TEGAN & SARA Tuesday!

Yay Tegan and Sara's new album Sainthood came out today! They are my most favoritestest band ever. You all should head on over to Autostraddle to read the album review (and the b-sides)and Tegan interviews. After you check out this post, obvs. It has been brought to my attention that many of you cannot tell these awesome musical twins apart so I am here to help. I'll give a quick rundown of differences and I also captioned 20 pictures with arrows pointing to the tattoos that can help you tell the difference if all else fails.

Quickly- Sara has a longer, more oval face. She is smaller/thinner overall. Tegan has a more square face/jaw. She has her labret (chin) pierced although she doesn't seem to wear it much anymore. Tegan has more tattoos on her forearms and is more likely to show them. Tegan has a slightly lower voice and sings sort of out the side of her mouth. Sara has a higher, often more nasally sounding voice. Honestly once you start to notice a few little differences, you start to be able to tell them apart without having to try too hard. Then you'll look back and laugh at how you used to get them confused :D

Tada. Click any and all to enlarge. And you're welcome!

What's my motivation?

So, I'm thinking I need to work out some kind of daily/weekly themed post idea to keep me motivated and full of ideas for posting on here, so it's not so random and weird. Yeah? Or maybe you all don't care, but I'd like to try and get things going/organized/whatever. Twitter and several of the blogs I read have a theme/post idea for each day and I'm using those as my starting off points. Feel free to yay/nay any and all of them, and throw me some ideas of your own...

Music Monday- Share a band, video, song, etc. I used to do this.
Meatless Mondy- Share a veggie/vegan recipe.
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Trans Tuesday- I've been collecting articles and links for a while with the idea of writing an essay about the truths and misconceptions of the trans community, because they are the most overlooked and margiinalized part of the LGBT community. I just can't seem to punch anything out. So instead I think I can do a weekly feature of a different trans actor/actress, musician, comedian/comedienne, etc. with some article commentary in between.
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Writer/Writing Wednesday- Perhaps I can kick my creative writing butt back into gear by occasionally posting poetry and essays (again), whether they are old or new.
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? Thursday- I got nothing. Help.
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? Friday- Ditto.
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Same-Sex/Sapphic Saturday/Sunday- A weekend post highlighting something/anything lady-oriented-queer. Movie clips, photos, book reviews, etc.

I can't promise that I will follow each of these every week (esp Thurs/Fri since I have no ideas yet) but hopefully it will help me post more than once every blue moon. And I reserve the right to post something off theme/topic whenever I want, obvs ;)

Namaste, Chini

I was going to write a post about coming out to my mom via text and about the thwarted trip to DC for the National Equality March... but after browsing through my celeb pics file and learning that Padma Lakshmi is preggers, I'm going to do a picture post of gorgeous Indian ladies instead.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me in real life that growing up in the Little India neighborhood of Chicago had a big impact on me. Even as a four-year-old, according to my mother, I was mesmerized by the window displays of saris and jewels and such on Devon Avenue. Right now I have saris for curtains and table cloths, incense & elephants everywhere in my apartment, Sanskrit and Ganesha tattoos, etc. I used to wear bindis and have henna/mendhi done in high school. When Gwen Stefani went through her Indo-glam phase, I was so excited! I used to wear bangles and harem beads all the time. I just love the colors, the textures, the richness, the history, the stories... I often lament that I was born on the wrong continent. But I know that had I been born in India my life would be a lot different. And I couldn't be gay. At least not easily and openly. So I guess living here allowed me the opportunity to experience the good without the bad. So, on to the pictures!

Shelley Conn- An Indian woman with an English accent. Be still my heart. Plus she makes out with Laura Fraser in Nina's Heavenly Delights and Anna Torv in Mistresses. Swoon.




Freida Pinto, another Indian lady with an English accent. And she is heartbreakingly gorgeous. Who *didn't* fall in love with her in Slumdog Millionaire? She also looks just like a girl I used to work with back in high school.




Oh Janina Gavankar. How we loved you as Papi. Too bad you had to play a Latina woman and not, um, an Indian woman. IRL Janina is such a geek, and seems so down-to-earth. She has even messaged me back on twitter a few times :D




Padma Lakshmi. I would never ask you to 'pack your knives and go'.




Parminder Nagra. Loved her on ER and in Bend It Like Beckham. Too bad you guys weren't a couple like was originally intended.




Aishwarya Rai. The classic beauty. Look at those eyes. Then go watch Bride and Prejudice.




Tilotama Shome. If you haven't seen Monsoon Wedding, go now.




Since I'm spending today avoiding homework/midterms I think I'll watch Bend It Like Beckham, Nina's Heavenly Delights, Bride and Prejudice, Monsoon Wedding, Slumdog Millionaire and a few episodes of Mistresses. Sorry Janina, I don't think I can handle any L Word today. Maybe I'll watch your episode of Dollhouse. (Yes, I own all of these movies/shows on dvd. Except Mistresses, but I have it on my computer...) And Top Chef is on tonight. Hm, I don't have time for all those today. Maybe just the highlights on youtube then ;)

WHIP IT real good!

I'm about to go see Whip It. By myself (because everyone else seems to be sick or working right now, as usual). But I've been so excited for this movie since I first caught wind of it months and moons and eons ago. And Roger Ebert gave it a great review and 3.5 stars. And 'Grace Fox' gave it a fun and interesting breakdown/review. And really, who wouldn't want to see some of this, even if it is all subtext and fantasy:






I've been a sort of fan of the derby for a while, but oddly enough have never made it to a bout/match. I know girls from high school/my tattoo parlor/my hair salon who are derby girls. In Chicago we have 2 leagues, the Windy City Rollers and The Chicago Outfit. Both flat track. I even went on a date with a derby girl once (it was awkward and we didn't see each other again). BUT I'm almost certainly going to make it to the Windy City Rollers All-Star match later this month! I'm so excited!

To prepare myself for Whip It I went and made myself some possible derby names. You can never be too prepared, right? And using different combos of my first name, nickname, last name, online/twitter name, & positions (blocker, jammer, pivot) it gave me these suggestions:

-Belle Broadsword
-Bertha Broadsword
-Amelia BasHer (gave me this one twice)
-Beelza-Babe Brawl
-Allie Brawl
-Amelia VaudeVillian
-Belle Bellicose
-Allie Bombshell

I'm not 100% sold on any of them, but they aren't bad. And none of them seem to be taken yet. Now I just need to be able to skate without running into walls or getting things stuck under my wheels. AND...



Yes, please.


ps- Ok, it's a few days later now and everyone in my internet world has been talking about the awesomeness of Whip It and how gay Ellen Page is, etc etc etc (except Whip It could have/should have been so much gayer!). I think that Ellen, Kristen Wiig and Juliette Lewis made the movie, they were brilliant. Zoe Bell (and her beautiful accent!) was under utilized. Ari Graynor (the drunk best friend from Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist) was the barely there minor character who, as far as we can tell, was supposed to be a lesbian. It was a nice little nod to us, but it should have been a bigger part. It was great that the girls did 90% of their own skating/stunts because it made the derby scenes so much more amazing and realistic to watch. Great soundtrack to boot. And since I saw one of the first showings in Chicago, I filled out a little survey at the end and got a free Whip It tshirt. It's cute. And I've been thinking about derby names again. Like using a Dykon to make a good name. First thought was Melissa Etheridge, because how awesome would Melissa Deatheridge be as a derby name. So awesome, in fact, that it's already taken. Sob. So is Militia Etheridge. So next I checked some names using Ellen Degeneres. Ellen De Generate and Felon Dejenerate are taken. Hrm. Back to the drawing board. Not that I need an actual derby name because I'm not actually joining the derby... I can barely stand/walk as it is. But don't think that I wouldn't join in a second otherwise!