Interesting Articles 8/31

Click here to see a crazy girl throwing puppies in a river. No seriously, I wish I were joking. This is so fucking sad. I get that in some countries dogs are a serious problem and have to be put down, and they suspect she is from Bosnia. But CHUCKING them into a river? Yahoo reports groups are being formed on social media sites to find the girl's identity.

Biodiversity, according to Treehugger, has evolved to mean a quantitave measure of environmental worth. Are you for real? Biodiversity is a definition of the interlocking web of the relationships of living things - and how they're all important. For health, agriculture, beauty, and yes, economics.

Boyfriend and I love Iron Chef. And all things Food Network. As lucky as I am to have picked up a guy who appreciates soy, veggies, nuts and other meat substitutes of my vegetarian lifestyle, he still appreciates meat more than I ever have. Now Ecorazzi reviews the playing field evening out on Iron Chef. NYC's chef Amanda Cohen has my heart and vote!

Autumn Is Here! Sort of...Summer Hardly Came.

(Courtesy of liebemarlene.com)

If I had my way I would find high-waisted skirts to wear with the braided belt i'm also looking for, as well as tiny floral print dresses that would look amazing with leggings/tights and boots and the same damn braided belt.

I'm going to Santee Alley on Saturday with momma. I'm hoping to pick up knit cream color leggings, gray leggings, a braided belt that'll match the pleather boots i bought, and black rainboots. I would also like a cream color scarf, plaid over shirts and shirt dresses, and lacy undershirts. I'd also like a razor comb so i can cut my own bangs.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Yesterday I managed to squeeze in time to watch this classic directed by Robert Aldrich. It's one of my favorite genres as a crime/drama/film noir film. Cloris Leachman was in it for all of ten minutes and the rest of the cast were lesser known actors of the time: Ralph Meeker, Maxine Cooper, etc.

As Netflix describes, it's about a mysterious half-clothed hitchhiking woman a sleazy private investigator picks up on the highway outside of small town Calabasas (I know, right? Opening shots are of the "Calabasas Garage") as he drives into Los Angeles, a gang of shady guys run his car off the road and pull him and the woman from the accident and kill her. As he recovers from the accident, he becomes more and more interested in what these men wanted with the woman. As he involves himself using the few clues she gave him as to her identity, the men send warning he is delving into dangerous territory.

Lots of people die, which was frustrating. The connections he made with the clues were not obvious to me and difficult to follow. There were some really interesting characters like a slutty blonde sister of a gangster who was a Marlyn Monroe wanna-be, and a small Mexican garage mechanic who was quite funny. When I watch these films i have to remember the role of women in the 50's because some of their behavior is rather pathetic.

The ending was absolutely ridiculous. The acting was mediocre. The plot was not carefully thought out. The cinematography was fabulous though, as was the advanced 1950's special effects. I'm glad I saw it, but it was definitely nothing above two or three stars.

Taylor Swift - Mine Chords & Review

While I'm really into rock n roll and all things alternative, I love some silly pop sensations. Taylor Swift is an upstanding young star who writes her own songs, stays out of the LiLo limelight and seems to be a genuine and age appropriate role model for teenage girls. I love her cute romance-y lyrics that aren't so porus that just anyone could write them. She gives Ke$ha, Miley, etc. a run for their money because she's got serious talent and grace.

 

This song is only challenging in the strum pattern at the bits where Em is. Otherwise, it's pretty much a simple four count. The song sounds great acoustic; Here's a video that inspired me to learn it and the chords that were pretty simple to figure out from it. Tyler Ward and Julia Sheer cover dozens of pop songs on YouTube and they sound GREAT.

C G C G
O-o-o-ooh (x2)

                             C                                     D                        C   

You were in college working part-time, waiting tables

                                                         D                               C

Left a small town, never looked back

                                                          D                              C

I was a flight risk, with a fear of falling

                                                                          D                          C

Wondering why we'd bother with love, if it never lasts

                                                  D                           C

I say can you believe it

                                              G                            C

As we're lying on the couch

                                                     D                       C

The moment I can see it yes, yes

                                                     D

I can see it now

                        C                                            G

Do you remember when we were sitting there by the water

                                 D                                  Em

You put your arm around me for the first time

                            C                                   G

You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter

                                  D                               Em                    C

You are the best thing that's ever been mine

Second Verse: Repeat C-D like First Verse

Fast forward and we're taking on the world togetherAnd there's a drawer of my things at your placeYou learn my secrets and you figure out why I'm guardedYou say we'll never make my parent's mistakes 

                                            C     D                          C

We got bills to pay

                                              D                                C

We got nothing figured out

                                         D                                    C

When it was hard to take yes, yes

                                             D

This is what I thought about Repeat Chorus (x2)Do you remember when we were sitting there by the water
You put your arm around me for the first time
You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter
You are the best thing that's ever been mineDo you remember all the city lights on the waterYou saw I started to believe for the first timeYou made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughterYou are the best thing that's ever been mine

                                        Em                                    C

And I remember that fight 2:30 am

                                        D

You said everything was slipping out of our hands

                               Em                        C                                   D                          

I went out crying and you followed me out to the streets

                                             C            D                        C

Braced myself for a goodbye

                                                             D                      C

Cause it's all i've ever known

                                                      D                        C

And you took me by surprise

                                                      D                              C  

You said 'I'll never leave you alone'
Repeat Chorus ChordsYou saidI remember how we felt sitting by the waterAnd everytime I look at you it's like the first timeI fell in love with acareless man's careful daughterShe is the best thing that's ever been mine

                                                  C           G

Hold on Make it last

                                                D           Em  

Hold on Never turn back You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughterYou are the best thing that's ever been mine
Yeah, do you believe it?Gonna make it lastAnd I can see itI can see it now The bolded verse are my favorite lyrics in the song. At 21, I STILL feel like this with my beau. It's an ageless, timeless sort of song. That's how she's so popular. I guess my affinity for all things folk gives her an edge in my book too because her lyrics are not too country but have an adorable folk twang regardless. I was blasting it on 102.7 Kiis fm yesterday, my dad looking at me like I'm CRAZY. Elsa told me her new album is due out in October.

If you wanna hear another song of hers I highly recommend White Horse.

Interesting Articles 8/25

Brazilian Amazon Old Growth Forest

I don't know if this falls as something sciencey or creative. But I think it took ingenuity of both for this one lone indian of an uncontacted extinct tribe to survive in 31 miles of isolated land into his late 40s. In terms of wildlife preservation, this is great. The Brazilian government gave him a 31 mile "safe zone" where no loggers, miners, other exploitative people are allowed. This guy runs around the Amazon shooting people who come too close with his bow and arrow. Awesome. Sadly, they think they found the remains of his bulldozed village that land-hungry assholes took over in 1996. Click here to read the article from MSN's Slate.

Bed bug infested mattress, New York, NY

My mom's been freaking me out about scavenging for a couch for my new apartment due to the recent EXPLOSION in bed bug populations. Matresses (duh), furniture, and clothing are the best breeding grounds and they're often unknowingly transported in hotels, airplanes and cruise ships. Some even argue the head rests at the movies. I think I'm gonna be sick. Top 10 infested cities from Mother Nature Network are New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago, Denver, Columbus (OH), Dayton (OH), Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. AHH Right under my nose?! I'm glad to see SF isn't on here...maybe my furniture's safe? For more info on what they are/how to kill them/etc click here. Yuck.

Calderon Dolphin Slaughter off Faroe Island, Denmark

A friendly reminder that the annual dolphin slaughter occurs in Taiji, Japan this upcoming September first. One activist at one of my favorite blogs (Tree Hugger!) is heading over there to help film the The Cove's sequel, Blood Dolphin. One, I'm excited that there is a sequel because the first one was amazing, moving, powerful, scientific, emotional, from the point of view of the Japanese, crazy fucking Westerners who fly out there to stop this shit, and the rest of the world. It opens eyes to how many countries are allowed to whale and what is considered whaling. Two, I'm sad that there has to be a sequel. I was hoping some multi-million dollar entrepreneur would watch The Cove and set shit straight. Yet, apparently, people with that kind of money don't watch those kinds of films. That's something I love about documentary film: it can influence people to make a difference.

Reading List: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

by Stieg Larsson

Okay, so I'm actually really bad at reading for fun because the last thing I want to do when I come home from school, is open another book. I love reading but by the time I've browsed 1200 pages of a biology textbook, my eyes hurt. My brain hurts. My body says freeeeedoooooom.

This was hard to put down because it combined some of my favorite genres (although skipped over science fiction). It was a murder mystery with white collar crime, characters with atypical life styles and skills, gorgeous foreign settings, love, sex, revenge, CSI type activity, sacrificed animals, serial killer, anger, rape, nerdy computer references, prison, and a twist ending (that I mildly suspected from page one). I hope I didn't give away too much, but you should really read it if you're into anything kind of dark and mysterious.

A New Apartment Means a New Excuse to Decorate

First things first. I totally bought the pleather boots I knew I would from the last entry. With free shipping (and free return shipping if they don't fit!) it was necessary.


Second, those of you who've seen my dorm room, apartment room, and bedroom in the Laurel house know that when I'm not stuck incorporating my brother's hand-me-down, drawn-all-over solid wood furniture circa 1990 (like I am at my parent's house), I'm actually obsessive about matching furniture and girlie color bedsheets. The dorm and apartment were both white, coral, pink, and orange based color schemes, including white hanging laterns, light wood school-provided furniture, and my Trainspotting poster. Last year I wanted something more mature (or at least something that didn't resemble cotton candy) so I opted for dark and light purple, blacks, soft white and a little grey. I went a little overboard with purple curtains because my mom insisted white ones would be useless. Unfortunately, it turned out my purple ones were useless too (letting all the light in/and views of my half-naked old man neighbor), and are now being used to cover stored furniture.

I really want a canopy like this that I stole from The Lovely Undergrad. That sheer fabric should be really cheap to buy by the yard, and christmas lights in soft white are like $5- $10 at CVS come the holidays. I love it cos the twinkle lights double as a good reading light so i don't have to push my desk up to the bed and adjust my desk lamp to do that.

As for the rest of my amazingly unfurnished apartment, Bargain Barn, Goodwill, the Kresge Giveaway, graduating senior donations and the always 50% off store on Front Street might just be the solution with a little decoupage. I may or may not have purchased a year's worth of 1994 Nat. Geos on eBay for $5 including shipping for this purpose. Now I just need some modge podge, patience and time.