Sunday 18 April 2010

Weekending

Dreaming of Coachella this week as the American festival is taking place and probably ending very soon.  Some heat would be nice since Glasgow seems to have experienced it's summer (last weekend) and it's been and gone.  Mark and I could see our breath this morning as we walked to get a Sunday fry-up.  This weekend we managed to watch Psycho at the GFT which was brilliant and with a good turn out to top it off.  Two horrors two weekends in a row, I feel a trend coming on.  

We also managed to take a disasterous trip to a bar called Hummingbird on Bath Street.  It was Saturday night and we were starving after a 6pm cinema showing.  We ordered a sushi platter for £8.50 and yes, in hindsight, it is a bit stupid to order specialised Japanese grub from a posh pub but anything sushi related and we're sold.  Anyway the food came and it was a measly portion of five tiny slabs of badly put together rice and cucumber maybe?  I couldn't taste anything fish like so I'm guessing there was a slither of a vegetable in there.  £8.50?!  We (rather Mark) commented to a worker there that it was a tiny portion for the price who replied that it was definitely tiny.  It would have been nice for her to tell us when we ordered with our crappy Aberdonian ignorance.  Actually it is criminal that she didn't tell us.  You live and you learn. 

On a more positive note we visited the Made in The Shade Spring Jamboree at the Lighthouse on Saturday afternoon.  Great for a rake and certainly the most stylish folk in Glasgow were there.  I felt we should have dressed for the fifties.  Also, the stereo was blaring fifties tunes including some Elvis which was lovely. 

The Glasgow Boys exhibition at the Kelvingrove museum is well worth a visit.  As is the transport museum but as it's the last day today there won't be a chance to see it until it has relocated to it's new home.  
The next Springtime Jamboree is in Edinburgh on Saturday 15th May. Click here for more details.

Bye bye transport museum for now...

The Coachella line up.  Would have been fun.

These Urban Outfitters bags have been catching my eye recently.  But obviously I can't afford to buy any of them.  I don't think I would really pay £215 for a bum bag.  This is true by the way, the bum bag you see is £215.  That is the craziest thing to come across in a high street shop.  I remember I had a disgusting purple and grey bum bag when I was wee.  They really are pretty good for carrying things around in.  I bet they're great for festivals.



Drawstring.

Multicoloured bum bag for  80s wannabes with money to spare.

This satchel is dreamy.  But costs an arm and a leg but not as much as a bum(bag). £108 to be exact.

In other relevant news, up there with the popularity surge of Nick Clegg (has everyone gone mad?) Jaime Winstone, daughter of Roy, is setting off on a road trip across the Mojave desert in America to Las Vegas.  The theme is apparently Alabama in True Romance.  Their soundtrack will be the Big Pink, the Slits, Hendrix and Wham, so Style magazine tells me.  This sounds like a fun trip.  I notice a few similarities between the two.  Mainly the blonde rough bob and strong lipstick and fun fashion choices.  This makes me like Jaime as Alabama is ace.

Jaime Winstone

Clarence and Alabama AKA Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette. 
Leopard love.

Match your shades to your bra and your earings and who needs a top?

FINALLY I've come to the end of a daft blog update.   I noticed this photo of Selma Blair at a recent do and isn't she looking great?  I love her hair.  If anyone knows of any cheap but decent hairdressers in Glasgow please let me know.  Would be quite nice to have a wee cut before I head to a wedding on 1st of May!

Jaime's road trip soundtrack:

Sunday 11 April 2010

Birds

Yesterday I explored the west end of Glasgow as it was blazing sunshine.  The grey urbanised squirrels in Kelvingrove Park are bold as anything and one placed itself right in front of a toddler's buggy and studied the child's face.  It was really funny to watch.  Ashton Lane feels like it's a music festival on sunny days and reeks of beer and fake tan and big groups of mates.  

Birds will be the animals du jour for summer.  So if you're not a fan of our winged friends in real life wear them printed on your clothes.  



Swallow kirbys from Topshop.
Swallow studs from Miss Selfridge.

Swallow crop top from Topshop

Bracelet from Miss Selfridge.

Bird printed tea dress from Oasis.

Bird printed dress from New Look.

Yesterday Cape Fear was being shown at the Grosvenor cinema on Ashton Lane.  The 1991 Scorcese re-make has turned into a classic horror thriller and the score makes it unforgettable.  De Niro is outstanding as always.  I hope I never run into Max Cady.  

The pitfalls and the loopholes of the legal system. Truth and Justice.

A babyfaced Juliette Lewis is brilliant in it.  She should never have started singing.

Wednesday 7 April 2010

Leopard on leopard

WOW! ASOS is having a mid-season sale with lots of lovely things up for grabs.  Living a short walk away from Glasgow city centre is very cruel so I've fuelled my shopping demons by looking through the ASOS sale online.  There's a lot of nice things.  Here's my picks:





A personal favourite of mine are these leopard print L'Autre booties reduced from £340 to £136.  Big discount but still not cheap.




And layering leopard on leopard is the way to go.




Tuesday 6 April 2010

Glasgow bound

I have temporarily relocated to Glasgow and it has rained cats and dogs the whole time.  Luckily that's just a day so fingers crossed for some waterless skies.  With the disorientation comes sausage dogs in Nintendo Gameboy suits.  This really makes me want a sausage dog and also a Gameboy.  There is also a red Mario outfit, a green Luigi one and Princess Peach.  Click here for more Urban Puppy information.    


From one ridiculous animal to another here is Darius the 3 and a half stone bunny.  Read more about him here.   

And a paedo looking bear on a cake?!  I'm unsure what's going on here but it certainly looks suspicious.

On a more civilised note I am Loving the look of these flat boots from Penelope and Coco's Spring line.  Lots of studs and laces.  My feet are definitely not ready for open toed anything and the weather is not permitting anyway. 


Sunday 4 April 2010

Education

I finally watched An Education after banging on about the lead actress Carey Mulligan for so  long.  It's an enjoyable watch and Mulligan really is outstanding.  However it left me feeling like Mulligan's character Jenny was a spoiled brat rather than an intelligent girl who craved all things French (which she was too).

Anyone who thinks that much of going to Oxford is clearly not my type of person - a university is a university.  They're all the same.  Uni for me left no impression in fact I can think of plenty of other things I should have had the courage to do instead.

The film has been shot in a really nice way, the scenes seem authentic to watch.  Sometimes when you watch films you see a bit of yourself in the characters and it's probably why you don't like them.

Saturday 3 April 2010

Horror

Mark pointed out a great article on the film Psycho which presented an analysis on how it changed cinema.  The film is brilliant and Alfred Hitchcock pushed film boundaries of the time.  It is now 50 years since the film was released to unsuspecting cinema-goers.  When you watch Psycho it is difficult to see the groundbreaking steps it took as films nowadays are so packed with sex, violence and everything in between.  In fact, I just saw the movie Kick Ass where an 11 year old girl uses the 'C' word and is battered by a middle aged man.  All in the name of comic book violence though.  Still the sort of things we're used to on screen in 2010 would have been alien to audiences in the 1960s.  

The shots in Psycho are chilling as is the use of music.  You spend the whole film in a state of tension eager to know what will happen next which is what a good horror does.  Hitchcock nailed it and set the bar for horror movies to this day.  The twist is chilling.

Edit:  I forgot to say that Psycho is showing at Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) from Friday 16th April until Thursday 22nd April. Who wants to see it on the big screen?  


Another nostalgic horror which is as gripping as Psycho is Roman Polanski's 1968 classic Rosemary's Baby.  Polanski, although a bit controversial (maybe an understatement), is a genius when he wants to be and this cinema great with a skeletal Mia Farrow as Rosemary is such a rollercoaster of a film.  Polanski sets you on every emotion possible as you try to figure out what the hell is going on.  It's so unbelievable it somehow works.  The black comedic value is integral to it because it doesn't take itself too seriously.  Nothing good comes of being vain and self centered.  

The clothes on film are very trendy of the time.  And Mia's pixie crop is still referenced constantly today.  
Perhaps the red jumpsuit she wears before being devoured by the cult group - or has a seriously creepy dream - depending on how you see it is a satanic deep red for a reason.  

The creepy couple next door, the Castevets, are trashy New Yorkers.  Look at those distasteful outfits.  They constantly provide the laughs in the films so it is hard to attach them to their real characters.  

At the start of the film Rosemary looks virginal all the time in loose fitting shift dresses, flat pumps and pretty fair hair - it's no wonder the devil wanted her.