W magazine

I'm obsessed with this photo of Kristen Dunst from the new W. I'm ready for bathing suits and blond hair.

A love story

"When someone sets a bottle of wine on the dinner table, do you find yourself glancing at it subversively, possessively, the way you might look at a lover you long for but don't quite trust? When someone pours you a glass from that bottle, do you take careful note of the level of liquid in the glass and measure it secretly against the level of liquid in the other glasses, and hold your breath just for a second until you're assured you have enough? Do you establish an edgy feeling of relationship with that glass, that wine bottle; do you worry over it, care about it, covet it, want all of it for yourself? Can you bear the thought that it might run out, that you'll be left sitting there without it, alone and unprotected?"

Caroline Knapp, from Drinking: A Love Story

three impossible gym inspirations

I am getting all my motivation to work out for the New Year from this vintage exercise slideshow.

I advocate glamour. Every day. Every minute. -Dita Von Teese

all images from here

David Rackoff

New York is breaking my heart. I’ve often said that it’s like having a really interesting boyfriend suddenly becoming really, really into wine, and having to have endless conversations about it.



People are really trying their best. Just like being happy and sad, you will find yourself on both sides of the equation many times over your lifetime, either saying or hearing the wrong thing. Let's all give each other a pass, shall we?




The only thing that makes one an artist is making art. And that requires the precise opposite of hanging out; a deeply lonely and unglamorous task of tolerating oneself long enough to push something out.

a devouring hunger

I say this is a wild dream—but it is this dream I want to realize. Life and literature combined, love the dynamo, you with your chameleon's soul giving me a thousand loves, being anchored always in no matter what storm, home wherever we are. In the mornings, continuing where we left off. Resurrection after resurrection. You asserting yourself, getting the rich varied life you desire; and the more you assert yourself the more you want me, need me. Your voice getting hoarser, deeper, your eyes blacker, your blood thicker, your body fuller. A voluptuous servility and tyrannical necessity. More cruel now than before—consciously, wilfully cruel. The insatiable delight of experience.

from Henry Miller's letter to Anais Nin 1932
read it all here 

Radical

Democracy is still a radical idea in a world where we often confuse images with realities, words with actions.

Hillary Clinton

Oh Martha

Martha Stewart's modeling days

 

 

 

 

more here

 

Rent Party

 

Langston Hughes' collection of Harlem "rent party" cards

 

read about them here

 

 

A Blog, A Book, and A Documentary

I would like to share some ladies who have been inspiring me lately from three different kinds of media.

1. Elsa Billgren

This has been my favorite blog for a long time now. Elsa is Swedish and her blog is all about her amazing life with her adorable husband, fun jobs, and vintage dresses. All of her occupations are like a dream: stylist, TV host, writer, and fancy party goer. She collects vintage wedding dresses and rents them out! She photographs her whole life and it is all colorful and beautiful. It is twee and navel gazing but I love it.

2. Carole Radziwell

I am currently reading her memoir, What Remains, recounting her life going from a small town New York girl to American royalty. Through her job as a journalist at NBC news she met her future husband, nephew of Jackie O. She lost her husband to cancer the same year her best friend and new cousin perished in the famous plane crash. Her story is full of tragedies and beauty.

3. Dr. Lucy Worsley

I stumbled across Dr.Lucy's BBC series A History of the Home on youtube and couldn't stop watching until all the episodes were done. It is fascinating! There is an episode about the living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom and each travels from medieval times through today.  I love her approach to the stories and her enthusiasm for the subject. I can't believe how much I learned from this mini docu series! I urge you all to go have a look.

70's love

I give you the world. Have fun blowing it up.

“I took the sleeper out of Glasgow, and as the smelly old train bumped out of Central Station and across the Jamaica Street Bridge, I stared out at the orange halogen streetlamps reflected in the black water of the river Clyde. I gazed at the crumbling Victorian buildings that would soon be sandblasted and renovated into yuppie hutches. I watched the revelers and rascals traverse the shiny wet streets. I thought of the thrill and danger of my youth and the fear and frustration of my adult life thus far. I thought of the failure of my marriage and my failures as a man. I saw all this through my reflection in the nighttime window. 

Down the tracks I went, hardly aware that I was going further south with every passing second.” 

― Craig Ferguson, American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot

(I listened to Craig read this- his memoir- on tape and it was amazing)

6 impossible polaroids by Andy Warhol

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Mick Jagger

John Lennon

Alfred Hitchock

Debbie Harry

Truman Capote

more here

I am totally obsessed with these.

Six Impossible vintage Goldies

Youthfulness is connected to the ability to see things new for the first time. So if your eyes still look at life with wonder, then you will seem young, even though you may not be chronologically young.
Goldie Hawn

tiara

\\

Mae West

when i was young i cut this picture out of a book and put it on my bedroom door.

it was the most glamorous and sexy picture i had ever seen! 

beyonce

Zen instructions for life

In 1964 Yoko Ono wrote Grapefruit- a book of instructions. 

WISH PIECE

 Make  a wish

Write it down on a piece of paper

Fold it and tie it around a branch of a Wish Tree

Ask your friends to do the same

Keep wishing

Until the branches are covered with wishes

SNOW PIECE 

Think that snow is falling. Think that snow is falling

everywhere all the time. When you talk with a person, think

that snow is falling between you and on the person.

Stop conversing when you think the person is covered by snow.

MAP PIECE

Draw an imaginary map. Put a goal mark on the map where you want to go. Go walking on an actual street according to your map. If there is not street where it should be according to the map, make one by putting the the obstacles aside. When you reach the goal, ask the name of the city and give flowers to the first person you meet. The map must be followed exactly, or the event has to be dropped altogether.

Ask your friends to write maps. Give your friends maps.

My love for Yoko knows no bounds...

Can you believe that this is Martha Stewart?

Well, you better. Because it is. And it's a very good thing.

Elke Kramer