Film stills from Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975) / Edwardian Valentines from LaMeow Vintage / my photo
Friends: thank you for indulging my mopey-ness. Someday we will look back and laugh at these dark times when we are all living in our Scottish castles surrounded by endless verdant vistas and staffed with an army of kitty butlers. Shall we proceed?
Let's be honest: just about all of us, myself included, have employed Valentine's Day as an excuse to wallow in self pity at one point or another. This is unacceptable! I have enough fuel for that fire, thank you very much. I have come to believe quite firmly that Valentine's Day is about All Loves Great and Small. It's about loving your friends and your family and your favorite meal and your potted plants and yes, if you happen to have a significant other, it is absolutely about loving them too. It's about who and what YOU love; it is about what YOU have and not about whatever it is you think you are lacking.
I love making Valentine's Day cards, and this year I will be making them for as many people as I can--my Grandma, my best friend, my Uncle, my parents. If you email me your address, I will make one for you (I'm serious! Do it!) I've always longed to replicate the delicate paper nothings the girls circulate with quiet rustles and soft shy smiles in the opening scenes of Picnic at Hanging Rock, and an Etsy search revealed a treasure trove of Victorian and Edwardian-era inspiration. In particular, LaMeow Vintage has an incredible selection of beautiful ephemera to take a peak at. My own versions, created from a hodge-podge of junk I found buried in my crafting pile, are not quite so achingly glorious...but I certainly wouldn't mind finding one waiting in my mailbox :n )
I hope it's as nice out this weekend wherever you are as it is here! Even if it isn't, these short, blissful little films from Chance will definitely put you in a summery state of mind (even if it only lasts until you look out the window...) I watched them all one after another in bed this morning after finding them via M Dash, just as the sun began to poke out of some scattered little clouds. My favorite is probably "Book" but dang, they're all pretty much perfect. Take a few minutes and kick your day-dreaming into overdrive.
(all photos via Chance, please provide credit if you repost)
Hands down my favorite class I took in college was a film studies course on the cinema of Australia and New Zealand. Thanks to my amazing teacher, Mrs. Paula Massood, I was exposed to a collection of incredible pictures that I probably would never have seen, or perhaps even heard of, without her guiding hand (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert not withstanding...) Still, for every movie we screened, there were at least two or three more that we read about but were unable to watch, either due to time constraints, availability in the US/on the correct DVD region (stupidest, stupidest system EVER), or both. I'm still dying to track down Vincent Ward's Vigil!
Such obstacles aside, I've been trying to play a little catch up with my Australian cinema, starting with the seminal coming-of-age-in-the-outback effort The Year My Voice Broke, and ending up most recently on Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career. In class, much of our discussion of the film centered upon the fact that the story was more than a bit of a fantasy, since painfully few women of the time living in the bush had any such possibility of escape as the main character eventually finds--but nevermind, it's an awfully nice idea! Judy Davis is, to quote Hannah, an Australian Anne of Green Gables--all straw boaters and haughty glares and that shocking mane of hair. And can we just talk about Sam Neil, in period dress, in all his 25-year-old glory??
Last week while looking around for images to go with my Brie et Char interview I came across this set of original lobby cards for the film being sold on bidStart. Would that I had the cool $89.95 it takes to make these babies my own!
Director: Keith Hopkin
Art Direction: Mike DeSutter Wardrobe+Styling: Siri Thorson Full credits here!
Remember back in July when I posted photos from June of a video shoot I styled for Xylos? Well, I'm super duper excited to finally share with you the end product! I'm very happy with how it all turned out--especially the bedroom shots, I lucked out so hard that the vintage nighty I had bought matched the (sight-unseen) decor to a tee! Thanks so much to Keith, Mike, the band, and everyone else involved in the whole process <3
Alex and I went and saw I am Love this afternoon. It was beautiful and amazing and intense and you do, indeed, need to "see it by any means necessary"! Honestly, just thinking about the ending is still giving me goosebumps...So, I thought this would be an opportune time to share some pictures I took during my trip to Bassano del Grappa back in June. It was such a bizarre whirlwind event that it all feels like a crazy, hazy dream--and heck, these photos are doing absolutely nothing to refute those feelings!
Thank you all so much for the sweet comments on my last post! I'm so happy with how the film turned out, and I'm glad you guys are too!
The last few days have been filled with a lot of getting up way too early, trudging under the hot sun, sweating buckets, and various other activities that leave me an exhausted grimy mess by the end of the day (albeit with a wee bit more cash in my pocket, occasionally.) Speaking of which: these are some photos I snapped a couple of weeks ago on set at the epic, near-20-hour-long video shoot for "Not Enough" by Xylos. The video was directed by Keith Hopkin, and styled by yours truly (using the better part of my own closet, I might add!) Can't wait to show you the real deal!
Hope you guys had a great long weekend (or even just a regular one!) I had Tuesday off as well so mine was extra looong. However--I put my time to good use, namely by finally finishing up editing all the Super8 footage I took during my trip with the Pains to Japan, Australia and New Zealand back in February (see photos posts here, here and here.) It was really hard cramming all the highlights into 2:40 (guess that's what I get for choosing the shortest song off their album?) but I think I got most of the best bits in there!
Anyways, I hope you like it! I encourage you to click through and watch it a bit bigger/better quality if you have the time. Also, and I can't say this enough: thank you a million times over to everyone in the band and to everyone who helped make our trip possible. Here's to the memoriessss!!
P.S. I put together a post talking a bit about Super8 last year, but if you guys have any other questions please feel free to ask away! I was fortunate this time to shoot on a borrowed Canon 518, which is a camera I'd really like to own myself and a great, basic, easy to use model.
Pet sitting/video editing/prepping for a job on Saturday is making my life crazy and non-conducive to creative blogging at the moment, but thankfully The Pains picked up some slack for me by releasing their insanely adorable new music video today. Even though it's hard for anyone to top crashing a Furry party, I think this might be my fave yet...
Oops! I went a little MIA over the weekend, but all will be explained imminently, I promise...
In the meantime, I wanted to show you a clip from that Super8 footage I talked up so much right after I got back from my time in Japan/Australia/New Zealand with The Pains. Five months later I'm still working on putting it together, due to laziness and technical difficulties (mostly laziness.) This is a little snippet from our time in Melbourne, and it's totally unedited and uncut so apologies if it's a bit choppy. I'm also going to be uploading the finished product to Vimeo in hopes of preserving a bit more of the quality. Can't wait to show you the real deal when it's all finished!
P.S. The winner of Tabio giveaway was Katie of Are You Awake! Congrats!
A little psychedelic Daisy Lowe to start your Saturday off right. Thanks so much to everyone who's entered the bOmode giveaway so far. You guys friggin' rule!!
(photos by Ben Rayner for FutureClaw Spring 2010 via Fashion Gone Rogue)
I remember going crazy for this editorial the first time around, when it was published in W Magazine back in 2004 (so much so that I made an illustration of one of the photos.) So I was pretty excited to see it pop up again a few days ago. Taxi Driver meets Natalia. 'Sgooood.
I had a few pages I'd torn out of the issue in my irl inspiration folder for the longest time, but I think I lost them somewhere during the last billion times I've moved. (photos by Glen Luchford found via Fashion Gone Rogue)
Part 1 of a video interview that Spike Jonze conducted with Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, owners and co-founders of Opening Ceremony. Crazy to think that it all started with $20,000 and a trip to Asia. Man, what a dream these two live now! I'm still kicking myself that I didn't check out the Opening Ceremony store in Tokyo, we walked right by the front door but Parco was calling my name...
I bought a suitcase yesterday that is made out of almost the exact same fabric as this man's trousers. Now I'm getting anxious to start putting stuff in it already!
No one knows how to pack for a trip like Joe Banks. The scene with the luggage salesman is probably one of my favorite movie moments ever.
I just re-watched a great movie I first saw back at UCSC: Smithereens, directed by Susan Seidelman (of Desperately Seeking Susan fame.) One of my professors at BC, who moved to New York in the late '70's, told me it made her nostalgic for the old, grimey New York of the '80's, so you know it's the real deal!
It's chock full of music by the Feelies, co-stars a golden Richard Hell, and there's even the blink-and-you'll-miss-it debut of a Mr. Chris Noth--as a male prostitute no less.
Today, AMC is playing 24 hours of White Christmas, and then, at 8:00pm, It's a Wonderful Life is on NBC (man, sometimes being in America is sorta ok.)I'm sewing our stockings and making English toffee, all to the tune of "Sisters". Cheesy, yes, achingly so, but right now it reeeaalllyyy hits the spot!
What are some of your favorite movies to watch this time of year?
For some reason, I constantly forget how incredibly awesome Stylelikeu is, meaning I get to spend every few weekends going through pages of fun, weird, inspiring videos--like this one. Oh man, I'm so totally in love with this girl. I mean her clothes. I mean...both?? See more photos and read more here.
Ah Tom Ford...is there anything he can't do?? Seriously though, I am extremely excited to see this movie, the designer's directorial debut, when it comes out here in December.
Actually, it opens on the same day as another film I am really looking forward too, My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done?, directed by Werner Herzog. I didn't know much about Herzog until I read Herzog on Herzog for school this spring, and ever since I've been in complete awe of the man's sheer will power and determination when it comes to film making. All I really know about Ford is that he's generally very tan and well oiled, headed Gucci for ten years and knows how to tailor a damn sharp suit. This one's gonna be a looker, I can tell you that much!
