Adopt a Species

Instead of traditional gift giving this holiday season, consider adopting an endangered animal through the World Wildlife Fund's species adoption. With donations ranging from $25 - $250 you can help support and protect severely endangered animals. There are over 100 species to choose from and you can even sort by threat level (extinct in the wild, critically endangered, vulnerable etc.).

"Your donation will be used in general support of WWF's efforts around the world. 82 cents of every donated dollar goes toward conservation. WWF has been recognized by Charity Navigator as a Four Star Charity, and is a Better Business Bureau Accredited charity.World Wildlife Fund is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization."
http://www.worldwildlife.org/ogc/index.cfm

Ten Primary Cloud Formations

Throw back to 4th grade. Gotta love it.

macroscopicmarket on Etsy
Screen printed on natural stock paper (20" x 26") with glow in the dark ink.
click for larger view.


(spotted on swissmiss)

Days With My Father

We first mentioned this incredible photo essay from Phillip Toldedano back in April and if you haven't checked it out yet, it's a must. A few weeks ago, it was announced that the Days with My Father book will be published in May! Along with the email announcement, Mr. Toldedano allowed subscribers to choose a cover for the upcoming book. The two options are below. I chose the first one but they're equally heartwarming.

Days With My Father

Signs You Might Be A Sons of Anarchy Fan

Found this via Twitter yesterday (by following SoA's creator and showrunner, Kurt Sutter @sutterink) and just couldn't help myself. Honest enough, I started rereading Hamlet a few weeks ago so I laughed out loud (and felt weirdly obsessive) as soon as I read #1. And it's true, most days I do feel like a missionary (see #5).

(via Small Towns, Small Screens)

1) You start reading Hamlet. You know, for fun.

2) If you weren't a motorcycle person before, you are now to the extent that you can tell a Dyna from a Softail Springer when you see them on the road.

3) In testy social and/or work situations you wonder to yourself, what would Gemma do? And for the guys, what would Jax do? And then you actually do it.

4) You can actually understand what Chibs is saying.

5) You view yourself as a sort of missionary for Sons of Anarchy. When you discover that a friend and/or family member hasn't seen it, you begin proselytizing the unconverted on the merits of the show. Bonus points if you tell them all that Katey Sagal will be robbed, just robbed, if she doesn't get an Emmy this year.

6) You label and evaluate people according to personalities of Sons of Anarchy characters. For example: "My boss is such a Clay about the monthly financial projections;" or "Honey, we knew when you started dating him that he was a total Juice."

7)You consider adding Nicholas Nickleby to your Netflix queue because Charlie Hunnam is in it. Either that or The Lady Killers because Ryan Hurst is in that film.

8)You buy a manual typewriter to work on your manifesto.

9)You download all of the music from all of the episodes from iTunes, make a playlist and it is all that you listen to.

10)You work "darlin'" into regular conversation in addition to "blow back" and "big picture."

11) You know how hard it is to get #sonsofanarchy to be a trending topic on Twitter and you still haven't given up hope.

12) You actually saw someone in real life in a cut and wanted to go talk to him but had to restrain yourself because there is no telling whether he was a Tig or a Jax.

13) Your plan when Season 2 ends? Watch seasons one and two straight through (because you totally saved Season 2 on your Tivo). By then there will be news trickling down from Kurt Sutter sitting on the top of Mount Outlaw about Season 3. Season 2 will be out on dvd soon too so you can bide your time with the special features until next August.

14) You know that, in a pinch, a skateboard is an effective weapon.

15) You divide the world into two groups: those who watch Sons of Anarchy and those who don't.

Amen.

(via Small Towns, Small Screens)

Mad Men November 23, 1963

Following the intense Mad Men episode in which President Kennedy was assassinated, my friend Mike forwarded me the link to this article from The New York Times. In the article, "On Nov. 23, 1963, Some People Really Did Marry," the NYT City Room tracked down three people who, like Roger Sterling's daughter, had their weddings scheduled for the day after the assassination.

“This could have been an awful day,” said the character Roger Sterling on Sunday night’s episode of “Mad Men,” speaking to a half-empty wedding reception. “But here we are, not watching TV, but together watching the two of you.” (See related Arts Beat post.)

The outcome of the Sterling wedding was hotly anticipated among fans of the show ever since this season’s second episode, which was broadcast Aug. 23. In it, Margaret Sterling, the daughter of one of the guys with his name on the door at the Sterling Cooper ad agency, shows her father, Roger, the freshly minted invitation to her wedding, still months away: Nov. 23, 1963. The camera lingered on the invitation itself, inviting reality to dawn on the audience. The date is one day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In real life, of course, no one saw this coming. Real-life brides-to-be had watched as the day they had been planning for months was pulled out of their control, and the nation’s grief and confusion — Was there a plot? Were others still at large? — threatened to drown out their wedding bells completely.

City Room called up The New York Times from Sunday, Nov. 24, 1963, and had a look at the wedding announcements. Amid the pillbox-topped veils, the hair flips, the orchids and stephanotis, we found a few New Yorkers who were actually married the day the Sterling wedding was supposed to have taken place. At least some of the announcements were written before the actual wedding day, so there was no way of knowing whether every one of those weddings went off as planned.

To read the rest of the article by Michael Wilson click here

via: here

Simplify

(via DesignisMine)

leave me

Leave Me from Daros Films on Vimeo.

please understand

we arent the right kind of wrong. we arent the wrong kind of right. we are just the wrong kind of wrong.

so lets be wrong together. not the good kind. not the right kind. the wrong kind. our kind.

sweet article over at le love:

it happened just like every other time. different place, different people, different words, i thought even a different me but still the same outcome. it always comes out the same. i think ive moved on, i think im ready to be friends again, i think im over him. so i start a conversation, begin catching up, rebuilding, starting over. every time im so positive that this time will be the last time that he and i have to become friends, this time will be different, this time it will work. this time everything i want will come true. i was so sure this time.

we're friends, we're together, we're hurting each other, we're fighting, we're alone again.

then we give each other some space and try it all over again. you would have thought at least one of us would learn from the millionth time. but neither of us do.

loves meant to be simple. if you love him and he loves you then you are in love. if you are in love you are together. its never been like that though. not even from the first minute we met.

i fell for him almost as soon as i saw him. there was just this amazing link between the two of us. it was so strong people neither of us knew picked up on it. it wasnt that i had a crush on him, it wasnt that i liked him, it was more. i was in love, not that i knew it at that point. and then it started. i fell and he didnt. i changed he fell i changed back. we were together and then we werent. we moved on then we moved back. and sure enough we ended again. he fell and i didnt. i fell and he couldnt. but then he did. i finally caught on and fell into him. at that moment we fell evenly, finally. we were equals in love, nobody was king and nobody was jester. and it was wonderful. then we both fell away. and then back together.

and now im stuck right back where i was. completely in love and with a totally broken heart. i want more than anything else to be able to accept that we arent going to go anywhere because we arent. i just want to be at the stage where i know in my mind and my heart that while we arent going to work god dammit we gave it our best shot. and its not that i havent tried everything i can think of to move on. you can bet your life that ive tried every trick in the book. in fact i rewrote the book, adding in all my crazy desperate ideas that i tried once i had exhausted the book. but still when i lie awake at night im left wondering if i really did try everything. if i really did try my hardest. or if i only made it look like that. because, really, deep down somewhere even though he is so wrong for me and i am so wrong for him maybe i dont want to stop loving him. but the smart thing, the logical thing to do is to get the communication happening between my head and my heart. get my head to make my heart see reason. get it to see the truth about me and him. we dont work. we wont work.

we arent the right kind of wrong. we arent the wrong kind of right. we are just the wrong kind of wrong.

being right means that i wont have him to tell me that mum didnt mean what she just said.

being right means that i wont get any more applogy texts cause he fell asleep on me the night before.

being right means that i cant claim a bed to myself after parties that he hasnt gone to.

being right means that i wont have him to cover me in sand when i fall asleep at the beach.

being right means that i dont have him to convince me to miss school or work cause he knew that i secretly wanted to spend the day with him.

being right means that i dont have an offer from him to warn off guys for me, even if its just an offer.

being right means that i wont be thinking about him when im singing along to love songs.

being right means that i cant have anymore of his goodbye kisses.

being right means that i wont have him.

being right means that i loose everything that has made up the past two years.

so i know that this isnt going to work. i know that i am going to get hurt again. i know that my friends will have run out of sympathy by the next time i come crying to them. i know that im missing out on wonderful people by being caught up with him. i know that im not going to come out of this alive. but also i know that im in love.and im not ready to let that go just yet.or ever.

so lets be wrong together. not the good kind. not the right kind. the wrong kind. our kind.

cause i know no matter how much i deny it, not matter what i tell my friends, no matter who im with or what im doing, im thinking up ways to make us work.

by bec

say something nice to me

via: here

Girlfriend Keeper App

Read about this on Urban Daddy...(the equivalent of Daily Candy for men).. it's hilarious (and creepy?) and makes me think twice about the power of technology...

Girlfriend Keeper App

"The Girlfriend Keeper App allows a guy to set up automated text messages or emails to be sent to his girlfriend/significant other based on specified criteria such as "Relationship Seriousness" and how often he wants to (or are expected to) communicate. Messages will be sent as often as every two hours to once a month and will be randomly generated and sent based on your relationship seriousness level. The girlfriend is even able to respond to the texts and the responses will be sent to your email address."

Read more here

and here

How hot it's been in California lately...

Sons of Anarchy Season 2 Premiere

After last night's premiere, I'm more into Sons of Anarchy than ever before... I mean come on those last ten minutes were some of the most intense television I've ever seen. And based on the teasers at the end of the episode, there's a lot more where that came from.



Read more here >"'Sons of Anarchy' season premiere: Off to a roaring start, and what did you think of the final scene?" from EW.com


And a great article from the >Chicago Tribune here... "'Sons of Anarchy' revs up the pace in its compelling new season"

SPOILER ALERT:
An interview with Katey Sagal, also from the >Tribune, " Katey Sagal talks about Gemma's difficult journey on 'Sons of Anarchy'"

on marriage...

This New York Times essay on marriage is really beautiful.

“I don’t love you anymore. I’m not sure I ever did.”

His words came at me like a speeding fist, like a sucker punch, yet somehow in that moment I was able to duck. And once I recovered and composed myself, I managed to say, “I don’t buy it.” Because I didn’t.

Sad Day

Charlie Gibson will step down as the anchor of "World News Tonight" starting in January. I guess the silver lining is that Diane Sawyer will succeed him. Gibson has been at ABC for 35 years and will stay on as an occasional contributor. Charlie you will be missed.

(via MSCNBC)
(photo via here)

Cheating Husband's Punishment

(via AgencySpy)

just couldn't resist...

Happy Friday!
Cheers,
M&B

(via cloneofsnake)

The Cove

My roommate got me into this documentary and I highly encourage everyone to see it...heartbreaking story
Learn more here http://www.thecovemovie.com/

"The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O’Barry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation “Flipper.”

But his close relationship with those dolphins – the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day -- led O’Barry to a radical change of heart. One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again. This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast.

But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling -- and the consequences are so dangerous to human health -- they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.

Undeterred, O’Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society to get to the truth of what’s really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world. With the local Chief of Police hot on their trail and strong-arm fishermen keeping tabs on them, they will recruit an “Ocean's Eleven”-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed. The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope.

The Cove is directed by Louie Psihoyos and produced by Paula DuPre Pesman and Fisher Stevens. The film is written by Mark Monroe. The executive producer is Jim Clark and the co-producer is Olivia Ahnemann."

Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy Season Two Premiere: September 8 on FX

And Season 1 is out on DVD today!

40 years after summer love

Such an iconic image. An image that represents the peace and love of a generation. I just read this article about a couple who, after having their photo taken at Woodstock, got married, are now 60, and still together. The couple didn’t even realize their picture had been taken until coming across it at a friend’s house on the record jacket of the ‘Woodstock’ album.

About Woodstock:

From August 15 - 18, 1969 Max Yasgur′s dairy farm in rural New York became the center of the counter culture movement of the 1960s. Somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 people migrated from across the continent to watch the top folk and rock ‘n' roll acts of the day (including the late Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin), and experience what has been described as the greatest concert of all time.

The early planning of the festival was chaotic, with protests and other hurdles forcing the organizers to relocate to Bethel, NY from the original Woodstock location. The whole project nearly ground to a halt on several occasions, but with some tenacity and blind luck the event actually happened. The concert was originally designed as a for profit venture, with over 180,000 advance tickets selling. But as the festival began concert organizers quickly realized they were about to be overrun by patrons and famously opened the gates declaring Woodstock to be a free concert which caused even more patrons to rush to the site in an effort to witness some of the greatest performers of their generation play the greatest show on Earth.