miniluv

Cabin Fever! Nick Cave/Muppets Mashup [VIDEO]

2012-01-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

Cabin Fever! Nick Cave/Muppets Mashup from Megan Aileen Williams on Vimeo.

I've been home recovering from a bit of surgery and have not quite been able to capture the level of discomfort, annoyance and cabin fever that I have been feeling. So I made this...pretty much sums it up I think. Enjoy.

Mr. Fish's Wild Fashion Ride [VIDEO]

2012-01-04T18:34:00.000-08:00

PHOTOGRAPH: JON LYONS/REX FEATURES
via www.richardjames.co.uk

Mens clothier Michael Fish designed the dramatic styles of the 1960's popularly characterised in the Austin Powers movies. To achieve this he combined the Carnaby Street Beau Brummel dandy look with Saville Row quality tailoring. After working for Jermyn Street's Turnbull & Asser as a designer, Michael Fish opened his first shop in 1966. The shop, 'Mr Fish' on 17 Clifford Street in London sold his clothes which were peculiarly labelled 'Peculiar to Mr Fish'. This fashion movement that Mr. Fish was an integral part of has been referred to as the Peacock Revolution: when men's fashion saw an emergence of bright colours and flamboyant styles.

Michael Fish's kipper tie was perhaps his most notorious contribution to fashion. The name was inspired possibly from the spoonerism of Piccadilly, "Kippadilly", or as a play on his last name. The kipper tie was loud in colour, some would say garish, but most distinctly, vey, very wide.

This short and surreal fashion report from 1969 shows Michael Fish introducing his men's fashion line. The yellow trench coat at 1:31 scream David Bowie to me.

The fashion designer kept a noteworthy client base of British royals, celebs and pop stars dressed to the nines in his colourful, velvet suits and ethnic inspired separates. Some of the more noteworthy...

When Mick Jagger wore clothes in the 1968 British movie Performance directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, Mick Jagger wore Michael Fish.
The cover art on the original UK release of David Bowie's studio album The Man Who Sold the World features a reclining Bowie clad in a Mr Fish man dress.
In the 1966 movie version of Modesty Blaise, the cult bad girl and spy of Peter O'Donnell's comic strips, Modesty's confidant and right-hand man Willie Garvin was dressed by Michael Fish.
He also designed the ruffled shirts worn by Jon Pertwee on Doctor Who.

For tons more inspiration, the book The Day of the Peacock: Style for Men 1963 - 73 features photographs, outfits and ephemera drawn from the Victoria and Albert Museum's archives.
The book tells the stories of the key players at the centre of the revolution and takes a look at the boutiques Mr. Fish, Blades, Hung on You, and Granny Takes A Trip. Yeah baby!

My Christmas Mixtape: Offbeat Music for the Holidays

2011-12-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

Welcome and happy xmix tape! Christmas music generally makes me as mad as a box of cats, but I decided to fight fire with fire - or rather - fight Mariah Carey with an unorthodox collection of tunes that I enjoy torturing my loved ones with. After all, what's Christmas without partaking in some form of torturing your loved ones?

Speaking of which...this fab Krampus postcard pictured to the left was illustrated by Chicago based artists Melita 'Miss Monster' Curphy. In Christmas traditions of Old World Europe, the Krampus accompanied Saint Nick as his sadistic servant. Deltiologists will recognise the Krampus from his frequent appearance on vintage holiday penny postcards of the late 19th and early 20th-century. These postcards often said (as Miss Monster's does) "Gruss vom Krampus!" which means "Greetings from Krampus".

Miss Monster's illustration of the Krampus is sold out, but shirt.woot has it in t-shirt form in red. If I was in the states right now, I'd so be buying it!

Anyway, this year I set off to make a slightly more upbeat album, as the first one seemed a bit grim. I mixed in some good John Waters style classics, with a generous helping of nerd cheese. Still not so sure I succeeded with making a less depressing album... *sigh*. I tried.

So this is my gift to you: two christmas albums. The first I actually created a few years back and is (I will make it so!) becoming a new "classic". The second, well, it's brand spanking new!

You can play the xmix tape on Spotify if you're in the UK or Grooveshark (one playlist/two albums) wherever you are, but I suggest you download the complete albums here, especially since the Grooveshark playlist is missing a few songs:(

Happy Christmas and don't let the Krampus get you!

Download the xmix tapes

Listen on Spotify with these links:

Fuckin' up my xmas v.1

Created by Megan Aileen Williams (maewills) on Spotify

Fuckin up my xmas v.2

Created by Megan Aileen Williams (maewills) on Spotify

OR....

xmix tape by maewills on Grooveshark

Tracks on v.1
1. Good King Wenceslas - Beatles

2. Jingle Bells - Jingle Cats

3. Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) - The Ramones

4. Fuck Christmas - Fear

5. A Christmas Dirge - Nellie McKay

6. Christmas in Prison - Weeping Willows

7. The Little Drummer Boy - Johnny Cash

8. Christmas in Fallujah - Cass Dillon

9. O' Holy Night - Tiny Tim

10. Get Behind Me, Santa! - Sufjan Stevens

11. Pedofilia Santa - Ratos De Porão

12. Last Christmas - Wham!

13. Winter Wonderland - Radiohead

14. Father Christmas - The Kinks

15. Christmas in Hollis - Run D.M.C.

16. Fairytale Of New York - The Pogues

17. Happy Christmas (War is Over) - John Lennon

18. Fuckin' Up My Christmas - MC Chris

Tracks on v.2

1. Silent Night - Richard Cheese

2. Christmas Time Is Coming - Stormy Weather

3. Another Rock And Roll Christmas - Gary Glitter

4. Sleigh Ride - Star Wars Christmas Album

5. I Was Born on Christmas Day - Saint Etienne

6. Pretty Paper - Roy Orbison

7. It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas - Pet Shop Boys

8. Fat Daddy - Fat Daddy

9. Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas) - The Decemberists

10. Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis - Tom Waits

11. Hard Candy Christmas - Dolly Parton

12. Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) - The Darkness

13. Baby, It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin

14. The Mistletoe and Me – Isaac Hayes

15. December Will Be Magic Again - Kate Bush

16. Another Lonely Christmas - Prince & The Revolution

17. Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses

18. Christmas Tree (Feat. Space Cowboy) - Lady Gaga

19. No Presents For Christmas - King Diamond
20. I Wish You A Merry Christmas - Big Dee Irwin And Little Eva

Twitterature & Who(m) to Follow: Top 5 up and coming twit-lit accounts

2011-08-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

After the success of popular twitter accounts like @shitmydadsays, @CobraCommander, and numerous fake celebrity accounts the medium has proved to be a great platform for representing and developing characters, not in the “140 character sense,” - but in the “ depicting a person in a narrative or dramatic” sense. A new form of story-telling is being developed whereby the plot can be revealed in real-time and the characters can respond to real events. I recommend following these five twitter accounts that are experimenting with this new narrative.

1. Dennis D. Bagley @SullivanBristol, London
Just a brilliant, young advertising executive working at Sullivan Bristol...in the 80's. I know how to get ahead in advertising.

Quote: “I've had an octopus squatting on my brain for a fortnight worrying myself sick about boils.”

Background: The 1989 movie How to Get Ahead in Advertising directed by Bruce Robinson is the story of a young ad exec who, struggling within the decade of corporate greed and consumerism, spirals downward in this dark and surreal comedy that is remarkably as poignant today as it was over 20 years ago.

2. William Kidd @William_Kidd, Museum of London Docklands
Captain William Kidd 1645-1701(c)Art Archive The most infamous pirate to be executed in London, featuring in Pirates: The Captain Kidd Story Opens 20 May 2011.

Quote: “I am arrested! Ye Lord Bellomont has seized upon my French passes with my cargo and declares me a rascal and pirate!”

Background: A major exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands, reveals London’s links with piracy dating back to the 17th century, including the capital’s gruesome history as a place of execution for pirates. The starring character of this exhibit Captain William Kidd, shares insights gained from his journals and logs. This may not end well.

3. Bite-Sized Dracula @DraculaBites, New York, London, Transylvania
Follow the characters from Bram Stoker's Dracula in real time. (@JHarkerEsq, @RMRenfield etc.).Copyright © Michael Gordon, 2011. http://postdracula.wordpress.com/

Quote: JackSewardMD “Drugged @RMRenfield. Reading his notebook. His madness is unlike any I've seen. If only I could let it run its course. Who knows...”

Background: Bram Stoker’s Dracula told through several twitter accounts tweeting the events of the novel in this modernized, semi-humorous take classic horror novel.

4. Superman /Clark Kent @JerkSuperman, Everywhere
Last son of Krypton, Man of Steel, Earth's greatest hero, all round good guy. Jerk. Want to make a booking? Contact my agent: DeathStarPR@gmail.com

Quote: “I'm not saying it isn't a good invention Bruce, I'm just wondering what happens when they use the Bat Signal in the daytime?”

Background: the first and best comic book superhero (as superman would say), may have developed an unhealthy belief that everyone else lacks the capacity to successfully perform one or more tasks. Or as Beyonce would say “He's got a big ego, such a huge ego.”

Looking at some of these vintage superman covers, you can see why.

5. Laura Ingalls Wilder @HalfPintIngalls, the prairie
I was born in 1867 in a log cabin in the Big Woods of Wisconsin.

Quote: “SO STOP DARN HOT OUT STOP STOP TELEGRAPHSTOP WIRES AR E MELT MELTING STOP ALSO CATTLE EXPLO DING EXCLAMATION POINT STOP SOTP STOP”

Background: Laura Ingalls Wilder, the American author who wrote the a series of children's books Little House on the Prairie. Step into the world these books about an 1880s pioneer family through this twitter account, a tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and her hilarious butter-churning obsession.

So, Twitter can be a great playground for telling stories, however grammatically challenged these stories may be. You may have noticed on your Twitter page an option reading “Who to follow", a grammatical oversight made by the Twitter Team or perhaps, they did this on purpose to “de-posh-ify”, but no matter. To ease any grammatical angst caused by this, I’ve installed a Chrome extension that corrects Twitter’s "Who to follow" to "Whom to follow". Ahhh, that’s better.

So I hope you like the twitterature accounts and the Chrome extension. I’ve enjoyed having diverse accounts to follow that tweet of things less mundane and more much more fantastical than, well, I do. I’m looking forward too more accounts like these. I’d love to see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with accounts! Just how long could the question game last on twitter?

Oh, and don't forget to follow my mundane tweets at @maewills.

A Scout's Honour

2011-06-08T05:02:00.001-07:00

What do they call it nowadays? Glamping? Summer always reminds me of, well, summer camp. I wanted to put together some looks that are reminiscent of the brownie and girl scout days of my past. But of course, i have a nerd twist. There's a new wave of nerd merit badges making their way around. And check out the swiss army usb stick!

A Scout's Honour by Megan Aileen Williams featuring vintage tops

Nerd Merit Badges - 03: Homonyms
nerdmeritbadges.com

Nerd Merit Badges - "Bought This Bitcoins Badge With Bitcoins" Badge
nerdmeritbadges.com

Swiss Army Knives get HiTech » Coolest Gadgets
coolest-gadgets.comwww.miniluv.in/scout-honour.html

Censored on Pinterest: Is Kate Moss's Nipple Really Inappropriate?

2011-05-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I feel like a bit of a rabble rouser right now, but I am pretty shocked by the reaction I got to posting an image on Pinterest.

Let me just make clear that I really love this site and love having a place to gather all my fave photos and images. After posting this Agent Provocateur ad featuring Kate Moss (originally posted in color) I received an email stating: "Sorry. We had to delete one of your Pins on Pinterest". So it was, I was censored. I thought surely this must be a mistake. I know I've seen similar content on the site. So, I posted it again. The comments to the posting were varied, from "stop it" to "keep it up". And then, once again, the pin was deleted.

This time the email read:

Please refrain from pinning images containing nudity. We really don't like the idea of censorship, but we're a very small team handling already more than 20 million pins, with roughly another million being pinned each week.

Obviously the pin we deleted earlier with Kate Moss was not "pornographic," but until we can put a filtering system in place, we have to enforce a blanket policy and it is part of our user agreement until further notice."

Okay, so my post did not pass their filtering. I get that they are a young company and they don't want to ruffle any feathers, but, if this is really a place where I can curate and showcase the things that I love, I don't see why I cannot do just that. It's not like I posted lemonparty.

So where do you draw the line? Does the old adage "If it's in black and white, it's not porn" apply here? I can't help think of Jello Biafra's Talk on Censorship on the 1987 album No More Cocoons.

This is the problem when you start trying to shut people up, you open this pandoras box where something is innocent on the surface….as a few uptight washington senators wives then gives Jimmy Swaggart front page respectability when he says all rock music is pornography.

censored on pinterest

Doctor Who's Amy Pond "Mucha Style"

2011-01-22T01:31:00.000-08:00

The Art Nouveau styling of Alphonse Mucha, a Czech painter and decorative artist who hit Paris' art scene in 1895 has been widely reproduced. He brought forward his unique paintings, illustrations, advertisements, and designs during the height of Impressionism and the beginnings of the Symbolists and Decadents.

Doctor Who's Amy Pond may have already inspired Vincent Van Gough in the 10th episode of Season 5, but now she 's inspired this Mucha style TARDIS illustration. The Amy Pond illustration is the work of fantastic artist Bill Mudron, who has created numerous fan art pieces devoted to some gloriously geeky subject matters including Firefly, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Mega Man and Neil Gaiman's creations. His "info-tainment" comic about the videogame industry, "Nintendo History System: Prologue 1889-1970" is to be published in 2011/2012 and it looks to be another great mash-up.

If you want to check out what you might look like "Mucha style" try transform yourself. Upload a picture of yourself to see what you'd look like a different age, sex or ethinicity. I had the most fun with the art and animal transformations. Here's me "Mucha style."

Star Wars Holiday Music: Merry Wookiee Christmas

2010-12-06T17:05:00.000-08:00

In that brief moment in time, beginning with the release of Star Wars in 1977 and ending early 1981, the crackdown on quality control and copyrighting on Star Wars stuff, shall we say, sporadic. Probably spurred on my the dismal, yet still official, Star Wars Holiday Special, Lucas began to have a tighter rein on products using the Star Wars name and images.

But in that golden era before quality control, some pretty amazing stuff was actually produced. One of my favorites, featuring the vocal appearances of beloved character C-3P0 performed by Anthony Daniels in the 1980 Star Wars Christmas Album "Christmas In The Stars"was produced by space disco king Meco. Not only that, but Bon Jovi's first professional recording appears on this album. He sang lead vocals on the song "R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas." This album remained only available on vinyl until it was released on CD in 1996 with the restored cover art by Ralph McQuarrie. Similarly, Meco's Star Wars Party had a brief re-release, printed in 2005 on CD.

In 1980's 100 Hot Billboard Chart, "What Can You Get A Wookiee for Christmas" hit #69. You can hear it in my vimeo clip below. The most endearing song on the album, however, I find to be a version of "Sleigh Ride" where C-3P0 teaches R2-D2 how to sing!
What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas
(When He Already Owns a Comb?) from the 1980 Star Wars Christmas Album "Christmas In The Stars."

Parrots di San Marco

2010-11-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

These Diesel ads incorporate brightly colored parrots in a playful take on the Venetian piazza pigeons in St. Mark's Square. I love the twist on a familiar scene.http://www.miniluv.in/2010/11/parrots-di-san-marco.html

The Return of theThin White Duke... in Space

2010-10-27T23:37:00.000-07:00

Just when I felt like I would be able to reduce my physical music collection to a space-saving all digital format, David Bowie comes out with an enticing new 3-CD Special Edition and 5-CD, DVD and heavyweight vinyl Deluxe Edition of his hugely influential 1976’s album, Station To Station.

The press release for the album gives a great history of the album: “The return of The Thin White Duke…" So begins David Bowie’s 10th studio album. In part influenced by his role in Nicolas Roeg’s film The Man Who Fell To Earth, ever the innovator, Bowie became the character The Thin White Duke; a composite, part his character from the film, alien Thomas Jerome Newton, part Buster Keaton and part European cabaret artist. Read more.

As Bret and Jermaine would say: "I'm drawn in by its groovitational, groovitational pull..."

A line from The Bowie in Space song. Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clemens of spoof the “Space Oddity” phase of David Bowie’s career in their show Flight of the Conchords. As a lifelong Bowie fan I loved the homage!

Choreographed Text

2010-10-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

Having gone on a movie stint, needing to see both Machete & Resident Evil:Afterlife in one week. During this movie jaunt, I saw the various Buried movie posters, more than once. I found the look very reminiscent of the Psycho opening credits. I'm not sure if I want to see the movie, but the Buried poster in particular got me on a Saul Bass kick.

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences. Amongst his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm and the disjointed text that raced together and was pulled apart for Psycho.

Saul Bass was one of the first to heavily employ kinetic typography (or maoving text) making him a revered graphic designer. Using animated text allowed Bass to bring a life to once static words and essentially choreograph his title sequences.

Great examples of his work are the iconic title sequences of Psycho where the disjointed text raced together and apart, the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm and the more light-hearted It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

This is what it would probably look like if Star Wars was filmed in the 1960's and Saul Bass did the opening title sequence...

Kidding aside, Star Wars did have a major contribution to title sequences. It's what happens if you have a very large amount of text to introduce in the beginning of a film...the Star Wars "crawl" (also known as a roll-up). Each film in the Star Wars series opened with a crawl of text providing the backstory to the audience. The crawl has become so strongly associated with films in fact, that it would be difficult to utilize this technique without Star Wars coming to mind.

Transform Mucha Style

2010-07-22T18:11:00.000-07:00