Hollywood in the trenches

I always love drama and romance in a WWI backdrop. I'm actually learning more about shell shock, mustard gas, trench rats, the battle of Somme and the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, than I did in my modern history classes back in high school. I feel so enriched! Plus, I love these period piece films because of the military costumes and posh frocks. I mean, I was having a huge fashion meltdown recently, while watching Downton Abbey season 2:
"OMG, Mary's beaded dress, and gloves, and the whole outfit OMG."
"OMG, Mary's red dress at dinner."
"OMG, Mary's black dress with sheer sleeves."
"OMG, wow."
"OOOOOOOOOHHHHHMYGAAAD, Mary's OTHER black dress and jewels!"


Movies I've been watching that inspired this post: 
War horse (2011)
Atonement (2007)
In love and war (1996)
Legends of the fall (1994)
A very long engagement (2004)
Joyeux Noël (2006)
Now, can we all let out a collective *sigh* at how hard it must've been to have a loved one away at war - in a time with hardly any communication? It just makes my social-media-addicted-heart break.

Sources: empireonline.com, imbd.com, google image search

Street Style: Tommy Ton

I finally got round to looking at all of my favourite street-shooter, Tommy Ton's streetstyle shots in Milan and London of the menswear season just gone, and these are my favourites.

sources: gqfashion.tumblr.com, jakandjil.com

Midnight in Paris

Today was a wonderfully rainy day, so naturally, I decided to snuggle up with Lulu the cat, download swing jazz music, and give Woody Allen another chance. And I'm glad I did. Midnight in Paris (2011) is a charming and sentimental film about a struggling novelist, Gil (Owen Wilson), a man who, like moi, also thinks rain makes everything beautiful, wanders the streets of Paris, and at every midnight, an antique car pulls up and transports him to the 1920's era. He encounters Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, T.S Eliot and Salvador Dalí (sexy Adrien Brody). And with his new found love he is further transported back to the 1890's Moulin Rouge where they meet Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and Edgar Degas! Oh my goodness, I love Edgar Degas! With so many funny lines by famous (dead) artists, writers, surrealists, I give this movie a rating of all the stars Vincent Van Gogh ever painted!


After the movie, I got thinking, I'd like to visit one of those "nostalgia shop" the modern characters talk about. And I'd also like to have a 'Midnight in Paris' moment too. Paris in the Jazz Age really does sound enticing, as does Paris in the 1940's - that's probably the one I'd pick. But I'd also be intrigued by Vienna circa 1900, London in the 1590's, first century Rome and New York City in 1960's. 
So, what is historical era would you like to visit?

Mixtape: NYC

This time last year, I was in New York City. The subway was crippled by snowpocalypse, the walk/don't walk signs read both, the homeless nights... Cue up a song like "Empire State of Mind," and I remember. By the way, who knew there were this many songs about New York?! But this playlist is very personal.

001 LET IT SNOW :: Frank Sinatra
002 UNDISCOVERED :: James Morrison
003 ALL THIS BEAUTY :: The Weepies
004 GIRL INFORM ME :: The Shins
005 NE ME QUITTE PAS :: Regina Spektor

006 THE ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK :: Simon & Garfunkel

007 TWENTYSOMETHING :: Jamie Cullum
008 MAKE IT MINE : Jason Mraz
009 THE HEART OF LIFE :: John Mayer
010 SHOW YOU HOW :: The Killers
011 OFF BROADWAY :: Ryan Adams
012 BACK TO MANHATTAN :: Norah Jones
013 LADY LIBERTY :: Okkervil River
014 OVERTURE / HANNIBAL :: Phantom of the Opera (Soundtrack)
015 FOR GOOD :: Wicked (Glee Cast version)

016 NOLITA FAIRYTALE :: Vanessa Carlton

017 SHE MOVES IN HER OWN WAY :: The Kooks
018 NEW YORK, NEW YORK :: Cat Power
019 SOMEWHERE IN MY MEMORY :: John Williams (Home Alone 2 Soundtrack)

020 A DANCE ROUND THE MEMORY TREE :: Oren Lavie
021 THE DISTRICT SLEEPS ALONE  TONIGHT :: The Postal Service

022 WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE LORD :: Shane Barnard & Shane Everett
023 ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE :: Darlene Zschech
024 EMPIRE STATE OF MIND : Jay Z & Alicia Keys

My unlikely BFF

There are certain things you just don’t tell your mother opting instead to inquire about her work day or grandma’s chicken broth recipe. You gloss over the explicit details of reality and give mummy a pleasant, counterfeit version of you. This is not me and my mum (my mum and I?). I will come home late from a long emotionally exhausting day and will even wake her up from her sleep if i have to, to talk and confide in. I know it's weird but I'm lucky. Our relationship is due in part to my irrepressible honesty, transparent emotions, childish dependancy, and unashamed announcements. I’ve had a hard time concealing anything from my mother since the year 2000. But I also blame her open, accepting (of my childishness), annoying-"tell-me-what's-wrong", and shocking-"she-is-not-your-friend" temperament.

My mum just is the cool (calm, and collected) mum, but doesn’t have to say it or wear pink sweatsuits to prove it. She's reserved and nowhere like Mean Girls' Regina George's mum or that Asian mother in Hot Chicks ("Ling Ling! You forgot your bling bling!") She's not shallow, nor is she into shopping for clothes and pretty china plates. Not that that's superficial or anything. And I realize this makes me insanely lucky. Her coolness compels me to want to hang out with her, and it’s sometimes hard to explain to friends that you’d rather watch a drama series with mum at home than... be at a lot of other places.

I realize I’m extraordinarily fortunate to have the mum I have and not everyone has the privilege of a ready-made BFF. We will test each other of how far we can push each other's buttons (to the point of making her converse in the toilet while I'm pooping because "it's important!"). We will call each other names. We will have wildly hilarious conversations of "would you still loved me if...?" We will role play (last night, I the jazz singer, mum the chorus girl. This morning, I the barista, mum the cafe owner). We can’t help ourselves—that’s just how BFFs roll. Make fun of Bearemy, my teddy-bear of a son, and she'll get you!

Jobs that'll be cool to have

1. Designer bed/mattress tester. Sleeping on the job and having a lie-in would be allowed.
2. Professional house-sitter. Apparently, there are a lot of rich people in this world and they’d like their home to be safe when they’re away and they often leave their home to the responsibility of a house sitter, who ensures that when the home owners are away, they can live in their home like it is their own
3. Screenplay or script reader. I'd be good at it. I could help actors like Robert De Niro and Brendan Fraser make better movie choices. Is there a job opening for that?
4. Dramatic actor in infomercials. I'm a terrible actor too, so it doesn't seem like much of a stretch that I could make my way to an advertisement for a product you never knew you needed.
5. Ice-cream taste tester Definitely a win-win situation here. I hear they give you a gold-plated spoon?
6. The person who edits trailers. Have you ever noticed how they always pick the best parts of the movie and there is always a kicking song playing in the background? And then you go see the actual movie and surprise surprise, you’ve already seen all the parts worth seeing. Anyways, I love movie trailers.
7. A buyer for a department store. You get to pick the clothes they sell. Complete power. 
8. Elf at Santa's workshop. I'll work at the teddy-bear department, stuff each one with hugs and good wishes.
9. Professional list-maker. Because I have OCL. Obsessive compulsive list-making.

Miu Miu Archives

So I've basically spent the rainy day raiding the Miu Miu campaign archive, as you do. But the suns out today, finally. So I'm going to go overdose on seratonin and vitamin D. In the meantime, let's appreciate some of that excellent late-nineties Miu Miu that I love so much.

A life of love

“Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does.” 

I Corinthians 14:1 (The Message)

Loosen up. Don’t you have some people to hug, rocks to skip, or lips to kiss? . . .

It’s time to retire. Not from your job, just retire from your attitude. Honestly, has complaining ever made the day better? Has grumbling ever paid the bills? Has worrying about tomorrow ever changed it?

Let someone else run the world for a while.

Muse: Fanning Sisters

 

 Sources: fanningsisters.tumblr.com, google image search