Blog from the Road III

Next to the huge statue of Louis Riel outside the Manitoba Legislature.
Who's seen Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg"? What did you think of it?

Blog from the Road II

View from the Top of the World at the Centre of the Universe. Now at the Forks.
Let's see you non-Canadians figure that out.

Blog from the Road

Trying on helmets at the War Museum in Ottawa.

Daily Outfit

No, I don't just hang out in the cemetery randomly. Okay, I do sometimes. However, I've been slowly learning how to drive in the cemetery. It's great. There are hardly any people to not run over, no cars and there are roads and corners to go around in.

Cardigan: thrifted

Skirt: thrifted

Tights: Hue

Shoes: Bloch

I decided to follow Casey's tutorial and add a Cupid's Arrow to this plain black cardi and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

In other news, I'm leaving tomorrow for my two week vacation.

I've decided to have an adventure. So, I'm going on the greatest journey that a Canadian can take in a lifetime.

Okay, maybe not the greatest.

I can't afford the greatest.

I'm going on the greatest Canadian journey that I can afford to take.

Let's go with that.

I've scheduled a couple of posts for when I'm gone and I'll have pictures when I get back.

Does anyone know if I can buy Remix vintage shoes in T.O.? Or maybe just a pair of saddle shoes?

I'm Back

I haven't been around blog land at all this year. How shame-making of me.

The hours at the store where I work have been cut back and moved around, so I've been working almost exclusively the night closing shift for the past three months and nights are the time when I feel the most creative, in terms of writing.

I tried writing during the day before I have to go to work, but I've been distracted by rearranging my room. I live in an attic, so my room is quite oddly shaped and there is very limited wall space, but I finally figured out a plan to fit all of my stuff (at least the stuff that I didn't get rid of in my six month downsizing project).

What I have been mostly doing instead of blogging is watching a lot of TV. My library finally has a decent amount of complete television series on DVD, so I've finally been able to watch the TV shows that I've always been meaning to watch, but could never find a copy of. And I've gone through a burst of embroidery projects that have been on my mind for quite some time.

I feel that last year, I focused too much on my Cinema Tuesday series and less on other aspects of the vintage lifestyle. Mostly the television and music aspects, which do take longer to write a post of, particularly if I want to screen cap a TV series. So I've decided that for the rest of 2012, I'm going to limit Cinema Tuesdays to just three films a month in order to focus on writing on a wider range of vintage topics.

As always, I'm open to thoughts and suggestions.

Outfit Details:

The sweater, skirt and belt all come from the thrift store up the street from my house and the shoes are from Bloch and they are the perfect ballet flat. I thought the sweater was a bit boring on it's own, so I freehanded some embroidery along the neckline. Because I can. The necklace is from this lovely shop on Etsy. A lot of people of asked me about the meaning behind the small flower on my necklace, since I do wear it everyday, but if you've seen Harold and Maude, you'll understand.

I have a new television post that I'm preparing for tomorrow, but in the mean time, here is a random picture of one of my cats. Her name is Ruby (after Ruby Keeler) and she's a polydactyl cat, meaning that she has extra fingers on each of her paws. And if you've seen my FB profile, she's the one on my head in my profile picture. I've tried to get a picture of her sister, but she's small and quite shy.

Daily Outfit

In continuation of my tradition of wearing seasonally inappropriate garments, I'm wearing an embroidered peasant top with split sleeves in December. Who cares if it's 2 below out and it gets dark in the middle of the afternoon, it's pretty damn it! And that's what tights and a fur coat are for, right ladies?

Outfit Details:

Top: thrifted

Skirt: vintage, the label says "Mister Leonard" and it has a hip pocket!

Snood: Arthelia's Attic

Hair Flower: I made it myself

Tights: Hue

Belt: thrifted

Shoes: Bloch, the perfect ballet flat!

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm now 23. I went to the staff holiday party last night and wore a fabulous black dress from Stop Staring! but alas, I forgot to take pictures. I will the next time that I wear it.

I've decided that this month's theme for Cinema Tuesdays shall be Cross Dressing Comedies. The first post will be up sometime tomorrow night.

I'm starting to prepare my themes for 2012 already. My, how the year has flown by. Are there any suggestions?

Classic Scents {Shalimar}

(source)

Given the number of articles I've been reading of late about the regrettable change that the perfume world is undertaking by replacing natural notes in timeless fragrances with synthetic substitutions and thereby destroying the complex blend of the symphony of notes that make up classic perfumes (and by perfumes, I mean actual perfumes not those candy scented "celebrity" perfumes that you see advertised today) I thought it was high time that I start a series on Classic Scents, before they are forever altered.

I love vintage perfumes. Yes, I did start wearing a scent daily in high school. A classic perfume is the easiest way to embrace a bit of vintage style everyday, regardless of what you might be doing. Yes, I still do wear perfume everyday, even at the grocery store where I work.

Although you should own a wide variety of perfumes in order to mix it up everyday (whether you buy them yourself or you get them as gifts -a bottle of eau de toilette makes a timeless and much loved gift) you will, as I have done, gravitate to one in particular as a signature scent, because you should have a favourite perfume.

Shalimar is not a daily perfume. Although, if you are brave enough to wear it everyday, I applaud you.

(source)

Shalimar was created in 1925 by Jacques Guerlain for the House of Guerlain. The name "Shalimar" means "abode of love" in Sanskrit and was inspired by the gardens of the Taj Mahal.

Shalimar is described as an Oriental and exotic fragrance.

The three notes that make it what it is are the zesty bergamot, the unexpected civet and the sensual base note of vanilla.

Famous wearers of Shalimar include Gina Lollobrigida and Rita Hayworth.

Shalimar is a complex, powerful and yet warm scent. It's feminine, powdery, opulent, soft, striking, sweet, spicy and above all, mysterious. It smells overwhelming at first, but as it's symphony is revealed as it is exposed to skin and air overtime, it becomes warm and inviting, while still maintaining it's complexity.

This is the perfume one should wear for a night out on the town. Or to spice up an ordinary day of running errands.

(source)

What are you're thoughts on perfume, vintage or otherwise?

All Hallows' Eve

I hope that everyone had a happy and safe Hallowe'en this past weekend.

This being the first year since I got too old to go trick or treating (or rather I didn't get too old, my brother got too tall) that I didn't have a paper to write, I thought that I simply must do something.

So, on Friday, I went out to the Halloween Special of the Taboo Revue, which is Vancouver's longest running burlesque show. It was beyond brilliant! So many great performances, a lot of them featuring zombies and voodoo, because zombies are just so much awesomer than sparkly vampires. Can't wait for next year's show.

As for Hallowe'en itself, I went to work and I did wear a costume. And by costume, I mean I went for a Land Girl look and wore my snood and new wool trousers from Heyday. And by costume, I mean I wore my normal clothes.

I then changed into my fabulous record skirt and biggest petticoat, which is the only day of the year where I don't get strange looks while wearing it, actually a lot of people wanted to have their picture taken with me as I was waiting in the train station downtown. I only wore it because it was warm enough to not wear a coat over top and I was refusing to spend any money on a costume this year. Why buy a costume when I can wear my normal clothes? I went with my friend Courtney on the Haunted Trolley Tour, which is a tour on a trolley that goes around downtown, through Stanley Park, then up to this cemetery and then back to downtown, finishing off at the Police Museum (which used to be the morgue and the coroner's court) and pointing out houses were hauntings and gruesome murders have taken place. Because hanging out in a graveyard and an old morgue on Hallowe'en night is what cool people do.

Apart from a couple of snaps for the Facebook, I don't have any pictures to share on the old blog. But I should probably go back during the day sometime and take some photos of the Police Museum with my proper camera, since it is my favourite museum in Vancouver.

What did you do for Hallowe'en?

The theme for this month's Cinema Tuesdays shall be An Affair to Remember. Expect the first movie pick shortly.

My Favourite Summer Dress

This was my new favourite dress this past summer. It's cotton, easy to wear, from the Fifties, machine washable and I picked it up for only $15 from Red Light when I went to Portland. Clearly it's perfect and I can't wait to wear it next year and hopefully next year the West Coast will have a proper spring and summer. Right now the weather here is distinctly fall-like and has been for about a month, but it's still in that period where you can get away with just wearing tights and a cardigan and no jacket. I never realized how much I loved spring until we didn't get one this year. I was still having to wear my fur coats occasionally in May for crying out loud! *shakes tiny angry fist at Nature*.

So, where have I been for the past fortnight? Well, two weeks ago both my poor old kitty and my Grandma died quite suddenly. I haven't really felt like blogging or embroidering with the sinking realization that I no longer had any grandparents sooner than I had expected. This isn't my first death, but it is my first as an adult and there is so much more to do than I thought. I had considered shutting down ye olde blog, but I've decided against that since my Grandma was the only member of my family who actually read my blog and she loved it. So I'm pressing on with it. There will be a small giveaway sometime next month and I've just finished a terrific TV series that I know you'll just love, once I get some screen caps of it. And there are some books that I've been meaning to write about. Does anyone have any suggestions for types of books you'd like me to read and review? Or Musical Guests you'd like to see?

And tomorrow there will be two slightly belated Cinema Tuesdays posts for this month's theme of Retro Spoof Musicals. That'll will make more sense when you see which films I've picked, but you're welcome to guess.

I also have November and December's themes and movies selected, but does anyone have any suggestions for 2012's Cinema Tuesdays? I do pick themes several months in advance, since it sometimes takes me awhile to find copies of movies I want to screen cap, so suggest away.

That's all for now.

The Perils of Our Dependency on Our Modern Technological Marvels

My, it has been a while, hasn't it.

I've been here, just not here.

My internet service provider has been making such a huge fuss about improving their service. These "improvements" have made my connecting to the web either non existent or so painfully slow that I'd give up and read a book instead of waiting for a site to eventually load, if it felt like it. It's like the late Nineties all over again. But they've appeared to have fixed whatever problem and my internet appears to be functioning normally again. Hopefully.

Speaking of the Nineties, that's where this dress is from. I'd been looking for a polka dot dress for ages and I've finally found one. I would rather have found one with slightly larger dots, but at least I've found one and it's perfect for summer, or at least what's left of it. It seems like only yesterday that summer made an appearance, and here we are on the cusp of fall again. This year seems to have gone by rather quickly, but that's mostly because the West Coast didn't have a spring this year, so we went right from a long winter to a late summer. Hopefully next year, we'll get a spring.

As most of you Leslie Howard fans are aware, it can be dashed difficult trying to find copies of his films. I have had trouble tracking down the four films that I wanted to show for Leslie Howard month, mostly due to the fact that my independent video store is closing (boo!) and the lack of Mr. Howard's films being available on DVD for no reason. But I have managed to find copies of the films that I wanted to screen cap and I've written two posts this week to make up for not being able to publish last week's movie. The two movies of Mr. Howard's that are readily available I can't show because I've already screen capped Pygmalion and I absolutely loath Gone With The Wind. Nothing against GWTW fans, I just can't stand watching the movie and Mr. Howard clearly couldn't stand making it. However, I do have two delightful comedies starring Leslie Howard this month.

Speaking of the difficulty in finding obscure films, here is a clip from We'll Meet Again starring Vera Lynn that I really want to see. I wanted to screen cap it for last month's World War Two Musicals theme, but was unable to find a copy anywhere, aside from the Region 2 DVD, which I obviously can't watch. If anyone knows where I can find a copy of it, do please let me know.

Are there any films that you desperately want to watch but can't find a copy of?

Don't Blink

As you may know from this post last year, my Pappy and I like hanging out in graveyards slightly more than the average person. Cause that's what cool people do.

Last week we went to Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver's oldest and only cemetery as founded in 1887. I wore the Hawaiian dress I bought at The Red Light in Portland and shortened. Also my boater hat (to prevent sun burn) and my sunglasses that I have no idea where I got them but remember that I paid $10 for them.

Isn't that a beautiful Art Deco building? It's actually the crematorium, the second one built in Canada!

This is the sign they put up to enforce the dogs on a leash bylaw. I told you cool people hang out in graveyards, although I am disappointed that I can't take my elephant for a walk in the cemetery anymore.

This is the granite storage area off in the corner, full of broken headstones.

We also spotted a few mild but still creepy Weeping Angels on our tour. Pappy ran away from them.

I, of course, have no fear of the Weeping Angels. Well, expect for this one.

Wasn't it cruel of the BBC to have spilt the season in half and leave us with a cliff hanger over the summer?

Some of the older graves didn't have anything other than a general marker. This one is cute and unique, but some of them just said "Mum" or "Dad" and they could belong to anyone's relatives at any point in the cemetery's hundred plus year history.

As with all cemeteries, there were thousands of soldiers graves from the two wars. Although some of them lived full lives, most of the ones in the three War Memorial sections were for soldiers who had survived and returned home, only to die within five years from the effects of being at the Front.

Of course, you know my favourite type of tombstone: the space left for the spouse who is obviously dead but didn't want to be buried there.

Portland, Oregon

I had a week off of work and I thought very carefully about were I wanted to go, since I wanted to leave the country. Europe was definitely out due to time and budget constraints. Then I thought about maybe Vegas or San Francisco, but I couldn't afford both a plane ticket and food. Stupid airlines, why do they charge so much?

So, I finally settled on Portland, since it was the furthest city south that I could easily get to. And for a $150 round trip ticket from Amtrak, it was quite a deal.

I stayed at the hostel in the Hawthorne district, which was rather cozy and in a lovely century old house. I didn't know until the night before I left that there are a large number of vintage shops in Hawthorne, so I thought I was in trouble monetary wise, but more on that later.

I much prefer staying in hostels than in hotels. You meet such interesting fellow travellers there and the atmosphere is much more home-like and friendly. Plus you get to share tips and meals and wander off sight-seeing with new friends.

I only wish that the beds were more comfortable.

With the Canadian dollar actually worth slightly more than the American dollar these days, I found the prices to be the same as the ones in Vancouver. Although I was disappointed to discover that the Portland thrift stores were much more expensive, but I suppose that because thrifting has been "discovered" and the prices raised accordingly.

However, restaurants were so very much cheaper, especially in Hawthorne. And the portions were huge! That's probably the best thing about travelling in America, you can eat a cheap large breakfast and not have to eat again until a late supper. I don't even think that I finished one meal there, but I don't normally eat very much anyway.

What I was surprised by was just how much alcohol was readily available and it was so cheap. You could even get a drink in the breakfast places, so you can start your day off right with a beer. I never noticed this before, since I haven't been to the States since I turned 21 and could drink down there (seriously, what a stupid law).

The most touristy thing that I did was to order the local micro brew taster, although it came with larger glasses then I imagined. I really don't like beer, but Portland is very proud of their local brews and it seemed like the thing to try, even though I couldn't finish.

I met a girl at the hostel who was also from Vancouver and we went down to the local grocery store to check it out, cause that's what cool people do. We spent a good ten minutes laughing at finding beer and wine on offer there. Canadians are the only people who find the sight of a booze section next the the dairy section hilarious.

I only explored the Downtown/Chinatown and Hawthorne areas. I would have loved to explore Portland further, but I found the transit system to be infrequent, particularly the light rail and streetcar system that serve downtown and I didn't have access to a car. For a city that prides itself on being "green" they should have a light rail system that runs more frequently then every twenty minutes in the downtown area.

I also spent an entire morning and part of the afternoon in the Art Museum.

Here are some of my favourite shots that I took. I love that Portland has made an effort not only in restoring their old building and signs, but also not tearing them down in favour of walls of glass. Yay for Portland!

I prefer train travel to all other types of travel. Obviously it's more scenic, but it's also much more comfortable. There's leg room and you can get up and walk to the lounge car, have a coffee, read a book, look at the little towns whizzing past, chat with your neighbour and get out to stretch your legs on the platform.

The trip was eight hours each way and it was much easier to pass through customs and the border then by air or car. Plus, I got a window seat on the way back and was able to see the sun setting on the Pacific Ocean.

Ok, I can see that every day in Vancouver, but it looks so much more beautiful on a moving train.

I was pleased that vintage was the same price as it is here, since that meant that I wasn't tempted to buy even more clothes for full closets. But I did buy two dresses and a skirt from Red Light Vintage, which was the cheapest vintage store that I've ever come across. I also went into the Perfume House, which is a very dangerous store. I love wearing perfume and was so happy to find a big bottle of "Je Reviens", which is my favourite and dashed hard to find, for only $50 and a much better deal then buying more clothes.

Portland is of course famous for having Powell's, the largest independent book store possibly in the world. Fortunately, I was limited by what I could carrying. And I forgot the list of books that I wanted at home.

You can see more of my photos in this set on Flickr.

Convocation

Last Thursday, just before I went to Portland, I had my graduation ceremony which my university calls Convocation. My uni is on top of a mountain, which is why the ceremony took place six months after my last exams when the weather was nice and not raining. And I didn't trip over my robes like I did when I graduated from high school.

I now have a shiny new Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Humanities to call my own from the top comprehensive university in Canada! And I did not have to get any student loans. Huzzah!

Did you know that all four of my grandparents went to university? I'm always proud and impressed by this fact.

This wasn't the university I thought that I would go to when I graduated from high school five years ago, nor was it the subjects I thought I would get a major and minor in. My focus changed when I went to college and this is the degree that I'm so very happy with.

I should point out to any international readers that in Canada, universities are were you go to get actual degrees and colleges are were you go to get certificates or associate degrees or to transfer into universities. Does that make sense?

I would never have been able to get the math requirement to go to university straight from high school, so I did my first two years at college and then transferred for my third year. I'm glad that I went to college; it was a nice place to transition, I learned how to write a damn good essay and I changed my mind about which uni and major and minor I wanted because I had such good professors there.

This past spring, I've been thinking long and hard about what I want to do with my life now that I've finished university. I want a job that I love to do and that will allow me to wear whatever I want to. If I wanted a job that I could make a ton of money at, I would not that done a degree in English and Humanities. I have since come to the realization a few weeks ago that I have been genetically programmed to teach. I've always thought that I was born to be a teacher, but I've been in denial about it, because it is the hardest job ever and the pay is rubbish. However, it is also the most rewarding job ever, which is why I have to be one. It'll be a long, hard road in order to become qualified and get tenured at a high school. But if I decide to stay in Vancouver, then I'll be the fifth generation on my Dad's side to teach in this city. I just hope that I don't end up teaching at my old high school, that would be weird.

This is the dress that I was wearing under my robe. You may recognize it from this movie. I got it from Heart My Closet on Etsy. If it doesn't rain this week, I'll do a little photo shoot with it, since it's such a beautiful dress and for a $100 custom made dress, the quality is excellent and it fits perfectly!

I hope to have all of my Portland photos edited and uploaded for tomorrow night, so stay tuned.

Cinema Tuesdays {Hopscotch}

I came to the realization a few years ago that Hopscotch is my favourite movie of all time, I Know Where I'm Going is a close second but this is definitely my favourite. It's hard to pick a favourite movie for anyone, especially for me since I've seen somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1200 movies. Some people find it odd that considering how much I love classic and silent cinema that a little known movie from 1980 is my favourite, but this is one of the few movies that I can watch several times a year and still enjoy it as much as I did the first time that I saw it.

Walter Matthau plays Kendig, a long time field agent for the CIA. He's very good at his job. Unlike most other spy movies, you wouldn't expect him to be a spy since he doesn't look or act like a spy.

Hopscotch also has the best soundtrack ever and it was chosen by Walter Matthau. He also wears most of his own clothes in the film, which adds to the realism.

While finishing up a routine spy job, Kendig gets Yaskov (Herbert Lom) to hand over the important microfilm. Yaskov is the head of the KGB Western Europe section and he and Kendig have been friends for twenty years and they do this sort of thing all the time since they know how each other works and they protect each others jobs since it makes their spy work easier knowing who their counterparts are and now doubt if the situation were reversed, Yaskov would expect Kendig to hand over the microfilm.

Unfortunately when Kendig returns to Washington, he gets chewed out by Ned Beatty as Myerson, the sailor mouthed new head of his section. Myerson used to be the head of the Dirty Tricks section and the only reason why he's been with the CIA for so long is that he has tapes on everyone. Myerson decides to retire Kendig behind a desk because he's too old and he doesn't play by the rules, even though he always gets the job done.

Kendig finds this objectionable, so he decides to quit by shredding his file and flying off to Salzburg to see Mozart.

He also meets up with his old girlfriend Isobel, who also used to be a spy but is now a wealthy Austrian widow.

Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson have wonderful chemistry together and I wished that they had made more films together. Plus Glenda Jackson is always so fabulous at playing comedy.

They quickly fall back into their old comfortable relationship and play gin while Kendig thinks of what he wants to do next.

While having a drink, Yaskov jokingly asks if he's going to write his memoirs. That isn't such a bad idea.

I also spotted Walter Matthau wearing this exact same sweater when he hosted Saturday Night Live a few years before and Jim Hutton also wore it a couple of times when he was in Ellery Queen (the greatest show you've never heard of) in the Seventies. Must have been a popular sweater.

Meanwhile the CIA have finally figured out that he's quit and start following him and tapping Isobel's phone to figure out what he's up to.

Kendig starts writing his history of all of the CIA's dirty secrets as well as details on the operations that their currently working on.

"You're insane!"

But she'll help him anyway.

What follows next is the ultimate way to one-up your entire company and quit your job at the same time, although Kendig's method is not recommended for everyone.

While Isobel is mailing out the first chapter of his book to every spy agency, Kendig drives to France to pick up some false passports.

Myerson naturally over reacts to Kendig's retirement plan and orders Sam Waterston as Cutter, Kendig's former trainee and replacement to find him and kill him before the KGB gets to him.

Remember when you could just walk into an airport and buy a ticket for the first plane out? Neither do I.

Kendig is having fun playing with the CIA by keeping one step ahead of them and knowing exactly how they will react. Really this is the best way to quit your day job.

Meanwhile, they start harassing Isobel, but they can't get past her dog.

Kendig then brilliantly rents out Myerson's vacation house from this nice Southern realtor lady.

Looking at his hated boss's picture really gets his creative juices flowing.

During his heavy writing period, the CIA declares him to be the most dangerous man in the world. This is not what one would expect the most dangerous man in the world to look like.

Once he's finished writing most of his book, Kendig phones Isobel to let the CIA know which house he's been staying in.

He then sets up a complex system of firecrackers.

"He's actually had the balls to hide out in my house!"

Kendig then leaves out the back while the FBI destroy Myserson's beautiful house.

Now, that is how you one-up someone!

And now Kendig and Isobel moves into the final stage.

Myerson and Cutter finally track down Kendig's publisher in London, only he wont be intimidated by death threats. How could anyone threaten a man with such a beautiful fireplace in his office?

Myerson, Cutter and Yaskov then find his hotel room and the final chapter, which has the really dirty stuff in it. The KGB actually have now interest in catching Kendig, but Yaskov does want to know what he's friend is up to.

So, what his plan to quit his job? Well, it involves blowing up an airplane, but it does void his CIA pension.

Hopscotch is available on Regions 2 and 4 and on a Region 1 Criterion DVD.

Here is the original trailer:

Here's the trailer for House Calls, the first movie that Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson made together and it's well worth watching.