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Showing posts with label Quote. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quote. Show all posts
'In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, and in Australia you have to explain what a writer is.'Guess where I’m going this month in order to (eventually) become a writer?
Geoffrey Cottrell
Good old England. (But apparently it could be worse.)
I have no idea how much time I’ll actually have to work on my blog this year. The amount of stuff I have to read and write for my modules does scare me a bit. Maybe working on all those essays and portfolios will result in me wanting to do anything but write in my spare time? If I’ll have any spare time.
Or maybe I’ll have too much of it. There seems to be a lot less lectures and seminars than I had in Tartu. And there’s the infamous ‘Warwick bubble’ thing. Living on a campus pretty much in the middle of the countryside has to put certain limits on your social life.
Oh well, actually I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’s not like I’ll be the only person living on campus. And it’s not like I’m not used to juggling a heavy workload while managing to find time to have a laugh. In secondary school there were a fair share of days with several tests plus an essay and/or presentation deadline. A month. At times a week. No probs really.And I’m fairly certain that I’ll be wanting to scribble down some things. Not on the subject of fashion, but on my life. On the things that surprise and amuse me, on what Britain and Brits really look and act like. On my struggles to blend in and adopt an accent that isn’t too posh or too regional. On my struggles to not be lumped in with the Eastern European crowd. On my struggles to survive in the UK as a person who doesn’t enjoy a pinta lager or a cuppa tea.
So I decided that there’s no point in fighting the inevitable. I’d rather consciously transform the focus of this blog than have it gradually turn into something completely different than what the readers might expect.
There might be some posts on fashion and style. I’m quite sure there will be. But there will also be posts on my life (you know, me either bragging or whining, depending on how I’ll actually get on there). Bad news: there will almost certainly be no DIY posts. I just can’t fit haberdashery stuff in my luggage.
The blog will remain in English. Why limit the readers? (The numbers will no doubt drop nonetheless, because ‘Estonian Girl in England’ is the kind of topic which isn’t universally fascinating nor is it that original. Not a gap in the market, believe me.)
So that’s cleared. People with no interest in my personal life: you can leave now. Thanks for coming. Get to the Home button safely.
Others: (Wow, really? Why?) Here are some of my thoughts before going.
What I’m looking forward to:
The taking the piss attitude. I’ve been doing it for years, but I sometimes wonder if my friends secretly hate me for my constant mean jokes. In Britain it’s the most natural thing. If you like someone, you make fun of them. Makes sense to me.
What I’m not looking forward to:
The buying the round thing. I get that it strengthens camaraderie but it’s hardly fair, is it? Economically speaking. I’m the poor foreign student who’s already having trouble fitting many nights out in my budget. Why am I expected to pay for other people’s drinks when I personally can’t afford to get drunk on fancy cocktails that others might well be choosing? And it’s not like anyone’s keeping count on the money spent or even the rounds bought. It’s a strange custom. Why couldn’t everyone just order their own drinks?
What my expectations are when it comes to other students:
I’m 21 which is 2-3 years older than most freshers. It does make me slightly nervous, because I might not have that much in common with them. What are young Brits actually like?
I’m hoping for The History Boys, because, well, I’m a dreamer. In reality I know that the vast majority of schoolboys are not like that at all. In reality it’ll most likely be a mix of Skins and The Inbetweeners. Not that I dislike those series! I find the former really original and the latter hysterical, but I have a feeling that I would feel like a teacher in those situations (read: old).
Oh well, I'll be finding that out soon enough. Leaving the country on the 28th.
Pictures from weheartit.com
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As some of you know, this autumn I will begin studying English Literature and Creative Writing at Warwick (third uni in the country, aw yeah).This week I got my first books from the reading list (and pretty much the only ones from it that can be found in Tallinn libraries). I’m currently reading The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing, written by David Morley, my future lecturer. And I'm finding it truly captivating (thank God). Also, in it I’ve found quite a few points I made in my online interview – meaning I was right in my guesses!
Here are some wise and inspiring words from the book:
‘No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader. For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn’t know I knew.’ – Robert Frost
Writers use reading as a type of caffeine, rather than a lotus blossom.
‘A writer’s ambition should be to trade one hundred contemporary readers for ten readers in ten years time and for one in one hundred years.’ – Arthur Koestler
‘The bestseller lists are, with a few lively exceptions, a sombre graveyard of dead books.’ – Carlos Fuentes
Writers must not fool themselves – except when they are writing.
The first semester starts on 4 October. I don't know how much time I’ll have to blog after that. There’s loads of reading and writing to be done for classes, and hopefully lots of distracting activities as well. Last night I read the list of societies they have, and now feel that I need to join several of them. Like Art Soc with life drawing classes and trips to museums and galleries, and Warwick French Society with annual trips to Paris and to the West End to see Les Mis, and Aesthet(h)ics with creative workshops, vintage shopping trips and trips to London Fashion Week and The Ethical Fashion Show in Milan (no idea how I could afford any of these trips, to be honest, but don’t they seem great!), and Shisha Society and Good Food Society etc etc.
Can't wait!
Pictures from weheartit.com
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"If you're wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love you anymore." - Lady Gaga
Flavia de Oliveira by Fabio Bartelt
Pictures from fashiongonerogue.com
Flavia de Oliveira by Fabio BarteltPictures from fashiongonerogue.com
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I'd been wanting to see it for ages and finally watched it tonight. At first I thought (and tweeted): the perfect romantic comedy. It didn’t follow the lame mainstream chick flick structure; it was exactly what I’d hoped it would be.Then I thought: yes, it was good and it was different… but exactly in the way I expected. The film wasn’t full of usual rom com clichés, but it had plenty of those that cute indie films have. Refreshing (if you’re used to mainstream), but not surprising.
Summer, the main character’s romantic interest, was really just another Manic Pixie Dream Girl (the term was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin who described it as "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures"). You know, the fun quirky girl who seems like such a breath of fresh air in this dull world that we live in, but is actually just like the next girl in the next film (examples include Kirsten Dunst’s character in Elizabethtown, Kate Hudson’s character in Almost Famous, Audrey Hepburn’s character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and arguably also Cassie from Skins and Amélie). Someone with no backstory or future plans, the MPDG is nothing more than an exciting indie fantasy. But don’t get me wrong, I'll choose the Manic Pixie Dream Girl over the flawless but clumsy girl who is the main character in any other rom com any day.
So yeah, it kind of was the perfect romantic comedy, but in a textbook way, you know? It had all the right ingredients, and the execution was done immaculately, but they hadn’t added anything completely new to the recipe. And to me, that just seems too easy…
But I loved the soundtrack, haven’t got a bad word to say about that. It reminded me how great The Smiths are, and now I can’t stop listening to them, most of all this song:
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I don't mind that she decided to wear a dress that had LED lights in it. Fine, I lie, I actually applaud it. But it's everything else about the dress that I don't like. It just looks like a bunch of melted marshmallows stuck together. And such an amount of them is enough to make anyone sick. Even multicoloured lights can't save that.
Going back to the lights, they're a fantastically eccentric choice. Which reminds me of this time a couple of years ago when I was walking down the street with some friends from school and we were commenting on the clothes that were displayed on a shop window. The word 'eccentric' came up which led to an argument over the word's meaning, or rather, the connotation. They were convinced that it was a negative term (you know, a politer way to say 'weird' or 'insane') while I completely disagreed. But now that I think of it, I suppose that's just one way of dividing people into two. There are those who hope they'll never ever be called eccentric and then there are those who think that having lights in their dress is a pretty decent idea. I’m quite proud to put myself in the latter category. 
I think the best way to end this post is to write down this quotation that a read yesterday and found utterly brilliant: "Remember that always dressing in understated good taste is the same as playing dead." (Susan Catherine)
I think the best way to end this post is to write down this quotation that a read yesterday and found utterly brilliant: "Remember that always dressing in understated good taste is the same as playing dead." (Susan Catherine)
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I’ve been a fan of the site for a while now so I really liked their idea of turning their blog posts into printed posters. I had a look at the first bunch of them and already found a load that should be hanging on my walls because they describe me exactly. So it seems I’m a completely predictable hipster-ish white person, who’d have thought, right? 
Pictures from helloworkspace.com/shop
I'll leave with a few wise words from Stuff White People Like:
On why you should say your favourite artist is Banksy:
Here’s how it works: if you say your favorite artist is Vincent Van Gogh, MC Escher or Monet, you will appear as though your taste in art is derived entirely from college posters. This is unacceptable. Conversely, if you list Jeff Koons, Laurie Anderson, Damien Hirst or Basquiat, you’ll look like you are trying too hard but don’t really know what you are talking about. Chances are that white people will assume your art education consists entirely of documentaries, bio pics, and looking up references from Gossip Girl on Wikipedia.
On how to use how much white people hate Ed Hardy to your advantage:
For example, if you take the reasonable but not compelling story: "I got cut off in traffic this morning and when I honked the guy gave me the finger," and replace it with: "I got cut off in traffic this morning by this guy in an Ed Hardy shirt. I honked and then he gave me the finger!" The story will become sixty percent more interesting to white people because it allows them to make a witty response like: "I guess that douche bag had to get to a UFC party or a nightclub event he was promoting." Follow this up with a laugh, a high five, and a compliment about the acceptable shirt the white person is wearing and you will find yourself with a new friend.
On how white people can prove that they are are more progressive and tolerant than their friends by going to a gay club:
"This guy/girl hit on me, I said I was ‘straight but not narrow,’ and it was totally chill. Oh, you went to an Irish bar this weekend? That’s cool, I guess."
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