Fly Me To The Moon

   

   

It Ain't Easy

   

  

These Are The Days Of Our Lives

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the death 

of the iconic Freddie Mercury. 

  

These Are the Days of Our Lives was his final filmed performance, with the track being released on his 45th birthday and remaining at #1 up to just a few weeks prior to his death. The video ends with Mercury facing the lens, whispering 'I still love you', which were to be his last words on camera.

It gets me every time, even more so in recent years, where nostalgia registers all the more poignantly.

  

The Junk Of The Heart

  

Gramophonedzie

    

  

 

  

   

The Kiss

  

My favourite of Toscani's infamous ads. Featuring a priest 

embracing a nun in traditional habit, Benetton described 

it as 'the affirmation of pure human sentiment'.

   

Colour Me In

   

   

It seems the folks at Benetton found themselves in legal hot water this week, thanks to their provocative 'Unhate' advertising campaign, which features images of various world leaders locking lips - most notably Pope Benedict XVI and Ahmed Mohamed el Tayeb. 

   

It's certainly not the first time the brand has courted controversy, with photographer Oliviero Toscani having generated some of its most memorable (and often contentious) imagery, over the years:

 

   

   

    

    

  

 

 

       

By Your Side

 

   

Nothing But Flowers

   

 

'Born in 1975, Japanese artist Takaya started out in the world of culinary arts, and in 2004 he started his work as a Flower Artist in Kyoto.

    

Takaya adorns the heads of models with raw vegetables and blossoming flowers. He affixes the clusters of plants to styled hair, just like a florist would arrange a bunch of flowers, before pruning them with hairdressing scissors.
  

This unusual form of decoration is used for live performances as well as weddings.'

       

 

       

Neatorama.com

        

Is There Something I Should Know?

       

    

Currently haunted by the word 'should'.

  

Haters Gonna Hate

   

     
 

The Bones Of You

    

  

Yea, I have looked and seen November there;

The changeless seal of change it seemed to be,

Fair death of things that, living once, were fair;

Bright sign of loneliness too great for me,

Strange image of the dread eternity,

In whose void patience how can these have part,

These outstretched feverish hands, this restless heart?

 

  From November by William Morris

     

Prélude à l'Après-Midi D'un Faune

     

     

    

Tangerine

      

     

     

 

     

    

 

          

    

   

   

 

     

   

  

     

Lisztomania

     
How Franz Liszt Became The World's First Rock Star

      

 

When you think of rock n' roll, Franz Liszt might not be the first name that comes to mind. But the classical pianist, born 200 years ago this year, was, in many ways, the first rock star of all time.

In the mid-19th century, Liszt was tearing up the polite salons and concert halls of Europe with his virtuoso performances. Women would literally attack him: tear bits of his clothing, fight over broken piano strings and locks of his shoulder-length hair. Europe had never seen anything like it. It was a phenomenon the great German poet Heinrich Heine dubbed Lisztomania. "We hear about women throwing their clothes onto the stage and taking his cigar butts and placing them in their cleavages," says concert pianist, Stephen Hough.

Like many contemporary classical pianists, Hough is obsessed with Liszt, who revolutionised the art of performance. "Liszt was a very dynamic personality," Hough says. "He was someone who seduced people — not just in a sexual way, but in a dramatic way. He was someone who, like a great speaker, was able to capture an audience."

Liszt set out across Europe in 1839 to prove the conventional wisdom wrong. As part of that mission, he made a radical decision to never bring his scores onstage. "Before Liszt, it was considered almost in bad taste to play from memory," Hough explains. "Chopin once chided a student: It looked almost arrogant, as if you were pretending that the piece you were playing was by you. Liszt saw that playing the piano, especially for a whole evening in front of an audience, was a theatrical event that needed not just musical things happening but also physical things on the stage."

He deliberately placed the piano in profile to the audience so they could see his face. He'd whip his head around while he played, his long hair flying, beads of sweat shooting into the crowd. He was the first performer to stride out from the wings of the concert hall to take his seat at the piano. Everything we recognize about the modern piano recital - think Keith Jarrett, Glenn Gould, Tori Amos or Elton John - Liszt did first. Even the name "recital" was his invention.

But although his life was the kind many musicians dream of, Liszt walked away from it all in his 30s. "He wasn't someone who thought life just consisted of food, drink and all the pleasure you could wring out of it. He was someone who was always searching," Hough says. "I mean, he even considered the priesthood in his teens. So, he was never going to be satisfied just with pleasing the countesses. I think he also realised how superficial a lot of audiences' appreciation might be, and he wanted to retire and to do something more meaningful."

Liszt would go on to compose around 1,400 works. He died in 1886, but all through the 20th century, his influence could be heard — in the works of fellow Hungarian composers Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, as well as in the writing of his son-in-law, Richard Wagner.

His cultural impact continues to take various forms today. In 1975, Ken Russell directed a film called Lisztomania, starring The Who's Roger Daltrey as Franz Liszt. (It was a bit over the top, anachronistically adding pyrotechnics and gunplay to Liszt's already-flamboyant stage show.) Then, just a couple years ago, modern music fans fell in love with a song of the same title by French band, Phoenix. "I love classical piano, so I have to love Liszt," says Thomas Mars, Phoenix's lead singer. Mars wanted to write an homage to Liszt; the band even recorded the video for the song outside Liszt's home in Bayreuth, Germany. "He was exotic, he was different, he was pure." 
 
npr.org
 

     

        

Let It Be

    

  

Lay Lady, Lay

 

   

Coffee & T.V.

   'When someone brings you a coffee 

just the way you like it'

    

  

#126 of 1,000 Awesome Things

   

Don't Do It

   

  

November Has Come

 

  

November being the 'Month of All Souls', it 

seems an apt time to espouse all things macabre 

in the movie realm. Titles thus far have included:

* Suspiria

* Paranormal Activity 3

* Corpse Bride

* Trick 'r Treat
* Nightmare Before Christmas
* Creep

* Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

I expect more of same will follow over the next
few weeks, amidst increasingly vain attempts
to offset premature Christmas propaganda.

   

Sha-La-La-La-Lee

     

  

Purple Haze

          

       

   

 

   

     

        

     

         

     

       

   
Purple haze all in my brain...