ICONS

On a recent bizznizz trip to New York, I stopped by the Mr. Brainwash ICONS show in the Meatpacking District. I'll be the first to admit that I know nothing about art but I really liked this show despite some of the negative criticism it has received. Some have commented on the striking resemblance to Banksy, while others speculate that Mr. Brainwash is Banksy. Who cares, right? So as the name states, the show revolves around cultural icons. I scored some free autographed posters of some of my favourite pieces like Kate Moss, Charlie Chaplin and Eric Campbell and the Beatles with their faces painted like the members of Kiss! The show is up until May 31 so if you're in New York before then, check it out. If you can't make it, enjoy these pictures (taken by my friend and colleague Joey Ignacio)

Mind the Buzzcocks

Recently I went to see the Buzzcocks play at the Opera House. These legends aren't getting any younger so I thought I would take this opportunity to see them. I'm not a die hard fan or anything but many of their songs are in high rotation on my iPod . I was super exhausted since I had just got back from a trip to New York, worked all day and headed straight to the show after a twenty minute disco nap. They were so good that I forgot about being exhausted and danced to their entire set which luckily included some of their best work from their first two albums. Pete Shelley sounded amazing although his vocals could have been louder...but that's the sound guys problem and not Pete's! The only real disappointing thing about seeing the Buzzcocks was the audience. I wish Torontonians would forget about looking cool and just let loose a little. I don't understand the hand in pocket, head bobbing stance that most of us take even when watching our favourite bands. How can you possibly stand still during a song like this:

Girls against girls

There are so many fundamental differences between men and women. These differences do not necessarily make one sex unequal to the other except for when it comes to friendship. At the risk of sounding sexist, I have to admit that I think boys are better at friendship than us girls. It’s not just the obvious bro's before ho's bullshit (which isn’t exactly bullshit since I am hard pressed to find a girl to hang out with unless her boyfriend has already made other plans) but it’s the way they treat one other. Girls are always comparing themselves to their friends and even worse, competing with them. If you think you have a girlfriend who doesn’t do this trust me she does or at least has, albeit secretly. On some level it makes sense. Evolutionarily, cross-culturally and historically speaking, we are accustomed to competing for mates. While males do this using physical aggression, females opt for social aggression. Think about it! Females tarnish each others images all of the time, commenting on others physically unattractive qualities, promiscuous habits and several other abhorrent traits. Whether or not we can help it, there is a real comradery that seems to be missing from female friendships.

Here’s a comparison of some infamous male and female friendships. Yes I know they’re fictitious, but it’s both fun and interesting to see how Hollywood depicts male and female friendships differently.

Bunk and McNulty from The Wire


These two always have each others backs. No matter what, McNulty always takes care of Bunk when he gets too wasted and Bunk always protects McNulty when he’s in trouble with their boss. They make a real effort to secure each others happiness.

Kelly and Brenda from 90210


These two idiots are supposedly best friends but Kelly has a fling with Brenda’s boyfriend while she’s away on vacation. What a bitch!

Turk and J.D from Scrubs


My dream friendship! It's easy to see why these two are so addicted to each other, they have so much fun together. They have a codependent relationship and actually go through pretty severe bouts of depression when they can’t see one another. Some might find this unhealthy but I think it’s so cute!

Hedy and Allie from Single White Female


Hedy (or should I say, ELLEN) becomes obsessed with Allie and freaks out when Allie wants to move in with her boyfriend. Her idea of revenge is to kill Allie’s puppy, copy her hair style and give her a boyfriend a blow job before murdering him with her high heel! See, girls are evil.

House and Wilson from House


In the interest of fairness, here is an example of a not so perfect male friendship. House is a pretty shitty friend to Wilson but compared to how shitty he treats everyone else, Wilson should be grateful!

Thelma and Louis from Thelma and Louise


This is the only female friendship that I can think of that rivals these aforementioned male bonds. After all nothing says comradery like joint suicide! Still, Louise had to put up with so much annoying shit because of stupid Thelma…J.D and Turk would never ditch each other for some hot hitchhiker.

Despite all of this, I will say that women understand other women in ways that no man could and as a result, girlfriends are a necessarily evil. As much as I envy friendships like J.D and Turk's, I’m still pretty fucking happy to be a woman.

CH'MON!

I have recently become addicted to karaoke. Whenever I go to Indonesia to visit family, we go out for these large dinner parties and over there it’s fairly standard to end the meal with some karaoke. I used to roll my eyes and sulk when this took place (mostly because Indonesians have a tendency to only sing cheesy love songs like, ‘I will always love you’) but I’m now ready to go back and show my Indonesian peeps how it’s really done!

You see the key for making karaoke fun is lot’s of alcohol. Not only does it provide those suffering from stage fright with the necessary amount of liquid courage but it makes watching other people butcher the shit out of a song more tolerable. And here is a less obvious tip for enhancing your karaoke experience. Instead of performing songs that you genuinely like, try singing those songs that you’ve always made fun of. Me and my pal Christy recently did a rendition of System of a Down’s B.Y.O.B. Not only was it challenging but it was piss your pants hilarious!

Here is a clip of my favorite karaoke scene from one of my all time favorite movies, Rush Hour 2. I made my best friend in high school come to the theaters with me to watch it twice. This also happens to be one of my favourite songs to sing at karaoke!

Even in darkness

Being a part of the ipod generation has completely transformed the way I listen to music. I only download those songs that I instantly like and I'm constantly skipping through songs like I have ADD. Of course you could always do this with cd's but something about having a particular album in my stereo allowed me to become familiar with an entire album and sooner or later, the songs that I had initially skipped over would start to grow on me. Often times those songs become more likable than the smash hit that motivated me to buy the album in the first place. In light of this realization, I'm going to start making a conscious effort to download entire albums so that I don't miss out on those diamonds in the rough that could very well end up being life long favourites. This whole thing got me thinking of how there are very few albums that I listen to from start to finish without feeling the urge to fast forward or skip through a single beat. One in particular is Dungeon Family's 'Even in Darkness'. I even listen to those intros which basically involve statements like, "Yo shawty, wassaup?" "Yo nigga I wanna fuck yo rims" and, "Y'all wanna fuck my rims?" Start to finish, I LOVE this album despite the fact that I have no idea what it means to wanna fuck someone's rims...

The bastard son of a hundred maniacs

For as long as I can remember my fiance Ryan has been obsessed with Freddy Kreuger. On top of owning the movies, we have the soundtrack on vinyl, several Freddy figurines and although Ryan says it's unrelated, one of our dogs is named Freddy! Tonight is the night that Ryan has been waiting for all year. At midnight we are going to catch the new Freddy movie. Jackie Earle Haley has some large shoes to fill, as he takes on Robert Englund's role as the bastard son of a hundred maniacs. I was introduced to Freddy fairly late as the first one I watched was actually the sixth installment, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Although die-hard Freddy fans often to refer to this as yet another shitty sequel where Freddy loses his edge, I would have to disagree. I was too young to remember all of the details but I will never forget how this movie gave me an unnatural fear of Q-tips. One of the characters named Carlos had a Q-tip stabbed through one ear and out the other, forcing out his hearing aid. He needed the hearing aid as a result of the abuse he suffered at the hand of his mother who by the way, rivals Freddy for the title of the most evil and sick fuck ever. I'll always remember little Carlo's pleading, "No, no, Mama, please. I've been a good boy....Please don't make me deaf, Mama." Freddy proceeds to slice off Carlos' ear and in true Kreuger fashion says, "Oh, Carlos, lend me your ear." I had my mom cut up every single Q-tip in the house to make sure that Freddy wouldn't be able to do that to me. I have a feeling I won't be getting a good night's sleep tonight...or all week for that matter.

WTF

CSI eat your heart out, this is how it's done!