could i be the sky on the fourth of july

 

this outfit isn't at all weather appropriate but whatevr. the red sweater is from my childhood, the white shirt is my dad's, and the blue jeans are express.

i was kind of saving these for an end of the month playlist thing but these are just really good albums that are like the soundtrack to the summer months for me.

june: 

AM . arctic monkeys. i listened to so much arctic monkeys in 7th grade oh my gosh. it was on a lot of best albums of 2014 lists so you may have already heard about it, but it definitely deserves all of the praise it got. the writing is all incredibly sleek and clever, the sound is like a funkier rock than their previous stuff i guess. i put it in june because of the way it kind of captures the brazen coolness of the first month of freedom (favorite song - snap out of it).

july: 

the only place . best coast has been my go-to summer album for a while because it's all laying at the beach, waiting for nothing to happen, angsty sleepy rock and it basically just plays in the background 24/7. (favorite song - do you love me like you used to)

august:

mala . devandra banhart. this album is swingy and lazy and hot and sticky thoughtful folk-rock which, not to sound ridiculous, is all i want to listen to when anything is winding down and i'm thinking about how i feel. but this album has also been the background to me just working, which is sometimes inconvenient because i just end up JAMMING. it's sweet and funny and completely unexpectedly beautiful. (favorite song - fur hildegard von bingen and because i'm a cheater, a gain)

also another really amazing album, but kind of feels more like spring and the attached concept of rebirth: the title of this song is from carrie & lowell by sufjan stevens which i refuse to shut up about... what summer albums do you reccomend?

-=-

kanyinsola 

everywhere I fall, don't know name or location.

summar is ovarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and it was a little disappointing (I'm beginning to think it will never not be), but I:

cried like a baby at spirited away, kind of learned how to sew, did a lot of self-improvement,  caught up on Parks and Rec and Bob's Burgers, started watching Twin Peaks, went shopping at a thrift store near my house, went to an robotics and programming camp because nerd, got a letter telling me that I was accepted for a scholarship that I wrote like three essays and had about 5 panic attacks to get, got realllyyyy into the world cup, did some more art/writing, ignored crippling anxiety to submit some of said art/writing to zines, was happy and sad and enjoyed feeling feelings vividly, became more confident, volunteered at my library and met a buncha cool people, picked flowers, listened to a lot of podcasts, went to my first ever ONE DIRECTION concert with my friends which led to me figuring out that:

a. i like pop music because i like to danceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
b. being a snob about music is literally such a waste of valuable time that i could spend saving the world and being happy

and a few other things. also- I got back into reading books the way I read them when I was younger:

sorry for the totally lame photo quality but top to bottom:

ee cummings: 100 selected poems

just kids / patti smith

the grand design / stephen hawking and leonard mlodinow

waging heavy peace / neil young

july august 2014 poetry book my friend gave me

rough magic (a biography of sylvia plath) / paul alexander

madeline in london / ludwig bemelmans

(let me know if you've read any of these or have any recommendations for books)

---

towards the end of the summer, everything just started blurring into one long hazy day:

--

how were your summers, I really wanna hear about it in the comments!

-=-

kanyinsola

photos; top to bottom:

1- Manbo Key // 2- california, january 2014 // 3- faye wong // 4- via vhs-evcore (tumblr) // 5- before sunrise, 1995 // 6- Inspirace (Karel Zeman), 1948 // 7- anna paquin in almost famous, 2000