*Berries, Inc. is closing after September 12th. I'm pretty sad that they are going out of business. Not only is the store itself beautiful, but the items are simple, casually elegant and easily mixed into my wardrobe. Right now everything is 50L. I got this shirt and shoes and I am going back for more!
So, I went back and got these boots, jeans and cute top:
I also got another, shorter jean, a cute brown top, this great hat/hair combo and more shoes:
Here's another shirt, cool skirt and another color of the same heels:
I just wanted to show off my new favorite outfit I got from the massive COCO Designs sale. High-waist tuxedo trousers, (which I would have LOVED, except for a seam right on the waist I just couldn't get rid of even by using any of the included layers - I smudged it out in Photoshop,) pretty bow blouse and awesome oxford shoes. I felt so classy I put on my old monocle from Nala and took this photo in the gorgeous Noctis furniture shop. Go there, buy things. Stay Classy, Second Life.
Sometimes life gets to me and the only thing that helps is Music. Here is an old favorite I discovered way back in 1986. This song never fails to lift my mood and I cannot help but dance around when I hear it. ~But first, a bit of back story: In 1986 MTV was pretty brand-spankin' new and NOTHING like it is today. Sure, there was a lot of "hair metal" but late at night the weirder and more obscure videos would be played. Since I was in High School and couldn't stay up ALL night hoping for something "cool" to grace the screen, I would pop in a 120 minute VHS tape and just let it record until it filled, as I slept. I would come home from school the next day and watch it, eagerly searching for something really cool. One night this video was captured and I was absolutely enthralled when I saw it. The song got stuck in my head immediately and the search to find more from the band was ON. I finally got my hands on the record almost ten years later. Remember, this was long before the internet as we know it. You couldn't just type your desires into amazon.com or ebay and get whatever you wanted. There was a LOT of stuff I sought out for YEARS. I mean actually physically going to other cities and looking in record stores to find these things. Yes, it's a lot easier now, and I like that, (although I STILL can't find a couple very rare items I have been seeking for over 20 plus years!) ANYWAY, here's the great song I found by "accident" and have never stopped loving. This is the French band Les Rita Mitsouko with "C'est Comme Ca". Enjoy!
I was researching something about Kpop, (South Korean popular music,) when I happened upon a conspiracy-theory/illuminati/mind-control obsessed site called Vigilant Citizen. I will link the article at the end of the post but I wanted to have my say first. Check it out, but I warn you, your head will spin from all the theories and you might start to question everything. In the Kpop article the author describes a symbolically homogenized "face" of music being presented all over the world by the illuminati, citing many "western," "occult," and "christian" symbols used in the songs and videos, and how horribly manipulative and "mind-controlling" it is. While I find the site VERY interesting, and DO believe in sinister underground dealings by those who wish to gain or retain power over the masses the truth is, those kinds of symbols don't really "get" to me, because I am not a christian, therefore I assign no real power to them. (Not to offend anyone, but usually, it will induce the opposite effect, causing me to reflect on how detrimental religion is and how so many people in a position of "power" can use religious faith to control others or do terrible things in the "name of god.")
I believe in energy, matter and the fact that we are all on this Earth and part of this Universe making us all automatically connected. Some people have a conscience that keeps them from being "bad," some don't. Some need to be told what to do by the use of fables and fairy tales. Some people actually are severely abused, indoctrinated and manipulated. Some even have actual physical and/or mental issues that color their perception and behavior in good or bad ways. I don't need to believe in dieties, actual human biology is "supernatural" enough for me. I have always thought of depictions of angels and devils to just be "symbolic" of good and bad sides of human nature. I don't believe in a god or gods, angels, the devil, or demons, so to me, if a song or video is using that kind of symbology, it's just trying to illustrate "good" or "bad" in a simple, symbolic way most people can comprehend. Most of the time I find excessive use of christian symbols in music and videos to be kind of "tired". It's so overused, it's not even creative, shocking, powerful or scandalous to me.
For me, the most off-putting part of the vigilant citizen website was the fear mongering and radical christian hysteria that is expressed by a lot of the commenting readers. People were leaving comments about how, "Oh that Korean band is a bunch of Satan worshipers! I will never listen to them again!" When in actuality most of those performers are in fact, christians, (not that it really matters,) AND most of the songs are written by others or "teams of others." (Some could say this further proves the illuminati "handler" scenario.) Perhaps I am so indoctrinated that all I see is just talented, hardworking performers, performing songs and videos that their managers, handlers and companies think will be provocative and appealing enough to the largest amount of people, so as to make the most money! Not to say the performer has no obligation to be conscious of his participation in any activity and Yes, it is kind of a detestable business point of view, but to say someone is "evil" for simply singing and dancing in a music video that uses the word "lucifer" (one of their examples of "evil" was the song Lucifer, by SHINee - one of my favorite songs which is about about an unhealthy, constricting love affair,) is kind of ridiculous, considering there are actual rapists, murderers and child-molesters in the world, who I really do consider defective and "evil" - Not to mention that most popular American songs and videos seem to be promoting the idea of "money love," jealousy, anger, failed relationships and painful longing, violence and power-plays, insatiable sex drive and even willful ignorance coupled with mindless "rebellion." I think a LOT of the reason I enjoy "Foreign" music is because I can't readily understand the lyrical content. Therefore it is all about the music, melody and the tones of the singers voices. The emotion felt by me is picked up by all these factors. I don't have to be instantly "off-put" from what I consider "stupid" or "base" lyrics because I really don't know what they are saying. It is up to the music and the singers to convey the emotion and overall feeling of the song. I think it actually works better. I am not distracted by "stupid' lyrics. I can just get the FEEL. This is also a major reason I don't get tired of foreign music as fast as I do music that is in my native tongue of English. Sure, it's not as easy to sing along to, but it surely doesn't lose it's flavor as quickly.
Regarding all the "conspiracy" theories: Yes, I am quite sure that the "elite" would love for us to swallow whatever is force fed to us, and be able to "control" the general population, (which it is believed they already do.) However, I feel that ALL of these overall messages of "Do This, Buy This, Fear This, Feel Like This, Obey This" are truly rendered impotent if the "target audience" is already "hip" to the shenanigan-type usage of the fear mongering and controlling symbology. (Which is, I suppose the exact goal of the Vigilant Citizen website - to alert you of all this.) However, if these symbols mean nothing to me, then how much power can they assert over me? For example, if I don't believe in god, then you can't scare me with the devil. Or, I'm not going to buy your snake-oil because I actually know a little about biology and medicine. The message I got from the website is: Take responsibility for educating yourself, for your actions and don't be mindlessly led or duped by ANYTHING or ANYONE.
So, here's the "offending" SHINee video, "Lucifer". To me it's just regular old slick packaging of a commodity. I don't feel "forced" to buy or do anything because of this, (except maybe get up and dance, which I consider a good thing,) because I am not an idiot, (or I am so indoctrinated I can't even tell, lol.) Although I REALLY enjoy their looks, clothes, hair, singing, dancing, and the actual catchy tune, I seem to be able to take it simply for what it is: Entertainment.
Here's the original article that started me down the path of this post:
