very cool illustrations by tina berning

more at her website.

The Case of the Disappearing Jewlery Co., or, what's up with that maaaan?

So I bought this beautiful ring in a ten minute window of my self-control collapsing-- also got a nice necklace & a bracelet that I've had my eye on for about a year-- all at like 40% off, which was sweet. (I mean, I still spent money, but I can rationalize it to some extent.)

Problem was-- note the solid gold band-- it was the wrong ring. Or rather, an incomplete ring. That shit's supposed to have a lovely filigree band-- not a scary cigar-chompin' hairy mobster solid gold band. I mean, I do like it, I really love it-- it's quirky and sort of Victorian, makes me think of British Egyptmania. It also makes me think of the Mummy Returns. Like Patricia Valasquez. Like shut up, I love those movies.

Funny thing is, if you go on Etsy, it's a pretty standard ring band, that filigree one. Check it out here-- same exact one Lucky Loo Loo advertised on their website. I have always liked Lucky Loo Loo, which does rockabilly and costume jewelry, and I have a few pieces from them. They've always had great costumer service, and the jewelry, despite being purchased a week or so before Christmas, showed up in a few days. Awesome. They had also included a pair of free earrings, which are kinda ugly? but it was a nice thought. So I wasn't going to be too cranky about calling in and requesting an exchange.

But they never answered my phone call or my email. And then. . . this. They're gone!

Oh well. It looks like they're still selling stuff at other sites. And anyway, I still have a pretty sweet ring that it turns out is quite dangerous. The pointy scarab legs have ripped a pair of my tights and cut my finger. So I guess if I ever get in a fight. . . I will still lose, but it will be more colorful.

So I was trying to figure out why I like this dress-- it's named after Winona Ryder's character in Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz. And while I love the film & the characters, anyone inspired by Miss My Whole Life is a Dark Room makes me want to run the other way. THEN I realized that the dress recalls Rosalind Russell's outfit in His Girl Friday! Case solved, article written, court adjourned. I no longer have to secretly covet it.

Jay-Z, MIA, other people with letters for names.

I want to get M.I.A. out of the way. Her new slapdash track is apparently a protest song against an article the New York Times ran about tourism coming to Sri Lanka, and the track is dull and nonsensical, which isn't much of a protest, unless going in front of Focus on the Family and throwing confetti in the air for three hours is a good kind of protest. Protest should say something and offer alternative information. As far as I can tell, MIA's description of the problems in Sri Lanka are as one-sided as the NYT's was, and so this protest has consisted of a mediocre spacey track and twittered picture of war atrocities found around the web, though even those images have been questioned-- hard to tell if the government forces or the Tamils wrought them. Of course, what has been happening there is horrifying and I guess some part of her intentions are good, but she's not doing much to enlarge public understanding of the situation-- especially by picking on what is essentially a puff piece in the Travel section. So the track offers nothing new to her catalogue & you won't learn anything but you can stay hip and check it out here. I sat through about a minute or so of it. Sorry.

On the other hand, Jay-Z's new track-- ok, it's not fabulous. I think the last good song he did was "Roc Boys" though I only rarely listen to him, that referring to listening to on purpose because "Empire State of Mind" is kind of still not going away for some reason. But his new track "On to the Next One" is catchy, better than "Run this Town" because we don't have to listen to Rihanna singing out of her nose. But like "Run This Town", it has amazing visuals-- this time, black and white occult, gothic & horror-inspired imagery, gorgeously shot-- each moment you could freeze & blow up & put on your wall. Jay-Z has recently been accused of participation in cults and this is said to be a tongue-in-cheek response. The man is good at tongue-in-cheek so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Ok, lied about the other people with letter names-- oh, actually, I guess they sell ODB shirts at Urban Outfitters now in what is either a Warholian color scheme or an homage to fucking Apple computers-- so kind of the big three of consumerist Go Fuck Yourself; I'm so stoked to see 13 year olds wandering around the city in them. Run DMC is SO last summer.

I'd rather go back to Bloomingdale's and see the Flipper shirt they had there.

at least it's not being used for any sort of. . . social commentary.

it just keeps on going & going.

Since I don't have anything smart to say about it because I'm somewhat shocked & most of all disgusted, hopefully this will be the last that we hear of these types. But I want to go on record that I've never liked Westwood's stuff anyway. So there.

is it, like, ok to make zoolander jokes again? because i think that's what these people are, like, doing?

"'We're going to burn everything, it's like opening Pandora's box,' Kate said. . . The result would offer an antidote to 'high gloss, high fashion, glamour, put-together, shiny, perfect-- everything too exact,' as Laura put it."

From the New Yorker. Rodarte dresses go for astronomical prices. I thought high prices were supposed to mean, like, well "put-together," maybe even "exact." (That's the point of Ikea, right? They are priced low because they are not "exact.") I understand their pieces tend to be highly detailed by hand, but the philosophy they are pushing is the same one behind ripped jeans.

And then this from Erin Wasson:

"The people with the best style for me are the people that are the poorest. Like, when I go down to Venice beach and I see the homeless, like, I'm like, 'Oh my God, they're pulling out, like, crazy looks and they, like, pulled shit out of like garbage cans.'" [via the Cut]

Like the guy who used to sit outside our apartment with his shirt off and pick at the seams? Because he had bugs? From pulling shit out of garbage cans? The guy wearing mismatched sweatsuits? I thought it wasn't cool to say this anymore, no matter what Brooklyn keeps vomiting out.

New Year's Resolutions!

I don't usually make specific ones, not because I'm perfect and don't need them, but because I would rather take things as I go, improving myself and my environment (not in a hippie green way, but in a like clean out my desk way) gradually and constantly as I see fit.

And because I'm lazy.

But for the blog, and especially because I've been sent another takedown notice (?!?! on the same post?!?! so not sure what's going on) and because the emphasis on music has been certainly decreasing, to bring my tag cloud (see right-hand sidebar) to equilibrium-ish. The "avail files" tag is way too huge, and I want to start posting more on Movies, Reading, Artsy, Photography, other stuff that is hopefully still interesting.

And if I have one fantasy New Year's Resolution, it is that I would like to stop this ridiculous trend that refuses to die-- glasses with no lenses in them, often oversized. YEAH I'm talking to you you freakin hipster chick on the A train on Monday. I'd rather see you wearing Uggs with fringe on them.

How to do it right because the New York Times couldn't figure it out.

We all got to make fun of the New York Time's magazine's hilarious presentation titled "latter-day Rude boy fashion with puffy sleeves and dresses that would scare Sid straight and last seen on Shane MacGowan while sober." Or something. But the point of laughing and pointing should be constructive, to point out flaws and to find alternatives or examples of the right way.

Luckily, Clayton James Cubitt has an awesome photoshoot "Lagos Calling: A fantasy anthropological study of African skinhead fashion from the early seventies." Check it out, below are my two favorites. And now. . . I want more Fred Perry products. Hrrmph. Make sure to take a look at his other stuff, especially the Katrina series.

via StayRudee blog.