CuttingShapes

48 hours

It is Tuesday and I am still recovering from my weekend. Not because of excessive drinking (which I rarely do now, in my old age) but because of 48 hours.

For those of you who aren't in New Zealand, 48 hours is a weekend of film making madness, described on the official website as follows:

Filmmakers don't know what genre (thriller/romance etc) they will be shooting until the start of the competition. All creativity: writing, shooting, editing and adding a musical soundtrack, must occur within the 48 hour window beginning Friday evening at 7pm and ending Sunday at 7pm.

This year was my second 48 hours. Last year I was intending to write/produce and ended up acting in a film that took place almost entirely on the interisland ferry. Lets just say that i'm really not an actor and I find the entire thing rather cringeworthy to watch for that reason. I did have a freaking fantastic time working with two good friends though, and I was hooked.

This year I worked with a different (much bigger!) team, which included my brother (who directed), my boyfriend (who acted and wrote), my sister in law (who production managed/organised everyone) and my sister (who baked cookies), as well as about 15 others. I was very thankful to be writing and NOT acting! It was great to work with a big, organised team. It is a cool experience to meet people for the first time on Friday night and have made a film together 48 hours later.

Things went pretty damn smoothly for us (unlike last year where at the last minute we realised our audio was not exporting to tape!), with our only major problem being our lead actor (ie: my boyfriend) corpsing really badly due to the mad comedy skills of our supporting actors.

Our film screens tonight and I am very excited to see it up on the big screen.

Unfortunately I can't show you anything until the finalists are announced, which is nearly a month away, so I thought I would show you some of my favourites from last year instead. I'm also hoping to post some photos from our weekend soon, as we were lucky enough to have our film-making process documented by not one but two very talented photographers.

This is the film made by my flatmates and good friends last year:

They got Family Movie this year and I am betting it is going to be even better than this work of genius. If I recall correctly, Hack Pack got audience favourite in its heat last year, and many were surprised it didn't make it into the Wellington Final.

This next one was made by the team I was in this year, and got all the way into the Wellington final.

This one was disqualified, and is kind of stupid, but for some reason I really loved it:

There are so many more awesome ones from last year, and i'm sure this year will be even better. The finals screen on C4 in June and I'll post more details about winners, losers and finalists as soon as I get them.

My new obsession

So after announcing that I intend to post more often I haven't posted for more than a month. I wasn't sure what had happened to inspire such apathy but then I looked at the date of my last post: 25 March. Why is this important? Well I think I have figured out what has happened, where my mind has been this past month.

You see, on the 28th of March, I went to The Grudgemaker, Richter City Roller Derby's first ever bout. I wasn't sure what to expect. A friend of mine in Auckland plays, and I had been interested for a while, but not interested enough to do anything about it. Well, I went (and dragged along my boyfriend and a few friends). And I fell in love.  Watch the footage of the bout and you might see why:

 

Richter City Roller Derby from vibol moeung on Vimeo.

The next day I emailed the league and pretty much since then Roller Derby has been what has been occupying my mind. 

Now, I am the first to admit that at this point I am pretty much shit at rollerskating. That said, a month ago, I had never rollerskated at all. What I lack in skill I surely make up for in enthusiasm. My friends and family are totally sick of me talking about it. My flatmates are bemused by my interesting hot-pants and tights outfits in the cold weather. But i'm hooked.

It has been really gratifying to learn something new. I teach dance (ballet and tap), and have done for nearly 8 years, so it is really interesting to suddenly be the student, rather than the teacher. To find something challenging again. To have to push myself, though pain and fear. Having never played contact sport before i'm finding being allowed to be physically agressive both exciting and daunting.

I'm also (and i'm aware this makes me sound a bit lame) really stoked to be meeting new people. At 25, working full time, opportunities to make new friends are limited, especially when compared to being at university. The ladies I have met so far have been SO lovely, friendly and encouraging. And smart. Crazy smart.

In the next few months I will post again about my progress (hopefully you don't find it too tedious!). If you want to know more about Richter City Roller Derby, or you want to join up (or if you want to sponsor us!) click here.  For the history of roller derby, check out the wikipedia entry here.

Finally, here are some very average photos I took at the bout:

Little bobdog

Just a suggestion for all of you: never google "one eyed animals". Not pretty. Seriously. I had this whole post in my mind where I was going to post other cute one eyed animals and compare them to animals with two eyes (ok, so it wasn't a well formed idea...). All I could find was freaky cyclops kittens, and goats with two heads and 6 legs. Yuck.

Anyway, this is my one eyed animal Bob. Even though my story idea was a complete fail I thought you might like to see a picture of him.

He loves boxes. And pretty much anything else that might look uncomfortable. Like cables, or bills, or a combination of both (which is where he is right now):

We got him from the Wellington SPCA nearly four years ago, when we lived right around the corner. I had to take him home with me out of guilt; I picked him up and assumed his eye was stuck shut so tried to peel it open. Turns out it was sewn shut. Bad move. He lost his eye as a kitten due to cat flu; apparently it ruptured. Gross.

Anyway, for some reason he was named after this particular brand of Japanese candy my brother in law bought back just before we acquired Bob:

If you ever see this candy, anywhere in the world, please please buy some for me and I will pay you back. I've only ever seen in once in the four years since we got Bob and for some reason it was VERY exciting for me.

For every photo of anything else I have at least one of Bob, so I figured it was only fair to share them. I promise I won't inundate you with pictures of him unless I have a proper reason though, I realise he is not nearly as exciting to everyone else.

Popular Penguins

Recently my good friend Caroline posted some gorgeous pictures of her newly acquired Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions. Colour me jealous. So stunning.

I might not have those gorgeous creatures but I do have a budding collection of the slightly less grand, but nonetheless charming in their own way Popular Penguins:

I love the retro orange colour and the minimal design, which harks back to the original 1935 covers the series was launched with.  I also love the very affordable price (normally about $12 here in NZ).

The great thing is that the collection goes beyond the usual stalwarts and includes great modern works like The Beach , High Fidelity and Everything is Illuminated.

As well as a good selection of fiction there are also some interesting non-fiction titles as well like Pinkers Language Instinct and De Bonos Six Thinking Hats.

There are currently 49 books in the series and the following are the top ten best sellers as of last Friday:

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Capote Truman

In Cold Blood - Capote Truman

Clockwork Orange - Burgess Anthony

Love in the Time of Cholera - Marquez Gabriel Garcia

The Consolations of Philosophy - De Botton Alain

Lolita - Nabokov Vladimir

Pride and Prejudice - Austen Jane

On The Road - Kerouac Jack

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wilde Oscar

The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald F Scott

I'm part way through Dark Star Safari and I am loving it.

For more info on the series; including some great historical background, and the full listing, go the Popular Penguins website.

Chocolate fondant puddings

This is the easiest, most impressive dessert ever. I have adapted an easy recipe to make it even easier than before. 

INGREDIENTS: (for two or three puddings depending on size of cups)

-200g chocolate (light or dark or whatever)
-50g butter
-2 eggs
-2 tablespoons flour

Heat oven to 180c. Grease two (or three) ramekins, or custard cups, or whatever else you have that is oven proof. Would probably even work in muffin tins if that is all you have. I got some awesome pyrex custard cups on sale at Briscoes the other day and they work really well.

Melt chocolate and butter together over low heat. If you want you can do the double boiler thing, but I never bother, I just use gas on really low heat and stir it all the time.

Mix in flour and egg. Beat until smooth.

Pour into cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until outside is just set. The centre should still be runny. They are still tasty if you overcook them so don't worry too much if they aren't gooey.

Take out and sit for 10 minutes before turning out onto plates. Serve with ice cream or cream or custard or yoghurt. You will definitely need some kind of something with them as they are pretty rich.

This is our youth

When I was 14 I saved up my allowance for something like three months in order to buy possibly the most exciting item ever; my first of two pairs of Doc Martens. When the time finally came my mum and I had to trek to some impossibly out of the way shop and then I spent an hour carefully selecting the right ones. They were important. Black with a kind of red rub effect and gold eyelets. In hindsight, they were pretty damn ugly, but at the time I loved them so. I wore them to death.

A few years later my dad and brother went to london and returned with yet another pair of Doc Martens for me; this time black and grey with butterflies and flowers. And glitter. Oh yes. These were not worn nearly as much as the original pair but were still treasured. Their popularity waned but I still wore them up until university when my boyfriend at the time told me he hated them, and I foolishly put them away never to be seen again.

Until this week.

First in Ruby and then this week in Made in Auckland, I discovered several pairs of patent leather Docs, which immediately reminded me of the two pairs stored away in my parents cupboard.

So I forced my poor put upon father to remove his entire life from this cupboard to get my shoes at the back.

I'm still experimenting with how to wear them. Their only public outing so far has been to the supermarket on Sunday, when it was freezing. I tucked my black skinny jeans into them, and even though they have butterflies and flowers I still looked like I was about to kick someones ass. Which isn't normally a look I aspire to, I have to admit. But still, they were super comfortable, so now I need to try wearing them with something a little less bogan I think, a little less reminiscent of how I used to wear them. Ten years ago.

And yes, having shoes that are more than ten years old fit me does make me feel kind of old. Until I remember that I stopped growing at 13 (tall then, short now as every one else kept growing) and that if I really wanted to revisit the horrible fashions of the mid to late 90's I could probably just dig a little further into my parents cupboards.

My sister (who had a pair but hated them back in the day) is going to purchase a pair of grey patent leather ones from Ruby this weekend I think, so I may force her to dress up in various outfits for your viewing pleasure to see what they look like.

I saw a girl in Auckland wearing a nice battered pair of cherry red ones with bare legs and a short dress, but sadly winter has officially arrived here in Wellington so no bare legs for me anytime soon.

So I will be trying to incorporate these into my wardrobe in the coming weeks without looking like a) a bogan b) like my 14 year old self c) like I am going to kick someones ass. Wish me luck! (and give me ideas!)

The best person I have ever met.

Apologies for the overload of blog posts tonight; I realised I have a lot of things to say and if I don't write them now I will forget. This next one is particularly important.

On Thursday night I met the best person I have ever met in my life.

I was up in Auckland for a few nights to see my boyfriends show in the Fringe festival, and afterwards my friend Hannah and I were hanging outside the Basement, being all cool and theatre-scene and stuff, and this old man came up to us and told us off for not being dressed warmly enough.

His name was Joseph and he was seriously the most interesting person I have ever spoken to. His stories were so incredible that Hannah at I kept shooting each other these looks of amazement as they got more and more elaborate and intense. At first glance he seemed like a normal grandpa type:

Charming and American, dressed nicely but conservatively. Our conversation quickly turned from the weather to how you can tell a lot about a man from what is on his feet. His weren't too bad:

A little bit orthotic looking but clearly well made and well loved. He told us a story about a beautiful young woman he knew who ended things with a young man after the first date because he showed up in flip-flops. She was very well dressed and was having none of that. Turned out that a lot of Joseph's stories were about beautiful young women...

Within the space of about 15 minutes he told us about his nephew who was a professor at Berkley who only owned three pairs of jeans and a couple of checked shirts, about how he does "special physics" and now works on the Large Hadron Collider, about said nephews various relationships, including one with a beautiful Russian fur trader; he told us about "when he used to go to Paris", and what beautiful Parisian fashion models do when they need to pee backstage or at a party; he told us about how he went to Bali 30 years ago and it cost him $11 a night and they bought you coffee ever morning; he told us about how he has been married for 50 years and his wife has never worn any jewellery, not even her wedding ring, and how they are going back to Bali and to visit his son, whose wife owns two houses in the south of France for their anniversary in June.  This was all very fascinating (and I am sure I haven't even covered half of it! I hope Hannah reads this an elaborates for me) until I noticed his ring. Totally freaking amazing. We were mesmerised:

Oh yes. That is a picture of an elderly man wearing a skeleton hand ring. He said he bourght it from a 6'4 French albino who works out of London but who is in Auckland convalescing from a mysterious illness. He has a 6'5 father (or uncle?) and a 6 foot tall woman walked into the shop when he was buying it and Joseph told them he felt like he was in the land of the giants. As you do.

Apparently the non-jewellery-wearing wife-of-50-years also loves the ring so they are thinking of getting her one and both wearing them on their ring finger. I really hope they do.

Eventually he wandered off into the night and I had to control myself from asking for his email address or phone number. I'm sure I looked creepy enough taking all these photos of an old man!

Hannah excitedly text me the next day and said she had spotted him again! Wearing an awesome pair of sunglasses. Of course.

Bad Blogger

Ok...

I've been very negligent with the blogging. Even after I said I would be better. So here is a special treat: Possibly the best music video ever. I saw this the other day while spending all of my money at the dentist. I saw this without sound, and while my teeth were being drilled, and I still thought it was pretty much the best thing ever. Mostly because of the amazing silver dress. I found some similar stuff on K-Road in Auckland today but I didn't really feel like spending $150 just to re-enact this video for you with Hadleigh in the lagoon. Which I am now regretting.  And i'm back in Wellington so I can't go back and get it.  Ah well.

Anyway, here it is, the amazing silver dress of my dreams:

There was a longer version with some exciting "acting" from our friend Huey in the beginning but for some reason I can't find a version that will let me embed it. Ah well!

Get your boots on

First of all I wanted to apologise for not posting for nearly a month. Time has somehow gotten away from me but I intend to remedy this starting today! I’ve been busy gardening, dancing, Cuba Street Carnival-ing  and just generally enjoying the tail-end of summer and the Fringe Festival.

However, it is nearly March, and I can feel the weather starting to turn, so my next few posts will probably be about winter fashion.

Much as I love summer, I much prefer my (and everyone else’s) winter wardrobe.  Scarves, boots, mittens and coats and lots of layers.  I’ve never been one to show much skin (OK yes I did wear a very short jumpsuit with a zip down the front to the Cuba Street Carnival on the weekend, but that was a rare exception) so summer fashion has never excited me as much as winter. I’m quite happy to throw on shorts ,  but I don’t exactly feel my most stylish during the hot months.

I have always been a big fan of The Sartorialist and his pictures of people all rugged up in New York, Paris and Copenhagen in the last few weeks have really inspired me.  I keep overdressing. Of course, by June I will regret ever being excited about the possibility of it being cold...

To get started I thought I would show you a picture of my favourite shoes. These are the most comfortable pair of shoes I own. I was going to clean them up for their photoshoot but in the end I decided against it. This is what they look like when I wear them:

They are Diesel Stylelab and I have worn them to death in the three years I have had them. The benefit of a good-resoling (before permanent damage is done) is evident in these puppies. I have much nicer shoes, and much better looking shoes, and much less bashed-up shoes, but these are what I wear most of the time in winter, and strangely enough, they are the shoes that I get the most compliments on. I guess they looked well loved in person, rather than ratty like in the photo!

The other day it rained really heavily here in Wellington and I reluctantly pulled them out. By the end of the day I pleased though, as my feet were warm and dry and comfortable.

Singin' in the rain

For those of you reading this who know me, it probably comes as no big surprise that Singin' in the Rain is one of my all time favourite movies. Although I will readily admit that a large part of this is due to all the ridiculous, over the top dance numbers, the other thing that draws me back in over and over is the amazing costuming by Walter Plunkett.

There are so many things to love about the costumes, least of which being there are great hats in almost every scene. I love hats, and I wish people (especially men) would wear them more often. I don't mean fascinators to the races either. In fact I think I hate fascinators. Anyway...

 

I love Debbie Reynolds little lilac cap. I can't for the life of me remember what this kind of hat is called?

I think I am going to have to find or make something similar for myself. Might look a bit silly with my long hair at the moment though.

Same scene here again with better details on the mens hats. Also, check out Lena Lamonts amazing glasses and hat combo! I love it. I wish I could find a better picture of her in this scene.

  

Another cute hat on Debbie Reynolds. I don't know if its her round face or her short haircut in this movie, or both, but she looks gorgeous in hats. I really like this one, though i'm not sure about the matching biege on beige ensemble it is paired with. Gene Kelly is looking dapper, even in his torn tuxedo.

 

Debbie in a kind of silly but cute drop waisted dress. Most normal human beings look awful in this kind of thing but she looks great. I also like the little scarf at her neck. No hats in this scene BUT there are two men wearing waistcoats which more than makes up for it.

I think a large part of the reason I read the Sartorialist is for all the pictures of handsome middle aged men wearing hats, three piece suits, overcoats or a combination of all three.

I was going to say that I wish there was as much singing and dancing in my kitchen as in this scene, but to be honest, there is a lot of that in my house anyway. I just wish we all looked quite as effortlessly cool as these folks when doing it.

  

Speaking of effortlessly cool; I don't care for Debbie Reynolds chiffon number in this one but it is worth noting that Gene Kelly is wearing what is essentially a cricket outfit with high waisted pants and he still manages to look awesome.

And last but not least:

   

The amazing Cyd Charisse. She even makes smoking look cool. If I could swap my curly hair for anything it would be this sharp black bob. If I had the sharp black bob and cool smoking then I am sure I could pull off the ridiculous green sequined flapper outfit as well. Hah.