Distinguish melancholy from sadness

“Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. 

 It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk. Spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. 

It doesn’t have to be a walk during which you’ll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. 

Find meaning or don’t find meaning but “steal” some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn’t make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be.” 

—  Albert Camus, Notebooks (1951-1959)

[Krystian Zimerman & Kaja Danczowska play
César Franck's Violin Sonata, 1st movement.]

As the decay of winter slowly fades away and spring's bloom rises the images above, Camus' words, and that beautiful and melancholical piece reflect my mood during these days. 

— Mara

Ph.: L’Eclisse (1962), Olga Onischenko, Leopoldo Pomés (Revista Grúa, 1957), Brigitte Bardot, Elise Crombez by Annemarieke van Drimmelen ('Io Sono L’Amore', Vogue Netherlands, December 2012), Raymond Depardon (Jardin du Luxembourg, 1989), Jean Seberg, the69th, oprahhatparty, poppycockburn, most-beautiful-girls-caps, nostalgia, Nymph()maniac vol. I (2013), La Notte (1961), Visual 404

A hazy shade of Winter

“It is sometimes so bitterly cold in the winter that one says, ‘The cold is too awful for me to care whether summer is coming or not; the harm outdoes the good.’ But with or without our approval, the severe weather does come to an end eventually and one fine morning the wind changes and there is the thaw. When I compare the state of the weather to our state of mind and our circumstances, subject to change and fluctuation like the weather, then I still have some hope that things may get better.”

— Vincent van Gogh, from a letter to Theo van Gogh in August 1879.

It's being one of the coldest winters I can remember. I was used to really cold winters when I lived in the north of my country, years ago, but in this coast these low temperatures are pretty uncommon. Besides that, loads of things happened during holidays... not all of them good. Add to that the exams' stress and other unpleasant stuff. But lately I've been lucky to find some new projects, ideas, do some traveling plans with my friends, and all these things are helping me to find the hope that van Gogh talked about. To find warm feelings in the middle of the cold days. The images above reflect my mood during this time of the year, and "Won't you come home" is the perfect reflection of that new hope and warm feelings I was telling you about. A friend told me that I should listen to it at the end of the day, and he was damn right. Devendra's voice makes you feel like your path in life is gonna be completely smooth from now on. Also, Mazzy Star is always on repeat during my winters. Hope Sandoval's voice and the soft guitars can cure any heartache:

And I found this little short film by Gustav Johansson, and next winter holidays I just want to have an "Everyday" experience. It looks like the perfect way to spend winter days: 

EVERYDAY a film by Gustav Johansson

Hope your winter is going great.

— Mara. 

Ph.: Alexa Chung by Zackery Michael, Antonio Liverani, adieu-tristesse, softredinteriors, Mieke Verbijlen (photos 3, 11, 17), L'Amour l'après-midi (1972), style attitude, Beginners (2010), museedesbeaux-arts, Françoise Hardy, Helene hille Rydén, twistytwirls, death-by-elocution, Jared Leto, disorder-of-nothing, thestorycanresume, Léa Seydoux, the girl who rattled the stars, Iciar J Carrasco, Ana Kraš, Margaret Durow (photos 25, 27), Ana Kraš and Devendra Banhart, youphoric, Melanieherself, Like Crazy (2011). 

A frustrated melancholy floating on the wind

“The air blows soft as the swirl of a painter’s brush outside and the dry leaves sink in a slow nocturne. There is a frustrated melancholy floating on the wind in stagnant spirals and it feels like the nights in This Side of Paradise. Effulgent voluptuous rain smothers the tree tops and the darkness shoves along the street in scandalized puffs.” 

— Zelda Fitzgerald to F. Scott Fitzgerald, on a November day from 1931. 

I can feel the frustrated melancholy that Zelda Fitzgerald talked about during this time of the year. We’ve left the sunny mellow afternoons behind and we're having plenty of gray rainy days. The air blows with an aching sadness at dawn. It feels like winter is already here. You can feel the cold on your bones. During days like these I just feel like sitting in the bathtub — as Sylvia Plath said: "There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure." —, or in front of the window looking at the sunset like Charlotte did on Lost In Translation.  Also, when it comes to my professional future I start to feel like the Scarlett Johansson's character. I think this is not the first time I talk you about how much I love that film, basically 'cause I felt totally represented on Charlotte. Her personal situation reminds me of some things I went through. The same happens with the 5th season of Mad Men. I've been watching it lately and there is a darkness on the tempestuous relationship of the main characters that I also have felt on the past. Something that Terrence Malick's To the wonder shows too, that's why I have included some pics from it on this post.

 And of course, there are some photographs from Paris in here too 'cause rainy days remind me of Paris. I daydream about having a walk through the Quartier Latin and Saint-Germain-des-Près. Plus November is the anniversary of Albert Camus' birth and I’ve been reading his essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’, which I’ve always had wanted to read but never had find the right time to do it before. 

Hope your Autumn is going well! 

Ph.: Nicholas McLean, rebeccaplotnick, twobirdsonabranch, Marine Vacth, possumsednolo, The Dreamers (2003), cuerposiameses, David Lynch by Alasdair McLellan, theotherway, Luiza Potiens, softskinfanzine, To the Wonder (2012), Ana Kraš, anothereternalsummer, Mad Men, Léa Seydoux, avec-des-sentiments, Lost in Translation (2003), styleallureattitude