HEART IN YOUR HEARTBREAK

On the one hand, I'm posting this video in honor of the Pains embarking today on a five week US tour to celebrate their brand-spankin'-newest, sophomore album which just came out on Tuesday. On the other hand, I'm posting it because I fucking love it! The first time Alex showed me the rough cut I immediately made him play it for me at least five more times in a row. Everything about it just makes me so happy! And every time I watch it, something else makes me laugh--Alex's pot leaf necklace, Kip's ponytail toss, Christoph's emo stance, Peggy's glasses and, ok, Kurt's face pretty much always. The posi-vibes are practically melting my brain!

P.S. If you happen to spot some awkward looking blondish girl up front at the Philly or D.C. shows who you think might be me...well, it might just actually be me. Maybe. Possibly. Come say hi if you like, I'll try not to embarrass us both but I make no promises.

GOOD COUNTRY THINGS

Another amazing editorial from an old British Vogue found via Youthquakers, this time from September 1973 and shot by Barry Lategan. Like "Into the Algarve Sun" I love these photos as much for their setting as I do for the outfits--not to mention the title! "Good Country Things"...methinks I could use a few of those things myself right about now.

SHADES OF GREY

It was a brilliantly sunny (albeit brilliantly cold) Sunday afternoon here--so what better time to spend staring at photos of the frigid, steely-skied North, right?? I'm still playing catch up from my visit home in January, and this roll ended up running the gamut from snowy fir tops at dusk to sunny New York sidewalks. I'll get to all the in-between stuff next.

(All photos taken by me on a Canon AE-1 Program using 400 speed Fuji film)

AI FOR AI

The April/May edition of BUST just landed in my mailbox, and hot damn if it isn't a doozy. For one thing, I had the immense pleasure of interviewing the Ai sisters for a feature on their line Ai for Ai. Elizabeth and Carol were incredibly sweet, even after I made them sit in their sunny LA studio and listen to all my bitching about the snow in NYC (this was back in February) via Skype. Thanks ladies! I also have another little piece a few pages later all about affordable online shopping, including a shout out to Spotted Moth.

The best part of opening this issue, however, was stumbling across none other than Ashley of Fancy Fine all up in the main editorial, looking, dare I say it, both fancy and fine in a shoot that also features Hannah's gorgeous underthings. Phew, where to even start! A big congrats to both of them--and props to BUST for keeping me in such good company :n )

JUST A TINY TASTE

Polaroid taken in the Haight many years go//Charles Anastase S/S 2011//Tear from Lucky Magazine, I'm obsessed with those Marc Jacobs bloomers!//Charles Anastase S/S 2011 (I'm so tempted to try and DIY myself a shirt or tank version of this dress, kinda afraid I'm gonna end up looking like a total psycho)//Anemones in pen, ink, and colored pencil//french tulips on polyvore

Ahhh, Friday was such a wicked tease!! Sunny and in the 70's (yeah, you read that right!) here in NYC. Before you get your knickers in a knot though, you should know that's it's supposed to SNOW here on Wednesday. Uh huh, ok. Anyways, it felt so wonderful to go outside with bare legs for the first time in so many months--though I have to admit, I was feeling rather sorry for myself not having anyone to share such a glorious freak of a day with. I ended up wandering around the East Village for hours, snapping film photos and trying not to spend money. Eventually, as usual, I caved and bought three perfect French tulips from Sunny's Florist. Such a sweet little shop, seriously, that woman is living my dream...

Even though it feels like Spring just dangled the dream and then took it away, it's got my mind churning away in pinks, whites, blues and straw yellows. I finally spent the giftcard I won to LaGarconne thanks to Erin last year and ordered those No.6 clogs pictured above. I'm so excited! Brand spankin' new shoes are something that make their way to me once in a blue moon, and I've wanted something from No.6 for ages and ages. I always go into their store in Nolita and touch everything like a creeper and then leave, haha. At least now when I do that, I can wear their shoes and clomp clomp clomp around on the wooden floors just like all the cute shop girls do!

CAT PEOPLE

These are just a few of my favorite photos from an incredible little book called Cat People by Bill Hayward. I read about it somewhere on the internet last year, and immediately knew I had to track it down. Happily, used copies started (and still do!) at one measly cent on Amazon. I'm telling you, this book is a total masterpiece. Every picture is incredible, and the stories that go along range from hilarious to bizarre to downright insightful. Worth every...penny!

Not having a regular job to go to or a real life to keep me busy has meant that I've basically been glued to the BBC live update page concerning the Japanese earthquake since early Friday morning when, insomniac that I am, I saw the very first images of the tsunami coming out of the country. It's rotten to feel so helpless in the face of so much misery. One thing I have done is donated what I could to the Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (check out their Facebook page for regular updates). It's frighteningly easy to overlook how much suffering will have been imposed on animals of all kinds during this disaster, and if I can afford to chip in $10 I promise you can too! Should you need any further convincing (in the form of a punch on the heart), look no further than this photo that popped up in my tumblr feed yesterday. I can't even express to you what that photo does to me. Part of me wishes I had never seen it, as I know it will haunt me indefinitely. And while I'm sorry to share such sadness...it's a wake up call, and if it convinces just one of you to chip in even a little bit, well then consider my apology retracted ;n )

JAPAN

My heart is here today.

LAURA ASHLEY FELT HAT

It is SO DAMNED HARD for me to find hats that fit. They are almost always too big or too, I don't know...deep? Or something, something that causes me to look like a child playing dress up in them. Or causes my vision to be fully obstructed while wearing them. Or both.

So when I tried on this Laura Ashley(!) felt number while I was staying at my best friend's place back home in January, well, what could I do but beg, whine and cajole her into giving it to me? (For the record, I didn't have to try that hard.) I couldn't carry it back to NYC with me, so she shipped it some weeks later. To be honest, I haven't had the guts, or the occasion, to wear it out yet. But I do love it! Also, I feel like I don't show my face so much around here anymore--which I am quite fine with! But just in case you were wondering, hi, hello, this is my face right now. In my awesome new hat.

:n )

WENVRSLEEP

I first became aware of the amazing Miss Sarah Beaver many years ago now, back in our wardrobe_remix days. Since then, I've eagerly followed her career--not only as a stylist, but also as a person with extremely excellent taste in basically everything. Her latest venture is no exception: We Never Sleep is a line of beautiful jewelry hand crafted from artisan-made and deadstock materials. Her first collection draws inspiration from such seemingly disparate sources as Constantin Brancusi and the Free Masons, but in context it all makes perfect sense: rich, earthy woods and semi-precious stones combine with elegant metal findings and Czech glass beads to create pieces that are as wonderfully simple as they are substantial, all shrouded with a touch of the mystic. Not only am I crushing hard on everything in her shop at the moment, but I'm incredibly excited to see what wondrous direction Sarah's creations take next...

INTO THE ALGARVE SUN

Right after my last post, I came across this spread over on Youthquakers. Taken by Norman Parkinson for UK Vogue January 1973, these photos pretty much encapsulate everything I'm aching for at the moment. While they were shot in Algarve, Portugal, which is actually bordered on two sides by the Atlantic Ocean, the colors, the sun, the sand--they all feed into my current (and ok, long-standing) obsession with visiting the Mediterranean.

The closest I've gotten was during a visit to the Cinque Terre too many years ago now (which, technically, is on the Ligurian Sea anyways! Bah!) More recently, this obsession has been fueled a) by Summer Lovers, aka the most atrocious movie you absolutely HAVE to see and b) by discovering Filicudi Island thanks to the newest issue of Apartamento. Algarve, Filicudi, Vernazza...it doesn't matter so much, as long as I can bring along my cutoffs.

EASY AS ONE TWO THREE

(click photo for item details)
Today was achingly cold, the kind of day that, when coming in March, tends to quash all hopes of it ever being spring, of the breezes ever being balmy instead of biting, of your bare flesh ever seeing the light of day again. The kind of day that makes it hard to imagine, let alone believe, that some day I might live, day in and day out, in little more than what you see pictured above.

True story: sometimes when it is really frigid out (meaning that our radiators have finally kicked in and are steaming away merrily) I put on my cutoffs and wear them around the house, to do dishes or make dinner or just veg in front of the computer. I also have a painful crush on these sandals, though my Saltwaters will do just as well I suppose. And finally, I already have my sights on some new summer staple t-shirts which aren't so much cropped as just the perfect length on me (black, white, sorbet please.) Maybe if I close my eyes and wish reeeal hard...it'll be June when I wake up in the morning?

WINTER HOME

Now that we've made it through February--and even the first day of March!--and now that Accuweather is showing proportionally far more 4's and 5's across the board than 2's and 3's, it finally, finally is beginning to feel as though we're on the upswing. So it occurred to me that I had better get my ass in gear and share with you more of the photos from my visit home in January, before I enter fully into denial that winter ever happened in the first place.

The first photo was taken from the window of the plane on the second leg of my flight, from LA to Seattle. Looking out over the Sierra Nevada mountains, I found myself truly overwhelmed by just how breathtaking the West is, and just how much I miss living in that special, incomparable part of the country. Back home, there is always a mountain on the horizon, and I miss my own familiar giants (Baker, Rainier) every day. Here there is city and more city, and then flatness and swamps, and when you do come across a mountain, it is all the wrong shape. Here things are round and sloped, there they are jagged and rough and conical. I actually have a real theory about the shapes of nature in the East versus the West--but that is a lengthy dissertation for another day!

(all photos taken by me, using Fuji 35mm 400 speed film on my Canon AE-1 Program)