High End/Low End Resolution

How many sparkles, sequins and metallics are necessary to qualify as an NYE outfit?  I want to pretend I wore this to welcome the new year but there may not be enough sparkles to pass that off.  Plus, I've never attended any kind of NYE celebration before (at least not one requiring the kind of outfits inspired and presented by fashion magazines, blogs, and clothing store sales).  I've always been at home with family.  A little prayer, a little moscato or champagne, and possibly pajamas.  That's all I need, but what I want...that might shift come 2016. ☺

Anyway, I put this outfit together with pieces borrowed and new for a birthday dinner and afterparty that was not at a nightclub of some sort as initially believed but at a regular pub (where I was a tad overdressed).  My family went out of town for Christmas and I packed specifically for three days.  Having nothing to wear to go out with my cousin called for improvisation.  I wore a high end top by Kate Spade (a lovely Christmas gift) paired with a low end skirt from Forever 21 (borrowed from my cousin).  The clutch is likely from a "fast fashion" type of clothing store, also borrowed from my cousin, while the wedges are one of my favorite purchases, from Seychelles.  Higher end and lower end clothes balance each other out!

Although, I'm not sure that balancing principle works for my photos.  What looks high res on my iPhone becomes terribly low res uploaded and enlarged on my computer (so please forgive these ones).  Sometimes the iPhone takes crisp and beautiful photos and other times, the light is poor or the lens is temperamental.  Whenever a hopeful image comes out grainy I wish for a Samsung Galaxy or Nokia Lumia.  But not really, because I plan to use my current phone until it dies.  No matter if Apple releases the iPhone 6 Plus S or 6c or 6.5.

Oh happy day!

What I'm Wearing

Kate Spade Tatiana top // Forever 21 floral skirt // Seychelles wedge boots // "fast fashion" clutch // JewelMint Forever Audrey earrings

Happy Halloween

This is a selfie I took with my red light box.  That camera was not cooperating that day.  It was kind of transitioning from day to night around the time and every photo taken outside was awful.  Although I think the result of this was my swift movement as the flash went off, creating that cool streak.  Add some Holga-ish treatment in Picasa and all of a sudden I look ghoulish.  

So Happy Halloween to everyone!  May you eat candy until your bellies explode with sugar.  And if you're so inclined, may you drink just enough to think you know the dance routine to Michael Jackson's Thriller. 

xoxo

All of the Lights

soft shock

Fireworks are nothing special to me--once you've seen one display you've seen them all.  If I don't go to a firework show, I don't regret it.  But I think it's definitely more about the company you're with rather than the special effects lighting up the sky.  Every time I do go to a firework show I am reminded of that.  

This year I went to Woodlawn Lake Park to see the displays with a friend and a friend of a friend.  The park was FULL.  Full of people--families, children (with sparklers and glow sticks) and dogs (a couple not on leashes, yikes!).  It was like a mini-fair.  There was a stage with a band playing and booths selling giant turkey legs, funnel cakes, and sweet corn.  

We watched the display from this bridge a little ways from the lake.  The show was anti-climatic without a proper ending because of technical problems due to the light rain.  But still, against my usual behavior, I took photos of the works.  These two were the most unique and interesting to me.  And this tweet I saw on my timeline was so fitting and funny.  I absolutely agree (even as I hypocritically took photos).

whispers in the night

Limits of The Red Light Box

The red light box (i.e my Samsung point and shoot) accompanied me to Nigeria in December and while there I tried snap more than the typical touristy let's-do-the-same-pose-in-front-of-a-different-background photos...and that's why there's an image of an old beat-up passenger seat from a car (below)!  But really, who else finds the top two photos interesting?  Would I be the only one over-eagerly raising my hand?  The second one is so perfectly crisp, I think I could stare at it forever and just appreciate all that rubbish of a mechanic's junkyard as simplistic art.  Or I could just stare at it.  

The basic difference is the use of flash. Shutter speed became slightly faster with it on (but I'm not sure why).  I remember carefully activating the flash as I tried to keep the camera in the exact same mid-air position.  I wanted to see a clear effect of setting change.  And see it I did.

Notice the pain, the agony, of this seat

Background: Goodness, that day was bright and hotter than hot.  My uncle was taking me from Ajalli to Owerri but we stopped at this mechanic's to check out his car.  If it were just him, my uncle said, he'd travel with his car.  But since he was transporting his niece (and my momma was anxious about my safety from across the ocean) we stopped and ended up having a driver pick us up.  Nigeria and drivers....and they're not taxi drivers.  It seems you can (and often have to) get a driver to take you from A to B (if B is more than an hour or two away).  The roads are not so special.  But Nigeria was/is so special to me.

this dinky phone had (slow) Facebook access!

this land is your land

Jewel of January

It's been awfully warm for winter lately.*  And by "awfully" I really mean awesomely.  Because of this good fortune you forget about the blacks, greys, and navys or the coats, hats and boots.  Instead you bring out that button down shirt you've never worn before, the one that's so bright you risk looking like an amethyst quartz in public.  So I guess that's where "jewel tone" comes from...

This was my church outfit... When I got dressed it seemed suitable.  A little loud, but suitable.  Now looking at these photos, I'm thinking "a lotta loud" and that the whole thing is quite a bit dressy.  Or maybe it's in the way I'm posing.  Who is that girl and where the party at?  

The Lola flower is not as tasty as anticipated

Whoa, the amethyst button-down with an outrageously large collar is 100% silk!  My mother gifts me gems (because present-me is highly unlikely to purchase anything like it).  Had to wear a tank underneath; button-downs have never been my friends (silent sigh for the classic gaping hole at the bust).  The dress shirt is a man's shirt, but women seem to really enjoy taking what was originally and solely men's garments.  Wait, I do benefit from the option of pants so I must enjoy the taking too.  Oh, pants from Summerly and wedges to elevate myself (from dumpy and squat to towering glamour).

Tell me all your secrets

I wonder if I've taken a few steps back in my self-taught, improvisation photography... My face isn't in focus and getting good close-ups of detail is an art I have yet to learn. :o  Anyway, I shot in the middle of the day with the sun shining exceptionally bright.  The first photos are out in the open with ISO 100/no flash and I had to watch out for where my shadows fell.  The photo right above was taken in a huge overcast and I tried to change the white balance to more closely match the other takes.  Result: somehow the color of the pants is much brighter.  That's what differential lighting does to ya.

Outfit Details

Catherine Malandrino dress shirt

H&M tank 

Gap legging jean(s)

Sam Edelman wedges

purple and black earrings from that one place

(mismatched) Michael Kors clutch

♥

 P.S. My cousin commented on my sky blue nail color choice the other day, saying he likes it and that it's an uncommon color for the current season.  He actually said something like that and I was about to engage him with "Yeah, you know...you're right.  This pastel is not usually a winter color."  But then I looked again at who I was talking to and said "I'm going to pretend you didn't make that comment..."  We both laughed as I left his room.  I'm reminded of that now because of the bold, contrasting colors in the outfit.  Just out of the ordinary, out of season.

*until today when winter decided to return

On the Wall

Five minutes into my perusal of SAMA's Contemporary Art Collection, this work caught my attention.  The photograph's caption and the artist's quote on the placard expresses an opinion on a reality that still exists-- the fact that black women and girls are often hidden from the mainstream media or if shown, in one-dimensional or insincere representations.  I gasped the most at how fitting it was to see Mirror, Mirror after reading Twitter and Huffington Post responses to the Black Girls Rock! Awards on BET last week.  1987 then. 2013 now.

Mirror, Mirror (1987)
Ain't Jokin' (photographic project)
Carrie Mae Weems
via

I believe that many people do not know the definition of racism (or any of its derivatives).  Not to say that I am a cultural or linguistic expert on the word's denotation... As I was watching the show I also scrolled through Twitter (it's become a thing I do now, tsk tsk) under the search #BlackGirlsRock and found some bemoaning tweets about others who had a problem with the organization.  Then I purposely looked for that opposition.  Many tweets looked like this: "If there was a White Girls Rock it would be racist."  

I wonder who said so.  Who told these people it would be racist to have a White Girls Rock or a White Entertainment Television?  It would be ludicrous and pointless, not racist.  Those two things already exist with ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, etc. White people are regularly represented, believed to be the default, the mainstream.  There isn't a need to reaffirm the worth of a white person in the United States.    

Beverly Bond created the Black Girls Rock organization to empower young girls in the arts, to show them positive role models.  The awards show was so awesome to me, I wished that I could have participated in something like it when I was younger.  All the honorees and their speeches made me think "Hey, I can be great too."  I can be extraordinary too (had to do it).  In the end it is always true that all girls rock.  Black girls, white girls, South Asian girls, Asian girls.  Shouldn't every girl hear that kind of encouragement?

hmm... right?

 Mirror, Mirror is part of a collection of photographs called Ain't Jokin' (1987-1988).  The captions and/or titles to the other photographs are interesting and so blunt.  The link to Weems' website is underneath the first image up above so check out the rest and more if you like.  I appreciate seeing this at the museum and getting to discover a black female photographer and artist.  Carrie Mae Weems makes me want to be an actual photographer, someone with a vision and something to say.  Right below is her quote about this photograph  printed on the placard at SAMA.  I can imagine someone saying those words today.  

It's fair to say that black folks operate under a cloud of invisibility-- this too is part of the work, is indeed central to the work.... This invisibility-- this erasure out of the complex history of our life and time-- is the greatest source of my longing.... That there are so few images of African-American women circulating in popular culture or in fine art is disturbing; the pathology behind it is dangerous.  I mean, we got a sistah in the White House, and yet mediated culture excludes us, denies us, erases us. -- Carrie Mae Weems

Happy Veterans Day!
*hope its not illegal for me to post photos I took of work someone else owns...at least I found the real thing on the artist's site and added credit.  Is that enough acknowledgement? Eek!