Music For A Cold Saturday Afternoon

Michelle, over at Free-Ranged posted this song.
I liked is so much that I'm posting it too.

Donna Summer RIP

So many of our generation are sad today about the passing of Donna Summer.I've enjoyed reading the many tributes to her in the blogosphere today.
For an excellent post on the brilliant Donna Summer
check our Stirred Straight Up With A Twist




She was an amazing talent.

The Song Remains The Same - Stairway To Heaven Turns 40

The most overplayed song of my youth
and indeed the most overplayed song ever
turned 40 this week
for some reason this makes me feel both nostalgic
and  really old



"and it makes me wonder"
does anyone out there know how much money Led Zeppelin made from this one song?
It must have been bazillions

I love this cover
and Dolly's outfit in this video


And for those who prefer 60's style music to 70's metal rock
here's another version of the song

Music - Split Endz

Yesterday was another sunny summer day in Laguna Beach
where, in spite of the shaky economy,
the sky was so clear, the sun was so bright and the water was so blue
and all the shiny happy people were having fun.
It was the perfect Southern California summer day for a family get together

Even the long drive on the traffic filled 405 freeway didn't seem so bad when we could plug in my daughter's ipod with its 6000 or so songs and listen to music from the 1980s



I'm not sure why she had this song on her ipod
especially given the fact that this it came out in 1982
and she wasn't born until 1985
How could she possibly know this random song?
Do you even remember it?

Nevertheless, driving to Laguna Beach with my daughter,
singing Eighties music in the car,
and spending the day with my family
was pretty much the perfect way enjoy a sunny summer Saturday.

Music - A Whiter Shade of Pale

From the Morton Report
On this day in 1967, Procol Harum went to #1 on the UK singles chart with a song that over 40 years later would be named the most-played record of the past 70 years (with more than 900 known recorded versions by other artists).




I just thought that you needed a little music trivia today.

Saturday Morning Miscellany and Music

A little of this...a little of that

From Discover, Kissing and Cancer

From WSJ, Eternal Sunshine of the Springtime Mind

From WSJ, Modernism's Austrian Rebels

From Bloomberg News, Virginia Postrel on Oprah, American Girls and Binge Dreamers

From Businessweek, Tyler Cowen America's Hottest Economist

Amid Privilege for Professor C's post on Ethan Frome

Une Femme d'un Certain Age for a Taxonomy of Tourists

and for your listening pleasure
Air and Au Revoir Simone performing Left Bank

Music For A Friday - Blackbird Blackbird Pure

Ah, finally Friday
Lot's do to this weekend away from the computer...car shopping, training session at the gym, art gallery opening, dinner with a friend, hiking...the usual nonsense.

DSK and Arnold aka the "topic of the week" has been a gift that just keeps on giving with so much stuff all over the net. A friend wrote this to me in an email:
And preying on women is big time wrong! And from an egoistic point of view where is the satisfaction ? "A vaincre sans péril on triomphe sans gloire".
Indeed
So here is some music to start your weekend off
I like the chill sound but the video could bring on an epileptic fit
so listen rather than watch

Jewelry in Film: The Affair of the Necklace

Like Faux Fuchsia, at times I must listen to the commands of the universe.
Where FF is directed by the cosmos to bake
I am directed to watch movies.
Lately the black dog has been scratching at the door and I've keep it at bay by settling down on the sofa with netflix or amazon prime.
For several years I've wanted to delve into a series of posts on films where jewelry is an important element of the story,
and where better to start, as I am still in 18th Century Mode, than with The Affair of the Necklace

The film, based on the true story of an extortion plot aimed at Marie Antoinette, is told from the point of view of the con artist or should I say conne artist Jeanne de la Motte played by Hilary Swank. In the film, she is Jeanne de Saint-Remy de Valois, a woman of noble birth, who is forced into her role because she can't get the attention of the queen for restitution of her family estates.  De la Motte / Valois claims to have favor and influence with the Queen in order to solicit patronage by the out of favor Count de Rohan, played by Jonathon Pryce.

Here is the history from Wikipedia.

and a reconstruction of the infamous Collier Reine Breteuil

Considering the historical importance of the actual Affair of the Necklace in terms of undermining Marie Antoinette and the Royal Family, I thought that this would be an excellent film.
I was wrong.
This film was bad on so many levels I won't name them all.
But it needs to be said that casting Hilary Swank in the role of de la Motte was a mistake.
And, seeing the many historical inaccuracies, large and small, such as watching Swank saunter around Versailles with unpowdered hair was so annoying.

For me, the highlight of the film was the closing credits because of the Lisa Gerrard/Brendan Perry song "Ariadne".

Anthem - Rolling In The Deep

La Belette Rouge recently posted about our need for having personal anthems at different points in our lives.  We've all had them haven't we?

Well, after certain events last weekend that resembled a French farce
this is my current life anthem.

Luckily, the timing for these events couldn't have been better as Easter, at least for me, signifies Spring and a time for new beginnings and paying more attention to the things that add value to my life.
Bon, on y va.

2011 - A Good Start

I'm really not one for partying it up on New Year's Eve and I generally prefer to stay home with champagne and caviar, but this year Miss de Ville and I were invited out so we put on our fancy duds and made a night of it.

Miss de Ville New Year's Eve 2010 in her mom's Oscar de la Renta

It was cold, really cold for Los Angeles, so I went in full Dr. Zhivago mode and wore my vintage swakara coat with the fox collar and my mink head band. And I'm glad that I did because it was 42 degrees outside. That is like sub arctic temperatures for Los Angeles.

(blurry photo thanks to iPhone)

After surviving the night with controlled alcohol consumption...I was designated driver....I slept late and woke up happy on New Year's Day.  The sun was shining brightly through my window and I just felt that 2011 was going to be a great year.

Resolutions? Yes, I have them.
They are always the same.
Will I keep them? I hope so.
I will try.

New Year's Day was full of friends and football. 
A comfortable and low key way to start the year.

Then today, rain again.

In August 2008 I blogged about the beautiful wedding of my dear friend's daughter in Napa Valley.  It seems like not so long ago that this girl was a student at John Thomas Dye with my children.  Today this young lady is having her first child, and my friend will become a grandmother.
For some reason, like the sunshine on New Years Day, it is a good omen to me. 
Kids get older, life goes on, one becomes a grandmother.

On the agenda for 2011. 
Work, work and more work.

And some travel. 
I'll be off to the antiques and estate jewelry show in Miami Beach in February with a side trip to Palm Beach to visit friends in the polo world.
In the spring I should like to take a trip to the UK and France to visit the blogger babes.  You know who you are.
Also, I should like to work in a trip to Germany to visit friends.
I shall certainly go to Spain at the end of June to see my brother finish up his command and then I would like to go to either Sicily, Majorca, Corsica or the Swiss Alps.  I haven't decided yet.
Oh yeah, Oz is on my short list too. Can I tie that into the Hong Kong show?
(I'm terribly afraid that if I take a trip to Oz, I won't want to come back to the US.)

Last year I didn't see much of my friends. This year I would like to change that.

Cooking.  I need to do more of that.  Perhaps I will start cooking Sunday dinners for my family.

Working out with the wonder woman trainer, that's on the agenda too.

This is enough.
I don't like to make too many plans, because you know happens when you do that. 
Yes, god laughs.

I'll leave you with a song.

Music - Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence

Music - Axis of Awesome

Sunday morning, while I decide whether to go to the gym or go to the office before settling down with a book by the pool, I leave you these four chords to contemplate.

Music Appreciation - From Chopin to Hendrix

I adore the music articles in the WSJ Life & Culture section
Last week I was all about Chopin's Preludes
Chopin's Small Miracles - Despite their brevity the Preludes loom large musically
You might like the very fast
Prelude Op. 3 by Chopin master, Ivo Pogorelich
or the forceful 
Prelude Op. 15 by Maurizio Pollini
or the long and longing
Prelude Op. 45 by Ivo Pogorelich 
Yes, Pollini probably plays the Preludes better but he just isn't as romatical as Pogorelich, is he.

This week I'm on to other music entirely
String Quartet Does Hendrix - Turtle Island's new album is  a tribute to his genius

Here is more about the group going Hendrix


I'm pleased to see classically trained musicians having an appreciation of Hendrix

Music - Olof Arnalds and Bjork - Surrender

Why you ask?
Because Olof Arnalds has such a lovely voice and well because Bjork is well, you know, Bjork

Music - The Bravery - Believe

Music- Never Tear Us Apart

Music- Lightning Crashes

Mid-Century Going Mainstream and A Little Music

 Marella Agnelli

Ah Friday, finally
It's been such a busy week, mostly taken up by getting product organized for magazine photo shoots which of course I can't write about yet...
I can tell you this though, there is a definite a trend toward Mid-Century style.  We saw the beginning of that trend a couple of years ago with Mad Men, now it is going more mainstream with extrapolations of it in Vogue, Elle and W magazines.  And I couldn't be more pleased because I appreciate that aesthetic, that distinct look of sleek understated chic of Audrey Hepburn, Babe Paley, Marella Agnelli, Jean Seaberg, Diane Carroll, Grace Kelly and the Hitchcock heroines.
The look is all about quality, not quantity and it need not be expensive. It doesn't have to be all about Harry Winston style diamond cluster earrings, A single strand of cultured pearls,  A bracelet with a single charm, A pearl circle brooch, A pair of pearl earrings that sit on the ear, will do.

Diane Carroll

Happy Friday

Gold Diggers of 2010

Gold Digger Pendant in 14K from Beladora2.com $495

Another reason to love my job....where else would I come across a gold digger pendant?

With gold reaching up to the stratosphere, this might become my new signature piece!

OK...technically it is a gold miner pendant but I like the gold digger description better.

 

Monday Morning Music

Awesome video directed by Spike Jonze...shamelessly stolen from Fashion's Most Wanted

for my soon to be 27 year old skater boy, Alex.

How beautiful is this song?