The Great Gatsby, Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan.
I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am to see this movie! The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books, and I sure hope this adaptation doesn’t disappoint. I’m a big fan of Baz Luhrmann so I don’t think it will, but just because I love the book so much I feel the bar is set higher. Oh and Leonardo DiCaprio, there are no words.
This painted animal on photographic portrait series is by this French artist named Charlotte Caron.
I think that in general, fans of modern art would really like her stuff, as I do. What I can’t get enough of right now however is this particular series of hers. It’s very “spirit animal”, the idea and vibe of which I’ve always liked.
I’d sure love to own one of these, put in my room, and stare at it hours on end.
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I went book shopping today! I Finally picked up a copy of Sylvia Plath’s bell jar and I’m ready to read it and weep. Also, for a read that’s more on the surface, I bought Ines de la Fressange’s Parisian Chic Style Guide which, by judging from what I’ve read of it so far, is just lovely.
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Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss on an iPhone case would be perfect. I don’t remember the last time I wanted something this much.
When I was out of town earlier this month I started reading John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and rereading Zadie Smith’s On Beauty. I got to spend considerable time with them by the pool in Davao City, then later on by the beach in Boracay. But since I got back to Manila a week ago I’ve been finding less and less time to read, which is sad.
Most of my afternoon was spent just reading though, and it was absolute perfection.
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Portrait of Madame Recamier
Jacques Louis David, Oil on Canvas, 1800
Jacque Louis David’s Portrait of Madame Recamier isn’t a part of the Louvre’s list of main art attractions, but it probably is my favorite work of art there.
It caught my eye while sitting across the wall it shared with a bunch of other paintings, and in an instant, I was hooked. When I got back to our hotel that evening I googled the artist, then Madame Recamier, and found out that she was a beautiful and accomplished Parisian socialite who had a lot of friends from the political and literature circles in the early 19th Century. She would invite them to tea in the salon of her house which was a pretty happening place back in their day, making you a someone in society if you were invited to one of her soirees. On a more scandalous note, the man she married was a rich banker 30 years her senior (she was 15 when they wed) and there were rumors that he was actually her biological father, the two of them marrying to make her his heir.
I don’t quite know what draws me to paintings that I like, but I think for this one it was how fascinating Madame Recamier seemed to be. Djuna Barnes wrote about this painting in her book Creatures in an Alphabet:
The Seal, she lounges like a bride,
Much too docile, there’s no doubt;
Madame Récamier, on side,
(if such she has), and bottom out.
Louvre, Paris, 2011
Todays Inspiration: The Lady, Directed by Luc Besson and starring Michelle Yeoh and David Thewlis
The story of pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi and the academic and writer Michael Aris; a true story of love set against political turmoil.
I get goosebumps every time I watch this. Aung San Suu Kyi is one my biggest idols of all time and I think it’s fantastic how things are going for her in Myanmar right now.
