A lifestyle blog documenting my move from the city to the country (and back to the city) as well as my daily inspirations, including food, fashion, travel and love. And celebrities.
Street style has become a global phenomenon thanks to the world wide web.
With literally hundreds, if not thousands, of blogs dedicated to street style worldwide - including an old friend of mine's, Tommy Ton, who is the talent behind Jak & Jil - it isn't surprising that more and more people are turning to regular people to see what's hot...
... and what's not.
According to Andy Warhol, "in the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes." While he eventually tired of that line and changed it to "in fifteen minutes everybody will be famous," I'll stick with his initial thought and tell y'all about my fifteen (or five) minutes of fame.
There’s
nothing better than a tight-knit family... of muscles.
With the neverending rain and a growing case of cabin fever, I decided to look to YouTube for distraction.
In the form of exercise.
Tracy Anderson is a celebrity trainer who uses a unique method of training that focuses on smaller muscle groups to tone rather than bulk the body. Her fans include Gwyneth Paltrow (her business partner in crime), Nicole Richie, Jennifer Lopez and Miss B.
What I like about this arm workout video is that you don't need any equipment to do it and after about three minutes it feels like your arms are going to fall off.
Jillian Michaels, A.K.A. "America's toughest trainer," has a variety of really great videos but the one I tried today, for "killer buns and thighs" features a couple of really interesting and challenging moves (see 3:09 and 3:48).
Killer indeed!
There are a variety of standing ab workout videos that I like (both Tracy Anderson and Jillian Michaels have them) but what works best for me is picking a song that I really like and doing sit-ups (crunches, oblique crunches, bicycle crunches, torso twists), planks, side planks and more until the song ends.
Or I collapse.
The longer, and slower, the song the better the burn. I tried Stay by Rihanna yesterday and today, it hurts when I cough.
For the boot-eh!, or Canadian booty, I like to use the same approach I do with abs. Choose a song and start squatting.
Ewww.
Regular squats, Sumo squats. Squats with front kicks. Squats with side kicks. Static squats.
Basically squat 'til you drop.
Finally, Tracy Anderson has a challenging grunt-inducing workout that targets muscles you didn't even know you had in your legs.
I think today's post is what you'd call somewhat conceptual.
Or maybe not. Anyhoo... Anytime anyone talks about Muse somebody else is there to mention how many other bands they sound like. And it's true. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Well today I was listening to Soldier's Poem for the tenth time (as you do) when it struck me that the song reminded me of exactly five other songs.
The first song it sounds like is Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis. The way it starts, at 0:55, is pretty much a dead ringer for the beginning of The King's classic. But if you don't believe me, take a listen for yourself.
I couldn't help falling in love with Soldier's Poem the very first time I heard it and now I know why. E.A.P. The second song Soldier's Poem sounds like is Everybody Hurts, by R.E.M. I can't pinpoint an exact moment in the song but I'd say the overall melodies are pretty similar. Take a listen.
The third melody Soldier's Poem mimics is Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin's (or to you non-Poles, Frederic Chopin's) Nocturnes. Give it a go from 5 minutes on. Do you hear it or is it just me?
It think it has something to do with the waltz vibe. Though Soldier's Poem also has a barbershop feel. But on to the fourth similarly sounding song which is, of course, Ave Maria by Franz Schubert. I say of course because I picked that one out the first time I listened to it, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
Here's my bro Zach Galifianakis singing Ave Maria. Because, as Bradley Cooper says, "he's got the voice of an angel."
If you need to go back to Soldier's Poem to compare I'd say the first sound alike clocks in at around 2:17.
The last and fifth song Soldier's Poem reminds me of is Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen. You don't hear the similarity as much in the live version, as opposed to the studio one, but "the moment" happens at 2:30. And here's a little Queen.
It's only fitting since I started off with a King.
Yesterday kind of got away from me and to make up for missing the Friday five (two weeks in a row.... sigh), I thought I'd pen the equally list-oriented and cleverly named Saturday six (which, if you look at it, can actually be seen as a bonus, or plus one).
As a member of the David Suzuki Foundation, I regularly get updates from the organization that works to "protect the diversity of nature and our quality of life, now and for the future." This month, I received an e-mail about the 30x30 Nature Challenge which encourages (or rather, challenges) Canadian to spend 30 minutes in nature each day for 30 days starting May 1st. According to the DSF, the health benefits of spending more time outdoors in nature include reduced anxiety and depression, decreased stress, increased energy and increased immunity, among others. It even makes you happier and nicer, says Suzuki. I had the opportunity of testing this theory out for myself this week as I spent an average of three hours a day outdoors gardening. You heard me: the citycountry bumpkin has developed a green thumb. And feels happier. (As to whether or not I'm nicer, I assume that's up for discussion.) While three hours is decidedly more than thirty minutes I can't tell you how different I felt after having my hands in the ground. The first day was a little hit and miss, logistically, as I had not yet differentiated the perennials from the weeds, but after a while I came to recognize the various plants and flowers growing around our house. Each morning was like Christmas as something new popped out of the ground, budded or better yet; flowered.
Hope you enjoy as much as I did.
And a few shots I captured at the end of the week, before stormy weathers hit.
I thought I would try and institute a regular column, now officially dubbed the Friday five, to give me, and my readers, something to look forward to on a weekly basis. Since Friday is the day most of us look forward to anyway, I thought I'd get in your good books by doing it today... and every Friday for the rest of my life!
Speaking of good books...
This week's Friday five is all about the last five books I read. Not necessarily the best, or worst. Just the last five.
looking bookish
Actually, I just lied. One of the books is the next one I'm going to read, so the last four I read plus the next one I plan on reading. Hmmm... this plan is already getting OOC (out of control) and I haven't even started yet.
So the next book I plan on reading is called Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. Elaine Lui, my all-time favourite celebrity blogger, recommended it here so when I jumped in to Chapters this morning, to soak up the delicious bookstore atmosphere, I got it along with a lovely Voluspa candle. I know what I'm doing tonight...
Actually, I just lied again. I plan on making pina coladas and pizza. Philly cheese steak pizza.
Word.
I, as of yet, have nothing to say about Beautiful Ruins other than the fact that I absolutely love the cover. It looks like a vintage photograph of Cinque Terre, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen (pictures of).
I am currently reading Jill Paton Walsh's The Bad Quarto. TBQ is part of a four-book series which features Imogen Quy (rhymes with "why"), a no-nonsense nurse at St. Agatha's College who is also an amateur sleuth. I have read one other Imogen Quy mystery, Debts of Dishonour, and if the latter is any indication of the former (or vice versa) I'm sure to love it. The series has a very classic English mystery feel to it and makes me feel relaxed, in an odd sort of way. Kind of like Murder she Wrote.
The only thing classically English about the next book, or author, is her affinity for martinis. I am talking, of course, about Chelsea Handler and her wildly funny Are you there Vodka? It's me Chelsea. The second book she wrote but the last one of her's that I read (oh boy... here we go again), AYTVIMC made me laugh out loud more than once and actually made me feel like Chelsea was talking to me.
Then again I always feel like that...
Moving on.
Before Chelsea it was a true love story: Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler, by Trudi Kanter. The book recounts Kanter's (who was a hat designer in Vienna) true story of love and courage from Vienna and Prague to London during the Second World War. I bought the book because of something that I quickly read at the back of the book. "That the world, should at its very best, be a place of red roses, Paris avenues and above all else, true love."
Last but not least (especially considering how long it took me to read) was George R. Martin's A Storm of Swords, the third in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga. Game of Thrones, the series, is based on these books which I have slowly been getting through over the past year. Enough said.
