Natural Houses.

Natural Houses: The Residential Architecture of Andersson-Wise

PAP, 2010

Next time round I'm going to be a photographer for architecture books. This seems like a great job. This is after I've been an astronaut and a botanist.

Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy.

Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy by Melissa Milgrom

Houghton Mifflin, 2010

Best Gift Of The Year Award 2010 goes to this gem, received yesterday from Mister Sabin Ousey. I can't wait to read it. Here's a review of it in the New York Times. I've been talking to Sabin about my obsessive love of taxidermy for a few years now. We even looked into going to a school for taxidermy but the only one we could find was in Montana and the alumni looked like children-eaters. Not in a good way.

Nathalie Merchant.

Nathalie Merchant

Leave Your Sleep

2010

I am not a big Nathalie Merchant fan, but I read about her new album and it sounded very interesting so I asked Jimmy to get me a copy (he works at a record store). It's a lovely album with 2 cds of her singing poems. The cds come in a little book-type thing (sleepy and inarticulate I am) and the cover is gorge. See above.

LA.

Perfect image for today.

From Hedi Slimane.

Horses!

Horses have always scared me since I was little and got thrown from one. Despite my scared-ness I think they are beautiful. I found this photo on this lovely blog called Cherry Coloured. The horses are running from the volcano cloud in Iceland. It's chilly in LA today and I don't have enough clothes on. My legs are cold.

Water Lilies.

Woah.

Donald Urquhart.

I was reading an article about this fella in the Guardian today - click here for said article - and I realized a: he has a fantastical last name, b: his art makes me laugh and c: I love Aubrey Beardsley.

Contact Sheet.

Contact Sheet

Ammo, 2010

Great book all about behind-the-lens tricks and treats.

Meteors, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions.

I'm hiding under a quilt.

Nova.

So here are some of my favourite Nova covers - all from the sixties and seventies. I wish we had a magazine like Nova around now. Sharlene tells me I am to live in the present and not the past but I can reminisce right? I'm desperate to get my hands on a copy of The Gentlewoman which I think could be a good substitute but I can't find hide nor hair of one. They re-launched Nova in the UK back in the nineties - I remember it was pretty good but I may have been the only one because it folded pretty quick and that was before we all got our fashion fixes online. I've been reading about super novas lately. They are a bit mind-boggling.

George Lois.

George Lois: The Esquire Covers at Moma

Assouline, 2010

I love old magazine covers. Some of my favourites are old Nova covers from the 70s - I guess these are the male equivalents. They are genius. They sure were clever back in the day - I can't imagine cleverer than us because we are so lucky and get to drink genetically modified milk and giant hormone fed tomatoes but somehow they seem cleverer. The audiences the editors are pitching at appear smarter too. I sound like an old fart.

Margaret Kilgallen.

I got the Margaret Kilgallen book back in. It's out of print but I managed to find to find one that wasn't a million of your American dollars. It reminds me of living in SF. It's lovely.

House.

House by Yu Ogata & Ichio Ogata Ono
Idea Books

There is a man outside the store trying to fly a paper bag like a kite, while being filmed. It's not very windy in LA today so I wonder how it's going to turn out. I just heard Malcolm Mclaren died. He was a frequent customer of the restaurant I worked at when I first arrived here. He was terrifying, a little bit cruel and always surrounded by attractive Japanese people. I often wanted to ask him about Vivienne (obsessed I am), but I never plucked up the courage. I read he was suffering from horrid cancer, so I hope he's in a happier place now. Cancer blows.

Wren.

I like very much the clothing line Wren (the website's cool too). It's based in LA and the designer Melissa Coker is a local Silverlake person. Today I bought a Bonjour Tristesse t-shirt dress online. I am very happy because my bff has the above tank top and I covet it repeatedly. Maybe now the feelings of jealousy and resentment I feel when I see her wearing it will disappear.

Roy McMakin.

Roy McMakin

Rizzoli, 2010

Mr. Glenn Lawson introduced me to the work of Roy McMakin a few years ago. I love how clever and quirky it is but very quiet at the same time. Lucky for me this book just came out by Rizzoli. I could have scanned every page but this would be time-consuming and possibly illegal.

Kirsten.

Kirsten Dunst in the new issuse of V magazine. Awesomeballs.

Le Corbusier and the Maison Jaoul.

Other great chapter titles include "In Search of Authenticity: The Genesis of the Project."

"Le Corbusier on his terrace at the rue Nungesser-et-Coli apartment, Paris, holding a terracotta pitcher in the shape of a goose."

Le Corbusier & The Maison Jaoul.

Princeton Architectural Press, 2009

Le Corbusier designed 2 houses in Paris for the Jaoul family in the fifties but scholars and people who like him tend to gloss over these lovely houses. Princeton Architectural Press put out this book last year to try and rectify the situation. It has amazing photos covering all sorts; the houses, the plans, book covers L.C. designed at the time, pictures of himself and others...oh, just all sorts. Well worth a looksee.

Paper.

Paper Magazine publishes lists of cool people every year or every other year or something. Anyway, this year Autumn de Wilde and her bff Shirley Kurata are on this list. You can read about them here. I like Autumn de Wilde's photos a lot and I especially like that Kurata is wearing a vintage Geoffrey Beene dress in this photo. I HEART GEOFFREY BEENE. I also like that they have movie nights with Elijah Wood. As anyone who knows me knows, I have a predilection for little men that look like hobbits.