It's been forever since I'd drawn Mia and after a mad scramble to find a reference for her (since I'd forgotten what she looked like) I had a pretty clear image of what she was going to look like and be doing. Rayne, on the other hand, was a different story, thus the nasty bulky lines and terrible posing. Ah well.

I love these set of characters (there's one more main), they were part of an illustration assignment for uni, and they always stayed with me. I'm considering bringing them out again and maybe putting together their story at last.

Here's the previous hourly too. The theme was rage and the character was Ineelian. The most rage-less character I could possibly have lol. It was a fun challenge though.

This track is so intense and I can't wait to drop this on people. For those who don't know, Kuduro is an urban music of Angola, an African country and former Portuguese colony. Like Baile Funk, the lyrics are in the local Portuguese creole of the country. It seems to have been influenced by the beat of Soca. I have been exploring this genre a lot as of late as I am always looking for new sounds. In the most part, Kuduro is very fast paced at about 140 bpm. That means it does not go with a lot of music other than Soca but a night of just those two would make anyone not from Trinidad or Angola's ears bleed. On this song M.I.A. is basically just here to provide hook and probably some name recognition so people give it a listen (and probably associate herself with some new upcoming third world sound so she remains "cutting edge"). Buraka Som Sistema need no help though, they have already proven they rock with their ep from last year. Check out a few of their other tunes. They are a bit slower in the bpm department and mix quite nicely with anything from dancehall to electro to house. Kuduro is definite worth adding to your listening and playing collection since it is high energy and adds some new sound to the club (and it may freak many white hipsters out, always a bonus).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CkXhtw7UNk&feature=related

EL-P was on the bill last night too. I don't really listen to a lot of rap but I definitely like this dude's stuff. I've seen him a couple of times before and he's just an all round good rapper. It was a good show. I had fun.

Remember that Dillinja remix of Basement Jaxx feat Dizzee Rascal - Lucky Star? I really liked that one.

I'm in a dubstep mood today. I actually listen to a lot of dubstep. You know how there are some things that you just do and you don't really blab about it that much? That's how it is with me and dubstep. I'm a big fan of the Bass Goes Boom nights. Chef is at the next one. Should be dope.

I've been feeling a bit poorly this week and haven't really been doing any work so I think I'm going to try and be a good employee today.

Laters

Chef - Rinse FM - May 6, 2008

Well, until I can host this on my own server, it looks like I won't be embedding any time soon. :(

first time i heard her was on Madden 2005, i think. "bucky done gun" good song, super different.

couple of weeks later i copped that first album.

now everybody loooooooooves her.

kudos 2 M.I.A. 4 being her own artist & her success.

everybody go get this album too! here's "bucky done gun". enjoy!

I have been knitting... I have taught my self how to do the Magic Cast On for a toe up sock.  I used the Knitty Magic Cast on for Toe up socks.  I was slightly confused and well I frogged it twice which is good.  I also was working on Increases for the toe aswell.  Ohh new skills!

Well about the sock - I am making the socks for my tiny sister.  I am using the KnitPicks Harmony US 2 needles and the KnitPicks Essential Yarn in Peacock.  I have about 1" knit so far.  As you all know I dont like patterns I tend to make them up as I go... I have done that so far with this 1" of knitted toe.  I am looking for some inspiration for the socks, as I dont want to knit it entirely in Stockinette like her sweater!

As you can see from the progress shot, that I do need to work on my toe portion... I need to improve my skill of increasing, yet credit is due; on that I (as always) manage to teach my self how to do things.  I think this may be a sock tester, in that I will make only one sock as a reference for the others I intend to make.  I am still honing all my skills!

About the needles - THANK YOU KELLY!! They are great.  I am so glad I did purchase these needles!  The cables are so squishy (flexible) in comparison to other which are SUPER rigid (Boye Circs).

$

por mais que criem técnicas de animação inovadoras e invistam tempo e dinheiro em pesquisas para simular movimentos cada vez mais reais, nada é comparado ao bom velhinho stop motion. qual a graça que tem você ver a simulação do oceano atlântico sem nenhuma imperfeição? com texturas e reflexos fielmente copiados? ou um sketch de um personagem tão perfeito que nem a imperfeição - natural - que todos os seres humanos possuem do lado esquerdo com o direito é encontrada? na moral, to com necessidade de ver imperfeição, quero ver nemo feito em massa de modelar com marca de dedo na barbatana e afundamento - acidental - de crânio. saca isso aí embaixo e diga lá se não é mais instigado. se eu tivesse grana recriaria todos os clássicos da pixar em stop motion.

* pra sacar outros trabalhos do cara.

Additionally, a few days ago, I found this on M.I.A.'s myspace page:

Did you notice this part in the above picture:

Buy M.I.A./MP3: Paper Planes (Blaqstarr Remix ft. Rye Rye & Afrkian Boy)

Buy Radiohead/MP3: Electioneering

MP

I have talked about my fear of tornadoes on this blog, but I have never been as afraid of a tornado as I was last Thursday night. In the past my tornado horror fantasies were pretty scary--I was pulled right out of my house through a gaping hole in the roof, or I was in my car and the funnel cloud lifted me right up into the air a la Dorothy Gale--but I was always fighting, clawing my way to safety. The tornado never got me, because I was all I had to look after, and I've always been of the opinion that I can survive anything. But add someone else to the equation, someone smaller or weaker, or smaller AND weaker, and all bets are off.

I was a tree-climbing, no-helmet-wearing bike-riding tomboy as a kid. I hung upside down on the highest monkey bar on the playground and stomped around barefoot in the woods. I played on the railroad tracks behind my childhood house and stood a mere foot or two from the trains as they passed. I never thought twice about any of this until Middle Sister and Little Sister were born. I remember watching them climb and romp and dangle when they were little and I was a seasoned 16, and I constantly saw potential injury. When I was older (you know, like 17) our family went to a local amusement park and I literally broke out in a cold sweat watching Little and Middle stand in line for that stupid pirate ship ride that hangs upside down. Every time I closed my eyes I saw my tiny sisters raining down out of that boat. All that danger was fine for me, because I could take care of myself, but watching them interact with danger was torture for me.

Do you see where I am going with this?

Last Thursday was the scariest moment of motherhood thus far, scarier, even, than that first moment when Dr. T placed Mia in my arms and I came face to face with the magnitude of her existence and all it entailed. Last Thursday there were a few moments when I doubted my ability to protect her, when I saw the potential for danger all around me and was not sure if I could keep her safe. That, my friends, and not the tornado, is now my greatest fear.

It was around 10 p.m. when I tuned into the storm coverage on a local news channel--and that I typed those words without any implication of mockery or sarcasm should give you some idea of how scared I was, because I do not watch local news or weather. At first I was convinced it would fizzle out by the time it got to us, that there would be some lightning and thunder and rain, and I would go to sleep wondering if my mostly deaf dog had even registered the event. There had been tornado warnings all night, but no actual tornados had been spotted, kind of like those blizzards that never reach the ground during winter in the South. I kept telling myself the NWS was just being cautious. The weather guys thought as much. As it turns out, we were all wrong--the storm just got stronger, and the tornados found their way to the ground--three of them. The weather guys were using fancy weather words I'm sure they don't get to say much, but there was an edge to their delivery, and it made me nervous. It wasn't the typical ominous tone local weather people use when there might be bad weather. There were no mights, no maybes. This was for real. When they started naming streets less than a mile from my house, streets I drive every single day, and when they urged people on those streets to take cover, I tossed every pillow and cushion and quilt into the windowless hall bathroom, built a nest in the tub, and pulled a soundly sleeping Mia out of her bed. I pulled pillows and blankets all around us and formed a shell over the baby with my own body, and then I held onto her as tightly as I could without waking her. And then I prayed.

I was raised in a family that prayed, a family that believed an all-powerful God heard those prayers. As an adult I don't talk much about religion, and my spirituality is very personal to me, but I would be holding back if I didn't tell you that last Thursday night I prayed. I have never prayed so desperately or so sincerely--or so simply--in my life: Please please please please protect us, please keep us safe, please please please. Later I would think of Anne Lamott and her books about faith, and how she wrote once that if you can't think of what to say to God you could just start with "please" and maybe add a "thank you." But at the moment, when that first deafening roar swallowed my house, and then when it returned a second time a few minutes later, I was only aware of two things: the word "please" coming out of my mouth like some primal animal wail, and smell of my sleeping daughter, sweat and soap and skin pressed against my cheek.

Later, when it was all over and she was wide awake and amused as hell to be lying on a bunch of pillows in the tub, I got around to the "thank you" part, which was more like a gigantic sigh of relief than an actual prayer. But the next morning was a different story. No one in my neighborhood lost homes or cars, or, to my knowledge, was even injured--not like those poor souls a few towns over whose homes were literally flattened. My neighbors' yards were littered with branches and leaves, overturned trash cans and chairs and other yard items. The trees on our cul-de-sac looked like they had been hastily shaved after two rounds with quarter-sized hail. But at my house there was little out of place--a few holes in my hostas from the hail, a small littering of rose petals on the driveway from the wind, and evidence of the heavy rain, but that was it. My plastic Adirondacks hadn't moved an inch. The big blue exercise ball that Mia likes to push around the yard was exactly where I'd left it. When I walked outside on Friday morning I almost felt ridiculous, like I had panicked for no reason. And then I opened the morning paper.

Pictures of mangled planes and stacks of cars initiated my first round of "thank you thank you thank you" that morning, but it was the story of the mom and her two small children being trapped under the debris that was once their home that really got me. That could have been me, my kid, my house. There were at least three tornados on the ground that night, and two of them were within a mile of my house, maybe closer, and they didn't even rearrange the stuff in my little yard. You can tell me that storms like this one are unpredictable, that they can level a house and leave the one next door standing, and that I simply escaped a random act of destruction. You can tell me that it was the sheer power of my own will that protected us from harm. You might even tell me that yes, some higher power heard my call for help and shielded us from the storm. Like I said, spirituality is a private matter. But last Friday morning I truly felt like I'd been spared something awful, and every breath I took felt like a prayer--Thank you thank you thank you--and when I stopped outside Mia's room to listen to her breathe on my way out of the house it was like getting a response from the lips of God himself: you're welcome you're welcome you're welcome.

A cantora M.I.A. irá lançar sua própria linha de roupas inspirada é claro, no seu visual. Jaquetas, leggins e camisetas com muitas estampas e cores deverão fazer parte da coleção. A cantora já despertou seu lado artístico desenhando capas de seus CDs e ajudou na criação dos clipes de suas músicas, além de ter sido responsável por uma exposição na Euphoria Shop. Ao que tudo indica, sua coleção de roupas será tão estilosa quanto ela, vamos aguardar para ver!

2. nap. pont. Na jó nem így terveztem, így jött ki. Viszont sokkot kaptam vasárnap. :S Ráálltam a mérlegre. Basszus... 45 kg. Ennyire azért nem gondoltam, hogy meghíztam. Juj. 2-2.5 hét alatt lemegy (lemenne) ha minden nap mozgok és nem zabálom degeszre magam... De tényleg híztam. A sok csoki megtette a hatását :( És ma is ettem csokit... meg kekszet. Nem bírtam ellenállni.... Ez így pedig nem lesz kóser.

A vékonyság hatalom. Az egy biztos. Mindig a 2. nap a legnehezebb. Utána már mindent ki lehet bírni. Csak túl kellene lépni ezen a bizonyos 2. napon... Holnap lesz a 3. Jaj de várom már az ÚJ énemet :)

MiA? mia. Gondoltam, vagyis inkább feltételezem, hogy neki is valami ilyemi állhat a vékonysága hátterében. Olyan szép. Nálam kevesebb kg. Hát persze, mert sokkal vékonyabb. De, hogy mia?! Vagy nem? Csak elszólta magát? Szerintem meg nem...

FASZOM HOGY NEM LEHET KÉPET BERAKNI!!! :@ erre még rá kell jönnöm... újfajta wordpress

But it's ok Rihanna, I still love you.  I just love M.I.A. more.

So apparently I'm late on this one...like a year late. But it's new to me, so it gets it's own post.

This song, "Hit That" is crazy. And despite the fact that it's not the typical party-beats-yet-deeply-political-lyrics M.I.A. song, I absolutely love it. Enjoy.

M.I.A. - Hit That

[audio=http://download.stereogum.com/mp3/MIA%20-%20Hit%20That.mp3]

Oh, and here's a truly new one.

M.I.A. - Paper Planes (Remix for the Children by AdRock)

[audio=http://download.stereogum.com/mp3/MIA%20-%20Paper%20Planes%20(Remix%20For%20The%20Children%20By%20Adrock).mp3]