White oleander

Apologies for a month-long hiatus. What prevented me from writing was basically a blend of two, somewhat similar in their consistencies, things: moving into my new place and planning a blog relaunch. Whilst I'm giving up on a life retention because of the first reason (it's taking ages to have your suppliers have delivered all things desired, I'm just gonna live with it), I'm also pretty over the latter. I'd been brainstorming for many longs weeks on a new name for the blog. I must tell you, the ideas were countless, some of them included: aesthete, synaesthete, diaries, garden, orchard, soul, roses, odyssey, oasis, road, stories, daydreamer, memoirs, ink or light. I'd even bought a domain that I resigned from using later. I love words. However, all that had kept me awake until I realized I was actually okay with Monsieur Le, which I'm sentimental towards at the same time. It's been with me during my whole creative journey from the very beginning, and besides, I guess I like the fact that Le in Chinese means happy/joy. Perhaps I'll elaborate on that on the About page later. A good result is, Monsieur Le's got a dot-com accessory.

A few days ago my brother asked me to take some portraits of him before I'd disappear from my parents' house with my photography gear for good. He was turning 19 on that day, so I couldn't say no. Because of the heat pouring from the skies, I put on some light garments: a white polo with thin black lines paired with white plimsolls and, as a link between those, beige chinos. I set up all the adjustments, including directing my brother in terms of a focus and appreciating the golden light we stumbled upon, and asked him on the occasion to push the shutter-release button during my regular flying lessons, so that I would get my style portrait. How selfless.

Tonight, I'm not having anything against serving myself another movie night in tears. Watching The Notebook last week knocked me out completely, leaving me only with wet pillows and the Ryan Gosling effect, which in my case is extending my already endless film list with another titles. First things first though, I'd definitely use a bit of cheering up. In this case I opt for the Fashion Week photo and video reports from Dazed & Confused and MR PORTER.

White Oleander by Thomas Newman