We Love... The Art of Getting By

 This is what I love vacation for. You have time for things you truly want to do! For me it's for example watching movies that have been on my list for ever (I have lists for everything). My dad was nice enough to let me order some movies on amazon lately so I even got to watch them legally.
 Yesterday I watched The Art of Gettiny By, a wonderful coming of age movie starring Freddie Highmore and lovely Emma Roberts.


 Set in Manhattan the story focuses on George, a senior in High School who has trouble figuring out the sense of (his) life. We are all going to die anyways, so why bother with homework, graduation, college...? Problem here: his parents as well as his teachers don't exacly share his views. Instead of doing homework he doodles all of the time, everything and everywhere. His Books are full with monsters and a beautiful mess set free from his messed up mind. But one day he covers for a girl, somking on the schools roof. They get to meet and she seems to who understand or at least admire him for his view on life. Sally.

"

Sally: I have fears but I thought they were pretty run-of-the-mill: pain, death.

George: Not me. I fear life.

 Of course they become friends. She - beautiful, popular, openhearted - showes him - withdrawn, artistical, pensive - the "normal" teenage life and fun in life while he introduces him to his world of doodles and art and a lot of thoughts and worries. Naturally he falls in love with her.

"  

Sally: Are you okay?

George: I'm allergic to hormones.

Sally: What hormones?

George: My own.

 But he is shy and inexperient as he is he seems to screw it up. And she does too, kinda. Both overvelmed by their feelings drive through the rollercoaster of almost beeing grown-up. But only almost. 

"

Sally: You know we're going to be together one day, we just have to sort through all of our messed up issues first, and you have a lot of girls to sleep with to get out of your system.

 For me, a coming-of-age-movie-lover, it's one of the stories that give you this warm fuzzy feeling. You will smile. And then you will smile even more - because you realize you are smiling. 

xxx V

Dating is dead?! Pros n Cons on that shit.

 When was your last date? And I don't mean your last random hookup, one night stand or DVD night with your girl-, boy- or best-friend. What I talk about is a date like the kinda date you know from the movies. So? Ever? Nah.
 I recently read an article in my favourite magazine (NEON, german one) about the end of dating. Seriously, when I think about it, my whole life I thought this whole dinner-date was an invention made in Hollywood. But it seems like there used to be something like the two-some date some time before I got old enough. Sucks. If you believe in what this nice lady who wrote the article says. And a lot of other people who claim thereselfs to be smart and write books n stuff. So what exactly do they say? If you look arround your folks who are somewhere arround 20-something you'd think they seem to be happy and have relationships and sex and everything awesome that seems to be a side-effect of dating. Right. But: how did they get there? Apperently "our generations'" dates are happening in our peers. When you're on a party it's the most uncomplicated thing to simply invite your crush to join you. And that's what we do. INSTEAD of dating.

CON on that:

           1. Suppose you get invited by your crush to hang out with his/her friends. Are you
               a) not worth the time to spend alone with?
               b) in the Buddy-Trap?
               c) a set up for somebody's friend?
               d) what you hope to be?


PROs'd be:

          1. Your person of interest isn't as great as you thought. Oh great! You don't have to think
              of anything to get rid of him/her asap - it's a party!

           2. Completely practically: you can tell if he/she is any boy-/girlfriend material, given the fact
               that your crush is surrounded by your friends and you can check out how good he/she fits in.
               This brings us to

           3. 'cause on the other side we have YOU, invited to some party or random hang by your crush.
               You can check out the people your going (not?) to be partner likes to hang. Nothing says as
               much about a person as the people he/she spends his time with.


 So up 'till now it seems like it's not too bad to say au revoir to outdated dating rituals. Isn't this....so sad?
 I believe our "free spirits" and crap we claim ourselves to be is leading us to something completely wrong. Or at least not-so-nice. Our easygoing mentality makes us have more than one crush's (there is no plural existent for this word - realize something?). We have far too many opportunities. We spend our time trying to decide. Not trying to work on what we have.

CON:

            2. Will we ever decide? Will monogamy be an archaic word? I think we will drive ourselfes
                crazy with all of our choices and opportunities. 

            3. Letting the hopeless romantic speak for me: Where is the LOVE? If we don't take our time
                to get to know somebody, to earn their trust and literally learn to love them...will we love? I
                got this feeling that a lot of the kids from my generation mistake sex and physical attraction
                for what we call love. Count: How many of your friends got together with their (-sorry-)
                fuck-buddies or what you want to call them?



So is dating dead? Are we caught in our own dissolute lifestyle? Gett up guys, we're all so vintage and retro and thirftshop-y...why do we hang on to fashion and art but not to lifestyle and culture?


xo V

How to...embellish your sneakers

To everyone who has or had Vans it's no secret, that they get the hyped "Used Look" way too fast. My Vans used to be more of a coral-colour. They got dirty real fast - the not-so-cool kind of dirty. So I decided to fancy them up a little. Actually I didn't really know, what I wanted them to look like in the end. So I just gathered all textile-colours I could find and got started.

! Take the shoelaces out before you begin.

First paint the whole shoe white-ish. Reduce the white paint with some water.

Then paint the front part and the little half-circle at the heel in one colour (I chose red) and the middle-part in another colour (blue in my case).

Continuing paint the seams with in a slightly darker colour (red) in order to clean the edges up a little.

When the colour has dried, cut a small circle out of paper. Then use it as a template for the thin white circles.  
! Use a pin to fixate it in order to make the circles more accurate.


xxx V


 

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Top 5 beautiful female voices

Summernights.
Sitting in the wet grass, counting stars, smoking last cigarettes, having a slightly fuzzy head from the one beer too much.
This is what I love most about these days. Having my friends around me, no one's talking. The voices fill our body's with happy but deep thoughts. It are the voices of the women who sing the songs of which we have the lyrics on our bedroom walls and in our diaries.






1. Julia Stone. After a career with her brother Angus Stone both of them try to make their own music by now.

2. Lana Del Rey. Her voice as well floats through you and leave a feeling of something unfulfilled, desirable and great.

3. Florence Welch. Leadsinger of the fantastic Florence + The Machine seems to fly away any moment. Her songs strike with power and still hit you right in the heart.

4. Emelie Sandae. Admittedly, her voice may not be as remarkable as the others the others but still it is a-mazingly beautiful.

5. Daughter. Her song "Youth" is one of my all-time-favorites. One of the voices that give you shivers.

Hope I could perhaps inspire your playlists a little.

xxx V

We Love... The Great Gatsby

 I am stunned! After reading "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (even the english edition!) I had to see the movie yesterday. I was stunned! Carey Mulligan's dresses, Leonardo DiCaprio's charmingness, the awesome partys, the language...everything was absolutely perfect. I would even dare to claim the movie's better than the book. Maybe better's the wrong word. It just...brings everything to life so perfectly. Greater as you would dare to imagine it. 

 A friend of mine probably got it right by saying "It's more of a fairytale than a story!". Perhaps that's why I enjoyed it so much: I adore fairytales! Especially when they come to life in such adorable pictures with the great dresses,jewellery and...everything!

 Another great thing was the music. Throughout the whole movie there was no song I didn't enjoy. Every song goes right through me. My faves are Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful", "Love Is Blindness" by Jack Black and "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody" by Fergie, Q-Tip and GoonRock. The dancing was excessive and fantastic, for me especially 'cause I used to dance LindyHop and Boogy Woogie, which are styles from the 20s.  

I don't fancy Leonardo as a person - but I love him as an actor. And in this sweater.

Here you can check out the whole playlist:


Jay-Z: "100$ Bill"
Beyoncé and André 3000: Back to Black" (Amy Winehouse cover)
will.i.am: "Bang Bang"
Fergie, Q-Tip and GoonRock: "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)"
Lana Del Rey: "Young and Beautiful"
Bryan Ferry and the Bryan Ferry Orchestra: "Love Is the Drug"
Florence and the Machine: "Over the Love"
Coco O of Quadron: "Where The Wind Blows"
Emeli Sandé and the Bryan Ferry Orchestra: "Crazy in Love" (Beyoncé cover)
The xx: "Together"
Gotye: "Hearts a Mess"
Jack White: "Love Is Blindness" (U2 cover)
Nero: "Into the Past"
Sia: "Kill and Run"

Let me know your thoughts on my new favourite movie.

Sunny-weekend-kisses V

Top 5 places to be and see, when in ROME

FINALLY I have time again. Well, at least a little. I spent the last weekend (wednesday to saturday, we had a few days free) in beautiful Rome. It was my second visit, only my dad and me. This city is incredible! The italian lifestyle is admirable, don't let me even get started on the food! Also the whole culture - from the ancient romans to Michelangelo  - is amazingly interesting.
So anyhow I thought it would be nice to share my favourite 5 things to see or do wehn in Rome. Hope you agree ;)

1. Let's combine culture with breakfast: the best cappucchino I ever had was at the "Tazza D'Oro Coffe Shop". I had breakfast there every morning. The culture part here: It's right at the Patheon. Even if you're not into churches it's worth a short visit.
Fun fact: if someone tells you it doesn't rain into the huge hole in the celing, it's only partly true. It used to not rain in there befor the houses arround where builg, if the doors were opend. Today it doesn't rain that badly when they're opend but it does get wet in there :)

2.  Go into the Colloseum. But buy the tickets elsewhere befor you go. The lines are close to dadly. Still you have to have seen it from the inside. It's so different from what I imagined it to be like. Especially after six years of Latin in school I was stunned to see the enormous stadium from the inside.
And if you walk around Rome: don't be surprised, the Colloseum stands in what seems to be the middle of the city randomly. It's just...there suddenly.

3. Time for lunch. Grazia & Graziella is an awesome place in Trastevere, a borough across the river Tiber. Oficially there are no cars allowed there, so it's more of the scenic Italy as you imagine it. If you visit after being at the Colloseum you could probably rent bikes there at bike there.
Grazia & Graziella is a cozy restaurant with a pretty nice interiour, very heartly furnished. The food is simple but perfect, italian at it's best!

4. If you are up for a little shopping, you should check out the area you go through when you've crossed Tiber on your way back to the middle of the city. I will update what the area is called ASAP. There are lots of cute boutiques, vintage shops and little cafes.

5. For dinner try to find a rooftop restaurant. Most likely it's to find in a hotel. It may be a little more expensive but it's worth it! The roofs of thisinfinite city are amazing. In the light of the sunset, after a day of a lot of walking and talking an seeing there is nothing more beautiful than overlooking a city with more of 2500 years of hisory!

Enjoy your stay!

xxx V

Top 5 songs to lay back and relax.

Finally it's sunday! Or was, given the fact that it's 7 pm at my place already. But still: Sunday are for relaxing, doing nothing and avoiding everything stressful. Well, at least that's what it should be. So no matter if you had a perfect chill-out day or brought some power into this nothing-day it's the perfect time to listen to some relaxing music. Here are my Top 5 songs to lay back and relax:

1. Youth - Daughter.That's my let-me-cry-and-pick-me-up-again-song. Because we are the reckless, we are the wild youth.

2. All We Are - One Republic. Their songs are beautiful. I like this one in particular. I suppose it's the lyrics. Or th voice. Or the chords. Or everything together.

3. A Lack of Color - Death Cab For Cutie. Because of the first few lines: "And when I see you, I really see you upside down. But my head knows better, it picks you up and turns you arround." Awesome!? :)

4. I'm Not Yours - Angus and Julia Stone. Julia's Voice is a-mazing!

5. Ho Hey - Tyler Ward & Alex G. (originally by The Lumineers). Tylers covers are great! I love his voice and the people he works with are just as gifted. Every song is packed with passion and love for the music he makes.

Enjoy!

xoxo V

Top 5 reasons why I'm definetly NOT going to watch soccer tonight!

So in Germany soccer is like THE thing. Tonight is a championsleague game so it's almost obligatory for everyone to watch. The last few games a good friend of mine always told me I was supposed to watch the game and gave me an exquisit report on everything oh-so-gorgeous about the previous or running game. What's the catch? It's 22 guys running after a ball for 90 minutes, each 11 of them looking same. So here are my very own and probably not so much understood reasons why I refuse to waste these 90 minutes of my precious evening:

1. If I wanna see "Hot Guys" I'll watch, like, basically ANY movie. Best: chicflick! Or Spiderman, James Bond or something where they at least focus on the abs when they take of their shirts.

2. Imagine following scene: Me, sitting on the couch, staring at the mainly green screen and wincing everytime my parents clap or scream far too loud. Which is every time the ball is within 15 meters of the goal. Wow. A ball.

3. There is so much more I could do within these 90 minutes. Like homework. Or watch any series. Or read a book. Or even write this post. Duh.

4. Watching this game would be sooo mainstream. And I'm so anti-mainstream, like, Hipster or something. Anything. Not.

5. I would probably fall asleep quite soon (leave away the part with my parents) and that would stop me from doing my nightly activities. Which is literally everything due within the next 24 hours because I'm queen of kinda ignoring my duties by daylight. Maybe I'm cursed?

Not that bad...but rare!

Well, summing up you could say soccer bores me to hell. Any soulmates here? Or am I going to be stoned to death by tomorrow evening? Shoot me your thoughts on "The Nations Favourite Sport"!

Until then, enjoy your night folks!

xxx
V