Shakira’s new album, Oral Fixation, needed a few more leaves on the cover to be distributed to the Middle East.

I still see some of her arm on the 2nd picture. Tsk tsk.

I’ve decided to start a new feature to my blog, Band Reviews. While becoming more obsessed with Myspace I’ve found some really awesome off-the-mainstream bands while viewing people’s profiles. I’d like to share some of them with you along with what I think. So basically, I’ll be linking their myspace profile where you can preview some of their work (even if you aren’t a member, great eh?) Also, the bands will be reviewed by my sister and I, to add more variety and viewpoints to the reviews.

Lara says…
Rilo Kiley has been playing non-stop in my car’s iPod for some time now, and I absolutely love them. Their latest album “More Adventerous” throws in an amazing amount of emotion to their sound and lyrics. Jenny Lewis, the lead singer of Rilo Kiley, offers an amazing experience through her explosive and soaring melodies, written with passion and heartbreak. The bands beginnings were humble enough; Lewis began with lightly picked acoustic pieces with “The Absence of God,” the first album… Selling shows out everywhere across the country, Rilo Kiley is a true Indie-Rock band ready to pop into your iPod and put you in a trance-like state.

Anna says…
Anna is lazy and needs to give me her review.

More about Rilo Kiley
[Myspace Profile] (Listen)
[Website]
[Google Profile]

Favorite Lyrics:
Anna loves from Always:
I should have known with a boy like you
Your middle name is always
I’d always love you
Ahhh, yeah

Lara loves from My Slumbering Heart:
In my dreams
I see you at the foot of some mountains.
And we’re taking some pictures or something
And we’d better hurry up
And it’s late and
The sun keeps on shooting through pine trees
And the grass stains are wet on your new jeans
And we’d better hurry up
And I’ve become just like a terrible mess
Searching the lines in my face for
Something more beautiful than is there
The crowds keep me coming back. Cheering.

So we just got back from a great time in Manhattan overnight. The first thing my sister and I did upon entering our own room at the Essex House (my parents had their own separate) was open up the minny bar and eat the $8 gummy bear jars and pistachios. We then sat around, ordered roomservice and took showers.

We managed to get a reservation at the best French restaurant in New York, Alain Ducasse. The food was extraordinary, and the wait-staff were lovely too. I even spoke french to the waiter hahaha.

We headed off to the show at Lincoln Center to see the Nutcracker. The dancers were amazing, the best I’ve seen yet (we’ve been going to see the show for about 10 years now.) We were fortunate enough to have orchestra seats so I could see all of the expression and feeling the dancers gave. The pas de deux of the Sugar Plum fairy and her prince was amazing, the lifts were flawless and it was so wonderful to watch. :)

So now I’m off to wrap presents for under the tree, get things ready, and it’s off to my Aunt’s house for Christmas Eve. I wish every a very Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy New Year!

Pictures under the cut… <3

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Via WWTDD:

Columnists are popping up lately to shout-out at the story of King Kong, accusing it as racist.

“The implicit racism of ‘King Kong’ – the implication that Kong stands for the black man brought in chains from a dark island (full of murderous primitive pagans) and with a penchant for skinny white blondes,” said David Edelstein of Slate.com.

Newsday journalist James Pinkerton attempted to note the relation between the plot line and America’s past colonial history, “Any movie that features white people sailing off to the Third World to capture a giant ape and carry it back to the West for exploitation is going to be seen as a metaphor for colonialism and racism.”

One commenter from WWTDD noted:

“… The premise for the original ‘33 Kong originated from the (then) widely-accepted theory that somehow, somewhere, in a dark, undiscovered corner of the world, the Darwinian Theory could’ve pushed nature to extremes. That, quite possibly, there could be dinosaurs, or other primal beasts, roaming about, but now they’d be ENORMOUS because of the millions of years that they would’ve evolved as the dominant species.

The original story was created by Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack. Both were anthropologists and adventurers and were steeped in the above theory. The reason the ape was found in the East and brought West isn’t a reference to colonialism. It’s because it’s an exotic locale. Somehow discovering Kong in the Ozarks doesn’t have the same effect. And the local civilization of said exotic locale being dark and dirty, etc. isn’t because of some inference that black people are the same. It’s because the locale is covered in mud and ape crap.

Anybody out there labeling the film racist needs to do a little research before they pop off.”

I agree.

National Geographic was also quick to note after the movie came out that there are infact… no secret islands with dinosaurs on them. “The notion that dinosaurs could survive on a tiny mid-oceanic island is preposterous,” said John Terborgh, a professor of environmental science at Duke University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Islands, even moderately large ones, are notoriously devoid of large predators,” he said. “The two largest predators on Cuba are a lizard and the red-tailed hawk. The whole notion of apex predators on islands is fantasy.”

Darnit.

It’s John Kerry’s birthday today, should we all sing and dance?

Check out some of his quotes.

I like this one,

“You can be certain and be wrong.”

Check out Worth1000.com for some truly funny remakes of famous paintings.

From D-Listed:

When I first saw these pictures I immediately wanted to say that Mimi was a lazy heffer. But then as I thought about it, I realized that I’m not going to hate on her. Because if I was her I’d be doing the same thing! I’d hire some Amy Poehler look alike to feed me Slimfast or whatever that ho drinks. Mimi has earned the right not to be bothered. What’s that bottle in the lackey’s hand? It’s mace! Run Mimi run, she’s going to make your face look puffier than it is!

via OMG BLOG:

Have you ever wondered why the Sierra Club and other environmental groups have the most robust junk mail packets you have ever seen? Their budget allows them to produce glossy pictures and refrigerator magnets of the Sequoia trees they are trying to save, but what about poor Mother Earth herself? She is crying in pain, Sierra Club, as are we. Please stop. We’re just going to throw it in the trash anyway, and that is so WASTEFUL! Thanks to Brian for documenting this tragedy.

Check this “music video” out from Sparks from the Anvil. It’s a great bit pointing out everything ridiculous about Cindy Sheehan and her self-promotion. Be sure to watch it all the way through the end.

Click here for the post, and scroll down to play the video.

<3