Why I love Nancy Grace

What we've all been waiting for, onesies for adults

I find this jumpin jammerz quite creepy - is it an adult wearing a baby's onesie? is it an adult woman wearing a baby's onesie that is see-through? is she eroticizing baby hood?

personally I would lean towards buying this animal-print model, since as we know leopard is a Puerto Rican NeutralTM

At first I mocked the ubiquitous Snuggie - the blanket with sleeves - thinking: A. why not just get something called a bathrobe? and B. it's probably the cause of many a "I've fallen and I can't get up" accidents. Then I saw them at Walgreen's that wonderland of As Seen on TV merch, and asked to open the box to see the length. Sadly, I'm not called Petite Maoiste for nothing, my tiny height means I cannot participate in the mass experience of Snuggie wearing that is sweeping the USA in 2009.

Tonight I learned about a garment I had actually dreamed about, and wondered why it had not been invented. Perhaps it began when my friends began to breed en masse, as if a collective alarm clock or egg timer went off. Single and not interested in being a mother, I nonetheless enjoyed seeing my friends' happiness and getting to buy adorable miniscule outfits for the infants, particularly the onesies and the little ones that cover the babies' feet. Enclosed from neck to toes must feel quite comforting, I thought.

Now is our chance to indulge in the already pervasive infantilization of adults in this country. And for those really into that type of experience they have one where rear section drops down. They also have sticky feet models so you don't slip and fall after downing a six pack or two watching the football game with your buddies. I particularly love the camouflage pattern as it evokes the indoctrination of children in the use of guns and love of violence in parts of the USA. How appropriate.

http://www.jumpinjammerz.com/

Mercedes Sosa -"Solo le pido a Dios"

Glenn Ligon in J. Crew

The latest J. Crew catalogue has a section where famous artists including Vito Acconci (!) model some of the clothes. The best is Glenn Ligon. He is one of my top favorite artists ever, and is also extremely dapper as well as a nice person.

PRC Fashion

As a scholar that writes on dictators' propaganda (and plans to write about an a case of propaganda and fashion at some later point), I was mesmerized by the sartorial display at the massive parade commemorating the 60th anniversary of the PRC. Maybe it's my residual trauma caused by being raised in part by fascists and living for a period in a country led by a military dictator that is the cause of my sarcastic responses to these kinds of displays, and attention to their "frivolous" aspects, like sartorial presentation.

I've never seen a world leader, dictator or not, ride around in a car equipped with microphones. At least while I was watching the parade, he did not use them, and in fact was quite rigid. The past Chinese leaders all wore dark business suits and ties, but Hu Jintao had on the most exquisite Mao jacket that looked like it was made of some type of silk.

These women looked to my ignorant US-American eyes like Communist Mary Kaye sales associates. The heart-shaped balloons were a bizarre contrast to the predominant tanks, missiles, guns, and marching troops. I have no idea which organization these women are affiliated with.

This uniform was a cross between a 1960s flight attendant and a majorette.

The skirts seemed awfully short to be worn in battle.

I was particularly struck by this cut-off view. Much of the official government footage used the over-head shot and the cut off views -omniscient eye surveying or part for the whole - both suggesting the massive number of troops, tanks, etc. In this case as well, the goose-stepping legs clad in the sexy white go-go into battle boots resemble images of the Rockettes on stage.

60th Anniversary of the PRC - Oct. 1, 2009

This is a fantastic article from The New York Times:


October 1, 2009
Mao: The Great Helmsman of Kitsch?

By EMILY RAUHALA
HONG KONG — If you want to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China on Thursday, look no further than zazzle.com, an American Web site that specializes in custom-made gifts. There, for $18.95, you can buy a white T-shirt emblazoned with a portrait of Mao Zedong and the words “Chairman Mao is my homeboy.”

The shirt is sold in 62 varieties, including an infant-size bodysuit in organic cotton for $22.95. If that does not please you, there is a mouse pad ($10.95) or a Chairman Meow mug ($14.95).

Mao memorabilia are a big business and the 60th birthday of the People’s Republic is expected to give it a further lift. While no one keeps track of how much Mao material is sold annually, vendors and dealers report a recent uptick in interest. The Chinese state media predicted this summer that there would be a spike in sales. In Hunan, Mao’s home province, officials recently announced new regulations to ensure that factories that produce souvenirs with his likeness maintained quality as they met demand.

“He is more popular than ever,” said John Li, who sells Mao memorabilia from a small shop in Hong Kong. “The chairman is like Giorgio Armani.”

Mao, who led the Communists to victory in the Chinese Civil War, remains a deeply divisive figure. He is praised for helping China throw off foreign powers and despised for ill-conceived policies that left tens of millions of Chinese dead. There are many who find the idea of Mao kitsch offensive.

Yet it is this ambivalence about Mao’s life and legacy that, in some ways, makes him marketable — the Great Helmsman, as he was called, means something different to everyone, so he appeals to many people, in different ways.

According to Jennifer Hubbert, an anthropologist at Lewis & Clark College, in Oregon, Mao badges were first created in the late 1930s, or early 1940s to celebrate revolutionary victories and recognize service to the socialist cause.

During the Cultural Revolution, in the 1960s and 1970s, Mao iconography was produced by the state as part of efforts to personalize political culture. People in China used the badges to signify their zeal for the cause. Some went so far as to pin them directly to their skin.

As the personality cult widened, production peaked. Badges were distributed by work units, given as prizes or traded. Ceramic statues were exported to ethnic Chinese communities overseas and slowly made their way around the world.

When Mao died in 1976, there were literally billions of badges — as well as books, posters and other Mao-related knickknacks — in existence. As China adopted market overhauls and came to grips with the grimmer parts of the Mao legacy, most of these relics disappeared, though some were kept.

It was not until the 1990s that the market for all things Mao re-emerged. Spurred by the Chinese consumer revolution and the 100th anniversary of his birth, in 1893, a new strain of “Mao fever” spread. College students — the children of the Red Guard generation — began wearing Mao badges as a comment on China’s slide from socialist ideals. The communist revolutionary became a consumer-driven fad.

Recognizing Mao’s moneymaking potential, dealers set up shop in major Chinese markets. In the cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, rows of factory workers started turning out a new generation of Mao memorabilia — laptop cooling pads, musical refrigerator magnets and key chains — as communist trinkets became a must-have for tourists.

But there are still originals to be found. Victoria Edison, for instance, runs 1930shanghai.com, a California-based online shop that specializes in selling authentic pieces to a predominantly American and European clientele.

“There are not a lot of Chinese people, especially people over 40, who are interested in this stuff,” said Ms. Edison, whose parents and grandparents survived the Cultural Revolution. “For them, it is a sore reminder of two lost generations.”

But for Ms. Edison, who left China as a young woman, collecting Mao memorabilia is — for better or for worse — a link to the past. “It is all part of understanding a lost world, rediscovering something that is gone,” she said.


Copyright 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/world/asia/01iht-mao.html?ref=asia

Sept. 27