Beige

I've been voyeuristically enjoying all the stuff that lately's been written about French Women, not that it's new. I read the book, 'Why French Women Don't get Fat' probably a couple of years ago. According to the author, they only eat half of what is on their plate. I copied them, & lost six kilos.
I have a lot of views about the French even though I hardly know a French person & I haven't been to France since 1974. There's a proper French school in Sydney. It strictly follows the French curriculum & has the long summer vacation the middle of Sydney's winter. Maybe if you're truly French, it's always summer in July regardless of where you live in the world.
Some of my students were telling me that Baz Luhrmann, the director has sent his offspring there. What a wank, I say!
French Women Fever has really turned up a notch since that silly French President married Carla Bruni. I inwardly groaned when I read a headline calling her 'The New Grace Kelly' after she visited Britain & charmed the pants of Prince Philip who is now half-dead in hospital. I've posted a photo of her from my favourite blog The Thoughtful Dresser
Karl Lagerfeld doesn't think much of French women after they hit a certain age. According to Kaiser Karl, once they get older, on goes the beige. Yesterday, in honour of Older French Women, I decided to wear beige myself, something I've never consciously done before. To my surprise it was quite enjoyable. I wore a completely thrifted outfit - a vintage 'Spinelli' Italian knit dress & a beige knit cardigan. In fact, I enjoyed wearing beige so much that I'd like to go a whole week wearing nothing else. How thrilling!!

I
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Pose of the Day: Treepose

Daily Longing

Babe & Me

This photo of Babe Paley, one of Truman Capote's 'Swan's' has got to be one of my all time favourites. I never get tired of looking at it. It was taken in the 1940s for 'Vogue'. Babe was a huge fashion icon for decades who sadly died of lung cancer. She still looks great smoking, though.
Everything that Babe wore was slavishly copied by women desperate to have a little piece of her personal style. She was the first person to tie a scarf (probably a Hermes) around the strap of her handbag. Later she said that she only did this by accident, but it didn't stop everybody & his dog copying it. In fact, they're still copying her.
I know I'll never be another Babe. Probably a good thing. I'm sure she'd never dream of wearing my huge homemade medallion 'Flapper' necklace & weird bubble-type top featured in the photo.

Existentialist Thought for the Day

An Hour upon the Stage

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I've been teahing Macbeth. It's been going on & on & on, culminating with a viewing of Roman Polanski's creepy 1971 film version. Of course I end up getting sidetracked & telling the class all about how Polanski's wife, the beautiful actress, Sharon Tate was brutally murdered while eight months pregnant along with a bunch of other people by evil Charles Manson & his crazy hippie followers. The murders happened a couple of years before Polanski made his version of 'Macbeth', & the more I see the film, the more I think it is about Charles Manson & his brutal reign of terror.
My cheery 15-16 year old girls all take it in their stride & happily munch on chocolate 'Tim Tams' while watching catatonic Lady Macbeth furiously trying to scrub the blood off her hands.
My favourite bit of the play is the 'tomorrow & tomorrow' soliloquy. I've done drawings on the whiteboard to go with the speech. I've got the 'Life's a walking shadow' bit, the 'poor player who frets & stuts his hour upon the stage'
I'm wearing a v. bright outfit to counteract all the doom & gloom. Every bit of it is from the local thrift shop. I go there just about every day & it's starting to get to get out of hand.
Maybe I'm losing perspective. Becoming addicted to buying whole outfits that people have either died in or thrown out, all for under $8. It's certainly cheap thrills.

Slightly Creepy Thought for the Day