Embarrassing Crush: 90s Backpacker

I've been Indulging in the dorkiest fantasies of fleece wearing 90s backpacker types lately. (Sans Dave Matthews and Positive Hip Hop). Not sure where this is coming from, I guess I'm trying to reclaim my lost youth, you can take the girl out of UC Santa Cruz but you can't take the UC Santa Cruz out of the girl. All the fleece I eschewed in college has become oddly sexy to me with the passage of time.


The first sparks started when Urban Outfitters did their collaboration with Patagonia (via ACL). I wasn't ready to embrace it yet but I really wish I had scooped up one of these puppies.

Recent ebay searches:

I mean, don't get me wrong, 70s backpackers are still the all time hottest.

Photos via Google's Backpacker Magazine Archives

Plus I am totally feeling the Jansport Heritage Series.

I mean it all started innocently enough but lately I've been finding myself following around guys with elaborate backpacks around Duane Reade and trying to make eye contact with guys wearing Patagonia on the subway. I think the only way to snap out of it will be an emergency rental of Into the Wild.

I admit to never reading the book but from descriptions of it I always thought of Christopher McCandless as the ultimate entitled douche with daddy issues that I would have met in college. Effe Society bro.

I mean remember the whole part about how he refused to bring a map! And he could have survived if he had just let people help him.

That being said, lets be honest. I probably would have hit that. (Also I will probably enjoy the Eddie Vedder soundtrack , who are we kidding.)

Dark Place: Britney Spears to George Sondini

Lately I started spiraling down a creepy rabbit hole to a dark but fascinating place.

Early indicators were the morbid interest with which I read The Tragedy of Britney Spears, an article by the brilliant Vanessa Grigoriadis about Britney's descent into madness. It is from the Feb. 2008 issue of Rolling Stone but I just got around to reading it . (Thanks Justin)

It reminded me how much I love these David LaChapelle images from the April 1999 Rolling Stone.

I had the one above on my wall in college, not sure why I thought that was appropriate but I loved it.

Then Michael Jackson died. Which led to a fascination with this little guy.

Blanket Jackson, the dark convex to my love for Sasha Obama and Abigail Breslin.

Then came Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills as well as Paradise Lost 2: Revelations and the West Memphis Three. Arrested and convicted for wearing black and listening to Metallica It's so creepy when they are interviewing Pam Hobbs, one of the mother's of the boys who were murdered, and she is obviously delirious with grief and probably drunk and she looks kinda like a girl gone wild. You can watch it here (at minute 4:08)

Damien Echols in prison, I hurt for him.

That said, my fascination with the case of Foxy Knoxy, accused of brutally murdering her roommate while studying abroad in Italy, was already well underway.

This haunting photograph of Amanda Knox stared out at me from Timothy Egan's New York Times Blog Story "An Innocent Abroad". And then there were all of these.

Weirdest case of a girl being described as 'a little spacey".

As well as horribly offensive pieces of yellow journalism like "Foxy Knoxy, the girl who had to compete with her own mother for men",Secret diary reveals Foxy Knoxy was 'always thinking about sex' and

Foxy Knoxy claims female cell mate begs her for sex 'because I'm so pretty' from the Daily Mail. And the beginning of her trial where she looked all busted.

Oh and then there was a foray into research on Feral Children. Starting with Genie

discovered at age 13 in the 1970s.

And also "The girl in the window" Danielle, discovered in Florida at age 7 just a few years ago.

Erin was discovered in Texas in 1986

Yeah so that is the sinister inspiration board of what I have been in to the last couple of months. A pastiche of Metallica and Morissey with a little Pippi Longstalking and a dollop of the human condition. And NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. Enjoy!

**

UPDATE: To add insult to injury George Sodini shoots three women in a gym and leaving a diary that reads like discarded Morrissey lyrics.

Still Obsessed: AA Jewelry

I spent the last few days collecting images of Alcoholics Anonymous jewelry. Not sure exactly why, I guess it was a continuation of my earlier obsession with AA Medallions.

These pendants are all available for an ebay store called Enlightened Expressions. I guess there something about the lexicon on 'The Program' --the slogans 'One Day at a Time', "Easy Does it', "Keep Coming Back' the triangle, the camel, the butterfly--that fascinates me, the secret society aspect of it, commemorated in 14 karat gold and available on ebay.
I ended up seeing Rachel Getting Married last night with out any idea that it would have so much to do with 12 step programs. The synchronicity was heightened being that my companion was someone with a personal connection to the program, and we both felt like the film explored the culture in a way that was both real and unromantic.
The film is great, intense, introspective, beautiful and left me with a desire to attend a unconventional multi-ethnic wedding. It could definitely put into a cluster with the Jennifer Jason Leigh trifecta of Georgia, Margot at the Wedding and perhaps The Anniversary Party in terms of dealing with issues of sisterhood, dysfunctional families and parties and yet it approaches those issues with a warmth not found in the other films.
It also left me obsessed with with Debra Winger who doesn't have much screen time but whose chilling performance lingered with me afterwards. I am queuing up a bunch of her films now, I'm sure there will be screengrabs to follow. And one more obsession, the screenwriter Jenny Lumet, daughter of Sidney Lumet of Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon fame, granddaughter of Lena Horne. Just sayin'...

TOTAL FOX!

Brooke Sheilds

Brooke Sheilds as a child was a creature was so beautiful it was actually frightening. I'm sure the fact that she was cast in creepily over-sexualized roles in films like Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon only heightened this effect. Spooky.

Pretty Baby 1978Pretty Baby 1978

The Blue Lagoon 1980

The Blue Lagoon 1980These paintings by Annie Kevens are part of a series on child stars.

Currently Obsessed: Mad Men

Mad Men! It's on demand and I'm obsessed.Well, well if it isn't Zoe from The West Wing.
What me, square? You know, just checking out some beat poetry in Greenwich Village.

OK I'm obsessed

Look at her.
That headband!
Abigail Breslin. Photo by Mark Seigler from Vanity Fair.

Currently Obsessed: American Girl Kit Kittredge

I know I'm a dork but I totally want to see Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.



Little Miss Sunshine was on cable the other day and it solidified my intense girl crush on Abigail Breslin. For some reason she just makes me wish I could be a little girl again and be best friends with her. I remember a few months ago Jezebel posted a photo of her in a normal jeans and t-shirt outfit with the caption "Dear Abigail Breslin: Don't Ever Change" and I was like YES!
Remember when she presented at the Oscars with Will Smith's son when he messed up and she totally saved him. She is just the best. I know White Lightening agrees.

She is just everything that is awesome about being a little girl with out any of the grossness that makes Bratz dolls a thing that exist. Please, please don't let her turn into Tatum O'Neil, or LiLo. I mean don't get me wrong I LOVE Tatum but she has been through the ringer.

So the Kit Kittredge movie has brought up a lot of American Girl nostalgia for me.
Personally, I was a Samantha girl (the Victorian girl with brown hair and bangs, big surprise). I never had any of the outfits or accessories but I remember pouring over the catalog swooning over the accessories and the little fake food for her birthday party.

Her school stuff!
Birthday party stuff

Her lunch.
My sister was a Molly girl. Molly was from 1944.

The school stuff gets me every time.
I have a weakness for fake food.
Now for those of you that might not understand an American girl doll are around 2 feet tall which means all this stuff is like 10 times bigger than any of Barbie's stuff. By some weird loophole in laws of cute this stuff, although way bigger than Barbies stuff the American Girl stuff is somehow a million times cuter. Don't ask me to explain because there are super complicated equations involved.
We need a 10 hour mini-series about the making of the American Girl dolls from the first spark of an idea to how they designed and styled the fake food and notebook. I would Tivo that for sure.

There are a bunch of new dolls that didn't exist when I was a girl that I am drooling over. A seventies girl from San Francisco, a Mexican girl named Josefina, and a Nez Perce girl growing up in 1764, she has a teepee and everything.