I Almost Forgot: Lesley Arfin is Awesome

Man, I forgot how much I love Lesley Arfin. I used to read her now-defunct blog Cafe Con Lesley religiously and it took me watching this new Style Like U video to be reminded of her wit and brilliance. I love the honesty of this video. How many times have you read an interview about people who 'struggled and struggled until they found their late-blooming success'? These interviews always skip out the parts about the reality of self-doubt and the complete disorientation of that 'oh god, what am I doing?' feeling, so what I really love about this video is that Lesley doesn't. She is completely honest about how things went tits-up every now and then but without resolving to a 'but now, I've made it'-style happy ending. Things are good for her now, she is a main writer on HBO's Girls (which if I'm honest I wasn't massively won over by, but maybe I'll give it another go) but life continues to be great in parts, and when it's not great, that's okay too. There is so much emphasis today on things going right all the time, and on individuals always being happy, so I like Lesley's approach which feels more realistic and trial and error based. It says 'don't sweat the small stuff.'

One thing that often stands out to me in interviews with women in their 30s is that they often seem pretty sorted when it comes to their own self-confidence and competence when it comes to knowing 'how to get stuff done', in a way that starkly contrasts myself, my friends, and women in general of my own age. Lesley reflects this when she talks about how much more hung-up she was about her body in her 20s. This interview reminds me to be less hung-up, in all aspects of my life because it's so easy to get into a funk when you forget that shrugging your shoulders and pulling a 'whatever' sign with your fingers is a pretty okay way of powering on sometimes.

Outfit

Top, Goodwill. Skirt, Marks and Spencer. Trainers, Nike. 

An outfit I wore last week when we were being blessed with hot hot heat instead of thunderstorms. This was a 'ventilation' outfit that kept me cool while working at the cafe and simultaneously made me look like a netball player. I also came home that day to discover that I matched the paint samples my Mum had spread across my bedroom walls. Cool! 

5 Summer Reads

Five Books I'd like to get my hands on this Summer: 

A familial incest classic still unread, Patrick Trefz's surfing portraits and action shots, an ode to musical nostalgia from Mancunian photographer Kevin Cummins, Dennis Morris's book 'Growing Up Black' which is financially unattainable but mega-appealing nonetheless, and Nile Rodger's autobiographical journey through Family, Disco and Destiny to coincide with me seeing Chic this weekend. 

1. Surfers' Blood by Patrick Trefz

2. Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews

3. Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco and Destiny by Nile Rodgers

4. Manchester: Looking for the Light through the Pouring Rain by Kevin Cummins

5. Growing Up Black by Dennis Morris 

Alone In The Wilderness

I found this brilliant video while reading the Oi Polloi blog archives. It follows Dick Proenneke, who in line with that tradition of American men- from Walden to Christopher McCandless, schleps off into the wild to tune out of modern life. We watch him in the Summer of 1968 (while the rest of America reels from multiple high-profile assassinations and social turbulence) build a cabin from scratch in Alaska, in a series of footage shot by himself. Luckily there is no Timothy Treadwell-style Bear gore, just instead the vaguely entrancing process of chopping and laying logs to make his home and canoeing in lakes. The soundtrack sounds like one of those free relaxation CDs that I sometimes find in my bedroom, with no memory of how it got there. No panpipes..but it comes close! I especially like Dick's blue Dickies trousers. They remind me of the clean blue Dickies overalls that Ken wore on the avocado farm, with a white shirt, a vaguely feminine straw hat and a serious expression. 

Home Soil

Well, well, well. The American adventure is all wrapped up, completed and I'm now back on British soil, quickly back into the pace of 'normal life' (whatever that is) and learning that life does in fact continue, you don't come home, walk into Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport and have some life narrator announce 'Chapter 12, Back in England' as I think on some level I had been expecting as a sort of acknowledgement of my time in America coming to end. After all, how could I slip so easily back into the way things were before? Well, quite simply that's exactly what happened and it feels nice. Same, but different. 

These are some of the photographs of my final two weeks in America which was spent in California working on an avocado farm and then camping in Big Sur with Jim and Charlie. We drove down the Highway 1, just as we'd done a month before and sitting in Jim's car with Kool and The Gang and Black Moon playing and the stunning coastal views beside us felt like the perfect bookend to my time in America, with two of my closest friends, a pack of Hoegaarden, squished fresh strawberries, a bit of melancholy about the idea of returning home, but ultimately a lot of laughs and affection and a good sprinkling of Massachusetts memories. 

Now I'm back and I'm excited to crack on with blogging again, make up for the month long absence and catch up with some of my favourite reads while I spent the Summer back in Bristol at my parents house, working and anticipating my final year studying in Manchester. I hope you lot have all been swell!

Rave New World

Super 'Brave New World' editorial from the May issue of Vogue UK. The pairing of Alasdair McLellan as photographer and Jane How as stylist usually leads to pretty good things and this spread is no exception, an ode to The Face-era Kate Moss beach chilling and 90s ibiza sunrises.

Heads Up!

Blogging will be pretty sparse over the next week or so as my time studying at the University of Massachusetts is over and tomorrow I'm packing up and leaving to spend a week working on an avocado farm in Santa Cruz county. It's only 2 weeks until I return home to England and 'normal' life again, it's all gone so quickly! 

In the mean time here are some cool things for reading/listening to/watching and crushing on: 

 This short piece over at Another Magazine with snippets from the column Juergen Teller wrote for Die Zeit back in 2009. 

The cutesy heart-pocketted 'Bethany' skirt by Meadham Kirchoff is up on Net-a-Porter, and man, I'm crushing hard.

What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali. I very behind indeed on finding out about Taylor Mali but I've been devouring his live videos over the last week and this is my favourite by far. Mega inspiring. 

The clear plastic tops in buttercup yellow and rosy pink in this editorial from Vice Portugal.

For Real by Tricky:

Mambo No. 5 by Perez Prado:

mood

Leather lunch bag from Ship and Shape (especially love the fingernails-all coral with one cheeky little eggshell blue), Hailey Clauson by Tyrone Lebon in SS12 Pop Magazine, Bubble bag from Topshop, Stylist Meg Gray looking cracking, Cute little ruffles on the end of the sleeves of a Liz Clairborne jumper I bought from Goodwill the other week, 'Hello!' Smiley jumper from Etsy (sadly for children..)

Live for London

If you have 10 minutes to spare, watch this short film 'Live From London' by the brilliant Tyrone Lebon. It's been online since last summer, but slipped under my radar and in any case feels like a ripe time to watch it with the Olympics and Summer (hopefully) around the corner again. It's a celebration of London and of youth, community, diversity, energy, the past and the present and as a Brit currently overseas it made me feel extra patriotic for all of the good things about my little island. 

Cool Stuff You Should Read (and Do)

My First Skateboard Lesson With Steve Owen.
Everyone knows that girls on skateboards rule, but Kirsten Lea rules even more because she got a lesson from World Champion Steve Owen.

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom Soundtrack.
Although the release is over a month away you can read the full tracklistings to the upcoming film here. A helluva lot of orchestral tracks with some Francoise Hardy and Hank Williams thrown in.

Kenny Dope's April Weekend. 
If you have to spend 46 minutes and 57 listening to something it should be damn good. Which this funk soul and hiphop mix is. So why not listen to it?

Bauhaus Exhibition at The Barbican.
The 'Bauhaus: Art as Life' exhibition is running from now until August 12th at the London Barbican. I'm very excited to catch it after making a trip to the Bauhaus Archiv last summer only to arrive to it's closed doors (doh..)

Life Skills 101.
The bestest, bestest 'life skills' guide compiled by Rookie Magazine. How to haggle, how to introduce people well, how to tip properly and how to throw a punch and scale a fence when you really need to.