I Loved This...



I love Tanya.

Russian High Heel Sprint.



You've gotta love it.
Really.

Sunday Click Around

The Sexy Side of PEZ has some great old time graphics. Sex always did sell, even if it was candy.

This terrible Canadian PSA is still cringingly funny.

"The internationally renowned Canadian portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) created an enduring legacy through his art. For over 60 years, he documented history by recording the influential people of his time, leaving us with striking and memorable portraits of such celebrated people as Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, and Helen Keller."

The Great Dictator - "read" by the Wal-Mart smiley face. I found it terribly amusing.
While we're on Walmart, here are some Walmart Shenanigans...is Walmart so big that employees don't recognize each other?

I love how some people really feel that public and private propety belongs to them.
I'll tell you what.
If I owned some land and I paid hundreds and thousands of dollars to purchase it, and a "tent city" was set up there creating a human sewer and garbage dump at my expense...you bet your ass I'd have their asses removed.
Call me what you like.
Insensitive, cold...I don't give a shit.
As a taxpayer, I don't want them trashing public property. Even less so if the property belonged to me. We have social services, and homeless shelters, we're not a third world country.
The fact that some people choose not to use those services is not my responsibility.
All the gab about "this Capitalist society" and "giant wallets" is really rich coming from people who have never lived under a Socialist or Communist Regime. Believe me when I tell you that over that side, they wouldn't have just mowed down the tents, they would have mowed down the people too, and no one would have even heard about it...and if you talked about it, you might end up really, really far away with no one to tell who even cared. So, North American urban socialists just need to calm down and appreciate the rights and freedoms they enjoy here.

GOLD-FINGA!!!

Katsushika Hokusai Crop Art is pretty amazing.

There is a serious disconnect between this kids looks and his voice. His voice kind of reminds me a bit of Al Jarreau's in how he enunciates. Speaking of Al Jarreau, here is My Old Friend, and one of my favourite Al Jarreau songs, If I Could Change Your Mind.

So while we're on "morna" like songs, I'm a big lover of Cesaria Evora. Here is "Yamore", and "Beseme Mucho"...and since all cultures have "mornas", here's "Kukavica" from Ceca. Whenever I hear it..sva se najezim (I get goosebumps). Especially when she does it acapella.

When I heard Sri Lankan singer Karunarathna Divulgane for the first time a few years ago, I immediately fell in love with the feelings he conveyed in his songs. I didn't need to understand the words. Here's another from him, just for good measure.

I'm a sucker for talking wildlife.

I really, really liked this.

Brian from Getting On's daughter has a travel blog that looks pretty good. I'm not sure I like the Canadians that she's meeting though.

Ok, last but not least...if you live in the Toronto area, and you want to get rid of that pesky guy who harangues you for your phone number, give him this one: 647-476- 4910. Seriously. Call it. It's hilarious, and brutally to the point.

Ok, kids...that's it.

You Gotta be...

More Studies about studies.

"LONDON — Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers report in an analysis of past research that reignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous."
I dunno. Is it perhaps possible that people with mental illness issues gravitate toward drug use to escape their anxieties?
Perhaps it isn't so much that marijuana causes mental illness, but rather mental illness seeks out self-medication.
Anyway, wait for the next study that cancels out this study.

Up and coming "bad girls".
The kids of the stars. Too much money and not enough sense.

While I like the idea of dailing a number to get rid of that tailgating, speeding, dangerous lane changing little prick. I'm not confident that any of it could hold up in court without cameras....and with the cameras, we shouldn't need a snitch line. All we need is Sgt. Cam Wooley on the scene.

Dose of Amy

Blackened Salmon at Papamo

Today's Quote:

"Chile, God must love yuh for de Devil to be chasin' yuh suh"

...When you dream that your agnostic Uncle who has heart trouble, and is like a father to you is quoting scriptures from the Bible to you, I think it's time to rush over to see how he's doing.

When I told him my dream, he laughed and said:
"Ya, eef I even gonna no scriptures fram da bible, den yu for shur yu hev to cam an see me, bekas da Gad eez gonna be tellink me heself".

Jesus Christ.
 
Another Darwin Award Winner who didn't survive to claim his prize.
Just say "no" to drugs, kids.

"Canadian Tuan Lam is $4.84 million US richer today after finishing in second place at the main event of the World Series of Poker".

I'll be honest with you people.
When I saw the picture of Mr. Lam, at first I thought he was Queen Latifah...until I saw his arms.

'Ghetto dude' gets personal apology from Premier.
Cash in dude.
I'm sure "Ghetto dude" isn't going to have a breakdown about it...but he needs to get the payout, since they probably weren't going to hire him anyway.

Ok...I'm off into the world.

Sunday Click Around

The photo to your left is by Artist Donna Angers...this particular painting is reminiscent of Gustav Klimt...whose art I love.

While we're on art...buildings as art...while we didn't get to Barcelona, I would have loved to see the architecture of Gaudi. Here are some pictures.

Here is some silly but probably effective parental advice.

This is only funny to me because I had a shitty Dodge for years, and years.

Serbian brides kill me.
You know that they only get wild because they're taking shots at the door with you.

How to create an evening look in seconds. I got this from someone who visits here, please identify yourself..I did this and it works...I just don't suit it. Ford has a whole slew of videos on hair and make up.

I loved this. Probably because I love old YU movies, and I love the gypsy band. But while watching, I realized that all cultures have a word for when you're referring to someone in the vernacular. A generic term, like "bro"...Indians have "yaar", Mexicans have "ese", Serbians have "bre".

I'm glad I love my in-laws.

Remember Charlie the Tuna?

I love doubles. I really need to try this...and since her recipes are fantastic, there should be no problem.

Balkan history in 17 minutes, and I know you can't sit though 5.

My Grandfather was in Dachau...this site is haunting for me.

I love Viceland's Do's & Don'ts.

Sorry guys, that's all I've got for you this week.
I know it's shoddy.

I'm really loving Amy Winehouse lately.
Maybe you do too.

You know, sugar daddying/mommying has been going on forever.

It used to appear to be an independant business. One individual Golddigger, plying their trade, pretending to love and care for someone who had the money to afford the pretend love that would generally be out of their reach.

I was reading this article on an agency who will do the legwork for the Golddigger.

Like Ashley Madison who will hook up marrieds...this organization basically says what the head honchos at A.M. said when criticized for contributing to the downfall of morality:

"Hey, don't hate the player. Hate the game".

They're just providing a service...like sugardaddie.com does.

Either society has become infinitely more shallow and vapid, or people have become so disillusioned about love and relationships, that it just isn't worth even trying anymore.

Sad, really.

Dose of Dorothy

Interior

Her mind lives in a quiet room,
A narrow room, and tall,
With pretty lamps to quench the gloom
And mottoes on the wall.

There all the things are waxen neat,
And set in decorous lines,
And there are posies, round and sweet,
And little, straightened vines.

Her mind lives tidily, apart
From cold and noise and pain,
And bolts the door against her heart,
Out wailing in the rain.

When NOT to Hyphenate Your Name....

This poster ad outside of a furniture store says to me:

"We want to include the gay community, we're just not sure our other customers are ok with it...
...so c'mon bring your "friend" and buy some furniture..."

Sunday Click Around

You can caption your own picture here. I did mine in mind of their whole racist T-Shirts controversy.

There may be public outcry for you if you're a visible minority...but they can make all the fun they want if you're Russian.

Sometimes, I can't tell if someone has had plastic surgery, or if they have just aged a bit and matured in looks...other times it's ridiculously obvious. In this little video photos are shown side by side...and I must admit that with some, I couldn't tell if it was "work" or make up and not being a teenager anymore.

Asperger's Syndrome. Part of Autistic Spectrum Disorders just shows us how very complicated our brains are, and that the fact that so many people are born "normal" is a miracle... when it really should be the other way around...wait...maybe it is.

Divorce is ugly business. When games around custody, support, visitation, and parental alienation are concerned, sometimes people go over the edge. Violence of this kind isn't all that much of a problem here in Canada yet...but, don't worry, the Family Responsibility Office is working on it, there should be shootings at Old City Hall in no time.

Remember Donny & Marie?
Here's an interview with both of them: Part One, and Part Two.

Here's a great insight into Mehndi and Indian Weddings. The Bride is absolutely gorgeous as she discusses wedding traditions...for more on the Indian Wedding, check out this users videos.

This page is all things tattoo..photos of tattoos, piercings, scarring, and all kinds of other things. Plenty of NSFW photos....only two observations to share about some of the photos on the site.
I spent a lot of time going through them, and it surprises me the number of women who tattoo themselves with the word "C*nt" or "slut"...and guys who pierce, or tattoo their privates...their penis's all look like they've been dragged through a bush backwards, while hitting every branch on the way through. I guess when there's nothing left to do with it, you tattoo and pierce the crap out of it.

While we're on tattoos, that site brought this story to my attention.

Photo mistakes, or opportunities?

This is for Glacia.

Ok...that's all for now.

What if...

Anyone who has experienced melancholy more than once knows that as much as it's despised, it's also familiar...
...like that old friend that you try to cut out of your life, 
but they always come back. 

One thing about melancholy is that is consistent, you can rely on it.
When other things fall by the wayside, you can always depend on it.

It seems a strange thing that I say...melancholy as an old friend.

There is an old Russian saying that goes:
"misery is the only thing that is your own, no one else wants it. It's the one thing that no one will take from you."


Misery whispers in your ear.
God sends you a test.
Are you who you think you are?

If I hear the phrase;

"At least kids are reading!" one more time, I'm going to gag.

Who cares if they're reading...if this shite is all that they're reading.

Balkan Air Freshener



Thanks Marica!

Baby Momma Drama



Ok, I know that it's shameful for me to post this stereotype, and the sound quality is terrible, but the hair on this woman combined with her story, is worth the price of admission.

Her story of changing her cheatin' husbands phone message to: "This is Michael Huffman's wife, and he's got two kids...do you still want to leave a message? I'll call you back", is priceless.

Besides the fact that there are plenty of low expectation chicks out there that would still want him is beside the fact.

It just reminded me of something that happened a very long time ago.
When I was out and about, dating...I once met this good looking guy, he asked for my number, and I gave it.
He didn't call me, but about a week or so later, a woman called me to invite me to a party for him. I told her that I didn't know him that well, so I didn't think it was appropriate for me to be at this party.
It was then that she told me that she was his live in girlfriend, and she had found his stash of numbers, and said she was inviting all the girls in his phone book for a surprise good-bye party, because she was kicking him out, and did I want to come anyway, just to watch.

I declined.
But, I think back on it...and wish I had gone.

This story is incredibly sad.
She's been in hospital for a week without being found by loved ones.

You live a whole life, and end up "...lost in a pizza place, hours before dawn at the Agincourt Mall at Sheppard Ave. E. and Kennedy Rd." with no memory, and no one to claim you missing.

Sunday Click Around

The Nazarenes intrigue me.
My mother told me that my grandmother was a Nazarene. I didn't really understand what that meant, since my Grandmother didn't talk about it, and the rest of us were Orthodox.
I'm not sure what Nazarene means in Eastern Europe. But, Majka was Nazarene and went to Church on Saturday...and Deda (my Grandfather) was an agnostic, so it wasn't discussed, except to joke on occasion that she was Jewish...
While in Spain, I was interested in the Ku Klux Klan garbed sect. Figurines were sold here and there, and I really was tempted to buy one...if for nothing else (as my friend suggested) than to open discussion with friends who visit about how the Klan stole the garb from this sect and made it into something using God to make it hateful and ugly. 
"The Nazarenes (Hebrew: Netzarim, נצרים) were a group of early followers of Jesus of Nazareth who, like the Ebionites, were noteworthy for refusing to follow Christianity in its complete break withJudaism". 
Which explains a lot to me. 
Not that it interests you....but, just so you know that this is where those costumes came from.
There's no way that this should be connected to that.

I loved this little girl who is bold and refusing to wear the Hajib.

This Al Gore Live Earth crap is sick making. 
Do you even realize how much damage they've done to the atmosphere just holding this pompous,
 hypocritical event?
Yes, flying in a whole bunch of bloated celebrity
Gore-ites who use more energy in a week with their planes, SUV's, entourages, and limos than the average person does in a year.... to tell us all about how we're fucking up the environment is really rich. 
And I thought Geldof and Bono were full of shit.
Oh wait...I can't imagine that Geldof and Bono missed this opportunity to blow more verbal methane into the atmosphere.

While we're on energy saving, here's a brilliant commercial for Wind Generated Power from Epuron.

Don't Worry, Be Happy...or your ass is fired.
I watched the video and laughed at some of the reluctant participants, and still think that corporate "team building" initiatives suck.

Speaking of facial expressions, here is a Breakdancing facial expressions tutorial.

Morning, noon and night it's drink and dancing, some quick romancing....and then a shower.


"Jennifer Aniston, Kansas City accountant and mother of two."

I got a kick out of Ordinary Stars.
TMZ.com takes photoshoped pictures of stars and makes them average people.

Do something...dammit!

There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza.
Now, every Canadian who watched it will have it stuck in their heads....but this one is a little different.

I cannot be convinced that there's not something very wrong with this.
Can you say extreme compulsive?

A Remark You Made is my absolute favourite Weather Report piece.
For me, the conversation between instruments is sad.
One side trying to convince the other. The other resigned. Whenever I hear it, it takes me back to my first monumentally failed relationship.

This afternoon I was driving in my car and heard Weather Report's version of Birdland...I had to stay in the car until it was done.
Man, I loved Jaco Pastorius.

It put me in a Jazz frame of mind. Here's Miles Davis and John Coltrane with "So What". Coltrane with "My Favourite Things" and "Alabama".

One of my other favourites: Jimmy Cliff and "Many Rivers to Cross".

Groovy Girl is pretty fly for a white guy...Erm..I mean...chick.

An ad...or something for The Real Doll.

While we're on the whole fantasy female...check out Extreme Photoshop. What you see is not what you get, my peoples.

Here's an e-mail joke realized in video.

Check out Tiger Woods as a toddler on The Mike Douglas Show.

Ok.
I'm done.
Thanks for bothering.

Bad Hair Day



Teeing Off The Cops, is featured today at The Smoking Gun.

"Mug shots of 10 recent arrestees offering fine example of these cotton belles lettres. We're assuming their respective codefendants are wearing the "I'm With Stupid" tees".

Thought for the Day:

To the lady behind me in the massive SUV this morning:

If you want to have the ability to squeeze by me to make a right turn at a light without expecting me to drive into oncoming traffic to accommodate you....
....don't drive a fuckin' Yukon.

Food for Thought

I was reading about Shaquan Cadougan's mother Suzette suing the Toronto Community Housing Corporation for 4 million dollars for not preventing the shooting of her son during "The Summer of the Gun" (2005) here in Toronto.

"...his mother has sued the city for four million dollars, accusing Toronto Housing of closing security offices in the area to save money. "Toronto Community Housing Corporation decided to ... place the residents at risk," explains lawyer Courtney Betty. 'What we're seeking now is damages from T.C.H.C. in the same manner any other individual or landlord within the city of Toronto would have knowingly placed their tenants at risk. They are legally responsible.'"

At first I thought that a comment from one of the talking heads on this issue had merit. He said that we'd be setting a dangerous precedent.

Afterall, people are hurt and killed regularly during incidents of crime in this city, and  there have been complaints by members of the community that the Cadougan's live in that it was "over-policed" and that security forces consistently "harrassed" residents.
Besides, who is to say that T.C.H.C. security could have prevented this terrible thing from happening anyway?

T.C.H.C. cut back their forces from 190 to 80 in 2004.

I was under the impression that the main purpose of T.C.H.C. security was to protect property.
After all, my municipality doesn't have extra private security forces patrolling my neighbouhood. Does yours?
Granted, my neighbourhood doesn't need it either...but then I read about the labour issues that the housing security forces have had with their employer.

In the document it states:

"One in 20 Toronto citizens is a Housing Authority resident. The 190 security staff at the municipally-funded MTHA include dispatchers, parking enforcement officers, fire safety officers and about 165 uniformed Community Patrol Officers who protect 125,000 tenants in 110 complexes across the city. MTHA security staff are first on the scene at over 90,000 reportable incidents every year, responding to reports of disputes, assaults, lost children, thefts, fires, and deaths. About one in four Toronto murders occurs on MTHA premises."

That clearly says to me that their services are more than just property protection.

Too bad Louise Russo didn't live in Ontario Housing.

Huh?

This morning I was reading CityNews and read about another gang bust.
I automatically made assumptions.
Where the arrests were probably made, what the gang members look like...shut up...don't tell me that you don't do it.

So, right after I read the article, I hear it on the news.
But, we're told that the gang members are Eastern Europeans.

Sta?

These guys must be real amateurs.

I understand that real Eastern European mobsters make La Cosa Nostra look like a sewing circle. It's the whole living under the Communists where the life of the individual is super cheap that makes them ruthless.

Well, here's two upsides to this particular arrest...less credit/debt card fraud, and the ability of the police to say that they don't always just arrest gangs from a certain nationality or race.

Let's just hope that this time around, we don't have to pay Vladimir, and Boris compensation for having to wait for their trials.

Dear Fashion Designers,

Ok,
I know that it's the fashion world...and that it's all fabulous, and you're all members of the "Glitterati", and you are the "Cognoscenti" and the rest of us are so passé and very yesterday/last week/last century.

...but I have to say that there is a point where fabulous flips over into ridiculous.

Constantly.

Raisin Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies



Recipe at Papamo

Sunday Click Around

Happy Canada Day!

I burned a lot of time looking at Vintage Photographs. I went back to the archives and loved looking at random photos mixed in with the blogger's vintage family photos.

Here is my absolute favourite scene in Bure Baruta (Cabaret Balkan). Too bad it's in Italian.

I like MIA. I find her blend of West and East Indian beats interesting...although her website is eye scorching, she's got a distinctly 80's feel for me, and for some reason (unknown) she reminds me of Neneh Cherry. Don't ask me why. Here's some classic Neneh 80's goodness.
Speaking of 80's goodness, here's Milli Vanilli too.

The classic question: How come there aren't many black girls in the "Girls Gone Wild" videos? This might be your answer.

Ever wonder what famous people did before they got famous? They weren't all waiters and waitresses. Here is the Forbes list.

Want to see interviews with prostitutes? JohnTV has some for you. Just say "no" to crack.

Recently, I was pissed about a moron who parked his/her car like an idiot in the parking lot at work and took up 2 spots and made it virtually impossible to park in a third. I wasn't able to park in the lot because 3 spots were taken up by a turd that most certainly doesn't work there since no one in the building would park like that. I wrote a long note about what a fucking idiot they were and informed them that I had taken their plate number down and if I got a ticket because I was forced to park on the street, I would take them to court to pay it. That's why I found passiveaggressivenotes.com amusing.
Here are some politically incorrect e-cards. They're pretty great.

I like the pictures on this site.

Here's a pretty amazing video of the recent Tornado in Manitoba.

Scary 60's fashion.
More 60's fashion. You'll notice that nothing is really "new".

Germans are funky. LOL.

Dancing traffic cops made me laugh.

A very strange condom commercial.

For my former YU friends, here are some jokes, and some Gangsta Rap.

I'm wondering if this is for real, because it's ridiculous.

I am attracted to, and fascinated by mental illness and people's personal life stories. The Lives They Left Behind is a site that gives us a peek into The Willard Psychiatric Hospital in New York. Apparently, when they closed the hospital, they found many suitcases in the attic with the possessions of patients intact. It's an intriguing look into the lives of people who lost their freedom to an institution and mental illness.
Sad and gripping at the same time. Thanks to Cynical-C for that.

In the spirit of Colonel Angus, here's "It's good to have a big deck".




That's it, kids....