A Spring Fling

If you read this blog, you know that I don't update as often as I'd like to. Ideally I'd like to post every day, but we all know that doesn't happen. While this isn't a fashion blog, I'm thinking about posting outfits more often because it's fun, it's content, and it'll force me to wear something other than my usual shirt/jeans/scarf.

Once upon a time, this time last year, I attended Sheridan's Media Arts awards, wearing this dress. Then I had a bad summer, gained crazy amounts of weight, and tried the dress on again at Christmas. It didn't fit. Besides the fact that the weight was frustrating, I was upset. If I'm an advocate of anything beyond gay bars and thrift stores, it's making your closet work for you. Buying a dress, even if it's cheap, and then only wearing it once just isn't something I'm down with. (Wedding dresses excluded...)

Flash forward to this Easter. A happy, special occasion to see my mom's side of the family since they were coming to our house for dinner. I was looking for something nice to wear, and I found this in the back of my closet.

I tried it on, and BOOM! Instant confidence boost in the fact that it fit again. I felt a burst of joy and the floral print just yelled SPRING! It was a celebratory mood... They're kinda awkward, because I don't often take outfit pictures... but my little sister was kind enough to try working the camera. My dog Jack came along to show off for the camera too!

I couldn't tell you how much everything cost, it's all stuff I've found over the years. I can however tell you it's not expensive. I got the dress for about 30$ from Winners. The cardigan is Joe, the earrings are from Spring, and the shoes are hand me downs from my older sister.The metallic flats and the pearl earrings dress up an otherwise casual summer dress, without making me feel too fancy. I got lots of compliments from my loved ones, whether because it's well put together or because my family is just used to seeing me dress in a less fanciful fashion, it's hard to say. I'm hoping on the first one. Happy belated chocolate bunny holiday from me, from Jack and whoever else I have the authority to send it from!

God Awful

Today I held in my hands a piece of paper that had the gall to declare that the end of days was at hand. This offensive piece of pure ignorance and hatred, disguised as a mere paper pamphlet, said that come May 21st, 2011, we are all basically screwed. According to this shit, which I am going to call out as straight up shit, GAY PRIDE is a surefire sign of the apocalypse.

That's right, because two people with matching parts love each other, we're all going to get smote. Modern love is bringing about the end of of the world. RE-FUCKING-DICULOUS.

This is the sort of ignorance that makes me really angry and blows my mind at the exact same time. The pamphlet I was reading was a campaign of hate. How exactly can people put so much energy into hating each other? When did your private tastes become available for the scrutiny of public opinion? When did love between two consenting people become wrong in any capacity? I'll admit it's true. There have always been people opposed to the gay movement, so the answer to the above questions is: always. That's why it's infuriating. We haven't learned to LOVE each other yet, after living around each other for SO LONG.

People can talk righteous and feel good about handing out paper to try and 'save' people by telling them they're wrong. But they can't see past their own walls of prejudice. They wouldn't know saving someone if it came up and shoved them off their mighty walls, then nursed them back to health. People can find blind faith but never find room for blind love of their fellow human beings. It's disgusting.

The icing on the cake came when my friend Josh linked me this video:


He knows I have the biggest soft spot for this kind of thing. I swear to whatever entity is threatening to destroy us because of a little boy on boy action, or two girls kissing (which I saw today- it made my heart happy) I was definitely gay in a past life. That's my conclusion, that's why every time I see something like this, every time I hear a story it punches me in the heart and holds on tight. It bothers me for the next few days. I want to make a change. I want to help.

Anyone who has it in their heart to hate their fellow man for something like this... They don't have the right to call themselves human. Plain and simple.

Blogging Burton

Yesterday Adrian and I went to the Lightbox to take in the Tim Burton exhibit that's there until the 17th. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed, but fortunately, I'm a writer first and a photographer not-at-all so we can make do with what we've got. GOOGLE IMAGES!

It was a smorgasbord of everything that encompassed the wild, childlike macabre of Burton. There were videos, costumes, sketches, props, notes, puppets, giant polaroids, unrealized projects and oh yes, those creepy ass dolls from the Wonka Welcome Song in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Their favourite candy is your SOUL. (Source)

It was amazing, inspiring and humbling all at once. We were literally a breath away from film history. I saw Santa Jack Skellington with his many heads and Sweeney Todd's razors. There were storyboards, sketches, paintings, and poems with words crossed out, replaced and thought out again, and again, and again.

I was particularly charmed by hand written notes about Edward Scissorhands. Burton wrote that Edward liked to make ice sculptures in his spare time and that he had emotional eyes, due to an over-sized mechanical heart. The way these pen scribbles on scrap paper summarized the character perfectly and with such affection emphasized Burton's clarity of vision and his compassion for the character.

(Source)

The other thing that struck me as amazing (and this is the most obvious statement you could ever hope to run into) was how extremely pronounced his style has always been. Everything was SO BURTON-ESQUE, even his early work. It was a young artist with his own eerie style, sticking to it, developing it further. No matter how weird people thought it was, his unique vision was something he stayed true to from the beginning...

Now people are mooning over his scrap paper doodles in a high end art exhibit. Moral of the story: all the more reason to stick to your guns if people think you're crazy.

Confessions: Excuses.

I've been a bad blogger lately. I wish I could say I've been running around the streets of the world, going on insane adventures, but it's just life as usual. And I'm okay with that. My good friend Adrian and I were talking about it, and we concluded the best things in life can be the little ones. Things like thunderstorms and cheese, bacon and egg bagels for breakfast.

Instead of writing, I've been reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, going out for sushi, and singing karaoke. Watching movies on the big screen (Hobo With a Shotgun, WHAT?) and shopping for dresses to wear to the Media Arts awards. I've been making bagels from scratch. I've been going to end of year banquets. I've been enjoying the weather. Not only that, but with my internship finishing up, the hunt for the perfect job begins!

In other words, life is what happens when you're busy planning to blog about it, and that's the way it should be.

The only other thing I can say is that I've been watching Community and I'm addicted to it. Particularly Troy and Abed with their unending bromance and crazy schemes. I kind of want to be best friends with them forever:


YEP. AMAZING!

Tomorrow, I'm seeing the Tim Burton exhibit at the TIFF Bell Lightbox after work! Post about that FOR SURE!

Late Bloomer

That's right, I started my script for Script Frenzy 2011... finally. I had to wait for lightning to strike, for an idea to come to me. But I finally found one and started writing, despite my hardwired instincts to plan everything out so it all fits together. It's not that I'm organized in the slightest. Writing in school has trained me to always always ALWAYS have outlines, scene by scene breakdowns, and more of a sense of order than an apartment furnished by an IKEA addict with OCD.

I'm still thirteen pages short of the three page per day quota...BUT.... A late start is better than not starting at all.

Sucker Punch

Yesterday, I went to see Sucker Punch. This movie is being panned by critics, and normally I think I'd probably be cursing it out right along with them. The plot was simple, the execution of it was even simpler, and it was CG heavy to an impossible point. Normally these are all the things that make me cringe, and look down my pretentious film student nose with disgust.

BUT I really liked it. The movie delivered exactly what it promised in the trailer. A high speed/ slow motion action fest with some really epic sound design and some of the coolest shots I've ever seen. Borderline ridiculous ass kicking. I was really entertained...and isn't that the point? Besides that, the soundtrack ROCKED and the script...well I can forgive the simplicity of the script because of the wildness of everything else.

Oh, also it almost turned me into a lesbian.

But really, you can't blame me for that one. I mean. Imagine these airbrushed sex machines kicking ass with swords, guns, fishnets and DOING IT IN HEELS. Okay? Yeah. Ladies, you want to question your heterosexuality, watch Sucker Punch. But more importantly than being entertained, I found it to be inspiring. Typically this is something I would post in my weight loss blog but I think because it's pop culture related AND fitness related I might as well post it here.

Watching the girls of Sucker Punch amped my engine. I wanted to run a hundred miles. I wanted to punch someone in the face and get into a fight. It put all kinds of gears in motion, turning... Or should I say they oiled the gears, bringing back. Two years ago I read an article in Fitness magazine, talking how their beauty editor took on the challenge of boxing for fitness. The idea took root, had appeal.

I started looking into local boxing clubs back home, filling out forms, curious. For some reasons, like tons of my ideas that fall through the cracks, I never followed through. I was scared, or I didn't want it badly enough. But that was two years ago, and this is now. When I move back to Waterloo, I've decided to look back into boxing classes.

Someone told me once that behind my need to be nice to almost everybody, behind the destructive urges of my binge eating disorder, that I had a lot of anger that had never been addressed. A lot of aggression that needed an outlet, and this might be just be the ticket for that. I guess I'll get to blog more about this when it actually happens, but this is a preview of what's to come.

...I'll try to be more consistent with my updates, but I've been busy with friends and packing for moving and family and food and movies ANNNND school, plus looking into plans for the future, which are about as stable as a house made of jello right now...

At least I can say there's going to be some hard hits involved.