would have expected such cynicism from a baby boomer. However, Updike's suburban world is as bleak as Dreiser's or Crane's.

Obviously this is not news to those who lived through the publication of Rabbit, Run in 1960. However, as I mentioned previously, before reading the novel I knew virtually nothing about it other than that it was set in the 1950s and dealt with a difficult marriage, so I was a bit surprised. Most recently I suppose I was reminded of Updike through his passing and decided to check him out. He certainly is a beautiful writer. His prose style is delicious...a nice mix of fluidity and terseness marks his sentences. I am glad I got a taste of his talent.

I will admit, however, that I don't know if I am hooked enough to find out what Rabbit does after he leaves the side of poor Ruth at the end of the novel. I can't imagine happiness is in store for him no matter what. Whether he goes back to his nightmare of a wife, stays by the side of the prostitute-turned-jilted girlfriend Ruth, or just runs away, I know all will be quite miserable. And, honestly, what with the horrible weather, the typical January blues, and the sickness that has pervaded my household for 2 weeks now, I have had about all the misery I can take right now.

My next literary adventure will take the form of Kathryn Stockett's The Help. Let's hope it is not quite so dreary.

Best of the Globes

Okay, so I meant to stay up late last night and work on this, but my poor hubby was starting to feel very sick, so blogging had to wait. Today I tried to stay away from any "Best/Worst" lists so that I could try to form my own opinions. I did inevitably see some blurbs about Mariah/Halle cleavage, but other than that I did okay.

I have to say I was a little disappointed with some folks. I feel like there were many who slightly missed the mark.

Marion Cotillard, for example looked amazing except for that little lace thing:

I also think Carey Mulligan is just adorable, and I love the headband and pixie cut, but her bodice needs to be hiked up an inch or two to make this work:

I feel that the hands-down winner of last night was Jennifer Garner, and she wasn't even up for any award. She just looked stunning, though.

Even though her dress isn't super flashy, I also thought Reese Witherspoon looked really good. However, she didn't do the red carpet so there aren't many good pictures available:

George Clooney's date, Elisabetta Canalis, had a super cool dress:

And so did Modern Family's Sofia Vergara:

The "best she's ever looked" award goes to Toni Collette:

Gorgeous, right?

The "best of the mature ladies" award goes to Glenn Close:

The "best short dress" goes to Ginnifer Goodwin. (Again the adorable pixie. How I wish I could pull that hairdo off.)

Emily Blunt, whom I love, love, love, also looked terrific, and she gets the "best jewelry award" for those awesome cuffs:

I must also say that, while I am not so much a fan of raven-locked Fergie, she looked quite lovely in this:

My verdict is still kind of out on Kate Hudson's white dress, but right now I like it. She took a risk, and I think she looks very modern. However, I have to focus on the dress and not her smug smirk because I am not a fan of K. Hud.

Another risk I think paid off was Christina Aguilera's. Her dress is striking and lovely, and her makeup and hair look sleek and understated. She looks quite pretty! (Please ignore Cher.)

One person I was pretty disappointed in was January Jones. She looks smashing in every single episode of Mad Men, and then she goes for this:

I mean, look at her last year! Amazing!

Also, for this to be Sandra Bullock's big year, I was hoping for more than this see-through purple dress:

And Tina Fey, I worship you, but here you just remind of me of a Mary Poppins cake topper. And the shoes! Are. Not. Good. With. That.

I was also underwhelmed with Drew Barrymore. My husband said her dress looked like it had sea anemones stuck to it, and I think that about sums it up:

And Chloe Sevigny was weird as always in this ruffled mess:

Luckily, it got ripped, and she later changed into a much better dress:

And Julianne Moore surely could have done better than this:

All in all, there were some lovely gowns, but not as many as I expected. Some of my favorites, in fact, were not even worn by nominees. I hope that some people (ahem, Sandra "I've had the best year of my career" Bullock and Penelope "I am too beautiful for words" Cruz) try a bit harder and really bring it for the Oscars, which hopefully will also be rain-free. Or maybe they will all decide that this year might end up being all about the Na'vi anyway and decide to show up in jeans. If they did, I would totally understand.

Golden Globe Excitement!

The Golden Globes ceremony airs tomorrow night, and I am getting pumped. This marks the beginning of the Red Carpet season for film and, along with it, the commencement of the season of red carpet fashion. I know, I know. There are far more important things going on in the world right now -- something that the celebs will no doubt make an embarrassing admission of tomorrow night as they talk about Haiti while drinking champagne in haute couture --, but I will be glued to the T.V. from 7:00 to 10:00 nonetheless.

I have been both a celebrity gawker and a fashion lover for quite some time now. In fact, I recall some favorite moments of my youth when I would steal away to a quiet place to look at my mom's Princess Diana fashion book. That book was amazing! I never tired of looking at Diana in all of her royal splendor, bedazzled with jewels and dressed in satin, silk, tulle, taffeta, and velvet. Gorgeous! I mean, did any girl who grew up in the 80s not want to look like this at her wedding?

I know I did. Thankfully, I settled for a more subtle look for my nuptials, but still. This would have been neat...even 25 years after Diana wore it.

So it is with great anticipation that I await tomorrow's extravaganza. This year's nominees include a nice mix of bright young things and, er, "mature" actors. I expect Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren to look striking and dignified as always (although I secretly hope they vamp it up and look like the hot babes they are) and know that Julianne Moore and Julia Roberts will probably show up in some safe solid sheath. For excitement in the ladies' department, I am looking to Emily Blunt, Carey Mulligan, Penelope Cruz. and, possibly, Anna Kendrick. I am curious to see what Vera Farmiga will do because I can't recall what she wore during the season of The Departed and think she is amazingly and uniquely beautiful.

Remember when Jennifer Hudson was coerced by Andre Leon Talley into wearing that ugly gold bolero jacket over her brown gown to the 2007 Oscar ceremony? I felt sorry for her because, while she was a Hollywood newcomer who did not happen to be a size 0, she was and is a beautiful woman with a very nice figure who should have been dressed in a stunning number. Instead, she ended up in a boring pocketed dress with an ugly gold lame shrug, and I was bummed. Here is the visual if you have forgotten:

Well, this year we have another curvy newcomer in the amazingly talented Gabourey Sidibe of Precious. I hope she has stayed clear of Talley and has hired an awesome stylist who makes her look regal. I just loved her performance and have read how she is just the sweetest girl ever, so I want her to look great.

For fun, I have decided to list my top 5 red carpet looks of recent years.

#5. Penelope Cruz, 2007 Oscars, Peach Atelier Versace

#4. Cate Blanchett, 2007 Oscars (good year!), Gunmental Armani Prive

#3. Kate Winslet, 2009 SAG Awards, blue Narciso Rodriguez

#2. Marion Cotillard, 2008 Oscars, White fish scale Jean Paul Gaultier

#1. Cate Blanchett (Yes, again. She is always stunning on the red carpet, and I love her.) 2005 Oscars, Yellow Valentino with burgundy sash.

Best. Dress. Ever.

Honorable Mention, Michelle Williams, 2006 Oscars, Mustard Vera Wang. Unusual (my husband says, "Ick") but Striking! I like it.

Let the red carpet excitement begin!

Yet Another Reason I Am Thankful I Do Not Live in the 1950s

Well, I am kind of getting into Rabbit, Run by John Updike. I have to say I did not expect the book to literally be about a guy running, but that's pretty much what it is about: a guy running...away from his family. In one scene I read 2 nights ago, he runs right into the arms of Ruth, a prostitute. The first thing Rabbit notices about this working girl when he meets her is her size. Updike describes her as "fat...but not that fat. Chunky, more. But tall, five eight or nine...Her thighs fill the front of her pseudo-silk pale-green dress so that even standing up she has a lap." A later description is no more flattering: "...Rabbit sees from behind that her heels, yellow with strain, tend to slip sideways in the net of lavender straps that pin her feet to the spikes of her shoes." Later he describes her back as cushiony, her legs as fat, and her stomach as a "bowl belly." No lie.

Well, Rabbit, classy cat he is, eventually gets around to asking Ruth what her weight is. Was this an appropriate question for a man to ask a woman in the 1950s? I don't know. Perhaps you were only allowed to ask such questions of hookers. What I do know is that I was wholly unprepared for her response: "One forty-seven." Wait a minute. Seriously, John Updike? 147 pounds? This woman you describe as fat in every other sentence for like 20 pages weighs 147 pounds? And she is 5'8'' or 5'9''? You are nuts. Perhaps you should have consulted a woman before you wrote this section because a 5'9" woman of an average build who weighs 147 pounds looks one way: thin.

Chocolate

I am a woman of few vices. They include, I think, only chocolate, ice cream, and coffee. I wouldn't say those things are vices except for the fact that I have each of these every day. Yes, that's right. Chocolate and ice cream...every day. You would think from this that I have probably put on a few pounds lately, but I actually haven't. In fact, I have been at the same weight, one I am happy with, for about a year, and for the entire year I have been indulging. I can't figure out why I am able to get away with this, especially because I do not exercise, but I am not going to question it; I am just going to go with it. If I don't balloon up within another few months, I shall write a best-selling diet book.

Lately I have been on a milk chocolate kick. Eating milk chocolate makes me feel like I am five years old, only not quite that good. I say that because, while I did not know it at the time, I started out consuming some of the best milk chocolate there is at a very young age. My family lived in Germany for 2 1/2 years when I was 4-6. Whilst there, I was exposed to two wonderful brands of German chocolate, and I think this spoiled my milk chocolate palate for life.

I really do not like Hershey's milk chocolate. Nestle's chocolate is only so-so, in my opinion. In fact, I think there are only 5 brands of milk chocolate worth bothering with:

1. Cadbury's

Cadbury's milk chocolate is, in my opinion the ultimate. This British brand creates milk chocolate that is smooth, creamy, almost chewy even, and wonderfully delicious. I was rather chagrined to discover today that, in the U.S., Hershey's manufactures Cadbury's chocolate. All I can say is that they haven't messed up the recipe yet, thankfully, and I hope they don't. I also hope the Cadbury-Kraft merger never happens. Just look what Kraft has done to cheese!

Pictured above are the ultimate version of Cadbury's chocolate: Cadbury's mini eggs. Yum. They are probably already at your local Kroger (They are at mine. Criminal!), but I recommend you wait until closer to Easter before you start buying them. They are just not a January candy.

2. Rittersport

This is one of the brands I was exposed to in my youth. This is terrific milk chocolate with a silky texture. If you have never tried it, pick one up. Plenty of major supermarkets and stores like Target are now carrying it.

3. Kinder chocolate

This is the other brand I enjoyed as a wee one. This chocolate is technically Italian, because it is made by the Ferrero company, but the company introduced it in Germany (as Kinderschokolade) before they sold it in Italy. The great thing about this chocolate is that many varieties combine thin layers of milk and white chocolate in one bar. This is sheer genius. The most fun product for children is the Kinder Surprise Egg, pictured on the right. Inside the hollow chocolate egg is a toy. Sometimes assembly is required, and directions are provided. How fun, right? Well, don't think about buying a Kinder Egg here. The FDA has banned them because the toys can be a choking hazard. So silly!

I should also mention that Kinder chocolate is really creamy and engineered with extra butter fat just for children's (and, who's kidding, adults') tastebuds.

4. Lindt

I really like the milk chocolate Lindt truffles. They are super creamy with a perfectly light shell. This is not surprising as Lindt is a Swiss company, and obviously the Swiss have quite a reputation for chocolate making. I know that truffles are much richer than typical milk chocolate, but I just had some of these over Christmas break (I bought them for my husband's stocking, but somehow they kept on popping themselves into my mouth!), and I can't get them out of my mind.

5. Godiva

For many people Godiva are sort of the gold standard for fancy chocolates. These expensive Belgian chocolates certainly are delicious but are really only for special occasions at my house. Fun fact: Godiva chocolates were, until recently, manufactured by the Campbell Soup Company.

The Decade in 7 Minutes by Newsweek

Is it too late to still be talking about the last decade? Because this is fun:

Foreign Film Fun...and Unfun

So, my husband and I are house-bound each night after 7:00, our son's bedtime. This is all well and good during the work week, and we have gotten used to it on most weekends, but I must admit it was a little depressing over the holidays. For one thing, most of the Oscar contenders are released around this time of year. Secondly, there are generally lots of other fun things to do and see around town at Christmas. This year we did get out to see the Rep's version of A Christmas Story, which was great and which was preceded by an equally great dinner at Acorn (yum!), but other than that we only snuck out to one movie: Up in the Air. We picked a winner with that one. What a terrific film for the time in which we live. However, the rest of the break (and break #2 -- thank you, snow), we had to rely on Netflix. And so we kicked off 2010 by watching 3 highly acclaimed foreign films: Sin Nombre, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, and Sugar. All three are deserving of the acclaim and are worth watching, but only one was fun.

Sin Nombre (2009) is a rather sad tale of redemption. It focuses on a young Honduran gang member, Willy, a.k.a. "El Casper," who becomes disenchanted with his MS-13 compadres after their actions hit a little too close to home. His attempt to escape their wide-reaching network is doomed from the start, but he meets a young girl, Sayra, who sees him as a human rather than the monster he was. I really liked this film, but it was kind of unfun.

4 Months, Three Weeks, and Two Days (2007) won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2007, and I can definitely see why because the acting was superb. However, it also made some people's "Top Ten Movies of the Decade" for 2000-2009, and I certainly wouldn't go that far. This movie is about an abortion, and a late-term abortion at that, and the director is able to dance a fine line between making the act seem benign and abhorrent -- quite an achievement. It is set in Communist Romania in the late 1980s, where abortion is illegal. The film centers on two girls, Gabita, who needs an abortion, and Otilia, who helps her get one. I think this film would interest viewers on either side of the abortion debate, and I could probably spend a long time discussing all of those elements, but what has really stayed with me since I watched it is the portrayal of the friendship of the two girls. All I can really say about the film's protagonist, which turns out to be Gabita's friend Otilia is Best. Friend. Ever. If you have seen this film, you will know exactly what I mean. Also, the actress who plays her, Anamaria Marinca, is amazing. All of that aside, this film is VERY unfun.

Sugar (2008) was the only truly heartwarming tale of the three. My husband loved it so much he has decided to name it the best sports film of the decade. I don't know if I would go so far -- actually, I just don't have any business ranking sports films --, but I really enjoyed this film. The acting of Algenis Perez Soto, who plays aspiring Dominican baseball player Miguel "Sugar" Santos, is just superb. Also, the portrayal of the minor characters -- the Iowan family with whom he lives during spring training, the manager of the Kansas City knights, the Puerto Rican carpenter who befriends him in New York -- are all pitch perfect. The outcome was not what I expected, and this is perhaps what elevates this film and puts it at the top of the often overly predictable sports film genre. This was definitely the most fun of the three films, and I think it was also the best.

Rabbit Angstrom

So, for Christmas I asked for 3 books: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, Best Food Writing 2009, edited by Holly Hughes, and Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels: Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit at Rest by John Updike. I received all 3 and have already completed the first two. Stiff was amazingly wonderful, and I highly recommend it, unless you are squeamish. In that case, please skip it -- or have a trashcan handy as you read it. Mary Roach is, however, hilarious, and I loved this book. I just finished reading all the food essays. Some were great, and some I struggled through. However, I have to say that my main thought while reading most of the essays was, "This book is for rich people." Not that I don't enjoy thinking about the new movement to eat more offal or the foie gras debate, but, you know, these are issues that do not concern most Americans. I mean, this is a country that gave Barack Obama a hard time for enjoying arugula, for goodness sake.

I have finally moved on to the four novels about Rabbit Angstrom. When I requested this tome, I was under the impression that it was a boxed set of the four John Updike novels, not a 1500 page composite of the four novels. I would have much preferred to read each novel separately, but oh well. I requested it on a whim. I remember discussing John Updike briefly in college and reading about the importance of his Rabbit novels but had sort of forgot about him until he was mentioned in one of the best novels I read last year, American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. The Laura Bush-esque protagonist meets the character who is supposed to be Karl Rove, and they discuss Rabbit Angstrom. What a fun scene. I doubt it would have ever actually happened, but I like to think about Laura and Karl discussing literature while George W. is hitting the campaign trail. (That's when it happens in the novel.)

I am embarking on the quest of reading all 4 novels with little to no background information and only some confidence that I will be able to finish. I say that because I am about 20 pages into Rabbit, Run and I am not so sure what I think of this Rabbit fellow. He seems like a royal jerk at the moment. However, that has not stopped me from enjoying a book before, so we shall see. I shall persevere in the hopes that I will soon be hooked.

Don't worry. While I did choose to write my first blog entry about reading John Updike, I am not planning to dedicate my blog to this endeavor. I am sure that would limit my readers to about 1, my faithful husband. Scratch that. I am not sure even he would sit through my literary musings for very long.