Song of the Day: Smile-Smith Westerns

This song is not only awesome, but also feels very appropriate for the last few days of my life. It is kind of trippy, with slightly unclear, muddy lyrics and "swishy" music (that makes more sense in my head). The picture  above (Chloë Sevigny on the cover of A Magazine) really conveys how this song makes me feel; with the silver stars and Chloë's dreamy facial expression it all seems lost and a little dizzy, but cool and psychedelic.

Devil in the Details

 

 

This post turned out a lot different then I had originally planned...I thought it was going to be pictures of pastel colored photos with added on borders (like the two above) and detailed views of clothing, style, and spaces (hence the title). It has actually become like a witches brew of darkening pastel shades.

Eleanor Hardwick (who I really need to dedicate an entire post to), Elliott Smith, Meadham Kirchhoff hanger (if anyone has their address can you please give it to me so I can send them a letter asking them to stop being so awesome. Oh, wait! I have their phone number, it's 1-800-AMAZING), Liz Ham, Anja Konstantinova in Oyster Magazine, Olympia Le Tan in her studio, Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello (I am obsessed with this editorial right now), Lauren Poor, a letter Edward Gorey sent, Jake Cooper, Olivia Kim's vanity table, barrettes on the Jeremy Scott runway, Prada Winter 2007 lookbook, Wendy Beaven, Charlotte Free and her rings

Song of the Day: Where is My Mind-the Pixies

 

When I do blogging stuff, which is not so often recently, I have been working on a bunch of really detailed expansive posts, but they take so long/are so exhausting that I end up not posting anything. It's okay, though, because nobody really read this blog and I just like to do it for myself really.

Anyways, this is one of my favourite songs, partly because I feel like the Pixies are a perfect soundtrack to teenage angst. The first time I heard this song I strangely became obsessed with the line--or really more line snippet--"I went swimming in the Caribbean"...don't ask me why, my reason will just be that it sounds awesome. I think it's because of that line that this song conjures "ocean vibes" for me. More particularly, it makes me think of going to the seaside on a gray, cloudy (almost stormy) day and having some sort of epiphany about the crazy hardships of youth. That's just me though...

The image (which is a youth at the beach on a gray day) is Meghan Collinson by Corinne Day

Under my Umbrella (Ella ella, eh eh eh)

 

A while back I posted about how much I love Q-Pot and that I found about them from an amazing magazine spread, I said that I would share some of the other designers featured, but didn't...UNTIL NOW! 

I personally believe that they key to a beautiful life is making everything around you beautiful and unique, which often means your material possessions. Guy de Jean definitely has figured out how to make ordinary things fantastic with the parasols/umbrellas he designs.  The patterns are intricate, the design is elegant, the combination is sheer and utter loveliness!

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I'm a VAGABOND travelling from SANTA FE to EAST HARLEM

In my opinion the best things in life are the ones that remove you from your universe and take you into another world, one just filled with beauty. This can come in many different forms: art, theatre, film, or music, as in this case. I most recently experienced this transplant into a "scenic world" when I first laid the needle on Beirut's new album, The Rip Tide. The album makes me feel like I am living in the French seaside, having a picnic on a blue sky day, smoking with a long cigarette holder, in the company of wonderful people. While the whole record evokes extreme emotion, I would most highly recommend East Harlem, Santa Fe, and Vagabond.

The photograph is by Garry Winogrand and was probably the first photograph to really resonate with me. I think it is the perfect image to accompany this album and very much proves my point because (at least to me) there is a sliver of perfect world captured in that photo.

Song of the Day: Michicant-Bon Iver

If it were possible I would shout this off a mountain, but I don't have a mountain, I don't even have a news channel (that's an Anchorman reference, kids), so I am type-shouting on this blog: BON IVER HAS A NEW ALBUM!!!! It is eponymous and, this goes without saying, it is just overall an amazing record. My personal favourite songs are Towers, Holocene, and most of all Michicant, which I would strongly advise everybody to listen to.

the image is by Wendy Beaven for Marie Claire Italy

"Downtown That's Your Home Address"

Looking through some recent photographs I took I realized that I have never posted about the LA Freewalls Project, one of the best things going on in this city and the street art community on the whole. The project, started in late 2009 (with an inaugural D*Face mural) by Daniel Lahoda, allows local and visiting street artists to legally put up large-scale murals in the downtown area. The project is a breath of fresh air for LA because the city has a reputation for being unkind to street art and even the artists themselves (note that Revok was jailed!). Centered around a building at East 6th & Mateo streets, in the past two years the project has grown tremendously, expanding to much of the east downtown area and features many world-renowned street artists. The recently-ended show at MOCA (blogged about here), brought a milieu visiting  street artists, many of whom contributed to LA Freewalls before leaving...check out the new pieces below:

Swoon

 Swoon

 Anthony Lister

 

Ron English, Roa

to see more of my downtown/LA street art photos please click here