It’s International Crossdressing Day! The day all women dress like tramps, & all the men dress like women.
Okay, not all. But a lot.
Have fun. Don’t drink & drive.
Kids These Days
At least here at Merrimack, they’ve got it good, even though they probably don’t know what’s right under their noses.
They get free films, for instance. I’ve been going to see them, which is kind of funny considering I don’t like most movies most of the time & don’t go see them – not American movies, anyway, or anything contemporary. They’re rarely worth the $10.
But Tuesday night I saw Deepa Mehta’s Earth, which is about the Partition of India in 1947, into India & Pakistan, and which came with Independence. It’s a stunning movie, & I’ve been thinking about the plot and themes and scenes and characters since I saw it. It’s a terrifying film, but deeply moving as well.
Last night I saw one of the earliest Theda Bara films, A Fool There Was, in which she plays her legendary vampire character, and afterwards they’re screening a documentary about her. A Fool There Was made so much money that it helped launch Fox Studios. It’s such a lovely rare treat to get to see a silent film on the big screen.
& In a couple of weeks, they’re screening a film about Dorothy Day, though it’s not the one that I missed when it played at the Brecht Forum in NYC.
New Piercing
I’m pleased as punch that I got a chance – right after my keynote at Fantasia Fair – not only to meet the Bearded Lady of Provincetown, but to get her to stretch my previous ear piercings so that I could wear these lovely new omegas I bought in her shop.
She tells me that I can make them bigger in a few months, too. Betty’s starting to worry.
If you’re coming here after Fantasia Fair, do remind me of the resources I said I would post. I know some (a lot) of them are probably about sex, so you might want to start by browsing the posts marked s.e.x. on this blog.
Haircut for 2
For the first time in a dog’s age, Betty & I are both getting haircuts tomorrow. Maybe I’ll post photos. Maybe I won’t. I’m sure we’ll look – oh, exactly the same as ever. Pretty much.
So does anyone else have horror haircut dreams? They’re not always horrible; sometimes they’re just weird. Where you dream that you did something really insane to your hair, & you have to go out somewhere important, like to your sister’s wedding, & your hair is insane? Is it a chick thing? Or a former punkrocker thing? I’ve definitely had hair disasters, where I bleached/dyed it too many times & it all just started breaking off, or, alternately, where it turned this really bizarre, unnatural color – like orange caramel, or a weird greenish brown – where the only answer was to cut most of it off & dye it a dark color. (Thus, once resulting in what Betty refers to as my “Harry Potter phase.”)
I’m sure tomorrow will be fine, though. The same lady’s cut my hair the past couple of years, & there will be no bleach or dye involved.
Right vs. Left Brained
So how cool is this? I can switch her, nearly at will, though I started off seeing her going counter-clockwise, then she was stuck going clockwise for a while. But now, I can see her either way. I wonder if that did anything to my brain.
Tim Gunn
Does anyone else want to volunteer to be on Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style? Every time I watch it I think about writing them a letter. But then I think – dresses & skirts are in his required wardrobe. As are heels. & Then I think about what I might have left after they went through my wardrobe. & Then I think… yeah. So I don’t.
I think I need Tim Gunn’s Guide to Dyke Style. But still, I’m watching & learning; my biggest issues is being hung up on size instead of fit, because I’m a woman, & somehow it’s important to me if I can get into a 10 instead of a 12, when really, I should be happy to wear a 14 if the clothes look good / fall right /make me feel confident. Having changed sizes a few times in the last couple of years, both up & down, I can say now that there is nothing that makes me feel less confident than wearing something that’s just a little small. But still, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to give in to wearing the larger size, as if I’m admitting defeat.
Anyone else?
Oro
I don’t know if any of you in NYC have seen the Oro Condos commercials, but if you think you recognize the voice from the voiceover, you probably do.
When Worlds Collide
I’m at an Au Bon Pain in Boston’s South Station the other day trying to buy a cup of soup while I waited for my next train. They have clam chowder on the list of soups, so I ask,
“What kind of clam chowder is it?”
Blank stare.
“Is it white or red?”
“Do you want clam chowder?”
“What color is it?”
Blank stare, eyeroll.
The clerk next to her overhears it & asks me,
“You’re from New York?”
I nod.
He says to my clerk,
“You need to get out of Boston once in a while. In New York they have red clam chowder too.”
I had no idea that when you’re in New England, all the clam chowder is New England clam chowder. I mean, if they serve both New England clam chowder and Manhattan clam chowder in Manhattan…
Back, & Gone Again
I’m back from DO, but off to Andover. This is a nutty schedule, but thankfully it’ll settle down some in the next couple of weeks.
End of Month
To close out the month, a Buster Keaton montage set to Radiohead’s music:
Do watch till the end for a classic Buster moment.