“We had individuality. We did as we pleased. We stayed up late. We dressed the way we wanted…Today, they’re sensible and end up with better health. But we had more fun.” ~ Clara Bow

Back at the 2008 hair fair, I picked up a glam turban made by Minnu Palen which she called a bandanna. I’d actually been looking for one in SL for a long time because I have an “old Hollywood” fetish and all those fabulous yesteryear stars with the flapper cuts looked nummy in them.

Princess Pearls Set

Nothing says “I vant to be alone” better than this style — Garbo would be proud. And, why is it that this look has always struck me as naughty? Admittedly, I’m one of those people who finds baldness both brave and sexy, even on women. Especially on women. So many women link our femininity to our hair in different ways. There is a strange emancipation in cutting or shaving hair, as much as there is a psychological cost when it is taken from us. This look is clean and bold; it’s in-your-face sexy while still retaining its sensuality. To be frank, it feels like being naked with your clothes on. Which may not make any sense to you, but translates in my fuddled head.

BTW — for the three of you on the grid that don’t have the set in your inventory, the Princess Pearls earrings and choker by Icing are the peak of perfection when paired alongside this item. Heh. Say that three times.

Calissa Dress & Kashmiri Shawl

I’d been waiting a long time to find a dress that I liked with it. My original plan was to find some drapy full-length glamor gown, and I still might, although nothing has caught my shopping lust lately. Then I went through a phase where I wanted to find a vintage style dressing gown. However, since I’ve been in a cocktail dress phase, I was thrilled to find Calissa by Simone. Let’s face it, the girls in the roaring twenties were showing some skin. They weren’t dancing on tables in floor-length gowns (well, not usually). This dress with its cascading ruffle skirt and glittering top seems like something you could Lindy Hop in.

Making it all the more faboo is the Kashmiri Sozni work shawl by Zaara. There are getting to be lots of wonderful wraps, scarves, and shawls put out on the grid, and these decadent pashmina-like accessories deserve a spot in your inventory. The textures are blow-your-mind good, and the movement is nice – it’s a perfect marriage of sculpt prim use and traditional flexi.

As you can see, I never did find the perfect shoes for the outfit, but I suspect that’s because it’s the type of ensemble that is intended for dancing in a fountain in your stocking feet. In my case, those stocking feet are still the Valentines by Insolence. I should just have them tattooed on my avatar.

SL Fashion creators, please feel free to make more glam turbans, please. Lotsa lotsa more.

What & Where

MMS-Bandana
? by Minnu Palen
Can’t find if this item is still sold – purchased at the 2008 hair fair. Please post a comment if you can still find it.

Princess Pearl Choker & Earrings Set
*ICING* by Miko Omegamu

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Mischief/120/182/25

Calissa in Midnight
SIMONE! by Simone Stern

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simone/81/228/32

Kashmiri Sozni work shawl
Zaara by Zaara Kohime

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zaara/136/132/25

Brocattos Flats
Shiny Things by Fallingwater Cellardoor

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shiny%20Falls/173/181/37

SoHo Boots
Maitreya by Onyx LeShelle

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Maitreya%20Isle/207/165/26

“You can get away with bad material if you’ve got charisma.” ~ Ricky Gervais

So…very…wrong.

How is this man so funny? I loathe, hate, cannot stand Elmo and this had me laughing my ass off. How does he DO THAT?

“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” ~ Horace Walpole, Roald Dahl, Willie Wonka, or a proverb of unknown authorship…depending upon whom you ask.

A few months back, a friend sent me a link to this youtube video of the Fab Faux on Letterman. The only other line in the email asked what the song meant. Well, actually it asked, “What the hell…is this song about?” It was intended to be rhetorical, but he obviously forgot who he was writing to. (Seriously, being my friend is its own punishment). So, I wrote back, because I find this sort of stuff to be fun.

There are no 12 step programs. I’ve looked.

The song’s meaning is actually a matter of some debate among psychos such as myself. Like most debates attempting to divine explanation from the art of another, it’s quite pointless. Naturally, this does not stop those like me from toying with the pointlessness and forming our own useless opinions.

The most frequently accepted story is that “Walrus” is just patchwork nonsense put together by John when he found out that a teacher at his old primary school was having students critically interpret Beatles’ lyrics as if they were poetry. John claimed it was a mash-up of three different songs he was tinkering with and which he wove together during an acid trip. He did admit that the Walrus referred to the Lewis Carroll character, but always pretended to be surprised when people pointed out the Walrus was the villain of the poem. I actually think the Walrus was an important image to John and he knew exactly what it represented, because he used it quite passive-aggressively against Paul in “Glass Onion” (my personal opinion – not an accepted fact).

A lot of people claim different hidden meanings linking certain things to real people and situtations; the song has ties to the infamous “Paul is Dead” urban legend / hoax.

For me, I have always seen the song as a condemnation of the greed and gluttony of a corporate-based society, and the ignorance and frustration we encounter from the judgmental attitudes such a culture creates among middle-class thinkers, not to mention the hypocrisy we all face within ourselves. I also believe it expresses how fragile we are and susceptible to the desires to both fit in and rebel against the monotony around us. I’m pretty sure Lennon couldn’t explain the nonsense that was birthed by his acid-soaked brain, or possibly, that he just didn’t want to spoon feed it to people. I also firmly believe the subconscious of an artist doesn’t always let them in on the secrets and jokes of their own creations.

As for the line-by-line interpretation of the lyrics and what the song means to me, it’s below. Should you also take pleasure in debating nonsense, feel free to leave your own interpretations.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
(We are individuals, we are society, and we’re stuck with each other.)

See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
(Most are content to just be living cogs in the machine and scatter amid the instigating chaos, but some are actually capable of achieving wondrous things in the face of danger. I concede that this also might be a direct reference on some level to soldiers and war — but I think the implications of both the general and direct reference is the same.)

I’m crying.
(It makes me sad.)

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation t-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.
(I recognize I’m a part of all this bullshit, too.)

Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
(But we’re just supposed to grin and bear it; stiff upper lip and all.)

I am the eggman (woo), they are the eggmen (woo), I am the walrus,
(We are the same, we are all fragile, we are our own villains/gluttons/tricksters; it’s easy to have a message and make others cheer for us.)

Goo goo g’joob
(All you need to do is create an anthem out of the nonsense.)

Mister City Policeman sitting
Pretty little policemen in a row.
(Authority is mostly just a childish illusion.)

See how they fly like Lucy in the Sky, see how they run.
(It is often corrupt and rarely does more than get lost in the nonsense like the rest of us.)

I’m crying, I’m crying.
I’m crying, I’m crying.
(I’m really sad about it.)

Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog’s eye.
Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess,
(The reality of life is graphic and not-so-pretty, so we play different roles to get by.)

Boy, you been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down.
(But that doesn’t stop us from finding reasons to condemn one another.)

I am the eggman (woo), they are the eggmen (woo), I am the walrus,
(Nothing changes, the chorus keeps cheering.)

Goo goo g’joob
(The anthem sounds above the nonsense.)

Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun.
If the sun don’t come, you get a tan from
Standing in the English rain.
(Rain or shine, it’s all the same, we maintain our vanity and our illusions.)

I am the eggman (woo), they are the eggmen (woo), I am the walrus,
(Same fragile villains/gluttons/tricksters.)

Goo goo g’joob
(Same anthems, same nonsense.)

Expert texpert choking smokers,
Don’t you think the joker laughs at you?
See how they smile like pigs in a sty, see how they snide.
(I think this is just am overall fuck you to ex-teachers. John had issues with teachers and all sorts of authority. If I want to delve completely into this exercise, however, I would say this passage expresses that even the smug intellectual types with educated pedigrees that would be our teachers are generally just as bogged down in the nonsense as the rest of us.)

I’m crying.
(…And still sad about it)

Semolina Pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel Tower.
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna.
(People trying to do things outside the norm…)

Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.
(…are punished — most frequently by others claiming to be outside the norm themselves.)

I am the eggman (woo), they are the eggmen (woo), I am the walrus,
(We are the same, we are all fragile, we are our own villians/gluttons/tricksters.)

Goo goo g’joob g’goo goo g’joob.
Goo goo g’joob g’goo goo g’joob g’goo.
(Eventually, all anthems become nonsense.)

“That’s the whole trouble. You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write “Fuck you” right under your nose.” ~ J. D. Salinger

Background: It is a running joke that Grace will occasionally play songs with naughty words in them. As these are all good songs (like Damien Rice’s “Rootless Tree” or the Dresden Dolls’ “Sing” or …erm…” Santa Baby”) and often provide us with the opportunity to make her giggle on mic, those of us who frequent such Grace concerts are occasionally in the habit of asking for these songs by less popular names. Tonight’s Grace concert took place on a PG SIM, so she kept such out of her playlist. A few of us didn’t take note. The room monitors, however, were on task:

Names changed to protect…something.

[19:00] V just wants to hear the F word.
[19:00] Z: “F word”
[19:00] X: fuck
[19:00] Room Monitor01: PG SIMS
[19:00] V giggles, “not from you!”
[19:00] Room Monitor01: Please
[19:01] X: oh. sorry
[19:01] Room Monitor01: thank you
[19:01] Room Monitor02: pleas be respectfull as it is a pg
[19:02] X apologizes again
[19:02] Room Monitor01: its ok
[19:02] Room Monitor01: you did not know
[19:02] SS sighs – can’t take X anywhere
[19:02] V: Well even in PG movies you can say the F word once an hour.
[19:02] Room Monitor02: if you must us the uck sylible sue it in the word duck
[19:03] Z will take X anywhere.
[19:03] Room Monitor01: our community is closer to G, but we allow some clothing options
[19:03] X: / thanks, Z

[19:03] Room Monitor02: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!!!!!!
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ___________s§§§§ss.__.ss§§§§§§§§§ss.
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ____________³§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§s.
[19:03] Room Monitor02: _____________§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§s
[19:03] Room Monitor02: _____________§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§O§§§§§s
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ____________s§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§s§§§§§§s
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ___________s§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§³§§§§§³³³³³’
[19:03] Room Monitor02: __________s§§§§§§§§§§§§§§³³³’
[19:03] Room Monitor02: __________§§§§§§§§§§§§³³’
[19:03] Room Monitor02: _________s§§§§§§§§§³³’
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ________s§§§§§§§§³
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ________§§§§§§³’
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ________§§§§§’
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ________§§§§’
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ________§§§’
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ________§§§
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ________§§§§ssss
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ______s§§§§§§§§§§§s,
[19:03] Room Monitor02: _____s§§§§§§§³³³’
[19:03] Room Monitor02: ____§§§§³³³’

For those keeping track at home: thirty-three vowels are not enough; one also requires a 20 line dolphin macro to clap (or possibly that is even not enough — there were more appearing in room chat as I dashed)…but one fuck was too many.

“As the crow flies / It’s there the truth lies / At the bottom of the well.” ~ Tom Waits, “Starving In the Belly of a Whale”

Does anyone know if the Twitter Fail Whale is a reference to the old infamous exploding whale meme?

This curiosity raises another question — one I asked a friend recently — what’s the oldest internet meme you can remember? I’m thinking “Spam” but that may merely be the oldest one that still survives. Wikipedia credits “spam” use on the interwebs back to the 1980s and pre-AOL BBS days. That feels right, but…hmmm.

Complicating matters is that I’m not sure how widely spread some of the things I’m familiar with from BBS days went into public consumption. Back and forth battles over how torch light would affect characters with infra- and ultra-vision in first edition may have merely been fights my friends and I posted on BBS’s local to our geekdom.