anthem du jour

le soleil est pres de moi-air

because i feel like it and i can: continued

space, geeks, and johnny unitas. basically my all-time favourite episode of pete and pete besides the nightcrawlers, namely because pete and ellen befriend an alien kid. and i would like to befriend an alien kid.

because i feel like it and i can

oh kirk fogg, where are you now? (note: i don't actually care.) ps, fuck you olmec. i always wanted to say that.



TERRIFYING BONUS: are you afraid of the dark, the tale of the lonely ghost. this one scarred me for life as a child and made me afraid of mirrors, dolls and deaf mutes.



RECOVERY BONUS: because i bet you are scared and you need something uplifting now, right? okay good please enjoy this episode of pete & pete where pete tries to ditch teddy. EXCELENTE! what, you guys didn't know that?

words.

stolen from clare hart-slattery.

beatz and bleepz: the i'm poor edition

well well well it looks like we've got ourselves another weekend. or, some of us do...not me, though. i'm too poor for that shit. instead i will spend the next 48 hours working my face off and not having fun until i build up some funds again (read: next weekend). plane tickets to argentina are wackly expensive (and no, not the good kind of alex perry expensive, either) as i re-learned the hard way this past week. MEGASIGH...goodbye, dollar bills. but hello tunage. at least i've always got that. ps this week's playlist is (generally) lighthearted and discotronic with a double dose of miami horror to open and close us out:

holidays-miami horror
i crave paris-aeroplane
synthetiseur (bestrack nostalgia rmx)-housse de racket
student body (bit funk rmx)-lexicondon
travel light-david e. sugar
dreamin' (jungle fiction rmx)-feldberg
4th of july fireworks (clockwork rmx)-kelis
i look to you-miami horror

and now for some (robot) feelings:
way back home-bag raiders

ausntm cycle six episode six!!!

ugh i have been waiting for this for over 24 effing hours! thanks a lot, foxtel...

anthem du jour

'avril 14' by aphex twin.

marcel the shell with shoes on

welcome to the oc bitch

hangovers provide the perfect conditions for watching back to back episodes of things like laguna beach and the oc. i know this because i'm doing it right now. and i've made a decision. whenever anyone asks me "what are you doing here?" or "so what's your story?" (people ask me these questions ALL the time, too), i'm going to reply with the following ryan atwood monologue: "i stole a car. crashed it. actually, my brother did. since he had a gun and drugs on him, he's in jail. i got out, and my mom threw me out. she was pissed off and drunk. so, mr. cohen took me in." except instead of mr. cohen, i'm probably going to substitute like, kathy griffin or heidi & spencer pratt or maybe that british guy from the magic bullet commercials. i think people will be really impressed with my fabricated dangerous past. as long as marissa cooper doesn't come back from the dead to foil my plan, i think it's going to have really positive results for me.

"what do you want to do?"

so in one final (i hope) attempt to make me turn back around and be a lawyer or something, my mother has taken the time to create a life questionnaire for me. no but really. she wrote it out on a piece of lined paper. that was a nice surprise to receive at 8:30 this morning. but i thought that maybe you would like to figure out what you are doing with your life, too, so i've decided to post said life questionnaire here for you to fill out at your own leisure. here, i'll even do it right now:

1. what do you want to do?

geez, maureen...you get straight to the point, huh? and what do i want to do? so many things but most of them involve styling bailey's hair into a mohawk and/or putting bugles on my fingertips so it looks like i have claws.

2. what are the steps you have to take now to get there?

wait, i know this one! it's like...what is it...you put your left foot in, you put your left foot out, you put your left foot in and you shake it all about...JUST KIDDING! i know those are the steps to get to the hokey pokey. but in all seriousness, i have to take steps towards the grocery store so i can pick up a bag of bugles.

3. are you going to argentina because it fills a gap, looks cool, or allows you to move?

yes, all of the above. but mostly because it looks cool. i only ever do things that make me look cool.

4. how will it further your future?

this one is oddly worded. next, please.

5. can you honestly afford it?

mo' money mo' problems, maureen.

6. are there things in your life that are preventing you from achieving goals or holding you back? physically, spiritually, emotionally?

i shall give you a hint. her name starts with "m" and ends with "aureen". give up? okay fine, it's you. physically, spiritually, emotionally.

7. picture your life in 5 years--where you live, what you do, how much you want to earn...

i want to live inside ikea like a modern-day from the mixed up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler. my career will consist of breaking guinness world records and detangling christmas lights. i would like to be paid in gum and also wishing coins from the bottoms of fountains.

8. how do you get there?

i expect they'll have worked out the logistics of teleportation in five years, but should i be proven incorrect, my backup mode of transportation will most certainly be riding banthas and/or coattails.

9. can you get established here in something and then go take a long vacay in argentina?

no. but i give you bonus points for writing 'vacay'.

10. insurance?

no thanks.

11. SUPER BONUS: who played michelle on full house better? mary-kate or ashley?

mary-kate, duh!

THE END. so do you know what you want to do now? this really helped me and i bet it will help you too. i am going to spend the rest of the day making venn diagrams and flow charts to demonstrate these concepts more clearly. this is my life plan, and yes it is set in stone.

*ps, i made up question 11 but i would have liked it if maureen had taken the time to ask my opinion on the matter.

anthem du jour

i keep changing my mind on this one because i'm extremely over-caffeinated after four hours in starbucks. i got carried away when i found out that refills of coffee only cost $0.53 w/ tax. whoops. anyways, now i feel like throwing up and/or running laps. i also feel like listening to crystal castles because i'll be seeing them tomorrow @ the 9:30 club. so here's 'not in love'. ps fan videos on youtube are weird and people should not make them.

tales from the crips

so sometimes i get ideas for t-shirts and i just had one. ready? east ghost and west ghost tees. essentially illustrations of those shitty sheet ghosts throwing gang signs. i don't care if you think it's a dumb idea, i would totally wear one. THE END. ps i kind of ripped this idea off from some band whose name is east ghost west ghost, and from a modcloth tank depicting siamese sheet ghosts. but none of those guys took this to the next level. NOW THE END.

ausntm cycle six episode five!!!

dear kimberly, you're a dumb bogan bitch and i hate you. also, why do people (i.e. british "i'm good at everything and totally not australian" joanna) like wearing those ugly effing faux fur vests? vom.

ps keep your fingers crossed...

the douchebags over at youtube and/or fox 8 australia have (or so it seems) ordered cassivandendungenfan to shut down his/her account, which ruins my tuesday viewing/posting of australia's next top model cycle six. upset is an understatement. so i'll be focusing all of my energy (which i have failed to exert doing anything productive this entire summer) on willing someone else to upload episode five in a timely manner.

new month's (and country's) resolutions

since august is already kind of a wash (i've been quite the waste of life this month), i've decided to try and make the most of september by planning ahead. top goals to kick-start my new (albeit temporary) argentine life include but are not limited to:

• drink more tea. this will be facilitated provided the weather in argentina is still chilly by the time i get there. either way i expect to increase my maté consumption by 100% regardless of temperature. it's never never ever too hot for maté.

• sleep less. this could mean waking up earlier or staying up later or a combination of the two, but i waste far too much time sleeping and need to alter my snooze patterns.

• hang out in more gardens and parks. again, this will be easier once i get out of such hot weather. although this will probably mean trekking over to recoleta because most of the parks near my apartment contain perverts and/or drunks and/or thousands of gross stray cats. and the botanical gardens in palermo are nice, but ditto the previous sentence's drawbacks. recoleta it is.

• visit carlos gardel and anibal troilo and juan d'arienzo more often since they're buried like a block away from my apartment in chacarita. and maybe occasionally evita, but she's all the way in recoleta and she doesn't really count for a tango pilgrimage like the others do in the first place.

• figure out how to not dislike wine. i mean, i guess i don't dislike it, but i still can't help making a face whenever i have a sip. or if the physical manifestation of that face can be avoided, i still feel at least a little bit like i want to make that face on the inside. culture fail.
  

that's actually all i've got for now. the end.

(twenty) two is the beginning of the end

i'm re-reading peter pan by j.m. barrie which seems to coincide quite nicely with my quest to find (and ultimately reside in) a non-fictional neverland. unfortunately, though, my internal gps system doesn't seem to understand "second to the right and straight on til morning" too well. growing up and throwing up, my friends. i repeat, growing up and throwing up. anyways, this is one of my favourite passages which (conveniently) comes at the very beginning:

"all children, except one, grow up. they soon know that they will grow up, and the way wendy knew was this. one day when she was two years old she was playing in the garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. i suppose she must have looked rather delightful for mrs. darling put her hand to her heart and cried, ‘oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!’ this was all that passed between them on this subject, but henceforth wendy knew that she must grow up. you always know after you are two. two is the beginning of the end."

ain't that the truth...

anthem du jour

golden haze-wild nothing

anthem du jour

face to face on high places-school of seven bells

bedroom trending: sofia coppola films.

"mom found them and bleached out all the kevins..."

anthem(s) du jour

it's a rainydepressinghungoverchinesefoodtastic sunday which, despite the whole debilitating lethargy thing, makes me feel pretty good about life. i just watched lost in translation since i felt it was that kind of day, so the default anthem du jour is naturally 'tommib' by squarepusher, followed up by a bonus 'alone in kyoto' by air (it's not technically the "full" version but that last little bit isn't crucial anyhow. plus i'm going to bank on everyone already owning talkie walkie in the first place...):

growing up and throwing up

so because i had nothing to do yesterday and i have a semi-tight budget at the moment due to astronomical airfare prices to fly to buenos aires, i decided to spend an hour or two rummaging through more creative works salvaged from my childhood. again, i am quite convinced that i was a prodigy. it also appears i was an official member of the ghostwriter team in 1993, meaning i was the coolest five year old on the block (by default). does anyone remember that show? it was the bomb dot com. lenni was such a badass, too. she was definitely the equivalent of claudia kishi from the babysitters club.



here are some other things i found:

• a drawing of a pink and red unicorn which kind of looks like a mutant narwhal mermaid baby. there's also a poorly constructed pink heart surrounded by what i assume were supposed to be frills, but which end up making it look more like an amoeba. then, profoundly, i scrawled "oh miss unicorn, what is hart day" which, misspellings aside, i would decipher as "oh miss unicorn, what is valentine's day?" i didn't know how to draw ?'s, by the way. but this was (and still is) a very thought provoking question. what the hell IS valentine's day anyway? a shitty holiday at best, that's what.

• a beautiful collage done by my sister which includes cryptic images cut out from magazines and catalogs. i mean, i get tom selleck since everyone used to think he and my dad were doppelgangers, but the rest is a mystery. or a mystesprit, if you will. observe:

• an anti-drugs poster that i made probably around 4th grade. i make a comparison of people who do drugs and people who don't do drugs. the straight edge one is smiling and has just scored a goal. the crackhead is 1) a ginger, 2) wearing torn up clothes with holes that were probably supposed to indicate homelessness and poverty, but which i would now equate with the grunge era and/or the incredible hulk, meaning drugs are cool, 3) looking rather angry and has a tornado-esque situation coming out of the top of her head to further emphasize said anger, and 4) has a large overflowing gut which is highlighted by her hulk-esque crop top that she probably either found in the trash or bought from urban outfitters as an impulsive purchase gone horribly wrong. the "drugs" in question include a packet labeled as chewing tobacco, a box of marlboro lights (thanks for the inspiration, pops!) and something that could either be a joint or a mound of cocaine. either way, i went all out on the anti-tobacco campaign more than the pills and hypodermic needles end of the spectrum. the caption reads "drugs are stupid and full of anger!" apparently i was a little confused about the chemical composition of drugs...i'm pretty sure you'll find a lot of shit in them, but i don't know that any actually contain physical traces of anger.
  

• a card made especially for me by the boy from across the street named oliver, age 5 or 6. he and his family were british and they only lived in that house for a short while, but ollie and i were bff's. the card reads "dear megan, would you like to come to my house this afternoon? love oliver." there is also a drawing of a house in case i was confused by the concepts discussed in the message. dear oliver, is that invitation still open? because i bet you are really good looking and still super british right about now, and i am totally available for dates and beans on toast and cricket matches. he also says "look on the back of the card!" so i did, and there is a drawing of what i assume is supposed to be me, although it also looks like a zombie which is kind of unflattering. the torso is tombstone shaped, there are giant green blob arms protruding from the midsection, pink matchstick legs, a scary clown face with blue hair, and some sort of green beret with a yellow flower on top. i know for a fact my hair was never that long, so i'm going to go ahead and say it's not a drawing of me.

• a story written by either my sister or myself (not sure as it is unsigned) that merely says "a long time ago there was a man and a woman. the end." it is addressed "to mom". good one.

• another anonymous note that reads "i love you mom your the best mom in the world i'll never ever do anything that well hurt you or your feelings." misspellings aside, this message was making some pretty lofty promises. this is almost as bad as the sister/best friends for life contract that quinn made me sign when i was 5.

• a polaroid of my sister and my dad hanging out with a baby tiger. why did i miss that? i'm so effing jealous. okay, okay, i probably would've been like 2 years old so there's a safety factor, but i know for a fact me and that baby tiger would've hit it off and had mad suburban jungle adventures.

and so there you have it. more proof that i was a child prodigy who surrounded herself by more child prodigies and british people (synonymous).

fun fact

if i were from australia, my name would actually be pronounced 'mee-gan'. why would anyone think that was a nice way to pronounce 'megan'? aussie fail.

beatz and bleepz: the i'm groggy edition

well it's the end of another boring week, but at least i'm that much closer to getting the eff out of america for three months. since i'm starting my day (and this playlist) at 7:30 AM, it has the potential to sound a lot more like an 80s prom than it would if i was actually awake and could handle heavy bass. we shall see.

supermenz (we're not)-yuksek
hearts on fire (aeroplane pop rmx)-cut copy
my kz, ur bf (grum rmx)-everything everything
baby-zx
fascination (keenhouse rmx)-nightwaves
heartbeat (hierophant green mix)-the vanish
power glove-streets of 2043
beta traxx-mafiosa

and you can judge the shit out of me for this one, but i am OBSESSED with the original and this is my excuse to not-so-subtly blog about it. i am so so sorry:

teenage dream (dj megaman & panic city rmx)-katy perry

sally jessy raphael: text 'glasses' to vote

ten frames, one winner. who will be the next pair of sally jessy raphael glasses? just call this 900 number to vote on this extremely important matter. this is even more important than voting in US elections. this is sally we're talking about here. god, they all just look so different...how will we choose?!? i like her face best in #9.

peter and the wolf short

this won an academy award for best animated short film at the 2008 oscars. i watched it last night on tv and thought it was really great, even though i'm sure the slightly creepy claymation and lack of dialogue will probably be a deterrent for anyone reading this to actually watch it. it's so good though! and the music reminds me of being a little kid and listening to the peter and the wolf soundtrack on the record player in my old house. NOSTALGIA. i am still a little bitter that the duck gets eaten by the wolf, though...anyways, here's the trailer outlining the happiness pre-duck death:

anthem du jour

still incredibly excited for the memoryhouse/twin sister show on friday, meaning you're getting a back to back dose of the songs i hope/expect to hear. although today it's going to be a memoryhouse track as opposed to twin sister. i don't think i've posted this one before...i think the one i did earlier was 'lately (deuxieme)' and this is 'lately (troisieme)' which (i think) is unreleased. i can't tell which one i prefer best as they're both very similar and very different at the same time, but this one just seems to resonate with me a small bit more than 'deuxieme' does. ps this isn't the full song, but the only other video sucked a lot harder than this one:

anthem du jour: the less embarrassing one

so i'm getting majorly geared up for the memoryhouse/twin sister show @ iota this weekend. it has been (unsurprisingly) described as a very hypnotic live experience which sounds like a very good way to spend summer friday. anyways, here's a blackbird blackbird remix of 'lady daydream' by twin sister:



and for a bonus, i'll trhow in twin sister's 'nectarine' off their vampires with dreaming kids EP:

anthem du jour: guilty pleasure to the max

ummm i'm pretty embarrassed to be putting this up, but i really can't help it. do i have the bieber fever? no, no, a thousand times no. but mstrkrft's 'heartbreaker' is one of my favourite songs, and i truly believe that it could even make gilbert gottfried's voice sound good. and so, justin bieber will be making his first and hopefully last appearance on the blog this afternoon. sorry i'm (kind of) not sorry...just be thankful i didn't put up the selena gomez song i've been listening to on repeat for the last week and a half. here's 'heartbreaker baby' by evil mastermind cj milli:

my marriage is o-v-a-h OVAH!

kath and kim is one of the greatest shows evereverever. really though. this is the first episode, but i'd advise watching them all.


Watch K&K-s1e1.avi in Comedy  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

if you believe, clap your hands!

beatz and bleepz: the i wanna go home edition

i'll admit, i'm posting this in large part due to my immense boredom and frustration at this juncture of the family vacation. these things always end up like a weird intervention...the fact that i choose to rot indoors watching lifetime movies and eating ice cream sandwiches is apparently a large concern for my beach bum kin. and to them i say i choose weight gain and weakened eyesight over skin cancer and peeling and finding grains of sand under my fingernails for weeks after i've returned to the mainland.

among other personal imperfections that have been brought to my attention in an ambush style (really...you can't spring the 'what are you doing with your life' question on me in the middle of cash cab...that's just inhumane.), apparently my decision to travel holds no weight in the burns household. because if you can't put it on a resume, it has no value whatsoever. oh, and i'd really like it if we could establish some sort of standard protocol for the appropriate manner to respond to these attacks on my life decisions. because apparently not saying anything at all is me being childish and ignoring the problem, while opening my mouth to respond in any way other than "you're so right! why didn't i see it before! i totally suck! let's run not walk to the next ann taylor, suit me up in business casual attire, and ship me off to the first cubicle that's free!" results in "why are you being so defensive?" ugh. is there some delicate balance i'm unaware of for dealing with these situations? maybe i should've joined debate club in high school...could've killed two birds with one stone what with the oratory skills i'd have gained and the resume building, which is clearly my biggest weakness here.

the cherry on top of all of this is that my iPhone decided to iDie yesterday afternoon...like, not the e.t. kind of dead where its heart does a weird red glowing resurrection thing, but more like the richard gere in unfaithful dead where he kills that guy in the head with a snow globe and then wraps him up in a persian rug and realizes he just made a terrible mistake. so that's awesome.***

anyways, thanks for letting me complain to you (assuming you're reading this, which i will because otherwise i'll feel bad about myself...) because it's a nice break from tearing out my hair. i really think i am adopted. anyways, this week's mix is pretty eclectic with (hopefully) something for everyone provided they like electro. if they don't, i'm not really sure why they're reading this in the first place...

pirate bay-netsky
splash ft. coco (rusko rmx)-sub focus
heard it through the grapevine (zesthal rmx)-marvin gaye
i luv you (george lenton rmx)-dizzee rascal
let it up (databas re-rmx)-cartwall
take me away-chase & status
beating hearts (louis la roche rmx)-ocelot
fast chased-the noisy freaks
monster (richie beretta rmx)-gaga
make me smile (grum rmx)-pearl and the puppets
the island pt. 1 dawn-pendulum
crash-eumig and chinon

extremely reluctant kanye west bonuses that i couldn't resist despite my disdain for him:
power-kanye ft. dwele
see you in my nightmares (rynecologist rmx)-kanye

***it really WAS the e.t. kind of dead and not the richard gere snow globe dead! miracles are real! the iPhone iLives!!!

untranslatable

this week i've been reading a very poorly translated edition of 'la hojarasca' or 'leaf storm' by gabriel garcía márquez. next time i think i'll just read it in spanish. for the time being i'm glad i've been able to pick up on some of the errors because in some cases it makes a fairly significant difference in how a certain passage is read. same thing goes for films...it was especially apparent when i'd watch american movies with my friend juli in argentina. she'd watch them with spanish subtitles, and a lot of the time the translations would be a bit off...nothing too serious, but definitely enough to lower the quality of the work. it's kind of annoying, but i guess it's added motivation to learn more than one language. anyways, here is an excerpt from an article which documents words that are among the most difficult to translate. i like the concept of 'wabi-sabi' and 'torschlusspanik' the best:

• Hyggelig: In Denmark, the word Hyggelig is used often, and is said to be closely tied to the Danish national character. A dictionary will provide translations along the lines of cozy, warm, and nice, but a typical Dane will argue that these words don’t come close to capturing the full meaning of the word. Perhaps a true Dane would like to share some thoughts here?

• Wabi-Sabi: We recently featured an entire blog article on the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi. It is a compound word with a long history, and carries a lot of meaning. Put succinctly, it’s a way of living that emphasizes finding beauty in imperfection, and accepting the natural cycle of growth and decay.

• Duende: This Spanish word has a long and interesting history. It’s original use was to describe a mythical entity that lives in forests, sort of like a fairy or a sprite, that possesses human beings and causes them to feel awe, fear, or a sense of beauty in their natural surroundings. Since being updated by the Spanish poet and playwright, Federico García Lorca, in the early 20th century, it is now used to refer to the mysterious power of a work of art to deeply move a person.

• Saudade: This Portuguese word was also featured in our most beautiful words post a while back. It refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost."

• Torschlusspanik: From German, this word literally means “gate-closing panic” and is used to describe the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages. This word is most frequently applied to women who race the ‘biological clock’ to wed and bear children.

• Tingo: From the Pascuense language of Easter Island, it is the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.

• Ilunga: From the Tshiluba language spoken in south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, this word has been chosen by many translators as the world’s most untranslatable word. Ilunga indicates a person who is ready to forgive any abuse the first time it occurs, to tolerate it the second time, but to neither forgive nor tolerate a third offense.

• Tartle: A Scottish verb meaning to hesitate while introducing someone due to having forgotten his/her name.

• Mamihlapinatapei: From Yagan, the indigenous language of the Tierra del Fuego region of South America. This word has been translated in several ways in English, always implying a wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.

my native tongue (genetically speaking)

you can really kill me this time.

Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind, childhood scene from Marianela Muñiz on Vimeo.

gonna drive until it burns my bones

Burnt Drive Drive. from Scott Foley on Vimeo.

when and where did this occur?

sometimes i jot things down when i can't sleep or can't think or can't do my work or can't function in general. but usually when i do this i'm not myself, so when i read back some of the things i've written they seem completely foreign. kind of like doing something while sleepwalking, or so i'd assume. here are some examples:

• "supermarket sweep i lol'd fake tattoos."
• "the telephone never broke but it just stopped working."
• " i fell through the sidewalk and onto a steeple."

i have no idea what these were referencing or when i even wrote them...they're are all from the same google doc, so really don't know how many others like them are floating around on my hard drive. but i do know that the inside of my brain is a weird place, and i'd appreciate it if someone could draw me a portrait of what exactly it looks like.

ausntm cycle six episode three: THE MAKEOVER

it's the fucking makeover episode!!! ps i realize i didn't do a recap for last week, but i may just start sending you in the direction of an australian blog that does it much better than i can. in the meantime, here is the third episode of cycle six which i've yet to watch but i'm banking on extreme boganisms and bitchiness:

soooooo. booooooored.