Listen, I don't know why opaque fruit snacks taste better--they just do. I groan with annoyance when I open a pack of [insert random cartoon] fruit snacks and find translucent pieces. Some awesome types, like Betty Crocker's My Little Pony, have ALL opaque fruit snacks. This just plain rocks.
When it comes to food I am usually pretty picky. Were this any other type of snack I would opt for something like Annie's organic fruit snacks, or say an orange, because they're way better for you and I'm extremely conscious about what I eat (okay, maybe not extremely but more so than most people I know). But there are some things I just cannot give up despite all the bad press. I think the key is moderation. I say that after I just inhaled three packs. Fail.
Glorious new-found songs are like crushes (for me at least). Some are exactly what you need for a specific moment in time--like my brief mental flings with Shawn Mullin's Lullaby and Chad Michael Murray. Seriously, guys. What was I thinking?! Though who among us can honestly admit they weren't a little bit in love with Tristan on Gilmore Girls? He was the brown sugar to Dean's oatmeal.
But some songs thrill you from the first time you hear them, and for years after. I think about this so much that when I fall in love with a new song I'm always terrified that I will end up hating it. Some have stood the test of time (so far), but none as much as Johnny Clegg'sDela (Zulu for content), which I first heard it on George of the Jungle back in... 1997. 1997? Really? I thought I was much younger when that film came out. Anyway, I may not have figured out who the artist was until years later but even in that in between time of ignorance that scene in the forest where George and Ursula dance around the fire has always struck me as one of the most gloriously happy moments in film. It's light, it's free, it's innocent (but not childish)! I smile every time I think about it. I have never gotten tired of listening to Dela. And it opened the door to Clegg's entire canon, which is pretty freaking amazing. This white South African dude was like formally accepted by the Zulu nation DURING Apartheid! He couldn't even play his Zulu-influenced music in South Africa at the time. (Side note: Paul Simon's kick ass album Graceland was inspired by Clegg.) He's got some pretty sad stuff about injustice and all that but his joyful songs make me ridiculously happy. When I worked alone in a creepy archives I instituted dance parties (for myself) to Clegg's music on the hour every hour to distract myself from thinking about golums climbing out of the mikvah (don't ask).
And guys, he did the opening song in Fern Gully. How's that for trivia?
I finally got the chance to see Johnny Clegg live in San Francisco last year. One of my life goals was to dance to Dela live and it was glorious! The crowd was a little old and sparse, so I think his South African concerts would be more exhilarating--and I'll try to ignore how brusque he was with me when I had him sign my CD. But he's still my all time favorite musician. And I still have Dela dance parties at work.
And speaking of individual dance parties... check out this chick. She is so cool!
*I started writing this post intending it to be about The Lumineers' song Hey Ho, which I only recently heard but I think will be one of those eternal crushes. I feel a sort of bemused acceptance of... life and my lot when I listen to it.
Okay. Usually I’m not
embarrassed by any of my favorite things. Hold on. I totally am! So far I’ve
only posted things I love that I consider kind of cool or quirky, but there is
a plethora of other things that I love that I keep putting off posting because,
yeah, they’re kind of embarrassing. However, in the spirit of self-love I will
start off by proudlyproclaiming
my love for Volkswagen Jettas!
Now, I realize that
normal people’s favorite cars tend to be super cool or at the very least
unique, but for some insane reason I have always loved Jettas—especially black
ones with bike rakes on the roof (even though I despise bikes). I have no idea
how this began but I can trace it back to my pre-high school years. At first I
thought maybe it had something to do with Maria’s Jetta on the TV show,
Roswell. But then I remembered that I wrote about getting a Jetta my freshman
year (pre-Roswell) in a future planning class.
Even to this day when
I’m walking down a street or through a parking garage and I see that sleek
squarish trunk I’m like, “I like that car. Oh duh, it’s a Jetta.” And so I
wonder, what does it signify? What does it say about me? What kind of people
love Jettas? I guess the kind of people that love Jettas (and this is a brash
generalization based on no research whatsoever) are librarian-like. I mean, you
can see it right? A librarian getting off work and walking through the parking
lot in a pencil skirt and cardigan, a tight bun and glasses, piling her books
on the passenger seat and driving off to grab some Thai food take out—never intending
to use the bike rack.
I can see it.
Anyway, don’t judge.
My eye is just instinctively drawn to every passing Jetta. The crazy thing is
that I’m probably too practical to ever actually purchase one. It really is
just all about personal aesthetic. I need a car that can handle rougher terrain.
Sorry, love.
I lived in tights and dresses when I was a little girl--and
it was awesome! When everyone else at school was wearing their matching neon
nylon tracksuits my mom had me in fabulously feminine hand-smocked dresses. And
tights of course. But then I hit puberty and started wearing jeans and
inside-out sweatshirts (it was the thing, okay). Puberty eventually made way for a
dress/skirt revival in high school but by then I was awkward and (I’ll just
come out and say it) huge. My
experience with tights, or rather nylons,
at this point was pretty negative. When there was some fancy church thing to go
to I would steal a pair from my mom and hers were, frankly, awful. They were
those basic Hanes control top nylons that would run at the drop of a hat (if
you dropped that hat on them). And between then and about September 2010, I
thought I would forever hate all hosiery. But guys, here’s the thing--I
discovered that tights can actually rock IF
you buy a larger size (screw the size chart on the back of the packages), nix
the control top nonsense, and go with microfiber over nylon. Like these. For the last seven months or so I have
worn tights almost every day. They’re so comfy! And opaque colors make my pasty
legs look slimmer and longer. And I
feel super feminine again—especially now that I’m confident enough to wear mini
dresses (the high school dress/skirt revival consisted of ankle length monstrosities).
I can thank Lena and her Eurovision “Satellite” video for that. She
reminded me of those teenage girls in the mid-nineties that I envied so much. And
I’d also like to thank Sienna Miller, because (if memory serves) she was the one
who brought opaque tights back in style after playing Edie Sedgwick in “Factory Girl”.
I think Trader Joe's also made the list on Stuff White People Like. Trader Joe's is simply awesome. They basically have tons of cool stuff at prices lower than regular grocery stores. I could gripe about how they could have more selection, more local & organic options, and better produce but I know what it's like to live without a Trader Joe's so I'll just thank the Lord that I'm moving to a city with two. Here are some of my favorite items:
Honey Sesame Almonds (so
good!)
Organic Beef Jerky (finally,
organic jerky that I don't have to drive to a ranch for)
Veggie & Flaxseed Tortilla
Chips (these beat any other kind of bagged tortilla chip)
This is my favorite painting. Spanish Girl of Segovia is by Robert Henri (25 June 1865 – 12 July 1929), an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School, a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century, best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York's poorer neighborhoods. Henri specialized in portraits (my favorite!). The movement grew out of a group known as The Eight,
whose only show together in 1908 created a sensation. Aside from Henri, its members
included William Glackens (1870-1938), George Luks (1867-1933), Everett Shinn (1876-1953), John French Sloan (1871-1951), Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Ernest Lawson (1873-1939), and Maurice Prendergast (1859-1924).
It might seem a bit odd that my favorite painter was a realist considering my favorite illustrator specialized in whimsical works based on fairy stories. But when I first saw Spanish Girl of Segovia at the Milwaukee Art Museum years ago I was captivated. Henri may have painted the anonymous working class but he gave them dignity. They are real, but romantic. And I love that unlike other techniques used by realist painters, Henri didn't try to paint photographs. What I mean by this is that his brushstrokes are broad and he uses dark tones--like Manet (but I prefer Henri)--and isn't hung up on creating an exact replica of her face. I like when you can see the actual brushstrokes! How up close they look like smudges but when you back up you see that they are intuitive smudges that come together to form a portrait. It should be noted that I do not consider impressionism or pointillism intuitive. They are too calculated for my taste.
And on top of everything Henri was a meticulous record keeper! He kept books in which he numbered
all of his paintings and listed the exhibitions at which they were shown.
This painting is number 87H. As an archivist I could just kiss him!
I was about to say that Arthur Rackham (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) is my favorite artist but it would be more accurate to say he is my favorite illustrator, and has been for a very long time. I don't know how to speak about art as well as I would like, but I love how delicate his work is--the tiny strokes, the muted colors. I love how his backgrounds are often equally as important as the figures. And of course I love the subject matter. He doesn't make fairy tale characters and creatures cute, he gives them drama and legitimacy. And yet they can still be funny! When I used to pour over volumes of myths and legends there was nothing more irritating than illustrations that didn't match the mood of the stories. These stories are epic! They deserve for an artist to take them seriously.
The image is of his painting, "Undancey." And while it's not my favorite it was the first Rackham I ever saw and the one that made me search for more.
