february 2018 finds is quite long for the shortest month of the year.
1.i discovered manises by mistake. it’s a great little town only 15 minutes away by subway from my apartment. i love the use of its famous ceramics all over the facades. i plan to go back during the fallas, in march. but also for a ceramics celebration, in july.
2. i rarely talk about beauty stuff but i have recently bought something i like. it’s the precision brow pencil by nyx. try it in case you’re looking for a rather subtle pencil for your brows.
3. i also bought a face roller. before i started using it, i researched face rolling. check this video out if you happen to be interested. i bought my tool in body shop, but i can’t find any video featuring that one.
4. although he is from ghent, i first came across the work of jan fabre in japan. on the 21st century museum of contemporary art in kanazawa, his man measuring the clouds is placed on the roof of the circular building somewhere.
below, you have a video of a copy of the same sculpture being placed on the roof smak, in ghent, back in 1998.
5. i read two book by by danielle steel this month: big girl and happy birthday. both were easy to read and i imagine easy to forget too. don’t bother.
6. i saw 50 shades of grey: freed. he’s bland, she’s bland, they don’t look hot or like they want to have sex. the only discernible goal of the film seems to be to advertise wealth. there are helicopters, super cars, private jets, exclusive destinations, estates, clothes, diamonds.
i have a saying: a simpleton’s paradise is all superlatives. these 2h lost are the embodiment of that.
7. i binged on the newly revived queer eye. very much fun! definitely recommended!
8. ugly delicious is david chang’s new netflix show. it has 8 episodes, each one hour long. chang is doing as much as he can but something just doesn’t add up. the show is good, but not great. maybe the second season will get better. but i know i’ll watch it anyway, i admit.
9. i watched two episodes of my next guest. i do not see why and how david letterman had such a long career. he seems eye-wateringly dull. and he has this habit of cutting in that i hate. but his guests are top notch. obama and clooney were amazing and i’m sure these interviews will only further cement their reputations. there are several episodes out (tina fey, jay-z, etc.). i’ll probably check them out as soon as i manage to forget that letterman makes me uncomfortable.
10. the end of the fucking world is a tv show based on a comic. it’s not good. it’s that kind of story that needs to rely on buzz words and lame shock value. and that’s because there is not much else to it. the story is forced and the characters are meant to seem weird. my opinion is that you should not waste your time with this. but there’s a world out there saying otherwise…
at least the 50s music is chosen and used well.
11. kedi is a wonderful documentary about the cats of istanbul. the direction is great, the photography is great, the music, everything is great. you’d think the lack of narrative is frustrating but they manage to make it work.
it’s about how stray cats share the city with people. it’s about fish stealing, open vet tabs, kittens and a lot of mutual understanding. i loved it!
word of warning: we had to buy it to see it. but it was definitely and totally worth it!
12. i like rene redzepi. he’s just opened the new noma and i’ve been watching. click here to read about it!
13. i have been afraid to take up japanese and korean for a long while. but recently, i learned how to read and write the hangul alphabet. now i need to practice to be able to master it!
14. i got back to my french comics loop. this month, i went through the following.
- heartbreak valley by simon roussin. i liked the monochromatic and minimalist drawings. but i couldn’t follow the story. i actually gave it up on grounds that life is too short.
- geante by fanny michaelis. quite interesting, but not too much so.
- my favourite this month was la theorie de la cortonsion by margaux motin. cute modern style of drawing depicting the high and lows of a young mother’s life.
15. i-d video content has been constantly good. check out this short documentary about life behind the great firewall.
16. watch this interview with jay-z. the title is click bait! but what he’s saying is interesting.
17. i’m glad to see that brett anderson is publishing a memoir called coal black mornings. i’m looking forward to reading it.
until then, find out more by clicking here, here and here. for more about the whole drama between brett and justine and damon, click here.
18. romania also has many such kids. but no kids in the world should have to live like this.
19. vpro is a channel that makes documentaries. i liked this one. it’s about how amsterdam deals with its airbnb problem.
and you? how was your february?
photo credits: little aesthetcopyright holders
video credits: copyright holders
