This time I am pleased to be able to offer you a double showcase: both are Venetian, both are gorgeous in both style and execution. The 1560s is represented by Ekaterina from Russia in glorious red brocade, and the 1520s by Noelle and her model Holly, from Utah USA, in luscious blue satin.

http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/yourgarb/showcase.htm


Enjoy!

Happy Birthday. >I hope you have a great day.

Peace...

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The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
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My comedy partner and I have made a myspace for the shakespearean improv troupe we started, Two Players of Verona. feel free to add it if you are on myspace, though i am in the process of trying to make it prettier!

www.myspace.com/playersofverona

thre is also a FB if you look for it (phil runs that)

Since I already have a li'l widget slinging my LiveJournal posts over to FaceBook, and it appears that most, if not all, of my LiveJournal pals are also FaceBookWorms, I'm THINKING of ceasing to possess a LiveJournal and streamlining to the Other Thing.  What think? 

Breszny's 'scope, again, affirms exactly, precisely, deliciously what I was gonna do anyway! Cheers, Rob, for realz. (From http://ping.fm/vnMlL)

"LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): It might be tempting to turn your home into a womb-like sanctuary and explore the mysteries of doing absolutely nothing while clad in your pajamas. And frankly, this might be a good idea. After the risks you've taken to reach out to the other side, after the bridges you've built in the midst of the storms, after the skirmishes you've fought in the Gossip Wars, you have every right to retreat and get your homebody persona humming at a higher vibration. So I say: Be meticulously leisurely as you celebrate the deep pleasures of self-care."

I am alone
I am truncated
It is empty and void
There is nothing warm
People are shells
Happiness is vain
My mind lets go
The Earth moves
Seconds stretch
Purpose is lost
Songs are noise
Laughter hurts
Joy is criticized by future pain
The ephemeral looses it's grace
Death is immanent
Under the stifling humor I drone
I am alone and unable to breath
Fucked by destiny with it's unyielding penis
My fate is an anecdote
Time continues forward
Hope is ensconced under a girth of doubt
Fear echoes behind the scenes
The dialectics for tomorrow wilt
Insipid, vapid, innocuous, contrived, tenuous, superfluous, lethargic and fickle, a catharsis is reached
I am alone
Light I am
Enumerated One
Pathos posited
Harming detriment
Remuneration is tantamount
Love clamors pining
Old cadavers of sonorous defeat retract to their abyss
I am alone
I am strife
I am suffering
The world is work
I am
I am one

I find the subject lines to much of the junk e-mail I get lately fascinating.

"Are the lands where the Jumblies live"

"The merchant had breakfast"

"And I thought a ghost would come"

"Bessie came in with a pastry tart for me"

"Flip flops that spell class"

"On that Coast of Coromandel"

"It was starting to get dark in the Red Room"

With the exception of the flip-flops, there's a children's fantasy book hidden in my junk mail folder, if I would just take the time to put all of the sentences together.

Friday night I DJ'd a small Hallowe'en soirée on the East Side, and, moving in my tiny portable equipments, I initially felt a little, well, lame.  I still spin from a binder of CDs, and I hadn't exactly checked the tastes of the invitees before clambering into the room and throwing down.  I think I'm always a little cringed ahead of time that if I just play what I like to play, it won't suit the current tastes or the time, and I knew the guests were going to be 15 years my junior. The crowd was delightful, though, and they dug Big Beat, Europop and Electro, so I had fun making everyone jump up and down until they were worn out and scattered to the kitchen and lounge. 

Saturday night, on a whim, I checked Tiësto's site, knowing he's touring the Midwest currently, thinking, "Surely tomorrow's show will be sold out already." But it WASN'T. I snapped up four tickets and informed Jiggins, Kearnsie and Chloe that they'd be accompanying me to the Rave Sunday night.

On the run-up to the show, lots of little wonderings elbowed through my li'l brainwaves.  Does Milwaukee know who Tiësto is?  Are they aware of his monster prowess, effortless ease, and world mega-fame?  In short, will many people go?  If so, will I be the oldest person in the room?

The place was jammed, with jubilant kids of all ages.  We managed a corner of the VIP balcony most of the night.

And when the opening act, Dada Life, arrived to relieve the house-warmer, and they were slick and cool and devastatingly hotttt, and set up their minimal amounts of tiny portable equipments and unzipped their BINDER OF CDs, a warm happy glow enveloped me.  Dada Life scorched the room with voluminous boom, and I think we four had the best view.  We were up in the Lincoln Seats of the Rave, up in the balcony at the far northwest corner of the room, so instead of the monster house speakers, we got to enjoy the love thumping out of the stage monitors, so clean and balanced and nice.  And it was a thrill to watch Olle and Stefan work as a team -- they spun dizzy bass love.  The crowd was on fire, the room ablaze, all well with the world.

And then himself came on, legendary T, and everything exploded.  Totally ecstatic experience.  He started off with a couple of tracks from the new album Kaleidoscope, and then just Played, with a capital "P." What a joy to share his joy.  True bliss!  And chromosome-rattling bass all over the place.  

We had to make ourselves leave just as he was rolling a tsunami of boom, after his mashup featuring Bowie's "I Am the DJ," 'coz we have duties to which we must attend, others whom we must serve.  We dragged ourselves away just after midnight, sad to leave the boom behind, but vibrating with thumpitty joy from what had buffetted us for the past three hours.  Next time he hits town, I'll be taking a vacation day afterward so I can jump up and down with the delirious happy crowd until 2 a.m.

Oh -- and even the mighty delighty Tiësto unzipped and played from a humble binder of CDs.  Feeling a bit more authentic, having seen that!  Now to develop the courage to really mix.  I love music being played as an instrument.

(And I needn't have worried about being the oldest person in the room. There were plenty in the throngs who were definitely my seniors. And T himself is 40!)

Thanks to Nicki I have discovered the awesomeness of BIGS Sizzlin Bacon Sun Flower Seeds where their slogans are "Big Seeds, Big Flavors" and "Everything tastes better with Bacon." You can find that at 7-11. You will not regret getting them.

Peace...

Happy Birthday brother. Hope you have a great day.

Peace...

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween