Have A Cow

It’s National Chocolate Milk Day, which is all the more reason to break open a bottle of creamy, rich and delicious Broguiere’s Farm Fresh Dairy chocolate milk, the best chocolate milk in the world. Yum!

If your grocery store doesn’t carry Broguiere’s in the fun-to-collect glass bottles, you can buy it straight from the farm:

Broguiere’s Farm Fresh Dairy

505 S Maple Avenue, Montebello 90640

323 726 0524 

May you never drink Nesquik again. 

Milk bottle lid shown above is available on eBay.

Still Life

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life, the first U.S. exhibition the 18th-century Spanish painter in 25 years. Meléndez (1715-1780) was a contemporary of Goya, whose work overshadowed his own until the past few decades, when scholars and collectors began to recognize the realistic, if not austere, qualities of his carefully perfected still lifes.

Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life will be on view from September 27, 2009 through January 3, 2010.

Luis Meléndez, Still Life with Artichokes and Peas in a Landscape, circa 1771-74. Oil on canvas. 24 3/4" X 32 7/8". Private collection.

All Dressed Up

Laser-cut cupcake wrappers reminiscent of textile patterns -- vines, scrolls, filigree, paisley, damask...
Available at Estilo Weddings and Fancy Fleurs.

Scroll-print satin sheath dress, by Donna Ricco.
Silk paisley dress, by Nanette Lepore.
Embellished cotton strapless dress, by French Connection.
Available at MyShape.com.
Dress photos by Lindsay at MyShape.com.

Haute Dog

This is the handbag-of-the-day from my page-a-day calendar 

published by Workingman Press. (Thanks, again, Christopher!)

It's the best kind of doggie bag -- all style, no clean-up.

My Big Fat Greek House

There seem to be an unnerving number of Los Angeles houses in various states of My-Big-Fat-Greek-Weddingness. Above, this is one of my favorites, on Curson Avenue, near 8th Street.

Then there’s the infamous House of Davids off Third Street in Hancock Park, which is an irreverent exhibition that borrows fearlessly from Romans who borrowed respectfully from the Greeks.

Below: there’s an apartment for rent at the Alexander * Ruler of the World, on Van Ness north of Melrose. When hot pink walls were added in 2007, it set bloggers abuzz.

The house pictured below is also on Van Ness, several blocks north of the Alexander. It has a front house and a back house, so it could be twice as nice. Ever been inside?

Just a few blocks from the Davids house, there are two more residences with yards begging to be crowded with statuary.

The above building on Holt near Pico seems headed toward a state of MGFGW-dom.

Above: the real house used in My Big Fat Greek Wedding is in Toronto, and didn’t require much modification to become camera-ready.

Rum. With More Punch.

It’s National Rum Punch Day. 

All the Vermeers in New York

If I were to go to New York, my first stop would be to see The Milkmaid, Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece on loan from Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on view through November 29, 2009. This is the first time that the painting has traveled to the United States since it was shown at the 1939 World’s Fair. The exhibition also features additional works by Vermeer and other 17th-century Dutch artists, including Gerard ter Borch, Peter de Hooch, Nicolaes Maes, Hendrick Sorgh and Hendrick van Vliet.
Vermeer and his contemporaries often used symbols to convey meaning, and in their day, milkmaids were often thought to be sexually available. (Licentious women!) But if Vermeer’s milkmaid were entertaining amorous thoughts while performing her chores, perhaps these are only being discreetly alluded to by a cupid figure that’s been depicted next to the footwarmer on the floor behind her. 


Update: here’s a link to an amazing podcast — WYNC / The Leonard Lopate Show / September 18, 2009.

Death Comes As The End

Today is the birthday of Dame Agatha Christie, born September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon, England. Her legendary characters include the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, avid knitter and good listener Miss Marple, and crime-solving duo Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. 


Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was was published in 1920, and it introduced Poirot, who went on to exercise his little gray cells in 33 novels and 54 short stories.

According to Wikipedia, Poirot is the only fictional character to have been given an obituary in The New York Times, following the publication of Curtain in 1975. Christie died shortly thereafter, on January 12, 1976.

National Cream-Filled Doughnut Day

According to The Nibble, sandwiched between Snack A Pickle day and Eat a Hoagie Day, is the marvel of all marvels, National Cream-Filled Doughnut Day.

If you have a tendency to over-indulge (I can eat an entire dozen of my personal favorite, Dunkin’ Donuts Chocolate Kreme), you may want to try out Holey Donuts, where you can order boxes and boxes of low-fat creams, with each doughnut averaging  four grams of fat and no trans fats at 200 calories and change. Among the many flavors, there are Coconut Cream, Boston Cream Oreo Cookie, Banana Cream Pie, Raspberry Fudge... 

Southland Tales

The Age of Dreaming, Nina Revoyr
A forgotten silent film star recalls his early career, the growth of the film industry, theater in Little Tokyo, love affairs, heartbreaks, friends, racism, an illegitimate child, a murdered film director and all the wonders of rural Hollywood in the days when it was overrun with fields of poinsettias, beans and orange trees. 

L.A. Rex, Will Beall
In the lull between scandals, the debut novel by LAPD homicide investigator and former anti-gang unit officer Will Beall may leave its readers wondering if the department's reputation for corruption will ever end. The novel starts off with cliché genre drama (rookie cop partnered up with grizzled older cop), but quickly builds to a disturbingly convincing portrait of life among rogue officers, sleazy defense attorneys, drug dealers, Crips, the Mexican Mafia and even a few pitbulls. 

Dead Boys, Richard Lange
Twelve tales of “regular guys” -- men in Los Angeles, Culver City, San Diego and the rest of the Southland,  who wade through the heaping troubles of their lives: A house painter robs banks to help support his family. A young proofreader meets his long-lost, ex-con half-bother, which leads to shoplifting, a flocked Christmas tree and a fist-fight. A young sales rep can't keep his mind on his work because he's troubled by his sister, what it means to be a good brother, her recent rape and uncontained wildfires. 

TV Party Tonight

Today is TV Dinner Day.

Lean Cuisine Orange Peel Chicken, Banquet Turkey Pot Pie, CPK Thai Chicken with the Self-Rising Crust or myriad Hot Pockets may seem like improvements on a basic theme. But the best frozen TV ever created is Swanson’s Hungry-Man Boneless Fried Chicken with a Duncan Hines brownie in the middle.

Even better -- fried chicken and a brownie in an old-school, tinfoil tray.

A Man’s Hobbit House is His Castle

The editors of the Los Angeles Times seem to have have grown frisky after the online edition’s recent makeover, and they’ve taken to adorning its web pages with stories that are craftsman-like little gems, much in the manner of a middle-aged dowager donning diamonds after a facelift, except that in this case, it’s not scary to look at the jewels.

One of these jewels is a photo eassy on Hansel and Gretel-style storybook cottages, the majority of which were built between 1900 and 1930. If you’ve ever fantasied about living in a witch’s den or a Tudor turret, replete with cobblestones, leaded glass, speakeasy doors and pitched roofs with rolled eaves, here’s the link to the gallery.

If you’d like to see more of these fairy tale residences, take a look at Storybook Style: America’s Whimsical Homes of the Twenties, by author Arrol Gellner and photographer Douglas Keister.


Above: the Hobbit House in Culver City.

Another Hollywood Star Gets A Facelift

“I liked the way that anklet bit into her leg. 

I wanted to see her 
again, up close, without that silly staircase between us.” 

— Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), 
Double Indemnity, 1944

This week the Los Angeles Times is running a photo feature on the redesigned interior of the 1927 Spanish Colonial that starred as the home of married-but-seeking-divorce-by-homicide Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) in Billy Wilder’s classic film noir, Double Indemnity.

The original foyer was recreated as a stage set for the film. 
The home is now owned by interior designer Mae Brunken (who has also worked as a set decorator) who has revamped the Hollywood Hills home in true glam 1930s and 40s style, with a few refreshing modern touches.

The Los Angeles Times photo essay

Mae Brunken Design

Double Indemnity, the film

Double Indemnity, the book by James M. Cain

More Signs of the Times

If you lived here, you might be moving, too.

On the block where I live, five apartments are up for rent or lease. Until yesterday, there were six.

The last time that it seemed that there was an excessive number of available rentals, I needed my car to hunt them down.

This time, I didn't even need to take off my old house slippers or pick up the car keys.

Circles Are Making the Rounds

The cover of the Crate and Barrel Fall 2009 catalog.
Michael Simon’s silk cardigan, layered with mesh paillettes, available at MyShape.com.
Center and right photos by Lindsay at MyShape.com.

Alas, Poor Yorick

My friend Suzzane went to Italy last month and brought back this hat for me. She said that looking at it made her feel Shakespearean.

Apocalypse Now and Then

Elevator Girl

NPR recently aired a short segment about a photo by Robert Frank that appeared in his book, The Americans. In the introduction, Frank’s friend Jack Kerouac fixed upon a certain image and wrote: “That little ole lonely elevator girl looking up sighing in an elevator full of blurred demons, what’s her name & address?”

The elevator girl had no idea that she was the subject of a well-known image by a famous photographer. That discovery came years later -- approximately 10 years ago -- when she saw the photo at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. After staring at the image for several minutes, she recognized herself -- Sharon Goldstein, at age 15, working a summer job in a Miami Beach hotel.

Elevator girl is now Sharon Collins, and to learn more about her unusual story, please click here.

The Americans, by Robert Frank

Looking In: Robert Frank’s “The Americans” -- the 50th anniversary companion book to an exhibition commemorating “The Americans” at the National Gallery of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

National Public Radio