Girls Who Make Music and Like Cats and Maybe Wear Glasses

I like the Internet okay. It has cats. 

You know what else? Felines and female singer-songwriters. It's a thing. Kind of like the theme of hot vampires, the motif of cute girls and cute cats is historical and enduring. So, I've decided to compile a few of my favorite cat-themed music videos by some of my favorite female musicians. Conclusion? Every chick worth her guitar pick should hire a mouser.

Bjork, "Triumph of A Heart," 2004

It's everyone's favorite (and the only one anybody knows) Icelandic pop songstress, in a video directed by the ever-awesome Spike Jonze. In the video, an asymmetrically pigtailled Bjork gets upset when her cat boyfriend (you read that right) is distant and unaffectionate one morning. Cat Boyfriend is sporting a wifebeater, so you know he must be an unruly cad. What else is a girl to do? Bjork goes out on the town with her friends and gets toasted on champagne. I don't want to ruin the plot, but it ends with a bizarre and adorable dance sequence that is sure to give you palpitations of the heart (unless you're not human, and don't like cats or Iceland or something.)

Lisa Loeb, "Stay (I Missed You)," 1994

Back in the '90s, Lisa Loeb pretty much invented the "girls with glasses and cats" aesthetic. QED. While the song "Stay" plumbs the difficulties of a romantic relationship, the video is a simple and pleasant one set in Ms. Loeb's empty apartment. "Stay (I Missed You)" is on this list thanks to the long opening shot of Lisa's cat chilling on a chair near a window. Sure, you say, but the cat's only a minor character. Well, I say, check out the album cover for "Tails":

"Tails" -- get it? Plus featuring more than one pun!

Best Coast, "Crazy For You," 2010

I think this video pretty much kills it when it comes to the "girls who make music and like cats" theme. Right? Kills it in a good way? Bethany Cosentino, who basically is Best Coast, has made no secret of the fact that her overfed domestic tiger Snacks is her BFF. In this charming video, Bethany surf-pops her heart out about some guy she's crazy for, while a gaggle of hard-working cats do the camera work. Best part: kitten in a red bandana doling out the muchies.

I'm sure I left out a bunch of cat-themed music videos with cat-loving frontwomen, but three's a nice number. In other news, my cat and I are currently working on our lo-fi synth-pop album, which will feature songs about our mutual love of sleeping, eating, and avoiding social occasions.

The Pose n' Pout

And ... I'm baaaaaack!

Not that I was really gone. 

I just popped over to my college town of Portland, Ore. for a little over a week's visit to see my best friends and to remind myself what the young urban lifestyle feels like. 

It feels kinda lame.  

Now, don't get me wrong. I love going dancing, and dining on salads and whiskey sours at nearly midnight at hipster bars that are all taxidermied out. I flipping love taxidermy. And whiskey. And bearded men in urban settings. But I can't stand that city livin' compulsion to always go out and be social, or else feel like you aren't really livin'. On the contrary, a quiet night in with your buds, or even by your lonesome, is sometimes the best night to be had.

As for the pros and cons of shopping: while in Portland, I successfully avoided hoarding at the Bins (by the way, the linked article makes the Bins sound way scarier than it actually is), where I would've most definitely acquired more crap than would fit in any normal human suitcase. 

I did, however, buy some stuff at a Mormon thrift store on 82nd Avenue (the most fun place on Earth). The friendly Mormon cashiers thought my friends and I were there to buy ugly Christmas sweaters. Whatever, friendly Mormon cashiers. This ain't my first rodeo and I ain't no debutante, if you know what I mean. I actually don't know what I mean either. But I did some real wardrobe shopping at that store: an ivory pleated skirt, a red velvet purse, and a Mormon women's league basketball jersey (with sleeves for modesty's sake). 

My first week's return to Houston brought me back to the comforts of Goodwill, where I purchased a size large sheer black blouse (excitingly knee-length), and back at home I promptly got down with the style blogger pose and pout:

I hope my future boyfriends appreciate how many pictures there are of me on the Internet in date-appropriate outfits. There's a treasure trove of possible wardrobe choices here, fellas. Just kidding, I plan to wear my Mormon b-ball jersey on all my future dates.

Just so you know, my best galpals have concluded that my style falls into the category of "some girl in a Prince impersonator's music video in Soviet Russia in the '80s." I'm so excited!

Notes From The Style Subculture Archives: Color Me Goth, Punk, & Film Noir

Doesn't the title of this post make you throw up in your mouth a little?

Or maybe it's just me. I'm poking fun at that trope of academic writing in which, like, every title must have a semi-colon and, like, enough jargon-y words to stuff a dead cat, kind of like this sentence. Disclaimer: I love academics, and I'd give them all a hug if I could! (I figure the best way to disclaim involves promising hugs by proxy.)

But I'm serious about the topic! I think someone should write about the connection between horror films, film noir, and goth and punk music. Someone not very qualified, but with a passionate interest in all of these things, like me!

As a caveat, I'll say right off the bat that I'm not a fan of horror films. But I really love silent horror films from the '20s. An all-time favorite of mine is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,  which was made in 1920 and is technically a work of German Expressionism, not film noir. But I think it has film noir elements to it (which I'm claiming as a complete non-expert.)

Still from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920

I, along with my friend Heather (whose Internet presence will remain a mystery, sorry, Gen Y-ers) are both huge silent film nerds. We're also aware that this love of silent film is the height of snobbery and pretension, so we have this joke that "talking pictures" are vulgar and that spoken dialogue is overkill.

Funny, huh? I know, friend jokes aren't really translateable, but I tried. Back to business: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a German film about this creepy guy, Dr. Caligari, who performs at carnivals along with his assistant, a sombambulist named Cesare.

Dr. Caligari is an eerie reflection on dreams and reality. It's also a pretty impressive and enduring film. So much so that the image of Cesare was considered cool enough to be used by '80s gothic rock band Bauhaus for some band T-shirts. These bad-ass shirts feature the character Cesare with the title of Bauhaus' single "Bela Lugosi's Dead." It's kind of a bizarre mash-up, but I'm into it:

 

 Holiday gift idea, anyone?

 I'd be happier than a kid in a GameStop store if I owned this shirt. I'd probably wear it everyday, and I'd never wash it. I'm surprisingly low-key slash barbaric when it comes to beloved fashion items.

Anyways, here's what all the suspense has been building up to: for your enjoyment, a 1964 trailer of the circa-1920 film (confusing, I know):

 

And, in case you need more evidence of why this film is so amazing: Check out how intricate the set is, how distorted, moody, creepy, and insiduous:

I can't be sure of their inspiration, but I'm definitely getting a Dr. Caligari vibe from the music video for rock band Siouxise and the Banshees' "Happy House." All those distorted angles in the set, Siouxsie Sioux's costume, and of course the band's genre oozes a silent horror film aesthetic:

And below is my ill-advised attempt to channel this vibe:

 

I say ill-advised because I had way too much fun scrounging up pieces in my wardrobe that evoked gothic/silent film horror, and I'm not sure how successful I was at it. 

But I'm kind of a pro at the makeup, so I must've been a silent film waif in another life.

So, now that we're at the end of things: I must acknowledge that gothic rock is sort of a hilarious music genre because it takes overdone and ostentatious literary and film genres like horror and gothic very seriously. Having said that, I'm hopelessly in love with gothic rock and the film genre that inspired it.

And maybe you are too, or you found a way to enjoy this post despite a blithering hatred of Bauhaus, or something (really?). If you enjoyed any of this (and I'm sure hoping you did), I also recommend that you check out the films of Fritz Lang for some chillingly fantastic times.