500 Days of Hawtness

So I saw (500) Days of Summer a week ago, and it's a really fantastic movie. I mean, I knew I was going to like it, since it has two of my favourite indie actors in it, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, and since I like this sort of movie. But I was not disappointed. It was inventive and thoughtful and funny and well-designed and cute. Just like these two:

Equally cute in real life:

The movie really intensified the straight-on I have for Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I really like him as an actor; he's just plain good at what he does, and has a lot of charisma. He also carefully chooses his movies, although I heard he was in G.I. Joe which is plain bizarre. But god, he is a good-looking man. Also dresses really well, in real life and movies. But his wardrobe in (500) Days of Summer was the epitome of sharp hipster smart-casual - I kind of wished I could wear his clothes, in between contemplating my straight-on for the guy. Behold the pretty:





Here are a couple of Joseph in Brick, which is one of my top ten all time fave movies, you should see it.

Here he is making smoking look cool:

Despite my extreme man-crush on Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I also still have massive love for Zooey Deschanel. I mean, who wouldn't? Look how totally adorable she is!!


Finally, in case anyone was worrying that my affections have strayed, here is another photo of Chuck Bass.


Oh yes, and I am in America having a very nice time. I will probably write about that some time soon.

PDX-wards

So, it seems I am flying to Portland, Oregon tomorrow morning. Neato!

Really, I am so excited. I'm not sure it will even sink in until my plane touches down on the other side of my 20-hour round trip. (I know. I have two changeovers.)

To mark the occasion here are a few pictures from previous chunks of time spent in Portland; some of the things I remember and love.

You know what the best part is, though? I get to do these things again, but I'm also going to do new things - make new memories. It's going to be great.

Union Station

Stumptown Coffee

Powell's Books

The rainy skies

A Benson Bubbler

A Portland Trailblazers game

Hawthorne

Cannon Beach - Haystack Rock

The bizarre noticeboard at the Dollar Scholar

The Hawthorne Cafe - and by extension, American breakfasts.

See you on the other side, guys!

Lahndon Taaaahn

A little view of London and the Thames, with the Gherkin in the background. Not far from Tate Modern. Drawn with brush pens. This was on my recent summer trip to London to visit the American Embassy and get a visa - the embassy was a pain in the arse but the trip as a whole was fun.

The Essentials

Now, since we have already covered what I'm going to be reading on the plane, I am sure you are all on tenterhooks waiting to learn what other books I am bringing with me to the US of A. You know, those books that I cannot bear to leave behind. The books that I need to have with me wherever I hang my hat. (I don't actually have a hat or a hat rack to hang it upon, ok? It's just a saying.)

The booklovers amongst you will surely sympathise with the heartache of leaving one's collection behind, along with all the connotations and memories each volume has. But I do have to fit all my worldly belongings into two suitcases and I'm trying not to be ridiculous, so I've tightly rationed my book allowance.

Ladies' Delight, Emile Zola, Oneworld Classics

Well clearly I needed this book, and I have already rhapsodised about why. And isn't the new range of Oneworld Classics good-looking?

Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

God, I wish I had this edition. Look how pretty! Unfortunately I've seen this edition sell for hundreds of pounds, I think it might be something to do with how the shiny silver embossing easily flakes off. (Don't quote me on any of that, I am not entirely sure about it.) What I do have is this edition:

Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino, Vintage Classics

...which is your average English paperback edition. I don't really like the look of it that much, I would like to have something more special. However, this paperback has the advantage of being my reading-in-the-bath copy. It is battered, a little soggy, and I don't really care if it gets submerged while I'm soaking in the tub.

Invisible Cities has got to be my favourite book bar none. It is lovely, poetical, I feel that all life is contained within it, it has changed the way I think, and I need a copy to hand at all times. Including in the bath.

19 Knives, Mark Anthony Jarman

Because it took a lot of hassle to get to me, what with one thing and another, and when it did it turned out to be intense, visceral, beautiful writing I won't soon forget. Worth lugging 7000 miles, in my opinion. Not to mention that my generous girlfriend sent it to me as a thoughtful gift.

If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, Anne Carson

Another gift from my generous girlfriend, this time for Valentine's Day, so I couldn't very well leave this behind, could I? This is a lovely volume to always have at hand to dip into. Plus, on a superficial level, you get lesbian street cred.

Robert Creeley, Collected Poems

My edition of Creeley's poems was an unpleasant shade of mustard yellow with a close-up of Robert's not terribly attractive mush smack in the middle. Needless to say, I covered it. I'm not sure whether to bring this book, as it is pretty bulky. But I have always been fond of Creeley's poems, and furthermore I've used my edition to make notes and sketches and record other snatches of poetry I liked. Hmm, I'll have to see how much room I have in my suitcase.

Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons, Penguin

I don't actually need to bring this book, because Kaia already has the copy that I gave her. Score! Cold Comfort Farm is another of my absolute essential favourites, something any thinking person should have access to for any eventuality, namely if they need to do some funny accents, find some classic catchphrases, or in fact experience the most perfectly poised hilarity in the English language.


Boy, this was a boring entry, wasn't it? Well, this blog is after all to record my thoughts, my fears, my life, my opinions, and with that my packing concerns. For now, you will just have to suck it up. More photos of Chuck Bass will be forthcoming.

Anti-Retail Therapy

Well, I am flying to America in less than a week now. Changes, upheavals, all very stressful! Because although I know I am flying to lovely people in a great place, it is still a big change and of course there are so many people I am going to miss.

In such a situation I have alighted on something that makes me feel very much better. Namely, lending out a whole bunch of my stuff to my friends before I go. I'm not going to be making use of these things for maybe about a year, and I can't take them with me, so it makes sense to lend them to people. They can just read the books, and give em' back to me in a year or so. Really, it is very therapeutic for me. Feels like letting go, but in a good way.

Not that this will be of any interest to anyone, but here are the books I've sent off with friends so far:

Spaniel Rage - Vanessa Davis
Tomorrow Stories 1 & 2 - Alan Moore
The Escapist Book 1
La Perdidia - Jessica Abel
America's Best Comics Volume 1 - Alan Moore
New Queer Girl Writing - ed. Michelle Tea
Patience and Sara - Isabel Miller
Girl Meets Boy - Ali Smith
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - Tom Robbins
Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
Sharp Teeth - Toby Barlow
A Model World and Other Stories - Michael Chabon
The Smoking Diaries - Simon Gray
Middles sex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Michael Tolliver Lives - Armistead Maupin
Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer
Gemma Bovery - Posy Simmonds
Confederates in the Attic - Tony Horwitz
Changing Places - David Lodge
The 39 Steps - John Buchan
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
Moon Palace - Paul Auster
Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
Dress Your Children in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
The Flight of Icarus - Raymond Queneau
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
The Man Who Was Thursday - GK Chesterton

(Plus a whole bunch of CDs and DVDs.)

I can now begin to concentrate on all of the books I will buy from America; in other words all the books I will buy from Powell's.

Doing a Drawing

A few scans from one of my trusty moleskine sketchbooks. Lately when I draw stuff in a sketchbook it's partly about recording the day, so it's nice to look back at what was surrounding me on that particular date.

Cambridge Botanical Gardens

Yeah, I have that teapot now. Who's cool? I'm cool.

Terrible drawings on the right pontificating over the design of Kaia's future tattoo. (It turned out way nicer than that.) But on the left I think that's one of my better coffee shop drawings. I sure do love hanging out in coffee shops, and I also love to sketch the table contents while I am there. It does turn me into a beverage fascist, though: "Nobody takes a drink from their mug until I've drawn it! You - put the sugar bowl exactly where you left it or Susie gets angry!!"

You all have to suffer for my art. Get used to it.

You Can Fly

Found this video over on Kitsune Noir. Seemed appropriate since Hook came up in conversation the other day, can't remember why. Hook was one of my favourite movies when I was a kid, and I haven't really seen it since. I don't think I should see it again (even though I still have it on VHS), because that might ruin my remembered childhood emotional investment in the adventures of a grown-up stretchy-faced Peter Pan. In fact I think Robin Williams would annoy me quite a lot.

Still, seeing the little clips here provokes pleasant little pangs of recognition, plus the music is totally rad.

EDIT: The video has been taken down by The Man/copyright laws. Shame, it was a good vid.

Bangarang, by Pogo.

God, you know who is a total brat? Rufio. He came through in the end, though.

Making Friends With Art

This weekend I had a nice day out with four of my best buddies in the world. We had a wander around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which is a lovely place to go on a day of clement weather. Free of charge, acres of green land, an excellent sculpture collection and changing exhibitions both in the grounds and in the handful of indoor galleries. I flippin' love it.



Four intrepid friends striding boldly through the sculpture park, ready to experience whatever artistic stimulus crosses their path. I am hiding from the camera as usual.


Peter Randall-Page's stone sculptures.


Three perfectly round spheres, lovely and smooth on the outside, rough in the maze-grooves. So wonderfully touchable and pokeable.


I forget who the fighting men are by.


Sophie Ryder, who does big mythical animals, here in bronze or fibreglass. I've blogged about her here and here.




There are three hands in this picture.


Standing masked men by Elizabeth Frink. Who's yr Daddy?


James Turrell's deer shelter, also called the Skyspace.


Also on this day at the YSP I bumped into a 6th form friend of mine - who writes the blog Jessie and the Giant Plate (great title) about yummy food - which was quite a surprise to me because I thought she was in China. Small world, eh?