Iceland! A Retrospective

As I mentioned way back when, my family spent a few days in Iceland between Christmas/Beyoncé visiting and the New Year. And as has now become family tradition, I filmed the trip to add to the growing collection of Strasburger trip movie memorabilia (a concept which I have discussed at length here) alongside: Southeast Asia, Cuba, the Stans, and Brazil.

Just a few months later (okay, seven), I've finally got around to editing it! But the tricky thing about this little Icelandic production is that we were no the island for approximately 62 hours, only 4 of which contained actual sunlight. Because Iceland in the winter is essentially the shadowland, it's a short film, but one full of the odd and beautiful sounds of Iceland's own Sigur Rós. Enjoy the stark scenery, and let it serve as a friendly reminder to embrace summer's warmth before we go back to the hell that is cold weather.

P.S. Stay tuned for the India video! But maybe don't hold your breath...

Brazil + the World Cup!

Sitting on the shelves upstairs in my house in Austin are albums after albums filled with photographs of various travels from my childhood. Trips to Bali, Thailand, and the UK have thankfully all been physically manifested into books because my memories wouldn’t do them justice. But towards the late ‘90s, the documentation stops. Photo albums just aren’t a thing anymore. Sure, we still take pictures, but how many are being printed and placed methodically into heavy leather-bounds? Even the culture of picture-taking has changed. Freshmen year of college, I remember having my trusty, little red digital camera glued to my hand for EVERY SINGLE THING I ever did (interesting or not, and let’s be honest, most of them were not) before I gleefully uploaded them all onto Facebook. Today, however, you could be at the most exciting event of your life, but you're only limited to one Instagram. Just the one. Any more than that is seen as over-sharing or annoying and will just "clog up your friends' news feeds". 10 years from now, we will all look back at our major milestones with only one (highly-filtered) image to remember it by. 

What I’m trying to get at is that I can no longer rely on photographs as fulfilling souvenirs, so I have turned to video. Capturing little moments while traveling and putting it all together at the end is so much more satisfying as a means of looking back than your occasional #tbt pic from studying abroad in Shanghai. My only regret is that I didn’t start doing that sooner (imagine the possibilities!), but I now have a (hopefully growing...) collection of videos from trips around the world. The first one I made was for my dissertation on my textile research grant in Southeast Asia, followed by a family trip to Cuba, then the Stans, a Catskills adventure with my friends, and now (drumroll, please): the World Cup in Brazil!

This past summer the six of us spent some quality time in Recife, Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Watching the games was exciting, to say the least, but there was also plenty of coconut water-sippin, food-eating, and beach-lounging that needed to be done as well. Returning from that country was not easy; once you get used to the lifestyle of fresh fruit on every street corner and spending your days reading and being with family, it’s makes coming back to the concrete jungle that much more painful. But I'm so thankful to have been given the chance to be in the middle of such a global phenomenon, even if it is the only sport-watching I do all year…

Check out the video below and try to forget about the depressingly cold weather outside.



And now I will conclude this post with the exact tendency I mentioned above: singular Instagrams!

That time that Teen Vogue regrammed this picture of Selina, Lorelei, and myself:

Happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸Celebrate the red, white, and blue in style with tips from TeenVogue.com/fashion. #regram from @chantagold.

A photo posted by Teen Vogue (@teenvogue) on Jul 7, 2014 at 6:48am PDT

Re-hydrating:

Mondays, amiright?

A photo posted by chantal strasburger (@chantagold) on Jun 6, 2014 at 1:57pm PDT

The most spectacular sunsets:

Not tryna leave.

A photo posted by chantal strasburger (@chantagold) on Jul 7, 2014 at 5:21pm PDT

What we woke up to every morning *sigh*:

The Last Breakfast #tchau

A photo posted by chantal strasburger (@chantagold) on Jul 7, 2014 at 5:24am PDT

Stay tuned for the next installment—who knows what it will be! Perhaps India, or Bhutan, or maybe even Nepal? One can dream xx

Keep On Keepin' On

This past weekend a few friends and I bundled up in a rented Jeep and made our way upstate to the beautiful Catskills. We airbnbd (verb?) a little house smack dab in the woods and did our best to pretend we didn't live in the most populated city in the United States that also happens to have recently come down with a slight touch of Ebola. I decided to take a little footage and make a short film because you're not really truly in nature unless you have a camera strapped around your neck, right? Isn't that what Thoreau said? Also because I think this will be funny to watch in 30 years.

Sidenote: I actually had the surreal experience of interviewing First Aid Kit last week, and I think being in their magical presence was what prompted this little endeavor. So as we stomp through the forest to their sweet sibling harmonies, pretend we're Swedish and everything will be 100x better.

And here are the beautiful ladies behind the soundtrack ("Stay Gold" was a close second but it's a little dark so "My Silver Lining" it was):
      

   A photo posted by chantal strasburger (@chantagold) on Oct 10, 2014 at 11:17am PDT

Oh, and on the way back we made a pitstop to the Vanderbilt mansion because why not?

Playing on Repeat: Hozier

I cannot for the life of me stop listening to Hozier's "Take Me To Church". Not entirely sure where I first came across it, but it's addictive.

There doesn't seem to be much information on Hozier, but I've gathered that he's a 24-year-old Irishman by the name of Andrew Hozier-Byrne. If you have Spotify check out his other tracks—they're far and few between, but I recommend all of them, especially "Work Song". Not sure where he came from or where he's going, but I'm hoping we'll be hearing a lot of him soon.

 Here's a gentler, more soulful live rendition of "Take Me To Church", and another track called "Sedated".

Can't. Get. Enough.

The Tiny Transforming Apartment

Ariella and I renewed the lease on our amazing apartment last night(!), and signing on to the same space for a whole other year made me think a little decoration-tinkering might be in order—you know, to keep things fresh. So as I was Google-ing "how to transform your average NYC apartment" (because, as always, Pinterest has me wanting more), I stumbled across an interesting solution to the severe lack of space in NYC. "The Tiny Transforming Apartment That Packs Eight Rooms into 420 Square Feet" was designed by LifeEdited and is the brainchild of Graham Hill. Creative? Yes. Liveable? Perhaps, depending on your character and if you are the kind of person willing to pull out your bed every night and unpack your oven tops. I personally am not, but I love the concept of endless storage units. It is a firm belief of mine that one can never have too many places to put things. But the every-surface-is-a-closet situation doesn't leave much opportunity for wall hangings...I guess you can't win 'em all.

Would you live here?

Friday Night Tracks Yo

I've recently been listening to these songs on repeat and they're great to pump you up to be social and get out of the house on a Friday night and make friends and talk to people and not sit on the couch and read a book and drink tea (not that I have this issue myself... #secretlyintroverted) That said, two wonderful friends of mine, Jacob and Sarah, are visiting the city this weekend, so cheers to that!

Sam Smith. Money On My Mind.

Selina showed me this Brit. He's the voice on Disclosure's Latch and I think he has an eerily beautiful falsetto:

Twin Shadow. Old Love/New Love.

Okay, okay so apparently everyone already knows this song (looking at you Elise+ everyone else), but that doesn't mean it's any less good! Amiright?

Mapei. Don't Wait.

Not sure if this Stockholm-based girl is supposed to be "the next big thing" or not but she is awesome. (Also diggin' this Kingdom remix)

St. Lucia. All Eyes On You.

Why they don't have a music video for this baffles me.

        

Natalia Kills. Saturday Night.

Her eyebrows. That sequin dress. This is a nice angsty/teen-anthem guilty pleasure.

Foxes. Let Go for Tonight.

Similar to above. Mostly just a fresh of breath air because she's not Miley. I think these guys are on the rise. 

And last but OBVIOUSLY not least.

Beyoncé. Drunk in Love ft JAY Z.

I've watched this video everyday at the gym for the past two weeks. Great motivation. It just kills me how they're just like, "Yeah, we're married and we're amazing and we know it and all of you are jealous and you will never have this. Look how cool we are. " Bye.

Let's Compare Accents

I've often said that if I could have any super power, it would be the ability to speak any language. Can you imagine being able to travel the world and communicate with anyone wherever you were? This would come especially handy in Papua New Guinea. Why? (Fun fact alert) Because there are over 820 languages spoken there! That's why! And think of the savings you'd get from not being a ripped-off tourist! When I was traveling in Tibet a few summers ago, I would use my (sub-par) Mandarin to bargain with the vendors is Lhasa, "我是个穷学生。我没有钱！" (I'm a poor student. I have no money!) and they thought it was hilarious, this white girl with a terrible accent, and would give me excellent discounts. 非常好!

Any who, Amy Walker might have the next best thing. This woman can do just about any accent, from the subtitles within London, to the various states of the US. She flawlessly moves from one to another which blows my mind. This is coming from a girl who was raised by a British mother and a Texan father but can do neither accents (I think I've been neutralized.) However, I did play Cecily in a production of "The Importance of Being Ernest" and, for a brief period of time, I was told by several that I had the best accent in the cast. But I think that just happens when you eat that many crumpets and imbibe that much tea. And wear period costumes. 

 Impressed with Amy? Think you can do better? Show me your best Praha accent and I'll be the judge of that. 

Spotted on A Cup of Jo.

Give It 100

Have you heard of Give It 100? I hadn't until just now when Refinery29 posted this video about LaKeisha. Her story is definitely inspiring and heart-warming, but I also find the greater concept of GiveIt100.com to be incredibly fascinating. 

Created by Karen Cheng after she learned how to dance in a year and her video went viral, Give It 100 encourages people to document 100 days of doing something- anything- and sticking to it. From juggling to weight loss to playing the ukelele, hundreds of people are using this platform as a tool for motivation and dedication. Regardless of whether or not people are watching your videos, you're still being held accountable and giving up would be more of a public surrender than just a private one. 

Check out all the projects here but beware, it can be a time-sucker. What would YOU do for 100 days? I think I would try to make myself do a blog post everyday...

Also this guy is my favorite.

The Good Parts of Being Alive

I wanted to share my friend Anna's Kickstarter with you all. It's an incredible project and she is one of the most talented choreographer/dancers that I know. I'm honored to have her guest post today. Enjoy and please contribute if you can!
...

My name is Anna Reyes, and I’m a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher based in Boston, MA. I grew up in Austin, Texas, next door to Chantal and her sisters. We spent many hours together, dancing, playing tag, making plays, etc. My favorite memories prove that we were cool and hip beyond our years: we spent many hours dancing to the Eurythmics (Sweet Dreams are made of this...), jumping and shaking our thangs on the living room couch! {Editor's note: This was my favorite part of my childhood no joke)

My moves are just as sweet as a my former six year old self's moves (and hopefully a little more refined after years and years of studying dance). Yet as all artists have experienced, one can start to feel in a rut, no matter HOW cool her art is. About eight months ago, I was nursing a nagging, restless feeling; I knew I needed to make something, but what? Choreographing for the stage seemed like an obvious answer, but for some reason, I couldn’t get excited about it. I knew creating anything without the excitement behind it would be an arduous, unfulfilling task.

            In the interim, I had the opportunity to star in a short film, “Eighteen,” by acclaimed visual artists Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler. (Check them out at hubbardbirchler.net)  Filmed in Austin, Alex and Teresa were generous enough to incorporate my dance improvisation into their film. Starring in the piece was extremely hard work (two of the three shoot days lasted from dinner time until sunrise!), but equally as exhilarating and fulfilling. Upon returning home from Austin, I had an answer to my restlessness – make my own film!

            I’m currently making a dance film entitled “the good parts of being alive.” The film explores the stages of romantic relationships. A relationship is extremely fluid, more like running water than ice, and is easily shifted by the time and space it inhabits. Time - how long you have known one another, how one feels at a specific moment, whether the time you have together is long or short, limited or unlimited. Space - the location of the relationship, if you share a home or are long-distance, whether the space between two bodies is large or small when you're together, how much mental space one has for his/her partner, etc. Around the same time I began to contemplate time and space in within relationships, a friend introduced me to the artwork of Egon Schiele. I fell in love with his portraits and was immediately drawn to the strange, evocative poses he painted. I was surprised that the poses he chose were so contemporary and dance-like. His work inspired me to choreograph, and to incorporate my ideas and experiences to the framework his art provided.

           “the good parts of being alive” is my most exciting project to date, but it’s not finished yet! I’m running a Kickstarter Campaign to raise the funds for finishing film, paying the artists involved, and submitting the film to dance festivals around the world. If it looks like something you want to be a part of, make a pledge! If nothing else, help spread the word! 

Check out the webpage here and the video below: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/483988747/the-good-parts-of-being-alive

If you need a little encouragement to make a contribution, just picture Chantal, her sisters, me and my sister Paulina, all jamming out in the living room. Make that former six year old's (second from the right) future dream come true! 

-Anna Reyes

Sit Back, Relax and Listen Up

I don't know if it's the cold (first day of snow in NYC!! 11/12/13 must be a sign for something right??) or the alarming amount of tea I'm consuming or the layers of sweaters I'm wearing, but something has me in the mood for Cabin Music. That's a term I just coined to reference music that is super cozy and makes you want to sit on a fur rug in front of a fire in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere and drink a glass of red wine. Preferably next to a loved one, otherwise this is a depressing scenario. If you've ever watched Alias (me) it would be that music they played every time Jennifer Garner got really sad and essentially re-enacted the scene I just described above minus the loved one plus annoyingly pathetic tears (love ya Syd!). So yes, it'ts a bitter sweet sadness/happiness (I tried to combine those two words but they just end up still being the same word) but there's something about it that makes me feel like I'm doing winter right.

Side note: I was in a boutique in Brooklyn last weekend that sold "Cabin Spray".  I want to buy a cabin so that I can buy this product. Then Ron Swanson and I will have a good laugh and dig into our freshly hunted venison.

Want a taste of what I'm talking about? Go to Pandora and play any of the following channels: Angus and Julia Stone, Great Lake Swimmers, Ray LaMontagne, Avett Brothers etc. etc. Nine times out of ten Mumford counts. OR *shameless plug* my boy Matt G. has a good amount of CM on his KWUR show every Tuesday at 7:00pm EST (kwur.com- check it out)

It usually involves some ethereal harmonization, several acoustic string instruments and a deep, baritone manly-man voice paired with a delicate, sickly-sweet female one. Yes, it's sappy, but it's the perfect soundtrack to listen to as frost consumes us. I really wanted to do a GoT reference but I think I've over used the phrase :( 

My Top Five Cabin Songs of the Moment (best when taken with a mug of Sleepy Time Tea):

BONUS TRACK;
Got it from this Sony commercial ha


Into the woods? Yay or nay? 

The Grand Budapest Hotel, or, That Time Tilda Swinton Wore a Ton of Old Lady Makeup.

Wes Anderson's latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel could not have debuted its trailer at a better time. Anderson is now thrown back into the spotlight and therefore my tentative Halloween costume (a character from one of his previous films) is now less random and lame! Hurrah! (I'm sure I'll do a costume post eventually, please don't die of suspense.)

Wes Anderson is a filmmaker I've come to enjoy and appreciate more and more as time goes on, and if the trailer is any indication, I think this might be one of his best features yet.

Thoughts:

 I don't think I've ever seen Ralph Fiennes play such an airy character, and I think M. Gustave H might possibly be the anti-Voldemort. Also, if you were expecting a less-than-stellar cast, think again (read: Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Bill Murray (obvs), Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson (obvs), Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldbum and Jason Schwartzman (obvs).)

 I always forget about Ed Norton, and then his awful, nasally voice pierces the silence and I fall in love with him all over again. Does anyone else find their admiration for him hard to validate? How did he manage to break into the acting world with that voice? I'm trying to picture his very first audition. So many questions.

My only criticism is that the narrator voice of future Zero Mustafa (the Lobby Boy) has such a radically different accent from young Mustafa. But why stop at him? All the character's accents are all so mishmashed, considering it takes place in Hungary, that I guess you just have to give up on that front.

How is Saoirse Ronan so cool? Please stop, you are like ten. 

The lilac/purple theme throughout the trailer? Into it. 

Bringing "darling" back.

Hotel is 100% pure and unadulterated Wes Anderson, so if you're not into his style, don't hold your breath. And as the Times so wonderfuly put it, it has his signature "rose-colored nostalgia for something that never quite existed in the first place." Ha, so true.

Also, just throwing it out there, I will eventually be throwing a Wes Anderson themed party. Whose in?

The Stans

During the month of August I had the most extraordinary experience traveling around Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan with the fam. Needless to say, I knew next to nothing about this part of the world- we just don't tend to cover much of Central Asia in the American education system. But each country was uniquely fascinating, from their role in the Silk Road to the influences that impacted their cultures ie. everyone speaks Russian in addition to local languages due to their inclusion in the former Soviet Union. Turkmenistan alone was mind-blowing; it's considered the North Korea of Central Asia and deserves it's own post, so keep an eye out for it. (For a head start, check out the extremely beautiful but incredibly bizarre city of Aşgabat.)

My amateur interest in filming trips started last summer when I was awarded a research grant to study textiles in Southeast Asia. I decided to make a short movie covering my experiences in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia and Thailand (I watched the sun rise over Angkor Wat three consecutive mornings to get the perfect shot for the opening scene). I found that the video was such a wonderful souvenir that I did the same for a family trip to Cuba last winter. 

Throughout the Stans trip I captured footage of the ruins, monuments, mosques, madrasas, deserts and markets that we visited. I figured it would be an interesting insight into an area of the world relatively unknown to the West. Enjoy!

P.S. Make sure to watch it in HD.