The Novemberist

Snick Wedge by Jeffrey Campbell, the most comfortable footwear I have second only to my Frye Boots.

Thad and I have only have two identical articles of clothing. One is a Threadless shirt of a Balinese God shooting an arrow and the arrow ending up on the back of the shirt and the second is our The Decemberist shirt. We really don't listen to the same type of music but we both agree on The Decemberists. I guess it appeals to our predilection to rarely used words. Colin Meloy, lead songwriter of the band weaves his musical storytelling so beautifully as if you're reading excerpts from a Booker Prize winner novel. The Decemberists is also reminiscent of a UK band called XTC who were around in 80s and whose song Then She Appeared was our 2004 wedding song. Had to put a year since we got married twice ^_^

XTC's sample lyrics from Then She Appeared:

...Then she appeared, as the giggling crew of Marie Celeste
Then she appeared, pale Atlantis rising out of the west
I was a little dazzled
Catherine wheeled and senses frazzled
Know it sounds weird
Then she appeared...

I perceive Mr. Andy Partridge (XTC lead songwriter) to be well versed on the arcane knowledge of mysterious tales and conjecture. He includes things in his lyrics that I have read about in supernatural-themed books. In Then She Appeared, he mentioned the crew of Marie Celeste, the ship whose crew vanished while at sea and left no clues in December 1872. It is still one of the most baffling maritime unsolved mysteries. But in the song, he made the crew look as if they were just playing a joke, hence "giggling". Nobody writes lyrics like Mr. Partridge well, except Colin Meloy who I realized after briefly talking to his bandmate that they were huge fans of XTC and he considered it an honor to be compared to them.

I love this song. Mr. Partridge is singing about how dumb he is when in fact, the lyrics here are so freakin' brilliant...see below.

If depth of feeling is a currency,
(please be upstanding for the Mayor of Simpleton),
Then I'm the man who grew the money tree,
(no Chain of Office and no hope of getting one).
Some of your friends are too brainy to see,
That they're paupers and that's how they'll stay.

Well I don't know how many pounds make up a ton,
Of all the Nobel prizes that I've never won,
And I may be the Mayor of Simpleton,
But I know one thing,
And that's I love you.

The Decemberists sample lyrics from Legionnaire's Lament

Medicating in the sun
pinched doses of laudanum
longing for the old fecundity of my homeland
Curses to this mirage!
A bottle of ancient Shiraz
a smattering of distant applause
is ringing in my poor ears

On the old left bank
my baby in a charabanc
riding up the width and length
of the Champs de Elysee...

Cover art on The Decemberists Castaway and Cutouts (shown below on video link) even reminds me of the Crew of Marie Celeste...

You should check both of them out. You will learn new words. Here's a funny saying that was going around for a while in London that XTC brought literacy to Britain :-)

This is not what I am wearing today. I wore this outfit one day last week. That lovely russian doll (matryoshka) printed dress is Anna Sui ^_^ That dress is the cherry on top of my-anything-matryoshka themed collection. Vintage mink fur hat is actually my mom's that we bought when we were living in New York circa 2000. She's back in the Philippines now, a very tropical country so there's no need for fur hats. Thus, I inherited it.

Wonderfully Nestled: vintage Orphan matryoshka doll thrifted for $0.25! ornaments from K-mart circa 2008 from Martha Stewart Collection, metal and enamel necklaces, Fred's nesting doll glasses from Urban Outfitters, purse from Forever 21 $7 or something like that. Flat coinpurse from Claire's. Re-ment miniature pot holder and spoon and fork caddy and LeSportsac satchel that holds my Japanese books :-) I'm a struggling multi-culturalist

Chocolate Disco

I am totally charmed by this Japanese techno-pop girl group called Perfume and inspired myself to dress like them on this video. I don't really listen to techno but hey, they're Japanese and I have a predilection to all things Japanese. I love how their choreography is so easy, it's like dancing for a PE class. Inspiration comes in all forms so why not? Chocole-ito Disuko! Let's dance!

Rainy Days and Tuesdays

Responsibility dictates that I should crawl out of my bed to go to work instead of curling up with a book and letting this dismal weather mentally take me to somewhere in Ireland. Why can't this weather be on a Saturday morning...

I'm living in my own private Xanadu

My pet manticore circa September 2010

Welcome once again :-) It would've been a year since I started blogging but I stopped after less than half a year of entries. I started FrugalFrox on this day last year but I am resurrecting it as My Own Private Xanadu.

The blog title is of course, a play on the movie My Own Private Idaho. Xanadu is the place Samuel Coleridge wrote about in his poem of the same title and was believed to be written under his opium stupor. The first significance is that it starts with an X, like my name and the second is that Olivia Newton-John's movie Xanadu was I think, the greatest movie ever. You can't go wrong with live action, a cartoonified Olivia and roller skates. Aside from that, I really have no clue what that movie was all about.

Xanadu is a place inside me. It's mostly where my fantasies and dreams reside along with my childhood. This blog is a visual and textual capture of anything, everything that fascinate and inspire me.

I really want to thank my readers who have been waiting for this new installment. I started FrugalFrox for my own selfish needs. Hehe. I wanted to chronicle my outfits just to keep track of what I had worn but I never thought that it will be missed. So thank you. Mad props to my ever loving husband Prince Valium, I mean Thad for helping me out with the CSS, taking the new banner photo and for just being an all around awesome husband.

This blog will be less limiting than frugal frox. As frugal frox was just all about outfits, I am going to be blogging more than just clothes. I want to share other things as well because there is so much more to life...well my life, than clothes. Expect to see toys, vintage thrift store finds,crafts, music, cool people, strange books and films, fun photography and maybe even magic tricks ;-)

So here I am again in blogosphere...and here goes everything! Take a seat on that wingback chair. Let it take you for a ride. Stay for a while. Make sure you come back. I will always leave a key for you that you can fish out from the stomach of my manticore...

Glad To Be Plaid

I haven't been in these slums lately. Summer doesn't inspire me to dress nice. I'm normally just wearing embroidered peasant tops and jeans. Something I'd wear at home to lounge in. But, I am dressed nice today. According to me, of course so I decided to post this ensemble. I am thinking of moving all my entries here to a new all-encompassing blog about everything that I love. Fashion. Japanese Toys and Boys. Blythes. Vintage Thrift Store and Flea Market Finds. Craft Ideas. Music. Books, Artists. Thad and Xiomara Comics. Just anything and everything that fascinate me. A fashion blog is so limiting when there are so many things that set my creative mind reeling.

The new blog is called My Own Private Xanadu. See you guys there soon! And thank so much for following me here but please come with me to another sphere of X! Love you all!!!

detail on Coro Cuckoo Clock vintage 1940 fur clip which I got for a steal, of course

It's A Tsumori Chisato Kind of Day

On this auspicious day, I am paying an homage to a Japanese designer Tsumori Chisato. This is an unfrugal post. I've never really been into high end designer clothing but Tsumori Chisato's sublime surreal designs are marvelous pieces of artwork. Her clothes are just not clothes hanging off your body, they're statements, they're stories, there's so much love and whimsy put into them. When I first discovered her, it felt to me like she cracked open my head, looked what's inside, and spun them into fabric. I believed she was designing just for me. No designer ever made that impact on me. Silk painted with mermaids swimming above an underwater metropolis, fairies feasting in a banquet, dancing bears in sky circuses but she also brings you down to terra with quaint country scenes of houses and rural shops. She definitely doesn't skimp on details. Most of her clothes when they are not painted, are appliqued with laces, tulle, tweed, whatever have you and more often than not, have painstakingly stitched embroidery and beadwork.

So today, on my happy birthday, I am celebrating it by wearing one of my Tsumori Chisato tops that I have made a replica of for my Blythe doll.

On Me: Tsumori Chisato top $XXX.xx Paris Blues Jeans $25. Frye Boots $XXX.xx On Blythe Xiomara made Chisato inspired top. X-made jeans. PuddingHouse Blythe Ugg Boots

The design concept on the blouse is of two girls ( little black girl and little white girl) holding hands while in a hot air balloon ride. I also have a fascination with hot air balloons, by the way so this top was just screaming for me to get my hands on them. The hot air balloon is floating on top of the city but there also happens to be a rabbit in a green dress with a basket leisurely walking on air. I tried the best as I possibly could replicating the embroidery on the Blythe version but it was too tiny even for my elfin hands. I hope my futile effort would still be worthy of my own praise.

It would be safe for me to say but not for my wallet that I will still be getting some more Tsumori Chisato pieces in the future. They're art I can flaunt, wear out and not just hanging up on my wall. Oh and yeah, a very Happy Birthday to myself! ^_^

Me and my Tweedly Do (almost twin) Blythe. Her name is Taura Deal (after Kim Deal)