Don’t ask me how I stumbled across the video below. I am terrified and fascinated by the number of tween Selena Gomez fan videos I (just accidentally) discovered on Youtube. What does this mean for the next generation of video directors?

Did you know that N+1 had a personals page? In case you don’t know, N+1 is sort of an literature, adademic-y magazine. I’m not sure how else to describe it. Their website says this. “n+1 is a print magazine of politics, literature, and culture founded in 2004 and published three times yearly,” which is not helpful at all, I know. It’s a good one and now their interns have gone and started a literature, academic-y oriented personals site that is amazing and hilarious. Check it out here:: http://www.npluspersonals.com or you can follow the interns on Twitter here:: @nplusinterns . Here are some good ones…

GIRL WITH LARGE GLASSES SEEKS MATH NERD WHO RAPS, DANCES

Willing to share my rotten core if you’ll admire my elegant edges. Let’s mix metaphors and gin and tonics. I can’t promise perfection, but have been said to be easy on the eyes. Czech-American, 5’6”, long-haired brunette, large glasses. Have no dilemma with my flexitarian culinary acumen. Working knowledge of rap music ideal, ability to cut a rug to various beats a serious plus. Preference for tall, lean math/econ/pol nerd, though not overly given to any one angle.

I can totally relate with this one…

THIS CHICK IS NOT A RANDIAN (other markers of the northern brooklynite herein)

27-year-old Female Arts Administrative/Functionary. Enjoys Bikes, Ethnic Grocery Stores, Stoner Culture, Midcentury Modernism. Seeking similar facsimile thereof. A typical Friday night for me involves a roast in the oven, bottle of wine, and laundry. I listen to vinyl and ride a bike, as do most people my age who live in the northern regions of Brooklyn.

Dealbreakers include: mocking my student loans, liking Ayn Rand, and not being able to tolerate spicy food.

Go to the site and read more. Good good good!

(video below is rad)

Potato Leek Gratin
(adapted from NYT- you’ll like this if you like potato leek soup because they’re nearly identical, duh)

• 2 tbs butter, plus a little for greasing your gratin dish
• 3 leeks, trimmed and halved lengthwise
• 1 1/2 lbs peeled Yukon Gold potatoes (about 4)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
•  2 thyme sprigs
•  1 cup heavy cream
•  1 fat garlic clove, finely chopped
•  1 bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup Gruyère, grated

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 2-quart gratin dish (I used a glass pie dish and it worked out ok). Wash the leeks to remove any grit and slice thinly crosswise

2. Using a mandoline or sharp knife, slice the potatoes into rounds, 1/8-inch thick. Toss with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Layer the rounds in the gratin dish until almost reaches the top of dish.

3. Melt the 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add leeks, remaining salt and pepper, and thyme. Cook, stirring, until leeks are tender and golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Discard thyme and scatter the leeks over the potatoes.

4. Add cream, garlic and bay leaf to the skillet, scraping up browned bits of leeks from the bottom of the pan. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Stir in nutmeg.

5. Pour the cream over the leeks and potatoes and top with the Gruyère. Cover with aluminum foil and transfer to the oven. Bake for 40 minutes, uncover and bake until the cheese is bubbling and golden, 15 to 20 minutes longer.

Makes aprox 6 servings though it goes really fast. Beware, this is crackgratin.

I haven’t had the chance to listen to the album much yet but all the reviews I’ve read so far are glowing. Apparently Donald is going by the name Childish Gambino which according to NPR, he “got his unusual stage name from an online “Wu-Tang Clan name generator” — he says it just felt right.”

Listen here:: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/06/141934309/first-listen-childish-gambino-camp

or here:: http://hypebeast.com/2011/11/childish-gambino-camp-full-album-stream/

Easy Dhal Soup- this recipe is sooooo easy. I used to make dhal with my old boss so I adapted the recipe a little to reflect how I’m accustomed to making it. It’s basically Alice’s same recipe with a little extra of everything and the order switched up a bit.

• 1 1/2 cups of lentils (Alice says use yellow split peas, which confuses me- maybe lentils=split peas in England?)
• 1 cup + little bit more canned crushed tomatoes
• 3/4 cup of coconut milk (I did this plus 1/8 cup)
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted
• 1 teaspoon ground tumeric
• 3 1/2 cups chicken stock
• Lemon juice, to taste
• Salt n Peppa
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
• 1 red chile, minced (can remove seeds)

The video below is lovely on many levels- the references are charming, the stop-motion animation is great, the use of felt is adorable, and the sexy skeleton love story makes me a little melty.

Spike Jonze: Mourir Auprès de Toi on Nowness.com.

You can read more about the production of the video where it was posted originally on Nowness blog.

Designer Olympia Le-Tan’s embroidered clutch-bags spring to life in director Spike Jonze’s tragicomic stop-motion animation Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die By Your Side). On a shelf in famed Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Company, the star-crossed love story of a klutzy skeleton and his flame-haired amour plays out amidst Le-Tan’s illustrations of iconic first-edition book covers. “It’s such a beautiful and romantic place,” offers Le-Tan of the antiquarian bookstore. “The perfect setting for our story!” The project started after Jonze asked for a Catcher in the Rye embroidery to put on his wall and the plucky Le-Tan asked for a film in return. Enlisting French filmmaker Simon Cahn to co-direct, the team wrote the script between Los Angeles and Paris over a six month period, before working night and day animating the 3,000 pieces of felt Le-Tan had cut by hand. “I love getting performances from, telling stories about and humanizing things that aren’t human,” said Jonze of working with Le-Tan’s characters. After spending five years adapting Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, Jonze’s recent shorts include robot love story I’m Here and an inspired G.I. Joe-starring video for The Beastie Boys. “A short is like a sketch,” he says. “You can have an idea or a feeling and just go and do it.” Here the iconic director reveals his creative process to writer Maryam L’Ange.