Link Love 11.12.09

This week has been hectic. Take work (which has been even more demanding than usual with the rollout of a new computer system), plus the condo complex's never-ending paint project (which entails men yelling at the top of their lungs outside my window at 7 a.m.), plus more than 400 blogs unread in Google Reader, and you've got an exhausted Little Gray Pixel. I managed to carve out a little time this morning to catch up on some fun links I'd like to share with you.

• Do you know your ABC's? Maybe you'd like one of these posters.
• Along the same line, check out these cheeky ABCs by UK artist Robert Samuel Hanson. "K is for Karma"? Indeed.
• I was so distraught when "Phrazes for the Young" didn't include lyrics in the liner notes, but now they're on the website. Thanks, JC!
• Because sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don't.
• Freeway interchange designs often feel haphazard, and here are the photos to prove it.
• Little Brown Pen goes Dada on us to create the BEST free calendar for 2010.
• Starting Dec. 8, you can get the entire Beatles catalog in one tiny USB. Should I or shouldn't I? Hmm.
• Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Nuff said.
• Do you know someone who's Tweeting Too Hard?
• And finally, every single Kramer entrance on "Seinfeld."

Wish List 11.11.09

There's something about this Thief and Bandit fabric necklace that hypnotizes me. I know I'm not alone; these puppies are selling like hotcakes.

"Wear me, wear me, I'm awesome," it says to me. And I'm relieved because really, I've heard all kinds of crazy stories about people acting like chickens when they are under the power of suggestion, and I don't think I'd appreciate this necklace if I were clucking around and kicking my legs sporadically.

Pix-elated!

I can't believe I neglected to share with you one of my new prints, "Watching the Wheels." This was taken of our cat Q back when he was just a few months old and fit in the palm of my hand. If it doesn't make your heart melt, well, you must be one of those people who doesn't "aww" at sites like this or LOL at sites like this. And if that's true, I'm not sure if you're even human. In fact, is that a steel skeleton under your skin?

Fashion Forward: Capes and Capelets

"Oh! grandmother," she said, "what big ears you have!"
"All the better to hear you with, my child," was the reply.
"But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!" she said.
"All the better to see you with, my dear."
"But, grandmother, what large hands you have!"
"All the better to hug you with."
"Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!"
"All the better to eat you with!"
And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Red Riding Hood.

Capes should come with a warning: Do not trust wolves. Not even Jacob from the "Twilight" series. Not even Scott Wolf (whose abrupt return to television with the series "V" should be enough to raise suspicion).

Wolves aside, though, capes should be worn with playful whimsy this season, and worn as often as possible. Consider this an order from the fashion police (who rest assured are not wolves).

Finch Designs

Enderby
Psst, friends: Meg at Enderby is offering 20% off any item in her store for the rest of the week.
Simply type "Gray Pixel" in a convo to her, and she'll make it happen. Thanks, Meg!

Yystudio

Michael Kors

Larry Levine

Tiny Vintage Wardrobe

Newport News

Forever 21

Anthropologie

Gap

100 Movies: 48, 49

And the countdown continues in my quest to watch and find something inspiring in every single one of Yahoo's 100 Movies to See Before You Die...

Count Orlok: Is this your wife? What a lovely throat.

The filmmakers couldn't get the rights to Bram Stoker's "Dracula," so they fudged it. "Vampire" became "Nosferatu." "Dracula" became "Orlok." As much as they bent the story to match the elusive novel, they changed one thing: In the movie, the vampire is harmed by sunlight, the first instance of such a thing. And this one idea has since influenced vampire lore. It goes to show that the smallest idea can be the most important.

Sally Albright: Well, if you must know, it was because he was very jealous,
and I had these days of the week underpants.
Harry Burns: Ehhhh. I'm sorry. I need the judges ruling on this. "Days of the weeks underpants"?
Sally Albright: Yes. They had the days of the week on them, and I thought they were sort of funny. And then one day Sheldon says to me, "You never wear Sunday." It was all suspicious. Where was Sunday? Where had I left Sunday? And I told him, and he didn't believe me.
Harry Burns: What?
Sally Albright: They don't make Sunday.
Harry Burns: Why not?
Sally Albright: Because of God.

I love this movie so much that not too long ago I used it as inspiration for a Chic for Cheap post. The dialogue is simultaneously hilarious and true. (Husband swears that the bit about how men and women can't be friends is spot on.) As for me, I'm most inspired by the scene when Harry and Sally are shopping at the mall and end up singing "Surrey With the Fringe on Top." Who cares if your ex shows up while you're making a fool of yourself? Life is short; sing at the top of your tone-deaf lungs.

Pix-elated!

For those of you who knew me when I was in high school, you would know I'm not exaggerating when I say I listened to The Beatles constantly. If you were lucky enough to procure a ride from me when I drove an ancient blue pickup (don't ask), you might've been subjected to a mix tape (or 15) of Beatles songs. So of course I was extraordinarily excited about the Anthology sets, in particular the "new" song "Free as a Bird." This image was inspired by the video, which was shot from a bird's-eye perspective and is a visual bag of Beatles trivia. Now available in my Etsy store.

And of course I have to play the video now.

Photoshoot: Craptastic Julian Casablancas Concert

The title of this post is misleading. It wasn't the show that was craptastic; it was the quality of the images I managed to capture with my cellphone camera, surprise, surprise.



See how I elegantly framed this shot to show you the intricate architecture of this original Vaudeville-circuit Orpheum theater. Nah, not really, that's just my craptastic cellphone camera with its one setting. Read: no zoom, no focus. (Oddly, I wasn't that far from the stage, but the cellphone camera thinks otherwise.)

And that's it.

You'll notice that I only took one pic during the show, which brings me to the second point of my post. Unless you're getting paid to film/shoot, put your damn camera away for 95 percent of the concert, people, and enjoy the show. You spent $50 on a ticket so you might as well experience it through your own two eyes instead of through a viewfinder. Watching hundreds of people holding up cellphones and cameras at shows in mass detached participation is starting to freak me out.*

*In a zombie apocalypse kind of way.