5 things i love right now

1.  kurt vile's new song, "pretty pimpin"



he's baaaack! admittedly, it took me a while to get the whole KV "thing." i totally missed the boat on his epic smoke ring for my halo album, but quickly became obsessed with wakin on a pretty daze and have been a fervent vile fan ever since. i think i enjoy this tune from his forthcoming record, b'lieve i'm goin down, more and more with each listen. can't wait to see him live in october!

2. this local taqueria, victoria 

on my way back from a saturday afternoon matinee of paper towns (good, clean, whimsical movie BTW), i stopped at this spot in my town that i'd been wanting to check out for a while. i'm always a fan of "street food" that is, um, not on the street, so i got an order of the fish tacos and promptly fell in love. i think there is one in beverly, too. muy bueno.

3. this advice column, ask polly

i've always been a loyal boston.com love letters reader, but a friend sent me one of these "ask polly" columns a few weeks back and -- sorry not sorry -- her advice is far superior. funny, thorough, and filled with pearls of MMHMM wisdom, there's always some value to be gleaned from each response, even if you can't relate to the reader's sitch. my personal favorite is this one about tepid dudes (or, "tepid MFers" as polly colorfully dubs them). polly (real name: heather) goes on a tangent about kanye west, and leaves us with an amazing mantra which seems unrelated, but also makes perfect sense when encountering half-assed people in your life: "fuck you and your hampton house." i've used it about 5x this week already.

4. my new record player!

insound.com was going out of business and selling turntables for next to nothin'. i finally took the vinyl plunge and i'm already scouring flea markets like a fiend to build my collection. all i have so far, besides jimi, is prince's purple rain. someone buy me all the records, please.

5. PICNICS

i'd basically been begging anyone and everyone to go on a damn picnic with me for the past 2 years, and my dreams finally came true this weekend. my friend kathleen and i got word that a bunch of local restaurants were offering picnic baskets for a zillion dollars, so we snagged one from precinct in the loews hotel. it was adorable and we found a relatively clean-looking bench in the public garden and went to town. charcuterie, cheese, grapes, little pickles, and individual boston creme pies in tiny jars. oh, and a bottle of wine! we got tipsy (shhh) and shared stories, watched the people and dogs, and had a lovely afternoon. highly recommended.

20 summer food and drink items, ranked by goodness

contribute your own in the comments, yo.

20. the original flavor of fro-yo at pinkberry
19. STOLI RAZ & SPRITE
18. chicken sausage in a hot dog bun with all the fixins
17. chocolate-covered frozen banana slices
16. snickers ice cream bars
15. ceviche!!
14. fried clams/scallops/uhhh any fried seafood
13. corn on the damn cob
12. fruit salad with mixed berries and watermelon
11. root beer float
10. the pink panther bar from the ice cream truck that has the bubble gum eyes
9. pan bagnat! (no anchovies, tho)
8. SANGRIA
7. cold brewww
6. dark sweet cherries
5. this really really good potato salad that my mom makes
4. fresh-squeezed lemonade, preferably one that you get from one of those stands at a state fair
3. FRIED DOUGH
2. LOBSTER ROLL
1. a big fat burger with yellow american cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles (come on, what else did you expect from me?)

sup, summer?

IT'S SUMMER, GUYS! well, not technically. but close enough, eh? visions of sundresses and froyo and people-watching on the hampton beach boardwalk are totally dancing in my head. i decided to come up with some foolproof ingredients for an amazing summer. add your own in the comments!

a great playlist.

in 2011, my friend gleni and i decided to start theming every summer. that first one was the "summer of why not?" and it was followed by 2012's "mayan summer" (because it had a much better ring than "YOLO") and 2013's "no-bummer summer." this year we were feeling all magical and idealistic and so "utopian summer" is the theme of the 2014 season. i put together a preliminary set of jams that will expand as the summer rolls on. dig it:

utopian summer playlist

a trip to remember.

it doesn't have to be a super-lavish vacation or anything, but every summer should have at least ONE day or weekend trip that recharges your batteries and ideally involves sunshine and water and seafood and shops that sell fudge and/or ice cream. as a new englander i'm obviously a little biased towards coastal maine and the new hampshire seacoast and such, because ... LOBSTAH.

a music festival. 

even if you're not going all bonnaroo and becoming one with nature and port-a-potties for an entire weekend, seeing a bunch of random acts with your friends while eating chicken fingers and drinking beer is always a good time. you might even discover your new favorite band!

an outdoor movie.

i've been noticing that a ton of theaters do "summer rewind" events that feature cult classics from the '80s or '90s. and instead of shuffling into a cold, dark theater, you get to enjoy them from the comfort of a plastic lawn chair in the middle of a park or something. possibly less comfortable, but infinitely more fun.

a picnic.

the reality is probably more full of ants and mosquitos and getting grass all over your legs, but the idea of a picnic is just so adorable. like, whipping up some jar salads and an antipasto loaf and making fresh-squeezed lemonade and sitting on one of those red-and-white gingham blankets. will someone make this happen with me?!

a roofdeck/patio/deck experience.

sangria + patio = guaranteed awesome, every time. whether you're just hanging out after work and dining al fresco or happen to be friends with that guy that has the killer roofdeck, finding some outdoor spot to chill on a perfect summer evening is essential. also, if you're reading this and you have a killer roofdeck, please contact me ASAP.

5 things i love right now

because, dang, there's lots to love right now.

1. this performance on "so you think you can dance?" from "step up: revolution":




2. haagen-dazs salted caramel truffle ice cream:

3. this quote by rainer maria rilke:

"have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms written in a very foreign language. don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. and the point is to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing, live your way into the answer."

4. these awesome picnic food ideas (who wants to plan one before the end of the summer?)

5. this japandroids song 


what are you all about right now?!