Tagged...

Miss Dressed & Pressed has tagged me. Eleven things about myself...

1. My pickiness about food means I discover treats really late in life. [Some would say a good thing... delayed gratification?] This autumn I found out about popcorn. I'm now far too keen on the salted variety for my own good.

2. I envy men sartorially. If reincarnation exists, I'd like to come back as a very wealthy international playboy. I would never ever wear shorts [however long], combat trousers, a parka or a football shirt. I would be a beacon of masculine style. I would live a James Bond lifestyle [without the nearly-getting-killed-every-other-day antiperk], get exquisite suits handmade for me at Henry Poole, and indulge in technogadgets [a posh Omega watch, perchance the new qwerty Prada LG phone, and definitely the shiny new Macbook - the only Apple product I have ever shamelessly craved that iniquitous bunch of bastards can fvck off, everything I've owned by Apple has broken repeatedly. FURIOUS ANGER.]. Fashion-wise, women do certain things far better than men [underwear, bags, hats], but men pull off tailoring and technogadgets much more suavely and convincingly than women, and of that I am jealous.

3. Seeing birds in cages upsets me. I looked in a pet shop the other day and saw rows of cages with tiny white birds and magnificent, personable blue parrots. I wanted to buy them all and send them back to their natural habitats, but of course they'd just get caught and sold again. Or eaten.

4. I collect gloves and umbrellas. Friends and regular readers will know of my umbrella craving, but I also have a drawer full of beautiful gloves, mostly Italian, in every colour leather, suede and silk I can acquire. I get them in Rome, at airports, and second-hand from Blackout II. My favourite new pair are diagonally striped in black leather and black patent. I like them with black cigarette pants, a black mohair cardigan with a ribbon-tie at the waist and very high heels.

5. I love Home & Away. But I'm never at home to watch it. Sniff.

6. I take great pleasure in fancy dress.

7. I have never been in debt.

8. I have never managed to save much money either. I am what you might call a break-even gal.

9. I hate the free London papers but really like Shortlist [the free men's paper they give out on Thursdays]. This week they had a story about high-rolling multi-millionaire gamblers, the swankiest hotels around the world, and a good piece on George Clooney. Again I think it taps into my penchant for the James Bond aesthetic.

10. I get really vexed by poor spelling or bad pronunciation/grammar. Particularly when it's done by People Who Should Know Better - journalists [Vogue let the side down this month], news readers and the like. I don't know whether it's technically bad grammar or not, but I really hate the American way of saying 'I'm excited to see/do whatever'. I always think it should be 'I'm excited about seeing/doing etc'. And though I am unhappily as guilty as the next person, I HATE 'like'. It's, like, the most over-used word in existence.

11. I am fairly competent with most technology, but there has never been a printer I was not able to break. They hate me, and I hate them. So much the worse for our relationship if they are a printer/fax - we will never be friends.


And now I tag the ever engaging Sister Wolf, Luxenoir and Knight Cat as I am a new reader to her blog and something of a fan.

Seven favourites

I've been tagged by luxenoir...

The Rules: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.

- Rihanna - Take A Bow

How Rihanna went from that bratty , whiny-voiced kid to this sleek, self-assured madam with a rack of great songs, I have no idea. All I know is it has something to do with Jay-Z and umbrellas. I love this song. It sorts a few things out for me right now, and I love the video - very simple, but she looks magnificent in it. Cutting her hair: a wise move.



- Magnetic Fields - California Girls

A very pretty, dreamy, fuzz-laden reverie about California girls, and creeping up behind them with an axe because you're so sick of their coke-snorting, rockstar-fucking, moneyed airhead ways. This song should have been the theme music for Laguna Beach and The Hills.

- Chet Baker - I Get Along Without You Very Well and You Don't Know What Love Is

If Chet Baker doesn't reduce some little, still-soft part of you to a jellied mess, the likelihood is your heart hasn't been switched on yet. You should get that checked out by a doctor, because there's all sorts of associated health issues just waiting to happen there. You Don't Know What Love Is has the only trumpet solo [that I've yet heard] to make my bottom lip wobble.

- Haddaway - What Is Love

You remember this. Yeeaah, you do. C'mon.

- Sun Ra - Nuclear War

The combination of avant-garde jazz and a bloke slurring 'whatcha gonna do... without yr ass? You lost yo ass, you got no ass', by way of a guess at what might happen if El Presidente ever presses the big red button, is an outside contender for 'most giggle-inducing song ever recorded'. Yo La Tengo have at least two different versions of this song. Their versions are also very good and worth tracking down.

Subgud - Kameleon

I don't know how many people will appreciate this. I really like it. I bought the record this hails from on import from a Norwegian site about 5 or 6 years ago, because one of the songs had vocals by the singer of another Norwegian band I really liked. Anyway. This is a strange, pulsing electronic, maybe a bit housey song with all sorts of mysterious and possibly mistranslated lyrics going on [example: We're by the moon and the sun / Tonight the stars drive limo...]. Like most good electronic music, the louder you play it, the better it sounds.

So now I tag thesearchforchic, enc at observationmode, makedoandmend, sister_wolf, and my little bruv. That's only five, but it's late and it'll have to do.

Six quirks

I was tagged by Kate at Make Do & Mend to list my six quirks. I'm not sure whether these are to be style-based or general, so let's go half and half.

1. Everyone who knows me knows this one - I'm besotted with umbrellas. Long, ornate, unusual ones with spectacular handles and exquisite fabrics. No travel-sized rubbish. I have different ones for every weather [there's different kinds of rain . . . ]
2. This obsessive nature extends to food. I have a narrow palate but get crushes on particular foods. Currently: tomatoes [raw as a garlicky salad], cous-cous, fine green beans.
3. I always wear a toy, properly loadable silver pistol around my neck. Extremely rare for me to take it off.
4. I really, really, REALLY enjoy Home & Away. I'm not much of a tv addict; H&A and Gossip Girl are the only two shows I really treasure.
5. I once owned 415 bottles of nail polish and 26 packs of cards [all different and beautiful]. I told you I fixate on things . . .
6. I love James Bond. Everything to do with it. The books, the films, the cars, the girls, the guns, the evening dress, the casinos, the exotic villains' lairs, the white cats, the diamond-encrusted and laser-equipped satellites, the destructive and desperate flights through Russia, China and Harlem. The only bad things about James Bond are the last Pierce Brosnan film, Madonna's cameo [the woman's an abomination], Chris Cornell & Garbage's respective theme tunes and Timothy Dalton, but these faults are balanced out by Basil Fawlty being the new Q.

I now tag the search for chic, Luxe Noir and Wish Wish Wish