I recommend: The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion

Little and stunning in every way. Also, for Manhattan-philes, the memoir gives you a peak into what it's like to live that life you see in early Woody Allen movies (groceries at Zabars, weekend walks in the Park, coffee at the Turkish cafe around the corner, dinners at 11 uptown). I swooned.

I just looked into my closet and found that I was storing things in boxes from Random House and Beefeater. Booze and books.

Our things tell so much about us.

The rate of consumption

These are things I had when I left the house this morning at 11:

• An empty backpack

These are things I now have as of 3:

• 5 pounds of apples
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• Gone: The Last Days of The New Yorker by Renata Adler
• The New Gilded Age: The New Yorker looks at the Culture of Affluence edited by David Remnick
• The World to Come by Dara Horn
• 3 pairs of repaired boots
• A new issue of Esquire
  

Shopping diet, anyone?

The Wrong Place

Since Tracy works at Drawn and Quarterly, I get treated to new comics and graphic novels all the time. I don't take advantage of this perk often enough, but it pays off when I do.

Last night, I read The Wrong Place by Brecht Evens. The graphic novel peeks into the stories of people affected by Robbie, the town's Lothario and something of a king. It's hard to tell if he's real but his presence, whether true or imagined, is transformative. The exquisite details Brecht captures in his characters' joys and disappointments are shown so delicately (but not daintily). The book is absolutely, as the jacket blurb says, a deft capturing of "the strange chemistry of social interaction."

The watercolour illustration is so expressive. The Wrong Place is as satisfying as any good short story: economic, intense and vivid.

Here's a preview.

Fashion trolling

I love the cover for the upcoming issue of Vogue US.



Shot by Mario Testino, Anne Hathaway channels Eva Mendes and Audrey Hepburn. Best of all the fashion is reminiscent of Vogue in the 1990s, when Anna Wintour put every other cover girl in a prom dress, and made them look radiant and expensive.



Oh, and look at this amazing Glamour Italy shoot from 1991

proto-Rushmore

Continue reading at Analecta

She's awesome.gif

/via "Christina Hendricks on an Endless Loop: The glorious GIF renaissance," Slate.com

Endorsements - The October 6 Edition

Whoops! I let this go, didn't I?

It's been such a busy time with a temporary full-time job, and so much happening in Montreal in the fall. It's very beautiful here and one day I'll get around to taking pictures of my neighbourhood with all the pretty colours. In the meantime, here are a list of things I like this week:

• Katie Moore. This Montreal singer blew me away at the Ukrainian Federation on Sunday when she performed with (my fav) Patrick Watson and a motley crew of other local artists. What an unbelievable voice.
  MySpace
  
  
• This magazine cover:
  
  (The New Yorker, October 11, 2010)
  /via Tracy, my hairdresser and cook
  
  
• ... and this magazine cover:
  
  (Candy, Issue no. 1)
  /via @stitchtowhere
  
  
• Raymond Biesinger. I met this illustrator at Puces Pop this weekend and bought one of his posters, a fine little piece of type and design. This new Montrealer, who hails from Edmonton, has worked for basically everyone who's anyone (read: Monocle, Wired, the New Yorker, Saatchi & Saatchi... shall I go on?). And he still sells some of his brilliant and original work for $5 a pop. Or check out some of it online for free (mosey over to Etsy afterwards) ---
  Website
  
  
• Homemaking. I am seriously domestic, and it tastes good.
  
  
• Vulture on Twitter. I'm a massive fan of New York magazine and their website, but I didn't know that their culture blog, Vulture, was on Twitter (living under a rock, apparently). This changes EVERYTHING. Links to the need-to-know entertainment/arts/culture news of the day, good celebrity interviews, hot remixes, and enough viral video to take you through a day at the office and then some.
  @vulture
  
  
• My Second Empire. Everything by Chris Jones deserves to be mentioned until people start rolling their eyes. The Esquire staff writer is absolutely one of the best working journalists out there. And he's Canadian. He's not even one of those guys that left for New York. He lives in Port Hope, Ontario. Jones is currently renovating his new home in Port Hope. Read all about it on the "My Second Empire" blog on Esquire.com. It makes me laugh every day. Start with the time that Jones interviews George Clooney after major surgery.
  
  
• Megan from Montreal. This Mad Men minx makes it fun to listen to Don Draper with my eyes closed. ("Megan, I don't think this is a good idea... I can't make any mistakes right now...[groaning and other sexy noises]...Do you want to grab a bite?")
  
  
  (Trivia: Jessica Pare, who plays Megan, is actually from Montreal)