Street Shopping

I cannot take a man seriously if he does not own a real coat. This bothered me way before Mad Men was a twinkle in Matthew Weiner's eye. I'm tired of walking amongst 6' tall toddlers. If you are a Canadian lumberjack (I just looked at Googley-tube Analytics, eek), no offense. You shouldn't be reading this anyway. It's not (or shouldn't be) a class thing. My maternal grandfather was a steelworker & he always wore a coat & hat. If that makes me a cranky whining baby boomer, I do not care.

I've no idea if Paul Newman was left or right-handed but I notice that he's carrying a monogrammed leather portfolio (or notebook?). Here's an Etsy seller with excellent feedback who has a left-handed journal. I'm sure there are vegan alternatives but this isn't a shopping post. It's just a plea for some men (you know who you are) to smarten up. (I saw some wonderful coats at a secondhand thrift recently--no excuses.)

(Gordon Parks for LIFE)

Jill Clayburgh

I was just beginning to write about Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, & An Unmarried Woman & was startled to see that she died today at her home in Connecticut . Condolences to her husband, playwright David Rabe, & daughter, actress Lily Rabe. The film was made at a difficult time in NYC (& indeed everywhere) but I recently told someone - while her character may be well-to-do, she meets many people who are not. I knew people who lived in Manhattan then & visited fairly often. They wouldn't be able to live there now under the same circumstances. You know what? We were more grown up back then, somehow.

I recall seeing it alone & then Pied Piperette-style, leading about a dozen friends & their friends to see it. I was the only one (if I recall correctly--they'll let me know) who argued vigorously on behalf of the ending. Watch the DVD again (or for the first time). Jill-as-Erica (& on her own, too) is utterly charming & touching.

Listen to Paul Mazursky's commentary about making it, New York then & when he was growing up, where he met his wife, etc. He's quite wry & amusing in his remembrances. (Also for Last Stop, Greenwich Village.)

(images via sfgate(dot)com & Saatchi Online), it pains me not to have a good solo photo -- the irony -- from the film but there aren't many good ones around--at short notice.)

Dare to Design a Shabby Apple Dress

Shabby Apple's announcement of their second annual Dare to Design competition was in this morning's email.You do not have to be a professional designer to enter. I'd love it if one of you goes for it. Please pass this along to any friends who might be interested, as well. You have until 15 October 2010, 11:59 EST. SA partners in a micro-finance program in India. This is not a small thing to me when considering a purchase.

I bought a Marseilles dress a year ago & I still love it (stripes!). This summer saw a French-inspired collection (stripes again) & the new retro apron line, Boysenberry Pie. I'm selecting patterns & fabric lately, not designing a thing (although I used to tweak patterns). If you're not up to entering a competition or are looking to buy something ready-made, Shabby Apple is also having a sale. There's a dress for everyone. No fighting!

[Suzy Parker via myvintagevogue; collage from Shabby Apple website images]

A Redheaded Woman

Maureen Dowd (a redhead) wrote a terrific column last week about the death of the grown-up romantic comedy. She has an email give & take with Sam Wasson, the 28-year-old author of Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M., the best seller about the making of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I agree that the stupid movies probably confuse younger people a lot. Too close an inspection of many cupcake & pink unicorn blogs is worrying. Infantilization--especially when you do it to yourself for cryin' out loud--ain't (grown-up) sexy. Here's a bit of what Sam has to say:

"I am not joking when I say that because there is nothing to see (especially, and tragically, in romantic comedy) my girlfriend and I have had to stay home and in some cases fight. If there were better movies out there, I am sure so many relationship disasters may have been averted. Also, romantic comedies, the good ones, taught me how to love, or at least instructed me on how to try. If I were falling in love now for the first time and going to see this garbage thinking this was real, I would be in deep [expletive]. It was only after I saw ‘Annie Hall’ as a wee Jew that I realized what it was to be a person in love. It has been a touchstone ever since." Really, you need to read the column, here.*

Today I thought good thoughts about all the (many) redheads in my family, friends, former colleagues, actresses, a great singer-song writer (who inspired the song), & a columnist for the NYTimes. If you choose to be a redhead, I salute you & welcome to the club. My hair hasn't been red-red in quite awhile, but most people still think of me as one. Here are a few for some Sunday fun. (Sadly none are of friends or family -- or me -- because I Have Yet To Scan, But I Promise To. Really.) ciao-for-now

*PS: And now, I'll add a redheaded man to the list; as much as he has peeved so many of us, Woody Allen did write & make Annie Hall.

Update - a few people have emailed, what the hell? So here's part of the song:

A red headed woman
It takes a red headed woman
To get a dirty job done -Mr. Springsteen

[photographs via verdoux, myvintagevogue, AMC. There were others I liked but wow, tumblrs that I won't name because they are not sexy, they are gross.Ooof. See? These people don't know the difference.]

Joan

Beautiful photo shoot of Christina Hendricks (aka Joan Holloway Harris), here, via LA Times Magazine blog. The amusing-to-me Mad Men Blog: Basket of Kisses. Normally, I do not care about being nearly a year behind in programs, but I'll watch this season via iTunes. Leaving out details about how familiar this is from childhood. It was a mess but we had some great clothes, some great parties (well, my mother did--we watched from the top of staircase, except for ritual pass-through-in-adorable-pajamas-time. Not complaining.).

Update--the Madness just doesn't end. Here's The Definitive Mad Men Summer Reading List from Flavorwire (first seen on the Poetry Foundation's blog, Harriet). I've been waiting for this, actually. As in, "why doesn't someone make a list about what these people were reading?"

Saturday update--iTunes download/Season pass ready. For people new to watching online (I am), here's the link to AMC Mad Men site. To get ready for Season 4, you can watch Season 3 finale, Shut the Door.Have a Seat for free. Here are all the ways to watch...

Friday update /end of an era - RIP Daniel Schorr.

Week's End - Day at the Beach

This was going to be 'no day at the beach' but these are too cute, though that older one seems a bit bossy. These are not necessarily two sisters as I have older cousins & felt like a little sister quite often. However, the three younger sibsters will fill your ear about my alleged bossiness. Propriety - & a lack of time to write a clever riposte (for now) - prevents me from making my case. (I said, for now, B, E, J....mwahahaha). If they're not good, I'll scan photos on a new-to-me printer/scanner & post them. Let me think on what I shall take in return for not doing so...hmmm.... Nope, can't be bought. Ciao!

[photographs by Nina Leen, LIFE Archives]

A Kiss in Times Square

I wasn't going to post today but Edith Shain (see above--she's the nurse:) will be an honored guest in The National Memorial Day Parade today. How could I resist? If you're in DC & see this, here's a link to parade info--it begins at 2pm. There will be live video (I think). Have a safe holiday (anywhere you happen to be).

Update, Later that day: Dear Anonymous Weisenheimers, I well know just what the day commemorates. NACP - No. Anonymous. Comments. Period. If you're that angry, froth elsewhere. Cheerio.

[Kiss in Times Square on V-J Day, Alfred Eisenstaedt, August 14, 1945 via LIFE Archives]

Here's Your Hat...

Though it sounds very Blondie (the comic strip, not Deborah Harry), I need one more (hat). It's so hot outside that I'm delaying errands until early evening (when the hail & thunder will no doubt arrive...timing is not my forté), hence the hat hunting. The b&w Nina Leen photographs were shot for fun. Perhaps that's why Suzy Parker popped the goofy number on her head. It's definitely a case of "one of these things is not like the others." (I love the blue dress.) And that's why I need one more hat; I miss my beloved messed-up (real) Panama. It's less girly when that is necessary & it has a coolness factor that I need.

Unfortunately, a few years ago, I left the hat in my mother's car. It was a somewhat contentious weekend & very hot, as well. I painted a lot of trellises, pruned a lot of roses, & whatever else was on her list. She popped out to do some errands & a pint of Ben & Jerry's was placed in the upended hat. Panama hats can withstand a lot of abuse, but a desert-battered chapeau will go to hat heaven when it becomes a Chunky Monkey Lake. I don't even like that flavor!

[I can't remember where I got the color Suzy pix but myvintagevogue has a very nice selection, so here's that link. The Panama is via Village Hat Shop (dot) com]

Love & Fury

Here are some sisters...in no particular order.

From an article in the Telegraph; this latter part cracked me up (which I need because at the moment, growl...):

"... But for many sisters competitiveness and a loving rage is what binds them. In her biography of the writer Rebecca West, Victoria Glendinning tells the story of going to lunch with West and her sister, the surgeon Dr Letitia Fairfield.

It was 1975 and West was in her eighties. Her sister, aged 90, did most of the talking, while West fell into "the well-rehearsed role of recalcitrant younger sister... sighing loudly, casting her eyes up to heaven, looking at a nonexistent watch on her wrist, while her sister's voice winds on".

The sisters boasted and squabbled about their aristocratic connections, "calling each other 'dear' with emphatic frequency". The moment Fairfield left the room, West remarked: "Now you see. She's always been like this. I've had to listen to her all my life."

Which, as sisters don't tend to gush about each other, is really as close as one could get to a declaration of the love and fury that is so often the hallmark of the sibling bond.

[Vanessa Redgrave & Lynn Redgrave; Suzy Parker & Dorian Leigh via LIFE Archives; Catherine Deneuve & Françoise Dorléac via radiofrance.fr]

Dorothy Height - RIP

An elegant celebration of an extraordinary life at the Cathedral this morning (in a sea of hats, no doubt, thank goodness). You can watch a live webstream from the Cathedral's site. We recommend it. We love you, Miss D. [photograph via civil rights flickr]

Cutting Up in Black & White, Part One

"Well then, we went and had tea with Henry James today ... and Henry James fixed me with his staring blank eye — it is like a child's marble — and said 'My dear Virginia, they tell me — they tell me — they tell me — that you — as indeed being your fathers daughter nay your grandfathers grandchild — the descendant I may say of a century — of a century — of quill pens and ink — ink — ink pots, yes, yes, yes, they tell me — ahm m m — that you, that you, that you write in short.' This went on in the public street, while we all waited, as farmers wait for the hen to lay an egg — do they? — nervous, polite, and now on this foot now on that." --Virginia Woolf

From today's Writer's Almanac site. (Thank you, dear Garrison.) As solemn as I am today (& lately), this made me laugh out loud. It's the natal day of Henry James. I will elaborate, in the summer, on the big huge embarrassing booboo gaffe scene I made /committed/created in an academic department one fine spring day. Briefly, then...I was caught mocking James, his plots, sentences, & the stentorian-voiced (female) professor who taught his oeuvre--ahem. (Let me be clear: she was a literary luminousa & scary. Grown men quaked in her presence.) My impromptu comedy skit, including different voices--when I go for it, I go big, people--was a hoot; everyone laughed until they cried (or peed their pants.).Then all went suddenly silent. The sickening realization that, holy cow-wow, she's right behind me. Right? Where is everyone going? You're leaving me alone? Cowards!

I blame...my mother (of course I do). Yes, and all relatives & family friends who encouraged me to perform, to mug for their cameras, & generally to entertain them. It had a weird effect of making me even more shy--except when performing. (And now, they want me to pull a Tina Fey. Too late, people. Besides, do you realize that you will be in this stuff? Huh?)

It cannot be overstated how often my mother was stopped & asked: do you know who you & your little girl remind me of? Also what cannot be overstated is how much my second sister looks like the young Shirley. [Photographs by Allan Grant in 1957/LIFE archives]

PS: Mom, et al: you asked for it. What can I say? You have a few months to procure hush money.

Sunday Snow

Some nice shots (like those mischievous eyes in the top shot) by Max Cook via DCist. Click here for more..& here for the continuing brouhaha about an edgy DC detective "brandishing" his gun during a highly-advertised "guerilla" snowball fight. Wow. Calm down. Everyone. Nearly went, to watch the hijinks. Glad I did not...I get nervous when people brandish their weapons (especially without stating why-the-heck..). Hey, but that's just me.

Have a good rest of the weekend (& Monday to the Aussies & Kiwis)...

Week's End - Lena in Black & White

Glamorous Lena in 1948 (in Paris & NYC). I cracked up listening to various versions of I Feel Smoochie (LH reportedly singing it in close-up club shot). I could not pull off saying it, much less singing it, & be glamorous. (Yes, I know I am not glamorous no matter what. Don't rub it in! Snarl.) Julie the Cat seemed to enjoy a few versions of the song but then, being a modern sophisticat, she barfed onto the modem, nearly shorting it out. This sums up the last few weeks.

Update: 9 May 2010 - RIP, Lena. She did a lot more than look fabulous; she fought for civil rights - her own & others (notably, African-American GIs in WWII). Obituary, here. It's more than annoying that everyone seems to have chosen "sultry" for their headlines. Ah well.

[photographs by Yale Joel & W. Eugene Smith for LIFE archives/Lena arriving in Grand Central Station via myvintagevogue]

Maintaining One's Composure

First, obtain some composure. It's on the to-do list. This photograph of Suzy Parker is by Nina Leen via myvintagevogue. Here's a link to Nina Leen photography. Where I learned that I have misspelled her first name. For over a year. The shame will eat at me while I am out today... no time to correct the attributions. This is seriously compromising any composure that I have had for a few hours. (I am not kidding. It is a sickness.)

S.

Gloria in Black & White

We will have real health care reform in this country or I'll eat my huge, polka-dotted umbrella.

[Photographs by Yale Joel for LIFE, 1965]

Week's End - Totally Mad, Man

Not since the dawn of time has America experienced a man like Howard Beale! - the tagline from Network.

Update, Saturday, 22 May 2010: Almost a year later, & the situation gets madder & madder: Rand Paul. Glenn Beck predicts that soon the President will pee on us, or is..I can't look too closely, but you can at The Political Carnival.

The good news is my hair looks better than Faye Dunaway's (above). The bad news is that CNN seems to be imploding. [see: Dobbs, Lou] It stuns me that people I knew/know are working there. They don't like it either but hey, a job is a job right now. As is pointed out below, the mainstream media (of which I was a modest part) allows this garbage spewing. I recommend the article below. Especially if you are GOP-inclined. Then I would go save my party if I were you.

Another more pleasant topic... if you're looking for a good read, try the late Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen. It's next on my re-reading list. A few days ago I recommended some cooking/memoir books & realized that I hadn't revisited Colwin or M.F.K. Fisher in a coon's age--as Julia C. would exclaim.

And now to the Totally Mad part...A few lines from Think Progress by Eric Alterman, The Mainstream Media Opens the Door to Hate & link...

"...History demonstrates what a mistake it can be to treat a crazy fringe as merely that—particularly one with unfettered access to its audience and little sense of responsibility to distinguish between truth and fiction.

How else do you explain the fact that presently, according to a Research 2000 survey, nearly 60 percent of Republicans questioned were unsure if Barack Obama..".read the rest, here. And then weep.

[photograph of Faye Dunaway & Steve McQueen by Bill Ray, LIFE archives; remaining photographs by Network still photographer, Michael Ginsburg]

Ruby in Black & White

I love Ruby, it's Tuesday(sorry), & I can't post something more elaborate & actually, you know, written beforehand because I have been ordered to rest in the middle of the day. Officially & everything. Along with the swimming, & yoga, & everything-that-is-starting-tomorrow. Of course, I'm late to lie down. Ha. Maybe back tonight (I'm hearing "no you won't"...fume). Nothing serious. Just over-tired. It feels very Jane Austenish. Blinds, curtains drawn, a/c, fan, sleepy cat, flowers on the table. Many great books to read & newspapers, so I relish that...have a great day & evening. [first photo via myvintagevogue; second, Gordon Parks, from Raisin in the Sun, 1959 via LIFE archives ]

ciao.

Cleaning House

Literally & virtually. Must publish one post per day on each blog. Discipline.

The more serious thing: I'll probably be off-line as of Friday, a few weeks (I hope not that long). No, it's not a trip to the beach or Rome or Crete or Santorini. You would definitely hear about that. It's serious because of work-I-need-to-do & necessary e-mail, & I love the radio all day but sometimes, you just have to watch Supernanny or Sherlock Holmes Mystery on PBS. And I still can't do that because I remain unsuccessful in fashioning an antenna out of the cat. You know, to bring in the digital-signal.-that-would-change-our-lives. (Julie is willing, I swear. No PETA spamming please. It's a joke.)

Speaking of jokes, I'm furious at Dave L's forced (I'm convinced) apology to "that woman." Yes, I cringed at a few of the jokes....I knew he'd get slammed & I'd like to talk to some of his writer-guys. Still. Get over it. BTW, do people look at their Googley-Analytics? I try to avoid except very occasionally because it creeps me out. But finally I'm going to type it: Wasilla, Alaska . Five straight weeks. Are you kidding me? Well, all residents can't be fans of their former mayor, The Woman Who Made Me Crack My Tooth (via Stress). [better title in the offing]

No comments (yet) such as: "Oh yes! I'm going to re(read) Gatsby, or look at Shirley Hazzard books, get over my unreasonable fear of Naples, or -- this would be my dream come true-- "I performed Molly Bloom's soliloquy in a junior high school talent show & everyone fell faint, except one fabulous (silently applauding) teacher. I had one of those...Ms. Hughes. From Real Ireland. No, I didn't perform the soliloquy...how I wish.

ciao

[Photograph by Yael Joel via LIFE Googley archives, 1953]

On the phone, a perfectly wonderful evening...

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it. Groucho Marx

I had to crack myself up after working on other difficult matters today. I thought of this quote & pix when the phone rang & after two years, I hear...but things were really not that bad....we could go....

No we aren't going anywhere together, buster. And they weren't that bad, they were worse. What a nerve!

I love this photograph; it reminds me of my mother in the late 1950s, early 1960s, when contrary to previous appearances (though they be slight), I was young. [via myvintagevogue in sidebar; from House & Garden, 1950.]

Hope you have a nice evening. I will have a perverse kind of fun: the third & final (for now) installment of Wallander with Kenneth Branagh as the mussed-up, messed-up Swedish inspector. Since the shows make me all jangly, it's fortunate that I don't have to be anywhere early tomorrow.

ciao & buona notte