July Favourites

The weather is hot and the summer holidays have officially begun. Not much has happened in July and pretty much everything I'm looking forward to is this month (i.e seeing Drowners again and Reading Festival, which means seeing Drowners again.) Here are some things I have been #digging in the thirty one days of the seventh month of 2014:

Kim Kardashian: Hollywood
I must admit I was never really bothered about Kim Kardashian or any of the other Kardashians. I, among many others, was bewildered about the world's obsession with them, and my interest in watching any of their shows has been fairly minimal. But I, among many others once more, was sucked into a virtual world at the promise of fame and fortune, albeit virtual. I am of course talking about Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, or "The Kim K Game." This free game hit the app store in early July and I have been hooked ever since. It was initially one of those games I download for a laugh, with the intention of playing it for a couple of hours, draining my battery, and consequently deleting it. But once Kim had started being so nice to me, I couldn't bring myself to delete it. I have been spending a somewhat ridiculous amount of time on photoshoots, endorsements, and running from place to place tapping everything from fire hydrants to birds to gather extra energy for more stars. My character doesn't look like me, she wears all black with an Anna Wintour haircut. Her boyfriend wears all black too, but every time they go on a date he just insults her outfit choices. Maybe it's time to ditch him for an A Lister to match her A List #1 status. Or maybe it's time for me to check into Kim K Game Rehab.

The Commonwealth Games
I'm sure anyone that knew me in 2012 will tell you I was absolutely obsessed with the Olympic and Paralympic games. At first I was dreading them thanks to all the hype surrounding them, then I had an epiphany and fell in love. (I visited the Olympic park, went to see some Paralympic rowing and ending up purchasing everything from the DVDs of the Games to Olympic mugs) I love it when sporting events are in the same time zone as me so naturally I wanted to watch as much of The Commonwealth Games as I possibly could. As someone who can barely run for a bus, I am in awe of all these amazing athletes and I love how patriotic everyone/everything is! Just look at my (not very neatly done) nails

The IT Crowd
In July, I watched The IT Crowd. A lot. I should probably go here to learn how to introduce colour into my wardrobe, what with the hot weather and all:

Alvvays
Toronto's Alvvays (pronounced Always, but I can't seem to stop saying it like Alvays) make dreamy music on par with Best Coast and Cults' debuts. Their album dropped this month, and after hearing Archie, Marry Me I had a strong feeling it would be very good. Ding ding! I was correct. Possibly one of my favourite albums of the year so far.

Yuck
Back in the days of NME TV, when I was 13, I decided I didn't like Yuck. I based this very strong opinion on hearing like, 30 seconds of Get Away. A year or so later I saw the light and looking back I was super stupid and missed out on seeing Yuck before their lineup change which SUCKS. But over the last couple of months I have become obsessed with their 2011 debut, and July was no exception. 

Denim Idols #tbh

My Jams this month:
Hebronix - Viral
Parquet Courts - Dear Ramona
Alvvays - Archie, Marry Me
Estelle - American Boy (ft. Kanye West)
Blessa - Unfurl

Sewing + Slow Club (SEW CLUB?)

Summer has officially begun, and now that Wimbledon is over I am finding myself with little to do. Haha, kidding. I just got a new sewing machine! I am notoriously fussy when it comes to sewing machines, with a preference of Janome machines and top loading bobbins. I intend to spend my whole summer sewing (besides that hour I take out to watch Four Weddings) and my goal is to love sewing by September. Maybe that's a bit ambitious. I don't think I will ever love sewing. But I'd at least like to improve my sewing.

A stream of Slow Club's eagerly anticipated third album also dropped this week. Titled "Complete Surrender" (BY THE WAY a great title I like it a lot) it was set to be a great follow up to 2011's Paradise. And it was!
A few months ago Slow Club revealed the first snippet of their new material, album opener Tears Of Joy. It's a very typical Slow Club track, with hints of both Yeah, So and Paradise woven through it. The second track released, title track Complete Surrender, is where things really got exciting. It feels like a natural progression from the bold and atmospheric sounds of Paradise, with a groovy twist. I read a review somewhere that stated it sounds like a Bond theme, and that's the perfect way to describe it. Perhaps my favourite Slow Club track alongside Beginners, Two Cousins and If We're Still Alive.
That groove is a continuous theme throughout the entire album. It all feels floaty and flamboyant, big and bold. Everything Is New sounds like a bombastic finale, but is in fact only the second track. Suffering You, Suffering Me is deceiving - it starts off with some very ballad-y vibes, but ends as a funky, upbeat track. Like, one of those songs people dance down the street to in TV adverts.
All in all, I'd say this is Slow Club's best album, and they seem to get better with each one. Complete Surrender is one of my favourite albums of 2014 so far, and already my favourite album title.
Favourites: Complete Surrender, The Pieces, Everything Is New, Not Mine To Love, Tears Of Joy, The Queen's Nose

SUMMER MEGAMIX

Making "summery" playlists when most of what you listen to could be described as "summery" is both a blessing and a curse. Sure, you have loads to choose from, but perhaps too much. I found it impossible to narrow this down to a reasonable length (I aimed for 20 tracks) so here it is as a "summer megamix." A whole 2 hours and 46 minutes of groovy summery goodness, arranged in a somewhat flowing order. 

Tracks:

1. Girls - Morning Light
2. Splashh - All I Wanna Do
3. Palma Violets - Best Of Friends
4. Cults - I Can Hardly Make You Mine
5. Coves - Wake Up
6. Arctic Monkeys - The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala
7. DIIV - Wait
8. Yuck - Middle Sea
9. Coves - Fall Out Of Love
10. SKATERS - I Wanna Dance (But I Don't Know How)
11. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold II
12. Drowners - Long Hair
13. Dom - Bowl Cut (ft. Madeline Follin of Cults)
14. Bully - Brainfreeze
15. Bleeding Knees Club - Teenage Girls
16. FIDLAR - No Waves
17. Wavves - Nodding Off (ft. Best Coast)
18. Yuck - Holing Out
19. Splashh - Need It
20. Twin Peaks - Stand In The Sand
21. Girls - Summertime
22. Melody's Echo Chamber - I Follow You
23. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - So Good At Being In Trouble
24. Tame Impala - Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
25. JAWS - Gold
26. Slow Club - If We're Still Alive
27. FEMME - Fever Boy
28. Blood Orange - You're Not Good Enough
29. Solange - Losing You
30. Peace - Bloodshake
31. Dom - Living In America
32. Spector - Celestine
33. Girls - Hellhole Ratrace
34. Cajun Dance Party - Colourful Life
35. The Drums - Forever And Ever Amen
36. Foals - My Number
37. Metronomy - The Bay
38. Best Coast - Boyfriend
39. Sky Ferreira - Everything Is Embarrassing
40. Cults - Go Outside
41. The Horrors - Still Life
42. Temples - Colours To Life
43. Best Coast - The Only Place
44. Icona Pop - I Love It (ft. Charli XCX)
45. Ultraista - Bad Insect
46. Yuck - Shook Down

Listen on 8tracks

My first year of college is almost over! It's been a year of complaining and rushing the day before deadlines (embroidery at 1am, anyone?) but overall I can safely say I think I've overcome my somewhat irrational fear of sewing machines. Remember that episode of That's So Raven where Raven needs to return a top but rips it and has to quickly repair it and sews herself to the machine? I'm pretty sure watching that episode incessantly is what started it. I still don't really like sewing, and I probably never will. 
For my final major project I looked at contemporary architecture, in particularly skyscrapers. 30 St Mary Axe (also known as The Gherkin) in London and Germany's Westhafen Tower really caught my eye, and I created my piece based on the geometric shapes, as well as window tints and reflection. For once I'm pretty happy with how it looks!! Me being me went for a fabric that looked amazing but was impractical to say the least (You can't iron it, wash it or apply too much pressure. Oh well) and trust me if sequinned fabric didn't break the bank sequins would have been much more involved than they were:

Initial Design

Final Design

Final Garment!! (You know every project I'm like "wow I am not doing any beading again" and what do I end up doing on the next project? BEADING)

Record Store Day 2014

After havin' a blast at Record Store Day 2013, (a day that included some real nice weather and some nice finds) I was pretty eager for Record Store Day 2014. So eager that I booked the day off work 4 months in advance. I didn't even book my birthday off, to put that into perspective. ANYWAY here are some photos I took and some tales of the day:

HUGE QUEUE! Much longer than the same time last year

Bit of shoe admiration to kill some time (on a side note I'm really not a fan of the super long laces on Converse)

ROUGH TRADE IS IN SIGHT (within 20 seconds of taking this I fell over)

I KNOW WE'VE COME SO FAR BUT WE'VE GOT SO FAR TO GO*

Toy!! Soundchecking Left Myself Behind which is one of my favourites

Photobooth #banter

Compulsory Pizza Hut Meal. We were at the same table we sat at after we saw Drowners which made us a bit #EMOTIONAL

I had no idea this was on Berwick Street that's pretty cool

Despite walking around clutching Parquet Courts' Sunbathing Animal for like an hour I ended up not buying it. Instead I got a non RSD release, "Y.O.U / I Come Undone" by Violet. I'd never heard it but for £2 can you really go wrong? Reaaaally? Not really. It was quite good actually.

BRING ON RSD 2015 WOOOOOOP

*I'm sorry for the inevitable Hairspray reference. But then again, I'm not really.

Addressing the real questions, obviously. I had just caught up with two month's worth of unread magazines (disgraceful, I know) and after seeing a Vogue editorial full of sequins and in particular the Saint Laurent piece with the red sequinned lips it occurred to me that no form of embellishment interests me more than sequins. 

Better LEFT Invisible

Today I waltzed into WH Smith (and not to weep over / sneakily read the magazines either) with the intentions of purchasing a new pair of scissors. I take cutting things out very seriously. I bought a blue and white striped pair incase anyone was wondering. 
Upon glancing at the selection of scissors before me, I was somewhat mortified and outraged to see a left handed pair of Maped scissors priced a lot higher than the identical right handed pair. Like, literally furious. The funny (it's not really funny it's really sad) thing is, I don't even use left handed scissors. Yes, I am left handed, but you remember those wooden blocks with the scissors in from primary school? Well the yellow and green pairs were rarer than a Mcdonald's instant win on Monopoly (probably not THAT rare to most people but I never get them, sad right) and so out of necessity I taught myself how to use right handed scissors instead. At the time lefty scissors were a rare sighting in shops too, so I ended up using right handed ones both at home and at school. All in all this means that I can't actually use left handed scissors at all. But this won't stop me from getting riled over an overpriced pair of lefty scissors. At the end of the day it's not just scissors is it? It's everything.
So what if only 11% of people will use these scissors. So what if it's a niche market. Is that my problem?? Did I miss the part where left handed people automatically have more money than right handed people?? What I don't get is that these scissors were literally identical, just with the blade flipped over. Yet they were priced for so much more than the right handed ones. In what world is it fair to charge one person more than another for the same thing? Ah yes as the lefty, the more creative person, I will just use my creative powers to cut this piece of paper with my mind. I already have to suffer with ink down the side of my hand when I write and the trauma of being shoved on the end of a desk in the corner during handwriting classes in primary school so I wouldn't bump elbows with other people, now people are trying to make money out of me because I am part of a minority. #:(
This annoyed me so much that I even started writing an email to WH Smith customer service, I would have written it by hand but like, that ink on the side of the hand thing. (I got a bit too angry and saved it to my drafts and wrote this instead) like, nothing annoys me more than left handers inequality. Except maybe hangers that don't turn at the top and people who try to make money from the shipping on ASOS Marketplace. Okay the hanger one maybe not as much as the lefty thing. Why does like no one take me seriously when I talk about #leftyproblems? People seem to think I'm joking but it's a genuine issue. They also think I'm joking when I say I still love S Club 7 but I'm 100% serious about that too.
Shoutout to my lefty homies: