Fellini in Madrid

If you’re in the city and fancy a bit of film culture then check out the free Fellini exhibition at Madrid’s CaixaForum I popped in by chance yesterday and it’s definitely worth stopping by; includes some great photography, stills, sketches and film extracts – with a special focus on the saucy fountain scene with Anita Eckberg in La Dolce Vita and some of the curious fetishes of this Italian director. On till December 26th.

Helen Levitt - Photoespaña

My friend Sophie is a great culture vulture, and thanks to her I've managed to see quite a few exhibitions in Madrid's annual photography season Photoespaña. I wanted to mention one of the shows here as I liked it so much - Helen Levitt's City Lyrics - a collection of her photos of New York from 1936-1993 with a special focus on the lives of ordinary people, in particular children, on the streets of the Big Apple. Moving and lovely stuff. Can be seen at the Museo Colecciones ICO (Near the Thyssen museum) until the end of August.

Photo above is from the collection, from ICO's website.

Haircuts and movies

A couple of weeks back I blogged about the possibility of having movie nights with my film-buff pals C and J. Well, yesterday evening (before watching the UK-USA draw at a local bar) I went with them to see, À bout de souffle (Breathless in England/USA), a French film from the 60's, in the lovely cinema at the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. My very crude summary would be that it's about a petty thief attempting to escape the law and his love affair with a cool Amercian girl who's studying at the Sorbonne. I have to say I wasn't blown away, but I did like the interaction between the impossibly cute protagonists - Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Selberg. It was also lovely to be able to recognise just a few phrases in French :-)

Throughout the movie Jean Selberg sports a gorgeous crop, something I could never get away with. I think there is a certain myth that to have such short hair and still look feminine you need to be very beautiful - I don't think this is stricty true - but I do think you need to have killer cheekbones and a sort of elfin look - neither of which is true in my case. But it did make me think, how lovely it would be never to have to blowdry again, to just wash and go, what freedom!

All this talk of hair is because I am thinking about getting a haircut, something which I often find to be totally traumatic - what if they cut it ALL off? Nothing too short, just a sort of long bob - a bit like what I have now, but shorter and with more shape and vavavoom :-) Below is some of my 'hairspiration':

Whilst we were at the Circulo, we also checked out an exhibition by Hungarian Bauhaus era photographer and artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, which is certainly worth a look. However, as usual, my attention was captured by the banal rather any particular masterpiece - hence my snap of the cinematic toilet doors in the bellas artes cinema:

Bits of my weekend

The weekend started for me on Thursday when we had a day off for Corpus Christi - it was back to work for a half day on Friday but that doesn't really count. I've had a bit of everything so far this weekend, shopping, eating, relaxing and partying; I bought some cute black pumps in Nine West and stripey sailor top in Pimkie and now the sun's coming out I restocked on Clinique's City Block sheer SPF25 - there's probably better sun protection out there, but for me this product is the only one that's truly oil-free - the rest just make me break out (if you are pale skinned they have a factor 40 too, but it's too chalky for my skin tone).

After shopping there were tintos de verano (red wine and lemon spritzers) and delicious little bites of battered cod at Casa Labra, on C/Tetuan in Sol with my dear friends C and K - it can be almost impossible to get an outside seat at this old-school Madrileño institution, but we got there as it opened and grabbed a table on the pavement.

And on Friday was my friend A's birthday, 36, but I swear she doesn't look a day over 28. I got all dressed up for the occassion in my 'lucky' leopard print heels which are possibly the comfiest shoes I own. We used to work for the same company, and have both been through a whole lot of trials and tribulations over the past few years so it was good to see her back on her feet and celebrating. As a gift I got her some smellies from my lovely l'Occitane - by the way they have a new peony range for anyone who's interested. Anyway, what started out as food and a little singstar (or whatever it's called) contest at hers ended up being an all-nighter - out till 6am at a townie club I hadn't been to in years called, ahem, Torero (bullfighter). To give you an idea of how long it was since I'd been to this place - last time I was there I was wearing red and white from head to foot and was accompanied by a gaggle of long-haired gypsy men - we are talking a long time ago. Thankfully times and fashions have since changed. I admit to being more than a little tipsy and dancing the night away to the likes of Lady Gaga and Ke-dollarsign-ha.

Thankfully my energetic moves burnt off most of the G&Ts and after a good night's sleep, I woke up at midday feeling almost spritely. 2 episodes of Glee later (I admit to having a huge crush on Mr Schuster) I managed to pull myself off the sofa, get showered and head off to the Retiro park on my own to practice closeups of flowers with my new camera.... However, my picnic blanket and the cool grass underfoot were too tempting, and no sooner had I entered the park I bedded down with a cornetto and a book (Tony Robbins' Awaken the Giant within - don't ask - I have a strange penchant for burly Republican motivational speakers which I will explain in another post) and spent the next couple of hours chilling. To be fair I did walk around and try to get a snap or two, but realised that there are no flowers in Madrid in summer as they usually get sunburnt to death. So I took a photo of the fake flowers on my balcony - I worry about the neighbours realising they're not genuine so I cunningly mix them in with real greenery ;-) Why I care about what the neighbours think I really don't know.

House proud

It's been a low-key weekend so far. Walks, cups of tea, 'pottering'... The weather is awful, which I'm secretly happy about- as I don't wan't to miss on the balmy summer evenings, and I feel that the BP does make me miss out somehow... I don't enjoy things quite as much. Carlos and Christina came round for tea and snacks last night, they bought a lovely plant (not sure what it is, some kind of Begonia? Really I'm useless with these things) here it is anyway...

When I woke up this morning and went out onto the balcony to see how many drunks there were left over passed out from the night's shennanigans (spelling?) I got a nice surprise. A group of people were setting up flower stalls and hanging bunting on my street. Perhaps it's something to do with the upcoming San Isidro festival on the 15th?

When people come round (like last night) it's a great excuse to tidy up and take some photos of the house- which is just what I did yesterday, so here they are...

I confess to not tidying the kitchen in case you're wondering why it's covered with junk.

I've included this next one because I'm disproportionatly proud of this gingham velro-on cover I made for the storage cubby. I'm easily pleased...

Thr only positive thing about being under the weather is that people buy you flowers :-) I bought these myself though!!

My flat, like most people is far more photogenic at twilight...