Anger management OR This one's for you!

I used to like Don Draper.

No.

I used to respect him. 

Sure, he was morally confused more often than not but I thought he was a "good" person. Deep, deep, deep down.

I was wrong. 

Since almost dying he has become insufferable. And very, very unlikeable.

First he cheats on Megan. Then he loses his creative touch. Now, he's disappointing Sally.

With Father's Day fast approaching (June 16), I started thinking about what it would be like to have Don as a dad. A man who puts himself, and his "needs," before his family's. A man who lies to get what he wants. A man who is incapable of true love...

If Father's Day is supposed to be about celebrating paternal bonds and the influence of fathers in society the questions remains... what makes a father a father?

Is it the fact of having children or the act of caring for them?  

When I typed in Father's Day in Google today I came upon this heartwarming letter from a father to his daughter. Two lines really caught my attention.

This one: "You physically have your mom everyday of the week, and I only get you in my memories. I've missed out watching you grow up."

And this one: "I am saying all this to convey as deeply as my spirit can muster that I need you in my life. And as much as I need you, I feel that it is equally important, if not more so, that you have me in your life. Please know that I love you and gotchya back." 

Waterworks!!! 

In the end I realize that fathers (and parents in general) are like everybody else. 

No better. No worse. 

Some make mistakes. Some don't. Some try to make up for them. Some don't. 

Time has yet to tell whether Don will try to make up for his mistakes. 

For Sally's sake, I hope he does.

***

The Grand Optimist, City and Colour 

I fear I'm dying of complications

complications due to things that I've left undone
that all my debts will be left unpaid
feel like a cripple without a cane
I'm like a jack of all trades
who's a master of none

then there's my father
he's always looking on the bright side
saying things like "son, life just ain't that hard"
he is the grand optimist
I am the world's poor pessimist
you give him burdensome times
and he will escape unscarred

I guess I take after my mother

I used to be quite resilient
gain no strength from counting the beads on a rosary
now the wound has begun to turn
another lesson that has gone unlearned
but this is not a cry for pity or for sympathy

I guess I take after my mother

Happy Father's Day dad... I love you.  

 

(Almost) Friday five

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.

All you need is a chair.

And the will...

What workout works best for you?







   

  

The empress has no clothes

I love looking into people's closets and apparently (sigh of relief) I'm not the only one because there is an entire website dedicated to the very concept: The Coveteur. 

Based in Toronto (who knew?) and absolutely addictive, the site provides a unique, behind-the-scenes look at celebrity style, and more, through beautifully photographed fashion vignettes and, of course, closets.

After a good friend recommended I watch The Eye has to Travel, a unique, behind-the-scenes look at Diana (pronounced Dee-anna) Vreeland's fascinating ascent to the top of the fashion chain (and fascinating private life) I am even more tempted to go "through the looking glass" and into wonderland.

Fashion wonderland that is.

So, in true coveteur style, welcome to my closet.

"I love nostalgia" are the first words pronounced by Vreeland in this stunning documentary and I couldn't agree more. 

Now if only I'd arranged to be born in Paris.

Calling all fashionistas

This weekend, while it rained, I curled up on the couch to watch In Vogue: The Editor's Eye, a documentary about the many fascinating women who have held the coveted titles of editor-in-chief and fashion editor at (American) Vogue. 

While I watched the film, which included interviews with Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman, I was struck by the many creative, and eccentric, women that have toiled at Vogue to make it "the bible" it now is.

From Diana Vreeland and Polly Melen to Grace Coddington and, of course, Anna Wintour, the film is a literal who's who of the fashion industry past and present.

And it reminded me so much of this scene from one of my favourite movies, Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn, which pretty much set the tone for my fashion sense at the tender age of... 13?

Speaking of Audrey Hepburn...

LOVE!

In addition to being one of my early fashion inspirations, she also had the best apartment - as Holly Golightly.

My love for a certain style (part boho/part bordello!) may have started with Breakfast at Tiffany's but it positively blossomed with SATC and Carrie's New York (not so maxi) pad.  

Vogue!

In closing, from thinking pink to being pretty in it, I absolutely love it when what I watch onscreen somehow sartorially inspires me in real life. 

Like this.

I actually bought a pattern and made a dress after watching Andy doing the same. 

And how much do you love Annie Potts' Chinatown apartment?

Tomorrow... into the closet we go!

I think of Dean Moriarty

While I didn't actually prancercise my way through Hull today, like Joanna Rohrback (LLC!)...

... I'm sure I did get some exercise - travelling through time. 

One of my favourite books, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, was recently adapted (to put it politely) into a film. Said film (that's all I have to say about it after watching it) was partially filmed in Hull. Now, every time I find myself there, I'm suddenly transported to the '50s. 

Groovy.

 

Suddenly, after crossing a bridge, I was in another book turned movie, this one set in the twenties.

Until finally I made it to "downtown" hull.

A.K.A. the 1970s.

Are your ankle weights in place?