The Gothfather

In high school The Cure was my favorite band. I looooved Robert Smith. I saw them the summer before my freshman year started. My sister and her boyfriend brought me to New Orleans to see them! How cool is it that I had older sisters to bring me to concerts? That was the Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me tour. I was lucky enough to catch them last night at Radio City. 21 years since the last time I saw them. They were amazing! I didn't know a lot of the new stuff, I haven't bought an album since Disintegration. The crowd was weird. What's up with that? Where have all the goth girls gone? Not one cool looking person! (Besides Moi). Robert was soooo charming. He talked about how wonderful the weather was and passing his driving test. Then for the encore he climbed the steps on the sides that led all the way up to the mezzanine. The spotlight didn't even make it that far up. So he was in complete darkness and someone had to kinda come get him with the flashlight. He started laughing and said 'I can't believe you fucking let me come up here'. But then he climbed up the other side during 'Why Can't I Be You?' They played a lot of my faves like Catch, Push, Charlotte Sometimes, Boys Don't Cry, Close to Me, Hanging Garden. They went off on 10:15 Saturday Night. Did I mention they played for 3 HOURS?! My favorite was Kyoto Song. It was the first time he put down the guitar and just walked around the stage and sang.

Yves Saint Laurent

One of the most important figures in fashion died on June 1. I've been waiting for some magazine special to come out. Something I could keep. I was elated when I found this Paris Match with a 42 page special. The cover shot is my fave of all time! Coincidentally I've been reading this book about him and Karl Lagerfeld.

More Self Service

So this is the first issue of Self Service to go hardback.  Fall/Winter 2006.  Shalom Harlow and Raquel Zimmerman star on both versions of the cover.  Self Service is the ultimate.  There is a 95 page layout with Shalom and Raquel with all these avant-garde  pics photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.  They also feature old photographs of cool people like these of Peter Saville and a young Terry Richardson taken by his mother, Annie Lomax.  There are also old fashion advertisements sometimes photographed with new accessories on top of them. And new ads like Tsumori Chisato that you can't find anywhere else.  On top of it all at the end of the mag there's always cool interviews like this one with Tilda Swinton and Mike Mills. 

Bitchen

Also found my copy of 'The Totally Awesome Val Guide'.  This is like totally amazing!  It explains how to eat, drink and breathe like a valley girl.  Published in 1982! 

Memory Lane

So I just took a trip home to Louisiana. As usual, I dug through all my old junk. All the fun things I don't have room for in my tiny New York apartment. I came across some really good stuff! First, my old Guess jeans which are probably circa '84-'85. The pair with the triangular pockets were my first pair. I remember pretty much growing out of these as soon as I got them. The really cool ones with the fold down pockets belonged to a friend of my sister's and never really fit me. I just wore them with a long shirt. The zippers are broken in both of them. My heart started beating really fast when I saw that Guess label. My mother got the ones with the buttons on the fly. I remember seeing 2 really cool girls at my sister's church in White Castle(a tiny Louisiana town). One had really amazing Guess jeans that I never saw anywhere ever again. The fly tied up. She had some cool long cardigan on with them. I knew they must have been visiting their grandparents from like New York or something. I'm pretty sure I tried to copy her look for the next 20 years or so.