shake, rattle & roll.

- scheduled post -

i am away in london until the 9th of august

*

my friend joanna & i went to town yesterday (which is like, 2 days ago because hopefully this is posting on the 4th) to wander round some shops, & joanna showed me this vintage clothes shop she found called attica vintage.

this is the upstairs of the shop, which was lovely.

they also sold furniture & home furnishings & things. there was this table that i basically fell in love with, it was glass & had illustrations of musical instruments all over it. alas, it was almost £75 & unless i go back with either of the parents there's no way i'm getting it.

there were old photographs of musicians, actors & actresses everywhere which was so amazing. the beatles kept popping up a lot of the time too, which is always lovely.

the fitting rooms. oh, and us as well!

joanna's nail varnish matches the dress! how very serendipitous.

who could that be awkwardly holding a fur coat? oh, i think it just might be me.

there was a music shop just opposite from attica which looked really good, although we didn't stay long. they had lots of vinyl which i may have to go back to look through, i found a bob dylan bootleg album which looked really good, only it was £69! sheesh, i think i need to win the lottery soon. they had signed pictures up as well, which was really awesome as they had some from the kooks & jamie t.

after shopping, we went to have a bite to eat at the american diner (another of joanna's finds!)

which has pictures of 50s icons all over the walls; marilyn monroe, elvis, james dean & more.

we had icecream sundaes, joanna's is the chocolate on the left & mine is the honey nut thing on the right.

i actually finished it! i am very proud of this achievement.

say hello to james dean's crotch.

the jailhouse rock elvis photograph in the bathroom. this is the only photograph that i took by the way, the rest can all be credited to joanna.

joanna's present to me, which makes me very happy (:

i do love a good bit of john lennon impersonation

the seven year itch

today, inbetween spanish revision, i watched the seven year itch which i had never seen before. this is widely regarded as the film which turned marilyn monroe into a star, & i was really impressed by it. i loved the shifts into fantasy, and of course marilyn's costume changes.

if i could look this effortlessly glamourous while carrying groceries, i think i'd be rather pleased.

this wasn't one of my favourite outfits from the film, but this scene shows her amazing grace and elegance - which i had actually never realised before. normally when i think of 1950s-60s hollywood elegance, i think of people like audrey hepburn, sophia loren or rita hayworth, but marilyn is well & truly up there now.

anybody who can look elegant in a dressing gown carrying a breakfast tray is forever in my icon books.

of course, this film is famous for the "skirt scene". marilyn looks lovely in this dress, but i think it's kind of sad that she never got past the "sex symbol" status, and was neveer lastingly, happily married because of that. she was beautiful, but only because she would never be seen any other way.

here comes the sun

it's george harrison's birthday today!

happy 67th george, RIP.

*sigh* such a waste, if only i'd been alive in the sixties!

so, in other news, i got tagged by the lovely aamberr (thought i'd stick with your spelling, 'cause it's freaking awesome) at winter dreaming :) to mention two of my favourite films.

welll, this is really tricky for me, as i am a serious film fan! i've decided to name two that - in some bizarre, obscure way - say something about my personality.

numero uno: eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. i love this film. so so so much. the way it's shot is just beautiful, & i love the idea of a love story told backwards. basically, i love this for the arty fantastic way it's shot, & the drawings & the weird fake scienceyness in it.

numero dos: i'm not there. this is a biopic of bob dylan, my favourite songwriter possibly of all time. 6 different actors & actresses portray the different aspects of bob's personality, with a cracking soundtrack.

i have sooooo many other films that i love, it really does pain me to cut so many out!

i'm supposed to tag 3 people to do this, but i figured i'd just tag everrrrryone reading this, cause i think it would be awesome to find out everyone's different tastes in films. leave a comment if you do decide to do this, i'd love to find out what your favourites are.

funny face

i have a serious case of artist's block right now (the artist version of writer's block, surely there must be such a thing, right?) so instead of drawing, i felt like doing a post.

& also, i kinda hope it brings me a touch of inspiration.

this is what i wore today, thoroughly inappropriate weatherwise but i like it nonetheless.

besides, i stayed inside all day eating & watching how i met your mother (my obsession for that show just grows & grows)

oh, and to my left in that photograph is some of the audrey hepburn posters i was sticking up yesterday. i just put up my new calendar (jimi hendrix, eeep!) so unfortunately audrey had to come down. instead of recycling the wonderful images, i decided to cut out & keep.

so now when i'm feeling devoid of all hope & inspiration i can look up at my desk or from my bed & see audrey smiling above me.

(note to self: dude, that was seriously corny)

this skirt is the only black item of clothing i own, but i guess it doesn't really count because, well, it's not all black.

it was one of my first more "out there" purchases & still is one of my favourite items from my wardrobe.

tshirt - gift, skirt - h&m, red tights - mother's.

also, in my boredom i decided it would be fun to see what my hair looked like in a scarf/bow thing. i actually think it looks kind of freaking awesome!

music & laughter

yesterday, it was a friend's birthday so we braved the sales for a day out in town.

it was ludicrously busy so we didn't do much shopping, although i did buy rather a few CDs.

the first one i bought was dylan and the dead - a collaboration between bob dylan & the grateful dead, 2 of my favourite recording artists of all time. this is the most amazing chill out guitarry album ever, i loooove it so much!

HMV had a 2 for £20 deal on (and i had a voucher for £12, woo!) so i decided to get gossip in the grain by ray la montagne. i've been a fan of this guy for a while, but never bought more than the odd single. can't waaaaait to listen to it!

flight of the conchorrrrrrrrrrrds! i love this guys so much, they are just so funny & lovely. i bought the first album 'cause it's a bit more folky.

and i am a HUGE folk fan!

it's amusing too, what more can you want in life than folk that's funny?

i also bought the first days of spring, noah & the whale's new album. now, i haven't got their first one but i do love the few songs i've heard off it so i'm hoping this one will be goooooood.
apparently it's the story of charlie fink (the lead singer & songwriter) & laura marling's break up, and there's a film to go with it - which i am SO going to have to watch!

and finally, the complete eric clapton. i love eric, that's all there is to it.
hmmmm, i think i must have a thing for beards, cause i find all these men far too attractive for my own good!
today i watched the russell howard live DVD which i got for christmas, which was fantastically hilarious!
i also watched the DVD extras where people got to ask him one-on-one questions - my favourite bit was when somebody asked him if you could play any film role at all, what would it be and why? and he said he would play jim carrey's role in eternal sunshine of the spotless mind - which just happens to be my faaaaavourite movie of all time! are we made for each other or what?

fly on little wing

can't believe i haven't posted since tuesday, yet it feels like aaaaages!

i've had so much stuff going on at the mo recently that i haven't even been able to think about blogging, let alone actually do it!

i figured i'd give you a bit of a round up of things that have been going on, sound good?

here goes.

i've had lots of art stuff to do recently & so far i have been up & down the spectrum from deliriously happy with my work to borderline wanting to rip my hair out i'm so angry.

anyway, today i found some pieces of a shattered mirror (bad luck, i know) & decided to take some pictures of myself in it.

this is the best one i think, one of my friends took this.

i've just realised, the weird things in my hair are off the native american headdress thing my other friend whacked on my head!

schoolwork's been pretty manic, so thankfully i had 3 frees today where i played cards :)
also, i had my grade 2 guitar exam on monday...

...which i just found out today i got a merit in!
:D
i put this down to the jimi hendrix tshirt i was wearing for the exam, obviously his spirit helped me through it ;)

travelling like the light

yay! my internet is now being less slow & horrible today my photos are uploading pretty much without incident.

this may be a bit of a photo heavy post actually, but here goes.

on wednesday night i went to a concert with my friend (and then met up with a couple of friends when we got there) to see vv brown. if you haven't heard of her, which i suspect most people haven't because she is rather undeservedly unknown, i strongly recommend you look her up. her music is like retro pop with a bit of an indie twist, she's got a very soulful voice too.

that's t'outfit above, nothing new just reshuffled.

this was her first support act, jade brown. i have a bit of an inkling that she & vv (real name vanessa) are related somehow because, well, they share last names, and she was selling vv tshirts after the gig (one of which i bought, photos to followww!).

the second support act were called the stow, and they were actually really good! i didn't think i would like them cause i'm not reaaally that into hiphoppy type music, but they had some great songs & were rather amusing with their danceyness.
the lead singer, the dude with his hood up, and the drummer were pretty hot too, which is always a bonus.
the girls had some pretty awesome dress sense too, i saw a sequined blazer & a lovely swing vest top going on there.

vv!
she came on in this mask, how bloody amazing is that?
this photo isn't mine - i found it on flickr - as sadly mine went all weird & blurry.
it was such an amazing set, she was so full of energy!

i definitely need to go & buy her album, i felt like such a non-fan only knowing 4 of her songs!

she did a lovely acoustic version of crying blood on her one stringed guitar called stringy which is apparently what she wrote her entire album with.

i do quite love her jumpsuit, it had big shoulders & sparkly bits round the neckline.

she disappeared halfway throught the set & came back with a parasol, a proper japanese paper one.

my faaaavourite photo of the night :)

tambourine time!

she got up on the speakers at the end of the show, it was so awesome.

let it always be known that i was who i am

yesterday was a day i have been looking forward to for aaaages!

yes, it was the long awaited laura marling concert.

i wore this to go to the concert, nothing new but i tried to go for a bit of a folky feel, hence the bob dylan tshirt & the flowers.

flowerrrrrrr!

this was the support support (if you see what i mean). they were called the wave pictures & they were really rather good, i bought one of their cds.
my favourite lyric of theirs was: "a sculpture is a sculpture/marmalade is marmalade/a sculpture made of marmalade is a sculpture but it is not marmalade.
music should be humourous i think :)

lauraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
oh my, she was so good.
this was the bit where she was saying hello & stuff, i was serrrrriously star struck.
her oufit was pretty awesome too, you can't really see on the photo but she was wearing an oversized black jumper & some rather cute pink loafer things.

i think this was when she was telling us about her guitar technician guy who polished her guitar while he was tuning it.
"i feel like i'm blinding you with my bling!"

tuning up.

this was the last photo i took of her playing, she was only on for 30 minutes!
it was one of her new songs which i hadn't heard before, it was really lovely.
i actually can't wait for her new album, i can tell already it's going to be amazing.
she did quite a few songs that i didn't think she would do, like rambling man, which is my favourite song of hers.
i was trying to see what chords she was doing so i could have a go at playing it, it didn't actually look too difficult.

i had to get a shot of her picking up her whiskey obviously.
i have to say, that was one of the most amazing nights of my life. i can't wait to see her again, she was just unbelievably good.

rock & roll music.

chuck berry, rock & roll legend, turned 83 today.

happy birthday chuck!