Alex Richards

More summer fun. And lots of rain.

alexgirl — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:05:55 +0000

I got caught in the hugest rainstorm yesterday! At first I tried to hide under an awning, but my dress wasn’t see through, and the air was pretty warm, so I decided to enjoy myself and get completely soaked through. It was fun… but I definitely got some crazy looks.

Last week I went to see Laura Marling. She is a tiny 18 year old singer/songwriter from London. I saw her play at SXSW, and when I heard that she’d be playing at Mercury Lounge I bought tickets (only $12—she’s not that famous yet). If you like female singer songwriters I really recommend you check her out. She has a teensy bit of stage fright and doesn’t really emote (CGCL called her “dead inside”) but she has a hauntingly powerful voice, and beautiful songs. She has quirky cute music videos too:

I had an AMAZING birthday, by the way.

I got these pretty earrings from my brilliant, adorable, thoughtful husband. They’re lockets! I haven’t put any pictures in them yet, but I think it’s a really cute idea and will probably put in little pics of my cats, my hubs, and my family. They make my neck look long and delicate too, which is a plus.

Also, my sister gave me this trendy/fantastic eco Kooba bag in green. I have barely taken it off my shoulder since my birthday! It has tons of pockets and zippers so I’ll never lose anything again. I’m ecstatic.

Aaaand, you’ll be happy to hear that I DID get an ice cream cake (cookies & cream, and black cherry fro yo), so my day was complete.

One last note: a couple of people have asked if I’m going to keep writing while living in S. Africa.
ABSO-FRIGGIN’-LUTELY!!!
I will definitely try to keep up the blog and post crazy pictures of my new South African life. But I will also keep writing YA fiction. My 2nd book is finished—I haven’t sold it yet, and who knows if I ever will, but I think my writing style has improved since Back Talk.

The new book is a ‘fish out of water’ story about snarky 16 year old indie rocker, Sophia. The summer before her junior year, Sophia is forced to leave her fabulous life of thrift store shopping, playing guitar, and gallivanting with her awesome friends in New York City. Why? Because her braniac mom gets a new job in Little Rock, Arkansas—oh no! Visions of rednecks and fried chicken flood her brain as her fabulous life falls to pieces. Sophia is a wickedly funny character, and the book is her chance to deal (and vent) when it seems as though her life is over.

It’s summer in New York City and I’m having the most fun ever!!!

alexgirl — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:58:22 +0000

I know I totally don’t post anymore, but I’ve been busy, and when we move to South Africa, I probably won’t post much, but can I just tell you about all the awesome things I’ve been up to lately?

I got to see M.I.A. at McCaren Pool in Brooklyn. First of all, seeing a concert in an empty swimming pool is kind of amazing. The show rocked. M.I.A. and her little posse were dancing and running all over the place, and they even invited all the ladies in the audience to jump up on stage and dance with her! (I didn’t go up, I was kinda far back, but still, it was super cool).

What else, what else. Andy and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary!

I can’t believe I have been married for a whole year. I feel like such a grown up! We had a lovely date at a restaurant downtown called Blue Hill. They use all fresh, local ingredients, which I love! I’m not a huge soup person but we had a cold asparagus soup that tasted freakin’ fabulous. Yum.

The week earlier CountryGirl & I went to see The Raconteurs.

I was blown away! Honeslty, I don’t really listen to them and I was sort of predisposed to think they were too “alt country” for me, but they’re much more versatile. They have some really beautiful ballads, and some Led Zeppelin-ish sounds—and they’re hot. Very hot.

My birthday is on Tuesday (happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Alex, happy birthday to me!) and we’re going to go to Vong, one of those fancy Jean Georges restaurants. It’s supposed to be delish. I don’t really want anything for my birthday, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that one of my nearest-and-dearest buys me an ice cream cake. I live for ice cream cake. It’s true.

And, spotted on the lower east side:

Jenny Humphrey! She was looking coy and sending text messages. I can’t wait for season 2 of Gossip Girl. CountryGirlCityLife: I expect weekly synopses to help keep me clued in while I’m living in my little South African village!

Last on my agenda: pop music. I think it’s the hot summer nights that’s bringing the cheesy pop diva out of me. All I wanna do is Make Love In This Club, In This Club, In This Club, In This Club. Thank you Usher for making me totally obsessed with your ridiculous, annoying song. I’m also digging on both Ashanti & Mariah Carey’s new singles. They make me happy, and that’s all a girl can ask for, right?

Big News

alexgirl — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:11:53 +0000

I’ve really been letting the blog slide lately, but for good reason. I’ve been busy packing up my apartment (I hate packing!) and putting everything into storage because… drum roll please…

Andy and I are moving to South Africa!

We’re leaving in about a month or two. I can hardly believe it! For 1 year we are going to volunteer with an organization called ASAP — African Solutions to African Problems—living in the middle of nowhere on the Eastern Cape, helping establish community centers for nutrition/education/family support. We are beyond excited. Scared, yes, but excited too. I was afraid to mention it until it seemed pretty solid… but I think it does, so I wanted to share my news! If anyone has spent any time there, please share your advice.

What does everyone else have planned for the summer? I will do my best to keep up with blogs, but it’ll be hard! Andy and I will definitely set up some kind of travel blog for anyone who wants to keep up with our wild life in Mt. Frere, South Africa!

Friday Poll Topic

alexgirl — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:55:59 +0000

My friend and I were just talking about that movie, The Hurricane, staring Denzel Washington. It’s a mesmerizing biopic of the life of Rubin Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder. The title song, Hurricane, was written as a political protest song by Bob Dylan in 1976. Actually, I recommend the whole album, if you like Bob Dylan. It’s an incredible movie, and one that really makes you want to “get up and do something”—know what I mean?

And then a few days ago I Netflixed Gia—loved it. I’m sure all you fashion-savvy bloggers out there have already seen it, but I hadn’t, and it was crazy good. Angelina Jolie was still relatively unknown when the movie was made, and she did a good job as the wild, heroin-addicted, lesbian supermodel. I mean, what actor wouldn’t want to get their hands on a role like that?!

Biopic’s aren’t always successful. I can think of a few right now, but I’m gonna bring up Jennifer Love Hewitt as our beloved Audrey Hepburn in The Audrey Hepburn Story. Uh… it just didn’t do it for me. Maybe since it was made-for-tv they couldn’t put enough money into making it good?—but Gia was made-for-tv, right? In any case, sorry Ghost Whisperer, but I don’t think you did justice to the epitome of Hollywood royalty.

…What am I getting at? Ah, yes:

Who would you like to see a biopic made of?

Living or dead. Male or female. Nice/generous, or a total asshole. You choose!
And for bonus points: who would you cast in this brilliantly spellbinding flick?

I’m already having a hard time coming up with someone, but a few of my contenders:
Cindy Sherman
Debbie Harry
Gene Tierney

Five by Five!

alexgirl — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:49:24 +0000

Five by five is one of those random 80’s sayings that I don’t get but I just love (does it mean “high five?”). Like, how people used to say “Outtie 5000″ in the ’90’s, & Samantha says “Aces” in 16 Candles… what are some of your favorite ‘greetings’?

But I’m getting sidetracked already.

Ashcan Rantings tagged me a while back with these lists of 5 things, and I’m going to take the challenge now, since it’s too yucky outside today to think of anything else to say:

5 Things found in my bag: Mp3 player (usually playing the SXSW mix I made in Austin); Kleenex (my allergies this year are INSANE in the membrane); a bottle of water (”hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!”); scotch tape and Back Talk postcards; awesome Ray Bans I stole from my sister.

5 Favorite Things in my room: I’m going to broaden the search to include my living room, because we live in a teensy NYC apartment, and in my bedroom is: my bed. That’s about it. Sooo… 5 fave things in my living room: my favorite lamp (I wanted it for 2 years but couldn’t figure out where to put it, but then decided to buy it anyway); our record collection w/ such gems as the Jane Fonda Workout Record, ELO, Cyndi Lauper, Christmas with The Smurfs…; my old skool Nintendo NES (Dr. Mario is the best game ever); our art collection (it’s small but it’s growing, and I love it all); and my Cuisinart.

5 Things I’ve always wanted to do:
Volunteer abroad (more on that topic later!!!); take a glass-blowing class (it looks like the coolest thing ever!!!); wear outrageous clothes and not feel self-conscious; learn how to make sushi; run a marathon (and not feel winded after the first fifty yards!).

5 Things that I am currently into:
my kitty-cats; make-a-plates (we have a huge stack that we’re about to send in!); Gossip Girl (although I’ve missed a couple episodes, so no spoilers please!); cooking with Tempeh; bright, shiny, glorious glitter.

5 Impressions on Ashcan Rantings (who tagged me): She is constantly introducing me to AWESOME music, and reminding me of old faves; she’s obsessed with Prince & proud of it; her posts are always colorful and make me feel happy; she’s totally unique and into her own psychadelia; she’s not afraid to love the Olsens.

All new: cooking and clothes!

alexgirl — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:54:48 +0000

Two of my favorite things, and one of my favorite blog topics!

I’ve been experimenting with loads of recipes lately, but today I will share a fun and healthy recipe for homemade Fruit & Nut Bars. First of all, have you tried LARABARS? They are delish, and so simple. They have between 2 and 5 ingredients, so no nasty preservatives etc. But for some reason I am allergic to raw nuts so I thought I’d try making my own with toasted nuts. The basic recipe is:

*2 cups toasted almonds
*1/2 cup pitted dates

That’s it! Put ‘em in the Cuisinart and blend until both ingredients are completely smooshed and combined. If it’s too dry add more dates; if it’s too wet add more nuts. Next: grab a handful and mold them into candy bar shaped logs (kind of messy, but easy to wash off), wrap them in plastic wrap, and put them in the fridge to chill for a couple hours.

How easy is that? And they’re so good. I also like to add things like orange, lemon, or cinnamon extract; cocoa powder; cranberries; roasted cashews instead of almonds… the sky’s the limit! They’re a great snack, and it’s fun to eat something homemade that looks so professional.

And now for the CLOTHES!!!

Today’s featured designer is Rebecca Taylor. I was browsing her line at ShopLAStyle.com and fell in love with almost everything!

This dress is a little fancy-pants, but I think it’s quite cute:

This shirt is very similar, but I just love the back detail. So cute:

Adorable pink cami w/ petal detailing along the top:

Very pretty black party dress w/ supercute beading in the front:

I love this sun dress. Can’t wait for summer!!!

Another cute ‘n summery dress w/ pretty bead detail in front:

That’s all for now. If you try making the Nut/Date bars, lemme know how they turn out!

Recent celebrity sightings… some more exciting than others

alexgirl — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:49:03 +0000

It’s finally spring, and everyone’s oot and aboot (my Canadian accent)!
I’ve been enjoying the lovely weather and taking long walks all over the city, eating delicious meals, and going to the theater for a little culture.

Okay, I’ll start with my biggest celebrity sighting:
Ethan Hawke standing outside the theater as we headed in to see a play called The Country Girl—so, technically I guess you could say I also saw Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand, and Peter Gallagher. Ethan looked great. Still cute, sexy, and not as greasy as he’s been known to look in the past.

Then the next night when we were at the new Broadway musical of Cry Baby (we saw a lot of theater because my dad was in town) I spotted Molly Ringwald at intermission! She looked lovely in a white breezy boho top and skirt. It was the first time I’d seen her (in person, not counting Cabaret) since I was 8-years-old & trying on clothes at the Laura Ashley store in LA… ah, memories!
She is in some of my favorite movies of all time. I wanted to go up and give her a hug! Don’t worry, I didn’t do it.

ps-Cry Baby was surprisingly good.

Now, this next one will only be exciting to New Yorkers, and more specifically, New Yorkers who read messages and ads on bulletin/cork boards, or signs posted on bodega windows, because I saw Dan Smith, of Dan Smith Will Teach You Guitar!!! I s’pose it could’ve been somebody else since I’ve only ever seen the 1 picture of him, but I’m pretty sure it was him, and it was awesome! I’ve always wanted to learn guitar (and drums). Especially because the heroine of my next book is a guitar player, and I wish I’d had a more intimate knowledge of le craft.

Oh! Another good one (at least my BFF and I thought so) was world famous Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano! He looked pretty adorable, but I couldn’t get that South Park song out of my head all night!
We saw him having dinner with friends. And ps, Brian picked up the check!

The lamest celebrity sighting was Elizabeth Hasselbeck from The View. I’m not even going to bother googling a picture of her because she’s annoying, I hardly consider her a celebrity, and she’s a republican.

I know this was a silly post, but it was a fun week of celebrity sightings, and I had to tell somebody!

Latest top 5

alexgirl — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:21:16 +0000

1.It’s not even that I want these bizarre finger-toppers, but they just look so damn cool. I think you have to be a dominatrix or a princess to wear them—or both! They’re just so Egypt-fabulous. And from the 80’s Purple website I can’t tell if they’re $160 for the whole hand, or per finger. Either way, they’re wack-a-doo.

2. My computer. I’m trying to show my MAC a little love, because the other day it started to sneeze. I’m not even kidding. Has that ever happened to you? First it wheezed, and I thought I was losing my mind, but then it SNEEZED. “Achoo!” it said. I think my computer needs a hug.

3. Sybil. Whoa, that is one intense movie. I am fascinated by Multiple Personality Disorder. The movie is a little long—I think it was originally made for TV as a mini-series or something. But I’m telling you, it is a gripping film. Is it wrong to say that sometimes I wish I had MPD? I mean, I am a very shy person and I blush a lot—what if I could just POOF into a different personality and suddenly have self confidence and class! Ah, a girl can dream! But seriously, Sally Field gives a chilling performance as a screwed up girl with over a dozen distinct personalities.

4. I love Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Heroes), Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Freaks & Geeks) & Jonah Hill (Superbad), and therefore I TOTALLY want to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall!

5. Congratulations to Stiletto Heights on her recent nuptials! I absolutely love being married. It’s awesome. I wish you all the happiness in the world, Jenn!

A few new things

alexgirl — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:19:28 +0000

FIRST of all: what happened to spring? It was here for a few days, then I went out of town, and when I came back it was gone! Who stole spring from me?! Grrr.

Speaking of being out of town, I just went to Santa Fe, NM to visit my lovely parents.
It was a blast. I looooove Mexican food. I can’t live without it. Yummy margaritas, peaceful scenery, my parents cuddly dogs—it always inspires creativity. I did a little shopping and bought an adorable dress at Target for $20. God, I love that store. I also just ordered a dress online (on sale, too!). What do you think of it?

It might look terrible on me, but it’s pretty and summery, and it made me smile.

I would also like some opinions/thoughts on these shoes. At first glance I didn’t like them, but they’re growing on me. It’s a unique style. And I seem to be really into purple these days.

OH! Before I forget: When I was in New Mexico I was channel surfing one day, and landed on a network called G4 where I watched a marathon of Unbeatable Banzuke. It is the BEST show ever—I’m not exaggerating.

You will be immediately hooked. They show tons of ridiculous competitions on tricky slolem-type courses that you have to complete on a unicycle, or walking on your hands, or on a pogo stick, or being pushed in a wheelbarrow. A massive time suck, but brilliant.

One last thing. Andy and I saw The Dodos last night at Mercury Lounge. They are AMAZING! Their album is great (check out the video for FOOLS on YouTube), but seeing them live was even better. They’re incredibly talented (and super hot, too!)

Books ‘n things

alexgirl — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:43:55 +0000

First on my agenda: complain about the new Sweet Valley High books. I may be a bit late on the bandwagon, but I just read on Gawker that they are re-releasing the beloved 80’s series, complete with updated angles, such as their car (from a red fiat to a jeep wrangler), their weight (from a ‘perfect size 6′ to a ‘perfect size 4′–WHAT???!!!!), and their school newspaper is now a website. I’m sure it’s as trashy and addictive as it was in the 80’s… and sadly, I bet it will sell a billion times better than Back Talk or any other book I ever write. Sigh. Sob. Wipe tears away. Move on.

On a happier note, I just learned that fellow blogger Heather is having her book, Pittsburgh Ghosts: Steel City Supernatural published! The book looks great—I mean, who doesn’t want to read about ghosts? Well… I might not be able to read it at night, or when I’m alone because it might be too scary… But congratulations, Heather!!!

Books I’ve read lately that I recommend (some of which I may have already mentioned): Snow Flower & the Secret Fan. I started it aaaages ago when CountryGirl CityLife gave it to me as an RAOK (thanks Jody!) but I got sidetracked. I finally read it and loved it. Note to the squeamish: the first 50 pages are very descriptive and intense! Oh, and Lisa See has another book out: Peony In Love. Looks gooooood!

Fellow Flux author, Brian Mandabach’s YA novel OR NOT. (I should’ve reviewed this a long time ago, but got sidetracked—that seems to happen to me a lot, huh?) It’s a compilation of journal entries written in the voice of tortured, non-conformist 8th grader Cassie Sullivan. Makes ya glad you’re not in 8th grade anymore! But Cassie is a strong and spunky heroine w/ great taste in music—kinda like the main character from my new book (yet to be published), so of course I thought Cassie was awesome! Great book Brian, can’t wait to see what you do next.

I also just finished The Inheritance of Loss, which follows a judge, his granddaughter, and their cook in northern India in the 1980’s. The book switches between their lives, and the cook’s son, an Indian immigrant struggling to survive in New York in the mid 80’s. Really descriptive and well written.

And although this is not a novel, I just read (and have cooked several recipes from) Not on Love Alone. It was given to me (and Andy, but lets face it, he does NOT cook) as a wedding gift, and I love it. Full of anecdotes, tips, cute illustrations, and of course recipes. A lot of meaty recipes, which is limiting for vegetarians (duh) but wonderful nonetheless.

Okay, so now I need new book recommendations. Of course I have a bookshelf full of things to read, and the library just a few blocks away, but I’m always up for suggestions.