Let’s take a time-machine and go back to the awesome sixties, with this beautiful film about the homosexual English professor George. In A Single Man (Tom Fords directorial debut) Ford tells us the story about a man who lost the love of his live and has great difficulty with moving on. I will not reveal too much, but I’ve also read the book (which I loved) and all I can say is that Ford does not disappoint us at all. It’s a perfect rendition of the book. And have I mentioned that it is beautiful? I dare say that, after Lost in Translation, this is probably my favorite film EVER.

Why, you ask? What’s so special about this film? Well, here are 3 very good reasons why you should go and watch it:

1) Colin Firth! And I would very much like to place a thousand exclamations points behind his name, but that probably will make you think I’m crazy. Let’s just say: I looooooove me some Colin Firth! He is a brilliant actor and (dare I say it?) very delicious. I really think he deserved an oscar for his role as George, he plays him so beautifully subtle and “real”. There is a scene where you only see his face and the way he acts out his emotions with just little changes in his face is remarkable. It gives me chills every time I see it. I can’t even imagine this film without him. He IS George.

2) Tom Ford and his perfect sense of style. I’ll admit, I am also a little skeptical towards people who suddenly want to try new things (does anyone remember Tyra Banks’ singing career? No, exactly), but after A Single Man I really want Tom Ford to make more films! Critics found this film to be a bit “too stylish” and perfect and they may have point. Every shot is perfect and looks like a well thought out photograph. The colours, the wardrobes (very sixties and of course all designs by Tom Ford), the pretty people, the music… everything just fits and compliments each other. I loved it actually and I really enjoyed watching it. It felt like you could frame every single shot and hang it on your wall.

3) The story . This is probably the first time I saw a homosexual relation portrayed this way, like it’s nothing different from a heterosexual relationship (which it isn’t of course!) and where it is treated like a full on LOVE story. The intense sadness of George and the flashbacks to his relationship show us that their relationship was pure and full of love. No Cher, no jokes about loving Barbara Straisand or Celine Dion, just a film about an intense and beautiful relationship between two people and a man who mourns the death of his partner. And although this all sounds very melancholic (and that’s kind of what I love about it – I listen to the Smiths, what else do you expect?!), the film is about more than grief. It’s about life, and about how you should enjoy it, and how there is always something to live for. The dialogues are realistic and hit home. They are beautiful and pure.

My conclusion? Ford made us something amazing to look at. Just, beautiful!! (two exclamation points!)

The trailer:

(May I add that the soundtrack is PERFECTION? Here is a link to the playlist on youtube: click!)

I deleted my twitter and (public) instagram yesterday. I just felt like it and don’t regret it at all. I also had my second driving lesson, which I actually enjoyed.

{ two pictures from Frankfurt }

{ all else }

The soundtrack for The Bling Ring is here! And I’m now listening to it for the first time. I love Sofia and her soundtracks, so I have high hopes for it. ♥ So many hearts for The Office. Can’t believe it’s almost over! ♥ I seriously get goosebumps every.single.time while watching this. (ok ok ok, enough fangirling) Rhiannonnnn! ♥ Speaking of goosebumps… Still can’t believe how beautiful our new queen looked in that gorgeous dress by Jan Taminiau. ♥ You’ve probably read this already, but if you haven’t, then I think you should. If you’ve actually wondered what your life would look like without the internet, then this article “I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet” by Paul Miller is a read for you. ♥

Oh, and before I forget: It’s Annemerel’s birthday today! Yay! ♥

(Psst.. I heard she celebrated it with cocktails and pulled a real “Serena on Thanksgiving“, if you know what I mean… xoxo GG)

(A picture I took after our wine and dine in the park, thanks Kim for tolerating me and my camera-craziness.)

I’ve written several vomit-inducing paragraphs and deleted them all. Let’s just say I’m loving life (gag) at the moment. The past few weeks have been great and YAY, summer is FINALLY here! Feels like I’ve been waiting FOR-EV-ER.

Hope you are all doing well! :)

Last week we took a trip to Frankfurt. It was sort of a “things I want to do before I die” slash “we have vouchers, so let’s use them” kind of thing. The first one because of the great importance Frankfurt has had in the ~realm of philosophy~ (my boyfriend wrote his thesis about Adorno) and the second because we had some left over hotel tickets we had to use before the end of july. Even though we were both excited to go on this roadtrip and explore Frankfurt, I think we both couldn’t have predicted we would love this city so much. Yes, I use the word LOVE. I’ll show you why.

It took us almost a five hour drive to get there. No biggie! We stopped a few times along the way to get some icecream or enjoy the good weather. We were not in a hurry.

We stayed in a hotel in the south of Frankfurt, a five minute train ride from the city centre, not only because it was cheap for us with the vouchers (we’re students after all), but also because we had to park our (borrowed) car somewhere. This is us, waiting for the train to arrive to take us to the city centre. We were both a bit tired from the long drive, but as you can see, we were ready to explore – yiha! (lol) (speaking of which: I had my first driving lesson today -eek!).

Frankfurt am Main, by some called Mainhattan, is the fifth largest city of Germany and the largest financial centre in continental Europe (not to mention also the location of the European Central Bank). I have never been to Manhattan (or the USA for that matter), nevertheless it wasn’t that difficult to figure out what they meant by calling Frankfurt Mainhattan. The tall skyscrapers dominate the (urban) Frankfurter landscape, which not only comes in handy while trying to find your location, but also gives it that real “Metropolitan” feel. Frankfurt was severely bombed during WOII and therefore we expected a very grey city. We sure did not expect the cozy city we’ve experienced! But cozy it was. They rebuilt a lot in an “old” architectural style (please forgive me, I don’t know a single thing about architecture) and also used a lot of greenery.

(walking through living areas)

The first day, after our arrival, we wandered around the city and enjoyed the good weather. Also: BEER! Of course. We were in Germany after all.

The second day we took the train again and we had a list of thing we wanted to see. First and foremost we wanted to visit Adorno’s grave and the places he worked and lived. The rest of the day we wandered off again and shopped a little (with the emphasis on little - but Frankfurt is amazing if you want to shop and spend a lot of money).

Colourful houses (in case you were wondering).

Our tram. Just thought it would make a colourful picture.

Skyline from a bridge across the Main.

“Love locks” at the Eiserner Steg (Iron Bridge).

The university. HUGE building.

Yellow phonebooth! Just thought it was funny, we don’t really have those in the Netherlands :) I also have a picture with Joost posing in it, but I have a feeling he does not want that one living for ever on the internet.

Boyfriend in front of Adorno’s grave. Just paying our respects!

View from our hotelroom (me being all Charlotte’y).

After our second day of wandering the city, we went back to our hotel room and watched the sun go down. We had such great weather during our visit. Finally some sun! And warmth! It certainly helped us love Frankfurt even more. But even when the sun is playing hooky, there is still a LOT to do in Frankfurt. You could:

Conclusion? Absolutely worth a visit!

Hi! The character in the above granny collage is joking of course; a liberal arts education will (probably) not make you very rich. But that’s not what this movie is about. Jesse is 35, stuck in a job he doesn’t really enjoy and sometimes wishes he could just go back to college, the place were he still believed that everything was possible. When his old professor calls him and invites him to his retirement party at the campus, he of course jumps to the chance (and in his car). Cue Zibby: a 19 year old college girl who he meets there and sometimes gets a bit too manic pixie dream girl (Elizabeth Olsen takes good care of the character though and makes her more believable then the scrip allows). Without giving too much away: they get sort of infatuated with each other and yes, you could therefor state that this is kind of a love story. Although in the end I’d say it’s more about “growing up”. But you’ll see. It’s a cute movie, great for a rainy day.

The trailer:

Ehhmmm, I think I need to buy a new scarf… I’m a bit sick of this one. Unfortunately my photoshop skills are not great enough to shop it out, hehe… Also need more models, I’m tired of shooting myselfffff. So pleeeease, if you live near me and you’re not camera-shy, CONTACT ME. Otherwise I have to buy a new face as well (which is totally possible, so I’ve heard, but I’d rather not – I’m a wuss).

Other stuff:

Last weekend I met up with Anne, whom I hadn’t spoken to in almost 4 (!) years. Honestly, it felt like yesterday when I was talking to her. Yes, a great way to spend my saturday night :) ♥ Is there someone else here who is following The Office? Am I the only one who thinks Jim is becoming kind of a dick?! ♥ I took me a few times replaying it, but now I’m hooked… Miley, you got me again. ♥ Tonight I’m going to watch Tara perform. She’s playing at a local café and I’m going there with my boyfriend to enjoy some cocktails (and beers, probably). Oh, and champagne of course, because tomorrow I turn 23. Seriously, when did that happen?! ♥ I laughed way too hard when I saw this. I think my favorite is Radimir! ;) ♥ There is DEFINITELY going to be Veronica Mars movie, yay! ♥ “WHEN MEN ARE OBJECTIFIED – EXAMINING JON HAMM” Interesting read. Also: this. I don’t necessarily agree with every single thing that’s being said in these articles, but it is certainly food for thought. ♥ Next week we will explore Frankfurt. Have you been there before? If so, what is a must-see? ♥

To finish up this post, here is one of my favorite work-out songs:

I mean, come on, ain’t no way they can stop me now! (yes, I listen to rap during my work-out) (& yes, I also take myself way too seriously)

Tara and I had too much fun talking about feminism and good music yesterday (lol, that sounds so pretentious but I swear we are no hipsters yo, we aren’t even cool enough to be hipsters), that we didn’t have time to take pictures. We did make plans to record a music-video for one of her songs though, which I think is going to be so much fun. I’ve always wanted to try and record something. That will probably happen next week.

Because I don’t have anything thing new to show you, I wanted to share some older pictures I took of Tara. These are from almost three years ago and I still love them. It was my first “real photoshoot” with my first “real” camera at the time and it went all sorts of wrong because of the bad lighting (I did not yet have my 50mm lense at the time), but I still think they look ok. My intention was for them to be kind of cinematic looking and I think I sort of succeeded!

By all means: I am not a professional photographer, but I really enjoyed creating these and that is what it’s all about right?