Adri Music & Blog, Canadian Female Indie Electronica. - Urban Culture

How to Get Even More Disposable!

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:05:00 -0700

Ever wonder how you can take your consumerism to a new level? Ever wonder what else you can dispose of?

I've just witnessed a TV commercial for a single use panty. Just what I needed! Underwear to throw away! Gone with pesky laundry -- just throw away your clothes!

In the advertisement they suggest it's useful so that you don't ruin your good panties having your monthly feminine inconvenience. I suppose that's a concern, but why not stock up on lovely new black undies from American Apparel? Much harder to stain black fabric. Oh but no, that would be too practical.

I suppose, I can think of one case where they'd really be justifiable. I could keep a spare in case a girlfriend needed one. Borrowing used undies in case of emergency is unappealing at best, but one could keep a 'spare' disposable.

Patterns in my World

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 20:36:14 -0800

I often hear and see patterns. I guess that is maybe part of being a musician. Sometimes they look like this:

Valentine's Day Madness

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:21:19 -0800

Yesterday my sweetie was holding something exciting behind his back and says to me "Now, I know most girls wouldn't find this romantic, but since you're Adri -- I know you will!" I knew right then and there he was holding a piece of gear. It was a small and very light Manfrotto Modo tripod. Yay! I have needed a tripod for years... He had planned to take me out to a viewpoint but it was raining sheets outside. We shopped for shoes for him instead at the Fluevog store. Strangely enough John Fluevog was there, and I told him what a fan of his shoes I was. I wonder if he gets that a lot, now that his face is plastered all over town on billboards advertising Granville Street? Sadly, I was wearing a pair of cheap Aldos at the time, and not one of my 4 pairs of Vogs. For shame!

This morning I found out that a couple of my photos were chosen as finalist in a Flickr group Valentine's contest. I don't usually enter these things, but someone invited me so I could hardly refuse. This was one of them...

MacFourth Rules!

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:32:42 -0800

My friend Tamara was in the paper today! Very cool. She makes a really cool site called MacFourth for her neighbourhood. She also has a really cool board game store which has also gotten her a share of media attention.

Woooot!!!

Smokin' Aces

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:31:50 -0800

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a preview screening of the new film "Smokin' Aces" with my sweetie. It was a gas.

Much of hollywood film-making is centered around sex and violence, this film was no exception. The violence was the more plentiful of the two, and the film-makers served out a heaping dose of excessive force, gun-battles and explosions. Any boy with typical adrenaline-driven masculine guilty-pleasure film tastes would be delighted. After all, who doesn't take secret pleasure in total carnage? Fortunately for me (the girl) the plot was compelling enough to keep me interested. Probably the nicest surprises in the film were the humour, the extremely colourful characters and how stylish the movie was.

It's definitely not a subtle portrait of the human condition however, and if you are looking for that you are better off seeing something else.

Video of BC Place Stadium Deflating

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 14:52:35 -0800

By way of Youtube here is a video of the aforementioned building failure...

BC Place Stadium Deflates!

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:31:09 -0800

I just got wind from my Sweetie who works in a building overlooking BC Place Stadium that it has DEFLATED!!!

Alas, our big puff-ball in the sky got a tear in it... and apparently nearby offices witnessed its roof's demise. I wonder if that had any relation to the extremely weird weather we're having today? It's raising buckets of slush out there. Perhaps the weight of the precipitation had something to do with it?

For those who don't know, BC Place Stadium is a large facility in downtown Vancouver with a fabric roof that is pressurized from underneath. With a tear in it, I imagine it is hard to keep the pressure difference that keeps the roof up. I wonder what caused the tear? Age maybe? Vandalism? Sharp projectiles falling from the sky?

Hopefully this mystery will be solved.

Not So Cute Side of People

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 23:52:02 -0800

As a follow up to my earlier post regarding muddy water I wanted to post this article. Apparently a fight broke out at Costco between customers desperately trying to get water this morning!

I am relieved that everyone I saw at my local Costco was quite civil.

Muddy Waters

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 12:59:05 -0800

I usually take having vast quantities of high quality water totally for granted.

Yesterday when I woke up to a toilet full of cloudy muddy water it was a good wake up call. Wednesday's storm was so brutal, it killed my umbrella twice. It's no wonder there was a landslide into our water supply. Since we're now under a boil-water advisory, Costco sold out of all types of water with the exception of single bottles of Perrier. I bought one of their last remaining flats, as I quite enjoy fizzy water lately.

Still, having a shower that looks brown and smells like potting soil is a bit disconcerting. I wasn't sure if I should shower at all, but I figured cleaning myself with muddy water would be better than not cleaning myself at all. That and, well, I have a really gross throat cold which especially makes one feel like washing. I wonder how much longer the cloudy water will last? I wonder if this is what we have to look forward to in future years due to climate change?

Crazy storms and some kind of cold, we are definitely in the winter now.

Not So Sure About This Pedicure...

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 12:01:00 -0700

After feeling slightly apprehensive about the thought of being tickled intentionally I bit the bullet and had pedicure. I went to a trendy salon I had considered trying before in a nice part of town. It looked clean and was always packed when I walked by. That seemed like a good sign.

They do a bunch of things to your feet which involve various files and clippers. I had heard that this was a way to catch a fungus, but I didn't know if that was true. At one point the bashful asian girl working on my feet used a file which looked like it had some (fingernail) dust on it... I found this a bit alarming, since their website said they threw out all files between uses. I remember having a split second where I felt a flash of concern and then I told myself: they are professionals. Surely they know what they are doing.

Then, partway through the pedicure, the girl clipped my cuticle so closely on the right big toe that it started bleeding. That's when I really started to wonder... The pedicurist was very quiet about it, carefully dabbing it clean and making a face. (Perhaps not to alarm the other customers? ) Being in a trusting mood that day I let her carry on, since my feet were very dry and were partway through the treatment. Plus she had sprayed the clippers beforehand. It didn't hurt, and they were professionals, so who was I to question it? When I was done I produced my wallet and left a healthy tip (mainly out of habit.)

Later, I found myself with some creeping feelings... Remembering that the tools had come out of an unsealed open container... Thinking about how they added pumice paste to a big buffer after using it on my foot -- touching the spatula to the implement which was covered in my skin cells, then putting it back in the jar to be used again and again. I wondered, how many toes had those clippers touched before they nicked my feet? Was spraying sufficient to kill most disease? Did I subject my body to unnecessary risk?

I felt fairly calm, but I had this nagging concern -- so I went in search of answers. The first thing I did was call my dad, who is a medical doctor. He said something to the effect of "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?! WHY DID YOU GET A PEDICURE??!?! THOSE PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING!!! DON'T YOU EVER DO IT AGAIN!!!" and used a few expletives which I won't repeat here. He also told me that spraying wasn't sufficient to kill much of anything, and that the girl must have been incompetent to cause bleeding.

Now, I have to tell you. My dad is normally a very reasonable man. Especially about body issues. If I call him feeling like I'm on the verge of expiration he is excellent at talking me out of blowing it out of proportion. He doesn't jump on any instant bandwagons and is a very critical thinker, always promoting logic and scientific reasoning. But the way he reacted that day I might as well have told him that I was pregnant and I was seeing a metaphysical healer who was giving me mercury capsules to promote good health.

Needless to say that didn't help settle my uneasiness.

A casual google search unearthed countless stories full of quotes from podiatrists and dermatologists regarding the dark side of pedicures... It's hard to tell how much of it to take with a grain of salt. One such story appeared 4 days ago and featured a lady who almost lost her toe after it was nicked while having her cuticles cut. In August pedicure safety legislation was proposed in California. And of course, how could I neglect to mention the (somewhat sensationalist-sounding) book "Death by Pedicure". I have no idea if this book is sound science, but the fact that it exists at all makes me wonder. There is also the story of one shop where about 100 women caught some horrible disfiguring disease and ended up in court. The same disease later struck another 75 pedicure recipients in California.

Naturally, I had to go back to the source. I phoned the nail place and and asked about the hygiene practices. The boss-lady with a heavy asian accent reassured me that "oh, we spray everything." Feeling concerned I pressed her some more. That didn't help so asked her directly if they soak their implements. She said that they did. I asked her how often, and she said every day. I felt a bit better after that... but... She did say more than once "If anything happens, you call me!" which seems to suggest that something, in fact, COULD happen. And that she may even expect it to.

I actually question the truthfulness of what she said -- because I had to prompt her. I mean, if the true answer is "no we don't soak things to sterilize them" she obviously wouldn't say so. She probably knows the health department would storm her shop immediately if they found out. The fact that she didn't offer up this detail on her website, at her nail shop, or when I first asked her about hygene without being specific seems less than ideal.

At least, it seems especially odd after going to a body-mod shop recently. The staff there explained exactly how they autoclave everything, soak everything, seal everything -- without prompting. They even have a video explaining it on their website. Clearly they know this is a big selling point. Wouldn't a posh nail place in a rich part of town want to work the same angle? Isn't that just good marketing?

Perhaps the overwhelming desire to be attractive is where safety falls by the wayside. After all, the mainstream accepts certain things which are slightly questionable for our health. Things such as high heeled shoes, hair dye, tanning beds, Accutane, and teeth bleaching. I am however extremely relieved that I don't have to deal with old school things like corsets, toe-binding, neck rings and skull shaping.

In any case I don't think I'll go back to to get a pedicure -- at least not there. Maybe never. My feet do look lovelier than before, and my toes are a lovely shade of delightful shimmery taupey pink... but perhaps in the future I can live with my regular unglamorous feet.

So the question is: has this happened to anybody else? And are there safer pedicure places to go?

Wet Pavement

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:28:21 -0700

I like the smell of wet pavement right after it rains for the first time in a while. It's sort of metallic. Mixed with grass it really smells like my home in the city.

I can't believe the rain is upon us, seems like it was summer just yesterday!

Mixed Feelings About TV

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:53:16 -0700

I love TV!

I hate TV!

It's a delightfully light and fluffy treat. It's supremely entertaining and a stellar way to pass time when you're really really under the weather. It's also a horrible black hole for hours that could otherwise be productive. TV fills those hours lost with inane culturally bankrupt programs filled with vaccuous pneumatic ladies and irritating men with too-white teeth and slick voices. It's also a really addicting drug, sinking its teeth in you with twists and turns and edge of your seat programming.

Thank god I freed myself from the TV schedule with a PVR!

I'm really noticing my mixed feelings about TV now after hardly watching any this summer. I am both delighted to return to the familiar characters and see the denouments of all the cliffhanger season enders... But I am also mourning the time I won't be spending doing something else more useful.

Does anybody else feel this way when September comes?

Totally Random Wrong Number at the Front Door

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 20:45:51 -0700

Somebody just buzzed the front door of my apartment. The conversation went something like this:

A: Hello?
?: Let me in!
A: Hello???
?: Let me IN!!!!!
A: Who is this?
?: It's me !
A: I'm sorry, who are you?
?: It's your LOVER !
A: I'm sorry???
?: It's your Meeexican Looooover here...
A: I'm sorry?!?!
?: You know: your HOT Mexican Loooover!
A: Uhm, i think you must have the wrong suite number... Who are you looking for?
?: Anna Mariaaaaaaaa!
A: ?!?!?!
?: ...
A: I really think you must have pressed the wrong number..!
?: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
?: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
?: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
?: HA HA HA HA HA HA
?: Okay!... bye!
A: ... Uhm... good luck!!!

For a minute I thought perhaps it was my friend Keith G playing a ridiculous joke on me -- as he likes to make crazy phone voices when he calls people. But this guy really sounded like he meant business. He had an extremely sincere suggestive tone of voice. It seemed pretty clear that he thought he was talking to his hot girlfriend and they were about to get it on, and that my refusal to let him in was some kind of crazy role-play gag!

So I guess someone in my building is getting a good shag right now. At least I hope so.

Delight In the Garden

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:45:00 -0700

I was tending to my little potted patio garden, when I discovered that my Honeysuckle is going to flower again! I was sure it was done for the season... but it's got at least 4 buds on it! Such a surprise, I never expected this. Sooo delightful.

Go plant go!

Seen Today in Vancouver

nospam@example.com (Adri) — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 20:21:17 -0700

Seen today on the West side:

A sporty 30-something man riding his bike up a hill with a cigarette in his mouth and a pop can in his hand.