thinkin’ about grits
<3_<3
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I hope you all get the pleasure of eating cheese grits someday.
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I hate spending money so I am bringing my lunch to work a lot now. I made 4 turkey/cream cheese/apple sandwiches on toasted bread and they are sitting comfortably in my freezer now and JESUS CHRIST I am so happy to have even a knock-off version of The Most Delicious Sandwich I Have Ever Eaten.
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10, 16. I think this is the most lovely and intriguing set of questions I've seen on tumblr
10. Are you the kind of friend that you would want to have as a friend?
Yes and no. I think I’m decently fun to be around and I think I’m a good listener, but I’m not very open and I don’t become open until we’ve been friends a good long while. I don’t know, that is a tough one.16. Excluding romantic love, when was the last time you told someone you loved them. Who were they to you?
I told my mom today because I’m really lucky to have the mom that I do.
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#4
4. You are at the doctor’s office and he has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? What do you do with your remaining days? Would you be afraid?
I wouldn’t tell many people at first, just my family and close friends, but I have a few people I would send letters to. I would travel and see as much I can, but also do the more boring, practical stuff, like sell a lot of my stuff and give it to people I want to have it. I’d have lots of sex and get high and get drunk and go out dancing a lot. I wouldn’t be afraid, really. Life is a party and I’m just glad I got invited. I’m not gonna complain when it is over. -
Does what you wear affect how you feel when you perform? Do you have special pieces of clothing that you like to perform in? Is there a particular favorite?
Oh, yes. The ritual of getting dressed up, before I play a show, is very important to me. I don’t really focus on it consciously, but sometimes I become aware of that funny, giddy feeling, like I’m dressing for some mysterious and wild convergence of possibilities, like I’m about to go out and experience something very special, very rare. It’s like the opposite of ominousness, whatever that might be. I feel like to not dress-up would seem instinctively rude, or disrespectful to that strange and fragile magic which has somehow miraculously allowed me to play music for a living. I almost always wear dresses onstage, for that reason; very seldom jeans or pants. I definitely have a handful of favorites. A Christopher Kane electric-pink velvet dress, a vintage emerald-green Radley silk-jersey gown, a silk crepe vintage Ossie Clark print dress, and, recently, an amazing black dress that the unbelievably lovely Rodarte girls gave me. My dream would be to buy one of the pale green and blue dresses Rodarte made for Fall ’09, but those are too expensive for me. I did get to borrow one, once, and it was incredible. The handwork, up close – the tiny, tiny beads, and the tissue-thin lace – made me feel like a walking, talking Faberge egg.
Have you always loved clothes and fashion? What is it about clothes that you love? Who are your favorite designers, and why do you love them? How has your relationship with fashion changed over the years? When did you discover designer clothes? How does what you wear in your daily life and what you wear to perform differ? How do clothes and dress-up make you feel?
This is a long question! And I think the answer is a little complicated for me. I’ve always loved clothes (or, at least, been excited and inspired by them). I have a sort of love/hate relationship with “fashion,” but I’ve always loved clothes. I grew up in a house where new clothing was almost never bought. Our school clothes were mostly mined from the local consignment store, and our special-occasion clothes were sewn by my mom. I spent my young years insanely envious of the girls who went on shopping sprees at Nordstrom at the beginning of each school year. But I know now that I was, of course, very lucky to have my mom sew me such beautiful things. In advance of every Easter, she would make both my sister and me each a beautiful new dress. She would take us to the fabric store, and let us choose our dress pattern from a huge book, and let us choose the fabric, and the buttons, and the trim. She’d spend weeks sewing us these lovely things. I remember my favorite dress was black silk velvet, with huge puffed sleeves, trimmed at the wrists with crocheted Belgian lace (which my mother had been saving in tissue paper for years), and embellished down the front with a row of tiny, pink silk rosebuds.
Anyhow, I think my emotional experiences with clothing, growing up, sort of combined to become a sometimes irritatingly potent influence on me, as an adult; watching my mom sew our dresses gave me an attention to miniscule details, a love of beautiful construction, and the fantasy of being able to imagine something ideal and exciting to wear; and though I appreciate my parents’ attempts to shield us from the “societal cycle of disposable consumerism,” etc. by not buying us new clothing (I must say, nonetheless, that my childhood was spent gazing longingly at the shop windows, and magazine covers) it might have impressed on me the faintest association of store-bought clothing with some ultimate, eminently desirable luxury. There’s always been an aura of magic, for me, surrounding gorgeous clothing. For years, all through high school and most of college, this found expression for me through collecting vintage pieces. By the time I made my first album, I basically wore only vintage. But it was all pretty deliberately edited vintage pieces, hoarded for years — Yves Saint Laurent, Biba, Jean Muir, Holly Harp (the Ossie Clark wouldn’t come till later), and, of course, a closet full of Gunne Sax. This is where I always feel a little weird, talking about clothes, or fashion, because, when I started touring, and had a little income, I started picking up more special pieces, here and there, and I think some people perceive me as having had some drastic change in style, but that wasn’t the case. I just suddenly had a world of costuming options open up to me that I’d never had before, a world to which I’d previously been just a spectator – an avid spectator, like a sports fan who knows all the statistics or whatnot, but a spectator, nonetheless – and I was so excited to finally be able to dress up, to just be near clothes like that. I never wear beautiful clothes just for the function; there always has to be an element of fantasy, or a story. And my style – by which I mean, the things I personally find beautiful, and want to outfit myself in – hasn’t changed. I have very strict rules about what I wear; for me, there’s a clear trajectory between the old Gunne Sax and everything else I love; I still stick, more or less, to that silhouette (nipped-in, hourglass-ey shaped dresses, volume in the shoulders, etc) and I still require a certain character or drama in a dress; something off-kilter about its proportions, or something that provokes an emotional reaction in me, I do tend to still prefer vintage, most of the time. And I love clothes that evoke the early ‘70s (for reasons that I’m sure connect to the fact that I love music and films from the early ‘70s), even if the evocation is quite abstract, not literal.
The first designer I remember becoming truly interested in was Marc Jacobs, in Spring 2002, because that show was, in my mind then (and now!), basically perfect. I think I’ve never quite gotten over the heartbreak of not having been able to afford anything from that collection (nor could I ever track anything down on Ebay, or in any consignment shop). Everything about it – the bright, color-blocked dresses, the nipped in waists, the flower-sprayed organza prints, the t-strap shoes, and the cheeky Koos van den Akker quilting/patchwork references – just seemed gorgeous and perfect to me.
But I have a really specific style, which makes me fickle about designers, since they tend to change so much from season to season. I’m sure Marc Jacobs continues to be amazing, and I’ve certainly seen individual pieces of his, over the years, that I love, but he’s never, since that Spring ’02 show, produced an entire collection that resonates perfectly with me, in the way that particular one did (except for the collection he did for Louis Vuitton in Spring ’09!). I had the same instant-love reaction to Chloe, in Fall ’06, Balenciaga and Chanel in Spring ’08, Gucci in Fall ’08, Nina Ricci in Spring ’09, and Rodarte in Fall ’09. And this Spring, 2010, I’m weirdly loving Etro more than anything! So, I have no loyalty. Also, it should be said, I own almost no pieces from any of the collections I just mentioned. I’m still mostly a spectator. I try to keep my enthusiasm for these things mostly in the dream-realm; I try to be conscious of some boundaries, in the clothing-acquisition department, lest I become an asshole. I’m pretty sure that’s what happens, eventually, if you buy everything you want!*Claire from the Joanna Newsom forum Milky Moon graciously typed up these parts of an interview from Lulu Magazine (Issue 10) where she talks about fashion.
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25 DEEP Questions.
1. What is more difficult for you, looking into someones eyes when you are telling someone how you feel, or looking into someones eyes when they are telling you how they feel?
2. Think of the last time you were REALLY angry. WHY were you angry? Do you still feel the same way?
3. You are on a flight from Honolulu to Chicago non-stop. There is a fire in the back of the plane. You have enough time to make ONE phone call. Who do you call? What do you tell them?
4. You are at the doctor’s office and he has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? What do you do with your remaining days? Would you be afraid?
5. You can have one of the following two things. Which do you choose? Why? Love and Trust.
6. You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late even once more, you are fired. Do you take the time to save the dogs life? Why or Why not?
7. Would you rather be hurt by the one you trust the most or the one you love the most?
8. Your best friend confesses that he/she has feelings for you more than just friendship. He/she is falling in love with you. What do you (or did you) do/say?
9. Think of the last person who you know that died. You have the chance to give them 1 hour of life back, but you have to give up one year of yours. Do you do it? Why or Why not?
10. Are you the kind of friend that you would want to have as a friend?
11. Does love = sex?
12.Your boss tells your coworker that they have to let them go because of work shortage, and they are the newest employee. You have been there much longer. Your coworker has a family to support and no other means of income. Do you go to your boss and offer to leave the company? Why or Why not?
13.When was the last time you told someone HONESTLY how you felt regardless of how difficult it was for you to say? Who was it? What did you have to tell the person?
14. What would be (or what was) harder for you to tell a member of the opposite sex, you love them or that you do not love them back?
15. What do you think would be the hardest thing for you to give up? Why would it be hard to lose?
16. Excluding romantic love, when was the last time you told someone you loved them. Who were they to you?
17. If there was one moment and one time in the last month what would you change and why?
18.Imagine it is a dark night, you are alone, it is raining outside, you hear someone walking around outside your window. WHO do you wish was there with you?
19. Would you give a homeless person CPR if they were dying? Why or Why not?
21.You are holding onto your grandmother’s hand and the hand of a newborn that you do not know as they hang over the edge of a cliff. You have to let one go to save the other. Who do you let fall to their death? What was your rationale for making the decision?
22. Are you old fashioned?
23. When was the last time you were nice to someone and did NOT expect anything in return for it?
24.Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a broken heart, or never loved at all? Why?
25.If you could do anything or wish anything, what would it be? -
Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow (unfinished), 1940
