confession: BLOWN. I once dated a man significantly older than me (didn't end well) whose resemblance to Freddie Mercury in that video is UNCANNY. Uhh...
Friday, December 21, 2012
TUNES! 80's edition (ok so queen was '79 but whatever)
confession: BLOWN. I once dated a man significantly older than me (didn't end well) whose resemblance to Freddie Mercury in that video is UNCANNY. Uhh...
Thursday, December 20, 2012
What A Life Of Travel Does To You
By ALEX BRUECKNER
A life of travel is a good thing to have. But once you start off on it, there’s no looking back. What traveling does do to you is work its way inside of you, changing you completely as it finds a seat deep within you. It’s a parasite with a greedily voracious appetite. That bastard is hungry. Once the travel bug bites, you’re afflicted for life. Once the wanderlust hits, your feet never stop being restless.
It creeps into the edges of your mind. You start clicking through Facebook albums from past trips to Peru or China or Ghana. You find yourself browsing WikiTravel or Intrepid Travel, concocting perfect two-month tours of Africa or South America. Idly, you check Orbitz to see how much a flight next month is to Cambodia. Just for the hell of it. Just in case. It never hurts to know, right?
The temptation is always there just to take off work, drop everything, and go. And once you have a trip on the books, it’s inevitable that you eyes creep toward a calendar during any spare moment and instinctually count down the days until you can flee. There’s a constant itch that gets under your skin, and the only way to scratch it involves a plane (or train or bus) ticket, a backpack, and plans that don’t go beyond “just get me out.”
Our heroes are people like Anthony Bourdain, who makes a living (and a life) out of trekking to the furthest corners of the map. We like stumbling through sentences in foreign languages like kindergarteners. We feel proud when we can get through three weeks in Eastern Europe on a single backpack or successfully navigate through the tricky back alleys of a new city. We get thrills during the moment that a plane takes off from the runway or a bullet train pulls out of the station. We get off on eating foods that contain things we’ve never tried before, let alone heard of. We love filling out those “where I’ve been” maps and seeing just how much of the world we’ve covered.
For those who make traveling a lifestyle, the fear of putting down permanent roots is always present. Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson has said, “Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that’s what gets you.” He may have been talking about supercars, but I think the philosophy applies just as well to traveling, too. If you’re constantly moving, whether it’s on the back of a motorbike in Ho Chi Minh City, a vespa in Firenze, or a kayak down the rapids on the Rio Grande, suddenly hitting the brakes can be absolutely devastating. It’s a constant fear that I’ve hit my “peak” and that I’ll spend the rest of my life wanting to travel and being unable to. Instead of actually getting out to see the sun rise in Goa, I’ll have to settle for a picture I found on Google as my laptop background.
When I returned home to Pittsburgh from living in Germany, my mum remarked to me, “We’ll have to nail your feet down to keep you stateside, won’t we?” And it wasn’t a week later that I told my parents I wanted to move to Japan after graduation to teach English. I’m lucky, and I know it. The job I have right now basically allows me to travel as much as I want; I may officially be an “Assistant Language Teacher,” but if I had it my way, “globetrotter” would be front and center on my résumé.
One of my favorite quotes about traveling is “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” It sums up perfectly just why I love globetrotting so much. Once you start, you can never truly finish. There’s always more to see, more to explore, more summits to climb, more seas to dive into, more cities to get lost in. Germany was the first foreign country I set foot in. I could travel there every summer for the rest of my life; I’d never see it all.
For the hardcore travelers, our sustenance lies in those perfectly surreal moments that you just stumble upon by mistake. They’re moments that, when you seen them in a movie or hear other people reminisce about them, seem utterly fake. Their very perfection takes away from their realness. If there were a Shutterstock for traveling experiences, it would catalogue those impossibly perfect moments.
But when it’s you experiencing them, you can’t help but grin to yourself and feel a certain gleeful shiver work its way through you. My favorite, but by no means solitary, example of such a moment happened in Paris last summer. I was walking through an arcade near the Louvre, turned a corner, and then was greeted by a busker playing the cello set against the backdrop of the setting sun reflecting through the Louvre pyramid’s glass. That right there is something straight out of a Woody Allen movie.
As scared as I am that I’ll lose the means to travel, I think I know in the back of my head that I’ll never let it truly happen. Wanderlust doesn’t just die from disuse or neglect. Get a camel, a hot air balloon, a pair of snowshoes, a hang glider, a sled pulled by dogs… if you want to get out, you’re getting out.
via Thought Catalog
A life of travel is a good thing to have. But once you start off on it, there’s no looking back. What traveling does do to you is work its way inside of you, changing you completely as it finds a seat deep within you. It’s a parasite with a greedily voracious appetite. That bastard is hungry. Once the travel bug bites, you’re afflicted for life. Once the wanderlust hits, your feet never stop being restless.
It creeps into the edges of your mind. You start clicking through Facebook albums from past trips to Peru or China or Ghana. You find yourself browsing WikiTravel or Intrepid Travel, concocting perfect two-month tours of Africa or South America. Idly, you check Orbitz to see how much a flight next month is to Cambodia. Just for the hell of it. Just in case. It never hurts to know, right?
The temptation is always there just to take off work, drop everything, and go. And once you have a trip on the books, it’s inevitable that you eyes creep toward a calendar during any spare moment and instinctually count down the days until you can flee. There’s a constant itch that gets under your skin, and the only way to scratch it involves a plane (or train or bus) ticket, a backpack, and plans that don’t go beyond “just get me out.”
Our heroes are people like Anthony Bourdain, who makes a living (and a life) out of trekking to the furthest corners of the map. We like stumbling through sentences in foreign languages like kindergarteners. We feel proud when we can get through three weeks in Eastern Europe on a single backpack or successfully navigate through the tricky back alleys of a new city. We get thrills during the moment that a plane takes off from the runway or a bullet train pulls out of the station. We get off on eating foods that contain things we’ve never tried before, let alone heard of. We love filling out those “where I’ve been” maps and seeing just how much of the world we’ve covered.
For those who make traveling a lifestyle, the fear of putting down permanent roots is always present. Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson has said, “Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that’s what gets you.” He may have been talking about supercars, but I think the philosophy applies just as well to traveling, too. If you’re constantly moving, whether it’s on the back of a motorbike in Ho Chi Minh City, a vespa in Firenze, or a kayak down the rapids on the Rio Grande, suddenly hitting the brakes can be absolutely devastating. It’s a constant fear that I’ve hit my “peak” and that I’ll spend the rest of my life wanting to travel and being unable to. Instead of actually getting out to see the sun rise in Goa, I’ll have to settle for a picture I found on Google as my laptop background.
When I returned home to Pittsburgh from living in Germany, my mum remarked to me, “We’ll have to nail your feet down to keep you stateside, won’t we?” And it wasn’t a week later that I told my parents I wanted to move to Japan after graduation to teach English. I’m lucky, and I know it. The job I have right now basically allows me to travel as much as I want; I may officially be an “Assistant Language Teacher,” but if I had it my way, “globetrotter” would be front and center on my résumé.
One of my favorite quotes about traveling is “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” It sums up perfectly just why I love globetrotting so much. Once you start, you can never truly finish. There’s always more to see, more to explore, more summits to climb, more seas to dive into, more cities to get lost in. Germany was the first foreign country I set foot in. I could travel there every summer for the rest of my life; I’d never see it all.
For the hardcore travelers, our sustenance lies in those perfectly surreal moments that you just stumble upon by mistake. They’re moments that, when you seen them in a movie or hear other people reminisce about them, seem utterly fake. Their very perfection takes away from their realness. If there were a Shutterstock for traveling experiences, it would catalogue those impossibly perfect moments.
But when it’s you experiencing them, you can’t help but grin to yourself and feel a certain gleeful shiver work its way through you. My favorite, but by no means solitary, example of such a moment happened in Paris last summer. I was walking through an arcade near the Louvre, turned a corner, and then was greeted by a busker playing the cello set against the backdrop of the setting sun reflecting through the Louvre pyramid’s glass. That right there is something straight out of a Woody Allen movie.
As scared as I am that I’ll lose the means to travel, I think I know in the back of my head that I’ll never let it truly happen. Wanderlust doesn’t just die from disuse or neglect. Get a camel, a hot air balloon, a pair of snowshoes, a hang glider, a sled pulled by dogs… if you want to get out, you’re getting out.
via Thought Catalog
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
shark week, skulls, Elliott Smith, and the secret recipe for fluffy pancakes
I Can’t Forget You
By MILA JARONIEC
I really can’t. It sounds ridiculous but it’s true. I can’t go a day without thinking about you, you’re in my head and I can’t help it. I know people say that about their first loves all the time, but I really can’t forget you because you taught me so many things. And people say that about their first loves too but I literally can’t forget you because you taught me so many things I can’t unlearn.
When we were together I carried around an industrial-sized bottle of Excedrin, and you kept telling me I didn’t need it because I probably got headaches from being dehydrated. I didn’t trust your science for years but now that I drink more water I mysteriously don’t get headaches anymore. I never liked to admit you were right about anything but this time I kind of wish I could tell you.
When we were together you never wanted to talk on the phone because you said it didn’t feel real. I thought it was because you just didn’t feel like talking but then you said you didn’t like it because even though you were hearing my voice, it was a wire voice and when we hung up I still wasn’t there and that made you depressed because sometimes trying to close the distance only widens it. I know that hollowness now and just stick to texting.
When we were together you said you didn’t have a plan because it was pointless to have one, and it used to infuriate me when you said things like “things will work themselves out” and “the universe will take care of it” because I thought that meant you weren’t trying, that you were happy to just leave everything up to chance, but I get it now: you can try all you want but that still doesn’t stop the universe from happening. I don’t have plans anymore but I do have a few possibilities.
When we were together you taught me what love feels like, and when we weren’t together too, and it was comforting and scary and kind of a relief, but now that I’ve known for awhile I just feel weird about knowing, like I’m missing something else. Whenever I see people my age who have never been in love struggle with love, I feel out of place and awkward like that kid in elementary school who skipped a grade whose opinion no one wants to hear.
People move on from relationships and find ways to compartmentalize, categorize, assess the damage, make distinctions between their past and present selves and do better in the future, but sometimes it doesn’t work like that. Sometimes we look at the past and say “I don’t do that anymore” or “I’m a different person now” and either way it stays with us, dead but not buried, a calcium carbonate skeleton attached to an ever-evolving coral reef. I can’t forget you because you’re in my bones.
When we were together I never got a ring or a tattoo of your name and thank the life force for my good judgment but I still feel you next to me when I smell cigarettes or touch leather, and maybe that’s why every day I wear my jacket and smoke.
-dies-
So few things are more perfect than Lea Salonga's performance for the Les Misérables 10th Anniversary Concert at Royal Albert Hall (1995)
How To Be Fabulous
1) Realize that you don’t have to be rich or wear designer labels to be fabulous.
2) Know that other people’s thoughts don’t define you. Let them think what they want, but keep doing you anyway.
3) Have a breakdown. Fabulous people always have issues. Bounce back more fabulous than ever.
4) Be willing to take risks, put yourself out there. Nothing ever happens to people who don’t put themselves out there. It’s part of the thrill.
5) Understand that fashion and style are not the same thing. Fashion is the thing that gives us shorts in the summer and sweaters in the winter. Style is way more individual and personal. Style is whatever you say it is.
6) Don’t believe it when people say that a thing is “in” or “out” of style. Bitch if you feel like pulling a Kelly Kapowski and wearing an oversized sweater that falls off your shoulder and people are hating, tell those trollops to get INTO your Kelly Kapowski.
7) WORK! And I’m not talking about employment. Workin’ it is about confidence, about believing you are everything.
8) Never wait in line at the club. Just walk right up to the bouncer because you are fabulous, and fabulous people never wait.
9) Be talented, and work to improve your natural gifts.
10) Never say “I can’t pull that off.” You can pull it off if you believe you can. I have a pair of leopard pants that I let a friend of mine borrow when we went out once. He was so nervous about wearing them, “I can’t pull those off.” Child, please. You look hottttt. Guess what? He got like ten thousand compliments and now he owns a pair of leopard pants. Get into it.
11) Know how to look when you know you are being looked at, which should be always because you’re fabulous.
12) Stay confident, but have some humility, too.
13) Buy something, anything, from Patricia Field.
14) Take style risks. Don’t be afraid to try something different or to work a “weird” look.
15) Get something with strong shoulders, a feather boa, a headpiece, a fur coat or a thing with sequins on it, wear it any time. I LIVE for daytime sequins. A feather boa at brunch? Why not! A headpiece in on a Tuesday afternoon? Sure! Dye your hair an interesting color. Get a cool haircut.
16) Always work to be your best. Don’t just be an image. Have some substance.
16) Smile with your eyes.
17) Wear something you know is absolutely ridiculous. Keep a straight face.
18) Coco Chanel, the Queen of Chic, said to take off one piece of jewelry before you leave the house. I say, why wear some jewelry when you can wear ALL of it?
19) Understand that being fabulous is an intangible gift — that your being fabulous can brighten a person’s day.
20) Be comfortable with the fact that you might be so fabulous that people will NOT be ready. Don’t fold to the pressures of being normal.
via Thought Catalog
2) Know that other people’s thoughts don’t define you. Let them think what they want, but keep doing you anyway.
3) Have a breakdown. Fabulous people always have issues. Bounce back more fabulous than ever.
4) Be willing to take risks, put yourself out there. Nothing ever happens to people who don’t put themselves out there. It’s part of the thrill.
5) Understand that fashion and style are not the same thing. Fashion is the thing that gives us shorts in the summer and sweaters in the winter. Style is way more individual and personal. Style is whatever you say it is.
6) Don’t believe it when people say that a thing is “in” or “out” of style. Bitch if you feel like pulling a Kelly Kapowski and wearing an oversized sweater that falls off your shoulder and people are hating, tell those trollops to get INTO your Kelly Kapowski.
7) WORK! And I’m not talking about employment. Workin’ it is about confidence, about believing you are everything.
8) Never wait in line at the club. Just walk right up to the bouncer because you are fabulous, and fabulous people never wait.
9) Be talented, and work to improve your natural gifts.
10) Never say “I can’t pull that off.” You can pull it off if you believe you can. I have a pair of leopard pants that I let a friend of mine borrow when we went out once. He was so nervous about wearing them, “I can’t pull those off.” Child, please. You look hottttt. Guess what? He got like ten thousand compliments and now he owns a pair of leopard pants. Get into it.
11) Know how to look when you know you are being looked at, which should be always because you’re fabulous.
12) Stay confident, but have some humility, too.
13) Buy something, anything, from Patricia Field.
14) Take style risks. Don’t be afraid to try something different or to work a “weird” look.
15) Get something with strong shoulders, a feather boa, a headpiece, a fur coat or a thing with sequins on it, wear it any time. I LIVE for daytime sequins. A feather boa at brunch? Why not! A headpiece in on a Tuesday afternoon? Sure! Dye your hair an interesting color. Get a cool haircut.
16) Always work to be your best. Don’t just be an image. Have some substance.
16) Smile with your eyes.
17) Wear something you know is absolutely ridiculous. Keep a straight face.
18) Coco Chanel, the Queen of Chic, said to take off one piece of jewelry before you leave the house. I say, why wear some jewelry when you can wear ALL of it?
19) Understand that being fabulous is an intangible gift — that your being fabulous can brighten a person’s day.
20) Be comfortable with the fact that you might be so fabulous that people will NOT be ready. Don’t fold to the pressures of being normal.
via Thought Catalog
The 10 Major Differences Between New York And L.A.
From thought catalog:
1. In New York, you’re only allowed to be an asshole if you’re interesting. You have to earn the privilege of behaving like a dick. In Los Angeles, however, you can just be a dick. No funny jokes or good personality needed!
2. Los Angeles is the land of delusions. You can live your life thinking you’re the best invention since sliced bread and no one will question your self-importance. New York is different though. Living here basically entails being humiliated on a daily basis. It’s like being served a slice of humble pie over and over again. So even if you do develop an ego and start to think you’re the shit, there will always be something waiting to bring you back down to Earth.
3. The standards of beauty in L.A. are wildly different from New York’s. L.A. is all about looking healthy, refreshed and athletic. Juice cleanses (aka starvation), hikes up Runyon Canyon (three times in one day), and a natural tan (secretly produced in a tanning bed). Meanwhile, New Yorkers want to look they’re on the verge of death 24/7. To achieve this look, they make sure their skin resembles that of a corpse and flaunt their malnourished figure proudly. “No, honey, this body was not brought to you by exercise and kale…”
4. People in Los Angeles are always between projects. Ask them what they do for a living and you will NEVER get a straight answer. They work in the entertainment industry? They’re a pet psychic? They’re someone’s life coach? Oh, but they’re thisclose to getting a deal with so-so, which will catapult them to overnight fame. With New York, it’s like, you better be doing something fantastic with your life because people don’t just move here and hemorrhage money just to be between projects.
5. People in L.A. always say that they want to move to New York one day. “It’s been a dream! I’m just so jealous that you get to live there!” It’s as if New York is some untouchable entity that employs a lottery to decide who gets to live here. New Yorkers, on the other hand, constantly talk about leaving the city. “But I could never move to L.A., ugh. I hate it there. OMG, maybe San Francisco though. I’ve never been but I think I would love it!”
6. Living in L.A. is such a pain in the ass logistically that if you manage to do it, you can live pretty much anywhere else and it’ll be considered an improvement. New Yorkers are screwed though. They really can’t go anywhere else. The city turns them into Martians that don’t translate outside of the metropolitan area.
7. Dating in L.A. is mystery. HOW DO YOU MEET ANYONE? In New York, it’s easier but no one wants to ever settle down. They’re too busy screwing themselves to ever really screw you.
8. In New York, you’re considered wealthy if you have a dishwasher in your apartment. In L.A., you’re rich if you live in a mansion.
9. L.A. feels like a Xanax, like your limbs have been dipped in a vat of pudding. You’re always weirdly sleepy, even though you haven’t really done anything. Perhaps it’s because the sun is always beating down on you? In New York, you always feel like you’re halfway through drinking that cup of coffee you didn’t need.
10 L.A. knows how to make a good fucking salad. New York knows how to make a good fucking bagel. Somehow this crucial difference is more telling than anything else.
1. In New York, you’re only allowed to be an asshole if you’re interesting. You have to earn the privilege of behaving like a dick. In Los Angeles, however, you can just be a dick. No funny jokes or good personality needed!
2. Los Angeles is the land of delusions. You can live your life thinking you’re the best invention since sliced bread and no one will question your self-importance. New York is different though. Living here basically entails being humiliated on a daily basis. It’s like being served a slice of humble pie over and over again. So even if you do develop an ego and start to think you’re the shit, there will always be something waiting to bring you back down to Earth.
3. The standards of beauty in L.A. are wildly different from New York’s. L.A. is all about looking healthy, refreshed and athletic. Juice cleanses (aka starvation), hikes up Runyon Canyon (three times in one day), and a natural tan (secretly produced in a tanning bed). Meanwhile, New Yorkers want to look they’re on the verge of death 24/7. To achieve this look, they make sure their skin resembles that of a corpse and flaunt their malnourished figure proudly. “No, honey, this body was not brought to you by exercise and kale…”
4. People in Los Angeles are always between projects. Ask them what they do for a living and you will NEVER get a straight answer. They work in the entertainment industry? They’re a pet psychic? They’re someone’s life coach? Oh, but they’re thisclose to getting a deal with so-so, which will catapult them to overnight fame. With New York, it’s like, you better be doing something fantastic with your life because people don’t just move here and hemorrhage money just to be between projects.
5. People in L.A. always say that they want to move to New York one day. “It’s been a dream! I’m just so jealous that you get to live there!” It’s as if New York is some untouchable entity that employs a lottery to decide who gets to live here. New Yorkers, on the other hand, constantly talk about leaving the city. “But I could never move to L.A., ugh. I hate it there. OMG, maybe San Francisco though. I’ve never been but I think I would love it!”
6. Living in L.A. is such a pain in the ass logistically that if you manage to do it, you can live pretty much anywhere else and it’ll be considered an improvement. New Yorkers are screwed though. They really can’t go anywhere else. The city turns them into Martians that don’t translate outside of the metropolitan area.
7. Dating in L.A. is mystery. HOW DO YOU MEET ANYONE? In New York, it’s easier but no one wants to ever settle down. They’re too busy screwing themselves to ever really screw you.
8. In New York, you’re considered wealthy if you have a dishwasher in your apartment. In L.A., you’re rich if you live in a mansion.
9. L.A. feels like a Xanax, like your limbs have been dipped in a vat of pudding. You’re always weirdly sleepy, even though you haven’t really done anything. Perhaps it’s because the sun is always beating down on you? In New York, you always feel like you’re halfway through drinking that cup of coffee you didn’t need.
10 L.A. knows how to make a good fucking salad. New York knows how to make a good fucking bagel. Somehow this crucial difference is more telling than anything else.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
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