adventure time.

I'm not going to pretend that I either know or have seen very much Adventure Time at all. I only heard about it about a month ago (where have I been?); since then, however, I can't stop noticing how often people mention it, and for good reason. For those unfamiliar, Adventure Time is a cartoon children's show that stars Jake the Dog and Finn the Human and follows their various, you know, adventures. It has such a great combination of surrealistic visuals and grounded emotions, which has lead a large percentage of the fanbase to be adults. PBS's IdeaChannel has taken on this phenomenon:



It's an interesting look at nostalgia and how it is not only an emotion, but can also be a motivation for action (even if that action is just watching a television show).

If you are looking for a way to waste more time on the interwebs, I highly recommend watching more of the IdeaChannel's videos, as they provide some good perspective on a lot of internet and nerd culture. Also, so many AD references.

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.

"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.

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.

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:

trees, swayin' in the summer breeze.

I'm pretty much unabashedly into the whole 70s thing (c/o Wildfox). I love Dazed and Confused. Sue me.


Also saw the new X-Men and it was actually pretty great. I mean I'm biased because I'm basically in love with James McAvoy, but I really liked Michael Fassbender as well. Their chemistry was great. And it was really refreshing to see a bubbly, slightly mischevious side to Jennifer Lawrence.

throwback.

Cause we all need some girl power courtesy of TLC.

i'm sorry now i ever went away.

Great song, one that Mel Torme apparently didn't care for too much. Maybe I made that up though. I remember reading it but I can't find it anymore. May it be stricken from the record then. I'm sure he loved this song as much as I do.

cinema studies.

I kind of want to live in all these places, they are so beautiful. But I would want them unrenovated. There is so much more character to them when they are in shambles, only ghosts of their past splendor...

Ok enough with the poetic crap. The real reason that I'm not going out and buying an abandoned theater? Besides lack of funds, the ridiculousness of it, and the impracticality, I would say The Phantom of the Megaplex. No, not Opera, Megaplex. This was that Disney Channel movie from a while back. I don't really remember much about the plot anymore, but I remember it totally freaked me out. (I was that kid who couldn't watch anything remotely scary. Even Rugrats was too much occasionally.) And I remember that it had that kid who played Oliver in The O.C. starred in it. Remember him? He was insane in the membrane. God I used to love that show.

Anyways, I digress. Old theaters are awesome. Buying one is now on the life to-do list.

Note: The last picture here is of a movie theater in the town where my dad works. Weird coincidence.

too tempting.

Hahaha get it? Get it? Yeah, let's just move on...

I was doing the listening for my music homework and we had to listen to "My Girl" by The Temptations. Now I have nothing against this song, in fact when I was about nine I bought an entire Motown cd just so I could have that one song, but I really wish that "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" had been the song used to illustrate the style of The Temptations. My book describes "My Girl" as a "teenage symphony" which I think is apt, but overall I think The Temptations had much more soul. I don't know though, maybe it's just me.

http://www.solcomhouse.com/images/Tempts.jpg

But really, they were pretty smooth. 

Just check out this video. David Ruffin is like a Motown version of Buddy Holly. What could be better? (Let's just ignore the alleged attitude and drug use shall we.)

what i need is a good defense.

Unless you are completely clueless you know who Anna Wintour is. (If happen to live under a rock she is the editor-in-chief of American Vogue. She is apparently quite a laugh. Just kidding.)

Many speculations have been made about the "real" Anna Wintour, but none so perfectly illustrated (haha, get it?) as by Lisa Hanawalt. See for yourself.

I would personally love to see a real life giant flip-flop jumpsuit. Anyone got John Galliano's number? I hear he is looking for a job. (JOKE. Obviously.)

(Also I am obviously in serious nostalgia mode. Been listening to this song constantly. Hence the title of this post and how it doesn't really relate to the content at all. Kind of. And the Spice Girls music blaring from my room. Not all 90s music is angsty afterall.)

call it impulsive, call it compulsive, call it insane.

I grew up in the 90s/00s so the music of that era holds a certain place in my heart. It doesn't even really matter if the music sucks, I love it anyway. So when a contemporary artist takes a song that I was so familiar with and completely turns it on its side, it can be hit or miss. Consider "Too Little Too Late" by Daniel Rossen a hit.

Now I have never really been that into Grizzly Bear, I am picky about my eerie, atmospheric music, and nothing I had heard really wowed me. Somehow, though, I stumbled upon (not StumbleUpon) a version of the aforementioned JoJo song by one of the members of Grizzly Bear and I can't stop listening to it. It is so different from the original in a totally imaginative way and I can't get over how much soul is injected into the lyrics just by them being sung a different way.

(And yes, the title of this post is a reference to The Barenaked Ladies. I loved them as a kid and they seem like all I've been listening to lately. And this song of course. And my Salsa Explosion! cd. Yeah, I know I'm cool.)

the devils are dreaming.

It's weird how much my classes have been influencing my tastes lately. I mean for my CAMS class it has been photography, and now with my music class it has been Squirrel Nut Zippers. Which is a band. An awesome band. I actually really liked Squirrel Nut Zippers before I started the music class, but since they are a swing revival band and we are studying 30s-40s music right now, I felt compelled to put them on repeat.

You might remember SNZ (way too much work to type out the entire name) from the 90s when swing was having a bit of a comeback. Just look at that party scene in Clueless where the Mighty Mighty Bosstones are the entertainment of choice. Or "Zoot Suit Riot" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Anyways, the SNZ song "Hell" was a hit in 1996. And rightfully so.

I remember being little and being very confused when they were spelling things out:

"Now the D and the A and the M and the N and the A and the T and the I-O-N.
Lose your face, Lose you name
And get fitted for a suit of flames."

Um, I totally want a suit of flames. That sounds awesome.

I couldn't find a video for "Hell" so here is "Put A Lid On It".

Doesn't she kind of sound like Billie Holiday? (Thank you, MUS 276.)

Anyways, the whole album, Hot, is great. I think I would have to say that "Bad Businessman" is my favorite. Though "Prince Nez" is good too.

Just check the whole album out. Their follow-up, Perennial Favorites, seems a bit different stylistically and tonally (to me at least), but is fantastical nonetheless.

And if that doesn't convince you, they covered "Under the Sea". Um, awesome. And I almost forgot that Andrew Bird used to play violin for them. Could he get any cooler?

william gedney.

I don't know what it is but I have totally been on a photography kick lately. Maybe it is the influence of my CAMS (cinema and media studies) class or maybe it's all the pent up photography love that I have stored up. Or maybe it's because it doesn't take too much effort to just post pictures. Anyways, I am going to try to cut down and maybe do some other stuff. Give it some variation.

I first encountered William Gedney in the December (I think) issue of Dazed & Confused and I was totally blown away. Apparently he wanted to get some pictures of rural life so he asked to spend time with a mining family. He was sent to Kentucky and spent something like six weeks there taking photographs. The results were amazing. By the way, not all of these are from that trip, though the majority are.

http://theselvedgeyard.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/ky0178-150dpi.jpeg

http://jwanderson.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/william-gedney-jwanderson.jpeg

http://u1.ipernity.com/11/22/80/4972280.c0229e16.560.jpg

http://www.tfaoi.com/am/5am/5am262.jpg

http://susanaraab.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/picture-2.png

http://pics.livejournal.com/bekalo/pic/001e400g

Basically, I'm obsessed.

what was old is new again.

Coolest family portrait project ever.

looking into the past

dreaming of z-boys.

The book Locals Only: California Skateboarding makes me wish I could skateboard, lived in California, and lived in the seventies. Or was tan. (Never going to happen). None of which is true. But a girl can dream...

Damn you Hugh Holland.

dogtown | more | and more

happy friday.

nina leen.

Dreaming of beach days. 

Peter Sellers in a shot that I am absolutely in love with. And was a total pain in the ass to get by the way.

http://www.denimology.com/2010/11/instyle_magazines_sexiest_jeans_ever.php

Nothing like a little French New Wave to brighten your day.

Indira Ghandi. A Wellesley woman if I ever saw one.

Also, has anyone seen I Am Love? I tried watching about half of it and had to stop (though because it was two in the morning more than anything else). What I did watch I found slightly strange and honestly, poorly paced. Now that I am in a screenwriting class and I know what I'm talking about (yeah, right), I feel justified in saying that the film just took too long in introducing a main conflict. An hour into the movie and little had happened. And it wasn't necessarily in the Sofia Coppola-esque way of basically making a movie of atmosphere. Perhaps the story picks up. I just wasn't that impressed. I'll try finishing it and see what happens. The costuming, though, was gorgeous.

Anyone have any thoughts?

All the pictures are from Life unless indicated.

school's out for summer.

Not really. In fact, I go back tomorrow. But I'm watching Dazed and Confused and it so makes me wish it was the summer. And it was the 70s. And I could just drive around and meet up with like the whole school and good-heartedly party. And wear high-waisted jean with impunity. Those were the days. Or so I imagine.

What. A. Stud.

Oh my god, how cool was Jodi? She had that gorgeous hair and was the cool guy's girl. Totally my idol.

Jeez, that hair.

I must admit that I'm watching the movie on VH1, which kinda takes away from the awesomeness of it, but it does add the humor of censorship. I've never heard the word "bimbo" used so many times.

And the music is fantastic.

baseball | bathroom | wall

pink

a little less conversation.

A little more action (aka pictures).

amusement park | twirls | lux | field

amelie | ballet | weld

car & plants | just kids

As you can tell, I'm really into the dreamy 70s vibe. And Amelie. Not sure what this means, but I'm gonna try to go with it.