Been in the place I call home. There will be a loaded update around the time I get back. In the meantime, I'm celebrating this vacation with tonight's Gatekeeper gig, then Nunslaughter Saturday. Looking good while doing so, of course.

It's 1:36 a.m. and I'm sipping a cup of Silver Bridge coffee (Appalachia, fair-trade, locally brewed, yadda yadda... good stuff), blasting MSTRKRFT through a pair of anti-bass earbuds that are in dire need of being face down in a pit of fire, and cursing at a scratched DVD of "Weird Science" that Netflix sent me. Finally done with my last winter quarter of college and I'm doing what I've been longing to avoid during the week-long break. The joke's on me!

I've been floating in and out of all the fashion week coverages among the major cities. Been trying to tell myself to web surf as much shows (that I actually give two damns about) as possible this season, but I've rightfully diverted my attention instead to Egypt, Libya, the Ohio SB 5 debacle, running a radio station and 19 credit hours worth of school work. Most of what I did catch made me salivate, and off the top of my head: Theysken x Theory, Christopher Kane, Demeulemeester, Rad Houriani, Wang, and Ann-Sofie Back. Extreme silhouettes, draping, geo inspirations and prints... you get the pattern. I'm not one to trend hop on designers who simply don't cater to my style - in which cultural interest/lifestyle comes first, fashion just happens to be its echo.

In project wardrobe revamp, there's been a mass liquidation on all items of clothing and accessories I've seldom worn in the past few months. If you're a frequent eBay-er and have seen items pop up under seller parlezvousbrah, then you've seen my stuff. Spread the word/buy 'em, I don't want them. In exchange, I'm downsizing my wardrobe to basics - with the occasional ridiculous dress here and there. (Exhibit A: Topshop Unique shark sweater dress.) The runways have catapulted me into a pool of monograph prints à la Bauhaus artists like Anni Albers, and a craving to get a little naughty with skin exposure. Other than that I'll be cycling through three pairs of jeans, and my sea of band shirts and crop tops.

Dare I say it? Platinum blonde hair may be happening in my foreseeable future. It's been a feat I've been contemplating for months because a) hair's just hair and b) I think it could actually look pretty sweet, despite the potential beach bunny backlash. It's best to leave this job to a renowned professional, because I don't want to relive my sophomore year of high school's terror of pulling out blonde strands of hair in the shower. No thanks to Hot Topic dye.

And that's all that's been keeping me up until - shit, 4 in the morning. I'll be heading out to NYC Wednesday to cap off my spring break with a bang, but I'll discuss that in a later post.


Leaving this post with some records coming at ya - a.k.a., I figured out how to make animated .gifs.

Image sources: Jil Sander S/S 2011 ad campaign, Fashiongonerogue, and Vogue UK.

Spring break map of attacks. EDIT: It'll just be me.

Where does heaven come from?

CLUSTERFUCK 2.0

Clusterfuck 2.0 mixed media exhibit hosted works by Ohio University students and artists Devin Nolan, Greg Kash, Katie Dwertman, Jake Swanson, Brad Pierce, and Leland Palmer. The one-day exhibit, which took place on February 25, 2011, was a floor to ceiling collage of garbage decor and masterpieces that tickled the senses of many whose preferences ranged from whimsical to nihilistic. (Mine being the latter.)

I checked out the show because my good friend Brad had a lot of his ink illustrations on display. It's nice to see his mutated goblins, showering daggers, and cross-infested vaginas (not too sure if that's on paper, but it should be) outside of his doodle pads. Bravo! I can now see him as less of a failure... and I don't really mean that.

Venom's "Hell" album blared from a laptop. Propped in the middle of the room was a metal fan, which required pulling on its bike chain pulley and handle system for it to run. It did little to alleviate the unusual heatwave lingering through my silk Sasoon button-up, but these hellish conditions may have been part of the hole-in-the-wall gallery experience.

House Of Holland A/W 2011 from TEST on Vimeo.

In the midst of London Fashion Week, Henry Holland's just-released AW (FW) 2011/12 video swirls in happy drugs with those '80s Home Shopping Network segments. Henry, Pixie, and Dree evidently had way too much fun on set... and I love it.

The bringer of great skate ads.

At the end of my Freshman year of high school, I rolled my ankle skateboarding. In my cooler life, it would have been over an attempt to do a sweet trick against some box, but what really happened was that a little stone found its way into a wheel as I skated downhill. The following day I showed up to my history final exam with a welt as big as my fist. It took several weeks for the welt and my muscles to alleviate back to normal, but after regaining capability I looked at my skateboard like a child would with the boogie man in the closet.

Eh, I wasn't all that great at it anyway.

Seven years later, I took my brother's unused World Industries skateboard, completely covered in a bunch of band and brand stickers I incurred, and decided to skate the same bike path that my Girl skateboard (rip) traversed. Ate dirt twice from misplanting (it's a word now, deal with it) my left foot, but I laughed my ass off. I've been telling Branka that I wanted to get back into skateboarding once the weather permits, and just two days ago the temperatures climbed from 45 to 69 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm not shooting to go pro, but I would like to champion terrain of all sorts like it's me against a raging bull. Adrenaline rushes through the hair on the back of my neck when I've reached full momentum, and somehow steadfast when I slide and do a leg split against concrete. When there's pain, it's flagellation; when you've somehow managed to execute a downhill slope or an ollie, it's an orgasm.

I have and always been fascinated not only by the sport, but the culture itself. It's young, it's colorful, it's destructive, it's fucking punk. Well, should it be called a sport when some may not add an aspect of competitiveness to it? (And the X-Games, the contests, and so forth.) Anyway, the following videos below came from some of my favorite skate videos growing up. Between 2001-2005, I paid attention to the ams and the pros, the issues of Transworld and Thrasher, Crailtap, the artists behind the graphics on the boards, the trending skate spots, and even the touring demos hoping that one would come within a three hour radius of Athens, Ohio (and many didn't) - all behind the backs of my skateboarding dude friends because, at the time, I feared they'd see me as a poser. I wish I still had these old issues so that I could flip through and remember the favorite photographs and ads. Instead, I dug these video up from Youtube (the higher being's great gift to our society), so maybe nostalgia will hit you too upon watching.

Image source: Grindtv.com

Dominating!!!! Diplo knows how to choose his endorsements. First, Comme des Garçons and now the T for mens collection. The latter complements his charming, cool, I-can-undress-you-with-my-eyes-and-my-beats sort of attitude very well. Wang: thumbs up. Diplo: thumbs up. Diplo in Wang: two thumbs up.



Style.com interviews Wang during the shoot. Not too sure what's going on with Diplo's alakazam hand gestures, but the mid-dance break to point out that model Ashley Smith is "a good dancer" was murder.

And here's the video campaign of the line. Can't embed because it's on A. Wang's Facebook page. genießt!*

*Translation: enjoy. Currently teaching myself German.

Photo source: Styleite.com