June Music Recap

Well what do you know, I'm back again!

Today I thought I would do a little music-related update to show you lovely folks what I've been pouring into my brain via my ears as of late. I'll try to keep this short and sweet with 3 artists that I've been particularly into, but no promises. It is very hard to pick favorites, I tell you, but I will try my best.

So Bjork, right?!?
Oh goodness, Bjork is an amazing and wonderful person. My current favorite album of hers is Voltaic-Live in the Studio, which is songs from her Voltaic tour. Live. In the studio. (I hope you're not reading this blog to acquire new information from me, because it seems I am fresh out. Pitchfork this is not.)

These recordings are so beautiful and unique and I love them very much. I quite like the version of I Miss You on this album, but for the sake of its completely awesome video, here is the original:

Bjork is an idol of mine for various reasons. I mean, I like her music a lot, but I think I like her style and vision even more. Her appreciation of and downright happiness about both human interaction and hidden solitude makes me smile. One day maybe I'll be half as strange and wonderful as her.

I'd been listening to James Blake through this past year, but I had no idea that he had all of these awesome EPs out until, like, a week ago. Wow wow wow have I been missing out. He makes these soulful sounds that I never would have thought could come from electronic music. And it sure doesn't hurt that he has the most beautiful, sweet, melty voice that I've heard.

And I guess we should look at his face for a second too.

Here's his cover of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" from his EP Enough Thunder:

Hollllly smokes.

And here's a funky-fresh instrumental number from Love What Happened Here:

I have a friend who has been talking about FKA Twigs for quite a while now and all I thought when he told me about how she is cool and great and super incredible was Yeah whatever she's not my style so go tell someone else. I have since apologized profusely for this, as I have come to realize that she is the absolute shit. I love her delicate, eerie voice mixed with perfectly orchestrated drops and unexpected shifts.

I think my favorite track of hers is "Water Me"from EP2. Since I've seen the video, I can't sing it without bobbing my head back and forth:

I also really like "Ultraviolet" from EP1. It has such a full sound and the middle part feels like warm fuzzy stuff filling your brain. You'll know what I mean:

I am so excited for her first full-length LP (fittingly titled LP1) to come out in August. She just released a single from said album called "Two Weeks", but in all honesty I don't like it as much as the stuff she put out in EP2. That being said, I still have faith and a preorder in iTunes!

Okay yeah I can't narrow it down to just those three. Here is a slew of singles that I've been really feeling this June:

I could keep going, but I'll spare you... Maybe I'll do a playlist soon?

Have a good Thursday! Bye now

The Lost Photos of the Last Year

Well hi there!

It has been a while. Like, a super long while. Heh heh....
I missed you!

I kept thinking/talking about posting here over these past few months but, as you can tell, it never happened. Instead, I became super overwhelmed by the idea that I should post something and that it should be at least sort of good and that I should not only write one post, but, like, daily posts and that I should do some super cool big project and at the end of it all I was like, "nah, better not."

Which, in hindsight, was quite silly! SO, today (tonight?) I am going to write/worry about one post.

As you may or may not know, I graduated from high school a few weeks ago. May and early June were full of long, long days packed with various meetings, events, and (duh) exam stuff (so maybe I have a good excuse for not doing anything here? We just won't talk about March...)

Anyway, I was looking through random photos from this last year, and I have comprised a not-so-small album of photos that I took and then, for whatever reason, didn't do anything with. They are (queue some sweet Indiana Jones sound effects) The Lost Photos of the Last Year!

These photos may not be any good, and they may not serve as an accurate record of the things that I actually DID during my senior year, but I think that you might sort of enjoy them (?) I certainly enjoyed coming across them! Here we go:

A never-turned-in-assignment for my photography class

My messy, messy bureau. 

Please excuse the redundancy in these photos, this is a sloppy-joe operation. It's how I roll. (see above)

Fun with diffraction!

 Fun with food coloring!

Fun with THE COOLEST GLASSES IN THE UNIVERSE!

A doll head in a teacup!

Me and my buds on Halloween

Halloween-y self portraits

WHY IS IT SO EFFING COLD OUTSIDE self portraits

General fuzziness

In the window of that confusing and mysterious building next to the Silver Dollar

My Aunt Wendy's cat, Olive

MY cat Yaztremski and her BFF

My window, twice.

And shadows from my windows. I sure do love me some windows!

Maggie

Literally 4.6 seconds later.

Finger-painting aftermath

Some monsters that just want a hug.

Thanks for taking a look! Extra thanks for still being here!

I might I'll post here regularly now, I might not. I mean I love you, babe, but this stud was born to run wild and free. Maybe I'll see you around sometime.  ;)

A Dream Come True

     Last fall, I was asked to do the costumes for Essentials salon and Jade salon's annual hair and makeup runway show and OF COURSE I said yes!!! We put on the show on February ninth, and it was called "A Dream Come True." It was a collaboration among a huge group of super talented local hair and makeup artists, and I got to head up the wardrobe for the whole show, consisting of almost 60 models. It was such an amazing opportunity!!

The photographer for the show (MKate Photography) finally released photos of everyone, and I'm so excited to show you all now! I have put some of my favorites below, but I would love it if you looked at the full set on MKate's Facebook page!

The idea of the show was to take the audience through a series of mystical and supernatural dream sequences that allowed for some amazing hair and makeup art. Here are pictures from the eight dreams:

Dark Forest

This was the first set to go on, and I think it set the theme for the whole show so well!

Monsters

The monsters were so colorful, and so much fun!!! Each one of them had little pouches of colored powder attached to their costumes, and at the end of their scene they all threw it in the air. It looked awesome!

It's Jessica!! I wish I had a better picture of her costume. She had fuzzy yellow spines going all down the back of her dress! A giant fuzzy stuffed duck at the thrift store sacrificed its life for this costume, and there's nothing to show for it... sigh.

If I had a beard it would be this pink beard.

Creepy Dolls

This was definitely the creepiest scene in the show. Do you ever have nightmares that things in your room will come to life and haunt you? Yeah...

School Nightmare

 This scene was simultaneously adorable and terrifying. All of the models looked so badass on stage! Think Mean Girls.

This dress was so fun to make. Again, I wish I had a better picture!

Aliens

This scene was probably my favorite one to style. Leigh Ann (Top Left) had such a cool vision of what the scene was going to look like, and I had the best time playing with a bunch of ideas to get this final product.

This dress was so much fun to make! Although it took forever to make all of those gold spikes...

Black and White

This scene was probably much more abstract than the others. The idea was, "Why do I always dream in black and white?" These models looked killer on stage. Like super cool.

This photo has nothing to do with the wardrobe. I just think the makeup was super awesome.

Rags to Riches

This scene was gorgeous... but I didn't actually style the costumes for it. Brian Mogren (in front), owner of Rediscoveries vintage shop, did. He has such a beautiful collection, and all of the models looked so very lovely!

Zombies

These were the more stylish, less torn-up variety of zombies. I really like how the beige-y neutral color scheme worked out. They look terrifying in the best possible way!

Encore!

For the encore, we did a "duality" scene. The models came out and walked the runway in these very masculine costumes, then sat down on stage while nine magical hair and makeup stylists turned them into feminine masterpieces. It was super cool. Zee (third from the Right) even got her hair cut onstage! She looked so awesome, and very coolly braved an accidental scissor stab to the head... oops!

Here's what they looked like after:

Whaat? That military-looking guy was actually Maggie?!?!

For this one I had to learn how to make male stripper-style tear off pants. You have no idea how happy it makes me that I now know how to do this.

Again, I hope you will look at the rest of the photos here! The photographer got some really cool ones!

     Thank you so much to everyone who was in the show, and especially to all of the stylists, and ESPECIALLY especially to Leigh-Ann, Jackie, and Marissa. I am so honored that you picked me to do the wardrobe and I am so thankful for all of your help. Also, a huge thank you to the rest of my wardrobe team: Judy Pugh, Toni Seccomb, and Brian Mogren. AAH I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ACTUALLY LET ME DO THIS!!

So yeah... That was the thing that I was making all of the excuses about. Now that I actually have some time to do stuff, maybe I should post some more stuff on here... heh heh... Anyways, bye for now!!