rain ready

 silk cami, vintage ralph lauren. jeans, secondhand. hoodie (worn as belt), secondhand anne klein. boots, rubi by cotton on via zalora ph. clutch bag, gifted by aunt. bangle, vintage.

The silk cami is becoming quite the useful staple for this summer that's now slowly turning into the rainy season. Just right after shooting this, it ended up raining when I'm supposed to be picking stuff up outside for a strawberry and beet smoothie concoction. Days like this, I cannot really forgo having anything hooded when going out. I'm not a huge fan of umbrellas though I would usually have a folding automatic kind in my bag, which is often a tote bag by the way, at this time. Other times, I just get one of those transparent umbrellas that aren't at all the folding kind to use when out. They are the most convenient. In general, I'm not really fond of going out during the rainy days, I'm more of a sunny day-preferring someone, so the umbrellas and raincoats aren't as useful as they should be but they remain a necessity either way. Anyway, I'm currently thinking of a summer, dry to wet seasons staples post...something I'll get to one day this week as it seems that in this blog, a lot of things are being put on repeat enough to be considered just that, staples.

Well, I guess, at least it's cooling down in the afternoons. I like the almost-indian summer heat the most but this humid majority of the days and wetter and cooler during the late afternoons is good too.

Lately, I've been wearing my earrings like this:

Exactly, miniscule rather, microscopic and mismatched people are likely not going to find that I have mismatched ear accessories when out considering it's kind of difficult to notice as they're way too small to be noticed at first glance. I lost my favorite crescent moon studs while travelling around a couple years or so ago. Lately, I like my accessories microscopic.

In other news, since yesterday, I've been wallowing in everything SOLIDEMO on ダンゼン Live! via youtube posts from other fans. I'm beginning to love all their four main vocalists: Shunei, Akito, Takeshi, and Kazuya. I'm loving them way more than I did and still do their back-up and occasional secondary or tertiary vocalist, Nakayama Yuki. It might be because to me, they are what make the core of this boys group. The thing about SOLIDEMO is that even when they don't have either Nakayama Yuki and/or Yamaguchi Tomoya (who may be out for gigs like stage plays, tv series tapings and more...), 6-7 of them still function fine in lives. They can make their audience forget they're actually missing a member or members to other entertainment biz gigs/engagements. You can say SOLIDEMO is a complete boy group in everything as any member, especially among the core 4 I briefly named earlier, can easily step in to cover for the absent members. Their ダンゼン Live! stuff are really good fun, hilarious though, so I enjoyed trying to catch up to a lot of those of this I now frequently miss watching live. I think this show is on Nico Nico TV/Live in Japan as I don't think it is on Ustream like Da-iCE's monthly broadcasts so I can't really watch it live as I only have the app on my currently non-functional iPad Air---I'm considering having it fixed one day yet...I think I just overloaded the thing with photos and some heavy apps as the one I own only has 16GB worth of space for stuff. Yep, SOLIDEMO. Them and Da-iCE are two boy groups from Japan I really like/love as they come from the same agency or talent management: Avex. And speaking of, SOLIDEMO music should be good in this really rainy afternoon. Their discography is full of beautiful upbeat pop, mid-beat pop and really pretty ballads so it's definitely suited for such a day. The downpour outside is really strong at this time. It's only 5:15 in the afternoon here and there's hardly any sunlight, too.

3 things: a not so 80s/90s outfit, a 90s film classic and, an 80s music playlist

 top, vintage ralph lauren. lace shorts, tally weijl. boots, rubi by cotton on (via zalora).  necklace/choker, forever21.

Something pretty summer high heat-friendly and cozy for today. I'm not usually a fan of lace but this pair of shorts work fine when cinched higher above the waist. My main problem with this has always been the low crotch area when it's hanging lower around the waist... Nothing high-waisted-wearing can't solve, however.

 

Tenderness by General Public has been stuck in my head for eons now since hearing it on Clueless a couple days ago, when I caught the latter's ending on HBO. Everything about Clueless from the wardrobe to the plot and/or story to the OST is 90s classic---the film was released in the early to mid-1990s but General Public's Tenderness has been out since around 1983-1985 based on my googling around on this matter...---and I lived that decade and continue to live it so...yep...Tenderness remains stuck in my head to this day. Now I have 80s tracks from  A-Ha, Wham!, Culture Club, Duran Duran, The Police, General Public and Starship playing via the Windows Media Player Classic. The 80s music mania has been going on for about a couple days now and seems to show no sign of stopping...yet. Anyway, I did, as a little child, catch the really late 80s thanks to the aunts (mum's sisters) going gaga over everything 80s back then: the movies, Ghost and Mannequin come to mind for this time period and their impeccable OSTs so let's just say, I'm pretty familiar with 80s rock and roll, classic rock and pop somehow. I'm currently just taking it unto myself now to reacquaint myself with the music of that era now that I'm older and while doing so, I find a lot of the music released then are pretty much...gold~ I'm more of a 90s person on the whole but 80s music, especially the pop kind, has a special place in my heart thanks to my digging around for good stuff from that said decade. Oh and how cute is the music video for Tenderness, exactly? Yep.

I'll work around building a good 80s pop, pop-rock playlist somehow...until then, this music/songlist will have to suffice. By the by, I'm currently enjoying Kate Bush after looking her music up on Youtube. This is so beautiful pop for me!

I just realized I spent a good chunk of this post to discuss music...I guess it's how much I love it? I don't know anything either, really...

summer heat cozy

 cami, secondhand ralph lauren (similar here in black). skirt, ebayed laundry by shelli segal. boots, zalora. choker, smashbox. cross necklace, aizilim.

Something cozy for the hot day out today. This is likely the second time I've worn this cream cami on here. The first was the garden shot which ended up being too bright for this thing to be captured in photos better.

Anyway, today's music mood because the heat makes me want to feel a bit cutesy? I don't know either...really. More like this is a new release by one of the favorite music groups from Japan so...

Finally, it's something high school academe related. I was counting on them to one day do something like this and they delivered. I actually like the other a-side of the single, Boyfriend better musically but this is a-ok, too, I guess. I like the video for this more than Boyfriend's for some reason.

Ah...skater Asada Mao has just retired from competitive skating. She'd posted details of her retirement on her blog. This, just in time when the Japanese women were given just two slots in the incoming Pyeongchang Winter Olympics (the men won three slots during the recently concluded World Championships in Helsinki). Commence collective sad sounds coming from Japanese team ice skating fans (including me). I'll always remember Mao as someone who was instrumental in bringing in my favorite male skater, Uno Shoma, into the sport (in addition to Takahashi Daisuke, that is). Photos/snaps and video clips of her carrying little Shoma around the ice, playing with him, will always be a fond memory for me to treasure this day on. Let's just say, although I'm not too familiar with Mao's work in the women's figure skating field, I have too much love to give to the Japanese skating team. It doesn't matter to me which part of the figure skating events they compete in.

so it's definitely summer now

 tank, secondhand Ralph Lauren. denim cutoffs, levis. boots, zalora. tri-strand ribbon choker, verano via zalora. belt, vintage. sunglasses, dad's. 

 fedora, jessica simpson (w/o belt)

This might be the real start of the summer, dry season. Finally. No rain in sight the whole day, just pure sun and tolerable heat in the most appropriate summer day outfit. I've actually worn this cream-colored, pretty flimsy excuse for a sunny, summer's day appropriate top under a vintage cream silk button-up shirt. It was on the recent Camiguin trip post. I found it a bit too tiresome to list down what I wore on the post so I never mentioned this thing being worn at all there until this one. So, due to how cozy this is and how it allowed me not to even put on the fan for cooler air...I actually lounged in this today, watching the kdrama Signal on TVN/Channel M without english subs which was pretty much torture. I mean, watching Signal not having any english subs the one that was pure torture. The South Korean language is pretty alien to me being someone who's more of a Japanophile than a South Korea-nophile like a high fraction of my compatriots and fellow...err...south east asians. But anyway, back to this ensemble...yes, it's pretty easy and fun to accessorize which was why, when I saw it hung on a thrift shop in Dumaguete City a couple or so years ago, I just had to get it. Also, it was pretty affordable so why couldn't I not have snatched it up then?

....and finally, I think I can start posting more summer, islander-denizen friendly, Californian-French minimal chic outfits on this blog from this day on. Thank you, dearly beloved, highly revered summer sun! There are already a few things I have in mind for these dry season's posts that, I think, I can afford to actually stay the repeat offender that I am in some of them. This season makes me want to actually do my own version of the 10x10 wardrobe challenge that's about to start at unfancy and others. It seems really fun! But I don't have instagram so I can't participate on this one there. I'm too lazy to attempt it on here either, for some reason so I think I'll just dedicate a post for pictures of this season's key pieces one day next week or so instead. Anyway, yes, it's officially summer! 

In other news, if Big Little Lies is going to be marathon-ed on HBO Asia one day after this week's 7th episode conclusion of its first season, I'm so on board on this. I enjoyed what I've glimpsed of its 7th episode yesterday.

95% white

second hand ralph lauren t, gap cut offs, vintage ankle boots, beaded bracelet from aizilim, vintage bangle/bracelet, Maica wrap choker in pink from verano.ph c/o zalora, dad's sunglasses

Monday, May 9 is Presidential elections for us here in the Philippines. The race to the Malacanang is just as hot as the days' 30-35 degree celsius (we go by celsius here in reading daily temperatures) ...not forget, chaotic. I bet it's going to be in the 30s again tomorrow. other than that, I haven't really decided who I like as President. Ha. (Don't follow my example.)