tumblr: Anna Friel does vintage•
February 8, 2010
Such a cute classy shoot.
Archive for the ‘features’ Category
tumblr: Nancy on Weeds•
February 5, 2010
I’ve had this lying around and have never found an HQ for it. So here’s what I got. Still pretty, though!
February site of the month•
February 2, 2010
For February I have selected a site that is another great resource for people like me. It is hotn-caps.com, or Home of the Nutty, which is its full name, The site has moved to a temporary new location so the content is being re-uploaded. Nonetheless, this is a great site for your HQ screen capture needs. Feauturing series such as
The Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy, Supernatural, the more recent Life Unexpected, as well as others, hotn-caps.com is a fantastic destination and should land a sure place in your bookmarks. Keep checking back as they are sure to re-add more fandoms.
tumblr: the composition of Karen•
February 2, 2010
Karen Elson photographed by Steven Meisel. I just like the composition a lot.
my life in books: Shadowland•
January 26, 2010
Alyson NoĂ«l’s third installment of her The Immortals series, Shadowland, left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied. The series as a whole, I feel, has vast potential but the bulk of the narrative often comes off as contrived, convenient and predictable.
That’s not say there isn’t some entertainment here, or some value. But as with many young adult novels and series, the core of the story relies heavily on a teenage love affair that is supernatural in nature and therefore, ridden with complications and conflict. And of course, the girl protagonist at the heart of all is so deeply infatuated, that her life is essentially defined by this boy’s mere existence. Not a great message to be sending to the demographic, but stories of intense romance can be given a little liberty and some forgiveness for this contrivance. After all, what makes Romeo & Juliet, for example, so timeless and beloved is it’s very insistence that life is worth nothing without love.
Ever and Damen have traveled through countless past lives–and fought off the world’s darkest enemies–so they could be together forever. But just when their long-awaited destiny is finally within reach, a powerful curse falls upon Damen…one that could destroy everything. Now a single touch of their hands or a soft brush of their lips could mean sudden deathiiplunging Damen into the Shadowland. Desperate to break the curse and save Damen, Ever immerses herself in magick–and gets help from an unexpected source…a surfer named Jude.
Although she and Jude have only just met, he feels startlingly familiar. Despite her fierce loyalty to Damen, Ever is drawn to Jude, a green-eyed golden boy with magical talents and a mysterious past. She’s always believed Damen to be her soulmate and one true love–and she still believes it to be true. But as Damen pulls away to save them, Ever’s connection with Jude grows stronger–and tests her love for Damen like never before…
I feel like the each story in each book is simply a new conflict to keep the two lovers apart. And there is nothing wrong with that except that the characters remain–more or less–unchanged. Ever and Damen both struggle with own moral compasses and both are also both vaguely aware of their selfish compulsion to be together, no matter the consequences. But each book merely introduces a new antagonist(s) connected with Damen’s shady past and each of these villains makes it their mission to keep Damen and Ever apart. Because, obviously, a bunch of immortals with nothing but time and a profound vendetta have nothing better to do than to taunt Ever, who–for all intents and purposes–is just an innocent girl, never complicit in the acts her beau took part in centuries ago. Yes, that was sarcasm there.
The saga of Ever and Dame is just a long and redundant tale thus far, a tautology that bogs down the narrative. Certainly there are other elements within the story to draw from and create conflict with, but instead the author dwells on the focused romance, as if nothing else exists. Of course, little else does exist to these two characters.
Now, the whole idea of Ever and Damen not being able to touch for eternity is an intruguing idea and certainly reminiscent of the lovers’s plight in the tv series Pushing Daisies. It has the capacity to create this potent and volatile sexual tension but instead the author introduces a slight loophole. So throughout this novel the two do “touch” through a sheet of energy that barely separates them. I was disappointed that Ever and Damen could embrace or hold hands and even kiss; it takes away much of the power of their situation if they are able to find a way to circumvent it.
Characters need growth in order to form a true connection with the reader. One could argue that there is growth here. Damon, for example, feels this “curse” is karma coming to collect on him and so he willfully changes his routins and behavior. He rids himself of material things, adopts a new wardrobe–one without designer labels–and gives away his car. He insists Ever explore her connection with the mysterious Jude to see if something sparks there. But where one might see growth in these changes, I simply see a whiny martyr. But thats just me.
There’s far better Young Adult paranormal/fantasy book series out there, none that–in my opinion–surpass the epic The Mortal Instruments. (And yes, that includes you, Twilight!) Will I keep reading The Immortals? For now, yes. I’m three books in and harbor a small hope that Alyson NoĂ«l can salvage these characters, who remain frustratingly two-dimensional and unidentifiable. She has a good idea here; it just needs some nurture, a little more substance, and a bit of nuance. The devil’s in the details, after all.
tumblr: Jessica Alba does Hitchcock•
January 25, 2010
From a photoshoot where she re-enacts classic horror films. Here she takes on The Birds.
tumbr: Hush, Hush cover•
January 23, 2010
One of the most haunting and lovely book covers I have ever seen.
awesome albums: The Smashing Pumpkins’s 1979 [EP]•
January 23, 2010
I am a huge The Smashing Pumpkins fan. I’ve seen them live a couple times, once when they opened for Guns ‘n’ Roses before their breakthrough album Siamese Dream was even recorded and another time getting lucky and scoring some front row seats in a general admission show; I was so close I could see D’Arcy’s nipples through her sheer shirt. But they suck live. Suck. They sound distorted and unrehearsed. If there were a ever a band whose magic is captured in the studio and production, it is this one. And that’s okay with me because they sound amazing that way. Truth is, The Smashing Pumpkins is very much a produced effect. And as frontman Billy Corgan explains, “When you are faced with making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it with the grandest possible vision?” I cannot disagree.
I also happen to be a big fan of b-sides and non-album songs. Little treasures are hiding in those small, often overlooked releases. There are few bands that I seek out this kind of material for and The Smashing Pumpkins is one of them. In fact, I probably enjoy more of their b-side material than I do their other catalogue of studio albums. (Not that I don’t love those too.) As with their albums, there’s a variety of rock peppered throughout. Some soft and light stuff and some heavy, aggressive stuff too. If you’ve been reading my Awesome Albums feature, you know I prefer the former. But because b-sides are rarer and often more difficult to find, it makes the discovery a truly unique and amazing aong that much for fulfilling. And they are great for expanding your knowledge of a band’s influences and inclinations.
The Smashing Pumpkins’s 1979 is from the box set limited edition release of The Aeroplane Flies High, a set composed of five discs, each one singles from their album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. (These singles are better classified as a series packaging of EPs, however, since each one has around six songs instead of two or three.) Each one has its own distinct flavor:
1. Bullet with Butterfly Wings. Besides the titular track and an acoustic original, this disc contains several covers.
2. 1979. Esoteric love songs and ethereal sounds.
3. Zero. Hard rock and metal. Features a 23 minute medley of obscure studio recordings.
4. Tonight, Tonight. Acoustic soft pop and ballads.
5. Thirty-Three. A little avant garde and experimental, ranging from soft rock to trippy rock.
So, some fantastic stuff here. It’s so good and there’s so much of it, it’s a wonder how some of this got cut from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On the other hand, Mellon Collie is already a two-disc opus with its own gems and treasures. It’s incredible that they were able to produce so much amazing music in such a short time. The Aeroplane Flies High itself has a two-hour running length, which is more than double the time than that of the average album. Also of note is that is almost solely written and composed by Billy Corgan. Few tracks have different writers, besides a couple by James Iha and the four covers on Bullet with Butterfly Wings. That’s a lot of Billy! And that’s a good thing, if you ask me. He’s a wonderful songwriter and a gifted lyricist. He often writes in abstracts, both in music and in word. He has a talent for variety. In fact the only Hole album I can stand to listen to is their 1998 release Celebrity Skin, of which Billy Corgan co-wrote five of its twelve songs.
This introduction may seem like a circumventional kind of way to get into my undoubtedly favorite EP of the bunch 1979–and in fact may be longer than my actual comments on it–but it’s sort of necessary. For example, take my selection from 1979, “Set the Ray to Jerry”. Interestingly, it is an outtake from 1993’s Siamese Dream which–for reasons I cannot even fathom–did not make it onto The Smashing Pumpkins 1994 b-side compilation, Pisces Iscariot. A fantastic compilation it is, but certainly a track could have been traded out for this little masterpiece! So you see, a wonderful song like this missed being on two albums AND a b-side compilation. Madness!
I gotta be honest. I burned myself on “Set the Ray to Jerry” over a decade ago. I loved it so much and would just listen and listen, ad nauseam. Since then, I’ve made it a little treat to myself. I listen to it only sporadically so that it remains special. Also since, if I discover a song that sparks the same passion in me as this one did, I don’t let myself get about on it. I play it when I want my attention soleyl focused on it and that way I can appreciate it and savor and then put back away for awhile. I have this song to thank for that practice!
Of course, 1979 six tracks are all brilliant. Composed of soft, melodic tunes, it is a simple serenity. Non die-hard fans are certainly familiar with the titular “1979″ and it’s a good touchstone or point of reference point for the rest of the listings. They all have that fun, lilting guitar, though it is markedly more subtle and localized on some of the songs. It also features two songs witten and performed by James Iha, lovely acoustic guitar-driven ones.
Obviously, I am a huge The Smashing Pumpkins fangirl. I could easily have chosen any number of albums or singles for my highlight here, as I can listen to several of them straight through without the inclination to skip a song, but in the end I had to go with 1979 because it’s a somber and smooth recording. Most of the tracks–of which there are only 6–are heavy on the base in that soothing and relaxing way and coupled with a delicate but charged guitar (whether acoustic or not.)
Admittedly, Billy Corgan’s voice is a bit of an acquired taste, or sound as the case may be. I wasn’t sold on him at first but after listening to Siamese Dream when it first came out and just adoring the music of it, I came to enjoy his voice too. His voice is distinctive, a little grainy and coarse, some whispers and some screams. The Aeroplane Flies High is a showcase for all his intonations and vocal performances. Truly, I enjoy more b-sides by The Smashing Pumpkins than I do for any other band. It astounds me that I find their b-sides more pleasurable than a lot of their more easily accessed catalogue.
The Aeroplane Flies High was a limited ediiton release, and as such, is now out of print. The only way to procure it would be to find it used. A must for any die-hard The Smashing Pumpkins but a good listen for the casual and new fan. While 1979 is my favorite of the five discs, there are other standout selections in this box set. The James Iha track “…Said Sadly” off of Bullet with Butterfly Wings (with guest vocalist Kim Gordon of Veruca Salt) is a highlight for me, as is “Meladori Magpie” off of Tonight, Tonight, which has a fun almost folksy western guitar thing going on. So don’t stop here. This set of b-sides is better than most albums out there.
tumblr: Lost-era Ian•
January 22, 2010
An old shoot of Ian. Which I post because I am excited for Lost returning in under two weeks!
