Monday, January 28, 2008

Ashes to Ashes

So excited about this show! It's the sequel to the wonderful Life On Mars - this time set in 1981 London with a similar time-travel bent. The hard man gets skirt for new partner. Killer OTT clothes:



God knows when we'll get it on these shores. Check BBC Canada/America.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

the parking garage II

OK, so when you're walking through this:
you ought to be listening to this:
Or, more recently, this:

Monday, January 21, 2008

Bright & Jaunty


Alma Cogan was big in postwar Britain and eventually all over the world - she had a girlish, sparkly voice with a husk & a little squeak...known as 'The Girl with the Giggle in her Voice', and a dizzying range of glamourous outfit changes. Part of the red-velvet-curtain touring revue so popular at the time, when she was home she held court with her mam & sis in their flat in Kensington High Street to people like Tommy Steele, the Beatles, and many actors and musicians of the period. She died terribly young at 34 in 1966 - just before everything in popular culture changed.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds'

Whose?, you may ask:

In 1978, Jeff Wayne (an unknown American record producer) put together a roster of musicians like Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, David Essex, and Phil Lynott to record a musical version of the H. G. Wells story, with Richard Burton narrating.

A bit difficult to get your head round - until you listen to it. One of the finest examples of progressive rock & a concept album, done right.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Muir Blue

Jean Muir was a British designer of stunningly simple, clever, incredibly constructed clothes.
Her signature colour was navy, her fabric jersey.
Look at the lovely Joanna Lumley showing us this one:

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Golden Worlds

Joanna Newsom


and Bat for Lashes


can't extricate themselves from my player right now. In common they share an extraordinary talent for making music that's unlike anyone else. Comparisons to 'new folk' or Kate Bush are cheap and lazy. Both are classically trained and apply their rich imaginations to the musical world, creating a wonderful and sometimes uncomfortable place to visit.

Joanna Newsom, 'Sprout and the Bean'
Bat for Lashes, 'What's A Girl To Do'

Saturday, January 5, 2008

girls in suits


I was feeling YSL-ish for New Year's Eve (having just read the engrossing book 'The Beautiful Fall' by Alicia Drake) and wore my own version of Le Smoking cobbled together from satin trousers, a skinny blazer and black sequins.


Nowadays girls are doing it again, prompted by Hedi Slimane's designs for Dior Homme.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Inspector Calhoun

Donald Pleasance from the cult film 'Death Line' aka 'Raw Meat'. Just read a story in Best New Horror 18 - 'Sentinels' by Mark Samuels, which drew its influence from this film, reminding me of its humour and horror. Cannibals in the London Underground, 1972. Mind the doors!