Sunday, July 31, 2011

RuPaul's Drag Race

I'm obsessed with this show!  It's like a super campy version of America's Next Top Model and Project Runway!  I love it!  RuPaul is the best!



I feel like this clip doesn't do the show justice.  It's hilarious.  The third season just started on Logo, but in the meantime I'll finish watching season 2 on Instant Netflix.

Oh, AND there's already a spinoff show called DragU, which gives sad female housewives tranny makeovers. Fried gold! I want someone to nominate me to be on that show!

       img via http://fuckyeahqueenraven.tumblr.com/  (Thanks Dana!)

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Crystalised

This song is not new at all but I'm loving it this week, from buzzband The xx's 2009 debut album, xx.



AHHH, IT'S SO GOOD.  WHEN IS THEIR NEXT ALBUM??

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Splendid truths

The older I get the more I realize complaining never gets me anywhere.  It's not useful at all!  Eventually the universe finds a way to remind me to either lighten the fuck up or harden the fuck up, usually both.
The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.  -Voltaire

I love my bike

I get so many compliments on it.  I think my favorite was a hipster girl in the Ralphs parking lot who told me, "that's my dream bike."
My bike: Surly Pacer
I've been effectively car-less for three months now.  I wish I had more to say about it, but the truth of the matter was my ten year old car blew a head gasket and it was too expensive to fix, and I didn't feel I could afford a new car.  Instead I'm biking, riding the bus, (or a combination of both), and if I'm really desperate, bumming rides from friends.  It's works.  And I do get to feel smug about never having to sit in traffic again.

Still, not having a car is not easy.  I think the hardest part is feeling less independent.  With a car, you don't have to think how you're getting anywhere, you just go.  With a bike, you really have to strategize.  (Is there an easy bike route?  Do I need to bring a change of clothes?  How long will it take me to get there?)  Simple things like grocery shopping becomes challenging.  Most of these things get easier with time and I just need to harden the fuck up (HTFU).

For the most part I think I'm really lucky.  The weather here in SB is always great and my bike is rad, and riding it all the time is actually pretty awesome.  Besides, a little fresh air and exercise never hurt anyone!  And luckily no one cares if I'm an hour late to work, ha.  In the past few months I've upgraded to rear-rack panniers (instead of riding with an old backpack), clip-in pedals and shoes, larger lights, and most recently a U-lock.  The right equipment makes a big difference.

By the way, I can't believe it took me this long to get the U-lock.  Check out this video of a bike thief in San Fran who fortunately got thwarted by a good samaritan.  (Fast forward to 0:22 mark.) It took him one second to cut the cable!  Damn!



One thing that sucks about using U-locks is that some bike racks won't let you lock through your frame and your front wheel, so you still need a cable lock anyway.  But I will gladly take the extra few seconds to lock my bike properly, even if it takes two locks.  Sidenote: I want to start a blog just showing different pictures of bike racks and rating them, but in the meantime I started a Flickr set.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

A new sex move I've never heard of?

Smang - it's a smash and bang fusion.  "Gotta focus mama, you don't wanna get a coosh contusion."

Hilarious!



Also loving Flynt Fossy's DID I MENTION I LIKE TO DANCE (found via Doobybrain)

Monday, July 18, 2011

YESSSSS!

From Engadget: Robot band covers Marilyn Manson, renders sullen teenagers obsolete (video)



I love the scanner at the 1 minute mark.

Light amplification

Fun fact:  The lasers used in Blu-Ray players are actually violet.  Like blacklights, a violet laser pointer can cause different surfaces to fluoresce (or glow).  

img ganked from Wikipedia

Sunday, July 17, 2011

David Bowie


I love this quote from Stewart Lee's hilarious and weird Guardian article, If Damon Albarn is serious about the occult, shouldn't we call him Damien?
...if viewed as an "artist", David Bowie makes no sense at all. He seems to be little more than a perpetually spooked moth in slip-ons, sputtering, in a series of self-shaming leaps towards imagined relevance, from one swiftly guttering fad to another – grunge metal, drum and bass and having a skellington face. But imagine Bowie instead as a cunning lichen, an adaptive tuber or a semi-sentient mould, endlessly reshaping himself in search of the moisture of acclaim, and it is easy to understand him.

Read the rest

If you ask me, David Bowie can do no harm! Here's a whole bunch of David Bowie videos, just because!










Guardian article found via Jad Abumrad


Rolling shutter

All Songs recently linked to this video taken with an iPhone that captures vibrations in a guitar string. The video author warns: "this effect is due to the rolling shutter, which is non-representative of how strings actually vibrate." Still really cool!



If you want to see more rolling shutter effects, check out these disturbing propeller videos:  [1],  [2],  [3]

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Two songs in my head lately

Vampire Weekend "Run"
I love this song so much. I think it's the constant build up and the "oooh ooh oooh ooh" at the bridge.  This live version from KCRW sounds great!



Lily Allen "Fuck You"
Because I always gotta be hating everything.


How NPR voices look in my head

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Picture Me

I simultaneously love and hate the fashion world.  I think it's pretentious and extravagant and gives a wrong message to the world of what women should look like and has absolutely no relevance in my life.  Still, like a moth towards a flame I'm positively drawn towards fashion-related reality shows, movies, and street fashion blogs.  Is it because I worshiped fashion magazines as a teen?

I really dug this documentary: Picture Me from 2009.  It follows the surprisingly down-to-earth Sara Ziff for a few years during her rise in --and ultimate rejection of-- the modeling world.  It provides a really intimate glimpse into a glamorous, and not so glamorous, money-driven industry.  Super interesting!



I watched it while designing outfits on Polyvore, which I continue to be obsessed with.  You can watch Picture Me on Netflix instant.