NEWS OF THE WEEK

Penis graffiti goes floppy.

A painting of a large penis on a bridge in Russia's St Petersburg has been dropped from the shortlist for an art prize, the organizers said.

The penis, which pointed skywards when the bridge was raised, was painted last June by opposition Russian art group Voina, to protest against tight security in the city prior to an international meeting.

The penis, which was washed off by firefighters, faced the St Petersburg headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service, successor of the Soviet-era KGB.

Organizers of the prize for innovation awarded by Russia's State Center of Contemporary Arts and supported by the Culture Ministry had included the picture, which Voina had called 

"A Penis in KGB captivity."

But after failing to get approval to include the large penis from Voina, the organizers removed it from the shortlist.

"The repressive act of removing the penis from the award brings shame on the Ministry of Culture," one of the group's activists said on Sunday.

reuters.com

dog. wearing. glasses.

A tea with that please?

Last Sunday i went to Valparaiso to meet Lulo for a day of coffee, cafés and culture.
Substitute the coffee for tea and the culture for cake, and that's exactly what we did.


After the two hour bus journey there, i met Lulo and we walked up one of many Cerro's to Café Brighton which is at the end of a street that actually looks exactly like Brighton (except all the houses are made of corrigated iron in stead). 
I want to say it was cool but really mainly it was just creepy- like when you go to Universal Studios and walk through 'New York' and it looks so real but you just KNOW it's not and you don't like it.
Yeh it was just like that.

After a tea and some cat petting (on Laura's part, obviously NOT mine)at Café Brighton we headed off to stop number. 2.
A café 2 minutes away called El Desayunador.

obscene cake

For the rest of the afternoon we drank Twinings tea, had lunch, ate cakes, planned future youtube videos (WATCH THIS SPACE) and generally enjoyed sitting somewhere that could have been anywhere because we only had eyes for each other.


- Check out http://getdownlo.blogspot.com/ to see what really went down -

At 8pm we started walking back through the winding streets to the bus station in time for my bus at 9 back home to Santiago.

All in all, the perfect day.

Tea = good.

Chai tea = very goood.

Cake = extremely good.

Lulo + all of the above = SO. G.O.O.D


cant wait til next time.

On the way.

Last Sunday i went to Valparaiso to see Lulo, which i'll post about tomorrow, but first i wanted to just mention something that happened to me on the journey there.


While on the bus on the 2 hour journey, a man who was with his wife and son's girlfriend broke his sweet in half and offered it to me.
I took it and said thank you.
He started talking to me and eventually swapped seats so he could be next to me.
He told me about his children, particularly his daughter who was around my age, that she was so brave, like me, for being abroad so young. 
He told me she was 22 years old and studying in Miami to improve her English with her boyfriend. He showed me pictures of her and told me how clever she was. He then took my hand and said how happy it made him that i would wnat to talk to him  because i reminded him so much of his beautiful daughter who he loved and missed so much.


He then told me that 2 years ago, almost to the day, she was shot, along with her boyfriend and 2 other chillean students, in a town outside of Miami and that they were contesting the release of her murderer later this year.


When we parted ways at Valparaiso, his family waved me goodbye and he helped me off the bus and carried my bags and hugged me, telling me to always be safe and to never to be too trusting because, like his daughter, i was very special.
He thanked me again, for letting him spend some time with what felt like his little girl.


I then mentioned it to my friend Lore, who said she remembered the case.
I looked it up online and saw that two years ago, just like he said, a Chillean girl and her boyfriend had been killed in Miami in a racist attack, along with 3 others.


Im not sure whether i should be blogging about this or not.
I don't want to make it seem any less important than it felt at the time or it does now.
This was honestly something that really deeply moved me, almost to tears, and was obviously a very important moment to Dagoberto.
He was such a lovely man and obviously so happy to talk about his children. Throughout the whole journey he took care of me, obviously enjoying the feeling of being a parent for a young girl again, but what what most moved me was how happy he was.
Not once did he seem sad or angry at what had happened. He spoke of his daughter with such pride and love that i truly felt honoured to hear him talk about her.


Im not sure what anyone will make of this, i'm not really sure how i feel about it either.
I just thought it was important, especially for those of you who are away from home, just to be careful.


When you read about cases like this in the news, it feels so distant and unlikely somehow. 
I think we forget that these things actually happened to real people, and think ourselves invincible.


We are most certainly not.

SACA UNA FOTO

Olivia Stephany- Paris - November 2010

NEWS OF THE WEEK

SUCK ON THAT.

London Ice cream parlour 'Icecreamists' sells breast milk ice cream.

Yes.

You heard me right.

Covent Garden based, 'Icecreamists' have released a hot new flavour- breast milk ice cream, donned- Baby Gaga.

The recipe blends the breast milk with Madagascan vanilla and lemon zest before being churned into ice cream.

Priced at a hefty 14 pounds a serving Matt O'Connor, Icecreamists founder, is sure it will be a success.

"I had a Baby Gaga just this morning and I feel great!"

reuters.com

Be my Bachelor

The Bachelor

The best programme ever invented?

Most likely, yes.

An irritating self made millionaire from Austin, Texas returns for a second series to find the woman of his dreams.

Week by week he chooses specific girls to have one on one dates with where he spends large amounts of time talking about his emotions and how strongly he feels for said woman.

Next are the groups dates, where each woman must battle for Brad's affections and time, in a hope to make a big impression and be 'the last one standing' at the end of the show, where Brad will then ask her to marry him.

There are kisses.

There are hot tubs.

There's far off destinations and 'real' emotions.

There's heartbreak.

There's blondes taking off their tops.

THIS is R.E.A.L.

Brad's an idiot.

The girl's are retarded.

It's comedy at its best.

Watch it. Love it. Live it.

The Bachelor. Abc. Tuesday's.