Monday, August 13, 2012

Officine 904

While reading Marion Ravn's official website -- I bumped into a real beauty that she was lugging around during her trip to California.

Meet Officine 904...

Officine 904 is an Italian brand that consists of stylish purses, bags and wallets made in authentic Italian leather. The products were hand made in Tuscany from the finest and the most delicate soft calfs.

I am not a leather-type of person, as much as possible I try to avoid purchasing products that are created or manufactured in leather. The structure of the bags is the real eye-candy, and the contributing factor that made it look appealing to me. I selected four designs from their creation: the Tracolla shoulder bag, 36 Ore Col. Verde Ramarro, the Nero Market Bag and the AVB Bluette. I prefer the Tracolla bag in green or blue tone, however, the image is unavailable, so I have to make do with the Cognac.


You know a genuine leather when you see one. They won't peel off as the years go by. 
Even if you kept them in a closet or a storage room, they would stand the test of time. 

Film Roundup: May 2012



MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL
United States
2011
Directed by Brad Bird
★★★
Grade: B

SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS
United States, United Kingdom
2011
Directed by Guy Ritchie
★★★
Grade: B


THE INSIDER
United States
1999
Directed by Michael Mann
★★★x
Grade: B+

ROSEMARY'S BABY
United States
1968
Directed by Roman Polanski
★★★★
Grade: A-

DARK SHADOWS
United States
2012
Directed by Tim Burton
★★x
Grade: B-

21 JUMP STREET
United States
2012
Directed by Phil Lord, Chris Miller
★★★
Grade: B


THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH
France, Poland, United Kingdom
2011
Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
★★
Grade: C+


YOUNG ADULT
United States
2011
Directed by Jason Reitman
★★★
Grade: B

THE ROAD
Philippines
2011
Directed by Yam Laranas
★★★★
Grade: A-

CHRONICLE
United States
2012
Directed by Josh Trank
★★★
Grade: B


THIS MEANS WAR
United States
2012
Directed by McG
★★
Grade: C+












Friday, August 10, 2012

Film Roundup: April 2012



GLADIATOR
United States, United Kingdom
2000
Directed by Ridley Scott
★★★x
Grade: B+

THE HUNGER GAMES
United States
2012
Directed by Gary Ross
★★★
Grade: B

THE AWAKENING
United Kingdom
2011
Directed by Nick Murphy
★★
Grade: C+

WE BOUGHT A ZOO
United States
2011
Directed by Cameron Crowe
★★★★
Grade: A-

MARY POPPINS
United States
1964
Directed by Robert Stevenson
★★★★
Grade: A-

TEXAS KILLING FIELDS
United States
2011
Directed by Ami Canaan Mann
★★
Grade: C+

ROCKY 
United States
1976
Directed by John Avildsen
★★★
Grade: B

HAYWIRE
United States, Ireland
2011
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
★★★
Grade: B

THE DARKEST HOUR
United States, Russia
2011
Directed by Chris Gorak
★★
Grade: C+

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS
Canada, France, United Kingdom
2009
Directed by Terry Gilliam
★★★
Grade: B






Film Roundup: March 2012


MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
United States
1944
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
★★★★★
Grade: A+


THE PARADINE CASE
United States
1947
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
★★★
Grade: B

MY LIFE AS A DOG
MITT LIV SOM HUND
Sweden
1985
Directed by Lasse Hallström
★★★★
Grade: A-

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE
United States
2011
Directed by Stephen Daldry
★★x
Grade: B-



J. EDGAR
United States
2011
Directed by Clint Eastwood
★★★
Grade= B

THE WOMAN IN BLACK
United Kingdom, Canada
2012
Directed by James Watkins
★★★
Grade: B


ALPHAVILLE
ALPHAVILLE, UNE ÉTRANGE AVENTURE DE LEMMY CAUTION
France, Italy
1965
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
★★★★
Grade: A-




PIERROT LE FOU
France, Italy
1965
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
★★★★
Grade: A-

LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD
L’ANNÉE DERNIÈRE À MARIENBAD
France, Italy
1961
Directed by Alain Resnais
★★★
Grade: B








Playlist: Series No. 2

Goodness gracious! Two months had passed since my first playlist. There are several songs that I'd been listening to at this span of time. In fact, I could not recall every single one of them, but for the most part, my choice of sound seems to lean to instrumental pieces from motion picture soundtracks. I discovered diverse musical artists all over the world and had probably collected some noteworthy compositions by Nino Rota and then some.

To listen to the following tracks press the play button. Enjoy!



Shimbalaiê (2011)
Maria Gadù
Maria Gadú - Som Livre
The perfect summer song to listen to, at the beach or on a road trip. Portuguese language music seems to have this uncanny, rejuvenating feel. I was supposed to use this as a background music on my short film project, but my video was too short -- it didn't fit with the song. 





Skinny Love (2008)
Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago - 4AD/Jagjaguwar
I've been hearing a lot about Bon Iver but I came across with this song just two months ago. A very polarizing song, indeed, as the music sounded happy, but the lyrics is about unrequited love or a relationship that is one-sided. 


La Dolce Vita (Finale) (1960)
Nino Rota
La Dolce Vita OST - RCA Victor
Like is an inferior word to describe how much I love this music by Nino Rota. I've seen the film because of the music. And I love playing it over and over again on my iPod and laptop.  The combination of jazz, dance and the flavors of old Italia makes me want to put an all night-er to a party, with this as the ambient sound. 



The Sweetest Thing (2009)
Camera Obscura
My Maudlin Career - 4AD Records
Finally, had my first serving of Camera Obscura. The song is sweet and the video is subliminally fun. This is one of the few indie songs you could really dance along with. 






The Way I Am (2007)
Ingrid Michaelson
Girls and Boys - Cabin 24
One of my favorite love songs, although there are so many. A wedding video from Sweden, with a couple using this tune for their first dance, got me hook all over again -- that I ended up using this music for my short film. 

Ue o Muite Arukō (Sukiyaki) (1961)
Kyu Sakamoto
Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits - Toshiba-EMI
I always love the cover version of 4PM, but after hearing the original recording by Sakamoto, I've had a change of heart. Every time I listen to it a feeling of resurgence, a reverie -- of youth and innocence -- of the 1960s contained in a time capsule -- carries me right back there. 

Bo nae ji mot han ma eum (Piano Ver.) (2006)
Alone in Love OST - EMI Music Korea
A simple piano tune to relax my day. Quick enough to make me sentimental like the characters in the Korean series that it was written for. 


Because (2006)
Kim hyun chul
Il Mare - Korean Music
There are several music from this soundtrack that I like, but this is the one that stays with me -- above anything else. Maybe it has to do with the emotive violin part or "the three things a person cannot hide" scene, where it was played. Either way, I love it. 


Unchained Melody (1955)
The Righteous Brothers
Just Once In My Life - Philles
I'm sending this one into the void for someone out there, "darling wait for me." 


I Will Wait For You  (1964)
Michel Legrand
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
Not every love stories has a happy ending, but there is always its beautiful music that gives the film its memorable moments and its haunting quality. 

Every Single Night

Seven years after the released of her third album, singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, one of the great female musician's of the 90s (along with Tori Amos), is back with her fourth studio album aptly titled as The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do. 




I was in my puberty when Fiona Apple's dark debut album "Tidal" debuted in the music scene. My musical choices those years veered off from the seriousness of the alternative genre -- just like any other ordinary teenager -- who enjoyed pop music 97% of the time. Because I was born on the 80s and raised in the 90s, the music available to us depends on the playlist imposed by the radio stations and MTV, the internet is not accessible to anyone's perusal, no Napster, no iTunes -- just plain old cassette tapes and CD's. But the 90s prove to be the decade for 'women in rock music'. There are no other era in the history of modern music that could boast a list of talented musician/singer/songwriter women (except the 70s, of course) when pitted against the 90s.

Although pop music dominated my record collection during those years, my comparable angst-driven self secretly pays attention to the sound of alternative music -- fronted by women singer-songwriter -- such as Fiona Apple. Who could forget her "go with yourself" speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, her post-grunge waif look and smoky eyes, her brooding lyrics, and those pounding piano keys played along with her powerful contralto. Fiona Apple doesn't do music just for the sake of doing it. Some of her contemporaries might have give in to selling-out, but Apple never wavered her own convictions when it comes to her art. In fact, she is one of the rare few who doesn't yield into the "strike while the iron is hot," saying. She takes her time to write her songs wherein, the purpose of it would serve her best. Through the years, her careful meditation and bravery to expose herself (via her music) lead us away from our comfort zone, and yet, it takes us to a beautiful place of powerful (and random) liberation.





Friday, August 3, 2012

Gucci - Forever Now (Fall 2012)

Gucci's hot-off-the-presses campaign for their Fall 2012 season -- shows a more relaxed and laid back Charlotte Casiraghi -- wearing comfortable pants and button-down blouses. The black and white images of Casiraghi also features Gucci's iconic metal horsebit and their trademark loafers. On a likability status -- this is an A+ for me, because it reminds us that Casiraghi is not fashion model, but as an endorser and fashion icon-in-the-making, herself. It is nice to see something like this for a change, given that most of the fashion campaigns were dominated by sultry, thin bodied fashion models, clad in stilettos and heavy makeups. This type of ad is more realistic and appealing to women of all ages. Bravo!



To quote (from Gucci's official website):

Gucci is pleased to reveal the second installment in its “Forever Now” icons of heritage advertising campaign series conceived by Creative Director Frida Giannini in collaboration with Charlotte Casiraghi. The two new portraits celebrate the iconic metal horsebit featured on the classic Gucci Loafer – the hardware that has inspired a legacy, since it was first introduced into the House’s vocabulary nearly sixty years ago.

Shot by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, the vivid black and white photographs portray Ms. Casiraghi in a natural, spontaneous atmosphere full of details. A testament to the equestrian imagery that has embraced Gucci designs across generations, the campaign takes its cue from the brass bit that Guccio Gucci first used on the House’s saddle-stitched handbags in the Fifties, before he applied it to Gucci's signature loafer in 1953.

The new images from the “Forever Now” campaign will appear worldwide from August, in newspapers and fashion and lifestyle magazines complementing the House’s seasonal fashion campaigns. Unveiled this past March with a first installment dedicated to Gucci’s signature green and red stripe, the campaign series sees Charlotte Casiraghi portrayed by the world’s most respected fashion and portrait photographers in a series of sittings celebrating the House’s icons.

The first “Forever Now” advertising campaign series was launched in Autumn 2010, in the run up to Gucci’s 90th anniversary, and featured original black and white photography of Gucci’s Florentine Artisans from its Archive.

All video and photography of the campaign was shot by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.

Million Dollar Education

Avenues: The World School, New York Campus, Chelsea
Building designed by Cass Gilbert
Photo courtesy of www.avenues.org

Avenues: The World School, is a new for-profit educational institution that is set to open come Fall 2012 in Chelsea, New York City. Over the next decade, Avenues would be establishing their flagship campuses in major cities all over the world. The concept of Avenues is simple: children could move with their parents if they have to work overseas -- picking up the classes they left off, say in London or Paris.

Students would be taught in a broader visual arts based, multilingual curricula. As early as first-grade, they would be immersed in the arts and would be taking art classes in Mandarin or Spanish -- where they would also find themselves in the school's half-day foreign languages program. They would also be required to take lessons in painting, printmaking, photography, digital art, sculpture, and film; and would be able to take electives in fashion design. The iPad will also play a vital role in educating the minds of children, as young as four -- where it would be used as a great medium to communicate and exchange lessons -- on a global scale. They would also be taking frequent visitations to museums and art galleries.

Welcome, to the globalized education of today and of the future.Since the world has become a smaller place -- thanks, to the fast paced utilization of the internet and technology -- the old-elite-ways of learning is now being put to shelves. I wouldn't mind sending myself or anyone to this type of educational institution. Your money would not only be well spent, but you could also expect your children to have a secure and stable career -- ahead of them, even before they step foot to a university. With Avenues diversified curriculum, your pint-sized child could become a future art curator to art galleries, such as the Gagosian and art museums like the Musuem of Modern Art in NY. They could also work as interpreter to the United Nations or as a languages instructor to Berlitz or to any schools all over the continent.

The world (with parents included) are obviously -- transforming their children into superhuman beings. Though there is clearly nothing wrong for wanting the best for them, a formal education from a 75 million establishment, is not a guaranteed recipe for success. Of course, children that would graduate from Avenues wouldn't find themselves working in a fast food store or a gas station. Chances are, they would get hired above college graduates from a state university. Especially here in the Philippines, the name and prestige of your school and family, have always been a contributing factor to put you ahead of the race. But if I were Avenues, I wouldn't claim that every student of theirs would become an artists in the near future. How they squeezed all the art lessons for 12 years -- for the benefit of a trust-fund baby -- is a slap in the face to every artists, whose form of education only came from "life" itself. Obviously, these educational institutions (with parents included) aims their children to become the next Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, or filmmaking geniuses Orson Welles and Quentin Tarantino. Some of us are forgetting, that many successful people had little or no formal education, just like the names I had mention beforehand.

Our generation has become obsessed with celebrity. The world is now equating the beauty of art into making a fortune, competitiveness, and fame. Before, it is rare for parents to want an artistic career for their children. But now, offsprings of the upper to lower classes are lined up to art workshops, music lessons, dance lessons and vice versa. The sole prospect of earning money has turned the artistic arena into one thing: a cash register. I feel sad for the lack of creativity that the world has. Artist, do not come from schools, they are the product of life. The best artworks, the best artists, they create from the inspiration they get from life: from pain and suffering, from joy and love. Theories and techniques -- these are not enough to make someone an artist. You can buy your child the best education, the most expensive paint brushes, but it's the imagination, the passion and the feeling-inside that counts -- and you cannot buy them, like love.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers

Tears in my eyes. And I could feel my hair rising at the back of my neck. I press play and then rewind over and over again. Hands down to the Righteous Brothers, because this is the most beautiful love song in the world.






Favorite Romantic Movies

Movies is my vitamins - and a good love story never fails. Most of these personal favorites do not have the happily-ever-after endings, but nevertheless, there is a certainty that a love unfulfilled would carry on forever. I like romantic films that has the ability to make you laugh and cry, and can make you feel less lonely in the world. A good romantic movie can also transport you back in time, where memories may not always be auspicious, but when you look back -- it makes you overly grateful for the experience to love and be loved. Every hurt, bruises and pain is always "worth it" in the name of love

CLASSIC 
From left to right: An Affair To Remember, Breathless, Roman Holiday, Gone With The Wind,
Breakfast At Tiffany's, Casablanca, Gigi, Reds, His Girl Friday,
Love Story, Doctor Zhivago, Annie Hall


CONTEMPORARY
From left to right: Amelie, Bridget Jones' Diary, The Classic, Reality Bites,
Garden State, Before Sunrise/Sunset, Beginners, Forever,
Great Expectations, Ghost, Pride & Prejudice, The Bridges of Madison County,
Big Fish, When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, Il Mare



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