Style / Image / In the first few days of Summer...

An image for Summer.  Large hats, tight summer dresses, seashells, outdoor afternoons and washed out, nostalgic loveliness. This is what Summer will be like. 

Reel / Art Direction in How to Marry a Millionaire

Lauren Bacall and at direction from LelandFuller and Lyle Wheeler.  A fabulous film from Jean Negulesco who deserves a post of his own, but he'll have to wait for another day. 

Art / Style/ The Duchess of Alba

With her recent passing a look back at some of the looks of the controversial and most numerously titled Duchess 

And finally a look at the beautiful portrait of her ancestor, Maria Cayetana de Silva, the 13the Duchess of Alba, titled The White Duchess, painted in 1795 by Francisco Goya. 

A later portrait also by Goya of the same Duchess, The Mourning Portrait of the Duchess of Alba, also known as The Black Duchess, painted in 1797. 

Words / The Zombies

should i try to hide

the way i feel inside

my heart for you?

would you say that you

would try to love me too?

in your mind could you ever be

really close to me?

i can tell the way you smile

if i feel that i could be certain then

i would say the things

i want to say tonight

but till i can see

that you'd really care for me

i will dream that someday you'll be

really close to me

i can tell the way you smile

if i feel that i could be certain then

i would say the things

i want to say tonight

but till i can see

that you'd really care for me

i'll keep trying to hide

the way i feel inside

Read more: The Zombies - The Way I Feel Inside Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

Jeff Carter at the Pasha Nightclub, Cooma, Australia, ca.1957-59

An image for your Friday! Nailed it Australian nightclubs

Scottish Independence and British Art

As we await the outcome of today's vote in Scotland I just wanted to take a few moments to share with you an article I read in the Guardian late last week.

In the most recent election results it looks as though the outcome of the referendum will be a "No".  This is a result that many may have suspected as some of my lawyer friends have informed me that, historically, positive results for referendums are extremely rare.

Regardless of the decision today, however, it is certain that its hailed in a new age of Scottish nationalism and that citizens of both England and Scotland will be re-examining their heritage and what terms such as English, Scottish, British mean.

I hope you find the article below as interesting as I did.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/sep/10/would-scottish-indepence-unleash-british-art-identity-crisis

ISBN / Jacques and Happiness

"Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it"

Jacques Prevert

Style / Daria Werbowy in Celine

I love everything about this photo.  I love the pink bath, the green bracelets, the pink of the bath with the green of the bracelets, the luxurious looking warm water.  This is truly one of those images that make you think that's what baths should be like and when I grow up that is what they will be like.  Alas...

In 1959 Frank Sinatra sang in a film entitled A Hole in the Head “just what makes a little old ant think he’ll move a rubber tree plant. Anyone knows an ant can’t move a rubber tree plant, but he’s got high hopes, he's got high hopes, he's got high in the sky apple pie hopes … so any time you’re feeling low ‘stead of letting go just remember that ant - oops there goes another rubber tree plant”.  Here are my high hopes… or even my carrying on despite of the odds.

This is my attempt to try, the put down on paper, to create.  Create what exactly I am not entirely sure. But hopefully by the time I get going we would have swum into clearer waters, clearer airs, or at the very least be pushing the vague concoctions of this sleeping beauty style uncooked cake into some order, even if its just the sort of order that is propped up with bookshelves, wooden spoons and brooms and needs to be constantly watched and re-propped. I, like Julie Andrews after all, have confidence in Springtime.

If you are interested in these arts you are very welcome. Please make yourself at home. I will shortly (hopefully) be providing some interactive spaces on here that you can move into and make your own.