Asobi Seksu

Another band that I am enjoying.
Asobi Seksu - "Thursday"
Download the single and have it be your weekend soundtrack.
Fyi: Asobi Seksu is "playful sex" in Japanese. The band is based out of NYC.

Update: Found the band's record label site and found more goodies.
Hi-res poster photo of the band here:



Also another enjoyable single, aptly titled, "New Years"

Holy $*(# this is creepy

Tell me what you think.

My Chemical Romance

I fell in love with this band again after listening to their new single off the Black Parade album...and on YouTube I found the original video that started it all.
You gotta love a band that has this twisted sense of humor ~ I can totally identify with this.

What I was for Halloween

This one's for Nick

Conversation Overhead: Miami Beach

While waiting in line to pay at the News Cafe bookstore on 8th & Ocean.

Older Man: "Umm...excuse me, are these all the swim trunks you guys carry?"
Female cashier: "Yessss...there are some more right across there"
She points next to the doorway at some tropical colored board shorts.

Older Man rolls his eyes at his male friend standing next to him.
Older Man: Urgh, I could never bring myself to wear those old-man swim trunks.
Do you have anything shorter?
Cashier: (Shakes her head no).
Older Man: You know where I can get something like Speedos? In Prada?





And all I can do is think to myself, This is so South Beach.

The best 'do ever

Blogging to: New Pony Club's "Ice Cream"
Please Press Play to Listen to While Reading this Post:

On Monday, I got the best haircut ever from Teal and Melvin at Vidal Sassoon. For the past year and a half, I've been sporting longer layers with bangs that I've been too lazy to ever maintain/trim back. It got to the point where I had a pony mane and you coulda jumped on my back for a ride. That, or I could have been mistaken for that ghost-girl from The Grudge.
I knew it was time for a haircut when my co-worker asked me, "Did you get extensions?"

At VS, I told them I wanted to keep my hair long but to still do something creative because I was open to new things. The class instructor, Melvin, nodded, said he had something in mind and instructed Teal to start hacking away.


Getting comfy, I settled in with some magazines to read and after an hour of cutting looked up in the mirror to check my progress. This was my reaction:

Me: "Um...are you giving me a mullet?"
Hair stylist: "Aha ha ha ha...noooooo!"
Me: "Are you sure?!"

The end result was an asymmetrical, sleek hair cut with sharp, sideswept punky bangs.
The stylist maintained the sleek look by reducing my hair's volume by shearing the back and left side. Took a chunk outta my bangs to ensure they'd naturally part at a side-swept angle.

Very low-maintainence 'do, I'm loving it tho' it took a lil time to adjust to it. But I feel it captures more of my personality then my other hairstyle did. Next, I think I'm gonna dye it. :D

I Pity The Fool

This photo just about made my day. From Crafters Blog.
Enough Jibba Jabba and get back to work Monkey says!

Lists

I picked this up from my old buddy at UM, Stan. Feeling spontaneous, I decided to fill it out which makes me laugh because when I get these in emails, I always delete'm.
Meantime, any friends reading this, I'd love to see what your responses are on your blogs.

Top Five Ways to Make Me Frown
1. Bad manners/inconsiderate acts
2. Asking me a question I don't know
3. Others being superpicky about food
4. People who leave rubbish in public spaces
5. Act pretentious

Top Five People Who Have Changed My Life
1. My dad
2. My journalism teacher, Ms. Sandi Scaffetti
3. Bruce Lee
4. Abra
5. My grandma/Publix

Top Five Emotions I Have Felt
1. Sadness
2. Vengeance
3. Contentment
4. Contemplative
5. Glee

Top Five Ways to Be More Like Me
1. Question everything in life.
2. Try different ethnic cuisines
3. Read the NYT and LA Times everyday
4. Be a kid on Halloween!
5. Take artsy photographs

Top Five Things I Believe With All My Heart and Soul
1. There are more worlds then this
2. Reincarnation
3. Family is everything
4. McDonalds french fries are the best
5. Stephen King rocks

Top Five Things I Wish Would Just Disappear
1. World hunger
2. Boho fashion
3. My bills
4. Homelessness
5. Windows XP


Top Five Things That Scare Me
1. Horror movies
2. Dirty rooms
3. Raw seafood
4. Winn-Dixie brand products
5. Wire hangers


Top Five Rules My Parents Enforced on Me
1. Do your homework first
2. Don't have sex
3. Never get into fights
4. Conserve, conserve, conserve
5. Buy it when it's on sale


Top Five Ways to Make Me Smile

1. Share a bad joke with me
2. Feed me something delicious
3. Do a dorky dance
4. Be honest
5. Perform a kind act to others

Playing with Spirits

In time for the spooky holidays, a night of experimentation ensued.

late night tossing

i couldn't go to sleep last night.
so i created this.
enjoy.

renovating myself

I'm trying to take care of myself by getting back into shape.
That means forking out membership dues to LA Fitness and hitting the ellipticals, treadmills, and weight machines. That and modifying what I'm eating from...the idontcarehowmanycaloriesthishas to amireallyhungryoramIjustnoshingallthefrickintime? mentality.
oh how the mighty have fallen is what i gots to say. woe is me.

Food tip: I discovered a delicious salad dressing thanks to an old college acquitance, Nourah, who's Saudi. I modified it a bit but this is the recipe:

Buncha salad greens (I use spinach leaves)
Dash of olive oil (no more then 1tbsp)
Generous spritz of lemon juice
Dusting of garlic powder
Dash of salt
Handful of raisens

Mix it up and serve. The salad hits all the 5 tastebuds: salty, sour, sweet, tangy, and savory.
Plus, it's pretty light and not heavy or oily at all.

Voices

The loveliest voice I've heard today.
Listen to Imogen Heap's "Just for Now"

Cosmetics, anyone?

Lo and behold, someone must have been listening to my rants on my previous posts.
The folks at MAC Cosmetics--the makeup company that actually endorses diversity with their celebrity models, Mary J Blige, Missy Elliot, Lil Kim--have came out with a new line.
See it here:



This look, above, I am sortof interested in, especially the hairdo with the cheongsam (which is painted on by MAC cosmetics). I love the makeup coloring here and the hair ornaments, also.



I do like the chestnut colored hair the model sports here. And the icy turqouise is definitely working for me here...



See the rest of the China Dress collection here:

Update to Makeover

Silly me. In my wish for a total do-over, I forgot about my friend, Kim, who is a professional photographer in DEEEE-TROIT!!!! That city sure was filthy but it was fun...
This is her:



Anyway, she read my post, laughed at me and I remembered that she takes awesome photos so she would be a person I could trust to take photos of me. Glamazon photoshopped black and white photos of me. Hear me roar.

See her work here

Makeover, Makeover

Every day I look at the mirror and am tired with what I see in there.
From my head to my toes, I want a makeover along the likes of Andy in Devil Wears Prada.

[Scene: Heroine standing at a corner of Lincoln Rd., looking lost and forlorn in her American Eagle v-neck sweater, pinstriped pants]
(Fairy godmother walks up, takes her by the hand, pats it sympathetically]
Godmother: Girl, you need an intervention. Stat. We're going to Barneys Co-op now.
Cindy: Wheeeeeeee...
[Duo skips happily down the boulevard]

Through random Internet searching, I found this Korean girl who has great hair.
I want hair like this:



In color:


Her name's Hyori and she's a pop idol over in Asia. She look like she has double lids eh? Do you want to see what she looks like without makeup really?



Still somewhat pretty but plain, in fact, I knew some Asian girls back in middle school who look like her in this photo. Amazing what makeup can do right?
See the difference here:



My favorite photo of her has to be the one at top in b/w. It reminds me of Mario Testino's black and white ads he did for fashion magazines and ads like the Guess campaign in the 90s.

I love fashion photography, I remember back at UM, I would have friends pose for me for various photo projects. Sigh, if only I got to have a chance on the other side of the camera. But you know what they say, the camera adds 10lbs. And it's rare to have friends as good as photography as yourself and as narcissistic.
Where's a friend I can claim as my Kevin Aucoin?
Bleh.
Maybe I'll do a series of self portraits.
We'll see.

Snakes on a plane

This one didn't make it into the paper [conflicted with another Snakes on a plane promo]
so I'm posting it here. In fact, I think some of y'all already know about this cause of me [wink]














Samuel L. Jackson, of Pulp Fiction fame, wants me to tell you, dear reader, something mighty important: that if you don't go see his latest flick, Snakes on a Plane, he will come after you. Seriously, I even got a phone call from him about it. See what I mean at: http://snakesonaplane.varitalk.com/.

It was only there that I found out I was the latest victim of a popular viral marketing ad that ingeniously disguises itself as a phone prank. All that's necessary is for you to input your name, a victim to call, and fill in some special details (interests, job field, relationship to sender) for Jackson to personalize his message to. Co-workers are especially ideal targets. Just sit back and spy on their slack-jawed reaction, it'll be priceless.

MIAMI = MONEY IS A MAJOR ISSUE

Blogging to: Nelly Furtado's Maneater

I've officially taken an offer with my company.
Doing what I'm doing now only with a much appreciated salary hike.
But amazingly enough, the salary bump will be almost invisible with taxes, rent, utilities, etc etc. MIAMI = MONEY IS A MAJOR ISSUE.

Why does Miami have to be so expensive? And why couldn't my mom have settled in Miami versus Broward? If I were working in Broward County, I'd be set with a free place to live, a minimal commute, and much more in savings.

I talked to my brother about it today and he placed it down to numbers.
If my cost of living (rent/house bills) amounts to $800...$800 x 12 mo. = $9600.
Ohmygawd. $9600 x 2 yrs = $19,200....Oi oi oi, that's like grad school tuition or a good deposit on a house?

I love living in Miami for obvious reasons--my friends are based here, more things to do, independence and establishing my own living space, etc. etc. but it's tough even with living with a roommate. I don't know how police officers, school teachers, and other working class folks do it.

Is living at home worth it? It's tempting and I know my mom would love to have my company.
Here are the pro's and con's

PROS:
1. No rent, utilities.
2. Having mom's company
3. Ability to save up for the future.

CONS:
1. Longer commute: 45-65minutes (depending on rush hr)*
2. Away from friends
3. Lack of personal space
4. No hi-speed internet/cable (tho' I could remedy that)

*the commute is the major hesitation factor here...

Reading the Comics

This was the laugh of the day for me.

Side Gig

Blogging to: Lupe Fiasco's "Kick Push"










That's right, I've dipped my lil' bitty toe back into the writing pool.
The gig's pretty sweet, I get to write one blurb a week about the cool website of the week, whatever catches my fancy, say Chuck Norris or Bunnies or YouTube nonsense. Most of time, I've been a longtime fan of the site or I stumble across it accidentally late at night (like Google's SMS service). My personal fav had to be about Angry Alien (above), its priceless.

How'd I land the gig? The weekly "Cool Website of the Week" feature was designed to engage more to younger readers (ie, folks like us). Of course, the websites I kept seeing by design were pretty lame in my book. Constant nagging. Constant "Hey, I think this is pretty cool..." and "You heard of this one?" the editor just got fed up and gave it to me. End of story, eh.
I like writing these pieces, short and sweet, keep it funny if you can, smart if you can't.

So, if you guys know anything interesting, water-cooler worthy, shoot me a comment and lemme know, who knows, maybe I'll post it here. Har.