February, 2010

  1. Once upon a time, I had a birthday

    February 16, 2010 by ms. xandra

    Some people may or may not have been whisked away by enterprising gentlemen for a weekend of birthday adventures.

    Some of those adventures may or may not have included:

    Chancing upon some Spudnuts in Santa Barbara;

    Scenery of a jaw-dropping nature;

    SOLVANG!  Solvang is like a town in Denmark, via Disneyland.  In Solvang, some people may or may not have actually seen Arnold Schwarzenegger (we totally did see Arnold Schwarzenegger in Solvang, and, ever the eloquent soul, my immediate statement was “that man’s skin is so taut his face looks like a fine saddle.”  In case you were wondering, he and his retinue of bodyguards went to the Bit O’ Denmark Restaurant);

    The Madonna Inn.  Dreams really do come true, friends, and the Madonna Inn is basically the physical manifestation of all of my dreams.  For the uninitiated:  the Madonna Inn is a hotel near San Luis Obispo that was built in the 1950s, and every room is uniquely themed and decorated to be as kitschy as possible.  It is WONDERFUL.

    And we stayed in this room.  The bed is ROUND.  Some people may or may not have spent all weekend jumping up and down, excitedly, in the manner of a five year old, going “Circle bed circle bed! We get to sleep in a circle bed!”

    And IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH, the next day we went to Ostrich Land.  Did you know that an ostrich egg costs $40?  This is upsetting, because my current dream is to host a dinner party at which I serve a single, giant boiled egg, which I will slice and serve to my guests like a ham.  I am currently on a quest to source cheaper ostrich eggs somewhere in Los Angeles.

    And then there was pea soup, at Pea Soup Anderson’s, a restaurant that proves that the best business model is to have cartoon character mascots from the 1950s, and be famous for one thing, even if it is a thing that most people probably don’t generally want (ie: pea soup).

    And then we went dancing in the 1940s and it was so, so, so wonderful, and I wore my best dress and ate flan.  THE END.


  2. Dress and a Song Episode 14: The Satisfactions – Daddy, You’ve Just Gotta Let Him In

    February 4, 2010 by ms. xandra

    Ok, I swear to god I am still blogging for realz.  This quarter is just eating my brain alive – my exams are coming up, which is, you know, stressful and stuff.  So I apologize for the lack of dress blogging as of late.

    But anyhow!

    The Satisfactions have proven a bit tough to track down.  By all accounts, they were actually The Blossoms, a girl group who didn’t have that many hits of their own, but who recorded backup vocals for Phil Spector-produced tracks by bands like the Ronnettes and the Crystals, and they worked with artists including Elvis, Sonny and Cher, and the Beach Boys.  Darlene Love, who’s now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, got her start with the Blossoms, and Gracia Nitzsche, who was married to superstar producer Jack Nitzsche, was also a member, and seems to have been the lead vocalist for this particular song.  There isn’t a lot of information, though, on which incarnation of the Blossoms made up the Satisfactions, and they don’t seem to have recorded much else under that name.

    But this song . . . is amazing.  It’s a tragic, poignant narrative about a very difficult rite of passage that young women have gone through since the dawn of time:  breaking the news to dad that your boyfriend is a member of the Hell’s Angels.

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    Things that make this awesome:

    i) The growling vocal delivery on “Hell’s Angels,”

    ii)  The ascending vocal line on the word “in” at the end of the verse:  it really goes much, much higher than is necessary, and I am totally ok with that,

    iii)  So many things left unexplained!  Who is he on the run from?  Where did she find a member of the Hell’s Angels?  Is he actually a member of the Hell’s Angels, or is “one of hell’s angels” just a terrible metaphor for being a bad boy?  I have obviously decided that he is actually an outlaw biker, because that is the more exciting option.  And HOW AWKWRD will it be when he meets her dad?  “Oh, I hear you’re a member of a biker gang.  What are your intentions vis-a-vis my daughter?”  Thank god I’ve never had to tell my dad that my boyfriend is a member of the Hell’s Angels.  Thank god my boyfriend is a librarian instead.

    But just remember:  if you’re the kind of teenage girl who’s going to run away with the Hell’s Angels, be sure to pick a skirt that will match nicely with your boyfriend’s leather jacket, which, if he’s any sort of gentleman, he would do well to lend you, because I hear it gets pretty breezy on the back of a motorcycle.

    Vintage biker jacket from Jack Rabbit Vintage

    Pink and black circle skirt from Stella Ranae Vintage


  3. Very secret confessions

    February 2, 2010 by ms. xandra

    The past few months have been so lovely, because I met a nice boy, and he plays the accordion and he has a beard, and he makes me so, so happy.

    And my hair is longer than it has been in years, and it’s going to stay that way because I love when he runs his fingers through it.

    Shhh!  Don’t tell.