ALINA

Dew

Sat, 18 May 2013 22:26:59 -0400

Is it already summer?

Sat, 18 May 2013 22:06:39 -0400

First week of being done with school! Boston is in full bloom, it is incredibly warm even at night, light breezes are playing with the sundresses most women are wearing these days, and any daytime hour feels like it should be spent outside. Some people say that Boston only has two seasons, summer and winter. I’m glad the latter is as over as it could possibly be!

I have to admit I celebrated the end of college pretty solidly. (Please note that for me partying “hard” is not defined by the quantity of beers consumed but by the quality of beats consumed.) I went to 6 electronic music shows/parties on 4 different nights - I saw Flying Lotus, ballet dancers, circus artists, heard the best deep house I’ve ever heard, and one time definitely danced until 6am with my friends. However, what I enjoyed most this past week was walking by the river and through the public gardens, iced coffee in one hand and my camera in the other. I may be a total city girl, but taking pictures of nature is incredibly soothing.

Hello, little friend!

Nosaj Thing - Eclipse/Blue It’s unusual for me to share...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:49:00 -0400

Nosaj Thing - Eclipse/Blue

It’s unusual for me to share videos here. If one day the original source removed them, I’d have a dead embedded clip on my blog, and I am very OCD about such things. However, this is SO beautiful I’m taking the risk.

Red pants in action

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:37:23 -0400

A little while ago I wrote a post about red pants… here’s how I wore mine.

Are there only 6 degrees of separation?

Mon, 13 May 2013 20:21:48 -0400

So much about life is about leaving and being left. May our journeys have twists and turns, because straight lines can only cross once.

S O H N - The Wheel

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:04:07 -0400

S O H N - The Wheel

The infamous hippopotamus

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:00:46 -0400

I guess I’m back to posting more pictures than text, but I wanted to show you my beloved stuffed animal. Cuddling sessions with Hippo definitely helped me get through the final, incredibly busy days of school. Today I had my very last class/presentation at the New England Conservatory. I don’t need to do anything remotely productive anymore to officially be a Bachelor(ette?) of Music! Now excuse me, there are parties to attend.

April haul

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:40:56 -0400

So behind with posting! Latest additions to my closet:

Floral pants = only new item that is not black + gold + studded/spiky.

Not actually very functional “utility” jacket with faux leather sleeves.

Yes, I once wrote a whole post on why I can’t stand backpacks and that I would never wear one. Then I challenged myself to find one I really like.

Replacement for a pair of black and gold sandals that fell apart in 2011.

Triangles are one of my favorite shapes in jewelry. Oh, as (almost) always, all these things are from Forever 21, except for the backpack, which is from Urban Outfitters - and screams “hipster” the most, doesn’t it?

Viennese Espresso

Tue, 07 May 2013 02:24:03 -0400

From Trident Booksellers & Cafe in Boston. This is my absolute favorite coffee/espresso drink - definition of “drink” slightly stretched.

Yannah Valdevit - Butterfly I finally got SHAZAM on my phone -...

Wed, 01 May 2013 18:20:00 -0400

Yannah Valdevit - Butterfly

I finally got SHAZAM on my phone - an app that recognizes music, my super nerdy new best friend! (Yeah, I’m late on that one.) So I went to Forever 21 and shazamed their store playlist, and thank goodness, they played this funky song again that I’ve been trying to find for quite a while.

Irregular choice

Wed, 01 May 2013 18:14:04 -0400

Wore this to a friend’s recital. I’m a big fan of symmetry and not a very big fan of mustard yellow, so this skirt is a rather unusual piece in my closet - but I adore the lace print and pairing it with emerald green!

The surreal life, part IV: the lesson learned

Wed, 01 May 2013 01:50:00 -0400

Bostonians, we are fortunate that all recent events felt as surreal as they did. As if Boston were Gotham City with Batman on hibernation, so BPD had to take over. As if Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were gonna pop up dressed in uniforms and followed by a camera team. Some people may get upset about actual, horrible reality reminding us of movies, a form of entertainment - but in my opinion, the fact that it does makes us very lucky people. This reality was just temporary, something we are not used to, and something nobody should have to get used to. In some other countries people find themselves in worse situations on a regular, if not daily basis. We should all wish for their peace and safety.

The surreal life, part III: the aftermath

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:54:00 -0400

I ended up playing my violin recital on April 21, just 40 hours later than originally scheduled. I’m so glad my mom still had the chance to hear it! Even finding a new available pianist on a one-day notice worked out. There weren’t many people in the audience, but the ones that were meant a lot to me. It went very well. I was a truly happy girl that day.

Yet, a few more surreal moments. April 22: I again try to bring mom to an orchestra rehearsal, but the street in front of my school is blocked by the police because of a suspicious package. The school’s residence hall gets evacuated. The suspicious object turns out to be a bucket.

April 26: one of my school’s security guards threatens to call the cops on me. I had lost my student ID. I ask if I can be let in with my alumni ID (which gives you full access to campus) or by signing in, considering I have to play in a composition recording in 5 minutes. Why would I be here at 8:55am otherwise? ”No, because alumni aren’t allowed to use practice rooms, and you’re clearly carrying an instrument. No, only guests can sign in, and you said you’re a student.” (Some random guy carrying a huge double bass signs in at this very moment.) Even the orchestra manager comes down to say I’m really needed for the recording. The guard says he won’t argue just because I’m too stingy to pay 15 bucks for a new ID, and that if I don’t leave, he’ll have to call the police to escort me out. Kinda wish I told him “Go for it!” so BPD would’ve had a good laugh. But instead I go home, get cash, go to one building for an ID form, to another for the actual ID, and I’m an hour late for a 2h45min recording.

Fortunately this was an exception to my otherwise friendly and helpful experience with any staff. I’m going to miss this school. I recently played in my last orchestra concert here, ending with Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” - a piece so powerful and a performance so stellar I started crying on stage already. In both bad and good ways: WHAT an emotional April.

The surreal life, part II: the chaos

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:49:19 -0400

April 19, 2013. It’s the day of my violin recital. At 1:30am my mom and I walk back from Shaw’s, a 24 hour supermarket, with a trolley full of reception food. There is no other living soul on the streets, but we notice plenty of police cars and S.W.A.T. vans. “Maybe it’s a precautionary measure,” mom says, “maybe they want to show that they’re watching out for this city, and that if anyone is planning on committing another crime such as the Marathon bombing, they will notice and stop them.”

The truth is a different one. The FBI had released the names of two brothers likely to be responsible for the bombing. Trying to escape, the suspects had shot a police officer in Cambridge and hijacked a car. Mom and I were picking cheese and crackers while in a huge shootout on the other side of the Charles River 15 cops were injured and one of the suspects was killed. The other one took off in the car, rolling over his dead brother’s body. The manhunt for a 19-year-old had begun.

(photo via NBC news)

I wake up in the morning thinking that in the meantime life just has to go on - but today it wouldn’t. I’m excited about bringing mom to orchestra rehearsal at 9am, because music heals - but we arrive in front of locked doors. School is closed. Everything is. The entire city is on lockdown because of a 19-year-old running around somewhere with a gun and possibly explosives. They find him hiding in a boat with a tank full of gasoline. Bostonians are glued to their TVs, phones, and computers while heavily armed men are trying to get that guy out of that boat without detonation. It could take days. Mom and I could survive on all the reception food as my 8pm recital obviously got cancelled.

Around 9pm they got him. People start screaming out of joy and relief, dancing on the streets, celebrating like after Obama’s re-election. Many get drunk just as if the Red Sox had just won a baseball game, and unite in a cheerful “B-P-D! B-P-D!” as the Boston Police Department tries to calm down the crowd - and ends up posing for photos instead. Heroes. Justice. Pride. Nobody messes with Boston. Nobody messes with ‘merica.

(photos via my friend and wonderful photographer Kate L.)

The surreal life, part I: the shock

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:56:00 -0400

April 15, 2013. It’s tax day, Patriots’ day, Boston Marathon day. It’s the deadline for grad school decisions. Right after confirming that I will pursue my Master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music instead of staying in Boston for the next 2 years (not an easy decision!), I leave my apartment to pick up my mom from Boston Logan Airport. She came all the way from Germany for my Bachelor of Music violin recital in 4 days.

The usual city noise is heavily dominated by police sirens. Right before hopping on the subway, I get a text from a friend asking me if I’m safe. Once I’m above ground again, I find out that 2 bombs went off at the finish line of the Marathon. 3 people die, 150 are injured. I fall into my mom’s arms. She had passed homeland security/passport control exactly one minute before the bombs had detonated. She might have saved my life. Were it not for her arrival in the afternoon, I might have taken a photography gig I’ve done before (at the Boston Half Marathon 2011): taking pictures of the runners right after they passed the finish line.

(Two pics I took for myself - the ones I got paid for were mostly posed.)

Boston is in tears. Boylston Street, which I had walked down with a friend just the day before, talking about bright red BCBG blazers and the pasta with marinara sauce we were about to indulge in for dinner, is now stained with blood. I’ve witnessed “extreme” situations in Boston before: a 55 hour power blackout, a hurricane, a huge blizzard… but nothing remotely like this, not even knowing what was still about to come.

New hurrr

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:09:00 -0400

I now belong to the women that have had at least one blonde phase in their life! Well, more strawberry blond-ish, but it definitely got a lot lighter, and it looks slightly different every day, which I really like. Technically I got it dyed two weeks ago, but life in Boston turned CRAZY afterwards, so I took a break from blogging. Anyways, here’s the hurrr:

Until 2 years ago I could’ve sworn I’ll never change my long (way below shoulder), curly, red-brown hair. What has college done to me? :D

Hold on a second...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 22:11:27 -0400

Dems - Down On You (Hannes Fischer Remix) From Solomun’s...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 05:09:00 -0400

Dems - Down On You (Hannes Fischer Remix)

From Solomun’s BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix… in which he pulls off both funky in-your-face beats and breezes of introversion like the above tune.

Today I'm wearing details

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:42:00 -0400

A not quite complete outfit post this time. Wore a baby-blue blazer.

Yes, you can... wear red pants

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:47:00 -0400

A friend recently complained she has nothing to wear with her red pants besides a solid black or white tee. Here are my style suggestions:

Red with black and/or white is an energetic and confident color combination! Try to keep it and change the cut, pattern, or material of the top instead. (Flowy blouse instead of tee, white with a subtle print instead of solid white, chiffon or faux leather instead of cotton…)
Mix red with light brown/beige/nude hues AND white for a warmer yet still refreshing look! Cappuccino + cherries.
Add a denim jacket for youthful and casual looks.
A classy blazer balances out the “rock & roll” of the pants.
Paired with subtle, light colored lace, the red will be perceived as alluring rather than agitated. (Black lace however may look cheap…)
Natural nails may seem too pale in context. Use polish! Coordinated red = safe bet, mint or lavender = cute, purple = sophisticated.
If you dare, add an in itself color-blocked accessory in neutral hues. It will draw attention to the pants as the biggest block of color!

Here are some ingredient ideas for spring-friendly outfits with red pants - and I bet you have similar stuff in your closet already: (pix via Polyvore)

And now, mix and match! Here are 6 (out of many) possible combinations -
#1 for city errands, #2 for shopping/lunch with your girls, #3 for outdoor get-togethers, #4 for the movies, #5 for a club, #6 for a date:

Don’t just contemplate buying red pants any longer. Do it! :)