Massiel Wins Eurovision

It doesn't get better than this: my obsessions with pageantry, nationalism, propaganda and camp all rolled into one.

This is a clip from Franco's NO DO propaganda newsreels commemorating Massiel's victory for Spain in the Eurovision song contest. I believe I have written about this contest before here. It's closely followed by Europeans and has been a landmark in my own upbringing. Massiel was an opportunistic singer who took over for Joan Manuel Serrat when he was not allowed to sing his own song in Catalan. Franco refused to allow Spain to be represented by the "subversive" region's language. 

Massiel is now a bloated alcoholic who makes a fool of herself in gossip chat shows. One of my favorite anecdotes is when she allegedly fell reaching for a book in her home, and then posed full of bruises and bandages in hospital. 

The NO DO shows how Massiel was the spokesmodel for the Spanish FIAT knock-off, the SEAT (we had one when I was a kid, those cars were the bomb) so she was promoting Franco's resurgent industrial production, and then you will see her on the government TV station TVE singing the song with a tuna accompaniment. The latter another tourist kitsch cliche - the tuna singers are strolling musicians associated with universities but they became a staple in restaurants aimed at tourists near the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, and other sites. 

Finally, the narrator proudly announces that the song was a backdrop in the Miss Germany Pageant. The best is when the announcer notes that an innovation that year was the requirement that the winner be "smart" as well as beautiful. Awesome. 

Watch for the cameo appearance by famous Spanish film and TV director Pilar Miro, as an Eurovision judge. This is particularly ironic since it's one of many cases where the NO DO or print media reveal that politically progressive icons from the Transition to Democracy and more recent years collaborated with the regime in one form or another. 

Riita Immonen - Marimekko designer

  Photo: Marimekko

New York Times

ARTS / ART & DESIGN
Riitta Immonen, a Founder of the Marimekko Textile Company, Dies at 90
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Published: August 27, 2008
Ms. Immonen was a designer of uniforms and ready to wear with a couture touch.
For the full obituary, cut and paste this to your browser:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/arts/design/27immonen.html?ex=1377489600&en=4bc92f9814c3ba82&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pant Suits

This is a first for me, I actually found myself really being convinced by a Hillary Rodham Clinton speech. She finally graciously accepted that Obama was selected by the majority of us, and she finally graciously and convincingly asked Democrats to vote for our candidate. Yes, she did go into a long discussion of her platform but then she explained that it is OUR platform, and that the option is to vote for McCain which equals more of the Bush policies. I have no idea if her most enthusiastic supporters will be swayed, but if that speech doesn't do it, nothing will. So with relief I think that we can win, because that speech was good enough to persuade most of the most ardent HRC backers to vote for Obama. 

It was a contrast to last night's speech by Michelle Obama. As my friend noted, Obama had to domesticate herself. And it's true, she framed herself as daughter, sister, mother, wife, never as just herself. Ironically, in my opinion, tonight was Hillary R. Clinton's most overtly feminist speech (and she even had a shout out to us queers). I liked the ways she made reference to the ways in which gender and race intersect in the struggle for social justice. But we all remember the times when HRC had to talk about baking cookies, or stand by her philandering husband, and shed some tears when she was tanking in the primaries. So did another very smart, strong and accomplished woman have to present herself as "non-threatening." 

A commentator on MSNBC used the telling term "rehabilitate" as in Michelle Obama needed to somehow defend herself and clear her record. Rehabilitate herself for what? She is not a criminal, is she? What exactly is her transgression? That she is a woman, her husband's senior when they started dating, strong and accomplished? Or is it that she is all of those things and also African American? Why is it a problem that she lives in a nice house but no one asks about the McCain or Bush family fortune? Because she is black? All of the sexist and racist stereotypes are implicitly deployed against her: the angry Black woman, uppity, shrill, domineering. Another friend commented on the Jackie Kennedy hair and the sleek dress (which was a bit Oleg Cassini-ish now that I think of it). And she even had the softer Jackie tone of voice and the bed time story refrain "See......" 

Yet another friend wondered why she did not use the repeated refrain rhetorical modality in the speech. I told her because that form is too strongly marked as "African American" and religious. So instead she used the self-effacing, halting and conspiratorial intimate story-telling style "You see....." Like Jackie giving the White House Tour on television. Anecdotal. And she herself, anecdotal to the primary story being told. Probably because of this strategic self-effacement, if they are sent to the White House, she might be better liked as First Lady than HRC. I have no doubt that like HRC, she is just as smart and capable as her husband, if not more so, and could just as easily have been running for political office herself. 

I found it fascinating given last night's Kennedy tribute, that it seemed like another political dynasty was being presented - the Clintons. Even if HRC didn't make it to the White House as President, the subtext seemed to read, Chelsea would run in the future. 

La Leti's Rhinoplasty

For the royal families of Europe, it's been a busy news week. Usually this is a slow time, because they are at beaches in Ibiza, Mallorca or Monte Carlo, or else in Kenya on safari. Sadly the horrific plane crash in Madrid cut the trips to Mallorca or the Beijing Olympics short. And the terrible car crash of the Bulgarian "prince" Kardam and his Spanish wife Miriam also has put a damper on things. The big news however is that Casa Real has sent out a statement announcing that Princess Royal Letizia had a nose job. Now they use some technical-sounding name to explain that it's a medical procedure only, but let's keep it real, that big bump is gone from her wizened anorexic-seeming face. I find it fascinating that again the Casa Real does not have her back. Because when Queen Sofia allegedly had work done (face lift), ditto Infanta Cristina (nose job), and the King looked rather "refreshed" nobody admitted anything. And when Queen Sofia's mother as it is rumored, died from complications related to plastic surgery, they sure did not cop to that, either. Why then are they doing this to Leti? Not that I am a fan. And frankly, the more these people become like vulgar celebs the better, perhaps then Spaniards will realize that they are not divinely endowed to rule and finally we'll have a republic!

Miss Puerto Rico Universe Reality TV Show

I was traveling so I somehow missed two major cultural events: first, that Puerto Rico's WAPA TV is now airing beyond the Island on cable, so I will be able to enjoy the bad taste and bootleg production value from my living room in the so-called Mainland. Second, the Miss Puerto Rico Universe organization had the brilliant idea of launching a reality TV series following the contestants "behind the scenes" (never was there a more apt phrase....) and allowing the viewers to vote for the Miss that will represent us. 

Given the fact that this is one of the few arenas of national sovereignty (along with the Olympic Games) this is a matter of utmost importance and international repercussions. Let's remember that we have five Miss Universe crowns (tied with Venezuela):

Zuleyka Rivera (2006), Marisol Maralet (1970), Deborah Carthy Deu (1985), Dayanara Torres (1993) and Denise Quiñones (2001).



For an article about this reality TV show, cut and paste this URL to your browser:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/08/18/television/1219056195.html

Mass Festivals, the Miss Universe Paradigm, and more!

I have been thinking about the awe-inspiring Olympic Games Opening Ceremony for days, trying to process all of its spectacle and content, but a trip to our nation's Capital delayed my writing. I was there appropriately enough, for something called a Flag Ceremony, where new Foreign Service diplomats are told of their first post. A flag is held up, and then a name is called. Of course, I immediately thought of The Bachelor: Destiny, will you accept this rose? But Miss Universe is more apt, especially when they announced an award to the person his/her colleagues judged best embodied the spirit of service. Miss Congeniality, anyone? In fact, more and more I am believing that almost anything might be explained by drawing a parallel with the Miss Universe Pageant - the Miss Universe Paradigm. I was anxious about going to the inner sanctum of our nation's State Department, even more so when I saw the photo of Condi on the wall - that hair is more heavily reinforced than Baghdad. And fortunately, my dear friend got a nice post, where I intend to visit him. Although I was not strip-searched nor were my irises scanned, I did get a special badge that read "Escort Required." Indeed. It was as if they'd read my mind! The question is: after all my tax dollars, can they make it happen? 

A few days earlier, and keeping with the international relations topic, I was absolutely overwhelmed by the Opening Ceremony. Most of it was spectacularly beautiful. One of my favorite sections was about the origin of calligraphy and scroll painting, where dancers imprinted the page with their movements. (above). The very helpful commentator on NBC explained that Zhang Yimou intended to highlight key events in Chinese history, cultural and scientific innovations, and three great philosophies - Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. I wondered, where was Maoism? But that was, as the commentator himself explained, excised from this ideal "We are the World" version of international brotherhood, led by a resurgent China. 

However, despite my almost non-existent knowledge of Maoist culture, except that transmitted by a friend who is an expert on this period's propaganda, I immediately began to make comparisons, especially to Cultural Revolution period visual culture. (below)

Such mass spectacles, also of course were a modality employed by dictatorships in other countries. 

And there were certainly moments as below, where I could not help but see in my mind's eye frames from Leni Reifenstahl's propaganda film about the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, "Triumph of the Will."

2008 Olympics

2008 Olympics

1936 Nazi Olympics

And moments like this, when the man-savior-athlete-ideal Chinese worker held the boy-savior-future athlete-model student (the little boy who saved his schoolmates in the rubble of the Sichuan earthquake) made me think of New Year's posters' robust infants or of images of a smiling, benevolent Mao with his subjects, the future of Communist China. (below)


And the lovely Bollywood meets 1930s musicals scenes, such as the one below, also reminded me of something just as lovely and captivating but more sinister.......



Cultural Revolution Model Operas.

And for an up-to-date version of Communist mass spectacles, complete with the hand-made L-E-D-like imagery (people moving panels or their own bodies en masse to create moving imagery akin to film), see below, from North Korea (2007). Perhaps this most resembles the 2008 Olympic Games opening ceremony.

Bad Baby Names

I just found a gold mine of bad baby names on the MSNBC web site. They cite a new book, called "Bad Baby Names," and that clearly belongs on my bookshelf:

In “Bad Baby Names,” Michael Sherrod and Matthew Rayback, of the genealogy Web site Ancestry.com, share thousands of shocking names given to real people, as recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau. Discover the funny names based around common themes, like diseases (Fever Bender, Cholera Peace), food (Bread White, Pomegranate Purple), pets (Good Dog), and if you thought Wednesday Addams was unfortunate—wait till you meet Monday Monday. (...) 

Then they have a section of reader submissions:

A cousin of a friend of mine named her daughter Tyranny. My uncle (a police officer) locked up a woman named Sh*thead, only without the asterisk- pronounced Shi-TAYd.--Anonymous, Baltimore, MI

Cut and paste the URL below to your browser to see more:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23631411?pg=1#TDY_Names_Bad

Recently I seem to be in need of such books since so many of my friends are having babies, which is thrilling for me since I love to see them happy, I get to dress the kids in cute outfits, but I don't have to change diapers. 

Now I am as usual when confronted with these campy monikers, considering legally changing my name to "Hysteria Johnson," or perhaps "Lust Garden,"