back and begging for stuff.

so i'm back. feel bad for my extended hiatus, but it was essential. my last month has been hectic. full of assignments, exams, physie highs and lows with some work mixed in for good financial measure. all except the latter are over now for another year and i can't wait for 2011 to begin. EXCEPT for chistmas. it's pretty wrong that my first post back is grubbing for presents but as my sister is scared of shopping for my gifts i now present you with my updated list of summer/christmas must haves.... well things i must have.

i'm known now for my love of internet shopping and it really is a simple reason. i like stuff no one has or, maybe even didn't think they wanted until they saw it. 'hipster' is a disgusting word, but i really am one. combined with a huge dollop of geek for good measure. which is where i will begin.

battlestar galactic was and will always be my favourite show of all time. when it ended my sadness was cushioned by its sister show caprica. a few years ago bsg released 2000 limited edition cylon toasters. they sold out and to get one now you will be looking at a price tag upwards of $500. so, instead of maxing out mums credit card, you can now get cylon toast from a caprica toaster here. on sale for a measly $65.   

MODEKUNGEN are an amazing swedish brand. although, their site is entirely in their native tongue it is reasonably easy to navigate. this is their handvaska med nitar undertill bag.... no idea how to say that but has me going, oooh pretty. the brand suits my post-punk loving self but is still classic enough to be rocked with a cardie. will set you back 899 SEK or $132. another reason to shop online, our dollar rocks!

i'm a bit confused as to why i want these israeli desert boots. maybe i think they will make me look like ziva off ncis. meh for $70 it's well worth the consumer indulgence. palladium boots have some other rather less conventional shoes going on here and they are all very well priced considering how well made they are.




it just isn't summer without new swimmers and sunnies. this year black milk will supply the former and ray-ban the latter. the red galaxy one piece really does sell itself. just look at its amazing weirdness, and will set you back $85. quite reasonable, no? the black milk brand really is amazing, it's site is a print lovers dream. check out their other swimmers and leggings: R2D2, Astronauts and Skeletons.

ray-ban's have been on my christmas list for years and years, and i haven't really ever bothered to ask for a pair because they were simply too expensive. well the american dollar sucks and they aren't as out of your reach as you may think. a pair of wayfarer 2's will cost you $145, have a look at their many many colour options for two tone magnificence.


'think geek' really is nerd heaven. as someone who habitually loses book marks and even the book itself, this find could not have come at a better time. the book rest lamp is everything i have ever dreamt of and more. well, not really but it is very cool looking and more importantly nifty. combine this with a pac-man alarm clock, going to sleep and waking up will never be the same again.


now, please excuse my indie indulgence but i just must have these shirts, to turn into singlets.... well for mum to turn into singlets. kurt cobain and count duckula. bit of a questionable combo but still, these both make me squee with love in two very different ways. firstly, the daniel johnson shirt worn famously by kurt cobain is the personification of my disenfranchised teenage years. ooh the angst. and count duckula, well it's count duckula! possibly the best children's show EVER!

onto dvds and books. stocking stuffer essentials. let's pretend for a second that i have room in my apartment for anymore box sets and/or novels. hypothetically, it's not surprising that i need every season of waking the dead, peep show and jam and jerusalem. the english really do comedy and serial killers better than any other nation in the world. ebay is always worth a look for box sets, even after you consider postage, you can save a considerable amount of $$$. penguin classics are always a cheap and cheerful addition to any christmas morning. 'wind and the willows', 'madame bovary', 'journey to the centre of the earth', 'middlemarch', 'mrs. dalloway' and 'decline and fall' by evelyn waugh have been on my ebay watch list for the past month or so.

lastly, as i sit watching the first day of the ashes i'm reminded of the fact i have never EVER been to see live international cricket. for something that played such a big part of my childhood summers. so i'd love tickets to go watch the english FINALLY get what is coming to them. ticketek have some very good deals for families and even a concession price for us poor university students. a silver ticket as the SCG will cost you $90 for an adult (and $77 with concession).

well that's it. hope these sites give you some ideas for presents (not just for me, though keep me in mind) that might be a bit out of the box but fit someone you know and love.

wine wine wine.

there are many things in this world that me and my father do not agree on, but thankfully wine is not one of them. there really is nothing wrong with wine. i actually think sometimes that homeless wineos have the right idea.... ok so maybe not, but they do get to drink an inordinate amount of wine, the amount of wine i wish i could drink were it not for the sheer fact that my uni grades would plummet and i would probably get fired from my job from either being pissed or recently pissed.

however, i digress. red wine is the best wine. there really are no down sides, aside from the yumminess and being drunk the only thing that could even approach being more exciting is the lack of stress when buying a bottle. if you have stress about picking a bottle to consume then, well you are an idiot. there is no other perishable good that has such a simple code for its scale of shit to awesome. THE PRICE. its right there, on the bottle following the $ sign.

don't worry, i'll explain. you walk into a bottle shop, its full of sluts in ugly shoes (oh so yes, maybe i am retelling my recent trip into wollongong for alcohol) and you stand in front of the 'shiraz' section. a few hundred bottles stair back at you. which to choose, which to choose? hmmmmm. now here, is where my stress just fades away. a cheap bottle of wine, lets say under $10 in australia is RUBBISH. but if you want to marinate some brain cells, a good choice because you can get 2. now above $10 is my price range. i like a $13 to $15 bottle. affordable, red, and most importantly will not taste like lighter fluid. from here up i'm not really interested, but they get even better.

the more expensive the better the wine. it really is that simple. all this fetishisation of wine is bourgeoisie wank. i blame the french! i also love the french for this. they do pleasure well and have inserted a handy system for wine goodness.... so thank you france.

stay tuned to my next thrilling blogpost regarding my love of cheese.

wish-list!

so summer is coming and i couldn't be more excited. summer fashion, sand and my albino skin rarely sit well with one another, but i have found some amazing new things that could just make this season bearable. slut wear, it seriously just not me. a winter full of stocking, scarfs, army boots and skinny jeans are much more up my ally. still, my latest finds give me hope for the coming sweltering season.

and. here. we. go.

(top to bottom: SHIN MultiDress $198, Necklush Inkdrop $74, Galibardy Apple Ring Red $34, Paola Loves To Shop Subway Map Wayfarer Sunglasses $10, Black Milk Cape $70, Underground Fred - Cuban Heel Gold Beat Boot $79.50)

acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk!

an hour ago, a free copy of klaxons new album, 'surfing the void' happened to fall into my computer shaped lap. a 'laptop' if you will. i know it has been a while since i raved about a band and their music, this has been mostly due to the fact that no one recently deserved my praise. the klaxons do! their much anticipated second album is amazing. cited as a band with the complex and aptly named musical genre, 'acid-rave sci-fi punk-funk' speaks to everything i love. combine this with some amazingly odd fashion choices, my love runs free.

get your hands on a copy of their album! if you haven't heard of them, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? in prison? a coma, perhaps. well, if so you are in need of a serious musical education. one, you can find here. or just check out their new single, 'echoes' official video below. could be just me, but i feel the need to run through the desert..... i never feel the need to run. disturbing.

is that...? O.M.G!

....another one of the reasons we love stephen fry. he inadvertently introduces us to some very cool people like, THE STROKES.

(l-r: albert hammond jr., caitlin, fab moretti, nikolai fraiture, me and kathryn)

julia gillard, will you be my prime minister?

the lovely kathryn said that yesterday and i think it perfectly sums up how i, as a card carrying labour party member, feel about the massive shift within the federal party that took place last night and then today. two days is all it took for mr. kevin rudd to get shived and replaced by his deputy.

i do have two concerns. one, that my blog post not two days ago might have had a hand in bringing down krudd. ha! just kidding but, in the span of 12 hours australia has been witness to a seminal event in our political and cultural history. today we have our first female prime minister in julia gillard, an atheist one at that. 'hooray!', i say. feels like all my dreams have been answered. still, a lady prime minister? australia has been, compared to the rest of the world, conservative on the subject. what were we all so worried about? that if we elected (or not, in this case) a female pm that one day, in the future, she will snap because she is having a bad hair day? she lives with a hairdresser people! don't worry about it.

this leads me to my second point. as far as i'm concerned, concentrating on gillard as the first female prime minister is a good thing. this is a good day for feminists and people who believe in equality within the workplace and in this case, the political arena. what i DO have a problem with is all the unnecessary crap that the media has begun to bring up because she is a woman. so she isn't married, doesn't have children, favours a nice pants suit and has red hair.... exactly how are these things essential when crafting policy and/or communicating with the public?

it shows a desperate opposition leader, when his point of attack is that the new pm can't relate to families because she isn't a mother. conveniently forgetting, that she is a daughter, sister and aunt. as far as the media's impending attack on her looks well, lets all remember the women that have previously walked in their sensible heels as leaders of their country, before the new australian pm. though, not thatcher. i'm still pretty sure she is actually a man in drag. isabel peron, golda meir, sirimavo bandaranaike, gro harlem brundtland, benazir bhutto, kim campbell, edith cresson, luisa diogo, helen clark, michelle bachelet, cristina fernandez de kirchner.... the list goes on and on. these are names of women who were either prime ministers or presidents and have lead their country since the first woman was elected to such a position, in sri lanka, 1960.

the rest of the world seems, quite rightly, comfortable in choosing a woman to lead them. to choose how their hard earned tax dollars are spent, are represented overseas, that public health and schools are well cared for etc etc etc. but first, if this person is a woman we must judge her outfit and connect her ability to run a country with her capacity to have unprotected sex and then 9 months later push a small human out of her vagina. are the two things really connected?

the answer is no. the liberal thinking people of australia (aka. voters with a soul) should be applauding this move for a more stable leader in julia gillard. a leader that has tony abbott asking his aids how exactly you spell, 'capitulate'.

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for a far more eloquent account/opinion of these recent events check out the blog siesta on the pilar. you know, in case my ramblings didn't make that much sense.

who knew she was so sensitive about naked jokes.

after watching 'national treasure - book of secrets' yesterday, which is pretty good by the way, i noticed that there are a lot of things that helen mirren does well but, unfortunately an american accent in not one of them. also, the other thing i decided was, when i get all old and wrinkly i will aspire to look like helen does today!

now, i know she was pretty famous for taking off her clothes a lot in her long, interesting and prolific career but she is also a credit to her craft. minus the bad accent in the big disney movie she is rather wonderful. so here comes a mini list of her best -> the queen, state of play, elizabeth (mini series), the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, calender girls, gosford park, the hawk, where angels fear to tread, pascali's island and caligula (one of the worst movies ever, only surpassed by 'sex and the city 2').

iphone 4!

as a mac convert and gadget geek the iphone 4 is making me drool with anticipation! it is rather wonderful and a complete revamp on the previous generations. boasting more vibrant retina display, 'masking', hd video recording and editing, a 5-megapixel camera (with a led flash) and 'ibooks'!

but the thing that they have finally included, what nerds everywhere have been asking for has been realised. VIDEO CALLING! aaarrrhhh! the future is here and it's bright, compact with not a silver spandex unitard in sight.

follow this link and check out what it has to offer, in detail! its making my iphone look disgustingly retro. might go and put snakes on it. boooo to my little consumerist soul.

bring on november!

harry potter and the deathly hallows, bitches! going to be epicly dark. first look at bill nighly as scrimgeour, griphook and john hurt as ollivander is back! can't wait for more footage. check out the first official trailer, though i'm not exactly sure what happens to the sound at the end.

i heart you, maggie smith!

i also love that my uni degree (the fun one) allows me to watch movies as a requirement for assessment. anyway, the latest big assignment that i'm doing with alex is organising a film festival centred around a genre. hence 'hagsploitation' was born. well, we didn't invent it but we are bringing it out of obscurity for all to bask in its amazingness!

maggie smith is my favourite of all favourite actresses' of all time. in the movie 'keeping mum' she is a great modern example of hagsploitation or 'psyco-buddy'. in this movie, comedy is mixed into the genre well and proves that nana violence and laughs can go hand-in-hand.

maggie is a credit to her art and that fact that a grumpy cynical indie snob like me can fall for her charm and grace is inspiring. my first beagle puppy will be named in her honour!

goodbye luddy, HELLO huddy!

ok so house fans, SPOILER ALERT! don't watch the below vid if you want to be surprised by the shows latest instalment! if not, and you either don't give a crap about the show or love to be spoiled then check this out! this episode was shot using a canon 5d mark ii. the cameras comparably compact size allowed them to shoot in a much more confined space and also made the film easier to process and manipulate in its digital form.

so this is the very last scene of the episode, 'help me' and season 6. can't wait to see what the next season holds. it's an all new ball game! hooray! go david shore! bucking the 'moonlighting effect' as the piece of crap that it is!