Song of the Day

I've been whistling this song all year, ever since I discovered Hospitality, via Tiny Desk Concert. But I only just got around to seeing the video today. The coastal flip-flop idea is pretty cute (reportedly, it came from the mind of a "Bob's Burgers" writer). More importantly, though...

Hello, Maeby!

5 L.A. Restaurants Where Feeding My Kid Veggies Isn't A Chore

A Saxton Freymann creation

The act of convincing kids to eat vegetables can, at times, be...well...an alternative form of birth control. Even my adventurous little gourmand treats my nerves like her own personal Theremin when she finds something non-starchy, non-protein-y and non-cheesy on her plate.

But, for whatever reason, she will relent when the veggies are offered up by a professional food server. (She's even been known to cave for the sample lady at Trader Joe's!)

So, when the budget allows, I will gladly pay for a meal's worth of sanity. Here are my best bets for getting my daughter to show some love for The Forgotten Food Group.

Song of the Day

I find some household tasks (window-cleaning, toilet bowl-scrubbing) require me to be in a trance-like state. This is both driving and hypnotic and helps get the job done.

Wantables — Let the Spoiling Begin (rather, Continue)

HomeGoods, I'm way ahead of you. Your aisles have been crammed with Halloween stuff for the past several weeks, but my mind has already jet-packed forward to Christmas. Not so much the crafty decorations, or bountiful meal plans — I'm onto presents, presents and more presents!

Bearing in mind my kid's mid-November birthday and Dec. 25, I'm already strategizing which things she'll get and on which of the special days she'll get them. Go ahead. You can judge me. But I'll rattle off the following list of gift contenders knowing that you'll secretly take a break from clowning me just long enough to mentally store some of these ideas:

Djeco is a good fit for my all-consumingly-creative child. The French brand's art kits have exactly what her brain keys into — meticulous designs, copious colors and tons of teeny-tiny little pieces that drive me crazy.

She'd love this Klimt-y kit and it would jog her memory of the exhibit we caught this summer at The Getty.

Song of the Day

I was promised a break from this overbearing heat. The doofus with the tacky suit and bad tan lied. Until I see/feel some temperatures that warrant even so much as a closed-toe shoe (is that really so much to ask for?!), I'll just put this track on repeat and fantasize about brisque breezes and accessorizing with scarves.

Art I Heart — Giant Robot Biennale 3

 

This past Saturday, the family once again converged on the Japanese American National Museum in order to mooch off of their free cultural goodness. That night's event was the opening party for Giant Robot Magazine's 3rd Biennale. There were more specially customized vinyl figurines than you could shake a stick at, all designed by the stable of artists that have helped make the Asian pop culture magazine what it is.

From Kitschy to Clinical — Our Kitchen Before & After

BEFORE:

Just in case you weren't certain which room you'd entered, the little old lady from whom we bought our 90-year-old house had filled the kitchen with helpful hints. Before we overhauled this approx. 110-sq. ft. kitchen, it was filled with vegetable print curtains, vegetable still-life paintings, decorative jars of vegetables floating in mysterious liquids and ceramic backsplash tiles featuring vegetables. The paint color, I could describe only as "flavor-blast." It was a lot of look. One year later, we managed to achieve the simple, bright and airy, easy-to-clean kitchen I always knew we could....

Song of the Day

Beautiful black folks strolling the streets of Paris — love it! (...As if you couldn't tell from a previous post.) This head-bobbing retro-inspired track by Liam Bailey makes me smile and want to eat crepes and go to Sacre Coeur.

I need a muse like a MoFo

I am constantly reading parenting/style/design blogs and lamenting the lack of p.o.c. represented (I'm one of those pesky people who actually sends complain-y letters to the editor). Now, here's Mater Mia, giving a voice to super-stylish women of color who discuss their different routes on the mommy track. 

I only just now discovered it, so there are probably flaws that my hater-vision will ultimately catch. But the concept is really speaking to me. Wardrobe stylist moms, Broadway actress moms, poet moms, journalist moms [cough, cough]. They all seem so aspirational — it's simultaneously enducing gooseflesh, guilt and nausea. I want in!

That subscription to O Magazine my mother none-too-subtly gifted me is not having the desired life-improving effect. Frankly, I don't feel inspired to do anything with the monthly issues, other than cut up their pretty pictures for use in my gift wrapping collage projects. Mater Mia, on the other hand, might just do the trick. 

So, I'm wondering, where's the L.A. equivalent of this New York-based mothering site? Is the universe — by way of HuffPo and my tipster friend, Tembi — telling me that I should seize the moment and helm such a site of my own? 

Hmm. 

It's not outside the realm of possibility. Plus, it would give me a tangible excuse to just go up to interesting-looking strangers and start talking to them (not as effortless in L.A. as it is on the East Coast).

Of course, it is far more likely that I will go have a sulk over a bowl of popcorn. But, hey, after the bowl's all emptied...

Art I Heart — Naoshi

The other day, I decided budgets are for chumps and stopped by Clover to engage in the age-old art of "buying stuff that, even in the instant that you're entering your pin number, you know you're going to return." I am disturbingly good at this, people. One purchase that's a guaranteed keeper: greeting cards by Yakahama, Japan artist, Naoshi.

She uses a technique called "sunae," which, according to her site, means shiny, colorful sand. Bursting with cuteness, right? As with most of the art that really gets to me, her style suits both kids and adults suffering (or, maybe, "blessed with"?) arrested development.

See more after the jump.

For the Love of Lists — Things I'm excited about this summer

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild. I just listened to an interview with the director and read an interview with the teeny little star and I am beyond excited about the July 6 release. I haven't really tracked an opening date like this in a while (other than Moonrise Kingdom, which I reviewed merely as "better than Darjeeling and Team Zissou, but, still...").

I've already watched the trailer an unreasonable amount of times.




2. Louie, Season 3 starting this week. I love a show that makes me a little uncomfortable and sweaty (the husband's pick of Breaking Bad makes me too, too uncomfortable and sweaty). Now that Louis CK is back in my life, he can fill the face-palm hole that Girls' season closer left in my life. (As for the latter, I fell for the hype hook, line and sinker. Loves that show.)

3. Our upcoming family trip to Toronto. Yes, it's still a month+ away, but I love pre-pre-planning my vacations. Thus far, I know AGO — we'll be there just in time to catch the Picasso exhibit — and the Ontario Science Center are on the itinerary. If you've been to TO (is it lame to call it that, á la, Frisco?) and have recommendations for exceptional espresso beverages and/or bougie dining, do please leave them in the comments.

For the Love of Lists — Get A Life Fest

I've been trying to reclaim my social life, but I must say that over the past year, things have been dragging. This is, chiefly, because I don't have a dedicated party posse like in the Austin Days of Yore (sniff). The last few weeks, though, have signaled a return to form. The iCal has filled with more than just first graders' birthday parties, school volunteering obligations and dental appointments.

Just what have I been doing? To the lists!

Shows/gigs that were well worth the cost of the babysitter:
1. Lianne La Havas at Bootleg Theater — She's charming, a solid songwriter, has great stage presence, and comes across as a less treacly version of Corinne Bailey Rae. The packed crowd — from where I stood, an odd blend of alterna-black girls and middle-aged white dudes in business attire — was spellbound. And, though, I refuse to chalk this up to anything more than urban legend, for the sake of my fragile constitution, Stevie Wonder was reportedly one of the admiring onlookers. I NEED to disbelieve these reports; surely, if my idol was in the building, my radar would've gone off.


Check out La Havas serenading Parisian shoppers:



Lianne La Havas | No Room For Doubt | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.



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