Music of... Confusion?

    This song is just too funny. Babymetal's my new thing!

And this one...

Why I Don't Mind (Too Much) Summer Isolation

    Summer, so far, has been pretty good for me. I live on the other side of town from where everything's quote-unquote happening, so I don't really go over there so often because my mom has expressed to me that she does NOT want to be our family's designated chauffeur and constantly be driving around our large town... understandable, but somewhat unfortunate for me.    
    So I've mostly stayed at home/gone on various day trips, which is okay by me for now. I really don't mind being antisocial for a week or two before I get shipped off to sleepaway camp; in fact, that way I get to  play piano like a boss, have Death Note marathons, talk to Kruuuup about Death Note marathons, go to the beach, and make pancakes in the morning. Not bad, yes? Next on my list is making Run-DMC t-shirts, woot woot! And filming a Dance Moms parody with my neighbor/friend and a few other people. Doesn't that sound great? It sho' nuff does to me.
    I gotta say that I'm never really THAT intensely excited for summer (that's probably exaggerating too, I'm less than excited) for a few reasons.
    1. I live on the opposite side of town from most of my friends, which is very inconvenient and means that I can't just walk over to their houses whenever I wish. And my mom will drive me over there approximately once a week. So that takes care of that.
    2. I really, really, really like school... call me crazy, but I do. I don't really mind most of the schoolwork (don't quote me on that), all my friends are there, and... yeah. Isn't it a no-brainer at that point? So I'm always sort of sad when school ends.
    3. I don't go to all these nonstop day camps that a lot of kids my age do, so (1) I miss some friends, and (2) I have a lot of free time.
    Those are my main reasons. But I really think that I'm quite lucky for getting camp for a few weeks, AND going to Europe in August! I'm extremely pumped for that. So summer's going just as planned. Hurrah, me!

"everybody's talking bout a new kind of walking"

"everybody's talking bout a new kind of walking" by pinkyallamoda featuring head wrap headbands

Welcome to the Jungle

Welcome to the Jungle by pinkyallamoda featuring printed socks

On My Desk

On My Desk by pinkyallamoda featuring black pearl jewelry

Pop Culture: Hedwig, Marina, Masquerade, Robert, and Elaine

The world is sometimes just too cool for words. Okay, my computer is officially freaking out because there are TWO gifs in one post, so I need to stop typing or it'll crash or something disastrous like that

Why We Should All Abide by the Hayao Miyazaki Rules

    Know what backwards-opening graphic novel picks me up when I'm alone in the deserted "young adult" section of a strange library in an unknown town that houses a school that my younger brother used to go to? My Neighbor Totoro. 
    Know what I've watched mazillions of times since it came out in theaters in August '09, not to mention bought exactly on the day it came out on DVD because it was on my birthday, and sang the words of the CLOSING SONG with my dear friend Chuck? Ponyo. 
    Know what scared me for a few nights after seeing it because of the CREEPY RADISH GUY and also No-Face's practically nonexistent voice, but prompted me to declare that my favorite name in the whole wide world was Chihiro? Spirited Away. 
    Know what movie made me want to buy tons of sugar cubes just so I could stealthily noisily steal them and laugh hysterically when my parents didn't even notice my expert espionage skills? Arietty.
    Know why I've been spending the past ten minutes writing run-on sentences upon run-on sentences about Japanese films, probably half of which you viewers (pop. approximately 4, but only two commenters) don't even know about? Because Studio Ghibli, the maker of all these great movies/graphic novels/general awesomeness, is so totally tubular and all that, of corpse!  I've decided to compose a list of movies that are just Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli GOLD, y'all, in hopes that ole Chuck will remember the good old days of Spirited Away and sleepovers.
     Ponyo: This was so fabulous! My grandpa took me to see it when it first came out, and I was totally in love with it from that moment on. Plus, Matt Damon! I have no comment about how Ponyo and Sosuke are played by Little Cyrus and Little Jonas. This was the very beginning of my penchant for Studio Ghibli. Now my little brother watches it, and since we own it (we got it on my birthday a few years ago because that was the exact day it came out on DVD), I watch along every single time he does! The Devonian-age fish are the coolest thangs. I had to look them up afterwards because I was so interested in them. Dipnorhynchus, now I know a big word.
 My Neighbor Totoro: Okay, I'll confess...
warning: PAGE BREAK! PAGE BREAK!

Soles

    I thought that name sounded cryptic and mysterious, didn't you?
    So I was just wasting all my time on Polyvore while watching Seinfeld out of the corner of my eye, as I tend to do, when I found this seriously uh-mazing pair of rainboots. They aren't your normal boots. They're cooler. They're not quite see-through, but they're sort of tinted. Their soles are BRIGHT NEON COLOURS! Notice I spelled that the British way. So are their laces. They're so radical, bro! Check them out, and fangirl with me if you so desire.

Plus, in the top corner of every little boot snapshot, there are little charming hearts, just floating around. AWW. I really want the yellow pair of these, or possibly the pink. Although I suppose they're sort of impractical, because unless you wear, like, transparent socks that have material so thick that it looks like you have no feet, the effect of the see-through is sort of ruined. Plus, you really can't even wear them with long pants, because if you do, once again, the effect is annihilated (love that word). But either way, they're cute just to dream about.

Holla, 8tracks

Hokay, today I have a mission for all you eggheads reading this right now. Everyone, go onto 8tracks.com and make an account so you can (a) be bothered by me and the rest of the fabulous music world, and (b) create cool virtuale playlists, sort of, and share your fabulous music choices with the world! Mine is pi-and-piano, and here's my first mix (haha, mixtape, how retro am I now?):

Freedom from pi-and-piano on 8tracks Radio.

I Could Be Amish

    I just got back from Lancaster County, in Pennsylvania, where the FAM spent the long weekend. Let me tell you, there was something about the perpetual scent of manure mixed with the thrill of homemade butter that just was so... perfect. Long story short, I loved it! I'm too lazy to sync my phone to my computer right now and download my photos, but in a bit I'll see if I can upload some of my great pictures of wide open fields and Amish lemonade stands.
    I think it was how simple the lifestyle of the Amish is that made me so enraptured. I know, the idea of no electricity probably sounds sort of like a living hell for most of you guys, but I really think I could get used to it... if you gave me some time... maybe...
    They hang their clothes out to dry on clotheslines--I'm totally in the process of convincing my dad to do this as we speak, by the way; wish me luck--and raise CHICKENS--I saw this Amish kid on the side of the road who was literally throwing a chicken into the air and catching it, like it was some kind of toy--and wear suspenders and straw hats. I mean, what's not to love? I guess I could settle for being a Mennonite, just as long as I got to live on a farm. That would probably be for the better, seeing as I'm not sure I could maintain the dress code of the Amish females.
     We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast with a farm, this old Mennonite couple called the Rohrers that my parents and grandparents have been staying with whenever they went up to Amish country since way back when, and it was great. I loved just looking out at all the fields, and watching the dairy cows walk around, and listening on the front porch for the clip-clop of the horses and buggies as they drove past. I tell you, the buggy part was absolutely surreal. The Amish kids, since they can't use bikes or anything that isn't powered by their own energy, ride around on these cool scooters which I think would be really handy to have around, and I want one. See, life's just so simple, and so perfect too. I don't think I would mind... don't quote me on that. Anyway, my brother really hit it off with the Rohrers' dog and had a blast with that, while my mom and I hit it off with the Bird-in-Hand (that's the town we stayed in) Farmer's Market and their delicious picnic foods (our daily lunch--Polish kielbassi, really airy bread, local-made cheeses, lemonade, and WHOOPIE PIES!).
    So stay tuned for those pictures! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but as you can see, I've been busy. Adieu!

Amish Country

Amish Country by pinkyallamoda featuring wide brim hats

60 Minutes: Bill Gates is Awesome

Melinda Gates: Well, we both have curiosity for lots of things. Bill, at this stage in our life, also gets more time to read than I do... But the great thing is Bill will go read an entire book about fertilizer. And I can tell you even without three kids in the house, I'm not going to read a book about fertilizer.
Charlie Rose: So what is it about a book about fertilizer? I mean, seriously?
Bill Gates: Well, fertilizers are very interesting... We couldn't feed--a few billion people would have to die if we hadn't come up with fertilizer.
    Hear, hear.

Lunchtime

      There is an undeniable agreement around the world--lunch is awesome. I'm going to get to the point right now, and say that not only is LUNCH awesome, but its carrier--the famed lunchbox, bag, sack, or whatever you may call it--truly generates the awesome. So today I'm going to share with you some great ways to transport your lunch, across the globe and through the decades. Enjoy!
Always, the tin lunchbox.

I've always had a small obsession with lunch boxes with compartments. I find them to be so adorable and, well, organized, which is what I like. However, I've always felt conflicted because me and the retro tin have always been a package deal, but the cute compartment containers DON'T FIT IN THE TINS! Hopefully, you all understand how catastrophic this is for me emotionally.
Oh, the classic lunch pail, from dinosaur days. Of our parents.

The average school lunch in France. What are we missing here, folks?
The average school lunch in Japan. So cute!

All right, no offense, rest of world, but the only cool lunch things I seem to be finding on Google are from Japan. There must be some fun-lunchbox deficiency currently... I'll need to work on that. Anyway, I think we've reached the end of the line here. Hope you enjoyed this, and are now hungry. I'll feel some sense of accomplishment.
   By ze way, I'm going to Amish Country for Memorial Day weekend! Make sure to mention what you're doing in the comments...

Watch Out: Marina and the Diamonds

    I've been a fan of le incroyable Marina Diamandis since I heard her song "Radioactive" playing in Loehmann's sometime last year. I love pretty much everything about her--her clothes: Her songs:
--Primadonna (best one ever): 
--Oh No (already on blog, click here to see post with video)
--I Am Not a Robot
--Radioactive (not to be confused with another song of that same title, by the ever-famous Imagine Dragons)
--Teen Idle
--How to Be a Heartbreaker (I was never really a big fan of this song, and then when it went mainstream and was on Glee and all that... but snaps to you if you like it, I suppose)
    That's all I can really remember right now. I just wanted to say that Marina Diamandis is one of the coolest people right now, and if she gets popular after I write this (like MKTO did; see my post), well, you'll already know her and all her repertoire. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go to watch Moonrise Kingdom. Adieu!

Spirit Music

    This easy--but haunting--song in my piano book that I thought was cool. For all my fellow piano players... enjoy, my friends!

Cool! It's a CAPTION.

The Chopsticks Project

    As a certain four people (#theband) may know, I'm sort of a fail in terms of chopsticks. But they're so cool! So after I publicly embarrassed myself at dim sum about a month ago with said Asian people, I decided that I should really get in some chopsticks practice for myself and become respected whenever I attempt to eat sticky rice or something along those lines. To help me on my food-ish foody food-esque food-related journey, I'm going to try to make it fun for myself by looking at madly cool pictures of pop culture-related chopsticks! And you guys get to observe along with me! OMG OMG OMG

Here we are. Click on the names to go to the link and the picture!

-Lightsaber chopsticks (red = Darth Vader, blue = Luke Skywalker (Luuuuke), green = Yoda)

-Nunchops! (nunchucks, but chopsticks)

-Random little animal faces chopsticks

-Samurai chopsticks

-Flosticks (they look like twigs...?)

Junk Food is Delicious

     I mean, seriously. How good does this look? I want to eat healthier and eat more fruit so I can run like the Tarahumara (please read Born to Run) and become invincible--insert Lion King epiphany music here--but everything's just too tempting! So I'm going to help out my dear readers and offer some handy junk-food counseling (she says, acting like the expert health nut while eating a Boston cream doughnut) by sharing some cool snack recipes that are healthy and good and all that schnazzy jazz. So without further ado, I present to you the impossible--a nutritious and wholesome food that actually TASTES GOOD. Mind blown.
           Super Simple, Super Succulent, Super Salubrious Fruit Tart! Thesaurus that.

Filling--I'm assuming you're going to take the lazy way out and buy a pie crust from your grocery store of choice

• 1 1/2 cups low-fat vanilla yogurt
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup whipping cream, if you want
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons of some kind of jam/jelly/preserves, for glaze (optional)
• 4-5 cups fresh fruit, such as strawberries, raspberries, peaches and/or kiwis

PREPARATION

1. To make filling: Pour orange juice into a large heatproof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over the surface and allow to soften for 2 minutes. Set the bowl in a skillet of simmering water and stir the orange juice to completely dissolve the gelatin. (Or use a microwave-safe bowl and heat in the microwave for about 25 seconds.) Beat cream and sugar to soft peaks in another bowl.
2. Fold the drained yogurt into the gelatin mixture with a rubber spatula. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Pour the filling into the tart shell and chill in refrigerator until partially set, 20 to 30 minutes.
3. To assemble tart: If you plan to glaze the fruit, melt apricot preserves (or red currant jelly) in a small saucepan over low heat; if using preserves, strain through a fine sieve set over a small bowl. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Trim or slice fruits as necessary and arrange on the chilled filling. Brush the fruits with the apricot (or currant) glaze, if using. Return the tart to the refrigerator to chill until the filling has set completely, about 4 hours.

The Whoa Factor

    So today, at school, was 3Rs Day, which our school has every other year, and it's basically when all these cool, heroic people from historic eras come to visit our school and talk about their experiences. And it's televised and everything! It's a really thoughtful day for everyone, and I love learning about the more, I don't know, mainstream (that seems sort of insulting, but for lack of a better word, we'll have to go with that one) events, such as people who come who are Holocaust survivors; or the more obscure ones, such as a guy who came to visit who was only a little kid during the Rwanda genocide. Either way, I really enjoyed myself. We're so privileged to have all these amazing people visit us and tell us their stories. We traveled in homerooms, and here was our schedule:
    pd. 1--Holocaust violist
    pd. 2--Burundi genocide survivor. I'm not going to go too much into detail here because I'll be writing into the night like the crazy, unbridled child that I am, but this guy was really impactful. He spoke in broken English about how he was only a young kid when his Tutsi family, friends, and neighbors were killed for no good reason, and the horrifying things he had to go through. But his main message for us was that we should always be forgiving, and be optimistic. I thought he was AMAZING.
    pd. 3--lady with a You Are Beautiful campaign. It didn't interest me that much, but you know. It was a valuable life lesson, I suppose.
    pd. 4--lunch
    pd. 5--Kellum Smith. Amazing.
    pd. 6--9/11 survivor. Now this is truly just astounding (love that word). This man worked on the 84th floor of the South Tower, and caught just about every lucky break thrown at him. He saved people and saved himself, returned to his family surprisingly quickly, and had seriously minimal injuries. He was a wonderful public speaker, too. That was definitely one of my favorite presentations.
    pd. 7--guy with cerebral palsy. His name was Johnnie Tuitel, and he was just so charismatic that he automatically became my favorite, especially his choice words about a certain Jack Rosen's hair. HA! He also apparently drove his wheelchair into a pool off a high dive. Role model.
    And then we had an all-school assembly thing for our principal, who's leaving. All in all, fabulous day. 

Mouthing Off

       The infamous Pac-Man mouth, followed by some Smash Mouth wisdom. One of these days (when I finish those stupid journal entries for S.S., cough cough, procrastinating), I'm going to make a list of some schnazzy quotes. Possible candidates: Walt Whitman, Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief, Roberto Benigni, and even MORE Holden Caulfield, because y'all just can't get enough of this guy. Seriously, everyone, while you're waiting for Allegiant to come out (if you don't know what I'm talking about, I disown you. After you get over the initial shame of this, look it up, please), read The Catcher in the Rye and we can have a meeting over coffee--nah, hot chocolate with paper umbrellas from the Chinese restaurant--and discuss it like the mature, well-read individuals that we aren't. Well, I'm pumped for this! Anyway. Smash Mouth!

Walking out of the door I'm on my way, can you tell me just where I'm going?
Occupational skills, would you give me a clue what to do cause my minds in motion?
Just trying to relax, I find myself on the couch with big plans but there's always tomorrow
Is something wrong with me or the way that I'm thinking?
Come on, come on and tell me why you're staring 
Come on, come on... it must be what I'm wearing 
Come on, come on and tell me why's it taking so long for you to recognize and stop
Another day in the sun, I'm having fun feel the heat sneaking up on me
I take a look in the sky, a plane goes by, is that the reason that I can't breathe?
I take a look and I wonder why, why these birds don't fly
It's hard for me to see and I believe my oh my...

Scientific Breakthrough

      Because I was feeling sciencey today. I'm such a genius that...

Worship ze Natalie Dee. Since I have all this crazy music floating around in my brain, I'm going to let it escape via a playlist that offers it its freedom. What's a good theme for it? Comments, per favore!
                                                  FREEDOM PLAYLIST:
*Kodachrome: Simon and Garfunkel
*Icky Thump: The White Stripes
*Dancing Days: Led Zeppelin
*Time to Get Ill: Beastie Boys
*I Should Have Known Better: The Beatles (ayyy, Tris)
*My Life: Billy Joel
*Teen Idle: Marina and the Diamonds
*Edge of Seventeen: Stevie Nicks
*Alright: Supergrass
*Let Go: Frou Frou
*My Name is Jonas: Weezer