if "star wars" was british.

the british, star wars, kate middleton & prince william, chewbacca. lots of favorites all in one picture...& it's almost like they're looking at this text. hee hee.

photo, & i daresay kinda similar to this?

we/i love you, david beckham.

in honor of david beckham's retirement (*tear*), let's talk about how hilarious he was on the ellen degeneres show a few years ago. oh my gosh, you guys, i was rolling on the floor. this is so funny.

doesn't it make you love him even more?? he's really funny!

"the great gatsby" soundtrack: my top 5.

the great gatsby movie soundtrack came out a few days before the actual movie did; i was so excited about the releases of both that i wrote them down in my planner (is that a nerd alert?). "buy gatsby soundtrack!!" was written on may 7th, & simply "GATSBY" in all caps written on the 10th. it should hopefully come as no surprise that i sometimes fangirl about stuff, & i kinda love fangirling about stuff. it's fun to occasionally really get excited about something, yeah?

anyhoodles, i personally find the album, executive produced by jay-z, brilliant. one critic (in this amazingly articulate article that i wish i had written) captures the essence & reasoning behind the album perfectly: "just as fitzgerald peppered his text with references to jazz-influenced pop songs to show how that music became a lingua franca, so this soundtrack aims to show how hip-hop now deeply informs rock, dance music and the top 40."

now, i know jay-z can be incredibly polarizing, as can baz luhrmann & his empire. that's okay. nonetheless i've compiled a list of my top 5 absolutely favorite songs from the album. to be honest, it was an incredibly hard process because i think pretty much every song is really great (do i dare say out loud that jay-z knows his stuff??). anyway, here it goes:

1. "kill & run," sia. 

when ben first heard this song he asked, "is this adele? because it sounds like adele." & while it's not adele, that's actually a good thing, because now we know there are two people in the world who have incredible, powerhouse voices. this is my favorite song on the soundtrack. it's heartbreaking, it's powerful, it captures all the yearning & pain of the movie - & the book, i daresay. oh, who am i kidding with all this writerly mumbo jumbo, what i'm trying to say is this song is SO freaking GOOOOOOOD!!!!

2. "love is the drug," bryan ferry & the bryan ferry orchestra.

just a few seconds of listening will demonstrate how close this song comes to feeling "authentically" from the 20's. ooh, i love it. those first few seconds of chords. it all feels so speakeasy...not that i would  really know what a speakeasy is like, except for that one "downton" episode where cousin matthew, edith, & co. find the random what's-her-bucket cousin has gone & snuck off to one. 

3. "100$ Bill," jay-z. (i searched high & low for an edited version to no avail.)

i was already a fan of this song, but then i saw the movie & loved it even more. why? because the scene that features this song is just, it's a perfect fit. in my opinion. this is all my opinion, guys. :) but anyway, the scene, plus this song, kinda gives viewers a good wake-up call into the just how sleazy are the dealings the enigmatic jay gatsby is involved in. 

4. "over the love," florence + the machine.

i mean, flo has got the pipes. & i love how elements of the gatsby story are woven into the lyrics. it's that chanting of "i can see the green light, i can see it in your eyes," that moment from about 3:21 on that really puts this song on the list for me.

5. "hearts a mess," gotye.

i was excited to find out there was a song by gotye on the album - i've been so ready to like him for more than just "somebody that i used to know" for a while now, you know? & i suppose i am predisposed to like him because he's european, & seems really cute & nice. & oh my, did he prove himself with this song. it's just, it's just delightful to me. that line, "but i'm desperate to connnnnect," i am obsessed with how it sounds. this is a good one. emotional. but what else do you expect from the guy who sang "somebody that i used to know"??

RUNNERS-UP (RUNNER-UPS?): "where the wind blows" by coco o. is such a great one & almost, almost, made the list. "bang bang" by will.i.am is one where i can appreciate a solid effort at incorporating non-anachronistic, legitimately-from-the-1920's music into the song.

so go give the album a listen!

cute earrings.

oh, little bee earrings? oh those are pretty nice.

WHAT LITTLE FROGS TOO?? okay those are even cuter.

OH MY GOSH LITTLE TURTLES THIS IS CUTENESS OVERLOAD.

all these earrings & more found here (but no surprise there, amiright?)

"homeland."

oh my gosh, this show. we're obsessed. are you watching it? (it's intense! there are moments here & there in the first few episodes when scenes need to be edited, but then it cleans up relatively considerably) & of course we love saul berenson. a guy that can do inigo montoya, broadway, and an emmy & golden-globe winning cia/terrorist drama is an absolute winner.

photo.

MINDY KALING.

i've talked about my love for mindy kaling on this blog before (here, & here, for starters). i've also known for awhile that she herself keeps a bloggy blog, but i had never gotten around to going on over there to have a look at it. 

anyway, tonight after the AMAZING AND EPIC SEASON FINALE of the mindy project i stumbled into her blog as i was reading a few interwebby recaps...it then took me about .2 seconds of reading mindy's words before i shouted out loud (ben's outta town, i do what i wannnn), "okay, WHY HAVE I WAITED SO LONG TO READ THE BLOG OF MINDY KALING?!?"

so as soon as i turn in my last final paper next week (turned in two papers tonight, 30-ish pages total, fun [ish?] times) you can bet one of the first things i do is get all sorts of caught up on mindy's blog...which won't be too hard, seeing as the last time she posted was january of 2012. so.

CHECK IT OUT, if you want.

photo from.

anniversary weekend bonanza: newsies.

ben & i celebrate two years of being married this tuesday (may 14th, woot woot!). coincidentally, this tuesday is also the day ben leaves for vancouver for school/work trip, so we decided to use that as an excuse to celebrate our anniversary the ENTIRE WEEKEND BEFORE. 

that being said, my dear husband of 2 years surprised me with TICKETS TO NEWSIES as part of our anniversary weekend bonanza. now, if you know me, you know i love newsies...if you know this blog, you might have come across a newsies reference from me here & there (as in here, here, or here, just to name a few, hee hee). so while it's no secret i've been dying (dying) to see newsies on broadway, it was a surprise when husband came home with the means to go see it.

oh my goodness, but that NEWSIES!! it was everything i dreamed & hoped it would be & more. it's bright, it's so energetic, it's fun...i don't even know how to describe it. i just had a huge grin on my face the entire time, tapping out the beat on ben's shoulder, nerding out & fangirling over the shirtless dancing newsies (of which there were MANY, haha) & quietly (& sometimes not so quietly) singing along to all the songs (although they've switched up a TON of lyrics for broadway, & a lot of the storyline, & while they were all good changes, it threw me off sufficiently for the first few minutes). it was all a dream come true & the most perfect anniversary gift. i'm just overtly gushing now, but gosh. plus that jack kelly!!!! i mean, dreamboat central, am i right?? tee hee.

i mean, just look at some of the amazingness HERE.

a dream come true in glowing white lights:

loved these big posters lining the street the theater was on.

 

& a few snappy snapshots of my outfit, because nothing says "happy anniversary" like powder blue high-waisted bell-bottom vintage pants:

a 2 year anniversary is perfect because you can do peace signs in photos & it's like it has a double meaning:

ben always loves to snap candid & generally unattractive photos as i'm walking back over to him & i'll be like, "ben!" & he'll be all, "sorry/not sorry!"

speaking of that dapper ben, here's a quick glimpse at, like, the ONE picture he let me take with so many people around:

look at me! i'm the king of new yoorrrkkkkk! & one of the best parts about newsies was that it was only the beginning of an amazing anniversary bonanza weekend.