A fan girl's findings: insights into MA

"To say that this movie is historically irresponsible or politically suspect is both to state the obvious and to miss the point...beneath its highly decorated surface is an examination, touched with melancholy as well as delight, of what it means to live in a world governed by rituals of acquisition and display."

"We know how this story ends, and Ms. Coppola refrains from showing us the violent particulars, or from sentimentalizing her heroine’s fate, preferring to conclude on a quiet, restrained note that registers the loss of Marie’s world as touchingly as the rest of the film has acknowledged her folly, her confusion and her humanity."

A lonely petit four of a queen (NY Times review)

"Drift and dislocation are second nature to Coppola. They were the main themes of her previous films, The Virgin Suicides (also starring Dunst) and Lost in Translation.... Whatever the film's structural failings and historical gaps, it's great to see such a distinctive directorial vision coming out of Hollywood.... Few directors, of either sex, are capable of making a costume drama about 18th-century monarchs that feels so exasperatingly contemporary."

There’s something about Marie (Telegraph review)

"Coppola has created one of the most compellingly watchable historical dramas in recent cinema precisely by doing what her critics accuse her of doing; playing loose with the historical and temporal facts for the sake of making a good movie.... Coppola does what a good storyteller should do; She stays true to her subject as an artist by filtering the story through her own sensibility."

"Coppola does what any director in her right mind must do to make a very good movie; She empathizes deeply with her protagonist, finds a way to bring her audience into the queen's gilded cage and allows us to look into her unknowable heart."

(blog entry on The Back Row Manifesto.)

Surfing highlight: Tuesday, 15 Feb 2008

Vintage pyrex on d*s. Where else do I find such things? I've had this post bookmarked for me to return to look at properly for a few days, which I did today. The patterns are eye-catching enough for me to check out one of the sites it links:

Pyrex Love a wonderful pattern fix and resource on all things Pyrex-related. The pattern guide is excellent because most pics link you to a page with a write-up about that particular pattern and an ebay list of items from that line on sale. When I get married, I want this to go on my gift registry. In the mean time I wonder if such gems can be unearthed in thrift shops over here.

What knocked my socks off was finding out that the patterns shown in the picture here are vintage pyrex. I grew up with these in our kitchen! It was incredibly nostalgic to look at them - I haven't seen the Spice of Life casseroles in use of late and now I can't wait to go home, hunt them down and caress them.

[update: Fergs said that the butterfly gold 1 and 2 pattern is in his Muar home. I might just kneel over now, it's one of my favs!]

Surfing highlights: Wednesday, 13 Feb 2008

It's been a long time since my last surfing highlights post.

Don't like the whole look of the wood + wrapping paper combo, but this idea is absolutely BRILL. It makes me want to rip the wooden front door from my home and make it into a table right now.

I've also fallen in love with Miles Redd's ID work. His rooms are so rich! So many ideas to glean. His use of dark paint colours (see pic) is especially inspiring.

Lastly, this video of a hedgehog eating made me split my head smiling. Check out the head tuffs jerking and lip-smacking, tongue-flicking action! This hedgie even has the same center-parting that Jobi has. Found via dooce, which has quickly become one of my favourite blogs.

Furniture highlights: Friday, 14 Dec 2007

Ikea Hacker. Today's major, stunning find. My mom has done some minor Ikea hacking herself, but to find a whole website devoted to new ways of using or personalising Ikea products is mind-blowing. I predict hours spent browsing through this wonderful resource for inventive, out-of-the-box home furnishing.

Reinventing old furniture on designsponge. This post from two weeks back was an eye-opener. Amazing before and after photos show that good-looking furniture can be had for a fraction of the usual price, which is something I'm excited about.

Sigh. I can't wait to get my own place to furnish.

Surfing highlights: Wednesday, 28 Nov 2007

Short of time to post today so there's only one old link.

Alice Stevenson's website has been open on a tab in my browser for a while now, so I finally made the time today to browse through her work. It's been a while since an artist has caught my fancy enough for me to look through their entire portfolio. With intricate patterns and motives from nature in pastel colours, her pieces are lovely to behold. A definite a source of inspiration for me.

"Diary of a collector", commissioned piece for World of Interiors, November 07.

Surfing highlights: Tuesday, 27 Nov 2007

I have more links than I can post, so here are two vintage links. The first one is from yesterday while the other is about a week old.

Plugging In to Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord by Ben Ratliff. New York Times writes about how church bands are now one major way Americans hear live music. So we now have bands that "carefully calibrate [their] sound toward the pop culture disposition of [their] target age group" and "scavenge some of their musical style from the radio and television". I understand and even appreciate the drive to sound relevant, but on the back of yesterday's seeker service confessed flaws I wonder how good it is to pander to our 'consumers' taste too much.

Dusting off the great books by Matt Kaufman. While this talks primarily about the resurgence of interest in the great Western classics among African-American and minority students in America, it also touches on how Western classical literature contains truths about "great and transcendent themes like the relationship between God and man, man and man (and woman), man and the state."

Today's links are more light-hearted. I rarely notice, let alone click on advertisements, but this sidebar pic for ModCloth finally made enough of an impression (it's been up for a while) on me. The retro-looking plaid dress from the advertisement rocks, but what I really covet now is the dress Flowers at dusk.

MDA Senior Management Rap Watch the Singapore Media Development Authority top dogs rap about their jobs and vision for Singapore media! Who says that market trends, KPIs, adding value to the economy and service-orientated architecture can't be cool?

Aside hearing them attempt to stay in time with the beat, other highlights include the Chief Information Officer mixing a black superman-like suit with internal systems integration and the very-Singaporean bit about how easy it is for customers and licensees to pay their fees and fines.

Well, I think that it's a commendable effort by middle-aged/senior managers to connect with their young consumers' idea of hipness. But only in Singapore can you get (middle-aged/senior) managers compliant enough to attempt such a thing.

Surfing highlights: Monday, 26 Nov 2007

Not the same street by Virginia Heffernan. Why Sesame Street is inappropriate for children now: Cookie Monster is pre-diabetic, Oscar is depressed and Alistair Cookie smokes then eats his pipe. Maybe in 25 years Barney would finally be labeled unsuitable too.

Conservapedia. Basically wiki with a Conservative Christian perspective. Started initially as a homeschooling project, this site is unashamedly pro-American, which is unashamedly off-putting. Read the wiki page on Conservapedia and the Conservapedia page on wiki here. Also, how Conservapedia's article on how it differs from wiki here.

NAMBLA stands for North America Man/Boy Love Association and supports the legalisation of sexual relations between adult males and under-aged boys (or in other words, for the abolishment of age of consent). Click here for the wiki page, cos I didn't visit their actual site. I wonder why a female counterpart to this organisation hasn't been formed. Not that I want one to.

FIRST-PERSON: A shocking confession from Willow Creek Community Church leaders by Bob Burney. So seeker-services, with their "de-emphasis on taking personal responsibility for Bible study combined with an emphasis on felt-needs based 'programs' and slick marketing" are now acknowledged as being ineffective in producing mature believers.

5 Kinds of Christians. This examines the range of "beliefs, commitment levels and public practice" in American Christians and subsequently divides them into five distinct groups. What is interesting is the bit about how the church is to respond effectively to address the ramifications of these findings.

Picture: Judy Ross textile.

Surfing highlights: Friday, 23 Nov 2007

Step away from the pot pie by Kimbery Eddy on Boundless. I'd re-read this for her tips on cooking for one (or two) to avoid always defaulting to eating out.

To hell, with Dante (I first read it as 'To hell with Dante!' and thought 'What's so wrong with Dante that they have to swear at him?') by James Tonkowich on Boundless. Anyway. This article gives a low-down on Dante's background and discusses his vision of hell in The Divine Comedy. Which reminds me that I bought Inferno for S$20 in August but haven't touched since. Meh.

Go gently into the night, a Christianity Today editorial about the ethical immorality behind embryonic stem cell research. My favourite exerpts:

"…a new moral sensibility has developed that serves precisely medicine's crusade against mortality: Anything is permitted if it saves life, cures disease, prevents death. …The problem is not in wanting to stay healthy …but in 'values [that] are so youth-oriented that we are really disparaging the elderly' … [and] the very thought of death."

Apparently even Christians are no better at accepting and cherishing mortal death, with "churches rarely sing[ing] about heaven, once a staple of Sunday morning worship."

Picture: wallpaper from Romo fabrics