the '70s-- Oh, my god, they obviously suck

My semi mood board thing of 70s summer fun. Vintage peasant blouse jacket thingy, vintage evening purse with broken chain, gold foil hearts I cut out of a gift bag, bracelet I made, flower crown and Joni Mitchel Ladies of the Canyon.

 I've been digging through my parents records lately and realized my parents actually had a lot of cool stuff bad in the 60s and 70s. I've basically just been sitting in my basement listening to these records and crying because Janis Ian and Joni Mitchel have been secretly reading my thoughts before I thought them, ya know?

I bought these records at a giant record sale at my local mall. I bought the Hugget Family just because I love crazy families that each play like 30 instruments and dress up together in Celtic costumes. Here's a cute pic of the Hugget family from the inside cover:

It also has a notice included:

If that doesn't make you run out to buy the Renaissance album, I don't know what will.

These are just some assorted inspiration pictures with some totally rad 70s vibes.

Anuschka Blommers and Niel Schumman, mine, unknown, unknown, Josh Bates, Collin Dogson, unknown, Cara Stricker and the rest unknown. I read the Virgin Suicides this summer and spent infinite nights watching great shows and movies set in the 70s like Dazed and Confuzed, Almost Famous, and Freaks and Geeks (ok, so 1980 for that one) and now my head is like a disco ball bouncing with images of peace and love and disco and drugs. And a wistfulness for summer.

I know I'm kind of late to be gushing about resort 2013 collections, but I really just need to freak out about Anna Sui and Marc Jacobs Resort 2013. They are very modern but also have very vintage 1960s and 70s elements which really appeal to my hippie disco ball.  I still don't really understand what this 'resort' season is, because I never get to go to a goddam resort in the middle of winter, but whatever, I'll run with it if I get to just look at these beautiful clothes!

I just really like all the little intricate details and fine, flowy fabrics. I especially like the sheerness of the first white dress (which actually manages to make a handkerchief hem work. I have always hated handkerchief hems, but this one is awesome!). And all the floral and paisley-ish and Indian-inspired prints manage to not look stuffy or boring, or like anything I've seen before.My favourites are the black dress with white floral overlay and the white daisy-like jacket. It's just all amazing!

As for Marc Jacobs, well, just about everything is crazy/insane/makes me want to break my jaw/gorgeous. The platform shoes are reason alone enough to make me love this! Because yes ok they are a wooden platform, but the angle of the heel and the platform just make it so much more visually interesting. As well as little details like a buckle in a contrasting colour or neat gem stones. Other details in the collection like the giant bows and intricate floral prints (which also manage to not be boring, by incorporating different patterns and other variations like shine) and the really nice cuts of the dresses with low backs and little cutouts really make this one stand out. The floral dresses with the giant bows almost look like they have mandarin collars!

ya this is the 60s, but I don't care :)

Are the birds going to eat us, Mama?

Yesterday I went to see Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds with my mother. A 35mm reprint was being shown at an art theater in my city called Cinematheque. It's a really great theater that shows all kinds of interesting and unusual movies and even though the screen is pretty small and there are no cup holders, it's always a great time. It was the first time I'd ever seen the movie all the way through and I loved it. I thought it was so fantastic how the movie starts out with you thinking it's going to be this coy little comedic love story and then, as we sophisticated movie critics say, the shit hits the fan. I was especially transfixed by Tippi Hedren's hair in the movie - which stayed plastered to her head through almost everything - drives on the highway to Bodega Bay and seagull attacks included. I wanted to try to do something fun and voluminous with my hair like Tippi's character, Melanie Daniels, had. My hair ended up being more so 50s inspired, but I was still pretty pleased with the results! Oh but also can we pause for a moment and just appreciate Jessica Tandy. When she first came on screen I was like, "wait a minute, how did Tippi's hair turn grey?" (That's some profound stuff right there.)

I'll probably do another post in the future with more from the movie. I'm maybe thinking of going as Melanie Daniels for Halloween... Here are some other 50s and 60s ish vibes I've been feeling lately.

Twin Peaks, unknown and I think Vogue, but I'm not too sure where I found it

Neeways, this is what I wore today. Although I didn't really go out anywhere so I just kind of sat around lamely in my basement listening to The Rolling Stones Flowers record and Joni Mitchell's Ladies of the Canyon. But I sat around lamely with pretty hair, that is the main point here, right? Right. Maybe I will go out and do something tonight, but I'm kind of hibernating because I am terrified of the fact that I am now a university student. And somehow I'm convinced that not leaving the house is helping.

 Cute flower or bitch face? The many faces of me.

My sweater is thrifted, pants are American Apparel, my pink shoes, which you can't see all that well, are thrifted also. My lipstick is Revlon I think maybe 'plum' or 'violet' or something. 

I'm going to go off and fret over my fleeting adolescence, have a good weekend you guys!

School Schmool

Lately I've been really Daniel Clowes-ing out and just watching Ghost World and Art School Confidential over and over and re-reading Ghost World. Coincidentally or not, I am also starting art school tomorrow. Whoo, first year of university here I come and I thank the heavens and Gwen Stefani that I am not going back to highschool. All I can say is that I hope I have a better art school experience than Daniel Clowes seems to have had.

What I really like about Daniel Clowes work is how he taps into all the awful dark crap most movies and people pretend don't exist/ignore. I find his stuff painful to read and Terry Zwigoff's movie adaptations kind of hard to watch, but I still love them. It's very reassuring to know someone out there is as cynical as I am, but also to see how Daniel Clowes has obviously succeeded and made a living out of his art, past traumas aside. The art in both of the movies drives me insane because it's so good. I absolutely love Daniel Clowes style and Enid's sketchbook is like the total embodiment of perfection. I recently got a haircut so my hair kind of looks a bit like Audrey's and then a bit like Enid's when I blow dry it. I also dyed bits of it purple on a whim yesterday. I was at my friends house yesterday with a bunch of people, eating pizza one minute and then the next, there was bleach and Punky Colors all over da place.

I have to go to an orientation for university tomorrow, which I don't really want to go to because I hate all those icebreaker games and always end up looking painfully awkward, but whatevs, I gotta go. I've put together my best tough girl I-don't-give-a-shit-about-what-you-think outfit for tomorrow though, so I'm a bit excited.

Basically everything is thrifted and my rings are from a small independent bookstore, but I was so excited when I found them! I hope all you guys out there heading back to school have a great first day! And here's hoping I won't fall into the category of "self-obsessed neurotic art girl"!

If summer's over, don't let me know

Wealth by Eeper Weeper from Jim Agapito on Vimeo.

I feel like every post I make starts with an explanation as to why I haven't been blogging consistently. I'm not really sure how frequently I am going to update this blog anymore. I like blogging, but I feel like I started this blog at a time in my life when I felt super out of control of my life - when I felt incredibly alone and inarticulate. I've always had a lot of trouble getting outside of my own head, which maybe I guess sort of both helped and hindered my blogging, but lately I've been feeling so much better in my life. I'm not saying I'm not going to blog anymore (don't worry, you 26 whole followers, you!) but I'll just see. I've actually got real friends now for the first time in a long time and I think I've actually been out every single day this past week!

This summer is what I would definitely classify as a weird one - I moved to a small town of like 4000 people for three months and I've just had my first week back in the "big city". I really liked the job I had working with kids in the small town, but I don't think I could ever live there forever, that's for sure. I didn't have an internet connection because I was living with my 95 year-old grandpa who doesn't even know what the internet is and I also didn't really have any access to cool clothes there. Or at least clothes that make me feel totally rad. And the truth is I would have been scared to wear them. It turned out to be a pretty rough place, so anything that might draw extra attention to you increased your likelihood of scary people hassling you. Needless to say I am so happy to be back in the city and am taking advantage of the freedom to express myself now, that's for sure.

I'm also really feeling 70s vibes lately. I pretty much spent every night this summer holed up in my room watching Freaks and Geeks, Almost Famous and Dazed and Confused. I find that they all kind of work with the theme of 'transitions' which has been consuming my mind all summer. Also, the style in these movies just makes me so happy. It's sad to say that the summer is coming to an end, but I'm also excited because I'm going to be going to art school in the fall and I've got some pretty awesome and accepting friends to start a 'new' year off with. I'm going to be camping at a goddess festival this weekend, so with any luck I'll have pictures of that soon :)

This one's for you, Value Village Sunday shift boss...

So It's summer technically for me! I've been working a lot but I still want to make sure I get some blog posts done! It's a weird transition, though. Going from being at school five days a week and only owing things like good grades to yourself, to going to working a full-time job. It's all very odd, and I'm not sure I'm dealing with it all that well, but, then it's only been three weeks.

My days off and evenings are mostly spent driving around by myself in my parents car (I finally got my license last month!) listening to the Almost Famous soundtrack and visiting my local Value Village a little too often. I haven't been dressing too interestingly lately though because of work, so here's the most fun thing I've worn recently in my spare time. Tis my outfit for eating Tim Hortons yoghurt and berries by myself and composing fan-fiction poems about the manager of my fave Value Village. Which will be published in my friends' collaborative zine in the near future! (The creepy poetry, I mean :) )

 

Shirt from Forever 21 (aghghghgjfkdlsafj I swore I wouldn't buy stuff there any more, but why does clothing made by four-year-old factory workers have to look so darn cute!? The dilemmas of my mindless, consumer-driven life.... ), thrifted kilt and a silk headband my mom's friend hand dyed for her and which I stole from her underwear drawer (yay my hair is almost getting long enough to not look weird in a 'bun'let). I know the pictures are kind of blurry, but I didn't really have time to take any better ones.

In other news, I recently went to a Zine Fair that was held in an independent gallery in my city. One of my good friends and favourite people in the world was selling her zine there (Glitter Zine, I would post a link, but I don't think she has a blog), so I went and was totally excited to be there. When I got there, it was cool, but something about it bothered me and some of the people I was with. Going to an independent arts event, you think people would be very open and accepting, right? I mean, wouldn't you want as many people as possible to read your zine and learn about things they maybe had no prior knowledge of? For the most part, it was a fun and cool experience. Most of the zinesters there were dressed all in black, tattooed and sporting under-arm hair and that was cool.

What bothered me was that it seemed like one out of every three of the zinesters was rude or stand-offish or dismissive of myself and my friends and even my friend who was selling her own zine at the fair. And it seemed like it was because we were too 'mainstream' or dressed in bright colours or ignorant-looking. I guess I can't say I know why, but I bought peoples' zines and I was nice to them and tried to talk to them, but some people just wouldn't have it. Now, most of the people there were awesome, but really? That behavior, however rare it might have been, just doesn't make any sense. Especially from people who claim to be accepting, enlightened and who want as many people as possible to read their zines. Okay that rant is over :)

On a semi-related note, I am working on my own zine right now! It will be called On the Fence and will be a product of my brain and its angsty-ness. I guess I'm kind of focusing on the theme of transition - like being in between teenage years and adulthood. And I'm going to be writing about blogging, and will have an interview with the lovely Nicole of City of the Fireflies! I've started working on my cover, which I will be screen printing, but that's about all I've got done so far.

The front and inside cover designs for my zine so far.

A page spread from my friend Steph's Glitter Zine for inspiration!

That's all for now!