where can I get a hat like that?

More David Hamilton. I want to go to the beach.
Photos from here
and here

the canyon

I want to dress like this, all the time. It's hard to do, though. You need that "effortless" thing that these 70's babes exude.
I'm definitely not effortless.

It makes me want to go to Woodstock

As the child of what may be the biggest Crosby Stills and Nash fan of all time, I was forced by my father to read a book called Hotel California a few years ago. It chronicles "The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends" and was written by Barney Hoskyns. Its largely set in Laurel Canyon, which sounds like an interesting and amazing place to have been in the late sixties and early seventies.

In the canyon things like this would happen: here is Eric Clapton hearing Joni Mitchell for the first time, with David Crosby looking on.

I'm currently re-reading the book, and it has totally reinvigorated my love for late 60's and early 70s singer-songwriters...I don't care if it's cheesy! Suite Judy Blue Eyes is probably going to always make me giggle and I'm probably going to wind up like Emma Thompson in Love Actually and say things like "Joni Mitchell taught your cold English wife how to feel" when I'm older.


Also, this book (or, more fittingly, the photos in this book) has called to my attention the fact that a lot of these people were extremely attractive. See JD Souther, above. He's not overly famous, but from what I gather, he wrote a lot of pretty songs. Look at him! And below, he's wearing the best jacket I've ever seen. Jackson Browne is on right, also looking adorable and Deadwood-esque.

Hoskyns pretty much sums it up - he says (and this isn't an exact quote) that they all looked like "Jesus after a couple of weeks on the coast"*. I guess that's my type.

Here's JD Souther.



*Apart from David Crosby

Woodstock photos from here by Shelley Rusten.

electric flesh-arrows...traversing the body. a rainbow of colours strikes the eyelids*

With Summer JUST AROUND THE CORNER I am considering ditching my usually all black attire for a more summery, vibrant, patterned and outrageous look. At least for a couple months. I am in love with Marc Jacobs' crazy patterns (top) and Luella's splashes of coral and lemon (above), but on my dentally depleted budget I think I'll keep an eye out in Melbourne for Karen Walker, Lonely Hearts' new collection** (it's still mosly black but with some nice yellow surprises) and try to figure out a way to get Miss Crabb over here.

Karen WalkerLonely Hearts

Miss Crabb

For something a little closer to home, I will be avoiding the massive Claude Maus sale*** this weekend and try working Gorman, PAM or some of Alpha 60's new lavender and champaigney hues into the wardrobe (I'm terrible at finding pictures of PAM stuff online and seem to be having as much trouble with Alpha 60 now, so you'll just have to trust me. Both Gorman below).

*The title comes from a raunchy quote from Anais Nin that I love; "Electric flesh-arrows...traversing the body. A rainbow of colours strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears."

**You can find Lonely Hearts at SomeBuddy Loves you on Smith Street and Milk Shoppe Gang on Johnston Street, both in Fitzroy. They're also stocked elsewhere but nowhere I can remember the name of right this second... Feel free to help out here.

***80% off for those who are still feeling monochromatic, it's on Fri/Sat/Sun at the Carlton Hotel and Studios on Bourke - and that was actually a lie, I won't be avoiding it.

UPDATE: I just re-read this and realised I make it sound as though KW, Lonely Hearts and Miss Crabb are cheap, they're not, sorry. But still more affordable than Marc and Luella I think......

i love lamp

Today happiness comes in the form of:

1) This adorable lamp I bought off etsy. Look at it's wee face! It's name shall be Albino Stevie the Second, after the recently deceased bottom-feeding, cave dwelling, cannabalistic, no-eyed, translucent deamon fish I foolishly adopted a couple of months ago. RIP Albino Stevie the First. I suspect Albino Stevie the Second will be more of a pleasure to have around.

2) Today my boss lead our office in yoga (she was a professinal dancer and remains fabulous and ridiculously flexible) and then we followed it with delicious pies. I was the worst, my legs shook like a little chihuahua's. This is funny because a) it looks funny and b) I'm about thirty years younger than everyone else who was doing yoga.

3) Last night we pretended to be little plants growing from seed to blossoming flower while dancing to Hallelujah by Rufus Rainwright. I don't know how that happened (actually , I do, but it is not a story for the internet).

4) I'm going to the Twilight/New Moon DOUBLE FEATURE OPENING NIGHT AT ST LUKES. Words cannot express how happy I am about this. It is a late-night showing which means that it will be full of older creeps like myself (and about 20 of my friends) who will probably be a bit drunk and silly. EDWARD CULLEN 4 LYF/TEAM CULLEN/SQUEE. The opinions and views expressed by this writer does not represent those of the other writer of this blog.

"EDWARD IS A SENSITIVE POET"

FOR SHAME.

it's a beautiful day

Okay, I'm sorry, this isn't actually much of a post, but it's nearly the end of another terribly busy day so all I can offer are a few pictures from the cleaning out of my 'pretty inspiration' folder.... Enjoy your Wednesday, or what's left of it, I plan on spending the remaining daylight hours outdoors with a beer in hand xo

P.S. Sorry no image credits feel free to tell me if you know them (these are from before I got smart and started naming things and folders)

foooods

Last night, my flatmate and I were talking about the classic "if you had to choose, would you go without food or sex for the rest of your life?" question (assuming, of course, that you could survive on sex and not need to consume food). Neither of us hesitated when we chose the former. I could, I think, quite easily live without sex if I had a wide selection of creamy blue cheeses to eat and lots of asparagus. And prosciutto.


Perhaps that's because I've mostly lived with people who really appreciate nice food. I've lived with kitchen hands and stoner chefs in training, people whose parents instilled in them the desire to put delicious things in their faces. We'd cook epic meals together, have weekly roasts, make trips to Mediterranean, Indian, South African food warehouses to find new things (mostly cheeses...). We'd have long and obsessive g-chats about what to cook for dinner. * We'd pick blackberries from the abandoned council land up the road to make pies with. It all sounds rather twee but they're some of the least twee people I know.

In my current flat, we buy cookbooks and plan fancy-ish meals. We're getting an organic vege box delivered to us every week (it winds up being really cheap! And they're seasonal, la di da la la). That's not to say that we're amazing cooks, because we're really not. We eat an inordinate amount of pasta and cheese.

One of my favourite chefs in Nigel Slater. He's a cook after my own heart: everything is made from scratch, there's lots of butter, cheese and cream and not too much fluffing about with fancy things. He has writes casually but is clearly passionate. Comfort food is embraced, which is good, 'cos that's all I make.


When I found his column in the Guardian online it destroyed my workday. I went through about 500 pages of recipes, and then the "Ask Nigel" section. I also want his book about vegetables, called Tender.

Photos from Nigel's website.

* Neenish Tarts

3:40 PM Alex: did you just call your mum for the recipe

me: i emailed her

3:54 PM Alex: il print that one

me: i can't find it

mo

Alex: what

the edomnds

we have 2 at home

me: yeah

strue

3:57 PM Alex: okay then

3:58 PM shal we do it tonite, can you slot it in

me: yeh

although, as i have said - zero dollars

3:59 PM Alex: salreight u can O me

me: unless we buy the ingredients on the flat card and make them for the flat

as a whole

Alex: yeh let do that

me: sweet

4:00 PM Alex: do u got the card

me: yep

we could get ingredients on the way home from work

4:01 PM Alex: wukid

soon

Hey Lou, soon we'll be reunited.
Let's wear floppy hats and pastels and only wander in hazy light.
Photos by David Hamilton, taken from The Valentine Journals

starey kitty in a dress

What is important is that this is a kitten in a dress
Look at it's little feet!

Photos from the cut

my baby just wrote me a letter

Originally, I found this to be waay too long for my plebian tastes but it grows on you. This is actually a shorter version than the one I have on my ipod. The more I listen to it the more I realise how much every note is needed to make the point, how you can hear the excitement and the hope and the longing develop.

My favourite rendition of this is by Nuccia Focile (what a name...) but sadly it is not on the internet. So instead I chose this one by Terese Zylis-Gara. Its not really worth watching but you should definitely listen to it. It was amazing seeing Anna Leese perform it live, too.

While we're at it, this is Lensky's aria from Onegin. This one really gets the Russophile in me going! It just sounds so damn RUSSIAN. and melancholy. He's about to duel his best friend, which is why. NOTE: This singer looks a bit like Trotsky. Ours, Roman Shulackoff, looked like Heathcliff! Big wigs are always the right choice.



PS. Wasn't our production beautiful? Sets by Genevieve Blanchett and Direction by Patrick Nolan, conducted by Alexander Polianichko. Images by Jane Ussher for NBR NZ Opera.

I found out the other day that over 50% of Melbourne residents grow some form of food for their own consumption. This information came from a slightly unreliable source and I imagine that the statistic includes people with a basil plant on the windowsill in the kitchen, but still.... Summer's just around the corner (the sun just came out to make me feel all outdoorsey, stuck here behind my desk). Here are some photos of some interesting planting ideas, the terrariums at the bottom I found on Oh Joy and the others have been sitting in a folder for a while so I'm sorry I can't credit...

things that make me go HMMMM

So today these shoes I ordered from Urban Outfitters arrived. I was feeling really trepidatious about them, and for good reason. The day after I ordered them, they dropped in price by $10 and two people posted TERRIBLE reviews about them. Anyway. They are here.

How am I feeling about them? I'm not sure.

They're slightly too big for me. The colour is a bit stronger and more beige than nude, I guess?

Maybe they'll grow on me? Maybe I need to bash them with a cricket bat to soften them up a bit? I was very excited at time of ordering because they are by Slow and Steady Wins the Race which I like. Its the first time since January that I have bought flat shoes and its making me go HMMM (I don't know what happened there).

Other things which make me go HMMM:

- 500 Days of Summer. I'm going tonight and am really unsure about whether or not I'll like it. Indie rom-coms = HMMM. Also, watching Joseph Gordon Levitt kiss other girls literally hurts my heart because he should be in my bed, wearing adorable pyjamas, reading the newspaper with me. ME.

- People saying that Pacey looks like a poppy seed bagel. Thats wrong. He looks like a crumple faced pug dog and I mean that in the best possible way.

- Paying $20 to get film developed and put on a DVD. And having to wait a week for it. WTF world?

Also its friggin cold. H8 lyf. Hmm.

yay

Happy weekend!



It's pretty dismal outside, and I've had a pretty dismal week to be honest, but I'm still rather excited about two days off.



There's a music festival tomorrow that I've been rather vague and ambivalent about, much to the chagrin of my enthusiastic friends (one has 11 house guests coming from, another lined up hours for tickets, and all of my workmates under 30 looked positively aghast when I said I'd gotten the weekend off for this but didn't have a ticket and wasn't really in the market for one).

However a ticket has materialised, at the last minute, and now I need to work on turning the ambivalence to enthusiasm. It shouldn't be so hard seeing how little effort I put into this and when I know that it will likely end up being lots of fun...



So rather than being the grinch who stole Parklife, I'm going to do my best to get a decent night's sleep this evening and wake up on the right side tomorrow.



Saving the gumboots for Meredith (which I'm actually quite looking forward to), the question is now of appropriate footwear.

It probably won't look like this.

how embarrassment

One thing that is really good about living in NZ is that you develop a healthy disrespect for celebrities. Its probably because its so small here, that when you see someone who is meant to be famous its also highly likely that you are somehow related to them, or have, like a baby with them. Or pashed them at a party one time. You know.

I've been going through this period where everytime I leave the house, I see some NZ nano-celeb. When this happens I have to text my flatmate Graham, who is the only person I know who cares. He usually says something like "WHAT IS WITH YOU AND THE NANO CELEBS?" and I reply "I don't know, lucky I guess?" and then it basically ends until I get home and give him a blow by blow breakdown of how I saw the celebrity at the checkout at Grey Lynn Foodtown, how they were wearing trackpants and how they looked normal in real life.

In fact, a few of my friends have stories of seeing nano-celebs and actually going out of their way to take the mickey. Like seeing them smoking a ciggarette and yelling "YOU'RE SMOKING THE WRONG STUFF NANO CELEB" or interrupting their participation in a children's triathalon by walking across the starting line just as they're about to yell "GO!". etc. I love my friends.

NZ Fashion week was funny because actual celebrities (Pamela Anderson! Rumi from Fashion Toast! (bracket in bracket - does she count? In NZ she does))came and we tried to play it cool around them. This didn't work with Lord of the Rings and it didn't work this time around. I think that our lassaiz-faire relationship with NZ celebrities just doesn't translate into people who actually, quantifiably, are famous. I remember Rumi coming into some afterparty and there being this rustle of whispers from all the beautiful people there: "just be cool man just be cool".

Anyway. All this was brought on by the fact that the Daily Intel posted a funny story about a Starbucks Barista who made a celebrity faux pas. I read the story. It was funny. Then I read the comments and they were funnier.

For example:

"Okay so I'm at Penn Station (waiting to take the train to DC) when I see Ali Larter. But I don't recognize her (this is pre-Heroes). So I walk up to her and I'm like "Don't I know you?" (because obviously she must be someone I know and not an actress). She smiles and says, "I don't think so." It then hits me that she is an actress and I say, "I'm so sorry. You're an actress aren't you?" And she smiles and says, "Yes." I then go, "What have you been in that I might know?" She's like "Maybe Varsity Blues" and she names some other movies I've never heard of. I'm like "No no that's not it." At this point she's starting to grit her teeth like "Why is she still talking to me." I then say, "I know! 'Drive me Crazy!'" And she's like "Yeah." At this point embarassment finally sets in and I say "Well it was nice to meet you. Have a safe trip.""

I LOVE Drive me crazy. Or:

"i saw ja rule at a bar this past summer. i went up and asked him where he has been for the last four years. he smiled and replied "around, girl, i've been around" to which i responded "well hurry up, we MISS YOU!!"...he just started to laugh and gave me a back pat."


and:

"One time I ended up to William Dafoe on the 1 train. Wasn't sure it was him, didn't really want to stare hard enough to figure it out. Thought "if only I could hear that voice, I would know it was him". Then he got off at the same stop as me and ran across the street next to me. At which point we both almost got run over by a cab coming tearing around the corner. He made the Green Goblin (Spiderman) face and screamed in that voice at the cab. So yes, at the moment I almost died, I realized I almost died next to William Dafoe."

Repeat: Willem Defoe made the Green Goblin (Spiderman) face and screamed in that voice at the cab. Amazing.