yes, some more book excerpts

Oscar Wilde – the Picture of Dorian Gray:
'the artist is the creator of beautiful things. to reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. the critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. the highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.
those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. this is a fault.
those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. for these there is hope.
they are the elect to whome beautiful things mean only Beauty.
there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. books are well written, or badly written. that is all. the nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
the moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. no artist desires to prove anything. even things that are true can be proved.
no artist has ethical sympathies. an ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
no art is ever morbid. the artist can express everything. thought and language are the artist instruments of an art. vice and virtue are to the artist materials of an art. from the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. from the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type. all art is at once surface and symbol. those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. those who read the symbol do so at their peril. it is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. when critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.
we can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. the only excuse for making a useless things is that one admires it intensely.
all art is quite useless.'
– p3

'why, my dear Basil, he is a Narcissus, and you – well, of course you have an intellectual expression, and all that. but beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. the moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. how perfectly hideous they are! except, of course, in the Church. but then in the Church they don’t think. a bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful.'
– p6

'there is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. it is better not be different from one’s fellows. the ugly and the stupid have the best of it in the world. they can sit at their ease and gape at the play. if they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. they live as we all should live, undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. they neither bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are – my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray’s good looks – we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.'
– p7

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Cormac McCarthy – The Road:
(REVIEWS)
emotionally shattering..The Road affirms belief in the tender pricelessness of the here and now. in creating an exquisite nightmare, it does not add to the cruelty and ugliness of our times, it warns us now how much we have to lose.. beauty and goodness are here aplenty and we should think about them. while we can. – Alan Warner, Guardian

nameless they remain, but some connective tissue, some deep sympathy, makes them human and knowable to us, causes us to care almost beyond bearing about their fates, and so makes us read on compulsively for feat of what might happen to them. and us.
- Clive Sinclair, Independent

Cormac McCarthy’s new novel, conjuring up the end not of an individual but of all humanity, feels very real. part of the achievement of The Road is its poetic description of landscapes from which the possibility of poetry would seem to have been stripped, along with their ability to support life.
– Adam Mars-Jones, Observer

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Siegmund Siegreich – The Thirty Six:
‘i now understand,’ my mother whispered. ‘it was divine intervention.’
she nodded her head. 'the man was a Lamed Vav.’
according to Kabbalah, in each generation there are thirty-six righteous people who sustain the world and preserve humanity. the term ‘Lamed Vav’ is two Hebrew letters that represent the number 36. these people are frequently unknown and obscure but they bear all of the sorrows and sins of the world. they also appear and help ordinary people in times of extreme need. their deeds are often unrecognise and unexplained. if i wasn’t convinced that this was how i came to be saved, my mother certainly was.
– p39

i think that the lengthy sections at the end of this post are so important to read; i hope it broadens your perspective..

(www.kwangholee.com)

'if anyone has taught me a valuable lesson in what it means to be beautiful since i first moved to New York, it's my friend Francisco Costa. as Creative Director of Calvin Klein's women's collection for the past five years, Francisco drives home a clear message with his designs that applies to so many aspects of my life: Less is more. he breaks complicated ideas down to their bare bones - and always with stunning results.
when i turned eighteen and i began to understand my own stylistic choices, Francisco took over the reins at Calvin Klein Collection, so i think it's safe to say that he and i are kindred fashion spirits. i've been wearing his designs to everything from casual dinners with friends to art openings ever since. the man understands tailoring. one of my favourite pieces is a long t-shirt dress that wraps around your body like tissue paper. Francisco manages to execute the most simple of designs in the most creative ways.' - AO


(www.mischertraxler.com)

'i'm twenty-one and i'm trying to run The Row. i'm learning as i go because i've never done any of this before. it's all new to me. so it's just a huge learning process. i don't read any magazines. i really just try to stay in my world and figure out what i want, what makes me happy. i've got to trust my instincts. i really try to block out all the media and all the press, magazines, everything. at the end of the day i'm with myself, and i feel like that's the way i've been able to move forward. block out the nasty things. apart from my friends like you whose shows i go to, i try not to go to too many shows, or else my focus kind of wanders off into places where other people are going.' - AO


(www.fredrikfarg.com)

what is your favourite occupation? 'not having one, being a Gemini.'
what is your dream of happiness? 'i don't understand the question.'
what is your favourite flower? 'moss, and black magic roses.'
what is your favourite bird? 'black crows, ravens.'
how would you like to die? 'in your arms.'
what is your present state of mind? 'sarcastic.' - MKO

what to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes? 'death.'
who are you favourite poets? 'Freud.'
who are you heroes in real life? 'DVF, Lauren Hutton, Anna Wintour, and of course - Mum.'
what is it you most dislike? 'bullshit.' - AO



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Slouching Towards Windjana:
'on 25 April 1915, when Australian and New Zealand troops landed on a Turkish beach in an attempt to capture the Gallipoli peninsula, a key location in Britain’s strategy during World War I, hundreds of young men were mown down by well-fortitifed Turks shooting from the cliffs. we commemorate this slaughter every Anzac Day. we also commemorate the end of that war, with a minute’s silence at eleven AM on 11 November, Armistice Day. but we don’t have a day to commemorate all those Australians who died not in distant countries fighting the battles of others, but on their own soil, defending the country of their ancestors.
at school we learnt about Burke and Wills, Leichardt, Eyre, Wentworth, Blaxland and Lawson – brave and sometimes blinkered explorers who ‘opened up’ the country for cattle, sheep, crops and the telegraph. we didn’t learn about the massacres, poisonings and battles that occurred as the country was ‘settled’. nor did we learn about the Aboriginal resistance fighters – Pemulwuy, Jandamarra, Windradyne, Yagan, Calyute, Dundalli and others. the natives were ‘subdued’, or somehow vanished, we were taught, yielding passively to a more advanced civilisation. it was simply ‘inevitable’. today many people still say that Australia became a nation without bloodshed.
in the early eighties i came across a book called The Other Side of the Frontier, written by historian Henry Reynolds, which painted a picture of Australian history i hadn’t seen before. in it he demonstrated that the first Australians responded in many varied and creative ways to the coming of the Europeans. sometimes accommodating, sometimes resisting. he made the case that, wherever the terrain allowed it, they had fought fiercely for their land. guerilla warefare, naturally, was more effective and prolonged in hilly country than on the plains. he also argued that because the early colonial governors were under clear instructions to ‘treat the natives peaceably’, they omitted detailed descriptions of hostilities, punitive expeditions and battles from the official record. they couldn’t say they were at war.
in this manner, Australian history developed amnesia – what anthropologist W.H. Stanner called ‘the great Australian silence’. America had its Geronimos and Sitting Bulls. New Zealand had reams of scholarship on the Maori wars. but in Australia, the blacks who used to live where our cities now stand simply ‘melted away’.
Reynold’s book shook the scales from my eyes. reading it, i remembered my brother Tony’s best friend growing up. his skin was as black as night but his parents were white. Jonathan had exceptionally good manners and spoke in a toffy English accent which we used to make fun of, but apart from that i didn’t take much notice of him.
from many others i met on my travels over the years i learnt a whole other view of the world. of growing up not knowing who or where your parents were, of massacre sites remembered and avoided, of brothers who drank themselves to death, of sisters gone missing, of nephews hanging from a rope, of a thousand little slights, of not being able to get a taxi to stop at night, of pride of survival, of deep and abiding ties to a country, of songs going back thousands of years, and of celebration of heroes past and present.
i read other books. Eric Wilmot wrote a novel based on the life of Pemulwuy, who fought on behalf of the Eora people around Sydney. one phrase in that book has always stayed with me – ‘a strange hissing tongue.’ this is how the English language first strikes Pemelwuy, whose language didn’t use ‘s’.'
– p256, Paul Kelly - How to Make Gravy

Newspaper Song:
we have amade a successful start. when the nuclear tests are completed, as they soon will be, we shall be in the same position as the United States or Soviet Russia. we shall have made and tested the massive weapons. it will be possible then to discuss on equal terms. – Harold Macmillan, UK Prime Minister.
'when Britain used Australian soil and Australian people to conduct nuclear testing during the 1950s and ‘60s, our Prime Minister Robert Menzies, a confirmed Anglophile, gave the Brits his government’s complete support. in 1956 and ’57 a series of nuclear bombs were dropped in South Australia’s desert country. the site they chose, Maralinga, was part of the restricted area the British had claimed a decade before for the Woomera rocket tests. it was supposed to be unoccupied land, but for thousands of years it had been home to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people.
security at the test sites was nonchalant and many Australian serviceman were exposed to radiation. the testing-range boundaries weren’t properly monitored and people were allowed to walk in and out as they pleased. plane patrols were sent out before a blast to make sure the area was clear, but the locals hid from them. warning signs were put up in English, which they could not read.
Yami Lester, a Yankunytjatjara spokesperson and negotiator, wrote in the prologue of his autobiography:
‘when i was a young boy living in the desert, the ground shook and a black mist came up from te south and covered our camp. the older people said they’d never seen anything like it before, and in the months that followed many people were sick and many died. i don’t like to think about it now, but one of those people was my uncle, and he was very sick before he died.
people had sore eyes too. i was one of those people, and later on i lost my sight and my life was changed forever. if i had my eyes, i would probably still be a stockman. because i haven’t, i became a stirrer.’
like many Australians, i didn’t know of those events until almost thirty years later when Judge Jim McClelland was appointed to conduct a royal commission into what happened. McClelland went to England, where he interviewed the commanders in charge of Operation Buffalo, as the initial major tests were codnamed. Air Vice Marshal Menaul said, ‘we got on very well with the Aborigines. we gave them beads. we gave them mirrors.’ McClelland also went out to the lands north of the bomb site, where many survivors were living, and asked more questions. I read about all this in an article written by Bob Ellis for the now defunct National Times in May 1985.
Yami Lester’s haunting story and calm demeanour made a strong impression on the commission and its entourage. Ellis wrote: ‘the evidence that day..grew in the mind like science fiction. first there were the two big bangs. we thought it was the Great Water Snake, loudly digging holes, as was his custom. we wore no clothes in that old time. and then the Poilu, the Black Mist, rolling, oily, sticky, like black frost came. very wide it was, low on the ground..’
amidst the dust, heat and the remorseless flies, more gruelling testimony, some of it told in secret session, was recorded.
Jim, under a blue plastic shelter, heard the worst story of all – of Edie Millipuddy camping with her husband on the bomb crater itself, being captured by men in white uniforms, forcibly and obscenely washed down, miscarrying twice and losing her husband, who to prove to the soldiers he knew English, sang ‘Jesus loves me, this i know, for the Bible tells me so.’ and how the soldiers shot their beloved, irradiated hunting dogs.'
– p303, PK - HtMG

love is giving your last Rolo, evol is love backwards, i will always love you, what is love? baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more, love will tear us apart

Introduction by Margaret Atwood:
'in the latter half of the twentieth century, two visionary books cast their shadows over our futures. one was George Orwell's 1949 novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, with its horrific vision of a brutal, mind-controlling totalitarian state - a book that gave us Big Brother, and thoughtcrime and Newspeak and the memory hole and the torture palace and the Ministry of Love, and the discouraging spectacle of a boot grinding into the human face forever.
the other was Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), which proposed a different and softer form of totalitarianism - one of conformity achieved through engineered, bottle-grown babies and hypnotic persuasion rather than through brutality; of boundless consumption that keeps the wheels of production turning and of officially enforced promiscuity that does away with sexual frustration; of a pre-ordained caste system ranging from a highly intelligent managerial class to a subgroup of dim-witted serfs programmed to love their menial work; and of soma, a drug that confers instant bliss with no side effects.'
- pVII, Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

i saw ‘blame’ spray-painted onto an otherwise blank brick laneway wall one afternoon in 2010

Crying Really Impresses My Parents - CRIMP / fashion isn’t synonymous with style any more / she paints again – i’m glad she left you / you're painfully cool / the arch in your eyebrows / i would have been Judas / accessibility lacks interest / the standard pose, the standard prose / said by someone who feels old and compromised / i hate people who remind me of myself / savage body / a museum gala where high cheekbones and higher hemlines rule / bad grammar makes me [sic] / good shit just gravitates to you like you have your own personal orbit and also you are a flaming ball of bitchface / i believe in Please and Thankyou / i believe in good fonts / just like any woman, we weave our stories out of our bodies / you have your own life, now



'wow, sounds like everybody has a massive case of Tall Poppy Syndrome. you used to like these guys when they were Indie, right? its just when the Pop Kids on Nova started liking them that you all got a bit uncomfortable with the idea.' / 'c'mon guys, stop dissing Kings of Leon. its not like Achey Brakey Heart came in at #90!'
– Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time

'Anglo-Saxons consider themselves ‘normal’ and are thus without an ethnicity..for some reason, Balkan Muslims aren’t exotic enough either.'
- Stuff White People Like (Melbourne version)

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'i was burgled. they stole my valuable possessions but also my sense of security and trust in others. i was also, for the first time in my life, poor. then i won five grand. so that's nice.'
'its not every day you get to turn down the highest judge in the land for a job interview.
(a) - i probably wouldn't have got the gig. they interview geniuses, Oxford grads, PhD students, professional researches, real live scholars - deep thinkers with work ethics that'd put mine (Jewish as it is) to shame. the applicants would all be of the highest callibre. i'm good. but i'm no savant.
(b) - i've decided on my course for next two years and it doesn't involve Canberra.
(c) - i think one year of being a researcher will suffice. i don't think i need another. research is lonely.'
- enjosephine.blogspot.com

'but it's been so long that i forgot how to fix it.
i read a psychological study years ago that stated a high correlation between cityfolks with exposed brick in their apartments and overall feelings of contentedness. but correlation aint causation. so let me tell you a little something about my winter - it's cold, it's good, it's a little nervous. someone said the theme of this year should be decadence and i agree. i like winter best, i'm a winter creature, i like wearing more clothes and i hate sweat. i like seeing my breath. wearing big coats makes me feel tough and Eastern European, i like to think of everything in cyrillic and all us humans just crazy enough to brave it these few months. i like how awake the cold makes me feel. i like how the city smells clean this once each year. i like the dry sidewalks like we're in the tundra, in a cold desert where everything just rattles and everything is hard surfaces. cities are meant for the winter and so am i.'
- antifakersclub.blogspot.com

a haggared re-representation of my birthday outfit

dress by FCUK (2-3 sizes too big, belted. it was the last on the rack and i couldn't imagine leaving it behind, so oversized had to do. the sequins mean business - its weight is about equivalent to my own), shoes by Witchery, socks from travels in Turkey

'Pisces is the Sign of Dreams and Secrets; it represents much that is hidden, both strengths and enemies. Aries is the Sign of new beginnings. those born under this Sign may be fascinated with dreams and dream interpretation.
like the popular conception of the Ram, Aries are able to accomplish a lot by sheer energy and force of will, 'ramming' their way to their goals. in this way, Aries exemplifies the Cardinal quality assigned to it. Pisces, on the other hand, can be indirect and unfocused. Pisceans don't have a strong agenda; they tend to go with the flow and move where life takes them. in this way, Pisces exemplifies the Mutable quality assigned to it. Pisces/Aries are unique in the sense that they are the chameleons of the Zodiac, receptive to the needs of others, but also tending to be about self and ego rather than the balance between people. however, they are not loners.
Aries is ruled by the Planet Mars. in ancient Roman mythology, Mars (and his Greek equivalent, Ares) was the god of war. he was bold, aggressive, energetic and courageous. Mars was active and high-spirited, full of physical energy and vitality. Aries or Aries Cusp-born reflect Mars's leadership and initiative. Pisces/Aries Cusp individuals are adept at taking the ball and running with it, and projects tend to progress quickly under their guidance. a well-run project may become boring for these chameleon-like folks; they can lack follow-through and lose interest before the project is completed. they are idealistic, but sometimes their dreams are vague and impractical. when reality intrudes, they can become pessimistic or lethargic, but they are very adaptive and broad-minded so they can rework their ideals when necessary.'

'for the entirety of 2010, i worked forty hours per week in a mind-numbing job; leaving little time for creative indulgence and transforming my outlook into one of drained pessimism. the break from academic thought did, however, force extensive self-evaluation. i observed similarities between my own values and experiences and those of creative professionals – namely, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez; the creative minds behind American luxury fashion label Proenza Schouler – whom had successfully battled through tedious periods of their career (such as global economic uncertainty), as this mirrored my own life at the time.
while the prestige of Parsons School of Design would have undoubtedly aided the propelling of Proenza Schouler’s name and work out into the industry, there is a level of sincerity to the label’s sustained success that opened my eyes to the realisation that a career in fashion design is an actual possibility. having come from an upbringing of realists and a certain sense of practicality, this was a pivotal turning point.
the success of McCollough and Hernandez, at such a young age, is something that i continually reflect on for reassurance.
Hernandez once noted a coming-of-age that was experienced during the development of their brand. “we’re [McCollough and himself] growing up and we’re going through life and experiencing all these different things. it is very much a creative process. we can’t help but be influenced by our experiences.” i similarly experienced a period of maturing over the last twelve months, though perhaps on a comparatively minute scale, and observed a resulting subconscious refinement of my personal design aesthetic.
the Career Storm module highlighted that some of my key intrinsic motivations are determination, independence and a desire for recognition of my work. Proenza Schouler is a very hands-on, self-reliant label, and so we evidently share a number of underlying values. for example, McCollough and Hernandez have never relied upon advertising; the first ever editorial produced was for the season of Spring/Summer 2011 – almost a decade after the launch of the brand. similarly, nearly all of the design work is completed by the two designers. within these finer details, there is a continuous celebration of the independence of the brand.
i design more or less out of necessity as i can very rarely find garments available to my budget and locale that are of an acceptable level of quality and body-awareness (in terms of a flattering fit). i therefore admire that the longevity of Proenza Schouler’s success is based purely on the merit of the attention paid to the brand’s customer base and the conspicuous level of craftsmanship to the garments; a distinct attention to detail in tailoring that is always partnered with a signature youthful slouch and ease.
André Leon Talley claimed that McCollough and Hernandez “are not just stylists. their greatest strength is their appreciation of the construction of clothes: the tailoring, the linings, the seams—all are done perfectly, and that’s what makes them great.”
“when we started designing, it was that whole deconstruction thing. we thought, anyone can do that. we've been in school for four years. we know what construction is”
it is the range of shared characteristics between myself, and Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, that has encouraged and inspired me to study within the Creative Industries – and to aspire to my dream career of fashion design. if i had not come across the young American luxury label, there is a large chance that i would not have been propelled into a career that is truly a personal and informed choice.' - pissy 500 word assessment #234234234.

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(i) i really hope that this transitional age from being a teenager to adulthood is absolutely fantastic and beautiful for you. i also hope that tonight is a good indication of how marvellous the rest of 2011 is going to be. enjoy the book pretty lady.

(ii) i hope you're having a wooonderful day, very excited to get fruity on Saturday night. so glad you are now living in this city with me, its totally where we belong.

(x) i hope the course is all you wish for. follow your dreams and make sure you succeed. take every opportunity that comes your way. your future is now in your hands! we will all miss you - it has been lovely to share the past year with you as you have matured into a wonderful young lady. remember, to always think for yourself and not be led by others around you. always keep the consequences of your actions in your mind. take care, have fun + stay safe.

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listening to: Dave Matthews.

forever relevant

'a billion people died on the news tonight, but not so many cried at the terrible sight.
Mama said, 'it's just make believe, you can't believe everything you see so Baby close your eyes to the lullabies on The News tonight.'

who's the one to decide that it would be alright to put the music behind the news tonight?
Mama said 'you can't believe everything you hear. the diegetic world is so unclear, so Baby close your ears.'
the unobtrusive tones on the news tonight.

why don't the Newscasters cry when they read about people who die? at least they could be decent enough to put just a tear in their eyes.

chopper

i received a beautifully wrapped pair of Acne Chopper suede moccasins in the mail this morning, they are everything that i had hoped they would be !



i probably should have ordered one size up, as they were a little bit toe-crunching at the start, but i think the main reason for the restriction was the armoured areas above the toes. i have worn them to lectures all day and they really are comfortable.