DAMN FINE COFFEE

the new year, again

2012-02-02T07:07:00.001+08:00

The year of the dragon hath arrived and I'm finallyyyyy done with the GREs. This meant that I got to escape down to New York last weekend to see old friends, gorge on food that will kill you (mmmm Pies'n'Thighs chicken biscuit sandwich), and catch a showing of the new Coriolanus film which is in such limited release for no apparent reason that I can think of except that maybe not everything is as Shakespeare-obsessed as I am. So all in all, a delightful weekend, and now I get to do it again this week. Tomorrow I'll be heading down to Swarthmore/Philly, aka my old stomping grounds for weekend 2.0 of friends, food, and dancing.

Today's the first day of February, which unfortunately means that I'll be leaving the womb that is home in a short 10 days to suffer through another 20+ hour travel day and inevitable jetlag. Here are some things that I've purchased lately to quell that dread.

Alexander Wang Julia shoes and Portolano cashmere gloves from Otte's super sale. Can't wait for warmer weather to wear these shoes out. The "espresso" colored leather is just the softest :)

Knitting scarves and admiring my Seiko moonphase watch also help.

The new year has meant some major upgrades in my tech life. I'm currently blogging for the first time from my new 11" Macbook Air. In line with my new portable lifestyle is the Kindle Touch. These two things combined weigh about as much as the new "archi-comic" book by Bjarke Ingels that I just bought. He's currently teaching a course at Yale's School of Architecture, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll just happen to run into him and get him to sign it. Sometimes I feel like I'm more enthusiastic about the Danes than the Danes themselves :P

Who knew that there's a great donut place right here in Wallingford, CT? After coming home from New York with half an old fashioned donut left from Pies'n'Thighs, I complained to my parents that there weren't ANY good donut places in Philly and that I doubted there were any New Haven. Looks like I was wrong. Even though I got to Neil's Donut Shop just before they closed, I managed to get a sampling of some wonderful treats. Coffee+donuts for lunch makes for a damn fine day.

one more thing...

2012-01-24T22:50:00.002+08:00

In thinking about boots, I totally forgot just how much I loved Michelle Williams (and her wardrobe) in Blue Valentine. She certainly re-kindled my desire to own another pair of Frye boots (I've already sold off a pair of campus and veronica slouch boots in the past). The engineer boots seem like the badass stomping boots that my shoe collection is currently missing, especially the ones lined in shearling. And unlike most of Frye boots today, they're made in the USA.

(click through for sources)

full disclosure: ok at least half of posting these photos was for Ryan Gosling eye candy

the highs and lows

2012-01-22T05:24:00.000+08:00

Is it just me or have knee-high, thigh-high, tall boots gone totally off the radar in recent years?

I didn't think about this too much until recently, when looking at my shoes and realizing I only have one pair of knee-high boots: Joie lace-up riding boots in a lovely rich brown leather. But despite having had these shoes for more than 5 years now, I always end up only wearing them a few times during the fall. On the other hand, I have more than a handful of ankle boots and am always browsing for a new pair. In high school I loved Frye campus boots, but after finally acquiring a pair, I realized that they just didn't quite work with my height and stature.

Yet, I find myself wanting a pair of slightly slouchy knee high (or even thigh!) suede boots. Or even better, the No.6 aviator shearling knee-high clog boots. They're not much more than the ankle high ones, so I feel like you're getting a whole lot more leather/shearling and thus a better deal. Normally my girl-crush Michelle Williams stomps all around town in the ankle high version, but here she's got brown knee-high ones on and couldn't look toastier.

The buckle shape of the ankle high shearling-less boots are much nicer than the straight shaft of the shearling version, imo. I'd love either in black on black, though, because I think white shearling and lighter colors seem harder to clean.

Oh, and lest I forget about the blanket version...currently on sale at la garçonne and elsewhere. Since the Pendleton meets Opening Ceremony x Timberland colab is only making mens shoes at the moment, these would be a great substitute.

They pattern really pops in brown:

totokaelo

My potential solution to the high vs. low dilemma is actually this pair of Margiela MM6 x Opening Ceremony stirrup boots. It's sort of a bloody brilliant idea: 3 boots in one. An ankle boot, a knee-high boot, or if you're feeling fancy just some leather legwarmers that can make basically any ankle boots into knee-high boots. What's holding me back is the 4" heel, which I have no idea if it'll be comfortable enough or not. If I take the plunge, should I go with brown or black? I'm leaning towards black since I have more pairs of black ankle boots.

What do you think?

this or that

2012-01-20T03:36:00.002+08:00

I've been home for 5 days now and am loving every moment of it. Just a little anxious to take the GREs already so that I can go down to NYC/Philly to see my friends and PLAY.

Another thing that makes me anxious is the amount of stuff I have in my drawers/closet/under the bed/room. So in the first month of 2012 I'm undergoing another wardrobe purge and making massive piles of to sell or to donate (clothes to keep are hanging and not in piles). I'll be listing some things on the Laws of General Economy over the next week and also on ebay, so if you wear a size 6-7 in shoes and XS/S or 0-4, you're in luck ;) I also started a web store, but my grand plan is to use that for things that I make or repurpose.

Stine Goya dress, Harputs Own swacket, Vertigo Paris shift dress, Anthropologie jacket, Vena Cava dress, Rodarte for Target dress

So after I sell the above and a slew of other items, what am I going to do with the money? I suppose you may be expecting a photo of the covetable Isabel Marant Dicker boots or Acne Pistol boots next, but actually, I don't have that much interest in purchasing much more clothing for a long time. For now I'm in the market for something a little shiny and new and that won't weigh me down:

Yes, the Macbook Air has been calling my name...

the simple life

2012-01-14T09:50:00.000+08:00

I already posted this on my tumblr but I like it so much that I'm reposting it here.

Leaving at 4:30AM tomorrow for the long ~20hour slog home. No mini tv screens on the plane to boot means that I've been buying movies from itunes even though it takes ages for each to download. Here's to hoping that Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love will make the flight seem a bit shorter.

easing into the new year

2012-01-06T12:05:00.003+08:00

(kinfolk mag)

I was very tempted to title this post "enter the dragon" but decided against it because so far, the year of the dragon hasn't been so hot at all. Unpredictable, maybe, considering it snowed yesterday and this is a city with tropical plants still in bloom. But so far I've felt it best to just ease into the new year and not pound out my resolutions all at once.

So here they are, in no particular order of importance:

1. Be kinder to those around me
I'll admit I'm not the most effusive person around. I have a way of always not wanting to inconvenience others, but I'm beginning to learn that sometimes that just comes off a little cold and unwelcoming. So this year I'm going to welcome kindness when I receive it and accept help when I need it, and do the same unto others.

2. Complain less
Most of the time when I complain it is not until much later that I really had nothing much to complain about at all. Complaining is so habit-forming, and it's certainly a habit I picked up in the form of misery poker back in college that's hard to shake.

3. Read, relax, and meditate
This past semester has made me remember the pleasures of reading for oneself and not for some class or paper or, gulp, thesis. I want to continue reading leisurely, but like Ben Horne in Twin Peaks on his quest for goodness, I too find myself searching for something. Thus I've made a reading list of foundational texts (epics, myths, sagas, you name it) to make my way through over the course of the year. I just received a Kindle as a Christmas present, so this will make lugging those thousands of pages to China next month much more feasible. Despite the switch from print to digital, I want to spend less time in front of the computer and more time cooking, baking, playing music, and any number of things that don't require staring at a screen. Unfortunately my usual hobbies aren't easily achieved here, but at least I joined a gym and get my 2 hours of physical exercise in almost daily. Once I'm stateside I also want to spend more time perusing magazines like Kinfolk and The Gentlewoman.

I find that the more time I spend looking at webpage after webpage and sale after sale and tumblr/facebook/twitter post after post, the more shut down my mind feels. I tried TM a few times earlier last year and it was refreshing, so I hope to start practicing again this year.

4. Reduce, reuse, recycle
Always a must.

5. Purchase no more than 10-12 items of clothing/shoes/accessories
I've already carefully planned out purchases 1-5 for the first half of the year. In 2011 I bought at least 50 new things, not including various thrifted items that I gave away before even wearing. Closet purging is going to be the most cathartic thing. I want the items that I buy in 2012 to be perfect enough that they won't be apart of any such purging in 2013.

I suppose reading these resolutions together makes me out to be some kind of new-agey Berkeley type, but really I just want to not be so aimless in my post-graduate life. In other news, I'll be home in 10 days and I'm taking the GREs in less than 3 weeks. EEK!

til the world ends

2011-12-30T21:54:00.000+08:00

Substance leather jacket from Selfridges // vintage paisley dress // Dolce Vita jamison boots

Refinery29 had a cheeky little post about what its contributors would wear if (and when) the world ends in 2012. Lots of McQueen, specifically in case there are aliens involved. As for me, I think there's bound to be some leather involved, as the majority of my searches over the past few months have involved leather jackets, leather pants, leather bags, and suede boots. This is pretty much what I wore today except with tights and scarf thrown on. I finallyyyyy took the elastic out of this long-sleeved mini dress and it fits so so so much better that I can't believe I waited this long.

Yesterday I registered for the GREs. I'll be taking them in less than 4 weeks on January 26th, so expect my posts to get potentially more erratic until then. >_<

The end of a year always means the start of something new, yet I find myself making lists of all the things long past that I have yet to do. For starters, a list of movies that I have been meaning to see for the longest time and yet have never gotten around to watching:

1. The Virgin Suicides and

2. Lost in Translation

3. Once

4. Barry Lyndon

5. The Straight Story

Lists, lists, and more lists: the only way I keep my head on straight these days. I'll be flying home in two weeks and I cannot wait to see my parents and friends.

photos that sort of say "happy holidays"

2011-12-29T08:43:00.000+08:00

The semester is winding down and I can't help but feel some sort of blogger guilt as I now have to spend most of my time preparing students for finals and preparing myself for the GREs in less than 4 weeks. So just a picture post for now. Finally made an instagram account, so expect to see more from my iphone in the future.

tempting, very tempting

2011-12-26T10:29:00.001+08:00

But at half the price of a new macbook, which I'm dearly in need of, I have to just say no and hope that Barneys will have them in stock again next year. Curse you Isabel Marant boots for never going on sale.

a little secret

2011-12-25T12:00:00.000+08:00

"Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it, don’t wait for it, just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair or two cups of good hot black coffee."

will 2012 be the year i finally buy an "it" bag?

2011-12-23T11:26:00.001+08:00

I believe most bloggers have seen these bags enough this past year that they need no introduction. Clockwise from the top they are Dolce and Gabbana's Miss Sicily, Cambridge Satchel Company's leather messenger, Phillip Lim's Pashli, and Proenza Schouler's PS1. As per my earlier post about Filson and Fjallraven, I'm not really an "it" bag kind of gal. My staples are canvas and sturdy leather in rather masculine forms, so why am I thinking about caving for one of these bags now?

The Cambridge Satchel Company's bag is the only one that really fits my usual criteria. Utilitarian and built to last, I wanted this bag desperately in either navy blue, red, or (forest) green a few months ago. After stalking the website and then seeing the slew of complaints on their facebook page, I decided waiting 2+ months for a bag that had increased 150%-200% in price and 10000x in production was really not worth it. I was especially put off by the fact that much of the hype was due to the fluorescent versions, which I found to be totally unappealing as they popped up on my bloglovin' feed every single freaking day during Fashion Week. I ended up buying a vintage Coach "Colebrook" 5181 briefcase, made in the good ol' USA out of beautiful navy leather instead.

But somehow the simple, sturdy, and well-made leather bags I already own are unable to fill the void I feel when I see the Phillip Lim Pashli. The Pashli is traditional in satchel form, but if you sent it through a time machine out of 1960s Britain into 2011. I love pretty much everything about this bag, even though I can imagine the handles being impractical for wearing over the shoulder, and the lack of zipper closure and detachable shoulder strap impractical. Still, priced at around $800-$900 retail and sometimes on sale (I just saw it in messenger form in taupe for 30% off at La Garçonne), this is the only one of the four that I'm really really considering buying. Luckily (or perhaps unluckily?) the bag seems to be out of stock everywhere except in patent leather, which isn't an option at all. Ideally I'd want it in black, but I'm sure if I saw the green or taupe in person I could be persuaded in either direction too. Susie Bubble's close-up shots of it in taupe are pretty swoon-worthy indeed (and her comments about It Bags are pretty discerning, too).

The PS1 and Miss Sicily bags are on opposite ends of the satchel/messenger spectrum, and yet I feel myself drawn to both. The Miss Sicily would be much more useful for formal occasions, but the PS1 seems perfect for everyday wear. And its name reminds me of the PS1 warm-up events at the MOMA, all of which I sadly missed out on this past summer. I think some of the colors that the PS1 comes in are truly horrendous, but I'm particularly fond of the black suede, tobacco suede, and dark grey shades. The only thing that I really dislike about the Miss Sicily is the gold label on the front--it's a little too conspicuous for me.

Perhaps one of the things that turns me off about "it" bags like the PS1 is that I can't do a google image search for the bag without turning up thousands of photos of celebrities schlepping the bag around as if it were a nylon duffle on the way to the gym. I'm all about using things that you love, but the elegance of even a casual bag like the PS1 is totally lost on me when I see it paired with Uggs.

A bag that I did not include in this collage that I would be more than happy to own is the Céline classic box bag. I think the black, camel, red, and green tones are all equally beautiful, and the design is so perfectly simple and elegant. Unlike the PS1, I've liked at least 95% of the outfits that I've seen it paired with. But plunking down thousands for one is only something I can daydream about, for now.

edit: after writing this post I just came across this image and it kind of shows the contrast between the Filson carrying girl and the It Bag carrying girl. That is, assuming her bag is not vintage :)

2011: a year in concerts/shows/parties

2011-12-22T12:54:00.000+08:00

2011 was a year during which I decided upon some favorites and stuck by them. I guess in a way it follows my wardrobe mantra of late: if you love it, why not wear it all the time? If there's music out there that you love, why not find every possible opportunity to experience it?

Friends Flora Wolpert and Nick Bourland of Holy Holy Vine at Olde Club, opening for Sam Amidon and Vio/mire. I think the musical collaboration has been put on hold for a while since Nick decided to move to Germany and get married, but still worth a listen.

Salem at Johnny Brenda's in Fishtown, Philly. I'm pretty sure I had some part of my thesis due the next day that I subsequently shirked to go to this. Short set, but still pretty epic.

J*DaVeY at Worthstock...not much to say about this except that I got to dance in my space footy pajamas (best Target purchase ever, from freshman year) on stage and they complimented me on my sunglasses (Karen Walker Helter Skelters special edition, another great purchase).

Vio/mire, again, at Legion Bar in Brooklyn. It was finals week and I was feeling a desperate need for escape, so my gal pal Jessie and I took a lovely daytrip up to NYC that involved Central Park, sushi, and thrifting by day, and this concert by night.

James Blake in 1) Philly (First Unitarian Church), 2) NYC for a DJ set (???), and 3) Chicago (Pitchfork). 1) and 2) were again instances of irresponsibly ignoring finals work. Beautifully haunting every time, and his case of Joni's "A Case of You" still brings me to tears.

Also at Pitchfork, of course, was Animal Collective, reunited at last. I saw them headline during Pitchfork '08 and felt the hour+ long set was too short, and I felt the same way this year. They are a band I could honestly listen to for an entire day or more, and this was the fourth time I'd seen them live.

I'm a repeat offender for Gatekeeper, Teengirl Fantasy, and Pictureplane, who played at the best Making Time ever at Voyeur in Philly.

I used to think that DJs did nothing but hold up headphones to one ear and move records a little bit while bobbing their heads up and down to the beat of the music. Skream and a number of other artists changed all of that for me, but Brenmar is the DJ/producer who makes songs I listen to on repeat everyday and still get excited about when he comes out with a new song or mixtape. Check out his soundcloud and you will not be disappointed. The above was at one of Ghe20 Goth1k's summer "Clear" warehouse raves, alongside Nguzunguzu, Total Freedom, and Ghe20 Goth1k's own Venus X and $hayne. During one of the hottest days of the summer in a basement without windows or air conditioning. I wore a bathing suit/playsuit and was still sweating my butt off.

Not a concert, but one of the most charming experiences one could ask for: playing flute in a little marching band for the cutest damn couple's wedding in the most idyllic New England setting.

One of the most epic lineups of the summer: Araabmuzik, White Ring, DJ Rashad, DJ Assault, DJ Godfather, Le1f, Laurel Halo, Blissed Out, Mykki Blanco and more. All at Santos Party House. Actually an exhausting day/night because I ended up running a few errands for the promoters, but worth it in the end.

Also worth it was getting up at 4AM to take a 5AMish train from New Haven to NYC to see Stevie Nicks perform in Central Park for Good Morning America. Being less than 20 feet away from one of my personal icons was only made better by the motley crew of a crowd and bacon biscuits being cooked for a demonstration behind us.

I have doubts that 2012 could get any better than this, but who knows, maybe the threat of Doomsday will even send some of my favorite retired/on hiatus bands out of retirement.

All photos my own (iphone or disposable) except for the 13th and 15th, which are from friends' facebooks.

all i want for christmas...

2011-12-20T20:22:00.003+08:00

Argh....polyvore has an annoying way of posting whenever I don't intend to. But to finish the post title, all I want for Christmas this year is really to be at home with my family and friends, but since that's not possible for another 3.5 weeks, I made a wishlist instead. Filling the hole in my heart with:
1. baggu zip pouches - I love the bright animal prints and the fact that the mid-sized one will fit item #2 on this list.
2. kindle - still have not decided on the Kindle 4 or Kindle Touch...more on that in another post.
3. suede ankle boots - yeah, I know I'm supposed to be on a shopping ban, but I've been quite bad as of late
4. asics gt-2160 - to replace my asics gt-2100's from 5 or so years ago that have seen thousands of miles already. This is the only true essential on the list as I can already feel my shins, ankles, and knees caving a bit when I'm at the gym everyday.
5. a lace or mesh bralette - likely I'll be getting another mesh cross-back bra from American Apparel in nude or black, but maybe I'll settle on a lace one that I like instead
6. a big ol' box of macarons - I'm making a beeline for Laduree (and Magnolia Bakery and Bergen Bagels) once I'm back in the states

sweater weather

2011-12-18T15:06:00.000+08:00

from Kinfolk Mag

Is there anything better than the perfect knitwear for long winter months? The only thing that's not so perfect about these sweaters and styling from La Garçonne is the pricetag. Ho hum, even a Christmas miracle can't overcome the $400+ cash needed for some of these beauties. So I've decided that I'm going to make it a winter project this year to knit the perfect crew/o-neck sweater. My grandmother is a sweater knitting pro, and under her guidance, hopefully my hemlines and necklines will turn out a lot better than they have in the past.

These three are the closest to what I want to knit.

la garçonne moderne // le mont st. michel // steven alan

The rest are just icing on the cake.

acne // a.p.c. // a.p.c. // a.p.c. // boy by band of outsiders // hope // la garçonne moderne // les prairies de paris // lou // margaret howell // phillip lim // phillip lim // vanessa bruno

heard it through the grapevine

2011-12-14T09:27:00.001+08:00

One of my favorite blogs, the thinking tank, just posted about the quarterly Kinfolk. The images she posted were beautiful, so I decided to check out their website. Every bit of it is simply lovely and charming.

Kinfolk's manifesto:

Kinfolk is a growing community of artists with a shared interest in small gatherings. We recognize that there is something about a table shared by friends, not just a wedding or once-a-year holiday extravaganza, that anchors our relationships and energizes us. We have come together to create Kinfolk as our collaborative way of advocating the natural approach to entertaining that we love.

Every element of Kinfolk—the features, photography, and general aesthetics—are consistent with the way we feel entertaining should be: simple, uncomplicated, and less contrived. Kinfolk is the marriage of our appreciation for art and design and our love for spending time with family and friends.

Each post from their journal is a treasure trove of dreamy photos. Of course the set "41 coffees" jumped out at me immediately, but the photos from the flickr set are copyrighted so you'll have to click for yourself to see them. The latest posts, "holiday mobile" and "welcoming the season," really makes me wish I were home for Christmas more than ever.

To see more from the gallery, click here.

The end of the semester is quickly approaching, and with it is a whole slew of things for me to do: finish writing the final exams for my classes this week, continue GRE studying, buy plane tickets to go home, deal with my bank account issues, worrying in advance about teaching Spanish next semester, etc. etc. My apologies to anyone who's come to this blog looking for Twin Peaks screencaps or summaries or any related posts--they will be back soon! As for recapping the series, I know I've only done a few, but I've actually already gotten to the final few episodes in Season Two. It was just too hard to stop myself from continuing. For now I'll say that my goal is to finish recapping the entire series by April 8th, 2012 (the series' 22nd birthday). Auf Wiedersehen for now!

easy as pie

2011-12-09T09:51:00.000+08:00

I am loving the fact that it took me all of 2 minutes to get dressed this morning.

I've had this navy wool coat from J. Crew for 5 years now, and every winter when I pull it out it seems just as good as new. The only thing it needs is a good dry cleaning soon, because the lining is a little spotty in some places. I suppose that's what happens when you wear something to to bars, parties, on drunken bike rides, and through the woods. The scarf is a recent present from my mom's friend, who is the VP of the medical college here, and I'm so glad I was gifted it now because it's amazingly soft, warm, and cozy. Striped button-down from J. Crew is about 6 years old, Levi's black label jeans from ebay, and Etienne Aigner loafers from Goodwill.

I'd seen lots of references to the blogger Dead Fleurette in the past, but it wasn't until yesterday that I read through some of her blog. Talk about commitment to minimalist perfection! This is her current wardrobe and it includes less than 30 items (with shoes and bags). And her commentary on the idea of minimalist style (i.e. that just because you bought a pair of Jil Sander trousers does not make you a minimalist if you already have 15 pairs of pants from the same designer) and tips for curating your wardrobe are spot on.

I arrived at her blog, incidentally, after a mad search for Isabel Marant jackets. Even though there are tons of IM diehards out there, I've always been lukewarm about the brand and don't really understand the craze, save for the Dicker boots which I would totally buy if I had $600 just lying around. But I am beginning to like the idea of a fitted wool tweed jacket with leather contrasting as a cozy but put together alternative to a blazer. We'll see how long this desire lasts...

But it is lovely, no?

east of eden

2011-12-04T10:42:00.000+08:00

I believe that I read about one book each year that turns my life, if not upside down, at least a little bit sideways. I say one book a year and not every few years because the number of years in my life is still very little and because read quite a few books recently that I knew I would enjoy. Some books that have made me feel like I'd gotten a change in my glasses prescription are Fahrenheit 451, The Bell Jar, Catch-22, Invisible Man, and of course, Ulysses.

I finished East of Eden last week and I knew it would become one of those books before I even got to the halfway mark. It took me almost a month to finish, which is the longest I've spent with any book thus far in China, but this is only because each sentence and each little story woven together was something that I wanted to savor. I did not want it to end on the last page, and yet the ending was still satisfying--a rare balance that I applaud Steinbeck for achieving.

After reading The Grapes of Wrath in 10th grade, I promptly went to my local borders and bought East of Eden. Since then, it has always been the book that I would look at and think, "when I have a good chunk of free time I'll read you." One summer and winter vacation after another and I still had not found that good chunk of time. But I am wholly glad that I waited until now, almost 7 years later, to read it.

I know that East of Eden is a popular book to assign for high school English because of it surely provides lots of material for talking about symbolism, themes, blah blah. But really, I think that I would not have been as deeply touched if I had read this book in high school. The overarching musings on loneliness, the burden and gift of being a singular being, the longing to love and be loved, yes these are all things that most high schoolers will brood upon and will likely latch onto in East of Eden. But I think I have gotten just old enough to really feel all of these things, and not in a self-pitying way either. In fact, the feeling is almost one of comfort and joy, much like the suffering of mankind that Marx talks about in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844.

While reading, I also remembered that of course someone made the book into a movie, and with James Dean no less. But after searching through some East of Eden tags on tumblr and google images, it seems like they've distilled the giant and sweeping (but quiet and never obtrusive) greatness of the novel into just the love story between Cal and Abra, which really doesn't even happen until the last 10% of the book. I'm itching to see it, but I'll hold off til I'm back in the states. In the meantime, looking at movie stills of James Dean ain't so bad.

This last one is from when Marlon Brando visited the set! Too much beauty in one place. I love how Julie Harris is the only one who looks totally enamored.

Update: After some google searching I just learned a remake is in development. Now my question is, are they going to remake the movie, or actually attempt to make a truer book to film adaptation? Also, plenty of rumors about Kristen Stewart of playing either Cathy/Kate or Abra. She's wrong for both parts, imho. This plus the Gatsby remake have convinced me that Americans are experiencing a great dose of nostalgia for the golden age of American classics. Might the current economic downswing have something to do with it?

black friday redux

2011-12-01T14:15:00.004+08:00

top: slim leather jacket // sheer blouse // mesh bra // velvet shorts // leather pencil skirt // cashmere pullover
bottom: complexgeometries dress // cape chiffon dress // leather pants // long-sleeve velvet dress // oversized shirtdress

It's the first day of December and the weather has plummeted a good 20 degrees from Monday into the low-mid 50s. Still not quite "winter", but it's putting me in the mood to want to wear black all day, everyday, and in as many different materials/textures as possible. Most of these items I have in some form or another, but of course I can't get the exact replicas on polyvore all of the time. I have been hounding pairs of leather pants on ebay despite my shopping ban...

twin peaks: 1x03 "zen, or the skill to catch a killer"

2011-11-28T10:24:00.002+08:00

Title: Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer

Original airing date: April 19th, 1990

Director: David Lynch

Last year I started writing a piece about Twin Peaks for one of our school's magazines, Nacht. I didn't get very far into it before the Sisyphean task that was senior year took its toll on me. I had started developing this idea about why food is so important in Twin Peaks, heading in a very Proustian direction. The start of episode two is a strange one: a "traditional" family dinner interrupted by Jerry Horne and the "best damn sandwiches ever."

I believe there are two tensions at work here. First, there is the separation between outsiders and insiders. Second, there is the subversion of the safest, most domestic sphere: the family. Every time I watch this scene I feel like I am intruding on some private moment. It has nothing to do with the closeness of the family, since they could not be further apart, each member occupying an ordinal spot, but there is something about this that feels wrong. The camera leers in from the angle of someone lurking by the table, standing and shuffling his feet, not sure of what to do. What reservations I may have about witnessing this scene, Jerry Horne lacks completely. The two brothers share a giddy moment―leaving the rest of the family silent at the table.

The Hornes are one of Twin Peaks' few families, in the traditional sense of the mother-father-two-children definition. But Johnny is an adult still operating at a fourth grade level and Ben is caught up in a double-crossing business love affair with Catherine Martell. Catherine in turn has no children with Pete, and though Pete considers Josie to be like a daughter, she herself has lost a husband and is childless. Norma and Hank, Nadine and Ed, and Shelley and Leo are all more examples of childless couples who cannot find love within their own homes. The Hayward family seems to only suffer from a physical disability, though I still can't pinpoint the exact weirdness of Donna's sisters.

Boiled down, Twin Peaks offers few stable family situations. The family as a source of security is fractured by the death of Laura. Her death, we will later learn, comes from within. And this is the greatest fear of all: where one expects a haven, one will find a nightmare instead. I see food as a physical manifestation of this comfort and horror. At its best, the food in Twin Peaks provides unity, pride, and satisfaction. At its worst, which we'll see later in the hospital food, it will literally kill you.

The sense of voyeurism we feel during scenes like the Horne family dinner is never experienced by Agent Cooper. Going native almost immediately, Coop's connection to the town is most strongly felt through his stomach. No one appreciates the cherry pies and coffee of the Double R and Great Northern like Agent Cooper, who must indeed have the metabolism of a bumblebee to keep up. To instantly love the food in Twin Peaks is to instantly feel a sense of belonging in the small town. Perhaps if Albert had stopped for a slice of pie first, he would not have solicited this response from Lucy:

I didn't notice that her book was about Tibet until I screencapped this scene. Yet another testament to Lynch's ability to never miss the smallest details. All of the episodes directed by Lynch are noticeably so, but this is the most cohesively Lynchian of them all. The interior shots are incredible for the worlds that Lynch creates, from One Eyed Jacks to Pete and Cathy's comfy but eerie abode to Josie's bookcase to the Double R Diner where Audrey dances in her own little dreamworld. These worlds, like Laura, are full of secrets.

The dancing and creation of little words continues into dreams. The first time I watched the dream sequence I had the sound cranked up loud enough that the shuffling of the midget scared the crap out of me.

Philosophizing and theorizing aside, the dream sequence is a vision to behold. If you listen to Lynch talk about the Red Room, he'll say that he had fragments of this idea, and that the

walls are red, but they're not hard walls. Then you think some more; they're curtains. And they're not opaque, they're translucent. Then you put these curtains there, but the floor, it needs something, and you could go back to the idea and there was something on the floor. It was all there. So you do this thing on the floor, and you start to remember the idea more. You try some things and you make mistakes, but you rearrange, add other stuff, and then it feels the way the idea felt.

Match the feelings to the idea. So simple, yet I think Lynch would've made a good interior decorator No wonder chevron (and velvet, red or blue) have steadily remained in the design and decor repertoire of Twin Peaks fans everywhere. Here are some shots that Richard Beymer (Ben Horne) took while on set:

As if the ending weren't enough, this episode is full of other classic Twin Peaks gems: Agent Cooper's idiosyncratic methods of rock throwing to deduce the killer, Tibet, Leland dancing with Laura's photo, and Coop's hair after waking from the dream. Small wonder that the title has a lot in common with one of my favorite books too, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

buy nothing friday

2011-11-27T11:41:00.001+08:00

Another black friday without a dime spent...I'm pretty sure last year I was too busy having a nervous breakdown/freaking out about my thesis to even consider going shopping. Someday I'll be saving up my pennies for such items as these:

rick owens leather jacket // miu miu noir sunglasses // marni fur coat // miu miu glitter pumps // hermes kelly // ysl ring

giving thanks

2011-11-24T13:05:00.001+08:00

my parents, two years ago when I got home from Copenhagen, at the apartment in between our houses in Philly and New Haven

Of course I wish that I could be with my parents today, but sadly I don't have the money to hop on a jet that could cover the 7,5000 odd miles to get home in time for Thanksgiving dinner. But I am ever so thankful for technology like the internet and skype that made it possible for me to see my parents smiling faces this morning. I'm also thankful that after two and a half months here, I am finally starting to feel better adjusted and settled. I won't be eating turkey this year, but at least I have people to share the holiday with :)

personal wardrobe philosophy

2011-11-22T12:31:00.001+08:00

About a month ago there was a feature in The New York Times aboutstyle on college campuses. Of course the majority of the students they featured went to schools in NYC and of course I found most of the article and commentary to be insufferable. This is not, of course, to knock the gals who were featured, but gosh could I help it if the article just felt so stale and pointless when blogs and publications and books are smartly critiquing left and right the unnecessary spending and energy that goes into wardrobe maintenance? Others may disagree, but I think the golden age of street fashion blogs and personal style blogs has come to an end or at least is so saturated that it's hard to stand sometimes. So when these presumably smart women are going on-record to say that, "Getting ready for class is important. Students want to up their game. That means looking a little more serious, not just throwing on a graphic t-shirt and jeans," can you blame me for being disappointed?

This is absolutely not to say that academics and style are inversely proportional. I have no idea what the majors and future career plans of these students are, and don't we all know people who are incredibly brilliant and incredibly beautiful and stylish at the same time? But to define oneself through clothes, and above all through trends and what other people will think rattles me. I think it's the particular focus on keeping up with appearances, and not defining your own style that really irks me. "Some of us like to make an effort when we dress" apparently means buying the right brands and labels, and all of it reeks of snobbery and false sophistication that fuels a consumerist culture that cares more about the now than it does about workmanship and artistry.

It would be dishonest of me if I did not admit that I'm most certainly a materialist and sometimes there is nothing I like more than surrounding myself with beautiful things. This includes but is not limited to: unwieldy rock and crystal collections, antiquated musical instruments and recording devices that I toy around with sometimes but which are mostly for show, books I buy just because the covers are nice, old luggage that is pointlessly heavy and impractical to buy on ebay due to high shipping costs but that I keep anyways because it reminds me of a bygone era of traveling by trains, and of course, clothes clothes clothes. New clothes, vintage clothes, clothes that once belonged to my mother, clothes that I've made myself. But rather than buying new clothes this year, I'm working on minimizing the number that I already have and coming up with a philosophy that works for me.

In the past three years I have probably already cut my wardrobe in half, and still I think I have more clothes than any one person could (or should) feasibly wear in a year. So during this shopping ban, I am taking a closer look at my clothes and deciding what stays and what goes.

My personal guide for deciding what stays and goes, and what to buy in the future:

Brand and origin

Note to self: an expensive brand does not always mean quality and high manufacturing standards. Nor does it mean hand-made or hand-sewn. So even though I'm always tempted by Alexander Wang, 3.1. Phillip Lim, Acne, and A.P.C., the fact that most of their clothes are made in China or India does not bode well for their chances of making it into my closet. Luckily the pricetag stops me most of the time anyways. Made in the USA doesn't always mean the best either (ahem, American Apparel high-waisted trousers that started ripping at the seams after one wear), but when I see a Filson bag or a vintage Coach bag or a Steven Alan shirt I get the sense that a lot more care went into the making of said items. When I see that my Swedish Hasbeens clogs were “nailed” in Sweden and my Margiela trousers were made in Italy, it makes sense to me that these items were born not far from where the brands are based. Then again my basic J. Crew cardigans have held up to weekly and sometimes daily year-round wear for the past five years and they were made in China. But they are also 100% merino wool, which brings me to...

Material

I have a lot of polyester in my wardrobe. A lot of it comes from Goodwill, and some of it comes from stores like H&M and Urban Outfitters. Because most of it comes from thrifting, a lot of it is hard to let go of. Like the long-sleeve polyester blouses that I want to replace with silk but haven't got the money at the moment to do so. Or all of the great dresses and skirts and acrylic sweaters that wouldn't be the same if they weren't made with synthetics. I can't change the unnaturalness of these items that I already love, but I can make a conscious effort for future purchases. So this means no polyester, no acrylic, no tencel, no rayon, no viscose, no “leatherette.” Cotton, wool, silk, leather and suede. That's it! (I suppose blends are ok, as this 100% rule is really much harder to follow than one would think)

Style and fit

This should be a no brainer but somehow I've spent years buying clothes that are too big or too small, and not in the oversized or crop top sense when it is intentional. I suspect many women do this, and I think it happens to me a lot because of sales. If something is on sale I am tempted to buy it even if it's too big or too small. If it's too big I just think, oh it's oversized and loose and whatever it's fine. If it's too small I just think, oh I'm bound to have one of those months when I lose a few pounds or something and it'll fit then. Wrong wrong wrong. Just say no. I suppose this is where curbing impulse buys really helps, because when you're on a mission to buy something that is just right, you usually only settle for that something that is just right.

Sentimental and personal value

I had no problem selling my prom dress on ebay a few years ago. When it comes to anything that once belonged to my mother, however, it's quite the opposite. This also applies to sweaters my grandmother has knitted for me. While all of these items are amazing, because god knows how long it takes to knit argyle with a gauge that small, I wonder if I need to keep all of them. I have a red cardigan that I wear like crazy, and a green cardigan that I wear sometimes in the winter, and a grey sweater with red stripes in the style of an A.P.C. breton sweater on its way. The rest, like a pair of argyle sweater vests, have remained in my closet for quite some time and the idea of saving them for my future children(???) is somehow absurd. So I'm still conflicted about what to do in this case.

Of course, none of this is set in stone. During this shopping ban I still browse ebay all the time, but remembering the above four things certainly helps me to stop before pulling the trigger on any purchases and breaking my ban. Looking at my old polyvore sets and seeing that my "capsule wardrobe" has not changed that much at all over the past 2 years also helps to remind me that once you find your comfort zone, you really do stick with it.

why the log lady and i are kindred spirits

2011-11-21T10:19:00.002+08:00

The number of days that I have woken up and thought, "today I kind of want to look like a grandma+woodsman+schoolteacher," is roughly equal to the number of days that I wake up and think, "I want to be the equivalent of Stevie Nicks as a Shakespearean character." So I guess this means that most of the time I think about drawing a fine line between frump and witchiness, even though my "uniform" of late has been various layers of oatmeal, taupe, and camel.

Despite what I outwardly gravitate towards, I do believe there is something inside of me that draws me to Margaret Lanterman, aka "the log lady."

We both have a penchant for high-waisted trousers and shushing other people a little too self-righteously sometimes. And navajo prints.

Fact: I ~~stole~~ lovingly rescued this log from the home of Hans Christian Andersen in Odense, Denmark. Since then, dressing like the log lady for every Twin Peaks anniversary is easy as pie.

But mostly I think it's her no-nonsense attitude that gets me every time. Like when she slaps Agent Cooper's hand from the plate of cookies, or when she gives the same disapproving tight-lipped look I probably give far too often for someone my age.

Oh, and she was the only one who didn't seem to age at all in the Psych spoof of TP, "Dual Spires." Lesson learned: dressing like you're 50 when you're in your 20s means that you will look the same when you're 50, which means you won't have aged at all!

Not that I have to worry about that, being asian and all:

twin peaks: 1x02 "traces to nowhere"

2011-11-18T10:59:00.001+08:00

Title: Traces to Nowhere

Original airing date: April 12th, 1990

Director: Duwayne Dunham

The lucky people around for the original airing of Twin Peaks only had to wait four days between the pilot episode and the official first episode of Season One. Compare that to how long I've been waiting for Mad Men Season 5 to start and well, it just seems a little unfair.

After a brief glimpse into Agent Cooper's morning ritual of working out and asking Diane about the Kennedys, we get one of the finest moments in coffee drinking history. Only to be made better by Audrey's entrance and a tree-print cardigan that I'm sure someone somewhere has already DIY-ed and sold on Etsy.

Apparently David Lynch hand placed every speck of sand and dirt onto Laura's dead face. Such attention to detail is what I've always love about the visual worlds that Lynch creates. For every sweeping theme about good and evil, there is a detail like Lucy's acorn necklace to Dr. Jacob's fish tie.

I always loved this scene for the colors--the greens and pinks and reddish hues all directly translate into some Irish/Scottish autumn parade for me.

While deep down I felt sorry for Nadine, most of the time she set me on edge.

Another classic one-liner delivered with the perfect pauses by Pete Martell.

The first time I saw this scene, where Sarah Palmer imagines Laura's face on top of Donna's, I actually got so scared that I hid my face under the covers, only to be frightened moments later by the first appearance of BOB. Of course now when I see it, I laugh a little about how shoddy the special effects are, and how maybe it's a lot more campy than scary. But the music! I think watching Twin Peaks with quality sound is really the key to getting sucked into the series, as opposed to on an iPhone or something like that...

Despite the turns later in the series towards the supernatural and other worlds and such, I think that Twin Peaks is at its core still about domestic life. Families and the traditional structure of the nuclear family are portrayed far more realistically here than on other family shows at that time like Growing Pains, and by more realistically I mean they are challenged. People cheat on each other and have affairs! Sons and daughters have arguments with their parents and don't always work things out! And of course there's poor Shelly Johnson, a reminder that domestic violence reaches the prettiest of ladies and is never the victim's fault. There's a lot of debate out there about the role of women in Twin Peaks and whether or not they fall into silver screen stereotypes, but even if the show if indeed full of stereotypes and archetypes as Lynch is wont to do, there is certainly a consciousness about what he is doing. More on that next time, as I try to keep up with these more regularly. At this rate, I won't even get through the first season before the new year!

tumblr tuesday: the daily prep

2011-11-15T11:56:00.001+08:00

This week's tumblr post is based on a hodgepodge of my fall wardrobe staples and Muffy Aldrich's blog The Daily Prep. Trying to define "prep" is about as hard as trying to define "hipster," and trying to do so for both cause a lot of unnecessary trouble sometimes. Yes, there are a number of things to point out about what "prep" is and what it stands for, etc. etc. but the ideas I most drawn to about such clothing and products is that they are made from quality materials that will last a long time. I always think of what Agent Cooper said, "That's what I need, a clean place, reasonably priced," when I think of American/British heritage brands. Simple, good quality, and in comparison to couture, reasonably priced.

directory from Take Ivy, recently reprinted

new Barbour store in Philadelphia

is Filson considered a preppy company?

In other news, the first half of November has flown by and I have been so bad at keeping up with my Twin Peaks recaps! I'll update soon, as soon as I get over this damn cold.

happy corduroy day!

2011-11-11T22:50:00.002+08:00

my favorite holiday of the year, and this year's extra special as there are 3 sets of 11's instead of just two :)

cords paired with knits from mlh by margaret howell // 3.1 phillip lim // la garconne moderne

in place of tumblr tuesday, a semi-recent update

2011-11-10T08:51:00.000+08:00

Even though weeks go by slowly here, somehow I always seem to rush by Tumblr Tuesday. So instead of rounding up all of my favorite Ryan Gosling posts from the past week or so (which I will probably end up doing sometime anyways), I thought I should include some recent photos.

I love my Nikon D60 but sometimes I just can't commit to carrying it around with me, so I've ended up not using it very much at all the past few months. But here are a few shots:

my parents and grandparents (mom's side) in Jin Hua

one of my favorite dresses

my grandpa (dad's side) before his 80th birthday party

new plant for my room

new cutesy planner that makes my organizational heart go mad

Also, Tavi's interview with Leith Clark of Lula Mag is a few weeks old now, but not any less worth reading.

lighten up

2011-11-07T11:06:00.000+08:00

It's dipping into the high 60s/low 70s this week and I'm already thinking about transitioning from fall to winter weather. All tops are from Acne and A.P.C., brands with which I would gladly fill my entire closet.

twin peaks: pilot episode

2011-11-06T19:29:00.002+08:00

Title: Pilot, or Northwest Passage

Original airing date: April 8th, 1990

Director: David Lynch

Every time I start another round of watching Twin Peaks, I never seem to make it all the way to the end. This isn't some protest of the second half of Season Two, which was a huge disappointment to a lot of people, but more like something that just always happens when you rewatch a show that's this intense. As it turns out, I've only seen the series in its entirety twice, but I've seen most episodes in Season One 5-6 times. I think I've probably watched the Pilot episode at least 7-8 times by now, because I'll always try to introduce the show to friends and of course you have to start at the beginning! How far we get usually tapers off somewhere around the middle of Season Two, or sometimes even before then.

But since my parents brought me my Gold Box Edition on their recent visit and since my capacity for streaming online tv shows is limited here, I'm rewatching the whole damn thing this time. Also, I often find myself wanting to include some screencap in blog posts or on tumblr, but finding the right ones online can be really tiresome. Thus, I'm creating my own screencap archive to make things easier for me (and hopefully others out there).

But enough talk, let's get on with it, shall we?

The log lady introductions were added later on when the series came out on video, I believe. Some of them are more abstract than others, but this one is a good ol' fashioned intro to the entire series.

Yes, those are saws making more saws. By the first few notes of the theme song I could already feel waves of nostalgia rolling over me. Thank you Angelo Badalamenti for your fine, haunting work.

Pete Martell looked instantly familiar to me but it wasn't until some episodes into the show that I realized he is the same man who played Henry from Eraserhead. He has the first line of dialogue in the show, which perhaps not surprisingly is about fishing, a concept that Lynch talks about in depth in Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity.

The camera angle when Pete happens about Laura's body always gives me the same chills that I get from the upward shot of the ceiling fan/stairs in the Palmer house.

From this shot on I knew that Twin Peaks was forever going to be a source of style-inspiration for me.

By the time Bobby puts on a song that would never be on any jukebox I've ever come across, I knew that this show was entering some other dimension.

The introduction to Agent Cooper is so perfect in every way that it's hard to write about it without gushing like a schoolgirl, so I am going to refrain until another time.

Despite being really creepy and unnerving to watch alone in the dark, the humorous side of Twin Peaks is always spot on in the weirdest way possible. But the cop jokes are really great and I will laugh at pretty much anything that comes out of Agent Cooper's mouth that passes for sarcasm.

The pacing of the Pilot is fairly slow, but so much happens in the last few minutes that it's hard to talk about all of it. There's the gloved hand in Mrs. Palmer's vision, Catherine Martell on the phone with Benjamin Horne, and one of the weirdest prison scenes to grace the silver screen. The snarls emitted from Bobby and Mike seem to foreshadow the noises that will come from another BOB, but maybe this is reading too much into it.

And every time I finish watching the Pilot episode, I always think the same thing: how was this aired on network television? In my mind, Twin Peaks is like the Nirvana of television. In the late 80s you had all of this overdone and glitzy/glamy entertainment, and then along comes Twin Peaks with its fantastically strange and sobering take on Americana. Oh, and I guess they have that flannel bit in common too. But unlike Nirvana, Twin Peaks doesn't use angst when challenging you to widen your beliefs. It's simply an invitation to see the oldest of battles, that between good and evil, and all of the complexities in between.

david lynch talks about the woods

2011-11-03T12:13:00.001+08:00

On Halloween I started rewatching Twin Peaks and I'm going to screencap and blog about each and every episode here. So beware of spoilers if you have not seen the entire series yet! Or just treat this as motivation to start watching the best show that ever was on television. I'm not quite ready to write about the pilot episode yet, but here's something Lynch related in the meantime.

Even though the self-description for Nowness is a bit off-putting (digital leader in luxury storytelling...um, ok), I absolutely loved the little feature they had a couple of weeks ago. Listen to David Lynch talk about the difference between woods in the Northeast and Northwest, carving wood, and smoking cigarettes here.

tumblr tuesday: white out

2011-11-01T21:03:00.001+08:00

The day after Halloween and I am quickly starting to think of winter, even though it's barely autumn here still (deep sigh). But since it snowed back at home in the states, I thought I'd share some lighter hues. I'm still crying ~~a little~~ A LOT on the inside knowing that it's going to be a long time til I can paint my floorboards white again. And by a long time I mean probably never because when will I have a landlord as neglectful as the ones I had back at the barn?

Btw this last set is for sale in London. Check out the listing here. Ugh only in my dreams.

And of course, some Louis Vuitton SS12:

edward gorey does dracula

2011-10-31T09:58:00.000+08:00

How fantastic is this Dracula toy theatre book made from Edward Gorey illustrations?

Happy Halloween! Eating candy all day long :) Too bad I have two sets of classes to teach today--all I want to do is stay in bed and read the not-as-fun but still exciting copy of Dracula on my iPhone and pretend that it's dark and gloomy outside (instead of 77 and sunny).

tumblr tuesday: home away from home

2011-10-25T21:25:00.001+08:00

There is nothing like hugging parents that instantly makes you feel at home, even if the notion of "home" has changed drastically in recent months. I think the Danish saying det var hyggeligt (roughly meaning that was cozy) comes close.

I also think of cozy beds.

And damn fine-looking lattes.

Or maybe it's more like Marcel's madeleine episode in Swann's Way :)

packing for a five-day trip

2011-10-24T06:11:00.002+08:00

Can you tell that I'm all over polyvore again? It's just the sort of mindless fun for the OCD in all of us.

I'm not going anywhere too exciting, but I am more than excited that my parents are coming here TOMORROW. My school has a sports tournament from Wednesday-Friday, so I'm skipping town tomorrow and going up to my mom's hometown, Jinghua, during that time. Also, the temperature is dropping to...the low 70s? Maybe? I hate playing this waiting game with the seasons...

cataloguing my closet: step one

2011-10-23T12:20:00.003+08:00

Part one of twelve components of my closet.
I'm working towards a 160 item closet, which includes shoes. Without shoes it's 140--I'll explain the method to my madness soon!

From left to right:
1. Vintage Coach (belonged to my mother)
2. Filson 257, in otter green
3. +Coach Madison Court, in navy (on my wishlist)
4. Fjallraven Kanken, in brick
5. Dooney and Bourke (not the same, mine is vintage and boxier)
6. +Coach briefcase, in black or burgundy (on my wishlist, looking for one with a top handle that fits my macbook)
7. Filson 261, in tan

no man is an iland, intire of it selfe;

2011-10-21T20:07:00.001+08:00

Five years ago I applied to Swarthmore and wrote about my ambitions as a writer. I wrote about Hemingway, and how he was the author I had the most difficulty with at that time because he challenged my notions of what constituted "good writing." I wrote about how my ramblings as a kindergardener were boring and repetitive and had no imagination because they just told things as they happened, and this was how I perceived Hemingway, too. But then I thought more about A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea and then I realized that what I hated was not Hemingway's lack of ornate writing. This was superfluous. What I hated was my own lack of adventure, of doing anything worth noting.

So of course I love Joyce and what he did with Ulysses for the beauty of the everyday, the "wonderful organization" that seeps in all around us without even knowing it. And of course I held off from reading any more Hemingway throughout college. And of course it would be recently that I had this urge to go back to him, because I started having those same thoughts I had five years ago all over again.

Most of the books I chose to bring with me for the first half of this year are by American authors and are distinctly so. They are all books that I'd been wanting to read for years now, and hadn't found the time to do so until now. I read For Whom the Bell Tolls last week, beginning with cynicism toward the Hemingway-approach-to-wooing-women and ending with tears and a stronger desire than ever to go back to writing, "a passion" and "hobby" that I've barely kept up with in a non-academic sense in all of these past five years. It's difficult to explain, and probably better not to, but there is something so cleansing about the simplicity of For Whom the Bell Tolls. The imagery is clear, the language direct, and the memory of the Montana landscape wholly worth longing and fighting for.

Perhaps the singular word that For Whom the Bell Tolls, The End of the Affair, which I finished yesterday, and Frankenstein, which I am about to finish today, could be boiled down to, is motive. These characters seem to have such strong motives, and I read them thinking about my own. Robert and Maria, Maurice and Sarah, Dr. Frankenstein and his monster--all steer their own lives in the pursuit of passion, creation, and the lives of others. And then there is me, and I cannot help but think of the opening monologue from Richard III:

Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,

The Shakespeare may be a bit overdramatic, but it's hard not to feel out of sorts right now. And when I stop and remember that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she was just eighteen...such motive and ambition some people have--whatever happened to me?

halloween movies are the best, they really are

2011-10-19T09:13:00.000+08:00

Ok I have been waiting a month to do this post, and I feel like 13 days before Halloween is as good a day as any. Now, obviously I love Love Actually and Home Alone and movies related to other holidays, but I was thinking about all of the movies involving Halloween that I love and the list just goes ON and ON. These are just the four I would pick if I were really forced to choose.

BEETLEJUICE (1988)
Beetlejuice came out before I was even born but that doesn't matter because I saw it for the first time on cable tv around the age of 6 or 7 and it totally scared the shit out of me. Even whilst searching for screencaps I was reminded of how terrifying those monsters in the sand dunes were, or how terrifying the waiting room in the other world is, or how terrifying Beetlejuice played by Michael Keaton is (no surprise that Keaton as Jack Frost also kind of freaked me out).

HOCUS POCUS (1993)
I first saw Hocus Pocus on a field trip in elementary school when we were going to Gettysburg or Harrisburg or New York or somewhere on a coach bus. The best thing about coach buses back then was when it rained and you could watch the rain roll down the window while simultaneously watching an awesome movie like Hocus Pocus and the atmosphere of it all just makes me want to return to that time.

Omri Katz is the guy who played Max and I really want to resist google-imaging him because I just have a feeling that it is not going to turn out well. Besides, Binx the cat was really my cup of tea anyways...I suppose teenage boys who once wore billowy white tops but who are now in altered states of being are the way I swing. See Casper below.

Didn't you love it when SJP sang that creepy song and her cleavage was out of control? I truly believe this was her best role and not Carrie or that girl from Square Pegs.

CASPER (1995)
I remember one of the first Christmas presents from my parents when I moved to the states was a puffy VHS of Casper. My mom had wrapped it and put it under the Christmas tree, but when I asked her what it was she told me it was a book for my dad. On Christmas day my dad unwrapped it and feigned surprise, saying "Santa must've switched it!" Of course I was delighted, but it was also the first and only year that my parents would play the Santa card. For better or worse, it just never worked again.

Right around graduating from college I started thinking about Casper all the time and decided I had to watch it again over the summer. That still hasn't happened yet, but it hasn't prevented me from trolling youtube and watching that magical last scene with boy-Casper (Devon Sawa) and Christina Ricci slow dance as he whispers, "Can I keep you?" in her ear. Also, the secret basement chamber room is AMAZING. A+ on the set design.

THE CRAFT (1996)
My love for The Craft did not reach fever-pitch until this past year when I re-watched it and a flood of 90s nostalgia hit me like a bullet train. Seriously, not a minute would go by when I didn't squeal with delight and blurt out "mini backpacks!" or "those round sunglasses!" or "those ankle boots!" or "that maxi dress!" If you don't want to be annoyed you probably shouldn't watch The Craft with me.

(all screencaps were found on the internet and do not belong to me)

It's actually not surprising that the movies that seemed to matter the most all came from the first half of my life, back when things were magical! Life was an adventure! JK, I was never that kind of kid, but I guess Halloween really isn't the same as it once was.

Others on my list: Twin Peaks, most X-Files episodes, most Twilight Zone episodes, the Twilight saga (duh), Roald Dahl's The Witches, the Scream trilogy, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and other movies of the psycho-biddy genre (yes that is a real thing, also known as hagsploitation), The Shining (I love you Shelley Duvall, may you RIP), the random episodes of The Addams Family that were always on tv, Edward Scissorhands (another winner for Winona), Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, the one true shared love between my mother and I), Audition (kiri kiri kiri), The Host (highly entertaining and 100% worth seeing), and of course, Are You Afraid of the Dark? I am still waiting to see Sorority Row after an unhealthy obsession with the movie's trailer. OHHH and Goosebumps #24: Phantom of the Auditorium, mostly because in my elementary school girl days I had a mega-crush on said phantom, in between obsessing over Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. Let's also not forgot that I went through a serious Stephen King phase when I got to middle school and basically read everything that he ever wrote.

So basically this post sums up everything you need to know about me and my tastes as a person. You see why Halloween is the best? I think I have enough here to re-write that song from Sound of Music.

tumblr tuesday: autumn

2011-10-18T12:55:00.000+08:00

It is still in the high 70s this week, but it is supposed to cool down to the low 70s by next week. Crossing my fingers, as Autumn is my favorite season and I feel like I have been waiting ages for it now. Hoping delayed gratification really is the best gratification.

Usually I associate Autumn with smells (baked bread, anything pumpkin, spices, cider) and the leaves changing, but since I have neither here, I'm looking to tumblr for some inspiration.

The last one - ummmm, why had I never thought of emblazoning the back of a leather jacket with Stevie?

shopping ban: a monthly update

2011-10-16T10:19:00.003+08:00

(I believe this is originally from emmas designblogg)

There once was a time when the above picture would've been my dream. Nowadays, the only thing I'd keep in it would be the beautiful desk set-up with sawhorse trestles and like maybe just that bottom rack of clothes.

A month ago I decided to implement the same sort of iron-fist mentality that I had while abroad in Copenhagen: give up shopping for a year. The last time I tried it, I lasted about 4 months until the last couple weeks when it was sales season and close to Christmas and blahhh I had already saved a lot of money so I just decided it was good enough already. My rationale the last time was one, to live a more sustainable and less consumeristic lifestyle and two, to save money since I would spending quite a bit on traveling and delicious food and Copenhagen was a ridiculously expensive city to boot. I made a few exceptions to my ban last time, which were a pair of new sneakers (hasn't happened yet since I haven't been to the gym in years...), a leather schoolbag, and a new watch. The latter two I bought over the course of the next year. Other than that, I had no other exceptions or allowances. No allowances for thrifting, although I did buy a kids grey/white leopard fur coat from one of the only truly cheap thrift stores I was able to find in Copenhagen.

Which is why I was so surprised when I googled "shopping ban" and read through some of the entries of other bloggers' attempts. Some of these bans lasted for a month, while others were bans but had all sorts of allowances and exceptions built in. I am not trying to knock any of their efforts, but allotting $$$ a week for thrifting and $$$ a month for free spending is pretty close, if not more excessive than my normal shopping habits to begin with. In fact, it seemed weird to me that people would still buy stuff every week even whilst on a shopping ban. Perhaps not everyone's ultimate goal is to whittle down to a minimalist closet, but it made no sense to me why one would continue to buy things because they were on sale or because they were cheap or because they just felt like buying something.

I'm not saying that I am immune to the feeling of walking into a store and impulsively buying something I like because it's a) on sale, b) cheap and c) I just felt like buying something. But more and more I've come to learn that this sort of shopping just leads to me wearing something once and then wanting to give it away or sell it a month later. And while this can be ok sometimes, most of the time it just feels kind of pointless and lousy. Reading style blogs everyday can sometimes make me really want the latest trendy item (I almost caved to the Lita Cosmics because they were half-off), but in the end I'll realize a week or two later that I really didn't need it at all. Though the blogging community was once quite small and organic, I think this GQ article really gets at how contrived or zoo-like some things have become lately.

So maybe I'm being a bit too strict with myself, but this all just fuels my desire to stick to the ban. My exceptions? I think socks and underwear are ok (only if absolutely necessary), and I can't say that I wouldn't think twice if an Acne leather jacket popped up in my size on ebay. Other than that, if I'm going to spend money I'd rather spend it on food, which is thankfully quite cheap at the moment :)

there are few people whom i really love,

2011-10-14T21:05:00.000+08:00

and still fewer whom I think well. Well Jane Austen, you really hit the nail on the head with that one.

I'm not going to say too much about these fine folks except that they feel right in this witchy month of October.

Stevie/Fleetwood Mac you will always by my #1

This woman from Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo

Kim Novak in Vertigo

Drew in the 90s

Pretty much every front page image to Phil Elverum's site ever. The second one is still my iphone background from day 1.

tumblr tuesday: i made you a gif

2011-10-11T18:39:00.000+08:00

The popularity of gifs really does seem to be a tumblr specialty. I think I could spend all day looking at Beyoncé and X-Files gifs. Here are a few I made this past week:

Nothing to write home about, but I like 'em.

Also, I've been in China for a month now. Somehow it feels like wayyy longer and I think it's because the lack of fall weather is really mixing me up (it's still in the high 70s/80s, ugh).

murse

2011-10-10T12:47:00.001+08:00

I've seen a lot of grown men who seem to have absolutely no problem with carrying murses. This guy had sass for days. Love the "Love Moschino" on the back of his shirt. Also, he was one of the few people I've spotted so far with a tattoo--a rather large one on his left arm. Too bad I couldn't get a shot of it without coming off as a huge creeper. Until next time.

kwan-yin cave

2011-10-08T21:05:00.000+08:00

Halfway through the week-long National Day Holiday, my aunt, uncle, and I drove out to the coast for our third day of sightseeing. After descending thousands of steep steps, we arrived at the entrance of kwan-yin cave.

It was unexpectedly beautiful and mysterious.

brenmar: temperature rising

2011-10-08T08:43:00.000+08:00

This is theee best.

For more, check out his soundcloud.

r.i.p.

2011-10-06T08:43:00.002+08:00

I can't believe it.

"Death is very likely the best invention of life. All pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."
- Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

tumblr tuesday: ffoodd

2011-10-04T20:04:00.002+08:00

Lately I keep finding myself <3-ing multiple photos a day of food, mainly in the category of CARBS. Yeah, the food is great here, but I have to say that I am seriously missing hearty breads and any dessert involving pumpkin.

All of the following are from the aptly named tumblr "ffoodd", which (along with diet-killers) delivers a daily stream of food porn to my hungry tumblr dashboard. Yum.

bread board

canele and bread

deep dish cast iron pizza

pumpkin-bourbon ice cream

bourbon pumpkin pie milkshake

I'm very enthusiastic about this last one because it's probably what I miss the most: good ol' American breakfasts.

BREAKFAST!

bedrooms i have known and loved

2011-10-03T20:59:00.001+08:00

Moving approximately 7500 miles away from home in the past month has given me a lot of cause to think about the moving I have done and the places I have called "home" over the past 5 years. It wasn't until I tried to compile some images together that I realized how many transition points there are between the start of college and graduation.

This was the state of my room the summer before college. I can't believe I could sleep in a room like that when now, just looking at it makes me cringe. My OCD has clearly kicked in like no other since then.

For any Swatties reading this, Freshman year I lived on AP 3rd, room 310(?) It is kind of sad that a detail like that has since slipped my mind. BUT, my mom has managed to keep my plant from freshman orientation alive to this day, so that's something to be proud of, right?

Sadly I can't find any photos of my room from Sophomore year, a double on Willets 2nd South that became a "dingle" after Fall break. The theme was "The Opium Den," so you can use your imagination on that one. Or I can post the one photo that features my prized possession, a giant tapestry with a peacock in the center and people smoking opium in the four corners, but it also features me as a dead lion for Halloween.

Junior year I spent Fall semester abroad in Copenhagen, where I moved from a kollegium in Albertslund to one in Hvidøvre after the first month. Despite having kept a blog during this period of time, I don't seem to have any comprehensive interior shots. But here's me at the lovely door-like windows of the former and latter.

I got back from being abroad and decided I couldn't live in a dorm anymore so I moved off-campus with two of my besties to live in the Dartmouth Apts in Swarthmore's very own version of Pleasantville, "The Ville". We had a 2br apartment for 3 people, so I, being the neatest of the 3, made a little nook in the corner of our living room. This was before I moved in my clothing rack and another bookcase, so I swear it ended up looking better and cozier than this!

Also, it is probably good that Eric's room was contained within four walls, because it looked like this for most of the semester:

Yeah that's an air mattress. Which was mostly deflated halfway through the semester. Miss you Eric! Besos!

The summer before moving into apartment 2N in the barn (you can read about my short-lived DIY projects here), I lived upstairs in 3S. Then I moved for the second time in the summer heat down to my apartment to round out my last year at Swarthmore. After some wallpaper fiascos and dying a chair in my bathtub, this is pretty much what my room looked like.

Still cluttered, but what can you do when you've eschewed normal storage options and decided to pursue an open-shelving, etc. minimalist aesthetic?

Then the day before classes began Spring semester I woke up in the morning and decided I wanted to paint my floors white. Which I absolutely loved and probably won't get to do in another bedroom for a veryyyyyy long time.

I forgot to mention that my parents moved up to New Haven from the Philly suburbs while I was abroad in Copenhagen. So every time I went "home" after that it didn't really feel like home to me because it wasn't the house I grew up in. And because I spent so little time there I really made no effort to decorate or personalize the space at all.

After graduation, it took me a good two months to finally move all of my stuff out of my old apartment and back to my parents' house. One month before leaving for China, the space finally felt like "home" to me.

Even though I am technically living in my hometown right now, I am finding it harder than ever to make myself at "home" here. But to quote Tim Gunn, I think I can make it work.

arrested

2011-10-02T07:41:00.000+08:00

Two more of my friends were arrested this morning, simply for standing up for what they believe. Blaine and Jesse, my heart is with you and I hope that you get out safely. I am proud to have you two in my life.

Police herding protesters on The Brooklyn Bridge for a mass arrest.

Jesse detained on a bus.

Mobile uploads from Blaine. See his blog here and his flickr photo set on Occupy Wall Street here.

etsy, you are killing me

2011-10-01T09:09:00.000+08:00

It's October! I just got an email entitled "Swatober" from my school yesterday asking for alumni donations! Swarthmore, I miss you and will give you money, but not if you have to make up some version of Oktoberfest to make me do it.

It's also before 9AM and there are firecrackers going off like crazy because it's National Day! So I get a whole week off from work, but have to be back on campus by Friday to teach classes on Saturday and Sunday.

Because I'm on vacation I feel perfectly entitled to...online shop without the actual shopping, since I am sticking by my shopping ban plan. But seriously, is this dress not perfect?!

Vintage 1960s Girls Polka Dot Scallop Dress

Luckily it is too small for me, but holy hell if it weren't....kind of like a dolled up version of Veruca Salt's dress.

60s Mod Mustard Yellow Chevron Striped Dress

Twin Peaks chevron in one of my favorite color combinations: mustard and grey.

Forties Revival Navy and Cream Plaid Dress

Reminds me of that Peggy Olson dress. NOT this one but THIS one. God I miss Mad Men.

As the temperatures are still going to be in the 80s next week, I'm wondering if it'll ever get cold enough for wool and fur.

50s Gray Wool / Fur Collar / Princess Coat

~~If I wanted~~ When I want to channel Eddie from Ab Fab, I would wear this.

Moschino Text Dress

Enough! Someone else buy these already so that I can stop ogling already.

disappointed

2011-09-29T13:20:00.001+08:00

I'm done with Scott Schuman and The Sartorialist.

In a recent interview, Scott Schuman made the following comments about Tavi Gevinson, the now 15-year-old superblogger.

I don’t think her audience is that big. I think her success is a little bit of a conspiracy by established print media that wanted to show that this blog thing is not that important, that it’s done by a bunch of twelve year olds. But a lot of us are serious grown-ups. I think it’s great that Tavi can create a blog and write for other people that are like-minded — probably other kids around her age — but I don’t know how that is going to help a 26-year old, if she has never had a boyfriend or any of that kind of stuff. She’s just a kid, so she can talk about art and stuff only in an abstract way ... to me it is like a five-year old Michael Jackson singing about love.

He followed this with arrogant, inflated comments about how much money he is making.

My audience is so much larger than everybody else’s that advertisers, well at least American Apparel told me that I am not in their internet budget. My order is so big and they have to pay so much that I am actually in their magazine budget.

All of it is just so so so gauche. It doesn't surprise me that one of his latest posts is about Giorgio Armani, saying "I can only dream of being that rich and fit when I'm in my seventies!"

Sure, there may be nothing wrong with admitting that you'd like to be rich. This is the dream of many. But to say that this is your aspiration when your blog is supposed to be about aesthetics, style, and artistic "integrity", a word Schuman likes to use when describing himself and his girlfriend, Garance Dore, is just in poor taste.

The comparisons to Michael Jackson...another low blow and totally uncalled for. Really, has anyone done a better job than MJ on songs like "ABC" and "I Want You Back". So what if he was a kid. And what the hell does having a boyfriend have to do with anything? Since when does your relationship status have an effect on what you have to say about style?

It's sad and I'm disappointed because I've been reading The Sartorialist since senior year of high school. Back then, the whole idea of photographing real people on the street seemed so fresh. I even wrote a column in my college's newspaper my sophomore year that was partly inspired by the blog. But it's become very apparent how out of touch with reality The Sartorialist has become. Back in March, this post made me think twice. Two beautiful images, ruined by Schuman's comments about how much "bigger" she was than the average street style icon, and how she couldn't have worn "daintier" shoes because they would have been overpowered by her stature. As the backlash rolled in, Schuman defended himself saying he photographs larger and older women all the time (not true). Regardless, some things should just be left unsaid. I mean, he's never commented on the size of certain men's bellies, or their receding hairlines, or their stature.

To be honest, I didn't really pay that much attention to Tavi's blog when it started blowing up. I just knew I liked her because she wasn't afraid to say what she believed and because her favorite TV show is Twin Peaks. But recently I've grown more and more fond of her, and I think she is doing well as editor/creator/contributor for Rookie Mag.

I wish Tavi weren't above throwing some shade. I'm sure her remarks would be totally on point and probably reach a lot more 26-year-old women than Schuman could imagine.

#team tavi

tumblr tuesday: occupy wall street

2011-09-27T13:06:00.000+08:00

I can't believe it's Tuesday again already. This past weekend has been busy (I moved). Yesterday I started teaching classes amidst internet failure (I am in my "office" right now but am still dealing with the issue, which is like a swamp on my parade right now), no hot water (I was an idiot and didn't realize that there's a switch to turn on/off the hot water), and trying not to let my OCD overtake general life functions.

But really, even though I am thousands of miles away, my eyes are on NYC and Occupy Wall Street. On Saturday, my friend Louis was arrested and it is really hard to sit here, watching and unable to help in person. So today's Tumblr Tuesday will just be one post, from Louis's tumblr after being released from jail.

POLICE BRUTALITY

TODAY I TOOK A CAMERA AWAY FROM A FELLOW PROTESTER WHO WAS IN THE PROCESS OF GETTING ARRESTED, WHILE SHE WAS DOCUMENTING ANOTHER ARREST IN WHICH THE POLICE WERE BRUTALIZING A MAN WHO’S PARENTS HOME WAS FORECLOSED. I CONTINUED TO PROTECT PROTESTERS BY KEEPING THE MARCH DOCUMENTED, SAW MANY POLICE ABUSES (OFFICERS HITTING WOMEN IN THE FACE, KIDS BEING TRAMPLED…) I NEARLY GOT ARRESTED 5-6 TIMES TRYING TO GET THE NAMES AND D.O.B. OF ALL ARRESTED PROTESTERS, SO WE CAN EXPEDITE THIER JAIL TIME. AFTER PASSING UNDER ONE TO MANY POLICE BARRICADES/ NET-FENCES, I WOUND UP NEAR THE GROUND SCREAMING FOR A KID TO TELL ME HIS NAME. BEFORE I KNEW IT I HAD BEEN HIT AS HARD AS ANYONE COULD HIT SOMEONE WITH A FUCKING BATON AND ATE SHIT. I WAS ARRESTED, HARASSED, BRUTALIZED, AND FORCED TO REMAIN ON A VAN FOR 4 HRS, WITH 19 PEOPLE (6 MORE THAN LEGALLY ALLOWED….)DURING THAT TIME IT WAS BRUTALLY HOT, MOST PEOPLE NEARLY PASSED OUT, AND HAD BEEN WITHOUT CIRCULATION TO THIER HANDS SO LONG THAT THEY TURNED BLUE. I HEARD SO MUCH RACIST SHIT FROM THE COPS. I CANT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED, ITS SO FUCKE, FUCKING SO VILE!!! THE NYPD HAVE NO BOUNDS. ANYTHING THEY DO IS PAYED FOR AND JUSTIFIED BY WALL STREET WEALTH. THIS CANT KEEP HAPPENING. I CANT REALLY WALK RIGHT NOW BUT I AM GOING BACK TO FIGHT!!!

settling, but not quite yet

2011-09-23T15:34:00.002+08:00

I've been in China for almost 2 weeks now, which is generally what I think of as the amount of time it takes to get settled down. Except that I am actually moving tomorrow morning, so I'm still living out of a suitcase, more or less. Since I haven't started teaching yet (my first classes are on Monday), this past week has been a mixture of running all of the necessary errands one needs to run once moved to a new country and lots of down time for reading and such.

I applied for a library card at the school and the first book I checked out is a dual-language copy of The Old Man and the Sea. Though I got pretty tired of the repetitiveness in middle school, it is pretty darn useful for illiterates like me trying to learn how to read Mandarin.

On my way over to the school I passed by this line of people that extended to the end of the street. This was at 8AM. On my way back at 3PM the line was still there. I later found out that this little shop with the blue awning is where you need to go to buy train tickets. The National Holiday is coming up in the first week of October, so thousands of students need train tickets to get home. Holy crap am I glad I didn't have to wait in this line.

Lily pads amuck on the North side of campus.

Currently reading Underworld and thoroughly enjoying it so far. I think I subconsciously picked super American books to bring with me to read.

"The Cloud of Unknowing"...oh Modernism.

All of these photos were taken with my iphone, which is in perpetual airplane mode right now. Not feeling settled yet also means not feeling comfortable lugging my DSLR around with me, though seeing photography students having class outside makes me itch for it.

tumblr tuesday: yeah, i know it's wednesday

2011-09-21T18:40:00.002+08:00

It's not that I don't have anything to blog about, it's just that I want to get going with Tumblr Tuesday as a regular thing. Starting a day late, but with my wonky time zone, even my parents have been messing up which day of the week it is for me here.

My favorite tumblr posts from the past week/basically since I started this blog, in no particular order:

Pete and Peggy in "The Rejected" - THAT LOOK

minerals poster from Dover

Mulder and Scully being cute always makes my heart skip a beat

Iceland, isn't it beautiful?

Young from half girl being cute/fall appropriate

So there ya go! The minerals poster is the first thing I've posted that's been tumbled more than 500 times...and counting :)

shopping ban

2011-09-18T10:34:00.002+08:00

This past summer I did another purging of my closet, but at the same time acquired far more things than I probably need. The rationale behind this was that I would get rid of clothes that I no longer wore or that were just ok so that I could replace them with clothes that I knew would be part of my wardrobe for a long time.

2 problems:
1. thrifting
2. ebay

It is entirely too easy to walk into a Goodwill and find at least 2-3 things that are "what I have been looking for for forever!" or "this is too good to pass up". The same sort of thing occurs on ebay whenever I do a search for something that I'm inspired by on some blog. Despite how hard I try to achieve some modicum of minimalism, I still have that pre-war/pre-disaster need to stock up on everything for fear that they will be gone if I don't. Which, in reality is totally irrational because I'll regret something for about a day and then forget about it a week later.

So I'm putting myself on another shopping ban, like I did while I was abroad in Copenhagen. Books/records/non-clothing items are ok, but other than that, I'm going cold turkey. Step one: unsubscribing myself from all of the email newsletters I've amassed throughout the years. Step two: continue to make a list of things to get rid of from my closet. There's nothing like packing for living abroad that makes you think, shit, I have way too much stuff.

There's a couple of moments in White Noise when Jack is overtaken by the need to just get rid of stuff. I'm reminded of the motivational backpack speech from Up in the Air, but this really doesn't have to get too philosophical. Simply on a quest to simplify.

down to the river to pray

2011-09-17T14:34:00.000+08:00

filson x fjällräven

2011-09-16T18:43:00.002+08:00

After going through a few phases with bags, I've pretty much come to the realization that I am not a fussy bag person. In fact, I am perpetually bored every time I see a blog post about the latest Alexander Wang or Balenciaga bag. Canvas and leather, these are my materials of choice, the exception being my Fjallraven Kanken, which is made from a super lightweight vinylon. I've thought about adding fancier bags into the mix, but every time I set out to do something, about 80% of the time I reach for my Kanken and the other 20% I go for my Filson 257 Briefcase. Now that I have a job I suspect I'll be using my Filson a lot more, but I brought my Kanken along with me anyways because I couldn't imagine traveling without it.

before I broke it in--the color is brick

"otter green"
(aside: every time I look at this picture I miss my white floors, which I could not bring with me to China, unlike this bag)

I recently bought my dad a Filson briefcase, but the more slim 256 model, and also the zippered tote for myself, both in tan. In the past few years I've been quite picky about buying things that will last "a lifetime," and have definitely been more drawn to American brands with products made in the USA, from quality materials, etc. etc. The LA Times published an interesting article on the appeal of "American heritage brands" a few years ago, and I have to agree with most of what they say.

In any case, I'm excited to see how these bags hold up over the next 5-10 years. The one other bag that I regularly carry is a Coach handbag that belonged to my mother (it was her first "luxury" purchase in the states) that has the best patina after 15+ years of wear. I'm hoping these fare just as well :)

midnight in the garden of good and evil

2011-09-15T10:43:00.001+08:00

For reasons unknown that title ran through my head a couple of nights ago. I couldn't place where it was from, then googled it and realized that I probably was meaning to see it at some point since it has both John Cusack and Kevin Spacey in it.

At this point I feel too over it to write anything about my flight, except that if you're flying China Eastern, make sure you go for the fish and not chicken dish. Also, the woman sitting next to me did not utter a single word to me during the entire 16 hour flight. And that this was the first time flying that I had the sudden panic: holy crap, am I going to be stuck on this plane for all of eternity?

The weather has been HOT here, which is a rather unpleasant shock. Actually, it's more or less devastating since it was already starting to feel like Fall back in the Northeast, and sweating through my clothes again is just not fun. But whatever, if hot weather is the least of my worries, then I really have nothing to complain about at all.

Sunsets have been pretty beautiful, though. I always forget that Wenzhou/Pingyang are bordered by mountains with misty tops.

Pingyang sunset/night

The view from my room/apt here in Wenzhou ain't bad either. Too bad I'll be moving soon...more on that next time.

I did not expect to see blue skies and fluffy white clouds. A pleasant surprise.

The past few days have been exhausting not because I'm doing a lot, but more that being around relatives 24/7 is EXHAUSTING. And exasperating at times. Combined with jetlag, it's really hard not to be in a snappy mood, especially when having to answer basic human functioning questions like, "Are you hungry?" upwards of a dozen times a day.

Quite often questions follow the generic formula, "do you have ____ in America?" One time the word filling in that blank was corn. CORN? Have you seen Iowa? Well my grandmother sure as hell hasn't, and neither have I really, except passing through in the dead of the night on a seedy overnight Greyhound. Shoutout! to my old roommate Eric, who is from Davenport, Iowa but currently resides in Ecuador. I mean, we managed to grow corn in the backyard of our suburban Philly home for a while too. Sadly I can't post a photo of me looking rather smug next to our little patch, since I can't access facebook right now. Ugh.

acne rita: a tale of happiness, denied

2011-09-14T00:37:00.001+08:00

After kicking it for the past 3-4 years in a cheap faux black leather jacket from UO, I decided that my post-college life meant an upgrade. This summer I've been weeding my closet for the umpteenth time, while adding in more "investment" pieces that will hopefully last me forever (this includes a Filson bag, the Icon trench from J. Crew, and a pair of amazing black ankle boots with stacked ombré wooden heels from Dries Van Noten's AW06 collection). Without a "real person's" salary, though, I've been breaking pretty much even with my numerous de-acquisitions and few, but worth it, acquisitions.

So did I need a new leather jacket? Well I sure as hell had been dreaming of the perfect one, not in black but a rich brown or caramel that would wear well with age. And then I saw it:

Ahhhhh Acne Rita SS11, on sale. The NY Times decision fatigue excuse meant that I was going to buy this, even if it meant selling off 5 pairs of shoes.

But I decided to wait. On my 16 hour plane ride I thought about all the things I would wear this jacket with (answer: everything) and made a list of things I would purge from my closet to off-set the cost.

I landed in Shanghai and checked the Acne site. SOLD OUT. And just like that, my dreams of the leather jacket that I would grow old in vanished. I'm sorry for the melodrama, but I can't help but make this face:

James Hurley, is this why you look so sad? Is it because you actually want to swap your leather jacket for a new one? Actually, the Acne website still has some of the Rita in stock with the shearling collars, but only in a weird "black khaki" material.

So in the meantime I've contacted Acne and they've put me on the waiting list. But really, who would return this jacket?

nyfw

2011-09-13T14:18:00.003+08:00

For some reason, all of the blog updates about Fashion's Night Out and NY Fashion Week were just making me feel a little sick of it all. I think there's a point at which everything becomes saturated and just not fun or fresh or exciting anymore. Not to say that there weren't at least a few images that I tucked away:

nicki minaj + anna wintour @ carolina herrera // jill stuart // samantha pleet

rookie

2011-09-13T14:07:00.001+08:00

First thing I noticed whilst browsing through super-blogger Tavi's new online mag, Rookie, was the Audrey Horne feature under "Characters to Channel for Confidence". The description is spot on.

I'm also down with the School Spirit photoshoot but it makes me sad because a) I'm no longer in school and b) Fall weather is going to take at least another month to fully hit here.

damn good coffee vs. damn fine coffee

2011-09-13T13:56:00.003+08:00

This debate went on in my head for sporadic durations during my 16-hour flight from JFK to PVG.

I started a photoblog about a year ago under the name "damn good coffee," but fell off the blogging train when, like, potentially important things like graduating were at stake. I wish I knew how many times Special Agent Dale Cooper actually says the phrase throughout the show, but sadly, I don't. What I do know is that he doesn't actually say the phrase "damn fine coffee" ever, not in that exact way at least.

Examine this video:

Fast forward to @1:00 if you are impatient. What "damn good coffee" has going for it in frequency, "damn fine coffee" makes up for in style. Besides, the word "good" evokes notions of honest, wholesome pleasures, but "fine" is just sassier. Period.

Still mixed on this Georgia Coffee ad, though:

As for profanities in blog titles: if an FBI agent on a network TV show from the early 90's can say damn, well then it's alright by me.

Edit:// I just had coffee in a can with dinner. Haven't broken out my french press yet, but I can't wait to do so once I'm settled into where I'll be living.