And we'll stroll to the Edge of the World

The year: 2003 - I left the dark, rainy land of BC for the sunny shores of New Zealand and lived there for about a year and a half.

The year: 2009 - I again leave the dark, rainy land of BC for the sunny shores New Zealand, but this time it's only for a month.

It's not as epic but it's still pretty fantastic nonetheless. The mothership is calling me home, all the way back to the edge of the world.

I'll totally be posting while I'm there, by the way. Sometimes it may be once a week, other times it might be every other day - it's hard to say so KEEP WATCHING THIS SPACE! And though I will be trying to read your blogs when I can (you'll see me) I won't be able to do it all that often.

That said, DO COMMENT on here because I'm not going to have time to monitor my sitemeter or pimp myself out, so I actually won't know if you're reading it. Remember, comments make me feel better and let me know that I actually do have readers...

I was sick of the nonstop rain that has been bombarding Vancouver for what seems like the last FOREVER so I thought some bright colours might cheer up my day. Didn't really work and the rain totally ruined the suede on my shoes but oh well. Also must note that taking photos in the darkness and/or rain has led to some pretty boring photoshoots (I work 8-430 so it's not like I have my days free to take advantage of light) but luckily this will be my LAST indoor photoshoot for the next month and a bit :D












You'd think after all these photos taken for my blog I'd learn what doesn't make a pretty picture...no such luck. Thought I'd still keep this one in though.

Sweater: Kenzie Girl
Bag: Hayden Harnett
Shoes: Mogil
Leather Jacket: Vintage
Doorknocker Earrings + Cuff: ASOS
Necklaces: ASOS and Cupcakes/Cashmere

BTW, re: weight gain - I actually had to go back on birth control pills after quitting them in March. My skin has been acting like a 13-year old boy for the last two months - never had it so bad. They say that when you quit the pill your skin can go haywire 8-12 months AFTER you quit. So I'm back on it, begrudgingly. I have no doubt that it has contributed to my recent mystery weight gain and my mundo water retention. But it's either I'm fatter with clear skin or skinnier with bad skin...in hindsight I think I would rather be skinnier with bad skin but it's too late now.

Edge Of The World - Faith No More (click Play Full song if you want to hear the whole thing)

***For all you Mike Patton fans out there (and Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans), there's a chance that Mr. Patton may be guest-starring on an episode in the near future (as you know, he and the shows creator Danny Devito are quite tight). Can't wait to see that (you can read the full article here: http://www.movieweb.com/news/NEG3nLJMhB6hJN)

I'm anxiously awaiting to hear Faith No More announce their US tour dates. They should announce them in the next few weeks and I would think that IF the tour is being done around April (which I still think it is) that tickets should go on sale in January at the latest. I'm going to be flat-ass broke after this trip but I'll make it happen :)

Addendum - someone pointed out that IF they play San Francisco in April (remember I got all this from Roddy's tweet, so you INTERNET can blame ME if it turns out to be wrong - though I won't be) would make a pretty good warm-up show for...Coachella. If so, that would be awesome. Mike was at Coachella last year anyway so it makes sense. Let's hope! Let's make it happen!

Inspired by: Perry Palomino

A funny thing happened as I began to write my book...I slowly noticed that I started to dress like my main character. It was to the point where as I was reviewing the manuscript afterwards, I came across one description of the main character "Perry Palomino" and I was actually wearing almost the same thing as her. Bizzare, huh?

And so, since I've slowly started to dress like her, I thought it might be appropriate to do an "Inspired By" post about her (btw the name of the book isn't Perry Palomino).

I don't really look like Perry...she's shorter than me, slightly heavier than I (though most of that weight is probably in her boobs) and has dark hair (dyed black) and blue eyes. I would have loved to have donned my black wig for this however it just wasn't her "style" so I decided to play it safe and keep it blonde. Besides, I was actually wearing this outfit outside! In stormy weather, no less.















Coat: Dolce and Gabbana - Perry normally wears a black leather jacket but since I've been wearing my black leather jacket like a uniform lately, I thought it would be best if I switched it up. I chose my D&G coat for her because it's got that military styling that she likes and it probably would have been a hand-me-down from her ex-model mother OR her younger, designer-concious fashion-blogging sister, Ada.

Sweater dress: ASOS - A rich jewel tone and very comfy. Would bring out her eyes suitably. Perry isn't one to wear bright, happy colours or pastels.

Leggings: Aldo - Perry wears leggings a lot. I used to subscribe to the "leggings aren't pants" motto and it still applies. However, I think they can be pants IF you have a long enough shirt, sweater or tunic so that your butt is covered. That's my opinion. Anyway, I'm wearing leggings right now at work, thanks to Perry.

Belt: Aldo - gives you more of a waist...Perry and I think alike on many aspects

Beret: Forever 21 - she's fond of hats. If I could find my fedora or newsboy cap, I would have worn those too. Better yet, I could have worn the newsboy cap that Dex gave her to wear to cover up the wound she gets at the back of her head but that's all fiction and you don't know what I'm talking about.

Bag: Kooba - It's got studs, zippers, it's metallic, leather. We both love it.

Boots: Doc Martens - Perry is very a much a "90's" child, despite only being born in 1988. Her love for Docs has revived my love for Docs (as you all know by now). She's also big on Converse Chucks and I see a pair of those in my future as well. I don't own a single pair of sneakers, aside from running shoes!

Speaking of my novel, I've been dragging my feet to fix up the mistakes I've found before I send it off to my editor. Need to do this before Saturday! I guess I really don't want to say goodbye to the story for a month or so, but I'm sure once I sit down on the airplane and get ready for a 12-hour plane ride, I'll be starting the next one in the series. Yay!

And three sleeps left for me before I leave! I tried packing the other day and OMG how hard is it to pack for summer when you are in winter? Also, a month of summer. Also a month of summer where you will be doing lots of outdoorsy stuff in a variety of different climates. It's very hard. But I'll do a post about that - my last one before I leave - on Friday.

Also, discovered I can barely fit into my bridesmaid dress. UH OH. Need to lose at least five pounds before Dec 13th! Totally panicking...so damn mad at myself for getting so fat (and I don't know how since I've been very careful about food) but anyway it's happened and it sucks and I'm going to be taking my running shoes to New Zealand...'nuff said!

Happy Humpday!

PS For those confused about my "EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT" in the previous post...it's NOT my birthday LOL. My birthday is on December 11th. Hence why it was an early present.

Proud Sagitarrious all the way!

What a weekend

Well I had a weekend that was terrible/fantastic and extremely memorable.

Friday, the 13th, was the night of The Saints Collapse concert. For the event I decided to wear these Revlon Fantasy Length false eyelashes that the company graciously decided to send out to me. I had several pairs to choose from (and a set of fake nails, thanks!) and decided to go with this pair. I used to wear falsies out all the time when I was much younger(I have thin, weak lashes), so it was fun to try out this look again:





The concert was a blast. I was highly amused that at some point between songs someone in the crowd yelled "MIKE PATTON" at Jesse, the singer - just goes to show that if The Saints Collapse sound like any band, well it's gotta be Faith No More. Or Tomahawk (IMO). I also got to hang out with my girly friends and meet fellow local blogger Glitter Scrubs, who was an absolute doll. And she enjoyed the band immensely which was also a plus. She also said my boyfriend was the nicest guy in the world, which I like to think is true!







After the concert...well that's another story. Let's just say I - and I alone - ended up in a cop car and spent 45 minutes in the basement of the police station at the corner of Main and Hastings at 3AM. It's a LONG story that isn't as exciting as the way I just worded it, which is why I'm leaving it at that. Keeping you on your toes!

So that concludes the "terrible" aspect of the weekend (which in hindsight wasn't actually all that terrible and was rather amusing and exciting, although will prove to be inconveniencing).

The next day however, as I stewed over the events of that morning and somehow survived on 3 hours of sleep, turned out to be MUCH better.

My bf suprised me with an early birthday present - he said we were going to dinner with his sister. Instead he took me out to this snazzy restaurant called CHOP which was pricey but very cool. I had the macademia baked Mahi Mahi which was fabulous.



After the dinner, he then suprised me with tickets to see Evil Dead The Musical.



I desperately wanted to see this show during halloween but missed my chance. Or so I though. Turns out that due to its popularity, they extended the run.

I am a huge fan of Army of Darkness (and I LOVE Billy Campbell) so it was awesome to see the Evil Dead Trilogy come to life in a gory, hilarious, musical way. Sam Raimi would definitely approve!

We were almost seated in the splatter zone too, which I thought was lucky. Then later I realized that I wanted to be drenched in fake blood too, like these people:







Anyway, if you ever get a chance to see this musical, do it...with songs like "What the fuck was that?", great singing, hilarious script and hokey stage set-up, this was by far the best show I'd seen in a long time.

Here's something interesting though that I hope some SEO freaks could help me out with. Normally I get found through google search terms now such as "Leela costume" or "Mike Patton is a madman" and occasionally I get people who searched specifically for "Anywhere But Here Blog."

But yesterday...a Sunday, usually the slowest day (sitemeter wise), when my post was two days old and I hadn't been to ANYONE'S blogs, I had gotten more hits than I ever have before in my whole LIFE (of the blog).

Over 600 individual visits. About 400 of them were from computers all over the world, all using Mozilla, or Firefox or IE, all searching for "Anywhere But Here Blog."

Like...what? Why did 400 people search for that yesterday?? This is really weird, is it not? Did something happen out there on the ol' Internet that I didn't know about? Can someone explain? It's kinda freaky...I don't think my blog became famous and I didn't know about it because I wasn't linked to anything...it was just all tons of different people searching. BIZARRE!

Hope you all had a great weekend (though maybe not as wild as mine) and that your week is off to a great start! Weather here in Vancouver is shit but luckily I'll be in a dress and flip flops this time next week, in New Zealand...hee hee hee.

Ghost Hunting in Portland

So this post is about a month overdue - it's not all THAT fascinating but since I have absolutely nothing to blog about today, I thought this would suffice.

If you'll remember I went to Portland, Oregon, back in October, for our Canadian Thanksgiving. I was super excited - not only because it's Portland, which is just a terribly cool city, but because I was doing some research for my book.

As it happens, my main character in my series is from Portland. And one of the really neat ways to explore the city is to go on a walking tour.

Now, when I travel I'm usually alone and I'll usually go on a self-guided tour...eg, wander around a place until I get my bearings. But because we were short on time, I had Mike with me and I had heard that there was one tour that dealt with the "ghostly" side of the city, I had to do it.

It was perfect...not only does my novel (and future ones in the series) deal with ghosts but it was right before Halloween and I just adore being all ghost huntery and shizz (as you probably know from this post here).

My planning, however, was a little bit off. The only tour available for the whole weekend was Friday at 10PM. That meant I had to get off work at 330PM on Friday afternoon.

We got through the border at 5PM which wasn't bad considering it was a long weekend after all, and from previous trips I knew it took "roughly" four hours to get to Portland along the I-5.

I didn't take into account though, stopping for gas and eating Jack in the Box, having to later stop at a gas station bathroom outside of Seattle for a bit (damn you Jack!) and then letting Mike drive for 20 minutes - in which during this time he SOMEHOW managed to get off the I-5 and was heading east for Spokane.

I mean...how do you do that? It's pretty straightforward...stay on the I-5...head south. That's it! But for the five minutes I was looking down because I was fiddling with my iPod, he managed to take some exit and we ended up on a half hour detour.

Enraged I threw him out of the driver's seat and got back in myself. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!

I don't know how we didn't get stopped by cops - I counted TWENTY police cars on the I-5 that night - but I put my foot to the pedal and vroomed down Washington State at 130KM an hour. I've never driven so fast for such a consistent period of time...I literally did not take my foot off the gas for two hours straight. I was super high on two giant cans of Rockstar, new MUSE was blaring through the speakers and I was just giving 'er.

We pulled into downtown Portland at 9:56PM. Parked it in a nearby parkade and ran down the street to the Old Towne Pizza Parlour where the tour was meeting. We were the last ones and everyone else was waiting for us.

Now I must say I was a bit disappointed when I found out that this tour wasn't going to take us through the Shanghai Tunnels - I was really looking forward to that. But we did get a glimpse of one of the Shanghai Tunnels in the scary basement of the pizza parlour. The restaurant used to be a brothel and is haunted by the ghost of the brothel's owner, Nina (pronounced Nigh-na), who was found dead at the bottom of the elevator shaft.




The basement was also made creepier thanks to the little ghost gadgets we were given - they basically lit up from green (mild) to red (wild) whenever electrical currents were found. There is a theory with ghosts and currents and all that and it was quite thrilling to have it light up in spots that there shouldn't be anything happening.







After spending sometime wandering around the basement, we learned more about "shanghaiing" and the tunnels of Portland:

"From the 1850s to the early 20th century, the tunnels were used to kidnap or "shanghai" unsuspecting laborers and sell them as slaves to waiting ships at the waterfront. According to folklore, as many as 1500 people per year were shanghaied out of Portland through the tunnels. However, there are no records to support this number. Allegedly, victims were drugged or knocked out, taken through one of the trap doors (or deadfalls), and held in a prison cell while they waited to be shipped off. Later, during Prohibition, the tunnels were inhabited by bars that literally went underground to sell alcohol."

Then it was up to the streets where we stopped by the Church of Elvis, a famous, wacky automated fortune-teller:



Next stop, the Benson Hotel, which has numerous ghost stories. One deals with a man who walks down this staircase in the lobby:







The others involve ghosts on certain floors and something very strange the receptionist saw one day...a very freaky story indeed, I'm using it in my next novel haha so I'm not enclined to share it!

The tour took us past haunted bars, such as Kellys:



Past more haunted buildings and stories about ghostly investigations in the area. At this point I was just blown away by the amazing history of the city. No wonder the city's motto is "KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD."

Being so close to the river, Portland has been known to flood, as you can tell by this high water marker. One clever entrepeneur would float down the streets in a canoe, selling beer to people.


One of the last stops we had was at the Portland Police Station. The parking lot across the street used to be where the prison was...and apparently was also built ontop of an "ancient Indian burial ground." As you do!



Nonetheless, when we walked around the parking lot our meters started going crazy. With the full moon in the sky and the dark, crisp night, we couldn't help but feel just a tad spooked out.




The tour ended with a stop at Voodoo Donuts and some more low-key tales. It was a long tour - almost three hours of walking - but was very enjoyable. Our only complaint was that we wished we could have explored more haunted sites instead of just the pizza place and hotel lobby but I guess they need permission...and more time! As a walking tour though, I really recommend it. I feel like I got to know Portland on a much more intimate level, and as I said before, I can't WAIT to go back.

SO - my question for you, dear reader, is this: have YOU ever seen anything ghostly or some strange experience you can't explain? I can't promise it won't end up in a future novel though, LOL.

OH YEAH! Winner of the Forever 21 Dress is....*Drumroll*

ANONYMOUS...lol..at 6:14PM.

Congrats!! Woot woot! Send me your deets via my email (see sidebar). CIAO!

You're listening to Retrovertigo by Mr. Bungle, another amazing song by Mike Patton and the Bungle gang. And just eerie enough for a ghost post.

Inspired by: The Smashing Pumpkins

Jacket: Vintage
Skirt, top, hat: Forever 21
Bag: Mango MNG
Unicorn necklace: ASOS
Boots: Doctor Marten

It was hard to dress "1995" without being too on the nose (1995 was a special year for me as you'll read below), but I thought Doc boots, tights, floral skirt, a beanie, a unicorn necklace, a big bag and a "Singles"-esque leather jacket was pretty good. I actually went shopping in this outfit and didn't get as many weird looks as I thought I would. Screw the 80's, the 90's is where it's at!

BTW I used to have these Doc Martens back in the day and wearing them now I just never want to take them off. They have to be the MOST comfortable shoes in the world. I swear to God, I could sleep in these things! I'm even wearing them at work as I type this, though I admit they aren't exactly office appropriate!

On to my inspiration for this outfit, The Smashing Pumpkins:

Let's take a trip on the "WayBack Machine" shall we?

The year is 1995. For my birthday I would receive a CD that would change my life (musically).

It was the new double disc from The Smashing Pumpkins, Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

This CD rocked my world. The music was hard and edgy, beautiful and melodic and unlike anything I had ever heard before. I was a bit late in the game with SP as they already had 3 CDs out before this one but I quickly snapped those up and became immersed with the Pumpkins.

Soon I had their posters on my walls, I watched their movie Vieuphoria at least once a week (it was awesome), recorded all of their music videos on Much Music, was buying all the bootlegs I could find (I even made my mom take me to this record store in Hemet...California...because they had bootlegs. Granted we were in Palm Springs at the time so it wasn't a huge journey, but still...) and was a harcore "Pumpkinhead."

Jimmy, Billy, Darcy and James: Emo, before Emo was "cool"

My three good friends at the time were also just as obsessed as I was which was nice (though pity anyone else who had to hang out with us at the time).

Anyway, one of good friends Kelli and I decided to go on a pilgramage to see them in concert. They weren't coming up to Vancouver but they were playing at The Moore Theatre in Seattle.

Somehow I managed to convince me mom to drive us the 2.5 hours down the Seattle (we were only 14 or 15 at the time) so we could go to the concert and also have us stay at the swanky Four Seasons Hotel - I had deduced that when the Pumpkins tour that the only stay at the Four Seasons Hotel. I'm not sure how I figured that out in a year where the internet was barely up and running but I did.

The minute we arrived in Seattle, the excitement began.

As we were coming into the hotel, we passed by a woman with black hair and a very tall guy with cap. I didn't really notice them but as we entered the hotel, the doorman leaned in and whispered "You just missed a rock star."

Kelli and I were immediately like "whaaaa?" and screeching as only 14-year old groupies can screech. We looked behind us to see the tall guy and the woman disappear around the corner.

Though we didn't see his face, and though he had a toque covering his bald head, there was no mistaking the walk and figure of the 6'4" Billy Corgan. The woman though we had no idea, it wasn't the bassist Darcy. But at least this confirmed that we were staying at the right place!

After checking in and calming down, we had to go walking through the streets of downtown Seattle to the Moore Theatre to line up for tickets. The Moore is an amazing place, very small and they only sell tickets in most cases on the day of the show. No Ticketmaster here, you have to be there and line up.

So my mom, Kelli and I are walking around and we want to start lining up even though it's only about 2PM. My mom thinks it's a bad idea to have two 14-year old girls waiting for hours on the streets of Seattle, so we stop at a street corner to have a little argument.

So I'm yelling at my mom and she's yelling at me and Kelli meanwhile is whispering "Shut up, shut up, shut up."

And I turn to her, "WHAT? You shut up!"

Just as Billy Corgan and a black-haired Courtney Love walk by.

Like, literally, they walked around us and our argument.

So I freeze and I am like "OH MY GOD" because to my teenage self, he IS God.

And I slowly turn to look at him walk past.

And he turns around to look and me and LAUGHS.

That's right. Billy Corgan LAUGHED at me. Best moment of my life haha.

So after that very surreal experience - the fact that we saw him twice already that day, that he was with Courtney Love (tidbit here - she was the singer for Faith No More for a few months before Mike Patton showed up) and that he laughed at my childish temper tantrum - we then went and lined up for our tickets. I guess my mother felt safe knowing Billy Corgan was wandering around the city. Maybe he'd look after us.

Anyway, we lined up only for a few hours and got the tickets without a hitch.

Here it is:

Even the ticket was cool!

We went back to the hotel for dinner and then got back to the theatre two hours before they went on stage, knowing we wanted the best spots in the concert.

The Moore Theatre is TINY y'all, so it was good that we did this. We ended up being exactly at the very front, pressed up against the barricade, the only thing between us and the stage.

Fun fact - The Moore Theatre is featured on Pearl Jam's Evenflow video where Eddie Vedder hangs from the balcony. Someone would later do this during the Smashing Pumpkins concert and he actually dropped on the crowd below. Luckily no one was hurt.

They started off their set playing it acoustic, all of them sitting on stools on stage in their pajamas - awesome. The second part of the set was them rocking out, Billy in his Zero shirt and it was just moshing pandamonium. The barricade was pressed up so hard into my stomach that I was in pain for most of the concert but I didn't care one bit.

After the show we went back to the hotel and promptly waited in the lobby for our beloved band members to return. Even though the hotel staff had their eye on us - we kept telling them we were waiting for our mom. Anyway, we were staying there!

We saw Darcy walk past and we wanted to after her but we were too chickenshit. So we continued to wait, way late, in the lobby chairs. All the while we kept hearing this strangely familiar "huh huh huh" laugh coming from the hotel bar around the corner. I say "familiar" because we had watched their Vieuphoria video enough times to know what the band sounded like in humourus situations.

Then, we saw the culprit: amazing drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, walking towards the elevator. Well we were not going to let this opportunity pass.

We ran up to him with our pen and our picture to autograph. The guy was very drunk but very nice and signed it despite missing his elevator.

"Can I keep this?" he asked, holding up our pen.

"OK!" we squealed. No idea why he wanted the pen, though later on we would find out that Mr. Chamberlain was hardcore into drugs (if you'll remember their keyboardist later died when they both went on a binge)so who knows.

Mr. Chamberlain disappeared in the elevator with our pen and we were left with a snazzy autograph and the best day we both had ever had.

I stopped listening to new SP stuff once Darcy left the band and they had a revolving door of bassists but in late 2007 the band (which still had Jimmy and Billy) came to Vancouver to promote Zeitgeist.

I'm proud to say the concert was still amazing all these years later and I was happy to hear so many of my favourite songs off of Siamese Dream.

I'll leave you here with two of my favourite songs, Cherub Rock( TURN THIS SHIT UP!)



And the dreamy, sad and very early 90's Rhinoceros (love Darcy's blue tights!):



And that's the story of how I became a Smashing Pumpkins groupie one year.

Mike Patton, you better watch out - I'm coming for you next!

PS have you entered the contest to win a snazzy Forever 21 dress? Scroll below or click here :)

PPS OH YEAH! I finished the novel. 85,382 words, 300+ pages of crap completed at 2AM. But it's done! I've officially written a book, and in less than 6 weeks! :)

FNM Everything's Ruined - The "Recession Song?"

So, I have a whole bunch of winners to announce - but before I get to that, I must announce that I am doing yet ANOTHER giveaway.

I know I said that was my last one and it was, however I got an order in from Forever 21 and one of the dresses is too short for my taste (really prefer things to be knee-length if possible). I haven't even tried the thing on, I just KNOW (damn my long torso!).

And as such, the dress is now part of a giveaway.

To enter, leave a comment below and this Wednesday I will announce the winner. It's open to everyone, too. Here is the dress and details:

Size Small, New With Tags, comes with belt:

Is it just me or are Forever 21's dresses just getting shorter and shorter? Cuz I can tell you, I'm not getting taller.

****Well, the countdown has officially begun - in two weeks I leave for New Zealand. Um...EEK?! and all that.

I've also found the perfect wedding present for the bride - I'm seriously the best Maid of Honour ever. Well, I hope the happy couple enjoys it - I know I am extremely JEALOUS of the present haha and unfortunately because Bridey reads this blog I can not tell you what it is. I'm buying it tomorrow though and even that is actually very exciting for me. Fingers crossed that I can actually purchase it though, which is part of the excitement. Oh my, I am such a nerd.

****Speaking of my bestie, she recently wrote on my Facebook enquiring who this mysterious, sexy brooding Mike Patton man on my blog was. I told her not to look into it until I get to New Zealand because the man has done so much, it would be very overwhelming and if her first impression of Mike Patton came from listening to Disco Volante or something, well I just might lose her forever.

Anyway I just linked her to this video for Everything's Ruined (which I have posted about before so bare with me) and that's when I started to realize how relevant the meaning of the lyrics in the song are.




Patton and rad bassist Bill Gould wrote the lyrics in 1990/1991 but it's amazing how much it applies to what's happening in the world right now, or specifically, what led up to the recession. This could be the theme song for Wall Street's greed, a comment on the global depression:

Faith No More's "Everything's Ruined" Lyrics
Things worked out better than we had planned
Capital from boy, woman and man
We were like ink and paper
Numbers on a calculator
Knew arithmetic so well
Working overtime
Completed what was assigned
We had to multiply ourselves
A bouncing little baby
A shiny copper penny
And he spent himself
Would not listen to us
But when he lost his appetite
He lost his weight in friends
Baby became a fat nickel so fast
Then came puberty
Exponentially
Soon our boy became a million
People loved him so
And helped him to grow
Everyone knew the thing that was best
Of course, he must invest
A penny won't do
But he made us proud
He made us rich
But how were we to know
He's counterfeit
Now everything's ruined

Of course, Patton has said not to read too much into his lyrics and has repeatedly said how he's not a very good wordsmith, but self-deprecation aside, I think all songwriters say that. Unless you are Billy Joel.

And one more thought on the subject: I believe Faith No More will be announcing their USA and/or Canada Tour Dates very soon. Probably within the next month. If my findings that they are playing San Francisco in April 2010 (once again it was Roddy who said this) are correct then they would have to start confirming it soon as tickets usually go on sale 2-4 months ahead of time. I wouldn't be suprised if we see announcement for US tour dates for FNM after November 14th, when their last show in Mexico is over.

****Oh and I'm fairly certain my novel will be completed tonight/tomorrow - I'm at 78, 382 words which is a mere 1,618 words from my goal. I can definitely say there is at least 5-10,000 words left to write as well. I'll be drinking champagne when I write the last word, I can tell you that much. I'll also be pretty sad and feeling mighty lost. Luckily I get to start REWRITING it before I send it to my editor*, then I can start planning the next in the series. I'm so glad this is a series, I think I would jump off a bridge if it had to end.

That said, I won't be able to do any writing in New Zealand but I think it would do me some good to take a break from writing for a month. Just hope I can get back into it again...

****Do you like to match colours in your outfits? As you can tell below, I sure do. In fact it makes me feel anxious if I don't have at least two colours in my outfit that match. True story.

Of course the bag doesn't match - pink with red? What was I thinking? But live and learn.
Bag: Nat & Mat
Skirt: Kenzo
Boots: Bata
Tank + beret: F21
Blazer: H&M

AND THE WINNERS:

For the Forever 21 Giveaway for the E-gift card, the winner is: Delightfully Tacky!

For the other three-prize giveaway, I realize I said that I would give the winner a choice of what they won but because I am running out of time to send things off before I go, I can't really do that. So without further ado, the winner of ANYTHING they want in my store is:

EMILY! - you didn't provide me with an email address though, so please email me (see sidebar)!

Winner of the ASOS necklace is: MYEDIT!

Winner of the mascara is: AGATA!

Congrats - and hey, why not enter again? Step right up let's make a deal, ride the ferris wheel.

*my editor - I'm paying someone to edit and give me feedback on the book, in no way do I have a book deal of any sort but believe me if I did you would all be the first to know. And for those asking - no - I will not be putting any excerpts on the blog. Not because I'm afraid of plagiarism, but because you'll think it sucks. I'm not even letting my boyfriend read it :)

PS - my ex-boyfriend (the only one I don't have anything bad to say about) just sent me this link on Facebook. If any of you are taking part in National Novel Writing Month (which I am signed up for, however...) this will come in handy. Great article and inspiring. I actually have started to dress more like my character in my book (look for that "Inspired By" look in the next two weeks): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703740004574513463106012106.html?mod=rss_Today's_Most_Popular)

Google search THIS!

Ahhh, first off I would love to say thanks to the blogger of Faith No More's blog for giving me a shoutout in the links (you can get there by going to http://www.fnm.com/ and selecting Blog 2.0 in the COMMUNITY tab). That seriously made my day. And btw if you've come from there, this is the post you are looking for.

I also feel like I should apologize to all the FNM fans who keep coming to my blog and are scratching their heads "This doesn't look like a Faith No More blog, who is this crazy bitch?" and also to my readers who are also scratching their heads and saying "Where's the fashion? Screw FNM, you crazy bitch."

This tickled me though, you can now find my blog if you Google "Mike Patton is crazy" which is better than the usual most used search terms for my blog which include "How did David Copperfield make the audience disappear?" (Dude, I don't know, that's why I asked), "How does a woman become good in bed" (Again, this was a question. I have the answers now but I'm not going to post them) and my favourite "Old fashioned tits," which inoccently came from a blog post about my visit to the Moulin Rouge in Paris. People must be seriously disappointed everytime they get directed here.

Anyway, I'll divide this into two sections - Fashion and Faith No More.

First is something I wore the other day. The Angel Dust boots have rarely left my feet in weeks. I get tons of compliments on them, even though no one really gets the whole egret cover art thing, plus they are just comfy as hell. Also loving these spike earrings I got from Hot Topic. I used to LOVE Hot Topic as a teenager when I would stock up on Bad Religion and Smashing Pumpkins T-shirts everytime I was in the States (we don't have HT in Canada). And even though the store is a bit - um, EMO? - they still had some cool stuff:







Boots:Vintage
Dress: Laura Lees
Necklace + Shrug: ASOS
Earrings: Hot Topic

And for anything Patton-esque/FNM related I'll just say I downloaded The World is Yours, an outtake from Angel Dust, and there's nothing quite as sweet as finding a song by your favourite band that you hadn't heard before. Of course there are elephants in the song - literally - plus some disturbing samples of Buddy's Dwyer's public suicide but I wouldn't expect anything less from Patton/Gould/Bordin/Bottom/Martin.

Also moved on from Mr. Bungle's California to their self-titled album and I am LOVING it. Quote Unquote, Carousel, Girls of Porn...f*cking wicked stuff.

I think my ears are pregnant now. BOOM!

Mike has taken to serenading me with FNM songs on his acoustic guitar (Mike my bf, not Mike Patton though I admit them both having the same name is very handy)in order to get my attention.

Speaking of, have you checked out The Saints Collapse? They are probably the band that sounds the most like Faith No More in a way. Not entirely of course, they've still got their unique sound, but for comparisons sake they do. There is actually no other band I could compare TSC to...anyway, take a listen yourself by visiting their MySpace HERE. Listen to For The Fires or Minotaurs.

DO IT! Then come back :)


Here's some more Peeping Tom for all you Peeps who seemed taken with Mojo (video below).

OH and here are our Halloween costumes of Zapp Brannigan and Leela AGAIN. This time we nixed the wig idea and I made Mike blonde-ish by creating a homemade blonde hair paste out of foundation, eye shadow and hair gel!






PS - To enter the Mike Patton Inspired Giveaway for A Wanderlusting Style Store gift certificate (ie free clothes), ASOS guitar necklace or Maybelline Mascara click here (or scroll below).

To enter the Forever 21 Gift Card giveaway click here.

I'll be drawing winners at the end of this week so check back on Saturday. Shanks!

Inspired by: Mike Patton - and three prize giveaway!

Okay, this will be a doozey of a post so I'm gonna get try to the pictures first and then write later. Mike Patton (man, myth, legend) has so many projects and bands and whatnot that it's actually easier to lump them all into one "Inspiration" - of course, I had already done Faith No More and Mr. Bungle but this fashion shoot runs the gamut from Lovage to Tomahawk to whatever Italian opera shit he is working on now.

And - because this is my last giveaway of 2009 - I'm having a MASSIVE NEW GIVEAWAY for THREE PRIZES including AWESOME DESIGNER SHIZ, A GUITAR NECKLACE from ASOS and MAYBELLINE MASCARA - scroll down for the details at the bottom but, mind you, you'll need to read most of this entry if you want to enter, haha! SUCKERz.





















Tuxedo jacket: H&M
Faux Leather pants: Forever 21
Earrings: Hot Topic
Necklace: Paraphanalia
Titanium ring: (see sponsor on side bar: best wedding bands :)
Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell


It was tough actually picking a mode of style to stick to because just like his music, the man can not stick to one genre when it comes to clothes. My inspiration was in the slick suits he wore with FNM at the end of the nineties:



However, the man's fashion sense is still all over the place. Don't believe me?

Exhibit A (when he first joined FNM, late 80's, natch) -yikes:



Exhibit B (Early 90's - comparisons to Anthony Keidis stop):



Exhibit C (hits his suave man in a suit phase near end of FNM):



Exhibit D (and here comes the hairnet for Lovage):


Exhibit E (and the pimp suit for Peeping Tom):


Exhibit F (and back to more G-style for more PT and whatever the hell else):


Exhibit G (and back to the lounge suits for Mundo Cane and the FNM reunion tour - complete with corsages for the entire band):


And then there is the music...too many great things to list but if I had to suggest you listen to any of it I would say:

Tomahawk (if you love freakin' awesome rock - my fav MP project after FNM)- as someone else noted, the man is still dead sexy in a gas mask!:


Lovage (if you love super sexy grooving hip-hop type stylez with DJ Kid Koala and Jennifer Charles of Elysian Fields fame)- Book of the Month is all that and more (though the video is silent for the first 10 seconds, it's a MUST listen)- amazing how he can sing so low and so high:


Peeping Tom (if you love music, in general, this album is a BIG must for everyone. It is Patton's version of "pop music" with Norah Jones, Massive Attack, Doseone, etc) -but like Peeping Tom, this video is very tongue-in-cheek, e.g, Mike's being a smartass:



And now Mike is working with an orchestra for Mondo Cane, which is basically him singing 60's Italian pop songs...in Italian. Seriously, just listen to this/watch this and you'll get an idea of how versatile this man is (and no, he's not Italian but he was married to one, once) - ah, this song breaks my heart:


He's gonna become the next Sinatra...or white rapper. I'm not sure.

Aside from his band endeavours - which also include General Patton VS The Executioners (listen here to Get Up Punk - awesome track, PUG LIFE yo), Kaada (a haunting, beautiful Norwegian group, also worth a listen/watch), Fantomas (as I've mentioned before),Dillinger Escape Plan, Zu, John Zorn, and appearing on 40 albums between 1995 and 2009 -Patton also...

-Acted in the movie Firecracker with Karen Allen

-Composed the film score to Crank 2

-Does the voices of numerous video game characters

-Did the voices of the "Monsters" in I am Legend

-Was on Metalocalypse

-Oh and manages to run a record company, Ipecac Records

Currently he is in South America on Leg 3 of the Faith No More Reunion Tour. I've watched a lot of the tour since the beginning this year and I am happy to say that Patton is as bat-shit crazy as ever.

Check out "We Care A Lot" - the man is excercising on stage.


He's also still swearing and yelling at the crowd just like the old days ("what the hell you looking at?" he asks a concertgoer...um, YOU!) and also doing crazy stuff such as swallowing a shoe lace on stage and then regurgatating it back up. I love how he's 41 years old now and even more psycho than ever (and this was the man who used to put shit in the engine of hairdryers when he left hotel rooms).

And now the Giveaway Contest!

I am giving one lucky reader a chance to win anything from my store! That's right, in honour of the store closing (until Jan), the winner can choose from anything in my virtual closet...maybe that Chloe sweater? Or Da Nang Cargo jachet? Or Michael Kors heels? The choice is yours - you don't even have to pay shipping!!



OR you can choose to have this necklace from ASOS:



OR you can choose this new mascara from Maybelline (thanks to a last-minute sponsor!)



I will draw three winners at the end of this week. The first winner gets first pick, then a second winner will be drawn to choose next and finally the third.

YUP - THREE WINNERS, pretty good deal, and considering most people will be too lazy to enter this contest, I'd say your chances of winning are pretty good :) And contest is open to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE!

But - naturally - because there are so many great prizes to win, I have to make this contest trickier than most...

To ENTER you must answer one of these questions in the comments below:

1. Which video posted above features Danny Devito?

2. What two different types of exercises is Mike doing in the We Care A Lot video?

Good luck (and no, I won't be offended if you've muted your computer :P)!

PS The Forever 21 Giveaway is still going on as well, scroll to the post below to enter.



(also see Mike on MySpace to see more shit that he's done).

Hope you are having a great start to the week - I know I am!! Happy November!

Forever 21 E-Gift Card Giveaway

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for all your compliments on my homemade Leela and Zapp Brannigan costumes on the previous post. I am tres excited to wear them again on Halloween :)

Just a few quick updates:

*My novel is buzzing along. I just finished Chapter Nine last night and clocked the entire novel in at 53,430 words so far. AMAZING! And while Chapter Ten has just started, I've already brought the count up to 57,080! I'm 23,000 words away from my goal and very excited.

Actually, just writing that now, I think my novel is going to be over 80,000 words which is perfect.

I'm used to writing articles or screenplays (have degrees in Journalism and Screenwriting) so this novel is a whole new direction for me but it's one that I am so glad I took a chance on. Even if nothing comes out of it, I've never been happier than when writing my story.

That's not to say it isn't challenging. Being a writer is like being on a constant emotional rollercoaster. One minute you love it, the next you are sinking to the lowest lows and doubting your ability to write anything at all.

What I have found though - what works best for me - is that I look forward. I rarely read what I have written and just keep plodding my way. I know there are some plot holes and somethings that are happening that I have no explanation for, but instead of worrying about them, I just keep writing and you know what? It works itself out. I think once you trust and know your characters they'll end up taking places you didn't see before.

*Super excited about New Zealand too - the trip has been on the backburner because I have been so devoted to my story but every now and then I remember that I am actually going back and not just dreaming!

*That said, with the upcoming trip and my busy schedule (plus constant bouts of illness) I have decided to close Wanderlusting Style Store on November 1st. So if you want to buy something do it NOW! I appreciate all your support with buying my items and I thank everyone for their patience as I've had quite a bit of bad luck with shipping and in many cases end up paying more than what I was paid for but as long as everyone gets their stuff and is happy with it, then it's all good.

But please, come visit the store before November 1st and I'll throw in another item (of equal or lesser value) in for FREE!

I WILL re-open the store in January - but that doesn't mean everything that is listed now will be available then. A friend of mine makes awesome jewelry and I want to showcase her wonderful gems (she designed my header too) and I have tons of more stuff to list but like I said I just don't have the time to deal with it right now.

OH right. The giveaway!

I'll be sending one lucky winner a $25CDN E-Gift Certificate to Forever 21 - all YOU have to do is comment on this post by answering this simple question:

What movie scares the crap out of you?


OH YES - and if you LINK to this post (let me know, natch) I will enter your name in an extra two times. That's right!

Here is my latest, favourite Forever 21 purchase - a kicky green peacoat I picked up in Portland. Tax free! God bless Oregon.






BTW - FELLOW KIWIS - Faith No More tickets are going on sale shortly for the Auckland and Wellington shows in February. Soundwave Festival in Australia sold out for FNM in eight minutes! Be sure to get those tickets while you can. That's an order!!

Costume How-tos: Leela and Zapp Brannigan

Our Futurama Halloween costumes were a success on Saturday night - though there were a few hairy moments where I really doubted our ability to pull this off.

Actually I doubted MY ability, since I was the one who made the costumes.

Leela was actually the easiest. Comfiest costume ever, as well!

I wore my Lululemon yoga pants tucked into these buckled boots I had bought in Italy. A Forever 21 white tank top for the top. I made Leela's metal armband out of cardboard and duct tape. I bought the purple wig on Ebay and put it into a ponytail (just wish it was a darker purple).

The eye of course, was the hardest part but it ended up working out the way I wanted. Being an avid horseback rider, I immediately thought of horse fly masks - you can see out but not in. So I bought one off of Ebay. Sadly, the colour was more beige than white so after I cut out the eye shape, I filled it in with Liquid Paper.

Next I cut an elastic string into the corners and tied it around my head. The only problem there though is that it pulled the eye tight against my face which made it look flat - also the white out was pressed against my eyes and MAN does that stuff sting! I was probably getting high off of it all night.

Solution: a pair of reading glasses with the lens popped out. I wore the mask on top of that so it would stay a safe distance from my actual eyes. Success!

Zapp's was hard. The white rubber boots I had gotten off Ebay (btw VERY hard to find, especially in a size 11!). The velour (very important! Zapp and Kif's uniforms are velour...and scandalously tight!) was a red dress that my bf's mom found. I cut it short (very short...too short) and then added extra fabric at the neckline to create a turtleneck.

Next I added a girdle. Yes, Captain Zapp Brannigan wears a girdle on the show haha, and actually my bf wore my beige SPANX if you can believe it, because we needed to cover him up lest he flash someone. He could not even bend over lol.

Then came the gloves. White gloves were very hard to find. We looked everywhere. Finally I turned a pair of rubber gloves inside out and then stapled on two peices of white foam board to create the top.

I then cut out gold paper from a discarded gift bag and stapled and pinned that to his red "tunic" to create the fancy space-looking shoulders.

Interestingly enough, it was the wig that was the part that didn't really fit. We couldn't find a proper wig anywhere and ended up having to paint one.

Luckily we are dressing up again on actual Halloween, so we have this week to get the hair just right.

I guess you could say the party was a trial run...I must also mention that it was the most amazing Halloween party ever. The host must have spent a week getting it ready. It was insane the amount of detail that went into it. There was projection screens outside with the theme from Halloween and ghostly faces. There were cages with monsters inside. A spider the size of your bed. A graveyard with mist (real and fake!). A haunted maze complete with padded walls and cells. A woman that rocked back and forth and watched The Ring on repeat. A scary clown that started singing Black Sabbath when you sat down on the toilet. Totally rad.

Spider Baby - Fantômas

PS I know I've talked about Fantomas being the best, coolest, awesome Halloween music before - If anything go download this song in full "Spider Baby" from the Director's Cut CD - you won't be disappointed. It should be up there with the Monster Mash and Thriller for everyone's Halloween - plus it has that Mike Patton charm ;)