(DES)ENCANTO: LOCKSCREENS

Some Hollywood hotties – past and present – reading books.

1) Marlon Brando.

2) Benedict Cumberbatch reading Love’s Labour’s Lost.

3) Tony Perkins reading Look Homeward Angel.

4) Charlie Hunnam reading… anything.

5) Joseph Gordan-Levitt reading Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon.

6) Paul Newman reading The Garrick Year, by Margaret Drabble.

7) Gregory Peck, not surprisingly, posed with To Kill a Mockingbird.

8) Farley Granger reading The Edge of Doom, by Leo Grady. (Farley starred in the 1950 film.)

9) River Phoenix reading War and Peace.

10) James Dean reading poetry by James Whitcomb Riley.

Lana Del Rey by Steven Klein for V Magazine, September 2015.

The Signs as Female Shakespeare Characters

Aries: Katherine Minola (The Taming of the Shrew)

“If I be waspish, best beware my sting”

Taurus: Viola (Twelfth Night)

“Make me a willow cabin at your gate and call upon my soul within the house, write loyal cantons of contemnèd love, and sing them loud even in the dead of night”

Gemini: Cleopatra (Antony & Cleopatra)

“Sir, you and I have loved, but there’s not it; That you know well. Something it is I would— O, my oblivion is a very Antony, and I am all forgotten”

Cancer: Cordelia (King Lear)

“I am sure my love’s more ponderous than my tongue”

Leo: Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

“These are the forgeries of jealousy; And never, since the middle summer’s spring, met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, by paved fountain, or by rushy brook, or in the beached margent of the sea, to dance our ringlets to the whistling wind”

Virgo: Juliet Capulet (Romeo & Juliet)

“Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract tonight. It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, too like the lightning, which doth cease to be ere one can say ‘It lightens.’“ 

Libra: Portia (The Merchant of Venice)

“You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand, such as I am: though for myself alone I would not be ambitious in my wish, to wish myself much better; yet, for you I would be trebled twenty times myself; A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich”

Scorpio: Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)

“But manhood is melted into curtsies, valor into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones, too. He is now as valiant as Hercules that only tells a lie and swears it. I cannot be a man with wishing; therefore I will die a woman with grieving”

Sagittarius: Miranda (The Tempest) 

“O, brave new world, that has such people in ‘t!”

Capricorn: Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)

“The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements. Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topful of direst cruelty!”

Aquarius: Rosalind (As You Like It)

“It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues”

Pisces: Ophelia (Hamlet)

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember; and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts…There’s fennel for you, and columbines; there’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference”

Sen noci svatojánské (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) (1959) dir. Jirí Trnka “In the past, just as today, the stars were shining in the sky. It was in 1594, and the poet William Shakespeare was writing a comedy about slumber on a summer night.”

Art history books

As requested, here’s a short list of art history books that I found extremely helpful during my undergraduate degree. Most of them are just introductory but good reads nonetheless. If you need book recommendations on specific artists, art movements or genres, don’t hesitate to send me a message. 

Here we go!

1. A World History of Art by Hugh Honour & John Fleming. This book is HUGE and it’s available to purchase online in various editions - any of them is okay for an introductory reading. 

2. The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich. Although this book contains next to none female artists, it’s still a good introduction to the art world. 

3. Concepts of Modern Art edited by Nikos Stangos. Good read, covers a lot of areas. Also, I found it for £0.01 on Amazon, so not that bad. 

4. Learning to Look at Paintings by Mary Acton. Self-explanatory really. 

5. The Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari. Vasari is perhaps the first to have carried out some sort of primordial art historical research. Although he includes lots of anecdotal stories about artists, these should be read lightly and not be taken all that seriously. However, he does provide us with some invaluable information! 

6. Looking at the Overlooked (Four Essays on Still Life Painting) by Norman Bryson. Nothing is what it looks like. Basically. 

7. Art Since 1900 - Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism by Hal Foster and Rosalind Krauss. Another huge book. It’s also very heavy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

8. Classical Art: From Greece to Rome by Mary Beard and John Henderson. For statues and things like that. 

9. Ways of Seeing by John Berger. This book you guys, if you intent to buy a book, get this one. 

10. The Social History of Art, Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 by Arnold Hauser. An overview of art history by perhaps the most well-know Marxist art historian.

I am sure more will come to mind as time passes so I will make sure to update this brief list accordingly. Feel free to also add more suggestions if you have any good art history books in mind. Remember that the above are more or less introductory readings than anything else. I hope these recommendations are somewhat helpful to you!

Rabbit-Holes in Film Pt. 2 (1970′s - 2010′s)     she found herself falling down a very deep well

De Mulieribus Claris by Giovanni Boccacio.

A collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361-62. It is the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature. Boccaccio also compiled a collection of biographies of famous men, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium (On the Fates of Famous Men) at the same time of his compilation of De Mulieribus Claris.

The most under-appreciated film in history has to be The Prince of Egypt. I mean, I don’t care if you follow the religion, this a good fucking movie.

I mean, look at the love they put into the Egyptian culture and hieroglyphics: 

Everybody is actually a realistic color of where they live:

ThE MOTHERFUCKING ART THEY PUT INTO THIS MOVIE

The fucking music alone won a fucking oscar people:

The fucking cast like have you seen this line-up???:

Strong female characters:

And last but not least - THE. MOTHER. FUCKING. BEAUTIFUL. HAIR:

and best of all, even though it’s based off of a bible story, it isn’t trying to ram god down your throat. legit the whole movie is about loving yourself and others

Composers on Halloween!

disco magic 💃⭐️🍸 a playlist for a funky night out (click here to listen)

you should be dancing - bee gees (1976) | hot stuff - donna summer (1979) | sunny - boney m. (1976) | summer night city - abba (1978) | last train to london - electric light orchestra (1979) | boogie shoes - kc & the sunshine band (1975) | don’t stop ‘til you get enough - michael jackson (1979) | upside down - diana ross (1980) | da ya think i’m sexy - rod stewart (1978) | miss you - the rolling stones (1978) | i wanna be your lover - prince (1979) | one way ticket - eruption (1979) | le freak - chic (1978) | he’s the greatest dancer - sister sledge (1979) | brick house - commodores (1977) | every 1’s a winner - hot chocolate (1978) | stayin’ alive - bee gees (1977) | that’s the way (i like it) - kc & the sunshine band (1975) | boogie wonderland - earth, wind & fire (1979) | funkytown - lipps inc. (1980) | ladies night - kool & the gang (1979) | heart of glass - blondie (1978) | december, 1963 (oh what a night) - frankie valli and the four seasons (1975) | sunset driver (demo that didn’t make it on 1979s “off the wall” album but too good to pass up) - michael jackson | weekend - earth and fire (1979) | voulez-vous - abba (1979) | sorry i’m a lady - baccara (1977) | i feel love - donna summer (1977) | i’m coming out - diana ross (1980) | play that funky music - wild cherry (1976) | golden years - david bowie (1976) | night fever - bee gees (1977) | disco inferno - the trammps (1976) | i can’t stand the rain - eruption (1978) | the hustle - van mccoy (1975) | fly, robin, fly - silver convention (1975) | ma baker - boney m. (1977) | blame it on the boogie - the jacksons (1978) | september - earth, wind & fire (1978) | grease - frankie valli (1978) | get down tonight - kc & the sunshine band (1975) | gimme gimme gimme (a man after midnight) - abba (1979) | tragedy - bee gees (1979) | burn this disco out - michael jackson (1979)