Five O'clock Shadow or Lumberjack?

Portland and Beards are like Wellington and Coffee.
But girls! don't feel left out. Look what I found on Etsy! Local Etsy vendor Imadeyouabeard has a variety of styles and colours available for you.

ahhhh, the things people do with their spare time.....

underused word of the week: Beatnik

Retro New Zealand band The Clean are playing at Holocene here in Portland September 18th. This video is a classic! the word beatnik is officially becoming part of my vernacular.

and if you're not in Portland.... check out the Holocene website anyway, they have great bands playing on a regular basis in a big two room warehouse space. Click around on some band links and you might just find a new favourite.

Sugar Plum Fairy

Sugar Plum Fairy Storm from David Frampton on Vimeo.

It's been a consistent swampy 32deg here in Portland, and I should be basking in it. Still this video made my throat swell and I miss the wild Wellington coast like never before.

Follow the link to watch it larger.

word of the day: insipid

Police Slog Through 40,000 Insipid Party Pics To Find Cause Of Dorm Fire

Droog Design

Somewhere in between my day job and my ever growing collection of hobbies I'm lacking time to write down my opinions on things for you this month. I could just hug Lulubelle for her prolific posting. But here's a link for you to make your own opinion about.

Droog Design is a design collective based in Amsterdam and since 1993 they have been creating inspiring and innovative design shows, products, prototypes and publications. Some ideas are hit and miss but they are always thought provoking.... and everyone needs some thought provocation now and then.

p.s (don't miss the Poppet competition down below, he's too cute!)

maybe a little too tan?

in a stroke of genius the Design Director at my day job here in Portland had us all ditch work and head to the movies today.... which considering it is a balmy 26deg outside seemed odd at first. The movie however, was not some mid-week comedy designed to lift our spirits amidst looming deadlines but an inspirational documentary on one of the last great couturiers.

Absolutely, completely worth a look - Valentino: the last emperor

I want this bag... and it's little friends too.

I don't even know what else to say.... I'm in love with it. Leather or Felt? oh decisions! individually numbered and phenomenally constructed. Carga bags are beautiful.

French by Osmosis

I had many grand ideas when I moved to Portland. I was going to become more independent, I was going to live in my own apartment, collect hobbies, learn a new language, ride my bike, wear beautiful shoes and meet fabulous people. Well it's coming up to a year since I moved here.... and I only have one more thing to check off the list.....

I really intended to take French classes, I did. I chose French because I like the way it sounds, I like the way my friend Margaux says 'cool' and the word sounds like it means.... stylish, interesting and well, cool. So whilst I haven't enrolled in classes quite yet, I have initiated French Fridays. On Fridays I listen to nothing but French music.... thanks to Pandora and a lot of Myspace browsing I can absorb sultry, smoky French sounds the entire day and eventually... maybe I will begin to learn French pronunciation by osmosis.

Tonight I'm capping off a wonderful French Friday going to see French-born Tuscon-based Marianne Dissard play at the Someday Lounge here in Portland.

Wellytown

Wellington artist Miriam Silvester has taken the graphic tee to a whole new level - she's encouraging you to make it your own. Miriam wants you to colour in the beautiful line art of your favourite city, to add to your embellishments over time and re-create the t-shirt every season or even every time you wear it.

check out her website for some great ideas for individualizing Wellytown tees (and posters!!) and upload pics of your own creations.

T-shirts and Posters availabale at Rex Royale, 106 Cuba Mall, Wellington.

I wore my stretchy pants for nothing

Oh Cuba Street! Logan Brown!

(Thanks for the link KH, I have tears running down my face)

my idea of heaven

... you walk into a room and take a deep breath of gin and tonic. Seriously, if someone could start pumping atomized gin and lime through the air conditioner at my work for me? I'd be less of a bitch. In fact, I'd be downright delightful.

Bompass & Parr are English jelly specialists and creators of culinary events.... and they are currently holding a sold out event in London in which an old store front has been turned into "alcoholic architecture".... seriously, a room full of gin-laden fog.

I know, I know! it's sold out! and it's in London! but don't you just love new ideas? Their past events look intriguing as well, how about "scratch-and-sniff cinema"? which might be so-so if the film was say Chocolat but Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Theif, His Wife and Her Lover with smells of 'dusty books' and 'rotting meat' .... brilliant.

p.s. If you haven't seen that movie. Rent it immediately.

Still Life

ahhhh.... so I can't always think what to blog next.
What if I just take the last topic and ask myself if I could create a blog post that would fit under the same title. Unoriginal?

Vincent Bousserez isn't.

You can check out the french artist's take on still life here

Picture of the day

I already mentioned I'm obsessed with this website right?

Expat boys and girls

You all know it as fact, New Zealander's travel. We live at the bottom of the earth (or at the top if you are feeling antipocentric) and we itch to get out there and expand our minds through the eyes of different cultures. Did you turn 25 and realise you have more friends living in London than Wellington?

Yeh, me too.

It just didn't astound me until I moved overseas, it seemed like a right of passage. But since I've been living in the US I've come to understand how unique and special this is.... there are people here who've never left the state they were born in, and rumor goes there are teenagers in the suburbs who have never seen downtown! they exist solely between their cul-de-sac and the nearest strip mall.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to post short profiles of kiwi's living overseas.... and I figured it's only polite to start with my own one, albeit the least interesting as my overseas adventures have just begun.....


I've been living in Portland, Oregon since early last year working in the fashion industry. It's not exactly where I expected to end up on my big overseas adventure but the Northwest US is incredible. Portland is known for it's liberal state of mind, music, being the most sustainable city in the US and having the most strip bars and micro-breweries per capita in the country. Portlanders love bicycles, music, beer and beards like you wouldn't believe.

I've managed to travel a lot up and down the West Coast in the past 9 months, hung out in the desert in California, spent a weekend in Seattle, and pretended to snowboard in Vancouver.... and in last five years have seen Melbourne, Sydney, Shanghai, London, Rome and Tuscany. Next year Japan and Amsterdam.

Moving here has been hands down one of the most invigorating experiences of my life, I've been pushed to the edge of my comfort zone and consequently I feel independent and motivated and I've started to understand so much more about myself.

But still nothing compares to a flat white on Cuba Street, a long Sunday afternoon in my gin shoes at Matterhorn or Ohope beach. So I know I'll be back - but with my eyes open wider than before.

Tender Loving Empire

Portland is a freakin' goldmine, the place is teeming with great music... I have though become sadly complacent the last few months, accustomed to a plethora of shows to pick and choose from each weekend - the enthusiasm I had in my first few months for seeing live music faded with the winter. Portlander's love music but there is sooo much of it. It's hard to rally a group of friends every weekend when there's a lot going on - I began to long for my days in Wellington... when a good show came to town the excitement was palpable and you were sure that everyone you knew would be there.

Well, warm weather is upon me and I'm looking for some new bands to fall in love with. I've been scrounging about myspace for new tunes which is my usual method, and perusing show listings... and then I stumbled upon an old friend -

Tender Loving Empire is a Portland based independent record label/store/gallery/art collective.


or in their own words:

"We represent driven, high caliber and culturally conscious authors, musicians, fine artists and designers who work to consistently expand the barriers of their chosen forum but have not necessarily gained a great amount of public exposure. Our goal is to give these artists the attention and exposure their art deserves.

Our customers are those who have burned out on the products of mass culture and desire a more intimate and unique experience with the music, literature, fine art and fashion which they purchase and subsequently interact with on a daily basis.

We believe that participating in the creative process and witnessing others do the same makes our world a nicer place. "

Boy Eats Drum Machine and Super XX Man are playing this weekend at Backspace and RonToms respectively (check out their myspace for show times)

All you Wellingtonians, check out their myspace and website for some great bands and great art.

Mortified!

I was an awkward kid. I kept journals, wrote long languid poetry, and despaired over unrequited crushes. I fell for a boy called Tom when I was 12 and made a time capsule of my love for him and buried it in my mum's garden..... It appears my neurosis was not uncommon.

Mortified! is a comic excavation of adolescent art, poetry, journal entries and love letters. Live performances in Portland this weekend will be presented by the works original authors.....

Someday Lounge, Portland OR. Fri April 3rd and Sat April 4th.

why you need to know about the interweb

I know people 5 years older than me who have never used Google. If you aren't with the Interweb now is the time to get to it. Before some toddler on your block has to teach you about blogging. Start with http://www.fluromag.blogspot.com

Dreams

check this out

one of the best thrice named actors of all time

My two favourite actors are Philip Seymour Hoffman and William H. Macy.... I'm not sure if I have a thing for thrice named men or if it's a coincidence that I find them both fabulous and they have so many names. This ramble is unrelated to what I have to tell you.

Synecdoche New York is incredible, it's intense, enthralling and after two hours that felt like four I was exhausted. If it's not playing where you're at right now take a MENTAL NOTE.

So So So Good.



(note: not a good idea to take a first date and sure as hell don't go if you're feeling depressed

Plan C

before you jump up and make fake clouds and fake trees let's fix a few other big issues.

You may have read recently that a negative consequence of declining car crash fatalities (you thought this was a good thing didn't you?) is that there are less organs available for transplant. Yup, healthy people don't die that often.... car crashes were like a veritable feast of good organs and now that those horrible ads are working on the national psyche and cars and roads are getting safer - we have a problem.

Well there are a few Chinese whispers that you can grow these things (you know, hearts and lungs and livers) in a laboratory. You may also have heard that cute little piggies have compatible organs with humans - which reminded me of something I read once. This is basically how my brain works... you tell me some crap and I find the excuse to rant on a slightly associated tangent (and then when you look bored you know I'm gonna say "well you bought it up!").

Utility Pets:

I'm not going to explain it better than the artist so follow the link and read for yourself. Genius.

The artist is Elio Caccavale - he's pretty cool.