Blog is morphing...stay tuned.

I know I am straying a lot from fashion posts these days. I am just finding myself evolving as a person when it comes to my relationship with this blog. I am influenced by so many aspects of pop culture and creative areas of life that I have the urge to write about them.

I still love fashion but I am finding that I really struggle to write about it sometimes. At the moment, not a lot of the fashion really inspires me. It leaves me at a lose of what to write about so I feel like writing about other things that are catching my interest. So expect a bit more of a mix in this blog than before.

I guess this year is really one full of changes for me and I expect more to change before we are ringing in 2012.

And I leave you with an image from the photo project I am working on.

True Blood On My Mind.

I want season 4 of True Blood to hurray up and start already!

Amnesia Eric! Must have Amnesia Eric on my TV screen!

The New Season

And lots of hot male characters with their shirts off!

Witches vs. Vampires

Come on True Blood! Stop teasing me so badly and start your new season!

Stand and Deliver: The Autobiography- My Review

I received the book Stand and Deliver:The Autobiography by Adam Ant from my UK friend Maz yesterday. Yes, she went out of her way and got it and sent it along to me since it is not easy to obtain in the US. I was so excited to get the package and to finally get to read the book! Much thanks to Maz!!!

Above: Stand and Deliver: The Autobiography by Adam Ant

I read the book almost straight through and was really intrigued by it. Adam Ant is very blunt about his life. Yes, it is his point of view on things that went on but then we all only can tell our own view of our lives and many of use would not be as forth-coming as he was in his book.

I liked hearing about his childhood and it was very interesting to me that he had a very poor childhood like a lot of the punk musicians/rock musicians  who were born in the 1950s-60s seem to have had. This is not the first autobiography I have read that made me go "Damn....." when reading about a person's childhood. I have memories of reading John Lydon's Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs many years ago and having that "Damn...." moment about his childhood as well. In fact, reading Stand and Deliver makes me want to go back and reread Lydon's book.

The difference in Adam Ant's book is he went through his entire life struggling with bipolar disorder. Yes, a full on mental illness. He is actually still fighting the battle against it through he seems to be winning it these days and keeping it under control. The book shows how he used work, and yes, sex to keep the bipolar demons at bay. He would throw himself into both things to distract himself from his illness and then have huge burnouts when it finally caught up with him. He always knew he had this problem which made the struggle even harder.

He references his diary a lot since he started a diary and kept it pretty frequently throughout his career. This referencing situations he wrote about in his diary led to my favorite line in the whole book:

"Until writing this I had forgotten entirely about this episode, and rereading it in my diary now makes me think I blanked it out because it was so dumb."

That line tickled me and led to me laughing for a good minute straight. It was just such a "Ah Ha!" moment and I could  see rereading about the situation and actually thinking that myself if it had happened to me. It is a rare person who would actually write about a situation in our lives that, well, made us look totally dumb. Props to him for that.

I really liked his writing of his finally totally hitting rock bottom in his struggle with being bipolar and addressing his arrest in 2002 which was a result of being bipolar. The chapters of the book dealing with this portion of his life were really interesting because it showed how he got help told of his plans which have led up to his recent tour that he is going on.

Overall, I really loved the book and the writing style kept me reading. If you are an Adam Ant fan...you need to read this book. I know I enjoyed finding out a lot about the singer that I enjoyed as a child in the early 80s and whom I rediscovered when I was 19, and very Gothic.

How can one resist the music of the "Dandy Highwayman"?

I know I never can and you will always find me getting up to dance when "Goody Two Shoes" starts to play.

Getting ready for warm weather.

It seems Spokane is still a ways off from really warm weather since we haven't reached temperatures above 60 (F) yet this year. We are still getting fresh snow in the mountains this late in spring. It is keeping those leaves on the trees hiding and the grass as only just turned green again. It is not usual for spring around here but not unheard of either.

Still, I like to think positive and look forward instead of complaining too much about the cold, rainy weather we have been having. Heck, all the rain will really make things burst out in greens and colourful flowers the first really warm days we get. It is slowly starting to head in that direction so, *fingers crossed*, I am hopeful we will start warming up in the next week like the newscasters keep telling us we will.

I am applying the positive thinking to my wardrobe for summer. I have started rotating my shoes from winter to spring/summer and thinking out outfits to wear as the days slowly get warmer. I am even starting to get a few items to add to my wardrobe.

My mum gifted me with two mark from Avon fashion items this past week. Yes, my mum is an Avon lady and she has started to actually make a small profit off selling Avon to her exercise class and others who go to the gym she frequents. Go mum!

The first mark item she gifted me with is:

Above: It's A Long Story Dress by mark

I am really looking forward to wearing it because I love the pattern and the material is perfect for hot days. It has a detachable halter strap so you can wear the dress strapless or with a little extra "staying up" power. It is long enough for me which is rare since I am 5'9" in bare feet and love wearing heels.

I have a feeling I am going to get a lot of wear out of this when the temperatures are very hot and humid this summer and it is definitely packable so I may take it to San Diego with me when I head there for Comic Con in July.

The second mark item she gifted me with?

Above: Stacked Up Sandals by mark

I had seen these sandals in the mark brochure and knew they had to me mine. They are perfect for summer and appeal to the shoe girl inside me. They also fit me perfectly!

I cannot wait to start walking around outside in these sandals because they seem to be very comfortable for walking in due to the wedge heel and look good with jeans, shorts, skirts, or dresses. I think I am going to be getting a lot of wear out of them.

Now, if the weather would just hurry up and get a bit warmer...I could start wearing the gifts.

*side-eyes the thermometer*

Into muscle-bound cat men with ray guns or tri-coloured unicorns?

I have spent hours tonight having a huge laugh at the site:
 
Good Show Sir: Only the worst Sci-fi/Fantasy book covers

So many absolute gems of horrible covers featured at that blog and the comments made by readers of the blog are snarky as well.

For a taste of the fun to be had at this blog:




You must rush over to the blog and eyeball the horrible (and sometimes horribly cool) book covers featured. Especially if you are a lover of sci-fi/fantasy books.

Ouch My Feet!

I received the new Urban Outfitters catalog in the mail and these shoes just jumped out at me from the pages:

Above: Cutout Oxford Wedges by Jeffrey Campbell

Now, I am a lover of funky, unique, shoes but these? How the hell do you walk around in them without your poor feet screaming in pain after the first few minutes?

They have zero arch support so the whole time you walk in them the middle of your foot gets to flex in an uncomfortable way while your heel and ball of your foot hits the surface of the inner sole.

I am imagining my feet screaming for release from these shoes after a short walk across a mall or to the mailbox and back. I can see of no way these can be comfortable unless you spend the whole day sitting and only walking a few feet in any direction, and not often.

They just do not seem practical in even the slightest way to me and I know my feet would agree. I am usually a lover of Jeffrey Campbell shoes but lately? Most his designs look sore foot inspiring since they appear to be designed for women who never walk anywhere but are carried instead from place to place.

Has anyone slipped these babies so they can report on the comfort of them to confirm or deny my suspicions?

R.I.P. Jackie Cooper!

I am sure not many people know who Jackie Cooper is.

He was a movie star from the 1930s-50s and was a very famous child star since he started out in the "Our Gang" series of shorts in the 1930s.

 

The "Our Gang" shorts were played on afternoon tv when I was a child in the 1970s and hosted by Spanky McFarland who was a central cast member for a period of time in 1930s through 40s, and an adult by the 1970s. Back then, I didn't really make that connection of course so had no idea such a huge amount of time had passed.

I loved the years of the shorts (the early 1930s ones) with Jackie Cooper  in them and his never ending love for Miss Crabtree the school teacher.






I just thought Jackie Cooper was cute when I was 6-8 years old. I had no idea at that age that the shorts were very old and the kids were adults already. This may see strange since the shorts are black/white and have out of date fashions on the characters. I just figured that was the way they were filmed. Maybe because I was living in Southern California near the center of movie-making this did not seem far-fetched in my mind. The kids in the shorts acted like kids I knew in real life so they didn't seem "old-fashioned" to me.

Jackie just appealed to me as a little girl as I developed a huge crush on him. I ended up getting crushes on little boys who resembled him in looks. I guess you can say he was my first "type" when it came to boys.

 

That is why when I heard the news he had died today at 88 years old it made me feel sad. It was like a part of my childhood had died. It makes me want to dig out my old Our Gang VHS tapes and watch the Jackie Cooper/Miss Crabtree episodes.

R.I.P. Jackie Cooper!

Don't Mind Me, I Am Just Buried In A Book.

I rushed out today and bought the brand new Sookie Stackhouse book that was released today:

Above: Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

I am a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse book series and of the True Blood TV series. This made going out and getting the book very important to me today. It is also a great, fun, lightweight, distraction from all that has been going on in the world.

I shall be hanging out between the covers of this book tonight (and probably the next few days) as I read and reread it. It will get me excited for the new season of True Blood to start up next month.

If anyone else if reading this book. Enjoy! I know I will.