Main Tabs

31.1.12

Agyness Deyn and Birds of Prey

I recently saw the short film Here, promoting Starwood's The Luxury Collection of hotels.  The film was directed by Luca Guadagnino (who did I Am Love (2009), a heartbreakingly beeeeyoutiful film!!) and conceptualized by Waris Ahluwalia (what does this guy not do?) and (swooon) Tilda Swinton.

The film features Agyness Deyn on a luxurious treasure hunt of sorts to various hotels around the US.  Beyond noting the amazing wardrobe, locations (etc.) of the film, I remarked a moment when Agyness receives a message from an eagle (or falcon? A hawk?) Take a look below.

Notice the name of this post is "Birds of Prey"?  Where is the other bird you might be wondering?  As I am sometimes a little slow with being on top of music, I had only seen the (awesomely styled) clip for Woodkid's Iron (see footnote below!) just recently, and lo and behold what do I see? Why it's Agyness again! This time with a an owl of prey!


But the birdie link doesn't stop there.
Woodkid's Iron was also used as the soundtrack in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Revelations E3 trailer, and what do we see in the trailer?


What?! It's too good to be true! Ummm, yeah it is....
Actually this bird comes from another version of the trailer, the one sans Woodkid.
Close enough right?
..
..
..
FOOTNOTE BABY!
I have to add that the Woodkid Iron video recalled to mind another clip, very different in content but strangely familiar.  I refer to Jay-Z's On to the Next One directed by Sam Brown.  I have lots of love to share about this clip, with its nod to hip-hop symbols, art references and a fischerspooner-ish warrior chick.  Take a peek at both clips and judge for yourself.
...and there is a bird!


28.1.12

Saturday Newspaper

I'd like to call this installment: You Know You Spend Too Much Time On The Internet When...
I just took a look at today's Globe and Mail, and saw these sunglasses on the front page.

 

Without a second of hesitation I said "Suno x Warby Parker!" to myself. Then realized maybe I spend too much time reading up on fashion online...

Blackbox Studios

Ohhh, there's a new studio in town...
I speak of Blackbox Studios, located in Little Italy, tucked in among industrial and residential buildings, this is one sexy little studio.  Ok, so I couldn't find a single link for the space but it's pretty brand spanking new, one of the partners of this venture is here.

***update 17.02.12*** they now have a link!  www.studioblackbox.ca

Not to be confused with Black Box Productions or Hexagram's Black Box, Blackbox Studios is a photo studio that inspired many "ohhhs" and "ahhhs" and at least one "I want to live here!"

Ohhhh, that beautiful wood plank wall!!  What you might notice is that there is a lot of natural light and high ceilings, injecting an awesome energy into the space.

Some vintage furniture to recline in.

I love this taupe-y pale colour palette, mixed with blacks.  The clothes are extra inspiring when viewed on these Hay Loop wardrobe stands.

A tree stump serves as a stool or side table.

A view of the space from the back at the end of the day. Sigh.

27.1.12

Batman and Robin


Batbond and Robin speculate art and if it ruled the world.
A paste up in near Little Italy.

23.1.12

Rainbow Chard

Today I'm going to share a veggie that admittedly I am not very familiar with. Other than eating some steamed swiss chard from my aunt's garden I can't say that I've had many other experiences with it.
But then I got a blender for Christmas and started blending a bunch (haha) of greens as a morning smoothie.
Lo and behold the rainbow chard called out to me.

While reading up on this veggie, I also learned that rainbow chard is not a variety in of itself (although that would be so cool), but various stalks put together.  So much for crazy colours growing all together.

One stalk in my bunch was twice the size of my head:

WHAT?! That thing is huge!
Then I drank it all...with a banana, some pineapple, and a bit of fresh parsley.
Take that giant chard! Muahhh hahaha!

20.1.12

Sad Bicycles

I never really understood why people left their bicycles out in the winter. Sometimes leaving them abandoned to face the elements or worse-the snow plows.  Today we will look at some examples of sad bicycles.  The above image is a wheel just asking for trouble...Viewer warning:  there might be some aesthetically mangled objects.

 above:  is that a bicycle?

 
 above: miracle of miracles! It has been spared!


 

above: Hey! It's my knit grafitti bike! Still there and attached to the bike stand that has been dislodged by the snowploughs! 

...and last but not least, this is what happens when your bike is left to it's own devices in wintertime.  There's one excuse to get that fixie you were jonesing for this spring.

18.1.12

Dessert Dessert


Chocolate terrine. Caramel. Smoked toffee. Maybe that's whip cream on top.
It's all a blur. 
Now you see it.


Smash!
And by chocolate terrine I mean three layers of chocolate.
White. Milk. Dark.
Go!


Going.
Totally gone.
That delicious dessert was devoured at L'Orignal.
Thank you very much.

16.1.12

Weekend of Guitars

I can pinpoint the moment when I decided folk music (and its related genres) wasn't all that bad.

It was in 2007, I was driving up with a group of friends from Kentucky back to Montreal.
Their ipod was uniquely filled with soft melodies, minor keys, acoustic guitars, and melancholic lyrics.  While I have always been a fan of the list above, somehow the combination always failed to enlighten me.  Or maybe grunge of the 90s and electronic music of my raver era had too strong of a hold on me.  But there came a point when I admitted "yknow maybe Manu Le Malin might be a bit much."

Henceforth the ipod revealed to me the soothing sounds of Great Lake Swimmers and the opening track "Moving Pictures, Silent Films," me being a film nerd, I was sold!

Fast forward to this past weekend where I enjoyed many local sounds from the softer side of the music spectrum.


The hipstamatik picture above was taken at a loft space on Beaumont where we were treated to many musical talents.  One band being No Family, who affirmed that yes, I do love the banjo.  I did not take any images of them, but I found a good clip from a show at Sala Rosa.

The man we came to hear was Beaver, a man about town, a staple of Montreal-ness.  My companions to the show shared their stories of Beaver, the kareoke nights and the old cock n'bull.  I greeted Beaver at the door with a high-five, uncertain if he would remember me from a mutual friend's mother's birthday party. 



And then he played. It was awesome, beautiful and sincere.  I gave him another high-five on the way out.



Rounding up my weekend was a Sunday afternoon show at Vices & Versa with Malcolm Bauld and Abigail Lapell.  I finally picked up Malcolm's vinyl pressing of Covered in Dust, it is awesome! A nice way to end a minus 30c weekend.

14.1.12

Snow, Lights and Icicles


Happy winter wonderland to those who have a big pile of snow on their doorstep!
To those who don't, here's what you're missing out on: minus one million celius!  
At least it's somewhat pretty.


Lights on snow on St-Laurent.


Icicles!! Brrr....


Remnants of holiday lights near René-Lévesque.

Stay warm!

12.1.12

Carrot and Cabbage


Some friends of mine whipped up this awesome super easy salad for me not too long ago and I recreated it the other day.
And here it is to share with you!

-carrot
-red cabbage
-sesame oil
-a touch of soy sauce if you like
-pepper


toss, serve, deelish!


and those lovely salad servers are by Blisscraft&Brazen, handmade with love!

8.1.12

Docu-Bonanza!

Dear friends,
It has been a couple of days since my last post, as I have locked myself in with a pile of documentaries that I will share with you.


First up: L'amour fou (2010), a documentary centered around the relationship of Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé, his life and business partner, and the auction of their art collection after Saint-Laurent's death.  Told mostly from a series of interviews with the poetic Bergé, the film is revealing and at times touching, but unfortunately failed to engage me, keeping the viewer at arms length.  The final scene of the auction itself should feel like some kind of crescendo but comes across as selling a whole lot of stuff, without knowing the history behind certain pieces with their owners.  Although, I must add that watching art being moved is fascinating for real!

A quote from Bergé:
"C'était une très belle époque, Marrakech. Une époque que je ne me souviens pas avec nostalgie-parce que je n'ai pas de tout de la nostalgie-mais avec beaucoup de joie, c'était une histoire de jeunesse."



 Up next: Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child (2010), an awesome documentary on the late artist (who died at 27!!) told with many modern day interviews as well as director Tamra Davis' interview with Basquiat from the 1980s in its VHS glory.  While I have never really been attached to Basquiat's work, I had some familiarity with it, as I had seen Julian Schnabel's biopic years ago when I was going through an Andy Warhol obsession.  While still not more enamored with Basquiat's work itself, I have a giant pile of respect for the man himself and have too, too many good words about this film!  If anything I LOVE LOVE LOVE, learning about someone's artistic practice/process/methods to madness.  Whew! Good stuff!

Would you like a quote?:
"He never copied. He always improvised a total revision, Jean Michel was demanding that, "if you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence.  It's simply someone's idea going through my new mind."



Last film: Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) is a documentary about the development of battery operated electric vehicles that first appear on California roads in the late 1990s.  While there is enthusiasm for the cars, corporate bullying ensues (from car and petroleum industries) and eventually all electric cars are crushed.to.death.
Sigh.
Oh the irony, given that in the present day we now have steady popularity of hybrid vehicles.  I suppose that the hybrid might be a happy medium?  Ok, I'd already seen this film before but I felt the need for a refresher, given that the film Revenge of the Electric Car (2011) is on my list of films to see.

Fave quote: "America is addicted to oil." George W. Bush

6.1.12

Optical Printer


I was hanging around Main Film today and feasted my eyes upon the beast pictured above.  The Oxberry is an optical printer of intimidating proportions for those like yours truly who has never dabbled with effects on film.


So what does the optical printer do you might ask? Pre-CGI baby! Take a look at this video featuring the ILM dudes piecing together flying objects and a background in Star Wars.


If you really want to geek out, here is an article of the making of the special effects from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

And a little closer to home, François Miron is a Montreal filmmaker who has mastered the art of the optical printer in experimental film, his process immortalized in this awesome Rick Trembles cartoon.

4.1.12

Heathers

Ok friends, I'm going to admit something...I just saw Heathers for the first time.

A group of friends decided to have a monthly movie night where one person is selected to bring a film that will please a group of varying cinematic tastes (so unfortunately Last Year at Marienbad will not fly) and present the surprise film with an oral "book report."

This is apparently a teenage cult classic film of a the John Hughes era (aka the 1980s), a must-see, and the precursor of all "mean girls" type films.  I had a bit of difficulty with my suspension of disbelief at first, but then I let myself get swept by the surreality of the high school hierarchy in cinema.  Our discussion after the film was centered around this question: can a Heathers-type movie be produced today?  Given the sensitivity of guns and murder in a high school setting, post-Columbine or closer to home, post-Dawson, could this plot exist?

2.1.12

Three Lockets


























Juliana's three unusual looking pendants caught my eye the other night and I asked her to tell me about them.  The vintage-y looking pieces turned out to be a set of lockets by Juicy Couture. Oh! What a surprise! I said; being used to associating the brand with hearts and jangly charm bracelets.  I loved the way Juliana wore them open, so I asked her what inspired her to do so. She replied: "they don't stay closed."

1.1.12

Cartman and Goldfish


Happy new year! Happy 2012! Aaaaand maybe the end of the world according to some?
But in the meantime have a lovely new year from Cartman and a large plastic goldfish I spotted in a bathroom possibly exchanging the midnight kiss.
Bonne année!