Sunday, May 31, 2009

Kickin It

Between the whirlwind that is my social life, finals (I got all A's this semester! Celebratory pilgrimage to Atlanta anyone?) and fruitlessly searching for employment for my broke ass, I COMPLETELY FORGOT to mention an article written about zhee blog for lemondrop.com. Oops to the power of ten.

click and be enlightened

A tremendous thanks to Julie, who was very patient with my flaky, non-email-answering self.

Real postage forthcoming.

Monday, May 18, 2009

The Spark

Seeking out gainful employment (and failing miserably) has been cutting into my free time lately. But I thought I would "reward" you darling readers for your patience with a post that took, y'know--effort.

The other day I was listening to Bob Dylan and thinking about how Bob loves him a song named after a chick (of course, that can be said about many a male musician, but I digress). And I was listening to "Rita May" specifically and begun to ponder, "How would a girl that Bob Dylan sings about, dress?"

Visions of Johanna

One of my personal favourites, it actually refers to one named Louise more than Johanna, but semantics. Louise, God bless her soul, is our protagonist's sloppy seconds: "Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here"

and Johanna is his great Madonna. Granted, it is the habit of men to either overidealize women or make them out as crazy bitches, but let's not get into that. Putting Johanna realistically, I imagine her as one of those willowy, fragile looking sorts with a slight frame who wears billowy chiffon kinds of things:





Louise, for her part, is sturdier, more "normal". Cotton, practical, but with a twist, something subtle that a man could never appreciate.







I'm thinking of making this a "series" and (eventually) covering all of Bob's named lady loves. What say you?

Thursday, May 7, 2009

I tried to do handstands for you....

Currently, in the dirty south, we are being blown apart by tornadoes and flooded by buckets of rain. But before this point, we were beginning to go to that hot, uncomfortable place where the deep south lives for a solid five to seven months out of the year. Anyone who has ever lived south of Kentucky and east of Albuquerque knows what I am referring to here. Every time you walk outside your door, it feels as if you are being smothered by a hot, wet, wool blanket. You sweat, or "glisten" as my mother prefers, but it brings no relief, as the air around you is wetter than you are and it can't evaporate. So instead, you are rendered a sticky, delusional human, wandering around the park, mumbling about how you would sell your immortal soul for a bus ticket to California. Oh, that's just me?

Anyhow, this weather tends to render people (i.e. me) very lazy in their wardrobe, by June I'm usually in ripped jeans and a tank top pretty much every single day. This year, I seek refuge in fashion, specifically, the frilly dress. It is tailor made for sweaty Southern laziness: it's one peice of clothing, so you don't have to bother with pesky layers, and it has plenty of much needed ventilation.

Urban Outfitters is always a (slightly overpriced) mecca for this sort of thing:

$68

I'm hourglass and look very poor in all this empire waisted nonsense, so this trend towards old style tea dresses is my friend.
$58


$88


$48

At delia's there are less options, but respectable ones:
$44.50


$39.50

For cheapness, look no further than Forever21...


$24.80

That being said, if you are, as I am, dead flat broke, I cannot reccomend strongly enough that you simply go thrifting. Not to boost your indie cred, but simply because when most of us were in kindergarten, frilly, floral dresses were all the rage. And if you're clever, and don't shop in a purposefully "hip" place, you can still score a good, unsweaty dress (such as the one above) for less than a Bigmac combo meal.