it’s been a week since my little blog was thrown in as “collateral damage”. after a few days of confusion and frustration, i finally got my own domain. and i finally get to publish the post that’s been waiting patiently in the drafts folder since the academy awards concluded last week.
i am not jinxed after all… after the two american idol male contestants and the cool girl i’ve been rooting for failed to get past top 24 and top 20, i considered the idea that i might have jinxed them. but after my hopes from another entry were realized in this year’s academy awards, i knew superstition doesn’t live here.
congratulations to kathryn bigelow, the first woman to win best director!
avatar didn’t pull another titanic on us. congratulations to the hurt locker for winning best picture!
Read the rest of this entry »
good luck on your upcoming bout against clottey, pacman!
online jewelry retailer bijoux de lou has restocked her boxing ring… uh, ring.
in a previous entry about this ingenious piece of boxing fanaticism, i mentioned about boxing glove charms. i have always wanted that. well, bijoux de lou just happened to address that want:
ok, i used to like vera wang, now i positively adore her. she was in last night’s idol studio audience. she happened to outfit michelle delamor for that episode.
in a white top that looks like a miniature version of vera’s opulent wedding gowns, cropped motorcyle jacket, cutaway gloves, black tights and leather boots, michelle took on a biker bride ensemble and was obviously the night’s best dressed contestant. i wonder, will vera wang come out with a line of ready-to-wear like this? i sure hope so.
meet artist kat layno from the philippines. she just turned 25 yesterday (happy birthday!). she has done work for the likes of marvel and sadlittles. yes, pinoy fanboys, you have a female comic/manga/whatever artist in your midst. but hold your horses, this one’s taken.
when i crush, i crush big time. and the fact that tyler grady just doesn’t quit talking (even to his very own disadvantage) gives me enough fodder to nurture the grudge. i just love catching up on sore losers! oops, i don’t mean sore… i mean bitter. though i know he claims he isn’t. i have no problems with bitterness. i myself am bitter about a lot of less significant things in life.
this is how i like my celebs. bitter, deluded, odd and bratty enough to throw the judges under a bus. oh, and shamelessly plugs his other racket when given the chance. in other words, his hometown band, wailing waters.
last night, i was nervous for lacey and jermaine. i was confident about lilly. i didn’t even think about tyler’s chances. and he was eliminated.
excuse me, i am in a state of mourning.
although i wouldn’t have been surprised if either he or jermaine was eliminated (or even *shudder* both of them in one night), seeing neither of them struck a very good first impression. i just didn’t think tyler would be gone this soon. admittedly, he didn’t do very well, but having taken the judge’s comments to heart, i think he would have put his act together. he was very good-natured accepting the criticism, didn’t bother disagreeing like most other contestants, and even said he’d go to the mall to get a more current wardrobe. he was right when he said perhaps the constructive criticism was too little, too late. if the judges had a problem with him being all 70′s and poser-y, then they shouldn’t have praised his swagger and his duds all through the audition season and hollywood week, shouldn’t have made all that positive reference to jim morrison as if that image would go through well on stage. i mean, how double-minded and inconsistent can they get? kara especially. someone should just gag her.
i also feel sorry for ashley rodriguez. she is not my favorite, but i have to admit that she has one of the best vocals. and good looking too. there were talks going around pre-live show that she just might be the next idol, seeing she’s got the whole package. but we all know the show is known for surprises and voters are not necessarily the ones who talk, so i am not going to make any bold predictions of my own.
anyway, i blame tim urban for ruining tyler’s chances. and to think he wasn’t even supposed to be there in the first place. golightly should have been replaced by thaddeus johnson. no, i’m still not over it. if you go around the idol blogs, you’ll find tim urban fans saying how they voted for him over 200 times because he was so cute and had tears in his eyes and he looks like the cover of james patterson’s fang. it is so unfair to put one through based solely on looks, but that’s showbiz. if the disney crowd wants to spend their money on votes for mediocre contestants, that is their prerogative. but here’s the thing: i wouldn’t mind some bubblegum cutesy making it far (like david archuleta; i didn’t like him, but can’t blame the voters) as long as said bubblegum cutesy has the talent to back up the privilege. on that note, i wish these girls get swayed towards aaron kelly. better yet, alex lambert, if he musters up enough confidence to charm the camera.
like any other idol season, i am given to new favorites once the live show starts. while i am still rooting for jermaine, lacey and lilly for loyalty reasons, i find myself looking out for these two as well:
paige miles
The New York Times Arts Beat blog speculated on Thursday that because “Idol†producers have lavished plenty of airtime to some contestants and neglected to show others, that the singers with the least amount of time in front of the audience will fall away quickly once the viewers start voting. The blog post was titled “American Idol: Who Won’t You Be Voting For This Year?†The writer singled out Miles as the most obvious answer to the question since she has had the least amount of face time with America of the 24 finalists. from here.
as one fan commented last week, america won’t know what hit them come tuesday. paige miles clearly has the most powerful vocals. while many spoilers online for weeks put paige dechausse into the top 24 (the one with the asthma/anaphylactic shock back story), only few were able to point out that they had the wrong paige.
i believe the only airtime paige miles got was during group day. remember that “battle” between two groups who sang lady gaga’s “bad romance”? where one group (with todrick hall and siobhan magnus) accused the other (with paige and thaddeus) of copying their song choice? of all the preposterous accusations.
i love underdogs. that’s the truth.
lee dewyze
the paint sales clerk who got his big break. exceptional vocals. i thank simon for saying he performed best the other night.
ok, i just think he’s hot. at least he doesn’t suck at singing!
my hopes for the second night
jermaine should go back to his gospel/soul roots. i still think the best we’ve seen him was during his first audition in boston.
i’m not really into casey james, but i seriously loved him with the blues guitar on his first hollywood solo. he should do that again.
i want to like andrew garcia, i really do. as i had expected, the same people all over danny gokey last year are all over andrew garcia this year. like my friend maje and my husband. no, he is not pinoy, his wife is. wait, wife or girlfriend? whatever, the mother of his child. he will pull another “straight up” on us and i will seriously like him.
judges should be more consistent with their comments. i’m hating it.
excuse me while i grieve for the elimination of tyler grady again.
after he said he will go to the mall and after showing up during rehearsal in a bathrobe because he misconceived rehearsal as wardrobe time. i love this guy, i do. he was robbed. the way michael johns was robbed. the way sundance head was robbed. robbed, i tell you.
it’s tim urban’s fault. and the disney channel.
paige and lee photos from american idol.
tyler grady photo from top idol.
on this very crucial night, i would like to formally declare that i am stalking the following live show contestants:
tyler grady
the broken wrists guy from the boston auditions. starting to look like the token rock dude of the show, one who wears 70′s polyester shirts and walks like morrison. he played drums for a band called wailing waters in his hometown of northampton. as his injuries kept him from playing any instrument, he got the chance to perform as frontman.
this is grady’s third attempt at the show. two years ago, he didn’t even make it past the prelims (sounds like that “bubbly” singer we know very well). last year, he managed to get a callback but was rejected after that. as they say, third time’s the charm.
jermaine sellers
the church singer who takes care of his ailing mother. finally, a serious r&b contender again. although i think thaddeus johnson sang “man in the mirror” better. i still can’t believe thaddeus was cut.
anyway…
sellers has signed a few record deals in the past (i think the earliest was at age 14) but none has been produced into an album. when his career looked as if it wasn’t getting anywhere, he performed in cruise ships (i think the royal carribean). last year, he took part in bet’s “sunday’s best”, finishing 2nd runner-up in the contest.
he’s the guy who threw a semi-diva fit at the band when the song wasn’t played according to his specifications (way to go, church singer!). thaddeus was the one who glared at the band with “i’m not bubbly… i’m man in the mirror.” i still can’t believe thaddeus was cut.
lacey brown
remember the sing-off last year with my then favorite megan joy corkrey as the judges trimmed down the pack to 24? here’s the girl who didn’t make the cut by the skin of her teeth.
as she sounds closest to megan joy and amy winehouse and squirrel nut zippers and billie holiday, she is obviously my favorite girl this year.
lilly scott
the sandwich gal with platinum blond hair and peacock feather earrings. she sings and plays guitar in a band named varlet. if you check her myspace, you’ll find that her songs have very weird titles. and that one of her heroes is “amy winehouse on cocaine”.
just like lacey, lilly also has that jazzy tone to her voice which i like a lot. i wish she and lacey and megan joy come down to fiji.
and what’s up with rejecting angela martin?
she has a fantastic singing voice, a pretty face and she has the back story to end all back stories!
want a rundown of what angela has gone through?
the first time she made it to hollywood week a few years ago, her father tragically died, thus discontinuing her participation. angela’s father was murdered by her own stepmother.
the second time she made it to hollywood week, she got a summons for a traffic violation.
on top of that, her daughter suffers from rett syndrome and her mother has been missing since december 26 last year.
catch up with angela martin here.
thank you, ellen!
photos from americanidol.com.
i haven’t been up-to-date with my posts. i have failed to cover the grammy red carpet (which is my favorite of the year!) and haven’t written anything about the past four cities in the a.i. audition tour. i don’t mean to neglect the blog, it’s just been a very rummage and search and learn week. i didn’t even imagine i’d be up to my armpits with things to contemplate on in a place like this. but hey, them’s the breaks.
fortunately, my husband decided to surprise me with a weekend at an island resort for our anniversary last saturday. fortunately, my mother-in-law slipped and let the surprise out the day before that. because i don’t like surprises. but i do love resort stays very much.
we spent two days and one night in sonaisali island resort. it’s the same resort where our cousin celebrated her wedding.
we were able to score a marvelous deal on the accommodations and an even more incredible deal on the meals. we stayed in a bure with a huge room that included a king size bed and a large wicker sofa set. we also had a terrace and an entry porch overlooking the waters that separate sonaisali island from the mainland. activities like paintball, beach volleyball, billiards and jungle cruise were available apart from the usual water sports and recreation.
i’m not posting this entry to review or write about the experience. i relaxed, loosened up and willed myself to do nothing at all, i didn’t even bother making a mental rate of the resort. all i know is that i like the place a lot and i love the food so much, i’d probably go there another time just to eat.
i just want to share the sundresses i scored from ukay-ukay and wore to the beach.
even the espadrilles i wore were from ukay.
that’s watching the wellington rugby 7s with my husband (which fiji won). he took a few seconds off the game to snap this photo. i think the whole of fiji was at a standstill that night, the way the philippines is during pacquiao fights. i hope i made my thrill palpable enough. i really don’t know how i could appreciate rugby, perhaps i should just stop trying. no use feigning interest, right?
that’s how determined i was not to be bothered by anything.
when we got home, the family surprised us with a cake. we didn’t touch it during the night because we were stuffed from the complimentary meals in the resort. we had it for breakfast the next day though. and since our wedding last year was severely simple (meaning we just gave our oath, signed the docs and ate lunch), we decided to prop the camera on the kitchen rack, grabbed the opportunity to snap a photo of us cutting a cake together. with a kitchen knife.
happy anniversary to us!
although it is one of this era’s most hackneyed words, i try to avoid “chic” as much as i possibly can because i am not even completely aware of its modern sense. its literal meaning is easy enough to grasp, but i don’t want to use it simply to get with the fad lest i misuse the darn word (like the phrase “in fairness”; more than half the people who dispense that daily aren’t even using it in the proper context).
at any rate (hey, there’s another over-used phrase!), i went on over to good old merriam-webster to get its operational definition.
chic, noun, 1: smart elegance or sophistication especially of dress or manner, 2: a distinctive mode of dress or manner associated with a fashionable lifestyle, ideology or pursuit, 3: a faddishly popular quality or appeal.
chic, adjective, 1: cleverly stylish, 2: currently fashionable.
in a bizarre development of fashion literature, usage of the word “chic” has embodied its very own definition. it’s almost like putting a mirror to another mirror and witnessing the infinite reflection. or something.
however, knowing its definition is only half the story. now we have to contend with its application. as you may already know, the word “chic” these days has a widespread reputation as an affix to other words that denote a particular style. below are some of the more notable partnerships.
of course, the idea is to look stylish and elegant, not victimized by certain categories. for instance, too much boho may look hippie-flower child (which i think is cute but i wouldn’t be caught dead walking around town in); too much military and you’d probably be better off wearing the official-issue fatigue uniform; too much goth… well, you get the drift. every now and then, we can treat ourselves to an indulgent piece (a sailor’s hat, a victorian corset, tribal beads), but it is best to keep the rest of the outfit sensible to off-set the quirk.
boho chic. bohemian style. key elements: vintage, ethnic prints, layers, scarfs, jandals, bangles, beads, multi-strand necklaces, maxi dress, big sunglasses, slouchy stuff like hobo bags, oversize cardigans, knit caps. colors: rich warm colors like brown, khaki, cream, deep orange and olive green.
casual chic. sometimes easy chic. dressed down yet stylish; combining casual wear with fashionable dressing. probably the prevailing style in 2010 catwalks. key elements: mostly for comfort like denim, linen, khaki, cotton dresses, tank tops paired with pieces and shoes in season. color: timeless neutrals, black and white with palettes from the runway.
eco chic. use of ecologically friendly materials in the construction of clothing and accessories. key elements: fair trade items, organic materials, reconstructed clothing.
geek chic. the look of geeks, once regarded as unpopular and socially awkward, has become cool by today’s standards, thanks in large part to real geeks amassing fortunes in the infotech industry. key elements: thick-frame glasses, crew-neck shirts, denim jeans, cargo pants, sneakers, surfer fedoras and baseball caps; minimal or no jewelries at all. graphic prints of video games, anime, cult films, graphic novels. colors: muted tones.
goth chic. gothic dressing can be morbid and macabre because it takes inspiration in the victorian manner of dressing for mourning. normally associated with emo and the new punk. key elements: leather, dog collars, victorian lace and ruffles, amulets, macabre jewelry (skulls, pentacles, occult symbols), fishnet stockings, thigh high boots, corsets, gloves, stovepipe hats. colors: black. sometimes with a sudden show of scarlet, fuschia or purple.
heroin chic. the emaciated and seemingly addicted look, most popular in the 90′s. thank god that’s over.
military chic. applying military gear into fashion. anything from land, air or sea warfare. elements: metal studs, insignias, emblems, antique buttons, epaulets, bomber jackets, boots, dogtags, nautical symbols. colors: army green, military fatigue, khaki. navy blue, red and white for nautical style.
shabby chic. the look of being worn or “shabby” but in a stylish way. it is usually associated with interior design, though it is also applied to clothing and accessories. “shabby chic” is coined by interior designer rachel ashwell, whose company is called that very same term.
i am currently quite fixated on shabby chic because i feel like redecorating with vintage finds and applying a few “wearing out” techniques on some furniture. which means i will be writing a dedicated entry on that some other time.
when jill posted an entry about restoring her mother’s wedding dress for her to wear on her own wedding day, i was reminded that, as a child, i wanted to wear a vintage gown on my special day too. of course, two decades later, that did not happen. my mother would have loved for me to wear her 1970′s gown (which i love; it looks like jenny’s wedding dress in forrest gump), but fitting into her former 23-inch waistline was an impossible feat. nevertheless, my fascination for vintage dresses has never waned one bit.
i am an avid ukay shopper. i thoroughly scour racks and bravely dig into crates for rare finds. i have been rewarded many many times for my patience and persistence, and i have to say i am quite proud of myself for being such a cheapskate sometimes. here in fiji, we are as big an ukay culture as the philippines, if not bigger. in all the second-hand outlets i’ve been to, there were evening dresses and prom gowns and formal wear on top of the usual casual and day wear, something i didn’t see quite often back home. two of these outlets even had wedding gowns. well now.
as the turn of events revived my fervent interest in vintage pieces and my ardent love for discovering beautiful pre-loved things burning as always, i went to my favorite vintage shop online, posh girl vintage, to look around and sigh at the dreamy wedding dresses. i may have exhausted my opportunity to wear these wonderful items, but there might be some of you out there who may like the dresses i found:
1950s organza tea length wedding dress
1950s designer wedding gown
1950s marilyn monroe halter dress
1960s empire flowy wedding dress
1950s white silk and lace tea length dress
1940s ivory beaded wedding dress
1950s white tea length wedding dress
1950s white strapless chiffon long gown
1950s tea length lace wedding dress
1950s perfect white tea length dress
1970s long hippie angel dress
and my favorite:
1950s pink and white princess gown
*sigh*
Enter your email address:
Delivered by FeedBurner
Subscribe to i am shallow
