Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Any ideas?

So, I've been trying to compile a list of songs for the summer.  An acoustic power ballad play list. (Shazam.)  Thus far I have:  

1. Lost in My Mind by The Head and the Heart


2. Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes.


Unfortunately, you can't make a good mix with only two songs.  So, I implore you, what is your favorite summery acoustic power ballad?  Just post your tune!

-m.

Friday, May 27, 2011

L-House Update: 17

An L-House Update...

1. This super cool tumblr.  (I think it's safe to say that I will be roasting broccoli tonight, and craving carrot cake...until the end of time, or at least until I get home and can have some of the awesome chocolate chip cookies Jaime made last night...)

2. Riding your bike around the music building with a friend.  (On the way back from the gym I might add...)

3. A fantastic still from Out of Africa...

4. I will most likely be using my first summer paycheck to get a subscription to this magazine.

5. The book Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Ines de la Fressange

6. Aubin and Wills.  A simply smashing site.

7. My dear Aunt Moe brought this to my attention.  Gotta love Alan Rickman.  I can't believe it's all going to be over July 15.  (Insert collective sigh here.)

8. If you haven't seen, or at least heard of, the fabulous BBC miniseries Downton Abbey, I urge you to get on that ship now.  The whole thing is on Netflix instant play.  Go forth and adore.

9. Making pizzas and watching Save the Last Dance (for the first time) with your housemates, then getting all nostalgic for the early 2000s...

10. Oh stone fruit how excited I am for thee...

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Cool birthday idea

My sister sent me this.  Isn't it an awesome idea?  How fun would it be to get that for your birthday??


Also, I'm kind of obsessed with the stamps she's using...

Photo via Oh Happy Day

Summer flicks

A little note:  I've decided that for the summer months, I will disperse with posting a weekly Featured Wish List.  But, I'm looking forward to sharing another project sometime soon. :)

Summer Flicks

That aside, aren't summer movies the best thing ever?  Last night, my friend Taylor and I watched Fried Green Tomatoes.  It made me miss the South.  But, it made me very glad that summer movie season has finally arrived (great for a rainy afternoon)!  Here are a few more of my personal favorites...

The Sandlot

Also known as one of the most awesome movies of all time.  Seriously.  Who didn't have a crush on Benny?  And, any movie taking place in the sixties is just... awesome.

Mamma Mia!

Next to Only You, (RDJ!!) this movie is my ultimate guilty pleasure.  It's just SO aesthetically pleasing!  If ABBA and Anthropologie had a baby...
 

The Parent Trap

I know this movie like the back of my hand.  When I was a nanny, we watched it almost every day.  Also, it has one of the best opening sequences ever. 

Dirty Dancing

Classic summer.

A League of Their Own

"There's no crying in basebaaaaalll!"  And it's another one of those simply aesthetically pleasing ones.



Jurassic Park

This movie is just so awesome.  Adventure blockbuster at its height, and it still makes me jump!

To Kill a Mockingbird

Ummm... Robert DuVall's first movie.  Atticus Finch.  I want to marry Gregory Peck.  Atticus Finch is the best.  Scout and Jem are such cool character names.  Atticus Finch.  Good soundtrack. Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch.



Dennis the Menace

Again with the classic all-American summer.  It just makes you miss being a kid.



Free Willy 

Fantastic film.  My obsession with it as a kid caused me to name my albino goldfish(es?) Willy.  Also, the harmonica is just fabulous.




Now and Then 

Rosie O'Donnell.  Devon Sawa. (Jaime's first love.)  Coke out of a bottle.  Red rover.  A mystery.


What are some of your favorites??  Hope you had a fantastic Thursday. --m.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

GPOYW

© 2011 M. Hunter Korroch

Monday, May 23, 2011

Book sale

On Sunday afternoon, a couple of friends and I went to a book sale.  It was--in a word--incredible.  An entire warehouse stuffed with books, magazines, records, and sheet music-- and the cost of everything was a quarter or less.  Incredible.  We walked in, and each of us, armed with a map of the building and a couple of empty grocery bags, set off Pagemaster style into the depths of literature.  (I must tell you, the shelves gave me an entirely new appreciation for my height...)


My finds? 


Ordinary People by Judith Guest 
Suite française by Irène Némirovsky 
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
National Geographic: March 1950, November 1966, January 1971, & August 1972



My favorites?

An awesome 1961 paperback copy of A Separate Peace... 


A copy of The English Patient (which I didn't realize was a book first!  Serves me right.  All awesome movies were once books.)  Anyway, the previous owner annotated newspaper clips and tucked in the pages detailing anything they found about the book or the movie.  A fine supplement, indeed!

And, National Geographic Vol. 136, No. 6-December 1969 aka the landing on the moon issue.  It's pretty awesome, and the interviews with the crew are fantastic.

Friday, May 20, 2011

L-House Update: 16

An L-House Update...

 1. Espadrilles...



3. An awesome how-to.

4. Norway just looks good to me. 

5. I'd love a pair of classic Vans.

6. Something for around the campfire...
I remember reading these as a kid and completely freaking out!

7. An awesome pair of jeans.  Seventies.


9. This beautiful Vogue Living article on Jennifer Garner's house.  It's beautiful.

10. Something else for around the campfire... (I'll be so sad if I don't get one of these before the summer's over.) 

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

GPOYW

An ode to last summer...

Summer reads

Some shots from last weekend's farmer's market...


So.  Independence and summer have taken a hold.  Jaime and I have moved into the first of our three summer apartments, and our domestic tendencies are definitely started to kick in.  At the moment, we have chicken roasting in the oven.  (Chicken, potatoes, lemon, basil, celery seed, rosemary, and salt and pepper.)  The apartment below us, for some reason, always sends up aromas of onions sauteing in olive oil (best. smell. ever.), so I think we're hoping to send some lovely scents wafting their way...

Cooking is something I'm hoping to do a lot of this summer.  Cooking, singing, writing, working, blogging, photography-ing, and....reading.

I love to read--I'm one of those.  You know the part in To Kill a Mockingbird, when the teacher doesn't let Scout read?  Scout says, "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."  I get that.

For the past couple of years, ever since I graduated high school, I've been reading all of these books that I've always felt I should read.  Jane EyreThe HobbitThe Handmaid's Tale.  I mean, I'm glad I've read them.  It's nice to have them under my belt, and they're good stories.  But, no more!!  I'm breaking free, and for this summer especially, I'm going to read stuff that looks good!

Right now I'm reading The Hunger GamesShay was reading it towards the end of school.  I kept begging her for updates, until I realized I might as well just read it for myself!  Not a particularly great book in the Tolstyan sense of greatness, but a fantastic story nonetheless.  The only problem?  I started reading it last night, and I'm already halfway through.  (Thank goodness it's a trilogy!)

But, what next?  I really need some good book recommendations.  I'm planning on finishing up this series, and then moving on to Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. (One of my favorite authors, she wrote Girl With a Pearl Earring.)  But, after that-- who knows??  It's not a Harry Potter summer for me.  Too much of an emotional commitment.  (Seriously.)  But, what are you reading this summer?  I'd love to swap book lists.  I'm usually game for anything with a cool cover or historical with a romantic tinge...  Send me a summer reads list and I'd love to post it here!  Inspiration for one and all!!

Have a lovely Wednesday.
m.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

American girl


This is hilarious.  (I will admit, I saw it on someone's facebook.)  Most of it isn't true at all (Samantha was totally not the cool one.) But, take a look at this:

If you had Felicity Merriman:  
(She was my first doll.)

You grew up to have an affinity for lovely things, (Naturally.) a possibly inflated sense of your own uniqueness, (I do always say that I'm the weird one...) a teensy hint of self-righteousness (remember how she refused tea when they raised the tea tax? "Thank you, I shall take no tea!"), (My favorite part in the book.) and a latent familiarity with Colonial Williamsburg. (Uummmm.....yeah.)

Also, I'd like to mention how it's awesome that they stuck with the original five.  Let's be honest.  Mattel ruined everything.  The Pleasant Company rocked.  What did your doll say about you?

Monday, May 16, 2011

Featured Wish List: Taylor Kohnstam

A wish list by:
 Taylor Kohnstam

Apparel...
1. An empire-wasted Ivory Peasant Top
2. A Chambray Shirt 
3. An over-sized Grandpa Sweater
4. A vintage couture Evening Gown 


Accessories...
1. A custom Longchamp bag
2. Classic Wayfarers in tortoise shell
3. A pashmina like the one I bought on the streets of Paris
4. A pair of nude Louboutin's


Cosmetics...
3. OPI Nail Polish in Chocolate Mousse
5. Have a seaweed wrap done at a spa


Taylor's Perfect Evening?

Location...
It's early summer in the garden of Molly's L-House in the English Countryside. A wooden pavilion, the sides of which are thick with ivy.  There are heavy japanese lanterns and christmas lights hanging. A perfect 76 degrees.  The sun is setting in the background and you can see it peeking through the trees.  We can hear the cicadas chirping.  A round metal table with glass top, and all of the chairs are mismatched.  The dishes are antique light teal colored china.  Some of them are chipped, some aren't-- it doesn't matter. Because they've been used forever.
 
Guests... 
Molly Korroch (I mean, it's her house...), Randy Newman, Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson, Paul Newman (circa Cool Hand Luke--and, Molly gets to sit by him), James Dean (circa  1953), Dule Hill, Emily Blunt, Tina Fey, and Rupert Grint

Food...
Cocktails and Hors d'œuvres:
Petite sandwiches.  Little sour dough slices, toasted, fried heirloom tomatoes, two pieces of arugula, with a goat cheese spread.

Then we sit down, and some guests have soup, some have salad...

Salad:
Baby spinach with dried cranberries, chopped walnuts, grilled peach slices, Gorgonzola, walnuts, and a balsamic vinagrette.

Soup:
A chilled asparagus soup, with creme fresh, with baked garlic crisps as a garnish.
 
Entree:
(Red wine with dinner in glasses with long stems and a big bowl, so that the aroma wafts through the air.)
Pine nut-rosemary cous cous with medium-rare grilled beef tenderloin medallions with aioli drizzled on top.  And, a side of oven-baked asparagus with lemon and parmasan cheese.

Dessert:
Champagne.  My dad's sweet biscuits.  (Which are buttermilk biscuits with raw sugar baked on top.) Sliced those in half and put on fresh whipped cream, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries.  Put the top on and Voila!

The Evening's Song...
Dance Me to the End of Love 
By Madeline Peyroux



If anyone is interested in being featured, just let me know by comment or e-mail.  Thanks!

Friday, May 13, 2011

L-House Update: 15

An L-House Update...

1. Awesome project to SAVE the Polaroids!!

2. Caged veils...

3. Pretty dress.  So flowy and elegant.

4. I can't believe it's Friday the Thirteenth!

5. Coolest website ever.  I've gotten Margaret Atwood and David Foster Wallace.  What about you??

6. A bit of a news item: Taking a photography class in the fall.  SO excited!

7. Ride a bike with a friend this summer. (My mom just brought mine up!)

8. "Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand." Mark Twain

9. National Novel Writing Month.  Also known as "NaNoWriMo".  Shay and I are going to do it this November.  All I can think about these days is plots for novels...

10. Today was my official last day as a Sophomore in college.

Ciao, bella.  It's been fun.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

GPOYW


Photo taken by Mariah Gower

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Monday, May 9, 2011

A Fabulous Quirk of Shaylyn Gibson's

Some people are experts on the most random of facts. For example, my mom and I have this weird ability to recall almost any movie quotation.  My friend Aubrey can name all of the Academy Award Best Picture winners ever.

Shay, my roommate, knows famous last words.  You'll reference a random historical figure and she'll immediately respond with, "oh they had really cool last words!"  I'd never thought about it before.  But, it says so much about the person and their life.  Some are mysterious, some are sad, some are hilarious, and some are the most poignant thing you think you'll ever hear.

Shay was awesome and allowed me to conduct a "mini interview" on this quirky interest...

M: So, how did you become interested in famous last words?

SG: I read this book once about a character who was interested in famous last words.  And, it was just really interesting to me.  I also remember learning about Emily Dickinson's last words in like the fifth grade and finding it really intriguing.

A List of Shay's Favorites...

Emily Dickinson: 
"I must go in, the fog is rising."  

Eugene O'neil:  
"I knew it! I knew it!  Born in a hotel room and goddammit, I died in a hotel room!"  

Oscar Wilde: 
"Either this wallpaper goes, or I do!"

James French: 
An American serial killer to be executed by the electric chair.  Before he died, he looked at the reporters and said,  
"How's this for tomorrow's headline? French Fries."

Che Guevara: 
 (Has the most badass last words of all time.) 
"I know you're here to kill me.  Shoot coward.  You're only going to kill a man."

William McKinley: 
He was shot, and he was going in and out for a few days, but when he was clearly nearing the end, his wife started crying and threw herself on him, and said "I want to go too!  I want to go too!"  To which he replied: 
"we are all going."

John Sedgwick:  
(A Major-General in the Civil War) said, 
"Don't worry, they couldn't hit an elephant from this dis--."

Lady Nancy Astor: 
She woke up to find everyone she knew and loved in her room, and she said,   
"am I dying, or is it my birthday?"

Karl Marx:  
(Another badass set of last words.)  
His nurse asked him if he had any last words, and he said,
"Get out of here!  Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!"

Ludwig Van Beethoven:  
"Friends, applaud.  The comedy is over."

Thomas Jefferson:  
"Is it the fourth?" 
It was indeed. He died on the fourth of July.  And, ironically, his nemesis John Adams died just a few hours later...

John Adams:  
Said,
"Jefferson still survives."

Albert Einstein:  
His last words go unrecorded due to the fact that he spoke them in German, and the maid in the room knew no German at all.

Isaac Newton:  
"I do not know what I may have seemed to the world, but to myself I seemed only as a child playing along the sea shore. Every now and then bending to pick up a smoother pebble or prettier seashell than the ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lies undiscovered before me." 

Friday, May 6, 2011

So long, Sophomore


Today was the last day of classes.  I can't believe it.  It really just sprang out of nowhere.  So much happened this year.  So, in lieu of the usual L-House Update, here's a Friday list of some of the most significant things Sophomore year has brought about...

1. Starting this blog.

2. Being in this year's opera: L'Orfeo.

3. Deciding to stay in Ithaca for the summer.

4. Buying my camera. 
(It still excites the bajeebers out of me!!)

5. Missy coming to visit.

6. Going to Chicago for Christmas. (I can now roll my r's.  Thanks Chad!!)

7. Living with Shay. And across the hall from Jaime and Amanda. 
(Can't wait to do it again next year, except then I'll have to wear shoes to go visit...)

8. And, on that note-- signing the lease for The Cottage.

9. Mariah coming to Williamsburg for Spring Break.

10. Truly committing to singing.

Today there was a celebratory festival-ish type thing out on the quad for the last day of classes.  I went sort of camera crazy (I kept forgetting that I had it on a setting so it took 10 pictures every time you clicked the button...)  Anyway, here are a few of my favs...








Thanks yall.  It's been fabulous.

© 2011 M. Hunter Korroch

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Gourmet

My Day on a Plate: Debi Mazar

This just looks awesome.  I hope I'll be able to eat as well on such a regular basis some day...
Ah, to always be Gourmet...

photo from www.gourmet.com

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Featured Wish List: Melissa Redd

A wish list by:
Melissa Redd

Apparel...

1. Timberland Earthkeepers Desert Boots
2. A pair of double front Carhartts in Dark Brown
3. Overall Shorts in Green Khaki
4. Denim Button Down
(To be tucked in and sleeves rolled up...)
5. A Summer Bikini


Living Accessories... 

1. Kelty Gunnison 3.1 Tent, with Footprint
2. Kelty Woman's Redtail 26 Daypack in Charcoal
3. A New Pocket Knife that Includes Pliers
4. Bamboo Bike 
(I really, really don't need this, but it's so cool!)
5. Berns Helmet


Dreamland...

1. An old cabin cottage tucked in the mountains of anywhere really, that I could fix up... 

2. Tupelo Trees
3. Beehive Boxes 
4. An Old Piece-Of-Crap Volvo Converted to Run off Bio-Diesel
5. Maybe a Partner to do This With...
6. A Compost Toilet.
7. A Field of Sunflowers.
 8. Also an Old Motorcycle...
(Think Che/Benjamin Button/Motorcycle Diaries/India)


Missy's Perfect Evening?

Guest List...

    Robert Redford (circa Out of Africa), Wesley (aka the Dream Man--the equivalent to James for those of you who know who that is...), Brad Pitt (circa Legends of the Fall), Edward Norton, Molly Korroch, Melissa Redd, Kirsten McDonald, Clare Dexter Shanley 

And this is what we'd do...

    Well, first we would go to dinner at some place like the Little Grill Collective and Five Forks Cafe combined, and would somehow suddenly be off Route 66.  (I would eat an Avocado Melt Gyro.)  Then, we'd go out dancing to old time music in a big barn. (Like the dance in A River Runs Through It.) It would feature the angelic voice of Robin Pecknold himself.  Songs like Blue Ride Mountains and Helplessness Blues by the Fleet Foxes.  Bare-feet, and I'd wear a dress like this one.  My guests and I would dance ourselves into a tizzy, and by then the stars would be out.  We'd sit in the evening light around a flickering campfire.  Talking, laughing, and taking swigs of Jack Daniels. But, I wouldn't really have that much at all. Because I'm a lady.  

We'd all pass out in tangle of limbs. (Oh, Robert Redford is that your arm I'm using as a pillow?)
In the morning we'd wake and hike not to a peak, but to a plateau. An open field filled with sunlight and honeybees to watch the sun rise like it does everyday. We'd all sing a solemn round of As the Deer Panteth.  Then we'd go to my old cabin cottage and eat blueberry, walnut, and chocolate chip pancakes with real maple syrup and black coffee all around.


Everyone would break out guitars, banjos, mandolins, fiddles--maybe even an accordion--and we'd pick at some songs. We'd promise to form a band and travel around the country via trains and hitch-hiking for a year. And we'd actually do it. The name of our band would be: The Red Orchard.  Because I think that sounds good...and there's a Redford and a Redd. So, I mean, it's in the cards...


Thanks Miss!  (I love the band name.)  If anyone is interested in being featured, as always, just comment or email!  --m.