swampy

"I find myself working in lots of “hard to get to” or “no reason to get to” places, where the prospect of stumbling upon my work is very low — the opposite of galleries." 


"The graffiti game isn’t any less idiotic and narcissistic than the gallery game. I just pick and choose what I like and want from each, and that’s how I live with it all."

(Quotes from T Magazine.)

little white lies

Well, look at that. Look at that process. Beside the fact that the issue was themed Black Swan (annoying, because it's predictable and belongs to the hashtag #whitegirlproblems, but yeah, still cool/great/jaw-dropping), the video is short and sweet, even though it was filmed over the two-month production process. And really, maybe this wasn't their intent, but made me Google Little White Lies and follow them on Twitter and see where I could buy their next issue, etc. (Maybe it doesn't matter what their intent was. Probably not.)

To sniff a finished anything, whether it's a mag, a book, a bracelet, a sweater, is to love it and to love yourself for your work. Smells like success? At the very least, though, it smells a little like teen spirit.

nerd bf

Today's "Nerd Boyfriend." Holler.

try stillness

Image via Le Love

studio 54

This is a cool photo of Bethann Hardison, Daniela Morera and Stephen Burrows at a Studio 54 party for Valentino, some time in 1977, taken by Rose Hartman. Oh, the extravagance. I came across the image because of this article about how black models have changed the landscape of American fashion, and about an event at the Met celebrating just that. If you're interested, read it on ColorLines.com.

jenny bird

I don't usually spend more than a few bucks on my jewelry, mostly because I inherited/stole a bajillion pieces from my grandma, I find them all thrifting, and/or I get hand-me-downs from my mom's eccentrically dressed Québécoise friend. (Aside: I added the "Québécoise" part, because I do think that in terms of Canadian fashion, Québécoise women are more stylish and experimental, and because I realized that Liz was right when she told me that someone said—I forget who—that Torontonians have a boring taste in fashion. They really, really do. We're so conservative in every way, not just fashion. Don't believe me? Two words: Rob Ford. Two a.m. last call is a biggie too.) 

The point of the post: I bought this Jenny Bird necklace the other day, on sale, like major sale, like 75-percent-off sale. Score. 

when we were seventeen, the sky was always tangerine

This song, the song I currently play on repeat, is about Life, capital L, and its sometimes (and sometimes always) monotony. And yes, it has an anthemic sample.

twitter prose?

Photo via ...etc.

  
The lights flicker a soft, warm, but nervous light, & the tiny part of my heart, the part that I've been saving for you, cracks into pieces.

hunter high-tops

Photo: Dazed Digital blog.

I may hate (but still wear) my extra-large green Hunter wellies/clunkers and their ubiquity, but I don't necessarily hate the brand. These Converse-copying Hunter "sneakers" (read: rubber high-tops) seem so fit for splashing around my city's potholes—without the dead weight. They're still chunky, but good chunky. (And we all know, buckles are a great man repeller.)

a review of sorts

"What is universal and timeless in literature is need—we continue to need novelists who seem to know and feel, and who move between these two modes of operation with wondrous fluidity. What is not universal or timeless, though, is form. Form, styles, structures—whatever word you prefer—should change like skirt lengths. They have to; otherwise we make a rule, a religion, of one form; we say, "This form here, this is what reality is like," and it pleases us to say that (especially if we're English) because it means we don't have to read anymore, or think, or feel." - Zadie Smith in her essay "Middlemarch and Everybody" in Changing My Mind

"Love is a kind of knowledge" - her, again, in Changing My Mind

Those are a few quotes that stuck out to me enough to get off the couch, open my laptop and type them up. To me, Zadie Smith is one of those authors that gets me. Or I get her. She grew up in England (and believe me, her work is so English), with a Jamaican mother and an English father (somewhat of the opposite of me). When I read her work, I read-read her work. I tag pages, I add stickies, I get the crisp white pages dirty, I re-read sentences, pages, chapters—the way purists insist reading should be.

The first essay, "Their Eyes Were Watching God: What Does Soulful Mean?" was, by far, my fave. She put into words a lot of things I've struggled with: not forcing myself to identify with something (a book, a film, a person, etc.), just because it's "black," but also, not forcing myself to dis-identify with something, just because it's "black." You know? I really can't do it justice, which is why I didn't pull any quotes from this essay, because I would've ended up typing the entire chapter unconsciously.

my favourite posts of the year (sort of)

From least recent to most recent, here are some of my favourite (not best, whatever that would mean) posts from the past year:

Because she's the Parisian Queen of Punk.
 
Because it's been eleven months and I still want 'em.

Because it's a Hemingway quote.

Because it's love in this tub.

Because it's so tragically Bertha Rochester.

Because this, and Ryan McGinley's show, among other things, made me seriously believe that one day, I can (and will!) live in New York.

Because it (sort of) got my friends internships. And because I got free beer and cupcakes.

Because !!!!!

Because it's awww-worthy.

Because I was there.

Because it made me giggle and choke on a grape.

Because it's sex.

Because it's the truth (not that there is one).

Because they're cute.

Because McGill's so-called diversity is whitewash.

Because it's pretentious, but beautiful.

Because it was my first letter to an editor (that wasn't a job plea).

Because I believe in fashion criticism.

Because I'm always trying to be Mick and Keith.

Because it was one of the best interviews I've ever had.

Just because!

Because it's true.

Because I was proud of myself.

Because it's the realest shit I've ever wrote.
 

Annnnnd because I had so much fun looking through this, my two most annoying posts of the year: 

Because, who really cares what I buy? Apparently, more people than I expect since the posts where I ridiculously document the crap I buy tend to get the most comments. Also annoying because I broke these and annoyed because I care.

Because EWWW.

 
The ambiguous, the unsure and the in-betweens:

Because it's ambiguous in itself. I like that I brought this up, but I didn't really say anything substantive, probably because I'm still not sure what I believe.

Because I tried the black lipstick thing myself, and liked it, but annoyed because I wrote "billionaire badass." What does that even mean?

Because it's crazy how tastes change so quickly. When I discovered this, at a time when I was editing and writing about thousands of images and bits of information a day, I was so in love. Now, it doesn't do much for me.

(Ok, so, how many times did I say "because" in this post? 34. Yup, I counted. Really annoying, eh? I thought it would be cute, and then I just kept going and going and going.)