Christian Louboutin in 24 Hours

In the most recent issue of Harper’s Bizarre (October 2012), there is a short article about shoe designer Christian Louboutin that quickly and effortlessly caught my attention (perhaps because of the beautifully circular text layout). I’m only a recently regular reader and subscriber to Harper’s, so I’m not sure if they do this sort of story in every issue, but the premise of the story is so simple, yet so interesting. The “article,” which I am almost even hesitant to call it considering it is a transcription of a conversation, is essentially written by Louboutin himself as he describes his typical daily routine. For those unfamiliar with him, Louboutin is a renowned and respected French footwear (mainly heels) designer. He is most known for his signature red soles on his designs.

The short piece begins at 7:00 AM with a morning run and ends at 1:00 AM with an anticipated journey straight to his bed (“It’s a 17th-century Portuguese bed, quite high—a super-big, super-nice wooden bed.”) Louboutin elaborates on his steam room shower, his breakfast phone calls, the process of choosing his outfit for the day, his private studio work, and which of his houses he designs which collections at (winter collection at the 13th-century French castle, any transitional collection at the Portugal house, summer collection at the Egyptian abode, and really no particular collection at his “small” L.A. or Paris homes). This story instantly appealed to me so much because of, I think, how undeniably interested we all are in the lives of these elevated celebrity-type figures. Who cares what your next-door neighbor ate this evening, but Christian Louboutin had crab for dinner?!? Fascinating! Tell me more! It’s crazy to me that an individual gains so much recognition from a talent, and they reach a point that carries them into this upper-division of public interest.

Louboutin ends his interview with Harper’s Anamaria Wilson by telling her, “Well, the perfect day would be if I had, like—I wouldn’t be too, too demanding—four extra hours. Just think if we could stretch it to 28 hours. That would be perfect.”

    

 

 

Photo 1 credit

Photo 2 credit

My Hesitant Love for Lana

Lana Del Rey-as a person-bores me to DEATH. The way she sways and slowly blinks, please. Wake me when she’s done performing. But I will damned if I am able to turn off her song “Radio” or “Off to the Races” any time soon. These two songs  are absurdly lovely, and I have honestly not been able to listen to anything else all day.

I can’t really tell if Rey has actually become a sensation. It seems that the months following the internet’s love obsession with “Video Games,” she appeared on Saturday Night Live, and for anybody that watched *and stayed awake during…* that episode, she wasn’t, um, the best act. The media ripped her apart the following day (exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C). She looked freakishly beautiful, though, because she always looks freakishly beautiful. No really. Google image “Lana Del Rey” and it’s like Barbie doll 101. So perhaps once I took her image away from the music she was creating, I better realized how much I appreciate it. It really is beautiful.

Basket Case: Green Day’s Meltdown

There are a very slim handful of albums involved in my childhood that really had a huge influence on my later flowering of musical taste; Green Day’s Dookie is one of those. It was possibly the first legitimate punk-ish album I heard and which led me down the Rancid, MXPX, Operation Ivy, etc., path. But that is besides the point. I’m going to go out on a ledge here and say that Green Day most likely holds some sort of significance with at least the majority of my generation. So when I heard about lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s downward spiral that occurred in front of what I can only assume to be thousands upon thousands of people at the iHeartMusic festival in Las Vegas, NV, it made me downright bummed. It made me bummed and it made me uncomfortable and it made confused.

While they were performing, Green Day was alerted on a screen that they had 1 minute left to play, cutting their set by a hefty 20 minutes in order to allocate more time for R&B superstar Usher. According to punknews.org, this sent Armstrong into a profanity-laden rant that for some bizarre reason encouraged the audience to cheer (?), like this was some really cool, respectably planned part of the performance. Armstrong and fellow band member Mike Dirnt smashed their guitars on stage, adding to the insanity.

The band posted the following announcement on their Facebook page Sunday afternoon:

“Billie Joe is seeking treatment for substance abuse. We would like everyone to know that our set was not cut short by Clear Channel and to apologize to those we offended at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas. We regretfully must postpone some of our upcoming promotional appearances.”

I wish the best for Armstrong and it is unfortunate that his unraveling occurred in front of such a major audience. Still love some Green Day.

Warning, kids: foul language.

Gangham Style

The very first time I heard Gangnam Style by Psy was on 93.7 KLBJ’s morning show, the Dudley and Bob show. They have used a clip of this song as one of their song beds. It’s a pretty goofy show, so I have always associated the song with the show. Recently, my boyfriend kept telling me that he had a video he desperately needed me to watch because I “would instantly be obsessed.” He showed me the video and I was absolutely entranced; I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen because of how spectacular the videography for this song is. I find myself repeatedly complimenting the video on its fantastic production, but why? What about this video is so enthralling and captivating and noticeable?

Perhaps it is this bizarre and insane mixture of 2 cultures. Psy articulates the lyrics in a very westernized fashion, a very casual yet aggressive tone, and I was actually initially convinced that the whole song was in English, which, it is in fact not. The absolute absence of sense is also another major arena of success with this video. There is very little consistency with the settings and many times, the objects in the scene almost heavily contradict with what we expect to find in the surrounding settings (e.g. why is Psy wearing a vest and trousers while tanning next to a playground? Why is he wearing a tuxedo in a horse stable? Why is he and 2 women, all of whom are dressed in very nice and formal attire, walking through an alley enduring a windy trash storm?) I think what I like most about this video is that it seems to scream that beauty is confidence and confidence is beauty. Everybody involved in this video seems to be engaging in incredibly goofy dances and bizarre acts (but it is also important to note that this is the point we could be facing a misunderstanding of cultures), yet every one of them seem to know exactly what they are doing and couldn’t give less of a care what one single viewer thinks. I love it, this music video is high energy eccentricity at its finest: the neon accents in every scene, the consistency of sunglasses on the characters, the grade-A wardrobe decisions, the repeated 60s throwbacks.

 

A group of students at the University of Texas here in Austin created a parody of Gangnam Style, but in the context of a football tailgating party. Everything about this version rubbed me the wrong way. The biggest downfall of the parody is that it tries to give the music video context. The original version of the video makes zero sense, at least to my American mind. This version attempts to create somewhat of a plot and a sequence of events (for the most part), which honestly makes the video make a lot less sense because the viewer is trying to keep track of what is happening and what just happened and what should happen next but which didn’t happen next. I had trouble making the connection between this style of music (not to mention this particular song) and college football. It’s confusing and not to mention the parody makes UT look like a joke.

 

Emmy Awards 2012

Tonight was the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards on ABC. Although I only caught about an hour’s worth of it, I came away fairly surprised at a) how much it roused different emotions out of me and b) how smooth and enjoyable the show was for me to watch.

I was rooting the strongest for HBO’s Girls (particularly Lena Dunham and the writing crew), Louis C.K., and Mad Men. Also, The Daily Show, Bill Maher, and The Colbert Report are always a given for me. I will have to check back in to see who won which awards!

Barrel Boss (results)

(Cont’d from Barrel Boss Wakesurf Competition)

Saturday morning, families and friends gathered at the tail-end of Steiner Ranch to watch the Barrel Boss wakesurf competitors compete on Lake Austin. (In fact, for those familiar with the neighborhood, the lakehouse is located so far into Steiner Ranch, you would not even recognize it as Steiner and this area actually abides by a very different and more lenient set of regulations.)

I mentioned that my little sister was competing in this competition-her very first! Though she didn’t advance to the final heat, which was being continued Sunday morning, she DID win the grand prize raffle drawing of a brand new Shred Stixx board, which was incredibly cool and very much alleviated the bumminess of not advancing.

Jessie with her board before the competition (*Note: this isn’t the board that she won)

 

Barrel Boss Wakesurf Competition

This Saturday is Sail and Ski’s Barrel Boss wakesurfing competition, in which my little sister, Jessica, will be competing! The competition will be held at Steiner Ranch Lake Club and the first heat begins at 9:00 in the morning. It is open to the public, so come support your local (and foreign) riders.

My family currently and has always lived on Lake Austin, so it goes without saying that my brother, my sister, and I have all been raised in the water. That being said, my 14-year-old sister might actually win the water award because she has taken a love to and talent for wakesurfing behind our boat. For those unfamiliar with this fairly new sport, wakesurfing-as the name insinuates-combines the behind-the-boat nature of wakeboarding with the non-restrictive board of surfing. Riders ride very close to the slow moving boat and after getting pulled up by a rope, they essentially just ride the wake.

If you feel able enough to participate, visit the Sail & Ski website to register for the appropriate division. Let’s hope sis wins big! Or at least has a blast, considering this is her very first competition. Stay tuned for stats from the competition.

 

About City Whitty

I am Whitney McCaskill and I am insanely passionate about writing and design. I am currently a senior at St. Edward’s University in my hometown of Austin, Texas. Make sure to follow me on Twitter and on Facebook.

This blog is for my Entertainment Journalism class with Michael Barnes. Be sure to follow his blog for the Austin American Statesman, as well!