It's been too long

OK, I'm a Sofia Coppola addict, i think she's wonderful and her films put forward a strong argument for the existence of auteur theory, so imagine how excited i was to see this pop up on my twitter feed:




Finally a new film. Marie Antoinette came out while i was still in school, I'm now in my second year of university. How long does a girl have to wait?!
Anyway, the trailer doesn't disappoint, it has that Coppola feel, the beautiful shots, the sumptuous settings, and don't even get me started on the soundtrack. The Strokes haven't sounded that good since i was drunk at boarding school! In three words, I. Can't. Wait.


Another trailer released just about half an hour ago (i think this is what they call real-time blogging, ladies and gentlemen) is the first glimpse of Never Let Me Go. Have a look see:



Both of these trailers made me cry. I'm such a girl.

Something that made me especially happy with this film is that Fox Searchlight is marketing it with Carey Mulligan's name rather than Keira Knightley's. I know it's petty, but it does make me smile when the attention goes to the one with the talent rather than the one with the stupid mouth. Also, Andrew Garfield. Yum. He drew my attention away from Heath Ledger in Dr Parnassus, and anyone who could make me draw my gaze away from the last new thing I'll ever see Heath in definitely has something. If you haven't watched Boy A or Red Riding then do yourself a favour and watch them both, completely amazing.


So, after a rather disappointing start to the summer, finally i have some films to look forward to. I'm going to a press junket on Thursday, so expect another film post soon. Until then, i leave you with a little more Andrew. He won a BAFTA, don'tcha know...

This summer, I'll be mostly...

...Dressing like these people.

So, you may or may not be aware that I'm a bit of a fashion blog addict. Not in a sex and the city, gossip girl, devil wears prada sort of way, just in a kind of "i never get out of bed in the morning without spending a good 5 minutes on lookbook.nu" sort of way. I like getting inspiration from what other people are really wearing, and then mixing it with films i've seen or vintage styles.

Anyway. I've decided that this summer, it's all about these 3 looks. I shall be alternating between them until i hate them all.

First, a beautiful shot from The Sartorialist. Now, i love Scott Schuman and everything he stands for, but i rarely get real fashion ideas from his blog, he's a bit too highbrow for me. I love my cut-offs, my ripped jeans and my american apparel. I wish i could afford some of the stuff on his blog, but it's just not a reality. This look, however, i find completely adorable. Yes, the boy being very, VERY cute may have something to do with it, but it's all about the ease of it, the classic striped shirt, the rolled up khakis, the vintage bike. This is a look i can do.

Next, another shot from The Sartorialist, this time from a vintage photo competition he did a couple of months ago. People sent in photos of their relatives, occasionally dating back to the beginning of the last century. With this one, i'm looking at the girl on the left, with the awesome saddle shoes, baggy trousers and little halter top. Such attitude. She knows she's hot, you can see it on her face.

And finally, and i know i mention this film rather a lot, you can never go wrong with 1940s via The Edge of Love. Everything about the costumes in this film is just perfect. Pretty, wearable, a little messy, a little sexy, very, very fun. This is my festival wardrobe, and my picnic wardrobe, and my seducing alcoholic welsh poets wardrobe, and my ...

So yes, a silly post, but i've had these photos on my laptop for a while and i've been meaning to share. I should probably have put in a photo of Matilda from Leon aswell, since i find myself dressing like a pre-teen from the early 90's slightly more often tham may be considered appropriate, but i'll just leave that to your imaginations.

20 Questions

So a bunch of blogs i read have been posting these recently, and being the complete sheep that i am, i thought I'd follow the trend. Hopefully you'll find something interesting or amusing in here to keep you entertained. If not, check back next week when i probably won't be talking about myself.
Here we go:

1. Show us the inside of something cute:

(My immediate thought was of the actual insides of a kitten, but i thought that might be kind of disgusting, so you get the inside of its mouth instead.)

2. What is the last home cooking you had?
I don't cook, but for the past couple of days I've been making toasted chorizo, hummus and peppadew pepper sandwiches. Delicious!

3.What do you miss?

The screaming nipples, Mr Zane Brzezinski and Miss Karima Carter.

4.What makes you laugh often?
My Hideous Housemates.

5.What is your favorite word?
Undulating, or, more generically, Enthusiasm

6.What are you trying to quit?

Procrastinating, which obviously isn't working, since I'm writing my fricking blog instead of writing an essay about the portrayal of adolescence in The Virgin Suicides.

Also, saying "umm.... so, yeah" at the end of every sentence. Bad, bad habit.

7.What is your favorite commercial right now?

I don't have a TV, so i don't really watch adverts, but as far as printed ones go, I love Wispa Gold's campaign, where they let the customers design the posters. Here's a link to the project: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://pepperdigital.typepad.com/.a/6a00e5501aaa2488340120a66f163f970b-320wi&imgrefurl=http://pepperdigital.typepad.com/pepperdigital/2009/11/adverts-that-wispa.html&usg=__H6Tcb38LyHqk7t7Et9hDc2edsVU=&h=246&w=320&sz=13&hl=en&start=19&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=6JCi2TCc9MSPEM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwispa%2Badvert%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1

and an example of the kind of poster, if you can't be bothered to click the link.

Cute, huh?

8.Whose style do you dig?

So many people! A lot of the time it isn't so much about the actual clothes so much as the attitude with which they are worn. Here are some examples.

Penny Lane from Almost Famous. It could be that Kate Hudson is one of the most beautiful people on the planet, but in this movie i think she looks just about perfect. I'm not really about 70s clothing, but the way she wears it, she knows she looks awesome and she doesn't give a damn if you agree or not.

Edie Sedgwick. I know it's a cliche and everyone loves her, but honestly, how could you not. She wears tights and pants as trousers, runs around in her underwear, wears men's clothes, does whatever the hell she wants and always looks awesome. Again, i think not giving a shit what people think of you has a LOT to do with these girls' style personalities.

9.Link to a great blog you discovered recently...

I just found this one today while i was looking for pictures. I think I'm in love. http://champagnesequins.blogspot.com/

Also, my friend Poli's blog totally rocks, and I've only just gone back and read ALL of her posts. Tres cool.

http://pepperminnts.blogspot.com/

10.What's the last craft you made?
Apart from the drawings I've been doing, which I've already posted, probably the last actual crafty creative thing I've done (if it counts) would be directing The Goat. I'm directing a scene from Antigone in a couple of weeks, and i might be making a couple of short films over the holidays, but as far as completed creations go, that probably would be it.

11.A photo of the last happy mail you got.

I very rarely get mail, but every Tuesday and Thursday I get a Graze box, which is a little box of fresh fruit and nuts and organic healthy snacks delivered to my door, which is lovely. If you want a box for free, then go to graze.com and use the code 15Q6W51. It's good, trust me.

12.Something you got lately.
Yesterday, revelling in the fact that i have nothing that i HAVE to read until October, I bought a book. It's called Light Boxes and it's by Shane Jones and it looks like this:

So far I'm enjoying it. It's a little weird, but I like that.

13.What are you looking forward to?
Going to Latitude Festival with my mum. I think it's gonna be super fun, if slightly weird.

14.Post a recent snapshot of yourself:

15.Recent Favorite Movie(s)?

A Single Man, by Tom Ford, is probably the most intense, profound cinema experience I've had in years. I came out of the cinema physically shaking and had to go home without my friends and lay down for a bit to process what I'd just seen. Utterly sublime. This is what cinema is supposed to be. I could list others, but you should watch this one first.

16.Something you are working on right now...

Apart from my essay?! I'm going to propose a production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, to be performed in November, ideally in the meeting house on campus, which has amazing stained glass and a giant cross and a big organ and nice stone floors. I love the idea of doing it in a church, i think it adds a little something, non? Proposals are next week, so I'm getting all the preliminary stuff done now.

Also, I'm doing this scene from Jean Anouilh's Antigone for a collection of mythology shorts which are going on in 2 weeks. It's just a little scene but it'll be nice to direct again, I've been getting withdrawal symptoms.

17.If a movie where made about you, who would play you?

It could only be Natalie.

18.What gives you goosebumps?

I had to touch some baked beans today that fell out of the fridge. One of them fell on my toes and i had to take a shower. Too disgusting.

19.Share a new obsession.

MATTHEW GRAY GUBLER!

This obsession is bordering on the criminal. Since finishing classes 3 weeks ago I've watched almost 3 series of Criminal Minds (I know, I'm a despicable human being, let's leave it for a minute shall me?) and the main, if not only reason, is Goob. I'm so in love with him!

Not only is he disgustingly attractive, but he does other cool stuff too, like directs and illustrates and sings badly and saves kittens from burning buildings and cures cancer. Check out his website, it's amazing:

http://www.matthewgraygubler.com/ (if you click on "web page" it takes you to his blog where you can see more of his drawings.)

I even drew a picture of him. Maybe if you're very lucky I'll show it to you one day.

20.What is the meaning of your life?

The simple answer would be Enthusiasm. There has to be more of it, I try and inject it into everything I do (with varying degrees of success). The meaning of my life? I'm not sure what it means, but I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts, and if i can make life more enjoyable for other people while I'm at it, then i guess that's all good too.

Hope that wasn't too boring for you all. If anything, you have a book to look up, some new blogs to read, and a very sexy man to stalk along with me.
I'll be back to posting random crap not directly associated to me very shortly.

We also create false promises

A couple of amusing Beatles related things for you today.

First off, this rather amazing flow chart, a simple way for any geek to learn the lyrics to one of the classics.

And secondly, an entirely spectacular and completely surreal Bollywood Beatles homage.

His entrance makes me very happy. All that head twitching. (sorry if the right hand side of the video is cut off on your screen, i don't know how to make it small enough to fit, blogger is being awkward.) Gotta learn that dance.

This is what my life is now

I'd be lying if i said i didn't enjoy it, but right now this is just ridiculous.
(click on the image to enlarge it)

Night Draws In.

Hello there. I've been doing some drawing again, so I thought I'd share. The first 2 are basically copying Jason Shawn Alexander, an amazing comic book artist whose work i love, the 2 of the girl are from a Vogue shoot with Pixie Geldof, and the one of The Escapist and Luna Moth hugging is from The Escapists! graphic novel. I'm playing around with my new watercolours and inks, so far nothing too spectacular, but i'm happy enough. Tell me what you think.

I promise i'll never be your friend

This made me laugh a lot. I'm not sure if you have to be a Wes Anderson fan to really get it or if it's funny off its own back. I'm a massive Wes fan and it had me in stitches. Anyway, something to brighten up your Saturday in case it was as rainy and miserable as mine:



I've been doing some drawings today. I'll put up any I'm happy with as soon as I'm done, probably later tonight.
See you then.

so long as there is suffering, there should also be baby elephants.

Wow, it's been a while. How are you all?
This is just a little mini-baby post because i'm bored and felt bad for not writing anything for ages. I'm reading McSweeney's issue 33, which is a newspaper and completely wonderful. It's called the San Francisco Panorama and it has all that McSweeny's goodness, but my favourite part is the Panorama Book Review, which is a supplement magazine and is full of book reviews and little stories and quatrains as filler.

I thought i would share with you a very short story from it, because it makes me laugh.


Witness Protection Bridge, a very short story by Dicky Murphy.

When incriminating evidence was found at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, essentially deep-sixing New York's most powerful crime family, the authorities knew they had a serious problem on their hands. It was one thing to put a rat fink and his family into witness protection. They did it all the time, and it worked. But how would they save the Brooklyn Bridge from the reprisals that were surely in store?
It was the world's most famous bridge. People knew where it lived.
After the Army Corps of Engineers sadly submitted that they couldn't move the now terrified bridge without serious damage, Blank Foster, the head of the FBI. said they'd just do the next best thing. Thus, the following morning, the Brooklyn Bridge was gone. In its place stood a nearly identical bridge, except this one was called the Runyon Bridge, and it was adorned with two additional American flags.
To this day, some still speculate (the indicted mobsters included) that this Runyon Bridge is, in fact, just the Brooklyn Bridge all dolled up like a big old baby.


Wasn't that nice? I hope you enjoyed it.
I'll write more soon, I promise.

Reanimation Sunday

Ok, i know it's very wrong, but when i checked my twitter this morning the amount of zombie jokes just overwhelmed me. I couldn't help but laugh. I've been told to celebrate by watching my favourite zombie movie, but instead i think i'll eat some chocolate and work towards my essay. I'm so good.

Anyway, in the spirit of this rather odd celebration, here's an article by Simon Pegg which makes some valid points, if you're a geek, which i am.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set

I have a soft spot for Dead Set because Simon and I were zombies in it, but it doesn't change the fact that zombies should be slow. I also appreciate the exemption for 28 days later, one of my top 10 films of all time, because i've argued till i'm blue in the face about how its not a zombie movie.

All further proof that Simon Pegg and i should be best friends.
Happy Easter everyone. Hope you don't get eaten.

The Boy With Nails For Eyes

My mum sent me an email the other day with a link to a review of her friend's son's webcomic. I didn't open it until today, when i was chatting to her and she asked if i'd looked. I must be honest, i wasn't expecting to be particularly impressed.

I was wrong to pre-judge.

As the review states, its a masterpiece. Beautifully constructed, well laid out, with great music and well written prose, it really atands apart from pretty much every other web comic i've ever read. The art reminds me of the graphic novel of "M" which i mentioned in a post over a year ago. I really can't fault any of it.

Here's a link to the comic. Its a flash animation, so it might take you a while to load, but its worth the wait.
http://www.basement-garden.co.uk/theboywithnailsforeyes/

and here's a link to the review, because its more informed and eloquent than i am.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-13564-Cleveland-Comic-Books-Examiner~y2010m3d26-Webcomic-Review-The-Boy-with-Nails-for-Eyes

I hope this gets the recognition it deserves, because i really do think it is something special.