movie of the week

I found this really cool site the other day. I find cool sites most days. This one isn't particularly flashy or groundbreaking - it's just about a different movie each week, and the author posts related quotes and images. Last week it was The Royal Tenenbaums, the week before, Lost in Translation. 

This week it's Requiem for a Dream. That's one of the only movies I've ever seen that still gives me recurring nightmares. It is the most sordid, painful thing I've ever watched - I mean, I think it's partly because I watched it when I was sixteen. I cried for two days. It was awful. 

So having these images pop in my RSS feed is kind of a harrowing start to the morning. I think Darren Aronofsky is very clever. I don't think I can watch the film again, but, you know, do check out the site.  

white out

I love this image of Margiela in the new Purple. It's shot by Juergen Teller, one of my favourites. 

double talk

Contradictions. Dichotomies. Simultaneous stuff. Contrasts. You know, like black and white, or being head over heels in love (masquerading as complete indifference). I like things that exist on multiple levels, whether that be in art, fashion or film. It's pretty deep.

I love clothing that is, on the surface, incredibly simple, because the cleanest, most uninvasive and elegant pieces are those that require the most adept, skilful cutting - or they just look shit.

I like the interplay of high culture and lowbrow junk, the combination of an incredible pair of shoes with most destroyed of teeshirt and the oldest of jeans, interviewing famous designers over the phone in my undies (oh, wait, that's not cool, more creepy).

One of my favourite books about books is, oddly, by Nick Hornby - he wrote this great column called 'The Polysyllabic Spree' and collected them all up after a few years. Each month, he wrote a list of all the books he bought, and all the books he read and all the books he wanted to read, and then wrote all about them. It was nice because it was realistic - as much as we all like to maintain that we are very smart and very pure, we're not - I'm the first to admit that I like trashbag pop music alongside my impeccable postpunk leanings (wank, wank), I buy cheap cleanser and home brand baking supplies, and when I'm drunk all I want is Burger King.

Hornby talked (erm, wrote) a lot throughout the book (which you should read by the way) about literary snobbery and how it has absolutely no place in the real world. I've got a degree in literature (fat lot of good that's done me, I'm not bragging), and as much as I adore Romantic poetry and reading philosophy, I also devour chick lit novels on airplanes and I thought the Da Vinci Code was a rollicking good read. There's no worth in being a purist, it's for insecure, pretentious creeps, and eclecticism is where it's at.

comeback

Not to get too emo about it, but it's pretty strange being home. In a good way. Seeing old friends and old lovers (not actually old, um, gross). Familiar cafes, bars, shops and restaurants. Menus that haven't changed a bit. Favourite beaches, Vogel's bread, being able to buy wine in the supermarket, paying for things by Eftpos, everywhere. Empty streets, old stomping grounds. No overtanned, oversexed Bondi creeps anywhere.

Old habits die hard when you got, when you got a sentimental heart.

Try as I might to hide it, I have an awfully sentimental heart, and I love being home.

dork

"At this moment, I go on You Tube for three or four hours each morning to watch Shakira or Beyonce. I'll turn on Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' and get up on a chair and dance."
- Azzedine Alaia talks about his hobbies in the latest French Vogue.

It's nice to know that fashion designers are massive dorks too. What are your current hobbies?

watch it

I don't really wear jewellery. I like the idea of it, but I'm too disorganised to actually put it on most of the time. My collection is limited to a few Karen Walker pieces, a cameo brooch I inherited from my grandmother, and when my parents got divorced, my Mum had her wedding and engagement rings combined and redesigned and gave them to my sister and I. Oh, and the raging collection of tacky Diva purchases - costume jewellery rings shaped like panthers. I really like them.

But what I really like is my gold watch. I've had two. The first had an unfortunate life.

I replaced it with a more simple model. It's functional, it's cheap, it's completely incongruous with everything else I wear. I adore it. It makes me feel like a Jewish New York old man named Len.

Don't you think your first watch is a bit of a milestone? My first was when I was ten - it was a vintage Cartier one, gold with a slim black patent strap. I learnt to tell the time on that watch, which is up there with learning to whistle and ride a bike. I wish I had it now, but god knows where it is - I was way more into my Swatch I got at age twelve - so much cooler.

oh.my.god.

Ok so they disabled the video - but you can watch the trailer here. And you should, because it's amazing.

ee cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

This was my favourite poem for a long time. I like the poetry of ee cummings for its honesty, simplicity and lack of punctuation.
It makes me think of my family, especially when I'm far away from them.  Then some asshole decided to use it in a Cameron Diaz film, and I had to spend some time away from it. I think I've recovered now, and we're back. 

little joys

I can't think of anything to write to go with these photos. I just think they're pretty and inspiring.

jigsaw

Jigsaw falling into place
There is nothing to explain
Regard each other as you pass
She looks back, you look back
Not just once
Not just twice
You've got a light you can feel it on your back
A light you can feel it on your back
Jigsaw falling into place

Jigsaw Falling Into Place - Radiohead

I love this song. And I love the feeling of things working out, just as they should, whether by serendipity or choice. Work, projects, plans. I think I just grew up.

we love red tights

Red tights say 'look at me'.
Red tights say 'I'm a bit kooky!'
Red tights say 'I love the 60s'.
Red tights say ‘I’m channeling Anna Karina’.

Refinery29 did a post on traffic-stopping red tights last week, and it inspired me to pull out my own again. I love them, even though every time I wear them I get creepy men making comments and girls giving me funny looks. My non-fashion friends (god that sounds wanky, but it’s true; they have no interest) thought I was nuts. I think it's because they're so attention-grabbing: they say 'I'm cute, but don't fuck with me'. But hey, if they’re good enough for Blair Waldorf...

inspired

1. Luminous

It's the inaugural Vivid Sydney this year, and I'm quite excited. Mostly because Brian Eno is curating an amazing festival with a line up including Battles, Ladytron and Lee "Scratch" Perry. I really like this shift to curated festivals, a la All Tomorrow's Parties. I think it's only going to become more and more common, and that's a good thing.

2. Last Words

So, when I was in Tokyo I had to make a cliched and very enjoyable pilgrimage to the New York Bar in the Park Hyatt. Yes, the one in Lost in Translation. And to make things even better, I recently discovered what Bill Murray whispered in Scarlett's ear at the end. Well, apparently. Are you ready?

"I love you. Don't forget to always tell the truth."

I also love this quote,

“A well-read woman is less of a problem - she knows more or less what to expect”

from ‘Sunlight on Cold Water,’ Francoise Sagan

3. Nick van Woert and Christian Robert-Tissot and their word wire art.

4. APC and Liberty Print summer dresses

5. Peter Savile presents at D and AD here.

Peter Saville Q&A: What inspires you? from D&AD on Vimeo.

words

"Black words on a white page are the soul laid bare," Guy de Maupassant.

funny face

I interviewed a woman last week who said that her best beauty tip is to "pull funny faces every other morning - it helps stretch the muscles and gives you a laugh as well". I thought that was pretty cute: goofy girls rule.

choices

This or that? Heads or tails? A pros and cons list? I'm so indecisive I can't even decide how to make decisions.

it's over

In case you needed further proof that Nylon has lost the plot. I love Mean Girls, but Lindsay Lohan, "a pin-up for a new era"? You have got to be kidding me.

moo

Animals are so hot right now: French Vogue's couture shoot at an agricultural show, Karen Walker's animal farm prints, Lily Allen's new video complete with cows and chickens, various animal headpieces on the runway, a rooster in W, and pink bunny ears at Louis Vuitton and on Katie Grand's rabbit Clara.

Photos from the Love blog, Refinery29 and other places.

I'm a, I'm a, a diva

I have a love-hate relationship with Beyonce. I love No, No No, Bills, Bills, Bills, Say My Name, Independent Women, Crazy in Love, Irreplaceable, the incredibly cheesy Halo. I love the fact that she’s married to Jay Z, and that she got teary eyed when she sang for the Obama’s on Inauguration Day. I love Single Ladies, no explanation necessary. I love that she’s all sass and unashamedly a Diva: she namedrops to death, embraces her curves, wears fringed glasses and a metal glove. I really love her answer song to 50 Cent’s In Da Club:

"I'm the chick with the hot ish, Manolo Blahnik,

Jimmy Choo kicks, killin' it, who you with?

Me & my girls at the party with the diamonds and ice

I'm that classy mami with the Marilyn Monroe body.

I'm that fly chick 5’6 Marc Jacob mini

Ghetto fabulous, glamorous, it’s effortless

Make up light, we with my pastel Louis

Designer scarf, work of art, rockin' vintage Gucci
You can find me in the club, sippin' on some bub,

Daddy I got what you need you's a sexy little thug,

Don't wanna be your girl I ain't lookin’ for no love,

So come give me a hug, sexy little thug."

Now that is some lyrical genius right there.

She also kicks Kanye’s ass at Connect-Four.

But sometimes I just think she’s really annoying, and I feel like punching her. Maybe it’s because she says dumb things like, "The more successful I become, the more I need a man".

Anyway. I heard a rumour she’s coming to New Zealand! I hope it's true...


(This isn't Beyonce, but Veronica Webb as Beyonce in the new issue of LOVE.)