Timeless Frost-ing

This past weekend, the guys and I watched Until the Light Takes Us, an awesome documentary about the aesthetics and infamy of Norwegian black metal. For those not in the know, this includes murders, church burnings, and making necklaces out of your dead friends. This includes, above all, being an EVIL MOTHERFUCKER (really NSFW, but crucial):

Okay, so not like that. But it IS equally exciting. I kind of wish I'd seen the movie before we planned our film series on identity performance, or I would have insisted on its inclusion. According to the elaborate mythology surrounding black metal, these guys are basically committing hate crimes, but it seems to be more out of an escalating game of one-upsmanship more than any strongly-held ideology. I don't know enough about the history of metal (Laine is much more knowledgeable on this subject) to give this much other context, but I assure you that the film is worth your time.

Immortal is one of the bands that, you know, didn't kill people. Although a few of their members have gotten in trouble after leaving the band, they (as far as I can tell) seem more involved in painting their faces than going around being dicks. Which brings us to Joel.

Today marks the birth of Freakin' Joel, my boyfriend's roommate and one of the most adorable people I know. To celebrate his existence, I made him a cake. Joel is fan of many things, but the three that spring to mind first are God, sandwiches, and metal. Of these, I thought the last would be the most fun to illustrate in confections. I've been wanting to try this tutorial for a while now, so I thought I would do my best at representing the guys of Immortal...

...in chocolate.

To achieve this, I melted three shades of chocolate (semisweet, semisweet+white, and white) and used them to trace a reversed version of the above image in three stages.

Here is the image, topped with parchment and taped to a clipboard:

Here is Stage 1:

While these were chilling in the freezer, I baked Joel's favorite, yellow cake. Then I moved on to Stage 2:

And after they'd had time to chill again, Stage 3:

While they were chilling one more time, I topped the cake with chocolate frosting, then made Shaun take pictures of my outfit. If you are going to bake a metal cake, it's important to wear attire that is practical and thematic. Here's what I picked:

Dress: Hand-made vintage

Socks: Xhilaration
Shoes: Where via Urban Outfitters

I can only wear this dress so often, for obvious reasons.

No one really knows what kind of creature this is supposed to be...

...or why these pockets are here.

But, hey--take a look at these SHOES!
For the first time, there is a pair that fit my (giant) feet and not Laine's.

I'm not trying to rub it in, but usually it's the
TOTALLY HEARTBREAKING other way around.

And then, the unveiling/flipping/placing on the cake!

Not too bad for a first effort, eh?

If I had the time or inclination to do this over again, I would probably add more white chocolate to the midtone color, and I would try to figure out some way to prevent the bleeding that happened between colors here. Still, I'm pretty happy with the final results, and I think the birthday boy was, too.

空港服

For the first weekend of spring break, Christian and I took a last minute trip to Dallas to see my friends Philip & Shea. I miss both of them terribly since they've moved back to Dallas, and airfarewatchdog.com recently posted a $75 round trip Tulsa-Dallas fare. If you haven't subscribed to your nearby airports' feeds via that site, do so immediately! Our plane was delayed, and we had to go through some nasty weather getting out of Tulsa. I'm almost certain that Christian ended up with some fingertip-shaped bruises on his knee from me gripping it through all the turbulence. To be quite honest, I'm terrified of flying, which is probably why I love it so much. I'm kind of a masochist like that.

Airplane costume #1: (notice how nice the weather was before we left Fayetteville? Sneaky)

Sweater: F21

Skirt: WhatCirca Vintage

Boots: Blowfish 

Necklace: Vintage via my mom

There is little photographic evidence of the actual Dallas adventure. It consisted of amazing food, museums, and, of course, cute cats!!

Georgia, the newest addition to Philip & Shea's household:

 


The return trip went much more smoothly:

Recipe for a moment of perfect happiness:

1 cheap flight

1 tiny bag of peanuts (tiny food!!)

1 Cormac McCarthy novel

1 Jack & coke

0 turbulence

Blood Meridian actually reminded us that the last time we'd been to Tulsa was to see The Road over Christmas break. Now, I love (LOVE) Cormac McCarthy. I love how spare his writing is. Strangely, I love the same thing about Murakami Haruki. This similarity may, however, be an effect of not reading Murakami in Japanese. It's one of my life goals to read kanji well enough to read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle the way that Murakami wrote it. Not to mention 1Q84. When will they release an English translation already?! Absolute torture.
Anyway, McCarthy never overwrites, and I never thought that a film adaptation of any of his novels would be possible. The Coen brothers, however,  proved me so very wrong with No Country for Old Men. That film worked because it was, like McCarthy's writing, stark and full of silence. The film adaptation of The Road was just the opposite -  completely overwrought. Christian hadn't read the novel when we saw the film, and I wish I could remember how I'd explained my distaste at the time. Something about how McCarthy doesn't get in the way of his language or imagery. But the film adaptation tried to grab hold of , pin down, and explain events and emotions that should have been left alone to speak for themselves. And sniveling, annoying child actor was sniveling and annoying. Anyway, I'm obviously no film critic. I'm sure I'll think of a better way to say it at 3am. Back to frivolous things.

Airplane costume #2 (Sorry for the crap image quality - I left my Rebel with Dolly & only had my iPhone)

Dress: Target
Velvet blazer: Banana Republic
Shoes: Target (slip-ons are SO necessary for airport security lines)
Backpack: Nelson's Leather

 

Obi-style belt: LoobyLou Crafts 

 

Lastly, I checked a bag. This is a rare occurrence. Here is said bag (wrapped in plastic):

The surrounding circumstances will have to remain a mystery for now. I'll only say that it has something to do with fufu.