Obsessions, Pt II

More things I am obsessed with:

Blending juxtaposing periods/genres/styles, etc.
Torture methods
Villains
Chair dances
The sound of high heels clicking on hard floors
Possession/Exorcism
Gestures
Vintage Propaganda (especially Soviet)
Dr. Cox & Jordan from Scrubs
Synchronization
Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls
Kelly Bishop outside of Gilmore Girls
Psychosomatic pain
Snow/cold weather
Moonlight Sonata
Desert autumn
East Coast autumn
Chocolate
Minnesota winter
The Donner Party
Talent
Dancers with high arches
Hula hoops
Skip-Its
Israeli contemporary dance
Bodies
Pinup Girls
"I Saw You" personal ads
Maria Celeste (Galileo's daughter)
Bob Fosse
Busby Berkeley
Catholicism
Natalie Portman
Burlesque
Vaudeville/Riverboat Shows
Minstrel Shows
The Moon
The 1812 Overture
Music from The Nutcracker
Doctor Who
Saturn
Tension
Movie trailers
Concert conductors
Zoe Bell
Stars/stargazing
Audrey Hepburn
Rhett Butler
Andre 3000
Sign language
Scarves
Masks
Smoke/Fog
The same story told from different points of view
Philip Glass on solo piano
Georgia--especially their accents
Quentin Tarantino movies
Poets--classic, contemporary, slam
Meryl Streep
Rope
Writers
Twinkle lights
Susan Orlean's writing style
Painters
Photographers
Francesca Lia Block
Michelle Pfieffer
Little eccentricities/quirks
Katharine Hepburn
Spelling
Black
Suicide
Emily Blunt
Ingrid Magnussen from White Oleander

Obsessions, Pt I

I was looking through old journals tonight, and I found a long list of my obsessions. I read in a Natalie Goldberg book about writing that it's good to keep a list of your obsessions, as it'll serve as writing inspiration when you can't think of a topic. So I listed them like crazy. It was fun reading over the list, and I'm still obsessed with basically everything on it.

So here are some things I'm obsessed with:

Chandeliers
Anachronisms
Glass bottles
The sound of shattering glass
Masculinity
Morticia & Gomez Addams
Idiosyncratic love songs
Mirrors
Breakdowns
Fleurs de lis
Eye contact/stares
Ella Fitzgerald
Different versions of the same song
Flawless ballerinas
Hands
Shoulders
Backs
Lyrics
Quotations
Poetry
Strippers
Prostitutes
Brothels
Eyes
Tattoos
Shiva
Art deco
Gender roles
Waiting
Singers who sing with their ENTIRE BODY
Silence
Screaming
Foreign languages
Anthropology
Russia
Addiction
Sex
Color
Black & White
Dreams/Dream Interpretation
Long strands of pearls
Id, Ego, Superego
Alter-egos
Gold makeup
Black & White makeup
Falling
Umbrellas
Desert rain
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Feet (looking, NOT touching)
Breathing
Audible breath
Fear
Percussion
Musicians
Portraits
Water
Death
Grief

I'll continue with the rest of the list tomorrow. :) You should list your obsessions...it's fun! And even more fun to look back on. I feel like it reveals a lot about oneself.

Go, Girl, Seek Happy Nights to Happy Days.

I'm so grateful to have grown up with Shakespeare. I've been reading, performing and seeing Shakespeare plays since I was a little girl, and have loved his work for as long as I can remember. Even when I have no idea what a line means, it's so beautiful that I don't even care that I don't understand it. They're words that you go swimming in, wrap around you like a warm blanket, drink down ravenously while simultaneously savoring each drop. Frank McCourt wrote the most perfect simile in Angela's Ashes, saying that "[he] loved the Shakespeare," and that reading it aloud was like having jewels in his mouth. I completely agree. I remember when we read it out loud in my freshman english class in high school, and I got to read the balcony scene with one of my friends for the whole class. So much fun! Definitely one of my favorite high school memories.

There is something so timeless and versatile about his work. You can keep putting on productions year after year and it never gets old, because there is so much you can do with it. I loved the Shakespeare shows at the U of A--the dystopian industrial Victorian Romeo & Juliet, the stripped down Titus Andronicus with RIVERS of blood and stage directions projected on a screen. Infinite possibilities!

I would so love to be a part of a Shakespeare play again. Even just preparing for Southwest Shakespeare auditions has been great. I doubt I'll get cast in anything, but at least the preparation process felt wonderful. They have a great season coming up, too, and I can't wait to see them all. Also, I'm taking a Shakespeare english class this fall. I'm nervous and excited! Those classes are tough, but I love it. HOLY HELL I JUST LOVE SHAKESPEARE! I can understand how people are intimidated by it, but I honestly don't understand how people have such hate and disdain for it. Impossible!

"Away from light steals home my heavy son
And private in his chamber pens himself,
Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,
and makes himself an artificial night."
--Romeo & Juliet (Act I, Scene 1)

Everything At Once

I first heard Lenka two years ago when "The Show" was available for free on iTunes. I had just started at ASU, and it was a freaky coincidence that the lyrics completely paralleled how I was feeling about everything right at that moment. I've adored her ever since. I currently love this song:



Whyyyy is this only a clip? I want the whole video. GESTURAL CHOREOGRAPHY.

Inspiration Boards: Pink Hair #2

BAM.

 More pretty pink goodness. 

I still desperately want pink hair. I'm temporarily at a stalemate, though, because I can't really afford to get it done at my usual salon right now. Nor do I trust the ability to do it myself...I have very limited beauty skills. So I'll just stick with inspiration board-ing. For now, anyway.

Now let's just take a moment and raise a glass to Gwen Stefani, who definitely perpetuated my pink hair obsession when I was in middle school. She rocks. And I loveloveLOVE this song and video. So much. (I found the following lovely photo montage HERE. I actually remembered a source for once!)

Sighhhh. So pretty.

---

Note on Sources: As mentioned in my last inspiration board post, I rarely keep track of where I find each of these lovely images. I do know that they usually come from Google searches or various Tumblrs including Fuck Yeah Pink and Sex Hair. I know I got that the photo directly below Gwen Stefani came from a post on A Day In My Life from a lonnnng time ago, but I don't have the exact URL. Feel free to contact me if any of these images are yours, and I will credit you or take it down.

Inspiration Boards: Pink Hair #1

I couldn't be happier that this stupid week is over. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to think about cheerier topics.

Like pink hair.

I am absolutely ob-SESSED with pink hair, and always have been. I have no idea what sparked this obsession, but I lovelovelove it. Putting a little magenta in my hair a few months ago made my heart go pitter-pat.

Now I'm dying (DYE-ing? Heh heh...) to go all-out for realsies this time, and bleach my hair so I can dye it bright pink (and maybe try other crazy colors like blue and purple, for shits and giggles). I've always wanted to try this, but haven't done so for a myriad of reasons. The main one being that I actually love my natural hair color and think it's a really pretty shade of brown; I'm worried that bleaching/dying it this much might mess up that pretty natural color forever even after the dye fades out. The other main reason is that I know how much work goes into maintaining the color. I think faded color looks so gross, and I'm not sure I have the energy to re-dye it every couple of weeks. So right now, I'm interested in maybe dying my whole head the same dark magenta color that I used to highlight it a few months ago. That way, I'll still have a head of pink hair without having to bleach first. Stepping stones, y'know.

In addition to daydreaming about dying my hair, I also ravenously collect pictures of awesome pink hair. (And other fabulous colors.) I have an entire file on my computer devoted to all the nifty photos I've found, and today I decided to pluck out a few and make a digital inspiration board. (The first of many boards to come, as this is like an eighth of my entire collection.) I'm kind of a dummy in that I don't keep track of each photo's source when I save it...but chances are, most of these came from Google searches, Fuck Yeah Pink or Sex Hair. No copyright infringement is intended. If anyone stumbles upon this post and sees a photo that belongs to you, LET ME KNOW and I will either remove your photo or credit you!

Alright, enough lollygagging. ONTO PRETTY PINK GOODNESS.