11|25|2009
t-shirt, Forever21; jeans, GAP; vest, H&M; sandals, Target.
10 things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving:
- I am thankful for Jonathan, & everything he does to keep our little family sufficed & stable.
- I am thankful for my mother & sister, who keep me perpetually secure in their love.
- I am thankful for sertraline, birth control, & chamomile tea.
- I am thankful for Radiohead.
- I am thankful for Sofie Aiko.
- I am thankful for every single one of my blog-buddies (you know how you are!).
- I am thankful for vegetarianism & cruelty-free beauty products.
- I am thankful for a healthy body (in spite of my irritating belly pudge).
- I am thankful for croissants & French coffee.
- I am thankful for all of my readers; without them (you), my blogs would be a waste of space.
I hope you all have a delightful Thanksgiving, even though it symbolizes the brutal & inhumane massacre of turkeys.
11|23|2009
Several months ago, I did a post recommending some of my favorite movies; movies that weren’t well known, but should be. Today, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite music albums.
I think it’s all too easy to pick a favorite song. It’s much more difficult — & much more meaningful — to pick a favorite album; specifically meaning that one compilation in its entirety is beautiful & perfect. (& I am well aware that the term “album” doesn’t technically apply anymore, but I don’t know what else to call it.)
Music is very important to me. It’s my drug of choice, the source of my inspiration, & my confirmation that all hope — within humanity — isn’t entirely lost. Every memory of mine, every fleeting moment in my life, has been characterized by songs & album covers. Without music, I would be nothing.
Here are some of my favorite music albums, in no particular order:
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Reverie Sound Revue (their second album)
I first heard Reverie Sound Revue on an indie television show I used to watch called Radio Free Rosco. Reverie Sound Revue’s “One Marathon” was playing on the series’ finale, & my sister & I were absolutely enamored by their soft, compelling sound. It wasn’t until recently that we found out that Lisa Lobsinger, the main vocalist, was also a part of Broken Social Scene, a band we loved way before we had ever heard of Reverie Sound Revue.
Reverie Sound Revue always reminds me of a sunny, slightly breezy, Spring day, no matter what time of the year it is. They have a kind of ambiance within their music that never fails to get my heart fluttering. Lisa’s simple & sincere voice practically whispers throughout each song, & the lyrics are pure & sweet.
This is the perfect album to listen to when you’re feeling daydreamy & romantic.
Songs I love: Arrows, You Don’t Exist If I Don’t See You, We Are the Opposite of Thieves, & An Anniversary Away.
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Imogen Heap – Speak For Yourself
Before she was Imogen Heap to me, she was Frou Frou. I fell in love with the hypnotic sounds of Details — her first & only album as Frou Frou — & when I discovered that she had moved on from that “band”, Imogen Heap was my new love. I, Megaphone was the first album I heard, & while I didn’t adore it the first time I heard it — the sound was far too contrasting to the R&B, rap binge I had just gotten off of — I knew it was a sound I could quickly get used to.
Imogen Heap is an artist. She puts together amazing sounds & riffs that shouldn’t work, but they do. Her music is captivating, avant-garde, & unique. I can listen to Speak For Yourself continuously & not grow tired of it. It provokes this fantastical side of me that I never knew existed.
[I think it's worth pointing out that Jason Durelo's "Whatcha Say" monstrosity came from the brilliance of Imogen Heap's "Hide & Seek." It's beyond me why this sampled song is so popular; it's also beyond me why Imogen Heap would allow such a simpleton to sample her music. But, I digress...]
Songs I love: Goodnight & Go (which reminds of when I was single & playful), Loose Ends, Just For Now, Closing In, & Hide & Seek.
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11|15|2009
Being a writer is hard.
I now see that even though I can try to write the best that I can, there will always that one person who misinterprets my words, twisting them into malicious & arrogant sentences.
Several people were deeply affected by my last post. People I call friends; people who have a special place in my heart; people I respect. I also lost about dozen followers on Twitter. This — losing followers, I mean — doesn’t bother me much; nor am I bothered by people who seemingly disagree on my point of view. What bothers me most is knowing that I hurt (& angered) others, causing them to think me a hypocrite, amongst many other things. Seeing the sour outcome of my the post makes me think that perhaps I’m not very good at composing my thoughts. If I were, I most certainly wouldn’t have gotten such a strong backlash from my readers.
While I can’t please everyone (& I know this), I’m happy to know that I managed to at least please some people, most of them being followers of Jonathan’s blog. Those people “got it” & everything else I was trying to convey. They didn’t think that I was being pretentious or cold-hearted; they simply thought that it was funny. (& for that, thank you, because that was truly my only intention.)
I know all of this is sounding like an apology, but it isn’t — though I am truly sorry if I have offended anyone. This is me trying to set the record straight, because I absolutely hate being misunderstood.
Again, I’d like to reiterate that what I wrote was purely satirical. It was supposed to be taken with a grain of salt & a sense of humor. I was poking fun at those who are constantly angry, constantly ignorant, constantly over-sharing, constantly promoting themselves on Twitter. Not “every once in a while”, not “once or twice in the day”… but all the damn time. The post was extremely sarcastic, extremely over-exaggerated, with a bit of truth penciled in. I wasn’t talking about you, specifically, & I certainly wasn’t putting myself on a higher “tweeting” pedestal. I write an angry, TMI, promoting tweet every once in a while myself, but do I do it all the time? Is my entire Twitter profile dedicated to such nonsense mentioned in my post? Absolutely not! & I’m sure yours isn’t, either.
I think that the reason people got so perturbed with my Twitter post is because it was too truthful. People saw themselves in a different light within this post, & it made them uncomfortable. If my assumption is correct, then I succeeded in my mission, because my entire intention for the post was to try to make us all (myself included) step outside of ourselves & truly see how much useless, senseless information we’re giving away to others on Twitter. I wanted to bring awareness to a subject, humorously, that I feel no one really thinks about, because tweeting what you ate for dinner or how long of a shower you just took is normal these days. The way people [ab]use Twitter is like a sickness… & I wanted people to see themselves & try to form better, healthier habits.
I don’t know if I accomplished that for you, but I accomplished that for myself.
For those who of you who are now paranoid that I might find you a bad tweeter, rest assured & know that I am not asking you to stop your “bad” habits, per se (if you even have any). I am also not suggesting that someone’s tweets should be 140-characters of Shakespearean bliss. All I’m asking is that you think before you tweet. Nothing more, nothing less.
The comments are closed on this post. If you want to contact me, feel free to email me. Otherwise, I’m glad I’ve attempted to set the record straight & clear the air. Because while I stand by my work 100%, I cannot rest knowing that it was terribly misunderstood.
[ETA: A lot of people asked about this, but there will be no "things I love about Twitter" posted here; not by me at least. I like to write about things that break boundaries, & writing a love-fest post about Twitter would only add to the noise. I hope you understand.]
11|13|2009
I think we all know that there are many perks to Twitter. I, personally, love the community aspect of it. I’ve been able to start some very interesting conversations with my followers. I love the connections I’ve made that have helped both of my blogs’ voices be heard. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to meet some amazing people through Twitter. I certainly wouldn’t have gone to Vegas & formed inseperable bonds with 26 strangers if it weren’t for Twitter! So please believe me when I say that I appreciate all that Twitter has to offer & I’m quite glad that I swallowed my pride & created an account.
But… with Twitter comes those who abuse its wonderful qualities, turning it into a self-absorbed spectacle of how much they can unwelcomely broadcast & get away with. Those annoying tweeters mean well I’m sure, but drive me absolutely up the wall, enough to make me want to delete my account all together. (Because truthfully, some of these people are “friends” & I don’t want to offend anyone by not following them back. It seems as though a lot of trouble would be solved if I just didn’t use Twitter at all.)
Here are the type of tweets that I’m talking about; the ones that make me want to punch someone in the face.
1.) The TMI (too much information) tweets.
Example: “Shit. I just puked all over my keyboard”; “I gotta PEE!”; Or “I just burped & it sounded like something Chewbacca would say.”
Think about it: if you announced aloud, in “real life”, that the color of your poo reminded you to call your mother, your peers would most likely not speak to you for a few days. Why? Because it’s a creepy, unnecessary thing to say. So why is it that we think that advertising these highly personal endeavors is appropriate on Twitter? Because we’re that narcissistic that we actually think people care. But no one really cares that you puked, that you have to pee, or that you burped. The only thing these kind of tweets offer is gross-out, overbearing, blabberings. So spare us all & stop embarrassing yourself by over sharing your bodily functions & disgusting habits.
2.) The short-hand, seemingly code-like, rant tweets.
Example: “Uggg sum1 is tlkng rly loudly in tha room nxt 2 me sayin tht she rly hates tha taste of corn flakes & tht offnds me cuz corn flakes R awsum”
These are the kind of ridiculous tweets that people feel they absolutely need to share, but cannot fit within the 140-character limit. So rather than just saying, “I could probably afford not to tell this mediocre story anyway”, they force their senseless story to fit, abbreviating words so much that they’re hardly intelligible. I say that if you’re going to go through that much trouble to pick apart & shorten words for the sake of fitting an uninspiring conversation you overheard within the 140-character limit, you might as well not even bother.
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11|10|2009
Back in July of this year, I was contacted by Lucrecia from Fashion Is Poison. If you don’t know who she is, you should. Not only does she have smashing style, but she has been courageously fighting brain cancer since January. Lucrecia has a huge heart, & wears it on her sleeve as she documents her cancer journey on her other blog, Astrocytoma Brain Cancer. It’s no stretch to say that out of all the fashion bloggers in the blogosphere, I respect her most.
Lucrecia told me about this major project she was starting that featured some of the most popular fashion bloggers on the web: Raych, Taghrid, Emily, Alicia, Jayne, & The Stylish Wanderer. & when she asked me to be a part of it, I was flattered, humbled, & slightly intimidated.
This Thursday, in celebration of this fantastic project (which will be launching in 2010), all of us will be attending a screening to see Coco Before Chanel at the Laemmele Theatre in Pasadena, California. If you are in the area, & would like to enter for a chance to come with us, tweet @fashionispoision telling her which outfit is your favorite from her latest post. Winners will be announced soon. I hope to see you there!
& many, many thanks to Lucrecia for having the balls to put something of this magnitude together for all the world to see. Also, thanks to her beau, Jack, for his impressive photography skills. I appreciate the both of you so, so much.
11|07|2009
[disclaimer: The following is a very candid, very explicit composition of my sex life. So to passersby & subscribers: if you are not at all comfortable with honest, sexual dialogue -- or if you're in some way related to me (this includes you, Mommy) -- feel free to disregard this post. Of course, all are welcome to read it. I just wanted to give you a fair warning. & for those of you who might be asking, "Why talk about something so extremely personal?", I say: Because it's time to stop being hush-hush about something that we all do, that we all experience. It's time to be honest. & through my honesty, I hope you will be comforted.]
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I’ve mentioned before that sex (intercourse, forking, boning, what have you) does not come naturally for me. Rarely do I feel sexy & never have I called myself a nymphomaniac. I’m the kind of girl who, when she gets the “urge”, waves it off & chooses to read a book instead. It’s much simpler to read a book, I think. Jumping my husband’s bones — or even taking matters into my own hands — is often much more complicated. It requires time, it requires effort, & it requires enthusiasm. Very seldom do I have all three. I would much rather go to sleep than invest my already diminished energy into a sweaty sack session with Jonathan. What’s even more awful is that I sometimes relish in my having period, blissfully relieved that I have a tangible, truthful excuse to say, “Not tonight, Honey.”
& if someone gave me the choice between having passionate sex with my husband, or eating a slice of dense, fudge-like chocolate cake… I would pick the chocolate cake without a moment’s hesitation. Even in spite of my husband being devilishly handsome & clearly resembling Jonathan Rhys Meyers, I would almost always choose the chocolate cake. Not because I abhor sex, & not because there is something wrong with my husband (on the contrary!), but because I feel that chocolate cake is on a much higher level of goodness, lusciousness, & indulgence than sex. Quite frankly, I get more pleasure from eating a slice of chocolate cake than from sex alone.
(& I wouldn’t be so inclined to admit all of this if I knew that there aren’t people [women] out there who feel exactly as I do. & there are.)
Because of my colorful opinions about sex, it’s no wonder that I tend to view it as more of a chore than actual playtime between Jonathan & I, as it should be. & this is precisely why we’ve been stuck in a sexual stalemate for over a year; probably one of the most daunting & worrisome events to happen in a marriage.
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