pretty hair and pretty voices

Zooey Deschanel was the catalyst for this list, she has it all down to a T, even the pretty eyeliner which didn't quite make it into the title but is still something of a motif here. I fell in love with her as the she of She & Him (the him being M Ward, they're pictured together above), and subsequently with her sweet style and pretty hair and sticky outey ears. Also one time I was compared to her which, while being rather inacurate on all fronts, was most flattering.



Natasha Kahn of Bat for Lashes. She's also adorable, wears great clothes, and makes music I like listening to with girlfriends. The video for what's a girl to do is one of my most favourites.



Jenny Lewis. Sensing a theme here? Yeah, I'm predictable. But still. The Postal Service, Rilo Kiley, with the Watson Twins, I love her in all her incarnations, and she is playing here (in Melbourne) on April 2nd and 4th.





Lykke Li. Less alt-country-indie-american, more Swedish (you can be sure a lengthy post regarding my love of the Swedes will follow). Eyeliner, tick. Hair, tick (I have huge topknot envy). Voice, tick, tick, tick. The cover/duet she does with Caleb Followhill of Kings of Leon is amazing, and mentioned here previously.




Feist. She wore a sequined jumpsuit on an apple ad, appeared on Sesame Street, and made a beautiful duet with Ben Gibbard for the Dark Was the Night compilation, if you haven't listened to it you must.



Honorable mention to Sally Seltmann aka New Buffalo. I'm not quite as envious of her hair as the ladies above, but her voice is beautiful, she co-wrote Feist's 1234, did a cover of 4 Seasons in One Day, collaborated with Jens Lekman, and lives in Melbourne too.


I was somewhat disappointed to find most of the singerey lady types I love at the moment not only have the same hair, but it's all long and fringey and wavy. Perhaps because that's the opposite to mine and I'm jealous, but would welcome any short haired songstresses onto this list and into my iTunes with open arms .

richard avedon + skeleton = skelevdon?

I couldn't get all of these to work. But there was a time when we did:

me: i thinkthey are hilarious5:19 PM Louise: okay i take it back they're totally funny the first few aren't but they are good after that on the toilet gold5:20 PM me: yes i like it when the skeleton wears clothes Louise: they're real fucking 80s when are they from? wait should i just read maybe me: richard avedon the new yorker 19955:21 PM Louise: yup ha me: god they are good, i keep re-looking at them Louise: yeah me: the one where he has a purple hat on Louise: i want to print some of the less bad ones5:22 PM hmm, i am almost alone in this office maybe i should do some colour [rinting me: hahahah do it Louise: I am sleeping bag dress hello5:23 PM they're going on the fridge me: get toilet seat sex and purple hat and american flag5:24 PM Louise: i'm getting painter that was my first lol one me: its good5:25 PM Louise: american flag is sleeping bag dress and i'll get toilet me: yeah SWEET Louise: yay new fridge pics me: good ones too Louise: to replace cute pandas and fat cats

Taken from foto decadent...Nadja Auermann

happy things

Some bursting capsules to share (things I love right now)


Big random bunches of flowers. Especially yellow and white ones


The Chicks on Speed exhibition Viva La Craft at Craft Victoria


Heart shaped chocolates

Lykke Li doing this cover

the fun factory / trimapee

Penthouse Mouse is a temporary fashion, arts and event space that affords emerging designers and artists the opportunity to show their wares during the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. More than just a shopping location Penthouse Mouse encompasses site specific artworks, runway shows, live photo shoots and other random happenings in a collaborative, freeform and innovative format.

It all sounds terribly wanky right? Freeform and innovative? Woah. Well, I went along the other night and despite being distinctly underwhelmed with the collaborative freeform-ness of the space, I was impressed with a bit of what was for sale.

There are so many great labels coming out of The Antipodes that I thought this might be a nice opportunity to start some sort of a regular post on local designers.

Here's what Trimapee say about Trimapee:

With thematic and historical influences, Trimapee (the a has umlauts but I'm yet to locate them on this keyboard) aims to transform the humble wardrobe into a means of expression. Versatility is created through a juxtaposition of styles creating a variety of looks for any occasion.

They remind me of a few NZ designers, which I like, particularly at this time of year when as much as I hate to admit it, Summer is waning and scarves are reappearing. NZ does Winter fashion ever so well and so it seems do Trimapee. I am quite enamored with a jacket of theirs sporting zip off sleeves and hood, in a heavily lined black denim. Also large loose knit sweaters and dresses I can imagine layering over sweatshirts and thick tights.

As well as taking part in this year's Penthouse Mouse, Trimapee have a fashion installation – Hang Your Heart in Shame – in place at their store The Milk Shoppe Gang from March 16–22. The Milk Shoppe Gang, which has quickly become one of my top 5 shops in Melbourne, can be found at 78 Johnston Street, Fitzroy.

Penthouse Mouse is set up in an ex- roller rink and arcade formerly known as the Fun Factory, until March 22, find them at 243 Toorak Road, South Yarra. Upcoming events include a short film night on Friday 20/03/09.



These pictures were all nicked from the Penthouse Mouse website. If I get around to it next week I will try to scan some of the gaunt cave dwellers of Trimapee's latest campaign, The Gods Mistakes collection.

awwww jeeeez

Is it really shallow for me to write about how much I'm loving creamy lace right now? It seems like everything I purchase of late is lacey and creamy...its an addiction. I think my latent desire to dress like I'm in Picnic at Hanging Rock is manifesting itself in the purchase of creamy lacey things. This happened to me last year with grey marle. I wound up with a wardrobe of grey marle things that I couldn't wear together without looking like I was off for a jog and it made getting dressed a bit difficult.

Now that I think about it, I tend to do this with food and music too. For example, right now, I am only listening to Patrick Wolf. This has been going on for about four days. I know that other music is great but for some reason I will only listen to Patrick Wolf. Ditto the All In Ones from Sweet Mother's Kitchen. Every weekend for about six months I had at least one of these. I know other food is good. But I guess I'm just determined in my taste. I don't know.

Anyway. My new cream lace thing is the same fabric as the cream lace thing pictured below. However, as I tend to have some kind of personality glitch that results in this kind of rash layby, my cream lace thing is a shapeless t shirt dress that is basically see through. And about $200. Which is kind of a lot considering I probably could have got me some cream lace and made a similarly shapeless cream lace thing but there was about a 2% chance of that ever happening and THAT IS WHY WE BUY THINGS LIKE THIS.

loveage

This isn't a travel blog, but I suspect a lot of what you read here will be about journeys. I am terribly obsessed with travel, despite not actually partaking in so much of it. I love going places, I get giddy at the thought of an ascending aeroplane and am oft disappointed upon landing. I can sleep in cars, buses and on trains, I don't get seasick, I even like lining up for customs. But I hate packing. The thought of it makes me a little anxious even now, as if there's something maybe I'm forgetting to write, and I won't realise until it's already posted and it's TOO LATE.

Unfortunately packing (and unpacking, and re-packing) is a big part of the kind of extended, adventurous travel I plan on eventually doing, so I am going to attempt to overcome my anxiety by focussing on pleasant details, such as luggage. How lovely it would be to one day – practicality and weight restrictions aside – pack up all your worldly possessions in a set of antique suitcases (like those above, or the beautiful Louis Vuitton rangein Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited) and take off for an adventure on the other side of the world.

This is not happening in my forseeable future, so in the meantime vintage trunks remain only an interior decorating option. And while I have got a holiday planned, it is only for 5 days and I intend to pack very little besides bathing suits and books. These duffle bags from The Luggage Professionals (below) and A.P.C (further below, sigh) would be ideal though price tags mean I will probably be carrying my swimsuits in a thrifty, if not quite as timeless, American Apparel bag .









Oh, who am I kidding
I am a sucker for AA any day.

i'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

Sitting on a balcony overlooking Owhiro Bay last weekend, Jack and I played with an amazing Tom Waits book (thankyou, Richard Buckley!). We drank gin and tonics, cooked steak and basked in the sun while our friends walked the 100 steps up to the house. We were perched up there like Bhuddas, drink in hand, welcoming our tired pilgrim friends with Maggie Onion Dip flavoured chips and Bloody Marys. Anyway. This is about the book.

Its called Innocent While You Dream and is basically a collection of interviews with Waits, starting from the beginning of his career in the 70s and ending up with some awesome contemporary stuff.

A fun game to play with the book is to open it randomly and read aloud...I think Tom Waits must be the most intelligent man alive, he rambles and plays tricks on you, goes wildly off topic, even invites an interviewer to the dump. I'd totally go. "Sorry I'm late, Tom Wairs wanted me to go to the tip with him"...you'd find the best treasure.

On ladies:

"No, I'm just looking for the right one. I've tried all kinds and nothin' works. I may have to settle for livestock, like my first meaningful experience. Her parents didn't like me so we broke up. She was a small heifer. I'm looking for a woman who owns a liquor store. There's one maniac who sits on my porch every night -- it's like "Play Misty for me." No comic relief there at all; she's a few bricks short of a full load."

An instrument:

"I pick up junk when I find it. I wanna get a thing that I can do a stick sound with like eight sticks mounted on a frame, almost like a pitchfork, only the forks would be wood, and on a spring base, so that when you hit it against the ground you get a flam, a stick flam of eight characters. You get the clack, clack, clack, but you'd be able to do it with just one stick, hitting the stick and hitting the sound of eight sticks. I dunno..."

I think he is totally dreamy.

On a different note: The rains have come, my washing is out!

summer holiday

I'm going on vacation at the end of the month. This is exciting for a number of reasons:

• I have never really been 'on vacation', holidays have always been spent sleeping in at home or visiting friends and relatives in other cities



• I am going to a tropical island, which is very, very grown up you know



• It is an excellent reason to make lists. Besides the obvious to do lists, there are holiday reading lists, to pack lists (though the list writing part is the only part I enjoy about packing), postcard lists, travel playlists even, oh and 'to buy' lists! My To Buy list has miraculously transformed from NOTHING to new shorts, new bathing suit(s?), new bag, new hat, new sandals, and so many books; hell, why take anything I already own...

These photos are by Mark Borthwick, who is pretty fantastic, and I stole them from a blog called Lightning History.

don't get me wrong, its not that I knock it...

You just have to look at her really...and listen to the track "Different Drum", possibly the best break up song of all time. Especially if you are girl (and we are) and even though the song itself was written by a dude.

This post is all about pictures. No waffly prose tonight. Obviously, I would love to dress like her/have her hair/general vibe.

Images pickpocketed from: dreamjournal.net/.../dream_id/129971; www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Linda-Ronstad...; iamthechildofthemoon.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_.;https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Linda-Ronstadt...

j'adore... la femme française

J'aime bien toutes les choses françaises.

I like berets, striped t shirts, long cigarettes and baguettes. Croissants, clichés, Camille and romance. I have fantasies about Rendezvous' in Gay Paree.

For a little while I spoke French but my vocabulary having severely diminished I can now converse only with toddlers. Which is a complete joy I might add. If it weren't for the recession I would be spending tomorrow with two very adorable French babies, who have been teaching me la langue all over again. As it stands their French mother can no longer afford my services, so I am reduced to combing Garance Doré for my weekly francophile bursting capsule kick.



Françoise Sagan, the author of Bonjour Tristesse and one of my favorite femmes françaises. The illustration at the top is by the trés trés chic Garance Doré.

extreme weather warnings

This morning the Victorian Police sent me a text message, though I don't recall giving them my phone number. I've deleted it now but it warned of extreme winds, high temperatures, and of course fire danger. Tonight I was sent home early from work and as I walked, my hair whipped my face and grit filled my eyes. Tonight instead of the smokey haze I've almost grown used to the atmosphere is clouded with dust.

It's difficult to describe, even as someone who grew up in Wellington – this is different. It's hot, and thick, and quiet outside. I imagine not too dissimilar to the afternoon in Kansas before Dorothy woke up under a house.

I must say, when I'm not trying to read a newspaper or carry an umbrella I quite like the wind. Maybe it's the Wellington connection, but something in me just wants to be outside. As far as I know there is no risk of lightning so I am thinking of finding a park to stand in, or lye in, where I can be quiet and still and let the sky move around me.