Hair-brained Year-long Project #18284-F: The dress

Okay.

I have decided I am making a dress (no, not for me, thx).

I've always liked fashion. But I can't sketch, stitch, cut, or sew.

I am starting from scratch. But with my library card, my passion for ridiculous ideas, and my mom's sewing machine, I'm giving myself one year, 365 days, to design and make a dress. Why? Why the fuck not?

You've no one but yourselves to blame: When asses grow fat, thought grows thin

Paris Hilton is not capable of world domination; well, not by herself she isn't. People love to jump up and down about how we shouldn't care about where she goes, who she goes with, and what she's wearing when she gets there. I agree. But there is one aspect to the train wreck that is Paris Hilton that most people overlook: themselves.
Paris was born rich. There's no denying that. As the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, one could hardly expect her to be poor. She modeled as a child and then "grew up" into a life of leisure and took her tiara as one of America's socialites. Then something awful happened...
Someone out there, you perhaps, decided what she did was newsworthy. Suddenly the cameras couldn't get enough of this young woman, and, like any other capitalist on the planet, she decided to use her new glory for her own ends. Can you blame her? No. I blame you.
Keep this in mind if you keep reading today's little diatribe...

This coming Friday (October 1, 2010), I'm going to a live music show at The Anza Club in Vancouver. You probably won't be there. If you go out that night maybe you'll be in a little cafe with a loved one; if so, you get a pass. If not, you might be in a club somewhere listening to garbage music made by someone's computer software. Then on the way home to catch Jersey Shore, you'll listen to your iPod and complain, complain about Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton...
You have no one but yourselves to blame.
If you don't like the state of popular music turn off MTV. Turn off your ultra-mainstream radios. Turn off.
Then turn ON.
If you don't like what is being delivered to you, stop delivery. Get off your ass and search out something better. It's out there. I promise.
The band I am going to see this Friday can be shamelessly classified as Country Music (among other genres). How often do I hear people say they "HATE" Country Music only to add, "but I like Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson."? What you hate is bad Country Music. Find some good stuff. Right now you are sitting in the rain complaining about being wet. If you move, shelter can be found. I think some of you just like to complain.
Some people seek refuge in the old albums, Classic Rock, etc... I have no problem with these bands and their music has lasted because it was good. But how do you find new Pop Music that is good? Make Good Music popular.
We created Paris Hilton just as Frankenstein created his monster. Not everything we create has to be bad. Find good music. Buy the CD. Buy the shirt. Tell your friends. Give Good Music the ear it deserves.

First they came for the music lovers...

See you at the show... someday.

Guh...

This pic just floated across my Internet goggles...
Below is a new picture of "alt-model", Apnea - Amanda Pemberton to her friends and recent fiancee, photographer, Chase Lisbon. As far as I am concerned, Apnea's eyes have always been what set her apart from the other models in her field (despite the fact this tattooed cutie is amazingly flexible).
I'm reposting this pic because it caught me as different, another new look for this little chameleon. Looks as though she's channeling Pris (Blade Runner) in this one with some Harley Quinn (Batman) and Conan the Barbarian thrown in for good measure. Whether the ghosting was done during or post, I don't know but it certainly adds to the feeling this image provokes.
If you have some time (and you're not at work), swing by her blog. It's a fun collection of picture sets, cats, cookies, and travel stories.

photo credit: Nathan Appel

Kool Shit for Cooler Seasons: Viktor & Rolf Fall/Winter 2010

Designers have their Fall/Winter shows the previous spring. Got it? So these are from March of this year from the show in Paris. Yeah, I like bums and boobs, gazes and gams, etc, etc, etc... But I also love good clothes. These are my favs from this collection. Think of me of the Mr. Burns of fashion: I know what I hate and I don't hate this...

Viktor & Rolf: Fall/Winter 2010

(Paris, March 2010)

Drunk Video Version of Previous Post

What do you say that this Saturday we throw a bunch of bigoted pea-brains on a bonfire?

As the clock ticks down to possibly the dumbest idea in recent history, one can't help but wonder what burning the Quran could possibly accomplish in any positive sense. I watched a clip from an interview with one of this church's pastors replayed on MSNBC today. In the clip, the pastor said they just wanted to expose something that everyone already knew. Um... that's not exposure; that's exploitation. Somehow, the idea of deliberately pissing off a group of people (albeit small) just to egg this group into doing what the group are doing already doesn't seem to prove the point they wanted.
For me, watching two airplanes soar into the World Trade Center seemed to be evidence enough that a minute faction of radicalized Islamic fanatics wanted to rain death on the West. The idea of deliberately pissing them, and all Muslims, off just doesn't register with me as a terribly well thought out plan. The pastors of this church claim that the radical elements they are sending this message to cannot be reasoned with. The pastors of this church also stated that nothing and no one could dissuade them from going through with the book burning. This too sounds like radicalized religious zealots who "cannot be reasoned with".
The US needs to realize the road they are being led down by reactionary forces. Too many of its politicians (on both sides of the aisle) are trying too hard to merely get elected to govern a country that will lay in ruins if their governing is anything like their campaigning.
I'd be interested to see figures as to which has more members: Al-Qaeda or whack-job, splinter-Christian churches in the US.
Hope, however, is not lost. Also on MSNBC, I saw an interview with the pastor of a Tennessee church that had opened its doors to local Muslims building a mosque and community centre beside them. With the centre still incomplete, the Heartsong Church of Cordova, TN, invited their Muslim neighbours to use their church for evening prayers and feasts during Ramadan. When I first Googled this, Google News had over 6000 stories about the Quran burning and only 15 about the openess and tolerance shown by the congregation at the Heartsong Church. Go figure.

Mere survival

A dear friend of mine was lamenting her lot in life. Not in a pitiful or whiny way, but in the way people in their early-20s often think when the world jumps up and bites them in the ass. There is nothing wrong with someone wanting the world to be a fair place to live. I just don't know how far I should push my existentialist belief when it comes to dealing with her.

Life is not about mere survival; it is about living. But, to my way of thinking, one cannot live until they have freed themselves from the belief that life was, is, or will be fair. The only meaning to life is that which we give it.

Some may find this bleak. It isn't. Living without delusions is the freest and happiest a person can truly be. We just have to get there. My worst delusion is believing this is entirely possible.

BSC