Brother's Keeper 10th Anniversary Edition

This movie envokes so many emotions!  It's a documentary based on 4 brothers, all well into their 60s.  They have always lived together in a one room farmhouse and farming is all they've ever known.  One of the brothers has died.  The state of New York investigates for murder.  The simplistic nature (illiteracy for example) of the remaining 3 brothers leaves them in a horrible state, they waved their rights under investigation and signed a confession for murder.  The movie follows the charged brother as he goes through trial, and the effect on the remaining two brothers as the town collects to help defend them.  

I'm not going to ruin it for you.  I'm just telling you to watch this movie.  You will not be disappointed.  It's heartbreaking and uplifting, and you can't help becoming attached to the main characters.  It also makes you think about what defines right from wrong.  

Watch it.  

A few knitting projects that I've finished

I made these Mary Jane slippers for my friend.  They knitted up quick, only took about two nights to do and were very easy! I also realized how hard it is to take a picture of one's feet.   Here's a link to the pattern

If you look in the picture above you can see the work in progress that became a finished scarf for the BF.  It didn't seem like I was making any progress (as scarfs often go) but I guess last night all of sudden it was long....long enough to call it good and done!  This scarf took about two months on-and-off but now that it's done I'm so glad he can have something that will last a long time.  It's super soft, squishy, and warm!  Let's hope it stays cold for a while so he can still wear it! :D (Martin kitty also likes the scarf...)

So I haven't blogged for a while now....

Man has life been keeping me on my toes.  The end of January was quite up and down, with unexpected changes that will hopefully be for the better.  Here's what I've been up to (well the happy things, anyway):

Lil Wayne:

Went to Key Arena and saw Lil Wayne perform with T-Pain, with Gym Class Heroes as the supporting band for wayne.  Was a totally awesome show, aside from the G string of the quite large girl in front of me.  Wayne not only is an amazing performer, but also had a freaking flame thrower on stage!!!  It was really fun watching his interactions with T-Pain, who I find obnoxious and completely entertaining.  

Went down to New Orleans on Valentine's Day with the BF.  It is Mardi Gras time, so we had a load of debauchery and drunkeness!  We ate a ton of great food including etoufee, beinets, fast food new to me (krystal's, whataburger, and checkers, all of which blow all other fast food burgers out of the water!!!), ate some fried crocodile, which wasn't too bad actually, and blackened redfish.  My God, it was GOOOOOOOD.  Drank some bloody mary's that put some hair on my chest and contained a salad of yummy pickled vegetables.  Here's a pic of some Krystals...I don't really remember taking it, but I know that it was damn tasty.

We also stopped by the Aquarium.  It was a lot smaller than I had expected, but the shark tank was very cool, and there were lots of little exhibits that were fun to explore.  The seahorses were particularly fun:

We also saw Hank III and Dr. Dog while in NOLA.  Both shows were quite fun, but Hank III was AWESOME.  He can really put on a fun show.  I took this pic but it didn't turn out as lifelike as being there (go figure):

For one day we left Louisiana and drove over to Mississippi and Alabama, where the BF is from.  We stayed in Mobile for a night and went to a few bars.  On the way over we stopped and took a swamp tour!  It was so fun, saw a few gators (see the beginning of this post for a pic of a 3 year old croc) and lots of white egrets.  The swamp was beautiful in its own way, and being the mountain girl I am I was a bit surprised at how easy it was to fall in love with the harsh environment of marsh and swamp.  Here's a few pics:

Fall City, WA

We've been watching Twin Peaks.  I can't get enough of it.  Netflix is fast, but I'm so impatient!  Actually considering buying it, it is that great.  Anyway, today we drove up to Snoqualmie Falls and unfortunately it was covered in fog!  Argh!  And it was sunny in the city!  That was a good laugh.  On the way back through Fall City we stopped in at the saloon in the middle of town called the Last Frontier Tavern.  What a place! What a dive!  It was a great stop.  I'm pretty sure that I will get a beer there every time I'm in Fall City (which, counting this trip, is one time so far).  The tavern is old, with little pieces of time hung from the ceilings and walls.  Old boxing gloves, roller skates, punching bag, old beer cans strung together, old pictures, a vending machine where you can buy a ballpoint pen for a quarter, are all scattered about with countless other things.  It was cool.  The people in there are what you can expect-  friendly, talkative, already drunk and not leaving anytime soon and it's 4:30.  haha.  It was pretty fun, and entertaining for sure.  

Guess I'll have to adventure back to the falls sometime this spring or summer when the fog will be clear!  This is what it looks like on the show, and real life too I suppose ;)

2009 is going to be good....and a new Pavement reissue!!!

It's been a while since I last posted.  Happy New Year, 2009, it's been great so far.  Went to the coast last weekend and got drenched looking for glass floats!  It was messy and fabulous.  Left my wallet in a cab on New Year's at 3 in the morning after a long night and got it back in ten minutes by the same cab driver!  Amazing so far.  Hope everyone out there reading this (one person maybe, ha) is also having a great year so far.

AND.......

Pavement reissue!  wOOt!!  Brighten the Corners.  With 29 new tracks!  Stokage.  I realize not everyone is a Pavement fan, but I'm a very happy lady.  2009 is going to be a good year.

Shopping, shopping, shopping!!

Well, I'm doing the best I can to support the economy during this recession going on.  I went out today with BF and did my darndest to spend as much money as I could.  I'm not sure if that's the very best thing to do, but that's what I did anyway.  I bought some books, four new video games for the PS3 --Mercernaries 2, Grand Theft Auto 4, Call of Duty: World and War, and Madden football, which I can guarantee I won't be playing much!  Also bought Clockwork Orange on BluRay (which I think I'll watch tonight) and a bunch of candy from Candy Tyme where you can mix and match all sorts of awesome candy for one price.  It's pretty sweet, no pun intended.  The BF got some sweaters. I tried on about 8 pairs of jeans at levi's but they all fit funny.  I guess it was a bad time to try on pants.  This may be the same for all other women out there, but I think there is about one day of every month that I can actually go out and try on pants and it won't depress me.  ah, well, that's life I guess.  Things could be a lot worse than not being able to find pants that fit right.  Maybe I'll start running again.....now there's an idea.

Tonight I'm going to try to finish this hat I'm knitting.  Right now it's on DPNs, and it's looking quite small, but I'm hoping that once it's off the needles it'll stretch a bit.  Probably will watch a movie and I'm thinking about drinking about a whole bottle of wine.  yeah, it's Saturday, wouldn't kill me to get drunk I spose.

Hope everyone out there got everything they wanted for Christmas.  I got a new camera, an awesome Wonder Woman purse from my bf doomie doom, and a few other things.  My mom also got me the "You: Being Beautiful" which is in line with what she got me last year "You: Staying Young". 

 I particularly like the finger pointing out at me, like "you!  you have improving to do! Yes, you!"  argh.  I haven't touched either gift, the one's been collecting dust for over a year and now I have two of them.  I love my mother, though, her intentions are good.  But, still.  I guess maybe I should just give them a try...?  hahahaha.  Maybe they should make one, You: Partying Your Life Away.  Now there's one I could read.  

New phone! Beautiful new phone! I got a new phone!!!

In case you didn't know, the title of this post is to be read in sing-song!  The BF won some conference raffle something-or-other and got this new phone!  It's pretty nice and has a touchscreen but also has a little pointer pen thingy (thats the technical name if you didn't know that already) which is nice for my nail-biting problem.  I still have to get the internet to work on it.  That's probably a phone call tomorrow...ah, well.

The best part is that he is so wonderful that he gave it to me!  Before Christmas!  And didn't use it as his present to me!  haha! ;)  

I miss my dear friend.

My very dear friend moved to Scotland nearly two years ago and I miss her MADLY.  She might even be reading this now so here's a shout out!!  

Dearest Doomie-doom, 

Can we go to Rosebud and have a sparkling rose?  I think of you everyday.  How I wish you were here! Doom doom doomie doom!

love, 

twinkee 

Knitted fishtail arm warmers!

Finished these this morning.  Whipped these puppies up in a couple of days.  I did mess up a few times, but since they are for me and can hardly notice, I just left the errors.  meh.

Also, how early-90s awesome is that blanket in the background?  It's been around for a while.

Chris Berens

Tonight was the opening of Chris Berens'  Go West art show at Roq la Rue in Belltown.   He is an amazing artist, and I have no idea how he does what he does.  I guess he put pieces of art (1-3 inches long and /or wide) printed off his computer and then puts them together on a wood base. Here's his website, which I'm sure can explain it much better than I could dream.  

This is my favorite of the collection I think.  The girls just look sooo sad!  Maybe it's cuz they have no mouths and they never get to eat food?  Or are they sad because some wierd, sloth-like, pig creatures are flying (without wings) over them?  Or are they even sad?  And that owl/hawk is super chill, y'all.

Seriously though, every single one of his painting are unique and have so many little tiny little details that you only start to notice after staring for a few minutes.  And then you can't look away there is so much design and thought put into every (dare I even call them) stroke.  You can't see strokes.  There are none.  It's just a beautiful image every time.   

RIP Bettie Page

The woman had IT.  She caused a lot of ruckus back in the day and there's something about her eyes that says, "Just fucking look at me, I'm a whole lotta fun."  The total pin-up.  It's what I think of when I think pin-up.  Bettie Page, you rocked it, girl.

Christmas parties

Tis the season for office Christmas parties.  Woohoo, Right?  Wrong.  When they offer a person like me an open bar, it's all over.  Sure, sure there was a hell of a lot of food there to absorb the alcohol I was imbibing.  Unfortunately not enough to sway a hangover away.  I didn't think it would be so bad this morning, but then I puked while dropping the BF off at work...behind a gas station...out of the door of my car.  Um, yeah.  Not my proudest moment.  The worst part was driving to my job with cold December air blasting in my face to stave off another puking problem.  Oy.  And then to work, where the fluorescent lights just beat my headache into submission.  I put on sunglasses.  For reals.  It was that bad.  *sigh*  I guess the funniest part about the whole thing was finding out that after I got home last night I lived in song for a half hour.   Yes, I'm sure that song was so awesome.  

Anyway, I'm back on solid food now so that's just fine with me.  Tonight I'm watching Trainspotting (something about blogging about it the other day...) and knitting a pair of wristwarmers.  Well, working on them, I'm not sure if I'll actually finish them tonight.   

Hope all of you are having safe and hangover-free holiday parties. 

This video is absolutely amazing

You've got to see this video.  Here's the description from the site: "The new short film by Blu, an ambiguous animation painted on public walls.  Made in Buenos Aires and in Baden (fantoche)"

I'm not really sure what some of that means, but it's out of this world.  Please check it out, whoever put all this together deserves some serious respect. 

CLICK HERE FOR AWESOME

Seahawks game

Off to the Seahawks game!  They are playing the Patriots today, and will probably get CRUSHED.  Maybe the Patriots will score 100 points.  Who knows?  I'll be back with an update....

UPDATE:  It was a really good game.  The Hawks, once again, had it within reach with 2 minutes to go.  Then Seneca Wallace fumbled and that was the game.  Patriots 24-Seahawks 21.  What a disappointment.  But we got free Number 12 towels that are bright green!  Free shit!  w00t!  

By the by, it's okay Hawks.  I don't hate you.  In fact, this is one reason why I've been a fan all my life.  I love the taste of almost having victory and then losing it at the last second.  It reminds me I'm alive.  So thank you Seattle Seahawks,  thank you.  

Iggy Pop/Trainspotting...

Trainspotting is on my list of movies to watch in December.  It's such a classic.  Nothing is better than Iggy Pop and Trainspotting together in one video.  Wouldn't that be sweet to watch right now, you ask?  Well, I've gone ahead and found the youtube video so you don't have to even bother with searching.  Wasn't that nice of me?  Enjoy.

IGGY POP DOES LUST FOR LIFE FOR TRAINSPOTTING VIDEO