The sun can't burn away our sins, don't forgive me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(All photos taken at Mission Peak)

Lately, I keep quoting Craft Spells. I can't seem to get enough of their summery tunes and beautiful lyrics. This post's title, by the way, is from "From the Morning Heat" by Craft Spells.

One of the first things I did when I got my Canon EOS Rebel Sl1 was take it with me on a morning hike. It captured one of the most enlightening moments I had ever experienced. After a long trek, entirely uphill, in a sheet of morning fog, we knew we had reached the peak of the mountain. Intuition was not the indicator, but rather, the sunlight. It felt like we were a million miles closer to the sun once we emerged out of the thick fog. When I say "thick," I mean, up to the point where you could not see what was in front or behind you. Not to mention, droplets formed on our hair as well. Nevertheless, I couldn't have wished for any better conditions because being trapped in the fog made reaching the top of Mission Peak so much more rewarding.

And so, as I sat in my warmly lit room, I let the smooth melodies of Craft Spells sway me, letting the night pass into morning, the hours change until they signified an entirely new day. As time stopped for no one, I left my restless mind to what it did best: exploring into the depths of the world that curiously, continuously spun without hesitation.

My words get lost in the morning heat.





It's Monday again. Not that that's a bad thing though since I haven't started school yet! Still, a realization struck me that is best expressed through the words of Ferris Bueller, the legendary fictional hero of the rebellious anthem of the youthful minds:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

All our lives are focused on moving towards the future. What about wanting to hold onto the present? I quote movies pretty frequently but George from The Art of Getting By makes a good point when he says, "Like a nostalgia for the present, I couldn't shake it." I mean, though the present may suck sometimes, there is always that one moment that makes you wish it would last longer.

(Floral Blazer: Urban Outfitters, Top: vintage Black&Brown, Shorts: Urban Outfitters, Sandals: Urban Outfitters, Jewelry: DIY, Lipstick: Lancôme in Blushed Rose)

Anyways, to break out of that existential thought bubble, one thing I'm always drawn towards when I am out shopping is the color black (or the "absence of color"). You add black with a floral print and some metal jewelry to toughen up the look and presto! You've got yourself an outfit for the Monday blues. Plus, with tan skin like mine, I tend to flock towards dark colors to make my skin tone a little paler. To sum up my current obsessions at the moment, besides black clothes and creepy jewelry, I've also always had a thing for tattoos. (Not that I could actually get a real one without getting the frown of disapproval from my Asian parents for the rest of my life!) Temporary tattoos are a nice alternative to drawing on your hands and arms when you have nothing to do. They last longer! So now, an anchor and a lightning bolt reside on my wrists.

It's the balance of thoughts, its the...colours to life.

Driving through downtown in a car with foggy windows, the feeling felt much different than all those times I've walked through the city I love. There was a sense of nostalgia latching itself onto the memories of the place that my friends and I have explored and familiarized ourselves with over the years. It was that feeling that after the night ended, I would be saying my first goodbye to one of my friends.

Pushing sentimentality aside, we embraced life after hours, occasionally shouting the lyrics to songs of the top 40's, hanging out with a particularly hyper dog, visiting the drive thru at In n Out, and creating a replica of the Leaning Tower of Pizza with cups at Verde Tea Café.

Life came to us in an extravagance of colors: the dark cloak the sky wore at night, the city lights, the empty streets, and most importantly, the pale green walls in the room of a friend who is now on her way to Boston.

I'm gonna hang around, long enough to be part of the furniture.

(cardigan, jeans & boots: H&M, top: Brandy Melville, Shania's boots: Urban Outfitters, rings: H&M, vintage-Black & Brown,Target, bracelets: souvenir gift from Jamaica, Black & Brown, lipstick: Rimmel in Bordeaux)

The title of this post, by the way, is a lyric from "Unzip You Harrington" by The Drowners (which is a band named after a Suede song!).

Summer days are the best because you wake up in the morning and you have the whole day ahead of you to do whatever you want. The days that go completely unplanned are the ones I find most productive. I mean, it's only natural for us to want to break away from routine right? So here's the story of how I stumbled upon the cheaper alternative to Dr. Marten boots on a spontaneous day. 

Tuesday. It was noon, around lunchtime. In the full montage of events: Funny vines, Mean Gurlz parody, Chapter 2 of my Business Law textbook, feast of pasta, chicken nuggets, and green tea ice cream, "Korea Town" at El Camino Real: Paris Baguette and Ramune soda, Goodwill, "Supermoon" at sunset, Santana Row: the perfect floral blazer at Urban Outfitters and black boots (featured in today's post) from H&M, In n Out burgers for dinner, and finally, the city lights up in the hills.

The days for me come in two flavors: I either crave the comfort of my home or I want to spend the entire day roaming around outside. There's nothing wrong with being both an explorer and a homebody!

Photographed by Shania Cheng

The dark side of the moon.

In the spontaneity of a hot summer night, I came home after dorm shopping at Target, ran up to my bedroom, grabbed my camera, and bolted back outside for another attempt at photographing the moon. The experience could be summarized in four details: telescope lens, polarizing filter, manual focus, and mosquito bites. While the first three items make perfect sense, the fourth item is where the question marks start to appear. Why mosquito bites?

Here is the short story of my encounter with a particularly irritable mosquito. It was nearly dark. The view looked as if the world was covered in black dust floating in the air, making everything seem a bit unclear. My eye catches the only moving object in the still setting: a bug flapping it's wings rapidly. Impulsively, I kick it away but it persists in trying to land on my leg. I thought by moving away, it would not bother me any longer. However, in the midst of unbreakable focus, the sneaky bastard bites me in the thigh and ankle for a total of three bites. All in the course of 15 minutes. Was it worth the mosquito bites to be able to capture this precious gem in the sky? Yes!

Summer Daze: Santa Cruz Photo Diary

(Photos taken at Seabright Beach and Downtown Santa Cruz)

 

When I think about the coastal towns of California, I hear Ezra Koenig's voice in my head singing "I know I love you, and you love the sea." Being in Santa Cruz brings me contentment. The beaches, the murals on the walls, the charming houses, and the bookstores really are sights pleasing to the eye--just as music is euphonious to the ear.



In my natural state, I am often seen with a camera in my hands--whether phone or dslr. I find comfort in watching life through the viewfinder of a camera. Though I have a long way to go in bettering myself as a photographer, it's like what most say. Instead of "we love who we love," it's "we love what we love."

C'est la vie.

To new beginnings.

(All photos taken at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California)

 

It was a golden, blazing hot day in the residential slums of a city in the Bay Area as Megan sat at the living room typing furiously on her laptop, emptying the contents of her mind--carelessly ignoring all grammar errors and awkward sentence structures. And though this situation seemed like it would put her in a trance-like state of reflection, it did not. The California heat seeped through the windows and the walls of the non-air conditioned two-story house. So while she struggled to find her voice in the written word, she wrote the introduction to her online journal: the new chapter in her life.

 

Salut! and welcome to the birth of my blog, That Suede Song (which is referring to the song "The Drowners" by Suede).

 

I'm sure we've all heard the stories of the small-town girl who moves to the big city. Well, in my case, it's the opposite. In the fall, I will be leaving the city I've lived in for the majority of my life for a small town near the coasts of sunny California: San Luis Obispo. Otherwise known as the happiest place on earth (sorry, Disneyland). Hopefully, a new place will be the first step towards satisfying my curious mind and my hunger for travel and exploration.

 

To tie all loose ends to my ramblings, as E.E. Cummings once said:

"For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it's always ourselves we find in the sea."