fangirlish | margaret tran

dark fantasy

2011-04-04T23:06:00.008+10:00

I need to stop doing the following varieties of eating:

Magazine eating via Cate Blanchett for Harper's Bazaar Australia, May 2011, where she epitomises the absolute goddess I've worshipped since Elizabeth. Edwina McCann, Will Davidson and Romance Was Born — you guys make intensely good shit together. Respect.

cr; Will Davidson for Harper's Bazaar Australia

And Jessica Stam looking delicious for RUSSH Australia, April-May 2011 — and also photographed by Will Davidson. Clearly everything he's shot this month makes my eyeballs giddy.

cr; Will Davidson for RUSSH Australia

Sartorial eating, resulting in my current state as a poor panda. So Zipia jeans appear to be getting shorter and shorter, while boob/chest-circumference are obviously shrinking across their tops and jackets. ARE YOU A WEBSITE FOR SMALL CHILDREN?? CAN YOU STOP GLOMPING MY LIFE?!!

It has been so long since an 8kg box of sartorial wank

appeared on my doorstep. *pets screen*

cr; Zipia.Net

It also appears everything in Mikkat Market was juiced from my subconscious style fairy and the breath of sartorial life filtered in.

cr; MIKKAT MARKET

Gluttonous weekend eatings as follows:

Inhaled phở for brekkie after humping car bumpers in the queue to the multi-level carpark at Cabramatta. It was 9.30AM on a Saturday — WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE DOING UP SO DAMN EARLY GO HOME SO I CAN EAT AND DRINK MY SUGARCANE JUICE/DIABETES-IN-A-CUP IN PEACE JEEZ.
Didn't eat again til evening where our crew of eight demolished over $250 worth of gluttonous goodness at Cafe Mint. Goat cheese beetroot, olives, and the most succulent slab of lamb shoulder flaking off the bone at the merest touch. Do not get me started on the rose water and berry custard — there must be more future nomnoms as divine as this.

Slow-cooked lamb shoulder at Cafe Mint.

cr; Thang Ngo @ Noodlies

Also made it to The Winery for SANGREEARRHHHHHHHHH (sangria. SEHN-GREE-AH noun; origin: sparkly piss of a magical unicorn birthed by the third moon).
Pork belly Sunday courtesy of a family gathering — of which there tend to be many considering self was raised with le famille in my face since womb existence — followed by rice vermicelli stir-fry, dumplings, dragonfruit, white nectarines and other ingestible things of the Vietnamese variety.
This was additionally followed by three pizzas, two massive pastas, Cokes and coffee shared between four at Parramatta, thus rendering self legitimately immobile and birthing food babies for much of the afternoon.
Super lovely Japanese evening eatings in Burwood garnished with pistachio ice cream and red bean. Hearts.

This post was brought to you by Steven Moffat bringing all your childhood nightmares to life. IS ANYONE ELSE GIRDING THEIR LOINS FOR THE NEW SEASON OF DOCTOR WHO IN THREE WEEKS okay just me then. Why yes, I have been sitting here in my Amy Pond hoodie typing away trololololololo ~

Matt Smith, you delicious animal with the hair of ruffle-esque flair.

Alex Kingston, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill,

you too are also welcome to my pants.

cr; BBC @ YouTube

Also — yay for daylight savings! Not so yay for the 16°C wind careening through my window. Dear self, consider closing your damn window after hours lest your boobs freeze off from the chill whilst blogging. Love muchly, self.

crescendolls

2011-03-16T23:44:00.016+11:00

Reasons why I fail at blogging:

Mastication through various cuisines during the quest for vaguely original blogging content — it is also considered a procrastination tool according to unconfirmed reports
Signing up to too many things then becoming overwhelmed before embodying aforementioned dot point
Every line of prose bleeds verbosity into the brain
Binge on Robert Downey Jnr because no one else can make me feel the way he does — Harry Lockhart, I love you ~
Stalking ebay for a Minolta SRT-100x camera with bits for under AU$100
Windowshopping via ASOS / Zipia / Net-A-Porter / ebay

Here is a delicious photo I took to distract you from my failure at life-ing:

Korean BBQ.
Instigator of many a slow death by food babies.

cr; self @ Flickr

James Franco is a super student. Now everyone feel insignificant and let me know if you need some motivational speeching to help you along.

For the profoundly uninitiated, James Franco is studying a PhD at Yale University full-time and attended classes the morning after hosting the Oscars. He is also a "film director, screenwriter, painter, author, performance artist and actor, with several film projects in the works" — and he teaches a class at a private college on top of the aforementioned, thus positing all high achievers to crawl into a hole and die from inadequacy.

Here is James Franco's grandma calling the internet a bunch of pussies, complete with Franco trollface alongside.

cr; rodex7 @ YouTube

Speaking of James Franco — additional magazines spanked into my mutant piles recently included the following:

Let's discuss asylum-seeking kids in detention centres — almost half of them arrive without their parents with over 1000 currently detained while they await visas. In a multimedia report led by ABC journalists Nikki Tugwell and Eleanor Bell, the issue is confronting to say the least.

Apparently ethnic media in Western countries find it hard to offer broader contexts when reporting on national issues outside of immigration topics. Is it premature to say "no shit, Sherlock?"

The issues with this swells with the fact that human cognition and conditioning has already assumed your bias with publication titles such as 'Asian Fortune' and/or 'Ebony' — do you see magazines with titles like "Caucasian Beer" or "Anglo-Saxons Ahoy" who align themselves as 'ethnic media' ('Caucasian' is an ethnicity in case you forgot)? Secondly, this bias affords little fair judgement on the context of any articles to begin with - and thirdly, they lack the resources to thoroughly cover the issues at hand.

Visibly Asian/"minority" journalists hoping to improve ethnic diversity in the mainstream media are not going to go out of their way to join a publication spouting ethnic minority issues. No, they are going to work themeselves into the main system and change it from the inside out. Reasons being that I am a cynical twat with feet firmly embedded in the ground because I am always wondering to myself — am I Asian first, then a journalist or the other way around?

Speaking of "ethnic media", here is a former Korean boy band member looking ridiculously pretty for Elle Korea. I like admiring beautiful people okay, though I probably facepalm if I saw such pretty specimens in real life.

Kim Jaejoong for Elle Korea

cr; twenty2 @ On Sugar

Still on Asianisms, Chinese parenting aims to achieve greatness, yet falls short with regret, according to the April issue of The Atlantic. Apparently Asians are the worst parents in the world if the global outrage to Amy Chua's infamous Wall Street Journal extract is anything to go by. Sandra Tsing Loh's divulges her take, citing a culture's hopeful efforts to achieve the calibre of uniquely talented individuals through a hard work ethic yet few result in true geniuses (see Mozart, Beethoven and the seeming abundance of Asian students in piano school). It's well worth a read and ponder.

One wonders if zombies are experiencing a resurgence with the modern proliferation of pop culture goodness. Stunning examples such as TV series, Walking Dead and the film, Zombieland (don't get me started on the brilliance of 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead).

More beautiful, pretty things for thy eyeballs to stroke:

Dion Lee for CUE. The structural minimalism! Beautiful muted colours! Delicious folds and neutrals akin to seasonal goodness (autumn, how I love thee)! Monies, where art thou?

Burberry makes me want to touch things inappropriately, but this is not exactly brand new information.

Burberry Chain-embellished Leather Bag
I am going to hell.

cr; Burberry @ Net-A-Porter

This post was brought to you by The Strokes giving your life meaning via their new song, Undercover of Darkness off their soon-to-be released album, Angles. This song has been lovingly smushed in my brain since it came out last month - yaaaaayyyyyyy. Hearts.

cr; thestrokesVEVO @ YouTube

In other news: you can read my considerably more coherent blog posts at Girl With A Satchel every Wednesday/Thursday, where I curate a column called Digital Gloss Files ~~(because Erica is a ridiculously wonderful mentor and I love her forever)~~. It's basically a round-up of geeky, tech and/or digital news AND IT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE AN ACTION JOURNALIST when I'm really just a humble digital producer of sorts. Do leave Erica/self some love over yonder, oui/oui?

snowdrop

2011-02-23T16:15:00.003+11:00

Let's discuss beautiful people:

Amanda Seyfried for Interview Magazine, March 2011. She looks like a porcelain doll – it's amazing how far she's come since playing Karen Smith in Mean Girls.

cr; Mikael Jansson for Interview Magazine

Kim Soo Hyun for Marie Claire Korea, March 2011.

cr; Marie Claire Korea via Sports Chosun

James Franco trolling the internet with his freshly birthed Twitter and Facebook. I use the term 'trolling' with a sense of endearment - he stirs up the real world for shits and giggles. Like his Photoshopped shot of himself with cats, thus securing my reluctant peace with the fact that all my favourite male celebrities are closet cat ladies. Le sigh..

cr; James Franco @ Facebook

Ha Ji Won for W Korea, March 2011.

cr; W Korea via twenty2 @ onsugar

Beautiful off-duty shots during London Fashion Week 2011, courtesy of STREET FSN.

Both shots courtesy of HB Nam @ STREET FSNduring London Fashion Week 2011.

Fur coaty goodness shot found here.

Delicious rings found here.

Speaking of beautiful people, let's take a moment to appreciate the beautiful cranium bestowed upon Zadie Smith in her article, Generation Why? Old article is old, but she begs the question – how long is a generation these days? Particularly in reference to social media – does it last forever, encased in the archived internet files that we've so carefully and haphazardly curated during our existence?

Wow, short post is short and not very articulate at all. Regular brainjuice will resume with the next post. In the meantime, have some ear candy courtesy of Korean indie band Fanny Fink.

Fanny Fink - Good People
Uploaded by SimpleBanya @ YouTube

paradise circus

2011-02-17T21:28:00.010+11:00

Two weeks:

Last minute ticket to Laneway Festival saw self revelling in the aural sparkles of Foals, Two Door Cinema Club, Gotye, Yeasayer and a smidge of Deerhunter and Cut Copy – they all give stupendously good ear.
Discovering halfway through taking a shot that my Minolta 7000i camera is shouting ‘HELP’ at me. Am convinced the internal battery has fisted itself into oblivion, so here is a homage to its past work while I trawl ebay for another semi-replacement film camera (Asahi Pentax Spotmatic + Minolta SRT-100X, COME TO MAMMA)

cr; self @ Flickr

Binging on Supernatural/~~Jensen Ackles pants~~ and navigating through the throes of lethargy.
Curating bits of news and goodness while trying to rediscover my previous penchant to write a decent paragraph. It has been way too long and my writing has obviously died in the arse.
Documenting fragments on my mind on Tumblr only to have Joseph Gordon-Levitt scratch the fourth wall and shatter my idolising 'YOU ARE TOO PERFECT THUS NOT REAL' perception of him (he is still perfect).

cr; Joseph Gordon Levitt @ Facebook

So. Being fat is in fashion. Apparently so is being black. Rawiya Kameir writes on the rising trend of being overweight in the entertainment industry, a minority somewhat exacerbated if you happen to be visibly "ethnic" as well.

Kameir posits the idea that you have to possess both non-mutually-exclusive traits in order to be considered 'successful' in Hollywood, citing the likes of Queen Latifah, Oprah and Mo’Nique (Kristin Alley and Rosie O'Donnell have been blacklisted apparently). "Why is Hollywood more accepting of fat black women than of fat white women?" she asks. I wonder what can be said for fat Asian women - hello, Margaret Cho.

Oh hey, Hyun Bin looking delicious with Tang Wei for Vogue Korea. They're currently doing the promotion circuit for joint Korean-American film, Late Autumn. Both actors – while famous in their respective countries – speak English in this film, which was shot in Seattle last year. It based off the original 1960s film of the same name, about a three-day love affair between a woman who is granted special leave from prison and a man on the run.

Cannot for the life of me find out the photographer for this shoot.

Help a blogger out, s'il vous plait?
cr; Nate via allkpop

Other newsy bits of varying newness - what, with the lack of blogging this past fortnight and all.

Social media has been cited as the drawcard in distilling vital information during the Queensland floods crisis. While the Queensland Police Service Twitter and Facebook pages were relatively new and backed by no strategic policy, but Kym Charlton felt "it was more risky for us to not be involved in social media than to be involved."

Freshly-crowned Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently discussed the growing Android platformwith views that Apple's monopoly on the mobile market would soon be met with a savvier audience and content providers. The last quarter of 2010 alone saw 32.9 million Android phones shipped to customers compared to Apple's 16.2 million.

Interjection of desirable things; specifically Alexander Wang vs. Witchery. The one on the right is of affordable goodness while the one on the left makes my eyeballs sparkle with financial pain. Y U SO SEXY + PRACTICAL-LOOKING.

cr; Witchery + Net-A-Porter

The brainjuiced folk of Thought Catalog divised five emotions invented by the internet. Suffice to say, I experience the five on a daily if not hourly basis, so installed I am to my desktop that withdrawal symptoms can only be offset by a Korean drama binge or something similar ~~like Jensen Ackles' freckles~~.

Speaking of, the Ghost In The Machine is screwing with us - at least those suffering from five emotions. Paranoia, say hello to self.

Dear Alexander McQueen Autumn 2011, the intricacies of your designs are breath-taking. Excuse me while I caress thee with my eyeballs.

Left: 3D Flower Knuckle Duster in Black
Right: Floral-Wedge T-Strap Sandal

cr; Neiman Marcus

Camera paraphrenalia recently added to my collection. Wheeeeeeee ~ toy cameras! And I have a shelf of film cannisters nestled between jars of dried onions and lemongrass in my refridgerator. Oh.

This post was brought to you by capsule. Epic duo is epic.

cr; YasutakaNakata @ YouTube

pop ya collar

2011-01-23T13:16:00.007+11:00

Extended weekender:

After spending the past 5-odd years of the tennis season with my eyeballs plastered to TV, self took first trip to the Australian Open last weekend
Inhaled the same air as Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and the super amazing Djokovic
Got my ticket signed by Roddick – WHEEEEE ~
My beloved Nadal was a ninja the whole time I was there til I found out he was out training – while I was at the boarding gate for my flight back home. WHAT IS MY LIFE WHY.
Functioned on 90% adrenaline and 10% combo of food and water the entire four days I was in Melbourne
Am now suffering tennis withdrawals even though there's a week left of the tournament
Self is officially a tragic tennis turd

Oh hey, got two more batches of film developed. My cousin introduced me to Camerahouse who still develop film ON SITE and do decent rates for batches of rolls. Yay!

cr; self via Minolta 7000i and various film

In other news: Sufjan Stevens at the Sydney Opera House this week! Wheeeeee ~ also spent my week binging on ~~pre-Justin-Bieber~~ Usher - yes. Don't judge me.

Usher - You Make Me Wanna...
Hello blog soundtrack ~

jona vark

2011-01-15T03:09:00.006+11:00

So... first week back at work. Brain was sorely confronted by the prospect of functioning on a TV-free diet for intervals longer than three hours over the next few months, so am now back to injecting coffee into my cranium with more tabs and windows open than usual.

Can we talk about how delicious Andrew Garfield is? Here he is for Details magazine, February 2011:

cr; Norman Jean Roy for Details

... with a bicep and Justin Timberlake, for W Magazine, February 2011:

cr; Inez Van Lamsweerde / Vinoodh Matadin @ W magazine

AND AS SPIDERMAN ~~HEISFUCKINGSPIDERMANHOLYSHIT~~. My favourite matzah ball with the wonderful hair ~~and hips~~ - may I ruffle your hair? Oui/oui??

Why yes, I did punctuate three half-sentences with
photos of Andrew Garfield - what of it.

Speaking of mens, Grazia is set to launch a male edition of the high-selling UK women's magazine. Let's throw the question out now – how many males do you know buy magazines, even those within the Grazia market of vaguely-high-income-earners and aspirational folk? Are they not all on iPads and iPhones and other variations of iWank (but their products are so shiny!) or are niche markets growing ever smaller?

One day, I plan to explore non-creepy ruins in Detroit, including this beautiful ballroom of the abandoned Lee Plaza Hotel. Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's collection of a deteriorating city is really something to behold.

cr; Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre @ The Guardian

Doing the international rounds on the internet is Amy Chua's 'Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother' and the controversial extract published in the Wall Street Journal. Apart from being site traffic jackpot (the page has 5400 comments and counting), the article itself pitted Western-style parenting with Eastern-style much to the disbelief and intrigue of many readers. Plus one for debunking cultural stereotypes – LOL NO. I guess it's because I was brought up in an Asian household – albeit vaguely less stringent than the extract makes out – little of this came as much of a surprise to me. In saying that, Chua's response to the controversy in the SF Gate is definitely worth a read in perhaps watering down the drama llamas.

Speaking of Asian dramas, can someone please recommend me something to binge on other than Secret Garden and Q10?

I should probably stop accumulating valuable bits of paper. Like so:

I need a new camera that can shoot digital.

Yes, I am aware of how stupid a sentence that sounds.

cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

Online things worth an eyeball or two:

What happens to your online self when you die in real life? Are you questioning your immortality right about now? Me too. All my emails, Tweets, Facebook turdisms and this here blog will sit on the interwebz forever. Interestingly, there are people out there who look after your online assets in the same way one might take out life insurance and will.

Half of the global MySpace staff is laid off, including the entire Australian branch thus proving just how fast things move in digital. Five years ago, Facebook barely existed and MySpace was king - now look where we are. While it's been years since I used MySpace, I could never fault its ability to introduce me to so many of my music memories. Founding staffer of the Australian joint, Alex Wain's piece on the end of a digital era is truly moving.

Speaking of, Facebook is failing in Japan because oh, you know, the Japanese are about five years ahead of us in social-networking and other things like artificial intelligence and robot partners and such. I mean, they phased out SIM cards years ago and every single aspect of their lives is integrated into communication and lifestyle network.

...and things I've eyeballed into my ASOS cart. No – I'm not being sponsored to mention their collection of giddysauce, I just take window-shopping very seriously (teehee, 'window' shopping – I made a funnies).

cr; stock photos @ ASOS

This post was inconspicuously brought to you by Andrew Garfield in motion a.k.a. behind-the-scenes vidjeo for Details magazine. I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE SPIDERMANDREW I AM WEEPING OVER YOUR PERFECTION – WEEPING. HOW DO YOU EXIST??!

cr; detailsdotcom @ YouTube

In other news: I'll be hunting biceps in Melbourne for the next few days as part of the Australian Open – as in my friend and I bought tickets to see Murray, Federer and the oh-so-lovely Nadal slug it out in the first round matches. Communal tennis nerd-out – we do it and GLEE EMITS FROM MY BRAIN.

-----

I have been glued to the news this past week with the Queensland floods. I don't think it needs to be said, but if you guys could spare a few bucks for the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal, that would be awesome.

devil in a new dress

2011-01-09T17:58:00.004+11:00

There should be an automated disclaimer preceding all my blog entries to clearly indicate that I AM THE LAZIEST BLOGGER IN THE WORLD. Self has been on more or less induced hiatus in the blogosphere because I prefer creeping on Tumblr, eating food / monies, taking irrelevant pictures of food and binging on the wonderful universe of TV over digesting the internets and cropping together an entry with my brain vomit.

Oh hey, happy new year / Chrismukkah / occasion of eating homies. Probably no existential reflections like last year's musings, so I offer thee food porn to compensate.

cr; self via Minolta 7000i / Kodak 160VC

Stuff worth a squiz despite suffering lethargy in being posted. You are also allowed to use the scroll bar if you can't be arsed reading.

Devin Friedman muses on the end of our viral interactions with social networking. A sweet read as Friedman signs up for every social-networking turd available (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare etc) and digests the thought of what might happen when it all stops.

A recent study showed Twitter use is strongest among US minority groups. A reflection of society or something more politically implied? On a somewhat related note, consider this read on how social media has changed mass protest, which just goes to show how permeative the internet is.

Last month, New York Times Magazine asked 14 actors to create decisive moments in a new approach to classic photography. I found Michael Douglas' and James Franco's approaches wonderful and don't get me started on Natalie Portman's - the woman is a goddess. I'm not sure I could sit through Franco's new film 127 Hours, but with Danny Boyle at the helm, I shall just conclude it be made of amazeballs.

cr; TheNewYorkTimes @ YouTube

A Hooters joint recently opened in Tokyo complete with Hooters girls. It's interesting how the restaurant falls under the category of 'dress-up cafe', in line with the numerous maid and cosplay cafes prevalent in the country - never mind the entirely male queue at the cafe's entrance on opening day. Pondersome.

Recently purchased wank for my wardrobe courtesy of ASOS. That place eats your money and I already have another cart in the works - good grief, what is my life. Le sigh.

cr; stock photos @ ASOS

And this epitomises why I haven't blogged in three weeks – trolololololol ~

Oh god, my poor monies.

cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

Here's a pretty picture courtesy of my wonderful friend lamahkun - he's also shooting some pics for local short film-in-progress, Thomas & Lola of which my cousin is also designing shiz for. Darn teenagers these days, why are you all so freakin' talented DON'T YOU HAVE YOUR HSC TO STUDY FOR??

cr; lamahkun @ Flickr

New half-year's resolutions a.k.a stuff I will never get around to doing but shall attempt nonetheless:

Write more
Sleep more
Use my Frankie diary
Go to at least one magical land outside Australia a.k.a USA, Japan, possibly Korea or take a train across Europe at some point à la Before Sunrise

This one hot mess of a post was brought to you by GD&TOP / the sub-group of Korean boy band Big Bang - their duo album is ballin'. 뻑이가요 (KNOCK OUT) is gold, not least because of the diplo and bubble wrap cameo I FUCKING LOVE BUBBLE WRAP OKAY.

cr; BIGBANG @ YouTube

It'll get back to more coherent and vaguely regular posting when I get back into the daily grind methinks.

goodnight and go

2010-12-13T00:29:00.004+11:00

Weekend.

Churned through the first season of Misfits; brain asplosion of 'HOLY BATMAN THIS IS SO GOOD' and sparkles
Tame times at my cousin's 21st; ate ridiculous amounts of chicken + peach schnapps while a mutant mosquito masticated my foot
Trooped out to JB Hi-Fi to purchase ~~Joseph Gordon-Levitt's hips in a suit~~ the 4-disc pack of Inception; may or may not have watched it twice since getting it yesterday
Traipsed around Le Sydney City with a lovely lass I hadn't seen in eons
Trekked a total of 10km from Kirribilli Markets across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to The Rocks Markets to Town Hall all while sipping pink lemonade. Picked up a dress along the way where one of the stall owners made me try on another. His wife was like, 'oh my god - I'm so sorry, he is actually normally this peculiar.'
Took photos like a bad-ass tourist

Speaking of photos, some choice bits from my last two batches of filmy developing goodness. Most of these were taken flash-free with my dad's old Minolta 7000i and Kodak Portra 160VC and expired film I found in my linen closet. You can click-through for the larger version - BRB, being a hipster bitch.

This post was brought you to by Brendan Benson. HEY BRENDAN – new album soon, s'il vous plait? Oui/oui??

Regular brain nugget posting shall resume later in the week – I need to stop eating cereal at obscene hours.

yesterday once more

2010-12-09T00:52:00.015+11:00

I have lost count of the number of ninja mosquitoes that have infiltrated my room. This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that my window is open almost 18 hours a day. I LIKE AIR IN MY ROOM OKAY, though this may eventually be conducive to investing in a mosquito net, Vietnam-style – it will make my bed a stable for unicorns. Yes.

So like, New York Magazine reckons beautiful peculiar boys are beautiful and peculiar. Their latest issue with Ryan Gosling on the cover – excuse me while I ovulate sparkly adjectives – hails era of the "Brainy Bunch". Oh. Brains and interestingness are only fashionable sometimes – I see. Well, should Hollywood ever catch up in the aspiration race (surprise punnies!), let it be known that there is a very fervent audience for these sorts of leading men and women.

Pictured L-R: James Franco, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy,
Jesse Eisenberg and Michael Fassbender.
Not pictured: Matt Smith. WHUT.
cr; a bajillion sources via NY Mag

Speaking of ~~the love of my life~~ Joseph Gordon-Levitt, he's just published a Tiny Book of Tiny Stories off the back of his online production company hitRECord.

The driving force behind dynamic project (apart from JGL himself) is community collaboration. Way before Tumblr / YouTube even came into fruition, people were collaborating on art projects in video, story and illustration and the like through his website. It's a truly amazing community he's fostered there, which to me, really encompasses what being part of the internet is all about. Oh squeeeee, WHY ARE YOU SO WONDERFUL.

cr; RegularJOE via wirrow @ hitRECord

Some cool shit from magland:

Budding Australian model Rachel Rutt looking damn fine for NO magazine. You'll have also noticed her as this bi-month's cover girl for YEN magazine. Woo!

cr; NO magazine via frockwriter

Oh hey, goodness recently absorbed into my mutating pile of MAGAZINES, WHY DO I ADORE THEE SO. Finally worked up the balls to purchase the latest issue of Vivi and Sweet magazine (as mentioned previously) at AU$20 a pop. Sweet magazine came with free Kitson leopard print canvas tote and make-up bag thing, but regardless – cost-induced JEEBUS.

I also teleported to the newsagent for the newest issue of RUSSH and The Monthly for extra brainsex this summer. May now consider subscribing to both mags now with the Christmas promos they've got on, because I absolutely need two more canvas tote bags to add to my mural of canvas tote bags.

cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

Kirsten Dunst for Black Book magazine, December 2010-January 2011 and channelling Deborah Harry as she does the promotion rounds for her new film, All Good Things – which also stars Ryan Gosling (squee!).

cr; Simon Lekias for Black Book magazine

Good bits I found on the internets:

Federal cabinet has thrown its support behind R18+ rating for video games in time for the Attorney Generals of Australia to brainspasm over introducing the new classification into the gaming industry.
And consider video games as modern philosophical texts - what would Nietzsche do?
Also: TUMBLR I GET IT – SOMETIMES YOU'RE TOO HIPSTER TO FUNCTION. Now get some bad-ass servers already, good grief.

Over at TED, Jason Fried recently gave a fascinating talk about 'why work never happens at work' much to the likely chagrin of multinational corporations around ze world. Consider a 15 min non-worky timeout and have a listen – super intriguing stuff and comments are sweet-as too.

cr; Jason Fried @ TED

This post was brought to you by Andrew Garfield's delicious eyebrows. Have I mentioned he's the new Spiderman alongside the amazing Emma Stone who's playing Gwen Stacy? If you ask me, she should've been cast as Mary Jane what with her once-red hair and head-bitch-in-charge vibe and all, BUT HEY CUTE SPIDEY BOY YAY!

Original published in Entertainment Weekly, September 2009
Edited by mkaranovic @ Tumblr

In other news: my blog meta data is wanky and I'm still agonising over the best way to fix it. And I have my new blog design/layoutness in the works, as in the brainjuiced concept works not actual HTML5 and shit. How tiresome.

paint the silence

2010-12-04T11:32:00.016+11:00

Okay, so it pissed down like a boss on the first day of summer. Thank you meteorological system of doom for drenching my jeans on the walk to work.

This photo is too hipster to function.
cr; Parker Fitzgerald @ Flickr

It's been a long while since I've written anything music-related, partly because I threw in my towel of defeat when I realised my dream of becoming the next William Miller was very extremely not going to help me eat regularly in this lifetime. Become the Belgian-but-Asian journalistic girlfriend of the next Ian Curtis? FUCK YEAH IT'S HAPPENING a.k.a. lolk - can you not?

Anyhoo, here are some tunes of amazeballs that remind me of summery goodness*:

Bloc Party - Like Eating Glass
The first soundtrack to my university life. Everyone keeps their ears waxed with This Modern Love, but to me the opening track to Bloc Party's "Silent Alarm" album brings such a visceral reaction. Matt-fucking-Tong, I love you how are you still functioning after the slaughter of drumming. I've been lucky to witness them live (and had the privilege of meeting Kele Okereke afterwards zomfg) - that girl's face at the end of the vidjeo encompasses all my feelings about this song UGH TOO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT FEELINGS.

Uploaded by Filter81 @ YouTube

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
Most of the songs that remind me of summer are ones that come on while I'm driving or being driven somewhere. My family used to go on road trips every year with my uncle's family, the eight of us squished into a rented Tarago with a rice cooker, luggage sufficient for a week interstate and nostrils grooming our kneecaps thanks to the profound breadth of space available. We drove to Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide with a new capital city visited every year up until a few years ago when we kind of stopped.

It was during these epic road trips that I discovered The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac because my cousin was at the time, 18 going on 81 with eardrums creamed by what I then believed was 'YOUR OLD FART MUSIC'. How appallingly wrong I was. Now The Beatles induce hearts in my ears while I spent the longest time wishing I was 'Rhiannon'.

This song, on repeat, the entire trip fending off straitjackets.
Uploaded by HDBeatles @ YouTube

Big Bang (빅뱅) - Last Farewell (마지막 인사)
A few years ago, I quietly succumbed to my cousin's persistence in telling me 'YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO BOY BAND #328756 OMG YOU MUST' – never mind that they were all Korean and that I would still be eyelid-deep in the clusterfuck of goodness that is K-pop four years later (WOMAN I KNOW YOU STALK MY BLOG HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I ~~HATELOVE~~HATE YOU WITH THE PASSION OF A THOUSAND DALEKS).

One of these boy bands was Big Bang who are probably more Western-sounding than most K-pop idol groups and is often most people's first introduction into K-pop (DON'T COME IN IT WILL NEVER LET YOU GO). There's nothing particularly special about this song or the genre in general - and I'll be one of the first to tell you that K-pop is not particularly a revolutionary contributor to music - but the fact is I love it. It makes me happy and keeps me pretty sweet on life. It is also hazardous driving while this song is on omg.

Uploaded by BIGBANG @ YouTube

South - Paint The Silence
Does anyone miss The OC? HOLY SHITBALLS ME TOO OMG BRB SOBBING. I only discovered The OC in my final year of high school and the series' ability to have me emitting stupid amounts of flailing over Benjamin McKenzie. I was always a Ryan kind of girl - he had more grunt and balls than the otherwise adorably tiresome Seth. The opening chords of this song always brings me back to driving to the beach with friends and memories of that microcosmic era where we looked forward to creating moments, finally free of responsibility and expectations, even for a short while.

Uploaded by BestoftheOC @ YouTube

Daft Punk - Alive 2007
Summer to me equals a shit-ton of gigs crammed expertly between my full-time job and trips to the beach. I'd always been a fan of Daft Punk, but those emotions hit hysteria when news came of them touring Australia for the first time. Being quite the slow panda, I missed out on tickets when they first went on sale so I resorted to stalking ebay on an hourly basis hoping for some secret society of kind Samaritans to sell me their ticket for $250 or less.

It was the afternoon before the gig and I was still ticket-less, having driven myself near visible breakdown when my friend walked into the shop I then worked at to ask if I was still looking for a ticket:

"Um, yes," *sob sob*
"Yeah my friend –"
*~INTERNAL POUNCE MECHANISM ACTIVATE~*
"hasathingontomorrow,sohecan'tmakeDaftPunksodoyouwanthisticket?"
"AKDJHGKJADFHGILDUFHGSJKFDHG-ARE-YOU-SHITTING-ME-ALKSDHJKLADHGJKLH!!!!!!!!!"

And everything went better than expected.

Uploaded by futureproof84 @ YouTube

And so we return to your regular verbal backwash broadcast of bloggisms next time. In the meantime, I have bestowed hearts in your ears – YES/YES?? Comment box is ~~always~~ open for other suggestions.

*Homies, this post was helped along by the good folk at Altec Lansing and 2threads. Show them some love, s'il vous plait?

time to wander

2010-11-30T23:47:00.013+11:00

Now I'm feelin so fly like a G6 / Like a G6, like a G6 ~ I find a peculiar kind of endearment toward 'doof doof' music. At least in the instances where I am not on the train with a group of teenagers playing those digs on loud speaker. Guys, can we not?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is relevant to this post:

Hullo, Tommy Soloman.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is always relevant.
cr; Norman Jean Roy for Details, August 2010

Newsy bits that were actually new maybe a week ago because I'm a lazy turd when it comes to blogging trololololol so cool like:

Tumblr a.k.a my second religion recently raise US$25-$30m in funding for something or another - wowsers!
Facebook is revealed to make up 25% of the US' total pageviews also known as MARK ZUCKERBERG BREEDS MONIES.
Murdoch iPad-only newspaper may or may not be the future of journalism with local media peeps also weighing in on the debate. Self does not yet possess an iPad, but I have recently acquired an Android phone ZOMG I GET TO TOUCH / PET THINGS ON MY SCREEN. It's a beast of a thing, but self is getting used to it.
This week's Cablegate / Wikileaks piss-up. Do. Not. Get. Me. Started. I am in two minds about this. I believe Wikileaks' existence is morally justified, but if the history of diplomacy and international relations is anything to go by, then I am really not looking forward to the next year or so.

Sofia Coppola's new film Somewhere feels beautiful and promising if the trailer is anything to go by. I'm a quiet fan of her work and as most critics would agree, there's an indescribable beauty about her muted approach to the nuances of life that just resonates. And ZOMG Julian Casablancas does the acoustic rendition of You Only Live Once - HEARTS IN MY EARS.

cr; Beckin1 @ YouTube

So I spent my weekend eating. Again. Slept in like a panda before I eventually took on the gluttonous traits of one, churning through:

freezer box pizza
tapas from La Tapa Guapa
Tokyo ramen via Ichi Ban Boshi
ox tongue + spicy-as-fuck Tiger Tear's salad from Star Lao Thai

All in the space of six hours. What the frak is wrong with me - does my stomach know no bounds?

Mmmmm.. ox tongue.
cr; Howard @ eatshow&tell

LOOK WHAT I FOUND AT MY COUSIN'S while she was clearing out her library of crap:

Spot the 2010 magazine!
cr; self via Sony Cybershot from eons ago

Speaking of magazines – here's a swizzler look-in to the new issue of Russh before it crawls its way into my grabby hands.

cr; Will Davidson for Russh Magazine

I also plan to get my mitts onto Sweet magazine, December 2010 along with January 2011's issue of ViVi - I am not a victim of substance abuse okay, I JUST REALLY LIKE MAGAZINES.

In other news: self hunted for eating places at my new work digs and unearthed a small vat of phở for the freaky deaky price of $11.50 (decent and rather nommy in hindsight) AND A JOINT THAT STILL DEVELOPS FILM – ON-SITE. Holy crap, I'm so happy I could cry rainbows. They have a two-day wait period between submitting le films and receiving their developed goodness - I've had rolls of film slothing around in my bag for eons. Will probably have to check if they do 120 film as well, but yes implosive giddiness. Shall post the good bits when I get them in a few days - wheeeeee ~

This post was brought to you by Gotye a.k.a a one-man-band and wonderfully peculiar Belgian-Australian boy. It's been too long between albums – my hearts a mess (SEEWHUTIDIDTHAR) and withdrawal symptoms have been suffered. Le sigh..

Gotye - Eyes Wide Open
This video is beautiful.
cr; gotyemusic @ YouTube

I'm starting to think over my blog design - it feels a little too printy and vintage-y whereas every other blog site and their goat makes negative space look spacious and pretty. Alas, I sincerely cannot be arsed designing and coding up a new one this year (Y U SO TIME-CONSUMING).

a loverless bed

2010-11-22T02:28:00.014+11:00

Should probably hit the sack seeing as I start work in about seven hours. Commuting time has now increased to a rather sexy 20 hours a week from work to my home digs and back again – no biggie seeing as I actually don't mind the train.

So apparently Asian models are 'redefining traditional forms of beautiful' – according to Vogue US, that is. I wonder what Vogue Korea / Vogue China / Vogue Japan would have to say to that – not much I'd gather, seeing as most of them use very Caucasian-looking models in their fashion shoots anyway. Le sigh... it seems that one of the comments on this article summed it all up:

I think I've seen this same article over the past 4 years about larger models, black models, larger models again, black models again, plus size models, larger male models, black models again ... now Asian models!

Is this a result of cognitive thinking or just categorising a kind of racially-defined beauty as special? No one gave a rat's arse when Daul Kim (RIP) started landing international fashion shoots – was her beauty considered 'Asian' or just merely a nod to her ethnic roots?

cr; Beau Grealy for Russh Magazine

cr; Paul Gay for Zoo Germany

So I have a rather inappropriate crush on Andrew Garfield and audibly squealed when I discovered an interview with him in the to-be-mentioned Nylon magazine much to my mum's eyeball-rolling (she's very good at those). Here, he and Jesse Eisenberg find difficulty in seeing each other due to the sheer volume of heart-shaped rainbows emitting from their eyeballs. I'm going to start hallucinating double rainbows of glee at this rate GIDDY TAUTOLOGICAL GLEE WHY ARE THEY SO LOVELY.

Apparently they're both Jewish.
Clearly this makes Andrew a Jewraffe with Bambi eyebrows.
cr; michelinamarie @ YouTube

Spent my weekend ingesting handmade noodle wonton soup from the good folk at Chef's Gallery and super gluttonous Thai goodness from my local. I legitimately spend nearly all my weekends eating and binging on Sufjan Stevens and ~~K-poop~~ K-pop with the odd interjection of human interactive activities and the like. Self may or may not need a life outside of food.

My life is pork belly.
cr; Helen @ Grab Your Fork

One day, I will eventually stop accumulating random shit on my floor. My dad walked into my room earlier today and eyeballed my piles - he told me to consider thinking about throwing out some of my magazines. My reaction was akin to a hyperventilative mound of goldfish vomitting water - YOU DON'T TELL ME TO GET RID OF MY MAGAZINES THAT'S SACRILEGE.

Speaking of crap on my bedroom floor, here's what cropped up on my very non-exciting weekend adventures.

MOAR MAGAZINES TO ADD TO MY SHIT-TON OF MAGAZINES.
YEAH YEAH YEAH!! Dear Book Depository,
where is my Norwegian Wood? *sadface*
cr; self via Sony Cybershot from eons ago

And Zipia bits that came in the mail with the last batch ...and I have another batch in the works because monies suddenly feels oddly spendable. The whole reverse seasons things really gets my goat sometimes - I was buying coats and scarves and boots this time last year to wear during winter. Blergh.

cr; Zipia + self

Pictured:

Supermassive navy cape-coat thing that I have decided to swim laps in during winter
Wine-hued shirt that I will probably never wear IT WAS PRETTY ON THE MODEL OKAY
Necklace watch thing with glass backface and frontface and leather cord which shall eventually be swapped for something more durable
Zirconia-encrusted crown ring that comes out delightfully chunky on my finger

Can I just bathe in the sartorial goodness that Christopher Bailey for Burberry Prorsum? Have I mentioned Christopher Bailey is God? No? Well Burberry SS2011 is evidence enough along with all his past collections. It's flawless. The intricacies and ruffled femininity underscored with beautifully structured leather folds. UGH. I have no words, he is clearly made of sparkles.

CRYING – THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL.
cr; Yannis Vlamos for Style.com

This post was brought to you by the winged unicorn that is Sufjan Stevens on Jimmy Fallon. He clearly frolicked in a forest of neon Post-It notes and came out all deliciously shiny, this 35-year-old wonderful synth-happy machine of ethereal goodness is so very extremely good at what he does. THE WINGS, THE TASSELS, THE SWAGGER OMG I am seeing him at the Sydney Festival at the Sydney Opera House HOLY SHIT TOO MANY FEELINGS WHAT DO I DO WITH MYSELF FEELINGS TOO MANY FEELINGS.

cr; laincreibleverdad @ vodpod

I am generally not like this in real life - I tend to be much more coherent and articulate. Most of the time.

playground love

2010-11-18T23:51:00.013+11:00

After the trauma of Blogger eating four hours of raw HTML, self has finally salvaged all my links and prose from my sieve of a brain. Currently masticating through caramelised pork belly, stir-fried spinach and canh chua (Vietnamese sour soup) while typing this baby out – in Notepad. Blogger is a perpetual sack of turds.

Oh hey - Ryan Gosling for Interview Magazine, November 2010 because he apparently has a new film out called Blue Valentine with the ever-lovely Michelle Williams. Why yes, I do believe my ovaries have migrated to my eyesockets. Does this man want childen? May I bear them on his behalf? Yes/yes??

HOW DO YOU EXIST OMG.
cr; Mikael Jannson for Interview Magazine

Things occupying my brainspace over the past week or so:

spending your first week off without any plans is very extremely not good for your monies
Asahi Pentax Spotmatic cameras are rather difficult to come by for the delicious price of $50 plus postage
I have possibly eaten my weight in crispy skin chicken in the space of three days
along with Magnum ice cream in various concoctions of diabetes on a stick/chocolatey goodness
High Cut magazine is only available in Seoul, Korea and subscriptions are thus, non-existent unless you opt for an e-book copy (NUUUUUUU WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS ~)
soft-shell crab omelette from Cafe Ish is like having Christmas AND Chinese New Year shenanigans in your mouth

Have you tried this baby? Oh. My. God.
cr; The Ninja Review

Game classification hurts kids according to this dad of awesometown. LOOK, PARENTS WITH SMARTICLES - this is what happens when someone actually thinks of the children. He writes in support of introducing the R18+ rating for games in light of the classification proposal due to be discussed by the Attorney General's Office on 10 December. Dear non-gamer turds taking up space in governing bodies, the average age of a gamer is 30-years-old - start helping the industry recognise that and stop sanitising games for the sake of age appropriation.

While I'm not a hardcore gamer, I have been keeping track of the gaming developments in previous posts. Le sister is a gamer though - the last game I legitimately finished was Diablo II and ~~NO I AM NOT JIZZING MY LADYPANYS IN ANTICIPATION FOR DIABLO III WHY AM I LIKE THIS OMG SO EXCITED.~~

The lovely 2NE1 did a super-saturated homage to Tim Burton in their latest single. Requisite Korean girl/boy band currently suctioning the outside world from my ears, you are oh-so-good.

2NE1 - It Hurts (아파)

cr; 2NE1 @ YouTube

In other news: Daisy Lowe is (still) very extremely hot for Crash Magazine. Dear Matt Smith - I have an inappropriate crush on your girlfriend. I think I like her more than your dimples and gravitational hair, which is saying a lot.

cr; Jermaine Francis for Crash

Online journalist Annabel Crabb recently addressed a forum on the continuing influence of digital in the journalism field. She is one of my favourite commentators next to Ross Gittins and Benjamin Law (ILOVEYOUBUTNOTCREEPILYSO). Annabel Crabb is so clued-up on how audiences are dictating how information is being consumed and I find that so refreshing, especially with traditional media companies still functioning on old-school business models without little scope to budge (HELLO - WHERE IS YOUR AUDIENCE ZOMG THEY'RE ONLINE). If you have a spare twenty minutes, the 7000 word piece is definitely worth a squiz.

This post was brought to you by Matt Smith dancing like a drunk giraffe omg look at his amazing spotty socks, they're almost too hipster to function. Steven Moffat, please put a longer dance sequence in the next season of Doctor Who - he is particularly good in hip-to-feet-to-baby-fists coordination.

FREEZE-FRAME HIGH-FIVE WHAT IS THIS BRILLIANCE.
He keeps ruffling his own hair, teehee.
cr; TVsCraigFerguson @ YouTube

hurricane venus

2010-10-31T23:57:00.017+11:00

So my Halloween bender of a weekend was spent in the Blue Mountains eating party pies and melting my face through the feathered mask I'd unearthed at a $2 shop. It's interesting seeing how seriously us Aussie folk seem to be taking the Halloween holiday these past few years, especially seeing as we have no historical context from whence it came. BUT HEY - any excuse for a party.

Korean girl band, Miss A recently prettied up for High Cut magazine. Can someone please tell me if it's possible get international subscriptions to this beautiful publication? I don't give a rat's arse about understanding the Korean, I just want the photo shoots. If I lived in Korea, I'd be getting this baby every fortnight - it's 300₩ (AU$0.25)! Miss A are so adorbs - why are Western bands never this fun?

Burberry AW2010-11, I see you!
Full-scanned goodness here.

cr; Kim Yeong Jung for High Cut Magazine

Things I unearthed in my anticipated package in the mail:

cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

So Gmarket is rather extremely good if you don't take into account how much EMS shipping eats into your monies nor their whack brand of packaging - that's right, put boxes into boxes into more boxes and let the bits rattle about. I was mildly paranoid because I thought I ordered a green cardie and freaked out when it wasn't in there before realising I'd taken it out before putting the order through - I am made of short-term memoryness. Le sigh - ONWARDS WITH BATCHNESS!

Laneige SPF40+ sunscreen/make-up base with colour corrector smells nommy and faintly of Clinique Happy. The stuff goes on non-greasy and feels light and smooth on the epidermis. Goodness is good AND THE BOTTLE IS SO PRETTY.
Laneige oil-free cleansing liquid for sensitive skin was a bit unexpected. Self didn't read the listing properly and ended up with seven sample-sized bottles instead of the normal 150mL - OH WELL. Consistency was odd and serum-esque and I ended up mixing it with my normal cleanser for the lulz.
Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel eyeliner was purchased for a cousin's belated birthday. I have to get the rest of her pressie now that I think about it. Eep.

Self added another tartan shirt to my quiet collection of hipsterdom along with black foldable ballet flats (COMFY SHOES ARE COMFY!) and my 354th pair of jeans in the same rinse of navy. I also got two pairs of work-esque pants in navy and beige in similar style to Christopher Esber's SS2010-11 range because skinny pants are my religion.

My favourite bit is the tan sling bag I bought - it's rather like the TARDIS in that it's bigger on the inside. I've crammed a cardigan in that baby along with my brick of a wallet, glasses case, phone and other paraphrenalia - it's gold.

Please excuse blatant excuse to post Matt Smith's fucking sexy lapels.
Karen Gillan, why so beautiful.

cr; Karen Gillan Fan

In other news: Andy Lau's new film Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is released - BRB, flailing everywhere. The Tsui Hark directed film also stars the always flawless Carina Lau a.k.a Tony Leung's (*squeeeeeeeeee*) significant other. I miss these films - I still have VCDs my parents used to buy me from Chinatown back in the day. They - along with Ekin Cheng, Nicholas Tse and Kelly Chen - pretty much made up my entire childhood and high school existence.

cr; CinemaExtreme @ YouTube

Stereotyping on public transport - does it exist? It seems to on the NYC subway as racial profiling takes a new leaf out of gentrification. Having spent a quarter of my life on trains so far, it's no secret that I make it a habit of sitting next to folk I know will get off the train first. It's become a skill and often one subconsciously honed - mostly for the better cause of sitting near the window.

Having said that, I do agree with Dwora Meyer's sentiments - all the suits here get off at Wynyard and all the labourers at Granville and/or Auburn. I spend an average of 12-15 hours commuting to and from work every week and am usually among the last peeps off the train, so I spend a fair bit of time people-watching.

Google has also shaken up their search algorithms. Again. PANIC, EVERYONE PANIC. It looks like they're localising the search functionality on the back of their recent change to 'predictive search' - YAY.

This post was brought to you by Two Door Cinema Club. Am quite sure they're sartorially nerdier than Talking Heads and Barenaked Ladies. Self finally has tickets to go see them in February. WOO!

cr; twodoorcinemaclub @ YouTube

In other news: am quite sure this whole 'regular blog posting' activity is eating my creativity in that it's starting to feel like a chore. And is anyone else freaking out over the fact that peeps have already started organising NYE shindigs? YEAH - ME TOO.

all delighted people

2010-10-26T23:54:00.007+11:00

I've somewhat run out of things to watch. Spent my weekend binging on third season of True Blood and Firefly (again) and sort of mostly didn't attempt Bloody Monday due to considerable levels of concentration required to read subtitles and decipher oral Japanese where said subtitles failed. Le sigh.. I feel a most profound need to spend less of my weekends in the throes of melatonin dreams.

Oh hey, 'tis the lovely Andrew Garfield for Interview Magazine October 2010. Look at him all beautiful and Brando-esque while an audible 'oooooh' emits from self upon viewing these pics. Speaking of Interview magazine, I decided to further violate my credit card and bought a subscription (US$45 including postage! OH EM GEE!). Must. Stop. Buying. Magazines.

Gorgeous photo shoot is gorgeous.
cr; Robbie Fimmano for Interview Magazine
via Andrew Garfield.Net

Newsy bits I extracted from my cranial sack of mush:

'Coloured' cover girls on Australian magazines come under the fire as fashion journalist + blogger, Patty "frockwriter" Huntington speculates - was former Vogue Australia editor Marion Hume fired for putting Naomi Campbell on the cover in June 1997?

So an iPhone is now required to finish print ads with 'augmented reality' taking another tab in advertising land. Oh. I'm all for integrating media platforms, but I find this rather bothersome, not to mention it smells like 3D TV (stop trying to make it happen - it's not going to happen!). And I have to have an iPhone to finish the ad? How about no. You will never break the bond between my Nokia/Crackberry and I - NEVER!

Sony kills the Walkman on the iPod's birthday a.k.a omg, what do I do with my Spice Girls mix tapes from 1997 now? I think my mum still has an old Walkman somewhere, complete with angular headphones and four AA batteries required to actually get it to play.

Here is the correct way to use a DSLR people
a.k.a Lamah rules.
cr; L4MAHKUN @ Flickr

It intrigues me that one of my most favourite places to be is on a train. I have this dream of one day taking a train across Europe instead of flying everywhere. I'd start in London and work my way through Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Luxembourg and possibly parts of Italy and Croatia if I can wrangle it. Apart from such lofty aspirations, I'm not sure why it is about trains. Maybe it's because I like sitting in my own world with the audible public suctioned out with my ear buds... or maybe it's just because I like people-watching with most of my hour-long train rides to work spent absorbing pretty girl outfits and concocting illusions of running away with handsome fellows sitting beside me.

cr; Randy P. Martin @ Flickr

Other things I love: Sufjan Stevens freelance knitting for Martha Stewart. Oh god, is this real life?

Speaking of Sufjan Stevens, self is shitting gold bricks of glee over the possibility of him coming in February. So far only Adelaide shows have been secured, but fingers crossed ~~God~~ Sufjan Stevens does a Sydney show. I still hold the memory of his first visit to Australia a few years back as one of the most beautiful gigs I'd ever been to. He was softly and well-spoken in equal measures with ramblings of whimsical things and hoola hooping among the orchestra and those wings all bathed in opulent melody - I was almost in tears, the experience was so exquisite.

Sufjan Stevens
State Theatre Sydney, 13 January 2008
cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

Other things I adore: packages in the mail and English Breakfast tea. If you're thinking of bestowing some tea upon me, make it milky with one sugar please - and two bags, not one.

This post was brought to you by Sufjan Stevens. From what I gather with my ~~non-existent~~ rudimentary music skills, the time signature on this piece is insane.

Sufjan Stevens - Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland

cr; jymdavis @ YouTube

red socks pugie

2010-10-21T00:36:00.004+11:00

So I missed out on Laneway Festival tickets today because I was a slow turd and told myself to buy it later and forgot before it sold out by 5PM. Looks like it's sideshows for me! Or I might be able to unearth some elusive tickets on ebay like I did with Ms Gaga.

Oh hey, it's Daniel Radcliffe for Dazed & Confused, November 2010. Can I just say - WOW. It's visually stunning and in a good way. His perpetual babyface really does pull this off - obviously it'd look glorious if you put someone with cheekbones in that garb, but dude. So cool.

cr; Serge Leblon for Dazed Digital

Editrix Anna Wintour has allowed an official US Vogue Tumblr. I say allowed because as the formidable gatekeeper of the Vogue brand, what she says goes. Not to mention she is among few magazine editors who has embraced online, albeit after much nudging and prodding and hand-holding. Anyhoo, the most important part of this all is that my turf of angsty nostalgic teeny bopper joy has been infiltrated! Nuuuuuuuu...

For the uninitiated, Tumblr is home to a kind of 'internet collage' where this whole notion of micro-blogging - or actual blogging - takes on a whole new meaning. And it's all thanks to that ingenious 'reblog' button. Created three years ago by a then 20-year-old and so obviously lovely David Karp, it's ridiculously easy to use with the site growing at an average rate of 15,000 users everyday - and holds a shiny retention rate of 60% (Twitter currently sits at 40%). Yes, nerdspeak off now. It is staggering in its ability to cleave off a few hours of your time. Have possibly spent about 10% of my lifespan pressing 'Next Page' and 'reblog' on my Tumblr dashboard - and I only follow 80 people! Good lord.

Here is my internet god, David Karp with
my other god, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
cr; emncpy-givenchy @ Tumblr

Okay, Blogger is starting to give me the shits. I click 'Link' to insert a link, but instead it keeps generating the 'span google id' of doom - multiple times. Don't do this to me Blogger - we've been in this tumultuous relationship for years now because Wordpress is too expensive and you've been so good to me. So I'm writing this in raw HTML code because I'm anal. Woo!

On the gaming front, I came across this awesome piece about a real soldier in Afghanistan playing COD4 - or critically-acclaimed video war game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the non-gamer ~~turds~~ nerds. So what happens when a soldier plays a war game based on the war he's just taken leave from? It's stuff like this that really blurs the lines between reality and realism.

Also in magland: ~~pornographer~~ photographer Terry Richardson recently shot the Glee kids for GQ, November 2010. Oh. Granted, it is a men's magazine but yeah - oh.

cr; Terry Richardson for GQ magazine
via ohnotheydidnt @ Livejournal

Would it have hurt to have Cory take off his damn shirt? And where's Chris Colfer? Harry Shum? Or was he not deemed hot or popular enough for the likes of GQ?

Even without the sexual assault allegations earlier this year, I still think dude is pedobear-certified and creepy with his 'Uncle Terry' monicker and Pirelli 2010 calendar credentials - which, might I add, had classier shots in previous years. I don't give a rat's arse if I have peeps nude in my photography so long as it's done nicely and without the dash of misogyny. Oh right - Terry likes all his men clothed and his women NSFW naked and 'everyone has fun on his shoots'. I see - excuse me while I bash my face against my palm.

After months of figuring out how to navigate the minefield of flash and endless scroll function, I FINALLY BOUGHT THINGS OFF GMARKET!! Cheap hipster shirts, slick pants, bag and shoes and make-up crap that I'll likely flail over with its non-functional functions. It should be here next week - no wait, it'd better be here next week after EMS shipping ate a hole in my credit card. I'm so excited!

These are the shoes I'm going to get with my next batch when they restock the buggers in my size. WANT SO BAD. Never mind that I just bought a pair of shoes the other week and that I have Doctor Who + Sherlock DVD sets coming in the mail at some point or another next month OH GOD MY POOR MONIES.

cr; Gmarket

Well now, isn't this is the shortest post in the history of posts. One day I shall be home before sunset. Even with daylight saving, I'm finding it hard to leave work on time and I really want to use up all the film sitting in my fridge.

This post was brought to you by 2PM and their shuffle dance of doom. Boys are cracktastic all the time and despite the fact that an army of iron Smurf shat on their eyelids, I am extremely very much content making heart ears and eyes at them.

2PM - I'll Be Back
Altogether now: BOY BANDS FOR LIFE ♥

cr; 2PM @ YouTube

beat laments the world

2010-10-17T21:50:00.007+11:00

Every follower and their goat will know that I suffer from a profound inability to update my blog regularly. I spend most of my time online as it is, frying my eyeballs to clock in an average 12 hours of interwebz per day - which in some dialects may be considered unhealthy. Possibly. Unfortunately, blogging isn't that high on my list of priorities next to say, Doctor Who or Tumblr or sitting on various news sites absorbing vaguely jolly things.

Speaking of - ONWARD WITH THE NEWSY BITS OF NEWS:

Here is Marion Cotillard being hot for Vanity Fair Italy, September 2010 - without the airbrushing and trigger-happy Photoshop. WOO!!

Full set of glorious photographs here.
cr; Bruce Webber for Vanity Fair Italy

My friend recently gave me nine hours of David Tennant talking on mp3 a.k.a. him doing shows with Catherine Tate, interviews for his new show Single Father (why are his sideburns gone omg, why would you do this. BRB - sobbing forever) and some other shows he did some Christmases ago. HIS SCOTTISH ACCENT OMG I am okay, am not a crazy fangirl. I just like the way he says his name - "DEHVEHD TEHNEHNT".

Speaking of David Tennant, here is Matt Smith being sexy with his hipster cheekbones. He recently did an interview with the London Evening Standard talking about Doctor Who and his ridiculously hot girlfriend Daisy Lowe. Please be speaking fluent Doctor at all times. Am kind of extremely very anxious for the Christmas Spesh to screen already - gimme, GIMME! *insert grabby hands*

LOOK AT THAT SWAGGER.

cr; Ben Harries for London Evening Standard

ABC journalist Mark Colvin grapples with the conundrum facing journalists and Twitter. On the one hand, we have a rapidly growing platform where news is released and regurgitated at its own accord with information being shared with an audience instantly. On the other hand, that authenticity so commonly linked to journalistic integrity is called into question with journos having to work harder to make that distinction between balance and opinion.

It's interesting seeing as we are under more pressure to be held accountable for our actions as netizens and the lines between private and professional life continue to blur. Again, this is why I'm personally so careful as to what I post online because quite frankly, it's going to be online forever in some form or another. And let's face it, people's online personas are more prone to judgement than their real life counterparts.

Mashable's Sarah Kessler chews on the impact of new platforms on activism and accountability. Definitely worth a read for those disillusioned by all the social media wank floating around. Oh interwebz, how I adore thee.

These macarons look edible, but alas - they're lovely cakes of soap made with goat's milk and coconut oil. Methinks they smell lovely too.

cr; KcSoapsNmore @ etsy

Whereas these are actual edible piggy macarons by the irreverent Steph of raspberri cupcakes. Are you dying from the cuteness? I don't even know if I could eat these babies, they're too adorable.

DYING. OF. CUTE. OMG.

cr; stephcookie @ Flickr

In other news: the most amazing show to be juiced out by Steven Moffat's cranium a.k.a. Sherlock hits local TV this weekend. Why am I excited? Because I don't have cable TV - I function quite fine on free-to-air thanks. And because Benedict Cumberbatch is rather amazing and peculiar and amazingly peculiar. Apparently Matt Smith auditioned for the role of John Watson before he got the part as the Eleventh Doctor and thus, MY MIND IS BLOWN.

cr; JoeZy27 @ YouTube

The otherwise amazing 80s teen series Sweet Valley High undergoes a mild procedure of lobotomy as the 'grown-ups sequel' is due to be released early next year. Why would you do this - why would you slaughter a cultural phenomenon in this way. The preview made me cry - I feel so violated as a twenty-something in the realms of nostalgic redux.

Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go is immortalised in film with the lovely Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan. I'm yet to read the book myself but after seeing the trailer, I had it in my Book Depository cart faster than you could say 'wibbly wobbly timey wimey'. Coincidentally, both Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan have previously acted in episodes of Doctor Who - IN THE SAME SEASON.

cr; npacats @ YouTube

My brain is gushing with delight after seeing The Social Network (god I love friends with media preview passes). Andrew Garfield + Jesse Eisenberg, please be hocking your bromance around forever. Like most biopics, I didn't take it as gold but I have to say that Eisenberg did an amazing portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg a.k.a 26-year-old billionaire - excuse me while I ponder over what I've achieved in my life so far.

WHY ARE THEY SO FUNNIES *SQUEEEEEEE*

cr; classex12 @ YouTube

I came across some interesting commentary arguing the "Angry Nerd Misogyny" prevalent in the film as many extremely very not good "feminists" cried foul over the apparent lack of strong female characters and shitty treatment of THE GREAT FEMALE!!!!!!11 in the film. Script writer Aaron Sorkin responded to these claims in a blog entry defending the stance, citing that such examples of misogyny do exist and some artistic license is required to tell a cinematic story. Granted, Sorkin did adapt his screenplay from Ben Mezrich's book Accidental Billionaires so let's just add another dose of embellishment - yes/yes?

In other news: it's movie about Facebook, not a documentary. Since when did we take cinematic storytelling as gold? And no, I did not think that Brenda Song was fetishised as the sexualised token Asian chick. Shall I facepalm now or later?

Random shit my cousins brought back for me from Korea a.k.a I LOVE YOU GUYS LIKE THE DOCTOR LOVES HIS TARDIS - hearts to you forever!

Three more magazines to add to the mutating
piles of magazines on my bedroom floor. Plus three
K-pop albums and a book authored by my favourite Korean actor.
AND MAKE-UP SAMPLES FROM SKINFOOD - I'M SO EXCITED!!
cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

Guess who is shitting gold bricks of joy over the line-up for Laneway Festival 2011? Foals, Deerhunter and Two Door Cinema Club - we will be together soon and we shall frolic! And OMGOSH GOTYE, HOW I'VE MISSED YOU.

So I've been nursing quite a hankering for Turkish food this past week or so. I wonder if it's possible for me to hire a gözleme cart of some sort or invent some meat-on-a-sword contraption that will deposit marinated meat into my tummy at cranial will. Omnomnom...

This post was brought to you by the ever-flawless Perfume. They have their first massive stadium show at Tokyo Dome on November 3 with tickets on sale from October 3 - guess who needed a Japanese address to actually sign up for an account to purchase said tickets? BRB, sobbing forever. Apparently they've already sold out the entire 55,000 strong stadium. Will have to suffice for the TV broadcast later in the month. Le sigh..

cr; shizukao @ YouTube

frontier psychiatrist

2010-09-26T22:41:00.009+10:00

Self spent most of the past week or so sneezing over desk at work as the model grotty snot monster of doom. I've also started playing around with stock photos and generally trying to get my mojo back in the Photoshop end of town. Somewhat working and somewhat mostly not:

LOOK AT ME MAKING RANDOM SHIT
IN PHOTOSHOP DURING MY LUNCH HOUR.
The Doctor's shirt is no longer pink. He looks like a damn
waiter ~ BBC why are you like this?!!
cr; Photoshoppy self + sneaky paparazzi pics
via Planet Damian

Speaking of Photoshop, has Gabrielle Sidibe been 'whitewashed' on the cover of ELLE US or did someone just get a wee bit digi-happy with their graphics tablet? How dare such magazines of aspiration demand standards of beauty with your shiny brightening tool, I mean really what is this world coming to - WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN.

Prominent freelance writer Rachel Hills raised an excellent point in her assessment of the 'racial' controversy, citing differential Photoshopping techniques:

Racism that stems from the blind assumption that what works for white people will work for all people is still racism, even if its roots lie in ignorance rather than prejudice or disgust.

It's interesting to note the racial politics that undoubtedly steep themselves in the magazine industry and its role in creating images of value. Is it really ignorance or just institutional conditioning wherein such attitudes lie? Is it purely dependent on anecdotal experience? 'Tis food for thought.

Gabrielle Sibide looks glorious here though.
Elle US why didn't you think to use these beautiful babies?!

cr; Elle US via Jezebel

Also in magland, Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling are breathtaking for W magazine, October 2010. They're hocking their new film Blue Valentine on the publicity trail - film of which looks right up my arty alley, thank you very much. It's interesting to see that W magazine have italicised their logo, though the change is clearly not yet extended to their favicon (I notice these things okay!). The feature interview between the two is also quite lovely on the cranium.

Good lord, his jawline is beautiful.
Self is speechless.
cr; Inez van Lamsweerde &
Vinoodh Matadin for W Magazine

In other news: are migrant parents pushing their kids too hard? So Education Editor of the SMH, Anna Patty posits the question upon age-old attitudes towards the high percentage of migrant kids in Australian selective schools a.k.a. 'oh, that's new'. If you have a spare hour to churn through 212 comments on the article, you'll find a decent number of views worth a look-in.

As someone who did grow up in that environment, I can only say that education has always been an enormous part of my culture (emphasis on 'my', I can't speak for all migrant cultures, thanks). Short-sightedness would dictate the intensity of this cultural importance as totalitarian but after time, you come to realise that it's so much more than that. There is little difference between fulfilling your filial expectations and your own expectations for yourself. A balance just needs to be found and is something that most migrant kids I talk to struggle to grasp. All I can say is just give it time.

The wall above my warzone of a desk at home
a.k.a my mum + dad rule. Schwing!

cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

Oh look at me increasing my risk of death-by-magazine-mountains a.k.a. can this be classed as substance abuse? Is it a problem that I love magazines so much that I have piles and piles of them mutating across my bedroom floor?

cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

OH HAY frankie diary 2011, look at you being so pretty! It marks the first time I've ever kept a diary/organiser of sorts since high school. This issue of RUSSH magazine coincides with its swanky new website, courtesy of the digital folk at Switzer-Media + Publishing. Nice clean design, columned layout and easy navigation plus excellent use of negative space - me likey.

Social media news + its impact on journalism/fashion/politics/my-inability-to-have-a-life.

Twitter has changed politics, says Turnbull a.k.a. one of few Australian politicians who kind of gets it.
How social media changed Fashion Week a.k.a. fashion magazines take note.
The future of social media + journos a.k.a. HELLO - THIS IS WHERE YOUR AUDIENCE LIVES NOW. Quite frankly, this is nothing new to me - if journalism graduates pass off the importance of online and digital skills in their schooling, then I'd say they're royally frakked in the job department.

Additional reasons as to why I don't have a life:

Not enough DVDs and RPGs to get through, clearly.
I CAN FEEL YOU ALL JUDGING ME SO HARD RIGHT NOW.
They can't be guilty pleasures if I don't feeling guilty ~ wheeeee!
cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

Stuff I haven't eaten in a while: phở. What the frak, I was raised in a Vietnamese-Chinese household and I haven't had phở in weeks (for those stuck on pronounciation, say 'fuh' like you're asking a question and hey presto, you can speak Vietnamese! Woo!!). I think I've become too partial to mì gà da dòn (crispy skin chicken with egg noodle soup) and homemade gỏi cuốn (rice paper rolls of goodness with peanut satay soy sauce) hence the lack of phở in my system. Omnomnom...

This post was brought to you by David Tennant being sexy on Top Gear a.k.a. OMG TWO OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS IN ONE VIDEO.

I wish very much to butter his parsnips.
cr; TopGear @ YouTube

Self is currently churning through Doctor Who circa David Ten-inch - and no, I do not spend most of my viewing time sighing and giggling over how lovely he is and how much I want to run my fingers through his ruffle-able hair like this frakkin' lucky woman here.

baby cruising love

2010-09-12T21:56:00.006+10:00

Sometimes I wish this head cold would just slaughter me in one hit instead of dragging its half-arsed disease through my system over two weeks. Feeling hot and cold with eye sockets ready to implode from sitting in front of the computer all day - which is what I'm doing now. After three hours straight of Skypeage with my American friends talking about food and epic nights of drunkeness and food - omnomnom... I really need to spend my weekends more productively.

Cutes!
Relevant photo is relevant.
cr; michellekblades @ Flickr

Brain candy as follows:

'Hide yo wife, hide yo kids' song is not frakkin' funny when the issue of attempted rape of young women is remixed thanks to the viral video. Editing and film crews reporting on alleged rape is a new thing, but when someone with the Antoine Dodson's personality is involved - it's unfortunately open for the masses.

The sampled video in question currently clocks in at over 20 million views and is likely to, like many internet memes, fade away - along with the issue of rape prevalence in disadvantaged suburbs. Which is why Potente Susurro's commentary on feminism and race in is definitely worth a read - and no, no one should be forced to 'take a joke' when rape is involved.

Oh lookie, Rafael Nadal is looking ridiculously lovely at the US Open that I honestly don't know what to do with myself. My favourite boy better win this baby after that made-of-sex-hair-cut and Federer now out of the Open - woo! I am a tennis turd and I like it... to the point where I bought tickets to the Australian Open - next year. I'M SO EXCITED.

Your new hair is wonderful.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

cr; Matthew Stockman for Getty Images via Vogue.com

The oft-stigmatised realm of Western Sydney was recently humanised by the good folk at ABC News. The irreverent Ellie Bell - or Eleanor as she's cited - leads the special report with Ed Giles. I love seeing my colleagues' names in the media - BRB, brimming with pride.

Few people ever talk about the disadvantaged communities in Sydney - or anywhere quite frankly, unless some gun/drug/knife/youth crime is involved. Living in these suburbs, it definitely feels like it's every man and woman for themselves, not to mention that continuous overbearing shadow where kids born in such communities having little to aspire to apart from what's available to them - that being not much at all. No thanks to the lack of resources and little reportage on such issues to begin with. But of course, as we all know, the boat people are much more important.

Of course, what no one tells you is that
all the best food in Sydney lives in our hood.
Food critics, you are all so deprived of
charcoal chicken from Frank's Lebanese Food.
cr; Karen @ Citrus and Candy

The rise in Asian-American designers take the stage in light of New York Fashion Week. Alexander Wang, Jason Wu and Richard Chai are cited as leading the charge in designers with an ethnically-Asian background. Plus one for diversity methinks - though one would argue that their designs speak that language of no ethnicity. BRB, being a giddy fashion turd - I follow these things okay, leave me alone!

Speaking of fashion, Vogue.com has relaunched their website in beautiful, stunning and flawless, er, fashion. Honestly, it really is quite a beautiful online destination. It's interesting how they laid a massive slab of a Flash switcher across the whole top part of the site with slick ad-rollouts as necessary - plus clever incorporation of site membership. Gorgeous kudos to the design team (headed by formidable editrix Anna Wintour no doubt).

I want this entire outfit and vaguely
able feet to walk in said outfit.
cr; Hanneli Mustaparta @ Vogue.com

Korean girl band, 2NE1's newly released sophomore album 'To Anyone' is crunktastic - with a bit too much electro/autotune, which makes little sense considering they can actually sing. I actually only like maybe two tracks off their new record, but dude - they're so awesome. I didn't mind them before - the good K-pop to me is the more facepalmy it is, the better - but this ish is my jam. Love them.

2NE1 - Clap Your Hands (박수쳐)
One of out three tracks they're promoting - at the same time.

Cripes, I hope they don't tire out during the promo run.
If you look carefully, you'll notice their back-up dancers
in white are none other than label mates Big Bang. Schwing!

cr; 2NE1 @ YouTube

More paraphernalia fuelling my profound urge to embody a chameleon circuit: I sincerely would very much like one of these - preferrably before I implode at the ingenious of it all.

IT'S A SONIC SCREWDRIVER WII CONTROLLER.
Of course, it would help if I had a Wii to begin with.
cr; Doctor Who TV

Here's a triple chocolate ganache cake by the amazing Steph of raspberri cupcakes. Excuse me while I check the longevity of my pancreas.

Triple Chocolate Ganache Cake with Macarons
This is the work of a chocolate god.
I'M LOOKING AT YOU STEPH ;D
cr; stephcookie @ Flickr

This post was brought to you by Joseph Gordon-Levitt seducing you into a bad romance. Eventually these posts will be brought to you by someone/thing other than the wonderful Tommy Solomon, but until then...

cr; winegodof @ YouTube

Yes, I am the slowest blogger in the world. What else is new?

public pervert

2010-09-02T23:53:00.010+10:00

This is a semi-fashion and beauty post - which is rare because ~~most~~ every day, I cannot be arsed getting my ish together in the style department. Though now that winter's almost over, I can stop dressing like a hipster boy in military cardies and mufflers, all underscored with skinnies and brogue boots.

Adeline in Paris wearing pretty much exactly
what I wear to work everyday. I am awesome.
cr; Andreas Schjønhaug @ The Streethearts

The closest I'll ever get to being considered a fashion nutcase is by sitting on fashion blogs/Net-A-Porter everyday, subconsciously inhaling all the pixelled pretties. I adore the artistry of fashion, but honestly can't even fathom forking out more than $100 for anything to adorn my limbs. It's clothing, seriously - it keeps me warm, shiny and lovely and preferrably not for three months worth of my salary at a time.

Oh lookie - recently added paraphernalia to my tendencies of 'buying-shit-for-no-reason':

cr; Zipia.net

The brogue shoes are super pretty albeit the laces part sits a bit lower down the front of my foot than I envisioned. And the soles were smoother than babies' buttcheeks, so I had to get them scuffed up at my local cobbler - along with resoling a bunch of other Zipia shoes. Note to self: consider paying more than US$25 per pairs of shoe to ensure less cobbling and more wearage. Yes/yes??

The 8-ring necklace is also really pretty - t'was mildly agonising tossing up between the silver and the gold (which came with a brown leather rope instead of black). Eventually went with silver which looks a little duller, but the cubic zirconia and pearl rings looked sweeter against that shade.

So I was painting my nails one ev'ning because I was twiddling my thumbs waiting for shiz to download. Tools of choice:

Kit nail polish in powdered mint (Bounce Back - apparently)
and coral melon (Go Out), plus Maybelline Salon Manicure
Top Coat for top and bottom coat CUZ THAT'S HOW I ROLL.
cr; self via Sony Cybershot camera from eons ago

Self couldn't decide which colour to use, so I ended up colouring my right hand nails with melony goodness and my left hand the same colour as the blue mint of my living room wall. Then I remembered why I haven't painted my nails in over a year - waiting for them to dry sucks balls. Don't even get me started on how many times I smudged my babies and had to repaint bits of nail to accommodate - "They ~~used to~~ call me 'Anal Girl'." The Kit polish went on smoothly and dried fairly quickly too - and they've lasted just over a week so far. Schwing!

One day, I shall own obscenely obnoxious shoes that I can't walk in and will place in a glass case on my wall for all eternity to be stroked at and admired from afar. The contenders are these two exquisitely Burberry boots. On the left we have shearling-lined aviator boots from their AW10-11 collection and on your right, the satin and leather boots from their SS2010 collection.

cr; Burberry Prorsum @ Net-a-Porter

Also stoking the fires of my sartorial loins is this purse-like contraption of knuckle-busting joy from Alexander McQueen. Four words: beautiful, stunning, flawless, etc.

cr; Alexander McQueen @ Net-a-Porter

Here is So Ji Sub eyesexing you via High Cut magazine, Vol. 36 which is on sale for two weeks from tomorrow. In Korea. What is my life and why is it so tragic that I want a Korean magazine retailing for 300₩ (AU50c) to be shipped to me for a total of AU$15 - WHY IS MY LIFE SO TRAGIC.

cr; Oh Joong Seok for High Cut

AND OMFG SO JI SUB IN MOTION. Don't mind me visibly crushing on my first Korean drama boy from like, seven years ago when my parents first indoctrinated me into watching Korean dramas dubbed in Vietnamese DON'T MIND MY LADYPANTS MELTING OFF AT ALL HE IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND LOVELY AND WONDERFUL OMG.

Just kill me.
How is he so damn handsome.
cr; High Cut magazine

I spent 90 minutes giggling with fangirly joy when I saw Joss Whedon on the weekend. The highlight of that nerdgasmic talk was seeing him dry-hump host, Wil Anderson. On stage. At the Sydney Opera House. Despite my nosebleed seats, I honestly almost teared up - so privileged I felt to see him talk. I'm a full-blown nerd okay LEAVE ME ALONE. ~~/pets her Buffy-Angel DVDs + action figures.~~

My entire teenage life.
Buffy, Charmed, Dawson's Creek & Felicity and 7th Heaven.
Click on the pic to make it desktop wallpaper sized dudes. Woo!
cr; Entertainment Weekly via Gellarfan.org

Speaking of nerdisms, self desperately wants this TARDIS mug so I'm pre-ordering this baby for October 2010, yes/yes?

cr; entertainmentearth.com

Oh noes, the omninously bad-ass identity of the Stig has been revealed! Nuuuuuuu... For the frightfully uninitiated, the Stig is the race driver character/mascot on Top Gear whose unknown identity has become a running joke of the car-enthusiast show for the past decade or so. The dude behind the Stig was set to publish his autobiography thereby revealing his identity and taking away one of the core elements of the successful BBC show. BBC chucks a fit, High Court rules in favour of the Stig.

Some say that each of his toenails are exactly the same as a woman's nipples, and that he thinks the credit crunch is some kind of breakfast cereal. All we know is he's called the Stig.

The V8 Beef, Bovril and Brick smoothie
a.k.a my first ever dose of Top Gear.
Drink this and you'll be made of so much man,
you'll grow testicles on your eyeballs.
I cry laughing every single time I watch this.

cr; Top Gear @ YouTube

In other news: am clearly setting myself up for premature senility as mental illness is linked to lack of sleep according to the good folk at the University of Sydney. This may also be deduced as SCREW YOU INTERNETS STOP EATING MY LIFE.

This post was brought to you by Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing La Valse à Mille Temps at hitRECord.org's second Summer in the City show. Can you feel him singing your pants off? IN FRENCH??! Oui/oui?

cr; winegodof @ YouTube

So I've been thinking as to how to curb my sporadic blog posts and make them a wee bit more relevant. Am currently experimenting with replying to comments in previous entries from now on - thoughts, s'il vous plait?

undercover martyn

2010-08-25T21:54:00.019+10:00

Somewhat functioning on four-ish hours sleep due to an accumulative lack of said sleep. I blame too many Asian dramas, Battlestar Galactica (prosaic implosion on that later) and sitting online at night reading everything humanly possible... and my mum has started up her Vietnamese karaoke post-convection-oven-cheekeen. My life is awesome so here's a lovely picture to cheer your face up:

Robert Downey Jnr is a god.
That is all.

cr; rdj♥ @ Tumblr

I've been a fat lard of a blogger and I know it pretty much turfs off every rule in the Bible of Blogging - yes I am not a religious blogger. I'm a religious food lurker. Woo!

So - things I got up to since dropping off the face of the interwebz. Yes.

Inhaled (vaguely outdated) media news of interestingness:

Essence magazine, America's first magazine for a black population, hires its first white fashion director. Counterproductive or something more? Considering the social implications and historical context of the black population in America (and around the world), this has raised a lot of insightful issues on race and the nature of the media industry. Really did have me thinking.

All 8 covers of this quarter's Love magazine hits Mag Nation - and self wants them all so freakin' bad.

cr; Mag Nation @ Twitter

The face behind Jackie Frank a.k.a. marie claire's editrix is revealed in marie claire Australia's 15th anniversary issue. Personally, I have always found her fascinating albeit terrifying (and super tall in real life - eek) - so this write-up by former marie claire sub-editor, Nicky Briger (now editor of WHO magazine) sheds a lot of light on the force behind the magazine. Disclaimer: I work for the same publisher as the two aforementioned editors... and I've vaguely met both of them during my time at said publisher. And yeah, admiration for both - self still has it.

Girls' Generation a.k.a. biggest Korean girl band ever is on the cover for Cosmopolitan Korea, September 2010 a.k.a their 10th anniversary issue. That's all I have to say about that - please excuse me while I ogle over their hotness.

Girls' Generation a.k.a SNSD
Why are you all so pretty!
It is totally normal that I know they're all wearing
clothes from the Burberry AW2010-11 collection.
Oh.
cr; Cosmopolitan Korea via omonatheydidnt;

Tumblr is set to be the 'next big thing' in social networking. Um yes - I've been abusing my Tumblr dashboard for the past year or so now so this is nothing new to self. And no, I'm not giving you my Tumblr 'cause you peeps can stalk it up yourselves. Schwing!

What will your online footprint look like years from now? So ABC's Amy Simons posits the question. There is absolutely no question that the future information landscape is going to be online or at least an enormous proportion of it will be. Journalists are now finding their leads online and information is shared at honestly dizzying speed. Hell, I'll probably reading these very words when I'm a mildly senial 80-something. I can't emphasise enough how important it is for internet users to take charge of their online identity. Years from now, who knows what could be unearthed.

Disposable comestibles conducive to eating activities:

Met Chocolate Suze, Grab Your Fork and Phuoc'n Delicious a.k.a. super sweet members of the food blogging community over the weekend for eatings in Cabramatta. Mmmm, Vietnamese food - how I adore thee. Helen is lovely and honestly just as well-spoken and thoughtful as her writing, Suze is a pocket rocket of a foodie with her lychee-jelly obsessed self and Phuoc is just too cool. Dudes, it was seriously really awesome to ~~meat~~ meet them - please excuse typographic fart due to preblogging eats - and I think my food blogger stalkerazzi radar just graduated to pure adoration.

Nutella cheesecake brownie
a.k.a one of Suze's concoctions.
Dear pancreas, how goes thee today?
cr; Chocolate Suze

My parents' decision to own a convection oven has increased our intake of crispy skin pork belly to near-weekly doses. What do arteries do? Are they important? Mmm... pork belly. Sometimes we have chicken, but it almost always goes back to pork belly. Why yes, I do intend on abusing my metabolism while I still can.

Mildly related: Milky Way Cheesecake a.k.a. diabetes in a slice. Discovered while hoovering through my bag of Milky Ways at work in between drinkies of tea. As you do.

Milky Way Midnight Cheesecake
Not to fast-track the possibility of
diabetes or anything but omnomnom..

cr; Daydreamer Desserts

Recent additions to the shit-ton of magazine piles in my room. Something tells me I will eventually have to start wallpapering said room with magazine pages to save some damn floor space and prevent possible future death by magazine mountains.

Russh magazine Australia, August/Sept 2010 to which I look forward to vague improvements in page composition and design and yes, I'm anal about these sorts of things okay. The previous issues felt a lot like a slightly more understated version of Elle UK, but more hipster unicorns.

Pretty cover is pretty!
cr; Russh Blog @ Tumblr

THE NEW FRANKIE HAS A VISIBLY ASIAN GIRL ON THE COVER and I don't know why I'm so excited but I legitimately am. Actually, scrap that - I am so jizzed up, my pants are imploding from joy. Giving you visuals - I do it. For all I know she could be ethnically Swedish, but whatever - it feels like I'm looking at someone like me in the same vein as I watched vintage Power Rangers because the Yellow Ranger was Trini Quan and it feels gewd.

cr; Frankie

Speaking of Frankie, BENJAMIN LAW HAS momentarily ACKNOWLEDGED MY EXISTENCE. No, I'm not going to be a creepy ~~stalker~~ fan and screencap said acknowledgement, so I'll just say it was in reference to his memoir and how happy I was that my friend got it for my birthday and this was all in the same sentence as 'pooping unicorns' and 'ladypants' and 'rainbows'. Yes. BRB - fighting off the peeps at CLEO claiming his newfound cool. I saw him first! Trololololol ~

And I also bought Interview magazine, August 2010 for obvious reasons. Oh Marion, I wish it were biologically and circumstantially possible for me to have your babies, but alas you and your beautiful Guillaume Canet are destined to be.

cr; Mikael Jansson @ Interview Magazine

Other vaguely interesting shenanigans:

Seeing Broken Social Scene was sweet-as but nothing in comparison to when I saw them at St. Jerome's Laneway Festival in near-complete state with Feist a few years back - now that was a near-cathartic experience (though catharsis incomparable to when I saw Daft Punk - oh god). Spendage on gigs this year so far has been $250 instead of the previous $2500 I used to blow as a uni student/intern working 3 jobs to fund my gig habit. Yes, count those digits.

I am seeing Jossus at the Sydney Opera House with a like-minded fangirl. Joss Whedon + Jesus = Jossus. Clearly. No, I shan't bring my limited edition Angel/Spike action figure(s) and holler 'WILL YOU SIGN MY ACTION FIGURE' during question time. No.

I have finished watching the entire series of Battlestar Galactica and now I don't know what to do with myself except CRY FOREVER. I now possess the ability to conduct an entire conversation with BSG-related gifs. Yes, I am a sad panda clutching desperately at the possibility of owning a Cylon toaster. BRB, petting my box set of BSG DVDs.

It is honestly one of the best TV series I've ever watched. It's so easy to brush it off as some space geek series - which it kind of is - but where are you going to find political processes conducted in space, really hot military folk frakking around and the age-old battle of good vs. evil in its most nuanced form? And all those underlying notions of race, class, social status and swell abilities to kick sexist attitudes out the window? It's all here.

Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
My most favourite character on BSG.
Yes I know the original Starbuck was a hard-core male
but I wasn't born back then, so sit the frak down!
cr; everythingislost @ Tumblr

Now to start on Bloody Monday (again), my three Korean dramas (again) and Doctor Ten-inch + Eccleston - again. Possibly West Wing. Ooh and True Blood - I am a season and a half behind everyone else but cannot for the life of me find where my mum hid the DVDs. She has it in her head that vampires are eating her daughter's soul. Bless!

This post was brought to you by Joseph Gordon-Levitt crooning Carole King as part of his finishing move into thy pants.

cr; julesette @ YouTube

And yes - I will eventually make my damn blog posts shorter to ensure coherence, frequency and easy digestion. Eventually. Or you could stalk my Twitter.

last nite

2010-07-31T21:03:00.011+10:00

Currently being a gluttonous turd chewing through baked cheekkeen*, crispy skin pork belly and bánh hỏi in front of my computer with my window open to cold dewy air. Cold air can be dewy, yes/yes? This whole multi-tasking business of eating whilst typing is not only one of the lowest denominations of hygiene but also makes me eat slower, thus making my GLORIOUS CRISPY SKIN PORK LUKEWARM. Guh.

Here are The Strokes being amazing:

The Strokes, 4 August 2006
From the last time I saw them live four years ago.
After I took this shot, self went crowd-surfing.
As you do.

cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

I wandered out of the mosh pit about 48 hours ago, pores semi-clogged with the sweat of others, previously washed hair now grotty with perspiration and euphoria seeping through my very being. Granted, my friend and I weren't planning to hit the mosh at all, citing our growing inabilities to hide the fact that we felt like old farts demolished by the pressures of full-time work.

After sitting out the second song, The Modern Age, we inhaled our beers and threw lumbago to the wind, tackling the pit with the reverence of our youths - friend and I were avid gig pigs before we became finance and media peeps respectively. The crowd fielded us closer and closer to the stage barrier - mildly assisted by our pushing - and I could almost count the hairs on Nick Valensi's wonderful guitarist arms as he riffed out Heart In A Cage on his shiny, sexy Gibson.

Self was rendered vaguely delirious with joy thanks to Julian Casablancas and his merry band of boys - damn you all with your guitars and your drums and throaty vocals inducing cravings of child-bearing among the female sex in the crowd. Grrr.. but ooft, dudes. So good. They were so amazing and wonderful and everything in between. Self still wishes to be politely wedged in a Moretti-Valensi sandwich.

In other news: am jizzing my ladypants in sparkly anticipation for Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch:

cr; pursuitist @ YouTube

It's Abbie Cornish and Emily Browning IN THE SAME MOVIE - holy smokes, so excited. It looks to be one hot mess of CGI, martial arts and not much character honing, but who gives a crap. Girls being kicking serious ass in corsets? I approve.

Oh lookie, Starcraft 2 also came out this week - THIS GEEKASMIC IMPLOSION IS UNSTOPPABLE.

My beloved mum believes the profound lack of potential suitors
for her daughter is due to said daughter being such a geek.
My awesome dad on the other hand just guffaws.

cr; Blizzard

So female foodies: my blogger friend/colleague and all-round epitomisation of loveliness, Erica Bartle recently wrote about the food revolution permeating the Australian media. She touched on the media's inclination towards superficial valuers of femininity like fashion and beauty and appealed to female foodies like Nigella Lawson, Sophie Dahl and Gwyneth Paltrow (?!!) to take up the other end of the reins of femininity.

For the uninitiated, one need only indulge in the goodness of Helen of Grab Your Fork, Susan of Chocolate Suze, Ellie of Almost Bourdain and Linda of eat show & tell to see the female foodie revolution has been going for a good few years now.

Clockwise from top: Susan, Linda
and Helen a.k.a Ms Camera Shy ;D

cr; Chocolate Suze, Linda @ eatshow&tell
and Helen @ Grab Your Fork

While not as prolific like those privy to the media treatment, they're still pretty damn awesome in their own right. Their appreciation for food predated the bandwagon before it existed and all of a sudden it seems their secret society is slowly being unfurled to the world. Their passion for food radiates through their beautiful photography and avid blogging, meet-ups and super tight-knit community sprung from a mutual love of eating. Mmm.. eating - the most underrated activity in the world. BRB - infiltrating their circle of food enthusiasts.

Here is Marion Cotillard being ridiculously hot for Interview magazine, August 2010. One day, she and her beautiful beau, Guillaume Canet will make ridiculously hot babies and they will frolic in a field of vintage architecture and French unicorns. Frolic, I say!

Her legs, her glorious legs.
They induce flailing bouts of keysmashing.
cr; Mikael Jansson for Interview Magazine

She was such a force to be reckoned with in Inception, such depth and control and a ferocity in her portrayal of Mal. She scared me and made me feel all fuzzy inside over her and Dom's lost love. Le sigh.. everyone go see Inception. It still had me thinking about two days after I watched it and it's been a long time since a film has done that.

Brendan Cowell a.k.a resident Australian bad-ass is publishing his debut novel, How It Feels, soon. Please excuse self while brain implodes with anticipated cranial sex over Cowell prose. He is such a wonderful writer, actor and all round BAMF. I adore him.

cr; Pan Macmillan

This post was brought to you by ~~Tommy Solomon~~ Joseph Gordon-Levitt's dimples:

cr; self + Photoshop and his adorable New York Times interview

AND POP TARTS.

OH MY GOSH HE'S SO CUTE I WANT TO EAT HIM.

cr; MistyVids @ YouTube

And it's back to binging on Battlestar Galactica - I have one season to go and its epilogue mini-movie thing and then I have to finish the three Korean dramas I've started and stopped over the past six months. And Doctor Who circa Eccleston and ~~Ten-inch~~ Tennant. So much TV, so little time.

*Chicken is orated as 'CHEEKKEEN' in my aural vocabulary because it tastes better when you pronounce it so. Yes it does!

electric heart

2010-07-23T00:17:00.004+10:00

The more I consume pie from the super amazing St. Germain Patisserie in Redfern, the more likely self will turn into pie. St. Germain makes my tummy all jolly with its mind-blowing French baker and French baristas and service and macarons and glorious pastries and berry slices and oh, PIE! Wonderful, wonderful pie.

If I squint hard enough, the lovely mousse cake will look like pie.
cr; Lee Tran Lam @ Flickr

Ooh lookie - new trailer for Kimi ni Todake, the new Japanese film based on the super lovely manga series of the same name and due for release in Japan on September 25. Please excuse lead actor Miura Haruma being all dreamy as the popular boy, Shota, who falls in love with the not-so-popular girl, Sawako. Cue self audibly squealing with glee.

cr; toho @ Nippon Cinema

The future of journalism looks bleak as online journos burn out faster thanks to the media landscape hurtling towards digital news. It's not surprising that journalists are now having their worth dictated by the number of page views over journalistic merits. Skills honed from journalism school look soon to become replaced with abilities to produce content that will be reaped by the biggest audience possible. Difficult times ahead for journo graduates, my friends.

On my budding list of soon-to-be-made-purchases: Kodak Portra 400NC film thanks to the gorgeous photography of Hamada Hideaki (brought to my attention by the lovely Leah ♥):

Captured with a Pentax Asahi + Kodak Portra 400NC.
Look at the beautiful colour composition. Gorgeous.

cr; Hamada Hideaki @ Flickr

And a juicebox camera that I shall cheerfully brandish about whilst Safety-Dancing to The Strokes' Juicebox because that's how I roll. One day I'm going to move to Japan and accumulate an obscene collection of toy cameras and vintage TLRs - so much awesome in such a beautiful place, so little time. Le sighh..

Citrus-flavoured camera juice!
Drunken by a mouse thing whose partial to clovers.
Yes ;D
cr; Fuuvi @ Shop-Pro

Gaming blogger Steve Gaynor recently dissected with wonderful insight the impact of violence in games and its contribution to overall gameplay. Kotaku honed in on Gaynor's thoughts, citing the recently released Bioshock 2 and Heavy Rain as the forerunner to pushing the boundaries to creating a cinematic and ultimately emotionally-connected story around violence. Sure, there will always be kill-happy games like Left 4 Dead (zombie killers united yo) and military-driven games, but the question will eventually be raised - how far can you go?

Cinematic trailer for Heavy Rain.
I still don't have a PS3 to play this beautiful game.
BRB - sobbing.

cr; Playscope Trailers @ YouTube

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an expert on gaming, though I do did my fair bit of late nights and day-long sessions playing Diablo and Final Fantasy back in the day. I recall feeling really shitty when I ended up having to kill the victim in order to kill the villain. There was no other way around it and in that sense, violence did have a context. It wasn't emotionally detaching because I'd invested so much time into the characters of the game. And Final Fantasy! More much-loved characters being taken as host bodies for the villain and more violence to be had. So emotionally-draining.

And no, I never actually got around to finishing Diablo II despite investing in both its original and expansion pack - maybe because I was an old fart by then and couldn't be arsed going through all the quests to get to the fourth chapter. I am eternally stuck at the end of chapter two - Duriel can go suck on a fart. And no, I don't play WoW - I played it out of curiosity once but, meh.

Oh hey - stuff I finally got around to buying/receiving/lugging into the house:

Amy Pond a.k.a her super bad-ass Weeping-Angel-killing jumper.

It comes with lasers. Forrealz.
I SEE YOU TARDIS I SEE YOU ;D
cr; Faith Wood @ Livejournal

Frankie Issue 36, YEN Issue 45 and The Monthly, July 2010 because I am a slow panda. Semi-debated buying Nylon July 2010 issue but meh - I always buy it for the pictures and not so much the content. And omgosh Benjamin Law has so many articles in this issue of Frankie - I wish we could have brain sex in the least creepiest way possible. Yes. BRB, flailing in progress.

Bob Brown makes a formidable cover boy.
Laura Marling out-pretties him though. Schwing!
cr; self + Sony Cybershot circa eons ago.

Speaking of Frankie, this is my religion:

I am missing 5 issues, specifically 1,3-6.
Help a girl out, s'il vous plait?
Though preferrably not at $50 a pop.

cr; self via Sony Cybershot circa eons ago

Requisite Korean boy band: SHINee release Lucifer this week, the title track off their sophomore album of the same title. It was pretty awesome albeit mildly frightening watching everyone shitting gold bricks of delirious joy on Twitter and Livejournal over the album and music video. Folks, it's all about the hair, the wonderful, wonderful hair! They all look like they just walked out of a Final Fantasy game but who cares - I freakin' adore them. *squeeeee*

Kim "Key" Kibum's hair is awesome regardless of how much it reminds me of
Gary Oldman circa The Fifth Element. Gary Oldman is a bad-ass okay.
Also - "loverholic, robotronic" are the BEST. LYRICS. EVER.

cr; sment @ YouTube

In other news: I was annihilated by the Löwenbräu pork knuckle today. I anticipate a round two in a few weeks, possibly accompanied by pork belly and mash. Mmm.. mash.

corpus kinaesthesia

2010-07-19T00:03:00.019+10:00

Things that happen when your aunts come over the night before Monday:

Anyhoo, here is James Dean being a bad-ass dreamboat with the equally bad-ass and dreamboaty Paul Newman. Look at them emit nuclear affection for one another:

cr; peterparkerpan @ YouTube

So it's actually happening: the Asian American version of Jersey Shore, K-Town ~~is set to air its first episode within the coming weeks~~ has filmed its pilot episode has been and yet to be picked up by a network. Made of profound amounts of testosterone and Trashbags Anonymous, it feels greasier than a deep-fried Mars Bar coated in Nutella and margarine then saturated with lard (omnomnom...).

Having never actually seen the original Jersey Shore, the fact it's a visibly all-Asian cast on TV has me intrigued enough to watch the first episode. Here's to alpha males, in-your-face girls and gay porn models as lead males whose moobs make me worry for my outward femininity, i.e. I lack it. Woo!

Clearly I only chose this photo for its banquet of edible goodness.
..and cast member Jennifer Chang's awesome dye job. Oh.
Okay, I'm hungry now.

cr; K-town @ Twitter

Oh hullo - my magazines came in the mail! *squeeeee*

Marie Claire Korea, April 2010
Elle Korea, June 2010
Vogue Korea, December 2009

cr; self + Sony Cybershot circa eons ago.

And my poor mum had to lug all this into the house when it rocked up to our front door. Magazines of this thickness in this quantity are not light dudes.

That Marie Claire issue alone is 3cm thick.
Hells yeah baby - I'm so excited ;D

cr; self + Sony Cybershot circa eons ago.

Reasons why I bought these specific issues:

Vogue Korea for the mind-blowing photo shoots they did re-interpreting fairytales with various Korean celebrities:

Hans Christian Anderson's The Wild Swans
as reenacted by Seohyun from
Girls' Generation and boy band SHINee.
cr; Zo Sun Hi @ Vogue Korea

The Corpse Bride with
Kim Min Hee & Lee Hyuk Soo

cr; Zo Sun Hi @ Vogue Korea

G-Dragon being awesome
as a mystical genie fairy thing.

cr; Hong Jang Hyun @ Vogue Korea

Elle Korea + Marie Claire Korea for um, these boys - there's another set of photos floating around somewhere in an area where I'm not twiddling my thumbs over how lovely they are.

2PM FOR CALVIN KLEIN.
Boy bands for life okay ;D
Even with emoticons.
cr; Zo Sun Hi @ Marie Claire Korea

Belles Will Ring have released their new single 'Come To The Village' to coincide with the release of their sophomore LP. Having loved these guys for pretty much the last four years (to the point of tracking down lead dude Liam Judson for an interview like so), do try to excuse my giddiness radiating through your screen over this news.

They're playing at the Northcote Social Club in Melbourne this Friday 23 July with equally rad band The Laurels for their single launch - MELBOURNIANS YOU MUST GO if you like this kind of ear candy which you clearly do. Woo!

Belles Will Ring - Come To The Village
Video by Aimée-Lee X. Curran whose name sounds
super familiar but I can't remember from where.
I SEE YOU change in band line-up I SEE YOU.

cr; Aimee Lee Curran @ Architecture Lab

Digital cameras eating 1600 film developing shops over the past decade in Australia is the reason why I can no longer find good places to develop my film - this sucks whale penis. Yes I am more than aware of the irony seeing as I work in digital, but hey - I have my hobbies that I like to flit and around with okay. It took over a week for me to get my roll of Ilford 400/125 developed - I really miss my 'one hour photo' places. Looks like I'm going to have to set up shop in my parents' bathroom in the near future seeing as it's the only place in the house without a lard-sized window for the sun can creep through.

Speaking of film, this Ricoh will set me back about $300 should I purchase its wonderful coloured contours of goodness.

Ricoh Automatic Half Camera
I want a pink one. Possibly green.
BRB - salivating.
cr; mijonju @ Circle Rectangle

I really want this Sass & Bide leather jacket. After about eight weeks of stalking various stores and hacking through my indecision over which style I preferred, I've decided I want this one. Forrealz - though completely unjustified at $990 plus postage and handling. That is almost half a month's pay. FMD.

No, Sass & Bide - I am not buying you.
No, I do not have my hand on my screen. Nor am I
hallucinating the feel of leather beneath my fingers.

cr; mycatwalk

This month, I am making a date with the Lowenbrau and their glorious-sex-in-my-mouth equivalent of pork a.k.a this knuckle beast of a meat thing here. Yes/yes? Cool. Oh, and beer! Wonderful amazing beer - how I love thee.

Chocolate Suze, I hate you and your food pornographic ways
enticing poor souls like myself. BRB - licking my screen.

cr; ChocolateSuze.com

In other news: fezes are cool.

Look at Matt Smith being a dreamboat with his
dreamy bowtie and dreamy fez. BRB - flailing.
cr; pollytree @ YouTube

Yes, getting through my posts takes about the same amount of time for a Centurion turd to fossilise, but I'm sorry - there is just so much undeniable awesome crammed into my brain that I simply must share it. Schwing!

fascination street

2010-07-15T23:41:00.019+10:00

This is a camera, fashion + food porn post. This post is best enjoyed with Sugar Ray folded into choice aurals from The Cure and seasoned with f(x) to taste.

Yoghurt strawberry cupcake earrings.
Mmmm tasty goodness. Omnomnom..
Shay Aaron makes the most amazing
miniature non-edible food jewellery ;D

cr; shayaaron @ Flickr

So after having items party in my Zipia cart for half a year and flitting around the pretty clothes that I clearly do not need - northern hemisphere being neck-deep in summer and us in winter clearly makes window shopping easier - these sartorials came in the mail last week:

Have so far worn the icy blue jeans, black boots
and the grey t-shirt with the lace sleeves.
The boots are the best thing in the world. Yayer.
cr; Zipia.net

I also have this red contraption cape thing coming in the mail for me because clearly it is a flying device akin to the likes of bats and shall prove quite useful when plotting escape from Daleks. My cousin tracked it down on American Apparel and we ended up ordering one each - in the same colour. We are Whovians of the Lost Generation and are thus, almost as awesome as the Tom Baker guard. SO EXCITED *squeeeee*

Oh hullo, Amy Pond. How you doing? ;D
cr; melchiorgabor @ Tumblr

According to a recent IQ² debate, young people do not care about privacy and have little reason to protect it. Or rather, they seem to be less responsible with it. See Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, insert social-media-site-here. And discuss!

So Lady Gaga has been blamed for the sudden proliferation of circle lens among teens. Oh. That's... not really new - more the topic of circle lens than Ms Gaga in the press.

For the uninitiated, circle lens are fashion contact lens often used to make the wearer's eyes appear larger and give off this kind of 'anime' look and feel due to the black ring surrounding the actual lens. They're quite prevalent in a lot of Asian fashion circles, particularly among teenagers and are available pretty much all over Asia. Granted, they are a health risk but then again, so are high heels. Circle lens are generally considered illegal in the USA as they're not approved by their Food and Drug Association - oh.

Ayumi Hamasaki a.k.a Japan's queen of pop
wears circles lens more than quite often.

..her new album 'Rock 'n' Roll Circus' is pretty rad.

cr; muumuse.com

The New York Times also did a more comprehensive piece on the trend, which erred on the dangers of 'fashion contact lens' and contained quotes from an FDA spokeswoman who really did not seem so well-informed on the subject as one might expect. But still - quite an eyeopener (lulz - punny is me) all the same.

Givenchy FW2010-11 collection makes my eyeballs giddy. What is this and why is it so beautiful? The feathers! The intricate lace and the maroon-hued gradation and holy crap I am flailing it's so pretty! It's like a queen of some sort - queen meaning Cate Blanchett even though she wears Armani Privé all the damn time - inhaled too much happysauce and went traipsing through a jungle of fur and hair follicles (there is a hair coat - what is this!) where it rained gold flakes every third day.

So frakkin' pretty.
cr; Mariacana Boscano (VIVA) for Style.com

Can any of this be worn by a Doctor's companion? Can I put Amy Pond in this lacy dress thing and she could battle Venetian fish aliens in it? Then afterward, she could have triumphant sexytimes with the Doctor in the TARDIS because what Time Lord could resist that and why is there a crop circle on both sides of that delicious gold dress? OMG it's the Atraxi! *squeeeee*

In other news: my sister and I were binging on Battlestar Galactica the other night and can I just say - WHAT. THE. HELL. Apollo and Dualla??! I am so confused. Completely did not see that coming and all this time I was shipping the absolute frak out Apollo and Starbuck. Noooooo.. my OTP is shattered. Am sobbing. Guh. Granted, they do look rather hot together but their character dynamics just do not mesh up to Apollo and Starbuck.

K-pop makes me want to do things to my hair. Like caramelise it before dipping it in acid raspberry then wearing it to work. Yes. Entirely possible. I've never actually done anything mildly out of the ordinary with my hair in this lifetime, so I'm kind of wishing my hair was long enough to do so. Maybe if I hadn't chopped off 30cm last October I might've been able to. Boo hiss..

My mum may or may not hit the roof should
I ever come home with Victoria Song's hair.
I feel like drinking peach tea now. Hrm..
cr; Newsen + omonatheydidnt @ Livejournal

Do I need another camera? I think not. I splurged my birthday present to self on Korean magazines (still in shipping transit - emphasis on the ship in its boat-esque definition) instead of an Instax 210 like I promised.

That said, it is becoming increasingly hard to find good places that develop film these days so I'm not sure if it's all that worthy an investment if I were to buy another film camera. I entertained the idea of buying a DSLR for the longest time, but methinks my indecision is a sign that I don't need one nor would I use it as often as I might have envisioned.

My current camera collection.
L-R: Fanta camera, Yashica Mat-124, Gakkenflex, Minola 7000i
Not pictured: the seven rolls of film I still have in my fridge.
It takes me forever to use up my film because I'm so
anal as to what photos I'm taking. Blerghh.
cr; self @ Flickr

Here is my lovely photographer friend Lamah taking pictures of ridiculously good-looking people like Oliver Mac here. Boy is signed to Chadwick Models so excuse me while I implode into a giggly mess of sorts. Lamah uses a Canon 400D with pretty lens in case you were wondering.

Look at dem cheekbones! *squee*

cr; lamahkun @ Tumblr

magic girl

2010-07-06T02:16:00.027+10:00

Belated apologies for the hiatus I've been on this past month or so. A combination of motivational lethargy, the World Cup/Wimbledon/work stuffing up my sleeping patterns and my tendency to sit online absorbing bits of not-so-important things has kind of rendered me dropped off the face of the Earth and killed any creative urge to blog.

I'm not the kind of person who blogs for the sake of blogging as I believe there's no point in writing something I only half-heartedly believe in. Having said that, I have been on Twitter and reblogging the absolute crap out of pretty things I discover on Tumblr - am quite sure I'll have spent about 12 percent of my life click 'Next page' on my Tumblr dashboard.

cr; artpixie @ Tumblr

Suffice to say, not much has changed - I've had moments of panic and thought multiple times about skipping town altogether to some other country for a year or take a train through all the countries of Europe and all that hoo-ha. Just throw myself completely out of my comfort zone to the point where I'm drowning only to emerge, reborn into a shinier version of myself.

HOLY SMOKES, it's the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond.

This is how I intend to get through my week.
It is completely normal that I dance along
at my desk to this while watching.

cr; peepscarf @ YouTube

I would like to take this moment to establish how much of an implosive Doctor Who fanatic I've become over the past month or so. I started bits of the David Tennant era - my cousin and workmate partly to blame due to their mutual desires to sit on his lap - and didn't even finish that before graduating to the Eleventh Doctor. I would really like to ruffle David Tennant's hair - and Matt Smith's hair. Hrm, am yet to decide which hair is more lovely in running my fingers through.

Look at this pretentious hipster with his pretentious hair.
Matt Smith has such lovely hair. *squee*

cr; amy-pond @ Tumblr

So - we have a new Prime Minister. I admit, I was pretty teary during Rudd's departing speech. He was immensely popular and to be thrown out by faction leaders has me thinking something else altogether. That said, I hold no ill will towards Julia Gillard because I've been intrigued with her since she first came to fruition into the Labor Party years ago.

First female PM. Aussie glossies have field day.
Plus one for feminism..? Oh hey, Lara Bingle on the side.

cr; crikey.com.au

First point of business: asylum seekers and boat people. Julia Gillard is set to harden the Labor Party line on asylum seekers with tougher migration deterrents, which include sending many Afghan and Sri Lankan refugees 'back to where they came from' - to use an oft-heard phrase from many a migrant childhood (disclaimer: am second generation Vietnamese refugee).

While I do understand where Gillard is coming from, I don't see this helping to change those attitudes conjured and conditioned by much of Australian voters and media towards the terms 'refugee', 'asylum seekers' and 'boat people' - all terms of which are not mutually exclusive to the general Australian psyche though they should be. Thanks to 13 years of Howard governance (see Pacific Solution), this 'fear' of boat people has only continued to fester away despite new leadership these past few years - never mind that said boat people only made up 4% of immigration arrivals last year with Australia last year receiving 0.6% of the world's refugees. The fact that these refugees are becoming more and more a political issue over a humanitarian one speaks for itself.

But I shan't press my views upon you. Consider these articles on the topic and make of it what you will:

Boat arrivals are a drop in the ocean - Rachel Ball (The Age)
Asylum seekers and refugees: what are the facts? - Janet Phillips (Social Policy Section)
Australian Immigration Fact Sheet: Key facts in immigration
UNHCR's 2009 Global Trends report
At-a-glance: who takes the most refugees (SBS News)

Cripes, serious bloggisms are mildly difficult to write while listening to Orange Caramel's 'Magic Girl'.

In other news: I've become a Masterchef tragic. Seriously, it wasn't like this before. I only started watching during the final five last year, then this year I started watching from the final 24 and holy smokes - where has my life gone? Oh that's right, Doctor Who, the World Cup and Wimbledon.

A couple of updates on Avatar: The Last Airbender:

The Boston Globe has drawn further criticism to M. Night Shyamalan's cinematic implosion in its opening week citing many critics panning the film and underscoring the racial debate that has plagued it from its inception.
Writer Q. Le dissects with brutal precision on exactly why the film is such a backward step in its contribution to popular culture. I loved this piece. It came up on my Twitter feed after being cited by the great Roger Ebert himself.

Requisite reverb: I started watching the first season of the Power Rangers. I found this awesome guy on YouTube who has uploaded every single episode of the Power Rangers from season one through to season six. Cue the profound flashback when I started hearing the morphing music and see these opening credits:

The original Power Rangers I grew up with.
I stopped watching after Season 3 when Billy left.
No guesses who my favourite rangers were: Trini + Billy ♥

cr; wyntermynt @ Tumblr

And requisite Korean boy band - or rather, member. This is Big Bang member, Taeyang's new single for his first solo album 'Solar'. It features his fellow bandmate G-Dragon on rap support - their band is part of the line-up for Summer Sonic festival this year. Yes, I don't understand how that works either. Sure, they're active in Japan but um - Big Bang next to Pavement, Richard Ashcroft, Orbital and the Pixies? My brain cannot compute this.

This is a really lovely song ~
Lyrics translations here.
cr; solomanhwang @ YouTube

Eep, less than three weeks til I see The Strokes and Broken Social Scene. YAYYYYYYYY ~ still deciding over whether to see Two Door Cinema Club. Decisions, decisions.

And just because I can, here's a lovely photo of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.

Why are you guys made of so much awesome.

cr; hearmysoul @ Tumblr

she left on a monday

2010-06-07T23:41:00.011+10:00

It's become mildly apparent that my penchant for substance abuse knows no bounds:

RUSSH June/July 2010
Elle US May 2010
Elle US June 2010
Elle Korea June 2010
Vanity Fair May 2010
Vanity Fair June 2010
Nylon May 2010
Nylon June 2010
marie claire Korea April 2010
Vogue Korea December 2009

I like accumulating print bits chronicling social history, okay? Obviously the Korean magazines are not pictured seeing as they are on a boat floating around in some shipping ether or something. I should receive them within 8 weeks because I was a cheapskate and didn't want to pay $60 to ship three magazines by air.

Anyhoo - this covers my May budget for magazines. Possibly June and July too. Jeez Louise... And yes I'm quite aware that my Sony Cybershot is shit for picture quality, but I can't be arsed forking out monies for a DSLR that I probably won't use as frequently as some would think.

Media-related stuff that happened over the past week - please excuse the inherent rambling throughout:

Evangelical Apple fanboys cream themselves over the iPad launch. Yeah, okay. It's a gorgeous device, but meh. I'm clearly on my way to be the only Australian to not own anything branded by fruit. Mmm.. apples - I'm partial to the Fuji kind myself.

Sex and The City 2 hits cinemas exclamation mark! I've never actually seen an episode of Sex and the City and am yet to decide if this is considered sacrilege due to my career path (apparently all people who work in magazines worship Carrie Bradshaw - that sound you hear are my eyeballs rolling). Speaking of, some commentators have branded its portrayal of Middle Eastern culture as 'exotic' and 'orientalist' and borderline racist - judging by its reception so far, Edward Said must be rolling his grave.

I'm on a ~~horse~~ - I mean, camel.

cr; zap2it.com

Has the term 'racism' become too trigger-happy when it comes to film? Maybe and it's true, no one should be taking film entertainment as the golden lesson in racial politics but in saying that, 'burqas and Birkins' is more than just a snappy headline and ultimately says something in itself. Frankly, the myopic world of SATC just doesn't appeal to me, that's all. I'm not privy to the bourgeois lifestyle nor the brand of feminism afforded by Carrie and her folks - I just can't relate to it.

More racial politics in media courtesy of Hollywood and its acute brand of ethnic representation. The release of the Prince of Persia and soon-to-be released Avatar: The Last Airbender (not James Cameron's Smurf-esque rendition) have drawn criticisms on its partiality to 'racebending' from the gaming and TV works from which they were based and cripes, that was profoundly bad syntax on my part.

Here is Jake Gyllenhaal on a horse.
Not pictured: granite pectorals.

cr; Truth on Cinema

The issue is the ethnicity of a character being a central plot driver. I have few qualms about Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia as the character is more or less a white dude and his ethnicity was not explicitly stated throughout the game itself. I guess the question is: how influential is media play in cultivating racial attitudes? Is all this attention on racism in film and entertainment detracting from the real problems that everyday 'people of colour' (to use an American term) face? Should Hollywood really be used as an education tool on racial commentary? Or are they perfectly privy to exercise 'racebending' to their advantage?

There was a boycott over Airbender way before the film began production, mostly due to their decision to explicitly cast Caucasian actors. Like most commentators, I completely agree that this insults the world's ability to enjoy films - producers thinking that the only way they can make money is by pitching a white actor is backward thinking to say the least. It's also a worrisome thought when the only roles seemingly available for ethnic actors are secondary characters - work will dry up real fast. And don't get me started on how a white dude ended up with the name 'Goku' (see Dragonball Z: Evolution).

Separate 'race' and 'ethnicity' for one moment - society conditions us to think and absorb attitudes at certain way. Political-correctness gone too far? Or is it just more convenient to accept that Hollywood = money and thus there is no room for change and diversity? In any case, it does feel like the visibility of ethnicities in everyday American/Western nations and their everyday interactions do not seem to translate on film. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out once both films are released.

A comparison of Avatar: The Last Airbender's
original cartoons with their cinematic counterparts.
cr; racebending.com

Viewers still Lost after season finale. Yeah I gave up watching halfway throught he second season. The whole thing is a mindfuck that requires considerably more thinkage than my full-time-work-ladened brain is ready to inhale. I have the first season on DVD which I may or may not get around to digesting a second time.

Hyun Bin makes eyeballs giddy for High Cut magazine. Yes, that's all I needed to say about this. BRB - flailing. Boy is breathtakingly lovely, okay. He and his girlfriend Song Hye Gyo are going to make ridiculously hot babies one day. Yes/yes?

cr; High Cut magazine

Everyone should listen to Klaxons' new song 'Flashover'. I remember seeing these guys twice in the space of 24-hours during my gig habit a few years back (wow - old fart mentality so shiny). Zomg there's four members now instead of three! When did this happen?

And to finish off - Battlestar Galactica. Yesssss - insert blatant excuse to display the loveliness that is Jamie "Apollo" Bamber and his female counterpart Katee Sackhoff (who plays the ridiculously amazing Kara "Starbuck" Thrace).

It is ridiculous how lovely they are together.
cr; kristylinn @ Tumblr

No, I do not have my hand on my monitor attempting to touch his wonderful dimples nor are my brains worshipping the awesome that is Starbuck. My sister and I are about two and half seasons into the new rendition of the vintage series. We will somehow manage to balance this out with the FIFA World Cup once it starts along with Wimbledon. JUST WATCH US.

minefield of crippled affection

2010-05-21T23:08:00.002+10:00

Let's take a moment to worship the goddess that is Cate Blanchett.

W magazine, June 2010
Seriously, just kill me. Why is she so amazing?
(oh hey, Dev Patel - woo!)

cr; Craig McDean for W magazine
via Just Jared

In other magland news: UK lifestyle magazine, Healthy, has come under fire for airbrushing their cover model - by fattening her up. Media shenanigans you'll find these days tend to veer towards magazines purporting unrealistic expectations of body image - that being slim models Photoshopped to an idealised perception of what is considered 'perfect'. Which is nothing new until a mag editor tries to make a model look healthy by resorting to digital means. Cue the public crying 'WHY DIDN'T THEY PICK A REAL PERSON THEN, HUH??' If they did, the magazine wouldn't sell - and who's to say the model isn't a real person to begin with?

Magazines are an image-driven industry and might I add, aspirational, depending on how you interpret it. If anything, I would hope these mags - particularly a health-driven one at that - would take selecting a healthier-looking model into consideration and that readers of such mags are educated enough to take into account the power of technology to alter images in this day and age. It's not a case of 'just because it's there, doesn't mean we have to use it' - it's there. It was created for a reason. That said, maybe we're so accustomed to seeing models (and editors are so accustomed to choosing similar models), that it's a cycle difficult to break out of.

Refinery 29 calls out Interview magazine over their latest photo shoot starring Daria Werbowy as racism in fashion editorial takes another turn.

cr; Interview magazine via Refinery 29

The Refinery article was posted on the Huffington Post and resulted in over 800 comments debating the level of racism inferred by this photo shoot. I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand, it's a gorgeously executed example of an artistic concept. On the other, it's implied that model Daria was deliberately placed as the centre of attention with the 'other' models acting as a mere props and almost faded in the background to complement her and not much else.

Having said that, it's very easy to take this on face value and cry 'racism'. As much as the racial intent mightn't have been there - and I don't believe the fashion folk at Interview magazine intentionally set out to make a political statement - the fact that there is an uncomfortable message coming across with this photo shoot says enough. Is this a by-product on the way society has been conditioned to perceive race? Intriguing times, folks.

So apparently this used to be a fishing cottage. Yeah, that's all I want to say on that - pretty interiors get me excited.

Homgosh why so pretty.

cr; Randy Harris @ New York Times

So I'm somewhat looking to eat through my magazine budget for June with the following mags:

Sweet magazine, May 2010

On par with Vivi magazine + aimed at 18-20-somethings.

cr; Sweet @ Takarashimasha Inc.

Vogue Korea, June 2010

Starring model Anja Rubik.
Full awesome photo shoot here.

cr; Nagi Sakai @ designscene

Main reason why I want Vogue Korea next month is because of this lovely photo shoot and interview featuring TOP a.k.a Choi Seunghyun from Korean boy band Big Bang. He comes out so lovely on camera.

GUH, I can't find the
photographer for this shoot.

cr; Vogue Korea

Heart-shaped ears this week is courtesy of Japanese-Korean singer ICONIQ. I have her album in my shopping cart for my next CD batch - along with Epik High's entire back catalogue. My poor monies.

She looks so HOT bald. Ooft.

cr; FashionLover2121 @ YouTube

the sweetest kill

2010-05-18T23:32:00.014+10:00

Consider this the main reason for my profound lack of bloggisms over the past fortnight:

Thank you self for eating a hole in my magazine
budget this month. Methinks magazines should
be juiced into some kind of IV drip

for yours truly at this rate.

I want a new phone. Even though my Nokia E71 works perfectly fine with its epic keyboard and ability to masquerade as a BlackBerry (front) / iPhone (back). Maybe it's because of all that product placement in the Asian dramas I've been binging on, but I'm kind of inching towards a Samsung Corby (cheap) - possibly a Softbank or Docomo (not so cheap).

Do you see this acidic colour trip? Are your retinas burning?
Actually, the 2PM endorsement is merely making
my eyeballs tingle with fangirly joy. Just sayin'...

cr; impulsivesocialite @ Wordpress

So, data-mining looks to be the new curveball in online privacy (yes, I know the term 'online privacy' is mildly contradictory). If you need another reason to freak out over all the stuff about you crawling around online, this is it. Internet privacy experts say that lenders, employers and landlords are using the internet to dig up personal shenanigans on potential employees - something difficult to avoid with a generation growing up with the internet and permeation of social media.

In some ways, I put it down to a generational gap, but at the same time, does it not make perfect common sense that once you post something online, you have absolutely no control over how it manifests? All it takes is one 'connection' or non-trustworthy friend to bleed your apparently 'private' photos and information into the public arena. That, or a lack of comprehension when it comes to Facebook privacy settings (see Stephanie Rice and Eamon Sullivan circa March 2008).

I have to say, I still kind of ship these two.
Ridiculous levels of photogenic DNA - seriously, what is this.

cr; b105.com.au

As someone who has pretty much grown up with the internet, I do spend a fair bit of my time gleaning through everything I post online to make sure it won't bite me (too hard) in arse some time in the future. If you participate on the internet, it's common sense that you learn to take responsibility for how you're portrayed online - even if it's photos your friends are taking and posting of you. You might come off as an anal-retentive killjoy but fact is, you will be held accountable for your online persona in one way or another.

As much as I hurl turdbombs over Facebook, frankly I can't imagine how I'd keep up with friends without it. Ben Parr wrote a rather thought-provoking post on the trend of pouring haterade on Facebook. The fact is, anonymity is so much harder to keep online than it used to be and the move towards a network of information is only going to grow (keyword folks: network).

cr; ck/ck @ Tumblr

Gamers rejoice! Starcraft II is slated for release on July 27. HOMG, BRB - scheduling implosive glee on my calendar alarm. About freakin' time.

Even better news: Daria is available on DVD from May 11. One of my role models growing up was most definitely the girl with the combat boots and dry audibles to match. I consumed the series at 5.30PM on ABC Kids every weekday, worshipping her brand of sarcasm and making googly eyes at Trent Lane by proxy (okay, I know - he's animated, I get it).

Hey there - how YOU doin'?
Lulz, I still remember the dialogue in this scene
where Trent takes Daria to pierce her bellybutton.
cr; bahhston @ Tumblr

I kind of resented her towards the end though. What woman in her right mind would steal her best friend's ex - THIS IS NOT THE DARIA I KNEW OKAY. Tom Sloane was a douchey frat boy masquerading as a mildly indie kid anyway - Pretty In Pink comparisons are irrelevant. Grrr..

So I kind of creamed myself with nerdish glee over Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. Better late to the round-up then never methinks - plus all the fashion blogs and magazine folk worked their butts off to bring the masses coverage (a colleague of mine was getting by on three hours sleep a night that week - that is fashion dedication right there, folks).

Highlights for me included:

Dion Lee
Gorgeous pleated details underscored by his perfect brand of minimalism and clean hemlines. That balance of soft, structured mini-dressing brings a feminine kind of elegance that's difficult to find these days.

cr; Lucas Dawson via Vogue Australia

Romance Was Born
Indescribable. Glorious does not even begin to cover the extravagance bestowed at Sydney Uni that week. Neo-gothic, alien terrain provided the backdrop to what can easily be deemed a mind-blowing show. The photos speak for themselves. I particularly liked the gold painted on the model's heads bringing an element of fantasy to design - something I find is missing from fashion couture these days.

cr; Lucas Dawson via Vogue Australia

And the other bits of RAFW cool that I don't even want to go near trying to emulate. Excuse me while I admire the fashion loveliness from my LAN party bubble.

Christopher Esber
cr; Lucas Dawson via Vogue Australia

Clockwise from top left: Karla Spetic, Bassike, Arnsdorf (taking a leaf from
Alexander McQueen circa SS09-10), Ginger & Smart, Ellery,
and Karla Spetic again. Can you gauge my sartorial inclinations? Lulz.
cr; Lucas Dawson via Vogue Australia

Speaking of fashion, French fashion blogger and significant other of The Sartorialist's Scott Schuman, Garance Doré was one of the guests of honour during RAFW as she promoted her illustrations exhibition at Westfield Bondi Junction. While she was here, she photographed RUSSH editor, Stevie Dance.

I would just like to take this moment to say that

I find Stevie Dance to be insanely beautiful.
She also dates Tim Hooey from Cut Copy.
Cut Copy! I love you. That is all.

cr; Garance Doré

Korean girl band f(x) released their first mini-album titled NU ABO (meaning 'new blood', i.e. blood type A, B and O) last week. Never mind that two of them recently turned 16, this has been my jam for the past couple of weeks. I have half a mind to dip my hair in acid orange like the chick in this music video. IT LOOKS SO COOL!! And she's so preeeee-tty - and the same age as me. Excuse me while I contemplate my life achievements so far. Bah!

cr; sment @ YouTube

Oh hey, it's another Korean boy band. MBLAQ release the music video to their second single 'Y' today. Psycho jilted lovers punching each other out with manly flair and all suited up for the occasion? I approve. Though I approve even more of the glow-in-the-dark Power Ranger outfits that so clearly match the gratuitous shower cuts. Oh K-pop - don't ever stop bringing the funnies.

Okay, this song has been on repeat since it was released.
Guilty pleasure? What does that even mean?
cr; absolutemblaqchannel @ YouTube

Apologies for profound lack of food porn this post folks - I'll make it up to you. I am also a very poor panda courtesy of Splendour sideshow spending (YUSSSSS am going to Broken Social Scene - anyone wish to come with me for Foals? Yes/yes?).

Recent credit card molestation is also due to copious amounts of eating this past week. French + Korean + Vietnamese cuisine - I cannot resist you! Actually, I can't resist any cuisine come to think of it. My cousin recently told me that when she thinks of me, she thinks of food. Clearly, shaking my fist at the folks on Masterchef every night is not helping.

perfect star, perfect style

2010-05-03T08:03:00.016+10:00

My nasal passage and throat no longer exist thanks to the cold I've had the past week. Normally, I'd have suckered it to an early death but alas - this is what happens when you don't get the flu vaccine.

Guess what I bought last weekend: all 26 DVDs of mind-blowing goodness that is Battlestar Galactica all in a lovely box set of packaged awesome. HOO BABY, I'm so excited about my evening dosage of Masterchef and BSG and Doctor Who - the DVDs of which I'll eventually swipe off my David-Tennant-addicted cousin. She and I and my work buddy have our David Tennant fanspasms interlinked somehow and missed the Dalek at Kinokuniya on Free Comic Book Day on Saturday (nooooooooo... we are very sad albeit awesome pandas).

Communal fangirling: I do it.

Food for thought as follows:

Vogue US internship is currently auctioning for US$23,000. Excuse me, what?! Okay, I have not seen The September Issue a.k.a. the documentary about the formidable albeit 'BRB-shitting-my-pants-at-the-mere-mention-of-her-presence' editor of Vogue US, Anna Wintour. The only reason I watched The Devil Wears Prada is because I worship Meryl Streep - and because the wonderful Erica Bartle sent it to me as a surprise Christmas present back when I was lamenting about my lack of 'career' job (thank you ♥).

But seriously, 'Just Being Near [Anna Wintour] Will Make You Chic?' OOH-KAY THEN. While I do find her a fascinating character and admire her hard-working ethic, I don't exactly possess a burning desire to seize on everything in relation to her (and other mag types) like it appears to be with most magazine aspirants, let alone pay $23,000 to feel mildly stylish in her presence.

Yeah okay, I have this whole outfit. Minus the
t-shirt plastered with Anna Wintour's face.
I think I want to buy it. Hrm..
cr; Zipia.net

Are internships a modern form of slavery? The folks at Pedestrian.TV dissect the creative industry rite of passage that is the internship (which it bloody well is!). The comments are very interesting to read and I completely agree with the sentiments that 'if you don't want to do an unpaid internship, then don't.'

Rosemount Australian Fashion Week starts today. After last year's stunning collections by Dion Lee and Romance Was Born, it's going to be interesting to see who will render a fashionista's mind blown this week. I've been seeing the #RAFW tag floating around my Twitter dashboard for the past 10 days or so and admittedly, I am pretty excited to see what Australian's designer talents have to offer - fingers crossed for no more shadows of Balmain and other international fashion collections.

Karla Spetic's AW10 collection.
cr; karlaspetic.com

Collections I'm looking forward to seeing:

Arnsdorf - light non-in-your-face prints, pastel-hued where necessary
Bassike - super soft basics and clean lines and my favourite shade of grey. Hells yeah.
Karla Spetic - pretty, draped goodness in simple silhouettes.
Ellery - interjecting 80s-influence via splashes of gold and silver and peaked shoulders and not all at the same time. From the former editor of RUSSH magazine. Hooray!
Friedrich Gray - simple pants + tanks combo, sometimes the odd chunky cardie a.k.a. pretty much my uniform everyday of the week.
Dion Lee - anguled shapes in neutrals and brights structured to perfection.

Combined, these elements make me look like a fashion enthusiast in mind, body and sartorial soul. In reality, all I really do is lurk religiously on 31857 fashion blogs most nights and roll out of bed and on the train to work in a t-shirt and skinnies. Le sigh.

Speaking of fashion week, the rise in bloggers appear to be keying their words our way as well with 20 bloggers accredited for RAFW. Susie Bubble is in town for RAFW (last year, it was the ephemeral Bryan Boy), while veteran fashion blogger Patty Huntington and the folks at Australian In Front with their 4-blogger team have their fingers poised at the ready for today's opening show. Intriguing times, folks.

I find Susie Bubble quite the character. And I like her shoes.
Not so sure about the acid pink onesie though.

cr; StyleBubble.co.uk

My favourite food blogger Helen of Grab Your Fork is now food columnist for Time Out Sydney. Two words: HELLS YEAH. Who says blogging can't get you a paid writing gig? Aspiring journos and writers take note! Hone your craft and you will get there (ChocolateSuze - you're next!). Helen, I'm so bloody proud, I want to buy you a mountain of congratulatory ice cream. Yes/yes?

Prawn mince on a sugar cane stick a.k.a
chạo tôm courtesy of Tuong Lai, Cabramatta
Why do I find this so normal?
No, I am not licking my screen.
cr; Helen @ Grab Your Fork

For dream fighters - check out Realise Your Dream a.k.a. the British Council's annual award to creative types looking to further their careers. The prize is a trip to the UK, $8000 spending money and you get the chance to bump pretties and share ideas with some of the UK's top creative gurus in their field. You have to be 21 and over to enter though - I remember when this first came out, I sent them an email asking if there was a chance a then-17-year-old me could enter and they wrote back with some really encouraging words to keep working at my dream and enter the moment I turned 21. Insert super warm fuzzies here.

More than 89,000 Aussies have signed a petition in support of R18+ games classification. The last record number of signatures was set by the petition against Work Choices - um, priorities people? I wonder what would happen if they opened up an panel gauging support for the internet filter. Speaking of, this video of support for the filter is definitely worth a squiz.

Stuff you should listen to - Perfume's Perfect Star, Perfect Style. Oh yeah, and this:

One Way - Geek In The Pink (cover)

I think I have a crush on the dude in the hoodie.

Dammit, me and my penchant for rappers.

cr; onewayonesound @ YouTube

By the way kids, I'm running out of stuff to listen to. Rare times for me, so suggestions, s'il vous plait?

dream fighter: working in magazines

2010-04-30T23:42:00.031+10:00

I read somewhere that you were in the magazine industry (I think on your blog). I'm really interested in being in the magazine industry, and I was just wondering what you do and how you got there? Thank you :]

Anonymous sent this message on my Tumblr. I'm so sorry I didn't get around to it, seeing as you probably sent this question to me a bajillion months ago. I am a bad Tumblrite - apologies! It's a good question.

The magazine industry in Australia is microscopic and circumnavigates between two, at times, three major magazine publishers. The number of internships I churned through to not just get my 'foot in the door' but nail them past the proverbial doorstep often felt like it outweighed the prize. I got into the industry thanks to a helluva lot of hard work and one lucky interview. Now I work as a digital producer - or online editor as most people would understand it as - at one of Australia's top magazine publishers, which allows me to do things I didn't realise were possible with magazines. New medium = hello, new mind-blowing potential for awesome.

I've wanted to work in magazines since I was 13, religiously buying Dolly, Girlfriend, Big Hit and Chik magazine for five or so years to byline-stalk names in the masthead every month (something I still do to this day, just quietly). I revelled in a genuine love for all the work put into creating a beautiful piece of social history every month and decided very early on that I was going to pursue journalism. Mostly because I adored magazines and do so in an attempt to kill my perennial stutter which left me reserved for most of high school and resorting to write to get my voice heard. I pretty much went for it with a one-track mind, much to the chagrin of my parents.

Sarah Michelle Gellar + Britney are still HBICs in my books.
Back in the day, these 'celebrity' covers only ran maybe
once every few issues because cover models were cheaper.
Teen mags were also only $3.90 once upon a time.
Now they're $6.95 - whut??

cr; the interwebz

As you probably know, Asian parents do not take lightly to any profession associated with the creative arts. The first thing to come out of my mum's mouth when I told her about my career plans was, 'What? You want to do journalism? But there's no money in journalism - there are no Asians in journalism!' In any case, choosing journalism while 70% of your grade went on to study commerce, law and pharmacy, felt like familial/cultural suicide and certainly didn't feel like the smartest thing to do. When all my friends went on to do work placement for subject credit and secured jobs before their degrees even finished, I was juggling weekly internships at various media outlets along with that requisite job in retail.

During my four years at university, I interned at pretty much every media outlet you could think of and worked for my university magazine when I could (writing some truly great and at times, breathtakingly bad pieces. I don't know what possessed me to churn out some of that stuff - fo' shame). At the slightest whiff of work in journalism, I was there faster than a WoW gamer to a LAN connection. My 'CV' stretched to four pages by the beginning of third year thanks to my penchant for internships, half of which I went out of my way to organise independently. Namely:

MANIA, 4 months - kids' magazine, editorial intern, I has byline.
Girlfriend, 4 months - teen mag, online editorial, I has byline and learn to worship Photoshop + HTML skills
Sydney Morning Herald, 1 month - Grassroots project with my university during the NSW State Election 2007, I interview Joe Tripodi - yes, that Joe Tripodi.
Rolling Stone, 1 month - sharpened my writing chops in reviewing.
Faster Louder, 3 months - I go to gigs, I review them, I has byline.
Grazia, 6 weeks - fashion intern, I develop fear and fierce admiration for fashion editors.
Vibewire, 3 months - music editor, I has byline.
2SER Radio, 1 year - Tropfest red carpet, I interview Andrew Denton, David Wenham and a bunch of amazing people in the Sydney community who clearly do not get enough love from mainstream folk.
My local newspaper, 1 month - I has byline.

Let's just say it was very hard for my parents to watch their daughter run around working unpaid for four years while studying for a Bachelors (and eventually Masters degree), that to them, was supposed to have her qualified for a respectably paid job. At one point I was juggling three jobs and interning with my Master's thesis, then commuting the one hour trip home to haunt the job-seeking sites and the magazine 'careers' section and applying for anything I felt I could mildly pull off. So desperate I was to find a job in magazines that I could hardly say no to anything that offered even the slightest inclination to a toe in the door.

Sometimes I look back at all those months and wonder what on earth possessed me to do it for so long. I doubt anyone in their right mind would do what I did for the amount of time that I did it for. I don't recommend anyone aspiring to get into the magazine industry to take my exact route because a lot of time you need to be there at the right time, say the right thing and know the right people. It's 90% luck and 10% work. Then once you're in, expect long hours where you'll likely earn considerably less than your finance-inclined peers.

You need to ask yourself how much do you want it and how hard are you willing to work to get it. It's definitely not for everyone despite the illustrious prepositions (thank you mainstream media, Carrie Bradshaw, plethora of reality TV shows like The City and The Hills, peeps like Lauren Conrad and Peaches and Lois Lane. Actually, scrap that last one - Lois Lane is awesome). Fact is, anything to do with the creative industry will come with a platter of unpaid work before you get that full-time job. Not all internships will be amazing, but the wealth of knowledge and awareness it will provide you definitely will be.

I am eternally grateful for all the experiences and contacts I gained from those internships because frankly, they all helped me get to where I am right now. I knew what I wanted and I would do almost whatever it took to get there. I'm a firm believer in the fact that if you want something bad enough, you will do all you humanly can to get it - and be good at it.

I hope that answers your question Anon ^^; If you're looking to get into the magazine industry, start by writing as much as you can and learning as much as you can about the industry. And of course, work experience. Schwing!

...by the way, my stutter is pretty much gone now. See what happens when you hit it where it hurts? Woo!

Magazine addiction still going strong.

Not pictured: the additional 2-3 piles under my bed
along with the 50-odd Dolly magazines my mum made me
throw out when we moved into our house *sobsob*

And I'm still binging on Perfume. I think I need to get their music juiced into an arm drip at the rate I'm going. It's almost as bad as my addiction to Broken Social Scene (THEY HAVE A NEW ALBUM OMG *FANSPASMING EVERYWHERE*).

electro world

2010-04-23T20:34:00.009+10:00

A couple of things eating my brainspace:

My internet is capped. Again. This is mildly devastating at relative intervals. Nothing is loading with the hourly dose of inspiration that is my Tumblr dashboard being the most important non-loading thing. This means I've taken up platform abuse via Twitter. Le sigh.
On the topic of inspiration, I haven’t touched Photoshop in a fair while. I started colouring a desaturated version of Tim Burton's Red Queen, but underestimated the number of bits that need to be coloured on that thing - good grief. Still, I've started using my Bamboo tablet again which is a plus.
The profound lack of travelling I've done in this lifetime to date. I've been talking about travelling since my first year at uni. 'tis a cop-out to say that work gets in the way and that timings aren't right and the like, but if I'm not going to do it now then chances are, I possibly never will. I really don't want it to get to that.
All VIP tickets to the Wonder Girls' 20-date tour around the USA are sold out. Am rather distressed due to the fact that 2PM are supporting them on half of those dates with the VIP ticket including a one-hour meet-and-greet with BOTH groups before the show. Dudes prancing around in wife-beaters to choreographed dance routines and a possible collaboration performance with the Wonder Girls? Why am I not privy?!! (no, I am not a K-pop tragic).

Wonder Girls' first US single. The dude on the dunny in the beginning

is both their and 2PM's manager, Park Jin Young. BRB - guffawing.

cr; Wonder Girls @ YouTube

Supremely out-dated news as follows (because I am a sporadic blogger who needs to spend less time being a workaholic and more time blogging. Hey, at least they're all lovingly compiled in categorical dot-points for easy digestion):

On the topic of interwebs:

Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy on net filters. The internet is not a special platform, says he. The sheer intensity of user-generated media and social-networking across this medium is clearly nothing new. Clearly.
Privacy battle for Google and Facebook. Regulators in Europe are investigating whether being tagged on social-networking sites (even if you don't have an account on said site) is in breach of privacy laws. Hrm, looks like I need to purge peeps I never talk to off my friend list again.
Google pushes for amended electronic privacy laws. Internet giants, Microsoft and Google join the Digital Due process coalition to push for changes to federal privacy laws. Not included: Microsoft and Google's proposed amendments to their own company privacy policies. OIC.
Google China gives the Chinese government the finger, but analysts say that it could hurt their reputation despite the push for free speech in the government-controlled nation. Pulling out of the Chinese market means Google stands to lose 338 million users. Another interesting point:

"The fact that you become a large company doesn't mean that you have to impose your own principles onto other people, especially onto a group of consumers that have quite different cultures and values and beliefs."

Mona Chung, Deakin University lecturer
and expert on Chinese business
cr; ABC News

I'm all for understanding cultural norms, but I'm confident that most Chinese internet users are smart enough to understand the liberty of free speech and what it entails.

In the realm of nerdisms:

Cosplay vs. geek fashion. Um, no. Cosplaying is not a mere skip away from 'geek-inspired' fashion. There is nothing mildly fashionable about brandishing an aluminum foil sword in the supermarket or adorning a Stormtrooper helmet.

I love that this sub-culture is becoming more and more recognised, but to state it as relative to fashion? No. I'm sorry, but cosplaying is in its own class in the same way Lady Gaga commands her own class (though cosplayers at times do it with slightly less, uh, class). This scene really hones your competitive chops and intake of crazysauce, but I kind of like it. See also, my and gaming journo buddy Tracey Lien's digestion of cosplaying at Animania 2008.

Zombie cosplayers at Supanova, Sydney 2009.
They do it right.
cr; alicebluebonnet @ Flickr

Short commute time = happy days. This clearly means I need to move out of home and save on the one hour commute to work. Blah.

How to install a flash on your Gakkenflex. So I kind of play stalkerazzi with Mijonju a.k.a. the dude who mailed me my wonderful Gakkenflex because he has the most profound camera collection and takes gorgeous photos. His mate found a way to attach a flash onto his Gakkenflex model - so exciting. No, I still haven't used up my roll of film on my Gakkenflex because I am anal with film photography okay?

Yeah, I'm still looking for a camera strap for my baby.
cr; mijonju @ Flickr

What does your avatar say about you? Very interesting article about photographer Robbie Cooper's project into discovering the people behind their WoW (World of Warcraft) avatars. His book, Alter Ego, chronicling his subjects is now available.

Japanese teenagers are driving cellphone culture. Liza Mundy's article on the tech habits of Japanese teens is a fascinating read. Japanese teenagers are pretty much on their phones 24/7 with 20% of Japanese school girls toting around two mobile phones - one for texting and calling with friends, the other for surfing the internet, compile their timetable and pretty much everything a Crackberry/iPhone would do. And there's even a new language in this whole upsurge of mobile communication - gyaru-moji a.k.a. 'girl's alphabet', which is pretty much SMS language but so much more complicated. I don't know about you guys, but I have a hard enough time having one phone let alone two.

Other stuff I've become obsessed with:

Japanese girl group, Perfume (パフューム). I blame my friend Lamah for loving and getting me intrigued and now I can't stop listening to them. I've pretty much churned up well over 200 plays in the space of four days. They're like the girly version of Daft Punk circa Discovery, which I think is why I adore them so. Their new double-single, 「Fushizen na Girl/Natural ni Koi Shite」 came out a bit over a week ago.

Their second single, Fushizen na Girl, off their newest release.

Love them, love them, love them.

*flails around*

cr; TOKUMAJAPAN @ YouTube

HOLY FRAP, Epik High on CNN! Actually, I have always loved these guys. Inasmuch as I flounce around emitting giddy rainbows over my Korean boy bands, I can easily say that Epik High are truly my favourite Korean band. Their brand of hip-hop mixes smooth beats with the odd crunch of guitars and drums and it's just something indescribable as to how their music makes me feel. They were recently interviewed by CNN Talk Asia - well, Tablo and Mithra (their trio is missing DJ Tukutz who is currently on military service).

Tablo completed a Master degree in English Literature from Stanford University at the age of 22, i.e. in English and not in his native Korean (oh gawd, what have I achieved with my life. BRB - feeling inadequate) and wrote a book of short stories, Pieces of You, from his time there. Excuse me while I worship the ground he walks on and stalk his Twitter.

And here are parts Two and Three.

cr; wiscas @ YouTube

Okay, I am mildly hungry now - I think I want sushi. Sorry for the profound lack of blogs guys - am working on that workaholicism. Kind of. Meh.

notes on the Korean fashion industry

2010-04-11T22:20:00.116+10:00

While everyone had their eyeballs occupied by the loveliness on display at Paris Fashion Week F/W 2010-11 last month, I was quietly stalking one of few online blogs covering Seoul Fashion Week F/W 2010-11, which ran at the same time.

It's common knowledge that like Japan, South Korea can be quite the insular country which makes it pretty hard to find any coverage on their fashion industry. One of my favourite fashion bloggers, Michael Hurt, editor of Feet Man Seoul, blogs a lot on Korean street fashion and captures bold runway and backstage shots. He's quite vocal in in his commentary on the Korean fashion industry, writing in both Korean and English to help make an otherwise hard-to-access realm globally accessible.

Gorgeous fur-lined coats +
utilitarian details by Yang Hee Deuk

cr; Michael Hurt @ Feet Man Seoul

Unlike most fashion industries in Western countries, where shows are supported by big-name advertisers, Korea's fashion industry is financially spearheaded by the government. In some ways, this makes its industry as conservative as its culture, both in its designs and handling of the event. International media looking to send journalists to cover the event has also been met with disdain by local media thanks to a strong preference for only Korean media to cover Korean events. This is taking into consideration that the Korean government cover most expenses for the international media to be there. More commentary on the challenges met by the Korean fashion industry can be found at Feet Man Seoul.

In the mean time, feast your eyes on the awesome potential laid out this year. Perhaps we might see some international interest for Korean designers like Issey Miyake from back in the day.

Doii Lee's third collection from her label 'Doii Paris' took inspiration from the traditional Korean attire, 'hanbok' (think 'Korean kimono' but cinched under the bust as opposed to the waist) in her patterns and designs. The fur motif makes another appearance, albeit adding a softer frame to complement her girlish pieces. Something tells me floral prints and shimmery coats may or may not take off in a few months or so. I think I want those red shoes, though purely for the flamboyant awkward they pull off.

Doii Lee's first job was with John Galliano
and previously worked for Kenzo.
cr; Michael Hurt @ Feet Man Seoul

Super-sized lashes and double-angled ponytails
were muted by understated make-up at Doii Lee.
This is here doing her models' make-up. Respect!
cr; Michael Hurt @ Flickr

Gee Cheon Hee's fall/winter 2010 range took a more conservative direction, with similarities in the structured red coats and shimmery florals that seemed to dominate Fashion Week. I quite like the white gown personally, though that's probably because it immediately makes me think of Princess Leia. Those side buns clearly aren't helping either (BRB - stuffing geek self back in box).

Some of my favourite looks from
Gee Cheon Hee's runway show.

cr; Michael Hurt @ Feet Man Seoul

Jung Hun Joong was my favourite collection from the week. Beautiful satin gowns, feathered by chiffon florals and gorgeous high-neck coats. Again, we see remnants of the 'hanbok', but modernised with balloon hemlines and the odd blast of colour. I hope we'll see some of Jung's designs on the Korean red carpet events. Unfortunately, stars usually favour the big-name international labels over local ones. Perhaps it's their way of making a statement on the world stage?

Top two are my favourite looks.
Minimalist colours + digital prints ahoy!
cr; Michael Hurt @ Feet Man Seoul

My previous degustation of Seoul Fashion Week 09/10 can be found here.

so about this internet filter...

2010-03-30T23:57:00.013+11:00

My internet has capped a week before it resets. Normally this is the most painful thing to happen to someone who pretty much lives on the interwebs, but no. The most brain-eating issue these past few days has been Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy's proposal for a mandatory internet filter, likely to be introduced as legislation in the coming weeks.

cr; ~toholdthegun @ DeviantArt

A round-up of Conroy's internet filter:

It will aim to block a 'blacklist' of website URLs to Australian households. This 'blacklist' has never officially been disclosed to the public. The list may or may not include forums where the LGBT community can safely discuss sexual practices and sexual culture, local and international sites on euthanasia, drug practices of the safe and non-safe kind, pro-abortion websites and anything remotely considered 'off the norm'.
According to Google, there are 1.1 trillion web page URLs currently in existence. It's common sense to denote that the 'blacklist' is going to grow with time if legislation does pass.
The filter does not extend to peer-to-peer networks where the majority of information on the internet is shared. Content deemed categorically on the blacklist would most likely be housed on such networks.
It will apparently protect Australian children from 'accidentally accessing inappropriate content' like violence and gore (already viewable on TV, by the way) and protect the rest of the community from stumbling upon child pornography - it's for our own safety. Apparently.
A teenager with a shred of tech-inclined thinking is likely to bypass the filter in about 15 minutes – even less time for hardcore internet users and IT dudes.
A filter of any kind is going to slow internet speeds down. Australia already has some of the slowest broadband speeds in the world – a filter is only going to slow access to any kind of information.
Implementing the filter is going to cost tax payers $44 million in the first four years alone.
The filter is going to be the most rigid of any democratic country in the world (France, the UK and Canada currently have an internet filter in place that is ISP-based - this filter is not mandatory). This puts Australia on par with the likes of China, North Korea and Iran.
What does freedom of access to information mean again?

More coherent round-up here courtesy of Eliza Cussen from GetUp! and the folk at No Clean Feed.

So it seems the logic stemming from this proposal is that filtering content on the internet happens along the same vein as filtering content from TV, books and film. Has no one understood that the internet is a dynamic medium? It's impossible to block the transfer of information shared between individuals, which judging by the popularity of social-networking websites, is where the majority of information is being shared.

Conroy has stated that the majority of the 'blacklist' is content that has been banned for the past nine years or refused classification. Let's make it clear that 'refused classification' does not mean illegal. If it were illegal, chances are it would be so internationally and more or less inaccessible on a worldwide scale. Despite that, a December 2009 report by Australian media policy experts, Professors Catherine Lumby, Leila Green and John Hartley, has shown that content considered perfectly legal in Australia would be also blocked by the filter.

A prime example of 'refused classification' would be games available for legal purchase in Australia. Under the Australian classification laws, any games that do not meet the criteria for MA15+ rating are immediately 'refused classification' because we don't have an R18+ rating. Obviously, access to such games via the internet allows most gamers to bypass this physical roadblock, but under the filter, sites like Amazon and ebay which sell games or content that falls under the 'refused classification' category would be inaccessible.

Google, Yahoo!, the US State Department and both local and international commentators have all expressed concern over the proposed filter. Conroy is standing firm with his proposal. Comments on The Guardian has already generated over 100 comments in less than 24 hours about the filter. Locally, the Sydney Morning Herald has well over 700 comments in half that time with pretty much all comments opposing the filter. People are vocally expressing their opposition, but it appears to be falling on deaf ears. And we wonder why Stephen Conroy was voted Internet Villain of the Year in 2009.

The thing most worrisome about all this is that it will strip away the ability for people to have an opinion and express it freely. It may also block content that might be considered politically-sensitive as well as public forums where LGBT community can safely talk anonymously. As for potentially gagging access to content on euthanasia, violent or graphic material (e.g. backyard abortions) and the like, I'd go far as to say some of that content is educational and limiting access only insults those who are of an able mind that do so.

The overwhelming drive for the internet filter is claimed to be 'protection from child pornography'. Can I just say that every internet user out there knows child pornography is globally illegal, not to mention predominantly shared via P2P (peer-to-peer) networks. So this sharing is going to keep happening while the rest of Australia is stuck behind an apparent fibre-optic curtain, not to mention the potential for even fewer paedophiles being caught as a result.

Judging by Conroy's comments to parliament and the media, being against the filter means you're pro-child porn. And according to recent reports, possibly pro-rape too. I don't think my epic facepalm is enough of a coherent response this very idea, let alone the entire proposal of mandatory internet filtering in Australia. This whole legislation of moral panic had me making angry and concerned facial contortions all week - to put it lightly anyway. Regular blog programming of giddysauce shall resume when my internet resets. In the meantime, get educated folks.