I WANT THESE ON MY BOOK SHELF

If I truly lived up to that header... I would certainly be writing long into the time I am supposed to meet my friend Dan to help him buy jeans. I already have about 8 books in my greedy little hands that are in line to be read... and more paper backed coveties added to that list every day. Luckily, these little beauties from Huw Gwilliam are more of the trophy wife variety in the sense that they are simply beautiful, nostalgic, and mainly just for looking at. Thanks to booooooom.com for turning me on to these classic records in that signature Penguin book style.

recently starred items

Gainsbourg & Birkin

























Obama date night















via Mrs-O.org: "This evening, the President and First Lady are enjoying a date night in New York City, where they’ll see the Broadway show ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ at the Belasco."






LA porch via Elizabeth Weinberg

THREE WICKED AWESOME THINGS

Preamble: I recently went back through Boston on my way to Ben the Pirate's college graduation, and since then my sentences have been peppered with involuntary New Englander slang. See title of entry for details.

Now AWESOMENESS:

#3MOO CARDS: I just recently received my first batch of Moo Cards in the mail and I could not be more pleased. These 28mm x 70mm little beauties (they're from the UK... I'm trying to mask my laziness to convert for authenticity) are my new business cards! It's only 20 bucks for 100 of these custom designed cards and they come in a neat plastic box with a small tear drop on top. You can give them as many different pictures as you want for your cards; display you're whole library; if you're an actor, photographer, paint

er, musician... truly anything, but I like the idea of some representation of your art on the front... these are perfect for people interested in you and your work. On the backs of these are simply my name, phone number and email address in courier new... simple... People are always endeared to their size.

#2GERMAN GRANDMA WALKING SANDALS: I am not kidding when I say these are some of the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned. The other fun thing: people stop and ask me about them a lot. They can't figure out if they're really hipster or really old lady. I could walk an entire day in New York or stand running an 8 hour day of errands for a casting office in these sweet rides. And a little lift! What a treat... I have suddenly become a German Grandma

#1MY FRIEND FIONA LANDERS: Girl! Fiona! Even the name is great, right? So, this is the lovely Fiona. I love her uke and her funny hats and her oddly self conscious and understated prefaces to songs she gives in her kitchen in her hats in her series of home-made beautiful music videos. Doesn't she look like a combination of Fiona Apple and Zooey Deschanel? (I had to google the spelling of that last name.) Her voice is a sweet combo of those two with a bit of odd Regina Spektor tones thrown in... even better live I think. Check out her fantastic website for more likenesses, to hear her new album 'the lake' and to see aforementioned  kitchen videos... and you guys! she was on full house as a kid. FULL HOUSE! 

If you're in the LA area: Fiona will be playing Sunday June 7th at 9:30 pm as the endearing musical guest in 'Smug Rock Nation' at the UCB theatre on Franklin. 

If you're in your home and need a lift: check out my personal favorite of the kitchen videos, Positively It... 

I LOVE SUZI BARRETT

God! LA! You teem with hilarious and otherwise talented friends to show off. 

Cool. So, you guys, meet Suzi Barrett. She's a totally rad improvisor, comedian and super amazing bar conversationalist. 

 

You may recognize from her set of 1800-dentist commercials (the out takes on Youtube are much funnier than the ones that actually aired)...  There is no doubt in my mind that you will be seeing Suzi a lot more on TV and other forms of professionally sanctioned media; but... my new favorite thing she's done is simply a video letter she sent to her Friend OT in Amesterdam. 

The video, trying to convince OT "not" to move to LA, was sent around facebook so fast it beat the flu around my mom's 2nd grade class. (i'm still workshopping that last bit). It's too funny to stay private... so enjoy... Listen, I just... 

 I Can't Stop Laughing.

Just fucking watch it.

MODELS ATTACKED BY ROBOTS

... a wonderful birthday surprise  from -We Listen For You- saved in my google reader this morning: The Introduction of THE MINT CHICKS. I agree with 'Zach That's'  enthusiasm about their ethereally happy CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH! tones... 

ZACH THAT:

I remember hearing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! for the first time and being blown away by how amazingly original their music was. I experienced the same shock when The Mint Chicks sent me their LP, “Screens”. There is a lot going on in this album and achieves a sound that puts me at a lost for words. It’s distorted pop, with a mix of electro. The key here is that the distortion comes across upbeat, not a hard sonic wave that has been used to success by Waves and Crocodiles. I was waiting for the album to fall apart, but the whole record is packed with amazing track after another. This is definitely why I started required listen, to highlight bands that are daring and bring forth a new sound that needs to be heard. I’m now a huge fan of The Mint Chicks.

The video is sweet albeit a little Wes Anderson-Droid-Model-Hipster-Aviary-centric. All things I love... just perhaps not all together. When combined it becomes a bit contrived in the Urban Outfitters novelty book sense. (which i also... some times...  love) Just... do what we young urbanites do. Judge... for yourself 

THE MINT CHICKS - "I Cant Stop Being Foolish" from Samuel Peacocke on Vimeo.

THE POSSIBLY SNARKY INTERVIEWER

My dear friend, fellow improvisor, some time solo show advisor and all time favorite person to share gelato with.... Molly Prather was featured today in the LA TIMES! I'm not sure I love the way the interviewer was talking to her,though. Libby calls Molly "Raunchy" in the TITLE, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't followed by her first question: "Prather- what kind of a name is that?", and then later,"what do you actually do for a living??" Are you kidding? What do you actually do when you're not playing at being a journalist Libby? Way to take Molly and her career seriously. It's pretty clear too that Ms. Lib hasn't seen either of Molly's shows either... 

Am I reading too far into this? Am I being over protective and over sensitive? I submit for discussion the possibly snarky interviewer:

MOLLY PRATHER — THAT GIRL GETS RAUNCHY!

The bartending comedian performs Fuck, Marry, Kill at Upright Citizens Brigade

BY LIBBY MOLYNEAUX

Published on May 16, 2009 at 2:33am

• 

Molly Prather recently brought us her one-woman show That Girl, not to be confused with the Marlo Thomas series of the late '60s (she's probably too young to remember it, anyway). Now she's back with Fuck, Marry, Kill, "a collection of unfortunately true stories that will make you feel better about all your crazy exes." —Libby Molyneaux

L.A. WEEKLY: Prather — what kind of name is that?

MOLLY PRATHER: A last one. I'm still single and haven't had to change it for the man of my dreams" last name.

Who do people say you look like?

Monica Lewinsky (sad emoticon).

You were a bartender for eight years. Did you ever finish other people's drinks? Ever kick someone out?

I've finished people's drinks in a "You're a pussy, I'm not" sort of way. But never in a sad, sneaky "I just can't get enough" sort of way. I've kicked many the over-hydrated jack-hole out of my bar. It's one of the best parts of being a bartender -- when someone is being a completely a unreasonable, intolerable jackass you can make them leave. You don't get to do that if you work at Starbucks. At the bar I work at on Hollywood Boulevard, I recently kicked Superman and Elvis out for trying to pull a hustle on one of my customers. I felt all-powerful.

You moved here from New York -- are we really less intellectual?

My friend Sean Conroy says it best: "I love living in Los Angeles. I love being able to walk around and never having to worry about being outwitted."

What do you hate most about living here? What do you love?

That it's not New York.

Fuck, Marry, Kill is a game popular with Howard Stern and his cronies. Are you really that shallow?

Wait — am I shallow because I listen to Howard Stern or because I put everyone of the opposite sex into one of three categories?

Okay, then: Howard Stern, Tracy Morgan and Mick Jagger?

Easy. Fuck — Tracy Morgan because he's black and most likely has an enormous penis. (Don't gasp. You set me up for that one.) Marry — Stern. I've always had a thing for funny, Jewy guys. Kill — Mick Jagger. He's a bit too Crypt Keeper for my delicate palate.

Tell us about the show. What can we expect?

It's like HBO's Cathouse meets The Notebook. Without giving too much away -- there's a crackhouse, the guy I almost married who used to be my boss, a CAA agent, a trip to Europe, Frankenstein, the lead-inFrankenstein: The Rock Musical, a guy who likes to dress up like animals and have sex,and me.

Who is your comedy idol?

Brett Butler, hands down. Totes Brill.

What do you actually do for a living?

Bartend (why stop now?), write fitness videos for D-List celebrities, and appear on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson as assorted loose women.

Why is your comedy important?

I like that you said "your comedy" -- that makes me feel very fancy. Listen, I'm the girl who looks back at pretty much every moment of my 20s saying to myself, ‘What the fuck was I thinking?" I have aresponsibility to warn younger generations of women about the perils of seducing your college professors, dancing on bar as a career move and/or going home with boys who live in crackhouses (renovated or not). I guess I feel like a sort of Fairy Godmother screaming to all the young girls out there, "Marry a nice Jewish boy and skip the rest!"

PS: I was kidding about the Brett Butler thing. I meant Judy Tenuta,obvi.

Molly Prather in Fuck, Marry, Kill at Upright Citizens BrigadeTheater, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hlywd.; Thurs., May 28, 8 p.m.; $5, (323) 908-8702.

Thu., May 28, 8 p.m., 2009

Molly's show: F*CK, MARY, KILL. Is PHENOMINAL!!!!! And must be seen if you're in the LA area this Wednesday.

GARFUNKEL AND OATES

just wanted to take a quick minute to introduce you to my friends Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome, also musically known as, Garfunkel and Oats. One of the great things about living in Los Angeles is this palpable feeling that you are constantly being there for the birth of something grand. It's an improv show secretly holding the next cast member of SNL or THE OFFICE; it's the script your friend asked you to be the first person to read a loud so he could "hear the tone" that is already slated to be the next great Sean Penn role; it's the time you got to tell the executive producer of PARIS JE T'AIME just how much the movie moved you and how it made you cry audibly in a small theater even though you were doing your very best to be quiet but you just couldn't help it because that last moment with that actress who's now in DEXTER I think just fucking killed you with THAT look while narrating in adorably broken French: "sitting there, alone in a foreign country, far from my job and all the people I knew, a feeling came over me. As if I recalled something, something that I had never known and for which I had been waiting. But I didn't know what it was. Maybe it was something I had forgotten. Or something I had missed my whole life. I can only tell you that at the same time I felt joy and sadness. But not great sadness. Because I felt alive..." because he is your friend; and it's the group of talented musicians and actors that are also my friends that will no doubt be the next muses to Allen Ball, Sophia Coppola or Michel Gondry. 

Kate and Riki are just that. They are something Grand. 

I've known Kate for about 2 years. We're on a webisode called the elevator together, but first I met her at a midnight variety show in Silver Lake at the Steve Allen Theater Center for Inquiry... this is also why i love Los Angeles.

Both wonderful and hilariously nuanced actors in their own right, together their irreverent and sweet musicality is exactly what i need at the end of most days. 

Pregnant Women are Smug from Erika Lindhome on Vimeo.

This is one of their newer jewels, "Pregnant Women are Smug"... and they are. I know because I played one in a movie once and they let me take the fake belly home for a night so i of course wore it to dinner and man did i ever feel better than everyone else on Robertson, because i was, and because everyone treated me that way, but that was because i had earned it, with my pregnancy... god i wish i was still fake pregnant. 

Hey so, check out their website. Watch their videos. Look for them on TV. And feel excited to know that you're here at the start. You're witnessing the birth of something grand.