Good Listener: Songs of the Week

I've found my breakup song for whenever that dreaded first heartbreak comes. In an ode to failed love, Haim's funky alterna-rock track "If I Could Change Your Mind" will have you dancing through your tears.



Never have I seen a music video compliment a song so well and Sia's unique, raspy voice shines in "Chandelier". You can feel the emotion in every word sung, and the dancer in the video (Maddie Ziegler from Dance Moms) interprets the song with her body, demonstrating technique and discipline way beyond her years.



One of the things that I love about Bastille is the way that their lyrics are written like stories so you can picture everything in your head. "Poet" is my favorite song from Bad Blood, and it tells the story of being so consumed by love for someone that you create your own love story in your head. As a writer, I can definitely relate to this.



Surf punk, to me, sounds best in the summer. Best Coast is my go-to band because because of their smooth melodies and lyrics so catchy that you really can't help but to sing along. If you close your eyes while listening to "Our Deal" you might just transport yourself to a beach hidden deep in your subconscious (but if you want to watch the "West Side Story" themed video, that's cool too).

The Importance of Music to Girls by Lavinia Greenlaw: Review

From dancing in long floral skirts in a folk dancing class as a young girl, to wallowing in the complete and teenage angst of her punk years (accompanied by the occasional run in with the police), Lavinia Greenlaw's  memoir The Importance of Music to Girls illustrates her life from childhood to late adolescence.

Just from the title, I assumed that the book would be about how girls in general find identity through different music genres; which it did, just not in the way I thought. (So why doesn't she just call it The Importance of Music to Lavinia Greenlaw?) Well that's just it: Greenlaw is retelling events from her younger years in a universal way that makes them relatable.

For example, during her love affair with disco music, she describes all too well the lengths that most, if not all girls go through to fit in with a specific group of friends: dressing alike, acting alike, synchronized laughter. In this section of the book, she talks about the group's leader, Tina:

"I was becoming a girl as instructed by girls but I knew I wasn't a real girl, at least not of this kind. I wanted to be a disco girl like Tina, whose every aspect conformed to some golden section of girldom: her height relative to her shape, her prettiness relative to her smartness, her niceness relative to her toughness...To me she was wise and ruthless, a goddess of war."

Reading between the lines of her memories, we're able to see that even though she seemingly had it all together with her newfound group of friends, she still felt alone and disconnected from them. The only real thing they all had in common was their love for the music that they would spend numerous Saturday nights dancing to.

As the book and different music phases go on, Greenlaw develops as sense of self through her relationship with music rather than through her friends and what they think is cool. The first example of her independence was when she bought a pair of straight legged jeans and wore them to her local youth club one Saturday night where she was then laughed at. Even though the people laughing were the same people that she had wanted so badly to fit in with, she didn't care. In her words, "After three years of trying to fit in, I liked the idea of being different."

The Importance of Music to Girls is available at all major booksellers for $15.

Idlessence is on Bloglovin

Just a post to say that I've linked Idlessence to Blogvin so you can follow it through the link if you like!
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What's In My Bag?

I got the idea for this post from YouTube, because lots of girls post videos of them talking about what's in their handbags. Maybe it's just me, but I've kind of always been fascinated by what other girls carry in their handbags. You know the phrase "you can tell a lot about a person by how they dress"? Well, you can tell a lot about a girl by what's in her bag.

The Essentials

The three things that I never leave my house without are my wallet, iPhone, sunglasses, and keys. Sadly, there are those off days where I forget my headphones at home and am forced to go through the day without music (as you can see from the picture, today was not one of those days, thankfully). My wallet is from Ross and has a little compartment for my phone, my sunglasses are from Forever 21, my purple key FOB is from an old purse, and the grey wristband is actually an Ed Sheeran wristband I bought from his online merch store.

Reading Material

I'm really big on reading, so I always try to have a book or a magazine in my bag. Right now, I'm reading the Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. Some of my friends have already read and watched the movie and have positive things (even though it is a bit of a wrist-slasher), so I figured I'd give it a read. Vogue is one of my favorite magazines and, since I hope to one day write for a magazine, I'm always reading them and making notes on different articles, pictures, and advertisement placements (which you can see by the sticky notes sticking out from the top).

Writing Essentials

As a writer, over the years I've learned that it's good to carry a notebook with you at all times. This particular notebook serves as a journal for any personal stuff, ideas for writing, and I sometimes glue interesting pictures that I find and want to keep. There are also some sticky notes for when I need to quickly jot something down or when I'm making notes in a magazine.

Beauty Essentials

I'm not the biggest fan of makeup, but it's good to at least carry the basic mascara/eyeliner/lip balm trio. Since I wear contacts, I always have my contact case along contact solution, and in addition to smelling amazing, the mini hand sanitizers from Bath and Body Works should be considered a staple for any girl's handbag.

You can find my bag from Forever 21 here

Sorry :(

It's been almost a week since my last post and I'm very sorry about that. I've been dealing with a few things that have gotten in the way of me writing posts, but as of right now things are better and you can expect at least three new posts within the next week.

                                                                 - Jas

Avoiding Summertime Laziness

I've always been grateful for the return of summer simply because of the fact that it means no school for the next two months. This summer is particularly significant because it's my last summer before college. After a year of forcing yourself to finish coursework while at the same time trying to keep the looming "senioritis" at bay, the temptation to absolutely nothing this summer is very strong. However, the less productive you are during your summer vacation, the more likely you are to be unproductive during your first semester. So to stop the bad habits before they begin, here are some ideas to make the most of your summer.

1. Set an alarm. Despite the fact that it will be the only thing you want to do, sleeping until two in the afternoon is just not acceptable. But this doesn't mean that you have to wake up at seven or eight in the morning like you're getting ready for school. Personally, I set an alarm between nine-thirty and ten thirty depending on what I have to do that day. This can also work to your benefit when you go off to school in the fall: when you're scheduling your classes, you can plan them around the time you're used to waking up.
2. Find a new hobby. What better way to pass the long summer days than by learning something new? It can be something you can do with your friends as a group, or something you can do by yourself. Recently, I've taken up looming and I find it incredibly relaxing. I'm also able to make my own beanie hats now which is a major plus!


3. Read. Maybe it's just the bookworm in me, but I think that reading it the most productive thing that anyone can do with their free time. It doesn't even have to be an all day thing; just a few chapters a day, maybe at night before you go to bed. Find a book you know you're going to like or maybe a book on something that you want to learn more about.

Starting Over

I have a valid reason for deleting all of my past posts from this blog. When I originally started blogging, I was doing it to voice my opinion and thoughts on fashion and I had also begun to notice that there was a steadily growing community of girls my age that were also wanting or already had fashion blogs. 

I still love and am very much interested in fashion, but as time went on, I found myself trying to be just like the other bloggers and it took the fun out of blogging for me. Instead of simply reviewing a collection or talking about a designer I liked, I felt like I had to go out, buy the entire line, and take pictures of myself wearing the clothes to get readers, but that just isn't for me. I also found that I was restricting myself from being able to write about other topics that I love just as much as fashion like music, pop culture, and books because I wasn't sure how they would fit in.Well, now I'm sure. No more restrictions, no more trying to blog like someone I'm not. Whether it be fashion, music, pop culture or a random thought that pops into my head, I'll write about it. This is my idlessence.