I went to Neuschwanstein on Saturday. I've been there before but I was four years old and don't remember a thing. The castle was absolutely beautiful. It looked exactly like a fairytale castle even though I did get a bit of a Michael Jackson-Neverland ranch vibe from it (I have no idea why). The inside was nice, but what I love most was the shape of the windows and the view from them of the mountains and picture-perfect lake. I also loved his little chapel in this room, with a turquoise ceiling and gold stars painted on it. I once went to a church in Rome which had a similar ceiling in one of the rooms where the nuns prayed. It oozed spirituality and reverance and warmth.
Welcome to the unveiling of my super secret project, which is a collection for iPod covers. Though it isn't world peace or some sort of magic formula, I think keeping our mp3 players fashionable and warm this winter is an important cause that needed some dire attention.
This collection was modeled by the muse, Fashion Baby the iPod nano.
Bill Gates Before Windows. Courtesy of TheSmokingGun.com
Hello peeps! Sorry it has taken me so long to post. I've been pretty busy lately getting to know Munich and living life. It's weird how I have seen more of this city over the past 4 months than I have over the past 4 years. It's been nice :). I have missed Le Blog and you guys though (well, except you people who I have been hanging out with. Actually you are to blame for me neglecting my blog. For shame [wags finger]!). How have you been?
I have also been working on my super secret project, which I finally completed tonight :D!! I will unveil it on Sunday, so stay tuned.
I was surfing the net today and started exploring TheSmokingGun.com. In addition to the gem above, they also have mug shots of Rosa Parks, Larry King and Jane Fonda, among others. It's fun if you have a couple of hours to waste.
I signed up to www.nanowrimo.org and I am totally looking forward to it! Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in November and the aim is to write a novel and get to 50,000 words (or beyond). It has to be a brand new novel and you cannot begin prioir to Nov. 1 and cannot write beyond Nov. 30. I have decided to write a survival guide for being 26 and confused. Being 26 and quite often confused myself, I figure I should be able to write 50,000 words worth. It will be really hard since I will be gone for 10 days of the month without my computer, but that's what my moleskin is for ;).
Tomorrow I am off to Neuschwanstein, a castle near Munich. I will bring some pictures back to share with you all.
A beautiful flowy baby doll dress by Nathan Jenden. All images courtesy of Style.com
I did not know Nathan Jenden before seeing his designs that he presented at New York Fashion Week for Spring RTW 07. I liked some of his stuff, except for the bows in the hair and MC Hammeresque shorts. The dress pictured above took my breath away. I don't know where I would wear it. Probably a glamorous summer party where I could stand on the patio and enjoy the view of the stars while mingling with the guests. Or some late night clubbing at the hottest spot in town. Or maybe even an wards show. Sigh. Here are a pick of my favorite items:
Beautiful jacket, ideally worn over a pale blue baby doll dress
Diddy is kinda lame (no kidding) but combined with the video below, it's HILARIOUS. Check out Diddy on youtube (above), and then this chick called LisaNova on youtube (below).
"We're buying a channel on youtube, even though they're free, just because we're that smart." Classic.
I don't really like the trailer to 'The Science of Sleep' because, like most trailers, I find it misleading on what the film is about. But it's better than nothing. I saw the film last night and LOVED it. It is the most honest movie I've seen since Garden State. It is about about Stephane, played by the seductive Gael García Bernal, who lives in a surreal world and mixes up dreams with reality and reality with dreams. His father passes away so he moves from Mexico to Paris to be with his French mother. She puts him up in a mundane job at a calendar company and he falls in love with his neighbor's friend, and then ultimately his neighbor who has the same childlike creative take on the world that he does, only she always knows where dreams end and reality begins. The movie is in Spanish, French and English, so all you multilinguals out there are going to have lots of fun with this.
Where is the honesty in it all? It's the notion of being a creative person stuck in a job where you are no more than a cog in a machine. It's falling in love with one person only to realize that it is the other person who is an extension of who you are. It is dealing with a parent who tries to make you someone your not and simply doesn't understand you. And it's about the frustration of dealing with someone you care about, but cannot communicate with since they seem to live on another planet half the time.
The sets were divine. They used lots of materials, yarn, buttons toilet rolls etc. that were all very tangible and childlike.
Here are some excerpts from an interview with the writer and director, Michel Gondry (no I did not interview him, it's from the official website):
I think many artists spend a lot of time developing their skills to compensate for their inability to reach out. You want to make an object that is an intermediary between you and someone else, instead of directly talking to them. You want people to take notice of you, and ultimately, you want to find a girlfriend.
Basically, when these artists are out in the world trying to find a mate, also out there are the people who didn’t waste their time being artists. So they are out on the market, getting all the girls before you. It’s what happened to Stephane.
Stephane has your creative gifts, but he hasn’t been able to make them work for him in the real world, as you have.
He makes these great things for Stephanie. But he’s so into his own world that when he tries to be with her it doesn’t work. She has a down-to-earth quality that makes his neurosis a little scary for her. You can see their difference when he says that the glasses allow you to see real life in 3D, and she says, “Life is in 3D already.” She’s more aware of what’s out there, and he’s more inside, more oblivious."
You tend to work with effects in two ways. Sometimes it’s technologically astounding: it makes you wonder how it was done; and sometimes it looks like an idea a clever child might have come up with.
I’m aware of both sides. I’m aware that sometimes people can be really amazed by the precision of the technology, but on the other hand, I like it to be naïve, handmade and crafted. It’s a combination. But it’s hard to maintain that in a film. There are so many people involved and everybody tends to polish everything.
There are a lot of things we see in animation where it’s so perfect you can’t see the difference compared to CGI. It’s so detailed and perfect. When people try to be too good it’s detrimental to the spontaneity.
I’m a very good animator, and when you look at some of the backgrounds in “The Science of Sleep,” they’re really detailed--but there’s an intentional clumsiness to the way they’re conceived. I wanted to be sure we preserved this handmade quality in the movie.
You made all the animation ahead of time. How long did the process take?
Five years ago, I bought my Aunt’s house in the mountains. At one time there was a saw-mill there. All the equipment was gone; it was just a bare warehouse. It’s pretty small, but we transformed it into a mini-factory for animation.
We shot all the animation for “The Science of Sleep” with a crew of about ten people over the course of two months. We got a lot out of those two months – it cost nearly the equivalent of adding a week to the budget if we had the full cast and crew working, which is still quite a lot of money – but the effort was worth it. We created the dream world before we began shooting the film, before the story was fully completed. During the shooting, I had to work around the dreams, rather than the other way around. It made the film more interesting, because it wasn’t done in the typical way where the dreams follow the arc of the story.
Toni Maticevski's Little White Dress. All Images Courtesy of Style.com
Soooo all the fashion weeks are currently taking place, which means I get to play dress up with clothes I don't own and decide what to wear for occasions I don't go to. I've already picked out about 200 outfits in New York and am getting ready to move on to Paris, London and Milan. I'm totally excited, I feel like I'm dressing up my Barbies again... Anyyyyyyyhoo, let's start with the little white dress, which looks like it will be a must have next spring.
Le classy one by Badgley Mischka. Ideal for a semi-professional luncheon in a trendy New York restaurant.
Le day dress to be enjoyed at a picnic in Central Park. By Badgley Mischka
A little Thakoon number I would wear with platforms and huge Jackie O sunglasses for a day of uptown shopping.
Stop by an evening beach party in Chaiken
A dress for an MTV awards after party by Oscar de la Renta.
I realize this 3.1 Phillip Lim dress looks a little like a sheet, but I love it.
Simply devine by Marc Jacobs. But where would I wear this? A special date? An awards show? Around the house when I feel down? I just can't decide.
Le Dom, conveniently situated right next to the train station
Last week I was sent to Cologne on business. That sounds much more professional and important than it was, trust me. Anyhoo, at least it gave me a chance to get out of Munich a little, spend the night in a hotel and see a city I have never been to before. Cologne was interesting, especially the view from the bridge at night. You can see three beautiful historic structures among a sea of industrial boxy buildings that look like were put up in a hurry. The vibe of the city was different than Munich. It's much livelier and for some strange reason felt like being in the DDR in the 80s. I've never actually been to the DDR in the 80s, but that's how I imagine it would have been like. Here are some photos of what I discovered:
Cool KGB bar with red interior
More KGB bar
Bar right next to the KGB bar
My hotel room bed in green light
Painting in my room hotel, also bathed in green light
“I came from Newcastle in the North of England. We used to have lots of parties where everyone got dressed up. And on one party invitation was the quote ‘she was never bored because she was never boring.’ The song is about growing up—the ideals that you have when you’re young and how they turn out.”
- The Pet Shop Boys
