im just gonna come out and say it

i love american apparel. 

seriously, no matter how creepy that dov charney guy is, how tasteless and offensive the ads are, how terrible the music in the stores is, and how rude the employees always are, i cant help but love locally made and sometimes organic super soft cotton jersey clothing, that not only mixes and matches with other american apparel, but works REALLY well with vintage and homemade pieces. 

so, if spending my birthday giftcard (and then some) on fine jersey leggings, a deep vneck summer shirt, a triblend deep vneck, a pocket miniskirt, and an organic vneck makes me  stupid trendy hipster wannabe, i dont really care. 

lonely day adventures

those are my favorite days, when i have several things to do in one neck of the woods, so i do them all in one day. alone. its quite fun and not nearly as depressing as it sounds. 

tuesday was the last day i would be able to hit the LACMA to write my paper for my stupid visual culture class, and also the day that frank from post secret would be speaking at usc, where i just so happen to be a student. 

so, i combined my having to go to class with a lecture that i really wanted to go to but was six hours after class by sticking a museum visit and dinner smack dab in the middle. 

see, after class ended, i went to LACMA, where i *gasp* bought. a. membership. so apparently im now one of those people that is a member of the museum. i tooled around the contemporary art building, picked a piece for my paper, (andy warhols big electric chair, in case youre interested), wrote my outline, and then left, since, now that im a member, i can afford to go back whenever i please. 

on the way from school to the museum i noticed that my favorite mexican restaurant was on the way back to the freeway, even though i KNOW that this favorite place of mine is on the way back to the freeway from anywhere in the westside/hollywood/anywhere that involves getting off the 10 and going north, but thats beside the point. this place has excellent bean burritos, better than lbjs, if anyone from the south bay reads this. my favorite thing about being a vegan in los angeles is that you can get whatever you want at any restaurant for just $5, provided that its a bean burrito and soda. 

after eating, i headed back to school for the postsecret lecture, which was very nice, except i was too afraid to say my secret in front of the auditorium so i wrote it on the postcard that they gave us at the door and left it in the bathroom. 

then i went home. 

by the way, tomorrow is international hug a vegetarian day. 

can i say im famous now?

first, id like to take a moment to address the happenings of the glasshouse swapmeet yesterday. 

thank you kayte for organizing the handmade district, despite poor sales, it was definitely a blast. thank you, chick that bought a vinyl cuff. thank you, marisa, for driving, and doing most of the work. thank you jeremy, for making the banner so i can feel like a real clothing company. thank you, three chicks that bought the same pack of buttons. thank you glen from spittingimage, for making my new favorite shirt, that im wearing right this second.

 

and thank you, kidrobot, for giving me something to make fun of.  but most of all, thank you guy that works at the glasshouse that has the cool dog, for making me totally want a bulldog. 

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, CLICK ON THIS LINK:

www.skwigglekreations.com

yeah, i got interviewed. by someone i dont even know! and i was funny, which i totally forgot i could do. 

anyways, its a good read, and that corrinne is a very nice lady. 

i really hope this gets me some sales, seeing as i came home yesterdays with $16, ten of which was already mine.

best/worst day in a long time

on the one hand, i got some much needed work done at the rad coffee shop, and made the first good art ive made in MONTHS. 

on the other hand, i fell off my skateboard. twice, cause im the kind of idiot that gets back on the board they just fell off. 

i cant wait for the swapmeet, or as marley called it, the meet-n-sweep. 

i should probably say something about this new school ive been going to

except its probably in poor taste to keep talking about how much i dont like it, especially since as time goes on it will probably get less and less bad until im apathetic about the whole matter and maybe have a friend, and then i will graduate. 

anyways, i made a hat last night, of my own design, and i think its rad. 

i might make a few more for the etsy, and you can already custom order them on the myspace.

but self promotion aside, i have a new hat, and it makes me things feel a little less sucky.  

oh warped tour,

i love you so much. you are my favorite day of the year, no question about it. i enjoy you more than my birthday and christmas combined. and this year, i got THREE of you!!!

but rather than giving the typical detailed play by play analysis of the warped tour that readers of my old blog have become accustomed to, ive decided to just lay out the highlights of this years triple dose of warped, and some of them have *gasp* PICTURES!!!!

so, lets get this party started, eh?

(note to self: stop being such a tard)

1. seeing motion city soundtrack for the sixth and seventh times, making them win by three in the bands that ive seen the most times contest. 

2. seeing the academy is... for the first and second (but missing the potential third) times, crossing them off the list of bands i really like but havent seen yet.

3. seeing the higher for the third time, adding them to my collections of bands that i dont really like but keep ending up seeing. see also, as i lay dying. 

4. getting my super awesome custom bike basket liner from kayte of lucky finds designs

5. meeting jefree star. shut up, i find him fascinating, in that cant look away train wreck kind of way. 

6. working for music saves lives in chula vista and meeting a ton of awesome folks, drinking free monster water, and also saving lives. 

7. getting into the carson date free cause i kept my vendor wristband on

8. kind of getting into cobra starship, even if it makes me sound like a total idiot. 

9. hanging out in the msl backstage area with all its free beverages and swag, where :

10. i met fred, from the color fred, but more importantly from taking back sunday, who has GOT to be the happiest guy on the planet. 

 and also, 

11. WILLIAM FREAKING BECKETT. probably the most beautiful human being that i will ever have in my arms for the rest of my life. and im not kidding. 

12. realizing that im not a crap photographer, and ending up with way too many good shots of TAI and MCS to post here. 

13. getting the inside scoop on getting a tent for annie next year. 

and lastly, 

14. crowd surfing for the first time ever. to the future freaks me out. 

i have more anecdotes, some that ill tell occasionally throughout my life, and others that ill forget until years from now, but i think ill end things here. 

block printing. its not easily miniaturized!

or kitchen-tabelized!

who knew!?!?

but in an effort to do as many productive and creative things before school starts, i decided to utilize the adorable 2 x 3 inch lino blocks i bought at the blick in pasedena. and boy did i miss school. 

see, i dont have any bench hooks of printing frames, so i had to both carve and print without any kind of support. which wasnt that bad, just alot more difficult, and i had to be alot more careful not to cut my hand open. i also had to clean up my mess cause i couldnt just leave it for that one guy to clean up and then yell at me the next day, but that was also fine due to the large sheets of newsprint i took out of the trash in life drawing last semester. 

but other than that, it was great. being a printmaker without a studio often sucks, but lino aceos are totally doable. in the end, i was left with a very small mess and some very small burtonesque stylized faux bois prints

see: