| My Top 10 Albums of 2015 |

to more suitable suits!

remedy for the post-travel blues

“Feel strange, and then schedule an appointment with solitude. Go to someplace familiar and quiet, a piece of your childhood usually works, and prepare a picnic of fresh nostalgia and empty tupperware. Don’t devour the nostalgia. Take your time. You won’t finish it. Split it into the empty clear boxes. Hold them under the sun. Shake them around a little. Let your hand wander inside your sack for a notebook and pen…”

read the rest: bulgogiboi.blogspot.com

who needs skilz when u hav #aesthetic

the trax:
innersphere lasergames - d/a/d
blue shift - lemaitre
the chasing - body language
johnny and mary - todd terje
every square inch - ryan hemsworth + qrion
friend - bo en
hello from the future! listen to this very 80’s track by good friend and q bb BZ. tanks!

(Source: SoundCloud / Bohan Zhang)

It happened in Verona, on Friday, when the second attacks happened in Paris. I was with my friends and we were lost in a daze after visiting Juliet’s house from Romeo and Juliet. A message from Facebook popped up asking, “Are you okay?!” At first, I was confused, and then I read the news. A helpless sadness quickly washed over me, and my fists clenched and I gritted my teeth. I looked to my friends and wanted to tell them of what had happened just hours before, but I didn’t want to break the spell. In that moment, I felt French. From a person who has come from California with born-Vietnamese parents, I felt French. 

Some hours ago, preparing lunch and watching Saved by the Bell, there was a thunder of clapping. I quickly rushed to the window to see the streets filled with people holding signs saying “Je suis Charlie”. It was inspiring to see all of them collected together to mourn for Hebdo. I’ve talked to some French people and read the papers and it seems that every single one of these citizens take it as an inhumane act. You see, if it happened back in the states, people would be pulling a race card. This wasn’t seen as a racial/religious act. This was seen as an act against humanity. 

And not too long ago, after clapping with everyone in the streets, I watched a clip from a CNN debate on the mistreating of women in Muslim countries. As Americans, we use that word so lightly. We know nothing about Muslim. Did you know Indonesia is a Muslim country that has 100% equality for women?

After everything, I feel I can identify myself as French. It makes the world feel smaller and the people closer. We are all Charlie. 

missgaellicious:

Proud to be French ! ✏️🇫🇷❤️💙

MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2014

This year was probably my worst year for movies. I only watched a total of 53.. but here are some of my favorites that I watched this year, old and new!

10. TAMPOPO - I ate while watching this movie, and by the end, I wanted to eat again. A Japanese foodporn movie that will make you appreciate food (more than you have before).

9. REPRISE - A movie that throws you in and strains you out with heartfelt moments, and a movie that will make you want to visit Oslo. 

8. SURVIVE STYLE 5+ - It’s like biting into your birthday cake and within that first bite, it tastes like your family’s thanksgiving dinner. 

7. THE TRIBE - A movie without a soundtrack, without any words, just sign language. After seeing this, I realized that sign language is different in all languages, and that only people from Ukraine could understand it fully than its universal approach since it is technically a “silent film”. Anyway, silence never felt so painful. 

6. LEGO MOVIE - How can you not love this movie? The jokes can get a bit annoying, but halfway through it threw me off with it’s beloved surprise.

5. WHIPLASH - I’m never a big fan of sports/music movies, but I’ve never left a theater with sweaty palms and with my heart still racing..even after the end of the credits.

4. PALO ALTO - It wasn’t a great movie and neither was it a good book, but there was something about it that felt right, that made me feel sixteen when I was nineteen. 

3. MOMMY - Love the 90’s feel and the strange pyramid relationship. Vigorous acting and shot in a 1:1 ratio. Inventive, cool, and heartbreaking.

2. NIGHTCRAWLER - You have to give Jake Gylenhaal a lot of credit for all the fantastic movies he’s been putting out. A slimy and terrifying story that stays in a cache within our daily lives. 

1. INTERSTELLAR - Let’s be real. The ultimate movie experience since Inception or even 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

MY TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2014

MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2014

Perhaps 2014 was a pregnant year of booze, who’s, and rendezvous that wasn’t spent with my face stuffed in books. I only read 18 books this year.. but just so you know, I am pushing through:

- 1Q84 

- Not That Kind of Girl

- Fran Labowitz: Selected Writings

- Joyland  

But here is a list of my favorites!

10. PLAY IT AS IT LAYS x JOAN DIDION - I felt numb while I read this, so when Didion spoke to me with a box cutter, I didn’t feel any of the wounds she opened up. 

9. HOW TO BE BOTH x ALI SMITH - With sentences that flow and drift like ice bergs, it’s a book that starts at the beginning of time and crashes into the present. Quite fascinating. 

8. THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE x NEIL GAIMAN - Yes, I was frightened. Yes, I cried. No, it was waaay too short. It packs a punch.

7. THE MARRIAGE PLOT x JEFFREY EUGENIDES - Three different stories that weave in and out of relationships and marriage. I slugged through this one, but then I thought, some people do too in marriages. 

6. THE SECRET HISTORY x DONNA TARTT - Like all of her books, ferocious, intelligent, and painstakingly good. It’s perfect for train rides; do not let the size of her books intimidate you. 

5. I LOOK DIVINE x CHRISTOPHER COE - I happened upon this book with wandering eyes, and what a divine book it is. Swift, chic, delicate, basically, if Perfume Genius’ “Too Bright” album was in book form, this would be it. 

4. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol x not Andy Warhol himself but his PA’s - This book is everything if you wanna be in the cool circle of the sixties. 

3. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis x Lydia Davis - Technically, this doesn’t belong on here because I will NEVER finish it, but it’s basically the best of the best from Lydia Davis that helps me write with a razor. 

2. Sputnik Sweetheart x Haruki Murakami - Probably the only Murakami book that I ever loved second to Norwegian Wood. Compatible, portable, delicate and loving, I could read it a number of more times.

1. TAIPEI x TAO LIN - It’s not great, but it opened up these parts of me and emotions that I didn’t know existed. It’s definitely an acquired taste, and I only recommend it to those who are interested in a box that they want to reach their hand into, and wouldn’t mind pulling out an infantile octopus wrapped around their hand or stabbed with thumbtacks under their fingernails. It made me feel small and terrible, and the world felt as sterile as a hospital, on the tightrope of agony and redemption.  

doctorchair:

Please watch this super art house-y short film I made during my stay in New York. It’s terrible. Thank you.

“There has always been a magic with movies made in New York, but even something greater with movies made in New York that are California-born.”