Category Archives: Good Shit You Should Know About

June 12, 2013 · 2:06 am

My life be like

It is so time for a blog post.

First I’m going to break things down into simple bullet points.

This is what my life has consisted of over the last 6 weeks:

work.
raging
all of the music festivals that exist
so much music
having non stop fun
literally not sleeping
iced coffee
dranks
friends
the most fun ever
things I can’t talk about on a blog because they’re illegal

Alright so if I never get any further, at least that’s a summation.

We’ll start with Sweet Life. Sweetlife is a music festival put on by 3 bros who are cool who live in D.C. who started the company Sweetgreen. Sweetgreen is the shit. If you live in DC you know it, if you live probably anywhere near D.C. you know it. If you don’t, it’s probably coming to your city soon so don’t worry. It’s a healthy salad company where you can just go and eat delicious food and be skinny and eat yogurt and salad and juice and like, do yoga and listen to music. It’s a lifestyle and the owners are awesome and really into music and and the good things in life. They started a music festival like 4 years ago and get major acts like The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kendrick Lamar. This the adorbs John Neman from Sweetgreen:

I was covering it for Refinery 29 so I got a press pass and VIP access to the whole festival so our photog and I could spot well-dressed peeps and take their pictures for the story. I utterly and completely love my job with R29. It’s so perfect for everything I am passionate about. I get to just talk to people, network, go to creative events and festivals, spot well-dressed people (what I do regardless of whether I’m being paid or not), talk to them, find out their info/ask them where they got everything on their body (what I do regardless of whether I’m being paid or not) and listen to music simultaneously. And then WRITE. Legit dream job.

Feast your eyes on the fruits of our labor:

http://www.refinery29.com/sweetlife-festival

This is what I wore:

I got that white cropped silk tie top from Style Etoile on sale for like $40 bucks, it’s Wren, and the softest thing ever and THE. PERFECT. LAYER. to throw on top of things for music festivals! I wore it on Day Three of Governor’s Ball as well:

(what up dude with a floppy hat, what up).

Sweetlife was INCREDIBLE. Gary Clark Jr. blew our MINDS, and yes I can’t see or think of him without comparing him to Jimi Hendrix, sue me; and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were out.of.this.world. Karen O is legit INSANE. Actually Holly, my editor, used the most brilliant word EVER to describe her——- deranged. There is no more perfect word. She is actually deranged. And it is AMAZING to watch on stage. I was losing it. Katie (the photog) and I pushed our way to the very very front because I will never go to a show and NOT find my way to the front, every time, and we could see the beads of sweat on her deranged face and everything about it was beautiful. But, she nor anything I’ve ever seen compare to Guns n Roses at Governor’s Ball so we’ll get there.

Actually before Sweetlife was seeing Kendrick Lamar at Cornell for Slope Day. It was an insane amount of fun.

Me and my bff Ellie after the show, where I also pushed my way to the front.

We went to a delicious healthy restaurant where I had the best kale Caesar salad of my life.

I love road trips, music, friends, sun, grass, Kendrick Lamar, and alcohol. So the weekend worked out well. Saw Kendrick again at Sweetlife one week later and he was like 40 times less good than at Cornell. The crowd was just small enough, the mood was just right enough, it was a way way different experience than at Sweetlife.

Aside from the music at Sweetlife, the other best thing was the FOOD OH MY GADDD THE FOOD. They had all these food trucks that were incredible. Erik Bruner-Yang, the head chef at Toki Underground– what is pretty much non-arguably one of D.C.’s top 3 restaurants– had collaborated with the team at Woodberry Kitchen, another mad-famous restaurant, on a special menu that will never be re-created again and it was THE. BEST. FOOD. I. HAVE. EVER. HAD. IT WAS SHRIMP-WRAPPED SUGAR CANE WITH CRUNCHY PEANUT SAUCE. OH MY GOD. I have seen Erik multiple times since then and all I talk about is the shrimp-wrapped sugar cane and he probably wants to murder me. He said I’ll never have it again and I said well then I’ll hire you to do the food at my wedding and he couldn’t argue with that. FYI, this is Erik:

Not long after Sweetlife, I had the PRIVILEGE, the HONOR, of working as the PA (<— production assistant) on Refinery 29′s “30 Under 30″ shoot in D.C. We are profiling the 30 most awesome, badass, doing-amazing-things people in our fine city and the team from New York came down for this incredible multi-day shoot and I got to meet/hang with such awesome people. The hair team, the make-up person, the photographer, the photo editor, the catering people (kraft services was from DGS – an amazing new ‘modern’ take on a classic Jewish deli, run by two extremely cool dudes who were ALSO one of the food vendors at Sweetlife so we’d met the week prior), the talent that we were shooting, the owner of the studio we were renting, every single person was amazing to spend time with. I ran the music so every day we balled out to Snoop Dog and Tupac and Nate Dogg and Skee-loo and The Dream and Miguel and The Knife and RAC and White Panda and Crystal Castles and Kid Cudi and Kendrick and Juvenile and Beastie Boys and all of the West Coast rap that ever existed between the years 1990 – 2000.

It was one giant dance party and one of the single best experiences of my entire life. Between that shoot, and Governor’s Ball, and Sweetlife, I have literally experienced the greatest 3 events of my life to date. Ever. It was AMAZING to be around such creative, talented, fun people, and just be creative and do fun tasks like posting crumpled paper to the wall and getting REAL REAL creative with giant rolls of colored seamless. It was the most fun e-v-e-r. And a lot of fulfilling work.

The scene:

Some of the crew:

The owner of the photog studio, Josh Cogan, and Nick from DGS:

Laughing about how we are the “PVC’s” — positive vibe coordinators, otherwise known as hype people, and I realized for the first time ever that I geniously branded myself as The Hyperbalist without even realizing how awkwardly perfect the layered meaning applies to me because I exaggerate a lot, but I am also always the hype person, and hyper as an adjective, so being the “hyperbalist” is literally awkwardly perfect for me on 3 different levels.

My friend and BADASS jewelry designer Rachel Pfeffer being annoyingly adorable:

A series of Ryan Mitchell, my new favorite human on the globe, being the funniest person ever. His humor/personality reminds me Polly Shore, but like, 40000 times better. He named his hair salon Eastern Confederate because it was next to a Western Union. YES. #YES. Literally no other reason. He saw the Western Union and was like, meh, fuck it, Eastern Confederate.

LOL I laugh out loud just looking at these.

Me and Ryan poppin’ champs

crushinngggg it –

Me and Sarah, the make up star

And a better one: Me, Sarah, and rapper Phil Ade – my new fave picture of all time with him mean-muggin like that –

John Wall, nbd:

If you don’t know who John Wall is, casually view this please:

Skyler Javier, menswear designer, dripping swag

The other best part is that I got to write 12 of the 30 profiles. I feel legitimately honored for the opportunity to do this kind of thing. The shoot began my bender of never sleeping. It was so much work and when I got home, I had more work, and then I basically started staying up until 4 in the morning to work on the 12 bios. It was SO fun to get to know the people, be there for their shoot, and get to write their stories…and now I cannot WAIT (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) until the “30 Under 30″ series goes live!! I am so proud of it! And grateful to my editor Holly who enables me the opportunity to do this. She is the bomb.com and a legitimately genius editor. And does the best “Stefan” impersonation e-v-e-r. She is better at Stefan than Bill Hader is at Stefan.

Me and Holly : ) She looks like “oops I ate the last delicious DGS cookie but sorry I’m not sorry smiley face” and my body language looks like “girlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, girl girl smh.”

Aside from work and music I’ve also been going to a lot of events around town, because summer brings out the absolute best in me. I just want to do things, live life, and enjoy hanging out with awesome people.

I recently went to the 52 O Street Open Studios — an event in D.C. that I HIGHLY recommend you bookmark for next year or whenever the next one is. I had written about it here, for Refinery 29, and wanted to go because one of the people who lives/works in the 52 O Street Studios is Kelly Towles, the badass graffiti artist whose work and essence and person I am obsessed with and did this piece for our house–

and his amazing wife Virginia, a knitwear designer, and their adorable baby and 2 dogs and just general amazingness. While there, I happened to meet Skyler Javier, the rad menswear designer whose profile I was writing for 30 Under 30. I walked in to his studio and was like oh this is cool, and then I was like, WAIT A MINUTE, you’re…it’s you! I’m writing a story on you! I love the creative scene here in D.C. So small and everyone is nice and supportive and loves our city. This was Skyler’s studio:

And the Saturday after the 30 Under 30 shoot, I went to the D.C. Meet Market – an event run by none other than Virginia, since she and Kelly are the ultimate entrepreneurs — a kind of mini-ish flea market type event on the first Saturday of every month down in the Logan Circle area where my friend Fitz lives. My friend Cameron who I’ve known since I was 12 and used to be my roommate started a jewelry line, Saint Clair jewelry, and she had a booth and I’d been meaning to go out and check it out, so I went and got iced coffee and just hung out at her booth with her for like 3 hours. And Libby Diament, my other jewelry designer friend (who I wrote a story about for Refinery 29 that will be coming out this Friday!), and Sarah Cecilia, my other jewelry designer friend (I met all these amazing female jewelers- Rachel and Libby and Sarah- when I used to work for NBC The Feast back in 2010!) and I basically just acted like I was a jewelry designer with a booth and chilled with the 3 of them in the hot sun for hours and then Cameron and I hula-hooped.

And then I left the D.C. Meet Market and met up with my friend Fitz and we walked past The Standard on 14th and they were selling their donuts and they are only one dollar and I bought one and it was the BEST. THING. EVER. OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am getting a Standard donut on Saturday every time. They’re a dollar! AYFKMRN? And FRESH and doughy and soft but fluffy and sugary. I. love. my. city. and neighborhood. I was so high on D.C. that day. Fitz and I caught up, drank, snuggled with her pug, and then went to the back patio at Vinoteca for hours and took shots of whiskey which is apparently something I do now. It was so fun.

And, weirdest coincidence EVER, Skyler, the menswear designer with the studio, who moonlights as a paramedic, literally had to come to Vinoteca, medically, to take care of some girl who had gotten sick, so we were drinking and I turned around and saw him in a Paramedic uniform and was like, oh wow, we were in the studio 24 hours ago taking your picture as a menswear designer and now you are saving someone’s life. THAT’S DC FOR YA.

Then………………..

after basically not sleeping for like 5 more days due to working on 30 Under 30 profiles late at night since that’s when I work, it was time for Governor’s Ball.

I CAN’T start on Governor’s Ball right now. I just can’t. It will take HOURS to write that post. I cannot start like this.

I will leave you with 1-4 pictures and then I will do a SEPARATE, beautiful, dedicated post to the insane GLORY that was Governor’s Ball. Axl Rose is Jesus. God. Michelangelo. He is religion and art and sex and love and beauty and legend. He is legend. He is a once in a humanity talent. Not a life time, not a century, and not a thousand years — a HUMANITY. No one since the dawn of time to the year 2013, including Mozart, exceeds his talent. He is better than anyone. He, and his band, and their music, are better than The Beatles or Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd or Frank Sinatra or ANYONE THE FUCK ELSE AND YOU CAN JUST COME OVER HERE AND TAKE IT UP WITH ME IF YOU DISAGREE BECAUSE IF YOU WEREN’T AT GOVERNOR’S BALL AND DIDN’T EXPERIENCE WHAT WE EXPERIENCED, THEN YOU KNOW NOTHING. It doesn’t matter what genre. I don’t believe in “oh well you can’t compare Axl Rose to….I dont know, Jay-Z or Kanye because it’s just so different.” Nope, you can compare talent. Whether or not it’s rap or opera. Talent is talent. Legend is legend. Truth is truth. It’s just TRUTH. Axl Rose is the fucking truth.

There was mud, there was love, there was friendship, there was food, and there was truth. Axl Rose will make you a believer. In once-in-a-HUMANITY talent. NO ONE. AND NOTHING. HAS EVER. COMPARED TO HIS AURA. HIS MAGNETISM. HIS STAGE PRESENCE. HIS TALENT. I WILL BE HIGH FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE OFF THAT SHOW. I WAS GRINNING LIKE A FUCKING IDIOT. IT WAS FACE MELTING. MY FACE MELTED OFF.

IT MELTED.

I AM FACELESS.

That’s what I’ll leave with you.

SORRY HE PARTIES. SORRY HE IS THE GREATEST ON EARTH. We should all probably just give up because nothing will replicate that experience. Nothing.

I’m going to do a separate post on music too, just the music I’ve been listening to recently and my favorite songs of all time, something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. Music runs my world.

2 Comments

Filed under Good Shit You Should Know About, Life and things, Music

May 18, 2013 · 3:37 pm

Tildon Megan Pump

What’sssssss upppppp everyone. Thought I’d check in, with a post about new shoes. I’ve had so many emo thoughts running through my head lately about life, work, distraction, meaning, purpose, fulfillment, children, goals, happiness, journeys, decisions, parenthood, memories, youth, aging…. but I can’t begin to put it into words so I’ll just talk about shoes, since that’s easy. Shoes can’t stress me out. Shoes are great. Especially the most perfect shoe in the world at the most perfect price in the world.

So, I have this thing, that is either human and happens to other people, or is just unique to my personality. Not sure. But I forget things. I will see something amazing, or read something amazing, and then forget about it, and discover it on my own by accident like 2 months later, and only realize by further accident that the thing I ‘discovered’ was in fact that same thing I’d already known about from 2 months prior, and smack my forehead like OMFG OF COURSE!

What happened is this;

I was scrolling through instagram, and Betty, from Le Blog de Betty, a.k.a. one of my top 5 style icons in the world, had instagrammed a picture of a pair of shoes she was hawking for Dior in Paris. I think she ‘designed’ them or something. Whatever.

They were the most perfect shoe I’d ever seen. For my style, and my taste, and my preferences. I see a lot of fucking shoes in my instagram feed, and in real life. They don’t all stop me in my tracks because they don’t all appeal to MY sensibility. But this shoe, was my dream shoe. I didn’t know it until I saw it, and I couldn’t have conceived of it if blindly prompted, but upon SEEING this shoe, I was floored at how it was everything I’d ever wanted. This is exactly, word for word what I thought to myself upon seeing it: “I would pay 3,000 dollars for those shoes. Those shoes are a pair of shoes that I WOULD actually open a credit card for. Like if I were in Paris, and saw those, I would make a bad decision in order to own them.” I thought that, to myself. And then I moved on with my life.

Approximately 2 months later, I am in Nordstrom, shopping mindlessly to distract myself from my inner thoughts. And, the reason the previous quote about opening a credit card and making a bad decision for those Dior shoes is a joke, is because if there is one thing I am proud of myself for over the last 6 months, it’s for the way I have grown in terms of shopping, finances, and just general consumerism. I almost never shop anymore, first of all. But I have also gotten my credit card down from $6,000 to $2,000, in 4 months. I set my mind to it in January, and here we are in May, and I have literally knocked out $4,000 of it. It’s not a surprise that I’ve done it, because I made a plan in January, said I was going to do it, wrote it down, and fucking did it. It felt like it would take forever even when I planned it out, and I had to say no to a lot of things, sacrifice a lot of things, and live very smartly in terms of what I eat and do; and I officially have two months left until a balance that I have carried since the year 2008 is gone. That is not even counting the previous $2,000 on other various cards I knocked out between November and January. By this July I will have no credit card debt left.

I will still have an ANNOYING amount of student loans, a car payment, no savings (because any/all money that I had saved and that would normally have been ‘saved’ has instead been solely directed at eliminating debt, because ‘saving’ when you’re in debt is kind of a joke, since the ‘saved’ money is just sitting there whereas the debt owed is actually growing due to interest), and infuriating medical bills due to this leg injury of mine, because life is a circle of unexpected expenses that never end; but nobody has ever made more of a 180 in terms of shopping than this person writing this post. I don’t quite know what it was, but I just changed. I almost magically acquired the ability to ask myself if something is worth it, and honestly answer myself.

For instance, these Zara sandals —–

I desperately want them. I have almost pulled the trigger on them on no less than 7 occasions over the last 2 months. I have seen every blogger whose style I like wear them in gorgeous ways. I want them. And yet each time I have been tempted to spend the $129.00 on them, I’ve mentally ran the scenarios through my head and been like “see the thing is Alina……..they are gorgeous, and sexy, but you just. won’t. get. the cost. per. wear. .on them. You just won’t. They’re not versatile enough, for how YOU dress, to warrant the price tag. When you go to get dressed on a Friday night, you’ll grab your boots, or Pencey platforms, or a shoe that’s chiller. You love a sexy shoe, but these just aren’t chill enough. All the lace and straps…they’re sexy and visual, but you’ll wear them to one date night and then they’ll sit there. You won’t feel comfortable in them. You won’t feel fully YOURSELF in them.” And then I just don’t buy them. They are absolutely not worth the $129.00 to me. I refuse to spend that on them, even though I would like to own them.

Because I finnnnnnnnnnnnally just KNOW what I’m going to wear, and what’s worth the price tag. And I didn’t used to. I would make bad decisions. Not ALL bad decisions. I’ve made some genius purchases over the course of my life, prior to acquiring this newfound ability, such as my Isabel Marant rugby shirt and jersey from Hu’s Wear on sale for $140 down from like $500; my black leather Iro shorts; my jeans-with-the-hole-in-the-knee that I wear six times a week and would DIE if anything happened to. It’s more about a ratio. Previously, I probably made 65% amazing purchases, and 35% stupid ones that weren’t worth losing the money for. NOW, I make literally 100% smart purchases and 0 % dumb purchases. So this ability kind of evaded me for about 12 years, and now it feels like it was handed to me overnight. Like I didn’t read any articles or do anything….. I just woke up one day and knew exactly what I needed to do to only buy things I’ll wear one billion times one billion ways and never make a bad purchase again. I feel like Veronica Mars. Like I went to sleep and woke up with the ability to shop ruthlessly. Nothing warrants my dollar bills unless it meets like 42 criteria specific-to-me that I don’t even consciously think of. I couldn’t articulate or intellectualize the criteria, I just KNOW when I know.

And so, I have spent very little money on clothes/shoes and exclusively made completely genius purchases since about October of this past year, and managed to get $6,000 out of debt simultaneously. Nothing is tempting unless it is. And I almost never shop ‘for fun’ any more. I usually go out if I have a short list of 3 to 4 things I know I need, and am in the mood. And those things coincide almost never. But this past week I was feeling particularly bored/sad (my leg) and decided to go to Nordstrom to see if anything was worth my money. I went straight to the shoe section, and almost immediately spotted these beauties, and thought for sure they’d be exactly like the $129.00 Zara ones.

But I picked up the shoe and was SHOCKED to see a $59.00 price tag. I couldn’t believe it. They spoke to me instantly and I wanted them desperately. But I was still skeptical, thinking, they probably fit weird. I tried them on in my size, and nope. Nothing about the shoe was wrong. Everything was right. I was losing it over how perfect they were.They are a genius color combination- a soft blush pink, shiny copper d’orsay strap, and off-white heel. The combination is visually orgasmic. The design…..I can’t even.

It wasn’t until I instagrammed them when I got home, and one of the commentors–as stunned as I was that they were a $59.00 shoe–noted how much they looked like Dior, THAT I REMEMBERED. THE DIOR SHOE! I had already fallen in love with this shoe! Months earlier! THIS WAS THE LE BLOG DE BETTY DIOR SHOW! EXCEPT FOR $60.00, not thousands!!! Of course. I had saved a screenshot of the shoe when it came into my instagram feed, and had entirely forgotten it existed. But yet had picked this same shoe out at Nordstrom as the one shoe worth buying that day. It just goes to show you how the things we like are just in us.

I find that that happens a lot in life. Certain designs, or shapes, or colors, or looks, just inexplicably speak to you. And you might not even realize it for awhile. Like how when I save certain images from the internet, I don’t realize that they all have something in common, until I do. Like I’ll accidentally, unknowingly, save 17 pictures of living rooms I like, and realize down the road that each one has a white Eames shell chair in it. And I didn’t realize as I was doing it that it was the same chair. It t just spoke to me over and over again. And that’s how I realize what I like. That’s what happened with Kelly Towles (a story I still have to tell) — I saved images of like 7 pieces of his art that I was obsessed with, both from the internet and stuff I’d seen around town, without realizing it was the same artist. So clearly, I really fucking like Kelly Towles’ aesthetic. (From our house–)

And Clearly, a pointy-toed, stiletto heeled, METALLIC pump (don’t matter if it’s copper, or silver, I LOVE ME SOME METALLIC), involving the color pink (any shade) and involving a d’orsay cut, is MY SHOE. I mean, I already knew I loved metallic heels (about 60 % of pairs of shoes in my closet have at least one metallic strap), and d’orsay is my go-to shoe design (as I wrote in this Refinery 29 piece when they asked me what my go-to outfit was to feel sexy– D’ORSAY heel), but these are like next-level d’orsay. These are like modernist d’orsay. D’orsay reimagined. I’m obsessed.

They aren’t Dior, no. But they’re $60.00, YES. And whatever, I LIKE THE BLUSH PINK BETTER THAN THE DARKER DIOR PINK ANYWAYS! Can you even believe how similar they are?

Crazy. So, you can have what you want without going into debt or making bad decisions. Thanks to brands like Tildon and a little shopper’s luck.

That’s all I got.

Thank you again again again to everyone who keeps checking in on my leg and being so thoughtful about it. I love everyone. My issue is still basically the same. I can live my life, I just can’t exercise/do anything remotely physical, and though I am used to it and able to proceed with my life, I am still hyper-aware that it is there. At every second of every day, I can feel that it has not healed and is still limiting my natural mobility. The only time I didn’t think about it was when I was drunk for 72 hours straight in Ithaca last weekend, which isn’t sustainable.

6 Comments

Filed under Good Shit You Should Know About, Life and things, Shoes

March 12, 2013 · 2:25 pm

A Rusko Giveaway; a tale of music and high school crushes; and a history of my relationship with the 9:30 Club (worth the read trust meeeeee)

I interrupt this regularly scheduled programming to offer you my first, ever, giveaway. In honor of my 27th birthday, I decided to give YOU a present.

If you’ve been following my blog since all along, you know that music is an obsession of mine. There was a 3-year period after college where I spent all of my disposable income on concert tickets to the 9:30 club, because it is the single best venue I have *ever* been to and music is my life/makes the world go ’round.

Me with head phones on jamming out at age 2:

And a legitimately NON -posed, CANDID photo my bff took of me at a bar a few years ago because while other humans talk to each other and have conversations (see left) I am in my own world dancing to the music. As Nate Dogg put it, “Music and Me.”

I’ve seen concerts at a lot of the places where you see concerts in other cities- Roseland Ballroom in NYC, House of Blues in Boston, various places in Miami- and every time I’m kind of just embarrassed at how much LESS awesome the concert is because it’s not at the 9:30 club.

I was born and raised in DC and one of the first times I ever went to the 9:30 Club for a concert, I was like 17 and going to see– get this– YELLOW CARD!!!!!!!!! Haha I still love them and that nostalgic first album of theirs so f*cking much. OCEAN AVENUE? SO GOOD. SO GOOD. The harmony when they sing “we would walk on the beach in OUR. BARE. FEET”– so classic. Reminds me of the scene in Step Brothers where the family is harmonizing to Sweet Child of Mine in the car.

I was going there to meet up with my crush, this dude that I had met in Shakespeare class. HAHAHAH I literally sound like the biggest loser EVER, but it was actually the opposite, obviously. Literally we were the only 2 cool humans in our Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship and he was super emo and introduced me to Brand New and Yellowcard and Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional. Holy facccccccccccck I listened to the Brand New Album on repeat non stop- IT’S SO CREEPY AND AMAZING AND WEIRD AND HAUNTING AND PSYCHO. Sic Transit Gloria was like my favorite song ever. “SO DIE YOUNG AND SAVE YOURSELF!!!” Classic anti-life angry youth screaming in a girly voice. So hot.

So anyways, he was going to the Yellowcard concert, and me, Ellie, Kate, and Cait were at Cait’s house in Kensington Maryland. I couldn’t drive yet because I didn’t get my license till I was like 18 years old out of sheer laziness; and at this point in time, AKA TEN YEARS AGO, the area where the 9:30 club is was still an area where our parents were like, ‘you’ll get murdered if you go there!’ hahaha I mean not really but as parents they would gasp and be like, “THE 9:30 CLUB?! YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY NOT GOING THERE WITHOUT AN ESCORT.”Oooobbbbviously we had no fear, and lied to all parents involved, and packed into Ellie’s explorer and like….probably printed out Map Quest directions since at the time no body had smart phones or Google Maps so we definitely were still in the era of legitimately PRINTING MAP QUEST hahahhaha I’m laughing just thinking about that. HOW ANCIENT.

What’s so funny is like, I have butterflies just typing this because I remember how CONFUSED we all were getting down there. We had no. idea. where we were. None. It felt like we were driving 2 hours into nowhere’s-ville because everyone lived in the suburbs (even though it’s actually about a 15 minute drive). And thinking about, it’s almost unfathomable to me how far that car ride felt and how little we knew about where we were; because now, I live about 3 blocks from the 9:30 Club and it’s my regular jaunt and of course now the area where it is is like the most desirable area in DC and homes are like 5 million dollars to buy and the Hiltons (as in Hilton hotels) have 2 of the coolest venues sitting right there (in fact one is IN the 9:30 Club– Satellite Room).

Needless to say the Yellow Card concert was epic. I stayed out ’till like 2 am; got a ride home from one of my crush’s friends; snuck INTO my house undetected; and took a math final exam the next day and got an A. Don’t worry about it, I WAS A #LEGEND in high school. It was the night before a final exam (it was December, the semester was ending) and I just straight went to a ragey Yellowcard concert on a Tuesday night. And that is why I’m never having children.

All of that is part of my sheer memory, but I just looked it up for fun confirmation and the concert indeed took place in December– on the 10th of the month in the year 2 thousand and 3, to be exact. The Fall of my senior year of high school. Exactly 21 days later, I would stay up at a Kinkos finishing and sending college applications via The Standard Application on the very last day they were allowed. And 3 weeks earlier, December 10th, 2003, age 17, I attended a mosh-pitting concert with my crush and then crushed a mathematical final exam the next day in the year when I needed to get into college. I take back what I said– I am having kids because I want them to be exactly like that. Sorry I party.

I will never forget that night, and the way it epitomized friendship– all my girls piling into the car for this thrilling adventure down to the club in the ‘bad part of town’ to support me in my romantic endeavor to win my crush over. (We only ended up making out once– not that night either, and he blatantly ended up being in love with Cait because she is gorgeous and has piercing blue eyes and every guy would always fall in love with her so I’d tell her to look ugly around my crushes and she would because that’s what friends do except it never worked. I’d literally be like “you’re not allowed to shower, don’t put on any make-up, and wear a fugly outfit” and she’d be like “obbbbbbviously.”)

Throughout the rest of high school, I would go back to the 9:30 Club constantly– especially for O.A.R. concerts. That’s cause homeboys were…literally our homeboys, because they were from the area. This was back when their shit wasn’t over-produced and toolish and Game of Poker was the greatest song EVERRRRRR. God damn I had good times at those O.A.R. concerts.

Post college, from age 22-25 my social life was basically going to concerts at 9:30. See this post for an example http://thehyperbalist.com/2011/02/03/ohdeargod/

In that time span, I saw…..

Florence and The Machine when nobody knew who she was
Wiz Khalifa- pretty much still when no one knew who he was
Ratatat (one of Alex and I’s first dates together!)
Miike Snow
ADELE (I die)
Cold War Kids
Santigold
Lykke Li
Little Dragon
The XX
SBTRKT
Girl Talk
CSS
Beach House
Crystal Castles
And one million others

Crystal Castles brings me to where this story is coming full circle.

One of the single best shows I’ve ever seen was that concert– where their opening act was someone or something (I didn’t know yet) that I’d never heard of.

It was THREE years ago.

And his name was Rusko.

And when he began performing,

MY WORLD WAS SHATTERED. My mind was blown.

It was the most fun I have ever had. It was this DIRTY-ASS, HEADY, HYPNOTIC, POUNDING, SICK, GARAGE DUBSTEP.

And he was completely, pathologically insane.

He actually takes the energy that someone like Macklemore has and quadRUPLES it. He is natural crack. The way he jumps on stage, and moves, and dances, and gets the crowd going…he has this aura and energy about him like he’s an excited 16 year old boy except the beats he is creating and jamming to are nastttttty. And he always performs in socks. Hahhaa white athletic ankle socks, with his muscular shapely calves (because all he does is jump up and down), and jean shorts that go down to mid calf. It’s hilarious.

I can honestly say that going to a Rusko show is an experience I wish upon every human being before their death. I really mean that. I am not being hyperbolic. I think a bucket list of life, regardless of musical taste, is being AT a Rusko show–at 9:30 club specifically–and experiencing his energy and music. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. His stage set is SO FUCKING COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s these giaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant Hollywood Starlet-type letter-lights that spell Rusko and BOUNCE up and down on hydraulics doing different amazing things depending on the beat.

As he was performing, I was looking around, and there were all these club-chicks totally zoned out and ROCKING out to him, and I asked one of them about him and realized he had legit GROUPIES. Like I was discovering him for the first time in 2010 but this chick said she’d been following him around London and THE WORLD and had been to every single one of his shows. And then we danced together for the rest of the night even though she was definitely on like 9 Mollys and I had to google what a Molly was after hearing every rapper ever mention it in every song ever. For a while I legit thought Rick Ross was saying “Pop a Miley”, referencing Miley Cyrus because she did Salvia and other drugs.

From that point onward, I was a Rusko addict. I went to 2 more of his shows at 9:30 Club, and then last May, Alex and I went to Miami to visit my family. Upon walking in the door to my aunt’s house at 2 am on a Friday, my 13 year old cousin goes “Alina, I’m going to Rusko tomorrow, want to go?” And I was like “IS THE POPE CATHOLIC YEAH I WANT TO FUCKING GO TO A RUSKO SHOW IT WILL BE MY 5TH” (I looked so cool to my 13 year old cousin, JK he didn’t give a fuckkkkkk and probably thought I was less cool for saying that, it was so Amy Poehler as the mom in Mean Girls of me); and at 2 in the morning Alex and I signed on to live nation and bought tickets to a Rusko show occurring less than 24 hours later in a city we were visiting for 3 days total.

But guess what, IT PALED IN COMPARISON TO WHAT RUSKO IS LIKE AT 9:30 CLUB BECAUSE 9:30 CLUB IS THE BEST VENUE IN THE COUNTRY, SORRY EVERYONE ELSE.

My love for 9:30 and for Rusko has been welllll-documented on this blog, and now, I am giving away TWO TICKETS to the Rusko Show at 9:30 Club this coming April. It’s Thursday, April 18th at 10:00 p.m, and the tickets are $40 eachhhh which is expensive for 9:30 Club aka indicative of how legit he is. You really just need to take my enthusiastic word for it that a Rusko concert is LEGENDARY. IT’S THE MOST UNIQUE SHOW YOU’LL EVER GO TO. YOU HAVE TO GO.

So if you live in DC, and want TWO FREE TICKETS to see Rusko at this epic venue in our nation’s capital, you need to:

Follow me on twitter: @TheHyperbalist;

and simply leave a comment on this here post with your name! (and email, so I can email you if you win!)

You get an extra entry into the pot if you tweet about the giveaway with hashtag #Rusko930. I’m not going to give you any toolish parameters about what you need to say in the tweet, like “I JUST ENTERED THIS GIVEAWAY with The Hyperbalist!” (I would never make you do that). Just be a human and say anything you feel like saying about it.

I have never once done a giveaway. I would only ever do one about something I feel this passionately about.

RUSKO

THE

SHIT

And honestly you’ll look really cool. Rusko is like…cool, and still, unfathomably so, relatively ‘off the radar’. It’s not like going to see like….Will.I.Am. HAHAHAH who has ever bought a ticket to see Will.I.Am? I hope no one that’s reading this blog. Or even a band that’s legitimately good but known by all. Like Mumford & Sons- amazing, but everyone knows them so it’s not news if you go to their concert. RUSKO? NO BODY EVEN KNOWS WHAT THE WORD IS. PEOPLE DON’T EVEN REALIZE HE’S A HUMAN. THEY DON’T SAY ‘WHO IS RUSKO,’THEY SAY “WHAT’S RUSKO?” So you’re cool if you know who he is.

GOOD LUCK WITH THE GIVEAWAY I SINCERELY HOPE YOU WIN.

And if you don’t win and/or want to buy tickets, here the link! http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/eventV2/220063?utm_source=hyperbalist&wrKey=61FD2C11DB68F1080A129DC216B25CE9

HAPPY 27TH BIRTHDAY TO ME AND YOU!!!

I’d probably wear this:

*PS. You guys….I just listened to Ocean Avenue again, and like….what the fuck YELLOW CARD IS SO GOOD! IT’S SO HIGH SCHOOL. “There’s a place off Ocean Avennue, where I used to sit and TAWK with you, we were both 16 and it FELTSORIGHT, sleepin’ all day and stayin up all………..NIII-HIGHHHHHT.” And the violin at the end?! I remember at the show, the violinist was SO SICK, he stood on a cube and just like……played his violin but would get all acrobatic and gymnastic and do back flips and shit with the violin. He was the hot one of the group. WHERE ARE YOU THESE DAYS YELLOWCARD?!?!?!

17 Comments

Filed under Concerts, Good Shit You Should Know About, Music

January 11, 2013 · 1:56 pm

Kelly Towles–Sneak Peek

HAPPY FRIDAY!

This is is a sneak peek at the first piece of art I’ve ever had commissioned. As in, I approached the artist with a concept in mind and he executed my vision for the piece. It’s a really cool story and I have so much to tell you and say about the process and the hilarious story behind how I discovered him.

I don’t want to say too much because this is a teaser and I am writing a whole post about it….but…..it was the coolest experience and I can’t waittttttttttttttttt to share everything. The story behind the piece, all about the artist, etc. I. am. so. ex. cited. to. own. this. piece.

Stay tuned!

1 Comment

Filed under Art, Good Shit You Should Know About

November 4, 2012 · 11:52 pm

How I ended up blogging for DL 1961, aka a tale on how being an internet stalker can lead to great opportunities! Or potentially will them to happen. Like that book “the secret.”

So this is a tale about how being addicted to the internet can lead to great things. I am a complete internet freak, really because IT’S THE EASIEST THING IN THE WORLD to click. How easy is it to click? You just fucking click, and one thing leads to another and another and another. It’s dangerous and problematic. It can also be AWESOME but it’s also a complete joke where I find myself some times. Like COMPLETE joke. Sometimes, I’ll find myself up late at night scrolling through Kendall Jenner’s twit-pics. And then I see a cute picture with some cute boots in it and, and one of Kendall’s friends is tagged in the picture so I click on her twitter profile and her profile links to that girl’s blog, and her blog links to like…her friend’s sisters blog, and then I’m 30 minutes deep into a 14 year old’s blog who lives in West Hollywood and is 4 humans removed from the Kardashians and I’m reading about her family’s trip to the Virgin Islands and I’m like, WHAT THE FUCK ALINA, WHAT THE FUCK.

Just the other day, I was on Apartment Therapy. And I saw a SUPER AWESOME house tour from Venice, CA of this gorgeous bohemian woman with this naturally curly hair and tan skin and great body, who used to live in NY and work for Diane Von Furstenberg, and she has these two gorgeous twins, and the coolest house, and her quotes in the piece were awesome, and the story mentioned she had a blog, so I’m googling her name, and tracking down her blog, and before I know it I’m reading about how her girl twin is stubborn but she tries to find the patience to accept her strong-willed-ness, and I’m reading the recipes she uses to make like.. flax hemp granola for breakfast, and reading how her kids exert their personalities in the food choices they request and how sometimes they request watermelon for dinner and she just has to let them experiment and sometimes you just have to ‘say yes’ to watermelon for dinner, and then I’m googling her name to find more pictures of her, and then I’m on her Pinterest page seeing what kinds of things she pins, and then I’m scrolling through her public facebook photos, checking out her hot husband and how adorably in love they seem, casually perusing the album of their couple’s trip to Thailand and Bill’s 40th birthday party (a “rockstar” costume bash), and then I’m checking out her pregnancy photos, right-click saving “cute pregnancy style” to my desktop, and then I’m outside of my body slapping myself and splashing cold water on my face screaming GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF after blacking out for an hour. Whateverrrrr don’t act like you don’t do it. You probably don’t. That’s why I’m insane.

Needless to say, this story begins with my perusing of a blog, and having a very keen eye for the way pants are cut and fit. It’s a science, an art, and NOT ALL PANTS are created equal. The blog in question was Blonde Salad (a VERY famous blog of a stunning Italian girl named Chiara who has a lotttaaa money and goes to every fashion show ever and travels around from Paris to New York to Milan and has Miu Miu this and Chloe and Proenza that and has…REALLY. GOOD. STYLE. REALLY FUCKING GOOD STYLE). I stumbled upon a post of hers (this one), and was stopped DEAD in my tracks by how much I loved the pants she was wearing.

They were cut PERFECTLY.

They hit *EXACTLY* where I always want my pants to hit. The perfect slightlyslightlyslightly cropped fit, with the TINIEST little ohhhhh-so-subtle flare (thanks to two slits- one on each side of your ankle). They were SO FLATTERING. They looked AMAZING with her Miu Miu heels. I couldn’t handle it.

I literally studied the photos for like ten minutes straight and said to myself/the universe/internet: WHAT. FUCKING. PANTS ARE THOSE. I NEED THEM NOW. WHAT ARE THEY. THEY ARE THE MICHELANGELO OF PANT. Casual, sexy, just the perfect cut and fit. And I could TELL from the photos alone.

She credited them as being DL 1961. The first thing I did, obviously, is google “DL 1961.” The first link I clicked took me to Shop Bop, where I doubled over with excitement that EVERY PAIR of pants DL 1961 ever made looked like my dream pair of pants. I wanted the ones Chiara was wearing, and they had them in every color. I was desperate to purchase, but without ever having tried them on my body, I didn’t want to risk it because I have a really hard time purchasing something online that I’ve never tried on, unless it’s like…a sweatshirt.. I decided I would wait to try them on in person but had no idea where I could even find a pair in person.

So, I forgot about them.

Completely and utterly forgot I’d ever researched them, just plain old forgot about them.

Five months later, I am in New York visiting my friend Kristin. For over seven months prior, I had been on the hunt to find THE pair of black skinny jeans. I’d had one pair for 4 years, they were that brand “Blank” denim that is super inexpensive, like $40 a pair, and they were paper thin and didn’t fit anymore. I’d thrown them in the trash (literally, like, put them into a trash can because they were so worn out), and was living black-skinny-jean-less. Black skinny jeans are a wardrobe STAPLE, particularly if you’re me. Because pants are my style. A dress or mini skirt is a special occassion, because 99.9 percent of the time, I’m in jeans. Black, blue, pink, polka dotted, I just love pants. It’s funny because I used to be obsessed with shorts, but even this summer, I realized I was wearing pants in lieu of shorts more, even when it was really really hot out. I used to only wear shorts exclusively for like 3 years (I’ve written blog posts about it), and this spring/summer I had a shift and found myself almost always reaching for jeans whenever it was time to do anything or go anywhere. There is no time I feel more sexy or comfortable than when I’m in….jeans, especially WHEN THEY FIT PERFECTLY. The right pair of jeans- forget it. So I’d been searching for THAT black pair. I went into the Barney’s Co-Op here in DC, I went into Saks, I went in Macy’s, and Bloomingdales, and Cusp. Nothing. Nothing worked. Nothing fit perfect. Nothing was cutting it.

So New York department stores have like FOUR BILLION TRILLION GAZILLION more brands and options than DC. I mean the New York Macy’s and Bloomies are gargantuan. So on this trip up to New York to see my friend Kristin I realized, “I get into New York 3 hours earlier than Kristin gets off work, I will go into Bloomingdales and FIND the pair of black skinnies I need since they’ll have 239403280483092 options.”

So I roll in to the Bloomies on Broadway, straight off the bus, literally with my roller suitcase and heavy shoulder bag, stroll up to the denim floor, find a nice young male sales associate and am like, ‘listen, I am trying to find the perfect pair of black skinnies, I’ve already pulled like 5 pairs, can you help me find a few more options based on what you think are the best?’ So he literally starts pulling, like off the walls, from the cieling, just pulling black skinnies out of crevices, and I roll to the dressing room with like 17 pairs. I didn’t look at or check what brands they were, I wasn’t on the hunt for “the perfect pair of Seven skinny jeans” or “the perfect pair of J Brand skinnies”, I didn’t give a FUCK about brand, I was open to trying ANYTHING, because I just wanted one that fit me the way I had in mind!!! WHEN YOU KNOW YOU KNOW, and up until that point, every thing I’d ever tried on HAD NOT CUT IT. Keep in mind, at this point I forgot DL 1961 existed. Flat out blacked out my little moment with Chiara because it had been in February and this was June/July.

So I start trying all of the black skinny options on, and THEY’RE ALL TROLLS. COMPLETE LOSERS. COMPLETE WANNABE’S. They’re cut SO poorly, they’re fugly, they make my hips look wide, the cut my waist at the wrong place, they HUG my calves and look horrible, they’re too tight, they don’t “cut” at the right place at my ankles, NO NO NO NO NO.

Then, around about the 6th pair I try on, I am elated because nothing has EVER fit better in my entire life. They are SEXY and casual, and they are COMFORATBLE AS FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are like kind of stretchy (which I find out later is because they ingeniously use lycra-esque material to make them fit in a perfectly comfy/stretchy way but they are REAL denim pants, they aren’t leggings or anything close, but they have this stretchy-esque material that is dreamy beyond words), so I am in this dressing room, and I am FREAKING OUT, I’m jumping up and down, I’m obsessively checking out every angle, I feel like I’m being punked, IS THIS REAL, ARE THESE PANTS REAL? THEY ARE THE MOST AMAZING THING I’VE EVER TRIED ON, THEY ARE PERFECT. I COULDN’T HAVE CONCEIVED OF A MORE PERFECT DESIGN IF I HAD BEEN BLESSED WITH THE BEST DENIM-MAKING SKILLS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. And I’m like wait, WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE PANTS?!?! I strip them off, check the tag, AND

LO AND BEHOLD

THEY ARE DL 1961.

{A picture I snapped at that VERY moment, in the Bloomingdales-on-Broadway dressing room, in my dream black skinnies, straight off the bus, with my suitcase and everything. If a black skinnies looks cute with my converse, I am sold. Obvi you can barely see the pants in this photo but whatever.}

At that point, I’m extremely impressed with DL 1961, but egotistically, I’M MORE IMPRESSED WITH MYSELF THAT I’D BEEN SO RIGHT JUST FROM SEEING THOSE PHOTOS ON CHIARA’S BLOG. I saw her in those sky blue pants and I could just TELL–FROM *PHOTOS*–that there was something GENUINELY special about this line of pant. Like, I’d fucking known it. And I’d reached the eventual conclusion/proof BLINDLY. It was a blind taste taste. I had no idea what brand I was putting on that day in Bloomingdales. I just was RUNNING through pairs of pants, trying one on after the other, tossing them to the side, piles of discards, NEXT, NEXT, NEXT. And then I tried on this magical pair and was STUNNED at their perfection, only to find it was DL 1961, the brand I’d ID-ed as being my dream pant 5 months earlier from a blog.

So I buy the pants.

And I wear them the whole weekend with Kristin.

To see Woody Allens’ “To Rome with Love” at the Angelika—- {post I wrote from that night/weekend here}

And then I get home and wear them on a date to see “Moonrise Kingdom” with my boyfriend—post I wrote about that outfit here

And then I wear them on a date to eat at Bistro Du Coin in DC—post I wrote about that night/outfit here:

And then I wear them AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN. Over and over.

For 4 months.

And then one day in late September.

I get an email, in my inbox, saying that “DL 1961 is looking for bloggers.”

I ABOUT jumped out of my seat, literally, because I was so excited, because………………..how often do you get introduced to a brand because the way their pants CUT on an Italian fashion blogger you’ve never met looked so perfect that you researched the brand she was wearing, then forgot about them, then were shopping for black skinny jeans at Bloomingdales in New York trying on 17 pairs after trying to find the right black skinny jean for MONTHS with zero luck, and the pair you fall head over heels obsessively in love with and wear non stop day in and day out for the next seven months is the brand that you’d taken note of months earlier and then that brand emails you saying they need bloggers and you are a blogger.

Yeah.

Like, people get pitched things all the time, and 100 percent of the time it’s an embarrassing no. I’ve almost never considered a single pitch email that’s ever come into my inbox, because it’s never like….YOUR FAVORITE BRAND WHOSE ITEMS YOU ADORE SO MUCH YOU’VE ACTUALLY SLEPT IN THEM EVEN THOUGH YOU HAD THE OPTION NOT TO. Because that doesn’t happen. It’s like….loving Stuart Weitzman shoes SO MUCH and having this weird fateful story about discovering the brand, and then several months later you get an email from Stuart Weitzman’s PR team saying they are looking for bloggers and are you interested. That doesn’t happen. But it did, for me and DL. I bet other bloggers in DC got the same DL 1961 email, but the point is that they did not have this back story, of discovering the brand the way I did and falling madly in love. Maybe their favorite brand is Paige denim and it would be crazy for them to get an email from Paige denim because of x y or z. But for me, that love-match was with DL and it was meant to be. I was probably WEARING the black skinny jeans when I got the email. I never take them off.

So I write back IMMEDIATELY, attached like 5 photos me in the pants and am like “Ahh yes I WORSHIP DL 1961 here I am in my Angel Skinnies I wear them non stop blah blah” and I get the email back and and we seal the deal and I freak out with excitement about what I’m going to do for my first post, and nothing has ever been more perfect than what they were asking for– any posts about life, travel, food, art, culture, cities, what have you. I was like, are you kidding me? Dream job. See ya. I WOULD SPEND MY EARNINGS ON YOUR PANTS IF YOU’D NEVER EMAILED ME, EVER. I ALREADY WORSHIP YOUR PANTS, THEREFORE THE FACT THAT THIS JOB ENTAILS ME WEARING YOUR PANTS AROUND TOWN, AND TAKING PHOTOS, AND WRITING BLOG POSTS TO ACCOMPANY THEM IS A JOKE BECAUSE

I ALREADY DO THAT.

I ALREADY BLOG ABOUT ME IN YOUR PANTS BECAUSE THAT IS MY REAL LIFE. Except I don’t pay myself for doing it. And DL 1961 does. #compensation #winning #CharlieSheen’s'trolls’and’winning’willnevergetoldtome,ever

Unreal.

So then they ship me my first pair and I’m all over the moon excited. I wrote this post in them. First post and some photos:

And then 2 weeks later, I’m going to be in New York to see Denis. And so I email my DL gurl Demetra and am like, “hey I’d love to stop by the showroom and meet the team in person” so then I go up to New York for 24 hours, stop by the DL show room, snag 2 more pairs of pants for my next 2 blog posts (I CANT I CANT I CANT I’M IN HEAVEN), and that’s basically it.

Second post here, some photos for which below:

Third post here, photos below:

I. love. these. pants. And I loved this day. I am going to write a separate blog post all about it.

It’s where we found our bea-u-tiful cow skull!

My baby and our cow:

DL 1961 Jeans, I ADORE YOU!!!!!

I just shot and turned in my 4th blogpost soooo I’ll post about it when it’s up. It’s about skateboarders : )

My all time favorite black skinnies are the ANGEL style. (There are different styles, Angel and Emma are my favorite except I can’t really say that because EVERY STYLE EVER is my favorite).

http://www.dl1961.com/search.aspx?searchterm=angel

27 Comments

Filed under Fashion, Good Shit You Should Know About, MyStyle

June 7, 2012 · 12:55 pm

Libby Diament & Rachel Pfeffer– DC design darlings!

As I mentioned in this post, my boyfriend and I recently went to #thecutestdinnerpartyever at my friend Libby Diament’s house, with another couple we frequently hang out with, Rachel Pfeffer and her man. It inspired me to write a bit more about both of them because Libby and Rachel HAPPEN TO BE two of my favorite jewelry designers/makers/sellers/people in the DC area. They are sooooooo cute and quirky and fun and so talented. Outrageously so.

I first met them by chance, in the natural world. Like I didn’t research them or hear about them, I literally happened upon them and their skills (Libby on the street while shopping, and Rachel at a party– more on that below). Then, upon realizing their skills, our connection was in the capacity of them being editorial content for the fashion writing I do (I’ve written both of them up in separate posts both for my former job at The Feast and then for Refinery 29– Rachel here, and Libby here), and thennnnnnnnnn we fast became friends-friends. Like sometimes you write about people and they are just……people are you are writing about. And then sometimes you meet someone, set up an interview, and then you’re like…wait…you’re extremely cool and I would like to hang out with you in my legitimate personal life. And then you do.

I seriously am in love with them both. I have full credit for introducing them because after meeting both of them I realized “these two would be in LOVE,” and so I introduced them at a blogger event, and now– when we all sit at a dinner table, they excitedly/adorably huddle together and talk really fast about jewelry-maker things like craft fairs and welding and the difficulty of crafting molds out of wax and dust on the floor and Etsy and how they do their shipping and how often they go to the post office, and I sit there with all of our boyfriends like, “sooooooo how bout these carrots boys!!!” And their boyfriends are really cute about it too, like “you should totally do that craft fair in San Fran babe, it’s a game-changer.”And then I feel left out and want to go to the game-changing craft fair with them in San Fran too.

It’s such a specific craft and like anything, it’s got its own world of jargon and names and trade fairs etc., so how many other local people can you bond with over the trials of wax melting right?, so I am so excited and happy they are friends!! Well, that all of us are. They both have super cute work-desks…I don’t know what you call them..welding desks? Where they sit and do their manual work like literally using a torch to mold metals and wire and things..they are badass chicks! And Libby also sells vintage charms and treasures. I legitimately love them.

This is one of my favorite things that Libby sells–

It’s a vintage bracelet replated with 14k gold and it’s so simple and elegant and delicate and chic. I wear it with everything. In fact, in this post I wrote about what I wear for a night out on the town, it’s what I’m wearing– the “one thin gold bracelet and you’re ready to go.” It looks AMAZING on the wrist.

I first met Libby because she was selling her wares on a street fair in DC and I wasn’t even scouting for content, I literally was living my own “Alina-Gonzalez-the-person” life, and was obsessed with everything at her table. I bought the cutest retro necklace of hers, and then, the light bulb clicked and I said “oh do you live here, I’m always looking for local talent to feature” and she said “oh I just moved here from Brooklyn and I’m just excited to get to know my way around” and I was like “awwww tell me more!” and she told me all about how she does this professionally and how at her old 9-to-5 job, they had a program where they sponsored certain classes, so Libby signed up for jewelry making, and then it really became a passion and then she started having big dreams about doing it full time, and then she quit her job, and now she does. And then we met for coffee so I could interview her for The Feast, but realized at coffee that we would actually be friends.

She has really darling and dainty things at incredible price points that make PERFECT GIFTS. Like these shell studs for $12.00

And vintage gold star studs

And star ring ($10.00!)

And initialed heart ring for $10 (all vintage)

And this beautiful textured gold wire bracelet

And my favorite thing which are the vintage nameplate bracelets. I wish my name were Robin.

And Rachel’s designs are so sparkly and edgy– I’ve never been with her and a stranger or friend hasn’t fawned over the necklace or massive drusy cocktail ring she’s wearing (that she made). I first met Rachel because I was at a Thanksgiving day party (her boyfriend and my boyfriend share some college friends), and a few of the people at the party were wearing these amazing pieces (all of the girls who were friends with Rachel, and Rachel herself) and I was like yooooooo I’M OBSESSED WITH YOUR RING WHAT IS THAT, and Rachel is all nonchalant like “oh I made it” and I shriek and start flipping out and I’m like WHAT?!!!!! YOU MADE THAT?!?!?!? And everyone there is like “yeah you didn’t know Ben’s fiance is like a legit jeweler?” and I was like um NO, NOBODY FUCKING TOLD ME, I HAVE TO INTERVIEW HER. And then I was afraid she would think I was a creep, but I desperately wanted to do a video feature with her, so I sent her a note after the party and was like “you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to but I was thinking maybe we could film you actually crafting something at your studio!??!” and she said yes and then we did that and then we’ve been friends ever since.

Like, are you kidding me blue drusy ring with little baby gold hearts?

Or snow white drusy in prongs? Look at that bad boy!

Everything she makes is completely hand-made. The ad copy for the piece says, “I fabricated the setting from scratch sterling silver, and oxidized it to black shiny finish, which contrasts nicely with the white of the stone!” Yes it does.

Or sparkling black graphite drusy (my kind of stone– moody and dark and sexy)

Handmade initial hearts necklace:

Or these raw looking bow and arrow studs

Or this HAND-KNOTTED silver bow ring. Every corner, shape, edge,..everything is hand M-A-D-E.

And are you kidding me turquoise heart ring????

The item post says the ring “features a beautiful turquoise heart cabochon with great black matrix I set it in a handmade sterling silver bezel setting which I oxidized to a black finish, and set it on top of a double gold-fill band.” I don’t speak handmade jewelry talk, but that’s amazing!!!

And just like, how pretty is this yellow gold drusy ring?

Or this super cute single brass heart necklace that I adore:

They’re both just really charming and intelligent. And H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. And like legitimately famous. They’ve been featured on the Etsy homepage and Etsy ‘I quit my dayjob’ feature, and in Time Out New York, and all this other big press. And they’re also really pretty. I think being pretty and charming is kind of cosmically part of being a cute jewelry designer.

I can’t believe I know people that are this creative and really successful. I am happy they are in my life. If you ever come to DC and want me to introduce you to some really cool jewelry babes, I got you.

3 Comments

Filed under Good Shit You Should Know About

February 29, 2012 · 4:13 pm

Style Etoile Sisters Story

Photo by my brother, Carlos Gonzalez

The story–> Click HERE

Hey ya’ll. Ever since I started watching Friday Night Lights over Christmas and then finished all five seasons within like a week, I say ya’ll and ‘NUH UH’ just like Tammy and my boyfriend says ‘Aright” without the L like coach.

Anyways ya’ll, over at Refinery 29, I did a story on the ever-so-stylish sisters behind the e-boutique-turned-real-live-store, Style Etoile in the area. Check it out!!! It’s a slideshow with fun eye candy and great answers to the Q&A from them.

Photo by my brother

Their names are Natalie and Christina Albina and they are so pretty and stylish. TRULY the kind of people that you look at and realize, yes you were BORN to do this. Half the shit I know, I’ve picked up from them. They introduced me to IRO- my favorite brand everrrrr. I didn’t know who Camilla and Marc were before them. I didn’t own a pair of Siwy shorts before them. Christina knows SO MUCH about those designers in the industry that are cool and edgy and awesome and make AMAZING stuff and that 99 percent of people haven’t heard about yet and won’t for like eight more years. They are masters at being ahead of the curve.

I joke that they’re like talent scouts, actually much like the coaches on Friday Night Lights that start looking at 8 year-olds and know they’re going to have an incredible arm when they’re 16 and then go on to play college and pro. They are the kind of people who somehow find Alex Wang when he’s like 14 and has never designed a thing yet, and like, know he’s the next big thing before he even does. I don’t know, it’s a combination of an insane amount of work and research, and then just having a legitimate TALENT that you’re born with and cultivate, like a seventh sense, where they just find these labels that about ten people in the fashion industry know about, and have the skill to RECOGNIZE that they’ve got it. Being able to recognize when other people are talented is a huge talent in itself. That’s what Scooter Braun did with Justin Bieber. Scooter Braun isn’t the one dancing and singing out there, but he could see that Justin Bieber was a star even when he was like 9 and nothing. Not that these girls are the managers or backers for any of these designers/lines, but they recognize that they’re talented and then BUY their pieces for the store, and then bring the merchandise back from New York to DC and expose people to the talent that the people wouldn’t otherwise know about it. When you curate a store, the talent is in recognizing what’s fresh and innovative and amazing and exposing people to it. I can’t buy Siwy shorts or Iro leather shorts at any other place in this city. So basically I think these girls are the shit, and I trust every word they say. If Christina says so-and-so is the next big thing, LISTEN TO HER.

Christina:

Photo by my brother

Soooo, I interviewed them at their store, looking fly as hell, and my brother took the photographs!!!! SIBLINGS! I’m so proud of it! Very excited about our first official story together as siblings, ABOUT siblings– how fitting.

Hope you enjoy the piece my friends!!! And if you missed the past four places to click the link to it, haha, click HERE.

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Filed under Fashion, Good Shit You Should Know About

October 10, 2011 · 2:13 pm

Weekend Update

Well this is what my weekend looked like. Me surrounded by piles of paper, the label maker,masking tape, a suitcase, magazine scraps, and a pug, trying to get my life in order before we move. Of course Tyson sat and kept me company the whole time. He just stares at me but it’s adorable. But the mess soon turned into this:A corner of our apartment is now packed with boxes for the move. We boxed up all the stuff that will not be used between now and October 28th, like winter coats and boots, photo albums, scrap books, my college stuff, etc. Then I went to town pairing down and organizing the stuff that WILL remain in sight between now and then. My jewelry:The lucky pairs of shoes that didn’t get boxed up and will be worn over the next few weeks:Then Tyson and I got tired so we took a break, me on the couch, he ON TOP OF THE COFFEE TABLE. He likes to just JUMP up there and pass out. What dog sleeps ON TOP of a coffee table? Isn’t that the weirdest/cutest thing ever?

On Friday, my boyfriend and I went out to dinner at a fancy downtown restaurant cause we had a living social deal for it. Then we got cheesecake from Kramer’s Books in Dupont Circle which is apparently the best cheescake in the city and it was SO good. Then we came home and watched Scream 4 with my roommate and her boyfriend. It was the perfect Friday.

Saturday we cleaned/packed ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL day and then went over to some friends’ house and ordered pizza, made brownies and had brownie sundaes and watched the first episodes of American Horror Story and Homeland, which are both OUTRAGEOUSLY good and which you should start watching IMMEDIATELY right now. They are both available OnDemand– American Horror Story only has one episode so far, and the second one is this coming Wednesday. And Homeland is on Showtime and the second episode was last night so you’re only two eps behind. Homeland is OUT.OF.THIS.WORLD. good. My boyfriend’s friend was trying to explain it to me before we watched it and I was like “BORING. BORING. Don’t wanna see it. Lame” and then I watched it and was SHRIEKING at the television it was so good. And we decided that he is just bad at explaining things. But the concept may sound a little boring to a girl, BUT IT’S NOT. I have not been this addicted to a television show since LOST. Where like….you don’t know if you can ACTUALLY live seven days until it’s on again. You should get in to these shows before it’s 6 months in and everyone is talking about them and you are left out because you never started watching them.

Yesterday woke up and cleaned/packed again all day while boyfriend golfed. Went to lunch/coffee with roommate and her bf and pug Tyson, then my boyfriend made Italian Sausage sandwiches which is now my favorite meal in the world (Italian sausage, onions, and peppers grilled on broiled Italian bread with pesto.) And watched the new episode of Homeland which blew my fucking MIND. And now it’s Monday, which we have off for Columbus day! More cleaning/organizing/laundry errands. QUITE productive weekend. Hope you had a good one!

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Filed under Good Shit You Should Know About, Life and things, Weekend Updates

October 7, 2011 · 2:43 am

Super Bass by British Child

Um.

You’ve seen this right???

This is the most incredible thing I have ever seen.

#1–she sings the entire song with a darling little British accent. Rap done in British is the CUTEST. All of her words have their hard edge taken off by the fact that they’re said in a British accent which makes them seem polite and proper, even when she’s saying “somebody please tell them who the EFF I IS.”

#2 SHE HAS A HYPE MAN. This like, 4 year old girl, legit has a hypeman. And didn’t even realize it. In her mind, she wasn’t like “I need a hypeman for this performance,” because a toddler can’t understand the concept of what a hypeman is, but yet she has this bitch on the side, who doesn’t say a single word the whole performance, and just, hypes her up and jams out and riles up the crowd. Like, she knows her role. She doesn’t try to upstage the real star, she doesn’t even speak. She just busts moves and silently mouths the words. She mimes the action of beating the ‘superbass’ drum, she pops and locks it, and she’s just the sidekick, and it’s AMAZING. If she talked, she would be doing what Diddy did in every single one of Biggie’s songs for like 5 years: grunting “yeah.” “yeah.” over and over again in between rap pauses. And she’d fucking KILL IT.

#3 She introduces herself in the sweetest, most darling British voice, “Hello! I’m Sophia Grace Brown Lee, LET’S HIT IT NOW!” And then starts rapping obscene lyrics. She is dressed in a fucking princess costume, with a British accent. And then starts rapping “he might sell coke.”

SHE HITS EVERY SINGLE BEAT. THE GIRL DOESN’T MISS A FUCKING THING IN THAT SONG. She OWNS it. My favorite part is towards the beginning of the song when she lowers her voice kind of sexily and goes “That’s the kind of dude I was lookin’ for.” I have watched this 11 times.

Everything aboutt his is utterly and completely REMARKABLE. I am not like, trying to be funny…this girl is a ONE IN A MILLION star. She is a female, 5 year old version of Justin Bieber. SHE HAS SO MUCH FUCKING SWAG. The attitude she gives in this performance!!!! Her HIP pops!The way she ends the video!!! she is a STAR. She was born a star. This is un.fucking.believable. I want you to look back on your childhood, and weep at how pathetic and ordinary you were compared to this. Look back in your life, think of your cousins and nieces and nephews and everyone you’ve ever known or babysat for– and zero out of any of them have this kind of swag and talent. Imagine doing this at that age. She is a star.

AND I HAVE NOT YET MENTIONED HER ACTUAL VOICE!!!!!!!!!!!! RAPPING ASIDE, when the first verse of rap breaks, and the actual song-song chorus comes in, she is so passionate and dedicated and just BELTS it out, and the quality of her voice is insane!! At times, she sounds like a legitimate adult singing. SURE, there a few “notes” she could hit better, but notes at that age are irrelevant, the actual QUALITY of her voice is like…husky and amazing. She BELTTTTS that shit!! Such passion!

Look, if you have seen Justin Bieber’s biopic, “Never Say Never,” you know what I’m talking about. Every record producer, talent scout, songwriter, etc. EVER in the history of the music world has said that when they met Justin Bieber, or Britney Spears, or Usher, or Justin Timberlake at age like 5, they just KNEW. Because you can tell when a kid has that special thing that is not measurable or explicable in words. Something extraordinary, beyond the realm of what 99.9 percent of most people have. It’s just IT. Justin Bieber was pounding drums and being a star, with confidence of a level wayyy beyond what a kid his age should have had, at like age 3. That is this girl. The way she ends the video with that OOMPH, it’s like “take THAT BITCHHHH.”

I’m just in shock. Justin Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun is calling this chick up AT: NOW. The video’s already gotten a million and a half hits and it’s going to get millions and millions more. She’s probably going to end up on Ellen and with a record contract. With the right management, this girl could be DYNAMITE.

And now I will go watch it 14 more times. We’re all so talentless compared to this.

Bye.

Oh and I forgot one thing:

THERE’S A FUCKING KEY CHANGE.

1 Comment

Filed under Good Shit You Should Know About, LOLz, Music

October 3, 2011 · 11:24 pm

Jessica Durrant Watercolors

I will never not love blogging for this reason: today, someone new commented on my blog. I clicked on her name, which lead me to her blog, “One Fine Day.” I read her blog, and on page 2-ish, she recommended another blog, called “Sequins and Stripes.” I clicked over to Sequins and Stripes, and a few pages deep, she had a collage that included this world-map watercolor print which jumped out at me. I clicked on the info for it, which lead me to my final destination: Jessica Durant’s watercolor shop on Etsy. A GIRL AFTER MY OWN HEART. The prints are gorgeous, funky, colorful, typography-inspired, and NEON-ish. My favorite color palette in the world is the pink/fuscia/purple/magenta/blue/turquoise spectrum. I love all of those colors together, playing off of each other, which her paintings have. But most of all I love the Banksy-esque, graffiti looking quality of dripping paint like this. I am so obsessed!

All of the listings on Etsy were for small prints, like the size of a piece of paper. And soon as I saw the Ciao Bella, I pictured it blown up huge, in a glossy frame, against a dark wall {like black or dark navy}, above a crisp white bed. The drippping, splattered aspect of the paint adds just the perfect crude, sort of…creepy aspect to a romantic saying like “Ciao Belllllaaaaa” and would be such a visually pleasing contrast to white, pin-tuck bedding. Do you see it? I do. You will too when this is in our room and I take pictures of it for ya.

So, I emailed the seller and asked her if there was a way to customize larger prints. She wrote back RIGHT away and what she had to say was not only what I’d been hoping for {she does!}, it was just super helfpul! I am pasting it here for you, in case you TOO would be interested in one of these custom prints, or just seeing how stuff like this works in general. I REALLY do love Etsy for the community aspect. Like it’s so nice that you can email a seller and tell them what you’re looking for and just..have a conversation. Etsy is the shit.

Hi Alina,

Thanks so much for all your compliments!!

I offer enlarged prints of all my artwork! It is possible, I use a high quality scan to blow up my artwork. It’s a top notch method all artists use! I can print up to 36 x 48″. I can either print on a high quality paper or canvas roll, or print on a ready to hang canvas. Below are prices for the prints on paper, that I sell all the time.

16 x 20″ Print price $75
18 x 24″ Print price $90
24 x 36″ Print price $175
36 x 48″ Print price $225

Prints on canvas roll are the same price, ready to hang canvas are a bit more. Let me know if you have have a custom size you want or if you want a quote for a print on ready to hang canvas.

You are also welcome to commission a reproduction of any of my pieces, such as Ciao Bella, and I can make you it on whatever media and size you like. Paper will always be easier to ship, rolled in a tube. I use a thick, artist watercolor specialty paper for commissions. I can do a reproduction sized 16 x 20″ for $150, 18 x 24″ for $175, and if you want a bit larger size than that let me know and I can see about how large of a sheet of paper I can get my hands on at my local art store.

Let me know what you’d like to do, and thanks so much!

Jess

What a doll. My boyfriend and I move in to our new place on October 29th {eeeeee so soooonnnn!!!!!} and this bad boy is fer sher going above our bed. I LOVE it. She also does really cute fashion-inspired prints, like these Chanel bags.

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Filed under Etsy, Gift Ideas, Good Shit You Should Know About, Home Decor

Category Archives: Good Shit You Should Know About

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Tildon Megan Pump

A Rusko Giveaway; a tale of music and high school crushes; and a history of my relationship with the 9:30 Club (worth the read trust meeeeee)

Kelly Towles–Sneak Peek

How I ended up blogging for DL 1961, aka a tale on how being an internet stalker can lead to great opportunities! Or potentially will them to happen. Like that book “the secret.”

Libby Diament & Rachel Pfeffer– DC design darlings!

Style Etoile Sisters Story

Weekend Update

Super Bass by British Child

THERE’S A FUCKING KEY CHANGE.

Jessica Durrant Watercolors

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