I'm in a weird place right now and actually haven't been finding/listening to much music at all, let alone new music. Please help me out! Despite this fact, I've put together a short playlist of the things I have been listening to. Most of the songs are pretty old at this point (some more than others, I'm pretty ok with this mix as representative of my tastes). The first song on there is by a band called cruelster who I've mentioned in a previous post. They're from Cleveland and they're awesome. I'm currently majorly into their most recent album, potatoe boys, which you can get on their bandcamp.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
Cleveland is the Reason
So it's been warm the past few days in Cleveland. Finally. Which was welcome for about 15 minutes and now it's way too warm for me. But that's a Midwesterner for ya, never gonna stop bitching about the weather. But because it was warm I decided to head downtown early before work one day and take a walk through the city and down by the lake. I have a major thing for large bodies of water, they both fascinate me and terrify me. So in the spirit of this adventure I'm gonna share some pictures from my walk and dedicate this post to all my favorite things in Cleveland! It really is one of the best cities on the planet, but it gets so much crap. Yes, it's an old steel town. Yes, there's a lot of poverty. Yes, the weather sucks. However, it's also a huge hub for music and art and food and beer! I consider all these things good things and there are so many up and coming neighborhoods. It's very easy for me to find new things to do and new places to go because there are so many!
The Cleveland skyline is one of my favorites in the country. It's so beautiful to drive down highway 2 late at night with the city lit up to your left and the dark expanse of lake to your right. It's truly fantastic.
Lake Erie may not have crystal blue waters or even be clean, but it's still really nice to sit by the shore or on a pier and feel the breeze and look out into the emptiness.
Rare shot of sunshine over the city. Big ol' fluffy clouds. Love it.
And now I guess it's time for me to espouse my favorite places in Cleveland! I think I'll start with...
Bars
My friend Marija and me at ABC Tavern Uptown
(let me preface this by saying I love divey bars)
ABC Tavern (both Uptown and Ohio City)
I love all these bars, they're all super chill and have great prices on drinks. ABC and Taphouse have extensive beer selections, even though I always end up with a Pabst haha. Great atmosphere, and most of these places have great food too (especially ABC).
Concert Venues
Good buddy Dave in front of the Grog Shop
Like I said earlier I like divey spaces so Grog Shop comes out on top of this list. It's a nice small venue and the stage is pretty low so it's a very intimate concert experience and the people who work there are awesome. And Mahall's has bowling and good food (my friend never shuts up about their fried chicken). The Beachland is a Cleveland staple venue, but it's a little far out of my way and their shows are either really great or I don't care but when they throw a show they do it right!
Restaurants
Me about to chow down on the Melt sandwich of the month
As you can see, I love Mexican food. Every time a new Mexican place opens up I am the first in line. I'm also big into sandwiches. Melt is a cleveland staple, they have a bunch of locations around the city and have recently opened up a spot in Columbus as well. B-Spot is a Michael Symon restaurant that does burgers, which are great, but i'm waaay more into their milkshakes (which you can add alcohol too which is really why they're so awesome). Chinato is the swanky place on this list and is pretty pricey but it's a Zack Bruell restaurant so you can expect good things.
Bands
Thaddeus Anna Greene playing during Brite Winter Fest this year
These bands play regularly all over the city and are always great. Always. Thaddeus and Suede Brothers play blues-based hard rock (Thaddeus tops this list as my favorite band in the city, I have never been disappointed). Bad Noids and Cruelster play very different but equally awesome legit punk music. No bullshit, nothing fancy. Blaka Watra are very much like a heavier version of Warpaint, kinda shoegazey. Keep in mind these are just my favorite currently active local bands, there a bunch more that are either no longer making music or have gotten too big to just be local.
Well, that's a lot of stuff to check out, so I guess it's time to plan your weekend trip to Cleveland now! There's tons of stuff to do that's not on this list, this is just a great place to start to have a very rock n' roll weekend out on the town. There are plenty of more upscale places in the city to hang out and have fun, but as a broke young person these are my top picks. Happy Cleveland-ing!
*All these photos are mine except the photo of me at ABC which is my friend Marija's
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Shopping Haul!!
I went shopping today. I can't really afford to go shopping, but i did anyway. Solely in honor of my first day off in a long time. And I got a little bit of everything so I can't even be mad at myself, and I got one refill of something I needed.
The main reason I went out shopping was to pick up #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso, the CEO and founder of Nasty Gal. I'm obsessed with everything they sell on that site, plus I haven't read a book in a while and I figure it's about time.
Shoes from Forever 21. They're pretty comfortable on but I'm not used to this kind of sandal so they're a little awkward but I will get used to them.
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer in original. Anastasia Brow Wiz in Ebony, Nyx lip liner pencil, and Too Faced Melted lipstick, the coral one. All from Sephora except the NYX lip liner which is from Nordstrom Rack. The Brow Wiz is a refill and I love it, allows you to build up the tone and goes on nicely. I've heard wonderful things about the Melted Lipstick so I decided to give it a shot. Plus I'm super into coral right now and I don't have any coral lipsticks so this was a perfect addition to the collection.
The watch is from Nordstrom rack and it came in a Fossil box but I know it's not a Fossil watch. So I have no clue what it is. The little red bag is from Forever 21. It has a gold shoulder chain as well, and I thought it would be the perfect little going out bag.
This was the Holy Grail of my purchases. The Michael Kors patent leather shoulder bag :))) It was my splurge at about $130 from Nordstrom Rack. I'm in love with it. So so very in love. I'm not super into gold details but I'm totally okay with it on this bag. It was hard to pick between this one and the white one, but black is kind of my signature so I decided to stick with it.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Shoe Cult
I just purchased the most amazing shoes from Nasty Gal!! When they were first released they were priced at $120 but by the grace of the shoe gods they've been marked down to $49. And I received them yesterday, my birthday, which was just such incredible timing.
Ideally I would love to wear them with short shorts and a kimono shawl top with some big ol' sunglasses, but sadly I do not own a kimono shawl (yet). Sadly, I no longer see these particular shoes on the Nasty Gal website but all the shoes from their own line, Shoe Cult, are absolutely incredible. I'm a sucker for a huge platform shoe, whether it's wedges or heels, and Shoe Cult just may be one of my favorite shoe lines. These are also the only white thing in my whole wardrobe for the most part.
I've worn them out once so there's already some scuffing, which I guess is only noticeable if you're looking for it like I do.
The soles are lightly padded so you're not just walking on wood all night which is great, but these do seriously hurt your feet after a while. You get a good few hours of badass strutting before that happens, though. Thats when I know my feet hurt, when my strut goes from a strut to a close stepped funeral walk.
Ideally I would love to wear them with short shorts and a kimono shawl top with some big ol' sunglasses, but sadly I do not own a kimono shawl (yet). Sadly, I no longer see these particular shoes on the Nasty Gal website but all the shoes from their own line, Shoe Cult, are absolutely incredible. I'm a sucker for a huge platform shoe, whether it's wedges or heels, and Shoe Cult just may be one of my favorite shoe lines. These are also the only white thing in my whole wardrobe for the most part.
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