Hey You...

(one of my fav scene's in this movie,,,but damn Juliette Lewis,,,Jamie Fox, The border scene, and well the whole damn movie---one of those I wish I would've seen in the theater---and perhaps with a clambake)

It's Only Forever

Mount Fuji in Red -- Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

If you have not seen this film this may or may not be the time to watch, but it never hurts to be informed.
This film depicts Dreams, but it is quite eerie how they seem to mirror the current athmosphere in Japan. 
Japan I love you and have always had a place for you in my heart.  I've never stepped foot on your soil, but I have always admired your culture.  I send you loving thoughts, and healing energy. 

Julie Taymor...

...a woman that may very well have the key to my heart.
How did she know that The Tempest is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays?
She first won me over when her movie Frida came out. Now another charming and original way
to woo me. The Tempest is due out December 2010. I am totally watching this.
Bravo Julie Taymor!! You are my lady!!! Boys take notes if you want to make a girl swoon!!!!




((Plot Summary for
The Tempest (2010/II)
In Julie Taymor's version of 'The Tempest,' the main character is now a woman named Prospera. Going back to the 16th or 17th century, women practicing the magical arts of alchemy were often convicted of witchcraft. In Taymor's version, Prospera is usurped by her brother and sent off with her four-year daughter on a ship. She ends up on an island; it's a tabula rasa: no society, so the mother figure becomes a father figure to Miranda. This leads to the power struggle and balance between Caliban and Prospera; a struggle not about brawn, but about intellect. Written by Anonymous

In Shakespeare's fantastical thriller the magician Prospero orchestrates spirits, monsters, a grief-stricken king, a wise old councillor, two treacherous brothers and a storm at sea into a fantastical conspiracy bringing banishment, sorcery and shipwreck into the lives of two hapless lovers to stir and seal their fate. Here Prospero takes female form as Prospera, giving her journey of vengeance and self-discovery a wholly new resonance. As Prospera breaks her magical staff against an entrancing volcanic landscape at the end of her heroic quest, this poignant story of love and forgiveness translates into a riveting and filmic mystical tale, for our own times. Written by Icon )

Eat, Pray, Love

Watching the movie on dvd, I saw it in theater- still haven't read the book. Though watching it the second time I really wanted to contemplate the idea of "La Dolce far niente" or the sweetness of doing no thing.

I came across this post from the blog the happiness rx, and thought it was something we could all ponder.

http://happinessrx.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/la-dolce-far-niente/

La Dolce Far Niente
August 18, 2010 //1The Italians have a concept for piddling around known as “La Dolce Far Niente,” which means- the sweetness of doing nothing. I learned about this concept while watching Elizabeth Gilbert’s masterpiece- Eat, Pray, Love, the other day. The scene is set in a barbershop in Rome. Julia and her new found friend are scarfing down napoleon’s while the men of Italy are educating them on the ways of the Italian.

As one of the male characters begins his diatribe about how Americans’ ideas of “relaxing,” are working themselves to the bone all week just so they can lay around in their pajamas on weekends, drink six packs of miller light, and watch other people live their lives on TV- he presents to the audience the concept of la dolce far niente, or the sweetness of doing nothing.

The character goes on to explain that Italians may wonder home after a few hours of working to take a little nap, they may be inspired by a nearby cafe and sit down to have a glass of wine, or they may just go home and make love to their wife. Although it may be a bit unrealistic for some of us to just cut out of our jobs in the middle of the day to go take a nap, the scene was still compelling.

The idea that “doing nothing,” is actually an event in and of itself. The idea that we no longer run on a treadmill of activity from getting the kids ready for school, to brushing our teeth, to conference calls, to picking up kids, fixing dinner, and bed- only to start over again. The idea that our actions day to day become influenced by our instincts and no longer by routines, shoulds, and musts.

Thoreau spoke of this in Walden when he said, “When I go out of the house for a walk, uncertain as yet whither I will bend my steps, and submit myself to my instinct to decide for me, I find, strange and whimsical as it may seem, that I finally and inevitably settle south-west, toward some particular wood or meadow or deserted pasture or hill in that direction.”

How different would your quality of life be if you made time throughout the day to experience la dolce far niente? Instead of using your free moments to catch up on what housewife bought what SUV on HULU, instead of checking your email one last time to see if anyone else is needing you to do something, instead of using your free time to check your bank accounts or pay that cell phone bill- What if you just did nothing?

Fighting that urge to just do, that puritan work ethic instilled in all of us at an early age, is just as much effort as going to the gym and doing the stair climber. Yet the results of our restraint are well worth the hassle.

The kind of relaxation we are looking for, we all yearn for- does not exist on the side of a volcano, in a rare flower, or on a desolate island far away. That kind of relaxation exists within each of us and is ours for the taking if we’re willing to put in the effort.

That kind of relaxation. The la dolce far niente. The sweetness of doing nothing and enjoying where we are in the present moment- is the greatest thanks we can give for the lives and blessing we have.

All the noise- the facebook, the reality TV, the latest and greatest no-one-can-get-in-there-without-calling-a-month-ahead restaurant…it all fades away when we can just do nothing. What surfaces is life- our feelings at the moment (whether it be grace or despair), our ego vanishes and our true self emerges.

What if instead of facebook, emailing, TiVo catching up, video gaming tonight- you just did nothing? What if instead of saving up 7 vacation days out of 365 to finally enjoy life, you spread those out in hours among each day? What if you didn’t look at Saturday/Sunday as your only day to cut loose and chill out?

Maybe you sit and read a book. Maybe you stare out the window or balcony and listen to your favorite musician. Maybe you learn how to whistle…meditate…stretch…lounge…or (gasp!) nap. What can you do today to begin doing nothing?

Dr. Colleen Long is the author of “Happiness in B.A.L.A.N.C.E,” and practices in the Los Angeles area under the supervision of Dr. Richard Oelberger (PSY22186) . Dr. Long works mainly from a positive psychology framework as it applies to addiction, depression, relationships, body image and weight loss. Her website can be found at www.DrColleenLong.com. All public speaking/media event requests handled through FreudTV (info@FreudTV.com).

Count Dracula's Great Love

Do any of you remember Vampire movies in the 80's or early 90's, and there were female vampires, and some of those vampire movies were in spanish??? I haven't really spent a whole lot of time looking, but for one reason or another I did search for spanish/mexican vampire movies, and I found this on the Cinema Bandits site. Sort of close but it is in english. I couldn't watch many movies that contained adult content while growing up, but for some reason I always managed to watch vampire movies, and other other scary stuff. I know, I know... I think my mother andy my grandmother loved scaring us so much before we went to bed, they often told us scary stories growing up. This is the sort of thing my grandmother found funny. Ghosts & Dolls with painted eyes that suddenly blinked all found there way into our stories right before bed. I guess I owe my grandmother a lot of why I'm drawn to the beyond....

What a Hotel Designed By a Famous Milliner Looks Like || HotelChatter

What a Hotel Designed By a Famous Milliner Looks Like HotelChatter

Happy Birthday Scorpio!!!

if you click on the link, I found a great blog post on Scorpio @ the Owls Wings Blog.

Vain Glorious- Richard Phillips for MAC 2009

By SANDRA BALLENTINE July 22, 2009, 4:16 pm

Courtesy of Make-Up Art Cosmetics
“Der Bodensee” by Richard Phillips, retouched with MAC products.

With Vain Glorious, T Magazine’s beauty/style editor, Sandra Ballentine, breaks down the latest spas, salons and products for your aesthetic pleasure.

To mark the introduction of one of its fall makeup collections — Make-Up Art Cosmetics — MAC asked three prominent artists, Richard Phillips, Marilyn Minter and Maira Kalman, to create works using the company’s latest pigments and products. Phillips, whose paintings are often inspired by fashion-world iconography, used 24 different products to create a retouched version of “Der Bodensee,” one of his recent paintings. The results were über-glamorous, to say the least.

Why collaborate with a cosmetic company?
I felt it was a unique opportunity to recast the meaning and function of what painting’s role could be in terms of how art appears in contemporary commercial media culture. I was given free rein to create a piece that I felt worked best with the product collection I was given.

Did you make an original painting for the project?
When MAC first contacted me, they asked if I could make a new painting for the project. At the time I was in the middle of working toward my New York exhibition with Gagosian Gallery, and I said there wouldn’t be enough time to make a dedicated piece. Then it occurred to me that if we could get the world’s best photo retoucher — Pascal Dangin of Box — to collaborate with us, we could digitally transform one of the paintings I was working on with the cosmetic palette MAC gave me. The painting, “Der Bodensee,” literally received a MAC makeover.

Who is the girl in the painting?
The image of the young girl in my painting was inspired by a JPEG of an erotic model I found on a Eastern European blog, specifically the “beauty shot” in a layout that featured her in various explicit poses. In a way it was advertising that which is unseen.

Had you ever given any thought to the nuances of makeup?
My first group of portraits in the mid-’90s paid homage to the disregarded “art” of avant-garde fashion photography of the late ’60s and early ’70s. The radical makeup used on fashion images of that time were more of an inspiration to me than any of the pop, minimal or photo-real work that was done at the same time. Makeup ignites a psychological transformation of both the wearer and the observer. My paintings sought to locate the subject of art within the manipulation of that altered predisposition.

Courtesy of Make-Up Art Cosmetics
Phillips at work on the painting.

Do you think makeup artistry is similar to painting?
Yes. Technically, a makeup artist’s canvas is the face and body. The difference is that my painting of makeup is integrated into the painting of the flesh and not on top of it. I think in some ways it is more difficult to expressively deploy makeup. I have the utmost admiration for makeup artists. It’s truly magical what they can accomplish with their materials. The face and the body are really their canvas. I wouldn’t even qualify as an assistant to an assistant to one of MAC’s artists.

Of all the products you used in the project, what was your favorite?
MAC’s In the Gallery eye shadow, of course!

You mentioned something funny at your studio party, something about Pascal Dangin calling you a naïve painter. Can you elaborate?
After Pascal agreed to collaborate on the digital retouching of my painting, he visited my studio to see the work in progress. After observing my process, he said, “Richard, don’t take this the wrong way, but you are really a naïve painter.” At which point I thought to myself that I’ve been called a lot of things before in relation to my art, but never a naïve painter! Yet after visiting Box and seeing the unbelievably sophisticated imaging processes and capacity they had, I immediately understood what he was talking about! It was as though I am working in the dark ages by comparison.

Why do you think the fashion world responds so well to your work?
In some parts of my work, the subject and content appear entirely circumscribed in fashion’s language. The fashion world has embraced the reflexive way the realism of my work addresses the powerful projections of their culture industry as inseparable from central questions being debated in contemporary art. Fashion is not separate from art. It is inextricably woven into how we open ourselves to the world and articulates the exchanges of power both real and imagined.

You often paint models. Do you choose your subjects based on editorial or runway looks?
Both. The editorial look is valuable in that it is a carefully scripted and constructed image where several people collaborate to communicate a message. It is one method of using subjective determinism to influence outcomes. In the original use it is a commodity-driven commercial purpose. Set loose from that purpose, the image has the potential to misrepresent and operate as a propagandistic vehicle that may address contradictory concepts. The runway look is also useful in how the models develop a signature style of presentation that advances their own brand while simultaneously creating an armature for the feeling of the clothes. The portraits in runway shows tend toward a psychological vacuum in order to disengage the product from the carrier vehicle, which in turns allows for a more aggressive reordering of meaning cues.

How do you paint a face? What feature comes first? The skin? The eyes? The lips?
My paintings are a lot like architectural projects. They develop from drawings, and then are scaled up to where a foundation (underpainting) is made. Then I paint the skin, eyes, lips and finally the hair.

What’s your next foray into the fashion/beauty world?
My next foray involves a portrait of the supermodel Natasha Poly for an issue of Muse magazine that is dedicated to her. The portrait is also the first image intended for my upcoming exhibition at Max Hetzler Gallery in Berlin in the fall of 2010.

Splendor in the Grass - Pink Martini

I've attempted to write an entry on my lovely night at the Pink Martini (not a cocktail, but if they were they would be the best you ever had) performance, but every time I try to finish and post something interrupts me. 'Til then I leave you with their lovely song "Splendor in the Grass". The very first time I heard the new album, this song didn't exactly jump out at me but perhaps there was a reason for that. This song is in my own words: enchantingly bitter-sweet, such as life itself. A tribute to a different sort of time. It was not until I heard it live that it struck a chord with me. The mood of the lights changed, the sound of the Pink Martini small orchestra accompanied by the Dallas orchestra was palpable. Then China Forbes (vocals) hit a certain note towards the end of the song....and that is when I felt the tears. I was captivated, and all of these elements resonated on a different level with me. I can honestly say that I have never experienced this particular sort of emotion at a concert before. I was enthralled the entire night. Pink Martini delivers a delectable array of fluid, breezy, and exotic sounds. After the performance I stayed for autographs and pictures, and while meeting Timothy Nishimoto (vocals and percussion) I confessed that tears came to my eyes during the song, and he then suggested that I watch the video for this song. He explained that they held a contest for an audience/listener made video. This was the winner and is now the official video for "Splendor in the Grass". The live performance of this song brought tears to my eyes, and after watching the video I could see a little bit more clearly why. Pink Martini is divine. (P.S. the entire album "Splendor in the Grass" is excellent. I expecially love Ninna nanna, And Then You're Gone, But Now I'm Back, Over the Valley, and well the entire album.)



Drawing inspiration from William Wordsworth, Walt Whitman and the Carpenters, the title track, “Splendor In The Grass” was written by Marashian and Lauderdale, and is a plea for a return to the land in classic 70’s pop style and features Courtney Taylor-Taylor of the Dandy Warhols on electric guitar and the opening theme of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto #1. - (http://pinkmartini.com/discography/splendor-in-the-grass/)