Can you hear it?

So, as some of you might know, I'm from good ole' Charlotte, NC (or, at least, a suburb neighboring it). When I was young, I had great hopes for the city. I saw the beauty in all its neighborhoods and saw the pure talent that lived in it, from NoDa, to Elizabeth, to South End, and back again.

But after a while, I began to feel disheartened. Charlotte had more than its share of shopping and places to sip coffee, but what else? A downtown that dies as soon as the pencil-pushers clock out at night?

Luckily, there are people who are still stirring up the city I once loved. Maybe music like this will finally shake Charlotte into that city of magic that I still believe it can be.

Matthew Padgett, from the band Campbell, and I go way back. We once went to the same church waaay downtown in Charlotte, and spent many a day jumping on his cousin Joey's bed. Now he's all grown up and making music that inspires. Listen to it, and daydream as you do:

Listen to Jeff Buckley while you do the dishes.

Love in black and white.

a shot in the dark from Nathan Pickett on Vimeo.

Saw this on The Rockstar Diaries. So stinking adorable. I love the whole look of this, from videographer Nathan Pickett. The girl is due in May!

Sometimes a little gluttony is a good thing.

This weekend is one for celebrations--of new homes and new years of life. And on those occasions, just a little too much becomes just enough.

Happy Weekend!

Swoon. Swoon. Swoon.

Ellie Goulding covering "Sweet Disposition" by Temper Trap:


Also, the latest Modern Love essay, "Signs, Wonders and Fates Fulfilled," made me feel weak in the knees. Read it and then let's talk about it. I can't stop thinking about it.

It's a windy Thursday, so go outside and let yourself be tossed about a little bit. I'll tousle your hair and put some color in those cheeks.

Bloomin' walls.

Chrysanthemum I, giclée print on canvas, by Kevin Poole

On gray, rainy days like today, I want to cover my walls with bright paintings that remind me of Spring.

Dream Daze.

I had all sorts of crazy dreams last night which made it almost impossible to drag myself out of bed this morning. But then, driving over the bridge, everything was so foggy and hazy that I almost felt like I was still dreaming.



My dreamy mood and the haze lasted all day. My drive home this evening pulled me right back into the clouds.



And on the topic of dreamworlds, here's a behind-the-scenes look at the plans for Jonsi's tour, which looks nothing less than magical and otherworldly. It breaks my heart that this isn't coming anywhere near me.

The making of Jónsi's live show: Part 1 from Jónsi on Vimeo.

Lady in red.

I have this obsession lately with long red hair. Some of my favorite ladies are redheads:

Florence Welch from Florence + The Machine

Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy

Taylor Tomasi Hill, Style and Accessories Director of Marie Claire

Yes, even Liz Lee from my secret favorite (totally scripted) show, My Life As Liz

I just wonder if I could pull it off...

Coco and stripes.

I missed Coco avant Chanel in theatres, so I was thrilled when I saw it pop up in my Netflix queue. It was everything I wanted it to be.

Also, I think young Coco and I have a kinship:



The only difference is that she's the originator of the striped shirt trend and I can only thank my lucky stars that she took a fisherman's outfit and made it chic. Thanks, Coco.

Anais Nin

Words from the birthday girl:

"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself."

"Do not seek the because--in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions."

"A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked."

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death."

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish it's source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings."

"Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together."

"There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do."

"Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back; a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country."

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

"Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together."

"...waiting for the signal..."

Download Fanfarlo's song for free here!

How To Make It In America

Have you seen it yet?

If you want to see the first episode of the newest show by the creators of Entourage (i.e. Mark "Marky Mark" Wahlberg), you can watch it free here.

Starring Bryan Greenberg and featuring Shannyn Sossamon (Where has she been?), Kid Cudi, and Lake Bell, obviously this show is not short on eye candy.

I think it has serious potential.

Today I'm daydreaming about...

...sparkly, sequined stockings
...being able to awe everyone at a talent show
...dancing to this song in a ruffly dress with a cute boy
...a scent that is "evocative of all that is urban and French"
...The Exploding Girl
...the Kaleidoscope necklace
...a flock of starlings on my ribs
...sipping a warm drink at Hope and Union or the Fuschia Tea Emporium
...having something like this one day

Songs + visuals...

... are all I care about today.

I love this song. It goes on every dance mix I make:

MSTRKRFT – Featuring John Legend from vincent haycock on Vimeo.

This song makes me cry happy tears.

Sigur Ros - Við spilum endalaust - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Phoenix under the Eiffel Tower. Perfection.

Phoenix - 1901 - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
~ee cummings

"I Love Your Smile"

The song's OK, but I am all about the aesthetics of this video, starring the ever-adorable Audrey Tautou. I love the look of this video, which is shot like a short film, especially her outfit and her bicycle. Also, this Charlie Winston guy has cute style.

On the topic of love and romance...

Kate Wilson for Marc by Marc Jacobs

I don't really believe in Valentine's Day in the traditional sense. When you love somebody, you don't need a holiday to find a reason to kiss their kneecaps and write them love letters on scraps of paper. However, I do love love, and if today's the day to talk about love and romance, then so be it--I will:

* I stumbled upon a subtly romantic Missed Connections post from a while back, and this one was quite touching. It's been over 40 years, and she still hasn't forgotten him. I hope he wrote her back, that Poet/Geologist/Old Man.

* "My name is Mel Brooks and I'm going to marry you."

* Urban Outfitters' Modern Lovers contestants are nothing short of adorable.

* Because I am a giant nerd, I will be spending part of my Valentine's Day watching The Young Victoria. True romance:


* "Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."




In closing, if you love someone, you should hold their chin in your palms, look them straight in the eyes and kiss them. You should always write them letters. Letters that tell them how they make you feel when you look at them or hear their voice. Letters that they will fold up and carry with them. You should cook them their favorite kind of pancakes. You should let them win some fights. You should let them win at Scrabble. But not because it's Valentine's Day--just do it because it's a day that you love someone and they love you back.

And that, friends, is always worth celebrating.

Here today, gone tomorrow.

My snowy house!

I have always wondered what snow looks like on a palm tree.

Amazing. Yesterday, Charleston got snow. And it actually stuck! Walking around downtown with a shot of whiskey in the belly (purely for warmth, of course) while snow fell was nothing short of magic.

This morning the snow was already melting and in the sun everything sparkled.

I love this city.

Seeing stripes.

I was folding laundry the other day, when I began to see a pattern:



I think that's why I'm drawn to so many things at Anthropologie lately:

seeing stripes by waitforthesignal featuring Anthropologie

As you can see, this is becoming an addiction...

To tattoo or not to?

I talked it up so much. My 25th year and 2009 had been so wildly eventful (that's one word to describe it) that I felt it needed to be commemorated in some serious way. So I started tossing the word "tattoo" into conversations, preceded by the words, "I think I'm going to get a..." I told my mom, my grandparents, my friends...you get the picture. And what a debate this sparked!

Some were wildly supportive and pledged to hold my hand while I got it done, and others went a step further, saying they'd get one with me! One friend even offered to make an excursion of it and drive us to Savannah to get one on New Year's Day. But then New Year's Day came and sitting on the couch eating cheesecake seemed like a more realistic goal.

Others were less thrilled. I got several adamant "NO!" responses, and strangely, none of these people were my family members, who just shook their heads with resignation. The friends against the tattoo idea pointed out that in our culture, being ink-free is becoming more of a statement than getting it. Another was more poetic, saying things in his charming accent like, "Oh, but your skin's so lovely unmarred..."

And I thought about aging and saggy skin and all the gruesome things pregnancy could do (not yet, folks, but someday) and I've chickened out again.

However, there's this reoccurring symbol: birds, specifically starlings. If I were to get a tattoo, I would get tiny starlings scattered like buckshot on my left side, on my ribs, intermingling with my fading scars. The thing about starlings is, they're small but fierce. They have complex language and absorb what they hear around them. They fly in the most amazing patterns.

Not only that, but as I mentioned in my birthday post, a particular section of "Starlings in Winter" has become my theme for the year, if not the rest of my life: "I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,as though I had wings."

And there's Jónsi's song "Go Do" from yesterday's post where he has a bird on his shoulder, and feathers around his eyes and in his hair, and he sings, "Go sing, too loud/Make your voice break--sing it out/Go scream, do shout..." and then ends the song with, "You will survive, we'll never stop wonders/You and sunrise will never fall under/We should always know that we can do anything." The song is an anthem for living life to the fullest, to say the least.

And there are the starlings I see on my drive home from work...a smudge of black on the sky at dusk tends to leave you breathless, especially with the patterns they form and how they all move as one, with the most intricate choreography. You could put music to it. (In fact, in a way, someone has turned starlings into music.)

Oh, and there's this: "Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings..."

And that lovely song, "Starlings" by Elbow, where he sings: "Sit with me a while and let me listen to you talk about your dreams and your obsessions/I'll be quiet and confessional/The violets explode inside me when I meet your eyes/ Then I'm spinning and I'm diving like a cloud of starlings/Darling is this love?"


The Matrix: Featuring Millions of Black Birds from Jeff Grewe on Vimeo.

We'll see, we'll see.

Spring on the cheap.

F21 Spring 2010 by waitforthesignal featuring Forever21

I think my only problem with Forever 21 is that they actually have too many cute things. You could literally rebuild a wardrobe for under $200.

Jónsi, "Go Do"

Jónsi - Go Do from Jónsi on Vimeo.

Jónsi, the lead singer for Sigur Rós (one of my favorite bands of all time), premiered the music video for the first single off of his solo album (Go) today. It, like everything Jónsi creates, is strange and beautiful.

Love, love, love.

His website is also charming and has all sorts of pertinent information about him, the tour, the album and whatnot, so check it out.

Surprise present!

My friend Kristen gave me the loveliest headband/fascinator at dinner tonight. It's handmade (I think from Etsy) and so wonderful. I love it. I also love playing with this CameraBag program. It's making me even more vain than already am.

A Sunday morning.

"Girls"

Print.

I bought this print today. Why? Because I love it. A boy playing a guitar! With a beard! Wearing stripes! Perfect. Happy day. Now where should I hang it when it gets here?

Thrift store finds.

Last weekend when I was visiting my parents, I dropped by my favorite Goodwill near their house and found two great things:

Tan suede slouch ankle boots.

Vintage Liz Claiborne cross-body bag.

Combined total: under $10. That's my kind of shopping.

While on the subject of Fashion Week...

Garance's photo of Dree Hemingway from Chanel's Spring 2010 show in October is nothing less than striking:

I love the Chanel temporary tattoos leftover from the runway.

Stylish Mens.

Fall 2010 Fashion week in Paris and Milan always stirs up the most fashionable looks--on and off the runways--from models off-duty to fashion writers and editors. Here are some of my favorite looks caught by GQ's style blogger, Tommy Ton:

Click here to see the complete photo set.

An evening game of "Fetch."

"Please throw the ball, Mother. I would like it ever so much if you did."