academy.

One summer when I was a kid, my dad made my brothers and I do research reports to "keep our brains active" during those long July days.

I can remember being so upset. Who wants to do work during the summer?

Dad had a catch though - we could chose to do this report on whatever we wanted (this is something I would then hear my first year of university...I'm thinking this was all a prelude).

Out of everything, I chose to do a report about the Academy Awards.

amy.

Jean Paul Gautier pays tribute to late singer Amy Winehouse in his Paris Fashion Week 2012 show.

I find that music and art are always inspiring each other, and fashion can also play a large role in defining an image. Who would Joan Jett be without her spiky hair and Sex Pistols tee shirts, or Blondie without her feathered locks and sapphire blue plastic dresses?

Amy Winehouse encompassed everything of a modern pinup, which matched her blues-y, soulful sound. Her addictions and drug problems aside, Winehouse is a real artist who had so much coming up in the future.

For now, we have the pictures and her music to enjoy.

Jean Paul Gautier (photos via Style.com)





Amy Winehouse, 1983-2011.

pinup.

Pink-ing of you.









Hope you are all having a lovely Saturday. It's so temperate outside in Toronto that it's divine to walk around.

Even better? My dad is here for a quick visit, so that makes all the difference as well.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

world.

I have a bit of a beef with the saying "you know, when you get to the real world..."

Hmm. Haven't we been living in that for awhile?

What truly defines what the "real world" is?

I thought it might be what I found after high school. I have had others argue it's the world after university. Others say it's when you get your first real job. Even more say it's when you are first rejected.

My argument is that we've been in this "real world" our whole lives, and passing through different stages of it. There are chapters of school, experiences in rejection on all levels, and things haven't worked out.

However, on the other side, I have been working with industry professionals since I was eight years-old in the dance world, and then at 17 in the journalism world. I've been to auditions and gotten/lost jobs. I've pitched stories to major publications that were crossed out with a big red X, and others were picked up.

Isn't this all real? Or have I been living in fantasy?

I think we've always been in the real world. It may change here and there, but so do our dreams and aspirations.

Just a thought.

mantra5.

So, so true.