After I went on another tour of Oakland Cemetery + had dinner @ Tin Lizzy’s Grant Park last night…

should be on your atlanta bucket list, folks

…I came home and flipped on MTV to watch the premiere of Teen Mom (don’t judge), and ended up crying-like-a-BABY watching MTV’s newest show which also premiered yesterday evening, If You Really Knew Me.  Seriously, tears streaming into my wine glass.  Everyone really, REALLY needs to watch this show.

Here’s the Q+DD on If You Really Knew Me:  MTV’s If You Really New Me is a show centered around Challenge Day, a revealing high school program in which trained Challenge Day staff visits schools and tries to demolish social boundaries, emotional walls, and inevitable cliques so that high school students ultimately feel less alone and more understood.  The show, which has replaced The Hills in the 11:00 p.m. EST time slot, tackles serious issues like race, sex, and identity in front of not only peers, but also a national television audience.  

Challenge Day was founded by high school teacher, wrestling coach, family therapist and drug intervention specialist, Rich Dutra, and his wife, Yvonne, who has special training in working with at-risk youth.  According to their official site, “The Challenge Day mission is to provide youth and their communities with experiential programs that demonstrate the possibility of love and connection through the celebration of diversity, truth and full expression.”

Challenge Day’s MTV website:  http://www.challengeday.org/mtv/

If You Really Knew Me trailer:  http://tiny.cc/sdq02

What’s being said about the show:  http://tiny.cc/8yg8w

To me, it was kind of like a one hour reality version of The Breakfast Club. 

"screws fall out all the time; the world is an imperfect place" - bender

I just read online that MTV has committed to 12 episodes of the show, and I strongly encourage everyone to check it out.  Knowing MTV, it will be looped 45+ times throughout the next week – so it shouldn’t be difficult at all to catch again.  Set your TiVos + grab a box of tissues, b/c I am pretty sure that this show is going to change your life.

xx, L

Big, Huge P.S.:  Happy 500th post to us… 

what, what, what!

…and THANKS SO MUCH to all of our readers! 

T. Bloom

Out of the four years I’ve thrown this event, I’ve never seen Table 1280 as packed as it was last night.  Way to go, Tracey!  We had cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in the bar area, which I think is just perfect for a smaller event, and then headed back to my personal favorite room at Table 1280 (the one to the left of the entrance) for a seated dinner.

table 1280

Simply, dinner was delicious.  We had a large group of people, and the folks at my end of the table ordered some pretty yummy starters to share, of which this one was my favorite:

Serrano Ham, Manchego, Piquillo Pepper, Arugula, Breadstick  (loved!)

I also had a bite of a brisket slider and someone’s organic salad – and both were great, too.  For dinner, most of the table ordered one of three items: the wild salmon (which came very highly recommended from our fabulous server, Lynn), the pork chop and the ribeye.   Everyone raved about all three!  I knew that my salmon was very tasty, but I was floored that there was such a strong positive consensus about the food from this very opinionated group of mine.  To finish off the dinner, I had the lemon panna cotta with Georgia blueberries.  It. was. heavenly.

What was the best part of the evening you ask?  Well, let me think…meeting Tracey Bloom was kind of awesome!

!!!!!

We found her to be very personable, and we got a kick out of her Top Chef stories.  It was particularly interesting to hear about the filming of the show, as well as some tidbits regarding producer-created drama among the contestants.  Although Tracey will not reign as season 7’s “top chef,” she is doing some pretty stellar things at Table 1280.  No longer will I consider this restaurant merely a pre-HIGH Museum destination.

P.S. If you throw an event at Table 1280, make sure that you order the miniature quesadilla with chorizo and manchego + the truffle chix salad on a crostini as hors d’oeuvres.  They are really, REALLY addictive!

xx, L

Table 1280
1280 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA  30309
404.897.1280
www.table1280.com

We checked off almost everything on his Bucket List, with the exception of a visit to The Varsity, which we both decided was just not possible this trip (him) or ever (me).  We did, however, visit some of my favorites – which are now some of his:  Holeman + Finch, Bakeshop, Antico Pizzeria, Pancho’s, Rosebud and Ormsby’s.  The poor kid had never been to a Trader Joe’s, either!  We scheduled in a special trip to show him what Texas is missing… 

After we got back from Lake Burton on Saturday, we met some folks at Antico and then hit up Midtown Art Cinema to see Cyrus w/ Slick + the Barocai.  Michael and I thought it was really well done – very smart + funny.  (Know before you go:  Cyrus is a SXSW + Sundance film – so the humor is a bit different from the other movies in Jonah Hill’s catalog.)

Here’s the Q+DD on Cyrus:

Cyrus is a comedy drama film written and directed by brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, and starring John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei and Catherine Keener.  The main character, John, is seven years divorced from his wife and is having trouble adjusting to his new life.  After meeting Molly at a party, he thinks that maybe he has found the perfect person again.  There’s just one problem: Cyrus, Molly’s grown son.  John must find a way to make his romance with Molly work despite intentional and unintentional interference by Cyrus.  The film has received generally positive reviews.  Review aggregate, Rotten Tomatoes, reports that 80% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 69 reviews, with an average score of 6.7/10.  The critical consensus is: “While it may strike some viewers as slight, Cyrus is a successful hybrid of mainstream production values and the mumblecore ideals of directors Jay and Mark Duplass.  (www.wikipedia.com)

Catch it @ Midtown Art:  http://tiny.cc/hialo

I’d also like to mention that we destroyed Ormsby’s maple cotton candy on Sunday.  It was one of the few things on the menu that I hadn’t tried before.  We had some serious yumz on our hands – and it was only $3!

In a flash, it was gone…

It was super fun to eat + a perfect treat for the end of the World Cup!  Viva Espana!

Also in other Ormsby’s news, the owner told Slick + Michael that they are in the process of building a ping pong (beer pong?) room downstairs.  AND, there’s a new bathroom downstairs, too.  Thank you for being so incredible, Ormsby’s!  I’m really likin’ what you’re doin’.

Miss you already, MR.  Come back to visit again soon!  (I promise to at least consider a Varsity run…)

xx, L

Yesssssssssssss!  (I just can’t get enough of these sexy bloodsuckers…)

True Blood Season 3 starts tonight!  Don’t miss it – 9:00 p.m. EST on HBO.  Christine and I will be glued.

And, please remember:

This is big.

xx, L

A couple of weeks ago, I saw City Island at the Tara…

It’s about a dysfunctional family living on City Island, a suburban island off the coast of the Bronx, who are all keeping secrets much more innocuous than the atrocities they assume each other are hiding.

I liked this movie, despite the fact that I usually can’t stomach this type of “one piece of missing information, otherwise everything would be fine” humor. (Three’s Company and Meet the Parents kind of stuff…gives me massive anxiety.)

However, it was funny and poignant and heart-wrenching all at the same time, there was some really nice acting (particularly by Emily Mortimer), and I LOVED the scrawny teenaged son who has a thing for large ladies. If you haven’t, go see it!   It’s cute!
Then, a few nights ago I saw “Exit Through The Gift Shop” at Midtown Art…a film I THOUGHT was going to be about the British street (graffiti) artist, Banksy.

If you’re unfamiliar with Banksy, I encourage you do to a little research.  He’s far too interesting for a Q+DD explanation. Check his blog out here and his art website out here.  But…..here are some of his more popular pieces:

(I love you, Maura.)

Anyway, as I mentioned, I thought the film was going to be a documentary of his work…which I was really excited about because a) he is notoriously reclusive and b) street art is very hard to document, of course, since it is technically vandalism.

What I found, however, was that this was not really a movie about Banksy, but rather about a man named Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman with a camera and an obsession for the craft.  So it was a film by Banksy about Guetta trying to make a film about Banksy… get it? “Prankumentary” is what they’re calling it.

Guetta films thousands of hours of footage of Banksy and countless other famous (infamous?) street artists including his own cousin, Invader, and Shepard Fairey (you know him. He is responsible for this:
Eventually, Guetta decides he is ALSO a street artist himself. Going by the alias “Mr. Brain Wash,” Guetta starts tagging, and almost immediately stages his own art installation filled with “blatant knockoffs and cut-and-paste pop trash” and Banksy’s message becomes clear.

The film was brilliant; I just wish we had seen more Banksy! He was rarely on camera, and when he was, he was hooded and his voice was disguised.

The Voice Disguiser. A la The Bert Show.

I don’t think that he’ll be making any appearances on Larry King anytime soon, either.  He is quoted as saying, “The film is the end of my public life rather than the beginning.” Bummer.

Obviously, I recommend it. (Bonus: there’s a Foursquare badge associated with the movie:

To get it, simply shout “Banksy” when you check in to Midtown Art,…thanks Mark!)

Gah, I am so artsy! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go unwrap the DVD I just ordered from Amazon: The Sweetest Thing with Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate, and Selma Blair…a classic piece of American cinematography if you ask me.

xx, L

not really my thing

I’m much more of a SYTYCD person…

love! love nigel lythgoe!!

However, I’d like to officially congratulate Lee Dewyze for winning American Idol on Wednesday!

you did it, man

Lee was Slick’s pick from the very beginning, so needless to say he was v. excited for him. 

yessssssss!

Here’s Lee singing one of my favorite songs, “Hallelujah.”  He’s pretty incredible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te42ioevqnI

Congrats again, Lee! Plz don’t be a complete sellout – you seem pretty cool.

xx, L

Sunday evening was the series finale of LOST, a show I’ve watched for six years.  It’s one of the longest relationships I’ve ever had – and today I’m in full blown mourning for the show. 

Slick and I were in Ann Arbor until yesterday morning for a Sunday evening wedding – so we missed the finale in real time.  (If that isn’t friendship, I don’t know what is.)  All day yesterday, I avoided Facebook and Perez Hilton so that I wouldn’t find out even a morsel of what happened.  The USA Today I was reading in the Detroit terminal almost ruined it for me, but thankfully I dramatically tossed it as soon as I saw a picture of Jack and Hurley running through the island.  I was in agony all day, worried that someone would accidentally spill the beans. 

Jen B had a big LOST finale party on Sunday night, but her husband – also an avid LOSTie – was at the wedding w/ us, so she had us over to watch the finale (second time for her) last night. Thank you, Jen! 

Jen's island cake

Oceanic 815 airplane cookies

Jen making the smoke monster!!

Although many LOST bloggers disagree, I thought the two hour finale was really great!  It was incredibly confusing, but it finally answered most of my questions (not nearly all of them, though). 

SPOILER ALERT!  Here’s the Q+DD on the LOST finale: http://snipurl.com/wreeq

Aaron Karo’s Ruminations re. LOST ending: http://www.ruminations.com/column/171

I can’t help but feel deflated today.  I’ve watched the show from the very first episode of the first season – longer than I’ve watched any other.  We had good times (seasons 1, 2, 6) and bad times (seaons 3, 4, 5) - but we made it throught it all.  As Jen put it, “it’s like Friends ending all over again…”  I think this is worse. 

R.I.P. old friend.  From the bottom of my pop-culture-lovin’ heart, I deeply thank you for the past six years of quality entertainment.

xx, L

so what...

However, my favorite specimens to study while I’m sitting at home eating dinner on the couch or giving myself a homemade pedicure are creatures covered in faux fur with extremely tan hides, extra long nails and wild manes.  Sounds scary, right?  Right!  Where can you find these animals in their “natural” habitat you ask?  Easy.  Central Jersey at the Gatsby Salon.  I’m watching “Jerseylicious” on the Style Network (Sundays at 10:00 p.m. EST)…and I’m obsessed! 

I thought that “Jersey Shore” was good…HA!  “Jerseylicious” is my dream show – total reality garbage mixed with crazy animal prints and lotsa lotsa drama + scissors + makeup = AMAZING!  I honestly can’t turn it off…  (I like it so much, I’m even watching it in real time!)

the absolutely incredible cast of "jerseylicious"

Here’s the Q+DD: The Gatsby Salon in Central Jersey recently underwent a $2 million dollar renovation.  In hopes of upping their image, building their business, and most importantly, making their money back – the store owners have hired a bunch of eccentric new stylists and makeup artists.  Pretty simple.

"where big hair meets even bigger personalities"

These two, Olivia + Tracy, are rivals and always fighting.  FYI – I’m on Team Olivia.

tracy + olivia

Alexa is the Omarosa of the group.  C.R.A.Z.Y. pants.  She’s got five pairs…

the "glam fairy"

Gigi is the sweetheart -totally marriage-obsessed and everyone’s friend.

xoxo gigi. you are adorable!

(She kind of reminds me of my mom, too…  Weird.)

retro adele

Everyone else in the show is just noise to me, but they are all funny as heck.  This is trashy entertainment at its best!  “Jerseylicious” is looped constantly on the Style Network and I’m pretty sure you can catch it online.  It may just change your life.  Fact.

OH, I almost forgot…I am soooooooo excited for this: Next week they all go to New York to get a make-UNDER!  I can’t wait to see that!

Give yourself a “Jerseylicious” makeover here:  http://bit.ly/144aMQ

Enjoy, Glam Fairies!  (You’ll see..) 

xx, L

2 – It’s midweek, so the weekend is in view…

is it Friday yet?

3 – However,  I think Wednesdays are wonderful mostly because…It’s Modern Family day!!

Do y’all watch this show?  I look forward to it all week!  It’s H.Y.S.T.E.R.I.C.A.L.

As I’ve mentioned before, my favorite character on the show is Cameron.

CAMERON! Love.

Slick and I also get a kick out of this kid…

MANNY!

You don’t have to have watched Modern Family from the beginning to jump right in.  Here’s the Q+DD to catch you up…

xx, L

"when you wish upon a STAR..."

Like…tickets to CHELSEA HANDLER @ the Fox magically appearing in my hot little hands!!  (The universe willed it so…) 

@ chelsea's 8:00 p.m. show!

What an unexpected turn of events!  I’d resigned myself to the fact that I’d most likely not be at either one of her Atlanta shows on Sunday, but then Slick + Stephen pulled through with tickets!  I was shocked.  What great guys! 

We grabbed a bite to eat at my favorite pre-Fox Theatre grubbery, Publik Social House.  It was very crowded – mostly with attractive women + a few fabulous guys who were all dressed up for the occasion, but we were still able to grab some delicious burgers and a few drinks prior to the show. 

the server's shirts @ publik

The show was SO much fun!  Heather McDonald, a regular on Chelsea Lately, opened and was pretty funny.  I thought she did a good job of warming up everyone for Chels. 

Heather McDonald

Ms. Handler, though, was ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL- she killed the crowd!  A lot of her material was from her new book (that I just finished, thank you very much), Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang.  Reading it was a hoot, but hearing her ridiculous stories from her mouth was totally incomparable.  I really didn’t want it to end…

Loved!

Although I didn’t pay for them (thank you so much, Slick!!), I have to say that I feel like the $90 tickets were worth every penny.  Our seats were in the far right corner of the theatre – which in theory wasn’t ideal, but we ended up having an excellent view and could hear everything perfectly.  Oh, it was so much fun!

chelsea swag @ the show

Let me know what y’all thought!  Did you go?  Did you love it as much as I did?!

Miss you already, Aunt Chels…  Come back anytime!

xx, L

Publik Social House
654 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA  30308
404.885.7505
www.publikatl.com