Hello, Sunshine!

Best in Shoe

2011-12-02T00:21:00.000-08:00

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk
a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize
them, you are a mile away from them and you
have their shoes.”—Jack Handy

What’s it like to be in the shoes of the famous? LIFE.com provides a glimpse into celebrity soles, with photographer Craig Cutler’s gallery of footwear worn by the noteworthy and notorious, ranging from 18th-century popes to present-day pop stars.

Left, Robert Frank: Red-and-Yellow Brogues, circa 1974–1975
Visionary genius Robert Frank changed the lexicon of photography and captured all levels of society with The Americans, published in 1958. Nearly 20 years later, Frank accidentally left these two-tone lace-ups behind at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, N.Y.

Right, Madonna: Concert Shoes, circa 1992–1994
Beaded appliqué stars and a constellation of rhinestones add sparkle to Madonna’s satiny platforms from the Girlie Show World Tour. Notice the subtle contrast detail on the ankle strap that helps to reduce buckle-wear and stretching. Shimmer, shine and safety!

See more Shoes of the Very Famous.

Princess Lace

2011-11-25T23:33:00.000-08:00

“I hate this nightgown. I hate all my nightgowns, and I hate all my underwear too.”—Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann, Roman Holiday

The ivory lace dress Audrey Hepburn wore when she collected her Oscar for "Roman Holiday" will be auctioned on November 29 by Kerry Taylor Auctions in London. Some sources cite Givenchy as the designer; others credit Edith Head with the design Givenchy with alterations. According to Vogue UK, the iconic, full-skirted dress was adapted from a version designed by Edith Head that the actress wore in the last scene of Roman Holiday in 1952, and it has been valued at £40,000—£60,000. Hepburn, who called it her “lucky dress,” had given it to her mother, Ella van Heemstra; her mother, in turn, gave it to a friend who lived in America. The dress had been stored away in a box until the family put it up for sale. Before auctioneer Taylor could display the dress, she had to shave the mannequin to fit a 34-inch bust and a 24-inch waist.

Read more in the Daily Mail and the Telegraph.
See Roman Holiday.

Update 12.01.2011: A private collector purchased Ms. Hepburn’s “lucky” Oscar dress for £84,000.

I Love You, Man!

2011-10-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

In the 1980s, Denis Piel photographed nearly every model who became a supermodel, a series campaigns for Donna Karan and a near-iconic photo of a distinctively pregnant Isabella Rossellini.
Back then it seemed to me that for every naturalistic, sensuous image the Austrailia-raised, France-based photographer created, there was a heavily contrived nip-slip or cheeky posterior revelation weighing down his oeuvre. But now, all is forgiven in light of this image: an inimitably dapper Man Ray standing on a doorstep, an über-Mr. Rogers in a red cardi, who’d be welcome in my neighorbood any time. See more of Denis Piel’s work at everyday I show.

Another Diet Coke Warning

2011-09-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

... or Why Branding Can Be Dangerous to Your Mental Health
The new limited edition packaging design for Diet Coke presents an unprecedented risk for consumers of the product, potentially transforming even the most laid-back addict into Patrick Burney, Julia Roberts’ terrifying OCD husband in the 1991 thriller Sleeping with the Enemy. Keep those cans in order—or else!

Goodbye, Summer!

2011-09-09T22:38:00.000-07:00

It’s over, people! Labor Day made it official. The disappearance of scuffed white pumps (wishful thinking) provides additional proof. Need more evidence? The Hollywood Pool on Cole Avenue has been drained and it’s as dry as the proverbial bone. Never mind the 10-day forecast for mid-70s temperatures or the man relieving himself against the chainlink fence (out of frame, stage left). The kids and their water wings are gone. The loopy slide’s sole remaining power is to chafe. Long live Fall.

Deborah Turbeville: Tainted Beauty

2011-09-03T02:17:00.000-07:00

“Turbeville is of a generation of fashion photographers, alongside Richard Avedon and Guy Bourdin, who focused on the subject in their photographs as opposed to the clothes they are wearing, and who followed their own distinct conceptual agenda, rather than that of the stylist.”–Jules Wright, Tainted Beauty, Nowness.com

Concurrent with the launch of Fashion Week and Fashion’s Night Out: Tainted Beauty, an exhibition of photography by Deborah Turbeville, will open at the Donna Karen flagship boutique in London on September 8. Turbeville is reknowned for collaborations with Karen, Karl Lagerfeld and Comme des Garcons; assignments for Harper’s Bazaar, W Magazine, and Italian, French, Russian, British, and American Vogue, (including the 1975 Bathhouse series); and a commission by Jackie Onassis to photograph the unseen Versailles.

In an age in which every artist is a brand, DNA terms defining Turbeville’s work might include: tainted otherworldly haunted visionary individualistic avant-garde extreme enigmatic sensuous sexual storied subdued softly focused composed elegant melancholy distinctive fine art boundary-blurring narrative broken tableaux lost characters.

Turbeville’s latest book, The Fashion Pictures, will be released in October. Until then:

Visit Fashion’s Tainted Beauty at Nowness.com.

Read about in her work Bazaar and the Haute 100 Update.

Pre-order The Fashion Pictures on Amazon.

The Black and White World of Lillian Bassman

2011-08-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

“I know that there’s color around, but it doesn’t give me the same kind of excitement that pure black and white does. I find it thrilling.”—Lillian Bassman, the Weekly Spade

Richard Avedon, Robert Frank... Lillian Bassman. In an era of stunning black-and-white photographers, Bassman was one of the best. She photographed her first couture collection in 1949, and the majority of her work appeared in Harper’s Bazaar from 1950 to 1955. Her work from this era is suffused with a passion for femininity, beauty, mystery and sensuality. The women in her world are grown-ups who are confident, cool and in charge of their private lives and public personas, idealized in a moment of perpetual elegance.

Then the 1960s came along with waif-like models and childlike clothing, projecting an immaturity combined with a blatant sexuality that offended her. In the 1970s, she destroyed negatives that spanned decades of work decades and stashed others in a trash bag.

In the early 1990s, she retrieved the remaining images and began to experimenting with bleaches and blurring techniques. She’s now 94 years old and continues to explore digital photography, abstract color and Photoshop.

Kate Spade recently introduced a capsule collection, including a tote bag, a small gia bag and a scarf, featuring Bassman’s manipulation of her 1961 photo Touch of Dew.

The Lillian Bassman Capsule Collection from Kate Spade

Lillian Bassman Harmony: printed cowhide, 12.5" h x 14.8" w x 7.0" d, 9.75" drop
Lilliam Bassman Little Gia: lizard-embossed leather, 8.2" h x 5.9" w
Lillian Bassman Scarf: silk twill, 28" square
“Femininity, Salvaged,” by Ginia Bellafante, The New York Times, July 16, 2009
Lillian Bassman: Women, by Deborah Solomon
Lillian Bassman & Paul Himmel, by Ingo Taubhorn

The Nastiest Place in California, Part Three

2011-07-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

More Vernon images. Same question: Does Vernon deserve to die?

The Nastiest Place in California, Part Two

2011-07-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

One of Vernon’s bright spots is the flamboyant 1960s signage for La Villa Basque, which at one time was the city’s only restaurant.

It was built in 1960 by now-disgraced former Vernon Mayor Leonis Marlburg, who's the grandson of rancher and one of Vernon’s founders, John B. Leonis.
For a city so steeped in corruption that nepotism appears to be the least of its sins, La Villa Basque originated as an astonishingly democratic hybrid. Featuring a coffee shop, a lounge, a dining room and a banquet hall, it was uniquely qualified to serve a wide public, including hungry truckers, businessmen, bridal parties and, ultimately, film crews—an episode of Mad Men, “The Suitcase,” was filmed in the Rat Pack-era bar.

The Los Angeles Conservancy has attempted to preserve its historic character. According to the Los Angeles Times, a decorating company took over La Villa Basque’s operations and refurbishing. Discordant elements, including a faded red carpet and large banners with images of food now mar the exterior. The new name, Vivere, seems a little high falutin’ given that the nearest food alternative is probably the ampm up the street. Of course, the name “La Villa Basque,” might also be over the top, but it has has the honor of referring to a family heritage, and it sounds nothing like a fragrance marketed to tweenage girls.

For now, the cool signage is intact. It’s worth a drive-by, just to see it.

La Villa Basque, 2801 Leonis Boulevard, Vernon, CA 90058
Los Angeles Times, “Years Catch Up with the Restaurant that Time Forgot’
LA is My Beat: “La Villa Basque”
Los Angeles Conservancy, Preservation Alerts & Issues: La Villa Basque

The Nastiest Place in California, Part One

2011-07-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

“…Vernon may be the nastiest place in California.

The industrial city a few miles southeast of
downtown Los Angeles is home to the region’s
last remaining slaughterhouse, a handful of rendering plants, chemical manufacturers
and a gas-fired power plant.”

— Gene Maddaus, LA Weekly, May 26, 2011

The LA Weekly recently painted a vivid picture of Vernon, a five-mile city with 112 residents, and posed the question: does Vernon deserve to die?
Disclosure: I work there. Lots of people do. The city has posted outdoor signage on bus shelters all over town that feature individuals who work in Vernon to prove it. The city itself is not pretty, but the bus shelters represent some of its finest architecture.

If you were to meet me for lunch at my workplace, you could follow an astonishingly long chain of semi-trucks down Soto until you see the guys who won’t let you into the parking lot.
Or you could follow your nose. When general smog collides with the imaginary cloud of salami tinged with pig fat that seems to emanate from Farmer John’s mural-covered exterior, and then knocks you silly with the overwhelming aroma of coffee beans, you’ve arrived.

As you drive, you might think:
If I breathe, will I die?
I will never eat bacon again!
I’m shaking from caffeine inhalation.
Why is that unmanned police car always parked on a dead end street next to a chain link fence facing Soto?
Do the people in the bus shelter ads ride the bus?

Does Vernon deserve to die?
You be the judge.

If you can’t get enough Vernongeddon, read “City of Vernon in Fight to Death With Assembly Speaker John Perez.”

If you have a hankering for a Beer-Broiled Brat, Breakfast Pizza or Bruschetta Dog, check out Farmer John’s recipes.

Eight Claude Chabrol Films Screening at LACMA

2011-01-28T00:03:00.000-08:00

Each element that makes a film directed by Claude Chabrol all the more compelling is also the one that renders it unseemly.

Thank you for not smoking. Jean-Pierre Cassel, Jacqueline Bisset, and Valentin Merlet in La cérémonie, 1995.

The astonishingly prolific French director Chabrol died last September at the age of 80, leaving behind more than 70 films marked by a predilection for passion, poison, and perversity. His filmmaking descended from the generation of Cahiers du cinema and the Nouvelle Vague, and it observed greed, adultery and murder with a narrow psychological intensity that made notions of sin or crime seem to be beside the point.
He melded a lyric, semi-formal sensibility reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang with tense, cynicism-infused narratives, some derived from satirical suspense queens Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell. In his cinematic world, it’s an act of pitiable optimism to suppose there are only seven deadly sins. An insurance broker, bourgeosie chateau dwellers, or a country cousin are no match for the machinations of a debauched student, an illiterate maid, or a scheming Swiss chocolate heiress.
The effect: equally pure and corrupt.
From January 28 through February 5, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will be screening eight Chabrol films, starting with his first feature, Le beau Serge, and rounding out the set with recent work, including one of my favorites, Merci pour le chocolat.

Can’t miss: a guest appearance on Saturday night by Jacqueline Bisset, who appeared in La cérémonie as an industrialist’s wife undone by the machinations of the local postmistress.

January 28 7:30 pm, La femme infidèle, 1969
January 28 9:20 pm, The Bridesmaid, 2004
January 29 5:00 pm, Le beau Serge, 1958
January 29 7:30 pm, La cérémonie, 1995 (with a guest appearance by Jacqueline Bisset)
February 4 7:30 pm, Les cousins, 1959
February 4 9:35 pm, Les bonnes femmes, 1960
February 5 5:00 pm, Merci pour le chocolat, 2000
February 5 7:30 pm, This Man Must Die, 1969

LACMA’s 18th Century DIY Costumes

2011-01-26T16:35:00.000-08:00

If you’ve ever wanted to spend a quiet evening at home watching NetFlix and licking the frosting off cupcakes in unparalled elegance, then the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is providing a grand opportunity to flounce around in stunning 18th century menswear rather than an ex-boyfriend’s faded, pizza-stained tee shirt.
The curators and conservators of the LACMA’s Costume and Textiles Department have created patterns based on the designs of garments in their collection, including a man’s at-home robe (banyan), from China, 1700-50. And should you care to leave the manse, they’ve also provided annotated pdf patterns of styles that would suit even Mr. Darcy's legendary pride, including two waistcoats — with sleeves or without — from China for the Western market, c. 1740, and a man’s coat, France, 1790–95. It’s time to buy some silk jacquard or voided velvet and start sewing.

Pretty Is As Pretty Does

2011-01-16T18:58:00.000-08:00

“My face has been my misfortune.”

— Hedy Lamarr, from her 1966 autobiography, Ecstasy and Me

Ebony hair. Alabaster skin. Vermillion lips.
Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. Transformed into Hollywood screen goddess Hedy Lamarr.
From the beginning, she was acknowledged for her beauty. Not so much for her acting. And finally, decades later, for her brains.
Her first foray into cinema was a 1933 Czech film, Ekstase (Ecstasy), in which she appeared nude and simulated fufillment of the movie’s title; other well-known roles include Algiers with Charles Boyer, 1938; White Cargo with Walter Pidgeon, 1942; and the technicolor Biblical potboiler, Samson and Delilah with Victor Mature, 1949.
In 1942, she and composer George Antheil shared a patent for inventing a technological system they called “frequency hopping”, an idea that she and the avant-garde American composer hatched at a dinner party. Their invention opened the doors to the spread-spectrum technology and cell phone usage. Talk about networking!
Unfortunately their idea languished until 1957, when it was adopted by engineers at Sylvania Electronis Systems. In 1962, it was installed in United States military ships, three years after the Lamarr-Antheil patent had expired. So Lamarr is credited with a portion of the credit but enjoyed none of the proceeds.
In 1997, she and co-inventor Antheil won the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award. “It’s about time,” she reportedly said.
To learn more about Hedy Lamarr, tune into the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast about the Hollywood starlet who invested cellular technology.

Chris Burden’s Metropolis II En Route to LACMA

2010-11-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

Chris Burden’s Metropolis II, is a kinetic frenzy
of 1200 Hot Wheels toy cars, gigantic roller coaster roadways, toy tracks, wood block, tiles, Legos, Lincoln Logs and a whole lot of noise. Metropolis II is expected to be unveiled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011. A clip documenting the work-in-progress was filmed in Burden’s studio in Topanga Canyon, California.

Bigger, better, faster, stronger —Metropolis II is an evolution of a Burden’s earlier work, Metropolis I. A visual and auditory construction of 80 toy cars, two single lane highways and monorails on tracks, Metropolis I is at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.

LACMA also features another of Burden's monumental compositions, Urban Light, a dramatic sculptural arrangement of salvaged 1920s- and 1930s-era cast iron lampposts from the Los Angeles area.

The Formosa Pocket Park: Good Thing, Small Package

2010-11-14T23:19:00.000-08:00

Peaceful, sustainable and verdant.
The Formosa Park, located north of Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, a green space designed for neighborhood use.

Enter through frosted glass.
It’s 4600 square feet, with drought-tolerant plants, water-conserving irrigation, rocks, sand and a water feature. Compared to most parks, it’s a postage stamp.
The forest floor is translated into a metal shade above, with cutouts that filter light and flirt with sky.
A sculpture reminiscent of a desiccated tree occupies an unexpected corner.
Seats mimic the scattered shapes of fallen leaves, punctuating the winding walkways.

The park was designed by Katherine Spitz Associates.

It adjoins the Formosa 1140, an 11-unit condominium building of blood-orange corrugated metal, wood and glass, developed by Richard Loring of the Habitat Group and designed by Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects. The condo building’s vibrant palette and towering geometry make it hard to miss in a neighborhood of vintage brick and stucco, giving the adjacent residences the effect of unwilling matrons clustered at an impromptu block party or a wake; the pocket park, somehow, softens the effect.

Formosa Park opened in August, 2009. It closes at night.

Project Angel Food’s DO GOODING good Cookies

2010-11-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

It’s not often that the opportunity to do help others comes in delicious flavors, but such are the perks of Project Angel Food’s Ginger Snap, Iced Lemon and Chocolate Chip DO GOODING good COOKIES.
The cookies are the first product line from Project Angel Food Bakeries, an enterprise developed in Project Angel Food’s Vine Street kitchen, which cooks and delivers more than 13,000 meals a week to men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. The DO GOODING good COOKIES have been launched in a special partnership with Hollywood and West Hollywood Pavilions Stores; they retail for $3.99, and 100% of the price will go to directly to support the work of Project Angel Food.
The packaging makes the cookies pretty enough to give as gifts—the delightful pink, yellow and orange cylinders were designed by Richard Manville and directed by board member and volunteer Jacqui Farina. And the cookies were created to be equally beautiful within, using real butter and cane or beet sugar, and eschewing corn syrup, preservatives and hydrogenated or partly hydrogenated fats. Which, in my book, practically qualifies the DO GOODING good COOKIES as health food.
Final note—Project Angel Food has been operating for 21 years, and to date, they’ve prepared and delivered more than seven million meals free of charge.
You can find the DO GOODING good COOKIES at these Pavilions locations:
727 N. Vine St. Los Angeles, CA 90038
8969 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Yum.

Z Best

2010-11-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

Zinke’s Repairs, Glendale, CA.

Eggleston’s Democratic Eye

2010-10-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

“I had this notion of what I called a democratic way of looking around, that nothing was more or less important.”
— William Eggleston

Quotidian. Democratic. Spontaneous. Mundane. Trenchant. Subdued. Poetic. Prosaic. Intimate. Vernacular. Gothic. Any Google search reveals an array of terms that apply with equal precision to the quality and content of photographer William Eggleston’s work, whose exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of art opens today.
William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008 was curated by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in association with Haus der Kunst, Munich, and it encompasses an array of 1960s black and white photos and video work, 1970s dye-transfer images and more recent ink-jet prints.
His images have inspired both derision and praise. When his exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1976 — the first one-man color photography show presented by the institution — the New York Times denounced it as “the most hated show of the year”.

Yet his work now invites comparisons to William Faulkner, and his sensibility is imprinted into films by Gus Van Sant, Dennis Hopper, David Byrne, David Lynch and Sophia Coppola. Consider The Virgin Suicides, Coppola’s 1999 film starring a splendor-in-the-grass Kirstin Dunst; compare it with Eggleston’s mid-1970s Memphis girl, a posy-print grass angel with a Brownie box camera held askew.

And if being photographed by Juergan Teller for a Marc Jacobs campaign is the equivalent of sealing one’s fate as an icon, Eggleston and his anthology of detritus and minutiae have transcended the cultural stratosphere. Look back to Jacob’s 2007 Spring-Summer campaign, which featured Eggleston, Charlotte Rampling, pinstripes, a rumpled bed, a seedy Paris hotel and a flat-light embrace of the domestic grotesque.

Visit the exhibition at LACMA: William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008, October 31, 2010 through January 16, 2011.

Get the book: William Eggleston: Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008, (Whitney Museum of American Art) by Ms. Elisabeth Sussman, Thomas.
Watch: The Virgin Suicides.
Read: A Very Singular Vision, SF Said, telegraph.co.uk.

Untitled, Memphis, Tennessee, c. 1974-75.

Kirstin Dunst as Lux Lisbon in The Virgin Suicides, 1999.
William Eggleston and Charlotte Rampling, Juergan Teller for Marc Jacobs, 1997.

In Living Color

2010-10-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

Most mornings last week, 7:15 am.

Yippie Yai-Yay

2010-10-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

Seven-Year Itch

2010-10-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Jean Paul Gaultier presented his final collection for Hermès, ending a seven-year collaboration with a mix of streamlined separates in leather and suede for Spring 2011, a look reminiscent of Zorro and High Plains Drifter, with a dash of Lola Montès.

Happy 20th Anniversary, Film Foundation

2010-10-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting an array of feature-length films that are nearly operatic in scope, from last weekend’s noir classics, The Big Combo and They Made Me a Fugitive, to upcoming color-saturated melodramas and suspense thrillers.

Louise Brooks and Richard Arlen, Beggars of Life, 1928

LACMA’s Film Department is marking the 20th Anniversary of the Film Foundation, a non-profit founded by Martin Scorsese and other filmmakers in 1990. The Film Foundation has partnered with major film archives in the US and abroad, and has provided funding to preserve and restore nearly 545 films — a variety of productions that includes silents, documentaries and shorts, along with the kind of features that make it worth enduring a night in a Bing Auditorium seat.

October 15, 7:30 pm, Bonjour Tristesse, 1958

October 15, 9:15 pm, The Barefoot Contessa, 1954

October 16, 5:00 pm, Leave Her to Heaven, 1945

October 16 , 7:30 pm, Senso, 1954

October 23, 7:30 pm, Beggars of Life, 1928

October 29, 7:30 pm, Shadow of a Doubt, 1943

October 29, 9:30 pm, Cloak and Dagger, 1946

The X Factor

2010-10-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

There’s a dearth of the letter X in Los Angeles signage.

Some restaurants have seemingly effortless, yet somewhat obligatory scripted lettering, such as Xi’an, Beverly Hills; Xai Verandah Lounge, West Hollywood; and Xiomara, Hollywood.
Then there are the X, XX and XXX theatres, but for all their lurid glory, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seem all.

Despite the banality with which the letter X has been subjected to since the death of the last King Louis, the letter X has a rich history as a powerful symbol.
An abbreviation for Christ.
The sign that marks the spot.
The signature of the illiterate.

So it’s not surprising that a double-X configuration would continue to give rise to The most INTERESTING MAN in the WORLD and one of the funniest campaigns in the world.
But somehow, I can’t picture THE most INTERESTING MAN buying beer from a battened-down liquor store on Brand Boulevard in Glendale.

Cheers.

Faux Moto

2010-09-23T23:07:00.000-07:00

“You see, I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle, actually.” — Henry Winkler

As fall closes in, the re-envisioned motorcycle jacket trend is gaining momentum, and last year’s category of asymmetrical-zip fleece and wool knits has been expanded to include more pleather, along with lace, tweed, ponte knit, performance jersey and cotton-blends. From MyShape:

There’s something for both the Erich Von Zipper and the 1985 Madonna fan.

Lady-like variations reminiscent of Grace Kelly or January Jones.

Monochromatic motocross — modeled after WWI infantry, best accompanied by goggles and a side car.

Along with soft, athletic versions, perfect for a trip to the gym or a day at the library.

Kut from the Kloth, 217686; Giacca, 217262; L.A. Kitty, 217466

Calvin Klein Jeans, 215598; Mac and Jac, 215429; Mac & Jac 215427

G.E.T. 217566; Giacca, 217761; Anthracite, 219049

Karen Kane, 215532; Calvin Klein Performance, 217486; Calvin Klein Jeans, 215593

Woof!

2010-09-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

Just yesterday, I was involved in a conversation about how the 1980s ruined Copperplate.
(It almost works for Woof. Or do I simply want to like it because of the name ?)

Like Mother, Like Daughter

2010-09-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

The newly released Style Book: Fashionable Inspirations features 145 years of photos from the Getty Images archive. For a preview, visit the guardian.co.uk.

a woman and her poodle, circa 1945, Getty Images

Hat Hair: A Risk Worth Taking

2010-09-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

True-Faux

2010-09-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

Fall and faux fur are the sartorial equivalent of peanut butter and chocolate, a manufactured combination that seldom fails to delight. Even bad fake fur can elicit a smile, if only because it’s so awful, and well-done fake fur offers a sense of plush-luxe that can be as emotionally satisfying as a
fresh pack of Reese’s that you don’t have to share with anyone. Here are nine options to consider from MyShape.com:

Sisters, 216000; Sisters 216002; Sisters 216006.MICHAEL Michael Kors, 216592 (sorry -- sold out!); Sisters, 21600; BB Dakota, 216885.BB Dakota, 217431; Sisters, 216001; Beth Bowley, 215503.

More or Less Than Meets the Eye

2010-09-12T02:45:00.000-07:00

A John Baldessari retrospective that showcases more than 40 years of work, Pure Beauty, ends today at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The show is a cohesive exploration of the multi-level interplay between images, graphics, type, and words, contextualized over the course of a lifetime. Or, rather, half of the 79-year-old artist’s lifetime.
In 1970, Baldessari cremated the paintings he’d created between 1953 and 1966 (save one, Nose, which was included in the show). The Wall Street Journal’s Lance Esplund implies that this was possibly Baldessari’s finest artistic act: “Cremation was the right — if not the ethical—choice. He should have stopped there.”
Los Angeles Times’ critic Christopher Knight offers a more enthusiastic review of Baldessari’s influence: “His best work stops us short, allowing us to see things with fresh eyes.”
Baldessari’s work is a tour de force of the seen, the unseen and the ill-advised, with images that highlight the chasm between painting and photography; with faces concealed by bright circles and silhouettes alluded to with mylar-esque masques; and with playful contradictions that explore what an artist should or should not do, whether it be to juxtapose a kiss and a palm tree or to make it appear that a palm tree is growing right out of a figure’s head.
Esplund might have you believe that Baldessari is an artist who rejected art, and he questions Baladessari’s need to make more. Knight, by comparison, seems to take Baldessari’s statesmanship for granted, a Conceptual artist with a capital “C”, and a successful navigator of the gap between the historic and the contemporary.

Much Less Than Meets the Eye, Lance Esplund, the Wall Street Journal
Art review: ‘John Baldessari: Pure Beauty’ @ LACMA, Christopher Knight, the Los Angeles Times, Culture Monster blog
John Baldessari — “Wrong” (1967), Paul Sears Photography Blog
LACMA Exhibitions: John Baldessari

Kissing Series: Simone Palm Trees, 1975.
Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell, 1966-1968.

You’re A Murderer, Ya Are, Blanche

2010-09-07T00:22:00.000-07:00

Bloggers Tom & Lorenzo are featuring a Vogue Italia fashion editorial based on Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? The image at the left features selections from Chanel fall 2010. For Spring 2011, I hope to see tidy shirtwaists and roller skates inspired by my other favorite movie, The Bad Seed.

Va * Va * Va * Voom

2010-09-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

Vistas

2010-09-05T23:01:00.000-07:00

Versailles vs. Versaille vs. Versai

2010-09-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

Man’s Best Friend’s Best Friend

2010-08-27T07:39:00.000-07:00

In honor of National Dog Day, Slate Magazine is featuring a selection of images from Magnum Photos’ canine collection.
Macau, China, 1986,
Eliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos

The Young and the Feral

2010-08-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Dirty Girl. She’s still out there, but she’s on the wane, according to the New York Observer. In Twilight of the Dirty Girl, Irina Aleksander defines this soiled ingenue as “youthful, thrifty, indifferent to grooming-and in possession of an undeniable and confounding sex appeal.”

Or as Christwire contributor Stephenson Billings sums it in the weighted-with-irony title, The Dirty Girl Trend: Is There Anything Less Attractive Than a Young, Promiscuous Coke Addict Who Doesn’t Bathe?:

“...she is unemployed and unsuccessful. She will mimic the deadbeat celebrities she sees on programs such as Entertainment Tonight and Entourage, mocking hardworking people behind her gold sunglasses as she high heels her way out of bed, woken by the itch of pubic lice and bedbugs, spending the few remaining sunlight hours flirting without completion on Facebook and then dining on a cigarette for dinner, followed by a nap and then a night at the clubs and bars. She will wear as little as possible, having already gone several days without underwear or a shower.”

Billings’ description is so vivid you can practically smell the panties — satire is so much more compelling with a scratch ’n sniff card — and it made me start to wonder if the Dirty Girl really exists (is this a non-story worthy of being included in Jack Schafer’s Bogus Trend Stories of the Week for Slate?); she must be a real girl with bad habits, because Aleksander has anecdotal evidence from Elle’s fashion director Anne Slowey, who says that she saw a presumed Dirty Girl (Paz de la Heurta) pick her nose in a restaurant.

But back to Billings:

“After a bit of a blackout, we may see her again sitting in the laps of older men in after-hours black brick basements, hoping they buy her an expensive cocktail or a bag of street drugs. In return, these men yearn for the variety of unsafe and anonymous sexual positions she offers, positions that their future wives will never agree to willfully.”

Both writers cite Mary-Kate and Ashely Olsen as models of this trend, despite their previous successes and current investments.

“The Dirty Girl trend could be described as an offshoot of the ‘hipster style’ that is popular among white, upper middle class children today... the difference, however, is that the Dirty Girl does not embrace the irony and sarcasm of the hipsters.”

That poor Dirty Girl and her limited sense of humor.

Aleksander presents a coherent social matrix:

“The Dirty Girls of New York have some well-known ambassadors, commonly found in the front rows of certain fashion shows and the pages of Nylon magazine and (with their nipples showing) on Purple magazine founder Olivier Zahm's blog. They are well educated in the art of heavy eyeliner, like that smudged and smeared around Becka Diamond's eyes; of concealing your actual, sizable wealth with vintage T-shirts, like Peaches and Pixie Geldof; and of uncombed hair, like that framing the disinterested, remote look of Cory Kennedy’s eyes.”

Aleksander didn’t have much to say about who plays the sullied Adam to the Dirty Girl’s Eve, except to suggest that this would be a man who’d hit it, given the chance. But we can thank Billings for a more graphic portrait of the young men who vie to be Kinky Ken to Bad Barbie:

“They suffer from a violent urge to deface decency and righteousness and for them this means throwing a young women down on a grease-stained couch for acts as offensive as sodomy in the ghetto apartments of America as loud rap music gives them a beat to which they can thrust their sweaty hips.”

Billings’ writing is unsettling, as if he were vicariously experiencing the imagined lives of 20-somethings in salacious detail, and then taking prurient pleasure in their condemnation.

Toward the end of his muck-laden tour de force of turgid purple prose, Billings suggests that there is Hope after all, that this Girl can be Saved. By contrast, Aleksander makes it sound like the Dirty Girl is already well on her way. One example: the Olsens have started cleaning up their act, and Mary-Kate will be appearing on the cover of Marie-Claire with picture-perfect locks and pristine, sophisticated attire.

Meanwhile, if cleanliness really is next to godliness, perhaps most of us could benefit from a bar of Blue Q’s Dirty Girl soap.

Afterthought: If you have your own penchant for watching downfalls and redemptions, I recommend Diary of a Lost Girl, starring Louise Brooks, as Thymian, who is raped by creepy shop assistant Meinert —played by Fritz Rasp, blamed for her misfortune, sent to a home for wayward girls, forced to do calisthenics by a stout matron, separated from her child, becomes a prostitute and, well, let’s not spoil the ending.

American Woman

2010-08-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

Just ended — American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, which spanned the 1890s, with sporty Gibson girls taking style cues from Europe, through the 1930s, with screen sirens emerging as the western emblem of beauty.
According to Andrew Bolton, who curated the Metropolitan’s show with selections from the Brooklyn Museum’s costume collection, the exhibition represented more than a sartorial revolution from corsets to kimonos. As NPR summed it up in an interview with Bolton that aired last week, it depicted an evolution in attitude. “By 1940, she (the American woman) had come to represent something that would intrigue the world from then on — a physically and sexually liberated, confident human being.”
American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, May 5–August 15, 2010
Images from the American Woman installation on flicker
NPR: The Feminine Mystique, Expressed in Silks and Satins
High Style: Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, by Jan Reeder

Upper and Lowercase

2010-08-08T00:51:00.000-07:00

Say Uncle

2010-08-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

“Painted By Leonardo Giacomuzzo + Gilles-Fleur Boutry for Uncle Jer’s Los Feliz – CA. – 1998”

Just Desserts

2010-07-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

My family rules when it comes to sending care packages stuffed full of treats. Toll House bars. Walnut-studded brownies caked with chocolate frosting. Kitchen sink cookies, laden with white, milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips and laced with coconut. Or cooky bon bons, with pastel icing and a cherry or chocolate center.

For my last birthday, two of my nieces sent a quartet of enormous, moist, decadent chocolate chip cupcakes smothered in buttercream frosting, overnighted in Tupperware and surrounded by ice packs. Amazing. There’s nothing like getting luscious treats in the mail.

If you don’t happen to be a member of my family, Godiva has a plan for delivering love, or an endearing, flavorful facsimile, six times a year.
Month 1: Chocolate Ganache Layer Cake, an exuberance of Belgian milk chocolate, dark cocoa, clouds of chocolate ganache and chocolate cream frosting. They say it serves 13.
Month 2: Chocolate Chunk Brownies. 
Month 3: Chocolate Cupcakes with a surprise center of Godiva chocolate ganache.
Month 4: Biscuit Gift Box. Thirty-six delicious reasons to banish those little huckster Girl Scouts.
Month 5: Chocolate Macaroons. OMG.
Month 6: More Chocolate Chunk Brownies. 

In the fall, look for Godiva’s Belgian chocolate flourless cake and a dessert truffle collection that features tiramisu, cheesecake, carrot cake, lava cake, red velvet and strawberry tarte truffles. Also: chocolate-dipped madeleines.

Or if you’re the hands-on type, try the Mousse Cup Dessert Kit. Yum.

T: The Constant Consonant

2010-07-25T23:02:00.000-07:00

The letter T: the most commonly used consonant in the English language.

The Marilyn Monroe Workout

2010-07-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

According to Yoga Nation, Marilyn Monroe was reported to have taken up yoga to “improve her legs.”

View more presentations from Loulou1929.

S is for Storefront

2010-07-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

Before There Was A “Sexiest Man Alive”

2010-07-22T00:07:00.001-07:00

Margaret Bourke-White shot Marlon Brando for LIFE magazine in 1952, at a time when the 28-year-old actor had already given memorable, star performances in The Men, A Streetcar Named Desire and Viva Zapata. But despite his growing fame on stage and screen, these photos remained unseen, and were recently rediscovered in LIFE’s archives, labeled “cover tries.”

The Bourke-White images are a delight. Brando was at his physical prime: the supple, well-muscled Stanley Kowalski, exuding more animal magnetism than any wife-beater could restrain, with smooth skin, a sensuous scowl and the hypnotic grace that counter-balances yet also prefigures the later madness of Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, the stuffed jowls of Don Corleone in The Godfather, and the compelling bloat of Paul in Last Tango in Paris. It’s like pitting Early Elvis against Late Elvis, and on a visceral level, the primal, unbridled, hip-swinging swagger of the Stella-hollering youth wins hands down. Brando, like Early Elvis, was beautiful.

Brando’s first of four LIFE covers was dated April 20, 1953 — a moody, stagey movie still featuring the actor as Antony in the film version of Julius Caesar.

Click here to see more of the rediscovered Brando portraits by Bourke-White.

Double Trouble

2010-07-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

The oversized ring is a lot like any architectural work: it needs a firm foundation for its soaring proportions to triumph. Part brass knuckles, all statement piece, the two-finger ring smartly provides the essential underpinnings, simultaneously daring others to look but disdaining any attempts to mess with your bad self.
Custom Knuckle Ring, Etsy, Heistjewelry, $100

Spike Knucklebuster, LUVAJ, $100
Fool’s Gold Knuckbuster, LUVAJ, $90

OMFG Silver Glitter Knuckle Duster Ring, Etsy, lovemexleaveme, $12.50

Brooklyn Bridge Gold-Tone Ring, Emitations, $215, MyShape 210032

Brooklyn Bridge Silver-Tone Ring, Emitations , $215, MyShape 210030

Birds On A Branch Ring, Urban Outfitters, $18

Two-Finger Snake Ring, Urban Outfitters, $18

home Sweet home

2010-07-18T00:53:00.000-07:00

Black Beauties

2010-07-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

The luxury of the Little Black Dress is that you can dress it up or down and wear it day and night, year after year. Sue Grafton’s alphabet detective, Kinsey Millhone, has been wearing her wrinkle-resistant version on dates and to funerals, parties and court since the 1980s. But sometimes the LBD’s main advantage is its curse, forcing the need for extra decisions -- earrings? a choker? double-strand pearls? a scarf?

Voilá — the pre-accessorized LBD. Sequins, beads, gems, chains, zipper teeth, grommets, pearls... If you have the energy to select a pair of shoes, the dress has made the rest of the sartorial decisions for you. And why couldn’t you wear one of these to a funeral? I’d try the MICHAEL Michael Kors, middle row, left, paired with a cashmere cardi and vintage slingbacks. All nine dresses are available at MyShape.com.

Calvin Klein Dresses, 215634; MICHAEL Michael Kors, 208208; Donna Ricco, 212609.

MICHAEL Michael Kors, 208146; Ronni Nicole, 208222; Donna Ricco, 205639.
Bailey 44, 206890; Ronni Nicole, 206655; Muse, 205265.

Starring Attractions

2010-07-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

Thoroughly Modern Millies

2010-07-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

The Girl Scouts logo designed by Saul Bass has been given a makeover, courtesy of New York design firm Original Champions of Design (OCD). Notice the nosejob, fuller lower lip, bangs, bouffier hair and lighter PMS color.

Unbeige
OCD
The Vintage Girl Scout Online Museum
Girl Scouts of the USA

Yucca and Vine, Hollywood

2010-07-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

Sarah Burton: Pre-Spring Alexander McQueen

2010-06-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Sarah Burton’s much-anticipated first full women’s collection for Alexander McQueen was inspired by samurai warriors, along with the work of 1930s anti-fascist dollmaker-Surrealist-photographer Hans Bellmer, according to New York Magazine. The bold, strong-shouldered warrior is evident in the clothing; I’m not so sure about the eroticized, dismembered doll influence, but any art the Nazis deemed degenerate is eternally relevant.

La Poupée, Hans Bellmer, 1936; Self-portrait, Hans Bellmer, 1930s

To see more:

Preview Sarah Burton’s First Full Women’s Collection for
Alexander McQueen (New York Magazine)

McQueen's First Collection Without McQueen (Jezebel)

The Art of Hans Bellmer (ICP)

Surrealism: Hans Bellmer’s Mutilated Bodies (Junk for Code)

Grey Gardens: The Prequel

2010-06-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

On August 1, the Grey Gardens Collection will be releasing I Only Mark the Hours That Shine, a transcription of 11-year-old Edith Bouvier Beale’s private, handwritten diary, which is comprised of detailed daily entries from 1929, offering a glimpse into her luxe life in New York and the Hamptons. The book was edited by Eva Marie Beale and contains an introduction by Bouvier Beale, Jr. Notice the cover — even at an early age, Little Edie could work a miracle with a scarf.

Littera Canina

2010-06-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

In Latin and the romance languages, the letter “R” is usually trilled, earning it the sobriquet littera canina. Plus, doesn’t the right leg resemble a dog’s at a fire hydrant?

Wilde Child

2010-06-25T22:45:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I overheard the following conversation while watching the view of Hollywood from a plateau in Runyon Canyon.

Mid-20s starlet: “I’m working on a movie, The Beautiful and Damned.”

Friend: “Is that by Anne Rice?”

Mid-20s starlet: “No, Forster.”

Just in time to set the record straight on what Forster actually did write, or to prevent his work from being recognized solely through Merchant Ivory Productions, two new biographies of Forster have come out, so to speak, and Michael Levenson’s review in Slate.com compares their merits. One, A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster, by Wendy Moffat, focuses almost exclusively on Forster’s personal life. The other, Concerning E.M. Forster, by Frank Kermode, restricts its focus to the art of making fiction.

Levenson’s review implies that each of these biographies offers a partial picture of Forster that the other book could help to complete. But perhaps it’s through Forster’s own work, that we may find the most revelatory insights into his personal struggles, the secrets he kept -- especially from his mother, and his work life. Levenson says, “In the long-suppressed novel Maurice the title character blurts out his truth, ‘I’m an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort.’ ”

Perhaps the under-read starlet was right -- Forster may have written the original book on being beautiful and damned.

A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster,

by Wendy Moffat

Concerning E.M. Forster, by Frank Kermode

Maurice, by E.M. Forster

Truly Wilde: The Unsettling Story of Dolly Wilde, Oscar's Unusual Niece, by Joan Schenkar

Stuff You Missed in History Class: How Oscar Wilde Worked

The Beautiful and Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Princess Bride

2010-06-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sweden’s next Queen, the 32-year-old Crown Princess Victoria, defied convention by marrying a commoner, Daniel Westling, on Saturday, June 19, 2010, but paid homage to tradition by wearing a cameo-decorated crown that was most likely a gift from Napoleon to the Empress Josephine.
The central cameo depicts Cupid and Psyche; since the seven cameos are different shapes and colors, it's unlikely that they were originally intended for the tiara.

The tiara was worn by the bride’s own Queen Silvia, at her own royal wedding on June 19, 1976. It was also worn by Princess Désirée when she married Baron Niclas Silfverschiöld in 1964, and by Princess Birgitta when she married Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern in 1961. The tiara was bequeathed by Empress Josephine to her granddaughter Josefina who became the Crown Princess of Sweden on June 19, 1823, when she married the future King Oscar I.
Crown Princess Victoria’s bridal look included a duchesse satin off-shoulder gown with a 16.5" train designed by Pär Engsheden, along with matching fabric-covered shoes, cameo drop earrings, and a cameo and pearl bracelet.
Left: Crown Princess Victoria on her wedding day.
Right: A cameo appearance by Queen Silvia.

Whatever Will Be Will Be

2010-06-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

The Que Sera, Long Beach.

Que Sera, The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Day Tripper

2010-06-18T00:27:00.000-07:00

Fourth Street and Cherry Avenue, Long Beach, CA
It's the rare parking lot that has the power to endear, but that's how it is at the intersection of Fourth Street and Cherry Avenue in Long Beach. Rusted metal and automotive relics provide a welcoming tableau for cars and bikes, making it more convenient to spend an afternoon vintage shopping, lunching at Number Nine or Lola’s, seeing a movie at the Art Theater, or browsing for a second-hand book. Plus the beach and miles of bike paths are just a few blocks away.

Give Ps A Chance

2010-06-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

Practically Perfect P

2010-06-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Park It Right Here

2010-06-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

What's lovely about the word “park” is that it can add the verdant, intangible luster of actual trees, swings, children, benches, lawns, nannies, strollers, the elderly, bread crumbs, wild parakeets, flashers and adulterous lunch hour assignations, to any apartment or motel.

Have a Cow Already

2010-06-10T00:09:00.000-07:00

Today is National Black Cow day. If you’ve never been subjected to a black cow (aka root beer float, brown cow or sassy cow, depending on the region) at a Fourth of July picnic or a church youth social, here’s a recipe: Chill a tall glass. Plop in two scoops of vanilla ice cream and two tablespoons of chocolate syrup. Pour cold root beer over it slowly and watch it froth up. Top with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. Or not. Serve with a straw and a long-handled spoon. It’s more fun if you don’t share.

Bananas

2010-06-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

In an interview on HuffPo, Jean-Claude Baker says that his mother, Josephine Baker, revived post-war French haute couture, that she gave her costumes to a transvestite, and that, despite Jean Cocteau’s claim that his lover created the legendary banana skirt, all credit goes to Christian Dior.

The Little Black Dress: Still Relevant

2010-05-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

More research discovering something most of us already knew: Audrey Hepburn’s Givenchy dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s is still a favorite. In a poll conducted by Lovefilm, a UK-based DVD rental group, the iconic Holly Golightly ensemble was voted the greatest female screen outfit. Also unsurprising: Marilyn Monroe’s infamous white accordion-pleat dress from the Seven Year Itch was one of the top three.*
*What, with fashion magazines positioning the Little White Dress as an alternative to the LBD and the 1939 Irwin Shaw story, The Girls in Their Summer Dresses, surreptitiously haunting collective fashion memory, we’ve hopped on the LWD trend at MyShape.

North By Northwest By Way of Savile Row

2010-05-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

North By Northwest

Saturday, May 29

Gates open at 7 pm

Movie screens at 8:30 pm

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

1600 Santa Monica Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90038

cinespia.org

Wardrobe trivia: Cary Grant’s suit was provided by the Savile Row tailor Kilgour. Clothes On Film suggests that Hitchcock probably let Grant select his own wardrobe, but didn’t trust co-star Eva Marie Saint with her own sartorial choices; Hitchcock took his blonde leading lady to Bergdorf Goodman and picked out her on-screen attire himself. She likened the experience to shopping with a sugar-daddy.

I Will Survive

2010-05-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

Long kept from public view, a palm-sized painting by Frida Kahlo sold Wednesday night at Christie’s for $1.1 million (or $1.2 million, depending on your source), against pre-sale estimates ranging from $100,000 to $150,000. The 1938 painting features a pre-Hispanic warrior under a troubled sky; it measures 6" x 4" and was framed in Oaxacan tin as a votive offering.
More interesting than the unanticipated selling price is the story behind the painting itself. Kahlo created the work in gratitude for her own survival; she had attempted suicide after discovering Diego Rivera’s affair with her sister.

The buyer was an unnamed private collector from Mexico who purchased several works during the auction. Will this collector hide Survivor away again?

For more info, click here or here.

Above: Survivor, Frida Kahlo, 1938.

MyShape.com Fits and Flatters on NBC

2010-05-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

This was filmed by the local NBC affiliate last week, and has been
picked up by news stations across the country.

Uh-Oh

2010-05-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

N * O * R * M * S

2010-05-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

The Evolution of Emily

2010-05-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

I confess that I haven’t read much Emily Dickinson, but a couple of new books and a garden show that I’m too far away to attend, is more than enough inspiration to fill that gap.
The title of Holland Cotter’s recent New York Times article, My Hero, the Outlaw of Amherst, considers one of the imagined Emilys from passive, love-lorn recluse to feminist and queer studies icon. Cotter’s story reminds us that, if written works are any kind of window into a true self, Dickinson was equally capable of being the village eccentric as she was of being a terrorist:
Had I a mighty gun
I think I’d shoot the human race.

My Hero, the Outlaw of Amherst, Holland Cotter
The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, a novel by Jerome Charyn
Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds,
a biography by Lyndall Gordon
Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers
is on view at the New York Botanical Garden through June 13.

Rites of Spring

2010-05-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Wizard of Oz

Saturday, May 15

Gates open at 7 pm

Movie screens at 8:30 pm

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

1600 Santa Monica Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90038

cinespia.org

MonkeyShines

2010-05-09T23:13:00.000-07:00

I love CakeMonkey. The Red Velvet Cakewich. The Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Cakewich. Even the idea of a PopPie or a Yo-ho. Is there such a thing as a Cake-ho? (Bear with me while I take Nine Inch Nails out of context: what have I become, my sweetest friend?)

Today was my friend Christopher’s birthday, which he celebrated with a boxful of CakeMonkey individual layer cakes.
Above: the birthday assortment, including Pecan Dacquoise, Vanilla Gorilla, Coconut Cake, Chocolate Caramel Cake, Apple Crumble and Cake Monkey Crunch. Below: the Silverlake pop-up store.

Memory Objects

2010-05-09T01:12:00.000-07:00

Soon after photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she discovered that items from her mother’s wardrobe would prompt her mom to share anecdotes of the past. With this in mind, Barron began shooting her mom’s clothing, shoes and accessories, and the result is a 100-image visual biography, My Mother’s Clothes.

There’s something haunting about the way the way a dress can lay across a bed, suggesting warmth from recent wear, or the stillness of a nearly-empty bottle of fragrance, a spritz perhaps still lingering in air. The way these objects are photographed depicts absence but expresses joy.
To see more of Barron’s work, click here. Or to purchase the book, click here.

Call Me Madame

2010-05-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

M: Christ, I miss the Cold War. — Quantum of Solace, 2008.

M’m! M’m! Good!

2010-05-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

2010-05-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

2010-05-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

Death by PowerPoint

2010-05-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

Marine Corps General James N. Mattis was quoted in the New York Times as saying this at a recent military conference: “PowerPoint makes us stupid.”

The above chart is one example of how PowerPoint’s limited visualization capacities can make a complicated mess out of complex data, but the software is also a reductionist tool that, through the use of bullet points, oversimplifies information and creates a false sense of understanding. Which, of course, leads to bad decisions. Like war.

Okay, now I’m being reductionist.

But here's a thought. Approximately a month and one-half ago, President Obama appointed design and data visualization hero Edward Tufte to the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, and he's charged with helping to show us all what’s happening to the billions of dollars in economic stimulus tax money. (To refer to Tufte in such a lofty manner is not reductionist; the man has a cult-like following of graphic designers who speak in reverential tones about how they’ve been influenced by his seminal work, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.)

As such, Tufte knows a thing or two about PowerPoint, and I can only hope, on behalf of the American public, that the military will closely watch how Tufte makes sense of economic battles and follow his lead. And if the armed forces haven’t yet done so, I hope they’ll learn something from his 2006 pamphlet, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within.