Fashion Pack

It was night and suddenly I felt like dancing.
I took a cab to show me to the disco scene.

He said: "O.k., you wanna see those crazy people, hustling at the door to get into Studio 54?!"


When I was in, everybody was travolting!
The fashion queens, the models and the movie stars.
Andy snapping, Margeaux dancing with Scavullo. Liza dancing on the floor and Bianca walking through the door.

Who is In?
Who is out?
Tell me, tell me, tell me!

Who is in?
Who is out?
Famous and trendy?!


"In-People" always have to smile in "Vogue".
They only travel by Concorde.
Doing things YOU can´t afford!


They are the fashion pack. The people you see in the magazines.
They are the fashion pack. They are always smiling in their limousines.

They only come out after dark, got to keep on their trendy tracks.
They are the fashion pack.

Rockstars sniffing, while Marisa is posing.
Bianca counting her paintings, the models of Zoli´s flirting...


Hey! what's your name?
Didn't I see you in "Interview" last month, or was it the "Ritz"?
Gee, You're so famous!
May I have your autograph?
Thanks! I will keep it forever!!!



Lyrics excerpt "The Fashion Pack", lyrics by Amanda Lear, 1979

Terminus

"Perhaps the ending state of the human race will resemble a well-run airport where no planes ever take off!"







(click pic: make big)

Quote: J.G. Ballard in conversation, 2003
Amazing night photography of abandoned terminal at San Francisco International Airport by 4Pizon.

BambiRama

Bunker Beauties

Philosopher, media theorist and art critic Paul Virilio started taking photos of "The Atlantic Wall", the bunker defense system along the French coast in 1958. Over many years he returned to the abandoned concrete giants that had been built during WW2. In the 1970s he collected the photos with his essays in his book "Bunker Archeology"








(click for bigger bunkers)

Candy - Opening Sequence

"Candy", the 2006 drama directed by Neil Armfield was on TV a few nights ago and I just happened to catch the opening scene which had me glued to the screen within seconds.

It´s seldom that the very beginning of a film can almost make me cry, but the first two and a half minutes of Candy actually brought tears to my eyes! Pure cinematic magic! Make sure to watch in high resolution...


I am not in any way a big fan of Heath Ledger and I would have probably not even noticed him with the long and greasy hair, so I was free from this sort of sentiment while watching.



The whole sequence is brilliantly shot and edited. The way a simple ride on the "Rotor" is turned into a touching, surreal, foreboding overture for a drug-drama is amazing!
Even the kind-of ubiquitous use of Song to the Siren as the title music works wonderfully with the images. The Tim Buckley song is performed by Paula Arundell which brings some freshness to the arrangement.



At the end of the title-sequence the screen goes black and the word "heaven" appears.




Re-watch the scene and notice the strong metaphoric hints. The curious young woman who leads the nervous, reluctant man into the black room. The kids who storm past them in giddy anticipation, without a care in the world.



The spectator who looks down on the spinning riders who are pinned down by gravity, trying not to slide down towards the falling floor. The riders who can only see themselves clearly inside their spinning room, as they look up all the can see is a blur.


Interestingly, the "Rotor"-ride is sometimes called "Devil´s Hole".