the punctuation of love -

dogs have their own language,
it is true.

but i've begun to decipher their code.

they commune with each other in parentheses ( ) :

  

and they rest in quotation marks " :

  

and they live, like we all wish to, in exclamation points ! :

the topography of love -

dogs sleep most of the day.

and still remain so very eloquent.

OUTSIDELANDS : or, why landis is no good at festivals. or crowds.

so,
given that tom was sweating his ass off getting this festival put together,
tim and i really wanted to come see what it was all about.

it's kind of like my fascination with burning man.
i think i want to go out in the desert with a thousand artists for a week and run around in costume doing drugs and generally acting like an insane person. . . but then i remember the dirt.

but we drove to golden gate park,
on a particularly foggy saturday, and parked seven blocks away.

that was an omen.

we did park behind this cute car.  which i took for a good sign:

then we ventured in.
outsidelands is HUGE.  enormous.
and if you're into the kind of outdoor three day venue
with six stages and multiple music acts ranging from . . .
tom petty to jack johnson,
then this was for you.

did i mention there were a TON of people milling around?

this was just the entry.

from above the main lawn,
in a dust cloud,
i began to hyper-ventilate a little bit.

i know!
cute hat, right?

and the height of fashion?

let's say the first sign that the devil is winning
played a large component of people's wardrobes.

what is the first sign the devil is winning?

yeah-huh.

tie-dye.

i would almost swear this was my cousin, eric,
if it weren't for the fact that it was frigid cold, damp, dusty
(i know, dusty AND damp.)
and i was acting too fussy to really take in the details.

tim kept trying to point out the nature:

yes, yes.
large, pretty . . . tree of some sort.
(i've stopped trying to identify nature on this blog since i recently called some large purple flowering thing on our back porch a "hydrangea" and got slapped for it by another blogger.  stupid plants.)
good for you.

but it's not going to distract me from all the stoners twirling in place like religious zealots.

sigh.

at least we went.

i consider it a "life experience".

check.  done.

at least tom knew we went for him.

he even drove me around in his prius.

that IS a prius, right?

how to endear yourself when you are a ten day houseguest -

so when tom porter came to work the outsidelands festival in golden gate park,
he crashed in our spare room for . . .
brace yourselves . . .
ten days.

and amazingly,
we all survived.

we even had fun.  dinners.  some time hanging out.
and no "guests are like fish.  they stink after three days" rule coming true.

perhaps it was that he was gone running cables through the park until all hours,
or that he's so laid back and fun.

but i think he may have figured out
whom in the household you really have to win over
in order to survive:

(the girls do like their tom . . . )

flash lights : the month in celebrity inspiration

things i've noticed in celebrity style this month:

oh dear holy christ.
i didn't think he could get hotter.

and i'm not even into the fuzzy wuzzy.

but dayum.  time to load for bear.

and:

this is why we love the posh.

sure, it's los angeles in the summer.

sure, she's just wearing skinny denim and a long tee.

but she adds the crucial fur chubby
that makes it her own.

sigh.

(is it disturbing to anyone that i have all of the things she's wearing, but my coat is LONGER?)

(me either.)

or:

meet karla,
of karla's kloset (click on it to go visit her),
she's probably the chicest little birdie i've found on the web,
she's a local,
and she's just got
"it".

she and ashley furnival should be BFF's.  maybe they already are.

i have a gay crush on her.  big time.

and finally :

i know, i know.

but i hadn't seen these pics, and now i get the whole "kid" thing.

apparently, having them makes you look like this,
and makes testino want to photograph you and put you in his book.

that's what i'm supposed to learn from celebrities, right?

the perfect "profile" pic -

a paul mccobb wingback,
a sunny bay window,
and my heartbeat . . . grr.

coming soon to a theatre near you:

i'm sorry,
but this BEGS to be a movie poster.

either a buddy movie,
or a period drama.

i don't know.

any thoughts on titles?

nicole ferrin finds beauty everywhere -

i first met nicole in my ad agency days,
where she was an account exec, and i was a copywriter,
and we were working on,
of all things,
boca burgers.

we did some suprisingly beautiful work for them,
shooting over an extended easter week in miami,
and sneaking in long rides on her father's boat,
eating out when blue door was still big,
and generally laughing and exploring and talking and growing.

now, nicole has headed into art,
and as i figure out my next world,
we've recrossed paths, and she's sent images of her recent time in berlin:







she has truly found art,
everywhere.
brava, beautiful!

RE - grouping : nobu los angeles, a stylist, and a connie bang

all i can say about NOBU in los angeles,
is that if you take insanely delicious food
a loud (maybe too loud?) and glittering environment (though maybe a bit too vast?)
and sprinkle in eddie shacknow and his humor,
connie bang and her love of the lens,
and tim and his new scorpion beaded polo . . .

well, it's the best kind of belated
a birthday can be.

even if they mis-spell your name.

i mean, they even got the colors worked out right!

the six chicest things about august

let's start inside.
this couple turned their home into a perfect pale palace for their art collection.
then,
when one of their artists (they own galleries),
Austrian artist Otto Zitko,
was over for dinner,
they asked him to do a piece ON their walls.

after looking around, he apparently decided the only place worthy
was the ceiling.
he turned on the wagner, picked up his grease pencil,
and voila.

so very chic, it makes our list at number 1.

number 2,
that's from our friends over at bottega veneta,
who have decided that this little number, now in crocodile,
is a staple in a man's wardrobe:

oh yeah.
i'm wet.

pulling in fast at number 3
(even with the unfortunate relative timing of that phrase to the last one)
is one of my new favorite photographers,
Slava Mogutin
who shoots erotic eastern european skinheads,
and amazing random shots :

come on!
boys in gucci bags!
pit bulls!
and the last photo is called . . .
sock monkey!

come on!  j'adore!!

number 4:

the website ilikemystyle.net
where i've been playing around, meeting new faces,
and being impressed by people's individual style.

it led to the creation of the new blog,
(EMASCUL8)
and tons of new inspiration,
and that's always pretty chic.

number 5 is the new line of underwear from the denim brand ACNE:

and number 6,
in a suprise last minute squeak-in,
is mary kate on the cover of british ELLE.

take a look.  be surprised: