August Bits

In terms of personifying months, aren't June and July like twin sisters who have come to terms with getting mixed up because they are loved by many as being young, fun loving bringers of summer? And isn't August a sort of saucy crush-worthy teacher? He's definitely still hot, but teases those inhabitants of earth who enjoy the seasons with the imminence of September and thus autumn, reminding us that everything is a cycle, nothing stays static and everything changes. But even August depends on the sun, and the sun is a glowing gorgeous star blessing us with life every second of every month. I have no idea where I am going with this, but I hope that you too start imagining the months as actual live people who chat and get excited and go to the cinema together on their days off. Let's write short stories about them and get them published while we're young!

So anyway, here are a few photos of a few things in August.

August book: The Age of Absurdity by Michael Foley. 

An amazing read which is rich with philosophical and psychological references, discussing the way we live in the 21st century. He starts by explaining how humans define happiness and continues with elaborating how this ties in with the actions and thought patterns of the individual and society today. 

What makes it appealing is that it's written in an incredibly witty and non-intimidating way. Foley manages to invoke a sense of self-awareness that is perhaps not for the weak hearted. Brilliant.

August food: This salad
Takes the biscuit as the best salad I've eaten for months. Rocket salad, goats cheese, croutons, walnuts, steamed vegetables, apple, honey, .... This wasn't a salad, this was a culinary surprise, a day-enhancer!

We put our iced green teas on this box so we could unlock our bikes and I said "Gotta snap this, perfect tumblr pic!"And Annika said "So knew it!" (Just that you have to imagine the dialogue in German, then it will be more accurate.)

August film: The Bling Ring

I watched this twice at the cinema. Sophia Coppola is responsible for a series of aesthetically pleasing, loveable motion pictures. There is an undeniable depth to the Bling Ring even though it seems simple, almost as if the real issues are barely touched on. The soundtrack is flawless and I will now keep listening to Drop it Low by Chris Brown as a result of my favourite scene in the movie.

I have no shame in admitting my slight crush on Marc played by Israel Broussard. Although the film was hyped partly because of Emma Watson's role, personally I feel he easily outshone her slight frame and lip-licking with his authentic character and amazing perspex-armed shirt.

And finally...

August male: Colton Haynes
 I think this gif I made speaks for itself.

This tune caught me off guard on the 1st of September. Enjoy! The video is pretty sweet too, love them dudes swimming in 90s nostalgia, groovin' out in band tees with paint!

Swim Deep ~ Honey from daniel brereton on Vimeo.

El Classico

The smell of burnt egg reminds me of all the mistakes I've ever made, I ponder, and all the mistakes I am still to make.I remove the pan from the heat and examine the promise of life I had robbed of its value as even a culinary delight.

That was just one of the moments from the past few days when I have gone from doing something considered by many as a simple task, to unintentionally confronting myself with problems better left until after eating an omelette.

I love this skirt to smithereens. I mean it in all honesty. It's my favourite item of clothing I have ever owned. And if you ask anyone who sees me on a regular basis they will confirm I wear it to smithereens too.

The shoes are metallic Zara bad-boys which have been an extension of my legs on special days since before I left for Singapore. They are utterly beautiful. A sweet spanish shop assistant removed the final size thirtyeights from the shop mannequin for me. When it's sunny, the light reflects off them so it feels like you're walking on disco balls. 

Skirt: Romwe

T-shirt (temporary DIYed): Annika and Topshop (ich bringe es dir heute mit, habs in Kroatien ausversehen eingepackt!),

Shoes: Zara 

Earrings and sunnies and anklet: Topshop

I'm also wearing Shanghai Spice by Mac (as if you can actually see)

Keep your eyes peeled, because I have something planned. As it is proving above averagely difficult to find a specific Neutral Milk Hotel song to end this with on YouTube, here is an indie oldie. Sweet sentiment. But I dig talking over dancing at least 6.5 times out of 10.

Kings Of Convenience - I'd Rather Dance With You from spitz on Vimeo.

5 Places on the Internet to Subdue Unwanted Feelings

When you find yourself in a state of mind where the thought of getting up and facing the world as a confident individual seems near to impossible, the internet acts as a way to tolerate human society from a safe distance and indulge in a sometimes more than necessary bout of isolation.

Here are only 5 (of the endless list of) places which exist on the internet to gently help you in your time of distraction.

ROOKIE

Rookie is an online magazine founded by the infamous Tavi Gevinson (her fashion blog has been around since 2008). There's all kinds of scrumptious articles and stories and poetry and photography and DIYs and playlists to get lost in. I love this site to pieces. A quick pick of recent favourites: 

Tokyo Drift: Photo diary from time spent in Tokyo.

Overnight: A really simple but ridiculously sweet short story about a girl who's unsure of nighttime etiquette and has a lovely chat with a stoner.

Secret Sharers: A group of people divulge secrets about various things such as old films, abandoned New York subway stations and the acquiring of free doughnuts.

(Emma Dajska does collages for some of the articles. I'm in love with almost everything she produces with her mind and hands.)

trntbl.me

On this site you can listen to all the music someone has ever posted on their tumblr blog. This is a great way of (re)discovering (old/)new music.

Polyvore

When I was about twelve years old I used to literally spend hours on this site. You can make collages with images users have saved from all over the internet (mostly clothes) and create outfits and stories and pretty pictures you can look back on later and ask yourself when you ever had time to create such goodies. Although this site isn't some kind of secret, I feel like it's often put to one side in favour of trawling through tumblr dashboards and wistfully scrolling through lookbook.nu.

The Student Room

This is of interest if you, like me, are suddenly confronted with the petrifying imminence of possible higher education and you, like me, seem to know next to nothing about everything.

Very useful if you, like me, are basically set on going on an adventure on your own to somewhere in the United Kingdom, where salty sea and Media and Communication courses, Topshop, concerts and fellow students await in abundance. 

I have however been avoiding this website for the past week as it has been filling me with equal amounts of anticipation and fear, which proves to be quite distracting when attempting to successfully complete the remainder of your senior year.

YouTube

You already know that this website is basically boredom's cheeky affair. You will undoubtedly find yourself in this wonderland of moving images if all attempts at subduing unwanted thoughts and or boredom have failed you.

An endless array of options are laid in front of you: You could get lost in a string of pet videos, or find yourself swimming in a never-ending supply of music, and chances are you may in fact end up watching a video of a selection of people yawning.

When these finally few weeks of school are over, my mind will be so much more capable of dedicating time to this minuscule dot in the internet-verse.

When all else fails, always, always go for Morrissey and wait.

Failed Cheesecake or Do it Yourself

Today I baked a delicious looking cheesecake, complete with enticing digestive biscuit base. Upon opening the oven however I remembered suddenly, that I had forgotten to add 200g of caster sugar to the mixture. I ate three digestive biscuits and threw the cake in the bin. Feel free to apply your own metaphor for anything here.

I spent my Easter weekend painting my bed and an old mirror white. It was satisfying but took (much) longer than expected. And although I locked Carl out when I started painting he has been wandering around with white spots on his back for a few days now.

Before. My mum DIYed the cover for the piano stool. This is one of the countless reasons I love her.

Masking tape. Now imagine me taking this photograph, it suddenly seems oddly ridiculous, right.

Moving, conscious, black furry thing which will remain celibate for life, called Carl.

After. It's one thing to have all these ideas in your head and another to cover your bedroom floor in newspaper and spend two days coating an ancient Ikea metal bed frame in paint. 

Also, I finally watched Perks of Being a Wallflower today. I read the book ages ago and remember not expecting it to affect me like it did. I also remember crying at the end and being dubious about the possible movie adaption.

But I really enjoyed it.

After gossiping for about two hours on my bed, a friend with excellent taste and I watched 201mins of Stephen Chbosky's creation which left me with the same warm feeling as the book. I can't find the right adjectives and nouns and verbs to string together in order to describe the book or the film, but I just hope that people in the future will read the book or failing that, watch the adaptation and feel something.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised by my realisation that Ezra Miller is more than mildly attractive.

(In German, the film is called 'Vielleicht lieber morgen' which translates roughly as: 'Perhaps tomorrow (is/will be/could be) better'. I have just realised how difficult it is to translate those three words. Nevertheless, I had to point out how amusing I find it and wonder how many people decided that that was in fact, the best possible translation of the movie title. How about 'Die Vorteile eines Mauerblümchens' which translates roughly as: 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'.)

Ezra Miller x Terry Richardson

Playlist if you fancy.

• French Kiss - The Teenagers
• Midnight City - The Knocks ft. Mandy Lee
• Lights (Shook Remix) - Ellie Goulding
• Second Chance - Peter, Bjorn and John
• We drink on the Job - Earlimart
• Sans Soleil - Miike Snow (live)
• The Walk - Mayer Hawthorne ft. Rizzle Kicks

Silver and Gold and Feet and Hips

In German one uses the verb 'feiern' (to celebrate something) when referring to 'clubbing'. This in itself, is a mysterium I have pondered occasionally by myself. Imagine saying in english: 'You going out celebrating tonight?' when in actual fact you mean: 'You going to intoxicate yourself and dance for hours to mediocre music dodging perverse lonely unsatisfied men tonight?'
I've always thought 'going out clubbing' or 'going out for a night in the town' sounds vaguely off and the German language has found a decent way of avoiding this terminological problem by simply implying that on these seemingly endless Friday and Saturday nights, one goes out to celebrate something lovely, perhaps even your existence on this spinning globe. It seems so paradoxical and absurd, because I know many individuals who in actual fact want o forget what happens during the hours where the sun is up and consign their ever present feeling of depersonalisation to oblivion by becoming one of the many silhouettes in a dark and crowded room with flashy lights and loud rhythms. Of course that's just a conclusion I have drawn from my ongoing observations.
Conversely, it is of course possible to enjoy yourself dancing and forgetting, but I increasingly have the impression it is an excuse for people to try not to try to be cool, minimalistic hip thrusts and exaggerated arm extensions and alcohol consumption.
If only there had been good music last night, because I definitely was not feeling the electronic remixes of 90's Hip Hop.

A small insight into my views on adolescent topics. I could say so much but I'm saving that for when the disconnected thoughts in my head can form to firm opinions.

 This building really took my fancy.

Junk shop find. Old Fujifilm Instax.

 Me

 Applying a mask

 Berlin & Ikea

The Bird And The Bee "Again and Again" from Miky Wolf on Vimeo.

A First

Today was such a nice day! We were only in town so I could open a new bank account, but we bumped into lots of smiling faces along the way. Our happy mood melted with theirs and by the time we were finished the corners of my lips were effortlessly connected with my earlobes (metaphorically).

 I feel hugely vain and self-centered posting pictures of myself. I suppose I will have to get over that feeling as soon as possible in order to show off more tactfully.
This is one of those outfit posts. I am giving it a try.
I delved into the depths of our cellar a few days ago and discovered this forgotten leather rucksack. It's so 'cute'. Honestly cannot think of a a more serious word to describe it.

Jeffrey Campbell Taupe Suede Litas via Solestruck

Jeans shirt and trousers H&M

So last night I couldn't sleep, thus I ended up reading a lot of articles on the internet, mainly via Vice. A lot of the tone of their stuff frustrates me (i.e. the complete overuse of irony, merging into arrogance), but quite often proves entertaining.
One article was about something called ASMR. If you don't know what it is, you will want to know.
It was fascinating, go and read it too.

Bringing Hate Back Into German Politics is also a good one.

The Maccabees are coming to Frankfurt! So you should watch this live performance of a gorgeous song I fell in love with when I was about 13.

End of Summer

I think the title is wishful thinking, but one can hope that it will end soon. I must admit I don't mind sunglasses, ice cream and not going to school, but I do thoroughly oppose smelly public transport, shaving my legs perfectly every day and overenthusiastic adolescents at every corner.
Although overenthusiastic people are usually likeable in their own way, trams and buses full of seventeen year old boys smothered in puberty aren't always enjoyable.

I spent the past few weeks mostly drinking cold coffee, watching 8 out of 10 Cats and Nevermind the Buzzcocks, feeling hot and somehow contemplating life an awful lot as well as enjoying it.

This has become one of our favourite places to drink coffee in Frankfurt. Located directly next to where I work (Iimori), Magarete has the most relaxed and comfortable atmosphere and seemingly immaculate interior design (except that one bulb isn't working in the picture above-find it!). Can't wait to eat here soon.

A friendly waiter took our picture. Unfortunately my expression was in the middle of changing when he hit the button, so please do admire the crowns of our heads in black and white.

Mozzarella for our pizza.

Behold this delicious discus!

Annika has assured me she's never worn these fabulous leg accessories out.

The final product of the Deadly Sins project.

There's less than 7 days left of freedom and although there is a lot to dread in the coming year, hopefully it will be a good final year at school. When you don't think too much about the future and worry about fulfilling something unknown, life can be quite exciting.

This cover is lovely and almost as good as the original.

There Goes the Fear

I cannot believe it's been almost two weeks since I came back from England. I miss it, so here are a few more photos from those perfect weeks.

Covent Garden

42°Raw - I had a blueberry and basil smoothie. 

Covent Garden II

 Hotel room, Charing Cross

Woops

My grandparents with the Queen and Prince Charles. Smiles all around.

When I'm 81, I want to have a place like this too.

 They were exactly this colour.

One of my mum's friends I met in London described the feeling of hearing a piece of music that practically has the capacity to tear your heart out and showed me this song.