Links and fashion

The photo above, let's focus on that first. It has such incredible touches of the gothic, of Poe--even in it's white, broad, open concave expanse. The couch is Slettvoll, I think, as is the chandelier. Look at the delicate bird, white on a black limb, all set between two sets of small, climbing antlers.

And see how the black of the chandelier makes an incredible contrast with the crystal? And yet it works within the white room, a white egg shaped space, with all the endless shape and form changes of Michelangelo's mannerist architecture, like his trompe-l'oeil Laurentian Library and the big room of the tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo and Lorenzo di Piero of the Medici in the so-called Medici Chapel by San Lorenzo in Florence.

It's like a modernist, minimalist distillation of Mikkelsen and Hannibal's aesthetic; Bryan Fuller call me!

[These photos at HonestlyWTF include that photo, all chandeliers peeking down from the tops of pictures but the real star is the interiors, they are just incredible]

Some neat links:
- The town Taroudant in southern Morocco is beautiful, and has some beautiful homes here, modern and ancient; I love the greenery

- A great place for finding new designers is KickPleat-- I was looking at a random HonestlyWTF post and saw an incredible scarf piece from Jesse Kamm, then found it again on MissMoss from NZ, and then found Kamm's real site and collections -- I could go on forever. Kamm is amazing. It's literally killing me that most of her stuff is unique and limited edition.

You can buy some of her stuff here at SPM. Another place is MohawkGeneralStore.


- Some neat stuff, if you are in the market for a present for the self:
i. Ke Aloha Jewelry from Maui's little slice necklaces, the amethyst are so incredible [they've got loads of trendy stuff as well, but have amazing little unique things that stick out, despite the rest of the popular stuff], like a neat tiny cross

ii. A handmade black pyramid that houses some little things, in an almost sacred, secretive or protective vein [there is a clear one too]

iii. A handmade olive wood tray/bowl with a hint of zebra edge mystique

Music

Music falls into different moods, I think. There is a song and artist for every tone, atmosphere and temperament. Here a few things to try.

Some great French music is being sung and played by a lot of people--stuff that really has an air of the 1920s flappers and The Great Gatsby. For updated mixes of classic music, try Swing Republic feat. Nat King Cole's 'Lover Come Back To Me', Dimie Cat's 'Glam' mix and Caravan Palace's 'Dramophone'.

For a great, energetic classic be sure to try 'Feelin' Good' by Jean DuShon. Also be sure to listen to Dimie Cat's 'Post it' and 'V.E.S.P.A.', she's an incredible singer, and La Femme Piège for instrumental music [they're amazing, something for all moods]--listen to their colonna [score] on itunes for Nero Wolfe [a 2012 tv series in Italy].

Try 'This is Heaven to Me' by Madeleine Peyroux, and the 'Born to Die [urban noize remix]' of Lana del Rey. Also be sure to try D.R.I.'s songs on the album Smoke Rings, like 'Inspiration'. Be sure to try Mapei's 'Don't Wait' as well. A even more relaxed vibe would be the The Upsetters and Prince Jazzbo's song 'Croaking Lizard'.

If you liked 2ne1's 'I am the best' (내가 제일 잘나가) try Jonté's 'Dejavux'.

The 1968 film score to Romeo and Juliet is also excellent, bright and fun of halls of joy; be sure to listen to the second track 'Juliet'. Another song that's great is Gary Go's 'Through the Walls' and Nara Noian's 'Masques'.

Of course, I always recommend the Anonymous Four for classical, medieval style music [very soothing and often very invigorating] and Pia Mia's eerie 'Lost & Found' track, Vashti Bunyan's 'Train Song' too. A really incredible eerie, True Detective-esque song is Alex Clare's 'Whispering'.

I always recommend Björk's Vespertine album for anyone who likes delicate, modernist, intricate music.

New Orleans links

NOLA tumblrs for some great photos:

The best is BigEasy, their photos are incredible.

VintageNewOrleans and DefendNewOrleans and LoveNOLA and NOLAFashionWeek and DininginNOLA and all the festivals in GoNOLA and stories of people in NOLAbeings.

There's also NOLAfoodporn. I got a real sense of New Orleans and that part of the waterfront from the film Brick, actually, a modern noir like Sam Spade or Chandler.

Early jazz

If you like early jazz, one person to try is C.W. Stoneking. I've listened to a lot of early slap-dash, forming phase jazz and it's really interesting--and I'm not some wild fan of say Theolonius Monk. While jazz is fine, it's often best when mixed with other forms.

Try 'Back luck everywhere you go', 'Charlie Bostocks Blues' and 'Rich man blues'. Stoneking sounds like a farmer from out in the country in 1903. You'd never think he is a current guy from Australia, he literally doesn't sound like it at all. There's such a vibe of an earlier B.B. King, especially his greatest song 'Please love me'.

This is the type of music I associate with New Orleans actually, despite having no reason to. I am not much of a fan of the music I am told people play there [modern jazz and the usual stuff], but I do love Andrei Codrescu's classic books [be sure to read New Orleans, Mon Amour, I loved it] on the city and the perfect Rebirth Brass Band. Their song 'Do Whatcha Wanna' is just the best.

I have always felt NOLA is our French and American version of Venice.

Dionysus

One interesting book set to check out is The Golden Bough by J.G. Frazer. It's a compendium of myth and legend, and is really interesting. You can read it here. Dionysus is someone featured in it, he's a very interesting god. Also called Bacchus, his cult and myth have many different parts--a tragic death and revival, a group of wild female followers called maenads, a focus on the opposite of Apollonian values. The Dionysian Mystery cult was very interesting and featured an emphasis on the chthonic [underworld/earth].

The cult is depicted in huge wall paintings in one of the ruins of a Roman Villa near Pompeii that survived.

Nietzsche laid out some interesting thoughts on this idea of logic [logos in Greek] vs chaos--ie. Apollonian versus Dionysian. Apollo is the god of beauty, restraint, refinement, cool wisdom, measured grace and art and music [think of Bach] while Dionysus represents passion, impulse, wild feeling, ecstasy and drunkenness. They are two sides of a coin. What an interesting dialectic.

He had many names, or epithets: Bromios [he who roars/sounds/rumbles], Eleutherios [emancipator], Dendritês [the tree god], Delphis [the dolphin--because of the myth of him turning sailors into them] and Lysios [liberator], read some here.

His emblems are many: the bull, fig trees, grape tree vineyards, the thrysus staff [a wand/staff sometimes made of fennel stalks topped with a pinecone and often covered with ivy and a ribbon. It was sometimes dipped in honey, and the maenads are often shown to carry it.

Above is a mosaic of Dionysus from Cyprus--it's beautiful there, I still have to take a trip and see it. If you like Dionysus or classical/neo-classical art, check out the Weguelin painting of Dionysus with the nymphs here [1888]. Michelangelo did a statue of the young Dionysus and Caravaggio did a painting.

Dionysus was even featured in the True Blood books and tv show if you want a quick, easily accessible way to get into it. Sometimes light confections can give way to a true interest and serious learning.

The Orphic Hymns [supposedly by Orpheus, circa 200 b.c.] mention Dionysus often, here's hymn XLIV:
A Hymn
Come, blessed Dionysius, various nam'd, bull-fac'd,begot from Thunder,
Bacchus fam'd.Bassarian God, of universal might, whom swords, and blood, and sacred rage delight:
In heav'n rejoicing, mad, loud-sounding God, furious inspirer, bearer of the rod:
By Gods rever'd, who dwell'st with human kind, propitious come, with much-rejoicing mind.

Here's another:
Hymn XXIX:

"I call upon loud-roaring and revelling Dionysus,

primeval, double-natured, thrice-born, Bacchic lord,

wild, ineffable, secretive, two-horned and two-shaped.

Ivy-covered, bull-faced, warlike, howling, pure,

You take raw flesh, you have feasts, wrapt in foliage, decked with grape clusters.

Resourceful Eubouleus, immortal god sired by Zeus

When he mated with Persephone in unspeakable union.

Hearken to my voice, O blessed one,

and with your fair-girdled nymphs breathe on me in a spirit of perfect agape".

Classic music takes

Be sure to try out the new vintage band Postmodern Jukebox youtube set here. They're incredible--they are like the Puppini Sisters, ie redoing the Andrews sisters. They interpret modern pop music in an older style [and even do mixes/mashups with older artists as well], it's amazing.

Their take on Lana del Rey's 'Young and beautiful' should have been in The Great Gatsby film, it's incredible.

Also, their version of 'Call me maybe' is wild and fun--and I didn't even like the actual song, but this mix is so good.

Medieval art

If you need something to read, check out this article on the Beauts of Liébana, from northern Spain, there are these incredible circa late 700s a.D. images a monk created based on the book of Revelation--they're incredible. If you like art, be sure to look.

Here I will put up a great early medieval piece on the last judgment from the island of Torcello off of Venice, it has the oldest church of the city [cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta] with such a beautiful mosaic wall.

Águas da Amazônia

Over at LitNav, some Portuguese poetry made me think of some great music that I want to highlight here. If you like Philip Glass's score soundtrack for the film The Hours [about Virginia Woolf and the eponymous book], try this out. If you like the Hannibal tv show music score by Brian Reitzell or atmospheric music, give this a shot.

Don't let the name Glass put you off--this isn't weird or unappealingly post-modern, it's great. If you like music of Enigma, try it.

It has a sense of wild movement. The Águas da Amazônia score cds of the Brazilian instrumental group Uakti and Philip Glass are incredible. The music is exceptional, it's not really new age but is a great expression of water and rivers and the rain forest.

The names of the rivers are really neat, there's the Tiquiê, the Japurá, the Purus, the Negro, the Madeira, the Tapajós, the Paru, the Xingu and the Amazon. It all makes you want to book a ticket down there. Try the Japura River song here and see if it appeals.

TV Rewatch

While I have no interest in anything shallowly gruesome, I do like the art direction and cinematography of Mads Mikkelsen's Hannibal tv show. It's like the first Silent Hill game, I can practically hear the ominous siren, it's really great. I simply can't look at the screen for certain scenes, but other than some of them, I love it. The score is incredible--it's on youtube, be sure to listen to it. It was composed by Brian Reitzell and is a must listen if you love atmospheric strangeness, odd dream-like music that draws you in slowly.

Mikkelsen's physicality when he jumps over the counter in his fight with Jack is a perfect moment--he's like a jaguar in human form, and that moment shows you everything. The man is an incredible actor. You find yourself thinking of Blake's tyger burning bright.

The clock drawing scene with Will where he thinks it's fine and it looks crazy is just so fun; Mikkelsen's expressions are so well done and complex. If you enjoy funny Hannibal show and pictures stuff, be sure to read the gaggle of laughs ActualHannibal. If you like the classical music featured on the show, try HannibalsMusic.

And by the by, the Alma-Tadema above is certainly not for the flower crown homage crowd, uh..... it's merely a tribute to Lecter's love of the fine arts.

Ulysses movie

Be sure to check out the 1967 film version of Ulysses, here's the last part with Molly's soliloquy. Watch the full movie here and see what you think. I love the guy they got to play Mulligan. He just has the fun loving, enjoying life type of vivre about it. The Molly is just great, she's got this look of playful thought, deep contemplation and wit.

The photo above of Vera Fokina from the ballet Cleopatra in 1913 always reminds me of the film somehow, the same look or something.

Rewatch: Film

I want to talk about two films, one of which is 1986's Caravaggio by Derek Jarman. If you're a fan of the Italian artist [1571-1610], it's a must watch [here, for example, and other places]. It stars Tilda Swinton and Sean Bean as well. Some of his most famous works are shown and discussed, and the film has a great laid back, almost Beat sense of time and life. It would really appeal to people who like Kerouac or drowsy, intense Modernism. If you liked 1961's Alain Resnais classic L'année dernière à Marienbad, it's that type of work, only more accessible.

One really interesting short black and white silent film is the 1903 Alice in Wonderland. Watch it here--it's quite incredible. Silent film seems odd when you first try it, but many of the earliest ones are really moving. It's easy to feel that it's 'over-acted', but it's also a really satisfying view experience. You can often feel the emotion, it's just visceral.

When you find out that 1919's film Broken Blossoms [watch it right here quick] had such wild screaming at the end that people rushed in at the studio, afraid someone was being actually attacked, you're not surprised. It's that terrifying.

Music Rec

If you like Lana del Rey, whose song 'Young and beautiful' was on the recent The Great Gatsby soundtrack [I also liked 'A little party never killed nobody'], be sure to try Kyla La Grange--and if you prefer Lana's work to be mixed, like me, try these:

Kyla La Grange- Cut your Teeth [Kygo Remix]
Lana del Rey - Milltion Dollar Gold Digger [LdR vs. Kanye West]

Also make sure to hear Lana's take on 'Once Upon a Dream', which has a great creepy vibe. Turn the lights on first! I also liked Lana's 'Body electric', a Whitman quote. Be sure to check out some Whitman [1819-1892] as well, the famous American poet. You can read his famous Leaves of Grass right here. Here's a little excerpt from 'I sing the body electric':

     1
  I sing the body electric,
  The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,
  They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
  And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.

  Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves?
  And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?
  And if the body does not do fully as much as the soul?
  And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?

       2
  The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself
      balks account,
  That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.

 [...]

Fashion reads

If you're interested in fashion, be sure to check out a new article about Mexico's interesting scene here at NotJustaLabel. There's a neat article on Cuba's fashion as well, here.

F.X. Leyendecker

One great artist not to forget is F.X. Leyendecker [1876-1924]. He was an incredible artist who created many covers for LIFE magazine. This one in particular is neat because of the older time period and raiment depicted. Older illustrators were truly exceptional, and I think modern journals should look for this type of talent.

The reality of springtime is incredible, new each year. It feels unbelievable every time the pendulum swings back towards it. It is easy to imagine the glorification of nature and the sun in the ancient world. What is there for us but the earth; it has its own peace. Early spring is a great time to get out to walk through nature centers as well. It's also a time to think about planting this year--you could put in some tomato plants and zucchini. A little work can reap incredible benefits.

If you have only a window or apartment, read LifeontheBalcony for gardening solutions.

Link roundup

There have been some neat things online recently, so put them on your to read list if you need some interesting reads, especially:

- How irony in our culture [regular and literary] has changed and must be acknowledged and moved past

- The really neat shop Of a Kind for any shoppers out there, their jewelry is really great, I love the Greek influences -- if you just want to browse incredible jewelry, page through the LoveJewelry tumblr

- One great place for Viking and Scandinavian jewelry is Dreams of Norway [I want everything], and the place to read about fashion and upcoming current designs is NotJustaLabel -- look at their feature on Norway's collection here

- Ancient jewelry has a great pinterest board here, it's great to see ancient, historical pieces and learn more about history

- If you love Cy Twombly, the unique modern artist, be sure to check out the new book of photographs Cy Twombly Gallery--they have others on him too. The Menil site has tons of art books, which are often great gifts or presents you buy yourself!

- If you don't like Pitchfork for finding new music, there's TheAwl's Music [and culture] reviews to check out

Classical Art link

If you love the ancient work, whether it be Isis knots and the sistrum instrument of ancient Egypt, or the Romans, the Etruscans and the Greeks, check out the AncientPeoples tumblr--it's got great images of tons of artifacts from all over.

Art is a great way to begin to learn about ancient cultures--they had a totally different point of view than people today, and their objects, jewelry, and personal belongings often show this.

The painting above is by Carlo Mancini [1829-1910], "Coucher de soleil sur les pyramides d'Egypt', from 1875.

Joycean art

Try Lucy Raverat's illustrations, talked about here, for James Joyce's work--they're very colorful and fun, with a type of chaos theory tinge to them. The book on Joyce and chaos theory is great too. For Joyceans, Bloomsday [the 16th, in June] is an extra St Patrick's Day!

And be sure to read up on Joyce at TheModernWord site for him called The Brazen Head. It's got tons of great stuff; and they have a page for Borges and many other great writers.