Manifesto of a Winter Warrior in Training

I will not freeze.
I will not look haggard and worn.
I will not complain about the weather.
I will not let my body knot up and surrender.
I will learn to love the winter in all its quiet beauty.

  Photo by Jan Tik.

Puppy Love

I spent the weekend with a very special little love nugget called Henry Warren. He is a miniature long-haired Dachshund who belongs to my friend Sarah and I just cannot tell you how happy he makes me! I have wanted a puppy ever since my cocker spaniel, Matsy, died when I was 19, but hardly feel ready for the responsibility. I live with (wonderful) roommates in a (charming) little apartment, and I love to travel. None of these lifestyle choices are ideal for a dog-owner, so I've realized that raising my own is something I will have to do later in my life. That being said, I'm just gonna put it out there... I think I'm a pretty fantastic puppy- sitter. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Henry's lil tail wags his whole hot-dog body into a stupor when he comes over to my place. The feeling is mutual :)

Top photo by Carly Blitz.

Heirlooms

I got a little carried away with these at the Coop the other day, but I've always been a sucker for jewel tones and sweet juicy tomatoes! A perfect fall bouquet sans the gnarly decorative gourds.

Drive. Do it.

If bad boys, sexual tension, 80's jams, and Ryan Gosling holding babies are like crack for you, you should definitely not miss Drive. Just saying.

Q: Is there anyone as hot as Ryan Gosling in the entire world? A: Yes, Jake Gyllenhaal, it's a trick question. And now for some burning 80's musical fire:

Buddhism 101

My dad keeps telling me he's "rapidly becoming a Buddhist". This is a little chuckle-y 101 for Papa Bak, via Devika Bakshi, one of my favorite people.

Hello!

Happy weekend! If you need a little pumping up like I always do after a long week, listen to these:
Parcels of easy fun in shiny youtube wrapping paper. Tomorrow I'm headed to a secret lake house to film the next installation of Cassie + Jules- make- short- films- with- dance (temporary name), so I'm definitely gonna bump these a few times each on the road!

My Bollywood Days

Weather in Delhi does two things: rain very very heavily, or, become very very very hot and humid. The best thing about these two circumstances is that they are both ideal weather conditions for one of my favorite activities—going to the movies. Lucky for me, the Bollywood industry is probably the largest film Industry (definitely the most prolific) in the world, and the country’s independent cinema movement is also booming. If I’d wanted too, I could have seen three movies a day for every day of my trip and still not exhausted the supply. Since ostensibly there were other things I had to do, I just saw three films total: One Hindi indie called That Girl in Yellow Boots, about a young girl who works at a happy endings massage parlor to make enough money to track down her lost father, and two classic Bollywood films, Mere brother Ke Dulhan and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the latter a classic stag party adventure for three best friends before one of them gets married. (The same female lead, Katrina Kaif stars in both of these).
I appreciated my first Hindi indie, but my favorite of the three was the archetypal Bollywood flick, “Mere Brother Ke Dulhan” or “My brother’s bride” which my mom thought should be changed to “EYES” because of the amount of screen time dedicated solely to close ups of our main characters looking longingly at each other. During this movie, our main character, Kush, is on a mission to find a bride for his brother, Luv. He finds the perfect woman, Dimple, but after her engagement to his brother, Kush realizes hes totally in love with her! My favorite scene had to be when, as part of the plot twist to get the brother back with his ex so that Kush and Dimple can be together, the whole family takes a break from engagement festivities at a Government Authorized Bhang Shop (Bhang is a juice made from marijuana plants that is mixed into milkshakes) and everyone including the fat old aunties and uncles gets completely blitzed out of their minds and they all perform a big-stoned-happy-family song and dance number. It's not my Dadima's Bollywood anymore, that's for sure! Do not think, however, that this means there was one single kiss on the lips during the entire film, because there was not. Not a single kiss, but eyes, eyes, eyes!It's true that Bollywood films are cheesy and obvious. BUT. Bollywood has PERFECTED cheese and obviousness to such an extent that the movies are wildly successful in what they aim to achieve: a tangled love story fraught with family drama and some seemingly insurmountable conflict, resolved by an elaborate wedding and all loose ends neatly tied up, with at least 3 or 4 musical numbers to rival any Brittany or Beyonce video. It’s damn hard not to fall in love with them!

BTW is this guy the Indian Jake Gyllenhaal or what?!