Showing posts with label Van Morrison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Van Morrison. Show all posts

Saturday, August 16, 2014

But I asked you for a dance...

I hope this post finds you all sundrunk by the sea, with freckles on your nose, blonde streaks in your hair and a fabulous book in your hands. This summer has been relatively short, due to unforseen forces of change, but sweet nevertheless. I engaged in my annual hermit, detox, island retreat for about two weeks and thought I would share some photos and the books and songs that occuppied my time during my summer paradise-lost.

"The Myth of Sisyphus" has been somwhat of a recurrent theme in my life, whether it was the spectacular dance performance "Still Life" by the incredibly talented Mr Papaioannou, or my mum and lover reading it during the exact same time and talking to me about it. I thus thought that it was high-time to dwelve into a little absurdism. Though this essay rang true in many ways, I must admit I was surprised at how such a talented man like Camus managed to make 120 pages rather tiring and repetitive. Just know that at the end one must imagine Sisyphys happy....

"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negated the gods and raises rocks. He, too, concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Albert Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus" 
























Survival kit for lazy sunbathers

The other book, "Generation X", that kept me company has again been ever-present during my teenage years as the term kept appearing in some of the key movies marking my coming of age such as Clerks, Reality Bites, Heathers, Fight Club, Dazed and Confused, Singles and many many more... and indeed it was a real delight and very topical for a girl in her late 20s coming from Greeceland. 

























Self-diagnosis


"But my crisis wasn't just the failure of youth but also a failure of class and of sex and the future and I still don't know what. I began to see this world as one where citizens stare, say, at the armless Venus de Milo and fantasize about amputee sex or self-righteously apply a fig leaf to the statue of David, but not before breaking off his dick as a souvenir. All events became omens; I lost the ability to take anything literally."  

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, by Douglas Coupland 



Washed out island beauty queens

Dancing in the moonlight on this long hot summer night

 

























View from my paradise-lost


Absolute cuteness! World meet Victor! Cause the family just gained a heartbreaker!

























The beauty of visiting my grandparents: Family tresures and long forgotten fashion gems












































Dressing up
























A fantabulous night for a moondance

 






















Summertime is all about figs and hammocks

Cause Paul Simon's Graceland is and fo ralways will be the quintessential summer soundtrack
























Absolute Greeceland




Cause we had a moment listening to this song, driving to the North side of the island to howl at the August super-moon



Friday, January 24, 2014

I guess we're all looking for that place to call home or an ode to the woman of my life

Cause I have been listening to Van Morrison all day today and I can't help but think of home. A little ode to the woman of my life...

What will for always be my song, cause Van is the Man and you hummed this for me during our endless summer days





In 2012 I participated in this psycho photographic project where I had to pick a photo of an inspirational figure in my life, have my photo taken in front of a projection of the photo I had chosen and then enjoy about half an hour of psychoanalysis with the artist himself... 

CHRISTINA AND HER MOM 



"She was given money to go to the grocery store and instead she hit the road when she was only 16 with an apple and a toothbrush as baggage (cause dental hygiene is vital). She was always gazing at the horizon and so she embarked on a journey to discover the world. London, Paris, Bahamas, New York and the sky is our limit. I guess Wanderlust is highly contagious. A single mother, a queen of fashion, an iron lady, a rock'n'roll goddess and my personal hero. The woman that had me humming "Wild Wild Life" before I was even able to mumble and to whom I owe everything. My mom. Feelings of safety, belonging and immense unconditional love. I guess we are looking for that place to call home. "


The first song I apparently ever sung. 





Cause there's nothing like discovering hidden treasures like a photo of your mom in the late 60s. What a babe!





























"Laughter. An essential ingredient for survival. And we laughed a lot."

"We imagined ourselves as the Sons of Liberty with a mission to preserve, protect, and project the revolutionary spirit of rock and roll. We feared that the music which had given us sustenance was in danger of spiritual starvation. We feared it losing its sense of purpose, we feared it falling into fattened hands, we feared it floundering in a mire of spectacle, finance, and vapid technical complexity. We would call forth in our minds the image of Paul Revere, riding through the American night, petitioning the people to wake up, to take up arms. We too would take up arms, the arms of our generation, the electric guitar and the microphone."

""Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine." I had written the line some years before as a declaration of existence, as a vow to take responsibility for my own actions. Christ was a man worthy to rebel against, for he was rebellion itself."

"The gratitude I had for rock and roll as it pulled me through a difficult adolescence. The joy I experienced when I danced. The moral power I gleaned in taking responsibility for one's actions."

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Cause lady Patti was the first concert she took me too and we randomly ended up reading her book at the same time.





 


























My latest mom tattoo 























Salt picking

























 This Christmas




Cause this post needs to end with Van The Man....

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

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