The Moulin Rouge

Today a friend of mine invited me to her 21st to be held on 30 June. I'm pretty psyched about it because I haven't seen her in a while. Now, she's always been a little... over the top. But I have to admit, this made me question her sanity. The theme for this little get together? 

Moulin Rouge.

I kid you not. In the middle of flipping winter she wants people to rock corsets and other assorted itsy-bitsies to her party.
So, this got me wondering what the whole history behind the Moulin Rouge is. I honestly thought that it was simply a brothel. Not entirely the case as it turns out. Here's what I found out:

"Moulin Rouge" for those of you who, like me, don't speak a word of French means the "Red Mill" (there's a big red mill on the building). The Moulin Rouge was set up to be a dance hall in 1889, and earned quite a reputation for debauchery. The Can-Can had been popular before the place was established but it was only at the Moulin Rouge where the dance's popularity was fully realised. I imagine that a big reason for this popularity was because the performers, many of whom were courtesans, had dispensed with their knickers.

After a while, management decided that it was time to tone down the club's reputation. From then on the Moulin Rouge became more known for its crazy-cool cabaret shows than for its sexcapades. 

The Moulin Rouge can be found in Paris's red light district and is still open for tourists to come and catch a show but, despite having toned down, these performances are obviously not for children. Still, I'm pretty sure when I get around to travelling the Moulin Rouge will be somewhere near the top of my list of places to go. 

Still don't feel like prancing around in my underwear in the middle of winter though.

I Need Cheering Up

I lost my pencil box at varsity. I know it sounds silly and juvenile but I'm feeling very... lost. I now have nothing to use to make my notes for exams and dammit, I'm bummed! 

So, I went onto GQ's website because nothing makes me feel better than looking at a bunch of beautiful, well-dressed men. Feast your eyes on the very best (in my opinion) that GQ has to offer.

Alexander Skarsgard

Michael Fassbender

Ryan Reynolds

Ian Somerhalder

Ed Westwick

 

There. I'm feeling much better now! Have a good day everybody! And keep a close eye on your stuff!

You can check out more of these handsome gentlemen on GQ's website by clicking here. Just type in the name of the hunk that you're looking for and be prepared to be starry-eyed for a while.

Move Along, Move Along

I absolutely love YA novels. I fed this addiction by getting a hold of Cassandra Clare's latest book, City of Lost Souls. This is book five in The Mortal Instruments and I won't lie, I'm kinda over it. I've just started the book so I can't say whether this one is a let down or not. But I have to say, I was underwhelmed when I finished City of Fallen Angels. 

I loved the first three books in the series. In fact, I will admit to being slightly rabid about them. But now it just feels drawn out. I think Clare saw the opportunity to push through another three books and she jumped on it. I don't think that this was such a good idea. Rather let it end on a high than to keep it limping along. I bought the next book in the series not because I was dying to know but because I had come so far with the series that I figure that I may as well finish it.

So, I highly recommend that you read the first three books. They are brilliant. If you find yourself completely dazzled by them, then you may enjoy the latest ones. But if it's something that you just kinda enjoy, let it end after the third book.

So, here the books are in reading order:

1. City of Bones

2. City of Ashes

3. City of  Glass

4. City of Fallen Angels 

5. City of Lost Souls

6. City of Heavenly Fire (hasn't been released yet)

Brett Murray

Those of you living in South Africa will have heard this name before. Those of you overseas may have heard of him since he painted a very... risque picture of President Jacob Zuma. 

I'm not going to put that picture up because, quite frankly, I think it's gross as hell. But I am going to put up some of the work Murray did in 2010. This is a very angry man who appears to have lost patience with the South African government. His artwork reflects this in a big way. 

So, here it is: Hail to the Thief

You can check out the rest of Murray's work here.

Where is the Love?

I am hugely annoyed. This morning on the news, I saw Mitt Romney saying that he did not support same sex marriage. I suppose that this was to be expected. Obama supports same sex marriage so, by default, Romney will be against it.

But this whole issue has got me thinking, why the hell is this still being debated? It should be a no-brainer. You should be allowed to get married to whoever the heck you want, regardless of your sexuality. Who are these bloody politicians to dictate to people who they can or can't marry?

I think the thing that upsets me most about this situation is that the US is meant to be the "land of the free" and yet many state governments are willing to deny those who don't adhere to the "norm" the freedom to get married to whoever the hell they want.

South Africa is hardly guilt free in this regard. Our townships are plagued by "corrective rapes", where lesbian women are being gang raped to "cure" them of their sexuality. Our Chief Justice is a narrow minded, Bible hugging lunatic whose conservative stance on women's rights and sexual orientation have raised more than a few eyebrows. Mogoeng is a pastor at a church which claims that homosexuality is a "perversion" and that it is possible to "cure" a person of their homosexuality. Jon Qwelane, South Africa's ambassador to Uganda, is a raging homophobe( Uganda is considering passing legislation that will sentence "serial offenders" of homosexuality to death). In 2006, Jacob Zuma described same sex marriage as "a disgrace to the nation and to God".

Another thing that gets my goat is the reaction of the religious crazies. To be fair, not all religious people are nuts but the one that are, are scary. The whole Christian argument that "the Bible is against homosexuality" doesn't cut it for me. I thought the Bible also talked about loving your neighbour and all that. I saw some of the most asinine arguments on news24 on Thursday. Seriously, I was sitting there with my mouth wide open, catching flies. One woman said that she was worried about using public bathrooms and changing rooms because she was afraid of being ogled by a lesbian. Another argued that homosexuals shouldn't be able to adopt a child because the child would grow up in an "unstable" home life and that "it's likely that they will raise a homosexual child". Then, the comment that quite literally made me shudder, "how am I supposed to explain to my child that two men are getting married?" I would think that the explanation would be the same as that given for a heterosexual couple getting married.

The world is a crappy place and life is hard enough as it is. I think that instead of making those who have been lucky enough to find love, we should celebrate it in whatever form it takes. 

Guilty Pleasures

I am mega excited. So excited that I completely forgot my dignity and acted like a complete loon in Exclusive Books yesterday. "What's got you acting so crazy, Mony?" you may be asking.
Well, I'll tell you: I got my grubby mitts on Lover Reborn by J.R Ward. Yes, I know, the title sounds unbelievably cheesy. I read these books facing the wall so that no one will see the cover or read the title. But I do these things willingly because the Black Dagger Brotherhood series is my guilty pleasure.
It's a paranormal romance that is set in Caldwell, New York. It's about this group of vampire warriors (I can't believe that I just wrote that) who protect the civilian vampire population from the evil lessers who are trying to kill off the whole species.
 Lover Reborn is about the vampire Tohrment (all the Brothers have weirdly spelled names) who lost his mate in the war against the lessers. To say that he was broken up about it is an understatement. He bailed on the Brotherhood and went MIA for a couple of months. He finally came back (with his crazy guardian angel, Lassiter) and has set his sights on killing as many lessers as he can get his hands on.
I can see some people rolling their eyes here to the point where they're on the verge of going blind. But I promise, these vampires are NOT Twilight-y in any way, shape or form. This is not the girly-girl type of paranormal romance where the guy is this smoking hot stud with no flaws and where the chick is this beautiful, helpless (annoying) female. Plus, there are loads of other characters who are vital to the story, so it's not like the whole book revolves around two people. Lover Reborn is book 10 in the series. Please give these books a try. These are not the typical tweeny books that are so sickly sweet that they give you toothache. This is some seriously good stuff.
Okay, so here are the books in the Black Dagger Brotherhood in reading order:
1. Dark Lover
2. Lover Eternal
3. Lover Awakened (my favourite in the series)
4. Lover Revealed
5. Lover Unbound
6. Lover Enshrined
7. Lover Avenged
8. Lover Mine
9. Lover Unleashed
10. Lover Awakened

Happy reading people!!!

Think Before You Tweet

Today a young lady by the name of Jessica Leandra got introduced to Karma and her good friend, Consequence. Jessica, a former FHM model, has made a name for herself not by taking her clothes off but by being a little racist cow.
On Thursday evening, she went to her local Spar where a black man apparently made lewd comments about her appearance. Instead of just calling him a d***head or something, she went onto Twitter and threw around the k-word (I feel so juvenile writing that but I'm not about to repeat what she said). The worst part, I think, is the half-assed "apology" that she put on her blog (which can be seen here). I don't know which part of her little tirade that I find most offensive. Her language and racist attitude or her excuse that she was angry and that she was standing up against those men that "are the kinds of people that land up raping young girls of our country". I have to admit, I really don't like the implication that all black men are rapists. As a result, she has been stripped (ha ha) of some of her sponsorship deals and of her FHM title, whatever that might be.
It's really sad that this 20 year old girl has made a complete fool of herself in front of the whole Twitterverse. Not only is her idiocy trending on Twitter but a couple of people are talking about filing a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against Jessica for hate speech.
So, in a moment of anger, this silly twit has messed up her life for the foreseeable future. Well done, babe. In a few short hours, this chick has shot her future to s***.
Moral of the story: think before you tweet. What you do in the heat of the moment could turn around to bite you in the butt.