The Best Eyebrow Pencil Ever

We're always on the hunt for eyebrow pencils for our blonde eyebrows. Our current fave is the Brow Trio Pencil from Darac Beauty. We had the opportunity to meet Darac, the QVC star, a few weeks back courtesy of Daily Makeover. It's easy to see why Darac is on QVC--his larger than life personality was made for TV. It's hard for us to describe the Brow Trio Pencil better than Darac does on his own website, "A bright young even face is what attracts the men, it’s written in their DNA. Brows are the easiest place to set the stage for that balanced youthful look." Damn! Can we order 10 of them?

The genius of the Darac Brow Trio Pencil is the tri-action. One end is a brush, one end is an angled brow pencil that truly is as "goof-proof" as Darac claims it is, and the third is a highlighting powder. Darac recomends you use it "above and below brows to add instant symmetry and youth." We're in love!

so i made a movie: VOYEUR, part five

...or, Let Me Tell You About My Grandchildren Camping Trip.

Yes, friends, it's time for the long-awaited* final installment of the saga of the making of Voyeur, a short film by Shannon Lark. I held the camera.

Part one of the making of Voyeur can be read here, part two here, part three here, and part four here.
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STACIE PONDER: If the road from San Francisco to Stockton does, in fact, run through the bowels of Hell (as I surmised in our last installment), then the road from Stockton to Sasquatch Mountain runs through the bowels of said bowels. The drive was so incredibly hot, my sweat turned to steam and my face exploded in flames. LITERALLY. I’m fine now, but boy was I miserable THEN.

SHANNON LARK: It was so hot I thought I peed all over Stacie's seat, but then I realized that I was just sitting in my own sweat. Phew!

STACIE PONDER: Things cooled off and got better as we busted a move into the Sasquatch Mountain region…or, as our government insists on calling it, “Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park.” If you ask me, they would see a revenue rise of AT LEAST 1% if they changed the name, but whatevs. Anyway, I was all agog at the sights and yes, the big ass trees when suddenly a ranger pulled me over. Yes, I got pulled over in a National Park by a ranger…for having a dead taillight. I’m sure the sordid details of my life on the wrong side of the tracks come as some sort of shock to you, but please- don’t judge. Or if you must, then judge my parents, Mad Magazine, and Elvira’s Movie Macabre- it’s because of those things that I am the way I am. Ranger Trotter was very nice and let me go with a…well, a warning, I guess. Despite the fact that she was very nice, however, Shannon and I nicknamed her “Hot to Trotter” and speculated about her promiscuous ways for the remainder of our time in the park.

SHANNON LARK: I think she bursts out of a cake and does a nightly striptease.

STACIE PONDER: We reached the top of the mountain (about 8000 feet) and began down the other side, heading towards the Visitor’s Center, where we figured we’d get all our campsite info, blah blah blah. After 20 minutes of steep descent and insane switchback driving, I thought I felt my brakes getting…mushy. And I could smell ‘em getting…stinky. I commented as much to Shannon, but what could we do? Within minutes, though, my brake pedal went all the way to the fucking floor- which was the moment I decided to, you know, pull over.

SHANNON LARK: I got the feeling we were gonna go over the hill at Sasquatch Mountain, never to be found again, not even by Trotter. Besides, all the sweating made me have to pee.

STACIE PONDER: So there we were, stuck halfway down the mountain with virtually no brakes. Shannon called the ranger station and we sat…and sat…and sat waiting for them to arrive. The sun sank below the horizon, Shannon peed in the woods, and I fretted the fact that whatever the problem with my car was, it was going to cost some money. I also took pictures of the sunset, which was all, like, beautiful and whatever.

Finally the rangers arrived, assessed the situation, and made two suggestions: we could either continue down the mountain, or they could call a tow, which would take several MORE hours to arrive. After a moment’s thought, I figured eh, let’s keep going. My car has a standard transmission; heading down a mountain with virtually no brakes is but ALMOST completely terrifying if you do it in first gear. Since I’m typing this, I think it’s safe for you to assume that we made it.

We got to a campsite after dark, which made for an interesting setup…not to mention that we had no wood, no lighter fluid, no pillows, and no blankets. But we persevered! As Shannon set up the tent, I went and nicely asked our neighbor if we could borrow some lighter fluid. She wasn’t thrilled with the notion, even telling me not to use it all- but she obliged. We pilfered firewood, started a fire, and busted out our warm beers. We didn’t have a bottle opener either, but I managed to open them on a big rock, all cave lady style.

The next day we set about getting my brakes fixed: there was a random garage plopped in the middle of an orange grove that was maybe a half hour away. They fixed my brakes up REAL GOOD friends, and it was cheap. So, if you ever experience car trouble on Sasquatch Mountain, I recommend that guy in the orange grove. I think his name is Robert something…unless the scorching sun that beat on my face during the drive melted my brain and I imagined the whole thing. It’s possible.

SHANNON LARK: I think we felt pretty cool: run-in with the law, brakes go out, no fire, warm beer with no bottle opener, not even a fucking blanket (we used curtains) and we made it. Not only that, we had fun! Robert was awesome.

STACIE PONDER: Shannon and I spent two days on Sasquatch Mountain, doing a bit of hiking and a whole lot of pants peeing when a bear walked by our campsite twice. We paid a visit to good ol’ General Sherman- or, as you might know him, the largest tree in the whole fucking world. Good times…but we had to head back to Los Angeles to tackle the issues with the Voyeur footage. Crap times.

SHANNON LARK: Ugh.

STACIE PONDER: We THOUGHT it would be a breeze, that we could dump the footage onto my computer, convert it, and transfer it to Shannon’s laptop…but nothing computer-related is EVER as easy as you think it’s going to be. Finally, we discovered that we needed Final Cut Pro, and I’m running Final Cut Express. I called my friend Brian, who brought his FCP-flavored laptop over…still no joy. Eventually Brian left, but Shannon and I stayed up until 5:30am trying to get it to work. Nothing.

SHANNON LARK: We tried every conceivable possibility, and it was like a bitch slap in the face. By the end, Stacie and I agreed that if she could get the files, she would transfer them onto tape so I can hopefully see them one day.

STACIE PONDER: Shannon had to fly home later that morning, and she had to do so empty-handed. Well, with regards to footage, anyway- she did bring all the rest of her crap back to New Mexico. She left behind her hard drive, however, so I could continue working on the problem. At that point, we hadn’t even SEEN the Voyeur footage. What if it was corrupted? What if it stunk? What if we’d wasted all that time and effort? Fucking memory card compatibility bullshit. TAPES, my friends, are the way to go.

I worked for the next several days, rendering, re-rendering, importing, exporting, cursing, threatening…and finally, somehow I transferred the footage from their raw, unusable format into .mov file, which Shannon could use in Premiere. I have no idea what voodoo combination finally worked, and I’m sure I could never do it again…which is fine, because I won’t need to. I USE TAPES. I sent everything to Shannon and washed my hands of Voyeur; now I’m just anxiously awaiting the finished product along with the rest of you.

SHANNON LARK: I received the tapes a few days later, in a big happy birthday package with a big ol' birthday note that said blablabla love, Stacie Ponder. It was brilliant. The tapes worked and I could see stuff! YAY!! Voyeur should be released soon, with Ponder and Lark smeared all over it, like sticky sweat that makes you need to pee.

*your interest may vary

Michael Kors Very Hollywood

How can you not love a fragrance that's inspired by the glamor of old Hollywood, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, an old-fashioned flash bulb and faux eyelashes? Michael Kors mixed all those together to come up with his latest fragrance, Very Hollywood. It's a blend of wet jasmine, ylang ylang, raspberry, gardenia, Italian orsis, creamy amber and soft white moss.


The fragrance line also includes this gorge over-sized cocktail ring with solid fragrance inside--perfect for on the go touch ups.


There's still time to enter the Michael Kors Very Hollywood/Instyle Red Carpet sweepstakes for a 3-night trip for two to Hollywood.

"You're all going to die down here..."

Hold on to your pants, 'cause I've got some shocking news for you: someday, you're going to die. Don't worry- we all are...yes, even me (most likely). Now, this is not something we humans especially enjoy thinking about. In fact, it's only by ignoring our inevitable expiration dates that we can function on a day to day basis. In other words, it's good to have a touch of that "I'm fucking invincible!" attitude, lest you spend your days curled up in a corner alternately sobbing, fretting, and pondering the great beyond.

I'm not saying that one shouldn't reflect now and again, don't get me wrong. Isn't that why some of us watch horror films? To safely experience death? That's what people say, anyway, and maybe it's partially true. After all, it's good to be aware of The End, 'cause maybe that awareness will make you appreciate The Now. Isn't that what everyone always says after some sort of tragedy? "Wow, 10 zillion people died in that natural disaster halfway around the world. It really makes you think- I could die at any moment! I'm totally going to carpe fucking diem!" While the intentions may be honorable, however, folks tend to carpe fucking diem for a few days at a time max- then it's back to bitching about the weather, making fun of other people's clothes, not calling one's friends and family, playing "me first!" in the parking lot, staring at the TV, or spending hours writing on some horror blog. It's natural- if you actually lived every day as if it were your last, you'd probably be exhausted.

This is all an overly-effusive introduction to what's perhaps a banal question: What's the least pleasant type of horror movie death? Let's figure that out. See, it's almost fun to talk about death within the confines of fakery and fantasy, whereas the reality of death is, you know, a drag. To wit:

• death by Ebola: possible, drag
• death by zombies: most likely impossible, fun

Incidentally, I think that being torn asunder by zombies whilst alive would really really suck, and that's what gets my vote for the worst. Weigh in with your votes in the comments, and then go for a walk.

OW.

Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction

We're looking forward to viewing Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction at the Whitney Museum in NY. It's the first ever show concentrating exclusively on O'Keeffe's abstractions throughout her long career, as opposed to other shows which have focused on particular subjects or comprehensive reviews of her lifetime's work. While O'Keeffe is well known for her flowers, animal bones and landscapes, she was also one of the earliest American artists (and notably a woman) that experimented with abstract art.

The exhibit features over 100 paintings, watercolors and sculptures. It will also include excerpts from the recently released huge collection of love letters between O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz and a selection of Stieglitz's photographs of O'Keeffe.

Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction will be at the Whitney Museum September 17, 2009 to January 17, 2010, then it moves to the Phillips Collection in Washington February 6 to May 9, 2010, finally it stops at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe May 28 to September 10, 2010.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Series 1-No. 3, 1918, Milwaukee Museum of Art.

Venus Williams' US Open T-Shirt

Turns out Maria Sharpova isn't the only designer playing in the U.S. Open. Venus Williams designed this eco-friendly T-shirt for the tournament. Venus told WWD, that the shirt combines three of her interests, fashion, tennis and the environment. The shirt reads: Green Your Game. A portion of the proceeds of the organic cotton t-shirt go to Unisphere Inc., a non-profit that Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The $36 shirt is for sale on USOpen.org.

The Lippmann Collection Celebrates 10 Years With A Giveaway

Sometimes we feel like switching things up and painting our nails fun and crazy colors. Deborah Lippmann combines top notch quality nail polish with out of the ordinary colors to brighten up your day and your nail beds. The Lippman Collection is celebrating their 10 year anniversary next month. To kick off the celebration, they are ever so kindly giving away a $50 gift certificate to every 10th customer who makes a purchase on http://www.lippmanncollection.com/ today, September 1, 2009. The promotion only lasts one day so act fast! To commemorate this milestone, fashion manicurist to the stars Deborah Lippman created a limited edition collection of glitz and glamour shades available for just $35. As seen above, some are as shiny as Dorothy's slippers or as gold as Midas's touch. Celebs such as Lady Gaga are getting in on the fun too. She likes Ruby Red Slippers, in case you were wondering. Channel her style and try to win a gift certificate. Good luck!