the ugly earring

There is an Eastern fable, told long ago, of a traveller overtaken on a plain by an enraged beast. Escaping from the beast he gets into a dry well, but sees at the bottom of the well a dragon that has opened its jaws to swallow him. And the unfortunate man, not daring to climb out lest he should be destroyed by the enraged beast, and not daring to leap to the bottom of the well lest he should be eaten by the dragon, seizes s twig growing in a crack in the well and clings to it.

His hands are growing weaker and he feels he will soon have to resign himself to the destruction that awaits him above or below, but still he clings on. Then he sees that two mice, a black one and a white one, go regularly round and round the stem of the twig to which he is clinging and gnaw at it. And soon the twig itself will snap and he will fall into the dragon’s jaws. The traveller sees this and knows that he will inevitably perish; but while still hanging he looks around, sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the twig, reaches them with his tongue and licks them.

                                —from tolstoy’s “a confession“

(by way of a really neat blog: stringbean)

trend # trois millions sept cent soixante deux mille and how i feel about grandma panties being worn as outerwear and visible panty lines (more here).

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we spent most of the day waiting for the weather to clear at chicago o’hare airport. the clouds refused to lift, and  we were stranded without our luggage and in the clothes we had been wearing since 5 am. luckily, the hotel was next to target. it was monumental, like seeing pearly gates in hell. we raced over as quickly as we could in our flip flops, making our way through the health and beauty section picking up items to make our overnight stay bearable–toothbrush, toothpaste, brush, lotion, soap, deodorant. underwear. we reconvened at the check out station, our baskets full of goodies.  each of us watching what brand shampoo and what items we may have missed that another had remembered. And, of course what kind of underwear each picked out.

black thong.

nude thong.

another black thong.

flowers with lace detailed thong.

blue and green grandma panties.

wait, grandma panties?

the lone wolf stood among her work collegues.

yes, those are mine.

that lone wolf… she is so ahead of her time.  

recap of a discussion i had not too long ago.

can a woman in her 30s wear footless tights without looking like a throwback from 1991?

the office consensus voted: leave them alone. they belong on myspace.com only.

me: “but, it is possible to rock footless tights without an acid-washed jean mini skirt and without looking like janet livermore (think empire-waist,  mini floral dress with a tie in the back and sheer–SHEER!)”.

they snickered and went back to their desks.

so, for those women who get their sartorialist moment during fashion week, who sit front row and say “oh zees? zees is veentage,” who actually wear footless tights in public, i thank you for coming to my defense.

which leads me to my next thought: is the pairing of chocolate tights and gold open toe, five inch heels inappropriate for a new mother?

see, i told you.

(junior highglasses in nyc)

(yigal azrouel fall 2007)

dear karen walker,

elephant bell pants, scarves under berets, lightning bolts through

a pulsing heart, depression-era tailoring?

have you been sniffing around my pretend closet again?

(by way of the always avante minirobot…)

there exists a yearly vegetarian festival:

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual event held during the ninth lunar month (september-october) of the Chinese calendar. It is believed that the vegetarian festival and its accompanying sacred rituals bestow good fortune upon those who religiously observe this rite. During this time, local residents of Chinese ancestry strictly observe a 10-day vegetarian or vegan diet for the purposes of spiritual cleansing and merit-making. Sacred rituals are performed at various Chinese shrines and temples and aesthetic displays such as walking barefooted over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs are performed by entranced devotees known as “Ma Song”.

a photo of a “Ma Song” or entranced horse.

The Vegetarian Festival started when a Chinese opera company visited the island of Phuket, in Thailand, some 180 years ago and fell ill during its stay. The actors ate only vegetarian food for a month, and made a full recovery. 

now that i’ve piqued your interest read the entire article here 

(photo attributed to above article and author).

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sp 

(photo credit and text)

Fernande Barrey regularly took her coffee at the Dome, a café in
Montparnasse. In 1917, she met  Tsuguharu Foujita.

(photo credit: Tsuguharu with lover: Louci Badoul who he called Youki or “rose snow”)

She was 25, with laughing eyes, short hair, a turned-up nose, and slangy Parisian speech, her accent being
Picardy. For Foujita, it was love at first sight, but she was not impressed by the unusual Japanese man with earrings and strange clothing. He rose and approached her, bowed ceremoniously. They exchanged a few words, he paid her compliments about her dress. He then retreated.Foujita had a gift of making dresses from nothing. He spent that night sewing a blue blouse for Fernande and brought it to her room in the morning. Foujita complained of the coldness of Fernande’s room and as she did not want to appear lacking in generosity herself, after Foujita’s wonderful handmade gift, Fernande picked up a hatchet and hacked up the only chair she owned to provide him with some firewood.They married several days later, on March, 27th, 1917 at the town hall of the 14th Arrondissement. Foujita borrowed the 6 francs needed to publish the wedding banns from a waiter at the Rotonde, whom he reimbursed by painting a portrait of his wife.Fernande gave up her own artistic activities to devote herself to her husband’s career. A few weeks after their marriage, story has it that she left home with a portfolio of drawings under her arm. She walked to the right bank, where most of the art dealers operated. Caught in an unexpected downpour, she went into Cheron’s, a very well-known art dealer, offering him two watercolors in exchange for an umbrella. She returned to Montparnasse without having sold a thing. But she had won over Cheron. For after he had studied the watercolors attentively, the dealer crossed the Seine to the rue Delambre. He asked who this artist was and where he kept his works. He bought everything he saw, providing some welcome security for the young couple: seven francs fifty for each watercolor, as a minimum, and four hundred fifty francs for a month’s production. To celebrate their good fortune, Foujita gave his wife a cage and a canary.t that night sewing a blue blouse for Fernande and brought it to her room in the morning. Foujita complained of the coldness of Fernande’s room and as she did not want to