Lipstick & Magazines #16: Summer

I'm a pretty constant reader. There's always one book or another splayed on my bedside table, but, more often than not, during busy school or other mentally-taxing times, that book will be pretty soft-serve and simple (hence my recent consumption of The Ivy Chronicles - hey! I found it at Goodwill!).

So my beachy, summertime reads are usually the deeper tomes, that would seem to make more sense during dark winter nights. My last beach time with a friend in Florida found me deeply engaged in Atonement, if that gives you a sense of what I mean here.

So for my upcoming beach time, I've got the following list going (always in progress and subject to change, especially since I find the book stalls in airports tremendously appealing for some random reason):

A Seahorse Year ~ Stacey D'Erasmo (set in San Francisco and I enjoyed her book Tea)

The Child in Time ~ Ian McEwan (he worked last time)

Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times ~ ed. by Kevin Smokler ( a buddy of mine & I've already cackled out loud at one piece)

Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey ~ Holley Bishop (well, I love honey, but I must confess I was totally seduced by the cover)

Crossing California ~ Adam Langer (looks like a good, solid novel & I'm going to Chicago--where the book is set--for the first time later in June)

And I also sit, toe-tapping and anxious, waiting for some of my favorite authors (Charles Baxter, A.M. Homes) to write a little faster and give me more gems to read.

Lipstick & Magazines #15: Bite

The new online food mag Saucy, from Bookslut's Jessa Crispin, features some lovely and totally right-on features, including this touching article from Colleen Mondor, the mother of a recently diagnosed diabetic, whose foodie sensibilities must now mold themselves to serve more important criteria. Saucy also compiles an eminently browseable collection of food links and recent articles.

I thought the Accidental Scientist's Science of Cooking site from San Francisco's Exploratorium would be totally kid-oriented, but it has some really funky info, including how to make rock candy (cool!), a brief history of ketchup, and a wonderfully geeky food discussion board with topics like "Failed marmalade - Can it be salvaged??"

As a food lover who needs to do a little research before settling on the best birthday-splurge restaurants, I usually end up at Chowhound, which has recently published food guides to the SF Bay Area and the NY area. Talk about passionate. These discussion boards can get a bit feisty as debates rage on about whether Limon is all it's cracked up to be, or if San Francisco has any good pizza AT ALL, but this is a great site for figuring out what the best picks are on unfamiliar menus.

Lipstick & Magazines #14: Contact

I want to share my stash of free e-card links. At some point a few years back, all the sites I used starting charging for all but the ugliest Garfield and bad flash animation cards. So, here are three that I use and I'd love to hear about more from you:

Chronicle Books makes almost all of their high-design images available to send as e-cards. Smart marketing and publicity folks! Bust Magazine also has kitsch fun postcards and SFGate has a stylish variety with Bay Area flavor.

And you can't send them, but the Tacky Postcard Archive is very good browsing and some sneaky commentary. Nancy Reagan on Mr. T's lap? Who knew.

If you enjoy vintage postcards, particularly those thick card-stock, tacky ones you often find in little piles at yard sales, check out the tour of the USA in vintage postcards and the Vintage Vegas Postcard Museum (the site also has some cool vintage matchbooks).

Lipstick & Magazines #13: Chick

Does anyone else have conflicting feelings about the term "chick flick"? I've always worked at video stores to supplement my student loans during school, and when I worked at a store in the Castro and guys would ask for help picking a chick flick to watch with their boyfriend, the request was always delivered with enough kitsch *wink* that I was usually charmed. In Noe Valley, the request was usually either "anything but a chick flick"- from a guy - or "my husband's out of town so I need a chick flick"- from a woman, neither of which charmed me as much, and which made making a recommendation a bit more difficult.

I love complex movies about girls and women, so here is my personal take on the some of the best highly non-traditional "chick flicks" out there:

The Professional: Natalie Portman's relationship with a big-hearted assassin forms the center of this movie that is sometimes bloody, sometimes terrifying, but always wonderful.

Mostly Martha: A German film about a woman chef and her life and loves - some of the best shrink visit scenes ever.

Walking & Talking: With Catherine Keener (always amazing) and Anne Heche (pre-Fresno freakout), this friendship flick is directed by Nicole Holofcener, who also directed Lovely & Amazing. She really nails the complexities of old friends as their relationship continually reshapes itself to accommodate new loves.

Tumbleweeds: A lovely mother-daughter road-trip movie that avoids most of the predictable cheese and feels authentic and real.

Freeway: If you think Reese Witherspoon is all blonde hair and bubblegum you are so, so wrong. This movie played at the Roxie theater in SF for months and months in 1997 and became a raging cult favorite. In a perverse take on Little Red Ridinghood, Reese battles through to find grandma, and stars with an incredible, and incredibly twisted cast, including Brooke Shields, Kiefer Sutherland, and Amanda Plummer.

Lipstick & Magazines #12: Buy

If Spring brings out your intense desire for new shoes, fresh sheets, and sweet gems, check out these distinctive online stores.

Zappos has a ridiculous selection of shoe brands, including dollhouse, Irregular Choice, and Chinese Laundry. AND they offer free shipping and free returns within 365 days (on unworn shoes). AND they have a feature that allows you to store your "Favorites" so that you can not only compare the shoes to each other, but come back and make your decisions later. Lots of sales, lots of personal reviews, searchable by style/size/color and more.

The Company Store offers a welcome antidote to the oatmealy, cream-colored, pastel, boring boring sheets available in so many department stores, as does Dwell Shop. Dwell's sets are more sophisticated and "subtle, " while The Company Store bursts with polka dots, stripes, flowers, and utter cuteness. CS also offers "jersey knit" aka t-shirt material bedding, which is super comforting and soft.

Plain Mabel brings together jewelry, accessories, and other goods from dozens of indie artists and crafters. New items are updated often, and current goodies include oilcloth totes, handmade knitting needle cases, and fuzzy guitar straps. Uncommon Goods claims to offer "anything but ordinary"; drinking game checkers fits the bill, as do their fabulous glassware and completely adorable juice and milk container covers.

And finally, end the week with Hello Kitty's Psychological test, even more perceptive, in that wonderfully inaccurate translation way then BBC's Sex ID test.

Lipstick & Magazines #11: Join

Really now, sometimes it should be about having some fun, even when you can't control it all.

Do you work for an organization that likes to encourage "out of the box" thinking, or the importance of "leveraging," but only after the appropriate amount of "right-sizing" has resulted in all your good friends being laid off? Business Buzzword Bingo offers a slim ray of light amidst the lingo. Happily, the terms seem as appropriate to non-profit meetings as to the corporate sort. Play on!

Do you feel like sometimes, maybe once in awhile, like every four years, your vote doesn't really have an impact? Well, now Ben and Jerry's offers you the opportunity to turn that sad feeling upside down. Vote to bring back your favorite ice cream flavor from the graveyard! I didn't even KNOW there had been a Coconut Cream Pie Low-Fat Ice Cream. But I do have intense memories of White Russian...

And riffing just a bit more on baby names, the Baby Name Wizard's Name Voyager site is way too cool. Curious whether old-fashioned girl's names are really trendy around the nation, or just in your hipster SF neighborhood? Looking for the most popular names from the 1910s (Myrtle, Ophelia)? Of course you'll look your own name up, but beware the ticking clock if you get trapped looking up all your friends' and distant relatives' too.

Lipstick & Magazines #10: Chill

The rain, the rain. And for some of you the snow, the snow. It's inspiring lots of "those days," where all you want to do is snuggle in and be entertained. So here's a recipe to make it good.

First, the consumables:

Make yourself some chocolate chip, dried apricot, nut cookies, recommended by Loobylu. Or have someone make them for you. These are ridiculously tasty, especially with regular chips or a mix of white and regular.

Tea is good too, and Mighty Leaf tea comes in little fabric pouches so you will feel your tea is extra-special. And don't ruin it with a tacky teapot. Go for a Bee House teapot in Carrot or Kiwi colors. These Japanese beauties are super-styling.

And on to the readables:

I've been suffering the painful inability to get invested in novels, until I was recently snared by Meg Wolitzer's new novel The Position. Wolitzer follows the lives of four siblings whose lives were forever molded by their encounter with the sex book their parents wrote in the 1970s.

You'll need some magazines too. Topic Magazine has a specific theme for each issue (Food, Family, etc.) and features funky photography, short stories, and personal essays. Topic looks high-design but it reads real-life.

And for watchables:

Julia Roberts? Tom Cruise? Do they really draw you to the theater? Yeah, right. Hope Davis, though. She's a box-office draw for the indie sort, and if you haven't seen some of her movies, get thee to the Netflix page or the video store for Next Stop Wonderland, American Splendor, The Daytrippers, or The Secret Lives of Dentists. Hope, you kinda feel like you can call her Hope cause she seems like she'd be cool to hang out with, invokes instant empathy in all her fabulous, no-frills roles.

And take care.

Lipstick & Magazines #9: Tasty

Given that I am in the final few days of writing my monster let-me-graduate-please papers, today is all about "simple pleasures" (I know a few of you will be able to laugh at that).

Here, then, some websites that just make me happy. And they are all about food:

* Claire Crespo has the enviable job of publishing cookbooks that are really more photography books of food made to look like other things. Her website is just total "flash" fun (be sure to have the sound on).

* Cowgirl Creamery, local cheesemakers, have a really sweet site and (heart aflutter) a "Library of Cheese."

* It will give you tremendous pleasure to read about the items that go into Zingerman's gift baskets. They also have a catalog you can subscribe to for free that is some of the best reading around, if you like rapturous descriptions of olive oils, honeys, breads, cheeses...

Lipstick & Magazines #8: Thinkers

This week, a couple of items to make you go hhmmmmmm - errr?

Cosmo sex quizzes could be written by monkeys. Hey, I love monkeys, but if I can figure out by the second question that picking all "B" answers will make me seem really outgoing, then it's not really worth the time. Enter the BBC's Brain Sex ID quiz - take about 20 minutes, includes word questions, visual and perception challenges and more, and then the computer will tell you if your brain is primarily male or female. Or hermaphroditic. Fascinating.

Want to make real money bets about the future of the written word, computer intelligence, or the next presidential race? If you want to both stretch your mind, and see what some of our current "great minds" predict will happen over the next decades and centuries, check out Long Bets, which describes itself as a "public arena for enjoyably competitive predictions, of interest to society, with philanthropic money at stake."

Lipstick & Magazines #7: Household

Utilitarian household items are becoming totally glam.

Witness:

* Hello glitter spatulas.

* Hot little toasters.

Lipstick & Magazines #6: Smirk

SHOCKING though it may seem, I was a very, very, very sarcastic teenager. Though surviving in the working, and social, world has required tempering that a bit, I still enjoy a really wicked website. I imagine some of you who embrace the juicy side of pop culture will take as much gleeful pleasure from these sites, but if your sensibilities are tender, you might not laugh as much.

The ladies at Go Fug Yourself write ravaging commentary about fugly-dressed celebrities. Endlessly funny, especially the B. Spears section. Oh, Britney.

Diana Goodman, who also makes some funky crafts, comments on postings to baby name websites at Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing. If you wonder about why people name their children after liquor and cars, this is a good site for you.

And to wash it all, down, Television Without Pity is the site to visit when you want to pretend you don't care about "bad" TV, but still want to know what's going on. Or maybe you fully 'fess up to watching bad TV but, tragically, had to miss an episode of, say, America's Next Top Model. Funny, funny writers, and they also cover "good" shows like, mmmm, Lost and Alias.

Lipstick & Magazines #5: Flicks and Reads

Sometimes the perfect movie or book recommendation comes at the exact right moment. Other times, you can flounder for awhile, starting and stopping books you hate, watching boring and/or just terrible films. While a personal recommendation from someone whose taste you trust is best, here are a few of the cool tools available for finding ideas when your other sources run dry.

Flicks

Rotten Tomatoes compiles movie (and video game) previews and reviews, and then ranks films as either *fresh* or *rotten* tomatoes. Their movie database features more than 100,000 films and the site has a really good look too,

Google (ah, google) has recently added a movie search tool, so if you vaguely remember something about a film, but not the name or any of the actors, you now have the best shot of finding the movie (and compiled reviews, links to theaters in your area, etc. etc.) Just type, for example, "movie: french kids" (or whatever you remember, even a quote) and see what comes up.

Netflix has also added a new *Friends* tool for members, so that you and all your special friends can see how each other ranks different movies. You can also store suggestions for each other.

Books

Boldtype used to be a Random House newsletter but has been (thankfully) taken over by the ever-cool Flavorpill. They send out a really good monthly e-newsletter full of current book recommendations, each of which has a quick synopsis, a review, and a bunch of related links.

Books We Like describes itself as "collective intelligence and activist e-commerce." People recommend books, and assign tags/keywords, so that you can browse by topic or recommender, and everything grows organically as more people come to the table. If you join in, you can also store a reading list.

As for my personal recommendations, I'm raving about Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, a mysterious, and very smart novel that weaves together a few sneaky story lines: perfect for cold nights. Also, a new-on-DVD documentary My Architect: A Son's Journey about a man trying to discover the real story of his father, architect Louis Kahn, who died when he was 11 years old.

Lipstick & Magazines #4: Kiss and Read

Finally, some true love goes out to our namesake topics, lipstick and magazines. What would I do without you my friends, my little pick-me-ups?

Lips

At 27, I might be old enough to claim MAC's Paramount as my signature color, but I don't want to get stuck in a rut. Without a doubt, Mac lipsticks are some of the best. Once you buy a $15-20 quality lipstick, you won't turn back, and unlike some of the truly frightening and intimidating make-up counter people out there, MAC seems to hire a nicer breed.

For gloss, check out Lip Medic. I was recently looking for a coconut-banana flavor I used to be able to find at my neighborhood hippie bath store. On Lip Medic, you can search by flavor and find some truly cool glosses. Who knew there were more than 5 banana-flavored glosses? They also have a gloss/balm of the month, which would be a nice gift for that specific special someone.

Mags

Never, ever subscribe to a magazine without doing a little price research. Net Magazines has a 5 for $30 subscription package which I used to rave about, but they've lost some of the cooler titles. Still worth a visit. I recently subscribed to a few titles through Shopper Values. First you become a member (ummm, enter your name and email, and unclick all the spam), then you can find Budget Living for $5 a year, and Dwell Magazine for less than $10. Also, if you're looking for a particular title, always search eBay. Magazines obviously benefit by having high subscriber numbers, so these wholesalers can sell subscriptions really cheaply.

Lipstick & Magazines #3: Brain Break

Whether you are a jammie-wearing freelancer, a drowning student, or an office-bound corporate kid, there's always that moment during the day (for me it's 3pm), when a brain break is absolutely required. I'm a huge proponent of breaks of all kinds in fact, and when going out for leisurely cuppa tea is not an option, sometimes visiting a website that you haven't visited ten million times before is the best you can do. Here are a few sites that do it for me, starting at brain "lite" and moving a little deeper:

* Ferry Halim's Orisinal features some of the most charming and original computer games. Catch an egg in a floating basket! Make the kitties move and stop moving! Bubble bees! Really though, these are so beautiful created and a great way to chill out for 3 minutes - check them out. (*Hidden treasure - under "Misc," second box offer is a link to a "Make You Own Flower Bouquet" e-card. Absolutely free and totally sweet)

* 10x10 is updated every hour with words and photos culled from international news sources to create, as the site describes, a "snapshot of our world." Reading about how the site works is fascinating; seeing the final resort change over time, even more so.

* Identity Theory has some of the best author interviews, as well as a bunch of smarties, funny writers, serious writers and others talking about literature, culture, life, and a little bit of everything else. A great browsing site...and they are currently looking for people who want to blog about the books they're reading.

Lipstick & Magazines #2: Write Me

I would like to be a better, and more consistent, letter-writer. As a little girl, I had penpals in Pittsfield, MA, and Finland. I received long letters written in crayon and Finnish chocolate and Christmas ornaments. Now, I have one penpal who is owed a woefully late response (sorry J!). My dirty little secret is that I have tons of beautiful cards. I buy them, get attached to them, and then can't let go of them. Ridiculous!

So, my next plan of attack is stationary and card SETS. This way, I can always save just a little bit.

Here are some options I'm eyeing:

* Jack and Lulu note-sets available online at Fred Flare - sweet, simple stripes and dots

* One Creative Girl - adorable fabric-patterned cards

* Snow & Graham - sweet, sweet letter-press cards. Not available online, but in mass quantities at expensive stores in Hayes Valley!

Lipstick & Magazines #1: Cuties

Sushi is probably on the outs as far as In Style trendy goes, but I really don't care. Real sushi is delicious, and as artistic inspiration, it has limitless potential. I'd seen sushi erasers, bags, even knit sushi, but this is the most beautiful sushi candy I have ever seen. I've never tasted it, so I can't vouch for the flavor, but for now it's good enough as eye candy.

* Find the goods: Kooki Sushi

While homeownership is not in my imminent future, I can still entertain myself with dreams about appliances. I hadn't really had any yet, but Big Chill Fridge is breaking me in. Green Apple, Pink Lemonade, Buttercup Yellow. No I'm not talking about nail polish or lip gloss. We are talking the most drool-worthy refrigerators you have over seen. If you buy one, lemme know so I can come over and touch it

* Find the goods: Big Chill Fridge

Lipstick & Magazines #0: Sampling

I used to save up my $ and buy grab bags from the Hello Kitty store in downtown SF, big paper sacks, bulging with Sanrio stuff, stapled up. The excitement was almost too much to bear. I would always try to peek inside to get the best one, but I think they were onto my game. The staples were pretty close together.

Home of the Sampler is taking an idea we all love (small, free things) and throwing in that delectable element of surprise. Marie in Berkeley, CA, who runs the site, is now offering a sort of clearinghouse for crafty people and those who love their goods. Subscriptions for sampler bags are full at the moment but will be opening up for the March sampler on Monday, January 31 at 11am. Feast your eyes on the treats that were sent out over the past few months and let the anticipation begin. And if you're a nifty craftster yourself, becoming a contributor is the perfect opportunity for spreading your wares to people all around the world.