March was filled with fun shows on two coasts. On the Southwest, Negine saw: Chastity Belt, Dent May, La Luz and Wooden Indian (who covered The Velvet Underground). On the East Coast, Emily saw: Perfect Pussy and Fear of Music (a … Continue reading
Last week, an Afghan woman named Farkhunda was brutally murdered by a mob in Kabul, Afghanistan. Farkhunda visited a mullah (a trained person in religious law and doctrine, usually holding an official post) the day she was killed to confront … Continue reading
“You are Sophie moving to Japan,” Negine told me tonight. Except I don’t have an annoying successful boyfriend named Patch and I am still in the U.S. We compare our friendship a lot to the film, Frances Ha. There’s this quote you’ve probably heard before from the film, it goes like this:
“It’s that thing when you’re with someone, and you love them and they know it, and they love you and you know it… but it’s a party… and you’re both talking to other people, and you’re laughing and shining… and you look across the room and catch each other’s eyes… but – but not because you’re possessive, or it’s precisely sexual… but because… that is your person in this life. And it’s funny and sad, but only because this life will end, and it’s this secret world that exists right there in public, unnoticed, that no one else knows about. It’s sort of like how they say that other dimensions exist all around us, but we don’t have the ability to perceive them. That’s – That’s what I want out of a relationship. Or just life, I guess.”
Negine is my Sophie and I am her Frances, but sometimes I am Sophie, too. We are interchangeable. There was this one time, we went to a local show inside Parliament in Tempe and Negine wore these glasses that looked like Sophie’s in the film, and I called her Sophie all night.
I remember the day I left Phoenix for Richmond and we laid around for hours and cried and held each other’s hands before I left and it felt surreal. I drove away listening to “Back to the Middle” by Deerhunter because my best friend told me that is what she wanted me to remember her by, as she stood in the grass of her well-kept front lawn in a striped red shirt as I pulled off the curb in my red car, packed with all my belongings.
I love my best friend. Not romantic love. I think close, long-term female friendships can be much deeper than a romantic relationship between lovers. The intimacy is totally different and means so much more with your best friend. You know it’s not temporary, there’s more worth to it than that if it really means something to you. It would be impossible to throw away.
Tonight I’m listening to Bowie, and “Changes” came on and what could be more fitting? Negine & I Skype and send each other “I LOVE YOU” messages every day, and I can’t imagine a world where she isn’t there. Even though she isn’t actually physically here.
This is completely cheesy and sappy, etc., but when you have a close best friend, you understand. Frances Ha is an important film and I think everyone should watch it. If there’s one constant in my ever changing life it’s my shining girl, Negine.
Originally posted on Rose Water Magazine:
In the midst of Olympia’s music scene during the early 1990’s, Kathleen Hanna formed a feminist punk band that was characterized by profound lyrics and political awareness. Her music and ideas revolved around non-objectification,…
A very Audrey Horne inspired playlist.
Brought to you by Negine.
This weekend, we took a road trip to a hidden desert oasis within southern California for the 2014 Desert Daze Music Festival. Equipped with a blue tent exclusively from Walmart, not-so-sandproof boots, six bottles of water and plenty of chocolate-covered … Continue reading
There is a magical suburban neighborhood that we like to venture into and take photographs at: it is a retirement community filled with unique, older homes that each carry their own strangely magnetic personality. At our most recent trip, we stood outside conversing with an older couple about college, their neighborhood and whether or not we were sisters. Negine took the couple’s photographs in front of their olive green trimmed window, we thanked them for their kindness and said goodbye.
Across the street was a cute, tiny house which had a bright yellow border where the roof met the exterior walls. Against the blue sky, it looked marvelous.
“What are you taking pictures of?” asked the woman inside the house, clad in a white button down and faintly red lipstick.
Just then, a nurse in a blue suit also pulled up in a pick up truck. Somehow, all four of us ended up inside this woman’s house, staring at a vast and beautiful collection of nothing other than eggs. Since around 1954, Theda has been taking large sized eggs, even those belonging to ostriches, and decorating them wildly to her heart’s content. In her kitchen stood a large glass cabinet filled with close to a hundred decorated eggs–some covered in pearls, beads and intricate designs. Inside were little landscapes, or figurine deers surrounded by blue velvet.
As she proudly displayed her handmade collection, Negine snapped a few photographs as she told us of her twenty five years living in Virginia, her divorce at age 50, involvement in the Egg Club, and the plethora of old supplies that she inherited from a deceased woman who also decorated eggs. Theda has been the kindest soul that we’ve met so far in this neighborhood, and as we left, we took a self portrait in her living room mirror together and admired the painted flower pots hanging from her porch
She bid us farewell with a huge smile, and invited us to come by around Christmas time. She’ll have eighty Christmas trees in her front yard. I think they’ll look nice against the bright yellow border.
By Negine I recently paid a visit to the neighborhood’s Harkins and watched Wes Anderson’s new movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. I was not surprised that the movie was aesthetically phenomenal and filled with brilliant dialogue. The movie is a perfect … Continue reading
We went to Burgerama and fell in love. Playlist featuring Cherry Glazerr, Habibi, Growlers, and more!
THE OBSERVATORY @ SANTA ANA, CA
COSMONAUTS
MAC DEMARCO
JEAN GENIES
ROAD TRIP HOME
UNTIL NEXT YEAR!
Café Francisco
Going home.
Background
Biggest smile I saw in San Francisco.
Woman “waiting for something extraordinary to happen”.
By Negine
