Hi. I know, it’s been a while. What can I say? What happened? Many, many things.

First, there’s been work. I’ve been extremely busy, working on lots of new projects: some very exciting, some less so. And I bought a house! I am now a homeowner. It is a strange, surreal and expensive experience, to say the least.

Mostly I have been thinking. About my life, about this blog: my hopes and aspirations for this little project I have put so much time and effort into. More importantly, I have thought about what it has been, and who I am now, and the great disparity that has arisen between the two.

Recently, Trisha Royal went on a similar hiatus (though with much more warning, granted). When she returned, she encapsulated a great deal of what I was feeling about myself and the relationship I had with my blog perfectly…

i’m not sure if i like where it’s gone the past couple years while i idled along, just trying to make it through each day. i feel like i’ve gotten away from what means something to me (making things, thinking deep thoughts/asking deep questions), and i want to get back to those things in earnest here, if i can find a way to do so.

See, that’s the thing with this new medium. You begin it as an extension of yourself. But it has a mind of its own. It grows and shapes itself in ways you could never imagine. It is absorbed and interpreted, and you have very little control over the process once it leaves your fingertips. The next thing you know, everyone is telling you that you have a “fashion” blog, or a “mommy” blog, or a blog about the different varieties of navel orange. You develop a habit of uncontrollably wincing in public whenever a word starting with “b” is uttered in your presence.

People are going to pigeonhole – it’s an inherent part of our psyches. And that’s well and good, but I think for many of us, there comes a moment when we step back, look at what we have created, and ask ourselves, “was this my intent?” And many times, the answer is, “no.”

I don’t want this to sound like I am complaining. People enjoy this site, and I derive a great deal of pleasure from that. The main issue is that a point was reached that I was no longer enjoying the site. I needed to take a little time to step back, and reconsider my position.

And I have. I feel I have a pretty good idea of where I want this site to go, and what I want it to be about. The main goal is still the same as it ever was: INSPIRATION. I want this site to function as a haven, a brief respite from all the ugliness and banality that we are forced to endure on a daily basis. I am just planning to approach it in a different way. I may even open the site up to multiple contributors. The important thing is – it’s not about me. It never has been. It’s about what I can contribute to those who read this site.

This is not to discount the material that I have posted in the past. At the time, it encapsulated my interests and desires at that specific moment in time. For that reason, all former material is staying up, and not going anywhere.

However, I look forward to the future of this experiment, even if it strays from the norms set in the past. And most of all, I hope you, gentle readers, will share that future with me.

I like that it transports me. No matter where I am, or how I am feeling, that I can rely on it to lift me from my present landscape, and transport me into a new, better place. I have found remarkable places in music; places in myself that I did not know existed until I hit “play.” To me, that ability is the true magic of sound.

There are a few pieces of music that so utterly transport me when I hear them that it feels almost like I am no longer a part of myself, but a latent aspect of this greater movement that is the sound. When I find albums like this, I have a tendency to utterly destroy them, to return to them so many times and with such frequency that I learn each piece by heart. This process is always bittersweet, each culminating to a distinct moment which passes that takes the sound from a place of mystery into one of understanding. At that moment, the music remains powerful, but its power transmutes into one of knowledge and familiarity. The past magic is gone.

But I always hope. I yearn for a sound that I will not tire of, for a song that continually opens to my ear like an undying flower, perpetually unveiling tones and rhythms
in a never ending spiral of audial bliss. I have not found this, but a part of me hopes and believes that it does exists.

Coincidentally, this is the same way I perceive my belief in a higher power — something wholly unattainable and unable to be understood, but existing in my consciousness nonetheless. The ideal perfection of form that though never experienced perpetuates in my psyche, taps me on the shoulder with its immense potential and immensity, but when I turn, vanishes. It is the movement in the corner of my eye, the chord I hear above the chord I am listening to that is not there. It is this sense that makes me feel like everything I see and hear and experience is but the tip of this great iceberg of understanding too immense to fathom, that is both enticing and terrifying in its immensity.

There is a point when I press the “play” button, and the song and I have said everything we can to one another. We are two lovers with no new stories, sitting in a cafe, staring out the window. Words pass between us, but they make no sound. The song becomes one of silence; understanding disassembles; the things I came for are no where to be found. There is just a self-contemplative embarrassment at what has passed.

I leave the music. Sometimes for months, sometimes for years. We pass out of each others existence; and here lies the magic. I move on, and I change. My hair grows longer, gets shorter. Time crawls over me with its tenacious fingers, and I am nothing but helpless to its transgressions.

While all this occurs, the music waits. Timeless. Immortal. And one day, I and it will meet; the old woman, discovering her true love has not aged, has not moved from the point where she left them so long ago. The music bursts open once more, but this time the song has become a part of me, stitched cunningly and quietly into my personal history. The song has become one of myself, a celebration of all I love and cherish, of all I stand for and adore. I don’t listen to the music, but the music grows in me until I discover it again, playing over and over in the recesses of my own heart.

And that is why I love music.

Images above are of three of my favorite albums:

I have never been big into laces. There is just something inherently clumsy to me about them – they lack control, flop around based solely on their whim, often unravel and attempt to trip me. In a world of velcro and all sorts of clever fastenings, they just feel obsolete to me. Some bygone, whimsical artifact of the 1950′s.

Christian Siriano seems to agree. I love this clever spin he has created on the standard Converse. I love the clever use of the zipper on the seams, the ultra-feminine, satiny pale pink partnered with the patent bone toecap. It is the perfect blending of rugged and flirty, of boyish and girly.

Move over Chuck. Your little sister wants to play…

Many apologies for the lack of posts this week, but I have been trapped in the dirty maw of a summer cold for the past week or so. It has not been fun. Rest assured, we will continue with our regular broadcasting shortly.

Keep Healthy!

It was no secret that graphic designer-cum-street artist Shepard Fairey was recently in town for an exhibition of his work. But imagine my delight when on my way to the gym, I discovered one of his new street installments.

Close-ups after the jump…

I love how it looks like the decorative pattern is wallpaper torn to reveal the collage beneath. It looks so elegant, yet anarchic all at once.

Shepard Fairey always brings me back to my time growing up. Back then, we’d see Andre stickers posted up everywhere in Philly. They felt like these mysterious, cultish totems. This was before it was known Fariey was the perpetrator, of course. I kind of miss the primitivism of that early work, but his contemporary work is so gorgeous, I really can’t complain.

For more work by Shepard Fairey, visit obeygiant.com

I love shwag. It reminds me of going to birthday parties as a kid, and receiving goodie bags. I think more things in life should involve goodie bags. I would be much happier about going to the dentist or getting the oil changes if there was a little bag of goodies I could look forward to at the end of it. And that bag better not have any toothbrushes in it, because we all know that a goodie bag that encourages you to do something responsible i nary a goodie bag at all.

The schwag bag from the IFB “Evolving Influence” Conference did not fail to impress. It was chock-full of all sorts of lovely, versatile and fashionable goodies. Some of the bits of niceness included:

- an infinity scarf from affordablescarves.com

- neon socks from We Love Colors

- fake eyelashes a la Revlon

- a mix cd and stuffed denim rhino keychain from G-Star Raw

I think the rhino was definitely my favorite. His cross-stitched eye simply destroys me.

Hell, my lovelies! Today we are doing something a little different over here at Kaboom headquarters – my friend Kyo sent me an alert about China, the dog she and her boyfriend have been fostering since November. China is an adult female pit/shar pei mix, and as sweet and lovable dog as you have ever met. They’ve greatly enjoyed their opportunity to foster her, but juggling school and work is getting more and more hectic for them, and they think China Girl deserves a more permanent, attentive environment. Next weekend, they will be returning her to her home shelter, the Liberty Humane Society.

More info, pictures and video after the jump…

About China:

If you know anyone in the New York/New Jersey area interested in adopting a dog, please share!

China’s Petfinder Profile
China’s Photo Album
Video: China Meets A Horsey

All adoption inquiries may be directed to:

Liberty Humane Society

http://www.libertyhumane.org/

235 Jersey City Blvd
Jersey City, NJ 07305
201-547-8380

February 11, 2010: In snow-filled Mahattan, a steady stream of poshly dressed socialites in rather precarious shoes for the weather could be seen making their way down a darkened alley off of Lafayette. No, this wasn’t some nefarious large-scale-snow-bunny-designer-drug transaction, but the location of the presentation of the newest collection from up-and-coming designer Karolina Zmarlak.

More photos and a video interview after the jump…

The venue itself lent a certain amount of excitement to the affair, held in new East Village hotspot E_P, most notably known for being the location of the the old CBGBs. This being my first visit to the new face of the historical rock landmark, I experienced a pang of nostalgia for the old punk haunt as I made my way downstairs. Where once musical legends vomited and sang, young socialites and artists now sipped champagne, chatting politely. New York City does nothing, if not change.

Reminiscing aside, the location felt like the ideal venue for this new collection by Zmarlak, and up-and-coming young designer whose sense of grace in her designs is equally proportioned with a puckish flair. A former intern at both Theory and Carolina Herrera, Karolina is a Gen Art Styles winner and FIT graduate whose first RTW collection was launched in Fall of 2009. Though very new on the scene, her designs are already generating a significant amount of buzz, and as her new collection continues to show, for very good reason.

Elegant, tight tailoring was present throughout the collection, topped off with quirky and audacious details that lent the outfits a strange and sexy appeal. Though Karolina would later tell me she was inspired by the 1950′s, I personally felt a strong 30′s vibe throughout the clothes, and the aviator-like swim caps worn by the models only made this more so. Amelia Earhart, welcome to 2010…

Though spinning about like a top between photos and mingling, Karolina was kind enough to take a few moments with me in a (slightly more) quiet corner to talk more in detail about her collection:

All in all, a brilliant showing. Keep your eye on this one.

PS: Upon leaving the venue, I came across this little gem in the alley. Is someone missing a unicorn-cash register?

‘Tis the Season – I am off to eat a lot of food, hang with my family, go hiking in Vermont, and generally schlep about. CMYKaboom shall return to it’s normal shenanigans on January 4.

Happy Holidays, Party People!