Farm City, Farm Farm City

I finished "Farm City" last month and realized I had a book with a very similar title on my bookshelf. You can see where my interests lie.  

I really dug "Farm City."* Novella is just the perfect amount of weird for this kind of memoir. I felt for her neighbors though, especially when she raised pigs in an urban lot. But she's one tough cookie, snapping the necks of rabbits and digging through dumpsters outside of Chinese restaurants for leftovers for her livestock. Novella, write another book and until then I'll keep up with your blog and live vicariously through your urban farming. 

*Weak pun attempt 

Tunes Tuesday, "Stare at the Sun," Eleanor Friedburger

Eleanor Friedburger writes a great summer song, the kind of carefree, jangly tune that makes you want to roll your car window down. In fact, her last album was called "Last Summer," and this summer, she's back with a new record. Here's her catchy first single. I love her lyrics, it feels like you are listening to a friend tell a story. OK, an especially witty friend. But that's the only kind of friend I have anyway.

Listen to Eleanor Friedberger / Stare At The Sun | Explore the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music & audio.

I caught her show at U Street Music Hall last month, and she was just hanging out in front of the ticket booth. We thought she might be the person taking our ticket! Gotta love a small venue. 

New Hair

I chopped all my hair off two weeks ago. 

After the cut, I asked Joe, "Is my new hair swaggy?" 

"It's something," he said. Then after my protestations, he demurred. "It is definitely swaggy." 

For your reference: on the left is fresh from my hair stylist and on the right is my subsequent attempt to style it. 

I specifically requested it to not be like Miley Cyrus, but I think it's a little Miley. Whatever. I'm digging it! I was actually inspired to go short by Michelle Williams (Who What Wear just wrote about her undercut ) and also Robin Wright in House of Cards. She rocks that cut. 

It took me three years to grow my hair out and then in an hour, it was all gone. It was the longest it's ever been in my lifetime. You can see it here in the pages of Interior Design magazine (I "modeled" for my company's photoshoot. I haven't mentioned that here, but it was surreal!)

I don't miss the long locks. I think I wrote about the fact that I was freaked out by how much hair fell out daily. Maybe I never noticed it when it was short, but when it was long, it scared the bejeezus out of me. After I went to Iceland and ruined my hair in the Blue Lagoon and it was looking particularly terrible, I googled "women's hair loss" and just cried while reading the stories. Irrational behavior on my part, I know. I actually called up Joe and just scream-cried into the phone. In between sobs, I managed to get out the words, "All my hair is falling out." Joe was so sincere, and took me at face value. "What can I do? Can take you to urgent care?"

That wasn't necessary.

OK, so that's my insane reaction to long hair. I never got used to finding strands everywhere, but I still seem to have the same amount of hair as before so no harm no foul. I was just so sick of it so it's time for something new. I think I need new, edgier clothes (or girlier clothes?) to go with this swaggy hairdo. And fun earrings. I'm thinking statement earrings and ear cuffs. So now you know, I got this haircut to show off trendy ear cuffs. 

Leave me a comment if you love it or hate it, or if you have any suggestions for fun products for punky, edgy short hair. 

Tunes Tuesday, "All I Ever," Gems

Been meaning to post this: I was so fortunate to write about D.C.'s creative class for Refinery29 DC's first ever "30 under 30" list and two of the people I profiled make up the band Gems. I had their Soundcloud page on repeat while writing, and all their stuff has an icy, 80s vibe that sounds both epic and intimate. Take a listen, starting with "All I Ever," because I can't resist a good boy-girl duet. I'm definitely going to try to see them live at the Black Cat on July 22!

www.GEMS-band.com www.facebook.com/GEMSband GEMSbandinfo@gmail.com Recorded in Outer Banks, NC - October 2012

Brazilian Girls, 9:30 Club

I ended my birthday this year at one of my favorite places in the world, a place where I've spent a lot of time and money over the years: the 9:30 Club. Joe got me tickets to go see Brazilian Girls, a band that can only be described as EDM meets world music meets cabaret. I've loved their song "Don't Stop" ever since I heard it back in 2005.

The band is widely known for another song however, with a very NSFW chorus and a "better not Google it" title. I saw Brazilian Girls at a festival years ago and the audience consisted mainly of frat boys, which made me wonder. The guy next to me at this show confirmed my suspicions. He actually said out loud, "I bought my ticket for that one song." Knew it!

But I knew that they'd put on a good show beyond that one song. The lead singer Sabina Sciubba is a force of nature. She wandered through the crowd, made everyone dance the waltz, smoked cigarettes and more onstage, and accessorized her strappy sandals with a beer tucked in the pocket of her oversize blazer. She's got Euro sex appeal, alright. Miley, forget the twerking for a minute - you'd be well-served to take notes.

Horribly blurry photo goes here. The one thing I was disappointed about was that Sabina seemed to actively loathe "Don't Stop" and totally phoned it in. They really hyped it up for the encore, but she could not be bothered. Oh well. Their new stuff sounded interesting, I thought. As Sabina said, "We are going to overwhelm you with new shit."

Oh! And this must be mentioned, because I've never seen this before at the 9:30 Club.  

Someone in the audience had one of those rave kites (I don't know the teminology?) and twirled it around through half of the show. I don't know how he found a spot so devoid of people to pursue this hobby, as it takes up a lot of space. Our fellow concertgoers were breathing down our necks and we were just standing there. "Maybe he bopped people on the head until they left," Joe said. The best part about it was that he was wearing a camping head lamp too. Gotta keep track of all that twirling neon fabric.

I went dancing at U Street Music Hall a couple years ago and someone was doing this. The same person perhaps? My friend said, "I just want to throw that thing in the trash," which was funny because she is the most unflappable, peaceful person. The secondhand embarrassment was that pervasive.  

The DIY Move With Wegobox

Note: this isn't a sponsored post. Just wanted to share about my experience using an eco-friendly box service for my move, because I think it's a cool idea. Keep in mind that I am the type of person who will go above and beyond to be "green," i.e. the type of person who would actually buy an indoor composter. With that in mind, here it goes:

I've never bought boxes for a move. Last time, my office happened to be moving at the same time and I acquired boxes that way. But alas, that wasn't the case this go around, and I didn't feel like buying something that was just going to be thrown away. Plus, we didn't hire movers so I wanted to make it as easy as possible. All of this is a justification for dropping a not insignificant amount on Wegobox. 

I would do it again, though! The company dropped off the boxes a week before my move. You can see above: that's the "1 bedroom" stack of boxes. The boxes blocked out the sun in my apartment. I thought I would never use all of them. But I did... It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate without realizing it.

I loved not having to tape up the boxes, and the fact that they are stackable. Just throw things in and close the lid. The thing is that they can get heavy fast, so I didn't fill them up all the way. As you can see from the box filled with outlandish shoes and the Holy Bible. That pretty much sums me up.

The move itself went so smoothly. We couldn't have done it without our friends, who graciously came to help. I have no idea why. Moving is horrible. The only answer must be that they are saints on earth. Joe's friend Mark packed all my stuff up in the smallest U-Haul with a Tetris-like precision that I still can't get over. In the picture above, you can see me "helping." By carrying an ironing board and eating a donut.

When we arrived at our new apartment, we wheeled out the boxes on two of Wegobox's dollies, right up the elevator and into the apartment. Then a week later, the company picked them up and that was that. I think it definitely helped our move. 

We're loving the new apartment! It's very, very small. The floor plan is kind of a loop, so Joe and I kept going in different directions and then bumping into each other. "Oh, you again?"

But I think it's going to work out just fine. In fact, it's going to be groovy. For now, I'm plotting out my next shopping spree at the Container Store to figure out where to put all this stuff I spent so much time and effort moving here. Can't wait to get it all corralled!