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Viva Mad Men!

Snazzy jackets - Mad Men episode five season five.

I've been downloading Mad Men season Five almost hot off the press via i-tunes. Usually down here in Aus we have to wait an eternity for new seasons to become available, but this time we're only an episode or three behind. Absolute bliss!

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed the first double episode Little Kiss, but haven't so much enjoyed the next two: Tea Leaves and Mystery Date. I thought episodes two and three were a bit forced and melodramatic. I was actually feeling a bit concerned for the whole series, but then along came episode five! Signal 30! Wow wee!

Please note---> if you have not already seen episode five you'd better look away now.

There's lots to like in this episode. Essentially it is Pete's in a way:

1) Pete fixes a leaking faucet and flirts outrageously with a young thing at the driver's education class.

2) Megan and Don go to the 'burbs to a Pete and Trudy Campbell dinner. Megan, as always, looks ravishing. Don gets all macho and fixes Pete's faucet as it...springs a leak.

3) Ken Cosgrove, we discover, is still writing short stories. He writes in the sci-fi/ fantasy genre. Cool or what? We also learn via Peggy that one of his stories is about an alien woman who lays eggs. It just doesn't get any better than that.

4) Lovely Lane Pryce scores a dinner date with a potential new client: Jaguar. He doesn't do terribly well, and so the boys are called in: Don, Roger and Pete. Everything goes swimmingly between the three big guns and the client, however, the next day everything goes horribly wrong and the client is lost. This results in: a fist fight between Lane and Pete! Awesome stuff!

5) And then...after the fisty cuffs Lane kisses Joan who is most mature about the whole thing. Lane says memorably: Is there no end to my humiliation today? Although, in retrospect, I don't feel Joan totally rejected Lane's kiss...hmmmm...

6) Pete cries in front of Don in the lift on the way to lunch after the fight. Clearly Pete is losing the plot a little.

7) "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is featured which always makes me feel good and reminds me of A Clockwork Orange which can never be a bad thing.

I've been reading reviews of this episode and critics have been raving about it. So, it's not just me then. It is a pearler. I, for one, am going to watch it again!

All images from here.

Ten Great Years

I thought this poster by Argentinian graphic designer Max Dalton was pretty neat. You can see more of Max's work and posters here --> Max Dalton.

In other Beatles news, I see that Yellow Submarine has been cleaned up and restored. Ah! I have such fond memories of that fine film! When it was having a re-run at the Roseville cinema, my Dad used to take me to see it most weekends. It was a very enjoyable way to fill in a few hours together. The music's fantastic and the fab animation certainly appealed to a me as a small girl. You can see the trailer here.

Poster image from here. Yellow Submarine from here.

The Total Look

Peggy Moffitt (model and muse) + William Claxton (husband and photographer) + Rudi Gernreich (designer) = The Total Look exhibition at MOCA in LA. How beautiful are these photos?

All images from here.

Black Cat Auditions - 1961

Pussy cat central! Another gem from the archives of LIFE magazine via that swell site Retronaut.

Masked (penguin) Ball and other scenarios

So this is a drawing I did a few weeks ago: Masked (Penguin) Ball. I haven't really got much to say about this print as I think it speaks for itself.

However, I have been thinking about the sort of masked ball or fancy dress party I would like to go to and I have decided on these two themes:

1) A James Bond fancy dress party.

Can you imagine? Fine, fine John Barry/ Shirley Bassey e.t.c. music playing all night long and heaps of opportunities to be over the top silly. All. Night. Non. Stop! I suppose everyone would either come as Blofeld or James himself circa Sean Connery. I'd like to think someone would have the chutzpah to come as Jaws (Moonraker) or Christopher Walken (A View to a Kill). I wouldn't mind going as Solitaire in Live and Let Die (v.snazzy long haired Jane Seymour in '70s New Orleans/ New York Bond). I quite like Tiffany Case in Diamonds are Forever (favourite all time Bond film my friends - give it a watch - it is magic!). Then again, I think I'd like to come as Sean circa You Only Live Twice as in wet suit clad and arriving in a toy helicopter thingy. Or perhaps I'd come as Odd Job (Goldfinger baddy). Although, I wouldn't mind actually being Goldfinger, come to think of it, as I could go around all night saying "Goodbye Mr. Bond" in my best heavily accented German/ English. I'm just rambling now...pardon.

2) *Ahem* The other party I was thinking of would be a Beatles party and you'd have to dress as your favourite era of Beatle.

I think I'd come as John Lennon circa Hamburg with a quiff and a leather jacket and smoking a rolled up cigarette or perhaps a white suited Lennon with long hair and a middle part à la Abbey Road (favourite album after all). Then again, would it be permissible to come as George Martin? Hmmm...that's possibly a bit tricky...

 

Bill Cunningham New York

Happy Monday folks! I've had a fab weekend. Saturday was absolutely glorious here in Sydney! I managed to get in the sort of epic walk you reminisce about for years later with family and friends. Well, that's possibly a slight exaggeration, but it was pretty good. I also managed to finally get to see this doco: Bill Cunningham New York.

The 82 year old Bill Cunningham has been photographing New York street style for years. He was out and about long before The Sartorialist was even a twinkle in his mother's eye. For over 40 years his decoupage of street styles have been a fixture at The New York Times and other publications such as the now defunct Details Magazine. He is quite a character although he is obviously well loved and respected by the serious fashion crowd in Europe and North America as there are cameos by Anna Wintour, Anna Piaggi and Tom Wolfe to name but a few.

It's fun weekend viewing and is as much about New York as anything else which can never be a bad thing!

Images from here.

Debbie Harry

Debbie Harry - why not? After all, it is Monday...and you might like to accompany this post with this song here or possibly this one here (which is my personal fave).

 

All images from here.

New York in Colour

There is a fab exhibition at the Howard Greenberg Gallery called New York in Colour. The images span several decades from the 1950s to the present. Here are a few of my favourites from the exhibition.

Happy weekend!

All images from here.

Dior

Bill Gaytten, the man responsible for taking over after Galliano was dismissed, has returned to Dior's roots with the "New Look" inspired collection he showed on Friday. The subtle dusky pinks, plums with dashes of red are ravishing as are the dresses and suits themselves. I love, love love them all!

 

Happy weekend!

My favourite Oscar looks

I guess any internet surfer worth their weight has already fully scrutinised the Oscar frocks. After all, it was a full day and a half ago that the net was saturated with all things Oscar! However, I'd like to add my two cents too! So, here are my favourite looks from the evening...

Much has been said about Angelina Jolie's Oscar frock....and that leg. Well, I'd like to think the woman has a sense of humour and that she's vamping it up as some sort of comment on previous press about her choice in red carpet looks or...something. Well, that's what I'd like to think anyway. But, really, at the end of the day, I think she looks pretty sensational in all that plush black velvet. Emma Stone, to my mind, looks super stylish and that colour is stunning on her.

Absolutely adore Gwyneth's cape - she is the red carpet super hero! Milla Jovovich is Hollywood personified!

I am a huge Rose Byrne fan. Not just because she's a local Sydney gal, but because she's incredibly pretty and a fab actor to boot! This liquid sequin black number is ravishing on her.

Happy Wednesday all! :0)

All images from here.