Thin Red Line

I didn't write the following post however it is very fitting for me at this time in my life. I have a book I purchased while living in Los Angeles and since moving to San Francisco it has been sitting in the truck of my car. The book is titled Soul Cavings and talks about what it takes for a human to be really, genuinely FULFILLED.
Thank you Erwin McManus for every.single.word.

"When You Give Up On Love, Everything Else Seems To
go with it-
joy,
hope,
forgiveness,
compassion-
they're all interconnected.
But you might wonder to yourself: What if I never find love? After all, you can't be held responsible if you've searched for love, risked in love, even fought for love, and yet have always found it unrequited. When loves does not come to you, it breaks your heart, but when you do not give love away, it hardens your heart. One thing stranger than our need to love, which agains leads me to my conspiracy theory: We are designed for love.
I remember several years ago sitting in a theater out in Westwood watching Terrence Malick's Thin Red Line. Two things stood out to me: Jim Caviezel standing quietly in the lobby watching our reactions as we exited, and a haunting monologue in the middle of a war movie about the nature of love.

"My dear wife,
you get something twisted out of your insides by all this blood, flith, and noise.
I wanna stay changeless for you.
I wanna come back to you the man I was before.
How do we get to those other shores?
To those blue hills.
Love.
Where does it come from?
Who lit this flame in us?
No war can put it out, conquer.
I was a prisoner.
You set me free."

Ben Chaplin's Private Jack Bell asked our soul's deepest question. What is this thing called love? Where does it come from? Why are we so affected by its presence and its absence?
We cannot live unaffected by love. We are most alive when we find it, most devasted when we lose it, most empty when we give up on it, most inhumane when we betray it, and most passionate when we pursue. The human story seem more driven by thhe insanity of love than the survival of the fittest. When I was seventeen, rushing off without stopping for dinner, my mom would tell me, "You can't live on love." Maybe not, but you can't live without it.
Can you be honest enough to admit how love pulls you, woos you, eludes you, torments you- sometimes all in the same day? You were created for relationship. This is and always will be at the core of your being.
All of us have an intrinsic need to belong, and all of us are on a search for intimacy. No matter how many things about us are different, in this we are all the same-we all crave love. It is as if we are searching for a love we have lost. Or perhaps more strangely we are searching for a love we have never known but somehow sense it awaits us.
The most powerful evidence that our souls crave God is that within us there is a longing for love. We are all connected by a thin red line."


Love is the most organic, natural things we can possess. Give someone your heart, let them know to take care of it and in turn it will take care of you.
xoxoxox

A Review

Interpretation is in the eye of the beholder...or at least thats how I distorted the quote. Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2010 collection at Paris Fashion week undoubtedly will be setting standards in the fashion industry to come. The models were draped in short, reptile-patterned, digitally printed dresses. Their emaciated legs sunk into grotesque shoes. According a a press release, McQueen was "casting an apocalyptic forecast of the future ecological meltdown of the world: Humankind is made up of creatures that evolved from the sea, and we may be heading back to an underwater future as the ice cap dissolves".
The set was comprised of a sparkling, illuminated runway in which two robotic movie cameras on, what the film industry refers to as 'booms, which swiveled around in a 360 degree motion and ran the length of the runway while the girls walked.


The background showed a screen playing video of Raquel Zimmermann, lying on sand, naked, with snakes writhing across her body.

The clothes evolved from greens and browns, moving to aqua and blue which accurately mimicked the depths of the ocean. They were exceptionally executed as each dress was a work of computer-generated art intertwined with McQueen's couture touch.





You get the idea.
Alexander McQueen:

San Francisco Becomes First City to Require Composting

(via YumSugar):
If you haven't jumped on the composting bandwagon yet, now might be a good time to start: composting is slowly but surely being written into the law. Last week, San Francisco, CA, became the first US city to pass a bill requiring mandatory recycling of food scraps. The legislation, which takes effect this Fall, asks all of the city's residents and businesses - including restaurants - to compost food scraps. Although a number of dwellers and establishments have voluntarily composted over the years, it is now obligatory.

Under the new rules, companies and city residents could face $500 fines if their garbage isn't organized into recyclable, trash, and compostable categories. Since I don't have a compost pail yet, it's high time that I invest in one. Although it's an extra step when taking out the trash, I'm glad to hear that the local government is being more environmentally conscious - and I hope other cities soon follow suit. How would you feel about mandatory composting in your neighborhood?

Air Force One

Air Force One flying over San Francisco<3

Ozcollective

Ozcollective are an exciting group of Paris based designers, who are best known for their masterful arrangement of umbrellas called Abri no 177.

(viafuckyeahsasha.tumblr.com)

(viaffffound.com)

Just In Case...

...you were wondering, this is the background on my computer.
I need to visit more galleries, no?

LOVE YOU

Yeah, so I want this

The bathroom:

And I want to wear this:

Lolita

I really don't have that much appreciation for you.

Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day

Obama wore a green tie, the fountains in front of the white house were dyed green and Michelle Obama donned green suede boots.

I spent the night working on a mid-term essay (fun) until I was convinced to come out by my boyfriend who was already drunk and turned 25 years old at mid-night. Whatever.

My Secrets

Asides from incorporating my own creativity, following the seasonal Fashion Weeks around the world and reading W Magazine, I often check out these sites for my fashion inspirations!
http://streetpeeper.com
As the name suggests, this site showcases style from the streets from major cities ALL around the world. Amazing.
http://style.com
This site has it all; videos of fashion shows, model profiles, latest trends and more. Im on this site like five times a day, no joke.
http://www.tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com/
Ok, this girl...is like TWELVE. I don't know how she does it. But she does and shes brillant. When I was 12 I was defending myself from my brothers beating me up...

Ok thats good for now.
XOXOXOXOXXXO

The next thing I will own:

A Moleskin.

Honestly, I dont even know why I don't own one already, it seems like a classic thing to own and quite imperative.

Fuck! London is so lucky!

So as we all should know by now, the King of Pop himself (Michael Jackson) announced last week he will preform 10 shows in London's 02 Arena. But what some of you may not have known is he added FORTY new shows coming to a total of 50 concerts!!!!!!!!!!!! The last concert will be February 24, 2010. Tickets went on sale this morning and sold out within an hour. Tickets were as expensive of $14,000. HOLY SHIT.

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN-Paris Fashion Week

First of all. WOW. I don't know whether to be frightened or intrigued but I am ODDLY CAPTIVATED. Alexander McQueen may be the last designer standing who is brave enough to present a collection that is an unadulterated piece of hard and ballsy showmanship. And the arguments that broke out after the show are a true testament to that. The set was a scrap heap of debris from the stages of McQueen's own past shows, surrounded by a shattered glass runway. This is thrilling, astonishing and breathtaking.

New Pepsi Ads

I've really been enjoying the new Pepsi ads. The majority of them I find at BART/muni stations and of course on billboards. Here are some of my favorites:

hmmm look familiar?

Bay Bridge Expansion

Here it is! A current picture of the new Bay Bridge.

I'm.Not.Feelin.It.

Oh, and it's made in China. Go figure.

Art is what you can get away with

Terry Richardson: a photographer who isnt afraid to be quirky and akward. Check out this snapshot of Richardson and Barack Obama.


To see more of his work, check out http://www.terryrichardson.com/

Paris Fashion Week Fall 2009 Ready-To-Wear..

...well done.
Here are some of my favorite garments:



Chanel Iman for Christian Lacroix.




Sigrid Agren for Karl Lagerfeld





Sasha Pivovarova for Jean Paul Gaultier




It is quite possible that the continual theme throughout the shows were defined by technology and architecture. Refreshing after London Fashion Week which we saw more contemporary and proper silhouettes.

All I need:

.Love.Friends.Sunshine.

-The true essence of the beauty in humanity.

Couldn't have said it better than this...

i've always found this man to be of pure brilliance, pure genious, and beyond amazing.
one of the rare and endangered species of humans we have left in this sad world.
john mayer. a true human of life and beauty.
this is from one of his blogs on his website that i came across ... something i think people need to be reminded of and more aware of. and he couldnt have said it better. i feel like he read my mind, and i know a lot of people will feel the same way after reading it too ...

"This is about a level of self consciousness so high in my generation, that it's actually toxic.
This is about the girl in her bedroom who poses in front of the camera she's awkwardly holding in her outstretched hand. She'll take a hundred photos until coming up with one she's happy with, which inevitably looks nothing like her, and after she's done poring over images of herself, will post one on her myspace page and then write something like " I don't give a f*ck what you think about me."
This is about me, the guy who walks through a throng of photographers into a restaurant like he's Paul Newman, but who leaves a "reject" pile of clothes in his closet so high that his cleaning lady can't figure out how one man can step into so many pairs of pants in a week.
This is about us all. Every one of us. Who all seem to know deep down that it's incredibly hard to be alive and interact with the world around us but will try and cover it up at any cost. For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we're all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears, if only it was worded right. And I don't want to act immune to that anymore. I took the biggest detour from myself over the past year, since I decided that I wasn't going to care about what people thought about me. I got to the point where I had so much padding on that, sure, I couldn't feel the negativity, but that's because I couldn't feel much of anything. And I think I'm done with that.
I'm not the first person to admit we're all self conscious, Kanye was. But what I want to do is to shed a little light on why we're all in the same boat, no matter the shape of the life we lead: because every one of us were told since birth that we were special. We were spoken to by name through a television. We were promised we could be anything that we wanted to be, if only we believed it and then, faster than we saw coming, we were set loose into the world to shake hands with the millions of other people who were told the exact same thing.
And really? Really? It turns out we're just not all that special, when you break it down. Beautifully unspectacular, actually. And that truth is going to catch up with us whether we want to run from it or not. The paparazzo following me to the gym ain't gonna be Herb Ritts and the guy he's following ain't gonna be Bob Dylan. It's just a matter of how old you are once you embrace that fact. And for me, 30 sounds about right.
What now, then? I can only really say for myself: Enjoy who I am, the talents and the liabilities. Stop acting careless. In fact, care more. Be vulnerable but stay away from where it hurts. Read. See more shows. Of any kind. Rock shows, art shows, boat shows. Create more art. Wear hoodies to dinner. Carry a notebook and hand it to people when they passionately recommend something and ask them to write it down for me.
Root for others.
Give more and expect the same in return, but over time. Act nervous when I'm nervous, puzzled when I don't know what the hell to do, and smile when it all goes my way. And never in any other order than that. And when it's all over, whether at the end of this fabulous career or of this life, which I hope takes place at the same time, I should look back and say that I had it good and I made the most of it while I was able. And so should you."


everyone (at least i wish) should live every day like this. what he said is truely what life should be about. no one is perfect, but thats the magic in life, realizing that and trying to make things better for not only yourself but the ones around you, for the whole world. when you believe in something, including yourself and way of life, then others start believing too. THIS IS WHAT LIFES ABOUT.

Eat This Shit Up

So I didn't write this. my friend, ricker, had this as a blog on his myspace, that i just read, his mom sent him this link, and he had lots to say on it, that i very seriously agree with, and want to repost.ill quote it all under him. its all his words. and hes so right on it all ...take something in from it and LEARN FROM IT PLEASE because our world is fucking SAD and too many people are little assholes and dont give a fuck when they SHOULD.

"My mom just forwarded that to me in a chain letter and for some reason it struck a big chord. The last innocent generation, the sixties. Your parents went through it, and you are undeniably a product of it. Growing up in our time everybody seems to be either in a mindset of loss or despair or just total apathy, and it's scary. Nothing is new anymore, nothing is fresh. We bury our wonder in technology. We waste our time in social networking websites instead of hanging out with bodies of mind and flesh. Feelings and vibrations and true connections are reduced to text - powerless words - on a glowing box. We seem to be stuck in the situation where all the news we ever hear and the things we are dictated to believe are all negative. The planet is in toil. We're overpopulating. People are living longer and becoming sadder. Gas is outrageous. Power consumption is outrageous, blah blah blah. We're sick of hearing about it but we put our heads down and most likely try to ignore it. Global warming, the earth is dying. SOS - save our fucking ship.
I think at the core of it all is that people have lost their sense of wonder. If you need to know anything, you Google it. If you need to get somewhere, you Google map it. You hit the traffic button and stress about the red lines or the orange one or the green one. If even Google doesn't know, it doesn't exist. If you want to purchase something, you can just buy it online. The outdoors have become the enemy. We sit in cars when we're outside. We walk from the front door through the driveway or parking lot and enter the vehicle. We look through windows at other people looking through windows at us. Enemies - idiots - traffic! We're concerned with getting to the destination and ignore everything in between.
Everyone has become a threat. The person walking towards you on the street better not look at you. That bastard, that weirdo, that bum. We walk past each other more frequently than not without a smile or a nod. Everybody is internalized, confused, lost, desperate. When in reality it doesn't have to be that way. It's to the point where we have three options: the first to being the easiest: the option of complaining, the option of apathy, or the third and most rarely found, the option of progress. One who complains is essentially victimizing themself over how expensive the gasoline is, the cost of living, the shitty fucking economy, how hard it is to find a job and why it's everyone else's fault but their own. And then there's the option of just being apathetic and continuing to waste and pillage and shit all over the ground and simply not care because hey, I'm gonna be dead by the time it really matters. But the fact of the matter is that you won't. Hope an progress can only come from within. Your legacy will live on whether or not you decide to have a child. We are all one. And you're the one responsible for the collective soul of this place.
I'm perturbed by the bleak outlook on life and the seemingly sad, sorry state that seems to have overtaken the vast majority of people i see. Mainstream news channels for the most part are a collection of slanderous, childish, conniving plots against other people, and disturbing stories about stabbings death and rapes in neighborhoods to keep you inside and to keep you hating or scared of everybody else. Checkout aisles are littered with magazines of our role model "celebs" performing even more childish, even more slanderous shit on each other, and we distract ourselves with that. Since the invention of the radio and even later the invention of television - it's turned into nothing but a form of mass-mind control. We hear nothing but crap news - about random acts of local neighborhood violence - and we don't hear the bigger picture. Nobody wants to go outside because they're scared. We stay in, we distract, we ignore. And the most terrible part is - going outside is what will save you. I am convinced that there are people who live entire days of their lives without once looking up at the sky. Without looking at the stars. If even just to wonder. A completely 2 dimensional view of the world. You forget that you are NOT the center of your own universe. Your problems are NOT the problems of the world. You're just a cell in a vein of a living, breathing, functioning, bigger organism called a planet! You're glued to the ground by an invisible force called gravity - tethering you to a giant, spinning, living, breathing rock filled with magma - floating somewhere amidst innumerable other celestial and massive, behemoth objects, in the most incredibly vast and indescribable place that you can't even wrap your mind around if you tried. But alas, nobody looks to the sky. All i see are clouds, smog, shit. Let's play Halo.
Maybe that's the byproduct of living in a big city. There are too many distractions. And these distractions are what make you not give a fuck about anybody but yourself. You throw your cigarette butts out the window or stomp them on the ground because it doesn't matter. Who cares. You wipe your ass with three feet of toilet paper because it's comfy and who's gonna know and who cares. You pee three drops of pee into the toilet and you flush a gallon and a half of clean water cause who cares. The bowl refills itself. You drive your car 100 yards to the store because it's easier than walking and who cares. You drink 4 plastic bottles of water per day cause it's convenient and who cares. You use plastic cups and paper plates cause you're too lazy to do the dishes and who cares. You leave the shower on for ten minutes before you get into it cause you're gonna do something else real quick and who cares. You leave every light on in the house when you go to sleep cause you're drunk or too tired to get back up out of bed and who cares. You clean your house and use a roll and a half of paper towels cause you're filthy and they're disposable to you and who cares. You set your AC to a comfortable 69 degrees even when you're not there cause it feels good to come home to and who cares. Seemingly nobody cares. Everybody does it. And it adds up.
You can blame everything on the past if you want to. "It's not my problem that the world is in such bad shape... I was born into it... I'm just here." The truth is that that's bullshit. You are the cause and solution to every problem. I'm not pointing fingers because I'm just as guilty as everyone else. And, the truth also is, that it's really not that hard to make a conscious effort to reverse the negative effects of carelessness and selfishness going on in the world around you. Recycle, reduce, reuse. It's not just a slogan on a trash can. REDUCE, my brethren, for even recycling costs money and power. Think outside of the box. Your Del Taco cup will remain a Del Taco cup for hundreds of years somewhere. The big green truck monster's don't drive around and wake you up at 9 am to pick up your garbage and make it disappear. It ends up in a giant landfill swarming with vultures and spike-tired steamrollers or as a whirlpool of needles and tires and plastic bags and traffic cones swirling around the size of the state of Texas (fact) in the Pacific ocean.
Enough of that - back to the spirit of the 60's. A time of discovery, a time of hope. A time of wonder, happiness, forward thinking, turned to COMRADERY through PROTEST, a time of people who cared about SOMETHING and CREATED CHANGE. Folk music - people who cared about each other. Corporations are never going to give a fuck about the people. Politicians don't give a fuck about you, and never will. Yet people suck at their tits like they have to. Choose your own adventure. Don't get yourself into a heap of debt and spend the rest of your life paying off the shit you bought that you don't really want or need, just cause you bought it. You don't need a gigantic house and three fancy cars and an ottoman and a plasma TV and an indestructible knife set in your kitchen to be happy. All excess becomes waste. You die alone. And whether or not you believe in an afterlife.... YOU ARE ALREADY IN IT! You die in a box and your body decomposes in the dirt and you get eaten by bugs that get eaten by bigger bugs that get eaten by bigger animals that eventually become YOU. Welcome home.
Listen to motown. Listen to oldies. Listen to the conviction in the voices of people who actually cared about something. Soul. Before the radio was (for the most part) a wasteland of voices of desperation and lack of substance. Before music was a means to an end. When music was an outlet. A plea for change. A call to action. When it was a call for help and not a cry for attention. When it was a source of power, hope and love instead of a cutthroat battle for fame and fortune and money. Before the corporations cashed in on it. When musicians still made money. And even if they did or didn't, that wasn't the point. Listen and you'll hear it. K Earth 101. I can honestly say it's my healthiest addiction. It reminds me of what matters.
So, just do it. Find use for old things. Put them on craigslist instead of throwing them into a trash heap. Ride your bike to the store. Smell the trees and the grass and feel the splat of a sprinkler on your leg and the crunch of a leaf on the ground instead of smelling the stale recycled air conditioning of your car with your cock jock or rock pop slop hogwash blasting in your ears. You might remember, if only for a second, that you're in it! You're HERE. In the mix, totally alive!This means you, mister tight pants.
This means you, mister or miss cynical. If you're a musician -- say something. Use your powers. If you're just a dude -- just do something. Put your talents and gifts and resources to use. Give instead of take. Because we're not innocent. We know what's up. Pick up a piece of trash when no one's looking. Give a bum the other half of your takeout sandwich. Make eye contact with a baby in a stroller. He/she sees you, that's for damn sure. He/she just isn't as insane as you are, yet. Connect. Be Human. Talk to the alleycats. Feed off of their energy. Feel them speaking to you. Listen to the birds. Try to remember that it's their world too. You're just the cancer upon it. Spread the love -- You don't have to be an activist... you don't have to be a hippie.. but you could try, even when no one's looking.. to be aware... to be a catalyst for change... to have hope. I'll try if you do. Let's do this. K-Earth 101.1 - peace"
-ricker.

(eat this shit up cause its the truest TRUTH ive read/heard in a while and im sick of all you lazy ass mother fuckers in this world. im sick of having to make up twice for your pathetic self. STOP BEING LAZY!!!!!!!!!!! start living with a purpose, its NOT HARD!!)love love love.Whitney