10 San Francisco food favorites to try at Outside Lands
It seems that every year a new music festival is born somewhere in the world. Outside Lands premiered in Golden Gate Park in 2009 and, true to its culinary capital roots, one of the festival’s signature features is its outstanding selection of food. It is the one festival our crew attends at which we look forward to experiencing the eats rather than chowing down on a substantial meal to keep us going the whole day. At Outside Lands, you plan your agenda around musical acts and what you’re eating in between. There’s ChocoLands, BeerLands, Food Truck Lands, and more. Trust us, you want to be aware of all your options before you settle for something that doesn’t feed your heart as much as the next stand might. I encourage you to check out the 2014 restaurant list ahead of time. In true SF fashion, composting bins will be available; make like a local, and put your waste where it belongs. Read on for 10 San Francisco food favorites that stand out at the Park and on the streets of the city.
After 9 years in Los Angeles, Catherine reflects on her decision to move to San Francisco
PHOTO: Tara Freese.
I moved to Los Angeles in 2005, fresh out of high school and ready to tackle my first taste of freedom. The rivalry between the Bay and L.A. was palpable among my friends at LMU, and shortly after starting my freshmen year, I was already homesick for San Francisco. Every opportunity I had to fly home for an extended weekend, I took. Then after opening my eyes to the world and studying abroad in Florence, my perspective changed. My senior year I embraced the limited amount of time I had left in college, took an off-campus internship, and really started to explore the city I had lived in for three years beyond the neighborhood around LMU.
Though I started to find my groove—particularly once I was working full-time at a magazine and working events in glamorous Beverly Hills and exciting West Hollywood—it wasn’t until a couple years after college that I finally admitted to all my Bay Area friends that I loved L.A. I even started to feel a sense of pride in the city (though I will never ever support the Dodgers), especially when people told me how much they hated it.
Many people decide to start fresh after college by moving to a new city; I was not one of those people, though I did face the obstacle of making new friends after my college friends slowly but surely left the area. The last time I really felt like I started a new chapter in my life was when I originally left home. Serendipitously, while cleaning out my place, I found the video from my cotillion and watched it with my parents. My 18-year-old self gave a speech about leaving for college, moving to L.A., and what I’d learned up to that point in life. It was so fascinating to look back at the girl I was before I started this L.A. adventure… and to feel the difference in what I went through then versus what I’m going through now.
Back then I had so much direction and focus: I knew my purpose in moving, I knew what I would study in college, I knew what I wanted to do after (though at that point I thought I would be a high school English teacher first). Now I’m leaving L.A. with more life experience and a better sense of who I have become, though what the future holds may still be hazy (or should I say foggy).
5 Guidelines to Discard Items + 6 Classic Pieces to Keep When Cleaning Out Your Closet
PHOTO: Sex and the City.
Admit it. It’s the middle of the summer, and you still haven’t gotten around to spring cleaning. If you read All’s Fair in Love & Wardrobe (or even just my book report on it), you might have the urge to edit your wardrobe (before editing your love life). The good news for you slackers is that I just did a major overhaul of two closets thanks to my move, and I learned some things in the process.
Cleaning out your closet is beneficial for a) making room for new things, b) taking inventory of what you might have forgotten you have, c) making a little extra cash, and d) feeling emotionally lighter. A well-edited closet gives you the opportunity to know exactly what you have and streamlines the getting ready process and your options of what to wear. Now where to start? There are the tried and true rules for what you should discard, but where can you draw the line? Read on for your guide to what must go as well as what should stay in your wardrobe.
Four free fitness channels to follow on those busy days
If you want something done, give it to a busy person. When I left my full-time job, I thought I would have all the time in the world to do everything I wanted to do: read books, soak up some sun, and work out twice a day. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Class times often just didn’t fit into my funemployment schedule. However, I realized that doing 15 minutes of focused activity is enough on days when you just want to move your body. There is a ton out there, so here is your starter kit to free videos that are good enough to add into your weekly routine.
Why you need to add Stephanie Simons’s All’s Fair in Love & Wardrobe to your shopping cart immediately
If you love The Devil Wears Prada, read Vogue religiously, or know every episode of The Rachel Zoe Project, you MUST pick up this book. Written “to all the girls who’ve ever wanted to shop, dress, eat, party, travel, and Instagram like a fashion editor; now you can date like one.”
With a crash course on how to date like a fashion “editrix” (“channel a front row state of mind—don’t settle for being a back-row babe who’s constantly shuffled around and buried out of sight under the proverbial exit sign”), guides to the 7 phases of waiting for him to call and throwing the pity party of the season (“do create a stellar guest list; don’t open less than three gift registries”), a history of the relationship between love and fashion, how to master the “signature walk” of shame, a collection of closet confessions (assumedly Simons’s own dating anecdotes), and over 100 cheeky rules, All’s Fair in Love & Wardrobemakes you want to makeover your wardrobe, your romances, and your life to appear as casually cool and easily put-together as an editor off-duty. Here are 5 points why you should pick up a copy, read, reread, and personify All’s Fair.
