Stanley Donen or the art of 60's chic

The other night rewatched Stanley Donen's great 60's classic movie with Sofia Loren and Gregory Peck Arabesque. The title sequence is 60's design with Henry Mancini, he of the Pink Panther theme, composing the music:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJAS-45W08Q
 Besides the funky music, which makes you swing along and feel jazzy, the fashion worn by Miss Loren is sophisticated and utterly right for feminine curves! She has hips!!!!!!! And breasts!!!!!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-N6C9zJJdo&feature=related

The other great fashion movie from the 60's is of course also by Stanley Donen, Charade! Audrey hepburn on the other scale of elegance from Sophia Loren, is a dream in this suave and sophisticated detective comedy!As my favourite actor all time is Cary Grant, yes no apologies here, he is comic suave and elegant!This movie, is funny and if you love Paris you cannot fail but be charmed by the 60'S views of that elegant city!
My last favourite 60's comedy by Stanley Donen is "The grass is greener", Old england ( of course Cary Grant and Lovely english rose Deborah Kerr) versus the new American (portrayed by Robert Mitchum).
 There is one cocktail dress worn by Jean Simmons who is a chic secondary character, which is shantung silk capri pants with a dress coat over it! I could wear that today and feel the belle of the ball!

A feast of colour, fun and originality

Cassandra Constant, Viajando II

My dear friend Cassandra , from our schooldays in Spain, is an artist at ease in all mediums, but what truly gives such joy to her art, is her exploding sense of colour and the way she uses different mediums to highlight this.

She will be exhibiting some of her work together with other artists, in the "Art for Youth" exhibition, to be held in London's Royal College of Art, this coming 10 and 11 Oct. Anyone in London then can apply for tickets. the sale of the art works will be for the UK charity UK Youth!

 

A great Photographer

My dearest friend Chryssi, died last June and on another blog I paid tribute to her qualities as a friend,and person. Here I would like to remember some of the wonderful photographs she took in her short career.

One of her first exhibitions was portraits of a small village in Northern Greece; seeing the faces one is struck by the emotions protrayed. Old faces can say so much!The exhibition was held in this semi deserted village and helped to revive interest in it.

The photograph below was of a series she did of Istanbul, very atmospheric.I went there with her for the wedding of her brother.The family orignally hailed from the Pondos area of Turkey but came to Greece in the 1920's,and so was still closely linked to Istanbul.

For me her sensitive nature ennabled her to be open to atmospher and people,a great gift. If you want to see more pictures by her go to Flickr and look up Chryssi Patrona.

end of holidays in ancient arcadia

 

Dear fellow bloggers and readers,after an extended holiday, am back in the harness of real life!

archeological site of Olimpia


This year like the previous 15 summers spent it in Greece as my other half is Greek. We have a house there in the hills near to ancient Olimpia. The photo above is the original olimpic stadium nestled in a forest of pine, cypress and eucaliptus trees. The Peloponnesos is very green, contrary to what most people expect from the Greek countryside. It is often compared to Italy's Umbria. although a huge fire in 2007 destroyed alot of trees in the area coming very close to the archeological site, it is recuperating quickly.

This part of the Peloponnesos is well wort a visit as nearby in the mountains (40 kms) is the old temple of Bassae dedicated to Apollo and constructed by the architect of the Parthenon, Ipecterion!The temple is now covered by a tent structure but still worth visiting.

My favourite beach this summer is a small beach visited by locals and with green around and only one small bar which has had the foresight to provide some shade! Cold frappé coffee in the morning as you arrive and lovely swimming.

Have a good start in September everybody

Reading at the Beach

Agio Andrea beach Ilia Greece

A small beach with wonderful deep swimming water as you go in, someone to bring you a refreshment from the bar above, and some good books are all I require for the perfect decompression holiday. My reading eclectic at the best of times turns to wildly different authors for the beach. What did I take this year?

 A throwback to the adventure stories of my childhood with John Buchan's early 20th century spy novels (Greenmantle, Mr Standfast, the 39 steps and the 3 hostages; I reccomend the Wordsworth editions of the collected Dick Hannay stories, it has them all for a reasonable price).

To give me romance without turning to chick lit which bores me to tears, I have taken with me the Far Pavilions by MM Kaye. The author using her 1920's own experiences in India, tells a great love story spanning the British Raj.

Finally A greek holiday would not be complete without Gerald Durrell's A Corfu trilogy, delectable in its detailed descriptions of life in Corfu before the 2nd WW, throwing in a good measure of botany and biology.

Summer holidays

Kyllini beach in Northern Peloponnessos, Greece

Dear fellow bloggers and readers, To celebrate summer holidays I am attaching 3 videos  which represent the summer for me; Cliff Richard's 1962 Summer holidays from the film( watch the film; summum of kitch vintage 60's, great relaxer!); Doris day in "Que Sera Sera", and finally also from the 60's the Bee Gees and their "Holiday", slightly more melancholic. Yes, No apologies her for all this 60's revival, I am a fan, it hearks back to a more naif innocent period which makes me smile. In the current economic climate a must I would say! Happy holidays

cliff richard summer holiday
http://youtu.be/Gbajf_rHzys
doris day que sera, que sera
http://youtu.be/xZbKHDPPrrc
bee gees holiday
http://youtu.be/DMp86vWf904

Summer coolness in Spain: tiles and porcelain

Summer coolness is best enjoyed in tiled interiors and exteriors as the mediterranean countries well know. Above a vieuw of the tiled veranda of the Catalan modernist Parque Guell in Barcelona. If you are in the north of Spain on the Meditteranean side this summer, it is well worth a visit. Designed by Antoni Gaudi,a catalan modernist archtitect in the early 20th Century, the park was intended as a lifestyle exercise combining livingspace, communalbuildings and a park. It proved extremely expensive to complete and so only the park was ever completed to the original design. If you ever wondered where the ideas of some of Spain's more famous artists from the movida period( post Franco 80's) found their inspiration,like Javier Mariscal (who designed the poster I attached), look at Gaudi's use of traditional materias such as old tiles, broke them and recoverted them in startling designs.

Another wonderful spot is down south in Sevilla,take an early morning or late afternoon walk to the Plaza de Espana. It was built also in the early part of the 20th Century, for a Spanish/LatinAmerican world exhibition. The square is bordered by a colonnade with seats. The colonnade and seats are tiled in those lovely Spanish tiles known as azulejos, each seat has a medallion representing a famous vieuw in Spain. What you next need is to take a summer picknick with you in the summer evening and sit down in either of these two spots. What I reccomend is to take a chilled bottle of Manzanilla (very dry sherry) or fresh young white Galician wine (Viura), accompany with a tortilla de patatas (spanish omelette)and some slices of spanish cured ham, the best being "Pata Negra". Then go down for a swim, the coast is not far in either case.If you are flush with cash or in need of some beautiful plates, why not go and visit the porcelain factory, La Cartuja de Sevilla,just outside Seville. It has some lovely services in vieux rose and royal blue which bring alive a dinner party al fresco on your veranda or garden.