cowboy hats and hidden dragons

They saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [on their first date], a Chinese film with French subtitles. "I didn't hang out with many English-speaking people, and I forgot Win wouldn't understand."

Regine translated for Win, whispering into his ear, a first act of intimacy.

"Then we went to a party and we met all your friends. I was wearing a cowboy hat, coming from Texas, and you thought it was so exotic," Win says. "You wanted me to wear my cowboy hat everywhere."

This made my heart full-on melt.

darling, so it goes

Elvis is on the brain.

Elvis has been on the brain for the past two months, thanks to my research paper. I just finished up a rather rigorous work session and I should probably be wanting to focus on other things, but I think I just want to look at more of his pictures and listen to more of his music and watch more of his interviews, etc.

One of my favorite stories I came across in my research was when the Beatles visited Elvis for the first time. It was super tense and awkward, and Elvis just said, "If you guys are just gonna sit there and stare at me, I'm going to bed. I didn't mean for this to be like the subjects calling on the king. I just thought we'd sit and talk about music and maybe jam a little." Then John and Elvis had a strained discussion and George ended up smoking a joint by the pool with one of Elvis' guys. 

Elvis seemed to be a little bit jealous of the Beatles' newfound success and the Beatles just were in awe, just wanting to meet their idol. They shook Elvis' confidence a lot, I think. What I would have given to see that meeting, despite the major secondhand tension I got just by reading about it.

My paper's about the creation of rock & roll in the 1950's, the effects that it had on sexuality and race relations. When I get heavily invested in my research, I have to remember I live in 2011 and not 1956. Sometimes I wish I lived in the 1950's. Other times I really, really, really don't. It certainly wasn't an ideal time, but it must have been incredible to be a part of this complete 180-degree musical revolution right as it was happening.

At least I get to be in the Gaga generation, eh?

(Can't Help Falling In Love: Elvis Presley)

and a sun to maybe dissipate

While shopping (or more often, while I am at Banana Republic with my father while he's being indecisive about dress shirts and I've already picked through the rather boring women's section), I like styling the male version of Sophie. A really, really impeccably dressed man is fantastic, and I enjoy picking out the clothes that would make the ladies and/or gentlemen swoon over boy-Sophie.

(This is the same jacket Win wore at ACL, and my thoughts during the concert were as follows: Holy mother of everything pure and holy this is the greatest show I've ever seen and will ever see in my life, Regine is a goddess among human beings, Win is beautiful, everyone is so talented, my brain is crying... DAMN that's a nice jacket)

So if money were no object, I would be the sharpest-dressed man in town. I wish more men took time to dress well (I'm not saying none do, I'm saying that everyone needs to), because people do take notice. I recall a certain time with a certain friend where everyone within a ten-foot radius exclaimed for about six minutes straight, "YOU LOOK FANTASTIC. DOESN'T HE LOOK FANTASTIC? LOOK AT HIM!"

Men of the world (who I'm sure are all flocking to this blog): menswear can be so fun. Make everyone happy and take advantage of it.

(Mykonos: Fleet Foxes)

i am a woman above everything else

I loved this picture of Caroline and John F. Kennedy. I've been watching History Channel clips about the Kennedys for a good twenty minutes (On a Friday night? Yes, it is an unspoken understanding that when you enter this blog, you are entering the mind of one wildly out-of-control teenager). I'm on a bit of a Kennedy kick after watching JFK's inaugural speech in history yesterday.

And while we're on the subject of quotes from yesterday:

"No, let them see what they've done."

-Jackie Kennedy, refusing to take off her blood-stained suit after the President's assassination

(title is a quote from Jackie as well)

goddamn. we just had a near-life experience, fellas.

I love quotes. 

My bedroom door is comprised of 240 Post-it notes of quotes. There are quotes stuck to the bottom of my calendar at my desk, there's a quote just taped up alone on my wall, there's an ongoing book of quotes that I keep (seen above). 

I don't care if they're silly or serious or meant to blow your mind or turn your entire damn world 180 degrees. There's something about seeing someone say something memorable that makes you want to say memorable things, something that, years from now, a kid could have stuck on their door or written in a notebook.

(title courtesy of Tyler Durden, one of my favorites)

viewing vagabonds

she felt she should have wanted
scarlet-glinting stoplights stained red on rainy pavements,
spilled light of streetlamps dissolved golden into air that smells of tire screeches,
city filth in her veins, stale wind on her skin
(for that’s what the stories of wanderers told her to want).
but she found herself curiously content
with consistent alarm clocks
and the brake-pedal-brake of foggy morning traffic.

(photo of cross-eyed & beautiful Win Butler taken by Grace at ACL, non-autobiographical writing by me)

P.S. The new Blogger is hurting my head and making me anxious. Why must the Internet continue to change?

is your free time to free minds or for falling apart?

Photographic documentation of some of my favorite things found in my bedroom.

1. My notebook, outfitted with a Hipster Parks & Recreation picture ("punk-ass book jockeys"), because the picture makes me happy and writing in it makes me happy.

2. Post-it notes, because I buy and use way too many and love doing it, dammit.

3. My wand, because...it's my wand. It is also the wand expressly responsible for the killing of Lord Voldemort. I mean, I don't mean to brag...but yeah, I do.

4. Magnetic Poetry Pick-Up Lines, because a girl needs help.

5. Slang Flashcards, for the same reason.

6. These sunglasses, only for the sentiment. I cleverly forgot my sunglasses at Austin City Limits (even though I packed TWO) and had to buy these promotional ones. But they remind me of ACL and of Natalie and they make me smile, even though they're smeared with like, face grease and sweat and sunscreen.

7. Me Talk Pretty One Day, because it's one of my favorite books and favorite authors and favorite collection of nonfiction stories set in France.

8. The shoes. Why? Do I need a why? Because they're shoes covered in glitter, THAT'S WHY.

(Ize of the World: The Strokes)

i carved your name across my eyelids

It's an easy thing to write two people as perfect for each other, easy to create a love story. It's an easy thing to have two people, patched together with the figments of one's imagination, meet by chance, just have them tap on the shoulder of someone who turns out to be the single person they're meant to be with. It's quite another when it actually happens with two real, solid, tangible people. I think about Win and Regine sometimes (read: all the time) and how it's one of the most remarkable things I can think of—two people, two poets brought together by who-knows-what. Two people who create poetry and music, two people who love each other so much at the same time. I'm sappy as all hell, but these two do things to me.

They could have gone to different colleges.

I put on my ugliest jeans and put my hair up so it looked like shit. I went to his apartment and he played me songs. I had never seen someone play so maturely. He wasn't pretending to be who he wanted to be.

-Regine Chassagne, on her first time meeting Win Butler

(Crown of Love: Arcade Fire)

geranium kisser

Let's not talk about the giant, hiatus-y elephant in the room. Have some music instead. I wanted to make a rainy playlist for some reason yesterday--it wasn't raining...I just had rainy feelings...I told my sister I made this playlist today and then proceeded to play a different playlist. She got angry at me and screamed some obscenities my way. Unwarranted, girl.

(Two Doves: Dirty Projectors)

to read/to listen

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is for summer reading, but it's actually quite good. The rest are for fun. I LOVE the cover for Vaclav & Lena, it's the prettiest thing on earth.

The other prettiest thing is the This American Life app, although often a fickle temptress that refuses to buffer entirely. Every single episode of TAL EVER MADE for $2.99. My favorites as of late are Americans in Paris, Fear of Sleep, Detectives, You Gonna Eat That?, Sissies, My Big Break, and I Enjoy Being a Girl, Sort Of. Americans in Paris is top, I'd say. David Sedaris in Paris will always be entertaining- he manages to bring up remarkably profound ideas while simultaneously being hysterical. How?

I don't know, he makes me very happy.

desperately seeking cereal

Hello Giggles' illustrated tweets of the day are hysterical and charming and at some times, SCARILY ACCURATE IN DESCRIBING MYSELF. I am an ardent cereal aficionado, guys. When I was around twelve, my mom discovered my stash of cereal bowls and spoons in my bathroom cabinet, stemmed from me devouring cereal late into the night and being too lazy to walk back to the kitchen to put them away. They still ridicule me for it.

source

dear darla, i hate your stinkin' guts

You can file this one under "things that blew my mind this week".

source

thinking outrageously

1) The Deathly Hallows Part 2 view count has now reached 4. Now I can fully concentrate on the small, strange things that bother me about it.

• The updated modern, chrome Penseive. What the hell was up with that, where Harry threw it like a frisbee across the room? It was very clearly NOT a large stone basin. It kind of looked like it was from the wizarding Bang & Olufsen.
• Why did they have Bellatrix and Voldemort and Nagini all shred into pieces instead of just like....dying? A big bad THUD from Bella and Voldemort would have been miles more satisfying.
• Can we PLEASE just remove the scene where Harry and Voldemort jump off the tower together and their faces merge all horribly? Literally, it's a full minute of the creepiest thing I've ever seen.

2) I saw Crazy, Stupid, Love the other day. Infatuations with both Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling have been fully brought back. (Also, the movie was excellent.)


3) While dining on a Nutella-and-vanilla-ice-cream crepe the other day, I discovered a man who is the exact manifestation of a character I created and have been writing about. It was amazing. I probably stared at him for too long, simply in awe.

4) I was up until 5:17 am last week waiting for Pottermore. It was certainly worth it. AccioLeviosa115, what WHAT?!

5) Every time I step outside, I feel as if I have entered the fiery pits of hell. August in Texas is most certainly NOT where it's at.

jcrew shirt, vintage vest, jcrew pants, vintage shoes, nastygal ring

(The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out To Get: Sufjan Stevens)

over futile odds and laughed at by the gods

The articles of clothing worth staying with? The ones that give you blisters and bruises, but you continue to wear them. That's how you know how much they mean to you. Welcome to my relationship with these boots. They are literally the most painful flat shoes I have ever worn or owned, but if anyone thinks I will ever stop wearing them, they are laughably wrong. Because they are RED COMBAT BOOTS. And that's the end of my argument. (But damn, giant blister on my calf, would you mind like, letting up a bit so I can wear these boots again?)

My heart goes out to everyone in Norway and to Amy Winehouse's family. She was an incredible talent. It's been a sad few days.

lucky brand shirt, anthropologie belt, selfmade skirt, vintage boots, vintage ring, nasty gal vintage bar ring

(Love is a Losing Game: Amy Winehouse)

two hundred degrees that's why they call me mr. fahrenheit

Trying to soak up every last precious moment I have with Ahab Bowen (Dallasites, they're having 50% off everything going on now). I picked up this beautiful 80's teal silk dress and I am quickly falling madly for it. The length is certainly something to get used to- I like my stuff short. My mother will recount stories of her hemming my dresses higher and higher to the point of near indecency (because God forbid I would parade around preschool with my dress at my mid-thigh). But a longer cut is refreshing and I quite like it. Also, it has shoulder pads. And I love shoulder pads.

vintage dress, anthropologie belt, vintage shoes

P.S. I also picked up a wonderfully weird hot pink sweatshirt type thing with a giant appliqued cowgirl on the front. I'm wearing it right now and enjoying it far too much.

P.P.S. My Narcissa Malfoy costume for the midnight premiere of Deathly Hallows Part 2 was 50 different kinds of badass. I will post it later. But it's awesome. (ikindofwanttodresslikehereverydayWHAT)

(Don't Stop Me Now: Queen)

always

Eleven years ago, when I was five years old, I read Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time. I think it would be an accurate assessment to say I was enamored. Harry Potter was, if I remember correctly, one of the first "big" books I read- I was a reader, certainly, but this book made me feel like a grownup. Not only did it make me feel like a grownup, but it was the best damn book I had ever read. Like every other kid that read the book at that time, I was completely taken with the series. I remember buying a lot of books that talked extensively about pixies and werewolves and all these other strange mythical creatures that I had read about. Remembering it, it was kind of creepy and Wiccan-feeling, but I enjoyed it. I also had the pleasure of owning this. I shake my fist at the sky that I lost it, because that thing RULED. A few years down the road, I recall writing what I now realize was fan fiction- it involved Harry & Co. riding on some kind of magical gondola on their way to some kind of field trip. It didn't go very far.


Harry was quickly taking over my young life. If you haven't guessed, that picture is me, approximately aged 7, dressed as him for one Halloween (and many more Halloweens after that). That year, my 7th birthday present from one of my good friends then was a coupon entitling me to the VHS of Sorcerer's Stone when it came out. A very memorable present. A few years later, at the age of 9, I went to my first midnight book release for Order of the Phoenix. They were just the best things ever- spying the giant crates of books tucked away when you walked in the store, counting down the minutes until it could be yours. I relished them.


I fell out of Harry Potter around the year I started middle school. I can't fathom why- probably something about stupid peer pressure and stupid not wanting to look like a child or something my stupid young mind thought up. It's a giant regret. I hate thinking of the time when it wasn't in my life, by my own choice, but I do love finding little things from a long time ago that cement the fact that I was a 7 year old fangirl. I wish so much that I hadn't given it up then, but then I reread the series last year and the obsession spiraled back again (which I'm certainly happy for).


So now I'm writing this- I'm not really sure what on God's green Earth I have just written, but I just need to say stuff. The most important thing being:

Harry Potter is not ending.

Your childhood is not ending.

Nothing is ending.

I'm consistently astonished at what this series has accomplished, at how wildly devoted their fans are, but most of all, at this woman who has changed & saved so many lives with what she's written and the world she's created. Things like this don't just fizzle away when the final film is released. Nobody's going to be forgetting about Harry Potter. The series is a completely indelible mark- on literature, on film, on the whole damn world.

The quote we've been favoring for this coming occasion is spoken by Harry regarding Dumbledore. "He will only be gone when none are loyal to him." And I don't think anyone's going to get any less loyal.

i can serenade and gently play on your heartstrings

A pair of orange shoes is all I need now to complete Sophie's Shoe Rainbow. I really have so much fun with these guys (and by "these guys", I mean...my shoes...)- is that weird? I spent a good hour the other day just polishing all of them. This is how I like to spend my time.


I learned yesterday (before purchasing those mouthwateringly beautiful red boots on the top left and the purple heels on the bottom row) that my favorite-ever vintage store is closing. Needless to say, I'M EXTREMELY BUMMED OUT. My other favorite closed a while ago, so now I'm basically homeless in terms of vintage stores. Where am I supposed to go? Where do I find my last pair of orange shoes?

(Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy: Queen)

i love you more than being seventeen

Documents of a beach trip this past week- quite a lot of fun (and quite a lot of noise and children and sand everywhere). A low point was getting tar on a good portion of my swimsuit- why does BP have to go and ruin my new stuff? Rude.

This is my very best friend (and cousin), Harry. He has an enormous affinity for the game of UNO and is lactose-intolerant, which caused a tragic sight when we made homemade ice cream and he couldn't have any. It was the most torn-up I've seen a child in quite a while.

This is what happens when you trust an anxious 7 year old to take a picture. I even explicitly asked him if everyone was in the picture- "YES, YES, EVERYONE IS, LET ME TAKE IT". I guess, technically, everyone is in it...just not all of everyone.

Six days! SIX DAYS!


Kind of derpy me and a smidgen of Harry on the 4th of July (where we witnessed some kind of sad fireworks, to the children's severe disappointment).

Harry wanted to use the camera. This was the squinty result.


It's 2:40 in the morning, I've been up since 5:00 am and have gotten maybe 2 hours of sleep in between. What the hell is wrong with my sleep schedule? I'm going to try to close my eyes now.

(Evening Sun: The Strokes)