Aloha: it actually means a lot of things

Aloha: it actually means a lot of things

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Short Hair

I recently cut off my pseudo-bob and turned it into a little pixie cut, sort of a cross between Jean Seberg in A bout a souffle and Marjorie Conrad from "America's Next Top Model". And I am in love with it. It feels good, it looks good, and when I get out of the shower, it takes about 5-10 minutes to dry ON ITS OWN. That has never been the case in my entire life. Being someone with very thick, slightly wavy hair, it is often a twenty- to thirty-minute chore to dry my hair, and that was with the help of a blow-dryer!

I can wear little clips and headbands with it, or I can just let it be as is. I can spike it up or let it lay flat. For someone who is as lazy as I often am when it comes to styling hair, this is heaven. And in the midst of July in Virginia? Heaven times twelve.

Will Write for Food

Though cash would be better.

I'm trying to get hooked up with a couple more blog-for-money deals. I used to write for a fashion blog, and that just sort of ceased to exist one day. I miss getting $10 for every article I wrote - that was good money, especially since there was no article limit!

I've been trying to get more things submitted to my Associated Content page, it just takes a while for them to get published. I sent in a few of my semi-humorous essays, so here's hoping they are well-received.

I am so poor.

But my cousin sent me a check out of the sheer amazing beautiful goodness of her heart, so I am significantly less poor than I was before a few days ago. Which is a nice feeling.

Best New Music I've Heard In Ages

I've really got to make this thing a little less like a journal where I complain about my finances and more like a blog people would actually want to read.

So here's an attempt.

I recently went to my friend Alison's apartment to hear some live music. The duo providing the entertainment was called Buffalo Tramp & V.V. Vioux, and I was completely blown away. I'm not always the best concert attendee, because for some reason I always want to sing along to live music (it's the natural harmonizer in me), but these two captivated my attention so that I could barely breathe, let alone sing along.

The simplicity of the music is what struck me the most. Minimal instruments, hands and feet acting as percussion, repetitive choruses, and effortlessly beautiful vocals all combined to create something I have been wanting to hear for quite a while now. I'm a sucker for unusual, folksy music with throaty female vocalists to begin with, so this was a real treat for me. Their occasional inclusion of Native American-esque chants was also a welcome addition to what was already near perfect in my mind, and each song found a way to stay in my mind as I made my way home the next morning, singing along to the CD I had purchased as though the songs had been in my heart all my life.

Please, please check them out. They are perhaps the best new musicians I've heard in quite a while and deserve all the attention they can get.

Money and Morals

I never thought I'd understand the girls who work in strip clubs. I'm sad that now I kind of do. Financially, I am like THISCLOSE to getting to that point.

I'm not saying I'm going to. I doubt I would ever reach the point of taking off my clothes for money.

Working as a waitress in such an establishment, however...well, I'm not entirely against it.

We'll see.

Idea

I recently tried to sell a bunch of clothes to Plato's Closet, but they were lame and did not buy them. I'm thinking of just pricing them really cheaply myself, then listing them and offering them to my friends to buy. Same for any movies/books I am unable to sell tomorrow (attempt #2 to make enough money to pay my bills by hocking my stuff!). Hopefully people will be interested...I feel like my friends are generous enough to help me out with a few bucks and get something nice in return for it.

You know, I could sell all my clothes. I could sell all my CDs. I could sell all my DVDs. But every time I sell one of my books, my heart breaks a little. If there's one thing I love, it's reading, and if there's one more thing I love, it's shopping for a new book. I donated a TON of my books to the Invisible Children book drive this year, and that was hard enough, trying to decide which books I could part with just to be nice and try to help a good cause. Now I'm trying to figure out which I can part with for totally selfish (necessarily, but still selfish) reasons. It's really depressing to watch my bookshelves become emptier and emptier. But I don't really have much in the way of options at the moment, so you do what you gotta do. Eventually I'll have money enough to start rebuilding my collection. Until then, I'm hanging on to what books I can and sucking it up as far as the others go.

Anyway. Here's hoping I am successful in selling lots and lots of books, movies, and CDs tomorrow, and here's hoping that my clothes, jewelry, and shoes successfully sell among my friends!

Far

I'm currently listening to Regina Spektor's new album (thanks, NPR, for being even more awesome than usual), called "Far", and I think I'm in love.

It's possibly her most mainstream-sounding one...which, okay, for Regina Spektor can't get but so mainstream. She's always going to be quirky and weird no matter one, and will probably never write a song that can be mistaken for anyone but her. Which is fantastic. Anyway, like I was saying, there are more drumbeats and fewer piano solos, there are more backing vocals and fewer vocal tricks, and yet the lyrics remain unmistakably Regina:

"They started off beneath the knowledge tree
Then they chopped it down to make white picket fences
They marched along the railroad tracks
And smiled real wide for the camera lenses
They made it past the enemy lines
Just to become enslaved in the assembly lines"

Easily my favorite song on the album is quoted above, the song called "Blue Lips". She shows off her incredible talent for lyricism, her unusual and yet soulful voice, and it is something that is completely singalongable.

Though the album "11:11" will probably always remain my favorite Regina Spektor album, with "Soviet Kitsch" at a close second, she has yet to put out a single song that I dislike. I love every one of her songs for various reasons, and considering the number of songs she has put out, that's pretty amazing. She might be the only artist I can say that about. I absolutely adore her music and I can't wait to hear more!