jeudi 31 mai 2012

end of May



As May comes to an end, all I can think of is ballet, puppies, and Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I had my last ballet class of the spring term yesterday and I don’t go back until July, and while normally the whole month of June would have seemed like too long a wait, I will be too busy in June to notice because I am getting a puppy! I am out of my mind with anticipation. And just when I thought life couldn’t be any better, I was given a ticket to see the Bolshoi Ballet this past weekend! It was surreal—my favourite scene was, of course, the Dryads, and I was especially in love with Vladislav Lantratov, who was dancing the role of Basilio in the performance I saw.

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All I have read this month has been F. Scott Fitzgerald—at the end of April I read Zelda Fitzgerald’s Save Me The Waltz, which is what sparked my Fitzgerald obsession is now one of my very favourite books—I keep rereading passages of it, and have renewed my copy at the library several times until I can find one to buy. In May I read Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, followed by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is The Night, then I reread The Great Gatsby and loved it even more this time around, and I am just finishing reading Babylon Revisited and Other Stories, as well as skimming through more of his short stories here, my favourites of which have been Two Wrongs and The Sensible Thing.

Here are two watercolours I attempted, one of Zelda and Scottie Fitzgerald, the other of F. Scott’s gorgeous signature (I have an obsession with handwriting, and his is especially beautiful)—


One of my other obsessions is the Paris Opera Ballet—here is an adorable documentary about the Paris Opera Ballet School and les petits rats; (the playlist to which it is attached is wonderful too).

jeudi 24 mai 2012

April, May, June

my obsessions this spring;
♥ Zelda Fitzgerald’s Save Me The Waltz
♥ Impressionist paintings of Paris
♥ piano solos
♥ Marie Antoinette soundtrack
♥ green foliage, golden sun—springtime, generally (in Nabokov’s words, “apple-green light”)
♥ Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides is my quintessential inspiration for spring)
♥ natural light and all its variations, especially l’heure bleue and the golden hour (of course)
♥ Paris Opera Ballet
♥ Bolshoi Ballet
♥ Edgar Degas’ ballet paintings and sculptures, always
♥ tulips, especially pink-tipped, white, lemon-yellow, or apricot
♥ F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald
♥ J. D. Salinger
♥ the Glass family
♥ Margot Tenenbaum
♥ the Pacific Northwest
♥ Nabokov’s Lolita, specifically Part Two/Lo’s days at Beardsley
♥ Chanel Le Vernis
♥ my ballet classes and the studio they are in
♥ crisp, sudden spring breezes
♥ yellow Labrador retriever puppies (I am taking one home in June!)
♥ grey, overcast weather
♥ New York, London, and Paris
♥ Carey Mulligan (looking forward to this, and always loving An Education & Never Let Me Go)
♥ carnations and their resemblance to ballet skirts
♥ Paris rooftops and window light
♥ the Lula Issue 14 editorial,  “That Was My Veil”
♥ Moleskine watercolour notebooks, Windsor & Newton watercolours + gouache
♥ Alfred Eisenstadt’s photos of the Paris Opera Ballet dancers
♥ the reemergence of jelly sandals, one of my favourite things as a child

Boulevard Montmartre, printemps by Camille Pissarro

Degas, Dancer at the Photographers: 1875

Save Me the WaltzDear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda FitzgeraldTender Is the Night (With Author's Final Revisions)
(I read these in sequence and highly recommend it)

mercredi 23 mai 2012

mid-spring days

“I must have flowers, always, always.” – Claude Monet





Pretty pink-tipped tulips (with two white ones), and spring twilight in the backyard.