Music Monday: Weezer

Weezer's first album brings back tons of memories from the early 90s.  They were the go-to band for quirky, guitar-based-but-not-too-rocky American music for a while and I was a big fan, but then forgot about them until I was training to be a teacher in 2004.  Goodness knows why I suddenly dug out my copy of the Blue album then, but I became newly obsessed with indie-pop gems such as My Name Is Jonas and Undone (The Sweater Song). 

Perhaps not coincidentally, a fellow PGCE student (who was on placement at the same god-awful, Ofsted-failing school as me, and who I had a HUGE crush on) was also a fan, and we used to listen to Weezer and Ben Folds Five while driving around the housing estate at lunchtime, smoking and bitching about our classes.  The friendship ended messily in one drunken night of ill-advised fumbling, but my love for Weezer's debut album has never waned.

Only In Dreams has the most bombastic and overwrought musical interlude (including a bass solo; whoever heard of a bass solo?!) ever commited to CD: almost 3 minutes long.  Slowly building up from the aforemention bass solo to explode in a musical climax of drums and guitars, the last half of the song is a ludicrous yet brilliant piece of rock music.

Dotty about polka dots

Just a fraction of my collection.

Ah polka dots, how I love you!  I don't think nine dresses, two tops and one cardigan in the same print is excessive.  After all, each one is subtly different: a collar here, a different shade of spot there.  There's tons of great dotty stuff in the shops lately, which does make it easier to indulge my habit but leads to sulks when I see people wearing the same thing as me.

This skater dress from ASOS is my favourite recent buy (back view chosen because the model is grinning like a psychopath in the front view).  It's really comfy to wear and looks great with a red cardigan.

This H&M shirt dress is in their online sale at the moment (although word of warning: I have nothing but bad experiences of shopping with them on the web).  It's also super-comfortable and easy to wear.

Zooey Deschanel is a polka dot-wearing icon.  I know she divides opinion between people who adore her and people who think she's a twee 'manic pixie dream girl', but as a fairly twee person myself, I'm a fan.  That fringe!  Those eyes!  That wardrobe! 

She has been rocking some great spots on New Girl which, after a slow start, I am loving.  For more Zooey fashions check out amazingly bonkers websiter What Would Zooey Deschanel Wear ?  A bit like What Would Jesus Do, but with more winsome indie and pussy bows.

The death of the bookshop?

I got back late on Tuesday from a lovely few days away, which included two days in Hay-On-Wye.  As you can see from the picture above, I bought quite a few books (as well as a pile of old maps and some lovely vintage fabric).  I'm particularly excited about the stack of Penguin Classics, which look, feel and smell so lovely: they have that old book scent.  Bands On The Road is an intruiging collection of drawings by members of indie rock bands - ranging from Jeffrey Lewis to Coldplay to ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - drawn while on tour.  Beauty Secrets, which is a collection of essays and interviews about women and the politics of appearance, also looks interesting.

However, I was distraught to realise that my favourite secondhand bookshop in Hay had closed.  In fact, there seems to have been a wave of closures there, with four gaps where good bookshops used to be.  If bookshops can't survive in Hay-On-Wye - the mecca for book lovers, host of the famous literary festival - then what hope do shops in other, less book-centric towns, have?  It makes me sad that, in a shortsighted quest for a bargain, we might be killing off the bookshop as we know it.  Amazon is all well and good, but does anything really compare to an hour or three whiled away browsing the shelves, getting a crick in the neck (I always think of this as 'Hay neck') and a bag full of exciting new finds for your trouble? 

The Guardian's Book Blog had a wonderful post last week about the world's finest bookshops (check out the photograph of Richard Booth's Bookshop in Hay at the top of the article and you'll realise why I love the town so much), and For Book's Sake has a long-running feature called Battle Of The Bookshops.  Clearly, there are plenty of people out there who value bookshops and what they can add to a community.  Please support your local store: Amazon, Oxfam or Waterstones might be cheaper, but at what cost to bookshops?

Music Monday: Hadouken!

My 29th year was the best year of my life: I'd been teaching for a couple of years, and school was stress-free and easy; I was living in a great flat but paying a pittance in rent; and perhaps most importantly, some other young teachers had started working at my school and we'd discovered a shared love of indie music, festivals and road trips, and started going to the local indie dive every weekend. 

There are a handful of songs that conjure up memories - The Long Blondes' Once And Never Again (to which, on the eve of my 30th birthday, my friend Abby changed the words: "29, you're only 29 for God's sake, you don't need a boyfriend"); Two Doors Down by Mystery Jets; Hot Chip's floorfiller, Over And Over - but this one, by Leeds-based grime/guitar band Hadouken!, is the defining tune of that era.  Messy, chaotic, fast and silly, it would get us onto the dancefloor without hesitation.

As I was packing my case to go away this weekend - and realised that I was taking no fewer than four different polka dot dresses - I got That Boy, That Girl wedged firmly in my head: "That girl is an indie Cindy, Lego haircut and polka dot dress...".  I don't think Hadouken! meant it as a compliment, but I'm proud to be an indie Cindy.

February fun

This half term holiday I am looking forward to...

... seeing Zach Braff in his play, All New People, in Manchester;
... having a knitting tutorial with my mum (having learnt to knit at craft club this week, it has become clear that although I love knitting, knitting does not love me);
... drinking lovely cider in Hereford and buying too many books in Hay-On-Wye;
... catching up with friends by letter, phone and in person;
... hopefully getting rid of the horrible throat infection which is currently plaguing me.

I left my heart in Portland

Of all the places I visited on my month-long journey across the States last summer, Portland, Oregon was the one I fell head over heels in love with.  Those pesky American immigration laws are the only thing standing between me and the city and I adore, but in the meantime I can sublimate my affection on Portland-themed homewares.  Thanks Etsy!

I'm very taken with this screenprinted poster featuring iconic signs and sights from Portland.  I think it might make me sad if I had it in my house in oh-so-dull Leicester though.

I already have the Africa print cushion from My Bearded Pigeon's Etsy shop, but am sorely tempted to add this Portland street map cover to my collection, especially as it shows the street we stayed on when we visited there: NW Glisan and 18th forever!  Almost £40 seems steep for a cushion cover though.  That money could be better spent on a plane ticket back to Oregon, after all.

In the States, Portland is shorthand for a particular kind of bohemian, liberal, alternative culture, a fact these bingo cards use to fun effect.  They feature squares for 'Full beards', 'Sleeve tattoos', 'Strip clubs', 'Food carts' and 'Thrift stores', amongst others, and I can attest to the fact that you'd achieve a full house pretty quickly.

Music Monday: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

I listen to the I See A Darkness album - for which this is the title track - a lot during winter; it seems appropriate somehow, on these dark and frosty nights, to wrap myself in a blanket and absorb the bleak beauty of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's lyrics.  As both a reflection on the nature of depression ("Did you ever notice, the kind of thoughts I got... And then I see a darkness") and a paen to friendship ("I hope that someday buddy/We have peace in our lives...Did you know how much I love you"), this song is incomparable. 

Baby it's cold outside

After weeks of dashing around visiting friends and family in my spare time, the cold and snow have made the perfect excuse to spend the entire weekend at home.  I started the weekend with a pile of wood for the fire, a stack of library books to read, a fridge full of food and drink and a list of sewing projects to tackle.  I have thoroughly enjoyed...

 

... sewing a lovely little brooch out of felt and vintage fabric;
... watching the snow falling outside while I sat by the fire listening to Cat Power and drinking wine;
... finally getting round to doing lots of little jobs around the house, like filling holes in the spare bedroom wall, and framing a set of Penguin Classic postcards;
... making a draft excluder for my friends who moved house recently;
... reading three books (well ok, two and a half - two crime thrillers by Elly Griffiths which I really liked, and the first half of a biography of Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne);
... watching trashy TV like Take Me Out and TV Burp;
... making homemade soup.

Just because...

Found via Clumsy Kisses' tumblr.  It made this Cath Kidston kitchenware-owning, dress-wearing, lipstick-loving feminist very happy.

Oh happy days

I've had two great days in a row (although my disappointment on realising, this afternoon, that it was Wednesday and not, as I thought, Thursday, cannot be understated).  Some good things that have happened...

a lovely meal out with friends last night; my two difficult bottom sets being immaculately behaved and generally wonderful, tackling Macbeth and Beowulf with aplomb; my new dress arriving from asos (it's got OWLS on it and it is amazing); receiving lovely comments about yesterday's blog post about feminism and crafts on Twitter and via email.  Do take a read and let me know what you think; finally getting my fringe trimmed, so I can now see without squinting through a curtain of hair; and most exciting of all (drum roll...), finding out I have been accepted as a Fulbright scholar for the teaching exchange programme!  Still quite a few things that need to be sorted out, and a few things that could go wrong, but all being well, I should be teaching in America come September.  I am jumping for joy!

Cartoon by Jacky Fleming