The Sartorialist

So, although I have always enjoyed the aesthetic of The Sartorialist, I never fully appreciated the blog until I saw this video. This guy is genuinely cool. I hope you enjoy quiet and careful look at a man's personal design preferences.

One month of Christmas music.

I am of the crowd that believes that Christmastime begins on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. On this day, I officially begin decorating, gathering presents, writing Christmas cards, and baking. (I usually try not to drink holiday flavored coffee drinks until this time, but I succumed this year and have drank everything from an eggnog latte to the classic pumpkin spice.) One more holiday rule that I strictly follow is the Christmas music rule: nothing but Christmas music until December 26th. Nothing. Else.

I love Christmas music. There really is an amazing variety of holiday themed music out there, so I never really get tired of it. To start off this year's session, I thought I'd introduce my loyal audience to one of my favorite, and undoubtedly the most cheesy, Christmas song that I love.



Yes. All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey. No, I do not like Mariah Carey. But I love this song. And yes, for a couple years this was kind of  the secret anthem of my long-distance relationship. Even if you don't particularly like this song...try dancing and singing along to it. Perhaps with a kooky friend? After this, please feel free to laugh at the remake of this song, sung by a kareoke obsessed Korean lad:



Then, check out his amazing rendition of Touch My Body (also by Mariah Carey). Affectionately renamed Tuts My Barreh, this song is a knockout.

Anyway, this Christmas season, expect a weekly rundown of my favorite Christmas songs, via blog and twitter (@CuriousHeaven)!

Soon we'll be found

Art in video
Art in lyrics
Art in music.
This is perfect.

Bad Romance

It sucks when you realize that Lady Gaga songs basically describe your life situation perfectly. Bad Romance? Really, it's come to this? Sigh.



J'veux ton amour
et j'veux ton revenge
J'veux ton amour
I don’t wanna be friends

(P.S. luv u gaga xoxo)

Night Owl Beauty

Beauty has been on my mind lately. It's been popping up everywhere. My friend Jessica just started a beauty review blog, Shelly has been writing about her personal beauty discoveries, fashion tumblrs have been taking over my life, and I've been watching a lot of YouTube makeup tutorials lately. Not to mention, I've been giving several drugstore makeup products a spin...I'll let you know what I think soon.

I've been noticing that most of my at home beauty treatments are done past midnight. I think this is because, at 8, 9, or 10 pm, I always want to be ready in case a friend wants to spend time with me. And I can't very well hang out with a friend if I have an ugly looking face mask on, can I? So they end up happening last minute.

For instance, right now I have an asprin mask drying on my face, while I'm using my last pair of crest whitestrips (my teeth used to be so white...what happened! Hopefully this plus my new tube of 3D white toothpaste will revive my pearly whites).

Anyway, I love asprin masks. Michelle Phan (my favorite YouTube makeup guru) gives an awesome tutorial about how to make your own asprin mask, using only 3 ingredients. She even breaks down the reasons why the ingredients in asprin masks can clear up your skin (the major reason why I use them).



That's all for today...it's time to rinse off this mask and spit out these whitestrips (yuck), and get some beauty sleep!

I.L.Y.

I really love the new iPhone ad. It makes me teary and happy.

There is no life I know that compares

Smoosh.

This post will have nothing to do with art, or with my current state of mind, or with the fact that I am still deathly sick and miserable. This post is simply a mish-mash of several fun links and things I have been stumbling upon throughout my internet travels. The internet is such an amazing place!

My Modern Met raises the question, "What did childhood feel like?" They compiled 25 beautiful photographs which I think capture the many different feelings of being a kid.

 Photo credit: comik book guy


Postsecret is featuring some compelling Mother's Day secrets for this week's post. Here is one I like:

Buzzfeed shares a sweater that makes me wish that I was a 9 year old boy. (P.S. Buzzfeed is a dangerous website. Dangerous as in, it is so easy to waste time on that site.)

Last, watch this fantastic video, of the University of Oregon's male a capella ensemble performing "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. It really is worth it.

therapy

For me, crying is therapy. I cry over everything. I have determined that whenever I experience an intense emotion, whether it be happy or sad, I feel the need to cry. I just experience emotions really intensely.

Today I was in the bank, and "Linger" by The Cranberries came on. I haven't listened to that song lately, because, I mean, even when I wasn't in my current state, that song made me cry. But I decided to listen to it now, and share it with you. Another song to add to the list of redefined relevance.



But I'm in so deep. You know I'm such a fool for you.
You got me wrapped around your finger,
Do you have to let it linger?


Oh, I thought the world of you.
I thought nothing could go wrong,
But I was wrong. I was wrong.
If you, if you could get by, trying not to lie,
Things wouldn't be so confused and I wouldn't feel so used,
But you always really knew, I just wanna be with you.

On a slightly happier note, another song that keeps coming to mind is the Ditty Bops "All Over You." This song is precious in general (the Ditty Bops are precious in general) but it is also re-defined.




Every time I see your smile
It gives me a chill
I'm waiting for that cold embrace
To warm me still
To me you're everything except for mine

Sorry to get all sappy up in here.

Dft Pnk.

To all who have not seen Daft Hands...Go. Now.


At first I thought, "how awkward, a pair of hands just boppin to the beat." But then I was blown away.

I have been listening to Daft Punk a lot since Tiffany the Great gave me a large amount of their music over Spring Break. I really do like them. I have their Live 2007 album (I know you're thinking "wow is a live daft punk album even necessary?" and yes, it is) and I think one of their concerts would count as one of the most amazing dance parties ever.

Lately all music that doesn't fall under the category jazz/Lady Gaga/Rihanna has the tendency to make me over-emotional, or melancholy. Tiffany (and I, previously) tended to like acoustic-type love songs of the indie variety, and now I honestly can't bear to listen to that style. I currently need music that is "neutral" or "power pop", without concentrated emotions, or heartbreaking lyrics, thanks.

Anyway, I've been finding that in addition to jazz/Lady Gaga/Rihanna, I am able to listen Daft Punk, Cut Copy, and Miike Snow.

And that is what I really wanted to say in the first place: I REALLY like Miike Snow. The entire album is great, with lyrics that are (in my eyes) still fairly "neutral," but not mindless! Thank you Miike Snow for giving me something new to listen to.

P.S. I REALLY want to go to Sasquatch! Look. At. The. Lineup.

oh, fun.

First of all, what is up with Ok Go having all these really silly and interesting music videos? My room mate just showed me their video for This Too Shall Pass. It's really amazing! When I was a kid, I was always so interested in Rube Goldbergs. Basically, they are chain reaction contraptions, or essentially machines, made of everyday objects. Watch this video and you'll see what I mean. It's a good one.


70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

Also, in my attempt to keep this artsy, I found this video on Madame Lamb. The song is 70 Million by Hold Your Horses, and has tons of art history references in it. It's really fun, watch this one too.

video

Now that I have Tiffany the Great's mini computer, I have been finally catching up on my friends vlogs.

Honestly, when I noticed that my friends were starting to post blogs, I was skeptical. "Those are going to be awkward to watch," I thought. I felt like watching my friends chat into a camera would be as awkward as video chatting, or video skype (something I have not done and am very wary of).

But, after watching Vanessa's first vlog, I realized that it was not awkward at all. In fact, I really enjoyed watching it! Seeing my friend and hearing her voice was really comforting, and fun.

That was a few weeks ago, and today I spent my morning consuming large amounts of chocolate and catching up on both Vanessa and Shelly's vlogs. It was fun, and still allowed me to interact with people, but remain in my pajamas.

I am now excited to have a more YouTube involved life. No longer will I be the last person to see Pants on the Ground, or David Hasselhoff's European music videos!

So anyway, in related news, I attended the kspu Covers Convert with Elyse. It...was...amazing. We have so many musically talented people at SPU, and they did some great covers (Hall and Oates' "You Make my Dreams Come True," Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," not to mention "Supernova Girl" from Zenon, Girl from the 21st Century.) When I get some pictures and links to the recordings I'll post more about it.

Amazing rendition of "Eye to Eye" from A Goofy Movie performed by Gabe Martinez at the 2010 talent show...seriously impressive. Photo credit to Perry Azevedo.

Anyway, Elyse mentioned that the videos (all 5 of them) from the SPU talent show is on YouTube! Uh...COOL. SPU's talent show happened about a month ago, and it was "off the chain." Again, we have so many talented people at my school! STUB, this student events group on campus created a video that played between the talent show's acts, and it was hillarious. I don't know if it was one of those "you have to be there/have to go to school there" types of humor, but it really cracked me up!

Here's a link to the videos, in case you'd like to take a looksie: SPU Talent Show 2010