Blue and Gold and Bibliophiliac Fairytales

Short intro: I am watching Hellboy 2 right now which is way way way better than I ever thought it ever would be. I mean, the none of the Hellboy movies were really that big of a hit when it came out and nobody really made a point of watching it in theaters, so I was totally not prepared for the awesomeness level. BUT I watched Hellboy on netflix last week and was blown away by the orgasmic conglomeration of mythic saturation (including magic-obsessed Nazis), steampunkism, and chilling Lovecraftian monsters. Lovecraftian monsters! If you ever wanted to make scary, evil monsters, giant divine tentacular beings in space are the way to go. Basically, I was in love. So, I decided to watch Hellboy 2 which actually turns out to be EVEN MORE AWESOME because they added elves and trolls and fairytale creatures into the mix. Those tooth fairies? Man, even creepier than the scarab beetles in The Mummy.

"Welcome gentlemen, to the Troll Market."

And it was totally like WHOA.

Nevermind MORE steampunk and amazingly beautiful cinematography.

Also Nuala, who is the reason why I've paused the movie in order to post this.

Now, at the beginning of the story, they'd already show one gloriously illustrated leatherbound fairytale book with gilt pages (which Professor Broom reads to a young Hell Boy as a bedtime story - please let me take a moment to extol the gorgeous fairytale story animation with wooden puppets that follow), but this image kind of killed me right there and then:

That is Nuala and Abe in Professor Broom'S glorious library. Where she recites Tennyson. from a gorgeous gold and blue copy of Tennyson's poems. in the most beautiful blue and gold dress I've ever seen and jealously covet.

Let's see that book up close now:

Now I really want a copy of Tennyson like that. It kind of reminds me of an old edition of "The Blue Flower" that I bought last month.

But here's the dress in its full glory:

Seriously, this movie is gold. Watch it. I love the Lovecraftian monsters and all the gears and fairytale things mixed in. It's like a dessert filled with all my favourite things.

Anna Dello Russo for H&M

I just needed to share this because I was silently flailing on the inside when I saw this collection that's coming out at H&M on Oct. 4. I am seriously in love with every single piece in this collection. O_o The full article can be found on here collegefashion.net

Something from a fairytale

I have loved the Pre-Raphaelite painters ever since I found and read this book in my high school library many years ago:

Pale as the Dead by Fiona Mountain

So imagine my delight when I discovered on The Clothes Horse's blog that Chloe's Resort 2012 line emulated the romantic Grecian styles from those paintings. I am so so so very in love!

These are a few of my favourite pieces:

I ADORE that dress and those shoes!

If this is going the way of a new trend I am definitely very much in support of it and would love to see cheaper, more affordable versions in stores soon!

Hipster Hobbits

I know I haven't updated this in a while and I'm not sure if anyone even reads this but just found the greatest mashup doodles ever done shared on io9.com. The original post is from the blog A Girl and Her Demons. The simple style reminds me of the illustrations in The Little Prince and the concept is just great. This post is entirely of LOTR characters but you should definitely check out her other drawings too which includes Doctor Who, Bones, and Series of Unfortunate Events.

This one titled "Arwen as an indie coffee-shop queen" is my absolute favourite:

Closely followed by the one of Eowyn as a biker chick:

Hey and what else beats hipster hobbits?

You can check out her full gallery of "The Broship of the Ring" here.

Paper Bag Princess

This is definitely the coolest thing I have seen in a while:

This is a replica by A Matter of Style of a brand name handbag (Birkin) made entirely of just brown paper and tape!

If only I had a sewing machine I would definitely try this out for myself. Coolest DIY bag ever. Puts my paper fetish in an entirely new dimension.

Outfit inspiration - Madelaine

Remember that children's book about the little French girls who were looked after by a nun?

This outfit totally reminds me of Madeline. The addition of a cloche hat makes it more chic and grown up and the colour combination is just stunning. Love love love.

Dress from ASOS

Summertime

and the living is easy...ish.

When else do I have time to kick around and actually write stuff of my own free will. University has sucked all creative brain juice out of me and spat me back out a bland and uninteresting individual. My creative writing input has slowly dropped to zero in the last two years: besides angsty diary entries involving my then-non-existent relationship life (which dissipated after I met my current loverboy) and comic banterings in the Scarlet Letters, I had not written anything without coercion of a due date and a 30% class mark.

No more fanfiction authorship for Joyce, although I've recently read over the old things and they're actually not half as bad as I thought it'd be. At least, no serious cringe-worthy transgressions, I put out some good efforts even if they were a bit naive? innocent? To be fair my serious fanfiction obsession periods stretched from age 14-18 and I didn't actually start my first fic until I was 15 (which dangled on until it was eventually permanently abandoned 3 years later). Skirting any specific titles (which could lead you to read them) I wrote exclusively in the LOTR fandom.

Now poetry, I spat out once in a while in some dream-like state of serious sleep deprivation as if I could not even remember how to imagine while fully conscious. In fact, now that I think about it, most of my times of prolific writing has been done in the deepest hours of the night. That time between sleeping and waking, as if I tread the curbsides of both.

I digress.

But that is the point of a blog, no?
Actually I was going to try to capture in some essence the exact flavours of the mood I had wandered into. Being a very moody creature, I find myself changing interests and colours and reading material, most likely with the weather (no mean feat in a city like Vancouver) or entirely by random. We can always blame it on my feminine hormones, which probably cannot be written off anyways.

I prefer to refer to this as "Mood Profiling".

To begin this sketch, I offer you my new profile picture on Facebook:


Clearly, this is some sub-category of my "Whimsies".

Let's add some more smells and imagery.

Recently been re-diving into Anne Rice again, since my friend Michelle has recommended me the Mayfair Chronicles, which I hadn't read since I devoted most of my attention to her Vampire Chronicles (which I am also re-reading now). I don't think I've been able to read a book where I saw past the words in a while. The words fairly melted off the pages and materialized in my perpetually fantasy-starved brain. Subsequently I devoured the thing like a book-starved monster. And before I depart in a praise-poem of Anne Rice complete with odes and a 3 book saga in epic poetry, the whole point of this exercise was to introduce you to my imagination of the deep south of the US, Louisiana and that languid, sensual city of New Orleans.

The Mayfair Chronicles is a 3 book series that documents the lives and intrigues of an immense, elite and hopelessly interbred family of witches who make their residence in the Garden District of New Orleans. The house on First Street is actually based on Anne Rice's own former residence, leading us to pictorial example #2:


How I would like to visit New Orleans, if only but to pay homage to my obsession with Anne Rice's seductive world.

Element #3 to my current fancies is captured by Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter":

which of course extends from my deep-seated love of Alice in Wonderland, a prime example of the space between dreaming and waking.

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to speak of many things:...

Just a few lines, going around and around in my head like a little mantra. Funny how poetry can creep into your head.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:

Along the Briny Beach (small cameo appearance by ASOUE):


In an unexpected turn, this sub-category of "whimsy" has also triggered my once-a-year obsession with Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away", which has lead to hours of fanart creeping on deviantart and devourage of much fanfiction. Logically, this is just a tangent of my "fairy tales" obsession in an offshoot of "Alice in Wonderland" sector. Because of course, if you compare the two, you will find them as snug as Siamese twins.

Why do I love it so much?

Between the heartbreakingly goooorgeous imagery

the tender, sweet and innocent love story sub-plot

oh and did I mention the beautiful dragon-boy that was the crush of my shy 12-year-old self?

Really.
I could hardly resist.

And after a couple days of prowling and scouring the internet, almost fearing I'd be left to the dredges of fics at fanfiction.net, I discovered this delightful pocket of beautifully written and heartbreakingly beautiful fics on livejournal which I highly recommend. All simple, elegant and completely proofread. A veritable feast.

And last but not least, the LOTR character fascination of the month seems to be Thranduil, that sexy beast, who is as yet untainted from any manifestation in a Hollywood actor and shall remain forever perfect in my mind. That is until the long-discussed Hobbit movies come out. I really really hope they find a good Thranduil or they will break my heart. 

On reflection, this fascination may have something to do with his association with the Summerking and other Auberon-esque links he has in my mind. I would imagine it would be just around this type of June weather when he would be lording it over some sort of midsummer feast with berries in his hair.

Here is a silly picture:

"Legolas, send an escort after Erestor and see he escapes the Wood without being eaten by a spider. I do not want Elrond declaring war on us because we managed to lose his librarian."

Oh, them flimsy Noldor elves.

'And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.'

And now, boys and girls, I bid you adieu, and goodnight.