12th FAI European Paragliding Championship Saint Andre les Alpes

12° Campionato Europeo di Parapendio dall'1 al 15 Settembre 2012 Potete seguire su:
http://www.para-euro2012.com/
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=50385
12th FAI European Paragliding Championship Saint Andre les Alpes from AEROGLISS on Vimeo.

A few lovelies.

It's time for our weekly round-up!

We can't get enough of Jena Ardell's adorable polaroid photos for sale in her Etsy shop! 

There are so many cute prints to choose from!

This bright turquoise and yellow 1950's time capsule kitchen is pretty incredible.

We love these bold pops of primary colors!

In a shopping mood? Well you can buy the top here and the shorts here.

The cutest little bakery (or shop?) that we ever did see!

And last, but not least, I couldn't resist posting this adorable photo!! Little chicks wearing muffin wrappers as tutus! Gahhhh! This is too much.

On that note, we hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

XO

Another Man, Another Chance (1977)

          Impressionistic and offbeat, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch’s romantic drama Another Man, Another Chance is nominally a Western, since most of the story takes place in the American frontier circa the late 1800s, but it’s also an international story with many episodes taking place in France during a time of ferocious class conflicts. Repurposing narrative concepts and themes from Lelouch’s 1966 hit A Man and a Woman—without actually being a remake of the previous film—Another Man, Another Chance tells the parallel stories of two sensitive people whose love affairs end in tragedy.

          David (James Caan) is an American veterinarian whose wife, Mary (Jennifer Warren), has grown tired of living in the wilderness, even though David adores the lonesome lifestyle because he relates better to animals than he does to people. Soon after delivering the couple’s first child, Mary is raped and killed by robbers one sad afternoon, while David’s away on business. Meanwhile, in Paris, impulsive young Frenchwoman Jeanne meets a photographer named Francis (Francis Huster), and falls in love. Wishing for adventure and an escape from the rampant poverty in Paris, Francis and Jeanne relocate to America, eventually settling in a town not far from David’s home.

          By the time David and Jeanne finally meet at the school attended by their children, Jeanne has suffered a loss of her own, so she has become guarded about romance. However, David is determined to build on their mutual attraction, so the story explores the challenges faced by people who are haunted by memories of loved ones.

          Lelouch, who also wrote the picture, uses an idiosyncratic storytelling style. He jumps back and forth in time, so viewers experience the story in the same psychological blur as the characters. This nonlinear approach doesn’t always work—some scenes are confusing—but when it connects, Lelouch expresses subtle nuances of anguish and perception. The filmmaker also employs long, unbroken takes that put viewers right in step with the actions of the characters; for instance, the scene in which David discovers Mary’s fate is a presented as a single tracking shot following Caan through every part of his character’s rambling homestead.

          Some of Lelouch’s indulgences are less effective, like a long race scene toward the end of the movie, and one could quibble that casual vignettes of David and Jeanne bonding with their children outlast their usefulness. But since the story takes place in a less hurried time, Lelouch’s leisurely pacing suits the milieu. Also in the film’s favor is the understated acting, with Caan eschewing his standard macho vibe and Bujold affecting a delicate quality that masks formidable resolve. Another Man, Another Chance is far too flawed to qualify as a great film, but it’s consistently heartfelt and thoughtful, in addition to boasting a rich, dust-choked Western atmosphere. (Available as part of the MGM Limited Collection on Amazon.com)

Another Man, Another Chance: GROOVY

Swing Connect Race: XC and Race Paragliding Harness - Gleitschirm Gurtzeug für XC und Wettkampf

50 paragliders land on Mt Blanc + Climbers Wed on Pk

50 paraclimbers land on Mt Blanc - a record
A marriage on the rocks after a 900 ft climb on Seneca Peak in a tuxedo and wedding dress

http://www.xcmag.com/2012/08/50-pilots-topland-mont-blanc-as-chamonix-sees-record-day/
http://vimeo.com/47830229
http://sylvaingattini.blogspot.fr/2012/08/pose-au-sommet-du-mont-blanc-4807m.html

Mt Blanc

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news%2Fbizarre&id=8791347

Please visit my website
http://www.hiking4health.com

Cream & sugar.

Want to take a closer peek at these super adorable cream & sugar sets? Check them out below:

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

J.PRESS "YORK STREET" BY OVADIA

Ariel & Shimon Ovadia, the brothers behind Ovadia & Sons designed a collection for storied clothier J.Press, a fresher, more updated look for the hundred year old label. The collection has a really cool, young attitude. It's very collegiate, but not stuffy. The fits are slimmed down, and ready for the modern guy. The collection is named after the location of J.Press in New haven, CT. - "York Street". Now we only have to wait till next spring, when it will hit the shelves.....

The Spikes Gang (1974)

          Taking themes from the John Wayne hit The Cowboys (1972) to an even darker extreme, The Spikes Gang is a terrific Western drama about a group of young farm boys who emulate an outlaw, with deadly results. Gary Grimes, still fresh off the coming-of-age charmer Summer of ’42 (1971), teams with Ron Howard and Charles Martin Smith, who previously costarred in American Graffiti (1973), to play a trio of young, unsophisticated men who discover a wounded outlaw in a forest near their families’ farms. The gunslinger, Harry Spikes (Lee Marvin), asks for their help, so Will (Grimes), Les (Ron Howard), and Tod (Smith) transport Harry to a barn, feed him, and tend to his gunshot wounds. Once Harry recovers, he promises to help the boys if they ever need anything, and then rides off on a horse Will provides. Will’s stern, ultra-religious father discovers his son’s activities and beats Will, which prompts the young man to run away from home.

          Eager for adventure and seduced by Harry’s grandiose stories about his exciting life as a criminal, Les and Tod join Will. They rob a bank, incompetently, and kill a bystander in the process, so they’re quickly indoctrinated into the dark side of the rebel lifestyle. Eventually, the lads get arrested and land in a Mexican jail, but Harry passes through the Mexican town and honors his debt by arranging their release. Flattered by the boys’ idolization, Harry hires the young men as his new gang and attempts a brazen robbery, during which things start going terribly wrong.

          Even with solid production values and uniformly good acting, the movie’s best virtue is a sensitive screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., the Western-cinema veterans who, not coincidentally, wrote the script for The Cowboys. Equally adept at crafting sparse dialogue and indicating characterization through behavior, Ravetch and Frank create a grown-up style of melodrama, so the storyline feels fresh and surprising as it winds toward a sad climax that’s infused with a powerful sense of inevitability.

          Director Richard Fleisher, a journeyman who worked in nearly every imaginable genre, serves the screenplay well by shooting scenes simply; his economical frames allow the actors to express the script’s relatable emotions in an unfussy manner. Playing the film’s leading role, Grimes does fine work, building on the frontier existentialism he explored in The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972). Concurrently, Marvin’s gruff poeticism perfectly suits the role of a self-serving career criminal. Howard and Smith balance the leading players with their complementary shadings of adolescent angst and affable naïveté. It’s true The Spikes Gang traffics in familiar themes, but graceful execution and heartfelt performances help the movie connect on a deeper level than expected. (Available as part of the MGM Limited Collection on Amazon.com)

The Spikes Gang: GROOVY

SuSi multi purpose paraglider - Mainmovie (HDoption)

Non sono troppo convinto che abbia fatto la scelta giusta.

HIDDEN GEMS

Tricker's

Boglioli

Drake's

Druhmor

An appointment with Nicolas Thys brings me to a suburb of Antwerp, there in a remodeled garage he has his showroom with hidden gems. As a real host he welcomes me when I walk up the driveway, and during a cup of coffee he explains how he got into the business.

He explains how a footwear collection of Tricker's starts, it's really building a shoe. You start with choosing a model then the sole, whether it's leather or a light weight. If you choose light weight you have to choose from different color options, then the upper do you want suede or leather and what color? How you want it sewn to the sole? Which color of eyelets? Type and color of the shoestring and finally you have to choose the color of the inner lining. Okay next model, let's start from scratch again.....But not only it is hard to choose the right shoes, it's also difficult to make a decision about what kind of jackets you want from the Boglioli collection or how many color options in a Druhmor pique shirt and, oh no... how many styles from the Drakes collection.........

With a smile on my face I said to him that it must be great to work everyday with these beautiful brands, and he respond with a sentence I never will forget:

  "It's better to sell shit and eat caviar, then sell caviar and eat shit" 

Back to School: Modcloth style!

Modcloth sure does fall fashion well! Here are a few pieces that we would love to add to our closets and homes this upcoming season!

Shop here:

navy & red coat, scalloped belt, plaid purse, glasses, two-tone boots, wood grain ipod dock, pink floral ipod case, heels, 642 things to write about notebook, pretty pink gloves, and a baby blue 1960's inspired coat.

Laura's Grand Adventure - The Return

Laura Molnar just posted a great video on Facebook in the High Sierra
Also running around Mt Blanc which includes a cool video

http://vimeo.com/48452447?fb_action_ids=4597344132108&fb_action_types=og_vimeo%3Aupload&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%224597344132108%22%3A277677762338921%7D&action_type_map=%7B%224597344132108%22%3A%22og_vimeo%3Aupload%22%7D&action_ref_map=[]

http://theadventureblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-north-face-ultra-trail-du-mont.html

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http://yerbaman.blogspot.com/

Please visit my website

http://www.hiking4health.com

Brewster McCloud (1970)

          Arguably Robert Altman’s strangest movie—a high standard, given his eccentric career—Brewster McCloud hit theaters shortly after the idiosyncratic filmmaker scored a major hit with M*A*S*H, but this picture was far too bizarre to enjoy the broad acceptance of its predecessor. In fact, Brewster McCloud shuns narrative conventions so capriciously that it seems likely Altman took taken perverse pleasure in confounding viewers. Consider the willfully weird storyline: Nerdy young man Brewster McCloud (Bud Cort) lives illegally in a workroom beneath the Houston Astrodome, and he passes his days studying avian physiology while building a pair of mechanical wings so he can eventually fly away to some unknown location.

          Three women in his life accentuate the peculiarity of Brewster’s existence. Hope (Jennifer Salt) is a groupie who visits Brewster’s lair and climaxes while watching him exercise; Suzanne (Shelley Duvall, in her first movie) is a spaced-out Astrodome tour guide who becomes Brewster’s accomplice and lover; and Louise (Sally Kellerman), who might or might not be a real person, is Brewster’s guardian angel, subverting everyone who tries to impede Brewster’s progress.

          This being an Altman film, the story also involves about a dozen other significant characters. For instance, there’s Abraham Wright (Stacy Keach), a wheelchair-bound geezer who makes his money charging merciless rents to seniors at rest homes, and Frank Shaft (Michael Murphy), a supercop investigating a series of murders that may or may not have been committed by Brewster and/or Louise. (Each of the victims is marked by bird defecation on the face.) Among the film’s other threads is a recurring vignette featuring The Lecturer (Rene Auberjonois), a weird professor/scientist who speaks directly to the audience about bird behavior while slowly transforming into a bird.

          Although it’s more of a comedy than anything else, Brewster McCloud incorporates tropes from coming-of-age dramas, police thrillers, and romantic tragedies, and the whole thing is presented in Altman’s signature style of seemingly dissociated vignettes fused by ironic cross-cutting and overlapping soundtrack elements. This is auteur filmmaking at its most extreme, with a director treating his style like a narrative component—and yet at the same time, Brewster McCloud is so irreverently lowbrow that Kellerman’s character drives a car with the vanity license plate “BRD SHT.” Similarly, Salt’s character expresses an orgasm by repeatedly pumping a mustard dispenser so condiments squirt onto a table.

          Appraising Brewster McCloud via normal criteria is pointless, since Doran William Cannon’s script is designed for maximum strangeness, and since none of the actors was tasked with crafting a realistic individual. A lot of what happens onscreen is arresting, and the movie is cut briskly enough that it moves along, but one’s tolerance for this experiment is entirely contingent on one’s appetite for mean-spirited whimsy. That said, Brewster McCloud is completely unique, even for an era of rampant cinematic innovation, and novelty is, to some degree, its own virtue. (Available at WarnerArchive.com)

Brewster McCloud: FREAKY

The ParaBike by ParaBounce! A Flying Bike!

Volare pedalando ora è possibile.

Polarization in the Cirque of the Unclimbables

Rock and Ice magazine had this article.   I also included The Lotus Flower Tower in the Cirque of the Unclimbables  --  North West Territories in Canada
At the bottom I have a human flight video filmed in New Zealand

http://www.rockandice.com/news/2188-tnb-polarization-and-loathing-in-the-cirque-of-the-unclimbables

http://www.summitpost.org/lotus-flower-tower/499790

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Human Flying Video from New Zealand

http://youtu.be/RsV3bGPMTXo

Please visit my website

http://www.hiking4health.com

AMERICAN STYLE THE ITALIAN WAY

Last week I visited the Mason's Clothing showroom in Antwerp. During the 1970's the American Marcatino (Flea market) in Livorno was a piece of America on Italian ground, military garments, and gadgets of all kinds admired by collectors with passion for Americana. It was in this context that the Mason's brand matured: the idea of creating civilian garnets that conserve the aesthetic and characteristics, durability, and functionality of military garments. A style was born Americana the Italian way. For spring/summer 2013 the Mason's collection is not just military styled chino's and camouflage jackets, but also a full range of 5 pockets and chino's in the colors of the rainbow and more. During the Pitti Uomo, Florence they showed a special collection presented with backlight, the idea was just to have a showstopper, but the reaction where so good that they will bring this collection on the market next spring. (for more info D-Lux)

Peach & lilac.

After almost a month of not working together at the shop due to holidays and weddings, Stef and I are back at it today and we couldn't be more excited! Our to-do list is huge, and we are eager, and it has us in the best of moods today! On that note, what better than a peach & lilac color combo on this hues-day?

The prettiest blouse from Modcloth!

We want to plan a party just to buy this pretty tassle garland!

Gorgeous table setting from Martha Stewart.

Such a fun dress from Asos, and it's on sale!

A very pretty blanket from Urban Outfitters.

Brass Target (1978)

          Crammed with big-name actors, colorful locations, and complex schemes, Brass Target should be a rousing thriller. Unfortunately, the team behind the picture tried to do too many things, and the starring role was unwisely given to John Cassavettes—who by this point in his career preferred directing low-budget films to acting in Hollywood flicks—so the combination of a confusing script and a phoned-in leading performance makes it difficult to appreciate the picture’s many admirable qualities. Set in 1945 Europe, just after the defeat of the Nazis, Brass Target begins with an exciting robbery: Mysterious criminals attack an Allied train and steal a fortune in Nazi gold. The theft divides Allied powers, because Russians blame Americans for the loss, so belligerent U.S. General George S. Patton (George Kennedy) vows to recover the gold and prove his country’s innocence. And then the movie veers off-course.

          Instead of focusing on Patton and the conspirators who want to impede his investigation, the picture shifts to an Amy detective, Major Joe De Lucca (Cassavettes), who digs into the robbery while dealing with myriad personal melodramas. Among other things, he’s got a fractious friendship with Col. Mike McCauley (Patrick McGoohan), a schemer who trades in stolen war loot, and both men love Mara (Sophia Loren), a European who survived the war by sleeping her way to safety. The movie’s plot gets even more complicated when the conspirators—primarily Col. Donald Rogers (Robert Vaughn) and Col. Walter Gilchrist (Edward Herrmann)—hire an enigmatic European assassin (Max Von Sydow) to kill Patton lest the general discover their crime.

          Any one of these storylines would have been enough for a satisfying movie, so Brass Target ends up giving each of its component elements short shrift. More damningly, the best scenes, which depict the assassin’s meticulous planning of an attempt on Patton’s life, feel like repeats of similar scenes in the acclaimed thriller The Day of the Jackal (1973). Nonetheless, Von Sydow gives the picture’s best performance, especially since the other acting in the movie is highly erratic.

          Cassavettes preens and scowls like some sort of irritable peacock; Loren looks lost, which is understandable seeing as how her character is anemically underdeveloped; Kennedy plays Patton as a foul-mouthed bully, his acting inevitably suffering by comparison to George C. Scott’s Oscar-winning turn in Patton (1970); and McGoohan is terrible, his accent shifting inexplicably from one line to the next. Still, Brass Target has tremendous production values, and the milieu of the story—postwar Europe as a lawless frontier—is fascinating. Plus, the central gimmick of the narrative, a conspiracy-theory explanation for the real Patton’s death in 1945, is imaginative. One suspects, however, that the premise was explored to stronger effect in the Frederick Nolan novel from which this film was adapted. (Available at WarnerArchive.com)

Brass Target: FUNKY