She Lets Her Hair Down

...and helps you put it up, too. For hair advice & inspiration (& humor), visit Rubi Jones' She Lets Her Hair Down. She moved from New York to Paris & is wowing them there. If you have long hair, you should watch this lovely video. It's more of a little film than straight tutorial but it is instructive. And both techniques work (because we do both but it's nice to see how someone else does it.)

Lest you think the blog is only for those with long hair, there's plenty for everyone. (Including men.)

ciao/GG/xo

(photograph of Françoise Dorléac via Rubi Jones)

Faire la moue

Monday is not going so very well (& it is early evening). So GG & her editor are blasting a Françoise Hardy playlist & trying to stop pouting (faire la moue). Do pop over to YouTube & play Noir sur blanc. Lovely. Top tip: Visit Rachel at Black Eiffel for Music Monday (& much more).

ciao-meow/GGCM

(Françoise in Venice by Jean-Marie Périer via Pas Une Autre)

Fashion Week

GG Central could use a mental health break this evening & maybe you need one, as well. For fashion week in London, we recommend Liberty London Girl & London Fashion Week. For New York, check in with New York magazine. The round-up is exhaustive.

Don't forget the real-life couple, photographers Garance Doré & The Sartorialist who are covering New York.

If fashion week is not your thing: the US Open is on television & is live-streaming, here.

ciao-meow/GGCM

(Funny Face still via Audrey Hepburn Annex)

Shakespearean Insult Kit

Thou vain sheep-biting malt-worm!
Thou spleeny hell-hated puttock!
Thou dissembling rump-fed jolt-head!
Thou saucy ill-nurtured bum-bailey!

GG's editor has found relief & amusement from tweeting Shakespearean phrases out into the ether. While they were rude & often filthy to Elizabethans, they are funny to modern ears. Sometimes, one really does want to let someone have it online; but GG Central finds the world harsh enough without adding to it with modern vulgarity. So let fly with the old vulgarity & consult the Shakespearean Insult Kit.

PS: Here is another Shakespeare Insult Generator!

ciao-meow/GGCM

(photograph of Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton by Bob Penn/The Taming of the Shrew)

Shabby Apple's Dare to Design 2011

So you flip through magazines & scroll through fashion & style blogs. You look at pins on Pinterest. And you think "Bah. I could do better..." OK. Here's your chance, big shot. Whip up a design of a skirt, dress, or blouse & submit it to Shabby Apple's Dare to Design contest. Yep, you should. You know why? You don't have to sew it, that's why. (Though if you want to, that's great.)

There aren't many rules, but here are the few. You have until August 10. Will we enter finally? Not sure. If we do, we'll make sure you know.

ciao-chic-meow/GGCM

PS: Here are some free online art tools to check out.

(Genevieve Naylor photograph of Suzy Parker via Dovima_is_DevineII)

Dream Ballet

17 year old Bianca Passarge of Hamburg dresses up as a cat, complete with furry tail and dances on wine bottles, June 1958. Her performance was based on a dream and she practiced for eight hours every day in order to perfect her dance.

That was some dream. Giulia approves, of course; doesn't everyone want to be a cat?

If you'd like to interpret yours, visit Dream Moods. Or you could go straight to the Carl Jung Wikipedia page (& choose one of the myriad links on that site).

ciao-meow/GG

( photograph by Carlo Polito/BIPs/Getty Images (via bricolage via LIFE)

Memorial Day

While Memorial Day is a holiday to honor the fallen, it is never inappropriate to remember the living. Below is from the archives & still as important as it was last year. Please pass on the information if you know anyone who needs help.

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TAPS saves lives.

If you know anyone who needs practical help & emotional support due to the loss of a family member or a friend (they do not have to be a relative) who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, please go to Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). TAPS has a 24-hour hotline: 1-800-959-TAPS (8277). Do not hesitate to call on someone's behalf if they are unable to take the first step.

Among other worthy programs, TAPS runs good grief camps for children. We urge you to write down the TAPS main number in case you should come across someone in your daily travels who needs help--you just never know. TAPS has an extensive website, an on-line community which is very helpful & welcoming, & we encourage anyone who might feel isolated to join it.

TAPS also has volunteer opportunities; this might be the place where you find you'd like to help make a difference.

ciao-meow/GG Central

(Two favorite photographs: Soldier's Good-bye & Bobbie The Cat, c. 1939-1945, by Sam Hood, NSW State Library Archives, Australia)

A Wombat for Wednesday

It's been a busy day here but we had to share this photograph of a little girl & a wombat. It's by our favorite Sam Hood in the State Library of NSW Archives. We're not experts on marsupials so here's a National Geographic page on the little devils. Here's a link to a cute wombat coloring page.

G'night (g'day to our Aussie pals!)

ciao-meow/GG's editor

Farewell, Elizabeth

It is with great sadness that we say farewell to Elizabeth Taylor, a great favorite of ours since we were tiny. Visit LIFE for lots & lots of wonderful slideshows. Visit the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, here. (photograph John Springer Collection/Corbis)

ciao-sad-meow/GG Central

Stand With Japan Walk, Cherry Blossom Festival 2011

The Cherry Blossom Festival begins this weekend in Washington, DC. Giulia & her editor are hoping to be at the walk & to report back. Please read on if you are here (or will be).

Beginning at 6:30pm on March 24, people will gather at Sylvan Theater (15th Street and Independence Avenue, SW) before walking the Tidal Basin. All donations received throughout the fundraising effort will go directly to the National Cherry Blossom Festival Red Cross Online Donation Site, benefiting the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.

People are encouraged to gather to reflect and participate in the walk around the Tidal Basin, where the cherry blossom trees, gifted to Washington, DC from Tokyo in 1912, have stood the test of time for 99 years. Our relationship with Japan is at the heart of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Festival is uniquely positioned as a natural conduit to unite the millions of people who want to assist and express their support in a show of unity, and the evening of hope and perseverance occurs before the 16-day celebration begins on Saturday, March 26. The Festival’s diverse and creative programming honors the gift of trees each year and the enduring friendship between the two countries.

ciao-meow/GG Cherry Blossom Central

(an artist at the Tidal Basin painting cherry blossoms via DC Public Library Commons)

Byrne on Burton

Studiously ignoring the baking of cookies, the cleaning of the apartment, the taming of a certain feline (a lost cause). More fun to read things like Gabriel Byrne's review of Furious Love & his remembrance of Richard Burton on the Irish Times website. GG's editor feels the need for a full-length hooded cloak--now. (Last summer bricolage post on Richard & Elizabeth)

(photograph is via The Burtons tumblr. There's an amusing entry about the meeting of a bellhop & Burton, here.)