Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Reading.

Right now it is time for me to write about Isobelle Carmody, but first I'm going to comment on Suzanne Collins.

I just finished reading Mockingjay, the second Hunger Games book. I read it in about twenty four hours. Same with the first one. I'd been meaning to read them for a while, before the movie came out, because I hate for movies to dictate the look of characters and places to me. And while I have obviously enjoyed them, and am involved with the characters and looking forward to the film, I knew from the first page that these are not very well written books. The sentences are clumsy, the dialogue is cringe-worthy and the metaphors are basic at best. The storyline and characters are its selling point. And the storyline is exciting, although it's also very predictable.

What this lead me to think about is the level of understanding teenagers and tweens have when reading. I have no doubt that I would have loved these books beyond measure when I was eleven, and even when I was sixteen. I loved any kind of adventure, or fantasy novel. I also know that I was always ahead of my age group in terms of book-comprehension, purely because I read so much. I obviously feel the conceit in this, but then again, an alarming amount of people I speak to now have no interest in reading books and what's more, seem to have a kind of smug attitude about it. Which is (ooh pun) something I actually can't comprehend.

Anyway, my long winded point is that while the Hunger Games were good for a trashy, quick read, I know that there are teenagers out there who can read more complicated sentences. Teen writing does not need to be dumbed down. It really plagues me thinking about whether or not Suzanne Collins dumbed down her writing on purpose for a younger audience, or whether she's just a bad writer and has no idea. There's a HUGE difference between simple writing and bad writing. And at least her editors should have known better.

All through the books I was reminded of Isobelle Carmody, whose teenage post-apocalypse is anything but cliche. About how she published her first Obernewtyn book when she was nineteen, and how much I love her for writing that series. It is not trashy, and it is not full of cliche writing. It has well realised characters and an epic plot that is so developed, it's taken her twenty four years to develop it. The first book was published the year I was born, and the last is being published later this year.

Basically, Isobelle is my hero. She's been a published writer almost her whole life, and has been able to live solely off of writing. I've been reading her books since I was about eleven. I read an interview with her today which reminded me of how awesome she is, and how much I want my life to be similar to hers. I met her a couple of years ago at Supanova, for the first time, and when I asked for a photo she said, "Yes, my daughter would love you!" (in reference my turquoise hair and bead necklaces.)


That is the face of someone fangirling out. But seriously, she was wearing a coat with a magical, sparkling eye on the back. She is a fantasy princess. And then she added me on Facebook. <3

To turn this post back to more superficial things, her fringe is SERIOUSLY calling to me. I've spent the last couple of years growing my fringe and layers out and cursing them, so it seems so wrong to then chop into them again. But with Isobelle and Grimes combined, I am having a hard time resisting.


Anyway, I think that's all I have to say on the teen fantasy genre and fringes. Is it fair to compare those two authors? Probably not, but I mean, it just happened in my head while I was reading. It probably sounds like I don't like the Hunger Games either, which is totally not true. I am really enjoying that series, and I especially think it's important to note that Katniss Everdeen is an excellent, human, not-trope-or-stereotype strong female character. From a feminist perspective, I think it's a +1. But I honestly think editors, publishers and authors need to give tweens and teens more credit when it comes to their reading skills. Maybe then more kids would get into reading, instead of finding it boring. Idk.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Stuff I got recently

Just because they're pretty and stuff:




These tights and badges were from the Sydney Rd festival. Pastels, Barbie, Veronica and Snow White's evil stepmother/queen/witch. I thought they were approps.




Pokemon and Casper the friendly ghost stickers from a two dollar store in Coburg. Coburg is the official sticker central of Australia. My Little Pony fabric appliques and stickers, which were from this Ebay store, and which I am super happy with! I shall adorn my clothes with ponies and thus garner their magical pony powers (of friendship.) Next up: I have turned into a rainbow unicorn and have run away to eat icecream in the Candy Kingdom. :3

Nana's Birthday

Today was Nana's birthday and I ate a lot of ham. The end.





I wore these kind of LDR clothes and my fav urban decay eyeliner. It was in the Botanical Gardens. I got that dress at Kinki Gerlinki on sale for like $20 which is kewl. The shoes are from Zu and I made the headband one time I dressed up as Louise Brooks for a birthday party. I feel very full and lazy which is why I can't be bothered writing anything right now. It was a beautiful day, that perfect hot and sunny with a cool breeze. :))) Now I can watch Parks and Rec in bed.

Edit: Oh yeah, NBD, saw Wild Flag on Fri night. It was so fucking awesome. We were dancing so much in the last song (Romance) and then when we talked to Mary Timony afterwards she was like, "You guys were the ones dancing! You made me so happy!" .... And then we got a high five from Janet, who recognised my boyfriend because she could see him dancing so much from the stage. For reals, TOO MUCH.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Learnerz

Today I got my Ls! Which sounds like a minor achievement, especially for a twenty three year old. However, It's the first step in my journey into (slightly) Becoming An Adult. What was less adultish was the fact that I rocked up on time, only to realise that when you do these things you need to bring documentation and IDs and shiz. For reals, this stuff is hard. So I literally had to get the first tram home, grab the passport etc and run back again. The woman at the counter said it would be fine as long as I didn't take too long, and I was like, "I have to take public transport, I don't have a car." NO SHIT. Anyway.

This was my good luck outfit. It totally worked.


This is my hair bow that I made from Marlena's tutorial on Rookie. She is one of my very favourite bloggers and her tutorials are so simple! It was so easy to make I made another one straight away. Then my sewing machine broke and I couldn't be bothered.


I am suuuper happy with these tights I bought at a market stall on Sunday. They're from the Melbourne brand OKOK and they're usually like twenty bucks each. I got three pairs in pastel pink, pastel blue and pastel green for ten bucks. For reals. I'm wearing the pink ones in the photo; because of the quality they look white but they are awesome irl.

Lastly, another crappy example photo of something I am so super serial about right now:


Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Ransom!!!! IT IS ACTUALLY MAGIC. Irl it is the shiniest, sparkliest, purplest eye pencil I have ever used. I feel like an actual fairy. That photo does it minus ten amounts of justice. I had to order it on Ebay because you can't buy it in Australia. I have never been into makeup before but I've suddenly had that epiphany most people have at fourteen: if you know about it, you can get the good stuff and look kewl! Late AGAIN. Better late than never I suppose.

That is all.



Top: Dangerfield, skirt: H&M, tights: OKOK, shoes: kmart

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Fruity

I've been thinking a lot about my clothes recently and how my dressing has been affected by the internet. Or rather, how I take in information. When I was in high school, I never used to think of myself as someone who was interested in fashion, just someone who was interested in dressing. I didn't know the names of any designers, nor was I interested in learning about them. I was, however, obsessed with the look of certain materials, with costumes from period dramas, and with Japanese street fashion. I had no idea what Fruits was or where the pictures were coming from, but I saved up and bought the first book, even though it was expensive... because I just needed to look at the pictures all the time. I vowed to get a sewing machine, and to start making epic Final Fantasy costumes after discovering that people actually did it and that it was called cosplay.

When I think back to how old I was while this was happening, it seems really weird because I had no idea about blogs, or about anything. I never bought fashion magazines, and I never read anything to do with fashion. The clothes I wore to sixth form were either jeans, a tshirt and converse; something bizarre based on an anime I'd seen the night before; or a medieval fantasy costume. But I would never have said that it was 'fashion'. And now, I guess it's about ten years later, but there are literally thirteen-year-olds with blogs about feminism and white privilege. Like, at that age I would have scoffed at feminism and called something gay as an insult. I don't know. I feel like a very late developer in comparison. If I had read all these blogs and articles at that age, I'm sure I would have learnt a lot faster. Were they around them? Or did I just not read them?

Anyway, while I feel obviously a lot better educated now (you'd hope so, at twenty three) I also feel kind of lost when it comes to clothes. Back then, I had a much clearer idea of what I wanted to wear, because I didn't ingest even a fraction of the amount of images I do now. I feel like I've been looking at fashion blogs and tumblr  for so long that I don't even know if I like some clothes that I see or not. Everyone else likes them... and in a sense I can see why... but at the same time, I feel like I'm just being swept away in a wave of trends. And then there're trends that are not officially mainstream, but are like 'internet trends', and I see them so much that I can't understand whether everyone is wearing that shit or whether it's actually an underground thing. And then, why do I care so much whether something is mainstream or not? Because it's always affected how I dress, and I can't ignore it? Or is it just that I can't figure out if it's actually me or not?

UGH.

All of this resulted in me deciding last night that I hate those high waisted cut-off-to-the-crotch denim shorts everyone is wearing and everything associated with that look! Probably just because they look really bad on me. And also because I'm getting bored of seeing that look on a million different people. So in an effort today to get back to my dressing roots, I wore this:




Trusty poncho, which I don't wear enough, always makes me feel a bit Fruits. I was going to wear goth lipstick as well but I had to rush out and forgot about it. Even though those jeans are baggy and 80's as hell, I love them. I don't know why. I'm usually self conscious about wearing them because they aren't that flattering but fuck it, who cares about flattering? It's probably the worst concept to ever plague people's self esteem. It was nice to wear stuff that I love because it's comfortable and I feel like I'm not trying to be anything, I'm just being myself. More updates on that to come.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Me? I call them...

Treasures. Seriously, anyone who lives in Melbourne should check out Reverse Art Truck asap! It's a little place in Ringwood where they collect samples, offcuts and general left over things and you can buy a garbage bag and FILL IT WITH STUFF. FOR REALS.

Anyway here's some kewl material I got today, gonna sew it on to some clothes so I can be spank! and kawaii and fairy-kei as all hell.




Yeah that's a little sparkly barbie wedding dress, what of it? Also I think I almost died when I saw the pieces of actual barbie material. And I was checking out some Miu Miu shoes the other day and I swear that intense silver glitter material is exactly the same as what they were made out of.

So overall... that place is amazing. And I didn't even start on all the cardboard and insulation and wood and bottles and stuff.

Here is an example of a costume you can make with stuff from there:

Photo credit to Hamish Storrie