belated RIP for Isabella (by Geordie Greig)
Izzie Blow never did dull. She was an original who always dealt in surprises.
For 25 years I knew her, and particularly closely for the last six at Tatler.
For every meeting in my office she wore a hat, was always immaculately
made-up and wearing, more often than not, a dress more suited to a ball
than corporate life, but she was never a cliched fashionista. "Sorry, Geordie,
I forgot my knickers," she would say, knowingly. "Oh sorry," she would burst
out laughing, suddenly realising a breast had fallen out of her top.
She loved over the top. What she always did in her work was to source a
detail and turn it into art. And art was what fuelled her and what she created.
She created images in magazines as compelling as Dalí did in paint.
People would ask if she was scary. The answer was she was the friendliest,
most generous, exciting, impossible, inventive, life-enhancing wonderful woman
in fashion. Her ambition was limitless, her canvas global, her influences minor
and monumental, her contacts unpredictable. She was fabulously grand ("I have
five maharaja's daughters to shoot") and sometimes grandiose ("Do you want to
come boar-hunting in Kenya?") but she was always compelling as well as inclusive.
She was elitist and selective. But she was no snob. She loved people from anywhere
as long as they had a view and a voice. In an NHS hospital in outer London, she
shared a ward with an energised East Ender. Friendship blossomed as Isabella shared
all she had: her life, her views, her drama, her pain - and her passion for life.
Few people are ever a real diamond - Izzie Blow was.
· Isabella Blow, fashion journalist, born November 19 1958; died May 7 2007
06.30.07 @ 01:37PDT
Izzie Blow never did dull. She was an original who always dealt in surprises.
For 25 years I knew her, and particularly closely for the last six at Tatler.
For every meeting in my office she wore a hat, was always immaculately
made-up and wearing, more often than not, a dress more suited to a ball
than corporate life, but she was never a cliched fashionista. "Sorry, Geordie,
I forgot my knickers," she would say, knowingly. "Oh sorry," she would burst
out laughing, suddenly realising a breast had fallen out of her top.
She loved over the top. What she always did in her work was to source a
detail and turn it into art. And art was what fuelled her and what she created.
She created images in magazines as compelling as Dalí did in paint.
People would ask if she was scary. The answer was she was the friendliest,
most generous, exciting, impossible, inventive, life-enhancing wonderful woman
in fashion. Her ambition was limitless, her canvas global, her influences minor
and monumental, her contacts unpredictable. She was fabulously grand ("I have
five maharaja's daughters to shoot") and sometimes grandiose ("Do you want to
come boar-hunting in Kenya?") but she was always compelling as well as inclusive.
She was elitist and selective. But she was no snob. She loved people from anywhere
as long as they had a view and a voice. In an NHS hospital in outer London, she
shared a ward with an energised East Ender. Friendship blossomed as Isabella shared
all she had: her life, her views, her drama, her pain - and her passion for life.
Few people are ever a real diamond - Izzie Blow was.
· Isabella Blow, fashion journalist, born November 19 1958; died May 7 2007
06.30.07 @ 01:37PDT
"HAUD MUTO FACTUM"
(nothing hapens by being mute)
06.30.07 @ 00:36PDT Wednesday, June 27th
the cities
LONDON - Most of humanity will be living in cities by next year,
raising the threat of increased poverty and religious extremism
unless the needs of growing urban populations are met, the U.N.
said Wednesday.
Some 3.3 billion people will live in cities by 2008, a report by the U.N.
population agency report said. By 2030, the number of city dwellers
is expected to climb to 5 billion.
"In 2008, half of the world's population will be in urban areas, and we
are not ready for them," said U.N. Population Fund Executive Director
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.
A revival in religious interest has been a surprising characteristic of rapid
urbanization, according to the report.
Urbanization is often associated with a shift toward secular values. But
the growth of new religious movements — such as radical Islam in the
Middle East, Pentecostal Christianity in Latin America and the cult of
Shivaji in India — has been a primarily urban phenomena, the report said.
When cities fail to meet the needs of growing populations, religious beliefs
tend to become extreme, said Obaid.
"Extremism is often a reaction to rapid and sudden change or to a feeling
of exclusion and injustice, and the cities can be a basis for that if they
are not well managed," Obaid said.
Smaller cities may be more flexible in expanding their boundaries and adapting
their policies, but they also have fewer resources and smaller governments
than major cities accustomed to large migrant populations.
The population fund found that policy initiatives in smaller cities often aim to
keep the poor out by limiting migration and cutting lower-income housing.
"Cities see poor people as a burden," Obaid said. "
They should be seen as an asset."
"Investing in them in terms of shelter, education and so on would mean you
have a good economic force that can work and create even further economic
growth coming from cities," Obaid said.
06.27.07 @ 00:16PDT Tuesday, June 26th
Homo Neanderthalensis
The inferior man's reasons for hating knowledge are not hard to discern.
He hates it because it is complex - because it puts an unbearable
burden upon his meagre capacity for taking in ideas. Thus his search
is always for short cuts. All superstitions are such short cuts.
Their aim is to make the unintelligible simple, and even obvious....
Every man prefers what he can understand to what puzzles and
dismays him.
- HL Mencken, 1925 -
06.26.07 @ 00:06PDT Sunday, June 24th
atwater
06.24.07 @ 00:39PDT Saturday, June 23rd
today
Today was interesting. I spent a few minutes in my car
this morning watching a fellow tenant here who has an
obsessive compulsive disorder. He likes to trace the outlines
of objects with his hands, and also count stuff and make
repetitive sweeping motions. He is totally absorbed in his
work and it seems very crucial to him. But then when you
walk by him, he stops and smiles and waves hello -
that really is the most delightful part.
06.23.07 @ 23:47PDT Friday, June 22nd
the universe
The universe certainly doesn't care about us,
but we have learned to care about the universe,
to invest i nit the same emotional meaning that we
invest in everything else. It is how we keep
ourselves from feeling so alone."
06.22.07 @ 00:13PDT Thursday, June 21st
Christ
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.
Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mohandas Gandhi
06.21.07 @ 01:21PDT Sunday, June 17th
yum
06.17.07 @ 11:01PDT Saturday, June 16th
Give Texas back to Mexico
Published: June 16, 2007
SAN ANTONIO, June 16 (UPI) --
Two security guards in Texas rescued a flea-bitten kitten
from an unpleasant death on the railroad tracks at the
hands of a young couple.
John Hernandez and Jacob Salinas told The San Antonio
Express-News they spotted the couple with the kitten early
Thursday. After the couple left, Hernandez and Salinas said
they found the kitten with its hind legs tied to the tracks.
"It was disgusting, really, seeing someone tie a kitten to the
tracks, just for the joy of seeing it get run over," Salinas said.
After rescuing the young calico, which appeared to be starving,
the two men caught up with the couple, who were in a car.
They said they backed off when the male half of the couple
got a gun out of the trunk.
Hernandez has given the cat a home, at least temporarily,
and is trying to fatten it up.
Police are seeking the couple, who could face animal cruelty charges,
and possibly other charges, for threatening the cat rescuers.
06.16.07 @ 12:13PDT Tuesday, June 12th
chinatown
06.12.07 @ 00:02PDT Sunday, June 10th
stay awake.
Part of the power of photography is in the
viewer’s ability to truly absorb an image and
be transformed by an act of deliberate seeing.
- M D Marsh -
06.10.07 @ 01:33PDT Saturday, June 9th
From Vietnam to Paris....
What a difference a few decades makes....
The same photographer (Nick Ut) took both of these
images. Seems that photographers can't make a living
taking meaningful images anymore....
06.09.07 @ 00:32PDT Thursday, June 7th
All American Activities
Hersheys company has sacked hundreds of their
employees and sent their jobs overseas because
it is "good for their shareholders" and the company.
The exact phrase they used refers to it as a
"global supply chain transformation".
06.07.07 @ 00:12PDT Tuesday, June 5th
Problems are...
Problems are an incentive to think harder.
06.05.07 @ 00:23PDT Sunday, June 3rd
lp
06.03.07 @ 12:20PDT