It’s a personal post, so it’s all after the jump.

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Fans of Vogue magazine may be aware that ‘The September Issue’ comes out this week.  This documentary follows Anna Wintour as she supervises the assembly of Vogue’s renowned September issue, traditionally the biggest of the year.  Are the Femmeinistes going to see it?  Of course.  (Does the devil in fact wear Prada? Stay tuned!)

Aside from the voyeuristic pleasure of seeing whether Anna Wintour, arguably the most powerful figure in fashion today, is really as difficult as reputed, I am looking forward to seeing what light, if any, the movie sheds on Vogue’s position in today’s increasingly shaky publishing industry.  We all know it’s been a hell of a year for publishing – Domino magazine folded, newspapers seem to be fleeing to the online world right and left.  Vogue may be the bible of American fashion, but I have trouble believing it’s entirely immune, especially given its extremely high end focus.  With all the hand wringing going on about how luxury fashion is going to weather the new economy, Ms Wintour must be thinking about it.

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You may have noticed that I have been AWOL quite a bit lately.  There’s a reason for that.  I have been without a computer at home for almost TWO WEEKS now.  This post? Typed out on my LG Rumor’s tiny keyboard, which is just sad.  Such is my desperation.

You would think that a mere two weeks without internet access wouldn’t reduce me to a whimpering, quivering jelly composed of three parts boredom to two parts pissiness to one part blind panic.  You’d be wrong.  Despite the fact that I was one of the last anti- cell phone holdouts I know and despite the fact that I am old enough to remember a perfectly good life without the internet, I cannot take my motherboard’s defection.  Technology has won.  I’m totally dependent. I’m pretty sure there have been major world events since my motherboard fried, and I’ve even heard tantalizing scraps about some of them, but can I look up more? No.  I have been having all kinds of good ideas about how to spruce up my apartment, but I can’t get online to investigate the options.  I have no idea what’s going on with most of my friends.  AND I CAN’T SEE THE PRE-FALL LINES COMING OUT!

I feel a little like one of the poor generation of computer dependent kids that the newspapers keep telling us America is raising.  Shouldn’t I have the resources to go play outdoors like a good girl?  Apparently not.  Perhaps if it weren’t August, going outdoors might be more attractive, but August in the city?  It doesn’t exactly beg for a nice game of kickball.  I’m pretty sure, though, that the more time I end up having in my apartment with no computer, the more dangerous it is for my worldly goods and everyone I know.

Pity me, beloved friends.  If I retain my sanity until Dell deigns to return my laptop, it will be a miracle. Perhaps a beach vacation is called for in the mean time?  Wish me luck, and if anyone has any calming mantras for the woman in withdrawal, please pass them along.

A Wedding Dress, believe it or not.

Proving that reality TV participants do not have a monopoly on embarrassing ploys for celebrity, Reuters reports that a bride in northeastern China recently got married in a 1.2-mile-long wedding dress (with 9,999 silk red roses attached).  The idea apparently came from the groom’s wish to break the Guinness World Record for longest wedding dress (1.5km or 0.9 miles, held by a bride in Romania).

?????????

The dress took three hours for guests to roll out (now there’s a fun wedding activity) and cost $5,856, which – granted – is actually not completely out of range for certain American wedding dresses but GIVE ME A BREAK!!  Do people really not have anything better to do with their time and money?   And this is China, where $5,856 dollars could probably buy food for the entire wedding party, their guests, and their families for a year.

All of which makes me want to call up CCTV and suggest that they launch a Chinese version of Bridezillas.

There’s nothing like commercials to tell you who the advertising world thinks your tastes mean you are.  If you mostly watch prime time network TV, you may never notice much of a bias (people with money to spend who eat?), but explore the weirder networks or late night TV?  It can get pretty funny.  The next time you’re home sick, try watching daytime TV.  You’ll find that Madison Avenue expects you to be a bored young mom, an impending ITT Tech student, disabled, or someone in desperate need of joining the military.  (I’ve noticed that on at least one network, the Army ads predominate until about 6 pm, at which point the Marines take over.  I would comment on that except that I’m pretty sure my Marine friend would never let go of it if I did.)

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been watching a lot of design shows recently.  As you might expect, the commercials that go along with design shoes are primarily designed to create the overwhelming urge to repaint every room you have in new and groovier and possibly more environmentally friendly colors.  This is sort of unfortunate for me given that I don’t own my apartment, but Sherman-Williams may break me yet.  Even funnier, I got a kick out of watching professional bull riding with the boy the other night, at which point I suddenly became part of a bow-hunting, bass-fishing demographic with ads that started with lines like “I will not be ashamed to be a MAN!”  Uh, I am part of the Stetson-owning, Tex-Mex eating demographic who at least knows what Dickies is, but I kind of doubt that I’ll be buying a truck bed liner any time soon.

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So if you haven’t noticed, a few of us here at Femmeiniste are, um, obsessed with Mad Men.  (If you don’t know what that is by now, there’s nothing I can do for you, I’m sorry.)   So imagine our squeals when we hear that Sesame Street, another one of our favorites, is doing their own personal tribute to Mad Men this season — eeeee!!  This marriage of the perennial gold standard in children’s programming plus the BEST show currently on TV (well, season 3 starts on August 16) is sure to be awesome.  And now to add to the fun, Jezebel.com is offering up some Muppet casting suggestions here.

I especially like the Elmo-Pete Campbell concept – brill.  Be sure to read the comments, where one particularly witty contributor has submitted her own vision of what the episode will be like – CTW, are you listening?

For another fabulous pop culture –> Mad Men tribute – be sure to check out Homer Simpson-as-Don here …

And let’s remember, Sesame Street has a long and distinguished history of clever parodies of hit TV series.  For examples, check out this, this, and this.   Love the citrus in eyeglasses!!

Gorgeous wall art inspired by the natural world in brushed steel from Artful Home.

I mentioned last week that my latest fascination is interior design.  This might actually be a good thing, since I actually have to stop and think before purchasing a piece of furniture about whether it would fit into my space, whereas periods of shoe obsession, not requiring that period of reflection, can turn into a fiscal bloodbath. As you may have guessed from my past posts, I’m just the tiniest bit obsessed with biology, zoology, and the natural world in general, and my obsession extends to my taste in interior design. My ideal space would have some warmth, some color, simple lines with a bit of an Asian influence, and a big splash of  the organic in the form of nature photography, driftwood tables, you name it.

Luckily, these days the marketplace (and the internet) are full of decor inspired by the natural world.  After the jump, a collection of my favorites.

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I’ve found myself watching a lot of interior design shows lately.  Given that I don’t own my apartment and am not supposed to paint it, you could argue that this is a waste of time and mental energy, but hey, my wasting time is nothing new.  Here is one of the things I don’t get about makeover shows.  Why is it that so many people seem to say that their revised bedrooms look like a hotel room as if it was a good thing?

Hotel rooms are always way too cold.  The covers are invariably scratchy or too heavy.  Ninety percent of the time, they are totally characterless, decorated in white or beige, and have carpeting with a horrifyingly ugly pattern obviously designed to conceal questionable stains.  It’s a rare hotel room that has any real personality to it.  They’re like a hospital, but plushier.  I like traveling, but I have never been in a hotel room that made me want to take it home with me.  (I’ve been in hotels that made me wish my apartment was right there on the left bank with the hotel, but that’s a different question.) If they just mean that it looks clean and free of their junk like a hotel room does, I guess I can understand that, although one hopes that they understand that making their bedrooms up like a hotel room doesn’t actually mean that housekeeping will come and make their beds.

Possibly I just stay in hotels that are too low-end to properly appreciate the marvels of hotel-inspired design, but frankly, when the price goes much past $400 a night, I start thinking about shoes I could be buying instead.  And really, I find it difficult to believe that all of these people are thinking fondly of their latest stay in Ian Schrager’s latest high-end masterpieces and dreaming of the Chihuly installation in the lobby.

Is it just me?

Eeee! Need I say more?

I’m having a party at my place today.  I’ve got to say, I’m looking forward to it. My brother and his girlfriend are coming down from out of town this morning, my law school roommate came up last night, and friends from all corners of the world (Northeast) are converging for what promises to be a great time.  All the Femmeinistes will be here but Emma, who is (tragically) stuck living the high life in Europe.

I have to admit, though, that not least among my reasons that I’m looking forward to it is the fact that I’m hoping to get my brain back for purposes other than party planning tomorrow morning.  I don’t know how it is, but somehow even the simplest party seems to take up virtually all of my mental energy for a good week.  Yep, I have advanced degrees from prestigious schools, but somehow my brain is not capable of throwing a party and doing pretty much anything else at the same time.  Like, say, patting my head or rubbing my stomach.  Have I gotten any productive work done this week not related to the party?  You’re kidding, right?  I keep trying to sit down and accomplish something, only to find myself thinking that I need cornmeal and that the cat’s litterbox needs to be washed out.  It makes me fear for my job if I ever end up having to plan a wedding.  “I’ll get the revised contract right over to you and you know, I bet anemones will be hard to get at that time of year.  I need to call the florist again.”  Yes, this is what happens when Type A organizers plan social events. We line the details up like toy soldiers like toy soldiers in our heads, gloat over them, and redeploy them over and over again in increasingly efficient configurations.

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