10 Adorables in April

1. The Human Equation, a concept album (which could also count as a musical) by dutch prog musician Ayreon that describes 20 days in the life of a coma patient, his inner monologues and his surroundings. I’m still not sure, but I think my favourite part is Day 7: Hope. Or maybe Day 2: Isolation? Or Day 12: Trauma? I don’t know.
2. MousesHouses. Wonderfully whimsical scenes from what could be a more city-like pendant of Brambly Hedge.
3. My Second Anniversary with the Scoundrel.
4. La Sardina Camera. Since my camera broke last month (well, actually it miraculously started working again. I’ve got no clue what happened there, but I’m happy, of course) I’ve been looking for possible substitutes. La Sardina is not really an option, but I love the design, especially of this one, this and this.
5. My Mother finally has an e-mail adress. Now I can simply send her my pictures instead of piling them up until I visit her again.
6. Merlin, the BBC Wales series. Yes, it’s incredibly not historically correct, but it’s cute anyway.
7. Herringbone Braids, because I finally learned how to do them.
8. Blutsgeschwister, a German indie label with strong inspiration from traditional German clothing and awesome prints.
9. Jellyfishes in Bottles. This may sound cruel but actually it’s just a really cute recycling tutorial.
10. Getting Up and Dressed to the sound of La Vie en Rose.

30 Questions Mori Girl Challenge – 10 – 12

This was a hard one. I wanted five examples for each category at first but changed my goal into three when I noticed that five would never happen (and I still needed months). My main problem was that my definition of Mori mixes with my definition of Lolita quite a lot, so most of the things I could think of were ones that I have mentioned before.

10 – what are your favorite books? do you think they’re mori or not?

1. The Brambly Hedge by books by Jill Barklem are some of my all-time favourites and something I’d call mori, even though they are quite something for Lolita, too. The stories are so full with mice and candied violets and houses in trees and picnics, they have to be mori!
2. Life on Seacrow Island by Astrid Lindgren is less wood and more sea, but I’d nevertheless call it a mori-able book.
3. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, another one I’ll always love. I’d even go as far as to say that one could see Mary Lennox as the original Mori Girl, even though nobody knew back then.

11 – name 3 of your favorite mori girl style songs or musicians, even if they’re not explicitly “mori.”

Is there actually music that is “explicitly mori”?

1. Loreena McKennitt, one of my favourite artists ever. I seem to mention her here often, I fear, but I simply love her.
2. Patrick Wolf, who sees himself in some sort of Irish bardic tradition. My favourite piece of his music is The Tinderbox.
3. Blanche, a Southern Gothic inspired alternative country band. I discovered them by luck some years ago and have taken a liking to their haunting style. I especially like this recording of their So long cruel World.

12 – What films, if any, inspire your mori girl look and life?

One thing I read about Mori rather often was that the character Hagu from Honey & Clover was kind of “the original” Mori Girl. Which is a little bit confusing as there are not only the initial manga and anime, but also a live-action film adaption and not only one but two additional live-action dramas, one from Japan and one from Taiwan.
As most dramas are rather unnerving I watched the anime, and I even noticed that I had started reading the manga some years ago.
Hagu ist nothing of a Mori Girl. At least not the original Hagu. She’s a 18-year old that looks and acts like a (rather annoying and sociopath) 9-year old. Actually, this character managed to ruin the entire – otherwise quite fun and absurd – anime for me. I dare say I was rather baffled, if not disappointed, and didn’t even make the attempt to watch further that the fist two episodes. Maybe it gets better later, but if a series can’t get me with the first two episodes, it’s simply not for me. She might be a Mori Girl in one of the live-action adaptions after all that I’ve seen from clips, though.
So much for my two pennies worth on one of the Mori Girl moving picture staples, sorry for the bit of bitterness. But now: on to the list!

1. My Neighbor Totoro is so centered about woodland spirits that it was the first one that sprung to mind.
2. Chocolat, one of the rare occasions that I liked the film even though it differed from the book. The atmosphere of the story is lovely, the costumes are wonderful and I always like things related to patîsseries and chocolateries.
3. The Secret Garden, again. Even though I only advise you to watch it if you’ve read the book, as they mixed it up a little.

30 Days Lolita Challenge – Day 27

Day 27 – One Song that fits your favorite Lolita Style

Picture (2008) from bbc.co.uk

William and Davy by Kate Rusby.

It’s English folk (and every other song by Kate Rusby is great, too, by the way!) that fits my sense of a mori girl classic steampunk Lolita best, or at least I couldn’t find something better. Actually it’s one of my favourite songs at the moment, no day goes by without me listening to it. ♥

30 Days Lolita Challenge – Day 8

Day 8 – 8 Songs that inspire you for Lolita

A hard one, again, but at least I tried. The collection of songs below covers by no means my whole favourites, it’s really only what inspires me for Lolita. And so there are only eight of them instead of the ten demanded by the challenge … but it’s the thought that counts.

1. The Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky. All right, it’s a whole ballet, but who cares?
2. Twinkle in her Eyes by LeAnn Rimes. It’s the title tune for the Holly Hobbie movies, and I just loved it the minute I first heard it, it leaves me really energetic. And Miss Rimes has a great voice by the way, too.
3. Birdhouse in your Soul by They Might be Giants, also in the interpretation from Pushing Daisies with Kristin Chenoweth.
4. The Mummers Dance by Loreena McKennitt. More of a Mori girl piece, but still… the transition is smooth with me, anyway.
5. Schöne Augen by Coppelius. There had to be something from one of their albums… it’s also my cellphone’s ring tone
6. The Charleston by James P. Johnson in this version (it’s a Charleston tutorial!), but this one is equally great (and the original!). Well, did I mention I’m in love with the 20s? I think I did.
7. Fruit’s Candy by I-don’t-know-whom, but it’s the third Card Captor Sakura ending. CCS is one of the series that inspire me most for Lolita, too. It’s just predestined! I think I’ll have to do a Porcelain Sunday on this one someday, too…
8. Irish folk. Not a special song, more the genre per se. There are some habits that I don’t want to get rid of, anyway.

Oh I just Can’t Wait…

… for tonight!

Tonight’s the Coppelius concert I’ve been looking forward to for month. I got me the new album last week and haven’t stopped listening (well, except for another song, but that’s too off-topic now).

My favourites so far are:

• Diener 5er Herren (“Servant of 5 Masters”) – “The sufferings of young B.”, about the work of Coppelius’ butler Bastille.
  
• Gumbagubanga - Nonsensical song about a witch doctor which has pretty good choral parts.
  
• Stetig Fromm (“Always Docile”) – About a marriage gone very, very wrong.
  
• Ade mein Lieb (the German version of The Turtle Dove) – So beautiful, I can’t even tell. It’s a great texture with wonderful voices weaving into each other…

I’m also looking forward to hear Damen (“Ladies”), Nachtwache (“Night Watch”) and Klein Zaches (“Little Zaches”), the eponymous song for Zinnober.

As always when it comes to a Coppelius concert I’m a little concerned with my outfit for tonight. I’m struggling to decide whether to go for a more simple-could-be-anywhere-from-rennaissance-to-1900s look or something nearly baroque… but I’ll get a little help from Jules. The time between picking up Tristan, another acquaintance (dare I say friend?) of mine, from the station and meeting the others at the concert we’ll spend at his house, planning outfits. We’re girls, after all (except Tristan).

But now I’ve got to iron my about ten yards of fabric and get something to eat before I leave. I’ll bring you some photos!

10 Things I Love In December

1. Blue Monday. I just recovered this comic after years of oblivion while cleaning up all my boxes at my mother’s house. And instantly I had to order the whole series in English, as I had only two volumes in German (it’s already out of print here and the last two books weren’t even in print anyway).
2. Eloise. Sadly, I haven’t read the books yet, but as far as I may say this, the movies are very, very heartwarming.
   
3. Snow. We had plenty in Marburg, and I do hope that it will last, no, be more!, at least until new year’s eve. I just can’t understand how one can’t like snow, except those folks that can’t get anywhere trough the white masses as the public transport tends to be a little weak at this point.
   
4. Vintage Christmas. I love old-fashioned Christmas cards! I’ve got a whole book full of examples of weird post cards featuring hog-riding hams, pillow fights and cherub jockeys on bats.
   
5. Chai Tea. When I first tried it I thought I wouldn’t like it, but since I discovered the Yogi Tea bags with their wise sayings (just like fortune cookies!), I somehow managed to drink my way though two boxes already.
   
6. The First Pictures of Bioshock Infinite. Absolutely Steampunk! There are not so many trailers around at the aethernet yet, but what they show is splendid!
   
7. Zinnober, the new album of Coppelius. What a surprise!
8. Gregorian Chants. I always had a soft spot for sacred music, and this is one of my favourite variations. It just has something epic to it, especially if you imagine an old church with a ceiling so high that you have to lay back your head to really see it, reverberating with the voices…
   
9. Hair, the song from the musical of the same name. I love the revival of the Broadway musical, too (and the leading actor, Gavin Creel, was in the Eloise films, too).
   
10. Merry-Go-Rounds. There’s an old-fashioned one at the Frankfurt Christmas market and I just love the motif! I think about making at least a carousel-themed t-shirt, if not a whole outfit.

10 Things I Love In October

1. Tuning Forks. Until I got myself a chromatic tuner (I only had a five-tone one for guitars before) I tuned my harp with an A fork and by ear.  The fork I found some years ago on a bookshelf at my father’s and as he had no use to it anymore (he’s also converted to electronic tuners) I took it, just because I like the shape and function.
2. Ellie Connelly. An online comic I started reading recently. Sadly, the artist doesn’t update regularly, but the material that is indeed online is quite worth reading if one is into the late 19th and early 20th century, some Art Nouveau, strong-minded girls, sympathetic young men and old professors and a little bit of the occult.
   
3. The Soundtrack of Bioshock 2. Through advice from the Captain I got the music for the Steampunk con and since the day I first listened to it I’m hooked. Those 30s to 50s inspired pieces always give me a feeling of home, the imaginations of elegant men in tailcoats and Ginger Rogers-like girls that dance the night away. They also remind me a little of Christmas, maybe because my favourite Yuletide disc also contains music from the same decades.
4. The Chocolatier application on Facebook. It’s somewhat steampunky and contains loads of chocolate. What more to say? I’d love to try making pralines myself.
   
5. The Boat That Rocked. If you are somewhat into the music of the 60s, some rock’n roll or psychedelic hippie tunes, this one is a film you should watch. Portraying a pirate radio station located on an old ship somewhere at the British coast in the great North Sea it features not only The Beatles, a Van Morrison look-alike and Cat Stevens, but also Kenneth Branagh as a mean politician and Emma Thompson as the mother of the protagonist. Oh, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
   
6. The fragrance of Impatiens. The word balsamic fits very well, indeed.
   
7. The fabric of my new sports trousers. As you might see in the picture above, it looks not like the usual elastic sports fabric, but more like linen or at least cotton. I bought it some years ago, not knowing what I would make out of it, but when I needed a new pair of sports trousers, its time had come.
   
8. Regular training again. Even though I went to holiday training trough the last months, there is no comparison – let alone that you’ve got a better choice of combatants.
   
9. Tapes. When I cleaned out an old box I brought with me when I moved here I found an old (self-recorded) The Kinks tape from my mother. It was really nostalgic to put it into an old cassette recorder, with all those cracking noises in the background. And definitely, “I made you a tape” sounds way more romantic that “I burned a CD for you”.
   
10. Stocking away my summer clothes. Which means that I’m finally at home here and that autumn really has begun. I found a little space on the top of the closet where I can store the boxes with those t-shirts and shorts. For some extra luxury I pack them away with a small piece of American cherry wood treated with wild rose oil.
    

Festival Preparation

As we’re at the middle of July again I think it’s time to write something about one of my personal highlights of the summer during the last four years: Festivals.

I’ve started going to festivals at the age of sixteen what was quite sensible when I look back on it. I don’t think very highly of dragging people to festivals when they aren’t even allowed to stay out after midnight if you follow the law strictly.

This year I’m going to visit Veldenstein Castle for my summer entertainment, mostly for the sake of the ever-genius Coppelius. The other bands are either good enough to dance to or ignorable – one needs a little rest from time to time, even if it’s only a one-day festival. Although I like whole-weekend festivals a lot, one-days are incomparably less stressful. You can take your time to arrive on friday without the schedule of the first concert chasing you and your companions, set up camp with more care when it comes to choosing the place on the campground, enjoy the concerts on saturday and sleep as long as you want until you decide to drive home on sunday.

The most important things to plan for festivals are these:

• Packing space: As for us, we’re going by Bambi’s car which is pretty small (and canary yellow ^^). “Us” refers to Bambi, Jules, the Scoundrel and obviously me. The equation goes as follows: 1 very small car : 4 people x 4 days = Tetris. One of the most sensible things is to open up the sleeping bags and camping mats, place them on the back seat and let the ones who sit in the back settle on a way more luxurious seat. Another one is to place the smallest person on the co-drivers seat. In our case, that’s me. When I’m putting my feet on the seat during the ride the leg room can be stuffed with luggage.
• Food and drink: Well, the first and foremost is something else than ravioli or at least not only ravioli. Don’t get me wrong, I love ravioli, but living on them for three days for breakfast, lunch and dinner is simply too much. Things like cereals and UHT milk, some fruit and other canned things than ravioli can add a little luxury to the trip. Bonus points if you really get to cook something not entirely made of tinned food!
• Outfits and clothes: There is a way to look good, handsome, cute, pretty and entirely awesome on a festival without taking your whole wardrobe with you or ruining your best pieces. I’ll devote a whole post on this next week introducing my own festival outfits for this year. Just keep in mind that thing should be practical, pockets might be a good idea, you’ll most probably need a smaller bag than a giant backpack to carry with you on the festival ground and you will also most probably dance, so leave your high heels and ballerina slippers (they fall off!) at home.

These are my personal basics for a good festival. Of course the music to be played on the car ride is important, too, but as you’re going to the same music festival it’s mostly expected for you to like the same kind of music, isn’t it? And don’t forget to settle who’s sleeping in which tent and who’s to bring which things.

And don’t forget the bottle opener.