Zach + Kimya

The Perfect Fourth of July Playlist

2010-07-02T20:07:00.002-04:00

Holiday music tends to be pretty lame, but when most of the commercialism of a holiday is the sale of things that are red, white, blue, and/or explosive, there’s a lot of vagueness as to what songs can be associated with the holiday. So I’ve created a perfect playlist for the Fourth Of July, full of songs about American, have the word America in the title, or are in some vague way related to America.

1. The Star Spangled Banner

Sure, the Star Spangled Banner isn’t a particularly good song, but what’s more patriotic than the song that 90% you hear it means The Baseball Game is About to Start?
There’s many versions of it, but by far my favorite is R. Kelly’s masterful rendition, because, as an American Idol judge would say, he makes it his own.

2. America the Beautiful

Keeping with the trend of black musicians making better songs probably written by racists, I’m picking the Ray Charles version. Because there’s nothing funnier than a blind guy talking about how purple the mountains majesty is (are?).

3. American Girl

Supposedly this song is about a girl jumping from a balcony to kill herself. Petty claims this isn’t true, but that didn’t stop the failure of the Sally Suicide American Girl doll. But in all seriousness, this song just sounds like Americana, and it has American in the name.

4. Kids in America

One time this was playing in a supermarket in the Netherlands. That’s the only good story I have about this song, but its about the Kids in America, who are apparently just one girl named Kim Wilde.

5. Young Americans

More than anything, this is me just putting David Bowie in every aspect of my life. Like the last one, this one is also about the American youth. Except this one is by a British guy and asks the important questions all Americans ask, like “Ain’t there a woman I can sock on the jaw?” In America, the streets are paved with gold there’s a woman for us all to sock on the jaw behind a white picket fence. Apple Pie.

6. Feel like I’m fixing to die

I had to include at least one great 60s protest song, so I went with one of the more vicious ones, to real expose some realities of the US. Because nobody wants a totally jingoistic playlist.

7. Battle Hymn of the Republic

From the 1960s to the 1860s, here’s another song associated with a war. It’s also kind of fun to sing, especially the part where God has a sword, and is apparently fighting for America. No wonder the civil war was a war of attrition.

8. America is my Home
James Brown brings us together with this one, black and white, and he kind of just makes you feel like an asshole for criticizing America. After all, America is James Browns home, and he’s awesome. It's not on Youtube for some reason. Youtube must hate America.

9.Wild America

To tell you the truth, I don’t know what to say about this song, but its by Iggy Pop and its got America in the name, which I guess is pretty wild. Also, it contains parts of "America" by Allen Ginsberg, which may be the best poem ever.

10. Either “Peaches” or “Lump”

Neither song is really about America, but they are both by The Presidents of the United States of America so it’s close enough, because there’s no way that Horse With No Name nor Sister Golden Hair was making the list.

11.We’re an American Band

Grand Funk Railroad shows what being an American is really about, and it mostly consists of coming to peoples towns and helping them party down. Some sweet cowbell in there as well.

12.God Bless the USA
Hopefully, by this time you’ll have put back enough beers to ignore the sappy and corniness of this song. All I know is if I was having a Fourth of July party, I’d be drunk, and if I was drunk I’d probably enjoy singing this song like a total asshole. So here’s to you Lee Greenwood, and how you’re proud to be an American. I’m not going to post the link to this song, because I’m sober, so instead I’ll post David Cross ranting about it. But I seriously recommend giving this corny fake patriotism a listen, take note when he says “From Detroit down to Houston…” and wonder why anyone who loves their country would pick such shitty parts of it to put in a song.

13. America

It may be that my smarmy sarcasm is at its end, but I have nothing clever to say about this song, other than it’s amazing, and in my opinion is the most accurate depiction of the American dream on this whole list.

14. This Land is your Land

In terms of overtly patriotic songs, this is probably the least-douchey, that is to say its not douchey at all. Also, I went with the Bruce Springsteen version, because I left Born in the USA off this list.

HIDDEN TRACK:

Because... why not? I couldn't resist.

So what do you think? Did I miss any important ones? Tell me.

World Cup Predictions Part 2

2010-06-12T10:32:00.002-04:00

So there were two ties yesterday, which can hardly tell me how right or wrong I was with my picks, but Greece got beat 2-0 to South Korea yesterday, which I'm gonna go ahead and say proves me to be right. Also, Argentina is winning right now, so I may have got Group B right entirely.

Also, I'm tired of alternating between calling it football and soccer, so I'm going to stick to futbol, because I like compromising.

Group E
Netherlands
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

Seeing as I lived there for a semester and I saw the futbol team beat the Americans, I have to root for my second home, the Netherlands. Also, I heard somewhere that they are going to be good, so I'm excited for that.

Denmark has a long standing tradition of Lego futbol games, so they may have some practice but they may get tired of trying to build the team halfway through and just switch to making a rocket ship or something.

Japan and Cameroon can't win because I've already picked token representation from Africa and Asia, so that's that. Call me racist (or continentist), but South Americans and Europeans are the best at futbol. Asia and Africa still beat the rest of the world in math and..erm... having diamonds?

However, upon like ten minutes of research I find that Cameroon is actually pretty good. So yeah, they can beat Denmark, who are probably too anarchist to care about futbol.

Projected Group Rank
Netherlands
Cameroon
Denmark
Japan

Group F
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Italy wins this group. I don't think that requires explaining

Paraguay will also make it to the next round avenging the loss of their sister Uruguay. Can countries be sisters just because they have the same ending? I just assume all the -stans and -lands are.

New Zealand doesn't have much of a chance, I'm pretty sure their team is made up entirely of sheep and Lord of the Rings extras.

Slovakia should just be glad that they got here and the Czech Republic didn't. At least they know they got the good soccer players in the divorce settlement.

Projected Group Rank
Italy
Paraguay
Slovakia
New Zealand

Group G
Brazil
North Korea
Ivory Coast
Portugal

Brazil is the Italy of South America. A team that I can always expect to do really really well.

I wasn't aware that North Koreans were allowed to compete in the world cup. I mean, maybe they qualified, but isn't there a nicer country that we could allow in? I expected them to be dicks and not come in last.

Ivory Coast is a team that seems like they could use a win. But I expect them to not even be able to beat North Korea, because the world is spiteful like that.

Portugal has got to take the second spot here, simply because they are Brazil-like of all the other teams. Basically, whether or not you will win in the world cup is dependent on how Brazil-like you are.

Projected Group Rank:
Brazil
Portugal
North Korea
Ivory Coast

Group H:
Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

Okay, its the last group for today, so let me keep this brief.
Spain is good.
Switzerland is neutral.
Honduras is poor.
Chile is South American.

You can probably figure out that rank on your own.

Be back next time and I might talk about the knockout round.

World Cup Predictions by someone who doesn't fully understand the offsides rule. (Part 1)

2010-06-11T12:38:00.002-04:00

Before I start, I'd like to recommend a fantastic and far more serious sports blog by Mikey Krenek on the retirement of Ken Griffey Jr. Now, on to my nonsense.

As you may or may not know, there's this sport that people all over the world love to play called football, but not like our beloved American sport, this game actually involves use of feet. I think. From what I remember from last time, it might just be a headbutting competition.

So this time around they're doing the whole thing in South Africa, which is just taunting to European teams because it is winter right now down there and they have weather for playing summer sports.

I figured since its the one time every year that Americans pretend to care about soccer, as we call it for reasons nobody really ever explains, I should give my predictions for who will win the World Cup.

Lets start with GROUP A.
Mexico
South Africa
Uruguay
France

Mexico is probably a really good team. I have a Mexican roommate, and while I have never asked him whether or not he's a good soccer player, because it's really never come up and it would probably be racist to just ask out of the blue, he probably is.

Even though they tied the first game with South Africa, they're still probably better. South Africa would need the inspiration of Nelson Mandela and Morgan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela at the same time to have a real chance. I mean they have home field advantage throughout the cup, but that's just more reason for them to disappoint. It's like how I know the Dolphins aren't going to win the Superbowl most years because it seems like its hosted in Miami every other year.

Uruguay is really the wild card here, by which I don't really know more about them than the fact that you can almost pronounce their name "You're A Gay". I'll assume that if they were really any good at soccer I would know it, like I do about Brazil and Argentina. So I'm just going to assume they're not very good.

Which brings me to France, who came in second last time, which is pretty good, even if it was four years ago and their starting headbutter has retired (how many headbutt jokes are allowed? I'll stop now). Still, I'm thinking France gets out of the first round.

Predicted Group Rank:
Mexico
France
South Africa
Uruguay

Group B
Argentina
Nigeria
South Korea
Greece

Argentina makes round two, no doubt in my mind. But even if they don't, I won't cry for them. (this concludes all of the jokes I can make about Argentina)

Nigeria is a country I can't trust to win. There's always a possibility that a couple of the starters could leave the team halfway through the Cup to be a part of the re-seceded Biafran team.

South Korea is my pick to be the Asian representation in the knockout round. They just have to convince their players and fans that the world cup is just a new expansion level of Starcraft.

And I'm picking Greece to be the 08-09 Detroit Lions of this World Cup. A team that could help their fans forget about the hardships of where they live due to drastic economic downturns, but will instead fail and make those pains all the more real.

Predicted Group Rank:
Argentina
South Korea
Nigeria
Greece

Group C
England
United States
Algeria
Slovenia

You know how the World Cup is supposed to unify the world? Well then what the hell is England doing without the rest of the United Kingdom? Come on, its not like any Welsh were going to make the team anyway. It's basically going to be the same team but they're just not playing under the Union Jack. And seeing the Union Jack is pretty much the coolest flag ever, they'll have no chance playing under a lesser flag. Then again, Mozambique has a gun on their flag and they didn't even make it to the world cup. So yes, I'm going to pick England to lose because I don't like their flag choice.

USA USA USA! We're going to make it! Because frankly, if the US isn't predicted to have a chance, nobody in America is going to watch it. So I'm doing the sponsors a favor with my predictions, and I expect a paycheck for it.

Algeria is going to be my second pick to make the next round, simply because I know where it is, unlike Slovenia which I can identify as "somewhere in the former Yugoslavia".

Predicted Group Rank:
USA USA! GO AMERICA! HOT DOGS AND GUNS!
Algeria
England
Slovenia

Group D
Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

I had a tour guide when I was in Berlin who said Germany's second favorite sport was football, second only to invading Poland. Well since Poland isn't here we can assume they will settle for doing well in the world cup.

Maybe Germany will be like most Americans and confuse Australia with Austria and invade them. Either way, I don't see Australia having much of a chance. I see Australia's interest in soccer as probably being like Americans, other countries have been interested in this for hundreds of years before us, so we kind of just made up our own sports.

Serbia is another "somewhere in former Yugoslavia" team, so I have to give them the same treatment as Slovenia. My apologies to Donja, the only Serb I know.

Ghana is my pick to be my South Korea of Africa. If that made any sense to you, I'm sure you're already saying "But what about Algeria?" Algeria isn't going to actually win, I just picked them over England because I'm an asshole.

Predicted Group Rank:
Germany
Ghana
Serbia
Australia

Shanghai!

2010-05-24T15:11:00.002-04:00

Happy Monday, all!

I love to travel and often have bouts of wanderlust, but to be honest, I've never really felt a connection to Eastern Asia. I don't know why. Maybe I have misconceptions about the area, or don't really know much about what to do there. I know some people who are very into Chinese/Japanese/Korean culture who could probably give me some tips about what's cool to see and do there.

This is another video from fashion blogger/photographer Garance Dore who visited Shanghai recently and she makes it look absolutely enchanting.

Other things I learned from this video:
1) John Gallino is one of those fashion people who is a crazy genius (like Karl). I would love to meet him one day.
2) Models read Oscar Wilde while sitting in make-up!
3) I would love to learn how to edit videos like this one! She always have to best videos. Can any readers help me out?

-Kimya

Vintage: I don't think I'm doing it right.

2010-05-19T18:25:00.002-04:00

This is a really interesting video from style.com.

I'm not totally sold on vintage. I mean it looks great on skinny, rich people, but does it really work for anyone who doesn't fit into those categories. I mean that vintage YSL safari trenchcoat is to die for, but it's probably a size 2 and hundreds of dollars.
I think that there is a fake sense of accessibility when it comes to vintage clothing. You have to really work hard to find something halfway decent (or conversely be able to look good in everything) because a lot of the crap is TACKY. And looks very aged. Great vintage should be pretty timeless or have some cute kitsch to it. I've never been successful at vintage shopping. Am I doing it wrong? Is there a place I MUST visit that is both reasonably priced and carries larger sizes?

Let me know, because these looks the gals are wearing in the video are awfully tempting.

-Kimya

Why Don't You Love Me?

2010-05-18T09:14:00.002-04:00

This video blows my mind. I've probably watched in 5 or 6 times which is impressive for me, because I'm not a huge fan of music videos, but this is so visually stimulating. I love the style of the '50s and early '60s and this video has it all from the martini to the cat-eye glasses.

Here is an interesting article from Jezebel about how style and gender roles play a part in the video.

Here is the video!

"Why Don't You Love Me" - Beyoncé from Beyoncé on Vimeo.

And here is how you can get Bey's video look for your self!

Why don't you love me? by kimyanattalie featuring ＳＡＳＳ＆ＢＩＤＥ shorts

-Kimya

Style Crush: Clemence Poesy

2010-05-12T14:48:00.007-04:00

Hey everyone!

As you may know, I am completely intrigued by French women. They seem so effortless in their style and the way they live their lives, one of the girls that completely intrigues me is model and actress Clemence Poesy (from the Chloe ad in my last post.) Part of style is that it has to look simple and with little thought, looking good should just seem like a natural extension of yourself because that makes it believable and I think Clemence really embodies that.

Here's how I would style myself like Clemence for running errands on a warm summer day:

clemence poesy by kimyanattalie featuring Marc Jacobs bags

-Kimya

The Lost Black Swan Piece

2010-05-11T13:21:00.002-04:00

PREFACE: So at Kasteel Well there is a Lit Mag called "The Black Swan" named after the birds we share our grounds in (RIP to our Black Swan, but they've got a new one). I was an editor for the collection, and I had a piece that was supposed to be in the collection but somehow between editing to layout to publication it got lost.

Keep in mind this is probably only funny to Castle people. Actually, its probably only funny to me. But I'll be damned if I don't let someone see this, I have that much of an ego sometimes. So here it is....
----------------

Excerpts of Poetry Written By Allen Ginsberg during his time in Well

I saw the best minds of my generation
Destroyed by madness starving hysterical, naked
Dragging themselves to class after a week of independent travel
Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
Who went to Prague to spend another foreign currency
Who flew to London to the opposite way for oncoming traffic
Who landed in Italian city-states for warmth and cuisine
Who trained to Vienna for coffee and indie cred
Who traveled to Barcelona for Spanish exoticness
Who flew back to Amsterdam to make their way home
Who got stuck in Nijmegen when a train broke down
I’m with you in Nijmegen…
….

American Night I have given you all and now I’m nothing
American Night, 10 Euros on a Wednesday I should have been studying
I can’t stand Thursday classes
American night, when will you end the Lady Gaga?
I don’t feel good, and I won’t dance on your tables
American Night when will you give me more than an empty pocket and Facebook tags?
American Night, they are closing the Linden soon
It is you and I who are perfect, not Café Vink
American Night, I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel
…

What thoughts I have of you tonight Walt Whitman
Have we both been screwed by RyanAir and stuck here for the weekend?
Having eaten at the Cafeteria twice already, and Chinese isn’t very good
I follow you in through the doors of Spar.
The townspeople are in the meats
The students in the fruit drinks
Do you read the labels like I do? Pretending you know Dutch?
Spar closes in an hour Walt Whitman
We must walk past the fields again
Past dog walkers and statues of a murdered Christ
Another lost weekend in Well
….

Footnote:
Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy!
Holy!
The castle is holy!
The Linden and Vink and cemetery are holy!
The Main Castle is holy!
The New Wing is Holy!
The Voorbucht is Holy!
Holy black swan! Holy Dulcia! Holy Karen Lindsey! Holy Robbert! Holy Dojna! Holy Johnny and Rene! Holy Sophie! Holy Dutch children fishing in the moat!
Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!

Perfume Commercials Worth Watching

2010-05-09T08:57:00.004-04:00

Hello!

First off, happy blog-a-versary to ourselves! We've gotten some great feedback by some very kind people about the blog and we are very appreciative for all comments we get, so keep them coming. Summer is always better for blogging because we have more time and commitment for focus on putting up interesting content for our lovely readers so expect a lot more posts!

Perfume commercials are so corny. Some girl with a guy riding on horseback through the woods is lust, or rolling around on the sand in lust, but really, I think that the purposes of perfume is more for the woman! Men don't really care if you wear perfume. They just don't. Perfume is to make the woman feel confident and feminine and sexy (newsflash: women dress for themselves too, not for men). So, the commercial should reflect the affect of the perfume on women. Here are a few that I absolutely love, that I could watch over and over, and end up being very effective because I want to LIVE in these ads.

Here we GO!

1) Miss Dior Cherie (Directed by Sofia Coppola)

I always new being a Parisian girl was like this. This is what I strive for daily...le sigh. What a life!

2)Chloe eau de parfum

It's so simple, and the tossing of hair and giggling is such a sexy, girly thing to do, also notice how these commercials have awesome songs in them.

3) Coco Mademoiselle

I usually think of Kiera Knightly as sort of a tomboy-ish person but she is so glamorous here! Also, has a very important note: Dab perfume behind your knees as well.

Hopefully these might inspire you to some last minute Mother's Day gifts?

-Kimya

Highlights from my quickly growing collection of records.

2010-05-07T16:55:00.004-04:00

I'm really happy about this, because I've never really collected anything in my life. I've always had a fascination for records, and Kimya bought me a record player for my birthday, so now I've been listening to records more than anything else.

Here of some of my favorites that are currently in my collection.

(This one is just kind of funny)

(Best Speeches)

My Five Favorite Posts of Mine from the first year

2010-05-04T19:41:00.003-04:00

So, despite recent neglect, the blog is more than a year old now. It's had some points where people were reading it, and it had more when they weren't. But here we are now, and having looked back on all of my posts, I've narrowed it down to my five favorite ones.

One that I'm happy didn't have to make this list is my post of rejected McSweeney's pieces. Not because I didn't like the content of them, but I'm happy to say McSweeney's did take a piece that I wrote! (I know that was forever ago, and you've probably heard about it already, but what the hell.

1. The One Where I Got Thanked By The Folks Behind Nelson Mandella's Favorite African Folk Tales
By far the best response I've gotten from a post, and I don't even get half of the response Kimya gets. Also, it was fun ripping the Grammys. Oscars post didn't half as well.

2. The One Where I Ate A Whole Bag of Dum Dum Lollipops
This didn't really get me anything more the maybe diabetes one day. But I had a lot of fun. I intend on ranking more things in the upcoming posts.

3. Probably the most political I've gotten on the blog
But I think overall that whole post was just silliness with a good message. Plus is started our blog's friendship with those over at Gay Volt

4 and 5: My Fashion Blogs
Kimya is always talking about fashion. I know nothing about fashion. I still wrote two pieces abot it though. This one had some useful tips, while this one, which was also my first top 5 list, was far more nerdy, as I tend to be.

So those are what I consider to be my magnum opi of the blog. Here's to a year of paying more attention to the blog.

Inspiration: Kate Lanphear

2010-04-07T13:17:00.002-04:00

Hey guys!

I was cruising around my long list of fashion design blogs when I came across this nifty inspiration!

Now, college sweatshirts are not exactly the pinnacle of fashion and are often associated with rolling out of bed late and throwing something on to make it to class, but Elle stylist Kate Lanphear shows you how to do that (with the help of Garance Dore) while looking like a total badass.

Here is a recreation I imagined:

Little Brother by kimyanattalie featuring Christian Louboutin shoes

Items in this set:
Silk and modal tank, $85
CURRENT ELLIOTT 1059-0005 BLACK COTTON DENIM LEGGINS, 290 GBP
Louis studded hi-top sneakers, $785
10,000 Female Double belt, $250
Paul Senior Sunglasses, $200

Now, all you have to do is throw on your nifty Emerson College sweatshirt, coyly exposing one shoulder...and voila! You have a super-cool outfit.

-Kimya

Everything I love about fashion...

2010-04-04T15:22:00.002-04:00

First off, Happy Easter and Happy Nice Weather!

Second, I almost had a beautiful aesthetic heart attack when I saw this little movie about fashion photographer couple Scott Schuman and Garance Dore traveling and working during fashion week.

It is just so inspiring and lovely. Such a fantastic choice of music too!

It's not like the cold, aloof fashion world that is often portrayed by the media. It's warm and inviting and they are giggling half the time over margaritas and the fashion elite are making goofy faces.

It's pretty much everything I love about the fashion world FUN and FABULOUS and of course seemingly EFFORTLESS.

Check out here. You must, you must, you must.

Happy April!

2010-04-01T14:35:00.004-04:00

Hello!

Happy first day of April everyone. Fortunately Boston's a little warmer and a little sunnier today and it will continue onto the weekend (but the rain is to return on Monday). When the weather is this nice, it seems like the population of the city quadruples because literally EVERYONE is outside.

After having an incredibly busy week, I feel totally drained, but the weird thing is I think I'm forgetting how to relax. Without work to do...I just don't know what to do.

It being April means:
1) Zach makes a triumphant return to America
2) One month closer to doing this:

photo via audrey hepburn complex

-Kimya

Bad Blogger!

2010-03-31T12:14:00.003-04:00

First off: I am an awful neglectful blogger, and I'm really sorry about that!

But...I have a fashion based article that I wrote for Emerson's Fashion Society Blog (link here) about 13 year old fashion blogger Tavi, who is a little star in the world of couture.

But this girl is really really mature for her age, and actually funny!

You can check her blog at The Style Rookie.

Enjoy!

-Kimya

The Continuing Story of Zach's March Madness Picks, even though its already started.

2010-03-18T19:41:00.001-04:00

So lets make this brief.

#1 Totally screwed by Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, and Marquette so far. But I'm still going to keep those picks up here, because I'm not going back on what I said.
#2 ANd who said Ohio couldn't beat Georgetown? You all laughed at me, but I picked it.
#3 Obama and I had the same final four until I decided to swap Syracuse for Kansas St., was it correct? Will Kansas St. lead to SOCIALISM? Who knows, I'm just throwing these things out here.

THOSE OTHER DIVISIONS: Round 1

Duke vs. Whoever Wins
These are by far the worst games in the Tourny and they only do them so that there's a 65th team in the bracket, which is garbage. No point in picking them.
PREDICTION: DUKE

Cal vs. Louisville
I'm predicting a win here for Louisville, especially if they're allowed to use their baseball bats.
PREDICTION: Louisville.

Texas A&M vs. Utah St.
I've picked against the Mormons already (and it proved to be wrong), but I've got to win at least one over those Mormons!
PREDICTION: Texas A&M

Purdue vs. Siena
Although I'm pretty sure "Boilermaker" is barely a thing, if a thing at all, it still sounds kind of intimidating. If this was an episode of CSI Miami I'd be David Caruso saying something like this
"I Predict Siena will get... (glasses on) Burnt."
YEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Notre Dame vs. O Dominion
So what if they lost? I'm still going to pick them, because I picked them before and I'm not giving up on my Irish.

Baylor against... whatever they won
PREDICTION: I picked them and they won, so lets move on.

Same things with St. Mary's

And Nova

Same deal with Kentucky

Picked Texas because I like the city of Austin, they lost to Wake Forest

Temple vs. Cornell
I've got some friends at both of these places. But do you know what Cornell doesn't have? Bill Cosby as an alumni. Also, if Cornell loses, [insert tasteless campus suicide rate joke here]
PREDICTION: Temple

Wisconsin vs. Wofford
If March Madness was about having the most ridiculous name, Wofford would totally make the Final Four, and probably be champion. Also, their mascot is a Boston Terrier which make sense if you were one of the hundred or so schools in the Boston area and didn't want to sound intimidating. But in fact, they are South Carolina. Stupid name, stupid mascot. Fuck Wofford.
PREDICTION: Wisconsin

Marquette vs. Washington
I'm not sure how Marquette lost this one. Their name is awesome. It's sounds like a dazzling Frenchman who fight along side Enjolras and Marius. Ugh... but alas, I picked them for the Sweet 16.
PREDICTION: *gulp*... Marquette

New Mexico vs. Montana
Montana has a shot, maybe if they are in NCAA tournament for Dental Floss Raising. Otherwise, New Mexico's got this one in the bag. (and they won!)
PREDICTION: New Mexico

Clemson vs. Missouri
So two teams with Tiger mascots are facing off. Clemson's is just named "The Tiger", which is lame. Mizzou is Truman the Tiger. Harry S. or Capote? Who knows, but either way it's better than "The Tiger". You can't name your mascot that when its probably the most used mascot in college sports.
PREDICTION: Missouri

West Virginia vs. Morgan St.
Murray State screwed me over already, and I don't expect two states that are actually just someones name and not real states to do that, so I've got to go with West Virginia.
PREDICTION: West Virginia

Round 2
Duke vs. Louisville
As anyone who has ever been on Fark.com could tell you, Duke sucks. And in the past I've done pretty well for myself betting against Duke. That trend continues here.
PREDICTION: Louisville

Texas A&M vs. Purdue
For that one year in my life that I was really into College Football I liked Drew Brees so I liked Purdue. For some reason that stuck with me, and now I got them into the second round, but I'm saying no further, because I dont' really have a reason to pick them.
PREDICTION: Texas A&M

"Notre Dame" vs. Baylor
Come on, just because they lost in the first round you expect them to be out? Would that have stopped Rudy?
PREDICTION: RUDY! RUDY! RUDY! RUDY!

St. Marys vs. Villanova
This is the only Round 2 Matchup I get to predict knowing that I got it right. St. Mary's just sounds too wimpy to win anything. They have "Mary" in their name. Villanova has "Nova" in their name, which is always awesome. As in Supernova. BOOM!
PREDICTION: Villanova

Kentucky vs. Texas
Yeah Texas already lost, but I don't think Wake Forest can beat Kentucky. I don't even know what Wake Forest is. It sounds like a wooded area where all the flora and fauna were given meth.
PREDICTION: Kentucky

Temple vs. Wisconsin
I'm gonna push Temple one further, because I've got a good friend, Vanessa, who goes there. So basically its getting the same treatment Maryland got.
PREDICTION: Temple

Marquette vs. New Mexico
Yeah screw this, I lost this one, and I'm not going to defend it anymore. I had Marquette over New Mexico. I guess my Les Mis reference from the previous Marquette entry makes me look even sillier, since ya know, they all died and didn't win.
PREDICTION: Doesn't matter.

Missouri vs. West Virginia
West Virginia's mascot is the Mountaineers. That may be the most accurate mascot of all time. Can't pick against accuracy.
PREDICTION: West Virginia

Sweet Sixteen
Louisville vs. Texas A&M
Texas A&M has no motto, which is weak. But Louisville's motto is "It's happening here". Thats not a college motto, that's an Applebee's slogan. So when A&M was weak, Louisville just punched itself in the face with that motto.
PREDICTION: Texas A&M

Villanova vs. Notre Dame
Finally, here comes a point where I did not pick Notre Dame. I went with Bossa Nova on this one.
PREDICTION: Villanova

Kentucky vs. Temple
I don't know if there are any Temples in Kentucky, but I'm sure there are quite a few people in Kentucky who'd like to burn some Temples down.
PREDICTION: Kentucky

West Virginia vs. The Mutilated Corpse of Marquette
Prediction: West Virginia

ELITE 8
Texas A&M vs. Villanova
You know Texas is changing it's history books right now to some wacked out shit? Seriously, look it up. Nova, on the other hand, has always been a valid source for scientific information, Sunday nights on PBS. Hooray PBS!
PREDICTION: Villanova

Kentucky vs. West Virginia
Kentucky is also known as UK, so if they're lucky people can think they're British. West Virginia is WVU so no matter what, they can't escape the fact that they're from West Virginia.
PREDICTION: Kentucky

And now....

ZACHS FINAL FOUR PICKS!
Kansas vs. Syracuse
I determined long ago that I would not allow a southern/midwest team to win, which is why there are two Northeast teams in my Final Four. Kansas, you're going down.
PREDICTION: Syracuse

Villanova vs. Kentucky
Okay, so you know how in movies and television shows whenever theres a tournament, the hero and his friend always make it to the final four, but since they can't fight each other in the finals, the friend gets taken out in the semi-finals by a bad guy, who usually cheats anyway, so that the hero can really kick his ass in the finals? Yeah thats whats going to happen here.
PREDICTION: Kentucky wins

THE FINAL: Syracuse vs. Kentucky
Okay, here's the part where Syracuse wins.
Prediction: SYRACUSE ARE CHAMPIONS!!!!!

SO yeah, thats what I have to say. For those wondering how I'm doing, I have 26 points and in 8th out of 38.

The guy currently in first is absolutely killing. But he picked Wofford to go the Sweet 16, so he's obviously got no shot.

Zach Picks His March Madness Bracket: West Edition

2010-03-17T06:09:00.002-04:00

So it was explained to me yesterday what a Hoya is, and I was mocked for picking them to lose. I still don't trust them or their stupid name, they're going down.

Now, let's see how The West Bracket goes!

ROUND 1
Syracuse vs. Vermont
As much as I want to see Vermont win something, they won't unless there's a March Madness bracket for "Skiing while smoking a joint and eating Ben and Jerry's with maple syrup". They'll be a 1 seed if they do. Yes thats all the things I know about Vermont.
PREDICTION: Syracuse

Gonzaga vs. Florida St.
Gonzaga has an element of surprise since nobody really knows where the hell that school is (Washington somewhere?). Florida State gives away that they'll be coming from the south. Yes, this is how I think Basketball works.
PREDICTION: Gonzaga

Butler vs. UTEP
Butler has a stupid name, and UTEP used to be called "The Texas School of Mining and Metallurgy", which is so awesome. But, do you know who attended Butler? Kurt Vonnegut. Can't beat that.
PREDICTION: Kurt Vonnegut... I mean Butler.

Vanderbilt vs. Murray St.
Gotta go with the "Robber Baron" rule here, and go for Vanderbilt. I don't trust a school named Murray anyway.
PREDICTION: Vanderbilt

Xavier vs. Minnesota
Xavier's mascot is D'artagnan, which is a sweet literary reference. Minnesota's mascot is Goldy Gopher, who got kicked out of the Chuck E. Cheese band because of his drug problem.
PREDICTION: Xavier

Pittsburgh vs. Oakland
Well, I don't realy want to live in either of these places. But I was decided when I looked at the logo for University of Oakland, which makes it look like its an online university

I don't think being able to play basketball in your pajamas is going to help them win.
PREDICTION: Pittsburgh

BYU vs. Florida
While I'm sure BYU has the advantage because they have no chance of being hungover before the game, the book of Mormon talks about the evils of dark skinned people, so I'm not liking the odds of a team made up of white guys. I don't know if there are any black players on the BYU team, but if there are they're going against the book of Mormon, so are they REALLY winning either way?
PREDICTION: Florida

Kansas State vs. North Texas
Kansas State's motto is "Rule by obeying nature's laws", which is good for a basketball team, because they need to follow gravity and such to get points. University of Northern Texas's motto is "Only the educated are free", which doesn't work for a basketball team. Unless they change it to "Only the educated are free, or at least they could fake it to keep the NCAA of their ass so they can play the bench for a few years in the NBA." That's my guess as to the more realistic version for UNT basketball players.
PREDICTION: Kansas State

Round 2
Syracuse vs. Gonzaga
I decided to check the wikipedia pages for reasons to pick either one. I looked at Syracuse for a little while, they're pretty interesting. I looked at the Gonzaga page and it lead me to the page for the re-make of Red Dawn. Damn you Gonzagas wikipedia page.
PREDICTION: Syracuse
(also, ten bucks to anyone who can figure out how I got from Gonzaga to that page.)

Butler vs. Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt probably had a lot of butlers, I'm sure he beat them more than they beat him.
PREDICTION: Vanderbilt

Xavier vs. Pittsburgh
Xavier has John Boehner as a notable alumni. I don't know who Pittsburgh has, because it's a separate page than the school's main page, and I know that if I click off the page I'll be clicking around for longer than necessary. But I know whoever it is, it's better than John Boehner.
PREDICTION: Pittsburgh

Florida vs. Kansas St.
Kansas St. is called the Wildcats, which is pretty generic naming material for a mascot. Florida is called the Gators, which is awesome at first, until you realize they are in Florida, so that would be like a northeast school's mascot being Squirrels, as both are generic for their region and you're only going to pay attention to them when they're trying to eat your child. So somehow Wildcats was the more original name here.
PREDICTION: Kansas St.

Sweet Sixteen
Syracuse vs. Vanderbilt
Syracuse are the Orangemen, which is kind of stupid. But Vanderbilt is the Commodores, which is kind of a lie, because I don't think they'd allow Lionel Richie to attend their university.
PREDICTION: Syracuse

Pittsburgh vs. Kansas St.
Pittsburgh has it pretty easy getting this far, it's not hard to beat Oakland and awful Republican Senators, but I think that's soften them and tried to make me forget that they ARE in fact still from Pittsburgh. Sorry, but this far no further.
PREDICTION: Kansas St.

Elite Eight
Syracuse vs. Kansas St.
Syracuse is probably my best shot for a Northeast champion, so I'm going to bring them as far as I can. Besides, if I let Kansas St. win, then half of my final four will be Kansas. Yawn.
PREDICTION: Syracuse.

Zach Picks His March Madness Bracket: Midwest Edition

2010-03-16T10:08:00.004-04:00

So I like to enter March Madness brackets, despite the fact that March Madness is the START of my basketball watching for the year (and I seriously doubt that I'll be able to watch it over here in Europe, so I'll just be following online). The point is I never actually know the correct predictions, so it's a lot of me just seeing what I can guess.

Here's my usual ways of picking:

1. Better School/Location
2. Better Mascot
3. Schools named after Robber Barons (Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford etc.) will probably win at least once in the tourny.

And ya know, there's a lot of me just following the seeding.

This is my second year doing a bracket for "The Shore Sports Report" a Jersey Shore local radio show (that I must say is excellent) featuring two alumni of my high school, one of which I'd consider a friend(but he might not). I used pretty much the same system last year and I ended up in 7th out of 60.

The year before that I did one on Yahoo and spent a few days on the top 50 scores page for "Fans of Oral Roberts"(who sadly did not make it this year, I love seeing zealots get knocked out in the first round).

I may not do as well this year because teams I know like UConn and North Carolina aren't in it this year, but the point I'm trying to make is I'm fairly good at faking these brackets.

Round 1
Kansas vs. Lehigh
Okay Kansas is a number 1 seed. Lehigh is a school with a lot of science that has one of the lead Intelligent Design professors teaching there. So they can't even do what they're supposed to be good at correctly. I predict a slaughter.
PREDICTION: Kansas

UNLV vs. Northern Iowa
UNLV needs more vowels in its name, so many hard syllables. Also, I'm well aware that Emerson will never get any sort of sports accolades, so I've gotta go with a school that shares the colors.
PREDICTION: Northern Iowa

Michigan State vs. New Mexico State
State school against state school, so it has to be decided by the better state. Despite having Detroit, I'm still picking Michigan as a better state. I've never been to New Mexico but being stuck between Eastern Arizona and West Texas can't make a place any fun to be in, especially not a "Land of Enchantment" like New Mexico's motto says it is.
PREDICTION: Michigan State

Maryland vs. Houston
My friend Lucas goes to Maryland and he's probably my best friend who goes to a school in the bracket. Also, I spent an hour in Houston on a layover to Austin and they have a Fox News store in the airport, needless to say I was in Houston longer than I wanted to be.
PREDICTION: Maryland

Tennessee vs. San Diego State
Tennessee is the Volunteers which has some historical context. San Diego State is the Aztecs which has no context of any kind. This misplacement of a basketball mascot may be as bad as Utah Jazz.
PREDICTION: Tennessee

Georgetown vs. Ohio
What the hell is a Hoya? Nothing. Okay well screw them then.
PREDICTION: Ohio

Oklahoma State vs. Georgia Tech
Oklahoma State has the same mascot as New Mexico State (Pistol Pete), which is stupid. And I'll take Atlanta over Stillwater, Oklahoma any day. Does Stillwater even have a cool name like "Hotlanta" for the local DJs to say? Chillwater? I find no record of that term ever being used.
PREDICTION: Georgia Tech

Ohio State vs. UCSB
UCSB's mascot is the Gauchos. Meaning they could be beaten by any school with a mascot like the Ajas, or the Katy Lieds or the Pretzel Logics. I don't expect them to score more than (hey) nineteen points.
Also, I think all my blogs should made up of Steely Dan references.
PREDICTION: Ohio State

ROUND 2
Kansas vs. Northern Iowa
I know Kansas does "Dust in the Wind", and it's not very good, but if they do "Carry On My Wayward Son" it will beat anything Northern Iowa does.
PREDICTION: Kansas

Michigan State vs. Maryland
Staying with choosing where a friend goes, go Maryland. And 300 made Spartans less cool.
PREDICTION: Maryland.

Tennessee vs. Ohio
I'm going with Tennessee because I went against Georgetown even though they'll probably win, so now I have to hope that Tennessee beats them in round 2. Does that make sense? Is my bracket screwed? Probably is the answer to both of those questions.
PREDICTION: Tennessee

Georgia Tech vs. Ohio State
I'm willing to believe that Ohio is in fact a state. I'm less likely to believe that Georgia is very Tech Savvy. If you ask me the more valid one of these is Ohio State.
PREDICITON: Ohio State

SWEET SIXTEEN
Kansas vs. Maryland
As much as I want to keep routing for Maryland, I can't let my wanting my friend's school to win change my voting too much, becuase you know I'm taking this so seriously and everything.
PREDICTION: Kansas

Ohio State vs. Tennessee
I never hide the fact that I don't really like most of the south, and thats not going to change here. I mean Tennessee calls its girls team the "Lady Volunteers", as if Volunteering was something that was overtly masculine in the first place. Boo southern ways of living! Go Buckeyes!
PREDICTION: Ohio State

Elite Eight
Kansas vs. Ohio State
So, its around this point that I ALWAYS screw up my brackets, so maybe I should just go for something simple. Ohio State's colors are Scarlet and Gray. Kansas is Crimson and Gray...And Blue and Yellow. That means since most people can't really tell the difference between Crimson and Scarlet anyway, everyone at the game will seem to be wearing a Kansas color. Thats a home field advantage you can count on.
PREDICTION: Kansas.

So, Kansas is the first team I'm sending to the Final Four. Who else? I dunno, maybe we'll see tomorrow when I do the WEST.

Got any predictions/comments more serious/less serious than mine? Any good insights on who to pick. Leave me a comment.

Shoe of the Week: Miu Miu Pink Heels

2010-03-15T20:01:00.002-04:00

Monday and rainy. Blech, blech, blech. Let's just pretend the spring is in view with this amazing Miu Miu heels. Chunky heel, platform for maximized comfort and crystal embellishments!

Love is all over the place.

Here's to sunnier days kiddos.

-Kimya

Zach Finally Has Internet So He Can Talk About the Oscars

2010-03-12T14:28:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I bashed the Grammys,(And even got a sweet comment by the Nelson Mandella's Favorite Folktales) because they do suck. While the Oscars make mistakes, they are probably the best award show. The rankings go:
1. Oscars
2. Tonys
3. Emmys
4. Grammys
5. Kids Choice Awards(does Nickelodeon really still do this?)
6. Whatever awards MTV does now
7. People's Choice Awards
8. SpikeTV's Manly Man Awards of Man (otherwise known as the "Over-masculinitys)
8. Golden Globes

Speaking of why the Golden Globes suck, let me go to the first point I have to make.

THINGS I ENJOYED:
Avatar Losing Out On Pretty Much Everything
This is why the Golden Globes scared me, then again they're the ones who said Atonement was better than No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood (I haven't seen Atonement, but it wasn't). Avatar can have the visual awards as far as I'm concerned, because thats all the movie had. I could probably write a thousand articles about how bad Avatar was. Avatar was so bad it confirmed something I've thought for a long time: Titanic also sucked, and for some reason the Academy enjoyed it. But, nothing could make the travesty of Avatar win, thankfully.

District 9 going 0 for 4
Maybe someone could explain to me the appeal of this movie? I saw it with 6 friends, all of us hated it. The story never went anywhere, had quite a few big plot holes, one of the most unappealing main characters of all time, not to mention that it switched between mockumentary and blockbuster action film whenever it was convenient for the writers. So yeah, I was so pissed off by the popularity of that movie, I didn't want it to win ANYTHING.

Cristoph Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor
I called this one over the summer when I saw Inglorious Basterds. The movie was fueled entirely by his acting (and, ya know... Nazi Killing). Very much deserved. But this wasn't saying much, because Best Supporting Actor is slowly becoming an award given out to a good actor in a successful movie to get people who haven't seen the Best Picture nominees to watch. (see: Heath Ledger's win last year)

Things That Bothered Me:

The Best Documentary Winner is NEVER the one that I think deserves it
Seriously, I was really rooting for Food Inc. this year, but it didn't win. I was pretty indifferent last year, but two years ago Sicko should have won,(I guess it was a few too early for it to be really relevant), and Jesus Camp should have beat an Inconvenient Truth the year before that. (Because an Inconvenient Truth was a boring movie, not because global warming isn't real, you crazies). Before that, Murderball should have beaten March of the Penguins I guess the Academy just hates the documentaries I like.

No wins for A Serious Man or Up In The Air
Okay, the Coens swept 2 years ago so they weren't really due to win anything this year, but Up In The Air was far too wonderful to have gone without a single win. I'm not sure what I would have given it, maybe a Best Supporting Actress (Mo'Nique was great, but do we really need the ads for "Phat Girlz 2 to say "Featuring Academy Award Winner Mo'Nique"? All that can do is harm society.)

Speaking of which....

"Precious" consistently being referred to as "Precious: Based off The Novel Push by Sapphire"
What's the deal there? Nobody would have been confused about what Precious was if they didn't do that. It's not like they called James Cameron's movie "Avatar: Based off of Dances With Wolves, Pocahontas, Ferngully, and a bunch of other movies that totally discredit the originality of the visuals". It was especially annoying that it won best adapted screenplay, because they had to say it twice.

Other Notes:

I really don't care about whether or not Sandra Bullock won
Some people were up in arms about it. I mean I found amusing that she won the Razzie and the Oscar, but on top of that she was actually really good in The Blind Side. And everyone knows the that the 50+ female nominees never win, and neither do the under 21s. And I don't think half of the Academy even saw An Education, so really who else were they going to pick?

Is there really a point to the animated feature award anymore?
Anyone could have told you Up was going to win. The last three have all been Pixar, and 5 out of the 9 times that's been the case. Throw in the fact that Cars was a flop and thats why Happy Feet won, and then all you have is Shrek (a movie with no good sequels), a Miyazaki film, and a Wallace and Grommit film. We might as well just give them all to Pixar for the rest of forever.

Ryan Bingham was both a nominee and a character played by a nominee
So I didn't watch the oscars (you try getting them in a Czech hotel at 3 in the morning) so could someone tell me if they brought this up? It was George Clooney in Up In the Air as well as the guy who sang the theme to Crazy Heart. I just thought this was weirdly interesting. I'm sure someone had to have brought it up seeing as it took me like ten seconds of research to figure that out.

And thats all I have to saaaaaaaayy....

DVD List

2010-03-10T13:15:00.009-05:00

I'm a big movie watcher, I watch a lot of DVDs and I go to the movies constantly. Films were my vice as a child, I would force my mom to rewind and restart my favorite movies over and over again. And I'm pretty much the same way now, not every film I watch makes it into my DVD section, but the ones that do, I love, and get pretty worn out. Just ask "Breakfast at Tiffany's" she's had quite a run.

That being said: These are the DVDs I'm looking to add to my collection...

Julie and Julia

Coco Before Chanel

The September Issue

Away We Go

Paris When It Sizzles

Two for the Road

Sex and the City Boxset of all 6 seasons

What are some movies that you could watch over and over without getting sick of them?

I'd love to hear what you all think!

-Kimya

Kimya Reviews the Oscars Red Carpet

2010-03-08T10:37:00.017-05:00

Hey guys!

I watched the whole Academy Awards on TV last night, I have to say I was pretty entertained the whole way through. It was a good show, not to mention the hosts were excellent and hilarious! But of course more than the exceptional talent there were exceptional designs and couture as well! This is the most glamorous red carpet on the face of the planet and I'm bringing you my opinions of the winners, "meh," and the losers.

Here we goooo....

Losers:
Charlize Theron: HER DRESS IS MOLESTING HER. This just makes me feel uncomfortable.

Jennifer Lopez:Everyone was freaking out over this dress last night. But for me, it's too poofy and the material looks like cheap bubble wrap.

Sarah Jessica Parker: The neck strap thing looks like it's choking her(she was even pulling on it while she was presenting!) and the top part of the dress pulls away from her body. The color is gorgeous, but the cut of the dress is all sorts of wrong.

Zoe Saldana: It looks like some animals from the dye factory nearly escaped but were caught on the train of Zoe's dress instead. I mean the top, which is the TV shot, looks great, but the rest is pretty tragic.

Diane Kruger: I think Diane has excellent taste and is totally stunning, but maybe she shouldn't have gone with Chanel this time like she always does. The dress is just too much and does nothing for her fantastic figure. Bummed the the two Chanel dresses (this one and SJP's) were losers of the night.

The "Meh" category

Amanda Seyfreid: This is just too much dress, and I'm over the whole Cinderella look anyhow, but she carried it off pretty well. It didn't dazzle me, which is a shame because I think she is so lovely.

Sandra Bullock: The chest was awkward and I'm not sure the color worked on her. The make up and hair was FAB though, and she pulled off the win against all odds so props to her for matching her new golden statue.

Kate Winslet: It's a pretty dress: but it's just that. Nothing interesting or captivating about it. Which is alright because she wasn't nominated.

Miley Cyrus: I actually love this corseted top, it's young and fresh and the color looked great on her, but that weird drop-waist thing was just distracting.

Vera Farminga: I love Marchesa, but the ruffles here were just over powering on her frame, but that deep red was a great choice, and she's just beautiful to begin with.

And now for the WINNERS! Congrats Ladies...
Rachel McAdams:Elie Saab Couture is always a wonderful choice for the red carpet. The cut was gorgeous and the colors were so fresh and unique. She looked just stunning.

Carey Mulligan: She is so elegant and graceful and her dress last night was simple black done right. The jeweling details in the front gave it a little bit of edge and the shoes were great as well. I cannot wait to see her grow as an actress and fashion icon.

Cameron Diaz: I blogged about this Oscar de la Renta dress a few weeks ago! And I noticed it immediately. My jaw dropped when I saw her. The makeup and the hair were so so perfect. I usually don't like her red carpet looks, but I'm so glad that someone wore de la Renta and wore him well.

Gabourney Sidibe: She looked like a queen last night (I really wanted her to win last night!) She pulled this look off with great class and elegance. The color was great and the jeweled detail was just enough and not too distracting.

Anna Kendrick: This dress was both elegant and so sexy with the lace detail at the botton, and the ballerina pink was fabulous on her skin.

What did ya'll think? Did I get it right or am I off my rocker?

-Kimya

Shoe of the Week: Alexander Wang Open-Toe Boots

2010-03-01T16:31:00.003-05:00

Hey guys,

Hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing weekend and also...Happy March!

Do you feel spring in the air?

Me neither.

Anyway, I saw these boots several times in the March Issue of Vogue and they really caught my attention. They're military + utilitarian + surprisingly functional and comfortable looking.

What do you guys think?

Cute? Awful? How would you style it? Rolled up khaki chinos and a soft brown leather jacket for early fall?

-Kimya

Dance Party Friday!

2010-02-26T08:00:00.002-05:00

Hey ya'll!

Today is glorious in Boston. For one, it's finally sunny out and NOT raining. Hooray! Two, I don't have class. Yippee! And three, I'm jamming out. YES!

Nothing can stop me or stand in my way. :)

One artist that I love (who is also great for studying music!) is Andrew Bird. He plays the accordian, violin, and even is somewhat of a professional whistler, which is cute given his last name. I think he's revolutionizing pop-folk. Of course the strumming acoustic guitar which never be completely eradicated, but he adds many different layers and makes something truly original. And how totally cool is it that he always performs in suit?

Anyway, here's "Masterswarm" by Andrew bird. Feel free to whistle along while getting ready.

-Kimya

All Girls....

2010-02-24T08:50:00.003-05:00

photo via audrey hepburn complex
A poem by Richard Brautigan:

For Valerie

All girls should have a poem
Written for them even if
we have to turn this God-damn world
upside down to do it

-Kimya

3 Crazy Things That Are On The Internet.

2010-02-23T15:16:00.003-05:00

And the award for vaguest blog title in the world goes to.... Zach from Zach and Kimya!

So for those who don't know, I spend a lot of time on the internet. There's a lot of weird and awesome stuff out there. Mostly weird.

This past week has been pretty successful for finding some crazy stuff. So here's what I've discovered exists on the internet in the past week.

Excerpt of the cool thing I saw in Casino Luxembourg
Contrary to what you believe this is not a Casino, but a modern art museum. Yeah I know, those crazy foreigners.

Anyway, this is an excerpt of a cool art exhibit I saw that was really funny, but the subtitles were in English when I saw it, so I don't know how funny it will be to you. Someone tell me if its funny when you don't see the subtitles. I think its absurd no matter what.

www.axecop.com

Axe Cop is awesome! A 29 Year Old Comic Book Artist illustrates a comic written by his 5 year old brother, and its quite possibly the most awesome thing of all time. I wish I had a cool older brother like that, or I had the artistic talent to do this with Aidan.

www.timecube.com

I had heard people joke about this website before, and how its the craziest conspiracy website ever, but I never actually went on it. I went on it yesterday, and I realized that it without a doubt the craziest thing anyone has ever written without going on to kill people (that we know of)

To prove my point, I'm going to scroll to a random point in the long long rant that makes up the website and I guarantee it will be the craziest thing ever written.

I know for a fact that 4 simultaneous 24
hour Days exist within a single rotation
of Earth. Midday is a light race Day.
Sundown is an Asian race Day. Midnight
is a Black Race Day and Sunup is an Indian
Race Day. Erroneous 1 Day 1 God crap
has corrupted human Cubic intelligence.
Genesis 1:5 "first Day"is an evil Lie -
contradicting the whole damn bible sh-it.
Bible and stupid academic ONEness
ignores and obstructs Cubic Creation
Intelligence. Black people should create
a "White Race Appreciation Day"for
all they have sacrificed to help the Black.
Compare the American Black economics
to the African Black environment where
Whites can't own land or vote.

Like I said, the crazies thing ever. Feel free to visit the website if you want your head to explode out of craziness.

So yeah, these are the things most of my time this week has been wasted on. Hope you enjoyed them.

50 Steps to Simple Happiness

2010-02-22T16:36:00.002-05:00

Hey friends,

I just read this really cool article from New York Magazine called "50 Steps to Simple Happiness." The intro talks about how New Yorkers are angry and stressed out a lot, but doesn't that apply to EVERYONE really? Panicked? Anxious? These are terms and we see and feel frequently.

This list complies really, really easy things to do to put a smile on your face or just to remind you to pause and smell the roses for lack of a better phrase.

What are your simple steps to happiness?

Here are some personal examples:

-My once a week yoga class is awesome because it teaches me to focus on myself and literally think about nothing which is hard for me to do.
-Grab a iced skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks and savor it (feels like summer to me!)
-Dance like an idiot.

I'm curious to see what you all have to say!

-Kimya

Sartorialist Interview

2010-02-21T14:47:00.003-05:00

Hey guys,

I hope everyone is having an easy and relaxing Sunday! Daily, okay more then daily, I check fashion photographer Scott Schuman's (pictured above) The Sartorialist. If you love fashion, photography, or both than you've most definitely heard about it in passing or have maybe clicked through it a few times. Schuman has a fantastic eye for clothes and personal style and he knows how to capture the perfect moment on film. He doesn't do a lot to promote himself, so I was super excited when he posted this radio interview on his website!

I think everyone should listen to it, while looking through his archives and sipping a tall latte. But that's just a suggestion :)

-Kimya

How To Be A Stupid American Tourist and Still Pretend Understand Art (travel writing piece)

2010-02-21T06:57:00.002-05:00

As evidenced by my Rijksmuseum pamphlet, which was already sporadically stained with rain droplets due to my close examination of it before I was even close to the museum, I was excited. More excited than I would have ever expected myself to be about a national art museum. I’m usually not very excited by the prospect of art museum filled with art with a mostly historical significance, but I think I could take exception to this in The Netherlands, or for that matter, any country other than the US, where in order for there to be historical art its usually stolen from indigenous peoples.

When I reached the front the Rijksmuseum, I noticed that they had a wonderful exhibit called sunshine that they were showing right outside the doors to get in, which the rest of my snow and sleet filled time in Amsterdam lead me to believe was a pretty rare exhibit. Things got even more interesting when I went inside. The Rijksmuseum has a very modern interior, with fully glass walls and clear spiral staircases and a whole lot of other architecture terms I don’t know. Though only a small portion of the museum was actually open, because they were renovating the rest of it to make it more modern looking. Museums tend to need constant renovation, as to keep the guests from mistaking the museum for an exhibit in itself.

The first series of paintings that really intrigued me was a group of still lifes all in a room together that incorporated the same theme of messy dinner tables, with titles such as Still Life With Turkey Pie and Still Life With Gilded Goblet. The tables were covered with evidence of a night of partying: water jugs, half eaten fruit, ruffled tablecloths, loafed, crumbed, and sliced bread, and empty oyster shells. While to me it seemed me that when the rich threw parties they wanted some way to document how awesome it was so they hired a painter to do so, similar to what a sixteen year old would do with Facebook nowadays. As it turns out, they started out as subtle Calvinist propaganda paintings, symbolizing how the rich were so wasteful, and warning people not to be like that. The oysters were particularly special because they are an aphrodisiac, which means there’s probably some other sinning going on under the table. At a certain point, people stopped caring about the religious meaning of the pictures and just liked them for arts sake. One wonders if this is eventually the case for all Christian propaganda, I for one would love a gallery of “It’s A Child Not A Choice” bumper stickers.

I guess it was the teenage socialist rebel in me that really enjoyed paintings criticzing the rich, which is why I still couldn’t be less enthused by most of the portraits, commissioned by the rich to have done of themselves so that they could show how important they were. What did interest me were the many pictures of a large group of people together. It’s something you rarely see in popular art, and yet very prominent in Dutch art. And while people are rarely smiling when they are alone in a portrait, they seem to always be smiling when surrounded by other people, save paintings of war or religion.

There’s a lot to be said from this about paintings that focus on a large group of people rather than one or two. I would never say that I’m an art expert, but I think I can understand a thing or two about the reflections it can make on a society. There’s a common phrase about how God made the world, but men made Holland. The people of Amsterdam created the titular dam and the centuries old canals by carving them out with their bare hands. There were no construction equipment or bidding contracts, just a village worth of people working their fingers to the bone for no pay just to create a home. Historically speaking, the people of The Netherlands are famous for giving amnesty to the exiled of other countries, and being all inclusive. On top of that, at a time when most other European countries were using monarchy as their form of government, the Dutch were experimenting with a Republic. So in the same way that a portrait of one person is meant to reflect the idea of this person’s importance, when groups of people are painted it is a statement of the importance of each and every one of those people, which explains the popularity of this in Dutch paintings.

Nobody showed this style better than Hendrick Avercamp, the artist of the featured exhibition in the Rijksmuseum. His signature paintings were whole towns worth of people in fantastic winter scenes, most of them skating around on ice. I paused at the first one I saw, simply titled Ice Scene. The scene was extremely calming, which is in part due to the fact that that it was painted with watercolors and every hue of its palate is unabrasive. You wouldn’t realize the beautiful tranquility if you looked at the top of the painting though, it was full of ominous dark clouds, and morose black birds. But focusing down only a few centimeters, the mood changes drastically with a wave of pale blue sky. The rest of the picture, while matching the weather of the clouds, make a classic juxtaposition of them in terms of mood. There have to be fifty people in the picture, most of them gleefully skating, and with every person there is another story to be told. The young couple holding hands, the old man chopping wood, and the small boy trying, and failing, to run across the ice are only a few among the many characters with their own intricate reasons to be doing what they are doing. One could sit for hours looking at each person and trying to know their story, they could come up with a thousand different stories, each of them just as valid as the last; it would take days to just analyze every person in this small part of a Dutch town. Avercamp doesn’t even sign his name, except for in some subtle graffiti carved into the side of the building. It’s so difficult to even find the signature, one is more likely to notice the boy in the picture exposing himself, also carefully hidden. Apart from the saying “jokes based around nudity are timeless”, it is also Avercamp saying his name is no more important than anyone else in the picture, symbolizing quite clearly that the art does not belong to nor represent one person, not even him.

Note: This is the best sized Avercamp I could find, not the one I'm writing about.

When I left the Rijksmuseum, I immediately met up with a group of over eighty people. While it’s true that this was part of procedure because I was with a large class group that had to make sure they didn’t lose anyone, I’m sure it’s something I would have wanted to do anyway. There was a clear message in the art and history of The Netherlands that says happiness is only worth something if it’s being celebrated with other people.

Kimya Reviews NY Fashion Week

2010-02-20T12:54:00.012-05:00

New York Fashion Week is always a big production. Crazy shows, crazy parties, celebrities, wannabes and above all clothes, clothes, clothes!

I think the best way to sum up the GAWJUS-ness is by superlatives. Enjoy!

Most wearable: Tory Burch; Clean lines, good pop of color, easily imitated by any hip downtown gal.

Collection I want to marry: Marchesa; I DIE. So pretty. I have looked at this collection probably a million times. If it were a man, I would marry it (sorry Zach)

Kookiest: Jeremy Scott; Um...what?

Red-Carpet worthy: Oscar de la Renta: I mean the is NO red carpet without Oscar. WOW WOW WOW.

Biggest Disappointment: Marc Jacobs; from one of my favorite designers. Everything was blah. The color, the shape, the design. Totally unimaginative.

Best Print-mixing: Anna Sui; Pattern mixing is an art and very hard to do, but Sui's '70's boho meets Eskimo princess does it well!

Best Back to School: Nanette Lepore; Comfy, casual, beautiful rich colors for fall. Now I have to think about going back to school before even getting out? WHAT IS THIS?!?!?!

Have a pretty weekend! (all photos courtesy of Style.com)

-Kimya

Shoe of the Week: Fendi Strappy Sandals

2010-02-15T17:52:00.002-05:00

I've seen these shoes everywhere. Ads, editorial shoots. So pretty for spring, like way sexier espadrilles.

Happy President's Day

-Kimya

Inspiration Board: February

2010-02-13T09:54:00.004-05:00

Hey guys,

I've always loved collages and tacking things up on my board that inspire me or make me smile, but a few weeks ago when I couldn't sleep a few weeks ago, I stayed up and cut apart some February issues of fashion magazine and made an inspiration board.

I know a lot of mag editors do this to keep their creativity flowing, and I think that's awesome and it also gives me a fun arts and crafts project to do in my spare time.

I can't wait to do the March edition.

Have a good weekend all!

-Kimya

R.I.P. Mr. McQueen

2010-02-11T10:54:00.002-05:00

The world has lost a visionary.

So tragic.

-Kimya

Shoe of the Week: Viktor & Rolf

2010-02-08T13:31:00.002-05:00

Hey,

It's Monday, national day of sluggish-ness, but I've been holding up so far thanks to a cup of home-brewed coffee and a long-distance chat with Zach.

I saw these Viktor & Rolf floral-detail leather sandals in February's Marie Claie, and now they are proudly tacked to my inspiration board. They are so fun and whimsical, I think they'd be cute for a Valentine's date.

The colors are so vibrant and artistic, I think shoes should be a piece of art (see last week's shoe), and these are a great example of that.

Have a super fabulous Monday!

-Kimya

California Dreamin'

2010-02-07T09:23:00.003-05:00

All week I've been dreaming about summer.

The time has come when I am pretty much FED UP with the cold, and my mind drifts to the beach and flip-flops and the sun's glaring heat. But living in Boston, I have to wait about 2.5 more months for that to happen.

And really, when this is all you are thinking about, who can wait!

Hopefully when I go back home for spring break it will be warm enough to tide me over until late April/early May.

Here are somethings that have been on my mind....

Happy Sunday ya'll. Take it easy...

-Kimya

The Grammys Suck. (reasons cited)

2010-02-01T16:54:00.005-05:00

1. Taylor Swift won best album.
I'm tired of people treating her like a legitimate artist. Her lyrics sound like they were written by a teenage girl, because that's what she is. I'm not going to let her off the hook because she writes her own songs if she can't write a damn song. (In "You Belong With Me" she rhymes "that" with "that. There's like 10000 other words you could rhyme with that. Not quality song writing.) Somewhere along the lines someone forgot that popularity doesn't mean that they've got legitimacy. I'm not going to pretend like there's no good pop, in fact there's a lot, but you've got to pick it out correctly.

2. Lady Gaga won... something.
I've already ranted about this, it's banal faux-avant garde and its rather silly that we're paying as much attention to her as we do. I'm actually not mad that she won best dance album, you could make a very good case for that. Actually I'm not really mad that she won anything that she did, I just talk about how much I hate her some more.

3. "Here Comes Science" receiving 0 Nominations/Wins
I've grown to accept that most of my favorite bands won't be recognized by the Grammys. But when They Might Be Giants put out a childrens album I damn well expect it to win, because its usually the only one of I've heard of. But alas, they were not even nominated. Instead there was Ziggy Marley, who won, and Jonathan Sprout who, after a quick Google check, I've confirmed as that douche with a guitar who used to come to my Elementary school and sing us songs about American History figures. (I still can remember him singing "SACAJAWEA! INDIAN GIRL! YOUNG AND SMART AND BRAAAAAVE" as well as "Washington's Hat! Imagine that!", keep in mind its impossible for me to remember important things though)

4. Jay Z getting no major nominations
This was a pretty serious miss. Blueprint 3 was really good. I probably would have subbed out ANY of the Record, Song, or Album nominations for Jay Z. Except Beyonce. Nobody beats Beyonce.

5. The whole system is awfully inconsistent.
Things that suck but are popular get nominated all the time. Things by great artists but are completely unpopular, e.g. whatever Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan are doing nowadays, get nominated all the time. It's like they consistently show bias in there nominating, but with no real trends to a direction. It's almost like every nomination gets on there based on politics.

I can only do a few more of these, it makes my head hurt.

6. Best New Artist is... well Best New Artist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_New_Artist
As you can see, they don't have a good track record on picking who's going to become famous. Remember A Taste of Honey? Me neither, but they beat The Cars, Elvis Costello, and Toto out for best new artist in 1979. So when they didn't give this award to MGMT or the Ting Tings, the two bands on the nomination list I could see the award going to, I wasn't surprised.

At the same time though, Zac Brown Band,(who I haven't listened to, but everything I can infer about a band with a hit song called "Chicken Fried" tells me not to) have been together since 2000, had their first album come out in 2004. This is true of quite a few artists So they could subtitle the category Best Artists We're Not Cool Enough To Know Existed Up Until This Year. But there first "hit" was in 2008, so its been more than a year or so since they came out on the scene. Don't ask me what the hell they use to judge that category.

7. Speaking of which, there were songs on there that were from waaaay back.
For some reason Hot N Cold by Katy Perry was nominated, which was very 2008. Also the Live version of "What I've Done" by Linkin Park was nominated for an award, and the live version of "Sara Smile" by Hall and Oates. Nothing about any of it makes a bit of sense. How good could a live version be to deserve a brand new nomination? My guess: not that good.

8. "Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales" gets snubbed for Best Children's Spoken Word
Featuring A Story Read By Samuel L. Jackson himself! How could this not be the best thing ever? At the very least "The Phantom Tollbooth" read by David Hyde Pierce should have won this category. I never know what these people are thinking.

My head hurts, I'm stopping at 8.

Shoe of the Week: Nicholas Kirkwood "Alice Pumps"

2010-02-01T16:02:00.004-05:00

Happy Monday and Happy February!

I love Alice in Wonderland, it brings up a lot of happy childhood memories for me, so these shoes are literally a piece of art.

They are incredibly amazing and awe-inspiring!

Have a good week kiddos!

-Kimya

Paris Fashion Week: Elie Saab

2010-01-28T17:16:00.004-05:00

I have to admit that I'm one of those people that took quite a while to "get" haute couture. Sometimes's it's pretty kooky with the presentation and such, but the garments are beautiful all the same.

These are clothes that belong in museums as artwork.

I could spend hours fawning over the spectacular and crucial detail that goes into making these things. Hand sewn and loved by the designer. These gowns and garments are not made for mass appeal, it's not about making a product that will bring in the bucks, it's purely about art, and how lovely they look placed on the human form walking down an runway or red carpet.

Possibly the most indulgent thing. (All photos accredited to style.com)

Exquisite...I love how the models look as if they are mermaids emerging from the ocean covered in jewel-hued dew.

And they are just begging to be worn on the red carpet.

-Kimya

Hair & Beauty Trend: Braids at Alexander Wang

2010-01-26T13:30:00.004-05:00

Alexander Wang (SS10)is genius with these rough-tomboy-I-play-football-in-the-dirt-with-the-boys look. But when you take off the sports wear and pair it with an elegant gown it still looks incredibly chic. I'm going to try to grow my hair even longer for the summer so I can try something like this (although the actual models in the show relied on hair extensions). It's definitely a bit of easy going California girl which is a great look for a summer in the city, mountains, beach, pretty much everywhere. It reminds of me of something Katherine Hepburn might have worn.

It's simply gorgeous, don't you agree?

-Kimya

My Third Comic, or as I prefer Joke(ft. Illustration)*

2010-01-25T15:39:00.006-05:00

So I've already turned jokes into comics here and here, and I kind of enjoy them even though Mac doesn't have a program that accommodates haphazard work quite like MS Paint does. Anyway, this is another of my comics, that I hope you enjoy, very loosely based on a conversation between me and my friend Chris.

(The current size of this picture are awful, click on it so its more readable)

*BONUS MINI-RANT: Is anyone else frequently annoyed by songs that are listed as Song Title (ft. Other Artist)? I feel it makes the song far less memorable. It's not new for artists to work on other artists songs doing backup singing and such, but you'd never see a song listing like "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon (ft. Mick Jagger), or "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by The Beatles (ft. Eric Clapton). Sure include it in the album notes, but its not necessary in the title, all that does is screw up the organization of my iTunes.

This is especially prevalent in rap/hip-hop songs, and especially creepy in those songs of the love song-ish genre. If you're really singing about loving a girl, why do you want someone else to have a part in that? What if you were out on a romantic evening with a girl you really cared about and then 2/3rds the way through the night T-Pain joined you guys on the romantic carriage ride through the park.

On second thought... that might be the most awesome thing ever.

Shoe of the Week: Alexander McQueen pumps

2010-01-25T12:45:00.002-05:00

I have to admit this...I love shoes, but I'm not really daring with them. Most of them are black leather or suede, and don't really have a lot to them, but I really want to be more out there!

I dream in color and prints but I live in solids and monochromatics!

EEK!

But these Alexander McQueen Geometric pumps are cute AND just loud enough that I can wear them with an all-black outfit and still look chic.

How would you style these?

-Kimya

5 Best Things About The Dutch Town of Well Having Been Here Less Than A Week

2010-01-23T08:21:00.003-05:00

So my current location is awfully beautiful, and I'm really excited for the 89 days here. Classes start Monday so we'll see how those effect things, but here's five thinsg I've picked up on in the first day that I happen to think is awesome.

1. Stroopwafels
Described to me as the most Dutch of all pastries, the stroopwafel is like a waffle-cracker full of caramel. I could probably make millions bastardizing them in America, like we've done to Mexican food, Chinese food, sushi, and hummus. Then make a million more on Stroopwafel minis, Stroopwafel lites, Peanut Butter Stroopwafels, double stuffed stroopwafels. Also, the pronunciation is something like "Strope-wavel", but that'll change when they're an American delight.

2. Good Beer
So yes, I went to the Pub on my first night, where the drinking age is 16.(Which would have made extravagant American Sweet 16 parties much more bearable, and, you know, purposeful) Normally I don't like beer, and I was expecting European Beer to taste even more disgusting, because American beers are mostly water. To the contrary, whatever I had last night (I know it was a mix of a light and dark) was pretty delicious. I think when I come back to America, I'll be such a beer snob that I'm never seen drinking any beers not handed to me by a smiley Dutch man.

3. Bi-lingualism
I love it when people play the World War 2 card about things by saying "If it weren't for (something they think is important) you'd be speaking German!". Because it implies that Americans would ever be open to learning another language.

The point is, everyone in Well speaks English. And the one person I've seen who doesn't I've been able to practice my only Dutch phrase I really have down, "Ik spreek geen Nederlands", which of course means I don't speak Dutch. But I've learned about 15 words in a week, so I should be fluent by April, right?

4. There's a sheep and chicken farm down the street
At some point someone decided in order to have livestock in America you have to be white trash. No, having livestock is resourceful and adds local culture. Unless you live in a city you should own some damn animals.

5. Did I mention there's a castle? That I LIVE IN?
Oh yeah.

So yeah, The Netherlands is awesome. Thats all I have to say.

Neat-O Jams: Gossip

2010-01-22T14:13:00.003-05:00

Beth Ditto is on of the coolest, most confident chicks I've ever heard.

And her voice, MY GOD, it's so unique and bold.

LOVE THIS SONG.

-Kimya

Back-to-School Chic

2010-01-21T15:02:00.003-05:00

Hi all!

Today Zach goes to Europe today, so hopefully he'll have great adventures to tell us about!

This is my first week of school, and unfortunately my week has been so blah fashion wise which is upsetting. But there's always a chance to improve for next week!

Here is something that I think can help me. This is part of Proenza Schouler's Spring 2010 collection. Very preppy with the tartan miniskirts and blazers. Love it.

-Kimya

Shoe of the Week: Oscar de la Renta Lace Booties

2010-01-18T18:36:00.002-05:00

Happy MLK Jr. day everyone,

These are Lace Booties by THE man Oscar de la Renta.

I don't think I need to say anymore.

I'll be going back to classes tomorrow, so I don't have the leisurely schedule during break which provides me with soooo much time for blogging. Hopefully I can keep up with it, because I love is so much, but if you guys keep reading I will keep posting.

Good luck to you all tomorrow who are also heading back to school.

-Kimya

Top 5 Best Songs to Set for your iPod Alarm

2010-01-17T12:24:00.002-05:00

I usually set my phone to alarm me of the morning. I had been thinking about this because I thought I wasn't going to be having my phone in the Netherlands.(I will, but please don't call me unless you need to.) So these are, through my research the best songs to wake up to.

5. DMX - Party Up
I have in the past referred to this song as "musical cocaine" because for some inexplicable reason, this song pumps me up like no other. I don't know why.

4. Cat Stevens - Morning Has Broken
In the exact opposite fashion of the previous entry, this one is nice and mellow and it is fitting. It answers your questions right away, like "Why am I no longer dreaming about fields of butterscotch and Ted Danson?" Oh, because Morning has broken. However, this only works if you're waking up early, because if you've set your alarm to wake you up at like 1pm to that song, you'll just feel like an ass.

3. Beck - Debra
Also a mellow one. But really I think what makes this a really good alarm song is that its 13 minutes long, with like 7 minutes of silence if you have the album version, which is supposed to be a hidden track, but kind of just works like a built in snooze button.

2. James Brown - Sex Machine
The lyrics of the song are "Get Up, Get On Up". Are you going to ignore the words of the Godfather of Soul?

1. Any song that you want to hate.
FACT: Nobody likes waking up in the morning. If you set a song to wake you up, it will be the bane of your existence and correlated in a Pavlovian way with the worst part of your day. So if there's a pop song that you're embarrassed that you like, set it to your alarm and in a matter of like two days you will hate its guts.

So basically, theres my list.

Another tip I'd like to offer, is if you're going to fall asleep to music make sure you do it to a playlist. Or else you'll end up like my friend Jerry who put this on to go to bed:

And around two in the morning it switched to this:

Neato-O Jams: Vampire Weekend

2010-01-15T12:46:00.003-05:00

Ok,

So I go to Emerson College and I like Vampire Weekend. I know, totally unoriginal, and it's probably the only "hipster" part of me (I loathe American Apparel, sorry). But I think they're pretty great. They're songs are upbeat, fun to dance around to and definitely inspiring. The beats are African inspired which I think is what sets their sound apart, but this new album "Contra" definitely feels a little bit more California than their self-titled first album which was very east-coast themed. I think that they definitely moved in a new direction, but still kept the kind of originality that keeps them great. By the way, does anyone know who the girl is on the cover?

I'm definitely hoping to see them soon in Boston come April.

Anyone wanna be my date?

Enjoy "Cousins" from "Contra"

Have a happy weekend!

-Kimya

Possibly the Most Scattered Blog I've Ever Done.

2010-01-14T20:59:00.002-05:00

Places I'm Hoping To See In Europe Even Though I Don't Know What's There or; Zach is an uncultured jackass American
1. Luxembourg - I don't know why, I've just got an obsession with Luxembourg
2. Berlin - I know there used to be a wall there, but not much else.
3. Copenhagen - Was Hamlet from thre? There's an Anarchist commune called Christiania right outside, but I don't have the hardon for Anarchism that some of my friends do. It still would be cool.
4. Anywhere is Scandanavia - Just because I want to see Secular, Democratic Socialism working at its finest.
5. Bordeaux - There's really no point in going to Paris without Kimya, but I kind of still want to check out France. Bordeaux is another place I saw on the map. It does look very nice though.

Wow-Worthy Wedding Dress

2010-01-13T13:22:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone!

This is a white dress from le blog de betty.

Isn't it gorgeous. It's feminine and flirty, but you don't end up looking like a cake. Never have been a ball-gown kind of girl.

Enjoy your hump-day everyone. Almost to Friday!

Current Muse: Rose Byrne

2010-01-12T15:02:00.007-05:00

Hello all,

A couple of days ago I watched "Adam" with Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne, and it was great. The love story was sweet, simple and very touching.

But most of all Rose Byrne was gorgeous in it, and really stand-out. Apparently she's also in the show "Damages," which is a really good show about...something. Or so I hear.

She has also made quite an impression on the red carpets and at events. Her look is sophisticated and classes, but she's not afraid to add something to make it out of the ordinary like a super short hem, wild prints, or colorful details.

Hope you're as inspired as I am.

Here is how Rose does red-carpet glam.

Here is how Rose does a lot of color with a lot of class.

Here is how Rose recreates the LBD.

Here is how Rose does a sophisticated date look. (My absolute favorite, that splash for green silk is stunning against the monochromatic background.

-Kimya

Shoe of the Week: Cheetah Loboutin Booties

2010-01-11T22:46:00.004-05:00

Aren't these like TO-DIE-FOR?

I know most people think Cheetah print is quite tacky, but it can be done tastefully with the right print in the right amount. This is just lovely.

Courtesy of Jak & Jill

-Kimya

Cool Tattoo

2010-01-11T11:00:00.001-05:00

Whoa, I'm crazy about this tattoo.

Very, very writer-ly right?

-Kimya

To Lipstick ot Not to Lipstick...

2010-01-09T10:51:00.003-05:00

Hello!

This year,one of my goals was to take more chances with my fashion choices. So every time I get stuck in a rut, I'll do something new and risky to bring me out of it. One problem is that I don't even know what risky means. Fashion in general is risky, but the type of risk you take depends on what level you're at anyway.

But I found the perfect first challenge for me:

Chanel is coming out with 30 new shades of lipstick, in an effort to bring lipstick back into the handbags of American women.

The article brought up an interesting point, that the world has bred an entire generation or two of lip gloss girls.

Gone are the days of old where lipstick was a staple for American women, I think red lips defines the look of what most of us consider glamorous today. The wavy-haired siren with glistening eyes and lips of crimson.

I want to be a part of the lipstick revolution. Also when the wind blows your hair doesn't stick to it.

I want to try more than fire-engine red, I want lilac and bubble-gum and coral. HOORAH!

-Kimya

Le Artiste: Gossip Girl Artists

2010-01-06T18:47:00.005-05:00

So, I'm obsessed with Gossip Girl in the most heinous fashion.

I got the Season 2 DVD and I've been holed up in my room for the past week and a half watching all 24 episodes of it, and now that I'm done I feel really lonely. Can't wait until Season 3 comes back on January 18th, just in time for MLK Day and my return to Boston. As I finished the 7th disc of the collection, I wasn't ready to give up then, so I watched the DVD extras, which is something I never do, because it bores me quite frankly. But they had this amazing 15 minute feature on the artists behind all the design work on the set, and what really grabbed my attention were the pieces from the Bass/Van Der Woodsen penthouse apartment.

There are two pieces by Richard Phillips: The pop-art piece above the stairwell, and one in Chuck's bedroom.

One thing they made a point about in the feature is that all of the art on the show is from real artists, not ghost designers who are paid to make pieces for the show. All of the art is very current, hip and makes for a very please thing to watch on TV.

The one piece on the show that I am obsessed with in the the entrance of the Bass/Van Der Woodsen apartment: (by Elmgreen and Dragset)

I COVET THIS PIECE, and it could be mine if I had an extra $300 dollars around, thanks to this website.
Anyway, this was one "behind the scenes" glance I didn't miss, and I'm sure fans of the hip NY art scene and fans of the show will appreciate this information.

This should tide you over until GG comes back.

XOXO
Kimya

Two Lists I have made that McSweeney's Has Rejected

2010-01-04T22:52:00.002-05:00

Books Banned In Pokemon Libraries

The Old Man and Seaking
The Catcher in the Raichu
Tangela’s Ashes
The Bellsprout Jar
Taming of the Mew
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mankey
The Outscythers
On the Origin of Species

Letter Combinations That Have Phrase "And Sometimes Y"

AEIOU
CSN

Shoe of the Day: Brian Atwood "Jaime"

2010-01-04T14:50:00.003-05:00

I've decided that once a week I am going to start a segment I like to call "Shoe of the Week."

It's not about comfort level or affordability, no this is the escapist dream of shoes, it is about the beautiful mixture of art, architecture, and style that they represent.

Get ready to drool.

If you are a girl with tiny chicken legs, I am officially jealous of you for being able to wear over the knee boots. How can it be that something that actually covers most of you leg is so damn sexy?

Brian Atwood Jamie suede boots (you DO NOT want to know the price)

-Kimya

Current Muse: Dree Hemingway

2010-01-03T12:58:00.002-05:00

Well Kids, it's time to go back to our regularly scheduled fashion programming...

Starting with:

Dree Hemingway, model. And in addition to that she is great-granddaughter to little known, totally insignificant writer Earnest Hemingway. Heard of him? Didn't think so.

She is definitely one of those socialites whose mixture of good looks, waif-like frame, and family legacy creates this supernova of style and star-power.

I think she definitely prefers a structured, pulled together style with a strong dose of menswear influence.

Enjoy...

-Kimya

With a day to reflect, Top 20 things of the 2000s.

2010-01-01T19:53:00.003-05:00

Now you may think I'm late with the creation of this list, but I'm not: everyone else was early. Could we say for certain that the best thing in the decade wasn't going to happen last night? We couldn't. So I did the responsible thing and held off creating this list until I knew I could look at the decade with some retrospect, even if its only a days worth.

Also, I didn't feel like categorizing or ranking this list, because its all so trite. These are just the top things, in no particular order.
---

iPods
I’m not ranking this list, but if I was this would probably be number 1. When people look back on our generation and look for a symbol, it will be an iPod, in the same way that the 60s had the lava lamp, the 80s had the Rubik’s cube etc etc., the iPod is our gadget.

Sudoku
Someone decided that the Jumble and Crossword were lonely, and only serial killers can figure out the Cryptograms, so even though they had been out since the 80s, everyone jumped on board for Sudoku in this generation, and it should be applauded.

“Hey Ya”
This is probably the best song to come out this decade, and will forever be culturally significant. Come on, this song is like 5 years old and I can still yell “lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor!” and its both relevant and not overdone.

No Country For Old Men/There Will Be Blood
Two epic movies that came out around the same time, it was interesting to see the debating over which was better, because NCFOM had no ending, and TWBB was ALL about the ending. I still say NCFOM, but both make top ten movies of the decade.

User Generated Blogs
FML, TFLN, etc. etc. Someone comes up with a blog concept and then they just go with what other people have, its collaborative comedy at its best. This is the kindHarry

Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Sure, there were better books that came out this decade, but the Harry Potter series was as popular, if not more, than any movie or television show. The fact is, kids are reading because of Harry Potter. Hooray for reading!

Wii
The Wii made video games about playing them again, it wasn’t all about the graphics or smoke n’ mirrors, it was just about something that anyone could do and have fun with. And the way that technology seems to work, the fact that this innovation worked in terms of becoming popular, it means there will be more cool innovations to come. Personally, I’m gonna hold off on buying a new video game system until it’s complete virtual reality.
of thing that only makes sense to have happened this decade because we have the technology for it, but I happen to think it was done really well.

True Blood
Combines two of my favorite things: Vampires and anti-religious sentiment. It unfairly gets thrown in with the rest of the vampire mess, but I think when we look back at that the good vampire things of this era, True Blood will probably be the only good vampire thing.

A Golden Age of Infomercials
Halfway through the decade, hen every infomercial became Girls Gone Wild, someone decided to step it up and fix that. Billy Mays became everyone’s favorite screaming beard, and the Sham-wow guy was his eternal rival. Also, of all the dead celebrities of 2009, Billy Mays is the only one I still see on television. And since you refuse to perform in a dead state like Mays, James Brown, you are no longer the hardest working man in show business.

Facebook
Just quickly name the top 5 things you do on Facebook, then realize you used to do those things in real life, just not as well. Yeah, it’s pretty deep.

Anchorman
Sure the second half of this movie abandons all of the character work at the beginning, but the popularity of this movie made the term “Frat Pack” popular for that brand of comedy, and branched out to the whole Apatow comedy dynasty. Basically, because this movie was so popular and quotable, comedy movies are trying harder than ever before.

Shut Up You Fucking Baby by David Cross
I feel this is an important addition because for as many top 100 albums of the decade lists that I’ve seen it has not been on any of them. Sure its not a musical album, its comedy but everything about this album is totally perfect. It’s one of the first examples of anyone poking fun at the post-9/11 world, from the perspective of someone living in New York on 15th street when it happened. This album isn’t just important, it’s great.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Sure he was an actor in the 90s, but it was in the 2000s that he became the BEST actor in movies. Especially after he wins Best Actor for Capote, which was phenomenal, when he goes on to be in The Savages, Charlie Wilson’s War (in which he steals the spotlight from Tom Hanks), Doubt, and Synecdoche, New York. He’s just consistently the best.

“I believe in a thing called love” by The Darkness
I thought about this song for a while, because I think it really is an important part of this decade. It has major 80s influence, which is another one of my favorite 00s moments: when the 80s became cool. It’s also tongue in cheek, which most of this decade was. Also, its important because its one of the few popular songs with a memorably catchy guitar riff. (What else was there? Seven Nation Army? Take Me Out?)

Mainstream Documentaries
There’s a reason why when people talk about Michael Moore films rarely mention Roger and Me, and that’s because when it came out, documentaries weren’t nearly as cool as they are now. This decade has had huge hit documentaries like Bowling for Columbine, Super Size Me, An Inconvenient Truth, Jesus Camp, Sicko, and Food Inc. among many other really good films. It’s a decade that showed that learning really can be fun. (Except An Inconvenient Truth, which was just learning. Yawn.)

Same Sex Marriage
Because of how watered down the Healthcare bill turned out to be, we can safely say that Same Sex Marriage was really the only major positive political accomplishment of the decade. (Except maybe Obama reversing Bush’s stem cell decision. If a scientist someday grows me a new heart, that makes the list instead. Sorry gays.)

Arrested Development
I don’t know when every show switched to the “Watch every episode or else you don’t have any clue whats happening” format, I suppose when they realized that DVD sales are pretty important. But Arrested Development is the only show that’s been able to do that perfectly, in my opinion.

Pan’s Labyrinth
I shouldn’t even have to explain what this film is doing this list.

Pretty Much Every Hit Song by Beyonce
We can start with Destiny’s Child in 2000 with “Say My Name”, then “Survivor”, then solo “Crazy in Love” all the way up to Single Ladies(anything after that is so-so). Let’s be honest, I feel my manhood in no way jeopardized saying Beyonce was the most consistent hit releaser in the 2000s

Every Other New Comedy Central Show
There’s no channel quite as hit-or-miss as Comedy Central and they showed this in the 2000s. Sure they had the genius that was Chappelle’s Show and Colbert Report come out this decade, as well as some good one-seasoners like the highly underrated Stella, and the even more underrated Dog Bites Man. Then at the same time, this channel gave us Drawn Together, Mind of Mencia, and The Jeff Dunham Show. Hit or miss, but it was totally worth it for the good ones.
---

So there you have it, no particular order. Maybe I'll post the worst things about the decade, but that would be much harder to narrow down.

Something I'd like to do....

2010-01-01T13:41:00.002-05:00

from this lovely person's flickr
Hi all,

Hope everyone had a fun and SAFE (most important) new year! So the holiday season is over...we all mad it. Hooray. Now its time to stop focusing on other people and focus on ourselves.

What do we want?

What do we need?

What would we like to accomplish?

Take sometime to step back and look at yourself from an outside point of view.

Besides the typical things I want for myself (love, health, happiness)I also have some lofty career goals.

Id like to hone my craft, write more often, read more often, take lessons from my favorite magazine editorials that I so dream of writing one day. Good thing I love what I do...I definitely picked the right profession for myself.

College kids: do you feel like you picked the correct profession? are you reconsidering your life choices? do you want to do something completely different?

Happy first day on 2010.

-Kimya

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!

2009-12-31T17:37:00.002-05:00

Well everyone,

Tonight marks the end of 2009, a year that was wonderful for me, and the parts that weren't wonderful still taught me a lot about myself, life, and love, and who could ask for more than that.

New Years is probably one of my favorite holidays because of resolutions. The chance to start over again, to have a clean slate, to dream bigger and better than you did last year. I have made a list of lessons that I learned in the past year, and their are a lot.

But I'm feeling pretty good about applying those things to 2010, I have some goals that are centered around me, and no they may not appease everyone around me, but I'm pretty confident in who I am and what I want, and I'm not letting fear or negativity hold me back and neither should you all.

I have nothing but the happiest wishes for you all in this new year.

Here's lookin' at you, 2010. (Carrie is meant to inspire everyone to a more fashionable year!)

-Kimya

Nine

2009-12-03T18:04:00.001-05:00

Christmas Day

I'm so freakin' psyched about this movie. It looks PHENOMENAL.

Mostly excited about Marion Cotillard and the costumes.

-Kimya

Christmas Songs 4 Lyfe

2009-12-02T12:39:00.002-05:00

I'm in full Christmas mode right now. The tree in our dorm room is set up with presents under it already, Starbucks has the red cups, and I'm taking extra shifts at work in order to afford presents for everyone!

I'm just totally in love with all of it...but only a very few Christmas songs have actually captured my heart. For my Christmas playlist, I like to traditional songs with songs that just REMIND me of the holiday season.

Last Christmas - Wham!
St. Patrick's Day - John Mayer
All I Want for Christmas is You - Mariah Carey
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland
The Winter Song - Au Revoir Simone
Another Rainy Day - Corrine Bailey Rae
This Year's Love - David Gray
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley
Next Year, Baby - Jamie Cullum
The Trouble with Love Is - Kelly Clarkson
Love - Keyshia Cole
Falling In Love at a Coffee Shop - Landon Pigg

What are your favorite Christmas-ish songs?

-Kimya

A Useful Christmas Present

2009-12-01T10:57:00.002-05:00

When I was young I long for fanciful gifts that fulfilled my wildest fantasies. Things that were just too out of the way for my little hands to access. Now that I am older and am making money I can buy myself these wondrous things whenever I so choose, thus I crave practical things.

File folders, books, Starbucks gift cards, a travel coffee mug....you know adult gifts.

But currently I am craving this:

Practial AND pretty, no?

Thanks, Santa.

-Kimya

Battle Studies - John Mayer

2009-11-19T10:55:00.002-05:00

Soooo...

John Mayer's new album Battle Studies dropped on Tuesday.

For those of you who don't know, JM (as I like to call him) is the longest running affair I've had with a musical artist.

I usually really love a certain artist for a while, but grow tired or uninterested when they don't release anything new for a while...but not with JM.

I NEVER get tired of his songs, and they trigger in me a mix of euphoria, appreciation and nostalgia. For years, I've been yelling at him (metaphorically) to quit dating celebrities and to focus on his music. And here is the product of all of my disciplining. I plan on seeing him in Boston on Feb. 24, and I really don't care how much I have to pay... I WILL SEE HIM IN CONCERT.

John, if you are reading, please don't make me wait another 4-5 years for your next album.
Anyway, enjoy this first video from the first single off of the album, "Who Says."

P.S. If you don't like John Mayer...we are not friends.

-Kimya

100th Post! My Parents Were Awesome

2009-11-16T21:01:00.002-05:00

Hey readers....exciting news

IT'S OUR 100TH POST EVER!!!!!

YAY :)

Please note the celebratory cute puppy.

Anyways, here is an amazing website for you all to LOVE.

My Parents Were Awesome

Mostly because my parents WERE awesome and still ARE awesome.

Here is one of my favorite photos from the site. Nerdy parental love.

If I Were Charlotte Gainsbourg...

2009-11-15T17:04:00.003-05:00

I know, I know...I totally suck.

It's been forever since I've done a blog update, and honestly they are so fun for me but I prefer to torture myself with school work instead.

Anyway, I'm back! Thanks to Zach for keeping the posts up to some degree.

Charlotte Gainsbourg is the ultimate in French-girl-I-so-don't-care-how-I-look-cool. She is famous for taking menswear and fitting it just right to the female form. Plus she's the daughter of French musician/ladie's man Serge Gainsbourg and supermodel Jane Birkin (of the Birkin bag). So, the hip genes are all there. Here's how I would style myself after Charlotte G. If you want to see her acting chops, watch The Science of Sleep with the delicious Gael Garcia Bernal.

Charlotte Gainsbourg by kimyanattalie featuring Rachel Comey cardigans

Items in this set:
Rachel Comey cardigan, $288
Hussein Chalayan jeans, 285 EUR
Rockabilia.com t shirt, $11
Valentino boots, $1,495
Net-a-porter.com scarf, $195

This is pretty motivating.

2009-11-08T16:28:00.003-05:00

I should probably stop watching Ferris Bueller on Comedy Central and do something with myself.

(stolen from our friends at Gay Volt)

Bookshelves I will have when I'm rich

2009-10-28T17:09:00.002-04:00

So according Woman's Day these bookshelves exist. And I want all of them

Also, I got the link from Mental Floss, so don't act like I read Woman's Day or anything...

Feed Your Head Out West

2009-10-26T15:23:00.001-04:00

This is the working title for my new short story, if I can share the first page, tell my what you think...
-------

When we finished loading up the car, I saw in the face of my brother William, whom I had called Jack since third grade, the first smile I’d seen on him that was both genuine and sober in four years. Our mother, still in her robe, coffee in hand, came out to wish us a farewell.
“I still don’t understand why you two can’t tell me where you’re going.”
“West.” Jack said
“What does that mean?”
“Opposite of East”
We tried to explain to her that we didn’t even really know where it was we were going.
“You two torture me.” We figured this was her way of saying, “Goodbye, I love you”.
My mother pulled me in close and told me to make sure my brother didn’t drink too much wherever we were going.
“Let’s get a move on, Bobby!” Jack yelled throwing me the keys. He had called me Bobby, instead of my given name Charles, since he was in tenth grade, just as long as I had been calling him Jack. He’d read a book about the Kennedy brothers that year and decided the names fit for us; I went along with it because it was fun. When he was sixteen and decided he wanted to be a government major in college, I thought the name was fitting because he wanted to fix things. When he left college I thought it fit because he wanted to smoke weed and bang Marilyn Monroe. At this point, it seemed to fit because he probably was hoping to be assassinated at this point.
He talked about the Kennedy assassinations fairly often. The one time I brought up his obsession with them, he told me he didn’t have anything better to look forward to. I wished I could come up with some sort of uplifting response to that.
As I started the car the sun was in my eyes, but I didn’t really care. I was figuring we couldn’t put fears and depression behind us, but we could at least put them off until after the trip, so that made me kind of happy. Before we even got out of the neighborhood we were reminded of our situation.
We came towards the last house before Main Street, the home of an old friend of Jack’s. There was an ambulance in the driveway. I tried to speed up before Jack would notice.
“Wait… ” He said, and I sped up and merged onto Main Street. “There was an ambulance outside of Tommy’s house.”
I thought about denying there was even an ambulance, but I decided that was useless. “Doesn’t Tommy’s dad have that heart thing?”
“It’s the SCILS, Bobby.” Jack said, putting his head in his hands.
“You don’t know that.” I said, leaving out the part where he was probably right.

Day of Relaxation

2009-10-19T11:05:00.002-04:00

via So about what I said...

So...

I really didn't feel like I had an actual weekend. No down time. No time to relax and gather my thoughts and prepare. That's what I'll be doing today.

-Laundry
-Homework
-Re-working my planner
-Cleaning
-Putting together outfits for the week

Not gonna lie. I'm pretty psyched about it.

Hope everyone else has a productive Monday too.

-Kimya

For the Sake of Fashion?

2009-10-15T19:04:00.003-04:00

Hi guys,

As you all know, I love fashion.

Except for this part.

I understand using skinny models for print ads, but the way this woman was photoshopped is just horrific and awful.

Click here for the story link about the Ralph Lauren models.

-Kimya

Zach talks sports (like a man)

2009-10-13T16:34:00.002-04:00

NFL News:

FUCK YEAH DOLPHINS!

That's all I have to say about the NFL.

(Also, I'm sorry I made fun of you so much Chad Henne)

MLB News
I'm always so conflicted about baseball. After all, my mom's family is mostly Yankees fans, my dad's a Mets fan, and I live in Boston. My verdict? Well the goddamn season takes too long. So what happens is I want to start paying attention towards the end of the season, except then all the teams have clinched so the end of the season becomes like exhibition games, so I get uninterested again just for long enough for the Red Sox to be eliminated, and again I'm not interested. Give me a 16 game season any day.

NBA News
Preason has started, and I've decided I need to pick a team to root for in the NBA, because as it is now, I really don't care. I've limited it down to five teams.

1. New York Knicks
I used to root for the Knicks, it was pretty much only for a year, and it happened to be the year that they made it to the championship. So maybe I'm like there good luck charm or something. The problem is they are in fact the Knicks and being a Knicks fan is kind of like being a socially-accepted masochist.

2. New Jersey Nets
Being from New Jersey, I feel like I should have some liking of a team from my home. Truth is though, Nets could move back to Brooklyn whenever, and in terms of NJ teams I'm far more likely to root for the Devils. Also, they're just boring as hell. The Nets? Thats a piece of equipment for the game. There's no team called the San Jose Half Court Lines.

3. Boston Celtics
I love my city, so I should support them in their sporting adventures, I'm indifferent about the Bruins, I have a extreme distaste for the Pats, and I'm not fully behind the Sox, though I'll root for them. Also, Irish heritage is there in the name "Celtics", even if I wish they'd pronounce the name with the hard c like the my ancestral tribes. Also, they win sometimes, and the last time I rooted for a championship team was the Devils in the 90s, and I don't even think

4. San Antonio Spurs
This is Kimya's team, and I might adopt them, because it'd be cute. This way when I miss her next semester I can just cry into my Tim Duncan jersey and then I'll feel better.
(Also, the only reason I knew that Tim Duncan played for the Spurs was because he killed the Knicks in the championship in '99)

5. Toronto Raptors
Why? Well they take their name from a DINOSAUR. The team is named after velociraptors. I can't think of a reason why everyone doesn't root for them. And they're from Canada. Go Canada.

Also, if I may, I recommend the piece on 11points of reasons why you should stop crapping on the WNBA. Kinda makes you think.

- Zach

p.s. The inspiration for this post was pretty much entirely the fact that Kimya thought how intense I was about the Dolphins last night was cute.

Columbus Day Rules

2009-10-12T17:02:00.002-04:00

via lovely little things

Hello all,

I've had a wonderful weekend, just hanging out with my BFFL and blogmate, Zach. It's been very relaxing weekend and I've gotten several things done. One awesome thing I found out about was a delicious bar of chocolate called "Chocolove" that comes in exotic flavors with a love letter written on the inside. I thought this idea was absolutely brilliant and perfect for the couple looking for a sweet sweet at the candy stand of a movie theatre. (which we were ;)

As of now, I'm catching up on reading my favorite blogs, and working on becoming inspired by all the wonderful things fall has to offer whilst watching Knocked Up.

Tomorrow, I'm making a trip to Trader Joe's and Copley Square Farmer's Market for some delicious treat. Also considering trying to make homemade pizza, I'll let you all know if it comes to fruition.

Enjoy the last bit of the three day weekend all!

-Kimya

Autumn has arrived!

2009-10-10T11:14:00.004-04:00

via so about what I said...
Hi guys!

All my suitemates/friends are out for the weekend, so I am spending as much time with Zach and Rae as possible so I don't feel lonely.

Yesterday we saw Zombieland at Somerville Theatre for $5 which also gave us a free pass to their basement to see the "Museum of Bad Art," which was bad....yet, awesome. Then we wondered around drizzly Davis Square. We Zach and I got back we headed to our Friday night staple of trivia at the Trident (which we swept as usual).

Today holds even more promise! So, when am I supposed to get all this work done?!?! Ok, it's not really THAT much, but I like ot get things done as early as possible. The perils of proactivity.

I'm really feeling the fall weather, I think if I hit up H&M next weekend for some more sweaters, then I'll REALLY feel like autumn has arrived.

Have a splendid loooong weekend!
-Kimya

Fashion Blogging!

2009-10-08T22:01:00.002-04:00

Hey guys,

Ch-ch-check it out! My first fashion blog for the Emerson Fashion Society.

I need for fabulosity in my life right now.

Curious about Balmain?

READ HERE.

Love dearly,
Kimya

Daily Reminder

2009-10-06T10:44:00.001-04:00

I feel as if I need to remind myself of this EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Good advice, truly.

-Kimya

Zach's Comedy Career Part 2

2009-10-02T20:46:00.003-04:00

So, as I expected, I went 0/5 for getting into comedy troupes, so I just decided to go ahead with it and make a shortform improv troupe. There is our logo. I'm not sure I like the butterfly though.

For those of Emerson who would like to join the schedule is as follows

Auditions:
Saturday October 10th 1-3pm

Callbacks
Sunday October 11th 1-3pm

*If you're going away for Columbus Day weekend, send me an e-mail, zachandkimya@gmail.com, and we'll set something else up.

So thats how thats going.

Also in the past week I went from....

1. Getting Excited for a radio
2. Not having a radio show
3. Having a radio show at 2am on Thursday
4. Having a radio show at noon on Wednesday

At this rate, I might actually have listeners by November

Am I going to break out into comedy this year? Probably not, but I'm gonna try

I love you back, coffee.

2009-09-27T12:41:00.001-04:00

via Art in My Coffee

This looks like the best thing ever on this rainy Sunday afternoon in Boston.

Would you proclaim your love to someone via latte? I totally would.

-Kimya

Updates on Zach's failing comedy career

2009-09-23T16:50:00.005-04:00

Please give me gigs...

So, comedy is kind of my thing, by which I mean I enjoy doing it but I don't get a lot of gigs, but its yet to be determined if I have to push myself harder or its just that I'm not really that funny. I'd really like to get some more spots in Boston so that I can put myself on the map.

There are 5 comedy troupes at Emerson I'm trying out for this fall. Emerson Comedy Workshop rejected me, Jimmy's Traveling All Stars gave me a callback, and then rejected me. I've got SwoMo(Swollen Monkey Showcase) tonight at 7:15, and Chocolate Cake City(pretty much the biggest comedy troupe) and This is Pathetic(founded by David Cross) this weekend. I'm not feeling too sure about any of them because I'm not really a sketch comedy guy (although SwoMo is half improv, and TIP is all improv), but I really want to get into them, so at the very least I find myself hanging around comedians more.

I don't have any videos I like of me performing stand up, so here's some of my favorite comedians that I have performed with.

Gordon Baker-Bone

Gordon is probably my favorite comedian I know personally. I admire his ability to just riff for minutes upon minutes and kill.

Blake Wexler

A fellow Emersonian, very funny guy. Someday I hope to ride his coattails to semi-fame.

Max Fox

Another Emerson kid who is funnier than me.

Paul Lyons

He's been on Comedy Central and stuff, I think. He was the pro at the end of my first show I ever did. He's also a really nice guy.

Gregory Korostishevsky

Otherwise known as Gregory K, he's the immigrant guy in that Conan video, I couldn't find any videos of him doing standup, but he's really funny. And the great part is he's on commercials all the time and I always freak out when I see him, it makes me feel almost famous.

I can't post too many videos, else it gets annoying but honorable mention to Michael Hayne, Alec Sobel, Sean O'Connor, Buda, and of course, Pat Bean and Justin Schilling, my Six Flags comrades.

Designer Spotlight: Rodarte

2009-09-23T09:44:00.004-04:00

Rodarte sounds soooo French, no?

Yes it does, but it was founded by two American sisters from Pasadena California, Laura and Kate Mulleavy. They are full-figured women who are making names in the fashion world by designing haute couture that celebrities are dying to wear at events. And that is a rarity in the fashion industry. So, my hat's off to them. Their dresses tend to have an architechtural feel and play a lot draping and lovely fabrics. They're dressed Michelle Obama, Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman and Keira Knightly.

Here are some of their red carpet looks that I absolutely adore.

The sisters
Also, as a plus, they will be collaborating with Target for a collection in December 2009, and I, personally, am over the moon about that.

Happy Hump day!

-Kimya

Bad, Bad Blogger

2009-09-19T10:48:00.003-04:00

image via lovely little things
Hello good people of the blogosphere,

The first week of school has been hectic and it's a little bit difficult to get back into the swing of things after sitting on your butt most of the summer. But I'm so so happy to be here with Zach, Boston, and my dear, dear friends.

Tonight, I'm finally going to see The September Issue with Rae, and you should expect a full re-cap and review tomorrow.

It's a sunny Saturday morning here in Boston, and I can't wait to get out there and enjoy it. Coffee and the new Elle? A slice of pizza at Uppercrust? Stroll on the waterfront? Reading textbooks on a blanket in the garden? The options are endless.

Happy Saturday!

-Kimya

Dja missme?

2009-09-17T23:35:00.003-04:00

So I haven't blogged in a while, because, y'know, college is time consuming/awesome.

I'll probably put a good blog up tomorrow, but now I'm sharing this.

I would totally buy this Iranian funk musician's album, based entirely on the cover.

Finally, finally, finally...

2009-09-13T07:54:00.002-04:00

Hello all!

Finally in Boston, and am typing this is in the early morn while the rest of my lovely roomies are sleeping. The city is just as gray and beautiful and alive as when I left it.

When the old gang got together, we did not awkwardly share stories of summer vacation, but we went back to laughing and joking and watching awful reality shows as usual. It was really nice.

Even though, I'm going to be CRAZY busy today, I feel at peace and surrounded by loved ones.

Off to start my day. I hope everyone has a more relaxing Sunday than I'm going to be having.

-Kimya

Zach ranks Dum Dum lollipop flavors

2009-09-09T10:29:00.003-04:00

As I reach the last week of my job, I think the thing I'll miss the most, other than the paycheck, is the jar of Dum Dum lollipops on the front desk as you walk in the office. I started taking one as I left, then two as I left, then one after lunch and two when I left, at this point if I start grabbing handfuls and stuffing my pockets when I leave, I won't surprise myself.

What makes them so great? I really don't know. First of all, they are far smaller than other brands of lollipop, yet still have the same size stick. They also don't have any sort of bubblegum or tootsie roll filling like some other types I could mention. They're just good. They're classic.

The sticks really could be shortened.

So having had such as plethora of these delicious sugary creatures, I'm going to have to inform you, the awaiting public, of the ranking of the flavors.

According to their website, there are sixteen flavors, seventeen if you count mystery. But one time I was watching the Food Network, and the guy from Double Dare explained to me that the mystery flavor is really just the part of the confectionary line where two batches of flavors intermingle and they just call it mystery flavored because they aren't always sure what its going to taste like. It should really be referred to as "Gamble Candy".

(This is a side note, but if I was Marc Summers my pick up line would totally be "Wanna take the physical challenge?")

But without further ado... I will rank the flavors.

16. Strawberry Shortcake
This one gets last place not because its a bad flavor, but because its rather silly I think. The flavor has CAKE in its name. I know you've got all kinds of great food scientists who can make a variety of different tastes for your candy, but you can't make a lollipop taste like cake, it just doesn't work that way. And frankly, even if you can make it taste like, that is far more power than one small candy company can handle. You have a regular Strawberry flavor, just stick to it.

15. Root Beer
I've never liked root beer, this one is kind of just my personal prejudice.

14. Cream Soda
See above.

(It was around here in my list that I realized that my next choice, chocolate, was actually a discontinued flavor, so some of the lollipops in here are old as hell, so really, it's my duty to eat as many of them as I can. But yeah, I can see why they discontinued chocolate flavored. There's already a chocolate candy, it's called chocolate)

13. Cherry
Once upon a time, someone decided cherry was the best flavor and then made cherry the generic flavor of everything, including disgusting medicines and cough syrups. Ever since that day, everything cherry tastes like being sick to me.

12. Bubblegum
I wouldn't be surprised if this one was gone after the next change-of-the-guard. I mean, it tastes like bubblegum, but I thought the fun of bubblegum was chewing it. So then I want to chew the lollipop and then its gone.

11. Tangerine
Not a bad flavor, but you put tangerine into your lineup over orange? That shows some balls. I don't know if it paid off, but it's balls.

10. Grape
Grape lollipops remind me of church. This probably requires an explanation. When I was younger, I used to go to church every Sunday, and by far the best part was that the church office had Tootsie Pops in them and I would always get the grape ones. Why? Because they had the blue wrapper, and blue is the best color ever. Maybe grape would do better on this list if the wrapper was blue.

9. Banana Split
I actually didn't try this flavor. I searched through the whole jar, and then in the bag of Dum Dum reinforcements in the kitchen, they were nowhere to be found. But alas, I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they're so delicious that they were all eaten before I got to the stash. I know what you're thinking, don't I have the same problem with this that I do with strawberry shortcake? Well no, because there's no regular banana flavor, and it's not too much of a stretch to have a banana and ice cream flavor, there's no cake texture involved there, so I'm putting a lot of faith in you, Spangler candy company, that the Banana Split lollipop won't make me look like a fool.

I also discovered here that Pink Lemonade is also a discontinued flavor, Wikipedia says it isn't, but its not on the Dum Dum website, so I'm not going to count it. If you're wondering, its okay, but doesn't really taste like Pink Lemonade

8. Cotton Candy
A respectable flavor that I'm sure nobody expects to be as good as actual cotton candy. But at the same time, I feel like because there's no blue foods, blue has had some affirmative action program in the candy world, and they just add blue flavors for diversity. I'm sure that would cause outrage if ther was some conservative candy expert. Oh yeah, Rush Limbaugh.

7. Sour Apple
This is one that always confuses me. Are they saying that all green apples are sour or this is green apple flavored with sour? I guess there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio. And yes, I just used Shakespeare to reference candy.

6. Strawberry
It's delicious? I don't know what else to say

5. Watermelon
I always like watermelon flavored candy because its always so vibrant, it's a big flavor. It's easily one of the best fruits that exist, but it so often not in candies because its always thought of as the third red flavor, behind cherry and strawberry. Thumbs up on the inclusion Dum Dums.

4. Blu Raspberry
This has been killed to death that its not a real fruit, but you know what? It tastes good, so I'm not going to bash it.

3.(Ashlynn) Coconut
This will anger some people, because a lot of people don't like coconut for some reason I don't understand. But I think this lollipop was made perfectly.

2. Mango
Hooray Mango! THe only reason Mango is not number one is because I eat the lollipop and immediately afterward want to eat an entire grove of mangos. But its not Dum Dum's fault mangos are so delicious

1. Butterscotch
What? Really? Isn't that an old man's candy? Well yes. I thought for a long time about what I'd put as the best flavor, and to be sure, I had about ten lollipops at about ten am this morning, because yes I am that dedicated to the blog. Immediately afterwards I realized the only one I could still eat would be the butterscotch because I wouldn't die of sugar overload. So butterscotch is the best, not only because its old man candy, but because if an old man can eat one of them, a young man can eat like sixty before he's sick. Not to mention, butterscotch is pretty awesome. It has scotch in the name. If scotch tasted like butterscotch, I would be drunk all the time. And if the recipe for butterscotch was a stick of butter and a bottle of scotch, I wouldn't have been puking all over the place saturday night. I kid of course.

- Zach

Packing Up and Shipping Out

2009-09-08T11:28:00.003-04:00

(one of my favorite prints, not sure who it is by, but if you know leave a comment and I will be sure to attribute it.)

Hello Dear Readers,

Being back home for summer so long has put me in a lull. I dreamed and talked about going back to Boston and college so many times, it became kind of a routine to keep myself occupied. But now that it is actually time to go back, I'm a little shocked at the suddenness of it all. My last weekend home was spent working, and now it is Tuesday and my suitcase is laying open, empty, on my bedroom floor.

As I put in my neatly folded clothes one by one, and check various items off of my to-do list, I have to take some time to recognize the things I am sad to leave behind.

-My mommy, who is always there to comfort me, but for a while I'll just have to settle for a phone call. (Can't forget Dad and Katrina too!)

-My bootcamps buddies, who are just strong, amazing and inspiring women who are supportive and super super fun! They made me glad to get up at 5:00am every morning to see their shining faces. Plus Veray is an amazing trainer and working out is a new (healthy) vice in my life, and I can't wait to fall into a pattern of exercise that I enjoy back at school

-The girls from work, who are really more like big sisters. They are just the sweetest and so so hilarious. I'm never in too bad of a mood at work. I'll probably never find a group of co-workers as loving and terrific as them!

-Lucy, my princess kitty cat, whose presence is sometimes the most comforting part of my day.

All in all, I'm ready to go, and I've been ready. So please excuse the lack of posts this week, for I will be remincising, packing and dreaming of the future.

Love,

Kimya

Is this as absolutely hilarious as I think it is?

2009-09-07T17:28:00.001-04:00

Or do I just think that because they're my friends?

(Also, if language or over the top forced sexual innuendo offend you, just don't watch)

Zach on Music: Here Comes Science!

2009-09-03T20:23:00.004-04:00

Let's talk children's music....

They Might Be Giants have three Kid's albums out, one about numbers, one about letters, and one just about being a kid. Well here comes the science album, and I must say I LOOOOOVE this song.

This is not a new thing for them to sing songs about science

Here's a live version of "Mammal" of Apollo 18.

Also appearing on this album is there popular cover of the educational song "Why Does the Sun Shine?" by Hy Zaret And Lou Singer. Buuuut, they take it a step further, because the song refers to the sun as "gas" while scientifically, it is actually "plasma", so they threw in a funky follow up song, "Why does the sun REALLY shine?" That's science at work right there!

Here's the already released music video for "Electric Car" featuring John Flansburgh's wife, Robin Goldwasser on vocals.

Are you excited? You should be. And you aren't even a kid.

If I were Faith Hill...

2009-09-02T09:58:00.006-04:00

Hi readers!

This is a fun segment for me becaue I can shop online without any sort of a budget and pretend to be fabulous musicians.

Today's inspiration from Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's duet "Like We Never Loved At All." (Sorry, the video quality is sub-par)

The song is totally corny and I absolutely love it. In my magical, fairytale world where I have 1/8 the voice that Faith Hill does, this would be my duet of choice to sing with one very lucky gentleman.

I love the '60's county vibe of the video, which was a VERY glamorous time for country music. While women elsewhere were burning their bras, Dolly and June were pushing them up higher to match their FABULOUS updos. Faith Hill has the bouffant and the cat-eye eyeliner going down here and she looks just like the picture of femininity and strength.

Love. Her.

Another cool thing about this video is that it's kind of like its own mini-movie where two country music stars named Jackie and Issac, who work together and have a relationship, have a very painful break-up, but alas the show must go on. It's so over the top and theatrical and I think it is just wonderful.

Here's a way you can channel the fabulosity of Faith and other classical beautiful and glamorous country stars to your everyday life:

Rani Dress from Modcloth

Mantel Boot from Steve Madden via Piperlime

Bali earrings from Francesca's Collections

Sunglasses from Burberry via Sunglass Hut

Let's make it over Hump-Day everyone!

-Kimya

Sorry, Uninspired

2009-09-01T08:23:00.003-04:00

via apt. #34

Hello readers,

After an abysmal lack of blog posts within the past week, I would like to personally apologize for lack of captivating reading/seeing material. I have been just SO uninspired, and spend my time waiting to be inspired again by the beautiful city of Boston.

Stick with us. I might surprise myself and give you some wonderful eye candy and mind candy very soon.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

-Kimya

Odds and (wishing the summer would) Ends

2009-08-30T12:29:00.003-04:00

So having used Facebook for its #1 purpose of stalking people you haven't seen in half a lifetime, I found the blog of an old friend of mine from Middle School named Alex who has a job delivering wedding cakes for his family's business. Today was his first post and it's an awesome cake made to look like Tiffany's Boxes, which I can only assume Kimya likes very much. He's planning on posting a new cake every day, which would make him a thousand times better of a blogger than me. Check out some very cool cakes on his blog.

---
The Second to Last Episode of this season of True Blood is tonight, and I must say I am obsessed enough to drive all the way to Padovani's just because he has HBO. Never get obsessed with a show that you can't afford to pay to watch. I may be in a predicament when he's at college for the final episode.

I know Kimya isn't a fan of the show, and it seems that it's a little too weird for a lot of people, so I'm not going to go on and on about how awesome it is, because I already know how awesome it is. But I will put the opening credits here, because I think they're brilliant.

Creepy? Awesome? Yes.
---

Hey Garden State! Who still hasn't gone back to school yet? Shotgun Mike left this morning, Padovani leaves Tuesday, Jerry leaves thursday... someone want to hang with me because I'm here until the September freakin' twelfth.

This movie is starting to make less and less sense to me. Zach Braff chooses to stay in New Jersey at the end of it. I can't even stand being stuck here another two weeks.

Bunnies

2009-08-27T16:00:00.003-04:00

Hi,

This is SO leftfield I know, but if you have a few minutes and you need to be cheered up today, I have the perfect solution for you:

Bunnies. Sleeping bunnies. Enjoy your warm fuzzies courtesy of Zach + Kimya.

I imagine this is what Zach looks like falling asleep at work.

If your grandpa was a bunny, he'd snore like this one above. I LOLed around the 1:19 mark.

That one was my favorite: coma-sleep bunny. Is there a better kind?

-Kimya

If I were a Pipette...

2009-08-24T12:54:00.006-04:00

Hello!

We are all aware that fashion inspires music and vice-versa. I mean where would fall fashion '09 be without the miilitary inspired jackets worn by Coldplay (pretty much everywhere recently) and by Michael Jackson? And what subject do you think inspired Maddona's "Vogue?"

I don't need to go into too much detail of course, because the evidence is everywhere right under our noses!

When I get ready in the morning or to go out at night, I like to blast my music loud and see which song feels right at the moment and will eventually set the tone for outfit, hair and make-up.

I loved this band two years ago, but kind of forgot about then after they were strangely wiped off of my iPod.

So, right now, I'm definitely feeling The Pipettes. A rad girl group from England who sings 60's pop ditties with a very modern edge. Also, they dress in matching outfits a la Destiny's Child.
Here's my favorite song by them, and the outfit I would wear if I were channeling a Pipette.

The "Pomegranate Dress" from Modcloth

The "Boyfriend Blazer" from fredflare (which I am ordering ASAP!)

Polka Dot tights from Juicy Couture

"Phantom" Booties from Nine West (which I already own)

Happy fashionable Monday!

-Kimya

Zach Talks About Something He Doesn't Know About: Fashion

2009-08-21T16:01:00.007-04:00

It's my thing to talk about things I don't know about, because frankly life isn't fun if I'm not pretending to know things.

If you follow her posts, you know that Kimya is a fashion genius, and I can pick up a few tips here and there. (By tips, I mean if she tells me to wear something I will, because what the hell do I know?) Still, there are a few things I know about fashion that I will share with you.

Fashion Don't: White Socks with Non-casual attire.
This is my favorite because I see people ignore this one all of the time, but I know better. It's one of those few fashion faux pas that I feel uncomfortable if I'm doing, because I feel like if I'm going to dress up more than I regularly do, I don't want to give off the impression that I'm that fashionably inept(though I am), and also white athletic socks give off a different impression when they stand out like that, mainly that I'm such an athlete I need to have proper socks for it at all times, which is totally untrue.

Is there a way to pull it off? Well #1, the thing I never got from it is what makes the white socks a no, the black pants or the black shoes? Because I feel like you can get by with white socks if you're wearing Black Pants and Sneakers or if you're wearing black shoes and jeans, so maybe its the culmination. I dunno. But I feel like you can wear the white socks if you're going for some sort of theme. Like if you're wearing a white shirt, black pants, white socks black shoes, white hat, black gloves and a white belt. But that's a lot to go through in order to not take off your Addidas socks.

Fashion Don't: Loud Hawaiian Shirts

I could dedicate a blogpost to this man's moustache
You might this shirt says "I Like to Party" but it really says "I'm so boxed in by my society and corporate level job that I this loud shirt is the only thing I can do to to rebel against my own life, which I hate". Also, this might be the worst bastardization of another culture, because I'm pretty sure no native Hawaiians would be caught dead in a Hawaiian shirt.

Is there a way to pull it off? You can be a total hipster about it. I think loud Hawaiian shirts are even better than ironically ugly sweaters.

"I liked your favorite band before they went commercial"

Fashion Don't: Anything denim that is not pants.
Denim shirts are lame. I know my dad would disagree with me on this one, but I could probably also put "Anything my dad wears" as a category on here. Denim is a tough heavy material, but if you're saying that you are so rugged and badass you need more than just pants made of denim, you are clearly trying too hard.

Is there any way to pull it off? Like I said, my dad disagrees with me on this one, so I guess paying for my college... that's the way to pull off denim shirts.

Fashion Don't: White After Labor Day
I don't really know much about this, and I'm fairly certain it doesn't even apply any more, because we figured out how to make white work after Labor Day I guess?

Is there any way to pull it off?It doesn't really say when it's okay to wear white again. I mean, clearly it isn't okay to start wearing white again the week after Labor Day, but you still need to make sure there's enough time to wear white. One can only assume though, since white is off limits after some three day weekend, I think it would have to be wearable again after a three day weekend. So I'm saying that after MLK Day it's alright to be white... I mean wear white.

Thanks for reading,

- Tim Gunn

Oh! Yum...

2009-08-20T15:06:00.002-04:00

from chockylit via oh joy!

Dear God,

You are a cruel, cruel spirit. And in defiance of you, I will continue to eat like a bunny rabbit. But just know that this delectable treat will sit in the back of my mind until it grows old and moldy and needs to be thrown in the garbage.

Love,

Kimya

P.S. Thanks for creating the best thing ever.

Back to school, back to school...

2009-08-19T16:45:00.003-04:00

Hi!

With everyone packing away their swimsuits and clogging Office Depot with their search for notebooks, pencil pouches and the like, it is safe to say that "Back-to-School" fever is here. (Did ya get the Billy Madison reference in the title?)

Going back to school has always been my favorite time of the year, and September one of my favorite months, because it is well-known for reinvention. As a child (and still today) I would sit and edit my closet the week before school. Ugly turtleneck out, crisp new jeans in. I would also edit my desk: doodle on binder out, freshly sharpened pencils in. I love reinvention and everything about it. The chance of having a new start is just so exhilarating to me. A clean slate to be more organized, have better grades, and make new friends. If I could spend more time at school (for free) I would do it in a heartbeat.

So, as my heart severley aches for Boston and my lovely Emerson College, I am focusing on the reinvention process to ease the pain a little bit.

Starting with the wardrobe. Duh.

All of the fashionistas of the blogosphere are going cuckoo for cocoa puffs over the Kate Spade ads for fall 2009. I think they will serve and a very nice palette for my back-to-school wardrobe. Classic and feminine, but insanely fun with all of the bright colors.

Did you all make it through hump day?

-Kimya

An Affair to Remember: Le sigh...

2009-08-17T13:38:00.005-04:00

Hello and Happy Monday,

Well, today, I finally got around to watching "An Affair to Remember." It's been sitting on the kitchen table looking all sad and dejected in it's red Netflix envelope. So, I popped it in and loved it like I knew I would.

And my word! This movie has some of the most gorgeous outfits worn by Deborah Kerr. Just layers of draped slik chiffon, but it looks so modern! Most outfits from older movie look lovely but very dated. I could see these dresses she wore on the red carpet today!

She was also in "From Here to Eternity," which is famous for this shot:

She died in 2007. Boy, was she lovely. And that Cary Grant is dashing too!

You should all do yourselves a favor and just pop in an old romantic movie/comedy. They're a lot more clever and beautiful than today's "blah" one's. May I suggest "The Philadelphia Story" as well (another Cary Grant gem).

-Kimya

Zach and Kimya's Infinite Playlist

2009-08-14T15:25:00.005-04:00

Hi there,

Long-Distance relationships are hard. Really hard. There are ups and downs and in-betweens, and there are times when you feel like quitting and there are times when one text message from him/her can send your heart flying out of your chest. When you love someone, you leave a trail of yourself around their life and they tend to do the same to you. You infiltrate each other's existances in both fantasic and mundane ways. One of those ways (especially for Zach and me) is music. Is there a better feeling than hearing the first few notes of THAT song on your local radio station and all of a sudden your breathing quickens and memories whiz through your brain and you open your mouth and sing THAT song with all of the conviction and passion that your soul possess? I think not.

For you. "The butter to my bread and the breath to my life..."

10)28 Butts - Little Jackie

A truly fun/funny song with awesome non-sequiter lyrics. With every lyric I think of Zach because it's his type of humor. It's probably the only song on this list that is not a love song, but one that can put you in a good mood instantly. This lyric is SO Zach:
"I think back all the days I was smoking Kerouac/It was really kinda like an addiction/Non-fiction/Just reading my days and nights away."

9)I Thought I Saw Your Face Today - She & Him

Doesn't Zooey Deschanel's voice give everyone warm fuzzies? Probably so. I listened to this song a lot when Zach first told me he had a crush on me, so it reminds me of the early stages of us and walking down Newbury together on those FREEZING Boston nights, when things were still awkward and adorable.
"I somehow see what's beautiful in things that are ephemeral/I'm my only friend of mine/And love is just a piece of time in the world; in the world"

8)Me & Mr. Jones - Amy Winehouse

Mostly this song is awesome because I am dating "Mr. Jones" himself!
It reminds me of the smoky piano bar of my dreams. I think Amy has such a seductive, classic voice....
"Nobody stands in between me and my man/it's me
And Mr Jones (Me and Mr Jones)"

7)City Love - John Mayer

Of course John Mayer had to be on here! I've been a fan since 6th grade, and my love for him has not changed since! This song is about falling in love in a big city (like Boston) and having the whole city atmosphere play a vital part of the romance. We're so blessed to be in Boston and this song reminds me of our city-oriented adventures, a second date at the MFA, eating delicious risotto in the North End, and walking through the gardens. A picturesque background to many, many lovely memories.

"From the battery/To the gallery/It's the kind of thing you only see/
In scented, glossy magazines/And I can't remember life before her name."

6)Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John

One time, I was playing this song and we were kinda goofing around and singing it, and Zach got mad at me because I was singing all of Elton's parts instead of the woman's parts. I hope to one day do this with Zach at a Karaoke bar. Here's hoping...

"So don't misunderstand me/You put the light in my life/You put the sparks to the flame/I've got your heart in my sights"

5)Like A Star - Corinne Bailey Rae

There is no other word better to describe this song, other than exquistie. Her voice is like warm honey and I've had the pleasure of seeing her live. This is a unique love song purely because of her talent. You listen to this song when you realize for the first time that you have fallen, and you have fallen hard. Like an anvil to the head, that's what love feels like.
"Just like a star across my sky/Just like an angel off the page/You have appeared to my life/Feel like I'll never be the same/Just like a song in my heart/Just like oil on my hands."

4)Who'd Have Known - Lily Allen

When Lily played this song at her concert she kind of made fun of it, saying that "isn't it great to be in love for the first six months, until the fights start" or something to that effect...Well, it's still great after the fights start. I played this song once and I think Zach liked it because whenever I played it after that he seemed to remember the lyrics and sort of sing-a-long. I texted him when she sang that song...good memory :)
"I haven't left here for days now/And I'm becoming amazed how/You're quite affectionate in public/In fact, your friend said it made her feel sick/And even though it's moving forward/There's just the right amount of awkward/And today you accidentally/Called me baby."

3)Make You Feel My Love - Adele

Boy, can that Bob Dylan character write a song or what? This song has, like, a zillion covers, but this one is, by far, the most well done and beautiful. Adele's voice is so haunting, one of our first posts on the blog was about how Zach and I saw her in concert. He squeezed my hand when she performed this.
"I could make you happy, make your dreams come true/I know there's nothing that I wouldn't do/Go to the ends of the earth for you/To make you feel my love"

2)Wouldn't it Be Nice - The Beach Boys

A nice, bubbly song about wanting to grow up and be "a real couple." Zach and I talk about the possibility of this often, to be a couple when we have real-people problems instead being confined to the sheltered world of a college student. This song caputres the optimistic side of that kind of relationship before the hardships begin. There are also great memories of dancing to this like fools in my dorm room.
"Happy times together we've been spending/I wish that every kiss was neverending"

1)Time After Time - Magaret Whiting

This song was not on Zach's original playlist, but I had a really strong reaction to it when I first heard it. I asked Zach to listen to it too, of course he asked if "it was an acoustic version of the Cyndi Lauper song." Um, no. This is the song that you close your eyes and hear playing in the background as you two slow dance in the rainy city streets. It's romantic, but not sappy, and when Zach heard it he had a strong reaction too. For me this song remains at number one because it is a true-blue love song for a true-blue love.
"Time after time/you'll hear me say that I'm/so lucky to be loving you"

Don't be afraid of love, embrace it.

-Kimya

Zach on music: Playlist for Kimya

2009-08-14T15:21:00.007-04:00

Back in April, Kimya and I made playlists for eachother, for two reasons.

1) We would be leaving eachother soon
2) We're Adorable

Looking back now, here's my analysis of the playlist I made for Kimya.

Track 1: "I Feel the Earth Move" by Carole King
I feel my heart start trembling, whenever you're around...
Love this song, I think it's a great start off track. Strong piano intro, and vocal riffs on the outro, it really fits in well. It's here not only because it's how I feel about Kimya, but because there was an ongoing joke in mine and Kimya's suite about my love for Carole King, because she's an amazing songwriter. Listen to Tapestry, the whole album. Right now.

Track 2: "Oh Darlin'" by The Beatles
Track 16: "D'yer Maker" by Led Zeppelin
"Please Believe Me... I'll never do you no harm"
Ignoring the double negative of the above quote, this is the Beatles song I chose, because I think it takes the love themes of the early Beatles and combines it with talent of the late Beatles. This song, along with D'Yer Maker, are actually about loving a girl, AFTER she has left you, which kind of throws a wrench into the whole playlist, but I think it's the message, not the story, that really matters here. Besides the most important parts of D'Yer Maker are the sweet Jamaican sound and the "I love you girl... BABY I LOVE YOU".

Track 3: "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson
Hear Her Voice/Shake My Window/Sweet Seducing Sighs
Isn't that weird that I put him on my playlist TWICE, and then he died? Not really. Seriously though, no real reasoning for Human Nature, other than beautiful song, beautiful girl.

Track 4: "Your Smiling Face" by James Taylor
Whenever I see your smiling face, I have to smile myself because I love you
There's something of a story behind this one. I'm notorious for breaking out into song at any time for any reason, because I'm an adult and a heterosexual and that's the type of thing we do. One time a broke out into this sweet little ditty singing it to Kimya, but wound up sounding more like "Whenever I see your smiling face, I something something something something something". So I put the version with the real words on the playlist to redeem myself.

Track 5: "Watching the Wheels" by John Lennon
I honestly don't remember why I included this song. I mean its good, but there's no real reason. I can only assume its a bit of my own relaxed attitude of life, a little bit of me for my playlist.

Track 6: "Touch Me" by The Doors
Track 17: "I Was Made to Love Her" by Stevie Wonder
"I'm gonna love you, 'til the stars fall from the sky, for you and I"
Two songs with meanings that are self evident, and far more confident than I could ever hope to be myself, so they really help my case in ways I can't. They also are interesting because Touch Me has an edge that the rest of first half of the playlist doesn't have, while Stevie Wonder is by far the most cheerful

Track 7: "She's An Angel" by They Might Be Giants
How should I react? These things happen to other people/They don't happen at all
There's obviously the title to consider here, after all Kimya's an angel. Then there's the line above which really sums up my own overwhelming lack of belief that any of this relationship was real, because its all far too good. It's also the only live track I put on the whole playlist. What does that mean? I don't know.

Track 8: "Spartacus Love Theme" by Bill Evans

Had to throw in a beautiful jazz track onto the mixtape, the obvious choice was the one with "love" in the name. It's kind of interesting looking back now that it didn't notice, but I put an instrumental and an a capella song in the middle, which is kind of cool I think.

Track 9: "Just What I needed" by The Cars
Track 12: "You Make My Dreams" by Hall and Oates
Cause when you're standing oh so near... I kinda lose my mind
My love of great 80s pop-ish rock-ish music shows strong with these two great songs which illustrate quite well how much better Kimya has made my life.

Track 10: "The Longest Time" by Billy Joel
Track 11: "I'll Be There" by Jackson 5
You're wonderful so far, and it's more than I hoped for
Both of these songs have been mentioned already, the second MJ song on the list and the a capella song that parallels Spartacus Love Theme. So why did I put them together here? Because they're both promises.

Track 13: "Time" by Tom Waits
Track 15: "Atmosphere" by Joy Division
So put a candle in the window and a kiss upon his lips/ As the dish outside the window fills with rain/ Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart/ And pay the fiddler off til I come back again
Okay, so the first half of this playlist is pretty sappy kissy muah muah muah, maybe not the songs themselves, but in common love theme. The second half is a little bit more dark. These songs aren't here for love reasons, but just because I happen to think they're both absolutely beautiful songs.

Track 14: "My Real Self" by The Boy Judas
I wanna hold you as my real self/not the one I give away
I've mentioned my good friends The Boy Judas before on this blog, and I threw this on here because it was not only an amazing song, but it's a song that Kimya isn't going to here anywhere else, so I thought it would be kind of special to throw a song by a band of my friends on here. And for those who read this and are also fans of The Boy Judas, I was tempted to put the quote "There is nothing more impressing, then pressing to your thigh", because it's so damn clever.

Track 18: "Museum of Idiots" by They Might Be Giants
Chop me up into pieces, if it pleases if it pleases/and when the chopping is through, every piece will say, I love you
Now here's a little bit of undying love with a cynical tone, which I think is a good representation of how oxymoronically I think I treat life. There's also some really beautiful orchestration on this song. TMBG, they do it again, gotta love those guys.

Track 19: "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel
What? You Want Me To Write All The Lyrics?
Yes, this song is a tad overplayed, and there's better Simon and Garfunkel songs, in fact, this isn't even really a love song, necessarily. But I recommend ending any and all playlists with this song. I don't think there's a song that better manages to be completely epic without being cheesy. It also has a pretty strong promise, even if it's not necessarily more than that to a friend. But I've used most of the playlist to explain that I'm in love with Kimya, there's no better way to end it than to show that I'm also going to be a best friend.

Tuesday Top 5: Reasons The Jersey Shore is Better than Austin

2009-08-11T16:32:00.001-04:00

I was supposed to do this last week, but it took a little bit longer to think of five good reasons, still I think I've got it.

5. Avocados aren't available everywhere.
When I was in Austin, I had Turkey & Guacamole, Roast Beef & Guacamole, and avocados on Burgers on more than one occasion. Granted, this was awesome, but it just feels to fad-ish. Like it's the new eccentric food that everyone puts on the menu with everything. I like to enjoy my avocados and guacamole knowing that it's not going to be ruined by 14 year old girls, the way that they killed sushi.

4. The Weather
Having been to Texas I will never complain about the heat here ever again. If you want to know the general climate, just sit in your car with a coyote, that's Texas.

3. Wawa
It can't be explained to anyone not from New Jersey or some parts of Pennsylvania, but Wawa is the greatest. Ever. There's really not a whole lot of explaining that can be done, I guess it's just one of the only thing that's exclusive to the area. And if you have TastyKakes from Wawa, you hit the local jackpot.

2. Top 5 Safest Cities in America!
Brick, New Jersey! It's not like I'm comforted by this or anything, but we need something to appeal to people.

1. This guy is not here:

So there's the other side of the spectrum. I guess every place has it's positives and negatives.

- Zach

Zach and Kimya Read Books

2009-08-10T17:09:00.002-04:00

Dear Readers,

Zach and I have come up with the wonderful, immensely-nerdy idea of starting a two-person book club. The two people would be...Zach and me. (Duh)

We both love to read and I was inspired inside of Bookpeople, sooo...we thought it was something we could share together as a couple.

(A couple of what? Tee-hee)

Anyway, our first book is Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.

We'll both post our ideas about the book and try to raise some important questions. In a day and age where we're patting our children on the back for reading Twilight and jumping for joy because we solved illiteracy with Harry Potter, good books still need to be lauded.

Also, Veggie Kimya: Week One has been mildly successful, having one cheated only 3 times and one of those times being by total accident. But I will keep working on it. You learn that a lot of restaurants don't have vegetarian options outside of pasta and salad. I love me some pasta, but starchy carbs in a butter sauce just completely undoes all of my hard work at the gym.

Hope you all have a splendid Tuesday.

-Kimya