Occasional Inspiration

explore-blog: The Emotionary, “words that don’t exist for...

Fri, 24 May 2013 05:05:26 -0400

The Emotionary, “words that don’t exist for feelings that do.” Complement with some playful takes on unusual words that do exist and a Cat-to-English translation.

"There was silence. Then as if to refresh the power of destruction, the wind rose and the waves rose..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:21:29 -0400

“There was silence. Then as if to refresh the power of destruction, the wind rose and the waves rose and through the house there lifted itself a sullen wave of doom which curled and crashed and the whole earth seemed ruining and washing away in water.”

- Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (via likeafieldmouse)

so-treu: onregelmatig: Fifth Element Fashion Gaultier...

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:21:21 -0400

so-treu:

onregelmatig:

Fifth Element Fashion

Gaultier <3

Favourite

The Origins of 9 Great British Insults

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:45:12 -0400

The Origins of 9 Great British Insults:

explore-blog:

nevver:

WAZZOCK
Wazzock was a particularly prevalent—and particularly loutish—insult in the 1990s. At the time, “lad culture” ran throughout British music and television, and wazzock, a North-England accented contraction of the sarcastic wiseacre (a know-it-all) became a powerful tool to shoot people down in an argument.

LUMMOX
Though the etymology of lummox is heavily disputed, one thing is for certain: It came from East Anglia, the coastal outcrop of Britain above London. There, around 1825, someone threw out the word as an insult, and it stuck, becoming a typically British go-to term. Some linguists believe it comes from the verb lummock, which typified a lummox: it means a clumsy oaf.

SKIVER
Skivers and shirkers are one and the same. Someone who manages to duck under any responsibility and loaf around, doing very little, is a skiver. The origins of this particular insult are contested: some think it’s from an Old Norse word—skifa—meaning “slice,” whereby the worker slices off as much work as possible.

MINGER
Often hurled at the opposite sex, to call someone a minger is to say they are objectively unattractive. Though etymologists struggle to agree where the word came from, it seems likely that it stems from the Old Scots word meng, meaning “sh**.” We didn’t say it was pretty.

NINCOMPOOP
For such a colloquial word, nincompoop actually has a very learned past. Samuel Johnson, the compiler of England’s first proper dictionary, claims the word comes from the Latin phrase non compos mentis (“not of right mind”), and was originally a legal term.

PILLOCK
As words are used more regularly, the laziness of pronunciation can often warp them slightly. So it was with pillock. Originally pillicock (a Norwegian slang word for penis), the word has since been condensed to plain old pillock—though its meaning remains.

CLOD HOPPER
According to the brilliant Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, dating back to 1811 and compiled by Captain Francis Grose, a clod hopper refers to a country farmer or ploughman—with the implication nowadays that you’re slow witted and bumbling.

DUNAKER
Grose’s Dictionary of vulgarities is a rich seam of overlooked insults. In the 200 years since it was published, there have been several terms that have fallen out of favor. One of them is dunaker, a common thief of cows and calves.

GIT
By calling someone a git, you’re invoking the old Scots word get, which means “bastard.” When it came down south of the border, it lost its harsh vowel sound and became something softer, albeit with the required spikiness in.

Also see this handbook of literary insults and how famous words originated.

likeafieldmouse: Sharon Johnstone - Macro (2012) These are...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 03:25:37 -0400

likeafieldmouse:

Sharon Johnstone - Macro (2012)

These are beautiful

"Be kind to yourself. Stop telling yourself that whatever you are struggling with “should” be easy...."

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:44:45 -0400

“Be kind to yourself. Stop telling yourself that whatever you are struggling with “should” be easy. If something is hard for you, it is hard for you. There are probably Reasons, though those may just be how you are wired. Acknowledge these things. When you finish something hard, be proud! Celebrate a little.

And really, just stop saying “should” to yourself about your thoughts and feelings in any context. You feel how you feel. The things in your head are the things in your head. You can’t change either directly through sheer force of will. You can only change what you do. Stop beating yourself up for who and what you are right now–it isn’t productive. Focus on moving forward.

”

- How to keep moving forward, even when your brain hates you. (via mindovermatterzine)
Something to remember

likeafieldmouse: John Foster - Sparkle Palace Cocktail Table...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 03:52:10 -0400

likeafieldmouse:

John Foster - Sparkle Palace Cocktail Table (2012)

somethingvain: Postmodernism and the culture industry - how pop...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 03:48:25 -0400

somethingvain:

Postmodernism and the culture industry - how pop culture has deprived us of free will: Comme des Garçons S/S 2007

The recent years of irony and an “It’s called Fashion, look it up” mentality of bizarre clothing construction has ruled the 21st century with the reconstructed houndstooth of Alexander McQueen, the deconstruction of Maison Martin Margiela and most notably the ambiguous narrative of Rei Kawakubo contributing to a meta-narrative of post-modernism in fashion.

Following the ‘modern’ enlightenment of the 18th century, the notions of rationality and order meant that everything had a specific connotation (overexposing skin meaning a woman was a prostitute, for example). Post-modernism, however, developed as a counter-movement against modernism, and in the realm of thought and fashion it sought to destabilise and challenge traditional (mostly western) cultural values in taking away the specific connotations that created meaning - it meant to make us question what we understood to be true, to create ambiguity and the double-meaning that allows for the satirical, the ironic and the sarcastic, and to put the power of subjectivity back into the limelight where the modern era’s scientific method had placed objectivity before.

True to post-modernist form, Kawakubo’s spring 2007 collection wasn’t governed by any specific message, save for her declaration “I’m tired of mundane, everyday fashion”. The visionary behind Comme des Garçons was a true post-modernist in valuing subjectivity beyond anything in creating meaning behind her work - she even criticised her own spring 2012 collection for this reason, saying “For me, White Drama was too easily understood, the concept too clear.” This particular dress in her spring 2007 collection I found to be particularly post-modernist: a synthesis of pop culture (in the cartoonish ears) and surrealism in the reference to Elsa Schiaparelli’s iconic 1930s designs (in the hands clutching the chest), a mixture of low art and high art.

There have been many interpretations of this particular outfit - one that the use of the cartoonish ears was in keeping with the Schiaparelli theme, as Schiaparelli herself referenced 1930s ‘popular’ culture in her work. In the style.com review, Sarah Mower gives a (particularly weak) interpretation of “an adolescent’s dream of a virtual boyfriend”. However, my interpretation is that Kawakubo was making a statement on the ‘Culture Industry’ - a term coined by Adorno and Horkheimer - and the lack of free will in supposed ‘freedom of expression’.

Supposedly we have a choice on what we can wear - we may believe this to be true, we may believe we have free will in choosing how we express ourselves through clothing. However, the cartoonish hat symbolising pop culture refers to the fact that today’s popular culture is so mass produced that we no longer create our own culture - it’s created for us. The danger here, with magazines like Vogue, is that the power of this culture industry means that we have false psychological needs forced on us, that constrain us, like the hands on this S/S 2007 dress - needs that can only be met by the goods and services advertised in these magazines. So to an extent, we no longer get to choose what we wear, because subversively it has been determined for us: Spring collections force us to wear a certain colour, and force us to believe that we like it, that we’re choosing one pastel pink from another pastel pink.

We no longer create culture - we are a product of culture. Kawakubo used post-modernism as a vehicle to deliver a message that rings true in a world that has become passively involved in its own legacy.

Written by somethingvain

psychodelicate-girl: Peak Hotness for JRM. It was all downhill...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:57:50 -0400

psychodelicate-girl:

Peak Hotness for JRM. It was all downhill from here.

Well I like some good music...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:47:00 -0400

Found my old iPod (I was about 99% sure my mum had thrown it away by accident). Enjoying audio time capsule effect. Song came up on shuffle - creepy love song to Kirsten Dunst by a later incarnation of a band I saw supporting the Bluetones when I was maybe 14. This band probably doesn’t exist anymore. Faith in own music taste eroding.

likeafieldmouse: Gregory Euclide - Otherworldly: Optical...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:47:15 -0400

likeafieldmouse:

Gregory Euclide - Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities (2011) - Oil on canvas landscape, collected litter and other materials from Central Park, NYC

Artist’s statement:

“I painted a large traditional landscape that flows onto the floor and toward a fifth-floor window overlooking Central Park. The work consists of several dioramas that are built from materials that were collected on walks as well as several paper casts from boulders in Central Park.”

"We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants. And it’s a policy unfit for today’s..."

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:39:52 -0400

“

We have a strange immigration policy for a nation of immigrants. And it’s a policy unfit for today’s world.

The economy of the last century was primarily based on natural resources, industrial machines and manual labor. Many of these resources were zero-sum and controlled by companies. If someone else had an oil field, then you did not. There were only so many oil fields, and only so much wealth could be created from them.

Today’s economy is very different. It is based primarily on knowledge and ideas — resources that are renewable and available to everyone. Unlike oil fields, someone else knowing something doesn’t prevent you from knowing it, too. In fact, the more people who know something, the better educated and trained we all are, the more productive we become, and the better off everyone in our nation can be.

This can change everything. In a knowledge economy, the most important resources are the talented people we educate and attract to our country. A knowledge economy can scale further, create better jobs and provide a higher quality of living for everyone in our nation.

To lead the world in this new economy, we need the most talented and hardest-working people. We need to train and attract the best.

”

- Thoughtful, necessary Washington Post op-ed on the knowledge economy and immigration reform by Mark Zuckerberg. (via explore-blog)

psychodelicate-girl: a star man

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:04:51 -0400

psychodelicate-girl:

a star man

femmedandy: fyeahandrogynousgingers: godslonelywoman: kimball1...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:57:23 -0400

femmedandy:

fyeahandrogynousgingers:

godslonelywoman:

kimball12:

fsufeminist:

David Bowie as Tilda Swinton, with Tilda Swinton as David Bowie

THE DAY I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR.

If you have this, you have everything.

GLORY HALLELUJAH

Black and white and still gorgeous!

I AM POSTING THIS IN CELEBRATION OF ALL OF MY DREAMS COMING TRUE AT ONCE.

likeafieldmouse: Alejandro Munoz Miranda - Youth Center, El...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:32:04 -0400

likeafieldmouse:

Alejandro Munoz Miranda - Youth Center, El Chaparral (2010)

likeafieldmouse: Egon Schiele - Nude (1913)

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 18:58:10 -0400

likeafieldmouse:

Egon Schiele - Nude (1913)

sfmoma: sfmomacrowd: Frantisek Kupka, Mme Kupka Among...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:10:40 -0400

sfmoma:

sfmomacrowd:

Frantisek Kupka, Mme Kupka Among Verticals, 1910-11

I finally managed to make it to visit the Museum of Modern Art in New York the other week; even though the place was packed, I managed to stake out a spot inside the Inventing Abstraction exhibit in front of this work by Czech painter Frantisek Kupka. After a close call with a museum guard (whoops - no photos allowed!), I spent over 15 minutes in front of the painting, happy to take a breather in the presence of such a gorgeous artwork. Because I didn’t know much about the painter’s history or background, most of the initial observations I made were aesthetic: the green surrounding the woman’s mouth, the bright strip of light blue almost directly in the middle of the painting, the washed out oils that looked almost like watercolor. Taking the time to notice these formal qualities familiarized my eyes with the painting, letting me adjust to the color palette & get to know the brushstrokes; it was like I was discovering the painting along with the artist as I noticed the choices he made when composing the work.

After 5 minutes or so, I felt like I had seen everything I could see; this would be the point in my normal museum experience where I’d walk away. But I knew I wanted to challenge myself to look longer—so I stayed. Even though I thought I had seen enough, I hadn’t. My eyes continued to wander to different spots in the painting, noticing the evenness of the dark blue, how each line of color seemed to fit together in perfect harmony with the color next to it. Looking slowly allowed me to make connections about a work of art I knew nothing about, and it was like I was discovering the painting as the painter was painting it. I become aware and conscious of the immense amount of choice an artist has; line, color, form, brushstrokes, canvas size, the list goes on. For those 15 minutes, the crowded museum seemed to fade away as I concentrated only on the painting, and I came away from the experience feeling invigorated and ready to look slowly at other pieces within the exhibit.

Submit your own SFMOMAslow post here.

likeafieldmouse: Filippo Minelli - Silence/Shapes (2013)

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 18:09:47 -0400

likeafieldmouse:

Filippo Minelli - Silence/Shapes (2013)

thedoppelganger: David Bowie

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:08:55 -0400

thedoppelganger:

David Bowie

likeafieldmouse: Gustave Courbet’s Waves (1866-70)

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 03:33:39 -0400

likeafieldmouse:

Gustave Courbet’s Waves (1866-70)