Part 1 of Bon Iver Themed Blog Posts

My friend Lilly and I have a long-running joke about how hipsters cannot survive (and attain their hipster-style) during the winter because they can't wear flowy outfits or cute indie skirts....

BUT

I cracked the code.

In order to be a winter hipster... you have to emulate Bon Iver.

It works every time.

1.  PLAID.

2.  KNITS

*let's call this warm core

(like norm core but not)

3.  MORE PLAID

4.  MORE WARMCORE

IT'S LIKE A HOLIDAY THEMED DRUG RUG

5.  WARM CORE + PLAID = EXTREME BON IVER

EXTRA BONUS ROUND:

SOCKS.

- EITHER KNIT OR CUTE AND FLORAL - 

hahah

this was fun

xoxo

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

Teenage Daydream

(dress - rue 21, sweater - thrifted, tights - i don't know!)

Today I ripped my tights and kissed a boy in an elevator.

(I also petted a llama)

My name is Alijah, but I don't feel like myself.

I've always been a person who would always rip their tights, roll my eyes at myself and then walk around anyways.

I'm still that person, but I feel extremely different.

In one week, I've had my first date and first kiss(es), and visited the art museum three days in a row.

I feel like I'm in a Coming-Of-Age movie in the 80s, I've always felt like a character and not a real person, but for some reason this entire week absolutely nothing has felt real.  I really like that feeling though, the feeling of knowing that weird things will always happen and being so aware of it that it's really easy to come to terms with and embrace the idea.

  It's cool to know that you've got people in your life who are honestly there for you and are willing to randomly go to art galleries with you, or walk across downtown to get to high-up places to stare at the city and the mountains until it's dark.

I just feel so lucky.

I feel great, I feel like right now all of my idealistic teenage dreams are coming true

and I couldn't be happier.

xoxo

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

P.S. The title is like playing off of David Bowie's Moonage Daydream it's Teenage Daydream y'know?  :') 

P.P.S. I listened to Bon Iver last night without crying, and I think that's what #truehappiness is.

White Stripes

I wore a lot of stripes today.

Today was great.

School-party/Cleaning

Music Theory Exam...

and a spontaneous visit to the art museum

I think that doing things like this are good for you, not in a weird *good for your soul way*, but in a completely good for your soul way.  I'm definitely not a therapist or a philosopher but I think getting out and doing things spontaneously with your friends is an extremely healing thing.  I've been so so so stressed about homework, exams, school, and BOYS... I haven't had much time to just hang out and enjoy things for what they were.  

This trip to the art museum was fun.

I could definitely appreciate that.

I also definitely needed that.

It's a great thing knowing that you have people in your life who will be alright with you randomly asking them if they wanted to play with puppets in the children's part of the art museum.

Friends are a great thing, art is a great thing, and relaxing and enjoying life is a great thing.

that's all for today, folks.

xoxo

gossip girl

P.S. I called this White Stripes because while I was making this post "Fell In Love With A Girl" came on my 2000s Indie Pandora Station and not because of all of the white striped clothes I wore today.

(it was one of those days)

:')

Fail In Style

Studying in the gallery.

HARDCORE STUDYING.

I woke up this morning and was like hmmmm..... well I could wear sweatpants and be sad and look gross... or I could look cute and put minimal effort into my outfit.

I chose the second one.

I decided that I might as well look cute if I'm going to spend two hours of my existence failing an exam. :')

that's it

gotta go study more!!!

xoxo 

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

Jean Paul Gaultier

(photos  - marcio madiera)

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER SPRING/SUMMER 2007

This is a really interesting collection.

It's interesting because the inspiration behind it is a personification of the biblical virgin mary.

  The original Madonna.

I personally think that the makeup/hair and colors used are on point and the look that this creates with the pieces as well as the halos that are being worn really really really makes it spectacular.

That's it.

hope exam week isn't killing you like it's killing me

(ALREADY)

xoxo 

gossip girl

jk its alijah

The Blogger Is Present

This idea that life should imitate art is a phenomenon among teenagers on social media websites, and most prominently tumblr.  The idea of “doing it for the aesthetic” is not an extremely new topic, it pays direct homage to the Aesthetic movement, and one of it's most known members: Oscar Wilde. Through the internet, all forms of art being available at one’s fingertips at any time of the day.  Due to this fact, many teenagers and young adults are being exposed to more art forms that a lot of other generations simply to the accessibility of the information.  This constant accessibility to art has had a great deal of influence on teenage culture, which is the most recent wave of Aestheticism. 

This has caused a visible increase in teenager's interest in art and social issues, which again, links directly to Oscar Wilde and his views on Aestheticism. He specifically felt that art should be beautiful but shouldn't necessarily take attention away from the social issues that are going on. In Wilde’s The Poets & The People, he talks about the intellectuals ignoring actual people in poverty and continue to write things that are simply hard for people who aren’t part of the literary aristocracy to understand, he specifically criticized a fellow writer for this in his essay. “Mr. Browning is living in the nineteenth century and has no such excuses for banging his intellectual tin kettle while a fourth part of his fellow-countrymen are struggling against poverty, and are weighed down by the gloomy outlook towards the future.” (Wilde, Poets & The People)   

The exact same thing happens on the internet, specifically the platform of tumblr. It's obvious that due to the exposure we have, when world news happens we can't ignore it even if you try, and some people try, this has been combatted with the idea of entitlement with the loose quote of "to be able to have the choice to ignore this is entitlement, just because it's not happening to you and not affecting you it doesn't mean it's not important, stop reflagging pictures of pretty white girls and stop ignoring real life issues [referring to Gaza, Ferguson, and Mexico - as well as Eric Garner & Tamir Rice in recent news]." (unknown blogger, tumblr) This goes to say that a lot of the bloggers on tumblr share the same ideals as Oscar Wilde without even realizing it, the parallels are obvious and interesting. 

The basic idea of the newest version of Aestheticism, which is prominently on the internet, is that things in everyday life, and on the internet are meant to be aesthetically pleasing at all times.  For example, blogs dedicated to posting photos of beautiful things with no posts about political affiliations is a version of the newest version of Aestheticism.  Another example of this could be the fascination with Windows 98 because to some, it creates a sense of nostalgia attached with being younger and not having to worry about politics and grotesque things in the world, and also because the look of the older Windows model is more pleasing to look at compared to the most recent versions of it.

Lastly, the most modern version of the Aesthetic movement correlates greatly with the broader ideals of the first movement, that political influence shouldn’t be paid attention to inside of the art and that the moral side of art was not as important as the actual beauty of it.  Through the vast differences, similarities, and correlations of the different waves of this movements, we can see how the mindsets of individuals versus the majority of the movements differ, and how those mindsets can help to shape the many other versions of the movement, which helps it to be able to be continued. In the future, perhaps bloggers will stop being seen as frivolous, superfluous, and not knowing what they're talking about Art is important, as well as the political and social issues going on in the world around us, and to turn a blind eye to that is wrong because you're not JUST turning a blind eye to it, you're going out of your way to turn a blind eye to it. It's not just ignorance it's a disdainful act against everybody involved.

I Am Always So Confused

It was cold.

Standing outside in the cold at 7am... that's dedication. 

I DON'T WANT TO DO MY HOMEWORK I'M HONESTLY FREAKING OUT BECAUSE I KNOW THAT I NEED TO BUT I LIKE CAN'T GET MYSELF TO DO IT.... I keep getting myself into these extremely high-stress situations, this is why I'm going to die at 23, because of my stress.

I just really am so confused with everything all the time, honestly.

I kinda don't ever know what I'm doing, I just want to sit on my bed and make zines.

I don't want to go to school and I don't ever want to write another paper

(it feels like that's all I ever do - write papers and stress about the ones that aren't yet written)

P.S. FUN FACT - YOU'D BE SURPRISED AT HOW WELL VERLAINE'S EROTIC POETRY GOES WITH MAC DEMARCO SONGS.......

xoxo

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

other fun fact: Clem Creevy is so cool.

The Pizza Underground

If this didn't make your day a little brighter I don't know what else will.

P.S. Sidenote on the last video - I remember one time during Freshman year after Bible lit class a friend of mine (Kaitlin- probably the coolest person i've ever interacted with) and I just sat and watched Andy Warhol's hamburger video.

This is great.

xoxo

gossip girl

jk its alijah 

hope pre-exam week isn't killing you yet :)

Stress

When you're sleepy and stressed and wearing the clothes you wore to bed last night as an outfit.

Basically when you're in sweatpants/pajamas but still wanna be #cute

Last week was so stressful, everything was due, everybody was on edge, it was so intense. 

Two weeks before Exam Week.

Today is Sunday, tomorrow is Monday and it marks day 1 of an equally if not more stressful week

Pre-Exam Week.

AKA the worst two weeks of the entire semester.

They're awful.

This year was exceptionally awful because it's like we got an extra week of hell.

I have so many things due at the same exact time, it's awful and stressful and I just want to stay in bed for the rest of my life, honestly.

(Or at least until it's 2015, but even then things will still be super stressful... will there ever be a real break? - no? - ok)

Jeez louise, my head hurts just thinking about all of my obligations and deadlines.

xoxo

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

P.S. Pray for me for these next two weeks, hopefully I won't be dead or stressed or crying too much

lonely boy goes to a rave

"school sucks...why oh why is there work oh, i don't get it...look at me, look at my face... does it look like i care about school? no."

i normally love school but right now it's so stressful...

do you ever get so stressed to the point where you honestly cannot do your homework because you're too anxious and can't stop thinking about all the other tasks you need to complete?

yeah.

it's not even exam week and i'm already dead.

until next time

xoxo

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

exam week is coming up

don't die on me 

Something I'm In Love With

MARKUS LUPFER SS 15 

I love this so much.

It's got this really cool futuristic looking thing going on while still paying homage to the 60s and the ever so lovely jelly sandals.

xoxo

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

Growing Pains

How are you?

I'm very stressed and it sucks.

Like can I complain for a little bit?

It's very hard being a teenager.  

You've got all these disgusting and dumb things to deal with like boys, socialization, peer pressure, ugh (ugh), it's just so so so much and so many things are confusing and changing and it's the liverWORST....

to top it all off you've got 10 page papers up to your ears

it's chill like i understand i have work to do and stuff but me personally i am freaking the fuck out all the fucking time and i don't know how to handle it in any way except to cry and eat these awesome hazelnut cookies my mom got and to whine about my feelings to strangers on the internet who don't care

I think i'm slipping into a funk again... or maybe it's just a very violent teenage mood swing... the world will never ever fucking know.

****i know what you're thinking oh yeah another teenager whining on the internet about their feelings suck it up (tells their own laundry list of shit going on)

like yeah i get it, like continues to suck or whatever but just let me complain***

it's my blog and i can whine if i want to

(whine if i want to, whine if i want to)

so shut the fuck up and stop telling me to suck it up @adults

xoxo

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

Live To Freeze Another Day

(lets appreciate my i-just-woke-up-eyeliner-smeared-on-my-face-ness)

I woke up this morning warm and slightly dazed, I looked outside of the window in Maggie's closet and saw SNOW.... THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN.... SNOW!!!

It was nice.  It wasn't a lot, like not enough to cause trouble but just enough for it to be scenic and picturesque, I went downstairs and drank hot chocolate and ate pancakes in our big teenage cluster and laughed and made jokes, and then Kovich and I played a very intense game of air hockey (she won, but it was close!) 

It was nice, really nice.

I love spending time with people who I genuinely enjoy being in the company of.

(Dancing + so much candy + truth or dares and never have i evers + secret sharing... man, I love it.)

(also Phineas and Kovich made the BEST brownies ever, they were so so so good)

(maybe I just have a thing for brownies?)

YEAH SO CLOTHES?

You can't ever go wrong with a sweater and boots.

If you're even thinking about going to a place that might be cold, bring a sweater!!!! 

(and wear boots, because teenagers tend to want to go on night walks through the woods)

but yeah, comfy and extremely practical 

anyways

xoxo

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS???????????????

HALLOWEEN

IT IS HALLOWEEN 

EVERYBODY TURN UP 

IM SO EXCITED I CANNOT DO ANYTHING

i haven't put any makeup on bc  we all know alijah and it'd be running down my face no matter what... so i'll do it during my free period before lunch :-)

so excited

xoxo

gossip girl

jk it's alijah

PS I FORGOT TO TELL U WHAT I AM

i'm a mystic from a 1920s circus

Had Ten Dollaz

YO YO YO

HALLOWEEN IS SO SOON

I CAN TASTE THE SUGAR HIGH

(speaking of sugar high... I was thinking of going as a sugar skull (because they're hella cool and I was in spanish class looking at one that was made by us during the past years and they're extremely cool and have a great story behind them, but i don't know if it would be cultural appropriation to be a calaverita for Halloween... help me on this dilemma?)

so so so excited.

xoxo

gossip girl

(jk it's alijah)

PSAT more like PSA-LAAAAAAME... Am I Right?

taken in the bathroom of a catholic school as soon as the PSAT ended 

(photo cred luz)

I've never been inside a catholic school bathroom before... It felt extremely -esque... Not sure what of though, it was like a Wes Anderson movie (so much pastel) But it also felt like a photo series by Petra Collins.  I don't remember much of the PSAT except that it was raining and I took off my shoes before the test even started. 

Also, I think this is my new staple... My go-to. Instead of cat sweaters, I've evolved into striped shirts and leggings or jeans paired with a fun sweater... Let's call this the #lazybutcomfyalijah,

#money #hardcore #newstaple

that's it

xoxo

gossip girl

(jk it's alijah)

(actually I'm super glad i got to take the psat like I'm so thankful even though i complain)