Chicks with Sticks

I hung out last night at the Met with the Canadian Women's Gold Medal Hockey team! (The night following their victory)
It was so exciting to see them all medal-clad, mingling and generally getting wild.
Was a bit funny to be at a table with a bunch of olympic-neutral and even anti-olympic people.
Champagne everywhere, cigars and seeing the captain of the team stumbling over herself in the bathroom was pretty priceless.
They seemed to be pretty good at fuzball too.
(Paige, that reminds me about our challenge...)
Anyways, cool beans!

The Magician's Private Library

Please let your chakras be moved by Holly Miranda's newest album that came out yesterday.
Five tracks that were released on her EP "Sleep on Fire" have been revamped for this album along with a bunch of other new songs. One of my personal favourites is definitely "Canvas".

There's no place I want to wake up, but beside you. or Everytime I go to sleep I kick and scream and dream a little bit.
-Sleep on Fire, The Magician's Private Library

Unearthly sounds come together with more orchestra, more harmony and more treble.
This kind of music seems to either leave me sitting on my bed with my jaw on the floor staring into never-never-land or dancing around boneless in a full-body panty hose - most commonly used for lipo-massage, riding my space-heater.
Her voice is chilling and it just keeps getting chillier.

Alice for Annie

Annie Leibovitz shoots Natalia Vodianova!
A bunch of wonderful designers were commissioned to create their Alice in Wonderland in one costume.
These are only a few from the whole collection.
The designer of the dress Vodianova wears in each individual photo is IN the photo with her and the gown.
Even Karl Lagerfeld got in on it.
This, by the by, was not onset by any of this new movie shit.
(On that whole Johnny Depp idea, I really hope he doesn't ruin Lewis Carroll's infinitely dreamy, drug-ridden creation the way Jim Carrey wrecked the Series of Unfortunate Events.)
Sigh. Such a beautiful set. So much out-of-the-box collaboration and creativity.
It makes me want to watch Gwen Stefani's "What you waiting for?" video.
I guess a little more Cheshire Cat would've been nice though...

Melita Consuelo

Tip your waiters.

Dirrrty

AAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
So apparently Christina Aguilera has been jamming with Kathleen Hannah and the rest of the riot grrl group, Le Tigre!
Christina's new album will not only feature this punk-rock band that came about during *3rd wave feminism but also...
Santogold...
M.I.A....
Ladytron...
Goldfrapp...
and Sia!

I'm getting the jitters.
This is a totally new angle for Lady Marmalade.
This reminds me of Tiesto's new ablum, in his pairings with a bunch of artists that you'd never guess he would like Bloc Party, Nelly Furtado, Tegan and Sara and Emily Haines.

Anyways... I absolutely cannot wait for this album.

Arms Tonight

I fell in your arms tonight.
I fell hard in your arms tonight,
it was nice.
I died in your arms tonight.
I slipped through into the afterlife,
it was nice.
White lies in your arms tonight.
I lost sight in your arms tonight,
it was nice.
And hey, you, don't you think it's kinda cute
that I died right inside your arms tonight
that I'm fine even after I have died
because it was in your arms I died.
I cried in the afterlife
I cry hard because I have died,
and you're alive.
I try to escape afterlife.
I try hard to get back inside
your arms alive.

Seeing this live last night was absolutely phenomenal and put a smile on Surrey's face.
Giggling and jiggling my body with some other chicas.
Mmm.
Check out Mother Mother for those who haven't already.

The Best Place on Earth

Some things I heard the other night while downtown.
1. [Going up the escalator at a skytrain station with my little sister] and a guy who is going down the escalator yells 'Cleavage! Cleavage!' and him and his friend laugh hysterically.

2. [Three 20-ish blonde girls running up the stairs super excited, getting everyone riled up and] people randomly holler with Olympic excitement and then this guy says to his friend 'Yeahhhh!!! Woo! Gotta love the blonde girls!... As long as they put out!'

3. [In the crowd at a concert and] a 25-ish guy pushes his friend into my little sister and yells 'Yeah! Give it to her in the ass!'

4. [A very eccentric and sort of feminine-looking guy is sitting with his female friend and they are discussing some pins that they just purchased, quietly to each other and] as soon as they get off the train, these two guys started yelling 'Faggot mother fucker!' and continued guffawing as the train pulled away.

5. [After a mishap at a concert which caused many people to get trampled and the whole event to get called off, I was on the skytrain home and] I overheard a guy talking on his phone who was explaining the situation at the show as 'some bitch broke her leg and she was too fat to carry away'.

Coraline

I love Coraline so much.
Choose to be in a life that actually has problems that are accompanied by emotions both good and bad or;
a perfect life where all the candy and cakes are delicious and the eggs are always fresh and the gardens are ever-blooming and everyone adorns you with goodness and the mice are always dancing but you are basically a robot and everyone you love is a robot too and everything you feel is external.

Oldie but goodie

Not sure if anyone has ever seen this or not but I only came across it today and I really appreciated it.
Ellen just makes everyone smile all the time and she's absolutely like the rockin'-sha-boppin-cannon-awesome-bopper for ice-breaking.
And John McCain is just so awkward, it kills me.
(Sarah Palin actually wanted to work towards a federal ban against gay marriage.)
I think I'd feel like peeling my skin off and then doing a cannibal dance if I ever saw him (or Palin) anywhere in the world.
Anyways, watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7addd1-SY8&feature=related

RIP Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen was found dead this morning in his London apartment after apparently committing suicide.
With one month until the release of his next name, "McQ", set to be revealed in Paris, he called it quits. It isn't yet verified that the cause was suicide but rumours have been spread that he was found hanging from his ceiling, only nine days after the death of his mother.
It was apparent by the interactions with his closest peers and even by his twitter updates that he was extremely distraught by her loss.
He was only 40 years old.
He pulled the London scene out of it's turmoil in the late 70's after the punk movement and added his fantasy, avant-garde, deranged and delicate fixtures to the scene, working for various designers until eventually opening his own name in 1993.
He was even was recognized by the Queen in 2003, when she made him a Commander of the British Empire for his fashion leadership.
Being a genius is hard because people will keep expecting you to do genius things.

Did I miss something?

For those of you who don't know...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is to carry the Olympic torch Friday morning on a final relay before the opening ceremony for the Vancouver Games.

Olympic organizers said Schwarzenegger will help carry the torch around Stanley Park before handing it off just after 7 a.m. to two-time British Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe, who is also chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee.

I'm not sure I see the relevance to anything.
He's the Governor General of California AND he tried to step down...
Is this Terminator some kind of intimidation factor for the anticipated terrorists?
It's sort of a slap in the face for me to see that he's carrying the torch through Stanley Park, kind of a very Vancouverish thing.
And I'm not even that gung-ho about the olympics.
It seems that they've put him in a very important position for our olympics.

Cat Head

My friend Evil Patrick Shannon took this photo.
I sure love it.
Sorry if the person or the cat in the photo stumble across this and feel weird like I'm pretending to be your friends.

Check out more of his work www.evilpatrick.ca

Good Cat

Just thought it was really important that I share this with everyone.
She's been fabulous since the surgical alteration.
And sleeping with me and having really weird fits of REM sleep that jiggles my whole bed.
It's actually really weird to watch...

MARC'd

Spring '10 (ready-to-wear) line for Marc Jacobs!
Tasteful, alluring and inexplicably sexy modesty.
Lots of leg.
Strained whispers of summer-to-come.
Celebrate pale!
Original patterns.
Alice in Wonderland bows!
Gladiators, silk, patent and canvas pieds.
Warning: may contain traces of the 70's.

It's so surprisingly wearable for me, for you, for your grandma, for your butler.

Uh oh...

Is it just me or does this give implication of rape?
Anyone?
Does this stiletto not look like a knife too close to - what Mom taught me in "Love and Life" - the place 'under your bathing suit' that that only doctors, parents and lovers should see?
And the concrete, flash-filled background is sort of daunting as well.
Sure the shoes are hot hot hot, but the direction of the photo is so distracting.
Agghhh okay, I know sex sells.
But rape shouldn't.

Black History Month

Yesterday marks the beginning of Black History month which is February.
It seems that now-a-days there are months for a lot of things.
The month of Mary, Drug and Alcohol Awareness Month, Plumber's month, Secretary's Month, How-to-clean-up-cat-pee-most-effectively-off-various-kinds-of-furniture - month and other great months.
But I think this one is really one to be taken seriously.
Recognize it, read about it, educate yourself - even a little bit.
Give thought to race as a whole - where people came from, what they experience on a day-to-day basis and what sorts of prejudices you have about those races however explicit or implicit they may be. And put them to the test.
Calling on Audre Lorde:

"I am a Black Feminist. I mean I recognize that my power as well as my primary oppressions come as a result of my blackness as well as my womaness, and therefore my struggles on both of these fronts are inseparable."

or maybe just watch Malcolm X,
or check out Tupac's 'Black Cotton' lyrics:

Black Cotton - A symbol for unrewarded struggle
Time for a little gospel tail
Ghetto gospel that is- listen
Robbin' Black Cotton in God's eyes
Speak

Black Cotton
Steady stressin' Smith and Wessons count my blessin's
Class is in session the worst question is the first question
Why do we work like slaves sweatin' blades to an early grave
Never got paid but still we slave (In the nine tre')
Answer that then answer this too-
Loves gonna get ya you know it's true life's a bitch true
You best to backtrack and try to act black and live
Not to be phony and positive but why be negative?
What's the matter G? Black cat got your tongue
Fat track gotcha sprung now your hung (Do ya feel me?)
Dum dum diddy is it me?
Attempt to reach each and every brother on the streets
If not peace then at least let's get a piece
I'm tired of seeing bodies on the streets- deceased
Lookin' through my highschool yearbook
Reminiscin' of the tears as the years took
One homie, two homie, three homies - POOF
We used to have troops but now there's no more youth to shoot
God come save the misbegotten
Lost ghetto souls of Black Cotton (In God's eyes)

Nobody don't care
(No matter how hard I try/Look to the sky/and I ask God why)
Nobody don't care
(Seems like my dreams/Drowned in by screams/No answer to my questions)
Nobody don't care
(Feels like I'm pressed/Why do I stress?/It's like I'm being tested)
Nobody don't care
(Seems like my prayers/Vanish to thin air/Please answer my questions)
Nobody don't care

In the belly of the beast I'm bubbling up
Running out of luck, about to self destruct
Old heads say live your life like such
Your sure to catch her witcha one day boy
I wouldn't listen to 'em
Your power movement was cool
But it ain't fix nothin'
So I just go with what i know
I dont trust none
Look what the 80's did
To what's Bebe's kids
And now we grown up
Nobody ain't own us yet

Black cotton, I'm plottin' on what they owe me
I'm workin' without a profit
They shacklin' all my homies
I'm hurtin' but keep the mind
And we ain't stop, its cutains, you try to rise and
Certainly we survive with Outlaw Ridas
What's the reward for a strugala
If the lord lovin' us then why they hate to see us comin' up
Runnin up, Gun cocked like nasty gloves
If you aint got a penny, mind the glove
No love
Waitin' for my 40 acas and a blunt to blaze
Biblicle times good hearts with milita minds
Black Cotton - I'm hoppin' over enemy lines
Black Cotton - I ain't stoppin' till they givin me mine

or re-cap on Rosa Parks' HUGE influence on the Civil Rights Movement,
or pay a little r-e-s-p-e-c-t by tuning in to Aretha Franklin or Billie Holiday,
or look closer at the recent discussions and acts of Obama who is making black history in front of our eyes, whether positive or negative.