It’s not I want to be that. It’s I want to feel that.
From a 2008 article in New York Magazine on photographer Juergen Teller.
“For me it was important that an over-60 woman is in a high-class fashion ad, or whatever you call it, and a 40-year-old overweight guy, instead of these anorexic young kids.” It’s like some sort of avant-garde Dove campaign, interested in amping up the glamour of fashion by removing its artifice but retaining the decadence of an ornate suite in a five-star hotel, all tricked out in the gilty style of Louis XV. Teller was so happy with the ad that he and Rampling returned to the Crillon and continued the shoot, eventually publishing a small book. The photos verge on pornographic: In one, an (uncircumcised) Teller is pissing into an orchid, right beside a rotting bowl of fruit. It’s almost as if, by placing himself in the photographs looking naked, pudgy, and often sad, he has removed the sadism inherent in so much fashion photography: If a model is required to look vulnerable, well, then so will Teller.
Side mirrors are to Italians what whiskers are to cats
Breaking
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) has reportedly been shot in the head at point blank range at an event in her district.
Quoted
I would make the point that the leader and the speaker have established their integrity and their mendacity for years in this Congress and I don’t believe it can be effectively challenged and those who do so actually cast aspersions on themselves by making wild accusations.
- Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), speaking on the floor of the House.
Just so we’re all clear, “mendacity” means “untruthfulness” or “the tendency to lie.” Thanks for that, Steve.
(TPM)
Your Friends Aren’t That Happy
A recent study by Stanford University finds that we’re pretty poor judges of our peers’ inner lives and that, in fact, our friends who seem to have their lives together aren’t nearly as happy as they seem:
The paper was based on the doctoral dissertation of psychologist Alexander H. Jordan, now a research fellow at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Jordan noticed that some of his friends became “upset after reading others’ posts on Facebook,” according to a Stanford press release.
“They felt disappointed with their lives when they logged onto Facebook and browsed the apparently ‘perfect’ lives presented by their peers,” he said. “I wondered whether people might harbor a more general illusion that others’ lives are cheerier than they actually are.”
In addition to noting this Facebook effect, the paper also suggested that the tendency to underestimate other people’s woes explains why humans seek out tragedy in entertainment.
Grace and I have been having an ongoing conversation about this very issue. Being young and newly married in the age of social networks, our peers’ projections of their ideal selves can be a pretty daunting example to live up to (marriage always looks so polished and perfect in a status update). I always had an inkling that it was mostly bullshit, but it’s nice to have the science to back it up.
tweet of the day, II
tweet of the day
Cleveland V. Cox
In 1974, a Browns fan and season ticket-holder named Dale Cox sent the following letter to the Cleveland Browns:
Gentlemen:
I am one of your season ticket holders who attends or tries to attend every game. It appears one of the pastimes of several fans has become the sailing of paper airplanes generally made out of the game program. As you know, there is the risk of serious eye injury and perhaps an ear injury as a result of such airplanes. I am sure that this has been called to your attention and that several of your ushers and policemen witnessed the same.
Please be advised that since you are in a position to control or terminate such action on the part of fans, I will hold you responsible for any injury sustained by any person in my party attending one of your sporting events. It is hoped that this disrespectful and possibly dangerous activity will be terminated.
Very truly yours,
Roetzel & Andress
By Dale O. Cox
Here’s the response from the team’s general counsel:
from the comments
I got a fish hook in my hand once.
My brother and I were pillow fighting one day at the family cottage. One swing back of a pillow picked up a hook and lure from a nearby fishing rod — and the return swing sunk the hook deeply into the flesh between my middle and index fingers. Agony.
We were in the country, it was very painful and my Dad had to drive to a nearby small town hospital to get help. I had no idea how they were gonna get it out of me — the barb on the hook prevents you from pulling it out — even touching it was pretty ouchy. I had visions of scalpels and surgery — and was terrified.
So imagine my surprise when the practitioner injected my hand with a little local anaesthetic, grabbed a pair of pliers and pushed the hook in even deeper! So deep in fact that the point and barb emerged out the other side of my hand, which he deftly snipped off with some wire cutters and then yanked the rest of the hook back out the direction it had entered. It was over in seconds.
My dad bought me ice cream on the ride home.
The City of Wine
In 2005, the winery at Milestii Mici officially claimed the title of largest wine collection in the world. It took Guinness almost a year to consider the application:
The collection comprises 1.5 million bottles. Stretching for 250 kilometres (160 mi), of which only 120 kilometres (75 mi) are currently in use, the Milestii Mici cellar complex is also the largest in the world. Overall, the complex holds nearly 2 million bottles. More than 70% of the stored wines are red, 20% are white and about 10% are dessert ones. The most valuable items of this collection, worth €480 a bottle, were produced in 1973-74; they are now exported only to Japan.
I know where I’ll be heading come nuclear apocalypse.
Mrs. James McLurdy
in front of a structure strung with small animal figures at White City amusement park. Chicago Daily News. 1905.
What more is there to know?
White City was located at East 63rd Street and South King Drive (formerly South Park) in the Greater Grand Crossing community area of Chicago, Illinois.
(Library of Congress/Chicago History Museum.)
A (Soup) (Swap) Conundrum
I actually pondered hosting a Soup Swap. Pondered it briefly. I really like soup, both the making and the eating of it, and besides, I need to “put myself forward” out here in the Back of Beyond if I am not going to drift out beyond the Back of Beyond and into La-La Land.
But I got to thinking about how few friends I have here and about how a Soup Swap, like a Book Club, sort of demands that the participants know one another at least a little. Else you start drifting into the territory staked out by Amway, Avon, and Tupperware.
Plastics.
You have a good weekend
Dear Clusterflock
My understanding of etiquette dictates that when asked to pass an item (e.g. salt), one should not use the item as it passes. Does this stricture apply beyond the dinner table?
Bath in 100 Objects
A serendipitous notice (in light of Phil’s recent post) from one of my archives/museum conduits.
Eugene Marten has a New Novel
More fine writing by the author of Waste and In The Blind. Look at this passage, in which the main character Jelonnek has been arrested for solicitation:
He wore his cuffs in front now. The cop next to him held his hand like a manicurist and told him to relax, rolled his thumb off the card. The woman in the window said, “Look up” and a Polaroid camera flashed in his face. He signed a form that absolved the city of all blame, though for what he wasn’t sure. “Forever hold blameless,” it said. Blue spots in front of his eyes. A red sticker meant suicide watch. The woman in the window looked up the bail schedule. If he couldn’t make bail, they would hold him till his arraignment in the morning, or the morning after that. The word triggered a voltage of panic. Serious criminals were arraigned, murderers and molesters. He asked if he could make a phone call.
“You can make as many as you want for ten minutes,” she said. “Collect.”
They locked him in the phone cell. The phone was metal and looked indestructible but not for lack of effort. It was still warm.
Marten can put you in a person’s skin and show you a physical world at the same time like no other (except perhaps for Cormac McCarthy). Find it here.
headline of the day, II
Man Charged With Rigging Bomb In Sex Toy
The criminal complaint says police found a sex toy inside the package that had been modified with gun powder and buck shot, which were connected to a trigger inside the battery port.
Authorities say Lester planned on giving the sex toy to one of three women he had previously been involved with where the relationship ended poorly. Materials were found suggesting he intended to make two other similar devices.
Lester told friends that “he would pull the trigger and it would blow them up.”
A Man With A Yellow Flower.
The discovery of a chemical signal in tears suggests “a novel functional role for crying”
Our tears, according to striking new research, may be sending chemical signals that influence the behavior of other people.
In several experiments, researchers found that men who sniffed drops of women’s emotional tears became less sexually aroused than when they sniffed a neutral saline solution that had been dribbled down women’s cheeks.
Fortunately, he said, “we have a male crier now.”
Sheila Ryan is now following Robert the Doll
But is he The Real Robert the Doll, do you think?
quote out of context
‘It’s lonely here,’ Martin says, as a single tear drips from his right eye.
dear clusterflock
Are we getting together in May?
The Sartorialist
Jason points to a really lovely seven minute documentary on Scott Schuman, The Sartorialist.
headline of the day
New documents: Hitler-mocking dog enraged Nazis
In the Clit, Room #528
From an interview with George Holz, Mark Albeit, Just Loomis — three American photographers from Pasadena — who as students ended up working with Helmut Newton.
Just: Sometimes he had to photograph certain women. Sometimes Vogue would impose certain girls on him, like a Michelle Stevens. I think he liked Jerry Hall, but he always countered those girls with somebody else. He would always have another girl as a sort of counterbalance to some of these more traditional girls, because American Vogue was so traditional in a way compared to what Helmut was trying to do.
George: But at the same time he would love a Lisa Lyons, who was shot by Mapplethorpe, because she was strange. She had the veins. She was not a traditional beauty. The way he would photograph her was amazing. He was fascinated by that kind of beauty as well.
Also:
Three Boys from Pasadena: A Tribute to Helmut Newton, curated by June Newton, is on view through January 30, 2011 at Clic Gallery, 255 Centre St, NY, NY
