Alexa Chung, eye for fashion

Last summer when I wasn't working and spent most of the day sitting inside reading, crafting, browsing the internet and online window shopping I decided to get interested in Soap Operas. You know, Days of Our Lives, As The World Turns, Guiding Light. I felt like I was living the cliche housewife lifestyle what with loads of free time and eating bon-bons, etc. and felt like I'd abide by the cliche housewife hobbies as much as that sentiment makes me weep and barf at the same time.

Certain waves of feminism would tell me to feel like shit for living this way and to that I say a big FUCK YOU VERY MUCH. It drives me a little nuts when people criticize a lifestyle they have no experience in whatsoever. Housewife-ing as I found is highly fun and addictive in short quantities. It also made me feel old and useless... But without it I would never had sought out my tutoring gigs :)

ANYWAY. Turns out, I hate soap operas. They're boring, waver back and forth between requiring either too much or too little attention, and often made me wish I were reading some historically intellectual poetry and I hate historically intellectual poetry (mostly.) So during housewife summer I watched It's On with Alexa Chung, a live talk show at 12 noon on MTV and pretty much fell in love with Alexa and am still in love to this day. She is who I research before I go shopping IRL. Enjoy!

By the way, here is some lovely English rock from Radiohead while you peruse the photos!

Radiohead - Worrywort












































I think we'd be bff's if I were also born a lanky British beauty with affinities toward television presentation. Total hearts!

masterpiece theater

Can a cat audition to host Masterpiece Theater?

Secondly, have you guys watched Cranford, yet? (Illegally) Download it now!

Update: And my illegally I obviously mean legally watch it on tv. (OK, MARC???!!!!)

laugh now, cry later ... teardrop!

I've been in a pretty foul mood lately so haven't really been up for writing/posting. Blah! Getting over myself in 2 seconds ... Here's something that always makes me laugh, maybe you'll like it too:

Mac and Me:

oh, how the world turns

i just caught the end of this episode of the dog whisperer. here's a short clip. watch with your volume turned ON:

sure, ok, whatever lady. i'm definitely not going to judge somebody's non-harmful lifestyle, but jesus, this lady embodies everything i remember about LA. ba-da-da-DA! did you hear the background song? tchaikovsky's dance of the sugar plum fairy with accidental flats and sharps. and nothing (NOTHING) signifies cu-KOO! cu-KOO! more than playing a classical song with accidental flats and sharps. good song.

of course, it lead me to find this video. and it's kinda long so at least watch the first few seconds:

how does one acquire the hobby of playing glass harps? does it come about through homelessness? you'd need that perfect combination of restlessness to put yourself through glass harp training but still be excruciatingly bored enough to sit down and fill up 50 wine glasses. no matter, amazing talent.

afterward, youtube suggested to me this video. also kinda long, just watch the first few seconds:

again, amazing talent in that why-am-i-laughing sort of way. nice. normal. metal guitar.

unfortunately it holds no weight when compared to the rock stardom of this next video i found:

um. so. many. questions.

is this world of warcraft? why is the camera having a seizure? what the fuck is he flying in? how is it flying? why does he have blow-up doll face? is this a snowstorm or meteor shower? why was that elf not moving? wait. how did the elf and guitarist get from the ground to the flying refrigerator? AND WHATEVER YOU DO, WATCH UNTIL 1:43 when a blonde bimbo starts dancing like she just dropped acid during a coma. even after all this nonesense, the part most likely to give me nightmares was at 1:46 when the elf grabs his crotch, thug-like, and motherfuckin' STARES at the camera. alas, the more you learn, seems like the less you ever knew!

the truly significant act of finding all these new videos is that it forced me to look up the spelling of Tchaikovsky. Here, i learned i've been pronouncing it 'Tchai-cow-sky' all these years. i blame my poor pronunciation on the Beethoven movies, of which i was fond of in the early 90s. I'm pretty sure the family named one of Beethoven's pups, tchaikovsky, and fuck me if that little girl didn't call him "chai-chow-sky" or "chai-cow-sky" every single time. that's what i get for learning russian language pronunciation through a slack-jawed eight year old.

travel day five. part 1.

thursday november 20. day five.

bittersweet day. i'd be leaving california on train by 11 that night. but, it gave me the full day to get my san francisco fix and besides that, i would be alone most of the day since rye was busy setting up for the art opening. i've come to realize that traveling alone is preferable. i see more. i think more. i stop for only me. i catch the bus for only me. just me. and the city.

first order of business, i would find the tiny restaurant, crepes-a-go-go, to eat lunch at. the last time i was here, rye took my mom and me to this place and it kind of rocked my world. we got three crepes. a mushroom spinach one. a feta cheese, sweet peppers, eggplant one. and a banana and nutella one. totes drool. this time they were out of mushroom and salmon so i ordered the tomato, avocado, cheese crepe. with a coke.

i don't remember feeling sad here. but my eyes look like it.

afterward i thought it would be a good idea to take the bus down columbus and walk up the steep seven blocks to coit tower. i always figured coit tower was a lighthouse but everyone i talked to said it wasn't. they just didn't know exactly what it was for. and now i'm too lazy and uninterested to find out what it was built for anyway. currently it stands there as a beacon by which people give directions.

i took this pic to see what i looked like after coughing up a lung and sweating profusely. turns out, i'm not that bad looking. my vision, although, was patchy from lack of oxygen. dear future G, you WILL be able to walk up that steep hill without heaving by next year! yay!

coit tower. i had to walk up about 45 more steps to get to a tree garden. i liked the bark on this one in particular. and then above that is the museum attached to the building.

TOURISTSSSSSS!!! it cost $5 to take an elevator up and eyeball the scene from 200 feet above the street. i assumed there were $2 postcards that would afford me the same luxury of view so i took the cheaper option. besides, it seemed like i already walked 500 feet up the sidewalk slopes and observed the view. another 200 feet was nothing to me. there's nothing i hate more when traveling than taking pictures of the same tired place that millions of other tourists have taken. most likely it's on a post card. and most likely it's much better quality. at least that's what i have to tell myself.

i walked back down and found myself in rye's art school neighborhood again. it was almost 2pm and rye told me i could come to her ra meeting with her at the school. but this time i had an easier time walking up jones street.

these are the views from the top of her school. look! coit tower on the top right. that's where i was! can you see the cruise ship?

alcatraz.

the ra meeting was pretty cool. there are five ra's in rye's dorm and the lady who supervises the ra's has a mild stick up her butt. almost like jewish princess personality but i didn't think she looked jewish. i have to remember to research how much an ra supervisor makes. it seemed like the best job in the world. at least in san francisco. and at least at sfai.

rye's workspace. she got a wall this semester which is a step up from a lone easel. i walked around saying hi and being introduced to her schoolmates. she pointed out the good and bad paintings. this one guy there gets shit for painting super realistic images. i saw his painting of a hamburger bun and toy soldier. they were both unfinished. rye said that super realistic paintings don't mean as much as more abstract ones. at least not to his peers.

a detail of piotr's painting.

rye's friend's painting.

we walked into one of the studios where jamie and ida were sitting around watching tom crowbar his paintings off the wall. he draws extremely tiny american life scenes. there are never any people in it. i would at last draw a cockroach or two. whatever. they were eating wasabi chips and offered me some. remember sitting around with everyone from your school all the time? yea. me neither but that's because everyone cept claire in the chem department needed major brain surgery. rye's lucky here.

a painting that made rye laugh.

cindy's painting. rye looks up to her more than anyone here. she's older, never married, never attached. free spirit. happy in a non-abrasive way. a realistic way. i never met her though. and i still don't understand her painting.