You know you're living when it all becomes a blur...

  WHAT 2013 WAS ALL ABOUT

As this year is coming to an end, one day left darlings and we get to kiss this bitch of a year goodbye, I couldn't resist the urge of drawing up a list of the things that made 2013 special for yours truly. ENJOY.

1. THE GROWLERS 

Cause they have been the soundtrack of my life for the past few months and are undoubtedly my biggest recent musical crush!

2. PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL PARIS 

Cause I went for the first time to what is easily the most civilized music festival and had the time of my life! Amazing company, awesome music from the likes of Todd Terje, The Knife, Omar Souleyman, Junip, Jon Hopkins, Jagwar Ma, Hot Chip, Glass Candy, Yo La Tengo, Disclosure and Connan Mockasin and one of the best festival venues La Grande Halle de la Villette.   

 

Marylin, cause she made our nest in Montmartre special.

3. MAKING LOVE HAPPEN 

Cause I know I have done at least one right thing in my life when 2 of my closest friends that I introduced to each other and actually organized their first official date decide to tie the knot. I was the happiest 'best man' this summer, cause we all love love. 

 

4. WANDERLUST

Cause in 2014 I will be embarking on a new adventure....

5. ALL THE BEAUTIFUL BOYS 

That have colored my life with the chaos of trouble during the last few months...BIG LOVE

 

6. THE REFLEKTORS aka Arcade Fire

Cause 2013 was their year and everything they did was pure GOLD.

7. THE DEEP SEA 

Cause I have spent the better part of the last year and a half trying to save it! 

This is an amazing comic strip that accompanied a petition against deep-sea bottom trawling. It explains the story of how after the over-exploitation of demersal fish stocks we discovered new fuel intensive techniques to fish further from the coast and at greater depths whilst destroying corals and sponges that live thousands of years to catch extremely vulnerable fish that no one really wants to eat!  

8. LA GRANDE BELLEZZA

9. Our high school reunion and our matching tattoos

10. MARGARET ATWOOD

For ooooh so many reasons...

Rules: to be made and to be broken. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.

Having lacked any form of self-discipline and structure I always liked to think that I enjoy coloring my life with the chaos of trouble, that chaos breeds creation and that as most rules are proved elliptical and end up being outdated, true progress can only be achieved by breaking them. Below are some rules that tickle my fancy and that I wouldn't mind following, at times. Enjoy.

REBECCA MORRIS: MANIFESTO For Abstractionists and friends of the non-objective

BE A FORCE

Don’t shoot blanks

Black and Brown: that shit is the future

Triangles are your friend

Don’t pretend you don’t work hard

When in doubt, spray paint it gold

Perverse formalism is your god

You are greased lightening

Bring your camera everywhere

Never stop looking at macrame`, ceramics, supergraphics and suprematism

Make work that is so secret, so fantastic, so dramatically old school/new school that it looks like it was found in a shed, locked up since the 1940’s

Wake up early, fear death

Whip out the masterpieces

Be out for blood

You are the master of your own universe

Abstraction never left, motherfuckers

If you can’t stop, don’t stop

Strive for deeper structure

Fight monomania

Campaign against the literal

ABSTRACTION FOREVER!

Guidelines for lady-like behavior by Ms Margaret Atwood in "The Blind Assassin"

"She said I'd need to dress the part, no matter what my deficiencies, which should never be admitted by me."Say you have a headache", she told me. "It's always an acceptable excuse." She told me many other things as well. "It's all right to show boredom" She said. "Just never show fear. They'll smell it on you, like sharks, and come in for the kill. You can look at the edge of the table - it lowers your eyelids - but never look at the floor, it makes your neck look weak. Don't stand up straight, you're not a soldier. Never cringe. If someone makes a remark that's insulting to you, say Excuse me? as if you haven't heard; nine times out of ten they won't have the face to repeat it. Never raise your voice to a waiter, it's vulgar. Make them bend down, it's what they're for. Don't fidget with your gloves or your hair. Always look as if you have something better to do, but never show impatience. When in doubt, go to the powder room, but go slowly. Grace comes from indifference." Such were her sermons. I have to admit, despite my loathing of her, that they have proved to be of considerable value in my life. 

A piece of friendly advice by Jenny Holzer

And a song to clear the air...

A few of my favorite things

Cause it's winter, we're snowed in and spring seems nowhere in sight so thinking of a few of your favorite things makes waiting until its time to bloom bearable. Here's a list of some of mine.

-watching a movie whilst seated precisely in the middle of the cinema

-Joe Strummer, cause the future is unwritten

-small jail-style tattoos, especially anchors

-Devendra Banhart

-and long-haired bearded boys in general

-Van the Man (with a slight weakness for Brown Eyed Girl)

-the fact that Italian Vogue was code for weed in Tarantino's "Death Proof"

-"The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood

-Actually anything by Margaret Atwood, Philip Roth (especially American Pastoral) or Ian McEwan (Saturday!)

-Alexander Ebert

-"Lola" by the Kinks

-James Turrell's skyspace installations

-all of Wes Anderson's movies

-cetaceans

-Helmut Newton

-pearls

-NYC

-Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden

-Flowerbomb by Viktor and Rolf

-"Where the wild things are" by Maurice Sendak

-French boys when they speak english

-Diane Arbus 

-gold, the color

-The Marolles

-Having mimosas for breakfast

-Bob Dylan in his youth

-Agent Provocateur underwear

-beets

-Fight Club, the book, the movie, everything!

-Miuccia Prada

-water

-diamonds, preferably on the soles of my shoes

-POP Art (Keith Haring and Roy Lichtenstein)

-Tom Robbins

-"The Kiss" from Rodin

-lace

-"The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov

-Isabele Marant

-Black Vanilla scented candles

-Hendricks Gin

-blowing bubbles in the wind

-Living under the Acropolis

-The Aegean

-Harleys

-that unexpected smile from a beautiful stranger

-mittens

-white orchids and liliums

-Ryan Gosling when he is not playing in romcoms

-Nouvelle Vague and anything by Godard

-Londontown

-peanut butter jelly sandwiches

-Kusmi Algotea (a blend of Chinese green tea, spearmint leaves and seaweed)

-Dalmatians and Pugs

-"Drive"

-mom's poached eggs, cause they are a taste of heaven

-chocolate ice cream with lemon sorbet

-analog cameras

-glitter

-Wanderlust

-Dressing up and dressing down

-white cotton nightgowns

-mustaches

-perfecto black leather jackets

-Ksubi jeans

-DVF dresses

-red velvet cupcakes (preferably by The Hummingbird Bakery)

-Poppy seed bagels with cream cheese

-Gigs in small venues (Botanique and AB)

-Travelling (it's been over ten years that I have spent dreaming of Tanzania!)

-Diners

-heart shaped glasses

-"Just Kids" by Patti Smith

-decorating shoes and clothes with studs and skulls

-anything with Jasmine by KORRES

-The Smiths

-Pale Blue Eyes by the Velvet Underground cause I thought of you as my mountaintop, I thought of you as my peak, I thought of you as everything I had but could not keep

-manicures (and OPI nail polish)

-Kusama Yayoi

-being In Rainbows with Radiohead

-seedbombs

-and last but not least howling at the moon