New hair picture on demand!

Girly Girl Pick of the Week 04/10/06

I just did a hair show with Redken over the weekend, so I'm totally psyched over their products!! I'm also totally psyched over what they did with my head! I'm like a redheaded Aeon Flux.

Anywho... if you're a color-aholic like I am, you've got to try out Redken's Color Extend shampoo and conditioner. It rocks the free world and is rumored to extend the life of your color three times as long as if you didn't use it. (which if you're red that will be two weeks instead of two days!!!)

Plus, it smells really yummy and that's always a bonus.

Try New Dessert Spray...

It tastes yuuumm-yum. Just look at Jessica, she loves the creamy lip gloss. Loves it so much her eyes are rolling into the back of her head.

Katie-- Ready for the Alien Baby

Katie Holmes is about ready to explode forth the alien-baby who is the fruit of Tom Cruise's loins. This is wrongity, wrong, wrong, wrong and makes me cherish my decision never to squeeze something the size of a watermelon out a hole the size of a lemon.

Girly Girl Pick of the Week 04/03

Yeah, I'm back into blogging. I finally got all moved, I'm finally decorating the new place... I finally have some of my downstairs tiki bathroom put together.

Moving sucks. All my fingernails are gone and I have all these cuts all over my hands. Even though we're adults, why subject ourselves to those awful fake flesh-colored bandaids? NO THANK YOU!

I was lucky enough to find this week's girly girl pick, Pirate Bandaids. The only thing that would make them better would be if they came in pink. Nevertheless, they're black with white skulls and crossbones, AND they come with a free toy inside! And this toy is actually a good toy, not like the shitty toys now found inside Cracker Jacks-- a tiny black rubber duckie pencil topper.

Life is good.



I found mine at Got Beauty or if you don't like facing people, you can order online at 5littlemonkeys.com But you should go to Got Beauty because the gals there are fantastic!!

AAaaaargh!!! Here's to the Crusty Pirate, matey!

Why it's the Happiest Place on Earth

I never really liked Disneyland... I might have to reconsider!



Prints suitable for framing can be ordered at Paul Krassner's Site.

Girly Girl Pick of the Week for 03/20/06

As I move this weekend, I've been going through my bathroom and my life throwing out unwanted crap. But this Girly Girl Pick is something I couldn't part with a nearly empty bottle. I've got to use it until the very very end.

It's called "Re-Do" by Jonathan Product, and it's freaking fantastic. You know how you wash your hair and use too much product? This waters it down and makes your hair work again.



You know how you just have those days where you wake up and don't have time to wash your hair, but you really should? This allows you to squeeze in one more day of not washing without looking like a greasy guttermuffin.

It's also good for refreshing up your face, so you don't have to lump more powder on at the end of the day. PLUS the smell is fabulous!!!

AND it's available from our friends at Sephora.
From that site:
Revitalizing and conditioning Cucumber/Rose Essential Water refreshes slightly dirty, oily hair and vegetable enzyme neutralizes odors and leaves hair smelling clean. Natural extracts like white tea, almond, aloe, and pomegranate condition and add shine. Also can be used to refresh, hydrate, and condition skin. Product is 100 percent vegan and alcohol-free.

Jonathan on Redo: "A trick I learned from working on fashion shoots and runways - sometimes I just did not have time to wash and style models' dirty hair. So I mixed up my own botanical water infusion spray. It allowed me to rework and restyle sections of hair without shampooing and took away any stale odors. Soon the models were asking me for bottles of the "redo" and using it everywhere - on their skin - and anywhere including behind the scenes at fashion shows and even on airplane flights."

FYI, as soon as I get all moved, I'll have time and money to concentrate on planning a girly girl makeup day for y'all!!

So THAT'S Why!!!

I always wondered the real reason why Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey broke up. I mean, WHY would Jessica break up with my cute Nick?

She likes girls!!!

Girly Girl Pick of the Week 03/13/06

Yeah, packing and moving sucks. Not to mention I just discovered yesterday the new shower leaks into the new kitchen through the new ceiling. Just when you think your apartment, new to you, should actually be inhabitable...

Anyway, onward and upward to a new Girly Girl Pick, and I love this one. In fact, I went up to Park City and saw "The Full Monty" (yep, ladies, lots of asses and in the end... yep, you guessed it) and looked totally glam!

Loreal has come out with a new line called High Intensity Pigments (H.I.P) where the colors jump out, look great, stay on and it's fun. Best of all, it's inexpensive, so you can outfit your whole face with a new, H.I.P group of colors for under about $15. I got the eyeshadows...

...along with a new lipstick and gloss. Big fun!

Just the thing to make you feel a little springy and colorful!

BFF-- Until They Weren't

Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton snub each other while at a Los Angeles coffee shop awaiting production for Simple Life 4.

I'm torn on this thing, the first three seasons were like watching bullriding on TV, it wasn't like you really enjoyed it, you enjoyed the carnage. That's like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. But where they're not even friends anymore, it's just sad, and fake, and humiliating... just like their friendship.

Treasure your best friends, ladies!! My Deena is a goddess and I laugh hardest when I'm with her. I'm also thankful she's a true friend and not a "frenemy" like Paris and Nicole.

And yes, I will still watch Simple Life 4.

A Warm Fuzzy...

I rarely take the time to read entire articles because my life sort of works in bits. In the radio business, you have just a few minutes in between commercials to make a point. During commercials, you have exactly three minutes to get up and go to the bathroom before you're back into news. News, which is another series of bits that fit together in a single newscast.

But I took the time to read this whole article, and though I'm feeling a little melancholy and introspective today, it spoke to me. It made me think that, even though I am single in Utah, it is okay to hang out with just me. Simply, it was worth the time.

From Wired.com
I totally forgot about Valentine's Day this year, until I went into a post office here in Osaka and was given a little gift by the official behind the counter: a small red replica postbox.
This scene -- a corporate Cupid raining down arrows into the hearts of customers -- was repeated when I went to a convenience store and was asked to make a lucky dip selection from a box of candies. I left cheered by the tenderness of it all, amused that these declarations of love were coming to me from public bodies and businesses, not individuals.

I didn't really need to be cheered, and I didn't really need to do anything special on St. Valentine's Day. As someone in a relationship, I like to think I salute St. Valentine every day. Looking back at my blog entry for February 14th, I see that what I was thinking about that day wasn't love, but Japanese collectivism and the spirit of wa. The emphasis on harmony, politeness, obligation and mutual dependency is a marked feature of Asian societies, in contrast to the Western emphasis on individualism.

Poking around on the internet, though, I began to notice that St. Valentine's day was making some single people in the West very unhappy by reminding them of their singledom. For instance, I read an internet thread (it would be a bit insensitive to link to it) in which a computer programmer threatened to jump off a bridge unless he'd found a partner within three months. And I read an article in the travel section of British newspaper The Observer in which writer Will Hide compared the experience of being single in London and New York:

"If you're alone but hoping not to be," writes Hide, "Americans are much more approachable than we British, be it at the food store, the pub or the gym. You can chat to complete strangers without feeling like a total psycho.... If you're simply on your own and happy that way, New York is a great place just to hang out because everyone does it. Going to the cinema alone in Britain? Sad git. Going to the cinema alone in New York? Hey, cool, a chance for some quality 'me' time. Lunch for one in Blighty? Obviously Billy No-mates. Lunch for one in Manhattan? Alluring. A bit mysterious even."

Now, personally, I dislike going to the cinema, restaurants and even cafes on my own. But, just as Will Hide notices that it's easier to be a unit of one in New York than it is in London, I've noticed that it's easier here in Japan than it is in the West. It's built into the infrastructure.

For instance, in the West you often feel like you're inconveniencing any restaurant you turn up to alone, because an unoccupied seat (a seat containing the ghost of your absent dyadic partner) sits facing you, a seat the restaurant could otherwise be making money from. Japanese sushi and ramen restaurants, in contrast, tend to have a horseshoe-shaped counter bar facing the chef where single people can sit without wasting space or facing any ghosts.

A single person with a free evening in a Japanese city could go to one of these restaurants, a pachinko arcade, a public bath-house, a manga cafe, a cosplay maid cafe, a karaoke bar and other (shadier) places and feel like they were participating socially without being in a couple.

In the West, it seems to me, that isn't as easy. And that seems counter-intuitive: Shouldn't individualist societies cater better to the needs of individuals, and collectivist societies cater worse to them? How come it seems to be the other way around?

Of course, there are movements in the West to define singledom more positively, and even to formulate a kind of single-person activism around the issue.

In 2004, Sasha Cagen published the book Quirkyalone, which tries to give a positive spin on Western solitude. A quirkyalone, says Cagen, is "a person who enjoys being single (but is not opposed to being in a relationship) and generally prefers to be alone rather than dating for the sake of being in a couple." In her first formulation of the idea back in 2000, Cagen calculated that 5 percent of the U.S. population are quirkyalones.

Cagen's thesis that "it's not strange to be single; rather, single is the new norm" is lent some credence by new research released in February by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which reports that 43 percent of American adults (87 million people) say they are single. Twenty six percent of these are single people in a committed relationship. Of those not in a committed relationship, 55 percent are not looking for a partner.

I'm still not quite sure why collectivist cultures should cater better to the needs of individuals than individualistic societies do. Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that in a collectivist culture like Japan, you're never truly alone, even when you're alone. Or perhaps it's because Japan is such a group society that you need a break now and again, a place out in public where you can be alone for a few minutes between the group at the office and the group at home.

But I'm pretty sure of one thing. Given current U.S. trends toward living, working and playing alone, the infrastructure of American cities could benefit from resembling a little more the monad-welcoming floating world of the Japanese city, animated, apparently, by the spirit of a corporate and collectivist Cupid who loves anyone with the yen.

Sushi and karaoke already have their place in the neonscape of Western cities, but it can't be too long before someone with a free evening in L.A. will be able to do as many things alone -- and feel as connected with strangers -- as you can in Osaka today.

In a truly individualistic culture, you shouldn't have to feel "quirky" when you're out and about alone, should you?

No. No. NOOOOO!

I have said for the last couple of years that George Michael has been one of my favorite radio interviews I've ever done. He was so polite and he was even careful to call us by our names, something that doesn't really happen very often. I have loved George Michael since Wham! woke me up before I went went and I even loved him after that little debacle with gay sex in a public bathroom.

He is beautiful and talented, so WHY does he have to pull a Robert Downey Jr.? George Michael was arrested in London this weekend for drug possession after he was found slumped over the wheel of his car. Authorities say Michael had both weed and GHB with him. Why, God, why?

Is Dating Worth It?

I've recently been informed of some nasty rumors (Or rumours, if you're British) that have been spread about yours truly regarding people I've dated, making me wonder is it worth it? Last night was a trip. I was driving home, and ended up next to one guy I briefly saw last year who actually slowed down and changed lanes to avoid eye contact.

Later, I found out from a friend who is a door guy at a local jazz bar that someone I saw briefly last month (Tiramisu Guy) has been telling people some not nice things about me. Apparently, I asked him if he was gay and that was why he "kicked me to the curb." Isn't it interesting how some people can be outright rude in their dealings with the opposite sex, and then when they're around their friends you're the alleged psycho? Besides, it stands to reason that if he were gay, he would've enjoyed my fabulous pinkness and charm even more!

Even later, I found out from my neighbor whom also used to be a co-worker someone from my previous place of employment is now telling everyone we used to have a thing.

DO THESE PEOPLE NOT HAVE LIVES? Or is it that my life is so "interesting" that they get off in making me out to be not a nice person. With that, I hope that karma comes back to those who speak poorly of others and makes them feel as stupid as Adrien Brody looks in these pictures.

Girly Girl Pick for Week of 02/27

I'm not blogfading, I promise! (Blogfading: yep, that's what the kids call it when you get enthused about your blog and then crap out on it.) I've been trying to find a new apartment, and I finally found one! I'm moving at the end of next month to a discofabulous place, so things might be a little hit and miss for the next little bit. I'll post some picts of my new 70s retro pad sometime soon, as well as the progression of some redecorating I'm doing. It rocks.

At any rate, I have a great product that you simply MUST get from our good friends at Benefit. (AND available from Sephora for those of you who are Sephora sluts like me.) It's called Dr. Feelgood, and it's tough to explain, but it is a great product. Dr. Feelgood is a mattifier that goes under your foundation, or can be used instead of foundation if you're one of those kind of people. (Not me, I'm finding I'm a foundation slut too.) It mattes shine, it primes skin for foundation, it reduces fine lines, and it makes pores smaller. I don't have big pores, but I have one weird one on my cheek that Dr. Feelgood seems to fill in.

When you're retouching things at the end of the day, rather than using more powder to combat shine, Dr. Feelgood works for that too. Just pat on (DO NOT RUB) over existing foundation, and it makes you look great into the evening too.

From Sephora,
A brand new idea for smooth, silky skin. This complexion balm slips under makeup to help smooth the complexion. Enriched with vitamins C and E, Dr. Feelgood can also be worn alone on bare skin. It's indispensable and in demand!

Give it a whirl. It's $24, but lasts for a really long time, so it's a splurge that's worth it and not something you'll have to buy often.


Benefit classifies Dr. Feelgood in its "Fake-It Collection" with products designed to "go from dull to darling in an instant."

A Little Self-Love...

From the Deseret Morning News:

How's Tom Barberi doing after nearly six months back on radio?
The radio host, self-nicknamed "The Voice of Reason," expresses optimism and even acknowledges his nicer-guy image via e-mail: "The ratings were interesting, seeing as we just turned the station on without any promotion or publicity.
"That said, the Arbitron Maximizer had the station at a 0.6 (ratings share). Now, with our billboard campaign and a full book exposure next time, I am very optimistic that we will show up. It took more than a year for (sister station) The Zone to show a pulse, and we already show signs of life!"
Now on the FM dial — on KFMS (FM-97.5), weekdays, noon-2 p.m. — Barberi may no longer be on morning-drive radar, but he is filling a void with stimulating local talk radio in the early afternoon.
His later start on the air might also have something to do with his more pleasant manner on the air. "As far as my being nicer," Barberi wrote, "maybe it is because for the first time in 35 years I have gotten a decent night's sleep. I still have my temper tantrums and bite back when attacked on the air, but I have been trying to be a little more rational."
He's excited about the potential listeners he could reach on the FM band. "Talk is what interests people on the radio, especially local talk, and I hope to expand the show to three hours and start it earlier fairly soon."

Barberi's not a solo host this time around. Holly Braithwaite joined him on the air shortly after his revised show began last September.
Formerly a sidekick on the "Z-Morning Zoo" on KZHT, Braithwaite is doubling as the show's producer and seems, like Barberi, to be a host that listeners either love or hate, with little or nothing in between.
While some listeners refer to her as "sexy and insightful," others may call her "uninformed" and just plain "unintelligent."
Either way, she brings a younger audience appeal to Barberi's show, and, according to Barberi, she's a fabulous producer.
Barberi also likes to have fun with politics, and he had some empty Evolution Ale bottles delivered to the state Legislature. He said most of the politicians on the Hill got a laugh out of the stunt.
Studio lines for the Barberi-Braithwaite show are 470-, 570- and 670-0975. There's also a "Tell Tom Line" at 519-7899, which is open 24 hours a day.

Another Uncanny Similarity...

The Olsen Twins


and

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Survival of the Fittest

Happy Valentine's Day... Whatever

Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours and all of you. Soon, it will be over and we can all put the whole nasty thing behind us for another year.

My heart was warmed when I caught the exclusive scoop on E! News that Britney Spears spent most of the day at an Urgent Care in Malibu. Ms. Spears was seen running with two bodyguards out of the clinic yesterday, while her son, Tater Tot was sneaked by Brit's assistant out the back. Unfortunately, Spears will still make her cameo appearence on Will and Grace next month-- she made it out of the Urgent Care just in time to shoot the episode.

Quick Valentine's Day Quiz: What do you get when you spend two hours making someone a Valentine's Day tiramisu (we're talking FROM SCRATCH... the whole deal... soaking the ladyfingers in espresso and even beating whipped cream into stiff peaks. The whole deal...) and you leave it for them as a tasty surprise? Answer: A big, fat NADA. Zilch! Zip! In other words, the recepient didn't even send so much as a damn text message to say thanks.

I'm off to the gym! Smooches!

Girly Girl Pick of the Week 02/13/06

I've written before that I feel my hair is the bane of my existence. Well, it still is. But this little product makes it all the better. It's another fave from Bumble and Bumble, Brilliantine Creme!!! (It comes in a tube now, instead of the bottle, but still a great product.)

Brillantine creme is really hard to describe. It's not a pomade, it's not a gel, not a wax... but it messes up your hair just enough to look like you've got a sort tousled thing going on. It doesn't make things gummy. It doesn't leave locks greasy. It's like it makes it look just better than without it! Also, I have a lot of people ask me if I just got my hair colored because it really brightens it and makes it looks shiny.

GREAT because I don't have the cha-ching to get it colored as often as I'd like.

Our friends at Bumble and Bumble are so great.

Girly Pink Gadget Pick!

Here's a little bonus to the girly girl beauty pick... it's a girly pink gadget for the girly geek in all of us. I was reminded this weekend that I really needed a little flash drive for all my eBooks. I just wanted to get them off my hard drive and put them in a collective place. Then I went to Target and found on sale this week for $19.99 a cute little zMate 256 MB flash pen drive for all my computer reads!

And if you're really lame like me, you can wear it around your neck! I was so excited when I took it out of the package that I wore it from the cute pink lanyard all night while I made my grilled chicken salad. I even did a little dance around the apartment while waiting for "Grey's Anatomy" to start (still dealing with that Code Black situation). Then, I realized I was a big, lame dork and I took it off for bed.

p.s. Sorry the picture sort of sucks, but I took it with the camera phone and was so excited I had to upload it right away!