5 Things I Love This Week

First of all, I must apologize for my lack of blogging. The book I'm working on is *ALMOST* done (I have all of one chapter left), and then I get to worry about selling it. And in the meantime, I will probably be joining the blogosphere more often.

For now, I want to share five things that I am obsessed with this week.

5 THINGS I LOVE THIS WEEK


1) Drew Droege as Chloe Sevigny



I came upon this discovery on the Facebook page owned by the author of Weston Silver). The first time I saw one of these videos I found them amusing, but didn't quite get the point. After you've seen a few of these minute-long videos of improvisational comedian Drew Droege lampooning Chloe Sevigny, the genius becomes apparent. Drew doesn't offer an impersonation but a character in itself: An actress/fashionista who is arrogant and esoteric, while blissfully unaware of being either. My personal favorite is "Comedy", in which Chloe attempts stand-up comedy after being seated next to Da Brat at a charity function, but they're all worth a view. An unfortunate side effect: You may want to start every sentence with "It's recently come to my attention..."


2) Buffalo Exchange

Buffalo Exchange is a consignment shop with locations all over the country, and I stumbled upon it last weekend with my friend Sina. Sina is competing in a beauty pageant this Sunday, and we spent an entire day trying to find dresses. On the way we stopped at this store uptown, where not only did I purchase my first ever piece of clothing with an H & M label on it (okay, Sina bought it for me with her store credit). I also tried on an Abercrombie & Fitch shirt and really wanted it despite being born in the '80s, but Sina assured me that I did not have the body type to be wearing a shirt with a "muscle fit".

The following Monday, I showed up with a bag full of items. They only purchased three of them (and letting go of that Burberry tee-shirt was devastating), but I appreciate that they're so picky about what they're willing to sell to their customers. The best part: On the way out I ran into someone who I haven't seen since high school, and he was one of the more interesting folks. Buffalo Exchange: It brings people together.


3) Jen Lancaster



In all honesty, I'm working on reading all of Jen Lancaster's books and just finished her second ("Bright Lights, Big Ass"), a memoir ruminating on life in the big city of Chicago. Jen Lancaster is, in some ways, the opposite of the Chloe Sevigny we saw above: She's narcisstic but she knows it, and the result is hilarious writing full of both self-deprecation and abrasive observations of others. As an aspiring writer, I especially appreciated it for its realism on the publishing industry: Jen gets her book deal, but is still temping for a year due to the glacial pace of the business (those advance checks take their time). By far the book's best section is when, after completing a rather menial task at one of her temping gigs, the boss compliments her. It's a tiny gesture, and yet Jen reflects on her years as a dot-com exec where her decisions made people millions of dollars, and she was never greeted with any sort of courtesy. It's a deep yet unsentimental passage in a book full of unapologetic bitchiness.

Sidebar: While Lancaster doesn't write about politics very much, she's a Republican and I love her for it. In the same week that my friend Julie told me she probably won't go to my comedy show on Thursday because "there'll be a bunch of Somalians there", it's refreshing to read a book by someone who a) voted for John McCain in '08 and b) takes the time to bemoan racial profiling post 9/11 during a rant about the city bus. Well-played, Jen Lancaster. You can read more of Jen's musings, book tour informaton, and reading suggestions at her website.

4) GQ




GQ: You cannot put Channing Tatum on your cover *and* have Josh Hutcherson in an additional pictorial without first prescribing me heart attack medication.


5) Chipheads Computer Repair Shop

If any of you are in the Minneapolis area and have a piece of shit computer that you should have replaced the first time you sent it to the computer hospital, I highly recommend Chipheads in Richfield and in St. Paul. My monitor totally biffed it last week, and guess who's almost done with a book yet hasn't backed anything up? This guy. Not only that, but I have a keyboard that isn't connected by a USB cable for the first time since 2008. You rock, Chipheads!