Monthly Archive

continuing from my favorite music post from a couple days ago - here’s my best of list for movies (for the record, i make very little distinction between best and favorite….):

• no country for old men.  this was simply put, an amazing film from our mn local boys the coen brothers.  a movie with more silence than dialog, josh brolin, tommy lee jones and (a terrifying) javier bardem were amazing….  brilliant
• juno.  another local from me, diablo cody’s witty charming script allowed ellen page’s juno to leap of the screen - my favorite performance of 2007.  superb supporting performances from allison janney, jk simmons, jason batemen, jennifer garner and the excellent michael cera.  
• lars and the real girl.  i can’t believe owen gleiberman from entertainment weekly put this on his worst list.  for me, this film touched me more than any other film this year.  i had a smile on my face the entire time.  ryan gosling’s performance was beautiful.
• the bourne ultimatum & live free or die hard.  action flicks with real story development?  shocking.  both films kept me on the edge of my seat.
• grindhouse.  pulp fiction never tasted so good.  so over the top - but bloody (pun intended) good fun.  gripping at times (hello captain’s mast), deliciously tacky at times (hello cherry!).  meta-trash never looked so good
• american gangster.  i’ve talked about this one before - it’s all about the acting for me.  russell & denzel chewing the scenery.  mmm, more please.
• stardust.  mmmm stardust.  lovely little film.  enjoyed tremendously.  anyone who didn’t love - is wrong! yes, i’m talkin’ to cb here! <g>
• control.  again - i’ve already talked about this one, but the film is quite wonderful.  an exercise in restraint.  the performances are excellent.
• 3:10 to yuma.  this film got lost in the shuffle this fall - which is a tremendous shame.  excellent casting and brava performances  (2007 was really the year of the ensemble).  a brilliant western that was claustrophobic and taunt as all hell.

other films i dug:

• transformers - fun.
• simpsons movie - everything it needed to be.
• the darjeeling limited - beautiful.
• ocean’s thirteen - a return to form.
• hot fuzz - wickedly fun.
• across the universe - visually stunning, great music.

biggest disappointments:

• harry potter & the order of the phoenix.  my favorite of the books (thus far) - yet the director cut so much (it became the shortest hp film of the bunch, and it was the longest book) it just felt like a shell of it’s former self.  sure there were some great sequences (the climatic fights for one), but it’s just not as vivid as the book.
• the golden compass.  just not that strong.  visually striking - but felt so haphazzzrd and slapped together.  i hope the book is better.
• 300.  yes, homo’s - i’m committing a blasphemy here.  the movie is exceedingly amazing in it’s visual splendor (and yea, the guys are hot) - i just didn’t care for the characters and the narrative story was weak.  i guess it’s just better as porn with the volume turned down. 
• knocked up.  i.just.didn’t.laugh.  expected much more.
• evan almightly.  great premise.  awesome cast.  horrible preachy result.  blech.
• the 11th hour.  leo, we need hope at least.

films i haven’t seen yet (but really need to):

• once
• there will be blood
• i’m not there
• persepolis
• atonment
• michael clayton
• charlie wilson’s war

2008; expectations - excited to see:

• harry potter & the half blood prince
• the chronicles of narnia, prince caspian
• indiana jones & the kingdom of the crystal skull
• the dark knight
• bond 22
• new star trek
• speed racer
• sex & the city; the movie
• wall-e

reasons to not see this film:

• burt reynolds as the kink ?!?@?!??
• ray liotta looking like a wiseguy (tho’ i do kinda wanna do ray in a sick sort of way)
• reminds me of those really bad dark-ages movies from the 80’s like flesh & blood & beastmaster

reasons to see this film:

• jason - fucking - statham looking hot as hell!

—-

however, then there is this: 

5 words: jason statham and jet fucking li! 

ok, that was 6 - sue me.  i love me some jason on jet ass kickin’  booh-ya! 

both flicks come out in january…. testosterone never looked so hot.

up above…. current & ink… they are updated.

cause i know you’ve been waiting for baited breath to find out about my favorite music from 2007, i won’t keep you waiting.   i will give you a surprise or two (such as, no britney on this list - she’s fun, but she ain’t great) i hope.  coming up with a fav’s list for ‘07 proved to be a bit of a challenge - not a ton of great music released this year (and a lot of what was released that i loved turned out to be covers of older tunes… sigh)…. here goes:

siouxsie - mantaray (album)

no surprise here i think, the woman is fuckin’ awesome and this record was woefully overlooked in the states.  i rather like how the village voice put it: “…mantaray, siouxsie’s blazing solo debut earns (those) accolades with no trace of fatigue, padding, or confusion, as on-it and of-the-moment as justin timberlake…”   the record itself is urgent and hard and sharp all at once.  equal parts pop/punk/rock and big band.  here’s to siouxsie’s solo career!  cheers.

mark ronson - version (album)

again, no real surprise (if you spent anytime reading this blog this fall) - but just the same, i’m still in love with this album.  it’s consistantly blasting from my car’s cd deck (which you could hear if it weren’t winter and i had the windows down).  mark deftly makes modern songs such as ‘toxic’ (britney), ‘the only one i know’, and ’stop me’ sound vintage and warm and old school.   retro never sounded so fresh.  and this is a great disk to spin at a party.

robbie williams - lovelight (song)

while the track is from this year’s (us) ’rudebox’ release (not his best - but there are a couple of really choice cuts from it) - “lovelight”is cover of the lewis taylor track from 2004.  robbie & co., turn this slick r&b number into a funky disco classic circa 1978 bee-jees.  sweet.

damien rice & lisa hannigan - 9 crimes (song) 

ok, ya got me - this one came out in ‘06… but in my defense i didn’t discover it till this year.  i remember giving rice’s ‘9′ album a cursory listen in a record store back when it came out and was getting all manner of buzz…. it just didn’t do anything to me that night.  i humbly admit i was wrong.  this song kills me.  this song just rattles me to my core.  it just might be my favorite song of the year.  ”is that alright, yea.” 

amazing - johnette napolitano (song)

ok, this one really is my favorite for the year.  johnette has been a constant companion this year.  while the album it’s from (scarred) is f’ing brilliant, this single makes me remember why i love music.  it’s beautiful and violent and passionate all at the same time.  a lullaby (?!) to love - love in the real world with all it’s agony intact.  nothing is quite like johnette’s voice when she opens up and lets loose.  ”angels among us, they’re not so far above us”

hold my hand - unkle (song)

hell wall of sound.  i loves me some wall of sound and since curve broke up and recoil’s latest is all blues and crap; unkle will have to fit the bill nicely.  which isn’t a slam at all.  ‘hold my hand’ is just bursting with power and noise and melody.  i love it.  and they got all buddhist and shit (hehehe) with their lyrics:  “are you really living / or do you seek loving / are you happy being / or do you search for meaning”.  if i could ever really do music, this is what i would like to do.

crazy - prince & shelby j (live track)

i wrote about this at length here, and here, so i won’t go on much more.  except to say, prince needs to release this funk (instead of his semi-interesting planet earth).  this is the shit & would blow radio and mtv away.

me’shell ndegeo’cello (live show)

tie

prince with wendy (live show)

these were my favorite shows this year - meshell & co. were insanely tight - nearly boiling over they were so hot.   and then there was prince reuniting with wendy at the target center & first ave shows last.  dreams really do come true

—

ooh, another surprise - kate bush’s track for the golden compass isn’t here either… if only cause i refuse to buy the score in order to own it… i’m sure i’ll find it on ebay soon and can give it the real proper listens it deserves

2008 - expectations:

i’m looking forward to a couple of interesting things next year including:

• the new madonna record (title tbd)
• the debut of the gutter twins (aka greg dulli from twilight singers & mark lanegan from screaming trees)
• big blue ball project from peter gabriel & karl wallinger (the first single ‘whole thing’ is excellent (additionally rumor has it pg will release a proper follow up to the killer ‘up’ - not holding breath)
• seeing siouxsie in new york in february
• the new goldfrapp disk ’seventh tree’
• new basement jaxx (title tbd)
• new franz ferdinand (title tbd)
• new ladytrone (title tbd)
• new portishead - finally!!!!!  (title tbd)

ok, maybe not genius… but certainly, i kicked some musical ass tonight! 

very spur-of-the-moment, i popped over to my friends amy’s house tonight to watch a dvd with her and her girlfriend - now, amy is a musician/song-writer (and own’s a great little studio to boot) - and she’s been trying for eon’s to get me in the studio to record some stuff with her.

it’s been about a billion years since i’ve actively been behind a recording desk and as such, i’ve been a bit cautious to jump back in the recording game (especially with amy, she’s hella-talented).  so before the dvd, amy and i popped down to the studio to listen to a killer new track from peter gabriel (words don’t come close to describing how much i love this new song) - anywho, amy wanted my opinion on a track she wrote and in the process, about 3 hour’s went by and all of a sudden she’s insisting i take producer credit for her new track ‘beg crawl bleed’. 

how f’ing cool eh’?  it was so awesome working on new music tonight. 

looks like i might be spending more time in her studio working on some of her other tracks in the coming months.

very happy me.

(this is part of amy’s studio; studio 8)

hmmm, we never did get around to that movie… lol

….and to all a good night.

to my friends and readers all - happy holidays!

now where’s my eggroll?

when my mom and dad were married, we moved around a fair bit… after the divorce, we moved around a lot more - whenever the rent was raised, we would move… bounced all over the place.  when i entered 6th grade, mom decided i should have some semblance of normalcy (i guess 5 different schools in 5 years may have been a bit much)…. so we stuck to columbia heights, mn (not to say we didn’t move when the rent went up, we just stayed in the same city.

saturday morning while i was driving errands, i found myself in the heights and i took a trip down memory lane.  here’s a pic of 6th street in columbia heights, mn where i lived.

we (it was just mom and me) lived in two different places on 6th street… the first was a lil’ house we affectionately called the crackerbox (my bedroom was 11′ square) - it was teeny.  then we moved up the street 6 blocks and rented the second floor apt in a duplex.  that lasted about a year and then we moved back to the crackerbox when the landlord asked us back and finished the basement so i would have a proper room.  it was friggan awesome.  we stayed there till my 16th birthday when we moved into a house that my mom bought (still in the heights).  the first house she ever owned.  that too was friggan awesome.

awww memory lane….

on friday night me and a bunch of mates went to the walker art center’s annual showing of the british television advertising awards(this is year no. 5 for me; it’s become a downright holiday tradition).  the brit’s just seem to do advertising better than we do (truth be told, they seem to do an awful lot better than we do)… and this year was no different.  i’ve culled a couple of my favorites for your viewing pleasure.  here they are, the best of the best:

first up, the commercial for tango clear titled ‘bravo’; an obvious spoof on last years amazingly successful sony bravia commercial.  i rather like how this one ends tho’.  this one won in the ‘diploma’ category:

next up (still in the ‘diploma’ category) (and prob one of my two favorites) is an advert for guinness:

wanker! indeed.  not gonna say much about this one, want you to watch the whole way thru to find out what it’s for:

skipping right over the ‘bronze’ category, we arrive at ’silver’ with xfm’s ‘roadies’ advert:

into the ’gold’ category we have one for bbc radio 2.  seamless editing here:

and now the thinkbox award for the best television commercial of the year - i do quite like what they did… really beautifully done: sony bravia ‘paint’ (i do really love the random clown bit.. hehehehe)

now, my close friends will tell you i can not tolerate the mass-marketed synthetic colognes and perfumes sold in macy’s and the like - it’s just that working where i work (no synthetic aroma’s with that chemically “binder” that makes the aroma stick to your body all day), i’ve become very - you might say uber-sensitive to synthetics.

hate ‘em.

however, i must say, i’m loving the new ad (above) for jean paul gaultier’s ‘le male’ fragrance.  that shirtless hunk on the right - ooh la la.  he has just the right amount of thug mixed with raw animal attraction and sex appeal.

woof.

(the other euro-twink boys in the ad?  eh…. get rid of ‘em)

the pantone color institute has announcedthat the official color for 2008 is #18-3943 tcx aka ‘blue iris’.  did you know the world had an official color?  yup, me either.  did you also know the color for 2007 was ‘chili pepper red’? 

people, this is information you need to know.  your world is better for it.

there’s also something called colorstrology.  according to the pantone colorstrology site, my color is violet quartz.  who knew? 

apparently, people also find me “easy to be around” and i have an “understanding of human nature that is both perceptive and compassionate” - which means all of you should spend more time paying attention to what i have to say.  i’m very perceptive damnit.  (by the way, cb is “coral gold” - sounds butch eh?).

so there you have it.  you can now safely plan your decorating for next year. 

like i said, this is very important stuff people.  pay attention.

—

in my haste to blog this last night i forgot the best part…  pantone spokeswoman leatrice eiseman had this to say about the choice for color of the year: “blue iris brings together the dependable aspects of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast.  emotionally, it ancoring and meditative with a touch of magic.” 

seriously.  i wonder if she said that with a straight face.

she went on to say this about the selection process: “with blue iris, we felt that it answered several needs, hopes, desires, that kind of thing.”

wow.  like i said - important stuff here.  i’ve always been looking for a stron blue color mixed with a purple cast that had just a hint of magic.  hogwart’s colors should be changed from red and gold, to blue and purple. 

just as a couple of days ago, i got zip…

part of it is the holidays, part work and part of it seasonal affectiveness disorder (for the record, until this year, i never ever thought this was a real disorder - all i can say is now “lord, i believe”.  i’m so eff’ing tired lately it’s ridiculous.)…. 

so for no other reason than he’s hunky and hot, may i present for you my future husband jake gyllenhaal:

and here’s one more - a bonus…. one that features jake and his oft-rumoured gay lover (supposedly!)…. a boy can wish can’t he?

ok, i’m going to go take a nap now.  cheers.

pixar domination that is.

i love me some pixar.  in my estimation, they are producing some of the finest film anywhere (live action or animated).  any animated movie that can get me completely invested in their characters and make me cry (hello monsters inc.) has my vote straight away.

pixar is in the midst of a huge viral campaign for wall-e, their new film which comes out next year.

i love this clip - only makes me more excited for the movie that comes out next summer.

for those of you who like your trailers more movie-ey and less viral-ey…. here’s the trailer:

the end of the year is nearing and as one is wont to do - it becomes a time of reflection.  so over the next couple of weeks i may be chiming in here and there with some ruminations on the year that’s been….

the first iteration of this is ‘things i will not be ashamed of’. 

i am the first to admit, i’m kinda a snob when it comes to pop culture / art / things.  but, at the same time, i’m a complete glutton for things that are not - and this is painful to admit- not.that.great.  ugg.

but, i have pretty good taste (if i do say so myself) in most things, so i choose to believe that i am simply out-of-sync with the world at large.  and truth be told, i’m kinda ok with that.  of course, this also means that the world is wrong and i am right.  case closed.

the first thing i refuse to be ashamed of is my complete and total love of the film ‘stardust‘.

sure the film did not set the box office world on fire (shame too), the movie is a lush, beautifully filmed, well acted and charming little flick.  to refresh my memory, i did a quickie search on metacritic to see what the film cognoscenti thought of the movie -and  i was a bit surprised at the mostly positive views of it.  i quite like wha the charlotte observer had to say about it: “heroic, wryly funny, but bloodthirsty as great fairy tales can often be.”

this is afterall a fairy tale.  and the best modern fairy tales are wonderful little escapes into another world.  i loved the world that makes up stardust.  i loved robert de niro’s quirky fey turn as a pirate that’s light in his loafers.  i loved charlie cox’s everyman.  and i loved michelle…. oh how i loved michelle being all wicked and sexy and cool. 

it’s a perfectly lovely little gem of a movie.  and i can’t wait for it to come out on dvd on tuesday. 

another thing i’m not ashamed of liking?  well, that would be everyone’s favorite disaster.  britney spears.  more to the point, it’s not that i dig her, it’s that i dig her latest album ‘blackout’. 

now, i’ve already chimed in with a review of the album here, but i just gotta say, i still f’ing love it.  it’s pure trash.  but trash can be good.  the album is urgent and hot and sexy (thank god for producers right?).  lord knows the girl can’t make a video anymore (’piece of me’ is horrible), but the tunes are strong and fun and really fun to just sing along with.  oh, and the above image - such a better cover than the one that ended up on the thing… blech. 

then there is sarah brightman.  sarah brightman is my barbara streisand.  i’ve never been the typical gay guy in love with bab’s, but i love my diva sarah. 

yes, this is probably the hardest thing to admit.  hi, my name is kyle and i like sarah brightman.  and yes, she’s not the greatest singer in the world (but she certainly isn’t britney, see below).  and yes, she’s kinda like white bread in the classical/opera world - but there’s just something about her that clicks with me.

now, that said - i do wish she’d dump more of her pop oeuvre and go back and focus on her opera.  after all the woman does have a three-octave vocal range that extends to an e natural above soprano c.  no easy feat.  it’s also been said that she has both a pop voice and a classical voice.  take away all of the synths and spacey sound effects that have grounded her eden / la luna / harem disks and you are left with the quiet, lush moments that show a woman that can really truly sing.  take a way all the distractions. 

on a slight side-bar, i’m really wanting to explore more opera; anyone with any suggestions?  let me know.  i just bought cecilia bartoli’s latest disk ‘maria‘ - really beautiful stuff. 

so there you have it - three things i’m no longer going to be ashamed of.  after all for all the stardusts, britney and sarah stuff i love, there’s also the darjeeling limited’s, kate bush’s and cecilia bartoli’s so my good taste is pretty well established.

it’s just that i need my marshmallow fluff every now and then as well.

mmmm marshmallow fluff.

now i lost interest in tori amos somewhere around the boys for pele era - she just got a lil’ too esoteric (read; fuckin’ wierd) for me.  tho’, i will forever say little earthquakes is one of the most amazing records ever.

apparently on wednesday in san diego tori was doing a show where two trollops who had front row seats cept coming and going throughout the performance.  this did not suit tori none to well.  she interuppted the song “code red” and verbally bitch slapped the two proceeding to say “get the fuck out of my show! … it’s a privilege to sit in the front row and i reserve those seats for people who appreciate the music, get the fuck out!…”

i think i love her!  i hate people who have no interest in the show some people forked out major bucks.  ugg.  thank you tori for having’ a massive set of balls. 

to see the auspicious moment, fast forward to 2:25…. it’s freakin’ awesome! 

welcome to the inaugural installment of 12 of 12 on atomic pop!.   for those not in the know, 12 of 12 is the brainchild of chad darnell. 

welcome to this lil’ snapshot of a day in the life of me.

01.  6:30am.  this is where the magic happens.  (ignore the cobwebs)

02. 6:50ish. i call this: “parker on radiator with her doppelganger behind her”.  seriously, if your familiar with la chat noir, you know parker (i had the print before i had the cat). 

03. 8:30am.  this is the front entrance of my companies world headquarters.   impressive in’it?  ok, not really - but yea, that’s a totem pole.  how many of you can say you have a totem pole in your front yard?

04. 9:00am.  this is where the ‘business’ magic happens.  note the sign in the back ‘gay pride for plant freedom’ - yup, that’s what kind of company i work for!  booh-ya!!!

05.  mid-morning.  taking an all important “itunes” break.  importing the soundtrack to ‘the darjeeling limited’.

06. noon-ish.  chicken tamale with beans, yukon potato’s & grape soda = all from our fabulously tasty organic on-site restaurant.  biff the iphone is making a special appearance in this pic!

07.  2ish.  this is one of my storage rooms.  note the fact i can barely walk in there.  our new coordinator who starts on monday; yep, this is one of her first duties.  organize this hell.

08.  3:00pm.  self portrait.

09.  3:30pm.  christmas shopping for cb.  note; cb, divert your eyes.  yup - i’m getting him the kindle.  i mean, who wouldn’t want a book that runs on batteries.  who needs pesky pages when you can run the risk of a motherboard failure or your batteries dying.

10.  5:10pm.  driving and taking pictures.  safety first kids.

11.  5:30pm.  the minneapolis eagle bar.  i drive by it every night on the way home from work.

12.  5:50pm.  cb and i have been talking about these high-intensity blue holiday lights a lot lately.  here’s a detail of the lights on a tree near my house covered in them. 

 bonus pic:

the bonus pic for the month was on the topic ‘believe’.  i’ve been trying to get my mind around this word for the past couple of days.  the obvious choice of course would be something about “the season” - but seeing as i’m not down with the big jc - i wasn’t sure where i was gonna go with this.  until i looked up into the sky tonight. 

this just sum’s my belief in the power of the human race.  it took us 9 years to make it to the moon.  imagine what else we could achieve if we all worked on it.  anything is possible really.

i got bubkus.  

zip.

zilch.

so you get this world premier (or least atomic pop! premier) viewing of the brand spankin’ new ‘indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull’ one sheet:

oh, and then there is this - some dolt has it in his mind to remake ‘metropolis’.  why in the world would anyone remake perfection (oh, yea, the gus van zant version of ‘psycho’ was so f’ing good [sarcasm intended], and then there was the 90’s version of ’sabrina’ - both horrible shadow’s of their originals brilliance) is beyond me?  go here to read the gory details.  until then, bask in the glory of the originals one sheet.   oooh  ahhh:

uggg.  someone stop hollywood before it’s too late and they decide to remake ‘to kill a mockingbird’ with brad pitt and that annoying dakota fanning girl. 

with hat tip to sam for posting this first, this is brilliant.  god i’m cynical this morning:

i had posted a brilliantly cynical bit on christmas - but then i was reminded that children should be allowed to have some purity left… it’s not that i’m not still cynical, it’s just that i couldn’t post that you tube video with good conscious - still wanna see it? head over to sam’s - he’s got the link (and he’s brilliant).

instead, i have this wonderful clip from keith olbermann.  i love keith - so much so, i think he should be president. 

check out the honesty (willfully stolen from scott in iowa):

many of you enjoyed the ‘men of hgtv’ post a couple weeks back.  well as i was enjoying my morning toast and flipping channel’s - i landed on tlc’s trading spaces spin off ‘while you were out’.  always a fun little show (today there were giving a condo to a down-on-his-luck father and 10 year old son (open tear floodgates…now!) - but i was specifically reminded how f’ing hot the guys are on this show.  allow me to provide examples:

evan farmer…. the host.  funny, affable and always willing to take off his shirt:

next up; andrew dan jumbo - carpenter #1:

and then there is carpenter #2, jason cameron - former falcon model… err… men’s health model… just look at the guns (the rest ain’t bad either):

woof.

woof.

woof.  may buddha bless home improvement shows!

as brian has recently mentioned, apparently i’ve been very remiss at posting pic’s and stories about parker - the most awesomest kitty cat in the history of kitty cat’s (indeed, if parker were a cell phone, she’d be an iphone) - so of course, i must rectify this. 

so without further adu, heeeerrrreee’sssss parker!

(of course, the look on her face is something akin to “dad, why are pointing that shiny silver box at me?  just let me take a damn nap already will you?”

yup, cb called it - the storm ruined our plans for last night… which, while sucking greatly - i was completely spent by the time night got around and wasn’t up for much…

you may get a lovely scenic look at the snow fall on cb’s blog.  but on mine - this is what you get:

yup, that would be my beautiful car up on a lift minus his wheels…. he spent a lot of time up on that lift yesterday.

last year was my first winter with him and it was a minor winter as winter’s go in minneapolis - only a couple of snowstorms.  but oh did it suck when it did snow… i was all over the road.  horrible.  so i had every intention of getting new tires this fall… but then winter had to go and sneak up on me the heartless bitch. 

so began the ordeal to find new either all weather, or snow tires for my baby…  challenge is, mazda 3’s have an odd sized wheel which makes finding a dealer in the middle of a storm that has your size a bit of a challenge.  first up, the tires plus nearest my house.  no luck there.  they were nice enough to look at every tires plus in the city + call firestone and pep boys and some other outfit. 

fast forward to me sitting on a side street calling all over, finally finding a sears that had a rather expensive tire that would work - a sears that was 30 miles away.  took me an hour in the storm to get there (sliding all over the fucking place in the process).  drop my car off, i ask how long (naively thinking an hour or two max)…. “well, hmmm - at least 5-6 hours.  we’re kinda backed up you see”.  fuck.

thankfully (or not), my mom lives close by so she came and picked me up - then i had a good half-day of quality time with my mother (kill me now).  dropped the car off at noon.  did not get on the road until 7:05pm.  where i then had to drive back to minneapolis (still in storm), but on my fancy new tires that grip the road like george bush gripping onto condi rice as he gives it to her hard - the storm was no concern!

fuck.  what a day.  by the time i got home (had to feed parker who hadn’t had any food all day…ug), it was 8 and i was spent.  no quality time with cb… (rumor has it, jim got some quality time with him tho’ hehehehehe)….

spent the night eating left over pizza and watching jason staham in “crank”.  what a horrible movie, but he’s so f’ing hot, i didn’t notice the plot at all.

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ooh, almost forgot the one bright spot in my day.  open arms of minnesota (an incredible meals on wheels charity for hiv/aids (and other diseases) works with another amazing organization in africa called monkey biz.  monkey biz is a non-profit in south africa that works with women (many of who are hiv+) in providing them a fair wage for creating amazing beaded works of art.  open arms has had an annual sale of the bead work for the last few years on world aids day.  people line up early for a chance to get one or two pieces - it’s quite the shindig.  i’ve gone the last couple years and always get a couple of christmas prezzies for folks as well as a piece for my collection.  all of the money raised goes to support the amazing work open arms does in the hiv/aids community (both here and in africa, they do work there as well).

i was super stoked that i was able to get a highly coveted lion yesterday.  they don’t make many - how awesome is he:

a close up of his cool-as-hell mane

each piece is hand “signed” by the artist - in the lion’s case, sipthwo kaya created him.

here he is with the rest of my collection.  i haven’t quite landed on how to best display them - i’ve tried a number of things…. currently they’re watching over my dining room:

music heard during the writing: the creatures / instrumental version of their album hai

today is world aids day.

today is a day meant to remind us all to take a moment or two to remember those that we’ve lost to hiv/aids and those that are currently in the fight of their lives. 

get involved, either locally or via join red and help fight hiv/aids in africa!

please, spend the next minute 30 checking out these videos: