Chicago: Totally hands-free!!!

Chinese food update: Panda Panda's garlic pork = pretty gotdamn good.

heading over in a bit; you going, dan?

I like the container store and coffee. And I hate fashion, except for old man fashion, which is great.

I really have an intelligensia addiction.

hmm, there's two dudes having a semi-loud heart to heart outside our open windows. clearly a new couple, one 'doesn't sleep. can't sleep. but i slept last night. it was so good' and the other is 'so you're worried i'm going to shit on you, but i haven't even cheated on you?' and then some mumbling, and then shitting guy says 'yeah, i *wish* he was gay, he treated me well. but he's not, so i'm not cheatin'.

now they're debating whether they're 'stuck' on each other, and talking about whether or not they've had dreams about each other.

i'm so tempted to just say out loud (not shout), which they'd hear, something like 'you two are so cute, stop bringing the drama and enjoy the first flushes of romance!' but i'm probably too chicken.

At first I somehow got the idea that they were old men, but a new couple.

Svengali in Platforms is probably the most embarrassingly bad song I have ever heard.

Wait, you guys, the original song is called "Bengali in Platforms." I was just riffing on "Svengali of the Runway."

Oh. You're right. Still, I cringe when I hear it.

You know what would bring those homos together?

This:

http://www.amandaleporeonline.com/photos/05/01.jpg

Cazwell, Boy George, and Amanda Lepore all in one spot together!

NSFW, but a good Dave LaChapelle shot of A.L.

Ooops.

http://www.amandaleporeonline.com/photos/02/13.jpg

"good"

OK. So I really really love Amanda Lepore, but her whole persona raises a lot of interesting questions for me. Sometimes it seems to me like what she does is the ultimate in male control of a woman's body, since she used to be a man, and she changed into a complete extreme Barbie doll and she exposes her body pretty much anywhere and everywhere. I can't find them right now, but there are pictures of her DJing wearing a dress that fit loosely on top. Her boobs are hanging half of the time, but not in a way that she is actively showing them off, but idly letting them flop in and out of her top. Then there are images like the one above (her naked breasts, with a goose-neck straw taped to her nipple, and going into her mouth)--if that were a picture of a person born as a woman, it would be pretty controversial, but since it's a tranny, it's OK.

I guess what I think about is what it means that this person who was born as a man (at least physically) has sculpted a caricature of a woman's body, which s/he now puts on display for a living, like a puppeteer who gets to control the dummy from the inside.

This is only one line of thought about her, other trannies, and drag queens, but it is the one that I have been mulling over recently.

Etc. Etc.

Not that my adoration (slightly too strong a word) or her is dissipated by these thought. Au contraire--I like that she raises some interesting questions.

What makes her more interesting than typical drag queens or trannies, is that while she is a showperson for sure, she also exudes approachability and a pretty grounded demeanor in interviews, and from what I've read about people who see her around, and from my own really brief encounter with ther.

Anyway, I'd love to hear some thoughts on this.

http://www.amandaleporeonline.com/photos/04/15.jpg

OK, one more thing, and then bed!

This is a really interesting (to me anyway...) short autobiography.

She's pretty ugly.

Colette, welcome to Lakeview East aka Drama Central. We went to Pie Hole one night and these really skinny gay boys were drama drama drama all night long.

I played tennis from 7 to 10 last and I don't think I am injured at all. Success!

Not that it makes it OK, but I remember there being some famous photo shoot like this way before ANTM got into it (which I learned about via Bitch or Venus Zine or something similar...), so when I saw it on ANTM, my first thoughts were that
a) they were just copying this other photographer and
b) why did they want to bring that level of controversy (which followed the other photos) to such a fairly tame show?

Sadly, Death sells because it is fascinating.

I'm not anti-fashion. I enjoy it like I do many other forms of popular culture, but, like everything else, it can get ridiculous.

Why wouldn't they want to bring controversy to a tame show? Controversy sells too.

I had never seen those ANTM shots before, and I woke up with them in my brane. Really disturbing for about ten different reasons, at least five of them political. That shit just should not be. :(

I mean, I've seen Suicide Girls shoots before where it was all "oooh, look, a knife and a bunch of fake blood, I am the sexy undead!" and while it didn't seem wank-worthy, it didn't bother me like those ANTM shots did. I am trying to hash out why.

Later, though, I need a little coffee bump.

I really don't want to talk about this at all and I didn't read most of the above discussion, but I don't understand why fashion should be more criticized for discussing crime than any other art form. No one seems to care that the Smiths have song(s) about child murder, but it's fucked up for fashion designers/photographers to address the subject?

I finally got netflix movies last night (had to report them all as lost) and watched 30 Rock and Waking Up Dead, because I like movies about bands, touring, etc. It's okay, nothing unexpected...the money stuff is interesting, but I have a hard time believing that everybody in Skid Row is only getting a $20 per diem on a Kiss arena tour. That must be after coke expenses.

Why wouldn't they want to bring controversy to a tame show? Controversy sells too.
True, but it was still OTT for that show, especially one watched by so many impressionable girls.

DUDES, my bosses are out today.

xxpost it's not "addressing the subject," it's crassly exploiting it. At least Morrissey gets to exude some sadness and sympathy. Couture is not capable of doing that.

I mean, I guess you could say that since fashion is an inherently "glamorous" medium, that it is glamorizing violence, but that raises a whole set of other questions (ie, does not other art about violence also glamorize it; does that mean that fashion as an art form cannot address nonglamorous subjects, etc.).

"I give you... Derelicte!"

n/a nails part of what I've been thinking about with those photos. I had another thought, but I don't really feel like opening a can of worms since I don't think I have the time to word it the way I'd like.

Jeff, are you doing anything fun for your bday this weekend?

Hahaha kenan OTM.

I saw one half of one episode of ANTM and it made me have some really patronizing thoughts about fashion design/photography as art so I don't think I'm going to comment.

Well, I think that ANTM is probably to fashion as TRL is to music as Thomas Kincaide is to painting, so you have to take it with a bucket of salt.

It's one of those cases where if it's convincing it's too creepy and if it's not convincing it's awkward.

So when the dick is Project Runway coming back?

Though it has been reported that the fourth season will premiere November 14th, 2007, Bravo said in late August 2007 that no date had yet been finalized.

grrr. Fuckers. Tim Gunn is my dad and all, but his new show is just a makeover show.

I've never seen a fashion reality/competition show. I saw about 10 minutes of American Idol in a pizza place next to the Addison red line one night -- it was early on in the process, when they were trying to weed through thousands of auditioners -- and that was kind of interesting because no one was very polished or even had accompaniment.

Too much music gear I want to buy:

New semihollowbody guitar (now looking at this)
Reel-to-reel recorder (but there are so many kinds and prices and I don't know anything about it)
Mixer
Mics
Effects pedals
Other crap I don't need

Other crap I don't need

but would totally use and enjoy, that's important, too.

I need like $5,000.

I think it would be especially bitchin' to get a reel-to-reel recorder but in addition to the above misgivings it's probably a bad idea to simultaneously teach myself to use one properly and record a new FF album on it.

I would watch a game show called I Need Like $5,000, as long as it involved trivia or a wheel of some kind and not degradation.

Cash Cab! Which is a very satisfying half hour of "lolz god people are stupid."

xpost to EZ -I like it. It reminds me of the Billy Dreamer KITH sketches.

nick, it seems your "lazy zing" thread has gone monkey side. Too bad. It could have been beautiful. :(

I'm craving jellybeans (!).

Obv, there must be some important vitamin in jellybeans that my body NEEDS.

This is the awesomest, but $160 shipping/handling! http://cgi.ebay.com/Tascam-388-Studio-8-Reel-to-Reel-8-Track-Recorder-Mixer_W0QQitemZ320157757475QQihZ011QQcategoryZ41480QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I went through a phase where I ate starburst jellybeans constantly. Jelly Belly scares me...the good ones are great but the bad ones are enough to make me avoid random assortments. I wouldn't mind some sour patch kids though.

xp ROAD TRIP @ VEGAS!!!!