The lady of lace

For the cover of their September issue ELLE dressed the lovely Emily Blunt head to toe in lace! For me lace represents the elegance of decadence!

Stairway to …

I don’t know exactly what it is, but there is something about this stylish black staircase which makes me think twice before using it …

No town like the hometown …

Especially during summertime …

The Turntable

Denon will be celebrating its 100th anniversary with this expensive limited beauty, as a part of its special edition anniversary product collection. DP-A100 is speculated to cost around $3000, or more! But this is quality with five years of warranty! Check out the rest of the collection at Denon’s anniversary wesbite.

Back in the snood

The summer isn’t quite over but as usual the fall/winter clothes are hitting the stores around Europe and my very first piece acquired is yet another snood from the Swedish MQ. This year a fully fledged one, much like the ones I liked from the Nicholas K collection. This one even covers my head like a hood and not only my neck. The whole thing goes in a loop and you are meant to warp and drape it like a bedouin scarf. You might even find it looking a bit like the women’s hair scarf in Iran! Like I said the snood is originally a part of the women’s fashion, that’s why it might deem a bit feminine. But unlike the wrist-borne bags this is one feminine attribute which I can conveniently incorporate in my wardrobe, since it translates well into my personal style. Now if you excuse me I’m gonna go audition for the role of Altair in Assassin’s Creed! hehe

Mexicana Ximena

Miss Mexico Jimena (Ximena) Navarrete won the 2010 Miss Universe title a couple of nights ago. Not my favourite candidate to win, as usual, but I think I can reconcile with the thought …

Rough and refined

Founded in 2004 by the members Akut and Hera (Jasmin), the German street art duo Herakut combines graffiti with photo-realism and psychoanalytical symbolism in their art.

Coming from street respective fine art background they have not only prevented a clash but found a way to compliment each other, to reconcile their seemingly incompatible platforms and individual styles.

As a result Herakut presents a fusion of classic rendering crossed with street style techniques which works just as well indoors as it does outdoors. What makes it more interesting is that all their pieces are spontaneous and intuitive creations on the spot, as direct synthesis of the symbiosis! Making is candid, organic and dynamic.

The same rough and ragged respective soft and elegant features which represents and differentiate the looks of the artists reflects also in their art, not to mention the combination of an innocent appearance and a rebellious attitude. Making it a unique marriage of aesthetics.

Herakut has slowly but surely received international recognition and critical acclaim with several outdoor and indoor exhibitions around the world.

They have also gathered their work in a book by the suitable title “The Perfect Merge“. As a former graffiti artist and a classic art aficionado I can’t help but to find the fine fusion beautiful. Not to mention miss Hera! Anyone who can create in high heels deserves recognition, at least in my book! hehe

They’ll be having a show in Cali September 18, here is a clip which shows some of their creations as well as painting sessions.

The floating desk

La Finca Futuristic design’s floating stone desk makes me feel as if I was in the dream world of “Inception”! I can almost hear the sound-track in the background … boom …booom …boooom!!

Bravo Bravia!

Sony Bravia KDL-46NX700, what a lean mean machine!

Sit surrounded by the words of wisdom

How about this, a bookshelf couch! No more need to go spending time commuting back and forth between the couch and the shelves, just sit back and let the words of wisdom surround you!

Double Styles

It truly became my summer jam, there hasn’t been a single day that it hasn’t been played by or for me, one way or the other! Subsequently I’ve been eagerly waiting for Darren Style’s second album “Feel the Pressure” to hit the stores and it finally will do so tomorrow. This singing CLUB DJ’s second single is not as instant and strong as “Sound without a Name” in its verses but the euphoric chorus makes up for it. Styles’ second album is a double-disc and features 25 tracks!

Superdivas need the attention

There are those who crave the attention!

There are those who rape the attention!!

Above: Katy Perry

Below: Lady Gaga

Love at first taste

A not so lazy day’s lunch this time! Chicken salad with extra chicken breast. And a drop of the golden nectar! The only food product I import from the states is the honey mustard. Its very American so not really available in stores here, at least not in my part of Europe and not cheap! But I fell in love with it the very first time I tasted it on a grilled chicken sandwich. It was love at first taste! A drop of this alchemists’ portion on any chicken meal makes your dish turn gold! It’s true, try it!

The Phoenix phenomenon

As a fan of the actor and as someone who loves to watch and witness the phenomenons in popular culture, both for better and worse, I’ve been really curious about Joaquin Phoenix’s plans for complete crossover to music and Hip Hop of all genres. To be honest I had my doubts and was almost convinced that it must be some kind of publicity stunt, either that or that he has gone nuts!lol Since he had all of a sudden started to appear looking like a hobo and act all eccentric. My curiosity is further fuelled by this newly released teaser which indicates that he either has truly gone nuts or it was all a publicity set-up for some kind of “mockumentary“.

Me like The Like

My past posts are testimonies to my soft spot for cute Bohemian girls, especially if they come as a quartet and all wear black turtle-necks and pantihose! Hehe, The Like’s second album titled “Release Me” is out now and I’m loving the retro flirt of the Cali ladies “Z” Berg, Tennessee Thomas, Laena Geronimo and Annie Monroe who are on the road in Europe ’til October.

iCade

As if I needed yet another reason to get this baby!

Getting hard core

A strong core is essential to a good physique and posture, it’s the absolute core of your body so its strength affects your balance, movements and performance. The fact is that no matter how much you diet or do cardio you will still not be able to tone your core without locking in that area in a resistance training. And in-locking of that area is not the easiest since its very few movements, often manual labour related movements such as wood chopping, that manage to get to it properly. The fact is that the body rather gets rid of your hard earned muscles before it taps into the stubborn reservoir around your waist! That’s why the middle part is always the hardest part to get hard! So an effective core work out is absolutely necessary if you want to get back in the original (default) shape, and not just settling for the same body shape but in a smaller size. Something which dieting without training will get you. You need to jump-start the body and use the jolt of resistance training in order for the body to get shocked and react desperate for energy by tapping into those reservoirs. And there are a few good exercises and equipments you can use for the purpose, here I present you two of my favourites.

Resistance tubes (aka rubber bands) are good elementary gears for core training and equivalent to the cables at the gym. I personally use them at home and away, in particular for an exercise called the wood chopper (home, gym) which comes in variations and is a killer when it comes to oblique and abdominal exercises. As you see these tubes are portable so you do no longer have any excuse to get lazy while being on the road! Just don’t forget to do like miss Ambrosio, pack a pair of plateaus!lol

When you have advanced a bit and feel that your core has turned stronger then you can switch to some more stationary equipments and heavier weights, such as heavy plates, medicine balls and core-bars! I use them all but prefer a 10 kg double grip medicine ball (can even be used for kettlebell exercises) and a weight-vest at home which gives me a firm grip and allows me to practice targetting exercises in order to get to those muscles hiding around the torso (clips of core training with different types of medicine ball). So it is possible to reshape your core, but it takes a whole lot of time, patience and persistence! They usually say that it takes just as much time peeling the layers off as it took to put them on! But it is worth the effort, just keep reminding yourself that it is the last frontier in your contouring. Good luck!

Cool cats of cinema, then and now …

1977, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (The Godfather)

2010, Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception)

My kind of bling

I’m normally not big on bling blings but wouldn’t mind getting dazzled by this kind of bling!

Geek chic

This is one chic geek couch! Space Invader couch by Igor Chak, made from leather covered memory foam with two glass surfaces. Pure pixel nostalgia!

Drawing under the influence

I found this test conducted by the US government in the late 1950’s very interesting. These drawings were done by an artist who was given a dose of LSD 25! He had a box full of crayons and pencils to his disposal and his “model” became the medic. You can clearly see how his perception of reality changed through the course of eight hours! Read more about it here.

Was Darwin wrong?

Even though I consider myself a Darwinian, maybe …just maybe, Darwin looked at the wrong specie in his quest for our origin!!lool

Hope you’re enjoying your summer …

Lady long legs

Happened to catch a glimpse of the beach volley babe of my gen Gabrielle Reece on the “Chelsea Lately” show the other day and once again I was reminded that there are some legy ladies and then there are leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegy ladies!!! hehe

Pumping jam

Do you got any music you like to work out to? One of my favorite gym jams is Fluke’s “Absurd”:

For those who might recognise the song but not recall from where it’s Nancy’s dance scene in Sin City!

The pool house

The Tangga House by Guz Architects is my kind of house. In my teenage years I was really interested in architecture and even contemplated to become one. I studied and loved the art, however the technical aspect of it all put a stop to my love affair with the trade!lol Nevertheless ever since I’ve been fascinated by the Californian 20th century architecture where modernity met mother nature (sounds familiar?)! The sheer thought of a whole pool wrapped around the entire house makes my senses calm!

Rolling Road Rocky

The British designer Olly Moss has designed some retro style posters for the ongoing 2010 Rolling Road Show. In homage to the American workers. I particularly love this Rocky poster!

check out the rest of the posters.

Portable home on pedals?

Even though looking weird I find the actual idea rather interesting, a good way to support the sustainable development and to save money when you are on the road. But I could never fit in that bed! Not even if my life depended on it! My legs would have to stick out of some window!lol So there is a practical reason why its often Asians who come up with such inventions!

Lazy day lunch

This is the lazy day lunch for me! Well not really a lazy day per se, since I’ve been busting my azz off resistance training the entire morning. But lazy in terms of actual lunch making. So considering that I’m on a training diet it gets to be tuna, corn and mid-east bread (there is a local bakery and brand called Liba in Sweden, run by Lebanese peeps, which has in few years grown big by delivering their always fresh and delicious Liba-bread across the country. A bread that can be used for wraps as well as for dips and has hence been a hit even with the Swedes). Washed down with my all-time favorite drink namely Pepsi Max, maximum taste no sugar! Have to say this tastes surprisingly not as disgusting as it might look!llol

Funky hot Medina

The Danish songstress Medina had a big HIT in Denmark last year, called ”Kun For Mig”. The attention also brought her a great deal of trouble when a group of Muslim fundamentalists attacked her physically for having linked the name Medina (the city of the prophet) to bare skin and sensuality! A while ago the English label Parlophone picked up the song for an English touch up and an international launch of Medina’s career. Her English album “Welcome to Medina” was released on iTunes the other day and “You and I” is currently making its way around Europe and I’m in love with a particular REMIX of it which keeps haunting me since a couple of nights back …

here is the original mix and video of “You and I”:

Pop food

As you know I’m not too big on still-life artworks, but somehow Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop Art take on the classic motif appeals to me. Both his one-dimensional paintings like the piece above and the more perspective-bound pieces like the painting below. I have never really been motivated to attend to Pop Art, only done one comic-style portrait of some friends’ dog. But seeing still-life and Pop Art together for the first time I start to like them both a bit more! It seems like they belong together, somehow. Wouldn’t mind start experimenting and hanging one on my wall!

Lubiam gray

I love Lubiam’s upcoming line for fall 2010, modelled here by the boxer gone model Will Chalker. Not to mention all its avantgarde ornamentations and pattern combinations in a gray palette.

check out the rest of the collection at Lubiam.it

Alright, alright!

I promise that this will be the last “Inception” post …for the day!lol Just found out about this cleverly embedded detail, of interest to those who have seen the movie and recognise both tunes! It’s these tiny details that I love to ponder and hamper! Like I said, brilliant!

Soundtrack for suspense

I’m still stunned by the magnificence of “Inception”, especially when I listen to its amazing sound-track! Almost as epic as the “Requiem for a Dream” soundtrack towards its drama-amplifying end. The “Requiem for a Dream” theme is by the way maybe the only contemporary original soundtrack which has been used in numerous other movies trailers! Listen 01:50 forth and see if you can spot it next time when its used.

Three layers deep

Christopher Nolan is back. While the whole world loved “The Dark Knight” I found it to be one of my favorite directors’ most overrated works! But I’m thrilled to see the Christopher Nolan of “Memento” and “The Prestige” back with another mind blowing opus. I’m even more thrilled to see his “Inception” not only delivering but even surpassing all my expectations. As you know these were neither low nor few! The movie grabbed me immediately and pulled me down deep, all “three layers deep”, and kept me down there in nearly three hours! Intelligence, heart and soul, it has it all! Style and substance. Not a single detail out of place nor a single second without suspense. All orchestrated down to micro perfection. In fact I have never seen such a complex concept being delivered so completely and compactly, yet so calculatedly and comprehensively! Nolan truly took on a challenge with this one, which unlike “Memento” is also an exhibition in visual precision.

The movie doesn’t take the easiest way out, it rather takes the most labyrinthine path at basically every turn and makes the most acrobatic maneuvers, yet it arrives gracefully at every check point and ultimately home without entanglement or flat fall. “Inception” is not “Avatar”, its dramaturgy keeps up with its cinematography every step of the way and gives your intellect and senses a good workout. Christopher Nolan’s science fiction goes straight to my all-time favorites’ list, as one of the most skilfully crafted and perfectly executed works of cinema. A true masterpiece that stretches and blurs out the frameworks of the trade!

The rest of the celebrated cast with all due respect, its the slick Joseph Gordon-Levitt and charming Tom Hardy who steal the spotlight in “Inception”, by kicking some serious ass!