I'm terrified of exactly four things:
1. Opening gifts in front of people
2. Horses
3. Thunder
4. The Dr. Who theme song
I covet long and full eyelashes, I really do. Mine are pretty full, but not long at all. And I rub my eyes constantly if I'm not wearing makeup, so I lose eyelashes by the fingerful. Most mascara seriously irritates my eyes and the amount I need to apply to actually generate a dramatic look makes it clump terribly.
Wearing falsies is a great way to ensure that I don't rub my eyes and have full, luscious lashes for a couple of days. This means I don't ENTIRELY wash off all my makeup at night - it's a bad practice, but wearing minimal mascara makes it less harsh. If you're careful removing your eye makeup you can avoid breaking down the lash glue and keep your lashes intact.
I find that a full set of fakes is impossible to apply with the hand dexterity of a neurosurgeon, and it's super messy. Plus they make your eyes water a lot and some of them make it hard to blink properly. I opt for individual lash clusters instead. They feel super natural, just like your own lashes.
Apply individual fakes is SUPER easy if you follow a few tips, which I'll share now. The secret to making it easy is to use a minimal amount of adhesive and NOT touch the lashes or fuss with them too much. And to do both eyes simultaneously - that is to say, don't do your whole left eye and then your right. Apply one lash on the left, one on the right, one on the left, and so on, to give the glue a chance to settle. Otherwise you disturb the adhesion process and that's when things start to get messy.
The lashes that I use are called Ardell Duralash - I buy them at Sally Beauty Supply and they run about $4.99 for 60 lash clusters. I went to Buffalo a while back and saw them at no name CVS or other beauty supply stores for even less so I stocked up.
If I wear them every day, they last me about six applications, so that's about a month's worth of lashes! Ardell's website says you can wear them for up to six weeks but I dunno about that. I like to give my entire face a solid scrub every few days so I don't think they can genuinely last that long.
They come in three lengths - short, medium and long, or you can buy a 'multi-pack' that has all three lengths. I've tried medium and long, and long is just TOO long, unless you're only applying them on the outer corners or want to look like a drag queen. I stick with medium brown or black (whichever is available, since I apply a bit of mascara over top anyway).
The packaging looks like this.
Steps:
- Apply eyeshadow and eyeliner as you normally would. You can curl your lashes if you want (I do it afterwards) but do not apply mascara yet. The lashes don't stick well to already mascara-ed lashes and if you press down with your fingers to help them adhere, you'll make a huge mess.
- Take your DUO surgical adhesive (I bought mine at MAC for $9, and really, no other lash glue will work as well) and put a small blob (about the diameter of a pencil eraser) on the back of your hand or wrist. There's no rush to get going because the glue works better if it has set a little bit.
- Remove a lash cluster with your fingers and dip it into the glue blob. Just do it once and use a light hand. You don't want too much glue or you'll make a huge mess. Now, still using your fingers (some people use tweezers but they're really not necessary here), place the lash cluster between your actual lashes, sort of just sitting on top (not on the eyelid). So among the lashes. And make sure you home in on the lashline properly so that the fakes will sit at a natural angle. Once you set them you can't move or adjust them too much so do it right the first time.
- Now here's the part that most people do that I don't: they fuss with the lashes, press down on them with tweezers, etc., because they think it will help the glue set, but it's not necessary. Let the glue do the work on its own!
- After you've done a lash on your left eye, move to the right eye. Continue in this pattern until you've applied as many lashes as you want. I usually put five or six from the middle to outer corner of each eye and call it a day.
- If there is any visible glue, retrace your lashline with eyeliner to fix it. I usually make a thicker than normal line for some added drama. Now, recurl (if you want) your lashes and apply a coat of mascara to blend the real and fake lashes together.
The entire lash application process shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
There you have it!
Why is it so difficult to find a watch that meets my five criteria?
- white (cuff style)
- band is adjustable to my small wrist size
- easy to put on
- relatively easy to tell time on
- <$250
bonus:
- shows the date
- water resistant (I'm not talking scuba diving depths here - more like, if I wash my hands and a droplet of water splashes on the watch, it's not going to warp or stop working).
Anyone who knows me knows how obsessive I get about identifying songs that I hear and love. Whether I'm in a restaurant, clothing store, airport, salon, or watching a movie, I am constantly scribbling down lyrics and later googling them to identify memorable songs (thankfully I'm pretty good at figuring out lyrics & Google almost always pulls through for me). A few fun stories, leading to the juggernaut:
1995: While working out one time I heard a fun song playing on the gym's satellite service. I scribbled down the lyrics, but at the time I didn't even know what the Internet was, and there was no Google anyway, so I had no way of figuring out what it was based on lyrics. I called countless radio stations and described/sang the song back to them, but no one could figure it out. Then one night (this is very bizarre) I had a dream about the movie Tommy Boy, which I'd never even seen. I rented it the following weekend, and lo & behold, the song was in the movie and listed in the credits. WTF indeed. (Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen)
1999: While watching Silence Of The Lambs on TV I fell in love with the song that plays during Buffalo Bill's transformation scene. My friend Marika and I turned on the closed captioning function and wrote down the lyrics (which, as is often the case with closed captioning, were terribly inaccurate). We struggled to write down every song in the tiny credits at the end. Then hopped onto Amazon.com and listened to previews of every song on the soundtrack. No luck. A few years later I met a guy and we talked about the movie, and how great the song during that scene is. He knew exactly which song I was talking about, and sent the mp3 to me. (Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses)
2000-right fucking now. In 2000 I saw this Canadian indie flick on TMN called Parsley Days. This was before PVR and before live rewind. And the movie wasn't released on DVD for rental. Anyhoodle, during the movie there was a GORGEOUS song playing during one of the scenes. I wrote down the lyrics, googled furiously, and found no results. At the end of the movie I copied down a bunch of the artist and song names and started doing research. At this point I had narrowed down the search to three songs that I couldn't find samples for. I contacted all three bands (which were no longer creating music, as far as I could tell) but no one replied.
A few years later, I met a guy who insisted that his research skills were better than mine, and that he could track down ANY song (he failed when I gave him the info). I renewed my quest to track down the soundtrack and/or the song. The soundtrack wasn't available for purchase anywhere (too obscure, maybe?). I emailed Wavelength. Sonic Unyon. Revolver. The entire city of Halifax. Basically ANYONE who was referenced on the same page as this obscure east coast band. I tried to order the DVD at HMV, and never heard back. I looked online to buy it, so I could somehow transfer the song from the movie scene itself to my stereo. No luck. I forgot about it and gave up.
Last week, Sabrina blogged about musicians & cooking at work, and as I was QAing all of the links, I noticed that one link to her friend Nobu's website, mentioned that he had an acting role in Parsley Days. I renewed my search AGAIN. I googled the band (no longer making music), and learned that the singer behind the band is now directing videos and has a loose connection to my employer. I was SO CLOSE!!! I found ANOTHER email address for the band, so I chanced it and sent a note requesting the mp3.
At the same time I also emailed Sabrina and asked her how close her connection to Nobu was, and told her my story. Naturally she replied that she knew the DIRECTOR of said movie, and emailed her to ask about the soundtrack.
SIMULTANEOUSLY earlier today both the director of the movie AND the creator of the song made contact via email - the former offering to GIVE me a copy of the elusive soundtrack, and the latter sending me the actual mp3.
So seven years later, I can finally hear the song again. And it's still beautiful. (Slowlover - Falling Bodies)
DREAMS DO COME TRUE!!!
During cookie break today we talked a bit about video games of the past - I am not currently a gamer but throughout the late 80s and 90s my gameplaying was rampant.
Some of the games that I was obsessed with, in order of console & era of play. And when I say obsessed, I mean, I would play well into the night, not leave the house, shun my friends, etc. until I had passed a certain level.
Colecovision (1985-1989)
Tarzan
Burgertime
Frogger
Lady Bug (a couple of years ago I found an emulator version of this and played it to DEATH. I actually want to play it right this moment.)
PC (1989-1993)
Digger
Space Invaders
Jeopardy
Donkey Kong
Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?
NYET (ghetto Tetris)
Hoyle Casino
Nintendo (1988-1992)
Dr. Mario
A Boy And His Blob
Friday The 13th
Simon's Quest (Castlevania II)
Bubble Bobble
Snow Bros.
Bust A Move
Sega Genesis (1991-1997)
Sonic The Hedgehog
Bubsy
Kid Chameleon
Final Fantasy VII
PC (1995-2001)
Baldur's Gate (I remember the guy I was dating at the time became increasingly aggressive and angry at the world due to the delayed release of this game - basically the entirety of our relationship was spent anticipating the release of this game)
Myst/Riven
Half Life
Cruncher
The Sims
Sim City 3000
The Neverhood (apparently this is currently being made into a MOVIE?)
Grim Fandango
The Curse Of Monkey Island
Majestic (the original ARG)
Tonic Trouble
Playstation (1998-2000)
Resident Evil
Silent Hill
Abe's Oddysee
Parappa The Rapper (best!!)
Gamecube (2002-2004)
Animal Crossing
Viewtiful Joe (this was a truly amazing game!)
Resident Evil Code Veronica
Gamecube is the most recent console I've owned. Amazing.
I attended Fritz Helder & The Phantoms' CD release party last night. Seriously, how fucking genius is calling your debut album Greatest Hits? Love it. Eye Weekly also loves it, calling the band a "self-contained party-in-a-box" (the most accurate description of the band I can think of). The band performed, opening with Lagerfeld Lady, during which primary frontman Rodney wore a clipped cutout photo of Karl Lagerfeld as a hat. Listen to Lagerfeld Lady on the band's MySpace if you know what's good for you. It's a dangerously coy and sexy song. What followed next was a barrage of danceable hits, costume changes and outrageously choreographed hits. Check out these Toronto locals if you can!
On the agenda this weekend:
* about a hundred separate birthday parties
* eating a pomegranate (seriously, who eats these things?)
* scouring totalbeauty.com
* researching deep navy eye glitter
* finishing season two of Dexter
* tracking down a slick white watch that's under $300
* some serious iPod fillage...hopefully with multiple DJ sets and danceteria staples
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Last night I ripped and dumped the entire Mogwai discography onto my iPod and this morning was re-listening to one of my most favourite songs of theirs - 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong from their epic 2001 album Rock Action. It's an absolutely breathtaking nine-and-a-half minute instrumental song. I love the breakdown at around five minutes in, where it's just a luscious combination of glitches, whirls and a banjo. I know it makes no sense that that combination could sound beautiful, but trust me. Listen to it accompanying someone's film experiment here.
I was just reading up on it and learned that the chanting towards the final two minutes of the song is performed by Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) and Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol). The Scots (and in this case, a Welshman as well) have a 'broken social scene' not unlike Canada's own indie circle - like Feist, BSS, Metric, Stars, The Dears, etc., they're constantly collaborating with one another.
Take Gary Lightbody's 2001 project Reindeer Section, for example - it brought together the talents of members of Scottish bands Mogwai, Arab Strap, Belle & Sebastian, Idlewild, Teenage Fanclub and Mull Historical Society (which reminds me, I should go investigate what he's been up to lately). They released two excellent albums and then wrapped things up to continue working with their existing bandmates. But according to a recent interview with Gary Lightbody, there's interest in working on a new Reindeer Section album sometime in 2008.
In other Mogwai news - remember when Summer (Priority Version) was used in a Levi's ad?! And, what Stuart Brathwaite thinks of Radiohead's 'business model'.
In Rainbows finally has official artwork. Now I can add it to my iTunes album artwork. It drives me nuts when my iPod albums and tracks aren't perfectly organized, labelled and categorized. A super in-depth review of each of the album's tracks by one of the biggest Radiohead fans I know is here. Nude remains one of their most perfect songs ever. And Reckoner is a very close second.
Sometime this week it's absolutely imperative that I try out King Of Pakistan, a 24 hour joint that I just read is moving locations soon (but still central-ish). I do wanna try it out while it's close to my office. I'm in need of a good spice whipping lately. I went for Indian on the weekend and requested 'spicy' but it still wasn't nearly spicy enough.
I'm very quickly working my way through the $60 worth of tea I bought at Tealish two weeks ago. By far my favourite tea has been Alpine Blend. It's minty and it's also got lemongrass and marigold in it. Extremely refreshing.
I've been reading this Onion A.V. Club article called Tighten Up: 21 Good Albums That Could Have Been Great EPs on and off all day and the comments are what keep drawing me back - last time I checked there were over 550. It's a total hipster geek out but it's given me some great insights. Perhaps a playlist of some of these modified tracklistings is in order.
I had 50 boxes of Juicy Fruit delivered to my desk this afternoon - I've already railroaded my way through about thirty pieces and swallowed them all.
A roundup of online video worth watching.
