Some are just born with it

Mr Isaac Hayes, the man who defined cool, has died.



Sam & Dave performing the soul classic Soul Man, which was written by Isaac Hayes and his songwriting partner David Porter.

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Now playing: Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
via FoxyTunes

Rainy Sunday cinema

Visconti's Gruppo di famiglia in un interno, or as it was originally released in English, Conversation Piece. The sets are stunning. And, it also shows the Fendi sisters at their very best.

Come into my life bonny Jean

11 Montpelier Street was my first port of call when I began my decorating journey. I had hoped that their charming chintz would lend a certain polish to a decidedly unpolished client. At the time they also had the most exquisite collection of plains, small patterned monochromatic chintz, that were produced exclusively for them. Sadly, those are now nothing more that a memory.

In 1961 Jean Monro, daughter of the famous London Decorator of the 1920s Mrs Geraldine Monro, decided to reproduce and market the favourite designs her mother had used over the years, some of which were already being produced exclusively for the decorating company. Thus Jean Monro Ltd. came into being.

In 1998 Jean Monro Ltd was acquired by Turnell & Gigon.


JUBILEE
Taken from a wood-block design of 1853, this design has been given a fresh, naturalistic colouring. The original was so dirty as to make the colours unworkable for such a brightly-coloured flower as the Sweet-Pea. This fabric was named to celebrate 75 years of fine decorating by Mrs Monro Ltd.


HOLLYHOCK HANDBLOCK
A very handsome, large-scale bouquet of Hollyhocks, hand-blocked on heavy 100% linen. The original printer's "fent" was a hideous colour and has not been reproduced. Probably mid 19th century, 73 block applications are needed per repeat of this design.



AMELIA
A climbing design of Roses and Plumbago on a stippled and striped background. Very little alteration was made to the original document
This is a particular favourite in the pink/tan colourway. Which I recently used on a deep buttoned chaise lounge.


POLYANTHUS
The first design to be produced after the founding of the Company and still a "signature" today. Clearly there was an error in the naming of this design as the flowers shown are Auriculas.
The moiré background of this print was typical of their exquisite collection of plains.


LILY/AURICULA
This beautiful design of 1855 is printed using some 24 blocks which have been used for over a century. 96 applications are required to complete one repeat of the design. For many years printed only with a blue ground, in 1983 scraps of 2 further colourways were found and the second colourway added to the collection.




HYDRANGEA/ROSE
Adapted from a block-printed chintz dating from the early 1840s when this type of climbing design was very popular. Roses and Hydrangeas were often featured in Victorian designs and the stippled ground was also a favourite.

Another favourite, which was the first chintz I ever used when I began decorating.

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Now playing: Kate Bush - Oh England My Lionheart
via FoxyTunes

Now, prop up your books incase of intruders...

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie starring Maggie Smith, with Pamela Franklin as the ungrateful treacherous little bitch Sandy.















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Now playing: Oliver - Jean
via FoxyTunes

Graphic design

Domestic Modern is an online shopping destination featuring a fashion forward collection of contemporary and modern area rugs.

Wonderful bold designs and a website that is user friendly. What would make it perfect would be more information about where, how, and by whom the rugs are actually made. After all, a great design should not be the the only consideration.

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Now playing: Frank Sinatra - That Old Black Magic
via FoxyTunes

Dreaming of Oz

There is something inherently sophisticated and moving about Australian Aboriginal art.


Lot number: 202
Bark Painting of Fresh Water Turtle
Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
74 x 42
On the reverse in chalk it is attributed to Balir-Balir, Western Arnhem



Lot number: 201
Painting of Turtle
Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
81 x 69
Western Arnhem Land.
Provenance The John Henshaw Collection, John Henshaw was an art critic and one of the first representatives of Christies auction house in Australia.




Lot number: 122

Bark Painting Untitled
Natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark
NANDABITTA
60 x 41
Groote Eyelandt




Lot number: 190
Kangaroo Dreaming
Synthetic polymer paint on board
Billy Stockman
92 x 58 cm
Papunya

Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, (b 1925) is one of Australia's most well-known artists of the Western Desert Art Movement, or Papunya Tula.
His mother was killed in the Coniston Massacre in 1928; his father was away from the camp hunting and survived. Billy was raised on Napperby Station by his aunt, the mother of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri.




Lot number: 171

Tjikari 1976
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas board
Johnny Tjupurrula Warangkula, c1925 - c2001
60 x 45 cm
Papunya, Central Australia


Mossgreen Auctions
Sale Date:18th August, 2008
310 Toorak Road
South Yarra, 3141
Melbourne


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Now playing: Men at Work - Land Down Under
via FoxyTunes

Everything is decor related

when it relates to the condition of man.



The Russian novelist, dramatist and historian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died 3 August, 2008.

The opening of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Prize lecture, which he won in 1970, ...for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature. -

Just as that puzzled savage who has picked up - a strange cast-up from the ocean? - something unearthed from the sands? - or an obscure object fallen down from the sky? - intricate in curves, it gleams first dully and then with a bright thrust of light. Just as he turns it this way and that, turns it over, trying to discover what to do with it, trying to discover some mundane function within his own grasp, never dreaming of its higher function.

So also we, holding Art in our hands, confidently consider ourselves to be its masters; boldly we direct it, we renew, reform and manifest it; we sell it for money, use it to please those in power; turn to it at one moment for amusement - right down to popular songs and night-clubs, and at another - grabbing the nearest weapon, cork or cudgel - for the passing needs of politics and for narrow-minded social ends. But art is not defiled by our efforts, neither does it thereby depart from its true nature, but on each occasion and in each application it gives to us a part of its secret inner light.

But shall we ever grasp the whole of that light? Who will dare to say that he has DEFINED Art, enumerated all its facets? Perhaps once upon a time someone understood and told us, but we could not remain satisfied with that for long; we listened, and neglected, and threw it out there and then, hurrying as always to exchange even the very best - if only for something new! And when we are told again the old truth, we shall not even remember that we once possessed it.



Yo Yo Ma plays Dvorak's Silent Woods

There is a Hurricane coming

Image from The World of Grace Jones



Corporate Cannibal, from Grace Jones's forthcoming album Hurricane, due out this October.

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Now playing: Grace Jones - Libertango
via FoxyTunes

More tales from the Road

Flying Fish, Madeira 1897

All 5' 4" of him ( 5' 6" if one were to include the tallish hair) - Why do flying fish fly?
That was it. That is what he wanted to know. That is what I came inside to answer. Why do flying fish fly?


Friends of Dorothy's, though I am pretty sure he wasn't.

All 6' 2" of me - Because they can?

In my head -
a) So that one day you will be able to waste my time.
b) Ask David Attenborough.
c) Better yet, go and ask the Wizard.

Click. There's no place like home. Click. There's no place like home. Click. There's no place like home. Clck, click, click....Damn. The shoes don't work.


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Now playing: Diana Ross and Michael Jackson - Ease on Down the Road
via FoxyTunes

Sultry Ibizan nights

Blue Pearl - Naked in the Rain

Must read

this, it references Alain de Botton and John Ruskin. And, it is wonderful.

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Now playing: Mary J. Blige - Beautiful One
via FoxyTunes

Southern Belles

These beauties hail from Vicksburg, Mississippi.

There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go. - Tennessee Williams



The Magnolias, circa 1877.



1022 Crawford Street



4103 Highway 80


View of the courtyard garden from the veranda.



Belle Fleur, circa 1874.

All properties from Broker South.

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Now playing: Little Big Town - Boondocks
via FoxyTunes

In Search of Sweetness

Honey and Dust: Travels in Search of Sweetness by Piers Moore Ede

Piers Moore Ede is a writer and a photographer. He is also a recipient of the DH Lawrence Prize for travel writing. All Kinds of Magic, his second book due in 2009, is about the journey in search of a mystical experience.

His photographs are available through Robin Moore Ede Art.


Monastery


After the mela


Painted Saddhu

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Now playing: Chris Rea - Red
via FoxyTunes

Going, going...

August 2nd and 3rd, 2008
New Orleans Auction Galleries, Inc.
801 Magazine Street
New Orleans, La 70130


Lot 36


Lot 37

In Chinese mythology, the Earth was borne by three elephants
which stood on the back of a giant turtle, symbol of the primitive oceans.

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Now playing: This Mortal Coil - Song to the Siren
via FoxyTunes

黄柳霜

Anna May Wong: Frosted Yellow Willows
Her Life, Times and Legend
Directed by Elaine Mae Woo

With disarming sensuality and commanding screen presence, Anna May Wong defined the role of the 'Dragon Lady'. She defied cultural and legal barriers to achieve success in silent and talking pictures. She was the firstAsian American woman to reach international stardom and no other actress has yet to rival her acclaim.


Interview with Graham Russel Gao Hodges author of Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend.




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Now playing: Billie Holiday and her Orchestra - These Foolish Things
via FoxyTunes

All that ham and cheese...

and nary a Croque-monsieur in sight.

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Now playing: The Smiths - Girlfriend in a Coma
via FoxyTunes

If it isn't on Amazon...

or ebay, it must be on You Tube.

Mr. Carleton Varney on the Duchess of Windsor, change, and memories.










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Now playing: Living Colour - Cult of Personality
via FoxyTunes

Requisites for a Dragon Lady

Evidently the term , Dragon Lady , is now seen as de trop. What a shame. Personally, I cannot think of a better way to describe this type of woman. And I have known many, including my own mother.


Gale Sondergaard as Mrs. Hammond in The Letter.


For the walls, a Robert Crowder printed paper.


A near pair of Chinese hardwood tables, of octagonal form, with carved edges raised on a folding stands.


A Chinese side cabinet, c. 1900, having a pagoda shaped cornice over a single panelled door carved with figures, boats, a bridge, buildings and prunus foliage.


A carved padouk wood envelope games table, 20th Century.


A Chinese hardwood stand with a pierced apron.


A La Barge gilt-brass-framed eglomise looking glass, in the chinoiserie taste, the vertical plate broadly beveled throughout, the reverse with a printed paper La Barge label.


18th Century English Chippendale mahogany and beechwood camel back sofa.


A Ch'ien-Lung carved jade group, fourth quarter 18th century, depicting a female Foo dog with her young atop her back.


For the curtains and sofa, Lee Jofa's Portiere Weave


For the upholstered chairs, Lee Jofa's Chennai Weave


For the accent pieces and cushions, Lee Jofa's Holland Flamestich


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Now playing: Kitaro - Silk Road
via FoxyTunes

Annie, get your gun

English Gun Cabinet
By The Sterling Collection
Description
Top: Two Plain Glass Doors W/Locks; Bottom: Raised Panel Doors With Locks, & Three Interior Drawers


Contentious? Perhaps. And yet, vaguely comforting. However, I do draw the line at pickup trucks.

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Now playing: Ethel Merman - You Can't Get a Man With a Gun
via FoxyTunes

Something is missing...

The difference between what is pretty and pleasing and what is beautiful and more difficult to bear. - from The Scented Salamander

And this didn't really hit me until I started looking for a new scent. The new seems to be synonymous with the facile. Easily understood and easily acquired.