Hi everyone!
Welcome back to my channel, Lavendaire.
Today I'm going to talk about
my September favorites, and before I go into it: yes, my hair is a different color.
It's a little bit more blue than the last time you saw me.
I actually got really inspired to do
a silvery teal color, but I don't have green.
I just have blue, so I thought that it would,
you know, work out.
But it didn't.
It came out more blue than I thought.
It's totally fine.
This is why I don't make videos on how to do hair color because it really is
just an experiment and an art project, and whatever happens happens.
I don't try too hard.
I don't like to be too perfect about it.
Anyway, let's talk about September.
I do want to make a quick shoutout to myself.
I do want to highlight, basically, the videos I did last week which were the first episodes
to my Artist of Life series.
If you guys haven't seen it yet, I basically interviewed
my photographer friend Karen.
She is super awesome, such a cool chick, so inspiring.
And we talked about her journey to becoming a fashion photographer
and it's just really good stuff.
I worked so hard on those two videos.
Please watch them, and if you like them, please share them because I literally spent
so much of my heart and soul into this series.
And there's going to be many more episodes
where I'm going to interview different inspiring people that I know personally and,
hopefully in the future, people that I meet.
Honestly, the series has been something
that I've been dreaming up for over a year.
I was just too scared to go forth
to actually create it.
But I got over those fears and I put this huge project together.
I worked with a team where I had videographers and someone do audio and,
I mean, the whole shebang.
It's basically content on another level.
Just higher quality,
a larger production than I'm normally comfortable with and I'm so proud of it.
So watch it!
This past month was cool because I took some time to try out new things
that I thought would be fun.
First off, I got ClassPass for a month, and through ClassPass
I took a sunset paddleboard yoga class where we swam out to the ocean on a paddleboard
and did yoga.
It was a windy day in Newport Beach and we were like-you know,
the paddleboard is moving and you're trying to hold a yoga pose.
It was quite challenging, but moreso, it was terrifying because I was just scared
to fall off the board into the water.
Even though that's not like life or death, I was just scared.
It got me on my toes, but it was a very fun and exciting, beautiful experience,
especially at the end when you're doing shavasana and you're laying down
and the paddleboard's lightly waving on the ocean.
Just all around you, you see water.
Such a great experience.
So that was really cool.
And then another class I did through ClassPass was aerial silks,
and I went with my cousin Donna.
Aerial silks is just something that I've been wanting to try
for a long time just because it looks so pretty.
But when I went to the class,
I realized how much upper body strength you need to do that kind of activity.
And I am so weak on my upper body.
It was quite a challenge but it was really fun.
And I think when you're trying new things like this that are pretty challenging,
and different from what you're normally used to, it's really rewarding to be able to do
something new: learning simple new moves like how to climb up the fabric,
or how to twist yourself into different poses was really-once I did it, I was like,
"Wow!
I did that!"
It took me like-you know, the lesson was only an hour
and I think we learned three or four different tricks with the aerial silks and I felt like,
in an hour, that's a lot of new things you can learn.
So that just inspired me
to try more new things like this because you can really learn a lot in a short amount of
time.
Another fun activity that I did this month that was not part of ClassPass but just with
my cousin.
We went to a studio to take swing dancing lessons.
I love dancing
but I've never taken classes for partner dancing, couple dancing.
I've always done
solo stuff like hip hop or jazz or modern.
But yeah, taking a swing dance class
was something I've always wanted to do.
We stayed there after that swing dance class
and we watched other people take classes, and then there was a free tango class,
Argentinian tango.
I learned swing dance and Argentinian tango basics in one night
and it was just a fun time.
I love to dance and I love to explore all these other types of dance
and I think-I don't know.
I just love it.
It makes me happy to move my body in that way.
So if you guys are interested in trying active classes, then I'd recommend trying ClassPass
for a month.
They have a deal where it's $19 for a month.
You can take five classes
and that's really, really cheap considering one class to go to paddleboard yoga might
be 20 bucks.
Another favorite experience that I had this past month is: I had the opportunity
to speak on a panel at this marketing conference that was held in Microsoft in LA.
And that was something that was totally outside of my comfort zone, but I pushed myself
to do it because I knew that it would help me grow.
And even though I was really terrified
of going up there to speak on a panel with all these corporate marketing digital
social media people, I feel like the fact that I did it really helped me grow
and helped me become more confident and just-I met a lot of people.
It helped me in so many ways.
I made a podcast episode specifically on this experience
and also on the other little ways that I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone
this past month.
If you guys want to listen to that episode, I'll put the link
in the description below.
It's basically Episode 19: Growth Happens
Outside of Your Comfort Zone.
For those of you who have no idea: I have a podcast.
It's called The Lavendaire Lifestyle.
It's on iTunes or you could listen to it on my blog
or on SoundCloud.
Everything will be in the info box.
Next up, my favorite book that I read this past month is called "Nobody Wants to Read
Your Shit"
by Steven Pressfield.
I am a huge fan of Steven Pressfield.
He wrote a couple
of my favorite books.
The first one was "The War of Art" and another one is "Turning Pro"
and both of those are like the Bible for creative people like myself.
I feel like,
if you're an artist, or you're pursuing a creative path, you have to check out those
two books.
And also this new book he came out with, Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit,
is about writing, and it's very concise.
He's a very straight talker.
Steven Pressfield has worked in so many industries as a writer.
He's written novels,
he's written non-fiction, Hollywood scripts, advertising, copywriting.
So he's understood writing in all these different industries, and his book is just about
how to write in a way where people want to read your shit because the truth is:
nobody wants to read your shit.
You have to make it easy for people to digest your information,
and it's all about, you know, how to craft a good story because people don’t realize,
for movies or novels, it's so important to understand how to craft a story arc
and understand that you have to put all these certain pieces into it to make the story feel
right.
And it's not necessarily a formula, but it's kind of a guideline.
I think for me,
I'm always fascinated in how to improve my work, how to improve my craft
in making videos and writing, and also my upcoming huge project that I'm planning to
dive into
is to write my first book.
So as I'm starting to write that book, I'm so happy
that I read this book at a great time because it really gave a foundation
for what I need to be considering as I'm writing my book.
Next up, I have a ton of favorites in music because it's fall and I started
a completely new playlist.
My Fall 2016 playlist is on Spotify.
You can follow it
in the description below.
I realize that I never made my summer playlist public,
and I just made it public now so I went through a whole season without publishing that playlist.
Anyway, my fall playlist is up and it's like a different vibe than my previous playlists
because I just put more R&B and soul, like Frank Ocean, Chance the Rapper.
I mean, I have a lot of favorite artists that came out with new music on that playlist.
Like Banks came out with a new album.
There's new music by The Weeknd,
Louis the Child, and Chainsmokers have a new song.
But for now, I'm just gonna share
three of my absolute favorite songs of the moment.
The first one is AlunaGeorge -
Not Above Love.
I love AlunaGeorge ever since 2012-ish, before they even came out
with their album.
I just-I saw them twice at Coachella.
She is the best.
I love them so much and I just love to hear how their sound has evolved.
And I always thought that their kind of pop is the kind of pop that should be on the radio.
And yeah, they did have a few hits on the radio but only remixes like the DJ Snake remix
and their collaborations with Zhu, but I feel like this song just makes me so happy.
You guys listen to it.
It's like the beat is just so fun, and it just makes you want to bounce
and I just hope that this album is where their singles will actually get on the radio
because I think they deserve that.
My next favorite song is Lifted by CL.
And for those of you who do not know who CL is:
she is a Korean rapper.
She's a badass chick.
And I'm so happy that she's debuting
in the American market.
Basically CL is in the right hands.
I mean her manager is Scooter Braun
who does Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Carly Rae Jepsen.
So she's just about to make waves,
and it just makes me so excited not only because I think the song is so great.
The song is fun, the beat's good, you want to dance to it.
You feel so powerful listening to it.
But it's the fact that I'm just so proud as an Asian American that we have more
Asian faces in mainstream media, especially in music where we don't really have
too many of those.
And even though CL's not Asian American-she's from Korea-
I still think she will do great things because she is so strong and it will help defy
those old stereotypes of submissive Asian females, you know?
I feel like that stigma
is still out there and I feel like the more bold, creative badass chicks that we have
out there-
it's like girl power.
And I've always been a fan of Spice Girls since I was young.
I grew up with girl power so this has Asian girl power written all over it.
So CL - Lifted.
And my third favorite song that's been on repeat is on the softer side.
It's called "Ten Goodbyes" by Tim Atlas, and I stumbled upon Tim Atlas
because I was watching The Voice videos, and I saw Tim's face and I was like, "I know that
face!"
Tim was actually someone that I watched on YouTube because he was in a band
called April Chase, and he dated another YouTuber that I used to love-I mean,
I still love her-Jenny Suk.
It's just so funny because he was a face that I always saw.
I never really listened to his music per se, but I noticed that I saw a familiar face on
The Voice
so I decided to look him up on Spotify, and he has a new album.
He has some great songs.
But Ten Goodbyes, specifically, when I first heard it, I was like, "This guy knows what
he's doing."
He understands music and his sound in this song is more like a Jason Mraz,
a young Jason Mraz.
And it's really the melody that got me.
I love when a guy can go
from the chest voice to the head voice, and it's just really pretty the way the melody
has such a wide range.
So it's a pretty song, really fun to sing to.
Check it out if you want something nice and acoustic-sounding.
And there it is, that's all I have for my September Favorites video.
No physical products to show you guys this month because even though I did try
some new things, nothing was like a favorite, you know.
As usual,
it’s the music and the content that inspires me the most.
They always end up on my favorites.
But yeah, let me know what you guys have liked this past month.
I'd love to know your favorites.
If you have recommendations for books and movies and music, send them my way.
I will see you guys next time.
Thanks so much for watching.
Love you all.