I was reading an article in New York magazine this morning about the biggest scandals in New York history and a particular crime called “The Preppie Murder”. In 1986, they said, “handsome, blue-eyed, and six-foot-four” Robert Chambers strangled a woman in Central Park and while out on bail, “had the bad judgment” to be videotaped “twisting the head of a Barbie doll and saying, in a falsetto voice, ‘Oops! I think I killed it,’ while looking into the camera with leering, satanic delight.”
Awesome, right?! Well, I couldn’t find the video online, but I did find this super-awesome, super-creepy Barbie art by Etsy seller G. Jarvis Jewelry, etc..
Here are some of my favourite pieces from the shop:
I’ve been switching between Burt’s Bees Baby Bee Shampoo & Wash and my regular non-natural shampoos for a while now, but I read recently that the sulfates in most shampoos are really bad for letting curly hair be curly. So I’m going all Burt’s Bees now. It’s sulfate-, paraben-, phthalate-, and petrochemical-free, and it leaves my hair soft and shiny.
It’s thinner than other shampoos, so I usually start out with a tiny amount so I make sure not to lose any, rinse that, and then wash again with another tiny amount. I tried Johnson’s Kids Natural 3-in-1 Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash because it’s a little cheaper and found that while I also like the way it leaves my hair, the fact that it’s naturally non-foaming just doesn’t work for me; I like to be able to feel my shampoo doing its job. Plus, I think “Baby Bee” is about the cutest name ever for a product.
I already sang the praises of the super-soft EcoTools kabuki brush with its own lid, so when I started feeling like my BareMinerals brushes were a little too scratchy, I immediately looked for a suitable EcoTools alternative.
This brushes are so soft you’ll wanna wipe your butt with them. The kabuki is dense enough for full-coverage, the foundation brush will take care of your everyday powder needs, and the eye shading brush is perfect for undereye makeup. The concealer brush is just like the BareMinerals concealer brush if the BareMinerals one was made with hair plucked from a kitten’s head, and the pouch (mine is zippered) makes it so I can leave a set of these in my desk drawer at work without the brushes coming out caked in pencil shavings and tequila.
I’ve read reviews where people actually said the EcoTools brushes are too soft for them, but I guess not everyone has the skin of a newborn baby seal. (Is that a good metaphor? I have no idea what baby seal skin is like.) The point is that these brushes are perfect, and I continue to LOVE EcoTools.
(The brush set is ridiculously cheap at Amazon right now, but shipping is faster through drugstore.com, and Ebates will give you 6% cash back through drugstore.com, so take your pick.)
On one of our weekend walks around the city, Kamran and I ran into an installation called “Bear Forest” by Spanish artist dEmo in the THE LAB gallery in the Roger Smith hotel. Imagine the wonder of rounding a corner and coming face to face with a roomful of these:
Gummy bears! With pectoral muscles! And questionable intentions! (Am I right in thinking that these things could be straight out of a cute-things-turned-deadly horror movie, a la Gremlins?)
Overnight New York, where I got all the information about the exhibit–because of course I was too busy daydreaming about gnawing on some bear bellies to actual take note of what this was–says the exhibit goes away on March 30th, so see it while you can!
I read an article about the ubiquitous Tory Burch a couple of weeks ago that basically claimed her husband rescued her from being a no-name PR girl, gave her her company, and then decided he wanted an exact replica of that company for himself. Only instead of selling things “two-yacht housewife” can afford like Tory does, he wants to sell to every woman.
I am that every woman, and I love his store, C. Wonder. Here’s a sampling of what you can buy at the NYC location (which looks like it was designed by Willy Wonka) and online:
The thing that really knocked my socks off was that when you order something from C. Wonder (like the slow-cooker, which I got on sale for, like, $11), your receipt comes in this packaging:
Mrs. Bachelor Girl is one of the first and best supporters of this blog, and the random number generator has rewarded her for her time. I’ll be e-mailing you, lady!
I’m not the sort of person you’d look at and think, “Now there’s someone who can probably cut a rug.” I’m fairly awkward, certainly clumsy, and not exactly, um, built like someone with a lot of rhythm and grace. (Although I want to cut the judges on “So You Think You Can Dance” when they scoff at a good dancer just because she doesn’t look good in a belly shirt and cameltoe shorts.) But I really love to dance. I don’t need to pound four amaretto sours to feel comfortable doing it, and I don’t care if other people are gawking at me.
So I was overjoyed when my best friend, Tracey, bought me Just Dance 3 for the Wii for Christmas. Having basically no experience with pop music, I was worried that not knowing LMO from LMFAO would make it less fun for me, but the makers of this game somehow managed to find only tracks that would wedge wildly into my brain for days at a time.
My immediate favourite was Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous”, because I’d actually heard it before and also used to love Nelly back when she wasn’t a slutty sell-out (nothing against slutty sell-outs):
My next earworm came from Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite”. I had no idea who Taio Cruz is, but I was so pleased that his song talked about Galileo:
I throw my hands up in the air sometimes
Saying ayo
Galileo
“Now there’s a man who doesn’t care about alienating his uneducated fans,” I thought. And then I learned that he actually says, “Gotta let go.” But it was close enough for me.
My other favourite song is now “Boom” by Reggaeton Storm, which is literally the last genre I would ever expect to get stuck in my head. And since it’s in Spanish, I sing ridiculous nonsensical lyrics to myself all day. Like:
Boom
Bop bop
Can I get a b’rito?
That’s right. I leave letters out of burrito in my head to make it fit.
Kamran’s leaving for California at the end of this week to take the bar exam out there, so he’s been waking up with me in the mornings and studying while I play the game. And since he has a one-room apartment, it’s meant a lot of him sitting around and critiquing/mocking my performances as he lounges on his bed mere steps from me. But he gets the songs stuck in his head just as hard as I do, and I feel like that’s revenge enough.
The funny thing is that the earworms only make me want to play the game more. I play in the mornings before work and then spend all day thinking about how I can’t wait to get home and play again. I can’t motivate myself to go to the gym unless Kamran’s threatening to put me in one of those 1950s-style vibrating belt machines that jiggles your fat off, but this game is so fun I actually look forward to it and want to keep playing long after my knickers are soaked with sweat and I need to go shower for work.
I was concerned it was going to be too easy after playing the Xbox Kinect version, Dance Central, where the creepy Kinect camera watches your full body with its beady robot eyes. I figured I’d just move the one arm with the Wiimote in it and let the rest of my body hang limply if the Wiimote couldn’t sense it and judge me accordingly; I thought about playing the game sitting down. But it turns out that Just Dance is harder than Dance Central. Where Dance Central is repetitious, Just Dance throws an intricate move at you once and then goes right on to something else. Just Dance doesn’t have any differing difficulty levels, but you’ll find yourself making your own as you start dancing first with just the arm holding the Wiimote, then with both arms after you’ve played a song 150 times, then finally with your legs. All while looking like an octopus with epilepsy.
Now I’m dying to try Just Dance 1 and 2 and am envisioning a future version where I get to choose my own songs from a list of a hundred and then receive my personalized game in eight to ten business days. The only thing I’m wishing for is a glove that I can strap the Wiimote into so I don’t have to hold onto it while I’m dancing; I’ve actually thought about buying Wii boxing gloves but wonder if that’s even weirder than holding on to the thing myself.
But hey, if my biggest complaint about the game is that I want to get more into it, they’re doing something right. If this is the thing that gets me fit, it’s going to be sooooo hilarious.
I'm Katie, a farmgirl originally from Ohio who moved to NYC in 2005 for no apparent reason. I like vintage-looking things that are actually new, filagree everything, people who don't make me feel awkward, meaning it when I say "no sleep till Brooklyn", and not trying too hard.
because it’s a little cheaper and found that while I also like the way it leaves my hair, the fact that it’s naturally non-foaming just doesn’t work for me; I like to be able to feel my shampoo doing its job. Plus, I think “Baby Bee” is about the cutest name ever for a product.
with its own lid, so when I started feeling like my BareMinerals brushes were a little too scratchy, I immediately looked for a suitable EcoTools alternative.
