Regarding REI KAWABUKO

REI KAWAKUBO is the Saint Teresa of fashion. I always imagined her locked in a self-imposed, deconstructed cell, like, massacring hemlines for her next season’s “no-dimensional” outfits that will be mocked, brilliantly reviewed, and worn by the brave.

I wear Comme des Garçons the same way Andy Warhol once wore $100,000 women’s necklaces underneath his Brooks Brothers turtlenecks — to be fashionable in secret. Only you know you spent money when you wear Rei’s creations. In fact, some of the more fashion-impaired public actually feels sorry for us! “That’s a shame about that coat,” an uninformed friend said to me once in a bar in Baltimore when I was wearing, well high fashion. “John Waters in his thrift-shop finest,” the press has written when, in fact, I was featuring a brand-new Comme des Garçons suit! Rei Kawakubo gives us undercover glamour. We know how great her clothes look, but others just think we’re poor.

Her look? Disaster at the dry cleaner. “I didn’t do it!” is the usual cry. Mine has learned to read the complicated and sometimes hilarious instruction labels with courage: “Do not dry clean; do not wash; garment may fray, fade, change shape.” These pants? One hundred percent polyester, wrinkled unable to be pressed. So comfortable, so unnatural, and so expensive. “Friction may cause the flocks to rub off or a slight fuzz may develop,” one label reads. Friction? What’s that mean? Walking?

Rei Kawakubo’s work is never funny, but her wit is so ferocious, so elegant, so scary, and sometimes even so ridiculous that her customers never have buyer’s remorse. How could they feel they had overspent when they look so courageous, so cult-like, superior, and even slightly insane every time they get dressed in one of her outfits? Rei’s look can never go out of style because she is either starting a new one or ruining a trend that’s not even popular yet but is about to be so. In her own words, Rei commented: “I think the world and its values are often lukewarm. I’d like to keep on trying to make it hotter.” Well, she certainly has. Beyond “hotter,” if you ask me, into spontaneous combustion! She makes pretty ugly, ugly handsome, and handsome disorienting. Rei Kawakubo is my leader. She is for many of us too.

John Waters, 2012 CFDA Awards speech

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

It wasn't an illusion. This book was short yet it was one of the sweetest and the saddest ones I've read. For me, it was the style that truly moved me. Certain words and the tone that was used. The narrative looked through what I was feeling and it directly confirmed what I was thinking; I hope you are following me.

Adolescence

Friends

Girls

Sex

Intellect

Books

Age

Lost

Life

Suicides

Reflection

Clique

Peers

Influences

Go over all of this in detail with Tony Webster, the protagonist. I had to use the dictionary several times to get through the book, and that means that Barnes's diction is pretty old-fashioned and specific.



Here are some excerpts from the book worth typing out (according to me anyways, haha):

pg 10 -- Yes, of course we were pretentious – what else is youth for? We used terms like ‘Weltanschuung’ and ‘Sturm und Drang’, enjoyed saying ‘That’s philosophically self-evident’, and assured one another that the imagination’s first duty was to be transgressive. Our parents saw things differently, picturing their children as innocents suddenly exposed to noxious influence. So Colin’s mother referred to me as his ‘dark angel’; my father blamed Alex when he found me reading The Communist Manifesto; Colin was fingered by Alex’s parents when they caught him with a hard-boiled American crime novel. And so on. It was the same with sex. Our parents thought we might be corrupted by one another into becoming whatever it was they most feared: an incorrigible masturbator, a winsome homosexual, a recklessly impregnatory libertine. On our behalf they dreaded the closeness of adolescent friendship, the predatory behavior of strangers on trains, the lure of the wrong kind of girl. How far their anxieties outran our experience.

Pg 103 – Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that’s something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we’re just stuck with what we’ve got. We’re on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn’t it? And also – if this isn’t too grand a word – our tragedy.


  Big thanks and love to Kathy who lent me the book!  

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Having time

I now have so much time lying around that I can afford to take a quick few shots of myself (EW, HOW NARCISSTIC) before I leave the house.

Them black shorts that I've been wearing basically every sunny day this past summer was a DIY impulse project. I was lucky that they turned out alright. I just folded the sides up and pinned them after chopping the legs off... Idk how to sew. When my mom saw them, she almost cried. They used to be her treasured Versace jeans. Oops. #BadDaughter

Then later in the day, we hit up THE TEMPLETON on Granville Street for some dindins. YUUUUUMMY VEGAN FOODS!! Ahhhhhh!! Diner deco!!! AHHHHHHH, crushin' hard.

Them black headband is just a piece of elastic-y fabric. You can basically wind ANYTHING around your head, twist it, then brooch it! You'll have the headband you want for the day. Since all of your face is visible, you MUST put a little bit of effort on your face. So I even put colour on my lips and lined my brows all dark and all. Okay, if you massively failed at putting nice makeup on your face, you can always cover yer face with sunglasses. GOOD! THAT'S WHAT I DID.

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Men in Skirts

Tell me what you think. I find them delicious. What is wrong with men in long skirts? Why can't straight men wear long skirts?? I'm actually unsure about the tulle skirt though.. That is a lot of. BALLS.

***

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CULPRIT COFFEE

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Located on Vine and 4th Avenue, Culprit Coffee created a local uproar (basically) when they first opened. I didn't know why until I visited.

1) IT'S SO CUTE. It's a small joint with BRIGHT yellow walls and cute stepped entrance. What more can you ask for?
2) Everyone's smiling. And they talk to you... This one guy, he asked me to guard his cookie. #CivilizationAtItsBest
3) Coffee is good. Note that I didn't say FANTASTIC! But it's good. If I had been less poor, I would've grabbed their foods. Their baked goods look delightful while the sandwiches sound crisp and fresh.

But why won't I return? Like everyday?
It's just. Kind of. Really pricy.
I know that cafe culture is actually a luxury, but Culprit seems to be just a little less worth than what they charge. And because I just like drinking espressos or americanos, I guess coffee is more important than nommy-bites. I miss Dose's coffee. Soon, I'll make a trip to Dose.

Omg.

Now I can't stop thinking about Dose.

Anyhow, enjoy some pictures of Culprit! (In case you don't catch on, I biked there with my new bike and it was really painful!!!! I won't ever bike there again!!! LOL)

CULPRIT COFFEE FACEBOOK PAGE

STALK RACHEL ON TWITTER

Music Haul

KIMBRA a.k.a. Rachel's new favourite lady singer. 

I hear she's coming into town for a concert. I need the deets on this.

 AZEALIA BANKS 

 JUSTIN BIEBER 

(don't judge.. Like actually, please do not judge meeeeeee)

(it's so catchy, I don't even careeee)

(He dances so well, I dieeeee)

(He works so hard, if you hate him, you're just a big fat lazeass!!!)

JAMIE XX Guest Mix for Benji B, Radio 1

SNOOP DOGG + WIZ KHALIFA 

(the two hottest celebrities alive, HANDS DOWN. I can't belive Wiz is getting married... to Amber Rose. UGHG;ADGLldk;agjmdagk. It's alright. It's alright. Errthing's gon' be alright).

 A$AP ROCKY  -- Houston Old Head

This song's hits certain soft spots: bottles full of rose // life is a bitch, a bitch is like a ho, ho's want your money, money come and go, friends turn to foes, foes could be fake.... Lovely.

 SEU JORGE  sings Changes in Portuguese. 

Obsessed with this song. On repeat. Constantly. 

Therefore, this is the last video for sharing with y'all today.

Enjoy! Listen! Be happy!

Enjoy! Listen! Be happy!

Enjoy! Listen! Be happy!

I cut my hair chop chop

If the post title ain't literal enough... I went into Aveda Tonic on South Granville (great salon btw!!!!) to chop chop my hair off. Initially I just wanted to chop my bangs off, but somehow my hair dude Jovica ended up just chopping errthing off. Whatever! Now it feels like I have no more hair left! It's so thin that it barely makes a bun... Can you believe it!? I was also wearing a sheer sweater that day and my bare nipples underneath it were magnificently covered by my long flowy hair but after the cut, they were visible.

Errr.

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#TMI

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#BrasForLosers

Anyhow, before + after:

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

Inspiration from Grimes + Die Antwoord:

Did it work? Mmmrrrhh. I give it a good rating of 8/10 satisfaction. I wish he kept my hair a little thicker and that my hair didn't have like 7 different colours in it. Rolling ma eyez. And head bopping to BLAWAN:

Go visit my Tumblr. It's swell- @iampurpose

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

The Corrections is a very American novel with paragraphs formed of only ONE sentence, yet beautifully and lengthily written by Jonathan Franzen. Recommended and highly praised by my book lender/best friend Samantha, I worked on this one book ALL SUMMER. The problem was that I had gotten stuck at a character profile thing of the father, Alfred. It was such a booooore. However, after that one "reader's block," (and quitting my job which resulted to an infinite amount of time for myself) this book was a page turner. I even had to read it when I was at the most gorgeous lake house retreat where mimosas were made at a tilt of a head.

So the novel was published and out in the world in 2001. And if it is a VERY AMERICAN novel which deals with AMERICAN ISSUES around the CURRENT TIME PERIOD/EVENTS.. oh. It's about the turn of the century. There ya go. It's also about the MIDWEST (and CLINICAL DEPRESSION) and the other sorts of gross stuff that the Midwest is known for. It's actually more about this family, an older couple, Alfred and Enid, and their three children, Gary, Chip, and Denise. So the book goes through the minds & background stories of each character.. profiling them while making the whole story happen. With more understanding of each character comes more guessing and anticipation from the readers. Additionally, more understanding of why these bleeping crazy psychotics ARE psychos!!!!!!!!!!!!! The reason cannot be that they are from the Midwest. That's too cruel. Even for a fiction.

Just some clippets I liked..

PAGE 82-83
But TV caused him such critical and political anguish that he could no longer watch even cartoons without smoking cigarettes, and he now had a lung-sized region of pain in his chest, and there was no intoxicant of any sort in his house, not even cooking sherry, not even cough syrup, and after the labor of taking his pleasure with the chaise his endorphins had gone home to the four corners of his brain like war-weary troops, so spent by the demands he’d made of them in the last five weeks that nothing, except possibly Melissa in the flesh, could marshal them again. He needed a little morale-booster, a little pick-me-up, but he had nothing better than the month-old Times, and he felt that he’d circled quite enough uppercase M’s for one day, he could circle no more.

PAGE 175
After lunch he took his mother and his son to the St. Jude Museum of Transport. While Jonah climbed into old locomotives and toured the dry-docked submarine and Enid sat and nursed her sore hip, Gary compiled a mental list of the museum’s exhibits, hoping the list would him a feeling of accomplishment. He couldn’t deal with the exhibits themselves, their exhausting informativeness, their cheerful prose-for-the-masses. THE GOLDEN AGE OF STEAM POWER. THE DAWN OF FLIGHT. A ENTURY OF AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY. Block after block of taxing text.

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Send me more recommendations!

G-DRAGON 2012

I can't help it. This guy just gets it. GD's mine. Hands off. Heh heh heh heh.

Key takeaways:
1) Though the ombre hairstyle was totally two years ago, the tip thingie on your long wavy hair is like the mainstream-yet-edgy thing to do if ya wanna swoon guys.
2) Men must dance well.
3) Bright yellow dreads in a poopy pigtail form doesn't look bad at all if you're wearing cheetah pants.

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