And so there’s a change, in your emotions / And all these memories come rushing like feral waves to your mind

Straight people are encouraged by culture and society to believe that their sexual impulses are the norm, and therefore when their affairs of the heart and loins go wrong (as they certainly will), when they are flummoxed, distraught and defeated by love, they are forced to believe that it must be their fault. We gay people at least have the advantage of being brought up to expect the world of love to be imponderably and unmanageably difficult, for we are perverted freaks and sick aberrations of nature.

- Stephen Fry's letter to himself: Dearest absurd child

movies I want to see (book-adaptations and a tip of the hat to the ladies edition)

Draco gets expanded characterization compared to previous books and movies. Snape gets screentime. The only book with better news for Slytherins is the seventh. I can't wait to see Narcissa's scenes, for the record. I hope she gets to keep them from the book.

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Ben Whishaw, who is exclusively doing period pieces it seems, and Abbie Cornish star as John Keats and Fanny Brawne in Bright Star. and Paul Schneider, Gus from Lars and the Real Girl, plays Charles Brown, the thorny third angle to Keats' and Brawne's romance. He resents Brawne because he regards love as being detrimental to poetry. Drama ensues.

Jane Campion remains the only female director to have won the Palme d'Or (with The Piano - and off the top of my head, I think she actually shared that one in a tie with Kaige Chen for Farewell, My Concubine, which was the first mainland Chinese film to win the Palme d'Or), but she was definitely in contention this year with Bright Star. Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon took the prize, but Campion's film is probably going to be easier to find in the US. Haneke's worldview is just too depressing for US audiences.

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So this one is a little older than the others, but it still hasn't been released anywhere near where I live. Kathryn Bigelow directs. She's an oddity in the action genre, but one which I heartily endorse.

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An Education premiered at Sundance. I've loved Peter Sarsgaard since I saw him in Kinsey. The premise of this movie is nothing special - a teenage girl falls in love with a much older playboy in 1960's London. But the acting promises to be great. Carey Mulligan plays protagonist Jenny, and she was plucked from acting on Broadway. (The Seagull opposite Kristin Scott Thomas!)

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Not your father's Star Trek? Not anybody's Sherlock Holmes, either!

Distribution is ambitious. Christmas Day. I'm sad Jude Law isn't on the movie poster. I'd think that his name is just as large as Robert Downey Jr's.

But I, for one, am insanely happy that Watson is being fairly represented. Jude Law is actually a little too skinny for my tastes, but I can finally envision Watson as (a very slight) rugby player, fit from serving in Afghanistan and faithful follower of Sherlock Holmes.

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A different kind of directorial triumph if this movie is recognized. In any case, this looks like a very powerful movie.

matching game

Match the fashion house to the editorial images below. Each depicts the Fall 2009 collection. From Vman, on which I have previously expressed delight.

Choices:
Ralph Lauren Black Label
Calvin Klein
Prada
Louis Vuitton

Images:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Thanks to +joe. Check out the post for my favorites Dior Homme and Jil Sander (thanks to Kris Van Assche and Raf Simons).

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Answers:

1. Calvin Klein (Italo Zucchelli) 2. Louis Vuitton (Paul Helbers) 3. Ralph Lauren Black 4. Prada (Miuccia Prada)

#3 suprised the hell out of me. I don't even know the name(s?) of the Ralph Lauren in-house designers (and neither did +joe).

So what's the point? IT'S NOT THE CLOTHES. IT'S HOW YOU WEAR THE CLOTHES.

(It's not fashion. It's style.)

Why did I make this post? Because there are UGG boots on the "fashion" spread of my high school yearbook. I am SO glad to be out of here next year.