Vanity Fair Covers

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on the same day. Vanity Fair published one magazine for the September 2009 issue, one cover has MJ and the other has Farrah.

Although the Victory Tour was my first concert ever, I haven't been a fan of MJ since Thriller. In my opinion, his best music was before the Bad album and his personal life was odd to say the least. So guess what I get from Vanity Fair? The MJ cover issue. Seriously? Someone at VF must hate me. The thing that made miffed was that I didn't even KNOW that there were two covers for the September 2009 issue. I randomly saw the Farrah cover at the grocery store and mistakenly thought I missed an issue.

Look Vanity Fair - if you can send me mail every month asking me to re-up my subscription even though I just re-newed 2 months ago, then you can send me an email asking which cover I would prefer.

This type of thing will make me switch to buying the mag at the news stand.

Tiered iTunes Pricing

I am ashamed to admit that I have spent a few hundred dollars on iTunes over the past 5 years. All those individual purchases were $0.99 each.

I am super salty that iTunes has introduced tiered pricing. More popular songs will be $0.99 plus some. I think the tiers are .69, .99, and 1.29. I want to buy a Busta Rhymes song as I type but that magical $0.30 is giving me pause.

Ninety-nine cents is my sweet spot. I am extremely uncomfortable paying that extra cash. Call me cheap...I don't care.

Busta Rhymes and iTunes really don't need six MORE of my hard earned nickels do they? We are in a depression (yeah I said it). Give me a BREAK. I guess I will wait for one of my friends to buy the entire cd and then I will burn their copy to my computer at no cost to me. So Apple...was it really worth it for that extra dough?


p.s. although iTunes says that there are songs available at the $0.69 price I have yet to find one that I want to purchase.

Heartbreak Hotel

We have all experienced a heartbreak. If you haven't then please stop reading and live a little.

Kanye West just released his latest album 808s & Heartbreak. I love Kanye. Some people say he is an arrogant asshole. That may be. Who cares. So was Muhammad Ali and everyone loves him now. Anywho...I had heard that this Kanye album was ALL Autotune. What is autotune? Listen to T-Pain and you will find out. Essentially autotune is an electronic vocalizer - it makes everyone sound like a computerized version of themselves. I like T-Pain and his autotune creations but it can be a bit much after a song or two. So I wasn't too excited to hear 808s. Plus it got so-so reviews. I heard the first single Love Lockdown and I loved it - the beats went straight to my soul. No lie.

I got 808's and I hated it the moment I first heard it. I was extremely disappointed. Listening to Kanye on my iPod gets me through the grueling work day and I was sad that I despised 808s. BUT THEN I said to myself, "Kanye deserves a second chance." So I played it all over again on my crappy computer speakers and I fell in love.

Seriously 808s & Heartbreak is pure genius. It takes a lot for anyone to expand outside of their comfort zone. This is NOT a feel good - get out of your chair and dance album. I appreciate that this is not the same ol' Kanye (even though it's the best). This album is like the new kid in school - at first you are leary and then you become the best of friends. Most Kanye songs make me want to run 100 miles or punch someone in the throat (in a good way). 808's makes me calm down and think about my life and what I want to be and who I have been.

Kanye seems vulnerable and a bit sad on this album. If I were him I would be too. His Mom died this year and the long relationship with fiancee Alexis ended. I would be suicidal, but Kanye was in the studio giving birth to this masterpiece. I couldn't have done it. Perspective makes me appreciate this music even more.

Remember when The Source was credible? Well 808s & Heartbreak definitely deserves 5 Mics. It's HOT LIKE FIYYYYAH!

The Burbs

The day before Thanksgiving I drove by my local Whole Foods. It was crowded as usual. But there was an oddity. An actual city police officer was directing traffic in the Whole Foods parking lot. Seriously. You know you live in the burbs when there is a police officer directing traffic in a grocery store parking lot. Priceless.

Trick or Treat

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Yes, it beats Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the creativity of costumes and of course the candy.

The universe has pulled some awful tricks on me this week. First my computer died and it is just outside of warranty and I had to pay for and install a new power supply. Yesterday, I was supposed to fly to Chicago for my best friend's massive Halloween party tonight. Well as I was on the Delta website trying to print my boarding pass, I was informed that my flight had been cancelled. There was no good reason like weather or a plane crash. Nope, Delta just felt like cancelling my flight and putting me on another one today. I said no thanks and got a refund. I am disappointed but I was not up for flying to Chicago today and then flying back to DC the first thing Saturday morning. So right now I am trying to cobble together plans to go out to Georgetown with a costume.

The treat portion of my week happened when I read an advice column in Wired magazine. A reader was asking if her kid should be allowed to dress up as a character from the video game Grand Theft Auto (GTA is very violent and it also involves drugs and sexual innuendos to say the least), the writers response:
"Granted there's something distasteful about having your grade-schooler dress up as a drug-dealing, prostitute-beating, human-smuggling thug. But ask yourself: Is a werewolf or witch really morally superior? At least Bellic [GTA Character] exhibits brief flickers of doubt about his chosen path. Werewolves by contrast, never hesitate before eviscerating their prey." So true.

Napa Valley And Darioush Winery

During Labor Day Weekend I went to visit my beautiful friend Dominique in San Francisco. One of our main goals was to go to Napa Valley and drink it up (I mean wine tasting). Traffic delayed us a bit but when we made it to Napa I was not disappointed. It was amazing to see so many fields of growing grapes.

The best part of our excursion was a Wine and Cheese tasting at Darioush. The wines were paired with various cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery, which is based in Marin County but has an outpost in Washington DC. I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of red wines. However, the Merlot was quite good. But the white wine that was offered, the Shapar Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc dessert wine, that was paired with the Red Hawk cheese BLEW MY SOCKS OFF. "The 2005Shahpar is introduced by sweet scents of honeysuckle, jasmine and orange blossom. A viscous mouthfeel reveals flavors of apricot, lemon zest and creme brulee, while well-integrated oak hints nuances of vanilla and hazelnut." Yes, this description is quite accurate.

See that little white wine...Well that is the Shahpar, and the bright orange cheese is the Red Hawk. This combo nearly brought tears to my eyes. I was further saddened to discover that the wine was part of a very small production and I could not ship myself any bottles because of Virginia laws. LAWMAKERS : Please get your act together and pass uniform legislation allowing wine to be shipped to adults in EVERY STATE in the Union. And yes, I thought about packing some in my luggage but the last time I packed alcohol in my luggage something broke and all my clothes reeked of Vodka. (I am not an alcoholic, but I was trying to take advantage of the wonderful duty free shop in another country).

But I digress, if you are ever in Napa please make reservations for the wine and cheese tasting at Darioush. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Gocco!!!

It is official. I have my new Gocco machine. What is a Gocco you ask? It is a silk screen device used to imprint images on nearly anything made out of paper. The Gocco is made by the Japanese company, Riso.


Unfortunately, Riso decided to discontinue production of the Gocco in July 2008. I was not planning on buying one for a few months but when I heard it was being discontinued I had to snap one up immediately. They are on ebay now for outrageous prices. I was lucky enough to get a new one from Northwood Studios .

The Gocco uses one-time use flash bulbs to burn an image on to a mesh screen. You then add any color Gocco ink to the screen, insert the screen back into the Gocco, place a piece of paper on the pad and press down. Like magic you have an image of paper.

Screwing in bulbs. The original image is placed on the sticky pad. The image will be burned onto the blue screen.




So these are the first images I created. I bought the navy and khaki cards from Paper Source. On the navy cards I used Gold Gocco ink and on the khaki cards I used black and red Gocco ink. The image is a spray painted art work done by the amazing Banksy. I am going to use the cards for correspondence with my friends. Check out the short video below of me flashing the screen.





Please note - there are much better and more extensive videos and instructions on how to use a Gocco. Check out the etsy videos on goccoing for a real tutorial. There are many steps I left out that are crucial to getting a good print.