MUSIC MATTERS: BON IVER ‘HOLOCENE’ MUSIC VIDEO

Music video by Bon Iver for “Holocene” from their 2011 self-titled album. The beautiful clip, which follows a little boy around the breathtaking scenery of Iceland, was directed by Nabil.  The artwork for the album was also released, painted by the American artist Gregory Euclide.

Bon Iver was released on June 21, 2011. On March 23, 2011, Justin Vernon told Rolling Stone that a follow up of For Emma, Forever Ago would be released in June. Bon Iver’s second album was rumored to be titled Letters for Marvin but was later confirmed to be Bon Iver.

The album is composed of 10 songs and takes a new musical direction: “I brought in a lot of people to change my voice — not my singing voice, but my role as the author of this band, this project,” says Vernon, who hired well-known players like bass saxophonist Colin Stetson and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz. ”I built the record myself, but I allowed those people to come in and change the scene.”

On December 15, 2011 Pitchfork.com awarded Bon Iver the number one album of 2011.

Song Lyrics:

“Someway, baby, it’s part of me, apart from me.”
you’re laying waste to Halloween
you fucked it friend, it’s on it’s head, it struck the street
you’re in Milwaukee, off your feet

…and at once I knew I was not magnificent
strayed above the highway aisle
(jagged vacance, thick with ice)
I could see for miles, miles, miles

3rd and Lake it burnt away, the hallway
was where we learned to celebrate
automatic bought the years you’d talk for me
that night you played me ʻLip Paradeʼ
not the needle, nor the thread, the lost decree
saying nothing, that’s enough for me

…and at once I knew I was not magnificent
hulled far from the highway aisle
(jagged, vacance, thick with ice)
I could see for miles, miles, miles

Christmas night, it clutched the light, the hallow bright
above my brother, I and tangled spines
we smoked the screen to make it what it was to be
now to know it in my memory:

…and at once I knew I was not magnificent
high above the highway aisle
(jagged vacance, thick with ice)
I could see for miles, miles, miles

KATE WINSLET FOR ST. JOHN BY CRAIG McDEAN SPRING/SUMMER 2012

The beautiful and talented, Kate Winslet continues as the celebrity face representing the luxury brand, St. John. The cinematic style Spring/Summer 2012 ads feature the Academy Award Winning actress captured by Craig McDean in sleek modern penthouse in the Chelsea Arts Tower in New York City.

“Kate embodies the elegance of the St. John woman,” said Creative Director George Sharp. “Her continued support in the brand and women’s receptiveness to her beauty and extraordinary body of work are just some of the reasons to continue on with our relationship and decision to work together for our Spring 2012 Ad campaign.”

“It has been a great experience working with St. John. I am very excited for this upcoming season, George and St. John have created wonderfully chic and effortless styles for the modern woman”, said Winslet.

 

Images via Tom & Lorenzo / Sjk.com

 

COVER ART FOR MADONNA’S NEW SINGLE ‘GIVE ME ALL YOUR LUVIN” BY MERT & MARCUS

Madonna will be releasing her new single “Give Me All Your Luvin‘” featuring Nicki Minaj & M.I.A  on February 3rd, three days before her highly anticipated Bridgestone Super Bowl halftime performance. Meanwhile, she has just released the cover art for the single, photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggiott.

“Give Me All Your Luvin’” is the first single from Madonna’s upcoming album MDNA , her 12th studio album and follow-up to 2008′s Hard Candy, written by Madonna, Martin Solveig, Nicki Minaj and M.I.A, composed by Martin Solveig and Michael Tordjman and produced by Madonna and Martin Solveig.

The football and cheerleader themed music video is directed by Megaforce – inspired by her upcoming Super Bowl appearance. In an AMERICAN IDOL exclusive, Madonna will world preview the video her new single, during IDOL Thursday, Feb. 2 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. The full video will premiere on Madonna’s YouTube channel the next day at 9am EST/6am PST.

For more info, visit Madonna.com

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABEL LUCAS (27)

Isabel Lucas photographed by Craig McDean for Interview Magazine

Isabel Lucas (born 29 January 1985) is an Australian actress, perhaps best known for her role as Tasha Andrews on the Australian television soap opera Home and Away (2003–2006). Lucas moved to Los Angeles in early 2008 and has since been featured in film and television projects including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Immortals, The Pacific and Daybreakers.

Lucas was born in Melbourne. As a child, Lucas lived in Cairns, Queensland. She also lived in Switzerland and Kakadu, in the Northern Territory. She has a Swiss mother and an Australian father and speaks German and French in addition to her native English. Lucas went to St. Monica’s College in Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

Lucas enrolled in the Victorian College of Arts but had never pursued commercial roles. Sharron Meissner, a Sydney talent agent suggests she ‘discovered’ Lucas strolling on the beach at Port Douglas (whilst the meeting was actually arranged). She auditioned for the role of Kit Hunter in Home and Away (now played by Amy Mizzi); although the producer of the show, Julie McGauran, felt that role was not right for Isabel, she was sufficiently impressed to have a new character, Tasha Andrews, created for her. Lucas won a Logie Award (for new popular talent) for her performance on the program. Playing Tasha Andrews on Home and Away was Lucas’ first television role.

Lucas was cast as Gwen in the Steven Spielberg World War II miniseries, The Pacific. She appeared in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as Alice. Reports suggested that although assigned to the William Morris Talent Agency in Los Angeles through the auspices of Meissner Management, Lucas obtained the role of Alice in her native Australia before moving permanently to America. It has been claimed that Lucas was handpicked by Steven Spielberg. Her subsequent theatrical releases included Daybreakers (8 January 2010) and Red Dawn (TBA).

In October 2007, Lucas was part of a group of thirty people from Surfers for Cetaceans, including American actress Hayden Panettiere, surfers David Rastovich and Vaya Phrachanh who took part in a protest against dolphin hunting drive in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. The group paddled out on surfboards to the dolphins to attempt to stop the hunt, but they were forced to turn around after being intercepted by one of the fishing boats. They drove straight to Osaka airport and left the country to avoid being arrested for trespassing by the Japanese police. There is still an outstanding arrest warrant for Lucas in Japan.

Lucas is a spokesperson for the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation, and supports many organisations including, World Vision, The Humour Foundation, Women Against Violence, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, Global Green Plan, Save the Whales Again.

Lucas was nominated as one of Australia’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrities on PETAAsiaPacific.com for 2010.

MENTAL STATES: MARTE MEI VAN HAASTER BY PIERRE DEBUSSCHERE FOR DAZED & CONFUSED FEBRUARY 2012

Mental States: Photographed by Pierre Debusschere for the February 2012 issue of Dazed & Confused, Dutch model, Marte Mei van Haaster (IMG) is a study in androgyny. Posing for a series of artistic portraits, fashion editor, Katie Shillingford provides a wardrobe of bold prints, neon colors and fringed shirts.

Images via Models.com / Dazed-digital.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDWARD BURNS (44)

Edward Fitzgerald Burns (born January 29, 1968) is an American actor, film producer, writer and director.

Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, New York, the son of Molly (née McKenna), a federal agency manager, and Edward J. Burns, a public relations spokesman and police officer. He was raised a Roman Catholic. Burns is the second of three children (with siblings Mary and Brian) in an Irish American family. He was raised in Valley Stream, New York, on Long Island. He briefly attended Chaminade High School before transferring to Hewlett High School. After high school, Burns attended SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Albany, before earning a degree in English from Hunter College in 1992.

Burns got his start in the film industry right after college as a production assistant on the Oliver Stone film, The Doors. While working as a gofer at Entertainment Tonight, he financed, produced, directed and starred in his first film The Brothers McMullen in his spare time, which was largely shot in his hometown of Valley Stream. Once he completed the film, he was able to get a copy to Robert Redford after an ET junket interview for Quiz Show at the Rhiga Royal Hotel in Manhattan. In 1996, Burns wrote, directed and starred in the ensemble drama She’s The One with Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Amanda Peet, as well as Sidewalks of New York in 2001.

Burns is also known for his acting work on movies such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), Life or Something Like It (2002), and Confidence (2003). Looking for Kitty (2004), which Burns wrote, directed and starred in, was shot with a hand-held $3,000 digitalPanasonic AG-DVX100 camera with a Mini35 adapter. The film’s entire budget was $200,000 and was filmed in New York City with a tiny crew and without standard permits. Burns discussed this unusual film-making process in the director’s commentary on the DVD and wrote in the Director’s Letter “If you are an aspiring filmmaker, in this day of inflating budgets and runaway production, the truth is you can make a movie for no money in New York… and have a blast”.

His film Purple Violets premiered exclusively on iTunes on November 20, 2007. Burns began a string of guest appearances on the HBO original series Entourage mid-way through season 3, as well as appearing as Grace Adler’s boyfriend in Will & Grace. In Entourage Burns plays himself and is (within the context of the series) writing a new TV series in which Johnny Drama is able to land a part. In 2007, Burns announced plans to partner with Virgin Comics to create a series entitled Dock Walloper. Burns plans to use the comic series as a springboard to a film of the same story.

In March 2009, The Lynch Pin, a series of shorts starring, written and directed by Burns were released via the internet. The ten episodes are only available to view online as of August 2009 and future plans for the project are unknown.

With the modest success of Purple Violets, Burns was considering taking a studio directing assignment to make money. After reading a few scripts and taking a few meetings, he decided that he chose to get into film to be a writer/director. He then wrote “Nice Guy Johnny” and shot it quickly, on the RED One camera, for a reported $25,000 with a small crew. ”Nice Guy Johnny” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010.

To coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, Burns wrote a movie, Newlyweds that he also directed and starred in. Following a model similar to Nice Guy Johnny, Newlyweds was shot on the Canon 5D, with an even smaller crew, for $9000 in 12 days. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 as the closing night film. He claimed on Twitter that the $9,000 budget broke out to “5k for actors, 2k insurance, 2k food and drink. 9k in the can.”

He is currently running a screenwriting contest with the web startup Scripped for a crowdsourced screenplay which he intends to help get produced.

Burns is married to model Christy Turlington and has two children, Grace (born 2003) and Finn (born 2006).

THE NEW MIX: KARL BY KARL LAGERFELD FOR PRET-A-PORTER SPRING/SUMMER 2012

The long awaited KARL by Karl Lagerfeld for Net-A-Porter is finally here. To celebrate the occasion, the prolific designer captures the Spring/Summer 2012 collection on five of his favorite models, Abbey Lee Kershaw (Next), Anja Rubik (Next), Arizona Muse (Next), Saskia de Brauw (DNA) and Sui He (New York Model Management) in print and on film, under the creative direction of Trey Laird with styling by Karl Templer. Hair by Odile Gilbert. Makeup by Emmanuel Sammartino. Net-A-Porter writes:

From cult fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld comes KARL, a collection of covetable downtown classics available at NET-A-PORTER.COM. Featuring biker vests and blazers, LBDs and embellished collars, each piece from the new label is imbued with the designer’s sleek attitude and fashion-forward edge.

The campaign video, “The New Mix” is a collaboration between Karl Lagerfeld and Barnaby Roper. Shop the collection now at Net-a-porter.com and sign up for the latest news and exclusive content at  Kkarl.com.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OPRAH WINFREY (58)

Oprah Winfrey photographed by Steven Meisel for Vogue, October 1998

Oprah Winfrey (born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was for a time the world’s only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, claiming to be raped at age nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime-talk-show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

Credited with creating a more intimate confessional form of media communication, she is thought to have popularized and revolutionized the tabloid talk show genre pioneered by Phil Donahue, which a Yale study claims broke 20th century taboos and allowed LGBT people to enter the mainstream.  By the mid 1990s, she had reinvented her show with a focus on literature, self-improvement, and spirituality. Though criticized for unleashing confession culture, promoting controversial self-help ideas, and an emotion-centered approach she is often praised for overcoming adversity to become a benefactor to others.

In 1985, Winfrey co-starred in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple as distraught housewife, Sofia. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The film went on to become a Broadway musical which opened in late 2005, with Winfrey credited as a producer. In October 1998, Winfrey produced and starred in the film Beloved, based on Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. In 2005, Harpo Productions released a film adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. The made-for-television film was based upon a teleplay by Suzan-Lori Parks, and starred Halle Berry in the lead female role.

From 2006 to 2008, her support of Barack Obama, by one estimate, delivered over a million votes in the close 2008 Democratic primary race.

Read more here.

Below: Oprah Winfrey for Vogue magazine, October 1998 issue, photographed by Steven Meisel.