Wilder & Tamer

WILDER

~ My uncle joined facebook a while back and has been uploading a shit ton of old family photos, like the gem above (that's my Dad second from the end). It's so great seeing photos of my uncles and aunties as kids, and also getting to know my extended family and genealogy better.

~ Winning competitions. Double pass to the movies? I'll take it!

 

~ I went to an incredible Curator's talk on Te Papa's current World of Wearable Arts exhibition. Seriously folks, keep an eye out for these things. They are free and they are good.

 

TAMER

~ Passing an unwelcome parenting milestone - Koko's first tummy bug. Vomit in the car. Vomit on me. Yuck.

~ Catching aforementioned tummy bug. Not cool. Not cool at all.

Wilder Web

My friend Arihia introduced me to Wilder Woman Mickalene Thomas. Check out her art works created using Rhinestones (!!!), Acrylic and Enamel.

Why You Should Read + Watch + Listen Outside of Your Comfort Zone.

Who wants to have their heart broken a little? You do? Check out this series of photos of actor John Schneider. (via Jessica Valenti)

Want to feel simultaneously inspired, awed, & completely inadequate as a parent? Check out Cardboard Box Office. (via Matt) 

"The project began after finding that we had accumulated both a lot of cardboard boxes (due to moving to a new country) and a baby (due to giving birth). With our social lives drastically altered we decided to find a way to make some of those housebound weekends a little more fun."

I've added these to my reading list ~ Librarians Choose the Top 10 Feminist Books of the Year for Young Readers.

I love Lorde, & I'm so happy for her following her well deserved Grammy wins. I also love this Royals parody that is freakishly accurate for those of us a little more advanced in age than the girl wonder.

Inspiring ~

Wilder Wardrobe ~ Grammy Favourites

This list is short. It is short because I didn't actually watch all that much of the awards themselves, or the pre-show red carpet. It is short because a lot of the outfits I did see were, well, meh. Boring. Uninspired. Not a lot caught my attention, but here are a few of the looks that did ~ 

Taylor Swift

I never expected Taylor Swift to be leading a Wilder Wardrobe Favourites list of mine. Not that I have anything against Swift (okay, maybe I do, just a little), but her style is not usually to my taste. I love this gown on her. It looks like chain mail, in the best possible way. Sexy chain mail. 

Kelly Osborne

It looked like Kelly had had her lavender locks freshly cut and dyed for the occasion. I like it. I like the make up, especially the gorgeous fuchsia lip. I love the simple black dress made interesting by the jewelled shoulder caps. I love the manicure and rings. I love the gothic floor length draping of the hem. I love it all.

Cyndi Lauper

Oh, Cyndi. You are perfection. I was so pleasantly surprised to see Cyndi on the red carpet. Not just because I am A Fan, but also because Look! Look at this interesting, original and fantastic ensemble! I would wear this. I would wear this ALL THE TIME. Bravo, Cyndi! And congrats on the Grammy win too.

For more Wilder Wardrobe Favourites, check out my Golden Globes list here. Coming soon ~ The Oscars.

Wilder Women ~ The Ross Sisters

Here's some sartorial & menu inspiration for your summer picnics. But be warned: perhaps do not watch if you are easily grossed out. One word: Contortionists ~

(via Sera)

Wilder Web

This Is What I Mean When I Say "White Feminism". Intersectionality, yo! Learn it, live it.

""White feminism" does not mean every white woman, everywhere, who happens to identify as feminist. It also doesn't mean that every "white feminist" identifies as white. I see "white feminism" as a specific set of single-issue, non-intersectional, superficial feminist practices. It is the feminism we understand as mainstream; the feminism obsessed with body hair, and high heels and makeup, and changing your married name. It is the feminism you probably first learned. "White feminism" is the feminism that doesn't understand western privilege, or cultural context. It is the feminism that doesn't consider race as a factor in the struggle for equality."

 Ugh, I did not know about this: The Woody Allen Story We Need To Stop Forgetting. Agreat piece on whether or not we can still love the work of reprehensible people.

"Last night when Woody was awarded a lifetime achievement award for what is undoubtably an outstanding, untouchable body of work, his biological son Ronan tweeted: "Missed the Woody Allen tribute - did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?""

Gah! The coolness! I'll take everything from the YmamaY? Winter 2014 range in size adult, please.

All roads lead to philosophy, on Wikipedia. The idea is that if you follow the first link from any article on Wikipedia, you will eventually end up at Philosophy. I tried it, starting with a randomly generated article on Sampans, Jura. 16 clicks later I was at Modern Philosophy, 17 clicks I was at Philosophy. Try it.

I got 13 out of 17 in this quiz on the opening lines of books. Can you do better?

I mentioned on twitter that one of my pet peeves is when people who missed out on Oscar nominations are described as having been 'snubbed', and my friend Francis directed me to this brilliant piece for The Movie Club ~ Why critics love Inside Llewyn Davis: It's about a critic.

"My highly scientific analysis of what happened with the nominations this morning is this: Those guys like stuff you don’t like and vice versa. Whatever and whoever else they are, academy voters are not critics..."

And then pretty much as soon as I got done reading the above article, my friend Cam tweeted a link to Robbed at the Oscars. How very serendipitous.

Hey, Hi, I want off your parenting team.

"It’s not that I have anything against attachment moms or eco-tree-huggers or health people or Team Green or any of them, it’s just that the SECOND you stick that label on my forehead is the SECOND I FALL DESPERATELY AND TERRIBLY SHORT and walk around feeling less than and like I’ve betrayed something. My people. My team."

Amen to the brilliant In the Name of Love.

"DWYL is a secret handshake of the privileged and a worldview that disguises its elitism as noble self-betterment."

A surprise Pride and Prejudice cosplay engagement. Amazing.

Get your fix of hot-storical Wilder Women here ~ 7 of the most badass women who ever lived (who you've probably never heard of).

I vividly remember being banned from the living room while my older siblings watched the 1987 film version of Flowers in the Attic. Now the incest-heavy book will be a Lifetime movie.

"In a world where Fifty Shades of Grey—which is far more explicit with its sex scenes and includes rape, but not incest—is now a bestseller, one wonders if Flowers in the Attic will resonate with a new audience. It’s tough to find someone under the age of 30 who has even heard of the series, let alone read it. When I asked my twenty-year-old students what their generation’s Flowers in the Attic is, they were stumped. The closest they could come was Twilight. While Twilight certainly has an underlying abuse trope, it doesn’t hold a candle to Flowers in the Attic. My students hypothesized that their generation has the Internet, so they don’t need to read dirty books under the covers."

14 Things We Learned from Bill Murray's Reddit AMA. What's not to love?

Habits of the World's Wealthiest People. I'm pretty sure that incorporating these habits into your life will make it better, money or no money.

Why I hate "I hate children..." Yes! Hate this sooo much.

The China National Orchestra performing Katy Perry's Roar. Seriously ~

(via Dooce)

Dancing always makes a movie better ~

(also via Dooce)

Wilder Women ~ Tami Neilson

I'm taking my Dad to see Tami Neilson live tonight for his birthday. Hope she does this cover ~

Country + Soul = Good.

Wilder & Tamer

WILDER

~ YA Reading Bingo. I love a good reading list to work through.

~ My first week back at work has gone really well. Long may this goodness continue.

 

~ Getting to spend all day with kids, which means building towers out of blocks again and again, trying a new configuration every time a toddler sends the previous structure toppling down.

 

~ Last night's outing to the Botanical Gardens to see The Digg play. Koko handled it like a pro, even though we were there two hours after her usual bedtime. Awesome sauce! Gonna try again next week for Eb & Sparrow.

 

~ Compliments. Nice to give, lovely to receive.

TAMER

~ Online arguments, where people either miss the point entirely, or ignore the question being asked, or use it to air an unrelated grievance.  Ugh, interwebs, I love you, but sometimes I need my space so I can head-desk to full effect.

~ Accusing an author of plagiarism on twitter & having them find my tweet & respond to me. Big whoops.

 

~ I completely missed an appointment I had scheduled for this week, for no other reason than it just vanished from my brain. What a dick.