* Random facts and thoughts.

Facts:

1) If i had to be portrayed by Robert Mapplethorpe with all of my favourite things in the same picture it would be a very crowded picture. Does that make me an enthusiast? I guess. People often confuse that with lack of clarity in one's mind but it actually is, in this case, an excessive enthusiasm towards beauty in life and things. I don't know why i'm such an enthusiast of certain kind of things. What would i put in that picture? I'm not sure. But i would like to test the answer, one day i'll try to nit pick and i will ask Cesare to take a picture. He's not Robert Mapplethorpe but on the other hand I'm not Patti Smith.
(Her 'Just Kids' book would definitely be in the picture.)

2) I have not blogged about seeing Pavement live with my best friend and that's because writing needs to come to you, not the other way around. But it was special, I just want to make sure it's recorded.
Cesare handed me Pavement CD's one after the other and before anybody else had even noticed their existence, as it often happens with him. I loved to be part of this 'secret' world and i miss it sometimes, when it doesn't find me for a long time.
Seeing Pavement with Cesare was ...simply beautiful and something i probably can't even write about because the memories and the roots are too many and it's nice to keep them in my heart after all these years, though i will admit that when Atlas Sound paid Pavement a tribute with their "we dance" i hugged Cesare and tears of joy streamed down my face for the simple fact of having someone who knows me so well in my english life even for just three days. That's something i miss every day, every minute, every, every minute of my english life. It was beautiful.
And the fact that Nicola came with him too, that was also beautiful and it meant a lot to me. Being with them was "home" while it lasted. From the bus in the car park to the hostel in Bristol.
I guess i'll never quite find these feelings with the people i know over here: It has something to do with growing up together and sharing the 'beginning years'.

3) I have bought another six books which i probably will end up reading in a few years time. Why do I always keep on doing this??

4) Last week i have let someone very special pass me by. I don't know why i did it: I guess I'm not as free as i like to think that i am. And I also think it's for the best but it made me really sad.

5) Today I gave some money to a busker at Oxford circus tube: He was in the tunnels, playing his guitar, his voice reminded me of Chris Isaacs'. He didn't notice me until he heard the coins falling on other coins, he said thank you and I briefly looked at him. He saw i was sad, smiled and sang: "Pretty woman, won't you pardon me, Pretty woman, I couldn't help but see, Pretty woman
That you look lovely as can be Are you lonely just like me Wow
Pretty woman, stop a while
Pretty woman, talk a while
Pretty woman, give your smile to me". I walked away after I smiled at him, I felt recharged and back on sync with the things around me: Kindness of strangers.. The guy made my day.

6) I really want to do the "Night of one hundred records": will have to find the right people to do it with though. Someone from the Chelsea hotel would be ideal.

7) I'm buying way much more music than i can afford and I cannot feel guilty about it no matter how much I wish to.

* Absynthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder.

Absynthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder(c)1999 by Jason Webley
After a couple glasses, The floorboards don't feel so secure. And I'm afraid I could really go down tonight. I'm out-numbered by the ashes, Held hostage by the door. And the air in here is so damn loud tonight.
But I've got this old four-by-six photograph, Your face pressed up against my shoulder, Little pools of salt mark where tears have dried. And I've got this big needle stuck in my chest, So deep it's starting to tickle. I'm a thousand miles from the chimera I chase. Love is a sadness with a face.
There's a darkness in all wanting, My intentions all feel stained, And the Devil keeps filling my glass tonight. My adrenaline is clotting, And the faces in here all seem strange. But I just want to touch something that'll last tonight.
If I could just taste one sip of an answer, Maybe I could break out of this drunkard's prison. I'm homesick for a place I might have never seen. Something more than these old feet brought me here, So these feet can't take me away. No I didn't get here on my own, Whoever brought me here's gonna have to bring me home.
I'm a thousand miles from the chimera I chase. Home is a sadness, not a place. 

* Songs to shave your head to.

When i finally met Robyn Tunney the first thing i said was: "I shaved my head because of you, my mum wasn't happy!" she laughed and i laughed and for a second that memory came back stronger than ever. But i had forgotten the film i did it to ("Empire records") and the song i chose playing in its background. 
It was "The ballad of El Goodo" and now, with my long locks, i want to celebrate for one moment that Martina who was a very cool girl, more than she knew, back then.  
She thought that having a big heart was complicated but never once she let go of it and I'm so proud of her...with my long locks.
I want to tell her that heart ever left, like she thought it was set to do.

<3 to "MattiMia" <3

(I also want to tell her one day the roles in this picture would totally reverse... and in permanent ink!!! ;)

* Sometimes London is also This.

* Sigur Ros - Hoppípolla

Stealing Ierepovi's words:

"Be happy, it's free and a great option. Listen to this music and try to understand it =) Wish you the best. "

Wish you all the best. <3

* Ellen Rogers and the Modern Primitives for Vice magazine.

I have three favourite photographers: Henri Cartier Bresson, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Ellen Rogers.
I guess.....we're talking another level of beauty imagery that draws from inner beauty itself and the importance of the moment. I did this with Ellen and i am in love with these images, thank you Ellen <3

I Especially LOVE this last picture.

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  Photos
  Ellen Rogers
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  Styling
  Sam Voulters
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  Hair and Headpieces
  TOMIHIRO KONO at Balcony Jump using Kiehl's
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  Make-Up
  MARTINA LUISETTI using MAC

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  Photo Assistant
  Hayley Brown
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  Stylist's Assistant
  Emmanuel Balogun, Derek Martin
• 
  
  
  Hair Assistants
  Chiaki Azuma, Tomoko Ueda

• 
  
  
  Make-Up Assistant
  Dave Waterman
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  Models
  David Gant, Betty at Models1, Abena Afari, Alex Voulters, Alice Goddard, Eleonore Desnos, Kenny Kenc

• 
 
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http://vicestyle.com/en/features/shoot/gallery/modern-primitives

* Chris

Toyin: this should indeed be a poster for a film. You never fail to blow me away with your vision of beauty. :***

Photo by Toyin Ibidapo,  fake punch on Chris's face by me :)

* stranger girl

A very special dedication <3

* Something personal.

"Hush my love the rain now
  Hush my love was so true"



Tom Waits, Kings of Convenience, getting used to new sensations, living an impossible reality, tasting the amazement and obsession of it, breathing the dream and erasing it altogether, my shy heart that stops the time for one still second, one tiny second where everything is wrong and everything is right. And everybody around is blissfully unaware of the music in my head.

I cannot change the beauty of this.
I do not want to.

I just wish you'd understand.

* Perfume, Bodies, Heat, Paint, Skin...

"Temperature" and "Heat" were the key words to create the look for Hanna Ter Meulen's video.

Temperature... Heat... Two bodies wrapped around one another discovering new surfaces, provoking thoughts and feelings. The stuff Beauty is made of.

Filmed by Malcolm Pate, who is not a stranger to experimental art and conceptual work, I jumped at the chance to be part of this loving project! Will Westall was styling and the lovely Vale Aleman was helping me with the body painting that Malcolm had envisioned for this project.

I loved doing this shoot... Plus put together the team that we had for the day and you're granted a nice, relaxed, fun time!

Ellis's back garden was only a matter of hours away to get some well deserved rest at the end of the day :)





Titlel: H-3AT

Director: Malcolm Pate (http://www.malcolmpate.com)
Styling: Will Westall (http://www.anothermag.com)
Make-Up: Martina Luisetti (http://www.martinaluisetti.com)
Hair: Michael Jones (http://www.someonejones.com)
Models:
Boy: Matt Law @ mandpmodels
Girl: Juliana Cardoso

no images from this video may be used without prior consent of the copyright holder.

* I was a Amanda Palmer virgin

...And very glad to have been "baptised" with her art. Make sure you check out her work with Jason Webley on their group Evelyn Evelyn, just brilliant!

Amanda is special. This song - a cover of a Momus song if i'm not wrong? - is special.

Oh: and it goes in my top 5 love songs of all times.

* Vice Magazine cancer fashion feature on Sarah Lewis

...And speaking of my previous blog these were the images by Holly Lucas portraying designer Sarah Lewis wonderful pieces. Please have a look at the article in full here: http://vicestyle.com/en/news/today/post/cancer-fashion

PHOTOS: HOLLY LUCAS
STYLING: SAM VOULTERS
HAIR: HIROSHI MATSUSHITA
MAKE-UP: MARTINA LUISETTI

* Backstage shoots

...It's funny: the things I see while working backstage or on locations, while the photographer is shooting, i like to catch the moments in between, right before the actual frame that will be chosen for the magazine.
I like that naturalness. If this words even exists in english.
To be fair all i do is a reportage, since i haven't decided the spot where the model is going to be nor the styling for the shoot.
I like what comes out though... sometimes more than the polished final images no offense to all the great photographers i work with, i hope :) I just like the awkward moments in between:the leg that is not quite right, the arm that's moving, the model talking etc... and i hope they won't mind me publishing the things i see on set.

I took this one on location for a shoot for Vice magazine: the styling was by Sam Voulters, The photographer on set for the shot was Holly Lucas and it was a feature on fashion designer Sarah Lewis.

I love it SO much.

xx

* Daniel Johnston @ The Troxy

I went to see Daniel performing, i wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Jeffrey Lewis was the support act and i must say kudos to him: his music is brilliant and i only had heard of him but wasn't familiar with his work and....wow! I love it when this happens, when you can look forward to a new musician to get addicted to. I find this very rarely happens to me lately.
Daniel could barely sing, he wasn't in great shape, still he gave it his all and the respect he got back from the crowd was enormous and very touching...Until a fake blonde prick shouted at him from across the theatre:" Come on Danieeeel! Give us mooooore!" Daniel smiled and said "I'm trying.....I hope you are enjoying yourselves tonight" and the cheering from the crowd luckily booed the fake blonde prick.
I shouted at the fake blonde guy (which looked so annoyingly a product of these fashion days) to SHUT UP. I wasn't going to be in that "us", no way. I was feeling lucky already that Daniel managed to do this tour, given the obvious weakness of his body. SOME RESPECT for fuck's sake!
ah well. Nevermind. The blondie was put back into his right place when Daniel  came on stage for his encore singing "true love will find you in the end".

Shut up blondie.

* Ewan McGregor on Live Magazine

The latest job i did with my favourite: Ewan McGregor.
He never disappoints: He's the best, the nicest, the cutest and every other good word you can think of.     :)

LIVE magazine - (The mail on sunday) hasn't bothered giving us all credits so here they are:

Photos: Ian Derry

Styling: Rachel Bakewell

Grooming: Martina Luisetti

Representative for Ewan: Matt Lebov

* Show Time with David Gant

Today it has been a special day. Comes 9am and I’m at the Brewery road studios where photographer Mark Gostick is surrounded by bags of equipment and coming from afar I see David Gant in all his captivating presence: he looks like he stepped out from another time and greets us with the savoir-faire that belongs to the greats without possibly knowing that he certainly belongs to the category. As he mentioned later on speaking of a singer he loves “the Greats don’t have to prove themselves to anybody. They just are.”
David’s CV is as long as my arm and we remember him in roles from “Braveheart” and “Jane Eyre” to mention but a few but this is something abut him you can easily find on line.
I would like to speak of a few hours spent with the marvellous man behind the actor with his silver hair and interesting facial lines I couldn’t wait to work with.  The lines on his cheeks tell the story of a thousand laughter and the ones on his forehead make him look like a child surprised by life. No lines of a stressed or an envious man And while I speak to him I realise that he’s lived way more than 9 lives… Once he even endured an 8 hour make up test in order to become a 200 yrs old man for Discovery Channel! He went to the British library and sat there listening to the tapes of people who were over 100 years old in order to understand his role better and what caught his attention was their voices: strong but calm altogether, confident and trembling  from age. He smiles and says: “the first one I heard was the one I kept on going back to, it’s strange, I would always go back to that one in spite of the others. It’s a matter of instinct: if something works I know it within 5 minutes”.
And you can tell. David is one of those people that enter a room and illuminate it with a glance, a face that tells a million stories between its lines.  The first thing he did when he arrived on set was wondering in the studio by himself touching the furniture and the lights, the camera – sometimes – , the walls, bare feet – sometimes -  to familiarise with what was going to be his home for a few hours  “to feel part of it. Be in it.”  Just like being at home where one doesn’t need to switch the lights on and knows where everything is.  “things are a reflection of ourselves”.
Then he asks Mark if he’d rather him moving around the set or standing still, how much freedom of action he has. And with such intense features and charm it is only obvious that Mark lets him free to do what he knows how to do to perfection: Adapting to the mood but also creating it: “adapting to the music or the *absence* of music” as he says “creates a whole different feeling inside. One day for a photo shoot we had the Rolling stones playing in the stereo. I’m not necessary a fan of the Stones  but on that occasion I wanted their music to be loud and on repeat: the music was setting the mood. I prefer music to be loud and I love jazz.”
And speaking of jazz he describes to me one of the best night of his life: in my beloved Rome, under a starry sky listening to jazz music. Like the time he had the honour to accompany Adelaide Hall on stage for a show: he recalls her arriving on stage for rehearsal and going to the microphone. She puts her handbag on the floor to the side and simply started singing. Just like that. “boy could she sing!”
And David talks and talks about small anecdotes, stories from his past… and one could listen to him for hours. The banker that decided to quit the safety net of a secure job to study at the academy of music and drama in Glasgow when he was 30 yrs old.
The actor that shot the Guinness campaign thanks to which was requested by german designer of menswear Doris Hartwich  for her aw 1999/2000 fashion show. And so it is that David becomes a model at 57 years old. He keeps a separate line between acting and modelling: “they are two different things but I like them both: it’s about loving what you’re doing when you are doing it. I enjoy everything I do…”
And you can see that too: David is INCREDIBLE in front of a camera: he is limitless, he is not afraid of the “mistake” as such he knows that the best shots happen sometimes because of it. He experiments his body with moves and dialogues also, it helps him to get into the character he’s improvising. Mark shots him restlessly, he lets him free to be and the energy in the room is tangible, we are all in love with his charisma, we can’t take our eyes off of him: we are witnessing one of those moments where art is above everything. David says “Showtime!” and gives us 100 per cent and we return the favour happily.
I don’t need to ask him any more questions. As he said this morning: “sometimes is better not to know. It takes away the mystique.” 


Find David in the men section of  www.models1.co.uk
The stylist for our shoot is none other than  Steph Wilson: www.onemakeuphairandstyling.com/#/stephwilson
And here is a link to our wonderful photographer  www.markgostick.com
Credits for the hair and the good mood of the day go to the fabulous Teddy Mitchell! www.good-head.co.uk
Art director is lovely Kate ……………..

 

* Vice magazine shoot

Now this was more of a party at a friend's house than a day at work!
I think we giggled pretty much all day and made london sunny again. Thanks guys!

 

 

 

 

 

and this is Paolo at work and below are the published pics:

Paolo Zerbini

 

 

 

 

  http://www.viceland.com/fashion/2010/02/townie-girls/

VICE magazine
PHOTOS: PAOLO ZERBINI
STYLING: SAM VOULTERS
HAIR: YOSHIHIRO TAKEUCHI
MAKE-UP: MARTINA LUISETTI USING MAC
PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS: PAOLA GRECO AND MATT WALSH
STYLING ASSISTANT: ROSS McLAUGHLAN