Thursday, March 4, 2010



Natalia Vodianova photographed by Mert & Marcus
for US Vogue September 2009
Scans by MMA at TFS

From one September issue to another...
my friends and I saw THE September Issue last night
and I can't rave about it enough.
It wasn't patronizing, it wasn't glossy;
It was pure fly on the wall vo(gue)yeurism.
We all left with a huge amount of respect for every person who has
ever had a hand in the creation of the magazine,
as well as a big fat crush on Creative Director
and stylist extraordinaire, Grace Coddington.
(I know, I know. It's a somewhat predictable statement after all of
the praise she has received since the film's release.
But SERIOUSLY...she's like the
eccentric and brilliant Auntie you always wish you had.)
 
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Sasha Pivovarova channelling some serious Jessica Rabbit
in these stunning shots by Camilla Akrans (AGAIN!)

I don't know about you...but I was pretty much OBSESSED
with Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? when I was a kid.
And (I'm not ashamed to admit it) I own the dvd.

I think this is an ingenious idea for a shoot - given that Jessica Rabbit was
supposed to be a representation of every male's idea of the fantasy woman
- an ideal that could only ever PHYSICALLY exist in a cartoon form.
So here we are on another 'artistic' platform - trying to have fun with that idea.
Sasha nails it!
Obviously (unless you're Dolly Parton) no one is going to physically resemble her;
but that femme-fatale, sultry-vixen attitude of Jessica Rabbit is
CLEARLY coming through in these shots! Love it.

 
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Illustration by Kelly Smith; Stills from Jane Campion's 'Bright Star'

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Bright Star, would I were steadfast as thou art -
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors -
No - yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever-or else swoon to death.
John Keats - 1819

John Keats, the romantic poet, wrote the love poem "Bright Star"
for his 18-year-old next door neighbour, Fanny Brawne.
This is the story of their first love.

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For those who frequent my blog, I don't think I need
to tell you how much I adore Abbie Cornish.
I've been anticipating Bright Star for a long while now,
and I can't WAIT to see it!
What's better - the Hopscotch Gods seem to be smiling down upon me
today as they have given me 5 double passes valid for
exclusive preview screenings of the film during the
18th - 20th of December, 2009
at participating cinemas.

If you would like one of these special passes just leave
a comment on this post but include the words 'Bright Star'
and i'll randomly select the recipients on Wednesday the 9th
and publish your names on my blog on Thursday morning so as to
give you plenty of time to get in touch via email with your addresses.

Unfortunately for those of you from across the pond,
this is only open to Australian residents. Sorry :(

Good Luck!
 
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...is perhaps THE single most amazing celebrity portrait photographer
(BIG call I know because I do love my Annie and my Mario!)
But I just absolutely adore his style and the way he can push the
boundaries of the recognizable celebrity 'image.'
He's also photographed some of my absolute favvies!

I hope you all have an amazing weekend!
I'll be holed up inside working...*sigh*
But that only means lots of fun stuff to share in the future!

 
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Images that I love, from movies that I love, that are all about love.

1. Breakfast at Tiffany's 2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Candy 4. The Notebook 5. Love Me If You Dare
6. Romeo + Juliet 7. Dirty Dancing 8. Priceless
 
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The other day a friend of mine asked me if I had any advice for visiting Greece at this time of year. I replied, half-jokingly, that after visiting Thessaloniki he might head down to Athens and wait around for about a month until the country went bankrupt - he could then buy up his very own Greek island in the Med for cheap.

(See what I did there? I cleverly inserted into my travel advice a reference to the current politico-economic climate in Europe, thereby indicating my awareness of current events and razor sharp wit).

But like I said, I was half-joking. Turns out you can actually snap up your very own island in the Aegean for, like, a pittance!* Moreover, if the Greeks are forced to sell some of their sovereign soil to raise money to pay back the IMF or ze Germans, there could be some real bargains out there.

Your own island.... Mull that one over and try to tell me that it wouldn't impress your gender of preference.


--------------------
*starting at $1-2million, or higher if it comes with a place to dock your yacht. Or mermaids.

"Not Boring" could be how one describes politics in South America these days. Not content with President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's preferred candidate, the Argentine Senate rejected the nomination of Mercedes Marco del Pont to the head of the Central Bank.

You may recall that del Pont's precedessor was pushed aside last month after refusing to use the central bank's currency reserves to fund the government's plans. With approval ratings already down to about 20%, Cristina Fernandez' government is looking increasingly weak and unpopular.

If you're interested, The Economist has a useful backgrounder on Argentina under the Kirchners.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Here's a possible new trend among the absurdly style conscious urban dwellers: carbon self-sinks.

Ioana Iliesiu


After a day spent cutting and splicing your DNA at the GM spa, heat trapping gases will be calcified in the bones of your upper and lower limbs each time you breath them in. Whenever you inhale, you're growing and cultivating your own osseous topiary. You can trim it with the geometric rigidity of Le Nôtre or the Impressionist brambles of Gertrude Jekyll. For those without balconies or even an access to an exterior fire escape for an herbal pot or two, this might be the only chance to enlist your latent green thumb.

Match your mobile quasi-rock garden together with your favorite sustainable ensemble, and you'll receive envious glances from your fashionable rivals at the post-catwalk garden parties during Fashion Week, possibly even catch the normative camera eye of The Sartorialist. Yes, it will hurt, but probably not as much as wearing hooves.

Once your postnatural peruke becomes an unmanageable thicket, you can have the whole thing sawed off by your favorite coiffeuse to the stars, who will then send the excised growth to an underground storage facility. Climate change as body modification infiltrating and occupying the rarefied physical and social spaces of the Nouveau Regime.


Bouffant Topiary
Michael Jackson as Landscape Architecture

According to the Wall Street gossip pages, US Senators are close to negotiating a deal that would (finally) create a consumer protection agency...:

Top senators from each party were near a breakthrough agreement to create a new consumer-protection division within the Federal Reserve. This has been a contentious point due to heavy criticism of the Fed's past handling of its consumer-protection powers..... This could dramatically reshape the focus of the Federal Reserve. For years, it has primarily been focused on monetary policy over bank supervision and often made consumer protection an afterthought. Republicans might be more supportive of the Fed option because they might see having Fed officials involved could lead to more bank-friendly policies than an independent regulator.
Seriously guys - what the f***? Does nobody read these things before they get published? "Bank-friendly policies" are the antithesis of consumer protection: they are the reason consumers need protecting in the first place.

The entire point of a central bank is provide credible stability in the economy through a focus on monetary policy: to keep the money supply such that we do not need wheelbarrows to cart cash around to the store to buy our weekly bread. A central bank has failed if we even think that this is a possibility in the future. If you don't appreciate how difficult this is, go have a look at Argentina or dozens of other countries with 20%+ inflation rates and political interference.

We could even have a reasonable debate, over a few pints, about requiring our central banks to consider asset prices as part of their mandate, since we've seen how things work out when those crazy housing bubbles get going. But when we consider the Fed's other responsibilities - acting as the nation's banker, supervising deposit-taking institutions - it's pretty clear that consumer protection does not belong on this list. The Fed's track record to date speaks for itself.

Stick to first principles: consumer protection requires a separate, independent agency. Fin.

Update!: Felix Salmon provides backup, coherence.

 

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