color my world

[constance]

Ages ago, I requested and was assigned colors, and then I was supposed to come up with ten things for each color that I loved, which I promptly did, but then I sort of forgot to post them until today. So. Here they are!



Ten Scarlet Things I Love

1. "A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which I read for the first time in late high school or early college. I'm not a fanatic like some, or in the way that I am about other things. But I did love the stories, of which this is the first. Holmes's supercilious condescension! The way Watson pokes subtly at him! And while there are detectives I love more, there are few who fascinate me more.



2. The St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis is one of my most favorite cities -- I was telling a friend the other day that it's one of the cities I fantasize about when I (rarely) fantasize about living in a city -- and I've always seen it as sort of working-class and scrappy and bootstrappy, and I've seen the Cards as an extension of that. I don't identify as a Cards fan, exactly. But I've come to notice, over the years, that whenever they're playing, I'm rooting for them.



3. Sloe Gin Fizzes. When I was in my last year of college and my first year out of it, I lived with a roommate on a slightly blowsy postwar street. It was an excellent street, and I still miss it, and I associate Sloe Gin Fizzes with this period in my life, because for some reason (it was probably my idea, because this is my sort of idea, but I have no idea what inspired it) we made a habit, in that house, of spreading out a blanket on our freshly-mown lawn on those summer days and drinking them. Occasionally a neighbor would stop by and join us. I miss that sort of casual neighborliness.



4. The Prytania Theatre in New Orleans. The only single-screen cinema left in New Orleans -- it had a balcony and everything -- with a monochrome color scheme of a vivid red that the pictures on the website don't capture. I used to meet my friend D there, and I'd secretly pretend to be living in an Edward Hopper painting. It was that sort of place.



5. My Wallace-clan tartan round hat box suitcase, which is perfect for an overnight trip -- too bad I hardly ever take those any more -- and perfectly, perfectly beautiful.



6. Chinese wedding dresses -- I don't think you have to be Chinese to carry off severely-cut bright red silk brocade dresses. But you can't be a round-faced freckled bespectacled type, either. I regret this immensely.



7. Cherry tomatoes stuffed with chicken salad, my favorite summertime hors d'oeuvres. I can (and have been known to) eat an entire tray of these without realizing it.



8. These shoes. I do adore Fluevog shoes in general, though I dress far too conservatively to carry them off comfortably, but these shoes are less outlandish than some of the more Jetsons-ish styles, and they just speak to me, you know? I would totally own them if the thought of spending 300USD for a pair of shoes didn't make me hyperventilate a little. I have about ten outfits they'd suit beautifully.



9. This hair color. I never fail to stop and stare longingly at it in the store. It's been a long time since I colored my hair, and if I were going to do it now, I'd probably end up with something more along these lines, but I do dream of that color still.



10. Hot Tamales. You know the thing I love best about them is that they're surprisingly unpredictable: you'll get one candy that's just mildly cinnamon-y, but you'll have to chew the next one with your mouth open so that you can suck in cooling air around it. Surprise candy!

Ten Aquamarine Things I Love

1. This Bel Air Nomad. I've wanted a Nomad for years -- it is my dream car -- and this one is just so lovely and frivolous. And huge and heavy, let's not forget those!



2. Sky Blue Sky by Wilco. I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but it's grown on me. After years of experimentation, some of it kinda unsettling, this is a return to the days of, say, A.M.. Those were good days.



3. This livejournal layout. I don't know if it's a custom layout or a template, but I confess to visiting it sometimes less to check for updates (she's not a frequent updater) than just to bask for a minute or two.



4. Swimming pools. I spent every summer of my childhood in a pool, all day, every day, until 1985 or so. I swam competitively, and when I wasn't doing that, I was just swimming for fun. One whiff of chlorine and I'm back at Fairwood Country Club, straightening my nylon Speedo suit and getting ready to dive back in for another ten laps and maybe a little starry-eyed.



5. Eames chairs. I love their new color line, and I especially love their aqua armchairs. I wish I had space for these chairs. Maybe I should make space for them.



6. The book cover for Rick Moody's Demonology. I mean, the book itself is quite good, but it's the cover for which I reserve my most piercing love.



7. Partly cloudy skies of a very specific autumnal type. (I tried to find decent pictures, but everyone seems to want to photoshop their skies into true blue.) It's the kind of sky that looks hot but isn't, is instead fresh and crisp and fragrant. It's my favorite sky.



8. My imaginary wedding dress, or rather, the dress for my imaginary wedding, since the dress itself existed about a decade ago. it was created by J. Jill, a very pale aqua linen shift-style silhouette that looked simple and cool but was actually quite detailed, possibly even complicated to wear, consisting of overlapping, differently-sized panels of fabric fastened together by ties and buttons (possibly it was not sewn at all!). I wanted to get married in that dress the first time I saw it. I still do.



9. Tiffany's packaging. I don't actually care much for expensive jewelry or gewgaws, so Tiffany's itself I can take or leave. But I do love their packaging. It is perfect packaging.



10. This gum, which is just ordinary Wintergreen gum on first chew, but which over time acquires the distinctive taste of wax lips. I realize that this might not be a selling point for everyone, but it is for me.