J.S.F.

MY FAVORITE AUTHOR, MY FAVORITE BOOK

Only Me, Only Me

So I watched this amazing movie called "This is England" a few months ago that was quite good and was all about punk movement developing in England during the Falklands War (Early 80's). It was about a lot of other things too, but what really grabbed me was the soundtrack. It was really beautiful, that's the best way I can describe it, just beautiful. It has a tremendous amount of range too, it goes from classical to soul to punk/synth-pop in just a few songs.

This soundtrack also led me to the discovery of one of my latest obsessions as well, the band Strawberry Switchblade. They were a one hit wonder in the mid-80's with their song "Since Yesterday" (featured on the soundtrack) and later faded into obscurity. I downloaded their "best of" material and have been blown away by some of the songs. Their voices are just amazing, so wistful and sad but somehow are laced with sugar. Today they could hold their own against both established and emerging artists. I'd say they are the love child of Emily Haines/Goldfrapp/Early Madonna. Plus these girls had great fashion sense, if you can just get over their hair (it was really cool during that time I suppose) and look at some of their clothes, its amazing. I swear a lot of people wear the exact same stuff today just slightly alerted. The video isn't one of the BEST examples so I wouldnt pay attention to their clothes in it, but the song is great!

SLED ISLAND!!!

HEY so while I am on the topic of amazing festivals I should direct y'all to Calgary's very own Sled Island Festival!! I've been volunteering with them since the very beginning and I have to say it's such a great experience just to even be part of it. And this year the lineup is fantastic!

WOMEN | !!! | BLACK LIPS | THE THERMALS | FUCKED UP | DINOSAUR JR. | DEERHOOF | KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW | MY GOLD MASK | LES SAVY FAV | GIRL TALK | WHY? | C'MON | CHUCK RAGAN | AZEDA BOOTH | WOODHANDS | BUILT TO SPILL
and that is not even scratching the surface of the 100+ bands that are hitting up various bars and clubs and dives around the city! I'm so excited to do it all over again! The shows are always insane and just so different from big stadium shows. Check out Sled Island's flickr HERE.

And I'll be at the Sled Island room at this Saturday/Sunday's MARKET COLLECTIVE so come say hellooo and buy some discounted passes, maybe browse and buy some other stuff like cheapo clothes, jewelry, burritos, whatnot.

I love Calgary. Except for today's shit showstorm.

Strange Desire

OSHEAGAAAAA
so I am planning a trip to Montreal this fall (fingers crossed!) for the OSHEAGA festival! Why? Because my friend Rand was pining for the Black Keys to come to calgary, and looked up their dates. Sadly/fortunately, the only one was in Montreal for Osheaga. I can't wait until exams are over so I can focus on saving and planning this trip! I've checked out the line-up and I am excited and BEYOND. There's two venues, the island and the city. So let me just tease you with how fantastic this festival will be (everything might as well be bolded.. but my absolutes are in bold):

THE BLACK KEYS | WEEZER | ARCADE FIRE | DEADMAU5 | CHROMEO | STARS
OWEN PALLET | SEU JORGE | BLITZEN TRAPPER | EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS
JAPANDROIDS | METRIC | KEANE | PAVEMENT
I haven't been back to Montreal in a while. I think it takes more than two trips to see the entire place, it's that amazing. Anyways I put together a playlist because I am that excited and I refuse to study for my statistics final tomorrow morning. Forgive me for putting so many Black Keys songs in this but I love them too much:

1. Strange Desire - The Black Keys
2. She Said - The Black Keys
3. Furr - Blitzen Trapper
4. Your Ex-Lover is Dead - Stars
5. Dead Disco - Metric
6. When the Lights Go Out - The Black Keys
7. Under Pressure - Keane (a great cover)
8. The Sweater Song - Weezer
9. Island in the Sun - Weezer
10. (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To - Weezer (Doctor Rosen Rosen Rx)
11. Home - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
12. Gold Soundz - Pavement
13. Night by Night - Chromeo
14. The Kids Don't Stand a Chance - Vampire Weekend (Chromeo Remix)
15. Do You Love? - Final Fantasy (Owen Pallet)
16. Wake Up - Arcade Fire
17. Haiti - Arcade Fire
18. Ain't Nothing Like You - Blakroc (The Black Keys' collab with rappers.. lav it)

My dream way to travel.

(via Style Files)

This is from an amazing website I discovered on ffffound called Style Files it features photographs of gorgeous houses, hotels etc. from all over the world. The above photograph shows a hotel that actually floats down the nile!

It sounds and looks amazing and I would love love to be able to take a vacation on it.

It Feels Alright

I can't even wait for camping season, and my first camping trip of the year May long weekend!!

Some of the best memories of my entire life so far have been from camping. Here is a list of some musts for camping:

1. Fire - campfires, sparklers, fire crackers, you name it anything to do with fire! (Unless of course there is a fire ban.)

2. Music- this is super important, a boombox or radio must always be playing awesome summer jams (Beach boys, Hollies, Yardbirds, Tom Petty etc.)

3. Hiking/ Biking - this one is super important because while your drinking and eating lots of crappy foods its important to work it all off and enjoy nature!

4. Water - There must be a lake or river or a pool! How else are you supposed to get an awesome tan!

5. GAMES!!! - this may be the most important one of all! in case of rain, boredom, or just bonding time with whoever you're camping with you need to play games! (malarky, pictionary, taboo etc.)

POLLY MORGAN

Morning
I have fallen in love with the work of Polly Morgan. It's so beautiful and so morbid.. reminds me of dusty, old museum exhibits. Check out her site.
NOTE: not for the squeamish.. there's a lot of taxidermy.

image taken from Polly Morgan's flickr.

Rabbit on Hat

Go after her.

I can't remember where I found this passage, but it means so much to me.

Think Beautiful, Talk Shit

Hey baby, can I get yo numba?

digby + iona

ookay so I have been prowling the internet instead of studying for my calculus final, no big. But I found this really fantastic jewelry designer (I think it's just one person), who goes by the name of DIGBY & IONA. And all the jewelry is soooo sweet, cute-sweet. And some are customizable! There's a fighting bears ring that was used as an engagement ring. Anyways my faves are the stump ring (with customizable initials engraved!), the Seppie ring, the Captain's Signet ring (which is also a wax seal!!), and the elephant ring (with optional ruby eyes).

Actually I loved EVERYTHING. The moustache necklaces are hilarious. GO. NOW. Here's a link to the collection archive.

Coachella!

This weekend was Coachella! Woo hoo! Sadly because I am a starving artist I was much too poor to go... so instead here are some photos of my favorite outfits that I saw while checking out all the action on the net!

Lauren Caster and Brynn Jones

Agyness Deyn (I love love love her newly shaven head!)

These are my two favorite photographs from vogue

Whitney Port (via ZIMBIO)

you waaaaant it

from ffffound

DO NOT TELL ME YOU DON'T THINK THESE ARE ADORABLE.
Teacup pigs are just so cute. I want them as pets. They're so low-maintenance. The work to cuteness ratio is the same if not better. And I have been hoarding the name BUBBA for either a bulldog or one of these little babies

I LOVE TED

So this is a fantastic website that I was introduced to at school. It features brilliant people from all over the world, designers, artists, architects, scientists, models, athletes you name it. This is one of my favorite talks from the website by Bjarke Ingles a Danish architect, he talks all about buildings being their own ecosystem and sustainability within an urban environment. Its super interesting and makes me want to be more sustainable in my own life.. however, thats easier said than done.

P.S you can find more amazing TED talks right here!

Gin & Lemonade: Silver/Teeth

I know I haven't updated in FOREVER but it's exams and I feel like that's enough justification to have put it off for so long. Anyways I went to Montreal and Ottawa the last two weekends and it was SO MUCH FUN! I got some really great stuff in both cities and got to see some fam-jam and good friends! I was also excitingly legal again in Quebec so that brought up the booze consumption quite a bit. Maybe that's why it was so fun...

When I was in Ottawa my Mom and I visited the National Gallery and there was this really cool temporary exhibit going on about 19th Century French Photography. It was just so interesting to see some the pioneers of an art that wasn't entirely respected back then, but today is (at least in my opinion) very highly regarded. They also had some really interesting images of a world that has almost disappeared, these few photographs didn't stylize or represent something they're not, it showed the world exactly as it was. D-lightful! I liked it so much that I even got the book from the gift shop. I kind of felt really old then, it's going to be my first coffee table book ever! So weird that next year I'll be living in a house with roommates... but it's so exciting. Good times ahead.

PS I am OBSESSED with these shoes, I want them so bad. If only they weren't an online special I would go out and try them on right away. I can already think of the millions of things they would go really well with. GAH they just look like they stepped right off the show Mad Men (a really good show btw) when Don or Pete are in their casual stuff on the weekend in the summer. E-Z BREE-Z.

W;T

I AM STARRRRVINGG... and my paper isn't finished yet. 2 more hours until I have to wake up... and yet, I can't seem to be bothered. I love english, but I hate writing. And even though there's only less than a week left of school, I haven't done much about it. I'm freaked out, but I'm so unmotivated. You know when you procrastinate? And then it comes to bite you in the ass? Yeah.

I'm just waiting for summer

P.S. if you haven't read Wit by Margaret Edson, do it soon! It's the smartest, realest play I've read in a while

low productivity

soo I have a bunch of papers due, some that even got extended, thank god. But I haven't done it yet. Instead I seem to be all over urbanoutfitters' new jewelry section, especially the BLEACH/BLACK branch rings that were finally posted! And I'm even on karmaloop obsessing about their awesome sales!

if only I had unlimited cashola...

anyways go to BLEACH/BLACK. they have a really sweet DIY pair of denim dolphin shorts. I think they're called the sydney short(?)

cinder & sage

every once in a while I would see a bunch of tables in Mac Hall set up with a bunch of vendors, but I didn't know it was a regular thing until the very last one, which was today. There's always a few book guys, who sell really great books for a really low price (except, not as good as free of course). But today, I had the best. find. ever. I was juuuust about to leave when I saw a little table with jewelry. I neeed jewelry. I loooove jewelry. I decided I would invest in a little more jewelry. Or make my own.

Anyways, it was a necklace with a working HARMONICA and a little heart charm. Plus, the chick who made them (yes, hand-made) was so great about everything! She let me change the chain from a thick chain to a thinner beaded chain. And you can always customize!

P.S. check out her stuff at CINDER & SAGE here. And she's heading to portobello west to launch her spring collection! FYI

New Cameras = Heaven on earth

Canon AE-1

Brownie Hawkeye

No.2 Brownie Jr.

My grandma found some old cameras this weekend and generously gave them to me yippee!!

I also got a Keystone pocketflash 120, and a camera from 1910 but sadly I could night find pictures of them!