“I look at all the glass buildings and think, who wants to live like that"

I love these people. Well - hold the restraining orders - I mean... I love their aesthetic! Read all about these delightully ye olde style dames and gents and their “extremely previous lifestyle” (love!) here.

Also... LOL @ the comments: "Anyone who uses silk, selvage, and saga in a sentence should be mounted and stuffed too." Dude kind of has a point! I still like their pretty/ creepy apartments though :)

Do you think any of them would like to adopt me??! I'm quiet, and would fit perfectly into the corner of a Brooklyn brownstone!

xx

*(Wonderful!) Photos by Michael Weschler for The New York Times.... Slideshow here.

The Exploding Girl (2009)

The more I think about this movie the more I love it. Probably not for everybody, well definately not for people who like a lot of... well... things actually happening in their movies! But for me that was the beauty of this movie, it perfectly evoked a certain mood, and made it a piece of art, a simple enjoyable tale. Or... non-tale.

The movie basically follows the twenty something Ivy as she and her best friend spend a week long college break in Brooklyn, as their feelings for each other, and their dawning realisation of those feelings grows stronger. There's no Dawson's Creek-esque moment of rising then resolved drama, no kiss on a pier with a swelling emo-soundtrack blaring to life... but that's kind of the point. Moments that end up being important rarely announce themselves with a Sufjan Stevens song and a fireworks display. They just happen, mixed in with, and made up of, the mundanity and "everydayness" of life.

Proper review here.

Interview with the lovely Zoe Kazan, who played Ivy, here.

xx

Ways to Beat (Eat?) the Winter Blues #1

1 and 1/4 cups hot water
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup milk
1 Tblsp yeast
6 cups flour
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
50g butter

Put on 'baking music' (I recommend Radio Dept, Belle and Sebastian or Carole King) Combine hot water, honey and milk. Leave to cool until lukewarm. Sprinkle yeast over and leave 10 mins or until frothy. Combine 5 cups of flour and salt in bowl.

Cut in butter and rub till mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre and add frothy yeast mixture, stir till mixed. Use left over flour to lightly flour surface and knead dough till smooth and elastic. Add extra flour if it's still sticky.

Lightly oil a bowl and stick dough in... cover and leave in a warm place until double in size. Go do something else for a while - this can take about an hour (suggested activity for break: read my blog!) Punch dough down the centre (yeah!! take that ex-boyfr... I mean "dough") then lightly knead. Divide dough in half. Plait halves into hippie style bread braid if you so desire (if you have been listening to Carole King you will want to do this for sure!) or shape into ovals. Place onto greased tray. Bake at 200 degrees C for 40 mins or till loaf sounds hollow when tapped. If you want really yummy bread, grate cheese on the top for the last ten minutes of baking. BURN YOUR STOMACH SOMEHOW GETTING THE GODDAMN BREAD OUT OF THE OVEN!!! (Not recommended)

Feel much more cheerful now you have made something yummy and fun instead of watching the godawful reality tv program that was on (which you may or may not have snuck peeks at whilst baking... opps!) Draw picture. Go to bed.

xx

In Tat or Tatters You're Entrancing

This video is wonderful... ye olde timey dancing set to the Magnetic Fields song "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" (hmmm... does that name sound familiar... like it's the name of an AWESOME BLOG mayhaps??!)

I found more sublime dancing from Merle and Gower Champion here. This still from the video is divine! The crappy YouTube resolution actually kind of adds to it's romantic charms, don't you think? So beautiful, like a daydream from the past.


Maybe it's the cold, slighty melancholy weather today... but I felt more than a little sad when I googled Merle and Gower (great names!) and read this snippet about Gower Champion: "After the failures of the previous decade, Champion was able to make a comeback with his longest-running show. In 1980, he choreographed and directed a stage adaptation of the movie classic, 42nd Street. It won the Tony for Best Musical, and Champion was nominated for his direction and choreography, winning for the latter. The show ran for 3486 performances, but Champion did not live to see any. After numerous curtain calls on opening night, the producer stunned the cast and audience by announcing Champion had died earlier that day"

I can just imagine the applause ringing out amongst the theatre, to the empty stage. It must have sounded so sad.

xx

My friends are genius' geniuii clever

Ben and Nat: as smart as they are good looking! They invented these wonderful cards (with cut-out speech bubbley bits... told you they were clever) made from old record covers...

GO GET SOME... here!

xx

The Female Elvis

Janis Martin was dubbed "The Female Elvis" by RCA and Elvis himself at the tender age of FIFTEEN! I'm pretty sure my major accomplishments during the fifteenth year of my life were passing School Cert and sneaking into my first bar (the notorious and abominable "Alfies Nightclub")

Whereas Janis was busy belting out songs like this...

Doop-Dum-Doodley, Doodley-Do!!!

xx

Anna (1967)

Oh... Anna! This is the kind of movie you watch and just want to jump into the screen never to return to normal everyday life again. Instead you will now spend your days doing wacky go-go dances in the street, frequenting cafes with caddish french dreamboats, going wild at le discotheque...

And of course...

...being crooned at by Serge Gainsborough!

*sigh*

The movie also features this wonderful song by Marianne Faithfull...


And this gorgeously silly dance... Je suis le roller girl!


Tres magnifique!

Creepiest Vintage Ads Of All Time

Yep... that's PRETTY FUCKING CREEPY!!! See more here. Ew.

xx

What was I thinking?

"What was I thinking?!!" you say to friends, yourself... to make you feel better.

I was thinking how your jaw juts out when you're anxious, to make you look tough, but you really just look twelve years old... I was thinking of nights when I barely knew if I was asleep or awake anymore, somehow both blended into an underwater (undersheet?) ebb and flow of movement and breath... I was thinking how we would walk down the street as if contestants in a three legged race, so much fun it was to be as close as possible whispering in each other's ear... I was thinking of how strangers yelled from cars at us to get a room... before we had even shared our first kiss... I was thinking how you would say "You're so funny" as if unwrapping a giant present on christmas day and being unexpectedly delighted with it's contents... I was thinking of how we couldn't walk five meters without stopping, how we kissed in the middle of the road... I was thinking of how much you made me laugh in the mornings... how seeing your name in my email inbox was itself a small burst in my chest... I was thinking there was no-one else in the world like you, and never would or could be.

That's what I was thinking.

Nudies

We finally made a return to nudie drawing lately, and it was... frustrating! It's hard to get into the zen like state drawing can produce after such an absence... and I don't think my charcoal pencil had been accused of being a muthaf**king c**ksucker before (I can get a little... "feisty" when impatient!) But still... I did kind of like the final picture I came away with... if only for a new found boldness in pubic hair depiction... must be all those French novels I've been reading going straight to my head :)

LOL - I hope the phrase "pubic hair depiction" gets me a few extra readers through google search :) I'm not choosy... welcome pervs!

You can do life drawing in Melbourne here. You're welcome.

xx

Better at Birthdays

One of my recent resolutions is to be better at birthdays. Which means ribbons! cupcakes! hearts!... etc. This is my first attempt at a handmade card using collagey elements... my inspiration was the incredible work of artist Hiromi Sato...


MY birthday wish is to be half as talented as she is!! If you're listening God, please deliver October Nine...

xx