October 11th's Rather Niptastic Hot Spot Vspot

by B Condon 2:47 PM

Kinda cold, but not really today but it's enough for me to "look like I'm hiding push pins in my bra" (thank you, Will & Grace for that one.) Luckily there are better things to think about other than impending push pins...

More Fall Fashion < 3's (via hellogiggles)

From one fallshion lover to another, Heather Taylor is "rocking my clock" (again, thank you Will & Grace) in her fall-lovin' post "Autumn!" where she admits to dressing up in a school girl outfit in September and Horror Movie Marathons in October. I like this girl. This is for all the "vampish" girls out there....

Oh my, yes! Ever since summer reared its sweaty, cutoffs head at me this year, I have literally been counting down the days to when I could retire my light clothing pieces in favor of outerwear and scarves. My wardrobe is primarily black, ivory and gray with some jewel tones and red thrown in for good measure. But during the summertime, it kills me to wear without dripping from sweat. Autumn is cool enough to allow for all of my favorite pieces to make their comebacks – my heavy coats, pencil skirts, thick stockings and Oxford heels are all happy to be back out getting some sidewalk action with me again. Even if the day turns from chilly to warm in the afternoon (which it has been lately, you stop that right now LA), I still dress for the season. Think cool thoughts and it’ll get cool out, right?

This is also a good time of year for my skin, which is normally quite pale but during the summer gets a little bit, dare I say, infused with color. I don’t look too sun-kissed, but I don’t look like I just rolled out of a coffin either and I generally prefer the coffin look. Autumn temps bringing back sleeves and pants help me to get back to my vampy roots in no time.

Taylor has officially join the ranks of Kristina Uriegas-Reyes in my list of fall-geek-chic Fashion Spirit Guide. See next blog post for ultimate fallshion love. (Let's make a Fallshion club! Facebook page? No boys allowed?)

If You Can't Say Something Nice... Tweet It.

 And I mean that headline sarcastically. Emilie Autumn is known to be the "rebellious Violinist anarchist" of a modern Victorian era but sometimes, people just don't have enough tact to admit they simply don't know something or are choosing to do certain things in the eyes of ignorance. And in response of to many many "Plague Rats" contacting her about her opinion on Sucker Punch because of the similar themes in "inmates taking over or running the asylum" that she includes both in her music and in 2001 book, "The Asylum of Wayward Girls" ...

Dearest Plague Rats, after receiving over 1000 letters (and counting) about the film SuckerPunch, I feel just a bit obligated to make some sort of a statement: The varied authors of these many letters are very kindly writing to inform me of their belief that SuckerPunch (great title, isn't it) is largely based on my book, The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls, that was written and publicized long before this film was written and made. I want to make clear that I do not know this to be true. I have never seen the film, nor do I plan to, primarily because I've been told by enough trusted sources that it is embarrassingly bad, and now because, after all I've heard about its possible plagiarism issues, I'm afraid it will make me upset, and I don't have time for that kind of negative energy right now. I can assure you however that my attorney takes all reports and claims of plagiarism, whether in a book, film, or performance extremely seriously, and will actively looks into this and any other such reports and do whatever it is that needs to be done. I also want to thank all of my Plague Rats very sincerely because you've proven to me time and again that you always have my tail, as I always have yours:). Now, let's go look at some stars!!e

Being an ex-psych patient herself who battles depression and Bipolar Disorder I can understand why she would not want to see the movie and relive things from her own past. But it's also the fact she is a very very accurate musician and singer in the way of Victoriana and the fantastical style. I think she would have wanted to see it as a comparison piece. But edging away from my understanding and into some pretty angry heavy stuff (I tweeted the woman herself with "Zack Snyder was writing sucker punch for about ten years, people escaping asylums is a common theme in media....") my jaw was on the floor when I first read that tweet. Is it just me or is her saying "plagiarism issues, I'm afraid it will make me upset" make sit sound like she takes singular credit for the plot theme? There is hardly anything specifically plagiarized between "Asylum..." and Sucker Punch other than the similar plot and that's hardly something to be called out on as copied.

Autumn, although she would have no idea about the fact, should have at least spent a minute to google Snyder's creative process. "....was written and publicized long before this film was written and made" couldn't be more ignorant, but of course, how would she know? She spends much time twittering Repo! The Genetic Opera's creators Darren Lynn Bousman and Terrence Zdunich, a film also in the same realm as Sucker Punch, so she does not stay in complete ignorance. According to an interview with 8asian.com with co-writer Steve Shibuya, "It took 10 years because Zack’s film career began right when we started writing this. We started writing this thing and then he got Dawn of the Dead, and it was like, “Oh crap.” I said, “Okay, you go do that.” So he goes off [but] I was constantly pushing to keep this thing going."

Google before you tweet.

J.D. Samson = very broke 

From one pity party to another, J.D. Samson brings up one good point in his article as this month's HuffPost celebrity on "I Love My Job But It Made Me Poorer" where Samson, queer activist and genderqueer singer/celebrity, continues to go on about how he is ill-equipped for the employed life, "I’m 33 years old and I can’t make coffee. I don’t know how to use Excel, or bartend, or wait tables, and I’m officially too old to join the police force. I’ve lost the confidence to go back to school and feel stressed out about impending debt when I think about further education for even one second." 

Look, I understand your stress and all but why should we feel for you when Le Tigre is popular in the "gay mainstream" and your newest band MEN's "Talk About Body" album is a cult favorite; how can you say those things when you are also considered a "gay icon?" I understand that the economy is sucking and it's hard to find a job but you spent so much on a celebrity lifestyle, are we really supposed to feel sorry for you? 

Despite the critique, Samson does bring up a very good point that has me worried to be a woman who prefers women in the bedroom, "I will always be a queer woman, a woman who makes 77 cents to the man’s dollar, and a queer who makes 23 percent less than the heterosexual. Does that mean that I make 54 cents to the straight male dollar? Wow." Damn.

Download She and Him's "The Christmas Waltz"

 After the Jack O'Lanterns come turkey and screaming fests around the dining room table and after that, the real fun. (You can really tell I detest American Thanksgiving) Time to start building up the Christmas music quota, and the good stuff. Long gone is the overplayed radio favorites that you are so used to you can hear it in your sleep (I'm looking at you Bing Crosby) and now you can download the first single off of She and Him (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward)'s new Christmas album, "A Very She and Him Christmas" coming out October 25th "The Christmas Waltz."

What in the hell are they staring at off camera exactly?

Johnny Depp as the Man behind the Cat in the Hat

Now for some happier, shall we possibly say awesome, news. Johnny Depp is known to play cooky and off-color characters so it seems only natural he would do more than just developing and producing a live-action biopic on one of the greatest children's writers of all time, Theodor Geisel. CAST YOURSELF, JUST CAST! The writer for the untitlted project has already been cast as "In Treatment"'s Keith Bunin. I'm interested in what Depp would be bringing to the movie as a producer; let's just pray no more CGI. Johnny Depp, you are perfect au natural without animation or CGI.

Rachel Lloyd vs. Joan Rivers "Fashion Police"

I love Fashion Police, I really do. It's a perfect trashy show to watch before you launch into a movie marathon on a dusky Fall evening. But Rachel Lloyd, anti-human trafficking advocate and founder and Executive Director of the New York-based Girls Educational and Mentoring, does not have so much of a eye for fashion but for what she considers exploitation of sex workers' images placed on the show without consent during the segment Starlet or Street-Walker, where the three celebrities and Joan Rivers choose who is who by how they are dressed. Sounds like something that's more based off humor and  fashion than any political misrepresentation, right? 

According to Bitch Magazine blogger, Melissa Petro, "While it’s true that streetwalkers are oftentimes the poorest, most vulnerable, marginalized and victimized group of sex workers, Lloyd is no position to speak for the women in these pictures, and what she says reveals more about her bias than about the women she professes to want to protect. " Then a few paragraphs later I nod to the tune of, "Power, as I understand it, is not static or monolithic. It is contested and enacted, situational and relational." Emphasis on situational especially in the "Fashion Police" segment. Can we not help it that some sex workers, despite what they work as are horrible or questionable dressers? There's no humor directed exactly to these censored faces (when the picture does end up a streetwalker) but rather their outfits.