songstress style: Paloma Faith

While I'd seen her name and visage bandied about the internet quite a bit, it was this profile of her in the New Yorker which lead me to seek out (and fall in love with!) Paloma Faith's music. And let's talk about her wonderful aesthetic!! Her style is not your run-of-the-mill "vintage" look, but a magnificently campy and theatrical take on retro glamour. It's certainly no surprise that she has a background in theatre and dance as well as music.

I think she also just comes across as such a smart, cool and thoroughly charming human being :) While there are plenty of celebrities whom I adore, there are very few I'd actually want to meet and hang out with, you know? But watching Paloma's interview clips and clever "Paloma on Paloma" series on YouTube, I was struck by how warm and intelligent she seems. What a star!

last night i dreamed i was on the nile...

{Egyptian Shumba -- The Tammys}

"I'm gonna make that dream come real,

I'm gonna dance the way I feel!"

After being immersed in the land of date shakes, camel rides, and Queen Scheherazade pageants, it's  no wonder my latest  aesthetic fixation is on that mid-century fantasy of the Middle East. I love that fervently imagined oasis of kitsch... wouldn't it be nice if such a paradise actually existed!

{Cleo Cleopatra -- Kari Lynn}

crazy date

Howdy! 

^^ At the Palm Springs Follies in a '30s hostess gown ^^

 

Gee, sorry I'm no good at keeping up this blog thing. Maybe y'all thought I fell into the Salton Sea! (Almost did, metaphorically speaking; did you know you can buy land parcels out there for under $1,000? Oooh, I was tempted!) I've been without a home internet connection for quite some time, and kind of bouncing around. I just finished up a strange stint living in a motel while looking for a place to live after fleeing from the Housemates from Hell, but now at long last I have a groovy li'l sublet and am starting to feel a bit more relaxed. So hopefully it won't be so cobwebby up in here anymore! I have so many fun Californian adventures to share.

on the salton sea

 

Hello, friends!! Yey, it's a whole new year. I got mine off to a good ol' surrealist start with a little sojourn down to the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea is like a mirage come to life. The shimmering band of blue water just doesn't seem real against the rocky red desert hills.

This strange land is the victim of environmental tragedy, and after a vacation-oriented housing boom in the '50s and '60s, it slid into obsolescence. Today many abandoned homes and businesses line the shores of the toxic salt lake called the Salton Sea, giving us an eerie feeling. I'm intrigued by it despite that tragic element, though; it's such a thoroughly unusual place. It has true character and midcentury charm, albeit in a faded lonesome kind of way.

Even for an intrepid rural explorer like myself, though, it broke my heart; it's very sad and strange to see all these shuttered up vestiges of a more prosperous time! I do think it's important for Americans to see the Salton Sea, to see what our thoughtlessness can do (the Sea's environmental collapse in on account of messed up irrigation systems and fertilizer runoff; soon all that will be able to survive in its toxic waters are tilapia fish).

(More pictures after the jump )