5 things i love right now

1.  kurt vile's new song, "pretty pimpin"



he's baaaack! admittedly, it took me a while to get the whole KV "thing." i totally missed the boat on his epic smoke ring for my halo album, but quickly became obsessed with wakin on a pretty daze and have been a fervent vile fan ever since. i think i enjoy this tune from his forthcoming record, b'lieve i'm goin down, more and more with each listen. can't wait to see him live in october!

2. this local taqueria, victoria 

on my way back from a saturday afternoon matinee of paper towns (good, clean, whimsical movie BTW), i stopped at this spot in my town that i'd been wanting to check out for a while. i'm always a fan of "street food" that is, um, not on the street, so i got an order of the fish tacos and promptly fell in love. i think there is one in beverly, too. muy bueno.

3. this advice column, ask polly

i've always been a loyal boston.com love letters reader, but a friend sent me one of these "ask polly" columns a few weeks back and -- sorry not sorry -- her advice is far superior. funny, thorough, and filled with pearls of MMHMM wisdom, there's always some value to be gleaned from each response, even if you can't relate to the reader's sitch. my personal favorite is this one about tepid dudes (or, "tepid MFers" as polly colorfully dubs them). polly (real name: heather) goes on a tangent about kanye west, and leaves us with an amazing mantra which seems unrelated, but also makes perfect sense when encountering half-assed people in your life: "fuck you and your hampton house." i've used it about 5x this week already.

4. my new record player!

insound.com was going out of business and selling turntables for next to nothin'. i finally took the vinyl plunge and i'm already scouring flea markets like a fiend to build my collection. all i have so far, besides jimi, is prince's purple rain. someone buy me all the records, please.

5. PICNICS

i'd basically been begging anyone and everyone to go on a damn picnic with me for the past 2 years, and my dreams finally came true this weekend. my friend kathleen and i got word that a bunch of local restaurants were offering picnic baskets for a zillion dollars, so we snagged one from precinct in the loews hotel. it was adorable and we found a relatively clean-looking bench in the public garden and went to town. charcuterie, cheese, grapes, little pickles, and individual boston creme pies in tiny jars. oh, and a bottle of wine! we got tipsy (shhh) and shared stories, watched the people and dogs, and had a lovely afternoon. highly recommended.

the tao of justin bobby

in the summertime, i have three basic needs: sweet treats, jumpsuits/rompers, and despicably mindless television. i'm talking america's got talent and celebrity family feud, people. but the one show that i come back to, summer after summer, is the hills. something about those glossy-haired blonde nymphs, prancing around west hollywood with starbucks and jamba juice cups to a soundtrack of up-and-never-quite-came indie rock bands immediately boosts my mood. the staged, awkward pauses give me life! and every time i re-watch an episode, i extract some new nugget of wisdom from it. okay, wisdom is a stretch. but what i recently realized while viewing the show 7 years later is that justin bobby was the REAL OG. like, i remember him being sort of an enigmatic joke back in the day -- lauren conrad summed him up when she exclaimed, "homeboy wore combat boots to the beach!" however, the man has some choice advice that really stands the test of time. let's revisit it, shall we?

there was this gem:

he also said something during this conversation about kicking toxic people who don't add anything to your life "the fuck out." i'm paraphrasing, but still brilliant.

also:

"there's something zen-ful about it." (what? no idea.)

"it's not a matter of like, how slow, how fast, it's just like ... for me, putting statements on things, i'll be gone. like, i don't like that."

and finally ...

and so i thank you, justin bobby, for entertaining and enlightening generations to come with your nonsensical adages.

new york weekend: 4knots music festival

sooo my boltbus didn't explode, actually had working AC AND wi-fi, and was pretty darn close to on time, which is always half the battle of a weekend in NYC, amiright? also, my seatmate on the trip from boston was an infectious disease doctor, and i couldn't help but chuckle at one point at the juxtaposition of my reading material (a cosmo article about...well, cosmo thangs) and his (the journal of infectious diseases). i stopped myself just short of making an STD joke.

but anyways! i ventured down this time around to attend the 4knots music festival at hudson river park in manhattan. the event used to be called sirenfest and was held at coney island, for you music festival junkies. i had been to sirenfest, but not the revamped 4knots, so i was pretty excited. it ended up being a great day, and the pre-and post-festival activities were fun, too!

BOOZE

the library

once i got into town on friday night, i joined gleni and her friend for some food and dranks before we went to see mates of state at the bowery ballroom. after the show, we headed to this nearby dive bar which was uncrowded and awesome at first but went rapidly downhill as the night went on. first, there was the slurring, lonely creep next to us who was trying unsuccessfully to discuss thin lizzy. then, there was the bro who squeezed in between us and tried to pay for shots with gift cards at 1am. the last straw was a group of bridge-and-tunnel douchebags who took my seat and then acted like complete dicks when i alerted them to their indiscretion. GET OFF MY LAWN!

reunion surf bar

everyone, i've found my spirit bar. we stopped in for a nightcap after the festival, and from the moment i walked into the softly-lit room to the sounds of chris brown's "loyal," i knew this was special. they had "graffiti" on the walls:

(there was also one that said "no music requests #noscrubs" and "save a board, ride a surfer." omg.)

i got some drink with grapefruit vodka and grapefruit juice and some sugar rim that was completely light pink and adorable. they also had outlets, which takes a good bar to GREAT in my opinion. always be charging.

BOATS

we paid a teensy bit extra and got the "VIP" tickets for 4knots, which i understood would involve a boat of some sort. but it was so baller, guys. basically like a dinner cruise charter that had a little bar with cute cocktails and AC and comfy seats and some lame-ass snacks, but still. no port-a-pottys and no heatstroke? i was a happy girl. and i was even happier when i spied some rock 'n rollers milling about the boat with us, including bass drum of death. the boat ruled, basically.

AND THERE WERE SO MANY FREE SAMPLES. not on the boat, but at the festival in general. iced coffee, turkey jerky, polar seltzer, ugh i love free stuff so much.

BANDS

we saw this awkward british trio called happyness, and witnessed the brilliance of mikal cronin:

we also swayed along with '90s indie legend steve malkmus of pavement -- who was looking disturbingly tan and had a strange middle school haircut that wasn't really working for me. sounded great, though:

but, i just really want to talk about twin peaks, because they stole the show (and my heart).

i discovered these dudes last year through my favorite internet radio station, The THING!, so i was stoked to finally get to see them live. their video for the total jam "flavor" will give you a great idea of what these guys are about. and it's sooo summery:



the bassist jack (aka rock 'n roll harry styles, as gleni dubbed him) was channeling his inner julian casablancas, saying stuff like "THIS IS MY FIRST TIME ON A BOAT! IT WAS SCARY! I GOT SEASICK! IT WAS GOING WAY TOO FAAAAST!" and "it's not toooo hot out there anymoooore." meanwhile, guitarist clay was my favorite type of musician to watch because of his ridiculous facial expressions, which ranged from blank stare and o-face to goofy grin.

"i'm into this one," i said aloud at one point, pointing at lead singer cadien lake james (what a damn name btw).

"you mean the white trash one?" gleni replied. pretty much! let's also forget about the fact that they're all of 19 and 20 years old. it's fine. best performance of the day, and even steve malkmus gave 'em a shout out during his set. now that's high praise. 

TL;DR: go to reunion surf bar and listen to twin peaks. i'm out!

20 summer food and drink items, ranked by goodness

contribute your own in the comments, yo.

20. the original flavor of fro-yo at pinkberry
19. STOLI RAZ & SPRITE
18. chicken sausage in a hot dog bun with all the fixins
17. chocolate-covered frozen banana slices
16. snickers ice cream bars
15. ceviche!!
14. fried clams/scallops/uhhh any fried seafood
13. corn on the damn cob
12. fruit salad with mixed berries and watermelon
11. root beer float
10. the pink panther bar from the ice cream truck that has the bubble gum eyes
9. pan bagnat! (no anchovies, tho)
8. SANGRIA
7. cold brewww
6. dark sweet cherries
5. this really really good potato salad that my mom makes
4. fresh-squeezed lemonade, preferably one that you get from one of those stands at a state fair
3. FRIED DOUGH
2. LOBSTER ROLL
1. a big fat burger with yellow american cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles (come on, what else did you expect from me?)