paperman

January 31, 2013


Lovely.
Flamin' lovely.

Alright future man in my life, paper aeroplanes and pulling a Lloyd Dobler.
Should do the trick.
For keeps.

Disney, for crying out loud, apply everything about this short film to your feature animations.
Y'hear?
Okay.
Glad we got that sorted.


Listening to: Land Observations 'Before the Kingsland Road'

riggins


'"Islands of light are swimming on the grass," said Rhoda. "They have fallen through the trees."'


- Virginia Woolf
The Waves 

From the downright sublime, to the unashamedly fan-girlsome:
It is quite possible that i have an unhealthy love for Tim Riggins.
But hey, my shirt - available here - poses a very poignant question.
What would Tim Riggins do?

Drink it, punch it or mate with it.
To be frank.

And all done with a curmudgeonly, somewhat caveman-like wit.
Thus why i love him so.
Hollywood, be nicer to Taylor Kitsch
It's not his fault he's too pretty to act.
...
I'm going to hell.
Straight to hell.
Maybe not with Judas and Cain in the Ninth Circle but not far off.
Although, i don't remember there being a circle of hell dedicated to mean, little bitches when i was reading The Inferno.
Maybe the Fifth Circle?
With all the grumpy gusses?
I could probably surlily swim around the River Styx for the rest of fiery eternity.
As long as nothing with teeth tried to swallow me up.
My only stipulation.
  
I perhaps need some daylight...

I had to do some googling to bring back what modest amount of Inferno knowledge i gathered during my Uni days
I forget things.
I've forgotten yesterday.

To the point...
I found this on my travels:
If i could smile right now, it would look like a coat-hanger was lodged quite happily inside my mouth.
Some people are just the best of people.


Listening to: Camera Obscura 'Careless Love'

bear//face

Oh, just kill me.

summer smoke

Why is it, i never get tired of Chuck Norris jokes?
Ev-er.


I am totally into this song:

and this one:

and this one...
I should never have signed up to Bandcamp.
I'm in such trouble.


Listening to: My resolve, whimpering. It's so damn weak-willed.

bonafide

That right there, is bonafide sisterly love.



Listening to: Cemeteries 'Young Blood'

frowny face

January 30, 2013

My instant reaction to my sister trying to boop - very technical term there - my nose is to try and bite her.
Mother-fudging ow.


Watching: American History X

moon king

Today, Scotland was bathed in sunlight and it made me long for Spring.
Winter's great and all but i want sunny, breezy, cardigan-wearing weather. 
Not six layers and still freezing weather.
Totally over that now.
Bring on unexpected rain showers and gales so strong they knock you back.
Obviously, i'll be partaking in this weather from the inside, like a good little hermit.
I'm going to get rickets. 
For sure.

My photographs are so suburban. 
And yeah, that's Marmite.
But it's special.
That my friends is Gold Marmite.
Which really means glittery, pimped out Marmite but it made my sister practically have a brain spasm due to her love of anything that sparkles.
Part magpie, that one.
So it got blogged!
Reminds me of the Halloween Treacle we had last year:
Packaging is fun.
Simple pleasures.
You know the rest.

Gummy Update:
The wisdom teeth have taken my gums hostage.
They appear to be practicing some form of extremely unfriendly torture on my poor nerve endings until they talk.
Except, they're just gums, they know nothing other than how to feel!
Teeth suck.
I can't open my jaw without flinching beautifully.
I dread the dentist.
Friends got something right:

'Satan in a smock.'

And hey, The Guardian?
Thanks for almost ripping my jaw in two with this beautifully venomous description of Justin Beiber's STD-like introduction to the planet:

'...I haven't really paid much attention to teenywink Canadian singing sensation Justin Bieber since he was first hammered into the collective unconscious like a nail of frozen piss into a cabbage...'

Charlie Brooker, i bow down to your wordy greatness.
You're a black belted, poisonous-insult-wielding, character-bulldozing shaman but i like my head intact thanks.
Quit making me laugh.



Listening to: Moon King 'Only Child'

dear telephone

I know, i know, go to bed already, i know but i'm wide awake and Bandcamp's seducing me with music.
Y'know what 'The door was white' sounds like?
Truly sounds like?
One of those very first conversations you have with someone new.
Someone you bond with instantly.
Where it's all excitement and the start of in-jokes, playful slagging matches and a myriad of other wonderful things that are solely a consequence of being with those people that seem so rare but do, inexplicably exist.
I remember all of mine.
Who could forget?

dens sapientiae

Look what i just found.
This makes me sad.
I was so close to a £10 Waterstones giftcard.
Stymied by time, once again.

Currently, i am watching the third episode of Utopia and 2 minutes in, i made this noise.
Now you have to watch it, otherwise you'll never know why.
I'm a bitch, la la la. 

I sketched this out a couple of years ago when my wisdom teeth first decided they would wage full scale warfare against my gums.
Today, i think they were setting off grenades.
Ugh. 
I cannot smile, i cannot eat on the left side of my mouth, brushing my teeth is tremendous fun and my sister, of all days, decided today was the day to be really funny. 
Ouch.
My jaw is an unhappy jaw.

On second viewing, Lawless was kind of awesome.
Muddled but awesome. 
I'll say it.
I was wrong.
And no, it didn't hurt.


Watching: Utopia

isaac taylor zac

January 29, 2013

My sister knows how to make me happy.
Buaha.
They all have babies.
ALL of them!
I still know all their names and all the words to MMMBop...
...and yeah, still kind of crushing on Taylor
I have zero shame.
I'm lying.
I hate myself a little right now.
No i don't. 
Hanson for the win!


Listening to: Any possible cool i possessed, wither and die...

atmos

I forgot to say.
Lie down with the lights dimmed when listening to this song.

You'll understand, when the music starts to play.

I really must go to sleep.
Which really means: read my book by torchlight into the further small hours and force my body-clock to crawl deeper into the backwards timeframe it's becoming accustomed to.
Lordy.

fresh hell

Holy crap, how have i not listened to any new Azure Ray since their 2003 album, Hold On Love.
I must be defective.
And yeah, i heard this on Revenge, what of it? 
I don't know why i watch it either but i'm completely addicted. 
Stupidly so. 
I need these.
Not to write with.
Don't be silly.

Like just about everyone else, i thought 'What fresh hell is this?' was a line born from Shakespeare but after a quick google search, it appears it should actually be attributed to American author/poet/critic, Dorothy Parker.
She's said to have exclaimed this infamous phrase when her train of thought was rudely interrupted by a telephone call and she answered thusly.
And from then on, this was her official greeting when answering the phone or indeed, the door. 
What a lady.


Listening to: Azure Ray 'Unannounced' 

dead mellotron

January 28, 2013

pastel goth

I can't seem to find a definitive source for this image.
Which is annoying.
Found here.
And described as Pastel Goth.
That's loveable.

In other news:
I'm disgusting.
One third of this is now inside my stomach.
And i feel sick. 
And my palms are very crinkly...
And i'm obviously pretty bored.
Does it show?


Listening to: Be Forest 'Buck & Crow'

hmv

HMV in Perth is now closed.
It was a good one as well.
This is saddening.


Listening to: A ticking clock.

dust

snowpot

My sister, over at Snow in a Teapot, does an annual Twelve Days of Christmas feature on her blog.
And on the 12th day she always lists her most loved music of the year.
She's far more organised than i and has mighty fine taste in music.
I realise it's almost February - wtf? - but i'm unobservant and slow on the uptake. 
So have a listen now:
And have a look at her stuff in general.
She's quite the clever duck.


Listening to: The Magnetic Fields 'I Wish I Had an Evil Twin'

intermission

So much love for these two.
Cillian Murphy especially.
Ever since Disco Pigs
If you haven't seen it, then get that sorted, alright?
It's twisted and lovely and needs to be watched.
Repeatedly.
As i'm about to do after i finish watching Intermission.
It would seem that i really enjoy messed up Irish movies.
Maybe it's the Irish blood in me.
Or the magnificent way they curse. 
Or it may simply be that i'll watch anything with Cillian Murphy in it.
Even crap like Red Eye.
And to think, i almost missed it because i was catatonic on my desk. 
Energy? What is energy? Where does it come from?

Intermission reminded me of a band i loved way back when, which is always lovely.

I listened to their album, 'i' to death. 
So much so that i haven't thought of it in years.
Odd how that happens.
You obsess and then you forget.
Shouldn't it remain?



Listening to: The Magnetic Fields 'I Don't Believe You'

daniel dust

January 27, 2013

Painting.

Yeah.



Watching: The Fighter

among brothers


Kind of emo.
But so was i.
Once upon a time.


Listening to: Among Brothers 'Bare Teeth'

love>lore

Sometimes i don't know what i'm supposed to give a shit about anymore.

I do know i want a t shirt with this emblazoned upon it:
Ever since the movie and especially today.
I read once that we should all have balloons that say how we're feeling that day.
Mine would say:




Listening to: Caithlin De Marrais 'Lovers Light'

mean tom

How in the world does he manage to be so damn scary in a cardigan?
How?
No-one in the history of ever has done that before.
He's a wizard i tell you.
A very handsome, somewhat terrifying, wool-clad wizard but a wizard all the same!
Saying that, i'm actually pretty disappointed by how discombobulated Lawless was.
With such a stellar cast - minus The Beef, he lost my love when he lost his funny - it should have been a wild film.
Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce and Gary Oldman...together and all on quality mad bastard form...and it didn't work?
That's just wrong.
So wrong.
Oldman was disgustingly underused to boot. 
I know it was a true story and all but why not add some poetic license and have him team up with Hardy against Guy Pearce's repugnant, skin-crawler of a character?
Now that would have been beautiful.
Opportunity: Fail.
Still enjoyed it however, even if i only managed to decipher every fourth word of the dialogue. 
Filmic Virginians, such mumblers.

Some of the good stuff:
Three Blind Wolves will be releasing their new single 'In Here Somewhere', with 'Kids Allright' as the B-Side on February the 18th.
Happy girl, sitting right here.

Lastly.
Kind of can't stop listening to Teen Mom.

There's so 90s-ish and shoegazey.
What's not to love?


Listening to: Teen Mom 'You and Me'

finally boys

January 26, 2013

Sometimes the photograph that happens by chance is the one i like best.
I consistently get nagged at to close my curtains when it's getting darker outside.

'People can see in!'

But i like to watch the light and when it's entirely dark my room feels more comforting.
Somehow, the empty void that the window becomes makes me feel safer.
If i didn't have an overactive imagination for creepy situations, i would spend far more time outside in the dark.
But alas, i've seen Death Note and the subway scene will haunt me forever.
I'm not telling you how high i jumped.

For some reason they're Americanising this epic movie.
Hollywood really has run out of ideas, hasn't it?
I'll probably still give it a go though, seeing as Shane Black's directing.
Anyone else fall stupidly in love with Val Kilmer after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang?
Gay Perry is the boss.
And how freaking good is the trailer for Iron Man 3?

I think i've probably fangirled out enough for one day.
Time for tunes:




Listening to: Shinies 'Pillow Talk'

heathers

If i have to suffer...
...then you have to suffer too.
Every morning, without fail.
I hate my brain.

little rituals

building paradisaic blood
by 

I know for a fact that this image will not sit well with a lot of people.
It doesn't exactly sit well with me but i find myself kind of fascinated by it.
Taxidermy is something that perplexes me, i never know where i stand.
I have only been to the Natural History Museum in London once but i remember being enchanted. 
I was just a little girl so the majesty of these preserved creatures seemed otherworldly to me, the realness of something that used to live and breathe just as i do wasn't apparent then, it was just this incredible array of animals standing before me.
It's soberingly clear now but i can still see the beauty in it, i just don't know if it's right. 
To document our natural history, i suppose we have to. 
But where does that end? 
Will they stuff and mount me when i kick the bucket? 
Would i allow them?
I don't think i would and i at least have the choice.
But.
(There's that stupid word again.)
I can't stop looking at these two rats.
The idea behind it of the absurdity of what we do to animals to perfect our species is elegantly done.
This doesn't feel grotesque or over the top, it's not out to shock for shocking sake.
Meagan Jenigen isn't bullying you with this image but merely presenting the facts.
And that's why i can't tear my eyes away. 
So, i'm going to ask you a favour.
If you look at this image and are instantly disgusted, then please steal yourself to look again, just the once and see if you can find any of what i'm rambling on about within it.
I could be completely wrong but that's art, isn't it?
Nobody has the final say on what's wrong and what's right.
It's how it makes you feel and whether you agree with it or not, disgust is a valid emotion when applied to art.
Not everything was made to be pretty and easy to digest.

I've seen a lot of remarkable art today.
My brain feels the better for it.
But i think i've made the tendonitis come back in my hands from all the time i've spent ambling through DA.
Ugh, RSI sucks!



Listening to: Stalking Horse '99 Stairs'

snowpocalypse

January 25, 2013

I thought i should take a few photos of snowmageddon before it melted back from whence it came.
But to be honest, i was more interested in the light being formed as the sun went down.
Please excuse my somewhat blurry photographs near the end. 
I have hands that shake like a crack addict's and my camera doesn't know how to deal with this.
Even with an anti-shake feature!
Useless.
Shaky photos aside, well done nature, you put on a splendid show this evening.
You even married perfectly with the music i was listening to.
Very well done indeed.
Today is a nerdy t shirt kind of day:
Available from the Etsy store:


My hair completely obscures The Wolf Man.
Sorry about that.
The Bon Iver version of this t shirt may have fallen into my basket by accident also.
And i might be angling for The Decemberists one in the near future.
And Godzilla...

I need help.
Etsy's a wicked temptress that steals all my money.
I kid you not.

Oh well, here's a song made entirely of happy:

Not too sure how i feel about the album as a whole but this song makes me want late summer nights out in the open countryside, with good people, talking about nothing in particular.
Like when i was a kid and my people were only minutes away.
I miss being a kid.
I just bummed myself out, with a happy song.
That's talent.
In abundance.



Listening to: Think About Life 'The Wizzzard'

conduits

courtesy of 
the staff at BuzzFeed.com

Oh, Buzz, you always make me smile.

I apologise in advance if gifs have the tendency to make your computer freak out.
It's worth it though.
I swears it.



Listening to: Pas/Cal 'The Truth Behind All The Vogues She Sold'

sinsin


Signed up with Bandcamp this evening.
I'm already in love with this song.
I fear for my bank balance.

canker-blossom

Throughout my home there lies a trail of books and amongst them you will find at least one book of Shakespeare every seven steps.
I was a very lucky child being brought up on a diet of his matchless tales, 
holidays in Stratford Upon Avon to visit Anne Hathaway's cottage and being taken to see Shakespeare's plays performed on stage at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

A neat fact: 
I saw David Tennant, in the flesh, playing Romeo in the RSC's 2000 production of Romeo & Juliet.

I had no idea at the time but as i recall, he was pretty damn good.
I was genuinely dismayed when Tennant performed his last and fatal act as Romeo.
Isn't that just the most frustrating moment? 
If he'd only taken some time to get a little more information or she'd woken a few seconds later. 
If, if, if, if, if.
Frustrating.
But this is why it remains one of the greatest stories ever told.
I remember being infuriated by my 1st year high school English teacher robbing me of the last six lines of the play when we were reading it aloud in class.
I wanted to throw my book at his head.
Repeatedly.  
Those lines are flawless and i'd worked out days before that i would get to say them.
That bastard.
See, still bitter.
Anyhow.
Last night, during my nightly pottering around the house, i picked up a book called, 'How Shakespeare Changed Everything'.
Within this book there's a passage in reference to teenagers, the 'blazing youth' he called them:

Shakespeare created this category of humanity, which now seems as organic to us as the spring. In place of nostalgia and loathing, Shakespeare would have us look at teenagers in a spirit of wonder, even the spotty ones and the awkward ones and the wild ones. They're us before they fall into categories: not children, not adults, not monsters, not saints. They're beautiful because they do not fit. They're too much themselves and not enough.

I will now be reading 'How Shakespeare Changed Everything' as soon as my sister is done with it.
It is hers after all.

For Christmas, i was spoiled rotten with books.
It was great.
And one of the many i received was a leather bound copy of 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare', produced by Barnes & Noble.
It's everything i want a book to be.
Beautiful detailing on the binding, marble paper lining the inside, gold edged pages and of course, a bookmark made of ribbon. 
It even smells awesome.
If you tell me you've never sniffed a book and not longed for charming, old libraries then i don't believe you're real.
Not one bit.
Get thee back, non-book lovers.

Here's a look at my edition of the Bard's legacy: 
Pretty, ain't it?

Today.
For pure adolescent enjoyment, my sisters and i have been cussing each other out using The Shakespeare Insult Kit.
It's really rather hurtful when you're on the receiving end.
Have a try, you beslubbering, clapper-clawed, flap-dragons.

Fare thee well.



Listening to: Conduits 'Last Dirge'

hunted

January 24, 2013

This is how long it would take The Utopia Inquiry to track me down.
Only 6hrs 59minutes shy of 'off the grid'?
That's pretty slick and i'm anything but.



Listening to: Howard Shore & Metric 'I Don't Want To Wake Up'

dr. claw

Apparently i resemble Dr. Claw just now.
What with having my mum's heated, enormo-glove adorning one hand.
My gloveless hand is really quite cold in comparison.
Sad hand.

manatees assemble!

Joel Harris, you're a badass.
To see his complete mammalian reworking of The Justice League, go directly here.
I can totally see this as a kids TV series.
I'd watch it for sure.
As long as Renner, Hemsworth, Evans and the rest of the gang voice the manatee versions of themselves.
Yessum.


Watching: Luther Season 2

benno

Right this very second, i just finished watching Cosmopolis.
And i think i need to watch it again.
Whilst not surfing the net.
Or letting my attention wander to the mesmerising amount of distance between Pattinson's eyes. 
It's a drawing habit, measuring faces in my head, i can't seem to help it.

Ugh, why does this story frustrate me so?
It's like reading the book all over again.
I seem to glaze over as the very first word is spoken and it pisses me off.
Grumble.

What was unquestionably excellent, however, was the soundtrack.
Howard Shore and Metric did a sumptuous job.
From the opening sequence i was hooked into the sound of it all, if not the rest.
All my attention was plugged into when the next instalment of music would arrive and i relished in every bit of it.
That's something at least.


Again.
I'll watch you again.
Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe in a year.
But again.
Definitely, again.


Listening to: Howard Shore & Metric 'Asymmetrical' 

be still my heart

Oh, my, freaking goodness.

Available in Britain on the 8th of April.
A day earlier than America.
Are we more beloved? 
Who cares, new songs, newww songs!


Watching: American Dad

ingrid

January 23, 2013

Cute.

learning to love her lazy eye

One last thing before i sleep. 

unsettled and unable

The fact that the new Scrobbler for Last.fm now includes Spotify makes me a very happy girl indeed.
Gone are the days of constantly opening or refreshing my Last.fm profile page to 'love' a track.
Thank you Last.fm for aiding in my sloth-like behaviour.
What a champ.

Ps. don't google the word scrobbler, i am now scarred for life.
You have to now, don't you?
I'm sorry.
Kind of.


Listening to: Bexar Bexar 'Oil Thumbprints'

summertime is coming

Addicted to this:
this:

and in serious need of one of these:


Watching: Utopia Ep.2

broadcast

January 22, 2013


This was born from coloured pencils and something far beyond my ken.
I find myself bewitched by it.
Just as i am listening to Broadcast's closing composition for Peter Strickland's latest film, Berberian Sound Studio:
I'm so looking forward to watching this.


Listening to: Vampire Hands 'In America'

gun

January 21, 2013

I'm in the midst of a clerical job right now.
A job i can do from my kitchen table whilst watching Luther, but a job nonetheless. 
This isn't just an excuse to adorn my blog with Idris Elba.
Brownie's Honour.
I love this show and i cannot wait for the new series to arrive later this year, hopefully.

At the end of Series One's debut episode, they play Emiliana Torrini's blindingly good song, 'Gun'.

I always forget about this song because Torrini is a tad too whiney for my liking, so i tend to avoid her music like i do social situations. 
This song though, it's up there with some of my favourites.
There's a pulse running through its entirety that you'll feel instantly and it doesn't let go until the song's done with you.
Why can't her music be more like that? 
It makes me grumpy.

On another musical note, i've had this stuck for around three days now.
It's a classic but i'm starting to become slightly unhinged with  it.
Maybe it's my brain's way of telling me to play Guitar Hero
That's definitely it.


Listening to: Dunes 'Handle'

christine brown

So, i'm about four years late in watching this but give me a break, i'm a very busy girl.
...
Hah, can't even convince myself that's true.
Bone. Freaking. Idle.
Not proud, i just have a very particular set of skills.
Wow, i'm lame.
Moving on.
For some inexplicable reason, i still have faith in Sam Raimi.
Even after the diabolical flop that was the Spiderman trilogy.
I fully believe there is no way to make Spiderman a cool guy.
Peter Parker is just a nerdy kid with one-liners spilling out of every available orifice and within the comic books that's the way he should forever remain but this character does not translate well to film.
He would need a full personality change to come over as anything but a douche, a sweet, somewhat unaware douche but still a douche!
To be fair, i haven't seen Marc Webb's take on old Spidey yet but i can pretty much gather that it'll be the movie Sam Raimi made but marginally better, redundant however, because it's all too little, too late...
But the man's responsible for The Evil Dead!
All hail the man that gave Bruce Campbell his boomstick.
That gives him a free pass for life and with Drag Me To Hell he rose a great deal in my favour once more.
It broke a rule though.
A very important rule.
I do not do animal death in films.
Even possible death.
I can't watch Independence Day anymore, mostly because i'm so damn tired of it but because i spend the entire movie worrying about the President's dog.
When i was younger, i was fully traumatised watching Homeward Bound due to the stress of witnessing these three animals spend most of the film trying not to get flattened/eaten/mauled and so on and so upsettingly forth.
I can't even talk about I Am Legend.

It's exhausting being this mental.

So Mr Raimi, i'm not happy.
You owe me a kitten.
A fluffy one.


Listening to: Vampire Hands 'No Joy'
© midnight hagette. Design by FCD.