Words

"A grapefruit is a lemon that had a chance and took advantage of it." Oscar Wilde

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

"Most people don't know what they want or feel. And for everyone, myself included, It's very difficult to say what you mean when what you mean is painful. The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to... As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all, we must dare to fail. You must have the courage to be bad - to be willing to risk everything to really express it all." John Cassavettes

"Try. Fail. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. " Samuel Becket

Los Ojos de Ana

el espiritu de la colmena, 1973


cria cuervos, 1975

beyond the grave

Noel Coward

Blithe Spirit

1945



Federico Fellini

Guglietta Degli Spiriti

1965

Not like blades of grass, grains of rice, peas in a pod

But

like leaves in a forest, all dissimilar in their similarity

On Women As Mediums

There seem to be an abundance of images of women in the midst of Ectoplasm 'episodes'. Some are quite eerie, and haunting, almost grotesque, others are sexual, and yet others are almost comedic (and some are all these things). Overall I find them if anything arresting...at the very least they are inspiring in an unsettling way (or unsettling in an inspiring way). They seem to offer an in; their ephemeral aura projecting a sort of loose reality (or loose fantasy).

The word ectoplasm itself conjures up a very corporeal experience; secretions, oozings...plasma! The nature of the materialization that occurs mirrors women as portals, vessels, et al for life (and in this case for the dead, the undead, or the physical manifestation of messages from beyond the grave).

This summer I started going through a bank of saved images I had collected over the years on mediums, hauntings, etc etc. I think every teenage girl at some point delves into these 'occult' things (who doesn't love magic), these interests of course are transient like the very subject matter itself. I came accross the Book Vanishing Women: Magic, Film and Feminism. But... I haven't ordered it online or come across it at any bookstore. From the previews the images are quite nice and I like the tone of the passages I read..

perriand wants

1. Bloc Bahut, Perriand, 1959


2. Wall Mounted Bookshelves, Perriand, 1950


3. Mexique Bookshelf, Perriand and Prouve, 1952


4. Kitchen Cabinet, Perriand and Le Corbusier, 1947


5. Living Space, Perriand and Le Corbusier


6. Chaise Longue, Perriand, 1928 (Charlotte on her famous chair)




Charlotte Perriand made beautiful things I wish I could fill my apartment with. She was also a bit of a rebel rouser which I always appreciate and find endearing.

Eileen Screen

I was feeling antsy about my move into an apartment in which the large living room will also be my bedroom. Antsyness turned into worry given the lack of of desirable room dividers, then I remembered the swinging transcendent sheen of Eileen Gray's Block Screen, 1922...(now I just need the $7000 or someone itching to make one with me). To give the blocks of wood that luxurious shimmering blackness she uses a Japanese lacquering technique she first became interested in Soho and later studied for years in Paris. Gray is also responsible for that fantastic unabashed romantic gesture that is E-1027,...but that's for another day.