Verses

A happy childhood can't be cured. Mine'll hang around my neck like a rainbow, that's all, instead of a noose. In today's world, Miss Piranesi, who doesn't know which is more practical?

By my age--and whether or not the whole village of Fifty-Seventh-Street-and-penthouse-Seventh Avenue is drawn up at the gates waving Queenie on her way--doesn't any girl have to get out and start answering the lyric always going on between the legs? Day and night, what a musak, walking us down the street, waltzing us in a car! Safe to listen to only in bed, when it's loudest. Or dream-boating in a deckchair at ten past five. What's the difference I know who's singing it? Only the little man-doll, man-image, all virgins keep down there.

Sweet man-maidenhead, red robin-bobbin of a dollbaby, after doing all those drawings in anatomy, I'm still stuck with you! Just like any ugly orphan of the storm, I still have to deal with you. And I'm going to have to do it in my own style.

I was born and raised to be a kept woman. Nowadays, women are no longer kept. World War Two put an end to it, long before I arrive. I get the bad news when I'm eight...

--excerpt from the first chapter of Hortense Calisher's Queenie (1971)

13 Years Later

No Doubt performed for the first time in 5 years this morning on Today. I was curious as to what song they would choose, and when they broke out with "Spiderwebs" I was instantly taken back to the summer of '96 and their performance of the same jam at the MTV beach house. And while the Today performance left a little something to be desired (but does anyone ever sound good when they play on that show?), I was happy to see that not much has changed for these guys in the last 13 years. They still play very well together, everyone seems happy to be there (especially the audience - watch out for fainting gays!), and they look great. I'm not a big fan of Gwen's outfit, but it's a pretty good and natural evolution from her original style. And the polo buttoned up all the way is a nice, modernized nod to the chola girls who basically made her what she is today. Compare and contrast below.

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Op-Ed For Friday

Thanks Nick.

Verses

"Battle For The Sun"
Placebo

I, I, I will battle for the Sun, Sun, Sun,
And I, I, I won’t stop until I’m done, done, done,
You, you, you are getting in the way, way, way,
And I, I, I have nothing left to say, say, say…

I, I, I, I, I will brush off all the dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt,
And I, I, I, I, I will pretend it didn’t hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt,
You, you, you, you, you are a black and heavy weight, weight, weight, weight, weight, weight, weight,
And I, I, I, I, I will not participate, pate, pate, pate, pate, pate, pate, pate…

Dream brother, My killer, My lover
Dream brother, My killer, My brother

I, I, I will battle for the Sun, Sun, Sun, Sun,
’cause, I, I, I have stared down the barrel of a gun, gun, gun, gun,
No fun, you, you, you, you, you are a cheap and nasty, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake,
And I, I, I, I, I am the bones you couldn’t break, break, break, break, break, break, break, break…

Dream brother, My killer, My lover
Dream brother, My killer, My brother

I, I, I will battle for the Sun.

(Semi-)Local and Seasonal

Cycles

A late 1890's H.d.T. Lautrec rendering of the dancer Loie Fuller.

Google Image For Thursday

A Bounty!

Glorious spring. I'm light and happy and falling in love every five minutes. And I've found multiple "Best Goings," a bounty:

First, the old flag of Dutch Guyana. And it's funny/awful semiotics (see the section titled "Demographics").

Second, this brilliant GOLD DIGGER cover story from The Post...I'm relatively certain it's made up--I mean, "Teresa Tambunting"? But oh the quotable, quotable quotation: "I am a very sick woman. I took the gold." Heaven.

Third, you must read this list of Sanrio characters with ridiculous bios detailing their likes and dislikes. Important revelations include Charmy Kitty's enslavement (she belongs to Hello Kitty!!) and the super weak effort on the part of creators to convince us that Kuromi "is attracted to good-looking guys."

Fourth, the only blog worth reading other than our little outfit (this is not even remotely true, but whatever...it's Thursday?).

More Folk Art for Wednesday

A Thousand Words

Folk Art For Wednesday

En Punto

Libyan national security advisor Mutassim Qadhafi (better work). Seriously though, he's one part Saville Row Mod, one part Horus, one part this hot Korean kid who I used to see pressing his hair in the girl's bathroom every morning with the finest of ceramic flatirons.

Show Me The Receipts

Pair of French Louis XVI style ivory and gold painted mirrored doors with oval wreath center (19th Cent.)—Newel.

Show Me The Receipts

Best Thing Going (For Monday)

Like most commuters, I ride in the same section of the same train-car everyday, primed to disembark at my proper exit. For the past few weeks, I have stood below a precious pair of ads: a spot seeking participants for a study at Columbia, reading "Is heroin a problem for you?" (quite similar to their older "Is marijuana making you depressed?" banners), placed beside a spot for "self-help guru" Lisa Nichols' new joint (...enter her world of healing at link). The ad features the phrase, "rock star of personal growth," which, especially when combined with "Is heroin a problem for you?", pleases me immensely.

I'm OK. You're OK.