mitjili napurrula

i'm currently having my mind blown by mitjili napurrula's work. a pintupi, from the northern territory, she apparently only started painting aged 48, but she's now shown in the NGV and the Australian National Gallery.


they're so expansive, full of mystery and story and red earth; and i love that she thinks of them as the product of her family: "My mother taught me my father's Tjukurrpa; that's what I'm painting on the canvas".


i can't stop looking at them.

and it's spring

yesterday, all the signs that i needed to believe were all there...

lunchtime squinting into the sunshine in regent's park:


the flowers were in full petal explosion:


the council workers were semi-naked:


...hallelujah.

is 5, Four, VII

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
-the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
we are for each other: then
laugh leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis

(ee cummings, of course.)

birds

birds and a les paul? this is on my list.

also, i love how much icelandic sounds like birdsong.

karina/ carina

look what passes for a blog post these days.

at my eye test next week, i'm secretly hoping my eyesight will be found to be defective so that i can justify buying round glasses in homage to the wonderful anna karina.

exciting things are cooking. i (extra-contextually) second barbra: well, the time has come.

make yourself happy

this year, my only resolution is to take responsibility for my own happiness. eek.

may 2010 be a colourful year-


...admiring it


...eating it


...wearing it


...and feeling it.



let's make something good.

x

sartorialism

lord knows why, but i've been fossicking around in men's fashion these last couple of days. it's pure aesthetic indulgence - i don't even have to consider what it might look like on me so i'm free to just appreciate.


i've been enjoying the cut of selectism's jib. it bills itself as a 'daily men's fashion, footwear, lifestyle and design culture magazine'. i would call it 'pretty things for boys'. i am especially enamoured of the damir doma hightops...


put this on is brilliant, too.


a "web series about dressing like a grown up", they aim to help equip men with the knowledge they need to avoid dressing like a manchild for all eternity.


in a friendly, straight-talking, no-a-pink-shirt-won't-turn-you-gay manner, they dispense wisdom on how to choose cashmere, why you need a belt that's not made of webbing, how to go shopping without once setting foot in a sports store, and where to get a custom-made bow tie.


(okay, they also make an occasional worrying foray into mancapes, but whatever, each to their own...)

in a quasi-related sidenote, i really want this florian rope necklace from oki-ni:


...santa?

anOther magazine's new 'loves' blog is also a honeypot of covetability...

and that is quite enough of that.

fix up, look sharp

i stumbled into an amazing photography exhibition at londonewcastle project space at lunchtime.

called 'gentlemen of bacongo' (and accompanied by a book of the same name), daniele tamagni documents in glorious technicolour the 'sapeurs' - men of the congo who, though they live in slums, revel in wearing handmade designer suits. new york times magazine explains:

The culture of La SAPE, La Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes, began when the country was ruled by the French and the local men began to adopt a little European flair. The sapeurs, as they are known, spiff themselves up with colorful tailored suits, fedoras and the occasional cigar — it’s more English aristo than Iceberg Slim pimp daddy.

it's the details i love best - the bright streak of a fuschia pocket square against a black breast pocket, the trilby, the impossibly expensive leather belt, the cummerbund, the glossy pipe, the single glove...


oh, and the best. sunglasses. ever.


the way these dandies strut and pose in their finery is incredible. it makes the dusty streets look like wonkavision.

if you're in the neighbourhood, go see - it's only on for a couple more days.