Annabelle In Winter Wonderland

It was chaos at the airport for my pal Snickero, who was supposed to land today, but a feast for my eyes on my way to and from work... Observe:

Oh, but let's rewind back to last night, the occasion that enabled this winter wonderland, when the trek home was something like the "Blizzard" vignette in Kurosawa's Dreams when the mountaineers get stranded in the snow storm... And I loved every minute of it!! The last two blocks there were stretches where I was knee deep in snow! I even had a Home Alone moment when I saw an old man on the street shoveling through the snow at 3 am. I was scared of him first (and wanted to raise my palms to my cheeks and scream AGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!) but he ended up helping me through to my apartment door which was blocked with snow.

Am I At Work At 8:36 pm On Xmas Eve Alone?

The answer is yes.

Annabelle Explains It All

I think I may have nailed the incipience of my fondness for 80s music. The movie is Teen Witch and the year was ... sometime around 1994. This film means so much to me. My close friends joined me in attending a special screening at the Nuart Theatre about 4 years ago, a show which happened to take place on the day of my b-day... A birthday gift from God? Perhaps. I remember my parents always walking in during the most inappropriate scene where the hunky quarterback Brad, puts his hand into high school dweeb-cum-popular girl Louise's shirt, making me morbidly humiliated. I rehearsed every song in front of my mirror wearing ugly leftover 80's clothes (I was a late bloomer so hot 80s fashions were mid 90s ones for me). But let me be more specific since appreciating Teen Witch these days is as hackneyed a pop cultural phenomenon as quoting the "I'm so excited... I'm so scared" line from Saved By The Bell. The exact moment could very well have been when Louise Miller ("Ah yeah... Louise Miller, well you weren't here a second ago...") and her frazzy haired companion make it to the Shana concert. Shana's melodies in "Never Gonna Be the Same Again" still ring in my head, creating a sonic reference that serves as the framework for my valuing a lot of the auditory treasures that excite me the most today.

I just tweeted that apparently being a popular girl entails being sexually harrassed by meathead jocks and bands of thugs, but on a real note - the excitement that came over me when Louise turned popular and walked down those stairs at her parent's house in that lacey coral skirt - Oof! Unforgettable!

I'll spare you the tired "Top That" segment as so sassily interpretted by the two corny white guys, one of which you may recognize from TV's "Harry and the Henderson's", but I will provide this funny Lonely Island spoof as an alternative:

In the Mood for Love... and Chocolate!

Today I felt like eating a piece of chocolate with orange peel, and it came with a love poem inside. Killing two labels with one item!

False Emoticons

It's not like she would really stick her tongue out at me after saying something like that in real life, now would she?

Sassy Sleepover + Dimpoe = Pizza Party

Look what Dimpoe gave me as a thank you for letting her stay with me this week! But, I gotta say... her company was present enough. We wined and dined, meditated over Beethoven, watched opera and flamenco and laughed tremendously. Even though I only got to catch her between the hours of 11:30 pm - 2 am, I was so happy to have a Squirrel under my roof for a sense of family over the holidays!

No slumber party is complete without a pizza and chocolate. A Dimpoe, some girl talk and a junky meal can be just want you need after seven consecutive days of work. Avant et apres:

Shelly Welly

Thank you for my thank you gift. They were gone in less than an hour the day you left. Bisous!

Eataly

Oh goodness, the proximity of Eataly to the new office is going to break my wallet.

Happy Holidays / Chanukah Sameach / Feliz Navidad / Joyeux Noel / Buone Feste

It's the most... meditative, hectic and expensive time... of the year.
And it just happens to overlap with my longest workdays ever.
Although I won't be with my dearest loved ones this this holiday season,
I know I'm in their heart and minds and they're always in mine!

7:00 AM Is For...

... Holiday cards, Lavazza latte, almond and cheese cornetto and Milan Kundera:

Saturday Night Hypothermia

My favorite Sunshine State soprano, Dimpoe, is back in the big apple. This calls for yummy peppercorn cheeses and decadent risotto coupled with holiday cheer and nippy weather.

Hats and Lloyd Banks

Wintertime... Start it up, start it up, start it up....

This Guy

ode to my pal:

sneaky hangman games
evolved into a blog post
and a lame haiku

www.drewbeckmeyer.com


"10 abstract shapes on a shelf, on a dresser in front of a window"



"the protestant reformation"



"false wall with the things i'm saving to give back"

Holla-becq Young'n (Woot Woot)

... I had often been compared to the French moralists, occasionally to Lichtenberg; but never had anyone thought of Moliere, or Balzac. Even so, I reread Splendeurs et miseres des courtisanes, above all for the character of Nucingen. Still, it was remarkable that Balzac had been able to give the character of that lovesick fogey such a pathetic dimension, a dimension that's frankly obvious once you think about it, which is inscribed in its very definition, and which Moliere had not dreamed of at all; it's true that Moliere was working in comedy, and the same problem always arises: you always end up crashing into the same difficulty, which is that life, fundamentally, is not comical.

-Houellebecq, The Possibility of an Island, 267-268

Uh, I Will Be That Girl

Wedding dress place: found. Maison Bellaish. Click below to see more beauties.

Addendum: I feel that I owe an explanation for this, at the risk of seeming like one of those girls that ogles the wedding catalogs at the nail shop and dry cleaners, imagining banquet hall floral arrangements while serial dating potential marriage prospects with names like "Lonnie" or "Greg". No, no, no... That's not what's going on here (although I did think to myself, Hmmmm what kind of bouquet goes best with this dress, when I came across the photo above). Maison Bellaish's vintage wedding gowns also make great "nice occasion" dresses. They are crafted delicately to exude stunning casual elegance. Truly... take a glance!

Brunch at Breslin

... It's called Breslin, not Gremlin... As I very soon discovered upon arrival. Hotel brunch ain't my thang... But after such spectacular food, I let it slide.

I had the poached eggs with curried lentils and yogurt, and Sarah had goat cheese and leek tart with a side of bacon and sugary French toasts. Mine looks better, huh? (bratty grin) I imagine it's pretty easy to recreate at home, too!

Afternoon Delight

Turkish delights and rose tea... Would have taken a photo but I left my camera cord at home.

Thr Days Without the Lttr & A Design Class Retort

That's what three days without the letter 'E' looks like, up there... Which is what I have to deal with on my cell phone until Tuesday. But that's not what I wanted to announce, I wanted to share a memory from an art class I once took (to those who know me: the one where I faked the British accent for the entire semester out of boredom). The teacher had been talking about the color wheel, explaining why red looks so pleasant next to green, and orange contrasted by blue and yellow with purple, and so on and so forth. An annoying girl who legitimately thought she was asking a serious question inquired, "Then why does brown and blue look so good together?" The teacher replied, "Does it? I don't know that it does..." I remembered this out of nowhere while doing the laundry just now and it struck me as hilarious for some reason. I guess because she basically told the girl that she had bad taste and color theory wise, she could be right. My flashback expired with the thought that the student's home probably channels a mood along these lines:

I Can't Handle It

I have been listening to tunes off the TRON: Legacy soundtrack exclusively these last few days as background music. Everything I like in a film score is tucked away in there somewhere. Click here to experience my favorite song while it's still up. It can even pass as a regular everyday song-song.

Was I right or was I right? I'm always right! (bratty grin)

Let's Meet Halfway

No man is an island

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne

Isolation is a necessity, also an acute loneliness and a slight sense of rejection.

J.P. Donleavy

(I assure you my next quote won't come from a white male, it's just that this quote stuck with me)