TCM

There is nothing better than sitting all bundled up on the couch on a cold day watching TCM.

For those of you who don't know what TCM is, it stands for Turner Classic Movies, the best channel there is (aside from the Food Network...) it shows old movies all the time complete with an often brief, and sometimes long background usually by Robert Osborne.

Now, Robbie used to be an actor and now he is the host and resident film historian at TCM, and he is awesome at it.

Anyway, because we are poor students, we can't afford the fancy cable, where you get all the specialty channels, instead we have to settle for the basics, and Rogers-On-Demand, which has become my single favourite tool ever. You see, Rogers-On-Demand has recently let us watch movies on TCM, for FREE.

These movies are:

Breakfast at Tiffany's, the classic movie of love, New York, prostitution and drug rings. In this movie Audrey inspired every girl who has ever seen this movie to want to name her cat Cat, and parade around Tiffany's in the wee hours of the morning with sunglasses, pearls and a danish.

The Graduate, the movie that made Dustin Hoffmann and Mrs.Robinson famous. Of course, like many other classics, this movie isn't what you think it would be. Not only is Dusty ambivalent towards Mrs. Robinson, but he also could really care less about anything, except Elaine. Now, I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it, it's a stellar movie and it makes me want to own a little red convertible and drive it up and down the Pacific coast until it dies.

There is also the movie In Cold Blood, based on the book by Mr.Capote. Now, I have yet to watch the movie version, but the book was amazing. It was creepy and chilling and I very highly recommend it to anyone who has not read it.

-ariel.

AWOL

Well, since I've had relatively little work to do in January, and finally had the scrapings of a social life, I have been rather missing from the blog. Apologies. Now that work has begun again (or should have last week - Sorry Mom), I'm sure my posts will become more frequent again.

Currently on the roster is tons of Stats, my Philosophy essay on the Propaganda of H1N1 (ya ya I know... bad ass), and a History of Political Thought essay. My PoliSci essay is contrasting Machiavelli and Hobbes' take on religion as linked to politics. I decided to Google Hobbes + Religion because after reading the chapter 'Of Religion' in Leviathan, one is needless to say left with more confusion than before. And instead of being miraculously informed on what exactly the hell Hobbes was trying to say, I fell more in love with the internet.

THIS is what came up when I google searched "Hobbes Religion":

Back in Middle School (okay fine all of High School) when I was a babysitter, one of my neighbours had almost every single Calvin and Hobbes comic book. They didn't have cable so once the girls would be in bed, I'd read the comics. I forgot how AWESOME these strips are. They are applicable to every part of life... from hating on school (see above)

to nerding out about science...

to explaining the complexities of supply and demand ...

Yes, the political nerd in me LOVED this last one. Whatever.

Alright. Now back to the "real" Hobbes, Lord give me strength...

(I just want to wipe that smug grin off Hobbes' face...)

-N

An Equation

+

=

(on a slightly smaller scale, with the flames inside the stove)

I realize it wasn't a forest fire, but I was reminded nonetheless of this fantastic childhood commercial:

-hilary

Baking

I love baking.

If I could, I would bake cakes and loaves and cookies all day long. I wouldn't do any work, I would stay in the kitchen, listening to happy, upbeat music and bake delicious smelling things.

Take right now. I am sitting in the house surrounded by the delicious smell of chocolate chip cookies and only a couple of days ago I baked a wonderful banana-chocolate loaf and muffins.

Why does life have to get in the way of cookies?

-ariel.

Ooo La La

My journalism assignment for this week: Find someone different from myself and introduce them in a 400 word profile.

Voila!

Scantily clad in lacy, purple polka-dot lingerie and shiny black stilettos, burlesque dancer Koston Kreme captivated audiences with her flirtatious style of dance Saturday at Ottawa’s Sexapalooza, but it wasn’t her outfit or her routine that had people in Lansdowne’s Exhibition Hall amazed.

In front of a few hundred people, Kreme writhed, wriggled and stripped down to a pair of shiny purple pasties, all while seductively spinning a shiny silver hula-hoop around her trim torso.

The 26-year-old is a member of the Ottawa area burlesque troupe Rockalily, and has been perfecting her unique style of dance for the past 2 years.

Kreme says she realized her knack for the hula-hoop while trying to get back in shape after a nasty break up. She says she remembers being skinny as a kid, so decided to do the things she used to do when she was young – and thus began her mastery of the hula-hoop.

“I learned how to take my clothes off while I was hula-hooping because it gets hot when you hula-hoop in your apartment in front of the TV for too long,” says Kreme.

After hearing about Rockalily from a friend, Kreme, who’s always had a passion for burlesque, says she originally wanted to work behind the scenes.

“I didn’t think I’d have the…guts to do that, but it looked and seemed like so much fun, and all the girls were really confident so I figured I’d try it out,” she says.

Now, she says the only problem she has with her burlesque dancing is her family’s reaction to the occasional publicity she receives.

“My family found out because we were in the Ottawa Citizen and my grandma read it,” she says with a laugh. Since then she’s decided to take her mother’s advice and only use her stage name Koston Kreme in public.

So what’s the best part of burlesque dancing? Kreme says for her it’s the confidence boost she gets after performing. “Everybody always gets off the stage and feels amazing about themselves.”

Kreme says that the ladies (and one man) of Rockalily plan on expanding this year. “We’re trying to make our shows bigger and maybe a little more often,” she says, adding that the troupe plans on adding a Montreal show to their line-up and possibly embarking on a mini tour.

“We try and have a…variety of people…we don’t want a bunch of skinny little girls,” says Kreme of Rockalily. “Everybody in our troupe is completely different and brings something completely different to the troupe.”

- alex

The Bachelor

Being a house full of six girls, we are obliged to indulge in some girly, giggly, man-crushing time at least once a week.

With such a commitment, we were all extremely happy when a new season of The Bachelor premiered a few weeks ago! As I type, Amanda and I are sitting on the futon waiting to see what psycho things these girls are going to do to get this "perfect man" (who needs to be on a tv show to find his soulmate, hmmm...)

The sad part is that I think we all genuinely like the show. Half of it is us being pathetic girls and loving sappy shit like this (the bachelor just kissed a girl while hanging from a bungee cord after jumping off a bridge, how stupidly cute is that?)...the other half is us LOVING watching the overly-dramatic things these girls do to try and impress Jake (bachelor).

The Bachelorettes are all, obviously, super crazy (with the exception of the one we all like - the one sane girl in the house). We all really like that Jake cannot detect the crazy in some of them, and seems completely oblivious to the crazy-eyes he gets from some girls. Especially this one:

Ridiculous, right? How can he not see it?

And I would like to end this post with a quote:

"I just had the best date of my life today. The only day that will top this one will be the day I marry Jake."

I JUST BARFED EVERYWHERE (and sadly love it).

-hilary

Suit up!

As some people may know, I am a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother. After recently watching the last episode, with a very lovely tribute to suits, it got me thinking: suits are awesome. Not only does every man look infinitely more handsome in a suit, they also look more put together, more charming and altogether more desirable. So, here is a tribute to my favorite men in suits...

Alec Baldwin.

Not only is he hilarious, but the man can wear a suit. No matter how old he is getting, his voice keeps getting deeper and the suits keep him looking good.

Robert Downey Jr.

He is Iron Man, Sherlocke Holmes, a badass and can rock a suit.

Jimmy Stewart.

He is by far my favorite old-time actor, and boy can he wear a suit like it's nobody's business. Notice the TWO women on his arms.

Neil Patrick Harris.

As Barney Stinson he was the inspiration for this post, he brought the suit back. Suit up!

Jon Hamm/Don Draper.

When I think of sexy suits he pretty much epitomizes it. I'm sorry Cancer society, but there is absolutely nothing better than a man wearing a suit, holding a scotch in one hand and a cigarette in the other...

ariel.