Though There Are A Lot Of Petitions/Urban Outfitters Campaigning To Save It: My Stockpile Of Polaroid Film Expired September 1st. Thus, A Tribute:

I have the best friends.

And will eternally shake it like a...

A Smorgasbord of Inspiration.

(a) Time is flying. Casey Callahan will be acting in an EMHS production of The Crucible! (I always knew she was a witch...)

(b)/(c) "Not the stuff of poetry, but of prose." I've read every Jackie Kennedy biography there is, so I've always had a morbid fascination with the lore of the Kennedy family - but getting legislation to move on issues like health care and immigration is truly heroic and makes me proud of the Democratic Party.

(d) JANE JACOBS: queen of urban planning and my new hero thanks to The Life and Death of Great American Cities.

(e) Garance Dore image. I wanna move to Holland and ride bikes.

"You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference."

– Steve Jobs

Forgot how breathtaking these songs can be. And timely:

And on the subject of Disney Princesses: Tiana, the first black Disney princess.

Controversy abounds, but personally I think the 1920s New Orleans setting + pre-Pixar animation + voodoo is interesting and brilliant.

And on the subject of music:

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, listen to both Jack White's version and Chris Thile's version.

Charging Fort Wagoner, Glory soundtrack. It will make you go that extra mile...or twelve.

Endless Shovel, Rogue Wave. On constant repeat.

Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Damn this album's good.

A new teaching method for English teachers...

Fascinating.

On the one hand, enough with the archaic booklists: reading should be freeing and personal and adventurous and enjoyable.

On the other hand, can you imagine going through school and not reading To Kill A Mockingbird!?! Eeeps.

“If skills sold, truth be told, I’d probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli.”

- Jay-Z

It Just Takes Some Time.

So Pitchfork published this fascinating/weird list of the top 500 songs of the '00s.

...and it reminded me of a period of time where I would watch this Jimmy Eat World music video every single morning on VH1 before heading to high school and think to myself: that is what love will be like.

Summer Reading List:

(...summery foods Meg ate in Hawaii).

August is almost over, thus ending my favorite part of the year for reading.

Books I read this summer, or am determined to get through by the end of the week:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Interpreter of Maladies.

The Right Stuff.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Nasty Bits.

Chronicles, Volume 1.

The Joy Luck Club.

My Life in France.

The Time Traveler's Wife.

A Confederacy of Dunces.

Flannery O'Connor short story collection.

The Optimist's Daughter.

And, in more bookworm news...

Books converted to movies.

As a book lover, I've learned to view the two as separate entities. So while my sister gets upset about what was left out or misrepresented in the latest Harry Potter movie (like she does with every Harry Potter movie...), I can enjoy both by keeping them completely apart from each other.

Instead, I think the hardest part for me is the reality that people will see the movie and never experience the book I so loved.

...that my youngest sister will miss out on the overwhelming experience of devouring every page of a Harry Potter book.

...that people watch the Sex and the City movie and think that could possibly represent what seven entire seasons of character development and groundbreaking subject matter were all about.

Two of my all-time favorite, favorite books (Veronika Decides to Die and The Lovely Bones) are being made into movies.

And the trailers are, of course, not at all how I pictured the stories in my head.

I'm still excited. I mean, The Lovely Bones is directed by Peter Jackson and Veronika Decides to Die has Sarah Michelle Geller in it (...and even though she's so not Veronika, I always secretly root for Buffy to succeed).

I guess I'm just begging everyone: please go read these books before you see the movie.

Know Thyself.

Austin, I love you.

So I just had a conversation with a good friend about going to see a movie alone.

In a brand new town where she doesn't know too many people yet (give her time and I assure you she'll have zillions of new friends), she went by herself to see Julie & Julia (such a perfect movie!) and found it oddly liberating.

Having done this myself twice before, I was in total agreement.

Actually, I really like doing things by myself.

Especially errands, reading in coffee shops, museums, clothes shopping, sight seeing, zoning out and listening to music on the metro, running...

I think part of it is getting to do exactly what I want, when I want to do it.

And the other part is...I'm a pretty good companion to myself.

I still consider myself a "people person."

I really am happy when around other people, especially friends and family.

And I fully realize enjoying being alone is contingent upon the luxury of not having to be.

It's just that in a perfect world, I would spend 50% of my time alone and 50% of my time with other people. Maybe even 60, 40.

When I achieve that balance, I feel like I can sincerely give my best in both worlds.

It's funny, because I've always been like this...

I distinctly remember loving sleepovers, but always calling my mom at like 9 in the morning to come pick me up while my friends slept-in: I just spent the entire night with you, there's no way I'm spending the entire day with you too!

And college was a shock at first, because suddenly I was surrounded by people 24/7 and didn't quite know how to deal yet.

But now I'm at the lovely point where I've just sort of embraced it as an essential part of who I am. It comes with age.

Bob Dylan, Chronicles:

"There was a lot of halting and waiting, little acknowledgement, little affirmation, but sometimes all it takes is a wink or a nod from some unexpected place to vary the tedium of a baffling existence."

Just Get Yourself Free.

(More old photos).

Parry family station wagon, driven on countless camping, rock climbing and kayaking trips.

And why my mom has no pop culture references from her childhood.

Grand Teton mountain range in the background. Most beautiful view in the world.

PLEASE READ: Amazing Esquire article on Warren Hern, the last late-term abortion doctor.

(big thank you to Andrew Bluebond for finding this).

So I now have a tumblr.

It'll pretty much be just like this, but less words, more images.

I could spend a lifetime on these sites: Flashdance and Our Labor of Love.

Makes you think a) Life is awesome! b) Can I please be invited to all of these?

Amy Wells, the set decorator for Mad Men, was on NPR today. So, set decorator = coolest job ever.

Cool sets: all James Bond interiors - esp. from the '60s and '70s, Monica's apartment and Central Perk...

Totally obsessed with listening to...

Lullaby, Dixie Chicks

(Recently heard on an episode of True Blood so dug it out of the iPod archive). One of the most beautiful, simple love songs.

A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill, Jens Lekman

This song is definitive summertime: trumpet, hand claps, chorus and vocals barely make it over the background noise of an outdoor party so vivid it feels like you're there.

With a Girl Like You, The Troggs

Love. Really cool love.

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, Paul Simon

Gosh, I love you Paul Simon.

My Aunt, Uncle and Mom (in the middle, with the glasses and knee socks).

It's neat to get this glimpse into the lives of people you know so well, in a world you have absolutely no existence in.

Health Care II.

When the health care town hall crazies are tearing down Rosa Parks posters and bringing handguns...

And when mainstream media propagates their paranoia over and over into legitimacy...

I kinda lose faith in humanity.

So I listen to Bruce...

Or really, Woody Guthrie via Bruce.

This Is What A Feminist Looks Like.

Perhaps it's too many back-to-back episodes of Mad Men (love it), but I'm feeling particularly elated/super duper pumped about Sonia's confirmation. 

Wise latinas rule. And so do girls.

Especially in regards to their unique points-of-view. (Own it).

For Fall.

I would love to own these shoes from Anthropologie.

They scream back to school.

...oh wait.

Don't You (Forget About Me).

I feel like the recent death of John Hughes deserves some sort of tribute post:

Because I just really love teen movies circa the '80s.

Some see it as the decade that was a vapid, cultural wasteland, but I think the movies prove differently and are pretty much an art form unto themselves.

They are filled with perfectly quirky moments and off-center characters, pulled off effortlessly - a trait any indie movie today would kill for.

The angst lacks the melodrama of  a Garden State.

No teen stars today are half as visually interesting or un-airbrushed as Molly Ringwald or Ally Sheedy.

There are so many iconic moments and memorable quotes that ensure they'll live forever, like that image of John Cusack holding up a stereo in the rain for Say Anything.

And they make you fall in love with bands like The Smiths.

Personally, my all-time favorite is Better Off Dead.

Because a young John Cusack is irresistibly charming and the science projects, $2 paperboy and dancing hamburgers are hilarious. 

But there are so many classics...

Back to the Future I and II.

Big.

Dirty Dancing and my all-time favorite quote, "I carried a watermelon."

Teen Witch with my other favorite quote, "Nobody's comin' to your Sweet Sixteen party Louise."

And of course, the incomparable:

Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Cameron being my favorite character.

Breakfast Club.

Sixteen Candles.

and

Pretty in Pink.

(There's also my '80s favorites Airplane!, When Harry Met Sally, Working Girl, Cocktail, Rain Man and Overboard - but they don't fit into the teen movie category).

So, take a moment to enjoy a perfectly '80s movie. Preferably catching it on a random channel like TBS or TNT on a lazy Saturday morning, while you're eating cereal in pajamas.

Because in the words of Ferris Bueller: 

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Piazza, Patio.

[a story about this guy who]

Lives in a building that used to be a hotel. His apartment still has that exact feel: copycat curtains and bedding, prints of watercolor paintings in cheap gold frames, floral wallpaper, bathroom by the door...

Whenever he travels, he feels like he's home.

My Life Is A Movie...

At this point in time, you are absolutely nothing but pure potential.

Will Nevius: Historically, this could be the most exciting time, take the opportunity to do something crazy.

When I Think Progress...

And so:

(Images 3-13 by Paul Morse).