Converse - All Star Hi - Black Denim

Some new Converse just arrived instore just in time for the summer months ahead. The Converse Chuck Taylor All Star in a new Black Denim colourway looks great, and sports a great fabric finish, with Tan leather details bursting through.

 Marquis Mills Converse opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in Malden, Massachusetts in February 1908. The company was a rubber shoe manufacturer, providing winterized rubber soled footwear for men, women, and children. By 1910, Converse was producing 4,000 shoes daily, but it was not until 1915 that the company began manufacturing athletic shoes for tennis. The company's main turning point came in 1917 when the Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced. Then in 1921, a basketball player named Charles H. "Chuck" Taylor walked into Converse, complaining of sore feet. Converse gave him a job. He worked as a salesman and famous ambassador for the product, promoting the shoes around the United States, and in 1923 his signature was added to the All Star patch.
Converse went through a long period of change and management until it lost much of its apparent near-monopoly from the 1970s onward, with the surge of new competitors, including Puma and Adidas, then Nike, then later Reebok, entered the market who introduced radical new designs. Converse found themselves no longer the official shoe of the National Basketball Association, a title they had relished for many years. While being employed at Converse, one of its employees, created the iconic chevron and star insignia / logo that still remains on most of the footwear items to this present day. You can check out more pics below.

The shoes shown above alongside our great range of Converse are available instore and online at Fat Buddha Store now. You can check it out here.

Things I don't like in a dude (PM)

Eeeeewwwwww. Long nails on a dude! I also find this incredibly offputting.

I understand that this is a ridiculous double standard; why can chicks have long nails and not dudes? But that's just how I feel. In fact, just last night I was looking at The Sartorialist coverage of the Burberry menswear show and thinking to myself, "Some chicks' looks just don't work on men." Specifically in this case metallic clutches.

Thanks for the picture The Sartorialis

I don't like tits on my dudes either, you gonna give me a hard time about that?

Anyways, as I am neither in nor on the market I probs don't spend as much time as K checking out the dudes on the tram. Not that I don't spend any time doing that. Usually if I see a handsome man on a tram I think, what a shame this guy is on my tram and not the 96 (K's tramline). But I guess it takes more than the same tramline and respectable nail length to fall in love.

Things I don't like in a dude (AM)

I don't want to sound creepy or anything, but when I am on the tram, I spend a lot of time looking at dudes. I can't help it. The dudes are everywhere - all up in my business. Sometimes the dudes are adorable and I kind of fall in love with them. This is likely to happen if the dude is tall, if he is wearing a jumper, if he is a smiley type and if he is quite fair, but pulls up just short of being pasty. I also like the ones that are not fair, but are dark and vaguely swarthy and look a little bit like Jesus. I also like the ones with a touch of red. It's not a science, I just like what I like.

Anyway, with the good, also comes the bad. I mean, this is public transport people. There is no quality control. So while there are lots of dudes that I fall in love with, there are also lots of dudes that I most definitely do not fall in love with. Do you want to know why? Of course you do, why else are you here, readers?!

Before I tell you, I should acknowlege that the following list applies to dudes I see on the tram and never speak to, so by its nature it contains some very superficial things. These dudes who I judge so harshly may be wonderful, lovely people. I hope they are! But gee, you've got to pass judegement somehow, because there are a lot of dudes on the tram and one can't fall in love with all of them if one wants to be a functional member of the community. So, without further ado, please enjoy my top three things that I dislike in dudes I see on the tram.

Long nails. You think I'm creepy for looking at dudes all tram ride? Forget about it, dudes with long nails are the real creeps. Dudes, you are not Gary Oldman in Dracula, and the jury is still out on whether even he could pull it off. Nails that have a lot of the white bit and that extend beyond the fleshy finger pads do not belong on the hands of a dude. I see them, and I get a shiver, like I have just heard the sound of those very nails scraping down a blackboard. Cut your nails dudes!

Short nails. Dudes! Stop chewing your god damn nails all the way down to the nub. They look so vulnerable and like all your finger tips have been amputated leaving behind little fleshy stumps. Eww! Dudes, as a clumsy person, take it from me: evolution gave us all a really big break when it gave us nails. Enjoy it!

Please note that because it is such a gross thing, I am not including a photo of it here. You're welcome, readers.

Failing to cover one's mouth when yawning. Oh baby. I HATE it when people fail to cover their mouths when yawning. We are not lions and we are not on a savannah. If we were, I would welcome yawning because who doesn't love a sleepy lion? Nobody doesn't love a sleepy lion. But the yawns of a fully grown human are much much less endearing. When humans yawn, it's all distorted faces and hyper-extension of the mouth. Gross! I get that you are tired. Heck, we're all tired. But dudes, we are not animals.  Cover it up!

Cute!

That's all for now. 

Music Monday - Nightwave

UK based Slovenian Nightwave, formerly known as 8Bitch is someone that many of you may already know by now and if you don't you are sure to find out this year. A close friend of the Glasgow based Lucky Me collective, Nightwave makes electronic music, DJ's and is also a vocalist (she recently collaborated with her boyfriend Rustie on his album track Surf). A real multi talented individual she has also done some acting in her time including parts in UK Police drama The Bill. She is also a Judo champion!

With a few releases under her belt on the likes of labels such as Svetlana Industries and Unknown to the Unknown which has helped put her on the radar in the dance music scene. But more recently it's her DJ'ing that she has been gaining attention, her very eclectic tastes and talent are obvious in her sets as she plays whatever she wants, bouncing between techno, classic chouse, grime, r n b, juke, hip hop and everything inbetween.





Her talent has resulted in her being selected as a participant in the world famous Red Bull Music Academy where she will have been given the best opportunity and teaching to hone her art. If her RBMA set at the Sonardome during the Sonar festival in Barcelona a few weeks ago is anything to go by she has really stepped her game up with a set that blew Sonar away.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU DID SOMETHING FOR THE FIRST TIME

Eastpak, have launched their new advertising campaign, catchily titled:
'When Was The Last Time You Did Something For The First Time'.

The older you get the smaller the chance it'll happen, so stay young and get involved, for me it was so long ago, i'll need to figure my next 'First Time' out

Visit the website at  www.whenwasthelasttimeyoudidsomethingforthefirsttime.com .

 

 EASTPAK, the authentic urban lifestyle brand, has unleashed its new 2012 creative campaign into the world. A celebration of the path less travelled, the campaign inspires us to seek out new experiences, break new ground and invent new ways to enrich our lives and our urban environments. Which is why every element of the 360° media campaign centers around one challenging, thought-provoking question: “When was the last time you did something for the first time?”

We all dream about the future. We all make plans. And we all make promises to ourselves. “I’ll do that one day,” we say. But most of the time we break those promises and that “one day” never comes. Developed by the Brussels-based communications agency, Satisfaction, the 2012 EASTPAK campaign is all about helping us keep those promises, by reminding us of the things that truly inspire us; by making us think about the things we really live for, and by suggesting simple ways we can live more fulfilling lives and add meaning to the cities we live in.

Because life in the city is all about transformation and metamorphosis, invention and reinvention, evolution and revolution. The urban environment is in constant flux. You can either move with it, rebel against it or give it new meaning and direction.

John Israel, Satisfaction: “We believe that by living out a new experience we share a part of ourselves with the people around us. Finding new sensations helps us find new things out about ourselves.  Looking at something differently broadens the mind, just as much as seeing something for the first time. It's all in the action, the taking of that first step. Which is why we asked members of our community (between 20 and 28) to send us their experience ideas. This information formed the basis of our campaign.” 

The 2012 European EASTPAK campaign will be released on 21^st May 2012. It is a 360° media campaign containing visuals and movies filmed on location in St. Paulo by Arnaud Uyttenhove in Febuary 2012, featuring real people living out real experiences.

So what about you? When was the last time you did something for the first time?

             www.whenwasthelasttimeyoudidsomethingforthefirsttime.com

The country life (PM)

Way to go, having such a great time in the face of such horrible art!
And way to go, Chickpea, on ingeniously using the Gaia themed workshop idea to spark people's interest in going away for the weekend.
She is like a magical pied piper, luring the people away from the city with the sound of her LOLs.

It just so happens that I went to the country this weekend too. With Neville, Scampy and Banana.
We didn't do any workshops but we did have a wonderful time.
Highlights included:

• Friday night's dinner of rump steak with fried egg on top (I only want my steak like this now)
• the multiple massages Banana gave me to fix my sore back (thanks Banana, you truly are the best)
• the giant bathtub that soaked in all Saturday afternoon
• Neville's purchase of packets of fun size Flake and Cherry Ripe, which I totally smashed
• ongoing hilarity. 

Mate, I actually started thinking while I was away that we should start a Miss Soft Crab savings account and one day buy a weekend in the country. Don't you think that would rule?

The country life (AM)

I don't know what you all did this weekend but I know that I spent 24 hours in the country and if I didn't feel so damned tired from having such a wonderful time I'd be feeling really refreshed and wonderful! What a great time! When I left on Saturday morning I felt normal, fine, you know, normal. By the time we got where we were going and people were asking, "How are you?" I was beaming and saying ,"YEAH! Really good!" And that was just after the drive!

LB, Baby and I went to a little place outside of Daylesford on Saturday for a delightful stayover with Chickpea, Strawberry, Lala, D-Digs, the Harnesenator and E&J. It was a NYE reunion. Chickers organised it and after her initial email attempt to organise the weekend had got no response, she repackaged it like this:

  Mother Gaia WORSHIP WEEKEND 

 Celebrate the WINTER SOLSTICE!!!!!! 

  Realign your CHAKRAS !!!!!!!!!!! 

 Balance your SPIRITUAL MERIDIANS!!!!!! 

 Awaken your KUNDALINI!!!!!! 

You can bet everyone got on board pretty much immediately! There were even going to be workshops.

Lala: A guided mushroom experience

Strawberry: Phatbeatz

Chickpea: Fluoro art

J: Menstruation

D-Digs: Aesthetic Enlightenment: Natural fibre's and their relationship to purification and  harmony and Go-Go for Gaia

Harnsenator: Areola reading

E&J: Sweat lodge construction & levitation

As you can see, it promised to be a pretty wonderful and enlightening weekend. And boy, the mudbrick house we stayed in really came to the Gaia party, check out this "art" that was on the wall. 

It's like a giant, metal, my family sticker! And that is just one of many. It was everywhere. In the house, around the property. My eyes got so full of ironwork art. *Shudder* There was the most hideous cat metal art on the wall. I tried to photograph it but my camera rebelled and the photo didn't work out.

It turns out, in fact, that ironwork art is really big in the Hepburn area. Why they wanna ruin the natural beauty of that place I don't understand. 

And in case you are interested in what my bedroom looked like, here is the chenille bedspread. It really lifted the room.

The only "workshop" I experienced was some impromptu go-go (for Gaia) before dinner. Sadly I was putting Baby to bed during the levitation workshop. I could hear the squeals of delight as "light as a feather, stif as a board" was performed with success.

I did partake in a pretty wonderful and feminist game of scrabble. If you ask me I got the best and most appropriate word. I wonder if you can tell which one it is.

Yesterday I had the skinniest sandwich in Daylesford I have ever seen.

But the nature guys! The nature!