Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe...

I have one question to ask Tim Burton. Why would you want to totally destroy a story as beautiful as Alice in Wonderland? OK, so like everyone else, I've only watched the hideous trailer, but really was there any need to create such a spewing, overbloated Disney CGI jabberwocky of a nightmare? The original story lies chopped up and strewn on the editing floor! I'd only just forgiven Mr Burton for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". And I really wanted to forgive him, because he's created such beautiful films like "Beetle Juice" and "Edward Scissorhands".  Interestingly, the UK Odeon chain of cinemas is now boycotting the film (because of the stupidity of Disney wanting to bring the DVD out early, again for financial reasons). I so wish that Tim Burton would go back to his artistic roots and create his own stories again (instead of mangling classics). And what's this new obsession with CGI? Instead, can we have more of the visually stunning and spectacular, but nevertheless subtle and delicate character portraits that we saw in the earlier years please?

Edward Scissorhands anybody?

Letters of Note

Sometimes you stumble upon an idea that is so ingenious that you simply can't understand why someone hadn't thought of it before. Enter "Letters of Note"; a blog, that publishes, funnily enough, "Letters of Note"...from the rich, famous and fabulous! I particularly like this Andy Warhol one, which is incredibly sweet and humble. It was written when Warhol was just starting out as an illustrator, and is a response to a request from Harpers Magazine for some biographical information. You'd never guess from this scribble that he would go on to become such a massive self-publisizing genius! http://www.lettersofnote.com/

Transcript

Hello mr lynes
thank you very much

biographical information

my life couldn't fill a penny postcard
i was born in pittsburgh in 1928 (like everyone else - in a steel mill)
i graduated from Carnegie Tech
now i'm in NY city moving from one roach infested apartment to another.

andy warhol

Things that make you go oooooooooh

Talk about a collaboration made in heaven. I clocked this wonderful photo today whist looking at Fred Butler's blog. She mainly designs one-off props to the fashion industry (for fashion shoots etc), and has been doing a lot of stuff with Lady Gaga lately. Apparently this showstopping headpiece was created for the Beyonce/ GaGa "Telephone" video. I would so love to wear it down my local pub and see what reaction I got! Anyways, here's the link for Fred's blog, which is utterly brilliant: http://fredbutlerstyle.blogspot.com/.

P.s, if you are a GaGa fan, do check this blog out from top fashion journalist and blogger Nicola Formichetti for a daily fix of pop input: http://nicolaformichetti.blogspot.com/

Return of the Riot Girrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl!

I'm not generally attracted to the crime fiction genre of literature as I have an aversion to grisly acts of violence and badly written prose. So I was a bit sceptical when "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was offered up as the next book for a reading group that I attend. I've mentioned this book to a few people now and it seems like the whole universe has either read the book or watched the film. Now that I've actually read the book I can understand the appeal. It does have a very sleek double plot, which unravels completely differently to how you'd expect it to. However, the main draw is the Dr Martin wearing , emotionally-bankrupt computer-hacking protagonist, Lisbeth Salander. All this got me thinking of the fantastic 80's Tank Girl comic strip from Jamie Hewlett (yes, he of the "Gorillaz" fame). We are now beginning to see grunge creeping back onto the catwalks. Perhaps after years of high heels, lipgloss and Cosmopolitans, it might just be time to dig out those out those old L7 records, dust off your tattered copy of the "SCUM Manifesto" and go forth and kick the new decade into touch with a pair of oversized Docs!

randomfashioncoolness

This is a great fashionblog that I've recently come across. The references are spot on, but what I especially like are the gorgeous pop photomontages in parma violet, cupcake pink and canary yellow. Sometimes blogs which are so visual can dumb down on the text, but this is not the case here. The wording is very eloquent and there's a lot of care taken with the detail. The below picture showcases the most incredible tights from "Queues de Sardines". Do enjoy. Here's the link. http www.randomfashioncoolness.com/blog/

Geordie Kiss

OK, so just imagine you are Cheryl Cole for a moment (not an easy task in visualization I must admit). Your first song is really catchy. 5 year olds throughout the land pester their parents to go out and buy your song by the bucketload from Tescos. On top of this you are riding high on your X-Factor success, with the media trying to present you as the 21st Century version of Vera Lynn. You even manage to get the guy from the Black-Eyed-Peas to do a tune with you AND appear in your video (yes, you heard me correctly, the guy from the Black-Eyed-Peas!) The only trouble is, the song sucks and nobody likes it (not even the 5 year olds that bought the first record - plus they force you to wear a dodgy blonde wig in the video - boo hoo). Only our Chezza could totally turn things around by releasing such a poptastic follow-up record like "Parachute". Cue accompanying stylish video with a  few Strictly-type tangoing male-hotties. Et voila, you are now ready for world pop domination.Watch. This. Space.

Cheryl Cole. Or is it Vera Lynn?

The King of Fashion

It does seem a bit uncomfortable writing a "tribute" post to Alexander McQueen, who only passed away yesterday (and yet there are blog posts and tribute articles everywhere in the media). I was genuinely very shocked and upset to hear that he had passed away. Obviously those who knew Lee McQeen the individual, rather than Alexander McQueen the label, are much better qualified to pay homage to him than myself. I will therefore keep it simple and post this beautiful photo of the wonderfully eccentric Daphne Guinness, adorned in operatic splendor!

The Original YBAs

If you fancy being a bit of a Stuckist, and would like to turn your nose up at Emin, Hirst, Taylor-Wood et al, then  head towards London this spring for two mega exhibitions. Tate Britain is holding a Henry Moore exhibition, containing, wait for it, over 150 sculptures and drawings! Follow this by trekking over to the Serpentine for a a bit of 60s-cool from British pop-godfather, Richard Hamilton. I shall be making the most of this opportunity whilst it lasts. It's very rare to have two major exhibitions for such great British artists being held in this country at the same time.  Modernism vs Postmodernism, Form vs Content, texture vs colour - you decide!

Richard Hamilton
Portrait of Hugh Gaitskell as a Famous Monster of Filmland 1964 (detail)

Just bloggin

I'm getting a bit of an old hand at starting up blogs. At first I did a jewellery blog. This mainly constituted photos of  cool jewellery with accompanying text containing lots of exclamation marks! After a while though, I got fed up with just publishing pictures of earrings and bracelets - there are only so many superlatives to describe desirable jewellery. E.g. gorgeous, lovely, dazzling...gorgeous, lovely, dazzling. Then I thought I'd write a kind of listings blog about things happening in my town. Except nothing ever happens in my town. What next then? I could have done a Suzie Bubble kind of blog where I take pictures of myself in my faded clothes from Peacocks, on my Iphone, badly, in my bathroom (as we all know that using a mirror is the only way to try to take even a half-decent piccie of yourself on a mobile). Or what about a foodie/ lifestyle blog with lots of photos of prettily chopped vegetables alongside recipes that I've cribbed from people's blogs? Hmmmm. Ultimately, I've decided not to have any themes or topics for future posts. Instead I'm just going to write about whatever fluff happens to be floating around in my head at any given time...so here it is, Popartrockgirlyeah!