What Would Hillary Have Done?

"We forget, sometimes, that our government was designed to limit the powers of the president. Barack Obama walked into the White House in January 2009 with his own set of structural and strategic challenges: an economy in free fall; a 24-hour cable-news and talk-radio-fed culture eager to blare “crisis!” headlines every 12 minutes, making long-view evaluations of a presidency impossible; and most important, an obstinate Congress. On every major vote, from the stimulus to uncompromised health care reform, Obama needed 60 (not the historically customary 50) to get anything moving, a practical impossibility, thanks both to Republicans, whose stated goal was not to fix things but to keep the president from fixing anything, and to conservative Democrats, who made the party’s majority a false promise to begin with.There simply was never going to be a liberal messiah whose powers could transcend the limits set by a democracy this packed with regressive obstructionists. That doesn’t mean we can’t hope for, seek and demand better from politicians and presidents. But we can’t spend our time focused on alternate realities in which our country, its systems and its climate are not what they are. "  
What Would Hillary Have Done

Where Did You Sleep Last Night

I'm playing the Nirvana MTV album a lot lately, especially this song. I'd forgotten how incredible the entire album is, and how astonishingly talented Kurt was. He had such an insanely fucked up childhood, and I think you can hear the catharsis in his voice when he howls 'my girl.' It's like a primal scream. Music is totally therapeutic; I think singing is perhaps the most powerful way to express emotions, particularly love and rage, even more so than writing because of its immediacy. Lord knows I love warbling aloud in my apartment.

Can the Missoni family please adopt me?

One of my favourite brands has designed a range specifically for Target. See it here.

NYC

I studied Walt Whitman's poetry at university, but having never seen New York at the time, I didn't feel an immediate connection with his words, and they certainly didn't echo through my mind at times they way they do now. My elderly grandmother only ever took one overseas holiday in her life, a round-the-world trip back to Italy and through Europe, the UK and the US. She came to New York in the early 70s, only briefly, but has never forgotten those days here, although she forgets much else, including - sometimes - the fact that I now live here. Now I understand why she often talks about that one holiday of forty years ago.

"How green was my Valley that day, too, green and bright in the sun."

How lovely are these acid green dresses from Mulberry's fall/winter 20011/12 ad campaign? So chic! I adore a vintage looking frock. I also really like Mulberry's whole campaign this season, with its quirky "keep-calm-and-carry-on-despite-the-wild-animals-invading-the-English-country-manor" theme.

Not me...

"Some of us have real work hours and can't keep self-indulgent cute animal-centric blogs."

Love these lyrics

All the towers of ivory are crumbling / And the sparrows have sharpened their beaks / This is the time of our great undoing / This is the time that I'll come running / Straight to you / For I am captured / Straight to you / For I am captured / One more time

Australia: ban live export!

"You cannot oppose animal cruelty and support live export. Transporting animals thousands of kilometres by sea only to be slaughtered is cruel and unnecessary. Sending them to countries where laws do not protect them from cruelty will never be ethically acceptable," said Lyn White, cruelty investigator at Animals Australia. Thousands of Sydneysiders protested live export this weekend. Read about it here.

Purrr, Chanel-clad cat-woman!



Freja Erichson, adorable in the latest Chanel campaign! I want that camellia-clad balaclava for winter.



"conventional beauty is insignificant in the reckoning of a life"

I loved this opinion piece by the wonderful Adele Horin. "With its crevices, marks and splotches, amplified over three columns in The Sydney Morning Herald front-page obituary this week, the late artist's face was a frank statement of a life fully lived. No evidence there of efforts to soften the ravages of time with anti-ageing ''product'' and ''procedures''. What a face. What a lesson it holds for we women who obsess about crows' feet and liver spots and wrinkled brows; who hate the tiny lines sprouting like fine hairs above our lips, who hate our necks, and the bags under our eyes and much else that signals we are no longer young. What does this face tell us? It tells us that conventional beauty is insignificant in the reckoning of a life." Margaret Olley was a wonderful woman in the true spirit of great Australian women; she was talented, generous, an enthralling storyteller with a wicked sense of humour, and a strong-willed, free-spirited woman. As Horin said, "Margaret Olley's amazing life and amazing face are a testament to true beauty."

Crushing

I do love this song, but generally speaking, I'm not obsessed with James Blake's particular blend of haunting, electronic post-dubstep, though I do appreciate his talent. I think I like the man more than his music, at this stage, because he is obviously an insanely attractive young Brit, and who doesn't adore those?! He's also wise for his 22 years, telling The Scotsman in February, "Who isn't an outsider? It's presumptuous to think you're different from other kids, that no-one else has any cares or everyone else know exactly what they're going to do with their lives".

The girl's got taste.

Some friends were married in Sydney this weekend, and I was terribly homesick to be so far away from them all and miss out on the revelry. Wah! If only New York were as close to Sydney as New Zealand! The bride wore the most beautiful lace and ivory silk wedding dress. I'm not sure who designed this yet but I love it; she has impeccable taste! It's so elegant and comely! You see a lot of cleavage-spilling brides these days, which look dreadful, so it's refreshing to see a graceful young dame in a classy frock with a bouquet of white lilies.