i didn't think i'd enjoy that new movie avatar, and i'll admit the plot was tired and cliche, but the setting was absolutely breathtaking.

imagination at one of its finest points.

go see it just to have a visual orgasm.

i swear i'm writing.

last night i had a dream that all of this was a dream and we laughed and went on a car ride.

oh, moonmate.

reading list for the holiday break!!

-the art of art history: a concise anthology

-50 artists you should know

-honored guest: short stories by joy williams

-tooth and claw: short stories by t. coraghessan boyle

-the unbearable lightness of being: kundera

-naked lunch: burroughs

-slanted and enchanted: oakes

-the collapse of chaos: cohen and stewart

-the power of art: simon schama

surrealism, art, and modern science: parkinson

-art through the ages: gardner

oh you know who you are.

i was so selfish.

and i still am.

i can't believe i have to live the rest of my life without you.

i just got cotton ball in my freshly painted nail polish.

did you know norah jones was ravi shankar's daughter?

and anoushka's half-sister?

movies i would enjoy seeing

(please feel free to suggest others!)

-lying

-dark room theatre

-untitled

-the fantastic mr. fox

-gummo

-bottle shock

-tokyo!

-the imaginarium of doctor parnassus

-good hair

-adam

-funny ha ha

-mutual appreciation

-the triplets of belleville

-wristcutters: a love story

-the life aquatic

sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like i can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in.

-ricky fitts, american beauty

this thanksgiving break my family ventured out west to las vegas.
my soul feels a bit grimy for going to such a hedonistic place, but i suppose it's quite like college. the parallels are shocking, i'm sad to admit.
but while there, we saw a performance of cirque du soleil's 'o'.
wow.
no wonder it's named 'o,' for that's the shape your mouth remains in for the entire two hour performance.
in a way what was most beautiful about the show was the strange dream-like familiarity that permeated the set, music, costuming, and dancing.
everything was spectacular.
and also horribly sad. all of the contortionists and acrobats and dancers had such amazing talents that i felt sad knowing they could no longer derive satisfaction simply from walking or standing.
who would want to walk on two feet when you can fly or twist or dance so wonderfully?
and knowing that there would be other shows just like it-- other performances of 'o' sparked a bit of jealousy within me.
i didn't want anyone else to share in such an amazing display.
just as everything and everyone around me had dissapated as i watched the show, i wanted the others who would see the show to dissipate into the rest of the writhing mass that is las vegas and to put away their dollar bills and their cell phones and to not treat the show simply as some sort of entertainment.
it was so much more than that.

why did i have to see that picture?

why did i become attached?

my heart hurts.

my best friend is the most wonderful person in the entire world!

i would just like to take a moment to commemorate the lovely life of my dear friend, audrey minet. she contributed to the aesthetic world in such a profoundly elegant and true way--

audrey, you will truly be missed.

xoxo forever

8 1/2, right?

i'm so tired of saying i'm sick just so that people will leave me alone.

i'm tired of making up excuses for social events i know i can't handle.

mmmmmmmmm

get out of work!

i want to go watch the meteor shower!

reading list:

-the architecture of happiness

-letters to a young poet

-what we talk about when we talk about love

-transparenz

-point, line, and plane

- the collapse of cities

-pensees

-snuff

-demonology

yes.

oh, monologue.

you are impossible to write.

i should write a monologue instead about how writing a monologue is frustrating.

or i could just write a paper about how awful bram stoker's dracula was.

completely dreadful.

'everything is blooming most recklessly.'

my love for rainer maria rilke is blooming as well.

harold is so good looking.

oh boy.

he's just wonderful!

there's something so entirely and perfectly whole about how i feel right now.

it's inexplicably sad for all of the beauties i will never experience and the loves i wish i could have.

and yet i couldn't imagine wanting to be any other way.

sorry, ryan.

i just had to post this too.

i'm going to have nightmares tonight, but it's well worth it.

oh, claymation!

how you terrify me!

wa ho

wa ho

it's off to waffle house we go

we'll play some mash

and get some hash

browns

wa ho

wa ho

wa ho

wa ho

well fine.

i've never been mad before.

but i thought we had a plan...

oh, miss minet.

this needs to be our mascot, mk?

wow.

have i really been sitting in the dark for so long?

i've always enjoyed daft punk's music, but after playing an awesome (no, EPIC) radio show, i have come to realize my deep, deep love for daft punk.

i have respected them for such a long time, what with all of the mask, genre-creating goodness, but i never really have spent good time listening to their music. i mean, i have, but mostly in passing and being like 'oh yeah, that's a fun daft punk song.'

discovery has been playing non-stop on my ipod and in itunes.

someone is eating something that does not smell particularly good.

and i'm in the library.

the fourth floor.

this is supposed to be the clean, quiet area.

i usually place noiseless in the same category as smell-less, but i guess people like to eat up here.

i am quite hungry.

anyways, back to studying and daft punk goodness.

rocky horror made me feel so free.

i'm so sick of all of this.

i really don't connect to 99% of the population.

i'm trying so hard to be happy.

the best halloween costume!

i really thought it wasn't possible for this song to get any better.

but what a nice surprise!

jamais-vous.blogspot.com

i'm considering starting a blog that just follows fashion and different trends.

this one would be for random musings and pictures.

would that be something worthwhile?

i also think henry darger is absolutely fascinating.

i don't know if i mentioned it before, but i watched the documentary on his life and work, in the realms of the unreal.

brilliant.

shockingly unbelievable, but brilliant.

there is something strange about his work, but there is something familiar about it, you know?

like one of those dreams that you have knowing that you've never seen the people in it or been to the dream location, but knowing that it's familiar-- knowing that it's a compilation of all that you've wanted to see and all you've wanted to know.

i'm such a consumer whore.

clothes are just too much fun.

it's awful, but fashion is one of the only things i've been interested in lately.

i'm thinking about designing some clothes for studio since we have a textiles studio to work in.

i just need to find the money for nicer fabrics.

i also need to find a model.

i have so many sketches, though!

i'm not a big fan of the exaggerated shoulder trend that suddenly reappeared for a/w 09, but there is something architectural to them, and i have come to appreciate the form more.

i think i'm going to focus on jackets first.

so exciting.

i've just painted my nails with this awful red nail polish.

never ever use and/or buy covergirl boundless color nail polish. absolute crap.

it's all chunky and sticky.

what else?

i'll probably post picture of the things i am lusting over.

such a consumer whore.

i can't believe it haha.

my body is a cage.

this is THE most beautiful runway makeup i have ever seen.

breathtaking.

and what a use of bobby pins!

it's period makeup, but then it's timeless.

blah blah blah I JUST LOVE IT

the sky is so big

and my heart is so empty.

http://stereogum.com/archives/stream-the-where-the-wild-things-are-soundtrack_092471.html

duuuuuuude.

so the other day in studio, sal told us the most beautiful thing.

he was talking about design and how we should hone our skills as a drawer.

he said that he was walking through one of the upper-year studios and noticed this one guy drawing extremely slowly.

so he stopped and asked him what was going on.

the kid said, 'i draw so slowly because i need to be able to feel my heart beat in between each stroke. otherwise i wouldn't be really putting my heart into what i'm doing.'

and that was real life.

not some stupid saying on a tumblr picture.

real, true heartfelt work.

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

this is probably the nicest thing i could ever imagine being said to someone.

so it's been 200 posts.

yay.

i can remember walking down the street, saying my name over and over, until all of a sudden, it didn't sound like my name anymore. it didn't even sound like a word at all and then i stopped and the silence rushed in and whispered words that sounded more like my real name and i smiled and thought to myself how surprised my parents would be when they found out what a mistake they had made. -storypeople.com

honestly, nothing phases me anymore.

hahaha

kiiiiiiiiiiiiddddddddssssssss

second review

In their sophomore release Two Dancers, Wild Beasts demonstrate their mature take on glam rock and create an established niche in a world of otherwise bopp-ish indie music. Front man Hayden Thorpe’s quavering falsetto pierces the dark veil that is their new album, sending the listener into a swirling realm of theatrical harmonies.

Two Dancers opens with “Fun Powder Plot,” a complementary mix of modern dance and ominous ambience. With lyrics such as “This is a booty call! My boot, my boot, my boot, my boot up your asshole!” that bring out the Leeds-based band’s promiscuity, a certain balance is needed to keep the song from sliding into frivolous nothingness. This balance is thankfully achieved by the juxtaposition of impudence with a heavy, anchoring sound. In the same shadowy fashion, the following track and first single, “Hooting and Hollering,” creeps along with a steady pop-infused rhythm until it finally reaches its falsetto-cracking climax, only to be deconstructed once again. “All the King’s Men” highlights the graceful soaring flourishes of Thorpe’s voice and Flemming’s earthy tones to create an androgynous melody similar to that of Antony and the Johnsons that seems to move up and down like a great machine with each pounding beat. The gentle flow of music continues through “When I’m Sleepy…” and “We Still Got the Taste Dancing On Our Tongues” into the entrancing “Two Dancers” which is, coincidentally, divided into two songs, each framing the stark differences between Thorpe and Flemming’s voices while shimmering guitars echo in the background. Ending the album are the brilliantly streamlined dance-influenced songs “This is Our Lot” and “Underbelly” along with the nautical anthem “Empty Nest,” a track that is fully reminiscent of Wild Beasts’s previous album.

All in all, Two Dancers provides a whimsical opening into a world where lustful inhibitions run free and sound is carefully crafted into majestic art rock.

the good, the bad, and the remixed: fever ray's "seven"

so i'm writing for the woove, and here's my first review.

hooray.

Karin Dreijer Andersson has provided the music world with an otherworldly eerie sound, one that has surprisingly gone without imitation for almost a year. But since no one dares to recreate her icy-psychotic melodies, Fever Ray’s self-titled album has been the subject of several remixes, with “Seven” as the most recent single to be transformed from a delicately blended swarm of tribal-synth goodness into shreds of beat-infused filth.

Fever Ray’s double-disk rerelease (available October 5) may sound exciting, but the anticipation quickly died when I found out that most of the hype is going to the series of remixed singles and not to the “Been Here Before” or “Stranger Than Kindness” covers. I usually don’t have a major problem with remixes/mash-ups/etc., and I have found myself listening to a great deal of them in the past few weeks. However, these hashed-up, versions of the original tracks usually come off as superficial, which is unfortunately the case with the “Seven” remixes. So far only the Crookers and Martyn mixes have been released online, and as of now I would discourage looking into future tracks. But if you simply must fulfill your need to download a ripped apart version of this originally genius track, go for the Martyn one.

Why am I bashing the Crookers mix? The Italian DJ duo infused a ringing telephone into the beat. And it’s not just a one-time ring—it rings again and again and again. This first released remix is not ring-a-ling fun. It’s just stupid. It’s cheesy and overworked. And I absolutely cannot stand it when artists concentrate the entire song on a single line. In this case, Crookers decided to focus on the line “talk on that phone,” hence the annoying ring. If you really want to deconstruct something that is already good, you need to do it with finesse and taste, not butchery.

Martyn’s mix, on the other hand, reflects more of the original track’s brilliance. The lilting tropical beat is somewhat preserved, but the dubstep background beat seems a bit muddy and thick. The two overlapping melodies do not agree with each other, especially with the introduction of a high-pitched third beat about a minute into the mix. Instead of resulting in a fuller song, the Martyn remix strips the original’s ethereality and replaces it with empty rhythm. The addition of a bajillion other sounds does absolutely nothing for the song. Like I mentioned before, if you have something good, let it be.

So whether you like electronically beefed-up tunes or not, steer clear of the “Seven” remixes. Not good. Not good at all. If you thought it was impossible for Fever Ray to sound awful, you now have proof that all things are indeed possible.

BAM!

guess who's going to be a kick-ass pair of singing lips/magenta in rocky horror?

mark rothko-- he could paint so deep your soul would be sucked in.

it killed him.

i know i have been slacking off with my normal flow of posting.

i apologize.

i suppose i apologize to myself because i don't think anyone else would or should care.

so i am completely enthralled with my classes.

my studio professor definitely inspires me to think in a different manner, and i have been happier. my mind has been so busy that i have had little time to think about the awful things i always seem to drift toward.

anyways, i wanted to post about some of the things i have been learning.

during one of our pin-ups/discussions, sal tried to convince us that vertical and horizontal lines were the epitome of structure and that everything in the physical world was constructed of these two types of lines and those alone. he put it so beautifully; i was convinced. he explained that everything, though it may appear to be formless or organically shaped is indeed composed of horizontal/vertical lines. the trees, he stated, were simply horizontal lines infused with nature. water, although it may appear to conform to any shape, always forms a horizontal surface. it can be filling a lake or a cup, but the surface will always form a distinct, even horizontal line. and gravity-- gravity always draws objects to the center of the earth, always down in a perfectly vertical line.

i had never realized these things.

well, i had, but i had never realized the truth in them.

i can't believe i have been alive this long and not opened my eyes.

people have always said that college is the time when you learn the true ways of the world, when you become who you truly want to be. i never really bought into that, but now i am beginning to see how blind i was. i can't imagine going back.

ok ok.

so i know i'm conceited.

i just thought this looked kind of cool.

'burninating the countryside--

burninaing the peasants--

burninating all the people---

and their thatched-roof cottages!

thatch-roofed cottages!

.....

and the trogdor comes in the

NIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHTTTT!'

-trogdor, strongbad

because i am stupid and re-watching all of the strongbad emails.

so i'm on my own now.

it's quite exciting, actually.

because this is the happiest thing i have ever seen.

try not to smile.

just try.

ok.

so today i would like to take a minute to rant about something seemingly unimportant. lately i have noticed that gap is doing some outrageous advertising for its new jeans that are supposedly the best fitting jeans in the world. last saturday i noticed four full pages of the new york times style section were devoted to their new campaign, and today i flipped through elle's fall fashion issue to find that four pages of the magazine was for gap jeans. and there was a pullout! a seven panel, double-sided pullout! this is big news! and they aren't using some no-name face-in-the-making model either. gap has featured fourteen different models in the new jeans campaign, including anja rubik and isabeli fontana. that's a big deal! i know they're not the freshest, but this can't be a cheap campaign by any means. something weird is going on, or at least i think it is strange. with all of the 'hot' jean designers out there now, i don't see how gap can compete or expect to compete. i also know that this is a time of recession and budgeting, but i don't think the gap's extravagant ads will change the minds of many. the ads are simply pesky.

also...

in elle, gucci had an ad for their fall '09 line featuring natasha poly, and as i was admiring all of the beautiful sequining, i noticed that the model in the middle of the right page of the spread had a nose ring. i was quite surprised, obviously. but pleasantly surprised. sure, males are allowed to have their piercings when portraying a harder look, but women have (for the most part) remained un-pierced. maybe it's because heavy metals are in season right now or that rock and roll is once again becoming an unstoppable force in fashion, but this piercing caught me quite off-guard. and it's so small. it's barely noticeable. maybe the stylists were aiming for subtlety. i dunno.

(oh, and i have bought this sunday's ny times. yes, yes, i know it was the annual women's fashion issue, but i must say that i was not impressed. well, i suppose i was, but i was not as impressed as i imagined i would be. that is confusing. t magazine did not live up to my expectations this time, especially since it was their fifth anniversary or whatever. and i felt so stupid because it featured this fabulous lace body suit i almost bought in atlanta on friday. gah. i could have had that splendid thing. oh well.)

here's the picture. just pretend like you can see the little silver loop. it's on the left side of her nose. sorry my webcam gives such poor quality pictures.

it gathered her up--- the largest thing in the world--- and attempted to drown her. she though it was silly, this enormous mass and forceful undertow mimicking her emotions, pulling her back only to expose her to the sharp air again. it was a rough cycle, and she flounced, tousled, imbibed the salt that crawled over her and pressed against her naked skin. although it was harsh, she enjoyed the warmth, the similarity she had been missing; the repetition raked her back with sand-streaked strokes. and as she tossed amid the crests, her fingers reached out, grabbing at the other side, feeling for a presence in return. but her life was empty. no one could return her lost touch. her fingers sank, fistfuls of foam being pushed into her mouth, crowded into her withered eyes.

and guess what? it's another sad song, america... world.

i am ready to be away from everything.

1: about 60% of what i listen to is real music.

2: which is great. 60% of what i listen to is noise.

1: haha it's probably more than 60%. the thing i like most is that there are so many interpretations of classical pieces, and therefore an endless number of ways to play them.

2: yeah. there is something so wonderfully malleable yet concrete about live music, especially classical music. i absolutely love live music. it makes me so tingly just thinking about some of the things i've been to. and it's so sad because i know i'll never ever have the opportunity to relive that experience. darn time. haha

1: i know what you mean. when i went to see this one guy, he played the fourth chopin ballade. it was absolutely breathtaking.

2: have you ever cried because of something like that?

1: no.

1: my lack of soul does not permit such.

2: a soul is a terrible thing to waste, you know.

so.

some people are just assholes,

and others are completely and utterly beautiful.

so et and i spent this afternoon rummaging through the salvation army. we made several wonderful buys. he bought this strange yet awesome art piece made out of cards and maybe a hat. i don't know if he bought it or not because i did not see him wearing it.... anyways, i bought a very cute satchel-like bag and a black woven belt because the tan and brown one that i already have does not match any of my current wardrobe. i have noticed that everything i wear now is some variant of blue, grey, black, or white. which is nice, i suppose. i mean, i do like color, but i feel that this color palette suits my current mood and situation. blah blah blah sooooo we found this adorable yet old polaroid camera. however, since kodak has ceased to produce film, we had to track down some affordable polaroid film. the camera itself cost only $1.39, but the film was ridiculously priced at $25. for ten exposures, nonetheless. despite this outrageous price gouging, i believe it was a good buy. we are now eagerly tracking down all of our friends and photographing them. or at least we are trying to.

this was actually a tremendously fun afternoon.

thank you, et.

i hope our pictures develop well.

this makes me miss my hair.