Okay, what the hell does the title “Maria’s Fall of Currently Obsessed” MEAN? I don’t know. I am too lazy to change it.

1. I’m just getting into Swedish pop artist Robyn‘s 2010 album Body Talk. But what I really love about Robyn is her sense of style, especially in the music video “Call Your Girlfriend,” in which she wears a weird cropped fuzzy shirt and crazy printed leggings, and then dances around a warehouse in a single take, and tells some guy to call his girlfriend and tell her he’s found someone new.

2. Speaking of Robyn’s leggings, she recently wore the above pair by Alexendar McQueen when she was featured in Rye Rye’s “Never Will Be Mine” music video.

3. Speaking more of Robyn’s leggings, she’s worn some sweet gas pump leggings by Jeremy Scott. Kate Perry recently wore his “poof ball” dress on a magazine cover. You can check out his weird fashions (like a bookshelf skirt!!!!) at Fruition. But you probably can’t afford them. Or I can’t.

4. After Tricia’s recent currently obsessed, which featured women wearing bow ties, we have been in communication about the newly popular style of androgyny. I loved Lady Gaga’s VMA stunt where she came on stage as her alter-ego, Joe Calderone and sang her single “You and I.” Jo Calendrone also appears in the official music video. After raving about Gaga dressing as a man, my friend told me that Annie Lenox already did this whole stunt in 1984 while singing “Sweet Dreams.” I say, good job to Gaga for bringing it back, but I love how Annie just went up there and started singing without any semblance of an explanation.

5. Finally, I’ve become obsessed with poet Edna St. Vincent Millay after reading Nancy Milford’s biography of her called Savage Beauty (so good!). Millay was a great poet, who was also very sexy and alluring (I’m not sure that this is a particularly common among famous poets). She had many affairs with men and women, and showed some androgynous attributes herself (and people called her Vincent!). Here’s a nostalgic/sad Edna St. Vincent Millay sonnet about old hookups.

Sonnet 42

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning, but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

 

Fall is my favorite season, and I’m a little sad I’m missing it (for the first time!) this year.  ”But Tricia. Fall happens everywhere.”  Living in Illinois and upstate New York accounts for approximately 87.5% of my life.  I subsequently strongly associate fall with crisp air, steamed pitchers of apple cider at the cafe I worked at, magnificent color gradients of leaves, and the coarse noise of crushing leaves beneath my feet.

Yes, leaves get to be mentioned twice.  But, look!  This is Illinois in the fall!  Wow!  And Ithaca’s fall is great too! Woah!

I have a difficult time accepting the Hanoi fall, and I’m unwilling to alter my perception of the season.  It rains nearly everyday.  A considerable amount of time has elapsed since my lungs have felt exhaust gas-free air. And most of the time I sweat through my clothes-a state that reveals that I am indeed not a local.  Thus, my lust for fall has manifested in a long overdue currently obsessed post.  Enjoy.

1. Lady Gaga released the second edition of her ear buds this past summer, and I aspire to one day find a job where I can wear these without getting reprimanded.  Although the design is supposed to be a reflection of Lady Gaga’s leather jacket studs, the headphones remind me of my former roommate’s nOir four stud pyramid ring.  Lady Gaga also designed this model too, which would be just as geometrically puzzling to my boss as the ones featured above.  Heartbeats 2.0 by Lady Gaga headphones, Amazon, $130

2. Foods that I have to pay an ex-pat premium for in Hanoi!  This print probably would not have made this edition of currently obsessed if Illinois was assigned a food that wasn’t deep dish pizza.  melangerienyc is a great etsy shop-you can even order customized VIEWMASTER INVITATIONS! State-By-Food print, melangerienyc, $20

3.

via Gone Movie

I’ve been coming across a lot of pictures of girls wearing ties online (cross over tie: alexa chung! bow tie: some random sartorialist girl!), and I can’t help but think about Diane Keaton in Annie Hall.  I think I will go ahead and declare a bold statement: everyone wishes they could exude Annie Hall’s mystical coolness. It is also quite fortuitous that my previous roommate, yes the same one who owns the nOir ring, makes really well-made bow ties.  Although I bought the last red polka dotted bow tie, during these past couple of weeks, knotbytiffa has been releasing the fall collection. Bow Ties, knotbytiffa, $30-$45

4. I associate peter pan collars with liebemarlene, the only blog that I have been consistently reading for the past couple of years.  This is the first time I’ve seen a leopard printed peter pan collar. Pull Safari, sandro, 155 €

5. My sister gave me a Night Owl Paper Goods card when I left for Hanoi.  The hedgehogs are pretty cute, and there are lots of other precious-critters-on-wood like this orca. Hazel Hedgehog Journal, Night Owl Paper Goods, $18

6. It’s funny to think about how I would normally be wearing a coat right now.  Clarification.  It’s funny to think about how I would normally be wearing a coat right now while I’m eating delivery ice cream and sitting in an air conditioned room.  With the fan blasting on my face. (IN FACT, that is exactly what is going on in this apartment right now).  Haute Coat-ure by Jolaby, Modcloth, $450

7. I have a little collection of reusable bags that I used to bring to stores (a practice that I can’t really do in Hanoi).  My most prized bag is probably a Chico bag I got from Stone Brewery.  BAGGU makes collapsible nylon day packs, and light cotton backpacks which would be great for groceries because your hands can only old so much. At least…my small hands. Daypack, BAGGU, $24; Backpack, BAGGU, $32

According to Urban Dictionary, “Twee” means “buttocks or ass.” Isn’t that cute? (note I am not questioning Urban Dictionary’s validity- there is a period in my life where I was very dependent on Urban Dictionary to understand anything that came out of my friends’ mouths)  Add an “s” to the end of that, and the result is a lovely little upbeat band from NYC.  For those of you who are challenged by addition or the alphabet, that would be Twees.

Music reviews generally bore me, so I’ll do my best not to bore you (or, more selfishly, myself).  When I first heard them I thought the vocalist sounds like if Julian Casablancas (that guy from the strokes) swallowed some extra pop rocks and chewed some extra bubble gum. Which led to hey remember when I used to sing a long to the Strokes “Last Night” incessantly during the tail end of high school, then I started college, and I met this kid named Allen Strickland Williams, who gave me a cd named “mao mix” that had that Strokes CD with “Reptilla.” My thoughts subsequently danced to traveling to Burma and seeing little lizards on the walls of  the bungalow (a normal sight there), which are literally called like “house lizards.” The heat and warmth there is like the sweltering summer days in the Fall Creek Gorge in Ithaca, NY, and one time we sat there with the portable record player playing Beirut “Elephant Gun,” a frat boy asked us what we were listening to, we said “Beirut,” and he said “what like the game?”

So that’s what the Twees are like.  Funny sunny days in gorges.

The Twees released two new songs today: Unfair Affair and Hepburn Shades (yes you can download them for free through those links).  Furthermore, the entire EP is yours (for free too!) if you sign up for their mailing list here.