R.I.P. Corey Haim

Last night I found out that Corey Haim,one of favourite child actors died at the age of 38. It's sad that most child actors start with a bright,promising future ahead of them and then they fall into drugs and their career and everything is ruined. I guess it must be really hard for a kid to deal with fame and all the pressure that most people deal when they're adults and still find it hard. One minute you're the cute talented kid and the next minute you have to quickly grow up and become the teen hearthrob.You have to give interviews and talk about yourself and your career in front of thousands of people at an age when most people don't even know what they want to do in their lives. You're suddenly in an adult's world and you have to learn to act like one and try really hard not to disappoint anyone.

Corey got his first role at the age of 10 at a comedy TV Series The Edison Twins which ran from 1982 through until 1986. After that he started getting parts in Hollywood films alongside Robert Downy Jr.,Sarah Jessica Parker,Charlie Sheen and Winona Ryder. Corey was a very gifted young actor. I watched Lucas, one of his first films, when I was a kid and I was amazed by his acting. He was 14 at the time, still at the beginning of his career and he seemed more real and relaxed. However, 14 is the age when most young actors start to worry about what's gonna happen next. They can either be the cute litle kid or the hot teenager. I mean how many roles are there for acne-faced awkward teenagers that just want to be left alone and be themselves and grow up whenever they feel they're ready?Some films portray teens like that but that always changes in the end. The 14 year old girl/boy quicly transforms into to a sexy 25-30 year old. Because it's 'cool' to act older than you are. But what about the teens that don't feel ready for this change?I mean people have their whole lives to be adults but they only have a few precious years of being a kid and if someone takes that away from them there's always gonna be something missing from them.

I don't really know a lot about Corey's childhood but I know that most child stars feel like they had no childhood and they all go through a hard phase to deal with the whole thing.

I'll always rememer Corey as the beautiful, gifted boy from Lucas who stayed true to himself and proved to be 'stronger' than all the football players that have been tormenting him since school started.

R.I.P. Corey

Alice Kingsley:This is impossible. The Mad Hatter:Only if you believe it is.

I watched Alice in Wonderland last week. I had been waiting for it for a year and like with many things that I build up an image in my head and think that they're gonna be amazing..I got disappointed.

Maybe because I don't really like 3D and battles and seeing famous actors playing characters that I imagined in a completely different way. I always thought Tim Burton's films were special because of the dark fairy-tale like-worlds he creates but this film is more like video game.In the beginning it had that something that most Tim Burton's films have.The scene where six year old Alice wakes up from a nightmare and the scene where 19 year old Alice falls in the hole and walks to the flower garden.After that it seemed like someone else took over.There were parts where it seemed like Tim Burton returned but then he was gone again.

I felt the same about Alice's(Mia Wasikowska,who looked like a young Gwyneth Paltrow)acting.Sometimes it seemed like she was just reading her lines and some other times it seemed like she was really the curious Alice that never grew up.The Red Queen(the amazing Helena Bonham Carter) was exactly like the Disney cartoon version of the 1951 film and the Mad Hatter(Johnny Depp)was was like a cool,crazy guy on drugs was very different from the Disney film because in this film we get t see two sides of him.The completely crazy side and the sensitive side of him.I have to admit though,his bright green eyes were annoying sometimes.

Colleen Atwood did a great job with the costumes,as always.

Fam Irvoll

My friend from Norway sent me pictures of Fam Irvoll's Circus Fashion show!I've never heard of her but now I'm obsessed!I wanna live in her world!I've always dreamed of designing and making crazy clothes like these!I'm so jealous

i'm obessed with pink flamingos!this is my dream dress

http://www.norwegianfashion.no/fashion-week/sirkus-fam-irvoll

http://www.famirvoll.com/index.php?s=picturesofw08

Alice Anderson's Time Reversal

I just discovered Alice Anderson.I saw interesting pictures of her work in a magazine.Apparently she created a doll that's a replica of herself with the help of sculptor Livia Turco and Madame Tussaud's.

This is what she said about the doll:

'The more I talked,the more the doll grew.I remember being very sick at the time,while the doll got stronger and stronger.Later it became a sort of guardian,my invigilator.Then,bit by bit,I felt threatened by its presence.That's when I made the series Puppet Master .In this picture, the doll seems to be an excrescence of myself and it looks like she's up to something.A sort of Mr Hyde.I put her in a coffin because I was trying to free myself from her influence.Icommitted an act of violence against my replica, but didnt choose just to put her in a closet and forget her.On the contrary, I put her in the centre,exhibiting her like a precious object.I'm protecting her...'

I'm going to Riflemaker in Soho tomorrow to see her exhibition.

Drawing 'Girl Interrupted'

Raizors pain you;

Rivers are damp;

Acids stain you;

And drugs cause cramp.

Guns aren't lawful;

Nooses give;

Gas smells awfull;

You might as well live..

I've been obsessed with this film since I was 15

Miss G:What is the most important thing in life? Radfield:Desire...Miss G

I recently watched 'Cracks' at Prince Charles Cinema(It used to be my favorite cinema before they refurbished it upstairs and increased the ticket prices).I was very impressed by the cinematography(especially the scenes under the water and the secret party on the roof)and the performances by Eva Green,Juno Temple and Maria ValverdeHowever,the film moves too slow and towards the middle I kind of lost interest and thought I could predict what's gonna happen but the end took me by surprise.Cracks is based on the novel by Sheila Kohler and it's directed by Jordan Scott(daughter of Ridley Scott). It's set in a 1930's boarding school and the plot revolves around the school's swiming team and their eccentric swimming instructor Miss G (Eva Green).Miss G is more like their cool,bohemian older sister than just another teacher in the school.She talks to them about things they've never heard before,places they've never been,she wakes them up in the middle of the night to go swimming and organises secret tea parties with them.Of course the girls are fascinated by her and and idolise her. Di(Juno Temple)seems to have a crush on Miss G.Di is the leader of the group.She gives orders and decides everything.She's also a  perfect swimmer and Miss G's favourite.Their lives quickly change by the arrival of the exotic Spanish student Fiamma( Maria Valverde).Fiamma is beautiful and has travelled a lot,read a lot and knows uch more about life than the other girls do.Miss G,gets obsessed with Fiamma and her interesting life.She steals her letters her and her things and also develops a crush on her.It is obvious that Miss G hasn't really left this school since she was a student there herself and is mostly living in her imagination.It's easy to fascinate inexpierenced young girls but when it's time to go outside in the real world Miss G becomes a weak,insecure woman who can't even look anyone in the eyes and can't wait to go back to the place she's been hiding all these years.Miss G's obsession with Fiamma makes Di and the rest of her students jealous.They try to throw her out of the school and send her back to her country.

                                                                                                                                                                 A lot of people compare this film to "The Lord of the Flies".I actually thought of that the same thing while I was watching the film.The isolation of the girls from the outside world,the feeling  abandonment by their parents,increase their need for love and attention and can make them behave like animals in order to have something lke that.

I was very impressed by the costume design by Alison Byrne who was nominated for an IFTA Award for her work in Cracks.According to Alison Byrne,most of the costumes came from 'Angels' where she worked with the costumiers to put the overall look together.Apparently some of the costumes Eva Green is wearing in the film, were original 1930's pieces.Alison Byrne also borrowed some incredibly beautiful knitwear from John Galliano's Studio in Paris where they have Vintage Collections from the last 5 years that some of them were inspired from the 1930's.

Art,childhood and school

While I was home for Christmas, I found some old drawings I did from the age of 5 until the age of 13.I always found children's drawings very interesting because they don't try to make them perfect they just draw whatever they feel like.They write random words on them and then smudge them all over and then sign their names and they're very happy about their little pieces of art.
I wish I'd taken painting and drawing lessons when I was a kid because we had nothing like that at school.In public schools in Greece, Art is not an important subject(at least it wasn't when I was a kid in the 1990's).In primary school we usually had art on Fridays at the last hour of a school day so the teachers always told us to draw whatever we want while they were correcting our homework or something.We used to call it 'fun hour'because nobody really sat there drawing.At the first ten minutes there was an attempt to draw something but after a while everyone was running around,playing,shouting at each other,smudging each other's faces with colour pens.At the end when the teacher used to have enough he'd tell us to pack our stuff and go home.
When I went to Middle School or Junior High or whatever they call it,we had about 10 art lessons.Our teacher was pregnant and had to leave and of course nobody ever replaced her.Instead we had two hours of wandering around at school doing nothing once a week.
In High School,there was no Art.There was no time for that.There were so many important subjects to prepare us for our 'future' and Art wasn't that important.There was Art History in the final year of High School as an elective but the only problem was..there was no teacher.Well there was a teacher but she had been very ill the whole year and she only showed up the last month of the school year.
Anyway,there are so many unemployed people(including me)with useless degrees so why should schools in Greece or anywhere take Art or Drama(which we didn't have either despite the fact that it comes from Greece)or Music(and no Music of course)more seriously???
Well,in my opinion even if someone doesn't want to have a career in any of those things it's nice to study something different between all those hours of Maths,Physics,Chemistry,Ancient Greek and Latin.Even if it's not going to help him/her to find a good job when he/she is older.