I don't get it

Could someone please explain to me what the deal is with the Foo Fighters?

I don't get it. 

They must tour here every year.  50,000 people bought tickets to see them (again) last night.  Why?

It's a Very Bebe Christmas

Here she is Bebe (4), my Christmas Fairy with all her Christmas Carols

dark knight rises

I never thought I'd get into the whole Dark Night thing.

But I have to say I'm a little excited about Christian Bale's caped crusader comeback next year -  movie #3 in the trilogy is set for release in July. 

this rules

Inspired by NYC, the Rolling Stones in -your -face- to -critics -and -haters album, Some Girls with Ronnie Woods making his slide guitar debut....

Some Girls, 1978 - re released this week!

Yes, yes I do like you Bruno Mars

I was never that sure about Bruno -
kinda thought he was a pretty little douche
but I did think his dancing was nifty in the Amy Winehouse tribute he did earlier this year at the MTV music awards.

But this is the deal breaker right here -
I am sure Michael Jackson would have been up for it, I'm not so sure what Kurt would have thought and Jack White's probably being sick in his mouth -
but I love it. 

Yip we won

Ok ok yes we won.,

Now lets talk about shopping and shoes.

WTF NKOTBSB ?

Are you crazy?

Unless you want to win worlds worst supergroup
what are you doing NKOTB and BSB?

Boy Bands Unite!

breast cancer sucks

Perhaps a timely reminder, as its Breast Cancer Awareness month after all.

E channel's Guiliana has breast cancer


Any time someone famous gets something like this, it only serves to draw attention to the cause - and there's the silver lining.  I'm pretty sure Guiliana wouldn't mind being a spokesperson

famous dads

I always felt sorry for Jakob Dylan.  His band the Wallflowers were pretty good in the 90's - that little piece of 5.04 gold 'One Headlight' was a truly great radio hit and 'Sixth Avenue Heartache' was equally as great. They even won grammy's. They did five albums all up and then he went solo...  last heard  on an episode of True Blood with a song called 'Aint no Invisible Man'.  Um, yes, yes you are invisible Jakob. 
It must be so hard living in the long shadow of your dad. 

A bit like the long suffering Julian Lennon really - he's been battling the famous dad demon for years.  His first album in 13 years, Changes, is due any minute. 

Nirvana

So here we are 20 years later.  Really?

 "Even though you couldn't quite tell what he was singing about, you knew it was intense as hell."^[ Butch Vig


It doesn't seem that long since the tape kept getting mangled in my car stereo.  Good times. 
This was my fave off that album

One Vampire to rule them all

Oh Johnny. 

Tim Burton + Johnny Depp = Dark Shadows, the movie.  Awesome

RIP, REM

R.E.M
we sure had some good times, some sad times, some pensive, quiet, moving moments

Country Feedback.  My fave

Why Gwyneth?

Gwyneth!  What are you wearing?

Why did you choose this for the Emmy's of all places? 
Crop top?  Fail
Nude coloured lining? Fail
Sprayed on abs? Fail

Worst dressed, surely.  Look out Fashion Police!

Brad tells it like it is

Oh Jennifer !  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!

Brad says it was a 'pretend' marriage!

This is going to set Jennifer back years!  Watch this space....

I love you Jeff Tweedy

This is why I love Jeff Tweedy.

Just proving that he can sing anything.
Rules.

Perfect, Paul Simon

Paul Simon at Ground Zero today.  Perfect.


"Although we can never un-see what happened here, we can also see that children who lost their parents have grown into young adults, grandchildren have been born and good works and public service have taken root to honor those we loved and lost."

- Mayor Michael Bloomberg, National September 11th Memorial ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the attacks at the World Trade Center, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, in New York.

The names of all 2,983 victims of the attacks in New York City, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania have been etched in bronze into black stone surrounding two reflecting pools in the footprints of the Twin Towers.

Best Mum News Ever!!

This is the best news ever!  If you're at home with kids and never have time to exercise -

you can stop feeling guilty about it right now!!

Yes -!  You too can use your baby like a dumb bell!  3x 10 reps each side please

Check it out here - then drop and give me 20


(yay now you can give up the silly Mommy/Baby yoga)

My TV Crush

Kristoffer Polaha
or Nate Basel from my fave show Life Interrupted.  I love this show.  I don't know whether its because the lead is a radio girl like me (which you very rarely see on telly), or  the unrequited love affair between Baze, Kate and Lux.  Either way, I'm hooked.     Its sort of got the suggestion that your high school crush or first love could actually end up being your soul mate.  I'm not so sure about that, but I do have an ongoing deep affection for my first ever bad boy who taught me how to blow smoke rings and bought me my first ever zippo - even though we haven't seen each other for nearly ten years.  I think of him often.  
And then sometimes your life does get interrupted.  There's the guy who your life unintentionally collides with at a moment in time, and you're left making choices you hadn't expected to and your pendulum swings,  suddenly,  way off course.  It has a massive ripple effect on your future, you may not know it at the time, but you will recognise its power, years later.    Some times things happen in life and you sort of have a sliding door moment with someone where things could have turned out either way.  And sometimes if you look closely (or want to) you can sort of see exactly how your life would have played out if you had made different choices or chosen that  path.  I still think of him often too.

Here's Harper shopping!

How gorgeous is Harper?  Check out her chubby little cheeks.  And all that hair!

Here she is  out shopping with Mummy (who's back to a size 4 - she runs on the treadmill every day - is this possible after a C section?).

VB's slipped a disc cos she couldn't give up the  Louboutin's while carrying.  And now she's doomed to flat shoes while out shopping.  She kinda looks weird in them. 

The Midi - so not sexy!

The maxi?  check
The mini?  check

The Midi?  No!  Definitely not!  Why, why, why?
You see this is why I hate fashion sometimes...

This summer's hottest skirt length.  Really?  Its so unflattering.  Nanna-ish.  Nasty!

Get those calves in shape ladies!

my kind of rugby

This is my kind of rugby...

Shop Like a WAG


$5000 shopping spree?  Oh Yessie

I love you Gaga

I love you Gaga

I love how you stayed in character all night at the VMA's - even when the cameras rolled to you while some one else was winning.  Funny.

Way to go Rugby

Rugby is so embarassing.

Touch, Pause and don't engage

there's something really wrong about the black rubber finger rings too...

WTF?

Why?

Why do we need a Dirty Dancing remake ?  Baby's nose is perfect the way it is - although Jennifer Grey didn't seem to think so.

Any Why do we need a new Footloose?  Kevin Bacon ruled.

Check out the newer, shinier, not as hot as Kevin remake ....

Entourage - the movie

Finally, after all these years!

Following in the footsteps of the Sex in the City franchise- yet so much hotter and better -

Entourage will make it to the big screen after this, its 8th and final season.

Bring it Ari Gold. 

why Nick?

Why Nick?  This is so cool

So Why did you let these people butcher it?

Oh Amy

As my friend Rebecca Denton says, "27 is the magic number".

So true.

Amy's officially made it into the 27 Club - god knows how she even got this far.   Her name in lights now with those other infamous, notorious dead rockstars who checked out at the axis of their career-  Joplin, Jones, Hendrix, Morrison and Cobain.

I don't think she would have had it any other way. 

We should remember how she was before she found crack. 

hot couple alert

These two are so hot.

Victoria's Secret model Lily Aldridge says married life is the best and she's proud to be a wife.  You go girl.  If my husband was writing songs about sex on fire and the like, I'd be proud too.  And he's a total hottie.  And she'll never have to worry about him when he heads off on tour with his brothers and cousin - I mean who's gonna cheat on a V.S model right? 

bet this hurt

Holy hell check out this huge baby!

Twice the size of a normal newborn. 

Eyes watering *   Blocking out mental image * fingers in ears*  don't even wanna know *

heartbreak and hope...

for us in Christchurch.

(my fave building I walked past every day when I lived here years ago)

Driving through the damaged city is akin to a trip down any street in downtown Kabul.

As outsiders, here for the first time since February's fatal quake and the many many since, its, quite simply, distressing; disturbing. The news images do not capture what is really the truth here...that the heart and soul of the city is,  simply, gone.  Shut down, broken, boarded up, cordoned off, pulled or fallen down. 
The streets in and around the CBD are silent, as if in quiet mourning for what took place there on that day in February.  We are here in the weekend with the diggers and excavators resting roadside in and around the bricks, the rubble, the ruin.  It takes your breath away.  The awful, complicit silence.  The few people who wander around like us -  wanting yet not wanting to see - are dumbfounded.  Some people who live here have still not yet seen this destruction, can't bring themselves to 'sightsee' like others are.  Each have their own stories to tell, I eavesdrop on a local telling a Canadian tourist where she was that day, and what happened to her.  Others hold onto the fence and simply stare, like we do,  standing beneath the aptly named Bridge of Remembrance gazing hopelessly on Cashel Mall or what's left of it.  You can still see coffee cups sitting on outside tables on The Strip.  Everything suspended in time, still as it was that fatal February day.
In other suburbs its business as usual, yet not really, with  whole blocks of shops gone, or the odd building still in a state of collapse - fluro status updates slashed across the door or stickers plastered over entrances or police danger tape cordoning it off.  Bizarre. 
And, understandably, its the only topic of conversation.  From taxi drivers to cafe staff, locals anywhere and everywhere still living here, still surviving here and  in ways only known to them, have made it work and dare I say, made it normal. 
Even for us here in Christchurch for our sisters kidney transplant - the whole operation is dependant on whether or not there is 'another one'.  We just need to get through this day of transplant surgery - our hearts and hopes for her suspended until the surgery is over, quake free.

M.I.L from Hell

Check out

this

mother in law from hell

Mick's Rock, Keiths Roll

Perhaps the best line from  the Stones in Exile doco
was from Ketih Richards "Micks Rock and I'm Roll".  So true.  How else could you explain the true marriage between the two? They ARE rock and roll and their love child is the dirty american guitar music brought to life on the legendary Exile on Main St. 
Nam was in full swing and Nixon was in power and there was a lot going on outside the villas gates in Nice.  But all that mattered was the rock n roll explosion going on in the basement at Keiths. 
Stones in Exile has hundreds of black and white still photos (oh Anita!) taken while they were in residence avoiding their tax issues back home.  Lots of gorgeous jerky hand held camera footage too - I am always amazed at what they can remember.  Especially Keith who hit the smack big time there with his high old mate Gram Parsons.  I love that they are all still alive to tell their sordid, sexy tales. 
You must watch this little doco and uncover the gem again that is Exile on Main St.  It will show how and why America loved them more than the Beatles. 

 

Sweet Louise

Check this out

Is Louise Cake not the sweetest slice in the world?

The End of the Affair

Graham Greene's novel claims to be one of love and hate -  as all truely great love stories are.  This story (or Bendrix and Sarah's) is tumultous love at its best - in all it's gory glory;  from deep seated jealousies to blinding, confusing love - the kind that leaves you a little burned but back for more. 


Bendrix, the narrator, is writing a novel on love and hate.  But his own love affair with Sarah has left him battered and bruised and bitter all at once.  He is petty, and mean and flawed but he is in love, (and hate) and sometimes that word allows us all an excuse doesn't it?

"How can I make a stranger see her as she stopped in the hall at the foot of the stairs and turned to us? I have never been able to describe even my fictitious characters except by their actions. It has always seemed to me that in a novel the reader should be allowed to imagine a character in any way he chooses: I do not want to supply him with ready-made illustrations. Now I am betrayed by my own technique, for I do not want any other woman substituted for Sarah, I want the reader to see the one broad forehead and bold mouth, the conformation of the skull, but all I can convey is an indeterminate figure turning in the dripping mackintosh, saying, 'Yes, Henry?' and then 'You?'"

Cool

HLAH

Nice one HLAH

Downton Abbey

What an exceptional show.

Since the Titanic's taken down the only male heirs to the Downton throne the brilliant bitchy, backstabbing  sisters have no choice but to marry their way up in the world and get hitched to an old dude they've only met twice.  Or score the handsome cousin Mathew who becomes the new heir.

With drama and  intrigue it's  classy with so many twists and surreptitious turns, meaningful glances, exceptional costumes and beguiling business below the stairs where the difference between being a valet and a footman in vital.  There's an  Upstairs/downstairs relationship, the dead Turkish hottie, the disdainful dowager and even a gay! 

Season 2 - set more in WW1 London and less at the Grantham estate -   is being made right now and is due to air later this year and there's going to be a Christmas special!   perfect!

 Bring it Downton Abbey.

Menton

My kind of town

Something about the shutters, the sea, the smell, the sound.  The old little city on the water, right on the border.

It ain't all that

Yes sometimes having it all ain't all that.

Supermums are their own worst enemies

Really?  You don't say.

the strokes on jools holland

I still Love this

B'day Cake Madness

It had to be this one didn't it.

No, no a round cake with a mermaid doll stuck on top just wouldn't do.  We have to go for the full on castle with fancy cut out icing and two tone blue with what looks to be sea weed attached.  Goddam it.  I don't even have a piping bag.  And we know what happened with the pavola don't we?

Happy Birthday Bebe - I will try my very best my darling.  

Luther

So we watched the entire first season of Luther.

O Yessie.  Its totally awesome.  I can't believe I missed it on the telly.

Bring it Series 2.

handsome

Christian Bale.

he was so darling in Empire of the Sun

He's awesome

Yay Lily

Congrats Lily.

You just look gorgeous.  And you totally deserve a great guy and finally, your baby.  Talk about role model for moving on after tragedy.  Good for you girl. 
How sweet that you haven't got a pre nup either. 

WTF? Bad parenting part 2

Honestly.  Who's gonna want one of these serial killer t-shirts?

Doesn't mean you have to stick to twee Peter Rabbit outfits but, come on, don't be mean.  Your kid doesn't want to wear a hitler tshirt.  Wear it yourself

aah Fleetwood Mac

This is the best version of Fleetwood Mac.  They were so cool.

They all look so healthy and  happy (high) here.  The McVie's were bust.  Lindsay and Stevie were bust.  And Mick's wife had just slept with someone else.  It's amazing Rumours even got made really.  Imagine them all in that 6x9 California studio with no windows fuelled by coke and craziness Not long after this pic Stevie and Mick got together but then he cheated on her with her best friend Sara (who co-wrote Sara).  By the time that song (from Tusk) came out, they hated each other.  Talk about car keys in the middle.
Meantime Christine was wigging out from all the drugs and Stevie desperately wanted to join the cool that wasTom Petty and the Heartbreakers. 

Hangover Hottie!

Ah Bradley Cooper.  I fell in love with him ages ago when he was in Alias (J.J Abrams first bit of tv genius).  He was brilliant in the first Hangover too.

But he always seemed  a bit douch-y in real life.  Especially with the whole pinched and painful Renee Zellwegger thing - what was he thinking?  Maybe he just looked so unhappy because he was with her - getting brow beaten into 'settling down'. 

After this interview I've totally changed my tune.  He's just so much hotter in Francais.

Win a Ketz-Ke Hand bag!

Hey check out

More Instore

My shopping report!

You could win a Ketz-Ke handbag for winter - gorgeous !  x 5 to give away

Bridesmaids

So my friend Jay-Jay organised a special screening of Bridesmaids last night

It's so funny.  You've gotta go and see it with your girlfriends. 

Judd Apatow is genius really. It's the first time he's gone the chick flick. Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig made her big screen debut in Apatow's Knocked Up, so he's really moved her up the ranks here taking the lead as Annie a failed bakery owner who's life kinda sucks - when we meet her she's got a stink car, no house, no job and  she hates herself for her booty calls with  the loathesome hottie Ted (Mad Men's Jon Hamme).  Annie's best friend Lillian is getting hitched and makes Annie her Maid Of Honour - but Lillians new BFF  Helen (the amazing Rose Byrne) is out for the kill; wanting the top spot for herself! 

Gaga brings back the sax

Lady Gaga the edge of glory
so 80's.

So great. 

this 3 year old can sing!

Check this out -

Bebe Ray Gains.  How awesome.

and the winner of the Pav off is....

Jennifer Bainbridge

Pavlova Queen.  This is the first time she has ever made one!  It tasted amazing Jen.

Here's mine

I'll stick with my day job thanks.

Great Aunt Enid's Pavlova Recipe

In my own words of course - after making it twice!

Last time I made a pav was when I was nine and I grilled it.  I wanted a bit of my sisters glory as she (who went on to become a chef and food writer) used to do all the baking when we were kids.


Preheat oven to 125 C.

Beat 3 egg whites till really stiff.  As in peaks standing up by themselves.


Slowly trickle in 175 g of white sugar with 1 teaspoon of corn flour mixed in.  You should aim to add it in one tablespoon at a time.  This takes ages but is worth it!  Trust me.

When its all nice and white and glossy and peaky and marshmallowy -

stir through 1 teaspoon malt vinegar and 1 teaspoon vanilla


Grease a baking tray, sprinkle it with a couple of drops of water
then spread out your baking paper.  Grab a dinner plate and trace around it on to the baking paper.

Now heap up all the pav mixture into this circle.  Fluff it all up and whack it in the oven for an hour.
When done, leave it overnight in the oven.

get busy with some cream, kiwfruit, flake or passionfruit.  De light ful!

Most Favourite Song

Beatrice and the Fascinators

The wedding was not the first time she's worn an unfortunate fascinator...

here's the best one

It really is crazy though that the Toilet Seat is getting so much love.  And money!

yep we know its painful

Clearly having a baby is gonna be painful.

But would you really want to know exactly how painful?
this test could tell you!

I'm pretty sure if you knew what was in store you wouldn't really do it would you?

Nightchoir

Nightchoir

they're so good.

Get a Butt Like Pippa's

So the world is going crazy for Pippa's butt.  Since the wedding there's been heaps of work done on Brit Backsides

Don't pay 60 grand for it though - get into this instead

3 minutes a day - awesome!

Now if I could just get a dress like hers please.

Worlds Greatest Artist

Here he is, the world's greatest artist.  He's been doing it for 7 1/2 years.

He's awesome.

See his art here.

you're cool Seth

I love Seth Rogan.

I love how he got his break writing on Da Ali G Show before Judd Apatow discovered him for the big screen.  I love how he wrote Superbad with his mate when he was 13 in High School. 
 In Pineapple Express I bet he wasn't even acting, likewise in Knocked Up.  It's his M.O to sit around getting high with his mates. 
He's so cool and funny and he's got the best laugh - I loved hearing him in Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs Aliens. 

He's made Jonah Hill into his bitch, making him his sort-of little brother.

It's really sweet how Seth lost weight and then Jonah did too.
I reckon they should now take Casey Abraham under their wing

All 3 would be awesome together in a comedy remake of the Outsiders or something.

Awesome

You won't get much better than This

Neil Young TV.  Awesome.

r patz can act!

Robert Pattinson is more than just a pretty face.

I thought the twilight films were silly.. well I only saw two and they were silly.   I thought he got outdone by the sulky emo Kirsten Stewart.  And then there's the publicity hungry 'relationship'.

I've seen him in a few real movies now and he can actually act.  He was quite awesome in Little Ashes as Salvador Dali (so much cooler than Edward Cullen).  He was also quite good in the haunting Remember Me. 

  In his latest, Water For Elephants not only is he a hottie in a tuxedo but he actually makes Reece Witherspoon quite foxy and sexy which must have been pretty hard.

I remember

Skid Row.  Ace

Cool

Totally cool.

Wearing their t-shirt too.