a collection of tunes that are crying out for a super kitsch cartoon video.

download here

amerie - crush

possibly just meant to sound happy, not kitsch, but this remix conjures up images of bubbles, flying candy and glitter and there's nothing amerie can do about it...

basement jaxx - romeo

you can tell the jaxx heart kitsch by their album covers, even if you haven't heard the music. who else would put snowflake, the albino gorilla from barcelona zoo, on a cd?

bjork - big time sensuality

more quirky than kitsch, but bjork does look a bit like a japanese cartoon.

confection - i gotta thang 4u

confection are a group who make 80s jheri soul a la loose ends. i honestly didn't realise for a long time that they weren't authentic 80s.

daft punk - digital love

kids of the 80s went 'aaaah...' when they saw the video to this tune, featuring battle of the planets style anime.

deee-lite - say ahhh

unashamedly kitsch, and psychedelic at the same time.

groove armada and mutya buena - song for mutya

whoever thought they would be describing the chavtastic mutya as kitsch? not me...

keyshia cole - superstar

hate jameila. this is the only song of hers that i could remotely stand so i was happy that keyshia covered it for the us market. clearly, bitter brummie bitches don't go down too well across the pond, either...

mariah carey - touch my body

eternally 12 apparently...mariah is the physical embodiment of kitsch and youth obsession taken too far. and no i don't buy the nick cannon thing, that boy just looks uncomfortable to me.

model 500 - the flow

i doubt that derrick may intended to make anything that sounded remotely kitsch. but it so does...

st etienne - who do you think you are

if all of st etienne's video has been animated kitsch, i think their music would have been more appealing. i liked it, but the oh-look-at-us-we're indie!-and-quirky! band members ruined things somewhat.

sub sub and melanie williams - ain't no love

the most cartoonish club classic i can remember - shouldn't have worked but it did.

1280 x 1024

The New England Confectionary Company - NECCO - makes lots of vintage brands of gluten-free sweets that perhaps you too grew up eating: Necco Wafers, Conversation Hearts/Sweet Hearts, Sky Bar and through acquisition Squirrel Nut Zippers...

I happened to work next door to two of their factories, at two different times, from two different eras....

Their original buildings still stand and are in the midst of gentrification. I have outlined on trace the classic logo long faded on the side of the funky buildings (circa 1901) in the fort point section of Boston.

(There was once a music joint - The Channel - on the location of where the autos are parked in the below picture. I occasionally spun vinyl and saw many a band there: Ramones, Ministry, Big Black, The Residents w/ Snake Finger, Sisters of Mercy....yikes, I could go on.)

When I worked near the other Necco location (not pictured) in Cambridge MA. there were large four or five inch hose connections sticking out of the building with labels like "corn syrup" printed above them; large trucks would pull up and hose-in ingredients to the plant through the connections. You could smell sugar cookin' in the air around town. I never did see a "gluten" spigot nor any little men sweeping the candy floor at closing time, but I often hummed the "Oompa Loompa" song...

summer sundays cherry top

confectionery

computers ruled 1984. even i had one. my parents bought me an acorn electron for educational purposes and i spent the next four years playing bbc versions of arcade games. pac-man became 'snapper', donkey kong was 'boxer' and frogger was 'hopper'.

my personal favourites were chuckie egg and burgertime. you couldn't get burgertime for the acorn electron so i had to play it in arcades. chuckie egg was available for the electron but it didn't work. you'd sit through about five minutes of alphanumeric screeching and then, no chuckie, no egg.

then there were the fabulously basic text adventure games. 'sphinx adventure'. literally -

you cross the bridge. there's a carrot.

>eat carrot.

you can see in the dark!

yes, really. and if you were a little brat like me...

you cross the bridge. there's a carrot.

>shit

what is 'shit'?

download here

apollonia 6 - blue limousine

autumn - computer touch

billy ocean - syncopation

confection - put me on your playlist

duran duran - the reflex

klymaxx - video kid

midnight star - body snatchers

new edition - cool it now

phil oakey - together in electric dreams

pointer sisters - automatic

shannon - sweet somebody

wham - credit card baby

Dorothy Hanley, Dark Eyes och String of pearls.

Uppdatering:

Man var tydligen tvungen att beställa minst 6 st sticklingar, så nu har jag uppdaterat min order. (Kan ju inte säga att jag blev förkrossad när jag förstod att jag var tvungen att välja 3 till...)

Blood Donor, Cecile och Confection.

Allt från Rockdala.

Nu är det bara att börja experimentera med jord, näring och beskärning.. Tänk att få till något sånt här:

Bon allez, parce que l'on a discuté longuement hier Christophe et moi de l'impact de la pensée positive, je continue à m'auto-suggérer des trucs bien à venir, comme ça tous les problèmes actuels subiront la même conclusion que notre petit projet pour petit laptop :)

tiens simple curiosité, qui parmi vous croit en cette fameuse pensée positive ?

Here is an Octopus cake with blueberry suction cups and a kissy face that I made for my house mate's last week. It's fun to bake for friends....

On a side note I can't stop thinking about earthquakes. Living in California made me very uncomfortable with the thought of the earth shifting around all willy nilly.

J'imagine déjà Françoise David, et les autres tenants de Québec Suicidaire... euhhh, pardon, de Québec Solidaire, dire que c'est bien, mais bien peu, et les employeurs dire que c'est beaucoup trop. Qui a raison, qui a tort?

Dans les faits, une augmentation du salaire minimum de 6,25%, alors que la hausse du coût de la vie est d'environ 2%, est une augmentation trop rapide d'un seul coup. Par exemple, un employeur qui embauche 50 personnes au salaire minimum subira une hausse de ses coûts de production de 6,25% sans aucune augmentation de rendement équivalente. Résultat: Soit qu'il devra hausser le prix de ses produits, ce qui le rendra vulnérable face à ses concurrents, soit qu'il devra trouver d'autres façons d'absorber cette hausse de coûts. Cela risque de se traduire par l'achat d'une machine qui fera le travail de plusieurs de ses employés, achat qu'il remettait à plus tard afin de ne pas avoir à faire de mises à pied, par exemple.

N'oublions pas que les travailleurs à salaire minimum sont principalement parmi les jeunes, les femmes et les immigrants, ainsi que dans le domaine des services. Aussi, cette hausse n'aura pour seul effet que de les réconforter dans leur emploi précaire, alors que dans les faits, un emploi au salaire minimum n'est qu'une étape qui sert à prendre de l'expérience afin de viser des niveaux supérieurs. L'histoire récente a montré que des entreprises payant leurs employés au salaire minimum ont fermé leurs portes, ou déménagé leur production dans des pays connus pour leur main-d'oeuvre à bon marché, suite à des hausses trop élevées du salaire minimum. C'est ce qui risque d'arriver avec une hausse de 6,25% d'un seul coup. Cela risque de donner le coup de grâce aux dernières usines de confection de vêtements, pour lesquelles la compétition ne provient pas de la ville, ou de la province d'à-côté, mais plutôt, et de plus en plus, de la Chine.

Dans les faits, il y a de moins en moins d'emplois au salaire minimum dans le secteur manufacturier. D'abord, le manque de main-d'oeuvre force les employeurs à offrir un salaire plus élevé afin de retenir ses employés, et les empêcher de quitter pour des emplois plus payants. Ensuite, justement, parce que les emplois qui ne demandent aucune formation particulière sont souvent transférés dans des pays où la main-d'oeuvre est disponible à meilleur marché, comme certains pays de l'Amérique centrale, des Antilles, ou de l'Asie. Par exemple, la firme québécoise Gildan, qui fabrique principalement des t-shirts, a déménagé toute sa production dans le bassin des Caraïbes, notamment au Honduras, là où elle augmentera sa capacité de production. De tels emplois sont facilement déménegeables, compte tenu que le travail en tant que tel n'exige pas une formation particulière, donc n'importe qui peut faire le travail après quelques minutes d'apprentissage, ou tout au plus quelques heures.

La lutte contre la pauvreté ne passe donc pas par la hausse du salaire minimum, mais plutôt par la valorisation du travail effectué, ce qui poussera les individus à se dépasser, donc à augmenter leur "valeur" sur le marché du travail, ainsi que sur l'encouragement des jeunes à se diriger vers des études supérieures. Mais attention, pas vers des disciplines creuses, pas vers des sciences molles, mais bien vers des concentrations reconnues comme utiles à la société, comme la médecine, pour ne nommer que celle-ci. Évidemment, les études ont un prix, qui au Québec n'est pas suffisamment élevé. Mais ça, c'est une toute autre histoire.

You might like to spend a brief moment in time reading Hazel Nut's latest Q&A... then again, maybe you shouldn't. It may cure your sweet tooth, the way that all of your dentist's warnings couldn't.

Why didn't they show this to me in grade school instead of trying to make me memorize the names of the different teeth and their parts?

Links:
2007/12/05 - AboutMyPlanet: Sugary Surprise

Love, Norman Love.

Originally uploaded by CleverGirlBek

Oh Norman Love...Why do you and your mad confection laboratory have to be on the way home from hubby's office?

and the strawberries taste like strawberries!

You think of the most lovely combinations that fill me with childlike joy and giddiness and grown-up decadence all at the same time... You are a mad genius. Your confection creating crew is beyond fabulous.

Willy Wonka can truly retire now....

Oh and for those of you that aren't familiar with Mr. Love and his crew and their genius creations and think "eh- I'll just give Godiva because everyone knows the name" think again... Norman Love is the genius behind the "g" collection....

and

(from Godiva's press section):
Always an innovator in the industry, Love is the former Executive Pastry Chef for Ritz Carlton Hotels. His passion for sweets has landed him on Chocolatier Magazine's Top 10 Pastry Chef's list and USA Today's Top 10 Artisan Chocolatier's list.

These are the best.

Yummy.
Exquisite.
Perfect.

Here is the link to the Norman Love site:
http://www.normanloveconfections.com

Artisan made from fresh ingredients....

(and of course if you can't send chocolate treats and confections for whatever reason- customs, dietary restrictions, etc... You can always check out the candylike treats at

CleverGirl

(mention you saw this post in the notes to seller area this weekend (code: beclever) and I'll send along an extra special rockin' treat with your order....Sorry, not chocolate but you will like it and it is fairly bon bon-esque in appearance!)

after playing in snow
he comes home
a confection

Joseph Schmidt Chocolates

Yes, some of our products do contain flour (in the biscotti). This is clearly marked on the label of anything containing "biscotti" (like Biscotti Bars) or "biscotti crunch" which is in all the Mini Mosaics and most of the large Mosaics. The "gluten free" statement refers to our Truffles, Mini Truffles, bars (except the Biscotti Bars.) We don't use flour in our chocolates or for packaging.

While it is true that biscotti is processed (chopped up or ground into "crunch") in our factory, we are very diligent about keeping this process separate from the chocolates we make. (We are equally diligent about segregating any peanuts from our chocolates which don't contain peanuts or tree-nuts.) Our cookies are baked and packed in a separate facility; each cookie is packed into a sealed cello bag.

As with anything, check the website or call customer service.

In the 70 years since McDonald's began its service industry hegemony, the mighty Golden Arches have achieved something few brands do; integrate a self-proliferating part of speech into the vernacular of everyone in the developed world—the "McJob".

Whether you need to dry your eyes at a funeral or rescue your nose during the flu, people offer you a Kleenex® vis-á-vis a "tissue". Need a photocopy and it becomes the verb "to Xerox®"...in fact, you most likely "Googled" your way here no matter what search engine you employed...or you Tivo'd last night's episode of Lost...even on a Motorola DVR.

But...the world's most popular clown isn't exactly thrilled about this. According to News24.com, there is a movement afoot to 'Ditch McJobs' says McDonalds.

McDonald's sites are now targeted at Britain's dictionary houses to change current references to the word "McJob" ..... "Dictionaries are supposed to be paragons of accuracy. And in this case, they got it completely wrong," said Walt Riker, a McDonald's spokesperson. "It's a complete disservice and incredibly demeaning to a terrific work force and a company that's been a jobs and opportunity machine for 50 years."

MEEK SPEAKS: So here's the thing. I get that it's kind of a demeaning term, but that's because... the kids who work at McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Arby's, etc HATE these jobs. The jobs just suck. You're running around in a tiny kitchen wearing a goofy uniform wrapping hamburgers (don't even get me started on how asinine it is that they call them "sandwiches" when they're clearly "burgers") while all the hot girls are lined up on the other side of the counter to order a milkshake and giggling at you as your floor manager barks orders to "fry up!" or "hold the pickle!". It's the employees who started calling these McJobs. I know this because my sister worked at McDonald's...I know this because my friend used to work at a fried chicken place. Is this really worth McDonald's efforts to bully the Oxford English Dictionary to remove the term because they don't like it? Not only do I say no because it's futile, but it makes the corporate empire of McDonald's look even more ridiculous than they did when they launched that McRib thingy. Oh, and also, how many people with McJobs even look in a dictionary anyway?

Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. will launch a new line of sugar-free gum this summer called "5" for the five senses. 5 is designed to give chewers a brief, but intense, oral sensation. Mint will cool or tingle; cinnamon will warm. The stick gum will be sold in a sleek envelope designed to attract teens and young adults -- about one-third of the nation's gum chewers -- with features such as etching that glows under black light. It will be available in North America in three flavors: "Rain," "Cobalt" and "Flare." The flavors are described as: Rain (tingling spearmint), Cobalt (cooling peppermint) and Flare (warming cinnamon).

MEEK SPEAKS: Oh where oh where to even begin with this. The "5" senses, huh? Look (bad), Taste (who knows), Feel (I'll take your word for it that it stimulates the mouth), Smell (like all the gums that make your breath good - no differentiation there), and finally...the 5th sense...that leaves "sound" right? Does the sound of that punk clicking his gum beside me on an airplane sound less offensive...or more harmonic...or...or what is the point of the 5th sense?
Everything about this product seems contrived to me. When I looked up the definition of "cobalt" it said "a hard, brittle, metallic element found in iron ore, lead...". That's quite appealing to put in my mouth (sarcasm). Almost as tasty as the shot glass of barium I once consumed to help the doctors find the extent of the fractures from a broken ankle I once sustained. Flare (not many young males are going to be comfortable carrying around a pack of "Flare" I expect) and Rain is equally as silly. Does it have that musty, unfiltered taste?

Look, I totally get what they're trying to do - create a nomenclature system that is buzz-worthy amongst the target age group, memorable, unique and ownable, but this system is so manufactured that it's just silly...not to mention ostensibly irrelevent to the actual flavor (Dentyne Ice Vanilla Chill is a proprietary name for Cadbury Schweppes AND it reflects the actual product. Well done!). The overall name - 5 - is okay, I guess (no more obtuse than Orbit or many other products you find out there), but the implied functionality that will unleash 5 senses in your mouth just seems too gimmicky vis-á-vis effective (ie: Trident White...with teeth whitening functionality). I'll reserve judgement on the flavor until it launches and I actually taste it, but I can tell you that I do not intuitively lean in to impulse buy confections whose packages look like charcoal briquettes or matches. Wrigley has a history of bad package design though, as their redesign of Big Red proved.

Old Design New Design

But enough about me, what do you think? Would you buy it based on the concept or does the packaging work for you?

Time for Your Speaks ->