you are the silence in-between, what I thought and what I said.

I know this is a little late, but anyway- I WENT TO SEE FLORENCE +THE MACHINE ON TUESDAY!!

Without sounding like I'm gushing, Florence is just so fabulous; she runs around the stage, and pretends she going to fall off the stage, she spins without getting dizzy and also sometimes randomly screams. I have to say, Florence Welch is the grand high priestess of everything. 

Florence and her machine played all the classics- Spectrum, No light, No light, Drumming Song and obviously Dog days where all especially awesome. Florence also talked about an owl and also almost teared up when she started talking about England and how happy she was to be home (the show was the first in the UK.)  I'm sorry I haven't mentioned The Machine, so I will, the harp player was incredibly impressive. 

I honestly have not to been to a big arena-type concert like the that before and I have to say being in a huge crowd brought out the worst in me. I have never had such murderous feelings towards people over 6 foot before!

Lots of love and kittens

Sophie 

P.S - The only downside was that we had to wait an hour and a half to get out of the car park which was a bummer. 

jätän kaunin kultaristin

The title of this post translates from Finnish as 'I'll leave behind my beautiful golden cross'. It is the first line of the chorus of my next composition for music. 

I'm going to tell you a little about said composition.

It basically has to have a link to world music in it, so I thought I'd use a big ol' reference to Finnish folklore (it's not totally random, my dad happens to be Finnish). I chose the story of Aino from the Kalevala (Finnish national epic poem type thing); Aino is meant to marry this old wizardy man and she doesn't want to so she drowns herself. But I liked it because it's oh so tragic and symbolic and one of the phrases that stuck in my mind was about how she left all her pretty things like her golden cross and her silk dress on the shore. 

picture : taidetupalehikoinen.fi

Then I decided I wanted to put my own spin on it, so it's not just recycling someone else's ideas and stuff (I'm using a choir and very traditional melodic devices and instruments). So I'm going to put the verses -in English- into a more modern context. I thought I might say things like 'I can shave off all my hair and still be a girl' and other defiant, feministy things. Because when I read the story of Aino, the theme of defiance stands out to me - the fact that NO, she will NOT become someone's wife if she doesn't want to, and she would rather drown herself than just obey. This, to me, is the ultimate symbol of defiance.

So I'm basically combining the ideas oppression from that era and now, using traditional techniques and out-of-context lyrics. A kind of Aino = activist grrrl type thing.

Me in Finland 3 years ago.

I love Finland.

Love

Sinead

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my friend

This is the very beautiful Sophie. In her very beautiful flower crown. I like this picture but didn't use it in my art project because it wasn't focused enough and I'm fussy. 

I think she has a very certain charisma and fairy-like air in this picture (and always).

Love

Sinead

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yayo.

Lana Del Rey

Oh she's beautiful and I love her so so much even though her lyrics are not always the most feminist-friendly. But that voice, seriously, I can't even resist it. It's just so sultry and perfect. My current favourites (current meaning today, because honestly my favourites change every day when it comes to Lana) are Yayo and Kill Kill. I also saw an interview with her today. She was so adorable on it. I never even realised how gently and sweetly she talks considering some of the things she says in her songs. And I really liked how she was talking about the fact that not everything she uses in her videos is used for symbolic meaning - things often just appeal to her visually. And I totally get that - when I paint, I'm not always choosing my colour scheme because it's meant to tell people something about the painting. I choose certain colours because I think they are beautiful and pleasing to look at. And when authors write, not all of the descriptions they use are significant to the story. Building up beautiful imagery is important too. 

Love

Sinead

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Planets, flowers and Frida Kahlo

For 'Identity' in GCSE art, I am doing a Frida Kahlo-inspired project. I thought, who expresses their own identity perfectly in her artwork ? So, that's how that came about. Anyway, for part of my project I decided I wanted some Frida-style photos (brightly coloured walls, clothes, lipstick etc.) to back up the rest of my stuff. So here are the pictures from the first shoot. I just love my camera more and more every time I use it. My beloved ~*~*~* Anyway. I'll upload the rest of the Frida pictures as soon as I take and develop them (in a couple of weeks I shall be seeing my best friend in London, also my Godmother, so pretty photos in abundance! 

Planets and whimsy.

I like this one; quite surreal with the warehouse and tyres. It had just started to rain.

Some looovely pink sari fabric that my mum lent to me for the shoot. We're actually planning on making a curtain with it.

Being enigmatic and wistful.

I painted a little plastic Halloween skull bright colours to look more Day of the Dead.

I'm very proud of this one. I managed to get it in focus on the first (and only) shot c:

Being Frida-y in Holly's big, flower-abundant garden.

Flower headdress - made by moi (using an alice band, superglue and some fake flowers)

The beautiful Holly with one of the souvenir fans we all bought in Roma. I love the lighting in this one.

Hope you liked my pictures, and talk to y'all soon ~

Sinead 

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Here's what happened today.

What I wore today.

The above outfit consists of: red beret, handmade detatchable collar, cropped dark teal woollen jumper with zip detail, high-waisted satiny lacey skirt (also with zip) and, not shown in picture, my vintage brown Doc Marten shoes.

When I got into town I went to collect my developed film, which I had completely forgotten about, so when I remembered it was an even nicer surprise. I'm very happy with how they turned out; because the film I used was a years-old black and white one, so all my pictures came out all soft and grainy-looking. I'll upload the best ones soon.

The faun in Pan's Labyrinth is one of those 'good or bad?' characters at first, but I love him.

Later, I watched Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno) for the first time. 

I had been warned by several people of the tragedy, disturbing scenes, goriness etc. I did cry lots at the end, and had to hide behind Micah several times due to horrific violence. But I'm glad I watched it. If any of you are interested by the sound of this film, I strongly recommend it - despite the aforementioned warnings, which I do agree with, it's a beautiful, magical film that I think is important to watch. But honestly, don't take it lightly, with an 'it's only a film' attitude; you have to be prepared to watch it. It's quite dark and at times seems bleak (mainly in the real-life parts), but as I said, it is gorgeous and I'd say to anyone (who's not too faint-hearted or squeamish) "watch this film".

On my way home, I was listening to music and came to the realisation that Reckoner by Radiohead (my current favourite of theirs) is quite a good match for the film; just in the way that it has really tragic, dark parts, and dreamy ethereal elements throughout - but it's not completely negative, and near the end the key shifts and sort of lightens the whole song. Just as, although the ending of Pan's Labyrinth is awful (I won't go into detail, for fear of ruining the plot for others), Ofelia's imagination and innocence make it somehow a tiny bit less dreadful than it really is. And that is what I made of Pan's Labyrinth.

Hasta luego gatitos, 
Sinead
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