Printed Matters

I just woke up.

I'm gonna need coffee, and a bagel with tomatoes and eggies before we start.

All right, now back to business. Blood is the New Black Magazine is kind of my baby. The idea is to offer more in-depth interviews BITNB artists, but also to talk about people / places / things we love, and showcase new writing. I ideate content, write, edit, and find writers and a designer for each issue. I've got a couples of issues under my belt thus far. We just started on Issue #5 (due out in June) and I'm already impatient to show you some of the new ideas we're working on.

It's an amazing experience, as I would love to have my own magazine (or clothing line, or book, or Oscar nomination) someday.

Issue #4 was laid out by the super-talented number-one lady Miss Elisa Foster (who also designed the cover). The inside-cover art is by Chris Norris, aka Steak Mtn. who turns out to have an incredibly charming-with-a-pinch-of-jerkoff literary voice, so naturally we milked him for all he's worth. He kindly obliged by writing several articles.

I got chance to interview Elizabeth Spiridakis, aka White Lightning, and Katherine Krause—editor of the amaaaaaazing Dossier Journal—wrote a trippy piece on the proprietors of All for the Mountain. There's tons more, but you'll just have to read for yourself. Every BITNB purchase comes with an issue, and we love to give stacks of them to any store that wants to give them away. If you're in the bay area, I'm dropping off a stack at Issues in Oakland tomorrow. People tend to gasp in horror when we say that you can't find it online ("you mean you no publish on innerwebs?! for why?!") but hardly anything is print-only these days, and we like keeping things a little special, a little exclusive, and a little OG.

Wu-Tang killer bees, over and out.

"That's two D's, for a double-dose of this pimpin' "

thrifted top and skirt / shoes from BE

Sterling and I finally decided to try the Barbeque spot across from my house. It's less than a block away, but they have such odd hours (11-4, Wednesday through Saturday) and often close earlier than that because they run out of food, which is a sure sign that the food is awesome. That, and the fact that cops eat there all the time. Cops love good meat and shit.

After consuming a half-pound of mac n' cheese, and one of the hottest hotlink sandwiches I've ever had, we waddled back home with a pound of ribs and another pound of mac n' cheese wrapped up for later.

And then we ate the ribs.

: /

Dayglo Like Faygo

Went on a thrifting / pho adventure in Chinatown this weekend and stumbled upon a festival that was going down for the Chinese new year (that's how I met my little friend here). I picked up this 1960s, retina-burning orange coat in Orange Country over the holidays. It was originally down to my calves, but luckily my mother is a cracker-jack seamstress, and together we hemmed it to the perfect length. It's getting rarer and rarer that you find something in a thrift / vintage store that wouldn't be perfect if it were juuuuuust a little shorter / larger / what have you. I usually factor in the cost of tailoring when deciding whether or not to buy something that's not...quite...there. It's always worth it, though. I get so many compliments on this coat. At the bus stop the other day, a woman turned to me and said "Girl, your shit's clean as hell" and then offered me a joint.

Isn't fashion wonderful?

Plug

Instagram: @nerdberger

Field Trip: "Renegades" at Bekris Gallery

More snaps from my visit to the Bekris Gallery on Saturday. I'm still finding my way around the city, and most of the time I'm choosing which exhibits to review based on what little I can gather from art listings online (or in a place like SFAQ, which has been the most fruitful so far), so encountering an insanely interesting photography show like Renegades was really serendipity, especially since I went with Sterling, who not only shares my love of photography but also happens to be dyed-in-the-wool derpa derp metal nerd, and his knowledge proved invaluable.

The fourth and fifth photographs pictured here are my favorite. How does that guy up top not make you think of Mötorhead's Ace of Spades cover, but somehow darker, almost apocalyptic? And then you spot dude-fries in the background going about his business in his khakis and backpack...

I love the one below him, it was the only one done in that stark, silvery print style. Very Mapplethorpe, but more heroic than fetishy.

The show up until Janurary 27th. You ca read my review of it over at ArtSlant, and then I highly recommend you hustle over.

In the Rojo

vintage blouse and jacket / thrifted skirt and shoes / street vendor pins / Buffalo Exchange sunglassesI

I took a little trip to see a photography exhibit in the SoMA area of San Francisco today (more on that later this week). Many of the fine art galleries in SF are in that neighborhood, flanked by designer boutiques to one one side, and janky chain stores on the other. I dashed into Macy's (which sort of represents an equilibrium between the two) to use the restroom, noticing that salespeople and patrons alike were staring at me like, I don't know, they just stared... I don't think I blended in with the Tommy Hilfiger and Rachel Roy diffusion line displays very well. I also became very aware of the fact that department stores are not designed for people to dash in and out of. I got lost, a little bit overwhelmed by all the sparkly lights and throngs of people, and almost flipped over a table covered in Swatch watches just to watch the pretty rubber colors fly and maybe feel something other than anxiety...

Thankfully, I made it out without too much fuss.

Field Trip: Photobooth SF

Annalise and Ashley

Jen

pink motorcycle jacket Sterling gave to me for Christmas - I just need a white one, and the trifecta will be complete

Opening Ceremony skirt / vintage boots

Annalise's uncle had an opening at Photobooth SF in the Mission last Friday, and I was excited to view what can only be described as sexy, blown-up fashion photographs taken using a daguerreotype-type process called Tintype. I'm pretty interested in Polaroid and antiquated forms of photography myself, and one of my goals this year is to sort through my photos (there are literally hundreds of them, stuffed in a shoebox) and make quality prints with some of them. Photobooth has has amazing products and printing resources; seems like a great place to start poking around and asking questions. I even picked up some very special Impossible Project film for a shoot I'm working on at home.

Afterward we gorged ourselves on fine mac n' cheese from Grub. I ordered mine with lobster meat, and it was deeeeeecadeeeeent!

Hurpy Hurlidays!

Jen, looking gloriously apropos to her surroundings

I was trying to get a closeup of Ashley's beehivey 'do, but alack, I managed only to capture her fine Roman jawline

me and the mister

Great Dane, Ashley, Annalise, Rachel

I call this one "Beard With Arm"

Some belated holiday photographs from a super-sweet holiday party at Jen's house - there were baked goods and bottles of wine on every surface. I wore a vintage dress from Mousevox Vintage (that would be Rachel's lovely vintage shop), which I was so happy to have occasion to wear. There's a criminal discrepancy between the amount of sequin dresses we are marketed during the holiday season and the amount of holiday parties that behoove them. It was pretty wonderful. I ate way too many cookies and I think at some point I took some upskirt shots of myself with Ashley's camera. I thank her heartily in advance for not posting them.

Hop over to Ashley's blog for many more photos, including ones of several good-looking people I didn't get the chance to properly meet before catching the BART home...but I see you ladies...oh, I see you...

New Yeeeeeear

I think I'm saying "what the shit" or something here

my pretty-girl face

vintage dress (hemmed short by me and my mum / vintage boots / cheapo shades from Buffalo Exchange

Some pictures from my last full day in Los Angeles... I woke up extra early to visit my doctor's office, mainly as a final-check up and to ask her if I could go rollerskating later that night. She seemed skeptical, but I confessed that I had already attended a swing dancing lesson earlier in the week. It's a special pleasure knowing I spent the first night of my vacation in the hospital, and my final night roller-skating the night away and falling only twice, during the backwards skate, which everyone else was too chicken shit to do, anyway.

I don't have many resolutions this year beyond generic things like reading more, managing my time better, and picking my nose less. I already got a head start on being pro-active about my health, and I really, really encourage you to do the same. I'm not saying that every sneeze is a death knell, but when you know something is wrong, you know, and just, like...fucking, go. Go to the doctor. At least for your own peace of mind. And if you find out that that growth on your head that you've been freaking out over is just some calcium build-up, well then all the better. A perceived brush-with-death is like BlueBlockers for the soul.

After my appointment, Andrew and I wandered around the fashion district in downtown, looking for a new suitcase for me—I got so many new clothes during my break (since Christmas is so close to my birthday) that I had to get extra luggage! We bought flowers, grabbed coffee, I made it home in time for lunch and vintage shopping with my parents, and rounded it all off at the Moonlight Rollerway for Elisa's birthday. I even managed to squeeze in a business meeting and a quick brunch with Marie from Agent Lover the morning of my flight!

Here's to 2012 kicking ass. I can't wait to see / meet more of y'all this year.