Unmutual

I'm currently studying Classics with Film. My hobbies include playing the piano, drawing, writing and dreaming. At the moment, I live in student bohemia with all that entails (vegitarian, pacifist, anti-everything, pro-everything...)

Note to swap coordinators

Hi, and thanks for being a dilligent coordinator. My mental health has recently got much, much worse. My motivation is very low, and I find it very difficult to leave the house. I'm still joining swaps which I think I can complete on time, because I find both crafting and recieving theraputic. However - while I'm not a "bad swapper" per se, this is dimishing my ability to put things into the post. I always send, it often just takes time. So if you are strict about people on sending on time, this is your warning to ban me. Cheers :)

If swapping with me

• I can't be offended. Art away, with gleeful abandon, and assume that everything goes. Any rating, any concept, any treatment :D

• Don't worry if you're a few days late - I'm not organised to notice anyway, and will never rate you low so long as it arrives eventually.

• Don't worry if I'm a few days late, as I almost inevitably will be. I'm prone to serious bouts of disorganisation and depression, and (I confess) rarely manage to get things out on time. You have my word I will never flake entirely.

• I love reading about how people think about art. If you can, please send a note with your card explaining what inspired you to choose what you did!

My favourite directors are Terry Gilliam and M. Night Shyamalan, and I'm particularly fond of crime and buddy movies.

Among my favourites are:

• Westerns (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Once Upon a Time in the West)

• Crime (The Godfather, Millers Crossing, L.A. Confidential, Reservoir Dogs, Hot Fuzz)

• War (Guns of Navarone, Black Hawk Down, Zulu, Spy Game)

• Sci fi (Blade Runner, Galaxy Quest, Unbreakable, The Warriors, Constantine)

• Good natured horror (Lost Boys, Signs, Planet Terror, From Dusk til Dawn)

• Strange stuff - technical film studies term for ya there - (Twelve Monkeys, Donnie Darko, Brazil, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead)

And... Apocalypse Now, Fellowship of the Ring, Legend of 1900, School of Rock, Virgin Suicides, Fight Club, Run Lola Run, Ed Wood, Velvet Goldmine, The Third Man, Chinatown ...and many many more...

I'm a big enough Nerd of Cinema to be willing to watch anything good, regardless of subject - despite this, I generally don't have much time for serious realism and hard-hitting drama, and I can't watch disaster movies.

I don't read as much as I should. My favourite author is Oscar Wilde, whom I adore with a firey passion. My favourite book is The Picture of Dorian Gray. One of my geekier hobbies is collecting different editions of the book - I currently own 50, from all over the globe and in different languages, from thrift store buys to deluxe leather-bound copies, and two comic book adaptations.

Other favourites are Tolkien's Unfinished Tales (and all the rest, Unfinished Tales and Lays of Belariand are my faves though), 1984, Rebecca, Invisible Cities, the Count of Monte Cristo and Brideshead Revisited. By the time I finish it, Orlando will also be on this list.

I like most things I listen to, but particular faves are:

Genesis, the Guillemots, the Scissor Sisters, Al Stewart, Patrick Wolf, the Beach Boys, Electric Light Orchestra, Star One/The Guilt Machine, The Caretaker and whatever my friends tell me to like :)

Obviously, I like film scores a lot - particularly James Newton Howard - and though I've got a soft spot for serious prog rock, my favourite genre is probably 50s-60s "oldies". Also, I adore piano music - particularly Chopin.

I also collect bad/kitch/unconventional music.

I'm a big fan of Doctor Who. Though a child of the new series, I've got a soft spot for every era of the show, particularly the 80s. My favourite episodes are Utopia and Enlightenment; favourite villains are the Master and the Valeyard, and I don't understand how anyone could have a favourite Doctor.

Other shows I enjoy include:

• The Prisoner
• Blake's 7
• Danger Mouse
• Band of Brothers
• Brideshead Revisited
• Hornblower
• Firefly
• the A-Team

Casper David Friedrich - painter Romantic, gothic, big on twisted trees and misty sunsets.

Feliks Topolski - painter Travelled the world, like an impressionist Forrest Gump, making sketches of the big historical events he saw. I found him by accident when wandering London.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini - sculptor Intensely beautiful neo-classical carving, I mean seriously - you would not believe such things can be done with marble. Needs to be seen in real life, to appreciate small details like the way one hand presses another.

Eugenio Recuenco - photographer Takes these wonderfully faded, dusky high-fashion photos - very creepy and edgy. You'll know him from the Nina Ricci advert with the apples. I want to know how he gets that quality of light.

Colette Calascione - inspires my ATCs all the time. She and her faux-Renaissance surrealism can be found online.

Henry Darger - outsider. His paintings make me hear phantom music. That's how good he is...

I've recently become interested in Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints, particularly surreal imagery of demons, ghosts, myths and legends, and the Earth Spider.

LIKES:

• The past! Particularly Victoriana, but I also love retro and vintage in all shapes and sizes. Any era suits me fine (maybe not the 90s - I had enough of that at the time. I'm definitely game for the 1790s...)

• Trees

• Cinema

• Things which are sinister without being too scary i.e. Alice in Wonderland

• Propaganda and kitch trash: I just love BAD. This includes: trash movies, bad comics, bad album covers, incompetant/unusual music, boring postcards. I'm also a fan and collector of the offensive (i.e. "innocently" racist Enid Blighton books) - it has always seemed important to preserve such things, to remind us that once everyone thought these things were acceptable and make us question modern moral standards we take for granted.

• Abandoned and overgrown buildings

• top hats, cravats, sword canes, and all things gentlemanly

• steampunk

• Art which comes with a story! I love art cards best when they have heart behind them, beyond just looking marvellous. So send me a note with your inspirations and influences too :)

• graphic novels, particularly Watchmen

• smoothies! I love my blender, so if you have recipies I'd love to try them!

• dark chocolate

• sours, sherbert things

• antiques, second hand items. I love the idea that items have been loved before.

• atmospheres and places. People think I like trees because I'm a hippy; I am a hippy, but I love cities - all cities - and small villages, wildernesses, sewers, paradises, beaches, rubbish tips. Anywhere with colours and light.

• ephemera! I've just become a big fan of collecting old greetings cards, tickets, booklets e.t.c.

*um. Taxidermy. Just chalk it up to Victoriana + awfulness = stuffed animals.

• Oscar Wilde

• The Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion

I'm on here for the ATCs. I love collecting things, but hate the mercinary nature of most "real" collectables - proper trading cards, for example, or rare books. I get angry that people make money off the things I love. So I love the personal touch of ATCs - both making and recieving them - and the way they are peversely both totally valueless and uniquely priceless. This really appeals to me.

Other Wants

• Matchbox shrines! Always wanted one, never seen one

• tarot packs / cards / influenced stuff

• foreign sweets (mmmm, always so strange, always so tasty!)

• smoothie recipes

• glow in the dark stars

• Jack of Hearts (the playing card.)

• old photos, or any photo without context. I love making up stories about the mystery.

• This particular comic book: "World's Finest #289", featuring Superman and Batman. Very hard to find in England, very cheap and easy to find in the US.

• Stuff featuring the Penny Farthing bicycle. I'd particularly love penny farthing rubber stamps!

• Disney pins. Particularly the Haunted Mansion.

• In fact, Disney Haunted Mansion full stop :D

Always happy to recieve any of the following:

• Ephemera (from any era but ours):postcards, maps, letters, photos, cards, invites, labels e.t.c.)

• bad taste ephemera - all of the above, except you wouldn't show it to your vicar or politically correct friends. I keep it in a seperate box marked "Not Safe For Parents" :)

• copies of The Picture of Dorian Gray (international - I have all the common English ones. Can trade if, miraculously, anyone wanted to...)

• old film strips/reels for my projector

• I collect religious memerobilia from all faiths so please, send me religious themed stuff, or pop a leaflet in the envelope or something.

...which always seems a bit mean spirited when I see it. This is for me not for you. I don't mean the "haven't sent" section in a bitchy way, life/post happens. But I do need to keep better track of everything. Similarly, don't rate if you want - it's your choice - I just want to keep records for my own sanity, so I can hit "archive" and keep things tidy.

SWAPPING

Things I am overdue to send
Nothing!

Things I am waiting to recieve Lighthouse ATC Origami swap

Overdue things I'm waiting to recieve
Surveys from @filmqueen3 and @beezipper

@TheCaffeinatedStamper - April film Log

@crystalvinnie - January film Log

Known issues

Did not recieve a journal from @yodnapa however I sincerely believe this is a genuine postal mishap and therefore do not wish to provide a rating.

In contact with @Lolaly about Elizabeth Bathory ATC (personal difficulties)

RATING

Ratings I need to do

Ratings I am waiting for

Have all my Surveys arrived yet?

@espressogirl74 - profile comments

@p0cketwatch - journal prompts

ANGELS @Nandin - for profile comments