I'm smitten: Black & White

"My philosophy on both beauty and style is to be yourself and find your own style."

- Leigh Lezark

photo from nylon.com

I love Leigh Lezark in this sweet black & white Chanel dress with the eyelet/fishscale pattern, that she wore to the PFW AW12 show at the Grand Palais this month.  Those transverse black lines put it over the top.  Looks so great with her hair, and the metallic silver on the accessories keeps it modern.  She wore it with a little black cape!

The art of life is about balance in all respects.  Hence my personal belief that edgy people look good in sweet, crisp, or really femme clothes, and sweet people look good in edgy or arty clothes.  Sweet on sweet can be boring or cloying, and edgy on edgy can tend to just look in need of a bath.  (Think of Pete Doherty.)  Angelina Jolie with goth hair and makeup in tattoos, leather pants and biker boots can be overkill, but lightened up in a little shift dress & chic sunglasses she looks like a million bucks.  And Emma Stone & Emma Roberts both look best when they take a risk and wear something bold or avant garde.  It's why a vintage slip looks good on Norah Jones, and trashy on Courtney Love.  And why DJ Leigh looks so great doing ladylike here, and I never wear pink.

Ideologies...

"Any ideology makes me a little nervous because there’s some point where it doesn’t allow for the complexity of things." 

- Kim Gordon

(photo by Rolling Stone)

That's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.  Ideologies work until... they don't anymore.  I just feel that in order to stay vital and relevant, it's essential to be able to continue to learn and evolve throughout life.  Yes, we need guiding principles and values and ethics.  But when we learn new things, we've gotta be able to be flexible, to adjust, and assimilate them into our worldview - and not just reject them because they don't fit neatly into our previous operating system.  And when we meet new people with different perspectives and backgrounds, we've gotta be able to adjust, and assimilate them into our worldview as well.  It only seems healthy to stop every once in a while and evaluate whether our philosophies and ideologies are still working for us, just as we would for our vehicle or cell phone plan.  It's almost like computer software: we need periodic updates and improvements to work out the bugs, and to help us function optimally.  

And I think any kind of outlook or ideology that's strong and vital will welcome questions, conversation and dialogue with others, because there's no reason to fear, and maybe even something to learn...  Flexibility is a crucial, and often over-looked sign of strength.  Just as the yoga principle of 'building strength around flexibility' does wonders for the body's agility, I think it can do the same for the mind.  I'm not talking about being wishy-washy, I'm talking about being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes and honestly consider things from their perspective.  It takes strength to acknowledge your biases, to remain empathetic, and able to continue to learn.  I'm wary of perspectives that are so narrow and rigid and subjective that they leave no room for differences in others, or for refinement and innovation.  I think that's a one-way ticket to intolerance, fear, prejudice, and ultimately irrelevance.  Over time, it seems only natural that some of our values will shift, based on our experiences and the phase of life that we're in, as well as changes that take place in the world at large.

It would be much simpler and tidier if so many things in the world were black and white.  But more and more I see the shades of gray.  I think most things operate on a continuum, and very, very few are absolutes.  I know many people who prefer to see things in absolutes because they find the simplicity comforting.  I guess it's just a matter of preference -  whether you prefer comfort, even if it means ignorance; or if you prefer informed, active realism, even if it means adjustment.  I suppose it also depends on whether you can see beauty in diversity and complexity...  But sometimes I see signs of strain in people who are struggling to maintain a certain unmodified ideology in the face of a contradicting practical reality, and it makes me sad, because they seem the opposite of comfortable.  

I understand why it happens.  And It's idealistic of me (ha!), but I wish we could be driven by more beneficial forces than fear.  I think it keeps us fighting amongst ourselves (and worse - within ourselves), instead of being all we might be.

Music Moment: More Rock Research

(illustration via last.fm)

Pretty & interesting infographic illustrating sex:romance music tag ratios used by listeners in various fine cities across the globe this past Valentine’s Day.  Least romantic = Fresno & Mainz.  Most romantic = Beijing & Ann Arbor.  Right down the middle = Reykjavik.

Good to know?

“The only truth is music.” 

- Jack Kerouac

I'm smitten: Punk Rock Research

Infographic by Dan Gneiding

These are the kind of charts I don't mind studying.
ha ha  Mmm... punk rock pizza!

I like...

“I like punk rock. I like girls with weird eyes. I like drugs. I like passion. I like things that are built well. I like innocence. I like and am grateful for the blue collar worker whose existence allows artists to not have to work at menial jobs. I like killing gluttony. I like playing my cards wrong. I like various styles of music. I like making fun of musicians whom I feel plagiarize or offend music as art by exploiting their embarrassingly pathetic versions of their work. I like to write poetry. I like to ignore others’ poetry. I like vinyl. I like nature and animals. I like to be by myself. I like to feel guilty for being a white, American male.”

- Kurt Cobain

(photo from fanpop.com)

illustration by Lee Crutchley