sweet home

I'm off for a long overdue visit to my heartland. See y'all on Tuesday!

Carrie Brownstein's blogging

for NPR, no less. The blog is called Monitor Mix. Her humor is pretty dry and abstract, but I like it (but I also idolize Sleater-Kinney so it's expected).

Her latest post is a collection of album reviews, but it's really a satire about the whole Maxim scandal of making up record reviews without listening to the actual records first. I can't help but feel like she's mocking the current wanky state of music writing, too (Pitchfork = obtuseness).

But that said, I actually find her rating system very descriptive. "Seborrhea," "2 F**ks and 1.5 Yeahs," and "Happy Milkshake" make more sense to me than numbers and stars.

Why Clinton Is Losing

I've been talking about this a lot with my American friends lately. While I appreciate Tina Fey's defense of being a bitch, Clinton is still coming off as more of a petty bitch rather than a tough one. This Gawker post highlights some of the problems she has using humor to get her points across. Fittingly, it has John Stewart using the same mocking tactics Clinton uses to get his point across, but his application is more effective -- probably because he's a comedian and not running for my country's highest office.

There was also a really good dicussion about this in the roundtable segment of last Sunday's Meet the Press. I think NPR's Michele Norris hit the nail on the head when she said that Hilary's message has turned external. It's all about why Obama stinks and increasingly less about why she's the best person for the job. Here's video for you canucks..



ps - I ♥ Michele Norris.

spring is coming, I swear. pt. 2

When i walked to my car this morning (19 F, -7 C), there were the usual snow piles and icy sidewalks. But! halfway there I realized that I could hear a mass of birds chirping. Spring is coming FOR REAL.

In a rush of glee, I grabbed my digi-cam and made my first video. I really wanted to record the chirping, but I was also searching for their source. If you listen closely to the soundtrack, you can hear me whisper "Where are they?" and then a "ahh!" at the end when I finally spot one.

POTTOCK wallpaper

eco-friendly designs from Geoff McFetridge:

Garfield minus Garfield

Garfield cartoons with Garfield photoshopped out of them:





surprisingly enjoyable.

leave me a message. or not. i don't know.

Passive aggressiveness is fun when it's in a Post-it note format (and not directed at you)! There are some really great ones on the site, but I'm having trouble posting photos.

Courtesy of Sloth!

food porn

Thanks for feeding me, Mimi!

Ichabod Snow Crane

This was on the fence outside my building this morning:



At least he's happy in his impalement.

ps - I'm ready for winter to be over.

KITTY CITY

Big Bunnies

I saw a feral rabbit by my front door the other night -- my first city bunny sighting in Chicago. So this event plus boredom at work plus internet meandering led me to these videos. (check out the old timey scales in the first one!)

Takashi Iwasaki's Embroideries

I saw this Winnipeg artist on Design Sponge and fell hard. He paints, draws, and collages, but of course it's the embroideries that really won me over.





I love them all so much!

Cha-Cha Charming

Also, I've been meaning to post this one for awhile. Maybe you know?

Ladies, meet Cha-Cha Charming. It's a bit like Spiked Candy, but it's a converted magazine, so it kept that feel/format a bit. They focus on 60s girl groups, but will happily report on later (even current) girl-pop eg Feist or Keren Ann. They also write great gist-of-a-scene articles, where they'll cover every major ye-ye girl from Germany in the 60s or what have you. Strongly recommended reading.

tittyshakers.com

As complement to Suge's last: this is a site of smutty stripper rockabilly, with the art to match. Soundtrack to a found collection of stripper auditions.

unfiltered and fancy-free

The library lifted it's temporary and silly ban on blogger, so I am free to post again. The last two days have been tough, like I was in time out. But I did get some work done, so..

Anyways, here are some old polaroids of stripper test shots, with surprisingly little skin. God rest that medium.

if i had $3 million dollars?

3 million records + 300,000 CDs for $3 million.

Those who know me know I have a problem with coveting/buying/owning a lot of stuff, but I'm getting to the point where I don't want to collect anymore. It's partly because my abundance of shit nearly broke Shane and Jared's backs when they moved me to a bigger place on the weekend...and partly because my possessions limit my mobility. I've moved about 17 times in the past 5 years and each move is exponentially more painful. Whatever happened to owning 2 suitcases worth of clothing and an air mattress? I wish I could say that I could leave it all behind if say, I had an opportunity to move to Berlin or something, but really, I cherish my belongings. Maybe this is what setting roots feels like? I'm not sure I like it.

Sorry for the teenage-y LJ steez. I'm tipsy.

awkward on valentines

The scary party picture people snapped these gems of Nick and I DJing a Valentines loft party for Pop Montreal. I look pissed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA-LEE!!!

Have a swell time, chicka-dee! I hope you get to shake it.

no more shakin'

see something, say nothing

bike thefts and oblivious bystanders

antm flashbacks: natasha!

yo, wind for my bitch!


her commitment to the character is outstanding:

roses for all m'ladies

house of crabs

wallpaper by Dan Funderburgh.

the best dog in the world

the first beagle to ever win the Westminster: Uno



These are some of the dogs he beat:



There are more pictures at the NYT here and here.

probably my most favorite house tour ever

This place is awesome -- the make-maker, the knick-knacks, the colors, the curtains, the art, everything. Some of my favorite bits:



The little fuzzy figures in that bottom picture are killing me, and the bedroom is almost ideal. In fact, the color scheme is close to what I want (just more pink than brown), and I think I'm going to copy those curtains.

it's westminster time

gallery.

tenderloin

The St Valentine's Day porker: Piglet born with heart-shaped spots

peacocks

I saw a Flannery O'Connor book on the shelf this morning while looking for something else and instantly grabbed it. I haven't read anything she's written in ten years, so now's a good time to revisit one of my favorite all-time authors.

Then I started thinking about peacocks.

Then I started thinking about mimi.

Then I went to etsy and browsed a bit:



And then back to the south -- I'm not a bird expert, but peacocks are heavily featured in my childhood memories. There were a lot of them roaming around the family summer vacation spot, and one of my grandmothers had a vase full of their feathers in her home. In both places, there were mesmerizing.

I miss the south.

Jubilee Furniture

Eagle-eye Grace in Ottawa read a blog post about a thrift store in suburban Chicago called Jubilee and sent it to me last week. Intrigued, MJ and I checked it out this weekend. She bought a couple of file cabinets, and I bought a dresser (though I really need a bed). It was a long drive to get there, but I think it's worthwhile. Although it wasn't quite the retro-goldmine I was hoping for, there was still plenty pieces with potential that I would have bought if not for a lack of space and money. The prices were incredibly low, and the staff was sweet and helpful. There were even free cookies welcoming us as soon as we walked in the door!

This is the dresser I bought >>>

It's nice and plain in form (the swoopy bit sticking out of the top is from another piece), but it's got a couple of nice touches, like the vertial wardrobe on the left. And the second drawer isn't actually a drawer, but rather a secretary-like compartment with a pull down door. It's currently in my car, but I can't wait to get it into my house so I can put my crap in it!

schammys

I only saw a couple bits of the Grammys last night when I was jumping back and forth between some other shows (Pride and Prejudice and probably whatever was on Fox), but the two bits that I just happen to catch were Amy Winehouse's acceptance speech for record of the year and the last 30 seconds of this speech from Kanye West. The latter made me gag. Here a link to the whole thing:


It would be in good taste to take off your glasses, too, douche.

I'm sorry the woman passed, but using her death to pump up your own ego, fame, and career is disgusting. I do like his music, but this really bothered me. So I'll keep on not buying his records, I guess.

(fourfour felt the same way, apparently, and put it much more eloquently than me)

Daniel

I love the new Lost characters, but most of all I love Daniel. I love that he's played by Jeremy Davies. I love that he's a super sensitive phsyicist. But most of all I love that he parachuted onto the island wearing a TIE.



Oh, and I also love that he keeps his transponder clipped to his shirtfront for the entire episode like a it's a pinned note from the teacher.

My Cube: Before

now I just have to work on it. hmm..

Hazel and Clover and a Cashmere buck

The artist is Rachel Denny, found in the Beholder gallery.

Second Homes: Mejay's workspace

I'm turning this into a bonafide series. Here's mejay's desk - so spacious!




I'm gonig to do a before and after comparison with mine. Hopefully, I'll have it looking decent by the end of the month.

Winter Wonderland

outerwear

Today we have ice falling from the sky in huge diagonal rushing swoops, so I wandered over the Anthropologie to daydream about coats. Granted, none of these would be sufficient protection for today, but it's not like I was going to buy any of them anyway.

PictoBrowser

I found a neat little thing called a PictoBrowser that makes a nice browsable slide show of photos from your flickr account. See:



I'm going to use this all the time!

LOLVogue

more at jezzie.

Super Tuesday

I voted, but I'm SO tired of the the campaigns. You Canadians have no idea. There's the presidential candiates obviously, but there were about forty offices on my ballot, mostly judicial. so many campaigns.. I have election fatigue big time, and this isn't even the end. It's just the primaries.

I know it's a historic day because we are either going to have our first black or our first woman official party-elected presidential candidate (but they're saying we still may not know for sure until the convention this summer). And I'm THRILLED for that. But it's a long road ahead, and I'm ready to not think about issues and strategies and history in the making for a while.

So, for having nothing to do with the democratic process, here's Tuesday Weld (so pretty)...

deep sleep

peep at folks sleeping....



I think I'm the most like the girl in the blue tank, running hot and cold through the night with the remote control by my side. But Regina's right next to me like the kid and the pooch, so I identify with those pics, too. What about you guys?

There are more series here.

Photardshop

I know these have been around for a while, but I just watched them today. Helpful AND painful. which is somehow comforting. I can't explain why.



that's episode 4. here's the others:
ep 1
ep 2
ep 3
ep 5

from my hood

from my walk home last night---

This is the park near my house:


These are from a storefront, which I think is actually some kind of comic-themed art gallery.

i hang out here a lot (but not today)

isn't my view lovely?

i hang out with this dude a lot. he's not as creepy as he looks.

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

I watched a little bit of this documentary last night, and it's oddly captivating. I gotta watch the whole thing soon..



fourfour wrote a good piece on it yesterday.