nora

November 2014RESTING CAT FACE • FILM COMPARISONS • GILMORE GIRLS

KAREN O • LORDE • MIXTAPES

The Team

Editor Tate FountainThis issue was designed by the Editor

Illustrator Lucy MorrisPhotographer Kiana Heart

Media Columnist Sennen CorkOpinion Columnist Andy ReevesBeauty Columnist Abigail Morgan

Editor’s LetterHello and welcome to the first issue of NORA magazine!

This month’s theme is car boot sale - which, as I told Kiana in my email to her, can mean as much or as little as you like. Car boot sales are opportunities to find gems in moments almost lost or forgotten, an opportunity to discover that those moments are still brimming with sentimentality... a picture book that’s collected a layer of dust, the kind of stuff you find yourself nostalgic for once you get them out and rehash those memories, and yet you find you’ve moved on from enough to sell in a field on a sunny day. Which brings us to the car boot sale. Beyond that, for the semantics of it, I was most likely inspired by YouTube’s itsamemyleo and his “How Many Birds Are There in a Human Body?” video. Oh, Myles.

I also chose car boot sale as a theme because I was absolutely - though perhaps not shockingly - disorganised, and I extended the invitation to our contributors before I had a theme to which they could contribute. Then - brilliant, talented young women that they are - they began to respond with plans for their pieces. (I remember it was Abigail with her “cat- themed fashion” that made me think “oh my goodness! Brilliant! Now... what kind of a theme does this fit into, if Andy’s writing about Asian representation and Sennen’s doing Gilmore Girls? Dang flabbit!”) But we got there in the end, with car boot sale.

Hopefully this issue, eclectic as it is, will turn that image of grandma’s open-booted Ford Falcon into a readable and - dare I say it - enjoyable magazine. I wanted a random, feline make-up tutorial prob-ably born of the quirkiest 90s brand, and I wanted an old book report or film review found in the back page of a vintage notebook, and I wanted a couple of somewhat scratched but aurally beautiful vinyl records. I wanted so much and so little and the figurative dust we’ve collected does that, I think.

As my final note to you, I’d just like to say thanks for taking the time to flip through this magazine. If you’ve read the whole of the Editor’s Letter: great. Read on. Enjoy it. (There’s a very real possibility you skimmed this. But, hey, I’ll let it go.)

Tate

Table of Contents

1 Beauty A #RestingCatFace for those on the prowl4 Opinion Lucy vs. Pacific Rim6 Television Gilmore Girls is on NetFlix and we love it7 CHOON! We’ve got some Little Mixes (on 8tracks... chill)8 Music Sennen sees Karen O Tate sees Lorde10 Car Boot Gallery An amalgamation of Lucy’s creation

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FASHION & BEAUTY

RESTING CAT FACEBY ABIGAIL MORGAN

Before beginning the actual making-up and cattifying (here at NORA we create words), Abi applied the Amie Morning Dew Matte-Finish Moisturiser and then her current favourite primer, the Laura Mercier Foundation primer. Now, enough butting in from the ambiguous butter-inner... on to Abi!

SKINI started off the Max Factor Whipped Creme foundation (my shade is 40 Light Ivory), applied with the Real Techniques Stippling Brush by Samantha Chapman (from Pixiwoo!)

BROWSNext came brows. I’m lucky to already have thick and shaped brows so I only use a pencil to fill in any gaps. If you are looking for a product to help shape and thicken brows, I would suggest using a powder set and angled brush as pencils would create the dreaded drawn on effect. Remember, brows don’t have to be identical, they’re sisters, not twins!

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FASHION & BEAUTY

RESTING CAT FACEBY ABIGAIL MORGAN

EYESSHADOWLately I have really fallen in love with eye shadow sticks. I’ve never been the neatest with powder eye shadow and any attempt at a smoky eye always made me look like a raccoon but the pencils have helped me to be a lot more precise.

I applied the lighter shade (Kate Moss for Rimmel London Eye Shadow Stick in 100 Rose Gold) over both lids (up to but not over the crease) and then placed the darker colour directly in the crease and smudged out and onto the lid with my finger.

LINERI have two favourite eyeliners at the moment: the Rimmel ScandalEyes Precision Micro Eyeliner and the Benefit Push Up Liner (both black). The Rimmel one is closer to a liquid liner with a felt tip nib and the Benefit one is a gel liner with an angled silicon nib.

I used the Rimmel one for more precision. but if you wanted a longer lasting look, I would suggest the Benefit one: it honestly does not budge once it’s on!

Whenever I’m doing a cat eye, I always start with the flick. Angle the nib of your pen/brush so it sits as a continuation of your lash line and pull the line back towards your eye until it joins with the bottom lashes. This can be done a few times until the flick is done. After the flick is to your liking, pull the liner toward your eye as you have been doing but this time continue it over the top of your lid, keeping as close to the lash line as possible.

My crease is slightly deeper and longer on my other eye so I do it a bit differently. I do the first line and pull toward the bottom lashes as normal but then I do top lash line until I meet the first line and create the flick as normal from then. This helps me to see where my crease ends so the flick doesn’t end up sitting inside it and folding.

MASCARASoap and Glory’s Thick and Fast will forever be my favourite as it gives you pin up worthy lashes in next to no time! Rather than going straight up with the wand like normal, I pull them slightly to the side with the wand in the direction of the cat eye to give it more definition and drama.

Want to show us your rendition of this look? Tweet or Instagram it using the hashtags #TeamNORA and #RestingCatFace!

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FASHION & BEAUTY

RESTING CAT FACEBY ABIGAIL MORGAN

LIPSWith a cat eye I’m normally more of a red lip kinda girl, but in the Autumn I love pairing it with a really dark purple (a la Lorde in the Tennis Court video!).

[ Note from the Editor: can you tell we love Lorde? ]

The best purples that I have tried are the Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Creme 663 Va Va Violet and the Topshop Lips in Ruthless. They are basically the same shade, one in a glossy formula, one in matte! I love matte makeup for daytime autumn so I went with the Topshop purple, but for this look at night I would definitely use the Revlon Va Va Violet (“Ruthless”).

I always like to start thin and work out with my lipstick (it’s much easier to correct mistakes) but it does look quite strange to start with! First, I create my cupid’s bow by using the bullet to draw triangles from the peaks of my lips to the centre.

Then I draw, with the bullet, straight down from these triangles into the centre of my lips.

Do the same upward from the bottom triangle on each side. If there is still lip colour showing, gradually move the bullet out to the lip line. With a dark colour like this, you will need to go further to the lip line and in the lip than you normally would so there isn’t too much lip showing. Once most of the lip is coloured, go back to the triangles and pull the bullet in and down towards the middle of the lip, rounding out the triangles and giving the cupid’s bow a more natural look.

HAIRFor the hair, I used Batiste dry shampoo to give it texture and help the hair pins to grip well and then brushed it through with my HeadJog 80 ceramic barrel to give the roots more lift. I then used the Kérastase laque noir hair spray over the textured hair and slicked it back with my usual hair brush. I lifted the front half of my hair on each side back and pinned it, scooping the rest over one shoulder and twisting it to create a curly “tail”!

OPINION (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!)

LUCY VS. PACIFIC RIM: EAST ASIAN EDITIONBY ANDY REEVES

Lucy and Pacific Rim are both generally good action movies on their own, each with riveting plots and interesting characters, but these two movies have quite a big difference between them.

No, it’s not the giant fighting robots or the equally giant alien monsters.

It’s how the movies portray the East Asian populace.

First of all, it’s important to note that Lucy has no Asian characters in the main cast, while Pacific Rim has Rinko Kikuchi playing the part of Mako Mori. Secondly, the movies don’t portray the same group of East Asians: Pacific Rim’s Mako Mori is Japanese, and the majority of the movie is set in Hong Kong. Lucy is set in Taiwan and has minor Korean characters.

Lucy presents us with a part sci-fi, mostly action movie plot, exploring the myth about how humans only utilize 10% of our brain’s capacity. Without giving away any spoilers for the movie, Lucy is about a woman who has been able to expand that percentage, becoming super-human.

I was all for an action movie with a female protagonist, and I was so excited when I found out that Scarlett Johansson was to be the leading lady. However, after seeing a scene that did not make the cut for the international trailer - but was shown in the US one - I was surprised. In this particular scene, Lucy comes out with a gun, asking a couple of Taiwanese taxi drivers if they speak English. When one of them says no, Lucy shoots him, just like that.

This scene was... deplorable, to say the least. I could list possibly a hundred things wrong with this scene, but I think I have one word that can sum it up perfectly.

This scene was just so racist. We see an American woman, in Taiwan, where Mandarin is the native language. Now I don’t know what’s worse, the blatant display of white supremacy, or the fact that this scene was deemed appropriate for the US trailer but was apparently too graphic to showcase internationally.

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Lucy does not show any respect towards the East Asian culture. Chinese characters - written ones, of course - are used simply to set the scene, and have no significance to the plot, and when Johansson speaks in a voiceover during the opening scene, saying, “Life was given to us a billion years ago, what have we done with it?” we are shown the different aspects of the Taiwan. To me this goes beyond scene-setting, and seems as if it’s undermining the citizens and the culture, as if to say the gift of life has been wasted on such individuals.

Overall, I personally think that Lucy shows a lack of respect towards the Asian culture and its people, and strengthens the belief that the only people relevant to the world are those with white skin.

Now let’s talk about Pacific Rim.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Pacific Rim is also a sci-fi movie – set, this time, in the the 2020s. This movie is Del Toro’s friendly nod towards Japanese pop culture: packed to the brim with huge fighting robots up against gigantic, reptilian aliens. Like Lucy, the protagonist is in fact white – but this time, there’s a catch. A catch by the name of Mako Mori.

Mako Mori is a Japanese character, played by Japanese actress, Rinko Kikuchi. I am so proud of Pacific Rim for not white-washing their Asian roles, unlike some other movies are known to do (I’m looking at you, Dragonball: Evolution, 47 Ronin, The Last Airbender). I am also extremely happy with how respectfully this particular Asian woman is portrayed.

Mako is an extremely intelligent young woman, who is not only a genius when it comes to robotics, but is also a skilled martial artist. She’s interesting because she’s not just a dull stereotype - she’s headstrong and stubborn, yet respectful, too. She isn’t presented as a romantic plot device (as are most female supporting leads), and she’s not there to help along another character’s development. Mako Mori is her own person, with a unique backstory allowing the audience to connect with her.

(Let’s not forget that her adoptive father is a person of colour and is also pretty kick-ass.)

On top of this, Mako and Raleigh (the white protagonist) have an entire conversation in Japanese. In legitimate Japanese - they’re not just throwing random phrases around. This respect is also extended to Del Toro’s portrayal of Hong Kong: only shady and in ruins due to the giant ocean lizards wreaking havoc. This is context for why an otherwise beautiful, clean, and modern city does not appear so.

Pacific Rim is a film with an amazing, stunningly-written Asian character.That’s not too hard, is it? Just one respectfully-rendered individual?

Well, apparently so, because - even with her super-human braincapacity - such a thought never occurred to Lucy.

Do you agree with this article? Tweet us at #TeamNORA with your response!

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TELEVISION

WHY GILMORE GIRLS BEING ON NETFLIX IS THE BEST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO ME

BY SENNEN CORK

The early-to-mid noughties comedy drama (emphasis on the comedy, not a lot of drama. That’s part of the appeal) Gilmore Girls, has been on Netflix a month today. This is the greatest thing to have ever happened to me ever.

If you don’t know the plot, Gilmore Girls is the story of coffee addicted single mother Lorelai Gilmore, and her teenage bookworm daughter Rory (Rory is short for Lorelai - she named her daughter after herself). Lorelai had Rory at the tender age of sixteen, ran away from her old money, high society parents, and raised her kid in the quirky and cute small town of Star Hollow.

The basic premise of the show is that Rory wants to go to Harvard, to get to Harvard she needs to go to prep school, Lorelai can’t afford prep school tuition, so tentatively re-establishes her relationship with her parents in return for them paying Rory’s school fees. That’s the basic premise.

The show also features the Greatest Mother/Daughter Television Duo Ever (Rory and Lorelai), an excellent soundtrack, and incredibly quotable writing. And also Lorelai-and-Luke, whose slow burn romance is an example of the excellence and importance of television, and how on TV you get so much longer to tell stories, and therefore the stories you tell are better.

I suppose what this is really about is how influential TV can be on a person when they’re twelve, because that’s how old I was when I first watched the show, and I would go as far as to say it shaped me as a person. ‘Tweens’ have this incredible habit of absorbing the traits of the fictional characters they surround themselves with, and boy, did I do that. Lorelai’s habit of making a pop culture reference in any situation, regardless of whether it’s appropriate or not? Lorelai’s inability to refrain from cracking jokes in any situation? Rory’s ‘when the going gets tough the tough get reading’? Okay I had that before I watched the show, but my idolisation of Rory Gilmore definitely had an effect on the literature I consumed post-GG. I’m not the most academically gifted of people, but when I need to pull something - be it an essay, an all nighter revision session, or finishing Rebecca in a week - my go to motivational phrase is still WWRGD? What Would Rory Gilmore Do?

The answer is grab a coffee and study, so that is what I do.

Television is a criminally underrated form of story telling if you ask me, and Gilmore Girls is a criminally underwatched show. Underwatched is not a word, but I don’t care, because it is. Nothing really happens in it - there is an entire episode devoted to Rory playing golf with her grandfather. That’s it, that’s all that happens in the entire forty minutes - but that doesn’t matter. The characters feel like old friends. When I hear that theme tune, cliche and probably melodramatic as it is, but it is like coming home. And if you cool cats follow the advice I’m about to give you, you’ll get that warm-and-comfy feeling too, which in this cold and harsh world makes everything a bit easier, even if it is just for forty five minutes.

So. Get thee to Netflix. Watch Gilmore Girls. Oy with the poodles already.

Know what Rory Gilmore would do if she liked this? She’d tweet us at #TeamNORA!

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CHOON!

CHOONS FOR SEASONAL EVENINGSBY TATE AND SENNEN

Afresh

i. All I Want The Lightning Seedsii. Everyday Buddy Hollyiii. Tongue Tied Grouploveiv. On Top of the World Imagine Dragonsv. Tenerife Sea Ed Sheeranvi. Chocolate The 1975vii. Thee Oh So Protective One Girlsviii. Mad Sounds Arctic Monkeys

Falling

i. Hannah Hunt Vampire Weekendii. Falling Florence + The Machineiii. Hold On We’re Going Home Drakeiv. Baby Warpaintv. I Need My Girl The Nationalvi. Glass In The Park Alex Turnervii. Toothpaste Kisses The Maccabeesviii. Autumn Leaves Ed Sheeran

These choons are available for easy listening at 8tracks.com/noramixes. Check it out!

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MUSIC: KAREN O

EVEN THE GODS GET STAGE FRIGHTBY SENNEN CORK

Karen O, most famous for the guttural shrieks of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and not so guttural shrieks - listen to Maps, I beg of you), and sound tracking Spike Jonze’s films, recently released her first solo record.

Recorded between 2006 and 2007, Crush Songs is a dazzling, lo-fi album with a really cute cover. I was lucky enough to see her perform in one of the handful intimate live shows she did, and let me tell you - the woman is a dragon. I mean that in the cool way. She was also pretty shaky (like, physically shaky. I was front row, I could see) but that didn’t stop her! Watching her - I don’t know how best to describe it? Unfold, she unfolded on stage, starting with her eyes closed, and her shaking hands folded in her dress (an excellent dress that made her look like a sea witch), and ending by dancing, full on raving it up on stage with her band.

When artists have a good time, everyone has a good time. And watching Karen O have an absolute ball on stage made me have an absolute ball. I was star struck (the woman sang at the Oscars with Ezra Koenig), hands clasped like I was praying, and apparently I looked like the heart eyes emojji - not a surprise, I am the heart eyes emoji - but I was enjoying myself. Because she was enjoying herself. I guess the trick with performing is that you’ve just got to remind yourself that the audience is with you.

People, as a general rule, want you to do well. Unless they’re some kind of evil dictator or something, but those sorts of people are very rare. If you’re performing, be it in a musical, or a play, or a concert, people want you to do well. In a paraphrase of Tyra Banks - we are all rooting for you.

If Karen O can defeat her nerves to boogie on stage during Visits after shaking during NYC Baby, you can do whatever you want to do. Go get ‘em tiger.

Do we want your feedback? Yeah Yeah Yeah! Tweet us with the hashtag #TeamNORA!

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MUSIC: LORDE

RED, ORANGE, NEVER MISSED A BEATBY TATE FOUNTAIN

Over the past couple of months, I’ve had the recurring urge to refer to Lorde not by her moniker, but by her given name. Y’know, Ella? This first came about after I had a dream in which I was friends with her and also Emma Watson, but kept getting their names mixed up even though I knew better. This, of course, I would never do. I am The Master Of Cool.

While wondering if it would be disrespectful to refer to her as “Ella”, I somehow found myself a few feet away from the stage, surrounded by relative strangers. (I made the mistake of wearing a leather jacket in what many people refer to as the mosh pit. Just don’t do it. Not ever.)

The show began after a long wait, with the dreamy, Luna Lovegood-type band Yumi Zouma opening. Then we waited some more. An almost excruciating length of time. And then... oh my Lorde.

The first thing I want to say about Lorde onstage is that she makes you fall in love with her. She’s bursting with energy, surging to the beat, all with a mega-watt beam of pure joy on her face. From the very first line of Glory and Gore, you’re hooked.

She jumped from song to song so fluidly, one minute in our faces, the next minute subdued, pulled back, stripped down. (I don’t mean literally, though her costume changes had me in awe, too.)

Every so often she would sing a line - I love these roads where the houses don’t change - and then she’d pause and say, “that’s you.”Auckland, that’s you.

There were a couple of moments she was almost crying (admittedly, I was, too), and she just spoke to us so articulately and so genuinely and somehow the fact she swore like a sailor made me feel all the more at home, like she was just part of our gang. (The message you should probably take away from this is that I want to be friends with Lorde.)

By the end, we were all chanting Ella.

Is Lorde your Pure Heroine? The hashtag is almost a pun in itself! #TeamNORA

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Welcome to Lucy’s Car Boot GallerySo I’ve called this collection of pieces Car Boot Gallery for two reasons, the first being that car boot sale is the theme of this issue of NORA, and secondly, because,

well, it’s a bit of an eclectic mix of pictures. With lots of different themes and inspirations, there isn’t really one thing that links them all together (apart from the fact

that I created them but I can’t just call them ‘Stuff Lucy Made’, now can I?).

Anyway, on we go… Welcome to my car boot gallery, I hope you enjoy your visit.

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Do You Hear The People Sing?(Photograph worked on top of in Microsoft Paint and then edited)

I took this photograph in a Pill-box just outside my village and the subject is actually Abi, our Fashion/Beauty editor.

I’M NOT PROCRASTINATING YOU ARE (Biro)

This piece of paper was supposed to be part of an essay. You can see how well that turned out.

Crocus(Microsoft Paint)

There’s not a whole lot to say about this piece, really, except that it took ages.The end result was worth it, though, I think.

GOLD(Pencil and biro)

Gold is a beautiful song that I first heard in the musical Once, based on a film of the same name. I think that “Gold” (and all the other songs in Once) has such stunning lyrics and an enchanting melody. Basically, it’s great, and you should listen to it, and I would not be at all surprised if you fell in love with it the same way I did.

STARS IN THE RAIN(Watercolour and acrylic paint)

Personally, I love thunderstorms, and I particularly love thunderstorms at night. There is nothing better in my opinion than being curled up under lots of blankets with a good book and some chocolate whilst a storm is raging in the darkness outside.

FLAMING HAIR(Acrylic paint)

AboveTHE PRINCESS AND THE BEAR(Biro and watercolour paint)

Because fairy tales are great and we should always indulge our fancies. Plus, a beautiful muddy dress for the princess that would rival even Elizabeth Bennet’s!

LeftPROFILE(Pencil)

A simple portrait sketch.

noraNovember 2014