In an interview with himself — which you can read more about past the jump — The Doors frontman Jim Morrison noted that the self-interview is the “essence of creativity.” After compiling a series of fascinating conversations that some of the world’s biggest cultural icons had with themselves, we wholeheartedly agree. Does the idea of a self-interview seem too self-absorbed or controlling? Possibly — but we found that the format allowed for a lot of self-deprecating humor, artistic expression, and compelling self-reflection. In each case there seems to be a clear method to the madness. Past the break, watch and read as artists, writers, and musicians share their most personal thoughts on their career, search for answers to difficult questions, and charm us with their eccentricities. Did we miss your favorite self-interview? Feel free to leave your picks in the comments below.
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Christmas may be right around the corner, but there is never a bad time for a collection of pet portraits shot at New York’s annual Tompkins Square Park Halloween Dog Parade — especially when they’re as striking as Winnie Au’s. The NYC-based photographer writes that she took pictures of 80 dogs in four hours on the day of the parade. The shots below, which we found via Behance, are clearly the cream of the adorable crop. Page through to find Karl Lagerfeld (with his owner, Anna Wintour), an MTA bus, and Lady Gaga as pooches, and see more of Au’s work at her website. Read More »
We were recently both delighted and spooked to see some of our favorite cartoon characters transformed into the undead. Today, the pre-Halloween zombification of familiar faces continues with Swiss comic-book artist Frederik Peeters‘ Portraits as Living Deads, a vast collection of illustrations that imagines what celebrities might look like as extras in a George A. Romero movie. Over the course of a long-term blog project, Peeters created hundreds of these portraits — since he finished in 2009, by far the creepiest images are of those who have already died, from Amy Winehouse to Muammar al-Gaddafi. After the jump, we’ve posted some of our favorite pieces from the pop-culture realm, including everyone from Bob Dylan to Karl Lagerfeld to Björk. And if those aren’t enough for you, page through a whole lot more at Peeters’ blog.
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For the past five years Vogue Nippon has only featured models on its cover, but the Japanese magazine is planning to shake things up in its October 2011 issue with this image of Florence Welch (who was recently named the face of Gucci) as photographed by famed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, the creative head at Chanel. Is it just us, or did he make her look exactly like a red-headed — and admittedly, much prettier — mini-me version of himself in this androgynous matador getup? Maybe the reasoning behind his styling choices will be revealed inside the issue. [via The Cut]
1. Perhaps in an effort to top last year’s strange decision to let James Franco and Anne Hathaway co-host the show, Brett Ratner (the Rush Hour series and X-Men: The Last Stand) has been chosen to co-produce this year’s Academy Awards. “This wasn’t even in my dreams, it’s so far out,” he said. “This is something I never could have imagined.” [via THR]
2. Speaking of Anne Hathaway, here’s your first official photo of her as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises — and she’s riding a really enormous motorcycle. Any thoughts on how she stacks up compared to Michelle Pfeiffer or Halle Berry?
3. According to Life & Style, famed fashion designer/sassy Project Runway judge Michael Kors and his longtime boyfriend Lance LePere are getting hitched. Kors’ official statement: “Lance and I are very excited to finally be able to have the opportunity to marry in our home state after many years together. We have no plans for a major party, but we will be getting married privately.” [via The Huffington Post]
4. In other fashion-related news, here’s an extremely rare photo of designer Karl Lagerfeld without his trademark sunglasses on. Spoiler alert: He has beady eyes.
5. Jesse Eisenberg has been cast as the lead in Richard Ayoade’s adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella The Double, which Vulture describes as “Fight Club for bureaucrats.” Based on how much we loved the former IT Crowd star’s debut feature, Submarine, we think this is really exciting news!
Bonus Buzz: Epic Hair Band Tattoo
Barcelona-based photographer/illustrator/mixed media artist David Gomez, whose work we spotted over at Pomocracy, certainly has a vision. Influenced by his shoe-designer father’s sketches and inspired by “indigenous tribes and mystical cultures,” he creates highly stylized portraits, turning his friends, family and cultural heroes into tacit members of his own, very colorful, tribe. In turns African-inspired, futuristic and baroque, the portraits are simply created but nonetheless satisfying. We’ve collected a few of his celebrity portraits here, so click through to see your cultural icons in a whole new light, and be sure to visit Gomez’s website, where you can view many more of his illustrated portraits and also check out his other projects.
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[Editor's note: While your editors take the day off, Flavorwire will be counting down some of our most popular features of 2011 so far. This post originally ran on April 10th. Enjoy your Memorial Day!] This week, New York Magazine ran a series of fairly great articles documenting apartment living in New York City. One of these in particular, entitled ‘The Perpetual Garret: Where the starving artists slept’ caught our eye for its rare peek into the homes of some of our favorite artists. Inspired, here we’ve put together some of our favorites from the NY Mag article as well as some of our other favorite artists’ lairs from around the world (and the internet), the whole collection running the gamut from the tiny and cramped to the ridiculously messy to the spacious and modern. Click through to see how the other half lives.
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The work of photographer Roxanne Lowit depicts a vision of New York City that is now the stuff of legend. A fan-wielding Karl Lagerfeld (pictured with an almost baby-faced Anna Wintour) is nowhere near his current whittled down weight. Fixtures of the downtown scene like Andy Warhol, Basquiat, and Divine are all still alive and thriving. The original supermodels are not only in their prime; they’re all sitting at the same table, clowning around. Salvador Dalí kisses the hand of a woman young enough to be his granddaughter. If you’re in the mood for a little envy-inducing time travel, click through for a slideshow of our favorite shots.
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As we noted previously, it has been a strange few weeks in the life of famed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. For us, the photo above — which features the Kaiser awkwardly posing in a bedroom made out of 10.5 tons of Belgium chocolate alongside of a chocolate replica of supermodel Baptiste Giabiconi — is kind of the cherry on the crazy sundae. But really, should we expect anything less from the man who once told The Observer, “I think everyone should go to bed like they have a date at the door”? [via Boing Boing]
Well, the weirdest man in fashion is at it again. Karl Lagerfeld’s well-documented obsession with books — he apparently owns 300,000 of them, and photos of his library have been making the blog rounds for months — has inspired him to create a new, book-scented perfume called Paper Passion. According to Geza Schön, the perfumer working on the project, “the fragrance will have a fatty note” reminiscent of linoleum. Of course, Lagerfeld is hardly the first to make a book-inspired scent; in addition to the three The Independent lists, we’re partial to CB I Hate Perfume’s In the Library.
Meanwhile, Lagerfeld has also delved into the advertising arts. UnBeige points us to the first in a series of three commercials for Magnum Ice Cream, the frozen treat that kind of sounds like a condom brand. In this two-minute confection, Rachel Bilson (who appears in all of the spots) is a model who can do no right, infuriating a finicky photographer. But as soon as she spots a gent eating a Magnum and secures one for herself, she’s brilliant. This, from a man who subsists entirely on vegetables, Diet Coke, and the blood of virgins! Watch the ad after the jump and click here to check out the supremely bizarre making-of video.
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