RESCUED FROM OBSCURITY: 

"My mind was a mess before you brought happiness..."

Dredging up this song from the dark recesses of my brain reminded me how much I loved my Pandora stations back in the day. In the mid-aughts (2004 to 2006-ish) when I was still working mind-numbing office jobs in Minneapolis, Pandora saved my sanity. 

"Poodle Rockin'' was one of the suggested songs that frequently came up on my Pandora "Eclectic" station at the time, and I fell in love with the track in all its weirdness. I had no idea until recently that this awesome fucking video existed, and also that the name of the band is Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Seriously, how do you not love a band with a moniker like that? 

 According to their Wikipedia page: 

Gorky's came from the word "gawky."

Zygotic was "hijacked from GCSE biology."

Mynci is a spelling of the word "monkey" using Welsh spelling rules, rather than a direct Welsh translation (the actual Welsh word is "mwnci") and is pronounced like "monkey."

The band also broke up in 2006, which totally bites.   

Also, did you know about my love of poodles? Although I was, am, and will always be a ride-or-die catwoman, I have a soft spot for certain dogs. Meet my Uncle Mike's standard poodle, Beau. 

Me and Beau, 1981

 

Damn, I loved that dog. When he passed away, my family nearly had to bury me along with him. I was so distraught. 

Don't tell my cats; I've hidden this particular aspect of my past from them.

Oh Lena Dunham, I love you so hard.

I have mixed feelings about the mainstream success of Lena Dunham and her brilliant TV show, "Girls." On one hand, I think it's awesome that such an edgy and authentic program with an unconventional (and occasionally unlikable) female lead character has caught on with the public. On the other hand, I worry that its popularity could cause the show's writing and storylines to take a more conventional, "safe" direction over time. It's like when you sort of "discover" and fall in love with the work of a quirky author or a singer or band completely on your own, without anyone else's endorsement or recommendation--you just find them and you're like "YES! This is what I've been looking for! THIS speaks to me!" and then six months (or six years) down the line "your" band (or singer, author, etc.) becomes HUGE and you're happy and excited, but it's also a letdown, because they're not "yours" anymore and now everyone knows about them and things are never the same.

I'd rather be happy about it, though. I'm definitely happy for Lena Dunham, because I really love her work and what she's doing with "Girls." Perhaps I am blinded by my love and (as a writer) I could be dissecting the series too much, but one of the things that delights me about "Girls" is that it's like a big metaphorical middle finger to all the cliched crap Hollywood keeps pooping out that's supposedly aimed at women. One of the things that drives me nuts about romantic comedies these days is that they'll take a beautiful size-2 actress like Katherine Heigl and give her an impossibly gigantic apartment and a high-powered career and an expensive wardrobe and then they're like--"Wait, she needs some sort of flaw so that she's 'relatable.' Let's see....Oooh, I got it! Make her clumsy! Holy shit, that's genius!" Seriously, have the Hollywood committees who crank out that kind of bullshit ever actually met any women, or any human beings for that matter?

It's bad enough that they made her act with Ashton Kutcher

Then you have Dunham's "Girls" protagonist Hannah Horvath, a disheveled, tattooed ball of not-size-2 insecure awesomeness who can't keep a job, drinks too much, says things like, "My shoes match my dress! Kind of!" and seeks solace in awkward sex with her odd, emotionally distant sort-of-boyfriend/hookup who "treats (her) heart like it's monkey meat."

And did I mention that she's a frustrated writer?

Yeah, I have no idea why this character resonates so much with me.

I can't wait for season two. I sincerely hope that "Girls" (and Dunham, since she is also the show's creator, writer, director and executive producer) stays true to Hannah and the supporting characters, resisting any pressure to sweeten them up and make them more palatable to mainstream audiences. Seriously, I've had it up to my ass with palatable heroines.

Change we can believe in.

*******OBVIOUS BOOK PLUG GOES HERE*******

BARBIE GARDEN PARTY!

While I was out walking the other day, I stumbled upon this random bit of fabulous. Right in the middle of a painstakingly manicured urban garden were three Barbies having a coffee-less klatsch of sorts, along with their two mutant insect pets. Since I LIVE for this kind of weirdness, there was no way I was going to pass up this delightfully odd scene without photographic documentation.

I scanned the area to make sure no one was around, which in the middle of the city is damn near impossible so I'm sure at least someone (hopefully not the homeowner) saw me crouch down and carefully pick my way through the greenery, kneel down in the damp mulch, and snap several pictures with my iPhone.

In my attempt to get as close as possible to the scene, I got pretty well drenched by a nearby sprinkler (note the water droplets on the grass and in the doll's hair. Oooooh....artsy!) but in the end I think it was all worth it. Also, I was in such a hurry that I didn't even notice until later that the Barbie on the far right is having a sort of wardrobe malfunction. At any rate, it's probably intentional (crazy redheads!).

Anyhoo, thank you to whomever is responsible for creating the Barbie Garden Party. This whimsical little vision made my day.