Sometimes Life Really Shouldn’t Imitate Art

Clearly I am all for life imitating art, art imitating life, art in life, and style driven in equal parts by beauty, enthusiasm and a good sense of humor.  Still, the two are not entirely interchangeable and it seems lately like some people could use a little reminding about where the line is, however faint it may be.

On Tuesday, for the London premiere of Snow White and the Huntsmen, the stars showed up decked out in full Gothic glory.  I have been waiting not so patiently for the movie to come out.  I love that kind of dark Gothic drama.  On film.  And I admire actors like Christian Bale, or even Sascha Baron Cohen, who stay in character when appearing in public while promoting a film.  But Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron’s dresses weren’t in character, they were simply misguided.  Somehow when Rooney Mara tries this type of thing, the whole look is so completely of a piece, and so genuine to her style, that for me it works.  But Stewart and Theron have their own looks which work for them, and this is not it.

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Rad Biker Cats

In today’s episode of tattoos gone wild — when pet ownership becomes animal cruelty — tattooed pets.  Yup, you read that right.  Tattooed pets.  I am so sorry to know this is a trend.  And this is from someone who loves anything that makes the world more purrty.   Tattoo yourself all you want.  They can look very cool, although as I have discussed, I have some concern about living with the permanent nature of tattoos as your identity changes over time, but either way, it’s your body.  But, news flash, your pet’s body is not your body.  I’ll grant that the pet owner own’s the pet (which is a little odd if you think too hard about it), and animals are not people and not protected by the same laws.  But involuntary tattooing of an animal — that’s just wrong.  PETA? ASPCA? Bueller? Anyone? ….

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Why Isn’t The Cast Of Hunger Games Starving?

Trendy pop culture topic of the day — what everyone who’s anyone is talking about — Hunger Games.  I am not, god forbid, going to talk about the merits of the movie — that is a different blog, in addition to which, I haven’t seen the movie yet.  I read (and loved) the books, but am still waiting for my YA movie buddy to dig herself out from under her work to go see it.  But I feel entirely equipped to enter in on the ridiculous argument which seems to be all the buzz about the casting choices in the film, and more specifically, Jennifer Lawrence’s figure and weight.

Most of the argument seems to go, “Katniss is supposed to be lean, Jennifer Lawrence is too fat.”  ”How can you call Jennifer Lawrence fat?  She is not fat.”  ”She doesn’t look like she’s athletic or anything.” “Yeah, and how is your figure?  At least Jennifer Lawrence looks real and not like a stick.”  ”Folks, Suzanne Collins, the author, signed off on the casting for god’s sake and she knows what the characters look like better than you do so you’re an idiot to question it.” blah blah blah.  Admittedly an inane argument, and beside the point, but at the core of it I think are some real issues that feed into common misconceptions about movie casting and the importance of precise physical appearance on the whole.

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Cabbies Buck the Trend – It’s Slow Going in Boston

Originally I had planned to write a post about the “pretty” trend in Spring 2011 collections.  I’ve mentioned it before, but there are a few great designers – with very pretty collections – whom I feel the need to discuss.  I’m telling you, I lie awake at night and stress about these things.  As if there weren’t enough stresses in my life, I throw these in for good measure.  ”Oh god, have I neglected Alberta Ferretti.  I really love her clothes so much.”  But then the entire day got away from me trying to improve the structure and look of the blog in an effort to make it a little more user friendly.  And that’s just fine because this afternoon (at approximately 12:29) I was overcome by the need to write a rant about Boston taxi drivers.  I know – absolutely nothing to do with “art into life” – but certain things just have to be said.

What I want to know is, how it is possible that unlike every other major city in the entire world, Boston taxi drivers are invariably the slowest and most confused cars on the road?   Read the rest of this entry »

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Top Ten People I Wish Weren’t Celebrities

Today’s list departs from the “art into life” theme.  It doesn’t even come with pictures (were I to include pictures I would be fostering the celebrity of these individuals — not a chance!).  It turns out that coming up with a week’s worth of fitting top 10 lists is a hell of a lot harder than I banked on (yes, I know it’s only day two).  Even if I had 20 ideas, however, I couldn’t resist including this list.

Top ten people I would give my right arm not to see appear in the media in 2012:

1.  Kim Kardashian

2.  Khloe Kardashian

3.  Kourtney Kardashian

4.  The Teen Moms

5.  Charlie Sheen

6.  Bethenny Frankel

7.  The Real Housewives

8.  Kate and Jon Gosselin

9.  Ashton Kutcher (I hate to say it.  He’s beautiful.  And he can be funny.  But talk about overexposure!  Not a good idea.  Sadly, I am now completely over him.)

10.  Herman Cain

Please note, unless you can absolutely assure me that I will see none of these people in the media in the coming year, I have no intention of giving my right arm.

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Pick Your Reality – Wait Until You See The Options

Trish Summerville's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" collection for H&M - Remember this?

Holy cow! This movie tie-in thing is really starting to get out of control. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that H&M was launching a collection based on the Lisbeth Salander character from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoofilm which will open on Tuesday. The collection hit stores today. I suggested in my post that the collection left me a little confused about H&M’s understanding of its target audience. But really, it is a bizarre concept all together. H&M has received criticism for the collection arguing that it glamorizes rape survivors. Natalie Karneef writes that “[Lisbeth Salander]’s a hero in some ways, but in other ways she’s somebody that I don’t think we should glorify from a fashion point of view”. H&M has responded saying that the collection was less about the specific character, than it was “about encapsulating an urban street fashion and how Trish Summerville was inspired in creating the costumes for the film”, about a general revival grunge aesthetic. H&M’s response kind of misses the point. Karneef has said, “I want them to think about why she’s wearing the clothing and how that’s not a good thing.” Lisbeth Salander is an incredible character, but much of her strength and character come out of a childhood of horrible adversity and abuse. Her style is 100% informed by those experiences. Clothing plays an important part in self-definition, so it is naïve to offer up to the public an identity of anger, walling oneself off, rejecting engagement with society as a result of intense trauma and suffering, and to suggest that the public put on that wardrobe without realizing that you are offering them that identity, and idealizing it, along with the clothes. One can admire Lisbeth Salander for how she has responded to those circumstances, and who she has become as a result, but I don’t think any of us really wants to walk in her shoes, literally or figuratively.

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Die Mullet, Die

Every once in a while, a trend comes along that even the most die-hard fashionista simply cannot get behind.  This fall it was the mullet dress.  Uh huh, the mullet dress.  Maybe you’d already heard this one.  I had seen them, but heard the moniker for the first time yesterday.  And, I have to say, it’s kind of perfect.  Not only because it describes the style perfectly, but because the dress style, like the hairstyle, is simply inexcusable.

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Why Are You Fu*king Reading This Blog (a Culture of Ego)

I’m no prude. I can curse as well as the next person – probably better. Trust me, kids love riding in the car with me. Good for days worth of entertainment. And yet the trend toward cursing and criticizing as a form of humor in design, books, etc., still bothers me. It seems, in part, to be a result of the appropriation of street culture by mainstream culture, but I think something vital is lost in the translation. Street culture or the art of the disenfranchised are often driven by a need to express anger and dissatisfaction with the status quo. That’s where they get their power. Even when the line between street culture and mainstream culture gets blurred, curses and nasty comments as releases of real anger can be artistically effective. When Eminem shoots off a string of profanities, it makes sense. It’s angry. Really angry. And the fact is I love his music. The recent explosion of the children’s book Go The Fu*k To Sleep, however, is another story.

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The Tiger Mother, the Cult of Self-Esteem, Generation Sell, and One Big Fat Mess

This may seem like a slight divergence from the point of this blog.  But, at the end of the day, I think it is highly relevant.  In this morning’s New York Times William Deresiewicz analyzes contemporary youth culture which he labels “the hipsters”.  Past youth cultures (beatniks, hippies, punks, slackers, hip hop) have defined themselves against mainstream society.  Youth culture tends to latch onto an ethos, and not only its behavior, but its artistic culture, are shaped by it.  The artistic culture, in turn, is a signifier for the ethos of that generation, which stands in rebellion against the status quo.  Hence the cliché – “oh the noise that children listen to these days”.

Contrast then the current youth culture, by which Deresiewicz means “not just the hipsters, but the Millenial Generation as a whole, people born between the late ’70s and the mid-’90s, more or less”, looks exactly like mainstream culture.  Deresiewicz is full of sticky saccharine terms to describe this culture (he does not present them with that negative cast, I suspect it’s my Gen X identity that makes me see them that way) – “polite, pleasant, moderate, earnest, friendly … low-key, self-deprecating, post-ironic, eco-friendly”.  It is a culture raised in the belief that “everybody’s special and everybody’s point of view is valid and everybody’s feelings should be taken care of”.  This ethos has been the focus of a storm of controversy recently – in the furor around Amy Chua’s The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and in Lori Gottlieb’s compelling article, “How the cult of self-esteem is ruining our kids,” in the Atlantic‘s July/August issue.  Deresiewicz puts an interesting spin on the issue.  He labels this generation “Generation Sell”.  Everyone is a salesman, everyone is an entrepreneur.  The self is the brand.  What is your brand?  That’s the key question.  You have to know the answer and market yourself accordingly.  Everyone has to play nice (on the surface, and nasty behind everyone’s back, hence Facebook rants) because that’s how you keep the customer happy.  And when you’re the brand, everyone is the customer.

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