Hope is the first step....

A beautiful girl with garments bundled up in a sack around her back made her way through the village on an autumn night for the Annual Garment Exchange Festival. She could enjoy the peace and serenity of the starlit sky up above her, yet her heart was full of anxiety and her mind full of futile thoughts. It was her first time going to the festival to sell garments, like her father had advised. He had prepared her well, yet she was doubtful of her own abilities to become a salesman. Others along her path had taken notice of her, so she felt embarrassed to turn back and beg for her fathers forgiveness.

She made her way to the market place, it was crowded with people, lights, baked goods, and a cheerful crowd of merchants and costumers waiting to exchange money for material, or their own garments for new ones. Although the girl had the best garments such as silks and fine linens, she was frightful of getting the attention of people as they passed by. She became restless after spending an hour looking at the other merchants making some sales they were happy with and some that they were disgruntled about. She though that at least they had the courage to make a sale. She continued walking throughout the festival and finally came across a beggar. She knelt down to drop some change in his cup and came across a small note he had placed next to it. The note read "Don't wait for tragedy or difficult circumstances to remind you that it is with hope we live."

She pondered the advice as she stood watching the crowd interact, remembering how much she had wanted to sell garments since she was a little girl going to the market with her father. Finally she decided to lay down her bag and display her garments for people to see.

Hope is the beginning of every journey, don't loose sight of your intrinsic ability to hope and as a result take the necessary actions. The beggar hopes, let alone the man or woman who has a couple of silks in his or her bag....

That could be your education, your talents, your vantage point, your personality, your knowledge....what ever your goods are, put it to use. Time will pass either way, why not spend it doing what you love.

Makeup from John Galliano's 2009 runway show

Bruce Brandit.....amazing short film!!!

A video I found on www.picvicious.com my boyfriend's blog.

Vivienne Westwood

Her husband Malcolm McLaren was the manager of the Sex Pistols and she designed their clothes starting from their first gig. She was a teacher until the age 30 when her husband opened up a shop in London which encouraged her to design and sell all of her outrageous fashions. it's never too late to follow your passion, because it is always waiting to blossom!

Anna Piaggi

Wow! I am so amused by her for all the obvious reasons. She is a walking spectacle and a clear example of the spirit of what it's like to love, breathe, think and live fashion!

She has been a creative consultant for Vogue Italia since 1988, an editorialist for the magazine and for an avant-garde magazine called Vanity, a muse for Stephen Jones, the subject of Karl Lagerfeld's illustrated fashion journal and is thought of as a fashion iconoclast. Her closet consists of 2865 dresses and 265 pairs of shoes according to the 2006 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which covered the world of this great fashionista.

Viktor & Rolf have become one of my favorite designers!

Viktor and Rolf presented life sized dolls and their doll-sized counterparts at the Barbican Art Gallery in London on July of 2008. The dolls were wearing 55 looks from the past 15 seasons of Viktor and Rolf's collections.







"I looked my eyes out".........an expression in dutch that is so appropriate for what I found.

I feel like designers, musicians, directors and artists of all kinds leave little bread crumbs of creativity through their work, which hopefully will lead other like minded individuals to the discovery of their own art and the ability to create such wondrous things!

These two dutch designers are amazingly playful in terms of their energy. They create from a world of their imagination that is so in alignment with what i'm inspired by as an artist. Their website is based on such a beautiful and fun concept and their message is clear....they are here to create the world of our dreams. I have a great amount of appreciation for that type of thinking. I also aspire to do the same in my short films to enrich this life so that it is never ordinary.

Viktor & Rolf ......Fall 2005 Collection....Go to Work in Your Bed was the theme.

I love some of the ideas behind their collection and in general what designers are inspired by and what they produce that is so subjective and unique....that's why we love them.

Ads I like for Estelle Yomeda and Christian Dior

J'aime les chocolats que puis-je dire!

Obama The Greatest Leader of Our Time!!!!!!! In celebration of Nowruz, being a Persian Armenian myself, "Eideh Shoma Mobarak!"

There is not enough to say about Obama. His actions speak louder than his beautiful words and intentions. His mind, heart, spirit are one and he speaks from a place of truth, knowledge, empowerment, gratitude, love, hard work and sincerity! He doesn't want to destroy, but build and cultivate a spirit of working towards the higher good that will nourish us all instead of feeding into this agelong fallacy that life is a zero sum game.

Hemlut Newton

A world renowned photographer I'm so excited to study!

Cobrastyle Production Design

I found these pictures from random blogs. I love 18th Century French style furniture with a mixture of black and white elements otherwise the colors are too dull so they need to be accentuated.

An interesting thought .....

Yesterday I was in tears over my bladder infection while on the phone at 1am trying to explain to my doctor the worry and pain I was feeling over the event. He called the pharmacy and perscribed the necessary medication. I had a thought the next morning, which was....Wow! Doctors must share some intimate moments with their patients because there's nothing more important than a person's health and when it is in danger, we are at the mercy of these humanitarians called doctors and we will confess to them our deepest fears...possibly.

Talin

Lady Gaga At the Wiltern........She rocked the Haus!

Her show was all grounded in theatrics from her singing, story telling, costumes, props and personality on stage. She did an incredible ballad to Poker Face and played the keys on a piano that she made to match her bubble suit! I felt like she had invited us to her house to hang out. Her comfort and playfulness with the audience was awesome! With her but cheeks hanging out in all four outfits, it reinforced my thought of a female's need to express her sexuality all day every day, with no regrets, no labeling, no judgment and hence encouraging others to accept them as they are. It's not our fault if some of us are blessed in the derier and want to flaunt it! =P

Christopher Cross.........Michael Mind did a cover of "Ride Like the Wind" with a remix by Klaas. it's Awesome!

It is the night
My body's weak
I'm on the run
No time to sleep
I've got to ride
Ride like the wind
To be free again

And I've got such a long way to go
To make it to the border of Mexico
So I'll ride like the wind
Ride like the wind

I was born the son of a lawless man
Always spoke my mind with a gun in my hand
Lived nine lives
Gunned down ten
Gonna ride like the wind

Accused and tried and told to hang
I was nowhere in sight when the chuchbells rang
Never was the kind to do as I was told
Gonna ride like the wind before I get old

I love this song so much!

Listen......a women shouts....and what comes out of her pretty little mouth?

MY SEXUALITY IS one of MY BIGGEST VIRTUES! Let the world know!

Yours truly,

Talin Malekian

Female Vampire in Venice!

"Der Ring Des Nibelungen".........brace yourself !!!

The biggest citywide cultural event since the Olympic Arts Festival of 1984!!! LA Opera has joined forces with the Los Angeles cultural and educational institutions to stage this cultural festival in 2010. The grand event is the "Der Ring Des Nibelungen," an opera by Richard Wagner.

Wagner's four part opera, which he spent 26 years writing the libretto and the music for, will be presented and sold as one package composed of four separate operas to view within four nights. It is a huge event and an amazing art piece to be a part of!

Lady Gaga! I'm going to the concert on the 13th! Yay!!!!

She's got so much style! She's gonna be an ICON...seriously...and we are going to work together in the near future!!!! She has also written songs for The Block like their track "Big Girl Now." She is wise beyond her years in terms of knowing exactly what she is after and what she likes. Her wit is plenty to cover her ass even though it's usually bare. She explained in the Rolling Stones magazine "My grandmother is basically blind, but she can make out the lighter parts, like my skin and hair. She says, 'I can see you, because you have no pants on.' So I'll continue to wear no pants even on television so that my grandma can see me."

I love Pop Culture!!! The Block is back!

I love so many of the songs on this album!!!! I'm glad you guys are back! As cheesy as they are, they are real about it and don't shy away from staying true to their style of music.

A Band Called Quinn....I love this music video, but not the song.

"Mirror Box"..........My trailer for my short film!!

Mirror Box Trailer - April 24, 2009 from Talin Malekian on Vimeo.

Music is EVERYTHING! So PAY for it!!!!!

Coco Chanel

Her story is truly amazing from her humble beginnings at a French orphanage to becoming a world renowned designer. She is the first designer in the Western world to incorporate and mix men's fabrics and styles of fashion into women's clothing. Her clothes were designed for the comfort and the independence of women.



There's a film called Coco Before Chanel that is due for its release in the middle of this year starring Audrey Tatou as Coco Chanel. There's also a great Lifetime biographical movie called "Coco Chanel" starring Shirely McClaine and Barbora Bobulova.

Grey Gardens....one of my favorite documentaries!

You have to watch this! You will fall in love with these women. It is the sweetest story. The 1975 documentary is about Jacqueline Onassis' cousins Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter "little Eddie" two aristocratic recluses who lived in an old decrepit 28 bedroom mansion with 52 cats and vagrant raccoons in the east Hampton, New York. They played make believe in their old fancy dresses and made-up costumes and talked about their enchanting past all day long to forget their present life that was so far removed from the splendor that once existed.

"Big Eddie" reminds me of my grandmother with her love of photographs, glorifying the past and being so picky in regards to the choice of clothing her daughther "Little Eddie" would wear.

Their story has been adapted into a full-length Broadway musical!

Melanie Lynskey

She played Pauline in "Heavenly Creatures" when she was 15 years old. Her acting was incredible!

Kate Winslet...... "Heavenly Creatures."

Heavenly Creatures was a film by Peter Jackson in 1994. The film is a true story about two girls who are extremely imaginative and live in a world made up of their adventure stories and their own religion and their obsessions with each other. The relationship between the two girls, played by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, is frightfully consuming of their every bit of energy and zest for life. They are inseprable and eventually disilluisoned by their fears of losing each other. The performance by these two actresses is astonishing.

Steven Meisel part II .....I love these pictures and colors!