holiday wishes...

Having been brought up on poor sense of humor and atheism, I personally couldn't care less...but I know that some of you do so...Merry Christmas. Please drink responsibly.

i'm home

I made it home safely.

If the past several hours are any indication of what my next couple of weeks will be like...God Damn! I'm in for a FUN ride.

the power of blog

Transportation emergency taken care of. My colleague Nicholas is taking me to D.C. on Saturday where I will stay with a friend of my friends Kalina & Kalina, who I know via my weblog. How awesome is that!!! Go Team!

D.C.

Could anyone recommend cheap hotels/hostels in D.C.? I get there on Saturday and fly to Bulgaria on Monday...and, strangely enough, it seems that I don't know anyone in the area who could host me for a couple of nights. Exiting State College has become a huge ordeal this time around.

I always get terribly impatient around departure time but this time...oh, God, I can't even begin to tell you how much I am looking forward to being home!!!

this one is going to rock your socks!!!

Dude, this time I have a real story to tell you. That is, a real story based in a real-life experience as opposed to all the 'unreal' stories I usually post: stories, inspired by little things that I then embellish to share with the world.

Now, many of you who have been reading this blog since its beginning probably remember my one hot summer in New York City. That was my summer of innocence as I like to call it. I had just turned 21 and was oh! so excited to be living in the city that never sleeps. There is no need to re-visit all the stories. Let me just mention, for the uninitiated, that there were Catholic nuns, Pentecostal priests, reenactment of Native American rituals, bags of rotten meat, meetings with famous illustrators and sex with older men involved, just to name a few.

My favorite New-York-moment was my stint as a personal assistant to a young fashion designer from South Africa by the name of Kara Jankowizc. Honestly, I do not remember why I was looking at job-listings that day but I found this ad by a young, up-and-coming designer, looking for an assistant. I called. She called. I showed up. Played with the cutest pug-puppy in the world. We talked. I got hired. Ta-boom! For the rest summer I was supposed to do 'trend-research'. See, since Kara had not established herself yet, she didn't really have the luxury to create the exact type of stuff she wanted. Instead, she would have to make items that generally followed the trends but yet departed from them enough to give her a chance to show a little bit of her personal vision within them. So, I read magazines and papers, stared at cute NYU girls on the streets, rummaged through vintage pattern-books and then reported. Kara was happy. My biggest accomplishment was taking a deep breath, walking into a boutique and telling the hipster-owners that they should carry Kara's designs. To my greatest surprise, they said, OK. Well, they first said, bring her portfolio but after that they said OK. Again, Kara was happy. At the end of the summer I had to quit as I was going back to frickin' Tennessee so that was the end of my fashion career. I did snag a funky top designed by Kara, though.

Fastforward to THIS FUCKING MORNING!!! As I was flipping through the channels, I noticed that Heidi Klum's new show, Project Runway, was on television. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, basically, they get 14 designers to compete for a grand prize of...lots of money to start their own brand, etc. etc. I started watching and at some point heard Heidi say, 'OK, KARA, it's your turn'. YES!!! It was MY KARA. On fucking Heidi Klum's show!!! And yes, I AM sure! I went directly to the website and looked her up. It's totally her. She's on the show! And she's good! And I am so fucking excited for her!!! And for me, of course. As many of you are aware of my obsession with celebrity, you should be able to imagine how super-exciting this whole thing is for me!!! Oh, and I am so so glad I still have that Kara top. I will take pictures and show it to you. For now, check out Kara's website.

P.S. By the way, Kara was a bit of a bitch to me but I don't really know if I should talk about it here and now. Or maybe, I should. What do you think?

s.o.s.

I am pretty good about staying on top of my work throughout the semester. Except at the very end of the semester. I have no idea why, but I always seem to lose motivation about a week earlier than I should. That obviously creates problems but yet again, there are definite advantages that result from my extreme urge to put off work: my room is clean; my cd-collection is back to its usual alphabetized order; my nails look almost-professionally done; another scarf is on its way to completion. If any of you have any ideas how to overcome serious bouts of procrastination, please send them my way. Seriously.

The Dude

�In the dude the social demands of fashion appear exaggerated to such a degree that they completely assume an individualistic and peculiar character. It is characteristic of the dude that he carries the elements of a particular fashion to an extreme; when pointed shoes are in style, he wears shoes that resemble the prow of a ship; when high collars are all the rage, he wears collars that come up to his ears; when scientific lectures are fashionable, you cannot find him anywhere else, etc., etc. Thus he represents something distinctly individual, which consists in the quantitative intensification of such elements as are qualitatively common property of the given set of class� (Georg Simmel. 2004 (1901). �Fashion� in Daniel Leonard Purdy (ed.): The Rise of Fashion: A Reader. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press)

P.S. On days like this, I love being a graduate student.

a couple of questions

I am working on my fashion project and was wondering if you would want to do a little bit of research for me:

1. Could you point me to a website that contains decent haute couture fashion show reviews? I have read everything on style. I read French, so French websites are fine too.
2. I am looking for images from highly theatrical runway shows. I am thinking Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano-esque kind of stuff.
3. Same goes for fashion magazine spreads, a la heroine chique, etc. etc.
4. What do you think is the 'content' of fashion?

See, the project is on the radical potentialities of high fashion. I am mostly interested in fashion as material culture. What is the relationship between material and meaning? What should this relationship be like to consider fashion radical if not revolutionary ...Any ideas you might have...send them my way.

Boob explosion

So, I was at a bar tonight to celebrate a dissertation defense. Yay. Plenty of good music, cheap alcohol and weird conversations (including a guy crying because he thought he was a bad husband: a whole different story). What I do want to mention, though, is the size of the waitresses' boobs. I mean, MAN!!! Seriously, I did my very best not to stare but I simply could not help myself. They were so obviously on display...I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Boob-explosion!!! And I know that it is totally un-feminist of me to be even thinking about this...But I am just so shaken by the whole experience. I can't even think about anything else right now. A whole bunch of guys must be going totally blind as we speak. Ah!

Swingset

You know that feeling when you're feeling kind of down but for some reason, somehow it's ok...well, that's me tonight. I am listening to these guys and wishing I were somewhere else. Soon.

Thank you for the music (among other things). You know who you are. :x

Totally disgustingly cute!

Dan and AJ are getting a new puppy. When I asked for pictures, he warned me that what he was about to show me would make me squeal. Squeal I did.



Picture by AJ.