I’m flying to New York tomorrow and then to Israel the next day, where I will be sucking down the airline’s free wine (best twelve hour flight ever?), climbing mountains and pathetically attempting to read things in a different language until December 30th. My triumphant blog return will occur around then, somewhere between sleeping for fifteen hours straight, uploading photos to my laptop, and rocking the fuck out at Spoon’s show on New Years.

I know it will be hard to find anything else to look at on the internet while my blog is empty from now until Jan. 1, 2008, so I truly encourage you to deeply mourn this loss. Below are three things that are sappy, but enjoyed by yours truly. So, hopefully, you’ll be so upset about the blog taking a tiny break that you’ll let the feelings (and possible tears) flow free:

1. Natalie Portman’s vignette from Paris, Je T’aime: I find this to be hauntingly beautiful.

2. Landon Pigg’s “Coffee Shop” — (First song on his MySpace.) The first 80 seconds of this song capture a certain…happy, wintry loneliness. From there, it’s downhill. But, featured on a diamond commercial, it totally fills 2007’s “cute-holiday-jewelry commercial song” void that Cat Powers’ Cat Stevens cover left after last holiday season.

3. “No Hugging Is So Hard” by Thunderlittle. I think this is adorable.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year, too. If there’s anything you want from The Holy Land, hit me up in the comments section and I’ll try to get it for you.

See you in 2008, a year that shall of include a Led Zeppelin world tour, the end of TMZ.com, a democratic president and the widespread availability of flying cars.

(Hopefully.)

Sara Bareilles is on the newest Rhapsody.com commercial.
Sara Bareilles is VH1’s latest You Oughta Know artist.
Sara Bareilles has opened for a billion people this year.

I think it just goes to show that music doesn’t always have to be featured on Pitchfork to be good…cough cough.

(If you still haven’t listened to her, do it now.)

As if I needed another reason to like Noah Kalina’s photography:

Everyday/Celebrity

You know when the weather is too bad to go to Forever 21 to buy tiny dresses so you’re stuck inside doing work and you flip through all the channels and you think, “why is there nothing on TV?” and then all the sudden To Catch A Predator is on?

I love when that happens.

I also love this, considering I’ve stared at it for a full minute and still can’t fathom how it isn’t Photoshopped:

Is Secret deodorant’s new slogan really “because you’re hot”?

That’s the best they could think of?

High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale, before:

and…….after her recent rhinoplasty:

I mean, I like How The Grinch Stole Christmas, but…fuck. Ew.

(source 1)
(source 2)

I have the biggest girl crush on Blake Lively:

Wow.

The best of this week’s buzz and the217.com:

I had no idea making your snowman fashionable was actually making it last longer. [Myth Debunkers]

“You’re either born a leader or you’re born to sell meth, or you’re somewhere in between.” [And Another Thing…]

Basically, the entire buzz staff has been replaced. [Editor’s Note]

Mike’s first paragraph perfectly sums up almost all of my dislikes about being a student here. [CU Sound Revue]

Didn’t like my Top 25 list? Maybe you’ll like the staff’s. [Top 25]

Gawker.com is hiring.

zomg.

It strikes me as perfectly rational to blow off finals to spend the next day and a half constructing the most kick-ass cover letter ever known to man. But, I don’t think my religious philosophy professor would appreciate me reusing a one-page letter about adderall and my addiction to constantly checking a gossip news website as a substitute for an comparative essay on exclusivism, pluralism and inclusivism.

Hell, it’s worth a shot.

me: omg
im going to kill myself
Brad: dont
thatd be dumb
me: we’re working in rainbows for sony, but im not in town that week?
so i might not get the in rainbows shipment?
THE MOST IMPORTANT SHIPMENT EVER
Brad: kill yourself
me: thank you.

the thought of not going to Israel so that I could get a box of In Rainbows cutouts actually crossed my mind. And it is again.

I can’t believe the one record I’m dying to work might not actually happen…