Dubbed 'Gay Pride Cake' (pretty much only by us), not only will this cake celebrate free, unhindered and accepting love on any occasion but it will get you as you high as multi-coloured kite on a shit load of sugar. Let's hope on this election day, Australians take an evolutionary step forward and give people a reason to stuff their faces!
This clip would seem to have nothing to do with birthdays but through a fortuitous train of birthday–related cyber-stalking (and the discovery that Kim Gordon and I share the same birthday. YES!), I found this clip and discovered this concert. In 1997, David Bowie celebrated his 50th birthday by playing live in Madison Square Gardens, New York. With a line-up consisting of Smashing Pumpkin's Billy Corgan, The Cure, Placebo (relatively unknown at the time but already long lauded by Bowie as the next big things), the Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Lou Reed, Frank Black and, of course, the thin, white duke himself, I can't imagine what this gig must have been like. Bowie apparently once said, 'I shall welcome it!' when asked how he would feel when he turned 50. I personally love how he picked artists of the time to do this instead of harking back to some past era as if he was relevant then but not now. The real classics are everlasting. – Erin Kitchingman
Our birthday is not only a celebration of when we came into this world, it is a celebration of life. We are alive now, once we were not. Julia deVille celebrates life through death and vice versa. Her beautiful, dark pieces make a bigger impact than their delicate components of tiny animal bones and precious gems and lifeless creatures would imply. Think about it beyond the obvious references of taxidermy and death and you realise that these creatures are living again - as re-used objects but also as a way for us to engage in the age-old practice of using jewellery and trinkets to illuminate our living presence in the world. These pieces allow us to enhance our aliveness and appeal to those who's attention we catch, making them see our existence, making them aware that we are here and that we are alive, celebrating our life.
The birth of gay rights is a birthday of sorts. Good sorts. Immense sorts. Historic and great sorts. This film is not being shown in Australia yet but, we can but wish and hope. Having come back from a trip to San Fran just over a year ago and by way of it realising just how momentuous these events were in the train of many people's lives, it would be amazing to see a filmatic study of such a birthday—the denial on society's part o these lives, the repressed celebration of that, the coming of age and refusal to pretend to NOT be fully alive, and the subsequent aftermath. Like any birth of an era whether it be one person's or a whole portion of society's, this would be a fantastic 'birthday' film indeed. Keep an ear out for Stonewall Uprising.
Skull cakes by Chloe Bird. Not much more to say here but... amazing. Imagine sticking a candle or two in that and wondering how long you've got left. Really these are the ultimate way of coming to terms with your slow crawl to the grave. Very grounding and delicious.
