DuhDoeBrainz BroDawg!

Well I hit a wall

2012-01-18T13:03:00.001-06:00

via http://50.57.164.155/

which looked like this for a few seconds:

via Gourmetpens.com

Google says End Piracy, Not Liberty

2012-01-18T12:15:00.000-06:00

A very cool infographic that Google posted today, downloadable in PDF format by clicking here

The Day The LOLcats Died

2012-01-18T11:04:00.002-06:00

I'm gonna post SOPA protest related videos all day

2012-01-18T10:41:00.001-06:00

I think all day in Solidarity with the SOPA Blackout protests that sites like wikipedia are partaking in (here's a list), I will post all the cool or funny or interesting SOPA related videos I can find. We'll start with my own introduction to the specifics of the bill, which was via the Vimeo blog and made by Fight for the Future, where they also have a setup where you can send congress their message that they can count you as someone who's against the bill(s).

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

What I did this weekend

2012-01-16T20:59:00.000-06:00

Friday I stayed at work messing around on the computer and then met Worful over at our friends Bobby and Maura's house to watch a skate video from 2002 where all these mega high paid pros were trying to win $25k by building the ramp of their dreams (won by Burnquist who did a loop de loop in his backyard skate park) with he and their baby and eat pizza, Saturday afternoon Taylor's mom took us to see 'La Cage a Foiles' with Taylor and Karen, Sunday I worked a little and slept A LOT, but between all that... well, Saturday to Sunday was the annual bike polo lock in...

BIKE-POLO-DANCE-PARTY! from Johnathon McDowell on Vimeo.

PS- my only regret is that in this video I look like some sort of douchey party pix photographer. OH GEEZ! Of course this means I'll have pics to post when I actually get around to editing them.

How I spent my New Year's Eve

2012-01-16T12:41:00.002-06:00

Taylor, Worful, and I rang in the new year at The Royale, where they had closed down dinner service to the private party and newspapered up the windows and printed signs that said the bar was closed "due to prohibition", which incidentally was the theme of the party, co-hosted by the young friends of the MO history museum (who btw has the cutest logo ever) We enjoyed a delicious and stuffing 5 course meal for only 50 bucks, including tax and tip, a midnight champagne toast, and some sort of hot bourbon spice based punch from a crock pot upon our arrival. It was totally worth it and awesome.

All our friends that work there were dressed in period attire rented from the Vintage Haberdashery and all but maybe three awkward feeling people in the whole restaurant (save for the occasional kitchen staff coming up for air in street clothes looking out of place) were totally in costume too! It was wild, it felt like that scene in The Shining (below) where Jack Nicholson starts hallucinating that there's a fabulous old timey party going on in the ballroom. Worful kept calling out continuity errors like people should not be using their iPhones on the set of this period accurate movie, it was cute/funny and less snobby than I'm making it sound.

The tickets came with "instructions for entry" which were to find the paperboy on the corner outside by a fire in a drum barrel type thing, and ask him if there are any copies of "The Late Edition" available. Now, this is the part that tripped me up because we spent so long getting ready, that we arrived just before 9, dinner said "arrive anytime between 7-9 for dinner) and Taylor hates to be late. We know pretty much everyone that works there, so I thought this part would be fun and corny, but then the paperboy kid was someone I'd never seen before, so for some reason I got really nervous and just ended up asking him if he's worked here for long and other smalltalk! Geez. Then Steve, the owner, came out and said hello, and was like, "Oh, hey, HL and these guys, we know these guys, they are always welcome here! I'd show you in myself, but I can't be seen taking anyone into the building, you understand." so... dodged that bullet...the paperboy kid told us to go in the alley and ask for "Tiny and Snowy" which were my friends Patty Bo-Bo (shoulda just used his real nickname for his prohibition era gangster name) and John Fausz (I think I'm spelling that wrong, but he went to high school with some of my Reilly cousins in Florissant) in costume and they offered us a swig of "moonshine" (or maybe just whiskey??) out of a flask and jumbled some dice around in their pockets before opening the garage and letting us in through there to get to the back patio and into the building. Elaborate, right? Everyone stayed in character!

When we got inside, Steve led us in and gave us our warm boozy punch and was rambling on about "if we get this new president into office, he's promised to give us our beer back at least" and stuff like that, which he continued throughout the night, including when someone from the new St Louis based microbrewery (shit, there are like 5 new small craft breweries, I can't remember the name right away, but I think it might've been Civil Life?) brought in a skinny keg of some delicious dark beer that they took upstairs (Steve's private residence that he so graciously opened up to the party) and served out of an old clamp to the countertop pour tap...it was cool. He also let us know that upstairs there was a photo booth (which we tried but then got sick of waiting in line and didn't try again for because there were several other professional photographers snapping pics of the party throughout the night, I'll find out who ran it, I forgot to ask) and a poker game going with a dealer that would teach you how to play and stuff, it was really fun. We went home around one or one thirty when the party was about to close down, and when I got home I felt the urgent need to watch Bugsy Malone...if you haven't seen it or heard of it...well, I want to say you're missing out but let's just say I liked it a lot when I was a kid. Here's a musical number from the film having to do with speakeasies!

PS- While we're at it, let's bring another clip from Bugsy Malone in that I really loved as a kid, paired with a similar clip that I also loved as a kid:

All hail teenage Jodie Foster and Jessica Rabbit!

Content aware fail...cat win?

2012-01-12T18:45:00.003-06:00

So I had no idea that photoshop came out with this new "content aware" jazz until a coworker hipped me to it, and I guess it saves time if you know how to use it right or only try to use it in small areas, but I just tried it out on a photo where I was trying to cut out a huge knight nextt to me just for a test, and it totally just yielded some trippy results that I might be able to just use it for fun stuff right now, and try it out on real projects later on. Here's what happened: I was trying to see what would happen if I asked it to cut the whole knight out, and maybe this wasn't the best picture to try this out on... but it just like kaliedescoped me and my friend Jake's leopard print cat. Hm. Is it weird that I just want to use this feature to make trippy pictures?

Wish this was a pic of me

2012-01-09T16:50:00.001-06:00

But it's not. There is a chef that nicknamed me cotton candy though. Pic from this flickr.

This video is so weird...

2012-01-07T14:54:00.003-06:00

I think the guy sums it up well when he says "Is this a story with a happy ending or a sad ending?" but the noise the baby sharks make when they are born are kinda cute I guess...I didn't know sharks made noises.

The weirder thing is that I got to this video from watching a video where hamsters were doing backflips and falling over like they were drunk (below, actually I kind of want to assign someone to voice over that video) and a scottish fold kitten play fighting and complaining and then another one where a baby bunny was so sleepy it couldn't stop falling asleep in the hand of the person filming it.

I like the hammies better.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T17:18:00.001-06:00

I recently reconnected with an old friend who told me she's lucky she's not in jail for the stuff she did to me before she moved away to rehab and got sober (she's right, but amends and forgiveness don't have to come til later, we're just taking it slow and keeping it light because we just started talking again for the first time in about a year) and it's her birthday today. So, in honor of her bday and her love for sassy funny black women, I made this animated gif from "Mo'Nique: I Coulda Been Your Cellmate" after I watched the tearful but intriguing "Mo'Nique: Behind Bars" where she interviews ladies locked up who all sound like they have had a LOT of therapy in prison...that part is great and tear inducing and touching, but is it fucked up that I thought the loving supportive Mo'Nique was funnier during this than most of her standup performance? She wears a ridiculous blanket on her lap like FDR and cries a lot and assures things like "I'm right here wichyoo baby" and "sexual abuse is a BITCH" and gives a ton of advice and walks toward the camera like the host of "Unsolved Mysteries" and I don't know why that all makes me laugh. I hope are as good as the birthday flowers she got from another friend yesterday.

PS- how ridiculous and simultaneously amazing is that bedazzled and shredded prison jumpsuit?

PPS- I'm pretty sure that in the clip I took this from she is making a joke about the inmates getting a ticket for havin sex with theyselves and how could they prevent us from touchin owselves and then she goes, "WE WOMEN ARE SEXUAL BEINGS!" while shaking it and saying things like "bitch, I see you, bitch" so many times that Ann and I determined there would be NO WAY to count how many times she says bitch. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Have fun at your ghetto NA dance and take pics! I almost photoshopped the birthday girl's face onto Mo'Nique because I think she'd appreciate that I think if she put on a fat suit and blackface, she'd basically be Mo'Nique.

Whistler

2011-12-30T20:01:00.001-06:00

If that didn't whet yer whistle...the remix will surely crack you up. I hate to say this (or maybe not?) but RØB my bowling captain the pancake master should really cover/parody this in his googleplexia act.

My friend TJ showed me this tonight which reminded me of this one time I was in 1st or 2nd grade and our teacher handed us all a bunch of saltines to stuff our mouths with and told us that it was a whistling contest and the first one to whistle wins....and guess what? I WON...however, I will never be as good as this guy. The crowd reactions are so baffling (why are there kids in the audience in this fancy lady hosted daytime talk show? why are they so confused and bored looking?) that I had to take screenshots and post them here for you all to see.

PS- I can swear that one of my friends might turn into this guy or at least aspire to be more like him. Hint: he is a homeowner that names his house and all his pets after himself. I can only imagine what would happen if he took a wife...what name would he make her take?

PS- Is that SOLI?????

Chubby baby in a super mario costume alert!

SINGLE TOPIC BLOG ALERT: Lisa Simpson Book Club

2011-12-30T16:37:00.000-06:00

Taylor sent me this great tumblr dedicated to shots of Lisa Simpson and literary references from Simpsons episodes. So great. I don't even have to tell you how rad it is. My sister Caryn and family will LOVE this.
LISA SIMPSON BOOK CLUB
Here's my book:

My new vanity plate

2011-12-30T14:50:00.001-06:00

Just kidding, but thanks to my friend Christine who just texted this to me from her San Fran vacay and said she asked the people inside what their favorite karaoke number is and they replied, "we've got tonight" and I'm going to assume they mean the Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton duet version, or maybe the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton version? Bob Seger anyone?

Chubby Xmas Cookies

2011-12-26T14:44:00.000-06:00

Occupy OkCupid

2011-12-26T00:22:00.001-06:00

Funny autocorrect mishap I made to a friend

The Donahue mac chop shop

2011-12-26T00:17:00.000-06:00

For Xmas my dad upgraded my brother's and my laptops' memory and storage to a solid state drive. I went from 2 GB to 4 GB of RAM, and a 120 GB HD to a 256 GB solid state drive. So awesome. Now it runs just as fast as my BRAND NEW iMac at work! We refurbished a refurb!

What I'm getting my boyfriend for Xmas

2011-12-24T19:53:00.000-06:00

Just kidding. Can you imagine seeing this in someone's house?

Have you ever heard of a hoodie footie?

2011-12-14T00:44:00.001-06:00

Tiffany's dad got her a pajama gram for her birthday one year and it arrived in a big pink hat box on her doorstep. Who knew that years later she'd meet a friend with hair the exact color of said pajamas? Unlike the forever lazy, which I've mentioned before in a previous post, it does not have "an escape hatch" but it does have footies with skid protection that you can zip on and off! We were watching most of season one of HBO's Game of Thrones, and we stayed up so late that yes, I did indeed fall asleep in these jammies. Sweet dreams and glitter moons!

Update: RØB sent me this comic in relation to the photo above. Twinsies!

Smush Faced Heaven

2011-12-11T15:35:00.001-06:00

Found via Four Four's "Kitty Pride" tag, who had this to meep:
"This was my favorite part of a show that I'm not embarrassed to say I watched and loved last night, Animal Planet's Too Cute! Kittens. I will never scrub from my head the image of these Persian kittens meep-meeping their distress at a rambunctious pug puppy, and you know what? I don't want to scrub that image from my head. They are such brats! I am such a cat lady. Life is good."

ALSO: A single topic blog dedicated to smushed faced animals: http://smushedfacecreatures.tumblr.com/

KING KHAN (and who knows what their backing band is calling themselves these days?)

2011-12-08T18:36:00.001-06:00

Speaking of my nails, part of the reason I didn't take a picture of them was that I painted them right before running out the door to go to Off Broadway to see King Khan play, so I kind of smeared them right away. It was an amazing show, energetic and entertaining as usual, and Worful took these great pictures of Christine, Emily, and others dancing around the upright bass player when he came to shred in the audience! I've got to say, Christine is looking like a famous rock star in pictures lately, I wonder what her secret is. This reminds me, I really am behind on posting highlights from our recent weekend trip to Nashville with EIGHT LADIES. Spoiler alert: We honky tonked and karaoke'd our hearts out till we got kicked out. Beyond that, the pictures kind of speak for themselves, so I'll post some of them when I get a chance. Also, as a last note, how weird is it to see a picture of me in Black and White, where my highlighter pink hair and GOLD pants are totally muted?

My nails were tweeted by cutex hehe

2011-12-08T18:30:00.001-06:00

Ok, so to be fair, I admit I know two copywriters that tweet for them, so for them to tweet my nails, that just means I totally get to geek out on nail polish with them all the more! I'm glad she took the picture, because I actually didn't get around to thinking about taking a pic of the stripey neon ombre I've got going right now until it already started chipping, but now that I've shared it, I think I can start fresh and do something cool for my work holiday party tomorrow.

Because you've always wanted to learn how to sk8

2011-11-26T14:07:00.001-06:00

I can't express how much I love videos on youtube made by children. They sound so authoritative on whatever subject they're taking on, and also the way they handle criticism is either more bold or graceful than someone older and hardened by the world might be able to. I used to be baffled by the amount of technology related tutorials put out by kids, but then I remembered that they don't have jobs so they have lots of time, and they don't make any money so they gotta make due with what they got. A way more productive use of time that would otherwise be spent complaining about "being bored". Bravo!

My computer was making me sad, so Worful made me this

2011-11-25T17:21:00.000-06:00

After I sent him a cell phone pic of my big fat woopsies. I installed this font organizing/diagnostic/archival software I bought a few years ago and never got around to installing, and after install, I got too excited and accidentally trusted it too easily without reading the readme file or setting the preferences, and the software found "duplicate" instances of font files that it asked me to move to the trash, and then I got (and ignored or hit the wrong button too quickly) a warning message from FontBook saying I was deleting system fonts that MacOSX needed to run, and it was so nerve-racking before I figured out how to fix it. Good thing I fixed it or else I might not be laughing at this.

Happy Friday

2011-11-18T15:34:00.001-06:00

Nothing like a little search for creative grooming to break up the day.

SINGLE TOPIC BLOG ALERT: Hovering Art Directors!

2011-11-16T09:31:00.001-06:00

In honor of the close of my 2nd week at my new design gig, I thought I'd post about this (only hilarious to designers or art/creative directors with a sense of humor about their job or another boss that hovers) chuckle inducing one note blog that seems pretty darn industry specific! It's especially funny that you can't really tell whether most of them are staged or if they've been caught in the act or what. I thought it'd be good to use a St Louis place as the example shot. Now go hover!

HOVERING ART DIRECTORS

Worful is showing some of his photos in the storefront gallery of All Along Press, opening on Friday

2011-11-09T21:50:00.001-06:00

In case you can't see the picture above, but would like to come see his photographs:
Friday, November 11th, 2011, 6pm (till about 10 probably)
2712 Cherokee Street
STL, MO 63118

Just My Type is so aptly titled because I already love it

2011-11-09T21:44:00.000-06:00

I just started reading this book about type...and it's not just interesting to graphic designers. I found a review of the book that describes it better than I possibly could, and also npr did a piece on the book if listening is more your thing than reading, although if you like both the author also put the first chapter/the intro online to sample. If you're an ereader type person, there's even an app for that. DO IT.

PS- This evening marked my third day at bigwidesky, and before heading out, I was reviewing the document I worked on today (and yesterday) and upon his seeing it, I was given a recommendation for the free font Quicksand (which I have on my home computer btw, designed by Andrew Paglinawan, his first font) by a very lively, talkative, and friendly ten year old boy named Wolfie. He very astutely observed that it was a little like the font I was using (Gotham, mostly Book, some Medium and Bold; so he got the sans serif thing down) only "with more space between the letters." I knew what he was talking about, but before I could stop myself I blurted out, "we probably have a little different taste in fonts..." (foot in mouth...let your new font fanatic kid friend relate to you, HL!) which luckily he wasn't phased by, because he pretty much went along to explain exactly why I think it's a little bit of a pain to use for much of anything but headlines or titles...because you have to change the spacing (in most every free font) but as he pointed out "you can change it in the program"... what I want to know is... how did he figure out how to change the spacing if he only knows how to use MS Word? Last time I attempted to do that I got frustrated and went "this is why I word process in InDesign argh!" Maybe I will bring in the book and see if Wolfie has any interest in it, or if he'll get bored by the time Chip Kidd talks about how much he loves New Order album covers in the Preface.

Do I need these?

2011-11-09T10:00:00.003-06:00

I might. Wouldn't it be creepy if they actually had open mouths like that? Max Wowch makes some other cool stuff too. His stuff reminds me of a collaged amalgamation of all the bad/awesome endangered animal/save the earth tee shirts we used to sell as a fundraiser for my elementary school's computer lab so we could learn to type with mario and play kid pix, which is probably the planted seeds of why I do what I do now. I found him because he co-authors some blogs with my fave blogger Katie Natopoulos. Too bad the black stuff would get SO MUCH CAT HAIR on it...guess I'll just have to buy more lint rollers.

PizzA Minds Think Alike

2011-10-31T14:34:00.000-05:00

This is not the first time that I've taken a picture and then found that it was similar to a picture Worful's taken.

TIME FOR NEW SOCKS

2011-10-29T16:01:00.000-05:00

VIA ART FROM BEHIND

THIS WEEKEND: COME PARTY WITH US AT WHITE FLAG

2011-10-28T17:21:00.002-05:00

I'm excited about Sunday night and I'm also preparing a video to project from one of three projectors during the party. Josh Levi and Jeremy Kannapell (aka Ghost Ice) are DJing and it's gonna be radddddd!

We haven't had a party since the craziness with Tom Huck's Evil New Year's Eve Party and that was so insane it ended in a hayfight that set of the particulate sensors that automatically send the Fire Department. We'd sworn off parties, but the dudes that put together this MAKE skateboards show really were into the idea that their thing would be going on during Halloween weekend, so we are hosting a FREE ALL AGES (it does start at 9 PM so it's more like an implied 18+) HALLOWEEN EVE party!

PS- If I don't see all the Pretty Skateboards boys in STL in attendance I'm gonna be PISSED!

HOLY MOLY DID MY DAD TIME TRAVEL!?!?

2011-10-27T17:13:00.001-05:00

OKAY, so I KNOW I've made jokes before about my Dad time traveling (and to my knowledge no one else thought it was funny besides my mom who probably took the picture and my brother who is IN the picture), but I just can't help myself from cracking up over stuff like this! This picture of an unidentified soldier looks SHOCKINGLY like my dad when put side by side! I can't believe it! Compare evidence for yourself! I photoshopped his face onto the soldier's picture just to see what it'd look like... Dude's gotta be a Donahue! Better update your ancestry.com account, Mom!

HELLO SOLDIERS

2011-10-27T15:55:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I didn't find this on the My Deguerrotype Boyfriend Blog, but it's a tintype photograph, so I might as well have...HANDSOME! Found this one at the eMuseum of the Int'l Center of Photography.

Civil War Era 3D photo!

2011-10-27T15:23:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure if it was originally a stereograph and they layered them and colorized the different channels so they'd work as an anaglyph image with red and blue 3D glasses, but it's pretty cool either way. I found it on the Library of Congress archives here! Spoiler alert for Halloween: one of my costumes is an embellished fancier version of a Union Soldier, hence my photo research. I've found some rad images, but I have saved a lot of them without citing the source so I felt I needed to post this one first at least.

Me smashing cans with a sledgehammer in Tower Grove Park

2011-10-24T13:03:00.000-05:00

You can't read my handwriting very well but it says "I smashed this one" (the pic was taken before I smashed it ON THE FIRST TRY) and "lee smashed this one" and we were sticking around a little after the chili cookoff benefit for the rebuilding of pete stein (he lost his feet in a train catching accident and is doing awesome but has major billz and a long road of recovery/rehabilitation) and anyone who sounds like you want to care about that story should go to off broadway this Thursday October 27th for "Stumped: a benefit show for the rebuilding of Pete Stein" which I'm donating at least one piece of artwork to for silent auction, and I'll be there after 9 because I have a prior obligation to fulfill before attending. The flier, illustrated by the lovely Lauren Busiere, is posted at the bottom of this post.

A Professional Display of 50 No Handed Bike Moves

2011-10-24T10:22:00.000-05:00

"Golden Tree" by Martin Brooks from Ninian Doff on Vimeo.

Taylor sent me this music video this morning and I hadn't seen it yet so I thought maybe you hadn't also.

Puppy Makes Man with Face Tattoo Cry

2011-10-21T21:06:00.000-05:00

I predict that this show will make it onto The Soup a LOT.

Pretty Awesome Exploded Diagram

2011-10-21T18:11:00.002-05:00

This is What It's Like When I'm Sick

2011-10-20T21:17:00.000-05:00

Seconds earlier Chilton hissed at me, but my cheezits will never hiss at me. I ate some bad leftover fetuccini alfredo with shrimp yesterday and lost my lunch early this morning and felt like crapola all day. I was whining at everything and it hurt to move and I sounded like a sheep, but now I feel a little better and I'm just feeling bad for not feeling well enough to watch game 2 of the world series with friends.

Zombie Tattoo Boy represents DermaBlend Tattoo cover up makeup

2011-10-20T19:53:00.000-05:00

My first introduction to Derma Blend makeup was as a kid in Reno while a friend's mom took us shopping at Macy's and the makeup counter girls told us that it's a very popular item with the showgirls in Reno because a lot of them have to cover up their tattoos to wear the revealing showgirl outfits but not have their tattoos distract from selling tickets to old fashioned types. Kat Von D of the TV show and tattoo shop LA Ink also made a tattoo concealing makeup, so it was definitely a smart move for DermaBlend to get a more contemporary face to represent them. The song sucks but these makeup artists are impressive! Here's the "go beyond the cover" campaign. Check out their handiwork:

Screw little kids, I'd get the new tokidoki barbie

2011-10-20T18:18:00.001-05:00

Tokidoki made a pink haired barbie with tattoos. When I googled it, the first thing that came up was something from the xtian sci monitor that is all up in arms that barbie is bad for our lil baby girls. FUCK EM. Maybe tokidoki should stick to working with kidrobot since those toys are less comparable to humans. What parent wants to spend $50 on a foot tall doll that their kid is going to play with anyways? Jezebel had some good details about the barbie, but meanwhile they also posted something even more scandalous: that barbies throughout history bear a striking resemblance to the playboy bunnies of their time. Check out the chart, it kind of rules:

Worful drew this picture of me

2011-10-18T21:52:00.001-05:00

We were hanging out one day and he was drawing all his skater friends as south park characters, and I said if he drew me he'd have to make my eyes squinty out of excitement, and a few days later he drew South Park versions of Taylor and I, and tonight he brought me this. What a sweetie.

Eat Your Heart Out, Smarty McFly

2011-10-17T13:15:00.001-05:00

So Chelsea's birthday was the other day, and I promised I'd have these really awesome Back to the Future 2 related post for her. She and a bunch of friends rode roller coasters in the dark on Saturday at Six Flags' Frightfest...I went last year but I skipped out this year. If you're considering checking out Frightfest but are scared of people jumping out to scare you, don't be... they're not allowed to touch you and so their version of scaring you is more like walking creepily close to your group of friends so that you're like, "who invited this guy and why are they dressed like colonial zombies?"

ANYWAYS: Happy birthday Chelsea aka the best roller derby hero ever SMARTY McFLY!

Here are some future shoes none of us can afford but we all really really want (so much so that I found a bunch of sites where people were petitioning for them to be made) but might settle for a pair of working LA Lights in ladies size ten and a bunch of pictures of my mom and dad and brother and I next to the Deloreon that was parked outside of Mrs Knotts' Chicken Dinner Restaurant at Knott's Berry Farm that I've been meaning to post since MAY.

PS- Is it just me, or does this car make my family look like a bunch of GIANTS? Look how small it is compared to my mom and I posing like car show babes...I know we're 5' 10" but WHAAAA???? Would we fit inside this car? What do you think the car insurance is like for one of these babies?

Ry Ry my brother's reflection while he checks out the control panel

Dad checking it out (on the right)

Mom being forced to babely pose next to it.

TONIGHT: FREE at the Tivoli

2011-10-17T11:32:00.000-05:00

Current White Flag exhibited artist Amy Granat made this movie with her friend Drew and they put some people I know in it a few years ago and some of them will be there at the theater tonight when we show the movie. TSOWY stands for The Sorrows of A Young Werther which is loosely based on the novel of the same name. From what I remember, the whole movie has two perspectives and is centered around a motorcycle and filmed mostly in the California deserts. It better be a type of motorcycle I'm into or else I'm going to lose interest real fast. Just kidding. I'll be there watching, the artists will be there introducing, and my good friend sweet Liz Ellis will be slingin popcorn, candy, beer, and wine on a night she doesn't usually work because she's awesome. If you didn't have plans tonight, now you've got options!

Wistful Window Watching

2011-10-14T09:49:00.001-05:00

It took him a few tries not to look directly into the camera, but here he reminds me a little of the Always Sunny promos that look like a lifetime movie advertisement.

UPDATE: I made this one that's even more awesome:

Weird late night habits of a creative

2011-10-06T11:08:00.000-05:00

Last night I had a few drinks with girlfriends and when I got home I laid in bed and turned on the tv and thought it was a good idea to take screen shots with my phone's camera (which I actually do a lot anyways, like the time I sent poor Anya a portion of a video of a slo mo shampoo commercial with the caption reading, "is this what it's like to date women?"...btw i should just upload that bc it's way funnier than the original*... or the many many email submissions I've sent to Cole Root's blog WIYFWFLTF or however you spell it) of the Forever Lazy infomercial, but since I was too lazy to get up and turn on the lights to make my camera focus, the resulting pictures are extra bizarre! CULTY, EVEN! SO MUCH RELAXING AND WINNING GOING ON! I might try this out more often! CAN YOU FEEL IT?

PS- after seeing how expensive the pajama gram would be (send the gift of RELAXATION!) to send to a friend, 2 forever lazy suits with socks for $30 sounds like a good winter birthday gift.

PPS- This whole post sounds like that George Saunders short story where the kids who grew up as essentially a permanent live in focus group for advertisers keep referring to their emotions by serial numbers of commercials that evoked those emotions in them initially...I'm doing a horrible job of explaining this, but if you like the movie IDIOCRACY or the literature of Ray Bradbury or George Orwell or Kurt Vonnegut (you know, shit that warns us about the future if we get too used to technology or advertising or whatevs) then READ THIS STORY NOW.

PPPS- I am all over the place today.

*really, the sentiments of the whole video I sent to Anya can be explained by two screen shots from that commercial, carrying about the same caption.

This is what I think it'd be like to be a lesbian...do you think it's accurate?:

Sweetie Pie's is getting a TV show on the OPRAH CHANNEL!

2011-10-04T00:43:00.003-05:00

I haven't been to Sweetie Pie's in a few years, but I guess I didn't realize that they've only been in The Grove for 2 or 3 years longer than White Flag has! How do I work down the street from this restaurant and I hadn't seen cameras? Maybe because on the weekends it's mega crowded anyways? You can see ladies in church hats lined up around the corner to eat there after Sunday services. If you go there on a weekday it is a pretty manageable crowd though.

I had no idea that she was an Ikette! So exciting! I bet I have pictures of her from when I took so many still shots of the movie Rock City. Are any of these Ikettes her?

Couldn't resist posting all of those, because I like them. The thing I might question in her wording might be the "upscale neighborhood" thing...while it is a burgeoning area, I can't tell you how much scarier it used to be at night only 5 years ago, and I still hesitate to walk to my car at night without using the buddy system, and windows still get routinely busted out by neighborhood kids or who knows after dark when not enough police presence is around. On a lighter note, I really wish that sweetie pies fried some other piece of the chicken besides the wing! I'm a thigh and drumstick girl!

I haven't eaten there in a few years because I always get something that is too big and have to take it home, or I end up wanting 2 things from the cafeteria lady style ordering line that end up being 2 entree items, and then I can't take it back when I find out because I'm being yelled at by old ladies behind the counter and then it ends up not being such a cheap meal! Having said that, their mac n cheese and sweet potatoes are the best and I wish I knew what went into them, and that goes for the cornbread and some cabbage looking dish with hammy-bacony flecks in it, too. Some things are so "soul foud" that they get a little scary, like how we have pigs feet and ox tails in the Schnucks, and how you can't tell what kind of delicious gravy is on the pork steak (a cut of meat unique to STL as far as I'm concerned) that they serve, but overall, Sweetie Pies DOES deserve a TV show, and I'm totally going to put it on my TiVo To Do list when it airs.

Bonus: Here's a clip from "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" where Sweetie Pie's is featured:

Why do I have such a soft spot for white girls rapping?

2011-10-03T23:26:00.000-05:00

I told my girl Chelsea aka Smarty McFly that she better learn all these lyrics by her birthday in a week. If I'm on top of my game I'll do a special Smarty McFly fan post for her that I meant to do like a year ago, and then again like a month ago. I also can think of a few boys on bikes that I wish would make out with this girl.

I like the part where she says she pedal pedal pedal and she hike da booty up, gotta cruise by you, gotta cruise by you...and also the part where she says:

"when i see your boyfriend on a bike i gotta have it...when i see your boyfriend on a bike i gotta grab it, take him on my bike and romance him and pants him"...
"i got bikes from the ceiling to the floor, from all my bike courier boyfriends before; i got bianchis, peugots, cinellis, fujis, and if i'm ridin handsfree it's cuz i'm rollin doobies for my girlies...and all my jelly hoes we lookin so fierce, you caution on the road."

SINGLE TOPIC BLOG ALERT: YR MOM IZ CLUBBIN

2011-10-03T20:17:00.000-05:00

I found this single topic blog on accident (which is where all great things come from) when I came across this image from a music video I saw in middle school (I think?) and accompanying gif so I was trying to google the lyrics "hangin at the club with your momma" (not the right lyrics, ps) which made this hilarious shit come up.

HAPPY MONDAY, BLOGOSPHERE!
YR MOM IZ CLUBBIN (SEALZ)

Single topic blog cat meme whatever: ANXIETY CAT

2011-10-03T20:06:00.000-05:00

I'm not really much into these things with the pinwheel/beachball looking pattern background with a wolf or a cat or whatever is hip on the internet to type shitty type with a stroke around the edges over it, but I kind of got a few laughs out of anxiety cat and so I thought I'd share it. Plus, this one is totally how I am/was in school for life.

If you haven't noticed, I've been totes slackadazical about posting on this blog lately. EIGHT published posts in the month of September? I gotta snap out of this! I've had a ton of work to do and just want to be away from the computer most of the time when it's not hurting my neck :( so I'm not over it, just taking a lazy break. I promise I have about 15 drafts that I started and never finished of entries to post. But these kinds are easy to finish, I just haven't been that into many of the Single Topic Blogs I find lately because there are SO GODDAMN MANY OF THEM.

ANXIETY CAT

Everyone loves that spicy red rooster sauce

2011-09-27T15:48:00.000-05:00

The other week or so, I got an NPR's most emailed stories entitled "Confessions of a Sriracha Fanatic" and I haven't listened to it yet, but it gave me an excuse to post this Jessica Hische "Sriracha on Everything" type illustration that I love so much.

Look at this fatty

2011-09-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

I walked into my room to turn off the light and go to bed and this little chubster had his front paws straight out on either corner of the bed! I always think, no matter what he's doing, that it can't be comfortable. Nothing is comfortable when your body is shaped like this. You can almost count the number of chins he has in his stripes!

Piper is bleaching my eyebrows

2011-09-23T13:09:00.000-05:00

Which is cool because I asked her to try this out a year ago and she wouldn't let me because she said I'd look scary. Today SHE suggested we try it, so even if I do end up looking "scary" we can always change it. It might look a little funny while it grows out, but mostly it means that NO ONE is going to recognize me for a whole month. It was really hard to keep my long eyelashes from getting into the bleach, but we'll see how it turns out!

The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976) starring DAVID BOWIE is playing at the Tivoli for the midnight show tomorrow and Saturday...LETS GO!

2011-09-22T17:12:00.001-05:00

Also, THE PRINCESS BRIDE is the other movie that's playing. Unfortunately I can only choose one to go to because I got invited to 2 bday parties on Saturday, but I wish I could see both!

For all my friends that raced in the Gateway Cup this Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-07T00:48:00.002-05:00

I feel like maybe I saw this last year but never posted it. This year I only made it to ONE race and a total of ZERO of the kids races that I LOVE. Bummer. Maybe it was because Liz and Erik moved houses/locations and did not have an awesome party like last year. Anyways, this is sure to make any cyclist chuckle a little. I love all the video girls in Izumi Pearl cyclist shorts, hahahaha. "Is that a steel frame from 1988? You might as well use it as an anchor weight!" Would describe both of my bikes, although they are quite light for older bikes. Anya's old bike I have in my care, on the other hand, is a little heavier.

Now you people in spandex racing kits get ready for cyclogross (woah that was a typo, but I'm keeping it) season, even though this video seems to feature mountainbike shit, which I also missed out on spectating at this summer. It was too hot for me and I didn't hear about any free BBQ and beer so I got lazy. Let's get dirty.

Terrariums Make a comeback!

2011-09-06T22:47:00.001-05:00

The NY TIMES even says so! I promised myself that when my house was clean I could get a terrarium, so now that I've kept my house clean, I can get a terrarium, or start looking into what I can even put into one besides air plants and succulents! I love those hand welded geometric terrariums from Assembly New York, the greenhouse looking ones, as well as the ones from Kelly Lamb. I am taking a ceramics class with Christine so maybe I'll take another one and make those geometric planters like Kelly Lamb.

DIY

Just in case you were considering dressing up as a vagina for halloween

2011-09-04T21:50:00.003-05:00

Don't you kind of wish your clitoris was sequined after watching that? You better enjoy lots of penetration jokes if you choose to wear that as a halloween costume, and be prepared to explain it to children. I was on a kind of strange and scary trip to youtube because today I learned about Tenga which touts to be "filled with state of the art technology" (ew) and is the Japanese designed variation on the Fleshlight, and after looking up the video to show to someone else, I clicked on some related videos and found a shit ton (well, like three too many) of homemade videos on DIY at home pocket pussy crafting tutorials, ranging in skill and craft level, and needless to say, I got a little skeeved out by the description of learning what a "FiFi" or "prison girlfriend" is. I post this video of this home made crafted vagina halloween costume because well, it saved me from all the creeps and made me laugh. Enjoy, vagina enthusiasts!

Speaking of which, have you seen the Summer's Eve package redesigns (long overdue) and as-confusing-as-your-first-boner "That's Vaginal" or "Hail to the V" campaigns? How about their other weird talking hand as vagina one that abc reported that they missed the mark? Obviously, the cat one is my favorite, not because of the "That's Vaginal" tagline, but because I wish my cat Chilton had a private jet and gave slideshow presentations and wore blazers. Pussy power! (in more ways than one) Here:

SHOOT PAUL WENT LIVE TODAY! YAY!

2011-09-01T14:40:00.000-05:00

So. For months and months, my friends Paul J and Jake H have been hard at work making this website they did a test run of a few years ago and wanted to recreate as a full time, set hours of operation kind of business. It's taken them longer than they expected (doesn't everything worth doing?) but they DID IT! You can watch the live feed of the cameras of what's going on at the ShootPaul warehouse in downtown St Louis, check up on their blog that they update on the regular, and you can certainly go to their website and SHOOT THEM WITH PAINTBALLS! Additionally, if you're some sort of glutton for games and punishment, they might be so welted/bruised up soon they are going to hire some part time minions to be in the paintball shooting range in costumes and masks and stuff too, so if for whatever reason that sounds fun or interesting to you, I happen to know how to get ahold of these two.

YOU GET 3 FREE SHOTS just for signing in with your facebook account, so it's a super fast sign up!
SHOOTPAUL.COM

Is Jane Fonda supposed to be a skunk here?

2011-08-30T13:53:00.002-05:00

I want to hang out with these horses

2011-08-30T13:49:00.002-05:00

Failed Nail Experiment

2011-08-29T16:57:00.000-05:00

It looked cool but it chipped really fast.

Wish I were swimmin

2011-08-29T14:33:00.003-05:00

Happy Retirement, Steve Jobs (2011), RIP Paul Rand (1993)

2011-08-28T19:20:00.004-05:00

I seriously can't get enough of these videos of old man interviews with paul rand! There's this one I'm in the middle of watching (I dozed off for a minute from eating too much at my favorite food holiday, the Festival of Nations this weekend) this one that is in three parts from 1991 when I was a Kindergardener and I'm super into it because it's super cable access show style and the dude's questions get a little ridick.

Here's part two (which has a commercial break) and part three.

"Stop trying to be Original, Just try to be Good"

2011-08-28T16:40:00.002-05:00

Mies Van Der Roe said the bit about trying to be good, Paul Rand (in the video below) had this to say regarding that quote: "That sounds naiive but it's true...what it really means is, being good is damned difficult. So it's very difficult to be original, so you have to have an idea, and you don't have an idea when you have nothing to work with. When you have an idea, it's self generating..."
If you aren't familiar, Paul Rand is famous for things like the IBM logo, UPS logo, all sorts of things you see every day even still. Check out a flickr Paul Rand modern design fan page started by grain edit for more.

History through humor: The Story of Mankind and The Sale of Manhattan

2011-08-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

I've been really into the idea of making World History seem easy to learn about through entertainment, comedy, good design/filmmaking lately, and I want to find more good examples of it. Late late one night while I was in the midst of a great clean out of my apartment, waiting for my sheets to dry in the middle of the night so I could finally go to bed, I channel surfed my way to a star-speckled Irwin Allen film called The History of Mankind. I think this film sparked something inside me.

There is NOT much online about this film, (the full length isn't even on netflix, bummerrrr) but I think every history teacher at every level from middle school to grad school should show this film. Albeit, the papers the students produce in reaction/comparison/whatever paper lameness you have to prove your info retention on would be at different levels of sophistication, but I think it really sums up a lot of what you learn in general history classes, while keeping a sense of humor about it all. Situations like this that get kind of glossed over or downplayed in history books sometimes, and when you're a student like me (horrible: can't really read at lengths, impossible to sit down to do homework, but loves learning) you need all the motivation in the world to spark interest in reading between the lines to find clues that something is interesting and learning more about a subject, especially since textbook writing tends to get so dry of emotion or drama or humor, the things that keep us tuned into anything worth reading or watching.

Short spurts of humor are the modern way to relay these ideas. Kids (and many of us that were raised with TV and now that we've had a generation come to voting and drinking age that were raised on the Internet as well, it's worth including as a valid form of accessible, relatable media) are used to things like the length of an SNL skit or a YouTube video, and this movie breaks up really important points in history through the use of good and evil, and our American Judicial system.

Vincent Price (famous St Louisan alert!) plays the Devil, and advocates that "the judge and jury in the clouds" (or is it the Supreme Court? Either way, the "God" character--depicted in fog machine filled room--really has AMAZING white glasses that match his gavel, which I was unable to get a screenshot of) let man destroy himself after inventing the H-bomb, because after all, look how many times man has screwed up or been motivated by selfish tricks or malicious violence. The other guy defends the good of humanity, how many great innovations we've made, etc.

They tie it all together with hilarious or entertaining skits featuring The Marx Brothers, Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, Agnes Moorehead (of Bewitched reruns fame, to my generation) as Queen Elizabeth I, some lady comedian (that I had to look up) playing a hilarious pink haired flippant Marie Antoinette, and so many others that you could base a world history curriculum on just showing the short clips of this movie, and then elaborating on the situations as your daily lesson plan. By the end of the semester, you'd have watched the whole movie, and your students would be filled with information and they'd at least look forward to the part of class where they get to watch a movie. The best part is: They won't be able to look it up on the internet and spoiler alert your class unless they buy it on DVD. BRILLIANT!

BONUS if you've read this far: Here's a Fred Crippen directed, Saul Bass illustrated/designed version of the same shitty hand we dealt the American Indians, or whatever we are calling them these days:

Don't be under the illusion that anyone else cares

2011-08-28T09:11:00.000-05:00

Saul Bass briefs us on designers' qualm with time vs money.

Well I guess I'll be tuning into MTV VMAs this year...aka BASIC BITCHES WEAR THAT SHIT SO I DON'T EVEN BOTHER!

2011-08-26T09:16:00.002-05:00

Kreayshawn (pronounced CRAY-shawn, not creation), who I have a major talent crush on, (video up above for reference, which she edits and directs herself) is hosting the MTV Red Carpet Report, so I'm TiVo'in it FO SHO now. I'm not sure at what point in the evening she'll be donning it, but our KC sweetheart Peggy Noland was posting a picture of a very mysterious portion of an outfit she made alluding to a (self started) rumored that said outfit is made for the Kreaylady at the VMAs! GAGA'S GoN B JEALOUS! PEGGY'S A GENIUS AT CREATIVE OUTFITS!

Even though I'm not in the habit of aimlessly tweeting at people with record deals and 13 million views on their breakout hit, I say rumor because I tweeted at Kreayshawn asking if she would tweet about her outfit to no reply, but hey, I tried! Maybe she's waiting for the day of hype to reveal all the tricks up her sleeves. I'm too excited not to blog about it, though. Below is the hint that Peggy posted on her facebook page. It appears to be some sort of swatch of fabric with sperms and words printed all over it, paired with an awesome bratastic punk patch style jacket she sewed on a bunch of thrift store patches that say funny shit...which is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT for Kreayshawn. I cannot wait to see it on screen and see a combination of what I imagine will be new stardom rapper young girl cocksureness, sweet awe starstruckness, and inappropriate overconfident questions posed to musicians in Kreay's Oakland swag jargon we haven't heard yet that should inspire some great reactions if nothing else. I'm just imagining this at this point, but boy am I excited about it.
VOTE FOR KREAYSHAWN FOR BEST NEW ARTIST HERE SO WE CAN SEE HER ACCEPTANCE SPEECH.

Color lover nails I painted

2011-08-26T02:37:00.001-05:00

Trippy Marbly fake nails I painted

2011-08-26T02:36:00.001-05:00

Some fake nails I painted.

2011-08-26T02:31:00.001-05:00

CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU'VE JUST WON A LIFETIME SUPPLY OF BEER TICKETS REDEEMABLE ANYWHERE ON THE BEER OF YOUR CHOICE!

2011-08-26T02:25:00.001-05:00

I wish.

Some calendar pictures I drew when I was a kid.

2011-08-26T02:22:00.003-05:00

I know that the depiction of my brother on his birthday in March complete with table full of presents is pretty funny (his teeth really look like that, even after braces. Jk RyGuy) but you know I had some ambitious ice skating tricks by January's depiction! I like that I was just as obsessed with drawing a bazillion hearts and that Valentines Day (or February) stands for "family love" (my mom still sends me chocolates and my dad sends me flowers on Feb 14) and I don't really "get" what month the bugs and mushrooms are supposed to be, but I really dig whatever month it is we go to the desert and see cacti flowers and proclaim, "WOW! A SKULL! A CACTUS! WOW!" Sounds like me!

Beautiful stag sign in Florissant

2011-08-26T02:15:00.001-05:00

When I was a little kid, my mom told me I could write a letter to my cousin Jessica in St Louis who is about 6 months older than me, and I distinctively remember addressing it to "Florescent, MO"...I don't think my mom corrected me because my Unca Mike would probably find it hilarious.

Funny anti speeding rhyme signs

2011-08-26T02:11:00.002-05:00

SUMMERLUST

2011-08-22T12:42:00.000-05:00

my friend Christine P aka doomstine made a tumblr and all I got was this gif that made me want all these shorts.

This reminded me of that: Onion article on how studies show humans would rather be animatronic bear...I'd be one if it were in this video!

2011-08-18T19:47:00.001-05:00

Study: 96 Percent Of Humans Would Rather Be Animatronic Bear

...I wanna make love in this club, bear. GOD I LOVE THAT VIDEO.

Adopt a Polydactyl kitten!!!!

2011-08-18T13:47:00.001-05:00

They have several Polydactyl, Hemingway, mitten, whatever you wanna call these guys with extra toes...but some people believe these cats are extra smart and make really good pets, so if you're in the market for a kitty, go to petsmart on Chippewa and Kingshighway!

Spokey dokes

2011-08-16T14:52:00.002-05:00

Picked up some pink and purple hearts for my bike today when I dropped off some crap at the goodwill. I might ride my bike to the bike in movie tonight at atomic cowboy. It's put on by New Belgium brewery (who the founder/our fearless leader of the FBC blogs for) and tonight they are showing Pee Wee's Big Adventure aka my first love of bike related movies. We are going to meet up at Christine and Lee's at 6 to get Mexican food at flavor corner la vallesana on Cherokee, get at me if you wanna join!

Tomorrow's Tulips videos

2011-08-16T11:46:00.001-05:00

These are my friends in OC, CA Alex Knost and Christina Kee and the little tiny Kurt Cobain lookin' one in the above video is Jack F, whose whole family is super awesome and I love them. I get jealous every time my brother says he is going to Alex and Christina's house for a BBQ or to see Tomorrow's Tulips play. If there was an ocean here (I'm pretty sure that they both surf but Al does it professionally) it might be easier to get them to tour here. CK is a super cute drummer, especially when her hair is in her eyes. They kind of remind me of The Vaselines if they surfed and were more chilled out, they seem to fit to me with the likes of say, Vivian Girls and Best Coast as far as poppy post punk sleepytown but still energetic and somehow nodding at experimental music. Writing about music makes no sense, I'm sorry. Just Listen.

Taylor and I had a paddleboat date today in Forest Park

2011-08-15T19:48:00.001-05:00

We took Ollie out on a paddleboat this afternoon at the boathouse in Forest Park-- which I've always wanted to do--and it was the best $17 I ever spent to rent for an hour! They charge you a few extra bucks per 15 minutes you go over, but between your legs getting worn out from paddling and being in the sun, an hour is plenty. There was plenty to look at though, we had such a good time I think I'm gonna make Worful take me soon!

OMG ANGRY CATBOOBS

2011-08-11T11:34:00.002-05:00

I've heard of manboobs but catboobs are just too funny! Especially since they're saggy! I don't think I've ever seen a chubby Rex before! It kind of makes me want to shave Brak even more now, besides the fact that he's too fat to groom himself.

This Reminded Me Of That...Song Soundalikes

2011-08-07T03:46:00.001-05:00

Almost every time I hear the beginning of Foreigner's "Urgent" (which I love by the way) I almost always hope that it's this one hit by The Passions, crooning that she's in love with a German film star...
see for yourself how similar the intros to the songs sound:

I can't decide which song I like better. See this other post I made about the same Foreigner song to see kind of a funny rudimentary but funny literal video interpretation of it a while back.

Hanging with my boys

2011-08-05T17:43:00.002-05:00

And later I'll hang out and snuggle with my human boy.

Why I might want to spend more time with bears.

2011-08-04T00:52:00.001-05:00

I don't know why but I love the idea of Bears so much I actually might be one for Halloween.

Taylor said this is how she woke up this morning.

2011-08-04T00:50:00.002-05:00

Sometimes you can't tell the difference between your pets waiting for you to wake up to feed them, and them possibly plotting to kill you. If her animals weren't so sweet, i'd say this was one of those moments.

The Last Wednesday of the Whitaker Jazz Festival free Wednesday night at the MO botanical Gardens

2011-08-03T21:16:00.003-05:00

Cheers to Henry Shaw, Pam and Cole Todorovich, Liz and Taylor, Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three, and all the dancers up front! Here's Pokey, Ryan, Adam, and Joey on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Series:

Of course it has tie dye on the box...

2011-08-01T00:48:00.002-05:00

Only hippies and potheads will want to take advantage of the sale on the new Hemp Dream milk substitute! You gotta look the part, right? C'mon, either give them some dignified packaging, or do some awesome trippy cannibus leaf design, don't beat around the bush with some tie dye!

My Custom Bike Is Finally Finished!

2011-07-31T17:28:00.001-05:00

I can't wait to see how it rides!!! Thanks to Joe W for building it and keeping it in his garage for months and months, and to TJ for ordering most of the parts!!! It's so beautiful, balanced, and so ME!!!

UPDATE: mom told me she saw this picture and told me to go buy a good U-Lock. That means she thinks it's pretty enough to get stolen. I agree.

Cardinals vs Cubs

2011-07-29T18:53:00.001-05:00

My friend Karen works at Busch Stadium so she got us $44 tickets for only $35! Cubs vs Cards with people i like that know the rules should be a fun game!

This is one of my favorite videos on all of YouTube

2011-07-29T17:33:00.002-05:00

I can't even really explain why I get such a kick out of it. Maybe it's because I can see myself making the same thing, or maybe it's the paper bowls floating in the pool and the camera panning down a string of the same raisin in different positions tied together in an action sequence chain, or maybe it's just that I see those California Raisin Figurines every other time I go to an antique mall, and I'm impressed that someone collected so many of them and decided to make a video of them having some sort of Flinstones Meet The Jetsons type fanfic swingers party with Smurf figurines (let's pretend like that horrible movie is not coming to theaters) set to such a universally-understood-as-sexytime song, but I just know that I LOVE IT SO MUCH I MIGHT ACTUALLY CONSIDER MARRYING IT. As in, the upload date was September of 2007, and it still only has about 13,000 views and I have no idea where I initially found it, which means that I've loved it for years and I hope it makes sense to you. Here's to hoping that you will also love it even just a fraction of how much this makes me laugh, or if nothing else just solidifies your endearment to my love for it. I have no idea if I've ever shared it with you before, or why I haven't yet if I haven't, but here it is. Happy Friday, blog readers.

PS- I can't hear "I heard it through the grapevine" without thinking of the California Raisins, which I think might be unique to my generation.

Is it weird that I want to work out to this song?

2011-07-29T17:17:00.000-05:00

Ever since Liz took me to the YMCA gym and I decided that I liked the disco station they were playing and Christine took me to the spinning on stationary bikes class I guess I 'get' why people say things like "oh I have a workout playlist" which I always thought was kind of strange before, but it really is just as much of a bummer as when you feel like leaving the dance floor because something you're not so into starts playing...but this sort of stuff might actually be good for working out...Ann was playing it on the MGMT Pandora station...

Coco and Mariah and a sweet mini Parrot in Vegas

2011-07-29T04:14:00.000-05:00

Ok between these adorable pictures (taken by a guy called Gabe Ginsberg) and the hello kitty cake pops, I was even more jealous for not being with them than when Mariah was texting me "wish you were here with us for coco's bday party in Vegas" etc. I love their bows and they look like they had so much fun. Colette looks like a cupcake in that dress and I miss hearing her giggle. She is hilarious. Naughty comedic genius, even. Mariah said there's not really anyone better to take you to Vegas than Coco (who is essentially her sister in law) because those in the adult industry get hosted like royalty and everything is free because that kind of celebrity is really appreciated in the city of sin! I just want a chance to live out the kind of Vegas experience described in comedian Nick Swardson's joke about Losing $300 on high fives from a spider monkey in a sequined vest and sequins top hat in Vegas, except the losing $300 part. When you hear stuff like that, the "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" campaign really makes sense to everyone but your accountant/banker/bookkeeper, amiright?

I still haven't posted my pictures from when Mariah and I got super dolled up when Coco took Mariah and me and her parents and her brother (Mariah's longtime love Bobby) and a few other friends out to a bizarre black tie Beverly Hills VIP red carpet club party hosted by a crew of adult film industry girls running around in lingerie (there was a lingerie fashion show they were all in, so they shed their formalwear and kept it off like hot messes) drunk on bottle service champagne for new years' eve, but there really is no good way to bring that kind of thing up without knowing how to explain what your friend's sister does for a living to your mom and friends' moms that read my blog regularly, so you can imagine my hesitation! But now that I told my mom not to google coco if her safe search is turned off (or really at all!) and that we (namely Bobby and Mariah in this case, as a couple and friends that I love and value very much) can't control who our family members are, we just have to love them for who they choose to be, and to operate on a kind of "don't ask, don't tell because you don't wanna know and definitely don't google it, my dear tech savvy mother" kind of policy when it comes to trying to understand why my sweet hardworking friend who helped her clean out the garage would hang out with someone with XXX in their job title, or why I might be accepting of it, I think it might be fun to finally share my new years pictures with all of you 8 months later. It kind of reminded me of my mom keeping her cool when I was a kid in Reno and while grabbing the mail one day, we ran into our next door neighbor who told us about her grown kids, aged 18, 22, and 24, and that the 22 year old was a "dancer", to which my mom excitedly asked something like, "oh what style? Ballet?" and to her surprise the neighbor answered, "Exotic." and I sort of just remember both moms nodding and mine going "oh." while most likely thinking, "well I guess we really did move to Reno", didn't we?" All I can say is good thing she didn't say, "oh how exciting, we'd love to go see her perform, Heather loves watching dance recitals and performances!" because THAT might've gotten awkward.

So, without further delay, there's the party I wish I got to go to, and tomorrow I'll post the pictures of the party Mariah and I got so made up to go to that we apparently made some of Coco's "colleagues" (aka the scantily clad hot messes) at the party jealous and curious as to who the pink and blue haired amazons in pretty dresses were, and why did SHE get an entourage of mystery girls? If only I had copies of all the pictures that strangers asked to take with me--but I guess I could say the same about the outfit I wore when I roller-skated to this year's STL gay pride parade! More pictures I've put off on posting, but I promise I'll find the time soon!

Who are these people painted on this motorcycle?

2011-07-25T23:00:00.001-05:00

Parked next to this in Pop's parking Lot before going to the Ted Nugent concert. More on that later.

Upside down backwards ponytail medicine ball lift by Liz at the Y

2011-07-25T19:31:00.003-05:00

I thought this was pretty funny when Liz took me to the Y as a guest to exercise with her last week. I liked the ETM machine and back stretching machine with the instructions so much that I totally want to join the south city Y. You get to go to both the sublette and carondelet locations when you join! Carondelet has an OUTDOOR pool! Let's all get excited about EXUHCISE:

Dinner in a jungle storefront

2011-07-25T19:23:00.001-05:00

What a cute dinner date Worful makes.

PHO-KING OBSESSED

2011-07-24T12:01:00.004-05:00

I'm on a pho kick. I tried to make it one time and realized that it was worth the $6.50 - $8.00 (or like $9-$11 I end up actually spending after tax, tip, and appetizer splitting with my eating companion) because I over seasoned the soup, bought the wrong clear asian noodles, all sorts of bad news stuff...it was a pho-king disaster. I still ate a lot of it before realizing it tasted kind of like garbage but whatever, we live and we learn not to get too excited to follow the recipe EXACTLY until you've made whatever it is enough times to stray here and there. Plus, buying star anise and cardamom in a regular grocery store is NOT as cheap as the asian market. BUT since I don't feel awesome enough to go eat out on my own, I take FOREVER to prepare and eat it, and I want pho ALL THE TIME... I might have to try again and learn how to make it in bulk at home so I can eat it whenever the pho I want. I just found this recipe online with really good pictures and it is making me so hungry I need to snack ASAP before I ruin my appetite before SLOUP (see previous post) because it's only in 2 hours and I'm going to slurp up some of that chef Clara Moore's chilled cucumber soup goodness. Maybe I'll distract myself with some laundry and dishes and salad.

HERE'S THE AWESOME RECIPE I WANT TO TRY!
most of these pics are from fuck yeah pho
Anthony Bourdain eating PHO in Vietnam:

I am not brave enough for this portion

I also want to try this crock pot one the same gal blogged but I can't remember if a crock pot was one of the items my grandma gave me when she moved from her house to FriendshipVillageGrandmaPartyZone I'mTooBusyToReturnGrandchildren'sPhoneCalls so if anyone has a crock pot they want to get rid of, think of me, dear friend and I will share things I make in it. As a parting gift, this would be a great time to post the Jessica Hische type illustration as love note to that red rooster sauce we all love, sriracha.

SLOUP #18 at the Contemporary Museum: My friends' apartment gallery Los Caminos has a proposal up

2011-07-23T16:57:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you've ever heard of SLOUP but basically from my understanding of the events, everyone gets together somewhere and pays $10 to get into this soup dinner (the soup is always made and donated by a local restaurant, some of which might be out of your regular desired dining out price range to eat at) and then anyone who submits a proposal in time for a project they'd like funding for (usually a community or creative project) gets to have their proposal presented to all the SLOUP guests, and then all the attendees vote on who gets the pool of money in the end.

Seems to me to be a very fair system for raising money for a project that might not know how to obtain startup funding (or might be too small/new to have a fundraising/donation system in place), and to get a sense of what is going on in your community, and in turn directly contribute to the ones you think deserve a chance to flourish, without breaking the bank. I've always meant to go to one, but never made it out for some reason, despite knowing Maggie and Amelia, the girls that organize these events.

Tomorrow, Sunday July 24th at 2 pm, I'll be attending my first SLOUP at St Louis' Contemporary Art Museum, to listen to and vote for my friends Cole and Francesca's apartment gallery Los Caminos (btw they just got an amazing write-up/interview by Temporary Arts) to get funding they need to continue their awesome programming. Here's the facebook event info. The soup for tomorrow's event is donated by Local Harvest and will be Chilled Cucumber soup. If their cucumber soup is half as good as their borscht, it'll be worth it. Chef Clara Moore is super rad and makes delicious everything, so I'm excited. Hope to see you there! Don't be afraid to comment or contact me to ask what it's all about or how it went if you miss it, and if you end up going because you've read about it here, then be sure to say hello when you see me!

SLOUP on facebook
Los Caminos on facebook

Pillowheads

2011-07-20T14:33:00.002-05:00

This pic I took of waffle a few weeks ago reminded me of this other pic Taylor took of me on her couch that I posted a few years ago...

Float trippin with some sk8 boys last Friday

2011-07-19T18:49:00.002-05:00

Float trip number one down this summer, scheduled to go on my 2nd (and probably last of the summer) this Friday with the people I've gone floating with for the past 2 years on 4th of July. This year it didn't work out and we all made other plans for the 4th, so we are going a little late. I hope my waterproof camera is in working order by then (the battery is unpredictable when it'll hold a charge bc it's getting old) so I don't have to rely on whoever buys a waterproof disposable.

ANYWAYS. This past Friday I went floating in two canoes on the Meramec River with 4 skateboard boys: STL dudes Randy (who is in order for a great big congrats bc he just got named a PRO by The High Five) and Drew got us all together because Ari and Vlad were here visiting from AZ again (they visited earlier this summer too) and I watched them jump from trees, we encountered a bunch of cows getting a cool drink of water, and stopped into a cave, but didn't go too far in (because it was very dark and Randy broke his flashlight bulb before we set off), and generally had so much fun in the sun that I got home with the intention of "resting" for an hour to go on the FBC full moon fiasco, but totally fell asleep and woke up at 2 am with all my lights and TV on. Here's the account from the Pretty Skateboards blog, and are the pics I developed yesterday:

So this is a real feature on the newer version of my camera

2011-07-16T17:31:00.002-05:00

"The camera automatically takes a picture when a cat's face is detected." what has the Internet done to us?