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May 13, 2008

Sex and a funny hat And The City

Sex_and_a_silly_hat_and_the_city

Sarah Jessica Parker decided to take it up a notch, or two or three, with the centerpiece/ hat she wore to the London premier of Sex And The City.  I found her chapeau to be a wee bit understated though so I applied a little photoshop fun.  I liked the butterflies and green flowers shooting out of her hat but thought there should be a lot more.  And why not add in a pair of Manolo Blahniks, just for fun?  I mixed in an old illustration and there you have it. 
Can't wait to see Sex And The City.  I believe it opens on the 30th so I have a couple weeks to dust off my hot glue and try my Project Runway best to create my own exploding butterfly and Manolos hat.  I'll post those photos later.  :)

PRETTY?

Pretty


Want to smell like JLO's man?  Anyone, anyone?  Oh La La Mag

Sexy
and a silly hat and the City.  SOW

Holy moose knuckle and cameltoe madness!  Webmaster's Is My Bitch

You got Britney on my Doogie.  You got Doogie on my Britney!  Dlisted

Will the real muppet please stand up, please stand up?  CityRag

William Shatner
talks man on man.  Towleroad

Simon Cowell and his mum.  Popbytes

May 12, 2008

Giving Project

I am thrilled to do this posting.  It's certainly my longest yet and by far the one I'm most happy to do.  My friend Justin Rudd is the personification of the word giving.  His tireless efforts to improve the community in Long Beach, CA are truly inspiring.  I will be doing a posting on Justin in the next couple of days so I'll explain more about his generosity at that point.  This article will focus on Justin's most recent endeavor, The Giving Project, and its winner.

I asked Justin for a summary of that project and he sent me the following:

THE LONG BEACH GIVING PROJECT gave 15 Community Action Team (CAT) volunteers $500 each. Justin Rudd, CAT's Exec. Dir., gave them less than three weeks to give it all away. Contestant bios and rules.

INSPIRED BY OPRAH AND IDOL, Rudd's "Long Beach Giving Project" Gave Away $10,200 in 20 Days

FOR 20 DAYS leading up to Sat., May 10, Justin Rudd and his nonprofit 501c3 Community Action Team (C.A.T.) were looking to help people in need in the Long Beach area with their "LONG BEACH GIVING PROJECT."  Inspired by Oprah's "Big Give" and "Idol Gives Back," Rudd says thousands of dollars in goods and services were given locally to those who needed it most. 

NEEDS MET included school uniforms, bus tickets, meal vouchers, prom tickets, baby clothes, gas, sack lunches, Mother's Day cards, scout outfit, art supplies, rent payment, blankets, dance lessons, singing lessons, hygiene items, diapers, shoes, books, electric bill payments, office supplies & lots more.

SAMUEL LIPPKE was the contestant who did the giving best, as determined by a judges' panel made up of a few of Long Beach's finest philanthropists. Samuel received an extra $1,000 to give away.  See Samuel's bio, and all the other contestants' names/bios.

WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM?
Funds for the program are made possible, in part, by the successes of Rudd's Long Beach Turkey Trot and the Haute Dog Easter Parade charity events. Other funds came from local philanthropists whose wealth ranges from meager to millions.

HOW THE MONEY WAS GIVEN?
Justin Rudd and his 501c3 nonprofit Community Action Team (CAT) gave $500 to 15 of their volunteers to give away to others in the Long Beach area with a 20-day time limit. In total, $8,500 was given away by the contestants with $1,000 to the winner. In additional, checks were written to Steel Magnolias and PeacePartners, and we paid for prom tickets for a local high school student. Finally, on the finals night, each contestant was given an additional $50 to give away and the forty spectators at our judges interviews/dinner presentation were given $10 each to go and give.

I attended the presentation ceremony this past Saturday evening.  Each of the 15 contestants gave a five minute speech explaining how and to who they gave away that $500.  It was very moving to hear person after person describe their experiences and the impact they were able to make.  The judges chose my friend Samuel Lippke as the winner. 

Samuel_lippke_sketch

Above is a quick pen sketch of him.  I met Samuel at Justin's birthday party not quite a year ago.  Samuel is an instantly likable, talented, funny, and genuine guy.  To meet him is to want to be his friend.  Simply put, he's a great guy.  I knew that he was a talented photographer as well as a blogger.  Please have a look at his photography site Samuel Lippke and his blog When Does This Boat Dock.  From his speech at The Given Project I learned more about his passion for helping others which he demonstrated by being one of the early responders to the Indian Ocean Tsunami.

I tried my Larry King/ Anderson Cooperish best to put together a few interview question for Samuel.  Here goes:

Samuel, can you give my readers a little background information.  Work, interests, hobbies......

Well, I grew up in North Western WA. I lived with my hippy parents in a bus in the woods, no running water, no computers, no TV, just me and the family. I had 4 siblings. I moved to Southern CA to become an Actor and to see the world. I became an assistant to one of the best photographers I've ever known and it happens to be my brother! So, I'm a photographer by profession, I shoot high end weddings all over the world. I LOVE shooting fashion and I photo journalism mixed. Someday I hope to shoot for fashion magazines and Ad campaigns. I'm really interested in world politics, the freeing of innocent people and photographing interactions between humans. Oh and I have a sunglass collection, I love watching the Lakers play and I enjoy meeting up with friends for nights on the town.  I love doing crazy things with my hair, I love music and making friends. Spontaneous travel is my hobby.

What was your involvement in the Tsunami relief effort?

 My Brother and I were in Indonesia Surfing and working at an orphanage when the Earthquake and Tsunami hit. When we (My brother Ira, Friend Scott, our translator Rolly and Myself) heard about the lack of aid and the amount of death that occurred an island over from ours, we knew we had to help! So we packed up our gear, threw together money for medical supplies and began our crazy journey to ground zero. It was a wild trip just getting there... between going to the UN for direction to eventually talking to the governor of the island and getting onto a military B52. We finally arrived to find death EVERYWHERE! it was so hard to know where to start. We were walking around thousands of dead bodies that had been laying there for 2 days. It felt hopeless. Finally after a few hours of trying to locate a place to help out at, we found a makeshift hospital and we started to restore order. Quickly each of us became medics, doctors, surgeons and after the 4th day, Scott was helping with amputations. It was a wild experience of death, fear, sadness, happiness (Seeing the peoples faces when they found our makeshift hospital), We were finally forced to leave after the 5th day. Terrorists in the area where trying to make a statement and wanted to capture us American's. The military ushered us out of the town and later that day the US. Marines showed up. It was perfect timing and we were able to I think save thousands of lives! I went home as sick as you can get while being a healthy young male... I'm positive what I got was Malaria.

Quick Note: The Hospital in Banda Aceh was destroyed, the nurses and doctors were killed and our makeshift hospital quickly became the hospitol. The final death count in Indonesia was 167,736.

As for the Giving Project, where did you direct your money?

I wanted to effect the people of Long Beach that were at a wits end. I wanted to give what I could to bring hope. To show the people I worked with that they were on their way up.
My first effort & $100 were spent bringing 90 lunches to a homeless population in Downtown Long Beach. A group of my friends helped me make sandwiches and then ride around on our bikes talking to people and handing them lunches.
Another project was helping a women in her 50's that was diagnosed with MS to go along with her dementia and brain tumor. She has recently gained 50 pounds and doesn't fit into any of her clothes I took her on a shopping spree to get the necessities so she could be comfortable in her clothes.
#3 was for a 3rd grade girl. she recently lost her grandfather, father and brother and is devastated. I met with her in the park, played basketball with her and listened to her sing. she has an amazing voice and great potential. I offered to get her singing lessons. She was thrilled!! I hope to keep up with her and her family and watch her grow as a singer.
#4 was directed towards mothers day. I called a few flower places and got the best deal possible. bought 50 flowers, then went to rite aid... tried to get a good deal on cards with no avail...I bought them anyways. then took the flowers and cards down to the Long Beach women's shelter and gave the cards and flowers to kids to give to their mothers for mothers day.
#5. I met with a women named Susie. She is homeless jobless and a mother of 2. she is struggling to get to and from job interviews due to no phone access and a car with tires that need air in them every 30 miles. So I called around and got 4 tires for $100.
I think the last one was the toughest, it took me 3 days to accomplish it.

I took the extra money from all the projects and went back to the flower store. bought as many flowers as possible (30 in total) and handed them out to random people on 2nd st.

What will you do with your $1,000?

I'm still trying to figure out how to best use the money for Long Beach. First off I am going to approach a few big businesses in the area looking to double maybe triple the amount. then offer to drop the first and last months rent on an apartment for susie and her 2 kids... IF she can get a job somewhere. I'm also planning on working with almost all of my projects. I would like to continue the friendships as well as continue to show them there are people out there that love to come alongside and help.

For those who are inspired by this, and can't imagine who wouldn't be, how would you encourage others about giving.  Where can they start?  That question is for me too.

Start small! find people around you that could use not just money, but smaller things... start by getting involved in the community, challenge yourself to give a certain amount to someone but not giving cash,checks or money orders... give first hand and be creative. plus its fun!!

Now that you've heard from Samuel, I'd like to show some of his work.  This black and white photo is one of my favorites.
Parachute_2

I also love this photo of his friends who will marry this summer.

Wedding_photo

Here's Samuel with his trusty camera.  Too bad he's so out of shape.  Buddy you need to do a few more curls..... you're looking scrawny.  :)

Sphotographer

Samuel recently took a trip to Cuba.  Be sure and read about his adventures on his blog.  I loved seeing the every day street scenes.

Cuba_cars_2

Here's Samuel with some friends he made along the way.  

Samuel_and_friends

As you can imagine, Samuel is spoken for.  Even though I've only spent a little time around his girlfriend, I can safely say that Audry is pure, undiluted sunshine.   
Here's a sketch I did of them with some digital shading.

Samuel_and_audry

Thanks Samuel and Justin for helping me out with this posting. You're both so inspiring. Happy to call you my friends.
   



To Play Us Out of his mind.

Former Inside Edition host and current world champion blow hard Bill O'Reilly lost it big time when confronted with the mysterious expression "to play us out" as it appeared on his teleprompter.  Instead of just calmly reading that phrase, Bill decided to take a slightly different direction. 

Warning: Bill drops the F Bomb twice.  NSFW!

 

Update.  I posted this just minutes ago and it's already been taken down.  Way to go Mr O'Reilly.  Very fair and unbalanced.

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

A special thanks to my reader Christine who let me know that the same video was available on College Humor.  Enjoy the mania.

May 09, 2008

What's PRETTY today?  And what's Mariah up to?

Pretty

This is another good reason, besides McSteamy, to watch Grey's AnatomyOh La La Mag

This is another good reason to watch Ugly BettyPink Is The New Blog

Lance Bass just reeled himself in a stud!  Towleroad

Friends are worried Marc Jacobs may pull a HalstonHollyscoop

Hey, you got pussy on your boobs!  CityRag

Mischa Barton addresses cottage cheese thighs photos.  Dlisted

Seriously!? OMG! WTF? :)  SOW

Mariah and Nick out and about.  Love the way she's holding the umbrella.  Never cover the boobies.  Concrete Loop

TomKat's expanding.  I'm Not Obsessed

Who's this?

Pretty_clay

Could it be..........

Phoebe Price proving that she doesn't have cellulite?  No.

An oddly orange Paris Hilton promoting hair care productsStill no.

Lindsay Lohan on the set of Ugly Betty?  Could be, but no.

Is it Mariah on her way to talk Oprah about her wedding?  No no no no no.

Give up?  Here's a hint.

May 08, 2008

What's PRETTY today?  And what's Winehouse up to?

Pretty_wino

Ohhhhhh.... Amy Winehouse has been a very busy beehived Brit.  Pink Is The New Blog

Ugly Betty totally understands its fan base.  Casting my future life partner Eddie Cibrian is thank you card worthy!  Oh La La Mag

Thanks to Oh La La Mag, we are introduced to photographer Nicolas Wagner's new site.  Nicolas Wagner

Thanks Nicolas for these shots!  Chad White is also thank you card worthy.

Thank you UK Rugby players for your continuous clothing boycott.  Much appreciated!  (Kinda NSFW) Towleroad

Man chops are seemingly all the rage.  Will you sport a pair?  Hmmmmm..... wonder if that's next for WinehouseCityRag

Britney betrayed by her own weave?  Dlisted

Ahhhhhh..... how cute is Harlow Madden?  Very cute I say. SOW

Josh Brolin dives into Bush.  Webmaster's Is My Bitch

 

May 07, 2008

Before there was Mariah and Nick, there was Mariah and me.

I swear on David Gandy's bulge that what I'm about to write is the 100% undiluted truth. (And I take that bulge very, very seriously.)
The year was 1997 and my special friend and I took a trip to Miami to visit some good friends.  We stayed with our friend Billy for a couple nights and then checked into The Delano for the remaining two nights.  At the time, The Delano Hotel was white hot and a mecca of style and chicness in South Beach.   Needless to say it was also a place where people went to see and be seen. 
At around 3pm the second day of our stay, we were sitting by the pool when God smiled on us.  The scene at the pool was fairly mellow that afternoon, only my honey and I and a handful of others were there.  The Lord's blessing began when we saw an enormous body guard looking guy slowly walk around the pool, gave us that what up head nod, whispered something in a walkie talkie, and sat down at a bench about twenty feet away.  Minutes later Mariah Mimi Carey wearing a swimsuit that should have never been made accompanied by her friend rolled up on the pool and sat directly across from us.  Hallelujah!  I'll get to what her friend was wearing in a moment.
"Oh my f$#king God," I whispered to my other half trying to not move my lips. "That's Mariah f$#king Carey!"
Mariah's swimsuit looked like a Project Runway challenge gone horribly wrong.  It was an aqua blue snake skin print fabric that had a seemingly endless number of criss crossing straps.  It was like Tim Gunn had said, "Designers.... your challenge today is to create the most devastatingly skanky swimsuit ever in history.  You have a $5 budget and twenty minutes to complete this unimaginable nightmare.  Make it not work!"
Mariah accessorized that frightful swimsuit with a belly chain and an enormous pair of sunglasses.  I was trying my best to not stare.  Really, I was. Mariah fidgeted with her hair, belly chain and numerous swim suit straps for a moment, sighed, moved her head from side to side before lowering her glasses and looked directly across the pool at us for a long moment.  A moment which will live forever in my memory. 
"Oh my f$#king God...... Mariah is staring at us!" I excitedly whispered out of the side of my mouth to my other half.
I swear on Chad White's bulge that the next part is still the 100% truth.  Mariah took off her sunglasses, tossed her head around like she was in a shampoo commercial, got up and walked over to the corner of the pool where they was an open air shower. Mariah turned the water on and put on show like she was at The MTV Music Awards.

Wet_butterfly

It was more like she was being shot for a music video.  So just a mere fifteen feet away was Mimi in all her attention starved glory taking an outdoor shower.  One hand would longingly trace the curve of her hip while the other was gently exploring her outer boob and shoulder.  Her head flipped around like she was a fish being reeled in causing her soaking wet hair to loudly slap against skin.  I swear on Will Demp's chest that's the truth.
Now while all that was going on, her friend who was a very butch looking Latina wearing a white tshirt and black workout pants jumped in the pool.  In workout pants!
"Can you even f$#king believe this shit?" I asked my honey.  My honey who could care less about celebrities was throughly amused by the entire spectacle.
Like they were choreographed, the soaking wet Mimi wrapped herself in a towel just as her fully dressed friend emerged from the pool and together they headed back into the hotel.  Her friend didn't use a towel to dry off which I found to be an extra fun detail.
So there you have.  That's my brush with the butterfly.
To commemorate that blessed event, I've created some Mariah masks which I put on my and some of my friend's faces from that trip.  All the photos are in The Delano.

Friends_of_mimi

Thanks for indulging me!   

May 06, 2008

Silver's the new................????????

Silvers_the_new_crazy

I thought the Chanel space gown Anna Wintour wore to the Superheroes Gala was a bit understated.  The inflated pool toy-ish snail shell pockets and Ace Frehley from KISS shoulder rings seemed too blah.  So I decided to spruce it up.  Click here to see the understated gown pre-sprucing.  Scroll down to behold the splendor.

When I think about Robert Buckley, I touch myself. And you........?

Robert_pixelized

The first time I saw a commercial for Lipstick Jungle and caught a glimpse of Robert Buckley, I just knew it was going to be my new favorite show.  I still haven't seen an episode but I can tell you that I'm a HUGE fan of Robert's work.  Thanks to the internet I've been able to do some exhaustive research on Mr Buckley.  Here are my findings............

He's often shirtless (thank you) on his show Lipstick Jungle.

Even ugly mismatched outfits and overly flat ironed hair can't conceal his hotness.

Did I mention he's often shirtless?

Apparently he's also a photographer.  Here's a picture of us together.  That's me in the right corner.  He likes it when I wear my hair long and blond.

He also likes it when I... um..... well just have a look.  That's me in the large hat and flowing white top.

Robert, you are clearly very talented and I'd like to give you a hand.  :)

You can see the NSFW version here

What's happening?

Pretty

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy.  And some fantastic hotness!  Oh La La Mag

Scarlett Johansson gets to have and to hold this.  Lucky!  Dlisted

If you're gay and considering going to the Cayman Islands, best read this.  Towleroad

Katie and Posh's body language says it all.  SOW

What does Wino look like without the weave?  Be careful what you ask for.  LA Rag Mag

What does Lindsay's new single sound like?  Be careful what you ask for.  Webmaster's Is My Bitch

Behold and hold the sun.  CityRag

May 05, 2008

Pretty

Today's PRETTY links are ALL seen through my Chad White tinted glasses.
 

Chad White and I are getting married!  Here's Chad preparing for the blessed event.  Oh La La Mag

Here's my best man Travis Fimmel showing what he's wearing to the ceremony.  Thanks TravisHunk Du Jour

Hopefully Doodlewhore will draw our wedding and it will appear in HX magazine.  Congrats JasonDoodlewhore

My future husband Chad White, my best man Travis, and I will be honeymooning at Brangelina's French villa. The Real Estalker

Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty will be performing a duet at our wedding.  Dlisted

Jessica Simpson is helping me get in shape for the ceremony with her spell binding cleavage cardio.  CityRag

David Cook will also be entertaining our guests with his daring song interpretations and dolphin tricks.  SOW

On the private jet to Brangelina's villa, my future life partner Chad White and I will be watching the #1 movie of the weekend, Iron Man.  Again.  Pajiba

The above photo is part of a series that came from a day at the beach with a painted mannequin.  Don't most people take their painted mannequins to the beach?

May 02, 2008

Who's that girl? Round two.

Tomkat_2

In honor of someone's return to Oprah's couch.
Hmmm....... who could it be?
Hint, hint.

Pretty_otis

This gorgeous creature is named Otis and he belongs to my brother and his lovely wife.  I had a high fashion photo shoot with their senior pug yesterday and this is his best shot.   Congratulations Otis, you still got it!

On to today's wonderful and weird links..................................

Matthew Furless Fox.  Oh La La Mag

Bring on Iron Man!  CityRag

“And if I see Van Helsing, I SWEAR TO THE LORD I WILL SLAY HIM!” Pajiba

Benji Madden thinks he and girlfriend Paris Hilton will eventually marry. Celebrity Smack

Madonna channels her outer pimp.  SOW

Frappuccinos, no panties, and a faux British accent might cost you $61 million.  Popbytes

Sword fight!  Male models battle.  Queerty

My blog buddy Alan Ilagan reviews Madonna's Hard Candy.  Edge

Madonna on MileyHollyscoop

Have a kick ass weekend everyone!

May 01, 2008

Butterfly turned Cougar!

Mack_canyon

I had planned on taking the day off from blogging, however I just couldn't resist sneaking a peak to see if anything had happened.  And something certainly did!  Mariah Mimi Carey, 47, just married Nick Cannon, 18.  Holy giant tittied, octave defying cougar alert! OK, OK, Mariah is actually 38 and Nick is 27 and I say way to go Mimi!
So what to name this couple?  Well this may be a stretch, but I think Mack Canyon sounds right and above is a little photoshop fun I had with the new couple.
Cheers Mack Canyon....... I wish you the very best!

April 30, 2008

What's PRETTY today? And what's not...................................

Pretty_wino

Steph and Alek in HXOh La La Mag

Did Posh misplace a couple things?  Pink Is The New Blog

Name that CameltoeCityRag

This is sad.  Ling Ling the Panda passes away.  Dlisted

Lindsay huffs and puffs and blows smoke like a ........... WWTDD

F#$k American Idol!  Bring on So You Think You Can Dance!!!!  Hunk Du Jour

Who wants to f#$k a farmer?  You might after seeing this....... SOW

Katie Holmes is going to Camp No Fun. Popbytes

The above image is a photo of Amy Winehouse mashed in with an illustration I did of her.

Hey Paula. What's in that red cup?

Paula

This is a painting I did about a year ago and yet it seems quite fitting to post it again today.  I'm sure it will be fitting to post again next year and the year after and so on as long as American Idol is on the air.   If you didn't catch the yuckfest last night which has inspired this posting, then here's what it's about........ 
The five remaining contestants last night sang two Neil Diamond songs and the judges full comments were to be given at the end of the second song.  After the first songs were sung and before the second songs had been started, Ryan asked the judges to briefly give their thoughts.  Remember, they haven't yet sung the second song which everyone seems to know except Paula
You go Paula!  You go pour yourself another drink.

At this point she's the only reason I watch that show.  Enjoy the train wreck........

April 29, 2008

What's PRETTY, what's extremely HOT, and what makes me CRINGE today?

Pretty

HotDavid Beckham courting Gilette, BIC, and me.  Oh La La Mag

Cringe: Tom Cruise + Oprah + this friday = ????????  Pink Is The New Blog

Hot: Robert Buckley deserves an award for best beach photos ever.  Dlisted

CringeJohn Travolta + Tom of Finland = ???????  CityRag

PrettyIman toots.  Celebrity Smack

Double Cringe: Miley and Billy Ray vs Hulk Hogan and Brooke. Webmaster's Is My Bitch

Pretty, Hot, and CringeBritney walks around Bally's in a towel.  SOW

Talented:  My friend Samuel's blog.  When Will This Boat Dock?

April 28, 2008

Miley Cyrus 2010?

Miley_cyrus_2010_2

I was blissfully unaware of who Miley Cyrus was until this past New Year's Eve.  My other half and I were home watching Ryan Seacrest's countdown (sad) and there in the middle of New York's winter was Miley Cyrus atop a building wearing a low cut sparkly top.  I had zero idea who this person was that was working/ rocking/ owning the top of that building.  After her performance Ryan made mention that she was only 15.  I hit pause on my TIVO and rewound five seconds.  Yes, that person who I guessed had to be in her twenties was only 15.  I turned to my other half and said, "Meet the new Britney.  This is going to be messy."
I'm afraid Miley is heading to the dark side.  The Vanity Fair shoot may be an early indicator of this young girl who is being sexualized way, way, way, way, way, way, way too soon.  We'll see where this goes........  I'm afraid she will be giving me and other bloggers material for quite some time though.
Above is a peak where she may be going.         

Where oh where did my Winehouse go?

Wicked_winehouse

Come back to us Amy........

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