I Need My Dolls!

As I mentioned Friday, that evening I had been invited by my new pal Sausages for a Valley of the Dolls / Beyond the Valley of the Dolls screening fest, and of course I was determined to dress appropriately. After a Deathly Dry Gin Martini, delicious din dins and some more liquid refreshment, we have decided that Valley of the Dolls is actually pretty boring apart from Sharon Tate's jumpsuit and the legendary Helen Lawson. Y'all know how I feel about the second film. The best part of the whole night is that I didn't have a hangover today - wooop!

(Helga my dearest - how can I possibly choose a favourite line? 

Ok I guess it would have to be "A bathing pool full of mayonnaise!")

So what did I wear? My 60's psychedelic print dress is an old bargain from Ebay US some years ago the label is Candi Jones California.

60's Necklace £2 charity shop

 60's Bag 50p bootfair

My bestest 60's purple suede & leather shoes are also from Ebay (UK), they are just perfect I love them!

Oh yes my hair - it's all natural! It's actually an original 60's real hairpiece that a friend of mine kindly donated to me some years ago, I dyed it to match my natural colour. I love wearing it although I don't get it out that often cos it's a lot of hassle and wigs are hot! (In both senses ; p)

Songs for Saturday pt16

On A Saturday - Keith West
(1968, Parlophone 45)

Perhaps best known for Excerpt from a Teenage Opera (aka Grocer Jack), Keith West was quite the songsmith in the late 60's. He begun his musical journey in a band called the In Crowd before joining the acclaimed psychedelic group Tomorrow alongside Steve Howe of Yes. I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of Tomorrow, but their remastered album "Tomorrow" features a selection of Keith's tunes which it is worth the buying just for those! Eagle eyed viewers (or geeks like myself) will also have spotted this band in the Pie Shop scene in "Smashing Time". A brilliant best of album "Excerpts from Groups & Sessions" is also available.

I like this.

Lynn Redgrave

I just heard the terribly sad news on twitter that the british actress Lynn Redgrave has died aged just 67.

One of the great 60s brit actresses, she starred in swinging sixties classics "Georgy Girl" and "Smashing Time" which are two of my all time favourite films. Smashing Time is fantastic and features one of the best shop names ever - Too Much Boutique. If you haven't seen the film it is about two northern lasses who arrive in London to make their fame and fortune in Carnaby Street, it's camp, colourful and just about everything you could want from a 60s film. Check out one of my favourite clips below in which Yvonne played by Lynn has finally made the big time and belts out her hit tune in a variety of fab outfits. Rest in peace Lynn.

Picture from www.redgrave.com

ACDC vs Iron Man

I'm gonna start off by saying I'm not really an ACDC fan and don't really have any interest in the Iron Man films but I just found out that an amazing promo event for the new Iron Man 2 film took place a few days ago just down the road from me at Rochester Castle in Kent. These amazing visual effects were projected onto the walls of the last standing keep of the castle. I'm sooo annoyed I didn't hear about this event happening, I bet it was stunning to see it live. Do spend a couple of minutes watching the video, it is very cool indeed!

Alan Sillitoe

BBC News - Author Alan Sillitoe dies in London aged 82

Just saw this on the beeb, I watched The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner just yesterday, and Saturday Night Sunday Morning is one of my all time favourite book/films. Sad news indeed.

The Boat That Sucked

Last night I made the rather unwise decision of watching The Boat That Rocked, this film is set in 1966 aboard a pirate radio ship. I lasted 45 minutes.

At first I forgave them the men's 70s shirts, as I was quite enjoying hearing a bit of classic 60s pop. But then some girls all dolled up in pvc and polyester appeared and one was wearing the worst pair of "60s retro" pointy toe stiletto heel boots with op art cut outs, you know the sort you get in nasty online fancy dress shops. Then they played Arthur Brown - Fire, this epic song wasn't released until 1968, then an Ike & Tina Turner song came on as a Deram labelled record was playing! I turned it off.

I know this was supposed to be a comedy film, but the 1960s was such an important time for music and fashion to me and a million others I'm sure, and it should be respected, just as now the fashions were quite different year to year. You wouldn't make a film about the 90s and put the characters in skinny jeans and ugg boots now would you!?!


So to make me feel better here are some cool people on a boat in the 60s, from the September 1966 edition of Rave magazine.

The Plastic Joy Award

I have been tagged by the loverly Christina at Fashion's Most Wanted for The Plastic Joy Award.

The rules of the award are you have to pick five or more characters from film or television that you think are rather scrummy. It has to be the character, not the actor and tag a few more bloggers to pass it on to. Here are my choices.

Jean Pierre Leaud as Antoine Doinel from Truffaut's "Adventures of" series of films which I love dearly and of course I had to include a gorgeous 60s frenchman. 

Antoine Doinel! Antoine Doinel! Antoine Doinel!

Luke Wilson as Richie Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenebaums, one of my all time favourite films. 

I love him in this I even have a little cartoon robot thing of this character on my desk at work!

The divine Dickie Attenborough as Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock, cos we all love a bad boy and I like his suit.

Josh Harnett as Trip Fontaine in The Virgin Suicides - "you're a stone fox..." 

I will overlook the awful wig.

David Hemmings as Thomas in Blow Up. 

The only man who can get away with white jeans.

Richard Beckinsale as Geoffrey in The Lovers. Need I say more?

One person I really wanted to include was Cillian Murphy who I have a major crush on, but my favourite character of his is Kitten in Breakfast on Pluto and I wasn't sure if that would count, although I do think he looks gorgeous in that film!

So here is your mission if you wish to accept it.....

Dolly Rocker Girl

Helga Von Trollop

Living Reflection of a Dream

Snowy Stylista

Summer Sunday and a Year

Pics credits 1 2 3 4 5 6 

The Birds & The Deadly Bees

The Deadly Bees is one of those films I first watched really late at night only because it was released in 1967 so I was hoping to catch some fab 60s fashions, yeah not too much excitement on that front but, it's actually quite a fun cult british horror. 

The basic outline of the story is that a beautiful young singer played by Susanna Leigh is stressed out by her fame and collapses whilst singing on a TV show, so she is sent to the country to relax but whilst she is there she discovers some strange goings on in the village...... and yes a creepy guy is breeding killer bees!

My favourite part of this film is a cameo by cult 60s beat group The Birds (with an i not a y!), this group actually feature a very young Ronnie Wood and Kim Gardiner (later of The Creation), they only released a handful of singles which are pretty rare and pricey, but they are an awesome example of mid 60s freakbeat.  
This clip of them performing "That's all I need you for" is a very rare chance to see them in action..... check it out!

Pics from here, here & here

Smashingbird is One Today!

Today marks one year since I started this blog. It has been a pretty tough couple of years in my personal life. My fella and I have been trying to buy the shop we work in and the process has taken an absolute age, but it seems that in the next couple of weeks we will finally be working for ourselves, *fingers crossed*, posting on this blog has been a welcome break and distraction to all my boring business woes. 

I started Smashingbird as a hobby to post beautiful pics, wish list items and mini reviews of the films and the music I love. I have been overwhelmed by the support and sweetness of the blogging community and appreciate all your lovely comments and visits to my blog sooo much! 

Here is a list of some my favourite posts from the past year

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Country Girl

I've been a naughty girl!

Jools

There's always time for a bit of Bowie

Anjelica

A big ol' slice of birthday cake and hugs to you all!

Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush

If you are in the UK and have access to TCM tomorrow tonight (16/3/10) tune in at 11.05pm because they are showing the cult 1967 classic Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, starring Barry Evans, Judy Geeson and the ever fab Adrienne Posta. It's a really fun film and has just fantastic 60s fashions and a soundtrack by the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic.

This is a rare event indeed I don't know when it was last shown on TV, as this is only available on pretty poor bootleg dvd's, one of which I purchased a few years ago and watched his film for the first and only time, it never played again, hiss! Rumour has it that BFI Flipside are going to release this later this year but it is getting held up with copyright issues, so catch this while you can.

Pics from here & here

Buffalo 66

I watched this for the first time the other day. I don't know how I've never seen this before because I love american indie type films. Best film I've seen in soo long.

I loved Vincent Gallo's costume, the red boots rocked. Christina Ricci is adorable, she has the most perfect doll like face. You wouldn't recognise Anjelica in a million years!

Oh, and any soundtrack which features Yes and King Crimson is ok with me.

Grey Gardens

After a long and lovely christmas day with the family I settled down in the evening to watch Grey Gardens (2009) the adaptation of the 1976 Maysles brother documentary of the infamous two Edie Bouvier Beales. I had wanted to see this for ages and hadn't seen the original film, but had seen some galleries and read a few articles on the internets about them. When I watched it I was blown away.

Brief Synopsis: It is the story of a mother and daughter both raised as wealthy debutantes and are aunt and cousin to Jackie Onassis. Big Edie is a talented singer and married to Phelan Beale, she spends her days at their Hamptons estate Grey Gardens, Little Edie dreams of being a famous dancer and in her twenties is living in Manhattan, although she had many suitors and some very high profile proposals she falls in love with a married man. Big Edie and Phelan divorce and becoming increasingly paranoid about being left alone, Big Edie convinces Little Edie to return to Grey Gardens making her miss a big audition which she will forever be convinced would have seen her break into the big time. Living on a small allowance compared to what they are used to, Grey Gardens slowly falls into disrepair and with no staff the two gradually begin living in squalor with their many cats. In the early 70's the authorities are called in and with the threat of eviction Jackie Onassis and Lee Radziwill pay to have the house put back into a liveable state. Unfortunately the estate soon falls back into a sorry state and the two Edie's are once again alone, with Little Edie particularly feeling the strain of confinement looking after her demanding mother for the foreseeable future.

Whilst looking through the TV listings a couple of days later I noticed the original film was on a few days later, so I managed to catch that too. I'm actually quite glad that I saw the HBO film first as I found the documentary pretty hard to watch and follow. But comparing the two it showed that Drew & Jessica gave such amazing performances as Little and Big Edie respectively, particularly Drew she was fantastic at capturing Little Edie's quirky glamour and exuberant playful nature.

If you haven't seen either film, really try and catch them soon. You will fall in love with Little Edie, I felt so inspired by her style watching these, from the stunning 30's and 40's satin gowns to the chic 50's numbers, and of course the look she was more famous for later in the 70's taking items from the loft and creating the most fabulous and creative outfits, the numerous head scarves fashioned from jumpers, skirts and many more all finished with the famous brooch.

Below are some famous and fabulous quotes from Little Edie taken from Grey Gardens Online & IMDB

"This is the best thing to wear for today, you understand. Because I don't like women in skirts and the best thing is to wear pantyhose or some pants under a short skirt, I think. Then you have the pants under the skirt and then you can pull the stockings up over the pants underneath the skirt. And you can always take off the skirt and use it as a cape. So I think this is the best costume for today."

"My costumes? That's a protest against having worked as a model for the Establishment, believe it or not. A lot of models feel that way. Sometimes their lives are protests against having worked as models. Besides, I didn't have time taking care of mother to get out and buy any clothes. So I used what was left of mine and mother's in the attic."

"Course, I'm mad about animals, but raccoons and cats become a little bit boring. I mean, for too long a time."

"The family never cared for me and they hated my mother. She was a dancer and a singer with a terrific voice she'd inherited from her mother, and the relatives hated her because she was magnificent."

What is your favorite department store? "May's, although I haven't been there yet."

For more info check out the official site for the 1976 documentary here and the 2009 film here.

Do take a few minutes to look through this Life gallery too.

All Pics from Grey Gardens Online & HBO Official Site

Breakfast on Pluto

Ordinarily I am totally weary of modern films or which are set in the 60's and 70's, because I am a complete stickler for detail especially in the costume department. It really gets me when they are showing people wearing psychedelic mini dresses and gogo boots and it is supposed to be like 1963 or something!

There is one fairly recent film however which I think has done a particularly good job recreating the look and style of an era. This is a film from 2005 called Breakfast on Pluto, starring the totally swoon worthy Cillian Murphy (those eyes. seriously.) Adapted from the wonderful book by Patrick McCabe this is the story of Patrick Braden aka Kitten) a teenage transsexual from a small town in Ireland during the 70's, set against a backdrop of political violence which he wants to escape, firstly Kitten meets the singer of a band called Billy Hatchet and The Mohawks, they fall in love and goes to live in Billy's caravan, all seems to be working out perfectly until he finds out Billy is hiding guns for the IRA and he decides it is time to leave.

Kitten goes to London to try and find his real mother, where along the way an ever so suave Bryan Ferry tries to strangle him in a car. He gets a job as a Womble and a magician's assistant, is caught up in an IRA bombing campaign, ends up working in a peep show. It also features a couple of pretty awesomely obscure songs, No More White Horses by T2 & Freelance Fiend by Leaf Hound (Leafhound?) (though both are not on the official soundtrack). What I really love is the costumes which take you from small town glam in flares and tank tops, to the lurex & velvet glamour of London, right through to disco and later 70s housewife chic. It really follows the years and changing times perfectly.

This really is a wonderful story, with a happy ending the book is beautifully written and it's wit & humor come across in the film brilliantly. But I won't spoil it anymore than I already have, so catch it if you already haven't!

Oh yes one more thing, just to show how much of a geek I am, Kitten's friend Irwin is wearing a Ossie Clark chiffon Celia print shirt in one scene at a train station.

Pics from melisdramatic flickr album

Current Loves

Pretty Things - Parachute (1970) Until a year or so ago I had never listened to any later Pretty Things material, I've always loved the Get the Picture album, and their mid 60s heavy r&b sound. Then my fella suggested I listen to Parachute and I still just can't get enough, it captures perfectly the mix of psychedelia and heavy rock of late 60's London. Most people rave about their earlier album SF Sorrow, which is very good but this album is their greatest offering in my opinion.

Sarah Moon - Pirelli Calendar (1972) The set of photos shot by Sarah Moon for the 1972 Pirelli calendar have to be one of my favourite sets of images, I just adore the soft focus, feminine sexiness. Click on the title to go to a flickr stream featuring the entire set.

Cloverfield (2007) This may seem like a strange choice compared to the rest of the post, and I know from talking to others that have seen this film it really gets a divided opinion, but I am a big Lost fan and got this because of the JJ Abrams connection, and oh my I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, it is such an exciting film and an innovative concept.

Terry De Havilland - Milly Wedges Ok so I am always lusting TDH shoes, but these are my most favourite style available currently and I love the colours and think the work so well with vintage and modern outfits. However, they aren't cheap at £400, but are so delicious and iconic, they will last forever. Roll on the sales!