wei yan

here is another artist who has a way of compelling and repelling at once. i had so much trouble choosing an image to post here because i love all of the images on her blog (which i can't read, unfortunately, but houses some incredible work).

hikari shimoda

hikari shimoda's precious little freaks are at once repulsive and adorable. i am captivated, yet mildly uncomfortable. you can see more of this japanese artist's paintings here (via phantasmaphile, which you should also check out).

travel tuesdee - the people under the rooftops of the world

... when we left off last tuesday, i was busy birthing myself in india at the tender age of 21. from there i travelled north into nepal, whose crisp air and stunning landscapes were a refreshing dip in the lake. though the scenery in nepal is some of the most striking i have ever layed eyes on, it was the people that captivated me most.

k, one more...

this is too precious not to post.

a video vendredi valentine

so tomorrow is v-day. not really my cup of tea. i'm a spread-the-love-all-year-'round kinda lady myself. but in the interest of appearing relevant, here is my video vendredi valentine to you:

1) otters. love em. here is a pair of them feelin the spirit of the day. you have to watch till the end because the sweetest part is when they drift apart and then reconnect. darling.


2) romantic traffic by the Spoons! here's a dollop of 80s cheesewiz, filmed in the subways of my hometown (toronto)


happy valentine's day!

venredi le 13th

bonjour mes amis. c'est friday the thirteenth. i've got moviepix on demand at home, cuz i watch a stinkload o' movies, and all the friday the 13th series is now available (given that it's friday the 13th). having never actually seen this series of films, my husband and i have decided to plow through 'em all just for sh_ts n giggles. last night we watched 1, 2 and the first half of 3 [we lead very exciting lives], and they were actually pretty fun! for me, most of the appeal is in the retro-cheese factor though, so i'm not sure i'll enjoy the more recent installments quite as much.
moving along... for today's vendredi vid: this is the first 5 minutes of Friday the 13th part III, with a Beverley Hillbillies laugh track added to it. funny stuff.

ph[oto]ursday - bein' bad tastes so good!

photos of nasty food that is sooo bloomin' good. followed by a nice healthy mickey mouse chaser!

pulled pork potato with bbq sauce and old cheddar - memphis, tennessee

fried whole squid on a stick - dou liu, taiwan

deep fried pickles - memphis, tennessee

bisquits n gravy for breakfast (!) - memphis, tennessee

all sorts of delicious good-for-you stuff - taipei, taiwan

wintry doodles

drawn by a girl who was living in taiwan at the time and missing winter for the first time.  

[...me].

some girls wander inside black apples

hump day doodles will have to wait until later this eve, as i don't have any doodles with me at work. in the meantime, i simply must tell you 'bout my new favourite blogger! a young woman whose sites have been a real inspiration to me. her name is Emily Martin and i'm sure many of you are already familiar with her, as she is one of the top etsy sellers and has two very successful blogs, among other things. i first came across her fashion blog some girls wander by mistake a few weeks ago and i've been checking it daily ever since. i adore her sense of style! and as if she weren't adorable enough, she's also a Smiths fan. much love. from there i came to her larger blog: inside the black apple, a gorgeous art/craft/fashion/life in Portland log of loveliness. both sites are bags of fun. you must visit.

33 things that make my heart beat faster

one of the items on my list of ’33 things to do in my 33rd year’ was to write 33 lists of 33 things. this first list is one that could easily have been 333 things, but a girl’s gotta have boundaries, so here it is:

33 things that make my heart beat faster:
1. walking past a laundromat at night and seeing people washing their clothes
2. the sound of my husband’s key in the door
3. bird sounds in the sunshine after a long winter
4. the first crocus
5. a cold lake in the hot summer
6. getting a package in the mail
7. checking my lottery tickets
8. realizing i have left something behind
9. laying my head on the pillow the night before leaving on a trip
10. making my friends laugh
11. getting caught in the rain (do you like pina coladas?)
12. thunder and lightning
13. the open road
14. hotel rooms
15. seeing my order on it’s way to my table at a restaurant
16. a familiar smell
17. misplaced glasses (panic also makes the heart beat faster)
18. arrivals
19. watching Obama’s inauguration
20. rockabilly music (the old kind, not the new ca-ca)
21. when little kids meet my dog
22. thinking of my wedding day (so sublimely perfect)
23. phone calls from faraway friends
24. taking off in airplanes
25. really good cheese (both literally and figuratively)
26. new red shoes (and old ones too)
27. fresh blank paper
28. the smell of a bakery when i’m out and about
29. my husband’s touch
30. bees at a picnic (‘nother panic one)
31. jose cuervo (tee hee)
32. little tiny pickled onions
33. getting my first comment on my blog (which hasn’t happened yet – hint hint.)

i’d love to know what makes your heart beat faster. will you tell me?

travel tuesdee #2

...before i had left thailand, the germs were already gestating (not real germs. i am speaking of 'the travel bug'). all i could think of once i had returned was the smelly tasty world and how i salivated for it. and so, for the next year i worked three nasty/awful jobs (the kind of jobs a 19 year old with no experience is apt to get), one of which was making 'can-o-grams' at a kioske in a mall. blegh. but i was determined. i thought only of the gates this toiling would open. and in the end, the means were justified. my next destination would be India. and as hackneyed as it may sound, India in many ways, is where the person who writes to you now was born. truly. Not because of some spiritual epiphany or citar lessons or anything, but because this was my first time travelling alone, and my first real experience of the world.

i lost my camera fairly early on in my 8 month trip, so the photos i have of India are few. though sometimes i believe that this keeps my memories stronger somehow. i find that when i have a lot of photos from a trip, eventually the moments i took pictures of become all i can remember.

can't talk. comin' down.

turned 33 yesterday. had a magnificent birthday weekend. so very hungover. been rendered too dumb to write. need one of these.

video vendredi #2 - pussycat slow jam

weeeeeeee! F ta the R ta the I mutha lickaaaaaas!!!! it's not just any friday either. it's the friday before my 33rd birthday weekend! yeeeeee! AND it's video vendredi. which i like. and do i have some treats for you! i'm going with a pretty random twosome today, cuz it's almost my birthday and i'll do what i want! the first video is the opening credits to a brilliant british kids show called Bagpus. sadly, the creator of Bagpus, Oliver Postgate, passed away in December (you can read about him here at the Yorkshire Evening Post). this was my favourite show when i was wee (i lived in England as a todd), and unless you're mostly dead inside, i'm sure you can see why.



now then. next we have what may well be the greatest slow jam of all time: Shake You Down by Gregory Abbott . many of you may chuckle when you see this. but you must look past the 1986ness of it all and let go of yourself. the video is heinous, of this i am aware. but there is something about the song that is so smooth it refuses to be denied. and my husband does a version of this that'd have you slappin' yer knee and creamin' in yer pants at the same time.


Unfortunately, i can't find a copy that'll allow me to embed, so you have to click here. trust me, it's worth it.

it's ph-ursday (for lack of a better word for photography thursday)

this is the section where i show off my mad photography skills (jes kiddin'). all of these photos are taken by me, unless otherwise noted. today i feel like sharing my two favourite photos from our visit to the Elvis festival in Collingwood, Ontario. i took tonnes more, but they are mostly portraits taken unawares, and i'm not sure what the legalities are when it comes to posting pictures of people who don't know you took them. does anyone know 'bout this? (not that anybody reads this shit anyway ;)

sketchy

since it's doodle hump day, i'll draw you're attention (guffah, guffah) to 'skine art, a really nifty site that lets you peer into the moleskine notebooks of talented artists like this one:

these are pages from the moleskine of a user named 3rd Foundation. i love the use of line and light. i visit this site all the time. my favourite thing is to press the random button and see what lovely treasures pop up!

hump day doodles!

every wednesday i'll be posting some of my doodles n scribbles. i love to draw, and i have a wee comic i play around with called Hilldebrande's Land, about a chain smoking misanthrope and her dog. i'm readying a separate blog to showcase said comic, the header of which will look like so:

travel tuesday numero uno!

hello ruby tuesday! i'm afraid i missed the first 'motivation monday', meant to bring a little umph to the start of the week. the truth is that i just wasn't feelin it, y'know? and i've a growing suspiscion that i rarely will (be feelin it on mondays), so i've decided to change it to 'maybe i'll write if i feel like it mondays'.

moving on then...

it's travel tuesday!

my first major foray into the world came too many years ago, when i was 19 years old. i went to thailand on a co-op program to teach english and live with a host family there, which was an experience that altered my life most profoundly. here are a few photos from that trip taken with a shite camera and an inexperienced eye.

video vendredi numero uno!

it's our very first video vendredi! every friday i'll be posting video clips for your viewing pleasure. and i'm starting it off with what i consider to be the most beautiful music video ever made: sigur ros - untitled #1 (vaka). WARNING: it is also the saddest song and video ever made, so i have given you a chaser, to be viewed immediately afterward.

"Untitled #1 (vaka)" - Sigur Ros

It's Friday, Yayyy!!! Peewee Wa loves you all!

chasing after bubbles

i am, quite apparently, new to the world of blogging, and it seems that my blog has up to now been flailing about, every which way, without a clear structure of any sort. and so, from here on in, i shall be implementing the following elements here at LLT (in no particular order):

• from now on, i will be properly linking all posted photos. (i'm pretty sure everything i've used so far has been public domain or taken by yours truly. the photo above is public domain, but i retrieved it from a lovely site called Grandma's Graphics, which has a wonderful collection of vintage children's book illustrations. you should go there.) i will also be reviewing each of the marvelous websites i have so quietly posted in my links section (one at a time. this will take some time.)
• the coming year will bring updates on my 33-things-to-do-in-my-33rd-year-list (the inspiration for which came from this fabulous post by Hula Seventy)
• the days of the week will soon be filled with recurring series' to delight the reader again and again as follows:

travel tuesdays: travel is my one true passion in life. had i no limitations, i would wander the earth, never lingering longer than a month or two in one place. 'course i'm not goin' anywhere right now 'cause i'm broke. but i will. and so every tuesday i will write about the places i have been and the places i've yet to go.

hump day doodles: i looooooooooooooove to draw. ima post my doodles on hump day.

ph-ursday: as i've mentioned below, i fancy myself a bit of an amateur photographer. so thursdays are for photo show n tell!

video vendredis: to finish out the week, i will post quirky little video clips that i think might tickle your fancy.

saturdays & sundays: come on. everybody knows that saturdays and sundays are for pickin yer nose and making snow men. not for sitting at the computer.

• and all this icky scary structure will be peppered and tossed with plenty of random spitting and drooling.

ambitious. but i think i can do it.

xo

my favorite buddha shots

taiwan

vietnam

neon lights!

you don't know this about me yet, but i've done a bit of travelling. most extensively in asia, but other parts of the world as well. over the years i've taken a poop-load of photos, and i thought it might be fun to expose some of them to the world, organized in odd little groupings, rather than by excursion. so... here is the first of many:

a karaoke house in taiwan

a juke joint in memphis, tennessee

a tribute to b.b. king's guitar at his bar on beale street

Zoofotos!!!

the view from here

It's a new and glorious year my friends!
And I've decided to lend more of my time to amateur photography...

thirty three things to do in my thirty third year

(inspired by this awesome list posted by Hula Seventy)
(pink = done!)
1. turn my little drawerings into a web comic

2. visit the science centre and pioneer village

3. read at least 2 books (i hardly read at all these days)

4. go to a museum by myself

5. finish painting my apartment

6. take a road trip

7. finish the series of paintings i started

8. get new glasses

9. lose 20 lbs.

10. work on my children's alphabet book and accompanying dolls

11. think a bit more before i act

12. see the ocean again

13. learn html and css

14. go to elvis bossanova

15. send postcards to my friends

16. own a lomo/holga

17. start a photography project

18. make a new friend

19. go camping

20. visit the east coast

21. watch less tv

22. make some guerilla art

23. write more

24. take a self portrait sans clothing

25. eat something new and different

26. make homemade eggnog

27. brush my kitty everyday

28. surprise my husband

29. write a script

30. drink more water

31. win the lottery

32. make 33 people smile (at least)

33. make 33 lists of 33 things (4/33)

a new year is nigh

in not so many weeks I will be turning 33. i find myself inexplicably drawn to this number, and look forward to adopting it as my own for a year. that being said, i will be posting a few prepatory items in anticipation of its arrival. to begin, here is a sprinkling of tiny information nibblets concerning the number 33:

• the number 33 is said to symbolize truth, and that good will always triumph over evil (which is nice.)
• a significant number in modern numerology, it is considered one of the "master" numbers, along with 11 and 22
• those of Islamic faith believe that the dwellers of Heaven will externally exist in a state of being 33 years old
• 33 is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's old number
• in french, italian, romanian, spanish and portuguese, the word a patient is usually asked to say when a doctor is listening to his or her lungs with a stethoscope is 33 (trente-trois, trentatrè, treizeci şi trei, treinta y tres and trinta e três)
• jesus is said to have been 33 years old when he was crucified (in 33 A.D.)
• 33 is the number of innings in the longest baseball game in history (1981, rochester red wings vs pawtucket red sox)
• 33 is the code for international direct-dial phone calls to France
• a normal human spine has 33 vertebrae when the bones that form the coccyx are counted individually