Author: Christy DeSmith

  • Another Reason Beowulf Blows

    By now, it’s fairly well established that Beowulf is an irredeemable, gawd-awful film. As if moviegoers needed another reason to hate the thing, I noticed something truly heinous about the animation: While the male characters were rendered in the spirit of realism, left with fairly expressive human faces, the female characters were idealized to the…

  • Fashions From Afar

        Our former editorial assistant, the lovely Ms. Laura Puckett, returned from her Fulbright-funded year in Mongolia recently. Yesterday she stopped by the office to show off these boots, a traditional Mongol variety often worn, she said, to horse races and such. Of course, the soles are made of leather, and so young Laura…

  • Consumerist Report

    I’m one of those crazy people who enjoys giving more so than getting. But that’s because I’m a total snob, not that I’m generous of spirit. I mean, I certainly appreciate the professional portrait of my nieces I get from my sister most years. But, geez, couldn’t she have at least tucked them inside some…

  • Black Friday Agenda

    I don’t mind shopping malls, really. But I intend to avoid them this Black Friday, not to stave off those bouts of claustrophobia, but to procure a series of gifts that are either high-quality second-hand or awfully, awfully special. Here’s the action plan (a working document): Roam (811 Glenwood Ave.) It’s the latest store to…

  • Bethinking Butterball

    The theme was black and white this year. And let me tell you something, it is very, very difficult to do anything interesting with b&w—especially when you have autumn coloring, such as I do, and a closet full of earth tones. I couldn’t find my slip, so I pulled on three, count ‘em, three see-through…

  • Chug-a-glutton

    So, I was cruising the fashion blog circuit earlier today when I happened upon a local writer (she shall remain link-less) who somehow seemed to sustain this incredibly luxurious, posh lifestyle. Day after day, the posts were about her sushi dinners, the diamond-encrusted electronics she had encountered, or a recent trip to the local furrier…