If I had a million dollars...

I'm REALLY craving a change up in my wardrobe. I think of myself as being someone who has some flair for personal style (at least when I feel like making an effort) but when I was in PARIS, looking at all these immaculately, artistically robed women, I couldn't help but feel like some ugly American dog. I'm sure I do exaggerate. One guy thought I was Russian, another thought I was Italian (?) so I must not have stood out as an American tourist TOO MUCH. I'm rambling. All I'm trying to say is: I'm bored and ready for changes.

Sadly, Paris took a Lot of the money that was to last me the rest of the summer. If I DO intend to shop, I must be Extremely prudent with how and where I do so. Hmmm....maybe I should get one of those weardrobe accounts and scrutinize all my clothes. It might be a wise summer project.

ANYWAY, to get to my first POINT which is SHOES.
I don't buy many shoes. I have a lot of high heels, two pairs of flip flops, both Havaianas purchased while in Australia, one pair is black and one pair is raspberry pink. I also own a pair of shiny red, slip on moccasins purchased from the Talbots outlet my mother frequents in Lynnwood, and one pair of black ballet flats with absolutely NO foot support. Oh, and one pair of purple Asics tennis shoes I ordered used from ebay which don't fit Perfectly. I currently cannot find the right shoe to the pair.

I've always been more obsessed with clothing than shoes. Trust me, I love shoes, but I can always be more tempted to spend $80 on a great dress than on a great pair of shoes. I am a dress fiend. I buy skirts and tops on occasion, but mainly if I'm buying something, it's a dress. But my feet are neglected. Sigh. One day, feet. One day I'll buy you some cute shoes that are also comfortable. I promise. If I were Very rich, here are things I might purchase.

Also from Modcloth.










Look at all the pretty things!! Sigh. I Must go thrift buying and selling before I go mad. MUST.

Eyes Wide Whoa

Netflix recently led me to the film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) which was Stanley Kubrick's last finished project. I had seen The Shining and Dr. Strangelove and in younger years, had heard that this film was just crazy and unsettling. I'm sure it would have been to a younger me. Anyway, I watched it and was truly entranced. This man makes good movies that also happen to freak me out. I don't know if I will ever watch this again. It's not something I would personally enjoy watching over and over, but when it's compared to the average film that's made, it has so much more to offer a thinking human being. I love entertainment. I love romance, glitz, glamour, and "pretty." I love light humor. But, in a moviegoer's diet, I think you need variety. You need a movie now and then that gives more questions than answers, that scares you or disturbs you more than it ties things up in pretty bows so you can have a clear picture of the universe in mind. I love happy endings, but sometimes, it's not what needs to happen in a film. I love escaping from reality, and I think what attracted me to this film, is that in escaping reality, it comes back to haunt you and it's this big messy circle of confusion. There are so many symbols in this film, so much thought behind the details (Christmas lights, masks, mirrors...). The lines that are spoken are odd. You don't expect characters to say the things they say, but when they go against the melody, it doesn't strike the ear as false.

To give one example, in the last scene of the film, Bill (played by Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice (played by Nicole Kidman) are beginning to reconcile after a rough few days. In the final scene, Bill says "A dream is only a dream." To this Alice replies, "The important thing is: we're awake now, and hopefully for a long time to come." When Bill says "forever", I automatically sighed like a sentimental fool, but Alice responds with "Let's not use that word. It frightens me." There is a sense with these two characters that they represent two opposing belief systems. Bill clings to ideas of certainty, stability, security, while Alice looks deeper into things, into herself, into him, and refuses any learned notions about people, dreams, reality.

I don't know a ton about Kubrick or his themes, but I did a little light online reading about the film and the Freudian novella it was based upon (Traumnovelle/ Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler). It's such a crazy story and honestly reminded me a lot of a Symbolism project my group did for theatre history last quarter. ALSO, I recommend seeing this film if for one reason only: Alan Cumming plays a small, but hilarious role as a hotel desk clerk. You might appreciate him the most if you stick with seeing the whole film, as his character springs out of nowhere in humorous delight amid a lot of dark, scary plot twists. I WISH there was a youtube clip I could show.

Je reviens

I have returned from Paris. I spent one lovely week there with one of my favorite people in the whole world and his grandmere. Mon ami and I had a very nice time reconnecting, and came up with a lot of inside jokes. I forget what it's like to have inside joke-friends. I guess I don't have very many at the moment, or at least not many I see regularly. Not that non-inside joke-friends are disposable and worthless, au contraire: all friends are good friends. That's why we call them "friends." I will cease this meaningless dribble...maintenant.

I did some naughty things in terms of spending which I shall reveal a little later. I'm a little ashamed of myself, to be honest...but I NEEDED to buy some nice things in Paris. If I came home with a Paris t-shirt and a pen and no more, I would have felt so sad. You see, when I visited France at fifteen, I had no idea about my own personal style. I thought I did, but you see, I thought terribly wrong. This was my opportunity to shop in Paris, and do it RIGHT.

My last day was highly entertaining. Drew and Grandma Patti went off to London and I was left alone at Drew's lovely friend, Claire's apartment (she was off to London for the weekend as well). I absolutely could Not just sit around all day, so I left, with FAR greater courage than I should have had. 'I am a city-dweller! I can handle this!' I thought innocently. I walked outside and saw the Eiffel Tower so I was on my merry way. Clearly, I got lost and a lot of highly comical things happened to me. Maybe I am conceited sometimes, but I really do believe that my life is sometimes comedy gold. Or maybe I'm just not used to such a wide variety of Parisian/foreign men and their ways.

I feel like I have many more posts in me than have actually been posted of late but at the moment, am too lazy to craft anything together. Here are some photos. FIN.

What I'd do if I were Free, or If My Life were a Katharine Hepburn Film

I'd go to the window and yell, "SHUT the F&^% UP!" to this guy outside my window having a loud, enthusiastic conversation in a foreign tongue.  

Then, I'd dive into a swimming pool in the moonlight and come up for air, and gingerly sip champagne I don't like very much from a pretty crystal flute at the edge.  And then Jimmy Stewart would jump in in his tuxedo and sing to me, and pick me up and haul me out and we'd turn on the portable radio, and we'd dry off as he'd teach me and/or re-teach me how to dance.  This includes the Real Charleston.

Then I'd hear a telephone ringing.  A real live house phone, inside this beautiful, glamorous little room.  And I'd let it ring and keep dancing.  There would be frogs croaking in the distance, and maybe some crickets.  Trees swaying in the heavy, humid air.  Just us.  All magic.  Spouting silly rhymes and poetry and laughing and swaying like those trees.  And I'd tell Jimmy Stewart he's a great writer and can do anything in the world and he'd say I'm swell, and say how I could do anything too.  And we'd get tired or drunk or the sun would start peeking up, so he'd pick me up in a robe and carry me off, still singing.

And the dawn would come with a headache and a bruise and a lot of good jokes and we'd walk around reading papers and smoking cigars and eating hard boiled eggs from sweet little egg holders, and chasing a dog named George who hid somebody's "interclosticlavical".  And there would be tea china and kempt little gardens and telegrams and flowers in buttonholes and no worries, no worries, no worries for me.

Research Party!

Today I'm doing research for my costume history project.  I chose a pretty ridiculously broad subject, this being the transition (19th-20th century) of Western women's dress from the extremely "feminine" corseted, gowns/skirts-only to the much less gender-specific trousers/tops, etc.

There is SO much information and I spent about an hour in the library photocopying books with reprints of old Sears catalogues from 1909 to 1969.  When you think about it, the change that happened in sixty years is really fascinating.  Anyway, what I find even more fun than looking at ads for store fashions are pictures of real people living their lives.  Shorpy.com is like a vortex of visual information.  Here are some of my favorite photos from my shorpy-viewing today.

I think if he were speaking he'd say, "You are NOT on my dance card, Miss.  PARDON ME."  Or maybe, "I said I was allergic to walnuts.  What do these look like to you??!!"  He's certainly striking.

And those punks today think they invented something NEW when they wear "girl jeans." (shake of the head)

Have I mentioned that I am drawn to pictures of women and their dogs?  Because apparently, I am.

Note: I'm sorry I haven't included Shorpy's information on these people.  I highly recommend looking around the site.  It's truly captivating.

Things that Men Should Wear More Often

According to a wise authority, aka yours truly.

Old fashioned sailor uniforms.  Meeeeeeooooowww.

Look at the lad on the right, with his slicked hair!!!  

If I saw a man dressed like this, I think I would inadvertently attack him.

A Letter to Walt Disney, or Another Post on Female Body Image

Dear Mr. Disney, 

Please come back from the dead so that Disney can make another good movie again, without relying on Pixar or live action.  Disney hasn't made an animated film that wasn't computerized in Ages.  Now, they ("they" meaning the internet) tell me Disney has a new animated film called The Princess and the Frog.  It's cool that the company is trying to be ethnically diverse, but I'm a little confused.  I've watched the preview and the princess is African American, is wearing a slightly more provocative version of something Cinderella wears (in your version) and has a tiara.  I guess it's silly to notice or comment on these things, as the story is a children's fantasy, but I'm just not too intrigued by the looks of it.  It doesn't look original or funny, like some of the older Disney movies.  It just looks like a pale, shadowy echo of an era of Disney movies that has seemingly  moved to the cemetery. 

The Princess and the Frog

What I Really didn't like about the preview, and the thing that gets my goat to some extent is the way the princess looks in the movie.  In the movies that were made when you were still around, the women looked natural to some degree.  However, the films that came out around the time I was born and when I was a small child featured animated women who seemed to be modeled after Barbie dolls.  I make no exaggeration.  Their bulbous eyes, ten inch waists and large breasts make them absolutely absurd depictions of human beings.  The men might be comically muscular (ex: Gaston in Beauty and the Beast) or short and round (ex:Belle's father in Beauty and the Beast), but this isn't something seen in the hero of the tale.  These are supporting characters.

I think the best example of the preposterous representation of the female body can be observed in The Little Mermaid.  Pardon me for being crass, but Ariel sort of looks like a doll (please catch my drift as I'd rather not explain what sort of doll she looks like).  Women are sexualized in our culture and sometimes it's fun to play up sexuality to a degree, but I wish women didn't have to be shown an unreachable, unnatural pedestal of feminine beauty, even in children's films.

Ariel in The Little Mermaid

In the News: Emaciated mermaid devours sea horse friends after five-month long fast.

Mr. Disney, I remember Your movies.  I remember Snow White and Peter Pan.  Tinkerbell was sexy and had a Large bottom (I think she and I are distantly related...my great great aunt was half-pixie). Snow White was an itsy bit cherubic, but she looked healthy and pretty. Please, please reconsider coming back to earth.  I don't expect you to wear a "This is what a feminist looks like" t-shirt or anything drastic.  I'd just love it if you got some funny, talented people to work for you, along with artists who draw based on real-live women and their real-life beauty.  I miss you.  Hope you're resting easy.

Love,

Margaux

PS Are you really frozen somewhere or did they make that up?

PPS I'm truly sorry if the last question was out of line.  I was just curious, and I thought since I was writing the letter, I might as well ask.  Again, I'm sorry.  Have a nice day.

In the news: Snow White says a gooseberry pie now and then will not hurt your figure.

Sure, Tink's clothes have to be custom-tailored, but who wants to fit a mold, anyway?