Batfort

Style reveals substance

Category: Beautiful Things (page 3 of 3)

Alert alert: Impending NCT Dream Comeback

K-pop group NCT Dream has finally come out of hiding with a comeback next week!

Teasers are being released, starting with the illimitable Mark Lee.

 

The vibe of the image is so relaxed and beachy (and basically guarantees that my new styling trick of tying a bandana around my neck will continue through the rest of the summer). Sand, Vans, hammock. Sunny, bright, and relaxed.

I find that to be a curious contrast with the video teaser. The animation style reminds me of Terry Gilliam animations, which tends to skew the feel a lot more dark and intellectual than I would guess from the photo. The color palette is also a lot darker, and the little flying pixie silhouette children make me think of Peter Pan and Edwardian-era decadence.

Perhaps this is where Korean/American cultural differences come in. I’m interested to see how these two competing visual styles marry in the video. SM Entertainment has been doing some interesting things with animation and live action in the recent NCT 127 and Red Velvet comebacks, so I’m sure the video will be a visual feast regardless.

And based on Mark’s rap performance on “Cherry Bomb,” I have high hopes for the NCT Dream album.

We shall see!

Featured Artist: Faces of Gypsy

I’ve been intending on starting something like this in the long run, a feature or catalog of artists of all stripes who are on our side. Today presented the perfect chance to start.

News broke that Gypsy Freeman, a Trump-supporting makeup artist, was divested of her winnings in a contest run by Kat Von D not-at-all-because-of-politics-but-totally-because-of-politics. This is exactly the kind of behavior I expect to see (and do) from the left.

It’s also why we need to support our own.

Gypsy Freeman is a beautiful makeup artist. My edit of her work is going to skew ethereal, but her portfolio also runs heavy into steampunk. I like her work because it hits the balance of stylized, editorial makeup and ethereal looks.

If you’re in Tampa or Wichita and need makeup expertise, definitely look her up.

SHUT UP I’LL KEEP POSTING EXO IF I WANT TO
via Daily Exo

EXO – Kokobop

Wild Strawberries

Class is now in session. Two sessions of compare and contrast, which you can compare and contrast against each other.

Wild strawberries vs modern strawberry

via @Anto7

I bet you won’t find a giant white fuzzy (tasteless) core inside those tiny wild strawberries.

Wild city vs modern city

Interesting how modernity begets behemoths.

New Music

Long ago, I started to think about ways to nurture right-leaning artists, who are completely shunned by liberal groupthink, or completely closeted. I haven’t made any inroads on that (yet–although this site I hope will help), but this gentleman is taking action:

This may sound grandiose, but I want to overturn the placeholders and decision makers within the major labels, radio, and licensing. I want to give this back to the people and allow them to decide what they listen to and who they support. I want to bring genuine songs back to pop culture and wake people up through the power of music.

I want to create new platforms for songwriters and artists that move past the traditional routes. Music executives and corporations have monopolized and plagued the market for way too long and I don’t want to follow an orchestra of hate and censorship.

I’ve had to stop listening to some musical artists because I can no longer tolerate the lyrics. If a musician is good enough, I can listen past it or rationalize away idiotic lyrics, but that is rare. Part of the reason I love k-pop so much is mostly it’s not political, and the lyrics are in Korean so I can’t understand them even if I wanted to.

Music is one of those especially important things because it seeps into our unconscious minds so quickly, and spends so much time rattling around in our brains.

Since half (if not more) of the battle is winning hearts–not minds–having that touchstone will be invaluable.

Best of luck to you, Yellow Red Sparks.

I’m not a huge fan of Chanel, but–the craftsmanship!

Cooking vicariously

At any given point throughout my life, I’ve been unable to eat various types of foods. That has not, however, stopped me from enjoying food vicariously through others, in the forms of photography, magazines, and cookbooks. I spent hours as a teen reading Jeffrey Steingarten’s food essays (especially The Man Who Ate Everything, which extends to the cover design through a clever cutout on the book jacket) and Cook’s Illustrated magazine, creating the tastes and textures of each recipe in my mind.

You’d think it would make me feel deprived (I would too, from the outside looking in), but in fact quite the opposite: during the times when eating essentially amounted to torture I could still enjoy food, if only in my imagination.

Even as I’m trying zero carb, I find it gratifying to watch high-quality cooking videos (low-quality ones like Tasty I find to be much like consuming junk food–cringey and ultimately unsatisfying) like this one documenting the creation of an Earl Grey-Grapefruit cake. The color palette of the cake is especially delightful, along with the promise of earl grey + grapefruit + cream.

I must confess, however, that I skipped to the cake assembly segment of the vid. AMSR-style videos tend to make me a might twitchy.

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