My friend Liv offered me this book ages ago, and I loved it. I love the breathtaking photographs of wilderness, abandoned barns, city skylines, sunsets. And people. Sonja Bullaty and Angelo Lomeo capture stories through the lens and every page contains history. People’s histories intertwined with capital-H History. 

I hadn’t turned the pages of this little treasure in a very -very- long time. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about that book in a while. And last week, I’m having dinner with my —how do I formulate that, hem, I’m as good at labeling as Nick Miller is so…— with my lover, who is a photographer and just got back from the East Coast, and he mentions this book. And I almost spit out my Chardonnay, because I immediately remembered the Fall Foliage in Vermont, the Saxophone Player in New-Orleans, Louisiana, the Brownstone Stoop “Little Italy” c. 1950 in New York, New York and the Black Bear in Mt. Le Comte,Tennessee. We talked about this for hours, and it was really exciting because, even if I’m far from being an expert at photography, I love it. I love looking at pictures, taking them in and imagining the story they tell. And Alex is an expert and I love hearing him talk about it, about his trips, about his dream to publish a book of the (gorgeous) pictures he took all around his native Australia. It was a wonderful night, there was a lot of photography talk, a lot of Chardonnay drunk, and subsequently a lot of none of your business stuff.

When I came back home in the morning, I had to  find it and travel across America with Bullaty and Lomeo’s photographs and writer and poet Robin Magowan’s beautiful words.  And like every time, I turn America, America’s pages, I found myself humming Woody Guthrie’s “This land is your land, this land is my land/ From California, to the New York Island/ From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters/ This land was made for you and me”.

I watch Pretty Little Liars, and I love it! Here, I said it. To me, Rosewood is sort of like the Upper East Side (Gossip Girl’s, that is) minus all the wealth and plus all the murders. A place I go to enjoy pure entertainment, channel my inner Jessica Fletcher trying to guess who the fuck is A -right now I’m more confused than ever- and forget the unlikeliness that all those secrets, gory murders and downright awful parents (I love Ella, Ashley, Virginia and Pam but how come none of them realized their daughters were and still are bullied by a psychopath?). Besides, so many murders in a town as tiny as Cabot Cove also was unlikely and I still look up to J. B. Fletcher when it comes to sleuthing and happily watch reruns! So far, PPL hasn’t screwed up the way GG did mid-season 4 and all season 5. And I love Blake Lively, she was last year’s March Girl Crush and I think she has a lot of potential as an actress, but Gossip Girl didn’t always showcase it (looking at you awful season 5). And God knows how much I loved S. I think it is different with Pretty Little Liars. And as I watched the second half of the season this month (I was too busy before), I realized how talented Troian Bellisario is and how wide the range of her acting is.

I don’t know much of her really. And I don’t know much of her acting besides PPL. I only vaguely remember she played McGee’s sister Sarah on NCIS (her dad’s show); and learned very recently that she thus actually was Sean Murray’s (half-)sister. But as Spencer Hastings, she is quite fine and she amazes me! I thought she played her character’s meltdown very well and with a surprising but welcome subtlety. And it’s not easy, playing a meltdown: over-the-top will antagonize the audience that will only see the exaggeration. She hit the all right notes to me and it made me more invested in her character than ever. I can’t wait to see what the June season 4 premiere will reserve and I look forward to see her in a feature film. I can tell she has a great career ahead of her. I’ll wait trying to find a way to watch her many, many shorts and with my guilty pleasure that Pretty Little Liars is.

Also, if I may add, I think she’s very beautiful. She has what people often describe as “aristocratic” features, enhanced by the mystery of her gorgeous name! Troian Bellisario: it’s basically music to your ears.