Today Jed and I went to the creepy Old Vic Tunnels under Waterloo station to see an equally eerie exhibition from Lazarides called ‘The Minotaur’. Aptly set in the winding, maze-like tunnels, the exhibition featured all kinds of pieces inspired by the classical Greek myth which disturbed, shocked and fascinated me in equal measures.

I’m not interested in dissecting any of the work or writing much more about my experience, but it really moved me and I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary art with an eerie, unnerving yet very gritty twist.

 Find out more about The Minotaur, which will continue until the 25th October 2011.

**May contain some minor spoilers, before you start whining**

Melancholia, 2011.

Although it’s been dubbed an apocalyptic masterpiece, Melancholia is unlike any other meteor/planet/spaceship hurtling towards the earth movie you’ve ever seen before, as there’s no sickly sense of patriotism, cheesy script or Bruce Willis-style action hero in sight. All conventions we’ve come to expect from Hollywood’s vomit-inducing and incredibly rose tinted take on the apocalyptic genre.

Instead Melancholia is a disturbing, haunting yet somehow beautiful look at one woman’s mental illness set against the backdrop of a collision between earth and the planet Melancholia.

Kirsten Dunst was truly incredible as Justine, whose inner turmoil and detachment from reality is all far too real at times. The story is made all the more disturbing by the fact that her mental state is much more poignant and distressful than the impending collision between earth and Melancholia, which in some strange way just seems like an inevitability and some kind of allegory for the temporality or meaninglessness of life.

All the way through the film I was reminded of Freud’s idea of The Uncanny, something that’s familiar yet strangely unnerving at the same time, with the droplets of humour, black horses grazing on the garden, Justine’s liaison with Tim on the golf course and the mysterious location of the grand stately home.

In fact this is something I couldn’t shake long after I’d finished watching Melancholia, unless I missed it there was no mention of where we were, when we were, how we got there or where anyone lived, which adds another layer to the sense of detachment, isolation and uncertainty that runs throughout the whole film.

For those who aren’t familiar with Lars Von Trier’s work I imagine you’ll find Melancholia either incredibly beautiful or incredibly disturbing. The film certainly has all the makings of a Lars Von Trier masterpiece, with a slow-motion introduction featuring warped scenes reminiscent of a Dali painting, as well as a narrative divided into chapters and a scratched little title scene.

Beautiful, disturbing and without a doubt one of the best pieces of cinema of 2011.

However, I’ve decided to write up a quick weekly summary on my personal blog of the Shiny Shiny articles I’ve been particularly proud of over the past seven days.

Instagram 2.0 update: Did the popular photo app REALLY need a revamp?

After seeing a lot of people get very mad / excited about the recent Instagram application update on Twitter, I decided to write up a few thoughts on what’s changed and whether it’ll be for better or worse in the long run. YES, I know, it’s JUST an app, but it has a HUGE community of dedicated fans and followers, so it’s no surprise people have been getting very vocal about what the future holds after the most recent tweaks.

Jessie J launches BBM Music

This article was short and sweet, more of a sneak peek about what’s to come with BBM Music, but I thought I’d include it anyway because I had such an AMAZING time at the launch! There was chance to get a hands-on with some of the new handsets and services and Jessie J was just OUT OF THIS WORLD. Expect more “I HEART JESSIE J” posts in the next few weeks because I’m pretty obsessed.

5 Films Mark Zuckberg watched for new Facebook inspiration

Being a big fan of anything web related AND movies, any opportunity to force the two together is pretty exciting. Luckily the latest changes to Facebook announced last week at the f8 developers conference really reminded me of a few of the plots in my favourite films, so it was less forced and more a natural fit to suggest that the social network is becoming more and more like the social network EVERY day.

Read more about the event on Shiny Shiny.

I’ve lived right next to Portobello Road for nearly six months now and although there are plenty of shops selling clothes, trinkets and other lovely things, I’m much more interested in FOOD than anything else.

So here’s my list of top places to eat and drink on the quirky, tourist-filled street…

Oh and as a quick aside, my teeny, tiny bank balance means I haven’t tried everywhere yet, so this is definitely a work in progress.

Best breakfast

Gail’s on Portobello Road is a speciality bakery that also serves a LOT of lovely breakfast things. It’s a bit pricey, but that’s to be expected considering its right in the middle of the busiest market area. Get there early if you want to sit outside as it’s always swarming with tourists.

Order: Some of Gail’s famous bread with an english breakfast AND pastries to finish if you want a PROPER start to the day. Or a rise and shine yogurt if you want something quick and light.

Gail’s, 138 Portobello Road, London W11 2DZ.

Best cake

There are a few cafes on Portobello Road that serve great cake, including Lowry & Baker and obviously Gail’s again. However, the now infamous Hummingbird Bakery will always be my favourite. The cakes taste like little pieces of heaven (not even an exaggeration), the service is always of a really high standard and the decor is sickly sweet to match. The Hummingbird Bakery makes a lot of really popular cupcakes, see the The Red Velvet, but also prepares speciality cakes at certain times of year AND makes big slabs or proper cake too if you’re over the whole cupcake thing already.

Order: If you’re into cupcakes and like cream cheese topping, you have to go with The Red Velvet, if like me you’re into cupcakes but prefer buttercream icing then try a Vanilla Cupcake WITH SPRINKLES. If you want something a big more hearty than a cupcake, go with a huge slab of the Frosted Brownie, hands down the best chocolate cake product I’ve tasted IN MY LIFE.

The Hummingbird Bakery, 133 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London W11 2DY.

Best coffee

There’s a Starbucks, Coffee Republic and Nero on Portobello Road, but if you prefer your independent coffee shops, then Coffee Plant is your best bet. The coffee is INCREDIBLE, there’s free Wi-Fi, quirky stickers all over AND the best chocolate buttons I’ve ever tasted.

Order: An extra large flat white and a huge bag of chocolate buttons.

Coffee Plant, 180 Portobello Road, London W11 2EB.

Best cocktail

There are a few brilliant pubs and odd little bars up and down Portobello Road, but when it comes to quirky, delicious cocktails Trailer Happiness stands out as a firm favourite, not only on Portobello Road but in the whole of London to be honest. Trailer Happiness is described as “an intimate lounge bar, den and kitchen on Portobello Road with the e-z-boy feel of a low rent, mid-60s California valley bachelor pad”, but don’t let that pretentious (albeit fun) write-up put you off. It’s pricey, it’s always busy (book a table in advance), but the service is top notch and the cocktails are very tasty, very quirky and very 60s (I presume).

Order: One of the huge tiki cocktails.

Trailer Happiness, 177 Portobello Road, London W11 2DY.

Best snack

Granted “snack” is a pretty broad term, but if you’re looking for something more indulgent than a piece of fruit but more virtuous than a cupcake, frozen yogurt is the answer. I’ve been shocked at just how many different chains of frozen yogurt there are in London (I’d never tried it until I moved), but my favourite has to be BeeMe. Located quite far up Portobello Road, BeeMe is a delicious frozen yogurt shop which lets you add pretty much anything you want. There are plenty of chocolate chunks and mini oreos, but there’s also fruit and cereal if you want something a little bit healthier.

Order: A Bee Mine yogurt, which is a mix of yogurt, granola, strawberries, bananas, brownie pieces and honey.

Bee Me, 251 Portobello Road, London W11 1LT.

Best Mexican food

My favourite kind of food is definitely Mexican, so a trip to El Camino (or El Camion as it seems to have changed its name to) occurred very soon after I’d moved to the area having read so many amazing things about the place online. It looks very quirky, very Portobello Road (if that’s a thing) with scrappy chairs, messy walls and plenty of live music. The food comes in little cardboard trays and is meaty, hearty and most importantly very, very cheesy.

Order: A burrito with a frozen margherita.

El Camion, 272 Portobello Road, London W10 5TY.

Best fruit & veg

By the end of a hot, tourist-filled Saturday the fruit and veg on the market stalls can start to look a bit sad and jaded, but all the rest of the time there’s a brilliant selection, it’s much cheaper than supermarkets and just looks better for you too for some strange reason.

Portobello Market, Portobello Road, London.

I’m getting carried away, I wanted to mention the best ice cream and the best pizza too, the best place for afternoon tea and the best place for good ol’ fish n’ chips. A part two will follow shorty…

Oh, the Daily Fail is calling that woman fat or that angry, middle class journalist over there clearly has no idea about normal people or that brand is bringing out a pretty offensive and ridiculous campaign to sell a rubbish product.

Despite being prone to regular rage, I’ve been managing to ignore, walk away from and be the bigger person when it comes to things that would have usually brought me out in a cold, angry sweat.

However, something today just, well, it pissed me off.

I’ve seen the story on a few different blogs and things and basically it’s that Krispy Kreme is teaming up with Glamour magazine in order to produce a range of sickly sweet pink donuts (pink because they look like lipgloss, obvs) and start a big marketing push with product placement, social media partnerships, the usual drill.

This doesn’t bother me.

Brands team up all the time to do this kind of thing.

BUT what has had me puzzled and a little perplexed, angry and annoyed at the world is the suggestion that this is to create a positive association between fashion and food. Yes really.

As a quick aside, I’m taking all of this information from the Advertising Age piece which quotes an official spokesperson, speaking on behalf of both companies.

Here’s the quote:

“The two brands have developed a bespoke treat creating a positive association between fashion and food,” said a statement from the companies.

I’m well aware there are problems when it comes to the fashion industry and food, the fashion industry and promoting a positive body image. It’s a highly contentious issue that we, as a nation, just can’t stop obsessing over.

However, what I find so, well, just STRANGE about the Glamour and Krispy Kreme partnership is that the donuts are being hailed as an answer to all of our problems.

Donuts are lovely in small doses. I am a HUGE dessert fan.

But, sadly, they are NOT healthy and not what the fashion industry needs to get over its problems.

In the same way so many brands and publications swap size 4 models for size 20 models, why can we not find a healthy middle ground, why are Krispy Kreme donuts being held up as the sugary, fatty answer to our problems with body image?

Granted I’m taking all of this from just one quote in Ad Age, but at the same time it opens up a wider discussion about the right ways to promote a positive, healthy body image and lifestyle and get away from all of the fat / thing, curvy / anorexic labels we just can’t seem to get over.

Image via.

Having said that, it also feels wrong to not be writing about everything at the same time.

To be honest it’s hard to make comments about all that’s been happening other than it’s very very sad. I’m getting sick of the hundreds of thousands of users on Twitter making assumptions and passing judgement, from racist slurs to suggesting bringing in multiple armies and crazy weaponry, to getting so irate at other users for “spreading rumours”. Everyone needs to really calm down.

Whatever your personal views are so far, I’d highly recommend reading the two articles below flagged up to me by a few different friends on Facebook. Although they’re only a small selection of the brilliant pieces out there written about the rioting, they’re the only ones that seem to… make sense. I know everyone won’t agree with that judgement, but the fact the second piece was written by a woman who runs charities to help inner city kids certainly gives her more credence than a middle class journalist.

The UK riots: The psychology of looting by Zoe Williams on the Guardian.co.uk.

Caring costs – but so do riots by Camilla Batmanghelidjh on The Independent.

However, one of the things I don’t like about Pinterest – or any kind of curating platform for that matter – is the huge volume of quotes, sayings, mantras and ‘life rules’ that tend to clog up my ‘pin stream’ (not the technical word for it, I’ve coined that little beauty myself).

I don’t have a problem with quotes generally, there are hundreds of thousands of beautiful, poignant and truly inspirational bits and pieces out there, some coined by anonymous minds and others by literary geniuses. However, something just really irritates me about seeing dreamy, Hipstamatic photos with fancy fonts etched across them that read, “catch the stars”, “listen to your heart”, “everything will be OK” or “dance more”. Blah, blah, blah.

The majority of these ‘inspirational’ little nuggets of crap are either too airy-fairy for my liking or sound like lyrics borrowed from a sucky emo song from my teens.

That doesn’t mean to say I don’t think that the way we talk about ourselves, our feelings, our goals and ambitions has a huge impact on the way we live our lives. But, it’s much more about believing in what you’re saying, not just living a miserable life but holding onto some rubbish quote from a fridge magnet to reassure you that everything is actually going to be OK in the end.

The truth is, sometimes it’s not going to be OK.

Sometimes you’re going to have to put down the proverbial fridge magnet and do something about it.

Really? But what if I'm in a dead end job, in a sucky relationship and I'm seriously unhealthy? Should I just sit back and look at this incredibly rubbish drawing of a flower?

There’s no denying that words are incredibly powerful, but simply reading them and chanting them everyday isn’t going to help unless you make something happen under the surface and get f*cking real about it.

Sure we chanted words in a foreign language in school in an attempt to commit them to memory, but there’s a big difference between recollecting a phrase and actually believing in it. Unless you make the changes inside first, you may as well be chanting in Chinese, or you know, some other language you know nothing about.

OK, so the above snippet may not seem in anyway related to the subject of ‘quitting’ but it is, I promise…

I lived in Leeds for years, while studying and then working in PR and after that briefly in branding. Obviously there are plenty of happy and unhappy memories that I associate with the city, but when I was leaving last week after going to my brother’s graduation, I jotted down the above little sentence. Because no matter how much I achieved or experienced in Leeds, the one thing that stuck with me the most is how I felt the night I packed a suitcase and left the place I’d been calling home and walking out on my relationship at the time.

Nothing was really wrong about the relationship, but at the same time nothing had ever been particularly right. I remember confiding in a close friend at the time and they told me that, “relationships take hard work, you can’t just quit.” And it was that moment that I thought, yes, I can quit. I can quit right now.

On more than one occasion I’ve looked at someone’s situation and have admired their strength and dedication to a cause, but as much as I whole heartedly admire the relentless pursuit and commitment to something, whether that be a career, relationship or project, I think it can sometimes take even more courage to admit, “this just isn’t working”.

I’ve stopped going to part time jobs, ended relationships and have made strange choices throughout my life, but there are three key points that really stand out as times that I’ve admitted things weren’t right. Each time I heard similar criticisms from friends, family members and other acquaintances, I wasn’t sticking it out, I wasn’t being strong enough, I wasn’t being dedicated enough, I was a quitter. This was either because they felt I was giving up a great opportunity, they were scared for me or just didn’t agree with my decision full stop.

It turns out all of my decisions worked out for the best, the two about career choices and the other about the relationship. But that’s not the point. I’ve made plenty of mistakes over the years and so has everyone else.

There are many things that in my eyes have felt very hard, that I’ve just not been able to stop no matter how tough it’s been and I know I’m stronger and wiser for having dealt with all of that. By no means am I saying you should go through life just plodding along, knowing you can just give up anything along the way if it gets a bit too much. After all, things are meant to be hard, you’re never going to drift from one thing to the next without a few speed bumps or huge f*cking mountains in the way.

So what I’m really saying is, it’s never OK to just quit or give in. But, you can change things, even if it’s just a tiny bit, you can make your own decisions and stand up for them regardless of what anyone around you may say or how many times you’re told to not be “a quitter”.

Where would we be without cheap and cheerful clothing from the likes of Primark and H&M? Sure it’s not always made well, it’s probably a waste of money and everyone else has it too, but when you’re short on cash and need a quick pick-me-up outfit, these shops are often our first port of call.

However, it’s no secret that as well as being a waste of money in the long run, brands like Primark have come under fire in the past for their unethical practices involving child labour. Of course, after the big Primark expose a few years back, the brand has admittedly made efforts to turn things around, but as a dress still costs less than a chocolate bar, things still don’t seem quite right.

But, I can handle not going into Primark anymore, what with its questionable morals, the long queues and the impending panic attack feeling you get when you walk into the shoe department. But now a report from Greenpeace has ruled that my high street favourite H&M isn’t the squeaky clean alternative I’d always assumed it was and I immediately care much much more than I did after the Primark expose.

In a way it’s a little sad, but it’s true. I know there are plenty of terrible things going on in the world that I should really care more about in order to make a difference, but often a cause doesn’t make me sit up and take notice until it’s banging on my front door. So I guess that’s why the recent news that the manufacturers responsible for making H&M’s products are pumping large amounts of extremely toxic waste into the water supply in parts of China, has made me suddenly feel very guilty about splurging out on a load of cheap dresses every few weeks.

The Greenpeace report is called Dirty Laundry and it contains the findings from a huge investigation into the way big textile brands discharge hazardous waste. And, it’s not just H&M that has come under fire from the latest report, but also Abercrombie & Fitch, Calvin Klein, Converse, Nike and a few others.

The report presents details about two main facilities which have been found to be pumping out these chemicals, which could already be seriously damaging the environment as well as the health of local people. Just to clarify, it’s not like one of these is the ‘H&M pollution factory’, but the facilities produce H&M products, so there’s a pretty strong and inexcusable link.

Now many of these top brands, including H&M, have commented on the situation and said that their clothes aren’t responsible for the waste that’s being pumped out, as they use a different process. However, as none of them have comprehensive chemical management policies anyway, it’s impossible to confirm their statements. There’s also the fact that these brands shouldn’t be associated with a manufacturer which is polluting the environment, regardless of whether their products are a direct cause or not and Greenpeace want brands to use their power to really make a change.

Greenpeace hasn’t called for protests and boycotts, instead it wants the public to put pressure on these brands so they’ll then put pressure on the manufacturing firms causing all of the problems. Greenpeace wants them to become ‘champions for a toxic-free future’ and has set up set up sites to enable anyone to make a difference. Having absolutely no inside knowledge about the ins and outs of H&M’s manufacturing process, I don’t know whether putting pressure on these facilities would cause the company serious issues or not, but surely the PR implications of being a ‘champion for a toxic-free future’ would be pretty invaluable?

This is a good idea and (at the moment anyway) certainly seems more worthwhile than calling for a boycott. However, these most recent events have seriously got me thinking about changing my attitude towards clothing. In an ideal world I’d be buying only the most ethically sound, organic clothing as well as waltzing around markets picking up amazing vintage finds – oh and I’d also be exercising for a few hours a day, eating organic food and doing loads of charity work – but in reality, due to time and money constraints, that’s not going to happen.

However, I think rather than beating ourselves up about the fact that we have to nip into H&M once in a while (because we actually need a cardigan and we’re about to hit our overdraft limit), we should instead make small changes here and there. Why not save up a little for a more ethically conscious piece of clothing once in a while and dedicate this Sunday afternoon to having a quick browse of charity shops? Because let’s be realistic, you can’t completely overhaul your wardrobe, but small changes here and there will make a difference and leave you feeling a little better for it.

Image via ReservasdeCoches’ Flickr.