I’LL WEAR ANY COLOR AS LONG AS IT’S BLACK

Trying to keep up with my plan of layering. Someone sold in this amazing motorcycle jacket-style hoodie (no label) the other day, it’s become my new winter staple (can be worn over or under anything and look perfect). Today it’s over some rad drapey cardigan I found at Beacon’s a few months ago — there’s a tag but I can’t read the brand (made in Korea though) an H&M dress and lamé leggings. Anyway yesterday I went to get my hair cleaned up and, as often happens, my ideas got a little mixed up with the stylist’s and now I’m missing the majority of my hair! I am hoping that this is the sort of situation where in a month or so it grows in perfectly and is exactly what I was hoping for, but right now I feel quite naked without my big curtain of hair. It’s really layered up though, which I wanted/needed, so it lends itself to styling better. We’ll see what happens in the near future. I’m not too worried because I’ve had plenty of shaved head phases that have tediously but eventually carried over into long hair phases, so I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel . . .

I don’t usually get the chance to wear this gray vintage cape that I found last winter. It’s too long and crazy for mild-weather days, but not heavy enough for cold days. Since I knew I wouldn’t be outside much today while running errands and later dinner + record shopping with friends, I figured I could give this baby a chance. Glad I did . . . winter is already frustrating enough without an unfortunate coat to spoil it even more. If I could find something like this in black and with a hood, I’m pretty sure all my coat-troubles would finally be solved.

Since part of the reason why I shaved my head was because I felt like I needed to be crazier in life, when a friend texted me that he had extra tickets to see Nitzer Ebb last night, I knew I had to get my ass up and get dressed and go. So glad I did. Not only was I in the company of some rad people, but everyone was totally feeling the music and having a fucking blast dancing around and going nuts. Nitzer Ebb were awesome — which I wasn’t completely expecting. I love their music, but they’re old so I figured it would be a bunch of boring old dudes trying to relive their youth or something. I couldn’t have been more wrong. They were all hot and well-dressed, the drummers were pounding the shit out of their drums and the singer was running around, totally feeding off the crowd’s energy. And it seemed rather fitting for my shaved head’s first night out to be amongst a bunch of rivetheads.

Well the morning has come and gone and brought with it not the slightest sense of regret. Still digging on my hair and totally psyched that it was warm today so I didn’t have to feel the winter chill on my bare skull. I wasn’t really thinking about shaving my head, though I was longing for some kind of a change with my hair. It was just seeming way too normal and boring and my bangs had been driving me crazy for a while. I sometimes read the blog of Akiko, the drummer of The Big Pink – Exceedingly Good Keex – and there have been a lot of photos of her shaving other people’s heads or them shaving hers or whatever. Anyway, I was looking at it again the other night and just started thinking about how I really needed to spice up my life and be crazier and shave my head and party all night, or something like that. So I finally just said fuck it and after thinking about it for less than twenty-four hours, put 2/3 of my hair in a ponytail and hacked off the other half. It was quite empowering in a way, watching all that long hair just fall off my head and into the sink. Besides the last few years when I have let my hair grow out and be a ‘normal’ color, I’ve always had something interesting going on, whether it was short or asymmetrical or strange colors and it always worked with my style and never made me feel like less of a woman . . . so, with that in mind, I knew I had to let go of this attachment to the long hair. I’m glad I did. I think this is going to be fun.

Besides Akiko’s blog, I was also heavily inspired by:

Annabella Lwin of Bow Wow Wow. I love Bow Wow Wow and I love Annabella’s style from when she was in the band. It’s crazy how she was super young (15) and thought of as a sex symbol, despite having this insane hair and a pretty ‘fuck you’ attitude. I love her.

 

Also Alice Dellal. I don’t know much about her, but I have always admired her super grungy style and the way she perfectly balances an extremely tough/punk edge with a graceful, feminine beauty.
 

So there you have it. I’m sure my hair will take on a few manifestations in the coming months while I figure out exactly how I am going to wear this style and make it my own. Right now I’m just so stoked on it though, so proud of myself for taking the plunge!

So like I texted to Massimo earlier, “Five years of normal haircuts seemed like enough.” Maybe it’s all this talk about my younger years (when I had crazy hair), but I decided to shave part of my head tonight. It felt awesome and it looks even awesomer. Though it is a little uneven but I’ll just have my brother fix it when he gets back from his vacation. Better pictures and info on my various sources of inspiration tomorrow – I was just too excited not to post it tonight.

The last time I had a shaved head (not completely, but mostly), I met up with my friend Gibby who grabbed me, licked my head and shouted “There’s nothing like a freshly shaved head!” Man, sometimes I really miss that guy.

Last year, my birthday was terrible. I hadn’t officially moved to Boston, but I was spending a lot of time here and most of that time had been spent crashing on my brother’s couch in a small studio apartment. Later, we moved to a two bedroom and I had my own space, but I didn’t want it — I wanted to go back to New York. I didn’t tell anyone it was my birthday and stayed in my Brooklyn apartment drinking wine alone for most of the evening. I met up with Massimo and he convinced me to go see Twilight, which I agreed to on the condition that I be allowed to drink much more wine in the theater. Of course, by the end of the movie I was wasted and wanted to go out so we visited Amy at K&M, but there were only a few other people there. In the end, I realized it hadn’t been that terrible, but it had been far from celebratory. So, this year when I saw that my birthday was falling on a Wednesday, I knew I had to turn it into a party. Wierd is easily and obviously one of the things I miss the most about living in New York. I had been getting into minimal synth for a while, but never had anyone to really geek out with about it all until I started going there regularly and met Pieter, Glenn and the whole crew. I know it’s boring to anyone who isn’t an obsessed music nerd, but it really is my favorite thing to talk about — not just synth, but music in general. What’s the point of acquiring all this knowledge and minutiae if I have no one to share it with? Anyway, my party killed it. Zohra made cupcakes, everyone bought me drinks, Pieter’s super high-tech fog machine was on full blast and from what I remember, I had the best time ever. Unfortunately, I drank way more than I should have so getting up the next day to cook Thanksgiving dinner for everyone was incredibly painful. Amazingly though, we pulled it off. We had dinner at Veronica’s house, with most of the food supplied by me and Amanda. The group of friends that ended up getting together was seemingly random but meshed perfectly. I love Thanksgiving when it’s like this — hanging out with friends, listening to good music and drinking wine and everyone relaxed and happy. This is why I hate spending that holiday with my family, it’s not that I hate them, but the vibe just isn’t the same. Thanksgiving night, as usual, turned into a party but again, as usual, everyone was too stuffed to go really nuts. I was supposed to leave Friday but since my brother agreed to work a bunch of days since he was about to take another vacation, I ended up staying until Monday. On Friday, Massimo and I again tortured ourselves by going to see New Moon but this time I didn’t bring nearly enough alcohol to make it interesting. The rest of my time in New York was mostly spent shopping, brunching, watching movies and just generally chilling. I came back to Boston and immediately suffered post-NYC depression, which was only mildly numbed by my second birthday party at The Model (which turned into staying up till whothefuckknowswhen). Paul and I went to see The Big Pink last night and they fucking killed it, seriously so good, especially the cover of “These Arms of Mine.” I wanted to hang out and maybe torment myself more by getting fucked up yet again but Paul wasn’t feeling the going-out-vibe since he had worked all day yesterday and had to head off to Miami today. Anyway, I’m 28 now. It’s nuts. I keep thinking about my 21st birthday, maybe because everyone I know in Boston is so young or maybe because that’s when I had been living in New York for about a year and was really starting to settle in and feel it to be my true home. I remember that I listened to It’ll End In Tears all day that day so I put it on during my drive back to Boston and as predicted, the memories came flooding back. Then I listened to A Brief History of Love for the rest of the drive because I was thinking about all of the parallels between the two albums, maybe not for everyone, but at least for me. The Big Pink are one of the only post-Ivo 4AD bands who, I think, really capture the spirit and sound originally conceived by the label. I wish I could go see them again the next two nights in NYC.

This Mortal Coil – Fond Affections

 

The Big Pink – Too Young To Love

Justin came to Boston so we could relive our youth in various ways by going to see Cold Cave at The Pill. A few days and late, late nights later and I’m in NYC for my birthday. Youth fades. Friends are forever. Tomorrow (to)night will presumably wreck me in the best way possible.

We won the award for “Best Sunday Night” from the Weekly Dig so we got all dressed up and went to the awards/anniversary party they threw last night. As usual at those types of things, the free drinks didn’t last long enough and when they weren’t free, they were exxxpensive. So we obviously headed back over to cheap-as-hell Allston to finish our night at The Model. I stayed up too late and I can’t believe my brother managed to go out of town for a week and only work two days before I got stuck coming into the store again. Oh, how I am wishing for sleep today.

I should probably feel guilty about this, but I found this Swans t-shirt at the newly opened Boston Buffalo Exchange. I’ve been there twice and it’s pretty much like all the other Buffalo Exchanges I’ve been to — okay, but not that great. I’m sure people with different style probably love it, but it’s never been my favorite. That being said, I can’t not go there because I am addicted to shopping in second-hand stores. My time at Beacon’s convinced me that you never know what the hell you will find and even though I own a second-hand store now and can have my pick of the things that come in here, I’m always on the lookout. Anyway, when I saw this Swans shirt for $9, I had to have it of course. Worn today with an oversized short-sleeved cardigan (no label) and Sass & Bide Black Rats. The fact that it was warm enough when I left the house to just be wearing this makes me nervous. Boston (and New England in general and while we’re at it, the Northeast really) is notorious for temperamental weather. This could just be a trick to lull us all into a false sense of security so that when we wake up to two feet of snow tomorrow we won’t be prepared at all . . .

I’ve been thinking about my t-shirt collection a lot lately. I think I need to document it more. About a year ago I didn’t really have much of one because they weren’t really a part of my wardrobe. But as I have started shopping for the store and my brother more, I obviously pay attention to t-shirts more than I used to and I’ve acquired quite an interesting grouping. It’s not very large but it’s very specific. It can be divided into three parts: vintage band t-shirts (but only certain bands . . . you won’t find any ironic Van Halen shirts around these parts), designer t-shirts that have interesting graphics and Rogues Gallery tees that were gifted to me by Justin. There are about two or three that don’t fall into those categories but they’re vintage shirts that had some sort of appeal (i.e. my Twin Peaks shirt) that correlates to these groups and/or my general aesthetic. I’m kind of bummed that I have done so much ‘clearing-out’ in the past because I know there are some really good tees that have fallen by the wayside and I would love to still have them in my collection. The same thing happened with records — I just got rid of a lot of stuff I thought I didn’t need probably 5-7 years ago and now I regret it. Though I guess the good thing about doing that is I’ve learned my lesson and now I make sure to hang onto stuff like this.

Ever since Tamaryn moved to San Francisco, she’s been talking about Girls. Lately, of course, so has everyone else. I was stoked to finally see them play the other night at Great Scott — they were awesome but I was a little bummed on the audience. Everyone seemed too chilled out for my liking. They definitely are a bit of a chill-out band but whenever I tapped my foot or nodded my head people started pushing me away like I had just started a mosh pit. It was pretty annoying. Anyway, that was fun, but Sunday night the band (who were still in town) ended up stopping by Rescue Nite and that was a blast! Everyone was crazy and drunk and dancing and good times were had by all. Rescue Nite and Rescue have both been nominated for Dig This awards and the party/announcement is next week. I’m not sure if the store is going to win because we’re in the vintage category (we don’t really sell vintage) but if Rescue Nite doesn’t win, I’m going to FREAK OUT! Our night just gets better and better every week. We play awesome music and there are always attractive and cool people in attendance. The Model fills up on other weekend nights but never with such an awesome crowd. Anyway, Paul and I are planning awesome outfits for the Dig party . . . I better be photographed in a celebratory manner and not crying over my expensive shoes and losing out to some shitty night no one has ever heard of!

Girls – Lust for Life (a Rescue Nite classic!)

Even though I was only in NYC for one complete day, I managed to make that day as productive as possible (thanks to 5 Hour Energy, my new best friend). First, Lily and I hit up the MOMA because I had seen an article in Tokion about a new exhibit involving the No Wave music and art scene in the late 70s — one of my favorite music time-periods. I’ve read a ton of books and seen a bunch of films on this time but I can never get enough. The exhibit was fairly small but had a bunch of videos and zines and posters that I wanted to steal. After the MOMA, we had dinner and drinks at Massimo’s restaurant, Brio (a must when I am in town). Then we parted ways to get ready for the night.

To start our night off, we hit up Hugs to catch Micki’s 80s Danse Party. The music we caught was in the post-punk vein, which meshed perfectly with my day. I can never not dance to “Hungry, So Angry,” “Shack Up,” and the like. After a few shots, we cabbed to the city for Wierd.

We got to Home Sweet Home just in time for Bronze. I had heard a bunch about them and was stoked to see them play . . . they definitely lived up to the hype. Dark and weird but dancey and the singer had some sick Ian Curtis moves. After that I spent the whole night trying to take pictures with Zohra and dancing — the latter which destroyed my ankles because I was foolish/brave enough to wear those Sam Edelman boots despite knowing I would be tipsy and on the uneven rocky floor of Home Sweet Home. Oh well, it was worth it! I hadn’t been to Wierd in months and missed it so much. I’ll be back there for my birthday at the end of the month (flyer to the right if you want to come by and give me some love) . . .

Photos by Angelique Alvarez.

I’m a little late in collecting photos of the Rescue Nite Monster Mash, but as predicted, I didn’t really bother to ask anyone to document me… instead of got tons of pictures of everyone else looking great and just a few of my insane shredded wedding down. I decided a little bit last-minute to be a Bride of Frankenstein so I shredded like mad for two days straight and ended up with this thing. It looked pretty amazing though it was super long and by the end of the night it was covered in dirt and alcohol and who knows what else. I washed it but I’m still not sure if it’s meant to be worn again. The Monster Mash was so much fun. Pictures of everyone else are on Rescue’s blog. I was so stoked to see everyone really pull out all the stops and go crazy with the costumes. I had far too much to drink and as a result ended up missing out on going to NYC for actual Halloween. No big deal though, I just trekked down on Tuesday so I could check out Hardcore Night and Wierd, both of which were awesome. Tons of updates about random stuff and info about upcoming events to be posted tomorrow, curling up in bed with my cat is calling desperately to me right now . . .

From what I can remember, our anniversary party was a blast. I drank about three bottles of champagne before 10pm so everything is a deliciously bubbly blur of good times and smiles and balloons. This past year has been far from easy and I’m really proud of myself and my brother for making it this far — though we still have a long way to go! Tonight is our Halloween party . . . my costume has gone through about a thousand changes and I’ve wasted too much money on things I won’t actually be using but I’m pretty stoked on the final result — going to try to stay clearheaded enough to remember to get pictures because despite the unbelievable amount of time and detail I always put into my Halloween costumes, I usually end up taking photos of everyone else and completely forgetting to document myself.

Winter always provides a challenge for me because I have yet to master layering in any real way and I don’t own that many sweaters. So usually I just throw a cardigan or light jacket over something I would normally wear and call it a day — which is pretty much what I did today (vintage blazer over H&M t-shirt and Zara jodhpur-esque dress pants). But when I added the trench and scarf to go outside, I really liked the way it looked and it’s made me realize that I can’t go on in this boring way any longer! I must figure out new combinations of layering immediately! Unfortunately, my trip to Beacon’s last weekend didn’t yield many options in this department, but luckily I’m going to NYC next weekend and can try again. I’m also thinking I need to stop by Oak and see if I can find myself a Complex Geometries piece that can be worn in multiple ways (why does everyone have one of these but me?) because that would really solve all my layering problems in one fell swoop.