Another photo book...

....I found on sale a couple of weeks ago. It's the personal collection of Alan Siegel, who is a US-American businessman that developed a passion for photography while being stationed in Germany in the early 60ies.
 
I must've been really attracted to the circus theme in it, but the more often I look through, the more I start liking still lifes and landscape photographs.

Oh, and one thing that stood out for me was a flower picture taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, who I only knew through naked hairy man-shots and a particularily disturbing photograph of a woman and a man. I am only gonna say so much as half the dude's arm isn't visible on the picture but I'm not gonna say where it disappears in. Geh dir den Mund mit Seife auswaschen!!!!!!

Paris is burning and so am I

Aussi summer has finally arrived.

The food might not be cheap, but the girls are

One major advantage about living in Australia, besides floods that (not taking into account all the really terrible stuff they cause) destroy heaps of crops, and therefore leading to ridiculous food prices such as AUD 3,99 for a (1) limp lettuce or AUD 9,99 for a kilo of apples, is the closeness to Asia. Indonesia is pretty much just a swim away, Thailand is around the corner and you can see the sparkling lights of Hong Kong airport after just one night on the plane. For my next holiday (after Europe, hum...) I would like to go to Japan though, as my brother and his girlfriend are there at the moment and Tokyo is a place that has always fascinated me. On top of that there's anime, kitsch and furry boots. And don't tell me you don't like furry boots.

Before that, I want to get stuck into Japanese and calligraphy. Whenever I visit a country, I at least want to be able to say basic stuff like "thanks", or "g'day". In the end, preparing a trip and doing some homework regarding culture and language will always make your holiday more special and exciting. Personally I think there's nothing worse than a bunch of arrogant tourists having a whinge about not finding a burger joint or English speaking bar keepers to pour them their scooner in a foreign country.  And knowledge's never hurt anybody (seriously).

Due to my current financial situation (that makes me whine about spending four bugs on salade), I cannot afford the flight yet. However, I already have and idea about how to get there and avoid an expensive airfare:

Anybody got mothra's phone number?

KIRKS CREAMING SODA

It looks like pink delicious poison and leaves a funny, silky-like film on my tongue when I drink it and even though I haven't figured out yet wether I should like it or not "Kirk's Creaming Soda" is definitely the prettiest canned drink I've poured down my gob so far. You might want to ignore the list of ingredients (as it's all preservatives, artificial colours, sugar and water), but you'll definitely like the colour. I hope I'll get my fingers on a few cans again soon so I can show you how frigging pink the actual drink is - it looks like freshly poured from the drain of a nuclear power plant.

S.E. Hinton

After getting Dan S.E. Hinton's Novel "The Outsiders" (btw. bought in Austria at Thalia on the Landstrasse in Linz!) for Christmas, he not only developed an obsession with greasers and funny looking hair, but also with the author.

Written at the age of 17, Hinton deals with problems such as gang rivalry, poverty-realted violence, the gap between rich and poor and juvenile delinquency. Considering the rough outline of the book, the author doesn't forget to point out all the trouble, insecurity and prejudice that go hand in hand with growing up in a brutal, realistic and very sensitive way.

Another novel by Hinton, that deals with a similar kind of environment is called "Rumblefish", in which she examines the post-greaser era, where gangs have disappeared and the younger generation dreams of the past, while the older one struggles to fit in society.

Both books have been turned into movies by Francis Ford Coppola. The director said that after receiving a letter from an high school class, in which he was asked to turn "The Outsiders" (the students were reading the book at the time) into a film, he became curious.

Coppola claimed to have never heard of the book before, but shared the students' enthusiasm after reading it.

With a tiny budget and a bunch of young, aspiring actors Francis Ford Coppola did, what a lot of directors failed to do: turn a novel into a film, without ruining the story through adding unnecessities or leaving out important parts and by picking a cast, that is both fresh and authentic in their performance.

Nevertheless, critics all over the world didn't share this positive opinion or worse, didn't even care watching it in the first place. Even Coppola himself is said to have devaluated the movie by saying it was "Gone with the wind for 14-year-old girls". It was only until a few years later, that the movie got the popularity it deserved, but was and still is far from being a hit.

When taking a look at the cast from today's perspective, the lack of attention is hard to understand. Considering the film was shot in 1983, actors like Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe and even Tom Cruise only just made their acting debut with "The Outsiders". Imagine a movie with such a cast in present times!

The Outsiders

The Outsiders

Almost parallel to filming "The Outsiders", Coppola turned to another S.E. Hinton Novel, named "Rumblefish".
After reading and watching the first novel, I was excited about finishing Rumble Fish and even more excited to see another Coppola-production with a simliar cast. Again Matt Dillon plays a protagonist, as well as Diane Lane, who also played an important role in "Outsiders". Names like Nicolas Cage (who is btw Coppola's nephew), Tom Waits or Dennis Hopper complete the cast. Micky Roeurke, whose pre-plastic surgery reflexion made it hard to believe it is really him and still makes my mouth water (yes, he was really, truly handsome!), made an extraordinary and spot on performance of the "Motorcycle boy", leaving most of the other cast out in the rain.

Considering the actors' solid performances it's a shame the director turned this beautiful novel to shit, by hardly sticking to the original text (which was one of the elements I found positive about "The Outsiders"), adding heaps of low-budget special effects and trying to turn it into something arty (I'm referring to an approx. 3 min. sequence in which Tom Waits a.k.a. "Benny" is loudly, if not penetrative chewing gum while wiping the counter grunting some sort of song).

I might have expected a "sequel" to "The Outsiders", at least in terms of quality and simplicity, but I truly got disappointed by this movie. The only reason I might watch it again is to glance at Mickey Rourke's mysterious, vulnerable and gorgeous character and maybe wish I was born in the 50ies in a novel that plays in a different country and be with a modern-age hero who digs fish and motorcycles (or at least I wish good ol' Mickey would've kept his fingers of drugs, alcohol and plastic surgery).

Yes, it's is indeed Mickey Rourke

Rumble Fish cast

Alicia

Samstag abend: 7 stark alkoholisierte Gaeste, BBQ, 3 betrunkene Besucher um halb 4 morgens, elendiger Bier- und Rum-Gestank im Haus, pickiger Boden, pickige, nuechterne Astrid!

Sonntag morgen: um 7 Uhr aufgewacht, das verwuestete Haus besichtet, verweifelt nach Plan gesucht, wie ich bis um halb 9 das Haus sauber, die betrunkenen Leute aus dem Haus und den Ehemann rehabilitiert bekomme, denn - Schwiegerelternbesuch!!!

Nun ja, lange Rede, kurzer Sinn, nachdem meine Schwiegereltern genau zu dem Zeitpunkt hereinmarschierten, als ich nur mit einem Handtuch bekleidet versucht habe, die Uebernachtigen loszuwerden, und extrem uebermuedet (nicht verkatert!!) mit ihnen und dem speibenden Ehemann Mittag essen und Moebel kaufen gegangen bin, war mein einziger Gedanke nur noch "seichte Unterhaltung und schlafen".

Gesagt, getan!!

Clueless - Der Film!!!

Ich denke mal jedes Maedchen, geboren im Zeitraum zwischen 1980 und 1990 kennt diesen Teenager-Film ueber stinkreiche, verzogene, aber dennoch ueberaus charismatische Maedchen, die mit allerlei Problemen, sei es Popularitaet, Liebe, oder "Was-zieh-ich-nur-an?", zu kaempfen haben.

Oh und Alicia Silverstone...

Movies of the late 80ies, early 90ies like "Clueless" make me realise that fashion is and always will be a repetition of itself. (see: seethrough black blouse and cross jewellery, knee high socks and high waisted jeans)

-What's that?

-A dress!

-Who says that?

-Calvin Klein!

Here's to

my favourite Swed, Lykke Li, who I'm obsessed with and who is just plain beautiful and talented in a very special kind of way.

I'm very much looking forward to her new record (out on February 28). She said in an interview that she was getting tired of being the "sweet Indie-Child Pin-up", so she changed her looks and her sound, which is now inspired by "Voodoo, Sex and and Heartbreak".

Noone can deny that change, when first hearing and seeing the single "Get some" of "Wounded Rhymes".

Lykke Li's blonde mane had to make way for a dark brown, longer version and it seems she's ready to show more flesh.

Wether or not I'm too happy about latter - I guess time'll show. There's nothing wrong with a nipple showing once in a while, but if I could I'd definitely advise her to take it easy on the seethrough stuff. Flesh always means less credibility, or who of you still thinks of Britney Spears as a classy lady after seeing her goddamn labias?

Anyways, here's what I originally wanted to post about - another one of Lykke Li's weird, sort of mysterious Videos, named "Untiteld".

Enjoy.

I want

ONE OF THOSE


At $ 450.00 a piece I'd rather consider a DIY version.
It doesn't look too hard. Whaddayuthink?

Btw: I ordered several gemstones, buttons and plain silver necklaces and will turn them into jewellery. You'll (hopefully) see the results here soon!

Stop Motion Experiments

So I found out yesterday, that my camera has a stop motion film - function, so I gathered together what I found were useful resources and made this little movie.

I know what you did last summer

Dorky McKnobhead.

Valerie and her week of wonders

I always thought Czech art and literature was a chapter of its own. The movie "Valerie and her week of wonders" took everything to a whole new level. Imagine me sitting in front of my computer for 1 1/2 hours, mouth open, forehead wrinkly, a disturbed "wtf?" written on my lips, watching the weirdest, but most appealing, movie in quite a long time.

Based on the 1935 published novel by Vítězslav Nezval, it was turned into a movie in the 1970ies. The main character, Valerie, was played by then 13-year-old Jaroslava Schallerová. It is fascinating and disturbing at the same time, that a girl of that age could play a character so innocent, but so sensual. In some scenes the term "exploitation of minors" didn't leave my mind. I just thought it was wrong to show a girl that young without clothes or generally expose her to certain strong themes (remember, it was the 70ies!).

Valerie is a 14-year-old girl on the edge to adulthood. The movie starts with her wandering across the lawn, as suddenly blood drops fall down on a daisy on the ground. She picks the daisy and looks at the blood. This scene is meant to symbolise Valerie's first period and the starting point of a journey into puberty, that is full of confusion, fascination and disgust.

The girl lives with her grandmother, who is strictly catholic and isolates Valerie from everything she thinks is sinful, sensual or sexual. However, the grandmother has an affair with the local priest and wants to get back her youth as to stay attractive for him.
Valerie's parents are nowhere to be seen.

One day, Valerie points out a stranger, wearing a black cape, with pale white skin and pointy teeth, to her grandmother. The stranger covers his face with a weasel mask and keeps a servant, called "Orlik". Strangely, the grandmother seems to know the "creature".

Throughout the movie, this man turns into many different characters - he's supposed to be the bishop, Valerie's father, a guy called "Richard" the grandmother used to have an affair with, a monster, a vampire and the devil. He murders certain people, one of them the local priest, who tried to rape Valerie earlier on, and puts a vampiric spell on a young bride, that drains her life and transfers her youth to Valerie's grandmother, who has now turned into a younger, Vampire-Version of herself.

The main goal of the creature is, to seduce Valerie and take her innocence. Her "blood", as he says, will allow him to live forever.
Meanwhile she develops a complicated relationship with the vampire's servant, "Orlik", who turns out to be her brother. Watching them kiss is quite a disturbing experience, as they continue doing it when they already know they are related.

As the story goes on the creature keeps trying to "get" Valerie, but she keeps resisting and maintains her honor. In the end, Orlik kills the creature and turns to another girl during an orgiastic final scene, much like that scene in "Perfume", at least as confusing and exaggareted. Valerie wanders through this scene, watching other people as they try to get her involved, but instead ends up falling asleep in a white bed in the middle of the forest.

As already mentioned, it is a movie that leaves you behind with a lot of questions and confusion. There are scenes where people get killed and are reincarnated without explanation, persons play multiple characters, who then disappear.
The movie shows various people having intercourse, girls in a lake kissing and playing with a fish (!) and Valerie herself frees the young bride mentioned earlier from her spell by going to bed with her.
It is an unsettling movie, taking the disturbing incestuous relationship between brother and sister, the fact, that the protagonist is played by a kid and that she's exposed to a lot of (sometimes quite aggressive) sexual practices, but has a very distinctive fascination in it, only to be found in those mid-seventies surrealistic movies.


And no, you're not a pedophile pervert, if you're watching it. Just a little bit, maybe.

I NEVER THOUGHT THIS WOULD ACTUALLY HAPPEN
BUT


THE AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT GRANTED MY APPLICATION FOR A WORK PERMIT!!!


As a matter of fact, working for money annoys most people. As I consider it a privilege rather than a duty, I'm actually quite stoked about it. Hell yeah, bring on cunty customers, shitty wages and heaps of frustration caused by being a part of the work force again! God, and how I missed being in a hurry - the typical scenario every woman goes through when she doesn't wanna be late for work (again!), meaning oversleeping, swearing, leaving the house with messy hair and half your make-up undone, unsatisfied with what you're wearing and without breakfast, not even a lousy cuppa tea.


Oh, and what I'm looking forward to the most is, despite being able to pay for rent, food, fuel and toiletries without getting nauseas when I reach the check out, is being able to afford things like these:rather than just buying them anyway. Do you know that feeling when you're in a shop and you know that there's no toast left and the milk's probably off too but you just can't resist buying whatever unnecessity you are obsessed with for the next 2 minutes. And do you know that feeling when you're in the car/bus/train on the way home and just wanna shoot yourself when going through all your shopping bags, thinking: "I will burn my credit card as soon as I get home". I think the marketing people responsible for shopping centers use special drug mist they spread throughout the shops, making customers fall into a shopping trance. I'm dead serious - has it only ever happened to me, or is it a common symptome, that you walk into a shop and buy stuff and you get home and can't even remeber having purchased half of it? I experience this sort of shopping dizzines and post-shopping confusion quite a bit.
Might be an indicator for me to overthink my buying habits.

Anyway, my next step is finding a job! Fingers crossed it'll be a good one!!!!

Towelface...

...is what my loving husband calls me every morning. He sometimes does it in an Indian accent too, to really piss me off. Mwaaahahahhahaaa!!! Dauwelfes.

Fashion Blogger

Mein Google-Reader ist voll mit Fashion-Blogs (Randanmerkung: eine fast reine Frauendomaene!), die ich wohl bereits als meine taegliche Gazette bezeichnen kann. Und so sehr mich die Modebnews aus NZ, AUS, US, GER, BRA, SWE und UK auch interessieren, so sehr beschaeftigt mich doch eine Frage besonders: Wie finanziert man sich so eine Garderobe? Irgendein dreckiges Geheimnis muss doch hinter den tausenden Fotografie-, Journalismus- und Modedesign-StudentInnen liegen, die alle 2 Tage ein komplett neues Outfit posten koennen (inklusive Designerbag und -schuhen), dessen Einkaufspreis den Monatslohn eines Durchschnittsmenschen uebersteigt.

Antworten erwuenscht.
PS: Sollte jemand einen Monatslohn uebrig haben, so moege er mir diese Jeffrey Campbell Schuhe besorgen:



fttb: Style by Kling, ponyhunter, stylebubble

mhm breakfast

Even though there's floods, deadly spiders, venomous snakes and people who speak bad english, Australia is a pretty good country. Why, you might wonder?

Well, because Aussi kids are WEET BIX kids :)


Hmm - what nutricious breakfast. Weet Bix make me forget about salted butter on the good old Honigbrot and soft, spongey toast, a.k.a. "bread".
Yeeaaahhh! Good morning everyone!

KATANAGATARI

Katanagatari ist der Name meiner neuesten Obsession. Der Ehemann ist ja schon seit fruehen Kindstagen grosser Anime-Fan und Sammler, ich hingegen habe mich bei Serien wie "Fist of the North Star", oder "Casshern" bisher immer gelangweilt oder das Gesehene hat mich verstoert. Wie vielleicht bekannt, sind Animes nicht das japanische Pendant zu Kindersendungen, sondern zeigen extreme Gewalt, Sex und noch mehr extreme Gewalt. Aufgrund der Animation werden sie jedoch oft mit harmlosen Comics verwechselt - deshalb hatte auch der Mann schon frueh Zugang dazu. Wie dem auch sei, Katanagatari bildet, was das Gedaerm- und Blutvergiessen angeht, freilich keine Ausnahme. Fuer mich entscheidend war jedoch, wie gewitzt und realistisch das Zusammenspiel der Protagonisten dargestellt wird. Das Maedchen, Togame, ist eine gebildete, weltgewandte Frau, noergelt gerne und liebt Kleidung. Ihr Gegenstueck, Shichika Yasuri, hat, ausser zu seiner Schwester, keinen Kontakt zu anderen Menschen und lebt zurueckgezogen auf einer Insel. Die beiden gehen gemeinsam auf die Suche nach zwoelf Schwertern und sehen sich mit allerhand Hindernissen konfrontiert. Das groesste Problem stellen jedoch nicht die hinterlistigen Ninjas oder Endgegner, sondern die Unterschiedlichkeit des Paares dar.

Highly recommended!
Fuer alle, die mit Anime normalerweise nichts anfangen koennen und sich von high pitch Japanisch und schlechten englischen Untertiteln nicht gestoert fuehlen!!! Cheeri-o!!!!

Flut

Ein paar Fotos der Innenstadt, einige Stunden vor dem Hoechststand des Brisbane Rivers. Das Geschaefstviertel wurde einen Tag davor evakuiert. Wie ihr in den ersten paar Bildern sehen koennt, ist das Militaer, neben dem Roten Kreuz, Polizei und Feuerwehr, im Dauereinsatz. Keine Viertelstunde vergeht, ohne Hubschrauberlaerm oder Sirenengetoese. Wir befinden uns im Ausnahmezustand. Und obwohl ich persoenlich Gott sei Dank nicht betroffen bin, kann man es auch in unserem Viertel nicht verleugnen, dass da etwas Aussergewoehnliches passiert ist.NORMALLY

NOW