thank you, recession + web 2.0 wonks, for making "online private sales" (i.e. members-only discounts) proliferate faster than sequins on a mcqueen ensemble.



here's an ongoing list, to be renewed accordingly. let me know if you would like invites, or if something's missing from this list.

ideeli [women's designer accessories]
gilt [women's designer apparel/accessories]
gilt fuse [women's trend apparel/accessories]
jetsetter [luxury travel]
rue la la [women's/men's apparel/accessories, home goods]
hautelook [women's apparel/accessories]
the top secret [women's apparel/accessories]
editor's closet [women's apparel/accessories]
one kings lane [home goods]
jack threads [men's streetwear]
the fairest [cosmetics]
portero private [luxury brands]
beyond the rack [luxury accessories]

temporary custody of high-end stuff (like netflix for goods)
thred up
avelle (formerly bag borrow or steal)

power-in-numbers discounts
groupon
qponus
buy with me

more nicety deal miscellany
get sugar
dailycandy deals
restaurant week
spa week
hub eats

& altogether awesome discounted designer shopping

the outnet [net-a-porter's clearance]
yoox [euro-flavored]
bad joan [west coast flow]
inven.tory nyc [boutique outlet]

last updated: 2009.09.14

wouldn't you take a warming, intoxicating, melt-you-all-over sip (or two) of balvenie single-barrel 15 year-old single malt scotch, especially if it was graciously passed in the luxuriously modern salon at l'espalier for a dear friend's 28th birthday celebration?

well, wouldn't you?

so, such is my lapse. but oh! mercy on this forgivable trifle. truthfully, i am glad that i did stick to my abstinent guns, for the summer refreshers that english bill prepared were blissfully boozefree, yet absolutely exquisite.

the first, paired with an island creek oyster topped dramatically with a pouf of cucumber foam and smidge of fruit and glistening roe, stood head to head with any cocktail worth its mettle: an ethereal elixir of watermelon granita muddled with lemon verbena "plucked this morning from frank's own farm."

heck yes.

the second beverage that materialized also burst forth in all sorts of sun-kissed pleasure. passion fruit juice, steeped with a cinnamon stick for a day or so, is shaken with honey syrup and then taken over ice; sipped daintily from a straw, if you would do so kindly. really perfect, presiding somewhere in that nebulous middle ground between simple fresh juice and meticulous mixology. it drinks like a dream.

there was plenty of emotional flux throughout the day. a sweet yet sentimental goodbye over breakfast, the stupefying stifle of what became the sauna-city, some stolen moments with a bohemian who has nothing to lose and all to gain.

up next: sugarbomber ice cream showdown. may the best delights reward a patient, passionate following of frozen dessert. in other words: the most righteous guerilla dessert feast in a somerville parking lot! sounds like trouble. sweet, sweet trouble.

can't wait to participant in adam tessier's collaborative project, our daily sonnet. i'll spare you the details of how i know him (about six ways to sunday, tucked within the folds and loops and gnarls of cambridge's social pool), much less how i managed to meet him about a year after we last spoke. but here we are, enthralled by shakespeare and people and internet and whatallthisreallymeans.

every day, one video is added to the published tally: one speaker, one sonnet, in singular style, until all 154 are recited.

there have been 10 sonnets performed as of today; holly's glimmering rendering of #3 is my favorite thus far.



after reading a few dozen tonight of the enormous remainder (my summer camp culturefest must truck on), i committed myself to sonnet #43:

When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

word after word, each burns with proof. this shall be the one.

♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o ♥ p o n y o p o n y o p o n y o p o n y o p o n y o p o n y o






just witnessed miyazaki's film ponyo this evening with jenna at the coolidge corner theatre. i left inspired, wide-eyed, delighted, altogether rosied with a wonderful story and old-school animation. you just need to watch it -- the humor, voicing and timing is not easily portrayed secondhand -- but instant wins in my book:

• the gorgeous, silent introductory scene exploding with detail, supporting a serene balance of an ecosystem shimmering in tandem
• jellyfish! so many jellyfish!
• the mutually neurotic tendencies of the stripey-suited father and earthbound lisa
• the extreme evocation of the ocean, the light, the color, the fluidity
• octopus sneaking its way into the house
  
• the intoxicating magic of ramen
• mass-guppy tickling of scary-eyed water demons
  
• casual appearance by enormous, scaly, prehistoric fish
• the dry, crazy humor of cranky old people
  
• the vaguely Renn-faire speak, "kiss this bubble, child, when you reach to the surface"
  

and, as an aside, the haunting resemblance between ponyo and the little pilgrims (night walking) by yoshitomo nara: