Saturday 20 August 2011

coat for winter analysis

yes, i know, it's summer, but ever one to be prepared, i have my winter coat now! (hurrah!)

i was shopping in miss selfridge for a few extra holiday dresses, when i came across this delightful piece-



despite the army-green look on this photo, my new coat is in fact BLACK. fitting at around knee level, this is a coat that will look very elegant in the snowy months with black tights and heels. i love the collar of this coat, and with it being faux-fur, i am even happier knowing i'm not wearing a dead fox of some variety! i find the fabric of this coat absolutely perfect, as it is cosy, and warm, and can be worn both open and closed for an equally stunning look. also, the fit of this coat is brilliant, because my size 8 version of the coat is wonderful for bringing in the waist and emphasising the hips, YES HOUR GLASS!
(ps, hour glass is definitely the new 'in' figure.)
at £85.00, i would say the value of this coat is very good, as you would EASILY pay more for it in different shops! besides, it's a winter coat; you need three at the most, so it's definitely worth spending that little bit extra on such a lovely coat!
Well done Miss Selfridge!

film/book: the devil wears prada

the devil wears prada! WHAT a film!
a few months ago, my best friend lent me the book, forcing me to read it and going on about how amazing it was. at first, i was slightly dubious as to its content, believing that it would be some unrealistic love story about an evil girl wearing expensive stuff. however, it is the most realistic and insightful story of the most sought-after job in the world, so kudos to my best friend for giving it to me!

reading the book at the dinner table, my mum came in and asked me, if i had seen the film. THERE'S A FILM?! oh my word, it gets better! answering no, i vowed i would find the film, and watch it until i could recite it backwards (it really is the kind of film you want to do that with)!

so, on a trip to town with two lovely friends of mine, we visited HMV, and i rushed to the film section, searching desperately for the devil wears prada. at £4 from new, i was elated with my find, and i arrived home excited to watch my new film.

i watched the film, and found sections funny, upsetting, and plain gob-smacking!

in case you've never read the book, or watched the film, it's basically a film about your normal girl working in a fashion industry. it's enlightening, as to what goes on under the magazine cover; how everything is done in time, how the models are so thin, and why they are never as down to earth as they seem.

for anyone planning on working in the fashion industry (actually, anyone at all) this is a must watch/read.

i promise you, this will not disappoint!

Tuesday 16 August 2011

lyrical meaning

i don't know if it's just me here, but i find that these days, lyrics are becoming less and less meaningful, so here are two songs, which i believe still have lyrics that make sense, rather than the usual love-he-doesn't-love-me-back generic 'lyrics'.

1- there is a light that never goes out- the smiths
this song is about a man, who appears to have been turned out of his home by his roommates ('oh please don't drop me home, because it's not my home it's their home and i'm welcome no more.') and he has managed to get on a night out with the girl he loves. they are driving in her car, and he feels like he suddenly has the chance to ask her, possibly for a kiss, another date, or her hand in marriage, who knows? however, he gets gripped by fear, and doesn't ask. he sings about if they were to die in the car, he would die a happy man, because he would be dying next to the love of his life, little does she know it ('to die by your side, is such a heavenly way to die.') finally, i think the outro is meaningful, the repeating singing of 'there is a light, and it never goes out'.  i think the 'light' is either a metaphor for hope, saying that there is always hope that they will get together, or a metaphor for his love for her, that it will never be turned out. either way, brilliant song, good old The Smiths!


2- a lady of a certain age- divine comedy
in my opinion, the best song of all time! this is a song about a woman, who is getting older, but is in denial about becoming an old lady. she has had a very well-off lifestyle (from london to new york, cap ferrat to capri, in perfume by chanel and clothes by givanchy) , due to her parents and her husbands wellbeing, not her own ('you had to marry someone very very rich, so that you might be kept, in the style to which, you had all of your life, been accustomed to, but that the socialists had taxed away from you')
the lyrics tell us about how the lady had a rich husband, a son and a daughter. her husband is now dead, and left everything to his mistress in marseille. her son works away, and only visits her very briefly. her daughter ran away with a man that was not approved of, and is never heard of these days. so this aging lady is all alone. the heartbreaking part of this song is the chorus, i will analyse it here-
'you chased the sun around the cote d'azur, (she spent her days, being loved and doing what she wanted, seemingly in France, as it is the cote d'azur)

until the light of youth become obscure
and left you on your own and in the shade (one day, she realises, she's not the youth anymore. everything is new, and strange.)

an english lady, of a certain age   (an old english lady, nothing special except for her past of riches)

and if a nice young man would buy you a drink
you'd say with a conspiritorial wink
you wouldn't think that i was,*age inserted*
and he'd say, no, you couldn't be!'     (this section of the chorus is the tear jerker; each time we get to the section 'you wouldn't think that i was...', the lady thinks she is younger. the first chorus reads 'you wouldn't think that i was seventy', and then the next, sixty three, and the next, fifty three. when she hopes people don't believe she is seventy, they really think, no, she's probably a little younger, and agree with her. when she hopes people believe she is younger than sixty three, they guess that probably is her age, but agree that she looks younger so as not to hurt her feelings. by the time she hopes she can get away with being fifty three or less, the nice young man agrees with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour; of course he wouldn't think she was fifty-three, she's obviously older. so while this lady thinks she is getting younger, and that this nice young man is taking her seriously, really, he's having a laugh at her expense, as all she is now, is an expendable old english lady.)

all she is, is a lady of a certain age.


review to read

a quick book review here, about a book that i recently read.

paper towns, by john green.

the back of the book reads-

printz- award-winning author of LOOKING FOR ALASKA
WHO IS THE REAL MARGO?
quentin jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificent, adventurous margo roth spiegelman from afar. so when she opens his bedroom window late one night and summons him to join her on an ingenious campaign of revenge- he follows.

after their all nighter ends and a new day breaks, q arrives at school to find that margo has not. always an enigma, she now becomes a mystery and q soon learns that there are clues to be followed in his search for margo.

'not only clever and wonderfully witty but also deeply thoughtful and insightful' BOOKLIST.



MY REVIEW- i thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially the lessons available to learn, such as how unimportant popularity is; proved in the social status gap between margo and q. q shows some amazing loyalty towards margo in the end of the book, and that's what we like to see in good friends! a good read, and an exciting page turner!Paper Towns by John Green

holiday song

if there's one song that reminds me of the holiday i have just returned from, then it would have to be 'because of toledo', by The Blue Nile. most likely, it's because i went to toledo.



 before the holiday, i had never listened to The Blue Nile, but i have now discovered that it is the most beautiful type of easy listening; the gentle acoustics against a soothing voice, belonging to Paul Buchanan. the song 'because of toledo' has some meaningful lyrics on reflection, which i will analyse here for you, what i think the song means, and how the lyrics portray themselves to me: (italics=analysis)

Because of Toledo,
I got sober, and I stayed clean.
the man feels toledo has sorted out his life.
The pick ups in wild prairies
The shadows dancing in between
its a beautiful place, of tranquility
Girl leans on a jukebox
in a pair of old blue jeans
Says i live here
but i don't really live anywhere
a poor girl, feeling she doesn't fit in, wherever she goes. she is possibly homeless.
Because of toledo,
tuesday it's raining
blandness.
and i'm pulling on my shoes
i guess i quit believing in
early morning news
maybe nothing really is what it seems.
there's a boy orders coffee
and he settles down to think
'bout the woman that you love sometimes
is the water that you drink
you seen to only love her sometimes, but truthfully, she means everything to you.
and another faded waitress dressed in pink
they're all the same around here.
cries for toledo
lipstick and the cocaine traces
coming off drugs, and trying to be beautiful
one face in a thousand faces
stumble through
so many places
you're only one person, no matter where you go
because of toledo
(yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah)
because of toledo,
the highway looks so thin
now everything is plain, compared with toledo, nothing is as beautiful. he has begun travelling.
see another motel sign
think of pulling in
going somewhere to think, where to go? this travelling is no use.
write your name upon the mirror, there
the only secret that i know
but i guess that i'd be chasing rainbows
you're so special, but really he knows, he'll never be up to your standards, so it's pointless anyway.
back to toledo, i think i'll go
let's just go back to toledo, where i'm of any use.



a beautiful song, do you not agree?