After the surprising announcement that the next season of True Blood will be its last, I thought I'd round up some of my favourite southern-inspired finds to pay tribute to the show's mysterious mix of gothic southern charm...
It makes me infinitely sad that the talented musicians behind country/folk duo The Civil Wars are currently not on speaking terms. Joy Williams and John Paul White have been estranged since November 2012, but by moxie or miracle, they released a sophomore self-titled album (recorded last year while on tour) just this past month. My favourite track is called to 'Dust to Dust' and you can preview it for free over at NPR's All Songs Considered.
This stunning digital print by Korean artist Madame Lolina reminds me of Sookie Stackhouse's sleek black Diane von Frustenberg dress in the episode Dead Meat. Off to meet her potential faerie-vampire husband, Sookie's outfit encapsulates the sexy, dangerous, and supernatural energy that makes True Blood so deliciously watchable. Madame Lolina's 'Crow Hat' print shares a similarly alluring quality with the crow's glossy black feathers complementing the model's dramatically winged eyeliner and almost stiflingly ornate dress. Available in three print sizes over at The Working Proof.
Southern Tupelo Honey Favours from Pressed Cotton - Of all the different honeys I've tasted, Tupelo honey has got to be my favourite. Harvested from tupelo trees that only grow along four rivers in Florida and Georgia, this swampland honey is prized for its pure and slightly floral flavour that is perfect simply scooped out of the jar and savoured. Read more about the fascinatingly tricky process of producing tupelo honey here.
Southern Lights Electric Co. x Pennyweight Goods - It was love at first light when I first set my eyes upon this elegant lamp by Adam Gatchel of Southern Lights Electric Co. Designed to darken and age over time, this limited edition steel and brass swing arm wall lamp makes the rustic refined with its use of unfinished steel and raw brass. Sadly this edition is already sold out at Pennyweight, but you can view more of Adam's stunning fixtures (along with his commercial work) over on his website.
What will you miss most about True Blood when the TV series wraps up its run?
Have you seen the romantic dramedy Celeste + Jesse Forever? It's a fascinating and funny love story about a married pair of best friends who are going through a divorce. Their cute and quirky marriage is already over by the end of the opening credits and the rest of the movie explores the various complications and entanglements that come with separating from your best friend.
With Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg in the lead roles, the movie strikes a great balance between humour and honesty. Jones plays the protagonist with aplomb and Samberg is surprisingly earnest and endearing in an uncharacteristically serious acting role.
The movie also has a stellarsoundtrack that's pretty much the quintessential heartbreak mix for the cool kids.
The story is a bit heartbreaking, but it also has a lot of heart. Jones co-wrote the script with her writing partner Will McCormack (and no, not Will from Will & Grace...that's Eric McCormack - don't worry, I got excited too.) She also included a lot of her own real-life dating experiences for some wickedly fun cringe-worthy moments that enriched the story and made it more intimate.
See it if you're a fan of love stories that aren't afraid to dive into the nitty gritty details of a complicated adult relationship and skip it if you can only stomach meet-cutes and happy endings. Movies that are similar in tone include Sarah Polley's Take this Waltz and Richard Linklater's famed trilogy, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and the recently released Before Midnight. If you're on the fence, I highly recommend you give it a shot as Celeste & Jesse Forever has given me a new found admiration and respect for Jones as both a writer and a leading lady. (Photos via Pinterest)
Calling all foodies and social revellers! The spontaneous spectacle of Dîner en Blanc returns to Toronto this summer on Thursday, August 9, 2012.
Not sure what the parade of diners dressed in white and dining al fresco is all about? Check out this excellent blog post about the first Dîner en Blanc in Toronto on The Hip & Urban Girl's Guide or watch this fun footage from last year's event in NYC!
Registration for Toronto's Dîner en Blanc is now open! Sign up quickly since space is limited and priority is given first to previous diners, second to their friends and family, and third to the general public who are participating in Dîner en Blanc for the first time.
Have I ever told you about The Working Proof? It's a wonderful art organization (conceived by Anna Corpron & Sean AuYeung in Brooklyn, NY) where independent illustrators design limited edition prints that are released for sale weekly on The Working Proof website and e-newsletter.
A considerable 15% from each print sale goes to a charity of the illustrator's choosing making it a win-win situation for anyone looking to support charitable causes and emerging artists.
Here are three of my favourite prints that have been featured on the site so far:
Luckily, great minds think alike as Judy Tan operates a similar venture in Portland, OR called tanQ where consumers can purchase limited edition t-shirts to support a different non-profit organization each month. With the motto of "1 tee, 1 month, 1 good deed", tanQ will donate 100% of the net profits from each sale for the first 12 months tanQ is in existence (est. Sept. 2010).
Featuring 12 classic yellow school pencils with various quirks and quarks (I'm the perfectionist!), each tee comes with a collector's greeting card and a mini button all in support of tanQ's December charity pick, Pencils of Promise.
What do you think of these start-ups connecting artists and national or global not-for-profits? Have you ever purchased anything from The Working Proof or tanQ?
Doesn't Marilyn look simply stunning in the poster for this year's Cannes Film Festival?
I love the interplay of soft gold with the simple black and white photograph and the way that the light seems to illuminate not only from the birthday candle but from Marilyn herself.
What do you think of this year's poster? Do you think Marilyn is a good choice for the festival's 65th anniversary?
Looking for more images of iconic leading ladies from Hollywood's Golden Age? Check out this exquisite archive of Cannes Pin-Ups Through the Ages on The Telegraph.co.uk! My favourite photos are of Gene Tierney, Brigitte Bardot, and Elizabeth Taylor :)
Can it be April yet? Because I can't wait to see this movie!
Jason Segel (Tom) and Emily Blunt (Violet) look like they have brilliant comedic chemistry together and Alison Brie takes a supporting turn as Violet's sister too :)
Until then, check out the couple's hilarious fake wedding website, which should keep us chuckling all the way to the box office on April 27!
With the long-awaited return of Mad Men on March 25, it only seems fitting to focus my Fashion Friday posts this month on retro style and beauty!
Acclaimed costume designer Janie Bryant undoubtedly has some sartorial surprises up her sleeve for season 5, and I can't wait to see how she transitions the characters as they inch closer and closer toward the 1970s.
Until then, kick off your heels, grab a martini glass, and enjoy this quirky and alluring editorial starring Meghan Collison (the new face of Prada and a Canadian!) and shot by Ben Toms for Vogue Russia (January 2012).
If you're looking for a fun way to spice up your winter workout routine, Canada's National Ballet School and Toronto choreographer Lopa Sarkar are teaming up to present a Bollywood flashmob this April in honour of International Dance Day!
Jamming to the Bollywood beats of Montreal duo The Bilz and Kashif, participation is completely free, open to all ages, and will take place at a surprise Toronto location on Sunday, April 29, 2012.
To help get you ready for the big event, group rehearsals will take place at the National Ballet School from February to April on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays (full schedule here.)
Based on your skill level, you can decide how many classes you need to pick up the Bollywood, Bhangra, and Classical Indian inspired routine and they have also posted a YouTube video for those of us (like me) who may need a little extra practice time ;)
New registrants will only be accepted until March 23 so grab a couple of friends and sign up soon to dance your way to a better body and try something new!
Well this week will be the very last chance to see it at the Living Arts Centre before it closes on January 22! Please stop by to check out all the amazing video game inspired artwork and you can also catch an interview with me and our curator Cole on The Electric Playground airing tonight on CityTV :)
In the meantime, here are some images to whet your appetite (but don't forget that you can only play with my Pixel Painter piece in person..!)
Can you spot the Green Lantern reference in the above photo? ;)
PS - Double milestone! This entry officially marks my 100th blog post...hooray!
Dark, moody, and sensual images celebrating the culinary and the couture in the October issue of Indonesia Tatler Travel and Gourmet magazine.
Doesn't model Fitria Yusuf look like a dead ringer for Maggie Cheung in Wong Kar Wai's classic film In the Mood for Love?
A quick peek into stylist Indrajaya's portfolio reveals that she has pretty superb taste when it comes to men's fashion too! I totally want to snag that gorgeously patterned sweater for this snowy winter weather :)
Sorry for the long absence from the blog! I've been busy participating in my first group art show, Thank You for Playing, which is currently on display at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga. The show is a love letter to the 8-bit video games we grew up with in the 80s, and it features a neat mix of painting, video, textile, and installation work. I highly recommend you check it out when the gallery reopens after winter break on January 3 :)
Although I've taken art classes intermittently throughout school, I don't consider myself a practicing artist and I never had the opportunity to show work in a formal gallery space. But when my best friend approached me with the idea for Thank You for Playing, the media studies grad in me couldn't resist taking this enormous encyclopedia of visual iconography and pop culture and running with it.
The experience was both rewarding and gruelling at times, and I learned a number of important things that should help the next time around:
1. Fight the urge to procrastinate. Even if deadlines seem really far away, it's best to get the troubleshooting part of your creative process out of the way early on, so you can give yourself better chances of coming out with a polished (and finished!) project.
2. Group management is a full-time job. Between chasing people for artist statements, process images, and finished work, it can feel like you're a full-time personal assistant with no time to devote to your own pieces. Make it easier on yourself by choosing reliable artists to work with - ones that will respect not only your group timelines, but also your personal time.
3. Consider the size, scale, and quantity of work.If your group is not collaborating in a mutual space or sharing progress shots regularly, you may be surprised to find a largely empty gallery when everyone shows up with their pieces on installation week. Encourage everyone to see the gallery space before starting to create so you can collectively gauge how many and how large your artworks should be to fill the space.
4. Ask for help. Especially for installation projects. Large-scale or highly detailed artwork can usually be parcelled out to heroic friends and family in the early building stages. Find a balance between 'no artist is an island' and 'too many cooks ruin the soup' and try to be clear in communicating your concept.
5. Eat a healthy diet. Between jobs, trips to the art store, friends/family, and life in general, it's simply too easy to pull into a drive-thru window looking for a quick, treat-based fix when meal time rolls around. Do yourself a favour and try to organize as many healthy meals and snacks as you can to properly fuel the fire for all of those late night art sessions :)
6. The simplest solutions are often the best ones. A small design flaw in my Pixel Painter installation piece (see video screen shot below) resulted in some 3 x 3 x 3 cubes getting stuck in a cubby space that was 3 x 3 x 4. Luckily, a little spray paint and some sticky tack transformed a regular foam brush handle into a handy box retriever that could be replicated and replaced when needed.
7.An excellent curator can cure (almost) all ills. Speaking of which,I can't speak highly enough about our talented curator Cole Swanson. He came up with the solution above and he also problem solved our initial lack of work by making helpful suggestions to frame and enlarge our giclee pieces and he used colour to build different environments to properly fill the space as well.
8. Start your social media campaign early. Twitter, Facebook, and listservs are all great ways of building an audience for your show before it even opens. Plus, many mainstream media outlets now have social media accounts too, so it's a smart way to connect with art writers and chase producers too.
9. When conducting broadcast interviews, be genuine but brief. I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Space Channel for their program innerSPACE, and I distinctly recall a couple of times when I got lost in my own answer and needed to backtrack out of the sentence in the most cohesive manner possible...keep it short and sweet and the editor looking for a good sound bite will thank you too.
10. Appreciate the independent/local media that come out and do awesome coverage like this fun feature from The Oddcast Show:
The show is on until January 22 and the Living Arts Centre Gallery is open from Tuesday - Saturday (10 am - 4 pm) and Sunday (1 pm - 4 pm).
Although Saturday mornings are typically reserved for curling up in bed with breakfast and blogs, thanks to Adam Westbrook's Twitter tip, I had the chance to play a strangely affecting game called One Chance.
The premise of the game is simple and not unlike many Hollywood movies we see on screen today.
A group of scientists accidentally created a pathogen that is rapidly killing all living cells on Earth. In six days time, the world is going to end and you have one chance to save it.
As scientist John Pilgrim, you also have a wife and child and must make a series of personal and professional choices that lead to one of many possible outcomes.
The ingenuity of this game is that it saves to your browser history allowing each decision to be made only once. 'Should have', 'could have' and 'would have' and the corresponding 'refresh', 'reboot' and 'where the crap is the back button?' are removed from the game play vocabulary.
Instead, Awkward Silence Games forces you to focus on the choices at hand, engaging in the simple yet powerful narrative while evaluating your own priorities.
I won't give too much more away as I'd highly encourage you to try playing it for yourself.
As for my outcome?
I passed away in the park with my child on the last day of the world. Pretty powerful stuff.
For more on One Chance, check out this great interview by Alec Meer on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
Come one, come all to the very first Junction Design Crawl! This Friday from 7:00 - 11:00 pm, local businesses will string up white lights to guide visitors to special events, music, art projects, pop-up sales, and good eats happening inside their shops.
I'm particularly excited for Icelandic hotdogs from Mjolk: steam cooked in beer with specialty mustard, remoulade mayo, ketchup and frizzled onions! They'll be served from 7 pm until they're gone, so snap them up quick :) And if you're too late to the party, Zocalo cafe just up the block is always a surefire bet.
Don't. Freak. Out. But the master of Italian cinema, Federico Fellini, is the subject of the next big exhibition at the TIFF Bell Lightbox!
Visual Art
Curated by Sam Stourdze and produced by NBC Photography, the exhibition will feature 400+ works that "explore the obsessions that recur throughout his films and life" and no doubt informs the iconography that we admire and still long for so much today.
Dream Double Bills
What would an exhibit on Fellini be without some moving pictures? TIFF invited nine filmmakers, critics, and programmers to slate a series of double bills that pair a Fellini film with another work that complements, contrasts, or inspires a conversation with it.
Incorporating picks from Atom Egoyan, Isabella Rossellini, Deepa Mehta, the film programme also has the added thrill of having Guillermo Del Toro introducing James Schamus' selections on July 2!
Masterworks of Italian Neorealism
A retrospective of classic and rare films by Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti and Pier Paolo Pasolini. If you're new to the movement, I highly recommend starting with De Sica's definitive "Bicycle Thieves"and plunging forward from there.
Clearly, it's an exciting summer to be a film lover in Toronto! What are you most excited to see? :)
I'm utterly charmed by the sweet little owls adorning this home in the premiere issue of Trad Home magazine!
Designed by Suysel dePedro Cunningham and Anne Maxwell Foster for their joint design venture, Tilton Fenwick, the look is 'Country Cosmopolitan' and nearly pitch perfect.
The only thing I'd be tempted to do is swap out the owls for cuter and even chubbier Totoro plushies (!)
What do you think? Are you more of an owl or a Totoro fan? :)
Just as Captain Planet and the Planeteers united to make an awesome team to save the world, crafters, designers, and hackers will be uniting this May for Toronto's first ever Mini Maker Faire!
Not sure what a Maker Faire is? Check out this succinct lil nugget of info from the presenters:
"Maker" refers to hobbyists and professionals, from hackers to crafters, who are dedicated to the act of creation. It is a culture built on do-it-yourself (DIY) values. Maker Faires and Mini Maker Faires present opportunities for Makers to compare notes, spark ideas for new projects and expand collaboration.
It takes a pretty penny to throw an event of this scale, so consider donating to the project via Ulule. Scaled rewards include high fives, laser cut pins and robot illustrations :) If money's a bit tight, donate your social currency by posting the campaign on your Twitter or Facebook.
Not only is Maker Faire cheap to attend, but it's also age-appropriate for the whole family. Tickets range from $1.11 for a child day pass to $15.00 for a full weekend adult pass.
Want to make a difference at one of the most innovative events of the year? Get the inside scoop on all the action by applying to be a volunteer! Intriguingly enough, the last question on the application asks if you have any experience working with pyrotechnics...
With a Mini Maker Faire already come and gone in Ottawa and a future Mini Maker Faire planned for Vancouver, let's see Toronto shine with all the talent we have in this bright, beautiful city!
Extra Credit: Toronto's Mini Maker Faire will also coincide with Science Rendezvous, Ontario's largest public science festival. Open to all ages, feel free to check out both events to get geeked-out-to-the-max!
