NELLY, I AM HEATHCLIFF!

A few sugar coated pop choons (tunes) with warm, melted centres...Hooray for SIA!





{music: David Guetta - Titanium ft. Sia & Flo Rida - Wild Ones ft. Sia} 

{title: Catherine Earnshaw From Wuthering Heights describes her love for Heathcliff:
"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff - he's always, always in my mind - not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself - but as my own being; so, don't talk of our separation again - it is impracticable."}

REAL COOL HOLY BUDDHA

In a Temple's Main Hall
  -written by Ko Un
  -translated by Brother Anthony


Down with Buddha!
Down with handsome, well-fed Buddha!
What's he doing up there with that oh so casually elegant wispy beard?
Next, break down that painted whore of a crossbeam!
A dragon's head? What use is that, a dragon's head?
Tear down that temple, drive out the monks,
turn it all into dust and maggots!
Phaw!


Buddha with nothing, that's real Buddha!
Our foul-mouthed Seoul street-market mother, she's real Buddha!
We're all of us Buddhabuddhabuddha real!
Living Buddha? One single cigarette, now there's real cool Holy buddha!


No, not that either.
For even supposing this world were a piece of cake, 
with everyone living it up and living well,
in gorgeous high-class gear, with lots of goods produced
thanks to Korean-American technological collaboration,
each one able to live freely, with no robbing of rights,
Paradise, even!
Paradise, even!
utter Eden unequalled, plastered with jewels, still even then,
day after day people would have to change the world.
Why, of course, in any case,
day after day this world must all be overturned
and renewed to become a newly blooming lotus flower.
And that is Buddha.


Down for sure with those fifteen hundred years
rolling on foolish, rumbling along:
time fast asleep like stagnant water that stinks and stinks.

A SWEET NATURAL EYE TO THE NEW HIP MOON

I realised I don't have any opera on my blog, though I studied it for a while. I took voice lessons, travelled around performing like some teenage minstrel, and even went to those camps in the mountains where you sing for 7 hours a day. Completely hardcore. So it made me really love classical and opera music.


[Music: Sumi Jo singing "Oh! Quante Volte" from the opera I Capuletti ed I Montecchi by Vincenzo Bellini. The opera is basically the story of Romeo and Juliet, and this song is about how sad Juliet is and how much she misses Romeo, etc.]


Also, although the words Lola Re, Stockholm and February do not belong in the same sentence, I am still excited about Stockholm Fashion Week A/W 11 (I'll probably go again in August like last year).


So don't worry. There's nothing more exciting in this world than Swedish clothes and Allen Ginsberg quotes and baby, that's what you'll be getting from me over the next few weeks. And Copenhagen too.


[Title is taken from a line in the poem "Sunflower Sutra" by Allen Ginsberg]

THE MOVIE WAS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE BOOK IN THAT THERE WAS NOTHING FROM THE BOOK IN THE MOVIE

Today I'm reviewing Lancome's hero serum, which is called Genifique. Basically, it's supposed to give you younger looking skin. How? By supplying your skin with some patented protein formula. Apparently, it makes your skin replicate proteins it made when it was younger, therefore making your skin look younger.

First I'll say that it seems to work. Your skin looks smoother, softer, plumper and younger after using the serum. I'd say I saw results in around 2 weeks.

HOWEVER, it's really expensive and, correct me if I'm wrong but... I don't think the bottle was full. It's hard to say because the packaging is completely opaque, and the bottle is made of glass which is weighted on the bottom to make it seem heavier. Also, the serum is dispensed using a sort of dropper that's attached inside the cap, so you don't really have a good idea of how much product is in there....

But I swear, the bottle was only half to 3/4 full.

WE'RE NOT STUPID LANCOME! I don't think I'll repurchase, even though it works, because I've used other creams/serums that work just as well, where my money is going into my face instead of some spokesmodel's pocket (DHC, take me back I'm sorry). Anyways, 3.5 checks because the serum does get some results.



[Today's title is a quote from Bret Easton Ellis' new novel, Imperial Bedrooms. I'm only on page 17 and already there's been a movie premiere, the brutal murder of a heroin addict, a trip from NYC to LA, and several vacuous entertainment industry parties. It's good to have you back, Bret.]

STANDING AT THE BROAD SLATE SINK CONTEMPLATING THE WINTER-VIEW OF DITCH-TRAVERSED MARSH AND THE BRAMBLED ISLANDS OF HAWTHORN AND ALDER AND THE STEEL-BLUE CHANNEL BEYOND AND THE RIM OF DUNES WHITE AS SALT AND ABOVE THE HORNED EDGE OF THE OCEAN, SHE AT LAST AGREED

First post of 2011, get in! I'm experimenting with different photographic finishes, so this is my latest Photo of the Day. 

I would love it if my images had the same finish as the famous Spitting Scene from Seinfeld. (the a clip below shows what I mean, but if you want to see the whole thing click here). It's basically a spoof on the controversy surrounding the Kennedy assassination. 

Speaking of the Kennedy's, today's title comes from a passage in the book Couples by John Updike, which is set during the early 60s in a little Massachusetts town about an hour south of Boston. I lived just outside Boston when I first started writing this blog, so the book makes me homesick for the salty studio where I lived next to the ocean, and going into the city full of professors, crazed sports fans, geese, crayfish and lobster salads, thousands of students, and women with bobbed hair, cardigans and pearls. I'd fight through 10 inches of January snow to go to work at the university, then volunteer in Cambridge, then bask in the glow of Trader Joe's for dinner. What a gorgeous city. 





(PS: It's my birthday!)

THE ISLE IS FULL OF NOISES. SOUND AND SWEET AIRS THAT GIVE DELIGHT AND HURT NOT. SOMETIMES A THOUSAND TWANGLING INSTRUMENTS WILL HUM ABOUT MINE EARS, AND SOMETIMES...THE CLOUDS METHOUGHT WOULD OPEN AND SHOW RICHES READY TO DROP UPON ME, THAT WHEN I WAKED - I CRIED TO DREAM AGAIN.

On Saturday, I moseyed on down to lovely Brighton

for Brighton Fashion Week

It was covered by the BBC, and the shows were extraordinary, but what I really enjoyed most was speaking to individual designers who were dotted beside the catwalk, with wares to sell and stories to share. Here are some hilights of the folks I spoke to:

I really liked the designs of Ness Newman, who described her style as 'Pinup Cowgirl.' Lovely.

I also spoke to Liam from Vintage-Reclaimed.com.

He's based in Nottingham and makes really cool jewellry by combining unusual finds. Take this little beaut, for example:

Had my makeup done by freelance artist Henrietta, from Henessy85.blogspot.com:

My favourite designer of the day by far, was Maria Allen, who sells her designs at mariaallen.bigcartel.com. She calls her work 'a mixture of pretty and random' - I think I'll show you what I bought separately, but here's the table, woo!

Then, it was off to the restroom to take akward photos of my outfit. Here goes:

floor length skirt: thrifted, laura ashley

black tank top: h&m
white crop top: topshop unique
cardigan: h&m

necklace: gifted

customised earrings: gifted

And theeeeeeeeen, after all my hard work, I did the same as these guys -

I went to the pub, had a pint, ate a pie and watched the England vs America World Cup match. A draw! Sounds good to me!

[This post's title is a quote from Caliban, in the play The Tempest by Shakespeare]

THE NIGHT HAS ALREADY TURNED ON THAT IMPERCEPTIBLE PIVOT WHERE 2AM CHANGES TO 6AM. YOU KNOW SOMEWHERE BACK THERE, YOU SHOULD HAVE CUT YOUR LOSSES, BUT YOU RODE PAST THAT MOMENT ON A COMET TRAIL.

I like buying jewelry from museums - something about showing artistic masterpieces from around the world really pulls the gift shop selection together; I find everything to be in excellent taste. And let's face it, it's CULTURAL which helps to assuage any lingering guilt associated with gratuitous consumption. Here are some if-onlys from my favourite London museums - the V&A and the Tate Modern.

[title quote comes from 'bright lights, big city' - a novel by jay mcinerney]

[images and purchasing details can be found on tate.org.uk & vandashop.com]

HIS WAS A GREAT SIN WHO FIRST INVENTED CONSCIOUSNESS. LET'S LOSE IT FOR A FEW HOURS.

I'm currently enamoured of dark dark DARK matte lipstick. I bought some really nice deep plum lipstick the other day which I'm going to try and figure out how to pull off in a future FOTD. Inspiration: Drew Barrymore, see beloooow. 

Feeling a little sick today, so I'm going to watch Mad Love and then go to bed!

Love,

[Title - quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.' ]

HUH? ARE YOU SURE? NO, I'M NOT.

FOTD Madness. 24 March 2010. Many thanks to Bernie Boateng for taking my picture!

top thrifted
skirt thrifted
cardigan h&m
boots m&s



[this post's title is a quote from Henry Chinaski in the film Factotum (starring Matt Dillon), which was based on the book Factotum by Charles Bukowski,]

BECAUSE WE'RE HAVING A PARTY AND THE PEOPLE ARE NICE, THE PEOPLE ARE NICE

I want some round glasses like Janis Joplin. I currently sport some old man glasses that are really 2008. I want to get 1968 instead.



[Image is the CD cover from the album JANIS. Really good album btw]
[This posts's title is a quote from Last Exit to Brooklyn, by Hubert Selby, Jr.]