A pair of Paris stories

Posted on January 31, 2012 by carlieblissirwin

Over the course of the past few days, I finished reading The Paris Wife and finally got to see Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (thanks to my friend Liz and her very well-timed Netflix arrival!).

Since both of these stories are about the expatriate writers and artists in 1920s Paris (Hemingway, Pound, Stein, The Fitzgeralds, etc.), I feel like I’ve been immersed in that period with those people and it’s been a grand time, old sport!

Just as I suspected, I loved Midnight in Paris. Love, love, love, love. LOVE! (Please let me know if you require more emphasis in order to truly understand how much I liked this movie.) It was fun and beautiful and I felt like I could relate to the perception that the “golden age” is always in the past and how it feels like previous eras are always better than the present. I used to wish I had lived in the 1960s until I came to the conclusion that I’m probably too uptight to have participated in any of the fun stuff of that era anyway. (wah-wah)

I liked The Paris Wife too, but not enough to warrant any annoyingly repetitive exclamations of love. It was really interesting, but I didn’t like the narrator (Ernest Hemingway’s first wife) all that much – she didn’t seem like the type of woman Ernest would actually have fallen in love with. And even though it’s based on a true story, a lot of it just didn’t seem believable. Maybe because I couldn’t relate to their artistic, jet-setting lifestyle. Has anyone else read it and felt the same way? I will say that I really loved the ending and would still recommend reading it.

But here’s the thing – now I really want to go back to Paris. LIKE RIGHT NOW. And that’s probably not going to happen. I also would really love a chocolate croissant, which is a bit more feasible.

Ahh, c’est la vie…

Images from here and here.

Must-see movies

Posted on January 25, 2012 by carlieblissirwin

I used to think of myself as somewhat of a movie buff.

When the Academy Award nominations came out, I most likely would have seen the majority of the Best Picture nominees, with the exception of the scary ones. (For example, I have NOT seen 1991 winner The Silence of the Lambs. And you can’t make me!)

But that was back in the good ol’ days when a three-hour block of time in which I had nothing better to do was a frequent occurrence, the dollar amount of a movie ticket was still in the single digits, and I could be careless with money anyway because my parents were paying for everything.

Let me tell you something – times have changed!

Here. I’ll name every single movie I saw in the theater in 2011: The Help. We Bought a Zoo.

And THAT’S IT!!

Pathetic.

Now that the 2012 Best Picture nominees have been announced and I’ve only seen 10% of them (although considering my track record, one out of ten is pretty good!), it’s becoming clear that I have some major catching up to do. And while I want to see all of the nominees (except War Horse – I’d rather watch a psychopathic cannibalistic serial killer than an poor helpless animal experiencing any kind of trauma), there are two that I absolutely MUST see:

The Artist

Midnight in Paris

I can already tell just by looking at these stills that I’ll love both movies.

Get me to a theater!

All images via

76 more days

Posted on January 9, 2012 by carlieblissirwin

Mad Men.

March 25.

Mark your calendars – it’s coming back!!

Image via

Slap #2

Posted on January 9, 2012 by carlieblissirwin

Kids, on Saturday night, Will spotted Marshall from How I Met Your Mother (aka Jason Segel) exiting a Bentley with a small entourage, just a couple blocks from our apartment. In honor of this legen…(wait for it)…dary! celebrity sighting, I’d like to share with you one of my favorite Marshall moments.

Happy Birthday, American Girl!

Posted on December 22, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

Apparently, it’s the 25th anniversary of American Girl. These girls don’t look a day over eight!

I’m proud to say that I grew up in the Golden era of American Girl. Back then, there were only three dolls to choose from: Kirsten, Samantha and Molly (in ascending order of historical era).

Receiving the catalog in the mail was a monthly highlight, no mega store/restaurant complexes existed, and the educational historical background of each “girl” was the convenient angle we used to convince our moms to buy these ridiculously expensive, glorified Cabbage Patch Kids. Their hair accessories alone probably cost the equivalent of several Pogo Balls and a Skip-it.

When I was finally allowed to get an American Girl doll for my birthday (after a speech about how important it was to take good care of her), I naturally chose Samantha. She had the best hair and the best clothes. I couldn’t understand why anyone would choose either of the other two. Kirsten had weird braids. And Molly had glasses and braids. Ew.

A few years later, once Felicity (from the Revolutionary War) and Addy (a slave) came out, I asked for an Addy doll for my birthday because like most 12-year-olds, I was a big advocate of diversity. But being a sucker for large hair bows, I always loved Samantha more.

I still have both Samantha and Addy. They are currently sitting on a shelf in my old bedroom at my parents’ house. Getting very, very dusty.

Maybe someday I’ll be able to power-wash them and pass them down to my own kids who will probably think they are gross and lame and won’t know what to do with toys that don’t have touchscreens.

Someday…

(Images from here, here and here.)

Christmas confessions

Posted on December 7, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

(source)

It’s possible that while flipping channels around 7 pm last night, I may have come across Michael Buble’s Christmas special on NBC.

And somehow the TV ended up staying on that channel for the whole hour.

I don’t know, it was weird!

Cute couple alert

Posted on November 22, 2011 by carlieblissirwin

(source)

I love this photo.

I had separate-but-equal celebrity crushes on both Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield before I knew they were dating. I just found out they have joined forces to create the most accessible, down-to-earth looking but totally famous and talented couple ever. And I fully support.

I mean look at them – yes, we know they’re celebrities, but they actually just look like a normal, attractive couple walking through the streets of New York. They aren’t too sleek and shiny, their clothes (while designer) are not too designer-y, and this arm-in-arm business? Well that’s just too much!

They just look very normal. And I appreciate that.