The DL..

Hey guys, what's the haps? It's about time I gave anyone who still hangs around the DL with what's been going on in my life. Here's the highlights...

In June we spent a magical long weekend in Melbourne and fell in love..

...we fell in love with Smith Street Alimentari in Collingwood

...we fell in love with the art of expression in Fitzroy

...we fell in love all over again with Marty Scorsese

...Alex fell back in love with Chinotto, and introduced me to this new flavour

...we fell in love with the architecture and character of the city

...and its amazing eateries

....but most of all, the architecture and history. My god, how I've missed history.

We'll be back, Melbourne!

The Guest

The Guest had a quiet release in September last year. I only heard about it through the fun bad movie review podcast The Flop House (- by the way, well worth a listen if you enjoy three guys shooting the shit and discussing the terrible film they just watched. The fellas are writers for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, so they know a thing or two about comedy and screenwriting.)

Anyway, The Guest was not one of the bad movies reviewed by The Flop House. They recommended it as a good watch and it stuck in my mind. I had no idea it starred Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey (yeah, what?) as a mysterious soldier who works his way into the home of a family whose deceased son he claims to have served with in Afghanistan. It's best described as a schlocky '70s horror vibe, but is more of a thriller. Oscar-worthy viewing this ain't, but if you're looking for a fun time then check it out. 

Warning: I don't know its rating, but this movie contains it's fair share of violence.

#HappyNewYear

Happy 2015 you guys! I'm thinking today is the limit for saying that, really. From tomorrow I'm only looking forward. I hope you all had a relaxed/rad/love-filled holiday (delete as applicable) and are bounding into the new year refreshed, full of vim & vigour. Well we can hope, right?

I spent a chilled out Christmas with my husband and his parents, who visited us from Buenos Aires. We headed out first thing Christmas Day for the ferry to Waiheke island, where we spent the next 3 nights in teepees and exploring the beaches. New Year's Eve was quiet, just how I like it. After a delicious dinner we took Alex's parents to see the fireworks. Auckland city council really needs to get its act together! No? They're like a damp squib next to Sydney's display.

I just wanted to share this great web series I've been blowing through. High Maintenance follows the clients of a weed dealer in New York city, and as episodes are only 5 minutes long they are so addictive! The creator/writer/star Ben Sinclair is very likeable as the dealer and each episode deals with a new cast of characters, so if one doesn't grab you then you can move onto another. See the trailer below, and watch them all here.

Loving, Lately

Here are just a few things I've been enjoying lately. You've most likely heard of some, if not all of them, as I can be a little late to the party but that doesn't stop me lapping them up :)

The online mini-series City Ballet delves into the lives of dancers at the prestigious New York City Ballet, in easy 5 minute segments. There are two series of 12 videos, and I ate them up!

Serial. I know, who hasn't heard of this podcast? But it has blown up for a reason. In case you are yet to experience it, here's the summary from their website:

On January 13, 1999, a girl named Hae Min Lee, a senior at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County, Maryland, disappeared. A month later, her body turned up in a city park. She'd been strangled. Her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested for the crime, and within a year, he was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. The case against him was largely based on the story of one witness, Adnan’s friend Jay, who testified that he helped Adnan bury Hae's body. But Adnan has always maintained he had nothing to do with Hae’s death. Some people believe he’s telling the truth. Many others don’t. 

Sarah Koenig, who hosts Serial, first learned about this case more than a year ago. In the months since, she's been sorting through box after box (after box) of legal documents and investigators' notes, listening to trial testimony and police interrogations, and talking to everyone she can find who remembers what happened between Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee fifteen years ago. What she realized is that the trial covered up a far more complicated story, which neither the jury nor the public got to hear. The high school scene, the shifting statements to police, the prejudices, the sketchy alibis, the scant forensic evidence - all of it leads back to the most basic questions: How can you know a person’s character? How can you tell what they’re capable of? In Season One of Serial, she looks for answers.

This true crime detective story is pretty sensitively examined and presented, but I wonder how it will conclude. Will we find out if Adnan is innocent or not? That's the crux.

Miss Moss consistently smashes it with her beautiful blog. With New Zealand's summer on the way, this post of archive images from the 1920/30s shows those girls knew how to have a good time and look killer doing it.

I love hearing music on the streets of Auckland in the run up to Christmas, even more so when it's totally unexpected. Here's soul funk band The Hipstamatics being awesome in Ponsonby.

Lastly, I'm a sucker for a pretty dessert. I made this pear and almond cake using this recipe, and plan on doing' it again for Christmas. Nom!

when herzog rescued phoenix

I like not knowing if this is true..

When Herzog Rescued Phoenix from Sascha Ciezata on Vimeo.

via Amy Stein

the final frontier

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Couldn't resist putting the nerdy post title. If you have a spare 5 minutes then watch this wonderfully calming time-lapse video, the electrical storms and aurora borealis captured are amazing! The film is made up of photographs using a special low-light 4K camera, taken by the crew on the International Space Station between August and October 2011. Edited by Michael Koenig.

moonrise kingdom

Yes, oh yes. But it looks like Wes is cheating on Future Bold with some curly serif script font! Can I forgive him? Probably.

like mother like daughter

I've just finished watching Grey Gardens (2009). I know this film isn't big news - or even new - but I think my viewing experience was heightened due to having just watched the mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011) a few weeks ago. Both are by HBO and there are more than a few similarities between the two works, although the main roles are reversed. I thought I'd write a wee bit of background on both films, for no other reason than I enjoyed the themes played out in them and the complex relationships between mother and daughter - if you've seen either film and enjoyed it, then I highly recommend the other.

!SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't seen these films, the synopses I've added below will contain spoilers

First, I saw Mildred Pierce. It is adapted from a 1941 novel by James M. Cain. This new 5-part HBO mini-series focuses on Mildred, played by a weary, determined Kate Winslet. The show, set between 1930s and 50s, opens on Mildred's philanderous husband walking out on her and their two daughters. As a result of which, Mildred must find a way of maintaining her family on her own in a world dominated by men, and gets a waitressing job before working her way up to opening her own restaurant. Her eldest daughter, Veda (in her grown-up years played by Evan Rachel Wood), is a precocious, wilful child who puts on airs and looks down upon her mother for working. Mildred meets a rakish man-about-town, Monty (Guy Pearce) who she falls for, but whose pockets are very shallow.

At the beginning, I didn't think Veda was going to be more than a cameo role, the focus of the piece being on her mother, but slowly Veda's spitefulness creeps in and robs her doting mother of everything she loves, one way or another and often unnoticed until too late. Mildred strives to win her daughter's affection throughout the entire series, until a step too far proves too much to bear. Ultimately, Mildred's life comes full circle - her business has been taken over and she re-marries her first husband, more out of mutual loneliness and friendship than any real passion. Both of her children are for all intents and purposes dead to her, and the last scene shows the couple moving back into the house they used to live in when the series first began.

Now onto Grey Gardens. The original Grey Gardens was a 1975 documentary by the Maysles brothers, following the daily lives of "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale (the aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy Onassis) after the fall from "riches to rags". The 2009 movie is based upon the true story, and even the costumes looks faithful to the documentary. It opens set in 1975, with Big & Little Edie being filmed in their home in East Hampton, called Grey Gardens, by the Maysles brothers for their documentary. The film centres on their codependent relationship, and alternates between them being filmed in 1975, and their past up until that moment.

The mother, Edith (Jessica Lange) is seen early on in the 1930s to be a bit of a wild card, singing with men and dancing at parties - her straight-laced husband is sick of her "unpredictability" and carelessness with money while many were struggling through the depression.

Edith's daughter, Little Edie (Drew Barrymore), shows signs of being as eccentric and forthright as her mother. Her father sends her off to New York in a desperate bid to get her married off. But Edie will have none of that, and only wants to be an actress. Her father walks out on her mother, and after Big Edie's long affair with her pianist comes to an end, she is left alone at Grey Gardens. Mother manages to manipulate Little Edie into coming home, and this unhappy situation causes her hair to fall out, something that we gather has happened before in her youth as she suffered from alopecia. With just the two of them rattling around in Grey Gardens, without any income or the help of maids that they are accustomed to, the house quickly deteriorates. Big Edie becomes mostly bed-ridden and forms a love of cats, letting them breed and roam over the house, whilst Little Edie yearns to escape and often fantasizes about re-starting her career, but Big Edie always finds reasons for her to stay.

BEFORE

AFTER

From lovable eccentrics, "true originals" who burst into poetry and song at any moment, they become the stereotypical cat ladies: hermetic, negligent, codependent and slightly delusional. Eventually the health authorities are informed, and try to evict the Edies on the grounds that Grey Gardens violates every health and safety code and is unsuitable for human habitation. There is a scandal in the news that Jackie Kennedy Onassis' relatives are living this way, and she pays $32,000 for the house to be made habitable - including men hauling away 1,000 bags of garbage. The documentary film of '75 became a cult success, Big Edie died a year later and Little Edie finally left Grey Gardens to go to New York, finally passing away in Florida.

Some images of the real Edies from the 1975 documentary:

If you got this far, well done! You deserve some sort of medal. If you can stand to read a teensy bit longer, while Googling images for this post I came across a piece of writing about the documentary that I thought countered my description of the fiction film rather well. I haven't seen the documentary - I hope to, but I know my experience of it now will be altered by having seen the re-visioning first.

they don't make 'em like they used to

It's December guys! Vera-Ellen & Bing Crosby in White Christmas, via the sphinx & the milky way

This place is gathering cobwebs, apologies pals. No excuses.. well, leaving one job and finding another has been a wee bit stressful, but I'm settling in now and past being able to use that lame excuse of an excuse to stop me from blogging. I hope you've all been in tiptop shape, I've missed you.

100 years of fashion

Some sweet choreography! But like Honestly WTF where I found this, I wish the last outfits in the 2000's were as cool as the retro ones. But perhaps they'll age well? I doubt it.

P.S. I finally caved and got a Pinterest account, and I'm obsessing over it. My username is overandunder, follow me if you like what you see!

hi september

I'm settled back in my cozy little nook after an amazing month gallivanting round Europe with my fella. It was an adventure, hi jinks were involved and it was soooo good to feel the sun after a long southern winter. And dare I say it, it finally feels like spring is in the air here in New Zealand. Once I've sorted through the sea of photos I might put some up here in a fit of narcissism, and I'm also hoping to revamp the design a bit - if I don't manage to destroy the place in the process!

I can't just leave you with that, what a terrible blogger that would make me! So I'm sharing the gift of music. I know I've shown a music video by watercolours only recently, but the more of Chelsea Jade's voice I hear, the more I love. Below are glimpses of both of her bands in action, Watercolours and Teacups.

watercolours live on radio - 95bfm morning show

teacups gig - live audio recorded on tape by jonathan pearce, video by reuben stephens

carving the mountains

If there were one thing I wish I'd learnt as a kid, it is skateboarding. I know, right? I'm not fearless enough to start now at the grand old age of 25 (decrepid!) but these cute girls the Longboard Girls Crew from Madrid make me want to give it another go.

Carving the Mountains from Juan Rayos on Vimeo.

via Tomboy Style

weekend link love: colossal edition

One of my new favourite blogs This Is Colossal has been a goldmine of inspiration. Below are some links to rad things out in the wide world..

A carefully choreographed film from WWF

The world is where we live from WWF on Vimeo.

Psychodelic Clay-Mation

Zip-Tie Massimal

Tree of Life poster

Slow Club "Two Cousins"

camera obscura

I was reminded of the work of Abelardo Morell while browsing the fantastic Honestly...WTF this week. I saw the video posted below on TV ages ago and was stunned by Morell's beautiful series Camera Obscura. He takes landscapes out of context by bringing the outside in - I wish there were a mechanism that you could turn on to project the view onto your bedroom wall whenever you feel like it (but, y'know, only if you live somewhere gorgeous, not opposite a hairy trucker).

Tent Camera is a new and intriguing series. In 2010 Abelardo Morell created a light-proof tent and rigged up "periscope type optics making it possible to project a view of the nearby landscape onto whatever ground is under the tent. Inside this darkened space I use a view camera to record the effect." I love how the texture adds another immediate aspect to the image. (Quote via slightly lucid)

Tent-Camera Image On Ground: View Looking Southeast Toward The Chisos Mountains. Big Bend National Park, Texas, 2010

Tent-Camera Image On Ground: View of Cerro Castellan and Tuff Canyon. Big Bend National Park, Texas, 2010

Tent-Camera Image On Ground: View of Landscape Outside Florence, 2010

Bonus: An interview with one of my favourite documentary photographers, Sebastiao Salgado.

sixty fictional movies

I've seen Buck 65 perform a couple times - once at a small festival gig and another time in a club, and this guy has some gnarly energy and a wicked sense of humour.

Superstars Don't Love by Buck 65. Directed & animated by Travis Hopkins.

via Booooooom!

Plus...

English artist D*Face & his crew make a mess in someone's yard.

An electronic instant camera that prints on receipt paper? Um, rad!

lykke

Lykke Li is both beautiful and talented. I love her albums, but I must have developed a girl crush after hearing an interview with her on NPR's World Cafe, her acoustic versions of the songs she sings on the show are amazeballs. Listen here.

The music video for her latest single, Sadness Is A Blessing. Directed by Tarik Saleh and featuring Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard.

toms sachs, knoller extraordinare

Todd Selby is famous for getting all up in peoples' faces - mainly artists, musicians, designers, models etc - and photographing their spaces. But this is the first studio tour video I've seen from The Selby. He has shot sculptor Tom Sachs' studio before, but it's good to hear the philosophy behind the work. Tom and I actually share something in common: we both use nugget in the same way. Twinsies.

Tom Sachs, A Selby Film from the selby on Vimeo.

mirror vision

I love the post on where the lovely things are about tumblr Mirrors & co. Seeing these movie stills collected together offers a refreshing look at psychological self reflection in film. Or that's what my douchy inner film student would say - I also like guessing the name of the movie heh.

Joanna posted these movie trailers below that I didn't know existed, so I'm interested to see what they're like. (Maybe you have seen these already, in which case congratulations: you live in the real world!)

Our Idiot Brother, premieres August 26th

50/50, premieres September 30th