I can't believe Bruno didn't have the balls to apologize for the multitude of hurtful insults he's hurled all season at Chaz Bono, who's taken it like a true gentleman.
If it had been me, I would have told that little freak to go F*** himself a long time ago.
Chaz worked his butt off and put himself out there every week, and Bruno couldn't give him an ounce of respect for some stupid reason.
The judges play favorites every season & give ridiculously high scores to the uncoordinated and forgetful. The least they could have done was send Chaz out with a respectable score that reflected the improvement shown each week.
I agree with Macks. Maybe it's time for some (if not all) of them to get out of the business. Maybe the thrill is gone, maybe they don't like being reminded that the show isn't about them. It's about the stars, the celebrity stars and the professional dancing stars.
Insulting overweight people for sport is the lowest form of entertainment and shows a complete lack of class.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
November 18th Can't Come Soon Enough!
The new Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn part 1 opens on that date. Oh Yeah!
I can't wait to see it at midnight - after watching the 1st three movies back to back before then.
Call me crazy, call me a vampire freak...obsessed...team Edward...just don't try to call me while I'm watching Breaking Dawn, because I will be incommunicado for the duration...checked out and loving every minute of it!
I can't wait to see it at midnight - after watching the 1st three movies back to back before then.
Call me crazy, call me a vampire freak...obsessed...team Edward...just don't try to call me while I'm watching Breaking Dawn, because I will be incommunicado for the duration...checked out and loving every minute of it!
How We Remember the Dead
http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/noted-how-we-remember-the-dead/?ref=fp_blog_post
Noted: How We Remember the Dead
Two common factors that unite us all — birth and death — are moments lived beyond our realm, too overpowering for mere mortals to consciously experience. Yet the latter remains the greatest mystery; without any understanding of life after death, all we can do is memorialize those who have left us, creating shrines that comfort the living more than the dead. “We rely on [memorial objects] to safeguard fugitive memories that would otherwise inexorably fade, then vanish,” explains design critic and art director Angela Reichers. “Even when there is no access to the narrative — when no one is available to tell the tale — memorial objects possess a persistent quality at once spooky and evocative.” Over the years, our tributes to the deceased have taken many forms: gravestones, pyramids, urns, jewelry and locks of hair. Recently, these memorials have evolved to meet the changing trends of a modern society.
The most recent trends in postmortem memorials involve repurposing ashes into a useful object. My Holy Smoke is a company that fills bullets with cremated ashes, allowing loved ones to use at their own discretion to honor the “outdoors person in your life.” For the deceased music lover, And Vinyly presses ashes into a 12-inch LP for your listening pleasure. You must supply the audio, as the site states, “This can be music, a vocal recording or complete silence to let loved ones hear your pops and crackles.”
Victorian mourning jewelry: A common practice of the era involved making necklaces out of the hair of the deceased.
As a growing percentage of our daily lives exists digitally, expect to see more memorials that reflect our online lives. Designer Michele Gauler offers another solution called Digital Remains — a small, silver external hard drive that downloads and preserves the digital life of someone who has passed on. Of course the web reminds us that not all memorials have to be tangible; advertised as “The World’s Virtual Cemetery,” iTomb offers a space for a digital memorial to a loved one.
Do these contemporary memorial objects trivialize death, or are they a modern coping mechanism, lifting weight in the wake of tragedy? Angela Reichers, whose upcoming Sites of Memory project highlights the forgotten memorial sites of our cities, reminds us that perhaps we shouldn’t make broad assumptions about others’ tributes: “Since memorials themselves are mute despite the wealth of information they possess, it is up to the mourner to recount the tale in whatever way is most palatable to him or her.” In the end, the memory of our loved ones is what counts, whether they be buried, cremated or pressed into vinyl for one final dance party send-off.
How do you want to be remembered?
Monday, October 24, 2011
Ahh...High School....Can't believe it was that long ago!
Parachute pants, Vans, Flourescent colored clothing, Flashdance, Leg Warmers, Shoulder Pads, Dynasty and Dallas, always late for curfew, Fake IDs....Good times.....
Storyboard: High School
I’ll always say “yes” when you want to get slurpees. I don’t have a fake note to get off campus, or a car, but you’ve got both, and I can hide in your trunk, waiting in the dark until we’re safely around the corner for another glimpse of your backlit face.
[Clockwise from top left: Eyes sweater from PrettySnake; Pink scallop cutout flatsfrom sussudionyc; Old school gymnasium clock from lacklusterco; Silver tribal double bell ring from Amrapali; Vintage Norma Kamali sneakers fromMaxineofBeverlyHills; Vintage steelman record player from wondercabin; Floral shorts from SoChicaBoutique]
The eggs we’ll keep in our pockets, ready to launch. They’ll splatter beneath us when we dive in the bushes. The lard we’ll smear on his windshield, for breaking your heart. And after city curfew, when we can’t drive around aimlessly anymore, we’ll park by the levee and tilt the seats back, staring at the silhouettes of live oaks and power lines in the pink suburban sky, eating sour sugar until our tongues get raw.
[Clockwise from top left: “Sick” zine from skyn1; Vintage oversized cardigan fromyulibow; Plum silk button down and white shoes from LapineOursVintage; Black and white Scandinavian pattern socks from TatianaOrlova; Olympus XA-2 fromjamests; Bright yellow circle skirt from ClosetOverflow; 1970s backpack fromanniehaul; “My Cat” zine from scarface133]
When the thrift stores and coffee shops close, we’ll go to the big-box store, the last place open. We’ll clear an aisle and replace it with things we like: propane lamps, disposable cameras, bags of plastic dinosaurs and knee-high socks. We’ll leave with safety pins and tempera paint, to make banners for the club we’re starting.
[Clockwise from top left: Vintage mod peach shell from mousevox; Georgia on My Mind and Omen from the East necklaces from MamaSheaShea; 80s forest green sweatshirt from Kasifoundthis; Vintage leather and linen backpack fromLouisAdroit; Green and white stripes flats from MyVintageLook; Vintage pencil sharpener from RattyandCatty; Ribbed knit green skirt from PomegranateSeed]
Let’s drive far away from here, away from small-town bigotry and rules to prepare us for being employable, away from being too young to write good poetry, away from this guilty, secret wish to be really, really pretty. We’ll make a promise to be awesome old people. We’ll promise to hold each other to it.
Su Wu of I'm Revolting continues to compile a list of the things, places and misinterpreted philosophies that somehow manage to coalesce into a well-lived life. These narrative-driven collections will find you stealing out of your alternate personas' closets.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
I'm Listing Like Crazy on Ebay (mikenmelody92) - Vintage, Designer - Clothes, Clothes, Clothes!
Here's just a sample of what I'm listing right now on Ebay. I've got tons more to list...more to come daily...Ralph Lauren, Chico's, Coldwater Creek, Talbots, Ann Taylor, Levi's, Disney, Pendleton, Venezia, London Fog, Banana Republic, J Jill, Apple Bottoms, Vintage coats and jackets, High-end designers like Richard Tyler & Issey Miyake too! And you can't beat my prices - no way! Go to my Ebay page and click on the left side, Items for Sale: http://myworld.ebay.com/mikenmelody92
I'm listing up a storm right now, so check me out on Ebay: mikenmelody92
I've got everything from Apple Bottoms to Worthington....Vintage and Designer to Classic Casual and work clothing. Awesome stuff - if it all fit me, it would be in my closet right now! :)
Cute Packaging Matters!
Unboxing Desire: The Psychology Behind Packaging
This might sound crazy — in fact, I know it will. But do yourself a favor, park your tuchus in any section of a retail store, and watch how people shop. “But Chappell,” you say, “I don’t want to be a creepy stalker like you.” Don’t worry, just be as discreet as possible — trench coats: optional — and watch how shoppers pick up products, testing their weight while carefully reading item descriptions. There is infinite entertainment in watching how shoppers determine what to buy — one person might buy a toaster simply because it comes with a red paint finish, and another chooses towels through a vigorous terrycloth-to-cheek methodology. While there are many factors that influence our purchasing decisions, there’s no doubt that the way a product is packaged plays a huge role.
Countless studies have concluded the same thing: the better an object looks on the shelf, the more likely we are to take it home. Just consider a store display of iPods — rows of impeccably molded plastic cases, almost just as desirable as the product inside. Yet knowing all of this did not prepare me for running across the unboxing trend — short, first-person videos of buyers unpacking recently purchased items. While most of the videos tend to focus on electronics, they run the gamut from packaged foods tofeminine hygiene products. So what is it about packaging that compels us to fetishize it just as much as the product housed within?
There is, in fact, a deep-rooted history behind the psychology of packaging. When Henry P. Crowell packaged what would later become Quaker Oats, he marketed them as “pure” by comparison with oats sold out of barrels in late 19th century general stores. By the 1950s, purity became a symbol of civilized supermarkets, where bruised fruit and dented cans were quickly removed. “In the First World,” writes Susan Willis in a study on commodity packaging, “the package is a fetishized sign of the desire for purity, which, in the fullest sense, is also a desire for security.”
The desire to rip open the packaging and pull out the object in proud wonderment is engrained in buyers from an early age. It is an act that, when considering product packaging, you might equate with gift wrapping. However, as Willis reminds us, the two are radically different: ”The anticipation we associate with the gift-wrapped present is for the unknown object. In anticipating a plastic-wrapped commodity, we imagine the experience of its use since its identity is already revealed.” When it comes to the imagination, we simply can’t help it — when we see a shiny, packaged product on the shelf, we envision putting it to use and how it would potentially improve everyday life.
We’ve all had our run-ins with effective packaging design. You might have oohed and aahed over the unboxing of a new iPod, opening its packaging as if it were a jewel case. Or you are all too familiar with the maddening frenzy that results from a seemingly impenetrable, heat-sealed plastic shell. Like a primate struggling with cracking a coconut, we resort to sharp objects — scissors, car keys — to free our purchase from its PVC prison. Perhaps nowhere is this hysteria so well documented as it is in a scene from Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which Larry David sinks into pure desperation as he struggles to release a new GPS system from its packaging (see above).
More than just an over-the-top, humorous observation about life, Larry’s depravity reveals just how packaging dangerously stokes our desire for the product within, reverting our civil manners to their caveman-like roots. This violent reaction to seeing and ultimately realeasing a desired object from its packaging is exactly what keeps companies designing newer, shiner boxes for their products. But over the coming years, alternative packaging solutions will certainly be a big topic as we try to get on better terms with Mother Nature. For now, we’ll have to weather the storm, recognizing when it’s the product we want, or the shiny case it comes in.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
See My Newly Made Silver Goth Romantic Cross Skull & Fleur de Lis Necklace Pendants!
I'm so excited about these new pendants I'm making! They're all silver with either a silver & bead flower or a fleur de lis charm on the back, so they look cute even if they flip while being worn.
I'm adding more as we speak, so please check out my shop: http://www.natureangels.etsy.com/ to check out all my silver pendants & cross necklaces. Considering the work that goes into making them, they're priced to sell - Add them to your Christmas list!
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