Wednesday 24 February 2010

iLove!

These two were playing sweet music to each other all evening.


Though I suspect Silver wasn't so keen on Purple's playlist which contains … a lotta cheese. Hence why he's not plugged in.

Sunday 21 February 2010

When I have a brand-new hairdo...

...with my eyelashes all in curls
I float as the clouds on air do
I enjoy being a girl!

A little thought on "beauty". I know that even in the c90 years post-suffrage we're still flagging somewhat in embracing a more eclectic spectrum of beauty. Magazines (the ones with less integrity) are constantly citing female celebrities as 'hot', 'gorgeous' and beautiful -- and I sometimes wonder who set the standards these women have attained. This song from 1933, Keep Young and Beautiful, covered by Annie Lennox in 1992 (when you'd think we'd be more progressive, though let's hope it was covered with tongue firmly lodged in cheek) embodies all that is wrong about the perception of beauty: that only those deemed to be beautiful will ever be loved. And beauty by traditional standards does not embrace imperfections.

But every once in a while, no matter how we feel 80% of the time (and recently "dog-rough" has summed me up), the moment we invest a little me-time and embrace ourselves, we too can feel beautiful. Remember this Gap advert featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, from a few years ago?



I dunno about you but I think, much respect to SJP. This advert featuring the song 'I Enjoy Being a Girl' from The Flower Drum Song is fabulous; and she projects the kind of self belief that actually we could all do with every once in a while. (If you listen to the whole song you get the feeling it's all just a little bit sexist -- it was written in the 1950s -- but still quite sweet really!)

So in short: today I got my hair cut back into a bob. Admittedly a lot of the credit lies with my hairstylist but -- it looks cute, it really does. It's tidy, I have the fringe I wanted; and to celebrate I invested in some new makeup; just some mascara (Maybelline Falsies mascara) and lipgloss (can't remember the brand!) and some new jeans (Emporio de New Look) and feel, though temporarily, fabulous. So am now singing the verse above in my head just to pep myself up. :-)

Because even quirkesses with distinct noses deserve to feel gorgeous every so often.

(Of course I'm possibly one of the least photogenic folk I know so pictures of said hairdo on self are being vetted as we speak. Vain, moi? Non...)

Friday 19 February 2010

A place, where nobody dared to go...

Hmm, OK, I think maybe when I said I'd post about all the pretty things I'd come across, I should have added the words "darn kitsch" after "pretty". Having stumbled upon some truly beautiful blogs since I've been in the blogosphere, I know that what catches my eye is not necessarily pretty but sometimes a little weird and, yep, kitsch! Like this Official Souvenir Programme for... XANADU! Pretty darn kitsch indeed.



Not sure how I came by this but I suspect I picked it up at a film collectors' fair somewhere, back in the 1990s (when I still thought that Grease was the pinnacle of all possible films, and nobody could tell me otherwise). I watched Xanadu again the other day and was struck by how absolutely bad it is (to the point of being good, of course); how much of a vehicle it was for ONJ and how Gene Kelly, you know, Gene Kelly of On the Town and, yuhuh, Singin' in the Rain, got involved in this project! (One final ponderance -- Michael Beck? Where'd he go after he and his implausibly short shorts skated off into the sunset? ...Ah. "Diagnosis: Murder" and "Nash Bridges", according to my beloved oracle IMDB.)

I admit, I do love the film and I love the 'Whenever You're Away From Me' dance sequence in Danny's huge old house... Oh and the 1940s/80s fusion 'Dancin''.

And I'm now old enough to appreciate just how darn kitsch the whole thing really is!