Happy New Year!

My 2011 wishlist includes a sequined tank from Michael Kors, a pair of citrine earrings, a key necklace from Tiffany, a handbag from Reed Krakoff, eyeshadow from Burberry beauty, a pair of heels from Christian Louboutin, an apple minaudiere, and, of course, Alexander Skarsgard. What's on yours?

All images via Polyvore.

-Cate-

"This Fake Marriage Stuff Is Kind of Fun"

I have a pretty long list of celebrity crushes, some of which I will own up to and some of which I keep to myself. There is, of course, Alexander Skarsgard, Denzel (Washington, of course, but I truly feel that the man needs no last name), and Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots, among many others. One that I don't talk about so much but really do like, though, is Thomas Haden Church.

Church first came to my attention one summer when there wasn't much on TV but reruns of his short-lived show Ned and Stacey, a mid-1990s sitcom that also featured Debra Messing just before she hit it big on Will and Grace. The show didn't last for a reason--it's not the best thing out there, but it was more or less reliable, mindless entertainment, and Church's portrayal of Ned Dorsey, a self-involved advertising executive, was pretty spot-on, whether he was scheming to undermine a fellow ad man or bribing a salesperson to sell Stacey the bed of her dreams. Messing, for her part, was a little uneven as Stacey Dorsey, but you can certainly see glimpses of the skilled comedienne she proved herself to be on Will and Grace.

The premise of the show is simple: Ned and Stacey get married so he can get a promotion at work and she can move out of her parents' house in New Jersey. Unfortunately, it is also unsustainable; there is a time limit (two years) put on it from the very first episode, and the audience only ever expects one of two things: either Ned and Stacey will duke it out until they become boring, or they will fall in love and live happily ever after. This is not the stuff of long-running programs. However, like I said before, it is mindless, a good thing to watch when you want a distraction or an easy laugh. 

Right now, the first season (of two) is available on DVD, but as far as I can tell, there is no scheduled release date for season two, which is unfortunate, because I would really like to have the complete set available for those late nights when I can't sleep but don't feel like doing anything useful and would rather spend my time with one of my crushes instead.

Buy season one through Best Buy for $14.99.

-Cate-

PS  Maureen will be taking over the blog for the next few days while I recover from a trip home. Can't wait to see what she has in store!

People We Covet: Lady Gaga

You all know this already: I love Lady Gaga.

I have a pretty serious problem with what radio stations do to my beloved Gaga. As with other artists, Lady Gaga's songs are sped up a little bit--this saves time, which means that stations can include more programming and (most importantly to them) advertising. Some artists don't suffer from this, usually because their voices are not the greatest instruments ever. But certain artists do take a hit. I've heard people say that they don't understand the appeal of Lady Gaga; usually these people don't think that she is a very good singer. And I blame that on the practice of speeding songs up. In doing this, they alter her voice to the point where she doesn't sound the same as she does on an album or in a live performance, and this is a real disservice to her. I've noticed this effect most prominently in the radio edit of "Alejandro," which totally blows, because, well, that's my favorite song of hers.

But that's really beside the point.

You might be wondering why I love Lady Gaga so much. Well, kids, it's because her songs are pretty awesome (even if they're not the most original ever, they ARE good pop songs), her Fame Monster videos are the shit, and she collaborates with truly talented people. To illustrate each of these points, I give you Exhibit A (a really boss acoustic version of "Paparazzi," live at 95.8, Capital FM Radio), Exhibit B (the glittering dystopia that is "Bad Romance"), and Exhibit C:

(Basically what I'm telling you is that anyone who puts Alexander Skarsgard in front of me in all his Swedish glory is okay in my book.) Plus, while I don't necessarily agree with all of her fashion choices--the heel-less boots come to mind--I do appreciate that she stands by each and every one of her outfits and isn't afraid to be herself.

I understand that some people think Gaga is too over-the-top. And maybe she is. But not any more so than, say, Madonna or even Beethoven (seriously). Besides, she's totally adorable (skip ahead to about 5:17 for the interview portion). So if you're holding out, I highly recommend that you give her a chance today. She's not so bad. I promise.

Lady Gaga photo via LadyGaga.com.

Alexander Skarsgard photo via here.

-Cate-

PS I recently re-watched the video for "Alejandro," and visual references keep coming to mind, even after seeing it about 10 times. Calvin Klein ads, Chicago, Equus, Annie (the movie musical--and here I'm really thinking of Lily St. Regis, Rooster's girlfried), Madonna's "Open Your Heart" video, Metropolis (which, ultimately, can also be attributed to Madonna's "Express Yourself" video, which was mentioned in my first analysis of "Alejandro" and heavily influenced by that same film), Elizabeth, Karl Lagerfeld, Gwen Stefani, Judas Priest (or at least Rob Halford), Swing Kids, and the house mother from the film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha (specifically, the way she holds her pipe) are the latest, and I'm sure that there are many more to follow!

People We Covet: Your Dream Dinner Party

My friend Melissa and I were having a conversation a few days ago about people you would love to have over to your house for a dinner party. The rules were as follows: your guests can be any real people from any time or place, and you can have seven guests plus yourself for a nice round number of 8 total. A handful of people shared their lists with me, including Melissa. Answers ranged from the expected (an English professor friend of mine wanted to invite Emily Dickinson and Barbara Kingsolver) to the surprising (someone wanted to invite me!). Some compromising went on: Melissa said that we could have one big combined party and that she would invite Roger Maris so that I didn't have to, thereby avoiding making an admission of admiration for a New York Yankee (for those of you who don't know, I don't even BELIEVE in the Yankees), and another friend of mine suggested that each of our guests be allowed to bring a guest, making for a bigger and better event.

I think we're really onto something here, which is why I decided to report on my dinner party list this month  instead of making my typical People We Covet post. So here it is, in alphabetical order: Ray Bradbury, Don Cherry, Bobby Flay, George Gershwin, Alexander Skarsgard, Vincent van Gogh, and Denzel Washington.

Of course, all of this is subject to change at, literally, any moment. However, for right now, these are the guests I would love to have. (Never mind that it would be impossible to get them all together, two of them being quite dead and the rest of them very busy.) But everyone on the current list makes perfect sense, because they come from areas that interest me: literature (Bradbury, of course, wrote my favorite book, Fahrenheit 451), hockey (Don Cherry is a legendary player, coach, and commentator, and he has the best collection of suits known to man), food (Bobby Flay! 'Nuff said), music (George Gershwin was one of the composers who helped make American music its own thing in the 20th century), film and television (right off the top of my head, I swear to you that I can't think of two men more beautiful than Alexander Skarsgard and Denzel Washington, plus Denzel is a hell of an actor--as he says in Training Day, "King Kong ain't got shit on me"), and art (my favorite painting in the whole wide world was done by van Gogh).

Who would be at your dinner?

-Cate-

"All the Commotion"

A few years back, I heard of a band called Kings of Leon, but I never came across any of their music, probably because the most reliable radio station where I live uses a classic rock format, which, by design, is not conducive to emerging artists. So, of course, I am coming late to the Kings of Leon party, but better late than never, right?

In fact, if it wasn't for my new iPod, I may not have heard KoL in the first place. You see, iPods have radio tuners in them now (and probably have for awhile, but I'm always slightly behind the times, as I'm sure you've figured out by now), and so I was compulsively flipping through radio stations during my two and a half weeks at home at the end of May, which is how I managed to come across "Sex on Fire," a single off of KoL's  2008 album Only By the Night. 

Quite honestly, I don't even know most of what Caleb Followill (the band's singer) is saying, but, damn, he sounds good. The song as a whole has sonic relatives in the work of Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, Audioslave, Green Day, Tom Petty, Sister Hazel, Smashing Pumpkins, Aerosmith, and so many others, and all of those connections are good things. Yet it stands alone, which is an even better thing. Plus, bonus? Caleb has a kind of Alexander Skarsgard thing going on in the video for this song, which sucks me in every time.

If you've never encountered Kings of Leon, you should check them out right now. If you are familiar with their music, I would appreciate any recommendations you might have about which of their songs to listen to next!

Buy through Amazon for $1.29.

Photo: ELOdry (via Wikipedia).

-Cate-