Food: Fage Yogurt

So when I was working at Whole Foods, this was literally the top selling item at every Whole Foods every single week, and I would always think to myself why is everybody flipping out over fat free yogurt? I figured it was some super health thing (which I guess it is since 1/2 a cup has a whopping 12 grams of protein) but when I finally started asking customers about it, all they said was just taste it and I would know why.

So one day on my lunch break I tried it and since then I have been spending waaay too much money on it ever since. Fage which is a staple in greek diets, has a special way of being strained that makes it look and taste like yogurt made with whole milk and a billion calories only its fat free and like 80 calories. Its super creamy and mild and totally amazing with fruit or honey. It sounds silly to obsess over something like yogurt but seriously if you try it you will  see why it has a cult following. The only bad side is a single serving cup costs around 2 bucks and like a 5 serving tub will run you almost 6, pricey but delicious.

Book: Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

I read all 13 of the Lemony Snicket books and I am really proud. But in all reality it wasn’t that hard because A, they were children books and B, they were really freakin’ good. The Series is about 3 kids Violet, Klaus and Sunny Bauldalaire and basically a series of unfortunate events that occur after a super tragic one. I won’t tell you but if you saw the movie you already know (really good movie surprisingly too btw)

Even though they are kids books, its really fun for adults to read too, the writing doesn’t seem at all directed to young kids, (some of the terms used I had to look up) and its just really like dark and twisted yet funny and sweet at the same time. Isn’y it crazy that it could be all those things? but it really is, thats what makes this series so great and totally worth the time to read all 13 books.

Fashion:Evisu

More and more I see Evisu on guys especially rappers for some reason, but I almost never see the brand on girls. You’ve probably all seen the seagull logo at some time or another and in my humble opinion and really I guess a lot of others because they are known as the “Rolls Royce” of jeans, they completely trump Sevens and Rock and Republic.

The super premium jeans are made out of the best quality demin in vintage looms and many of the jean styles still have the logo hand painted on to them, thus their prices range from $150 to $1000 for a pair.

The brand seemed pretty underground for a while but they definitly blew up when they teamed with Puma for both a collaboration called Evisu loves Puma and also selling their own brand in Puma stores across the world.

While their jeans are definitly their staple one thing that people either forget or don’t notice about Evisu is that they also happen to make some of the most unique cutting edge ready to wear clothes out there. One of my prized pieces in my wardrobe is a black kimono pea coat. Its a cropped black pea coat with gigantic kimono sleeves and red sakura lining on the inside of the sleeves and thats still pretty tame compared to some of the other things Ive seen them come up with.

Website: Infectious.com

Have you ever thought about pimping out your car but figured it would just be too expensive? Well fear no more, your car can now make heads turn everywhere you drive without breaking the bank. Infectious.com offers you badass hood pieces, side pieces or just little accents for the weak ranging from just 99 bucks.

And the coolest part about Infectious is it REALLY is awesome art, not just some crappy clipart my friends, I mean super premium grade A badass pieces from artists like Junko Mizuno, Buff Monster, Yumiko Kayukawa, Coop and more. They made the decals fairly easy to install so you should be able to do it with 2 people, a couple hours and no previous experience. And  commitment phobics need not to worry, the decals can come off anytime you want just get a hairdryer and pull it off in strips.

Artist: Junko Mizuno

So I don’t really know if Junko Mizuno is super well known to the masses or if her artwork is more underground but huge with  people in the know, but either way its insane. Junko’s artwork is another one of those types that crosses a mixture of cute and horrific. There is lots of color and cute girls with big eyes and flowy hair but at the same time the girls tend to be naked and carrying bloody chainsaws or syringes. It has that happy tree friends kind of vibe, only not nearly as lame.

Junko Mizuno also has some of the coolest merchandise around from graphic novels, crazy action figures and even gruesome yet adorable versions of fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel and the Little Mermaid. If you are into low brow art her work will suddenly appear everywhere you look from magazine articles to tv shows Junko will overtake the world with her wicked coolness.

Movie: Stardust

So when I first saw Stardust coming out in theatres for some reason I just wasnt that excited but my boyfriend was because it was based off a Neil Gaiman Novel and was a bog fan. We never ended up seeing it on the big screen but I ended up picking it up for him one day on one of my monthly trips to Blockbuster to take advantage of the 4 for 20 sale. (I love that sale seriously…) So reluctantly to be a good GF I said we could watch Stardust, and wow was I soooo stupid to think I wasn’t going to like it. Not only did I like the movie, it has seriously become of my favorite movies ever!

The story contains enough action and adventure that boys won’t whine the whole way through and definitly enough romance and girly aspects to keep the girls happy. Really it’s the best of both worlds. The movie is really extremely well acted, the cinematography is awesome and basically the story is really what makes it great. With so much crap coming out lately in Hollywood, it really nice to see that something of quality can still be created. Yeah I pick up a lot of movies at blockbuster cause its cheap entertainment but its really cool when every once in a while you find that diamond in the rough like this one.

Music: The Ditty Bops

So I know from the name they sound like the type of band that would play at some 5 year olds birthday party, but really the Ditty Bops are a lot more grown up. In fact if you listened to their music, they don’t even seem like they are from this era. They make music thay you would dance the charleston to or the kind of music you’d hear in a movie from the 30’s or 40’s but of course a bit more updated and a bit more edgy.

They aren’t just a band trying to copy an old style of music, they totally make it their own and they have fun with it, if you watch their videos they are far from old fashioned, My favorite video “Wishful Thinking” (that you can watch in this post btw) has the girls in lingerie punching each other out, shooting arrows and throwing knives at each other. Definitly not the kind of stuff grandma use to see. Thats what great about the Ditty Bops, you can play the music for anyone and they will think its delightful, but the girls are actually far from angelic.

Book: Gothic and Lolita Bible

Tokyopop’s Gothic and Lolita Bible is the ultimate source for fans of the gothic lolita and the sweet lolita lifestyle. The mook (magazine/book) is only in its 2nd volume in America but it is pretty well established in Japan and has a HUGE cult following both in Japan and stateside.

G&L contains the newest clothes from Japan’s top lolita designers like Angelic Pretty, Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Metamorphose for the sweet and brands like h NAOTO, Black Peace Now and Algonquins for the more gothic looks.They also feature street lolita looks as well as interviews with designers and girls who live the lolita lifestyle.

The coolest parts of the G&LB in the american version is that they made these clothes accesible to the US population by listing website and ways for foreigners to get these clothes from the top brands as well as warnings about the size conversions since Japanese clothes tend to run much smaller than US sizes. But the best feature of all is with every mook issue, they give you patterns designed by the best designers from their line for you to make at home so you can keep us with the lolita lifestyle!

Food: Milky

When I was little and whenever we went to Japan, the first thing I would ask for was this candy called “Milky” The packaging has a little girl with pigtails sticking out her tongue to the side and I remember always doing that when I was little just like her, that was my way of being cute and getting the candy. Recently Ive seen it more and more in asian grocery stores in america which is so exciting! There really isn’t any candy in the US like it.

They always come in super cute pink or yellow wrappers and its inbetween a hard and a soft candy, so you always try to chew but then your teeth end up stuck together.Overall it basically tastes like sweetened condensed milk in ball form. I can’t really tell if I love Milky so much because it tastes good or really because it reminds me of my childhood maybe a little of both but I know one thing for sure, there are few things that make me happier then randomly finding a bag of Milky at a grocery store.

Fashion:Literature

I’m not 100% sure, but I’m overall pretty sure that Literature has changed around their whole line premanently and not for the good. Like Im talking 180 turnaround into suckiness. I was hoping this was like a mid life crisis for the brand and they would find themselves back to their roots of awesome shirts and hoodies, but also it was not meant to be. The only reason Im talking about this brand as obsession worthy is because first of all it was a really awesome brand before they went downhill and secondly if you look hard enough there are still some “vintage” Literature pieces floating around that you can pick up and probably for a lot cheaper than what they charged retail. They were pretty expensive like $185 for a hoodie.

I got super super lucky about 6 or 7 months ago and found this shady little online store that was selling some old Literature pieces for dirt cheap like 15 bucks a hoodie so I snagged as much as possible hoping it was for real and that I wasnt going to totally get ripped off, but luckily a week later I ended up with everything and I can tell you the pieces are even cooler in person and REALLY well made, the hoodies have either asymetrical zippers or gigantic zippers which just look really cool.

So it definitly takes some research to find the old stuff, even ebay doesn’t have too much of it anymore and what they do have is well over a hundred bucks , but Im sure if you want it bad enough its findable. HINT: When Literature changed their style, they also changed their name, The cool stuff is branded as just Literature clothing, the new stuff goes under the name Literature Noir.