The Conezone

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Jennifer Stoddart

Photo: Susan Gittins on Flickr

Tuesday night was incredible. I laughed so hard that my face hurt. My bro and I miraculously ended up with seats in the centre of the second row for Conan O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour at The Orpheum Theatre. We were close enough to count the Cone man’s freckles. Perma grins times two.

Reggie Watts opened the show and I was absolutely taken by his stream of consciousness standup in various shifting personas mixed with ultra catchy loop pedal-based a capella compositions. Being a big accent and character person, I found his style very enjoyable, and somewhat similar to the kind of thing I think I would do for my own standup routine.

After LaBamba and the Legally Prohibited Band pumped us up with a few high-energy brass-heavy mo-town and swing tunes, Conan took the stage to thunderous applause. He was greeted with a standing ovation which seemed to last forever. We just couldn’t sit down. He graciously thanked the crowd and let everyone know how much it meant to him.

Humble and absolutely hilarious, Coco put on one hell of an entertaining show. What a FUN night! I’m just so over the moon that I had the opportunity to see him live, especially with my little bro beside me.

Since the lovely Melissa already wrote the perfect review on her site, it isn’t necessary for me to say anything else, except I ♥ Conan.

Love, Laughs

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Jennifer Stoddart

Just because I thought this past Thursday night’s show was the best episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to date, I felt it was absolutely necessary to re-post these images here. Click here, here and here to see what I’m talking about. I like Jimmy’s show the most when he has his friends on, probably because I wish they were all my friends too.

Photos: Just Jared

Pulling For The Underdogs

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Jennifer Stoddart

Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images

March Madness led us to the Final Four yesterday and I’ll be honest, I had every intention of rooting for Magic’s team. Yes, I was all ready to board the Michigan State cheer train. However, within seconds of the game starting, I absolutely fell in love with the boys from Butler and quickly changed my tune.

A mid-major school. The Horizon League. A 33-year old head coach. This does not sound like the recipe for a college championship team. But with one more win, that will be the case. The Butler Bulldogs, the “Cinderella” team of the NCAA tournament took one more step to the title yesterday by upsetting the Michigan State Wolverines, 52-50, in an unreal barn burner of a semi-final game.

Photo: Jeff Haynes/Reuters

Led by Gordon Hayward, Butler proved that name-recognition for a program means nothing if you can’t back it up on the court. The problem is that now they face the biggest goliath of them all. Tomorrow night, Butler will try to achieve its first national title in school history, taking on the Duke Blue Devils.

If there’s one thing we have to realize, it’s that you don’t measure these stories – especially here, especially in Indiana, by seeding or by preseason rankings or even how many games a team like Butler has won in a row. Sometimes you have to measure them by where they start, and this one starts a few miles away, at the smallest school to make the NCAA finals in 40 years, an Indianapolis school now making it those few miles to the last Monday night of college basketball, when Butler will try to make it all the way from the neighborhood to the top of the world.

Go Bulldogs!

Alexa Chung For Madewell

Posted on April 3, 2010 by Jennifer Stoddart

I’m a big fan of Alexa Chung. I think her stellar personal style is top notch. So obviously I was thrilled when I discovered that she had created a new collection of amazing clothes. With her insouciant, down-to-earth style, it makes sense that Alexa Chung’s first fashion collaboration is with J.Crew’s younger sister, Madewell.

The collection consists of about 20 styles and is slated to launch in Madewell stores and online at madewell1937.com in late August.

Consisting of sweet leather booties, masculine shirts made of feminine fabrics and lots of vertical stripes as well as high-waisted shorts, oxfords, long cardis and darling vintage-inspired frocks. As a whole the collection is a true representation of Alexa’s own style aesthetic.