what, he couldn't afford a bumper sticker?

dodging raindrops on my way back from the library at lunchtime, a guy drove past me on townsend, wildly waving a bible with a mini American flag in it out of the driver's side window.

hayes there, sexy

i hopped on a 21-hayes bus this afternoon with a dad and his 3-year-old son in tow. the son had a half-day of daycare, and for some reason, was dressed in an adorable tigger costume. they sat down next to an older woman in her 60s, and this conversation followed.

tigger kid: hey, there! you're wearing your costume, too!
older lady (looks down at her purple and turquoise rainboots, lilac leggings, purple, turquoise, and silver t-shirt, two deep purple cloth bags, purple beanie, giant purple glass ring, and black coat with massive amounts of white fuzz): wh-haaaa-tttt?
tigger kid: dad, is it halloween again?

all dressed up

oh, bluefly. you cease to amaze me. here i am, spending a few minutes looking for inspiration for a holiday party outfit, and you present me with some amazing choices!

like this olivey flowing michael kors headscarf number. nothing says 80s dress barn meets matchy-matchy quite like this outfit. heidi and tim would be proud, michael. proud to call you "out." oh, and it retails for an ungodly $2k+. go figure.

next up, catholic school girl goes amish. am i missing something here? is this really all that callixta could think of when presented with grey cashmere? because i'm pretty sure i could have made this in elementary school art class with some felt, safety scissors, and elmer's. only i would've thrown in some purple and red sparkles to add some class.

and last up, vera wang od-ed on orange fanta, leading her to whack her head on some charcoal sticks and go into in a heroes-like painting trance. the product: this futuristic dress of death. thankfully, she's eco-minded and included a reversible trash bag for easy storage. smart thinking, vera!

law law land

tonight i turned on the tv and started watching law & order: criminal intent (i'm not sure why, and won't even give it another thought). 1 second in, i see that one of the episode's guest stars is amir arison, a guy i went to high school with. in fact, i'm pretty sure he wore tights and puffy sleeves in a ballet performance back in the day. thanks to imdb.com, i found out that this was amir's second stint with l&o. i'll have to keep my eyes open for the other episode for the other once-in-forever time i may watch the show. maybe one day he'll move to california, go into politics, and battle mary carey and kelsey grammar for the governorship. that'd be awesome.

mascara 101, day 8

my focus has been elsewhere lately. work was crazy busy, and now i'm hanging for a few days in south florida with family before a 5-day conference at disney world. for the next 7 days or so, i won't be testing mascara. it's just not fair with the humidity and all. gotta keep my research design somewhat intact! before i left, i testdrove tarte's lights, camera, lashes mascara (which is green in the lash stash kit, but purple as a fullsize. what gives, tarte?). the bristles are small, and the mascara coats pretty well. i felt like i was getting some lengthening and thickening going on. by 5pm, my lashes held up well, plus my eyes looked pretty together after an additional hour+ at the gym.

i took these photos with the dslr, which doesn't give you a preview of what you're shooting (that and a mirror really came in handy with my panasonic). i'm impressed that i could shoot my own eyes, although with many, many tries.

Printz Dance Project, Cowell Theater, Nov. 7, 2008

Printz Dance Project and Siamsa Tire
Friday, November 7, 2008
Cowell Theater, Fort Mason

Stacey Printz’ local dance company collaborated with Ireland’s National Folk Theater of Ireland, Siamsa Tire, to bring an inspired program to Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater this past weekend. Both companies alternated segments with a big bang of a finale, which featured a lighthearted work that sprung from their collaboration last summer in Ireland.

Printz Dance Project opened with the earthy “Urban Primates.” With Laura Sharp flapping and wringing her arms and back with animalistic passion, the black-clad group got off to a raucous start with monkey-like squats, rhythmic bouncing, and wild arm-waving. Dudley Flores’s fresh, carefree style stood out in all he was cast in, but especially with Jenni Bregman and Katie Aggen in the playful romp about an evening with an orange pillow in “Dark Spaces/looking through windows” (excerpt)...

Most Americans' knowledge of Irish step dancing begins and ends with “Lord of the Dance,” a highly theatrical, commercialized vehicle for shirtless men, muscles, and Rockette-like lines of women. Siamsa Tire showed us that this art form goes farther than the superficial, and over the evening, they snapped their snazzy feet together in two quartets, “An Damhsóir/The Dancer” and “Seville Suite.” The kicker proved to be the former, with high energy, lots of fancy footwork, and lullaby-like vocals, but both were fun and invigorating to behold...

For more, go here...

mascara 101, day 7 (plus 1)

yesterday and today, i've been wearing smashbox's bionic mascara. thankfully, this mascara doesn't attach robot parts to my lashes!

the brush is plump, but the mascara doesn't gloop. it went on smoothly, and i didn't have to do more than one or two coats to get a nice even and full look. another big plus is that the mascara came off pretty easily with my all natural eye makeup remover and warm water. the too faced mascara from earlier on came off in tiny pieces, and the korres started to rub off by my bus ride home. this one made it through 9 hours of work and an hour at the gym with a whisper. bionic also has a low score at skin deep (a 3, equal to korres), but there are some potential cancer causing ingredients here. another plus: smashbox doesn't test on animals!

as todd worked from home yesterday, i employed him to whip out the big camera and snap away at my eyes. my canon definitely shoots better than the little panasonic, but the mascara really does seem to have more potential than most of the others!

mascara 101, day 6

today's eyelashes are brought to you by the colors red, white, and blue (eventhough this mascara is black). korres deep colour mascara is natural, containing no leads or cancer-causing ingredients. skin deep gives this mascara a 3 out of 10, which means painting my lashes with korres is safer than with most other mainstream mascaras. it's also safer than if my lashes smoked, and funny enough, i think they looked pretty smoking this morning, but in a good-for-me sort of way.

korres offers a large, spongey brush, and i liked how the tip tapered to get my small inner lashes and bottom ones. on my way to the polls, i felt like the mascara took a little longer to dry than normal, but the result was worth it. they're feathery and pretty:)

too bad my pictures aren't great. i think the election excitement caused me to forget to adjust the white balance... but you get the picture.

mascara 101, day 5

last time i checked, venom was topher grace slathered in coal black latex, but now he's been turned into a mascara! ok, this isn't spidey sense in a tube. it's DuWop's lash venom mascara, to be precise. i've tried DuWop's lip venom before, and my lips looked for minutes like they had met a hive of bees. then they deflated and resembled ill-placed clownish lipstick. thankfully, lash venom is a not-so-clumpy mascara with a skinny brush, and there's no stinging. the results were ok, but i wouldn't rush out and buy this stuff. now, you're probably thinking, becca, what's up with THREE images today? well, i couldn't get the right and left sides looking equal. on the right side, my lashes sort of "fell" while the left kept that butterfly-wing-lifted look. look, eyelashes, you're going to be my test subjects. grow up and deal. resistence is futile.

in this economy, don't pare back on pears!

last week i received an email from tuttifoodie, an email service for foodies. i almost canceled awhile back when they dedicated an entire email to how to take care of and then eat your own garden snails, but i didn't want to be rash. most of their veggie-friendly recipes turn out wonderfully... i sent an email complaint and got a very nice reply, and i've been a happy tuttifoodie peep every since.

this most recent email spotlighted their new personals service for food lovers and likers. the first batch of personals were semi-entertaining, but the best part about the email was the image. trying to hide my computer screen while staring at it perplexed, i couldn't decide if these pears looked more like a soft, sensual derriere or a pair of puppies popping right out of a scarlett johansson period film. either way, fruit is fun! so remind your kids and friends to eat up.