Wikipedia Black Out

Really strange to see the Wikipedia site unavailable due to their one-day shutdown in protest against the proposed anti-piracy legislation.

 I have to say I hadn't heard much about this issue up until now but I'm certainly going to check it out. Anything which may threaten the free-flow of information on the internet certainly gives cause for concern.

Age Gaps

It has just been announced that Brian Ferry got married back in January to Amanda Sheppard. Here's the happy couple:

You can't help noticing there's a bit of an age gap: he is 64 and she's 29. I bring up the subject partly because if the age-gap was reversed then the female partner would be getting hammered by the tabloids just now (Cher, Madonna...). But Mr Ferry seems to be escaping much of that kind of bitching and a good deal of the reaction is of the dirty-lucky-dog variety. Mainly because he is male, of course, but also because not only is he still seen by many as the ultimate in cool but also because he's supposed to have aged quite well -- as compared to, say, Sir Paul McCartney (well respected by many but also targeted for his badly dyed hair, etc).

What the hell -- good luck to them, it is none of our business, etc, etc...

But -- one thing I've noticed:

Something seems to happen to these older celebrities (male or female) when they take up with someone way younger than themselves: the comparison does them no favours in any photographs -- the older woman starts to look unflatteringly  mumsy or even utterly decrepit and the older man begins to look like a doddery old duffer. Like he should be playing someones grandfather in a soap.

Maybe they don't care about how the public perceives them; any celebrity who cares too much about that is, let's face it, on a hiding to nowhere because there will always be some nasty ripping-apart out there. In fact, I would say that genuinely not caring too much about what  other people think about
how you look may even be one of the secrets of a very happy life -- whether you are a celebrity or not.
Anyway, while I'm in an uncharacteristically bitchy and snide mood, here's some SATC on the older man:

Victorian Hidden Mothers Photographs

Photographs of Victorian 'hidden mothers' really freak me out:

The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things

It is pretty obvious -- but 'hidden mothers' photographs are called that because there are (largely unsuccessful) attempts made to hide the mother by hiding her with various props, so she would blend into the background. I don't know if the photographs were meant to be left like that or if it was intended that they would be cut down to size at a later date to effectively cut-out the badly hidden adult.

There are various reason for an adult being there in the first place: the time to take a photograph was a lot longer back then, so adults were needed to control fidgeting children, infants needed to be propped up to face the camera and -- sadly -- some of these type of photographs were taken post-mortem, so it was actually a dead baby or child which was being propped up for a memento mori photograph (though I don't think the latter was the case in the above photograph -- or at least I hope not).

Construction of the Empire State Building

If you've been here before you'll know I love old pictures and that I'm fairly eclectic in my taste. But I especially love anything from the 1920's -- 1940's period. There's lots of great pictures of the construction of the Empire State Building on the wonderfulRetronaut:

Given the heights they worked at and a seeming absence of safely equipment, I would have expected a fairly high number of deaths among the workforce but official records show that only five of the 3,500 strong workforce were killed during the build (ok -- five too many). Thirty people have jumped to their death from the building over the years, including a construction worker who had just lost his job there.  A further fourteen people were killed in 1945, when a US Army B-25 bomber acccidently crashed into the building.

 

How Does Our Voice Sound to Others

I've got the worse singing voice known to man. When I was a kid both my parents told me to shut up when I'd tried to sing because the sound was so bad (and I loved to sing). My father sang all the time and he had the most beautiful singing voice I've ever heard  -- I think it was a disappointment that his children did not inherit that voice. I've stopped attempting to sing long ago (my parents were right -- it did sound terrible) but by way of compensation, I have been told that my talking voice sounds nice. Doesn't sound that great to me but then I've never heard my own voice properly -- until now!
Try this  -- you will look stupid but it will be worth it:



So, did you try it? And do you sound better or worse than you thought? Most people think their voices sound different from what they thought and according to Chris Beatty at Voice Coach this little trick gives a better indication of how your voice really sounds than hearing it on an answering machine recording, etc. My voice sounded a lot better than it sounds 'in my head' but in my case I don't think even Chris could do anything to help with the singing.

Great Vintage Images

The good thing about Tumblr is you can find some amazing vintage images; the bad thing is the amount of time you can end up spending on it. I don't know much about this image -- other than its kind of mysterious and interesting:

And I love this one (both from here)

Love Your Face

Refreshing perspective from actress Justine Bateman on loving how you look, whatever your age:


I have to admit that I haven't seen much of Bateman's work. I've read that she was in the 1980's sitcom Family Ties but I've never seen that. Today I'm in the middle of painting a room (we've bought a Victorian house that needs a lot of work doing on it) and I flick on a television to see if there's any old movies on. Up pops Bateman in The Hollywood Mom's Mystery. Not such an old movie -- 2004, I think -- and made for TV. But not bad at all. Bateman was good in it -- she can act and has an interesting 'watchable' face. A lot, lot better than the usual Hollywood clones who have gone down the surgical intervention route.

All Men Cheat

At least they would if they think they can get away with it. Monogamy is a social construct; men want emotional monogamy but still desire recreational sex.
That seems to be the gist of an upcoming book by the American sociologist, Eric Andersen. In The Monogamy Gap: Men, Love and the Reality of Cheating he argues that it is not in the nature of men -- straight or gay -- to be sexually confined to one long-term partner but society deems that this should be the case. Most men would cheat if they could get away with it, even if they love their partner. But most do not want an open marriage or relationship because they find the idea of their love interest having sexual relationships with other people unacceptable.

So the ideal situation would seem to be that they can have a bit on the side as often as they desire but that the 'other half' should not find out. Well tell us something we do not already know. The whole 'cake and eat it' thing seems to have being going on since the beginning of time. Every now and then some psychologist, sociologist or other 'ologist' comes up with a piece of research that justifies infidelity in terms of men finding a way around that fact that their fundamental biology is being  thwarted by social conventions. In most research this biological imperative to have casual sex as often as desired is, apparently, applicable primarily to the male of the species -- this usually being attributed to specifics of human reproduction (the 'women carry and nurture infants and therefore must capture a mate who will be committed to providing for them' explanation).

Mmmm -- where do I start on this one? First of all, I don't know just how stringent Anderson's research methods were, but if his findings -- that men wanted to have plenty of non-committed casual sex -- were based mainly on data gained by interviewing a bunch on collage men, then my response would be something along the lines of 'no shit, Sherlock'. They would say that, wouldn't they. But here's the point: just how do we separate just what is a purely biological urge and what is influenced by social factors? Could it not be equally the case that men have been programmed by society into believing they should be having plenty of casual sex and also that their natural biological urges are being stifled by social factors? Conditioned to believe they are missing out or are being deprived by socially-imposed monogamy (no -- I don't really buy that one either...).

But separating out the social from the purely biological is almost impossible and the argument that satisfaction of biological urges should be paramount (or even life-enhancing) is a minefield I'm not going into now.

I don't have an axe to grind and don't really have any first-hand experience of infidelity, but working on a non-scientific gut-instinct response I'd say that the devastation and heartache people feel when confronted with a cheating partner has a lot less to do with social conditioning and may ultimately be tied to some innate human need to connect to another human being in a situation of total commitment. I just don't think we can be re-programmed into thinking that an emotional relationship is not damaged or diminished by a partner fulfilling his desire for a bit of a fling outside the relationship. With some exceptions, I think it is always going to hurt and I don't believe that hurt is merely a product of socially imposed factors.

So, yet another study that seeks to justify or explain away love cheats by pulling out the 'biology card' just leaves me cold. Men don't need to be told that they are only doing what comes naturally -- because society has already being telling that for years. It would be a cold gray world if we were to buy into this artificial notion that fidelity was merely a by-product of the social and not related to something much deeper within the human psyche.

Lee Miller

                                                                source

source

Photographs of and by Lee Miller: model, muse, photographer. She stands out not only for her beauty and talent but also for the fact that she was a war correspondent during WW2 -- a highly unusual job for a woman back then or even now.

I'd never of Miller until a few days ago but her life story seems so fascinating that I wanted to know more and so ordered this Carolyn Burke biography of Miller:

Amazon

DIY Face Masks -- Japanese Style

I don't know how effective Chizu Saeki's skincare regimens are but by the look of her beautiful hands  she must be doing something right; she's in her sixties but her hands look about half that.



She also has a book out:

 

Its available on Amazon -- but with a fairly hefty price tag.

Clara Bow

The lovely Clara Bow improvises a new outfit for a night out:



What is sweet piece of film, now I think I want to see the whole thing. I'm really getting to appreciate these old movies. I didn't know much about Bow until recently, and had no idea what a difficult time she had as a child. There are details on this Wikipedia page.

Not Such a Happy Couple

Despite the fact that this was their wedding day these two charmers look miserable as hell. But apparently  they had a long and happy marriage. I don't think it was the done thing to actually look happy in photographs back then -- and they did have their royal dignity to consider.
Source

Coney Island

A great old photograph of Coney Island. And I thought Brighton beach got busy in the summer months.
Source

Oh Comely Magazine

Here's a bunch of cats auditioning for a part in a 1960's horror movie:

The image is from the Oh Comely blog 

I like what I'm hearing about the Oh Comely Magazine.

It seems to have a strong indie vibe, crafty but without the 'twee' factor. I've never seen it in any of the shops around here but I might check out the bigger branch of W H Smith to see if I can grab a copy.

Men with Beautiful Eyes

This is a photograph of the young Theodore Roosevelt

Beautiful eyes (and lips).

But much later:

There's got to be some mistake, surely? It doesn't even look like the same person. I know time is a killer, lookswise, but I still can't see it.

Update (hold the front page...): yup -- it is him, alright. I guess most politicians are well past the first bloom of youth by the time they have official photographs taken.

Source: History Crushes

Big Pants

I find this image sort of sweetly innocent.
Source

Beats Judge Judy

Source

I'm kidding -- nothing beats Judge Judy.

Evelyn McHale

This is the iconic, haunting image of Evelyn McHale, who in 1947 leapt to her death from the top of the Empire State Building, shortly after a meeting with her fiance, ex-GI Barry Rhodes. She landed on top of a parked car and was quickly photographed by a passing photography student.

The image is disturbing on a number of levels: her look of serenity and composure is often mentioned, her beauty, the fact that she looks as if she took some time with her appearance before her leap - the lipstick, that appears to be newly applied...

She left a note behind on the observation deck -- the words read:

"I don’t want anyone in or out of my family to see any part of me. Could you destroy my body by cremation? I beg of you and my family – don’t have any service for me or remembrance for me. My fiance asked me to marry him in June.I don’t think I would make a good wife for anybody. He is much better off without me. Tell my father, I have too many of my mother’s tendencies."

The note does little to explain why she felt so bad that she decided to leap a thousand feet to her death. Given that she is probably the most famous 'jumper' from the Empire State Building, and the iconic nature of that image, it is surprising that there is very little information on her life and a surprising lack of speculation on the reasons for her suicide. The line that may be of some significance is 'Tell my father, I have too many of my mother’s tendencies.". It seems that her mother left the family, apparently for 'material' reasons when Evelyn and her siblings were still children, leaving their father to bring then up on his own. Had Evelyn met another man but could not contemplate 'abandoning' her fiance or was there a whole other untold story behind the image of what some have called the 'saddest photograph''.

Source

 

A Fat Girl's Guide

That is the title of a website I found when I was doing some research on hairstyles (along the layers/no layers line).

Now, I was uncomfortable even writing that title. A special guide?  People over a certain weigh can't just use general guides  -- they need a special 'fat' guide?

And 'fat' -- lets face it -- it is usually seen as an insult, a derogatory term. Okay, even those us us who are within the medically defined 'healthy' weight range may sometimes 'feel fat' and we might occasionally voice this to friends and family. But unless a person is undeniably morbidly obese then I guess the usual response would be along the lines of 'don't be stupid -- you look lovely' (like you can't be lovely and fat) or 'stop putting yourself down'. I occasionally make little off-the-cuff 'fat' comments about myself in relation to clothing and I'm not even technically overweight -- just short and not supermodel skinny.

But wait -- read this from The Fat Girl's Guide to Living: a life hacker for the full-figured set:

 The Fat Girl’s Guide to Living is a lifestyle blog created for and by overweight women who are tired of missing out on really living because of internal and external weight-related pressures and self-perceptions.
If you’re like us, you’ve put off countless things – vacations, sports, new careers, even meeting new people – until you’ve reached an ideal number on the scale or fit back into the jeans you wore in high school. But getting there can be a long road, right? And that road is full of lots of opportunities for a fun, fulfilling life in the meantime. Why miss them?

And this from the FAQ

Isn’t it politically incorrect to call someone a “fat girl?”

 

Maybe, but we’re here to get real, and the tell-it-like-it-is approach is embedded in our mission. Fat is just another word that describes our physical selves, like tall or serious or brunette, and I’d love to see it stripped of its power to make us feel bad. So rather than be embarrassed or imprisoned by it, we plan to have some fun with it.

So, not so bad then? I like the 'stripped of its power' part. And not being 'imprisoned' by the very word. And leaving the semantics aside, the site is a good read: full of information and practical advice on beauty, health, relationships and most other topics which are of interest to women. Some of it is specific to weight-related issues but a lot of it is applicable to most people. Best of all is the message not to put one's life on hold until a weight-loss goal is achieved.

Ice Station

My insomnia has kicked in again, so while you are all asleep in your cosy beds I'm reading Lora Koenig's blog from the Greenland summit.

I don't even know how I found the site -- one minute I was checking out Face Hunter then I'm somehow reading about how scientists survive in Arctic conditions. Not that I've read much (yet) about the actual science: I was much more interested in the practicalities of it -- the how-do-they-avoid-freezing-to-death aspect of it all. But being scientists, they found solutions to the man vs the elements problem.

Here's Lora, all dressed up in her going-out gear:

That little ensemble is not too far away from a look I sported myself when I ventured out to the local shops last winter (one benefit of this excessive padding is that you feel quite skinny once you get indoors and peel off all the layers).

These scientists are so well-organised that they even managed a Christmas tree...

... made out of a bamboo stick pyramid.

I am going to read more about the science of the whole thing (I don't just watch Big Bang Theory merely for the love of Sheldon, you know) but I've been wondering if the participants have to go through rigorous psychological testing before they are sent out to these camps. My mind automatically goes into Horror Film mode and I'm thinking: a bunch of strangers, stuck in an isolated, inhospitable place, with little chance of a speedy exit...

But seriously -- and I was joking -- I think these guys are pretty good role models for kids: using skills they gained over years of study for the cause of scientific advancement and the possible benefit for mankind (I know science can be used for evil but go with me here...).  Their life seems meaningful and purposeful and miles away (literally) from that of desperate 'celebrities' who sell their souls for a few weeks of fame.