1. learn to knit and crochet
2. ride horses in Prospect Park
3. go foraging with "Wildman" Steve Brill
4. take more photos
5. make my dream wardrobe
6. laser every last unwanted hair off my body
7. build a library that gives away all my secrets
8. take blogging to the next level
9. get into Boxing or some fighting sport
10. walk across more bridges
11. make good music with excellent musicians
12. improve my piano skills and play more instruments
13. write more songs in major keys
14. tour with a really great band
15. get paid for my talents
16. study buddhism and chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo more than ever to celebrate my 10th year as a member of the Soka Gakkai International...
17. use my passport for the first time
18. meet amazing people and forge beautiful lasting friendships
19. record music in Spanish, French, Arabic, Hindi, Mandarin and Japanese
20. surf
21. bring back radio
22. get tattoos
23. have the happiest family on earth
24. stop picking my scabs
25. cook with friends - make my very own recipe book
26. eat more whole foods, drink more water
27. make more play dates, more art, more music, and have even more fun with the kids!
28. see more documentaries
29. hold on to my identity in the face of love
30. forgive people who have hurt me
love
nati
I remember the day the arm rests folded up in movie theatres and airplanes...it was a fat girl's Hallelujah moment. I had a few extra inches to relax into. This world was built too small for me...like I'm the cabbage patch kid trying to hang out at Barbie's playhouse...Like I'm Will Farell, the giant elf, trying to get in and out of my desk at school...Like I'm like Alice in Wonderland and I ate something that made me shoot out in every direction and wear the rabbit's cottage like a dress. Damn that horrible feeling...that claustrophobic tension...pants that fit so tight I can't breath, pissing people off when I squeeze into that last subway seat that's really not a seat but little orange placeholder of how much room I should be taking up, yeah...even when I have sex with a big guy our stomachs compete for space...I have to breath out when he breaths in so we can play a sort of belly tug o war for the real estate between our bodies...or I have to not breath and suck in my stomach until I get light headed and give the safety word for him to kindly get off me...(see auto erotic asphyxiation...it's hot but it killed the lead singer of INXS)
ONE PERSON ONE TICKET. This is the new motto of Canadian airlines after a court hearing ruled they were discriminating against disabled passengers by making fatties pay for two seats. So if I'm spilling over my arm rest (which I do)...if my BMI is 40+ (which it's not...but close)...I get an extra seat. Why not? If a handicapped passenger needs an attendant to travel, that attendant flies free. Yes I'm sure all you fat-phobes are thinking this is just encouraging people to gain weight...as if the luxury of flying with room to spare is worth torturing your body with 150lbs of man-repellent fat...sounds about as ridiculous as gouging your eyes with an icepick so your friends can always fly free disguised as your travel attendant...now, if it were a free upgrade to 1st class, you'd be onto something.
I'm having a hard time with the fact that in order for the supreme court to pass this ruling, they had to declare obesity a handicap. And I guess in a world built to half scale...we do feel handicapped. Left handed people die more often than right handed because the world is built for right handed people...so being left handed is also a handicap. Doesn't make us sad or inferior. We're just not charmed or pampered...just means the world caters to someone else...and that lucky person lives longer, gets paid more, has a pretty wedding in the Poconos, and people instantly like that person straight away from across the room cuz they're the ideal...and the rest of us are...handicapped.
thank you for flying plushus airlines.
love
nati
The one line that stuck out during the NPR coverage of one-lap-top-per-child in Peru was that it is up to the parents to fix or replace a broken laptop. "A laptop costs an entire month's salary for the villagers". It costs more than a months salary for me. does this mean that I'm as poor as these Peruvians? No matter how much money you make you can always be in a survival mode of sorts. Your salary based on where you live, rent based on that, food based on that...if I moved I'd make less, pay less rent...but does the ratio change? isn't it the same basic formula? you never have the money to buy a computer, you just pay for food and rent and you hope someone gifts you a new bra. Of course I'm not as poor as a Peruvian villager...but the idea of poverty at 25K a year is very real.
love
nati
The closing of Tribal Soundz on 6h Street was a hard pill to swallow. The closing of Love Saves the Day on 7th st. and 2nd ave is really messing with my memories. Next thing you know Moisha's bakery with close...or B&H. why??? Didn't I buy enough vintage playboys from that place to keep them in style? curses to the East Village rent hikes over the last 4 years...driving out the life's blood of the neighborhood. There's a dunkin donuts on 6th and 1st ave. I think this is the end. Manhattan is just another strip mall.
Go to the corner of 7th St. and 2nd Ave. Get some Pomme Frits with the Mango Chutney...or sit at B&H and enjoy their soup of the day. then head over to Love Saves the Day and get a nic nac...or a leather jacket...or a 1962 playboy.
love
nati
Chenese Lewis and Jamil Kali have the hottest plus size calendar on the market becuase they use the creamiest of the crop of plus size models (like our favorite LA tart, Ivory May). This year they have something they've never had before...a song called Flawless sung by me, your favorite fatty blogger, Natalie Ferraro! I wrote the song and recorded it in my kitchen to a beat by German Production Team Brixx and Pat...Brixx is kind of a big deal rapper in Germany (like the Hoff) and while she was in New York, we hung out and wrote some songs together. Go to the Flawless website, listen to the song and buy the calendar!
love
nati
I was chatting with Dana about how I'm on a mission to get as healthy and glowy as possible before Rebekah and Justin's wedding up in the snowy Poconos where there are 2 indoor pools and one BIG excuse for a Pool Party. "Dana" I said "I need new and exciting ways to work out." And this is what she suggested.
Dan Dance Party is a room full of girls shaking their ass with abandon and most of the time with no choreography. There are 3 rules ”No booze. No men. Leg warmers optional.” It's the dance party for those of us who don't care to look good, don't care if they suck, don't care to do anything but fling their hair about and make up sassy moves like they haven't done since elementary school.
In the first grade, Emma and I used to make up dances and perform them at school (Let's Hear It For the Boy, and I Need You Tonight were two I remember fondly). Sarah and I put on Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and danced around the house half naked. There are some crazy things you need to let out and in New York with roommates and boyfriends and subways...there's no outlet to really just get ugly with it.
I have a gig Saturday Night...but Sunday at 2pm I will be at Astor Place gettin down with my new hommies.
I'm just dying for an excuse to wear a sequin headband...can you say FAT XANADU?
love
nati
Thus begins a new series called "SHE SO +PLUSHUS". Let's bring it back to what this blog is really about!!! HOT +PLUSHUS FEMALES....DAMN!!!! Thank you, Rosie! An excellent example of what a +plushus girl is....brilliant!
love
nati
In a series I call "name dropping"...
I kinda know this kid...not really. He's one of the founding members of Paxen Films and a pretty good drummer. If you've never been to Bay Ridge or seen Saturday Night Fever...then watch it anyway and learn something.
love
nati
I am not sure what this hand sign means. I guess Bush does. Cuz he's down with the NCAA. What a slick brutha. I got inspired...maybe I'll get down with hand signs too.
love
nati
There are a few things a Classy Lady needs on a Sunday morning...a group of gals to meet for brunch where they serve unlimited mimosas and bloody mary's, a pair of Jackie O sunglasses and a purse so large you can disappear behind it (you're recovering from a Saturday night you'll remember as soon as the omlette comes, so let your accessories speak for you), oh...and top it all off with a fabulous hat.
I am a recent inductee to the Brooklyn Chapter of the Drunken Classy Ladies Society. Brooklyn socialites are a whole other breed. You don't need money, you don't need fame...so what do you need? An invitation. I believe it was my infamous status as +plushus founder that got me the invite.
I have been in New York for 8 years and rarely have I found a group that has embraced me the way the DCL has. Founded by Rebekah Peterson, the DCL is a group of what I lovingly call the Broads of Brooklyn...the Saucy Sista's of Staten Island, the Jezebel's of Jersey, the Je ne sais quoi's of Queens!
Having a group of good girlfriends is better than a boyfriend. Even if you're not that social, it's important to have girls to check you...to put you in your place...to impress...to network...even if you're a tomboy hate women...you just haven't found the right women.
I encourage you to start a chapter in your area and send us pics of your brunches along with your address...if you do, I bet the original founding members will send you a surprise!!!
love
nati
this is truly the worst vLog ever...do not watch this...it's only so i can look back on it when i'm 80...but you...please don't waste 10 min of your precious life listening to my monotonous speaking voice tell you the droll details of my day...
love
nati
The Ron Clark Academy
Raps about the Election on CNN
to the tune of T.I.'s hit "Whatever You Like"
Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah
Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah
(McCain supporters)
McCain’s the best candidate
With Palin as his running mate
They’ll fight for gun rights, pro life,
The conservative right
Our future is bright
Better economy in site
And all the world will feel our military might
(Obama supporters)
But McCain and Bush are real close right
They vote alike and keep it tight
Obama’s new, he’s younger too
The Middle Class he will help you
He’ll bring a change, he’s got the brains
McCain and Bush are just the same
You are to blame, Iraq’s a shame
Four more years would be insane
Lower your Taxes - you know Obama Won’t
PROTECT THE LOWER CLASS - You know McCain won’t!
Have enough experience - you know that they don’t
STOP GLOBAL WARMING - you know that you won’t
I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA
Stick with McCain and you’re going to have some drama
We need it
HE’LL BRING IT
He’ll be it
YOU’LL SEE IT
We’ll do it
GET TO IT
Let’s move it
DO IT!
Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like
You can vote however you like, yeah
Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah
I’m talking big pipe lines, and low gas prices
Below $2.00 that would be nice
But to do it right we gotta start today
Finding renewable ways that are here to stay
I want Obama
FORGET OBAMA,
Stick wit McCain you gone have some drama
MORE WAR IN IRAQ
Iran he will attack
CAN’T BRING OUR TROOPS BACK
We gotta vote Barack!
Obama on the left
McCain on the right
We can talk politics all night
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah
Democratic left
Republican right
November 4th we decide
And you can vote however you like, I said
You can vote however you like, yeah
So, I think if not just for the free coffee at Starbuck's and free ice cream at Ben and Jerry's (41 3rd Ave @11th street in the East Village) you should go out and vote. I mean if not just for that.
love
nati
Wow, fad diets make me ill. And the the pond scum who peddle them to young impressionable girls should be publicly humiliated and thrown in jail. Thanks to Big Fat Deal and Fitness Fixation for turning me on to this topic. I guess I've never given any thought to the 'diet' industry cuz I knew at a young age it was a crock of shit and I didn't want to totally ruin my body. Now, if I work out, I lose weight. Even at 33, my body responds to a healthy lifestyle while my friends who yo-yo diet are stuck killing themselves with a bottle of anything GNC will sell them and a few fingers down their throat. And NONE OF THEM LOOK LIKE THESE BONE THIN CHICKS! They always look the same, unhealthy, the kind of thin created by caloric deprivation and no sweat. Their body just hangs on their bones. Gravity pulls them down. Their skin is grey.
YES! the age old Nicotine diet! and now there's a patch! I can't say anymore. It's retarded. And so are you if you buy into this crap. I'd rather be fat.
love
nati
I been a fan of Smoove B ever since I first picked up the Onion on the corner of 6th st. and 1st Ave in the East Village back in the day when I was young (i'm not a kid anymore)...and for all the fellas who look bewildered as we ladies school you in the art of not being a stone cold dumbshit...here is a perfect apology letter you can send to your sweet Popsicle when you show up to the date with out any money, or go on that camping trip or 2 or 3 with out inviting her, or when you act like a pussy while some mutual friends drop social bombs on her pretty little head. You know who you are. Get yo shit togetha...and say it right like Smoove B.
love
nati
I was just reading a sweet blog on the glamazons and their new reality show piolot, America's Got Backfat. Personally, I don't like dated cabaret or song parodies (unless done by wierd all). I especially don't like stereotypicaly funny kitchy fat girls. But I love Meryl Finger and so she can be the exeption to my stern opinions...plus it's not like I haven't dabbled in my day...my Glamazon name was Fluffer Nutter...
This is the Glamazon group I remember... version 1.0. All burlesque all the time. I joined after World Famous Bob left. I tracked Meryl Finger down back in 2001 after getting newspaper clippings of the group in the mail from several friends saying "you should do this!". Being a Glamazon was liberating, I sang One Night Only at Webster Hall in pasties and a pair of boyshorts. I spearheaded new numbers like the Shirley Basey Remix version of Big Spender which we performed at the Rainbow Room and Natacha Atlas' belly dance hip hop remix of I Put a Spell On You we performed on the local news. So many great stories and good times, but I left to pursue my own music. I actually left to start a plus girl group called +plushus, but it was the same as being in the Glamazons. Sure, the music was original, no more cabaret parodies making light of being fat, but it still felt cheezy to me. Cheezy in that it wasn't the music that was in my heart and I stalled my development as a musician to hide behind a fat girl gimmick...I wasn't pushing my talents, I wasn't meeting better musicians and growing my sound and developing my unique voice. So this summer I dissolved +plushus and left the producers to start my own band and make music I love.
I've never felt like singing about how cool it is to be fat. It's cool to be me. But being fat in a shallow society sucks balls and not cuz i'm flawed but because most other people are. I've always hated being treated differently depending on how much I weigh. When I was running 2 miles a day and had a flat stomach, guys would buy me drinks and shelter me under their umbrella, and carry my heavy bags. When I gained 80lbs, i was invisible. So no, I don't feel like singing "Shake It" or some joke parody about how I eat corn beef on rye with a knish on the side...and although some of the +plushus music was a little angry like "Say No", it still sat on the surface, didn't move me. I wanna sing about how fucked up it is that you used to dig me but now you don't cuz of 80lbs. I wanna sing about being alone, about being picked last in gym class, about being preyed on by men who think I'm desperate, about never being #1, never being chased, never being craved, never taken out, never really loved.
I totally support plus women and I fucking love Meryl. But how many plus lines of clothing have no unique perspective? how many wide calf boots are subquality generic knock off's of last decade's style? How little greatness do we see in the plus industry? Be careful of the gimmick...of creating art that can't stand alone unless it's attached to the gimmick. Gimmicks can be empty and are a form of segregation. It also can be a way of avoiding what makes you truly unique. I heard Harry Belafonte speak about black entertainers back in the day dreaming of playing the roll of a man, a husband, a father...not just a token black man. Well, I want to be a musician, not just a member of a fat girl group.
Expect this website to go through some changes...I'm making clothes, I'm rehearsing with my band, finding my unique voice apart from being fat...and generally having a good time.
love
nati
It was a difficult decision to post the Weezer song and not her cover of God Only Knows by the Beach Boys. But I do actually think for a first impression of Julia Nunes (and her charming but shaky vocals), this has just enough light-hearted feel-good pop-jollies to make you want more...go on...visit her YouTube channel and subscribe. I still think Toxic, by Molly (aka Sweetafton23) is the most genius Ukulele cover on YouTube.
love
nati
Let it be known, Janice Dickinson is not into fat people.
I found out from Ivory's status on facebook that she, along with Mia Amber Davis, were going to be on episode 7 and 8 of the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency show this week. Janice's son had the foresight to bring in 3 plus size models to the house to grow the agency. I see now it was a reality show stunt just like the time the Glamazons were asked to be on the Restaurant and they just happened to sit us next to a table full of the Bow Flex Male Models. Gee...Let's see what happens when we send an entire cake to the fat girl's table. I remained poised when all I wanted to do was throw that cake at the producer. I get so irritated with the pedestal good looking people get placed on. 
But someone as successful...as drop dead tight bodied and talented as Ivory...I mean, have you seen her? Are you looking at this photo? Cuz I'm at a loss. A veteran model like Ivory who's made more money and traveled to more countries than all of Janice's girls combined should have been respected for being the best at what she does. Instead Janice threw tantrum after tantrum displaying sick shallow prejudices. It really broke my heart. And I was equally sickened by the other models who regressed to elementary school...I was waiting for the "fatti fatti two by four" song.
Ivory never skipped a beat even when she was on set and Janice gave her backhanded compliments like "you look amazing according the client" the photos were flawless, the client was happy. I'm also blown away by Mia's calm reaction to the whole situation. Acting as a client representing Plus Model Magazine looking to hire a plus model for an editorial spread and possible cover, she maintained composure and kept things light even when she was clearly being belittled and harassed...ummm...she's the client...right? She's got money to spend? Where is the problem? You don't like fat money?
Don't just stand there...get your finger out of your nose and get involved, go to Ivory's blog on Janice's site...comment...then go to Janice's blog...make your opinions known. This is obviously a sore spot for that poor old woman...let's help Janice reflect. She needs us. It takes a village.
love
nati
Junko Mizuno is one of my special favorite female artists. So, when I heard she pimped an 18 inch tall My Little Pony for the My Little Pony Project - 25 ponies for 25 years, I got all tingly inside. Japanese Pop Art meets Crafting meets Graffiti meets My Little Pony...meets star studded charity event. Hasbro teamed up with Give Kids The World Village (an Orlando non-profit resort for kids with life-threatening illnesses and their families) and a hand-full of artists and famous people who fancy themselves artists...like...
* David and Courtney Cox Arquette
* Leah Remini
* Leanne Rimes
* Deborah (Debbie) Gibson
* Amy Grant
* John Stamos
* Kimora Lee Simmons for Baby Phat
Amy Grant? My life has new meaning...the random things I love have intersected in this moment...everything has come full circle and I am right now singing Love of Another Kind (yeah I was into her Christian Music). This is wild. Other exciting moments were Claw Money's Golden hip hop pony and Toki Doki's signature red and pink zebra...bidding started at $500...sold for $5000. Street art and Graffiti is ridiculously overpriced...
love
nati
While I watched the debates, the words "it's a well known fact" or "any one can tell you" or "do the research" were over used. Thanks to Jed Lewison from the Huffington Post for splicing in the actual sound bites to support Obama's claims. Too much hearsay makes any debate daunting to watch..."they say".
I think I'll be the Proverbial "THEY" for Halloween and walk around saying "Well, you know what I say..."
love
nati
Lent, Ramadan, Yom Kippur...Fasting is not about weight loss. It's an opportunity to cleanse and rest our constantly satiated bodies...to test our willpower...to remove a vice that uses up our productive energy...to lighten our load.
San Francisco - Mission District - 1999, I started chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, did the Master Cleanse. Inspired by a gorgeous Moroccan lover, I decided to observe Ramadan. Fasting from Sunrise to Sunset was challenging, but I found all these amazing people to break the fast with every day like the Egyptian guys who ran the pizza place on Valencia. They'd invite me to the back of the kitchen for this HUGE spread of rice and peas and kabob and yummm. So it was also about community. I've never believed in the hierarchies of religion but revel in the community...the dialogue, the support, the reflective conscious friendships. There is so much we can do without. Simplifying our lives is a form of fasting as well, technological fasting (put down the crackberry). I am going to erase my contacts from the iPhone for a while, stop texting that guy who needs space, let people come to me. Then I think I'll add people's information by hand and do some spring cleaning. You can fast socially too.
I have recently decided to quit +plushus and only do music that I love and not worry about the gimmicks or whether it will sell. I will still write this blog, but the name may change. Creative fasting is also nice...only do what makes you deeply happy and don't equate fame with success. This is harder than Ramadan.
I saw 40 days and 40 nights where Josh Hartnet takes a vow of celibacy for Lent. And I wondered if I could swear off that old standby lover. After so long I still trip on my words and chase him and lose my posturing...I feel retarded and sexy around him. Maybe it's time for a sexual fast...open my life to new relationships.
There is no right way to fast. Just find the excess in your life and trim down. I recommend fasting one day a week on juice or water. Lots of sun and lots of deep breathing.
love
nati
I remember when I used to sell dumbeks and djembes at Tribal Soundz. I was the DJ/shop girl. I could tell what song to play for someone as soon as they walked through the door. Natacha Atlas (i put a spell on you), Uzbekistani electronica, Suba (cuz everone loves anything from Brazil) Habib Koite, Orchestra Baobab. I used to fill in for the digeridoo teacher and the jaw harp teacher and I had my own classes teaching kids to drum and their moms how to sing lullabies in 10 languages. East Village was my spot, I made friends with every sitar player on Indian Row. My roommate worked at Brick Lane and we used to drive to late night spots after work like the soup dumpling place in china town. I met the one-armed drummer from Def Lepard. I met the drummer from Spin Doctors. I sold a Balalaika to the Darkness.
But I'll never forget the day Avery Brooks walked in the store. He was a music major at NYU and total gearhead...a major moogalicious electrostud. He asked me to join his trip hop project, Skoorba, and we've been friends ever since. He's playing with Ravens and Chimes right now but we'll be gigging again real soon and going back in the studio for our second album. He's my Vocodor hero.
love
nati
While at Kinokuniya Bookstore with Natalie, a girl I babysit for, I found Japanese Kyuuto Crafting books and magazines. No, I can't read Japanese, but most of this stuff is pretty self explanatory with pictures to guide you.
I feel like I never got to be a little girl. Although this may be more my own doing, I think my mother wished I were a purse carrying dress wearer, but it just didn't appeal to me back then. Well, it does now! i want to wear clothes with felt dolls attached to them and crotcheted things and flowers made of yarn and ribbon, sequins and beads, socks with my mary jane heels.
I bought a couple books and got some great ideas to spruce up my wardrobe...I just want to drink tea, cuddle with my dog and craft. Occasionally gig with my trip hop band, Skoorba. All in all, I just feel real good about life...hugs and puppies and buttons and bows, ya know? Soon Obama will win the election and I'll be sitting pretty in flower'd frocks and curly locks.
love
nati
Everything we consume leaves a mark on our hair and about 80% of what's in our hair is corn. I know, I'm obsessed with corn. This is my 3rd or 4th blog about it. All a part of my quest to better understand why I eat pretty well yet am so damn fat. I grew up drinking milk by the gallon and eating cans of corn like it was going out of style. When I moved out on my own, I'd fill my cupboards with canned corn. It's always on sale and I was on a budget. I found out later it's a starchy sweet veggie, not to be over eaten like say, celery which is all water and lots of fiber. I was eating chunky applesauce last night, I never even thought to look at the label...I mean, it's apples, the number 3 sweetener of all time. Well, I was hoodwinked...there was corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, corn solids....there was like 5 types of corn in my applesauce. Is nothing sacred? Is there no safe haven from this evil yellow monster? Even my meat is corn!
Go to your Netflix, order King Corn, and change the way you look at food and our corrupt hypocritical system of agriculture.
love
nati
This is part of a series I'm doing about my friends...fondly referred to as "name dropping".
One of indie music's great unknown lead guitar players is Mike Strandberg. He's a guy who quietly gets around, plays with a lot of bands you listen to, and he's a friend of mine. He has a band with his brother called Brian Bonz, part of the burgeoning music scene in Bay Ridge. Right now he's playing bass for Kevin Devine and the God Damn Band.
Oh and he's a director in a film production collective called Paxen. Here's a video they did for Kevin Devine.
love
nati
Asia is a talented plus model I met in my travels and have yet to have the pleasure of working with. Check out her spread in the October issue of Essence Magazine!
love
nati
I've been a fan of the ukulele stylings of Sweetafton23 on Youtube for a long long time. I saw a vLog posting on her site (which can only be truly appreciated after you watch her play ukulele). I found out her name is Molly, and was moved to share the magic of Molly with all of you. You can subscribe to her Youtube chanel (as well as mine, if you haven't yet.) And she has a blog. And she has a live journal sing along club. I feel less alone in the world knowing I'm not the only one who enjoys Bollywood, sponge bob, improve everywhere, and cats playing theremin.
love
nati
Don't you LOVE these new commercials from the Corn Industry? You should, you paid for them with your tax dollars. The poor starving genetically modified corn farmer with a surplus on their hands needed to make this commercial to convince you that High Fructose Corn Syrup isn't evil (cuz america is getting health aware so they're in danger of having to turn their HFC manufacturing plant into...oh I don't know...Ethanol production which would mess up the food racket they got going). 
So they hired an ad agency (like so many farmers do) and the ad agency said "Hey, kids!!! Let's create awareness by branding HFC with a cute clean corn logo and a well designed website (or two) and let's make commercials where calm cool and collected HFC consumers ask some ignorant person what's wrong with HFC? Based on their insecure silence and complete lack of knowledge people will believe it MUST be ok...just like sugar or honey as they'll say in the commercial." Their bi-line is "no artificial ingredients" They fail to mention the FDA's wafting between allowing them to call it natural or not. And even if it is natural, so is cocaine, so is opium and so are many other illicit drugs that are made from harmless natural ingredients. It's the complex chemical process they put the natural ingredient through that concerns me. I encourage you to read up on how HFC is made and how it is a preservative sweetener, indestructible and used only to hook you on junk food. So when some 'health expert' from iVillage says, HFC isn't bad for you, it's just the junk food they put it in, realize how ridiculous they sound.
And sleep tight knowing that even if you're a health freak and never consume anything unnatural, genetically modified corn is being produced at $3 a bushel while only selling for $2 but thanks to us, they can send their kids to college cuz we make up the extra dollar. Yay us! and Yay Bush! for signing the $190 billion dollar farm bill subsidizing luxury crops so Mars and the Coca Cola Company get a discount on their ingredients. I've always wanted to be a philanthropist.
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nati
There are so many reasons to protest Fashion Week. The irresponsible use of fur (as if there are no synthetic alternatives). The pithy number of black models. The complete absence of plus size fashion. What kind of caste system are we living in? How disconnected is the fashion oligarchy when the civil rights movement was over decades ago and they still can't bear to hire some hot black chicks to wear their fancy threads? And how long will it be then until plus women are included in the upper echelons of the fashion world? It won't happen until truly talented designers create ingenious unique looks for a new aesthetic they feel passionate about. I'm not trying to convince Donatella to make it work for me. I don't want ignorant designers to weave their fear and loathing into garments that touch my body lest I pick up self doubt through osmosis. So God Bless Curves of the Catwalk along with Nic Moore (Miss NYC Plus 2008) for marching over to Bryant Park and gettin' their protest on!
Why the protest? Well cuz I believe most of the people at fashion week have never seen a fat person up close. So I'd like to think of it as raising awareness. And also, cuz it's time to get pissed off. I wasn't invited to the party! My people can't get behind the red rope! It's time to add a little fuck you to the mix, people. I'm tired of being told I'm too fat to live, too fat for you to expect me to be talented, too fat for fashion week, too fat to be in the fat girl group that doesn't even exist so we call it a "collective" even thought it's really just me (what?). I'm getting out of this gimmick race. I don't want to be the first fattie who starts the fat Spice Girls...and I don't want to be the token fat chick at Fashion Week...I mean...how boring...to watch a bunch of skinny twats model shit I can't wear...that must be some form of torture. I'll go when there is a curvy muthafuckin' walk off with clothes that make me wanna go into debt.
Please learn to sew. If you're fat, make your own clothes. Even if it's just for you. I did and it was liberating.
love
nati
I have never been a fan of most illustrators who pay homage to the curvy girl usually because it feels fetishy (in a bad way) and so rarely ISN'T tasteless. I can get down with Coop, and I absolutely adore Hilda, but that was about it, till now.
Molly Crabapple's style is vintage circus burleque females (in a GOOD way). My friend takes aerial classes with her and turned me on to her work recently. She's also part of the femme comi-con's...I'm always a little turned on by chicks that rock the boy's club.
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nati
Sometimes you gotta call your friend who's a Mary Kay consultant from Queens to do a spa day for you and your friends. I'm sure all you hipsters are cringing. But how many of you trucker-hat-wearing vintage-tshirt-buying cool-kids are listed as the #1 female entrepreneur in history? She started Mary Kay Cosmetics in her 50's. When you're in your 50's you'll be having the tatoo's you got on Bedford Ave removed with lasers.
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nati
I've been a fan of Imaginary Bitches for while. Rife with B list actors and great writing, it's an All My Children reunion! Staring Eden Riegel (uh..Bianca from All My Children!) and Elizabeth Hendrickson (Maggie Stone from All My Children...do you see why I'm a fan???) I keep waiting for Susan Lucci to make a cameo.
I know I know...I should have shared earlier. Now you'll just have to bring your lap top to bed, and watch all 13 webisodes in a row which is not hard since there super short and very funny. I'd say it's #3 in the list of most LA...first being LA Story (I love you, Steve) and second being Entourage.
I like to comment on their blog spot as the jaded fat chick who can't relate to this drop dead hottie fest or Eden's attempt at being awkward...I love Eden, but really...do you think that bitch has ever been single for more than a day? Now THAT's method acting!
love
nati
I was given a Jenny Craig gift certificate, so I went to see if the diet my drop dead gorgeous sister goes on after every kid she pops out...the diet Kirsty Alley, Valerie Bertinelli and Queen Latifah all swear by, would help me too.
The center was close to my house, I went in the morning, met with a specialist, got weighed, got my picture taken, filled out some forms and picked out my meals for the week. Easy enough. It's like any pre-packaged diet. Frozen and boxed food is only so exciting. The fake chocolate bars and desserts were a total insult and tasted like ass. All of which is totally understandable given the nature of the diet. My issue came with the ingredient list. I couldn't figure out why I felt awful. I was sluggish, tired, and kind of ill. I noticed there were preservatives and High Fructose Corn Syrup in everything, even the salad dressing and the 
sandwiches. I'm sorry, but I don't want sugar in my salad! At my next appointment I asked if there was a list of foods with out HFC. I was greeted with blank stares and the blinking eyelids of an uneducated group of women. They suggested I call corporate. Why should I call corporate? YOU call corporate. I decided to give it some more time to really see how I feel and if I could make the program work...so I looked for HFC-free foods. There is no way to do the diet with out consuming more HFC than I do on my own (which is almost never. i don't drink soda or use ketchup or snack out of a bag). I am in the process of researching other ingredients they use that are not in keeping with modern 21st century common knowledge. Yes, I understand prepackaged foods use HFC cuz it's the indestructible sweetener. Why do they need their food to outlast twinkies in some post apocolyptic race to be the last food standing? Why do some people still say HFC is natural and just as bad as sugar? If it can sit on a shelf with out breaking down, it'll sit in your body and not break down and the point of food is to be broken down and used up. They're in denial like an old republican arguing the Greenhouse myth. It really feels like a diet for ignorant old people. I can understand why Kirsty Alley has distanced herself from the program, and am royally confused how Latifah can talk about health when this is clearly the least healthy route to go.
The FDA puts so much energy into "fighting obesity" then let's a totally synthetic non-corrosive immortal glob sweetener into everything I consume. I've been rufi'd and there's no smack down!! In this crazy capitalist world, Big Sugar is going to make their money by getting into bed with every substance known to man...they wanna power cars and scrub your face and hook you like a drug so you can't figure out why you have to drown everything in ketchup and why your kid just threw a tantrum over cereal.
HFC, glucose, fructose, brown, white, raw, it's all sugar and it don't belong on my diet salad.
love
nati
B is for BadAss.
B is for Balls.
B is for Big Beats.
Brixx does it all.
I had the pleasure of hanging out with German rapper/singer/producer Brixx while she was in New York a few months back. Good times. She's big in Germany (i love saying that...it reminds me of David Hasslehoff only she's the real thing). She introduced me to German Reggae (Seeed) and Romanian Hip Hop (Miss Platnum). We took long walks, cooked good food, she's my dog's Aunt Brixx. For kicks, I started checking out her beats and we just clicked and spit out a bunch of songs. I started creating my own songs from the ground up in my kitchen, started recording the acoustic YouTube videos. It's good to have female friends who challenge and inspire. Only surround yourself with people that are good for you. Your worst enemy is a bad friend.
She's back in Germany, recorded this video and is helping produce my new EP. Bubble Pop Electric all the way. Joel would approve.
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nati
When I'm not busy being an online celebrity (she jests), I babysit for the coolest kids in New York City. One of my favorites is Natalie (together we are the Coalition of Natalie's for Obama and we have the Youtube video to prove it). Natalie likes everything I like and we often talk about politics or books or YouTube or her latest project or plan that is always terrifically interesting. The other day I said "what do you want to do today?" to which, she replied "I want to go to Kinokuniya." to which I replied "KinokuWHAT? " to which she...and so on and so forth till I ended up at Bryant Park following a little girl on a mission to give out origami stars and show me her favorite japanime, Higurashi.
There is nothing I don't like about this place and with a cafe for little japanese noshies and slurpies I can spend an entire day there just in the cute crafting section planning new ways to make my clothes more adorable. It's good to think about how simple and fun life can be when it's about making flowers out of ribbon or bunnies out of felt.
If a guy took me to Kinokuniya on a date, I'd probably fall in love.
love
nati
I'm going to be on Plus Model Radio tonight followed by Mia Amber Davis (who is a member of +plushus in the photo at the top of this site all the way on the right!). The show starts at 8pm, it's hosted by Chenese Lewis (the first Miss Plus America) and streams from the site so you can hear it anytime. TUNE IN!
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nati
I went to school with Joel Starr back in San Jose, California. In high school, Joel and Lucas Rodenbush were the cool kids who took electronic music classes. Recently, after a breakup, I decided to look up old friends and schoolmates I could remember or search for in old yearbooks. Somehow I stumbled on Joel's facebook profile and come to find out he was producing music in LA! Rather than wait till I visited, I suggested making music via email. He was writing an album with a concept label about SPACE! And I was dying to create a new sound for +plushus. With-in an hour, he sent me this track and I recorded this demo in my kitchen with the iMac's crappy on-board mic. He gave me notes, and I was working on version 2 when he went to Brazil and never came back.
I'm deeply wounded by his passing. Making music is like dating and I had butterflies. Half the reason I felt confident changing the sound of +plushus is this working relationship we were cultivating. There was something there. Chemistry like that is rare and I was confident that I could make music I really love with someone who gets me.
I am still moving forward with a new sound and frankly, a new name as well. Time to take this project to a new level. this signature electro bubble shit is exactly my new sound...so get ready to hear it!!!
in honor of Joel Starr.
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nati
Love Your Body Day is time for plus size women to celebrate NOW (the National Organization of Women) and honor each other. Every year I want to go, every year I can't. But THIS year, I have been invited to perform by Chenese Lewis (NOW's spokesperson and the first Miss Plus America) so we're busting balls to get there. I can't wait to find out who will host this year (how will they top Mia Tyler?) Go! Buy your ticket to LAX. Let's spend October 12th together! You'll get to be the first people to hear the NEW music off the NEW album!
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nati
I recently moved to Lefferts Garden, a few blocks from the South East entrance to Prospect Park. I love the area, I'm super close to the Botanical Gardens, Brooklyn Museum, Library, Zoo, I have the coolest neighbors, no Starbucks, but about 20 jerk chicken shops and 99cent stores! I bought a dress for $5!
So, I had an Xboyfriend moment yesterday. The kind of realization after months of denial that it's really over and you're not #1 anymore and his other friends are just as (if not more) important than you. You are no longer desired or included in plans. He will sit closer to other girls, he will not touch you public anymore, he will not jump in a cab just to play with your hair (the only known cure for the worst day of your life), and he will not put on the Beach Boys and dance with you for no reason in the hallway.
I started a jealous-induced argument on the corner of 4th Ave and 92nd St. (the kind that robs you of any lingering cool points and leaves you with a caked-on embarrassment that never really scrubs off). I didn't know what to say...it happens to the best of us, the one person you chase and they never chase back and they're not better than you, they're not out of your league. I had to get away...I got on the subway, went home, grabbed my dog and took a long walk God Only Knows where but I was determined to enjoy my own company if it killed me. Time to act my age, get all hippie dippie lovie dovie with myself...take me on a date...learn new ways to masturbate...and dig me as much as I wanna be dug by a guy.
I stumbled upon the paddle boats at Prospect Park just north east of the Parkside/Ocean entrance. For about $15 you can spend an hour feeding ducks, finding little nooks with tree ceilings, picknicing on a secluded island. I did nothing so romantic but rather, paddled for my life, found a secluded spot in the middle of the lake, out of breath, I grabbed my fluffy white gay dog and in some sort of support-group-meeting embrace I wept...cried till I had nothing moist left in me and had forgotten why I was so upset. I should stay out on the water. Turn off my phone. Let the Xboyfriend float on by like the so many geese swimming around then past us.
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nati
and
august
I only got into graffiti in the last couple years. I like stickering, stenciling, pasting, mossing...yes...you can tag with moss...a good use for left over beer. So I hooked up with Brie Spangler, a sick illustrator, and we created some really fun images of a sassy plus girl named MangoNati. Come to find out unlike bands, artists have it made on myspace cuz no one "doesn't accept illustrator requests". So I started meeting all these amazing painters and taggers and graphic gurus. Sure...sure...yeah...yeah...everyone loves Fafi and Miss Van...but I was kicking myself over this wicked saucy group of cartoon titties and pee-pee's called Phallic Mammary. I've always thought little ta-ta's and hoo-ha's have personalities and squirt little cartoon squirts and swim in the cartoon ocean or become boobie banana splits! What a glorious and small world...to find out that Jen Lu, the creator of PM was in the SVA school of graphic design with a friend of mine and so I tracked her down.
Female artists are pretty rare which makes me feel like her success is mine somehow...being a woman...it's like being an American when Phelps wins the gold. I love seeing her work while I walk down the street..the only girl on the wall...battling the smell of testosterone and wheat paste.
I knew she was a major success waiting to pop...(burst? naughty.) So when Jen was featured in the "No Boys" issue of PEEL magazine I bragged to everyone I've ever met..."I know her!". I bugged her for a solid year before she had the time to work with me. I feel pretty lucky to have gotten to know Jen and we had a blast designing this site together...if you like it, leave a comment or go to Jen.lu and tell her yourself.
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nati
Sugar is an overwhelming subject. It's political, social, physiological, narcotic...al, historical. It's the last accepted drug fueling the last accepted prejudice. How does a regular girl like myself find a way to take control and sweeten my tea with a clear conscience?
My New Yorker Xboyfriend drinks 2-4 liters of Coke a day. I've been trying for years to encourage him to stop consuming white sugar which I believe is the cause of his gout. We watched this documentary that showed how processed sugar is cane stripped of magnesium, calcium, iron and potassium and in a process akin to a meth lab, cooked down to a dense liquid magma then recrystallized...unnaturally-concentrated...lead-dense. Also, 'healthy looking' brown sugar is really just white sugar with a dash of molasses. I read an Op Ed article about neurological side effects and other horrible things sugar does to your body, at the end they gave some great tips on how to stop eating sugar in a few easy steps.
I first stopped eating white sugar (for the most part) back in 1994 for health reasons when I dated a cute South American tennis player who had liver issues (he drank like a fish, but never ate white sugar or pork) and a good thing, cuz I found out later I have a genetic predisposition to liver disease.
Afraid of trading liver issues for ovarian cancer...I disseminate the evil effects of sugar substitute by using an advanced color coordination method. If I had to wear the sugar packet which one would look best with this dress? Blue, Pink or Yellow? I figure if I jump from sweet n low, to splenda, to equal maybe I'll escape their side effects. Problem is, I saw that damn movie where Jamie Gertz plays Gilda Radner - It's Always Something...and I read bits of her book about battling cancer. Haunted by Rosanna Rosannadanna, I decide to find a healthy sugar substitute...
Last night I watched a few documentaries on the politics of sugar, the human oppression of sugar, the history of sugar...Oil and Sugar are world powers! Sugar lobbyists are just as sleazy as Tobacco lobbyists and they both sell an addictive product. American made sugar sold in America is 3 times as expensive than the sugar sold round the world which means we're paying exorbitant rates for a drug that is in everything we consume making us crave that product in excess. The government subsidises farmers in the Everglades for a luxury commodity with no nutritional value while people in our own country starve at the poverty level, the only affordable food containing gross quantities of High Fructose Corn Syrup! Not to mention the modern day slavery going on in Haiti and other sugar cane countries. That's when my head exploded...
So what can I eat? how can I eat ethically? And for the love of God...what do I sweeten my tea with in the morning?!
I love Mike Schurr of Nutritive Harmony, a great health blog I'm starting to consult. He recommends Agave. While other sources sing of Stevia, brown rice syrup, vegetable glycerin, Mike even suggested crushing blueberries in my tea for natural sweetness...
They got Agave at work so I used it in my tea with soy milk and it was delicious! As far as the others go, every sweetener has a place...some for baking some for drinks...so I'll be taking it one step at a time. Good news is, the Agave I'm consuming was grown in a responsible privately owned non-subsidized farm. My conscience and my liver is clean.
love
nati
When I was 16, I was told by my mother, by my voice teacher, my dance teacher, by my friends that I would be really pretty if I just lost weight. I got so caught up in what I could be that I never took the time to be at peace with what I was. Which looking back on it, was really quite lovely. I wasn't fat, I was tall, I was mature looking, I was beautiful with a flat stomach, that pretty muscle in my calf I got from dancing 5 days a week. But I didn't have anyone to tell me that.
So, Monica Grenfell, is Chloe Marshall really promoting obesity by having the audacity to compete in a beauty pageant at a size 16? Is she hurting our children by telling them it's ok to act now, to grow where you're planted, to do what you can to build confidences and really achieve the impossible...to then take those tools and with courageous tenacity manifest your deepest dreams? If she were around when I was a kid, I would never have wasted time not believing in myself. As it is, I was raised by people like you to believe I was the sum of my measurements and life boiled down to counting calories. And I still won the title of California Miss and Miss Silicon Valley...but that's another blog.
Even now, with +plushus, I have to keep people at bay that aren't THRILLED with me just as I am. Anyone who tells me that I'll be successful when I lose weight has no place here.
And by the way, I looked at the contestents of the Miss England Pageant...and they're no match for Chloe. She's poised, eloquent, wise for her age and completely at ease in her body. Jezebel, one of my favorite blogs, has a clip of her being interviewed by Tyra Banks...rank interview...god bless Tyra for caring about our big fat asses...but I'd rather hang out with Ellen or Jimmy Kimmel. Chloe seems to handle all of this with grace...even the disgusted judgmental small-minded headline whores who trash real women from a place of total insecurity. I mean, they've built they're whole life around being thin...it must be hard for them to lose status so quickly.
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nati
Word on the street is, Keira Knitely refused any retouching of the ta-ta's in her new movie, The Duchess, after much negative publicity over the augmentation in the above poster for King Aurthur. I wonder what changed her mind, she's always taken a nonchalant stance on the subject of body image saying she digs her form and doesn't care what the fuck they do to her in print. No one fully realizes their impact on the people around them. I'm glad she is taking some responsibility and steering her influence on impressionable young girls toward the real and candid. Unrealistic body image is everyone's problem. It tells men they're not men unless they attain the standard, it tells women to binge and purge and kill themselves to be the standard, and it tell us all there is something wrong with people who don't measure up.
Keira claims magazine publishers in the US ban stars from appearing on their front covers unless they have at least a C-cup size, or are willing to be digitally enhanced to make it appear as if they have. Statistics show people don't read magazines that showcase less than a C cup on the cover. Ads like this, that kept Keira's breasts natural in Europe, augmented them for the US campaign.
stop buying into the fantasy...it seems so pretty like the ghosts at the end of Raiders of the Lost Arch...but in the end, they melt your face off...
love
nati
This is my old roommate, Caryna, a model slash photographer slash yoga instructor slash poet slash philosopher who wrote some amazing lyrics in the form of a poem/letter to a lover that I put to music. I'd like to think she and I have nothing in common especially when it comes to love since she's so damn hot my eyes bleed when I look at her...you see...my whole reality is based on the notion that if I lost weight I'd be adored by all therefor successful and happy and bereft of any awkward love issues. I'd be the queen of hearts! Unfortunately, the poem she wrote was ripped from my very soul and splattered on piece of paper with her name on it! WAIT! You stole my pain! You can't have it!!! It's MINE!!!
I'm afraid I have to admit we're all people and being super duper fine does not cure you of the every day bullshit so listen to our song, stop hating your body, stop drooling over hot people like they matter just cuz their hot, and join +plushus in the real world.
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nati
Dan Shahin, a guy I went to Hoover Middle School with in San Jose California, bought the neighborhood comic store that he worked at as a kid (great story). I was reading his blog and found this amazing contraption...makes me wanna take up drinking as a hobby. I must have one for my very own...no party would be the same...everyone would be painfully sober but well entertained!
I believe 42 Below is a Vodka and that is tonic being added to the Vodka so there are NO calories in that drink.
thanks, Dan!
love
nati
I'm a firm believer in creative solutions to the battle of the bulge. I'm also a great admirer of Japanese ingenuity. Well, I found both in a New York Times article. Japan has taken a census approach to eliminating obesity and will be measuring the waist of every man and woman, holding companies fiscally responsible for employees, spouses and retirees who exceed the maximum accepted waist line. I won't bore you with my Op Ed on this, since I've already covered how weight nor measurements completely tell your health story, so let's just say "how cute" the western-loving Japanese are inheriting our pop music and now our phobias. Although, I'm am far less disturbed by this than a blogger who commented on the article with all the judgmental venom of a self loathing designer chasing Hollywood Conformist...as much a stereotype as the stereotypes she hurdles like daggers...her blog is worse for our health than a fad diet. Laced with shame and ridicule, the seeds of every fat girl's deeply rooted weight issues, this blog is worse than high fructose corn syrup. And yes...I read it as religiously as a Democrat watches Fox News.
I'm also dazzled by the adorable name the Japanese are giving their fatties...though I hardly see how this precious name will strike fear into the hearts of anyone...but just when I thought +plushus was the greatest epithet ever...they come up with "Metabo!" and slogans like "Goodbye, Metabo!" and "Don't be a Metabo!"
genius.
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nati
today i love technorati. i'm a part of something special. i'm a fat little blip on the radar of blog livin'. i'm a frontierswoman laying claim to my little piece of the world wide web. i shall build a virtual log cabin with a warm fire and a cow out back and a big giant wood table to eat and sew and make music on. come sit at my table...let's chat.
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nati
You will hear me talk tons of trash about short fat chicks. This is only because in the world of entertainment if you are going to be fat at least be short. The desperate need to grasp on to anything typically feminine disgusts me. They finally had a posting in Back Stage SEEKING PLUS SIZE PERFORMERS! oh...it's for Hairspray and you have to be short...well, Foowee!, Nikky Blonsky...and Foowee!, Marissa Jaret Winokur. What if you're taller than most guys, bigger than most guys, more agressive than most guys, more intelligent and driven than most guys? What if I held hands with Zach Efron at an awards show and I towered over him? Would you not believe we were doing the nasty? And if I told you he and I had been having a secret affair for years behind everyone's back you'd think I were lying? But the short fattie affair they write into Hairspray you believe.
With that said, Beth Ditto will never ever ever make my Foowee list. She's all woman all powerful all the time!
The photo with LoveFoxxx was shot by James Looker. He's a bad ass photographer. I just added him on facebook.
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nati
Wsup yall ! djFritz here. a few weeks back +plushus performed at the legendary Sin Sin in NY. It's a cool lounge that has been a hot bed for shocasing new artists and dj's. It was so tight in there that +plushus had to perfom on a small stage or was it a milk crate lol. Check her out banging on the ceiling (Lionel Ritchie watch out). She tore it down and I hyped it up on the turntables. It was a fun night, big shout out to my homie dj Mikey Beatz for inviting us. Hope to see youse at the next one !
+plushus dancers Shante Gordon and Jamie Litt after a late night performance at bar 40c in the East Village, NY.
40C is a bar with a dance floor untouched by drunk NYU girls (which is my prerequisite when picking an East Village spot) I like the bad ass checking ID's with his mellow dog (second cousin to spud mckenzie) and the arch ways when you get inside, and the art...which, if you look close, is painted on the hot-girl back section of the village voice....but this gem is far enough into Alphabet City that most people haven't discovered it on their sweep up 1st Ave and down Ave A...well I suggest making your way to the Nuyorican then going over to 4th and C to a cute red bar on a Thursday Night cuz that's when Thirsty is happening...I predict it will become the next Flirt....mostly due to the fact that Naked Highway is the host of both parties...but I think 40C could be the next Rififi....back when Rififi was Rififi...I can only suggest...the rest is up to you....you might see me there.
oh and i took hot pics in the bathroom with Stephen Schulman of SasiPR...
Oh and here is our performance.
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nati
There is nothing worse than the patronizing vibraphone of "kids music"...There is nothing better than They Might Be Giants' Family Friday Podcast and DVDs! I'm a babysitter, I'm an artist that sits for kids and exposes them to art and music and language and it drives me crazy to listen to a "kids version" of U2 or some dumbed down version of a really good beatles song. Just play the Beatles. They Might Be Geniuses for elevating children with songs like C is for Conifer, 9 bowls of soup arranged to send signals to aliens, Triops Has Three Eyes and little funny side notes that are really meant for us adults but don't get it twisted, the kids pick up on it...the rythm of humor, the wonder of sarcasm, the dry humor of adorable crotched puppets with great hair (and black rimmed glasses!) You can find them on Youtube...but I strongly urge you to subscribe to the iTunes podcasts and purchase the DVD's even if you don't have kids.
It is 4:33am and I can't sleep because it's a million degrees with a trillion percent humidity and I for some reason did not buy an air conditioner this week despite the very clear reports that it would be Hades on Earth this weekend. Of course I decide to ask a guy out on this very wet very unglamorous night. We go somewhere social, my girl Brixx joins us (who hasn't broken a sweat since she was forced from her mother's womb and even then I believe it was afterbirth and not really sweat). 
I take pictures which didn't come out because my camera is being a teenage rebel (rather than the Canon Rebel I was lead to believe I purchased) and refused to focus. So excuse the over processed amateur post production. I was busy thinking "How do I stay fresh and charming when I feel like a Hawaiian Hog rotating over a pit of fire?" and "Why do I feel like drunk girl at prom wondering if her date has a key to a hotel room or wishes he could leave with homecoming queen?" Well maybe if the homecoming queen were a pixie bookworm. Don't cry for me, as usual I fared fairly well and spent a wonderfully moist and completely platonic evening with a fabulous friend slash total gentleman (no really...a gentleman...southern...he had a handkerchief that he used to blot my dripping forehead).
I met some really nice people like Leo from Pereida who is allergic to shellfish and made the best mojitos and ceviche of my life. (Don't ask about my Colombian Karma, I've only met two in the past two weeks, a third will call for a more in depth analysis.) 
This recipe is wrong because I was drunk and distracted and totally catiwompus.
3lbs Shrimp
4 limes
3/4 a bunch of cilantro
catchup to taste
sea salt/pepper
water for soupiness
Leo also has a pretty poodle named Pita. She and August fell in love which is dangerous since neither one is fixed...but I assured him August has only one ball 
I ended the evening at an air conditioned bar with my not-date where I drank too much, photographed Roxette our bartender then did my usual graphiti photoshoot in the loo and called it a night.
The sun is coming out...I've taken two cold showers with August, have a raging headache, can't quench my thirst despite being so full of water I gurgle when I move, and have to be in the studio in 5 hours. Once again I have absolutely no romantical prospects which is totally fine and has no bearing on my value as a human being or amateur blogger.
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nati
I did a search on facebook for Lewis Thomas "Lives of a Cell" and instead of a fan page for Lewis Thomas I found a few people who put the book on their list of favorites...Darlene Charneco was at the top of the list and so I explored her page in the hopes of getting some other book suggestions. Not a lot of girls like to read essays about life from the vantage point of a scientist. This is what I found. If you've ever gotten a little romantic over the view of cities and mountains and terrain from a plane, play sim city, like pop art or think models and dioramas are lovely...you'll want to hang this on your walls.
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nati
Marie Picasso is the fourth winner of the Swedish Pop Idol. And she's plus size. I like her style, although i feel her stage presence is a little all over the place and could use major polishing, but she's drop dead gorgeous and has a raspy sexy voice that makes you wanna punch a wall (although most of her over produced pop songs don't showcase this benetar chaneling.)
My dream is to get Miss Plantum, Marie Picasso, and +plushus on a world tour! BAM!
dig it?
love
nati
I owned the Strawberry Shortcake in Big Apple City record and had memorized every word, song and sound effect by the time I saw it on television at my grandmother's house. I learned "fragmentation" and "indubitably" from Apricot and Hops A Lot, and at 6 years old, I told my mother I wanted a dog and I wanted to live in Spinach-Es Village. (Even at 6 I knew Spinach-Es Village was cooler than Times Pear.)
I'd like to think Park Slope is the new Greenich Village, and that I on some level fulfilled my childhood dream. If not, when +pluhsus goes platinum, I'll buy a place close enough to Magnolia's to ride my bike but far enough not to get in trouble at 2am every night. At least I finally got a dog. My inner child should be half satisfied.
My favorite part is when Strawberry shortcake is flying to Big Apple City on a butterfly. Now, I love how some of the music and sound effects used a then very experimental polymoog electronic funness, and Purple Pieman's evil theme song is very glam rock a la Queen, but how cool is the hippie folk rock of 70's animation (dipping into the early 80's)? Like America in the Last Unicorn (Jeff Bridges singing That's all I have to Say is my earliest memory of romance...might be the reason I'm so hooked on The Big Lebowski and Starman.) I'd also like to note that the trees in Sentimental Park are the same trees from Pepper Land...good Yellow Submarine reference.
love
nati
I just worked my way through the new Duffy album...and by work, I mean it was work. I love her voice but I couldn't get through the music...thank god for Mercy. So I put on Adele's Chasing Pavements and my ears stopped bleeding. OH! I also love Sharon Jones and the DAP Kings.
Must the blond girls get all the attention while hotness like Sharon Jones is kept out of the VIP room? In a +plushus world, Sharon and Adele get all the hype...and blond girls are a dime a dozen...
love
nati
I've always been a big fan of Beat Bullying. So I was super duper happy to hear Beth Ditto of Gossip doing a blurb for their site! I think +plushus shares a similar mission statement...Shaping Attitudes, Changing Behaviors. Judging people is toxic and needing to feel superior is a weakness. This is why I'm not a big fan of a lot of New York nightlife. It feels like a parade, forcing people to spend more money than they have, accumulate friends with impressive jobs, accumulate things that make you feel important, accumulate lovers and shoes...most of all, it can make you feel like you can't leave your house unless you're "put together" and that your value lies in how eye candy you'd be on the arm of some foodie snob. I have a damn good time in New York, I just prefer a house party over standing in line at Lotus.
love
nati
I prefer Miss Platnum's other videos "Mercedes Benz" and "Marry Me" but since this blog is about all thing +plushus, I had to post the plus size German Romanian Hip Hop Diva's music video for "Give Me the Food". The Lyrics being "give me the food if you love me." Opa! I'm NOT a fan of overeating and I have an inside joke with my friends "Food is Love" only we're being glib. So even though I'm a HUGE fan of Miss Platnum it's because of her thick Romanian accent and oom-pa hip hop beats (and sexy collaborations with Peter Fox of Seeed) and NOT because of this "fat acceptance" video. Though, let us not deny the catchiness that is a Miss Platnum hook...damn her catchy choruses and horn sections!!!!
love
nati
+plushus did a smashing rendition of "Real" at Naked Highway's Flirt party in the East Village...it was intimate, just enough hipster, dash of new wave...and of course the DJ played Gossip after we left the stage! God Bless Ditto.
love
nati
August is my 6 month old fluffy gay white malti-poo. He's the cutest beast in the BK; and, my vet just informed me, the proud owner of one testicle. (No wonder he's so agreeable). Actually it's called "undesended testis"...he has two scrotum just one is in his abdomen...I pray it drops in time to snip snip his manhood. I don't plan on breeding him, but it's a matter of principle...a boy deserves to experience both ball-sacs blowing in the breeze.
My mother rang my doorbell at 8am on Monday, she flew in from California with her best friend, Nanette to surprise me. SURPRISE!! We spent a lovely day in Dumbo eating Mexican food outside at Pedro's...the service sucks but it's the best Mexican I've had on the east coast...which isn't saying much since the Mexican food in New York sucks bad. If anyone knows different, tell nati and she'll give you a besito.
Thursday I will take Alex to the Telectroscope. It's like something out of City of Lost Children! I have a friend touring in London right now and we're going to try to see each other across the looking glass. What a romantic technology. I love mechanical devices...inventions...gears and cranks and pulleys and levers...and tunnels under oceans.
Ah me...oh sigh...
love
nati
+plushus and Naked Highway are very good friends now!!! Last night +plushus performed officially for the first time at Rififi. When you've been in the studio as long as we have and your heart is really for the stage, you run the risk of wilting...a disconnect with the people...a performer loves to prepare but must present...I feel like myself again. My dancers, Jamie and Shante, were amazing! Both had been traveling for a few weeks and so I assumed I'd be doing this gig all by my self. I got an email from Jamie a few days before telling me she and Shante insist on dancing with me and they'll do what ever it takes to pull it together by Friday. I was impressed, it's hard to find people that take personal responsibility for a project.
Stephen from SASI PR booked the gig. I met him while I was in the Glamazons, and we've been friends ever since. His office is across the street from this amazing salon where Michael (the boyfriend of Ruby Valentine) does miracle hair...one of the best hairdressers in New York.
Fritz was there to video tape and support...and look super fly. Storm and Luis from Maria Dolores came too! Which was so special cuz we worked on a song for the +plushus album called Gordita (yeah you heard me!) and we have the best time in the studio...laughing the whole time, I don't know how we get anything done.
We made new friends, like Ernesto the tatoo-clad trucker-hat wearing fixed-gear-bike riding Colombian architect (who incidentally was wearing the same green American Apparel unisex deep V tshirt I almost wore that night! twins!) I invited myself to him and his girlfriend's house to play scrabble. Cuz I roll like that. (and no I do not peace sign in every photo, that's Fritz' job)
Other notables was Jamie's J-date, Brian. +plushus girls are so busy we gotta double book dates and performances...look if you wanna hang, you gotta meet me at this venue at midnight for a drink and a song!
Now you know...
Oh and of course i took pictures.
love
nati
+plushus will be at Rififi tonight at midnight...Naked Highway is spinning...the party is called Flirt...which I do quite well, thankyouverymuch...one song only, so even though it's highly unfashionable...be early.
love
nati
I love fireworks. I don't like pictures of fireworks. It's like trying to photograph a full moon (which hangs low and red tonight). Some things need to be experienced in person. I think online dating is like taking a picture of the moon. How do you fall in love with out pheremones to soake in, or the salty taste of sweat on the top lip of a sun kissed grey tshirt wearing boy? I took this picture from the bedroom window of the family I babysit for. Yes, I babysit to pay my bills. I love children and I have non of my own so, I give all my warm busomy swetness to other people's children. Although I'm not sure if I'm better in person when I spend my days covered in baby fluids. Maybe nati is not like fireworks and the moon...maybe she's better online...she's definitely better on stage.
love
nati
There are some truly painful experiences you rinse and repeat, for better or not for better. Like working retail at Macy's, or having a baby, or shopping at American Apparel. The design of the situation is genius. Take something you want so bad (money, a baby, enviable wardrobe) then after every swift kick to head earase all memory of the blood, tears and cursing. Replace blood with hope and the thought "maybe this time it will be different" and there you have a recipe for crazy. Sometimes you gotta be a little crazy to push a watermellon out your vajay-jay. Sometimes you gotta run away. Like when my drop dead gorgeous, queen of the cool-kids best friend Caryna was sporting American Apparel size XL and tightly...i should have run.
But +plushus is performing on Friday and we're scrambling for some wardrobe (until I have custom pieces made) and since they're on every corner we tried it out. Jamie is a size 14, Shante is a 16 and I'm a 20. I can't show you pictures of Jamie in the XL, but I can show you a video blog from Jezebel, where two average size 8 and 10 totally datable very fashionable blogger chix go the distance in the dressing room...fearless.
A caveat, in the words of dear Slut Machine: "We knew the clothes were gonna make us look like fat hookers, even though you know, I feel like I'm just an average-sized slut."
love
nati
Motor City was a total success!! Danny, (the dead sexy but not full of himself sweetheart of a bartender who looks like Pete Fox from Seeed) booked us for the next available date...July 15th (popular bar). It was a long night full of crepes, free drinks, friends passing through, and dancing...well, mostly me doing the twist to the 5.6.7.8's and Femme de Paris (Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher...a French version of These Boots Are Made For Walking). Ellena provided the alt rock goodies and I played french punk, German Ska, and other non english obscurities. When I first got there, I wasn't sure my playlist would go over (how many times have I been scolded by some drunk jean jacket wearing redneck "You got somthun against America?")...but after a little Tito & Tarantula and Los Lobos I had major fans. Ellena played a White Stripes song and their sound guy was there which proved amusing as Ellena played a medley of Madison Square Garden inside jokes.
Highlights from Ellena's playlist: I Feel You - Depeche Mode
Tenament Teeth - Pela
Sex Machine - James Brown
Song for Aberdeen - Mando Diao
Get It On - Grinderman
Barracuda - Heart
I Love Rock n Roll - Joan Jett Daft Punk is Playing in My House - LCD Soundsystem
Sitting On The Dock of The Bay - Otis Redding
Highlights from my set:
Cosita Seria - Aterciopelados
Sr. Judas - Los De Abajo
Bomb the Twist - The 5.6.7.8's
Siempre Te Amare (Every Breath You Take) - Yuridia
Te Hacen Falta Vitaminas - Soda Stereo
Water Pumpee - Seeed ft. Anthony B
Marie Douceur, Marie Colere (Paint it Black) - Marie Laforet
Carachas Anjodas - Tito and Tarantulas
Oh and of course I took pictures.
love
nati
Ellena and I will be DJing on Tuesday May 20th at Motor City 10pm-4am. Of course if you know me, you know I'll be spinning the non english (Canto rock, Rockabilly Hispano, German reggae, Turkish hip hop). Can you call it "spinning" if you use iPods?
Motor City was my first Manhattan hang out back in 2000. I drove a 20ft moving truck from San Francisco to New York. When I got here, I had no cell phone and my sublet fell through so I'd tell people you can find me at Motor City on Friday's and NoMore on thursday's. It's nice to go back now that the city isn't quite so new.
love nati
I'm sure I'm the only one in new york that hasn't seen Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum...I work too much...but I think Brixx and I will take a walk over there tomorrow. Speaking of weekend rituals...I need to do some food shopping. I have recently been scolded for using fresh direct...frankly, I was on the move to using local products anyway. My house guest (German hip hop producer Brixx) is allergic to New York so I suggested locally grown food to acclimate her body. There's a farmers market on Saturdays at grand army plaza I can ride my bike to (yes, I'm getting the wicker European bike baskets for dog and groceries although, I also like the lacy plastic Carrie by Marie-Louise Gustafsson for Design House Stockholm and a few other designs)
Although not a huge anime fan, today I read on Tokyo Mango (which i love even more for the name since my plus line is called Mango Booty...so named after a miscommunication at dim sum in San Francisco with Sydney back in the 90's) there is a live action movie version of the anime Death Note May 20th and 21st if anyone wants to join me...
My body is feeling good and tight this morning thanks to Boot Camp Fitness NYC who gives one week free to anyone who wants to sweat hard. I go to the 6 or 8pm class almost every weekday. If anyone wants to join me...
love
nati
Tierny Lab recently posted a blog entitled Obesity Promotes Global Warming? commenting on The Lancet's recent article Trasport Policy is Food Policy where the explanation of the benefits of alternative transportation worked it's way around to fat people. If we fat people would just walk and bike more we'd reduce the global demand for oil and also the demand for, and thus the price of, food. I'm going with John Tierny on this and say "Do we really need to give fat people one more reason to feel guilty?" According to President Bush rising food prices can be blamed on the increasing middle class in India. So basically this global warming/food price issue rests on the shoulders of fat urban Americans and skinny middle class Indians? Good to know.
Frankly the whole issue is disorganized. All people should walk and bike more. All people should eat less. My skinny friends eat WAY more than I do. And my rich skinny friends eat out extravagantly. I mean how green is your average restaurant? And if you want to talk about consumption look at the bikers and runners who have to replenish extreme caloric purging. Trust this fattie when she tells you her carbon footprint is much more dainty than some medium weight average height foodie or olympic athlete.
The article also says that obese people consume 18% more energy (more fuel to transport the fattie, more calories to get fattie through the day). Yet people are throwing away 18% - 27% of purchased food...untouched...wasted. I have never been a fan of mass produced food. Growing up Italian, I would cringe at the waste. Why not ask your guests what they'd like to eat? If only 3 people are coming over why make 3 vegetarian, 3 meat, and 3 fish plates?
Although I applaud Tierny's heroic article and want to kiss him on the cheek, I do feel uncomfortable with him questioning whether exersice actually promotes long term weight loss. Plus it strayed from the topic. But...I will save that for another blog.
love nati
I had the opportunity to work with Rose Carrano, book publicist extraordinaire...who turned me on to this little nugget...If you're not a plus size woman, all the more reason to read about the heavy burden we bear and how the last socially accepted prejudice is based on lies. Reminiscent of the days when men of science said african american's will never be able to handle a real job, or women are just inferior leaders backed by countless studies and written about in respectable circulations...The Obesity Myth reveals what many would like to bury...connecting those Time and Newsweek cover stories about the "fat plague" sweeping our country with the FDA's deep dark almost mob like connection to the drug companies (Fen Phen is not fun fun). Is it any coincidence that the "studies show" even 7lbs overweight can put you at risk for diabetes when the average weight loss with Fen Phen is 7lbs? Any statistic can be twisted for anyone's benefit...facts are manipulated every day to get designer results.It's not about weight or looks...it's about health and peace...enjoy food, find friends who enjoy food, enjoy moving and find friend who will move with you...and buy the book if not just to show that people won't be hypnotized by fancy publications touting "the facts" (have i gone over the air quote limit?)
The choreography to Real is a nod to the early 90's. Oh the memories!!! If taping our sweaty nasty rehearsals proves one thing to you all...Not every fat girl is lazy!!! Perfecting just one tumber takes over 20 hours...we meet 3 days a week at 440 Studios Jaime, Carly, Shante, and Natalie all sweating it out on the dance floor. Oh and thats Sheryl, our punkrock asian choreographer in the pink!
There's nothing in the world like a rooftop in Brooklyn. PlusSize SuperModel Ivory May and Radio Promotor Elena Osis stop by to join nati for a photo shoot with Mike Heigl. And yes...if I could go back I'd zip that damn hoodie up a little more...I need someone with an eye to guide me...I can't do it all!!!
Get Skinny With Pink! 
