OF LILIES AND REMAINS

Okay, that wasn't such a long hiatus after all. I MIGHT do a couple more posts tonight since I'm all amped after 40 minutes on the treadmill, self-help reading material and coca cola (yes, my boyfriend and I broke up). But here are links to all the other posts I've written elsewhere that got published today:

Two over at Kill City (one on that ring!!) and my first proper Bitching and Junkfood post on the Where the Wild Things Are opening reception for the Pop-Up shop they opened at Space 15 Twenty last month in LA. I've owed you pictures from that for ages. Next up, the Kill City X Brian Lichtenberg collab party (with an added bonus!), so stay tuned.

P.S. I don't know why my KC posts' layouts are so shit- was having major probs trying to fix those; and my first post was supposed to go second and vice versa, duh (not my fault).

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WAH Magazine did a travel directory on where to be seen around Los Angeles and it's on the mark, except for a couple of places I'd like to add.

Space 15 Twenty is a must. There's always something going on there that you have to be a part of. I was probably there more than 4 times in my last month visiting, whether it was for a monstrous, leaking vegetarian burger and sweet potato fries at their snack bar, or for an opening reception for whatever hip viral shit that's coming out soon (Where the Wild Things Are - oh and I finally got those pictures! Watch this space!), or for an open air 80's movie (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) intact with pirate-sounding bums thoroughly enjoying every minute of their film experience, or just for shopping my life away at the massive Urban Outfitters and surrounding uber shops. With that said, if you call yourself an arty-farty scenester-cum-leather-jacket-wearing, non-metal/punk-listening kid, then haunt this space or leave LA!

And secondly, for my sick fuckers around the world, Necromance. By far, the best thing I came away from LA with (apart from my relationship with Panda, which seems to dismantle every time I visit) were those winding earrings you saw me wearing on The Cobrasnake. They're actually snakes, and that's probably one of the least creepy things you'll find at Necromance. They've got 2 stores really, neighbouring each other on Melrose Ave. One, a bone collector's heaven on earth (also where you'll find all manner of taxidermied cretin, shell and beading), the other, catering more to jewelry, accessories, macabre home decor and medical quirks. Here are some shots I begged for of the second store.





Hop to it!
GAHHH, literally just got called for an interview for a 3-day writing course that I might teach that my over-ambitious mother name-dropped me for because she couldn't take it herself (WENCH!!!...that I love). They want me to come in in about 2 hours. Course starts tomorrow. I die, and such.

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there was this huge wall of beautiful old trunks at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

KISS THEM FOR ME

SOOO, I don't feel too bad about missing my brother's birthday due to over-booked flights and a 2 day extension on my LA stay, because birthdays happen every year. I'm just happy that I got stuck in LA and DID NOT miss the Kill City and Brian Lichtenberg collaboration launch party! Sadly, my photos are on Panda's camera so I'm borrowing some of The Cobrasnake's coverage.

*Okay, I really don't have access to my snaps for this at the mo, but yes, this was partly a lame excuse for me to show my Cobrasnake debut - I think I made the 'cool' cut because of my serpent earrings (story on that shortly to come) and spiked septum ring
**free booze and free hotdogs from the amazingly popular, and diarrhea-inducing Pink's. I had a vegan one, before you argue, and I really liked it despite my bowel's behaviour the next day. My meathead boyfriend thought nothing grand of their dogs and became quite sick as well, but not before we sought out properly done dogs at this european beer and sausage grill downtown called Wurstkuche. We met friends there for a very late 'after dinner' dinner post party.
***A show of hands how many of us hate the girl in the pic above me

Apart from the BL pieces, which you can see here (and which, I assure you look even more major in person, and on person), you are going to DIE over the new shit in store as well (which I also snapped and can hopefully share with you soon <-- embarassed!). Please please please excuse my half-assedness right now - shit's been crazy, on both sides of the world.

AND WHEN I WOKE NOT KNOWING, I KNEW I LED THE DOUBLE LIFE

You know you're in Abu Dhabi/Dubai when the view from your room looks like this:

Anyways, so after 2 extra days stay in LA because of over-booked flights, I've finally made it back to the Emirates (but for how long? As a stint in London is now on the brain - I think this is the start of something that will never end, this moving around business).

But California was something else this time around and I've got a small but promising pile of material pleasures to show you and a mountainous stack of memories and crazy times to entertain myself with in bed while scarfing down proper hummous - work as an extra in an independent film, partying it up at places Lindsay Lohan was spotted shamelessly taking her little sister *smirk*, covering kinky medical fetish nights with hot girls in latex administering saline injections, touring dungeons, seeing and meeting one of my favourite authors on tour, conforming to twitter, having 'whatever happens in Vegas...' moments that didn't actually STAY in Vegas, apartment hunting and shopping with boyfriends, both fantastic and embarassing blog associations leaving me with awesome free clothes or nail-biting and blog archive reviewing, and shitloads more spent with lots of new and old friends and of course, my Panda.

Speaking of Panda (who I obviously miss to shreds already), this stuffed animal I've come to sleeping with over here that my brother gave me one christmas looks curiously like Panda.

I know. Panda looks like a penguin. I know Part 2 - call me racist, but this is my boyfriend - the slanted eyes, the beak that looks like his plump lips and the hair. I cuddled it a little too closely last night (while he spooned a pillow, he said). He's been begging me to take a pic of it for ages. Anyway, I'll stick to Panda around these parts to banish any confusion.

Yes, we are that pathetic, and loving it.

I'M ONE STEP FORWARD AND THREE STEPS BACK

Panda still hasn't offered to marry me so, not only is today the day I leave Los Angeles, but it's also the day of Kill City's launch party for their collaboration with I-shit-you-not Brian Lichtenberg!! Lauren, who works at the Melrose store, told me about it ages back so I already died 9 times over my loss. I just thought it would be nice to leave you trendy LA-ists with a little Friday evening gift (so you can't say I'm a bitch for all the flaunting I do about getting free shit from them). Anyways, here are the deets:

Today's been crazy. Panda and I shopped for secondhand furniture for his new place, he took some shots of me for Kill City, I panicked and packed, stocked up on septum piercing jewelry, and we gorged ourselves on sushi. We just came back from watching The Surrogates for kicks, then snuck into the midnight showing of Zombieland (also for kicks, and also where I started to cry over having to leave him). Now we have the luxury of sleeping for 4 hours before we rent a van, pack it with his shit and move it to his new place, have sex, cry and say goodbyes at Terminal 'Long-Distance-Blows'.

I'm also arriving the day after this huge bash my mom's been planning since before I left for L.A.. The only thing I CAN say I won't be missing is Dubai and Abu Dhabi Fashion Week and my brother's birthday on the 4th. Seriously different adventures to come soon at A Dirty Word. See you soon in a different time zone (isn't it always?).

I FOUND YOU IN A CHAIN OF FLOWERS, SLEEPING LIKE A MARBLE GIRL

The same time we went to see Mike Shinoda's Glorious Excess (Dies) exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum, we stumbled upon a tribute to the kokeshi doll. Kokeshi dolls were originally given as souvenirs to visitors to the hot springs in Northern Japan. Different towns put their own spin on the plain-faced originals, and they've been re-vamped and customized ever since. Check out my favourites from the exhibit, which are actually on sale for about $200-300 each. I would love one...or 6. You should really go check out the rest before the exhibit ends on October 4th, and absolutely don't show me what you ended up buying; or you can just click here.

TURN INTO

As if I wasn't already excited about Space 15 Twenty's Where the Wild Things Are gallery opening reception tomorrow (Saturday 19th), Christian Joy (who creates Karen O's wild stage costumes) made a couple of monster costumes that will be on display AND ON SALE at the event. Read more about it here and get jealous.

My favourite, courtesy the Urban Outfitters blog, where you can view the rest.
They're really going all out for this event. Check out the props.

MODERN THINGS DON'T DIE, JUST STAIN

So we had hella errands to run in town yesterday and conveniently, it was Free Thursdays at the Japanese American National Museum and Panda had been wanting to see Mike Shinoda's show 'Glorious Excess (Dies)' - yeah, he's a big Linkin Park fan, bless him. So it was there we ended up after picking up new mags and film books and free clothes at Kill City (Seb please don't kill me - very last minute).

It was aite...A bit too glossy street art for me (which, I suppose, was his intention, and don't get me wrong, glossy street art can be heights - cue Fafi). But it's about consumption and celebrity culture, and society obsessions and...excessiveness. I just love that it sort of stemmed from him watching some pop culture show on british TV and not knowing a single one of the people they were calling celebrities (which is exactly what I've been ranting about for years when I lived in London - british celebrities aren't really celebrities, and all across the world, it seems it's becoming a trend - cue reality tv).


Loved the celebrity collage (Rihanna's busted up face stuck out most). I stayed at this wall the longest, catching up on my gossip. I used to do a lot mag collages in my early high school days. It was generally a lot of glossy skulls intruding on 'the good life' that was illustrated by party-going VIPs made up of millions of dollar signs; they all died. But maybe you're interesed in the show - check out more here.

After browsing the rest of the museum, we encountered the Kogi truck right outside which, the longer I've stayed here, I realised, has a lot of followers, so we decided to see what all the hype was about. I had the kimchi quesadilla (it was good, but not 'follow me around town' good). Panda tried the short ribs taco and spicy chicken taco. With regards to the hype, he concurs. He also became severely sick by the time we got home.

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Today I'm visiting a dungeon near Disneyland (sounds weird) and then Panda and I might go to a couchsurfng party in Hollywood.

I MUST BE DREAMING, FOR I DON'T FALL IN LOVE LAWLESSLY

Introducing Lauren. So adorable and ever so stylish, and a super friendly girl I may be hanging out with again soon; also a really great, really helpful and attentive employee at...

...and I'm sort of in a sartorial relationship with KC, as you'll probably notice in the right column, now that I've pointed it out to you. Anyway, as I've also mentioned before, their store on Melrose is HEIGHTS! ...and just chock full of free shit for me that's waiting to get close to my skin (within reasonable budget). It was so hard to choose today!




I particularly love the collages covering the dressing room walls (AHHH), and the fact that they have mags like Purple and Paper lying around...and then some, like the sick collaborations and ideas they have coming in the not too distant future. You'll die.

Anyways, I walked away with the shredded skinnies she's wearing and this dope black jacket with diagonal front zipper. I've got to do a photo for the revamped KC website where I'll be featured as usual as one of the KC100, so you'll see the pieces after the shoot; too much excitement was had today for me to even move a picture-taking finger right now.