Leo

Photo Credit: The Sartorialist, Turned Out and Various Sources

To add to the two leopard-print photos I posted a couple of days ago, here are some more of my favourite leopard-printed moments. I need a leopard print coat. As in, essential. Santa? Miss Havisham?

A Community Service Announcement

Remember a couple of months ago when I was gushing over 'The Community Service Announcement' by Jonathan Boulet? Well I still love the song a heck of a lot and I still don't know how to pronounce his name. So not much has changed.

The video for the song was filmed a couple of weeks ago in NZ by those uber creative creatives, Special Problems. They've done work for The Mint Chicks, Cut Copy and Cut Off Your Hands, don't ya know. Judging by photos posted up on Twitter the underwater shoot must have been very chilly.

The fact that Jonathan is the same age as me just astounds me... what am I doing with my life? But it's good to see all of these hugely talented people getting the success and accolades where it is well deserved.

His debut, self-titled album is out in Australia on December 4. I look forward to buying it.

Orwell's Six Rules of Writing

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

-George Orwell

(I know the photo doesn't really have anything to do with the content of this post, but it's cool, no?)

I Left My Heart In...

Photo Credit: Yvan Rodic, Hannah + Landon, Rag Pony, Russh Magazine, Hobo Gestapo, Emma's Corner, The Sartorialist, Garance Dore,Blushing Ambition , & Various Sources

Friends + Headdresses, Friends + Headdresses + Black and White, Headdress + Leopard Print, Leopard Print + Kate Moss, Leopard Print + Nose Ring, Sheer + Legs, Sheer + Legs + White Beads, White Flower + Pixie Crop, White Lace Collar + Floral Blouse, White Blouse + Kitten, The Sartorialist + Red Hair, Garance Dore + Red Hair (my ideal shade), Kaya Scodelario, Zooey Deschanel, SAN FRANCISCO

Ruby Presents: Paint Your Heart Out

Next Thursday Ruby Boutique in Wellington will be taking over the Old Bank Arcade for a party that is promised to be as good as last year's but not quite as crazy, haha. The art of illustrators Shayna Quinn, Henrietta Harris and Kelly Thompson will be on display in what is a "celebration of the joy of picture making".

Kelly Thompson

Henrietta Harris

Shayna Quinn

Auckland band Teacups will be making the trip down to play at the Ruby party. Check out Chelsea from Teacups' blog, she takes lots of pretty pictures.

RSVP is essential. If you want an invite, I'm sure you can just go in store and ask for your name to be put on the list and an email can be sent out to you. But don't quote me on that.

Ruby Presents: Paint Your Heart Out

Thursday 19 November 6-8pm

Ruby Boutique Old Bank Arcade

Yeah!

Photos by Nick Zinner.

Photo Credit: Modular Facebook

Yeah Yeahs Yeahs are heading back to Australian shores this summer, but so far no New Zealand shows have been announced. I'm holding my breath, but we're kinda running out of time here. And looking at their touring dates on myspace, they don't have much time to pop across for a gig or two. Not good, not good.

I would love to see my favourite band again. Back in 2006 I entered a competition to win a ticket to their Auckland show. I wrote a detailed essay which linked Gold Lion (in very, very loose ways and completely tongue-in-cheek) with some kind of treasure hunt to find the meaning of life. Or something. It's hard to explain. Anyway, I was told they read it and loved it. I'd love to actually sit down and talk to them about it.... well, a girl can dream.

Dakota

Photo Credit: Teen Vogue

Um, when did Dakota Fanning grow up? And turn into a MEGA BABE? I love her leopard body-con.

Bicycle, Bicycle, you are my Bicycle.

Now that I'm back in Wellington for the summer, I'm so keen for a bike. On Saturday morning I walked along the waterfront while a friend cycled beside me. It was pleasant, the sunshine and the wind assuaged our hangovers. I was jealous, it's true. He got to have fun while I was stuck on land in my restrictive skirt.

Admittedly, Wellington is not the ideal biking city, it's all hills and winds that threaten to push you off. If I lived in the central city where it is flat it wouldn't be so bad, I could use it to bike to friend's places, the Sunday morning farmer's market and the waterfront. But alas, I live in the hills and far away (sort of) where there aren't really any good flat places to bike. I am willing to look past all of that in the name of a cute bike.

Does anyone have a bike they could lend me for the summer? Yes?

A Short History of Nearly Everything

I've always been terrible at science. Well, I can't exactly say "always" because I stopped thinking about science five years ago, back when I had to do it at high school. I'll pass on the formulas, just give me some adjectives please.

The only thing I really liked about science was the Scottish teacher I had for a little bit in fifth form and how he would say things like "excrete" with his wonderful accent and roll the r's.

I've recently started reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, though I didn't quite realise just how science-y it would be. Does he get to the History part of the title soon? I suppose you can't really have the history of the universe without talking about gravity and rocks and galaxies and all of that.

Although A Short History is taking me a little longer to get through than the usual books I read, I am understanding 96 per cent of what he's writing about, and he actually makes it super interesting too. I should have forgone those three years of high school science altogether and just read this book instead.

Bryson writes with a clarity that all those Nobel scientists wish they could (sometimes being the smartest person in the room means you can't talk or write with words less than three syllables long) and has the sort of subtle, tongue-in-cheek humour that I can appreciate. Here's an example of what I mean, where he is talking about the creation of the universe:

"In a single blinding pulse, a moment of glory much too swift and expansive for any forms of words, the singularity assumes heavy dimensions, space beyond conception. The first lively second (a second that many cosmologists will devote careers to shaving into ever-finer wafers) produces gravity and the other forces that govern physics. in less than a minute the universe is a million billion miles across and growing fast ... In three minutes, 98 per cent of all matter there is or will ever be has been produced. We have a universe. It is a place of the most wondrous and gratifying possibility, and beautiful, too. And it was all done in about the time it takes to make a sandwich."