ANIMAL INSTINCT

OMG Japan.  I cannot imagine what it must feel to go though such a traumatic experience and to be unable to be at peace even almost a week after it happened.  News of a possible nuclear catastrophe and the continuous aftershocks that continue to strike this area of the world, are sparking fear and a sense of uncertainty that would drive anyone mad out of their senses.

My nearest earthquake-related experience was almost four years ago, when the southern city of Pisco literally fell to pieces after it was hit by a 7.9 magnitude quake.  This was 230km. south of Lima, but GOD did we feel and GOD did it feel like it lasted forever (about 2:30 minutes).  Though I managed to stay quite calm and to calm those around me (I was with a friend at her shop and with her salesgirl) while it happened, I was traumatized for months, thinking it could happen again at any moment.

Like many animal lovers,  one of the things that worries me the most about tragedies like these, is the fate of most pets.  I have read that in Japan, most shelters will not allow people to come in with their animals and that they have been faced with the tough choice of leaving them behind in order to guarantee their own safety.

But within this tragic situation, there is hope.  People like Ashely Fruno, PETA Asia-Pacific senior campaigner, and Isabella Gallaon-Aoki of Animal Friends Niigata are taking care of those pets who have been abandoned amidst the mess of debris left by the quake and the tsunami that followed.

From PETA Asia-Pacific's blog, The Hot & Sour Scoop.

One of the first members of an international animal rights group to reach the disaster area, PETA Asia-Pacific senior campaigner Ashley Fruno has been in Japan with Isabella Gallaon-Aoki of Animal Friends Niigata since taking the first flight to Tokyo after the airport opened Saturday night. Ashley and Isabella are providing food, water, and care to animals abandoned when their guardians fled to evacuation centers, and are also providing food to animals whose guardians are having a hard time getting supplies of food because of long lines of hundreds of people waiting to get into stores. They've encountered many citizens who have stayed in their badly damaged homes for days because many evacuation centers are not allowing companion animals inside.

"The damage is absolutely horrific," Ashley says. "These dogs and cats need rescue for the sake of the anguished people who were forced to choose between seeking refuge in evacuation centers and taking their beloved animal companions with them."
Despite long waits at gas stations, Ashley and Isabella continue to visit the worst-affected areas in search of animals who need help, and their team remains in touch with the volunteer relief center, city office, and prefecture office, which plans to set up a temporary shelter for animals in the north of the city. Ashley is also talking to reporters and asking them to alert her if they spot animals in need.

Fortunately, there is a way WE can help too.  PETA's ANIMAL EMERGENCY FUND provides grants to organizations that do rescue work in situations like the one going on in Japan right now.  All you have to do is visit this link and make a donation.
To finish off, and in an attempt to make you click on the link above, here's the touching video of a dog who took care and would not leave his injured companion after they both survived the tsunami.  For your mind's sake, both have already been rescued (the thought of them being left alone tortured me for quite a while).

SANTA BABY

So, Christmas is only a few days away and I'm not in a very Christmas-y spirit yet, though I am looking forward to cheating on my diet on the year's cheat-day par excellence. I had been thinking about what I'd want to get this year (somewhat inspired by the HILARIOUS videos by Drew Droege's impersonation of Chloë Sevigny) and so I came up with a list of things I would like to get and then narrowed them down to the following five (in no particular order):

NUMBER 1 : A TALL, DARK AND HANDSOME VEGETARIAN.
Santa MUST know I've been single for quite a while (insert Dalí's The Persistence of Memory here, or a video of a tumbleweed, or a cricket sound...or...never mind, I think I made it clear), and though I have broadened my standards, a friend recently reminded me that, once upon a time, being a vegetarian was an essential requirement.

EXAMPLE: CHRISTIAN BALE.

NUMBER 2: DINNER WITH MADONNA. Or lunch, or breakfast or brunch! Whatever it may be. Oh, and I need to be able to bring my friend Paloma along as well to make it complete. You see Santa?! I'm learning to share! (But let me figure out whether she really neeeeeds to sit with us at the same table or if she can just watch from afar).

I CAN SETTLE FOR PIZZA.

NUMBER 3: THE FABERGÉ EGG I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE I WAS 8.
I SO behaved that year, and I still didn't get it. I was so distraught. Of course, maybe Santa had a hard time deciding WHICH Fabergé egg to bring me. I was never able to make up my mind as to which one was my favorite and I never specified, so I'll give him that, but today I feel like I should probably have the one with the lily of the valley theme since they were, together with narcissus, my favorite flowers in my garden in Moscow (I think I'm just going to have to rush to the closest perfume shop and sniff some Diorissimo for nostalgia's sake).
Seriously, Santa, it's been 22 years...

(SIGH)

TINY PORTRAITS OF NICHOLAS II AND HIS FIRST TWO DAUGHTERS, OLGA AND TATIANA

NUMBER 4: MATTHEW MORRISON'S ABS.
No further explanation necessary.

NUMBER 5: NO MORE BULLFIGHTS.
This might sound like a party pooper to many, but it would make me SO happy. I would give up all of my other gifts just for this one.

So Santa, I've kept it VERY short this year. I'm not asking for much. Here's a little video that will help you realize how insignificant the things I'm asking for are. Please don't let me down...AGAIN.
Tootles.
ROGER

SHOW THEM YOU CARE

I thought I'd be able to keep myself from posting other videos regarding Julie Andrews on the day of her birthday, but it's been impossible. I just watched the following bit from Mary Poppins three times straight, and though Feed The Birds is probably one of the saddest songs in the movie, it is also one of my favorites. The music is beautiful, as well as her voice and interpretation, but above all, the imagery and lyrics, are probably the most touching ingredients of this powerful combination. I guess they must have spoken to the young animal activist in me.

Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul's
The little old bird woman comes
In her own special way to the people she call,
"Come, buy my bags full of crumbs;
Come feed the little birds,
Show them you care
And you'll be glad if you do
Their young ones are hungry
Their nests are so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Feed the birds," that's what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the skies

All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares
Although you can't see it,
You know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares

Though her words are simple and few
Listen, listen, she's calling to you
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag"

Having lived in Eastern Europe as a child, I never felt the urge to travel to London (like I did for Paris), so my first time there was when I was 27, and I have to say I fell in love with the city.
Though stalking Madonna and a trip to her house in Marylebone were within my plans, they were not as important as going to Saint Paul's Here it goes.

THE FUR THAT MURDERED LOVE

The former obnoxious environmentalist in me has appeared in the last couple of posts and apparently he's here to stay for a bit.  I've been thinking about how difficult it is to draw an artist and his/her talents away from the person they really are.  I know this is nothing new, and it's a fact we tend to want to know more and more about the pop stars, actors, and other kind of performers we admire, in order to sympathize more with them or just from plain curiosity.
I have never been too fond of Kelis, to be honest the only song I ever heard from her was Milkshake (and now that I remember, her vocal contribution to Timo Maas's Help Me some years ago), but after her recent comments to the press regarding the letters she received from PETA asking her not to wear fur, and her ridiculous, mocking, aggressive and tactless answers ("I would have fur walls if I could") stating her love of it (and therefore obvious insensitivity to animal suffering), have made me want to ignore and not even give a chance to her new album though I know it's been getting some good reviews.  Personally, I hope it TANKS, no matter how childish that might sound, I just can't help the feeling.  She really gets on my nerves.  Too bad Robyn has decided to tour with her.

                                         

Well, while we're on the subject, there's this new catchy, poppy song that I've had on repeat since I downloaded it.  I'm kind of infatuated with the lyrics and even though I was not seduced by the performer's voice at first, I'm liking it more and more each time.  It's The Boy Who Murdered Love, by Diana Vickers, a British singer who was a semi-finalist in The X Factor two years ago.

She's VERY young, she'll be turning 19 at the end of July, and though I love the song, like I stated before, I can't get over the fact that she's wearing a fur jacket towards the end of the video (which has a pretty cute aesthetic to it involving a cartoon-interfered reality and a hard-to-ingore cute male model). I'm hoping it's fake, though I doubt it, just so that I don't have to hate her.  I sound thirteen now, I know.
Here's the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1wKCXbrK74

UNITED COLORS OF THE FUTURE

I was recently called to have my picture taken for a magazine article on fashion bloggers in Lima. I was quite surprised I was actually chosen because I don't consider my blog to be solely about fashion, but as I was beginning to think about this entry, I realized most of my posts are inevitably fashion-related.
When I was about 11, I began a long-term love affair with Benetton. I think I still remember my first item from this brand, it was a green polo shirt, with UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON written in tiny fuchsia letters in the front. I had fallen in love with it at the store for some reason and had not been bothered by the fact that it was a size or two big. Suddenly, 90% of my wardrobe came from this brand and then most of my personal belongings: my wallet, my agenda, my cologne, my walkman-case, keychain, etc. It had become an unexplainable obsession. I mean, some people from high school remember my colorful Benetton backpack more than they remember me (of course, I did weigh about a ton back then too).
I also fell in love with their ad campaigns. LOVED THEM. I loved their thought-provoking, shocking, controversial images addressing social issues such as racism, AIDS, discrimination in general, and above all -at that period in my life- enviromental issues. I became a fan of Oliviero Toscani, the creative mind and photographer behind the ads, then wrote Luciano Benetton expressing my admiration and was happily surprised when I received a package containing poster-sized images of the campaigns from 1989 to 1995. I actually got to meet Luciano Benetton later on when he came to Lima to open a store.
It was at 12 that I became a vegetarian and that I got involved in school activities that promoted recycling and other eco-conscious activities. That is probably why one of the images that struck me the most back then, was that of the bird covered in thick, black oil, it's eyes red with irritation, swimming in the middle of a huge oil spill, and looking like something out of this world.




Thinking it was a species from another planet would have probably been the more comforting way of looking at it than knowing it belonged to our own planet Earth, and that the reason why this poor animal was condemned to such a horrific situation that would lead to it's premature death, was caused by our own kind. Or maybe it was a new species. Were we being witness to the birth of a new type of bird that would soon be populating our planet? I know this sounds a bit dramatic, but after seeing the following pictures from the affected wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico due to the UNBELIEVABLE irresponsibility of BRITISH PETROLEUM, one can only wonder if we will ever learn. Things haven't changed much.




(Pictures via Towleroad)

CELEBRITY SKIN

My initial title for this post was BROOKE SHIELDS YOU SUCK, but then I decided I could be a bit more elaborate. Brooke Shields is probably a celebrity many people that belong to my generation hold as a childhood icon. Her 80's beauty, her star-status at such an early age and watching her grow in the limelight made her one VERY fascinating person. Fascination faded a bit, as she grew up and grew older but she still holds a strong place among other Hollywood stars.




I remember having dinner once at Cipriani's in Soho, back in 2008, with one of my closest friends from my high school in Montevideo, and minutes after we sat down, someone went by behind me. My friend is not as celebrity obsessed as I am (I had already recognized Carine Roitfeld's son when we entered but that's just because I'm a freak), but she did mention something along the lines of "hey, I think the girl that just went by you is kind of famous, she looks familiar" in her priceless Uruguayan accent in Spanish (she is from Taiwan so, visually, it's pretty surreal). As I turned to my right, two tables away from us it was her, Ms. Brooke Shields herself. I couldn't help but squeal to my friend "Those EYEBROWS!!! They're part of HISTORY!!!". She looked way prettier in person, slimmer too, and though I was immediately starstruck when I saw her, I didn't dare to go up to her and say hello. Two other people had already done that and asked for a picture, and she seemed rather annoyed by it. To tell you the truth however, there was a HUGE turn off : she was wearing a long fur vest. My initial excitement faded a bit, not completely, I have to be honest. I had been in NYC for about a week, LIPSTICK JUNGLE was about to premiere that weekend, and I remembered seeing Hilary Rhoda backstage at the Michael Kors show and thinking how the 80's were back EVEN when it came to physical features, so running into her seemed like a pretty cool way to end that trip.
Unfortunately, today, Brooke Shields has been the source of major disappointment. I just checked one of my favorite blogs and came across the following picture:



Has she no heart? Not only does Brooke Shields wear fur, she will actually be promoting the use of it by designing a fur coat herself together with a Danish fur company. I could soooooooooort of understand when people are just hypnotized by the texture of a fur coat and enjoy wearing one because they are able to ignore what goes into making one (I won't excuse them though), but to still be into it while being a witness to the process and to actually see the bodies of dead animals and to not be moved by it is beyond me. She has been quoted to say: "My only true love, darling. I live for furs. I worship furs! After all, is there a woman in all this wretched world who doesn't? ". PATHETIC. Could someone PLEASE slap some sense into her? I really hope PETA gets her.