So, I've been listening to a lot of Marilyn Monroe songs lately, I don't know why, but I've been in the mood for them, especially in the mornings. I think I first became aware of who she was after watching Madonna's Material Girl video back in the day and my parents explained where my beloved M had drawn the idea of wearing that pink dress and choreography. Given the recent controversy in the blogosphere regarding what is an "homage" and what is simply ripping-off another artist after Lady GaGa's Alejandro video, all I can say is Material Girl was definitely an homage, and a great one too.
To me the biggest difference between ripping-off and taking inspiration is that the first one uses/copies similar imagery just for the sake of a visual effect while taking actual inspiration requires further work and effort so that there is an actual purpose/message from this "borrowing of ideas". Material Girl wasn't based on just any Marilyn Monroe performance, it was based on her rendition of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend in her 1953 movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The reference to that song was a perfect match and essential to the final message in the video : Boys may come and boys may go but that's alright you see, experience has made me rich and now they're after me.
Back to Monroe now, it is Father's Day today, and like every year, I can't help but start singing My Heart Belongs To Daddy. Though this Cole Porter piece has been sung by many artists, the only version I've ever heard is Marilyn's. I remember how much my mom despised her singing skills when my dad used to play this when I was a kid, but there is such charm to her performance of this song that you just can't help but love it, especially because of the double-entendre and more so after you see the bit where she sings it in the movie Let's Make Love.
I love her outfit. I love the simplicity of it. 60's chic. A sweater and black tights. Isn't a sweater the typical Fathers' Day gift?
The former obnoxious environmentalist in me has appeared in the last couple of posts and apparently he's here to stay for a bit. I've been thinking about how difficult it is to draw an artist and his/her talents away from the person they really are. I know this is nothing new, and it's a fact we tend to want to know more and more about the pop stars, actors, and other kind of performers we admire, in order to sympathize more with them or just from plain curiosity.
I have never been too fond of Kelis, to be honest the only song I ever heard from her was Milkshake (and now that I remember, her vocal contribution to Timo Maas's Help Me some years ago), but after her recent comments to the press regarding the letters she received from PETA asking her not to wear fur, and her ridiculous, mocking, aggressive and tactless answers ("I would have fur walls if I could") stating her love of it (and therefore obvious insensitivity to animal suffering), have made me want to ignore and not even give a chance to her new album though I know it's been getting some good reviews. Personally, I hope it TANKS, no matter how childish that might sound, I just can't help the feeling. She really gets on my nerves. Too bad Robyn has decided to tour with her.
Well, while we're on the subject, there's this new catchy, poppy song that I've had on repeat since I downloaded it. I'm kind of infatuated with the lyrics and even though I was not seduced by the performer's voice at first, I'm liking it more and more each time. It's The Boy Who Murdered Love, by Diana Vickers, a British singer who was a semi-finalist in The X Factor two years ago.
She's VERY young, she'll be turning 19 at the end of July, and though I love the song, like I stated before, I can't get over the fact that she's wearing a fur jacket towards the end of the video (which has a pretty cute aesthetic to it involving a cartoon-interfered reality and a hard-to-ingore cute male model). I'm hoping it's fake, though I doubt it, just so that I don't have to hate her. I sound thirteen now, I know.
Here's the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1wKCXbrK74
I was recently called to have my picture taken for a magazine article on fashion bloggers in Lima. I was quite surprised I was actually chosen because I don't consider my blog to be solely about fashion, but as I was beginning to think about this entry, I realized most of my posts are inevitably fashion-related.
When I was about 11, I began a long-term love affair with Benetton. I think I still remember my first item from this brand, it was a green polo shirt, with UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON written in tiny fuchsia letters in the front. I had fallen in love with it at the store for some reason and had not been bothered by the fact that it was a size or two big. Suddenly, 90% of my wardrobe came from this brand and then most of my personal belongings: my wallet, my agenda, my cologne, my walkman-case, keychain, etc. It had become an unexplainable obsession. I mean, some people from high school remember my colorful Benetton backpack more than they remember me (of course, I did weigh about a ton back then too).
I also fell in love with their ad campaigns. LOVED THEM. I loved their thought-provoking, shocking, controversial images addressing social issues such as racism, AIDS, discrimination in general, and above all -at that period in my life- enviromental issues. I became a fan of Oliviero Toscani, the creative mind and photographer behind the ads, then wrote Luciano Benetton expressing my admiration and was happily surprised when I received a package containing poster-sized images of the campaigns from 1989 to 1995. I actually got to meet Luciano Benetton later on when he came to Lima to open a store.
It was at 12 that I became a vegetarian and that I got involved in school activities that promoted recycling and other eco-conscious activities. That is probably why one of the images that struck me the most back then, was that of the bird covered in thick, black oil, it's eyes red with irritation, swimming in the middle of a huge oil spill, and looking like something out of this world.
Thinking it was a species from another planet would have probably been the more comforting way of looking at it than knowing it belonged to our own planet Earth, and that the reason why this poor animal was condemned to such a horrific situation that would lead to it's premature death, was caused by our own kind. Or maybe it was a new species. Were we being witness to the birth of a new type of bird that would soon be populating our planet? I know this sounds a bit dramatic, but after seeing the following pictures from the affected wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico due to the UNBELIEVABLE irresponsibility of BRITISH PETROLEUM, one can only wonder if we will ever learn. Things haven't changed much.
I remember visually "quoting" the scene from the following video a few weeks ago. It is probably my favorite moment from GOLDEN GIRLS. Though I wasn't a die-hard fan of the show, I do have fond memories of watching it and having many laughs at Rose's stories of Saint Olaf and at the way Blanche Deveraux charmingly managed to address the vanity in each and everyone of us. I have turned 30, I've said this over a million times, I know, and as "the physical interferes, everyday more..." (your daily dose of musical drama here), I couldn't help but recreate this scene in front of a couple of friends some time ago, like I said at the beginning of this short post. I just found out Rue McLanahan has passed away today, leaving Betty White as the only living Golden Girl. I simply felt the need to post this video in her memory and as a tribute to her most memorable character. Simple and HYSTERICAL. Love it. Enjoy:
My initial title for this post was BROOKE SHIELDS YOU SUCK, but then I decided I could be a bit more elaborate. Brooke Shields is probably a celebrity many people that belong to my generation hold as a childhood icon. Her 80's beauty, her star-status at such an early age and watching her grow in the limelight made her one VERY fascinating person. Fascination faded a bit, as she grew up and grew older but she still holds a strong place among other Hollywood stars.
I remember having dinner once at Cipriani's in Soho, back in 2008, with one of my closest friends from my high school in Montevideo, and minutes after we sat down, someone went by behind me. My friend is not as celebrity obsessed as I am (I had already recognized Carine Roitfeld's son when we entered but that's just because I'm a freak), but she did mention something along the lines of "hey, I think the girl that just went by you is kind of famous, she looks familiar" in her priceless Uruguayan accent in Spanish (she is from Taiwan so, visually, it's pretty surreal). As I turned to my right, two tables away from us it was her, Ms. Brooke Shields herself. I couldn't help but squeal to my friend "Those EYEBROWS!!! They're part of HISTORY!!!". She looked way prettier in person, slimmer too, and though I was immediately starstruck when I saw her, I didn't dare to go up to her and say hello. Two other people had already done that and asked for a picture, and she seemed rather annoyed by it. To tell you the truth however, there was a HUGE turn off : she was wearing a long fur vest. My initial excitement faded a bit, not completely, I have to be honest. I had been in NYC for about a week, LIPSTICK JUNGLE was about to premiere that weekend, and I remembered seeing Hilary Rhoda backstage at the Michael Kors show and thinking how the 80's were back EVEN when it came to physical features, so running into her seemed like a pretty cool way to end that trip. Unfortunately, today, Brooke Shields has been the source of major disappointment. I just checked one of my favorite blogs and came across the following picture:
Has she no heart? Not only does Brooke Shields wear fur, she will actually be promoting the use of it by designing a fur coat herself together with a Danish fur company. I could soooooooooort of understand when people are just hypnotized by the texture of a fur coat and enjoy wearing one because they are able to ignore what goes into making one (I won't excuse them though), but to still be into it while being a witness to the process and to actually see the bodies of dead animals and to not be moved by it is beyond me. She has been quoted to say: "My only true love, darling. I live for furs. I worship furs! After all, is there a woman in all this wretched world who doesn't? ". PATHETIC. Could someone PLEASE slap some sense into her? I really hope PETA gets her.
Though this may sound a bit obsessive, I've been taking a look at different performances by Sinéad O'Connor during creative breaks throughout the day (which, on a side note, has probably been very un-productive regardless of all the massive amounts of work I need to get done). I found a video of the day she appeared at the Bob Dylan Tribute the same year of her scandal. I don't think we'll ever know how it must feel to receive such a mixed response from the audience but unfortunately dominantly negative. How can you deal with so much hate towards you? We've all had our shares of negative energy being directed towards us, but rarely this loud and massive. What I salute (my word of the day here) is how she managed to stand with her head held high, expecting her audience to be civil enough to allow her to sing a song in honor of Bob Dylan and yet when she realizes signs of hatred will not cease, she cancels her intended performance in order to quote Bob Marley's WAR lyrics, demonstrating how relevant they are once again. Here's the clip from that day:
It's crazy how one ridiculous and almost insignificant comment can start off a series of ideas that can actually lead to something important or, at least, thought provoking. A friend of mine will be crossing the border from Israel to Jordan in a few days, and mentioned he was planning on shaving his head to do so. Why? I have absolutely no idea, but I couldn't help but comment he'd be a Sinéad O'Connor look-alike.
This immediately made me go on youtube and search for that ultra-controversial performance of hers on Saturday Night Live back in 1992. I remember being in 8th grade when this happened and how it was a world shocker. Today I payed close attention to the whole performance since the only bit that got broadcast on the news around the world were the last few seconds where she tore the picture of the Pope. I had not realized how powerful the lyrics of the song she sang were and how everything was precise in making the performance come to a full circle.
After all the controversy surrounding the Catholic Church lately regarding the unveiling of stories of pedophilia commited by actual members of this entity, Sinéad's words come as quite relevant and make her look not as crazy as she did back then. Don't get me wrong, I was the only person in my grade not wanting to crucify her, probably because I was an atheist since then (though I was baptized in the Vatican and even have a picture with John Paul II). I actually thought it took some (pardon my French) BALLS to go up and do that on LIVE television, especially at TWENTY-THREE! Talk about standing up for what you believe in. Following is the LINK (embedding is disabled unfortunately) to the full performance of that night, 18 years ago, and then a short but very interesting news report on her before it all happened.
Watching the video at the end of this post reminded me of the following: When I was in second grade I played Für Elise in front of my school at the auditorium on one of our weekly assemblies. I don't remember why there were musical numbers involved in this particular one, nor how I dared to have to the guts to go in front of an audience and play this piece by ear (our elementary school music teacher, Ms. Proctor, mus have convinced me). I had not had formal piano lessons yet but I had a very kind older sister who was willing to teach me how to play it, and so, I learned it. I never quite mastered my left hand on the second half, but I managed pretty well through the whole ordeal. Later on, I began to take lessons, but I wanted things to be faster than they were, I had no patience and this whole Chopinesque-phase ended when my piano teacher stormed out the door saying : "Your son has no discipline!" (Please imagine that in a Russian accent). I have often regretted not putting more effort into those lessons, having more patience, and realizing the importance of practice. After watching the following video, I am in absolute awe. This sixth grader has managed to give me goosebumps. I love the way he's given his own spin on the original GaGa song and the passion and confidence of his performance. It is absolutely inspiring. Please watch and enjoy.
I have officially started out a new blog in Spanish as of today. I had been thinking about it for a while but I just didn't have the time nor had I come up with a name I found to be sufficiently humorous and precise. In the end, I followed a friend's advice and named it ME MUEROU. Though the correct way of writing this expression would be "me muero" (literally meaning "i'm dying" but used in Spanish as and expression of shock like "NO WAY!" or "OH MY GOD!"), I decided to add the extra "u" at the end just to give it the intonation a native English speaker would produce when saying the word. I actually use it that way, mockingly, on a daily basis. Anyway, my post on my twin blog was regarding the publishing of my first article. Not that I intend to become a journalist (nor that the actual article is impressive enough to make anyone believe that for a second), but I was very happy to have been asked by Peru's leading newspaper's magazine, SOMOS, to cast my opinion on Lady GaGa, her style and her unavoidable comparison to Madonna. It was short and concise (and a bit of it was edited too), but I guess it's somewhat "reassuring" to have the local press choose me to give my opinion on the matter. I guess all this PDML (Public Display of Madonna Love) has been finally rewarding. The coolest thing was that when I was asked to do this, my point of view was to be included only as a point of reference throughout the main article, I was only to be quoted regarding certain aspects of Lady GaGa's fashion and her similarities with Madonna, but then I got an e-mail saying they had really liked what I had written and that they were going to include it as a special feature in the spread. Here's the link to my new blog and my first post : www.memuerou.blogspot.com
I'm still a bit shocked from the sad news yesterday. I was in a meeting when I got a call from a fellow fashion designer friend who let me know about the terrible news regarding Alexander McQueen's death. We had JUST been talking about him a few minutes before, noting how the shoes I was wearing were very similar to a pair he had designed a few seasons ago but that I was too stingy to buy during a trip to London (and later bought the wallet-friendly version in Buenos Aires). I can't regret not having a piece designed by him any more right now. Alexander McQueen was always the answer to the "Who's your favorite designer?" question during interviews for the local media. I'd always mention that though I did not agree with his use of fur and taxidermy in his shows, he was the one designer from our time that I truly admired. Watching a McQueen show was, like most fashionistas know, entering a whole new dimension, where the concept of the collection ruled over everything, even the clothes. The show told a story from beginning to end, the models were the characters in the play, and the catwalk was the setting for the plot to take place . I really don't know how to explain it, but the fact that he managed to create this universe for the few minutes a show may last, gave his clothes an extra value that, for me, represents what fashion should really be about. Whenever I try to explain a collection of mine, I always mention there is a strong connection to the concept beneath it. There are some details that may come up out of the blue, but 90% of it comes from the storyline created by oneself. I think he managed to portray this beautifully every single time. I remember going to the Anglomania exhibit at the Costume Institute and being absolutely astounded by his amazing dresses and then seeing the famous Oyster Dress featured in the permanent exhibit. I think I even shed a tear. The fact that his work could move you to such deep emotions (many editors have been quoted to have cried at some of his fashions shows) comes to depict the POWER of his creations.
How will this gap be filled now? His collections were the ones I looked forward to the most. It is definitely a time for mourning in the fashion world, and I can't help but feel a little shiver just thinking about what might have been going through his mind in order to take such a tragic decision. Like I said yesterday on a post on my Facebook, he spelled out the word GENIUS. How many people can juxtapose the delicate and the aggressive, the macabre and the pretty, and whip it up into one tasteful confection while pushing boundaries and keeping the real spirit of fashion alive? I can't help but be moved to tears while I write this and I know that what I have written does not measure up to what he represented to all of us. I always hoped I'd be able to meet him or go to one of his shows. He was a true idol. All I can say is : WE LOVE YOU LEE.
Here's a landmark in fashion show history, over ten years ago, yet still avant-garde.
I just got back from an amazing trip to Salvador, Bahía in Brazil and I have to say I SO needed a trip like this. It was the perfect combination of friends, location and atmosphere. It had been over 10 years since I had last been to Brazil (I went to both Rio and Florianopolis at different times in the same year) and the main purpose of this trip was this New Years celebration. Though I have many things to talk about this travelling experience (and hopefully most of them will make it to my blog), I'm going to concentrate on the New Years party we went to. I must admit, most of my friends (we were a bunch from Peru, others from Argentina and then another bunch from other cities in Brazil), were a bit uneasy regarding the musical entertainers for the actual party : Vanessa da Mata and Ivete Sangalo.
When I had originally signed up for this trip, I thought Daniela Mercury would be peforming, with whom I'm perfectly familiar (I have a couple of her cd's and have been to a concert of hers in my teens when I lived in Montevideo), but then realized she'd be peforming at the beach on January 1st.
I did some research, and concentrated on Ivete Sangalo, having heard a bit more of her than Vanessa da Mata, but I wasn't thrilled with what I found on youtube. I have to say this changed COMPLETELY once we were at the party. We got there minutes before Vanessa da Mata appeared onstage and she totally ROCKED. It was impossible to sit still while she was there, performing like a true artist, fabulously styled hair (flower included) and flawless voice. Though Ivete was ENERGY personified,and managed to keep us dancing and jumping with a smile on our faces through the rest of the night (she appeared a bit before midnight and kept on going for an amazing THREE HOURS), I have totally fallen for da Mata. There is one thing I've learned from this concert, and that is that when music is of a good, elaborate quality, it knows no boundaries. I had NEVER heard one of her songs before, neither did I understand 90% of the lyrics (I found out on this trip that my knowledge of portuguese was practically null), but I could not help myself from dancing and enjoying it. I've become obsessed with one particular song, which struck me IMMEDIATELY as she performed it, it's already on my iPod (thanks to Cristian who let me download the songs from his cd). It's called Você Vai Me Destruir. It has become my new DRAMA MODE anthem. It couldn't be more dramatic, more divalicious, more 70's disco/funk inspired yet Brazilian by heart. Though the song is on repeat practically 24/7 ever since I got back (you should have seen me screaming the chorus out loud as I went for a run yesterday), I find it will be almost impossible to surpass the live performance she delivered on New Year's Eve. I have found a video on youtube of another performance of hers (love the outfit and scenery), just so you can enjoy it as much as I did. Here it goes :
P.S: THE LYRICS! (English translation available at http://lyricstranslate.com/en/voce-vai-me-destruir-you-will-destroy-me.html)
Está acabando o amor Você ainda não veio Não disse, não ligou Se vem viver comigo
Se me quer como amiga Se não quer mais me ver Você vai me esquecer Você vai me fazer padecer
Está acabando o amor Você já não me pertence Eu vejo por aí Você não está comigo
Nessa nossa disputa Nesse seu jeito bom Eu não quero saber Você vai desdenhar E vai sofrer
Você vai me destruir Como uma faca cortando as etapas Furando ao redor Me indignando, me enchendo de tédio Roubando o meu ar Me deixa só e depois não consegue Não me satisfaz
Está acabando o amor Você já não me pertence Eu sinto por aí Você não está comigo
Nessa nossa disputa Nesse seu jeito bom Eu não quero saber Você vai desdenhar E vai perder
Você vai me destruir Como uma faca cortando as etapas Furando ao redor Me indignando, me enchendo de tédio Roubando o meu ar Me deixa só e depois não consegue Não me satisfaz
Pensando em te matar de amor ou de dor eu te espero calada
UPDATE: YAAAAY!!! I found a video from the actual New Year's Eve concert, here it goes.
