On why at the end of the day, life is so grand

Musique: She and Him- Why Do You Let Me Stay Here

I must say..... wow. 

This day had just about summed up what i've been putting off for the longest time-a fun-filled day that brings back to the parisian lifestyle of lapping up the enjoyment and pleasure in engaging such simple endearing moments of bliss.

First there was...... a champagne picnic! Then ... flirtations on the patio at 1 King West! Then... to explore Le Méridien King Edward Hotel to which we find the location being the city's first jail and hanging yard! (Gasp)

And a  stroll to St. Lawrence leaving traces of enchantment, with the seductive Nicholas Hoare whispering over my shoulder! And to pass through the evenings by taking part in a parti à l'hôtel- oh my! 

And let's not forget- drama and desire in between...

So I get up at 6:20 in the morning ( i am not kidding you) just so i get bust my derriere down to the city just in time for my Fine Arts History exam from 9-11... lord oh lord, pray let this be the last time that i may suffer through such terrible ordeals!

I come outside to find that its gorgeous. Gorgeous in a way where you just want to grab your lover and kiss him (or her) to pieces (in which case, if you don't have one at the moment, then kiss the professor- haha only kidding!... unless you find kissing the professor randomly is hot then well, its up to your discretion) .

Of course, i find myself having a date with my amie to which i find myself on King... making plans for a champagne picnic! Yay champagne picnics!

We first debated about which glasses in which we should use, so we used her glasses that she owns and a great nice ice bucket to contain these wonderful glasses of joy in which we shall put our champagne! Then onwards to LCBO which we finally decided on some nice Hypnotiq and some 7UP to go with it... you can see how dee-lish its going to be and inside these really awesome glasses too!

So we arrive at the Harbourfront after walking in such windy conditions, and along the way i hear from my friend that Fendi is apparently going to interior design a lucky condo! Guess who's going to be one of the first to be on the waiting list for that building (ahem)....

So for awhile we wonder what sort of food would do justice to our "champagne" picnic (yes, so we didn't get some Dom Perignon.... that blue drink would suffice) so we arrive at Pumpernickel's with me ordering fish and chips ( i mean, I'm near the lake so that whole body of water and nice boats gave me the sudden urge for some)

You know, good weather will get back at you...only when i arrived home and stepped into the shower did i realize just how golden i turned... stupid sunshine... no, i take it back- i love the sun so a little tan doesn't hurt.

Oh , and the highlight of the moment during that segment? 

"Um excuse me" says this preppy mom who think she's all that, "do you know......(insert charlie brown's imitation of the teacher wah-wahing)" then as a reply, i go "sorry, I'm from london, ENGLAND." God, i was dying inside, only Tiff knows what this whole thing means haha .....

There were various times where i had the urge to steal that ship and sail away into the vast ocean and have random adventures, have sword-fights with nasty pirates, and have wine and cheese all day. Then it immediately hit me like a ton of bricks... it's situated on a lake...

I was just too darn happy and carefree after downing my sparkling blue drink, letting my problems wash away... being excited about move-in day to my residence (which is in TWELVE days) and went on and on how we should be like the individuals in the olden days were there would be champagne picnics all afternoon long and the engagement of philosophy, art and whatnot were contemplated. God, i love feeling carefree...

A good start to the afternoon i must say, a good afternoon...

So now you can get your fortune taken by the Fortune-On-Wheels for just 30 cents- step right up ladies and gents! The best part is that your fortune would be taken by yours truly so even better.

Afterwards, we took the route back to King where we decided to go on the patio at 1 King West while continuing to sip on our petite sippy... and the view was just utterly spectacular without a shadow of a doubt. Of course being silly me, i just had to attempt to get that secretary across from the building to wave at me... even better was that a couple of guys came out to a patio across the building and got them to wave... and one of them gestured for us to come over. So then I gestured a "you come here"... of course none of us would as that would take great measures to actually attempt to go over, so no.

Of course, in discussing what to do with the rest of our time, we sat in the sauna-there's something about the smell of saunas that's just so overwhelmingly nice and makes you drowsy, so we sat there for the longest time, slowly drawing out our plans- that was when the idea of strolling through St. Lawrence and visiting the darling Nicolas Hoare came up and it was agreed upon.

Nicolas Hoare has got to be my heaven-sent place to which it drives me nuts with love! The books they display... how they all scream for me, from Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. to Proust, to those really vintage books of Paris and London, as well as those coffee table books.... with those ladders against the shelves and small paintings scattered throughout the store! If I ever work there, i would undoubtedly purchase all the books and be sadly poor. Can't stop stating how much I love this place... J'aime! J'aime! J'aime!

On the way back, we obviously had to stop by Le Méridien King Edward Hotel to engage in a bit of urban exploration... and the fact that it used to be the location of the city's jail and hanging yard! Creepy! It reminded me of the time when i believed that The Shining was shot at the Royal York... and being there at night didn't help much, I just screamed a little inside the whole entire time we were exploring there....

Inside was absolutely stunning... of course, we looked for the Ballroom right away, but the atmosphere was very pleasant, very sophisticated, and the royal blue staircase- extra brownie points.

Upon entering the elevator, we accidentally hit basement (or lower level, i can't recall which) and as we stepped off.. the first thing I see is this:

I gasped and quickly skipped towards the piano and played a bit of tunes... but the fact that they had a piano! And, as we were going about, it wasn't just one, but THREE i uncovered-so far... the Royal York- I lose count, it was around six or something of the sort... played them all- its my thing to discover pianos in historic hotels and play tunes on them!

Now this lamp made me laugh out loud... it's something I would want to acquire for my own space. Imagined if it actually worked when you blow into it! That would be something eh...ehhhhh.

Oh, these sneaky employers of Le Méridien King Edward Hotel... thought nobody would find out about the secret stash huh... well you guys thought Wrong.

Of course by the end, I knew i was dehydrated and craving for a Iced Green Tea Lemonade from Starbucks, so we settled there for awhile to cool things off. Shortly after, we arrived back to her place, to find those people we met earlier from the sauna where they were exploring as well. They were a group of people that stayed at 1 King West for a hotel party gathering sort of thing. It was then we conversed with them, and it was there I found out that one of the guys goes to my University. Small world, I'm telling yah. It was fun and awhile after all the conversing led me feeling tired from the whole roundabouts of the day, so I called it a night. Nice bunch of people they were. And boy, what a fun-filled day it was... and there's more to come throughout this summer, that I promise you. To end off, I wish my friend a bon voyage as she is off to Asia for a month!

That's all for now. Love life, bisous!!

"My drawings inspire, and are not to be defined. They place us, as does music, in the ambiguous realm of the undetermined."

Musique: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button soundtrack

 (composed by Alexandre Desplat)

(Odilon Redon Eye Balloon, 1878, Charcoal)

Zidler: Don't like the ending, my dear Duke?
The Duke: Why should the courtesan chose the penniless sitar player over the maharajah who is offering her a lifetime of security? That's real love. Once the sitar player has satisfied his lust he will leave her with nothing. I suggest that the courtesan chose the maharajah.
Toulouse-Lautrec: But, but tell me, that ending does not uphold the Bohemian ideals of truth, beauty, freedom, and...
The Duke: [shouts] I don't care about your ridiculous dogma! Why shouldn't the courtesan chose the maharajah?
Christian: [shouts] Because she doesn't love you!... Him... Hi-him, she doesn't love... she doesn't love him.
The Duke: Oh, I see... Monsieur Zidler, the play will be rewritten with the courtesan choosing the maharajah and without the lovers' secret song. It will be rehearsed in the morning, ready for the opening tomorrow night...
Zidler: But, my dear Duke, that will be quite impossible.
Satine: Harold, the Duke is being treated appallingly. These silly writers let their imaginations run away with themselves. Why don't you and I have a little supper, and then we can tell Monsieur Zidler how we would like the story to end. 

- Moulin Rouge

It is 1:10 am as I' am typing this, and i just can't seem to quite fall asleep just yet. The weather was beautiful this entire day- twenty-seven degrees they say. It's got a dab of humidity, but it was the wind that made it bearable. All i wanted to do was to venture forth outside and enjoy these precious moments, which i did. Went to Indigo later in the evening. and couldn't help acquiring Françoise Sagan's "Bonjour Tristesse" - a most definite french classic- and read it throughout the train ride home.

I also couldn't help being deeply intrigued by Odilon Redon's works. He is a french artist and printmaker, as well as being one of the figures of Symbolism. I first head about him through my Modernism class for my Fine Arts History, then what really caught my attention was Yale University's exhibition known as "Endless Forms": Charles Darwin, Natural Science, and the Visual Arts",  which puts forth works about beauty as well as the "grotesque opposite numbers."  His "The misshapen polyp floated on the shores, a sort of smiling and hideous Cyclops" 1883, is included among the exhibition and was what first grabbed my interest. 

(Top : The Cyclops, 1914, Bottom: The Crying Spider, 1881.)

Redon undoubtedly provides a stunning and intense underlying view of bizarre but remarkable creatures which proves how much one's mind can uncover within one's imagination. The view of what's "beyond the visible" made me become fascinated in his artwork and strange beings- like the Crying Spider and the Cactus Man- it made me feel like i was opening this window and venturing forth into this austere and mystical world.

Moreover, for some reason, time and time again i would go back to listening to the soundtrack of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button- i must say, Alexandre Desplat is brilliant in capturing the very essence of what Benjamin Button is all about. Especially in "Love Returns", I couldn't help getting my eyes glazed just a little bit...a little bit, mind you.

Someday i'll want to venture out into the places i've never seen, and travel through the eyes of those who have walked before us, in search of themselves, and possibly finding that other half. 

Until then, I am focusing on the topic  Realism and Gustave Courbet's "The Realist Manifesto" for the upcoming fine arts history exam, drinking green tea and embedding Desplat's music into my soul...

And that's all for now, bisous.

My voice, a beacon in the night. My words will be your light. To carry you to me.

Musique: Meiko- Reasons To Love You

“Under a blazing mid-afternoon summer sky, we see the Seine flooded with sunshine . . . people are strolling, others are sitting or stretched out lazily on the bluish grass.” - Georges Seurat (French Impressionist and Pointillist Painter)

(George Condo, Intersection, 2007, Oil and Collage on Canvas)

I think it is safe to say at this point in time, that the worst is over, (as I'm left with two exams- Modernism for my Histoire de Beaux-Arts and European Reformations)  and onwards to this indescribably beautiful outlook of what I officially deemed it to be the "Été Bohémien". Chaque été, I would always bring forth this promising theme, and for me this time around, with the world going through tough economic times- a modern day dirty '30s almost- and like those times, I want to open up the not-taken-for-granted view upon life, aimez des moments beaux, attempting to breathe artistic and intellectual aspirations and the unconventional lifestyle- Why ever not?

As I have always had a passion for writing since forever, I'll post up once in a while my works... this one was the most recent that I have written because I have been chaotically busy the past couple of months. This was inspired by recent events.

Porcelain 

by JoanneAngelina

We once held sand in a porcelain vase.

Empty at first, but it was just the beginning, you and I

And each day that we spent, each laughter

Words, music, and each touch

Its grains began to pour in, making the vase ever so precious

And as we walked side by side

Each holding one side, through the vast forest

I could swear it was sunlight that we captured inside

But there were times when one of us would slip up

Loosen the grip, the sombre threat of 

The vase slipping thorough.

But the other one would grab all of it right on time,

Keeping it close, until it was for certain that the one who loosened the grip

 Would grasp a firm hold on it once more.

And so it would fill, these sands of us

We would wade across obstacles and borders within that forest.

It was always so alive and full of warmth, like a summer's day.

We said we would always be what we would always be.

Until one day, you took my hand

then I woke up and I was alone

And embraced in my arms, was the porcelain vase and nothing more

There was nothing in the world that would made me let go of this vase

And so I wondered around, looking for you, calling your name

This overwhelming bittersweet misery washing over me as the days thundered over...

I'm holding the porcelain vase

I don't want to break it

Want to hide it in a safe place

And keep it here, in this forest

Maybe I'll go back to it someday

And feel that glow all over again

See right through such precious sands of time

And maybe, when I go back,

I'll find you right beside it too.

And that's all for now, bisou.

"Was it a marriage made in heaven...."

Musique: Madeleine Peyroux- Half the Perfect World

 "At a certain part in your life. Probably when too much of it has gone by. You will open your eyes and see yourself for who you are. Especially for everything that made you so different from all the awful normals. And you will say to yourself, "But I am this person." And in that statement, that correction, there will be a kind of love. " -Miss Dodger (Phoebe In Wonderland)

Took this shot this morning as I was coming out of my boudoir.... at moments like these that just warms your heart -of course i had to sneak in a quick kiss to my darling  petite jolie chat that cutesty wutesy schmo....soooooo cuuuutee!

Just an ordinary day today... thought i might just write a blip...

 bumped into a  friend,  Nate (the great haha) and of course he had his really good shutters with him... so we decided to do some photoshoots which were so wacky and awesome, i couldn't help but laugh until i wanted to pee my pants (which is not a pretty sight) the whole time.. then we went to his place and made some shirley temples  (because all of a sudden i went "hey... you know what's something we haven't made in a LONG while?) and dumped ice cream into it... which wasn't bad, but i wouldn't do it again.

So there's this place that I'm going along with my friend on Thursday that apparently this cottage up at Orangeville ...and of course i said yes without second thought... now its supposedly an actual farm?!?! Mais nonnnn - (I hope its  a joke) we'll see what we got ourselves into, lol. Hey, at least its a getaway from the busyness of things I have to accomplish from now until early May.

That's all for now, Bisous!

"We Must Change Life!"

Musique: Telepopmusik- Love Can Damage Your Health

 

"We must change life!" was the rallying cry of a group of young Parisian artists in the 1920's.

Rather than focusing on the material world, they explored realm of dreams and the unconscious. They unraveled what lies at the core of human existence- the irrational urges to love, to desire, and to destroy....

 I woke up today feeling rather a bit light-headed and with a smile on my face... truly i was able to get grand amounts of sleep, which puts me in high spirits, put on my blue satin robe and floated downstairs to help myself with Jasmine tea.. sat on the kitchen table for some brunch, read some Foreign Affairs, and then watched Funny Face....

Il y a quelque chose de fashion illustrators which i just love about, espeically leurs oeuvres d'art is another form of fashion art, it brings a more imaginative view, of one looking beyond then what's simply putting clothes on a model... its like looking through rose-colored  glasses... Of course there's Coco and darling Garance, but then there's Cassandra Rhodin of Sweden.... upon looking at her images, I was intensely amazed at her characters, the sombre allure it brings and how different it was from the more elegant uplifting sort of aspect. C'est juste si... fascinante...

   ....came across some films très intéressants à observer which includes Everlasting Moments, Up (i don't usually like animated films, but this one looks so adorable), Easy Virtue...

... and the french film  Faubourg 36 (also known in English as Paris 36). Faubourg 36 really draws me in the sense that not only does it capture  the whole '30's era, but Christophe Barratier whom he really beings the whole magical sphere within pre-World War Two Paris, where the Popular Front threatens to eliminate what used to be thriving vaudevilles and cabarets.... on another note, the wonderful original tunes by Reinhardt Wagner really elevates this romantic pastiche to this whole other level of cinema today...a real shame that many films of today no longer capture such élégance et sens anymore.

Alas, it seems that spring is playing on us coyly... first the city gets sprinkled with snow, then the grass turns green- want to start wearing my Marc Jacob flats and my '20's inspired summer dresses! ( which beings about even more of the observation that I am very much an old soul)

 I'm relieved from school... although exams are coming soon... then its all over and there'll be champagne picnics everyday *(which i know my friend would be really really fond of and wouldn't mind at all,  and that we can finally do it!)

That's all for now, bisous!

I was sleeping under artificial fireflies at twilight

Musique: The Submarines- 1940

Its slowly dawning on me the fact that time is running against me at this moment in time... the old saying "so much to do , so little time?" applies to me at the moment. Thus i run through my everyday life which consists of going to my classes in my université, finish fine arts history and political science papers...

And in between the most busiest times of my life this season, i read "The Historic Restaurants of Paris: A guide to century-old cafés, bistros and gourmet food shops" by Ellen Williams..... we need more of these types of old-world cafés- it would make the world a bit brighter- or that the city- at least. Note to self.. if all else fails, who knows,when all my other career aspirations fail, i just may want to open my very own café inspired by the Parisian influence. Plus, they're so great to kill time when I'm on the train... I adore The Little Bookroom books, i aspire to collect them all so i can display them in my glass bookshelf :)

So today when i was at campus, i was stopped by one of those student body council individuals and gave me this long talk about student governing ordeals... then as i departed, she exclaims " Hey, you look awfully familiar, have we met somewhere, i've seen your face before."

...she wouldn't be the first person to tell me that, and i've been getting that comment a lot lately too... people which i don't even know who they are who know me... strange just a wee bit.

As soon as i have free time, i am venturing back to the Royal York Hotel, the last time I went, it was with a friend and late at night, and that' s when i went inside its Library Room...i thought i died and went to book heaven ( lame i know, but très vrai) And the fact that it has four grand pianos that i've uncovered so far.... *bliss*

I know i've been drawn into and making lists with my bons amis for the summer, its only right i actually keep a copy for it myself...i'll add more along the way.

La Liste:

-explore and take photographs within all the historic hotels in the city

-explore the different art galleries within the city

- have champagne picnics, preferably near the park at the St. Lawrence- love that place, its like my little world within my world

-check off books that i wish to acquire- which means visiting Nicholas Hoare more often

-attend more Jazz festivals and events.. like the International Jazz Festival at the Beaches where i went last summer....so divine...

- find the perfect gelato/italian sodas place

- attempt to take the day pass and literally go and explore on every train stops

- attempt to complete those impressive 1000 puzzles on a lazy afternoon with my amiable companion

-parlour games to get involved with on restless nights

-try new/ perfect cafés

And that's all for now, bisous!