nye looks// mermaids

Kate Moss looking like a mermaid in blue sequins and matching eye makeup// Daria Werbowy wearing super pigmented makeup, photographed by Ben Hassett for Vogue Paris// Rose McGowan in a very daring looking satin dress and gold choker// Merman hair at Christopher Shannon Spring 2014

Photos from my pinterest

Christmas movies that aren't pt. 2

Tired of being lectured on the "true" meaning of Christmas? ME too! Sadly, around this time, it's hard to find a movie playing on tv that's not about family and santa and reindeer and hot chocolate and little blonde kids. Take a break from movies that tell you how to live your life and check out this triad of movies I suggest you watch while you finally have some free time this holiday break.



Buffalo '66 (1998): Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) is released from jail and finds a girl to bring home with him to have dinner with his parents. Awkward family meal ensues! Although the "going to the parents' house" is not all that goes on in Buffalo '66, this scene, to some extent, will be re-enacted all over the country this holiday season. Forget Love, Actually, this movie is the feel good movie of your life.
The bleak winter landscapes of upper state New York are a refreshing change from the romanticized snowy wonderlands depicted in most movies set in the wintertime. Yet the cinematopgrapher, Lance Accord (who also did Lost In Translation), managed to find the beauty in the icy blue daylight and the warm indoor incandescence in what could be the ugliest part of the year. 


Eyes Wide Shut (1999): It's Christmastime in New York and rainbows of lights in windows and on trees light up the city. The majority of the scenes in the film are lit with the multicolored lights of the holiday, with the exception of the scenes that take place within the Masked Ball. This film is set during the holiday season, but that's probably the only hint of christmas cheer you'll extract from Eyes Wide Shut. What with the terrifying scenes within the occult masked ceremony, sexual deception between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's characters, and mysteriously murdered escorts, this movie is NOT one that will be enjoyed by the whole family. 


The Sure Thing (1985): 3 Words...CHRISTMAS. IN. CALIFORNIA. Bitchin' (that was separate of the 3). And John Cusack!

Screenshots from http://film-grab.com

December Playlist// Looking bleak

Paintings by Theodora Allen

Theodora Allen is a painter from Los Angeles. She tends to paint primarily with oil on linen. Low contrast washes with faded outlines on her still lives and faces make her paintings have a dreamlike quality. Little specks of light scattered across her images are like constellations. She often posts works that aren't yet on her website to the Lula magazine online scrapbook.

The Rain and the Shine Is Yours, Is Mine, 2013, oil on linen, 18" x 24"

Sister Moon, I Am Your Sun, 2013, oil on linen, 16" x 16"

Ace of Cups, dimensions unknown, oil on linen

November music// and some pictures

Sunny Day Real Estate// Spade and Parade

I'm not usually one to listen to one song consecutively over and over. That is until today when I really listened to Sunny Day Real Estate's "Spade and Parade" off of the pink covered LP2 and realized that it is one of the best songs...EVer. I've had this album for a while and had heard this song before, but somehow overlooked it until today. When the chorus comes in with the layered guitars, it's undeniably catchy. I wanted to post a link to a tab where one could learn how to play it, but it doesn't exist (yet). So someone who knows how to make a tab, please make one for Spade and Parade.

Kevin Smith on writing + music

Kevin Smith talks about how he had the Pixies' song "Hey" in mind while writing a scene for Zac and Miri Make a Porno. 

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Kid's Allright// Bettie Serveert

Here is Bettie Serveert's 1993 Kids's Allright video! The lined quality makes it look like it's been taped from another tape being played on a television, which rules!! Like this Curtis Mayfield video. Both the video, the song, and the band are great but never really broke into the mainstream music scene at the time. The video, according the youtube uploader, was "lost"- presumably never distributed or used.  The director, Jessie Peretz has worked on videos with the Foo Fighters (Big Me) the Lemonheads' (Confetti) and, more recently, has directed an episode of Girls. Pretty neat!! 

monster mash// october mix

This playlist does not include The Monster Mash, but it does contain songs that are almost on par with that exuberant Halloween hit. Since everyone is most likely sick and tired of said song, here are some other scary/halloween/dressing-up songs that would work for Halloween festivities.

guided by voices// your name is wild

This tune can make everything feel right. It can be found on Guided By Voices' 1996 album Under the Bushes Under the Stars.


Lead singer Robert Pollard bustin' out the moves.

Back to Cooool// Seventeen Magazine circa 2000

Real life teenagers caught on camera in their natural habitat...they're just like us! Michael (age 15) totally looks like John Robinson as Stacy Peralta in Lords of Dogtown. He surfs too! Wow! These pages were scanned from a Seventeen mag from the year 2000. These were the teenagers when I was a kid. Teenagers to me seemed so old when I was seven and now, looking at these pictures, some look like they could be seven. It's zany what 13 years can do to your perspective of age.

ROCK SHOW

As you can see, I've depicted ALL the people you'd love to encounter at a festival.
#Coachella #StreetStyle

Turtlenecks

TURTLENECK time is here! Maybe now it's cold all those weird, tight, crop, long-sleeve turtlenecks with become obsolete. Turtlenecks are the best to layer under everything: sweatshirts, v-neck knits, pinafores, blazers.... I like the look of hair being caught in the collar of a turtleneck so it looks like you have a weird bob. NOt being sarcastic. In grade school I thought that there was nothing nerdier than a turtleneck, but now there's no denying their practicality as a winter basic, not to mention their potential to look pretty cool.

Pixies// Bagboy

Vid for "Bagboy," AKA the first Pixies song in almost 10 years. Woo! Fruit Loops!

No Recess// September Mix

Sam Roberts// Where Have All The Good People Gone

Sam Roberts is Jason Lee's twin. He definitely could have been in a 90s Kevin Smith movie, especially with the jean jacket AND jean pants!!
On another note, I really love the weird 70s freeze frame and then zoom seen throughout the video. I can't tell if it's Wes Anderson style ironic camera moves or the director/editor of the vid was just trying out new iMovie tricks. In any case, it's a dynamic music video with lots of groovy walkin round town done by Sam Roberts.

Wanna leave but I got to stay...

The Apples in Stereo// Signal in the Sky

"Signal in the Sky" was written for the Powepuff Girls' show soundtrack which also features other cool guys such as Frank Black and Shonen Knife. When I was seven I didn't know about indie rock or whatever but I did know that all these songs were catchy as hell. It's like the Spongebob Squarepants movie soundtrack that had the Shins and the Flaming Lips' original songs on it. Although this specific song by the Apples in Stereo has specific references to "signals in the sky" and "power-super-super-power" etc, it's still a great standalone song. And this video featuring that evil bug eyed sea monster from the Powerpuff Girls kicks ass!

Fawn// Carven Fall 2013

Baby deer pattern as seen in the fall ad campaign for Carven. I hope to god that real bb deers were not harmed in the making of this coat. Let's just settle on the idea that the coat's made with a patterned fabric.

liz phair// supernova

Your eyelashes sparkle like gilded grass

August Playlist// staying outside

It's August already...stay outside for as long as you can to make it last longer. Make sure you go camping, listen to live music outdoors, eat ice cream, attempt not to get a sunburn but get one anyway, go on a boat...

Sneaker Pimps// Destroying Angel Live

Late 90s/early 2000s trip hop band Sneaker Pimps perform Destroying Angel with lots of red and pink lights. This song reminds me of early Radiohead. I also think that this song would be amazing in a film, maybe at the end of one. Listen to "Splinter," their 1999 release, as soon as you can because it's pretty flawless.

I'm down. Help me I'm down. (@ 3:30)

Kensignton before night time// galaxie 500

Photos by me

The sky on Friday night// pink clouds

[Photo by me]

christiane f.// We Children from Bahnhof Zoo

I watched Christiane F. last night and I can't believe I waited so long to do so. The movie tells the story of Christiane, a 13 year old girl and her downward spiral into the drug scene in West Berlin.
Christiane is brought to a teen disco by a friend, and there has her first "trip." It seems as though she takes her first pills even before she tries drinking because she orders cherry juice at the bar. David Bowie is playing and the colored lights of the disco are bright and optimistic. But at 138 minutes, this film has plenty of time to devolve to the zombie-like heroin addict Christiane becomes by the end. Right after she snorts H for the first time, the David Bowie soundtrack cuts out, replaced by menacing orchestral sounds similar to the Trans Siberian Orchestra's The Shining soundtrack. Director Uli Edel seemed to pay special attention that drug use not be glamourized in Christiane F.. 

toronto haaaaze// drag days

View of the Don Valley from the Evergreen Brickworks lookout on my bee-day, July 2nd. Toronto looks like a city within a jungle.

Getting late// July mix

birthday jam 2013

its my birthday binch. Here's a hodgepodge of birthdayish feelings.

A not so happy birthday painting by Justin Mortimer

Ripped-on-the-butt jeans...// 100% not ironic summer fashion pt.1

...and some other summer fashion advice to stay cool and cooool ;)

Chloe Sevigny looking fly, paying no mind that she's showing her bottom in a pair of jeans that are probably too comfortable to throw out. Jeans mainly fail in this specific area (see above)...why bother wasting your life-mainly summer life; the one that matters- mending clothes indoors (L-A-M-E).
I'm telling you, do as I say and let that warm breeze flow through. Keep it as classy as butt-ripped jeans can be with a white T and some flat docs or vans or whatever...without socks. Only one thing: probably not a good idea to ride a bike in these babies- yes, if you've got it flaunt it or whatever but leave a little to the imagination. 

heatmiser// plainclothes man

someone who'd treat me ok// wouldn't say the things you say

lit with skittles// thoughts on lighting

Harmony Korine wanted Spring Breakers to look as though it were "lit with skittles." Lights in clubs, lights from the city that cast onto motels and suburban homes, lights from the windows of stores and corner stores that gaze onto the people looking in, lights from a rock show that make the skin and hair of the musician change from blues to pinks...
Painters Jenny Morgan and Jen Mann paint their subjects in monochromatic hues that make them appear to be lit with colored bulbs. Casting colored light onto a subject- whether painted, filmed, photographed- captures the illusion of the skin becoming a reflective surface for the surrounding environment. Like diffusing a Manic Panic tint onto an image that makes skin appear to concisely consist of varying tints, shades, and saturations of one color.