Liebster Award: 11 Facts About Me

Thank to The Mutant Stomp Friends for nominating me for the opportunity to write about myself yet again! Her blog is great and is always insightful on fashion, the uncanny and NYC. I am always inspired to write about diverse topics after reading her posts, so go check her out.

Rules first:

1. Post the award on your blog.

2. Thank the blogger who presented this award and link back to their blog.

3. Write 11 random facts about yourself.

4. Nominate 11 bloggers who you feel deserve this award and who have fewer than 200 followers.

5. Answer 11 questions posted by the presenter and ask your nominees 11 questions.

Here are 11 random facts:

1. Whenever I feel down or need motivation I would watch this Marco Marco drag fashion show. It´s like a kid watching 101 Dalmatians for the 101th time: I know all the moves, all the looks and music, and I love every second of it! Watching that fashion show makes me want to get up, get pretty and be fierce.
   
   
   
   
2. My secret wish is to have a very cool and entertaining youtube channel filled with videos I will not be ashamed of years after. But like, no....
3. Speaking of which- I can watch Russian fail videos (and all fails and vines) till the day I die.
4. I actually love doing laundry and cleaning the bathroom. Makes me feel good and accomplished lol.
5. I do not give a rat´s ass about vinyls. Sorry post punkers.
6. I want to live in the cover of Propaganda Magazine though.
   
   
   
   
   
7. I can dismiss a band just by not liking half a song.
8. I am that one person who will say: "have you not heard of this band/read this book/saw this film??? how have you been living???"
9. Whenever I am at a public place I would look at people and imagine them as the opposite sex.
10. I am the one person who will notice your new makeup style/clothing item/missed belt hook/bad hair day/sloppy eyeliner and general every day habits. I do not do this on purpose, I am just automatically observing and deducing things as I observe. It is a curse I must bare.
11. I find this video arousing. I apologize.

The Mutant Stomp Friends made her questions book-centered, so I went creative with my answers:

1. What is the title of your biography?
Hi, I am Maria! I love post punk, do you know -insert obscure band name here-? I come from Israel, but no I wasn´t born there, only raised, my native language is Russian; yeah I am Russian basically. No, but I wasn´t born there either. Yes, I know Hebrew, it´s like my second mother language. No, but I wasn´t born in Israel. Yes, I have family there. Have you met Boris already, isn´t he beautiful? Yeah he also comes from Israel. No, but he wasn´t born there. Do you like Opeth?

2. Is it an autobiography or did you get someone else to write it? If so, whom?

Probably written by me and my other me, Alexander F. This would be a very confusing book.

3. What's on the cover? If illustrated, who illustrated it?

Let there be a black and white photo I took of some combat boots. But can they be Boris´?

4. Seems your biography has some photos in it. What are they of?

My angsty teenage drawings, some of my band photography and portraits featuring the most loved men in my life.

5. Hey, good news! Seems like someone important is providing a blurb quote for the cover. Who is it and what do they say about the book?

Probably some cuddling words in Russian provided by Boris. He is very important, and let him be a huge rockstar the time the book is released.

6. What are some of the chapter names in the book?

- Immigrant punk

- How I met Boris

- My obsession with homosexuality

- How I went to the army (need to write a post about that tbh)

- How I wanted to die

- Berlin

- Is this a dream? Everything is perfect.

7. Your biography has an index. What's under the letter G? 

Grrrrr....

8. Who is thanked in the acknowledgments?

Boris, my mom, very close friends and a bunch of bands.

9. What kind of a book is it? Photography monograph? A tell-all expose? Stream-of-consciousness word jazz? An academic monograph with multiple indexes, endnotes, bibliography, further reading, etc?

I have no idea of all these terminus. I think the book has words and sentences in different languages.

10. Your readers are shocked to know that....

I am a lot more promiscuous than people assume.

11. For some reason your book's selling well in France. Why do you think that is?

Must be my love for cheese.

That was too much fun. I loved the idea of themed questions, so I´ve decided to make mine subculture-oriented. But first, I am tagging these beautiful individuals:

http://assot.tumblr.com/

http://thoughtcriminal1334.blogspot.de/

http://prunio.blogspot.de/

http://thearcanedominion.blogspot.de/

http://gothmum.blogspot.de/

http://proxypunx.tumblr.com/

http://gothytwoshoes.blogspot.de/

http://littlecorpgothgirl.blogspot.de/

http://lisnathaly.blogspot.de/

http://justkeepbrains.com/

http://linneapalandet.blogspot.de/

Here are my questions:

1. You have a dark synth obscure sounding band. What is it´s name?
2. What would your band sing about or what would it draw inspiration from?
3. You are releasing your first 25 copies underground 7" EP. What is on the cover, what is the title?
4. You have been banned from your local goth club. What would be the reason?
5. You are invited to play in a different country. Where would you go, who is inviting you?
6. Congrats, you are about to release a split record with another band as obscure as you. Who are they, why did they want to feature you?
7. You´ve got into a fight with people from the scene. What is the reason?
8. What is your band infamous for?
9. After a gig the backstage is filled with groupies. What are you up to?
10. What is the most difficult part in managing your band?
11. It´s over- you´re splitting up. What will happen next?

Hope you´ll have fun with this challenge, thanks again for tagging me :)

Have a wonderful week everyone!

N. Finsternis

New hair color due to Henna fail

So I was all about letting my natural hair color grow, expecting that dying my roots with henna will make my natural hair look slightly more reddish and make the bleach leftovers a lot darker. This was my second henna coat (end of March), and well- it failed:

picture is censored for your well being.

 This is what the henna did to my roots: absolutely nothing. Don´t know if it was the type of henna I was using, but I was disappointed. The bleached parts look exactly the same as before, when I thought that henna should intensify the color with the applications. Ah well...

I have been thinking of going dark colors again, so I said fuck it and tried to mix 2 box dyes, a dark brown and dark plum.
The result turned to be quite interesting, and somewhat close to my natural hair color. It was a lot more purple in the beginning and is now slowly washing out as expected and looks more mahogany (eww, I hate mahogany hair) at the moment. I have been getting a lot of compliments on my hair because of the unspecific shade, so I guess that´s a yay!

Uncertain about how it turned out, I ended up loving it. I just missed dark hair so much and it´s just so easy to keep up with. Here are some pictures featuring different lighting:

This is basically me going back to my 17 year old self. I feel so much in my own skin! Plus brown hair + all brown makeup is my new favorite thing.

So much for the hair front. Sorry for lack of posting, life has been hectic ever since the semester has begun. The highlight of it has to be Polish class though, and I am killing it if I do say so myself!

N. Finsternis

The complete guide to wearing safety pins in your ears

Long time no write. I have been living life and enjoying myself quite a bit this month, and next thing you know Uni has started, my mind was still elswear and I had to force myself back to reality again. All planned posts will be made soon, which will include pictures of my new amazing diy jacket and my new haircolor which has been yet to be revealed on the internet (and that´s a huge step behind, of course...).
In the meantime I wanted to share the basically only punk thing I commit in this life, which is wearing safety pins in your ears.

 My left and right ears. The left pins might look like they are pressing on the skin, but they don´t.

I have been doing this since I was 16. It started with a purple office pin first, then I moved to safety pins. The reason I am so kewl is because I pretty much dislike how all earlobe jewelry look, aside from the most basic hoops. Plus, safety pins are soo punk 77 and you know I like that. Plus plus- I have saved quite a few people and their pants with my always handy safety pins.

First and foremost, I shall disclaim:
I can only give my regards considering wearing safety pins in your ear lobes. I have absolutely no idea about other body parts and how your piercings there might react. Also I do not nor wish to know what it is like to actually perform a piercing with a real safety pin.
And of course I am not a professional piercer, so blah blah blah...

So before you go all DIY on yourselves there are a couple of things to consider:

1. Higene and Health

• Safety pins is crappy metal, so if your skin is sensitive and you can wear only legit piercing jewelry, by all means do not do this to yourself. I am not, so this works for me.
•  If you have decided to poke the bastard through, make sure to disinfect it first, especially if you took it from the deeps of your drawers. Disinfect your earlobe too, just in case. I admit to have stopped doing it with time, but it´s always better to be safe.
• There are safety pin looking jewellry out there that you can buy if the real thing is not doing you skin good. I personally have no experience with this, but it looks like a good alternative and is probably a far less hassle than actual pins.

2. Comfort

• Make sure to try one safety pin first to see how this goes for you. Is it comfortable? Can you sleep with it? I personally sleep with my pins in, they do not bother me. I know people who like wearing them but find it uncomfortable to sleep with them.
• From my experience it is always better to take a large pin, so that after closing it it won´t be too tight around your lobe. That can deform your ear (so I´ve heard?) and basically just be uncomfortable to wear.

 If all is well, then you can...

Source

• All holes are differently made, some piercing made in such a way that the jewelry goes slightly sideways when worn (I don´t know if this means that the piercing is not done well, no idea). Know your holes!
• Make sure to pick a trustworthy hole. I would personally not wear a safety pin on a fresh piercing!! Take an old one, the one that has been through a lot that you can count on, be that the first one you´ve ever got.
• It does not suppose to hurt when you insert the pin!!! Please, if you are doing this first time be patient and do it slowly. Whenever the pin touches your hole it should never hurt! If it does, you are doing it wrong. Doing it through pain might and probably will cause infection. Maybe tilt the pin a bit and try to insert is slightly sideways, depending on your hole. If this does not go well pick a different hole, but don´t force the thing in. Eww...
  

This is an individual kind of thing, but what helps me pulling them through is stretching my ear lobe a bit sideways, so that the piercing will slightly open. This only goes for smaller holes, the ones that are located the highest on my lobe.

Source

3. After Care

•  As said before, safety pins are crap metal, so make sure to check on them every once in a while to see that they do not rust!! It they do, just take a new pin.
• I personally take out my pins whenever I wash my hair. I bathe every day and still keep them it, but when I have to wet my entire head (every 4-5 days) I would take them out, also to wash my piercings. It has worked well so far and I can wear them for a year or more without them getting rusty.
• If you feel this is getting too gross then by all means replace the pin to make sure it stays clean. You can disinfect as often as you wish. I personally can go with the same pins for years without getting any skin irritation, but you know yourself and your percings´ behavior better.

Source

There is another matter to consider, and it is the reaction of people around you. I literally get the question "have you pierced your ear with that safety pin and it got stuck in there?" too many times. People also like to ask if it hurts to wear them; yeah sure, I like having a daily amount of pain in my ears, no sweat... But you are a super duper diy all the way alternative person, aren´t you? So you are used to stupid comments by now.

Another thing is the wearability in your every day life, such as work appropriate etc. I personally had absolutely no problem with this. My hair is usually down but when it is up the only comments I would get from coworkers would be the ones above. In my previous jobs and the one I am working at now I had no really strict dresscode (aside from looking modest of course) and it only got to the point where my manager would ocassionaly joke about it, but it was all in good humour. After my current manager pointed out that "it was an unusual way of wearing things in my ears" I asked her if she wants them removed, but she said no. So all is well. 

But you are obviously a society non conforming beast, so you are probably unemployed drinking beer in a squat somewhere.

The most important thing would probably be: don´t do something you do not feel comfortable with, and wear whatever the hell you want. I just wrote this post for the sake of updaing the blog and I kind of felt badass.

Have a wonderful week/end everyone and stay true!

N. Finsternis