Sunset Junction

Checked out the Sunset Junction farmers' market last weekend

on Sat. Parking is accessible and there were an array of items
available, including vintage dresses, hot tamales, baked goods,
and samosas.

Besides the standard fruits and vegetables fare,

I discovered the colorful and delicious dragonfruit, which
is chocked full of vitamin C and resembles
the offspring of Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors.

Also picked up some fragrant lavender, which

has a calming influence and great in a vase on a bedside table.

The leaves can last anywhere up until four months,

depending on its condition.

Coconut water is an alternative to power drinks

and sweating out the apocolyptic heat that's been

in Los Angeles this week from the fires. Of course,

there's nothing better than a coconut drink

in an actual coconut.

Friday Nights at the Avalon

Club nights on Fridays at the Avalon in Hollywood. Junior Boys with Virgin Tears tonight.

My friend visual artist Sara Ludy designs the posters!

When You're Downtown!

There aren't many places to walk around in Los Angeles, but certain blocks downtown offer a welcome change to the endless freeway.

Downtown Fashion Walk in L.A. is every third Thursday

evening during the next few months. Pop-up stores

blocks within walking distance include Jenny Han and Rhys Dwfen.

Check out the map on Downtown Fashion Walk's

website for more information.

Some other stops include M'ouments, which carries

brands like Comme des Garcon, Unholy Matrimony

and Sonia Boyjian, and bookstore/galleries Todd/Browning

Gallery, or Polyester Books. The gallery is currently featuring

the show Beneath the Valley of the Dolls.

Piece by one of the artists, Jessica Robertson, posted below.

Ice Queen Hath Melted Under Media Glare?

Anna Wintour, EIC of Vogue and famed for leaving assistants shaking in their Jimmy Choos, made an appearance on The David Letterman Show in lieu of a documentary film out in theaters on August 28th, The September Issue. The film features Wintour and everything that she and her staff accomplish for the publication of the magazine's biggest (and heaviest) issue.

Wintour doesn't seem all that scary. Then again, a little media attention will warm anyone up to the spotlight, as long as it doesn't get that hot.

Inherent Vices

Book trailer out for Thomas Pynchon's new novel, Inherent Vice, which is about laid-back private eye Don Sportello and takes place during the end of Los Angeles's psychadelic era in the '60s. Sportello would rather take his chances hanging out on the beach when his former girlfriend approaches him with a scheme involving the kidnapping of a billionaire land developer.

Pynchon narrates the trailer and happens to sound like the guy from The Big Lebowski. Talks around Tinsel Town of the sunshine noir's adaptation into a film.

Trailer posted below:

Don't Knock the Rock

Special music documentary series screening at the Silent Movie Theater during August.

Screening this weekend is Of All the Things, a film by Jody Lambert, documentarian and son of famed '70s and '80s music songwriter/producer Dennis Lambert.

Sometimes things work out better the second time around.

DIY Aesthetic

Friends of mine are in a group art show on view at the DIY Gallery, close to downtown L.A., until September.

The show incorporates work from musicians in Jesus Lizard and the Melvins. More to come!

Pretty in Pink

The L.A. Times's Image section mentions so-called choice '80s fashions making a comeback, including boyfriend jackets, baggy shirts over leggings, bright neon colors, and Madonna-reminiscent layers of chain-metal jewelry.

This article incidentally went to print online the same day that film director John Hughes passed away.

I have to admit that my favorite flick from that era is Heathers, which starred Winona Ryder and Christian Slater as high school misfits that are a death wish to the popular crowd.

On the horizon is Heathers's remake into a TV series! But is it even possible for the revamp to adequately portray that same brooding, macabre, and acidic wit? A croquet is such a necessary accessory:

Bananas!

Stylist Rachel Zoe's The Rachel Zoe Project returns with its second season and new episodes on Bravo, starting August 24th.

Futuristic Static

Retro-futuristic motorcycle on Boing-Boing.

A Graphic Rendition

Artist Tim Hamilton has adapted Ray Bradbury's famed Fahrenheit 451 into a graphic novel. Graphic novels are an alternative take on a literary work in that they necessitate reading in-between the lines, so to speak.

Black and White: Faye Dunaway

Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde has just that l'amour toujours for cops-and-robbers fare, with felt berets, printed silk scarves, calf-length gingham skirts, flats, and belted sweaters. Oh, and a Darringer.

Material World?

ET has a video of Madonna as fashion designer Marc Jacob's face of Louis Vuitton:

Madonna Behind-the-Scenes at Louis Vuitton Shoot

Photos from last year's ad campaign.

Films on Fashion: Confidentially Yours

The September Issue, a documentary film on Vogue's razor-tongued Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, is out in theaters soon.

Lagerfeld: Confidentiel (2007) is a flashy romp through the septegenerian's everday life as the creative spearhead behind Chanel's revamp in the '80s.

Disclaimer: This film is peppered with '80s tunes and a close look at designer's true nature; by incorporating footage of Lagerfeld at a Paris nightclub in a gold lame jacket, photographing Nicole Kidman for a Chanel ad campaign after a party, perusing silver jewelry to adorn from a bowl, and working in his cluttered office space. Lagerfield claims that a necessity for chaos is essential in reinvention.

The designer's current RTW collection for Fall '09, "Belle Brummell", is inspired by that of a British dandy taking to fits of jade.

Low-slung pants with a matching cropped jacket, fingerless black leather gloves, and white T-straps over opaque tights are of particular note. Not to mention jade nail polish!