The Magic Position

Whenever I need a pick-me-up, I know I can turn to Patrick Wolf's The Magic Position. This song is almost always on my workout mixes, is on all my fave iTunes playlists, and has been a go-to happy song since I was introduced to it a couple years ago.

Today I'm frustrated by an admittedly overly ambitious sewing project, so thought I'd have a mini dance party in my living room and work on other things for a bit. Now, you can too!

Be the Best!

This info-graphic is highly informative, yes, but also by turns insulting, hilarious, and spot on. As I work with almost exclusively Armenians, I have to say I found their title both amusing and accurate. As a gal dating a Kiwi, I think they've got that one right as well. And while I really don't want to admit that the American best is correct, I also don't think I can argue it.

Spicing up Dickens

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

The next book of the summer was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Montana Medal in 2007. Set on Bougainville Island during the civil war there in the 1990s, the novel is told from the perspective of a young teen girl, Matilda, who has spent her whole life in the same small village. Despite the conflict on the island, the only white man in the village, Mr. Watts, takes over the teaching responsibilities for the children of the island. He has no experience with teaching, so he does the only thing he knows. He reads to the students from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, aloud, from start to finish. He helps them understand Dickens' dense, wordy prose set in a far off land the students know nothing about: Victorian England. But as the civil war between the miners and the mining company brings violence and terror to the small village, Matilda and her fellow islanders must rely on the rich story of Pip's maturation to survive the atrocities.

Race is a major theme throughout the novel, with the black islanders, the brown fighters, the single white teacher... At the end of one chapter is one of the most well written discussions of white and black, as racial experiences, that I've seen in fiction. Because Mr. Watts is the only white person in the village, the racial scale is balanced quite differently than in many situations, but the black islanders still know what power having white skin can bring, the completely different mindset, however unconscious it may be, of being white.

Though the novel is immensely rich in thematic content, it is also an interesting, engaging read, told in the simple, straightforward voice of Matilda. I found it much more enjoyable than attempting to read Dickens, and I might even go so far as to say Jones takes Dickens to a whole new level. Perhaps it helps that Jones is not paid by the word, to write serially as Dickens was. Perhaps it is simply that Jones has a richer understanding of race and power, being from a colony himself, and one that still struggles with racial tension between the colonial descendants and the Pacific Islanders. Whatever the reason, Mister Pip fully earns the awards bestowed upon it, and I fully recommend it for your pleasure and education.

Whom Shall You Telegraph?

Check out this clever video of a very steampunky group of ghost busters!



They have several other videos, if you enjoy this one... I was particularly impressed by their clever wording on the title screens.

Window Shopping

Oh my my...

Have you seen the Lady Dior campaign yet? You can find it here.


I think my favorite is Lady Blue Shanghai, perhaps in part because I always enjoy being utterly perplexed by David Lynch. But Marion Cotillard makes for a swell dame noir in the Lady Noire film -- she always seems so impossibly vintage, doesn't she? And the Lady Rouge video grew on me, between her fab eye makeup as the lady in red, and her rocking performance with Franz Ferdinand in the chorus.

The funny thing is that I really don't see the appeal of the Dior bags -- but then, I really never go in for designer bags. I'm assuming that a fair portion of the wardrobe, at least for Cotillard, is Dior, and there were definitely some pieces to covet. I'll start with those sunglasses at the Eiffel Tower, followed by her suit in Shanghai. And I really really enjoy the campaign from a purely aesthetic perspective. Dior uses very talented people to create remarkable art, much as, I assume, they do with their product line. But I'll never see the appeal of a purse canvased in a designer logo, and I just don't get quilted patent leather. But I'm one of the few, so I'm sure we'll get to see plenty more of these delicious campaigns in the future, no?

Image found here.