I actively avoid royal-following, because blech to the weird obsession our society has with royals and the famous etc, but I may have squealed when I saw the combination of this woman's coat and hat. KATE. TEACH ME YOUR WAYS.
I mean. You guys.
Okay, enough drooling over photos. Here are some items inspired by the Duchess' totally ace holiday ensemble. I am still trying to locate the designers' information at this time for what she wore. (Edit: The coat is Alexander McQueen. Still don't know about the hat.)
Here are a coat and fascinator in vaguely comparable style to what she's wearing in the photos, if emulation is your thing:
Classic Black Watch tartan plaid jacket from Talbots
I know, I know, I should probably be writing about Radiant Orchid or sequined New Years things right now. Also, I've got a lot of Think Kit posts to catch up on. But this was necessary, folks.
So, I have had very spotty Internet access since my neighbors who I was going in halvsies with moved away, taking their router with them. Internet costs in this town are nothing short of criminal, and it's just been out of my budget. So, I just have to do the best I can. In any case, I'm back for now. I'll be catching up on Think Kit posts as well as I can over the next few days.
Day 13's prompt was: When did you laugh out loud? Share a funny or humorous story from this year.
Oh, there are several. Probably none are safe-for-work reads. There was the joy of getting to see Lou play Cards Against Humanity for the first time. The only thing funnier than the first time you get to play CAH is getting to see the reaction of someone else playing CAH for the first time.
And then there was the Indy Feminists Christmas party at Revolucion in Fountain Square. Turns out we showed up at the same time as Santa Con. We all got pictures with Krampus the Christmas Demon. There was much variety of Christmas dress-up enthusiasts including someone dressed as Buddy from Elf, a Christmas tree, Joseph and pregnant Mary, and at least a hundred Santas and Mrs. Clauses, some of decidedly BDSM persuasions.
They also all wanted pictures with me, since I was wearing a diaphanous red party dress with spiderweb-net sleeves, a cotton-candy-pink wig, furry-trimmed black wedge boots, and Hello Kitty ears at the time. The lighting sucked, so the photos aren't great, but here are a couple:
I'm ready for my spanking, Krampus!
People in 20s-thru-40s period costume for an event at White Rabbit.
There was at least one joke uttered that I may be ill-advised to repeat. But it did make everyone at the table laugh their heads off.
This was one or two days after Nelson Mandela had died, and we had been doing a little bit of kvetching at how folks like Harry Reid kept comparing Mandela to white guys including George Washington. Because if there's anything affluent old white guys like to do, it's compare heroes of marginalized communities to affluent old white guys. The topic shifted to other things, as topics are wont to do in a party situation, and then Mr. Rogers was mentioned.
Harmony said she never really got into Mr. Rogers. Quelle horreur! And then I may have lampooned Harry Reid et al harder than I have ever lampooned before:
"Well, really though, Nelson Mandela really kind of was like the Black Mr. Rogers, right guys?"
So really all I did was tweak the Simple template. Because I already liked the Simple template. Dynamic Views kept glitching and being weird, and generally just getting on my nerves. This one is simpler. And the background reminds me of candy.
Well, I'm not going to have a whole lot of opportunity to try something new today, so I'm picking a lifeline for today's Think Kit. Nay, TWO lifelines, sir!
I've had music on the brain this morning, and it is nearly impossible to just pick *one* new band or song this year. So I'm combining the "what new music did you find and how?" lifeline and the "make a top 10 list of anything" lifeline. Deal with it, sucka.
The Top 10 Songs and/or Artists I Found in 2013 are... (drumroll)
Poni Robots by Omnipony
I add that the kid was only 14 when he made this. Between the level of talent and effort needed to compose something like this, and the fact a 14 year old boy was OK with admitting he likes a pastel pony show written for 5 year old girls... I suddenly have a lot more faith in the future. I randomly found this song a few days ago while I was searching on Google for reviews of MLP:FiM season 4 episodes. I'm rather consistently blown away by the level of talent shown by this fanbase.
Q.U.E.E.N. by Janelle Monae featuring Erykah Badu
The TL;DR version is that I love everything about Janelle Monae. Just everything. Girl can do no wrong in my opinion. Her entire Electric Lady album is gold. I anxiously awaited this album because I've loved her ever since I found her. Granted, any song on the album could stand well as a single, but I think the choice to release this one first was VERY wise. Also. DAT VIDEO.
He Was A Big Freak by Betty Davis
My friend Nicole showed me Betty Davis while I still lived in Evansville. We were probably talking about how much clinical depression sucks, and we were definitely drinking hot tea in her old eclectic farm house. I will never be as cool as Betty Davis. Neither will you.
Love Come Down by Kalafina
I hate myself for not finding this group sooner. The whole thing is a brainchild of Yuki Kajiura, a composer who's done a lot of work for anime, and who I've pretty much got an enormous crush on based on her music alone. Everything is just so ethereal. I adore it so much. Kalafina is basically dolly kei incarnate. For more examples of Kajiura's magic, look up the soundtrack to La Portrait De Petite Cosette. A very disturbing, weird anime film with music so pretty, you'll cry.
To add an extra level to how stupid I feel for not having heard Kalafina sooner, they performed at Anime Central in Chicago like ONE month before I discovered them. *headdesk* (I also can't go without mentioning Natsu No Ringo. I was torn between that and Love Come Down to show you on the blog.)
Tea Party by Kerli
Okay, so this one is actually from 2010, but I missed her somehow. I do completely adore this song and video. I found it on some list somewhere of new music videos that have a goth vibe. I can't find the list now, alas. She's DEFINITELY got nothing in common with the old-school goth community that started it all back in the day, but this video is a lot of things I enjoy, bringing the sort of electronic dance vibe, glitter, and pastel set that I'm sure perkigoths can get all over. I'm a wee tad confused over Kerli calling herself the starter of something called Bubblegoth. I mean, I get the concept, and it's cool, but it's already been a thing. Because pastelgoth/perky goth/glitter goth already exist. Eh, I'm not going to think too hard about it. She's still doing some really interesting things.
Paloma Faith
I found Paloma Faith randomly on Spotify. Possibly on Mika radio, I'm not sure. The structure of the song I chose for her, Picking up the Pieces, reminds me of a Mika song. I'd have more insight as to why they're similar if I had ever studied music theory. For all I can tell so far, the woman is flawless.
Kishi Bashi
I am ANGRY at everyone who never showed me Kishi Bashi. He's probably my favorite musical find of 2013. God, his cover of ELO's Twilight makes me SO happy. Anyone who doesn't like Kishi Bashi is a bad person.
The Birthday Massacre
TBM is one of those bands I heard about in passing, made a mental note to check out, and then kind of forgot to follow through on it. The video above was made by my friend B-Ray, of Geekvision Productions, for a video contest the band had early in 2013. Leave it to B-Ray to remind me I was an idiot for forgetting about TBM.
Bottom of the River by Delta Rae
So apparently this was on the Sing Off a few days ago or something. I don't even have a TV, so I don't know. I heard this done live on NPR a couple months ago.
Daughn Gibson
I gotta just go and share the whole album for this guy. He's a weirdo. I like it. This is his 2012, album, not the one from this year. I like All Hell better, but his new album is called Me Moan, if you want more.
So, that's my top 10 for 2013. Did I miss something that I absolutely need to hear? Let me know in the comments!
Today's Think Kit is to draw a pie chart, bar graph, or Venn diagram of my year. Welp, the thing that is most easily the defining moment of 2013 was when I moved back to Indianapolis. I'm not saying that Indy is the only thing that took my life from sucky to good. I made a lot of good changes as well. The two biggest were changing from a job I hated to one I truly enjoy, and learning how to spend time by myself without climbing up the wall with anxiety and/or despair.
So, I joined ThinkKit's December blogging challenge thingy yesterday. It's a month-long exercise of daily writing prompts. I wasn't going to join up, but then i got curious, because it seems like EVERYONE on my Twitter feed is doing this. So hooray peer pressure! Here we go!
And then I promptly fell asleep yesterday, right after work, and slept through the whole night. That is what I get for staying up late Monday night catching up on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. (Don't judge me. Season 4 is AMAZING so far. Yes, I'm officially pushing thirty and I watch a little kid's TV show, what of it?)
So. I'm doing 2 posts today to catch-up.
Tuesday's prompt was: What habits did you start this year that you want to continue? I decided to write about 2. One serious, one silly.
I was going to write about how I've actually managed to start keeping up on self-care things including regular exercise, whether outside in the warm months, or in the gym as I've been lately, because winter can go suck on a candy cane.
Then I realized it goes a little deeper than that. My very mindset and self-talk habits have changed, and I really think that is the key reason why I failed in the past, and why I've been succeeding for a solid month now. In the past almost-year, I have gone from self-loathing to the point of literally being suicidal, to actually kind of liking who I am and wanting to nourish, care for, and strengthen my body. I'm weird. I'm awkward. I have big thighs. I can't crush my enemies like grapes between my big thighs anymore, but I'm working on getting that back. (Who needs thigh gap when you can be a loaded weapon instead?)
And in May, I'm running the Mini Marathon even if it takes me all day to finish it. So, the habits of more affirmative self-reflection and regular physical training will definitely continue in 2014.
I've also developed a wig-slash-fake-hair habit that may soon border on ridiculous if I keep it up.
I have a step-grandmother who, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't shown her real hair to the world since probably the 1960's. She has a most fantastic sense of fashion, bargain-shops to beat anyone, and always gives the best Christmas gifts of anyone I know. But I always thought she was crazy for the wig thing.
I now believe she is nothing short of a genius. Although she does focus too hard on people not knowing she is wearing a wig. Same color, texture, and length every day. She looks good, I mean GOOD, but if I'm going to wear a wig, I'm going to change my appearance with it.
So far, I have a short black bob a la Jane from Daria, a purple and black long curly wig, which was made for a Corpse Bride costume but which I'll be using for steampunk Rarity cosplay, an asymmetrical short black wig with electric-blue highlights, a mid-length layered black wig with purple streaks, and a long, slightly-wavy pink wig. I also bought some black clip-on bangs on Amazon yesterday, because I have a five-head, and I like bangs, but I hate styling them.
I'm also working on finding the perfect, curly, cotton-candy pink wig that I can style like one of the models from Betsey Johnson's Spring/Summer 2014 NYFW show:
I'm going to cop straight-out to the fact that this post wasn't entirely my idea. It was inspired by Estelle at XOJane.
I already have the perfect dresses to see me through New Years and Christmas, so I'm not concerned about that today. But I do turn 29 in January, so I was a bit inspired by Estelle to look at wildly expensive dresses that don't at all fit my service-sector budget. And now, I am in love. Sigh. It is amazing. I could wear the HELL out of this dress:
This one from BCBG Max Azria is also one-shoulder, embellished, and comes in a punchy pink color. Not quite as much drama though. At least it's within reach price-wise. It doesn't have all the delicious, fluffy ruffle, though. Like seriously. I'm swooning over that 2 thousand dollar dress. I like everything about it better, including the shade of pink. I can just see it with a wavy, piecey updo in my dark hair, minimal accessories like maybe just one bracelet, false lashes, and metallic shoes.
Have you seen similar that doesn't cost a month's pay? If so, hook a gal up. Otherwise, we can just moon over pretty dresses together. What's your fantasy party dress? How would you style it?
