island house.

continuing with the fantasy house dreaming... on the coast of Elliðaey, a southern island in Iceland

stone house

What a cool house. In Fafe, Portugal. Take me there.

listen: Declaration of Dependence

Kings of Convenience (an old favorite from Riot on an Empty Street) has released a new album entitled, Declaration of Dependence. Though my precious Imeem has been purchased by Myspace, I can offer a link to this full album on their myspace page here.

I would also suggest listening to their NPR interview. I particularly enjoy how the interviewer continually references the fact that the two of them have trouble getting along. There are also quite a few live ditties.

I hop you enjoy as much as I did.

reading

After the holidays we now have subscriptions to 5 publications. Which should be great news. I love to read books, but I also love a great article. I used to alternate reading the New Yorker and a book on the train to work. But these days, though we have more to read, I have less time. Driving to work means I have lost my commute reading time, and most weekends and evenings I am trying to catch up on a little work, while also logging a few hours a week at MIT. This means I relegate a few Sunday morning hours to the written word. Now Aaron comes home each day with some little tid-bit or story to tell from Harper's or the New Yorker. And it makes me sad.

So I must make a new commitment to READ before bed, and not allow Anthony Bourdain or The Wire put me to sleep. I can do this. Perhaps.

apartment update

We have done some major rearranging in this place so I thought I'd share.

Bedroom (used to be the office):

Guest room (was guest room but switched furniture):

Office: used to be bedroom, but with all the great built-ins. we thought it would be a better office. It still needs some work though, so I'll post pics later.

Dining room: I found this Lane Highboy at my new favorite thrift store, Boomerang, in Jamaica Plain. After I purchased it I found it on Ebay for 5 times the price. Amazing!

love.

forty can't tell twenty

Read my friend Jon's blog, forty can't tell twenty. It is new and awesome. Thanks for sharing Jon.

marimekko love

embracing my inner finn with a little marimekko

i hear mother-in-law minna has some connections. going to have to look into that...

Hello International Year of Astronomy 2009 posters by Simon Page. I want one of each of you.

other LA snippets...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I visited LA last weekend to visit our good friend Jon Garda. I liked LA a lot more than I thought I would. It had a unique kitschy quality that I didn't expect. I imaged an image-driven, shallow place. Instead I found great food, cool vintage shops, beautiful landscape, oh and did I say great food? I can't really imagine living there for too long with all of the driving, but it's definitely worth a visit. Funny thing- it rained two of our three days there. Sunny LA- Ha!

Here are a few highlighted moments:

Here we are at the Getty, looking over LA

There was great Mid-Century furniture shops. Here is my first vintage Herman Miller sighting. A big day in my life.

Pelicans roaming the Pier.

We went to a great arcade on a Pier where we played vintage games and redeemed our tokens for a "suprise" prize box. It contained random keychains, nail polish, whistles, etc...

Jon took us to the Farmer's Market where we ate amazing doughnuts and Crepe's. I would go to this outdoor food market everyday if I lived there.

Classic Hollywood fare

Protesters for Conan

And because it rained for a day and a half, the Valley totally flooded (notice the power line down).

If you haven't yet, skeptics like me should go to LA and be pleasantly "suprised."

Soda Pop Stop

So Jessica definitely scooped me, but I still thought it was worth a post. Aaron and I visted our good friend Jon Garda in LA last weekend and he took us around to some of his favorite spots. One of them was the soda pop stop, Galco's, an old grocery store in LA that now specializes in old time and unique sodas. It was really quite an experience. The video below will tell you all about it (we saw that guy there too!).

Here are a few pics from our visit below.

And I agree with Matt... Mint Julip does tase like drinking double mint gum.

Unfortunately I'm not really a soda person, so some of the effect was lost on me. But the whole scene was pretty awesome, and I love that this one man is trying, and succeeding, at simply pursuing something he loves in his very own way. You can order by mail here, if you so wish.

Personally, I loved the cooler filled with candy.

Stonington/ Mystic excursion

When I was born my father was stationed in Connecticut. During that time my parents and sister lived in a quaint house on the tip of a Connecticut peninsula right in front of the Stonington Lighthouse. Now that I live in Boston, I have the pleasure of easily traveling to just about anywhere I want in New England, and today my destination was Stonington to see the house I lived in for the first two months of my life. The trip took only about 2 hrs. It was a snowy day, so I look forward to going back in the summer.

This was their house. My mom tells me how she read about this house at the local library, where she learned there was a secret smuggling passage leading from the house out to the ocean and ghost sightings.

This is the house down the street where my supposed god-parents live. They weren't home, but still live there.

Here is the point where my mother took us (mostly my sister) to play on the lawn and at duBois Beach.

Then Aaron and I drove to Mystic and ate at the famed Mystic Pizza. What a perfect day.