Cramped

The punk/goth/alternative/rockabilly/add label here community mourns the loss of The Cramps front man Lux Interior today.
There are differing reports of his age, and birth year but it is agreed upon the he was in his 60's and was claimed by a pre-existing heart condition. He leaves behind wife and Cramps guitar player Poison Ivy.
The internet is rife with stories, memories, and tributes to this amazing and eccentric man.
I don't have one to add, my sadness being that although I grew up in the Kustom Kulture community, went to car shows, and punk concerts my whole life, I never got to see The Cramps play...and now I never will.
Please check the links below, awesome things being said there. My heart and thoughts go out to Poison Ivy, it must be very painful to lose someone you have loved for over 30 years. Stay strong girl, Lux is with you always now!

Rest in Peace Lux, you will be missed.

~Sydney

♥ L.A. Times

♥ Daily Burlesque

♥ Punk Turns 30

♥ The Daily Swarm

♥ Boing Boing

♥ Rolling Stone

Photo from thecramps.com

Feel

I Found this in my cell phone today, I took it more than a year ago on La Brea Blvd in Hollywood during one of my lunchtime walks. It really applies today, I really feel. There a lot of people in my life that this message would be appropriate for. I hope they all see it.

I am a little down today, not as much now as I was say, an hour ago. But I am still not quite myself. Despite this, I am thankful for the fact that I feel it. I am thankful for my feelings, even though some are inconvenient, uncomfortable, or confusing. And I am forever thankful to those people that help me feel, make me feel, or want me to feel. Without feelings we would be cold and unreachable.

Thank you all, for helping me feel.

~Sydney

Shake it baby!

Picture

So it is the dawn of day 4 (not really dawn I realize, but I don't really get to work on my own projects till I get home at night) of the challenge and I have still made progress! This is amazing, my New Years resolutions didn’t stick this long! I think I mentioned what I intend to do, (working on my photography and dance a little every day) and am pleased to report that a little of both got done last night. AND I still had time to lie in bed, watch TV and love my man! SCORE!

For the dance portion of the evening I mixed it up with The Bollywood Dance Workout,

and loved it. I love, love, LOVE eastern dance, and took my first Bollywood dance class back in July (or was it August?) in a workshop with the amazing girls from Blue 13 Dance Company. It was SO much fun; I knew I would be doing more of it. But then I have tried to concentrate on my belly dance, because that is part of a project I am working on with The Man. I do all of this in my living room by the way. I haven’t always, I was a dance major in college, I used to go to studios to dance; right now though I just can’t afford it, so I do it at home with videos. It’s really funny because I have recently gotten back in touch with quite a few people I used to dance with, they all ask “where do you dance now?” and laugh when I say “my living room”. Then, they smile big and say “no, really though, where are you dancing?” Really people, right there in my living room. And you know what? I love it.

The Bollywood Dance Workout video is really geared toward the novice, living room dancer. I had never heard of Hemalaya Behl, and she seemed to be new to the concept of teaching dance as the instruction moved pretty quickly. She wasn’t always in sync with the music, and the other two dancers weren’t always in sync with her. (Although upon googleing her I have found that she has many videos, so maybe this was just her first one.) Despite all this, it was the best workout video I have ever used, and I had SO much fun!

Part of this is due to the fast pace, which although not good for the first part of learning the movements, does keep your energy way up. Hemalaya is always telling you to smile, and not to worry too much if you don’t get the steps right, just do what feels right. She was having fun the whole time, smiling and laughing. Her voice over instructions are always in an upbeat voice, and a few times she realized what her mistakes were and said not to forget to laugh at yourself and have fun! Wow! This girl rocked! She has such good energy! More exclamation points for her! !!!!!!!!!

I was sweating by the end, and felt like I got a good workout. Then she cools you down and gets a little stretching in. It was a pretty complete package. I am gonna do it again tonight, and would highly recommend this video to my fellow living room dancers!

Progress

"Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; one either progresses or retrogrades."


-Mme. Du Deffand

Changing Form

So this month I am taking on Gala Darlings Icing Transformation Challenge in an attempt to focus my energy in a more fruitful direction. I was kinda already doing this, (since January 1st actually) but this way I have less wiggle room for copping out. My goal for this challenge is to work on my photography and dance in some form, every day. Without even remembering the challenge I got a good head start on Sunday by tagging and posting a temporary portfolio to Flickr. Then last night got away from me as I reconnected with a few family members on Facebook, and The Man was sick. I had to take care of him, his throat hurt! :-(

I am really excited to see how much progress I make, I didn't set an end goal because I thought it might be too much pressure. I respond to pressure pretty well actually, but I put a lot of it on myself already. If it gets out of hand I run and hide, then the project is abandoned. Add to this I am working on a couple other things right now too, and the whole thing could go caput! I really don't like that Idea, getting further with my art is really important to me.

So the bonus for you guys is I now have a large selection of photos on Flickr, and a large pool of other peoples pictures to link to! So the blog can only get prettier! YAY! And y'all are thinking, "where have you been? Flickr has been around since, like, forever!" I know, I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do with mine yet. But now it there, YAY AGAIN!

I would definitely recommend you think of taking on the challenge yourself, you might find you like the results. It doesn't have to be a big change, (it could be as small as drinking more water) but it is always good to mix up life and try to improve oneself.

If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.
-Thomas Edison

Lame

Hello,
So sorry for the lack of updates; I have been rather sick. It's so lame, I hate being sick. This one sucks more because it's the longest I have been sick in like, forever. I pride myself on my immune system, I'm normally only ill for 3 days tops. This has been 6 days so far, and I'm not sure it's done.
(Image: Elizabeth Huston)

I feel a little better today, but my body is so tired. I haven't gotten as much sleep as I need to get rid of this I know, but I have 3 projects I am trying to finish and I still have to go to my day job. I only get about 4 hours of sleep right now and my body is begging for a break, the thing is I don't see one on the horizon. I will let you know all the details on those exciting projects that keep me up all night soon. Till then, enjoy the links that have made me happy this week. And take your vitamins, this cold is going around!

♥
Elizabeth Huston
This Los Angeles based photographer blows my mind. Everything she photographs looks so amazing. Her self portraits were shot using expired film, and make it look like she is standing in some kind of otherworldly atmosphere! Beauty! To boot she is an awesome chick, with a fierce tattoo collection! :)

♦
Erowid
This place is beautiful, and tell you all you ever wanted to know about the mind altering effects of psychoactive plants, and man made drugs! This place is wonderful, in a non-biased way they present the facts on drugs themselves. You click on a drug, it brings up a beautifully photographed example, and then underneath are links to more photos, the basic information, the law concerning it, the effects it has on your mind, the chemistry involved; and lots more. I am not advocating drug use here, and I don't believe you should go use any substance just because this site provides pretty pictures. I do believe this site is informative, and presents the information in the most interesting way possible. As with all things in life, education is power.

♦
ClassifiedSent
This is an awesome little place like craiglist, but with more focus on community. It is all about people coming together to buy and sell stuff in their own neighborhoods. Always use your best judgement when meeting people off the internet, meet in public places or have a friend with you.

♦
Free Rice
Great game!
You guess at the meaning of the word provided and for each one you get right, the UN World Food Program donates 10 grains of rice to people in improvised countries. I play till I have 4 or 5 bowls of rice donated, how can you not feel good about that?!

♦
Audrey Kawasaki
In a word, breathtaking. Oh wait, is that actually two words? It doesn't matter, this girl rocks my socks off! She creates the most beautiful shiny, creamy, vacant-eyed love children you have ever seen. Many are painted onto beautifully stained wood, the effect making the ethereal creatures transparent. What bliss for the eyes!


Well, I am going to get back to the insane pace my life has taken on this week and continue to drink copious amounts of green tea. I will be back soon with updates, what has you in love with life this week my darlings?

~Sydney

Forget your troubles

Sorry for the lack of content, new things coming soon. Till then...
GET HAPPY!