Whipped Cream & other Delights

This album was monumental in my childhood. We were big fans of Herb Alpert and anything brass as my drum corps experience would later provide. So the song tracks were etched in my head.

But the cover art fascinated me in ways I didn't understand. Both in terms of budding hormones and artistic license. It was provocative that they could take a photo like this and use it for album art. So it is with my own delight that I found this archived article on the model who found a large 15 minutes of fame from it.

Her name is Dolores Erickson now in her late 70s. Originally from Seattle, her first modeling work was for Macy's in San Francisco back in the heyday of the MadMen era. A detour in LA with a failed film career eventually led her to NYC where she was a fixture for Max Factor as well as several magazine spreads that garnered her attention. In 1965 she was photographed for the album cover by Peter Whorf for a considerable sum. At the shoot she was actually 3 months pregnant and sat in a bikini on a stool while she was decorated with shaving cream - since real whipped cream would not hold up for the shoot under the lights. She spoke in an interview that there are/ were? several revealing out-takes as the cream would occasionally drip off her in vulnerable places. High fashion for sure.

The Time is Now

Giving more weight to the 21st century concept of digital art. This is the second time in a mere week that a resource has led me to YouTube channel Nowness. I can see how it is so easy to get sucked into the cyber vortex that has now gone way beyond social media and self promotion. Somewhere in this vacuum has emerged a genre entirely of its own.

Nowness

Nowness is a video channel that has been in existence for only 4 months. It scours the globe to curate "the best in global arts and culture" Each day features a new find and spans 9 languages currently, but I am sure this will climb exponentially. A recent find was a watching 265 layers of makeup applied in a single day. Or bisexuality and gender in Brooklyn. Or even Miley Cyrus choosing it as an outlet to share her new video release. There are folders for fashion, art, design and even sports. So what you end up with is a virtual library of all things short in 4 minutes or less that crosses every cultural divide you can imagine.

I admittedly love reading a good book, but my mind struggles to balance investing a good 2 weeks over a cover and pages vs 3 minutes on the internet that can enlighten and inspire me in a similar way. I'm not saying it is always going to be the trade off, but there is certainly easy access. Much in the same way we used to travel by train or bus taking hours to travel, vs Nowness where even a few hours stuck in an aiport seems like precious time being wasted. Mere food for thought - but I can see the draw and appeal to the current generation that has been so readily exposed to this sort of technology.

A Haunting Flight

I am just beginning to grasp drone technology. I am aware that it has political implications and invasion of privacy by way of taking a lens into an isolated area and opening up a world of imagery. But I also know that drum corps are using them as a means to get aerial views of drills on a football field where it is used as a writing and cleaning tool. I just saw them used along with Go-Pro cameras at the Crashed Ice even in St Paul - where it was often more exciting to follow the course on the Jumbotron rather than the incredible view that we saw standing mere feet away from the track. Photography and film is all about a point of view as well as vision. But these drone devices have such high quality that they make the human viewing possibilities beyond imagination.

Thus is the case in this new footage coming out of Auschwitz. Much of it resembles the stark scenery of Schindler's List. It is now almost a century old and has not changed remarkably at all. But what these drones do from their bird's-eye perch, is enable us to grasp just how large this complex is. This is not the mere cells and fields we have come to expect. It is instead a whole village where lives were detoured and ended. Epic is a word that easily comes to mind. Located in Poland, it took over 1.1 million lives and this does not include the other hordes that escaped. Haunting indeed.

Mine All Mine

This unusual share is a gorgeous dance video with some technical wizardry. But the video itself is actually an advertisement for a line of clothing. They are pieces by Louis Vuitton, Kenzo, La Perla, Maison Martin Margiela and Bottega Veneta. And this dance work is an eclectic way to showcase their designs.

The dancers are beautiful young students from the Sadler Wells Theater and the piece was choreographed by Paolo Mangiola. I won't spoil the surprise of the digital process. But I will point out that in addition to imaginative artistry, it is also highly genius in that you can click on any single piece of clothing during the video and it will take you to a link with information to purchase. What will we think of next?

You Are Truly A Star

Today's post comes from friend Megan in New York. It is a short video from the Atlantic speaking with Dr. Michelle Thaller and it brilliantly connects the worlds of science and spirituality in my mind. She begins with a brief history of a star and how it starts with the simplest of elements, hydrogen and then draws itself in to create iron which is our life existence of our red blood. It eventually combusts in an explosion that creates all the other elements known and casts them out into the larger universe. And somehow billions of years later, they have reconvened into our bodies and manifest as life.

How brilliant is that if you really ponder it? She talks about how fortunate it is for us that these moments have aligned and our universe has the perfect sun and other conditions to nurture lives when so many other possibilities could have been otherwise. She goes on to say that as each star explodes, there is one less and that at some point trillions of years in the future it is actually a finite thing - there will be no more life as we know it.

So in light of much death this winter; suicides, parents that are ill and dying, pets that have run out of their life - I found this reflection both profound and assuring. Please give it a listen as it will brighten your day.

...."We are stardust, We are golden, We are million year old carbon, and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden...."

Grammy Gravy

Of course the day after any major media hoopla, brings mountains of opinion usually in the favor of "haters." We saw it recently with the Super Bowl and it will get even nastier in a few weeks over the red carpet of the Oscars. Thus, I jump into the fray with last night's Grammy's. They are usually bottom of the barrel on my bucket list. As hard as I try to stay current on music trends, even I struggle to find the purpose in the show. Both country and hip-hop music are lost on me. I am at a loss to find a single radio station in the car I can stomach. My favorite resource is an app call Band of the Day which introduces me to a whole slate of talent that will never hit the Clear Channel airwaves and I am lucky to even track down an MP3 of the great material out there. (check it out)


But because the show has morphed into more of a tele-concert than an awards show, I gave it the benefit of the doubt last night. I will start in the camp of haters and mention that if I never hear Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" again in my lifetime I will be just fine. For some reason he leaves me flat and I'd much rather hear Idol contestants Jennifer Hudson, Adam Lambert or ANYONE who has ever appeared on the Voice. But - the curiosity in the pairing of talent won me over more times than not. Tom Jones & Jessie J were dynamic. Hozier (who I have recently taken a shine to) & Annie Lennox were dynamite. Tony Bennett & Gaga continue to defy. And even Brandy Clark and Dwight Yoakam won me over. I agree with many critics that the show had a ballad-heavy somber tone which became boring at times. But I did like Ed Sheeran for being uniquely himself. Usher, Katy Perry & Beyonce continue to stretch themselves as artists and even if you didn't like the great performances they gave - no one can accuse them of selling out! The same with Pharell Williams and Happy. How many times have we heard that song and still loved it? Why not push it in a new direction and collaborate with other musicians who would never cross paths with. And Kristin Wiig - it wasn't even until today that I realized the surprise she had pulled off. Bravo to all these brave individuals. I was entertained over and over.

I am disappointed that Sam Smith made off like a bandit over other great places at the table like Megan Trainor,  Haim or Hozier - but this is just reassuring that there is fresh talent coming on board. As much as I love the new Beck disc, I question that in 20 years it will be the defining album of the year we recall. But this has not been the first time such call has been made. And major shame for Kanye for being the dick that he is. How does he constantly get away with this? There is plenty of quality stuff in the awards that didn't make the show such as Pentatonix, Dianne Reeves, John Williams, Alexander Desplat & Rosanne Cash to name a few. So the Recording Academy is not totally missing the boat.

Glee Has Lost Its Glow

I am one of the few who still straggles and struggles with this series as it limps along to its final conclusion. This attached blog post from the Daily Caller by Jonathan Bronitsky sums up many of the points I feel. He is a political strategist and looks at the history of the show from a polarized perspective. As the show became more of a beacon for misfits, it also began to alienate much of its original core by pushing its social agenda. Ryan Murphy has never been a moderate by any means. But what once began as bullying and ostracizing, later gained momentum with teen-age pregnancy, lesbian cat fights, revolving doors of sexuality, and anti Christian-dogma. While I certainly would never fault anyone for their creative outlets, one also has to remember not to cut off the hand that is feeding you. The Normal Heart on HBO has a much different demographic than ABC family audiences. So it was only a matter of time until most had left the room. Sadly - because I think the show raises a lot of great questions that teens should be able to discuss.

Glee and the Balkanization of the Left 

However - my personal disappointment in the show is that at times, it lost its focus and didn't stay true to its own inevitable course. As with any show involving teens, there is a Peter Pan syndrome. We all grow up and lives should move forward. However, here we are on Season 6 and the same people are trying to continue the crusade in the same classroom. It was hard enough to stomach going into Season 2 when not a single character graduated. Convenient enough. But then after 4 years, military recruitment, children and multiple romances - the show was still highlighting the same characters who should have moved on! Even the Glee Project was a genius idea to cultivate a new crop of very earning talent each year. But instead of trusting that new blood to propel the show into new territories, they constantly found ridiculous ways to write dispose them into the votex; Joe, Sugar, Blake, Damian.... At times the show can be downright cheeky with its tone of irreverence they give to themselves about a lack of congruity. But many of these choices are downright maniacal and lose any sense of credibility.

Yes you can say it is stupidly abstract by breaking into song and "how real is that?" But the original intentions were heartfelt and inspired where they are now desperate in spite of being great music. I will likely watch to the end, but the real fire ended at least a year back to be honest. I think as soon as American Horror Story took off, the classrooms were left unsupervised!

Plant a Tree

Although a bit too early for Spring, one can hope. Indeed the cardinals outside my place are making a noisy racket in anticipation of something!

I am not a Shark Tank fan by any stretch. Although I love television and get my share via Netflix, reality TV is not something I allow my precious spare time to be wasted on. This is not a judgment call and there is likely much out there that can both hold an interest and even make some valid points. This viral video is one of those that has been circulating much in the last week.

It involves a manly tree farmer named Johnny who has come up with a very simple and basic concept for tree irrigation call a Tree T Pee. It is merely a plastic cone that surrounds a young sapling and keeps the water source confined during the formative years of the tree. It protects and also conserves on water over the early life of the tree. But what is the kicker is what happens when the sharks in the suits begin to grill him on the basic math tenets of big business. It sadly, is also very indicative of the pipeline of American Dream which has become American Greed. They all seem to like the product well enough, but cannot understand the reason why he is not inducing larger profit margins and seeking a middle man who will do just that. Johnny gives a very heartfelt plea to the working farmer who is merely living within his means and does not see the need for a markup just for the sake of indulgent profit. He is smart, compassionate and a wise man! I found the whole conversation enlightening as well as pathetic. What do you think?