MK in the Media (Studies)

August was so long ago. Plans. Did MK have plans. She was going to do a blog post titled "Slanted and Disenchanted" about the first Church of Style pilgramage. To PDX. But that did not happen because, well, school happened to Ms. Kansas. Ms. Kansas is in graduate school now for Media Studies.

Church Pilgrimage

The first ever blog post from Portland on the first ever church pilgrimage. I arrived in Portland yesterday. It was hot like it gets in Kansas, which is obviously unusual for Portland--or Oregon, in general. I am staying in the southeastern part of the city in a very cool house.

Last night after I showered up I went over to Hawthorne. As I mentioned in a tweet, the kids over there pretty much looked like the kids in Milwaukee who shop at Yellow Jacket. Blah, blah, blah--the flattening of fashion and regional differences, etc.

I was thrilled at how easy it was to use the bus system here. It was really fast! Which is the complete opposite of public transit in Milwaukee. Damn you, Scott Walker, you corporate boot-licking bumpkin!

I thought I was going to find my spiritual home here, but I've been like, Um, ok. There are plenty of BMW-driving jerks and yupparents who won't or can't make their designer babies mind. I guess nothing could meet my Mt. Hood-like expectations, really.

But I haven't been to Seaplane yet, though.

Have Her People Call My People

Woo, y'all, I know it's been a while! Moving, Michael Jackson's death...

Here I am taking a break to check out Paper's always fab website. And I did not know Ms. Janelle Monáe was a Friend of Friends of Dorothy! But I knew I could not the only fabulous Black girl outta Kansas!

I loved me some "Call The Law!" She's an Church interview priority.

Photo by Jiro Schneider for Paper magazine.

Tweet!

The Church now twitters. I guess.

Fountains of Wayne

What with all the Pitchfork 2009 updates I've been getting in the past few weeks, The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne has been much on my mind. It's no surprise I would big up this Oklahoman (it was as an 18-year-old Oklahoma Christian University student that I actually first heard of The Flaming Lips and "She Don't Use Jelly"), having ancestral connections to that rootin', tootin' state myself, now, is it?

But more than that! Wayne Coyne is ever the distinguished gentleman of indie rock. In a story that appeared in The Telegraph last month he credits his wife for helping him bring the hot, hot heat, style-wise. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that he's a fancy-schmancy, high-concept auteur. He has to be the hottest guy named Wayne alive--and there are a hell of a lot of them in Oklahoma.

Photo from nypost.com.

Ra Ra Rad

It looks like Ra Ra Riot is selling out shows left, right, and center! I first heard the Syracuse band's music on NPR and fell in love with "Oh, La," which reminds me of nothing so much as walking around the southern Milwaukee neighborhood Bayview in December. (Something to do with the quality of light looking toward the lake in winter and the tenable melancholy that comes across in Ra Ra Riot's music, I guess.) They play in support of 2008'sThe Rhumb Line in Waukesha, WI, tomorrow.

Image from rarariot.com.

Do It Again/Change Clothes

I'm happy to say Milwaukee now has a boutique-style resale clothing store. (Arizona Trading Company--the premier boutique-style resale store as far as I'm concerned--was and is the rite of passage for every 18 year old who attends the University of Kansas. Ah, the reminisces! One of the best pairs of jeans I've ever had--vintage Jordaches that fit like a dream--was from ATC. I unloaded the Fluevogs that never fit there in, like, 2004.) Conceptually and practically sweet: clothes that are new to you, but not the environment. And it's good finally to have that space in the Alterra building filled.