And I would walk…

I really like this Deer Tick song. It’s just really cute and it put me in a good mood on a cold day.

“It was a No Go for this Hobo!”

Best Ethiopian Restaurants in Toronto

Yummmmmmmm. I go to Nazareth once a week. I have to restrain myself from going even more than that. So when BlogTO said they were running a Best of Ethiopian restaurants, with Nazareth topping the list – how could I resist??

American Apparel, Blue Oxfords and a Bum

Que?

Oh OK I get it. Guys, if you buy these shoes, some hot girl will bend over and ask you to put them in her bum. It’s kind of limited to a one-time use though, I mean we wouldn’t want to be unhygienic. I guess the message to us ladies is … don’t let your boyfriend shop at American Apparel??

In other news, phallic shoes are so in this season.

Rihanna wants you to know she’s the 99 percent

K this is dark …

And also, I might have mocked a tad with my headline but this video is pretty awesome. It’s like Jenny from The Block on heroin. The song is not really my thing, but it’s a crazy video. I came across this on The Eye of Faith blog – Toronto vintage. Love.

I covet

I want a Virginia Johnson scarf. Any Virginia Johnson scarf. The Toronto-based textile designer creates soft and whimsical looks that work every time. Her resort 2012 collection (complete with a purse covered in camels, whaaat) is now available online and will also be a part of her pop-up shop next month. Stay tuned for more details on the pop-up. In the meantime, here are some pretty scarves. Enjoy!!

Grabbed these images from the Virginia Johnson site.

Monochrome in a Puff of Smoke

Preparing for camouflage on the November streets…

Lurking around LGFW

My beautiful friend Natalie and I went down to LGFW in Toronto last month and took photos of all the beautiful people. We’ve been sitting on the pics for a little while, but after much delay, here they are! Oh, and thanks to Chris who obliged our paparazzi fest.

A few from me …

A closer look pleeeease….

This one didn’t come out as sharp as I would’ve liked, but still pretty…

A few from Nat:

The Skin I Live In

*Have done my best to avoid spoilers. No easy task with this movie – for realz.

One of the central characters of this film is skin. It’s featured prominently in every scene, with close-ups that reveal every line and pore, or in the case of the beautiful Vera (Elena Anaya), a complexion that is almost inhumanly perfect. Her skin is so stunning it shames the rest of us for not having our dermatologist on speed dial. But we quickly learn that her unblemished, milky skin looks a little TOO perfect for good reason. And the reason is the mad scientist, Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonia Banderas), the brilliant plastic surgeon who keeps her locked up in his incredible mansion. She is both his prisoner and his love. She makes for a very beautiful and adoring lab rat.

Skin. La piel. Pedro Almodovar‘s latest work, The Skin I Live In, would be nothing without it. The weathered, dark, handsome Ledgard is a stark contrast to Vera’s porcelain-like face and body, so perfect that she wears a full body suit for protection, a “second skin” prescribed to her by her somewhat over-attentive doctor.

Scars, bullet wounds, knife punctures, and even tattoos and wrinkles are jarring and unwelcome for the viewer after setting site on Vera. Tattoos are ubiquitous these days, and with a small, understated one, most of us wouldn’t glance twice. But the black, inky scrawl tattooed on the dark skin of the songstress during the party scene is the first we see in the film and therefore captivating in that context. The faceless nudes in the artwork on Dr. Ledgard’s wall carry a darker, more sinister significance as the story develops. The mass of chalky, mutilated flesh of a severe burn victim is the root of all the films problems.

Sure, it’s what’s inside that counts, but this suspense thriller proves that the outside counts for an awful lot, too. Maintaining inner peace and mental health is hard to do when we don’t recognize our own face. Vera uses yoga and meditation to stay centered and to protect her inner self. With Dr. Plastic playing experiment-of-the-week on her, she has only the deepest parts of herself to remind her where she came from. By the end of the film, her pristine face has lost some of its allure because the viewer is too aware of the troubled soul beneath it.

This is not the first time Almodovar’s collaborated with Banderas, and hopefully it won’t be the last because this pair make Johnny Depp and Tim Burton look like Ernie and Burt. The last time these two teamed up was the 1990 film Tie me up! Tie me down! that explores the same Stockholm Syndrome issues of love and imprisonment that we see in The Skin I Live In.

Almodovar tackles age-old themes, including identity, gender, guilt, revenge and voyeurism. But the execution feels somehow different, giving the audience a fresh and twisted viewpoint. He turns the rape revenge genre upside down, casts a jarring perspective on sexuality and identity, and fuses realism and sci-fi without skimping on emotional intensity.

Much of the style choices and plot devices seem straight out of a Hitchcock movie – the pace and the arc, the wide-eyed close-ups and claustrophobic spaces, not to mention the many hidden revolvers, in drawers, in purses, and under bedsheets. He uses these classic tropes but he’s made them his own. The gift of the auteur.

When I grow up, I want to be Tavi Gevinson.

Fashion blogger and feminist extraodinaire Tavi Gevinson is my hero. She dyed her hair gray (well, sort of by accident, but still) when she was only 13, and may I just say: Pulling. It. Off. She’s respected across the fashion industry by the likes of Agyness Deyn and the Prada-wearing devil, herself, but this pint-sized style savant is also a proud feminist and steering her role in the media in a more political direction than straightforward fashion coverage.

At only 15-years-old, she’s editor-in-chief of a teen girls’ magazine (only online, so far) that she launched this year called The Rookie that is sort of Ms. Magazine meets Nylon. The Rookie’s tone says that it’s OK to be a quirky, imaginative girl. Insecurities are normal and something you grow out of. Being smart is cool. That sort of thing.

The third and latest issue looks at the theme ‘Girl Gang’, which entails everything from Greece‘s Sandra D (granted, not exactly a feminist icon), girl bands, Powder Puff Girls(I don’t even really know what that is – I’m too old for this sh*t) and the Golden Girls. The magazine is a mix of cutesy teenage stuff and more serious pieces like the one titled First Encounters with the Male Gaze, in which she writes about being frustrated by the sudden onslaught of men’s eye-pawing that comes with adolescence. She writes: “I want them to know that I don’t exist for them to look at, I don’t get dressed for them, and however I have put myself together on this day—it is not for you. Most of all, I want to be able to walk around my neighborhood and school without its being assumed that I am looking for feedback on my figure.”

There are things on the site that could use some editing, but given that there are people on The Rookie’s staff who are over the legal drinking age and should know better than to leave some of that sloppy writing in there, I almost wonder if it’s left in intentionally to tell readers that she really is doing the job of EIC.

A recent post includes a video of the three comediennes starlets from the most awesome sitcom on the current primetime roster, Parks and Recreation. The video features Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones and Aubrey Plaza sampling candy gifted to them by the team at The Rookie. The sweet treats do not disappoint. And may I just say that amid all the protests and political assassinations and Kardashian heartbreak: Tavi Gevinson, Amy Poehler and Candy. The World makes sense again.

Oh the Places I’ve Been (elsewhere on the internet)

I’ve been doing some fun writing lately, and I thought it should all take up residence here on Burken Bag.

• A couple weeks ago I joined foodies and environmentalists alike at Foodstock, a fundraiser to stop the mega quarry.
• Boardwalk Empire came back for a second season. Oozing with sexy thrills, it did not disappoint.
• Toronto skateboarders are all grown up, and they’ve found a way to do it on their own terms.