Fave 2 songs in 2013: My oh my!

Favorite Song: I've posted them all year, but let me pick a top top besty. Here's the song I listened to THE MOST. Constantly. And if I could embody the feel of this song into a novel I'd be a happy happy girl.

Your love is like a slow train coming

And I feel it coming down the track!

Favorite Artist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Not only did I lurv many tracks on their album, but hey... they wrote my theme song. And seriously, my customers are some of the best dressed ladies around. There are a MILLION thrift shops in Nanaimo and they cruise them and put together these great outfits--wish I could take pictures.

But "My Oh My" ended up my fave song.

My first official favorite song in 2013

Often driving along I'll hear a lyric or two, and I'm intrigued, and I'll check the song out when I get home. It's not always a success, like finding the video to "Say Something." Or when I looked up will.i.am's "Scream & Shout" because the chorus sounded like "all we are we are" which was interesting in the middle of a club song, but it turned out to be "oh we oh we oh".

But "Rude" by the band MAGIC!* was more successful, which I looked up based on "Why you gotta be so rude? I'm gonna marry her anyway."



The video is cute, the band is cute, the singer's dancing is cute, the red cap with tux is cute, the group support by the band is cute, the lyric video* is cute, and writing a song addressed to your girlfriend's dad is cute. I especially like that he's not angry that the dad doesn't want him to marry the girlfriend; he's hurt by bad manners.

The lead singer looks and acts like that dude (skater, stoner, poet, he comes in a few guises) whom we've all known and loved at some point in our lives. I mean loved in the way where you want to pat him on the head and squish his little cheeks and tell him "marry that girl."

Also it's smart to have a chorus that goes "why you gotta be so rude?" cause it helps your fans defend you on youtube.

___
* The song's a big hit in Australia/New Zealand, though the band is Canadian, and the singer a Palestinian-Canadian who's written for a zillion pop stars.

** I love this "lyric video" phenomenon. Only reliable source for lyrics on the net.

Everyone is gay, and I am horrified by the blood gushing from my ears

I love the line "say something, I'm giving up on you" from "Say Something", so I watched the video. It's so emotionally manipulative it gives me the creeps.



Then I sampled Great Big World's album and it was horror piled on horror, crowned by their tribute to gay rights. This is a MUST WATCH. Because I don't want to be horrified alone.




In order of appearance, I disliked:

• 1 Ordering people out of the closet.
• 2 Is it implied that gay people can't procreate? I feel this is being implied.
• 3 While I applaud the sentiment "we're all somewhere in the middle" it's rather contradicted by the binary opening.
• 4 I don't get the line: "What if the world stopped spinning tomorrow, we all can't keep running away from who we are." 
• 5 The shouted "well that's great!" in the second verse pushes this song firmly into the "Precious" category. (Keep in mind I own over 20 cat figurines.)
• 6 Why is being "in-between" the best way to be, other than it seemed to fit the song?
• 7 Everyone wants to kiss bisexual people?
• 8 The "Awww" pushes this song into the "Grosser Than Precious" category.
• 9 I've never liked the "we are all Palestinians" or "we are all Black" schtick. It presumes being able to understand an experience you'll never have. But the song is in support of a youth advice website of the same name, who asked them to write "the gayest song" for them. So they can have half a point back.
• 10 The "Hooray!" at the end takes this song beyond "Grosser Than Precious" and into a category that dare not speak its name.

It's a song for children gone so, so wrong. And if it helps someone out there, well... that makes me sad. Artistically sad.

PS
Mind you, the warning signs for the Lifetime Acheesement-ness of this band were out there. Like that their first hit was used in the movie "New Years' Eve" which has a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Or that they opened for Matthew Morrison. Or that the song they named themselves after (their own song) contains the lyric "there's a great big world and there's no need to cry." Or the album cover.

cute new Heyer covers

Hedonist crochet

Was always losing my crochet implements. Bought this hedonist looking fellow from the thrift store, meant for remotes but now bearing my hooks, scissors and stitch markers. I added a crocheted panel on the left, for darning and sewing needles. Even a spot for the tape measure, and an armpit left over for a remote!

 

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life updates

I'm making my first slippers. Vair easy pattern! I've had poor luck with ones bought on etsy (wore out or stretched out) so now must make my own.

Not much going on in my life. I'm starting to focus more on my short time left, what I feel I still need to learn while I'm here.

And on a practical level, looking to maybe buy a hatchback wagon and sell my sedan. More room to move stuff home, and for buying furniture. It's what I wanted in the first place, but was in too much of a rush last time we shopped.

Did I mention my dad had his surgery to remove prostate cancer? It all went well, he's at home recovering.

That's about it for me. Hope you're all well. :-)

Fave 3 movies in 2013: Hot stuff!

Favorite Movie: Oh my I watched a LOT of TV and movies this year, because of all my Depressions and then Crochets.

Rom coms, as we know them from the 80s (the greats like Moonstruck, When Harry Met Sally) have pretty much died out. I'm an easy going viewer, but even I think that the conventional rom com in the 2000s is crap. I agree with Billy Mernit that the best rom coms now are hybrids. Like "Warm Bodies" which is a totally successful, romantic, and funny mash up of a rom com and a zombie movie.

42 was another great one. Oh I love me a good sports movie. Robinson comes off as one cool dude.



Best rewatch: Hadn't seen The Full Monty in years. It's so brilliant. And here's the best scene, which almost wasn't included... the unemployed guys waiting in line for their govt cheques

Love me still

The release of "I Feel For U" in the 80s was a revelation to me. "Who is this Chaka Kahn? I lobes her! And I want her hair!"

But here's a phenomenally beautiful song from the 90s. A must listen.






(But just in case you need MORE Chaka...)

Nice kitty story!

Man, the things you find on BuzzFeed. This guy's kitten has a genetic disorder where his back knees no longer work! He can't run around and play. The dude was disheartened at the cost of fixing them, but a friend recommended GoFundMe.com and he's raised enough for one knee (in three days), and starting to raise for the other! Winslow will have his operation soon. We wish him all the best!

Homemade earring holder

In high school I wore earrings ALL the time. It was my thing. Sometime in my 20s I got rid of my collection because I was wearing my glasses all the time and big earrings & glasses = crazy old lady look. Too much going on.

But then I stopped wearing my glasses except when necessary, because they trigger headaches. And so I began to collect again. At home I have a jewellery organizer as big as my door...

I didn't bring any of them to Nanaimo, so I've been slowly amassing a new collection, and I needed a holder for them.

This is a rectangle of single crochet, crocheted onto two (thrifted) dowels. I added a scalloped border for attaching post earrings.

The dowels turned out to be handy for necklaces and bracelets.

Close ups!

Squid bracelet

Mad Men era necklaces

Old broach

Super Grover!

Animals!

Modern bracelet

Old fashioned lovers

Chicks done in wood

Kitty bracelet

Now when I get home I'll need a solution for my other obsession: scarves!

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Fave 3 TV shows in 2013: It's just like the Hamptons...

Of TV shows: Orange is the New Black, about a women's prison. Man was it good! Great characters, some of whom start of as clichés but get realer as time goes on (Crazy Eyes!!) And a great racial mix. Plus... well, it shows an all-chick cast can carry a TV show. I loved Oz, but this show is much funnier. "It's just like the Hamptons, only fucking horrible."

Mad Men was as good as They said (and The Hours a good follow up.)


Of old shows:  The BBC House of Cards--funnier than the American one. It's about a minister who's been passed over for a top position in the new government, so he sets out to destroy everyone above him.




And then Game of Thrones, and all my old shows like Nashville, New Girl, Psych, etc etc. Anyone who says TV these days is rubbish isn't watching the right things. ;-)
  

To gently nudge you awake

Most mornings I listen to CBC Radio 2 (Canadian public radio) on the way to work. It has a nice mellow groove for my sloooow emergence from the depths of sleep. Here are three they've been playing a lot.

Haim - The Wire


City and Colour - Commentators


John Mayer - Wildfire

Ta da! My first scarf and hat

This is a gift for Fernando. He doesn't have it yet, but I don't think he read me blog. I'd better send it soon, with all the frigid weather!

This was from a bag of alpaca yarn, 6 balls for 3$ minus my discount. Didn't know what I was going to do, but i loved the color.

The hat's a but conical--I was playing with the sizing as I went. I found a math calculation for figuring out how wide to make your beanie hat, but mistrusted it. Shouldn't have! I think it was right, after all.

But at least it can be pulled real low.

On the back I made a puffy kitty. Fernando wears a llama eared hat, so I think he'll wear it. But he can just wear indoors too, to keep his bald headwarm. I made this bit at the back that goes low to warm the neck.

The scarf was easy--half double crochet, crocheting into thr back stitch onlyto create the ribs.

And I improvised my own ear warmer bits.

The scarf is thin, but floor length, to give you that Dickensian feel!

 

 

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Two fave books of 2013: We learn and live

Favorite book cover: I'll have to go with The Rules of Civility, which is also one of my favorite titles. I read this book solely based on the cover.

Favorite book: I'll also say Rules of Civility, though I listened to it on audio while commuting. I don't know if that affected my experience.

“Uncompromising purpose and the search for eternal truth have an unquestionable sex appeal for the young and high-minded; but when a person loses the ability to take pleasure in the mundane--in the cigarette on the stoop or the gingersnap in the bath--she had probably put herself in unnecessary danger.” 

Also did audio for Snuff by Pratchett. Only Pratchett can make little pots made of bodily fluids the basis of a touching story about civil rights for goblins.

“In fact, if there were such a thing as an international thieving contest, Ankh-Morpork would bring home the trophy and probably everyone's wallets.” 

“We live and learn, or, perhaps more importantly we learn and live.” 

What a fantastic quote

Bit of Joseph Campbell for you, on the stages of life...

5 months, and Happy New Year!

The countdown to returning to Montreal continues!

I love 1930s Christmas songs.


From the Hotel Café compilation, which is a very pretty Christmas album.