A Burning Hot Summer

Monica Bellucci and Louis Garrel caught in one stormy-steamy relationship proper of an actress and a painter? – I am running to the theater! In the words of Manohla Dargis of New York Times: 

"A languid, emotionally raw film. Mr. Garrel suggests that there’s something impossible about love, but then he is a Romantic — of a dreamy, melancholic type."

Philippe Garrel’s films run like a confession ripped from a diary of a tortured soul, eager to explore its intricacies yet stay impartial and untarnished. Those day-to-day moments of pondering silences, stolen glances and feelings of great intimacy mixed with alienation make Garrel’s works voyeuristic and visually striking. Even though his pensive poetry and austerely character study approach is not catered to everyone’s taste, his imagery is provoking and worth exploring:

Screenings available July 20–26 at SF Film Society Cinema:

http://sffs.org/content.aspx?catid=928,1025&pageid=2985&TitleId=fsc-burninghot

If you are in town, come check it out and share what you think!

Pinterest

So for the past 24 hours, I went from signing up to Pinterest to being fully clinically obsessed with it! Besides being a highly successful tool for killing any work interest or social agenda you may have had and being swallowed by the beauty of images, I believe it has a few redeeming points:

1) INSPIRATION - great for visually-oriented professions (decorators, designers, artists etc) as it gives you instant access to millions of photographs that can be looked up by topic and key words

2) ORGANIZATION - essential for event planning (weddings, parties) or home redesign as it provides you with a "board" to save all your images according to a chosen theme

3) COOPERATION - easy for cooperative effort as you can share all the saved imagery with your work team, designer or planner

What can I say? LOVE LOVE LOVE!
Feel free to follow me:
http://pinterest.com/vivalchimia/

My Must Have List!

I have recently stumbled upon a book by Nichole Robertson called Paris in Color and have been lusting over it ever since! I have soooo many photography books I acquired over the years and now rarely, if ever, leaf through that I usually try to restrain myself from indulging in more! However, there is something about Paris in Color that has a magical pull. Nicole Robertson, whose charming blog (http://littlebrownpen.com/) has become an obsession all of its own, is a freelance writer living in Paris and commemorating its beauty in a series of incredibly colorful photographs! I cannot stop gushing over her aesthetic and the love for Paris that, presumably grey, now oozes with electrifying vibrancy and warmth!

If you are as tempted as me, you can go the standard route of Amazon.com or (highly encouraged!!!) check out Nicole and her husband Evan’s page to buy the book and admire other Paris-inspired paper goods and fine art photographs that the couple prints in their studio: http://theparisprintshop.com/

In any case, you will not be disappointed and the visual gratification is guaranteed! 

  
*photographs courtesy of theparisprintshop.com

Lulu deKwiatkowski: Colorful Artist

I could not resist sharing this video on Lulu DK - a snapshot into finding her path as an artist, designer and overall gorgeous woman!

*Photo courtesy of Vogue.com

Levi's Ballet Commercial

Now I cannot say enough about incorporating classical arts into the field of advertising. We have so much nudity, aggression and cursing via reality tv, music videos and tasteless commercials that little shocks or grabs our attention anymore. How about we try to amaze and intrigue with beauty, talent and skill instead of vulgarity? Just for a change... just to see how it feels? ; ) 

Marina Abramovic

The weekend is upon us and before we run off into the wilderness of temptation that defines it, I want to take a minute and share a glimpse into an upcoming documentary "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present" that looks both intriguing and transformative.
The film zooms into Abramovic's preparation for the retrospective of her work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The documentary promises to challenge every notion of art definition, value and perspective. Fearless and seductive, Abramovic will engage you in the world of limitless creative possibility that defies rules and expands consciousness. Stay tuned!

  

One Kings Lane obsession

One Kings Lane is an obsession of mine and it truly needs to stop. Being an evil gal who likes to share financially draining addictions, I decided to come clean. Please do me a favor and buy all those awesome decorative objects, works of art and random vintage finds so the next time I log into my account and try to do some damage, you already beat me to it and it is all SOLD OUT! Great, thanks!

https://www.onekingslane.com/ 

Urban style musings

The coldest winter I ever spent…well you all know the drill – it is butt-bitingly cold in San Francisco and instead of wearing light colorful dresses and shorts like the rest of the climatically-acceptable summer world, we are stuck trying to figure out new ways to update our “fall” urban look. I could not keep myself from sharing two photographs I found on the Sartorialist – Scott Schuman, you are half-man and half-god of creative inspiration in my book and if rationality does not hold me back, I will create an altar in your name…candles, figurines and all!

But nuttiness aside, I present to you the two city looks that I believe are worth adoring – I am slightly biased since I am obsessed with Vespas lately but the pictures speak for themselves! Voila:

Fashionably Creative

The Armani Group inspired by the success of their eyewear advertisement campaign “Frames of Life” is now expanding its database to include fashionably fabulous Facebook users who like to experiment with Instagram. All you have to do is upload a holiday photo of yourself wearing sunnies to Instagram with the hashtag #FRAMESOFLIFE for a chance to be featured in their gallery on http://armani.com/framesoflife.

Have fun, Instagram addicts... I got inspired: