Salome

I was reading Carol Ann Duffy's 'The World's Wife; and was reacquainted with Salome. I was struck by the contrasting perceptions of her in Duffy's poem, and two films: The Gospel According to St. Matthew, and Salome (which is based on Oscar Wilde's presentation of the same). I wonder which Salome you'll believe in?

Nights of the Cabiria

Oh boy, what a movie! And may I just mention Maria's hat, which is incredible. It is a rain hat with a hole for her pony tail. Quite marvellous.

Documentaries

Feeling gloomy? These documentaries make pretty good viewing, hopefully you'll enjoy!

One hundred

I made a little movie. It's my first foray into this sort of thing. I hope you like it. 

The Secrets of Nature

This video is absolutely brilliant. It has beautiful footage of gnat larvae, sweet badger cubs, and a very  narrator full of funny phrases; 'What's a chap to do?'.

Inside and Out

I have had this song in my head all day. I like it a lot, hope you do too.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all of you. I thought you might like to watch this funny, weird Felix the Cat video.

How to Make Buttons

This is a pretty useful video, which helped to explain to me the scientific processes behind the manufacture of buttons. Enjoy!

Lavender's Blue 

Lavender's Blue Dilly-Dilly,
Lavender's Green,
When I am King Dilly-Dilly
You shall be Queen

Finding this photograph, which I took during the summer, inspired me to find out more about the history and uses of lavender. In fact, the word has an extraordinary etymology. And to find out about lavender harvest, I watched this video.

Sweet

This video has the capacity to cheer people greatly. It is so very sweet. Enjoy.

I saw the Olympic torch being taken down the Thames today. It put me in a sporty mood, so I'm going swimming. If you're not really feeling it, and even if you are, take a look at this great video (especially the first half).

Moon

What with tomorrow being the anniversary of Neil Armstrong's moon landings, I was in a moonish sort of mood, and thougt you might enjoy this video. It's strange, and sweet, to see people's anticipation of moon-landings, something that is now taken for granted.

I am, of course, eating strawberries today. And I've had the scoring system explained to me, because it's the Wimbledon finals. And so, I have a tennis-themed post. It's a piece of
archive footage, showing the tennis fashions of 1968. It's incredible, and very endearing, to see what was - in 1968 - the most up-to-date, man-made equipment. And the narration is also funny to listen to.

Hands

Now that I've done my palm portraits post I have a new obsession: hands. Above is a little sketch that I did of my own hand. But far more scintillating than my scribbles is this film clip. I'd never really thought about hand puppetry, I can do the dinosaur-y swan thing that everybody can do (beak made of the thumb and forefinger, eye made of the other fingers curled over), but that's it. Whereas Edward Victor, who features in the clip, is mesmerising.

'Pierrot le Fou', Jean-Luc Godard, 1965

This is possibly the perfect film. It is exciting and beautiful, happy and sad, 'tender and cruel'. I love love love it. 

I've been reading 'Foulsham's Fortune Teller and Guide and Success', and it's full of superstitions and beliefs which I find fascinating. It tells the reader how to interpret a personality through hand-writing, and even has sections on palmistry and crystal-gazing. What I thought I'd share, though, was these talismans for good luck. Whether or not they're effective, the graphics are so lovely.

There's been a lot of hype around the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Tate Modern. Understandably so, her work is engaging, exciting and weird. So inspired am I that I've been polka-dotting all weekend. It is obviously very repetitive, which could drive you dotty (what a joke). Here are the results of my labour, most of them are actually pretty ugly, which is a pity. But at least I had a 'productive' weekend.

Top image courtesy of:  http://theredlist.fr/wiki-2-351-382-1160-1284-view-japan-profile-kusama-yayoi.html