good news/good times/good night.

Thanks so much to Refinery29DC for giving NO NEWS is GOOD NEWS a little mention yesterday morning - click HERE to sign up for the March newsletter!

over it.

O.K.! PS. HANDS. they're weird, right? like, IN GENERAL.

I'm taking a break from nail polish; while I'm an enormous fan of THE ACT OF THE MANICURE, my own personal backlash against the WACKY NAIL-ART WAVE will, for the foreseeable future, manifest itself in a short little clear-polished paint job (this will be a very quiet riot). Since there's a stellar chance that I'll wake up tomorrow having changed my mind, let us all remember THIS DAY as THE DAY I led that one-woman revolution. My BELIEVIES are strong; my convictions, perhaps, need some work.

specimens.

if you turned me upside down and shook me...

clockwise from left: Ray-Bans, Men's Timex (with INDIGLO), some Covergirl shizz, a lil' notebook, a SmarTrip (true story: I didn't have a SmarTrip until last week. WHAT CAN I SAY? My Dad's a printer. I like-a the paper), and my RANGS. Not pictured: camera, phone, wallet, pen, and a general sense of IMPENDING DOOM.

bedside.

at Mere's.

O.P.P.

OTHER PEOPLE'S PARTIES.
We spent our Friday evening at Meredith's, eating cheese/enjoying EXCELLENT company.

NO NEWS is GOOD NEWS: preview.

red wine spillage. photos by Floyd York.

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sacrilege?

fingers crossed.
VINI at Birreria.

NYAH NYAH NYAH.

fat guy pizza party (the real life version).

We spent the weekend in New York, catching up with some dear friends (and consuming more white flour over the course of two days than I have in all of 2012. The above was NOT my only slice of late night, life-restoring pizza pie). While the trip started out the stuff of nightmares - we skidded into our bus seats as the thing was literally pulling out of Union Station, still hurling accusatory, phone-charger/toothbrush/PACKING-related questions at each other - we made up QUICK and the rest of the trip was amazing, encompassing both Elton John AND Iron Maiden karaoke sets in Midtown, a lovely cocktail party in a lovely Brooklyn apartment, and several hours of good-old-fashioned Harlem DIVE BAR time, where much money was sunk into the jukebox, and G'N'R lineup changes were discussed very seriously, and over pitchers.

one, two, three.

1,2,3: a look back at the week. above (and from the NYTimes), the McCartney-ism continues.

one. "I want Granddad to sing 'Back in the USSR!'" SLAYED.

two. United With Love did a post on Sewall-Belmont yesterday, and featured Mitchell's and my September wedding! HOLLER at our photographer, Liz Gorman, and our coordinator/florist/everything, Katie Martin.

three. Windian Records (friends! advertisers! DC residents!) overhauled their site this week; DIY from start to finish. Click over there to admire their h(tml)andiwork.

flickr friday.

from my fleeeeeeckr (that's how they say it in france).

There was a funny little period in time when a group of us would spend weekends LEGIT RECORDING ourselves covering 70s hits (we're talking LOTS of Creedence, and more than a little Cher). Why did we do this? I DON'T KNOW. I do know, however, that the above photo is from an all-night I Got You Babe JAM SESH - during which I MAY or MAY NOT have taken the Cher part - and that if the recordings were ever made public I would fall into the ground and die.

the mccartneys in scotland.

take it away, k.jenner.

my neice Aurora, AKA Roo, AKA that kid with all the hair.

I'm babysitting the above CUTENESS today; the photo - by her Dad (and my Brother-in-Law), C.Freeman - got me thinking about what a lucky state of affairs I've found myself in, re: TALENT in the FRIEND POOL. I don't want to brag on my peoples too hard but that FAMILY PLAN section of the sidebar is testament to some pretty amazing people doing some pretty amazing things (and those are just the ones with websites). GUSH/SWOON/ETC/THIS, obviously.

lighten up.

My dry-cleaning pile. SPRING has SPRUNG.

current thrift list.

via.

leather top, printed EVERYTHING, ikat, MOROCCO (them; the above), yellow, JADE.

pretty, pretty...

...PESTO.

portraiture.

Bad Attitude Barachus. by Trae Lamond.

weekending(ing).

one, two, three.

1,2,3: a look back at the week. photo via The Selby.

one. Did my shoe-wishlist at ReadySetDC WILL THIS into being?

two. My brain exploded with happy friend-pride when I saw the very dear-to-my-heart (and one-time Panda Mag intern!) Kelley McNutt name-checked as a contributor to a Tavi Gevinson/Edward Meadham project over at Style Rookie. Get it, gurrrrrrl.

three. A friend passed along this ancient Chinese form letter, and it's killing me. Hopefully we can all avoid the need to employ it over the course of the weekend (but HEY - don't let it/NOTHIN' get in the way of YOUR GOOD TIME).

flickr friday.

from my flickrs.

SKULL + BONES, taken May 2011 at my sister's house.

meridian pint.

all photos by C. Freeman (link! link!)

Last Tuesday's Home Brewer's Match Up at Meridian Pint was SUCH a good time; while my showing up SLIGHTLY (ok, an hour) late was punished with a little wait in line, my patience/virtue was totally worth it - the beers were OFF THE CHARTS delicious (and probably the most consistently great, across the board, of all of these I've attended) - and the crowd - well, the crowd was THIRSTY. Regardless of your attendance last week (or at any of the prior contests) - you can still sample the winning beers - May 29 there's a BATTLE ROYALE planned between last year's CHAMPIONS, and first place gets their recipe brewed LARGE-SCALE by DC Brau. There will be bloodshed.*
*THIS IS COMPLETE CONJECTURE.

cold, cold water.

I force-cultured myself down to the American Art Museum last week for Annie Leibovitz's Pilgramage; the exhibit was BEAUTIFUL (Elvis's shot-out television and the Annie Oakley photos were my favorite), but is it weird that I left strangely disappointed by the real-life size of the above photo of Niagara Falls? DON'T GET ME WRONG - if tasked with carrying it out of the gallery I would have been all arms-spread-wide-struggling, but THAT PHOTO has been fronting the collection - and as impactful as it is to look at I imagined it would be huge, ON PAPER. It was not, but it does still swallow you up (even if only IN THEORY).

bebe b.

t-shirt steez vs. t-shirt sleaze (NSFW, OBVIOUSLY).

THIS is far and away my favorite Bebe Buell pic, but the above, scanned from her 1974 Playboy spread (gifted to me by mail a few birthdays ago - thank you, Meredith!) is also a CONTENDER.

a cool million.

PHONE BOOTH. photo by Chris Chen.

ReadySetDC has ALL THE ANSWERS (well, FIVE OF THE ANSWERS) to what I'd do with ONE MILLION DOLLARS - thanks so much to Jordan Culberson and ReadySetDC for asking me to take part in today's Five Things feature!

annnnd love song number four.

happy valentine's day!

love song number three.

love song number two.

love song number one.

goof troop.

At the wedding, in the bathroom. My hair steez as of late is alllll MAGENTA.

treasury x tarts by tarts.

Tarts by Tarts, and a little charm bracelet MOMENT at Treasury.

Thursday's Tarts by Tarts Valentine's event at Treasury was a blast; I went on a PRE-GALENTINE'S girl-date with one of my dear ones and we both left with goodies - Svetlana scored a black and neon-green shift dress from the racks, and I copped one of those dulce de leche-filled doughnuts, above. And YES - it made it home, but barely. STREET EATING is NOT CUTE but that little thing very nearly talked me into it.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING.

Between this and this, it's in the best interest of anyone in the markets for VINTAGE or a WELL-DRESSED BABE (or both) to get down to 14th St. in the next six hours...

valentine's window.

Smash's February/Valentine's window (designed by the Windian fam's Jourdan Betette) is looking flossy - should your weekend plans include any ROMANTIC STROLLS through Adams Morgan, be sure to stop by and check it out!

flickr friday (love edition).

gems from the Panda Head flickr files.

Several Valentine's ago, photographer Alfonso Rosales and I set out across the city to document all types of LOVE for BYT; we shot friend-love, dog-love, love-love, and BAND LOVE - above, and featuring U.S. Royalty - in their beds. We were struck by how willing everyone was to comply with our John/Yoko fantasies, and with each visit grew a little more cavalier about jumping in with them to get our shots.

from "We Love Love" for BrightestYoungThings.com
photo of U.S. Royalty by Alfonso Rosales.

wedding-ding-ding-ding.

invites by Ello There; photo by liz gorman, bouquets by elegance + simplicity.

I normally don't get all mushy about weddings but we're going to a friend's this weekend; between that, Valentine's Day, and my own 5 month wedding anniversary tomorrow - I am ALL HOPPED UP ON WEDDING SAUCE. The photo is one of my favorites in our album, and re: RSVP cards: we sent our invitations out with a single, white Crayola crayon in each envelope, VERY FEW of which deteriorated into a fine, anthrax-like POWDER STATE before reaching their intended recipients!

PS: THIS. No words. Except for maybe teepee, and also pizza.

tarts by tarts x treasury.

first love.

Evenings and weekends of my childhood were dominated by a full lineup of my Dad's Boring Television shows; over the course of my single-digit years I successfully ignored hundreds of hours of MacNeil Lehrer, This Old House, Meet The Press, and THE LIKE. Every night, though - to my parents' confusion and concern - their 8 year old was front and center for the ABC Evening News. Because I was COMPLETELY in LOVE with Peter Jennings.
I'm a firm believer that childhood crushes count as FIRST LOVES, and that we'd be doing ourselves a favor by striking THE TEEN YEARS from the record in their entirety. First love should be HONEST and NAIVE and INEXPLICABLE and UNTAINTED by hormones and social anxiety and mild hallucinogenics; when you're a kid you can feel your feelings without using your little head at all - and therein lies ABSOLUTE TRUTH.
I found out two things about PJ as I got older - one: he was a High School DROPOUT, and attributed it to an all-consuming love of GIRLS and COMIC BOOKS (swoon), and two: he's quoted as saying one of the great luxuries in life is a bottle of wine that costs more than twelve bucks (annnnd swoon). I couldn't tell you what about him held my attention as a kid, but as an adult it's clear to me that I was making better decisions at age 8 than I was at age 16. And can we all agree to steer clear of my early 20s? THANKS, GUYS.

the onslaught (of LOVE) has begun.

photo: Joshua Cogan for Sockets Records.

Because the rest of the week's programming is all about LOVE (FOR OBVIOUS REASONS), I chose the above photo of myself and my husband - taken by the enormous talent that is Joshua Cogan - to direct you to his documentation of the Sockets Records Showcase a few weekends ago. Congratulations to the label (and of course, the bands) on a wildly successful evening - we had a blast, and are still trying to figure out on which wall our poster wants to live.
PS. My friend Liz Gorman also has photos of the night (all of which are gorgeous; none of which feature my GOOD HAIR DAY) at both her blog and The Vinyl District.

i love you.

YES.

What, that 50 pack of Mr. Yuk stickers I got on eBay? Yes, they WERE worth every penny. And yes, they are also GRACING the unexpected, all over the house (because nothing says "adults live here" quite like a Mr. Yuk sticker on a lamp).