Saturday, March 28, 2009

faith in my city.

Sometimes you meet people who just sort of change your perception of PEOPLE. Yes, people, in general. The charismatic types who let you enter their world for just a minute, whether you like it or not. I was lucky enough to have that experience tonight, and I'm sort of kicking myself for not feeling particularly social enough to take full advantage.

It's kind of like in Almost Famous when William enters the "rock star" world. I entered into a slightly less drug-filled, more water-bottle-filled after-party apres the Cold War Kids show at the Orpheum in downtown LA. I wanted to be there, to watch, to know them.

These "rockstars", most married, though certainly not lame, have a network of friendships that one can only hope to find in a city like los angeles, the same los angeles that I know to be filled with one night stands and faux reality; in contrast, these people were REAL. Women who include me in their inside jokes, feign interest in my job and touch my hair, and men who just want to make you laugh and make sure you get home safe and nothing else.

Not many details to divulge, but it certainly left a fresh taste in my mouth, one that I hope to keep there amongst the gin-and-tonic hazed nights I'm sure to experience more and more in this city I'm learning to love.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

letters to vivian.

At some point in your life, you begin to realize that you might be experiencing something that you want to share. You also realize that nothing in life is new, nothing you go through is completely original. Since the beginning of time, there has been love, heartbreak, and everything that comes along with relationships between humans. Knowing this can be both incredibly daunting and at the same time incredibly refreshing. It just becomes a matter of how you express your experiences.

Art, as it stands, is both a completely selfish, and a somewhat capitalistic concept. You want the freedom to create and to express yourself in the most private of settings, but you want to be known, for art is meant to be experienced! It is selfish in the best and the worst of ways! We can outlet our emotions for ourselves, and also to show these emotions to others. and rather than negatively associating fame and recognition for our work, it is important to realize that in some ways, it can benefit those around us!

Life experience can never be given to us, it cannot be inherited, or explained, we can only be left to learn from everything we go through in our own ways. But how refreshing it is to find that those around us have experience our pain! And how inspiring it is to hear their experiences!

Henry darger, a reclusive american artist and writer wrote a 15000+ page manuscript documenting his "vivian girls" and their experiences as empresses among a tragic war. The posthumous discovery of his illustrations reveal a wealth of "outsider art" created by a man who was never trained, yet incredibly talented; one who worked at his art and loved his characters as though they were his dearest friends.

His art is breathtaking, his intuitive use of color and composition reveal a man, who, though alone most of his life with only a handful of friends around, created solely for himself. His life, though long, tedious, and almost uneventful as far as the modern person is concerned, was full of beauty and his mind, unaltered by the internet and modern constrictions, allowed him to freely create. Alone.

So, I've come to believe that nothing goes into the ether. Though you may write letters, save his notes, or create art in response to something, it never goes unnoticed. there must be a thousand henry darger's in the world we have not yet discovered. What you do for yourself can remain anonymous, but it will never remain affect-less. I guess, the point of all of this, is, tell your stories! And listen when those around you are willing to divulge. If not for your hypothetical children, then for those who fix your sink when you're too old to do it yourself.



99 Letters

lookbookblack

Whether you are a graphic designer attempting to lay out a lookbook, or you are a designer looking for a concept, a message, and a medium for a lookbook, the challenge is a great one! You have to all at once capture a mood, a look, and do it in an interesting albeit affordable format. That being said, I love this lookbook for Dejan Despotovic. I don't know anything about this designer, but I feel that the lookbook provides you with all you need to know.

Check it out.


Monday, March 23, 2009

lover's spit.



There was a point in the past few months when i listened to broken social scene's "swimmers" on repeat pretty much every time i had headphones and itunes around. Like most poetry, meanings are often yours to create and draw, and this song offered me a bit of comfort and understanding in the way i was feeling at the time. When you lose love, and when you lose someone who with all of your heart believed would always be there for you, in my experience, its easy to hit the low lows. Those really deep moments in your life when you start to question everything, the kinds of lows that hinder your productivity, the ones that allow you to be completely, selfishly, in your head all of the time, and its easy to wonder how it effects your decisions.

"I want to be with you, all the time, why can't you satisfy."

To me, these words described how I felt. I wanted and sometimes still want to be with this person all of the time, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why. He can't satisfy me anymore.

Sure, sometimes we hurt, and then we lose sight of our sanity. But if all we can really know is how we feel right now, and what we can remember of how we've felt in the past, how can we know if we are making the right choices in response to our feelings?

When does your curiosity, your thoughts of what happened and what could-have-been, begin to cloud your judgement? Whether its getting over your most recent love, or distracting yourself with a new one, what happens when you think you've made a mistake? Or worse yet, when you feel powerless to correct said mistake.

And when you feel like the decisions, the heart breaks, the one night stands, the fights and the sadness you feel now have the power to ruin your future relationships, how do you begin to believe in the possibility of finding it all again with someone else?

Sunday, March 22, 2009

listen to this with the best stereo/headphones you can find

ray lamontagne used to be my ultimate fave. nowadays i might not so readily admit this, just like i don't think i would readily admit that perks of being a wallflower used to be my favorite book. something about the time i experienced these two things, differing in medium, but similar in emotion, ray lamontagne was my outlet, for the feelings i couldn't let myself feel yet. my foray into the downright dancy and new musical horizons has taken me elsewhere in current days, so i don't really go back to those moments anymore... maybe i was too young, and maybe it led me deeper in, but to avoid getting into it, his songs meant something. kind of like radiohead or black lipstick means something now. its a projection of emotion that i am all too willing to take on.

ray and i took a long break, but his new album made me crave a listen. its just what we all want to hear. 'cause you are the best thing. you, or a good solid cig on a cold night.

Ray LaMongtange - You Are The Best Thing

Thursday, March 19, 2009

gossipworld

Looks like Terry Richarson shot the Gossip Girl crew for Rolling Stone this month. In reading this headline, I imagined overtly sexual photos of these "teenagers" playing on the whole theme of the show - basically, Gossip Girl taken Terryworld? Alas, I was disappointed to see the results of this collab, where all of the photos look just about the same as the one below:


In fact, this is about as risque as is gets:

I won't even fault Terry for this one - maybe Blake Lively just can't turn off the beauty queen.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

colors.

This is how you do it.




Model Lakshmi Menon for Dazed and Confused.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

what happened to alicia silverstone?

she didn't even last into the 2008ish trend of being "ASilv"-ed like robert pattinson and the like. anyway, i digress.

Let me start by saying that I LOVE Clueless (the film from 1995/6). I've seen it probably a billion times, and my love will never, ever, end. That being said, I think the one thing that always drew me to it (and maybe when I was in 6th grade I didn't realize this) was the culture of the mid-nineties it was set in. Satire or not, even beyond the characters, there are stereotypes dripping from the film. I had not yet hit high school, hadn't attempted to pass a driving test, and didn't know that the "Valley" was a city outside of LA thus prompting the crew to hit up the val party. So basically, I was unequipped to understand that I was right smack in the middle of the 1990s and was too young to really understand that decade that I admired so much from the movie. Sure, I could fashion my own black choker, and pretend that I knew old school Nirvana too (which I did pretend), but I could never understand the true meaning and social points that movie offered my older brethren. But maybe the reason why I'm so fascinated by that time is because I couldn't live in it. I couldn't live in it like I lived in 2002, or like I live in 2009. Is this where our fascination with past cultures comes from? I guess what I'm getting at is, if I "lived" (defined by growing up in) in the 1960s would I admire it any less?

sit on that bros.


"i love this robot"

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

oh yeah this isn't a fashion blog.

in the middle of reading these books:

the virgin suicides
sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs (yeah i know im like five years late on this one)
hans ulrich obrist & gilbertandgeorge

want to read these books:

the tropic of cancer
laurel canyon: the inside story of rock and roll's legendary neighborhood
diane: a signature life
i was told there'd be cake
brave new world
something beat, but not dharma bums?????


new motto: finish one before buying another. grand!

rei + trompe-l'œil

Let me just start of by saying this. I don't LOVE comme des garcons. I'm not always there to give rei kawakubo a thumbs up, but I do RESPECT her creativity, craftsmanship and her fuck-it-i'm-doing-this-really-smart-but-crazy-idea conceptual approach to design.

in this collection, however, something got me. i dig it and i'm not sure why. i don't feel like writing a whole lot, just pictures to say sheer, trompe l'oeil, and pink and theres just so much. (the detail shots are fantastic for some looks)





proenza schouler fw09

these shoes are standout.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

nice hair. again.



Erin Wasson of course.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

that hair!

forgot where i found this. maybe i'm having hair envy right now apres-haircut because my coif is a big curly poof ball, but i think the photo is great!

gareth pugh fw09

haven't gotten a chance to really check out the offerings from paris so far, but i did peruse the gareth pugh collection - and I'm totally into it. Seems much more wearable than past pieces.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

they look so fragile

i love this collage of photos (from refinery 29). not because theyre falling, but because somehow they still look beautiful while falling.

color

im into color these days - when it comes to interiors.
yellow coffee table down, orange shelves next?

love this chair and table by philip edis.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

its march

lots of things are coming into perspective in this quickly-passing new year. i've begun to adopt a fuck-it-all attitude as of late. better to try anything than wonder instead what could have been.

picked up these lovely shoes from minimarket - hope they look as fab in person.

edit: they do!