goodbye Petunia!

Lou's travels have ended which means she's back in town and wants her lappy returned to her! So it is a fond farewell to "Petunia" the lovely wee iBook that I have cared for while she has been traversing. I will be very sad to say goodbye to the little bundle of Mac-ing fun, speshly as I have gotten quite used to the ease of having broadband literally in my bed. And the fact that both my PCs have crapped out and are scattered in pieces around my bedroom. I've started to think of them as installation art.

But I saw my therapist this afternoon so am coming to grips with the whole debacle and the process of readjustment. Also: buying new shoes helped too!



(Please note this photo was taken in a mystery location and not in the aforementioned bedroom containing computer scrap installation art and other piles of crap everywhere).

I should now really be burning off all the files that have accumulated over the last few months so that Lou has some space left on this puppy and can't perve through all my stuff (BECAUSE PRIVACY IS OBVIOUSLY SUCH AN ISSUE FOR ME). But instead I keep getting distracted and reminiscing and so forth...

Like, remember that time I was a freaky vampire child-lady and went around luring people into bed and looking like all I vanted to do vas suck thier blooodddd...



Ha ha ha, good times, great value!

These pics crack me up too - they're from when Pete had just moved into his apartment and it was all polished wood floors, bare walls, minimal furniture. I said I felt like I was in a photo shoot it was so stark and stylish, and was doing the whole thing from Absolutely Fabulous when Patsy gets 'Hello magazine' in and keeps going "Welcome...to my gracious kitchen...". (You know! You know! Come on... am i the ONLY one who has, like, every episode of that WHOLE show memorised?!)



However, Pete's adding of a large carving knife to the shot makes it a bit more 'Hitchcock movie' than 'Hello magazine'!!



That was a very good night. Ebony and I had gone to a WCC launch of the 'Summer City' thing at the City Gallery (well, technically I had SNUCK IN but whoo! how naughty, sneaking into the opening drinks of a council-funded public festival). The highlight of the night, and by highlight I mean EXTREMELY TRAUMATISING OCCURANCE, was Kerry Prendergast's attendance. Of course it was expected she would be there, she was doing the key note speech thingy, so maybe it wasn't so much her attendance - as her appearance.

Because our honourable mayor was wearing a skin tight pale pink boob tube. Why on earth would any grown woman do this you may well ask? All the better to show off the body paint with, of course! She was covered in the stuff. All over her neck, arms, shoulders, back... and front bits. Admittedly, it was a really beautiful job - obviously done by a talented professional and with real skill. And apparently it was in theme with the Summer Festival. But all the same... EWW.

As you can imagine, we got pretty smashed with the free drinks and the needing to cope with never knowing if you were going to turn around and brush against the half-naked mayor of our city (whom pretty much everyone resents, FYI out-of-towners, as her husband is a property developer who scores suspiciously good deals on urban planning). And then we went to Pete's place and terrorized him and Max who had been trying to have a quiet glass o wine and watch a DVD. Fools. That'll teach them to answer the door. When the buzzer is ringing incessantly on account of being held down non-stop cause that is soooo funny!!

But that brings me to my next pic - which will have to be the last I think! Its getting bloody late and as a semi-hysterical text from Samuel J just reminded me, M Ward is in da house! woot!



That is Max, with a big chunk of Santa Claus beardy fluff stuck to his eyebrow with my slobber. A result of us trying to entertain ourselves during the extremely pants Twinset opening act before the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra's Christmas show.

I was so tired that night and Twinset were so pants and I wound up leaving early - after they (WIUO) played 'Ring My Bell' actually. So, not early early, but before the actual end of the show. But I was happy and had had my fill and it was the right ending for me, you know? I just had that feeling. When you realise the night has reached your personal zenith, regardless of what everyone else's timeline is. Happened to me at the final Trinity Roots concert. They'd played a truly beautiful version of one of my favourite (if I had to pick) of their songs and I was near bawling at them saying their farewells onstage and knew I wanted to walk out with their music flowing around me, rather than in the swarm of people. Its a kind of instinctual thing, about personal satisfaction and connection... Maybe you think I'm crazy and not getting my ticket's worth, maybe you've had that buzz too.

Okay well now I've bloody rambled on so maybe ONE MORE piccie heehee!



Mars & Bel: "Ooh yeah! We are so cool! Heehee!"
Tanya: "Shut up. No you are not. If you were, your hair would remain beautiful in all weather conditions, like mine. Fools."

coming to a screen near you, so near

I am a big fan of trailers and i recently found two amazing ones online. One is your conventional teaser trailer, and the other is, well, it isn't.

Joe gave me the heads-up on Hot Fuzz which is coming from the same people as Shaun of the Dead and the TV show Spaced. This is the second trailer actually, can't make the first one that was up work now, dang it. But it looks like it gonna be HILARIOUS and the other trailer showed that they obv had a much bigger component of the budget for, like, blowing shit up and car stunts and stuff. Awesome.

To take a completely different tone now, this video, hosted by Marie Claire magazine, is for a documentary called Thin. Directed by Lauren Greenfield, an established photographer, it has been described as "that rare film whose harrowing viewing experience is crucial to learning all it has to teach". Even the few minutes here are hard to watch, but mesmerising at the same time for their honesty.

There has been a lot of media coverage lately of the Madrid Fashion Week's decision to set a limit on what was an acceptable BMI, then the recent death of a Brazilian model who suffered from anorexia (Lou has covered these on her blog here and here).

While I do think that representations in the media have a huge effect on people's body image (and generally it seems to be women susceptible to this), I don't think solely the fashion industry can be held to blame for the epidemic of eating disorders in first world countries. The Bartlett recently posted a link to an interesting article, and while a lot of the big words kinda threw me, I did like what it had to say about disordered eating and the issue of control.
The post is referencing a book called A Return to Modesty and the blogger summarises it: "In short, Shalit appears to be saying that because our culture puts women's bodies on display and for male desire, values a certain kind of body, and discourages modesty, some girls react to this loss of control over their sexuality and over their bodies with a kind of self-controlling self-hatred."

The thing is, I never think its as simple as one thing or another. Watching that extract from Thin didn't make me any angrier that Kate Moss has just been named Model of the Year, it made me want to reach out on a personal level. Because that it where it is going to make a difference it seems. With the friend you know has a dark streak of self doubt inside them. To the colleague who might just need to be told that that shade of blue really suits them. Not letting the casual jokey fat comment slide but instead step the uncomfortable line of putting them in their place.

When I was 17 and first told my best friend that I was bulimic, I couldn't even use the word. Oh - I knew it and everything, I wasn't a 'tard, just cause I lived in Wanganui, sheesh.
But that was not the word I had in my mind to apply to what I was doing to myself. I told her I was just stressed and that this was the best way for me to deal with things at the moment. Can you believe that?! Stress?? Not like, yoga or going for a walk or hanging out with my boyfriend - I'd chosen throwing up my meals!! It shows how warped your perception gets and your grip on reality. There were other factors, but it was definitely that control thing - life was all over the place and this was one thing I could get a hold over.

But of course, really the demon had the hold over me. When you have convinced yourself there is no problem, it takes so much longer to come out from under it. I was very fortunate that I had strong relationships and a good counsellor and was held accountable for my actions - and stopped the physical patterns very quickly. But the mind set takes much longer, and that is where the real work is done. My personal opinion is that some women are in the psychology of an eating disorder, without manifesting it physically. Which is just as unhealthy and damaging.

The other week I bought New Woman magazine, solely because Melissa had told me you got a free Napoleon mascara with the issue - which you did! Score! I did a cusory flick through the glossy pages, feeling a wee twinge for cover girl Scarlett Johannsen based on the stories seeping out from her boyfriend's movie currently being shot in Auckland. One line in one article has stayed with me. It was about a woman who worked as a model in the 80s and suffered the worst of the industry, the classic glamour and beauty horror story.

She said that if you were a heroin addict and decided to come clean, it was relatively easy to stay out of those circles if you wanted to, ensure you didn't have access. But for someone who has food issues, there is no such respite. You can hardly avoid food or eating situations - in fact, that's kinda the whole damn problem. Your whole attitude has to change to be able to engage normally and your ability to cope with an everyday thing... well, in some cases, that has to start from scratch.

It reminded me of this thing that happened while I was still wrestling with everything. I'd arrived late at a sleepover with my girlfriends but had some chocolate brownie slice saved for me. I ate and then threw it up into my friend's bathroom sink. I felt terrible about it because I knew I was letting myself down and the people I'd been honest with about the trouble I was in. For years later I couldn't eat the stuff, even the smell was too much, it brought back every emotion of that night, hiding in that bathroom. Mum cooked some one time as a treat and I wouldn't touch it. When she said "Oh what's with you kids? I thought it tasted just like the bought stuff!", I simply burst into tears.

I guess what I'm trying to say here, is more than just that I think Hot Fuzz will be a great movie with car explosions and jokes as well as taking the piss out of over-serious cops.
I guess I'm saying look after your self. Look after each other. I am so grateful to the people who listened to me - and who didn't listen to me - and when you hear those nagging sad angry voices inside bringing you down, don't always push them away, aside. Think about what has brought it on. Talk to someone about it. Someone who loves you, someone with a bit of perspective, someone who knows what they're talking about it. And look in the mirror, and love what's there. Because you can.

Special Guest Post! Rebecca Trelease in her own words:

First of all, lets get a few things straight. Why 'Trelease'? There were two Rebecca's in the last year of uni so by default it went to the surname. However, the other Rebecca hasn't been around for more than a couple of years now so lets get it back to the original status, huh? I'm mostly annoyed by the fact I didn't even get a The prefix, as in The Bartlett. I'm so jealous of that I'm totally going back to Rebecca (although it did cause some confusion as I was introduced around Wellington. Eddie met Trelease but was told he would be hanging out with Rebecca so he had NO idea who I was when I climbed into the car).

Bel and I both did the BCS so I knew of her from first year. I always thought she was really cool right from the start but alas she hated me. Although, I remember before we actually started hanging out or knowing too many people in common (i.e. only Shane and Gareth) she saw me walking around mega stressed at Uni one day and she walked over and gave me a big hug. Which I thought was lovely. Over the years we met at random parties, but the one she mentioned at my house - why did you come if you hated me so much! Although she did encourage me to have the vodka and orange juice that ended the night for me, so maybe it was all planned... *

Right. Wellington.

I managed to make it all alone into the city, except I got off at the wrong stop and totally ruined my grand entrance outside the St James. Was there for about 5 minutes before I was sat down with a stapler, stickers and pamphlets. Spent a couple of hours in the most gorgous but very uncomfortable costume from 'My Fair Lady', my hat made me 10ft tall but it squished my brains and the elastic cut into my chin. But no biggy. *

Explored every floor in Te Papa. This visit was a lot more educational than the last one where Bel just pointed to it and said 'well thats Te Papa'. *

That night, drinks at the Hawthorne (which I thought was the Matterhorne) and roasted marshmallows with Ebony, Sam and Sarah-Kay. Now Bel had talked this place up, how they have 'Connect 4' and lots of board games. They had cards for poker. That's it. We considered a round of Snap but instead ate more marshmallows. Went to the Matterhorne where I met Melissa but they didn't have any confectionary so we left.

We explored the Art Gallery which featured Sam Taylor-Wood * and while it showed random pieces of her other works, the main 'attraction' were her photos of actors crying (www.city-gallery.org.nz/mainsite/). We had both heard about it and had our criticisms before seeing it and I'm happy to report that it did absolutely nothing to sway our opinions of getting hired emoters to emote on cue and then call it an 'intimate portrayal of grief'. At one extreme was Philip Seymour Hoffman who actually looked like it could be an honest portrait, to Robert Downey Junior who seems to have a very elaborate way of lying himself out on a bed to cry. Although he did keep it modest. And don't get me started on the David Beckham video of him 'sleeping'. He wasn't. It was probably very difficult getting comfortable wearing massive diamond earrings and bracelets and flexing the pecs but it was by no means 'sleeping'. It was totally worth paying to see just so we could spend the whole time criticising the 'drawcard' of the exhibition. (note: The first part of her exhibition is quite good, especially 'strings'. Just not the crying thing).

Bel's brother Eddie took us on a tour of Parliament. As a security guard he would be in charge of Lost and Found so we handed over a soggy and dejected pink teddy bear found on the path. He also didn't need to go through (or explain) the security checkpoints, so as he kept walking we were stopped and I said 'but we're with him' (meaning he needs to stop or we'll lose him and don't know what we're doing) but being told 'that doesn't mean anything to us' in a very snotty manner as if I was trying to smuggle in stuff. However, that was when Bel was caught with (heaven forbid) her mobile to which he was quite horrified. * The question session in Parliament was a bit boring, when they start yelling you can't work out what they're saying. And no-one asked the tough hard-hitting question: Who lost their pink teddy bear?

Bel tells me we're going to 'Pao Pao Pao'. I had no idea what it was about but it starts and everyone is talking Te Reo. With no translations. However I'm sitting next to Cam and he was laughing away and agreeing with what's being. What I learnt: Pakipake means clap! Canicani means dance! We most enjoyed the performance by Hinemoana Baker (www.hinemoana.co.nz), and ended up seeing a second performance by her at The Marae in Te Papa. I've since heard her version of 'Secret Love'; the only other person I've heard sing this is Mandy Moore and I must say both versions are excellent.

Bridgit's wedding was beautiful and I was very honoured to be Bel's 'date' for this event. We did have to run off to Turnbull House for the Anthology Launch * in the middle (where Bel presented another glorious poem of hers) and I did have a moment out the window of 'That building looks like that main Parliament building. Oh, it is Parliament.' The night continued with our appearances at Mighty Mighty, The Hawthorne, Salsa night at the Jimmy and concluded with a Rosebud cocktail at Motel.

Random thoughts:

• Never seen Malasian restaurants before but they are GREAT.


• Whats up with only having fancy lemonade in glass bottles all the time, can't a girl get a decent watered down, overly carbonated Sprite? If I'm paying $8 for vodka do you think I give a hoot about the lemonade?!!


• The 'walk' signals are incredibly loud.No one waits for a 'walk' signal. The entire group would start crossing so I would too instead of being a scared loner because the man was still red! It took me one day to start running across whenever like a Wellingtonian.


• Yes, California Sushi must always be spoken with a reverent tone.


• Bel's friends in Wellington are all very lovely and I enjoyed meeting them all.

* Bel here, chipping in because I'm the editor and that's my perogative. I would've been in attendance at the at-the-time dreaded Trelease's party because Shane or Gareth or BOTH was so in love with her back then. Another contributing factor to my depising - ya know how possessive I was of those boys. About the same level as I am of Trelease now.
No comment on the drink thing tho. Heh heh hee...

* This is referring to the photo shoot I intended to involuntarily recruit Trelease for, mentioned in this post, which it turned out she hadn't read and therefore was oblivious to our broadcast weekend itinerary!

* We were in a hurry, people!! I thought our time would be better spent eating gelati at Oriental Bay... good call, right?

* Yes, I went along. Yes, this was partially because Trelease offered to shout me. Yes I folded over the sticker pass they make you wear at the door so I didn't have to wander around the building with that pink-shirted sap Hayden Christiansen attached to my body. However, I wholehearted agree with Rebecca's comments about the REST of the photographs/films included, and I think I felt even more strongly about them. Her images The Leap and Self Portrait As A Tree has such impact on me, much more so than some fucken actor working up crocodile tears in front of another lens.

* The 'he' being the snooty security guard that this, not my brother - who is just a regular security guard, feeling cool wearing his radio ear piece n all. The guy had a freakin MARE at me, as it was just before entering the actual, um, chamber? is that what they call it? ...am trying to think back to Social Studies... Anyway - pulled out my phone to put it on silent and they acted like I busted out a glock or something, honestly. What, am I going take scandalous photos of them flipping the bird to each other?! whoo!!

* You can read more about the launch of the NZPS 2006 Anthology here. As well as being Assistant Editor for the collection, and doing the typesetting and cover design, I had a poem included, called 'Long Letters'. Some of you may know it from my zine 'The Knife Thrower's Apprentice' - I'll probably post it up here some time soon anyhow... it went down pretty well on Saturday :)



Ok, better hop to it and get this posted. Trelease - I mean, Rebecca sent this through before COB as request but I somehow got busy and then had to head home from the office and THEN had all kinds of distractions, like ohhh I don't know sussinganewflatmate and stuff like that!!

Could someone please acknowledge two things? 1) my awesome anchor tags doing the whole footnote thang and 2) how I let the whole Mandy Moore thing slide. 'Cause you know she ain't trying to be funny at all there. K, sweet.

Tell me bout it, baby.

From Popbitch:

>> Who's afraid of the big bad Wolf? <<
Celebrity offspring puts teacher in place

Wolf Gillespie is the son of Primal Scream's
Bobbie and fashion stylist Katy England. He
goes to nursery school in Islington, where he
is a classmate of Fran Cutler's daughter
Mercy Magic.

Recently one of the teachers scolded little
Wolf for a misdemeanour. Did Gillespie Jnr
cry or throw a tantrum? Of course not.
He just shrugged and walked off, saying
"It's only rock and roll."

Wolf is four years old.

FYI: Wolf arrived for the school show and tell
day with McQueen couture samples to cut up...
rather than the usual old sheets and blankets.)

Sure, having a name like "Wolf" gives you a head start, but that is still pretty freakin awesome. In contrast, I'll show you exactly how cool I was at age four...

Yeah, that's me in the middle.I guess wearing sneakers with a party dress is more hip-hop than rock n roll huh? See, even back then I was repping it.

Popbitch always comes through with the goods. I'm not much of a Primal Scream fan, to say the least, and have no idea who Fran Cutler is, but the name Katy England rung a bell - and when you hear 'McQueen' and 'couture' in the same sentence, you know there's only one person they're talking about.

Katy England is a stylist in the true sense of the word - not in a Rachel Zoe, dress all your starlets in the same outfits, trigger dramatic weight loss, tanorexic kind of way. There's a great article here where Katy talks about her long working relationship with Alexander McQueen, including the rocky years at Givenchy.

I found this quote very encouraging, considering recent events like this which Lou covered in her blog, "I try to avoid the current big-name models, not because I don't like them, but because I think our interpretation of beauty should be broader than that."

the demise of Guise

Earlier in the year, Guise was one of my favourite places to visit online. More trustworthy than a fashion magazine, as the author Missy-J was uninfluenced by advertisers and editorial agendas, but had truckloads of taste, so her posts were guaranteed to be oh so delicious.

However, after posting as steadily throughout September as she had for the months, years, before, she called an adrupt halt to the blog. And fair enough too, I mean, we're all just in this for kicks right? I guess I'm just disappointed I came in on the tail end! I'd directed a few friends to the site too and we had a wee satorial sob in honour of the good times.

Missy-J's based in Singapore, a city known for its shopping, and also has a bunch of great links from her site to various fashion-orientated websites. Her talent seemed to be picking out from all of the flotsam & jetsam certain eye-catching pieces, or high fashion concepts that could be applicable to those of us living everyday lives. I liked her sense of fun and quirkiness, the way she'd enthuse about colours and be so unashamedly girly and enthusiatic! And, to boot, she was totally fashion forward.

In 2005 Missy-J posted a pic of a YSL (i think) frilled acid yellow dress that he had in his runway collection, which I saw going thru the archives one afternoon back when I was an understimulated receptionist. And what did NZ's Fashion Quarterly have in its Spring issue this year? A photo of Chloe Sevigny wearing the very same frock, saying it was this season's hottest shade.

She did it again posting about a designer putting models in black mary-jane style shoes, with huge silky ribbons tied around the arch. She had ideas for how you could do this easily yourself, as most of us lasses have a plain black pair of heels. And what did I see in the lastest issue of FQ?? On their 'Trends' page are Louis Vuitton wedges, very similar - except, eww, SO not pretty! - the sole is chunky, big waved grip pattern and the ribbon thing is like a fushia bowtie slapped on there. Plus they'll cost ya a whopping $1370 thankyouverymuch.

The archives all seem to be gone now, which SUCKS, but the blog hasn't been deleted completely, so you can get an idea - if you're so inclined! And check out the links, speshly if you are an understimulated receptionist.

No - wait - in that case, you should quit your job and move on. Your life will improve dramatically.

snippety snip snip

First up, breaking news: I just heard fire crackers go off. Is this the revolution? Or possibly just parents desparate for anything to keep the kids happy by day four of the school hols? Hmm. I would go investigate but am already cosy in bed and any new order that i wish to be part of will surely respect that.

Second up, actual breaking news: i got my haircut. yeah I KNOW!! exciting! and yet so far I have not been swamped with complimentary acknowledgements (gasp!) so thought I would use my dellciously self-indulgent blog to post photo of self and boost esteem that way:

Had a bit of trouble lining up the shot as you can see. Just using my cellphone which is not the fanciest piece of digital photography equipment I will admit. It does make a HILARIOUS kerrr-churrkk sound effect noise though - just AS IF it were a ye olde manual camera!! However it means this pic includes some of my favourite art works (gifts from Tanya and from Joe) and also a photo of me and my high school boyfriend aged oooh 16 or something, in a fabulous chunky glittery frame I bought from Briscoes back in the day. It reemerged when I was moving and simply had to be put on display.


This one gives you a better idea of the cut! As you can see, I took it using the mirror. So I guess if you want to get all technical, my hair is sloping in the wrong direction for youse. But for me, this is what I gaze at each day. Aaah.
The details are that the fringe is v short now. Like, where it looks swept across, it is actually only a couple of centimetres long. There is nothing to sweep. It is just sw. But the sides there are very long and ringletty and -even if I do say so myself- and i do say so myself- BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE HAS NOTICED- it looks quite cute. The back is not long tho, she followed my instructions and cut that right up so the nape of my neck shows:


Ok well that was my attempt at photographing the back of my head anyway.
Dang it!!

Did i mention I got like no rest last night? Mum bussed down 'cause she was flying to Australia so it was kind of a late night. Then she was up at 4am because you have to check in so far in advance now. Then she texted at 6.30am to let me know she was boarding ok. Then I had to, you know, get up and act like a normal person who'd had a decent night's sleep.
But man it was so lovely to see her. Met her at the station and took her out for Malaysian and admired the quilt she'd made as a wedding present and sussed the shuttle to the airport for her.
She said she was feeling a bit nervous about doing this trip over there by herself, even though it isn't really a big deal. She thought of me travelling over to France by myself at 17 and told herself she had nothing to fret about. I had a minor explosion at this point and reminded her that the first time she put me on an international flight by myself I was aged 10, so yeah -damn straight she has nothing to worry about!
She turns 50 next year and I'll turn 25. She said last night we're like country mouse and city mouse now. She's lived in the same house for, well - it'll be 25 years by the end of next year. I never moved house once growing up. It was such a shock to the system going to uni and starting flatting. That kind of transcience is something I only associate with the last few years of my life, after growing up with such a solid base and sense of a home location. I can understand Mum's hesistance and her vulnerability. I find it kind of sweet but a bit sad too. There's so much of the world out there! Cliche, yeah, but I know she would enjoy and thrive on it. And give so much back.
Hah I do sound like city mouse don't I? Try to push her out of her comfort zone, into something she has chosen to not partake in. Yet.

Anyway. Let's get back on track. By which of course I mean talking about ME and my awesome HAIR.
Just then when i was try to find where in the hell my photos had gone to I found some pics of me here in some folder of Lou's on this laptop!! what serendipity.

See! Proof! My hair used to look different. Also, my nose kinda looks like I've just had work done in that photo.
Not quite in an Ashlee Simpson kind of way but still. Weird.
Maybe I need work done to make my nose look like it hasn't had any.


Wow. I think I just hit a self-absorbed saturation point. And for me, that takes some doing. Sorry guys. Over and out.

the poison of parachute pants

When being interviewed recently (for a blog no less), actor -and rock star, apparently- Jared Leto reacted to a question about promoting his new album and whether he'd be blogging while touring in a very strong way. I'll quote direct:

JARED: No, I think that blogging should die a sudden death.

G4: Why?

JARED: It's just ridiculous. It's like a playground for four-year-olds. People say and do things in the world of blogs that they would never do in real life, and I think it's a false experience. You know, it's, like, eating too much candy.

First of all, I love the imagery that he has managed to cram into those few sentences. It seems like such a hysterical honest reaction that I'm not questioning in anyway that this is a literal transcript. I am also very tempted to start up a celeb hot goss blog called Too Much Candy. Please start emailling me any paparazzi shots of Jared Leto picking boogers out of his nose you have taken sneakily on your cellphone. Apparently I won't have to worry about the man himself logging on...

G4: So you don't read alot of the celebrity gossip blogs, I take it?

JARED: Well, you know, one of the things along those lines that bothers me about when people start citing blogs as news sources is that when people are writing on these blogs, they feel like they don't feel they need to do any research or back up their opinions with facts or anything, you know what I mean?

G4: Why is there this inherent lack of responsibility when it comes to blogging as journalism?

JARED: I couldn't tell you. Times have changed. It used to be, to be a writer you had to have experience and talent, and learn a craft. Now anybody with an opinion, which is anyone and everyone, feels that it's worthy. Technology is allowing people to have access to things where before it required very great skill. So there will be some interesting developments from that, and also some things that are pretty worthless. Pretty soon anybody with a cell phone is going to be able to be a news reporter. The blog is yesterday's parachute pants. It's here now but it's gone tomorrow.

I considered going on a rant about how you couldn't really moniter standards of research and capability to any greater extent when the world of journalism was limited to print, and that internet access means that people can do background checks of their own if they bother to take two googling seconds.
That this line here "Technology is allowing people to have access to things where before it required very great skill" vexes me on several levels because he seems to be seeing this as such a negative thing and i disagree that 'skill' was the barrier previously.
That he does have a point about the world's obsession with celebrity growing in the last few decades in parallel to technology such as the internet, but the world of entertainment he chooses to work in being dependant on that.
That a complete rejection of that aspect of technology is not really the best way to deal with times that are moving so quickly, sunshine.

But then, blogger that I am, four-year-old in the playground, did a wee bit of research myself. It seems that Jared Leto's comment "The blog is yesterday's parachute pants" (yes, my absolute favourite- GOLD!) would be based on him having a very good understanding of what they look like. He was in attendance for Marc Jacob's show for NY Fashion Week, which according to the Go Fug Yourself girls (there in person reporting for New York Magazine ), which featured strolling down the runway "billowing genie pants" and the designer himself in a pair of "what looked like capris crossed with Hammer pants".

See here for their report on the show (complete with a pic of eyelinered-to-the-max Leto and accounts his pre-show antics)
And here for thumbnails/more of the clothes on the runway (some of the not-pants look gorgeous!! I love the necklines & the asymmeterical ruffles)

I think I'll let La Leto have the final word on this however - here's more from the interview [source]

G4: What does the title [of his band's upcoming album], A Beautiful Lie, refer to?

JARED: That's the contradiction of life, basically, the contradictions of humanity...of what it is to be human.

G4: In terms of?

JARED: Every rose has his thorn.