Tagged with Music!

I've been tagged! I love tags. It's sick, I know, but I can't help it. They are like little presents that say, "Here. Now you don't have to think of a post!"

The lovely Sal of Already Pretty tagged me to list the seven songs that are shaping my Spring. Mine'll be for summer because a.) Spring is over and b.) I love Summer. I'm still a bit of a backwoods blogger, so I'll post links to where you can listen to the songs. No fancy embedding, sorry.

1. "Gobbledigook" by Sigur Ros: What a lovely rush of a song. Pitchfork described it as "Sigur Ros doing Animal Collective" which is totally on the mark. If you aren't familiar with any of those names, let me translate: it sounds like an amazing, ethereal indie rock choir covering a happy, hand-clapping mess of a song.
Listen to: when making dinner on a warm summer night

2. "Death and All His Friends" by Coldplay: It was only a couple of days ago when my boyfriend called me from work and whispered sheepishly, "I have something to tell you." Deep breath. "I like the new Coldplay. A lot." Yes, we're those elitist snobs who think Coldplay is a dirty word or anyhow, we were. Now, however, we're both digging it. This is my favorite song on the album purely for the catchy little chorus that pops up around the 2:40 mark.
Listen to: when reading blogs

3. "Love Made Visible" by The Delays: The whole album was a little bit of a disappointment, but this song sounds like the Delays I know and love.
Listen to: when you are going for a walk and pretending you are in the opening scene of a movie

4. "Mykonos" by Fleet Foxes: I think I've mentioned this song before, but it really bears repeating. A lovely ditty that is reminiscent of a warm sunny day in the 60's/ 70's, laying in a field full of wildflowers or something.
Listen to: on a sleepy Sunday morning

5. "Stop Playing Guitar" by the Promise Ring: There's just something about this song. I mean c'mon--the singer has a lisp. And it's charming. (Please please please do not watch the video when you listen. It's a dreadful video. Just minimize the screen.)
Listen to: when you are sure you're happy

6. "Leggy Blonde" by Flight of the Conchords: My bf's song for me. Catchy and ridiculous. But sweet.
Listen to: when you're reading In Yr Fshn. Duh.

7. "You've Done it Again, Virginia" by The National: If it's not evident, I'm a sucker for sleepy, slow music in the summer. Makes me think of being lazy and sluggish in the heat, doing nothing but reading and laying around.
Listen to: when you're deciding whether to get ice cream or gelato, but know you'll get neither and probably just take a nap instead

So I'm supposed to tag seven people, but I have no idea who hasn't been tagged yet for this one. I feel like I keep seeing it everywhere... if you'd like to be tagged let me know.

Updated to add: I am tagging my friend Mr. Bungle, who is currently attempting to ride across the country on a bicycle. His brave lady, Mz. Bungle, is joining him. They are blogging about it (or will be blogging about it) at Bungles on Bikes. 

Opinion, if you please

So. I'm going to a friend's wedding at the end of July and I am sorely in need of wedding attire advice.
My mom and I picked out this dress today and I thought it might work for a daytime Sunday wedding in July. Yes? No? If yes, what shoes, hair and nail color?

[Updated to add: Commenter Delaney brought up some good questions, so I figured I should add some more information. This wedding will be taking place--service and reception--at a banquet hall on Long Island. If the weather is good, it will be outdoors. It is semi-formal in that the couple is paying for their own wedding and are making it as nice as they can afford, but they are young and just bought a condo. I mentioned in the comments that I had a crazy blogger's urge to go edgy with this and do black nails with black heels--click on the pick to enlarge and you'll see the black trim lest you think I am insane--but that's probably too overboard for me and possibly too overboard for Long island in general.]





Back to regularly scheduled jewelry business on Friday.

Shiny Pretty Things

Some pictures from today's trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art...

Jeff Koons Installation on the roof:









Statue of a cold girl in the gallery (I sympathize):



Other gallery shots:




The sky over our apartment on my walk home



I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the Superhero: Fashion and Fantasy show. It felt very thrown together and I couldn't figure out any sort of deeper message, even with all the helpful grad school thesis paragraphs on the walls. But that Koons stuff is something else, right?

Pearls! And Flight of the Conchords! And SATC!

The thing is, I really am on about 50 jewelry websites a day but somehow once I get here, I just want to post about what I've been doing all day.

Does anyone have thoughts on Flight of the Conchords? I was bored one day and out of various DVR'ed episodes of You Are What You Eat and Gilmore Girls (I know, it's like estrogen-ville around here), so I took advantage of on demand HBO and watched the first episode.

(Image from hbo.com)

It was weird. I rarely laugh out loud at things and this was no different, but there was definitely some sort fascination happening. Read the description here if you've never heard of the show because even though I feel like not much happens, it's a little overwhelming to describe. BF sat in on the second episode and fell in love (and is obsessed with one of the guys, Jemaine, because "he looks like Simpsons character in real life"), which made me like it a little more. My favorite line from a song so far? "And when you're on the street, depending on the street, I bet you are definitely in the top three good-looking girls on the street. Depending on the street. "

Watch that scene here.

Now, the other day lovely Penelope of I Heart Clothes! asked if I asked if could weigh in on a jewelry trend a lot of folks probably saw recently: Sarah Jessica Parker's character Carrie Bradshaw in the Sex in the City movie wearing the heck out of a long pearl necklace that looked oddly fake to me. I got it though: sort of preppy but taking preppy back and making it edgy like Alexander McQueen and plaid or something. You know how Carrie rolls:

(pic from This is London and yes, that was the only picture I could find that showed the pearls and also, yes, this was under the headline "Carrie Bradshaw Caught in fashion Nightmare")

Pearls have always appealed to me; I'm a big fan of modesty which is what pearls seem to imply (or you be glass-is-half-empty type and think they look stuffy) and really, pearls go with everything. I like a long string of pearls and plain tank just as much a collar pearl necklace with a 50's silhouette dress.

For all the SATC obessives out there, the J.R. Dunn blog reports that the actual necklace in the movie was an opera length white pearl strand by Mikimoto and it retails for $11,900.

If you are in it purely for the trend, you can't do better than:


Multi-strand Pearl Necklace at F21, $5.80



Peggy Li has an interesting take on the traditional style:



Pearl and sterling necklace by Peggy Li, $110



I love the ribbon on this one:

Ribbon-tied Long Pearl Necklace at J. Crew, $200


It's hard to buy authentic pearls in general and even tougher online. I would advise to either go to a reputable jeweler for a real strand or look for faux while shopping the Internet.


Flapper Baroque Pearl Necklace (61"), $45 [faux]




Elegant 160 cm Pearl Necklace, $38



Faux Pearl and Satin Bow Necklace at Speigel, $19



Hello Kitty is even getting in on the action:




Hello Kitty Long pearl Necklace by Tine Tarantino, $225

Though I like the basic strand, my favorite pearl necklaces have something a little different going on:


Honesty Necklace by Teleecouture, $40




Magnolia Tangle Necklace by t8Designs, $89




Sarah Necklace with White Pearl and White Topaz by Pamela Susan, $59



Please let me know if I missed anything you were looking for.
Onward now, to the Met I think. Their show on superheroes and fashion looks intriguing.

Music Post

Just a quickie here...

(Pic from Photbooth.net)
Stereogum had a post about a forthcoming documentary about Liz Phair's album Exile in Guyville and the trailer made it look fascinating. As with a lot of people, I have a love/ hate relationship with Liz Phair. The easiest thing for me to do is pretend that the Liz who wrote Exile is a completely different person who put out the latter day pop songs that wandered up and down the Bilboard charts.

So. Liz Phair. I think she made me a feminist? I remember getting a copy of Exile in Guyville, a purported song-by-song response to the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street, when I was 19 or 20. My fondest memory of this album involves a boy and a broken heart, which sounds sad and is sad, but not as sad as you think. I had just decisively ended a tormented former romance turned friendship--always the worst kind, though I didn't know that at the time--and was still reeling a little bit but I definitely did not want to talk about it, thank you very much.

There was a long drive and a lot of thinking and as I passed over state lines, the thinking became singing and then the singing became a sort of yell-singing like, yes Liz Phair! This is my life you are singing about! You, with your perfect hair and amazing voice and envious way with words! You are singing my songs.

And her music, with it's anger and rue and sweetness, made me feel all better. By the time I reached Cape Cod to meet my grandma and mom for our annual vacation (which, really, can you imagine a worse place to be going for a week when you are so mad at the world you can barely breathe?) I was actually looking forward to every little thing that we do in our mobius strip of a vacation. Whenever some emotion crept up on me that week, I just put on Exile in Guyville and offered to pick up the beach passes or groceries and pretended that I was Liz Phair as I drove there, singing out every thing that had ever pissed me off.

Acrylic-ville

It's already been a week since my last post? How time flies once the weather starts shaping up.
I'm working on a long one, requested by Penelope of I <3 Clothes, about Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker's recent penchant for pearl necklaces. That should be up by Wednesday.

Today, however, I'll post another thing item that eludes me... an acrylic collar-style necklace. Why, oh why can I not find the perfect one? I came close when reading a post by LC of the wonderful Fops and Dandies, but once I meandered over the site of the jeweler she posted, I found that the necklace was a little too ornate. Not enough bold collar-ness happening. Another close call came at a local boutique... just not close enough. Here are some of those near misses, with a few other interesting pieces that came up on my acrylic quest on etsy.
(And thanks for previous recommendations folks; I do know about alchemy. I just prefer the hunt.)


Migration Out to Sea Necklace by Paraphenelia, $25
[This reminds me of Miss Sarah Brown of Que Sera Sera fame, who always seems to be wearing a great boat necklace]




Black Acrylic Laser Cut Necklace by Marmod8, $25
[as seen on Fops and Dandies]




Reversible Chesire Chain by Beyondwonderland, $39.90
[as seen in Candy Plum--local Astoria boutique]




Black Nouveau Necklace by soigne, $60


This is the one I may end up ordering... you might recognize a similar design from a past Friday Favorites. Love that honeycomb-style shape:


Hexagonal Necklace by Brevity, $30


Ooh and look at another in the Brevity shop:

Cellular 1 Necklace [sold out, but it looks like they will make a custom necklace if you like the design] [Oh, she has a separate non-etsy online shop!]


Off topic, a little, but I think this ring is very interesting:

Black and White Acrylic Ring by Aubeebop, $30

Eeeeeeee!

I kept meaning to post this... downtown on Broadway, by Spring Street, I think:

Kitties Playing Dead

Hot one, eh? It was the kind of weather that made you think about taking a nap even if you'd just slept a satisfying nine hours. BF and I sat around a lot talking about how hot it was and then we went out to air-conditioned restaurants to drink cocktails and get our appetites back. Oh, if you're in the Astoria area, I'd recommend Sparrow for excellent burgers and interesting decor. The Shirley Temple wasn't anything to write home about, but the BF enjoyed his specialty beer.

So, what else? The cats couldn't move more than three inches at a time; needless to say, there was a lot of this going on (And I am SO embarrassed by how fat they look here--I swear, the angle added five or so pounds!):






I wore dresses (and tried to do spontaneous poses, but man, I just can't):

(Dress from Forever 21)



(Dress from Century 21... and the hair went up immediately after this was taken.)


...Cringed while reading about Ambika's encounter with cicadas...


And thought about jewelry that looked like the sun:

Lemon Vine Earrings by Sarita108, $52


Yellow Thread Bracelet with Silver Chain by Beth Orduna, $225




Yellow Rutilated Quartz and Hammered Silver Ring, $118




Long Sun Drops Necklace by Stephanie Gibson, $54

I also listened to a lot of music: Lykke Li (the sweet-voiced female counterpart to Peter, Bjorn and John), the new Deerhunter called Microcastle (a band I never much cared for as psychedelic ambient punk, etc. is not really my bag, but I can get behind the new one... very poppy in a way), and a couple more runs through the newest Wolf Parade which is nothing less than amazing. Is Weezer breaking anyone else's heart? For like, the fifth time?

As Delany commented last week, I did have a blink-and-you'll-miss-it music blog, but I got blogger cold feet. I don't make any great efforts to hide my identity here, but I really don't advertise to people I know that I've got a blog. It's probably something all of us struggle with at one point or another, but I was concerned that the music blog would have become a little too personal in some ways.

Friday Favorites: It's Complicated

Hi folks! These slow days at work are so distracting. Since I'm home, I'm all over the place: three trips to the grocery store a day, doing my nails, allowing my burgeoning crush on Gordon Ramsey to develop as I plop myself in front of BBC America for hours at a time...

But here we are at Friday Favorites, which I've missed and neglected because I have half days on Fridays and lately, well, those have become whole days in which I am out of the door at 9 am and gallivanting. Today's gallivanting has been postponed until I figure out when/ if it is going to rain. So, without any further ado...



Maharani Ring by Iacua Jewelry, $450




Geometric Green Vintage Button Pin, $12




Acrylic Honeycomb Necklace by Brevity, $30




Earrings by Belle Brook, Price upon request




Orbit Cuff Bracelet by Stone Soup Designs, $40

Look at this ... interesting listing I came across on ebay whilst searching for vintage dresses:


Here's the link if you can get past the Psycho [SPOILER alert!] OMG-he-just-turned-the-chair-around-and-it-was-just-a-skeleton-
with-a-wig imagery.

And Forever 21, c'mon! If you're styling a hot young thing and she looks like she has pancake boobs in your dress, why on earth would you think any normal young thing would buy it?


Don't get me wrong; I enjoy Forever 21 (though I know shouldn't). In college, we had a contentious relationship: basically I thought all their clothing was club crap. Then I began to wear dresses and for some reason, their dresses are absolutely the most flattering I own.