London

I'm feeling pretty London. Right now, sitting in Starbucks, reading Dazed, Radiohead is lurking somewhere in the background. iPad is sitting on top of my half read Sunday Times Style magazine. It's started raining outside and King's Road beautiful people have pulled out their beautiful umbrellas and are continuing to look beautiful. But they don't really look like they're enjoying it. My caramel machiato has never tasted so good.

I've seen a lot of effortlessly cool today. Red loafers, butterfly graphics on big canvases under arms, camel coloured jumpers, tweed suits and riding boots pedalling bicycles, anoraks with espadrilles, well worn Churches brogues, satchels over Levi's, green trousers with cardigan. I love a man in a cardigan. And I love umbrellas.

Checked shirts, the return of the Mohawk, Breton stripes, old lady with leopard print umbrella, McQueen skulls, KRSC, handle bars with tassels on,studded cuffs, sherbet lemon knitted vest. Sunglasses under umbrella? No, that's just illogical. Fred Perry sporting jacket, navy with yellow stripes, cable knit cardy, the Chelsea boot in it's original setting. Court shoes with grey knitted tights, red bandana, green hair, elbow patches, stripy blue socks. I fucking love socks, they're the most underrated article of clothing.

Cotton hoodie under jacket, flares, cut off trousers, rolled up trousers. Sunday Papers and BlackBerrys. Indiana Jones hat, Desigual prints, sandwiches, chunky silver chains, cigarettes, woven colourful handbags, red lipstick, red polo shirt, cake.

100 Club Oxford Street - I Am Arrows, Sketches, David J Roth

I went to 100 Club on Oxford Street last night for the first time. Sadly, I also heard on the same day that it might be closing soon.


I went to see I Am Arrows, Andy Burrows’ band, who I’ve been going on about for a while now. Two bands were on before them, Sketches and David J Roth. They were both amazing live, I hadn’t heard of either of them before.

My photos aren't very legible but I like how they came out for the I Am Arrows shots.

So this is Sketches...

And then David J Roch...

Then loads of people came out of nowhere for Arrows, it was brilliant! Such a good atmosphere, I had a really good night.
 

The Very True London Word

I am subscribed to The London Word, a lovely blog with lots of articles about reviews of things in London. A post flashed up today whacking the nail on the head exactly for me and countless others, I'm sure. It's all about how living in London, you feel this irrational urge to read every single book ever written, dance at every gig ever played, ponder every exhibiton in every museum and just generally aspire to be the most cultured person on the planet. The point, made very well by Paul McGhie, is that if we're running all over London sucking up as much culture juice as possible, there's no time left to enjoy anything, which was probably the object of the excercise in the first place.

Below is a list, that I have unashamedly swiped straight from his article, of suggestions of things to do to help us all out and discover what you really enjoy.

• Make a list of the things in your life that give you the most pleasure – be it gardening, modern art or spending time with your family – and focus more of your time on that
• Learn that you don’t have to be doing something all the time. Book a night in your diary every week just for you, when you don’t go out but go home and spend some quality time alone, doing nothing
• Keep a thank you diary, where you note down the positive things that happened to you each day
• Discover something new about the area where you live. You might realise that you don’t have to venture as far to experience the hidden gems of London as you might think.

 Read the full article here.

Dakota Fanning, The Runaways and Tatum O'Neal

There has been a lot of hype surrounding the not-so-little star as of late. Dakota’s new film The Runaways is out on the 10th of September and we hear it might be a bit of shock to those who still picture her as the small blonde child who seems to keep running into aliens (War of the Worlds) and is BFFs with a spider (Charlotte’s Web). Not that we at Handpicked, are quite up there with those who saw it months ago at Sundance, but from what we gather Ms Fanning is phenomenal as the 15-year-old Cherie Currie, a member of the The Runaways (breakthrough all girl band of 70’s fame, all underage and controversially human-cannonballed into an American tour unsupervised at very tender ages) alongside her fellow Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart who plays Joan Jett. When my copy of Dazed got to me earlier this month, I didn’t recognise Dakota on the cover. It’s a beautiful shot by Mark Segal (and a horrible Blackberry photo of it by me):

I watched Paper Moon a couple of weeks ago and its not often that a reasonably slow paced, black and white talkie obviously made on a budget draws me in but it really is a gem of a film. I mention it now because Tatum O’Neal who was 10 years old when cast as Addie Pray in the 1973 film now portrays Cherie Currie’s mother in The Runaways. Tatum O’Neal remains the youngest person to win an Academy Award. In Paper Moon she starred alongside her father Ryan O’Neal; she was heavily affected later in life by fame. Sadly there were lots of controversies regarding her father abusing her when she was young which he firmly denies. She also dated Michael Jackson in the late 70’s. Now having slightly disgraced herself (for want of a kinder term) it’s interesting that she was cast in this film with very current young actresses and a $10 million budget.

Thinking of the similar fame that Tatum O’Neal and Dakota Fanning have been subjected to in youth, is it likely that Fanning will go through a rough patch as O’Neal did? Is The Runaways the beginning Fanning’s rebellion? I hope not and I very much doubt it. Dakota, born Hannah Dakota Fanning, comes from a family with strongly grounded Christian morals and also from a very planned childhood. Her parents supported her talent, sending her to auditions and relocating the family to Hollywood, showing not only that she went down the path of formal auditions but stage school and proper training too.

With some speculation and very little proof, I doubt that Tatum O’Neal would have had such a structured background. The daughter of thespian parents, she would not have had her roots as firmly planted and it was probably easier to go off the rails in the 70’s and 80’s without too much hassle than it is today.

At sixteen, Dakota is ready to launch her adult career and step out of her child star roles and from where I’m standing, she’ll do it with style.

Here is Tatum O’Neal looking lovely with her father Ryan O’Neal at the premier of The Runaways in LA earlier this year and then below is the same pair from Paper Moon in 1973.

Images courtesy of www.zimbio.com and Diaro de Bizzarices http://diariodebizarrices.blogspot.com.