Vacation

Even though I've been gibbering on about Japan for ages, I've just booked a month-long trip to Thailand and Vietnam in January.  Japan is freezing after Christmas so I've taken an executive decision to get some winter sun in South East Asia instead.  

My Thailand trip will be covering old ground but Vietnam is going to be a new experience.  If anyone has any tips, let me know.  I'm flying into Hanoi and leaving from Ho Chi Minh City, and have sixteen days to spend in various places in between.  

A friend took the pictures while we were on the Thai islands in 2010.  They were taken on and around Koh Phangan, Koh Phi Phi, Ton Sai, Reilly beach, Koh Lanta and Koh Tao.

Tokyo Slo-Mode

Alex Lee's homage to his hometown manages to capture a contrapuntal, surprising and vivacious impression of Tokyo by slowing down images of a city which is generally thought of as the epitome of fast-paced.  The dream-like quality this effect achieves makes me feel like I've just rediscovered a place I've never been to.

Seeing as I'm on such a Tokyo vein at the moment the crazy-amazing effects used in this video are making me want to apparate over to the Japanese capital right now.

Korea, I think we need to talk.

Tokyo Rising

This very cool Palladium Boots documentary (trailer below) on the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake is revealing, enlightening and exciting all at once.  I'm in awe of the Japanese, from their consistently crazy pop culture to the fighting spirit they've shown after the huge tragedy of March 11th this year.

Part three is my favourite out of the entire video due to the intelligent predictions on how Japan will develop and flourish in the future, perhaps without so much of an influence from western pop culture.  It will be fascinating to see how that pans out and to see Japan appropriating their own historical culture in that creative and gloriously kitsch way they know best.

Also, how gorgeous are Trippple Nippples? I love those showgirl outfits, they remind me of the scene in Annie (which I was obsessed with as a kid: I always wanted to be adopted by a billionaire) when she goes to the cinema with Daddy Warbucks and his secretary.

I'll be cashing in my won for yen at some point next year, for sure.

Watch the entire feature at Palladium.

Image: Still from the film 

Sequinned Graffiti

I adore graffiti.  Adore it.  I'm also a huge fan of sequins, much to the disdain of my wincing fashion conscience, which makes me feel like I should stop wearing clothes because my sense of style is clearly awful.  

Unfortunately (for you) Korea has made me chubby with its (evil) yummy food (mm, delicious), so I won't be getting naked in public anytime soon.  I will be trying to quash my circus-of-horrors influenced bad clothing taste by overindulging in these sequin graffiti art installation shots by Danish artist Theresa Himmer, though.

Theresa lived in Iceland for four years and became critical of the environmental damage that was occurring in the country.  The installations are representative of the snowy cap of a mountain, the lava from a volcano, and a gushing waterfall.  The installations, made of unauthentic, unnatural materials such as sequins are representative of the denigration of these natural scenes, drawing attention to their impending loss.

I remember the Icelandic volcanic ash situation with clarity.  I was in Bali at the time with some very pleased British documentary-makers whose flight had been cancelled, leaving them with an additional 11 days of holiday.  I never really thought beyond the superficiality of the luck/ woe of holidaymakers to the chain reaction that may have caused this event - at least not until now.

I guess art really can make a personal impact.

Images: Favim and Inside Out.

Versace x H&M

I'm surprisingly a huge fan of the new Versace for H&M collection.  I think this might be the best design collaboration the high street brand has done yet.  I loved the Lanvin one but this one looks even better; the fabrics and the designs seem more luxe, more detailed and generally more OTT in an oddly wearable way.  

I guess that's Versace for you.

The print reminds me of a strapless vintage bathing suit I took to Thailand last year which - unbeknownst to me at the time - goes completely see-through on contact with water.  Cue a highly inappropriate flesh display on the predominantly Muslim island of Koh Lanta.

Yoikes!

The patterns also pleasingly remind me of Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince's Summertime and my Granddad's ridiculous Hawaiian shirts that he wears on holidays, complete with leathery brown tan and constant sun squint.

Images: Scanned from Elle Magazine UK

Q & A

Not so long ago, Lucy from Being of Sound Mind asked me some questions about my life in Korea.  I usually write completely random, sporadic posts about stuff I've seen or, more often lately, stuff that my affiliation with VICE.com points me towards (I'm sorry about the lack of more original posting, I've been so busy with Chincha and other projects and I genuinely do love their articles and videos), so my answers were very different from the type of stuff you normally see on my blog.

I really enjoyed answering them though and I feel like her well-thought out questions were probing, in a positive way.  If you are (for some inexplicable reason) interested in my day-to-day life, or are interested in what it's like to live in Korea (more explicable) then take a look at it here.

There are also pictures of my face on her blog, in case you were wondering what it looks like.

^_^

Bling & Platoon Flea Market

Platoon are holding a special cold-weather themed flea market on Saturday, just in time for winter.  I love this flea market and it just so happens that it lands on Bonfire Night this month, meaning I can get some toasty second-hand knits to wrap up warm in ready for burning a fake man on a bonfire. #yay.

Koreans have limited or no knowledge of Guy Fawkes Night (they never got to part of our lovely Commonwealth) so I feel like I’m going to have to introduce it to the country in a big way.  I can't decide between dropping a load of sparklers off of Namsan Tower or shooting fireworks out of my bra (Haiii Katy Perry!)

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?