Poupée Mécanique

I watched this wonderful film today, based on the classic book by Frances Hodgson. I believe it is meant to take place in 1905. The book came out in 1911. The performances by the children and Maggie Smith were lovely. It featured fantastic time-lapse photography of growing flowers and plants and the settings in general were incredible, the mansion, the countryside, the garden. So were the clothes. The housekeeper’s austere corseted outfits, the children’s pretty nightgowns and especially Colin’s little ensembles were charming. A must watch!

I watched it last night. I really liked it and I was surprised to hear Roald Dahl had hated it back then. Granted, it strays from the book but it’s still nice as far as performances go. Apparently the Dahl estate only agreed to allow for another film to be made if they had full control over EVERYTHING. And thus, the Tim Burton film was made, which I personally find AWFUL.

It’s one of Marilyn Manson’s favourite films. His first album opened with Willy Wonka’s boat speech, and also the video for Dope hat is a take of that scene, but I didn’t realise the logo reference until now.

I especially liked Veruca Salt. Proper bitch from hell! I loved her dress, I want to make it for Blythe.

My blog can now display japanese characters, and any other language too for that matter! I’m very pleased. Apparently it was a MySQL database problem, I had to switch the character encoding to UTF-8. Wordpress started using this encoding after version 2.5 and since I installed way before that, the database was stuck with latin1_swedish_ci.

My name in Japanese: レオニダス
My name in Greek: Λεωνίδας

^.^

Today I talk about one of my most beloved artists. She was introduced to me by Dylan, and as per usual with his sugestions, she’s trully wonderful! I have never heard a sweeter, more comforting voice. Even though I don’t understand much, that voice is really affecting.

She released 6 albums and one live record between 1975 and 1983. With every album her sound got fuller and more complex. She started of based on guitar and piano and then added violins, accordions, synths. Every one of them is a little masterpiece, I couldn’t pick a favourite. It’s even harder picking a song, but I’ll post “Our mistake” which was used in a tv drama in 1993 making her somewhat popular again (which resulted in a best of album being released) and a personal favourite from her 1983 record “Nocturne”.

Morita Douji – Bokutachi no shippai
Morita Douji – Aitou Yakyoku

In Japanese you use a different word for “I” based on your gender, the usual ones are the formal “watashi” used by both men and women, “atashi” used by women, “ore” by men and “boku” by boys. Douji always uses “boku”, in every song. I am not sure why that is, Natsuko suggested she may be singing from a male perspective. I know she started writing music after a male friend of hers died, maybe there is a connection.

I use “boku” too, I feel much more comfortable with it than “ore” which sounds somewhat cocky to me.

Francoise Hardy – Comment te dire adieu

Just finished watching this wonderful film from 1973, translated as Belladonna of Sadness. Though created by an anime studio it’s closer to western psychedelic art with a soundtrack to match. The visuals are simply stunning, some of the most beautiful art I’ve ever seen. It’s a combination of still images and animation, and though the swirling flowing hair and smoke were beautifully done, I mostly loved the still watercolour paintings.

The theme song is equally wonderful.
Tachibana Mayumi – Kanashimi no Belladonna

I’m behind with these! My designs lately have not been very suitable for mass production (if ten is mass) and yet they just keep getting more and more complicated! This one has broken the pintuck record, with 4 on each sleeve and 6 on the bodice, plus two more on the skirt for the variation I made. I love it though!

They’ll be all ready to go on Monday.

I went out to run some errands yesterday and it started pouring as soon as I was too far to justify going back for an umbrella.

After a while I was so soaked I didn’t care anymore, at least it wasn’t too cold. I went to the post office, had some film developed, popped by the V&A Museum of Childhood while waiting for said film, then bought ingredients for soup and a cake and headed back home. The rain wouldn’t stop. But I had appropriate music.

While listening to Malice Mizer’s album Bara no seidou, I passed by St. Anne’c Catholic Church…

…which I thought was funny because the cover of the record looks like this.

Seems to be a japanese kitty too, he/she’s been served gyoza. :D

Klaus Nomi performing his version of the Cold song from Henry Purcell’s opera King Arthur, while suffering complications from AIDS. He died 6 months later.

What Power art thou who from below
Hast made me rise unwillingly and slow
From beds of everlasting snow?
See’st thou not how stiff and wondrous old,
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold,
I can scarcely move or draw my breath.
Let me, let me freeze again to death.