must-see documentary on global warming - chasing ice

I hadn't heard of this film until I read about it in Elle's December issue, but I'm determined to go and see it now! This film charts the spring 2005 mission that environmental photographer James Balog went on to document the changing climate of the Arctic. On assignment from National Geographic, he managed to gather "undeniable evidence of our changing planet." Chasing Ice is the chronicle of what Balog found when he and a band of young adventurers set out to document climate change with the use of 25 cameras which took pictures every hour for three years in various locations around the Arctic. Using these "revolutionary time-lapse cameras... to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers."

"I never imagined that you could see glaciers this big disappearing in such a short time," Balog says.

This is from the website:

As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally, Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. It takes years for Balog to see the fruits of his labor. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.

A cool sidenote on this film: the documentary score is complimented by a hauntingly beautiful song, "Before My Time" by J. Ralph, which Scarlett Johansson sings over the credits (see video below). It's an eerie addition to the frightening images of entire sheets of ice vanishing in a matter of months.

life of pi

‘Life of Pi’ is one of my favourite books; I think it is one of the richest and most colorful tales anyone has ever put into the form of black letters on white paper. Though one of the intrinsic draws of the book is the unanswerable question of whether Pi has told his story truthfully or has fabricated the entire thing – no one can ever know which is the case – the book taught me much about myself and my relation to the world, especially animals. We (the readers) love to believe Pi’s story because we see how possible it is on a personal and natural level. Martel describes a relationship between man and animal that is fiercely accurate. We are animals, and share a bond with animals on that very basic but beautiful level. But does our sense of reason and compassion extend to animals as well? Or do they act exclusively on instinct? This is the fundamental question Pi (through Martel) focuses on in his story.

At the very surface, I don’t believe that Life of Pi lived up to the claims that it is the ‘new Avatar’ – though the story is much better than Avatar’s. It is visually stunning, as I expected it to be, but it somehow did not do justice to the gorgeous and fantastical scenes that played through my mind as I read the book. However, it was indeed fascinating to see the white of the lifeboat against the immense colours of the Pacific, the floating carnivorous island, and a thin Indian boy side-by-side with a beautiful Bengal tiger. The acting was good: Suraj Sharma (who plays Pi) did an excellent job portraying Pi’s emotions during his ordeal. Irrfan Khan (adult Pi) was also very moving and believable.

Despite all this, I have never found any film adaptation to be as good as the original book, and this film is not an exception. Somehow, reading a book is so much more personal than watching a 2-hour film. Maybe it’s the valued time that I dedicate to reading a book; maybe it’s the full descriptions, or the insight into characters’ minds. I just know that I am moved much more deeply by books than I am by their film adaptations. This was the case with Life of Pi. It certainly did not make me sob like I did when I finished the book! I also believe that condensing the story (as was necessary for the film) reduces the viewer’s appreciation for young Pi’s survival at sea, which is truly astonishing. However, I certainly recommend seeing the movie: it is a beautiful portrayal of Pi’s story, and again made me reflect upon our incredible relationship with animals and nature.

victoria's secret fashion show - it's almost here!

Who else is uncontrollably excited for the 2012 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show? This has got to be one of my favourite days of the year. I think it should be a national holiday and everyone should just get the day off. However, since our government doesn't seem to sympathize, I hope I can still find a way to get the night off work and throw some kind of lingerie/Pink party and drink champagne.

This year, VSFS is scheduled to broadcast on Tuesday, December 4 at 10 ET. It'll be shown on CBS. Unfortunately for us mortals, the show already took place on November 7 to a select live audience, but we won't be allowed to watch the entire show until December 4. Rihanna and Justin Bieber headlined. Miranda, Adriana, Candice, Alessandra, and dozens of other out-of-this-world models strode down the runway mostly nude for millions to see. Even though I wouldn't classify the Victoria's Secret show as a real fashion show, it is one of the most glamorous, fun, and sexy nights on television - and made much more special because it only happens once a year!

The show is always divided into different segments with individual themes. My favourite last year was 'I Put a Spell on You', in which the models wore boudoir-noir, classically inspired balconette bras, corsets, long gloves, and bows. The fun bit of the VSFS - aside from the truly perfect models and celebrity musical highlights - is the variety that encompasses all the themes and outfits. There is lingerie that is drop-dead sexy, playful, girly, tough, delicate, and wicked. Every outfit is marvelous and novel, even though some (most?) are a little bizarre.

I hope to have time to watch the shows from past years that I missed (which I found links to here, though you can also find broken-up versions on youtube) before this year's show. Comment with recommendations! I've only seen those from the past couple of years. I can't wait to get into the shows from the 90's - that sounds like too much fun.

Make sure you check back here to keep updated: we have a countdown to the VSFS air date at the very bottom of this blog, and we will DEFINITELY be posting the night of. See you then!!

thanksgiving day surprise: secret pie crust recipe

Happy Thanksgiving from ZABELIETH!  I've got a little surprise in store for you:

Apparently pie crust is something that has garnered a reputation as being a challenge that only the more experiences and confident chefs take on.  The reality is that this is an incredibly simple thing to make, and since it's Thanksgiving, I'm going to share with you my mother's original recipe for an easy pie crust.

All you need:

Two cups of flour, two sticks of butter, three tablespoons of water, and a food processor.

Start my measuring the flour, but be sure not to pack it tightly into the measuring cup.  Instead, take a spoon and really loosen the flour in the bag by giving it a few fluffs before scooping it into a measuring cup, a spoonful at a time.  You can tap the measuring cup on the side to level the flour a bit for the sake of measuring, but let it remain as light and airy as possible, don't press it down or pack it in at all.

Dump the flour into a food processor.  Then grab the butter out of the fridge (it should be chilled, don't leave it out on the counter to soften or anything beforehand).  Like you're slicing a banana for a smoothie, just cut it up so that the pieces going into the food processor are about 1/2-inch thick slices.

Pulse it in the food processor.  Don't let it run long at all, just turn it on in quick bursts before letting the mixture re-settle.  As it starts to stick and build up around the walls of the food processor, you can give the machine a shake to loosen the batter up.  After a minute or two, once the mixture sticking to the food processor walls is getting pretty high, stop and add three tablespoons of VERY COLD (like, water that was sitting in ice) water.  Then go back to pulsing, and in seconds you'll see the mixture starting to roll together into a big dough ball.

Take out the dough, trying not to handle it too much, and put it on a lightly-floured surface.  Roll it in the flour, then use a rolling pin to flatten it out until you've got a sheet of dough that's wide enough to cover your pie dish.  Carefully lay this inside the pie dish (you might want to fold it in half first in order to transfer it to the pie dish without it tearing), easing it into the space so that it's lining the dish.  You can trim around the edge if you have a lot of overhang, and then just fold over (outward) and tuck in the edges of the dough sheet to make a fun, pretty rim along the edge of the pie dish.

Hey, look, you're done!  Was that easy or what?  Now just fill it with whatever... pumpkin pie filling?  Blueberry?  Apple??  Mmmmmm.... happy Thanksgiving!

scent of the season: bottega veneta

I am obsessed with this scent! Bottega Veneta's eau de parfum is the perfect scent for the winter season. Tomas Maier, the creative director, describes the inspiration for this scent as being "an old house... I envisioned a room with old wood floors, library walls and leather-bound books with the windows open wide, the breeze coming in... That’s where we started."

The perfume is composed as follows:

Top notes: plum, Italian bergamot & Brazilian pink pepper
Heart notes: Indian Sambac jasmine, oakmoss & patchouli
Base note: leather accord

The surprising whiff of plum is my favorite part, especially in such a musky, woodsy, almost masculine or cologne-like perfume. I love how Scentsate's review describes the way the scent evolves over time after application:

"The opening is the most beautiful. Not only is it the most overtly leathery part of the fragrance, but it brings with it a decadent outburst of plum. This effect lasts for about half an hour, impressive for top notes.

"It gets sweeter towards the heart, half-an-hour in. This is where the pepper and rose become more noticeable. Bottega Veneta has been described as a chypre, and I don’t think this is technically incorrect. Lots of perfumes contain the ubiquitous chypre triad of labdanum, bergamot, and oakmoss. But it is featured softly, as an accent rather than the main show. The heart reminds me a little of the 2008 Chloe with the softness and the transparent rose. But it’s better than Chloe, and remains dusky and soft.

"Towards the aforementioned forever-lasting end, all of the accents fade, and you are left with a lovely suede rose. The best thing about Bottega Veneta probably the natural feel of the leather note. Somehow it feels like you are actually wearing kidskin gloves, instead of just having sprayed chemicals on your wrist."

This is certainly on my Christmas list. Don't you love it when you discover a perfume that connects with you, something that you want to wear alone, without clothes to smother it. Just as Marilyn Monroe said in an interview...

"You know they ask you questions," Monroe said during an April 1960 interview with French journalist Georges Belmont. "Just an example: 'What do you wear to bed? Do you wear a pajama top, the bottoms of the pajamas, or a nightgown?' So I said, 'Chanel No. 5!' Because it's the truth! And yet I don't want to say 'nude,' you know? But it's the truth." For more on Marilyn Monroe and Chanel, check out this article.

rihanna fever

We love Rihanna! In GQ's December issue, which was just released, she poses nude and shows off her newest tattoo (read the full article here, see one of the spread's photos to the left), which is a thickly-inked angel with wings outspread below her breasts. Especially racy as of late, she's been on tour for her newest album, aptly named Unapologetic.

Today, at 4:00 pm EST, check out a live exclusive from Rihanna's 777 tour on Facebook here! River Island (a British store we love!) is providing this awesome footage. The tour is cleverly named for the fact that Unapologetic is her seventh album. Also, it was just released... today! Check it out on iTunes - "Diamond" has already become a hit single (check out the music video!), but we also encourage you to listen to "Stay" (Eli's fave) and "What Now."

Also be sure to check out River Island's Rihanna t-shirts! We like this one.

<3

crêpes, mais oui!

I've always been a fan of breakfast for dinner, and last night we made a massive stack of crêpes for two, using the following recipe:

Flour: 1 cup

Eggs: 2

Skim milk: 1/2 cup

Water: 1/2 cup

Sugar: 1/4 cup

Whisk everything together, prepare a skillet with some cooking spray, and scoop up a 1/4-cup of batter to pour into the pan for each crepe.

The trick of the trade for making these delectable thin French pancakes is to pick up and angle the pan in a circular motion, allowing the batter to spread around and coat the bottom of the pan. Keep making it move around until it's all stuck in place and no longer spreads.

From this point onward they cook pretty quickly, so have a spatula ready to slip under them and give 'em a flip. Stack the finished ones, and once all the batter is gone... feast!!

We made ourselves a topping station - an assortment of jellies and jams, blueberries (both fresh and frozen), raspberries, and some chocolate hazelnut spread. YUM! The best part of making crêpes is personalizing them: adding the filling, rolling them or folding them, decorating them, choosing a side (fruit? ice cream?)...

We made a HUGE stack of these, and were expecting to save some. HA! They were all gone within the first half hour of Love Actually.

anna karenina now showing nowhere?

Let's talk about this. All the theaters - ALL - have had posters up for weeks advertising the arrival of Anna Karenina, which stars Keira Knightley alongside Jude Law (who plays Anna's husband) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who plays Anna's lover, Count Vronsky, and who we remember as the sexy dreadlocked protagonist in Savages).

The release date has come and gone now, and the nearest theater that has this movie is over 200 miles away! If you don't live in or just outside of a major city, you won't be able to see this film. We had no idea it was going to be one of those infamous "limited" movies after all the hype it was getting!

Well, we'll just have to wait for it to come out on DVD, or go see it when we're back in Chicago for the upcoming holidays...

Pretty big bummer. If you were one of the lucky few able to see it, tell us what you thought! We will be super envious of all comments, even if the movie sucked. ;D

UPDATE (12/01): Anna Karenina has opened for wider release!! Still nothing where we are, but quite a few more theatres are showing it now. Check for a location near you at Focus Features' website.