Friday, March 29, 2013

30 Day Clothing Challenge~ Day 20: Your Jewelry Box

I've only got ten of these to go! I didn't even think I'd make it this far... (Who am I kidding, it gave me blog post ideas. And I certainly need those. Now I'm going to have to be *gasp* creative.) Anyhoo, this is supposed to be a jewelry box post. Well, I don't really have one of those, because my necklaces are hanging and my bracelets are in a drawer, but I did turn the coffin my stuffed undead bunny came in into something to store my gloves in.


Now I'm going to share some more of my DIY with you. I've recently started painting a bunch of new patches. My dilemma when it comes to patches is that I have about 20 of them but can never decided just what to sew them on to. (The fun part for me is simply making them and I always forget that I need to actually attach them to something hehe) I'm extremely indecisive. They'll eventually make their way onto a few of my jackets and vests, but it'll take a few hours of deliberation. (They have to be placed just right you see XD)


And here are a few assorted outfits of the week. It's been pretty casual lately. I'm on spring break and we've been going places like the fair, where I'd rather not get all dressed up, or shopping, where I'd like be able to get out of my clothes without fighting my whole wardrobe.
 
The shirt I bleach painted a while back
My new Lip Service shirt. Yay Ebay!

 Pretty standard for me really. So I promise to dress up for Sophistique Noir's April theme ;) I'm really excited about this one (Vintage) so wait for my post on the 1st! 

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Movie Reviews~ Dorian Gray, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Young Frankenstein

I spent far too much time trying to think of a creative title for this. And in the end I went ahead and just flat out said what it was, as usual. I mean really. How creative can you get with movie reviews? I need to work on this...

Anyhoo, I recently bought some movies on clearance and I figured I might as well do some short reviews (Which turned into a long post as I got carried away) and put them on here. They've all got enough Victorian or spooky elements to possibly attract all of you ;)

I'm going to start with one I really advise against watching. I hadn't seen this one yet because my English teacher had warned me away from it, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Now, I adore The Picture of Dorian Gray as a book. In fact, it's hands down my favorite book of all time. I even used it as a basis for my FCAT Writes essay this year because I know it inside and out and could quote it in my sleep. Actually, some of the only quotes I have memorized are by Oscar Wilde, because I love his way with words and in all reality, he was brilliant. All of this is exactly why I personally can't recommend this movie to anyone.


 The characterization is weak for starters. The movie focuses on Dorian's corruption, that's for certain, but I noticed they focused primarily on the sexual aspect of it and didn't portray some of the other crucial ways his mind warps. Or if they did, they did it badly. You don't get the same sense of detached depravity that evolves in the book. Dorian is shallow and uncaring, but you still get a sense of complexity in the novel. Ben Barnes certainly isn't a bad actor. I think he does a marvelous job with what he was given. I just don't think the Dorian they created was true to bookverse Dorian and that's what the whole movie depends on. The evolution of his personality. (Which was also far too rushed in the movie. It's much more subtle than how they portrayed it) On the other hand, I did rather like Lord Henry and Basil. Sybil was a bit vapid, but she was like that in the book too so I can't complain.

Then there's the way they deviate from the plot. And oh boy, do they change quite a few things. They even add a completely new character in order to provide Dorian with a love interest (as per usual) and she didn't really manage to hold my interest. (Though that might be because I was too offended they had messed with my continuity) Her appearance in the movie allowed them to alter the ending in order to make it more dramatic, which I thought was unnecessary. The strained, lurking tension at the end of the book had it's own quiet drama that was much more effective. There also seemed to be a lot of superfluous filler where time could have gone into enhancing the storyline.


So was it a bad movie? ...No. I'm rather indifferent to it. It just wasn't possible for me to enjoy it, being so dedicated to the book. (Though Ben Barnes is extremely pretty. I'll give you that. And even though Dorian is blond I've always pictured him looking like that, complete with dark hair) However, if you want to watch a Dorian Gray adaption I'd recommend you go check out the BBC adaptions. I've seen quite a few of them and can't remember which is best, but they tend to use whole passages from the book which is delightful.




The second movie is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Well, I can't say I've ever read the comics, but I can certainly say I wouldn't choose to watch this movie again. It was....flat. That's really all there is to it. I loved most of the characters individually, but when they tried to pull everything together with a plot (Or lack of) it all just sort of fell apart.

In theory, a group of literary characters actually existing in real life and banding together to fight yet another notorious literary character should be right up my alley. I mean there was The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyl, Captain Nemo, Mina... It could have been a really good comic movie, but instead it fell short of average. This movie just couldn't hold my interest. It was convoluted and the CGI was sub par (I don't even like CGI so that made it worse) and the humor was just bad. Funny thing is, Dorian Gray appears yet again in this movie and he saved it as far as I'm concerned, namely because he added a level of snark (And extreme attractiveness. I mean really.) that kept me watching it to the end. All in all, it's definitely not a movie I'd recommend watching unless you've got absolutely no other options.

But well, there's always Dorian

 Finally, I picked up a copy of Young Frankenstein. I just about squealed when I found this because this movie is fantastic. Everything about it makes me laugh, I guarantee you that after watching this my ribs are guaranteed to scream abuse at me. The cast is perfect in their respective roles and the humor is so tongue in cheek, parodying monster movie tropes left and right. I especially love Igor *ahem* sorry I meant Eyegor. The black and white film really adds to the atmosphere, making it feel even more like an old monster movie, and they add to the wonderful cheesiness with well-timed lightning strikes and the occasional howling wolf or bout of maniacal laughter.


I'm fairly certain most people have seen it. It's older so it's been out long enough. But just in case here's the plot, which is fairly straightforward. Frankenstein dies and his grandson inherits all of his possessions. Of course, said grandson has been trying to cast off the legacy of his mad relative, but he decides to travel down to the castle anyway. He swears he's nothing like his grandfather, that he wouldn't be so ridiculously insane as to think you could reanimate the dead. And from there the movie catapults headfirst into a giant parody of Frankenstein and other assorted monster movies, as the Doctor finds out it's much harder to keep up his convictions than he originally thought.


This movie is corny and ridiculous, but I love it to death. They've taken all the things about the 1930s era Hollywood horror movies, the good and the bad, and turned it into something just plain hilarious. And again, just seeing Marty Feldman play Eyegor is enough incentive to watch this movie.

Isn't he charming?




Saturday, March 16, 2013

30 Day Clothing Challenge~ Day 18 and 19

Day 18 is a piece of jewelry you made.

Well the one piece of actual jewelry I've made broke some months ago and since it wasn't salvageable (The whole choker unraveled) it ended up in the trash... So I'm afraid that while I do some DIY from time to time I don't have any actual jewelry. You've already seen my headbands and scarf so I'm ging to leave this without a picture.

Day 19 is all of your necklaces and bracelets. Let's see... my bracelets are all clumped together in a drawer with any gloves I own. I know, I know, not very organized, but as long as I can find things I'm content.


My necklaces were facing a similar situation until a few weeks ago, but unlike my bracelets I was constantly untangling these and cleaning the tarnish off any silver left in the bathroom. I went and bought a board I could hang them on. It's great because now I can actually keep track of all of them.



And here's yesterday's outfit. I had a bit of trouble sneaking this one past the school administrators because it's jut a tad too short for dress code, but this dress has lain in my closet unused for far too long. I put on a pair of tights and made sure to walk behind them at all times. It's a good thing they're normally wearing blue jackets ^^


And then later we went out to eat so I changed my jacket. The good thing about my almost entirely black closet is that everything always goes together. No matching problems for me! (The only problem I have is when I want to wear my boots with the gold buckles, and therefore can't wear any of my jewelry because it's all silver...)

I love the shoulders on this.
 Now I'm off to listen to David Bowie's new album, which is fantastic in my opinion. Especially considering how it could have turned out. Sometimes when older artists go and make new albums after so many years they turn out less than stellar, but Bowie is still strong and doing his own thing. It's great. There are very few songs on the album that I skip when listening to it and everyone should go give it a listen as soon as possible. I just....I love Bowie so much it's ridiculous.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Hey look, I Faked a Deathhawk.

Granted, a very tiny little deathhawk (Like, the tiniest one in existence), but at least it's reasonably fluffy. Though, a bit droopy at the top because I could not for the life of me get it to stand straight. And once I hit the Florida humidity there was no way my hair was surviving. I'm afraid the pics don't quite do it justice either.

You've all seen this outfit before. It's pretty typical casual for me.
Though my ankh has been eaten by my scarf in these XD

Honestly, this was the most fun I've had with my hair in a while. I had to pin back the side of hair that I still have and more than a few bobby pins died along the way. I also had to tease the life out of it and use half a gallon of hairspray to get it to stand, but it was worth it. Having a deathhawk (A real one) is one of the things I'm absolutely going to do at some point. I'm a sucker for big hair and they're just so...fluffy.

The thing that made this even more fun was my blue roots. I tried to touch up my hair with some  blue-black color last weekend, but my blonde roots only absorbed the blue. I laughed about it for a while and was going to fix them, but my friends all loved it and said it looked intentional. I'll get a picture for next time because the blue only shows in certain lights and you can't see it here.

Pretty flat after a day of school though

Here's a video that shows you what it looks like from all angles. I didn't actually record this for you guys...I was checking my hair outside before the bus came so that's why it's a bit derpy XD But hey, it came in handy.




Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Band Feature~ One Eyed Doll

Well it seems I've caught whatever version of the plague it is that's going around school, so lucky me gets to stay home and lie miserable in bed all day. I'm currently having a horror movie marathon and updating this blog though, so it's not all bad ;) And maybe if I spend a few hours on Dark Souls I might actually beat one more area (after dying 50 times of  course. I swear, this is the hardest game I've ever played. It's great XD)

Anyhoo, I was listening to some music I hadn't heard for a while, (probably a few years even, since it wasn't on my Ipod) and I came upon a band I thought should get some recognition. One Eyed Doll. Of course, quite a few years back I first heard about them through AdventureQuest Worlds (I kid you not. It's actually how I found Voltaire years ago) and back then they had a whole lot less recognition then they do now, but I'm going to go ahead and assume there are still some people out there  that haven't heard of them.

The in-game band XD
The real-life band ~
 One Eyed Doll is a Goth/punk duet that came out of Austin, Texas in 2007. Kimberly does vocals and guitar and Junior is on drums.  They've been described as "Pixies meets Siouxsie meets Hole" and the "bastard laboratory love child of Dresden Dolls meets White Stripes and Marilyn Manson". I've always thought Kimberly's sweet, adorable voice contrasts so well with the heavy, gritty music. I suppose I first liked them because they reminded me a bit of Jack Off Jill, whom I love. There are nine albums out, though only four are under the name One Eyed Doll. Four more are Kimberly Freeman's solo albums and another one is under the name Ghetto Princess. After formation they quickly won quite a few awards and have been featured in several magazines ever since.

And look, Gloomth made a skirt for Kimberly that you can buy~

And now I'll just spam you with some of their music before I go. I need to go check out the last album they released and any songs I might have missed. Hope you enjoy~