2. Beauty from Diane Di Prima. I read her Memoirs of a Beatnik years and years ago, and I’ve just ordered the whole book of Revolutionary Letters. Can’t wait. (h/t Something Changed)
3. I graduated this week! Which was great. Weird fact: Sanjeev Bhaskar is the Chancellor of Sussex University, so I was handed my certificate by Mr Kumar. I know, I was also confused.
4. This week was crazy with work, partly because we’re hiring at Otesha at the moment. As you can see though, I was awarded with joint employee of the week for my efforts (it’s very official). I was good cop
5. More brilliance from the artist Jenny Holzer that’s been going round the internetz this week.
6. One of the highest search terms that lead people to this blog is ‘lipstick’! And since I haven’t mentioned it in a while, here’s a brilliant video about wearing bright colours if you’re not used to it. I’m now obsessed with this girl.
1. I am quite a fan of this new band, Friends, partly because the name choice is hilarious and will reclaim the word from the decade-long sitcom, but mostly because the song is rahlly good.
3. I downloaded Summer Camp’s debut album, Welcome to Condale. It is brilliant, is inspired by 80s bratpack films and teenage angst, and has a song on it called Brian Krakow. WHAT COULD BE BETTER?
4. I am back in the saddle again. This morning I cycled in London for the first time in well over a year. Cycling and walking around Brighton has been a bit of a luxury this past year, so today I decided to investigate the quieter cycle paths around my new house and I reckon that I can piece together a nice long, chilled pootle to my offices. Image from weheartit.
5. Massive win this week for the No Keystone XL Pipeline campaign over in the states! The proposed pipeline would have been a huge boon to the very environmentally destructive Canadian tar sands industry. It was basically a done deal, but 3 months of incredible campaigning has resulted in Obama delaying the decision – yay! You can read more about it here.
“Yes, the Spice Girls were created to cash in on “feminism” and “girl power,” at a time when those things were popular. Yes, the “Girl Power” slogan ripped off Riot Grrrl—although, actually, the Spice Girls ripped off girl groups like Salt-N-Pepa or TLC far more than they did Pacific Northwestern indie culture. But do you know what it looks like when someone “rips off” girls being empowered? Well… it sort of looks like… girls being empowered.”
6. Great great great post – In Defense of the Spice Girls. Now I don’t feel so bad about going to see them when I was 14!
7. I am feeling a bit depressed about the fact that it looks like I’m intolerant not only to dairy, caffeine and alcohol, but also wheat. It’s hard to be a good baker when you can’t use wheat or dairy! It would be SUPER if anyone could point me to any good recipes / websites / or cookbooks that are friendly to a positively MONKish dietary requirement, and that actually taste good. Thank you!
So it’s Monday. What can I say? Sometimes Sundays just run away from me.
1. I spent much of last week plugged into the Desert Island Discs archive while I worked. LOVE IT. You learn some incredibly random things about people, such as Joe Simpson, mountaineer, being really into trance music.
2. Quick yay for the funding news! Superest thing of the week. image via weheartit
3. Read some brill books recently – Bossypants by Tina Fey, and The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. Do it.
4. Saw lots of friends and family this week. Good food and good chats.
5. I went to the Slutwalk London rally on Saturday and it was AMAZING. I could hear the march coming before I could see them flood into Trafalgar Square, thousands of women singing “There will be a revolution when we fight for women’s rights” to the tune of When the Saints Go Marching In! Earlier today my friend Tamsin Omond put into words exactly how I felt, “i had my reservations about slutwalk. they were blown sky high by the massively inspiring, inclusive and complete day that it was. from women to trans to gay men to immigrants to sex workers to black women – all were invited to stand together fierce against this fear and the victim-blaming that surrounds this threat.” Great blog post here as well that deals with some of Slutwalk’s critics.
6. Living with Chronic Bitchface. Hilarious. I FEEL YOU Kris Atomic.
7. UN climate negotiations are happening right now in Bonn. Follow the super Adopt a Negotiator project to keep up to date on progress (or not, as the case may be).
I love this illustration by ashley g. The red banner reminds me of the Suffragette and Climate Rush sashes. I also love this girl’s massive calves – she must cycle! Let’s hear it for cankles!
1. My first term at Sussex has only one week left, and Brighton is really beginning to feel like home. If you need proof that Brighton beats London hands down (especially in the snow) just LOOK at this hilarious video filmed just 10 mins away from my house!
2. I’m quite enjoying how this picture of me I posted earlier in the week….
…looks JUST LIKE this illustration by Kris Atomic.
Now all I need is a christmas tree.
3. In September, I was lucky enough to be invited to be a “Green Dragon” at the Wipe Out Waste Awards, where I got to judge the efforts of lots of students from across the UK in making their schools more green. If you like the sound of cute kids and me trying to be like Duncan Bannatyne et al, check out the video!
5. There are some beautiful pictures here of protests that have happened all over the world over the past month. I thought the shot above was incredible – she is an activist from the Iranian women’s rights organization “Femen”, taking part in a rally to support Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.
6. Check out the UCL Occupation showing off their moves! Love it. How do they still look so pretty? That’s what I want to know.
7. I had an amazing cooking experience this week. It was about a foot of snow and I didn’t want to try and walk to the shop to get food, so I had reconciled myself to a dinner of cereal. But, lo! A thought struck me, I rifled through my cupboards and I ended up making a pea, prawn and lemon risotto! I know this is not unusual in any way for a lot of people, but reader, it is rare that I cook anything without a recipe and it is rare that my cupboards are full. It was the best risotto I ever made as well! In celebration, here are some of my fave cooking blogs:
I am very excited to be featuring one of my oldest friends as Girl Swoon #11. She is something of a multi-tasking demon, with an enviable job in publishing and always a million creative projects on the side. She also makes a mean bottle of sloe gin. Take it away Char…
I work for a literary agency, which I really enjoy. We have some great writers and it’s always exciting when one of the authors delivers a big manuscript, or if we discover someone new. I also run a little business called Sweet View which sells printed drawings of London by my dear boyfriend Jack Noel. There is going to be one for each of the 12 inner London boroughs and at the moment we have 6 on sale. We wanted to make something fun and affordable that people could decorate their homes with, and which tap into a love of one’s local area. In essence though, Jack is the creative genius and I’m the admin loser, although I like to call myself sales and marketing executive.
2) Does being a woman affect your work in any way?
Well like everybody I suppose I’m carrying the weight of a lifetime of social conditioning around with me. But other than THAT… no not really.
3) Are you a feminist?
Yes, I am a feminist. Social events where the boys go shooting and the girls meet them for lunch make me feel a bit ill. But I strongly feel that many girls are just as to blame as boys for the sexism that exists in our society. So many girls have the attitude that they can’t do certain things, and that drives me crazy. Then again I feel sorry for boys who are brought up not to express emotion or be creative and I think that can be just as life-ruining as the kind of sexism girls experience.
4) What are your future plans?
To build Sweet View and to keep progressing in the publishing industry. I have many second tier plans though: whittling an entire set of chess pieces for example.
5) Tell us one cool thing we don’t know already:
I’ve given up washing my hair and I’m writing a blog about it. It’s not cool, in fact it’s really disgusting but I just want to see if I can give up shampoo and still have nice hair. I’m three weeks in and the back of my head is a dripping mass of vile-ness. I’m getting anxious about resting my head against the sofa when I watch TV for fear of making a mark.
1. Uh, the new Harry Potter film is brilliant. Ignore the reviews, I cried my eyes out (which is a good thing in my book).
2. It was my birthday this week! I am now 27. I really like this idea of making a list of 27 things to do before 28, so blog on that will come soooon.
3. Anna gave me a fantastic-looking book about vintage glamour, feminism and history. As Cheryl Cole would say, that is right up my street (or, that is reet oop mah street).
4. Toast music. Pretty super.
5. I love these illustrations by Evan B Harris. Inspiration for new tattoos…?
6. I saw Four Tet at Coalition in Brighton. I don’t usually go for electronic stuff but this was quite entrancing.
7. I hosted a Green Jobs roundtable on Friday, for those interested in creating green employment opportunities for young people in East London. It went pretty well! More info to come on that next week!
I am coveting all these illustrations by pop pop portraits. Very cute and fashion-y, and I love it when people make up little stories to go with their art work.
Meet Lily. She is studying to become a chocolatier at Valrhona: École du Grand Chocolat in France. She misses her home dearly but she is also having the time of her life. Lily has met a lovely french boy, Alex. They eat cheese pastries and macarons together and invent new albeit somewhat weird chocolate flavours.
Naomi is on her way to see her boyfriend James. They've been together for around three months and she thinks he's pretty special. They've been on approximately 32 dates, each one fun and exciting - her favourite moment being the late night supper he made for her after they went to the She & Him gig last month. I think it's safe to say Naomi is completely smitten.
Isabel is on her way home from a trip to Barnes and Noble. She's been having one of those lazy days where you sleep in til 10, you don't have any appointments, chores or errands and you spend all your time looking through fashion magazines and eating cake. I love those days.
Stephanie's favourite season is Fall. She's already played dress-ups planned her outfit accordingly. She also imagines listening to the rustle of the leaves beneath her feet whilst she's walking through the park.
