Gawker Stalker

Right now, I read 3 blogs religiously and in this order: DListed, Fashionista and Gawker. I've been a loyal Gawker reader since 2004 and get excited whenever they talk about someone I know personally or at least make fun of them in Blue States Loose. Today, I learned that Mike's buddy John got a new job. Congrats! Hope you'll still show up at our house and random Andover weddings every now and again.

I Suck At Blogging

I can never get on it enough to make myself happy. Plus, it's been 6 months since I began this thing and I still have ZERO focus. Any suggestions?

Happy St Patty Deegan Day!

Photo by Sarah Shirley. Pats, you're too funny.

Also on this day, Little Miss Esme Gonyo decided to make her appearence in this world. Congrats Shea and Suzanne!

Is New Rave the New New Wave?

Everyday (in the past month or so) I run into this. New Rave. It started with hearing MIA's "Where Were You in '92", which is about the London rave scene in, uh, 1992. Diplo's beat gives me flashbacks of strobe lights, big silver pants and a throbbing "unce unce unce" circa 98/99. I don't know if the song itself could be classified as New Rave, but more on that in a sec. Last week, I think, Fashionista posted about Brit cult fashion mag POP's feature story about New Rave. I've decided to take an independent study on this phenomena that could possibly effect mainstream culture in the next 10 years or so. But then again, it could just be repackaged electroclash with a faster BPM and equally short shelf life.

New Rave is more about the scene than it is the music. It's like the New Wave revival only less true to its original form. It's a cyclical thing, like any trend. It's all about 20 years ago. Only with New Rave, the fashions, not the soundtrack, are equally neon and outrageous as their early 90's clubkid predecessors. Glow sticks, colorful hair, artistic makeupry dictated by the likes of SuperSuper, Gareth Pugh, House of Holland, etc etc.

The term was coined by the Klaxons (who will be in Boston 4/11 at Great Scott if anyone wants to go with me) in an interview with NME mag (which is the British equivalent to Rolling Stone, I think/guess). It was just a joke but the mag ran with it and started dubbing every disco punk band that has come out since late 2006 "new rave". the thing that gets me is that this is not techno by any means. It really is just disco punk/electroclash/whatever genre for electrorock you can think of that has been thrown around in the past 7 years or so. It's all in the marketing, like progressive house, for the guido set, which is very similar to IDM, for the goth/industrial set (Caroline is going to kill me for the comparisson, which I made 7 years ago when she first played IDM for me).

Anyway, this is all supposed to be this huge underground movement in London. I don't know if it's making it's way fully to NYC yet seeing that I'm not there, but I'm sure the tastemakers that brought New Wave back to downtown are trying to make the same happen for this. I have Mike scoping out SuperSuper for me while he's there because I can't fully grasp this idea. Especially the music! I feel like it's all a different style of electroclash that swept NYC in 2002 with it's assymetrically cut shirts, fishnets and sense of irony about the 80's. At least the look went with the music. Maybe it's the reformed clubkid from the suburbs in me but the look doesn't match the beat. However, I do love the theatrics and can't wait to see what kind of looks come out of this. Move over James St James...

Birthday Shout-Outs!

Today is Webster's 36th birthday! He was my imaginary friend in pre-school. I thought he lived in my Uncle Steve's bass drum and I would buckle a seatbelt in the back of my mom's Jetta for him when she drove me to school.


Speaking of my mom, it's her birthday too! Yay Mom!


And in belated birthday news, Caroline hit the quarter century mark last Saturday!

Redemption

The other day I posted a terrible pic of myself. I felt the need to redeem myself. See, my nose is tiny. I'm still a little funny looking (and pale as hell!) but this is much more flattering.

Man, was my hair short. And I melt a little bit inside for that Cheshire smile next to me.

Since You've Been Gone

It seems like forever since Mike left for Europe and he won't be back for another week. Here's a pictorial of what's been going on in the house since his departure:


I've been working every day. Here, I bought kids clothes for a shoot in Miami. Exciting, no?


Hugo won't get out of bed because he misses Mike.


Grissom learned how to write. He's also been quite an asshole because he misses Mike, too.


The bamboo tree in the bedroom lost 2 more branches because it's sad, even though I water it regularly.


The kitchen has become the Achilles' mail room.


Hugo doesn't want to eat.


Grissom wants to eat all the time and will lie to you that he hasn't just so you feed him again.


I got an official part time job.


When not sleeping, coming home/leaving late at night, talking about hip hop, girls and not working, Glenn has been watching Brak and drinking a lot of beer. He likes Harvey Birdman better.

P.S. I've been going to the gym a lot too but every pic I take of myself, the light is reflected off my paleness and washes to photos out.

Family Guy

I'm half paying attention to Family Guy and all I can piece together is that Peter somehow made Quagmeyer crash a plane, he loses his job and Peter lets Quagmeyer move in with them. From what I understand, Quagmeyer annoys the hell out of them and they want him out. Funny how art imitates life?

Hey, isn't Quagmeyer's first name Glen? That just makes it even funnier.

P.S. Seth MacFarlane went to RISD.

First Love

This is possibly one of the least flattering pics of me (who's nose is that?) but it popped up when I was uploading pictures. I think this was Thanksgiving. I was def drunk.

Anyway, this is Lee Oliver, the first boy I ever loved. From kindergarten to somewhere in 3rd grade he was all I could think about. That particular night he brought his new GF out and told her I was his girlfriend until 5th grade (news to me but a sweet reference none the less). His mom was (and still is) our school's librarian and in 6th grade we sat next to each other and he made me drop a pencil that landed point down in my thigh (I still have the point in there, 13 years later). A similar story happened to my dad in the 7th grade (we went to the same school).

Well, it's nice to know that you can still get hammered with the boy you loved because he loved Figment from Epcot (dragon? dinosaur?) and was consistently your partner in school plays (Indian Chief and Princess in K, Teenagers in Love in 5th).

Snuggle Bugs

These little bums are too cute that I couldn't resist.

Technical Difficulties Averted!

I had to download the guide for my camera (only to find out that Minolta stopped making cameras a year ago) but I got the flash working again!

So I did an incredible buy yesterday. I'm terrible at discount shopping so I'm always proud when I can get a ton of stuff for the price of my Louboutins. Because I freelance, I get to write off everything in the world (still trying to figure out how to write off things like boarding the cat and dog), so when I buy clothes "for tests" it's best to take a pic to prove the use of purchase to back my claim up if I happen to get audited. Speaking of auditing, two (!) people I know told me this past week that they've been audited in the past few years. Scary!

Anyway, here's some of what I bought:


cute green suede flats


sensible heels, a bit too pointy but they do the job


super cute tan suede heels


i probably paid too much for this but it was too cute to give up


i needed a white purse, who can say no to cheap and cheery

Sigh

In other news, I've actually been busy. The boys are in Europe for trade shows and market appointments and I've been trying my hardest to not be home.

Started class at RISD last Tuesday. Nothing like commiting 5 hours of my Tuesday to driving and sitting.

Got a part time job clerking for my friend Who's Karen. I call her that because everytime I tell Mike I'm going out with her, he asks "who's Karen?". Now he just says it as a joke and then cousin Alex and I were out with Karen and her BF and he asked the same question. I just bought big girl pants to wear to the big girl law firm I'll be filing papers for.

I've been working on a Marshall's Mother's Day campaign with this great stylist from home. I've spent close to 10 hours in various Marshalls and TJ Maxx's around Boston. While doing some returns yesterday, I went shopping for myself. I came away with 2 purses, 3 pairs of shoes, lots of big girl pants and a ton of tops. Oh, and panties. All in bright, obnoxious colors. I was totally going to post pics of my purchases and now I can't get the flash to work. It took months to find the charger and I've been meaning to start taking pics but now the damn thing is wacky.

Beta

I switched to Blogger Beta whenever the last time I posted. I think that's one of the main reasons why I haven't bothered posting because although certain things are easier, I had a particularly difficult time in regards to photos. Blah. But now I feel the need to write and I'm forced to use Beta.