L'ENFER BY HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT

COOKIE MUELLER ON HER WEDDING DAY

MEMORIES

You really can't underestimate the importance of this show...

PHILIP GLASS + SESAME STREET =

WASP ON WATER

La superficie del agua es tensa
para una avispa,
es un sendero múltiple fluyendo siempre
como el tacto del tiempo
sobre la hondura quieta
de un corto espacio.

Corto es el tiempo
en que flota; corta
la distancia en que gira
por incesantes laberintos,
remolinos inciertos, llamas,
y transparencia
inextricable.

The water surface holds, tense,
for a wasp;
this path is a delta, always moving,
like time, that touch
on the deep quietness
in a brief moment.

Brief, this floating-
time; brief
its spinning journey
in ever-coiling labyrinths,
seething uncertainties, flames,
and transparent
complexity.

Wasp on Water by Coral Bracho, translated by Katherine Pierpoint

REALMS OF THE UNREAL

Over the weekend I finally got to watch Jessica Yu's documentary about Henry Darger, In The Realms of the Unreal. I've since read that Mary-Kate Olsen is a big fan of his work, which must mean now he's super hip?

Darger is one of America's most famous Outsider artists. Janitor by day, at night he returned home to work on his epic, a 15 145 page novel entitled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. To accompany the work, he produced hundreds of startling watercolour paintings and drawings. The bulk of his output was not realised until his death in 1973.

The documentary traces what is known about Darger's early life, a depressing story of neglect which ultimately resulted in him living as a recluse for his entire adult life, unable and unwilling to establish relationships with others. Darger was completely emersed in the mystical world he had created and would visit and expand upon each evening. His great work centered around the battle between good and evil. Evil taking the form of an the Glandineans, who impose child slavery. Leading the rebellion against child slavery and fighting the Glandineans are the seven perfect and saintlike sisters, The Vivian Girls from the Christian nation of Abbieannia.

His output was unbelievable, as someone in the documentary points out, he is proof of what can happen when one doesn't watch tv, listen to the radio or socialise...

PHAEDRA IS MY NAME

Such a spooky clip.

Promise to write something more substantial on here instead of
posting youtube clips... slacker is my name! Ha!

M.E.S READS THE FOOTBALL RESULTS

Possibly the best thing ever? Thanks to Jonty for showing me this!

ARLO WEINER: A HOMAGE

"This is my favorite outfit. The tie is a regular tie, but I tied it like that because I’ve seen it done that way in old English movies. Even though the tie and the jacket are different colors, they’re both striped, so I thought they looked right together. And I wore the vest and pants together because they’re both shades of red."

Arlo is the 8 year old son of Matt Weiner, the creator of Mad Men and for obvious reason he's created quite a splash in the press due to his sartorial sense. He puts everything together himself, with spectacular results.

Adults... LIFT YOUR GAME LOSERS!

LIZZY

PRETTY POLLY

Following on from my previous post, I was thinking about what influences me style-wise. Childhood has a big part to play I think. I've written about my childhood obsession with the Anastasia books and linked that to an ongoing hairbow addiction I have.

I was obsessed with the 60s film version of Pollyanna with Hayley Mills and used to watch it all the time when I was little. It was a super over the the top, pastel-tinted take on America in the early 1900s. It's a story that has something that all chicks seem to go ape over; the poor girl getting a makeover. Although I adored her "poor orphan" outfits too. For some reason I had something of a Victorian fetish which continues today.

The film is full of puffy bows, sailor dresses, petticoats, straw hats, gloves, pendants, lace and tights, lots of Wedgewood blue and garden parties. There is a scene where she gets to buy all these new clothes and I would just flip out over it. Even googling images just now got me in a tizz. Her overall look in the film was every girl's dream, I think in a lot of ways it still is mine.

Designers like Luella Bartley continue to keep the Pollyanna/Pippi Longstocking/Anne of Green Gables look alive, reinventing and distorting it, fitting those staples like bows and gloves into something that works for today. You can look at Japan's Lolita girls and see aspects of it there too. Don't think I'll get tired of it any time soon... it's fitting it into my equal love for navy, black and simple structural clothing that's the hard part.

FILIPPA-IN OUT

Oh don't mind me I'm just having a bit of a visual gush about Filippa Berg, the Swedish stylist sartorial wonder. She describes her personal style as "psychedelic schoolgirl" and it works. Straw boaters? Amazing school girl dresses? General jaunty panache? I wish we could be friends so I could raid her closet. Her look is such a break from all the leather, pseudo futuristic and dull repetitive "rock chick" looks that weigh down pretty much every magazine you put your paws on, BORING. I'd take Hayley Mills in Pollyanna over Nancy Spungen any day.

FCKED TRUTH

When are DOWNTOWN going to release something? Wah. I often venture into the murky depths of myspace, past the abandoned cyber ruins of my profile and listen to "Pretty Girls", "Harul" and "Yeayoh"on repeat in the background. Recently they've put up a new song "Dumped" which is pretty good too. Wish they would play a Sydney gig already. C'mon girls...

I WAS THE GOLDEN GIRL

Last night I was very lucky to see the new HBO movie Grey Gardens, which premiered in the US last week and has yet to have an Australian release date. In the lead up to the film's preview screening there was more and more coming out about the film, which was based on the amazing documentary of the same name by the Maysle brothers. I really didn't know what to think about it. I was kind of freaking out about it but then I read a few articles about the production side of things and the care and effort that went into recreating everything correctly, mining Little Edie’s diaries (which surely have to be published at some stage?! Dyyying to read them) sourcing vintage clothing (they even found Little Edie's exact swimsuit!)and archival footage/photographs to get it just right.

The other good thing about it is it's more an exploration of the time before Big & Little Edie “fell” than a outright remake of the documentary (which would never have worked). The film focuses on Little Edie’s “secret true love”, which according to the film it was a married politician who she had a failed affair with. Poor Edie. The other nice thing is it touches on is the mutual love, respect and care felt between the Beales and the Maysles. This is also shown beautifully in the follow up documentary The Beales of Grey Gardens which consists of the footage that didn't make the final cut.

I think a lot of people feel very protective over the original (myself included), perhaps purely because it’s stars were so fragile. HBO have done a flawless job production-wise and the two leads, especially Drew Barrymore (I cringed when the first whispers came out a few years ago that she was to play Little Edie) are absolutely breathtaking in their roles, both are freakishly like the two Edie's in speech, manner and everything in between. At the end of it I was sort of relieved and really happy. It could have been much worse.

I've also been getting a real kick opening magazines like Vogue lately and seeing “Grey Gardens style" homages. Designers like Marc Jacobs have been ripping off Little Edie’s innovative and singular looks for decades so it’s nice to see her getting the recognition she deserves. The woman was a powerhouse, a fashion seer!

The movie ends at the premiere of the original Grey Gardens in New York, which Little Edie attended. As the film ends and the audience applauds, the Maysles hand her a bouquet of roses. Edie just radiates joy in that moment, she's finally made it. And with this resurgence of interest in Grey Gardens and the two amazing women that star in it, one thing is for sure, the Edie’s would have loved it!

KNITTING PRETTY

Tonight we were watching a movie and one of the characters was meant to be some sort of LA hippie granny type and in every scene she whipped out her knitting. Yawn. Anyway, it got me thinking about my neglected knitting projects, including one scarf I'm pretty sure I started in the Winter of 06. Such a white person right now, ugh.

I have to say I only really knit when it starts getting cold and rainy outside. So tonight the conditions were perfect. I don't really do it for any real reason aside from the fact it's a pretty awesome way to relax. Any kind of repetitive activity can have a zen-like brain emptying effect and knitting is all about repetition.

Knitting is such a basic human skill, it worked well for nomadic tribes way back because you don't need complex machinery like a loom, just some thread and two needles. The oldest example of knitting is a divine pair of red wool socks from Egypt dating from the 3rd century. They would have taken a lot longer to make as at this stage in history people hadn't thought about using two needles, so the socks were made by a complex system of knotting using just one needle and thread. Tricky. It still blows my mind just how much you can create with so few materials.

My knitting inspiration is Etsy sensation Yokoo, her stuff is dope. She now ships internationally too, which scares me. Now I'm all fired up and would love to start knitting some more complex pieces in a similar vein. Or maybe I should just start with cars?

THE WHOLE HOGG

Sheee’s baaaaack!

Punk doyenne and darling of the 70s/80s London underground scene Pam Hogg had her first catwalk show in ten years at London Fashion Week about a week ago, pulling a crowd that included Siouxsie Sioux, Bobby Gillespie and Dougie Fields.

To be honest the whole emphasis of the collection was not really stuff that floats my boat but she is a trooper and I’m all about GRANDE OLD DAMES. I think she kind of gets forgotten a bit because her aesthetic and background are so similar to that other miraculous broad, Viv W.

Anyway the collection was a bit of campy-glam fun, with poppy colours, pom-poms, lycra metallic jumpsuits that look like a second skin, harlequin leggings and bows a-plenty. At the most recent London and New York shows, across board there seems to be a real 80s new-romantic/punky lean to a lot of collections, so Hogg’s collection is timely and has the history to back it up. And in my opinion you can never have enough bows and pom-poms, especially in these dour GFC times…

YOU AND ME WE'RE FREE

RULING

PUBLIC ACCESS/RAD DUDES/VOODOO VILLAGE/ALFONSO RIBERO/200MILLIONTHOUSAND/WEIRD DUDE ENERGY/FOOD OF THE GODS/SOUL DESERT...

SAME AS IT EVER WAS

L'ENNUI

When they were both taking part in a poetry workshop with Robert Lowell in the late 50s, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton used to rush to the Ritz Hotel in Boston after classes, where they would down multiple martinis and free potato chips. And they always parked in the hotel loading zone... because they figured they were going to get loaded.

I've always loved that.

STAY SICK

Lux & Ivy's Favourites.

There are nine volumes in total. I've downloaded three so far and they're great.

Poor Lux. Surely him and Ivy had one of the most solid unions in punk?

LIGHT WAGES HEAVY TANKS

I'm in a Mai 68 kinda mood.

Vivez sans temps mort!

JUST THINKING ABOUT EDIE

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood...

Poor old Edie.

I'M A GEMINI & MY FAVOURITE FOOD IS PIZZA

I’m currently in the process of updating and completely rewriting my CV and to be honest, it’s like pulling teeth. I’m never good with deadlines or talking myself up, over it.

Anyway, I’ve totally overdosed on my quota of “powerful” and “emotive” action words for the evening and my mind has gone a-wandering.

It got me remembering this little gem of a parody by Michael Cera. It’s based on the infamous video CV “Impossible is Nothing” by professional douchebag Aleksey Vayner. You can read about Aleksey and his extensive claims here.

They’re both great and inspirations to me now in my hour of need.





That’s something you just can’t beat.

Always push your limits, always push your comfort zone...

GATES OF HEAVEN

WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOE

MARTHA APPROVED

I’ve always sort of admired/feared that crabby old magnate Martha Stewart, the woman is a force to be reckoned with. Her (evil) empire spans magazines, merchandise and broadcasting.

She’s been in jail for insider trading and ended up redecorating her cell while serving time, that’s pretty fierce.

The thing that fascinates me about her is her obsessive compulsive, anal and often plain angry approach towards everything from linen to cake making. Her website is oddly addictive... there are millions of tips concerning everything cooking, entertaining and keepin house and while often helpful, after a while it makes you a little 1950s housewife-valium-poppin-crazy. There are even origami-like diagrams available to print out that demonstrate the correct folding methods for various items and fabrics. It’s intense, the level of detail and the extreme emphasis on perfection. It’s all very WASPy and chintzy… but sort of good too.

Anyway, today Gawker had a story regarding Martha implementing strict rules on her publishing division’s employees new Kevin Sharkey designed “work spaces”. Basically, employees have been "instructed" to work in a bare empty cell with no ability to personalise it alongside strictly regimented stationery. This is meant to “reset” the working environment and “articulate” the company’s new direction.

So today’s prize for taking OCD to a whole new level goes to Martha Stewart, you crabby ole nutcase dictator lady!

BAD MOTHER

I've really neglected this thing lately, but I'm suffering from a general end of holidays malaise and it's all a bit hard. Blah.

Ladies and Gentleman, The Fabulous Stains was released on DVD late last year and I can't wait to get my paws on it. The cult 1981 film stars a baby faced Diane Lane (she was like 15 when they filmed it) and Laura Dern as punk rockers who start a band called The Stains. They sort of sound like a demented-Hollywood version of The Raincoats mixed with The Shaggs or something. The film even features appearances from Paul Simonon, Steve Jones and The Tubes (the lead singer OD's in the film, which then actually happened to him in real life).

It's corny wannabe riot grrl stuff but it's a wonderful little document of the era nonetheless.

And anyway, the Stains look amazing... makes me want a two toned undercut and some red eyeliner. Stat.