Go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I just saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button last night and man oh man what a movie. It's a love letter from Brad Pitt to the great city of New Orleans for starters, and it tells a tale that had me enraptured for its full three hour duration. It's a love story, a human story, an interesting story and a fantastical parable all at once. It manages to be both poignant and touching without reverting to easy emotion or sentimentality. The film delves into the nature of life and of happiness and details the necessary trade offs and compromises all human beings make in the pursuit of their dreams. Where Benjamin Button diverges from the pack is in its insistence that although the pursuit of happiness and adventure entail sacrifices and trade offs, these compromises aren't something to be mourned. Rather, these compromises are to be celebrated because they are the adventure. All hail Brad Pitt and may he win every award out there for this brilliant movie. Bravo!

Christopher Peacock follow up

Wa-a-a-a-y back in April, I wrote an entry about the amazing world of Christopher Peacock. I ran a couple of photos of his now-famous Refectory Kitchen. Here they are again.

That article gets a lot of Google traffic and I get asked about that Refectory a lot. I received a note from a reader the other day and she asked me about the pendants that are hanging over the island. I'd always assumed that since they were hanging in a Peacock publicity shot, that those lights would have to be originals. Well, I was mistaken.

The pendants in question are from Vaughan Lighting, a label only available to the trade.

It took a bit of sleuthing, but I found the answer to the source of those pendants on a blog called Willow Decor. Willow Decor is written by a woman named Gina Milne and I owe her a debt of thanks for solving this mystery.

New cool stuff from Jennifer Squires

Jennifer Squires, whose work I've discussed here previously, has a new desk calendar featuring her photography. The calendar is an interesting take on the flip card and its compact size won't take up too much room. What better way to ring in the new year than a new Jennifer Squires photograph for every month? You can find her calendars, and the rest of her growing body of work on her Etsy shop. 

Another contest at Whorange

On Christmas Eve, I reported that I'd won a signed print by Matte Stephens in an essay contest sponsored by the talented and beautiful Tula over at her great blog, Whorange. I love Matte Stephens' work and I love Tula's blog and yesterday's arrival of that print made my heart grow three sizes. I dropped it off at the framer yesterday afternoon and it will hanging in my living room within a week. I cannot wait.

Well, she's at it again over there, and Whorange is running another contest for a different Matte Stephens signed print. Why not head over to Tula's great blog and enter? Accuse me of double dipping if you will, but I just entered again and you should too. Consider this an incentive to click on over to Whorange to get a heaping helping of LA Style served with a huge side dish of humor. Not to mention the chance to have a Matte Stephens of your very own. Go! But hurry, the contest ends on Monday.

This is a scam

I'm filing this one under "how-to," as in how to avoid being scammed. I retrieved an e-mail bearing this coupon from my spam filter on Monday and I just want to do a little public service here.

Direct Buy is a scam. Their entire business model preys on the general public's ignorance of commerce to fleece them all the more. If you agree to pay them a several thousand dollar membership fee, they will help you bypass supposedly predatory retail mark ups. But I have a dog in this race, so rather than blow a lot of hot air I'm going to turn this over to the kids at Consumer Reports. To wit:

To evaluate the pitch, we went undercover at two DirectBuy franchises in New York. Both gave us the same hard sell and offers of up to 70 percent off retail prices if we were to join. Only after an hour and a half of sales pitches and video testimonials from members did we learn the membership fee: $4,900 to $4,990 (plus tax) for three years and then $190 a year for seven more. Financing is available at 17.75 percent.

After the fee disclosure, we discovered that we had to sign up on the spot or never come back. We couldn’t bring DirectBuy’s “confidential” prices elsewhere to comparison shop, the representatives said, because this would likely anger retailers who might then retaliate against the manufacturers by refusing to sell their merchandise.

The fine print in the DirectBuy contract says you cannot return items, cancel orders, or terminate your membership. When we asked if, after plunking down $5,000, we could cancel and get a refund, a salesperson said, “You’ll have to check state law.” A review of New York state law revealed that the three-day cooling-off period for canceling contracts wouldn’t apply in this case.

Tacked onto the cost of merchandise—which you select from catalogs since DirectBuy has limited showrooms—are a 6 percent handling fee, shipping fees, and tax. Goods are typically shipped only to your local center, so you might pay additional fees to actually get your new stuff home.

All of this hoopla and added expense so that you can buy stuff at what end up being typical retail prices. Don't believe the hype. Do yourself a favor and study before you make a major purchase or better yet, train yourself to shop for value instead of price. Do all of that yes, but for the love of God, stay away from these people.