he kilt it

for the January issue of Vogue, (i'm assuming American), Sasha Pivovarova was shot with some of the most leading bands and artists of 2009. these are my pick of the bunch:


Chester French

The Horrors

"

Vampire Weekend

Mika

images via

Ohio-based blues/rock band the Black Keys released a rap/rock collaborative album under the name Blakroc, with some of the biggest names in hip-hop, on november the 27th..the project was spearheaded by rapper Jim Jones and also sports contributions from Mos Def, Q-Tip, RZA, Raekwon, Ludacris, Pharoahe Monch, NOE, Nicole Wray, Billy Danze and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard.
BlakRoc sets the drawbridge between forms of expression; Hip Hop and Rock, by doing something as simple as putting the artists of different genres of music in one room and documenting as harmonious collaboration takes place.
i'm a big fan of this great genre-transcending collaboration.




Blakroc - Telling Me Things [feat. RZA]



Blakroc - Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) [feat. Mos Def & Jim Jones]


image via

the following are some words out of a blog that i stumbled across a few months ago. these are my favourite sections from the post:

This is what becomes of profound loss.

The day I heard that Elliott Smith had committed suicide was a day spent in a shock-born fog.

I had just ended a year long relationship with a girl I had fallen hard for. Despite all of the things we shared and how much we knew we loved each other, neither one of us were willing to make the kind of commitment that was necessary to keep the relationship going.
At the time, every word was a document of my pain.
My brother had just sent me a preview of one of his new tracks entitled "A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to Be Free".

Everyone I know can easily make up a list of the acts they have to see before they die.
Mine consisted at one time of David Bowie, Prince, Nirvana, and I have since added Coldplay.
I got to see an amazing three and half hour set by Mr. Bowie at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia in 1997. I was privileged to see his purple badness at the Tower Theatre in Philly in the same year. I still haven't seen Coldplay. And then there's Nirvana. Little did I know that Kurt Cobain and company should have been itemized on a separate list: Acts I have to see before they die. The awfulness of that idea is that unlike aging bands like The Stones and The Who, there are some artists that can be and are taken from us too soon.

I could never speak as eloquently as some about Jeff Buckley or Kurt Cobain. I discovered Jeff, like most people, after his death, and thus the blow was softened by the foreknowledge of his tragedy. Kurt Cobain never spoke to me like he spoke to many people my age and younger. I was not as angry or as alienated as he felt. Don't misunderstand me, I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news of his death, and it did affect me, just not as much as I thought it would have.

There are very few artists who I have been able to relate to through their lyrics.
Although I love R.E.M., most of Stipe's lyrics are a mish-mash of ideas that mean little to anyone but him. Some artists are extremely specific in their choice of words so as to leave little room for interpretation. Others are so vague as to defy true meaning. Good poetry is that which is written to evoke emotion amongst a variety of people. Elliott Smith was just such a poet.

It hurts me to know that he might not have understood just how many people he touched so deeply. Maybe that knowledge would have made a difference. We'll never know. There was a great review in "VH1's 100 Greatest Albums of All Time" book about Jeff Buckley's Grace.
It started by saying (and I'm paraphrasing, sorry) that by merely mentioning the name Jeff Buckley, you can spot fans quickly. They are the ones that get that twinkle in their eye and a sad look on their face at the same time. "They own Grace", it said.

The same is true for Elliott, but not for a particular album. Each fan has his or her favorite song. For me, it's "Pitseleh". For some of my friends, favorites include "Angeles", "Needle in the Hay", "Waltz #2 (XO)", "Miss Misery", "Ballad of Big Nothing", and "Division Day".
If you mention that one song that has touched someone's heart, the twinkle comes to their eye, their head kind of tilts to the side, and they sigh. Elliott has touched them.

'Pitseleh' (lyrics below) means "little one" in Yiddish.

I'll tell you why I don't want to know where you are, I got a joke I've been dying to tell you.
The silent kid is looking down the barrel to make the noise that I kept so quiet. I kept it from you, pitseleh.

I'm not what's missing from your life now, I could never be the puzzle pieces.
They say that god makes problems just to see what you can stand before you do as the devil pleases, and give up the thing you love.
..but no one deserves it.

The first time I saw you, I knew it would never last.
I'm not half what I wish I was.
I'm so angry, I don't think it'll ever pass.
And I was bad news for you, just because.
I never meant to hurt you.

'..cover myself head to toe in body art, plait my hair with jewels and ribbons and be an art therapist somewhere by the sea with 3 or more kids pulling at my sleeves.' - Abbey Lee Kershaw tells i-D Magazine about her aspirations for the future :)


YSL unveils their second edition of New Vintage based on recycling and recuperation. The long lasting fashion under the artistic director of the brand, Stefano Pilati reuses fabrics from past YSL collections and adapts the classic silhouettes with refinement based on his concept for durable fashion.


image via

(i'm on the hunt for a great grey nailpolish)

'sometimes he forgets the simple things, like "please".'

tell me what you know about dreaming ?
you don't really know about nothing.
tell me what you know about them night terrors, every night ?
5 am, cold sweats, waking up to the skies..
tell me what you know about dreams ?
tell me what you know about night terrors, nothing..
you don't really care about the trials of tomorrow.


lanvin spring 2010 rtw:

i am a head-to-toe black convert because of miss kate lanphear

Sparkling Pink Punch

250g punnet strawberries (used 250g frozen mixed berries - blackberries, strawberries, raspberries - bc strawberries had sold out, and no frozen strawberries were available on their own)
1/4 cup raspberry-flavoured vodka (we used vanilla vodka bc it was lying around at home)
2 tblsps lime juice
2 cups ice cubes
300g frozen raspberries
2 limes, thinly sliced
750ml chilled bottle Jacob's Creek Sparkling Moscato Rose NV
1.25L chilled bottled soda water

(Sugar Syrup:)
1 cup caster suger
1 cup water

1. To make sugar syrup, combine sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stir over a low heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil. Remove from heat. Refrigerate until cold.

2. Remove and discard stems from strawberries. Finely chop strawberries. Place in a large serving jug with cold sugar syrup, vodka and juice. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.

3. Before serving, add ice cubes, raspberries and limes. Slowly add moscato and soda water. Stir gently to combine. Serve punch in glasses.

Punch can be prepared up to the end of step 2, up to one day ahead. Keep it covered in the fridge.




SO. GOOD. and so easy, both to make and to down. :)

i’m pretty sure that when a baby is born, the doctor informs the mother whether or not their child is a mere mortal or a paris vogue.

^ screen shots from Dappled Cities' The Price music video. just remembered the warm golden quality of this clip this morning while voting for Triple J's annual Hottest 100 poll. and i'm glad i did. god i love anything that vaguely resembles fairy lights..and the lightbulbs as microphones was a great late addition.

my chosen songs for the 2009 Triple J Hottest 100:

1.Andrew Bird - Oh No
2.Bloc Party - One More Chance
3.Cold War Kids - Audience
4.Dappled Cities - The Price
5.John Steel Singers - Luxembourg
6.Jonathan Boulet - A Community Service Announcement
7.Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension
8.Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
9.Temper Trap, The - Love Lost
10.Tim & Jean - Come Around
 
for a long time i considered voting for Paul Dempsey. he's had a fairly large impact on my musical upbringing, due to my sister's and the radio's heavy heavy airplay during primary/early highschool. but that was while he was a part of Something for Kate, and not off on his own solo tangent. when i was younger, i guess about 10-6 years ago, i absolutely hated him. i hated Monsters, the only song that i ever really listened to of SFK's at the time. i hated him, because he was different to what i was used to, and now that's what i love most about that group and Paul. but his album didn't prove to be as life-changing as i had expected this year, so he made it only to my shortlist.

my inspiration for and way of voting in the Hottest 100 is not necessarily the songs that i've just ~liked throughout the year so much..because there's far too many of those..
but i tend to instead vote for the songs that have opened my mind to an issue or have lyrically (or musically, or anything else-ly) brought something new to the table.
i like to also bring forth personal snapshots and moments in 2009 that were accompanied by a song or two.
so the artists that have done something entirely new and inspiring in my eyes, i vote for.
if i have spent a special moment in the company of a song and it brings me big de ja vu..then i also often vote for that song.
theres a whole heap of reasons behind my particular votes and way of culling songs off the shortlist (i always ALWAYS end up with eleven absolutely perfect, votable, songs..but ten can only go through..)
..but,what im trying to really get across is that i try not to vote for songs that have just tickled my fancy thoughout the year gone by, - although there is absolutely nothing wrong with that..that's what the poll is is for, after all, - but in my case, and more so because i need a system that allows me to narrow down the shortlist to just ten songs....i vote for songs that go that little bit further to fight for my attention :).

songs that so narrowly did not make the cut this year:
Juan Maclean, The - One Day
Local Natives - Camera Talk
Tame Impala - Sundown Syndrome
Art Vs Science - Parlez Vous Francais?
Hungry Kids Of Hungary - Scattered Diamonds
Seth Sentry - The Waitress Song
Yves Klein Blue - Getting Wise
King Creosote - Coast On By
Florence & The Machine - Dog Days Are Over
Paul Dempsey - Ramona Was A Waitress
(i thought A Day To Remember might have had a few songs in there..because i'm pretty sure that they had a 2009 release ? or maybe it was last year..the two years have really moulded into one, due to school. i would have liked to have voted for them though, but no major harm done.)



^ Cold War Kid's EP 'Behave Yourself' is due for release early next year..the short clip below is a teaser..

i actually get butterflies whenever i listen to Audience, the first track featured in the video, as well as for We Used to Vacation. that was the first track that i heard by the group..and intially introduced me to their music.
Cold War Kids and Editors are the two artists that i crave to see live, more than anyone or anything else.
theyre almost the only two groups that make me feel exactly the same each time i hear their music as i did the first time that i listened to them two and  three years ago.
they make me smile, they make me cry, and they bring back incredibly de ja vu of books i was reading at the time of first hearing them, where i was standing when i first listened to certain tracks and so many other pockets of my life that i would have gone forgotten if not for their music.
the honesty in their words and music is never lost in translation.



Strength is so important.
I like to be different in my own quiet way.
My inspiration is the person I want to be.
You have to be able to find beauty in the mundane and to see your reflection in a mudpuddle.

There was a great tenderness to the sadness
when I would go there. She knew how much
I loved my wife and that we had no future.
We were like casualties helping each other
as we waited for the end. Now I wonder
if we understood how happy those Danish
afternoons were. Most of the time we did not talk.
Often I took care of the baby while she did
housework. Changing him and making him laugh.
I would say Pittsburgh softly each time before
throwing him up. Whisper Pittsburgh with
my mouth against the tiny ear and throw
him higher. Pittsburgh and happiness high up.
The only way to leave even the smallest trace.
So that all his life her son would feel gladness
unaccountably when anyone spoke of the ruined
city of steel in America. Each time almost
remembering something maybe important that got lost.
- 'Trying to have something left over', Jack Gilbert


image via

(we think there's probably free wine.)

cliche disregarded

relevant..thanks alicia:

giving up what seems your lifetime, what went wrong with something once so good ?
how do you find the words to say..to say goodbye, when your heart don't have the heart to say goodbye ?
i know now i was naive..never knew where this would lead.

was it something wrong that we did ? ..because others infiltrated.

is this the end ? are you sure ?
how should you know when you've never been here before ?
it's so hard to just let go.

irrelevant..but oh so thoroughly appreciated, thanks Elbow:

How dare the Premier ignore my invitations ? he'll have to go.
so, too, the bunch he luncheons with; it's second on my list of things to do.
at the top is stopping by your place of work and acting like i haven't dreamed of you and i and marriage in an orange grove.
you are the only thing in any room you're ever in.
i'm stubborn, selfish and too old.

i sat you down and told you how the truest love that's ever found
was for oneself. you pulled apart my theory with a weary and disinterested sigh.
so yes i guess i'm asking you to back a horse that's good for glue and nothing else. but find a man that's truer than, find a man that needs you more than i.

sit with me a while and let me listen to you talk about your dreams and your obsessions. i'll be quiet and confessional.
the violets explode inside me when i meet your eyes,
then i'm spinning and im diving lke a cloud of starlings.

darling, is this love ?

your one and only source into the scandalous lives of manhattan's elite

there are songs that make us want to dance, songs that make us want to sing along,
but the best songs are the ones that bring you back to the moment you first heard them,
and once again,
break your heart.

at least be consistent with your shit grammar

if youre going to put in apostrophes in a word just because it's a plural, then at least do it to every word that is a plural in your chunk of text or sentence.
if youre going to use the wrong use of 'your/youre' or 'their/there/theyre' then at least use the same wrong one each time.

i mean, cmon. seriously.

this time, baby, i'll be mullet-proof/refined minimalistic tendancies

oh for god's sake, feel free to cry with me as i link & bask in green-skinned celebration of the decade of the fashn bloggr..:

free comme,
free rodarte,
free miu miu and more,
free herff christiansen,
free etsy gifts,
free tickets (with a thousand complimentary gifts) to celebrity-flocked exclusive events and parties,
magazine and editorial features + collaboratory projects with designers,

i am to: thrift more men's button-downs that i can just wear with jeans or a maxi-skirt (that i also want to acquire a whole heap of)..
= all very slouchy and casually comfortable-looking, & with nice clean lines, most likely in restrained colours; mostly black, grey and white..
i'm aiming to sort of tap into 90's minimalism in fashion more through mixing more tailored, narrow, fitted skirts that falls to the ankles or a little lower that i can dress up, or just wear casually with jackets or drapey cardies..it's just going to be hard finding opportunities to wear these - i guess mostly just shopping/jobs around town/having coffees & catch-ups ? lucky the weather's been reallllly cold lately..



'Hemlines are like the economy, so much so that the correlation between the two has been coined "the hemline theory."
Dresses and skirts rose to thigh-high proportions in the '20s and the '60s, just as the stock market took a turn for the better. And now, with the economy on shaky ground, the Spring/Summer runways saw the comeback of the maxi skirt. More than just a signal of a conservative market, however, this influx of long skirts seems to be a declaration that showing less leg might actually have more of an impact.'
- Meredith Fisher.

'and there were more formal varieties at Marni and Roksanda Ilincic, both designers who have the ability to take less-than-sexy shapes and make them feminine.
but it was Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel who proved that long does not equal conservative, showing just as much leg as a mini with his sheer skirts.
Vera Wang, traditionally known for her evening dresses, pared things down this season, by pairing up big, patterned skirts with silk shirts, fit for a formal.'

- maxi column skirts
- 'safety orange', 'peacock blue'
- Vera Wang resort 2010
- sew crop tops

'the Dark 90s were not only associated with heroin chic but with 90’s minimalism too, when women wore clean lined dresses, oversized tuxes, pin-thin pants, pencil skirts and scalpel sharp jackets.
this trend was skillfully evoked at the Narciso Rodriguez, Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander, Michael Kors, Rick Owens, Roland Mouret, Bottega Veneta, Donna Karan and YSL shows.'

- tube skirts, often paired with long blazers
- & crop tops
- & doc martens

'this is a look that can become a mainstay in your wardrobe for everything from work to cocktails, season to season, if you are looking for an investment. ..there were also some great new photographers like corinne day, juergen teller, david armstrong and david sims just to name a few, who really modernized the face of fashion editorials and campaigns.'



(let's be in love..let's do old and grey.)

all i really enjoy about the Twilight series is the weather in Forks and the choice of soundtrack/s

i stumbled across a fantastic song that i hadn't heard before on the radio earlier today when i was driving..i always seem to listen to songs more when i'm driving or just lying around being a bit actively minimalistic.
i guess that's mostly just due to the fact that in those situations my brain is seemingly empty..or emptier

(also, i really like the way that when its raining and i'm driving with music on, it seems as if those songs are a soundtrack to my life..at that point in time. it's like i'm in a movie and at that point all noise is silent other than that song. it's hard to describe, but for some reason the outside world only ever seems to be muted to me when the weather is grey.)

and so the words to the song..:
have you ever had a day that you wanted to erase ? tear the page out of the history books and try again..but you knew that you couldn’t so you put on a brave face and waited until you could make your mistake. and when you finally got away from people and their gossip and their judgement and their gaze, you let your guard down and so you just gave.
all of a sudden, tears are falling til theyre running down your face, whatever it was; you fought with your friend, or your boss, or maybe you got a heart that won't mend..or you're struggling with the rent or missing someone you lost, or maybe you're just tired of pretending.
you feel the weight like a pain in your chest, you're straining, you're breaking, you're aching, you sob. and its great til it stops, til it fades, til its gone, like the tears sort of washed it all away.
sometimes i like to think it’s the same with drops of rain. each one is just a tear falling off of God’s face; sitting all alone in the clouds, looking down on us all, watching every mistake that was ever made. every bit of pain, every murder, every rape, every person that’s having a shitty day..taking it all in til he breaks down and cries, til his eyes dry up and he gets on with it again.
i had this very faith tested on an ordinary day, i was walking down a busy street around my way. i saw a face in the crowd, my heart skipped a beat, a man who looked exactly like an older version of me.
so i moved through the hustle and the bustle of the day-to-day until me and this man stood face to face. we locked eyes and for a moment of time moving slow-motion as the crowd around continued on their paper chase. i stood frozen in disbelief and opened my mouth to speak. to my surprise the words wouldn't come.
then he looked into the clear blue sky up above, and said, ‘it's gonna rain’..and then it does.
and as the rain came down like missiles from the sky set on a collision course from the heavens to the ground, he’s just standing in the middle of it all, unconcerned by the panic and the people running round. so i stepped to this man with my hand outstretched just to offer him some help to get this storm up off his head.
he took my hand down and we stood getting drenched. he looked me in the eyes with a smile, this is what he said;
'hush child, from the joy to the pain, it’ll all wash away in the rain.'
so play this song on the days when the rain keeps on and you wait and you pray it’ll stop, and if youre stuck in a storm this very second from the thought that we’re all at the mercy of the gods.
so instead of looking for somewhere to place the blame, aceept it as a part of that big lazy 8. go outside and stand under the clouds and embrace it as the rain keeps plummeting down, and say;
'hush child, from the joy to the pain, it’ll all wash away in the rain.'
from the million dollar brands to the tags on the train, it’ll all wash away in the rain. from the birth to the dirt-man; the training to the grave, it'll all wash away in the rain. what’s been and gone will come again, it’ll all wash away in the rain. so, hush child, from the joy to the pain, it’ll all wash away in the rain.

- i really love the reference to 'lazy 8'..which i'm assuming is speaking about the infinity sign, which is an 8 on its side..so as far as i can gather, i think it's talking about the way that no matter what happens at any point in time, things are just going to keep on going and going and going..to embrace what happens and really take a step back to see if all of the stress is reaaally worth it.


(taken from Ashley + MK's fashion line, The Row - image via)

i've been reading Breath by Tim Winton lately, and it's not a terrible book..but not my favourite. i feel, like most books, that the way it's written..the wording and technical, structural, side of things..doesn't stretch my brain at all. but i do like, from what i've read so far, the idea of the story behind it. i've learnt a lot about surfing..not just the physical but mental challenges that are involved in the sport(?).
that idea reminds me of Bryce Courtenay's The Power of One.
what i found the most interesting about that novel was the way that a first-hand depiction of boxing was illustrated on a really in-depth level. like Breath with surfing, The Power of One broke down all societal-ly perceived barriers that had, to me, previously existed in terms of boxing and the somewhat stigma that is attached to it. simply because of these two texts, surfing and boxing now appear to me as artforms..there is an entirely mental and psychological preparation behind those two acts that i had never stepped back to consider.
in The Power of One, for example, the main character is always being told to act, when boxing, first with his head and then with his heart. it speaks of boxing as this great art that doesn't just involve theory and thought processes, but something much much deeper.
i again find books and movies and people's stories and new experiences so so important in our lives, brains need to be stretched, eyes opened, perceived ideas extended.
i respect and am so intrigued by that.

(8): Jackson Jackson - The Devil in Me
Thom Yorke- Hearing Damage

god, Editors. i think they're going to be my loved group til i'm grey and old.