Summer Salute:The 100th Post for A Midsummer Night’s Dream

20-23 of June, 2014

Hooray!!! Mindy Yuan the blog progresses the memorial 100th post, and it salutes one of the most exciting holidays in Finland, Midsummer’s Night, as known as Juhannus in Finnish.The cold summer in 2014 only stops me jumping for the lake swimming, whilst we folks still chat at sauna, prepare the tableware, make green salad, smoke lake salmon, grill huge sausages on fire, take short hiking and then visit grandparents.

Juhannus is also the great time to taste something new and fresh, such as baked garlic, though our mouths would exhale pretty bad breathes, still, the soft and melting garlic substances is perfect to accompany with a loaf of baguette and a cup of British afternoon tea.

When I was taking Shakespeare Drama seminar back to the college time, I was too naïve to fully understand the comic core of Midsummer Night’s Dream, I was even more, a bit clueless and unwilling to study line by line just because I considered those themes surround non-stop carnivaleque, ambiguous sexuality and the loss of independence are very annoyingly boring. Not until did I realise how much I adore Felix Mendelssohn’s Wedding March, that I regretted for not close reading the fun parts between page by page. 

Standing besides the boardwalk, listening to the voice of the wind, there is only the peace, the clouds, the trees and the lake. To my dear readers and folks, I wish you all have a great, sweet, and lovely Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Special Thanks: Perhe Heikkinen

Magazine Madness: Sienna Miller on Nylon 15th Anniversary Issue

NYLON USA April 2014

Due to Sienna Miller on the cover of Nylon USA February 2007 issue, I started to discover how alternative, artistic and rock ‘n’ roll Nylon is. Unfortunately, my careless mistake led to giving away August 2009 issue to a female who now no longer my friend, so Sienna Miller Nylon collection contains only 3 covers in total.

Editor-in-chief Marvin Scott Jarrett has been shooting Nylon covers for 15 years, he usually takes the photos at indoor studio, and adopts pure white background and High ISO technique to create a rather brighter outcome. After 2009, Nylon stylists dress up covers girls with over colourful-punk, mix-and-match outfits, which, perhaps, try to allure much younger readers to enjoy. In 2011, I only collect one issue since Nylon’s tendency afar from those classic and credible girls. Lily Collins, Christina Ricci or Emily Browning cannot evoke any of my interest to get a single copy: too many faces are boringly naïve, the styles are awkwardly ugly, and the hue is overly brightly. I dislike any of brainless media listing up the ‘it girl’ non-stop, since those who is too ‘it’ merely a notoriously illy.

Always consider Sienna Miller’s off-gala styles are effortlessly fashionable, and aside from her relationship rumours, I am pretty much willing to spend some cash on magazine features of her. On Nylon April 2014 issue, fashion campaign pages are still shot by Jarrett, with Ray-Ban sunglasses, Saint Laurent jacket, Iceberg dress or even American Apparel socks on style, the high-street fashion is very Sienna. From the interview written by Mallory Rice, Sienna’s thinks ‘it’s better to talk from the heart’ because her ‘modus operandi after having the baby’. Too sad that Sienna and her sister Savannah stepped down their women’s wear label Twenty8Twelve in 2012, but it was for lack of time, not lack of interest. I am such a big Twenty8Twelve fan, I hope there will be new collection in the near future soon.

Another reason I love Nylon magazine, is that it creates the special issue by shooting or illustrating in a unique way. ‘Super Sweet 15’ records the 5482 days of Nylon history: Montage technique portraits those ‘it girls’ past images, such as Ashley Olsen, Oh land, Ellen Page or Lana del Ray, and designers’ b-day cards present the highest inspiration on visual pleasure. It’s interesting, and maybe a bit nostalgic, to count the numbers of the covers I have my very personal copies. Happy Birthday, Nylon! Once the coolest independent magazine at the market, now it still dreams big.

Works Cited & Photography:

www.nylongmag.com