Sparkle motion and good news for Cheese lovers

Tete a tete
Originally uploaded by kebabette

The photo is a dress out the front of Tete a Tete, a vintage clothing shop in Hereford Street, Christchurch. They had a sale the other week, I got neat shoes and a sparkly bag.

And in more happy news: It's the cheeseboard fo schizzle. The excellent Music Slut blog tells us Richard Cheese is bringing out a new album of loungey goodness.

Headline of the day (from the Nelson Mail): Community service for wombat rape claim

Cool WWII style Battlestar Galactica posters

Taking "This charming man" to a new level - it's the The Hunky Jesus Easter competition

I just realised why I like Neon Neon - it's covered in glitter, delectably tuneful, and a bit Candy O. and that's GOOOOD. Check out "I told her on Alderaan". Star Wars challenged me didn't know it was Princess Leia's home planet (but now I do).

Excalibur

The Imaginationland episodes of South Park were a trilogy of goodness.

And who did I spy in the lineup of evil characters but Mordred, the gold-armoured villain from MY FAVOURITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME (tm) - Excalibur.

We watched it again last night and it remains number one. The lush images, the epic grandeur, the humour, the acting ... stars included Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, Nicholas Clay (also known for starring in "Lady Chatterley's Lover" with Sylvia Kristel), Patrick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne and I just noticed the lovely Ciaran Hinds too. And Robert Addie as the older Mordred I remember well from his role of Guy of Gisborne in the Michael Praed "Robin of Sherwood".

Music is used effectively, and the drama of "O Fortuna" by Carl Orff at various set points of the movie is rousing as heck.

"Excalibur" is a beautiful rendering of the classic Arthur story, a myth that I love so much it has sunk into my personal mythology. When I got a tattoo, I left the middle of it empty until I thought of an image I wanted there. And after some time, I decided to show the Lady of the Lake brandishing Excalibur.

My love of Arthurian legend is very much interwoven with my love of Pre-Raphaelite art, poetry, literature ... and here is another view of the legend from Aubrey Beardsley.

Tennyson's poem Morte d'Arthur has a similar air of power and romance. The dying Arthur tells Bedivere (in the film it is the stoic Percival) to throw Excalibur back into the lake:

for thou rememberest how
In those old days, one summer noon, an arm
Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And took it, and have worn it, like a king

That's the line that resonates with me, and in the movie (directed by John Boorman of "Deliverance" fame) the Lady of the Lake's brandishing of the sword, with her arm swathed in translucent sparkling cloth is just perfection.

Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush-beds, and clutch’d the sword,
And strongly wheel’d and threw it. The great brand
Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,
And flashing round and round, and whirl’d in an arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,
Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the northern sea.
So flash’d and fell the brand Excalibur:
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandish’d him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
And lightly went the other to the King.

Wikipedia entries:
Excalibur the movie
Excalibur the sword

Happy Easter

Blythey Easter
Originally uploaded by kebabette

Hope y'all had a Good Friday and a happy Easter.
I bought an old-school icing egg for myself, to take pics of it ... course I have eaten it all now.

Had a lovely family Easter, ultra enhanced by having my sister Sarah visiting from London.

Also loved ploughing through Series 2 of The Wire. It is up there with The Sopranos.

And before that it was The Librarians from Aussie. Very clever, and you don't have to be a librarian to love it, but damn it doesn't hurt. I loved the dour librarian telling off a patron for looking at dubious stuff on the internet. "It just popped up" he claims. "Well just pop it down again" says grumpy librarian.

In other recent news, over at Flickr I've been having fun taking photos of my reading piles tagged "What I'm reading".

And here are the lovely bespectacled Eggner brothers, posters of whom seem to be taking over the town.

Choice selections including Dan Rhodes

If you want to see this charming group, come along to The Physics Room , Christchurch on Thurs 27 March: "Lullatone - they are Shawn Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida. Based in Nagoya, they wrote the official Hello Kitty theme song and have been behind some of the most melodic post-pop electronic sounds to come forth in recent years."


The Guardian's take on the world's most powerful blogs

The Age's Noise pollution blog links to Nick Cave's nutty Victorian seance vids. Beautifully hammy acting.

Headline of the week? Missing penis a cause for Royal Opera blush.

Dan Rhodes - my favourite author, and still one of the most amusing author websites. I just looked at his literary recommendations and spookily he namechecks two of my other favourite books namely Misadventures by Sylvia Smith and The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills. What is the common thread that links these authors? Humour, humanity, a sense of the ridiculous, dryness, ingenuity, idiosyncracy, beauty ...

I am please to see the return of my favourite Public Address blog Radiation from Fiona Rae. A good post to launch in with, and interesting comments as ever. She announces:

In other frakking fantastic news, Battlestar Galactica is back on air April 4. Advance publicity includes this frakking fantastic Last Supper. Six is Jesus!

Yay it is oyster season!!

And on the other side of the Tasman, Archibald Hitler fails to win Archibald Prize.

A nice piece o'spam I recently received, charmingly entitled "Reliable the man":

The kindest wishes to my new friend. I am 32 years. My name Tatiyana, I would like to get acquainted with you and to correspond, I want that all was reliable, that among us was not what secrets, and all we relations were on long. I am tired to be one, and to look only on bad, I wish to find and build relation with decent the man.
2008 has begun, and I wish in this suit to year the life. That the life washing has incorporated to strong spirit the man which always will be line a difficult minute, maintain me. My heart freely also burns with the desire to give all love to the man which deserves this. My letter is sent from agency, from an email of agency, and I ask on him to not answer. And to write only on my email.It for me will be easier. I shall wait for your letter and I hope that in the future we become the relatives each other.

Indeed, my heart freely burns too.

Santogold & Ninjasonik

Ms Tulip put me on to Santgold ... she is fabulous

Santogold "L.E.S. Artistes"
Uploaded by bluntedsoul

The two quasi-military girls at the start reminded me of the lovely beribboned ladies in Sly and Robbie's Boops (here to go) ...

And my other recent musical discovery is Ninjasonik ... funny, sharp as all hell ... D J Teenwold and Reverend McFly aka New Dirty Bastard.

Here's Rev McFly karaoke-ing to Morrissey. Sho nuff.

Music is the food of love.

1980 - the year of Xanadu

And this is Xanadu in all its roller-skated glory. Perhaps the spangliest musical ever made. I'm sure my love for roller discos started with this movie.

Here's the fab 40s versus 80s "Dancin'" with The Tubes and Olivia Newton-John. The dancing and the costumes are well worth the price of admission. Tres hot.


I'm alive! I'm a dancing goddess with gorgeous neon aura and nice hair.


And the theme song, Olivia looks so so lovely:

Match of the day

Word(s) of the week: I thought I coined the phrase "social netwanking" today, but a quick google search shows a couple of other peeps have thought of it too.

Song of the day: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot. A rather beautiful song.

Video of the day: Respect the Meat from "My name is Earl". Worth a watch for the image of Earl in 80s sweatband mode, and his brother Randy reclining like Mr Rico Suave.



Media beat up/obsession of the week: Trinny et Susannah. Am I lollipop? An apple? Tearoom discussion had me pegged as a lollipop, with additional comments that I'm like Queen Victoria or a Victorian woman, or some kind of puffer pigeon ...
They've got an online shape calculator that helps you find out your shape (for girlies). The cello makes me think of this famous Man Ray image ...

Top put downs: I vote for:
The Professor - The Mary Whitehouse Experience. "I have here a copy of
your book, Origins of the Crimean War. It smells of poo." "That's
because it's been inside your mum's bra."

Best sentence in an article this week: On The Mission concert - "The 2006 Olivia Newton-John and Chris de Burgh concert was marred by people vomiting and falling down a bank."


Word of the day: Best dress: Heidi Klum at the Oscars in Galliano

Best dance routine: So you think you can dance Australia kills it. Tie between the samba and animated hip hop.
Animated hiphop by Vanessa and Henry (routine starts 2:02)

Demi and Jack do the samba (routine starts 1:50)

Dirty old town

Eeeerrgh
Originally uploaded by kebabette

Spotted yesterday on Manchester Street ...
Believe me an orgy here would not be a sumptuous decadent banquet of debauchery a la Caligula ...

More likely it'd consist of dirty flea ridden mattresses and skragged out old whores.

Possibly ...

Still, the sign did make me laugh.