Shit Liz Lemon Says

It’s about time!

Watch: Shit Liz Lemon Says

(If you ever wondered where the name for this blog came from, now you know.)

Chloe in Toronto

Nick and I spent yesterday afternoon hiding from the snow and finally watched the film Chloe.

The things that set it apart from other thrillers – besides its much talked-about intimate scene between Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried – would be its gorgeous cinematography and the fact that it’s not only shot in Toronto, but the film uses the city almost as a character. Many texts are sent in the vain of “Meet me at the Rivoli“, mentions of “he eats lunch at Cafe Diplomatico everyday”, or Chloe herself saying she loves Allan Gardens.

The house that Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson live in in the movie is a expansive modern ravine home featuring a whole lot of windows by Toronto architect Drew Mandel. (Architecture nerds can see more here.)

So many movies have been made about New York, Paris, London, we need more purposely set in Toronto! The only other movie I can think that’s taken the city for what it is and shown off some of its best destinations would be Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Have they made a movie about your favourite city or the city you live in?

Friday the Thirteenth

This Friday, I had the most interesting, and best, Friday the 13th of my life.

It started out early with my favourite monthly appointment – Creative Mornings. The speaker was Jacob Krupnick, the creator, director, and cinematographer for dance film/NYC love letter, Girl Walk All Day.

After an upbeat lecture where he explained the makings and showed some behind-the-scenes of Girl Walk All Day, he screened the 70-minute film in its entirety. Even though it was 10 am, a dance party ensued…

It was hard not to join in – I know I was dancing with a bunch of strangers in my parka at one point!

Go here to watch Girl Walk All Day and dance at your desk.

Later that night, things got a lot spookier. Nick, Kate, Bryan, and I went to see Sleep No More at the McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea. This “show” is loosely based on Macbeth, but you’re wandering amongst the actors in a real live choose-your-adventure story.

Upon arrival, everyone working at the hotel is in character. You immediately surrender all coats, bags, and personality. You’re led into the lounge where you immediately feel like you’re in a David Lynch movie. A strange man calls you by group number and you’re given a white mask to wear that you can’t take off until you leave. You’re put into an elevator and dropped off on a random floor. Although it’s hard to tell at first since the hotel is so disorienting, there are 6 floors and 100 rooms to explore. Each room is different and made up with much effort and detail and they encourage you to root through papers and books, eat candy from jars, and touch what you please. You’ll pass through a graveyard, children’s rooms, bedrooms, offices, hotel lobbies, a morgue, and a ballroom.

You aren’t meant to stick with the friends you came with – it’s hard to even tell who they are with the masks on in the dark. The actors and actresses go from room to room, up and down across all floors throughout the night. Many people choose to follow one actor, but I wanted to make sure I saw every room so I just spent  my time evenly on the lower and upper floors.

I won’t say much more incase you are planning on going yourself and if you have the chance, I think you should!

Still curious? Read some excellent coverage here. Also, How to Find all the Nudity in Sleep No More.

Was your Friday the 13th as lucky as mine?

[Creative Mornings photo by Emily Gilbert, Sleep No More photos by New York Times]

Moonrise Kingdom

Exciting news alert: there’s a new Wes Anderson movie waiting in the wings!

“Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, MOONRISE KINGDOM tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore — and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle. Bruce Willis plays the local sheriff. Edward Norton is a Khaki Scout troop leader. Bill Murray and Frances McDormand portray the young girl’s parents. The cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as the boy and girl.”

Another reason you may or may not appreciate Moonrise Kingdom even more is that the titles were designed by one of my favourite artists, font creators, and fellow former co-inhabitor of the Pencil Factory in Greenpoint, Jessica Hische.

The math is easy:

Wes Anderson+ Bill Murray + Bruce Willis + Jessica Hische = what’s sure to be one of my favourite movies of 2012.

Watch the trailer.

How to make 2012 great

Do you make New Years Resolutions? I prefer to set goals for myself.

For the past three years, Nick and I have made a point to sit down on New Year’s Eve to think of what we want to accomplish in the coming year, then we share them with each other. This year, we decided to set a date in July to review our goals so we could see how we were doing half way through the year. Nothing’s worse than remembering a forgotten goal, but you’ve run out of time to do anything about it!

Here are my 2012 goals:

1. Read 15 books
2. See a whale
3. Continue to practice yoga 3-4 times a week
4. Perfect my headstand
5. Start playing bass again
6. Take more photos and bring that heavy DSLR out more
7. Visit a new place with Nick
8. Obtain three more Social Media clients
9. File for my LLC and learn how to use it to its full potential
10. TBA!

What will you accomplish this year?

See also: How to make 2011 great

[Photo: icanread.tumblr.com]

2011: A Year In Review

Happy New Year’s Eve! As Nick and I prepare to do our traditional New Year’s watching of “When Harry Met Sally” and make/share our lists of goals for 2012, it seems like a perfect time to look back on 2011. Even though this year seemed to fly by, so much happened!

JANUARY

- After the holidays, returned to work at Insound to find approximately a trillion online orders for the new CAKE album that had to be processed and sent out

- Met Ezra who was hired temporarily to help get the records sent out quickly. We realized we had a lot of the same musical taste and I declared him my New York Eli.

- It snowed and snowed and snowed

- I spent most of my mornings holding on to the iron gate below so I wouldn’t slip and fall on my way to work

FEBRUARY

- Nick and I attended our first New York Knicks basketball game, which was a ton of fun.

- We celebrated our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple at – where else? – Peter Luger!

- I changed positions at Insound from White Label to Fulfillment.

MARCH

- The Japan earthquake and tsunami bummed me out

- After a few weeks at my new job, I started to experience serious leg pain. Turns out, my hips and knee joints were inflamed from over use. My body was very unhappy with my new job, working in a warehouse and running around all day. I started to get hives and thought I had shingles!

- Needless to say, I gave my resignation. I need legs more than I need discounted records.

- I planned a trip home to Canada the weekend after my last day at Insound. I needed some family, friend, and Canada time, big time!

- Coincidentally while in Toronto, my old employer of 6+ years, The Agency Group, was throwing themselves a 15th anniversary party! I was invited and of course I went.

- An old coworker from The Agency Group who now manages bands got a hold of me and hired me to do design, web, and social media for one of her clients, USS!

- I also started doing a freelance wedding planning assistant job for an older couple from New York

APRIL

- By April, my freelance work was really coming along and keeping me busy. I stopped applying for other jobs.

- Experienced the best “April Fool’s Joke” ever – Elvis Costello playing three of his best songs before The Strokes hit the stage at Madison Square Garden!

- Nick and I moved into a fantastic new apartment, just one block away from our old one. Check out our sweet “box blinds” above!

- I attended my first of many Creative Mornings  in DUMBO

- Started doing Ashtanga yoga, instead of the usual Vinyasa, and fell in love with it. Have been practicing 2-4 times a week ever since.

MAY

- Celebrated Cinco De Mayo with Kate and some Mexican wrestlers

- Nick and I discovered comedy shows at Caroline’s in Times Square. We saw Jim Jeffries, Bill Burr, and Whitney Cummings while eating dinner, sipping beers, and laughing. What a perfect night out!

- Kate & I continue our fun by attending a Seychelle’s party. We drink free vodka, eat a free dinner, then later pay $25 for a glass of champagne, justifying we would have normally spent more than that anyway!

- My sister, Jenn, comes to visit for a weekend. I take her to Babycakes for gluten-free treats, Risotteria for gluten-free dinner, then help this hard-working mom get drunk for the first time in 7 years on red wine!

JUNE

- My old roomie, Angela, comes to visit from San Francisco. We attend the opening of Jeremy Fish‘s art show, then a rooftop party in Chelsea.

- I attend Smorgasburg in Williamsburg and fall in love with all the food stands

- June’s Creative Mornings helps get me a few other jobs when I meet Mark from BCS Interactive while waiting for the lecture to start. We nerd out on fonts, design, and then he and his partner Lou hire me to do Social Media for some of their accounts.

JULY

- Julia and Jay visit, Nick and I get to feed them all our favourite things. Of course, this includes another trip to Smorgasburg.

- Nick and I spend the 4th of July weekend in Lancaster, PA with Nick’s Dad

- Went to the beach in Long Island a few times and actually got a tan

- Nick and I fly up to Toronto, just in time to experience the hottest day ever! Luckily, we later go up to my parents’ cottage and swim in the river under the shady trees for relief.

- While in Toronto, we celebrate our first wedding anniversary

AUGUST

- Canada’s NDP Leader Jack Layton passes away

- Courtney and Jesse move away to Atlanta

- In preparation for mine & Nick’s trip to Europe at the end of August, I read an entire guide book on Paris and create the most-organized and complete trip itinerary of my life.

- Attend limited-time dumpster pool party “The Palms” in Long Island City with Olivia.

- Nick and I travel to London, attend the Reading Festival, take the train to Paris, then back to London to fly home

- I read most of The Girl Who Played With Fire on the plane, train, and our Parisian balcony and decide there’s something to this novel series.

SEPTEMBER

- Nick goes on his yearly “man beach trip” with his best friends so I decide to treat myself to a bonus Canada visit

- Get to attend Julia and Jay’s engagement party while in Toronto

- I manage to get a ticket to one of the unattainable, sold out in 31 seconds Radiohead shows in New York. Go to the show solo, but end up chatting with Rolling Stone’s David Fricke.

OCTOBER

- We mourn the death of Steve Jobs

- I turn 30, promptly get called a cougar

- Julia and her two other bridesmaids visit, I finally have an excuse to go to Lovely Bridal shop and watch her try on dresses

- I luck out and get another trip to Toronto! My fourth of 2011. It’s a quick one though, just two days, but still enough time to see two shows, friends, and a family dinner at a steakhouse.

- While we’re in Toronto, New York gets a freak snowstorm! The snow melts in approximately one day.

NOVEMBER

- Nick and I finally try out the Grand Central Oyster Bar

- I take part in a Rainbow Parade

- We finally get to see Louis CK do standup live during the New York Comedy Festival

- We spend Thanksgiving at home, celebrating with a trip to Central Park, another Jim Jeffries comedy show, and turkey tacos for dinner

DECEMBER

- I realize now that I work freelance from home, I have no Christmas parties to go to! Then I get invited to The Agency Group NY’s party. Phew!

- Nick and I go to Lancaster for an early Christmas to visit his Dad. We scope out the mall, find Simpsons DVDs on sale at a music store, and the biggest assortment of gummi candy ever!

- We go see the Rockefeller Center tree a mere 3 days before Christmas and it’s a mob scene!

- Fly up to Canada for Christmas with the family. Spend 4 out of 5 days living in a cabin in the woods and have 5 moose keep us from being able to get to the grocery store.

How was your 2011? What was the best part?

Feeling nostalgic? Check out:

2010 + 2009

Christmas 2011

Nick and I flew up to Canada to see my family for Christmas last Friday. We drove up to my parents’ cottage that evening and saw snow for the first time since that weird storm in October. It was lovely and oh so very Christmasy!

When we got inside, my parents showed us their tree (below). It actually volunteered to become a Christmas tree by falling on my Dad’s Jeep. It’s a little scraggly, but the pile of presents in front of it help.

Christmas Eve night was spent at Jenn and Ryan’s brand new house in Oshawa! It was great to see my sister and her family and they did a great job hosting their first Christmas dinner.

We all did our part to tire out the kids so they’d sleep that night, even though Ben is now old enough to know about Santa.

Ben loves to help clean!

Hello Kitty PJs and ice cream cone toys.

I think Jillian has a crush on my husband.

After the kids (and Jenn) went to bed that night, us adults exchanged presents and played Apples to Apples til after midnight. I love that game! Oh and the box above was part of my brother’s gift wrapping skills.

We got up before 7 am Christmas morning to watch the kids open their presents. Ben was up bright and early, but Jillian wanted to sleep in. Toys helped get her in the Christmas spirit.

The rest of the visit was spent at the cottage. It was nice to have some quiet time with my parents and Nick, but it was great that my Grandparents, Ryan & Suzanne, and Jenn & Jillian all came for visits too.

Lots of food was had, Canadian beer drank, and most importantly, family was around. What more do you need at Christmas? Oh, there were also multiple moose sightings up in Fenelon Falls! My American friends would have had all their stereotypical Canadian suspicions confirmed if they were with me.

How were your holidays? Did you travel?

My Favourite Movies of 2011

I just got the chance to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo this afternoon, and after confirming that it was in fact as fantastic as it looked, I can post my last Best Of List for 2011! So here we go, in no official order, my favourite movies of 2011:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Fantastic, dark, intelligent and appropriately violent! David Fincher did a great job turning this book into a movie. He makes the lead character, Lisbeth Salander, more instantly likable than the books did and cut out some of the unnecessary meanderings of the novels. I hope he makes the other two. Until then, I’ll be waiting anxiously.

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2

My favourite book-to-movie series every, the 10-year Harry Potter movie theatre reign came to a bittersweet end this year. Bittersweet because the last two movies were great, but now there’s no more to look forward to! However, I did take solace in knowing they were all made well and that I never lost interest. Thanks for everything, Harry!

Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen’s love letter to Paris in the form of a film was the final push Nick and I needed to decide to visit the city this summer. The movie tells a funny and unique story while at the same time showcasing legendary writers and featuring gorgeous Parisian landmarks. What’s not to like?

Beginners

Funny, sad, and beautiful all at the same time.

Bridesmaids

Just plain funny.

Bill Cunningham: New York

A must-see documentary for any lover of New York or fashion. The 82 year-old New York Times fashion photographer leads a simple, yet full life specializing in candid and street photography and scoots around Manhattan on his bicycle.

What was your favourite movie this year? Did I miss anything great?

See also:

My Favourite Records of 2011

My Favourite Books of 2011

My Favourite TV Shows of 2011

Merry Christmas!

Nick and I head up to Canada for Christmas tomorrow so we had our own little Christmas tonight. It included a gift exchange (Nick did very well!), a trip to see the Rockefeller Centre Tree, and a dinner at one of our favourite neighbourhood spots.

Tomorrow we fly up to Canada and I’m sure we’ll be busy with family and nieces and nephews so you won’t be hearing from me again until next week. Unfortunately, this Canadian visit won’t include a trip to Toronto, but  I hope everyone has a great holiday and I can’t wait to see everyone in the New Year!

xo Christina

My Favourite TV Shows of 2011

Sure, Mad Men couldn’t get it together to have a 2011 season and I still haven’t gotten around to watching Game of Thrones, but here’s a list of the shows I did enjoy this past year.

30 Rock (NBC)

My favourite TV show of the past 4 years. Thank you, Tina Fey, for knowing exactly what I find funny and putting it out there for everyone to see, no matter how weird.

Bored To Death (HBO – cancelled)

Unfortunately, it was announced today that Bored To Death has been cancelled by HBO – what a bummer! In my opinion, Bored To Death showcased New York in a way no other show ever has. Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galafinakis, and Ted Danson are hilarious, but half the fun was spotting familiar locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Up All Night (NBC)

This brand new show takes cues from 30 Rock, but deals with a more relatable topic – parenthood. Christina Applegate and Will Arnett star as new parents in their mid-30s. Applegate’s character goes back to her job at a daytime talk show after maternity leave, leaving Arnett to be the stay-at-home-Dad. I am a huge fan of Arrested Development and Gob, but I have to say that Applegate is the real funny one here!

Breaking Bad (AMC)

I always forget how much I like this show. Even though it’s hard to watch at times and very dark, it’s so well-written that I find myself on the edge of my seat at the end of most episodes. Bryan Cranston is amazing and how about that season finale???

Louie (FX)

Louis CK was a big part of 2011 for Nick and I. We watched all his stand up specials, Youtube videos, Netflixed his old HBO show Lucky Louie, and saw him live at the NY Comedy Festival. Then we started watching Louie. With all his bizarre situations that seem mundane at first, crazy humour, and intelligent commentary on life, it was surprising this was as much of a success with the mainstream as it was. But thank goodness, because it should be coming back for another season. Bonus: he filmed the first season (shown in the clip above) in our apartment building!

The Walking Dead (AMC)

The first season started off great – zombies and gore everywhere! Then the second season started and I was unsure of where it was all going. After watching the mid-season finale, I understand it’s all a matter of good vs evil, right vs wrong and sometimes having morals is not easy. The clip above shows the intense last few minutes of the finale, and it is not for the squeamish!

Archer (FX)

Let’s lighten it up with Archer – the over-the-top ridonkulous cartoon on FX. Based extremely loosely on James Bond, Archer is a secret agent/spy who works for his mom, played by Jessica Walter, who’s personality is so loud that even the cartoon version of her looks like Lucille Bluth. Archer is full of hilarious voice actors and semi-offensive humour. Perfect.

Honourable Mentions:

Best old show I somehow never watched until now: Twin Peaks

Worst letdown/Twin Peaks rip-off of the year: The Killing