"Hello Darkness My Old Friend..."

"...I've come to talk with you again." 

Including this Simon & Garfunkel song above, this whole post is dedicated to The Graduate ...meaning THE GRADUATE, my favorite movie of all time. I first watched this movie at my grandmother's house when I was 13 and immediately fell in love with it, because of the fashion and music. I was one of those kids who felt more connected to the 1960s than I did with my own era.

Specifically, this outfit is called "The Elaine Robinson." I will never forget seeing the shot of her on Berkley's campus with a camel jacket and camel boots ("Scarborough Fair" is playing during this montage). I thought, "I want to look like that when I'm in college." I loved her 60's makeup too:

Outfit Details:

Trench Coat: Vintage London Fog

Purse: Louis Vuitton

Leggings: The Gap (stirrup leggings)

Boots: Andre ( I know, again!)

Bangles: Vintage, my mother's

Striped top: Vero Moda

Belt: Forever 21

Yet, now more than ever, I connect with Benjamin Braddock. I feel his "postgrad malaise" full throttle after graduating from college and coming back from France. I find myself now more than ever having this same conversation in my head that was in the movie, "

Ben: I'm just...
Mr. Braddock: ...worried?
Ben: Well...
Mr. Braddock: About what?
Ben: I guess about my future.
Mr. Braddock: What about it?
Ben: I don't know. I want it to be...
Mr. Braddock: ...to be what?
Ben: ...Different.

I, like thousand of other grads, am so uncertain and anxious. Even though I am leaving for France in a week, I don't feel at peace about anything "in my future." I don't know what I wanna be when I grow up. Nothing resonates: no job, no grad school, not even France! So the poster is really like this in my mind:

Okay, cut me some slack, Jack! I don't have Photoshop! But you get the point, right?

"Make new friends/ But keep the old/ One is Silver/ The other gold"

When I was in Paris two weeks ago, I couldn't help but thinking about the song "Make New Friend (But Keep the Old)" that I learned in Girl Scouts, because I've been to Paris with both new and old friends within the last year.

Paris was my third destination on my trip with Anna (after Marseilles and Nice). Anna is the third "old" friend with whom I have experienced Paris since I have lived in France this year.

 (picture on the right taken in Le Louvre from Godard's La Bande a Part).

Anna and I have known each other since middle school, but we became good friends on Spring Break Senior year, when we shared a room in Destin, Florida at a house on the beach. The tan faded, but the friendship didn't. The picture below is of Anna in Paris at the Jardin des Tuileries.

Book Worm

Take a Look, it's in a book, the reading rainbow

Photo above by The Selby

 I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor

-"I am a Rock" by Simon and Garfunkel 

"April Come She Will"

"…sentimental music has this great way of taking you back somewhere at the same time it takes you forward, so you feel nostalgic and hopeful all at the same time."

-High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

 I have two specific sentimental songs in mind when I think of this Nick Hornby quote above. The first song  is "April Come She Well" by Simon and Garfunkel (How Apropos as April 1st is tomorrow?). The song is so beautiful that  I don't know whether to cry or feel infinite joy. It was featured on The Graduate, my favorite film.

 

The next song "Feel Flows" by The Beach Boys floods me with the same emotions. Incidentally, I found  illustrations of the lyrics on Katie C. Turner's Flickr. The song makes you feel both sentimental about the past and hopeful for the future.

 

Although the memories of Mr. Belding on Saved By The Bell do make me feel both Nostalgic and Hopeful,  I doubt that his Karaoke Album will. I have not listened to it, but I assume that  it does not deserve to reside in a category alongside The Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel. Despite this discrepancy, I had to seize the opportunity to conclude with this gem of a find: