Friday, January 15, 2016

Grace Simmons


A day in the life, Jan 14


A day in the life, Jan 14, objet trouvé

Georgia Graham


ph: Tony Potts

New York


Empire State Building construction photo by Lewis Wickes Hine 1931

Cara Delevingne


First Lines: Elmore Leonard - Stick


Stick said he wasn't going if they had to pick up anything.

Fernanda Hin Lin Ly


A day in the life, Jan 13


A day in the life, Jan 13, the writing on the wall

Astrid Holler


ph: Nicole Bentley

Basic (2003)


A DEA agent investigates the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry.

Well-made thriller with a good cast disappoints with an unexpected twist ending turning the whole plot topsy-turvy.

Halliwell (no star): "Ludicrous military thriller, set in murky jungle and heavy rain so that it is often difficult to see what is happening; nor is it possible to understand, since sense and logic are thr first casualities of its twisting narrative."

Maltin**: "Essentially a whodunit, this film keeps adding layers of confusion so that it becomes less interesting as it goes along! The final "twist" seems to negate the entire story, like a bad shaggy-dog joke. Travolta is in great form, however."

Michelle Alves


New Stuff: Star Trek Season 1


I thought it's about time to rewatch one of my favourite childhood TV series.

Katrin Thormann


Born Free (1966)


At a national park in Kenya, an English game warden George Adamson and his wife, Joy (Virginia McKenna), care for three orphaned lion cubs, and ffter the two larger lions are shipped off to a zoo in the Netherlands, the smallest of the three, Elsa, stays with the couple. 

Slow-paced, but engaging nature movie with some wonderful animal and landscape photography that manages to tone down the sentimentality of a quite heart-wrenching story.

Halliwell**: "Irresistible animal shots salvage this rather flabbily put together version of a bestselling book. An enormous commercial success..."

Maltin***1/2: "Exceptional adaptation...Sincere, engrossing film, a must for family viewing."

Freja Beha Erichsen


ph: Alasdair McLellan

New Stuff: Talking Heads


A Talking Heads still missing to my collection.


Who's That Girl?


Art: Nick Gentry

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Window faces


Regensburg, January 2016

Alena Ulasevich


A day in the life, Jan 12


A day in the life, Jan 12, objet trouvé

Emma Landen


New York


Art Deco Graybar Building, New York City, 1926-1927, Sloan & Robertson

Kate Bush


First Lines: Rex Stout - The Doorbell Rang


Since it was the deciding factor, I might as well begin by describing it.

Dovima


A day in the life, Jan 11


A day in the life, Jan 11, objet trouvé

Isabelle Nicolay


ph: Hans Neumann

New Stuff: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band


A favourite band of mine, this edition contains their first five albums.


Isabeli Fontana


ph: Sonia Sieff

New Stuff: Born Free


A childhood favourite of mine; as a kid I used to sing the title song all the time...

Alison Brie


New Stuff: True Detective


I decided I'd like to watch this acclaimed series.

Kiko Mizuhara


New Stuff: David Bowie


It's an awkward feeling that I received David Bowie's new (and last) album on the day of his death.


Who's That Girl?


ph: Sacha Van Dorssen

Photographer: Toni Frissell

Sydney Roper


ph: Zoey Grossman

A day in the life, Jan 10


A day in the life, Jan 10, European robin

Vika Levina


New York


1912 Hotel Plaza, New York

Lily Cole


ph: Sophie Delaporte

First Lines: Nicholas Meyer - The Seven Per-Cent Solution


As I stated in the preamble to "The Final Problem", my marriage and my subsequent start in private practice wrought a subtle but definite alteration in the pattern of my friendship with Sherlock Holmes.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Alma Durand


ph: Jem Mitchell

A day in the life, Jan 9


A day in the life, Jan 9, receding snow

Eloise Opryszko


Deep Impact (1998)


Unless a comet can be destroyed before colliding with Earth, only those allowed into shelters will survive.

Mediocre and quite tedious doomsday movie that makes one long for the apocalypse - and disappoints in that aspect, too.

Halliwell*: "Something of a feel-bad disaster movie, in which the world is almost destroyed, while the audience is slowly drowned in the sticky syrup of sentimentality. What is truly striking is the poverty of imagination: the end of all life is a theme worth more than the trivial psychodramas on display."

Maltin***: "Exciting yarn...Freeman is the rock-solid U.S. president, Duvall a veteran astronaut on a space mission to explode the comet; their authorative presence adds weight to this saga, while Leoni seems a bit of a flyweight as the ambitious TV newswoman who breaks the story."

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Jean Shrimpton


Bounty Killer (2013)

 
 
Bounty killers compete for body count, fame and a fat stack of cash, ending the plague of corporate greed and providing the survivors of the apocalypse with retribution.
 
Ultraviolent  hodgepodge of Mad Max and Tarantino elements (tagline: "The Road Warrior meets Kill Bill") streamlined for a male adolescent audience.