NEUE-STALGIA

One of Lady Gaga's best songs on her debut album finally gets a video. I really like it, not in love with it (yet), I just think it's a good video. I do LOVE the wardrobe though (some of it reminds me of my own stuff hehe..) the choreography, and the make-up. I love the fact that she has so many dancers and that this time they are all male. It has been a long while since we've seen a new, fresh pop star with such a well-achieved image.
I know she gets a lot of criticism for some of her wardrobe choices but I think it's all good. I love how she's created this pop-superheroine persona and how as her success increases her image gets more and more polished and continues to evolve. What I mean by polished is that it gets closer to what I believe she had in mind for herself from the start of her career which could have been a limited version of her actual self due to different factors such as getting the right people to work with her, and yes, budget too.
I like to think I was the first person to listen to her here in Lima haha...I got to know her through Perez Hilton. It took FOREVER until she finally got some airplay over here. I've liked her ever since the Just Dance video, I like the song itself, her look and how it represents this younger generation's fascination for the 80's. I love how something, such as the 80's in this case, can appeal to almost three different generations in two different ways : for teenagers it's something new while for us late twenty-something's and beyond it's pure nostalgia.
Here's the video for Love Games, I think this one really says she's arrived. Enjoy.

SHUT UP AND...you know the rest.

Well you would know the rest if you grew up in the 90's. And if you had a taste for dance music. And odd videos. And very gay performers. Even though you were still in the closet. Oops.
I was remembering how I had a huge crush on one of my professors while I was in design school. I was absolutely infatuated with him, I was such a sad case. I had just come out of the closet and this man had become the embodiment of gay perfection (according to my 18 year-old brain). He was good looking, dressed nicely, had good taste, shared common interests, etc. etc. I had had no idea of how I was to make my move, no idea at all. My fear of rejection was just too big (well, things haven't changed much really...). I remember I asked a friend from that same school (who's become one of my closest friends) what I should do. She said she had noticed he also had an interest in me (she said it was pretty obvious because of the way he behaved during class), so she suggested something. She said : "Listen Roger, I've got this single, it's just PERFECT. I'll give it to you and then you can give it to him as a gift and it'll send the message right across. DONE!!" I thought it was a pretty cute idea, then I asked her what the single was and she answered "Closer, by Nine Inch Nails" and went along and described the chorus. Poor girl, she was probaly sick of having to deal with my indecision every day.
Of course I never did that and of course I never got any further with my intentions regarding the 17-years-my-senior guy of my dreams. Well, not right then, it actually did get way further after I was done with school.
Anyway, going back to the cd-gift, I should have considered this song instead. Enjoy.

SWEET DREAMS

I can't believe I'm actually writing an entry about this, but I have this desperate need to have something sweet right NOW. It wouldn't be anything unusual except for the fact that I'm on a strict diet to try and shed off a few extra pounds that torture me day and night. It is a especially strict diet because I got a knee injury that keeps me from running, cycling or doing any other exercises that would help me burn what I want to get rid off in a much more fun way. My bikram yoga classes (which I only got to go to three) have been put to a halt until my teachers finish setting up a new place, so I'm fucked. Aarrrgh!!
Going back to my eternal craving for sweets, I swear I'm having visions. Pretty much like these:



But then if I do eat some sort of chocolate, dessert, ice-cream or whatever soothes my craving, I'll have the biggest guilt-trip afterwards. I'm beginning to wonder how mentally healthy this whole deal is because I've had nightmares where I dreamt I broke my diet by eating sweets or an extra dose of carbs. Waking up was the greatest relief.

Your daily/weekly/monthly dose of : DRAMA

I don't know how many people share this feeling, but sometimes, like this morning for example, I just feel the need to be absolutely silly and have a dose of feigned drama involving a certain song. Not necessarily sad, it could be a happy song. I guess this goes along with my recent thoughts of what my life as a musical would be.

OK, this has to be the gayest thing I've posted up to now.

Anyway, I was in the mood for some of that singing, exaggerated gestures and face-making that goes along with this type of moment and scrolling down my playlists (don't worry, I don't have a playlist titled DRAMA) I found a song I've liked forever, ok, not forever, but since I was ten.
It's "Les Hommes Qui Passent" by Patricia Kaas. It was a song I immediately loved, especially because of her emotion-infused performance and the fact that she was (and still is) absolutely beautiful. I couldn't find the video of the first performance I saw but here's a pretty good one from a live perfomance in 1990.
And below that one, for a total mood change, I've posted a video that surely illustrates what I'm talking about regarding doses of feigned drama, one of my favorite scenes in a Cate Blanchett movie.
Bisous.





I actually used this song as part of a sountrack to one of my shows.

...more pics

Here are some more pics from the collection.
Hope you like them.

BHUTTO BOLLYWOOD

It's been a month!! Bad blogger, bad. I definitely need to increase the frequency of my posts....
OK. I haven't shown any of my work up to now, but a special date has come across and I think it's the perfect chance to do so and get away with a little personal homage I've had in mind for a while.
December 27 was the first year anniversary of Benazir Bhutto's tragic death. She was the starting point for my latest collection. I took elements of her personal style mixed with details of muslim women's traditional wardrobe and, to lighten it up a bit, a little Bollywood too (main reference : the Jimmy Ajja part of the 80's movie Disco Dancer). Oh yes, 80's elements too.
I was able to take this collection and show at the September edition of the Salon du Prêt-à-Porter this year where I got great reviews. This collection was also nominated for the Collection of the Year category by Peru's leading newspaper, El Comercio, in it's Best of 2008 survey.

BELATED NEWS

I can't believe I just found out that Laura Branigan died FOUR years ago. I had absolutely no idea and I am quite shocked.
It's really sad, especially considering she was only 47. The first song I ever heard by Laura Branigan was her version of "Gloria" for Flashdance (even though I never understood why it wasn't included in the soundtrack) and then of course came "Imagination" which had just an incredible sound and was the background music for one of the most artistic shows performed by Alex during the movie.
I just found out about it while youtubing some of her videos, I was quite curious about the one for "Self Control" because I had never seen it before (remember, I used to live in a communist country in the 80's). I love how videos in the 80's were so artsy.
Regarding her looks, I'm not a fan of her wardrobe, but I think she had a beautiful face, incredible angles, typical of that era. Like the brunette version of Kim Wilde. Perhaps it would have been cool to see them perform together.

Eyes, hair, face, image, all must be preserved...

Still life displayed forever, no less than she deserved.
Aging: it has come to be a frequent topic in my conversations. As I mentioned before, I am approaching thirty, I'll be turning 29 in April. Last night, at a birthday party, eye soothers, facial creams and other sorts of hope-infused ointments were part of what I discussed with my friends, along with Flashdance, nostalgia, remembering how all of us had met, and the breaking news of my blog (I haven't told that many people about it yet but I have now included it in my web info on Facebook).
To add on to the topic, I was watching a Madonna special on TV, and it included a recent post-plastic surgery interview. Now, in order to create some background for what I'm about to say, I need to make clear that I'm a HUGE Madonna fan. Ever since Dress You Up (which means I was about 4 then). I love her. I was lucky enough to see her up close during the Confessions Tour where she grabbed my hand at the end of her perfomance of La Isla Bonita and made my trip from Lima to Boston (especially for the concert) worth every penny and more.
OK, so I love her, and I will definitely have posts in the future just about her, but after watching this interview and her "new" face, I think she's made it clear that she is now officially old. It's a certain look, the high cheekbones, the eyebrows, something about this "young" appearance that comes across as a clear statement that she has reached a certain age. I don't know if I'm being clear here, but, I no longer look at her and say "wow, she looks amazing for her age" because plastic surgery just makes those calendar blocks evident. I'm not against plastic surgery AT ALL, I might go through it myself in the future, but I hoped Madonna would stay looking fabulous and plastic-surgery-free forever. That just goes on to show you how hard it is to please everyone when you're a public figure.
On the other hand, after thinking about all these things, I couldn't help but watch some clips of one of my favorite movies ever, Death Becomes Her. I seriously consider this movie a masterpiece, from the AMAZING performances to the script to the humor, I can't help but laugh like crazy every time I watch it. It's one of those movies that if you had to make a selection of highlights, you'd probably end up selecting 95% of it.
The opening is just hilarious and Meryl Streep confirms the fact that she is one of the greatest and most versatile actresses of our time. The set, the decoration, the choreography, the mix in musical styles and, of course, the lyrics to the opening song make this scene kitsch to the max (please pay attention to the feathers coming off her boa) and part of that 95% I was talking about.
Enjoy.

YMA FOREVER

It's been almost a month since my last post, I've been extremely busy these last few weeks. What brings me back to my blog is a sad piece of news : the death of legendary Peruvian singer Yma Sumac.

It's been exactly once week since she passed away and I felt the need to write a post on her. I remember listening to her music when I was around seven or eight years old. My parents introduced me to her music and I remember one specific record (we're talking long play here...), I don't recall the actual album name, but I do remember listening to it and staring at the picture of this colorfully made-up woman and a parrot in the background. I think I stared at it mostly because the picture of her was the only sort of evidence I had that the amazing sounds I heard came from an actual human being. Her claim to fame is based on her amazing voice range (five octaves) and for being a pioneer in the mix of typical Peruvian music with jazz and other genres. Though she received a lot of criticism for this by musical purists who were unable to share her vision and appreciate the kind of exposure she would give Peru, her drive for innovation made her a star in the rest of the world. She is the only Peruvian artist to have her name on the Hollywood walk of fame.

I think Yma Sumac is probably Peru's most least-locally-recognized-icon (did that make any sense?). This is quite ironic, my parents used to tell me how back when we used to live in Europe, they'd introduce themselves as Peruvians to locals at dinner parties and one of the first things they'd mention would be her name, yet when I came back to Lima and mentioned her name to people I met, all I'd get in response would be an intrigued face.

Yma's music is one of the very few things that have kept me linked to Peru throughout my life. This may sound a little weird, but I've always had a sort of nationality-identity-crisis (if I keep on coming up with these hyphenated expressions I'm going to have to create a special dictionary for them). My father is Peruvian, my mother is Uruguayan and I was born in Romania, I've never felt 100% from just one place, but this will the the topic for a future post.

In 2006 Yma Sumac came to Peru for a series of belated homage ceremonies. It was at the one held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that I was actually able to meet her. This came as a totally unexpected gift, so as to call it, I had already come to terms with the fact I would never be able to see her perform and least of all even meet her.

She was dressed all in pink, hat included, and wore transparent lucite platform sandals. It was a very brief moment, a one I will cherish forever. I was finally meeting and holding the hands of the woman on that record cover.
For more information please visit www.yma-sumac.com.

RETROBSESSION

I've definitely been going through a long phase of nostalgia lately. I don't know if it's because I'm approaching thirty (I'm holding on to 28 as hard as I can but I'm afraid there's not much more I'll be able to do by next April) but I've become obsessed with stuff that was around when I was a kid.
This has definitely shown up in my work, I had a She-Ra inspired collection two seasons ago. I looooooooved that cartoon when I was a kid and I had been wanting to work the theme out into clothes for a while until I finally did last September. I had the chance to show this collection at the Salon du Prêt-à-Porter in Paris in January and used one of my favorite songs from the 80's, Kim Wilde's version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" as the soundtrack. That video was actually part of what convinced me I was going in the right direction. I mean, we've all dreaded the 80's after they were gone, but now, 20 years after we are in the middle of an absolute 80's explosion, strongly expressed through current music and fashion trends.
I mean, who thought leggings would EVER come back?
As a result of this nostalgic phase I mentioned, I've been googling and youtubing (does that word exist?) music that I used to listen to as a kid. Throughout this search I've re-discovered Italo-Disco. I think I just learned that was the actual name of the genre. I don't know if it was ever big in the States but I used to live in the former Soviet Union and the only kind of "cool" music that would make it through the Iron Curtain was this type, with performers such as Sandra, Sabrina and Modern Talking.
I think I heard most of this music from one of my chauffeur's tapes. Well, now, as I was searching for these songs from the past (including long-lost favorite "Here I Am" by Mike Mereen) I came across a true Italo-Disco jewel : Need Your Passion, performed by Sweet Connection. The song sounds incredibly familiar, but then again most songs has similar beats. I had never seen the video until now and I have become absolutely obsessed with everything in it. Starting from the "seductive" (hahaha) looks one of the performers gives the camera through 90% of the video, the hairstyles (!!!), the fake patent-leather outfits and then, to top it off, the choreography. It's just too much. I love it. I confess. I do. I love the song. I've downloaded it into my iPod and I do cardio to it on repeat every day. There, I said it. Here it goes.

TAKE YOUR PASSION AND MAKE IT HAPPEN

Yes! I figured it out...I was about to post another video regarding my work and a recent trip but I definitely wanted this one to be the first. It's from one of my favorite movies ever, and my first tape. Yes I did say tape, I was about three when this movie came out ( damn I didn't want to give away my age at such an early posting-stage...) my family and I were in Rome and legend has it I had to be pulled out of my seat at the end of it because I wanted to stay and watch it again. When my three-year-old strength failed me and I was being dragged out, I caught onto some wall. Tantrum followed. We all stayed. Haha. Things were crystal clear back then, yet somehow it still took me another 15 years to come out of the closet.
Enjoy.

My first entry

I had been considering having a blog for quite a while now, I just couldn't decide what it'd be about. I couldn't even decide whether it'd be in English or Spanish. You see, sometimes a thought will come in either one of them, so don't be surprised if I might switch back and forth (of course that's only if I actually get to have some readers...).
Anyway, back to the dilemma of the "blog theme", I just figured out it'd be about all of my interests, nothing specific, just fashion, music, art, life, animal rights, and most important, things I dislike. Hopefully it'll flourish into something cool enough to equal (or dare I say eliminate?) my addiction to constantly updating my status on Facebook.
Here it goes.