Rock me, mama, like a southbound train.

Today I woke up at noon. Ridiculous. I hate waking up later than 10:30, it makes me feel like I'm wasting my life. I decided to be slightly creative today so I made a little slideshow video music thingy. I don't have actual video footage of anything so my videos are always just slideshows, haha! My brother makes silly handmade videos, so he's the Steven Spielberg of our family. He makes moving pictures, I make still ones.

Here are some pretty pictures for you to look at.

(fuckyeahtattoos, ffffound, & I don't remember the rest)

Paint it Black

Kind of similar to yesterday, eh? I thought I'd take that look and make it even more casual. I've been feeling anti-color lately. I like the simplicity of black. As I'm sure you all know, I have no qualms with wearing overloads of color.

Today I miss my friends. I have zero friends in this town. Zero. I'm dead serious, too. Sometimes people say that for hyperbolic effect. The only people I know here beyond my family are coworkers. All I want to do is party all night and laugh constantly. Instead: bored and lonely. There aren't even any movies I want to go to. I thought about doing the whole Twilight thing, just because it looks like an entertaining movie, but I just don't feel like it tonight.

shirt/pac sun :: t-shirt/hot topic :: skirt/thrifted :: boots/lulu e bebe :: tights/fred meyer

I just learned that the Cold War Kids are coming to Anchorage in Feb. Damn! I will be gone by then. Way to go, Alaska. Bring a great band after I leave. I see how it is. Living in Alaska is definitely not for people who enjoy live music. There are some good local bands, but if you want to see a more popular band from the lower 48, you can pretty much forget it. I don't think I saw a non-local band's concert until I moved to WA. I remember my freshman year of college I went to a Yellowcard concert even though I didn't even like Yellowcard just because I'd never been to a concert before. I can't even believe I went to that concert because I pretty much loathe Yellowcard, haha! I still haven't gone to many concerts because I'm so damn frugal. It would be fun to go to Sasquatch or one of those big music festivals at the Gorge in central Wa, but I never ended up doing it.

I think my favorite concerts ever (not counting local bands/friends' bands) are Against Me! in Seattle and David Bazan in Spokane. We were going to see The Thermals in Spokane once but my friends took too long pre-funking and it sold out. I'm still totally bummed. I also missed Neil Diamond in Spokane once. And Van Halen! UGH! I really need to reevaluate what's important in my life, because those concerts should really be on the priority list.

David Bazan @ Empyrean in Spokane (I think I was sitting down in the front)
The first is my favorite song:

Don't forget to add my Modcloth Vintage Inspiration contest photo as a favorite on Chictopia! And if you're not a part of Chictopia yet, go join!

Beginning To See The Light

Well well well. Today I ended up getting home before sundown (appx. 4:00 pm), so I quickly grabbed my camera before I lost too much light. This is the dress that I got on Black Friday which I couldn't find a photo of to share with you guys, so here it is! I really love it. It's pretty formal, in the going-out-for-drinks-and-probably-dancing kind of way (which is the most formal I ever would have to get these days). I made it a little more casual with a plaid, though. It's one of the sexier dresses I own now! Though I have no clue when I will ever need to look sexy for any reason. I gave a close-up of the dress because it looks so basic in the full-body shots, but it really has this gorgeous animal-esque, shiny pattern to the fabric. Almost reptilian.

boots/lulu e bebe :: dress/lulu e bebe :: plaid/pac sun :: tights/fred meyer

My favorite tights are falling apart, and I just don't know what I will do without them... My new pair of tights just isn't sitting well with me. I feel like it looks like some weird flesh eating flowers are tattooed on my legs. I guess I'll have to find a better replacement pair.
And I need to get my bangs cut. They are attacking my eyes constantly.
Has anyone else started Christmas shopping? I am seriously behind this year. Last year I had my list all made up and on my way to wrapping by now. I have zero Christmas presents so far! Congrats to all you who have your stuff all together, I certainly am not on the ball...



If you don't mind, head over to my chictopia and add my Modcloth Vintage Inspired look as a favorite! They're having a contest and I entered my most favorite vintage look. Thanks, lovelies!

rain on my parade

Outfit posts will resume Monday! In between pre-black-friday prep, thanksgiving, black friday, and weekend activities there is no way I can keep up with everything. I think next week will be back to normal, thank goodness! I need to catch up on sleep in a serious way. I kind of wish I was a dog, ours sleeps like 15 hours a day, at least.

I thought I'd share my friends' band with all you readers. They certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, which I realize. They're kind of experimental, lo-fi, non-traditional. I suspect if you like bands such as Minus the Bear, The '89 Cubs, Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade, and Animal Collective, you may like pə-ˈrād. One of my best friends from college is the guitarist and for the nascence and early months of the band he actually used my electric guitar. If they become famous it will be my claim to fame.

The rest of the band are good friends from college as well and they actually were all up in Alaska this summer living in tents in a small wilderness tourist town. They would play gigs at the local historical hotel/pub and spend most nights drinking beer around bonfires on the shore of the Susitna River.

(photos: kristen black)

Their label, Leftist Nautical Antiques, just released pə-ˈrād's first album on cassette tape on the 9th of Nov, so if you want you can order it or download the whole album online. They recorded their debut album in a West Seattle bedroom by another friend of mine in one afternoon. LNA is actually founded by my best writer/photographer from CORSAIR. If I ever actually start a magazine I'd die to hire him. He was a life saver. So glad to see people from my old school really exercising their creativity in an entrepreneurial way. Things like pə-ˈrād and LNA really make me miss Spokane. There is this incredibly creative enclave there which is just nuclear with inspirational energy. It's very small, but so wonderful to bask in and contribute to. It's a very positive place, I think.

I'm waiting for my man

I was looking at the new promotional photos of the stars of The Hills on MTV's website tonight, and I was really struck by the fakeness of the photos. I mean, it was very strange after a while, the photos looked more photoshop than photograph. Granted, most of these people are all plastic surgeried up to begin with. I just think that all of that is so disappointing. Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to be the best you possible, I'm not opposed to being fit and trying to look nice. I just think when you get to the point where you are trying to change things about yourself that make you unique, it's such a shame.

shirt/hot topic : skirt/F21 : pants/hot topic : shoes/payless

I think that's what I like about the global style community. Everyone is so different and unique. For the most part people aren't trying to be anybody but themselves. Everyone seems so interested in discovering themselves and are sharing that experience with the rest of us through blogs and sites like Lookbook, Chictopia, and Weardrobe.

I love Velvet Underground. Imagine my glee when I found this shirt at Hot Topic. Here is one of my favorite songs from them. They are all so good though.

Velvet Underground takes me back to last December and January. Most people say that scent is the sense that most recalls memories but for me it's music. I know, music isn't a sense. Still, music can be rough for me. I have such strong emotional memories attached to certain music, that at times I can't listen to my favorite bands because it hurts far too much. Honestly, I can't listen to Velvet Underground right now because the memories hurt too much, but I still love them so.