A Cultured Palate

Posted by Sarah, Associate Fashion Editor

I don’t think I even realized I was in a yogurt rut until I found Rachel’s. Or maybe it’s just that, in comparison, the old flavors now just seem boring by comparison.

It all started when I discovered Rachel’s pomegranate acai (acai is a Brazilian berry) at Whole Foods in Manhattan (go to Rachel’s website to find other flavors). I was wary, but unlike other fruity yogurts, it isn’t overly sweet and actually has a little bit of a bite, as anything with pomegranate should.

Then I found out that Rachel’s offers 10 flavor combinations separated into two categories, "essence" and "exotic." There’s some company mumbo jumbo about one type being "mood-inspiring" and the other being, well, just yummy fruit blends, but all I care about is how excited I am to eat my new yogurt every day. I mean, how can you argue with flavors like vanilla chai, plum honey lavender, and kiwi passion fruit lime?

Have any of you found ways to broaden your yogurt horizons? I may need a backup plan for the next time my tongue gets itchy feet -- er, buds.

Small Wonders

Posted by Sarah, Associate Fashion Editor

Traveling for work is a nice break from the fluorescent light bulbs in the office but it can be a terror on my skin and hair. Does anyone come back raving about the soap or conditioner from a Holiday Inn?

So before Katie and I recently headed to Las Vegas to attend a fashion trade show, I decided to BMOT (Bring My Own Toiletries) -- preferably the gentle, great-smelling kind that make me forget I am in a "who knows who's been in here" shower.

My first stop? The West Village travel store, Flight 001. There, I scooped up a Malin + Goetz 1oz. Essentials Travel Kit.

 

I've always loved Malin + Goetz for its minimalist packaging and natural ingredients, so I was excited to get a set with six products, including a few that were new to me.

I loved the gentle Grapefruit Face Cleanser and was thrilled that my super sensitive-skin had no reaction. And I depleted the entire bottle of Vitamin b5 Body Moisturizer as the desert air sucked moisture out of my skin!

I highly recommend the $30 set for anyone who travels a lot or simply wants to shake up the daily morning routine.

Another perk? The bottles are small enough to comply with FAA regulations and leave ample room in your suitcase for more important things…say, an extra pair of shoes.

Bon voyage!

Cover Up

Posted by Kerstin Czarra, Online Editor

Cover songs usually fall into one of two categories: the sublime (Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah") or the ridiculous (Celine Dion's syrupy rendition of John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy").

Recently, I received a CD of inventive cover tracks from KCRW, the NPR affiliate station in the basement of Santa Monica College. Their music program, Morning Sounds Eclectic, is known for breaking new talent -- the show introduced Coldplay and Norah Jones to American listeners.

The CD, Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project, is made up of 15 tracks recorded live at the station by artists such as Paul Weller, the Flaming Lips, and R.E.M.

While not all of the songs fall into the sublime category (Robert Plant covering Led Zeppelin?), there are more than a few standouts, including M. Ward's haunting, deconstructed version of David's Bowie's "Let's Dance" and Dido's spin on the James Taylor classic "Fire and Rain."

The award for most unexpected goes to the harmonious quartet the Magic Numbers, for having the audacity to cover Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" -- complete with accordion solo.

I bet Jay-Z is kicking himself right about now.

Clean Sweep

Posted by Kerstin Czarra, Online Editor

I am one of those weird people who loves to clean ... seriously. I will devote hours on a Saturday to scrubbing floors and degreasing stove burners -- it's all okay with me. I enjoy the process as much as the results. Maybe it's because I can spend two whole hours with my thoughts and concentrate on the task at hand.

When I don't have that much time but still want a clean (and, equally important, clean-smelling) home, my new go-to product is Mrs. Meyer's Geranium-Scented Surface Wipes.

To be honest, I've always been skeptical of shortcut products like premoistened wipes. (I like a good sponge and Bon Ami, thank you.) But these guys are strong enough to leave my bathroom sink, kitchen counters (including the scary under-the-coffee-pot spot), and dining-room table sparkling. When I'm done, my rooms smell like a combination of potted geraniums, rose bushes, and cloves -- not the high school janitor's closet.

No yellow rubber gloves required, either: Mrs. Meyer's products are made with natural, essential oils and are biodegradable. (More than I can say for the gloves.)

I keep an extra pack at the office now. It's easy, seeing as drugstore.com keeps them in stock and charges no shipping fee. (They're even on sale this week.)

Try a pack (or five) and tell me what you think.

The (Un)fairest Of Them All

Posted by Sydney, Design Production Associate

Throughout history, portraiture has typically aimed to make the sitter look his or her best (if not drastically, unrecognizably better). But I'm tired of the same old 'smile and look pretty' shtick. It's time to get ugly. And I know just the man who can make it happen: Reverend Aitor, a Toronto-based artist and member of the highly collaborative art collective Misanthrope Specialty Co. I met him this summer, at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, and his justly named "Unflattering Portraits" really nail this untapped market of illustrated insult. (Rev. Aitor's "sweetheart," Miss Becky Johnson of Sweetiepie Press, has been cataloguing the series of portraits here.) Charmed by Aitor's approach, I sent him an e-mail with some "cute" images of myself, and hoped for the worst.

The photos I sent in for reference.

The ugly portrait.

The two of us together.

He did not disappoint: I look gruesome, and I couldn't be happier. To commission your own Unflattering Portrait, e-mail revaitor@gmail.com. (And rest assured that you definitely look better in real life.) 

 

Non-Stick Coating

Posted by Johannah, Associate Fashion Editor

It's a simple mathematical formula: The more pairs of shoes you buy, the greater your chances that one (or many, many more) of them will end up causing you blister-induced pain. (No, walking around the store three times won't necessarily tell you if that ankle strap is going to chafe, and lord knows looking at a picture on Zappos won't, either.) Until recently, that meant dutifully arming my delicate feet with Band-Aids or moleskin patches on any "problem shoe" day, but now, I have a better (and less visible) solution: the Blister-Block Stick.

It's almost like a slippery deodorant -- rub it into your feet, and shoes slide right over your skin. At $7 a pop, it probably lasts longer than the equivalent amount of bandages, and you never have to worry about sticky strips dangling off your big toe or ankle -- a look that I haven't yet managed to convince anyone is the new wave of grunge-chic. (Not that I've tried. Really.)

Beauty Bound

Posted by Bora, Associate Editor for Beauty, Health & Fitness

A couple of weeks ago, I attended an event for Hairdressers Unlocking Hope, a campaign to continue bringing awareness and funding to post-Katrina rebuilding efforts in the New Orleans area. There, I had the pleasure of meeting hairstyling legend Vidal Sassoon (yes, he is a real person!), who is helming the initiative. Sassoon was especially moved by the plight of displaced New Orleanians, as he lived in an orphanage in his youth and knows firsthand how it feels to be without a home.

With the participation of Habitat for Humanity and hundreds of stylists nationwide, Hairdressers Unlocking Hope raises money for rebuilding through a combination of t-shirt sales, donations, and fundraisers held by individual salons (think raffles, "cut-a-thons," and tip donations). 

Some of the styles available for $30 each on the site.

When I had the chance to shake Sassoon’s hand, he asked how I liked covering beauty. “Fun, but it’s a beast,” I joked. “Yes,” he nodded, “That word describes it well.” This project, however, shows a different side to an industry that tends to be cutthroat: Hairstylists from competing companies have united for a noble cause. And while Sassoon modestly makes the point that “we’re just a bunch of hairdressers,” they have, to date, raised enough money to build 12 homes in November, and plan to build seven more in the spring, surpassing their original goal of 18 homes.

You can do your part to support the cause by going to whodoesyourhair.com to find a salon near you, or check out some of the other merch they're selling (with 100% of profits going to rebuilding). What better excuse do you have for scheduling an extra blowout?

My Own Grandma Moses

Posted by Rachel, Editorial Coordinator

While the New York City summer may be slowly drawing to a close, I'll still be waking up at the Jersey Shore each day, thanks to "The Bathers," a 30-year-old painting by my maternal grandmother that hangs at the foot of my bed. Although she has since retired, my grandmother was quite the prolific artist in her day: Between raising her six children and, later, keeping a watchful eye on their kids, she was somehow able to find time to sneak away to her studio on a regular basis. 

This particular piece originally hung in my grandparents' stairwell (where I first fell for it during my repeated childhood attempts to slide down their banister), and I jumped at the chance to own it when she offered it to me.

 

Above my dresser hangs a pastel sketch of another Jersey beach.  This one is of the dunes at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where my grandmother would take me during the summer. (She also let me hang out in her studio, where I drew, colored, and tried to keep my ice cream from melting all over the crayons and the floor.) Ever the inventive artist, my grandmother drew this piece on shirt cardboard from the dry cleaner. She'd use anything and everything as canvas, and since my grandfather was quite the dapper dresser at the time, there was no shortage of material to work with. The engraved silver bowl beneath the sketch is an award she received in 1965 from her local arts festival. 

 

The drawing of the nudes (below, left) was my first "acquisition."  It was inspired by Matisse (specifically, his "Dance"), one of her favorite artists.

I recently brought home another of her paintings -- this time, an abstract expressionist depiction of the Brooklyn Bridge -- and my husband and I still haven't decided where in our Brooklyn apartment to hang it.   (We just know that we love it.)

Perhaps we'll put it up in our own stairwell, so that our daughter can grow to appreciate her great-grandmother's enormous talent the same way that I once did. (On second thought, make that without the banister-sliding.)

What are your favorite family heirlooms? Or have you bought (or made) anything yourself that you think is destined to become an heirloom?

Signs Of The Times

Posted by Valerie, Senior Editor

As a city dweller with no access to a car (and, really, no desire to drive one in unfamiliar territory), a basic knowledge of the nearest public-transit-accessible beaches is indispensable in the summer. Having not yet acquired this knowledge, I started to panic one recent Friday when I realized I had to get out of the city for the weekend but had no idea where to go. Fortunately, my intrepid and spontaneous travel partner hopped on the computer around 10:30 p. m. and found a suitable beach getaway that we could reach with a combination of subway, New Jersey Transit bus, and feet: Wildwood, New Jersey.

A resort town that experienced a boom of Doo-Wop architecture in the '50s and '60s, Wildwood has made the decision to remain stuck in the past. About 200 motels in the Doo-Wop style still exist, and they make up the majority of the waterfront development in the area. Each one has a theme, but almost all feature the same fake palm trees by their pools, and usually a sign in sun-bleached colors. Here are some examples:

The plastic palms, with a pirate in the distance.

The W, not to be confused with the luxury hotel chain.

I half expected Greg Brady to come running out of this one, toting his cursed tiki.

The pastel-perfect Bristol, with the ever popular "lava rock" walls.

The dramatically lit Crusader.

There are also some non-hotel architectural gems, like this mid-century church:

Wildwood also has a massive boardwalk and three amusement piers with roller coasters, arcade games, and even waterslides. Some of the rides are really beautiful, and it took the equivalent of wild horses (read: a two-mile walk back to the hotel to drop off my bag) to keep me off the "lazy river."

(Note: Coney Island this is not. You won’t find any beer vendors or daiquiri machines along the boardwalk -- which may explain why it seemed so clean. Venture just off the boardwalk across the street from the convention center to the Barefoot Bar in the Oceanic Hotel if you need to wet your whistle. Skip the divey front room and head around back to the swim-up pool and jacuzzi. It's free for hotel guests and a $5 cover for walk-ins. And after a long, hot day on the dry boardwalk, it’s worth it.)

An unexpected bonus on this trip: Discovering that the local convention center screens movies on the beach nightly throughout the summer -- first-run movies. For $8 each, we hauled our blanket out to the huge stretch of sand between the waves and the boardwalk and watched a 10 p. m. showing of Superbad. Score. You can also see movies in this adorable single-screen theater:

The Sea Theater.

And if all else fails, hit one of the half-dozen mini-golf courses scattered throughout Wildwood and shoot for a hole in one. I certainly got one on my trip! (Sorry.)

Cheese Biz

Posted by Rachel Lexier, Style Intern

Those who know me are already well aware of my over-the-top macaroni and cheese obsession. A psychic leftover from my picky childhood days (when cheese paired with some sort of grain -- noodles, bread, tortillas -- was the only thing to grace my still-evolving palette), this love for macaroni has stuck with me into adulthood. Luckily, this blue-box classic has changed with the times -- maybe more than I have --  becoming a nouveau comfort food staple served up in restaurants across the country. Which is why I love S’MAC, in New York City's East Village.

Short for Sarita’s Macaroni and Cheese, the bright, friendly restaurant takes you right back to your preschool days -- if your preschool snacks were provided by skilled and inventive cafeteria ladies, that is.  Located at 345 E. 12th Street, S’MAC serves up macaroni masterpieces that run the gamut from the “All-American” (think loads of creamy cheddar) to the more refined blend of "Brie," with roasted fig, shiitake mushroom and rosemary. You can also build your own and choose from a variety of meats, cheeses, sauces and veggies.

There are healthful alternatives in the mix, too: any mac can be made with whole-wheat pasta, and there is a “Garden” option that features low-fat cheddar, parmesan and a blend of vegetables. Personally, I’d rather channel my inner four-year-old and chow down on those cut-up hot dogs. (Yes, they're on the menu, too.)
What's your favorite spin on modern mac 'n' cheese?

Home Page Advantage

Posted by Shira, Editorial Assistant, Art

The invention of bookmarks in web browsers ushered in a wonderful time in internet history, as did the introduction of news feeds and easy-to-use high-storage e-mail accounts. But leave it to the folks at Google to go even further and create the ultimate in customizable home pages. No, iGoogle is not the first of its kind -- My Yahoo has been in the same game for a while, among others -- but as a die-hard Gmail user (and all-around Google fan), I'm happy to finally have a home page that gives me all my internet fixes in one place. I only created mine a few days ago, but so far it's hosting weather (for where I live and where I work), a word of the day, sticky notes, to-do lists, my calendar, an Eiffel Tower mini cam, an inconspicuous window into my e-mail inbox, and even a link to the Bluelines blog. Each unit can be moved around with a click of the mouse: you can add tabs, group like items together, and generally organize to your heart's content.

You can also choose a theme for the banner across the top -- I picked the "cityscape," a watercolor-esque rendering of an urban street that changes color according to the time of day (so I can imagine what life must be like away from my desk). Does anyone else have a favorite home page (or care to share what's featured on it)?

Labor (Day) of Love

   Posted by Valerie, Senior Editor

What's better than a holiday devoted exclusively and explicitly to not working? Perhaps sipping an easier-than-it-looks deluxe martini while celebrating said holiday. Click, mix, sip, and meet us back here tomorrow.

Dill-Vodka Martini