bless and the city

"Each time you happen to me all over again."

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:47:04 +0800

“Each time you happen to me all over again.”

- Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

My favorites are the three at the top. And the obituary-obsessed...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:12:05 +0800

My favorites are the three at the top. And the obituary-obsessed kid. Yours?

debbieliuhoo: harryh: mattlehrer: werdsmiffery: The 20 Most...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:00:05 +0800

debbieliuhoo:

harryh:

mattlehrer:

werdsmiffery:

The 20 Most Beautiful Bookshops in the World

Foursquare list waiting to happen.

https://foursquare.com/harryh/list/the-20-most-beautiful-bookstores-in-the-world

:)

Bookstores have been and always will be my hideaway. I browse slowly in them when I’m content, I hide in them when I’m upset, I wander in them when I want to lose myself. True story, I blacked out and ran away crying from my friends one night in DC…straight to Kramerbooks where I hid in bookshelves until someone convinced me to come home.

If I had wings, or if i was Ironman, I’d fly to one of these a weekend and spend 48 hours exploring each one. If only I could get married in a bookstore and give each guest a book suited entirely to his (or her) taste and ask them to just read. For at least a day.

Well, if I was Ironman, I could just build my own beautiful bookstore and get married in it, but I’d also be a man.

I want to visit all of these so badly.

And wow, you are pretty much my soulmate, Debbie. Two reasons.

1) While interning at Conde Nast the summer after my senior year, my friends would go out in Murray Hill and inevitably head south towards Meatpacking. Usually I’d go along, but a few times, I decided instead to browse tipsily through the $1 racks at the Strand, one of my favorite places on earth. Once, I ended up lugging 15 books (including a first-edition Gourmet cookbook weighing 6 pounds) all the way back to my place in Gramercy.

2) I used to tell my high school friends that I wanted to get married in the Barnes & Noble nearby, because there are two huge escalators that look over aisles and aisles of books. I would ride up the escalator (to the kids’ section) and there my groom would be, waiting for me amongst all of the romance novels. That’s why I loved Carrie’s pick for wedding venue in the SATC movie, so so much.

Big and I would be married
in the classic New York landmark...

  
...that housed all the great love stories.

Gotye f/ Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know Now and then I...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:00:05 +0800

Gotye f/ Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know

Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
I told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it’s an ache I still remember

"Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy, and keep choosing it every day."

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:10:39 +0800

“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy, and keep choosing it every day.”

- Henri Nouwen

Los Angeles is one of the most bizarre places on Earth, and it has an equally singular smell. The clear, alluring track of its scent is arresting. There's the ocean breeze from Santa Monica that can travel as far East as Silver Lake; a dry desert air that comes West over Downtown and South Central; the astringent balm of eucalyptus, pine, honeysuckle, and jasmine from the hills; and car exhaust from catalytic converters, which is, in its strange industrial way, beautiful. It's like the jolt of a drug: shifting, comforting, cool like a blanket. The lonely smell of the marine layer burns off and you get this flashy perfume of hot asphalt, engines, and sun block that you can find nowhere but in L.A.

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:54:00 +0800

- GQ’s ‘Smelliest Cities on the Planet’

“nowhere but LA” … homesickness abounds

lylaandblu: Theodore Roosevelt

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:12:05 +0800

lylaandblu:

Theodore Roosevelt

I’m going, I’m gone.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:00:05 +0800

I’m going, I’m gone.

"Could fulfillment ever be felt as deeply as loss? Romantically she decided that love must surely reside in the gap between desire and fulfillment, in the lack, not the contentment. Love was the ache, the anticipation, the retreat, everything around it but the emotion itself."

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:44:43 +0800

— The Inheritance of Loss

by Proximity BBDO Paris … nom nom nom

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:40:57 +0800

by Proximity BBDO Paris

… nom nom nom

Psalm 37, of David, part one.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:04:00 +0800

¹ Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
² for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.

³ Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
⁴ Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
⁶ He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.

⁷ Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

⁸ Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
⁹ For those who are evil will be destroyed,
but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

¹⁰ A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.
¹¹ But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy peace and prosperity.

Notice what’s bolded thrice? My mantra for the year.

It’s been four months since I last blogged, the longest empty space since I started this Tumblr in 2009. The catalysts behind this post are the three people I know are reading, so a wave hello to Tara, Chenxin and my mom. Thanks for visiting ;)

She & Him - Black Hole My eyes are so blearyI guess...

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:44:00 +0800

She & Him - Black Hole

My eyes are so bleary
I guess I’m young
But I feel so weary

I’ve tried to express it
But I think it’s all a bore
It’s at the heart of me
A very part of me

Speak slowly, I can’t hear you
My mind keeps spinning closer and closer
To the rain on the roof
And the rain in my head
And the things that you said
Keep on taking further ahead

And it just gets so foggy
It’s nowhere in here
And it’s everywhere else
That I don’t want to be

But I’m stuck here
Getting misty over you
I’m alone on a bicycle for two

European Financial Crisis

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 10:00:05 +0800

caroulemapoule:

I have 17,91 € to my name. I have 6 slices of bread, half a wedge of brie, 1L of Evian, a small bottle of merlot, some jam and 3 eggs. Once my French bank account starts functioning in 2 or 3 days, I won’t be such a pauper. Boy am I going to have myself a nice restaurant meal and some fine wine when that time comes!

My modish grand-little, living the dream in Poitiers…

‘Hey Los Angeles, You Are So Beautiful’ by Colin...

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:21:02 +0800

‘Hey Los Angeles, You Are So Beautiful’ by Colin Rich

"The reason I don’t have a plan is because if I have a plan I’m limited to today’s options."

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 02:21:04 +0800

“The reason I don’t have a plan is because if I have a plan I’m limited to today’s options.”

- Sheryl Sandberg

Beautiful willow pattern porcelain whisky bottles, illustrated...

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:57:52 +0800

Beautiful willow pattern porcelain whisky bottles, illustrated by Chris Martin of TOY, for Johnnie Walker House Shanghai.

elleiconlee: Be careful of where you display brand...

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:26:58 +0800

elleiconlee:

Be careful of where you display brand advertisement in China

The Weeknd - The Birds (Part 1)

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:46:00 +0800

The Weeknd - The Birds (Part 1)

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have..."

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 05:01:06 +0800

“Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”

- Victor Hugo (via bookoasis)

Gil Scott-Heron f/ Jamie XX - NY is Killing Me

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:48:47 +0800

Gil Scott-Heron f/ Jamie XX - NY is Killing Me