Hot.

As a budding (hopefully) photographer I'm always on the lookout for the new and interesting. Annie Leibovitz will continue to be my idol for two reasons:
a) her work is beautiful, interesting, and always surprising
b) she started off as a photographer for Rolling Stone in its younger days, and learned as she went.

It's nice to see what other people come up with, their styles, what they find interesting enough to immortalize in a photograph. Today I stumbled upon Jasper Goodall who has a new series titled "Poster Girl." This is a quotation from his website:

Poster Girl is a series of works by influential graphic artist Jasper Goodall, that explore themes of fetish and fantasy. Whilst the work itself can be seen as erotic art, it is equally about looking at the world of fetish and erotica with an appreciative yet critical eye. It is erotic art but it is also about erotic art - the images are a result of Goodall's musings on erotica and sexual fetish.

Risque? Definitely, but also really fascinating. Just check out these pictures.

Bad Bambi

Tigress

Pink Polish

However you feel about the topic of sexual fetishes and erotic art, you have to admit those are some eye-catching photographs. Jasper Goodall's show is being featured at the Electric Blue Gallery in London - www.electricbluegallery.com.

LUST LUST LUST

Somewhat later in life than some girls, I'd say, I've fallen prey to the weakness that is fashion. My wall is covered significantly with pictures from my Vogue Italy magazine - the models annoy and fascinate me in the same breath. The Chanel model who wears tight patent leather pants, ankle boots to match, a chain belt, leather jacket, and hot pink t-shirt printed with the famous interlocking Cs seems to say as she throws back her hair, "God, I'm so sexy you can't even comprehend it." She might be right.
LUST LUST LUST literally runs through my head when I'm looking at some things and here are my latest obsessions:

Selina Dress at MotelRocks.com

Les Chiffoniers' Leggings

Snap-On Hoodie from IsThatOT.com (beware of the bizzare)

Nike Women's High-top Vandals via Sneakerhead.com

Lust Lust Lust. I want.

The Funk List

I miss Italy, I need to do something more stimulating than swiping cards, filling out Incident Reports, folding t-shirts, and roaming around the AFC (even though I love working there). So, I'm going to volunteer at the Charlottesville SPCA today to get in my puppy fix - no matter what I say in the future, do not let me adopt one. Even if I beg and cry, don't fall for it.

Other things on my "Funk List" - the list that will get me out of my funk - include:
- Keep reading
- Pay more attention to politics
- Fix up my apartment
- Take at least one big trip (Austin, TX?)
- Keep up my Italian
- Make/design clothes

I'm all about the anti-funk today, so I think my anti-funk song would have to go to...
Santogold. I know she was MTV's posterchild when she first appeared, and she's now old-ish news, but I love this song.

Ladybugs and Puzzle Pieces

Everyone always says (yes, everyone and always) that you'll find something when you least expect it. In fact, I remember an anecdote from a movie about a little girl who would spend hours looking for ladybugs when one day she fell asleep, woke up, and they were crawling all over her. Oh, wow, how insightful movie, I wonder what commentary you're trying to make about life.
Or, when I was a little girl, well, maybe just a few years ago, I'd be working on a puzzle and furiously searching for a specific piece. Sure enough, when I gave up all hope of finding that piece and moved onto another one, I'd find the stupid piece I was looking for before. I might still have anger issues from that very situation.
So this is my formal complaint to Life as some sort of entity that might listen to my thoughts. What's up with this business of leading people on wild goose chases only to reward them with the chases' objects just when we've given up all hope? There we are, with bruised and battered egos, demoralized completely, then you hand us a "Get Out of Jail Free" card just to mess with our heads. Unfair? Completely.
I've pretty much decided that I'm not going to listen to anything that ends with the words "when you least expect it." Besides, maybe Life will be fooled if I pretend to give up hope just to get what I've been wanting. Outsmarting Life not a good way to spend my days? Well, it's summer; I'm not exactly pressed for time.

Dan Auerbach knows what's up.

For Wade

who made this boss layout possible, bringing to my attention that rotating the image 180 degrees then flipping it horizontally would simply be the key to so many wonderful things.
You love acoustic guitar, and hey, Tommy Emmanuel deserves his little 15 minutes of fame, too. Here's "Antonella's Birthday," my favorite part comes at 1:45 - look at those fingers caress (because there's no other word for it) those strings:

He's so rock and roll with his strategically unbuttoned shirt - what a legend.

Neon Indian!

The above picture is not really what I'm going to write about - it's a t-shirt from threadless, but it's pretty perfect nonetheless.
Anyway, thanks to Marcus (again) there's a good summer song by Neon Indian called "Deadbeat Summer," and guess what, thanks to my genius I found it on YouTube.

I always have a habit of imagining what movie scenes I would put songs in. If my life were a movie, this song would go in a scene of me in my new room. It'd be one of those scenes where time speeds up by showing me doing various things in a sequence: making my bed, sitting in my chair typing on my computer, folding clothes, sitting in my chair, laying on my bed blowing bubbles, hitting my head on my desk repeatedly, and repeating the whole cycle all over again.
Summer anthems aren't always about sunny nirvana - sometimes summer is boring. It's a wasteland of free time or time spent working behind a counter for hours on end. It's hot - the type of hot that glues people to plastic lawn chairs and makes retractable awning sales skyrocket.
This song, however, makes me feel like all of that is bearable and maybe even pleasant in its own right. When we're not busy we can recognize the humor in normal things, or it forces us to amuse ourselves. Have you ever made faces at yourself in the mirror and then laughed at its ridiculousness? Were you busy?
Listen to Neon Indian.

Projected Summer Jams

I always read a certain phrase on iTunes that has to be a tried and true marketing trick: this is the song/track/hit of the summer. For some reason, probably not a particularly complicated one, those of us that still enjoy the benefits of a few months off salivate at those words and click 'Buy' every time.
What's in a summer jam? Gauging our reaction, it has to contain something like these ingredients: a whisper of freedom, a few obnoxiously-printed Hawaiian board shorts, even more too-small bikinis, some Banana Boat sunscreen, too much free time, and of course, more than enough sunshine.
Either way, I've found some summer jams. The first one, "Now We Can See" by The Thermals was at the end of a long, harried musical treasure hunt. One of my new roommates heard it while driving but sadly missed the name and band. The next few days he unsuccessfully tried to hum the tune only getting blank faces in response. Now all's well, and here it is:

Likewise, I was driving with the windows down back home, when I heard Grizzly Bear's song "Two Weeks" from their new album Veckatimest. Marcus was right, this music video blows my mind. Couldn't resist making that joke and now I regret it. Here it is:

Anyhow, I'm debating whether or not I should put my favorite Discodust find up here or if that will scare the summer crowd away...maybe next time. Let the first two soak in like those healthy UV rays.