sml

looking back at all the things that saved my life in 2013. here's a playlist of some favourites. one per month. backwards we go.

december:  mirror  *ellie goulding

november:  you're not the one  *sky ferreira

october:  no gun  *naomi pilgrim

september:  wrecking ball  *the gregory brothers

august:  bugs don't buzz  *majical cloudz

july:  graveyard  *feist

june:  i need my girl  *the national

may:  primadonna girl  *marina & the diamonds

april:  scary monsters & nice sprites  *skrillex

march:  oblivion  *grimes

february:  they just keep moving the line  *smash/megan hilty

january:  who  *david byrne & st vincent

a very good year for music in my ears and dancing dancing, singing, crying, dancing.

ff

I'M A GROOOWWN WOMAN! I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT!

beyoncé released a secret-surprise visual album last week and the internets went INSANE. explodeexplode. (i'm super sad i lost my voice to a cough/cold, because all i want to do with my friday is belt out 'pretty hurts' over and over and over until i get evicted for beyoncéing the neighbours.) let's check out some of the good writing on the album, yoncé, feminism, and pop music.

* chris randle anticipates the revolution

* malaika jabali talks breaking from respectability 

* rookie team does a big ol' round table

i woke up like this... i woke up like this... flawless.



now i can't share the actual whole song/video with you, but i can tell you it is great. and i CAN share the talk from which she samples. chimamanda ngozi adichie. so thrilled she is getting the pop-music bump. there is so much greatness in this talk. so much. yes yes great good.



(and because chimamanda is amazing, here's another talk she gave about the danger of the single story. lovely and fine.)



happy friday, dancers.

saved my life

dance dance, christmastime. this weekend the christmas party deluge began. christmastime snuck up so fast, i'm scrambling to catch up on the christmastime spirit. here's some help.





HAPPY HOLIDAYS, ELFS!

ff

i have hearts in my eyes for geena davis, i sure do. of course, you say, we all do... why do you bring her up on the blorg today? because she wrote a little somethin somethin that i very much like about women in cinema.

* two easy steps to make hollywood less sexist

easy steps, you say? there are NO easy steps in the war that is feminism! ha HA! you're wrong, genna is right, there are easy steps. check it!

"OK, now for the fun part: It's easy, fast and fun to add female characters, in two simple steps. And I want to be clear I'm not talking about creating more movies with a female lead. If you do, God bless and thank you. Please consider me for that role.

Step 1: Go through the projects you're already working on and change a bunch of the characters' first names to women's names. With one stroke you've created some colorful unstereotypical female characters that might turn out to be even more interesting now that they've had a gender switch. What if the plumber or pilot or construction foreman is a woman? What if the taxi driver or the scheming politician is a woman? What if both police officers that arrive on the scene are women — and it's not a big deal?

Step 2: When describing a crowd scene, write in the script, "A crowd gathers, which is half female." That may seem weird, but I promise you, somehow or other on the set that day the crowd will turn out to be 17 percent female otherwise. Maybe first ADs think women don't gather, I don't know.

And there you have it. You have just quickly and easily boosted the female presence in your project without changing a line of dialogue."

 {geena davis for the hollywood reporter}

captain awkward, who is awesome, recommends that you - when struggling with something like, say, the blah-lazies of depression - do little tiny things and acknowledge them as accomplishments. small tiny things that you can actually handle and then LET YOURSELF FEEL GOOD about those things. don't say 'today i will clean this apartment top to bottom!!!' and then find yourself crushed under your pathetic inability to do so. (that's mean depression voice talking. i don't think you're pathetic.) say 'today i will do one load of laundry so i have clean underwear!!!' and be proud and pleased and satisfied with that getting done. done! you did it. it is done.

so this advice here from geena? same same! it is an incredibly easy thing to do. blammo! just like that. it is so insanely simple it seems silly. but it isn't. not at all. it is brilliant and great. be proud and pleased.

love is weird

i can't stop. thinking. about. johanna.

falling

 

GIF DAY! DIVING DAY! diving gif day for YOU!

today is the last diving day for 2013. sadface. sigh. don't worry, i'm registered for next term. i am so stoked. last week i finally got my hurdle to feel right - it is so tough when your muscle-memory just says 'NOT QUITE!' but won't tell you how to fix it... dumb muscle-memory. sure, i can't do a lot of things i could do when i was 14, but i was hoping this one would come easy. le sigh. not so. but last week! kapow! starting to make the sense again. and with that hurdle comes the height and control you need to do ALL THE DIVES! or. more of the dives... better versions of the dives i've been pretending to dive...

also, i guess this will be my awesome no-one-will-get-it halloween costume next year. yeah? haha! nonsense! fever ray. you're a weirdo. i like you. (if anyone wants to buy me a springboard, that would be cool. fyi.)

and finally: WATCH OUT! this is why you almost never see open-water diving. so dangerous.
 

saved my life

i went and saw catching fire again on the weekend... don't worry. i'm already ready to see it again. so. grimas. yes. let's. i decided the very best moment in the whole movie is when johanna is sitting on the beach, axing the sand, and says 'love is weird'. yup. it is the very best moment. oh johanna.

meanwhile. the soundtrack, the soundtrack, the soundtrack...



happy monday, tributes.

ff

have you marginalized your daughter today?!

person i know! making a great thing! i like this very much.


Kinder Surprise for Girls: Gender Surprise! by yourgeeknews

surprise! more exclamation points! (shout out to old-friend-from-stage-polaris kristen mcgregor - who plays the daughter up in there. nice one. very cool.)

happy friday, kinder.

blister, burn

holy god, catching fire is bleak. and fantastic. and devastating. and i loved it. and i want to see it again right this minute. i very much liked the first film, but there were a few punches i felt they pulled - the dogs being mutts, particularly, which is such a powerful terrible idea. which made sense cuz kids movie... but. this film doesn't pull punches. the old man in district 11. i love that the costumes and makeup look real - not polished high-def movie real. but. stagey. put on. the tributes dressed up. you see the texture, you see the fabric and the seams and the way things sit on or dig into skin. the sweat, spit, tears, hair, fire. flickerman's teeth. glass. where there is polish and where there is not. utility vs comfort vs costume. yes, this is a very well handled film. oh it is dark. 

johanna. jenna malone, who i have loved forever, is brilliant and sad. her anger is overwhelming and roiling. she is my favourite for a million miles.

catching fire was the best book in the series for me, and one of the more intoxicating books i've read. the movie does it proper justice. oh i am pleased, i am heartbroken. also, buy the soundtrack. it is really really really good. elastic heart. oh god.

also, i recommend you read this. the odds are never in our favour.

saved my life

last week i had my second of four solo-ballet-dates, wherein i take myself to the ballet and dress fancy and am glad. oh man i love the ballet. this show was all new works. including one with music by owen pallett! HOW FUN IS THAT?! very fun. and all with live musicians which is very nice. here's a little look at the piece being created.



(also one used pergolesi's stabat mater, and yes i did cry very hard when it started cause hi harmony, hi sadness.)
happy monday, brass section slowly climbing up up up...

saved my life

oh man the cranky moody monday. let's just do away with mondays completely, yes? write off.

anyway.



happy tuesday, runners.

ff

you know when you look at the way people talked about certain issues in the past and are all 'whoooa i can't believe people talked like that...' around issues of race and culture, maybe. homosexuality. tolerance isn't across the board these days, but it is way better than it was for so many. and we kind of almost laugh about how ignorant and idiotic the previous sentiments could be. you know? well i hope in the not so far future that is how we'll look back at today and the way that trans people are spoken to/about.

this past wednesday was international transgender day of remembrance.  tdor was created to give space to the memories of those who were killed by hateful, prejudiced, anti-trans violence. you can read all about it.

* international transgender day of remembrance

* INFO! INFO GRAPHICS!! we all love infographics. and learning.

* resources!

and... i hope the following tumblr is just laughable and archaic. soon. very very soon. please.

"Have you been buying the wrong clothes again?"

* stuff cisgenders say

let's work on that, yeah? okay. yeah. let's.

happy friday, humans.

saved my life

we are making lists, these days. lists. reminders. things like:

dogs, trees, dancing.

dancing and live music. which luckily there is a lot of here in toronto. friday sarah jay and i attended the big sound motown show. this is my second time. harmony and brass and tamborines.





(and a classic. original.)



happy monday, baby loves.

ff

hey other person! you're doing feminism wrong! let me tell you how you're doing it wrong. you're the worst. feminism is one woman winning at being feminist best and all other women suuucking at it, the end!

or so go the arguments lately. who is winning feminism and who is the worstest. can we work on that? can we work on an inclusive feminism? please? okay cool. thanks. i like your ideas! maybe they are better than mine! maybe they're not better, just different. maybe i can learn from them. and vice versa. whaddaya say?! fun, right?! cool. cooooool.

there have been a few 'this person is a good feminist and you can tell cause all these other feminists are actually terrible' pieces around. and the one i'mma link to is actually pretty gentle, and probably even has an okayish point in there. but. well:

* miley cyrus is 'one of the biggest feminists in the world'

yeah, that's a little laughable maybe... maybe miley's grasp of the feminist movement isn't totally spot on perfect. reductive and dismissive, maybe. probably. she's young or whatever. privileged. but know what i didn't hear in her quotes that the article seems to be picking at? that miley cyrus thinks she is the QUEEN feminist. 'one of' she says. not 'THE biggest feminist'... see the difference there?

miley's quote doesn't point to malala yousafzai moving over. they can BOTH be feminists! what?! i know, right? nutso. and guess what: malala yousafzai ain't a perfect feminist either. cause there is no such thing! malala is awesome. super awesome. and young, too. so she'll probably make mistakes as she grows into an awesome feminist woman. and you could argue that malala is better for the world than miley, but that's kinda unfair and dismissive, too. because a pop star who openly and happily calls herself a feminist is a GOOD THING. even if she doesn't always do it right. maybe pop-loving young ladies will hear that and wanna be a feminist too. maybe it will start them on a path to becoming awesome members of team feminism. that's not nothin'. (remember that time when a woman was given a big fancy high up position as ceo of yahoo and was all 'i'm not a feminist' cause feminism is a bad word, ewwww?) i fall victim to this me vs you mentality of feminism often, and i'm trying trying not to. i will be a better feminist for the trying, i hope, i think.

also. remember this? still love this:

* is __________ a feminist?

and while we're talking pop music and ladies, here's a little something extra for you that was released today, merry feminist friday:



happy friday, all you equals.

saved my life

it is almost catching fire time. almost.



happy monday, tributes.

ff

oh canada politics. you're really workin hard at being as dumb as our southern neighbours, aren't ya?

{this is an actual for real thing that the liberal party put out}

for fuck's sake liberals. know what ladies love?! cursive script! handsome men! chatting! photobooth selfies! it all sounds so intimate! maybe if we can cozy up to him real nice like we can get ourselves a DIAMOND?! oooooooooooo blush, shrug, giggle! here's my monies!! come the fuck on. way to completely alienate the 'fairer sex'. i cannot roll my eyes hard enough. you wanna know what the biggest issue facing women is? this patronizing, condescending bullshit that pats us on the head and bats its eyes at us while telling us that we're super important. thanks.

saved my life

fiiiiine i'm back to real life. ugh. don't wanna. new york some more! ugh. ugh.



happy wednesday, sleepy-deads.

tories

what are some great things that i love? political satire... lorde... canada...

NAILED IT, this hour has 22 minutes!



hot damn, that's good work right there. all the high fives.

run

the ny marathon is this weekend, woooo, go hoopers. see y'all soon. sports-fashion!

{adidas by stella mccartney spring 2014, photos courtesy of adidas by stella mccartney by way of style.com}

hounds of love are calling

teeth. tooth.

{balmain spring 2014, photos by monica feudi for feudiguaineri.com by way of style.com}

saved my life

abra visit over, and i'm sicko and tired, but happy. it was a wonderful weekend with my loveliest girls.

and cyndi lauper. live. she is something.



happy monday, now and theners.

ff

this week! good faith conversation! it has been a pretty decent week on the internets. wha?! i know, weird. at least on my end, i was part of and/or witness to some good debate on various subjects where people were reasonably kind and respectful and humour-ful and that is so nice! we don't always have to agree, yo! we can still be friends.

after last week's double x podcast exploded my brain, i am pleased to be directing you to a slade podcast that i expected to explode my brain... and instead was pretty great to listen to!

* the gentleman scholar chats with anna holmes (founding editor of jezebel)

jezebel can be real hit and miss for me, and i often find them to be aggressively inflammatory without being helpful. not always, certainly. but. a flawed site. (omg, a site that isn't perfect?!) and i didn't know the gentleman scholar (troy patterson) going in, but i was suspicious as i so often am about men giving advice on the internets.

but they did good! they struggle sometimes with getting their ideas formed or clearly stated, but they approach each other with good faith. and oh man, is that nice to hear! give it a listen. tell me what you think. where did they hit and where did they miss?

happy friday, friendlies.

cliff

so it isn't related to this collection, but i can't stop listening to hyperballad. i go through all this before you wake up... ooof that song. meanwhile. eyebrows.

{céline spring 2014, photos by monica feudi for feudiguaineri.com by way of style.com}

cables

ugh. cute.

{miu miu spring 2014, photos by monica feudi for feudiguaineri.com by way of style.com}