movie inspiration: what a way to go

on netflix, available to watch instantly. this movie kills me! pure eye candy. edith head at her best.. well she was always at her best i suppose. shirley maclaine is adorable throughout, as are her costars paul newman, robert mitchum, dean martin and dick van dyke. dozens and dozens of brilliant costumes, many on screen for only 3or 5 seconds. i caught as many as i could for you. here are just a few of my favs:


lounging at home in blue stripes & sheer crisp ruffles w matching ruffle bloomers. i am totally making myself an outfit like this.




full-skirted ballgown split to reveal tiny matching micro shorts







completely insane red rubber geisha ensemble








cutest tiny empire-waist nightey that swings around her like a bell

and in time to be some summer inspiration for you: this longsleeved white lace bikini and the best shades ever





and also this killer dramatic bikini.. so easy to diy

48 hours in florida

i went to the beach 3 times! i took a junkload of pics and combed for shells.

siesta key















lido beach




and also a few little movielets:









48 hrs was too short, but i am glad to be home :)

movie inspiration: 39 steps

the 39 steps is another one of those early hitchcock propaganda films that i love. it is maybe the most famous of his from this period, but i think there are others that are better.. sabotage & secret agent i think are more fun rides.
BUT check out the giant bow collar on the heroine!






starched cotton it seems, with a black tie cinching at the center. this will be so easy to diy.. i'm gonna grab a couple of big men's button down shirts next time i am at the thrifts to make my own. this sort of thing would have just been pinned on to a plain black suit jacket. i'm thinking of making mine reversible, maybe a striped cotton on the othere side :)

wanna watch a movie?

i watch a bunch of movies on hulu (legal movies w minimal ads yay) and they just uploaded this orson welles movie called mr arkadin that i've watched about 6 times now and am really enjoying. i tend to watch most movies at least a dozen times some many way more than that, usually over a few day or weeks. i have hundreds of old movies and do really like o.w. but hadn't seen this yet. (i'm tellin you i *really* like old movies. ) so this one they go all over the world in 1962. it's a crappy print but who cares.. lots of intrigue and dutch angles and really great actors and orson welles in a big stick-on beard.
they have a bunch of good stuff on there. here are some more of my favorites:

fun 60s camp sci-fi atom age vampire. i love this kind of junk. mesa of lost women is another fav.

the only marx bros they have is horse feathers.. not my favorite (night in casablanca, of course!) but all marx bros is good marx bros.

i do love my mystery stories.. and especially sherlock holmes (new s.h. movie coming out w robert downy jr soon!) - the private life of sherlock holmes is billy wilder's weird but fun take on it.

carnival of souls is a classic but i do recommend getting the dvd and listening to the commentary too. i mean if you're into that sort of thing.

they have one of my top 3 all-time favorite hitchcock movies, secret agent. the other two would be 'sabotage' and 'rich & strange'. i love those charming pretty snappy 30s couples. and this one also features a thoroughly loveable peter lorre, and a wire-hair dachshund. i don't really enjoy hitchcock post 1950. (i mean i still watch them over and over but i don't really enjoy it..)

dead end is really great and touching bogey w the dead end kids. i love the dead end kids. there's another one i like w them called 'they made me a criminal' that is good fun too.


about to watch terror is a man and frankenstein's daughter. as soon as the lady vanishes is over. maybe sooner.. not my favorite but still worth a watch.. if you haven't, um, seen it 20 times already.

dogs in the snow

i wish i could make snow for them more often. it makes them really frisky
















last year's dog in the snow pics here. cornfed solo - this is our first winter snow with beatrice :D

dog spoons

love it when they spoon :D

pups

and feet, mostly.

lady!

she was so good to stand still for me while i grabbed the camera.

ca. 1979

some drawings from when i was wee:














and a mystery:








can anyone tell me what is going on here? i remember drawing it but not why... what o what does it mean???



more here!

more ponies

you may remember me posting a while back about ponyboy - well i got another opportunity to shoot photographs of one of his horse training clinics in NJ. the whole set is here. i might have some video to show you soon too:)

fav films: woody allen

yes, i am a big woody allen fan. granted, i haven't seen any of his new work since everyone says i love you in 1996. but i still regularly listen to my old records of his stand up routines, and i would gladly drop everything to watch bananas again at any time.
of course i love annie hall too, but even people who hate woody allen films like annie hall.
here is my list of absolute favorite woody allen movies in order:


zelig
shadows & fog
love & death
bananas
what's up tigerlily?
take the money & run


i was not ever really into everything you always wanted to know about sex*but were afraid to ask... nor did i like sleeper (except for the set design!) which seem to be everyone's favorites if they like old woody allen. i rarely hear anyone touting the virtues of the films listed here (except zelig, folks seem to agree on that one :D) bananas has the best theme music ever and i will be dancing to it in my head all day now. if you like kafka you'll like shadows & fog (plus it's a circus movie which you know i love) and if you've ever been into russian lit you should get a kick out of love & death.
i still may get it together to watch the new scarlet-era woody pics, but prolly not for a few more years yet. i'd rather not see another film ever than have to sit through anything remotely as bad as everyone says i love you.

shel silverstein

also from that april 1980 playboy:
[click each panel, best enjoyed full screen]

albert

this is ma's pup albert!:













isn't he wonderful? he is extremely photogenic so it is very hard to choose just a few pics to share with you here. i made this flickr set of the rest. he is an afghan/poodle mix, from the spca. i personally prefer 'pooghan' to 'afgoodle' if we have to call him something.

movie obsessed

i mention over yonder >>> that i am wicked obsessed with old movies. yesterday i bought another 100 movie pack set - i have bought 9 of these sets thus far, though some are 50 movie packs. yesterday i got 100 horror:



the others are:

100 mystery classics

50 suspense classics

50 horror classics (all different from the 100 I just got!)

50 dark crimes

50 hollywood legends

50 historic classics

100 hollywood classics

100 sci-fi classics

I love how the review on the sci-fi one says ‘months of entertainment in a single box.” it took me defly less than 2 weeks. though i still have not made it through santa claus conquers the martians - despite having the best title it is insufferably bad. most of the rest of them i have seen dozens of times now, plus i have managed to acquire countless other smaller box sets over the years, bogey & bacall, mae west, marx bros, bette davis, and on and on.
the sets are $30-$45 in stores, but less than $15 on amazon. totally worth it despite many coming from bad prints... also it is apparent that the people who compile these sets go by title, not actual content. last night i watched 'monster island' with boris karloff.. it is not a horror movie! narcotics smuggling and baby snatching. this is not the first out-of-place film on one of these sets i have noticed.. 'atom age vampire' is not a vampire movie either :D but it is pretty good. of course my idea of good is prolly a bit skewed at this point.
there's a set of 100 detective tv shows that is next on my list :) also you can watch dragnet '67 on netflix now... s 01 ep 01 is bloody hilarious. they all are but that one especially. very different from the original more hard-boiled dragnet series.