Your Mid-Week Art Break: Hwei Lim

Ugh, Hwei Lim's artwork is just doing things to me today. Soft and fluid, it reminds me of the illustrations in some of my old books of fairytales growing up which, y'know, I'm always here for. It's all pretty aces.

You can check out more of Hwei's work over on tumblr.

Sunday Short: Musical Chairs by Josie Curtis

We spoke only when necessary, expelling words gently, apologetically, as if they had to walk over shards of broken glass to reach each other.  He spent the night in my bed, where I curled around the edge of the mattress, pulled so far away from him that he might as well have already been sleeping in another city. He left town the next day and we didn’t talk for weeks.

This short piece actually came to me through my tumblr feed earlier this week and, well, kind of broke my heart. Josie Curtis does such a beautiful job of teasing out a relationship that neither party is ever on the same page for, that maybe she's not ever all in for. It rings so true to me that it almost hurts. It helps that her turn of phrase is pretty divine too.

You can read Musical Chairs over on tumblr.

Friday Finds

Ugh, I've been inhaling all of the Radio 1 Live Lounge covers of late, and this one by The Noisettes is just doing things to me. It's so, so beautiful.

- It feels like a week of rediscovered photos which is pretty cool. These Beatles ones are particularly great.

- These love letters between Fannie Benjamin Johnston and Mattie Edwards Hewitt are pretty special too and, well, enormously romantic.

- The Toast's Girl Tips are pretty great.

- Lion mumma saved her lion cub!

Your Mid-Week Art Break: Daniel Krall

How great is Daniel Krall's work? Totally inspired and coming across unlike anything I've seen before, it's stylistically and story-wise pretty unique. I'm a little obsessed with the picture above, the moment fantasy meets reality is always something I've loved, so to see it represented so creatively is, well, pretty awesome.

You can check out more of Daniel Krall's work over on his tumblr.

Heinui FW 2013

When push comes to shove, blue's probably my favourite colour. A fact that surprises people! I don't know. It suits me as I think it suits most people, not necessarily too harsh like red or two soft like pale pinks or creams. Heinui's Fall/Winter 2013/14 collection hits that nail on the head. It's hard to think of who wouldn't look good in these sweet shirts and skirts. Plus the styling is divine. I mean, dat eyeliner. You can  view the full collection over at Heinui's website.

Sunday Short: Unsuitable by Cory Taylor

My father never forgave her for this capitulation to The System. This was the late sixties and he’d read his fair share of the fashionable literature. A natural outsider he was attracted to the theme of sedition he read into the work of Vonnegut and Solzhenitsyn, among others—anyone at all who could fuel his anarchic instincts. His appetite for chaos was the reason he’d never been a successful company man. He wore it as a badge of honour, that he’d fled every airline job he’d ever had the minute it became stale and predictable.

I'm really partial to Cory Taylor. I think she has an amazing ability to capture a generation through a singular character. The effect is always moving in ways you don't expect, and her new short story, Unsuitable, over at bumf does this wonderfully by the study of a father's clothes.

You can read Unsuitable over on the bumf website.

Friday Finds

Miley Cyrus covering Summertime Sadness is kind of wonderful, particularly the bridge, and is totally my soundtrack for this weekend.

- Tamara Lichtenstein's photography is pretty divine and a nice way to kick off your weekend.

- 20 literary quotes about short stories.

- These literary teas are slaying me right now. I need them allllll.

- These dating tips from 19th century novels are kind of the best.

- Marvel teams with Netflix to deliver four series leading up to The Defenders (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

- In places I need to go news: Japanese owl cafés!

- These tiny hats for cats are glorious. Speaking of cats, check out The Hunger Games as acted by some.

- Annnnd, to take you out for the weekend, check out these pics of hot guy mug shots.

Your Guide to BIFF

Brisbane Writers Festival is upon us again! It's totally one of my favourite times of years, when we get access to hundreds of movies that we wouldn't normally get the opportunity to see. The program's pretty good this year too, and I've picked out some of my highlights for your viewing pleasure. If you want to check out the full program, check out the BIFF website.

12 Years a Slave is doing the rounds at the moment with some great critical acclaim to back it up. Steve McQueen's one of the more exciting filmmakers around the joint too, so this one's not to be missed.

Bethlehem looks pretty awesome. I've been really into films that explore tension across Israel of late (a highlight for me in recent watching is Incendies) and I've heard good things about this one. Plus it ticks two of my boxes - created family and uber violence. Yes please!

Blue is the Warmest Colour. It's pretty impossible not to have heard of this one, both for it's onscreen content (those be some loooong sex scenes) and it's off-screen drama. That aside, it's certainly left its mark in this year's cinema output, so certainly one to check out.

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. One of the first ever Australian films to premiere at Cannes Film Festival, it's a classic among cinema out here and a pretty special film.

Cupcakes. How cute does this look?!

Don Jon. Super hyped. Plus Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his directorial debut.

The Exorcist (!!!!)

Filth. An awesome cast in an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's awesome novel.

Foxfire. I'm super partial to lady rebellions and this looks pretty great. Plus check that styling!

In Bloom. A coming of age story with a female focus set in the aftershock of the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

Jackie. I'm really partial to films that study female relationships, particularly ones about sisterhood, so Jackie is right up my alley. Plus, roadtrips! 

Mistaken for Strangers. The National are a pretty awesome band, so the fact that Matt Berninger brought his younger brother on tour to make this documentary is rad and should be illustrating a certain degree of insight that other filmmakers can't provide.

Only Lovers Left Alive. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are making some pretty interesting choices at the moment, and this one looks like an excellent addition to both of their catalogues as well as one for the vampire genre. 

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer. Winner of the special jury prize at Sundance this year and a doco for the ages, this one's sure to be a pretty special cinematic experience.

Short Term 12. I've heard so much about this film, and I'm basically dying to see it. It looks so good and certainly high up there on the emotional violation spectrum. Plus, y'know, more created families!

Your Mid-Week Art Break: Julian Callos

Julian Callos' work is totally where it's at for me this week. Fantastical and surreal, his stuff really encompasses a sense of myth and character in a way that's pretty special. You can check out more of Julian's work over at his website.

Sunday Short: Girl in Red by Allyson Armistead

And then there’s the before-and-after problem with erasing Dad’s identity: the whole space-time continuum glitch, where even though he’s faded in our furniture and walls and talk and clothes and hair, he’s like the echo of a piano key—a sound that stays in my ear even though the key was struck some time ago.

 I have really mixed feelings on this piece by Allyson Armistead. She's doubtlessly a talented writer (I mean, some of the imagery here is sublime); however, like all good short fiction it treads a fine line, weighed down by the holistic body insecurity of a teenage girl and the rather taut, inappropriate relationship she has with her mother's boyfriend and even with her own father. That said, Allyson captures so much of the discomfort in a girl's budding sexuality and that jerk of loss that comes with a freshly broken home.

You can read Girl in Red over on the Narrative Magazine's website.

Friday Finds

It's been a Shins kind of week. Simple Song's a bit of a favourite of mine and totally my soundtrack for the weekend.

- These book shirts are kind of perfect, and totally an ideal gift for any book lover in your life this holiday season!

- These books that can save the publishing industry are pretty great too.

- The new Ms. Marvel is a Muslim lass from New Jersey(!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

- Have some awesome googly-eyed books too.

- The Bechdel Test is being used in Sweden in an official capacity! I honestly love this test (and Kelly Sue DeConnick's sexy lamp one) as a means of highlighting the pretty atrocious gender representation in film.

- And, some weekend reading for you! 20 literary tumblrs that are currently slaying.

Your Mid-Week Art Break: Hannah Lee Stockdale

I'm pretty into Hannah Lee Stockdale's work this week. Vibrant, expressive and full of odd shapes and strange themes, it's pretty up my alley and, well, pretty wonderful. You can check out more of Hannah's work over on tumblr.

Aymmy in the Batty Girls

I can barely even talk about how obsessed I am with Aymmy in the batty girls. Like, I want to know this girl, and write about her and just live in this world of wild hair and oldschool diners. Plus the colour pallette and saturation is sort of divine. You can (and should!) check out the full look book over at the website.

 

 

Sunday Short: Now We Are Five by David Sedaris

A few weeks after these messages were written, Tiffany ran away, and was subsequently sent to a disciplinary institution in Maine called Élan. According to what she told us later, it was a horrible place. She returned home in 1980, having spent two years there, and from that point on none of us can recall a conversation in which she did not mention it. She blamed the family for sending her off, but we, her siblings, had nothing to do with it. Paul, for instance, was ten when she left. I was twenty-one. For a year, I sent her monthly letters. Then she wrote and asked me to stop. As for my parents, there were only so many times they could apologize. “We had other kids,” they said in their defense. “You think we could let the world stop on account of any one of you?”

How do you deal with the death of an estranged sibling? That's essentially the question posed in David Sedaris' rather brilliant new essay Now We Are Five. In many ways, this mirrors the plot of The Big Chill, that sense of sharing grief in the guise of a holiday, only the reality of it makes it so much more poignant. It's a pretty spectacular piece of writing.

You can read 'Now We Are Five' over on The New Yorker website here.  

Friday Finds

This video kind of made my morning.

- Brain Pickings brought the good stuff this week with E.B. White's thoughts on the future of reading in 1951,  Dani Shapiro's tips on the pleasure and perils of a creative life and the collected advice on writing from great writers.

- These new covers for the Discworld novels are pretty awesome.

- These pictures of photographer Gjon Mili's cat, Blackie, are basically the best.

- 21 everyday things you might not know were invented by women.

- And to take you out for the weekend, why not try one of these controversial teen dance crazes that pissed parents off throughout the ages?