the problem with brazilian models -

i'm sorry. did i say PROBLEM? i meant to say "GIFT OF".

bring a drool guard. boys, girls, don't matter, the genetic pool here pretty much rocks.

i think i need a towel. and a cigarette.

raw fish and caipirinhas are lethal -

tonight, after casting and then spending hours rewriting the spots in my hotel room with sara and richard, kira and sara and i went out to a great sushi restaurant. how do i know it was great?

i took pictures, fools:



PLUS, they served these great drinks. no, it's not out of focus, that's just how the second one looked when it hit the table. trust me on this, it's must be some kind of special brazilian voodoo magic thing.


if you need verification, feel free to ask sara, she had two as well, and seemed perfectly astute as she explained her brazilian wax to me. it made total sense.


and see, here? kira and i both looking perfectly capable of staggering to the car after and having the driver take us "back to that place".


hey. nice scarf. i should wear that more often.

meat. as big as your arm.

so there's this restaurant in sao paulo called figueroa, for the 150 year old fig tree that grows in the middle of it.

me, fig tree:


fig tree, restaurant:


the family that owns it, the figgersons, or something, i don't really remember, also own estancias where they ranch their own meat. and it's good. real good.

my meat (in a g rated kind of way):


you can also go the route kira and richard went: meat the size of your forearm:


as long as you save room for dessert. why?
because you have to have an excuse to pose in front of a dessert table, for one:


and the desserts are as sick as the meat.


you know how you never think you're going to type a sentence, and then, BAM, there you are saying things like "my meat" and "pose in front of the dessert table"?

yeah, that's the kind of day it's been, my friends. full of unexpected things.

dinner and some light shopping, brazil style -

so the holidays down here are rather. . . festive:


i don't know, tgret, is a very gold xmas your kind of thing? i'm thinking not.

and the stores we saw today? all about the architecture, less about the product. very life as product kind of mentality.


even the restaurant went all out to announce their holiday.
subtle.
i like:


but the food was great, as were kira and betania, cutest couple of the night:


caroline and bebe, not a couple, still cute as hell:


you know these hams:


and my connie!

i don't want to say i SET trend, but . . .

if you all remember, i bought my patent bag a couple of months ago.

and connie's is brand new.

just saying. some lead. some follow.

the hotel emiliano, sao paulo, brafabulosozil -

another hotel story.

(look if you don't enjoy me rambling on and on about design of hotels i stay in . . . well, scroll down, i'm an interesting person, i'm sure there's SOMETHING here you'll like. there. look to the right. cute puppies. everyone likes puppies. unless you don't have a SOUL.)

where was . . . oh yeah. sao paulo's hotel emiliano. i likey.
first, the room is HUGE.
polar opposite of hong kong's small and chic. this is kinda vast:



and i seriously covet the little marble slab dining table thingy.
i want to take it home and eat/blog on it every day:


'course, i'd have to take the blackened steel and woven rattan stools. else where would i sit?


(turns out this is gisele bundchen's room whenever she comes down "home")

lobby doesn't suck:


nor does the open to the sky orchid terrarium:


big creepy bout to hatch and kill us all alien pod thing
MIGHT HAVE TO MOVE ALONG NOW CAUSE IT'S CREEPIN ME OUT:


we're enjoying hangin with the locals here:


(ok, betania isn't local.
and sara fisher, get out of that picture of the locals.
you too kira carstensen.
you are ALL ruining my little denoument.)

landis smithers, you ARE a very stylish boy -

so, granted, there was the 19 some hour with layovers included flight to get to sao paulo.
but i think i traveled a little stylish. givin myself some props:


and what was on the other side?
why am i standing on a big yellow dot, you ask?


why, i was waiting for my next "mode of travel":


what? you didn't see the helicopter coming?
yep. that's how we go from port to hotel here in brazil, baby.
just me, richard, and sara:



takin pics of each other along the way:


the precarious land on the roof of the hotel emiliano.
we bobbed twice before settling. i think the net was to catch richard's screams of horror:


i know, i know.
but i'm kind of getting into this helicopter life.

yellow alert update (this NEVER happens) -

a hottie DID end up entering airport lounge just around takeoff time.

and then,
because sometimes god is kind,
hottie sat in seat NEXT TO ME FOR WHOLE FLIGHT.

see. sometimes things work out.
i didn't have to watch "ratatouille" for the fourth time.

old navy holiday commercial - get out and play

this week, we cut loose a little, and play . . .



mr. christopher doyle, pacing the floor before creating more magic . . .

zoe havler, nina keita, and tatyana danilchenko, before the sprint . . .


matt loewen had to do quite a few crunches to get the shot . . .


and damn, if tatyana didn't hold matt and sam off . . . wearing those heels!



(and oh yeah. the puppies in THIS spot . . . they're still pitts. gotta love the cuteness.)

airport alert : level yellow

ok,
i know, i KNOW, this is the second day of no pictures on the post.

i'll get to it, breathe.

i'm sitting in the airport lounge getting ready to begin the never-ending flight
(19 hours combined)
to sao paulo.

did i not mention i'm going to sao paulo? really?

i'm casting there for a few days, then off to buenos aires to location scout.

for the spring tv campaign, that's why. god, you're nosy today.

it's a big new venture, i'll fill you in on the details as i go along, but we're trying something really different this time around. all kinds of fun newness.

i'll tell you in due time, breathe. you ARE jumpy today, aren't you?

so, hence no pics today. scroll down and read my nice quotes that none of you deigned to comment on yesterday. enlighten thyself. i'm just saying. or stare at the masthead, it's cute and new.

there's a ton of pics and stories about argentina comin your way over the next month and a half, cause that's where i'll be living on this production . . . while tim moves the pups and our stuff to the new abode, and launches his two HUGE tech projects he officially sold through this morning (just got iphoned about the wins) involving all kinds of tech stuff that essentially feels like 101101111001011 to me.

we be busy. workin on change.

now if only there was some hottie in the lounge for eye candy on this flight to dulles. . .

ADVICE - december edition

so,
i've started playlists,
porn,
and now quotes.

all things i believe to be integral to an informed life.

(and for those of you wondering, i think an "informed life" means you cram your head full of all kinds of detritus, from beautiful images to harsh ramblings, from the inspired to the insipid. mix them all up in your noggin, then judiciously pour them out into a carafe and dispense liberally amongst those you love. it's what makes the whole ride worthwhile.)

so, the playlist part is an easy one,
we all love some new music in our lives,
and the porn part. . . well that just makes things spicy.
(the bottega resort collection catalog got dropped on evelyn's desk yesterday by a well-meaning/vicious friend who had just come back from vegas . . . let's just say a good half hour was spent perusing the six hundred dollar polo shirts with detachable collars and the three thousand dollar intrecciato woven python handbags. what? it's RESORT, people. short sleeves? python? ring a bell?)

anyhoo.

quotes. wisdom through the ages as it were. here are december's:

“Be daring, be different, be impractical,
be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision
against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace,
the slaves of the ordinary.”
(cecil beaton)

"Truth be told, I had more fun when I was piss poor,"
(jayZ)

"the average life is full of near misses and absolute hits,
great loves and small disasters,
it’s made up of loft insulation, banana milkshakes and random shoes,
it’s dead awful and truly truly amazing,
what you’ve got to realize is it’s all here, now,
so breathe deep and swallow it whole,
because take it from me, it just whizzes by and then it’s . . ."
(torchwood)


and yes. i get to quote beaton, a rap mogul, and a sci fi channel show in one month.

that's the gift of the blog.

trading down(size) and moving out(side) -

apparently, recent posts have tipped some of you to changes we've been working on here in the left coast life. this is to let you know, change (while something i actively loathe, though force myself to embrace) is under way, and it's coming with hidden surprises. which are good.

we're leaving the place on the hill.
which comes with mixed emotions, a whole landis grab bag of "but, then, oh, and if only's".
the place was huge, not just by san fran standards, and had killer views.
this was "impressive" to everyone who visited,
but i was never really there,
we never entertained (a sin compared to our chicago life),
and tim and i lived in just two rooms (neither of which HAD the forementioned views).

(and yes, the two rooms WERE the television room and the dressing room. big surprise.)

(and, small detail, the condo president hated our dogs.
and was pursuing legal action against them.
true story. hilarious.).

SO, we're moving to a smaller place, down the hill, in the valley.
downsizing literally, to figure out our next steps in life (sf? china? narnia?)
so we've spent the past few weeks inventory-ing our home
(what to keep, what to store, what to get rid of. kind of like that page in BAZAAR, only back when liz tilberis was alive and editing, and the magazine was chic and linda evangelista cradled the logo in her hand on the cover, and you cared what they said about what to keep/store/trash),
calling movers, picking new paint colors.

it's honestly been a little hard for me.
i'm all about my home
(blame the full moon in my cusp. true story. hilarious)
and i hate shaking it up.

but then two things happened.

we were walking the dogs PAST the place,
hadn't closed on the deal yet, and grr whips to the right,
and virtually drags tim up the stairs . . . of the place she'd never seen,
and that we weren't sure we were even going to get.

when she reached the door, she just turned and looked over her shoulder at us.

spooked us both.

then, once all the papers were signed and we were set in our decision,
we took them over while we were figuring out what goes where.
and i looked out the window into our new yard,
and saw this:


there are reasons for everything, my friends.
even if we're not ready to see them in the moment.