‎"I used to want to change the world...

...now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity", this piece of thought by Lotus Weinstock says a lot about losing hope in lots of things as the time goes by, I naively believed that this feeling would strike me like a fulminating bloody thunder around my fiftieth birthday, but nope, things don't really happen like that. I will soon be thirty and I already feel like vacating the premises taking the French leave.

So if you just like me feel bad and want desperately to feel even worse about yourself, life and everything else please go for 'Atomased' by Michel Houellebecq, this book was meant, I humbly believe, to hit us straight in the face so hard that our skull would be smashed. It makes you feel miserably human, this amazing author manages to squeeze all the divinity out of our actions and reactions and reading it felt like a sweet trip on acid when you finally understand everything.

I gave a tip for the cool and miserable ones with a keenness for reading, now a tip for those that are not less cool, far less miserable, a bit busier and that honestly believe that they can get famous, rich and be recognized for their undiscovered (maybe nonexistent) talents. So you sweet piece of honey pie try to find this week's ShortList (Issue 149/28 October 2010) and read the article 'Don't Stop Believing' by Andrew Hankinson, he will most definitely pump you up with his rather positive piece about the possibility of making our dreams come true through hard work, persistence and an unquestionable motivation that comes mainly from the fact we can not face living a life without the idea of glamour and fame that would place us in a special land, metaphorically far from all those people that surrounds us and we all feel are far less special than ourselves.

Enjoy the reading and don't forget that 'hope dies last' but eventually dies.

B x

Prince Albert... Not Just my Favourite Pub

Sometimes you go to places, and you have no idea why that street or that museum have the name they do. Have you ever thought who on earth was the Earl of Whatever? I know you kind of have a life to live so you don't think about this sort of stuff, thinking about the next IPhone or the biggest sale you can find maybe sounds more interesting. But anyway I will tell you something, if you live in London do yourself a favour, google as much as you can to know the history behind things. You wouldn't believe how lovely and amazingly rich this City is. It somehow might sound a bit silly to say, however I doubt that people in general pay real attention to London.

I will give you just two examples, one of them is about a monument that is just outside the National Portrait Gallery, it's a statue of Edith Cavell, an extremely interesting character, she was a nurse that was put down for saving people during the First World War, her biography is delightful, inspiring and deserves to be read, it's a shame people don't know about her.

The second example involves Prince Albert, that is not just my favourite pub in Notting Hill it's as well the name of the coolest prince I've ever heard about. Do you know what a Prince Albert Pierce is? Now I do and so will you, it is one of the most common male genital piercings and it was named after this lovely gentleman just because he carried one himself. Can you imagine that? It's the bloody 19th century and the Queen's husband is some sort of a pervert, I just love it! So it's very easy to guess which book will read next, it will have to be undoubtedly something about him and his cousin, wife and quite naughty Queen Victoria.

So if you want to get your golden star from Mrs. Black, google about London and let me know what you have found, I would most definitely love to hear from someone just because talking to myself is getting rather boring.

B x

Love and its Masks

I've been to the Victoria & Albert Museum a couple of times but today I spent most of my time at the Asian  section, I read every single label I could and I stared at all the items that were being exhibited, I saw exquisite tobacco pipes, 19th century kimonos, ceramics (habitat-like) made more than hundreds of years ago, breathtaking wooden chests, extremely beautiful Samurai swords and armours and so on, but the only item I connect with was a mask of a character from a No play.

The mask was made approximately on the 17th century and pictured the face of a enraged woman, she was Hashihime, a lady that after being rejected ended up becoming a demon, hard not to relate to. It's ridiculous how silly we are, love (obsession and its variations) all ended up catching our eyes... how typical.

B x

My Dear Mr. Huxley

Once I read in one of Huxley's books that "we live together, we act on and we react to one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves", and I feel now the weight of this words more than ever in my life. And there's nothing particularly wrong with it, apart from the fact that I'm quite lost professionallywise, but it happens to pretty much everyone so I just would like to know where I can find the roots of that feeling then I could chop them off and carry on living happy as a bean.

Anyway 'The Doors of Perception' is a great book to read if you have had any hallucinogenic experience and if you don't like reading very long books,  and I honestly believe you will search for other books from Aldous when you finish that one, but please start with 'The Island', just because it is going to fill up your heart with lovely visions of a fairer and less suffocating society. 

This evening I'll visit him at the National Portrait Gallery*, which has amongst dozens of pieces I'm tottally crazy about one of Huxley's portrait painted by Vanessa Bell in the early 30's. I know it will definitely sound quite weird by staring at this art work makes me feel better about myself and it also makes me wonder if I could one day have the same effect on people.


B x

* = The NPG has late shifts on Thurdays and Fridays, check their website for more info. 

The Glamour of Living with a Drug Dealer

Being an outlaw was, is and will always be glamours, and the Cinema is one of their greatest fans. So if you are in the mood for a Robin Hood like drug dealer that actually doesn't give anything to the poor but at least doesn't burn people alive inside a pile of tires (that's my country style) go for Mr. Nice a film with terrible chroma key effects but with Rhys Ifans doing a very good job as the charismatic Howard Marks.

My motivation to see this film in particular was the fact I knew Marks from a couple of tales I was told by someone that was 'dealing' back in the 80's and met him in one of his parties. Believe me, bed time stories can be interesting.

Be good!

Mrs. B

Dandy in The Underworld by Sebastian Horsley

I was going through my friend's correspondence (for reasons I prefer not to talk about) and I found the invitation for Sebastian Horsley funeral that happened on July 1, 2010. His outlandish way of dressing is just sad... however he did get some attention through it, and that made me think that I might not get anywhere if I keep my blue/black/grey wardrobe, but that's a subject for another post.

I just read half of his book and my favourite chapter so far is 'I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way', the way it was written is highly entertaining and deliciously filthy, just perfect for an empty and lonely Wednesday afternoon when the boiler stops working and the fireplace decides to prove that I wasn't designed to create fire... anywhere.

Black kisses

Last Tango in Paris

I don't know how dirty it may sound, but it's hard not to feel like masturbating when Brando 'butters' the young Maria Schneider. Who hasn't ever wished to be part of a very twisted relationship?
If you want to taste some insanity applied to a quite surreal human interaction please try 'Last Tango in Paris', it will leave you with the sensation that even the most strange of your dates were very reasonable.

Today I bought boxers to sleep with... Maybe I'm missing some masculinity in my life.


PS: I'm still sleeping under the wing.

The Winter Sleepers

If I was a character in this Tom Tyskwer's feature I quite possibly would share Rene's waredrobe, but I most of the time feel like the 'green girl'. If you are up to something highly interesting, very atypical but not too crazy go for 'The Winter Sleepers', a film about human relations and invisible interactions that I watched last night under the duvet hugging my (favourite) naked non-lover.

I'm writing this first post under an aeroplane wing inside a friends flat... This crazy home is sort of inspiring.

Good dreams.

Mrs. Black