Category Archives: Miscellaneous

27 August 2012

Book Festival Fever

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was fantastic and the Edinburgh International Festival was lovely, but I was the most excited to go to the Edinburgh Book Festival when I was across the pond visiting Lar. Why? Because I always love the Decatur Book Festival, which is next weekend (yippy!), and Edinburgh is my favorite city, so how could the Edinburgh Book Festival not be amazing?!

I was not disappointed! The festival hosts 800 authors and writers for two weeks in Edinburgh’s New Town and it’s glorious. There are multiple tented author venues, two giant book store tents – one just for kids, a courtyard with literary deck chairs, and a cafe at every venue.

Lar and I were like kids in a candy store. We spent some time walking around, checking out the festival – including walking on the giant wordle platform in the courtyard.

We both walked away with four books each – some of them were free thanks to The Guardian book swap. I can’t remember all the books that Lar got, but here’s my list:

1.) I had to buy an Alexandar McCall Smith book being in Edinburgh and all, so I got this one.
2.) Lar encouraged me to purchase this novel and I’m so glad she did. I read it in 5 hours during my flight back home and already want to reread it.
3.) Got this book for free at the book swap. I’m still reading it and plan on leaving it at a local cafe when I’m done.
4.) I had to get this cute picture book for Troy.

There’s something about holding a stack of new books that makes me feel so rich – more so than clothes and home goods combined.

Lar and I were too cheap to go see any of the authors at £10 a pop, but felt we got our literary fill and spent the rest of the day lugging around our books in our Edinburgh Book Festival tote bags. *sigh* It was wonderful!

_________

Dearest Lar,

I’m so happy we got to experience the Edinburgh Book Festival together and really, really wish you could come Atlanta next weekend for the Decatur Book Festival. You’re going to miss funnel cake!

Have you read all of your books yet? Did you ever go back to the book swap and leave one of your books? I really enjoyed This is Life and want to read more by Dan Rhodes.

So glad we got to Skype today – it always puts me in the best mood 🙂

xoxo, Cath

 

Category: Cath's Style, Edinburgh, Lar's Style
12 Comments
23 August 2012

Cath and Lar: Behind the Scenes on a Film

Three out of the 10 days of Cath’s trip to visit me in Edinburgh were spent on a film set. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Did I mention I made Cath wake up at 6:30 am every morning (as she was jetlagging) and work 10 hours each of those three days. for free?! She’s a star of a twinie for sure.

We were working on a short film called “Good Luck With That“: a sweet romantic comedy that takes place in a school auditorium during a science fair. Cath and I were recruited by the lovely Lindsay McGee to help out with the set design/art department. So the days leading up to the filming, I was covered in spray glue and glitter, and researching ways to make things foam and explode (a.k.a. science experiments).

We made a number of science display boards, gummy and toothpick molecules, and a time machine (who knew it just took a bit of paper and old ethernet cable wire). I think my hubandoo and his bio/engineering PhD were totally not impressed:

During filming Cath and I were on hand to do the glamorous jobs: hold felt up to block light (see below), stand in for the actors, and set up foaming bottles of yeast (ewww).


Photo by Iain Robertson

We even got to help out with a freeze frame shot. This little boy is getting ready to shoot a scene where he is supposed to look like he is frozen in time while juggling:


Photo byIain Robertson


Photo by Iain Robertson

The film is in post-production now, but we’ll let you know when it’s out for your viewing pleasure. If you want to know more details about the film, cast and crew, visit Good Luck With That’s facebook page and Indiegogo site.

—–

Dear Cath,

I still can’t believe how heroic you were allowing me to wake you up at 1:30 am your time for three days straight — and you were so sweet and helpful. I can’t believe that was just a few weeks ago. You’ve been gone soooo long already – booo0.

Hope you are having a smashing time in LaGrange, GA (who doesn’t?). Will you be on skype laters? Miss you soooo much.

xoxoxoxox,

Lar

Category: Edinburgh
8 Comments
22 August 2012

Cath at the Bollywood Box

When Cath was here in Edinburgh, I had to take her to my favorite neighborhood haunts. The most important stop being The Bollywood Coffee Box.

When I first wrote about this place back in February I described it as an undiscovered gem. And gem it still is, but undiscovered it is not. The evening Cath and I stopped by, there was a hefty crowd of devotees lining up for a taste of owner Nutan’s famous chai and curries.

Cath and I agreed that the reason this place is so fantastic is that you aren’t just nourished by Nutan’s cooking, but by her wonderful warm and generous spirit too. Do you remember that Holi party, that she threw for all of Edinburgh?

And now The Bollywood Box is more than a place to eat delicious food, it’s become a mini-cultural institution and art installation. Nutan made one of the exterior walls of the box a gallery to share the work of local artists. Nutan herself is an artist (she has a masters in sculpture from Edinburgh College of Art), and the exterior of the box has been painted by her:

And even if you don’t stop by for a chat with Nutan herself, a passerby can have a chuckle at her pun of the day or feel inspired by the quotes she posts and changes weekly:

Art, culture, laughter, delicious food, and generosity of spirit all in a teeny blue box! I’m convinced that every city needs a Bollywood Coffee Box equivalent, don’t you agree? Do you guys have similar gems in your ‘hoods? Cath and I would love to hear about them!

—–

Dear Cath,

I think Decatur would be a perfect place to have a Bollywood Coffee Box, don’t you? Too bad we don’t have any abandoned police boxes stateside. I guess it’s equivalent to a stationary food truck, huh?

I’m so glad you got to meet Nutan when you were here! Argh, I still can’t believe your visit is already over though.

 

Category: Cath's Style, Edinburgh
8 Comments
15 August 2012

Cath and Lar Together Again. at the Fringe!

Don’t you just hate when life gets in the way of blogging?  Sheesh! Priorities, priorities! In all seriousness though, this has been the longest hiatus Cath and I have taken from AsianCajuns since we started this here bloggity-bloop 5 years ago. It was totally unplanned and unexpected (on our end too), so thank you for your patience, readers (aka mom and dad)!

Cath was here (yes, “was here” — sniffles abound) in Edinburgh for 10 glorious days. And I do mean glorious. Scotland pulled out all the stops: sun and warmth and sun (sun, sun, sun, sun, SUN! UVA makes us Scotland residents a bit loopy). Barely a raindrop to be seen.

Being the wonderful twin* that I am, I kept Cath properly fed and watered and entertained: delicious cafe lunches, late evenings at the pub, and toddling around the Edinburgh festival (aka The Largest Arts Festival in the World).

That’s Cath enjoying her Swedish sandwich at Peter’s Yard: imagine a bakery in Ikea, but better (and more expensive). Any bakery that does gluten-free options for us poor, wheat-intolerant souls is a winner in my book. This was delicious (and I didn’t whimper once at the lack of wheat):

Once fed, we hit the Fringe Festival. For those of you that don’t know, Edinburgh hosts the largest arts festivals (plural) during the month of August. There is a jazz festival, foodie festival, book festival, the International festival, and the Fringe festival and I’m sure I’m missing a few. The Fringe is the largest, craziest, and generally cheapest of all the festivals and it happens at hundreds of venues all around town. There’s comedy, dance, theater, fine art, music and. Jane Austen improv (yes, pretty much the best thing ever invented). It’s called Austentatious:

These actors (men and women alike) were swoon-worthy in their hilarity. For those of you in town for the Fringe, it’s still playing every day at 1:30 at the Counting House until the end of the month. Oh and did I mention, it’s free! Get thee to Austentatious if you can!


(thanks for the photo, Sara!)

Most of Edinburgh festivaling entails lots of crowded rooms and streets (the city swells to twice it’s size population-wise), and feeling hungry and then thirsty and overwhelmed at what to see. While walking around town, flyers are thrust into your hands with beseeching looks and you are constantly second-guessing yourself once you finally commit to a queue to see a show. There is also a giant, overturned purple cow (the Underbelly venue — yup, you can see shows inside the purple tent/belly!). Disorientating indeed.

Cath and I don’t do well in crowds (over-stimulation gahhh!), so we mainly ambled around less crowded streets and stopped to eat when it got to be too much (this happened frequently).

Overwhelmingness aside, you must visit the Edinburgh in August at least once in your lifetime. Preferably with your twin.

At this very moment Cath is flying over the Atlantic somewhere (in the wrong direction) toward Atlanta. So things are returning to normal (boo!), so there will be more time for blogging (yea!). I hope you guys have had wonderful summer vacations (or staycations) too!

*Full disclosure: when I say “wonderful twin” I should also mention I roped Cath into working (for free) for the first three days of her visit on a film shoot. Yup. I made her wake up at 6:30 am every morning during her worst jet-laggy days here and glue glitter on to things and stand by hot lights and cameras. I have photos for proof, but I’m waiting to get the the go-ahead to be able to tell you more.

—-

Dear Cath,

I hope your flight is going well. I know you must be exhausted to the core. I can’t believe we squeezed so much into your visit, and I can’t believe YOU’RE GONE again! Harumph! That was far, far, farrrr tooo short of a visit. And I will be cranky for at least the next week (sorry, Matteo).

I miss you so much. Edinburgh is definitely not the same without you. For one thing, it’s really cloudy again. Oh and there is a missing twinie.

Love,

Lar

Category: Cath's Style, Edinburgh, Experiences, Lar's Style
16 Comments
29 July 2012

Lar in Istanbul

Helloooo, Lovelies! Right after finishing my set design course, Matt and I hopped on a plane to Istanbul. Sounds so faincy doesn’t it? In reality we had bought super cheap tickets back in April because Turkish Airways just started a direct route from Edinburgh (bless!). Never in a million bijillion years did I think I would get to travel to this gorgeous city (I’m irksomely a perennial pessimist), and before we left, Matt and I were so busy we hadn’t thought much about the trip (for shame, I know). Now that we are here, I am 100% in loooove.

We haven’t been so much culture-shocked (Matt grew up in the middle east) as weather shocked. Our poor Scottish-whitened skin and cold-sharpened lungs are still in quasi-shock over the feel of billowing Bosphorus breezes and temperatures roughly 20 degrees hotter than the hottest Scottish day ever on record.

I’ve Scott-ified so much that I don’t really own proper attire to wear here, and I haven’t wanted to shop because as a full-time UK resident these days, there are only about 2 days out of the year when I can comfortably sport bare-legs. Also, we’re here during Ramadan so I’ve tried to be respectful about baring too much in Istanbul even though it is a liberal Muslim country. I usually carry a scarf and socks in my purse whenever we are out and about (that long-skirt in the photo on the right was presented to me at the mosque):

Matt and I are hitting the touristy sites, but our main goal during our seven day stay is to eat as much delicious Turkish/Anatolian food as we possibly can — oh and also stock up on our vitamin D (we spend much of our days blinking in the sunlight and we can’t believe that foreign, golden orb thingy stays out all. day long! Amazing!).

What’s lovely about the food here is that it’s fairly healthy. You start your meal with a mix of cold salads (mezze: couscous, stuffed grape leaves, yogurt, spinach, roasted eggplant, etc.) and then move on to the meat. If you need to be gluten-free or vegan it would be a little tricky, but really not too bad. We’ve found it much easier to eat on a restrictive diet here than when in Paris.

We mainly just amble about and stop at wherever looks tasty (including any/all street food — seriously delicious!), but we got a ton of tips from a blog called EatingAsia. If you are planning a trip to Turkey or want to live vicariously through some delicious foodie times, do stop by.

Next up? Three days after we get back to Edinburgh, Cath comes for a visit. Could this summer get any better?

Hope you guys are having a wonderful time too, in whatever part of the world your gadding about in!

—–

Dear Kitcath,

I canNOT believe I get to see you IN PERSON in a week! Do you realize that? It’s Sunday! Next Sunday you’ll be on the right side of the pond! It’s difficult because as much as I’m loving Turkey, I really can’t wait for next week to get here.

Can’t wait to talk to you on skypie sooon!

Love,

Lar

p.s. You would love Istanbul, Kitcath, but I think it’s only fair that I mention there is a slight eau de Murcia every once in a while. The people here are much more friendly, and everything is beautiful, so that’s where the similarity ends. Still, every once in a while when the wind blows, I’m right back in Spain in 2003. Miss you!!!! xoxoxox

Category: Experiences, Lar's Style
13 Comments
27 July 2012

Friday Link Love

Sorry for the slow posting, dear readers! That’ll change next week now that I’m done with the summer semester – woohoo! And in little more than a week Lar and I will be reunited and blogging together – double woohoo! Until then, here’s some fun links for your Friday:

• Even Karl (above) loves the Olympics – here’s proof.

• Love Scoutmob’s new Shoppe program – it’s like hyper local Etsy. Only eight left of these gorgeous gold double bib necklaces.

• Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary, actress Michelle Dockery, looks stunning on the cover of Love.

• The perfect black pump for fall.

• Finally got around to watching this documentary. It’s incredibly inspiring to see someone so passionate about what they do.

• I’m actually kind of looking forward to my long flight to Scotland because I’ll finally get to catch up on some reading, and the reader in me loves this.

• Lar and I love this movie – it’s one of our guilty pleasures. I pretty much know every line word for word and even after more than a decade, I still lust after Meg Ryan’s apartment. It’s okay, you can judge us 😉

• Can’t wait to see a live dance performance next month in a life-sized two-story cardboard house!

• For you locals, come to one of the Poverty Is Real concerts at Eddie’s Attic this weekend – I’ll be there!

Category: Decatur/Atlanta
4 Comments
22 July 2012

Staging An Opera

I have three more days of set design courses and then it’s off to Istanbul! So I totally apologize for just cramming this blog full of set design, set design and more set design. But as I say, only three more days. and then you’ll get to experience a massive number of mosque and falafel photos!

While doing all these things, I will not be dressed in interesting ways, so forgive me for not putting any outfit photos up. I’ve been totally panache-less these past few weeks. My brain power has been devoted toward using mechanized scenery flats in a Brecht opera, and deciding what to pack for a place that’s literally 20 degrees hotter than our hottest Edinburgh summer day.

So do you mind seeing a few more models of set design? Last week I worked by myself on a Tennessee William’s one act, this week I worked with my classmates to design Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. This is what we used:

A model opera house!

Do you guys know Brecht? I feel so dramaturgy and theater-y (the-ate-TAH) when I say his name. I didn’t know diddlysquoo about him before Monday, but I’d love to see an actual performance of The Threepenny Opera now (opera usually intimidates me because I get tired during all the singing and then feel like a philistine by the end of it all, cross-eyed and blinking).

There are nine scenes total in the play, and we had to figure out how to make the scene changes work and where to place things, and most importantly WHY. We had to get inside Brecht’s head a bit. I felt like I should have been wearing all black, smoking a cigarette, and sounding like Marlene Dietrich.

When we weren’t busy Brecht-ing, we were drawing whores. Mine are the ones that are wearing too many layers. I blush when I have to draw people in under things. or less.

I also drew a massive version of Queen Victoria’s head for the final scene:

Before hearing the opera, I had no clue that the song Mack the Knife was from The Threepenny Opera. I’d only ever heard Ella Fitzgerald sing it — and mess up the words (so good! Listen here). Who knew it was originally written in German!

Voila! Opera designed! What do you guys think? Are you crazy about set design yet? Any new Brecht fans? If you are totally not in to all this stuff, I promise to take some photos of full-scaled, real life things in Istanbul for the next post.

—-

Dear Cath,

Oh so good to talk to you on skype today! I can’t believe the next time I talk to you we’ll be in Istanbul and THEN I’ll be seeing you in a week!!!! SO awesome!

Sorry I’ve been so distracted with this course. I can’t wait to finally see my sistah in just a few days! 16 to be exact! Woohoo!!!

xoxox,

Lar

Category: Uncategorized
9 Comments
19 July 2012

Inspired by The Newsroom

There have only been four episodes of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, but I’m already a big fan. I love the wordy, quick-witted characters that I’ve been missing ever since The West Wing ended its seven season run. Then there’s the pretend world of an honorable cable news station that I really wish existed – like a Bartlet presidency. Another reason I’m a fan? The clothes!

There aren’t too many photos showing off the outfits online, so below is a mix of images from the official site and a few screen captures I took. Are you ready for a superficial look at a substantial show? Here goes!

Emily Mortimor’s character takes the (fashion) cake with her uniform of button-up silk shirts, pencil skirts, pumps and simple necklaces. If I had money to buy a brand new work wardrobe these are pieces I would get:

Mortimor wears this gold necklace a lot. I’ve Googled like crazy to find out who makes it, but no luck:
Update 8/25/12: The wonderful people over at Dominque Cohen emailed me to let me know that Mortimor wears their 5 Coin Drop necklace – amongst a few other lovely pieces. Now I’m lusting after her wardrobe even more!

Alison Pill’s character has a pretty similar wardrobe. During one episode both she and Emily Mortimor are wearing similar blouses with small puff sleeves. Pill’s character wears more dresses. My favorite so far is the brown shirt dress she wears during the first episode (below left).

The show also has some really nice – and practical – hairstyles that I want to try if I can manage to wake up early enough before work:

Olivia Munn’s character is a bit more conservative. Her wardrobe so far has mostly consisted of blazers and Roland Mouret-ish dresses.

To round off this post, below are some Newsroom-inspired pieces that you can purchase now:

1. Vince blouse
2. Gap pocket shirt
3. Stella Dot layering necklace
4. J.Crew pump
5. Gorjana layer necklace
6. Banana Republic pencil skirt

Anyone else out there a big Newsroom fan? Have you noticed the clothes too?

________

Dearest Lar,

I hope The Newsroom becomes popular enough to cross the pond so you can see it. Didn’t the West Wing air in the UK? Do you remember we used to watch West Wing episodes on DVD when we were studying in Scotland?

You only have two more classes and I’ll be done with class in week – and then I’ll be flying over to see you in no time!!

xoxo, Cath

Category: Uncategorized
15 Comments
16 July 2012

Keeping it Local

While I spent most of my weekend doing laundry and school work, I did take a few breaks. On Friday I saw Brave with some girlfriends, Saturday evening I went to hear Troy play at Harbour Bar in Decatur and then did the following on Sunday morning:

1.) A GIANT branch fell on the deck of our house Saturday evening preventing the dogs from going out into the backyard. Instead of trying to move the branch, Troy and I decided to take the pups out for a stroll around the neighborhood.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Oakhurst, it’s a neighborhood in Decatur that has a handful of shops and restaurants at the intersection of two roads. Decatur is only four square miles and Oakhurst is less than half of that, which really gives it a small town feel. The photo above makes it look more suburban than it feels.

2.) We decided to stop halfway on our walk to have brunch at Steinbeck’s – a great local pub that has better food than most restaurants.

The above photo of me isn’t an outfit shot, but for those of you who are interested, the scarf is from Anthropologie about 8 years ago and the necklace is a June Shin/ Jess Swift collaboration (similar here). The sunglasses are the same trusty Michael Stars that I’ve been wearing all summer – large enough to mostly hide the fact that I’m not wearing any make-up.

3.) I ordered the Tofu Scramble and Troy ordered ‘Da Breakfast Bowl. We shared two mimosas, which seemed like a healthier decision than each ordering a mimosa. I’m not sure why. Logic is not one of my strong suits on a Sunday morning.

4.) After brunch we walked across the street to Oakhurst Market to pick up a bottle of water before heading to the. . .

 

5.) Oakhurst Dog Park! Toby and Wheatie finally got the chance to run around, while we stood in the shade gulping down water.

After all that I really wanted to go home and take a nap. If only! I spent the rest of the day straightening up the house (although 24 hours later there’s no evidence of that) and doing stats homework.

_________

Dearest Lar,

Only 19 more days until I leave for Scotland!!! I can’t believe it’s coming up so soon – mostly because it feels like my stats class will never end. Once I’m done with my final, the trip will feel a lot more real.

Speaking of class, I’m so impressed with everything you’ve done at Scenehouse. I can’t wait to see your model in person!

Just for kicks, here’s a another photo of Tobs at the dog park. He’s totally in his element (note the muddy paws). For some reason he’s a lot less scared of mother nature than the indoors. I just can’t relate to that.

I hate that I didn’t get a chance to chat with you on Sunday. Let’s have a Skype date this Saturday, okay?

xoxo, Cath

 

Category: Cath's Style, Decatur/Atlanta
6 Comments
16 July 2012

Wannabe Set Designer

So while Cath goes to work full time, takes difficult stats classes, and keeps up with AsianCajuns, I’ve been doing about a third of that — and still can’t keep up! Kitcath, I don’t know how you do it! I’m starting my fourth and final week at Scenehouse next week (sniffles), so things should settle down a bit after that.

I’ll spare you any outfit photos because my limited closet would bore you to tears, and I’ve been wearing whatever is comfortable so that I can sit and make models of teeny tiny theater sets for hours. Here’s my model for a Tennessee William one act play set in a farmhouse in the Mississippi Delta:

In theater design in the UK we work in a 1 to 25 scale (it’s 1 to 24 in the states), so everything is carefully measured to be 25 times smaller than reality, including each individually cut, glued and stained floorboard. You can see how teeny the table is next to a mug and roll of masking tape below:

We get breaks during the week to visit theaters around Edinburgh and Glasgow. I loved going to the Lyceum. Lovely isn’t it?

So apart from touring some lovely theaters and sitting in a studio passively inhaling wood glue and white spirit for hours on end, once in a while I get to toddle outside and enjoy the cloudy, cool July days in Edinburgh. Rushing around town, I usually forget how much this beautiful city looks like a Harry Potter set:

Doesn’t this photo below look wintry? I took it yesterday, which we considered a balmy sunny day. Scary isn’t it?

Hope you guys are having a wonderful July so far. Is it hot where you are? If so, please send some of that this way! I still wear at least two layers and boots every day. I keep catching myself thinking it’s March. Turns out the phrase “Scottish summer” is an oxymoron.

—–

Dear Cath,

My brain has been so full of theater stuffs that when the cobwebs clear and I remember you’ll be here in three weeks I do a little happy dance each time!!! Can you believe it?! I’ve been told August will be at least slightly warmer and sunnier, which means maybe 60 degrees and an hour of sun twice a week. gulp.

SEE YOU SOON!!!

Love,

Lar

p.s. I’m listening to Classic FM as I type this, and the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 just came on. It always makes me think of that ABT video (VHS!) we used to watch for hours on end: Ethan Steifel and Ashley Tuttle. Don’t our ballet days seem like another life?

Category: Edinburgh
7 Comments