Kerry Degman by Vincent Dilio

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Homotography

Holiday Hair Tips

I am so, so careful with my hair now when I go on holiday to hot places because I totally ruined my barnet on a holiday to Croatia a couple of years ago.  I stupidly didn't bother applying a protective spray or taking care of my hair properly and that resulted in my hair experiencing REALLY bad breakage at the roots.  I had so many 'sticky up' bits that earnt the nickname 'Mo' for months afterwards (as in Mohawk!).  It was so embarassing and no amount of serum or hairspray concealed the problem.  My poor hair took about 8 or 9 months to recover completely from the damage.  Here's a close up of a pic that was taken when I got back...

So now I take EXTRA special care over my locks when I jet off to a warmer climate.  I just wanted to share some of my tips for making sure your hair looks great on holiday and doesn't get damaged by the sun like mine did!

First up, here's some ideas of how to wear your hair when you're heading down to the beach on holiday:

I will be experimenting with all of these hairstyle ideas when I'm on my honeymoon.  Whatever the style, I think the most important thing is that it looks laid back and doesn't take hours to achieve.

Here are my tips on smart holiday hair care:

• Everyone wants their hair to look effortlessly great on holiday so it's best to get your hair coloured a couple of weeks before you go to ensure your hair has time to replenish itself before you subject it to the sun's rays.  It's also a good idea to get a trim at the same time as these are the oldest parts of your hair so they are also the most parched.  If you get a trim, the ends of your hair are less likely to get frazzled.  You could also get a deep moisture treatment at the hairdressers while you are there to make sure your hair is as hydrated as it can be.
• It's best to take a more hydrating formula of shampoo and conditioner with you because your hair will require more moisture than usual.  Concentrate the conditioner on mid lengths to ends if you have fine hair though as you don't want your roots to go limp and lank.  Also go easy on the serum as this will also weigh your hair down.
• If you find that you have gone a bit overboard on the protective spray or serum and your hair looks or feels greasy at the roots, you can always apply a dry shampoo like Batiste to give your hair it's volume back.  They also have a formula for darker hair colours to avoid that 'grey' look.
• I often apply my protective spray/cream on my hair in the morning and pull my hair back into a ponytail.  This protects your scalp from being burnt as well.  Always try to let your hair dry naturally if you have the time.  Obviously don't go out in the sun with soaking wet hair as it will be more likely to frazzle.
• You can also twist sections of your hair up into a loose chignon during the day after applying your protective product and hit the beach.  Then at night time when you want to look more dressed up, you can let your hair down and reveal really pretty soft waves.
• I always use an intensive treatment every day on holiday after a day in the sun - you can do this after a shower or apply it on dry hair and leave overnight.  Although this would seem like overkill in any normal circumstance, this is the time when your hair really needs a chance to repair itself.
• I like to wear a hat or head scarf on the beach to protect my hair and scalp but this can result in really bad hat hair! If you are heading out directly after being at the beach, the best solution is to spray some root volumising spray on your hair then whack some rollers in at the roots to give your hair body and lift.
• I never ever use straighteners or any other kind of heated appliance on my hair on holiday.  I might use a hairdryer if I'm really in a rush but ultimately I try and avoid it.  Using heat on your hair just stresses it out even more and will increase any damage so it's good for your locks to give them a break from that type of thing.  Call it damage limitation!
• If I'm on a particularly long flight, I like to treat my hair by applying a hydrating leave in conditioner before I fly to ensure that my hair doesn't become dried out by the aeroplane's dry, stale air.  That way, you will arrive with your hair feeling great.
• If you forget your protective spray/cream for your hair, then an alternative is to mix your leave in conditioner with your body SPF.  It will have the same effect and will buy you time until you can find a shop that sells what you need.
• I never use hairspray on my hair when I know it will be subjected to alot of sun because this results in the product being 'baked' into your hair and this can be very drying.

I hope these tips were helpful and if you have any tips of your own or great summer hair products to recommend, please let me know in the comments box below!

L.A. Confidential

Titel: L.A. Confidential / L.A. Konfidentiellt
Genre: Kriminaldrama/Mysterium/Thriller
Land: USA
År: 1997
Regi: Curtis Hanson
I rollerna: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell, David Strathairn, Danny DeVito

Handling: Los Angeles i början av 50-talet. Sex personer hittas brutalt mördade på det nattöppna fiket Nite Owl. En av de döda är en före detta polis, vilket får hans kollegor att arbeta extra hårt med de skyldiga. Fallet verkar gå mot en snabb upplösning men poliserna Bud, Jack och Ed känner på sig att något inte stämmer.

Omdöme: En film med så många kända stjärnor kan ibland slå fel om regin eller manuset inte finns där. Som tur är har regissören Curtis Hanson lyckats med det Oscarvinnande manuset skrivet av Brian Helgeland (som även skrev manuset till Mystic River) som verkligen är filmens stora stjärna. På ett både smart och invecklat sätt rullar den film-noiriga filmen på i ett högt tempo med många vändningar och historier som låter alla karaktärer utvecklas på sitt sätt, samtidigt som allt på något sätt hänger ihop och för karaktärerna närmare varandra.



Lite kul att man har två australiska skådespelare i form av Russell Crowe (som Bud) och Guy Pearce (som Ed) i en så typisk amerikansk film, men de klarar det med bravur. Crowe känns lite för kaxig till en början, men sådan är hans karaktär och det passar bra att just han spelar denna person. Ed är en grönare polis som tror på att följa lagen till punkt och pricka, något som visar sig vara väldigt ovanligt i 50-talets era. Tillsammans med Kevin Spacey (som Jack) har dessa tre poliser fullt upp med olika uppdrag med poliskommisarie Dudley Smith som chef, som för övrigt spelas mycket bra av James Cromwell, förmodligen min favoritprestation och karaktär i filmen.



Trots fina prestationer rakt igenom så var det vackra och duktiga Kim Basinger som vann en Oscar för sin prestation som Lynn Bracken som på sätt och vis är lite av centralfiguren som det mesta kretsar kring. Det finns även mycket att gilla vad gäller täta scener som avlöser varandra ju längre in man kommer. Något som är lite synd är att det känns som man ändrat/lagt till den sista scenen i filmen som istället för att fortsätta på den mörka och dystra banan ändrar lite ton. Jag kan bara tänka mig att "testpublik" eller liknande klagade och producenterna då ville ha ett annat slut. Men det stör mig inte så mycket som i många andra filmer och eftersom man bjuder på så många andra positiva överraskningar så håller filmen riktigt hög klass på alla nivåer.

4 - Skådespelare
5 - Handling
5 - Känsla
3 - Musik
4 - Foto
--------------
21 - Totalt

Betyg:
IMDb: 8.4

Mannen från Mallorca

Titel: Mannen från Mallorca
Genre: Kriminaldrama/Thriller
Land: Sverige
År: 1984
Regi: Bo Widerberg
I rollerna: Sven Wollter, Tomas von Brömssen, Håkan Serner, Ernst Günther

Handling: Kriminalinspektörerna Johansson och Jarnebring är de första som anländer till ett kallhamrat rån mot ett postkontor i Stockholm. Johansson tar upp jakten på rånaren, men förlorar spåret.

Omdöme: Kan ses lite som en uppföljare till Mannen på taket eller iaf en fristående fortsättning som istället visar upp 80-talets Stockholm och hur en del saker förändrats medan andra består. Det jag tänker på främst är den samhällskritik som Bo Widerberg trycker på och som görs på ett sätt som ger filmen den tyngd som behövs och som ofta saknas i dagens filmer. Polisinspektörerna Jarnebring (Sven Wollter) och Johansson (Tomas von Brömssen) är först på plats vid ett postrån i centrala Stockholm och jakten på rånaren leder in i en skola där alla spår försvinner.



Utredningen påbörjas och spåren leder till en mycket större affär än först väntat. Det iskallt utförda postrånet visar sig vara kopplat till högt uppsatta personer som inte har några problem att skydda varandra, något som givetvis försvårar arbetet för våra två göteborgare som får vara med om en hissnande biljakt varpå Jarnebring kommer med filmens klockrenaste kommentar; "Vem tror du du é, Bullitt, eller ?". Filmen har annars lite osammanhängande scener och är stundtals lite svår att hänga med i då allt inte förklaras. Men det har också sina fördelar.



Det jag gillar är hur Bo Widerberg försökt sig på ett lite mer konspiratoriskt ämne som man på sätt och vis lyckas bra med. Frågorna om hur det egentligen går för alla inblandade lämnas lite öppet och det känns som något lite annorlunda som man kanske är mer van vid i den amerikanska 70-tals filmen. Det känns på många sätt som om det här skulle kunnat blivit en bättre och mer minnesvärd film om man bara hade lagt ner lite mer tid på att utveckla vissa karaktärer och förfinat vissa detaljer. Värt att poängtera är att Leif G.W. Persson ligger bakom boken (baserad på verkliga händelser) som ledde till filmen. En trevlig svensk polisfilm värd att se tillsammans med Mannen på taket (1976) och I lagens namn (1986).

3 - Skådespelare
3 - Handling
4 - Känsla
3 - Musik
3 - Foto
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16 - Totalt

Betyg:
IMDb: 6.8

My Blue Heaven

Titel: My Blue Heaven / Hur jag lärde en FBI-agent att dansa marengo
Genre: Komedi
Land: USA
År: 1990
Regi: Herbert Ross
I rollerna: Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, Joan Cusack, Ed Lauter

Handling: FBI-agenten Barney Coopersmith blir satt i uppdrag att skydda maffiafiguren Vincent "Vinnie" Antonelli. I vittnesskyddsprogrammet ingår det att hålla låg profil, men Vincent Antonelli har lite problem med det. Barney får således försöka hålla maffiafolket från Vinnie och han från nattklubbarna.

Omdöme: Steve Martin som italiensk maffiasnubbe ? Nja, det fungerar väl sisådär till en början då Martin känns som han spelar över (vilket han också gör) och man känner att det kommer bli en riktigt usel film. Men hans karaktär tar sig och även Steve Martin funkar allt bättre i rollen. Man bjuds på en del roliga situationer och det är alltid kul att se Vinnie försöka förklara sig när han hamnar i knipa. Ett stort problem för egen del är dock Rick Moranis i rollen som FBI-agenten Barney. Han saknar den karisma och humor som jag gärna hade sett, som t.ex. Martin Short har om man nu ville ha en kortare skådis i rollen.



Filmen står och faller med Steve Martin pga detta och det tycker jag är synd. Tycker inte heller Joan Cusack fungerar direkt bra som distriktåklagaren Hannah Stubbs som försöker sätta dit Vinnie om och om igen medan Vinnie försöker para ihop henne med Barney. Filmen rullar på och även om den har sina ljustglimtar lyckas den aldrig riktigt fullt ut. Som tur är blir den inte så överdriven eller crazy som man har farhågor om till en början. Steve Martin gör iaf vad han kan för att få lite fart på filmen och har en del lyckade repliker som livar upp stämningen.

3 - Skådespelare
2 - Handling
3 - Känsla
2 - Musik
3 - Foto
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13 - Totalt

Betyg:
IMDb: 6.0

Hollywood | Fiction | Changing Faces

So from Hollywood we got Bollywood, ‘Bombay Hollywood’; it makes it sound like an off-shoot, a kind of parasitic copy of the real thing. That probably wasn’t an issue when the name was invented, because the people in the industry will have wanted that connection, however inferior they seemed in comparison, because at least there was a comparison. To our film-soaked 20th-and-21st-century minds, a movie factory rhyming with ‘Hollywood’ has a great deal more associative heft than, I don’t know, Pinewood Studios.

And yet Bollywood has now become its own industry, world-famous, with a distinctive and easily recognisable style. It probably doesn’t need that association any longer. And so I find myself thinking of a future, years from now, when Hollywood has asphyxiated itself on CGI and origin stories and lies dead in the California dust (the letters are just beginning to drop from the billboard for ‘Avatar 24: The Na’avi Accept The Mass Immigration Of A New Species As Part of Nature’s One-ness And Well, Natural Progression, Seeing As They’re Animals And Not, You Know, Technologically Advanced, And They’re All Promptly Eaten By The Aliens Out Of ‘Alien’ And Those Other Alien Movies’.) Bollywood is still going strong, making movies or virtual experiences, or Two Minutes Hate broadcasts, and an enterprising group of film-makers decides to set up their own industry in the ruins of LA. Would they call their new site ‘Hollywood’, in honour of the ancient movies, or would they call it ‘Hollywood’ because they thought people might associate it with Bollywood?



The markers are forever changing. I do remember, about a decade ago, a contestant on Big Brother, or possibly the celebrity version, trying to score intellectual cool points by bitching that another contestant’s book ‘wasn’t Dostoyevsky’. Dostoyevsky, ironically, only got his first novel (a kind of parasitic copy) published because someone decided he was Gogol – or the next Gogol, anyway. Then he spent most of his career being told he wasn’t Tolstoy, and he wasn’t Turgenev. So he might have been confused to have been used in such a way, but of course, the specificity of the name doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it be recognisable enough to get a reaction.



It’s all a little like the notorious ‘_ Movie’ line of comedies that’s been around over the past few years, which never do any more than reference popular culture. Audiences get the references, and that satisfaction feels almost like there’s actually be a punchline – and this is an opinion that’s been pretty much confirmed for me by the recent appearance of another group of film-makers doing exactly the same thing, with a ‘parody’ of Judd Apatow’s comedies, The 41 Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall And Felt Superbad About It.



It doesn’t sound like it’s exactly Duck Soup, does it? (Hyuk, hyuk.)



*



In other, utterly unrelated news, I can’t believe I haven’t encountered this before. I’m kinda of the opinion that decency surrounded by other decency leads too often to smugness, and that may be why I’ve never quite ‘got’ American political comedian Jon Stewart’s show. There’s too many decent people applauding and whooping in favour of basic human decency and common sense. It’s the brutal in-crowd attitude of goodness.



But this five-part ‘interview’ from February, in which decency (in the form of Stewart) finds itself alone and up against the pig-headedness of a bully (in the form of the slightly monstrous Fox News political pundit, and Stewart’s rival, Bill O’Reilly), made me fall in love just a little. Forty-odd minutes of O’Reilly doing his usual thing when faced with a ‘hostile’ guest; shouting them down, making vaguely threatening remarks about where they’ve come from, emphasising his own good-ol’-boy simplicity while being condescending about his guest’s intelligence, making a lightning-fast unsubstantiated claim and then changing the subject...

And Stewart takes it, doesn’t get flustered, and he responds with humility, self-deprecation and honesty. And then he gives some back with interest, mostly at the expense of Fox News’ political motivations and the climate of fear they’ve propagated around the Presidentship. His final punch? O’Reilly is explaining that Jews don’t go to Hell, but that they might make an exception in Stewart’s case.

Stewart replies, smiling,

“You know what your problem is, right now? You like me. And you don’t know what to do with yourself right now, because you like me.”

And O’Reilly smiles back.

Mannen på taket

Titel: Mannen på taket
Genre: Kriminaldrama/Thriller
Land: Sverige
År: 1976
Regi: Bo Widerberg
I rollerna: Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt, Sven Wollter, Thomas Hellberg, Håkan Serner

Handling: Kommissarie Beck och hans assistent Rönn får hand om ett mord som begåtts på Sabbatsbergs sjukhus i Stockholm. Den mördade visar sig vara polis och utredningen som följer visar också att offret var en synnerligen otrevlig person. Genom kårandan inom polisen har han flera gånger räddats från prickningar för övergrepp.

Omdöme: Vi kastas rakt in i 70-talets gråa och kalla Stockholm där polisen Nyman ligger på Sabbatsbergs sjukhus pga sjukdom. På bästa giallo vis får vi sedan se hur en maskerad mördare tar sig in på hans rum och brutalt mördar honom. Efter sig lämnar han en stor pöl med blod, fotavtryck och bajonetten som användes vid mordet. Inkallade blir Martin Beck (Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt), hans assistent Einar Rönn samt de yngre och våghalsiga förmågorna Lennart Kollberg (Sven Wollter) och Gunvald Larsson (Thomas Hellberg), som för övrigt inte drar jämnt ut.



Efter det brutala mordet påbörjas en minst sagt farsartad mordutredning som visar polisens ovana vid såna här fall samt inkompetens på många håll. Det gör att trots ett relativt långsamt tempo i filmen bjuds det på en hel del små saker som är en fröjd att se och även funkar som social kommentar. Man får sig en hel del skratt åt polisens arbete vilket för det mesta givetvis är regissör Bo Widerbergs förtjänst. Jag tycker även man lyckats väl med de olika karaktärerna i filmen som alla får tydliga roller att leka med. Favoriten är nog trots allt Einar Rönn som spelas av Håkan Serner som ständigt ser trött ut och kommer med sköna kommentarer.



Det känns på många sätt som man tagit inspiration från den amerikanska polisfilmen så som Dirty Harry med de skönt bitska kommentarerna och även med mördaren, men även French Connection med de två poliserna Lennart Kollberg och Gunvald Larsson. Filmen går även in i ett nytt stadium när mördaren tar sig upp på taket i närheten av Odenplan i Stockholm. Här får man en extra nerv och faktiskt riktigt tät action som kan mäta sig med de bästa i genren. Musiken är också värd att notera som är lite annorlunda än man är van vid, inte alltid strålande, men klart stämningsfull och passande. Jag gillar det här helt klart och även om det är lite långsamt tempo fram till slutetappen så funkar det tack vare dialogen och karaktärerna.

3 - Skådespelare
4 - Handling
5 - Känsla
4 - Musik
3 - Foto
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19 - Totalt

Betyg:
IMDb: 7.5

Raw Deal

Titel: Raw Deal / Hårda bud
Genre: Action/Kriminalare/Thriller
Land: USA
År: 1986
Regi: John Irvin
I rollerna: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Robert Davi, Ed Lauter

Handling: Mark Kaminsky har fått sparken av FBI. Nu blir han erbjuden att jobba "privat" åt sin gamle chef, Shannon, vars son blivit dödad av Chicago-maffian. Med ny identitet ska den gamle FBI-agenten infiltrera maffian i Chicago för att komma åt höjdarna.

Omdöme: Det är en på många sätt typisk Arnold-film med sköna repliker, mycket action och inte så mycket hjärna. Helt enkelt perfekt underhållning när man känner för det. När Mark (Arnold Schwarzenegger) går "undercover" är det bara hans gamla chef Harry Shannon (Darren McGavin) som vet om att han kommer infiltrera sig i Chicago-maffian. Detta gör att Mark får fria händer att imponera på höjdarna inom maffian, men möter motstånd i form av Max Keller (Robert Davi) som är bossens högra hand och som inte vill ha en besserwisser som Mark runt sig.



Det är skönt att se Arnold och grabbarna ha så här kul och bara köra på. Filmen har en del brutala scener som klipptes bort när filmen kom på bio/video i Sverige, men i dagens filmvärld är det inte så farligt. Det är dock kul att man inte lägger fingrarna emellan och liksom vågar visa mer än man behöver. Det är inte ovanligt kanske, men i dagens filmer måste man vara mer korrekt känns det som. Huvudmelodin som används genom filmens gång är klart bra, men resten av musiken är av blandad kvalité som är lite synd. Logiska luckor och annat finns givetvis, men det är trots allt en underhållande och skön liten film.

3 - Skådespelare
2 - Handling
4 - Känsla
3 - Musik
3 - Foto
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15 - Totalt

Betyg:
IMDb: 5.0

MenClick Boys

Review of Biodroga Mineral Foundation

When the summer months hit, I am always open to new foundations with a lighter formulas so a mineral makup promising to give me radiance whilst caring for my skin sounds good!  To give you guys a bit of background on the Biodroga brand, it's a European skincare company based in Germany which concentrates mainly on skincare but the advantage of this is that their foundation will condition your skin as you wear it.  I don't know about you but I hate it when foundations dry my skin out and make it look dull.

The glass packaging feels expensive and features a pump which is always a plus point with a foundation as it saves on mess.  The only downside to a glass bottle is that it can be slightly more cumbersome for travel.  The consistency of the foundation is almost mousse-like and I found that you don't need alot of it when applying it with your fingers.  It blends into the skin seamlessly and makes my skin look softly radiant, streak free and natural.  This is a great foundation for daytime when you want your skin to look healthy and fresh.  It feels really light on the skin and after using it for a couple of months for around 3 days a week, my skin is looking very clear and healthy.  It's hard to say if this was predominantly because of the conditioning properties of the foundation because I am incredibly meticulous about my skincare however it's worth saying that it didn't break me out or irritate my skin in any way. 

The foundation has good staying power and I found that it held up for around 8 hours on a summer's day without having to be retouched.  The nicest thing about this foundation is that your skin feels like it can breathe and retains it's natural texture.  Some heavier formulas feel like they are clogging your skin but this one is great for days when you the lightest possible formula with good medium coverage.

This foundation isn't cheap at £30.75 (stockist is http://www.bcidirect.com/), so if you aren't that bothered about foundation and it just isn't your 'thing' or don't like spending alot on your foundation, then this probably isn't for you.  However, if you like trying new foundations, especially mineral ones, then this foundation is worth a look.

If anyone else has tried this foundation, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments box below :)

Hollywood | Poetry | Remakes

'It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.'
- Andy Warhol

Hollywood loves a remake - what better way to ensure success than to try as hard as possible to recreate something that has, in the past, been successful? It takes a lot of the pressure off the creative process when you aren't bogged down by having to think up new ideas, research into fresh concepts, do any writing.

For this reason, I have rebooted a franchise of my own. Frank O'Hara has been given the Michael Bay treatment and put back to work with sassy new ephemera. For your delectation...

To read Frank O'Hara's original Click Here



To the Film Industry in Stasis

Not you, thick-stock magazines and swanky pamphlets
with your perpetual allusions and weighty wider reading,
nor you, avant garde Performance Art, shotgun
wedding of the two, feigning insight badly, nor you,
indie-rock bovine bullshitters, alternative as puberty (though
this is certainly my camp) but you, Motion Picture Industry,
it’s you I love!

In times of stasis, we must all decide again and again what turns us on.
And be up front about it: I see the way you fetishise a plastic bag, it taught me
how to revel in the noises off and celebrate an out-take (and is steadily
hooking me into bonus material), not with the smug atheists
who the films have taught to trust only the lies they can see,
not to the BBFC, who will allow a rape as long as there is no swearing,
but to you jaded Cinema, grimy-desaturated-gritty-realistic-o-scope,
incorrigible iMax and deafening Dolby 5.0, sub-woofing your deafening
message as you substitute all sense of depth for a third dimension. To
Jason Statham as the angry geezer with a grudge and a gun,
Denise Richards whose chocolate locks beguile (lucky Charlie) and her legs,
Megan Fox with oily hands tinkering with a Transformer’s chassis
scowling, Vanessa Hudgens sending photographs of her vagina
to an Aryan-eyed Zac Effron who denies having ever seen one,
Jude Law, Cassanova of the crèche grabs a nanny on the sly
the Batmans, each and every one of you (I cannot bring myself to prefer
Christian Bale to Michael Keaton, I cannot!), Cameron Diaz in a red coat
smiling and humming through interviews, Sam Rockwell of moon,
such cabin fever, and rocklike too, the agile Uma Thurman,
Gloria Stuart throwing her necklace off James Cameron’s boat
from her beautiful veiny hands, Gwyneth Paltrow rescuing Robert
Downey Jr. and Daniel Craig rescuing Eva Green from nothing,
David Carradine dies from an exploded heart as Samuel L. Jackson
combs bits of brain out of his afro whilst chastising John Travolta,
Noomi Rapace with her skin-tight toughness and childish smile,
George Clooney smirking and Robert pimping Freddy Rodriguez
smoking with an out-of-date bravado, Saoirse Ronan in peril,
and Brittany Murphy in memoriam, and Heath Ledger in memoriam
and laughing and method, and Corey Haim in memoriam and laughing
and abusive and broken by drugs, and Bryan O’Byrne in memoriam
sagely and understated and conciliatory in the background,
Lindsay Lohan as a snowglobe in an earthquake, yes to you

and to all you others, the ambitious, the talented, the both, the ones
clustered in Los Angeles cafes and dream of passing your screenplay
to a receptive Ridley.
May the days of your remakes continue forever, until the final droplets
of plot have been squeezed from every spin-off conceivable and movies
are remade before they have even finished production, until the sequels
seep from viability and the five remaining masters capable of original
thought have passed into the void like Harry Patch leaving us with the
finite films we deserve. Render, you glorious gigabytes of digital film,
as the world is rendered ready for your final release.

Phil Brown
Poetry Editor

Korres e/s, Exercise Tips and a Ramble

Hi Guys! I hope you are all having wonderful weather like us in Aberdeen! Finally, I've been able to break out my summer clothes from hibernation and actually wear them! Hallelujah! I love summer (doesn't everybody?) because the sunny days just make you feel lighter and more care-free. 

First up in this post, I just wanted to show you guys some new Korres eyeshadows I got because you know how much I love Korres!  I am a big fan of their Wild Rose foundation, powder and Lip Butters.  I generally favour the shimmering eyeshadows because they are the most pigmented and buttery ones.  These shades are all gorgeous neutrals that are perfect for creating an 'everyday' eye...

The swatches didn't come out that well on camera and look washed out but they look alot nicer in real life.  I especially love the Golden and Golden Brown shades.  I have been wearing these two shades on my lids with golden skin and coral/pink lipgloss (MAC Pink Lemonade looks amazing with these!).  It's a really lovely paired down, quick, summery look. 

Pictured below is a MAC palette (top section removed) which now holds my Korres eyeshadows.  I found by removing the top section, it creates alot more room to house larger eyeshadow pans.  My favourite shades in this palette are Sky Blue, Silver and Golden Bronze.  These shades in particular have CRAZY pigmentation and they are so, so velvety smooth.  They have a gorgeous sheen to them and in my opinion, they are probably the highest quality eyeshadows that I own. 

As I mentioned above, I adore the Jasmine Lip Butter that comes in a little tub...it has a gorgeous pale pink sheen to it and smells of creme brulee...yummy! I'm loving the Mandarin Lip Butter in stick form because it also smells lovely and have a sheer pale pink tint to it.  It's so handy to chuck in my bag and I much prefer to wear light tinted lip balms in summer, in the daytime than full on lipstick.  It just enhances your lips without lookinf like you're wearing too much makeup.  It also leaves my lips really soft anf smooth.

I have just done another vid for my YouTube channel on Exercise tips as promised.  It's not a video about the technicalities of different exercises, but more tips on how to stick to your gym visits and feel better about your body.  I think if you're looking for professional advice on exercises and how to avoid injuries, then it's best to go to a trainer at your local gym.  They are equipped with the knowledge to get you started.  I just wanted to share a few little things that have helped me persevere with my fitness program.  I hope they are helpful!

I weighed myself as normal yesterday and I have lost another 1lb in the last week.  Although I was hoping to lose 2lbs, I noticed that my fat % has gone down and my muscle % has gone up significantly.  So as I said in my weightloss video, this shows me that I have made more progress than just losing 1lb.  I have another dress fitting at the bridal store on Friday, but I still have 4 and a half weeks until the wedding to work my ass off and get in the best shape I can.

On a completely random note, I am LOVING this song by Plan B at the moment! I love the echoey-retro feel to it, like some of the old motown records...

Hollywood | Introduction | Universal Pictures

Week 6 | Hollywood | Contents

Tuesday | Poetry | Remakes

Wednesday | Fiction | Changing Faces 

Thursday | Music | Musical Hollywooding

Friday | Chapbook | You Could Pass For Lana Turner, by Kyle Hemmings

Saturday | Mixtape | Hollywooding: A Musical McGonagall

Sunday | Mini Essay | On the Inherent Decay Within Conservative Social Systems, by George Ttoouli

“Kodak sells film, but they don't advertise film. They advertise memories.”
 Theodore Parker

We talk about film quite a lot here at Silkworms, which is a little odd as it is not mentioned on the tin, it just seems to worm its way in.

It makes sense for a couple of reasons – firstly and most superficially, it’s because we’re all film fans in Silktown, so naturally it part of the vocabulary of our thought – sometimes we think in film, see the cinematography of an idea – don’t we all. This leads on the more complex second reason regarding the universal nature of the medium. Film is visual, not of one language – so it is inherently ‘open’. It is also easy – just sit back and watch. It is no surprise then that it so popular – the undemanding on demand.

As Frank Capra notes “Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and music”. But, film features music – the soundtrack. A novel doesn’t have a soundtrack, and an album doesn’t have an accompanying visual (of course there are exceptions on both those fronts). Film more than most artistic mediums engages the eyes and ears – it spreads it bets and can throw in a chip or two on any conversation of music, art or literature. I considered for a moment the mathematics of film, but the first thing that leap to mind was ‘A Beautiful Mind’ – so I left that tangent at that.

This week, welcome to Hollywood.




James Harringman
Editor

Renato Ferreira iLook Magazine Shanghai