tumblr.

I have seriously been neglecting this blog, a fact that will be remedied soon. In the meantime, check out my tumlbr (link to the left, to the left). I have actually been updating it because it requires so much less effort than this blog. Yay for laziness!

all the wandas i’ve ever met are crazy.

I'm so happy that Bill Murray is just as funny/weird/eccentric/awesome as you would expect him to be.

http://www.gonzo.org/books/other/wtbr/pix/murray.jpg

http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/bill-murray-bday-6.jpg

compromization.

Songza is the best thing ever. If you are really lazy sometimes like me, it is a great way to have playlists pre-made for different moods. It also has the "At a 90's School Dance" playlist, which is obviously the greatest series of songs in the universe.

It is also perfect for working out. There is so much Spice Girls on there, I was in heaven while running, which is saying something. "Come on, Come on" came on and I couldn't help but be reminded of this beautiful and touching rendition from Spice World.

I mean, nothing says classy like purple spandex ass-less suits.

some call them jumpers.

When I showed this to my friends, they were like what the hell is this? Though, to be fair, that is the reaction my friends have to most things I force them to watch.

So what the hell is this? It's a funny little video from the clothing company Pringle of Scotland that is totally weird yet oddly endearing. David Shrigley, an English artist, does the animation and infuses the clip with his irreverent and completely (at least in my eyes) British humor.

Long live Gerald!

it ain't no good til it hurts a little bit.

In general, I have no interest or use for reggae. This song, however, is just so good.

that wide wild sky.

I saw Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeroes perform a couple of years ago at the Newport Film Festival. And when I say perform, I mean they really put on a show; it was fun, a little raucous, and really illustrated how some bands can actually play music live.

Anyways, I was browsing Spotify the other day looking for new music, and I saw that Edward Sharpe had released a new album, Here. I've always thought that they were a lot weirder than they seemed in "Home", which is a great mainstream indie song, by the way. Here definitely continues and builds on their combination of sing-songy innocence and freak folk tendencies, while adding a little more of the back porch banjo spirit.

"I Don't Want to Pray" is my favorite track on the album, and they all just look like they enjoy what they do so much in this performance.

It is kinda funny that I am attracted to this piece as I am an agnostic, if not an atheist. There is often just so much joy and community in spiritual songs. See Ladysmith Black Mambazo's "This IS The Way We Do".

Also I forgot that Nora Kirkpatrick is in Edward Sharpe. She is awesome in Dorm Life, the best webseries ever. Watch it.

you only funky as your last cut.

Just a great old Outkast jam.

you got me rockin' when i ought to be rollin'.

Do you ever find songs on a soundtrack that are super awesome? Do you then try to pass it off like you just happened to be really cool and stumble upon that song yourself? Me neither.

Here's a great song that I just happened to come across somehow. (It's not at all from Snatch.)

back to school.

So I've been back at Wellesley for a little more than a week now without anything to do. I had "job training" but that mostly consisted of sitting in the library for about two hours a day and getting paid for it. Which is awesome, of course, but also is making for something to actually begin. And gave me a lot of free time to, what else, watch movies.

One of my best friends was also in limbo with me for the past week so she joined in the copious amount of sitting around and watching films. It all started with a French thriller (Point Blank). Now I am about the last person you would expect to be watching suspenseful movies, I jump at just about anything and was scared shitless when I watched Signs when I was younger. Those haunted hayride things are my version of hell, and not in an exhilarating and fun way. So when Camylle suggested it, I was like, "Um...sure, but I'm really tired so if my eyes are closed, it's just that...". To my surprise, it was pretty enjoyable.

The next day we went to go see The Bourne Legacy, which I liked mostly because Jeremy Renner is such an awesome and believable badass. (Rachel Weisz was kind of useless unfortunately.) When we got home from the matinee (hey, we're college students, we're allowed to be cheap and lame), we turned on Brick. I had seen it before, a couple years previous, and remembered thinking it was interesting, but other than that I was kind of blank. For those who don't know, Brick was a film made in 2006 starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and basically transports a 1940s noir film into modern Southern California. It is twisty, turny, and very stylistic with its desaturated colors and too smart for reality dialogue. It's definitely a cool movie worth seeing, even if the characters are a little shallow.

Independently I watched Memento, Christopher Nolan's most popular film before the Batman series. Camylle and I had watched the trailer, but she wasn't into it, so I crawled into my couch and grabbed a pillow just in case my eyes had to go somewhere besides the screen. Fortunately there weren't very many pop-ups, it was mostly just very cerebral. The film starts at the end of the story and moves backwards, often repeating scenes along the way, making the viewer assess and reassess situations constantly. It was kind of like trying to piece together someone else's dream. That is until the last twenty minutes where everything changes and the truth comes to light, and you are like holy crap!!!

Finally we watched Guy Ritchie's Snatch, and it was exactly what I wanted it to be: British, quick, and fun in a stylized violence kinda way.

And now I'm working on the first half of Entertainment Weekly's Best Movies You've Never Seen. More like Worst Grades You've Ever Seen. Let the procrastination begin!

right as rain.

That piano vamp is just too good.

crapos en el bujo.

This is excellent. Such a great send-up of the pretension of cooking shows. And it has Richard E. Grant, who, to us film scholars, will always be remembered as the Spice Girls' manager in Spice World.

Oh yeah, David Tennant is also in it. So there.

do it for the kids.

After seeing those Aussie kids kick ass on Junior Masterchef, I can't help but be inspired.

Last weekend it was French Onion Soup.

Tonight it was homemade gnocchi with arugula pesto...

 

...and hazelnut mousse cake (with Nutella!!).

And now I'm watching Sabrina (my favorite Audrey Hepburn film, now on Netflix!), and where becomes a chef in Paris and I'm all like, this is fate.

my new favorite thing ever.

That is all.

"billy shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets".

What I'm currently listening to:

90s Awesomeness

How could you pass up a playlist that combines Dre and LFO, the creators of the masterful "Summer Girls"? I mean they name-checked freaking Mr. Limpet in that song. Whaaaaat?

"Dad took off when you were 4 years old
There was a good man named Paul Revere
I feel much better baby when you're near
You love fun dip and cherry Coke"

That is some deep shit.

if anyone asks, i'm oregone.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Portland to see my brother graduate from Reed (yay!) and it was awesome. Portland is such a visually interesting city, from the architecture to the wildlife.

My brother and mum outside his house, which is perfectly lived-in and shabby.

Check out our hotel room. Whiz-bang, amiright? (Ok, I really just wanted to use the phrase "whiz-bang".)

The last two are of Corvallis, where my good friend Mayrah lives, which is technically a city, but with its endless rows of family houses, feels more like suburbia. 

The food was also fabulous.

Is your mouth watering yet?

make this now.

Two-Minute Mug Brownie

Adapted from Instructables.com

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch salt
2 Tbsp canola or other mild vegetable oil
2 Tbsp milk, coffee or water

In a heatproof mug or ramekin, stir together the dry ingredients until no lumps remain. Stir in the oil and milk until you have a thick paste.

Microwave on high for a minute, checking it after 30 seconds (microwaves vary) – it will be done when it’s springy on top but still a bit gooey – like the very best brownie. Eat warm.

Picture and recipe from here.

My advice? Ice cream is a must. It is a bit dry without some vanilla-y goodness. With it, it is a great quick little dessert.

put a little banjo in your day.

How do they sound so good live?

cannes.

While everyone and their mother is pouring through photographs of the latest Cannes fashion, I found this gallery of pictures from festivals past on Vanity Fair.

Here are some of my favorites:

Grace Kelly being gorgeous.

Sean Connery being dashing.

Gene Kelly.

A little Bardot for good measure.

The sheer number of people at the festival is pretty insane, especially photographers.

Obviously all these pictures are from the Vanity Fair website.

from the mixed up files...

Feeling a little lazy so this is going to be a grab bag kind of post. Ta-da!

Totally digging the Ramona West blog. It's basically instructions for the center-part straight haired cool girl thing. And the clothes are actually not that expensive. Win win.

Seychelles has the cutest shoes. Simple, yet interesting and practical. These, for instance, come in four excellent colors, though I'm partial to the limoncello.

This is one of those things that I would never wear myself, but I think is awesome and gorgeous.

I wish I doodled like this. Practice makes perfect, hopefully.

This is kind of useless, but fun anyway.

Last but not least, some DIY wonders.

I just did this olive oil hair treatment, and while it was a little gross pouring evoo on my scalp, it totally made my hair soft and shiny.

The Beauty Department is such a great website. It has a beautiful layout and aesthetic and has some great tutorials. This cheetah print nail tutorial may seem kind of ridiculous, but it is actually not that hard, and looks really cool. I suggest doing it on toes so you don't have to worry about the whole right hand dilemma.

I will have these. I have a birthday in August, y'all...

Happy June everyone!

put me in your blue skies or put me in your gray.

Probably should not be blogging right now. I have way to much work for finals to even be thinking of anything else. But this song is so great, and I love the extended version, so whatever. That was quick at least, right?

it's not about you joggers who go round and round and round.

I'm kind of obsessed with The Onion's AV Club right now. They do really intelligent reviews of individual episodes of television shows, which of course just fuels my addiction even more. Aside from reviews, they also have a running feature entitled "Gateways to Geekery", which give a sort of crash course into things that you have probably heard about and think are cool, but have no idea how to get into. I discovered the column through my fangirly researching of Sherlock, but it has a really interesting breadth of topics. I just finished the one on Britpop, and I thought it was really good, so I thought I'd share! Read the article here.

And listen to my personal favorite Britpop song (and video), "Parklife", here:

wedding fever.

For some very strange reason I am a little obsessed with weddings right now. I think it started when I saw The Five Year Engagement on Saturday night. Besides being absolutely charming and funny, the movie also made me think about what I want my wedding to be like. I'm not really one of those girls that spends their whole lives dreaming of her wedding day, I just want an excuse to spend lots of time and money on a big, fancy party. And since I am neither getting married nor sitting on a fortune I need to get rid of quick, I have just been living vicariously through wedding blogs. I can't resist, they are just so damn pretty.

All images from Ruffled Pinterest

Am I right? Doesn't it make you want to have a gorgeous little garden party?

war.

I don't know about y'all but I seem to always be conflicted. And I don't mean about whether I should eat mint chocolate chip or chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (the eternal struggle). I mean aesthetically. Growing up I had a plethora of different styles including lime green "swooshie" pants, aqua marine jellies, and a pink pleated mini-skirt. And I loved each of them in different ways. As I get older, however, I seem to really be switching between two different visions: the grungy/beachy/slightly disheveled (but perfectly so) hippie, and the hip/clean prepster. I love both these looks and just when I pick one I get swayed to the other side. It's a little infuriating.

But also liberating. I like not having to be one person all the time. I like being able to wear my sensible black Payless flats one day and my absolutely ridiculous (yet so awesome) Jeffrey Campell heels the next.

And now I'm just conflicted about being conflicted. Should we be pigeon-holed into a certain style? Or it a signature style something to be cultivated and pursued? I don't know. Now I'm back at the beginning. But at least I'll give you something pretty to look at. Aesthetic #1, you're up.

So basically I want to always be dressed like I'm going to Coachella. Aka like this.

By the way have you seen Beyonce's tumblr? God she is amazing.

the truth.

I feel like I need to stop listening to this about fifteen times a day. Then again, I'm just gonna keep doing it anyways.

(By the way, I was gonna make a joke about the movie Precious and all that jazz, but then I thought it would just be pandering. So, your welcome.)

my life according to instagram.

I'm feeling lazy right now. And choir is running my life. So here are some photos. I instagrammed them, so there is some effort there.

My peeps. Thay be cray.

My friend Mayrah and I did a little exploring with a camera from the 1930s a couple of weeks ago. It was freezing, but totally worth it.

And finally, China! My mom and I went for a week to Beijing and Shanghai. It was completely amazing, and so different from what I imagined. I don't think a trip has ever made me think so much.

I will be back soon. 

After this weekend. After choir. After I have my life back.

clear eyes...

I have about a million other things to do this week, so I'm going to make this super quick.

I have recently become reobsessed with Friday Night Lights (I had previously watched the first 1.5 seasons), and I'm now determined to actually finish it. While watching the show, this song caught my ear. Something about it does reflect the small-town tragic Southern romanticism. And it is originally by Bright Eyes. Of course.

And this one is from a playlist I found that had "Devil Town" on it. It is pretty much unrelated, but I like it so whatever.

And now my Netflix subscription is on hold, #collegestudentproblems, so I can't watch anymore FNL. But on second thought that is probably best for my sanity. And midterms.

i got that honey, that sugar, that spice.

For the most part I'm not really into very much hip-hop. I love me some Girl Talk, especially Feed the Animals (such a great album), but not too much else. It's not like I dislike it, it is just that so much contemporary hip-hop is so heinously sexist that I can't stand to listen to it. So anyways, when I come across some hip-hop that I do like, I tend to listen to it on an endless loop. And that's what I've been doing with these three Chiddy Bang songs.

Ironically enough, Chiddy Bang actually came to Wellesley last year and I didn't go because I really knew (or thought) nothing of them. But upon further listening I really like their style. And I'll be honest, I'm a sucker for sampling.

Darwin Deez!

Also if you guys don't know about rapgenius you should look it up cause it is awesome. It makes me appreciate how much work goes into clever rapping about 300% more.

the return of the prodigal daughter.

You say I haven't really been blogging lately? Like for the last 8 months?

False.

I reject your reality and substitute my own. Wasn't my post yesterday fantastic?! Thought so.

Anyways, I have been listening to covers non-stop lately. I'm not really sure why, it's not like there isn't a plethora of tremendously creative original songs I should be listening to. But I can't help it, they are magnetic. (This is not exactly a new obsession, though.)

So, without further ado, I present to your lovely readers (reader?), my top five covers right now:









Or Mark Ronson. Of course.

Yellow Ostrich - Blue 

Honorable Mention:



I can't decide which version I like better.

Also, what do y'all think of the new font? Cool or distracting? I can't decide.