I have two issues with the film, Jake Gyllenhaal and the ending. Jake Gyllenhaal is UNBELIEVABLY HOT IN THE FILM. I was never a fan of beardy and his love for that underage guitar girl, but then I fell in love with his lips - they're like the ones I used to draw as a kid when I was trying to draw realistic lips and then I'd scrumple up the paper and get mad because those lips are just not realistic at all.
My second issue, the ending, is less positive. I have a serious, serious problem with the obsession over a sugary sweet happy ending. WHY IS IT ALWAYS NECESSARY? There comes a moment in the film (if you've seen it, you'll know what i'm ranting over), where Gyllenhaal is expecting to die, and he kisses the girl, and everyone is happy and its a beautiful bittersweet ending. Our protagonist has done what he needed to do, he has accepted that he must die, and has chosen to do it with dignity and some fine brunette ass. I thought it was a lovely way to end it, the scene freezes, everyone in the audience breathes out in relief- our boy has done good, wahoo.
But then some knob demanded a sugary, implausible, ridiculous ending. I know the whole film is pretty implausible anyway, but why the need to end the film by forcing our protagonist to live out the life he wanted to end?? Oh no, wait, they didn't give him the life he wanted to end, they gave him some random dude's life, set him loose in Chicago and with no money (because he bribed a shit comedian), but it's all ok, cos he's getting coffee with a hot chick he doesn't know.
Hollywood - stop it. I am not in dire need of you telling me that even if I die it's ok cos there's gonna be booty on the otherside, I know that already (i went to sunday school-duh).
Give me a blockbuster where the ending is beautiful not because its artificially happy, but because it is resolved.
OKAAAAAAY??????
Post Script Just had a great debate with Wayne over the film, and I realised yet another horrific thing about the ending. Hollywood stole some dude's life and gave it to Gyllenhaal's character. WTF, what happens to the real Sean in that dumbass "other world" that the Source Code creates in the ending? His potential-bang, money and LIFE just got jacked by some dickhead who's meant to be dead-as in Afghanistan. 'I got 3 words for you RealSean, Sucks To Be (adding a fourth) You.'
Post Post Script The ending might be absolute stinking crap, but the use of Chicago's Cloud Gate sculpture was a nice little metaphor to soften the almighty blow of the film pooping its pants over how cute it is. I just got told to not be so negative at the end of a post. So this is positive.
MOCA has been invaded by French street artist Invader as a part of its exhibition 'Art in the Streets'. His artwork is inspired by the lo-res graphics in old school games like space invaders, and the mosaic characters he produces have conquered cities all across the globe, Paris (yeahobvs), London, New York, Tokyo, Bangkok, Milan and Los Angeles. I love the few I spot when I make the rare trek out to liverpool street to spend all my money on overpriced vintage(/producedtolookvintage-wtf?) clothing. Anyhow, after having a peek at some of the photos of his work featured at MOCA, I was all like, 'yo- I don't know aanything about his other artwork'. So, after you've 'peeked' at his work in MOCA (click here for hypebeast's post on the subject), come back to look at his aaamazing rubiks/rubix cube collections.
Invader has produced a collection of work that makes me save every image and go "wuuuuuh" everytime I look at them. Using rubiks cubes and moving the colours around to fit the needs of the image he wishes to replicate, Invader recreates famous photographs and paintings in this too-cool medium.
I secretly hope he's a rubiks cube genius, and isn't like me. I peel the stickers off the cubes and move them about. My parent's used to think I was a child genius with my super fast rubiks cube solutions..
Mario Divided (2005)
Rubik Origine (2006)
Rubik 9-11 (2006)
Rubik Target (2006)
Rubik A Bomb (2008)
Rubik Kubrick (2006)
Rubik Mona Lisa (2005) (330 Rubiks cubes waaaaaaa!)
I remember back in the day when Dragon's Den was still good and they didn't have the nice soft spoken guy or the crap Australian guy on it. When it was still good and me and the fam would sit down and watch it together. I remember this one time little yearning-for-cool-magazines-me was hypnotised by this guy who came on presenting his idea for the magazine Wonderland. He got rawwwwly shot down, but still produced the dope publication off his own back/different investors.
Recently the magazine featured this cool, crazy, sccccurrry spread full of amazing styling, lovely deep-dark shadows and not-unnattractive boys.
Enjoy!
Kevin Mackintosh for Wonderland, featuring Sid Ellisdon, Taras Koltun and O'Shea Robertson all styled by Way Perry. (Such cool names too.)
Jay Z's made a blogggg! It's dope as well, not like that weiiird blog Kanye had that everyone bugged out over. It's beautifully formatted, edited and all in snazzy flash. SO GOOD!
SO GOOD.
Was there anybody who didn't jizz and freak out when they caught the clip of the Beats, Rhymes and Life trailer last december?? I distinctly remember thinking "I wish I was cool enough to know lots about Tribe and bum this trailer more". Anyway, I did some homework, went to DADA, looked at an album, decided I was still too poor to buy music, read all about the mad beef between qtip and the director (hypetrak y'aaaall) and then found the new clip that's surfaced on the internet and jizzed and freaked out all over again.
Anyway, for all the A Tribe Called Quest fans, here's that "new clip" that's promised to produce "freak outs" "bug outs" and all other kinds of fly terms for huge excitement/panic over 'will it be good?!' thoughts. <- ew my grammar.
Also, if you're wanting some extra linkage in case that video gets stolen again, I hear there's a copy of the trailer floating about on VIMEO still..
Apparently the film will be aired at Tribeca at the end of the month, as well as wishing I was cool enough/had time to know loads of stuff about Quest, I also wish I was cool enough to go to Tribeca/want to go there. I'm not good at watching films so really I don't actually want to go.
I know I've posted loads about the Japan effort, but these photographs really show the extent to which the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent disasters at Fukushima need our attention. Please do click the images for higher resolutions so you can read the captions.
There are direct links on the right hand side of the screen leading to the main UK charity websites providing aid to Japan.
With the horrific things happening in Libya and the Ivory Coast, it's easy to forget that Japan has moved 4 meters into the pacific and our days are now slightly shorter than they used to be.
As much as the events occurring in Africa need our attention, please don't forget to donate some money to the efforts to rebuild those areas most affected by the Sendai earthquake- it seems that because this tragedy occurred in a developed nation, it is playing less on the Western world's minds. Your help is still needed. Here are the good links:
And also, a few interesting articles surrounding the boom in graphic design relating to the Japan Crisis - is a 'fashionable' disaster a good thing? Is the huge output of posters, t-shirts and other "save Japan" merchandise a good thing? (Like Paweł Durczok's piece that I've featured above)
Personally, I think that in most cases it can't do much bad.. The reputable and non-satanic companies are donating 100% of profits to Japan, so, if anything, it's only furthering knowledge and concern over the issue, but I see the argument. Perhaps buying a t-shirt and parading it, or a poster and hanging it up in the kitchen isn't the most sensitive reaction. Debate is always good though.
Check out these links for some blog reactions:
http://www.slate.com/id/2288882
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663419/is-this-poster-to-aid-japans-tsunami-victims-a-crime-against-design
http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/03/17/was-microsoft-wrong-to-use-the-japanese-earthquake-for-marketing/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/22/charity-t-shirts-japan_n_839135.html
I thought being in Wales for this weekend would be horrific, but actually the solitude is doing me good.
I turned down the offer of exploring Worcester and the cathedral there, and instead I've been exploring the surrounding fields (minus a camera because I'm a twat and left the battery at home), doing yoga in the sunshine and eating enormous amounts of bagels.
Still no work done yet though.
I thought I'd post this tune - the beat is how I feel, I'm here but all floaty, and not-city-like.
If you think I'm enjoying my time here though, wait till tomorrow's post. I'm sure I'll be hating the silence in a few hours.
When I first saw this spread featuring Andrej Pejic, I bugged out. YES! A man redefining androgyny and showing a blurred gender line as attractive, fashionable and unbelievably hot. WAHOO - who needs gender to relate to sexuality? But then I thought about it some more. Yes, Pejic's appearance and booming popularity in the international fashion scene is an excellent step forward for accepting that sexualities should not be pigeonholed into two camps - I'm pretty certain that some of both men and women of both hetero and homosexualities will find him attractive. However, the method in which his androgyny is projected is no different to the androgyny we have previously experienced in fashion. Androgyny in fashion seems to me to not be about removing the gender from sexuality, but from very much sexualising the female body in a way that is politically and socially acceptable for today's market. It's fine for a model to be basically topless and available for a sexual gaze within 'androgynous' fashion - because she doesn't look stereotypically feminine.
Pejic's spread is hot, don't get me wrong, I think it's beautiful, but what's different here? He's being hailed as the wunderkind of gender indeterminacy and beauty outside of gender confines, but to me, nothing has changed. He's being photographed, dressed and sexualised in exactly the same way that his female contemporaries are - as a woman, but because he is a man this is seen as a step forward. If anything, its telling us that it's OK for a man to be sexualised like this, so long as we think he's a woman, rather than fashion being hunkydory with the idea of a male masculinity available for the female sexual gaze. So, full circle, sexualised masculinity? nothanks. Sexualised femininity? hellyeah - but lets be careful and get a feminine man to do it.
Maybe I'm just reading too much into this... But I think it's something that needs to be thought about. Fashion far too often portrays itself as forward thinking and promoting equality all the while acting through prejudicial lines. The "ethnic" model problem, 'thin' vs 'fat', 'ugly' vs 'pretty'.
Anyhow, even if you don't agree with me, enjoy the pretty pictures from 'Viva Moda' shot by Marcin Tyszka, and daydream about Pejic whisking you off to a land where you can have a beautiful relationship and share clothes.
When I was a kid I was successfully convinced that unicorns existed and as a part of a government measure to prevent pre-teen depression, all kids were going to be given one at the end of the school day.
I sobbed when I didn't get one.
Cruelest holiday EVER.
When I first moved out to cambridge for my first year I spotted a couple of these dope leather satchels by a company called the Cambridge Satchel Company, and I was all bugging out over how solid they were and how they'd never fall apart like all my other bags invariably do - but I was kind of disappointed with the colourways they came in. All of them were too "Cambridge", which is a shit thing to say and I always hate on anybody that comes at me with a Cambridge stereotype, but yeah, whatever, they were really posh looking.
Anyway, the CSC have teamed up with Dover Street Market to produce possibly the most beautiful collection of bags in neon colours, it's like someone took out their highlighter set and coloured in some lovely bags. I'm after the neon pink in 15 inch, but it seems to be sold out already. Bitching. I'ma put this on the wishlist, along with new kicks, money, a car, the ability to pass my second year exams and wider hips (I'm starting to irrationally worry about childbirth and bodycon dresses)
ME: I like lots of things but its shit to list that here. Read my blog, you'll get me eventually. I don't even know why this part of the blog exists, just cos its a template, and I dont know how to get rid of it. Might as well fill it with something
I don't update this blog as much as I should, apologies. I'm a 20 year old student living in London/Cambridge depending on the dates. I've just finished a difficult two years studying Japanese, and while I loved my culture/essay subjects, the grammar got to me, and I'm starting my final two years in History of Art in October! VERY exciting. This blog is both a diary for me and a collection of things within art, fashion and music that I find interesting.
