connections

Is it significant that Jason Collins and Frank Ocean, each the first to publicly come out in his respective field/industry, are both black?  Do these men have more to overcome as members of multiple minority groups, or are they stronger and perhaps better equipped to thrive in today's society?  Either way, they both are great men, great role models, and poets (Frank more than Collins, but that's the nature of his career/talent).

"I was six years old when my parents told me that there was a small, dark jewel inside my skull, learning to be me."

words: Greg Egan

art: ME

can't wait for my godchild to be born!

Michael Carson Paintings

Because I mindlessly obsess over the same trendy cultural artifacts as everyone else, I love reading about Girls.

I love the illustrations they pick for Emily Nussbaum's TV criticisms - they are artistic renderings of actors/TV characters with whom we are already quite familiar and have existing relationships. It's a bit like seeing a painting of a friend, or maybe even yourself. By this I mean that I think characters on TV are my friends, and sometimes I pretend they are myself.

This painting by Michael Carson is so beautiful (despite maybe slimming Hannah a bit) I had to find more of his work before skimming even the first line of the article. His art lies in flux between modern and vintage, and the women look like pin-up girls of our time - reflective, somber, and stylish, embodying the waify look of the 90's that lives on in 2013.

If only I had the money to collect art...

 

 "Ready"

"Man in Jacket"

"Reflect"

"Yellow Blues"

"Flower"

"Tan Lines"

The best, if only for its title: "What"

 

 

 "Trouble"

get at me, zayn

PERFECT

karlascloset.com

this! a million times, this!

 

J. Crew "Holiday Style"

I would wear with black or leopard flats ... not a huge fan of red. 

all i can think when i see this image is "seppuku"

photo: Anna Shelton

The only reason I remembered this play was because it had a mad person in it, and everything I had ever read about mad people stuck in my mind, while everything else flew out.

kate by mario testino

words by sylvia plath

She stared at her reflection in the glossed shop windows as if to make sure, moment by moment, that she continued to exist.

Words: Sylvia Plath

Image: 9-Eyes of Google Street View

(a really eerie and inspiring collection of stills)

Problems with "Liberal Arts"

• Josh Radnor doesn't know how to play any character other than Ted Mosby.  Furthermore, Ted's most annoying habits (intellectual pretentiousness, attributing too much "meaning" to only slightly significant moments, general bland-ness) are magnified in the "Jesse Fisher" character.
• The film doesn't trust the audience to come to the "right" conclusions.  It doesn't trust us to get the message of a scene, so it explains said message over and over in every way possible.

I Knew You Were Trouble

I need to break this song apart and figure out why it's so catchy.

Preliminary identification of components:

• Max Martin
• Just enough dubstep to grab you but not annoy you
• Weird vocal tricks that make the song feel fresh but then start to sound normal (see: Beyonce's "Halo")

Listen to "I Knew You Were Trouble" on Jon Ali's Blog (my main music source for 5 years and counting)

I'm going to embark on a huge research project about Max Martin.  I need to find out everything about him.  How can you have your finger on the pulse of the entire pop music world?

chandeliers inside the pyramids tremble from the force

PLAYLIST - Week of September 10

Mix of cappuccino-sipping music and a couple energizing songs for when the weather accidentally goes back up to 80 degrees for a day or two. Weird week.

1.  Lights - Living in Another World (Produced by Darkstars)
2. The Lumineers - Stubborn Love
3. Kanye West - Clique (Feat. Big Sean & Jay-Z)*
4. Hoodie Allen - Feel The Love
5. Felix Cartal - Tonight (Feat. Maja Ivarsson from The Sounds)
6. tUnE-yArDs - Powa
7. Cat Power - Ruin
8. Theophilus London - Morning Kisses

*Best practice for listening is to replay "Clique" after each song in this list.

Currently Reading:

 Article
The House That Hova Built - Zadie Smith

"But asking why rappers always talk about their stuff is like asking why Milton is forever listing the attributes of heavenly armies. Because boasting is a formal condition of the epic form."
 - Zadie Smith on Jay-Z

Novel
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevksy

"'You're not wicked,' Alyosha said with a smile. 'You're just twisted.'"

Thoughts and reflections to follow.

It had something to do with the miserably weary split-up and my feeling that everything was dead.

Words: Jack Kerouac

 Via @NataliaKills' Twitter

Via @NataliaKills' Twitter

black smoking slippers with embroidered skulls

Seeing your dream shoe at an affordable price but your foot NOT fitting into it is like a flying unicorn running alongside you and saying, "Hey! Do you want a ride up into the sky to see the magic and wonder of the world from a new perspective?" and then just as you are about to climb on, the unicorn says, "PSYCHE!" and flies off without you, cackling.

Ray Bradbury via Brain Pickings

I want to repost this entire post so here it is, enjoy,

A memorial for everything I didn't buy but wanted to.

Minkoff, Kors, Wang.

HELLO SELF CONTROL YOU ARE NOT A FUN FRIEND. Although my bank account wants to keep you around.

GIRLS CALLING CABS AT DAWN, QUARTER TO SEVEN

The best thing in the world is when your cat rearranges himself to be in a more snuggly position next to you.

Halfway between the beasts and the angels

on jewels

 

 

i miss you like every day

dark fantasies

on sadness and life

"She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum."

"Her life was an urgent, desperate struggle to justify her life."

Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

changed a few things around

a crash can happen in a blink

"The whole aura of Woollcott was theatrical and delightful and you approached him as you did the theatre—with misgiving but with vast fascination; and you left him as you left a matinee, with dread at emerging from make-believe into a dull side-street off Broadway."

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2012/07/the-original-shouts-murmurs.html#ixzz214pkbYSV

baby baby baby

This is hard to describe but it's serious.

Does everyone have slivers of moments that scared them as a kid? I can barely remember where some of these instances came from, but suddenly something triggers the memory and the feeling rushes back to me like I'm 9 years old trying to sleep in the dark, but I'm not sure anything even exists anymore outside my bedroom door.

I have this phrase from a news broadcast that haunts me when I see paths in trees and piles of stones, which is more often than you might think. This particular moment is from a story of a little girl who was walking to the bus stop alone, but the bus left without her. Then a man came and, after probably doing things I couldn't comprehend at that age, killed her. The story ended with, "She was murdered, and buried-" [pause] "-in a bed of rocks."

I just walked along the road near my house and saw a train track through the trees that I didn't know existed. That feeling of unnamed fear started to creep up on me, that fear connected to that statement and with it the terror I felt knowing that I also occasionally walked to my bus stop. I'm 23 and this still haunts me like she was my friend or something. Steps after the feeling started, I saw a pile of large-stoned rubble at the mouth of the trees. Now I'm sitting on some steps staring at the forest and feeling a weird foreboding emptiness like I'm looking at my own grave.

we'll run to the future, shining like diamonds in a rocky world

there's nothing else in the world i want to listen to but channel orange