Where do you blog? honeycrate.blogspot.com

What’s the best gift you’ve ever gotten?

Turntables for christmas when i was 16 that are unfortunately gathering dust. I was almost really cool.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever given? I’m terrible at giving gifts, but the spontaneous ones were usually the best ones.

What trends do you hope get left behind in 2008?

Trends i hope are left behind…uggs and mini-skirts…the trend is still alive and well in la.

Do you have any trend predictions for 2009?

Foxtails like the one Kanye wore during is AMA performance.

Any style related resolutions for the new years?

I will not be judgmental of trends that i do not subscribe too, like non-prescription oversized glasses.

Looking toward the New Year, are there any causes, projects, or charities that you’d encourage people to get involved in?

The Watts House Project (www.wattshouseproject.org) is a project led by artist Edgar Arceneaux in Watts who was also instrumental to the Project Row Houses in Houston, TX.

“Located on 107th Street and centered around the historic Watts Towers, the Watts House Project is an ongoing, collaborative artwork in the shape of an urban redevelopment initiative. WHP expands and enhances community through exhibition spaces, artist-in-residence programs, educational and social programming and residential housing. Generating a physical and social infrastructure for creativity, WHP catalyzes artistic production and community pride of place, establishing partnerships that can lead to real solutions, hope, and change.” (from website)

Where do you blog? cloudplum.blogspot.com

What’s the best gift that you’ve ever gotten? My watch

What’s the best gift that you’ve ever given? A digital camera

What trends do you hope get left behind in 2008? Hipsters

Do you have any trend predictions for 2009? Vampires. And Scarves.

Any style related resolutions for the new years? To care more about the shoes I wear.

Looking toward the New Year, are there any causes, projects, or charities that you’d encourage people to get involved in? Best Buddies.

What sites and projects do you rep?

I have a personal blog, About to Combust, which is just blowin’ up with that good stuff, energy, ideas, love, youth (though I’m really working on my ageism).

I’m also starting a site with my friends and fellow Cinema Studies MA grads (NYU), Molly (“Conscious Hallucinations“), Charley (The Drive-Thru Academic), and Paul, which will host podcasts and media criticism pieces at Media Joust. The podcasts were orginally released under the name Screen Junkies on iTunes, but will soon be released under the name Media Joust.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever gotten?

The best gift I’ve ever gotten was when I turned 17. The actual birthday itself was pretty crappy as I had to take a makeup calculus AP exam until 5 pm that day at school. I was in a room by myself. But a week later I was meeting some friend for some ice cream before heading out of town for a family vacation ~ my stupendously smart and talented brother Alan was going to present a documentary he made with his friends for National History Day in College Park (“where they chop cars…”) ~ so anyway I show up for ice cream with my friend, and I was surprised to see 14 of my friends, some from high school and some from middle school, not all connected to one another, all there for a surpise Birthday party! It had been a rough time with my family, so this was so unexpected and so incredibly necessary in my life. Gosh, I love friends!

What’s the best gift that you’ve ever given?

I’m not the best gift giver, I make good mix CDs so that’s what I depend on, but one fun one that I gave was for Christmas in 2002. My girls in high school did secret Santa and I got my bestest and oldest friend Cheshire. It was awkward because she told me a lot about what she was thinking about getting for her person but I was just reticent, so obviously she knew I was her secret Santa. I know, “secret,” but there are rarely secrets between besties. Still, I managed to get her a good gift, a cardboard cut-out of Charlie Chaplin, who she loves, and it was a great addition to her home.

What trends do you hope get left behind in 2008?

I really hope shutter shades get left behind. I suppose they are graphically interesting but as far as seeing them on the street I’m not into them.

Do you have any trend predictions for 2009?

As for trend predictions for this next year, I’m not as much of a fashionista as some of my friends and fellow-bloggers, but I think on some level fashion takes inspiration from film and tv. I’m writing on Mad Men for a presentation, and Michael Kors’ Fall 2008 line was inspired by the early 1960s fashion on the show.

For 2009, two movies I’m super-pumped about are The Watchmen and Star Trek. Both also show the mainstreaming of “geek,” sci-fi, comic book, fanboy culture, peep also the Fanboys movie coming out next year too. So what does this have to do with fashion you may ask? I think the clothing in both these movies pushes costume in a more figure-hugging and future-looking direction.

Okay, so we’re not all going to be wearing spandex/latex all the time, but I think, as many have noted, that with the struggling economy there might be an emphasis on “less is more,” so maybe a more uniform-like approach to style, especially clothing that consumes less energy to make yet is durable enough so that you don’t have to constantly run to the store because your new Forever 21 duds ripped at the seams after one wear. So maybe some more figure-hugging latex-like stuff made of spandex/lycra but mixed with a utility-style thrift-store find or vintage trench coat, like Rorschach’s in The Watchmen. This mixing of future-bound fabrics with vintage finds can not only limit consumption of clothes but also can mix the bright figure-hugging styles with more somber neutrals that are in a trench.

Any style related resolutions for the new years?

I always want to stream-line my wardrobe and figure out what I don’t need. Hopefully I can do more sewing and find ways to reinvent some old stuff I had. Also, though I’m into clothes and shopping (usually on-line), I’m gonna try to limit my spending, because I’m broke…and also focus on looking DAMN GOOD NAKED! (TMI, sorry)

Looking toward the New Year, are there any causes, projects, or charities that you’d encourage people to get involved in?

I think mentoring and tutoring is a good way to help and get involved. I hope to do something for Make the Road New York/ Se Hace El Camino Nuevo York, especially since they do a lot of work in Bushwick where I live. In my hometown of Naptown, Indianapolis, IN, there is also the Julian Center which helps victims of domestic violence. I did some volunteering with them in high school, and I urge everyone to donate to them or help out. It’s a great center fighting a horrible cruelty and injustice.