"Peep-shi"... file under "That Ain't Right"

My long standing Peep obsession started in childhood when, after days upon days of torment watching my brother's uneaten Peep sit, untouched, atop his Easter basket I finally lost control and dragged a kitchen chair to climb up on the counter and reach the basket where it sat, poorly hidden, on top of the refrigerator.   With my precious forbidden treasure in hand I couldn't even wait until I climbed down to eat it - I bit into it right there, or tried to, anyway.  After days of sitting out in the air it had, of course dried to rock hard.  I nearly lost a tooth.  After only a short moment to review my options I did what anyone would have done.  I carefully put it back in his basket (tooth mark and all) and backed slowly away.

Then there was the time in college when, while on my study abroad trip overseas, I couldn't get Marshmallow Peeps.  My boyfriend at the time was kind enough to send me one.  One.  One single Peep smashed flat in a business envelope.  It was hilarious.  I kept it far too long (but did not consider eating it... surprising in retrospect).

Teryn and I used to wait until after Easter and buy trays of our favorite Easter candy for half-price.  I bought trays of Peeps which I stored in the freezer and never ate (because they looked so cute all in their rows :).  She bought trays of Cadbury Eggs which she had to eat in secret so her health-nut husband would not find out.

Don't forget about Peep jousting which, if you've never experimented with exploding things in the microwave, is when you take two Peeps, supply them with cocktail swords or toothpicks, and stick them in the microwave.  As they swell, whichever one jousts the other first, wins.  I haven't made a Peep jousting video yet...yet.  But here is a a pretty good one.

I wholly admit that Peeps are more about how they look than how they taste.  If they were shaped like something heinous or boring they wouldn't have nearly the draw that they do.  Maybe that's why the other Peep products aren't nearly as popular as the one with faces, like the Marshmallow Flags they sell on the 4th of July, there's no personality!  There's nothing funny or cute about eating a flag.  You're forced to realize that you are eating a spongy tasting sugar blob.  No Fun.  Its all about the faces. The row upon row of hapless, slightly deformed expressions, varying just enough to make us personify them with little personalities :)

On that note, I bring you "Peepshi".  Sushi made from Peeps.  It reminds me of an art project I did in college with my friend Laura Kina.  We made "sushi" from traditionally American ingredients like peanutbutter and jelly.  It wasn't mean't to be delicious, just ironic. Click here for the website with instructions on how to make your own Peepshi from Peeps and other candy.

Where Easter Bunnies come from...

I was waiting for my sister in the hair salon and came across this picture in a magazine.  It reminds me of a time when I was little and saw butterflies mating.  I said "Daddy, why are those butterflies stuck together"?

The Easter Bunny has another surprise for you...

I found this in a book of postcards called "Breaking Bad News With Baby Animals".  Way funnier than any lame "cheezburger" website.

"You Know Me": "Reality Killed The Video Star" vs. "Video Killed The Radio Star"

Perhaps its just my ongoing obsession with rabbits and their seeming symbolic proliferance in my life right now (seriously, what does that mean?), but I love this new Robbie Williams video, "You Know Me" from his new album "Reality Killed The Video Star".

It is a beautiful song, but would I be as drawn to it if he weren't dressed as the March Hare... maybe not.  Either way the video is gorgeous and evocative.  I love how it combines the fantasy of Robbie Williams imagining himself as the rabbit and then the rabbit imagining himself as a playboy surrounded by Vargas-esque "bunnies".

 

Also amusing is the topical reference to this generation's level of media evolution wherein reality programming (including things like YouTube), which have put the camera, the subject and the audience all in the hands of the masses, may potentially make former music formats obsolete.

Therefore, if "Video Killed The Radio Star" in the '80's,  then reality may kill the video star now? Not completely... yet.  However, the growing popularity of reality based programming, including YouTube, have significantly decreased advertising and therefore revenue to formats such as radio, making production budgets smaller as corporations turn more attention lower budget vehicles such as Reality and YouTube.  Time marches on, March Hare.

"You Know Me", Robbie Williams, Reality Killed the Video Star"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDb9fpSj34k

"Video Killed The Radio Star", The Buggles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWtHEmVjVw8

When Life Hands You Lemons... take pretty pictures of them and rant on your blog!

Attribute it to karma, klutziness or abundant physical electricity but for some reason I seem to be one of those people who occasionally stop watches or seem to cause multiple electronic failures in a room. 

I am admittedly klutzy in that my arms and legs seem magnetically drawn to corners of walls, shelves and coffee tables. And I have been known to walk into plate glass windows and wall mirrors, sober, mind you. As for electricity, I sometimes transfer a shock when touching people or things, my electronics acquire mystery afflictions and the last time my watch suddenly died both hands were directly on midnight. Really.

But truthfully, its probably just karma. When it rains it pours, right? This weekend (after putting together my best, most extensive costume to date) both my cameras broke.



Science of the New Thought (Erastus Whitford Hopkins, 1904)

My video camera just stopped recording image and my still camera flew out of my hand when I tried to photograph a guy dressed as Michael Jackson (but maybe that was his karma ;).

The upside is that, since we marched in the parade this year, there are numerous pictures that other people have taken of us, so will compile an album of photos from various sources. In the mean time I have been playing with filters and crops on the photos that I took with my iphone, which came out more arty than snapshots would have anyway ;) so there.

I'll post more detailed images of the costumes and the parade soon. But for now, please enjoy these images: Halloween 2009: Marie Antionette and Louis XVI march in the North Halsted Street Halloween Parade, Chicago!


COSTUME / HAIR AND MAKEUP UPDATE: 

Costume: I made the costume from a vintage dress (strapless floor length light blue satin), a long crinoline, flowers and ribbon. 
Makeup: The makeup included a sheer layer of white under powder and star shaped beauty mark (women of her era often wore a beauty mark, sometimes in shapes of hearts).  
Wig: The wig was actually 3 wigs: 2 braids used under the main wig as a "bump", a long wavy silver wig that wrapped around a platinum bob wig (for extra height) in an updo.  I puled some of my own hair up and around the sides and into the ponytail to help anchor the whole thing.  I then sprayed down the whole thing in white and silver hairspray... and tons of glitter :)


I was still feeling bummed here because my camera had just broken, but I tried to pull it together for a bittersweet Marie portrait.

I love these portraits of David and me as Marie and Louis. Believe it or not these costumes were his idea.

I can't remember the name of this band, it might have been Chicago Red Line Cabaret (so correct me if I am wrong), so I am just calling them the Rabbit Band, which played music as they marched through the crowd.

This couple was one of the finalists for "Best Couple" in the costume contest. They should have won first place in my opinion. They are dressed as Queen Elizabeth and Walter Raleigh. The costumes were handmade by Kai Wallace (one of the revelers here). Stunning and inspiring!

I'm not sure what this one was supposed to be, but I thought it was a Dr. Seuss character. He stood on 4 foot stilts for extra height. Amazing.

I like pictures like this that have that moving memory feeling, like an unspecific dream or thought you just can't seem to articulate.

This one I am calling "Marie Von D", after Kat, the tattoo artist. If Marie were alive today I think she would take many brave fashion risks, like tattooing her face.

Actually, my aunt has a tattoo on her face, which was her homage to her female mentor, Vali Myers. I would get a tattoo on my face, perhaps. Maybe like the one I have drawn here, a star over my beauty mark.. but then I would miss my beauty mark, which I have named "Elizabeth Taylor" (She has one in the same place)... but maybe I'll save this thought for another post ;)