Lovely Hawaii, I'll See You Soon...

In November A and I, along with 3 of our gorgeous friends, are spending 8 nights in Hawaii for what will hopefully be a beautiful, watercolour adventure, peppered with the occasional jumbo cocktail and mortifying karaoke session. I've been told that when holidaying in Honolulu one spends most of their time barefoot and wearing a barely-there bikini. However, being a complete slave to new, pretty things and having a vested interest in not looking like Tara Reid, here are a few of the things I'm looking forward to wearing as we break the hearts of all the boys on Waikiki Beach...

McQueen dress and Valli coat

Etro
White on white on white. Is there anywhere else more perfect for this look than a tropical paradise?

ModCloth
I want to sunbathe in a retro swimsuit (sans the rockabilly tattoos).

Chanel

Jeffery Campbell

Not exactly sand-friendly shoes but if I could have those Chanel clogs I would probably wear them for the rest of my life. Have I mentioned lately how talented you are, Mr Lagerfeld....?

...just so I can be an island princess

So Hawaii, wait for me. It won't be long until we meet, hopefully clad in Chanel, with jewels in my hair....

Yours, dreaming of paradise
M x

Essay due tomorrow

So there's nothing for it but to indulge in some guilty, sweaty online porn. My current favourite? I think it goes by the title MIUCCIA SWALLOWS...

(pic from Barbara Frankie's impossibly awesome blog which may be featured here one day if we can get over our fear of her coolness)

These S/S '10 bad boys have become an unhealthy obsession of mine - I lay awake thinking of them at night and I suffer from panic attacks when I realise I can't add them to an outfit. What started off as filthy internet perving has grown into something beautiful. I think it may be love.

And you know what I'm going to do with them when I get my hands on them??.....

Miuccia, you complete me by StormOrphans featuring Dries Van Noten pants

A xx

Suburban Part 3: Pretty Young Things

In an effort to be cool, we took our cues from the ladies over at Capital Style and took some snaps of the pretty cool threads we saw throughout the day.
What follows is a blurry, slightly poor imitation of the inimitable Cap Style lasses but hey, we're pretty sure they don't read this blog anyway.

Our new friend, R, who was rocking the octogenarian locks when Tavi was still blogging about nappies and macaroni craft.

Whilst we need to cover ourselves in jewels and feathers to get noticed, here's proof that a pretty dress and nice hair packs a punch if you happen to be nice looking.

Novelty earrings don't hurt either

This man apparently has plans to create an entirely paisley-clad band. We Orphans heartily endorse his dreams. And his shirt.

A lady should never converse with anyone of less than equal style to her.

Zebra pants need no explanation. Nor does the carton of goon

Shiny, happy, tree people


Shoes that are indie

Thanks UniVibes for giving us three posts worth of fun!

M + A

You knew we were good for it...

Before our last lingering memories of Univibes' Suburban Festival (a.k.a. biggest house party in history!) disappear into the ether, we thought we'd bring you this hazy, gin-soaked montage in vibrant StormOrphan Technicolor!


Beyond this treacherous ravine lay a magical place, akin to something from The Faraway Tree... a fantastical twilight zone that would vanish as quickly as it had appeared.

Lacking any conventional form of transport or your modern electronic-locater devices, M+A were forced to use our superior tracking skills, following the beats of the distant drums and, by proxy,our hearts...



Any music festival, even the ones in someone's backyard, needs...well...music. The UniVibes kids set up three stages, graced with a plethora of Canberra's talent...

Hip-Hop upstarts, Still Cool
(they don't have a MySpace, but if you're really interested, let us know! As one of Still Cool is M's brother and nepotism is rad!)


Days after launching their EP, Rubycon took to the stage to get the crowd moving.


While heavy rock isn't our cup of tea, the very hardcore Atlantis Awaits reached round behind us and pressed themselves against our ears, like a slightly forward, but irresistible stranger (musically speaking, of course)

One of the highlights of the event, and indeed a fixture at any self respecting house party, was The Den Of Debauchery/The Clothesline!

This was the scene of many a groping, illicit substance and enlightening conversation with a stranger.

(This a pretty poor photo, but us Orphans were slightly terrified of The Den as night fell and decided to hightail it out of there)

While the whole thing reeked of hedonism, the central message lived on....

M + A

The Things We Do For You...

Both M and myself have been struck down with a terrible malady and are lying in the orphanage's infirmary having medicinal gin poured down our throats by Matron.



It is also an illness of the heart, as we cannot muster up the strength to bring to you our tales of music, dens of debauchery and lecherous men at last weekend's UniVibes Suburban Music Festival.
But rest assured, it shall be a post to remember!

Until then, here's a taste of what is to come...

A treacherous journey....

A classy combination of G&Ts, UDL-style and Particuliere nail polish...

Environmentally-friendly revellers....

Fire! Is useful!....

A.

And again...

Over here at Orphans of the Storm we don't like to leave things unfinished (yes, that includes cake, cocktails and movie popcorn). So even though none of you actually asked for it, we bring to you the second half of the Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! review, straight from the Canberra Circus of Delight and Debauchery

'The poems on the particular night I am reviewing although in reality I am reviewing every night -- because every BAD!SLAM! beer is drunk, words are said, laughs are laughed, love is loved, people watch and people join in and the world keeps moving regardless -- this particular night, some poets have left upset from low scores, but I am sure will be back, some poets have rejoiced in low scores, some judges have been drunken fucks (but we derail them, what was that sir, did you say 8? "no I said 3!" sounds like an 8 to me! and so the poet scores an 8 from that judge because we're at a poetry slam, not running a small south american country so if we want to tell people what they think we damn well do it.

The winner tonight is Degg, who performs his eulogy to his father who has just passed away. The audience is dead silent, afterwards there are hugs, and tears and all five judges give him a ten each, highest score ever, wow! Some poets boo, and I think it is because of this: some poets dodge content, poetry and ideas, and go for cheap emotion -- they burst into tears or scream into the mike enraged, because they think they will win, but in reality, a poetry slam main winner is random, because the five judges always think different things. The reason Degg won is not cheap sentimentality, or because a majority of the audience (but not the judges!) knew of his deep, soulful loss.

Degg won because he stood on stage and he told us the truth -- the naked, deep, burning truth. This is the job of the poet, and as far as I am concerned, we all are poets. Everyone who speaks truths in whatever form, words, pictures, music -- hiphop, rambling, yelling, weeping, whispering, laughing -- if you speak to us your experience of existence, and you speak it truthfully, with conviction, and throw away false tears, and emotion, then you are a poet. If you speak nonsense and make us laugh, if your ant, and hump the mic stand, if you tell us all what we are doing wrong, or right, you are a poet!

In the end, the scoring systems of judges and the Conflict Master (long may he reign) means nothing. If you want to win a Poetry Slam, you need to not want or need to win a Poetry Slam, you need to be prepared to get on stage naked, with nothing between you and the audience but a microphone, and speak truths.

And that's all'

--Hadley, rambling, Thursday, 1am.


Enticing, yes? If we know you (which we think we do) then you'll be absolutely beside yourself with joy at the thought of hightailing it to the Phoenix at 7 tonight for some good, old-fashioned poetic madness.

See you there!

Special Correspondence

"What is important is that I heckle the fucking heckle right out of the hecklers"

- Hadley, rambling, Thursday 1am

A few posts ago, us orphans here wrote a review of Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! Upon its completion there were champagnes and pats on the back and much merry-making... until, that is, we were sent a proper review by BadSlam co-founder and prominent Canberra prancing fawn, Mr Adam Hadley (more widely known as 'Jacinta').

In the spirit of the Mafia and their inspired serial ransoming of a loved one's body parts, we shall only be releasing tasty little chunks of Hadley one post at a time! If you want more, you'll have to renounce that cool kid apathy and press the little comment button we've provided for your convenience...

'We begin, eating Burmese curry, drinking cider, half-arsed planning, but mostly worried -- are any poets going to turn up? are any features going to show up? are we going to have half an hours worth of banter and no show? We always have a show, but we always panic, and this is important. People will always turn up and even if we have to wait for them to get drunk they will always do something -- and this is the heart of slam -- we (I mean we the Royal we, but actually I) do not judge on content, poetry, performance, I judge on people having it inside them to stand naked (but clothed [except on some occasions]) in front of a microphone and say SOMETHING, to speak to their fellow barfly and express themselves in any way that they feel they want to, and that is all we set out to do -- provide a platform for people to do something.
We discuss chimpanzees skiing, because that is our Master of Conflict conflict tonight, it is important tht once people are pushed out of their comfort zones and perform publicly they are pushed even furthuer, to eat chilli, play live Dungeons & Dragons, draw dinosaurs or, tonight, tell us what the skiing chimp is thinking -- this extra competition is integral because we are not just about poetry we are about fun, and we are about stupidity. We may not always be supportive, we try, but sometimes we fail, but we always engage'

Hello March!

A conversation that could happen:

Person 1: What are you doing?
Person 2: Just blogging about my weekend
Person 1: That's remarkably self indulgent. Why would anyone care?
Person 2: Whatevs. I do what I want

Soooo.....my weekend. Which was really lovely and one of those weekends when Canberra shows off how super, ultra cool it is.


It started off slowly, with chocolate croissants, watching The Simpsons and skittles with my 9 year old sister. But eventually we arrived at the beautiful St Andrews Church for 'A Right Royal Affair', a selling exhibition of lovely vintage fair, most examples of what royalty might wear. The gowns, skirts, coats, shoes, hats, gloves and jewellery were all wonderful and if I was a wealthier lady I would have made many purchases.

Have a look....





























To find out more go to http://www.seamsold.com (if you have a spare few hundred they sell online!)


On Sunday we took ourselves down to The Front for the Art Fair. And some people are so talented! Again, no purchases were made because of finances but it was such a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning




(If you accidentally got in my photos I apologise for putting you on the internet without your permission. But don't sweat it, YOU'RE FAMOUS!!)




This wonderful table belonged to 'Succulent Cuppa'. The lovely brooches, rings and darling little plants were created by the talented Sarah Firth and would make a great addition to any outfit, home or office.
Check out where she'll be next!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Succulent-Cuppa/289772614696#!/pages/Succulent-Cuppa/289772614696?v=info

And take a look at her Etsy page!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/sarahthefirth

Thanks for the lovely weekend, Canberra. Can't wait for the next one!

-M

Just because it's Sunday...

Morrissey - Every Day is like Sunday

Clare | MySpace Video

MY NEW SUNGLASSES...

... make the world look like a dramatic flashback from Dynasty.


Possibly not conducive to making good life decisions.

A.



NB: neither Joan Collins nor these outrageous Giles sunglasses appear in my actual life - for the moment I content myself with YouTubing 'Alexis Carrington' and wearing Forever New.