Arts Connection

So today we had the second of several fantastic workshops that have been taking place at my school. Run by the amazing Iyeoka, the workshops explore the connections between music, dance, art, and writing. I have a bit of a nonsexual-yes-I-still-like-boys girlcrush on Iyeoka - it's rare to meet someone so confident with such a rhythmic, powerful speaking voice and an even more beautiful singing voice. I kind of want to be her. She just exudes this aura of strength and self-love, and you can tell in an instant that music and language are something she lives and breathes.

Anyway, the workshop got me thinking about how fashion falls into all this - and fashion definitely does fall into this. Fashion shows are a good example; the clothes are the art, and they are accompanied by walks that fit the concept, as well as music to tie it all together. Movies are another example; Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette would have been nothing special without the combination of a fabulous soundtrack, decadent costume, scintillating dialogue, and the deliberate movements of the actors. I love it. I believe all forms of art and creativity are connected in some way.

Instead of rambling on in this vein (as I am apt to sometimes do), I'd like to share the poem I wrote during today's workshop. Keep in mind that I had only a few minutes to jot something down. No edits or anything. The prompt was "I believe in," and when I read it out loud to the group, I was accompanied by drums and a trombone, as well as some dancing.

Twilight:

I believe in
the tune of the wind's fabric
as it whispers like silk
and trembles silver branches
across the sky.

I believe in memories
and faraway places
and the power of lost dreams
that fade hazy from inner depths
into smoky, ethereal wisps
of starlit cities.

I believe in
the peace that comes
in moments snatched from time
and moments stolen
and moments lost,
in forgotten alleyways
and untouched forests
and history that lives.

I believe in love
and hate,
but not evil.

I believe in twilight.

. . . And that was it. Applause not necessary.

What fashion or art images do you connect with that poem? I think of these images that have been inspiring me lately:

Picture sources (in no particular order): Beautiful Things (a current obsession), Foto Decadent, Vogue Girl Korea, and a Sonia Rykiel ad from the most recent online V Magazine.

What music do you think of? I suppose I think of the dreamy sounds of Eisley.

What kind of dance/movement? I picture graceful awakening from slumber and little girls spinning circles in the rain.

Aahh, I'm in a dreamy mood today. . .

Side note: Am leaving for my grandma's house tonight. I don't know whether I'll be able to blog there, but normal posting will resume Monday. I have a surprise coming in on Sunday, though, and I'm super-nervous/excited! I'll share it as soon as I can. I'd like to wish my fellow Jews a happy Passover! Choke down that matzoh with some good old Manichewitz! (Actually, don't. Manichewitz is gross.)

Provocative Dressing

"To Vivien dressing was almost a religion, a ritual. On rainy days when everybody wore mousy or moth-eaten clothes she came out in a shining and vivid raincoat. She dressed in defiance of the elements rather than in submission to them. Anita could see that her dressing was almost a provocation to calmer inhabitants; things were bound to happen to Vivien, different things than happened to most women, she was always so dressed for it, for the unexpected, the adventurous. Her dressing roused in people an uneasiness similar to the feeling they had when looking over trip literature and pamphlets, a kind of wanderlust, a desire to flee from the familiar and the conventional. Whatever the stage possessed that enslaved the imagination Vivien had applied to her daily life. Between her setting and costume, and the homes of other women and their costume lay a pit as wide as the orchestra pit in the theatre, and spotlights such as she directed on herself found her audaciously keyed up, as they found the professional actress."

- Anais Nin, "The Slippery Floor," Waste of Timelessness and Other Early Stories

Echo, Violet & Claire

The Francesca Lia Block obsession continues. I checked Echo and Violet & Claire out of the library, yesterday, and I devoured them each in a few hours. Nothing can live up to the beloved Weetzie Bat series, but I can't help but marvel at the beautiful language and imagery that is characteristic of Block's books. I'm also slightly enamoured of the fact that the characters always have unique and edgy fashions that seem to fit their personalities perfectly.

If you haven't guessed it by now, I'm sharing fashionable Francesca Lia Block quotes again. Get ready for inspiration!

Echo:

♥ "Her eyes seem naturally kohl-lined, her hair naturally hennaed. She is not particularly into fashion. She only needs a few gauzy dresses that she makes herself and some bare Grecian sandals that lace up her long amber legs. High-priced fashion would be a waste on her; it would be extraneous."

This quote makes me want to wear gauzy dresses and Grecian sandals. It also makes me jealous of the woman the quote is describing, at least appearance-wise.

♥ "On weekends we took drives along the coast, jogged in the hills, went to museums and flea markets where I bought deteriorating silk slip dresses from the forties."

Not only do the slip dresses really fit the character, but I find the whole idea of wearing vintage slip dresses to be sort of fairytale-ish.

♥ "...all my vintage stuff was ghosts..."

Love this line. Describing "deteriorating silk slip dresses from the forties" as "ghosts" is just perfect.

♥ "L.A. is a beautiful prostitute with bougainvillea-blossom-pink lips, hair extensions to her waist, stiletto heels straining the muscles in her calves. Promising opiate dazzle if you pay enough."

Okay, so this isn't really a fashion quote, but it makes me want to paint my lips "bougainvillea-blossom-pink."


Violet & Claire:

♥ "The girls in the Red Cherry were tremendous. Emerging from clouds of red smoke, they looked like superfreak goddesses with the longest legs and manes of synthetic hair. I was just wondering if any of them would be interested in sharing their stories when ESMERALDA . . . rolled up to us in her wheelchair. Her makeup looked like cake frosting applied with a spatuula, and she wore a cherry-red bubble wig. Her emaciated, twisted body was sheathed in a revealing black cocktail dress, and there were spike heels on her gnarled feet."

What an interesting image! You can put on all the glamorous clothing and makeup you want, but it will never hide the real you.

♥ ". . . a hugely muscled six foot tall bleach blond African American trans slunk over on sinewy expresso legs in shimmery sheer cream stockings."

I suddenly want to have "sinewy expresso legs." I guess I'll settle for "shimmery sheer cream stockings," though.

Necklace of Kisses

I just finished reading Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block. The sequel to the Weetzie Bat series, it is totally magical. Fashion takes more of a front seat in this book, and although a lot of the inspiration can be found from Weetzie's outfits and her "brief history of fashion," there are some style tips/fashion commentary hidden in the pages that I just love. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order.

1. Vintage clothing is magical because all the clothes have histories.

"Weetzie loved the old dresses she found and sold, because they had their own secret histories. She always wondered where, when, and how they had been worn. What they had seen. Old dresses were like old ladies."

2. It's all in the details.

"Honey, the details are everything. You know that. A ginger ale on ice. It's really good if you put sushi ginger in the glass. A white trench belted with a studded punk number. I mean, look at the rhinestones on your toenails."

3. A little grooming makes all the difference.

"If her toes and fingers were shiny and cuticle-free, she always felt a bit brighter and lighter, even when her heart had darkened and sunken heavily into her chest."

4. Fashion has power.

"She imagined that each piece of clothing would have little secret spells written into the lining - incantations that would make the wearer feel her beauty and her power. That was what clothing could do . . . It could seduce, soothe, enhance, disguise, protect. It could empower. Like magic."

Fashion Book Craze

My Amazon.com wish list started out small. Then it grew. And grew. And grew. Gradually I added novels, then the sequels to those novels. And then I discovered fashion books, and I added those too.

Needless to say, my wish list is pretty damn long by now.

I purchase a few of my desired novels every now and then, but most of the coveted fashion books are just too expensive to splurge on.

Today the existence of the library finally occurred to me. I logged on to the library network, and - lo and behold - the fashion books are available at various nearby libraries! Woohoo! It seems like a fairly obvious solution, but I've sort of avoided the library since I realized at about age 7 that I preferred to own books so I could read them over and over again.

Anyway, I plan to hit the library in the near future and then spend hours holed up in my room, pouring over tomes like In Vogue: the illustrated history of the world's most famous fashion magazine and 100 Years of Fashion Illustration. If I really wanna go crazy, I might pick up a sewing book or two and try to teach myself how to sew a bit better than my current pathetic sewing state. I'm totally psyched.

Speaking of fashion books, I won Nina Garcia's The Little Black Book of Style from ShopDiary (Eee!), so as soon as it arrives in the mail, I'll be posting a review!

Fashion is Poetry

I'm obsessed with fashion. You all know that. How could I not be, when I devote huge portions of my time to reading blogs and writing my own? I'm also obsessed with writing/reading, but that probably doesn't come as a surprise, either, for the same reasons. I feel like fashion and literature are really connected, and not just because fashion is covered by writers. I've always thought that the same part of me that appreciates the way words sound together, and the rhythm of them, and the imagery you can find within rows of text is the same part of me that appreciates the way outfits are put together, and different fabrics, and the way a garment can tell a whole story. Literature and fashion - they're not so different. I think if I were ever to be a fashion designer (unlikely, but not impossible), I would get a lot of my inspiration from literature.

Anyway, having said that, I want to share the poem below with you. It's probably my favorite poem ever, and every time I read/hear it, I'm moved almost to tears by the beauty and the rhythm of it:

Canto Negro by Jessica Hagedorn

dancing
the spirit shaking everyone
your faces are flowers of darkness
eyes closed
in dancing ecstasy
the spirit shaking everyone
shake
shake
children of the jungle
calling me to sing
forget my nightmares
mangos staining my lips

what is the spirit
that moves us
when we sing
in a thousand backrooms
funky with dopesmells
and pretty men and women
the spirit shaking everyone

we feel so beautiful
a whirlpool of silver eyes
and silver sweat
the spirit moving us
like holiness
in the sway of our bodies
the joy in our voices
humming the dance
the trance
of one night’s voodoo
celebration

the moon is almost full
and there’s danger
in the air
your faces are flowers of fire
burning
the toucans are flying
macaws are shrieking
and it’s forever
in the moment we stop
and start again

what is the spirit
that moves us
unspoken magic
weaving dangerous colors

it’s our birthday
and we sing a baptism
for our souls
our godliness

(higher and higher
we dance
out into the street

you ask me
if i
want to die
and i say
no
not yet
not tonight

it’s too beautiful

and i want to love you.)

That was it. Did you like it? Any thoughts? I know a lot of people have problems with the lack of capitilization, but I like it. I like the idea that the poem sort of transcends the written word. For me, the lack of capitilization says that the poem goes far beyond text on paper, that grammar isn't important because the ideas, imagery, and musical quality of the poem are what matter most. But that's just what I think.

Jessica Hagedorn reminds me a lot of Francesca Lia Block, if you want to know the truth. They're both wonderful, no?

Couldn't you picture the most beautiful collection based around this poem? I'm imagining something like this, all butterflies, flowers, mist, and gauzy dancing fairytale fabric.