WORDS: A murmuration of starlings

NATURE AND THE WORLD ARE AMAZING!!!!!!

TEXTURE, COLOUR, BUILDINGS, FEELING

BARK. 

BLUE EYES.

MINT. 

BUTTERFLIES FUCKING.

CLOUDS.

CLOUDS.

LIE.

RECOMMENDS

So the goal is to publish one blog per day. As Ira Glass avers, in order for your taste and the quality of your work to converge you need to PRODUCE PRODUCE PRODUCE. Prolific, baby. Speaking of which, this is a RECOMMENDS blog. As in, check this shit out.

For anyone trying to do anything of quality (as in work that is at least marginally better than totally crap), this is for you:

So if you're a girl, and even if you're not, Girl News by Kate Carraway (as seen in Vice) is boss. Such as Why Girls Hate Each Other: I know my sister is the BOMB, so why do I have relatively less girlfriends than boyfriends? And why are almost all my relationships with girls (who aren't of the lesbian persuasion) somehow peppered with this bizarre competition element? Like some how girls always just consider each other too girly (i.e. too frivolous) or too serious (i.e. too intimidating), or are, like, constantly judging each others' appearances. Actually, despite all the institutional bullshit and biases we're still confronted with in modern day society (and like, please don't even try to deny it because that would just make you ignorant and boring), I know a lot of woman who are fucking awesome. Like, actually woman are the bomb and all girl-hating by girls is pretty much just a pathetic manifestation of institutionalized insecurity. Yet still, relatively more of my friends are dudes. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? I guess all that competition and insecurity that manifests itself between girlfriends is all just too exhausting sometimes. Although I hardcore DO NOT agree with her that all girls do is talk and shop. She goes further; all girls talk about is mundane shit. SO UNTRUE!!!!?????? But then, girls do talk. A lot. And when I hang out sometimes I don't want to talk - which I can do with my sister, but not with many other people, but particularly girls. Is that it? I'm still not sure. Anyway, I'm going to try and kick this disgusting habit and stop being so repressed. I'll let you know how that goes.

Rub It Out: A Girl's Guide to Girls' Getting Off (For Girls): masturbation is a means of self-discovery.

What Girls Should Do In Their Twenties: Get mad but be nice. Also, if you haven't done it already, probably don't not use a condom.

WORDS: An exaltation of larks

Apoplectic - intense or angry enough to cause apoplexy (a stroke)
Lascivious - inclined to lustfulness
Salacious - lustful or lecherous
Egregious - extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant
Pejorative - having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect or force
Subterfuge - an artifice or expedient used to evade a rule, escape a consequence, hide something, etc.

Mondegreen - misheard song lyrics

A murmuration of starlings
A tower of giraffes
An exaltation of larks
An ostentation of peacocks
A loveliness of ladybirds
A bloat of hippopotamus's
A murder of crows
A sloth of bears
An unkindness of ravens
A wisdom of wombats
A prickle of porcupines

Little girl/grandmother

I love this picture (props Lydie!). Weird evil eyed cat lying on the bed (love you meg), little girl/grandmother pyjama set, inspiration wall and the beginnings of my attempts to FINALLY CLEAN MY ROOM.

CLOSE-UPS!!!!

Today: the ocean

Today I fell into the ocean. I've been yearning to do this for months. If you want to swim in the sea, which I highly recommend as one of life's most exhilarating experiences, run in FAST, don't give yourself time to think. Then you can also trick yourself into thinking you're hot enough to embrace the freezing cold yet welcoming arms of Dunedin's coastal waters. It is actually AMAZING and in fact, I think it's even better when the water is cold because it's such a beautiful shock to the system. Pretty sure I'm in at least some ways totally opposed to the brand-as-identity that is Nike (well, that's for a later post), but I kind of just have to appropriate the slogan in this instance. Just do it! You won't regret it.

Strange child

American Apparel ads

"They're fucking gross, man. Look, I love beautiful girls too. I think everyone should be free to have their knee socks and their sweaty shorts, but I'm over it. I'm over this weird, exhausted girl. I'm over the girl that's tired and freezing and hungry. I like bossy girls, I always have. I like people filled with life. I'm over this weird media thing with all this, like, hollow-eyed, empty, party crap." (Amy Poehler in Bust Magazine)

Some American Apparel ads:

I am so sick of consumerist expectations. Fuck you American Apparel, YOU ARE SO BORING. Stop trying to sell me things in completely unoriginal ways. 


An American Apparel ad, courtesy of Frankie Magazine:

Some of the AA ads, such as the two featured above, differ in that they attempt to provide the models with some measure of 'character' and 'personality' in accompanying the images with text relating to the girls; where they work, what they do, blah blah. Who are these people? What have they achieved? Why are you telling me about them? I don't care????? Whenever magazines delve 'into the minds of the models' I just seriously don't get it. That modelling requires talent and discipline I can accept, but why would anyone care about your average model's general interests? Unless they were actually awesome, or an artist or musician or SOMETHING. Hello??????? 


Besides which, let's at least be honest here. The 'substance' of these models doesn't lie in their interests, quirky achievements or favourite article of AA clothing. These factors are peripheral. These models are in fact defined by their appearance. Delicate or 'bad-ass', quirky or innocent, mysterious or seemingly with substance, their appearance is what creates our 'idea' of them, and that idea is all that matters. Marshall McLuhan asserted that the form is the function and no where is this so true as in contemporary advertisement's representations of women. 


Many women subconsciously accept this idea and aspire to it, no matter how false or elusive it may be. And of course, advertisers are aware of how these interactions play out and they foster our insecurities, telling us YOU TOO CAN BE THIS IDEA OF WOMAN (so long as you look this way, act this way and wear these clothes). Woman aren't the only ones who buy into it, though. Men do too, at least in regards to woman, thereby expediting the whole tedious spiral. The glittery veneer of these advertisements lure us in, but they are false promises with nothing to offer but tedious self-loathing and a prioritisation of appearance/idea/form above all else, always contingent on the validation of others. That is, rather than real substance, emotion, character, passion, personality, dreams, independence, self-worth/respect, beauty and relationships. And you can't ever win, because they are endless. There is always a new model, a new way to be, new clothes to buy. You can't stop the ageing process. God it's so boring I could cry. 


I want to be Joni Mitchell. 

Naomi Wolf.

Sylvia Plath. 

Or Simone de Beauvoir

Choose Life

I just finished my third year at Otago University studying Law, Art History, Politics and German. This year feels so immensely intense in retrospect, I'm exhausted to the bone. I don't know what my life means any more without an intense regiment, waking up early every morning, without the library, without cramming so many extra-curricular activities down my throat I could choke. Well I make it sound awful, but it wasn't. It was actually amazing. But that's the paradox. You want to do everything at the same time, you want it all, all the time, but then it's too much.

I'm taking next year off to work and live "in the real world". No 50 minute lectures, talking at me, stuff my head with knowledge for a test and forget it the next day (I DON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING FROM SECOND YEAR LAW) boredom. Actually, it's what you make it and any knowledge is fascinating and the world somehow has to have standards to show people are in some respects competent and have stamina and endurance, determination ad infinitum. There's a larger perspective to this Esther Greenwood, Holden Caulfield-esque angst and I get that. But it's time for a change.

Anyway. Once I rest, don't talk to anyone for a day, lie in the sun, cry, adapt to my new found freedom, I'll get back to you. Bones just need a bit getting used to.

                 

Let's get this started