Here are some more details:

• This is her third season working at the Phoenix.
• She has her BA in Fashion Design from the Art Institute of Indianapolis.
• If she takes your measurements once, she’ll remember your size forever. Then she’ll be your personal shopper.
• Winter is her favorite season.
• The girl can bake (just ask my scale during tech week).
• She loves kayaking.
• Her big, fluffy old English dog, Laven (see above), is her BFF (but not in a creepy way). She gave her a haircut a few weeks ago. They both regretted it immediately.
• She wears a vintage dress like nobody’s business.
• Her cheeks are 100% real.
• The ghost of Andy Warhol inhabits her right hand every time she screen-prints. (We finally got her to stop putting soup cans on our t-shirts.)
• She designed these gorgeous t-shirts for us to wear in the Pride parade next weekend.

(She also has an intern, Jason (pictured on the left), who has gotten really skilled with an X-ACTO-knife.)

Current stats on me:

• I’m excited for my shirt.
• I’m also excited for mimosas before the parade.

Come visit us at the Phoenix Theatre booth at Pride and check out our float in the parade on June 8!

Related articles

• Remembering Donna Summer: Day Four (johnbalaya.wordpress.com)
• Remembering Donna Summer: Day Ten (johnbalaya.wordpress.com)
• Remembering Donna Summer: Day Nine (johnbalaya.wordpress.com)
• From Donna Summer To Daft Punk, Giorgio Moroder Transcends Generations At First DJ Set (b96.cbslocal.com)

The debut album from Cher Lloyd was a fantastic (juke)box of tricks …

‘Sticks + Stones’

… released 07 November 2011 the album reached Number 4 in the UK album charts!

♥

It was November 2011 when Cher Lloyd unveiled her debut album in the UK, ‘Sticks + Stones’. It was released on Syco Records (Simon Cowell’s venture with Sony) and described by Cher Lloyd herself as a ‘jukebox’ because each track is different! Which is certainly correct!

I think it’s a classy, sassy pop mix which contains slices of  bubblegum, synthpop, r&b, hip-hop, rap, dubstep and even a ballad! Cher has input on the writing on of 5 of the 10 tracks on the album – and ’Sticks + Stones’ whizzes  along thru the 10 in a little over half an hour with a ton of swag! I just love every minute of it!

This post will talk about the first 5 tracks that make up ‘Sticks + Stones’!

♥

♥

The opening track is ‘Grow Up’- a piece of peachy perfect bubblegum pop music. Cher opens the track by singing the chorus “We ain’t never gonna grow up, we just wanna get down” before launching into a quickfire rap “I got a flow that’ll make you drop, I got a flow that’ll make you pop!” - clearly demonstrating her ability to both sing and rap! Like Cher’s biggest selling single off the album; ‘Want U Back’, the track ‘Grow Up’ has Cher Lloyd written all over it!

Cutesy and cheeky, it is Cher Lloyd doing what she does best – with echos of Nikki Minaj and in terms of fun, Dizzee Rascal. It’s so good Busta Rhymes even hops on board as well to deliver a rap for Cher too! ‘Grow Up’ is a great choice of opening track for the album as Cher determinedly launches ’Sticks + Stones’ and brand ’Cher Lloyd’. The stall is set out – then it’s set on fire!!!

♥♥

Track 2 is ‘Want U Back’. A song which tells us of a girl whom having kissed her boy goodbye and walked away, is now wanting him back after spotting him around town with another girl. Perky, addictive – and from the opening “UHHN!” the track is loaded to the hilt with brattiness! And it’s that bratty attitude, which is no way is gonna just shine thru but positively blazes - as if looking into the sun – that just makes me love the song so much! I think of all the tracks on the album, ‘Want U Back’ captures the brat element the best of them all ha ha ha!

Musically, ‘Want U Back’ is an extremely catchy and sassy electro-pop tune. Cher opens the track with a loud “UHHN!”, and the song begins with synths and drums combining to produce a tune so incredibly lively and bouncy. After a nonchalant throwaway ‘la la la-la la la laaa’ Cher sings “Hey Boy u never had much game, thought I needed to upgrade so I went and walked away away away…” and off she goes, leaving boyfriend in her wake. But before long however, Cher then discovers her ex has moved on to someone new but still doing all the things he used to do with her. Cher reminisces ”Remember all the things that u and I did first? And now you’re doing them with her?” and realizing she is feeling like “shh” wants her old boyfriend back!!!

‘Want U Back’ is beautifully produced, embellished with delicious electronic hooks and licks – and Cher’s own voice adding fun haughty backing vocals. It’s a delight and an incredibly strong track and has been likened to Jessie J and Rihanna. But I’m not gonna say that as to me it is a signature Cher Lloyd track! This leaves all the others miles behind!

♥♥♥

So Cher begins ‘Sticks + Stones’ with 2 lively and catchy synthpop tunes which are classic Cher tracks in extrovert mode. But what if we wanted to get nearer the centre? The nucleus? The heart? What would we find beating away at the centre of ‘Sticks + Stones’? What if we needed the album to provide something for our own hearts as well as for our dancing feet?

Well next up is ‘With Ur Love’ delivering just that. It’s a lovely crafted piece of pop music and an emotionally charming and inspirational lovesong. Ok though, but this is Cher Lloyd – and the first 2 tracks of the album were so loaded with attitude do we not get any here? Well yes we do! We get that at the beginning of the track with as Cher sings “I keep building walls up but u tear ‘em down, I’m fighting … u got an AK and ur blowin’ through, explosive”. But the song is a love song so that’s what wins through and Cher gives into love and the track builds and builds and eventually lightens and really takes off. Cher’s vocal ‘da da da-da dum dum, da dum dum’, sets the melody which begins and ends the track and underpins throughout. Mike Posner hops on board to lend some vocal support too. It’s lovely!!!

Cher really gets to sing on ‘With Ur Love’, which she acknowledged herself ‘instead of jumping around’! It’s a wonderful piece of pure pop music with elements of r&b. So sassy!

♥♥♥♥

With track 4, we’re getting towards the middle of the album and in stark contrast to the track before, where we’re placed in a cosy place, Cher then removes our sense of security and gives us a punch in the chops with her tiny fist! As next up is lead single from the album ‘Swagger Jagger’! Probably one of the most divisive number 1′s that’s been in the charts for ages! The track opens with Cher singing ”Swagger Jagger, Swagger Jagger, you should get some of your own,” over small crackles and pops – as if the recording was been played back on vinyl. Then kick in the drums and the  blaring airhorns, before Cher raps “you can’t stop looking at me, staring at me, be what I be…” and declares her swagger’s in check. ‘Swagger Jagger’ incorporates the melody from a famous traditional North American folk song called ‘Darling Clementine’ and  is a song about copycats who need to ‘get some [swag] of their own’. I interpret it as a rallying call for the listeners with their own “swagger in check” to face down the haters with the message to them been – just “let it go”… sticks + stones and all that yep?

You know, I think ‘Swagger Jagger’ is my all time favourite Cher Lloyd song, I just really really like that track. And I don’t care what anyone says about the song as I just love it’s blistering airhorns and catchy hooks – I think it’s fab – so if you hate it – just ‘get out of MY way’ ha ha!!! The tune really gets stuck in your head - like some kind of tentacle that goes into your ear and feels around the inside of your brain – I do love it!!!

♥♥♥♥♥

After ‘Swagger Jagger’ Cher calms it all back down again with ‘Beautiful People’ described by Nick Levine as “an emo power ballad”¹ which I think is an authentic sum up of the track. The song is a collaboration with American/Swedish alternative rockers “Carolina Liar” and is a magnetizing and heart-breaking ballad. Acoustic guitars and piano combine to give the song a really human feel completely needed for the subject matter of the track, which I interpret to be unrequited love with a disturbing twist.

In the song, the object of the subjects love, who would usually be unaware of that love and so unreturning it unknowingly, is this time is fully aware and playing it all to their own advantage. This recognition of the dark side of unrequited love is what the track deals with as the subject realizes and prepares themselves sorrowfully for their inevitable fall.

It gives Cher the opportunity to really let her voice soar and when she does, she more than sends shivers down your spine! The emotion in her voice is incredible! When Cher sings about the life been sucked out of her heart I’ll challenge your own beating heart to stay within its ribcage and not be ripped from it. If it isn’t, you must either be clinically dead or a Zombie!

So Cher’s vocals give the song immense power and it’s clear this girl really can sing like an angel. Magnificent and melancholy, dramatic and dark all at the same time. The track is a real surprise and perfectly placed at the centre of the album where it wraps up the first half  leaving us in a very thoughtful place…

Credits:

‘Grow Up’ was written by Cher Lloyd, Kevin Rudolf, Jacob Kasher, Savan Kotecha, A. Harr, J Jackson and Trevor Smith. It was produced by Kevin Rudolf and The Runners.

‘Want U Back’ was written by Shellback and Savan Kotecha. Produced by Shellback.

 ‘With Ur Love’ was written by Shellback, Max Miller, Savan Kotecha and Mike Posner. Produced by Shellback.

‘Swagger Jagger’ was written by Cher Lloyd, Autumn Rowe, Jermaine Jackson, Andrew Harr, Andre Davidson, Sean Davidson, Marcus Lomax and Clarence Coffee Jr. It was produced by The Runners.

‘Beautiful People’ was written by Chad Wolfinbarger, Alexander Kronlund and Tom Hamilton. Produced by Max Martin and Shellback.

Lyrics:

(As “Want U Back”, “With Ur Love” & “Swagger Jagger” all have posts of their own, please see there for the lyrics to those songs x)

♥

‘Grow Up’

We ain’t ever gonna grow up ♥ We just wanna get down

Tell the DJ turn it up real loud ♥ No we’ll never grow up and if we had our way

♥ We would do this every day ♥

I got a flow that’ll make you drop ♥ I got a flow that’ll make you pop

I got a flow that’ll make ur mother and ur father call the cops

We’re gonna make this thing go blow ♥ We got a system overload

We’re gonna be the generation that makes everything explode

And when I say explode I don’t mean that we’re using bombs

♥ We doing stuff that we don’t ever have to tell our moms ♥

♥ Love this life we got we got it all up in our palms ♥

♥ Papers chasing yea we’re buying everything we want ♥

Some how some way we’re gonna have it our way

We don’t give a what what u say ♥ No we don’t

♥ We ain’t ever gonna grow up ♥ We just wanna get down ♥

Tell the DJ turn it up real loud ♥ No we’ll never grow up and if we had our way

♥ We would do this every day ♥

We ain’t ever gonna grow up ♥ We just wanna get down

Show everybody who runs this town ♥ No we’ll never grow up and if we had our way

♥ We would do this every day ♥

♥ Do u ♥ Do u ♥ Do u know what I mean?

♥ I’m princess I don’t want to be the queen ♥

Please don’t say a thing Mr Bean

Everytime you talk it makes me wanna scream

I don’t know what u heard about me ♥ Don’t make me hold up my pinky

I’ma finish off all these mc’s ♥ Like they were my cup of tea

I got a flow that’ll make you drop ♥ I got a flow that’ll make you pop

I got a flow that’ll make ur mother and ur father call the cops

Some how some way we’re gonna have it our way

We don’t give a what what u say ♥ No we don’t

♥ We ain’t ever gonna grow up ♥ We just wanna get down ♥

Tell the DJ turn it up real loud ♥ No we’ll never grow up and if we had our way

♥ We would do this every day ♥

We ain’t ever gonna grow up ♥ We just wanna get down

Show everybody who runs this town ♥ No we’ll never grow up and if we had our way

♥ We would do this every day ♥

BUSTA RHYMES RAP

We ain’t ever gonna grow up ♥ We just wanna get down

Show everybody who runs this town ♥ No we’ll never grow up and if we had our way

♥ We would do this every day ♥

♥ We ain’t ever gonna grow up ♥ We just wanna get down ♥

Tell the DJ turn it up real loud ♥ No we’ll never grow up and if we had our way

♥ We would do this every day ♥

We ain’t ever gonna grow up ♥ We just wanna get down

Show everybody who runs this town ♥ No we’ll never grow up and if we had our way

♥ We would do this every day ♥

♥♥♥♥♥

‘Beautiful People’

x It’s my last big breath, what you want me to? x When you act all cool like you already knew x

x That I’ll be stuck here cold just waiting it through x Till ur heart starts beating for somebody new x

… U know that it’s true …

x Cause it’s Beautiful People  like u x Who gets whatever they want x

x And it’s Beautiful People like u x Who suck the life right out of my heart x

x And it’s Beautiful People like u x Who make my cry …

x Cause nobody else could be nearly as cruel as u … x

x It’s a wicked game that ur making me play x

x Where I crawl back home as ur walking way x

x And it’s all quite clear x What u want me to say x

But u’ll be so long gone if I ask you to stay

U know that it’s true …

x Cause it’s Beautiful People  like u x Who gets whatever they want x

x And it’s Beautiful People like u x Who suck the life right out of my heart x

x And it’s Beautiful People like u x Who make my cry …

x Cause nobody else could be nearly as cruel as u … x

x Cruel as u x

x It’s my last big breath, what you want me to? x When you act all cool like you already knew x

x Cause it’s Beautiful People  like u x Who gets whatever they want x

x And it’s Beautiful People like u x Who suck the life right out of my heart x

x And it’s Beautiful People like u x Who make my cry …

x Cause nobody else could be nearly as cruel as u … x

x Nobody else could be nearly as cruel as u as u… x

Notes:

¹ Nick Levine, in his 01/11/2011 review of ‘Sticks + Stones’ on the BBC website.

                    I grew up in the TLC, SWV, and 702.  The sexy feminist vibe was  prominent  during this time. Women that are independent and confident always leave a lasting impression. TLC will always be  an influence on my life. They told you who they were.  The  unification  of three beautiful women kept me believing in lasting friendships. These women never changed who they were. I am still partial to  Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez. I was a fan before she  succumbed   to her injuries in car accident, while in  Honduras.  I am not a fan of people jumping band wagon after a death. I will always have a place in my heart for TLC.

                       I learned the importance of condoms, and some of my girlfriends did not. My sister is now 23 years old. Her first song was TLC’s “Baby Baby Baby!” You might know that TLC was  the highest female selling group. Destiny’s Child now has that title. Lisa Left Eye will have  Lil Mama   representing her. I am sure Lil Mama will give her a chance to be reborn. The TLC biopic in the works will Lil Mama as  TLC. Keke Palmer will  portray  Chilli. T-Boz will be played by the actress Drew Sidora. The nostalgic times of TLC will remind you of unity between women. Even when they had a beef, no one could dispute their love for each other. I hope this movie does not show just the  positive  aspects of their life.The movie will be influential if it shows the downfall, and conflicts. Lisa Entered the physical world on March 27, 1971. Lisa left the physical world April 25,2002!

Related articles

• Keke Palmer Cast as ‘Chilli’ in TLC Biopic (livelyindepthmusicent.com)
• 12 important lessons the TLC biopic will teach the youth of today (o.canada.com)
• Lil’ Mama Will Play Lisa ‘Left-Eye’ Lopes In The Upcoming TLC Biopic (pinkisthenewblog.com)
• Lil Mama Should Portray Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes In A TLC Biopic, Said No One Ever (crunktastical.net)
• Lil Mama Cast As Left Eye In Upcoming TLC Biopic (clutchmagonline.com)
• Coffee Talk: Lil Mama to Play Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes in TLC Biopic (essence.com)

Related articles

• New Music Video – Metric “Breathing Underwater” (thescenestar.typepad.com)
• Metric on Grooveshark (grooveshark.com)
• Metric Live at Coachella 2013 (celebnmusic247.com)
• Five things to do in Toronto this weekend, May 24 to 26 (theglobeandmail.com)
• Karen O and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs steal the show on Coachella’s opening night (blogs.calgaryherald.com)
• Metric, Juno Award Winners: ‘I Hope it Serves as an Inspiration For People’ (spinner.com)

The music of the late Billie Holiday, still transforms you because of the pain.

The demons that tortured Billie,  in her destructive

English: Billie Holiday and her dog Mister, backstage dressing room, probably at the Downbeat, NYC (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

life plaque celebrities 50 years later.

Artist will usually have one addictive down-fall,  because their talent is too powerful to contain. I know the feeling, of wondering ,”Why am I seeing this, How can I create this? Why am I telling these stories?”

That melancholy transforms the electricity in your  body, and it can’t escape you.

Julia’s voice might be the last sound you hear before you leave this earthly life.

You know when you hear Julia’s voice, that this will be the last song you will sing.

Never  have I heard a voice so transforming, as this Domino Recording Artist.

Is she telling you good-bye, for good?

What is you trying to escape?

Julia Holter appears to be  possessed with the ghosts of Billie Holiday and Karen Carpenter.

Listen for yourself!

Meet Domino Recording Artist, Julia Holter!

Related articles

• Video: Julia Holter, “World” (thefader.com)
• Indie band Galaxie 500′s rise chronicled in new book (cbsnews.com)
• Julia Holter adds LPR show w/ Jessica Pratt, who’s touring w/ Father John Misty & Grouper (seperately) (dates & streams) (brooklynvegan.com)
• Music Minute: “Goodbye to Love” – The Carpenters (1972) (theeyeoffaith.com)
• Billie Holiday: Remembering Lady Day (theculturetrip.wordpress.com)

L   A  D  Y          D   A   Y

(via)

I am really going through something here.  Between this something old and that something new, I have developed intense feelings for and about Perfectkins.  INTENSE feelings.  Like, if I were the kind of person to indulge in fanfic (and I’m not, so don’t worry too much about me), it would be all incredibly nutty stuff about a stand-in for me teaching a nervous young Tony how to love.  

Because he was so tall and gangly, he just always seemed to be a boy.  A sweet boy, a funny boy, a boy who wanted and needed huge amounts of love. I am not generally interested in the young or young-at-heart, but it’s a crucial part of his appeal for me.

And, I mean, look at him.

Look.

At.

Him.

I love his funny face, his sunny funny face.

Of course, this is all horribly bittersweet, because he died twenty years ago of AIDS – and so there’s an aura of sadness about him and his memory.  There’s a sense of wasted opportunity, too, because he was so talented and so good at everything, but for millions of people he’s just Norman Bates.  Nothing wrong with an iconic role, but it stunted his career in so many ways.  Sort of like Marilyn Monroe as the archetypal dumb blonde: it’s what made her famous, and then she couldn’t get anyone to see her as anything else – no matter how great and versatile she was.  Poor Marilyn, poor Tony.

Oh, well.  We’ll always have Brahms.

She advocates rights for women that speak up about their sexuality and not afraid of the backlash?

Christina Aguilera will never be “Mrs.Cogenialty.”

She is a fighter and a blazing talent, who breaks every musical barrier.

Her voice and her lyrics will make some uncomfortable but  Christina doesn’t care, she’s “Still Dirty.”

Related articles

• REPORT: Christina Aguilera Returning to ‘The Voice’, To Receive $17 Million Paycheck (hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)
• Christina Aguilera Shows Off Weight Loss In Skinny Jeans (huffingtonpost.com)
• Margaret Cho: Assassin (myoldaddiction2.wordpress.com)
• You Don’t Own Me by Lesley Gore (jennifertomkow.wordpress.com)

Related articles

• The Afro-Petting Zoo is Closed: A Public Service Announcement (blackgirlnerdy.blogspot.com)
• Fierce Natural Hair: All Hail the Afro (getfiercestyle.com)
• Managing Fine Natural Hair (naturalfantastic.com)
• Marrianne Baker u1114026: My feminist view on black women in vouge (uelblog2013.wordpress.com)

Beautiful people everywhere. Oh God. My eyes hurt.

Focus: Being real

Proverbs 31:30 (NIV) Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Throughout history people have worshipped beauty. Civilizations and cultures have always exalted beautiful people to leadership and fame—and the age we live in is no exception. In magazines, on television, the silver screen, and the internet, the spotlight is pointed at people who seem to have no flaws. The current focus on fairness may prove to help somewhat in the future, but let’s face it—beauty usually wins out.

It’s hard not to notice people who are especially good looking—who have it all put together. But, what if you’re not that? What if you just never were and never will be? What does that make you?

From a physical standpoint, people who are beautiful when they are young—are bound to ‘age’ in time. What happens then? How does a person keep their position as one of the beautiful ones when time takes its toll?

If you’ve been through a lot of stuff like depression and dependency…that takes a toll, too. My hair started turning gray when I was seventeen. By the time I was thirty, I was more than half gray and within a few years after that, my hair was white. I make it slightly yellow, but it’s actually quite white. I get compliments about my hair and I like to say I earned every one of them—which is true.

Trials do take a toll, and as you look in the mirror, you might not like what you see. If you’re like me—you see every line and shadow as though you’re looking through a magnifying glass. I recently had to have some extensive dental work done and am still having a little trouble not wondering what’s going to ‘go’ next.

It’s hard to imagine that God intended for our bodies to age and wear out. Don’t you wonder sometimes why that should have to happen? Because sin entered into the world with Adam and Eve, we have to deal with a lot of things that might have been different otherwise—but God’s original plan was for living creatures to multiply—so there would have to come a point in time when the planet would become overpopulated, if He hadn’t originally intended that we’d eventually ‘give up the ghost’.

I remember my grandmother saying when she was in her eighties that she still felt like a ‘girl’ inside. I liked hearing that…and I’m beginning to understand what she was talking about more and more.

I am learning to take comfort in some of the things that have happened to my body as a result of stuff I’ve been through. For one thing, I know I’m not alone. I’ve learned to recognize certain characteristics in other people that offer little clues about where they’ve come from and what they’ve been through. I guess it’s one of the beautiful things about growing older and becoming able to face some of the consequences that accompany a history of depression and dependency. When you reach a point where you’re not so caught up in yourself—you begin to see new things to appreciate in people you can relate to.

I am a faithful believer in sunscreen and moisturizers and I use them morning and night every single day. My husband and I have taken up kayaking. We go out on the water regularly and are purposely trying to stay as strong as possible while we can. I won’t stop trying to hold off the clock, but I know it’s inevitable—we’re all getting older every day we live.

There are other kinds of beauty to embrace when the physical kind is fading—or maybe was never quite there anyway. There is the beauty of being—or becoming a person who truly cares about others. A person who is all wrapped up in their ‘self’ gives very little thought toward those who are hurting or lonely. When you are one of the ones who is in that place of pain and isolation, and someone takes a personal interest in you—you see that person as beautiful, no matter what they look like.

I remember the revelation of reading ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’, by Margery Williams, to my children when they were young. It was a profound experience to grasp the concept in the story. In a nutshell, the rabbit becomes ‘real’ at the end of the story because he was loved and worn out by the boy he was given to.

In this life—we become ‘real’ when we get past the superficial part of life…the things that don’t last. Experience does take a toll. Heartache takes a toll…and so does every kind of pain we go through. But each time some of the surface is chipped away—a little more of the person underneath emerges…until we are completely ‘real’. The ignorant and inexperienced can keep ‘beautiful’…I’ll take ‘real’.

Declaration: I will find new strength by embracing ‘real’.

All NEW STRENGTH posts are Copyright by Christina Cook Lee as of the date they were written and posted. Please request permission to re-post or re-blog. This material will be published as a book in 2013, by the grace of God. To subscribe to New Strength, select ‘follow’ in the upper left corner of this page.

For music selections that will help bring hope and encouragement during your recovery from depression and addiction, browse: http://www.youtube.com/user/NewStrengthMusic/videos?view=1&flow=grid

2. Was this casting call at K-Mart or Big Lots?

3. Why does Lil Scrappy momma look like “McGruff The Crime Fighting Dog?”

4.Why didn’t I know Lil Scrappy was slow remedial?

5.Who the hell pimped out K. Michelle?

6. Why didn’t this show come with a syllabus; No one knows these people?

7. Why did Stevie J choose dude( that  is swagger-jacking Rihanna)over 15 year relationship?

8. Why did the end of that episode remind me of “Paris Is Burning” with Willi Ninja , and Dorian Corey?http://vimeo.com/8350272

9.So we are going to pretend Stevie J is straight?

10. When the hell was Lil Scrappy Mama Pimping ,during Slavery Times?

11.Who she pimp Harriet Tubman?

12. Who has money on this show?

13. Who has a career?

14. Why do I feel like all these people cash they checks at the Liquor Store?

15. How the hell can anyone take this show seriously?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In. That.Order

Peter – Marek – Vierka – Lucka – Hanka – Stanko

Teaching Slovak literature has never been such a fun!

Related articles

• Birthday Bash Artist Profile: Selena Gomez (1033ampradio.cbslocal.com)
• Come and Get It Selena Gomez (bowsandprettythings.wordpress.com)
• Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez Kiss, Gross Out Taylor Swift (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• VIDEO: Selena Gomez Vs. Taylor Swift: Best Billboard Performance?! (blockjams.com)

Donyale Luna, a brave woman, that admitted to her drug problems, lived a cosmic life.

She would tell people she was from the moon. She spent her days with the late drug addict, Brian Jones.

Donyale Luna, was of course a muse for the late Andy Warhol.

She at times would deny her African Heritage, and refused to be labeled “Black.”

Her bright contacts and lack of contact with Black America during her career , made her unfairly portrayed by a society that at the time screaming and dying for  ”Black Pride” and “Equal Rights!”

Donyale Luna’s life plagued by a reputation similar to  the now Fashion Icon, Naomi Campbell.

We should thank Donyale for her  presence and her changing societies Idealistic paradigms.

The best and worst thing I’ve watched this year, probably. It is so comforting that people beautiful in and out exist. Yet I can only imagine the pain that comes with such joy. May Zach rest with the knowledge of how many people he has touched and his ability to make complete strangers fall in love with him in a mere half hour. May his loved ones find comfort and solace in time to come.

jol

“His biggest obsession, though, is realizing his singular vision of idealized all-American youth. He wants desperately to look like his target customer (the casually flawless college kid), and in that pursuit he has aggressively transformed himself from a classically handsome man into a cartoonish physical specimen: dyed hair, perfectly white teeth, golden tan, bulging biceps, wrinkle-free face, and big, Angelina Jolie lips.”

Jeffries is also a man who grinds his axe repeatedly about this ‘need’ of beauty. He goes to great lengths talking about beautiful people and employing only painfully attractive people in his large headquarters. Some reports say he has a picture of a well-toned masculine abdomen framed above the fireplace in his house.

Some of us might find all of this a touch superficial. Some others might think of it as a brand-man-living-thebrand-life. But then again, a man has a right to his opinions (as does a woman, by the way.) The problems only start when one man’s opinions begin sermonising the rest of the world. His statements, for instance about fat people.

In his words, ““In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told the site. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

I suspect the legal eagles got to work and asked him to issue a statement of apology (7 years after the original comment), and seeing his company’s dipping fortunes, Jeffries obliged. But this half baked apology only managed to bring in more hatred for the man and his brand. And it also dug up those old graves he thought he’d sealed up nice and straight.

People are now talking about the thongs for middle-school girls, which had “Eye Candy” and “Wink Wink” printed on their fronts. To which Jeffries simply reacts: “People said we were cynical, that we were sexualizing little girls. But you know what? I still think those are cute underwear for little girls. And I think anybody who gets on a bandwagon about thongs for little girls is crazy. Just crazy! There’s so much craziness about sex in this country. It’s nuts! I can see getting upset about letting your girl hang out with a bunch of old pervs, but why would you let your girl hang out with a bunch of old pervs?”

People are also talking abotu a t-shirt design that had heavy racial undertones. These people our friend simply calls ‘humorless Asians’.

And then there are people who are writing letters to Mike. These he doesn’t really respond to.

And finally, there’s this one person who seems to be taking his whole messaging through advertising thingamajig and giving it right back to him.

A note: I don’t very often put up so much information in a single blog post. It tends to erase my line of thought entirely. And I suspect that’s just the case here. So I’ll stop. But here’s a picture of the man who doesn’t like fat and ugly. Sorry for doing this to you.

Peace.
Kabir

EDIT: I also found this piece that talks about how another brand H&M showcases their swimwear range using a ‘plus sized’ model. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I get a feeling this is another sort of patronizing attempt. In a good guy sort of way. When will women (and men, to be sure) learn to accept their bodies the way they are, instead of having brands and advertising dictate to them how they must feel?

Related articles

• Abercrombie & Fitch Gives A Statement of a LIFETIME…. Mike Jeffries, CEO, hates Fat Chicks. (idollmagazine.wordpress.com)
• My perspective: The response of the general public to Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (lifewithsaoirse.wordpress.com)
• Mike Jeffries Abercrombie: Retail Chain Ignores Plus-Sized Women; ‘Doesn’t Want Large People in His Store’ (hngn.com)
• Mike Jeffries, Abercrombie & Fitch CEO: NO FAT CHICKS! (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• Down with A&F (banterwithben.wordpress.com)

There was once an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town. This warehouse was used as a storing area for clothes that seem destined for a better life than this. The building had been so badly neglected that trees and shrubbery had sprung up in each room of the building and surrounded the said clothes. The owners of this property must have left in a hurry as music continued to blare out of speakers placed randomly around the building. This music was on a continuous loop ranging from modern pop to the bright and colourful hippie music from the 70’s. At times it was just a generic thumping sound but more often than not it was a popular music song that the kids loved. It was deafening but nobody complain so it continued. After a few months of lying there disused a man opened the front door and entered the building with his girlfriend in hand. They could barely make out the clothes that were neatly folded and placed in each room of the building. On top of that they began to feel dizzy- you could almost say drunk- listening to the loud music following them from room to room. The man picked up one of the items of clothing- a tracksuit- the same as many other tracksuits he had seen before. However, it was difficult to see it correctly in the dim light. It was even more difficult to see the price tag. When he did clearly read the price with the help of his mobile phone’s built-in light he thought it much too expensive but something inside him made him believe that it was worth it. There didn’t seem to be anyone in the building at all so he decided to leave the money on a counter and left. And this is what I believe to be the first sale ever made by Abercrombie and Fitch.

The first thing that strikes you about Abercrombie is just how dark it is when you enter. You naturally assume that this is just your eyes readjusting from the bright natural lights of outside and that soon your eyes will adjust and you will be able to see perfectly well after a minute or so. This never happens. I decided to move towards the sweaters to see if any of them were in my style (side note: my style is that it keeps me warm. Everything else is extra).

Swaying my arms gently from side to side to guide me across the store since my sight was now that of an 87-year-old cataract patient I tried to move across the store. My graceful blind man’s bluff movements did not go unnoticed by the other customers especially the woman whose boob I accidentally grazed with my hand. I finally made it to the sweater table with neither my dignity nor a sexual harassment suit so it was a case of so far so good.

As long as I can remember I have been a medium. I was a medium enfant, a medium child, medium teenager, and now as I stood at the sweater table, I was a medium adult. Or so I thought. I picked up a sweater that I could only assume to be blue. I took off my older duffle coat and tried placed the sweater over my head. The neck was a bit tight but I have a disproportionally large head so that wasn’t a huge problem. My large head has on more than one occasion been the cause of some very cruel but well thought out nicknames in the schoolyard. Fat head. Pregnant head. Egg head. From these names you would be forgiven to think that I was educated in a remedial school but I was educated in a mainstream school with classmates that were potentially the next generation of adults. I say potentially since the school I attended had a bad case of asbestos and I doubt that many of this children made it past young adulthood. My oversized head was not only a displeasing sight for the other students it was also the reason my mother took such pleasure whenever I injured myself. Every time I fell from a swing or tripped up in the playground my mother was always there to comfort me. However, while her mouth offered little tid bits of comfort, her eyes said something closer to ‘so now this is what you get for having the audacity of making me push that melon you call a head out of my vagina. Feel the pain. Feel it for the next 23 hours and then worry about your troublesome afterbirth’.

When the top was on me I noticed that it was far too tight and as I stood there in the middle of the store I did what any normal person does when they try on their size and it doesn’t fit; I blamed it on a labelling error. Obviously, someone had placed a medium label on a small and this would be rectified in no time at all.

I called over a sale assistant who was also known in the world of A&F as a ‘store models’. She looked like something from a fashion magazine. Her body was perfect apart from her hair. It gave off a certain air of I’ve-had-amazing-morning- sex-and-haven’t-had-time-to-wash. This slight defect of bad hair gave me a warm happy feeling inside. Luckily, nobody that ever graces the store has to wash. Ever fifteen or so minutes a store model walks the entire length of the store spraying the trademark A&F perfume. I imagine this was the brainchild of some suit in head office. I also imagined him pitching the idea using phrases like ‘4D experience’ and ‘synergy’. The idea of infecting a whole store every few minutes with perfume could only have been thought up by a person who was on a serious cocaine come down. There could be concessions for this idea had the perfume been an exquisite fusion of beautiful aromas mixed with subtleties of different examples of natures deodorants.. It was not. There was a definite pong of one-legged mail order Russian bride about it. It was also destined to follow you for the rest of the day like a German stalker.

The store model had already lost interest in what I was talking about even before I’d spoken.

‘Im sorry’, I said, ‘but I think there is a mistake on the label. You see, I’m a medium and this sweater is a medium but…’

‘Oh! I see what the problem is. You’re not like a Abercrombie medium’. She looked me up and down with a face that made me pretty glad that I couldn’t read minds. I imagined she was thinking about my potential love handles or the man boobs that were sprouting faster in me than most 13-year-old girls.

‘I wasn’t aware that there were different sizes between stores’

‘Oh yeah, like you’re like maybe a normal person medium but you’re for defs like an Abercrombie extra large’.

An extra large? This was the clothes shopping equivalent of a drive by shooting.

‘I don’t think I’m an extra large really’

‘You should like just try it!’

She reached to the far end of the table and used both her tiny hands to grab onto the extra large sweat and motioned for me to take it in hand. Rarely have I ever felt the need to be physically violent to a woman as I did now.

‘Hey! Jessa!’ the store model waved to a girl behind the counter who had just arrived for work. She raised her hand to her mouth covering it so I could not see her lips and still looking at her friend whispered loudly: ‘I’ll be there in a minute but this customer is taking ages. A medium apparently’. They both exchanged a ‘what an idiot’ look before she returned to me.

I would never think myself to be the most intelligent code breaker in the world but I managed that one.

She stood there waiting for me to put on the sweater. As I did I broke out in a sweat that came on so quickly is began wetting the back of my knees in no time. This sweat was in response to how easily the top was sliding onto my body. As it rested it around my torso it became clear that it fit like the proverbial glove- better perhaps- more like a sock puppet that was crafted especially.

‘Anything else, sir?’

‘Nope’, I replied unable to look her in the eye.

And with that she turned on her heels and left.

I took off the extra large threw it back onto the table and picked up the medium again. I’m retaining water today. It’ll fit tomorrow.

I saw a pair of navy chinos and headed to the fitting rooms with my two items which is easier said than done when your in a half- beach house/ half- overgrown tree house. After a few minutes walking around in circles I stopped one of the male store models to ask for directions to the fitting rooms. He turned to face me and when he was looking me in the eye I could see his chiselled facial features. His hair was what you could only term as being dirty blonde, his eyes were black almost like two full stops in the middle of his face. Full stops don’t sound very attractive but with his cheekbones an eye patch and a bad case of the clap wouldn’t have been a deal breaker. I did what all ugly boys do when they are confronted by a guy who is breathtakeningly handsome. I thought to myself: tiny penis. This is one of those self-esteem exercises that people who weren’t born beautiful do when they feel threatened. This is similar to the technique drunk guys at bars partake in when they are rejected by a beautiful woman. Instead of blaming their drunkenness, their rudeness or their inability to tuck their shirt into their fly and zip they like to find the fault in the woman and as she walks away from him disgusted at how she has been treated the guy just shouts at her ‘lesbian!’.

‘Can you tell me where the changing rooms are please?’ I asked hoping that on the off chance he may be missing all his front teeth or at least the canines.

‘Sure no problem, man…’, darn, all pearly whites accounted for, ‘they are just at the end of the store. All you have to do is…’ he raised his right hand ‘…go straight down there and turn left’ he motioned to the right.

‘Sorry, to the left or right?’ this time I raised both hands jutting out each echoing the direction I mentioned.

He repeated with his right hand pointed to the right.

‘Just head on to the head of the store and turn left’. This time he exaggerated the rightward motion in case he was inadvertently talking to a simpleton and didn’t realise it. I thanked him for his help and moved the right of the store. I felt that to be the safer option.

When I arrived in the fitting room I tried on the medium trousers and sweater. Both were incorrectly marked but I didn’t want to cause a fuss. I was retaining water, I told myself again, they will fit tomorrow. I bought my clothes and left the store quickly in case the female store model saw me and made me buy the extra large. As I left I didn’t get that normal shopping high I usually got from by things for myself. I never got this high when buying for others as I usually found the person who most appreciated my taste was me but this time I felt like my taste was deceiving me.

I left the store and walked out through the shopping centre. As I came close to the front door of the shopping centre I passed a middle-aged couple. The man turned to his wife and making an odd face he sniffed ‘do you smell something?’ The woman ignored him with an air of ‘he asks stupid questions all day long’ and as I exited through the front door he relaxed his face and the last words I could hear before the doors closed behind me were: ‘It’s okay. The smell is gone.’

Every now and then I would return to my wardrobe where I stashed the cloths I got there that day. After a successful day hiking with friends or spending the day not eating due to a hangover, I would try to fit into the clothes but inevitably the sweater was too tight and barely fit over my head and the trousers didn’t bucket all the way to the top. Sometimes when I do this depressing act I think to myself of the many illness I could get that would render my ability to eat completely void and I would lose the enough weight to fit into these clothes: food poisoning or possibly mild coma. The disease isn’t important. Fitting into a medium is.