Style and Cheek

Happy Friday errybody. Does anyone else feel like this was a weird week? I know mercury retrograde is coming and I guess mars is doing something to make it feel like nothing is getting done no matter how hard you try. Basically I feel stuck in mud this week. Trying to schedule things and get things done ahead of time has been nightmarish. Dan left for the weekend to go to a funeral so I’m just chugging along and trying to figure out what to do with my time. My BIG plan this weekend was to go crazy with spring cleaning and honestly (and selfishly) I don’t feel like doing it all myself. We’ll see what happens. Maybe nothing will happen. I guess it’s not weird that the idea of having fun without him while he’s with his grieving family feels wrong. But on the bright side, spring has absolutely sprung and there is a whole lot of goodness on the interwebs to keep me (and you) occupied and entertained. You’ll notice that I haven’t hit on any tv or movie related stuff, and that’s because we haven’t seen any off-the-radar good movies lately, and TV is in that pre-Game of Thrones quiet period. At least Fear the Walking Dead has come back, which is fun and creepy. Dan usually ends up talking to the characters as if they can hear him…yeah yeah yeah don’t tell the strangers where you’re located in case they want to steal your supplies/kill you. Anyway here is a rundown of what interests me these days:

1. Dan is officially done with his vegan diet and my favorite thing about the month was experimenting with different recipes. I put together a Pinterest board of vegan recipes and one food blog we kept going back to for inspiration was Minimalist Baker. We really loved her spicy red lentil curry and still want to try her smoky harissa eggplant dip. via Minimalist Baker
2. I’ve become a bit obsessed with Tame Impala recently. Especially now that the weather is getting nicer, it’s perfect spring summer driving around music. Initially I found their sound a little out there, but it’s grown on me. I’d describe them as psychedelic and groovy, but weird. Definitely weird. I fell totally in love with their crazy as ff music video for their song The Less I Know The Better. It’s insane, NSFW, and involves a Gorilla. If you don’t know who Tame Impala is, Rihanna did a cover of their song New Person, Same Old Mistakes on Anti called Same ‘Ol Mistakes. In case you wanna know who’s inspiring RiRi. via YouTube
3. Another vegan inspired favorite is JujuBeet, a local juice bar and cafe. I first had JujuBeet at Yuan Spa and fell in love with their insanely healthy green juice and cold noodle salad. Since then we’ve made fairly regular stops at the Redmond location to get our Happy Greens on but when Dan went vegan we ventured out and tried some of their snacks. I love their carob balls with coconut and almonds. They’ve also opened up a sit-down cafe in Bellevue with a larger menu. We haven’t made it over there yet but a fellow blogger friend Olga of Explore Your Bliss had a chance to sample some of the dishes and did a recap on her blog. Check it out. The gluten free cinnamon oat waffle looks delicious. via Explore Your Bliss
4. The Ringer is the new online newsletter from Bill Simmons and it features a bunch of the same off-beat humorous pop-culture writers that worked at Grantland. This time around they’re starting out smaller and putting out 2-3 newsletters a week. Very 00s move there Bill (we’re on a first name basis because he and Dan have the same birthday). This week the Ringer hit on something I’ve been thinking about for a while, the untapped potential of Jake Gyllenhaal to go absolutely bonkers. Sure he’s crazy and creepy in Nightcrawler but the guy would be so good if he just let himself go to that level of weird more often. Anyway, supposedly the Ringer will eventually be a full service website sorta like what Grantland was, but with some TV presence (they’re part of HBO). You can sign up for the Ringer newsletter here: http://theringer.com/ via The Ringer
5. There’s a new show that came out last week that’s making me wish I had STARZ and that’s The Girlfriend Experience. I saw a trailer for it somewhere and immediately wanted to spend my weekend watching the first season. It’s about Christine Reade, a young law student who is interning at a law firm in Chicago and is a call girl on the side. I’m insanely bummed that I can’t find a way to watch it because I’m super intrigued. If you’re into sexy stories about girls leading complicated double lives and you happen to have STARZ let me come over, I’ll bring wine! But really if this sounds up your alley you don’t want to miss this show. (EDIT – If you have Xfinity OnDemand they are doing Watchathon week with a bunch of premium shows like The Girlfriend Experience from April 18th – 24th so you know what I’ll be doing!) via STARZ
6. Speaking of weird. Kanye’s new album The Life of Pablo is so so so strange and honestly not all that great. BUT there are a couple songs I’m loving. Wolves because I love moody songs with creepy vocals and weird sounds, and that groove on Fade is infectious. Is it just me or is Kanye not a good rapper? Not that I’m an expert, but there are a lot of cringeworthy lines on this album. And the auto-tune is ehhh. But that’s the thing, even the “bad” moments are interesting, and the good moments are really really catchy. I can’t guarantee you’ll love Life of Pablo but it is definitely worth a listen. via Spotify