I like asking questions so i decided to get a formspring: http://www.formspring.me/lillianlow ask me anything you want :)
Also i did my nails yesterday, they're nothign special but i thought i would share: i'm wearing Barry M nail paint in Tangerine, which is a bright shimmery orange, this is 3 coats with a top coat. Very pretty and so far hasn't chipped, even with digby gentle chomping on my fingers. You can probably see the reason i haven't shown my nails before. I have a nervous habit of biting off my cuticles and the skin around my fingers. It's better now than it has been in years, but occaisionally i still do it and so i've got lots of little wounds around the nail bed.
This was my look for the Devant gig. The photo is pretty terrible (i swear there is no good lighting in my house!) and i looked a lot more vibrant and bright in real life.
I was wearing: Barry M lip laquer crayon in no. 4 Party pink (review and swatches of these coming soon) Illamasqua blush in Nymph and Hi fi cosmetics Glam Rock eye glitx in Electric and my regular tinted moisturiser, powder and mascara.
And here is a really awful shot of my outfit. This was the first time i wore it and it's so pretty i wanted to show it. And yes, i totally need to wear a girdle under this too. Sigh.
So this is going to be a new weekly thing of mine, muso mondays, where i shall bore you with ludicrous ravings about my favourite bands/songs/singers and so on. Usually this will come on a monday (simply because of the alliteration) but i was busy earlier this week, so today will have to suffice for the first one. I like the idea of setting certain blog themes to days of the week because it will give me some sort of structure so if i'm being lazy it will hopefully make me blog out of an obligation to myself :P Anyway just so you know these are just my opinions, i certainly don't have the worlds coolest taste in music and i don't particularly know much about it (the compulsive music classes i had until age 15 didn't take a hold in my brain) i just know what i like and why i like it. here's a very generalised list of musical genres i like: 70s british punk rock, old school hip-hop and rap, brit pop, bubblegum pop, glam rock and most stuff from the 80s. I tend to dislike modern pop, r n b, classical, reggae and christian rock.
So, lets get going on the first post!
On thursday i got to see my second favourite band in the whole world*, David Devant and his Spirit Wife. By some bizarre series of events i have become friends with 2 members of the band, Foz? and Mikey (this would be shameless namedropping, but i can't imagine anyone reading this blog has ever heard of them. I could be wrong, but i doubt it) which has led to some really odd adventures.
Anyway, how best to describe David Devant? Hmm i guess on the surface they'd be classed as an 'indie-pop' band, if that can exist, or possibly just Brit-pop seeing as they were most prolific around the big Brit-pop boom, but they are so much more than that.
The band have been going since the early 90s (i think, i can't be bothered to do anything crazy like actually checking my facts) and while they never hit 'the big time' they did get a large and loyal following and very nearly broke into the charts after the success of their first album. They play rarely now, twice a year at the most, but these gigs are always amazing and bring out all of us loyal fans, the dangerously devoted.
Originally they were sort of a 'novelty act', not in a crappy kids-entertainer or joke-song sort of way, but in that they actually had a novel, original idea. They were sort of a 'concept band' and had amazing stageshows, involving 2 men with props, or 'spectral roadies' as they were called who would perform magic tricks or other stunts, the most famous being during the song 'ginger' when one would grate carrots onto the head of the other to literally become a 'carrot top'. The band were made up of 'The Colonel', 'Professor Rimschott', 'The Vessel' and 'Foz?'. The idea was that David Devant (a victorian english magician) would possess 'Vessel' (or Mikey, the main singer) and... well i've never been really sure how the others in the band or the stage antics fitted into this concept, i guess it's not very neat, it's just all an expression of individuality, art and magic that culminates together. Sadly these on-stage shenanigans were mostly dropped by the second album, though a more perfomative side is sneaking back in to the more recent shows, and i've heard rumours of something big coming soon.
In this video you can see some of the old tricks the Spectral Roadies would get up to. Also anyone as nerdy and into films as me may recognise the suit, once worn by Malcolm McDowell in O Lucky Man!:
Onto the music itself. Well, this is the part i'm going to have the most trouble with, describing music is incredibly difficult to me. It's sort of Beatles-ish, sort of Bowie-ish, poppy and fun, lots of keyboards, guitars and good drumming. The lyrics (ah, now i can go on about lyrics for ever and ever) are just fabulous. While they tend to keep to sort of regular themes of songs, love, life, the human condition etc. the actual words and spirit of the songs is a lot more playful. Recurring themes would be mis-rhymes ('Living in London don't seem that appealing, maybe your lover is living in Deptford', 'And my Uncle says i'm Barmy cause i don't pack my bags and join the Navy'), the supernatural and hopeless love. Early songs tended to revolve as lot more around stories about David Devant and the aformentioned wife.
One of my favourite tracks is 'I Think About You', a song which is purely about lust, lust of such overwhelming power that you're left unable to think of anything else at all. It also has some great references to masturbation (something that often occurs in my favourite songs. I wonder what that says about me O:) and even manages to make a nob joke out of a medal 'Oooh ahh in the garden with my famous purple heart on', 'When i think about you i do something i am not supposed to!', excellent.
Another song of note would be 'I'm not even going to try', the words of this speak deeply to my heart: 'I hope tha you understand what it means to me just to live a lovely life that is prospect free. Cause i'm not even going to try'
There most famous track would be 'Ginger', which Mikey said was meant to be a sort of war cry for outsiders (a bit like Mis-shapes by Pulp or Trash by Suede, those songs were big at the time) but using red hair as an analogy for an innate 'difference'
So in short i think they're an amazing band. I can't exactly say in words just why i love them so much, they just have a sort of magic around them and i guess that I, like Madame Devant am drawn in to these miraculous showmen. They certainly won't be for everyone, but if you like witty lyrics, men old enough to know better prancing around stage in glittery costumes and 3D glasses and indie-pop-art-brit-rock then give them a try :)
Also they have a song about Cluedo.
*although this is liable to change at any time, but number one is always the amazing, unimitatable, unforgettable Sparks. I'm sure i will bore you about them for many muso mondays to come..
So you may have noticed i haven't been posting as much as usual (or maybe you haven't noticed seeing as i am certainly not the most prolific of bloggers!) Anyway the reason for behind my short absent is this: :D If you've been a follower of my blog for awhile you may remember that a few months before christmas i rescued a Daschund but was unable to keep him as he kept attacking me :( I still miss him and really hope he found a nice home and didn't have any mental problems as we feared. Anyway yesterday i went with my Mummy up to Kent and we picked up this guy. He's a strange case, not quite as simple as buying a puppy (he's 5 months old, so still a puppy but not really young) but not a rescue either. He is the sweetest thing, gentle and playful and already very attached to me. I love him <3 So anyway i've been getting the house ready for him all week. This involved tidying my bedroom, which is a mammoth task! I may show photos of it now as i'm so proud it's clean :P I've got a lot half written posts on the go, so don't worry, there will be lots of reviews, hauls, giveaways and other things coming up shortly :)
Third and final entry for the birthmonth contest. This time the look is based on my birthstone, Garnet. I wanted to just do quite a basic look, a glamourous, vintage inspired look in metallic red shades.
Wearing: face: NYX liquid highlighter Avon Magix tinted face perfecter in fair ELF complexion perfection Mac blush in Frankly Scarlet
Eyes: Sleek Sunset Pallette black mascara mac brow pencil thing in fling
Lips Barry M lip laquer crayon in no. 1
I really like when people have contests, it always gives me great inspiration for more interesting makeup than my 'day to day' looks, or at least makes me get off my arse and do a lot of looks!
I got a tiny sample of The Body Shops seaweed facial wash. There's probably enough for 2 uses and i will use it all up and update if i change my mind, but at the moment i am not at all pleased with it. It's made my skin feel tighter and dryer! Ugh.
This time i based my look around one of my birth months flowers, and one of my personal favourites, snowdrops.
It's sort of an updated version of my mistletoe and wine look from before christmas.
You totally can't tell, because i couldn't get a good picture, but on my lips, over the baby pink pencil, the gloss has an amazing green reflect. Boo.
I am wearing:
face: NYX liquid foundation in LM01 Pale Avon loose powder Illamasqua powder blusher in Nymph
Eyes: white pencil eyeliner (on waterline and eyebrows) ELF eye transformer (the green section) as a higlight Hi Fi eyeshadow in Grinch all over lid Barry M dazzle dust in the crease white liquid eyeliner black mascara
Lips: Baby Pink Barry M lip pencil Spell Hologlow gloss in Absinthe
Pretty simple, i wanted to try out a new product i got in the mail this morning (review coming soon)
Just black mascara, Barry M lipstick in punky pink and hi fi cosmetics glam rock eye glitz in pyrotechnic.
And as you can see, i bleached my eyebrows! I hated it at first, now i rather like it. It's fun anyway, and temporary and i can pencil them in any colour i want :) When i decide to go back to normal it's gonna look really really odd :P
Jellyminx Thinks has been holding a contest for people to do a makeup look based on their birthmonth (http://jellyminxthinks.blogspot.com/2010/01/contest-time-contest-number-2.html check out some of the entries, they're really wonderful). I was born in january.
My first look is based around the fact that one day in January (i think its around the 16th) has been judged, somehow, to be the most depressing day of the year. I wanted to make a look based upon this gloominess, i wanted to look a bit gothy and also a bit ill. You can see for yourself that i really didn't execute this too well.
It's obviously not a fashion look and i very much doubt anyway will want to copy the look, but heres what i did anyway (havent bothered to list any of the actual products, if anyone does want to know what something is just ask :)) : I used my regular foundation all over, then set it with a white translucent powder. I then contoured my cheeks, forehead and sides of nose with a grey eyeshadow (this is sadly not really visible in any of the photos). Then i used grey eyeshadow all over my lids and under my eyes, then a black greasepaint stick, And finally i blocked out my lips with mac lip erase.
So, yes it's certainly not very flattering or attractive, but i think it looks pretty miserable at least!
Thanks to Beautifully Glossy i've just discovered this amazing website. It's basically a big collection of reviews written by some really witty people as well as a forum and a place to blog too.
But the best thing about this site is that it gives you amazing incentives just for commenting or setting up a profile. You get 1 point for every comment or rating you give a blog post and more for setting up your profile or inviting other people. And you only need 50 points before you can redeem them for a prize! (50 points gives you a 'good' prize, an example of which is an Urban Decay lipstick and some sunscreen, then 150 points gets you a bigger prize and 250 gets you the biggest) I've only been a member since this morning and already i have over 70 points! It's so easy and a really great website anyway!
Can i be dead cheeky. If anyone wants to join up could you email me (queen-cry-baby@hotmail.com), then i can invite you and i get points :P Naughty me!!
