the 6th picture

now even this tag that's been haunting the international blogworld reached me: ung farbror tagged me to go to the 6th folder in my pictures and post the 6th picture form that folder. well. the difficulty witht his tag is that i don't use "my pictures". and as i am at the moment not even sitting at my own computer, things didn't get easier.. so, instead i took the 6th picture-containing folder on my portable harddisc and took the 6th picture:

























this is the hostel in prague where a and i stayed during our eastern europe holidaytrip 2007. the beds were horrible (ever slept on 3 small matresses next to each other instead of one large one? i cannot recommend it..), the kitchen even more so and the temperatures were not to my liking either. but, it was a lot of fun also.

here is a picture of me on the train to prague back then:



















now i'll go and do some baking.
i do tag friederike (yes!!) and everyone else who hasn't been tagged yet (boring, i know..)

a mountain of books

or at least, some kind of odd book-landscape in my room:




















this is my attempt at figuring out what i still have to read and what i might skip. i tend to takes tons of books home from the library (my last journey to hamburg must have been around 15kilo worth of books..) and sort at home.

so what you can see is one rather smallish mountain with about 4-5 books i decided i need not read for the exam, 2 large (and heavy, i tell you!) coffeetable books by david la chapelle, one huge mountain of postmodernism and arts history, one smallish mountain on photography and mass art, one mountain called deleuze and one on russian film history.

the plan of plowing through this rather rough and difficult landscape is as follows:
tonight: russian film history (only the parts about tarkovskij and sokurov)
tomorrow: postmodernism and its place in arts history, evening: screen "russian ark" with friend
monday: pop art and mass culture/art, connections to postmodernism
tuesday: 9:00-11:00 prepare written exam for swedish course, 12:00 meeting with professor on la chapelle-topic, 14:30 meeting with teacher on deleuze/sokurov-topic, 15:30 print and copy exam for swedish course, 16:15 have swedish course write exam, during exam: take care of deleuze mountain
wednesday: make new plan for rest of week.

may i introduce...

it seems to be quite the fashion to show off all your presents, but the thing with the ones i got is, most of them don't really go with what i otherwise show off here, as they are mostly of the practical kind. a good sign for finally growing up is when your parents give you a quality tool kit (so they don't have to come and help you with your furniture anymore..)... i also got a hand mixer/blender to make soups and smoothies, and a toaster (did i tell you that my brother works at bosch??). which i needed. badly.

the nicest thing - of course - i got from my boyfriend. the fashion blogger's dream come true: a new and gorgeous camera for my outfit posts, a lovely canon thingy, great design and according to the reviews, easy to handle. well. i'm still figuring out how to make the thing focus on my whole person and not some random part of the room, but i guess in another week or two i might finally get it =) only joking, but i haven't read the manual yet and that might be a good starting point...

so, instead of showing off all my christmas presents (though i promise i'll show the ones i got for myself..), i thought i'd introduce you to fröken katt, who since a few weeks back lives with me:

























she is, as you might see, a japanese boudoir cat with a love for lace and cherries. also, she is quite two faced, which makes her both interesting and mysterious... and, the picture was taken with the new camera!!

























her history is as follows: a few years back, my aunt, who is an artist, made a series of wooden cats in different sizes, and i always wanted to make one for myself when i was at her place. the thing got forgotten over time until last easter when i remembered it and asked if there where some parts left for me to make one. there were, and i started. after half the cat was done i had to go home and thought i'd finish her the next time i'm there, which wasn't until in december, when fröken katt finally got her dress and make-up and was transported home to where she lives now.

isn't she wonderful?

liten karin

this girl has done such a beautiful series of pictures:



































































aren't they bewitching? the little red dress, the cage and the trees - i'm still charmed...

palazzo reale II, david lachapelle

this weekend, i finally hung up the poster i bought at the second exhibition i saw in milano at the palazzo reale, an exhibition with photographies by david lachapelle. i went to see the exhibition together with rana and some of her friends, but as everyone had his or her own pace, i basically saw most of it on my own anyway.
the exhibition was some kind of retrospective, it covered a huge part of lachapelles work from "lost" pictures from the 70s via star-portraits and musicvideos of the 90s till his most recent works. it was not sorted chronologically, but rather following different themes that come up in the course of his work as a photographer, with the result of a highly imaginative and to a certain extend complex show.

there were a lot of pictures which i liked for totally different reasons, some for the energy which was displayed, some for their sheer beauty, some others for the colours, and all of them for giving me a lot to think.
the most interesting, i thought, was a series in which he cited classic pieces of christian art, like the pieta in st.peter in rome, with courtney love as the maria, some young man looking like kurt cobain on her knees. there were other biblical themes to see as well, all of them in contemporary settings such as new york and in bright colours.
another series that fascinated me is called "awakened", a series of whole-body-portraits of people under water, fully dressed. the colours were bleak, which is a strong contrast to most of lachepelles other pictures, and it never seemed to be quite sure if these people were really alive.

the picture i bought as a poster for my room is, i think, part of a series called "small landmarks", a series with beautiful models with big hair in blonde and red in a park with miniature models of castles and other landmarks. it is called "collapse in a garden"...