Ksubi A/W '13.

Leather/structured/denim/baroque/love.

Rineke Dijkstra.

Beach portraits 1992-94

I don't think many photographers better capture the awkwardness and anxiety of youth than Dijkstra. I am always completely transfixed by how vulnerable and exposed her subjects appear; how beautifully human each simple yet revealing portrait is.

More.

I like my body when it is with your body. It is so quite new a thing. Muscles better and nerves more. - E. E. Cummings

Mm

After a day-long internal battle between my emotional craving for the embrace of a juicy Big Mac and my body's whimpering physical protests refusing any movement further than the few steps to the kitchen, I have remained tightly wrapped in my duvet like a human burrito for longer than is probably recommended. Alas, I will be going to sleep burgerless. Scrolling through excessive amounts of food porn has not helped the situation in the slightest (note to self: must buy Nutella). I think it is safe to say, following last night's return to questionable music accompanied by questionable dancing, that the Erasmus students have returned.

Hogar, dulce hogar

And so my wonderful flat in the little city of Alcalá de Henares has been ceremoniously reunited (plus honorary extras), starting the second semester with a hugely rock and roll late-night game of German Monopoly accompanied by tinto de verano y cerveza - por supuesto. A few near-bankrupcies, several impressive comebacks and vast exchanges of old school Deutsche Mark later, we crept to bed (after begrudgingly taking the requested photographic evidence of Team Italy smoking victory cigarettes and holding tens of thousands of fake bills), content in our return to what has become a little European family.

Throw yourself

The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way that we can become exposed is if we throw ourselves out into the open. Do it. Throw yourself. - C. Joybell C.

HNY

Why some people choose at the start of each new year to 'give up' arguably some of the most enjoyable things in life - chocolate, carbs, wine, regularly spending far too much money on beautifully soft men's t-shirts - I will never understand. Unsustainable and clearly unenjoyable, trying (and in my case, failing) to maintain an essentially joyless existence sans-vin seems counter-intuitive to me. That's why each year, with a quiet, personal pledge, I disregard the 'I will go to the gym every day's and the 'I will only eat one square of chocolate every full moon's and instead focus on a few smaller, less intrusive and more positive goals. Like doing the things I want to do, when I want to do them, and not confining them to my ever-growing To-Do list. One thing in particular that has been skulking around the bottom of that list for a while is starting a blog. So here we go. 

Oh, that and flossing.