Our Toast service pup in training looks majestically at her kingdom.
Utterly fascinated by this piece on makeup and politicians:
Her brush wields influence; she spent September 11, 2001 at Logan Airport with Tom Brokaw, waiting for George W. Bush to reopen the airways for Americans after the attacks; she made up future president Barack Obama in the basement of the Kodak Theatre adjacent from her hero Max Factor’s original manufacturing plant. The Los Angeles Times has called her “the face of power.” Soterion-Blevens has long channeled the strength of her artistry unto others: “I want to make people feel comfortable as they deliver the message of their lives,” she said.
Sometimes, that influence lies in actions as small as lint-brushing during commercial breaks. “At the NBC debate, I was in charge of Bernie Sanders. HD is like a microscope, and anything from the air you’ll see it. All the producers will be watching intently, and then you’ll hear one of them yell, He’s got a lint on his lapel!” said Soterion. “He was regrouping and taking notes, and I was removing lint from his jacket.”
LOVED AHP on the transfiguration of Jennifer Garner:
After their wedding, Garner — whose first marriage to Scott Foley was rumored to have fallen apart because of her rising star — allowed her career to take a backseat. She had three children, stopped showing her midriff, and started covering her shoulders. While she was still as beloved as ever, she gradually segued into roles as a supporting actress, the mom in children’s films or, most recently, in “mainstream” faith-based fare like Miracles From Heaven.
Garner’s appeal is no longer sexual, but emotional: When she appeared on the cover ofVanity Fair this month, it wasn’t actually to promote Miracles so much as her own resilience after the scandal of the last year: Affleck’s public dalliance with the family’s former nanny. Yet the success of Garner’s image transformation serves as a powerful reminder of the sort of traditional femininity still cherished by a vast and influential swath of the American public. Garner may no longer be “cool” or “sexy” or even a mainstream actress — but she’s also never been a more powerful, or ideologically potent, star.
YEAH, Yolanda (my least least fav thing is white people who pay jack shit attention to the black community until it’s time to be sad over black people getting Too Many Abortions):
White men need to stop speaking for the African-American community as far as Planned Parenthood is concerned.
Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore is a tool:
The interview went really well. I knew walking out of it that I had nailed it. The interviewer seemed genuinely impressed, asked me a lot of questions even after he finished the ones he had prepared, and tried to sell me on the company, and we really clicked personality-wise. The interview was supposed to last an hour, but it was about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Afterwards, he walked me around the office and introduced me to several people. We even discussed a potential start date in mid-April.
I got a call on Wednesday from the recruiter, who told me the hiring manager said I did “exceedingly well” in the interview, that I was an “extremely impressive” candidate, and they wanted me to work for them. Then she said, “Unfortunately, we don’t have any positions available right now.” I was very confused and asked if they had hired someone. She said they had not, that there was never an open position, and that they were only exploring external candidates for potential future openings. They do not have any openings anticipated at this time. She said they were very impressed with me, though, and that the hiring manager wants to find a position for me somewhere with the company. So she offered me the opportunity to interview again with a different manager for a position that pays about $10k less annually.
Drake’s dad’s social media presence:
I am one of those fans. I follow Melissa Forde, best friend of Rihanna, to get supplementary behind-the-scenes content of the singer at work and at play. I check Tina Lawson’s account obsessively, not for insights into her daughter Beyoncé’s life — because there are none — but for the rush of normalcy that comes when Lawson posts photos of her Sunday-morning trips to Costco for the free samples. The casual mundanity is a thrilling reminder of the mortality of our biggest celebrities (They’re Just Like Us! Their Moms Eat!), most likely the only thing they still share in common with their fan base.
But then there is Dennis Graham, father to Aubrey Drake Graham, the biggest rapper in the world, whose feed lies somewhere between celebrity-backed extravagance and boring supermarket trips. It’s a doting, excessive, almost embarrassing record of his life with his son, a virtual refrigerator door where fans can discover scores of new information and Graham, above all, can flex on his progeny.
What it’s like to cover the Trump campaign (it’s bad):
Jeb Bush rallies were not like this. Covering a Jeb event meant freely mingling with 40 people sitting calmly on folding chairs. Covering a Trump event is like watching a 1970s Black Flag concert from inside a shark cage.
What’s it like to be on the Trump beat all the time? To have enlisted for the noble civic duty of election reportage, only to find yourself smack at the center of tinderbox crowds and pro-wrestling atmospherics? Is it tough to endure the troubling, media-bashing behavior of the Trump campaign itself?
I followed the circus from Chicago to Cleveland and then down to Florida for a series of rallies, hanging out with Trump’s press pack along the way to find out. When they weren’t busy darting from one skirmish to the next, several Trump reporters (who spoke anonymously because they were not willing or permitted by their news organizations to go on the record) described their experiences out on the trail.
The place of polyamory in House of Cards:
Today, misgivings about open relationships extend beyond the strict moral code of politics: Just last week, the New York Times published a biological anthropologist’s skeptical take on Mo’Nique’s open marriage, which Dan Savage roundly dismissed. Though House of Cards’ depiction of nonmonogamy strikes me as the warmest, most compassionate arc of the series, the carefully negotiated arrangement that is Claire and Frank’s marriage serves to support the show’s larger narrative of a sociopathic couple that prioritizes power over passion. Depending on who’s watching, their open marriage and Frank’s queer sexuality can complicate and humanize the Underwoods, or it can solidify their characters as depraved utilitarians with no solid moral compass. A show less cynical than House of Cards might have used their progressive relationship as a lens for interpreting the political marriages we love to probe and mock. Instead, the show seems to conclude that the polyamorous Underwoods are void of emotional attachment, divorcing sex from love and vice-versa, with hearts too frozen to burst into flames when a spouse’s desires lead her astray.
I tweeted about the Romanovs for like three hours and now The Guardian is paying me to write about the enduring charms of Robert K. Massie’s Nicholas and Alexandra, so Twitter works:
Our nanny fosters dogs and cats (she’s amazing) and is currently fostering a very sweet 130 lb Newfoundland, here are my children mobbing her (yes, our nanny made a Welcome! sign for a dog):
