I LOVE PRESENTS :)

Something amazing happened at work on Thursday.
My friend Chris Hold had been by on my days off and left a bazillion presents for me. And a grateful dead bear for Ryan. But who cares about that, do you want to see what he gave me? Forgive the weird lighting and background, I did this photo shoot beside my bed just before I went to sleep last night. :)

Yeah! Four new cameras AND two new (dusty, apparently) lenses. Guh, how much fun is this going to be? I'm especially intrigued with the first one.

Thank you Chris! You rule so much it's not even funny. And all you blog readers out there, check him out for real! He tattoos at Sacred Heart (at Nelson) in Vancouver. He's funny, well-spoken, and way too smart for his own good. Interesting man.

Colin Went to Disneyland...

...and everyone at Tattoo Zoo got mouse ears with our names sewn on them when he came back!

I know it's silly but souvenirs really make me feel really happy. I'm glad people think of me when they're away.

Things I Love Thursday

 

Yes, it's that time again...time to share awesome stuff with you guys! 

This week I love...

The "photo opportunities" set by Corinne Vionnet...she took hundreds of shots of the same tourist destinations from the internet and superimposed them on top of each other, with neat, blurry, pretty results. 

See more here.

This anatomical sleeping bag. So creepy, yet so very cool.

These amazing ice cream spoons!

The Minibar for the Mind. I WISH every hotel really had this kind of thing. What a great idea.

The 'Unlock The Potential' campaign to rehumanize Africans in the eyes of the first world and rid us of the stereotype of fly-covered starving children, and to promote the truth that we are more similar as human beings than different, which I think is a really important idea. 

Porn For the Blind. Oh. My. God.

The Google Art Project. Did you know you can see inside museums around the world for free?

These New York themed cookies!

Finally, somebody explains what the damn difference is between the United Kingdom, England and Great Britain in a five minute video. I've always wondered!

And last but not least...porn spoofs of things that are NOT sexy. (NSFW!)

Dawg Pics

We went out on Saturday. The end of the night got kinda weird.

Ryan and I went to a dubstep show on Saturday. Yeah, you heard right. At least I think it was dubstep. I get totally lost every time someone starts talking musical subgenres. And I'll be honest, I went into the show with a super negative attitude; if there's not guitars, punching and yelling I'm usually not anywhere near live music. But Ryan really likes these guys, and he promised to buy me drinks so we went together.

I was pleasantly surprised. It's still not really my cup'o'tea but it wasn't terrible, and there were way less hippies than I was expecting. Here's some examples of the music...PK Sound did the sound, and if you don't know who they are then never mind, but they're like, the best sound guys in Canada. So imagine this music louder than any music you've ever heard live. It's kind of heavy and evil sounding.

This is Mark Instinct (who I actually thought was kind of cool):

 

This is Subvert (who I didn't care for, we left halfway through his set...just too dance-music-y):

Here's a picture of us watching Mark Instinct. We're way up on the balcony. There's a bar up there and a phenomenal view. But uh, it looks like I was more interested in talking to Ryan, haha. We stayed up there most of the night because everywhere else was completely packed with people dancing way too hard and/or slutty. I was scared. :)

We were offered MDMA like a thousand times at that show. I guess that's the cool thing to do these days? And I was all like "Hugs, not drugs." A local graffiti guy, PESTO, designed the stage, it's hard to tell from this photo but it's built out of a bunch of tree branches and in the back there were dancers?

Photo stolen from Charlotte Dobre's facebook pics. 

She is a fantastic photographer by the way! Check out her website HERE. 

She has the best job. Ever.

 

Here are some random conversations I overheard/was part of that night:

---

(Standing in line to go into the show, there were 20 year old boys behind us who kept somehow butting in front of us, one by one, and were talking over our heads.)

Boy 1: Remember that party at Jeff's house? And you had that Garbage Pail Kids jacket on? That was hilarious.

Boy 2: Garbage Pa...no, that wasn't me.

Boy 1: No, yeah. I'm pretty sure it was.

Boy 2: Listen, I'm pretty sure I'd remember having a Garbage Pail kids jacket.

Boy 1: Oh wait, no, it wasn't you. That was Ian (insert last name of guy I know here)

Me: LOL (Because of course he has a Garbage Pail Kids jacket, why wouldn't he?)

Boy 1: (To Ryan and I) Hey do you girls have a pen in your purse?

Me: (Glaring at him, because um, Ryan's a man and I didn't even have a damn purse.)

Ryan: Oh yeah, I think I saw one at the back of the line!

Boy 1: (Oblivious) Huh. Well thanks anyway.

---

(Outside, 2AM-ish, Ryan and I were just about to leave when we ran into our hilarious friend who was just on his way back in to find somebody. He wants to smoke a cigarette and we decide to stand with him and wait for a taxi to drive by. A kid in a t-shirt walks up to us.)

Kid: Why are you outside? Don't you like the music?

Ryan: Yeah man, but I don't like the direction Subvert is taking the music (technical words I don't understand).

Me: Not really.(I'm tired and kind of grouchy because 50 taxis are pulling up, looking at us and leaving.)

Kid: (Turns to me.) WHAT? YOU DON'T LIKE DUBSTEP? What do you like? Hakuna Matata?

Me: Hahaha. Yep. That's what I like. 

Kid: You guys have a light? 

Me: (Picking up a matchbook off the sidewalk with one match left in it.) Here ya go.

Kid: Thanks. 

Ryan: You only have ONE CHANCE!

Friend of ours: Yeah! Light it or you have to suck our dicks.

Me: (WTF look on my face)

Ryan: (Laughing) (He had a lot more to drink than I did)

Kid: Well....how about just his? (Gestures to Ryan.)

Me: You're considering it?

Kid: My girlfriend just had an abortion and we broke up.

Us all: (Tugging on our collars, Simpsons style, because suddenly he's not so funny.)

---

(In the taxi home)

Taxi driver: I'm just glad you guys are like, normal people for once.

Ryan: Yeah I bet you get drunk assholes all the time.

Taxi driver: Don't even get me started.

(We sit in silence for a minute.)

Taxi Driver: You wouldn't believe the week I've had.

Me: Oh, really?

Taxi driver: Yeah. Fucking crazy.

Me: Mmhm?

Taxi driver: Like, the worst week of my life.

Ryan: What happened?

Taxi driver: You don't even want to know.

(We sit in silence for a minute.)

Taxi driver: I really need to get this off my chest. Can I tell you guys something?

Ryan: Sure, man.

Me: Yeah, totally. What's up?

Taxi driver: My friend, well no, not my friend. This guy I know from a long time back...you know when it was snowing a few weeks ago? 

Me: Yeah.

Taxi driver: Well I found out he had nowhere to stay, he was on the streets, so I told him he could come stay with me. You know, do something nice for the guy.

Ryan: Mhm.

Taxi driver: So anyway he was just like, staying on my couch and then one day he was gone and the cops come to my door at like eight in the morning and it turns out he fucking murdered somebody and they had him in custody and they want me to come in for questioning. 

Me: Wait, what?

Taxi driver: And I mean, like he woke up one morning in my house, went out, fucking murdered somebody, came back and then I took him shopping at Walmart.

Ryan: Uh...

Taxi driver: It was like, he walked in just as I was leaving and I said "Hey I'm going to the store" and he was like "Can I come with you? I need to pick up a few things." And then we went shopping together just like everything was normal. How can I ever trust anybody ever again?

Me: Uh...holy shit.

Taxi driver: And now they want me to go to court at eight in the morning as like, a witness. I never get out of bed until like two in the afternoon, I'm gonna be all tired in court. Well, here we are, you guys have a good night. 

Me: Yeah. Good luck with that...murder...investigation...

---

Also? That murder happened in my neighborhood. Sweet.

The Randomest Sam embarks on a journey

 I met Sam in a hostel in the middle of downtown Mexico City in 2007. We were thrown together in the same 6-bed dormitory. He was there with a friend, I was there on my own. I was just on my way back to Victoria and was so excited to see Ryan again after being away for almost half a year. But I was also sick. REALLY sick. In an awful fevery delerious can-barely-make-it-to-the bathroom type of way.

I practically lay in bed the entire time I was there alone, (two full days, I think) other than one trip to the nearby pharmacy, where all you need to do is ask for whatever you want, no prescriptions neccessary, apparently.So I was also very high some of the time.

Sam and his friend were really nice to me. They'd invite me to go see the pyramids or to a lucha libre match or whatever, but I'd just be all like "Oh no thanks, I'd rather be the weirdo who stays in bed all day and gets up at night crying." (Don't worry, I had been there before and seen the ruins, or I'd be super bummed about this now.)

I went back to Canada, they went to the UK, and we always kind of stayed in touch, thanks to the magic of the internet. He has traveled the world, he worked in TV for years, and is a brilliant photographer, so his twitter, facebook page and blog have always been entertaining.

Sam recently announced that he was planning a new, greener type of trip, maybe all the way around the world. Via bicycle. Him and a friend (I think?) have the first leg of their route planned out, from New York to Seattle to California to Mexico. Then perhaps all the way to the bottom of the continent. And he's doing it for charity.

Here he is on youtube, outlining his itinerary:

I know I'm going to be following their journey closely, I think he might even be stopping over in Victoria to say hello once they reach Seattle! Exciting!

Music Monday: Gogol Bordello

I went through a real Gogol Bordello phase a few years ago. They're fun, and who doesn't love a little gypsy/immigrant punk? Their current line-up (I believe) consists of people from the USA, Russia, the Ukraine, Israel, Ethiopia, China/Scotland, and Ecuador. They also used to have a Romanian guy, so they definitely have an interesting eclectic sound.

This is one of my favorite songs of all-time by them:

I think that you've all probably seen and heard these guys before, but if you haven't...well? You should. So watch these. This next one is more typical of their songs...a bit more punk rock.

And this one is making fun of how boring American weddings are, haha.

For more info, tour dates, etc, go to their website here.

Images via here and here. Info from here and here.

All kinds of outer space things!

 From Reddit

A lunar eclipse in pictures.

Pictures of the far side of the moon!

Interactive map of UFO sightings over the USA. Not cool, guys.

Um...what's antimatter? Anyway thunderstorms are throwing it into space apparently.

Here's a video of the sunset on Mars. It's blue, apparently because of the different gases in the atmosphere. Neat!

Here's a cool picture of a shadow on the earth during the 1999 solar eclipse that was taken by the MIR27 Crew

Really rad picture of a lunar eclipse.

How to deal with eclipses.

Here's a 45 minute video on the space station over at Public School

Pigeons in space. 

Here's "the most inspirational fan created pro-NASA/Space video ever."

7 myths about the Challenger disaster. 

 This terrifying print is from the Minga creative studio in Argentina.

NASA video of the, uh, "dark side" of the sun. 

Here's a video of the Mars500 crew landing on a simulated Mars in Moscow and performing tasks after 8 months of isolation.  Explanation here.

Cuh-rayzee ring of black holes. 

Here's a video of a solar flare that was actually directed at Earth in February, but (luckily!!) didn't have any effect on us.

This is a mega cool video explaining the scale of the planets by Brad Goodspeed.

Scale

from Brad Goodspeed on Vimeo.

Have you heard? We might be getting another sun. Um...I'm good with one, how about you?

Here's a real pretty crab nebula, caused by a SUPERNOVAAAA in the year 1054 that was so bright apparently, that people could see it from earth.

Hey, an asteroid may hit earth in 2036. Just FYI.

A study about sex in outer space, on the way to Mars, and what would happen when female astronauts got pregnant and had babies on Mars. No joke.

Some more beautiful space photos by Alan Friedman.

And last but not least, this is the catchiest song about Space Unicorns you've ever seen.