Evergreen Brick Works

This past Sunday, my cohort and I visited the Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto.  Evergreen, a national charity, has changed the old Don Valley Brick Works from a collection of deteriorating heritage buildings into a gorgeous area of urban sustainability and eco-conscious design that is open all year long. 

As we walked around this amazing building a rather attractive and charming wood worker was working some wood.  Should have taken a picture of that.

All of the foliage was screaming with personality as we walked through the trails that circled some small but duck-filled ponds.

Having no idea what to expect when we walked into The Kilns building, we were greeted with an onslaught of art installations and graffiti.  A far more impressive collection than what we saw during the entire evening at Nuit Blanche this year.  At the end of this corridor was a screen showing a Werner Herzog short.  There were three more of these featuring various films that I believe were created for this project.

I felt like this place crept up on me out of nowhere and now I can't wait until our next visit!  Highly recommended.

xoxo
Amarina

Tuesday Tunes (But on Wed) - The Chemical Brothers + Wayne Coyne

One of my favourite songs of the last decade, three weirdos get together and make weirdo music and a perfect song comes out of that weirdness. The video is pretty sweet too.

LOVE.

xoxo
Amarina

All I Want for Christmas is...

This crazy fellow right here.

Land of Talk steals my heart one more time.

Here's the goddamn gorgeous new video from one of my favourite bands, Land of Talk. This also happens to be my favourite song from their last full length album Some Are Lakes, I swear it casts sunshine on the cloudiest of days.

xoxo
Amarina

The Mumlers

My musical tastes are always influenced by the changing of the seasons. I'm more drawn to bright, dance-y beats in the Spring/Summer, and tend to go for darker, folksier, more organic tunes in the Fall/Winter. At the first sign of crispness in the October air, I ran straight into the arms of San Jose independent rockers The Mumlers. They are younger than one would think, based on the richness of their music and the talent that seems to run deep among every member. I was so intrigued by these guys that I found a 10 minute documentary that follows the band for a weekend. I have to say that it only made me love them more.

Enjoy!

xoxo
Amarina

So long summer, hello autumn

Alright, I don't usually share pictures of anything other than weird shit and jewellery. To honour an awesome summer that felt too short, I thought I'd share some of my favourite pictures that my man and I took over the course of the last few months.



"The Spaghetti Incident" - Oh man, I was so excited to celebrate the last days of this past Spring by turning on the oven to bake delicious! chicken! meatballs! yum! In anticipation of d.c.m.y., I had had an early lunch and was ravenous. I was also suffering from Class A Butterfingers, which reached a comic/tragic/sudden end when I smashed my newly plated dish of food INTO EVERYTHING. Tears, laughter and more tears ensued; this level of clutzy-ness is not foreign to me.



Just one of many beautiful shots Ron and I took on our long drive around Central California and beyond with my family this summer. Trip of a lifetime.



A major discovery: leaving Lake Tahoe felt like abandoning a home before you've moved all your stuff in. A return visit ASAP is in order.



I don't even know where to start with the ridiculous setting of this picture. Curiosity, BBQ corn on the cob and too much sun led my man, my brother, his girlfriend and myself into a "Classic Films on Ice" performance starring none other than former Canadian figure skating champion/grannie heart throb/aspiring singer/karate enthusiast Elvis Stoijko. Together with some extremely theatric singers and a bunch of amateur skaters, this solid gold team paid homage to such classic films as Top Gun, Moulin Rouge, Slumdog Millionaire with seemingly random choices like Shrek, High School Musical and my personal favourites Ghostbusters and Kill Bill, in which Elvis sported Uma Thurman's yellow unitard and went through a karate routine on ice. It didn't seem crazy at the time to honour one of our favourite overdone movie moments: Blue Steel!



Meet Yma. She's our darling cat who too often enjoys curling up on the couch with a hot cup of coffee, the morning news and the remote. All I ask of her is that she washes a dish to earn her keep around here. Do you think she does it? Absolutely not.



I came home from a long day to a smiling owl on a steaming shepherds pie. Yet another reminder that I found my soul mate at a young age.



Ah! A mapless driving adventure led us to a beautiful and enormous flower garden on the lake. We decided to give our afternoon snack of muffins to the overfed and ungrateful squirrels who were clearly after something more decadent! I don't know how their tails remain so perfect when they're off doing squirrel things all day, my tail would end up all covered in tree sap.



Ron is the Tree Whisperer. He can negotiate the branches of any monstrocity, regardless of it's size.

It's been such an amazing summer, let's hope for an even better fall.

xoxo Amarina

New Grizzly Bear Music Video

I guess instead of posting new jewels today, I'll share with you the new video from the ever-amazing Grizzly Bear! So creepy-beautiful, you can't go wrong with flawless harmonies and jakalopes!

Amarina
xoxo

Feel Good Right Now

Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele has been quite the summer obsession for me. It's one of those albums you can listen to when you're working, drinking, feeling blue or dancing in your living room like a crazywoman. I also listened to it last time I was getting a cavity filled and I have to admit, it made the overall experience much better than it could have been!

Check this out. If you're disappointed, I don't know if I could ever love you.

xoxo Amarina

Florence & The Machine & My Living Room

Alright friends, I've been meaning to put this video up for a couple of weeks now and here it is. Florence Welch is young and hot and awesome and makes me want to put slippy socks on and slide around on my living room floor. Nominated for the Mercury Prize this year and having this song appear on the soundtrack for Diablo Cody's sure-to-be-genius Jennifer's Body, this band is going to be kindof a big deal.

So hit play, turn that shit up, and shake your ass!

xoxo
Amarina

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

I have to say that Wes Anderson has directed my most favourite movies of all time...in particular, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Needless to say, I've been experiencing a ridiculous amount of impatience while waiting for The Fantastic Mr. Fox, written by Roald Dahl whose immense talent for storytelling has been inspiring me since I was a little kid.

We have to wait until November for it to be released, but here is the trailer that was released this morning. Looking good Wes, looking real good.

xoxo
Amarina

Add another place to "Things I Must See Before I Croak" List

There are a million reasons why Etsy has become such a success and why artsy crafty people like me are so drawn to it. They've really managed to create a virtual environment that sucks you in and makes you feel like you are a valuable part of a community, and a community that cares about art and handmade things to boot!

This is one of their newest blog posts and I have to say that I'm really quite taken with all the locations they've featured so far in their "There's No Place Like Here" video series, and I'm especially seduced by this place in particular. It's an instant I must visit this place at least once in my life reaction. And so it will be, check it out.

xoxo
Amarina

Casa Loma Inspiration/Take Over Part II

This whole case was a tease; I wanted to put the gloves on, tuck the darling little purse under my arm and sit on the chair outside in the garden. I'd use the mother of pearl binoculars to spy on passersby and write notes about them in the "Nature Calendar of Wild Flowers" where events and important things should have been scrawled.


Beside the chair sat another slew of things I wanted to rummage through and play with. I'm particularly fond of the metal details surrounding the closure of this small case.


All of a sudden we ended up in a whole wing full of war paraphernalia. I was really drawn to these badges, consciously telling myself not to smash the glass and repurpose these medals of honour. This was definitely one of the most inspiring areas of the whole castle for me.


I felt like the cases were unending...this was another fave. I guess you didn't want to piss off Staff Sergt. Wm. Ashall.


We finished off the tour with what felt like a death hike up a million baby stairs on a tightly wound staircase. Clearly as a form of distraction from the possibility of death, people stopped to write notes and sign the brick walls. I was impressed by the number of people who carry White Out, hopefully for occasions just like this.

In conclusion, check out Casa Loma bitches!

xoxo Amarina

Casa Loma Inspiration/Take Over Part I

So a couple of weeks ago Ron and I decided that it would be inspiring and awesome to go play in Casa Loma for the afternoon. He had never been there and I hadn't visited since a class trip in grade three. I mostly remembered Casa Loma as a vast space haunted by ghosts that I had barely escaped from and full of things I couldn't touch. It's pretty much the same now, with less things for you not to touch.

When we first walked in, we were greeted by Joe Goddard of Hot Chip's historian twin brother and I knew then that it was going to be a good day.

The mantel above was the first picture I took. I would totally love to just transport this wall into my home, family photos and all.



The no-longer-a-secret-secret staircase leads visitors to a hallway containing movie posters of Cocktail and something with Jackie Chan. The washrooms are there too.


This cute little number appeared to be a waiting room for Sir Henry Mill Pellat's washroom. I mostly just liked the darling floral curtains, and check out the chandelier below:



I took this picture (below) for my friend S. She'd be convinced that there was a semi-secret Masonic Temple meeting going on behind this door and I'd like to hope this is true. We missed the huge and amazing organ because this WHOLE WING was blocked off...seems like secret meeting trickery to me!

Happy Easter everyone,
xoxo Amarina

Amarina Bird

OK Andrew Bird,

I'm going to publicly state that I know we're meant to be together. What's that you say? You've known all along and have been dying to reciprocate my sultry glances? This must be love.

Now everyone else,

I've decided to add some weekly music video love. This week, to commemorate my new relationship with one of my many fantasy true loves I'd like to share "Imitosis" by none other than Andrew (Amarina forever) Bird. It has lots of wonderful gem insects. And Dosh on drums. As I have not figured out how to add a youtube video to my site, click here to see the genius...or click on his picture for the magic!

xoxo Amarina