Lucerne Valley

Photos: Nicole Toczauer

saltwhipped soarings

a lightless dream

all components of

a particle adventure!

a-rolling down the Baptismal dust

incessant mismembered holy incantations

played during the crescendo flight

flowers fall

faded on a kind of destiny

chrysanthemumscatteredinjuries

welcome, babydoll, welcome

xx

DTLA

I want to tell you the names of places so alien I believe they exist only on paper: 

Auckland 

Oshkosh 

Tibet 

Brixton 

Brighton 

Kerry 

Odessa 

Santa Fe 

Kiev 

Brittany 

Osaka 

Kun’lun 

Tyrol 

Trieste 

Zanzibar 

Big Sur 

The sum of my feelings about each of these places begins and ends within its name; the few pictures thart name gives-off. Kent: mint sprig over the back of a fast horse heading toward the gravesite of her rider in fog. Dover: when the air tasted the way blue paint does licked off a bleached seashell.

My best friend recently sent me a collection of poems by a brilliant man named Marco Maisto. The above excerpt is one of my faves from the series because of the way Maisto masterfully manages to juxtapose nothing against everything. He opens with a list of places that have no meaning to him followed by sentences that further highlight his apathy and then he turns the tables on you and presents two places that have more meaning than you can ever grasp. You know this because of the very specific/quirky/enigmatic way he writes about these places. He wants to show you his ghosts but only in a way that you'll never 100% understand because can anyone truly understand someone else's ghosts? Do you want anyone to truly understand yours? Plus, they're not on the list. I had to go back and double check, which is why I love Maisto so much; reading his words is like walking through a maze of hidden gems, you're constantly backtracking to make sure you didn't miss something spectacular and when you go back you always find something mind-blowing. 

After reading these lines, I was hurled into my own haunts. Into my own Kents and Dovers. 

Carlsbad. Chicago. London.  

It is beautiful and it is tragic. The way a place can haunt you. For a while I was scared to go back to some of my places because it's hard to confront the memories you still want to live in. But recently I've learned to embrace the haunts. The places my subconscious self and my physical self always end up going back to. There's something poetic about it or maybe I'm just an emotional masochist. Who knows these things. As a cosmophage, however, I'm also voraciously exploring new places. Places that will perhaps, one day, serve as sources of ghostly memories themselves. See above for photos of me in those places. All shot by photographer extraordinaire Nicole Toczauer. 

Oh, and here's a list of songs that haunt me. 

Ordinary Girl by Rebelution

River Flows In You by Yiruma

Realize by Colbie Caillat 

Come Together by The Beatles 

Don't Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin

xx

Look Ma, No Pants

T-Shirt Dress: Urban Outfitters

Sneakers: Target

Those who know me know I hate wearing pants, so this t-shirt dress is my jam. Got it from Urban Outfitters for $7 (such a steal!) and it's ridiculously soft and comfortable. Maybe I'll pull a Connie Wang and literally wear it all summer. But probably not because my chameleon soul reflects itself in my sartorial choices. 

Slash, call me basic but I'm totally diggin' this Selena Gomez x A$AP Rocky song. 

Double slash stay tuned because I got a new tattoo, which means a creative post is just around the riverbend unless I get lazy and decide to go to the Getty instead or eat an obscene amount of chocolate covered popcorn whilst watching the latest episode of Pretty Little Liars (hashtag my guilty pleasure judge me). 

xx

The Sun, The Moon & The Stars

Beanie: DPTR Clothing

Denim Jacket: Vintage

Top: Urban Outfitters

Shorts: Charlotte Russe

Shoes: Nike 

Out in the desert, everything is still. A mystic land of silence and heartbeats. This is where gypsy souls flee to forget. 

Here, nothing matters except the sun, the moon and the stars. 

Dust Hymns

Make It Holy by The Staves 

Ghost on the Shore by Lord Huron

West Coast by James Vincent McMorrow

Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey

Self Record by Justin Vernon

xx

Vanilla Sky

Boater Hat: Forever 21

Choker: Clothes Show Live

Top: Urban Outfitters

Tutu Skirt: Dresslink

Loafers: Dresslink

There's something about frolicking through endless fields of grass that makes me feel like a kid again. Or maybe I just have a young soul. But twirling under the sky still hasn't lost its novelty on me. Anyways, I've wanted a pink tutu skirt since high school and Dresslink graciously fulfilled my teenage dream by sending me this darling skirt.  

To add an edgy spin to the girly skirt, I teamed it with one of my cheeky graphic tees from Urban Outfitters. It gave off a Nylon-esque vibe, which I love because Nylon's one of my favorite magazines. Totally dig its style/aesthetic. For accessories, I went with my staple boater hat (which I wear far too much but whatever) and choker necklace. I haven't been much of a jewelry fan lately (mostly because I'm too lazy to deal with rings/bracelets/etc), but I finally found my estranged choker necklace last week whilst rummaging through my still unpacked suitcase from London (oops), which made me feel very #blessed and I've been wearing it ever since. For shoes, I went with these adorable loafers (one is a cat; the other is a dog!) that Dresslink also sent me. I'm absolutely obsessed with them. In fact, I plan on wearing these loafers every day for the next few months. Since they're monochromatic, they'll match with everything so it's meant to be.  

For more whimsical clothes & accessories, check out Dresslink here. The items on the site are cheap and on trend. Here's the tutu skirt (only 5 bucks!) and here are the cat-dog loafers (4 dolla dolla bills y'all!). 

Music

All of Me Remix by Addal 

Never Gonna Change by Young Chop

On That Level by Boosie Badazz 

xx