Team Desk....

So for the first time since I was a child I have a desk!!!!!

I acquired this desk like over two years ago, it came from my sweet shop, where it served as my counter. I moved it into my closet-cum-workroom but it seemed to have been buried under stuff for the next year and a half. At the start of this year, with the addition of a new wardrobe to my closet I decided now was the time to make an actual workspace!!

Now this may all seem very boring to you and many others, but it's really important to me, I thing having a space you can actively use and get inspired by is something you need in order to create and feel good about it.

I hope to use my new rad workspace for many exciting things this year, watch this space...

Planetary a-go-go.....

A few weeks ago I was decked up in primary colours, a Party Poison mask, and a Fun Ghoul bandana, as me and my Killjoys got ready to make some noise. In other words my favourite emo band My Chemical Romance were in the UK and me and my gang were gonna party our faces off unashamedly at every gig we could. The UK leg of the World Contamination Tour was some of the most fun I’ve ever had culminating in my most favourite ever MCR gig of all time in Manchester .

A few days later I got a series of frantic texts from Seleena letting me know about a video shoot for the next MCR single Planetary (Go!). It was being shot as a fake gig in London with a super small amount of tickets available to MCR fans from 9am that morning. It was 9.05 am when I got the text from Seleena and by then the tickets were all gone. I was beyond gutted.

The story of how MCR formed has been told so many times. A few days earlier the formation of the band had been retold during the Radio 1 documentary ‘ The Story of My Chemical Romance’ in which guitarist Ray Toro described receiving a phonecall from Gerard who said ‘I’m special, I think you’re special, lets show the world how special we are.’ Me and my killjoys agreed that this would be the nicest phonecall you could ever get from a friend (or Gerard Way ), and we squeed over the earnest dorky nature of the band, wishing it for ourselves. (All this is relevant I swear).

So the next day when I was in the grumpiest mood known to mankind knowing that I had missed out on obtaining tickets for the MCR video shoot, can you imagine what it was like to receive a phonecall from one of my best friends who as soon as I answered the phone simply said to me “I’m special, I think you’re special, lets show the world how special we are…. I got us on the guestlist for the MCR video shoot!’ I had a bit of a cry not just because I was going to the video shoot after all, but because I have awesome and earnest and dorky friends who will say things like that to me and will make geeky MCR references. Thanks Nick!

I feel like at this point I just perhaps write something justifying why I love My Chemical Romance and why I cared so much about attending the video shoot. But I don’t really care about trying to impress you or validating a band I love to pieces. So lets just accept that I’m a massive dork and move on.

Party poison mask? Check. Fun Ghoul bandana? Check. Primary colours overload? Check. Are you ready Nick? Fucking Ready! Well I think I’m alright… 1,2,3,4!

So the very next day we found ourselves queuing outside the Islington academy with a couple of hundred other killjoys , except they had been lucky enough to buy tickets for the video shoot. Tickets had been £4 for the evening and although we weren’t sure of what the event would actually include, we guessed that there would be a small performance if they had sold tickets. And to go from seeing MCR play a sold out Wembley Stadium to just a few hundred people a few days later felt so exciting.

Well I’m sure everyone else was excited, but I sure as hell wasn’t. Because I had the massive fear that somehow there would be a problem and our names wouldn’t be on the guest list as arranged. We hadn’t got tickets like everyone else, we were just hoping that we had been put on the guestlist via one of Nick’s contacts, and I was utterly convinced it was all gonna go wrong. I’m a glass half empty kind of girl. So while all the other killjoys got excited in the queue, clutching their genuine prepaid tickets, I was mostly silent, miserable, and anxious. At this point I would like to apologise to Nick for ruining his fun and making that evening queuing up the longest evening of his life as I sulked and grumped all night until the doors opened. Soz.

My doom and gloom wasn’t all for nothing though as we got to the front and found out that my worst nightmare had actually come true – we weren’t on the guestlist!! The girl at the door searched and searched for our names but they weren’t there. We looked over her shoulder and Nick pointed out ‘oh look there’s Nickie’s name!’ Nickie is our killjoy friend in Manchester who had managed to get guestlist for herself and Seleena, but couldn’t make it because the shoot is in London and they are based in Manchester , argh! I jabbed Nick in the ribs and shushed him before lying very loudly and very badly saying ‘ oh that’s ok Nick, you can use my plus-one, MY name is Nickie.’ When the girl asked me to prove I was Nickie by asking for ID as she clearly knew I was lying, I did what any other killjoy in my situation would do – I burst into tears. Yup that’s right. And what? It’d been a long emotional rollercoaster of a day and now I was being told I couldn’t get into the video shoot. After a couple of minutes of awkward sobbing the door girl gave me a couple of passes and told me to get in quickly, clearly embarrassed for me and wondering why someone who is old enough to know better was getting upset about a stupid MCR video shoot. It’s a good thing I don’t really have any self pride otherwise her look of disgust and contempt for my life might have hurt.

AND WE WERE IN!

The stage was set up for a proper gig and the room was half full. That’s when I realised that not only were we going to get a mini MCR show, but also that they hadn’t sold full capacity of tickets for a venue that is usually 800 capacity in order to fit in all the lights and cameras and other technical equipment. So a video shoot and a secret show for just a couple of hundred people? HELL YES!

And the best part was – no support bands, no waiting. Just MCR, no muss no fuss. About half an hour later once everyone was in the lights went out and Dr Death Defying’s voice boomed over the PA “Look alive sunshine…” Every single killjoy in the room recited the opening monologue along with the backing track, it felt creepy in a cultish kind of way, but also AWESOME, in an AWESOME kind of way. Unlike the arena shows, there was no curtain that dropped during the opening to Na Na Na, instead we saw Frank standing on his monitors shouting ‘…louder than God’s revolver and twice as shiny…’ along with the rest of us. Then Gerard hit the stage last and the party began!

We were treated to a mini MCR set as Na Na Na went straight into Vampire Money. Oh my god! I partied so hard in those two opening songs alone that I wondered how I was going to last until it was actually time to shoot the video. Gerard then thanked us all for coming and explained that we were being treated to a mini set and afterwards they would film Planetary (Go!) like a fake live gig (like previous videos for Teenagers and Desolation Row). Someone threw a wolf hat on stage which Frank promptly put on and Gerard asked us if we wanted to hear House of Wolves or Our Lady of Sorrows next. Of course we all screamed louder for OLOS because it’s a classic, but part of me kind of wanted to hear as many songs on this tour and I hadn’t heard House of Wolves yet. And also Frank was wearing the wolf hat so it kinda made sense. But still, I don’t think I have ever danced quite so hard to OLOS ever. Then a few more hits followed – Teenagers, I’m not ok, Helena , Bulletproof Heart, then Planetary (Go!). The intro to Planetary was a massive monologue from Gerard telling us how this song really describes the Killjoys ethos and is who they are as a band right now ( I totally heard this as a massive Bob Bryar diss by the way), saying that sometimes when people try and clean you up you have to be really dirty, and that if you don’t get this song then you don’t get MCR. Poor Bob. Planetary felt like a massive party. I felt like my legs were having spasms and I was going to keel over any second, and this wasn’t even the filmed version. They then told us to hang tight as they would be back in a minute.

A few minutes later the director for the video got on stage and explained what was gonna happen next. They were going to play the single over the PA a few times and film the audience dancing. They were also handing out props to the crowd to add to the killjoys feel of the video. Most of us were already in costumes – some kids had put in the most beautiful amount of effort into their costumes, there were homemade killjoys outfits a-go-go: stars and stripes, masks, bandanas, ray guns, goggles, helmets, face paints and all kinds of things that you are likely to find in a fictional post apocalyptic world set in California 2019 as imagined by MCR. In addition to our own stylish efforts the production team handed out extra masks, bandanas, and ray guns, as well as megaphones, motorcycle helmets, and giant animal heads. I was stood next to the guy in the giant penguin head (turns out you can’t see this in the finished video unless you watch it frame by frame). The room was hot as hell by this point, I don’t know how the kids with giant animal heads managed to dance.

The director then tried to psych us up by asking us all to go mental. The crowd responded by chanting ‘Lets go fucking mental! Lets go fucking mental! ‘ over and over and over again until the chant eventually became ‘More free stuff! More free stuff!’ as we cheekily wanted more props that we could steal. The party lights went on and the song boomed through the loud speakers. We danced like crazy, everyone pumped their fists in the air and sang along (although it seems that nobody knows the lyrics for the second verse because I was shouting those lines out by myself and feeling like an absolute dick). Confetti and balloons were dropped on us from the balcony and I suddenly realised we were being filmed in so many different ways. The director had a giant camera on stage with strobe lights attached, on the balcony above us small cameras hung down on ropes to get ariel shots of us, there was a super 8 camera on the front row, hand held camcorders on the stage and balcony, and panoramic shots taken from the stage. They played it through the PA 3 times I think. By this point I thought I was gonna die, I’d now heard Planetary 4 times, once as part of the gig, and 3 times through the PA and I wanted a sit down and a cup of tea. But now we had to do it a few more billion times this time with the band on stage.

They dressed the stage and set up the lights for the band to come out and play. As we were waiting around for quite a bit someone started a mass sing-a-long to Teenagers, then a sing-a-long of I’m Not Ok started up. There’s something heart-warmingly awesome about hearing 300 people attempting to sing along to the guitar solo in I’m Not Ok. It finished just as MCR came back on stage. Gerard told us they had been listening to us sing in the corridor and made a heart shape with his hands looking very proud of himself as he admitted he had only learned how to do that the other day when they played Manchester. Gerard then explained that they always played along live during their shoots to make them feel less embarrassed about miming but that it might sound weird as we would still hear the backing track underneath. This time there were more cameras were on stage to include coverage of the band and they started up Planetary again. The siren at the beginning of the song now initiated some kind of pavlovian response, in that no matter how knackered I felt I had to immediately put my hands in the air as soon as the siren came on. We danced, we sang, and more balloons and confetti was released.

In between each take the stage had to be reset so there was lots of waiting around. To keep momentum going someone in the crowd started a chant for guitar king, Ray Toro ‘TORO! TORO! TORO! TORO!’ Eventually the band started jamming along with our chants and turned it into an impromptu song about Ray, who shook his fro and rocked out to the sound of his own name being yelled by the crowd. So we decided to keep it going as the crowd yelled out each band members name while the band jammed along. The sound of ‘FRANK! FRANK! FRANK!’ encouraged Frank to spit water across the front row to show his appreciation. During the Gerard chant/jam, Gerard flexed his muscles and kissed his guns, as well as pulling some expert disco dancing moves. He could be John Disco in bis. No really, he could. In fact this whole video is feeling pretty teen-c right now. I don’t know about California 2019, I’m thinking more Glasgow 1996.

Planetary was played a total of 4 times with the band on stage, meaning we had danced to that song 9 times in a row now. We were all dying and so tired. Hair dye and face paints had melted across people’s faces, we were all a sticky happy mess. It might not sound like much, dancing to a song 9 times in a row sounds pretty easy, that’s just like a normal gig right? But with the lights set up for filming, it was hotter than a usual gig and with no slow songs in between to balance out the energy it means we were exhausted so quickly. Also they needed audience members to be full of energy throughout the whole song, which means no slacking off towards the end, and that’s a hard thing to do. But also the most fun thing ever.

And then to top it all off and to say thanks, MCR pulled out one last song out for us and played Vampires Will Never Hurt You! I was completely exhausted and broken by this point but Vampires is one of my all time favourites and I headbanged so hard that my brain felt like it was rattling for days afterwards. I’m not gonna lie, I think it might have been my favourite live version of Vampires ever. EVER!

So here’s the finished video. It will have taken you longer to read this ramble than it will for you to watch the entire video. And for all my rambling you can’t even see me or Nick in it (unless you are geeky enough to watch the entire thing frame by frame which I may or may not have done) But it doesn’t matter. Every time I see that video now I’ll just remember being there, it’s a pretty awesome memento of the evening, if only there was raw footage of me outside in the queue looking grumpy as fuck, or me in the lobby crying until they let me in. Now that would be a proper document of the night, but thank god those deleted scenes are not in the edit. I love being a proper geek for this band, I love that I can get so ridiculously over excited about some small secret show and a video shoot. Killjoys for life!


(this is my friend Holly's inside report of the video shoot, and if you freeze the video at 0.49 seconds you can see her. I was very sad we couldn't make it for the shoot, but just glad my friedns got to go.....maybe next time)


EDIT both Nick and holly can be seen in the 0.49 second frame!!

Happy pancake day....

I sadly, cannot take credit for these!

Let's have a ROLLER DERBY!!!

This is a brief history of me, myself and roller skating.

I was an active child, possibly too active, dancing around, riding my bike, pogoing all the usual things kids did before games consoles were a household staple.One thing I never managed to master was roller skating. Yes I had a pair of those 1-2-3 Fisher Price roller skates that everyone had, you know the ones, yellow orange and blue, expandable to fit your child for a number of years, 3 settings, walk, half skate, full skate?!?! I think it's fair to point out now that I have that Taurean trait of 'If I can't be the best, or one of at something, I don't do it'. I wasn't the best at roller skating, I don't think it was through lack of trying, it's because I got the fear instilled in me. Karen Peart lived across the road, she had an Alsatian dog and a downstairs bathroom, I'm pretty sure when I was young she told me if you fall over on roller skates you become down Syndrome (I shit you not( she also once broke this clay jewelry dish I made for my sister, my sister went ape shit!)). This may sound utter ridiculous and I'm not 100% sure that's what she told me, I just know after she said something to me, I was so scared of falling over I never moved on from setting 1. That's the setting where you push your feet across the floor as the wheels don't rotate. I don't even think I let go of the windowsill.
It's safe to say I hung up my skates for a while.

I picked them up again when I became a Teen-C loving teen, being all cool and retro and wacky I bought a second hand pair. This never amounted to more than posing in them and skating up and down the back yard. Early twenties I tried them in the park a few tines and tired myself at at a Ladyfest Roller Disco in Leeds.Some people I know who are in London Roller derby team are there. I know I'll never join as my roller skills are NOT THE BEST!

Skip to 2009 where We go skating in Oaks Park Portland. I'm still pretty shitty at it, but I love it and the more I can round the better I get. then a super cute awesome 8 year old girl tells us we are great at skating (Nickie is by the way, a born natural!). We have a quick chat to Portland's Roller Derby team outside, we tell Nickie she has to join a team when we get home.

It's then 2010, and I can't believe I didn't document this on here before. Kandy and Nickie organise me the most super birthday ever, RENT OUT A ROLLER RINK!!! we all turn up shorts clad and skate around to my favourite tunes, I bloody love skating. the skates at the rink are far too heavy for me and I tire after two laps, but I'm getting there and I feel nuff tuff.
It's a good few months before I skate again, just the other week, after deciding maybe we should try out roller derby, we go to the nearest rink, where roller derby practise is held. We go for the free skate, my brother got me some roller skates that look like Reebok Classic (those ones everyone bought in the 90s to do aerobics in!) I'm totally styling and Nickie says my skating has improved loads.We hang around to chat to Manchester Roller Derby, they all seem super nice, we just missed the first lot of beginners training sessions.
A week later I go to help Kandy set up a stall at a roller bout in Sheffield. the atmosphere is super exciting, I don't get to stay as I have a train to catch.

A week on from that Kandy, her sister Rosie and Nickie and I attend another bout, in Manchester, Wonderbrawl IT WAS SO GOOD!

I got sucked into the whole spectator, the only sports events having witnessed before (aside form school related ones, sports day, volleyball) were baton Twirling competitions (yes it's a sport!!)I loved it. The ohh's the ahhhs, the cheering and shouting.
The first bout of Birmingham Blitz Dames vs Tiger Bay Brawlers was on the edge of your seat viewing.Nuff tuff girls, no one taking the lead by a lot of points, in the end The Tiger Bay Brawlers nailed it, only just!
The second bout of Manchester Roller Derby vs Hot Wheel Roller Derby (Leeds) was also great, but mainly because MRD whipped Leeds' ass!

I haven't been skating since, but hopefully go this week. I will hopefully have a shot at roller derby.

I will definitely form a roller gang. You mark my words!

Role Models

I am currently reading John Waters - Role Models. I picked my copy up at The Southbank centre when I was at A John Waters talk!!!

Yes back in December Kandy and I went for a trip to the big smoke. It seemed everyone we knew was in London that weekend, mostly to attend the John Waters talk. We got there and saw some ace London folk and then ace Manchester folk. Once I got over the fact I was served peppermint tea instead of earl grey (milk in mint tea, WRONG!) and we eventually made our way to the correct building (missing first few minutes of the talk) I was all set.

It was ace to hear Johns voice and just a few metres in front of me. Hearing him talk about his role models and what inspires him. I particularly enjoyed when he spoke about a film he's trying to get made a children's Christmas film about a family that steal meat and sell it on. Everyone did that 'oh imagine that' laugh. My working class self didn't quite give the same laugh, it just sounds like the equivalent of your dad's mate down the pub that sells anything from meat to videos they nabbed from Asda.

A lot of what john said rang true and made me smile, but wound me up when I kept hearing that laugh from the audience. Do they love the king of trash because they like to laugh at poor people? Anyway I got over myself (shame the same couldn't be said for those asking questions, it's always the same at Q&A's, folk just trying to sound clever!) and I left smiling, purchasing the book.

We were going to get them signed but decided to stand around chatting instead, there was always the bookshop signing the next day. spoke to a whole load of awesome folk. My pal Patrick said it was weird how almost everyone he knew was there and what a huge dent in (good) society it would be if someone blew up the auditorium that nigh. Yes he is a bit of a goff!!

We said hellos and goodbyes and went to dance the night away. Had BIG fun dancing to all the best R&B and emo hits, dancing on tables and singing the live version of MCR with Holly, without discussing it first.

We made it back to our hotel safe despite the rain. But we were so tired, we didn't get to finish of the tea we made. I was even still so tired in the morning that i couldn't take advantage of the free breakfast and chomped on cereal never actually swallowing.

We got ourselves dressed and headed to Waterstones to get our books signed by JOHN himself. We got nervous as we reached the front of the queue. I tend to say stupid things when I meet the people I admire.

It turns out i didn't need to worry, I didn't say anything stupid, but John couldn't understand me anyway. I spent what felt like an hour spelling my name to him, he not understanding my northerness, me not wanting to correct him. This is what i got:

Well at least the picture turned out well: Had a great weekend in the company of all those who inspire me, and not just those who are film makers!

CRAFTMAS part one!

Hello Sugar Paper fans. It's 2011 now. Where have we been I hear you cry?

Busy that's where!

I had every intention of making a big deal about Christmas here, well because we love Christmas and if you don't craft anything all year then Christmas is the time to do it. I had this plan to upload Christmas crafts for you to do. But before you know it it was Christmas dinner and I was making Christmas dinner!!! I'm going to blame working in retail and using any spare time to craft gifts for all my favourite folk.

It seems my friends had the same idea. So part one of craftmas is a look at the amazing homemade and personalised gifts I received:

That's a MCR all the best pictures sticker book, a Party Poison mask (you might see this feature in part 2!), a Lego Patrick Bateman, engraved I AM SEW COOL scissors and a Sex Bob-Omb scarf. THANKS GUYS!!

KILLJOYS MAKE SOME NOISE (and other things!)

I'm not sure if I've expressed my love for My Chemical Romance on here. I bang on about a lot of other things, like Twilight for example, but i like MCR MORE THAN THAT!

And what I also like is things that have been hand crafted that relate to stuff I love, like this:

Yes that IS a cross stitched Party Poison (Gerard Way to the unknown). sadly this isn't mine, but My friend Holly received it from her friend Eva. It is the best thing ever and I wish it was mine.
What is mine though is this picture, made by my pal Nickie, it's us road tripping yeah!:

Expect a lot of MCR talk between now and February!!
Right I'm off to Christmas craft some more!

I Got Haterz Everywhere I Go!

The other week I went to see Paramore and B.O.B. It was at the MEN arena which i hate and we were sat waaaaaaaay up, but I learnt a few things that night.
The first thing I learnt was whilst watching B.O.B.

I enjoyed B.O.B a lot. I wasn't sure if Paramore fans would (their demographic being (probably) middle class young teen girls) but they did. He saved all his hits for the end, which I thought a little odd, but mid way through the set he played a song that due to it's beat can only be decsribed as a reggae song, I looked down to the sea of white teenage boys and girls dancing away. I realised he had gotten an arena of kids dancing to a reggae song!
Haley came on for airplanes (sadly no surprise appearance from good 'ol Rivers) and this was the start of my next realisation, I'M GETTING OLD!!!
I'm not a big fan of children, but from where we were sitting we could see a couple of ten year old girls who were so into Paramore, at one point I almost cried.

The big black curtain dropped and Paramore belted out Ignorance, Haley leaning back, face upside down to the crowd, swinging bare bulbs above, PARAMORE flashing on the screen behind and throughout Haley and the boys didn't disappoint. With her pink hair and dance moves, she was the embodiment of Gwen Stefani circa '99. But i had to keep looking at these young girls, they knew every word, the screamed when Haley came near, they held hands and thrashed their hair around and I thought how cool would it have been to be that young and seeing a gig like this, I bloody loved it. See I am getting old!

The last thing I learnt was on the way home. After the gig we went to see Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (I learnt I quite enjoyed it despite only seeing three other of the films and not reading any books). But it was Nickie driving us home at 3am with the windscreen wipers on (when it wasn't raining) and getting pulled over by the police that I learnt not turning your wipers off is apparently a sure fire sign you are drink driving!!! Took a bit of convincing on Nickie's part, but she told the officer Kandy and i fancied Ron Weasley, this classed as proof she wasn't drunk driving!!! What is the world coming to!

And for the record, we don't fancy Ron!

I only popped out to return some video tapes....

So for Halloween me and my pals went to see Xiu Xiu & Former Ghosts in Leeds, the Xiu Xiu fans of Leeds mustn't have got the memo that it was Halloween, as aside from us and three girls (on dressed as Katy Perry, yawn!) nobody else had dressed up. This fact was highlighted by our we want to be rowdy entrance but this support guy is ridculously quiet so evryone is looking at us, arrival at the gig.
Ah well, we looked awesome:

l-r: Patrick Bateman, Cheetara, Arthur Brown, Margret Thatcher milk snatcher!

Here's what inspired me ( and yes that is a Huey Lewis And The News CD attached to my belt!).

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and how My Chemical Romance Saved my life a week too early!

So this week started with a huge up and has been followed by a series of downs, this due to the fact I work in a fancy dress shop and it's Halloween!!!!
Let's work in reverse order.....
The ugly:
CONSUMERS!!!! Seriously how people consume has made me re think life!
Currently I am reading a book recommended by my great friend Leesey, where it is mostly set within a shopping centre (that of The Trafford Centre variety as opposed to Manchester Arndale) but still it's scarily close to home.
i don't understand what it is about buying a bit of cheap fancy dress that turns 90% of the Brie public into rude, ignorant, messy and downright ugly people, I just don't get it!!

Why can't everyone just dress like this:



The Bad:

The fact that I used to love Halloween and now I kinda hate it!! THIS SUCKS!!!!!! I did I loved it, it was definitely one of my favourite holidays. I love dressing up, last year I tried to make a great effort with my 3D woman but my tiredness meant it wasn't what it should have been, I'm hoping this years effort will be one to rival the year before when I dressed as a Tara McPherson painting!
Treat yer sen to a viewing of my favourite folk who think everyday is Halloween:



The good:
Getting my life saved! Sadly it would have been more welcome the Sunday after Halloween week, but you can't win em all!!
Yes MCR saved my life!
I last saw My Chemical Romance in 2005, so I was stoked to see them again, after a temporary glitch where I couldn't get tickets, but luckily knopw people who know people, we got them!!
I will keep this brief as I don't want to bore you, but I HEART MCR!!!!
They played a rate good set, stuff from all three albums and only four new songs, win win! I love the fact that Gerard Way only just got the 9t6 memo 'Colours are coming back, colours are dangerous....' love the fact he discovered not only black suits him!! Not sure about the 'art is coming back' statement, did it go anywhere?
Love the new look, it's proper 90s and ray guns thrown in! I think perhaps they had a trip to a planetarium before making the new album, and went to a euro 90s gay disco on the way home, because that's what the new songs sound like, they found the synth key and they are not afraid to use it.
My favourite part is the gang mentality, not the CH5 program, Danny dyer on cable type gang, but I got a flick knife and a close fitting leather kind. I wanna be in a badass girl gang.
KILLJOYS MAKE SOME NOISE!!!!

Three Cheers For....

fruity!

So, what I thought was not that long ago (but is probably a few months!), I went blackberry picking, but they weren't quite ripe enough yet, so today I went again and was shocked to see they were all shrivelled up until I realised IT'S NEARLY OCTOBER!!! where has 2K10 gone?

I persevered and got this pitiful bunch:

In other news the apple tree my sister planted (with pips from an apple) in a yogurt pot back in the 80s in a flat in Bradford is bringing out some juicy ones this year:And I've just made my first batch of lemon curd (something I usually leave to my mum) the recipe will totes be in Sugar Paper #6.

Novelty Cakes

So it seems I have managed to get to the end of National Cupcake week without eating, making or even sniffing a cupcake, this must be some sort of crime!! I had every intention to knock a few out and get them on here, but my week has been full (and not of cupcakes), working, making zineing and watching The Runaways film (finally) have taken up all my time, and therefore made for a pretty shoddy week of cupcake blogging, find a much better one here from the cool Carla.

As it's getting late (ish!) and I get bored of trawling the net for pictures after like 3minutes, I shall post a few of my favourite novelty cakes (because you all know how much we love novelty!):

two things I loved as a child (and still now, Mario and Lego)

check out those bad boys!!! They're taken from the book Hello Cupcake, that should be landing on my doorstep any day now, so when I eventually get some free time, expect me to knock out so real (novelty cake) beauts!!

Seleena Daye vs The Film Review

So this is one of those blog posts where I try to talk about films, this time it's this one:

Scott Pilgrim vs The World.

A week and a half ago I went to watch this film, after what seemed like the longest wait (coincidentally the last time I waited so long for a film was when I was waiting for Art school Confidential, which is also adapted from a comic, which for the record was a big disappointment).
So yes I think I covered that this film is adapted from a series of comics, which I love, as with anything adapted from a book, you always know it will not quite live up to the book.

I went in there excited, I had already been quite vocal about my opposition of the casting of Micheal Cera as Scott (no where near arrogant enough), but I didn't let that stop me doing a wee in my pants.

First thing we noticed when we got in the cinema was how hot it was, then I noticed that the audience was largely male (90%-10%) and nerdy, this coupled with the fact it was (Orange) Wednesday resulted in a sweat fest. I have never been so hot in the cinema in all my life, like full on testosterone sweat box, There was a point where we we're struggling to breath.

Anyway, the film. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the comics or seen the film yet, so I'll just tell you what I thought.
I (think) I loved it!
Once I put aside that there was nothing I could do to change the casting of Scott, i began to enjoy it. Mainly because almost everyone else is so perfectly cast. Kieren Culkin as Wallace in particular (and here I agree with my pal Holly that Kieren has become our favourite Culkin , Macualy was mine when I was 6) Stephen Stills, Julie, even Anna Kendrick as Stacey was good and all the exes cast so well, Chris Evans spot on and who doesn't love Jason Scwartzman?!?!
The fight and band scenes were real good, they got the right balance of computer imagery and elements of the actual comic in there.
Young Neil comes alive more and Kim Pine is still my favourite (more Kim Pine!).
I did think that if I hadn't read the comic, would I be a little confused about what was going on, I will have to ask a friend who sees it who hasn't to know that.

I was asked if I thought Ramona and Envy were hotter in the comic or the film, most definitely the comic, which is a shame, I'm not sure what Envy lacked but it was something, think her smacked arse face was the wrong kind of smacked arse face!

The same person (Ben) that asked me who was hotter, also said they enjoyed the film, but it lacked the heart of the books, which I agree with.

I really enjoyed this film and will watch it again and again, but if I hadn't read the comics it would one of my favourite films.

I am going to see it again this week (and probably again next week) so all this will most likely change!!

If your life had a face I would punch it.

Start spreading the news...

Wilkinson's will be opening in Manchester Arndale. Finally C&A will now have something worthy taking it's place!

Schmindietracks!

Good Hair!

Last night I went on a cinema date with my mum to see Good Hair. In brief it's a documentary film made by funny man Chris Rock about Black women and their hair.
I enjoyed it A LOT!
I read about it a while ago and hoped to go with my sister to see it, so we could sit there and say, uh-hmm, that's right i hear you sister.
I did this anyway, mainly when the women were talking about being addicted to relaxer (the dangerous chemical we put on our hair to make it straight) or 'creamy crack' as they called it and when Salt of Salt 'n' Pepa fame said the reason she rocked the asymmetrical do was because her hair fell out (this happened to me the night before a Gravy Train!!!! gig, I knew it would as bleached hair+Relaxer= BAD HAIR!).

The whole film was a look at how black women strive to get Good Hair, good hair meaning white or Asian hair.
A look into why black women spend so much time, money and effort into achieving this, this hair, as Chris rock puts it 'that might blow in the wind'!
I think a lot of it, aside form just wanting slightly more manageable hair, is that is more socially acceptable to have straight hair, or again as Chris Rock said, relaxed hair to have relaxed people.

I wrote an article about this in some awful zine I wrote in my late teens, about how in order to be taken more seriously as a black women I think you have to go Au Naturale.
I think about famous black women, black women who have natural hair and I immediately think of activists and writers.
Maya Angelou said in the film she didn't have a relaxer until the age of 70 (I read in a book of hers when it first became all the rage she got put off as a lot of the girls she knew had it done and their hair fell out!).
Actor

Tracie Thoms put it best when she said it's strange who it's seen a s a revolutionary act just keeping the hair that grows out of your head as is!! Funny but true.

There were some laughs to, like the myth of not being able to touch a black lady's weave, the pain of the hair treatment,not being able to get wet (a lot like Gremlins!!) the jokes about Prince!

I think about my hair a lot and think what I want to do with it next and how I would achieve it. recently being in touch with my two half sisters who have their hair natural made me think I want mine that way too (but I wasn't only blessed with Afro hair form my father but thick hair form my mother, something that is still a novelty at the Afro-Caribbean hairdressers!).

But just yesterday morning, relaxing my hair, then later watching the film, I realised it's true what they say I am addicted to Creamy Crack!!!
Here's a brief (pictorial history) of my hair:

I was born with hair pretty much like most babies, but quickly grew to this: I wore it natural for quite a few years:
Until I got plaits which I had for most of my mid childhood:
Up until just before my brother was born (1992), when I had a perm probably because my sister did: Then I went to high school, hair a bit iffy in year 7, got MY FIRST RELAXER in year 8 (I wanted a bob like my idol Brian Molko and because my sister had her hair relaxed.) Haven't found a picture of this yet, but can remember my school photo from that year, hair quite thick and had to wear top bit up in a scrunchie as long bob was too triangular.
Then for some reason I didn't like that and went for perming second time around in 1998:
Then that mid teen part of your life where you're really awkward and ugly occurred, my hair was AWFUL mid perm mid natural with some plaits or something!OBVS year 9!:
Then I went back to the plaits! Used to have it out in two big bunches, my friend Zara bleached the ends, my first bleach job, (Zara also pierced my nose for me, twice). This is Leeds 2000 and Ladyfest London 2002, so that growing out took a while! Must have re bleached too!: This was shortly before my hair fell out, I got a dye that said no bleach required (obviously bleach in it) gave hair relaxing another try as natural wasn't sleek enough, tried to relax and colour my hair, it all snapped off the night I was going to see Gravy Train!!!!, mid noughties: As the noughties went on, so did my relaxing and the length of my hair got shorter, I quite enjoyed rocking the Kathleen Hanna style high pony, but between that and the bunches I cold only wear my hair down when I'd been to the hairdressers, so started with the long bob, to this what I thought was a short bob, it has doubled in width here due to humidity in a club (hence the face!):I eventually went for the chop, always fearing I would have to much of a mushroom head if I went short, but it worked well and I'll be rocking the crop for a while. This is what my hair looks like fresh form the salon, like an extra on Ricki Lake, weavetastic:I took advantage of having short hair to go for an all over colour, had this until very recently, miss it now: And that's more or less it. Before writing this I thought I hadn't had natural hair since I was like 8, but then remembered that whole period mid high school to late teen where it was natural! This means that in the 26 years of my life I've had two periods when I've been natural, two periods where I've had perms, two periods where I've had braids, two periods where I've had relaxers, so all that's left now is the weave!

More tea Vicar?*

So I spent part of this weekend selling Sugar Paper's wares in Sheffield (more on that later).

The stall holder next door but one to me looked familiar, when I realised it was this lady:

A member of Sheffield band Plouf!. I think I last saw them at Gojonnygogogogo all dayer which was on the night of the final of Pop Idol with Will Young and Gareth Gates!
Anyway, Elodie of Plouf! fame was selling zines, and even though in a not so previous post I was banging on about Cath Kidston loving, tea drinking crafters, I will admit I LOVE a good cup of tea.

So I was totally impressed to see she had made a tea zine, complete with a free tea bag (I got cinnamon!, with a matching tag to the zine! DETAIL!!).

The zine came around when after moving to England from France, Elodie picked up our love of drinking tea! In the zine she asked friends how they like to take their tea.

Here's how I like to take my tea:

I put the milk in first (much to the disapproval of most other people), then the tea bag and then the boiled water. Swirl the tea bag around, leave to brew for a few minutes, give it a final squeeze then drink, sometimes with dunked biscuits.
My favourite mugs are:
My black Placebo mug, I drink my tea out of this every morning (and only in the morning).
OCD, a gift from Nickie, I use this at night but mostly in the day if I'm off work, used for specialty teas as I can see the colouring better as it's white.
Andrew mug was a gift for my sisters ex boyfriend like well over ten years ago, I just love the shape of this, usually my night time mug.
Hairspray mug, was a snap at only £5, haven't used it for a while but was my work mug when I had a shop.
Teas I like to drink:
Twinings everyday and English Breakfast.
Earl Grey.
Fruit teas.
Lady Grey.
Vanilla Green.
Chai.

I used to take 6 sugars in my tea, but eventually weened myself off, now have non and cannot bear sugar in it!

*More Tea Vicar was a game on The Big Breakfast, I used to love this show (cuz I love anything associated with the 90s!) my sister and I are currently trying to track down Big Breakfast memorabilia!

Dino watch, R.I.P Mr Triop.

Yes, the other day I woke up to look at my triop swimming around, and he was curled up, on the sand, on his back. Sadly he had passed.

But fear not I am drying out the sand to see if any eggs were laid to grow more. I'll keep you posted.

(seeing as every picture I tried to take, this is pretty much what he looked like):Off to the Bradford zine fayre now!

Toadstool Cakes

I made these little toadstool cakes for Alison's birthday back in April:Toadstool Cakes:

You will need:
4oz/100g caster sugar
4oz/100g margarine
4oz/100g self raising flour
2 medium eggs
------------
For icing:
Icing sugar
Margarine
Vanilla essence
Red food colouring
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Also:
Bun cases
White chocolate buttons
Dessicated coconut
Green food colouring
Icing sugar and warm water
Little fluffy chick!

Make the mixture as for Victoria sponge*.
Split into 5 or 6 bun cases and bake for 20-25mins. Leave to cool.
Once cool, cut into the bottom of the cakes, to make little stumps about half an inch deep.

Make some butter cream by mixing some icing sugar and margarine together, add the red colouring and vanilla essence. Spread on to the top of each cake, press in the white chocolate buttons to give a toadstool effect.

Mix the dessicated coconut with a few drops of green food colouring in a bowl. Mix until the coconut is fully covered.
Make some icing with the icing sugar and warm water, add a few drops of green food colouring to this.
Spread on a plate or cake board and sprinkle the coconut on top.
Press the cakes firmly into the grass icing whilst it's still sticky, place on the chick, leave to dry and voila, cute toadstool cakes!

* found in Sugar Paper #1