These are a few of my favorite things!

Let us go to Pretentioustan and talk about the books I love! No, I'm just kidding. I really enjoy reading books, it's my favorite past-time. And I just wanted to share that I had a really great turn out, presents-wise, last Christmas. Everybody gave me a book! I have so many new books! Let me share some of my favorite pieces from my new haul:

I got a couple of biographies from "The Life and Works" series by Edmund Singlehorse. It's a collection of artists like Botticelli, Da Vinci, Cezanne, Pissarro, and Caravaggio. It's excellent and pretty informative. I've only leafed through about two of them so I guess I'll just save talking about the entire collection until after I've finished reading all. I'm excited. I only had one art course throughout my university years so my background is pretty weak, save for artists that I really like (like Picasso!). These books will help me learn more about the beaux arts, I'm sure.

I also got The Ultimate Encyclopedia Of Mythology, which is karmic since I gave my Edith Hamilton's Mythology to my cousin, Ysabella. Mythology will always have a special place in my heart because my childhood was all about reading Greek and Roman Mythology. Now, I can learn about Egyptian, Norse and Asian mythology. It's all very exciting!

Some other random gifts were popular books such as Stieg Larsson's trilogy (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), foodie books, a very thick 5-in-1 Kurt Vonnegut book (I did a small wolf whistle when I opened it), books about French culture, philosophy books, art history books, biographies and strangely, a book about Tudor England. (Seriously, why though?) I'm not complaining! So many nice things to read!

In any case, I'm very happy with my new books and I can't wait to share them all with you guys (invisible, non-existent people whom I refer to as my readers!).

I've already blogged about my favorite picture book (okay, wrong term but I don't have a coffee table and personally, I feel like "picture book" is a better description), Alexander Liberman's Then. Maybe next time I can write about my art books or about Caligula! Ah, so many books to read. All I need is time which I hope I get really soon.

I thought I'd start the year right by reading about French cuisine but so many things got in the way. I'm sure I'm going to have some down time but for now, I have to read all about Economics and the politics of 19th - 2oth century Europe. It's great and I feel like I'm really preparing for the comprehensive exams I'll be taking after a year or so, but I'm not doing as well as I'd like to and I feel like I have to put more effort into graduate school. *insert defeated whimper right here* Well, okay, I think I just brought myself down with that sentence. I'll figure it out, somehow.

New books, that's my point (I hope you never notice how bad my transition is whenever I write, but I bet you do). I hope to acquire more books this year and actually get to read them at least twice. What have you been reading lately? Is it any good? I hope you have read some fine books over January. I think it's a good way to start the year. I put a premium on my first books of the year. I'd like to think it gives me a set perspective about the year, and my life in general. :) On to the future, here's to the first month of 2011!

Never Let Me Go

"I was thinking about the rubbish, the flapping plastic in the branches, the shore-line of odd stuff caught along the fencing, and I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field, and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave, maybe even call. The fantasy never got beyond that --I didn't let it-- and though the tears rolled down my face, I wasn't sobbing or out of control. I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be."

I don't have enough time or words to write about this book but I can tell you that there are so many beautiful things inside it. I love it, I loved reading about Tommy, Kathy and Ruth and their tragic and short lives. Most of all, I love the subtlety, the powerful plot and the existential turmoil they had upon coming to terms with who they really were (or why they were "created"). I love the mix of well-strung sentences, powerful words, thoughtful feelings and excellent pacing. I love how the story is so intimate--in that I didn't feel any less for the characters, despite my knowing what they really are. Despite living the lives of "donors", they had very human feelings. I guess that's why this book just works. It is wonderful and I'm glad someone in their right mind decided to make a movie out of it. It's one of the best books I have read in a while and if you haven't, I urge you to pick it up. It made me quite sad, in the end, but it was a happy kind of sad. The kind of sad you only get from reading something so good, you refuse to let it slip out of your mind for days. :)

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you

"I can imagine being about 40 and looking for him and turning up and he's settled, and he's got a beautiful wife and some beautiful kids and he's completely happy and I'm still on my own. It's kind of about that, I'm quite scared at the thought of that."

Adele talking about her song, 'Someone Like You'

Hello. Here's something from Adele. I got hold of her album, 21, earlier this week. It was fantastic and as always, she is amazing. I can't help but feel a little small whenever I hear her and think about everything she's done at 21--her depth as a writer and an artist blows me away. My favorite tracks from her album are Rumour Has It, Rolling in the Deep and of course, Someone Like You. I just love her way with words. She is a wonderful companion on Saturday nights alone. :) *"What's that smell?" "Bitterness."*

In other news, my life is in shambles. I am unhappy most of the time and that's because I bite off more than I can chew--literally and figuratively speaking. No, not really. I'm not that unhappy. It's just that it's taking quite some time for me to start things I'm supposed to be doing this year. I just want to focus more on school, have more time for it and start doing what I do well, in a place I've always wanted to find myself in. It's going to come, eventually, but you know, it's the wait that's killing me.

I just really need a win right now. Anyway enough of me, just listen to Adele. She's amazing. I hope everybody's having a great month. So far, 2011 hasn't been that fun for me. Oh.

You'd know how the time flies.
Only yesterday was the time of our lives.
We were born and raised in a summery haze.
Bound by the surprise of our glory days.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I hoped you'd see my face & that you'd be reminded,
That for me, it isn't over yet.

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you too.
Don't forget me, I beg, I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead".

♥

The voyeuristic joys of photography

THEN by Alexander Liberman

Photographs from 925-1995

Alexander Liberman is a phenomenal artist. He is a sculptor, photographer, writer, art director, painter, etc. etc. He has photographed Picasso, Matisse, Braque, and Bancusi among many others. Unlike most artists, Alexander Liberman didn't consider photography an art or art itself as some kind of success. One of the lessons that Alex learned from his documentation of artists at work and play is that most of the great artists lead fairly miserable lives. Success came with a bargain, either a good life and lousy work or a good work and a lousy life. I think that's what most people (me, included) like about him and his work. I sort of feel he subconsciously called out the whole art scene on its bullshit. He worked and created. He was both unpretentious and unapologetic. He just chose to be happy and be productive, at the same time. He said, "There is no success in art. I always felt that life was more important, and that if I had to make the choice, I would drop art to save Tatiana (his wife) any day. I have absolutely no regrets of any kind."

THEN is the record of his remarkable life and the people with whom it was lived. Spies, fashion designers, aristocrats, dancers, editors, publishers, and Nobel laureates come and go in this photographic chronicle of half a century. The cast of characters includes Baryshnikov, Chanel, Picasso, Dior, Truman Capote and many other talented friends and family members. Alexander Liberman began taking photographs as a boy in revolutionary Moscow, and he has kept his camera with him throughout his life. He is a distinguished sculptor and painter, bu has also spent much of his life making magazines. His vision is unplanned and unpremeditated, most of his own photographs were, in that they were taken to document a moment, but they reveal a life full of charm and valor and creative energy and a time that shaped the world we know now.

In this book, Liberman writes about the voyeuristic joys of photography and the way he views these photographs, what they are in this life, and of course, shares little anecdotes about his subjects. I really liked this part:

He writes, "Many of these pictures were taken at random and are only memories, moments caught and then forgotten until they are unearthed, and brought to life. I like the variety I see in them, the change of scenes, the different cultures. I bless photography for allowing me to participate in the lives of others. And in this book, as the panorama of the years unfolds, I am suddenly able to look upon forgotten parts of my own life.

In each picture there is a reflection of a state of mind. Photography does not tolerate a fixed vision of the beings we photograph. In many pictures, we want to please. We say, "Smile." These are photos de politesse, or courtesy shots. But try as one might, the mystery that photography confers on the simplest situations prevails. There is something intangible there, an aura of the unseeable, life beyond the visible. You may call this chance, or randomness, but it is the ability of the film and the lens to capture something beyond the obvious that is, in the end, the glory of the most humble snapshot.

So here is a record of a life and a time, in pictures. The mystery that photographs impose on this record is perhaps why I took them."

Some of my favorite pictures below:

A gondolier in Venice, 1959.

Annette Giacometti, wife of sculptor Alberto Giacometti, in their one-room kitchen/bedroom living quarters. "He considered almost everything an unnecessary luxury and never bought her a present."

Picasso in his restored Hispanico-Suiza from the 1920s. He used it to travel to bullfights in the 1950's.

Coco Chanel, in 1951 and on a stroll in the Tuileries, a few steps from the rue Cambon where she lived and had an atelier. They say Coco Chanel had some gypsy blood in her, so with her deep, dark eyes, dark hair and prominent nose, she evoked mystery. Of Chanel, Liberman writes, "I had a great admiration for Coco. I would sit for hours and listen as she rested on a sofa, speaking about her adventures, the philosophy of her clothes, and of life in general. She was a perfectionist and I learned a lot about craft from her."

Of Anna Wintour, "Anna wants her models in Vogue to have a modern elegance as well as charm and sex appeal. The true feminine seductiveness of the woman has to come through. In the multiplicity of photo contacts, Anna immediately picks the one that has modern allure. There is a girlish shyness about Anna. The big dark glasses she hides behind bring a charming mystery to her image. I love her and admire her."

Then by Alexander Liberman showcases half a century of a wonderful world--one that is full of great masters, interesting personas, glamor, bohemia, charm, life and creativity. This book is wonderful. :)

Hello, 2011

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. May your coming year be a wonderful thing, in which you dream both dangerously and outrageously. I hope you’ll make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), I hope that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind. And I hope that somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

- Neil Gaiman