Shoes and beauty

A have always been a fan of the absurdity of style and beauty in America. So I thought I would pass on some of that from the Thursday Style section of today’s NY Times.

Some quotes from actress Olivia Stone (?) about her beauty regimen, which might help those average American moms.

In the morning, “I spritz on some True Botanicals Nutrient Mist.”

“I’ve been using this body lotion that has CBD from marijuana.”

“Lately I have eyelash extensions. I’m wrangling two kids, two dogs and a job. If there’s a step I can skip, that’s great.”

“I really like the Glossier Stretch Concealer.”

“The Marc Jacobs eyebrow pencil…can mimic individual hairs.”

“I go to Modrn Sanctuary in NoMad…They also have physical therapy, a chiropractor and a salt room.”

My sister-in-law has a Friday night dance party that is really amazing. It’s a rally good workout but also a scene.’

Also in the same section, collector’s talk about their sneakers.

How much would you pay for sneakers? “I found a pair on Ebay for $33,000, but I talked them down to $27,000.”

“My sisters and I have over 6000 pairs, but we stopped counting.”

“We store our collection in an air-conditioned, low-humidity storage room.”

Universal you

If you make art seriously, make it what you want and not what others want or expect. But make certain you make it not from the personal you, but from the universal you.

Educating the artist

Contemporary art is a crazy quilt of media, theories, objects, performances, videos, interventions, activism, text, actions and strategies. No one really knows what art is, and so anything is art. 

If we don’t know what art is, how can we know what an artist is? And if we don’t know what an artist is, how can we educate students to be artists?

This is the dilemma of the art school. Art schools are still too structurally tied to media because professors are too structurally tied to media. Students often have to leave school to break the binds of media. Academic studies, which provide essential intellectual content, strategies and languages for critical thinking, are often given secondary status.

Primary consideration should be given to research, creativity, critical thinking effective teaching. As much as possible, courage and passion should be nurtured. Media are the means to these goals.

In the end, we don’t educate the artist. We educate the human being who defines the artist.

Glitz and glamour

Why do we watch the seemingly endless string of entertainment awards glamor bashes? Bling, glitterati, hug fests, saccharine red carpet interviews. Men are dressed in all modes of pseudo tuxes. The 300 women working t change the culture of Hollywood will be dripping with jewels and dressed as sexually enticing male fantasies. Then there are the over-produced glitzy spectacles, unctuous and endless thank you’s, celebrity gift bags priced in the thousands, thinly veiled promos for industry profit making and winners selected by groups of narrow gender, racial and ethnic diversity. It’s all self-congratulatory self-promotion.

Personally, I’d rather see big celebrations for the teachers of the year who work tirelessly for modest incomes. Or for the men and women who risk their lives fighting crime or fighting fires? Or for the smoke jumpers? Or for military heroes? Or the clergy and social workers who give fully of themselves for little reward?

But, in the end, I guess it’s just one more example of the role of media in distorting (or clarifying?) American values.

Self-revelation #3 Pants

Self-revelation #3 Pants

I am generally conservative in my pant wardrobe, though in my lifetime I have worn plaid pants, green pants and orange pants and no pants. I’ve also worn pants that were hand-tailored with wool from the Shetland Islands. I’ve worn bellbottoms, actually as part of the suit I got married in.
I enjoy TV dramas about early 19th men who wear their pants above their navels and held up by suspenders. But that’s not for me personally. And, of course, today there are the low hanging pants which are showcases for butt cracks and flamboyant underwear. That’s not me either. Just jeans and khakis worn lightly on the hips with a belt thank you.
And. Of course, my real accomplishment is that my waist size is only 1 inch larger now that it was when I was a senior in high school.

BANG

You’re warming up, a bit anxious but knowing that this is your big chance. Finally all line up at the starting line, 100,000,000 to your right and 100,000,000 to your left. Still, something in your gut says this will be your day. You feel a gentle rocking back and forth, then a more frantic rhythm and then a thrust and BANG, the gun goes off.

You swim with frantic energy, moving your tail with astounding vigor. Then you spy ovular shape in the distance and give it all you’ve got in the last furious sprint. You. You’re first. You’ve hit the target and closed the deal. You take a millisecond to pat yourself on the back, then on to the task of starting a new life.

Here’s hoping that in 2018 all of you hit your targets and begin whatever will make your life new.

Tonight

Tonight, whether you’re dressed to the nines, at a small party with friends, freezing your butt off at Times Square, alone at home with a 6-pack, snuggling with your honey, on a cruise, watching a football game or a zombie movie, trying to figure out how you got there, trying to act as cool as you can, entertaining the party with you buffoonery or anything else, have a safe and happy launch into 2018.