Skinny Love.

Song of the day: This is Birdy's cover of Bon Iver's Skinny Love. I could listen to this song literally forever (for now, until I get sick of it). The video is gorgeous as well, and personally, I much prefer this version to Bon Iver's. Maybe because this version was featured in the Vampire Diaries' episode: The Sun Also Rises (second-to-last episode). I really do like the show, for more reasons than just the plot and characters. It's such a life inspiration; the amount of love the characters have for each other is phenomenal. The sacrifices people make for each other, even after messing up, or doing the wrong thing, are incredible. How selfless some people are leaves me in awe, and I truly wish I could be more like some of these characters; selfless, loving, giving, full of so much faith, bright-hearted, always putting others beforethemselves, confused but not unhappy, and so, so strong in the face of adversity. In the show, even within the darkness there is light, there is hope, and I've always loved that quality. I wish I could be more positive like that, and not get so sucked into darkness, but rather, keep searching for the light at the end of the tunnel. I wish I could embrace the potential and bright that others say they see inside of me, but I continue to be dark too often (Damon, anyone? ...he IS sooo hot. :P) I really wish I was more like Elena though. I couldn't imagine ever smiling or getting out of bed or being normal again if I'd lost that many people in seventeen mere years. I couldn't imagine not feeling entitled to pity parties; the beautiful thing is even if Elena feels entitled to pity parties, she doesn't throw herself any. It's enlightening. I should definitely aspire to that much more. I definitely think more people including myself could take a lesson or two from the series and learn something about being strong in the face of adversity and remaining positive and unconditional love and support for friends and family. I should appreciate my family more. I couldn't imagine losing them, no matter how much they may annoy me. They want the best for me, at the end of the day. Anyway, enough of my ramblings; enjoy the video and the song =) I may post a video of the graveyard scene from The Sun Also Rises (spoiler, if anyone reading this hasn't seen it yet, but it came out a while back so loyal fans should have caught it by now).
And let it be known that vlog formatting entirely annoys me. Can't get the spacing right! Urghhh blogger loves making life difficult for me -__- I'm about to switch to wordpress lolll but I digress. I'll calm down, in the spirit of the whole "be more positive thing".
Thanks for listening/watching! Until next time, xoxo

more on how my opinions have been externally validated...

...even though I honestly don't need external validation. In the words of the wise, "what matters most is not reward, praise or pride; what matters most is that that the end of the day, you tried." (okay, so it's actually Ashley Tisdale's life philosophy that I picked up from Seventeen magazine's October 2010 issue. Ashley Tisdale's character and style is definitely one that I admire, even though it's girlier than I opt for.)
The Vogue article I referenced in my last blog post is by Julia Glass, published author, and genius, in my opinion. Her nostalgia article on beauty is an amazing piece full of self-reflection, unapologetic honesty, a strong sense of self and beautiful language.

I totally feel like inserting something absolutely random into this blog post, before I return to the regularly scheduled topic of this post (ha ha...) ...but yeah, so, two things:

1) I'm going to update this blog whenever I want! I won't stick to any sort of "schedule", because I'm terrible with schedules. I'll try and update frequently enough, but that might be several times a day, once a day, once in a few days or once a week. I'll definitely get to blogging once a week, but other than that... prepare for an overflow of posts :D

2) I really want an Audrey Hepburn 'Breakfast at Tiffany's print for my dorm room wall next year. I think Audrey just exudes class, poise and beauty --everything I admire in a woman. At the same time, Audrey's not afraid to speak her mind and ask for what she wants, and then go out and get it.



This is the print I want! I think it's gorgeous, so classy, feminine, strong, edgy, and iconic... all at the same time. 70's and 80's time periods really inspire me in my writing. Not my fashion, however. My fashion and style sense is much more modern. However, my style does take some cues and inspiration from women like Audrey; classic simplistic silhouettes are always flattering. I think Jen Aniston could pull off an Audrey really well... I think she does in an ad campaign for Smart Water. I'll post a picture later; I ripped it out of a mag so I'll take a picture and post it laterrr. Bisous pour maintenant... xoxo

Ps- I shall return to talk about Julia Glass's Nostalgia article in the next post! It shall be a long one, and I like to keep my blog posts relatively short and sweet, so I'd rather not mix this post and the next one. The post after that, which I'll probably put up later tonight, will rave about feathers and Lucy Hale (Aria Montgomery from Pretty Little Liars, and Seventeen Magazine's newest June covergirl), and I'll also talk about jumping on-board the whole wearing-beaded necklaces-as-bracelets thing which has actually been a hot scene for a couple seasons already, especially for the new-york-chic and boho and hipster-inspired. So I might be late with it, but I'll be blogging my love for the trend and the look and the way you should totally think outside the box and break other fashion 'rules' to create brand new looks and discover your own independent sense of style a little faster. Don't follow fashion; start fashion. [I apologize for rambling... I tend to do that sometimes :x] I'm also going to bring up Raina Hein, one of my absolute favorite, aspiring and already relatively successful models, also a former contestant and runner-up on America's Next Top Model. I love her use of color, and her photos, so I'll be talking about how all that inspires me. After that, I'll throw out a super quick, fairly easy but daring fashion challenge for myself AND anyone else willing to go the distance with me. Another thing I'll blog about soon enough is giving back to the community, and how Shay Mitchell (Emily Fields, Pretty Little Liars ...yes, I'm obsessed with the show; can't you tell? Second favorite after tVD; Gossip Girl falls in third... all three shows are so good for fashion inspiration too!) and her campaign for Somali Mam inspires me to start getting involved more in the community, and to help those who need it so much. Lastly, I want to talk about Selena Gomez and how much life and style inspiration I get from her! Actually, no. LASTLY, I want to post some photos! I've been getting into some old-school Hollywood glam photography; red lipstick, big blonde poufs --Marilyn Monroe, of course. But also water droplets, bright fuschia colors against a black-and-grey background, black-and-grey backgrounds and portraits in general. Hollywood-esque glam-style poses are also inspiring me, and I would love to take photos of real people, in modern, summer beachwear. (short shorts and a flowing white lace-trimmed top with cap-sleeves, Pirates of the Caribbean style? Which reminds me, I need to go see On Stranger Tides. Penelope Cruz looks divine; I caught some June Vogue stills. Still haven't seen the movie :/) But yes, I'd love to snap photos of a young beachgoer in a modern outfit, in an old-school Hollywood-glam, Marilyn-Monroe pose, with maybe a splash of bright red lipstick or violet eyeshadow standing out against a faded, softened black-and-white background. The beachwear I'm thinking of is actually kinda like the outfits Emily Browning wears in The Uninvited haha. It's such a creepy, overrated, but good movie in a B-rate scary movie kind of way. Maybe C-rate. Emily Browning's acting was good, at any rate. I feel like watching it again for some reason :S I'm such a creepy horror flick junkie. Anyhow, I should really look into organizing a photoshoot or something; I've been more and more interested in photography lately for some reason. I guess that's because I want to see just how beauty is really captured when we try to express our inner beauty through our clothes, our actions, our choices, our words, our music, our hair; everything, really.
Haha I'll be dividing all these upcoming discussions into different blog posts of course, but I love how I just went on a rant about what's to come... I guess I'm planning it out a litle in my head so I don't forget anything important, and I'm just SO ridiculously excited to talk about all this stuff! I'll also try to find and link an online version of Julia Glass' article for my next post. See ya in a bit... xo
Pps- Blogger's inability to cut/paste is driving me CRRRAZY. and not in a creative, good way either.. I wanted to shorten this post and just create a new post as an intermediary rant post before I started discussing Julia Glass's article in Vogue mag. Oh well :/ Another song of the day + shoespo (shoespiration... my term, coining it!!!) will actually be my next post before the much-promised discussion. I know my posts have been a bit messy of late... that's what happens when I have too much time on my hands, and I've been getting SO much inspiration lately. But none for actual writing; I've only had inspiration for blogging hit me lately... bleh. Also, off topic, but here's my parting thought: I think Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton could definitely take a few more fashion/style risks, right? Her style's' awesome; sleek, polished, age-appropriate, royalty-appropriate... but she could pull off riskier while still staying classy. <3 -kisses & lace

my beliefs have been validated!

hey guys! i'm pretty sure that I was supposed to talk about feathers this post. But I'm going to digress for a while, and I'll make up for it by posting a photo of such a cool magazine page of a feather i found in instyle. (: I've been ripping so much inspiration out of Vogue and Instyle lately.... and during one of these fashion-crazed efforts, I came across the most amazing article in the latest edition of Vogue that I really want to talk about. [There are actually a couple of really great articles in this issue, including French Seduction, which is beautifully, poignantly written, and I urge all of you to run out and buy a copy immediately. Right now. DO IT. You know you want tooooo :P]

I'll talk more in another blog post about the article that captured my heart because it supports SO strongly the ideas I was discussing in my last post, but in order to properly sign off this wall post, I leave (any) readers with a parting gift:

Ruthie Davis "Angelina" open-toe pumps with exposed metal heel, seen on celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato in 2010. Allegedly retailing at endless.com for about $850, although I haven't verified that as true yet. But I do know that as soon as I can save up the money, I want those heels! However, considering that I need a new laptop and new shorts first, and given the current state of the economy, I think these heels are pretty low on the list of priorities for now :/

style-labeling, the vampire diaries, and self reflection, OH MY.

Hey guys. So, a thought crossed my mind today while I was watching the last two Vampire Diaries episodes (for the fiftieth million time.... I just can't believe there's no tVD for a whole 3 more months!! It hurts :/). I started thinking that as far as fashion goes, sometimes we put in too much of an effort. Real fashion is effortless; a sense of style that's all personal, consistent, and effortless because it's true. A true sense of style doesn't have a label, because it's personal. To have this make more sense, a lot of people try to look boho, but the person who lives boho and just has that sense of style, cannot be labeled boho, because they're not trying to embody any particular style; they're just embodying who they are as a person. If we can't label people, what makes us think we can label fashion? To me, labeling fashion makes as little sense as labeling people does, but I'll admit that labeling fashion has its purposes. Fashion labels make life easier for designers, for the team, for the photographers, for the magazine journalists and editors, for the entire fashion industry in general, and even for us consumers. Labeling people has no purpose whatsoever, so I suppose labeling fashion works, at least. On a deeper level, labeling fashion doesn't make any sense to me either.
I have absolutely no idea why this occurred to me while watching the Vampire Diaries. I think it's because I've always admired Elena's style; she always looks poised, put-together, and chic, but very simply so. Elena never tries too hard, and most of her outfits are very simple and fuss-free, but they're chic all the same, because Elena is true to her consistantly simplistic, functional style. The overall effect is elegance. What struck me is that she doesn't try to embody anyone else, or any particular style, or even to look chic or cute; she just dresses functionally for herself and stays true to her personal likes and dislikes, and as a result, she pulls off cute and chic really well. Maybe we could eliminate 'fashion faux-pas' from the dictionary if we all just started dressed true to our personal likes, dislikes and comfort zones more; instead of looking good in a contrived way, we would all naturally look good because there's no pressure to look good and we'd be dressing in whatever made us happy. All that, of course, begs the question of whether beauty really is inside? I believe it is. We project what we feel and who we are, and even if we're trying, we can never really become anyone other than the person we were born as and were meant to be. If we all felt more comfortable in our skin, and learned to feel beautiful on the inside all the time, and dressed for ourselves, we'd naturally project beauty too.

Of course, this is definitely not what I was originally planning to share. Getting sidetracked by my own thoughts is awesome... =) I'll be back with another post soon (: Pssst..... it'll be about feathers...which I'm obsessed with!!
xoxo

Song of the Day/Embrace Asymmetry: A rant born out of sheer nothingness.

Every Avenue. "I don't regret it, but I wish we never happened, and I'll still never forget it~"
---So I embedded the video for you guys instead of just linking it; I like making things easier for my readers/followers. Links are annoyng to click on, so I figured I'd just give you the video right here (: I'll continue embedding all future videos, if it's possible. <3 Read on for the thoughts this song inspires within me!
it's an asymmetrical feeling; of something being unbalanced, not right. You miss him though you shouldn't, and it doesn't make sense. Guess what? Music shouldn't make sense. Feelings shouldn't make sense. Fashion shouldn't make sense. Thoughts shouldn't make sense. Actions shouldn't always make sense. LIFE shouldn't make sense --and it doesn't. So why are humans constantly trying to make life seem logical when life was designed to be illogical; asymmetrical? There's a beautiful symmetry in everything, and if we can learn to harmonize with it, the world will be at peace. If we let chaos take its natural course, the chaos will find its way back to order, but if we continue trying to manhandle the chaos into order, the chaos will simply beget more chaos. Embrace Asymmetry. (dibs on that band name... 'embrace asymmetry opening tonight for Arcade Fire!!! ohh yeahh.)

As the video goes, "we are all a wreck"... yes, yes we are, and being a wreck is not a bad thing. It is not circumstances, but what we do with those circumstances that matter. Being a wreck is of no consequence, but if you turn the fact that you are a wreck as an individual into a positive thing, by making it your driving force, by striving to change into somebody who is not a wreck, then being a wreck is an entirely good thing. Which is kind of an explanation of the name of this blog; "broken asphalt"... the asphalt, because I love the word, and it connects me to New York City in a spiritual, mental way... I really want to live there someday. My own apartment and everything. But the broken, well, everybody is just a little broken, a little imperfect, and that's a good thing, because not only do these imperfections set us apart as individuals, but they also become driving forces for us to better ourselves as people and as humans. Just be careful not to use that fact that you are imperfect, messed up, a wreck, as an excuse to make bad choices, or make choices for the wrong reasons. Make sure to let your imperfects and chips and cracks make you stronger, better, and make sure to accept some of your imperfections as unique things that make you an individual unlike any other.

hahahah also, random, but i just saw that my follower just dropped off the face of blog. Toriiiiiiii, toriiiiii.... call polo if you hear me!

if the shoe fits..

The right shoe seriously makes me feel like a princess-without-a-prince; a self-confident, independent princess that can do anything she wants to, and be anyone she wants to be. A perfect pair of shoes can make me live in the moment, and stop worrying about the future, or regretting the past, because the right pair of shoes makes me feel like me, my opinion, and my decisions are the only things that matter. Mistakes can be stilettoed away, and the future can be treaded over, but the glass slipper fits for now, and I'll go ahead and embrace it -even if I don't really know whether or not I'll really be getting married tomorrow, or end up successful at all.

Most people treat shoes like an afterthought; an accessory to the outfit. I, however, think that shoes make the outfit. Confidence makes the outfit, and the perfect shoes allways boost the confidence. Also, let's just admit it- I'm honestly obsessed with finding cute, comfortable, and bargain-price shoes!! Finding the perfect pair of heels for under $20 means as much to me as my firstborn child would... if I was planning on ever giving birth. :x

On that note...


Most. Perfect. Pair. Of. Heels. EVER!! I LOVE them, and will definitely snap them up as soon as possible. The slingback is really comfortable even if you walk around in heels like this all day. The height will look great on my 5'2" frame :/ annnnnd I think leopard/cheetah print was one of the BEST ideas the fashion industry ever had.

All I know is that I really wish I was Cinderella -beautiful, successful, smart... ON MY OWN, without the Prince Charming.... although the Prince would definitely be a great bonus. But the man is just the accessory, not the entire outfit, and there's more to life than men. If that man in question was Chace Crawford holding a glass slipper, however........... I'm willing to make exceptions as far as the whole independent thing goes.

I have to run for now, but I should be back with another post tonight!

Ciao xoxo

plans.

Hey! As you can see, I've updated the intro post. I've re-evaluated a lot of things about my life lately, and re-evaluated a lot about myself. And I want this blog to really reflect all of my re-evaluations. (The world 're-evaluation' now sounds really weird/funny to me............. time to think of a synonym! :D)
Even if no one else is reading this, sorry for being away and neglecting broken asphalt for so long :( Life got in the way, that's all I'll say about not posting for so long :/ (To be honest, I was just lazy and forgot about my blog for a while...) I'll be posting every day from now on though -especially after I sort out my laptop situation and get a new one or something. I'll post for my own sake, as well as for those who read/follow this (:
I'll go back to posting songs-of-the-day, since I have a TON more songs I want to share with the world that I think are amazing, and also because my song-of-the-day usually has something to do with my mood.
I've also started sketching again, especially pretty dresses! Mum always said I should go into fashion designing -I would have, if I'd had the discipline for art :/ But sketching again feels awesome, and in light of that, I'll share some of my summar fashion inspirations too! I love some of the current fashion trends, and I'd love to see more people take fashion risks, and incorporate proper trends into their wardrobes, instead of going for the typical flipflops-or-UGGS year-round.
One thing's for sure: This summer is going to be awesome, productive, lazy, and ...awesome. :)
Stay tuned for another post following this one! <3