“I love Paris, why oh why do I love Paris
Because my love is here” - Frank Sinatra
I am as excited about the release of ‘The Great Gatsby’ movies as much as the next Jazz Age and modernism enthusiast. After I discovered this marvel in uni, I spent ample of my time over analyzing all the various events that take place on East Egg and West Egg, and what FSF was trying to say.
I’m now however quite scared that the movie might not give the book justice, and how could it, we are only talking about one of the greatest modernist writers to have ever graced us.
I suppose what is quite scary about this is the realization that once I do see the movie, whatever alternate movie that has already been created in my head after reading the book so many times, is going to be at at best distorted.
It is indeed a delicate balance, because so much resources and effort has been put into the movie, yet Hollywood does have this bad habit of ultimately caring more about profits than about artistic integrity. Alas, it will be quite sad if the movie was produced for the mass market. But ‘The Great Gatsby’ remains, and Mr Fitzgerald’s world at West Egg remains, and those words no matter how many times reproduced, remain. Hence why I will go into the movies not worried about the legacy of Mr Fitzgerald, but the legacy of modernist fiction as a whole.
An awesome street saxophone musician in Lille, France last Monday. I stood there in awe for a good 10 minutes. He didn’t manage to seduce many women, but he seduced me (and my pockets)! :)
Yay for peanut butter! :-)
Beautiful mid-century modernism in #Beirut in 1968.
(via oldbeirut)
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Awesome bourbon during prohibition? check
ODing on Pomade? check
Cigarette attached to face? check
Incredible lampadina? check
Oh wait, out of this world tattoos?! CHECK!!
Tattoo parlor, 1920s
(Source: style-cool-ture, via my1930s)
The view from the steps of La Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmartre is one which no person can ever tired of. I still remember the first time I came up those steps and Paris in all its glory reigned down on me at once, I fell in love with a city, a fantasy, a beautiful painting, a myth!
No wonder this view has featured so heavily in popular culture, referenced everywhere from the legendary 1976 short movie ‘C’était un rendez-vous’ to Woody Allen’s soon-to-become cult classic ‘Midnight in Paris’, it’s been a view that has hardly been distorted along the years. Many have come and gone on these steps and wondered in awe, but Paris, La Ville-Lumière, remains.
A monkey with abadonment issues.