Happy 250th, Mary W! ... And a defence of Hope

Ahem, so as you can tell from the title, it's Mary Wollstonecraft's birthday today. the big 2-5-o

*please excuse my pathetic attempt to add a bit of birthday cheer to Mary Wollstoncraft's portrait. at least the cake looks excited..

While it's debatable whether her birthday marks the birth of feminism as we know it, it's fair to say the late Ms Wollstonecraft (1759 – 1797) put women's liberation on the agenda with her treatise "A vindication of the Rights of Women" (1792) and as modern day women with access to a proper education and equality under the law, we owe her alot (I'm appealing to our female readership here. If there are any guys reading, here's a -admittedly slightly biased- male view on things: Wollstonecraft husband Thomas Godwin wrote "If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book." Take what you will from that)

The thought provoking smh article "Let Women be Enlightened" pretty well sums up in a nut shell what a radical and remarkable woman the late Ms Wollstonecraft was and the continuing relevance of her ideas. recommended reading!

So what do you guys (in the neutral sense) think? Is the brand of rational, 'whatever you can do, I can do just as well' feminism that Mary Wollstonecraft espoused still alive and kicking (as opposed to the more out-there 'who needs men?' strands of feminism)? Would you identify yourself as a feminist or do you find the label "feminist" slightly alienating?

Oh! and lastly- slightly unrelated to feminism, but definetly related to Mary Wollstonecraft's fighting spirit - having looked at the comments on Hurley Who's post on gay marriage and asylum seekers, it was quite dispiriting to note how cynical some of you are *cough d.read cough*.

I mean, we're the young people of this city/nation/world- if ever there is a time to be idealists and to believe however deludedly that we can change the world, it's now! Save disillusionment and bitterness for middle age. Yay for hope!

C.L.

How LOTR should have ended

For all you LOTR fans out there. This is gold =D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yqVD0swvWU

Her cules

Think about it... and then comment!

While I don't want to get into overly complicated arguments, what does everyone think about the recent asylum seekers and their boat which exploded? Kevin Rudd's immigration policy? Immigration in general? People smuggling?

It's a pretty big domestic issue now.

Also - Miss California's recent comments about gay marriage? Do you think more American states should follow Vermont and legalise gay marriage? Why, why not?

~ Hurley Who?

oh, I don't know...music+clothing=XD

This will probably be the first and last time I ever blog about something remotely related to fashion, but it just so happens to be that graphic designer/artist Sanna Annukka who designed the lovely album artwork for Keane's Under the Iron Sea comme ca:
...has also designed a clothing range at Topshop which you can visit here: hello!






They're pretty and pretty baggy! yay for random links

[disco.read]

A few of my favourite Sartorialist shots:














The second last shot is divine.




- no name -

Siftables

Quite recently MIT graduate, David Merrill, came up with the idea of "siftables", which are basically computerised blocks that are able to interact and communicate with each other. Unlike normal computer systems common to the household today, siftables aim to encourage a more physical interaction with the user that allow for applications to be easier to use and more relevant to the user with its tangibleness and subsequent mobility functions.

For more info, check this video out:

~Louis Tiffon

Movie Review: Easy Virtue

Count Lucifer and I had been wanting to watch Easy Virtue for a while now, and we finally did this morning, while getting up to our usual holiday shenanigans.

Our initial reactions were:

Ooh Ben Barnes!! (more Count Lucifer's reaction)

Oh Colin!! (ok, more my reaction)

Jessica Biel's face is oddly proportioned...

I want to strangle the mother....

The movie is directed by Stephan Elliot, who also directed Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and he brings some of his cruder humour from Priscilla into Easy Virtue. Jessica Biel plays Larita, a hardcore race car driver from the US, who marries Ben Barnes, the 'prodigal son' of a snobby English family, the Whittakers, whose character's name I just forgot... I think it's John? Josh? Eh something like that.

Anyway, it's a 'Meet the Parents' type movie which is set in the roaring 20s with charming upholstery, the rambling English countryside, large mansions, sparkly jewellrey, very beautiful costumes and that short, wavy gelled hair which I find defies gravity most of the time.....

Larita gets into some sticky situations (involving deaths of dogs, murder cases, hayfever, smoking, Can Can dances without underpants, fox hunts on motocycles... you get the idea) and the mother, Mrs Whittaker (who is played well by Kristin Scott Thomas) can't stand her because she's beautiful and independent, she has been married before and also has the name 'Mrs Whittaker'. SMH's review said that Jessica Biel was "blonde and willowy... and exudes a degree of glamour that is anathema to the Whittakers' tweedy standards of dress and deportment." So true, so true.

Eventually, the Mrs Whittaker drives Larita insane because of their constant bickering. The ending is a sort-of-but-not-really conclusion to the movie, and is apparently the best part of the film, so I won't spoil it.

Colin Firth plays a laconic Mr Whittaker (father of Ben Barnes), whose detached outlook on life, and cynical, dry humour is hilarious (kind of reminiscent of Mr Bennet in P&P).

Jessica's earrings in this outfit are so nice... you can't really see them up close here, but they are totally encrusted with diamonds and probably cost more than my house... Oh wishful thinking...

Eg.

Mrs. Whittaker: Smile, Marion.

Marion Whittaker: I don't feel like smiling.

Mr. Whittaker: You're English dear, fake it.

---

Mrs. Whittaker: You're smiling, Jim.

Mr. Whittaker: Oh God forbid. The wind might change.

Jessica Biel's character is mature, sophisticated and headstrong although she smokes like a chimney. Her costumes are quite masculine, but she is able to pull off wearing those wide legged pants which anyone with an ounce of fat would just look TRAGIC in. She doesn't have convincing chemistry with Ben Barnes, but their overall attractiveness overrides that fact. However, her chemistry with Colin Firth is electric!!! Larita takes an immediate liking to Mr Whittaker just because he doesn't demonise her. While watching this, I secretly wanted them to run off into the sunset together but then thought... EW! Incest! He's her father-in-law!!!!!

This is from the 'tango' scene where we definately know that there is electrifying chemistry between Firth and Biel... gives you a kind of strange feeling of delight but strangeness...

Ben Barnes is a bit of a cad, even if he is nice to look at. He's naive and swept away by how glamorous Larita is, and doesn't really have any sense of responsibility as a husband or son.

And the mother... oh the mother. Where to start? She's got a misguided sense of "moral responsibility" over the family which can compensate for Ben Barnes's lack thereof, which is SO ANNOYING and forces her to intefere all the time! You love to hate her... or hate to love her? Both I think. It's just that she acts quite well in the movie, and you want to wring her neck but you think, 'you're acting is so good as the disgruntled mother-in-law', even if she does wear hairy cardigans.

Overall, it's pretty good. Funny dialogue, visually flamboyant in a way, not-too-bad acting and an unexpectedly satisfying ending (which makes you think: YEA! STICK IT TO THE [WO]MAN!) make it range from a 7-8 out of 10.

I'd say watch it if you're in the mood for a holiday-friendly, enjoyable romp! (ROMP! That's the first and last time I'll use that word)

~ Hurley Who?

The Big Red Button

For those unfortunate enough as me to fall into temptation...
Do NOT click here: LINK

~Louis Tiffon

this is pretty awesome

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

check it. =P


Her cules

Follow up...

Everyone remember Disco Read's Dr Seuss quote?

I found this nice image on the net:




Have a nice Easter break (we definately need it!) I will do nothing for at least one day... how liberating!!


~ Hurley Who?

PS. The emo easter bunny...

interesting bag...

Thoughts?
~Louis Tiffon

Grammar

Came across some important grammar rules that we should all know:

1. Don’t use no double negatives.
2. Make each pronoun agree with their antecedents.
3. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
4. About them sentence fragments.
5. When dangling, watch your participles.
6. Verbs has got to agree with their subjects.
7. Just between you and I, case is important.
8. Don’t use commas, which aren’t necessary.
9. Try to not ever split infinitives.
10. It is important to use your apostrophe’s correctly.
11. Proofread your writing to see if you any words out.
12. Correct spelling is essentual.

Her cules

For the 'leet':

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/



For the speech-impaired:

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-elmer/