her cool older sister: April 2010

Oh, hai there, bloggy. I have not been posting lately, as you may have noticed, due to a number of reasons. One, spring is here in New York City. My happiness level has skyrocketed just a teensy bit because of this fact. Therefore, I am spending much more time out in nature in Central Park, more so than I usually do (yuck! Nature! Poison ivy! Bugs! This is why I try to avoid it), yet I find myself enjoying it, and so alas, the blog has gone unposted. But then there's reason two, spring break is over. Wipe the tears Lyris, wipe 'em! Yes, it may have ended over a week ago, but I'm still in that slump. I don't want to get out of bed for school, but then I don't want to go home to do my homework. So, what's a girl to do when she's feeling down? Rant about it, of course!

I don't understand certain things today. Of course, no one can understand everything, because that's simply not human. But when one can't understand, they try to accept it for what it is(well they should...). But I can't accept some things either, like how FUH-REAKIN' LAZY WE ALL ARE NOW.

First, it starts in fashion, with the ripped-jeans trend. In the 70's, when the Ramones reigned the underground music scene, they donned leather jackets, t-shirts, Converse sneakers, and skinny jeans everyday.

The Ramones in their signature clothing.
They didn't give a crap about whether or not they wore those jeans yesterday, and they'd keep wearing them, jumping in them, rocking out in them, and eventually, little tears would appear at the knees. The tears would keep ripping until there were full-on holes on their kneecaps. Today, though, it isn't about the stories behind those holes, because no one has any. Nowadays, people pry open the doors of Hollister, perhaps even the new Soho one to make themselves feel cool while they're visiting "The Big Apple" (who came up with that name, anyways? Because I have never heard a true New Yorker ever say that) with their aunt, and prance into the dark, techno-blasting four or five floors of stomach-ache-causing perfume air and mahogany-wood decorated building.

Greeters/douches at the Soho Hollister store.
They smile and wave at the wannabe-male model in swim trunks and a six-pack at the front, and perhaps even stop to take a picture with him that they'll put on myspace later that night. They bop over to the denim table, and take a look at the eighty-dollar pre-ripped, "Deconstruction Wash" jeans that lay upon that table. They leaf through them, finding their size, and they lift them off the table and up into the air. *Gasp! This is the pair Rachel Bilson was wearing in Life & Style!* Well, now they've got to get them, since Rachel Bilson's been their idol ever since The O.C. coined the term "Christmukkah".

But anyways, that's the jist of how things go today. Everything's done for people. Jeans come pre-ripped, CD's come to you in thirty seconds, pizza is ordered with the click of a button, stamps are no longer licked, and books can be bought without stepping foot in Barnes & Noble, like on the Amazon Kindle.

The convenient Amazon Kindle, the perfect excuse for a date.
Another reason why I'm not quite fond of today's society. Once again, like the mock dress or the band-skirt situation, no one has any energy anymore. No one appears to have the desire to step outside of their homes, start up the car, catch the subway or bus, unlock their bike, etc., and haul their asses over to the bookstore. They've got to order their new Dan Brown "groundbreaking" novel from their virtual library. Could a name for something get any lamer? "Carry your library with you in 10.2 ounces" "Books in 60 seconds". It's disintegrating culture. According to the second definition of "book" from Dictionary.com (yes, I admit it, I too contribute to the descent of culture. Everyone does, unless you're a hippie with a compost), it's "a number of sheets of blank or ruled paper bound together for writing, recording business transactions, etc." You hear that? Paper. Books are supposed to be made of paper.

I don't exactly know what I'm trying to get at here, because no matter what I say, it's never going to change anything. I'm also not saying that I'm not lazy. After all, I do write on this online diary, and when I feel like it, I do order my clothes from the web. I'm also not saying that I want a Kindle real bad, or that I'm dying to buy a pair of Hollister jeans. I think what I'm trying to say is that Kindles will break, computers will crash, and in the end, the ol' paper and pen are never going to turn on us. It's also always been this way, and everything's going to keep getting more and more advanced. All I'm saying, though, is that here and there, I think it's worth it to get down to the record store and bring yourself home a CD you can hold in your own hands.

First photo, second, third.