Bookmark: Poetry

For the first time on the blog: poetry. 'Mad Girl's Love Song' by Sylvia Plath.

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"

xxx

Bookmark: I Prefer Pictures

Yes, I prefer pictures over words. I recommend this girl's blog coz the photos are just awesome. Styleynn .

It's a fashion blog by a girl from Portland. Her style is, as she writes, timeless. It's a mix of retro, classy, tomboy and casual. Interesting. Anyway, the point is in the photos. They just simply drag you into her world.

(Click to enlarge)

You can read and follow her blog here: styleynn.blogspot.com

(Yeah, you can read too.)

xxx

Bookmark: Heroine

This is a post about one of my favourite fictional characters. Nana Osaki from Ai Yazawa's 'Nana'.

 

'Nana' is a drama manga (I think that's the existing term, I'm not into manga, this one is the exeption) about two girls who meet in Tokyo and become best friends. They share the same name-Nana. Nana Osaki is a punk singer, she is in an almost perfect relationship with Ren (also a musician) and she tries to make a music career. Nana Komatsu is a sweet naive perky girl who wants to be independant and have a stable relationship (she fails most of the time).

 

 

I read this manga when I was in high school. I liked it coz it describes everyday situations in a very realistic way and then it helps with words of comfort, solution, honesty or wisdom. The characters, dialogues and drawings are great. Nana Osaki is the most beautiful, self-conscious, talented, proud, soulful, cheeky, brave girl ever with her dreamy boyfriend, but still sometimes vulnerable and unfortunate which makes her human. She was my heroine for a long time. Well, still is.

 

(This is manga-read right to left!)



 

Do you have any fatalistic fictional characters? Share it with us!

 

Btw I found this girl from Tokyo on a street style web-site who looks exactly like Nana (not her body and hair but her style)! Cool!

 

 

xxx

Dark Room: Kerti's Blog Perfection

Everyone go follow Kerti Pahk! She's a beautiful girl from Estonia who takes the most breathtaking blog photos ever. She runs a fashion blog but it's more about her photography and creativity in general I think.

Here: kertiii.blogspot.com

 

(Click to enlarge)

 

I like the colours and light. She has a great eye for details. And her posts are always somehow colour themed. Looks so nice. Like a complete story.

 

 

So many photos, I'm sorry. Her blog is huge!

 

 

xxx

Bookmark: Culture Worldwide

I just discovered this cool website: The Culture Trip

It's about art, culture and food around the world. Like: the best galleries, restaurants, culture festivals etc. for every country.

 

(Screenshot)

How great is that when you travel?

It's summer and you have some free time. Read this.

 

xxx

Bookmark: Thrillers That Thrill Me

I'm a big fan of thrillers and criminalistics since I was... 10? My first ever beloved wrighter was Agatha Christie. The amount of thrillers I've read in my life is incalculable. And after some time, they get boaring. Always the same plot, same twists, same predictable murderer.

Then I read 'The Devil's Star' by Jo Nesbø. First of all, it's totally unpredictable. I had a few suspects and scenarios, but they were all wrong and the end really surprised me. Then, I love the style of wrighting. Not heavy (without a lot of description), not boaring (yet there is little description). The third thing is the main character. One of my favourites in the whole existing literature.

 

 

Nesbø is a crime novelist and musican (rock band Di Derre) from Norway. He wrote one children's book. It is interesting that he also wrote 2 more novels (not published yet) as Tom Johansen (I don't get why). Novels about inspector Harry Hole are the best known. He is an unreliable, obstinate, cynical, odd drunk, but very intelligent and wise (not just in solving cases). Something like dr. House of criminalistics. Reading chapters about him is as fun as reading those with murder plot. I adore him :-)

 

 

 

These books are always out in my library so I can't wait to come across one I haven't read.

Be aware they contain violence, illegal actions, kinky and disguisting things, and are not intended to be role models for kids ;-)

"Only a life without pain is emptier than life without love." (from 'The Redeemer')

 

(Pictures from Google)

 

xxx

Rec: I'll Mend Your Heart

Haven't seen a video for 'Julian' by Say Lou Lou? Well you're 7 months late! Watch it RIGHT AWAY!

 

 

I think it's a masterpiece. I must say I didn't get the story right away, though I liked the visuals. Then I read that the song is inspired by 'We Children Of Bahnhof Zoo': "For Julian, we centered our references around a German cult film called Christiane F set in the late 70s. It's based on the true story of a 14-year-old girl in Berlin who falls heavily into heroin addiction when she starts hanging out with the wrong people at a nightclub. She dyes her hair red and wears short metallic bomber jackets, slim jeans with colored socks and platforms." Also, "the video echoes some of their favourite movies including The Runaways and Boogie Nights, as well as Davide Sorrenti’s cult photography."(anothermag.com)

 

That book is one of my favourites since I read it for the first time maybe 10 years ago. At the time I found it so scary. I was horrified and disgusted. Since then I read it four times and now I think it's interesting and inspiring (it does not inspires to take drugs off course). I haven't seen the movie yet. But I will when I find time.

If you didn't know, Vera Christiane Felscherinow released a new autobigraphical book titled 'My Second Life' last year. Sounds like a horror sequel: "I hope that 'My Second Life' scares people away from taking drugs more than my first book. I'm quite sure it will. It describes how much pain I've had in my life, and [explains] that I will die a very early and painful death."(wikipedia)

Here's how she looks today (she's green-eyed wow):

 

(Source: www.rundschau-online.de)

xxx

 

 

 

Bookmark: Fun Biology

(Printscreened)

'The Quantum Biologist' is such a fun blog :-D Even if you're not into biology. You know, just like 'Top Gear' is fun even if you're not into cars. The blog is not active since 2011, but there's a whole archive to scroll through. So, what is this blog about? It describes some unusual, unknown (to the laity), interesting and funny biological phenomenons. For example, some titles are:

'Zoopharmacognosy'
'The Fish That Climb Trees'
'Resurrection Fern'
'Water Into Wine'
'The Dark Side Of Nutmeg'...

What makes these themes even funnier is writing style. This guy is hilarious. In 'A Natural History Of Leopard Print' he judges animals wearing leo print:

"This leopard bush fish: No. Just, no. Those spots look like they were fingerpainted by a child. Listen, can we talk? This kind of thing might fly back home in the Congo River, but this won’t do for the international runway. It’s not that it’s not leopard print; it’s just that it’s so leopard print it’s an ugly giraffe."

In 'V for Vanadium' he describes tunicates (if you don't know what it is-read!):

"Within about 24 hours of developing, the planktonic larva has found a flat, rocky surface to which it anchors itself and begins its metamorphosis into its sessile, tube-like adult form. (Childhood is a fleeting pleasure in the tunicate’s life.) Not only does the shape of the animal radically change, but so does its physiology: the cerebral ganglion, being primarily for control of movement, serves no purpose to the immobile adult sea squirt, and so the rapidly maturing larva gets to work digesting it for its protein reserves. The tunicate essentially eats its own brain.

After turning stationary and dissolving its own brain, the tunicate larva completes its metamorphosis into a metaphor for the American adult."

Lol. Ok. Enough copy-pasting.

 

He uses a lot of images and videos and stuff, and people are commenting on the posts-it's never boaring. So, if you are studying this: it'll make you easier to remember and understand some things. And if you're not: you'll learn something and spend your spare time better than watcing a boaring brainless TV show.

Link: quantumbiologist

xxx

Bookmark: Between Dream And Reality

I'm reading 'Dance Dance Dance' by Haruki Murakami, one of my favourite writers. He's a Japanise but is interested in American literature so his work is modern and popular among young readers. It's very easy to read his books; no long difficult sentences, no endless chapters, no too much characters. And they're sooo interesting. Each book is like a puzzle. There's a mistery that needs to be solved, but the reader can't really do it coz not all elements of the book are real. There's a fantasy world, like a metaphor, but still normal to those characters in the book. Intriguing.

 

Murakami's books are so beautiful because they're wise, eye-opening and stimulating. He criticizes modern society, the lack of purposeful life and the simple joys, human interrelationships. This is all accomplished through interesting (we'd say weird) characters and events.

 

Some quotes I've written down:

"In this world there are things you can only do alone and things you can only do with somebody else." ('After Dark')

"...playing really creatively (...) You send the music deep enough into your heart so that it makes your body undergo a kind of a physical shift, and simultaneously the listener's body also undergoes the same kind of physical shift. It's giving birth to that kind of shared state." ('After Dark')

"I live my life, you live yours. If you're clear about what you want, then you can live anyway you please. I don't give a damn what people say. They can be reptile food for all I care." ('Dance Dance Dance')

More about the author: www.murakami.ch

All pics found on Google.

 

Can't wait to finish the book. But then again, I don't want it to end.

xxx

 

Bookmark: One And Only Nick Hornby

So, the other day I found out about a new movie 'A Long Way Down' (will be out in 2014). I can't wait! Not just that I like that book, but I also worship its author Nick Hornby.

"New Year’s Eve on the top of a London skyscraper. Martin (Brosnan) is literally on the edge. A once-beloved TV personality, he’s now desperate to jump. But he’s not alone. Single mother Maureen (Collette), sassy teen Jess (Poots), and musician turned pizza-delivery boy JJ (Paul), have all turned up on the same roof with the same plan. Instead of jumping, these complete strangers make a pact to stay alive and stay together until Valentine’s Day at least." (Hornby's blog)

Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. Wether you describe his texts as drama or comedy, they always intertwine with music, sport, modern society or fundamental human nature.

I haven't read all his books yet coz they don't have them in the library and I hate reading on the computer, but I loved every single one of them so far (except 'Fever Pitch' which I haven't even borrowed simply coz it's about football, but than again it's Hornby so how bad can it be).

 

Some of his books have been turned into a movie already, like 'About a Boy' and 'Hight Fidelity'. He also wrote a screenplay for 'An Education' starring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgraad. At some point in his creative life history he was a pop-music critic and a live-band member (he was just reading his work though).

To find out more about him, visit his web-site: nickhornbyofficial

(All pics are from the web-site, and these are definitely not all of his books.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This collection of stories 'Speaking with the Angel' I read three times in a row (only one is Hornby's but he created the collection). My final words: I'll leave you with a choice-to read 'A Long Way Down' first or to watch it first. There's no other option. (I recommend reading, I can tell with certanty it'll be good).

xxx