Women and the Trees They Love

This will be the first of a few holiday blog posts that are all based on photo albums with a certain theme. Holiday pictures are a staple among most of us. And they can be predictable, especially with social media. The office Christmas party, a meal out at a special restaurant, our finished tree or the house lights, and of course countless pics of our dear children on the laps of Santa's across the country. But each of my posts will find a different tangent that is both traditional but also unexpected. 

This one features our tradition of the indoor Christmas tree. The original folklore came from the Lutherans of Germany & Latvia as a symbol of life throughout the cold winter season by bringing the evergreens indoors. As the Victorian era entered, they were then popular with simple decorations of colored paper chains, popcorn, apples and lit candles. The US escalated those trends with the addition of electric light strings in the 40's and everyone exploded with concepts of glass globes, candy canes, gingerbread men and exotic tree toppers.

You know how we often think that people resemble their pets, especially their dogs? This collage of vintage holiday photos show how the suburban woman of the house reflected the trends in her trees. I am guessing most are from the mid 50s into the late 60s. Kitsch was in fashion and trees became less "life like" and artificiality was embraced as style. The line between garish and fashion was blurry to be sure. But you cannot deny that they were unique as well as special.

Enjoy the few that I have posted and check out the link for all 43 photos.

Vintage Everyday - Holiday snapshots

Cookie Cutter

The holiday season is upon us and one of my favorite annual tasks is the art of cookie baking. Cut-out cookies are a uniquely American form of baking as they are considered biscuits among other things in other countries. I have hosted many cookie decorating parties and this year the tradition will return. I collect a handful of things - cufflinks, plants, Original Cast albums. But my cookie cutter collection has gotten big enough that I nabbed a garage sale plastic chest to store them all in. There is a drawer for Christmas shapes. One for various other holiday seasons. And a third for unusual options from kangaroos to roller skates. I just bought a new one in the shape of a fox and am going to make gingerbread red foxes instead of men.

I recently found this short video that shows how actual metal cookie cutters are made on an assembly line. It is an interesting process that makes such logical sense on viewing.

The adjective of being "Cookie cutter" that has come into our vernacular over the last century is that something alludes to conforming or being exactly like those that have come before and after. Ironically this is the total opposite of how I view myself. I like to think that the shape of each piece of pastry may be the same, but it is the frosting, color and decorations added to them that make each unique. I believe the last time I had my cookie party, I made a challenge to take the shape of the cut-out and conform the cookie into something transformed!

Throwback Thursday - tossing it WAY back

 

I still get off on the occasional Throwback Thursday post to Facebook. I know the trend has faded quite a bit from its original hey day 4-5 years back in favor of new trends and lists. But being that I have always been a photo fanatic, I enjoy it as a time to go through years of pics and bring some of those personal "classics" into the digital age.

Some are meant to shame; usually myself. Others are a keepsake of a special moment. Some are meant to jolt a friend back as a conversation piece. I am never embarrassed to post something that is either unflattering or bordering on inappropriate... But we all have those 1 or 2 pictures that are our worst nightmare. The ones that we hope never surface from a yearbook or holiday card.

Somehow the Mind Circle has stumbled onto a few of these. I would have to assume that the scorned parties were not asked if they would choose to submit these garish images into cyber space. And yet - here they are. "You've never looked - Worse!"



 

http://themindcircle.com/people-share-their-most-embarrassing-childhood-photos/

Backstreet Boys Blow It!

I am quite sure that I posted a parody video a few years back by One Direction on Dancing with the Stars where their vocals were dubbed; in horrible fashion. Apparently this is a new form of  "shattery" called Shredding. An actual video clip is taken from a noted public performance and then someone dubs atrociously bad vocals on top of it.

These artists, and I call them that, are better at lip syncing than most of the singers themselves. By watching, you can't believe that the sound is not actually coming out of the vocal cords and into the microphone. They are absolutely hilarious. There are entire stations on YouTube devoted to this craze. Since today is a rainy, dreary day with a bit of time to kill - I have gone into the vortex of the web and this is what I've come up with again.

So without further adieu, here are the Backstreet Boys performing "live" on Oprah.

And if that wasn't good enough; how about the original studio recording of We Are the World? OUCH!

Summer of Love

As summer comes to a close, a short reflection on both the glorious season and a look to the past. I am a bit inspired from my sister's Woodstock party she threw this month to celebrate.

1967! San Francisco. Although I was alive - I was far too disconnected from the radical flower children to really understand the world they were striving to live in. Our family was much more akin to the Mitch Miller Gang and Peter Paul & Mary. I was aware of the "folk" aspect, but had no idea about the hallucinogenic drugs and hippie culture that existed. I was however drawn to the fashion. The fringe vests, choker chains and suede Chelsea boots - mainly from the images I would see on television. They certainly weren't in our JC Penney catalogs.

Even the pop music I would listen to, went completely above my head. Groups like Santana, CCR, the Lovin' Spoonful, Jefferson Airplane or vocalists like Melanie, Janis Joplin or Joe Cocker were all there. But I am guessing I missed any insinuations of unrest or rebellion. I thought Goldie Hawn was sexy on Laugh In and only now understand just how cutting edge the show really was in defiance against the ruling classes. Kent State was just a short drive away, but to me it was just a story on television.

Even now, the images still conjure up joy and peace instead of a revolution. Hippies inspired a coolness to me not an aversion. And I wanted to be one of the cool ones. Time marches forward always.

For the Love of Animals

Everyone loves a dog, or their cat, or a fuzzy koala bear. I can't imagine my home without a dog at hand. And most of them came to me as a shelter animal; some critter that had fallen into the wrong hands and ended up in a pen with sad eyes. They are all broken in some way. Poor Riff was just too much of a handful for a family and needed some good coaching & structure. Waylon is an unknown, but I'm pretty sure that he was a hurricane or storm victim from Oklahoma and went wayward from a good home and never found his way back. He just wants a safe space to share.

This entry is a video feature via 60SecondDocs. The photographer is Alex from Australia and her calling is to showcase disabled animals. Damaged ones who still have an incredible sense of dignity and charm that translates into photos. They are misfits in the animal kingdom who might be blind, missing a leg or have scars from humans themselves. Like any good photographer she finds character in each and you can see a joy and a resilience in their eyes.

Slip of the Tongue

I would never call myself a linguist. Although, I do have a large vocabulary and took pride in winning the Spelling Bee in both 7th & 8th grades. But as I get older, I think my span of the English language shows itself in my letter writing and certainly my blogging. I also dabble a bit with my own cabaret lyrics as well as writing what I hope to be good script for my cabaret sets. Crossword puzzles can eat up hours of my time on a rainy day like today.

So when I stumble across an interesting feature on #Words, it piques my interest for sure. Especially when you bring politics into the mix! The Broadway force that is #Hamilton is a great arena where the two can clash with fireworks. Via a great story on the Mind Circle, it lists 30 "lost" words in the English language compiled by York University. With typical British "cheek" they also bounce off the tongue easily which makes them all the more fun to insert into conversations. All the words have something to do with corruption. Some favorites:

Coney–catch, b, v: To swindle, cheat; to trick, dupe, deceive

Quacksalver, n: A person who dishonestly claims knowledge of or skill in medicine; a pedlar of false cures

Peacockize, v.: To behave like a peacock; esp. to pose or strut ostentatiously

Merry-go-sorry, n. A mixture of joy and sorrow

Ear-rent, n. The figurative cost to a person of listening to trivial or incessant talk

Be sure to check out the article link so you can see the entire plethora of definitions. Use one in a sentence soon! 

30 Lost Words