Super Mario World and Slight Hangovers

Last night was a lot of fun. My boyfriend's sister's fiancé had his birthday get-together at a place called Firkin and Kegler. It was a lot of fun. The place had bars, a bowling alley, a dance floor, an arcade, a restaurant... it was pretty cool. I took a bunch of photos (the majority of them were taken the more I had to drink).

So anyhow, my baby and I spent the rest of the night and into the morning, and basically all day today, taking care of each other (damage control... if you will :p). Our day basically consisted of sleeping, Dunkin' Donuts breakfast croissants at 7p, Super Mario World on the SNES, and we're probably going to curl up on the couch to watch Alfred Hitchock's Rear Window on demand right now. Yep. A pretty lazy day. One of my favorites to have. Anyway, here's some of the funny shots from last night. Enjoy.

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Local Music Scene: The Kidney Stones

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I met up with some of my friends at the Peacock Room on Mills Ave. They have a lot of local art on display, and the general decor is pretty impressive. The stage, however, wasn't. It was pretty small, and seemingly stuffed into a back room as if to keep the filth of live music away from the rest of the patrons. Anyhow, The Kidney Stones played that evening, and what a delight it was.

If you are looking for a great time, great Irish music along the lines of Dropkick Murphy's or Flogging Molly, and accordion (my personal favorite), then these guys are just about the best in all of Central Florida (if not the only). I won't waste time blowing their glory horn, but I definitely recommend checking them out. I would offer their Myspace page so you could hear a sample, but I would much rather recommend going out to see them live, instead. There's nothing quite like seeing them live. Here's a few photos from the show. Enjoy.

d.

RANT: Urban Outfitters Should Be Ashamed...

Okay, before I begin... take a look at this photo essay entitled "America" by Clara Balzary, please. (If you don't, there's a chance you might not understand the rest of this post.)

Did you look at all of it?

Okay...

Now...

What the hell is the problem with this picture? It's Urban Outfitters- one of my favorite stores, despite the extremely ridiculous prices for things I could make myself... But did you see the photographs?!

This is what really pisses me off. The quality of those photographs is absolutely hideous. Now, I understand, maybe the style of photography she was- maybe- trying to go for. It's called Hipster Photography, in some circles (It's that sort of "I don't give a shit, it's art, it's photography" sort of style)... but this seriously looks like my four-year-old niece picked up a camera and took these photos. Actually, I take that back. My four-year-old niece would have taken better photos than these. And did she not have time to do post-edit work on them? Hell, I go out on the town with my friends, and I still find time to post-edit the photos I take before posting them to something as simple as Facebook.

This is why it is upsetting to me: I don't claim to be the best photographer in the world, but I will be so bold as to claim that I am good at what I do. I could have shot those 10x better, and made them more pleasing to the eye. But alas... either they were short-handed in the photographer department, Balzary was somehow related to the Director of the Urban Outfitters website, thus getting "special treatment", or she just plain doesn't care about the "American Spirit". Last I checked... America was about being "all that you can be"... but seriously... come on now... That may have been all that Balzary could be, but I know that isn't all Urban Outfitters can be...

The models aren't even trying to pose (and once again, I can understand the "style" Balzary -might- have been going for...) but it looks like these models were forcefully trying to look bad. Over half of the photos are under-exposed, and most are covered in so many shadows, you can't even tell what they're trying to sell because the viewer is severely distracted by them.

If Balzary is, in fact, trying to go for the Hipster style (which I'm fairly positive she is), she needs to do a little more research on the technique of said style. Look at photographers like Jonny Bird, Terry Richardson, or Bella Howard.

In short, they need to hire me for their next photo assignment... because viewing those photos has made me vomit a little in my mouth. I'm completely disgusted with the quality of work released under the Urban Outfitter's name...

Bella Howard

Jonny Bird

Terry Richardson

Clara Balzary

...

In the words of the Great Will Ferrell... "Am I the only one who sees this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!"

d.

Motivation and Wii Fit

I know everyone has gotten it, everyone wishes they'd have more of it, and some people have a hard time finding it. Yeah, I'm talking about motivation. I am having a bought of it, currently, as I spent an hour on our Wii Fit last night before going for a thirty minute run. Then today, I did another hour on Wii Fit. I don't know where the motivation has come from, but I've decided to not ask questions, and just go with it while it is here. I will rant and rave about Wii Fit forever. I think it is the coolest invention since the NES came out with Dance Aerobics for the Power Pad back in 1989... Okay so that was more cheese than cool, but you had to hand it to them... it's smart, for sure.

So now I sit here, sweating, in need of a shower, but I can't stop watching my boyfriend as he plays the bicycle game on the Wii Fit, now... and the Hula Hoop. Now there's one my boyfriend thoroughly enjoys watching me do. The Wii Balance Board reads your movement as you rotate your hips in circles as if you were swinging hula hoops around your waist in correspondence with you Mii, on the screen. It might just be the most productive mini game on Wii Fit. You can really feel it working your lower stomach. If you can get over feeling like you look stupid, it is definitely worth it.

In other news... I really hope it stops raining before I have to leave to go to my callback tonight... *Hollywood doesn't do so well in the rain...

d.

*My car.

Thrifting and Gogol Bordello

Still sticking true to my original post I made on this blog... the above is what was on my mind as I sit here, eating my ramen, and listening to one of my favorite bands, hence the title. Now to the good stuff.

My boyfriend and I went out on the town today, took care of some errands, then it was time for the good stuff. We hit up a few thrift stores on the way home. Our last stop was The Salvation Army...

(Please take note of our awesome VIP parking spot, surrounded on three sides by bushes... yeah. It was awesome.)

Below are the things that I found, that I didn't necessarily buy, but I thought they were worthy enough to mention. I call this segment of my blog... get ready for it...

Sweet Finds!

*Most of this stuff was beyond amazing, and if I had a place for them, I would have bought them, because I'm huge on antique, pointless-but-cute things. So, after I was finished looking at all the oddities, I tried on a few things that I found and thought a) "this is too hilarious to pass up," or b) "aaww... this is great! I wish I could buy it!"... With that being explained, enjoy below. I'll call this segment...

The Good, The Bad, and The Fugly!

The Good...

This was a long leather coat. It fit me perfectly, but I already have one very similar...

My boyfriend says this looks like a granny dress, but I liked it.

The Bad...

Yes. This was a hole in the wall of the dressing room... and yes... someone graffiti-ed "The Bates Motel" above it.

The Fugly...

Yes. It was a one-piece outfit- granted those I normally enjoy- however, this one was lime green and clearly made for OBT...

So that basically concluded our Thrift Hunting for the day. We were looking for an old record player and an old typewriter, but the hunt for those two things still continues...

*Please excuse the photo quality, as I am still waiting for a new camera battery to come in the mail for my handheld camera.

Hahha

Yep. That was the first thing in my head as I clicked to update.

My boyfriend and I were sitting side by side on our laptops, comparing just how gay our gay friends are via each other's Facebooks. It's quite an endearing thing, really. But that only lasted so long before we were looking up old 90's commercials like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfDwMKRm2A0

Or this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU6LIvsYNHA

There's something nostalgic about going back and watching old stuff you didn't realize you had seen before. It is only when you start to sing along, or somehow, you remember what part comes next that you remember, "Holy shit... I've seen this before!" then comes the inevitable, "I remember this!!!"

Then, of course, one video leads to another, which leads to another, and before you know it, your boyfriend is looking up another NES video game review and you are left to ponder the interesting questions of life all by your lonesome... But all is still right in the world. In fact, it's kind of cute how knowledgeable he is on all of that stuff. Everyone has their collections and hobbies.

In fact, we had this conversation the other day. We were discussing hobbies, and what it meant to collect something. I tried to tell him that maybe I was a collector of clothes (I have a lot of them), but he said that a collection has to have a definitive beginning and end. I'm still not sure if I'd agree with that, because I thought about it, and what about when people collect coins? Or buttons? There are hundreds and hundreds of them, and no one could have every coin or button ever made, but they still have a "collection". Right? Or am I thinking too deep on it?

Regardless, it got me to thinking... and I can't think of anything that I collect. I tried to claim that I collect clothes, dinosaur facts, camera smarts, and general knowledge, but that's obviously not quite what it means, I guess.

Owls count, though. Right? So I guess I collect owl anythings, and I'd like to collect robot anythings. I have a generally fair size collection of knives. But I'm not satisfied with any of that yet. I don't know. I'll get back to you on that one...

d.

Hating Titles

That's one of my biggest problems when I go to create a blog post. I hate figuring out what to title it most of the time. I could write something epic like, "The World Is Predicted To End Tomorrow!" or something stupid like... well... read above, I guess. Either way, I think I've decided that I'm going to just write whatever comes to my mind first. No matter what it is. That... could get funny... or insulting... or stupid... but it's much easier than sitting here for an unnecessary ten extra minutes, and probably forget everything I was about to write about in the first place. Yes. That's the new plan. Anyway, enjoy the blog. More posts to come.

d.