If I see one more girl walking down the street in an adorable mini skirt with a gauzy chiffon tail billowing behind her I might die of jealousy. In this transitional season between summer and early fall, these high-low skirts are the best of both worlds between your mini and maxi.

Your legs don’t stick to the back of your chair, but you don’t have to hide those tanned stems behind a floor length hemline just yet. The chiffon overlay on opaque mini adds a sense of sneaking a peek of skin. Their shape lends itself to blowing in the breeze giving the whole look a sense of drama that you just can’t get from that leopard print short skirt you lived in all summer down the shore. Long story short (see what I did there?) they’re a must have for these last few weeks (hopefully month!) of warm weather. These two are available for purchase at Lulu’s.

As I type this post, I am watching episode 23 of Lost Season 1. Yes, about 1,000 years after most people watched the series, I’m getting on the band wagon. Some might say I’m behind the times- have been living under a rock. I actually have no idea what happens in any of the seasons. But even though I have managed to avoid hearing what happened in over 6 seasons of a television show, I say I couldn’t be more on trend.

In a generation raised on technology and convenience, with iPhones in hand, we’ve gotten used to lots of entertainment at all times and instant gratification. Gone are the days when you had to wait for a show to come out on DVD. Now you can watch it the next day or better yet, DVR it to watch at your convenience. It’s led to a whole new way to watch our favorite shows.

Urban dictionary defines it as watching an entire tv series in a short period of time, especially in one sitting. Marathoning has become extremely popular. It’s efficient. You save 20 minutes per episode just on skipping commercials. It’s fun, you don’t have to wait weeks to watch the next segment after a cliff-hanger. And best of all, you can watch a whole series consecutively, instantly, quickly on any mobile device of your choosing. It makes me wonder why I ever chose to watch TV any other way.

We used to live in a world where when it was tank top season rolled around women every where pulled out their strapless bras. At the very least, they tried to coordinate their straps to match whatever they were wearing. The idea was to make them blend in as much as possible, or make them invisible. This was probably around the time that bras came in a medicinal range of colors from pale pink to nude. Those days are gone.

With sheer tops in style, and every manner of bra top available as lacy or as neon as you like, bras are on display all over NYC. Bathing suits are even starting to look like them. SJP made black under white acceptable for a minute in Sex and the City, but now that seems a bit old fashioned. The theme of the summer seems to by why wear black when it could be neon? Why plain when it could be floral?

When did bras become the newest accessory?

The time of year has rolled around again for GenArt’s film festival from today through August 14th. Each evening begins with a cocktail reception from 6:30-7:30pm and the evening continues with a screening, and is followed by Q&A with the actors and after parties at Gallery Bar on the LES. Check out the official details here. The lineup looks a little something like this.

Wednesday, August 8:

Feature film: “Missed Connections” directed by Martin Snyder; starring Jon Abrahams, Mickey Sumner – Comedy

Short film: “Old Man” directed by Leah Shore – Animated Documentary

Thursday, August 9:

Feature film: “Privacy” directed by Jorg Ihle; starring John Shepard, Gina Busch – Thriller

Short film: “Rolling on the Floor Laughing” directed by Russell Harbaugh– Drama

Friday, August 10:

Feature film: “The Magic Life” directed by Nelson Cheng – Documentary

Short film: “Cadaver” directed by Jonah Ansell; starring Christopher Lloyd, Kathy Bates, Tavi Gevinson – Animation

Saturday, August 11:

Feature film: “Leave Me Like You Found Me” directed by Adele Romanski; starring Megan Boone, David Nordstrom – Drama

Short film: “Latch Key” directorial debut from Jaime King; starring Spencer Susser, Kyle Newman – Drama

Sunday, August 12:

Feature film: “The Silent Thief” directed by Jennifer Clary; starring Toby Hemingway, Cody Longo, Scout Taylor-Compton, Kurt Fuller, John Billingsley – Thriller

Short film: “Reform” directed by Jamal Caesar; starring Jake Hoffman – Drama

 Monday, August 13:

Feature film: “Kid-Thing,” A Zellner Brothers film; starring Sydney Aguirre, David Wingo, Nathan, David Zellner – Drama

Short film: “Carbon for Water” directed by Evan Abramson and Carmen Lopez Abramson – Documentary

Tuesday, August 14:

Feature film: “The Kitchen” directed by Ishai Shetton; starring Laura Prepon, Dreama Walker, Bryan Greenberg – Comedy – *World Premiere

Short film: “Literally, Right Before Aaron” directorial debut from Ryan Eggold; starring Adam Rose, Lindsey Kraft – Comedy

I like to use the Yelp app on my phone to find a tasty restaurant in the neighborhood when I’m out shopping and haven’t planned ahead, or when I’m looking for a new happy hour spot to host book club that I’ve never been to before. I find that the best way to figure out what to buy and where to go is to rely on the reviews of those who have used it and been there before. But the thing with reviews is, typically you need to have either a really negative or really positive experience to motivate you to put the effort in and post the review. You’ll get extreme points of view from both ends of the spectrum.

And then you get the people who just babble endlessly, and clearly enjoy hearing the sound of themselves type. Now we can relive (and laugh at) some of those melodramatic posters who were traumatized by a perfectly pleasant restaurant experience, or not traumatized enough by what sounds like food poisoning. Real actors are reading real Yelp reviews for your entertainment. Read the article here.

Too Traumatized

Not Traumatized Enough

In case you’re totally obsessed with Feminist Ryan Gosling (like any lady in her right mind), the blog published a book. And, they’re having the release party at your favorite thrift shop, Housing Works. It’s this Thursday, August 2nd at 7pm in the 126 Crosby St. location in NYC. Ryan Gosling probably won’t make it, but there will be free drinks and books for sale full of his pictures.

Ever since the TSA guideline of 3oz liquids, packing lotion for a beach vacation has gotten very complicated. Do I pay the extra $25 and check my bag, and bring a full sized lotion? Or do I buy 20 of the tiny travel sized lotion because I know one won’t cut it? After a day in the sun, 3 oz is barely going to hydrate one leg. Even if you do check a bag, is it really worth all that space in the suitcase for a big bottle of Aveeno?

Now these guys have come along. And to be honest, they had me at Vanilla Coconut. It’s only $3 for 15 wipes, and you don’t have to worry about them leaking in your bag.

If you’re anything like me, anytime you hear a No Doubt song come up on your Pandora feed, you heave a little sigh that working in the corporate world you can’t have bright pink hair a la Gwen Stefani (or even a few neon highlights). Not anymore! Now you can have work appropriate hair Monday through Friday, and let your inner rock star out on the weekends. Hair Flairs color rub created brightly hued powders. You rub them in to give yourself ombre tips, strips of highlights, or all over color. Then spray on some hair spray to seal it in, and you’re good to go. They wash out in 1-2 washes. For $13 a tub, you’ve bought your freedom.

Spray on sunscreen has revolutionized my life at the beach. I always had good intentions about reapplying, but the cycle went something like this: I’m laying in the sun; I notice I’m hot; I remember I should reapply, but I also want to go for a swim. I don’t want to wash all the sunscreen off, so I wait until after my swim. I lay in the sun to dry off, all cooled down, feel refreshed and forget to reapply. Repeat until skin has reached lobster levels of red.

Not anymore. Spray on sunscreen is such a breeze to put on that I do a full body spritz whenever I think of it. It takes less than 5 minutes, you don’t have to rub it in if you’re half covered in sand, and you can spray it on right after you get out of the water while your skin is wet.  Since I started using it, I haven’t gotten a sun burn (quite the miracle for someone with skin as fair as mine). But, that’s when I’m at the beach, and I don’t mind coating myself in a cloud of shiny sunblock.

In everyday life, reapplying my sunscreen is much trickier. Even though we all know that the SPF in our morning moisturizer isn’t enough protection for a full day, after applying makeup, and doing my hair before work, I’m not likely to remove it, put on more sunscreen, and re-do halfway through the day. The fact remains that sunscreen loses its effectiveness after 90 minutes in the sun, and my unwillingness to reapply over my morning makeup foundation may have opened me up to risk of overexposure.

Finally the beauty industry has come up with a solution: powder sunscreens that provide broad-spectrum protection through micronized zinc oxide and titanium dioxide that layer on INVISIBLY over your make-up. You can even purchase some with a hint of bronzer for a little faux-tan glow with your sunscreen. The powders contain ingredients like silica and cornstarch to combat summer sweaty face, and have a matte finish similar to what you’d achieve with a midday blotting paper.

So far I’ve seen tubes from Bare Minerals, Jane Iredale, Innovative Skincare, Peter Thomas Roth, and Colorescience Sunforgettable. More and more are popping up all over the market. They come with a built in brush to toss in your purse-no extra tools needed. Now reapplying is a cinch, on and off the beach.

Recently I discovered TED. I’ve heard about them for a while from other blogs I follow and from friends, but never had the time to stop and take a listen. Then I downloaded the TED app one day when I was particularly fed up with my music selection.  I was hooked after my first talk. Now, when I’m running an errand across town or doing the dishes, I can learn something from an expert in their field instead of just getting “Young, Wild and Free” stuck in my head for the millionth time.

TED is a non-profit organization that started way back in 1984. They host conferences twice a year and pull in the brightest minds from the Technology, Entertainment and Design fields. Their challenge to presenters? Give the “talk of their lives” in 18 minutes, NBD.  Some presenters are mediocre, and others have me pausing mid-plate scrub, tilting my head, and thinking to myself, “Well that was interesting!” My favorite feature is the Inspire Me function. It lets you select if you want to see something: Courageous, Funny, Persuasive, Ingenious, Jaw-Dropping, Beautiful, Fascinating, Informative, or Inspiring (aren’t the categories themselves just great?). Then you input how much time you have to listen (for example a 20 minute spurt to clean the bathroom, or a 40 minute train ride) and the app creates a customized playlist to suit your needs.

TED’s catch phrase is “Ideas worth spreading,” and in the couple weeks that I’ve been listening, I’ve found a few to pass along. Here are my favorites so far:

• Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability
• Shawn Achor: The Happy Secret to Better Work
• Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight
• Tali Sharot: The Optimism Bias

But I’m really just getting started. Download the app, and check them out yourself!