Harlem USA Tour

Playing: Shadow of the Day-Linkin Park
Rereading: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon

Last Tuesday, I went to a New Politics' concert at the Observatory with the opening bands, Sleeper Agent and Magic Man. Usually, the warm up bands aren't that great, but in this case, both of the opening bands were stellar. Sleeper Agent had a really fun set and the lead singer, Alex Kandel, is living the dream. One girl being in a band with five guys? Definitely not bad at all.

Magic Man was also pretty great and the keyboardist, Justine Bowe, is also living the dream of being in a band with four guys. It was funny to watch the whole crowd freak out whenever the lead singer, Alex Caplow, get near them. Pretty much all of the girls at the concert couldn't help but fall half in love with Alex because he is so good looking.

When New Politics came on stage, everyone pushed forward, which luckily got me to the second row. I loved how interactive everyone in the band was with guitarist Soren Hansen passing around his ukulele, drummer Louis Vecchio blowing kisses to the crowd, and singer David Boyd  running up and down the aisles of the venue. I loved how the band was able to cram so much into an hour and a half with Danish lessons (because they're from Denmark), impromptu covers of silly pop ballads, and a dance show in the middle of the performance.

After the show, I immediately went off to go talk to the opening bands, which is definitely one of the perks of a small concert venue. Sam Lee and Alex Caplow of Magic Man were so sweet and fun to talk to. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of a chance to talk to Nick Smith, since there was a line of girls waiting to talk to him. Even if I like the opening bands, I typically don't look them up afterwards, but I've been checking up on Sleeper Agent and Magic Man and both of them are really good.

The best moment of the night was getting a chance to meet New Politics. Before the concert, I interviewed David for an article that I'm writing for the school paper (which was a great excuse to get to talk to him for a longer amount of time). I was a bit disappointed by the meet and greet because it turned out to be more of a pay and hey. You weren't allowed to get their autographs or hug them, but that's ok. David called me sweetheart and Louis called me babe after telling me I was pretty cute, which might be the highlight of all my meet and greets ever. All in all, it was a great concert and I really liked having a meet and greet instead of having to wait by the back door for over an hour to meet a band. I definitely want to see them again on the Monumentour.

P.S. Sorry that I haven't been keeping with my blog or tumblr that much recently. I've been watching a lot of the Olympics. I'm very happy for Charlie White and Meryl Davis. They definitely deserved the gold medal in ice dancing. (Also, how crazy is the scandal over Adelina Sotkinova and Yuna Kim? Adelina won the gold; let's be happy for her.)

stereotypical female things

Playing: Tonight You're Perfect-New Politics
Reading: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

To celebrate my semester break (and finally being a semester two senior), I went shopping with my friends, Tina and Taylor. I got this red skater dress from Topshop and the grey sweatshirt from H&M with them. I wanted a tighter fitting grey sweatshirt to wear with skirts and I figured the dress would be easy to wear. The sweater in the middle is a T by Alexander Wang, which I got for a complete steal. I've been wanting a sweater from Alexander Wang for awhile, but they're always super expensive, so I snatched up this sweater pretty quickly.

I've also been obsessing over lip colors lately. I liked the texture of the Revlon Balm Stain because it is so moisturizing, but I found this particular shade, Romantique, to be too orange for my skin tone. I'm still on the hunt for a bright red, so recommendations would be much appreciated. My dad also got me the Burberry Soft Satin Lipstick Set, which comes with three shades. All three of them have a nice, buttery texture to them and I really liked how wearable the three of them are.

While my brother was home for the holidays, we took a trip to Georgetown Cupcake and got a plethora of amazing flavors. Pictured above are Snowball, Salted Caramel, White Chocolate Peppermint, Lemon Blossom, Sticky Toffee Pudding, and Holiday Lava Fudge. I thought all of the flavors were very good, especially the White Chocolate Peppermint. In terms of looks and taste, Georgetown Cupcake makes some of the best cupcakes out there.

I'm also super excited to let you guys know that I will be spending a month exploring Japan with my friend, Tina. We will be visiting loads of friends throughout the country and it's going to be so much fun. We are stopping by Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nara, Osaka, Okinawa, Kyoto, Fukuoka, and Kobe, so if you have any recommendations for places to go in those cities, please let me know! (Tokyo photo courtesy of FashionToast)

muse

Playing: Just Like Heaven-William Beckett
Reading: Remembering Laughter by Wallace Stegner (Deeply tragic, may reread it soon.)

 

My dad made reservations for my family to visit the Getty Villa after promising to take me because I had seen it on Bryanboy's blog.When my dad was in college, he would stay with his UCLA professor that lives nearby and hike up to it. Technically, it's free to go, since the Getty Foundation pays for it. All that's needed is a reservation. However, you still have to pay for parking, which came out to $15. That's not a bad price though, if you think about it as the cost for your tickets.

The Getty Villa actually serves pretty decent food at their cafe. I ordered the Portobello Caprese Sandwich, which came served with pesto aioli and freshly baked focaccia. It was really good, but after taking a bite or two of my dad's oxtail ragu, I wish I had ordered that instead. If you do go, you should definitely try out the food. It's not the typical, horrid museum food.

My favorite part about the Getty Villa was the large garden, which offered a spectacular view of the beach. The garden was perfectly taken care of and it really made me feel like I was back in Italy. Everything looked a tad too new for it to be truly Italy, but it was close enough. Next to this garden is an herb garden, which feels almost exactly like the Italian countryside.

Other than the fantastic design of the building and the beautiful gardens, the Getty Villa also has an extensive collection of Roman and Greek artifacts mostly relating back to the arts and the Greek gods. At most museums, I'm unable to see every exhibit before becoming overwhelmed. However, the Getty Villa was just small enough for me to see everything in under five hours without being so small that it's not worth driving out to. Fun fact that I learned from the Getty Villa: Museums were named in honor of the nine muses because museums are supposed to be areas, where the muses' presences can be felt. Interesting, right?