#Isabel Clift

[hotelelectrico]

Sometimes at the end of a year, I'll post stills from ten of my favorite movies that I saw for the first time that year. This year, those movies have something else in common: none of them are currently available to stream or rent online in the US. I rented almost all of these on disc from Scarecrow Video, the world's largest publicly-available video archive. They're in the midst of an important fundraising campaign - please consider renting from them, becoming a member, or donating what you can!

The Heiress (1949, USA, director William Wyler): A suitor (Montgomery Clift!) encourages a rich young woman (Olivia de Havilland!) to assert her independence from her father, but can she trust his motives? Classical Hollywood rarely got more psychologically insightful than in this tense but gorgeous melodrama. On Blu-ray from Criterion.

Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952, USA, dir. Henry King): A young husband is happy to put down small-town roots while his wife dreams of the city. David Lynch says that this was the first movie he ever saw, and you can feel its influence on his work. Wholesome Americana as a force of perpetual destruction to those who dream of anything else. On DVD-R from Fox Archive.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969, USA, dir. Sydney Pollack): Hm, I'm realizing there may be some recurring themes in these, maybe a little bit of cynicism about "capitalism" and "America" and so on. Desperate Depression-era contestants join a nightmarish dance contest for the prospect of guaranteed meals and a cash prize. One of the key films of the New Hollywood movement and a highlight of Jane Fonda's career! On Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

Wicked, Wicked (1973, USA, dir. Richard L. Bare): Okay time for something fun! A cheesy, gimmicky, thoroughly enjoyable psycho-horror shown almost entirely in split-screen "DuoVision". The film makes genuinely interesting and varied use of its core gimmick , but even without it the lurid twists would be a blast to watch. There's even an atrocious but catchy theme song! On DVD-R from Warner Archive.

Man of Marble (1977, Poland, dir. Andrzej Wajda): A driven young documentary filmmaker seeks out the true story of a bricklayer who had been lauded as a proletarian hero decades before. For another change of pace, we have some cynicism about communism instead of capitalism! Agnieszka the filmmaker is one of my favorite characters of the year, because she possesses every admirable trait: a rock-steady moral vision, a fearless investigatory instinct, and a world-class ability to lounge around and sit in odd positions. On DVD from Vanguard. (I saw this through my university library, but Scarecrow has it too!)

The Driver (1978, USA, dir. Walter Hill): A cool-guy-does-cool-car-crimes movie so stripped-down that none of the characters have names or even change outfits. Ryan O'Neal and Isabelle Adjani are as pretty and blank as you could possibly hope for. The car chases rock. It turns out you can strip this whole genre down to just the chassis and it's still immensely satisfying. On Blu-ray from Imprint.

Urgh! A Music War (1982, UK, dir. Derek Burbidge): Punk and new-wave concert footage from some of the greatest acts of the era! And plenty of other people too! Inherently inconsistent, starts and ends rough but there's a stretch in the middle that's nonstop fire. If you don't know and love Klaus Nomi, you need him in your life. If you haven't watched The Cramps' performance from this, you have no idea how low a pair of leather pants can ride or how salaciously a man can treat a microphone, and you need that in your life too. Plus Devo, XTC, OMD, The Go-Gos, Gary Numan (in an adorable little Star Wars car!) - all aces. On DVD-R from Warner Archive.

To Live and Die in LA (1985, USA, dir. William Friedkin): A vital companion piece to Friedkin's landmark The French Connection, with 80s LA sheen replacing 70s NY grit but the dark heart of copdom left completely unchanged. Willem Dafoe is unforgettable as the artist/counterfeiter antagonist. (Fun fact: the counterfeit money used in the film made its way into actual circulation, which earned Friedkin a visit from the Secret Service. He told them to come back with a warrant and they never did. And that's how the greats do it!) On Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, but 4K UHD is also available!

Twilight (1990, Hungary, dir. György Fehér): You know how people who don't watch a lot of international art films think they're all slow, grim, ambiguous black-and-white slogs through Eastern European despair? Well, that's what this is and it rules. It's shot like nothing I've seen before, full of subtle, misty grays, and the plot is about some detectives failing to catch a child murderer. You know if that sounds like your jam or not, and if it does, you're in for a great bad time. On Blu-ray from Arbelos.

I'm a Cyborg, but That's OK (2006, South Korea, dir. Park Chan-wook): "Taking mental illness seriously" doesn't have to mean being dour or even realist. Park Chan-wook is of course one of the best filmmakers in the world, but he's especially good at nailing tricky, ambiguous tones. I'm thinking of the triumphantly salacious end of The Handmaiden, the tragicomic ending of Thirst, the cathartic but sorrowful but etc etc climax of Lady Vengeance - anyway, this movie lives in that realm all the way through. On Blu-ray from Tartan (I think).

[alexlacquemanne]

Mai MMXXIV

Films

Les Trois Jours du Condor (Three Days of the Condor) (1975) de Sydney Pollack avec Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow, John Houseman, Addison Powell, Walter McGinn et Tina Chen

La Loi du silence (I Confess) (1953) d'Alfred Hitchcock avec Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, Roger Dann, Charles Andre, O.E. Hasse et Dolly Haas

Bon Voyage (2003) de Jean-Paul Rappeneau avec Isabelle Adjani, Virginie Ledoyen, Yvan Attal, Grégori Derangère, Gérard Depardieu, Peter Coyote, Jean-Marc Stehlé et Aurore Clément

Complot de famille (Family Plot) (1976) d'Alfred Hitchcock avec Bruce Dern, William Devane, Barbara Harris, Karen Black, Ed Lauter, Cathleen Nesbitt et Katherine Helmond

Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970) de Denis Sanders avec Elvis Presley, Richard Davis, Sammy Davis, Jr, Joe Esposito, Felton Jarvis et Red West

Reivers (The Reivers) (1969) de Mark Rydell avec Steve McQueen, Sharon Farrell, Will Geer, Rupert Crosse, Mitch Vogel, Juano Hernández, Michael Constantine, Burgess Meredith et Diane Ladd

La Belle Espionne (Sea Devils) (1953) de Raoul Walsh avec Yvonne De Carlo, Rock Hudson, Maxwell Reed, Denis O'Dea, Michael Goodliffe, Bryan Forbes, Jacques Brunius et Gérard Oury

L'assassin habite au 21 (1942) de Henri-Georges Clouzot avec Pierre Fresnay, Suzy Delair, Jean Tissier, Pierre Larquey, Noël Roquevert, Odette Talazac, Marc Natol et Louis Florencie

Une aussi longue absence (1961) de Henri Colpi avec Alida Valli, Georges Wilson, Charles Blavette, Amédée, Jacques Harden, Paul Faivre, Catherine Fonteney et Diane Lepvrier

Le Procès Goldman (2023) de Cédric Kahn avec Arieh Worthalter, Arthur Harari, Stéphan Guérin-Tillié, Nicolas Briançon, René Garaud, Aurélien Chaussade, Christian Mazucchini, Jeremy Lewin, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz et Chloé Lecerf

La Vendetta (1962) de Jean Chérasse avec Louis de Funès, Francis Blanche, Marisa Merlini, Olivier Hussenot, Jean Lefebvre, Rosy Varte, Jean Houbé et Christian Mery

Messieurs les Ronds de Cuir (1978) de et avec Daniel Ceccaldi et Claude Dauphin, Raymond Pellegrin, Evelyne Buyle, Roger Carel, Roland Armontel, Bernard Le Coq, Jean-Marc Thibault et Michel Robin

Marcello mio (2024) de Christophe Honoré avec Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Garcia, Fabrice Luchini, Benjamin Biolay et Melvil Poupaud

Opération Opium (Poppies Are Also Flowers) (1966) de Terence Young avec E. G. Marshall, Trevor Howard, Angie Dickinson, Gilbert Roland, Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Georges Géret, Marcello Mastroianni et Anthony Quayle

Viva Maria ! (1965) de Louis Malle avec Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Paulette Dubost, George Hamilton, Claudio Brook, Carlos López Moctezuma et Gregor von Rezzori

Séries

Kaamelott Livre V

Le Phare

Maguy Saison 4

Retour de France - Retour à l'occase départ - Rimes et châtiment - Fugue en elle mineure - Mise aux poings - Vote voltige - St Vincent de Pierre - Courant d'hertz - Un médium et une femme - Retrouvailles, que vaille ! - Parrain artificiel - Infarctus et coutumes - Soupçons et lumières - Dakar, pas Dakar - Impair Noël - Maguy Antoinette - Otages dans le potage - Piqûres de mystique - Nécropole et Virginie - Nitro, ni trop peu - Assassin-glinglin - Le nippon des soupirs - Pas de deux en mêlée - Main basse sur Bretteville - Ski m'aime me suive - Des plaies et des brosses - Polar ménager - Une faim de look - Le bronzage de Pierre - Transport-à porte - En chantier de vous connaître - La fête défaite - Câblé en herbe - L'enjeu de la vérité - Déformation permanente - En deux tanks, trois mouvements - Postes à galère - Prince-moi, je rêve - Science friction - Démission impossible - Lis tes ratures ! - L'infâme de lettres

Affaires sensibles

Apollo 13 : Les naufragés de l’espace - La vraie arrestation du faux Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès - L'assaut sur le Capitole - Trésor de Lava : embrouilles corses - Secte, clonage et soucoupes volantes : voyage aux frontières du Raël - Ils ont enlevé Fangio ! - Guerre du Golfe et fake news - "The Crown", une série royale ou la royauté selon Netflix - La catastrophe de Beaune - Concorde, la Lune et l'ovni - USA-URSS 1972, Guerre Froide sur parquet - Amityville : 28 jours avec le diable - L'affaire Athanor - Coupe du monde 1966, les Nord-Coréens sortent du vestiaire - La véritable histoire de Rabbi Jacob

Coffre à Catch

#155 : Les débuts historiques de Sheamus ! - Hors-série : WWE One Night Stand 2007 - #51 : Randy Orton ≥ Charles Ingalls - #50 : Tommy Dreamer, représentant Decathlon et Jean-Louis David - #52 : Lashley Récupère son Titre ! - #53 : RIP Vince McMahon - #54 : Qui a fait exploser la bagnole de Vince ? - #55 : JOHN CENA EST DANS LA CE-PLA ! - #56 : Le Poison du Catch vu par CM Punk & John Morrison - Hors-série : ECW December to Dismember - #166 : William Regal : un maître du micro !" - #167: Buckle up, Teddy: Chris Agius nous parle de Backlash 2024 ! - #168 : L'épisode des 1000 likes + Tony Atlas" - #169 : Tiffany est de retour et William Regal est fabuleux!

La croisière s'amuse Saison 5

Merci, je ne joue plus - Le Parfait Ex-amour - Enfin libre - L'amour n'est pas interdit - L'amour n'est pas la guerre - La Fête en bateau : première partie - La Fête en bateau : deuxième partie - Une expérience inoubliable : première partie - L'Amour de ses rêves - Les Victimes - Vive papa ! - L'Amour programmé - Ça, c'est une fête ! - Que dire de l'amour ?

The Hour Saison 1

Une heure, une équipe - Une heure de vérité - Une heure, une tentation - Une heure sous haute tension - L'heure de la révolte - Une heure qui change tout

Castle Saison 5, 6

Le Facteur humain - Jeu de dupes - Valkyrie - Secret défense - Pas de bol, y a école ! - Sa plus grande fan - L'avenir nous le dira - Tout un symbole - Tel père, telle fille - Le meurtre est éternel - L'Élève et le Maître - Le Bon, la Brute et le Bébé

Commissaire Moulin Saison 1

Choc en retour - L'Évadé - Marée basse

Totally Spies! Saison 5, 6, 7

Totally Mystère ! - Totalement Versailles : première partie - Totalement Versailles : deuxième partie - Pandapocalypse - Quand c'est trop, c'est Troll !

Meurtres au paradis Saison 13

Face à face - Le troisième passager

Doctor Who Season 1

Space Babies - The Devil's Chord - Boom - 73 Yards

Commissaire Dupin

Le trésor d'Ys

Spectacles

WWE Backlash France (2024) à la LDLC Arena de Lyon-Décines

Chocolat Show ! (2007) avec Olivia Ruiz

Les Faux British (2024) de Henry Lewis et Henry Shields avec Francis Huster, Cristiana Reali, Gwen Aduh, Aurélie de Cazanove, Renaud Castel, Lionel Laget, Jean-Marie Lecoq et Miren Pradier

Jamiroquai : Live in Verona (2002)

David Bowie : Glass Spider Tour (1987)

Livres

Détective Conan, tome 22 de Gôshô Aoyama

Dis-moi ton fantasme de Léa Celle qui aimait

Kaamelott, tome 5 : Le Serpent Géant du Lac de l'Ombre d'Alexandre Astier, Steven Dupré et Benoît Bekaert

Une enquête du commissaire Dupin : Péril en mer d'Iroise de Jean-Luc Bannalec

[personal-reporter]

The Misfits al Forte di Bard

Fino al 17 settembre il Forte di Bard, in Valle d’Aosta,  ospita la mostra The Misfits by Magnum Photographers, curata dal Forte e dell’Agenzia Magnum Photos di Parigi.  L’esposizione ripercorre il dietro le quinte del leggendario film  Gli spostati del 1961, diretto dal regista John Huston e interpretato da Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable e Montgomery Clift. Il cast della pellicola fu scelto per la prima sceneggiatura cinematografica di Arthur Miller, all’epoca marito della celebre diva, e vedeva per la prima e ultima volta insieme sullo schermo Marilyn Monroe e Clark Gable, evento che suscitò l’interesse dell’Agenzia fotografica Magnum Photos che, nell’ambito della strategia promozionale del film, ebbe accesso esclusivo alla produzione. Nel percorso espositivo ci sono gli scatti di nove icone della fotografia mondiale, inviati sul set dall’Agenzia per realizzare un documento storico, come Eve Arnold, Cornell Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, Ernst Haas, Erich Hartmann, Inge Morath e Dennis Stock, con gli attori nella vita sul set, le luci e il paesaggio, fissando per sempre, con immagini di inestimabile valore, i momenti delle riprese e l’atmosfera del set. La mostra attraverso più di 60 straordinarie fotografie non si limita ad essere un reportage del set cinematografico ma è anche l’esposizione di vere e proprie immagini d’arte. Il film racconta la storia della bella Roslyn, da poco divorziata che, grazie all’amica Isabelle, stringe amicizia con due uomini: Gay, un cow boy in attesa del divorzio, e Guido, un valente meccanico. Respinti gli approcci del meccanico, Roslyn sente nascere in sé una viva simpatia per il cow boy che, non è insensibile al fascino della giovane donna, di cui riconosce la profonda sensibilità. Inizia una relazione fra Roslyn e Gay, finché Guido non propone all’amico di partecipare ad una caccia ai cavalli selvaggi. Quando ottiene finalmente una preda molto ambita, la donna convince Gay a lasciare andare l’animale catturato, simbolo di libertà. Il valore della pellicola fu oscurato dalla sorte dei suoi protagonisti e dal gossip che coinvolse il set durante la realizzazione del film, infatti le riprese sarebbero dovute durare circa 50 giorni e invece si protrassero per 4 mesi a causa delle condizioni psicofisiche di Marilyn Monroe, dipendente dai sonniferi e provata dalla fine del matrimonio con Arthur Miller, poi annunciato al termine delle riprese, poi Clark Gable morì 12 giorni dopo la fine delle riprese a causa di un attacco cardiaco e Marilyn morì un anno dopo. Read the full article

[hazelandglasz]

Klaine Soulmate AU: "The first words your true love(s) will say to you are tattooed on you and why the fuck are their first words something really ridiculous like ‘I’ll pay you a tenner to punch me in the face’ or ‘quick what’s your favourite animal’ or ‘fucking shit hell holy fuck wow oh my god jesus h Christ fuck me’ etc." - and I'd really love to see your rendition of the 'punch me' or the 'fuck me' one! ❤

On AO3

Until the age of thirteen, Blaine used to think a lot about his Words. What they would be, if it would be short and sweet or long and heartwarming.

Being a big fan of Disney movies, he hoped for something romantic and meaningful.

For a solid week after his first time watching Aladdin, he hoped for a “do you trust me” to appear on his skin on his thirteenth birthday.

But on the morning of said birthday, when he woke up with a long sentence etched on his skin—around his wrist, like a bracelet—Blaine lost his illusions of romance.

“Oh Wow, Jesus Christ, Fuck. Me.”

Punctuation and all.

What kind of True Love would say that upon meeting him, Blaine wondered as he went to the Soulmate Office to get his cuff. Because that was not romantic, and that was not meaningful either.

When some older boys at his school managed to corner him and remove the cuff, they decided that his Words were blasphemous and beat Blaine until a teacher stopped them.

His parents quickly made him change schools, and that’s how Blaine ended up at Dalton, where there was a strict no-cuff touching policy. But deep in his heart, Blaine resented his True Love.

Why couldn’t their first words be something neutral or at least not something as risqué as “fuck me”?

Over the years, though, when it became obvious for Blaine that his True Love would be another man, he started to feel differently about his Words, and he grew to be excited about them.

Because those words have an obvious meaning: his True Love, wherever he is, will think Blaine is hot upon meeting him.

Blaine is not vain, per se, but it’s good for his sense of self to know that he will be, at some point, one very attractive specimen of a man (especially during the hardest years of teenagehood, when nothing makes sense and it feels like your limbs are not coordinating their growth).

When he arrives in New York, Blaine is lucky enough to find a roommate who takes good care of him. Eliot is slightly older, but he doesn’t mind Blaine’s innocence. He introduces him to the best New York has to offer, and particularly, brings him along on his Saturday night outings.

Blaine doesn’t know how, exactly, Eliot manages to find the best parties in the city, but every Saturday is better than the previous one, allowing him room to dance and mingle and create a social circle of his own.

And yet, Eliot doesn’t seem satisfied. 

“If only I could get Hummel to come with us,” he bemoans, head thrown back over the arm of their couch. “I’m sure you two would hit it off!”

Blaine snickers, preparing himself tea and getting a can of Diet Cherry Coke for Eliot.  “Yeah, sure. Though you do know my motto, don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eliot says, rolling his eyes fondly at his roommate. “Nobody but True Love, I get it. Spoilsport. But still, Kurt and you would make a perfect couple. Of friends,” he adds in a rush before Blaine can protest. “You’d make the best of friends.”

“Hm, sure.”

“Here, let me take a picture of you for him, maybe that will be incentive enough to drag him out of his office.”

“Eliot, come on—”

Click.

“—you’re being ridiculous.”

“And you manage to still look good even though I took a picture mid-sentence. That’s so unfair.”

“Is there a compliment somewhere that I lost on the way to your jealousy?”

“Maybe. Don’t fish for compliments, Blaine, it’s really unattractive.”

“I don’t fish, and you know I am.”

“Cocky.”

“Knowledgeable.”

Eliot bursts out laughing before being interrupted by his phone pinging in his hand. “Well, hm. Kurt will be one of us tonight.”

“What did he say?”

“Like Hell I’m telling you. Just know that he will be at the club, so, you know...”

“Look good?”

“Look amazing.”

---

Kurt loves his Words.

What kind of teenager doesn’t enjoy knowing his True Love will say “Fuck yeah” upon meeting them?

He does wonder what he says to provoke such a response, but if anything, that means his True Love is an enthusiastic one, and a life filled with passion looks like one Kurt would enjoy.

Ever since he arrived in New York, Kurt has met plenty of enthusiastic guys, plenty of passionate people, but none of them said those words upon meeting him.

One said “fuck me,” which could have been close enough, but unfortunately for her, Kurt was decidedly not interested.

Mercedes is still his best friend, though, so it ended up well for all parties involved.

But Kurt is not worried. When it’s time for his True Love to find him, it will be the right time and he will be allowed to let his romantic self thrive in this passionate relationship.

For now, he enjoys his life as a busy New Yorker and builds a circle of friends and acquaintances and chosen family members.

Amongst whom, Mercedes, of course, and Eliot “Pain in The Ass” Gilbert.

(There is nothing that can save Kurt from them when they decide to join forces, but God does he love them.)

And right now, they are both being the most annoying people Kurt ever had to deal with.

“Come out with us.”

“I’m busy.”

“You don’t have a life, come on, just one drink.”

“To paraphrase the good philosopher Iliza Shlesinger, that sentence is the way to the party goblin and I don’t have the time for that.”

“Kuuuuurt!”

“Mercedeeeeees.”

“You’re no fun. What will I do without you to stop me from dancing on a table?”

Kurt glares at the window where Mercedes’ face is pouting at him. “You will dance on a table, sprain your ankle and invade my living room for a couple of weeks to keep me as your nurse.”

Mercedes bursts out laughing. “Doesn’t sound so bad when you put it that way, damn you.”

Kurt smirks. “I know how to make a compelling argument.”

Mercedes sighs and shrugs. “Alright, I give up. If you change your mind, we’ll be at ‘Pumpin’.”

“Classy.” Kurt smiles more gently. “Have fun, ‘Cedes.”

“Will be more fun if you join us! Love you too, boo.”

Mercedes hangs up, and Kurt stares blankly at his screen for a moment. He’s in his twenties, after all. It wouldn’t hurt to go out with his friends, would it?

His eyes land on the rest of the screen, where his article still waits for him to write it.

He has the title, which is already something, but he can’t possibly go out when he has to deliver this piece to Isabelle’s desk before noon tomorrow and it could be his big break to move from P.A. to P.A./Columnist.

With a deep sigh, Kurt returns to his notes in order to write his first draft. If he works quickly, he will be able to rework it and have a final draft to propose to Isabelle before the night is over.

His phone beeps right as he reads through his plan.

“What now,” he mutters, picking it up and opening Eliot’s message.

And then, his words and his breath get stuck in his throat, because…

Because there is no message, per se, just a picture of a man obviously in the middle of a sentence and looking absolutely stunning.

“Kurt Hummel, meet Blaine Anderson,” Eliot sends immediately after the picture.

For months now, Eliot has tried to arrange a meeting between Kurt and his new protégé from NYU, and for months, Kurt has had to excuse himself from all of them.

But now that he sees who this Anderson guy is, Kurt wants to smack his past self.

Holy young Montgomery Clift, is this man handsome or what.

“Are you coming or what?”

Kurt snickers as he types his reply one-handed, saving his work with the other.

“Am about to just from that pic.”

“xflkbdfbhofd”, is Eliot’s interesting reply, followed by the address of the club.

“You win,” Kurt writes, rushing to the magazine’s Closet to snatch a shirt that will elevate his outfit.

He has to make a good first impression. Nay, a memorable first impression.

The Adonis now saved in his phone may not be his True Love, but there is no rule forbidding Kurt to appreciate his aesthetic while he waits for Him to show up.

---

Blaine had his own outfit but one pre-clubbing alcoholic drink on an empty stomach somehow convinced him to let Eliot dress him up, and he barely recognizes himself in the mirror.

He looks awesome. Like the baddest bitch version of himself, sure, but still. Far fetched.

“Own it, Blainey!” Eliot shouts at him as the club’s doors are opened and the music fills their ears.

Instantly following the rhythm, Blaine throws his head back and struts to the dancefloor.

In the distance, somewhere, he hears Mercedes, Eliot and Kitty wolf-whistling for him and he smiles, closing his eyes and throwing the fluffy jacket toward the sound. He slides his hands down his jacket, over the smooth leather and, yes, lives the fantasy.

Eliot is dancing nearby, his hands on some guy’s hips, thus how Blaine hears him calling Kurt’s name.

“Kurt is here!”

Blaine smiles, still shaking and dancing like nobody’s watching (and like he knows everybody is). “I figured!”

“Kurt, over heeeere!”

Blaine chuckles, looking over his shoulder for the newcomer. 

“Oh Wow, Jesus Christ, Fuck. Me.”

Blaine freezes, using his momentum to turn and face the man who just uttered those words.

The man, Kurt, is, without a doubt, the most beautiful man Blaine has ever seen.

Lucky him, if the man is indeed his True Love.

“Fuck yeah,” he manages, taking a step toward Kurt.

Whose eyes—those mesmerizing blue eyes, shining surreally in the strobelights of the club—widen as the words leave Blaine’s lips.

“What did you just say?” he asks, moving closer too.

It’s impossible for them to have this conversation here, on the dancefloor, when the words are only audible because they managed to say them during a lull in the playlist.

Blaine doesn’t hesitate or pause to think about his gesture, he reaches out to take Kurt’s hand and pulls him across the room, toward the more quiet rooms in the back of the club, under Eliot’s laughter.

The whole process feels like it happens in slow motion, but Kurt’s hand solidly grips his, and it’s warm and soft under Blaine’s touch.

Blaine closes the door when they get to the room and smiles at Kurt, the music now only a vague background.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

Kurt’s voice really is as beautiful as Blaine thought when he heard it.

“Can I see your wrist?” Kurt asks, voice soft and shy, in total contradiction with his earlier words.

Blaine may have been influenced by his borrowed outfit until now, but he is feeling a bit nervous himself. “S-sure.”

They both reach for their cuffs at the same time. Blaine holds his arm up, next to Kurt’s.

Sure enough, Blaine’s Words and Kurt’s respond to each other in a perfect conversation.

Well, perfect—perfect for them, it would seem.

“I am really sorry,” Kurt says, a blush appearing on his face. “I am not that crass, usually. It’s just—you were just, I mean you are so—wow.”

Blaine scratches the back of his neck. “This isn’t my usual way to dress,” he mutters. “Eliot insisted.”

“I knew I recognized that waistcoat,” Kurt laughs, gesturing at Blaine’s top. “Though I feel like you inhabit it way better than him. Don’t tell him I said that,” he adds precipitously, making Blaine laugh.

“I am really glad I found you,” he says, still giggling, before he can stop himself.

Kurt blinks and smiles so tenderly at him that Blaine feels like they just had the most sensual experience while still being dressed. “Me too,” he replies simply, holding up his hand.

Blaine immediately takes it, letting Kurt pull him closer.

“Can I kiss you?” he asks, brushing his knuckles along Kurt’s jaw.

“Fuck yeah,” Kurt breathes with a smile Blaine cannot wait to taste any longer.

In total contradiction of their first exchange, the kiss is soft and tentative and gentle and, yes, romantic.

Blaine lets his lips slide against Kurt’s, happy to kiss him this way forever if he is allowed to, until Kurt reaches for his cheek, tilting his head to the side and opening his mouth to caress Blaine’s with his tongue.

Blaine moans into the kiss, placing his hands on Kurt’s waist to get him as close as humanly possible while keeping upright. Truth be told, the kiss is so earth-shattering that Blaine’s knees are close to buckling.

Kurt’s hand on his cheek is still soft, but the one on his shoulder tightens its grip.

Blaine pulls away because, in this moment, as much as he enjoys kissing Kurt, he needs to see Kurt.

“Hey,” he says breathlessly as they part, caressing Kurt’s cheek until he reaches to cup the back of his head, bringing their foreheads together. “There you are.”

[deepartnature]

The Misfits - written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston (1961)

“The Misfits is a 1961 American drama western film written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift. The supporting cast features Thelma Ritter, Eli Wallach and Kevin McCarthy. The Misfits was the last completed film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. For Gable, the film was posthumously released, while Monroe died in 1962. The plot centers on a newly divorced woman (Marilyn Monroe) and her time in Reno and Northern Nevada, spent with her friendly landlady Isabelle Steers (Thelma Ritter), an old school cowboy (Clark Gable), the cowboy's tow truck-driving and plane-flying friend (Eli Wallach) and their rodeo-riding, bronc-busting friend (Montgomery Clift) in Dayton, Nevada, and in the western Nevada desert in 1960. ... The making of The Misfits was troublesome on several accounts, not the least of which was the sometimes 100 °F (38 °C) heat of the northern Nevada desert and the breakdown of Monroe's marriage to writer Arthur Miller. Miller revised the script throughout the shoot as the concepts of the film developed. Meanwhile, while her marriage to Arthur Miller had issues, Marilyn Monroe was drinking too much after work, and was using prescription drugs; according to Huston in a 1981 retrospective interview, he was ‘absolutely certain that she was doomed’ a conclusion he reached while working on the film. ... Huston shut down production in August 1960 when Monroe went to a hospital for relaxation and depression treatment. ...”

Wikipedia

The City Review

“John Huston’s The Misfits is a studious, daring vision of American life depicting the same type of protagonists that always appealed to the great filmmaker—people who could be easily called losers, but whose streak of idealism and hopefulness, in the midst of their isolating displacement, makes them attractive and quite easily relatable for the audience. The status of this 1961 drama gained an additional burst by the fact that it was the last film Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe ever worked on, but its value hardly lies in trivialities like this. The main strengths of Huston’s celebrated film can be found in superb acting by Monroe, Gable, Montgomery Clift and Thelma Ritter, as well as Arthur Miller’s genuinely inspired script and director of photography Russell Metty’s astonishing black-and-white visuals. In its production phase, the film basically had to go through hell. ...”

John Huston’s ‘The Misfits’ stands tall as a pearl of the sixties which isn’t going to fade into public oblivion any time soon (Video)

‘The Misfits,’ Marilyn Monroe’s final film, is bleak perfection

amazon

YouTube: The Misfits trailer, "I want you to meet my kids", "Too Afraid To Die, Too Afraid To Live", The Tragedy of The Misfits ||| Video Essay

YouTube: Marilyn Monroe And The  Making Of  "The Misfits"  -  Documentary 54:13

2012 June: Before Air-Conditioning (1998), 2014 December: The Crucible (1953), 2015 December: A View from the Bridge (1955), 2016 January: Arthur Miller’s Brooklyn, 2017 October: Death of a Salesman (1949), 2019 August: The Chelsea Affect

[mifunebooty]

Top 10 favorite actors/actresses

I originally was gonna make 2 separate lists of actors men and women but i realize 1) thats probably not what u asked and 2) would be a lot of time to do so im gonna put 5 actors of men and women

1. Toshiro Mifune

2. Machiko kyô

3. Viola Davis

4. Edward James Olmos

5. Montgomery Clift

6. Ellen burnstyn idk if i said her name she's from alice doesn't live here anymore and king of marvin gardens she's so talented

7. Joaquin Phoenix

8. Daniel Day Lewis

9. Isabelle Adjani

10. Totally forgetting but here's for Amy Adams

[chiseler]

THE CINEMA OF SEEING

It is said that stars do not need scripts or mere stories to thoroughly inhabit a motion picture. Histories without language, or even thought, quiver behind their eyes. Their presence—ineffable, diaphanous, seductive—provides the audience a beacon to follow a prefabricated narrative to its only meaningful conclusion. Outside the realm of this splendid cosmology, movies that rely on actors and 'acting,' the common tools of theater, tend to miss the mark when these metaphysics come into play.

There are eyes that photograph as soulful, as opposed to merely expressive—allowing the onlooker a glimpse into the funnel end of eternity. Think Robert Mitchum and Humphrey Bogart, whose eyes invite inquiry into the unwritten histories behind them. If the eyes are the windows of the soul, great movie stars are constantly defenestrating their spirit essence right down the lens. Joan Crawford could scrub bathtubs by merely gazing at them. And that wonk-eyed Siamese sex cat, Karen Black, disturbed us with a revelation. 

Eyes are pieces of your brain sprouted to the surface to have a look around, mere sensory devices that reflexively absorb visual data for their biological hosts. Terrestrial-based actors rely on them to signal their characters’ intent and motives. Stars, on the other hand, use them to simply erase what their thespian counterparts aspire to imitate. 

Consider screen goddess Barbara Steele, whose famed peepers hint at the corrosive void that has replaced her soul. They offer a brief glimpse at the corrupted flesh beneath an unblemished alabaster encasement. Steele photographs like a glistening statue betrayed by all those who gaze upon it, as if some monument to classicism were startled into bitter sentience, or unwanted Keatsian fever. Her marble-white flesh remains an aesthetic plea for the proscenium arch's return to drama, and her columnar bearing and soaring height fused her to the monochrome of director Mario Bava's cursed pasteboard castles. This was the monster wrought by Italian genre horror: a theatrical form of the archaic. A wraith howling at a paper moon. 

Steele was made to inhabit the precise screen persona crafted by necromancer Riccardo Freda in The Horrible Doctor Hitchcock: a subterranean passageway, falling off into shadow. A pale figure glows from the gloom. But her coal-black eyes offer a glimpse of another, darker pit. Actually green, they often appear unlit on film, at times evoking in Steele a slinky pneumatic tadpole. 

Another beauty: eyes so blue they seem painted on, doll’s eyes in porcelain, only the mouth, naturally downturned, would not suit a toy—not one for children anyway. Her father told her she was ugly. As if suspecting the vampirism to which she would eventually succumb in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu, the Vampyre, he banned mirrors from the house so she would have no way of checking. Perhaps this lack of assurance in her own astonishing beauty accounts for why Isabelle Adjani wears it so lightly.

Adjani might be the only mortal to ever really expose the fearful and infernal beast sometimes described as “the human condition.” In Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, her eyes concretize absence as they harden into lapis stones, an angry gaggle of archetypes shoots through them. A dank, garbage-strewn subway tunnel serves as a fitting backdrop to a solitary ritual to excise the human shell from its demonic tenants within. 

Eyes are squidgy and vulnerable, which we try not to think about, but when they grow a little too large they remind us of their jelly-fish nature, beaming amphibious opportunism from Peter Lorre. Or the anguish of seeing nullity, out of which Montgomery Clift made a career. Going hairless in Mad Love (1935), Lorre turned his whole head into an eyeball, like one of The Residents, his actual eyes staring fixedly from it like little brothers. If Georges Bataille's pornographic masterpiece The Story of the Eye could be transmuted, its words made flesh, the mere presence of Lorre would give us, in a single figure, the book's weird flux of biological motifs: eggs/testicles/eyes. A living metaphor.Hollywood has taken avant-garde notions beyond metaphor. 

Beyond the bounds of routine physics the star is an eye projecting dark matter instead of light.

by Daniel Riccuito

Additional writing by Jennifer Matsui, David Cairns, and Tom Sutpen

[phantomthread]

do you know of any movies or music ddl likes?

Thank you anon for sending this question back. I think I mayhave accidentally deleted the first ask since I couldn’t find it in my drafts or myqueue and for that I am so sorry. I love this question because it gives me the opportunityto do some research and discover/rediscover many things about him. However thistask turned out to be harder than I thought since my memory is blurry, mybookmarking system is messy and DDL’s retirement news pretty much drowned many specific articles that I’m looking for.

MOVIES

Daniel Day-Lewis is a film fanatic. He loves wandering intoa cinema and taking pot luck with whatever is on (I laughed whenever peopletweeted they thought they just saw DDL queued behind them at movies). He loves even bad movies and likes to analyze thework of actors past and present. However, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the listof his favorite films although he always talks passionately about thosewhose work he most admires like Montgomery Clift and Charles Laughton. So I gatheredsome pieces from his interviews and articles and hopefully it will give yousome insight into what kind of films DDL likes.  

He is intrigued by all kinds of performances.

DDL reveres the greats likeMarlon Brando and Robert De Niro. He dislikes John Wayne, loves Gary Cooper andprefers the Jimmy Stewart of Capra’s classic pictures to the Stewart of AnthonyMann’s westerns.

He saw Taxi Driver at least five times when it firstcame out.

In 1976, when he was 19,Daniel Day-Lewis saw Taxi Driver.

“It was a real illumination. Isaw Taxi Driver five or six times in the first week, and I was astonished byits sheer visceral beauty. I just kept going back – I didn’t know America, butthat was a glimpse of what America might be, and I realised that, contrary toexpectation, I wanted to tell American stories.”

He is fascinated by Clint Eastwood.

“I used to go to all-nightscreenings of his movies. I’d stagger out at 5 in the morning, trying to beloose-limbed and mean and taciturn.”

Ken Loach is the biggest influence in his life.

“I am rather surprised that Ihaven’t made more stories about my own country but it is a mistake to suggestthat the biggest influence on my life in terms of movies has been America. Itwas and remains Ken Loach and his whole body of work, not that I have everworked with him. There is something unique and pure about the way he works,without a taint on it. His beliefs have remained unwavering since he made CathyCome Home.”

He gave Carey Mulligan a personal note for the movieAn Education.

When describing the gift from Daniel Day-Lewis, sheexplains:

“He wrote me this beautiful handwritten note a couple weeks afterwards just saying how nice it was to meet me andthat he’d like An Education. His penmanship was beautiful. The note was themost beautiful thing. If my house was burning down, I would save that. It is soprecious.”

“If….” is his major earlyinfluence 

When asked about a movie he saw when he was young that made himsay, “This is what I’ve got to do with my life”, Daniel mentioned seeing themovie “If…” about a rebellion at a British boarding school, withMalcolm McDowell.

“Certainly that was a very important moment, but not just because of Malcolm inthat film. It was partly because I was at aboarding school at the time, and if I could have got away with setting fire tothe place, I would have done it. And he created a banner around which all theoutcasts rallied, and so that film was a big influence.” 

 MUSIC

Some of these are really shocking since it’s hard to imaginewhat kind of music DDL listens to so prepare yourself.

Eminem

This is one of my favorite DDL’s legendary tales. For Gangsof New York, DDL listened to the music of Eminem to get intohis character, the infamously violent leader of the Natives gang, Bill theButcher.

“Yes, every morning around five, especially the song“The Way I Am.” I’ve admired him for a while. I’m always on thelookout for music that might be helpful to a role. It bypasses the intellect ina particular way. With this film, I realized I was listening to Eminem morethan usual.”

Classical music

He listens to Bach.

Folk music

In one interview, whiledriving up the Wicklow Mountains, DDL slid a CD of Irish folk music bythe band Planxty into the sound system, and the writer said the car was filledwith layers of mandolins and guitars while DDL said:

“Nothing I say will be more eloquent than this music.” 

(he loves not talking during interview) ;D

Snoop Dogg

This is the transcript from an interview with DDL back in2003.

Q: What other music have you used to prepare for roles?DDL: SinéadO'Connor certainly has helped me. Bach. Nirvana. Snoop Dogg.

Q: That’s funny, I’m interviewing him tomorrow.DDL: Are you! Will you, from this great distance, pay my respects? He won’tknow who the fuck I am, but I think he’s very cool.

Jimi Hendrix

This is coming from his first son with Isabelle Adjani, Gabriel-KaneDay-Lewis:

“The first album I ever listened to was ‘Purple Haze’ byJimi Hendrix; my dad gave it to me on my tenth birthday. My mom flippedout! I know there’s a lot of sex, drugs, and rock & roll all incorporatedin his music, but there’s something I loved about that kind of rock & roll.It was so raw, and so authentic — it really spoke to me. My music is definitelysoul, folk-oriented, and acoustic, though. “

We also knew he went to Adele concert with his son 

andto Bruce Springsteen’s as well and hung out with him in Italy with Steven Spielberg. 

[culturizando]

#UnDíaComoHoy: 17 de octubre en la historia

El 17 de octubre es el día 289º día del año. Quedan 75 días para finalizar el año. Te presentamos una lista de eventos importantes que ocurrieron un día como hoy 17 octubre.

-Hoy se conmemora el Día Internacional para la Erradicación de la Pobreza. En 1992, la Asamblea General de la Organización de las NacionesUnidas declaró el 17 de octubre como Día Internacional para la Erradicación de la Pobreza, con el objeto de crear conciencia en la importancia de eliminar la pobreza y la indigencia en todos los países, en particular en aquellos en desarrollo. Asimismo, el 21 de diciembre de 1993, la Asamblea General proclamó 1996 como Año Internacional para la Erradicación de la Pobreza y decidió que las principales actividades relacionadas con dicho año, se llevasen a cabo en los planos, local, nacional e internacional.

-535 a. C.: Ciro II el Grande rey de Persia marcha a Babilonia, liberando a los judíos de casi 70 años de exilio.

-1760: nace en París (Francia) Claude Henri de Rouvroy, conde de Saint Simon, filósofo y reformador social. Según sus ensayos, la política deberá ser la ciencia que desarrollará la producción, base de la sociedad y única solución al problema social.

-1849: muere Frédéric Chopin, compositor polaco. Adscrito al movimiento romántico, considerado como uno de los más grandes compositores de música para piano. En total se conocen 246 obras musicales de Chopin, 156 de ellas fueron publicadas en vida del compositor, agrupadas en 65 Opus y las restantes 90 han sido descubiertas y publicadas póstumamente.

-1884: Se resuelve que desde el primero de mayo de 1886 la jornada laboral debe ser de 8 horas. Esto genera el crimen de Chicago.

-1918: nace Rita Hayworth, actriz de cine estadounidense. Rita Hayworth fue una de las actrices más emblemáticas de la época dorada del cine estadounidense. Además de ser símbolo sexual indiscutible de la década de 1940, ocupa el puesto 19º en la lista de las grandes estrellas del Séptimo Arte.

-1919: Se inaugura el Metro de Madrid.

-1920: nace Montgomer Clift, actor estadounidense. Debutó en Broadway a los trece años, allí Clift obtuvo éxito en los escenarios y actuó durante diez años antes de viajar a Hollywood, debutando en Río Rojo (1948), con John Wayne. Clift y su rival en la pantalla, Marlon Brando, que casualmente nació en la misma ciudad —Omaha, Nebraska— fueron conocidos popularmente en Hollywood como «los gemelos de oro», por su rápido ascenso al estrellato.

-1931: Al Capone, gánster estadounidense, es sentenciado a 11 años de prisión por evadir impuestos. Alphonse Gabriel Capone, fue quizás el gángster más famoso, nacido en Brooklyn en 1899. Criado en las calles, muy joven fue un miembro activo de las feroces bandas como los ‘destripadores de Brooklyn’ y los ‘Cuarenta pequeños ladrones’. La única manera que tuvieron las autoridades de consignar a Al Capone, fue acusarlo de evasión fiscal, en 1931. Purgó su condena en la isla de Alcatraz hasta ser liberado en 1939.

-1938: nace Evel Knievel, motociclista de acrobacias estadounidense. Fue un popular motociclista de acrobacias de la década de los 60 y 70 del siglo XX. Una de sus más famosas hazañas fue la de haber intentado saltar el Cañón Snake River en Idaho en 1974. Fueron relevantes también sus aparatosas caídas al aterrizar de sus saltos, las cuales, sin embargo, no le impidieron seguir con su carrera de espectáculos.

-1956: en el Reino Unido, la Reina Isabel II de Inglaterra inaugura la primera central nuclear comercial del mundo en Calder Hall. Dejará de funcionar en marzo de 2003.

-1968: nace Ziggy Marley, músico jamaicano ganador de un Grammy. Es el hijo mayor de Rita Marley y Bob Marley, el legendario cantante de reggae.

-1972: nace Marshall Bruce Mathers III conocido por su nombre artístico Eminem y también por su alter ego “Slim Shady”, es un MC, rapero, productor discográfico y actor estadounidense. Se hizo popular en 1999 con su álbum de estudio The Slim Shady LP, que ganó un premio Grammy por Mejor Álbum de Rap. Su siguiente álbum, The Marshall Mathers LP, se convirtió en el álbum de hip hop más vendido de la historia.

-1979: la Madre Teresa de Calcuta recibe el Premio Nobel de la Paz por el «trabajo emprendido en la lucha por superar la pobreza y la angustia, que también constituyen una amenaza para la paz». La Madre Teresa se rehusó a asistir al banquete ceremonial ofrecido a los premiados y pidió que los fondos de 192 mil USD se entregaran a los pobres de la India. Al recibir el reconocimiento hizo una férrea crítica al aborto.

-1983: nace Felicity Jones, actriz británica. Conocida por participar en flims como Amazing Spider-Man 2, Like Crazy, The Theory of Everything, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, entre otras.

-1985: nace Max Irons, actor Inglés. Conocido por ser parte del elenco de Red Riding Hood, The Host, The Riot Club, entre otras. Max es hijo del reconocido actor británico Jeremy Irons y la actriz irlandesa Sinéad Cusack.

-2004: Venezuela, un incendio deja parcialmente destruida la torre este de ‘Parque Central’.

-2006: en Estados Unidos nace el habitante 300 millones.

La entrada #UnDíaComoHoy: 17 de octubre en la historia aparece primero en culturizando.com | Alimenta tu Mente.

[fotografobcn]

Exposición Norman Parkinson: Siempre con estilo

Exposición Norman Parkinson: Siempre con estilo

Lugar: Fundación Barrié. Cantón Grande, 9. 15003 A Coruña

Fechas: 10 de octubre 2019 – 19 de enero de 2020

Jóvenes Terciopelos, Precios Jóvenes, Moda en Sombreros, Vogue EE.UU., Octubre de 1949 © Norman Parkinson Archive / Cortesía de Iconic Images

La Fundación Barrié acoge, en primicia para España, la exposición retrospectiva Norman Parkinson: siempre con estilo. La exposición ha sido comisariada por Terence Pepper, que fue Comisario de Fotografía en la National Portrait Gallery de Londres durante más de 40 años y ofrece una generosa retrospectiva de la influyente carrera de Parkinson, mostrando 80 fotos que reflejan la transformación de la moda femenina y que contribuyeron a dar forma al modo en que ésta se comunicó al público durante varias décadas.

Conocido por su conjunto artístico innovador y único, Norman Parkinson fue partícipe de las transformaciones que tuvieron lugar en la fotografía de moda del siglo XX. Desarrolló su propio estilo distintivo a lo largo de una carrera de 56 años, comenzando a fotografiar en la década de los 30 y trabajando sin pausa hasta su fallecimiento en 1990.

Sus imágenes capturan el estilo del siglo XX; desde la Gran Bretaña de la década de los 30 y la austera moda de la 2ª Guerra Mundial, el Nuevo Look parisino de los años 50 y el Swinging London de los 60, hasta el glamour y brillo de los años 70 y 80.

Parkinson ganó el reconocimiento en sus primeros años al trabajar con un estilo alternativo y poco convencional, al revolucionar la fotografía desplazando a sus modelos femeninas del medio estático, serio y controlado del estudio fotográfico a escenarios de la vida real y lugares exóticos. Este estilo dinámico y espontáneo atrajo la atención de numerosas revistas de moda, entre las que se incluían Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue y Town & Country, lo que supuso su reconocimiento internacional.

Con esta exposición, la Fundación Barrié prosigue su apuesta por su línea de exposiciones temporales dedicada a clásicos y contemporáneos de la fotografía, que ha permitido mostrar las imágenes de grandes fotógrafos como Paul Strand, Arnold Newman, Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Català-Roca, Caio Reisewitz o, más recientemente, Graciela Iturbide.

Durante el transcurso de la exposición, la Fundación Barrié organizará una serie de actividades complementarias, entre ellas talleres didácticos para centros de enseñanza, colectivos de diversidad funcional y familias.

Raquel Welch, Vogue EE.UU., 1967 © Norman Parkinson Archive / Cortesía de Iconic Images

La exposición

La muestra incluye fotografías de las diferentes fases de la carrera del artista. La foto de 1939 de la modelo Pamela Minchin tomada en el aire y con un bañador de Fortnum & Mason en la Isla de Wight (Inglaterra) para Harper’s Bazaar ejemplifica el estilo atrevido de Parkinson. Él dijo de esa imagen con posterioridad: “Cuando retiré esa foto de la ‘sopa’ me confirmó que tenía que dedicar el resto de mi vida a ser fotógrafo. Me quedé totalmente deslumbrado por su magia.”

Durante las décadas de los 40 y 50, Parkinson comenzó una larga fase de colaboración con Vogue, produciendo imágenes que sugerían una narrativa, como podemos observar en Young Velvets (Young Velvets, Young Prices, Nueva York, Vogue, 1949), que presenta a cuatro modelos con sombrero ante el fondo de los rascacielos neoyorquinos. También durante esta época surgen imágenes de su esposa y musa Wenda Parkinson, que llegó a ser una de las principales modelos de la época.

En los años 60 y 70 sucedieron importantes cambios de estilo de vida pero Parkinson supo mantenerse reinventando su estilo y estando al día de la generación emergente de fotógrafos y modelos. A lo largo de la década de los 60, Parkinson siguió hallando nuevos rostros y empezó a trabajar con la revista The Queen. En la década de los 70, sus imágenes ayudaron a aupar a nuevas modelos como Jerry Hall e Iman al estatus de superestrellas. A lo largo de este periodo de 20 años, Parkinson realizó fotos icónicas de The Rolling Stones y The Beatles, y de diseñadores de moda como Yves St. Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Jean Muir y Zandra Rhodes.

Los años 80 estuvieron marcados por el nombramiento por la Reina de Inglaterra de C.B.E. (Comandante del Imperio Británico) y por una serie de nuevos retratos encargados para una gran exposición retrospectiva en la National Portrait Gallery de Londres.

Norman Parkinson- Biografía

Ronald William Parkinson Smith nació el 21 de abril de 1913 en Londres. Asistió a la Westminster School donde desarrolló su interés por el arte. Después de su educación formal, Parkinson fue aprendiz del fotógrafo Richard N. Speaight en Londres, donde dominó las técnicas fotográficas. En 1934 abrió su propio estudio en Dover Street, frente al Hotel Ritz, con otro joven fotógrafo llamado Norman Kibblewhite. Combinaron sus nombres para crear un seudónimo profesional y, a pesar de que la asociación con Kibblewhite no duró mucho, Parkinson decidió mantener el nombre.

La primera exposición de la obra de Parkinson tuvo lugar en 1935, incluyendo obras importantes como su retrato de Vivien Leigh. Trabajó con estilos diversos para numerosas revistas, tales como The Bystander, The Sketch y Tatler. Su trabajo con la moda llegó a publicarse en la edición británica de Harper’s Bazaar, donde fue considerado un pionero del “realismo de acción”.

A lo largo de seis décadas, varios cientos de fotos hechas por Parkinson fueron publicadas en las principales revistas de moda, tales como Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The Queen y el Town & Country de Hearst. Fotografió a modelos como Wenda Rogerson (con la que se casaría más tarde), Barbara Goalen, Jean Shrimpton, Celia Hammond, Jill Kennington, Twiggy, Nena Von Schlebrügge, Jerry Hall e Iman. Motivos del mundo de Hollywood incluyen retratos de intérpretes como Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner y Katherine Hepburn, mientras que la lista de figuras de los mundos de la moda, literatura, música y política es aún más extensa.

Los logros de Parkinson fueron reconocidos por la Reina Isabel II que le otorgó en 1981 el título de C.B.E. (Comandante del Imperio Británico). El mismo año, también fue honrado con una gran exposición retrospectiva en la National Portrait Gallery de Londres. En la exposición se incluían una serie de nuevos retratos encargados que fueron completados por piezas destacadas de su obra para la revista Town & Country de Hearst, para la cual trabajó continuamente hasta el final de su carrera. Entre sus obras tardías más exitosas se encuentran los retratos de Carmen Dell’Orefice, aún una modelo de renombre internacional, cuya carrera contribuyó a relanzar en 1980 y con la que trabajó durante 40 años. Norman Parkinson falleció en Malasia en febrero de 1990.

Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), fotografiada en La Vigna, la villa de Hepburn a las afueras de Roma, Glamour, Diciembre de 1955 © Norman Parkinson Archive / Cortesía de Iconic Images

Terence Pepper, comisario de la exposición

A pesar de que Pepper comenzó su carrera en el Derecho, pronto se trasladó a las artes. Tras finalizar un postgrado en Biblioteconomía en la Universidad Politécnica de Ealing, y trabajar durante un año con la Colección Mansell, se unió a la National Portrait Gallery en 1975, y tres años después se hizo comisario de fotografía. A continuación llegó a ser el Director de Fotografías de la galería.

En 1981 comisarió su primera exposición principal –Norman Parkinson: 50 años de retratos y moda- que se mostró también en formato abreviado en Sotheby’s y la National Academy of Design de Nueva York. En sus más de 40 años en la National Portrait Gallery, Terence Pepper fue comisario en más de 150 exposiciones de fotografía, entre las que se incluyen Helmut Newton: retratos y Alice Springs: retratos (1988), seguidas por su investigación sobre la primera monográfica sobre Lewis Morley, Lewis Morley: fotógrafo de los 60 (1989). Editó y es co-autor de un libro junto a John Kobal sobre el fotógrafo de la MGM Clarence Sinclair Bull, The Man Who Shot Garbo, que se convirtió en modelo para una serie de exposiciones exitosas, entre las que se incluyen: Horst: retratos (2001), Beaton: retratos (2004) y, más recientemente, Man Ray: retratos (2013-2014), presentada en la Scottish National Portrait Gallery de Edimburgo y en la Pushkin Gallery de Moscú. Entre sus exposiciones más recientes se encuentran Audrey Hepburn: retratos de un icono, en la National Portrait Gallery de Londres (2015), James Abbe: fotógrafo de la edad del jazz, en el Fashion and Textile Museum de Londres (2016) y Graham Keen: 1966 y todo eso, en la Lucy Bell Gallery de St. Leonard, GB (2016).

Terence Pepper recibió la O.B.E. (Orden del Imperio Británico) por sus servicios a la fotografía y al arte en 2002. Es Miembro Honorario de la Royal Photographic Society y recibió el premio al “Servicio Excelente a la Fotografía” en 2014. Actualmente, Pepper es consultor fotográfico y Asesor Sénior Especial sobre Fotografía en el Fashion and Textile Museum de Londres donde fue co-comisario de una exposición sobre Louise Dahl-Wolfe con cuatro presentaciones fotográficas en el marco de la exposición Night and Day: Fashion and Photographs of the 1930s, así como de exposiciones dedicadas a Mary Quant. Asimismo Pepper es co-autor de dos nuevos libros para Iconic Images sobre Norman Parkinson (Agosto 2019) en colaboración con Alex Anthony y, sobre Audrey Hepburn (Octubre 2019) con Carrie Kania.

Alex Anthony, co-comisaria de la exposición

Alex Anthony es una consultora de archivo, comisaria e investigadora que trabaja con colecciones de moda y fotografía. Se formó como fotógrafa y artista y ha trabajado con archivos, galerías, artistas y diseñadores contemporáneos durante la última década, colaborando estrechamente con instituciones artísticas, museos, académicos, marcas, editores y productores para revelar aquellas historias que cuentan las imágenes y los archivos. Sus áreas particulares de interés son las colecciones de los fotógrafos británicos Norman Parkinson (1913-1990) y Terence Donovan (1936-1996).

Pamela Minchin, Harper’s Bazaar, Julio de 1939 © Norman Parkinson Archive / Cortesía de Iconic Images

Iconic Images

Iconic Images posee y representa los archivos de fotógrafos célebres de clase internacional, tales como Terry O’Neill, Norman Parkinson, Milton H. Greene, Terence Donovan y Douglas Kirkland, creando exposiciones que viajan internacionalmente, consignando y vendiendo grabados de bellas artes a más de 30 galerías de todo el mundo y realizando colaboraciones con marcas de moda de lujo, además de publicar libros y licenciar imágenes editoriales a los principales periódicos, documentales y revistas del mundo.

Nuestros singulares archivos contienen imágenes históricas e icónicas de la vanguardia del cine, moda, fama, música, deporte, política y realeza hechas por fotógrafos que fueron pioneros en su campo. El archivo contiene las colecciones mayores del mundo de David Bowie, Elton John, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hemdrix, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles y Led Zeppelin. Cubre el universo de la fotografía de moda desde finales de la década de los 30 hasta la actualidad, así como el mundo de la política, desde Winston Churchill y John F. Kennedy hasta Nelson Mandela. (www.iconicimages.net)

Más info: www.fundacionbarrie.org

El post Exposición Norman Parkinson: Siempre con estilo fue publicado por primera vez en DNG Photo Magazine.

https://ift.tt/2GMk317 via Fotografo Barcelona

[alexlacquemanne]

Décembre MMXXI

Films

Le Diable par la queue (1969) de Philippe de Broca avec Yves Montand, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jean Rochefort, Maria Schell et Marthe Keller

Ave, César ! (Hail, Caesar!) (2016) de Joel et Ethan Coen avec Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes et Tilda Swinton

Les Désaxés (The Misfits) (1961) de John Huston avec Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach et Thelma Ritter

West Side Story (2021) de Steven Spielberg avec Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist et Rita Moreno

Le Regard de Charles (2019) de Marc di Domenico avec Charles Aznavour et Romain Duris

La Comtesse aux pieds nus (The Barefoot Contessa) (1954) de Joseph L. Mankiewicz avec Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Valentina Cortese, Marius Goring et Rossano Brazzi

Dies iræ (2003) d'Alexandre Astier avec Tony Saba, Thomas Cousseau, Lionnel Astier, Alexis Hénon, Nicolas Gabion, Franck Pitiot, Jean-Christophe Hembert, Jean-Robert Lombard et Jacques Chambon

La Seconde Vérité (1966) de Christian-Jaque avec Michèle Mercier, Robert Hossein, André Luguet, Bernard Tiphaine et Pascale de Boysson

Tout le monde il est beau, tout le monde il est gentil (1972) de Jean Yanne avec Jean Yanne, Bernard Blier, Michel Serrault, Marina Vlady, Jacques François, Jacqueline Danno, Daniel Prévost et Ginette Garcin

Momo (2017) de Sébastien Thiéry et Vincent Lobelle avec Christian Clavier, Catherine Frot, Sébastien Thiéry et Pascale Arbillot

La Course au jouet (Jingle All the Way) (1996) de Brian Levant avec Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Phil Hartman et Rita Wilson

Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) (1973) de Wolfgang Reitherman avec Dominique Paturel, Claude Bertrand, Philippe Dumat, Jean Martinelli, Roger Carel, Michèle André et Pierre Tornade

À la recherche de la Panthère rose (Trail of the Pink Panther) (1982) de Blake Edwards avec Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Joanna Lumley, David Niven et Capucine

Les Morfalous (1984) d'Henri Verneuil avec Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Constantin, Marie Laforêt, Michel Creton et Jacques Villeret

Soupçons (Suspicion) (1941) d'Alfred Hitchcock avec Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty et Isabel Jeans

L'Aventure du Poséidon (The Poseidon Adventure) (1972) de Ronald Neame avec Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Stella Stevens et Shelley Winters

Séries

Columbo Saison 7, 3, 1, 8

Jeu de mots - Adorable mais dangereuse - Attente - Grandes manœuvres et petits soldats

Doctor Who Series 13

Le Jour du docteur - Chapter Six: The Vanquishers

Les Enquêtes de Vera Saison 11

La voie de la guérison

Le Coffre à Catch

#52 : Lashley Récupère son Titre ! - #53 : RIP Vince McMahon - #54 : Qui a fait exploser la bagnole de Vince ? - #55 : JOHN CENA EST DANS LA CE-PLA !

Top Gear Saison 19, 17, 13, 12, 16

1500 km a fond de 5ème - La Vallée de la mort - Les rois de la pub ! - La fiesta dans tous ses états - La voiture imbattable - Véhicule lunaire

Le Voyageur Saison 2

La Maison sous le vent

The Grand Tour Saison 3, 4

Chinois ou chez moi ? - The Grand Tour présente… Carnage à Trois

Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie Saison 3

Le Vallon - Mourir sur scène

Kaamelott Livre I

L'interprète - La queue du scorpion - Le discobole - Un roi à la taverne - Le Sixième Sens - Arthur et la Question - De retour de Judée - La Botte secrète - L’Assassin de Kaamelott - Le Trois de cœur - Basidiomycètes - L’Imposteur - Compagnons de chambrée - La Grotte de Padraig - Ambidextrie - Raison d’argent - La Romance de Lancelot - Merlin et les Loups - Le Cas Yvain - L’Adoubement - Arthur et les Ténèbres - Le Zoomorphe - La Coccinelle de Madenn - Patience dans la plaine - Le Oud - Le Code de chevalerie - Le Duel - L'Invasion viking - La Bataille rangée - La Romance de Perceval - Les Funérailles d'Ulfin - Le Chevalier femme - La Carte - Le Repas de famille - Le Répurgateur - Le Labyrinthe - Létal - Azénor - Le Sort de rage - Les Nouveaux Frères - Enluminures - Haunted - Le Secret de Lancelot - Le Serpent géant - Guenièvre et les Oiseaux - Le Dernier Empereur - Perceval relance de quinze - Le Coup d’épée - La Jupe de Calogrenant - Le Prodige du fakir - Un bruit dans la nuit - Feu l’âne de Guethenoc - Goustan le Cruel - Le Forage - L'expurgation de Merlin - Codes et Stratégies - Le Tourment - La Fureur du Dragon - Le Pain - Les Volontaires - La Maître d'armes - La Mort le Roy Artu - La dent de requin

Spectacles

One Night Only With Adele (2021)

Olivia Ruiz "Bouches cousues" aux Bouffes du Nord (2021)

Columbo : Meurtre sous prescription (2017) de Richard Levinson et William Link avec Pierre Azéma, Karine Belly, Augustin de Monts et Martin Lamotte

Michael Bublé: Home for Christmas (2011)

Michael Buble's Christmas in the City (2021)

Livres

Heil Harris ! de John Garforth

OSS 117 : Chasse aux atomes de Jean Bruce

Astérix et la rentrée gauloise de René Goscinny et Albert Uderzo

Béru contre San Antonio de Frédéric Dard

[cento40battute]

Singapore il diamante dell’Asia

Eccoci qui con il nostro consueto appuntamento alla scoperta di nuovi posti da visitare. Magari potrete fare un pensierino su questa meta, inserendola nel vostro diario di viaggio.

Vi portiamo oggi a Singapore, città del leone e diamante dell’Asia. Città seducente, dalle mille anime, scoppiettante, luccicante e moderna; con un occhio sempre attento alla natura (numerosi parchi, riserve, foreste tropicali e distese di mangrovie).

Singapore è anche conosciuta come “The City in a Garden”, che le deriva dai numerosi parchi pubblici che si stagliano nella città.

La natura è indiscussa protagonista in città, basti pensare ai due recenti progetti completati: River Safari, primo parco ad ambiente fluviale in Asia, e il Gardens By the Bay, oasi verde che ha fatto si che la città assomigliasse sempre più a una foresta tropicale.

Grattacieli, architetture moderne, oasi e parchi verdi, disegnano uno skyline che ha del futuristico; il tutto incorniciato dai riflessi dell’oceano e dalle sue acque che si insinuano nella cittadina. Singapore (Città-Stato) è situata all’estremità sud della penisola della Malesia. Il nome di diamante dell’Asia le deriva proprio dalla sua caratteristica forma a diamante e come se non bastasse, ad arricchire questo diamante, una sessantina di isolette (alcune ancora totalmente disabitate) che, come delle perle si snodano a largo della costa meridionale. Singapore è un diamante anche perché in poca superficie, racchiude immensi “tesori” che non potranno fare a meno di affascinare qualunque visitatore. Avrete l’imbarazzo della scelta.

Il centro urbano di Singapore si sviluppa nella parte sud dell’isola. La suddivisione dei quartieri rispecchia in pieno la varietà multiculturale della città. Molti di questi sono infatti unità locali con predominanti etniche che rappresentato uno scorcio di culture diverse che ormai da tempo convivono armoniosamente.

Dato il suo corso storico Singapore non poteva non avere al suo interno un tessuto multiculturale così denso, particolare, variegato e comunicativo. Passeggiando tra i quartieri: Chinatown (risalente all’epoca coloniale, quando vennero definite severe linee guida per l’organizzazione urbana e l’allocazione delle minoranze etniche); Kampong Glam (quartiere a predominanza araba, ideale per passeggiare durante il giorno e per gustare ottima musica all’imbrunire accompagnata da ottimo cibo); Little India (tra i più vivaci e caotici quartieri di Singapore con traffico, negozi, colori, sapori e un numero spropositato di persone); Marina Bay (il nuovo quartiere simbolo della moderna Singapore con il suo design avveniristico) e Colonial Street (il quartiere racchiude in sé il passato coloniale con caratteri ottocenteschi, che conobbe il suo massimo sviluppo sotto la Gran Bretagna).

A Singapore la parola chiave che caratterizza lo stile delle boutique e i loro fini prodotti è: Eleganza

Molti degli alberghi più affascinati del Mondo sono qui (il vecchio si fonde perfettamente con il moderno), per non parlare poi dell’infinito numero di boutique che contornano i posti più cool della città. Per gli amanti dello shopping non possiamo non citare la zona di Orchard Road che ospita le collezioni dei più importanti brand internazionali; ma non solo ogni angolo nasconde tra le sue vie mercati, shophouse e atelier di giovani designer emergenti, tra cui Priscilla Shunmugam (creatrice dell’omonimo marchio di abbigliamento femminile che valorizza le tradizioni della regione).

Altra zona non meno importante dal punto di vista dello shopping è il quartiere di Marina Bay, dove spicca il Louis Vuitton Island Maison, flagship store dell’omonimo marchio.

Il diamante dell’Asia offre un assaggio dell’autentica ospitalità asiatica, dalle innumerevoli soluzioni di lusso a cinque stelle, ad altrettante alternative low-cost che sono in grado di soddisfare il numero più vario di visitatori.

Tra i più famosi resort, il Sofitel So sito in un antico edificio ristrutturato porta la firma della designer Isabelle Miaja e dello stilista Karl Lagerfeld. Il Raffles Hotel si ritaglia il suo posto celebre grazie al suo incantevole charme. Un altro storico hotel di Singapore è il The Fullerton Hotel, ospitato in un magnifico edificio in stile classico.

Per quanto riguarda i design innovativi e moderni sono due le strutture alberghiere che si contendono lo scettro, il Marina Bay Sands e il nuovissimo The South Beach Hotel. Non poteva mancare infine l’eco-sostenibile hotel Park Royal Pickering, che vanta numerosi terrazzi addobbati con giardini.

Multiculturale come centro abitativo e non solo; Singapore vi delizierà anche con la sua cucina multietnica e l’accostamento di sapori diversi

Oltre alle tante cose da fare e da vedere non può mancare un assaggio della cucina tipica locale. Il panorama gastronomico risulta essere infatti tanto ampio quanto la varietà culturale che si vive nella metropoli.

Ristoranti di qualità: cinesi, malesi, indiani e peranakan (misto tra malese, cinese, indiano e europeo) offrono un quantitativo spropositato di piatti tipici da assaporare. Tra la vasta gamma di locali gourmet, non possiamo non nominare: il Waku Ghin, tra i migliori 50 ristoranti al mondo regno dello chef Tetsuya Wakuda; l’innovativo Labyrinth, casa dello chef LG Han. Tra i più celebri con nome d’arte nominiamo l’Iggy’s (dal suo fondatore Ignatius Chan) e il Guy Savoy. Per i palati più tenaci invece, ci permettiamo di consigliare il Tippling Club, locale dello chef Ryan Clift. Concludiamo il nostro elenco con due luoghi dove poter assaporare un ottimo stile Peranakan, il Blue Ginger e il True Blue Cuisine; quest’ultimo recentemente premiato da Wine&Dine come Best New Restaurant dell’anno.

Tuttavia essendo in Asia, come accade spesso, i posti migliori dove poter gustare piatti tipici e tradizionali a un buon prezzo sono gli hacker centres e i food courts: grandi mercati coperti dove tra chioschi e bancarelle potrete gustare queste bontà. Lo street food a Singapore ha infatti lontane origini che risalgono all’era coloniale, dove piatti pronti venivano venduti a chi non aveva o la possibilità, o il tempo di prepararli. Il più celebre di questo genere è il Lau Pa Sat.

Come tutte le metropoli, anche Singapore non dorme mai. Spettacoli teatrali, locali tra i più cool al mondo, concerti e Dj Set internazionali da ogni dove (tra i più famosi lo Zouk, il locale più famoso di Singapore, che ospita lo ZoukOut, uno dei più celebri festival di musica dance); tutto questo magari su un incantevole rooftop dal quale godere di una vita mozzafiato sulle mille luci di Singapore.

Da alcuni giorni sono iniziati i festeggiamenti per il Capodanno Cinese che a differenza del nostro, cade in Febbraio in quanto basato sul calendario lunare. Singapore, o meglio il quartiere di Chinatown, celebra questa festività a dovere.

Per tre settimane prima del nuovo anno sarete coinvolti nel mood festivo locale: cortei colorati per le strade, mercati tipici, balli rituali e la celeberrima danza dei leoni, accompagnati da suoni e grida forti e vibranti. Colore di buon auspicio è il rosso che domina in assoluto la scena.

L’evento che più rappresenta la festa, non solo della comunità cinese, ma dell’intera città di Singapore è sicuramente il Chingay Parade. Durante le giornate del 10 e 11 febbraio una grande onda di festa invaderà le strade della città, dando vita alla più spettacolare sfilata cittadina dove scintillanti carri decorati, draghi danzanti e trampolieri celebreranno il nuovo anno.

Singapore ha molto da offrire al viaggiatore. Non resterete mai delusi. Come avviene per un diamante, non potrete far altro che ammirarne i colori, la purezza, l’unicità e i vari tagli offerti dall’incredibile contesto multiculturale.

Dimenticavo, Buon Viaggio!

Luca Ferri

Per raggiungere Singapore interessanti le offerte BSIDES di Best Tours. Fino al 31 Marzo 2017 Best Tours propone ‘’Singapore Sling’’ a partire da € 790. Partenze da Milano (lunedì, giovedì, venerdì e sabato) e da Roma (domenica). La quota individuale in camera doppia comprende: soggiorno di 7 giorni/ 4 notti con colazione hotel di prima categoria e volo A/R con la Singapore Airlines. Per saperne di più, visitate il sito Best Tours (www.besttours.it) e la sezione BSIDES con tutte le offerte.

Per maggiori info su Singapore: http://www.yoursingapore.com/en.html

A Singapore appuntamento con il Capodanno Cinese

Singapore il diamante dell’Asia Eccoci qui con il nostro consueto appuntamento alla scoperta di nuovi posti da visitare.

A Singapore appuntamento con il Capodanno Cinese Singapore il diamante dell’Asia Eccoci qui con il nostro consueto appuntamento alla scoperta di nuovi posti da visitare.

[travergence-blog]

The Top 10 Tech Cafés in San Francisco

In a town full of tech start-ups, café culture in San Francisco has always had a geeky edge. San Fran coffee houses pioneered the free Wi-Fi movement, and today your Joe comes served with a symphony of laptop tapping and power meeting chatter from the next table.

So, where are the best cafés for spotting tech stars, polishing up that product pitch slide and getting a top-quality shot of caffeine? We spill the beans below…

1. Sightglass Coffee | 270 7th St (between Howard St & Folsom Street)

IPad users rejoice – here’s another way to show off your wonder-toy. Sightglass Coffee lets you pay for your Java via Square, a mobile payment app for iPads and smartphones started by Twitter alum Jack Dorsey. Pop your iPad in the custom cradle, swipe your card and sign the app’s prompt screen – it’s as simple as that.

2. Nervous Dog Coffee | 3438 Mission Street (at Kingston Street)

Named after a pooch in one of Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoons (a dog pours itself an espresso in a morning kitchen; the caption reads “While their owners sleep, nervous little dogs prepare for their day.”), Nervous Dog offers three organic, whole bean house blends. It’s got a friendly, neighbourhood vibe, bringing in crowds of friends and studying students alongside the techie types.

3. Ritual Coffee Roasters | 1026 Valencia St (between 21st St & Hill St)

A coffee-snob’s paradise (and we mean that in the best possible way), Ritual Coffee Roasters serves two different espresso choices a month: a seasonal blend as well as a single origin bean, always directly sourced from the best-quality producers. This warm ‘n’ inclusive vibe is countered by minimalist décor and playful Soviet-style branding – though they don’t mind if you park in for the long haul and make your coffee ritual last all day.

4. The Creamery | 685 4th Street (between Bluxome Street & Townsend Street)

The Creamery’s patios get crammed with folk having outdoor meetings on sunny days, though a modest number of power outlets inside make this a two-hour stopover point rather than an all-day café-cum-office. Its crepes have as great a reputation as the coffee.

5. Peet’s Coffee & Tea | Market and 2nd

Home to one of the world’s first Google Wallet terminals, Peet’s Coffee on Market Street gives its techy clientele a chance to test Google’s latest smartphone payment app ahead of the curve.

6. Coffee & Power | 1825 Market Street

The San Francisco Workclub hosts the SF branch of Coffee & Power in its loft workspace. The coffee is free, the Wi-Fi is fast and the power outlets are plentiful--plus there are couches and tables if you want to collaborate with others. No food, though--you’ll need to take a lunch-break.

7. Bravado | 170 King Street

Upscale but not uncomfortably so, Bravado keeps that neighbourhood coffee bar feel while adding a little of its own polish. White leather chairs, hardwood floor and gleaming counters keep things classy, while iced lattes and hot chocolate feed your more indulgent side. Power down the laptop and kick back to free live jazz on Friday nights.

8. Epicenter Café | 764 Harrison Street

A generous number of power outlets and a succulent menu serving breakfast, lunch and dinner make this the kind of place you can hole up in all day. Coffee comes from Bay Area locals Barefoot Coffee Roasters, and there are frequent special nights like beer tastings and live music performances.

9. Blue Bottle | 66 Mint Street

This San Francisco coffee institution isn’t a place you take your laptop--it’s a kiosk. There isn’t any seating or, horror of horrors, Wi-Fi, but you can make up for that with the tech networking or plain ol’ celeb-spotting opportunities you get here, because everyone loves it. Look up the line--the guy who created Pinterest is probably three paces ahead of you. Oh, and the coffee’s marvellous (45-minute queues and a clutch of awards prove it).

10. Four Barrels Coffee | 375 Valencia Street

Everyone needs to unplug every now and again--and for tech types, we mean this figuratively and literally. Four Barrel Coffee makes a point of having no Wi-Fi or power outlets (apart from a joke one painted on the wall, covered in scuff marks from eager beavers’ plugs), swapping social networking for, er, face-to-face conversation. Coffee is ethically-sourced and single origin; seating is super-cosy.

By Isabel Clift, editor at HostelBookers.com--specialists in budget travel advice and cheap San Francisco hotels. Contact donald@travergence.com if you'd like to guest blog for Travergence!

[cento40battute]

Singapore il diamante dell’Asia

Eccoci qui con il nostro consueto appuntamento alla scoperta di nuovi posti da visitare. Magari potrete fare un pensierino su questa meta, inserendola nel vostro diario di viaggio.

Vi portiamo oggi a Singapore, città del leone e diamante dell’Asia. Città seducente, dalle mille anime, scoppiettante, luccicante e moderna; con un occhio sempre attento alla natura (numerosi parchi, riserve, foreste tropicali e distese di mangrovie).

Singapore è anche conosciuta come “The City in a Garden”, che le deriva dai numerosi parchi pubblici che si stagliano nella città.

La natura è indiscussa protagonista in città, basti pensare ai due recenti progetti completati: River Safari, primo parco ad ambiente fluviale in Asia, e il Gardens By the Bay, oasi verde che ha fatto si che la città assomigliasse sempre più a una foresta tropicale.

Grattacieli, architetture moderne, oasi e parchi verdi, disegnano uno skyline che ha del futuristico; il tutto incorniciato dai riflessi dell’oceano e dalle sue acque che si insinuano nella cittadina. Singapore (Città-Stato) è situata all’estremità sud della penisola della Malesia. Il nome di diamante dell’Asia le deriva proprio dalla sua caratteristica forma a diamante e come se non bastasse, ad arricchire questo diamante, una sessantina di isolette (alcune ancora totalmente disabitate) che, come delle perle si snodano a largo della costa meridionale. Singapore è un diamante anche perché in poca superficie, racchiude immensi “tesori” che non potranno fare a meno di affascinare qualunque visitatore. Avrete l’imbarazzo della scelta.

Il centro urbano di Singapore si sviluppa nella parte sud dell’isola. La suddivisione dei quartieri rispecchia in pieno la varietà multiculturale della città. Molti di questi sono infatti unità locali con predominanti etniche che rappresentato uno scorcio di culture diverse che ormai da tempo convivono armoniosamente.

Dato il suo corso storico Singapore non poteva non avere al suo interno un tessuto multiculturale così denso, particolare, variegato e comunicativo. Passeggiando tra i quartieri: Chinatown (risalente all’epoca coloniale, quando vennero definite severe linee guida per l’organizzazione urbana e l’allocazione delle minoranze etniche); Kampong Glam (quartiere a predominanza araba, ideale per passeggiare durante il giorno e per gustare ottima musica all’imbrunire accompagnata da ottimo cibo); Little India (tra i più vivaci e caotici quartieri di Singapore con traffico, negozi, colori, sapori e un numero spropositato di persone); Marina Bay (il nuovo quartiere simbolo della moderna Singapore con il suo design avveniristico) e Colonial Street (il quartiere racchiude in sé il passato coloniale con caratteri ottocenteschi, che conobbe il suo massimo sviluppo sotto la Gran Bretagna).

A Singapore la parola chiave che caratterizza lo stile delle boutique e i loro fini prodotti è: Eleganza

Molti degli alberghi più affascinati del Mondo sono qui (il vecchio si fonde perfettamente con il moderno), per non parlare poi dell’infinito numero di boutique che contornano i posti più cool della città. Per gli amanti dello shopping non possiamo non citare la zona di Orchard Road che ospita le collezioni dei più importanti brand internazionali; ma non solo ogni angolo nasconde tra le sue vie mercati, shophouse e atelier di giovani designer emergenti, tra cui Priscilla Shunmugam (creatrice dell’omonimo marchio di abbigliamento femminile che valorizza le tradizioni della regione).

Altra zona non meno importante dal punto di vista dello shopping è il quartiere di Marina Bay, dove spicca il Louis Vuitton Island Maison, flagship store dell’omonimo marchio.

Il diamante dell’Asia offre un assaggio dell’autentica ospitalità asiatica, dalle innumerevoli soluzioni di lusso a cinque stelle, ad altrettante alternative low-cost che sono in grado di soddisfare il numero più vario di visitatori.

Tra i più famosi resort, il Sofitel So sito in un antico edificio ristrutturato porta la firma della designer Isabelle Miaja e dello stilista Karl Lagerfeld. Il Raffles Hotel si ritaglia il suo posto celebre grazie al suo incantevole charme. Un altro storico hotel di Singapore è il The Fullerton Hotel, ospitato in un magnifico edificio in stile classico.

Per quanto riguarda i design innovativi e moderni sono due le strutture alberghiere che si contendono lo scettro, il Marina Bay Sands e il nuovissimo The South Beach Hotel. Non poteva mancare infine l’eco-sostenibile hotel Park Royal Pickering, che vanta numerosi terrazzi addobbati con giardini.

Multiculturale come centro abitativo e non solo; Singapore vi delizierà anche con la sua cucina multietnica e l’accostamento di sapori diversi

Oltre alle tante cose da fare e da vedere non può mancare un assaggio della cucina tipica locale. Il panorama gastronomico risulta essere infatti tanto ampio quanto la varietà culturale che si vive nella metropoli.

Ristoranti di qualità: cinesi, malesi, indiani e peranakan (misto tra malese, cinese, indiano e europeo) offrono un quantitativo spropositato di piatti tipici da assaporare. Tra la vasta gamma di locali gourmet, non possiamo non nominare: il Waku Ghin, tra i migliori 50 ristoranti al mondo regno dello chef Tetsuya Wakuda; l’innovativo Labyrinth, casa dello chef LG Han. Tra i più celebri con nome d’arte nominiamo l’Iggy’s (dal suo fondatore Ignatius Chan) e il Guy Savoy. Per i palati più tenaci invece, ci permettiamo di consigliare il Tippling Club, locale dello chef Ryan Clift. Concludiamo il nostro elenco con due luoghi dove poter assaporare un ottimo stile Peranakan, il Blue Ginger e il True Blue Cuisine; quest’ultimo recentemente premiato da Wine&Dine come Best New Restaurant dell’anno.

Tuttavia essendo in Asia, come accade spesso, i posti migliori dove poter gustare piatti tipici e tradizionali a un buon prezzo sono gli hacker centres e i food courts: grandi mercati coperti dove tra chioschi e bancarelle potrete gustare queste bontà. Lo street food a Singapore ha infatti lontane origini che risalgono all’era coloniale, dove piatti pronti venivano venduti a chi non aveva o la possibilità, o il tempo di prepararli. Il più celebre di questo genere è il Lau Pa Sat.

Come tutte le metropoli, anche Singapore non dorme mai. Spettacoli teatrali, locali tra i più cool al mondo, concerti e Dj Set internazionali da ogni dove (tra i più famosi lo Zouk, il locale più famoso di Singapore, che ospita lo ZoukOut, uno dei più celebri festival di musica dance); tutto questo magari su un incantevole rooftop dal quale godere di una vita mozzafiato sulle mille luci di Singapore.

Da alcuni giorni sono iniziati i festeggiamenti per il Capodanno Cinese che a differenza del nostro, cade in Febbraio in quanto basato sul calendario lunare. Singapore, o meglio il quartiere di Chinatown, celebra questa festività a dovere.

Per tre settimane prima del nuovo anno sarete coinvolti nel mood festivo locale: cortei colorati per le strade, mercati tipici, balli rituali e la celeberrima danza dei leoni, accompagnati da suoni e grida forti e vibranti. Colore di buon auspicio è il rosso che domina in assoluto la scena.

L’evento che più rappresenta la festa, non solo della comunità cinese, ma dell’intera città di Singapore è sicuramente il Chingay Parade. Durante le giornate del 10 e 11 febbraio una grande onda di festa invaderà le strade della città, dando vita alla più spettacolare sfilata cittadina dove scintillanti carri decorati, draghi danzanti e trampolieri celebreranno il nuovo anno.

Singapore ha molto da offrire al viaggiatore. Non resterete mai delusi. Come avviene per un diamante, non potrete far altro che ammirarne i colori, la purezza, l’unicità e i vari tagli offerti dall’incredibile contesto multiculturale.

Dimenticavo, Buon Viaggio!

Luca Ferri

Per raggiungere Singapore interessanti le offerte BSIDES di Best Tours. Fino al 31 Marzo 2017 Best Tours propone ‘’Singapore Sling’’ a partire da € 790. Partenze da Milano (lunedì, giovedì, venerdì e sabato) e da Roma (domenica). La quota individuale in camera doppia comprende: soggiorno di 7 giorni/ 4 notti con colazione hotel di prima categoria e volo A/R con la Singapore Airlines. Per saperne di più, visitate il sito Best Tours (www.besttours.it) e la sezione BSIDES con tutte le offerte.

Per maggiori info su Singapore: http://www.yoursingapore.com/en.html

A Singapore appuntamento con il Capodanno Cinese Singapore il diamante dell’Asia Eccoci qui con il nostro consueto appuntamento alla scoperta di nuovi posti da visitare.