RhianCaroline

A Christmas with friends

KS asked me to be a part of this Christmas vlog she was creating.
I promptly forgot she had asked me. (There seems to be a pattern here.)
So then I shot a super quick, super late vlog of what Christmas means to me.
Maybe one day, I'll recreate a personal one, where I am not half asleep and talking as if I am asleep.
But I seem to have a lot of 'one day' thoughts these days.

goodbye summer

 

The sun finally came out to let me get shots of my 'goodbye summer' etsy stuff. I had three updates planed for this year, Cloth, Paint, and Yarn. The yarn was always planned for around now, when the nights get cooler, and you need to start wearing a hoody at night again.
Of course, if you live here, you wear a hoody all year round.
But the point is, crochet doesn't feel so crazy this time of year. I don't think crochet bunting feels crazy any time of year, but that's just me.

 

The colours of these items are all summer inspired, but the texture gives them that autumn feel.
I am quite sure the Cloth and Paper updates won't happen. I start Uni on Monday, so i'm preparing myself for no time for making pretty things, or painting necessary stuff.
The Zine will continue though :)
Anyways. Happy goodbye summer. The happy little flower packs are so pleased to finally be packaged up and on etsy they made a video of their selves.

lovely things

*This lovely video le frost made of us in Paris. I didn't even know she was shooting this. She's a sly one.

*These ATC's.

My first month as an ArTCee for the first ever challenge over on simplyatc's and the theme is Alice in Wonderland. Lovely.
I'm using the prompts as visual inspiration, but treating my cards as teeny tiny art journals. Come play, because you will immediately be put in for a chance to swap for this set.

*Very nearly completing a custom order, with the prospect of another very soon.

*Tom Hardy.

*Michio Yamauchi's street photography.

*Multi coloured finger nails. (But not wardrobes on the middle floor.)
 

No.28*

*See the wildflowers of Texas. Done and done. And love and love.
They are some of my favorite things now. I can't wait to go back in different seasons to see all the different ones. Especially the bluebonnets.

I decided a while ago I am just going to post the whole book at the end of the year. Because I've been journaling the things I'm ticking off my list too.

As well as trying to make pretty videos of wildflowers. Sigh.

OMG

The Three Story House by the River,
Wales,
United Kingdom.

Dearest Blog,

I write to you with the sincerest of apologies. I am aware of my neglect over the last month or so, and all I can do is but to ask for your kindness and understanding. You see, I find it difficult to blog when I am overwhelmed with life, I know I know, I hear you crying out for me to blog exactly when that is an issue, but that is just not me. I like to hibernate and seclude myself from this often brash and heartless world.
You have my word that I will try my best to better with correspondence. I know you will want updates on everything that is going on, like impromptu trips to London, beautiful new hair, wedding invitation commissions, and forthcoming etsy updates. I will do my best, that is all the words I can give to you.

Please see attached video, I know you will love and adore it as much as me. This young woman they call Beyonce really is kicking it, as they say. From the glorious low-fi esq cinematography of the filming, to the all out overt 50's housewife imagery, the only thing I could have possibly loved more would have been a twist at the end, wherein she threw off this loathsome concept of housekeeper still having to meet extreme standards of beauty. But still, it is a work of magic, sure to be loved by all and understood by few.

I leave you with love and more platitudes of forgiveness, dearest bloggy. I recently acquired a fun new toy in the form of a webcam. I can now have divine internet based video calls with long distance friends, and take ridiculous images like that of below.
You are always in my mind, if not always on my fingertips.

Lovingly,
R.C.Q.

Lady Gaga's stuff

Saturday afternoon Sarah said to me, "have you see gaga's new video?"
"No!" I replied, as I searched Youtube and found the thing, then at over 6 million hits in two days alone.
As I sat back and watched this 9 and a half minute mini-film there was just one over-riding thought running through my head?

Am I just not clever enough?

I have since watched this video/short film 5+ times, and still my question remains. Am I just not clever enough? Here is where I unpack why in fact I don't think it has anything to do with intelligence, and everything to do with confusion.

I am not going to touch the lesbian/trans/cis themes running through this video, and in particular the jail scenes. 

As a straight, white female, I don't feel I have any kind of experience or background to qualify me to make any kind of judgement/opinion on what may or may not be represented here. I can say however, I find it refreshing to see 'butch' females given air time in a video that has reached over 14 million views so far.

 

What I do feel qualified in commenting on is the over arching feminist imagery running throughout this whole video, the bits I feel completely enamored with, and the bits that make me feel more than a little uncomfortable. The 'ew, that did not just happen', feeling is what leads to the confusion I felt upon watching this video.

 

Here it is.
Hell the to yessssss for lesbian action between gaga and a stereotypically 'butch' female. Things we don't see usually, because everybody knows lesbians are all young, pretty, slim things, running around in their underwear and having pillow fights that lead to highly unlikely same sex entanglements, that of course, the passing male is invited to join in on the action. Scenes like the one provided by gaga are more often than not the fantasy of a creative male, who, whilst titillated by the idea of two women together, can't for one second believe that this kind of encounter can exist outside of his control and direction. Women still need penars! Women are there for his pleasure. Which also means women form that weird blond bimbo clinical image dreamt up by a pre-adolescent boy who doesn't realise femininity is a construct not all women can relate to in any way, and heaven forbid the lesbian have short hair, big muscles, and prefers to wear baggy jeans over cut off bum cheek huggers. 

 

HELLO to Gaga strutting and jumping in a kitchen environment that is providing sustenance for the scumbag boyfriend of Beyonce outside. Yes, you are correct in thinking I definitely read this as a shout out to the 50's housewife, relegated to the kitchen, surrounded by implements and gadgets that are created especially for her to use, in her kitchen, to feed her man, to gain her identity from. That role of housekeeper especially set aside for us, the more gentle and maternal of the sexes, is depicted here with gyrating and biting and flinging things around the room and dancer boys of all colours and and and Oh the joy! The jagged biting movements really reminded me of a video I found late last year. It is an iconic piece of performance art from Martha Rosler, filmed in the 1970's, dealing with the idea of woman as a sign and signifier. Watch it, it's a must see.

 

These two aspects alone are enough for us to assume there is more to Gaga than elaborate costumes and, what are definitely otherwise, medicore pop songs. This is a lady with something to say, and she is using her self, her body, her videos and costumes and makeup, to say it. For this I respect Gaga immensely.

 

What I do not respect is the confusion this video leads too. We have shout outs to all kinds of iconic female centred movies, we have women killing men in acts of rage and passion usually reserved for aggressive men, using the environment and implements given to women as their own. There are people of all ethnicity's and women of all persuasions, yet amongst all this we have what is not much more than an all white, skinny dance troupe, twirling and jumping about in their underwear. 

 

For all the messages this video is giving us, the thing I saw first and foremost, and the one that probably most other people saw, was Gaga dancing around in her underwear. Gaga in an all female prison, backed up by all white slim dancers all wearing underwear. This sits uncomfortably with me. For me, and I'm sure there are those that will disagree, this is not a break from the norm at all. This is another portrayal of a male fantasy, young fit women dancing around in next to no clothing. Where is the challenge and critique of what should and shouldn't be on display for public consumption?

A little bit before this spontaneous!dance!moment! we get a full frontal shot of Gaga's gaga.Lesley of Fashionita says far more eloquently than I could,

 

"But the most sublime aspect of this presentation is the digital blurring. The image is a huge tease that ultimately tells us nothing. There could be a vag there, sure, or there could be the fabled "little bit of a penis", or she could be smooth and slit-free as a Barbie doll. Gaga’s crotch shot says: is this what you want, a look around a woman’s body that is literally incarcerated, the freedom to explore her like she’s nothing more than a doll? Well, fuck you. Some information is still not public property. Some privates, it seems, are still private. Too bad."

 

I like this reading of that scene, I just can't mould that together with the otherwise predictable, overtly sexual, quite voyeuristic dance squad moment. I get that this is a music video, that is what women do in music videos, they strip down and gyrate before an audience of men who like it and women who know no better. But with everything else Gaga seems to be trying to do with her performance, it just doesn't fit.
The average person will not see a channeling of Rosler, nor will they see empowered reclaiming of the female sexuality and body; what they see is a white girl half naked bouncing around. If this is a statement of feminism, it's lost on me.

 

Along with this we have the obscene product placement scattered throughout all of Gaga's videos, and definitely this one. Virgin, Coke, one dubious dating website, Wonderbread, Polaroids, Honey B's, the list goes on.
There is something in Wonderbread being the item that is ultimately used to poison the diner full of people, that overly manufactured, not very nutritional staple the loving housewife would feed her family. Yet, I just can't fully get on board with this imagery, because Gaga got paid for this product placement. You can't mock something, whilst simultaneously taking the money they are paying you for it. That is ridiculous amounts of hypocrisy.

I have read rumours that she wasn't paid for all the product placement, she uses some of it specifically to critique this commercial culture we are part of. I don't know. I'm not sure how much you can criticise a system you are fundamentally benefitting from.

 

Gaga isn't doing things that differently to be able to criticise a world she has chosen. She can't make overt feminist statements in one part, yet pander to societal norms in the next. She can't construct a video that demeans commercial product placements, yet take money for it at the same time. These two factors are what I find most confusing about this video.

 

There are of course many differing opinions on this. This is just mine. Hook me up with others if you've got them!

 

*eta* i'm replying to comments in the comments on this one!

All About Steve

If you don't know, Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for best actress in her film, The Blind Side. However, she also won a Razzie for worst actress in All About Steve, and the one that fuels to-days daily rant, a Razzie for worst screen couple, also for All About Steve.
It is this Razzie that sums up exactly what people seem to have missed about this film.

Sandra Bullock and Bradley Coopers characters were not a couple.
Not only that, All About Steve is not a Rom-Com! It has gained hundreds of reviews slating it as the worst Rom-Com ever to have been created, nay, perhaps one of the worst films ever, and it shocks me just how much the audience seem to have missed the point.

If All About Steve can be put into any category, it would have to be quirky farce. It is a film that has a much bigger message than your average girl gets guy.

 

It is a brilliant commentary on your typical Rom-Com, wherein man woos woman, delivers an over-the-top, never gonna happen in real life romantic gesture, and wins her over to live happily ever after. Our protagonist Mary deals with all of this within the first half hour, making it clear this is a film that has a lot more to say than overblown romance. 

She meets a man, is convinced said man is her soul mate, delivers a romantic gesture that at the end of any other hour and half long Rom-Com would have been deemed magical, and then chases man around the country to be by his side.

 

Only Mary is 45. Female. She wears bright red boots everywhere. Loves crossword puzzles, and is unapologetic in her uniqueness.

As intelligent and attractive as Mary is, she is thought of as an odd ball because she is happy not trying to fit in with society.

That seems to be an issue that a lot of the critiques just couldn't get over, why does this middle aged woman act in a way that is so inappropriate for her age? And just like with most other things in this world, our first instinct seems to be to dislike or reject that which we do not understand.

The shocking reviews and subsequent Razzies this film picked up, is itself a commentary on how little our culture embraces the Other.

 

Mary lives life with the innocence and naivety of a child. These qualities that we accept and encourage in children, are branded wrong and awkward if found in adults. At 45 Mary shouldn't be living at home, she shouldn't be writing crossword puzzles for a living, and definitely shouldn't be wearing those bright red boots. All these superficial qualities, that the film is satirising as examples of Mary's difference as much as they are condoning them, are used to portray Mary's difference; Mary's Otherness.

The biggest question that is being asked here is, who makes these rules of appropriateness? Who has decided what is normal for a certain age, and who has judged how we should all be acting and behaving at any given moment?
Mary is harming nobody, in fact, throughout the film as she goes along her journey she actually helps people. She makes friends, and shares knowledge that very few other people know.

 

I am not suggesting this film is a masterpiece. For the most part it could be watched as light hearted viewing, and enjoyed as a quirky, [clever] farcical comedy. A quirky, farcical comedy in which a female leads, none-the-less.

What I am suggesting, is Sandra Bullock nor this film, deserves the high criticism it has been dealt. It is making a statement about the role of women within films. It is making an argument for celebrating our uniqueness. It deals with the absurdity of our modern day media. And it ends with the woman saving the day, more than happy to not have the man at the end 'completing her'.

 

Mary Horowitz was one of my favorite characters to come out of last year, and it makes me sad she has been dealt such a rude hand by the majority of critiques. I could write a whole essay on this film, but I'll leave it here.

 

This is just another reason to add to my list of 'Reasons why Sandra Bullock is the best', here she is picked up her Razzie in person.

on dublin

this should have been two vlogs, surely? why yes, yes it should have. but i didn't want to still be vlogging about dublin 2 years down the road. and seeing as that is on average how often i make one...

dublin wreck

it was sunny! score.
i will take the week to deal with my energy levels. but there is a vlog in my head somewhere, and YES, it does involve customs. there seems to be a theme here.

i have so much exciting travel planned for this year. that's a lot of customs experience type vlogs to come!

but i won't scare you with my exhausted eyes and crazy hair just yet. give me a few days, then i will.
morgan blogs better than me!

peace out, pretties.

52 weeks

1 shot for 52 weeks. I'm posting them all here anyway, along with outtake videos. I should probably note, most of my SP's/videos aren't autobiographical ;) I just happen to like music that could be deemed depressing.
January is kinda a crappy month though. It's my youngest brothers birthday month, and the anniversary of Daniel's brothers death. Maybe the music is allowed on months like that.
And on a related note, Mirror Mirror onthepage is now stocked in my etsy. You can purchase it either in two parts, or the whole thing.

And BTW. Anybody who didn't recieve the pdf when the class ran live last year, and you want the pdf, please just let me know. I've only heard from one so far, so I assume that means everyone else got it :)

I sold my very last zine last week! Which is quite perfect as I am planning on having #2 out early next month. I might print a few more of the first one, I haven't decided yet. I think I'll have to do another fave zines list soon.