At some point, most young girls can imagine what it’s like to be Barbie. The flawless skin, the various careers, endless amounts of clothes, cars, houses and friends.
The most popular doll in the world has made a name for herself over the years. Now that she is 50 years of age (and looking as great as she ever did), you know someone was going to immortalize her in a fashion line to celebrate. Mac Cosmetics, Town Shoes and now David Dixon have been inspired by the doll that inspired us. They have each come out with a collection of Barbie-inspired clothing, shoes and make-up.
So bring on the pink, the zebra patterns and the big bouncy hair!
The lovely electropop quartet graced us with their presence at the Mod Club on Oct. 8, 2009. They even tried out a few of their new songs on the crowd.
Warm clothes, check. Umbrella, check. Camera, Red Bull and Blackberry….check, check, check. Scavenger hunt list?
There are lots of things to do and see this October 3 but if walking around the downtown core checking out art installments doesn’t turn your crank then throw a little fun into the mix. Make the night a pub crawl and challenge your friends to find and do things along the way to make the walk from each Nuit Blanche exhibit a little more interesting.
The Scavenger Hunt Challenge Here’s how it works:
During the course of the nuit, have your friends try to find/do the objects and activities listed below.
If you accomplish 5 of the listed items, you get to veto an installment you would rather pass by. If there is more than one person who accomplishes five tasks, take turns choosing which exhibits you would like to go to.
Accomplish 10 things and the person gets to choose which bar he/she would like to go to next and the group has to buy him or her a shot.
Accomplish 15 of the items on the list and everyone in the group has to buy that person a shot.
Work in teams or compete as individuals against each other.
BONNE CHANCE!
have your text or tweet projected onto the south-facing wall of the AGO
I feel like I’ve seen this dress before. I was surprised to see a dress that looked incredibly similar to the one I had in my closet. While traveling to Chicago in June, I stopped by the BCBG section of Macy’s, only to discover a dress that looked a lot like the one I had purchased and altered a year before. Actually, the dress was a jumper when I bought it. While scouring the racks of Ex Toggery, a thrift store that can be described as Value Village’s cooler cousin, I found an oversized jumper that if altered could look like an amazing little cocktail party dress. I decided it was worth the $50 to spend and pay another $30 for alterations since no one would have something like it.
First, I took the thick straps off to make it sleeveless, then had the mid section taken in so it would fit my waist.
Even though this dress had some differences, the general design of it is very similar to mine. The bottom may be a dark blue instead of black, but the tapering on the bottom is similar, as well as the shade of green on the top part of the dress, the high waist, the length and the texture. There is one main difference and that is the price. The BCBG dress retails for $200 US and I paid $80. I’m not always this thrifty but sometimes it feels good to save money.
As some of you know my mother, Carol Richardson passed away last Monday at the age of 48. She was tragically killed in a plane accident in Muskoka shortly after take off. Her companion Jack Lawrence was also killed in the accident.
This is a very hard time for us but I wanted to acknowlegde my mother publicly because a lot of people have been asking how I’m coping and I would rather share my thoughts instead of keep them to myself.
My mom was the best mom anyone could ask for. I knew she loved my sister and I very much and devoted her life to raising us. It is because of her that I am able to remain strong through this terrible time.
My mom lived life to the fullest and would tell us how much she was proud of us at every moment she could.
We will miss her terribly but with great friends, family and an amazing support network, my sister and I will be just fine.
Filed under: Music — melissafeeney @ 7:56 pm Tags: Incubus
Last night I got the chance to see my favourite band live, for the third time and I have to say last night may have been their best concert yet.
This time around they played a lot of their older songs, from Make Yourself which I believe is their most important, and from S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Of course they played all their mainstream hits and crowd favourites like Wish You Were Here, Dig, Drive and Nice to Know You.
It was nice to hear some of their old favourites like Stellar, Pardon Me, A Certain Shade of Green and Redefine which is a lot heavier sounding than some of their new stuff.
One of the coolest covers I’ve seen them sing is Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy. The song is on their Monuments and Melodies album, which is basically their greatest hits on one disc and rare or unreleased tracks on another disc.
I wasn’t sure they were going to play the song but they saved it for the very end of the encore and it was amazing!
Can’t wait for the next time they pass through town.
Filed under: Social Media — melissafeeney @ 8:06 pm
Being a student is hard, and being one myself not so long ago, I understood the frustration of not being able to afford the latest mobile phone or notebook computer.
If you are lucky enough to have your parents pay for some of your expenses then you may want to use the hand-me-up excuse on them.
The hand-me-up as opposed to the hand-me-down is when the younger generation passes off their old, but still useable technology to the older generation so their parents will hopefully pay for the new upgraded version.
If all goes according to plan you may find yourself with the new iPhone.
Here’s a video we made for the students of Centennial College.
Maybe Toronto doesn’t have a garbage problem, but a recycling problem?
The garbage strike may be drawing to a close but what lessons have we learned from these last few weeks without garbage collection?
If this strike should tell us anything, it’s that we need to recycle more. When driving past the mounds of garbage bags at any of the temporary dumps sites, is that not a wake up call for just how much waste we contribute to the landfills?
If we consume and bag that much garbage in a few weeks, how much garbage are we actually throwing away every year? It’s a scary thought when you think about it.
I grew up on music videos. MuchMusic, MTV were my after school entertainment and I loved watching videos that stepped outside of the lines and pushed the limits of music video creativity. I’m talking about those videos that weren’t just about the artist but about making a unique video that really made you think.
So to those creative musicians and the video directors who worked with them to make it all possible, I salute you. Thanks for not making just another garbage video and for taking risks.
Here is my list of the top 5 music videos of all time. All of these videos are clever clever clever and unique. They have done something that hadn’t been done before in any other video and that is why I like them.
5) Artist: Madonna
Video: Ray of Light
Why is this video great?: Madonna has always been an originator. The queen of reinvention has had some great videos over her career but when she made a comeback with her album of the same name, after some disappointing albums, she made her presence known in a big way, snagging the Video of the Year award at the MTV VMA’s in 1998. The “Ray of Light” video is a simple concept but visually it is stunning! I can’t even picture how else this video would look like if time wasn’t sped up and people weren’t moving at the speed of light.
4) Artist: Blur
Video: Coffee and TV
Why is this video great?: This has to be the cutest video ever! How much do we sympathize for the missing milk carton? The audience is put in its shoes and we feel sad when he is lost but happy when he finds a female companion to keep him company in heaven. Too cute!
3) Artist: Blink 182
Video: Always
Why is this video great?: Blink 182 have always had goofy videos but this one showed their maturity as artists. The idea of splicing the screen into three to represent all three of the band members after the same girl at different times was original and well done, especially since at the end of the video she didn’t choose any of the Blink 182 guys and decided on someone else.
2) Artist: Radiohead
Video: Just
Why is this video great?: Of course one of the best alternative bands in the world would have equally alternative videos to match. Of all the great Radiohead videos, this has got to be the best. Maybe the best part of this video is its ambiguity. At the end when everyone is lying on the sidewalk and no one knows why, you can imagine what the man said to the other people and it can be anything you want.
1) Artist: Korn
Video: Freak on a Leash
Why is this video great? The aggressiveness of this video coupled with its unique concept make Korn’s “Freak on a Leash” my favourite video of all time. The video’s concept of a bullet passing through objects and coming through the bullet hole-filled room where the band is playing is brilliant! I love the dark undertones in this video and Todd McFarlane’s animation is the icing on the cake.
I grew up on 1990’s alternative rock and remember seeing a pattern in all rock videos at the time. When I watched “Freak on a Leash” for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised to witness a video that that didn’t follow the traditional rock music video formula.
Runner ups:
Artist: The Bravery
Video: Honest Mistake
Why is this video great? The concept was simple but clever and who doesn’t like an elaborate domino sequence?
Artist: Incubus
Video: Drive
Why is this video great? Ok, so there is a little bias here. Incubus is one of my favourite bands and I had to include this video that put them on the map for the mainstream. The band drew all their own drawings for the video and the idea of including an escher inspired hand drawing itself was brilliant.
Artist: Michael Jackson
Video: Thriller
Why is this video great? One of the most expensive videos ever produced, when the music industry was actually a viable business and Mikey was the biggest artist in the world, it just doesn’t get any bigger. The video is a reflection of the music business and the celebration of the music video at the time and the zombie dance sequence is a classic!
There are so many videos that I’ve seen over the years, that I would have put on this list but that would be a very long blog post. So, if you think of any other goodies that I didn’t include, let me know!
Filed under: Social Media — melissafeeney @ 6:49 pm
My sincerest apologies to all my non Twitter-using Facebook friends…for annoying you with all my Twitter updates.
I removed the Twitter application from my Facebook profile, that automatically updates my Facebook as soon as I update Twitter.
I don’t want to continue annoying my Facebook friends who didn’t ask to be bombarded with my status updates at least three times per day.
Secondly if they wanted to have a constant news stream of my life then they would follow me on Twitter, which is updated much more frequently. I don’t think Facebook should be used in the same way Twitter is used. They are completely different social tools and as much as Facebook wants to be Twitter it should just stick to what it’s good at; sharing photos and events.
Facebook tried to evolve into a Twitter-like news stream, but if you ask me, Twitter was created for that very reason, to share Facebook- like status updates with people who were actually interested in knowing more about you. Since then Twitter has evolved into many other uses, but that’s a whole other blog post.
That is what’s so great about both of these tools; they have different functions and the people who follow you on Twitter are not necessarily your Facebook friends and vice versa.
It also didn’t make sense to combine the two since such a small percentage of my Facebook friends use Twitter, so in order to keep the number of friends on Facebook, I’ve decided to keep Twitter and Facebook separate.
Although this is a great tool for some, I came to the conclusion that it’s not right for me. Some people, like me use Twitter for business and Facebook for more personal use. While others are all business or all personal on both. Depending on what the purpose of you using these tools are then consider how and why you share the information you do.
