Needles and Feathers

On Saturday, Emilie got a tattoo she had been waiting over a year to get, its on her other ankle and its a peacock feather. She had brought a drawing with her when she had made the appointment, though it was rather static and the tattoo artist made some fantastic changes to it. Made it more organic to follow the natural curves of the body.

This is a picture when he, Olivier the tattooer, finished the outline and we all agreed it looked great.

Random picture of where this was all happening.

The man at work.

The tattoo is meant to be black and grey but with touches of colour throughout the tattoo. This is when the black and part was finished. She was a bit of pain by this point, and it had already been about 3 hours and the top of the foot is rather sensitive.



This was the last part of the whole process, he was adding the few colours inside and highlights. The ink is quite bright when you see it starkly in their bottles, rather surprising actually, this was my first time in a tattoo parlour and seeing someone getting inked in real life and not just on televisions. I have to admit, I had never thought myself someone who would ever get tattooed, but being there, it's made me a little bit more curious and interested in the possibility of getting one. Just maybe.


When all the pain and waiting was over. This is the final product. Granted, its not a great picture and will hopefully snap some better ones when I see her next. She now has a nice piece of work and I believe is very happy with it. If your curious, we went to this place called Tatouage Iris, which is on Ontario St East.

My Second Life

I've been really lazy lately when it comes to writing. I'm afraid to admit that I'm addicted to Second Life and making clothing. Which kind of freaks me out on some days, I often find myself running the program in the background but not actually participating in it. I recall watching, well I didn't actually watch it, but I remember hearing about several news programs talking about second life and different aspects of it, like whether it was unsafe for younger people, like teenagers. Though, I don't think there are any repercussions to it, its quite an interesting learning experience. Well, I have to say, for certain people it can be unsafe, but most keep it within the game. Of course, there are things that I even find weird and unsavoury but it all depends where you hang out and with who. Its also an interesting business platform, I've opened a little shop and sell some of my clothing, which isn't something I had planned or had the intentions to do several months ago, and now I keep thinking of bigger things, the next step so to say.

This is where one of my stores is, if your interested. It's called Issues with TACT. Kind of geeky with a mix of more classical fashion inspirations. If your interested in talking to me, the name is Marianne Stenvaag.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Esoterica/60/73/28

Childhood Nostalgia

When i was a young kid, maybe 3 or 5, i used to watch a show called, Passe Partout. Its a little kids french show and its the cutest thing ive ever seen. Kinda weird and random... but cool none the less. Its funny that Lisa wrote a blog about Looney toons and animaniacs and how she used to love watching it as a kid because just today, i was at my great aunt and uncles house celebrating new years day. It was pretty fun. I watched tv for a little while and caught the show, Passe Partout and couldnt help but stop to watch the entire show. It was really awesome!!! I wasnt able to find the real thing, but i found a passe partout spoof!!!

Bye Bye

Every now and then we come across figments from our past, sometimes by ourselves or by the grace of someone else. My brother sent me this, something from our childhood, an ultimate classic, the Looney Toons and anamaniacs.

Funniest Video Ever!!!!! (not recommended for children)

Raw Sugar

I remember reading and hearing something about the fact that one of my favourite bands, Metric was releasing an album that they had recorded back in 2001 but that was never released. Their first official album was "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?" featuring songs like "Combat Baby" and "Dead Disco" which is a crowd favourite at their live shows.

This new-old release is entitled "Grow up and Blow Away", I have to admit, I didn't place much thought into it until I heard the song "Raw Sugar" on CBC Radio 3 (why does this not surprise you? - because your addicted - ok maybe a little)and instantly loved the track. It has a much different vibe from "Live It Out", it isn't as rock inspired as that album, I found that many of the elements are traditionally found in pop, including a catchy hook. One of my favourite lines, which happens to be in the chorus is: "I don't want to die living in a high rise grave".

Here's a little clip from the song:


I think I should buy the disk and listen to some of their other songs and while I'm at it, I should purchase "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?" since I'm ashamed to say I don't own the CD.

My Birthday

There are great birthday's, alright ones, and some that simply suck. I have to say that this year, it is most definitely the latter of the three. Things simply have not worked out the way I wanted to, first, there were some issues with my friend Emilie, so what we had planned unraveled rather quickly, so ended up staying home on Saturday night, and then on Sunday, the family and I were supposed to go out for supper, well that wasn't possibly because the massive amount of snow we got, so we stayed home once again.

Last night, Monday, I wanted to go see one of my favourite bands, Plants and Animals, and had been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks. So we catch the bus, after walking in knee high snow, only to realise afterwards that we could have avoided that by passing through the garage tunnel. Thankfully, the snow was plowed today and we now have a clear pathway. So we get on the metro, my brother and I that is, and we make our way downtown to do a little bit of shopping before the show, so we get off at the Eaton Center and I manage to buy something before the stores close, though not much else.

My brother spent his time the Game Workshop shop, which is basically where people play this thing called Warhammer and play with little miniatures. I don't really see the point of this game but my brother seems to enjoy it, so thats good for him. Though, it's surprising how expensive it is for just little pieces of plastic.

So we get to St-Laurent station just missing the bus by a few minutes, so we have to wait 15 minutes before the next one, so we decided just to wait outside, since it wasn't too long. Though, what we didn't know was that buses weren't being very punctual or predictable. So after waiting 45 minutes and no bus, we decided to just head home.

Little did we know, that once we got to Jolicoeur, that we would run into a very similar problem. We would end up waiting, at least in the cover of the station, which in reality isn't that warm but at least we had cover from the wind. I think we waited another 40 minutes to get home. The bus skipped through the regular route because many of the smaller streets had yet to be plowed properly.

We finally made it home around 11:00pm and in a bad mood, since I didn't get to go to the show and because of all the waiting. It was just no fun.

So tonight we were suppose to go out for supper, though, this has been unfortunately canceled do to the fact that my step-mom is stuck at the airport waiting for her cousin or something and she has the better of the two cars. The other isn't very good in winter conditions.

Happy Birthday to me!

All Can be Pickled

I was actually at the Tate Modern when I was in London, it was actually the last place I visited, I'm ashamed to say that I wasn't paying too much attention to the art and sculptures around me, I was more then a little exhausted at the time, though if I was there now, I would like to see this. Kind of reminds me of Emilie's cow heart, though, just a tad bit grosser.

Damien Hirst donated 4 of his works, including a copy of his previous exhibition of a sliced calf and cow, named mother and child.

The video is for people with a strong stomach.



Of course, some people would argue that this isn't art, but just someone being sadistic and calling it art. Though I have to say, sometimes, thats exactly what art is, completely and utterly sadistic. Its a fact but we don't always notice. Works like these cause you to feel some kind of emotion, hate, disgust, sympathy, confusion and maybe admiration. Thats the purpose of art, to get a message, a sentiment out to you and make it what you wish.

The Birds and the Bees have gone wild!

I can't even begin to tell you all how many times i've laughed in peoples faces when they say, "It's okay, i won't get pregnant because he pulls out before he cums". I'm sorry... but this is the lamest thing I have honestly ever heard. There should be a law stating that people who have not been properly educated on sex should not be allowed to have sex!!! Honestly. Anyway... haha enough rude-ness from me.

I had to register for my next semester at college today, and I had to pick a complimentary class. The course i wanted to take was "Psychology of sexuality", unfortunately it didnt fit into my schedule the way i wanted it to - seeing as how i wanted a 3 day weekend haha. Anyway... I ended up picking Sociology... which will be fun i suppose.

In talking to my boyfriend about how sad i was to not be able to learn more about sex - seeing as my knowledge on the topic of sex is... well.. fantastic... (I read too many sex-ed books) he told me about a funny video that his brother had shown him. I think EVERY teenager in... 7th grade should watch this video. In fact, i think that the school system should make it manditory to watch this movie. It's very educational... AND it's funny.

Enjoy everyone!!!

Youtube Scouting

I was watching these video's and finding them kind of funny and while I was watching the 'Friends with God' one, I noticed the bedspread which happens to be the same one my parents owned a few years ago. This made me think that he might be from Montreal, he sure did sound like someone from here and not to mention the name Jon Lajoie.
Problems with God, imagine if he was your friend.


Just an average, normal guy.


But why not add Rapist glasses to your wardrobe.

Virtual Clothing Galore

It official, I've been spending way too much time in Photoshop creating clothes for Second Life. This is a recent obsession of mine. It started, slowly, a few weeks ago when Chris was making some tattoo's and clothing for the game and I was mightily impressed by what he was making. This is when the idea of making my own clothes popped into my head, but I didn't act on it right away. It took a few more days, when I met someone how was attempting to make their own clothing as well and they referred me to a great website for SL tutorials. (Link)

So I tried my hand at making a simple black t-shirt, which, I have to admit looked like total crap but I was learning about the templates and trying to line things up, this has to be the hardest part of making clothes for SL.

After a frustrating couple of hours with unsuccessfully creating something decent. I tend to want to understand everything at once which never works out great, so I let it go and didn't return to it for a week. Now on this attempt I tried to understand the templates a little more and the alpha masks. So I made a copy of a corset from one of fashion books and turned it into a shirt. (More here).

Although, those were just silly attempts and I think I really have the hang of things now. I've made quite a few decent outfits. They look great, though I'm more then a little biased when it comes to my opinions of the clothing since I made them after all.

Here are a few of the outfits that I've made.

This was my first real try, I think it looks great. Kind of geeky looking but I love it.

This is my most recent try, it's hard to see all the detail on the shirt, but you get the main gist of things.

Every time I see this one, it almost reminds me of a racing suit.

This is the most colourful of the bunch. Kind of has a fun twist to it, and all inspired by the belt buckle.

There are several most outfits and I'm sure my list will simply continue growing. I'm considering opening a little shop up to sell some of these, that might be a little fun and maybe get some kind of business going. I think Emily is considering trying to make some clothing as well, she just needs to re-install it on her computer.

Though, I need to come up with a name for my venture.
Anyone got any ideas? I'm coming up empty on names.

And, if you were wondering that is my avatar in the pictures standing in my little forest. If someone was interested in contacting me or even buying one of these in SL. You can email me or IM me. My avatar's name is Marianne Stenvaag.

Heart to Heart Continued.

I hope all of you aren't too freaked out by my crazy project. I really enjoyed doing this. As Lisa suggested, it's probably better that i explain my sculpture, rather than have her do it for me.

First off, i'd like to point out the somewhat obvious. What icon is used when thinking about emotion??? A heart obviously. People relate to the heart as the organ that makes us feel emotion.

When somone passes away, the emotions... the feelings that you had with that person are left behind. And so my project represents an urn with a preserved heart placed in the ashes of a loved one - Dont worry they are wood ashes..... So it basically just represents the preservation of the emotions and feelings you shared with that person when they were alive even though they've passed.

I used the hard edges and pointy-ness of the shapes at the top of the pedastal to show how we hold onto these emotions and want to protect them from people. The curvieness of the legs of the pedastal play off from the organic shape of the heart. I also wanted the contrast of the red of the heart against black of the sculpture to show the realness of the heart. To show that it was very much alive.

And lastly, the stitching in the heart represents how the heart used to be open... ready to create and take in new emotions, but now its been closed off because it can obviously no longer feel without its vessel. The stiching can also represent the healing process of someone after losing someone they cherish.

All Too Spicey

When I was talking to Emilie, we ended up talking about concerts and shows, since I'm a big fan of going to see a great band. I explained to her how it was a little funny how over the past few years I've been moving my way down in venue sizes, my first show ever was at the Metropolis which is a good size venue, about 4000 people. After that show I attended a few at Le Spectrum which is sadly no longer existent and being replaced by a shopping mall, and then I went to the Medley, Le National, La Tulipe, the Main Hall, Ukrainian Federation which is rather large and now often end up is restaurants with back rooms for music or bars.

Though, I've never been to the largest venue in the city, the Bell Center which actually shocked her. The reason for this is because there was never anything I wanted to go see there but I might be going soon since Em is a big Mika fan and I kind of like him, so we are probably going to see him in January.
The conversation strolled along and she sprang on me that she would like to see the Spice Girls. Now, I will admit to the fact that I enjoyed the Spice Girls when I was 8 and listening to their cassettes on my little yellow radio and dance and sing along in my room but I never saw them live and kind of glad I never did. It would be embarrassing as a lover of independent music to say that they were my first show, but i can proudly say that it was Franz Ferdinand back in 2004.

Would I go see them now?

I'm not sure. I suppose there would be a nostalgic aspect to going to such a big commercial show. I'm not ready to jump on the band wagon just yet. I think I might need a little bit of persuasion.

If you need a little reminder, these are the Spice Girls in their classic (unfortunately) video for Wannabe.


I found this interesting article about them, well more about their voices. We all know that the pop world is plagued with lip synching and much more focus on what your seeing than what your hearing. Though, if you are listening in most cases when you see a band, you'll know that there are imperfections is a singers tone and voice quality. Of course, there are nifty ways of bypassing this trouble and keeping the voices sounding perfect using computers that will monitor their voices and adjust and implement their perfect previously recorded voice when they go off key.

I suppose, I don't really consider this kind of commercialized pop music actual music. Since there isn't any attachment to the songs, they just have a catchy hook and that's it. All stays flat, there's no depth or soul to those songs.

Heart to Heart

Today I spent the day with Emilie down at Dawson College and I have to saw we had a good time. We spent one half of our time having a good time over lunch and other half wandering from art studio to art studio. It was nice to be in such a setting again.

When I was there, she was just giving in her sculpture for end of term and I was a little shocked and somewhat disgusted by what she was planning. Hopefully she'll post the meaning of her project in the coming days. I could explain it but its much better if it comes from the creator. Though, I am going to post the pictures that I took of her somewhat Gothic, ash and heart creation. Maybe I should just place a slight disclaimer about the project. It's not something for people with a weak stomach because of the cow heart which is all too real.

The following pictures follows the installation of the heart into the urn.

Unwrapping the heart, which was frozen and in a lunch box. Nice lunch.

A view of the ashes from above.

Clearing the frost from the frozen heart.

Gently, gently now, don't want to drop it and get ash all over the place...
Well that's kind of what happened.

View of the heart in the plexiglass.

Side shot.

Full shot.

And finally Em looking more than happy with her slightly dark and disgusting sculpture.
Very nice.

Christmas Wishes

All I want for Christmas is...Money?

Yeah, thats right, I really have enough stuff to satisfy myself, I need the money for the trip I'm currently planning. I really have everything I need on the physical part of things, I have my camera, my bag, a good pair of shoes, decent clothes (could use updating, but no rush), plenty of books to read and not to mention a great computer.

I suppose what I would like is to spend more time with my friends and family.

I've been hearing a lot of different opinions lately, on how Christmas has become a rather stressful time for many and how we seem to accumulate more than we actually need or want. Just giving gifts because we feel compelled too and because of the pressure of society.

Its great when we give something to someone and we know for a fact that they'll love it, there's a certain sense of joy in that.

Well, just celebrate how you wish to celebrate.

Stars Aren't Too Bright

Last night, I went to see Stars at Le National and the show was sold out. When I arrived, the place was already buzzing with anticipation while I was only demurely excited to see them play. I can for certain that this show doesn't top my list of favourite concerts, its not to say that it wasn't a bad show, it was decent for its size and type.

I suppose my real problem was that I was never that much of a Stars fan, they've released quite a few albums but I only really got into their latest album 'In our bedroom after the war' and even then, there were only a couple of tunes that caught my ear, notably Personal, Life 2 Unhappy Ending and The Ghost of Geneva Heights. They played two of those, and was glad for it because I barely knew the other songs. Since they have a long history of music in Montreal, they have a long standing fan base and with quite a few records behind them, there was a lot to choose from and of course some favourites.

There was an odd point in the show where the lead singer, when finishing began going down verbally on someone in the crowd, something along the lines of "You leave him the fuck alone" and "You know jumping is a sign of joy, so you let him fucking jump", I assume these were designated at a security guard trying to call someone down.

Something else of note was that they played the longest encore I've ever witnessed. Usually during the encore bands play about 3 songs but I'm certain they played at least 5 or 6 songs.

Overall, it was a good show, though I don't know if I'll see them again.

I took a few photos, but I wasn't standing very close, so the photos aren't great.

Stars in my Eyes

I'm excited for tonight, I'm going to see Stars at Le National, it should be good.

I should post some pictures and maybe my thoughts on the show when I get back or within the next couple of days depending on my status when I get back.

Burst of Colour

I was actually planning on today's photo session on images all relating to the word purple, but I came across some great colourful images that I just wanted to share. As usually I looked through countless Flickr galleries to find images that would fit the theme. Though, you might have noticed that the last photo essay I did also had to do with rainbow coloured images, well, the options where just great to refuse the kaleidoscopic display of bursts of colour.

Lights by Lady Vervaine

Gnomie Gnomes by Jek in the box

She Dances in Veils by RedHeadedBrat

Colours of the Rainbow by yellowrubberduck

Hello Everyone by yellowrubberduck

Norouz by alirezanajafian

Candy by Pink Sherbet Photography

Happy Girls under a Rainbow by Pink Sherbet Photography

The End of the Rainbow by Mactastic

Garden Shoes by Giamarie

Synthy Sounds vs Head Banging Vocals

Of course, everyone might know by know that I listen primarily to independent Canadian music, and if you didn't know this, than you haven't been paying much attention over the last several months. There are many reasons as to why I enjoy this kind of music rather than what we hear on the mainstream stations, I suppose the main one would be because I've never fit in with the mainstream crowd and I decided I'd go out and look around to see what else was available. I preferred what I heard and saw, so I stuck with it.

I've been listening to a lot of great music lately, and wanted to share another of my finds. Both of these bands are kind of connected via their members but very different sounds. First off, is Shout Out Out Out Out from Edmonton, Alberta bring the vocoder back from the fringes.

"Shout out out out out = two drummers + four bass players + two samplers + five synthesizers + one vocoder. volatile dance music." Which is pretty much all you need to know, apart from the music is awesome and really makes you dance around. Oh wait, they already said that, no harm in repeating.Its very synthy, well how can it not be with 5 synthesizers, right.

I remember hearing an interview with them on a podcast from the folks over at CBC radio 3, and he said their music was kind of inspired from one of the member's dad's music in 80's. It's not the kind of music you listen to for beautiful melodies or sentimental lyrics, its really just dance your ass off kind of music (3rd mention of dancing). If you like bands like LCD Soundsystem, Holy Fuck, Tiga, you'll probably dig Shout out out out out.

If your into a more dark and moody rock with a bit of good foot stomping, then you'll probably prefer The Wet Secrets, which is a side project of Lyle Bell of Shout Out Out Out Out (I have no idea how to acronym that, SOOO?), you'll also find Whitey Houston and Trevor Anderson of The Vertical Struts in this formation. As most side projects are, then tend to become a little more than that with time, developing into full time commitments.

"Seven days, ten songs, and 21 cases of Stella later, five people took to the stage at Seedy's in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and played for just over an hour to an enthusiastic, dancing crowd. On March 24, 2005, a document of their experiment was released to the public as A WHALE OF A COW, a ten song, original CD recorded late at night during that fateful week of writing and rehearsing."

So what started out as a fast paced project, they now have a bit of recognition to what they created. I quite like their music and the little marching band look. In comparison to SOOO, they use some real instruments like trombones, trumpets, guitars, drums and there is a little bit of synth going on too. During some songs like "Grow your own fucking mustache asshole" and "Easy prey vs. Sex Manics", you just feel compelled to scream/sing along to them, to stomp your foot on the floorboards and to thrum your fingers on your desk.

So those are my newest finds for this week. Enjoy!

Flash Flash Flasheroo

Alright people, so heres my newest blog post!!!!

While at school i sometimes have to go through long periods of waiting until my next class. To kill some time i visit several websites in hopes of finding some new exciting games to play! This game is one of my favorites!!!! It's called... Flash Flash Revolution!!!! I bet you all can guess what game it ripped off from!!! thats right people... Dance Dance Revolution is now made available to you for your fingers ONLINE!!! challenge your friends who live anywhere in the world to play you!!!! No more getting all tired from hopping around!!! No more twisting your ankle!!! Just use your fingers on the arrow keys!!! It's super fun and the website has many different songs to pick from!!! Go play Flash Flash Revolution!!!!

If you aren't into FFR, theres also the option of playing.... PacXon!!! Its a newer and cooler version of.... PACMAN!! thats right folks. No more being limited to going through a little maze eating yellow balls of glowing who knows what! The objective of the game is to trap the ghosts in boxes!!! I've personally never made it past level 13!!!! See if you can beat me at PacXon!!!!

I never really left

Okay, just to get this straight, I Emilie Foucault, have never really left the blog. Like i mentioned maybe 2 months ago, i've been having rather large personal problems and was taking a break from blogging.... my school work is clearing up and my stress level is starting to get to a healthy level so i WILL be blogging very soon. I've got a few interesting topics i'd like to talk about. I give my greatest and most sincere apolagies to all our readers. Thank you for the patience!!!

Emilie

An Addition

I've got some great news, someone is brave enough to join our collective, my good friend Chris who happens to live across the pond. He'll be displaying some of his own art and getting his ideas out there.

Welcome!

Collection Day

Collection of random videos found across the spectrum of the internet.

It's a Woman Thang. I just like the feel of this video, colourful, cutouts and collages. All good fun, the song it pretty good too.


This is kind of a cool thing, called Women in Art. Where paintings of women in famous and not so famous works of art are morphed together.


Quarterlife, Part 1. This is actually really interesting, its about a girl who blogs about her friends, and they all find out about it which causes some problems. There are a few episodes. Check it out. Its like an online tv show.


Just a song that I love from a band that I adore. Monster Hospital by Metric, the video is awesome as well.


I seem to be a little tight arsed when it comes to art and photoshop. I know a few people who rather enjoy creating drawings and paintings in the such a program, it certainly has its advantages considering there's plenty of room for mistakes. But while I was looking for clips of Girl with a pearl earing, the movie, I came across this video which is someone recreating it in photoshop. Of course, the painting is a masterpiece and a Jan Vermeer, no one will be able to recreate it. The book is quite good.


The trailer for the movie:

Long Ears

My neighbor has wind chimes on his deck, but the strange thing is that I can only hear them from one room in my house, which is the second floor bathroom. It's either I only notice it then because its quiet, no music or television. It doesn't really bother me that much I always think about it when I'm there and its the only time I hear them.

Help Wanted

Well, since Emily has in fact ditched me with this blog, I'm looking for someone who might be interested to guest on here every now and then.

Just to understand, there's no money involved, all I need is someone who might be interested in helping me write on the blog, since I already have a solo blog, I don't really need two.

Just email me please.