Kingdom Of Style

The Ugly truth...

I have the lurghi. So I think, I'll get jacked up on more Night Nurse and enjoy a bit of Butler and some mindless entertainment. Maybe if Im lucky it will be a witty little comedy about the war of the sexes.

I lasted 10 minutes. The ugly truth is - this is a bad ,bad film. It's crass, puerile and vulgar. The only thing worse than the script, which is cringeworthy, is Gerards accent. Holy Mother of God it's bad, and there's not enough cough medicine in the world that could make me change my mind.

AVOID!!!

Queen Marie,

Highly illogical...

So! watching the new Star Trek movie, I had a disturbing, and most illogical thought...

I find the Young Spock strangely attractive!

On closer reflecttion, I think it's the shiny black fringe, the full lips and those stern eyebrows.

Most peculiar, most illogical!

As for the movie itself. It was exactly what I expected. An enjoyable fastmoving romp. But I confess, I felt a bit shortchanged. I would have enjoyed it so much more, if there had been more story set in The Academy itself. Seeing the training etc before they got to grips with The Enterprise itself. That may just be me. But hey ho. 

Now if you will excuse me, I'm about to get beamed over to the kitchen for some tea and toast.

A slightly shamefaced Queen Marie

x

An apple a day...

So the geekfest continues.

Today I watched the 2008 documentary 'welcome to macintosh' by Robert Baca and Josh Rizzo.

Most enjoyable it was too, but especially wonderful was the carnaptious Jim Reekes

Reeke was a programmer at Apple for 12 years and was responsible for many things including the Mac OS start up sound. He says about it -

"Mac people are very familiar with the sound, after restarting their machines too often. In fact, that was one of the issues I was conscious of when designing the sound. Turning the Mac on is one thing, but being forced to reboot from a crash is a totally different experience. I wanted to avoid a sound that would be associated with the crash. I wanted it to sound more like a "palette cleanser. The startup sound was done in my home studio on a Korg Wavestation. It's a C Major chord, played with both hands stretched out as wide as possible (with 3rd at the top, if I recall). This just sounded right to me. I wanted something really fat, heavy bass, high notes, and a sharp attack. The chiffy sound was from pan pipes and something like a stick hit (I'm testing my memory here). I wanted lots of evolving timbres, stereo phasing, and reverb for further richness."

He kvetches and bitches all the way through, and was the total highlight of the film for me

Now if you will excuse me, I'm off to reboot the ol' iBook...

Queen Marie

Bringing up Baby...

When it comes to luxury brands, I like them them best when they are advertised in a glamourous way. I'm talking in a full on, 'old hollywood starlet' type way. Unattainable, aspirational and almost fantastically glamourous.  Sadly not many companies can carry it off.  That's why I was so excited when I came across the latest Cartier advert...

Glorious! and all the more wonderful because it immediately made me think of one of my favourite old school Hollywood movies - the 1938 classic comedy Bringing up Baby, starring the handsome Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.

It's hard to believe that this film bombed when it first came out! If you haven't seen it yet, you are in for a treat, so go find it right now...

Queen Marie

x

Bright Young People

Last night I watched a documentary on BBC4 about The Bright Young People. I have neither read Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, D.J Taylor's Bright Young People nor seen Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things, which is a dreadful foresite on my part since my interest in the 20's and 30's is quite extensive.

The Bright Young People were a set of party going socialites who frequented the jazz clubs of the 20's/30's, dancing, drinking and indulging in excessive hedonism - a generation of people who were fighting against the values and rules of the previous generation who'd become, in their opinion, dull and jaded due to having experienced the horrors of the Great War. They lived this life under the misguided belief they could escape the sobering attitude of their elders.

The Bright Young People would indulge in treasure hunts across London, where they would have to procure items such as the Prime Ministers pipe. The treasure hunts were so renowned that the largest newspaper at the time even the printed clues. They caused outrage among the general public because these young people would race around London in their cars, driving drunk and causing complete mayhem. They would have notorious Bath and Bottle Parties at swimming pools where the invite required you bring a bath towel and bottle of alcohol. It was also these people that began what we would now call the Cult of Celebrity and gave fodder to what was the gossip columns of their day.

The footage shot in the jazz clubs was amazing and the of course the 20's/30's remain one of my favourite style eras.

It was a fascinating insight into generational differences, and the parallels between them and more recent generations who rebelled against their parents' values and way of life can be clearly seen. Ultimately of course they could not escape the effects of the ecomonic climate of the time nor could they sustain their lifestyle without tragedy occurring.

I'm off to hunt down a copy of Vile Bodies.

Queen Michelle

Casual Style

I watched British film Awaydays on Saturday, which is loosely about football casuals in the late 70's/early 80's. If I had to describe it I'd say it was really more a, to use a cliche, 'coming of age' film based around the relationship between the main characters of Carty and Elvis (who is beautifully played by the very handsome Liam Boyle).

The film is stylistically impressive as the fashion of the football casuals appears to be one of the main focuses and the main reason I loved it so much. I am no expert on the football casual style - that's the domain of our friend the Adidas Archduke, who very often consults on football casual style for films and books - but whether it's an accurate representation or not didn't detract from the fact that stylistically this is an amazing movie.

The character of the lovely Elvis, who is at heart a dreamer and has somehow found himself embroiled in this life of Saturday violence, is by far the best dressed mixing the preppy style of the casual with an art school student twist. He also has really great hair.

The style is very much about the sneakers, again the expertise of the Adidas Archduke, and we see the characters of Carty and Elvis cooeing over the latest Adidas issues.

It did bring back memories of school for me as football casuals were plentiful where I lived and I recall a girl in my class called Maureen (I think that was her name) who's big brother was a casual and he used to come to pick her up after school. He was feared by everyone as he was famed for his violent tendencies, but whenever he marched up the school corridor with his crew I always noticed how smart he was: pink or lemon coloured Fred Perry sweater, neat slim fitting jeans, Adidas sneakers and he would sometimes wear a pork pie style hat. It was hard to believe he was so horrible.

For anyone who liked This Is England, Trainspotting or Control then I highly recommend this film. There is violence but it's not too overwhelming and isn't really the main focus of the plot.

Queen Michelle

Faster Pussycat!

It's no secret that I like a good trashy film, whether it's a 70's slasher movie or a 60's 'exploitation' film. On Sunday I decided to watch one of my all time favourite trashy films, Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat Kill Kill. This is the only Russ Meyer film I like. A story of karate chopping, drag racing, murderous go-go dancers.

The leader is the fabulous Varla, played by the meg-booby Tura Satana. I love how she looks in the film - all huge tits, huge arse with teeny wee waist, clad in black high waisted jeans and leather gloves.

They ride through the desert committing all manner of dastardly deeds. The film, at the time, was considered very risque and rated 'x' but of all Russ Meyers' exploitation films it's the least naughty, infact it's laughable by todays standards, but in 1965 it was virtually porn.

Varla is such a great character though. She is a black belt in karate, she is an expert drag racer and she is ruthless in the extreme. I'm really feeling the need to get some high waisted tight black jeans and pull that belt in real tight. Obviously I am missing one, well a pair, of very important assets of course, but I reckon I shall be chanelling a bit of Varla this week.

There are rumours abound that Quentin Tarantino is to remake the film but I hope he doesn't as it just wouldn't translate and some films should just be left alone in all their cheesy glory.

Queen Michelle

Put your hands together for Pot Noodle...

The advert for Doner Kebab Pot Noodle (yes really) to be precise...

You couldn't pay me to eat a pot noodle, but the advert made me laugh out loud, really loudly!

Does this remind you of anyone?

Comedy noodle genius!

An amused Queen Marie

The Women...

What a waste of celluloid!

 Annette Bening , Candice Bergen , Eva Mendes , Meg Ryan , Debra Messing - not a decent turn among them.  It was a heap of trite tripe.

And although you can't really see it on the poster, Miss Meg could hardly move her face. If she's not careful, she too could be on the Wildenstein path.

The only good thing about the film, was that Annette Bening was wearing an Elsa Peretti Bone Cuff, which prompted me to go prowling for mine...

Queen Marie

Why Wilhelmena why?

Watching an Ugly Betty rerun, I am laughingly forced to ask why?

Why has no-one pointed out to Wilhelmena Slater, Editor in Chief that with every passing episode she becomes more orange.

 Not just a little bit orange but a big bit orange!

Holy Crap Wilhelmena! you're an Oompa Loompa

 

Oh Sod it! she's right...

Queen Marie