Dear Channel 4,

Oh how you love to toy with my emotions. On one hand employing lovely, moral compasses such as John Snow & creating Channel 4 news which for me (although ITN) has overtaken BBC in terms of news because watching Snow argue & have the ability to have an actual opinion is much more interesting than the bland impartialness of traditional BBC news. And then on the other you present a show like Lily Allen: From Riches to Rags which frankly oscillates wildly between love & hate for me. Love because of the clothes & because I've always had a big soft spot for Lily Allen, & hate because it's simply not fair that they have the ability to do it.

But then you have ability to create something great, & unplastic & showing all the wonderful things about fashion with a show like The Model Agency, that involves real people who are nice. I especially am fond of Aiden who remains all but silent with the occasional smile until he gets pissed off & then suddenly unleashes a tyrant of profanity. It is literally beautiful.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is how on earth can a channel produce both Supersize vs Superskinny Kids & the laugh-until-you-cry-every-time Friday Night Dinner? A complex perhaps most clearly put across in a show I'm still undecided about but always seem to see every week, 10 O'Clock Live. How how HOW can you put the genius of David Mitchell & Charlie Brooker at the same table as Jimmy Carr & fucking Lauren Laverne. I coped with her because at least she wore nice dresses (until last week) & you didn't give her that much to say, but having to fast forward through Carr every week is getting annoying. I never hated him before, I had a small fondness for late night 8 out of 10 cats, but here he is lost, juvenile & inappropriate. Why not let Krishnan Guru Murphy & the frankly lovely Faisal Islam from Channel 4 to have a go instead?

So close. Rant over.

Images of Vika Gazinskaya's autumn-winter 2012 show via Style Bubble.

Made my day

In a total daze, can't sleep after getting ramped up at practice & have no one to phone call as they're all asleep/at gigs/somewhere noisy. Dear internet, I love you.
See more here.

Tyrone Lebon

ISSUE±9 OF SWEAT IS HERE!
& it's a fashion only affair. A trend forecast, my reviews of the best shows from New York, London, Milan & Paris as well as Mr Rob Jones' opinion on what menswear was on offer. Literally immerse yourself in next autumn/winter just as the suns coming out...*ahem* Who ever said it had to make sense?

To celebrate this fashion extravaganza I'm giving away
5 FREE ISSUES WITH LIMITED EDITION COVERSTo enter as usual, e-mail your name & address to: sweat.zine@gmail. & there are no rules about entering even though you've won before!

Also have started a mailing list where if you pay a one off £3 you can get EVERY ISSUE OF SWEAT sent right to your very lovely doorstep for at least the next year. There is a link at the bottom of the page here. You can also buy this issue for just £1 (& get issue 6 absolutely free!) again link at the bottom of the page here.

See it here.

SONG 13: A SONG THAT REMINDS YOU OF A FORMER FRIEND
I Want Your Girlfriend To Be My Girlfriend - Reel Big FishI knew I wanted to use Reel Big Fish for this one but it took me a while to decide on the song. I chose this one because I actually think it's my favorite (apart from She Has A Girlfriend Now) & it also reminds me of another former friend, who once played this vindictively when my boyfriend of the time was there, nice. But really this is for a couple of people who have drifted out of my life. One of them is a guy who was a complete head fuck & the other is a girl who stole dreams from me. I don't particularly want to go into either of them, but my life is better without the negative energy. I'll keep the song though.




SONG 14: A SONG THAT REMINDS YOU OF YOUR BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND
Underneath It All - No DoubtI once did this song at a gig with a band I was temporarily singing with, when he was there & he went all sheepish & embarrassed. It was pretty cheesy, but in my defense he had surprised me by being there. Made all the more as a crystallized memory because the song we did after (I Won't Share You) made him run out & think I was trying to break up with him or something. Needless to say we sorted it out & let's just chalk it up to experience & the effect of my awful singing. This song pretty much sums up my first thoughts on him & the reactions to us.





SONG 15: A SONG THAT YOU LOVE SINGING ALONG TO
A Rush And A Push And The Land That We Stand On Is Ours - The SmithsMany a boring car journey has been made bearable by a mix tape of my favorite Smiths CDs. If you get in my car, you will be forced to sing to something, or listen to me sing something. This is the best because of one horrible drive, with rain & traffic when me & Jesus kept playing this song over & over so I could learn the lyrics for something & we could practice our rolling rrrs. I still haven't quite it down to an art form like Morrisey. How's your rrrrr?





SONG 16: A SONG THAT HAS MADE YOU CRY
Sorry About That - Alkaline TrioThere are a lot of songs that have made me cry, or I remember listening too when I was crying. But this one is probably the best one to share, because I haven't done Alkaline Trio yet & whenever I talk about this song no one seems to have heard about it. I only really love about 4 of their songs but this...it's just so perfect in it's self obsessed misery.



SONG 17: A SONG THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO DANCE
I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself - White StripesAnother hard one, I was gonna do Wild Thing, but...this is better. I have probably danced to this song about 100+ times, including whilst singing it in the street on our way home. And the White Stripes over any of the other versions because of, well, Miss Moss...



SONG 18: A SONG THAT YOU LOVE BUT RARELY LISTEN TO
He Hit Me - The CrystalsEveryone looks at me weird when I try & explain why I love this song so much. I don't listen to it often because you really have to be in the mood for The Crystals, the mood being kind of unfeminist & screwed over by the male sex. Or just when it strikes. I also heard that this is Amy Winehouse's favorite song so I sort of stopped listening to it then. But I don't advocate domestic violence. I like this over their other songs because sometimes you want someone to tell you just how the fuck they feel. Sometimes so much you could hit them. & no it's not healthy...but I also love Florence's Hit With A Kiss, which maybe more people can relate too. If you overlook all the bullshit & think of being in love & passion & being hurt then it's beautiful. Luckily, I just don't feel like that too much anymore.

READ SONG 1-6 HERE & SONG 7-12 HERE.
All images from weheartit.

Music is my best friend.

Finally have wireless back on my laptop, I feel like my right arm has suddenly grown back or something. So I spent the day doing the first draft of my Allen Ginsberg/Roger McGough essay & mulling over what to do next for my textiles. Thought I'd share the best bits of what I've done so far. The thing with textiles is that you can make an amazing breakthrough so suddenly, like discovering that my printer will print onto fabric, but then you can just as easily spend a whole day printing & smudging & dyeing & come up with nothing very interesting or effective or beautiful. Yesterday was one of the latter so I'm sort of running out of inspiration right now... The theme is exploration & discovery, but I have a 12 hour exam to fill, which doesn't work with a five minute print. Thinking it'll be embroidery again...

Oh & just wanted to say that I am behind all my teachers striking today due to pensions/cuts. Read more here. It was a well needed day off to catch up & making me build up more to Saturday. I've even taken the day off work & I still don't actually know what time my coach leaves Bristol, really need to figure that out. Anyway...oh if you don't know what I'm talking about the details are here. If you can get to London, I would really recommend you support!

This is lovely.

Introducing... the most beautiful dress in the whole world! This is the separate post of the lovely thing my mum bought me for my birthday. Because when we walked into Liberty & after stumbling around gasping in awe before then asking where Antipodium was & I saw this dress times 2 (in the 2 sizes I am no less, talk about fate) everything clicked into place. I have to confess though that despite my new years resolution I did pay for half of the lovely being, as it is the most expensive garment I now own. & otherwise it would've seemed like a stupid amount of money for either me or my mum to spend. Even though it hangs perfectly. Even though all I have to do to work my favorite new trend is whip off my bra & unbutton it to the waist. Even though it's made out of the lovliest silk & has the awesomest pattern that makes everyone I encounter in it (even those in my physics class who are less than impressed by my fashion choices) want to touch it. Even though it's the very one thing I own that I can picture myself wearing for life (into my 80s plus a slightly longer slip...). It also makes me want to prance around like a girly fool (see above photos) & wear high shoes & schoolgirl socks so um...yes. It is perfect.

& for those of you who have been asking this is what is left of my finger tattoo. It's been looking like this for about a month now since the excess ink scabbed & fell off. My bf is not amused, someone told me it looks like biro & whilst getting a tattoo with another friend at a different shop he told me the girl who did it should re-do it for free out of embarrassment. But part of me sort of likes it like that, so I haven't found the time to force Mr Jay to go over it just yet.

This is a lot of writing I'm sorry but here's some boring stuff about where I've been for the last 2 days, mainly IN HELL. My internet broke. Now this may seem like an overreaction but I have lost 2 whole fucking days to trying to fix it, getting no work done, when I have lots of work to do & getting more & more frustrated. The lovely lovely computer guy from Personic spent about 2-3 hours here today trying to fix it only to say that the problem is probably my laptop. My new laptop, as my brother gave me his hand me down & I passed mine to my sister. Turns out after spending £100 on a battery that might not be the only thing wrong with it... But it's so beautiful, how could anything go wrong with something so beautiful?

How!?

Weird weekend where time just seems to stop. After acting like I was fifteen on Friday night & going out looking for a mosh pit, we took over this posh kids house & turned his living room into one. Surprisingly he then invited us back on Saturday night. Instead spent it in bed watching Empire Records & whole series of Jersey Shore with Jesus. Fun times! Anyway here's a very Monday post...

The only time I ever tried to dye my hair was before my prom in year 11. Needless to say it was a disaster, but eventually it washed out. I've never really wanted to either because I like being ginger & I didn't want to become an embarrassment to my race. But recently my hair has lost it's orangeness. Not less auburn, more just sort of mousy brown. Hopefully summer will lighten it up out of this mousy hole, but until then I am over at BLEACH staring at people with amazingly dyed hair & awesome clothes.

See you there?

So I lost this Anna Sui vintage silk blouse with accordion pleated sleeves (cuffs? if anyone knows technical term I will be indebted to you forever) on eBay a few months ago. I have looked for something similar ever since in every vintage shop/charity shop/online shop I come across & found nothing. Then I get an e-mail with this in it. From Topshop. The enemy. (FYI: Part of why I hate Topshop) I mean, it's polyester & £40, (FOR POLYESTER) but still. Maybe I'll pay someone (in hugs) to go in & take measurements of it for me so I can make a pattern & deviously make my own. I'd do it myself but the past 2 years of my life sans being in Topshop have been fucking lovely. Have a nice springlike weekend! (& sorry about all the brackets...)

Head fuck.