///AHIS52///

The first day of Fall semester fell yesterday. All my classes are online, & I'm a complete virgin. Though I'm assuming [& hoping] online classes will be more suitable for a gal like me who, on-campus, has the tendency to sit in the very back of the classroom, not say a word, & make the hugest effort to be absent for every single presentation day. Video lectures, emailing assignments, & online discussions will be natural adjustments seeing as that's pretty much what I do on Gmail, Facebook, Skype, & AIM everyday anyway. & I figure since it's online, I can be a complete douche bag/teacher's pet & say whatever lameness I want without feeling completely embarrassed. My personal intro to my History of Photography class went something like this:

My name's [Alaïa], raised somewhat internationally in ______, ______, and ______, but I'm now in ______ and have been for the past five years. I've changed schools as often as I've changed majors and that number is countless. From ______ to ______ to ______ to ______ to ______ to ______ to ______  I've dabbled a little in all of them mostly out of teenage/early-twenties confusion. Currently (and hopefully finally), I'm looking to focus my studies on ______, ______, and ______ in order to create an ideal career for myself that combines all three. I've always been intrigued by and excited about art and been drawn moreso to the artist crowd than any other. I interned at an art gallery last year in ______ which exhibited mainly paint and print works in the "pop urban" category, which was a very informative and stimulating experience. As for photography specifically, I've always enjoyed documenting my life's events, but only in the past few years have I really started paying attention to composition and the minute details of what I was actually capturing. In the past I would just take random flicks without any real effort or care, and in the end I'd look back at them and they'd lack a deeper story. When I view photographs, I merely know what I do and do not like, sometimes I'll know how a certain photograph or series of photographs makes me feel.. But in taking this course, I am hoping to form a more well-informed and legitimate critique about others' and my own photographic work by learning about the history and evolution of photography.

///BLEACH2///

Session Two.

Aveda Blue Malva & Kerastase Chroma Riche better work their aftercare magic,

because I have to wait at least a week to tone this zoo orange down with an ash colored dye.

I guess it's hats & hairties for the next seven to ten days..

///RAINING///

shut the phone off & pack my bags

no more boys who boast & brag

far away, far away

where i belong

///KEEP///

Grave steps made of midnight steel, harsh and cold on the heels. Gathers of dust migrating obediently to each side make centerway for dark hour sojourn. She clambers up the short staircase, ripe for the day's retirement, sliding out of a scarcely soiled frock, then shuffling in slow motion beneath the duvet till she feels at home. As if by appointment the moonlight rolls in, heavily, softly. A luminous silkened blanket unraveling gracefully upon the comfort of her tiresome bed, hatching shadowed friends performing pirouettes that glisten with each ensuing twirl. The city's sky hides its stars selfishly, so she shuts her eyes with a dreamish lust & sees far more than the city could keep.

///GELLHORN///

"All is well. No purdah, no chains, no scenes, no one shooting out the living room windows. Times are different now."

screenshots from Spirited Away

///BLEACH1///

Session One.

..then wait a week for Session Two.

I just adoreee the brassiness black hair gives when bleached. ...
Thank goodness for the naturally existing blue malva flower that supposedly neutralizes brassy tones, my Aveda shampoo is on the way! Sincerely hoping all the reviews I read are legit, because it only came in a whopping ONE LITER bottle, unnecessarily three times the size of any regular shampoo.

Stella Im Hultberg

What I Got

Sublime

there doesn't seem to be a shortage of horrendous covers of this song on soundcloud. kind of makes me wanna take a stab at it, i can't possibly be in the bottom ten percent.. or can i...

///GONE///

The dizzying effects of heavy insomniac eyelids & self-caging have caused me to lose all concept of time, likely inducing this unusually inflated need for a watch. I know neither the day nor the date these days, a watch would be helpful in informing me of both. However, I can't afford one at the moment, but some gear pieces from Tirana Jewelry could possibly suffice in the meantime (for only $29 less).

Clockwise from top: Gears Necklace 196.00 - Geo Duke Pendant 196.00 - Small Watch Ring 170.00 - Large Layton 225.00

I'm not sure whether I'd feel free or lost if I lived a life truly devoid of time.

Deep within the Amazon rainforest of Brazil exists the Amondawa tribe. They live not according to man's seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, but instead in tune with nature's days, nights, rainy seasons, dry seasons. No one in the tribe has an age, they mark stages of growth with name-changes; toddlers give up their names to newborns & so on. Deadlines are unknown, they are free of the pressures of time. They also do not know the concepts of 'past' or 'future,' so does that mean they are incapable of dwelling on the past or having anxieties about the future? I'd feel damn free.

Twilight Zone
Manhattan Transfer
i would always request this song in the car as a child & trip out with the bass turned right up

///MISSONI///

The vibrant psychedelic weaves of Missoni have always tempted my senses. Season after season, out flow the most sublime mélanges of color. & though beautiful, my eye has always convinced me that Missoni is too much color for a girl like me to wear elegantly rather than just looking like a candy raver. I could never picture myself donning anything larger than a small accessory from their collections such as a bikini or a headscarf (not that I even have the odd $400 to spare). Crazily enough, Missoni is joining in the long line of "for Target" collaborators, & perhaps now I'll challenge myself to experiment with their kaleidoscopic pieces without having to compromise my food money. I'm foreseeing pairings of Missoni knits with tan/camel/khaki items, & hopefully a loft redecorated to look somewhat like Hotel Missoni Kuwait. That is, if the stock isn't sold out by the time I get there.

The Missoni for Target collection premieres September thirteenth in-store & online.

Comment Te Dire Adieu
Françoise Hardy

///HEARTBEATS///

///1977///

Little Black Book
2004

RIP
nobody does it better

///NANCY///

For my memory.

Thanks to rhgriner, fredfades, & kanoba. In that order.

///CRIPPLE///

Only managed to take a couple of dull-ish photos around my loft the past two months because I've chosen the ANTISOCIAL route (typical) of getting through this crippling foot surgery: avoiding in-person social contact at the majority of costs. For the past eight weeks or so, my life has been as follows:

Attempting to shift around furniture whilst hopping on my now-buffer-than-ever-before right leg with my left leg bent at a perfectly ninety degree angle. Mostly just a framed Ol' Dirty Bastard & a humbling Pandora One to keep me from loneliness & instead transport me into a commendable solitude. Opening & closing wooden blinds to alternate between fresh & stale air as my ficklemindedness decides to smoke then not to smoke, to smoke then not to smoke, to smoke then not to smoke. Old nocturnal habits returning causing me to witness dawn with the heaviest of lids & wake just in time to welcome dusk. A neverending reel of Netflix instant watches & those distinct fire engine red envelopes greeting my mailbox every other day. Lights & shadows, literally & figuratively.