the hater hates on tofu dogs

I enjoy reading T Magazine and The Moment, its daily blog. Who doesn’t like pretty pictures of pretty things worn, used, and endorsed by pretty people?

Today, T Magazine staffers write about what they’ll be doing and, more importantly, what they’ll be wearing for Independence Day. Fairly harmless, until I read a phrase in this entry from an assistant (emphasis mine):

For my friends and me (who are all essentially living on an assistant’s salary), going away for the weekend isn’t really in the budget. Instead, we’ll sneak onto my rooftop, grill some burgers and tofu dogs (it is Brooklyn after all) and catch a glimpse of fireworks. And in keeping with the neighborhood vibe, I’ll wear this slightly elevated version of the Williamsburg uniform, trading buffalo plaid for gingham, cutoffs for bermudas and boat shoes for bucks.

Emphasis mine, obvs, but this in a nutshell is why I don’t think I could move back to New York and live in Brooklyn. At least, not in the version of Brooklyn that this particular person occupies.

Worn on the Fourth of July – The Moment Blog (NYT)

blossom dearie, 1926 – 2009

An interpretive minimalist with caviar taste in songs and musicians, she was a genre unto herself.

Blossom Dearie, Cult Chanteuse, Dies at 82 [nyt]

catching up

• Op-Art: Bwahahahahahahahaha. [h/t Commander Robot]
• I am in love with Gavin & Stacey. Series co-creator Ruth Jones is my new comedy writer lady hero. I guess I could have just written “my new comedy writer heroine” but I suppose that explains why I am not a comedy writer. Yet.
  • I hate that word “yet”. So much said in three little letters.
  • Who am I, Morrissey? Stop moping and get hustling.
• Commander Robot thinks “The Office” is the Whitest show ever. Not sure what he means, but I’m sure he’ll explain when he feels like it.
• Any thoughts on Project Runway? Did Korto deserve that win? Did Suede deserve to go home? Will Kenley ever get served, by which I mean given a verbal smackdown she so deserves?
• IM from CR: By Whitest show, he meant “white people love it”. I guess every episode can’t be “Diversity Day”. We’re still waiting for a POC to emerge as a main character.
  • Glad to learn that Stanley lost seven pounds over the summer, but what else do we know about him?
  • Kelly is still bat-shit crazy, but still hilarious. I wonder if her relationship with Darryl might actually be worse than her non-relationship with Ryan.
  • Oscar takes yoga.
  • Toby watching dubbed ‘Entourage’ in a Costa Rican hospital? Perfect ending.
  • And Mad Men’s Rich Sommer! So cute! He has a blog. You should read it.
• I could stay up all night checking for Twitter updates. Thank goodness I don’t.
• Gapers Block happy hour tonight!

Eau God

I have gradually realized that there is consolation to be found in any baked good that calls for more than one stick of butter.

Eau God [NYT]

stuff i love: mobile edition

WebClipr: This keen app let me make an iPhone icon for the mobile version of this blog.

Wirenode: Used this to make the mobile version of this blog.

Jott: I love the NYT technology section for hipping me to new toys that take the time I would ordinarily devote to work and/or sleep. I can call a number and send updates to Twitter, update this blog, or e-mail or call my friends. Yes, that means you.

Barack steady

Top Ten Barack Obama Campaign Promises presented by Barack Obama [Late Show with David Letterman]: Hee!

Obama’s historic run heads south [Salon]

Obama Delivers an Anticorporate Message [NYT]: Yes, I know, the Times just endorsed Hillary, but I’m still relying on them to provide unbiased coverage of the campaign. Which could be foolish on my part. Maybe I should switch to the Boston Globe?

Heath Ledger Is Dead

Actor Heath Ledger Is Found Dead [NYT]

NH primary special!

• Speak Up > The Hardest Working Presidential Candidate Logo [Under Consideration]
• Will Burns: Democrat for State Representative [Friends of Will Burns]
• 236 – The Room – Clinton Aide Accuses Obama of Fathering Two Black Girls [236]

gifts and gravy

• Campaign For Real Gravy [RealGravy]
• What’s on your Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa shopping list this year? [Gapers Block]
• The Gift Is in the Mail, and on the Web [NYT]
• 10 Worst Toys of 2007 [Progressive Boink]

style for Saturday

Sometimes it’s worth staying up late on a Friday — you can read the Sunday Style section of the New York Times as soon as it gets posted early Saturday morning. Usually it’s a slideshows of presentations from whatever fashion week is currently going on, maybe a piece on “modern love” going wrong the same way that “classic love” (?) has gone for the ages. It’s not often there’s anything that might have some “ethnic” content for when I’m feeling feisty, but then I get rewarded with this article on the (not surprising) lack of diversity in the the models you see in runway shows.

Just one image of a black model appears in the issue, midway through a 17-page article photographed by Miles Aldridge and titled the “Vagaries of Fashion.” In it, the glacial blond Anja Rubik portrays an indolent, overdressed Park Avenue princess with a gilded apartment, a couture wardrobe, two towhead children and a collection of heavy rocks. The sole black model in the pictorial is more modestly attired, in an aproned pinafore.

See? Interesting stuff. I know that it may seem like there should be a big “Obvious” tag somewhere — standards of beauty are upheld by the fashion industry, these standards call for a skinny white girl, blah blah blah — but I never thought the discussion would come up again, and not in the Times. There’s been a lot of attention paid to the on-going discussion of weight and whether or not it’s responsible to hire models who may be suffering from eating disorders, but it never seems to get farther than a wire piece that gets a few days in the news cycle, picked up by the tabs, and then discarded until the cycle starts all over again. Here’s hoping that a real discourse on race and fashion is sustained until some new ideas and solutions are emerge.

Runways Fade to White (NYT)