future past

so i got confused yesterday for a few hours and forgot what day it was... so what?! i don't even care, cause know why?

RESORT 2013!!!

i'm a bit behind on getting on top of the resort collections. but i've dived in, and i'm swimming in loveliness. i probably won't say as much for these collections as i have done in the past. because i've got a europe trip to be on and whatnot. but. i still want to get as much of it out there to you as i can! so let's get started, yes?

balenciaga. oh. oh oh. i want to crawl right into these pictures and live there. this is what the best austere beige soft future wardrobe. god i hope the future looks like this. (if the world doesn't end this year. you know. duh.) and, yes. the first dress? should absolutely be my wedding dress. you're right.

 {balenciaga resort 2013, photos courtesy of balenciaga by way of style.com}

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ff

this week, do the reading first!

* rape-culture in videogames

there are some really great bits in there, no?

i have two things i want to talk about, coming out of that reading. one:

i am glad this is in there. because. yes. this is how i feel. (not about gaming, specifically. of course. i'm not in the gaming world. but about this feminist thing.) i realize that everything i'm saying is being said elsewhere and probably a lot better. but i am constantly constantly horrified how many people are managing to not only not hear it, but also to act out so aggressively against it. and then i am raging on facebook and twitter at people who really don't see how making fun of slutwalk by making a video about how slutty slutwalk is is not helpful! ugh! (i hate to link to the video, but i'm hoping that anyone who goes and looks at it through my link will comment on its problematic (GROSS) nature.)

so that is why i write this every week. not because i think all y'all are horrible humans who need me to shake my finger at you. but because one more voice shouting into the din is better than nothing. if everyone i know who feels the way i feel was able to get their voices out and heard (and stop wrapping themselves up in the fear of language - aka 'feminism AHHHHH!!!')... well. maybe maybe maybe we could make some changes occur.

so there's that. and then! and then there is number two:

this reminds me of a more brutal version of what happened when siri didn't know how to deal with any female-centric requests. what happens when a bunch of men are in a room together without enough diversity to see the issues. (also when a bunch of men are in a room together trying to figure out what 'MEN' like... gross. guys. i know so many lovely wonderful cool smart manly men who don't want to beat up women for funsies. what a tragically limited perspective of what manhood is. poor manfolks. anyways.)

and what i actually wanna say about this is: i am super excited that my lovely wonderful cool smart manly brother-in-law-elect is making his way into the programming/gaming world. i am not a tech-savvy type, so i'm probably completely mixing media and worlds, but charlie is well into creating an ap-game which i will talk more about in another post. and charlie is just the kind of man i want going into the programmey programmer world. because i can't see him sitting down to watch a trailer where violence towards women is majorly sexualized and glorified, and not raising his hand and saying 'WHAT?!'. and we need more people like that. in every industry, sure. but particularly in ones where a) there is a certain type of misogynist man idea and b) there aren't that many women. tada! good work charlie!

ALSO I'M GOING TO SEE EMMA AND CHARLIE TOMORROW SO WHATEVER, I DON'T EVEN CARE CAUSE I'M SO EXCITED!

okay, have a good weekend!

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butterfly shirt

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

roommate-sarah and i are pretty much mad-crazy about hbo girls. oh, it hurts to watch! cause, oh!! being soooo dumb! oh, young people!

no. not everything on the show is 'about me' (blah blah, i'm sick of everyone discussing how it isn't about EVERY GIRL EVER and therefore isn't successful...) but there are so many little moments of 'yes. i remember being that foolish. that naive. yes. that hurt, that time.' and it is soooo funny and ridiculous to look at it now. (as i'm sure my late 20s will be soon enough... hello, wisdom of age.)

anyways. this is most definitely a thing. (which, honestly, is still a thing. a lot... sometimes.)

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to a town

june 1st was my two year anniversary with toronto.

and first there was a flood in my office building, shutting down the ttc and forcing me to take a long, unplanned walk in the rain wearing good heels. and then the next day there was a public shooting in my mall.

and i thought 'what gives, toronto? i thought we were happy together!'

but. then yesterday they (they) caught the culprit in the eaton centre shooting, or rather he turned himself in. (and they ALSO caught the crazy foot-mailer man...)
and i went to a grad exhibit for tala (aka kindergarten-friend) and saw her amazing fashion work up close. 
and i went to ballet class and was taught by an old alberta-friend, kate. (different from local, sarnia-kate. ugh. FRIENDS! have different names already!) and her partner turns out to be someone i met once back in calgary, too. and that was great.
and i ran into bryce on the streetcar and we got to catch up quickly.
and i got home to my lovely apartment with sarah and margene to talk to and cuddle (respectively).
all these pieces of home. here.

{on my walk to loblaws : watching baseball in christie pits}

{slutwalk : the path}

and mel moved in to her new house this week.
and stylist-sarah got a new puppy.

and then there were the usual things... the staples delivery-man who is so friendly. the fellow from the office across the hall who i get to chat with sometimes in the elevator. texts and calls from my friends. the subway-man who grins at me, and everyone else, every morning. the security guard at work who lends umbrellas and wears colourful ties. the path. the stylish people. the superintendent at home who is a ninja.

and i think 'yes. this is a very fine life i have. and this is a very fine place i live in.'

i don't know if i ever really believed that toronto could be the place. i don't think i really wanted it to be the place. because it is 'toronto' and blah blah. it isn't perfect. and there are for sure the bad bits of living in a 'big city'.

but i love it. i do. so much. i am so happy here. even when i'm not. this is a good place.

{friday night live dance party at the ROM}

happy two year anniversary, my city. thank you for welcoming me in. 

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saved my life

this weekend was more laura, and dance partying at the ROM (taxidermy! dinosaurs!), and extension room, and re-watching ALL the HBO girls, and doing ALL the laundry. this weekend was great.

here's a video with some puppets!



we've been listening to humans 'wake up' around bikini village all weekend. it is great. (because i do. wake up. with a helmet on... each my cereal with a helmet on...) i couldn't find it on youtube, so i chose another humans song. cause. puppets.

(we learned about humans from rookie blue. 'wake up' was in the last episode. and. to answer the facebook-open-question of a friend of ours - who is keeping rookie blue on tv?! - we are. sarah and me. and now laura too. so. sorrry!!! we love it. tough!!)

happy cloudy monday, internets!

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where did my cashews go?

ba! haha! hahahahahahahaha! this is the best thing i've seen. maybe ever?



oh cantaloupe! you rascal. you little thief! i love that she steals the cactus. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, CANTALOUPE?!

makes me feel much better about margene. sure, she'll steal your socks if they're hanging to dry... she'll eat all your peanuts, if they're on the edge of the table... she's never outright jumped ONTO the table.

happy weekend, friends and pets!

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ff

*disclaimer. i promise, very soon, to start properly editing my posts... this one feels particularly rambly and lacking in clarity. sorry. i'm too tired, today, to really clean it up. but i do feel that i must start that. bless you for sticking with me!!*

there are a million articles these days about 'this generation' and whether or not we have it better or worse, are too entitled and so on. versus the oldendays. versus our parent's time. here in this first world of ours.

(i suspect this is probably the sort of debate that is constant. i'm sure my parents' parents dealt with the same comparisons to my parents' parents' parents. blah blah and so on. anyways.)

and i am both interested in and tired of these conversations. i'm tired of being told that we - people my age (which actually can mean anything from 20 to 37 as far as i can tell) are lazy and entitled. but then again. a lot of us - the upper or middle class types - are. but it should also be considered that we are that way for a reason, and that reason might have something to do with the way we were raised and our parents and the affluence that that generation found or had or WHATEVER. and also. a lot of us aren't spoiled or lazy and do have it hard. i'm getting completely off track. this isn't what i meant to be going on about. basically: talking about generational differences and the way that the world changes for each is interesting and good. sweeping generalizations are dumb. okay. moving on.

hi! what i want to talk about is. one of the hardships i see for women of this time. the having it all problem. because what comes with the possibility of 'having it all' that first wave feminism gave us? the modern idea that we, therefore, should have it all. like. literally. allllll. and if we don't? well. then we're failing. here's a list of things!

you should be independent and fierce and not give a damn, and you should have a loving partner, and you should have a great job that you loooovvvvee, and you should have a family but not stay home but also not let them be raised by strangers, and you should have traveled a ton on your own before you settled down, and you should be incredibly educated, and you should be pretty and skinny (cause duh), and you should not care if you're pretty and skinny, and you should not diet and love yourself, and you should have all the best clothes, and you should not care about having the best clothes, and you should be political and active and passionate, and you should not be loud or inconveniently opinionated, and you should not be a wallflower, and you should have an amazing home and an amazing nightlife, and you should be athletic, and you should be girly, and you should be tough, and you should be a big boss because you're so tough and girly and strong...

and and and. and i am lucky enough to have pretty good access to most of those things. good ol' privilege. and i still feel, generally, completely overwhelmed and underachieving. it is amazing that more people aren't walking around with exploded heads. (men, too, by the way. the conforming and the being and having it all. but. you know. this is about me, particularly, and the 'free feminist' idea. also, i think this started way before 'my time', but that maybe we're at a point where it is coming to a head. maybe? i will always always think of mom reading 'running on empty', and how that made no sense to little-me, but how very much i came to understand that concept as i became an adult.)

QUOTES!

 

...

  {laurie penny}

and here's the full article for you to read, because as usual i went on longer than i meant to and wasn't as concise and convincing as i hoped to be:

* feminine artifice as power

and if you read all the way down here, you get a prize! SOME MUSICAL THEATRE!

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