Translations always stiffen a story — local settings blur into blank spots on a foreign map, characters are stripped of their cultural context, and a narrator’s conversation with a reader is distilled of comfortable connotations.

While I felt compelled to finish Haruki Murakami’s hyped novel, I skipped pages without missing much, and wondered why, if 1Q84 gets Nobel Prize buzz, Stephen King hasn’t won plenty of Pulitzers. (Murakami’s device of name-dropping obscure symphonies and Russian lit would mean more if one was trying to get laid in a Brooklyn cafe, and the last Pirates of the Caribbean was harshly criticized, not high-fived, for having characters without clear motivation.)

Maybe I would have enjoyed 1Q84 more in its original Japanese.

Mostly because I can’t read Japanese…

I saw this Smythson “NOW OR NEVER” wafer notebook in design store and fashion victim mecca Colette in while in Paris a few weeks ago.

While carrying a €100 notepad and an iPhone appeals to neither my cents nor sensibility, a notebook titled “NOW OR NEVER” feels romantic, like the unrealized dreams it could contain: the thoughts of an Albanian heroine of the novel that’s floated through my head for four years, bicycling by bamboo waterwheels while touring Guangxi Zhuangzu, and the beauty of the thousands of things thousands of dollars might do to my face while playing with needles in 90210.

Like, le sigh…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyjV0AfGRVo

There’s something timeless about the simplicity of this song, of this video, of the fact that Brandon Boyd still sings better with his shirt off…

So Ayn Rand actually intended for her novels to work as right-wing political propaganda. But I’m so over the products of an amazing mind being hijacked by people who assume Ayn was and rhymes with “man,” who have no idea that Alisa Rosenbaum was a Jewish chick who watched her family ruined by the Russian Revolution, escaped to New York in her early 20s during the late, frothy 1920s, and would write for days straight without sleep or food, but with her little helper Benzedrine.

But WWJD? Jesus would make vaguely Buddhist, subtly commie comments, flip over tables in temples, and curse his disciples.

Then slay a giant T. rex nicknamed Goliath…

“These Machines Kill Fascists” pencils are charming, and somewhat ironically, because the un-techie tool makes me long for a little anti-democracy, for an Age of Innocence, for when the barrier to entering the public world of written word went beyond access to an online email machine.

And let’s put my BA degree in Pseudo-Intellectual Masturbation to work, let’s discuss how these “These Machines Kill Fascists” pencils have a point beyond their sharpened tip, only let’s not forget that fascists often own the machines that make the machines that kill fascists.

Yes, let’s not — only not now. Because those are 140 characters for another time — I’ve got to update my German Shepherd Major Dukes’s Facebook page…

In The Mood For Love (the original Chinese title is 花樣年華/花样年华, which translates literally into “the age of blossoms,” a Chinese metaphor for the fleeting time of youth, beauty, and love) is like Age of Innocence mashed with Mad Men, set in Hong Kong.

I just watched In the Mood for Love, the full movie, online…

I’m braving trekking across Los Angeles during Carmageddon for a LACMA panel on architect John Lautner’s legacy:

“This panel, featuring architects and critics Michael Rotondi, Craig Hodgetts, and Sylvia Lavin, will look at Lautner’s work, assessing its impact on the thinking and practice of architecture. It will be followed by a conversation on architectural preservation, featuring Frank Preusser, LACMA’s Conservation Scientist, and Christopher Carr, Vice President of The John Lautner Foundation. The conversation will be moderated by Nicholas Olsberg, archivist, cultural historian, and co-curator of the 2008 exhibition Between Earth and Heaven, the Architecture of John Lautner.”

Sounds dangerously dry, but any man who imagined worlds like this wills that sort of worship.

Plus, I really want to grab a matcha green tea boba — almond milk, please — from Urth Caffe…

Even The New York Times finds web magazine Lonny‘s Flash-y, faux-flip layout back-to-the-future funny, but something about Lonny’s editorial is seriously tasty.

And of course I’m a little partial to Lonny’s profile on my friend Adam, of interior design co. Adam B. Straus…

Beauty Snob has discovered that Natura Bissé’s eye makeup remover works just as well our old stand-by, but without the oil-slick aftermath – because it’s oil-free!

Coquette loves how the Middleton sisters’ shimmery shiny legs bring nude tights back into fashion.

Fashion Pulse Daily finds Jill Stuart’s Fall 2011 collection to be a rare treat in color blocking, mixed metals, and animal prints.

KRISTOPHER DUKES is seeing Ralph Lauren’s car collection at the Louvre.

Second City Style thinks limitations can lead to fabulous ensembles and offers options in Wedding Style. What To Wear When You’re A Guest.

Shopping and Info loves the sexy Jimmy Choo crystal suede pumps for summer parties.

StyleBakery shows us some chic ways to wear summer’s new crop top.

Stylehive is diggin’ Rihanna’s island sound and style in her latest single, ‘Man Down’

If you’re looking for comfort and style, take a look at this Jimmy Choo “Folly” wedge sandal!

Leave it to the French pros to take colorful mascara and what could veer into tackiness and make it divine, like this Le Métier de Beauté’s Anamorphic Lash Mascara at Beauty Snob!

Coquette wants a dinner date out wearing Moulinette Soeurs’ splashed palette dress.

KRISTOPHER DUKES is enjoying Soho House London wallpaper by Jonathan Yeo.

Second City Style tried them all, so you don’t have to. Find out What’s New In The World of Self-Tanners..

Shopping and Info loves the fuzzy eco friendly Mongolia Prada garden tote for summer parties.

Hot enough out there? StyleBakery is keeping cool with chic and easy one-piece outfits.

StyleHive shares their favorite white hot picks for summer!