Happy Friday Suzan!

It's that time of year again where I'm on the hunt for calendars. Even though like most people, I do most of my planning these days digitally, I still have a thing for hanging up some good-looking numbers on my wall. Came across this lovely thing once again on the Swiss Miss site – and again immediately thought of you and your knitting talents. It's totally impractical and would last all of 3 minutes at my house within reach of a 1-yr old – but the idea of literally unravelling time is oh so poetic.

Snowy snowy day here in Stockholm, and I'm sitting in a cafe playing Christmas music. And speaking of time slipping by, where on earth did 2012 go??

E xox

Dear MLE,

For you today, I have an incredible video of Gainsbourg in his prime...  what could be better? Had to send, as I know you are a big fan as well. This song is, of course, about Brigitte Bardot with whom he had a fling in 67.  What a lucky lucky woman.  Sigh... Okay, anyway... une magnifique dédicace...

Initials B.B.

Gainsbourg was actually one of the first to sample, and for this song it is the Symphonie n° 9 « Du nouveau monde » from Dvořák. He also uses the first couple verses from Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven.

The song is a beautiful poem, this being my favourite part:

Jusques en haut des cuisses, elle est bottée
Et c'est comme un calice à sa beauté
Elle ne porte rien d'autre qu'un peu
D'essence de Guerlain dans les cheveux

Talk soon.  And don't forget to send me that email.

Oh and would you like to see me cry?  Cry with joy?  Then buy me the bacon scarf from the post below for Christmas. Amazing.

xxx

Hi Suzan!

Ok, even though this is kind of gross, I can't resist. A silk bacon scarf. So ridiculous it's brilliant. Doesn't it look real? I think it looks so real, you would almost expect it to feel greasy around your neck. And then there's the name –  you don't get puns any better than that! Hmm, maybe a Christmas present for you, my friend? I know how much you love bacon. Mmmmmm.

Found via Swiss-Miss, designed by artist Natalie Luder, you can buy this bit of oily goodness here.

xx E.

Hi Suzan!

My friend Katrina just introduced me to this publication called Vestoj – meaning "clothing" in Esperanto – that discusses fashion from the points of view of industry, academia, and the museum world. Basically, it's pretty serious fashion talk. And in fact, that's number 3 in their Manifesto: "Fashion must always be taken seriously. We must never be afraid to have pretensions." Hmm. Published annually and free of advertising, so far there are 3 issues, with themes relating fashion with memory, fashion with magic, and fashion with shame. Definitely intrigued. I must admit that I'm always slightly suspicious of over-intellectualizing fashion... but when I saw photos from the launch of the Shame issue at Mens Paris fashion week, featuring performance artists with their skirts tucked into their underwear, my faith was restored. The publisher, former editor at Acne Paper, is going to be the featured speaker at a Creative Mornings session this Friday here in Stockholm, so we're planning to go to check it out. You know how I'm so not a morning person, but it's part of my new mission to take advantage of interesting events like this that are going on all the time, but that I always seem to miss. So hopefully I can overcome my natural tendencies and actually get out of bed to be there at 8 am! Apparently there's gonna be breakfast served too, which is always good incentive. Some wacky fashion performance wouldn't be a bad way to start the day, either!

E xx

Hey Suzan!

Another bit of graphic nerd inspiration found via our beloved Patternity blog! A new take on the pedestrian crossing designed by Eduard Cehovin, a typography professor in Slovenia. The spotted one was Cehovin's design as part of the Zebra Crossing project which started back in 2008, as a commission from the Ljubljana mayor's office. The jumbled stripe crossing was a commission by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Novi Sad, Serbia, for the road outside its entrance. And even though they could easily be mistaken for some form of intrepid street art, the crossings are in fact in keeping with local standard colour and size requirements, and are used as normal pedestrian crossings. There is so much that I like about this project, but mostly the way it challenges and draws attention to those everyday pieces of mundane signage that otherwise make no impression in your life whatsoever. That, and the sheer basic impact of seeing giant dots and stripes where you least expect them! Also puts Slovenia and Serbia on the map for a potential visit... if the mayor is commissioning this kind of thing, I can only imagine what other intriguing things are waiting to be discovered there.

E xx