late birthday girl

well, i tried to get this in on time, but it looks like i was about 55 minutes late. september 19th was the birthday of the very 'cool-in-my-book' twiggy. she was born on september 19th, 1949 in england and given the name leslie hornby. and i don't even think about the whole 'skinny' or weight thing when i think about twiggy. i think that shortchanges her. she's always struck me as being a talented, beautiful, and happy girl. this cool shot was taken from what was her only major starring role in a motion picture. (as far as i know.) in march 1972, she starred in the genius ken russell's film production of the stage musical 'the boyfriend.' the first time i watched it, i was bored unless there was a musical number going on. but the more i watched it, the more i liked it. twiggy plays a young, dreamy, practical stagehand named polly browne, who ends up on stage for a sparsely-attended matinee after the star becomes unavailable. the movie's really long, but if you have the patience for some paced, somewhat dated storytelling, you'll be lucky enough to enjoy the several dazzling busby-berkely-reminiscent, larger-than-life musical numbers. it also features groovy appearances by christopher gable, glenda jackson, max adrian, tommy tune, murray melvin, vladek sheybal, and yes, the one and only, gorgeous and legendary, cool and glamourous, sleek and sultry miss georgina hale, who actually steals one number near the end of the film in her dazzling pink sequined dress. (hey, i might have to post that number later, if i can find it.)

le bon in action

here's another shot i took from 'sing blue silver.' he's singing one of their best earlier songs, 'is there something i should know?' as i mentioned in the nick-post below, the film stock was a total uncooperative bitch, but i did the best i could. all the footage is like, shaky-hand-held-camera-fied, which isn't great to get shots from in the first place, but the film is so slow, so getting something not-blurry was a real challenge. but i think i got pretty lucky with this one. and just for the record, i think his 'uniform,' or costume for that tour suited him well. i'm kind of surprised some version of that white jacket with the black-striped collar never made it to the hip clothes shops, you know, like that tomato-soup colored michael jackson 'beat it' jacket did. i'm surprised i never saw one hanging in 'merchants' in four seasons mall. wow, i still love simon le bon... but have you seen him lately? i hate to say it, but i suspect he's had some 'work done.' chemical-peel le bon. (?) click to enlarge.

nick smokes

okay, this site has been giving me problems for the last few minutes, so i don't know how intricate this entry will be. but anyway, last night i was watching the 80's duran duran tour documentary 'sing blue silver.' and since it was rolling, i decided i should try to get some shots from it... but man, that was some of the laziest, slowest, grainiest, worst film-slash-videotape stock i've ever worked with. its like, every bit as bad as 'evil under the sun.' i mean, it was the haziest, shallowest film i've had the displeasure of wrestling with for quite some time. but i DID manage to get this shot of the young nickety-rhodes, at a radio interview, priss-dragging on what looked like a camel... but the film stock was so poor i really couldn't tell. it did have a brown filter area. he's a cutie, am i right folks? and he's known to have a bitchy side too. (...nick rhodes? how can that be?) anyway, let me just see if this post sticks, and if it does, maybe i'll post something else... after i have MY evil Camel-on-the-deck-under-the-stars.

mmmm...velvet

so... 'velvet goldmine.' i sooo feel two ways about this movie. i guess you could say i 'go both ways' where 'velvet goldmine' is concerned. the cast is wonderful. the songs are fantastic. the costumes are flawless. the subject matter has stellar potential. but, the movie itself, like, the final product is one of the most lopsided movies i've ever liked enough to own. the plot is so weak and who-cares, that you find yourself not even feeling guilty for not caring about it. if you ask me, the whole 'popstar gets shot, who dunnit' aspect is totally extraneous, and a bad idea in the first place. if todd haynes had called me first, i would've advised him to take the same cast, same crew, same vibe, and make a wild, stylized mockumentary about brian slade and kurt wilde, mandy, and the rest of the gang. you could still have all the music, all the drama, all the historic context, and all the sex, drugs, and rock and roll, without the limp-dicked, wet-washcloth excuse for a murder mystery. the opening credits sequence is one of the most invigorating i've ever seen... indeed the entire first hour or so is practically perfect... but i hate to see christian bale so underused and rendered so boring as he is in 'goldmine.' i mean, in the 'flashback to the 7o's' sequences, he's marvelous and spot-on, but in the 'now he's a reporter' sequences, i couldn't even pay myself to care. oh, and eddie izzard's oddly enough, NOT in make-up or drag! oh, by the way, the shot is of johnathan rhys-myers as brian slade during the video of his hit, 'the ballad of maxwell demon.' great f***ing costume. (click to enlarge)

mmmm...moulin

okay, i have to admit, the first (and actually, mostly only) time i saw 'moulin rouge,' i was more or less blown away by it. but i think my reaction was about 80% 'induced' if you know what i mean. i just remember a loud, long dazzle of red and blue and a lot of lacy, glittery heartshapes. and i remember ewan singing. oddly enough, i don't remember much of anything about boring miss kidman. i don't think she's done any work that comes close to 'dead calm.' (man, what a boring thing for me to say.) but i was impressed with the fact that ewan did his own singing. and he's very 'easy on the eyes.' i gotta admit, though... i'm not a huge fan of baz luhurmann. i didn't get anything out of his 'romeo and juliet' but a headache. i probably should give 'moulin' another sober chance, but i'm just not sure if i 'can-can-can' free up the time.

baby brooke

ummm, so i'm still dealing with just an iceberg tip where my picksh are concerned. but i did just re-snag this shot of a young teenage miss brooke shields. now, when i was growing up i remember movies like 'pretty baby' and 'king of the gypsies' on HBO. i remember my mother talking about her, you know, that whole issue of over-sexualizing children that seemed to blossom in the media around that time. at the time, like around the time of 'endless love' and 'the blue lagoon,' i remember her being so famous and so glamorous, and i knew how young she was. i wanted to be like her... i wanted to look like her. even at that age, i remember realizing her acting 'chops' weren't the greatest, but i did love the way she looked. and i loved all the attention she got. hey, i just remembered her being in that awful movie where she was a runaway that was befriended by george burns so she could avoid apparently being killed by some criminal ex-boyfriend. what was that movie called? oh yeah, was it 'just you and me, kid?' or 'here's lookin' at you, kid?' wait, i'm gonna look it up. okay, 1979, and it was 'just you and me, kid.' apparently the 'cute' tagline was: 'the story of two juvenile delinquents.' oh, i get it... its a cute joke, 'cause he's old. and the synopsis reminds me she was running away from drug dealers. oh, and how's this for a supporting cast? lorraine 'jaws, mrs. brody' gary, burl ives, ray bolger, and christopher knight! (?) and hey, what a surprise, its not out on DVD yet!

roxy music - amazona : video

hey, i'm not certain what year it was, and i'm not sure what show they were on... but i do know i love the hard, dreamy, candyfeathered sound... ohhh yes. let bryan 'take you there.'

pent up

penthouse magazine, ladies and gentlemen. i grew up with a seemingly endless supply of penthouse magazines from the 70's and 80's at my disposal, and you'd better believe jean-lucien and i read every one of them. and yes, i mean we actually read them. i've mentioned before that our stepfather had crates full of 'girlie magazines' on the screened-in porch, which we systematically adopted. (the magazines, not the porch.) (mmm, no kidding.) i thought it was really groovy to have an equal amount of playboys and penthouses... it was kind of like dating twins, and one of them may not have been as clean, but she was blessedly just a little bit sluttier than her sister. playboy seemed like, like a well-made american corvette, whereas penthouse was like a quick, slick, and tricky japanese import. i mean, your heart might've been with the corvette, but man, that mistubishi was fast!! and her doors closed so tight! (mmm, can you tell i've been up past my bedtime?) anyway, this is one of the prettiest and clearest penthouse magazine covers i could find. too bad they don't sell like, digital 'page-by-page' copies of 'forum' and 'variations,' because i know a girl who could cash her check right there... namely, me. (click to enlarge)

set

okay, this is obviously a shameless play for lucynell's attention. hey, its the slim and expert mr. stewart copeland, right where he belongs; namely, behind his drums with his mouth shut. okay, so that last part was just mean. actually, i've heard stewart talk, and he seems like a pretty bright and lucid guy. he's always reminded me of my cool older cousin eric. and those striped shirts? you know they were so popular in those days, and actually, he looked pretty good in one. in fact, from this moment on, i might have to refer to that kind of top as a 'stewart copeland shirt.' and i've never heard of him being a real asshole, maybe lucynell can help me out here... like, are there any infamous stories of him like, getting pissed in front of 15 thousand people and like, dropping his sticks and walking off in standard, 'shove it, i don't need this!' -fashion. hey, i don't know all that much about 'police' lore, but it always sort of struck me that if one of those three guys was gonna 'rag out' and be a prima donna, then it would be sting, and sting alone. but hey, like i said, lucynell, correct me if i'm wrong. do you have any juicy 'policedrama' dirt to dish?

remember kids...?

yes, this is the movie poster for 'the legacy.' i remember seeing this image like, on posters, and on those glossy slick paperback books that hit the shelves at roughly the same time. it creeped me out, like, seriously. i didn't even know what the word 'legacy' meant at the time. and, even though i loved cats, that yowling, white, disembodied cat head didn't exactly make sugar plums dance, i promise you. in fact, i think i even laid awake in my bed one night, after having seen the book cover at the grocery store. i had this sick-scary image of the cat head like, coming to life in the dark and-closed-for-the-night grocery store, and like, i imagined it jumped off the book, and like, 'spider-walked' down the street on its craggly 'human-hand'-legs, marching straight for my house, like, letting out little evil tortured cat mewls all the way. and i knew 'the way' to the store so well, i remember trying to like, imagine in 'real time' which houses it would pass on its way to come and 'get me.' i even imagined the humming sound of the streetlights when it passed underneath one. it marched past johnson street elementary, then straight up to lexington, screeching, and i think i maybe even saw it with a little purplish lightning-filled 'storm cloud' imploding over its head. even with all that vivid imagination going on, i can't remember ever deciding what it was gonna do to me once it got all the way to my bedroom door. i think at the time, i figured it was creepy enough if it just stood there, silently, outside my door in the hall, so i could see the disturbance in the stripe of 'light-under-the-door,' and know it was out there. man, i was crazy then, and i'm eeeee-crazzzy now! (oh, and hey, now that i read the fine print, it looks like roger daltrey's in it, man! )

click to enlarge.

fisher smokes...and tells

yes, we all know miss carrie fisher has a wild side. we've all seen her come on strong with warren beatty as a teenage temptress in 'shampoo.' we all know about her going all the way to '...the edge,' but apparently, she went all the way in other areas, too. i just heard today that carrie is writing another 'tell-all' book. and in it, she supposedly reveals how she and the 'real han solo,' mr. harrison ford, used the force, namely, the sex-force to heat up the 'space' between them during the filming of 'star wars.' hey, in a way, its almost like, 'tell me something i don't know.' i mean, personally i woulda bet she banged them both. and maybe chewbacca. but not C-3p0, we know he's not all that 'into' chicks. i mean, why do you think he's always with that other male robot that comes up to like, waist-level? (mmm, lame joke)

the johnsons

so it seems like my past posting of a young and undressed anjelica huston was a big hit, so i decided it would be cool to post a groovy shot of the somewhat-nude couple under a haze of gauze. the dude on the bottom, with 95 percent of his clothes on is don johnson. and yes, that means the barely-old-enough-to-consent chick on top is none other than miss melanie griffith. wow, she really was beautiful, wasn't she? but um, have you taken a look at her recently? yikes! i hate to be mean to such a mod and free-swinging sister, but she's a walking plastic factory. and its a shame, because i can't imagine she would've aged badly on her own merits. i mean, tippi (her mom) hedren looked pretty good for a long time, and i don't think she had a lot of artificial help. and hey, don johnson still looks okay last time i checked. i miss this hazy, soft, super-diffused style of photography. i don't think its a cop-out, really, because if you don't have a fair amount of 'basic goods' in the first place, a hazy filter isn't going to help much. and hey, i miss real panties! i dig this shot, its great. they're so in love! sigh... (click to enlarge)

cass elliot - california earthquake : video

i love this one. it's sure, smooth, groovy and catching... with a drop of protest and social awareness... just how i 'late 60's' -like it.

snake

i love snakes. i don't care what anyone else thinks, i love 'em! they're slinky and cool and sly and strong and affectionate and expressive. this shot is from stanley kubrick's masterpiece 'a clockwork orange.' in short, this is one of alex's snakes. i don't know if i've got a screw loose or something, but a tame snake doesn't scheeve me in the least, but bugs-and-or-anything with more than four legs? you can keep it the eff away from me. i even like snakes more than dogs or birds or fish or anything else except cats. i'd even rather keep a snake than a rabbit or a damn skanky ferret. and guinea pigs? you can keep'em. i kind of like hamsters, but i'm not great at taking care of them. i've never had a gerbil, but i can't imagine i'd be too thrilled. snakes are great, though... they seek out your body-warmth and dig to loud music. if i had endless money, one of the first things i would get would be a snake. and i'd name it 'scaley mills.'

evita

its literally difficult for me to remember a time when i wasn't aware of 'evita.' i remember there were ads for the touring production on local tv back in the very early 80's. (if not 70's.) there was even a new york bus in the first 'superman' movie that bore an 'evita' ad on top. i actually think i remember hearing the phrase 'don't cry for me argentina' before i even really understood what a broadway musical was. then, in 1988 (or thereabouts) 'the phantom of the opera' came onto the scene. i was totally hooked by the entire 'phantom' phenomenon. it was very soon after that that i learned andrew lloyd webber was also responsible for the mysterious-sounding 'evita.' so... i found the double cassette of the original broadway cast recording in some low-end record store and bought it. and to this day, it remains my favorite broadway musical. but only patti lupone's version. starring alongside her in that legendary production were mandy patinkin (as Che) and the underrated bob gunton (the warden in 'shawshank redemption') as the dictatorial juan peron.

julie in boots

okay, i don't really have a clever way in to this post. but hey, how can you not dig on of my favorite 60's swinging chicks, miss julie christie, posing in a pair of black patent leather boots! i love this shot. i love the rose-colored background, i love the curly-ponytail hairdo... i love her 'now' low-hanging pendant, and i love the playful look on her face. she's a serious actress who knows what she wants, namely a swinging time with some hot boots and cool locks! and a little frosty pink lip gloss never hurt anyone! miss julie is at the top of my list! she's one of those chicks i thought was a dog when i was growing up... but after my mind was expanded and my tastes evolved, i came to realize the timeless quality of miss christie's looks. personally, i've never been able to pull off the frosted muted lipstick thing, but miss julie practically wrote the book. she kills as mrs. miller in altman's 'mccabe and mrs. miller.' she was devastating and sad in roeg's 'don't look now,' and she was every bit the part as gertrude in branagh's 'hamlet.' but she snagged the oscar for best actress in the heartbreaking 1965 john schlesinger film 'darling.' if you've never seen 'darling,' i suggest you set aside a rainy evening around 6 pm to roll it and get into it. she kills.

the prince and the cig girl

yes, tonight's featured smoker is none other than the lovely and legendary miss marilyn monroe. for those of you who don't know, the man 'lighting her fire' is the overrrated knight himself, sir laurence olivier. obviously, this was around the time they filmed the excellent 'the prince and the showgirl.' out of all the names marilyn had on screen, i liked the name of her character in 'showgirl' the best; she was called elsie marina. the first time i watched it, i was bored; the second time, i was mesmirised by her white dress; and the third time, i was really wooed by the entire thing. i think olivier actually tries to show some 'humor.' and marilyn's wordless performance in the church sequence is nothing short of thunderous. i don't for one minute suspect that she and olivier 'made it real' like, 'behind the scenes,' if you know what i mean. i think they both had other things on their minds... namely, arthur miller and danny kaye. but whoahhhh, look at norma jean suck on that cig! drag on, miss baker...! you rock! vipe it!

art of dance

i haven't posted anything by my hero alphonse mucha in a long time, so here goes. he did a series of illustrations on the Nine Muses of Art, and this chick was done to represent the art of dance. it isn't my favorite mucha, but i do love it. and i was lucky enough to find a nice big clear version of it. when i was a little girl, jean-lucien and i found a book that belonged to my mother... or was it a calendar? i think it was a book. anyway, it was all about alphonse mucha. and it was love at first sight. his work had a style my young mind could relate to... all the thick black lines around the bodies and other forms, it was reminiscent of the lines in my favorite coloring books. it had a stained glass aspect i liked very much. and there were words, as on the famous JOB posters. the girls were so dreamy and curvy and lovely in their gossamer gowns, like goddesses. the colors so effortlessly harmonious. so tranquil, yet titilating. so sure of themselves, so finished. about eleven years ago i went to a museum in raleigh, north carolina to see an exhibition of authentic alphonse mucha art. i was able to get close enough to see actual pencil lines and corrections. i believed his very dna was probably embedded in some of those works. for me, it was a religious experience. and i thank my friend kathy for accompanying me. (click to enlarge)

viva le style

yeah, i don't know why that's the title... i guess its as good as anything else. yes, once again i am doing this on a very limited picksh pool. but i liked this spread when i found it, so i figured you guys might dig it too. i like the girl on the left. i don't think it's twiggy. she looks like twiggy, but i don't think its her. i love that shady look with those small hats with black netting. i like the flower on it too. hey, true story, one time when i was still in middle school, i remember somehow i got my hands on a hat like that with glam netting on it, and in my hormone-crazed 13 year old brain, i thought it would be a good idea to wear it to school with a dark colored sweatshirt and jeans. as soon as i got on the bus, i was beginning to think it was not such a hot idea. i don't remember how long i had the balls to keep it on for, but i don't suppose it was very long. i don't have very clear memories of wearing it like, to lunch or anything, but i DO remember the bus ride, and the unclear 'looks' i got when i got off the bus in front of all the other kids like, right at the big bad entrance-and-stairs. why does your brain make you think stuff like that is cool when you're that age? sigh... oh well, i'm probably the only one that remembers it now. i should like, 'zen' let it go.

dazzling plastic

so, i know jean-lucien will remember this, but i'm not so sure about anyone else. i had this toy. and for months i'd been trying to find a picture of it on the wild web. and quite by accident tonight, i stumbled on it. as you can probably see, it was for use with the 4 1/2 inch fashion dolls, like glamour gals. wow, if you click to enlarge, you can see the cool illustrated backgrounds of each 'room' in the groovy disco-themed doll pad. i have to admit, i still dig the purple and hot pink and sunset orange theme of the decor. i seem to remember one was a bedroom, a livingroom, a salon? and i think a place with a dance floor and a little orange plastic jukebox. see the rounded 'awning' parts atop the entrance of each room? well, i remember the slim fruit-stripe colored stickers that went across that part were always like, curling up and threatening to come off... but only on that awning-part, for some reason. i think you can see near the bottom that all four sections could be brought together, and the curvy parts on the top of the white frame made like, a little carrying handle. man, seeing something like this makes me realize just how many days and months and years i've been alive. i wonder if mine is still up in my mother's old attic?

miss mia smokes

so i just came in off the back deck to inhale a camel filter. the new england moon was so full and silver bright it was casting sharp shadows of all the leaves on the trees. the air is cool and dry. i love it up here. but i am not alone in blazing a deathstick. here is a great shot of a hippy miss mia farrow in her groovy late 60's pad, enjoying a 'straight' in her own free and short-haired independent way. i love the room she's in. it reminds me of the infamous 'shakespeare house' on centennial street. there was a lot of smoking going on in that house, i promise you. i like her hair darker like that. it looks like she's killed almost a full glass of red wine, too. when i see photos like this, i really wish i had a time machine. i wonder who she was hanging out with? i wonder who was taking the picture? it looks like a pretty groovy scene. rock on, miss mia.

...oliver reed's!

'...all major credits cards...accepted!' okay, so i apologize for opening with an 'in-joke,' i realize that's rude. but hey, judging from the photograph, it does look like we're stopping in at oliver reed's. "...jus' for...a lit'le noightcap...!" hey, i don't mean to bag on oliver reed. i can proclaim with dead seriousness that i am one of his biggest fans. i think its fair to say the first thing i saw him in was 'tommy,' on HBO when i was a kid. even then, i remember being frightened and impressed with his brooding, intense, almost psociopathic portrayal of 'uncle frank.' in more recent years i've seen him shine with true acting ability in gems such as ken russell's 'women in love,' and in ken russell's horrific, gorgeous masterpiece, 'the devils.' but in this shot, it looks like he's working on the very challenging role of 'kicking back' and 'taking it easy.' hey, are those some serious cushions or what? and wait, why is he opting to get shitfaced with all that natural sunlight coming in? hey, maybe he's on a BBC talk show. and, if that's the case, i'm sure they realllly appreciated him slurring-it-up-live. hey, honestly, god bless you, oliver. peace.

haircut 1971

okay, again i must beg everyone's patience. i don't have enough picksh to continue with my countdown, but i'm still trying to skate forward, unafraid, and post whatever i've got day by day. so, speaking for myself, i've always gotten a kick out of reading through the old magazines and big, thick hardcover books they have available for you to flip through in salons whilst waiting for your turn. some of the styles are just outright sucky. some look real dated, some are just plain unflattering, and some look alright in the book, but would be a virtual impossibility to create on your own after you get it home and wash it. this cut falls into the last category. actually, i like this hair. i like the length and the dark silky curls and the way the straight bits on top frame her face. but you guys know as well as i do, that this style almost doesn't exist in real life. first of all, you'd have to walk around with your eyes closed and your head tilted to the side in order to 'make it work,' and maintain the illusion. but i think like, if i was only going to sit still for 30 seconds and have my picture taken, i think i could pull it off.

pop

yes, another one of my favorite things; namely cosmetics ads from the 70's and 80's! now, i realize the copy says 'think pink,' and the nails look purple. actually, they looked a lot pinker before i tricked it. but when i left it raw, the girl's skin was so dark and orange and just looked awful. i like the ad very much, though. i love the pose, and the one-in-a-hundred perfect gum bubble. man, because of my bike-chain-resembling teeth, i don't chew bubble gum anymore. and even when i was a kid, i wasn't too big on gum. i mean, you can't eat it. so as a 'sweet treat' it always left me wanting more. even when i was younger and watched the original gene wilder willy wonka, i remember not really identifying with violet beauregard. gum? she was all about gum? you can't even swallow it, and it comes in mostly fruit or mint flavors, which weren't what i was thinking when i was thinking candy. i liked chocolate, peanut butter, vanilla, butterscotch, and standard whipped cream. i was also the kind of kid that drew a distinction between ice cream and sherbet. and i've never understood people who put jello and pudding on the same 'shelf.' like, pudding is ten times better and more luxurious than jello. hey wait, i'm supposed to be talking about nail polish. i can't remember the last time i painted my nails. i'm just not a 'get your nails done' french manicure type of chick. anyway, i thought the ad was cool, so dig it.

smoking miss christie

hey, i'm pretty busy tonight... trying to rebuild my files, but as i mentioned last night, i want to meet my goal of at least one post each night. so, in keeping with my 'smoking stars' series, dig on this mod shot of the lovely and very '60s' miss julie christie, taking a deep ah-draggity-drag on a long, brown, not-usually-intended-for-ladies 'rawhide' variety cig. have you seen miss christie lately? she looks great. i've never smoked a brown cig, but i would if someone offered. i mean, as stupid as it sounds, as long as i'm still an active smoker, i'd try anything. i remember one time i was at four seasons mall in greensboro, north carolina with a high school wrestler i was dating at the time. i think he must've been trying to impress me, because he stopped in the tobbacco gift shop and made a pretentious point out of buying some exotic-strong european cigarettes called like, Dortmunders or something i'd never heard of. (and you know it was a long time ago, because he was able to light up right there in the mall.) so, he smoked as we walked around, and it was very clear early on that they were a little too much for him. he started coughing and volunteering such comments as, '...wow, these are stronger than i thought they'd be..." (cough, 2-3-4) "...but that's cool, i like them strong." mmm, i didn't ask. and if i remember correctly, after he'd burned through two of them, this six-foot tall wrestler had to like, take a break and sit on a big planter, saying he was "...just a little light-headed." i think he made us leave soon after that.