Oh, Barcelona!

Woke up to a fever and headache.. so I've been laying in bed all morning watching my new favorite movie-- Vicky Christina Barcelona.

Two twenty-something best friends spend the summer abroad in Barcelona (I can't help but say Bar-sell-oooonah everytime I type it out). Soon after meeting a sexily scruffy Spanish artist, they are both dazzled by his bohemian lifestyle and irrationally rash logic. The artistry in the way he lives, his attention to detail and his ability to see the beauty in all the chaos makes me want to drop everything and move to Spain, and live like he does. I was hooked within the first 10 minutes and have not been able to get Penelope Cruz's voice out of my head-- her beautiful Spanish words slurring together into perfection. How I wish I could carry around a camera like ScarlettJo and capture the delicate scenery around me. Oh, who am I kidding.. It'll happen one day. But for now, I'll keep dreaming about the day I get whisked off my feet into some magical ancient city.

The two co-stars making out is not the only reason why I like this movie.. haha, but the "bohemian" lifestyle that the artist lives and that Scarlett Jo strives to have. Her search for passion-- whether its love, or lust for life, is so overwhelming because she doesn't know what she wants, but she knows exactly what she doesn't want. Without seeing the film it is a bit difficult to describe, but I completely connected with her character, but at the same time felt like her best friend, Vicki, who would put up walls and not let others in.

Anyways, the bohemian lifestyle got me thinking-- where did it originate? and how did it become part of everyday language and a way to label fashion?

Fashion derives from the countercultures that emerge in society. These countercultures are mostly by accident and no one can predict what will be the new "hip" thing.

For instance, boho derives from "bohemian" which was first used in the English language in 1848. It was used to describe the gypsy-type people that were thought to be drifting from Bohemia. They brought with them a lifestyle of art, passion, lust for life, carefree and strive-- for even if they were poor they saw the good and art in everything.

"To take the world as one finds it, the bad with the good, making the best of the present moment—to laugh at Fortune alike whether she be generous or unkind—to spend freely when one has money, and to hope gaily when one has none—to fleet the time carelessly, living for love and art—this is the temper and spirit of the modern Bohemian in his outward and visible aspect. It is a light and graceful philosophy, but it is the Gospel of the Moment, this exoteric phase of the Bohemian religion; and if, in some noble natures, it rises to a bold simplicity and naturalness, it may also lend its butterfly precepts to some very pretty vices and lovable faults, for in Bohemia one may find almost every sin save that of Hypocrisy. ... "

Interesting, no?