Beatle Fact Friday

Its been a long, long, long week, so this one is going to be short.

At the end of George Harrison's love song "Long long long", a rattling sound can be heard. According to Harrison's autobiography, I Me Mine, this sound was produced by a glass bottle of Blue Nun wine that was sitting on a speaker. Supposedly, when Paul played a certain note on the organ, the bottle rattled making the sound. To compliment the rattling, Ringo played a fast drum roll on the snare. This "mistake" ultimately made it into the final recording.

Sometimes mistakes can be beautiful things.

Gettin' Crafty

ISSUE: busted porcelain lamp (yeah, I'm clumsy)

SOLUTION: create your own lamp stand using an old glass bottle

THINGS YOU'LL NEED: glass bottle, string, rope, or thread, cold water, lighter fluid, and a lighter.

PROCESS: wrap the string around the point in the bottle you would like to cut. Soak the string in lighter fluid. Light the string on fire, holding the bottom of the bottle with one hand. Let the string burn until it goes out, then drop the bottle in cold water. If the bottle does not break on it's own, apply pressure to the heated area to break the bottle.

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Get creative with this one. My handy man of a boyfriend was able to rewire this lamp around the bottle, but let your imagination run wild. --- ship in a bottle perhaps? Use the bottom half too! Ashtray maybe?

DRINKIFY

Don't drink alone... drink with music!


drinkify.org

Rat-A-Tat-Tat

Warning: This is not the most glamorous post this blog will ever see - in fact, I can pretty much guarantee it will be the grossest. So, needless to say, it is not for the faint of heart (or stomach).

Shall we begin with an explanation of the above photo? Yes, the rat is real, and no, it is not photoshopped. This is an image of a GIANT (3 foot?) rat that was killed with a pitckfork in the Marcy projects in Brooklyn.

According to an article featured in this month's New York Magazine, we are in the midst of one of New York City's rat infestations. Yes, rats are par for the course for us New Yorkers. We are used to seeing them scampering down in the subway tracks, or worse in the ally way behind our apartments. But the rat situation is being taken to a whole new level (as evident from the picture above and the video below).

In years past it was said that in the city of New York there was one rat per person - meaning that 8 million rats infested the streets, sewers, and subways of the city. While opinions vary, is now estimated that there are 3 to 4 rats per person - meaning that there are upwards of 20 million rats roaming the city of New York.

As you prepare for the take over of the rats (which now seems inevitable) here are some horrifying facts to keep in mind -- not to scare you, just to make known what we are up against!

• Female brown rats are sexually mature at eight-to-ten weeks and can produce a litter within 21 days of impregnation.
  
• Rats can mate again within eighteen hours of giving birth and routinely turn out more than 50 offspring per year.
  
• Rats can swim for more than half a mile, tread water for three days, sometimes even emerging in the bathroom bowl.
  
• Rats can gnaw through concrete and lead.
  
• Rats can collapse their skeletons to fit through a hole no bigger than a quarter.
  
• Rats can go for two weeks without sleeping

FUN TIMES!!! Read the full article HERE

The Skin I Live In

As an avid lover of all things Pedro Almodovar (yes, I even saw the Broadway musical version of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), I was beyond excited to see his latest movie marvel, The Skin I Live In. To my dismay a fellow Almodovar adorer warned me that it was not his best work - and so I went into the film with bated expectation. But boy were they wrong!

The film is a little less flamboyant than some other Almodovar classics - but the suspense, creep, and chaos were right on point. The non linear plot line was true to the director's style, yet the film was easier to follow than some of his other more complexly woven story lines. Without giving too much away, let me just say that the characters were enthralling, the cinematography was visually spectacular, and the plot was mind bendingly f*ed up.

Antonio Banderas is wonderful in his role as a tortured and torturous plastic surgeon who is avenging the tragedies of his past by manipulating the creation of a new present. The beautiful Spanish actress, Elena Anaya, was a great surprise as a leading "lady". She was a refreshingly calming force considering the women of Almodova's films are usually loud, boisterous and teeming with Latin spice.

Banderas and Anaya together made for one of the most beautiful on screen pairings I have seen in a while. Although the circumstance of their romance is beyond twisted, the duo were impossibly gordious to watch. I mean, just look at them!

Hermes or Otherwise

A girl I went to college with had this wonderful little vintage book created by Hermes on how to tie their scarves. The book was literally tiny - maybe 6"x6" it was hard cover and had the most lovely illustrations inside. It was such a special book, I think passed down to her by her grandmother, and I have been searching for my own ever since. The closest I have found are eBay auctions for Hermes "knotting cards" from the 80's that are selling for upwards of $100. This book was so special though, I am certain the universe will lead me to stumble upon it in a used book store or flea market one day or another. In the meantime - here are some images and tips that pay homage to that little mystery book.