I am Filipina American, and I have typical Asian hair: jet black, silky, straight. Don’t even try to put a fingerwave up in there because I’ll just wind up with a forehead dripping with Dippity-Do. When my mother was younger, she would get closely cropped hairdos and get a perm in it and honestly, it looks hot. It looks like a loose-curl afro.

Recently I got my hair cut, and I asked one of the women working on my hair whether or not perms were making a comeback. She told me that not many women get perms, and it’s mostly because of all the studies that show what kind of damage a perm can do to hair.

The other woman who worked on my hair however, told me that she specializes in perms and a perm would look amazing on me. Since my hair is so healthy already, it wouldn’t damage my hair that much.

Take note that Cookie, the second stylist, is amazing at what she does and specializes in chemical treatments: color, color correction, perms, straightening.

I’ve been making fun of perms for awhile, but after seeing those vintage shots of my mom in her lil afro, I can’t hate on them too hard.

Photo courtesy bombhead.com

Boys who wear leggings. Got a problem with that? Keep it to yourself. One thing I love about fashion is how fun it can be, and also how witty you can be if you dress with a sense of humor.

I found it unfortunate when two of my male friends were scared to dress the way they wanted to dress because of being ridiculed by the run-of-the-mills (as I like to call them). While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wearing Tommy Hilfiger khaki cargo pants with your flip flops (except, of course, the blatant use of horrible sweatshop labor), and there’s definitely nothing wrong with being uninterested in fashion, there is something wrong when you bully someone because of how they dress. I swear this is something we all learned in middle school.

I think it’s awesome when guys want to have fun with their clothes, create a style, and go with it — run with it! One of the guy friends I’m talking about definitely gets laid by more hot girls than any other guy I know, so more power to you.

By the way, what I said about sweatshops? It’s true. A Made in the USA tag? Be careful! “Because they were produced in a territory of the United States, garments traveled tariff-free and quota-free to the profitable U.S. market and were entitled to display the coveted Made in the USA label.” — CNN.com

I saw a poster for a book signing for Jamie Lee Curtis at Borders Bookstore’s alpha home base (store 1 is in Ann Arbor, man!)  I definitely did not get the same shock as the time a few months ago when I saw that JEWEL was going to do a mini concert!

When I say Jewel, yes I do mean Jewel Kilcher of “bad” poetry book fame.  I’m not going to hate on her book like so many others did, however.

If you know me well, you’ll know that I get a kick out of things that I don’t normally like.  The best example of this that I can think of are perms.  You know, like for the hair?  I want a perm.  And it’s not because I think a perm is fashionable… it’s because I think getting a perm would be funny.

So I thought that going to see Jewel do her mini concert would be funny.  “Pieces of You”, Night in Shinging Armour…  that Jewel.  Funny.  The last time I saw her she was in a J-Lo phase awkwardly dancing to “Intuition”.  HOWEVER, I am not going to front…  I was a fan back when I was a sophomore in high school.  My brother bought her CD and I remember probably shedding a tear or two (shut up) when listening to “Don’t”.

I invited my friend Dustin to watch her because I figured he might think it was funny also, and I had this daydream that only thirty people would show up and I’d get to ask her questions during her Q & A about fashion and what she’d put on a mix tape and I’d get to write about my special session with her on here.

 Um…  so…  we got there, needed a wristband, and over 200 people showed up on Borders’ second floor.  Jewel got up to perform and she was pretty and charming and joked with the audience.  She talked about how she went to school at Interlochen (which is where my ex-boyfriend went) and brought a hunting knife to school with her fresh off of the Alaska boat.  Her words, not mine.  Then she talked about her year living out of her van which my ex said never happened because she went to Interlochen.  However, both stories  exsist side by side because she received a full scholarship to attend Interlochen to sing classical voice.  Later, she didn’t go to college and instead worked for a computer warehouse and was fired from her job for being late too many times.  That’s when she had to live out of her van.  She said she almost shoplifted a $34 dress, and then she realized that she had a choice whether or not she would steal that dress.  She said, “Wait a minute, what the hell makes me think that I can’t make $34?”  And that’s when she wrote “Hands”, which was also the first song she heard on the radio on September 13, 2001, after emerging from camping with her boyfriend and unaware of the events of September 11, 2001.

She also cried the first time she heard herself on the radio because the studio release of “Who Will Save Your Soul” makes her sound like Kermit the Frog.

Eventually she had to do her CD signing, and I didn’t have a CD, so I took my son to a vacated part of Borders to put him back in his stroller.  That’s when Jewel emerged from nowhere and walked past me — my summers as a high school student listening to her baby-ish voice slapped me in my face with a blonde swoosh.  I got shy and giddy and we smiled at each other and in that moment it wasn’t funny.

Yeah, so I’m happy I went to see Jewel sing at Borders.  Whut.

Having been “one of the guys” for so long, I pretty much have a pretty awesome taste in movies. Guys definitely have the edge on this one.

Pros:

1.) Zombies
2.) Bad ass Super heros
3.) Weird cult films
4.) old martial arts films

cons

1.) Pearl Harbor
2.) …. Pearl Harbor! Or is that a chick flick??

I’ve definitely scored with some hot guys having comic books under my belt. I mean, you definitely have the dudes who do not like comic books, and women who do not like men who like comic books. I would fall under the category of “Woman who PREFERS dudes who like comic books.”

Which brings me to Iron Man, which I only new about because Gwyneth Palthrow was on the cover of a recent issue of Vogue. Why? Her role as Pepper in this Favreau film.

I watched it the other day with my partner. Did I like it? Yes. Was I supposed to? Apparently not! At work today, I brought it up with my co-worker automatically assuming that she thought it was awesome.

“Did you like it?” she asked. “Yeah, I liked it, too. For a stupid guy movie. Guys are so into that movie.”

It’s like I got shot back to reality because I completely forgot about the movie aspect when it comes to being “one of the guys”. It is so important. But I must say, aside from the college and NBA basketball, it is one of the most fun parts. Swingers? Made? Dawn of the Dead? Audition? Lone Wolf and Cub? Come ON!

Why did I like Iron Man? Well, it definitely wasn’t because Ms. Palthrow was front and Center with a romantic side-plot. I mean, the guy makes a super hero suit/weapon of mass destruction. It is set with a very present-day feel complete with the guy from Hustle and Flow and stripper flight attendants on an airplane. What is not to love?

I love being one of the guys. This is a much better date movie than SATC.

In college, my best friend had a roommate who was about as vain as a varicose. She was a model, and because she was compared once to Laeticia Casta, she really milked that compliment and acted like she was the shit. And she was the shit, literally. She suffered from colitis. I didn’t know what colitis was until I met this girl.

I also didn’t like her very much because she could be such an unlikable snob! She’d made some comment about this great find I had — a pinkish/purple suede trench with a rabbit fur detachable collar — and how it wasn’t cool because I got it off of the discount rack!

My friend who was pre-med at the time informed me about a link between colitis and narcissism, and this has always intrigued me. I found this to be very interesting. That Miss Almost Laeticia was so full of herself that she couldn’t even make it to the bathroom to poop. What an unfortunate medical condition.

I was reading “Psychogenesis and Psychotherapy of Ulcerative Colitis” by J. Groen, MD, and this doctor points out the following that he observed in his patients suffering from this condition:

1.) Well developed intellect.
2.) Exaggerated carefulness and neatness. (I remember her being really anal about cleaning up after parties.)
3.) Sensitive, and sometimes oversensitive.
4.) Narcissism is always present, sometimes even under false modesty.
5.) Egocentric.
6.) Ambitious to a limited degree.
7.) Fearful and cowardly.
8.) “they gossip and complain about who they hate but do not fight them”
9.) Great need for love, sympathy, and affection.
10.) Exagerrated, infantile conception of love.
11.) Male cases had an abnormal affection for their mother
12.) At first these patients are difficult to talk to.

Look at number 8! It sounded like an an article written by someone who got badly burned by a person with colitis, much like this article I read about Borderline Personality Disorder. It was in Psychology Today. The doctor wrote about an affair he had with a BPD patient who just downed a charcoal shake after an overdose. It sounded very bitter and as if he was writing the article to spite her.

The colitis article was also written in 1947. I am interested in reading more recent case studies. While I know that all people who have colitis aren’t egomaniacal clean freaks, I would like to explore the other side of that — do people who are full of themselves have problems with their bowels?

There’s a scene in the new Sex in the City movie (shut up, you know you secretly want to watch it) where Carrie and Big are sitting together in bed and she asks to use Big’s glasses. This totally reminds me of (shut up) me and my boyfriend because these past two weeks I have been living as a dorky squinter. Definition of a dorky squinter: Someone who isn’t wearing glasses but should, resulting in geeky facial expressions such as wrinkled noses and exposed front teeth when trying to peer at things in order to see them. I lost my five year old Burberry emo glasses and have been using my best friend’s reject contact lenses and my boyfriend’s blue emo glasses as back-up when I need to see.

They got used during a wedding I was in (had to!) and during a lot of the eastern conference NBA play offs (ugh, let’s not talk about it). Also, during said Sex and the City movie which I hate myself for thinking about too much since I have not forgiven Carrie for her views on bisexuality or Miranda’s typical racism.

Anyway, back to Carrie and Big in bed. Carrie is wearing a sexy chemise and not an oversized T-shirt with boxer shorts.

This reminds me of a movie my best friend S suggested I watch called Last Kiss starring Zack Braf. I don’t know if I spelled that right and spell check doesn’t work on names, unfortunately. In the movie, one of his friends says that his girlfriend is perfect because she’s beautiful (debatable, but I’m hating) and just like “one of the guys”.

My question is, do guys really want to date one of the guys? I’m teetering on dangerous sex role stereotypes here, but let’s try and interpret what “one of the guys” attempts to mean. Swearing? Farting? What else? Baggy dirty clothes? Watches sports?

My friend Jillian and I were talking about how great it is to have guy friends to hang out with because hanging out with girly girls can be too overwhelming.

“I can only say, omigod, these shoes are so cute, so many times before I start wanting to throw up,” she said.

Honestly, I were only allowed to talk about fashion in this blog while having to write in it every day, I think I would sneak in a review of a Pistons jersey somewhere. Oh, wait, I did do that! Having a good group of guy friends is definitely a plus. I used to only hang out with guys all the time — sports, drinks, sex talk (for awhile it was only the guys who would talk about sex) — the only thing was I wore stilettos and skirts back then. And I will say, hanging out with the guys definitely got me the most attention.

So dating “one of the guys” is good, but what about committing to her? I get worried that I fart some foul smells a bit too often in front of my partner and don’t give a rat’s ass about how I look at times. As I write this, however, it crosses my mind that it doesn’t mean that I’m being “too much of a guy”, but just careless.

I asked one guy I know whether or not he would date a girl who acted like one of his buddies. His immediate response: “Is she pretty?” The farting had to be controlled, but going to a game was a plus.

But wait, some women just don’t like sports.

I don’t think the point here is to all of a sudden gain an acute interest in NBA stats and players (my personal forte), but don’t dog it if you haven’t tried it (number one) and (number two) let’s say you don’t like sports. Fine. I think another quality that is unfortunately considered a “guy” quality is just speaking your mind with that biting sarcastic humor of yours that can go one on one — like Mortal Kombat but with insults and/or cleverness.

While I realize I’m using lots of masculine stereotypes, we should know the story about the woman who took doses of testosterone. That’s for another article, however.

People tend to have a love hate relationship with girls with short dos. Some consider it a don’t, while others have a strict preference for the pixies. My take?

The current answer is HOT HOT HOT. I’m going short a la Jean Seberg in Breathless, the indie-mother of all American in Paris films. I was surprised to learn that a couple other of my friends are going the super-short route as well.

Drinking Shandies (not bousgie) with my friend J over some garlic shrimp (bousgie) pizza, we were discussing our desire to crop our locks with the risky new “it” look.

“I like it,” she said. “It gives me an excuse to dress like a slut.”

I, on the other hand, like the ambiguous gender look. Especially lovable: My son won’t be able to yank my hair into bruised oblivion!

Photo courtesy gonemovie.com.

Netflix is a wonderful thing that recently brought the Don Cheadle movie Talk to Me to my doorstep. As much as I love and always will love the independent movie store — there just aren’t anymore around where I live. It’s either Blockbuster of Netflix, and for the sake of being a mom who loves being at home with her babe (or at a non-smoking bar watching a Pistons game!), I’m going to choose Netflix. Hey, I love the internet, what can I say.

Talk to Me was a very interesting movie if you know nothing about the radio personality, Petey Greene. I’ve talked about historical accuracy before when I was reviewing the fashion in the Kirsten Dunst film Marie Antoinette. Talk to Me focused on the historical importance of Petey Greene and his role in restoring peace in DC after the riots when Dr. Matin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Although he is also known for sharing the mic with Howard Stern, I’m glad they made no mention of that in this film. Also interesting was that it made no mention that he was a father!

You know me and fashion — though 60’s and 70’s retro made a brief recurrence in the fashion world in early spring, the look is getting tired. I’m always a fan of the fro, but the threads can go out the door for me now. I was reading an article in Vogue about Forest Whittaker’s wife, Keisha, and they described her style as beatnik Audrey Hepburn. I think my eye is veering towards that look now — but minus the cropped pants please! There aren’t any floods around here!