Guitar Wolf

Back on June 28th I dropped a few bucks to go see Guitar Wolf, one of the many and varied Japanese bands I listened to back in high school. When I told a friend I met there who asked if I was into them, "I used to listen to them ten years ago", I felt like I'd fallen into some kind of trans-dimensional hole. All those years can be readily accounted for, sure, but sometimes it's just totally bizarre when it suddenly sinks in how much time has passed since some particular event, emotion or period. You know that feel, everybody does.

Anyway, it was a nostalgia trip, so I figured I'd go. Unfortunately I only had my phone camera on me (the dream of buying a DSLR might be alive in Portland, but for me it died back in March or April), but I also found myself in these professional pics:

I just used the cheap trick of manipulating mine by saturating the shit out of them and turning up the colour volume to make them look as if angrily dyeing Easter eggs had a sound to make them look a little better.

I wasn't in the best shape emotionally when I went out to this show - alone - but had decided to do my hair and makeup like I didn't give a shit about how unhappy this country and the people in it have made me. I successfully got drunk enough on gin tonics to take a bathroom selfie that was bombed by some girl who gave up on her falsies and stuck them to the mirror.

Guitar Wolf was pretty fucking loud, as is evidenced by the video I've posted below and everything they've ever recorded, but not as legendarily damage-inducing as I'd anticipated, unfortunately. Blood wasn't leaking from my ears after the show. I demanded a refund.

I could've chatted up the extremely sweaty dudes in the band at the obligatory samgyeopsal afterparty but wasn't even in the mood. The friend I met there - Jesse - knew I'd been pretty down and took me to a cute all-night bar/cafe after the show so we could talk for a while. He successfully consoled me, there was a random cat, we almost fell asleep at the table as daylight crept into full view, and it was good.

Thom Browne's 2014 Collections

So long tiem, wow. The last time I posted something on here was the weekend before HBC Fest, because I've been going out, dating people, being preoccupied and whatever else, but mostly not staying at home being sad. Finally.
It's weird to think about how much has happened since I last stuck something on this crappy little blog, but I guess that's another story that'll be contained within a lengthy series of catch-up posts.

This, though, I've been wanting to post for a few months. It's just about how cool Thom Browne's stuff for this year is, starting at the end of last year with the weird, boxy pseudo-future constructed by said master tailor.

Actually, I read something that made a lot of sense: when you take into account the shoes, eyewear and quilted aspects, the inspiration for this menswear collection does seem to come from Browne's native (Amish) Pennsylvania.

And as for the womens' wear, ugh, I wish I could afford to dress like this for work:

The Fall / Winter '13-'14 RTW collection, while spectacular, should definitely just be called 

"the Helena Bonham Carter collection".

Amirite?

His Spring/Summer collections were pretty amazing, too: Joker-esque asylum women clad in what at times look like the corpses of alien birds and lipsticked men in preppy, nautical, latex military uniforms. Um, yes. Fetish the new floral? I'm down. Anyone who can make eyepatches and insanity fresh, festive and yacht-appropriate is doing everything right as far as I'm concerned.

Aww, creepy.

Unfortunately, you can't hit them all out of the park, and Browne's 1970's Americana-striped pre-fall collection that overtly displayed a shiny golden lack of appreciation for subtlety and symbolism left a lot to be desired in my opinion. 

But don't get me wrong, if it were to go on sale at low-to-mid level department stores (that is, if it were accessible to everyone), the collection would be cool as shit and would obviously fly off the shelves. Minus the leafy crap, I'd love to wear the set on the right.

And now, the one that made me want to do this blog post back in (I think it was) February when I saw it: The '14 Resort Collection. The design and craftsmanship at work here are so good that the man turned the whole effing collection inside-out to show you how it works. And the way he left the threads hanging? Ugh. UGH. Brilliant. I want to appreciate the tweed texture and sharp geometrical execution up close.

So, as much as I love that, check out this crazy shit that leafy nonsense was leading up to. It's, well, significantly more leafy nonsense. Half of the Fall/Winter menswear consisted of "hunters" painted in "camouflage" who resembled those big goofy aliens responsible for creating Leeloo in the beginning of The Fifth Element while the other half were gorgeously creepy fairytale animals. Apparently the whole grey forest set was constructed of menswear fabrics, too.

In 400 years - when evil returns - so shall we, and we vow to do so in pants and coats somehow more ridiculous than those assaulting your senses presently.

Isn't that elephant just spectacular? And does anyone want to get me the bear hat and rabbit eye patch for my birthday?

Last but not least, the womenswear. It reminds me of when the new Omen movie came out on 6/6/06 and Ale and her friend dressed in nuns' habits when we went to see it while I just did my best to look demonic and scary.

Pretty cool, right? While I wasn't aware of him when Michelle Obama wore one of his dresses and coats to the inauguration at the beginning of last year, Thom Browne's definitely worth keeping an eye on.