Coolio

Ahh, the super installed my air conditioning, at last. Since it's a frickin' hot day, the timing couldn't be better (and since my sweat line is 74 degrees and up, it's not hard to cool off). Good bike ride home -- surprisingly, it wasn't too packed at the lake shore and the beach, but maybe because it's only Tuesday? Whatever the case, it was a breezy ride home.

Of course, as I cruised the fleshfest that is Bikini Boulevard, I couldn't help but notice that not having a tattoo puts one in a distinct minority, increasingly. I mean, this morning, on the elevator in, these two otherwise very Midwestern gals were amicably talking, and as they left the elevator, I saw that one had a star tattoo right at the nape of her neck, only visible because she had her hair up in a ponytail. Of course, a very safe spot, since she just has to let her hair down and it's covered, but all the same, kind of a surprise with somebody in professional attire, but then again, far more common than is once was. What might've been shocking in 1955 is commonplace in 2011.

Speaking of shocking and commonplace, I have seen a footwear trend that is ghastly and dismal (and I've seen reports of it in the South and on the East Coast, too). Bootie Sandals? Sandal Booties? I have taken to calling them "Floopsandals" because they look ridiculous, like somebody's wearing plucked Fraggles on their feet. These are somewhat representative, although I've seen far worse examples streetside...

Notice how the model has her feet up? It's because when a gal stands up with them, the Floopenfabrik bunches up at her ankles, created the Fraggle-like Floopeneffekt.

A still photograph is not enough to convey the sheer lameness of these sandals. I call'em Floopsandals because when one walks in these, it creates a kind of "flooping" motion, as the gratuitous fabric kinda flutters around. What might've worked with an 80s woman's bootie looks ridiculous with these sandals. This is the most dire fashion trend since UGG Boots. Seriously, you won't be able to miss the Floopsandals when they turn up in your neck of the woods, just because the monumental lameness of them just catches you offguard. These are so lame they make the gladiator sandals of the year or so before seem respectable and restrained by comparison. Beware the Floopsandal!

Viva La France

Here's a great shot of the tiny, beautiful, late Marie-France Pisier...

The Pretty In Pink Blues

I'm amused by this piece about pink v. blue for kids. Shows how acceptable norms change over time. Amusing as hell that pink was THE masculine color, and blue was the dainty color, in times past.

We find the look unsettling today, yet social convention of 1884, when FDR was photographed at age 2 1/2, dictated that boys wore dresses until age 6 or 7, also the time of their first haircut. Franklin’s outfit was considered gender-neutral.

Reminds me of pictures of my late 100-year-old grandpa, with his long locks and in his dress, seated next to his big brother in an old Victorian portrait.

a Ladies’ Home Journal article in June 1918 said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies, according to Paoletti.

In 1927, Time magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate colors for girls and boys according to leading U.S. stores. In Boston, Filene’s told parents to dress boys in pink. So did Best & Co. in New York City, Halle’s in Cleveland and Marshall Field in Chicago.

Today’s color dictate wasn’t established until the 1940s, as a result of Americans’ preferences as interpreted by manufacturers and retailers. “It could have gone the other way,” Paoletti says.

Bahah! It's just amusing how such an arbitrary thing becomes written in stone like that. So many things are like this. The loss of "neutral" fashions is likely a key component, too, although who wants to look "neutral," truly?

High and Dry

American Apparel has been fairly steadily pimping its high-waisted jeans, which is irksome -- high-waisted jeans just don't look good! So much so that they have to disguise it by having their callipygian models sit, breaking up the silhouette that high-waisted jeans inflict on a woman's body...

To make these jeans work, the model had to be hot AND topless.

Poole Emptied from ANTM

Dammit! Jaclyn Poole, my favorite surviving contestant on ANTM, got axed the last episode. I hate that. She was cute as a button, had a distinctive look, and was so sweet and charming. Her high-pitched, lil' ole' Southern Belle way was so nice, relative to the emaciated neurotic harridans that tend to dominate the show. Speaking of that, Alexandria, the villain's villain for this season, continues to skate on through.

Sigh. With Jaclyn gone, I guess I'll have to root for Kasia. And then, Anybody But Alexandria.

Monique, Monique...

Oooh, Monique gets booted from ANTM! This week's episode had Blondes v. Brunettes, and I think the brunettes shot a better group shot, and I think Monique got axed unfairly, just because she was average in the judging, versus being actually bad -- she was beautiful, but never took either exceptionally good or bad photographs. Her "Heathers" attitude will be missed, of course, and her departure has to be a big boon to Alexandria. Brittani did wonderfully again, but the previews make it appear that she may have a bit of a meltdown next episode.

Sorry to see Monique go. Well, not completely sorry....

Wonder Woman

Saw this display while out and about today. Yeah, Wonder Woman, beat that fashion-challenged Medusa! Defeat Medusa's "Drab Ray..."

Hats Off

I love a good Western, and integral to a good Western are good cowboy hats, right? Hell, yeah. I don't usually wear hats, myself, but I appreciate a good hat when I see one. Three of my favorite cinematic cowboy hats...

3. "You be the Josey Wales!" The Josey Wales hat is a good one. Almost enough to make me forget that he was a no good damned Johnny Reb. Good mix of practicality, looks, and no-nonsense badassery.

2. Speaking of Southerners, Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday from "Tombstone" -- great performance, anchored by a great hat worn at a rakish tilt. His hat has a bit of a big brim for my tastes, but the jaunty angle he wears it at nicely offsets it. It's a perfect topper for a gentleman scoundrel.

1. Johnny Ringo (perfectly played with psychopathic intensity by the one and only Michael Biehn) from "Tombstone" has a great hat. I think he has the best hat in the movie, mingling deadly practicality, a horsehair lanyard, and with that hint of a roguish swoop of the slim brim. Perfecto.

I covet the actors who get their pick of perfect hats, selected for them by the movie's costume designers, and surely pick something ideal for the character and the actor.

WTF?

Okay, if I know you, and you own these, please tell me, so that I can not be friends with you anymore. These just may be the lamest shoes, ever...

Mamma Mia!

This is an outrage, I tellya! What the hell?! What are they thinking?! The Times of India reports...

Italy going prude? Town to fine women over skimpy outfits
IANS, Oct 23, 2010, 06.17am IST

LONDON: In a move that appears to be an act of moral policing , authorities in a small Italian town have decided to fine women who wear miniskirts or show too much cleavage , a media report said.

The fair sex will face fines of up to $695 under new rules to be introduced in an Italian town, the Daily Telegraph reported . In a move sharply at odds with a country which produced the likes of Monica Bellucci and Sophia Loren, the town of Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples, intends to prohibit women from wearing provocative clothing.

The town's council also wants to ban men and women from wearing low-slung jeans as part of a list of 41 new rules that "every good citizen must respect" , the report said. Luigi Bobbio, the mayor, said it was all part of an effort to "restore urban decorum and improve coexistence" by targeting people who were "rowdy, unruly or simply badly behaved" .

Playing football in parks and gardens and swearing in public will also be banned under new laws which will be put forward for approval at a council meeting on Monday. Italy has become entangled in a web of petty rules and regulations in the last two years after the government of Silvio Berlusconi gave councils extra powers to tailor laws to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

Across the nation, towns have banned a range of seemingly innocuous activities such as building sandcastles on the beach, kissing in cars and feeding stray cats.

Read more: Italy going prude? Town to fine women over skimpy outfits - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6796687.cms?prtpage=1#ixzz13BhskGmH

The article didn't include a picture, btw. I just did that for fun, googling "Italian woman" with "miniskirt."

Busin'

Trippy ride home. Just lots of stuff to see -- four different guys sporting different lavender shirts (two button-downs, one gingham, and one golf shirt). That amused me, since the guys weren't together, were totally independent of one another, and all converged in roughly the same area of the bus, despite getting on at different times.

The Shrew Sisters -- this duo I saw: 1) chinless, skinny-thighed gal with black-dyed hair and faded denim jean shorts, silver nose ring in her ear, kind of dissatisfied look on her face, looked like a thirsty drunk, wearing Indian mocs with Thunderbird on them in beads. 2) burgundy-dyed hair, black-lined eyes, bad complexion, constantly had her hand to her face, absently chewing on her fingers. Orange socks and untied, laceless black ankle boots, tongues lolling out, gray blouse and gray and black striped sweater, mom jean shorts. They were together, and bore a sort of rat girl resemblance to one another. One kept leaning on the side door to the bus, triggering the alarm bell.

Sharp-shoed, shiny-booted babe in black, black cardigan and slacks, hard face, strong jaw, small eyes dusted black, flatly blonde, shoulder length hair, long and lean, stern gaze periodically broken with straight-edge smile while playing on her iPhone. Next to her, prim-lipped Pole and/or English gal with acid eyes and dark jeans and silver ballet flats that were bowed and ribbed, wearing short beige raincoat and black blouse with beige lozenges on it, patterned, and rectangular silver watch. Hair was lapsed blonde, furtive gaze that sussed out all the other chicks who passed her, what they were wearing.

Gal on the phone saying she needs to have a "friend cleanse" then added to the friend she was talking to "No, you're safe."

Hipster guys wearing hats -- a couple of fedoras (one black, one straw), and a guy in a baseball cap, of course. Little girl waving to everybody, calling out "HI!" in an overloud voice that made me smirk, while she did the little kid curled finger wave.

Jesus H. Christ

Nice to see SLATE catch up with my August 21 post about the J. Crew Hipster Jesus.

Hats off

I saw a guy come to my work today sporting a trilby. A trilby??! I know headwear is in fashion for guys, but somehow, pairing that with a golf shirt and running shoes, I dunno. Fail.

Jesus Christ!

What Would Jesus Wear? J. Crew, apparently. It's the Second Coming...of STYLE!

Zzzzzzzzz

I had insomnia this morning -- work-stress was waking me up, around 3:30 a.m. I couldn't go back to sleep, so, as I usually do when insomnia hits, I just do stuff. In this case, laundry. I got that done in the wee hours, and managed maybe another 25 minutes of sleep between loads. Still, not enough sleep. Gruh.

This morning's going to be crazy-busy. There's a conversion to XML going on, and our IT people have fallen behind on that, so, I'm having to lend a hand to get the wheels of (publishing) industry rolling again. The Editorial Commando strikes again. I'd rather not, but I was "asked" to do so, and so, I add that IT workload to my manuscript mountain range on my desk. I figure I can give them an hour of my day, and hopefully get their stuff done (odds are it'll be an hour of my day, each day, for the next four months. So, that adds up! My success in this endeavor is invariably my doom -- I'll be "rewarded" with more of that stuff, once I demonstrate that it can be effectively done.)

I sent out a query for a different book of mine, in hopes that the agent I sent it to would be amenable to it. We'll see. I truly can't get my hopes up, but it's a good fit for the agent, so we'll see if he goes for it or not. My bet's on not, but one has to try, regardless.

Totally wiped today. Sleep-debt's a bitch. I will try to make it up over the weekend, although we'll see how it goes. I'm invariably the first responder with the boys, so they'll wake up like at 6:30 and be like "Daddy!"

Saw at the Ralph Lauren Rugby store the other day, the obligatory nippled mannequins -- male and female, sportin' the nips. Now, I ask you the aesthetic behind that. Can you imagine the people in charge of the window displays, saying "We need nippled mannequins. Perkily nippled mannequins." I mean, they're mannequins, so realism is kind of beside the point (so to speak) -- nobody's going to look at them and think "OMG! Those people are statues!" They're mannequins. So, why give'em nipples? There's some psycho-sexual undercurrent at work with them, right? Show chick mannequins in bikini tops with perky nipples? Oh, how risqué, Ralphie boy! What sly and elegant subversion! (sarcasm)

Day of the Locust

Man, it was all about the cicadas today -- hearing them buzzing in the trees, and seeing one at the bus stop, just sitting on the sidewalk. I nudged it with my shoe and off it flew. And then, later, on the bus, I saw this gal on there (who looked like a young Joan Cusack) wearing a brass (?) cicada ring! I saw it in passing, thought "Man, she's got some serious bling going on, there." and then when she went to get off the bus, she rested her hand on one of the seats, and I could see it in detail -- this cicada ring that covered about two knuckles' worth of finger, with three purple stones set on it, running along the cicada's back. Otherwise, she was professionally attired, but that ring was fierce!

The city's been plagued with mosquitoes and horseflies. Not sure what's up -- maybe all the rain we've been getting, but I've never seen the city so beset with bugs before, in all my years here. There are plenty of dragonflies, too, but not enough to keep up with the plagues of mosquitoes lurking about. And they're aggressive, too -- they just come diving at you. None of the usual meandering mosquito dance; no, they just fling themselves your way. If Americans are really lucky, malaria'll come back in a big way in the States (it's been on the upswing, anyway). As it is, we have West Nile Virus to contend with, already. Good times!

This week is shaping up to be a hot one. Storms every day, but they're doing nothing to lower the heat.

Ill-Suited

I forgot to mention this morning, an amusing moment -- I got on the elevator with a Korean couple who had a golden retriever (Sweet dog. I asked its name, and it was "Polo"). Anyway, it was a friendly dog, as goldens usually are, and the elevator opened and this young guy in a very nice pinstriped suit stood there, and you could see him weighing it in his head, whether or not to get in the little elevator with that friendly dog, or whether to wait until the next elevator came. He decided to enter, and came in and hugged the wall. It really was a nice suit, no doubt, but the look on the guy's face was priceless, like "PLEASE, PLEASE let this dog stay the fuck away from me. Don't. Fuck. With. The. Suit." Polo the Wonder Dog didn't mess with him (I helped Pinstripe out by petting the dog, running interference, basically), and when we reached the lobby, everybody filed out, going their separate ways.

Heh

It amused me to parallel my other foot shot with this one...

That's Right!

Ah, I do love Zappos! Fastest. Free. Delivery. Ever. I ordered these yesterday, and today, they're here! Woo hoo! My navy blue Top-Siders. Yeah!

Argyle!

Yes, my formerly-pewter loafers are now trending toward a worldly ivory hue.