Listen up!

Love is a mixtape.

Songs are so emotive, bringing back memories every time you listen back on a favourite track. The boys that have made me mix tapes have always made me so happy. When I had a tapedeck in my car I listened to tapes over and over and loved every second of it. On Christmas my friend introduced me to 8tracks- an online platform for creating mixtapes, ever since I have spent hours listening to mixtapes and creating my own. Ther rules are that they have to be at least 8 tracks long and only contain two songs by the same artist.

8tracks believes handcrafted music programming trumps algorithms. Think radio in the 1970s, mixtapes in the 1980s, and DJ culture of the 1990s through today. DJs share their talent in taste making, providing exposure for artists. Listeners get a unique blend of word-of-mouth sharing and radio programming — long the trusted means for music discovery — on a global scale.

Here are some of my favourite mix's so far: >the mix tape from 500 days of summer, some excellent covers, songs for waking up in his arms

AND if you want to listen to me and LC

meow

8 1/2

Hollywood has such a bad habit of taking something which is good and twisting it, squishing it and pummeling it until it fits into the dvd case of a Hollywood film. Don't get me wrong, Hollywood has changed the way that film is made and seen. It is a cultural institution of the highest value (please take with a grain of salt). The problem is that not only have they changed Cinema, they have changed, remodeled and re-invested the specific film itself. With James Camerons Nine having been just released I feel a surge of anger and sorrow because a lot of people out there will see this film and never know that there was an 8 1/2. Now, I dont want to be to quick to judge because I haven't had the chance to go see Nine, but I think it would be fair to say that it will be a very homogenized version of Fellini's classic film.

8 1/2 is a masterpiece of Italian Cinema. Released in 1963 it embodies the ideals, beliefs and struggles of the Modern Italian Man. This film discusses the miracle of post-industrial, post-war, post-religious society and delves into the psychosis of a man who has come out the other side of the considerable amount of change that was the Modernization of Italy. Now, I just can't see how Hollywood is really going to capture that.

Fellini uses themes of the dream and illusion to create fissures in reality, throwing us a metaphor of the confusion of the modern man. Sometimes this film can be very self-indulgent, "His mistress shifts to whore; his mother turns into his wife. His childhood women, his nanny, his grandmother and La Saraghina, a prostitute who inhabited an abandoned beachside bunker in his youth, all march freely from Guido's subconscious across the screen. All his lovers converge for a harem sequence where they are all amenable to one another - or subdued with a whip as in La Seraghina's case". Fellini via Mastroianni somehow does this with charm.

Marcello Mastroianni: Love of my life

Nine certainly boasts a considerable amount of talent (Dame Judy Dench need I say more) and I am very much looking forward to seeing it. If Daniel Day-Lewis is half the man that Mastroianni is then it will be well worth it. Plus who doesn't want to see silver screen divas like Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren and Fergie all fight it out for the spotlight. I guess its just important to pay homage to the original and the original intent, because after all it is a brilliant film!

Watch the original trailer:

and see the trailer for nine here

just like riding a bike

life is like riding a bicycle. to keep your balance you must keep moving

- Albert Einstein

One of the things that i couldn't bring to London with me was my Bicycle. Back home i used to ride it quite a lot and it makes me quite sad that it is now so far away. Instead i now have to console myself by looking at these gals on their bikes. There is even this amazing blog that I found dedicated to Cycle street style. Life is so peaceful and care free when you're on a bike. Its just you and the road with the wind in your hair.

This girl really knows how to ride a bike! Truffaut will always be one of my favourite directors and this short film truly is a gem! Provincial charm and occasional glances of undergarments, he really captures something in the way these boys lust after the ideology of the feminine. Plus i just found out it was filmed in a little town named Nimes in the south of France that i visited earlier this year. Oh, the memories!

Jeanne maureau in Jules et Jim

Skins season 3

Zooey Deschanel in 500 days of summer

Brigitte Bardot

Truffaut's Les Mistons

Curiosity killed the cat

On several adventures in Hackney recently I have happened across a little shop aptly named the little shop of horrors. Filled to the brim with disgusting and yet somehow alluring trinkets and, well, scientific samples, the place takes curiosity to a whole new level. One day i will have to go down and have a poke around inside. The Last Tuesday Society's latest offspring, Viktor Wynd's Little Shop of Horrors is now open on Mare Sreet. A wide variety of curiosities and oddities are for sale - from human fetuses to shrunken heads, chocolate anuses, carniverous plants, orchids and mutated teddy bears, not to mention a fine selection of speciality teas, broken children's toys and dead plants.

bon anniversaire, Mademoiselle

Dear LC,

Happy birthday!

here are some pretty things that i think you will like.

And i made you a mix tape! i hope you enjoy it.

Hope you have a wonderful birthday and all of your wishes come true.

Lots of love

xxx

Camera Obscura

Photography has come a mighty long way in the past 100 or so years. The humble Camera has shaped the way we see the world, the way we see each other and our entire schema of visuality (see po-mo wank ). Our grandparents were lucky to have a couple of hand painted or B&W images of their childhoods. These days we are so snap happy, sometimes our cameras feel like extensions of our own bodies. I mean, is a memory really a memory if we don't have a photo of it? haha, just kidding, although a wonderful photo can revoke some of your most beautiful, crazy and wild happy moments.

That is why I am so totally in love with Panasonics new offering to the world of visuality- the Lumix GF1. Its an ultra compact digital SLR boasting a range of super features and including a pancake lens- so tiny you can throw it in your bag! I would LOVE to get my hand on one especially since my current camera has pretty much shat itself. And lets face it, January jones is so pretty in the ad!

I think the GF1 shows the direction that photography will now be taking, DSLR quality and control in a teeny tiny size. In the Arts Industry it would be so great to have such a professional quality camera. Now all I have to do is save up $800 or so and this baby is soooo mine.