Wednesday, September 27

Stefano Pilati (Yves Saint Laurent)

"I hate the word perfection, because, personally, I feel it does not take you anywhere...Let's say today I found it, what am I going to do next?"

media spinning of Clinton's interview

Jon Stewart breaks it down for us.

Tuesday, September 26

what is WITH halloween?

Have these people never heard the well-known warning, "Never take candy from strangers"?! So let me get this straight... never take candy from strangers EXCEPT on this ONE day... oh ya, and ONLY if you beg for it first.










Look how confused the little bugger is!

Monday, September 25

if i had a million dollars

i'm no fashionista, but collection after collection, i fall in love with gianfranco ferre. ferre's architectural background inspires the precision and beauty of the lines in his clothes. like i was saying: if i had a million dollars...















































Sunday, September 24

who do i love?

I love Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu, Josh Hartnett, Stanley Tucci, and Ben Kingsley. See these fantastic actors in Lucky Number Slevin. See it for the clever dialogue (Slevin: I said the same thing that the guy with two penises says when his tailor asks if he dresses to the right or to the left. Yes.). See it for the incredible wallpaper, if for nothing else!

Thursday, September 21

smack the pony



funnier because the bloke's name is Chris.

(thanks vaughn!)

meredith?

Yes. Tonight is the biggest night of my life.


(Tonight, Grey's Anatomy premieres its third season)

Wednesday, September 20

healing rwanda

this documentary will be available until the latest National is loaded Wednesday, September 20th at 11:30pm ET. Click "Watch the National Online" and skip forward to 28:26.

What of the survivors of the 1994 genocide of Rwandan Tutsis?














Nicole Pageau moved to Kimironko, Rwanda to help the women and children left behind: "The Tutsis are proud people. Those women are proud women. But their pride was...all gone because of what they had suffered. And I wanted them to be proud again. To be again, what they are."

Known as "Maman Nicole" by the widows of the village, Pageau and Ubuntu Edmonton have established a food bank, a sewing/knitting/embroidery cooperative, a community centre, and more, for the community of women and children. Pageau has "sparked faith and opened hearts once closed by fear and pain."

I am inspired by the work of this selfless and compassionate woman.

Monday, September 18

really blond white girls

"Caitlin Spencer" has been the name of a character in 2 less-than-horrible films in the last six years. In What Lies Beneath (2000), "Caitlin" is the barely present daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Spencer (Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer). In Take the Lead (2006), "Caitlin Spencer" is the rich white girl who finds herself more comfortable with the kids at Pierre Dulaine's inner city dance class. In fact, she delivers one of the classic lines of the film as she watches her peers at the fancy dance school: "It's like sex on hardwood."

So. Maybe I'm jealous about having to share my name, because I've rarely had to do so (it's not like my name is so generic as Jane Smith). But perhaps I'd feel better if "Caitlin Spencer" was the name of a super secret, super hot spy in a super slick, super stylin movie. Or maybe it's just that I'm thrown by the noticeable similarity between the two onscreen representations of my name:













Notice anything? Anything?
You guessed it. Bleached, refined, white bread!

According to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (authors of Freakonomics), this is the predominant make-up of girls named "Kaitlin" all across the United States. So, fine, my name is one of the whitest girl names in America (I imagine the stats are similar for Canada). Oh, I'm not foolish enough to believe that my dark hair, and the minor trace of Cree in my blood exempts me from this pattern. But I guess I'm uncomfortable with my membership in that club. I have preferred not to consider myself any colour at all - to be colourless, rather than whitey mcwhite white. There are some pretty severe stereotypes about people with that particular skin colour, and I obviously have some discomfort being associated with them: privileged, elitist, and oppressive are words that come to mind.

I love my name. I love the way it sounds and the way it looks. I own it. I'm proud of it. I love that at the time my mom chose "Caitlin" (1980), it was still relatively unique. And I love that I was named after the wife of her favourite poet: Caitlin Thomas. I especially love the connection to Caitlin Ryan of Degrassi Junior High (who you can bet was just as white as the rest of the "Caitlin" club). I've always adored my name. I have especially cherished its Celtic heritage, and its ability to tie me to my Scottish/Irish/Welsh ancestry....... I suppose I just never considered what colour the Celts were.

Saturday, September 16

my favourite handy-isms

Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let 'em go, because, man, they're gone.

I think a good novel would be where a bunch of men on a ship are looking for a whale. They look and look, but you know what? They never find him. And you know why they never find him? It doesn't say. The book leaves it up to you, the reader, to decide. Then, at the very end, there's a page you can lick and it tastes like Kool-Aid.

Anytime I see something screech across a room and latch onto someone's neck, and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have to laugh, because what IS that thing?!

When you go ice-skating, try not to swing your arms too much, because that really annoys me.

Whenever someone asks me to define love, I usually think for a minute, then I spin around and pin the guy's arm behind his back. NOW who's asking the questions?

Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff.

There's nothing so tragic as seeing a family pulled apart by something as simple as a pack of wolves.

If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.

One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to DisneyLand, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said, "DisneyLand burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real DisneyLand, but it was getting pretty late.

Laurie got offended that I used the word "puke." But to me, that's what her dinner tasted like.

Children need encouragement. If a kid gets an answer right, tell him it was a lucky guess. That way he develops a good, lucky feeling.

When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it's not, mmmmmmm, boy.

I remember one day I was at Grandpa's farm and I asked him about sex. He sort of smiled and said, "Maybe instead of telling you what sex is, why don't we go out to the horse pasture and I'll show you." So we did, and there on the ground were my parents having sex.

If you're in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at the enemy, throw one of those small pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think how stupid war is, and while they are thinking, you can throw a real grenade at them.

Instead of putting a quarter under a kid's pillow, how about a pinecone? That way, he learns that "wishing" isn't going to save our national forests.

a love note for my boy


trust sarah to be able to put it in words.

Rugby - Beach Club Grille

Yes. I've always loved going to the Rugby Club (950 W Broadway) because of the cheap beverages ($3.50 Cosmopolitan). But last night, I found the only reason I need.

Yes, the Grainy Dijon/Garlic/Tarragon Lamb Tenderloin ($13.95) melted as it hit my tongue.
And yes, the Roasted Asparagus ($5.75) burst forth with flavour at each bite.
And of course, the small Silken Chocolate Truffle Cake ($3.95) was creamy and just the right size.

But ohhh ... it was the few bites I tried of Christopher's New York Cheesecake with Caramel Drizzle ($5.95) that gave me shivers. Honestly. I was so into that taste, it was almost embarassing.

sexy had been gone for so long

and then justin brought her back.


















seriously. Justified rocked my body but this single makes me sweat.
sure J.T. is the new M.J., and some people think it's blasphemous to enjoy anything popular, but crank it up and start to move ... tell me that doesn't feel goooood.

Thursday, September 14

Three Sisters - Anders Swanson

Anders Swanson recently participated in MuralFest 2K6: The Winnipeg International Mural Festival and Symposium. His entry:















For wounds will always play the fool. Wounds are compulsive liars. The way the wound appears on the surface is rarely an accurate identification of the full dimensions of the wound...Wounds cannot speak for themselves. And yet wounds are the evidence of stories of profound importance. If they are neglected, ignored or simply stitched up and forgotten, then we will get to the point where we can't look at ourselves. The wounds become deeper, less apparent, more structural, if you will, even genetic. Wounds that become apparent only in the second or third generation. The theater of wounds is a memory theater. Our failure to look at wounds now, and interpret them now, may lead us to give birth to a society of monsters. -Gregory Whitehead "Display Wounds"

my girl erin

Erin Nuttall is a force to be reckoned with, as far as I'm concerned. If that woman wants something to happen, she will make it so.

Example? Erin busted her butt with Steve Wilson and The Graffiti Art Gallery (Winnipeg, Manitoba), to put together a summer Mural Festival.














Taking art to the streets in this way, both legitimizes public art in general and returns accessibility to art that is more than decoration. Often murals are (under)used to beautify and cover up the corroding urban fabric, but they have the potential to achieve so much more: challenge boundaries, stir controversy, criticize policy, uncover truth...

(you're incredible miss nuttall! love ya!)

Wednesday, September 13

moderation in all things...

even in female body shapes.


















What is healthy?
Healthy is not a super skinny fashionista subsisting on coffee and celery alone. Healthy is not an overly obese diva dining each day on pastries and McD's.
Obviously, the average woman doesn't have the time or the money to invest in a Janet Jackson six-pack. That type of cosmetic "health" is unattainable and unnecessary.
So then what is the ideal?
What is the goal?

Until a few weeks ago, I had no idea what the healthy version of me looked like, or how that healthy me felt. On June 2nd, I signed on to SparkPeople. In two months, my entire view of health and beauty has been transformed. It's difficult to appropriately describe, but my thoughts and feelings are so changed. It's like I've switched from PC to Mac - my operating system is so much more stable and better looking too! (he he ... such a Mac geek)

And now I know.
Healthy me is strong and sexy - in body and mind.
She's satisfied, not stuffed.
She has energy, and she wants to move!
After so long, she is confident and content.
Healthy me has achieved equilibrium.

So for me, health is balance and moderation.
Health is a bit too much and a bit too little, equalizing over time.
Health is not substituting a cup of coffee for a well-balanced lunch.
Health is not mindlessly consuming two pieces of pie during one episode of Grey's.

Maybe it's post-Atkins trauma. Maybe it's our societal system gently balancing after rebounding from extreme to extreme. That could be wishful thinking, but it does seem society's ideals regarding health are undergoing change. Super Size Me received a lot of attention when it was released. Dove's latest marketing campaign includes healthy images of women in their underwear. Catwalk organizers in Spain are banning unhealthy models from their runways. The epidemic of childhood obesity; the dangers of our dependence on carbonated beverages; criticism of the sedentary nature of our current lifestyles; these have all been hitting the news in the last few weeks. Perhaps this health revolution will be more moderate than the fitness craze of the 80s. Maybe the trend of lifestyle change over diet will be more than a passing fad. Moderation is so much more sustainable.

Monday, September 11

remembering my poppa

"Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went right to my head
Where ever I may roam
On land or sea or foam
You will always hear me singing this song
Show me the way to go home"


















H. E. Buchanan died September 4th, 2005.

Dear "lycra clad street warrior",

You may be doing yourself a disservice by conscientiously capping your noodle with streamlined styrofoam.














"...This study suggests wearing a helmet might make a collision more likely in the first place..." Dr. Ian Walker, a traffic psychologist from Bath University, conducted a study that found motorists are twice as likely to drive closer to a cyclist (an average of 8.5 cm away) when they are wearing a helmet.

Walker suggests that
"most adult cyclists know what it is like to drive a car, but relatively few motorists ride bicycles in traffic, and so don't know the issues cyclists face".

Though no one is recommending I stop protecting my skull when I take to the street, I will definitely reconsider the belief that my fancy red helmet provides me with the powers of invincibility.

merci beaucoup to my favourite procrastinator for finding this BBC NEWS article. *smooch*

Sunday, September 10

water: the fantastic stupendous splendiferous magnificent miracle cure!

Yes. She is flawless.
No. It isn't because she drinks 8 eight-ounce glasses of water a day.





















I have continually found Snopes.com to be a trustworthy source of myth-busting. When concerned loved ones emailed pleas to postpone my trip to Thailand, after seeing "unbelievable" photos of the 2004 tsunami hitting the coast, I was able to dispel their worries with Snopes. When fear-mongering email forwards frightened my friends with "inconceivable" stories of car thieves rendering their victims unconscious with ether-filled perfume bottles in grocery store parking lots, it was Snopes that helped me to set their minds at ease. Snopes has continually come through for me as a source for critical analysis of rumors. From them I will even consider an argument I don't necessarily want to hear:

The best general advice (keeping in mind that there are always exceptions) is to rely upon your normal senses. If you feel thirsty, drink; if you don't feel thirsty, don't drink unless you want to. The exhortation that we all need to satisfy an arbitrarily rigid rule about how much water we must drink every day was aptly skewered in a letter by a Los Angeles Times reader:
Although not trained in medicine or nutrition, I intuitively knew that the advice to drink eight glasses of water per day was nonsense. The advice fully meets three important criteria for being an American health urban legend: excess, public virtue, and the search for a cheap "magic bullet."
Darn. Not since the Thighmaster; not since the Atkins' Diet; not since Kirstie Alley lost 200 lbs by dancing all day to Sir-Mix-a-Lot had I truly believed in the one-stop beauty shop. My faith had been restored when I jumped on the water bandwagon! Drink 64 ounces of water each day and your skin will glow, your body will tighten and people will like you a whole lot more? "Heck! I can do that", I said. That transparent liquid was flowing through my body like the Fraser River. Now this.

Ah well. Somewhere inside I probably knew it was too good to be true. Though, I'm not going to stop drinking water altogether. I do find that if I'm feeling tired, a glass of water energizes me just as well as a cup of coffee (perhaps even better, because it isn't followed by that agitated twitching thing I get when brimming with caffeine). I suppose I don't have much use for all the extra sugar that I imbibe in the average fruit juice or soft drink. Water costs quite a bit less than most other beverages, and I enjoy saving money. And, when I get a headache, a glass of water generally subdues the pain (particularly when the headache is induced by beverages of the more costly variety). Also, a few glasses of water taste really good after an intensive hike or a hard bicycle ride. I guess from now on, I just won't bother lining up my 64 shot glasses each morning.

Wednesday, September 6

my girl sheena

so.
i've mentioned this incredibly talented young woman in a few other posts.
sheena grobb folks.
ya.
you recognize her.
this IS a blatant and shameless advertisement.
my opinion is that sheena is fantastic! and i'm out to spread the word.

the rocket

yes i dare say it, "this is a better film than Little Miss Sunshine."
the acting is genius and the shots are beautiful.
i saw it months ago in the theatre, but it has stayed with me.
go see The Rocket and tell me i'm wrong.






(important context of my claim: i get a rush from sports dramas, i adore hockey, i find Roy Dupuis incredibly sexy, and my dad taught me about Maurice Richard)

Friday, September 1