Art & Music @ The Basement

 TO MAX

I have searched for a phrase to put beside your name

but I have not found it

maybe there is not that phrase

so let us leave it at - 

TO MAX

-Young Men in Love by Michael Arlen

BMD Photo Credit Cleo Barnett

Tanya Jayde Photo Credit Cleo Barnett

Photo credit Cleo Barnett

Spent Wednesday night at The Dirty 13 opening in the Basement Theatre. It was curated by the lovely Cleo Barnett and featured NZ street artists as a collaborative show which brings the outside in and celebrates an art form which rarely gets the praise it deserves. The art was so inspiring I think I'll have to go back and see it again...a few times!

The show was accompanied by spoken word poet Tourettes who blew my mind a wee bit with humour, intensity, thought provoking messages, and an impressive knack for stringing words together. Matthew Crawley opened for Tourettes with a freakishly nice voice and mellowing love songs with a pinch of politics. So good.

And to top things off we got to take hand selected books from the BMD piece (in the first pic). And that's where 'TO MAX' has come from. I urge you to check out some more pictures and a much more informed account of the event here. 

Music for the Mood #2

Just a little post to sum up the mood of the moment. I stayed at Uni far too late last night to hand in an assignment at 10pm and take the hour long trip home. Today I'm recovering with my favourite blanket and some slow cute tunes...
p.s. I featured the photography of Chelsea Jade from Watercolours earlier on the blog click here to see the post.
p.p.s Watercolours played live at the Ruby boutique NZFW11 show to set the mood there as well. So talented.

Flaxen bag + Print. feature

A couple of days ago I won this awesome Gorilla bag by Flaxen NZ through a competition with the young NZ magazine Print.

Words & Images by Marie-Claire

 To say thanks I wrote a piece for Print which they featured on their blog! It's below...

Hi print. readers! I'm Marie-Claire, a 5 ft 3" soon to be graduate with a mass of ideas and a love of print. magazine. This morning I received this crazily cool Flaxen bag in the mail courtesy of print. so this is a huge big thank you post! While I was thinking of what to write for this post I read about Nicole and Jack's story; their drive, determination, and the setbacks involved with trying to make their dream a reality (in the form of a magazine). This got me thinking about the things that hold us back in life, which I'm attempting to lump into a basket called "practicalities".

While chatting with my best friend a few weeks ago about our inability to manage our time the way we want, we drew a diagram to try and solve the problem. It turned out to be one large circle labelled “what I want to do” squished by another large circle on top labelled “what I have to do”. I feel that the practicalities of life take up too much time and limit our ability to do what we really want. So for many of us we only truly live through little treasures, such as lovely magazines and gorgeous gifts.

This is why I find print. mag and Flaxen so inspirational. Somehow the creators behind both of these treasures seem to have held on to their hope and re-organised their life diagrams to fit in doing what they want. For those of us who haven’t made the leap of faith yet I say embrace the cheeky treasures of life and use them to inspire us to also move forward. If there’s something you are dreaming of doing start today, or at least plan to start it soon.

And if your idea ever seems silly or impractical remember this Flaxen bag in all its wild nature and remember that someone will always love it.

Print. blog feature
Print. facebook
Flaxen

The best blonde

I saw the makeover episode of Australia's Next Top Model yesterday and now I'm itching to have Simone's hair! I adore the white blonde colour. It reminds me of the makeover New Zealand model Gina Morrissey had recently. Not quite the same colour, and two very different looking girls, but for both I think it gives a softness and an edge to their look.

Simone from Australia's Next Top Model 2011

Gina Morrissey from Red 11 - Photo by Hayley Bayliff

p.s. I find ANTM not quite as painful as NZNTM to watch...although the Aussie host Sarah is far too sweet for tv! Seriously, she's like Miss Honey from Matilda!

Skin & Threads - SS11

For whatever reason colour is visually stimulating and looking at it makes our other senses jealous. This is my idea of the secret behind the big colour trend. Not so secret anymore :) Check out Skin & Threads for more. And maybe match your loud clothes to your loud furniture like so:

Couldn't resist :) 

Michelle Williams / Marilyn Monroe

These are my favourite shots from the Michelle Williams Vogue shoot. I think the second shot is gorgeous and understate. How brave is she to take on the role of Miss Monroe!

Falling for furniture #1

I'm falling for furniture pretty hard at the moment. If its possible, then its happening, and stranger things have always happened. These arm chairs are from French Furniture Direct. I think the red (ish) one is my fave but really I wouldn't mind any of these!