‘Space’ Category

  1. Cardassian Sunrise

    May 11, 2009 by ms. xandra

    Hey, have you seen that Star Trek movie yet?  You should probably go see that Star Trek movie.  It’s pretty excellent.  Wear sunglasses.  I was warned about the gratuitous use of lens flare, but, Jesus, nothing could have prepared me for how shiny that Starship Enterprise was.  Also Youthful Spock is So Totally Hot, but in a way that worries me because he looks kind of exactly like what you’d get if you crossed my one ex-boyfriend with my other ex-boyfriend and gave the result a bowl cut.  Troubling, that.

    Another thing I want to let you know about:  maxi dresses.  They are in this season, apparently.  I heartily disapprove.  There is just so much fabric.  And it’s usually unforgivingly jersey knit.  Nobody looks good in one of those.  (Unless you are six feet tall and a waif, or maybe if you are, say Iman, or something. But even Iman can only really gets away with it because she is married to David Bowie.)  Also, let us pause and remember the last time maxi dresses were in style.  You know, THE SEVENTIES.  An era that is an affront to the aesthetic sensibilities of all smart-minded individuals.

    So, I had actually bought a maxi dress a few weeks ago, at my favorite vintage store.  I bought it because it was purple and had really cool pleating around the waistline, and I was really distressed at its floor-length-ness, but I bought it anyhow, because of the purple.  And today I got out my fabric shears and chopped two feet off the bottom of it and hemmed it up and now it is Super Cute Length instead of Why Commemorate the Seventies? Length  and I was so gleeful as I snipped away, thinking of how stupid everyone will look this summer, tripping over their hemlines, while I will be totally cute and better than everybody else THE END.

    Expect a forthcoming post about Friday afternoon’s Nautical-themed tour of Koreatown.  I was going to write about it here, but the impenetrability of Cafe Jack deserves a blog post all its own.

    Category Adventure, Fashion!, Space | Tags: | 4 Comments

  2. Dear John Fluevog,

    April 3, 2009 by ms. xandra

    If I had not just purchased a flight to North Carolina, I would be purchasing these.  Because, as you so eloquently put it, they are indeed the perfect heel for hunting aliens in your underwear, which, really, is all I want to do with my life, ever, and has been all I ever wanted to do since I was about 12 years old.

    Instead, I will sit alone and think about Battlestar Galactica, and how I would like to get a Ph.D. in Battlestar Galacticology, if only, if only, if only.

    Also, do you know what I am really into these days?  I am really into the Susan B. Anthony dollar.  It is the only existing coin that celebrates my two favourite things:  feminists and outer space (sadly, not feminists IN outer space, but believe me, we will be writing that chapter of history before the century is out, I know it).

    Hey, remember Roberta Bondar?  What a neat lady.

    Um, that’s all.  You should give me some free shoes, though.

    Truly, madly, deeply,

    Alexandra

    Category Fashion!, Space | Tags: | 3 Comments

  3. Ollalieberry:

    March 21, 2009 by ms. xandra

    Actually a thing.

    (A mutant thing, but still, a thing.)

    (I do, however, remain dubious about a berry that needs to be explained using a flowchart.)

    Other important news:  I have just managed to work the phrase “Outer Space is for Lovers” into an academic paper; I have therefore reached the pinnacle of my academic career and they should just give me the damn Ph.D. so we can all go home.

    Category Academe, Food, Space, Theremins | Tags: | No Comments

  4. And then I flew a rocket ship to the planet Marva.

    January 19, 2009 by ms. xandra

    Zarah and I went to the Pasadena Doo-Dah Parade, which, basically, is a parade for the mad.  And, in many ways, it renewed by faith in humankind.  Here are pictures!  And also, my new goal in life is to be a Lady in a Fancy Dress, Sitting on a Car, Waving at the Masses when I grow up.

    In other news:  I have figured out how to write a musicology paper about space (outer).  It is ostensibly about the B-52s, but mostly it will be about space.  This will require many trips to the Observatory so that I can learn everything there is to know about space. I actually went there this Friday already, which made me flash back to those days when Young Alexandra, Age 13, saw the film Contact and decided that I would be an astronomer, until I realized that such a career choice would probably involve knowing lots of math.  So then I gave up on that and decided to be an opera singer, until I realized that I actually hate other opera singers, and only wanted to be an opera singer because my voice teacher told me that I did, and so now I am a musicologist who writes papers about space.  Ah, memories.  All alone in the moonlight.

    And also, at the Observatory there was a Tesla coil for no reason at all.  Tesla coils, as you may know, look pretty neat and shoot sparks in the air but don’t really have much purpose, other than to broadly indicate “SCIENCE” in a certain breed of science fiction film with which I am intimately familiar.  Ergo, awesome.

    Category Academe, Adventure, Culture, Los Angeles, Musicology, School, Space | Tags: | 2 Comments

  5. Burning question!

    November 30, 2008 by ms. xandra

    In honour of I AM GOING TO HAWAII IN JANUARY TO PRESENT PAPERS AND SEDUCE CABANA BOYS and also I AM GETTING PAID THIS WEEK, I have decided to finally get an Esther Williams swimsuit.  Esther Williams swimsuits have been the object of much covetousness on my part for some time.

    But should I get purple or brown?  The brown is very chocolatey and delicious and would look good with my hair.  The purple is very vibrant and delicious and would also look good with my hair.  My first instinct was CHERRY PRINT!  GET THE CHERRY PRINT!  but I have curbed that instinct because the goal is to look like a classy 1950s beach vixen (from space), not a late-1990s-rockabilly-loving teenager who spends their allowance at Hot Topic.  Um, leopard print is also open for consideration at this point as well.  Polka dots are out because they are kind of played out these days.

    And also, Dear Esther Williams, please will you redesign your website so that you look like you are running a reputable business, and not an identity theft ring?  I’m not worried, because I know you actually do sell swimsuits because I know of people who have bought them (and write excellent fashion blogs), but, honestly.  It looks like someone made your website out of paste.  The kind in a jar, with a stick, commonly found in kindergarten classrooms.

    Category Fashion!, Internet, Space, Summer | Tags: | 9 Comments

  6. A Very Important Thing that I have just found out about!

    October 24, 2008 by ms. xandra

    The Lost Skeleton Returns Again is premiering in Los Angeles on November 9th!  And I get to work at the screening, which means I will get to maybe become best friends with the lady who plays Animala, which will be awesome.  Oh, my glamorous life as a Hollywood socialite.

    If you have not done so, please go watch The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and Trail of the Screaming Forehead, like, immediately.

    Also, I have no idea what this is, but I cannot wait for 2009 because it sounds like it will be the Greatest Film of All Time.

    Also also, in case you haven’t noticed, I am, like SO into outer space these days.  But it’s a very specific vision of outer space.  It is, like, outer space in the mind of a twelve-year-old boy in approximately 1953.  It’s a magical place to be.

    Category Awesome, Culture, Los Angeles, Space | Tags: | 2 Comments

  7. Midnight oil

    October 23, 2008 by ms. xandra

    1.  Oh, I have had the best Halloween costume idea yet.  In fact, it might just be my best ever idea yet.  I’m not revealing the full details here yet.  It’s a surprise.  It involves a lot of makeup in a colour called “Hot Rod Metallic Green.”  And a laser gun.  And a pencil skirt.

    2.  Which of the following do I want more?  I can’t decide.  You should tell me.

    a) an electric ukulele,

    b) a bass guitar,

    c) a sewing machine,

    d) a tattoo of Dorothy Parker.

    Please note that I cannot actually afford to get any of these things.  This is all just conjecture based on the question “what if I happen upon a sack of gold doubloons in the middle of the sidewalk tomorrow?”

    3.  On Friday, my Canadian friend Shelina and I are going to see a Canadian band play at Spaceland.  Shelina and I (and it’s worth pointing out that we’ve only known each other for, like, a month, and are from opposite ends of the country) both have weird, tangential friend-of-friend connections to said band, which is doing nothing to disprove the common trope of “all Canadians know each other.”  Sometimes there is nothing to do but to embrace the idea of being a walking cliche.

    4. Is it elitist to be wary of going on a date with someone because they have never heard of Leon Trotsky? Probably.  Also, do I talk about theremins too much? I feel like I talk about theremins all the time, with everybody, and probably spew a lot of crap because my two facts that I know about theremins, that I bring up in these seemingly daily conversations that I have with strangers about theremins, are:

    a)  Moog used to make build-your-own theremin kits,

    b) This one time, Leon Theremin was kidnapped by the KGB (and wikipedia just told me that this fact isn’t even actually true).

    5.  My favourite thesis statement:  “Ray Charles had a huge influence on poplar music.”

    6.  Ok, fine, I will tell you what my Halloween costume is.  I am going to be a sexy librarian.  FROM SPACE.

    Category Awesome, Canadialand, Space, Theremins | Tags: | 3 Comments