A-wahhh! Mommy and I are in the newspaper today! Even if she wears full Gothic makeup, I steal the show with that signature “Farrow pout”… Big thanks to The Vancouver Province for interviewing us about what we like to do on our Sundays. The text of the article is online and pasted below.

† † † † † † † † † † † † † † † † †
What do B.C. people like to do with their Sundays?
BY LENA SIN, THE PROVINCE | AUGUST 16, 2009

La Carmina enjoys spending time with her cat Basil Farrow, who’s popular on her blog. Photograph by: Wayne Leidenfrost , The Province

La Carmina is the prolific blogger and author of all things morbid and cute. Her immensely popular blog, www.lacarmina.com/blog, draws an audience as fascinated with Japan’s gothic lolita subculture as she is.

Based in Vancouver, La Carmina (aka Carmen Yuen) graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University before entering Yale law school. But alas, forbidden from showing up at law firms in glitter and neon wigs, La Carmina decided to invest her creative energies on her blog and gothic fashion line after graduation. The 24-year-old’s latest book, Crazy Wacky Theme Restaurants, has just been released and her cookbook, Cute Yummy Time, comes out in the fall. We drop in on La Carmina’s fantastical little world:

So where can we find you on Sundays?
If I’m in Tokyo, it means that I’m crawling back home after a party. In Tokyo, the subways stop running between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. and Saturday’s the day to go out. My friends and I are part of this gothic subculture there, so we’re always out at the gothic parties which usually happen on Saturday night. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it means that the parties rage all night long and by the time it’s dawn, you’re crawling out of these clubs looking like a mess.

What do you do after that?
Go home and crash! But that’s if I’m in Tokyo. If I’m in Vancouver, I’m spending time with my cat. I have a really amazing, amazing cat. He’s a Scottish Fold. I don’t know if you’ve seen my blog but he’s all over it. Basil Farrow gets a lot of attention because he’s not a normal cat. He loves to be carried and picked up and cuddled. So on Sundays we often go on car rides, little excursions together. I like taking him to the park because he can see the birds. Again, he’s not a normal cat! He’ll jump into the car and get into the back seat and look out the window just like a dog.

Is he a dog inside a cat’s body?
He’s a cross between a dog and a little kid — and a bear because he looks just like a little bear.

Can you tell me about your latest book on wacky theme restaurants?
I’m always travelling back and forth between here, Hong Kong and Japan. A few years ago, I became aware of a wacky dining experience out there — theme restaurants. There’d be a giant theme throughout the restaurant, perhaps like a haunted jail where they lock you up and monsters attack you. Or it could be a hidden cave inhabited by ninjas who perform magic tricks and serve you food. And cat cafes! This is cute, there are cat cafes where you can go because not everyone in Japan can have a pet because the apartments are so tiny. So they’d get their fix by going to a cafe and hanging out with 20 other cats.

That sounds really neat!
So I visited a few and loved them and wrote about them on my blog. It just so happened a publisher in New York City saw my blog post and thought it fit perfectly with the books that they make, which is all about wacky pop culture. So they sent me to Tokyo on the coolest mission ever: Take pictures at over 30 theme restaurants. I mean, I was waited upon by monkeys, had people screaming at me, attacking me. It was amazing!

You made a pretty big leap from Yale law graduate to blogger and author. Any advice to those craving to make a similarly big career change?
It is very, very difficult but never tell yourself it can wait. I think the sooner you do it, the better. It can be scary not knowing where your money is coming from . . . but at least be willing to take that first step if you can. I think a lot of people get stuck in the thinking.