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☀  Quarantine  ☂ 2020  ☀

My sister's noticed that I've been stressed the past couple of weeks so she set up a projector in her room and we had a movie and paint night. We started off watching Sleepover, which is my favorite terrible movie from the early 2000s. That movie has not aged well, but it still makes me laugh. I had started the evening thinking I would paint too, but I mostly ended up as a model for my sister. (You can see the painting above.) After watching Sleepover, we didn't want the night to end so we transitioned into watching another fan favorite: Miss Congeniality. It was a great time and I will always appreciate late-night film experiences because it always ends up with my sister and I discussing themes of sexuality, femininity, and cinematic tropes. I'll be sure to watch some more movies while in quarantine as a way to destress!

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☺ High School ☹ March 7th, 2020 ☺

Like we did last year, we went to Rock and Roll Revival at Abby’s old high school, where we listened to some amazing tunes for two and a half hours. Rock and Roll mostly does songs from 50s-80s, but they were a couple more recent ones. My favorite songs from that day were YMCA and Somebody to Love Me because they are bops and they remind me of my childhood (Ella Enchanted.) That was also an amazing day because Abby’s family fed us Greek food (amazing!) and I got to spend an afternoon with all my friends (yay!) I’m sorry it took me so long to post about this--the event was a week before we left for Spring Break, so in all the confusion and chaos of being home, I forgot about this afternoon with my friends. I miss them all...

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☆ Centreville Hall, UMD ★ January 31st, 2020 ☆

My dorm hall had a lounge decorating event! Anyone was allowed to come and our theme was starry night. A lot of us came out, painted, and ate waffles as well as drank mocktails. I ended up painting six or so pictures, each very different from the rest. My favorite is the one on the top left and the bottom right. I also like the middle one because of the poetics of “the stars were in her eyes,” but skill wise I put a lot of effort in the other two. My red swirly one was originally a mistaken ugly swirl, but I decided to tilt it on its side and reimagine Van Gogh’s Starry Night as “Starry Night on Mars” to make it fit with the space theme and just make it look better overall! I was completely covered in paint at the end of it but it was a lot of fun regardless!

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♫  The CCC ❂ January 29th, 2020  ♫

At first I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to go see Leyla McCalla, but I’m really glad I did! Her music isn’t necessarily up my alley, but it’s familiar enough to me that it struck a cord with me. Like McCalla, I have a connection to New Orleans. Despite mine being two short lived trips a couple years ago, I can still taste the memories I have of the area, and my dad often revives these moments with the music he likes to listen to. I loved listening to McCalla because her songs picked up bop and movement and really played with intricacies, which I loved. My favorite, personally, was the song that used quotes from Langston Hughes mostly because I loved the imagery of someone’s heart being made of clay. I got up the nerve to talk with McCalla after the session, and we awkwardly chatted about Hughes, Audre Lorde, and Nina Simone. I asked her which artists she would love to play with if she’d ever gotten the chance, and she told me (despite it being low fruit) that Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were the obvious choices. It was a lot of fun!

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✁ November 23rd, 2019 ❊ The CCC  ✃

Ignore the ugly photo, but I went to another Art’s Advisory Board event where we did up-cycling! I got myself an awesome white T-shirt and started sowing little pockets on it. Then I started to make a thicker patch with those kitten fabrics. It was a lot of fun and I’m so glad there’s an open space for us to do fun activities like crafting. I’m also looking forward to embroider with thread now that I know how to do it!

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✎ October 25th, 2019  ☣  The CCC ✐

Arts’ Advisory Board’s second Arthouse was Spooky October themed! It was a lot of fun. I read an excerpt of my first book to a small but welcoming crowd, all the while wearing this amazing 1950s dress and some cheap pink glasses. I read chapter one and I had to make sure I read at a good pace and at an equal volume. The most difficult thing was remembering to make eye contact, but I think I handled it well. I had a blast--Sarah and I even sang two Florence and the Machine songs for Karaoke in honor of the Halloween spirit. I definitely want to do more readings in the future, if I can!

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☜ September 26th, 2019  ☟  The CCC  ☞

Last Thursday, I was apart of Art Advisory Board’s first Art House. We lead different crafty exercises including lanyard making, friendship bracelets, and bead creatures. The picture above shows me making a turtle (Herbert.) I lead the presentation on friendship bracelets and taught some people how to make some with cool designs! It was a lot of fun. 

(I was going to write this as presentation initially, but I’m saving my second presentation for the John Mulaney comedy show!)

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♪ September 14th, 2019 ♚  Renaissance Fair  ♪

This past weekend my mother took me to the Renaissance Fair and we all saw all sorts of great and interesting things there! For one thing, we sat and watched a couple of different Celtic bands play their bagpipes, lute, and a drum. I loved their tunes and my mother confided with me that she wanted to learn violin specifically to play Celtic music. I also got to look around at a bunch of different artist works including glass-work. It was a lot of fun!

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