Music
If you've been following me on 8tracks (shameless self promotion) then you'd see I've made a few playlists this month. One about the boys of the Ouran High School Host Club (I'll be making a post about that show in the future), one made up of my favorite female rappers called Watch The Queen Conquer, and this one about the obsession Jay Gatsby has for Daisy Buchanan that borderlines creepy and stalker-ish. Which leads me to the song I have been listening to on repeat almost everyday:
Breezeblocks by alt-j
My super artsy awesome friend, Chantal, tried to get me into alt-j when we had Painting class together last semester, but it wasn't until my other friend Sabrina was helping me with my Gatsby playlist that I really got hooked. Usually when I start listening to new bands I listen to one song constantly and then once I become tired of it, I start to expand and listen to their other works. I haven't seemed to move on from the first phase yet, cause this song is so goddamn amazing.
Next on the list of my constant repeat list is the newest song by M.I.A.
Bring The Noize by M.I.A.
A large chunk of it was taken from her amazing eight minute masterpiece Matangi Mix For Kenzo (that was on repeat in April for me). I can never get over how original and talented this woman is, how she incorporates her culture and style into her music in a way that no one else has. While we're on the subject, there's also a trailer for her documentary released on Vimeo which you should look at. It's all about her music, and her politics, and just her badassery. Just read this article that has the video attached.
Black Skinhead by Kanye West
Okay, if you haven't experienced what's happening on kanyewest.com just go, leave this post and go. (But then come back pleasethankyou).
Personal Life
The fourth of July has got to be one of my least favorite holidays, but this one wasn't too bad. I wish I had taken a picture of the Union Jack shirt I decided to wear ironically (my sister took the Canadian one). But here's a picture of my friends' selfies on my phone when I wasn't aware. We climbed up my friend Nemo's roof and watched the fireworks for a while. And one girl was hellbent on eating a hotdog and being American so got a shit ton of those. I got sort of drunk and annoying and kept saying the lines to Inglorious Bastards before they were said on the television. I think I pissed everyone off a little but I'm not sure. "That's a bingo!"
On the 11th of July I got to see my friend Elizabeth and her cousin Kabrina and we went to the Sawdust Festival, which was pretty awesome! The only downside was that I took one step on the wood chips and the shoes I got second hand from Sabrina fell apart. I'm not kidding. The entire bottom half fell off as I tripped and I had to MacGuyver that shit with scotch tape that I found at the information booth. C'est la vie! It was worth it though. I got to see amazing artwork, I got to talk to other artists, and it got me really inspired to continue on with a project that I'll tell you about in a sec.
And I was planning on going to the Getty with them the next day, but I had to get my hair done, my roots were growing out to over an inch and it was getting bad. For some reason, though, when I got to the salon, I decided I wanted to be a brunette. I went up to my hair dresser and told her and she sighed in frustration. "Seriously?" she asked. "Okay, lets see pictures." When I told her I didn't have any reference pictures, she decided to wing it, and she did a great job if I can say so myself. Though I will always feel like a blonde Luna Lovegood at heart, I think I look better with dark hair. (Ignore the outfit repeating, I just really like my polka-dot dress okay.)
Sabrina's birthday was also this month, and it still amazes me that I can have hours of fun with her even if we're doing nothing in particular. She was really sick and decided to cancel all of her birthday plans, but I kept thinking what a horrible friend I'd be if I didn't do anything for her 19th. So I bought her some last minute flowers and my mom made some chicken soup. When I dropped them off at her house, her family insisted that I should stay for pizza (how could I refuse my one true love that is pizza!). I finally got to meet her boo-thang, and I made her parents laugh at my vast knowledge of 80's music.
This month has been a real challenge for me to balance friends, school, and work, so it was always nice to know that my friends still wanted to hang out with my after I'd blow them off three times in a row for math homework. (Sadly, I can slowly feel them getting more and more pissed off, but I think I can hold that off until the summer semester ends in the beginning of August.)
Fortunately I have done a few things with them! Like I went to see Caravan Palace in Hollywood. It was seriously one of the best shows I have been to-I hope that's saying something cause I haven't been to many shows and two of them were at a library to see Harry and the Potters (one of which had the Potter Puppet Pals, I know I'm a badass it's cool). If you haven't dabbled into the music genre of electro-swing, now is the time! Caravan Palace is definitely where you should start. Each musician in the band played at least two instruments during the show. And the dancing! And the crowd! And the feels! A part of me thinks I would have had an even greater time if I had gone with another group of people, cause I didn't know most of them, but I'd rather just try to focus on the positive. And Caravan Palace was positively amazing!
A week later, I went drunk bowling with everyone! It was nice to see some faces that I hadn't seen in almost a month. It's so weird remembering when we all went to high school over a year ago and saw each other everyday and hung out every weekend. I missed them a lot and I missed doing our usual hang-out-in-the-parking-lot-til-midnight thing that we'd always do.On the 29th, I went mini golfing at night with a few friends because it was one of the first days I've had that I didn't have homework due in the morning. I can't remember the last time I went mini golfing but I must have at some point. Of course we were all terrible and discovered that we'd get more accuracy if we squatted and grunted in a sexual manner (if we missed the hole we would say that the grunt wasn't sexy enough). There were many photobooths in the arcade on the way out of Boomers, but the biggest and shiniest was a photobooth that had a doe-eyed girl on the front, and a sign by the token slot that said 400 yen/26 tokens. Apparently the photobooth gives you extra mascara and bigger eyes, making you look super kawaii! We decided to act as cute as possible and after picked out the girliest backgrounds and poses. What a nice way to end July.
Books
I don't have much to say about these books cause I haven't gotten around to reading them, I found the first two books at goodwill.I spent a good twenty minutes eyeing every spine on those bookshelves, and I'm glad with what I found. The first book, The Death of Feminism by Phyllis Chesler, was written after 9/11 so it's a lot about the opression of women, the dwindling and changing of what feminism used to be, and the racism towards all people of the Middle East that sparked in 2001. It's a tough read for me, mostly because I rarely read anything other than fiction. I haven't read Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons, but I know that it's about girl-on-girl agression and where that stems from. I can't wait to read it!
Later that day I also went to a comic book store for the first time, I felt really intimidated by the entire subculture but I left with some cheap Doctor Who comics, one of which includes the Eleventh Doctor seeing the cat burglar from an earlier episode with the Tenth Doctor so that was cool.
I'm currently reading Feminism Is For Everybody by Bell Hooks, which I think will be a great introduction to feminist literature and help me get the hang of all the terminology and ideals so I don't sound like a complete ass when I'm explaining feminism to other people.
Art
I was worried that not taking any art classes this semester would ruin all the progress I've made, and that I'd be really rusty when I started taking Figure Drawing in the Fall. To my surprise, I've never been more inspired! It seems that my number one means of inspiration comes from boredom, and boy do I get bored in my math class! And at work, we aren't allowed to read books, or walk around the facility unless someone has peed or vomited (I work at a kids place, like Chuck E Cheese or a giant indoor playplace). So it's been very easy for me to get crazy ideas in my head and put them on paper.
I guess I've always been obsessed with the idea of religious figures since I took a Bible Literature class my senior year of high school. My old sketchbook is full of halos and third eyes, but I don't think I've been more obsessed until now. I've started collecting those Catholic candles with saints on them, and I've been really into interpreting The Virgin Mary and baby Jesus into different things.
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| God Bless Fast Food Done on a styrofoam cup at work using Crayola Makers and a Sharpie |
The one project I've been doing that has been consuming what little free time I have and has always been in the back of my head are the biker gang-styled Game of Thrones patches I decided to create. I have never really ventured into the D.I.Y. field but I was in math class doodling Sailor Jerry styled house sigils for all the families on my favorite show ever, and it just clicked. And I usually never go through with big projects but this one has made me more determined than I ever have about...anything really. Sabrina drove me to a bunch of craft stores to get fabric and iron on paper, my sister helped me pick out jackets to sew the patches on for when I take pictures and put them online (also I just want to wear my own patches cause I think they're awesome), and my mother re-taught me how to sew by hand cause my five year old machine that I've never used was broken. The patches are all I think about at school, work, and when I get home all I want to do is work on them, make new designs, sew into new jackets, and I love it so much. I guess I've developed a hobby because its more than just drawing and painting, there's even more work that I have to put into it.
I want to make these patches and open an Etsy shop. All this has to happen before Thanksgiving, that's my deadline, hopefully people will want to buy it. Even if I only sell five patches, all the work would have been worth it. All the days of sewing, all the fuck ups, all the frustration. I've come to realize how much support and money someone needs to start something like this. I keep trying to save up money to buy studs and more jackets, but it's been hard.
I've also been listening to more hip-hop then like any other genre of music this month, and that has played some part in my art too! Just a small part...just me thinking that Beyonce and Kanye West are like worthy of worship and praise and a religious following.
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| (I'm sorry if that doesn't look like Beyonce enough, she's just too perfect I couldn't) |
