Not-So-Guilty Pleasures.

"Life is too short to pretend you hate something for the sake of being cool."

I skimmed past this phrase one day whilst reading the woooonderful blog Yes and Yes. They weren't those exact words, so don't quote her on that! Regardless, the idea stuck with me. Whether we admit it or not, every day we publicly frown upon certain bands, books, or movies. Privately, you tell yourself it's nothing more than a "guilty pleasure." I ask you...what's the point in that? Why suffer another day telling people you think Star Trek is for squares, only to go home and read your "Klingon Word of the Day" E-mail? Today is the day to stop being so consumed with keeping up a certain image of yourself and just BE!

So...here we go!
-- I have always enjoyed studying Marie Antoinette and Georgiana Cavendish -- I love ALL classic Disney movies. I don't care how bad or corny, they just make me happy. Pocahontas is my personal favorite -- The same applies for Pixar -- The same applies for anything and everything Robin Williams has ever been in -- I am watching Johnny Quest as I type this. -- I love Ms. Lady GaGa -- I play EverQuest II to a potentially unhealthy extent. -- On iTunes, my most played song is "Hedwig's Theme" by John Williams -- On that note, my most recently played song is "Right Back Where we Started From" by Maxine Nightingale -- I have Bookmarks folder specifically reserved for things like this -- I own all complete mega-mega collector's edition box-set of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy -- I think the show Modern Family is absolutely genius. And I have been slowly but surely converted to Seinfeld...

Your turn.

My Summer Goals!

As an unemployed youth who has a lot of free time, I have been lying around dreaming off all the fantastic and fascinating things I want to do this summer. So I have complied a list of all the things I want to do during the season of the sun...

Pratiquer Mon Francais

I love the French language. I have always dreamed of living in the French countryside. I would would wake up early in the morning and go the markets and spend my afternoons reading and eating strawberries. In order to live in France without being HATED, I need to become some-what fluent in this language.

Bike to the City

Though I am 17 years of age, my parents have deemed that I am "too irresponsible to have a driver's license." I mean sometimes I forget to feed my cats and I don't exactly remember to turn in my library books when they're due, but at the same time, I'm not addicted to crack and I haven't been arrested. By Tina Turner's standards I'm very responsible! But whatever. Since I am not allowed to drive a vehicle, I have had to find other modes of transportation. Recently, I discovered that there are a lot of bikes in my basement. So, I've been waking up around 8 am and going for 5 mile bike rides. My ultimate hope is to be able to bike 20 miles and hang out down town for the day.

READ

During my junior year of high school, my English teacher gave out a 4 page long list of books to read before starting college. So far I have read 60 out of the 200, and since college is right around the corner I need to do a little speed reading. NO, I am not going to read 140 books in 3 weeks (although that would be really cool). I want to read at least 20 more on the list before starting my college experience. If you want your own copy of the list check out:

http://als.lib.wi.us/Collegebound.html

Adventure!

I live a very sheltered life in the confines of upper middle class suburbia, and I've decided that I want to feel a little dangerous when I button up my cardigans...I don't know where this will take me, but I am excited to find out...

Yours Truly,
Katie W

P.S. Summer's almost over, what goals are you still striving to complete?

Right Now.

Right now I would love nothing more than to me in some sort of blustery, sunny New England town. Maybe Vermont. I would love to sit on a rocky beach with all of my friends and eat pistachio ice cream while wearing tortoiseshell Wayfarers.
We'd all ride apple-red bicycles back to the cottage where we're staying and laze around. Someone would be out on the porch napping with their hat over their eyes. I would be in the heat of a Scrabble tournament in the living room. In the kitchen, something would be blowing up in the microwave.
In a little while, we'd all sit down at an old table with a checkered table-cloth. We'd have spaghetti and vegetarian meatballs and always lots and lots of fresh cherries.
Later, we'd lay on the grass outside and drink lemonade and play that game where you lay your head on someone's stomach and the person laughs, and then the person whose head is on your stomach laughs just because they can't help it. And then we'd all be good and tired and crawl into twin beds that feel like they are filled with rocks and look like they came from a hospital. And we'd all leave our doors open so we could talk about life as we drifted to bed. At sleepovers I am always the last one awake, so I would creep outside to the front steps and drink raspberry tea. Of course someone else would already be out there, so we'd share an itchy flannel blanket and fall asleep.

Next summer...

Curious Tuesday

One of my favorite bloggers in the whole wide world is Miss Gala Darling, (Okay, screw that. She is my SINGLE favorite) started up a weekly questionnaire called "Curious Tuesday." Here's the gist, you're given a set of five unique questions and you answer them honestly. It's interesting and gives you that warm, narcissistic feeling!

Here we go!

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Curious Tuesday 001

1. What is the strangest compliment you’ve ever received?

2. What’s your little-known talent?

3. What do you obsessively search for on eBay?

4. When you were a child, who did you worship & want to be like?

5. What was your palate band? Otherwise known as the first band you heard that made you realise the world of music was larger than whatever the Top 20 singles were! (The idea for this one came from here!)

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1. I've been told tons of times that I have greatest teeth. I don't understand it, though, because it's never something I bother to notice about other people. I do brush about five times a day, though. So I am glad it's paying off! Hahaha

2. Well...I am pretty decent guitar player. I am not self-conscious about performing in the least, but when it comes to playing guitar, I am scared out of my wits. That's the only reason it's a secret. Maybe I will dress up in a V costume and post videos of me playing "Purple Haze" on YouTube. 

3. Sailor Moon memorabilia! No further explanation needed. (You know...unless you want to talk about it...)

4. Hm...this is hard to answer because it changes about every two weeks, even up until this point. I think now I am definitely going through the Zelda Fitzgerald phase.

5. Definitely Franz Ferdinand. I guess I am not jaded enough to be embarrassed by that confession yet, but it's true! At the time, they only had one album, out, though. So I was forced to dig around for similar sounding records that lead me down a path of obscure British noise that maybe isn't as big on quality as I thought at the time...But, I promise you there were a few gems in there. 

Now your turn!

(And check out the original post HERE)

The Monday List - April 26, 2010

I hope your Monday is great...

        

--Make sure you check out The Sartorialist sometime soon! He's visiting Japan for the first time and the shots are wonderful!


--The history nerd in me has been trying the Name the U.S. Presidents challenge all week. My best score is 38/44


--http://yourscenesucks.com/


--There's a pool on flickr dedicated to Moleskine sketches/mods/etc. and it's fantastic! The voyeur in me always loves flipping through the sketchbooks and doodles of others.


--I don't care how you feel about Yoko Ono (I adore her...) her list of 25 Things Even My Best Friends Didn't Know Until Now is fascinating!


...and the rest of your week is wonderful!
 

Preparations for Summer 2010

So I woke up today and I decided I am in quite the adventuring mood!
Unfortunately I am preoccupied by a study group today...and pretty much every other weekend until the end of the school year. But! Katie W and I have plans to have the single most fantastique summertime experience of them all before she is shipped off to college. Here are a few selections...

x. Host a dinner party. Katie W. likes to refer to this as our "Midsummer Night's Dream Gathering" All though we have barely begun planning for this, I hope it's spectacular. Lot's of lanterns and desserts and 30's music.

Photo Credit: B Tal

x. Set up a sign on the street saying "Free Advice" I've always wanted to try this! I don't know how many people would actually come up and be willing to talk, but I think the people that would probably have something fascinating to say.

x. Learn to ice skate What better time to learn than in the summer? At least I won't have the angry glares of seven year olds who are more skilled than I am.

x. Make an extremely long list of books I've always wanted to read and read every single one. I'll save the contents of this for another post.

x. Form a lo-fi band and host regular concerts in my basement/someone else's basement. I have even started writing songs about Charlie Brown and Miriam Webster. It'll be Katie W. and I playing guitar and this Casio I found yesterday, wearing ridiculous dresses and lots of glowsticks. 

 Photo Credit: Cerebro Humano

x. Finish a game of Monopoly. This is much more of an adventure than you would think.

x. Attend a Rocky Horror Picture Show screening. After maybe The Nightmare Before Christmas and Titanic (don't judge me.), I have seen RHPS more than any other movie. BUT I have never been to the actual show! I even have a Columbia costume and I still haven't been. Katie W. is a veteran, though, so I plan on getting her to drag me and a bunch of toast there at some point soon.

x. Get any multitude of jobs. You know, in case the lo-fi band doesn't starting making millions of dollars ;) My current goal is to be the projectionist at a movie theater nearby.

x. Learn how to cook really, really well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNfSJIyFMVw

x. Start and finish some sort of really exciting, major writing project Don't laugh, but I really wanted to start writing this long series of books as an autobiography of Santa Claus. I've had it planned out for so long, and as ridiculous as it sounds, I think it could be kind of cool.

x. Travel I've never been out of the country. Something needs to be done about this.

Photo Credit: Malias 

x. So what's on your adventuring list?