Push The Courvoisier

When I worked in The Academy I ran the bar in the basement (Academy 2) and Andy, a tiny Chinese bloke who spent more time fixing his hair before we opened then I did, ran the VIP bar on the top floor. The VIP bar literally had every drink known to mankind, and Andy used to display them meticulously on the glass shelves behind the bar. For the year and a half that I worked there, most of the bottles were never even opened, or were so rare that it'd cost too much to serve one drink from them. But Andy's prized possession, was a bottle of Campari, that he used to put on the top shelf, front and centre.

If you don't know, Campari is a widely available, inexpensive drink that tastes like piss mixed with petrol. It'd be classed as "bitters", as opposed to spirits or liquors. It took me a long time to figure out exactly what it was, and why Andy was having a passionate love affair with it. I went to my Dad, and he explained what it was and then pulled a bottle of it out of the back of the drinks cabinet (when I say 'drinks cabinet', I mean, the press in my parents house where they keep the cereal, biscuits, tin foil, pots and pans and a few bottles of drink).

After finding out exactly what it was (the off-run of herbs soaked in spirits, with a bit of red dye thrown in for funsies), and that not only did it taste awful, and that it was hardly the next Courvoisier (yes, as in "pass the..") I made Andy try it and he promptly removed it from the top shelf and flung it back to the back of the drinks press where it belongs.

Whenever I see Campari, I always think of Andy's facial expression when he tried it, like I'd made him eat shit by telling him it was chocolate.

Shameless Product Placement

When I was a kid, my sister pointed out a Kylie Minogue video that was sponsored by Impulse, and to a lesser extent, a sporty clothing line. (LocoMotion video if you're looking it up) Yes Impulse, the body spray. It's actually hilarious, there's just random shots of cans of Impulse throughout the video. Ever since I saw that, I've always found product placement in videos really funny.

Which brings me to my LULZ of the day. I was too lazy to change the channel when Lady GaGa's video for 'Love Game' came on, and I noticed a shameless Campari campaign running through the video (it's a bit hard not to notice, they may as well have run a banner across the bottle of the screen saying "drink Campari, it's not that bad!"). I thought surely, there must be some sort of campaign for Campari, and why am I the last person to hear about it? But it appears that few people have noticed the product placement and Jessica Alba is still Campari's poster-girl.

Once blog that did notice however was 'Alcademics, The Study Of Booze With Camper English', saying

"The new Lady Gaga video has some unusual Campari product placement, in that they seem to be enjoying it in an underground station while Lady Gaga, with her usual aversion to wearing pants, waves a light-up Gandalf-style staff around.

Campari, the choice of subway disco wizards since 1860"

Mega Lolz.

I'm not dead

mega lolz.

My last few blogs have apologies for a lack of blogging and then I go and disappear of the face of teh internets. Well I'm back now anyway. The last few weeks have been madness - I graduated and got my shiny BA Honors Degree (I am now a certified Graphic Designer) and I have been working 6 days a week at the fabulous Jungle concession in the brand spanking new Arnotts.

I dyed a bit of my fringe and a few streaks teal and I'm already bored of it. And I haven't even taken a picture of it! There's also no pics of my rather amazing latex head-wound from halloween! I'm not even sure where my camera is. Fail. I spent most of the day in work wondering what to do next with my hair, and I came to the conclusion I'd love to do it a violet or lilac colour with pink bits. Then I saw Lady GaGa with purple hair and now I don't want it anymore. I'm sorry, she annoys the life out of me. I didn't mind her until I heard her speak and I realised that she was was full of shit.

Anyway mah BFF (Dropdead) Debbie is coming over later to bleach my unsightly roots and have a general girly chat. The boyfriend is off to see some.... wrestling... thing (I wasn't realy paying attention when he told me the name of it) tonight in the 02 with the kid and the kid's friend. Left to my own devices there's always a chance I'll burn the house down so Debbie's mostly coming over to babysit.

In other news, I was wondering what I could do with my Monday nights, seeing as I have tuesdays off, and then Debbie rang me in work to tell me she's found us a hobby. More on that later. For now, I'm off to pull hair glue off my scalp before debbie comes over to do my hair.

Late Of The Pier DJ Set

Excuse the lack of blogging. Or at least the lack of blogging about anything interesting. I've been plagued with a dramatic case of the sniffles and a cough that have caused me to feel mopey and reluctant to blog. I've also had a series of job interviews this week (hooray, things are finally getting better!) and somehow I've been offered all of them, and I can't choose.

To take my mind off having to choose between jobs, myself and the boyfriend are headed to our usual haunt, Transmission, to see the Late Of The Pier DJ set.

Around Paddy's day this year, my lovely friend Stacey advised to go and listen to LOTP, that they were amazing and I would love them. She also regularly gives out to the boyfriend for not playing her favourite song ''Bathroom Gurgle''.

I'm happy to be heading out, but I feel quite run down and I have a horrible cough. Speaking of coughing, Zebra's finally back from holidays and brought me some fabulous presents, one of which was cigarettes. Yay. I also have a giant bottle of vodka to cheer me up tonight.

x

Mother's Day Vectoring

While I'll been feeling ill I decided to get it was time to get a wiggle on the next bit on my design to-do list: My Mother's Day present for my mother (obviously). No not next years Mother's Day, I'll never be that organised, Mother's day this year. Yes I know I'm a terrible procrastinator.

Anyway, for some bizarre reason my mother was mildly enamored with the vector work I did for my Degree Exhibition in June, so she wanted a fabulous vector picture of me for her Mother's day present.

I actually hate drawing myself. But seeing as I have no choice, (I could always give her a picture of Debbie and see if she notices!) the picture above is the planned design. A brief history of Kerri Katastrophe. I have one of the pics nearly done, I just need to shade the hair properly and fix a few tones in the skin. Don't be surprised if there's a few pictures missing from the finished design - I have a very short attention span for these things. I'll probably get rid of the first picture of me with red hair - I haaate that picture. It's only in there because my mother loves it.

This Better Not Be Swine Flu Again

• This little piggy went to the market.

• This little piggy stayed home.

• This little piggy had roast beef.

• This little piggy had none.

• And this little piggy coughed and sneezed and the whole world's media went mad over the imminent destruction of the human race and every journalist realised that all they had to do was find their old files and change the word "bird" to "swine", and they could still scare the masses. Er, all the way home.

Anyone who follows me on twitter, or is friends with me on any social networking site will have heard me moan about the [swine] flu I had back in July. I refused to accept that it was in fact swine flu, because I'm not that dramatic, but according to two seperate GPs, it was in fact swine flu. With me being a strong young 20-something-year-old, I wasn't given the Tamiflu, I was just told to take it easy. I complained a lot about the horrible pain and agony I was in, because well to be honest I've never had a flu that bad.

Now I'm not normally one to dramatise an illness, and just because I have a cold again doesn't mean it's swine flu again. I get a cold every autumn. However, just to be sure I think I'll give Trashed!'s 5th birthday a miss tonight. When I was sick last time, I gave everybody within a 5 mile radius my flu.

I just remembered I have cod liver oil tablets downstairs. I'm so excited. I'm possibly the only person in the world who likes cod liver oil. I buy vitamins all the time, and then forget to take them. Look where being vitamin-lazy has gotten me?

------------------------

I was under the impression you couldn't get it twice but according to NHS.uk:

Is it possible to catch swine flu twice?

Yes, because the virus can mutate (change). If you become infected with the swine flu virus, your body produces antibodies against it, which will recognise and fight off the virus if the body ever meets it again. However, if the virus mutates, your immune system may not recognise this different strain and you may become ill again, although you may have some protection from having had a similar virus previously.

Jimmy Choo for H&M

Autumn 09 just got a lot more fashionable. I've just found out that Jimmy Choo will be doing an exclusive collection for selected H&M stores (200 hundred stores to be exact). And you thought the riots were bad when they did the Matthew Williamson collection. The collection will debut on November 14th, and will be showcasing covetable bags and shoes. This is the very first time that Jimmy Choo will be collaborating with H&M, and there will be not only fabulous accessories, but clothes as well. In other good news, there will be a very special men's collection of bags, shoes and accessories.

Tamara Mellon, Founder and President of Jimmy Choo says:

“We are privileged to be among the fashion greats who have been affiliated with H&M so far, and to be designing a collection appealing to fashion savvy, street smart women, and to be including some great pieces for men, too. Jimmy Choo will bring to H&M a sophisticated, fashion forward, accessible and glamorous collection - the perfect party pieces to buy now and then wear out that night!”

Ooh I'm so excited. I hope it comes to Dublin. I also hope there aren't massive queues and riots like there was in 2007 (yes I'm talking about you, Roberto Cavalli). There are some people who really can't help themselves when designers do high street collaborations. I won't be buying anything just for the sake of it, but I will go and have a look.

End Transmission

Transmission: 26.09.09

Last night himself was playing the 11 - 1 slot at The Button Factory's Saturday night indie/electro club Transmission. In an effort to save money, I downed a very large vodka in about 10 seconds before we left the flat. For some bizarre reason I also decided to eat the last slice of the worlds spiciest pizza because the thought of that poor lonely pizza slice sitting alone in the kitchen all night made me sad. Needless to say, I felt a bit ill.

We collected the infamous Ben NoDisko and headed to the Button Factory, only to end up catching the end of a rather rubbish metal gig. Oddly enough, most of the metallers decided to stay to see what AntoNation had to offer. After a few pleasantries with Mr Radiator, myself and Ben positioned ourselves out of the way on stage and started on the free Bulmers. The last 3 times I've been out, I've gone from drinking vodka to drinking cider, and I've been violently ill, but it was either drink cider, or get off stage, go all the way to the bar and pay for a drink. It's not in my freeloading nature to pay for drinks, so I stomached the cider.

I was soon made feel much better by himself cracking out the indie tunes, building up through an excellent few electro hits, and finishing with a pretty epic version of Guns n Roses "Welcome To The Jungle". Legend. I love when people scream and wave when he DJ's. They look like tiny ants from all the way up here on the stage. I jest, I'm not that stuck up, but I do like when people scream when a song they like comes on.

He actually ended up playing til 1.30am, because the guy after him was late. When he'd finished I suddenly felt really tired again, and I felt like I was going to nod off in the green room. I was really tired drinking cider at EP too... note to self: cider makes you tired, drink vodka instead. We left the green room and had a wander around the nightclub, having a look at the next DJ and drinking yet more cider. It was at this point, the 5 year old in me piped up and I just wanted to go home to bed.

Party animal fail. But I'll know to be better rested for The Toxic Avenger on Tuesday.