girl crush: jessica paré

My favorite Draper, other than Sally of course. With the final season of Mad Men starting April 13, I'm confessing my love for Megan Draper which leads to my crush on Jessica Paré. She has a model-esque body but she gives off the vibe that she's a real girl, straight out of Montréal. Maybe it's her unique mouth, which looks so lovely when she speaks, or sings, in French.

for the love of hotels

Oh I really love hotels. I always have. Sometimes I think it's the child inside that loves them. When I was a kid, I loved the idea of staying in a hotel because it meant that you were heading somewhere new and wonderful and there was optimism or that you were heading home and you felt great about your trip. Other times I think it's the romantic in me that loves the mystery and the strange yet intriguing thought that you're basically staying in an over sized house with tons of bedrooms among strangers. Either way, hotels have always struck me as fascinating. Maybe it's because I don't travel often and I'm not sick of them yet. They're still a treat.

Hôtel Costes

239 Rue Saint-Honoré 1er, Paris, France

I first came across Hôtel Costes after listening to one of the compilation albums the hotel puts out. The albums are mainly smooth jazz mixed with deep house, which is right up my alley. The DJ Stéphane Pompougnac puts them together ever so wonderfully. I read somewhere that the tracks are basically what they play in their hotel bar and lounge. Other than a collection of CDs that Hôtel Costes has, their courtyard is world famous. It looks like a bit of the south of France in the middle of Paris. Not to mention their Twin Peaks - esque bedrooms with a common denominator of red velvet.

Hotel Chelsea

222 W 23rd Street, New York City, USA

The grimiest and the one with the most history, Hotel Chelsea doesn't really fit on this list as far as opulence and luxury go. It is, however, definitely one of those world renowned hotels that everyone seems to know about thanks to its long list of attendants (Jack Kerouac, Stanley Kubrick, Iggy Pop, Simone de Beauvoir, Patti Smith, Vincent Gallo and Edie Sedgwick.) as well as where Sid Vicious' girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found stabbed to death in late 1978. It feels very New York, with its art pop lobby, classic rooms and picturesque hallways and staircases, those wooden floors and bay windows looking out to Chelsea.

Chateau Marmont

8221 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, USA

Now made famous by Lana del Rey, it seems, Chateau Marmont is perfect California luxury. I'm particularly attracted to the last photo with the dark wood furnishings, the romantic flowers, beige walls and the perfect way the sun is shining on the couch and onto the floor (I do actually miss that California sunshine on occasion). I'm definitely dreaming of Chateau Marmont the most at the moment because of its pool with deep green leaves making one feel incognito and the Spanish inspired lounge. I just want to lounge around in white cotton pants and a bathing suit top with cat eye sunglasses feeling the breeze from the ocean a few miles away.

L'hotel Paris

13 Rue des Beaux-Arts 6e, Paris, France

Talk about opulence. L'hotel Paris is where Oscar Wilde infamously spent his last 16 days with these words to define them, "I am dying beyond all means." I don't think I'd be too macabre while spending my last 16 days at a place like this. L'hotel seems to look like it's for the older crowd. The furnishings and color feel more mature and distinguished compared to Hôtel Costes almost forced opulence drawing in the beatnicks of the current generation. L'hotel doesn't have snazzy bar or sexy courtyard but a wonderful dining area and sensual, grownup bedrooms.

The Ritz London

150 Piccadilly, London, England

The Ritz looks so incredibly English and Parisienne at the same time. It looks like Versailles but then again so does Buckingham Palace and the Ritz looks like Buckingham Palace, for sure. On some occasions hotels with such decadent decor will have "normal" rooms (you know, the ones that don't look like the Queen and/or Marie Antoinette have stayed there) but I don't think the Ritz has any of those. I would at least like to think that every room is as insane as the second picture.

Public Chicago Hotel

1301 N State Parkway, Chicago, USA

I had no idea something so chic and minimal and contemporary was in the middle of the city I know call home. It's magnificent Pump Room decor and extremely stylish lobby are making me want to go up the Gold Coast and stay there for no other reason than to gawk at the decor and architecture. The lack of color is superb, save for the occasional pieces of foliage and coffee table books. Stay away if you're a chronically messy person and don't bring your kids here as it looks like most of the rooms are stark white.

girl crush: georgia may jagger

I love a girl with a great pout and voluminous blonde hair. And I especially love it when said pout is painted in red and said hair is curled to produce the right amount of waves. Miss Georgia May Jagger is something of a child prodigy in the fashion world, isn't she? With Mick Jagger for a dad and Jerry Hall for a mum, you're probably destined to look like a rock 'n roll goddess. Only recently has Georgia May begun to sort of polish up her beauty look taking a more classic bombshell appearance with that red lip and side parted hair. Whoever's idea it was for her to take that route, I'm glad they came up with it because she is my latest beauty inspiration and girl crush. And I'm definitely taking tips from this how-to from Who What Wear.

films of 2013

At the beginning of the year, I decided to try to do a cumulative film round up at the end of each month thinking that it would be easier for me to bust out a review. It was easier but I realized in April that I really, really love doing a post at the end of the year. For the past two years I've found great joy in composing my end of the year film post in November and posting it on the last day of the year. So with that said, this is my third "end of the year film post". You can read my other two attempted "end of the month" posts here and here from January and February. I won't feature the same films here, though. But, as always, you can see every single film I watched in 2013 here.




Apocalypse Now (1979)
Watched: 10 March
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper
Synopsis: During the U.S./Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe.
Favorite quote: I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror... Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies! - Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, Marlon Brando




Bachelorette (2012)
Watched: 04 May
Director: Leslye Headland
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, Rebel Wilson, James Marsden, Adam Scott
Synopsis: Three friends are asked to be bridesmaids at a wedding of a woman they used to ridicule back in high school.
Favorite Quote: Dale (Hayes MacArthur): You know how there are, like, serial killers, and then there's Hannibal Lecter? Trevor (James Marsden): Yeah? Clyde (Adam Scott): There are girls, and then there's Regan.




Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)
Watched: 11 March
Director: George Roy Hill
Cast: Robert Redford, Paul Newman
Synopsis: Two Western bank/train robbers flee to Bolivia when the law gets too close.
Favorite Quote: Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman): Alright. I'll jump first. Sundance Kid (Robert Redford): No. Butch Cassidy: Then you jump first. Sundance Kid: No, I said. Butch Cassidy: What's the matter with you? Sundance Kid: I can't swim. Butch Cassidy: Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you. Sundance Kid: Oh, shit...




A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Watched: 26 June
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee
Synopsis: In future Britain, charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is jailed and volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society's crime problem, but not all goes to plan.
Favorite Quote: Alex (Malcolm McDowell): You needn't take it any further, sir. You've proved to me that all this ultraviolence and killing is wrong, wrong, and terribly wrong. I've learned me lesson, sir. I've seen now what I've never seen before. I'm cured! Praise god! Dr. Brodsky (Carl Duering): You're not cured yet, boy.




The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Watched: 19 March
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton
Synopsis: Tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with bizarre consequences.
Favorite Quote: For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again. -  Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt




Fight Club (1999)
Watched: 29 April
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
Synopsis: An insomniac office worker looking for a way to change his life crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker and they form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.
Favorite Quote: And then, something happened. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom. - Narrator, Edward Norton




Friends With Kids (2011)
Watched: 20 October
Director: Jennifer Westfeldt
Cast: Jennifer Westfeldt, Adam Scott, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Chris O'Dowd, Maya Rudolph
Synopsis: Two best friends decide to have a child together while keeping their relationship platonic, so they can avoid the toll kids can take on romantic relationships.
Favorite Quote: You think that we don't love each other? You know, I have loved this girl for nineteen years, Ben. That is fully half my life. I know everything there is to know about her. I know the mood she's in when she wakes up in the morning - always happy, ready for the day. Can you imagine? I know that she is honest; she won't even take the little shampoo bottles from the hotel room, or sneak into the movie theater for a double feature. She always buys a second ticket. Always. I know that we have the same values, we have the same taste, we have the same sense of humor. I know that we both think that organized religion is completely full of shit. I know that if she is ever paralyzed from the neck down, she would like me to unplug her - and I will. I know her position on just about everything, and I am on board. I am on board with everything about her, so you tell me, Ben. What better woman could I have picked to be the mother of my child? - Jason Fryman, Adam Scott




The Game (1997)
Watched: 23 April
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Michael Douglas, Sean Penn
Synopsis: Wealthy financier Nicholas Van Orton gets a strange birthday present from wayward brother Conrad: a live-action game that consumes his life.
Favorite Quote: Discovering the object of the game *is* the object of the game. - Daniel Schorr




Heathers (1989)
Watched: 08 June
Director: Michael Lehmann
Cast: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty
Synopsis: A girl who half-heartedly tries to be part of the "in crowd" of her school meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics.
Favorite Quote: People will look at the ashes of Westerburg and say, 'Now there's a school that self-destructed, not because society didn't care, but because the school was society.' Now that's deep. - J.D., Christian Slater




"Jagten" (The Hunt) (2012)
Watched: 13 May
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larson, Annika Wedderkopp
Synopsis: A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
Favorite Quote; The world is full of evil but if we hold on to each other, it goes away. - Lucas, Mads Mikkelsen




Les Misérables (2012)
Watched: 15 April
Director: Tom Hooper
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit
Synopsis: In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after he breaks parole, agrees to care for factory worker Fantine's daughter, Cosette. The fateful decision changes their lives forever.
Favorite Quote: This is the land I fought for liberty, now when we fight, we fight for bread... here is the thing about equality, everyone's equal when they're dead. - Gavroche, Daniel Huttlestone




No Country For Old Men (2007)
Watched: 04 May
Director: Joel and Ethan Cohen
Cast: Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Kelly MacDonald
Synopsis: Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
Favorite Quote: Man who hires Wells (Stephen Root): [about Chigurh (Javier Bardem)] Just how dangerous is he? Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson): Compared to what? The bubonic plague?




Pump Up The Volume (1990)
Watched: 21 June
Director: Allan Moyle
Cast: Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis
Synopsis: Mark runs a pirate radio station and causes an uproar when he speaks his mind and enthralls fellow teens.
Favorite Quote: You hear about some kid who did something stupid, something desperate; what possessed him? How could he do such a terrible thing? Well, it's really quite simple, actually. Consider the life of a teenager - you have parents, teachers telling you what to do, you have movies, magazines and TV telling you what to do, but you know what you have to do. Your job, your purpose is to get accepted, get a cute girlfriend, think up something great to do with the rest of your life. What if you're confused and can't imagine a career? What if you're funny looking and can't get a girlfriend? You see, no-one wants to hear it. But the terrible secret is that being young is sometimes less fun than being dead. - Mark Hunter (Hard Harry), Christian Slater




Trance (2013)
Watched: 16 September
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson
Synopsis: An art auctioneer who has become mixed up with a group of criminals partners with a hypnotherapist in order to recover a lost painting.
Favorite Quote: To be yourself you have to constantly remember yourself. - Elizabeth, Rosario Dawson




Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Watched: 27 May
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Penélope Cruz
Synopsis: Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.
Favorite Quote: Cristina (Scarlett Johansson): What's in Oviedo? Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem): I go to see a sculpture, that is very inspiring to me. A very beautiful sculpture. You will love it. Vicky (Rebecca Hall): Oh, right. you're asking us to fly to Oviedo and back. Juan Antonio: Mmmm. No, we'll spend the weekend. I mean, I'll show you around the city, and we'll eat well. We'll drink good wine. We'll make love. Vicky: Yeah, who exactly is going to make love? Juan Antonio: Hopefully, the three of us.




The Way We Were (1973)
Watched: 05 May
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Robert Redford, Barbara Streisand
Synopsis: Two desperate people have a wonderful romance, but their political views and convictions drive them apart.
Favorite Quote: Your girl is lovely, Hubbell. - Katie Morosky Gardner, Barbara Streisand




When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
Watched: 19 June
Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal
Synopsis: Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.
Favorite Quote: Harry Burns (Billy Crystal): There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance. Sally Albright (Meg Ryan): Which one am I? Harry Burns: You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance. Sally Albright: I don't see that. Harry Burns: You don't see that? Waiter, I'll begin with a house salad, but I don't want the regular dressing. I'll have the balsamic vinegar and oil, but on the side. And then the salmon with the mustard sauce, but I want the mustard sauce on the side. "On the side" is a very big thing for you. Sally Albright: Well, I just want it the way I want it. Harry Burns: I know; high maintenance.




There Will Be Blood (2007)
Watched: 05 June
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano
Synopsis: A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.
Favorite Quote: Do you think God is going to come down here and save you for being stupid? He doesn't save stupid people, Abel. - Eli Sunday, Paul Dano