Rachelle's Secret Diary

The annual Halifax Best of Music in The Coast is now accepting votes. We, The Stolen Minks, would love some votes! If you have a couple of minutes, please zip on over to the link below and vote. We would especially like to be considered for:

1. Best video for Boys on the Floor because Ben did a rocking good job on it.
2. Best band to dance to.
3. Best merch (we make it all ourselves!)

But please feel free to vote for us (or whoever you like) in as many categories as you see fit. YOU HAVE TO VOTE IN AT LEAST 10 CATEGORIES FOR YOUR BALLOT TO COUNT. Just something to keep in mind.

Also, we endorse David Cieplinski as best music photographer.

Vote Here

/shameless self-promotion

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool

Opening Credits: Five and Ten - Link Wray
Falling in Love: Money Is King - Piggy
Breaking Up: Some Kind of Wonderful - Grand Funk Railroad
Prom: Spanish Armada - Ratatat
Life's OK: Branded - The Stolen Minks
Mental Breakdown: Spottieottiedopealiscious - OutKast
Driving: Lie To Me - Tom Waits
Getting Back Together: Weather With You - Crowded House
Birth of Child: Backteeth - Elevator to Hell
Wedding Scene: I Can Hear You - Bon Tempi
Final Battle: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
Death Scene: And If I Fall - Charlatans UK
Funeral Scene: Wrong Kind of Girl - Roger Miller
End Credits: Use Your Powers - Dog Day

Well...that's a really weird movie. I didn't know I had Sgt Pepper or Grand Funk in my library. Awesome.

I got tagged with a meme, so here we go:

Rules are: No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your livejournal along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

1 - Money Maker - Ludacris ft Pharrell
2 - Tootsie Roll - 69 Boyz
3 - New Year's Resolution - Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
4 - TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
5 - Kryptonite (I Be On It) - Purple Ribbon All Stars
6 - Atta Boy, Girl - Roger Miller
7 - Two Guys - Peaches

I don't feel like tagging people. Just post it if you want to do it.

In other news, Thor has reviewed a Stolen Minks song! Check it out!

What Thor thinks of "Batman (You're the Sex)"

I have 18 minutes left of my last day of work. Eeeeeeeeee...

Ok, so local columnist Peter Duffy has finally lost his mind.

He wrote this article on a recent encounter he had with a ghost, which he claims "violated" him in bed:

Nocturnal visit leaves me shaken

An article so hilarious and embarrassing that it actually got posted on Gawker:
Great Moments in Journalism: Raped In The Ass By Ghosts

And then here's the promised follow-up article:

Making sense of angels and demons

Holy God. This is solid gold. Journalism!

All I know is that if I were a ghost, and could have sex with anyone, I would not choose Peter Duffy. I think there's a good chance that "Violated by a ghost" = "Brought home a male prostitute."

Holy hell! Look at this! This is one of the listening stations at the HMV Megastore in Montreal!!!





Insane. Totally insane. I'm the greatest.

I just want to share this photo from the recent Stolen Minks photo shoot. I think it's great:



This is what you get when you pump Missy Elliot during your photo shoots.

We've clawed our way back up to #7 on the national charts this week. Using our mink claws. Which are sharp.

Thanks largely to the western half of the country, where I have never been but must be awesome.

Mink power!

Guess what's back? BAD MOVIE WEDNESDAY!

I saw the trailed for Mel Gibson's upcoming epic crapfest Apocalypto, and it reminded me that Mel Gibson sucks.

Which reminded me of What Women Want.

Year: 2000
Directed By: Nancy Meyers (for the record, I really hated Father of the Bride. Like, really hated).
Starring: Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, and, sadly, Alan Alda, who will always be cool in my books.

Tagline: He has the power to hear everything women are thinking. Finally... a man is listening.

Ok. This movie kind of went out of its way to warn you that it would be bad. So really it's my fault for saying 'Aw, it might be fun' and going anyway. This was, remember, pre-racist Gibson. But certainly post-cool Gibson (also called pre-Braveheart, which is not a good movie everyone). When I say 'cool Gibson,' I'm talking about The Year of Living Dangerously, Mad Max, and Maverick. So post-cool, pre-racist, but golden-era crazy self-indulgent fanatic Gibson.

This was also kind of the end of Helen Hunt's stint as a spotlight celebrity. Which is kinda too bad because I don't hate her.

So anyway, Mel Gibson stretches to play an egotistical, chauvenistic ass. He's an advertising big-shot. He is testing out some womens' products on himself, and gets electrocuted in the process. HE DOESN'T DIE! Instead he becomes gifted with the ability to hear womens' thoughts. All women. All the time.

And what are women thinking? Nothing much. Mostly they think about their hair or their weight or their boyfriends. Apparantly women also think in complete sentences too. It's a good thing he couldn't hear my thoughts because they would not have made for good soundbites for the trailer. It would have been a jumbled mash, which is really how people think.

But even putting that detail aside, this movie is useless. The humour is pretty much locked up in Mel Gibson saying and doing girly things. Always hilarious. You know, timeless humour like Gibson singing the chorus of Merideth Brooks' 'Bitch' song, but getting the words wrong! Or saying 'You go, Girl!' to his own reflection.

Really the root problem with this movie is that all that happens is a complete and utter asshole gets a power that allows him to get the girl, find happiness and become even more successful. What on earth is satisfying about that?!

Here is a way that this could have been a better movie. Maybe even a great movie:

Mel Gibson should have played himself. Then he would gain the same stupid power and he'd get to hear what women are thinking...about Mel Gibson! Fabulous! So post-modern it hurts! Oscars all around!

Instead...this movie is bad.

I bought Superman Returns and I get home and open it and it's the stupid one without any special features. ARRRRGH!!! Why would you release such a thing?! Just put out the one with the features, charge the higher price and stop tricking me into buying stuff I don't want! All this has is the movie and scene selections!

The worst part is I could barely afford to buy this. Now I don't even have what I want.

I hate you, Superman.

Yeah, so in a month I'll be done work. And I am very excited. I am going to see how long I can last without having an actual job. I plan to stay afloat using a combination of free-lance writing, film-extra work, and various odd jobs. The rest of the time will be completely my own and I can't wait.

A week or two ago I was depressed because I felt that my 20s were passing me by and I didn't do any of the things I had dreamed I would do. It struck me that I could totally stop this from happening. The only thing that was keeping me in a regular job was fear of poverty. But there is always a way to scrape together money without devoting every second of your life to a job, especially at my age.

I think there's something about charting at #1 for a week. I really feel like I can do anything. I mean, it's not, like a huge deal. We're not, like, rich and famous now. But it's kind of huge. 5 years ago if someone had told me my band would be #1 in the country on the college radio charts I would have said "What band? I can't be in a band! I don't know how to be in a band! I've never even considered it! I can't sing or play anything that rocks!" Basically, 5 years ago if someone had said I was going to be in a band, period, I wouldn't have believed them.

Not that it just sort of happened. This band has been a whole lot of work, and now it's paying off. At least in terms of self esteem. Not so much with the money. But who knows? Our CD will be featured in one of the listening booths at the HMV Megastore in Montreal next month. That's exciting. I believe there is some sort of in-store poster involved with that. We also just sold a song to Food Jammers on the Canadian Food Network. Also exciting.

So here is what I am planning for 2007. It's going to be the best year of my life:

1. Study hard in January for the GMAT test, but also enjoy some free time. Play some video games. Watch some box sets. Write some songs. Try to finish the comic I have been writing for 3 damn years. Do the things I would like to do if I wasn't at work. Because I won't be at work. Awesome.

2. Take and pass the GMAT test with flying colours. Also: mini-tour with the band of New Brunswick. Then take off for Florida for a week to visit my parents with Steph.

3. Road trip March! Take a shot at driving to Texas and back. Maybe South By Southwest will be involved, maybe not. Just drive around the South like I've always wanted to. Make some stops along the way. I've always wanted to see Philadelphia and St Louis, for some reason. America!

4. Record a third and likely final EP for tour in April.

5. Tour across Canada in May or June. All the way across. See the West Coast for the first time. Maybe dip into the Northern States. See Portland and such. Maybe both Portlands.

6. COMIC CON SAN DIEGO in July!!! I am seriously considering this. It would be my dream trip.

7. Whatever in August

8. Start school in September.

2007! Yeah!

Also...Superman Returns on DVD today!!! EEEEEEEEEEE!!!