Shop Class: Connections of vintage love in Philadelphia

Fashion columnist Rosella Eleanor LaFevre finds the vintage jackpot in Queen's Village.

My love for vintage started in sixth grade when I realized dressing like the so-called popular girls would never make me one of them. This is also about the time I learned Gwen Stefani had scoured thrift stores as a high school student wearing men’s pajama bottoms she had pegged herself.

After forcing my mother to take me to a thrift store, I had a religious experience. There were rows and rows of clothing, and each piece was different from the others – as different as I was from every girl in my class.

Since fondling fur coats and trying on men’s vests in that thrift store, I have loved vintage for its increased power of expression and for the stories woven into every fiber. Recently, I took a walk around Queen’s Village and found four incredible vintage emporiums just south of South Street.

Read the rest of my fifth "Shop Class" column for The Temple News here.

Runaway to Vintage Connection

Shop at Vintage Connection for a chance to win Joan Jett’s book.

The well-edited collection of vintage clothing and accessories found at Vintage Connection will surely have you swooning and scooping up valuable additions to your wardrobe.

Heather Waity, the owner of the 9th & Bainbridge store, curates the collection with a keen eye. She looks for pieces that are on trend by studying magazines and blogs. She aims to sell pieces that people can easily mix into their wardrobes.

You can read the rest of post at Philadelphia RowHome Magazine's blog.

Moore Adventures in the Rosenbach

Fall through the Rosenbach’s looking glass into this neat exhibit

Whether you saw — and loved — Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, are a fan of the original animated movie or prefer Lewis Carroll’s books Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, the Rosenbach Museum and Library has a treat in store for you with it’s Moore Adventures in Wonderland exhibit.

The exhibit, which examines the connections between Carroll’s work and the work of 20th-Century poet Marianne Moore, began in September and ends June 6.

You can read the rest of my post on Philadelphia RowHome Magazine's blog here.

Shop Class: Love in the hands of a Claddagh ring

Toast to love this St. Patrick’s Day with the Irish ring. Its origin and purpose dates back to love.

I am not Irish, but growing up with two very proud Irish Catholic cousins, I can appreciate the culture.

In high school I even joined Irish Club, and although I only went to a handful of meetings, I spent $25 on a black hooded sweatshirt that had my last name printed on the back and that proclaimed I was a member.

On the topic of St. Patrick’s Day accessories, I had no clue what to suggest other than telling you to take a trip to the Party City located at 330 Oregon Ave. There, you can stock up on sparkly green top hats and four-leaf clover-shaped beaded necklaces.

Then I thought about that Irish Club hooded sweatshirt and the design on the chest. It was a simple drawing of the Irish ring. I knew the design – a crowned heart held by two hands – but did not know the name.

Its proper name is the claddagh ring. I cannot properly pronounce the word, but at least I can spell it.

To read the rest of the article for The Temple News, click here.

Shop Class: Spring into this season...

Rosella LaFevre lays out the dos and don'ts of spring fashion this year, so ladies on campus can look their best while soaking up some sun.

This winter, a nearly unanimous – if objectionable – vote by my lovely peers in favor of a comfortable three-piece ensemble had many them traipsing through the snow in North Face jackets, leggings-as-pants and Ugg boots.

This spring you can, and should, be just as comfortable in a softer, more feminine look. Think sundresses and cropped blazers, sun hats and brand-spanking-new white Keds sneakers. Consider Sookie Stackhouse from HBO’s True Blood your warm weather style sister.

Sookie Stackhouse, played by a beautifully blonde Anna Pacquin, is a waitress at a bar in Louisiana’s Bon Temp who happens to wind up dating a vampire for those of you who don’t know. She favors sundresses and cardigans and other style choices appropriate for a ladylike southern belle.

“I’ve shopped for most of the cast at Walmart, Kohl’s, Kmart, JCPenney, Sears – all the stores that real people from Bon Temps could afford,” Audrey Fisher, the show’s stylist, told Amy Wilkinson with MTV’s Hollywood Crush.

To read the rest of my third fashion column "Shop Class" for The Temple News, click here.

Ballads that have marked musical history

Ballads have existed since the 12th century. These songs, which began as an oral tradition and were passed from singer to singer, generation to generation, are traditionally long narrative songs. Some of the famous ballads recorded throughout history include the 15th century legend “Robin Hood,” the broadside “The Avondale Mine Disaster” about the nobility of labor and “The Flying Cloud,” a slave voyage narrative.

Folk ballads, the more common type of ballad and which is still sung today, typically uses dialogue and action to tell a dramatic story. Although some of the most popular ballads in recent history have been about love, not all ballads are.

Here are the ten best ballads:

1957: Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight”
This ballad was first given to pop singer Kay Starr. Country star Cline first rejected the song, as Starr did, but eventually recorded it. As Cline’s first major hit single, it reached #2 on the Billboard Country music chart and #12 on the Pop chart. It is remembered by some as one of the greatest country songs ever recorded.

To read the rest of this piece for Cliche Magazine, click here and go to page 106.

Learning to love ‘me’ and not ‘we’

As Rosella Eleanor LaFevre reveals in her essay, love starts closer than expected – with yourself.

I have had a smattering of blips on the relationship radar and, in addition, one fairly serious – if brief – relationship. And somehow, I always end up alone come Valentine’s Day. This year, I will not complain. Rather, I will celebrate.

After years of exposure to the fairy tale and its grown-up naïve sister, the romantic comedy, I am finally past wishing for nothing more than a guy to set my life straight.

After years of pining for a Prince Charming or a Patrick Verona, I am sure that being in love with myself is enough.

I’m not talking about an unhealthy kind of self-love. The love that I am referring to is respect for my idiosyncrasies and a belief that no one’s opinion of me should outweigh my own. I mean believing in myself enough to take risks and to live my life without fearing that people might see me in a different way than I want them to.

Read the rest of this essay for the Valentine's Day-themed issue of The Temple News here.

Shop Class: Get a love “Smak” on the lips with these sweet gifts

Rosella LaFevre got the scoop on some kitschy presents for Valentine’s Day.

Shopping retail is a lot like dating. Sometimes you have an awkward, terrible first date. More often than not, though, this bad first date is the end of any chance for a good relationship. That is why, when the first date is as perfect as my first trip to Smak Parlour, a 5-year-old boutique at 219 Market St., you want to tell everyone about it.

The thing about shopping is, it’s always an open relationship; cheating is encouraged. And as Valentine’s Day approaches, I encourage you to consider Smak Parlour your one stop for gifts for a girlfriend or best friend.

Guys, for your girlfriends:

Prove to your sugar she is no cheap substitute with a $45 necklace of pink glass cut into the five-letter word for the thing most people use to sweeten their coffee. I double dare you to litter the gift box with sugar packets from a fast-food chain. You can even take the credit for that cleverness.

Show her she spins you right ‘round with Leah Coonan’s earrings crafted from shards of records. Abby Kessler, the co-owner of Smak Parlour with Katie Loftus, said boys from all over the city are buying these for their lady loves. Earn bonus points with your sweetie by including concert tickets in the card that should accompany the $25 earrings.


The entire text of my second fashion column for The Temple News can be read here.

Shop Class: Peace Images jewelry designer helping Haiti

Fashion columnist covers jewelry designer donating proceeds to Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Foundation.

Since the time my mom braided a hemp necklace for me and I learned to make bracelets out of gimp, or scoubidou, at Girl Scout camp, I have been a fan of handmade jewelry.

But Camille Peace’s designs, under her label Peace Images, are much more elegant than those ropey accessories of my past. And they better satisfy my philanthropic urges, as a portion of the designer’s proceeds, through the end of January, go to the Haiti relief efforts.

Peace is donating 25 percent of her profits from Peace Images sales on Etsy to Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Foundation. Peace, who is Haitian herself, felt a responsibility to help the victims of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck on Jan. 12 and centered on Port-au-Prince’s coast.

“They are my people,” Peace said in an e-mail. “How can I not help? And for the first time, I was in a position where I could help on a large scale.”

To read the rest of my first fashion column for The Temple News, please click here.

TPJ: The law of ex's

Today's post on Vered's The Penny Jar.

I have a dirty little confession.

I don't know how to be friends with an ex. Or even a we-were-barely-together-so-you're-hardly-my-ex-ex.

I've never had to be. The first boy I ever even came close to calling a boyfriend broke my heart so many times that I blocked him on every social networking website in the World Wide Web.

The second -- and he was bookended by the first jackass -- dumped me after two and half days. By text message. For his ex-girlfriend. After the pictures of him and her kissing were put up the same day, and my sister helped me craft a deliciously wicked letter for him, it was cyanara, sucka! This one once attempted a friendship and I couldn't carry on with it. It disgusted me to look at his Facebook page.

To read the rest, click here.

TPJ: Rules, playing fields and landmines

Today's post on my blog Vered's The Penny Jar.

In the world of Waldorf (Santa treated this journalist to the second season of Gossip Girl), the ex who dates first is the one who wins.

But it's not winning when you date someone else or at least give dating someone else a shot and end up realizing that while, yes, you can move on, you don't want to.

All I can think about is what I want and what I'm not getting. I'm not enjoying myself or living in the moment. I'm not sure anymore if I can open up to a new guy. And if I do, what pace should I take?

Read the rest of this blog post here.

New Cera film a fun, youthful ride

The burgeoning actor, who visited Main Campus last week, stars in an irresistable comedy.

On the Youth in Revolt poster, Portia Doubleday looks like Lolita, donning red sunglasses and holding a red lollipop. One can see how she, as Sheeni Saunders, might lead the opposite sex into trouble as the young beauty of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel once did.

And lead them into trouble, Sheeni does. Nick Twisp, played by Michael Cera, who recently visited Main Campus to premier the film, falls for the 17-year-old free spirit and in an effort to win her affections and – more importantly to the virgin Nick – get into her pants, decides to rebel against the forces that keep them apart.

Youth in Revolt, Miguel Arteta’s adaptation of C.D. Payne’s novels about Nick Twisp’s adventures, features some of Cera’s best acting yet. In it, Arteta has mastered the art of taking the pain of young love and making it all at once realistic, touching, hilarious and outrageous.

View the rest of this film review for The Temple News here.

Adjuncts rally for union at bell tower

The Adjunct Organizing Committee is pushing for unionization with the support of TAUP.

The Adjunct Organizing Committee, a group that aims to unionize Temple’s part-time faculty, declared the week of Nov. 16 Adjunct Awareness Week. Members of the committee stood at the Bell Tower around noon every day through Nov. 20.

The AOC has worked for several years to unionize adjuncts. Its goals are to gain some predictability in adjuncts’ courses, a clear path for promotion based on performance in teaching and research and equal pay and benefits for equal work.

This is the first year the committee organized Adjunct Awareness Week.

Adjunct American studies professor Regina Bannan said they chose to do so this year, “because the university is doing the Middle States Study for accreditation, and the Middle States standard is that all faculty should be treated as faculty. We decided to do this to raise awareness that Temple is not treating its adjuncts equally.”

Adjunct professors make up 46.5 percent of Temple’s faculty but do not receive the same pay and benefits awarded to full-time professors. Although the AOC has the support of the Temple Association of University Professionals and the American Federation of Teachers, its members still face great opposition in their quest for unionization.

To read the rest of this 1,000 word piece for The Temple News, click here.

From soul to screen

Peter Jackson’s newest film is an emotionally charged endeavor that examines the soul after death.

The Lovely Bones is Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson’s favorite of his projects, if only because it is his most recently completed film.

“That’s like asking a mother which of your six children is your favorite,” Jackson said in a conference call in which The Temple News took part. “Honestly, you enjoy making the one that you’re working on at the time the most because it’s such an intense experience, making a film, you know.”

The Lovely Bones, set for release Jan. 15, 2010, is about how the Salmon family, living in rural Pennsylvania in the early 1970s, deals with the rape and murder of their 14-year-old daughter, Susie, while she watches from heaven, unable to intervene in events on earth or to bring her father closer to discovering the identity of her killer. The Lovely Bones is an adaption of Alice Sebold’s novel of the same name published in 2002.

To read the rest of this 900 word article for The Temple News, click here.

Fraternity brothers shake cans for prostate cancer

“Ask me about my prostate,” cried Jonah Hill, a member of Phi Kappa Theta, at the fraternity-sponsored Bell Tower can shake to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer held Tuesday.

Although President Obama declared September Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, an international following has deemed November an unofficial men’s health month by supporting Movember, an effort to bring awareness to and raise money for prostate and testicular cancers. Phi Kappa Theta fraternities nationwide teamed up with Movember to grow mustaches and raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the LIVESTRONG Foundation.

This is the first year Phi Kappa Theta has held this fundraiser.

“It’s a good cause because one in six men gets prostate cancer,” Derek Spencer said, holding a can out to passersby at the Bell Tower around 1:30 p.m. Phi Kappa Theta’s can shake began at 11 a.m. and would last until 3 p.m.

The rest of this article, a 350-word web exclusive written for The Temple News, can be read at Temple-News.com.

Edward H. Rosen Hillel Center opens doors for students of all faiths

The dedication ceremony for the Edward H. Rosen Hillel Center a block off Main Campus was held Wednesday night included greetings and remarks from many of those involved in the realization of a center where all students – not just those of the Jewish faith – could gather. Those in attendance included Sen. Arlen Specter, President Ann Weaver Hart and namesake Edward H. Rosen.

Rosen wore a suit, a red tie and a rose pinned to his left lapel and spoke openly and warmly about his role in the campaign for a Jewish community center.


A graduate of Yale, Rosen learned at his school’s Hillel about community service and giving back and after 20 years of service on Temple’s Board of Trustees, the opportunity presented itself.

“I’ve been working in the community trying to pay back the opportunities I had growing up. My goal [with this Hillel] was to make a meeting place for forums and lectures … It’s a wonderful place,” Rosen said.

This article was written for The Temple News' News section. Appeared in print on November 17, 2009. Read it online here.

The first picture, above, is what the finished Rosen Hillel Center is to look like. The second picture is of Mr. Rosen and Temple President Anne Weaver Hart.

The Spectrum signs off

After four sold-out Pearl Jam shows the last week of October, the legendary building that served as the site of championships and concerts over the years, closed its doors.

Beer cost a dime at the concession stand.

A slice of pizza cost a quarter, a roast beef sandwich just 75 cents, and a 12-ounce soda – the largest size available – cost a quarter. These were just some of the items on the Wachovia Spectrum’s (then simply named the Spectrum) menu in September 1967.

The Spectrum, which opened Sep. 30, 1967 with the two-day Quaker City Jazz Festival, closed its doors Oct. 31 after a four-show concert series by Pearl Jam. The arena’s closing signals the end of an incredible era and marks, or at least Comcast-Spectacor and The Cordish Company would hope, the beginning of a new era.



To read the rest of this 900 word article for The Temple News, click here.

Cheap dates in Philly

This 880 word piece covers cheap dates in Philadelphia, particularly focused on college students, for College Clipper.

Dating can quickly get expensive and when you’re a college student, the word “expensive” just cannot exist in your vocabulary. You’ve likely got student loans and you’re probably low on spending money anyway. But even though dating can be a strain on your wallet, it doesn’t have to be. If you don’t mind doing some walking, here are some ideas that will make your next date in Philadelphia an affordable one:

For the artsy couple:
You’re going to take a trip to the Rodin Museum on the Parkway. Admission is pay-as-you-wish although a donation of $5 is suggested. Rodin, a French artist known for his statue “The Thinker” but also, and more romantically, “The Kiss.” Recreate this piece of Rodin’s work. You are on a date, aren’t you? Once you’re done at the museum, head over to The Rose Tattoo Café for lunch. It usually cost around $10 for a lunch entrée. After you’ve had your fill, walk to the intersection of Spring Garden and Broad Streets. On the northeast corner you’ll see a big mural that incorporates kids reenacting famous artworks. Engage in a conversation about the murals in Philly.

While CollegeClipper.com is not live at the moment, when it is, I will post the link to the entire article. In the meantime, if you're interested in reading it, please email me at rosellaeleanor@gmail.com.

(Photo Credit: Szilas via Wikimedia Commons)

Guarding your meager money supply

I wrote this 600 word piece about budgeting money as a college student for College Clipper's "Campus Talk" section. Here is the beginning of the piece:

I’m rich! At the moment, I have 32 dollars and 43 cents to my name. This is more money than I usually have.

So what, if anything, do I have to complain about? Well, a week ago my dad gave me $50. This means in one week I have spent $17.57. I am, quite frankly, surprised I have as much money left as I do. College is expensive. And college kids are broke. The question quickly becomes: What does one spend their little money on?


Read the rest of this piece here.

(Photo credit: Grisu the Dragon via Flickr.)

Matt Lauer speaks at Temple

“Vividly, in my mind, I’m still your age…”

Matt Lauer said this to Temple students packed into Annenberg’s Atrium on Tuesday, October 20, 2009. The Today Show co-host of 16 years shared his knowledge of and experience in the world of broadcast journalism with eager School of Communications and Theater students. After he made the above statement, he expressed his appreciation of the job he has.

“I have arguably the best job in broadcast. I pinch myself every day,” Lauer said.

One of the things he said he admires most about his job is the ability to see parts of the world he may never have seen otherwise. The three big ones: Easter Island, Mt. Everest, Cuba. “Where In the World Is Matt Lauer?” on the Today Show was broadcast live from each of these places.

“I used to think [the toughest part of my job] was getting up at 4:10 a.m.” His perspective has changed. Lauer has three kids at home, ages 8, 6 and 2 years old and he finds that the 1.5 hours of homework a night take a toll on his family life.

“I love my job but the homework can be a little tedious,” Lauer said.

As for the role of Lauer’s celebrity in his work, he said: “Sometimes it’s a pain in the you-know-what. It’s very strange… It helps that I know what it’s like to be asked strange questions.

“I’m more respectful [of those I interview],” Lauer said.

Lauer’s advice to students seeking jobs in the field of journalism? “[There is] very little patience with mediocrity in this business… If you want to be in this business you’ve got to have a thick skin.”

(This was written as extra credit for George Miller's Journalism 1111 class, Fall 2009. It has not been published elsewhere.)