Ascent of A PyrAmid: September 2009

THE THREE FACES OF AL-GADDAFI

Concerning Libian loony Muammar al-Gaddafi, all I have to say is that the peacock president packs one helluva suitcase! And seems to have chosen three style icons for his New York holiday: Eddie Murphy as Prince Akeem in Coming To America; Michael Jackson, and Don Johnson. Back in the nineteen sixties, al-Gaddafi was quite dashing and he really ought to have stuck with authoritative olive drabs à la Che Guevara. Don't get me wrong, I dig masses of gold chains as much as the next guy, and I'd trade my kingdom for his pavé diamond elephant diadem (below). But someone really ought to do al-Gaddafi a favor and tell him to lose the bullion fringed epaulets, and the ill-fitting blazers.

NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS,

(or The Bodleian Oath*)

or The New York Times Turgid

"Below, the A-List Eats; Above, Bare-Bones Lives",

Here's the Accompanying Photograph!

Saturday's Times ran an illustration of flop house resident, gravely ill Bernhardt Wichmann III, 76, laying on a single bed in a dingy room no larger than a closet. To accompany an Upstairs, Downstairs-style study in contrast between purveyor of preppy pub food J.G. Melon, and said shabby single-room occupancy hotel above it. But is this the stuff of a self-styled melancholy style blog?

Indeed.

Because Wichman's over-the-top floor-to-ceiling collage -- compulsive embellishment to create fantastical variance with grim objective reality -- got me thinkin' bout sixties-era British playwright Joe Orton, and the similar décor of his inner-city London council flat. A "garden of earthy delights" created from hundreds of mutilated library books. Which, true to form, resulted in Orton and lover Kenneth Halliwell being sentenced to Hell, six months imprisonment.

The couple's guerrilla tactical art included altering, and then returning, library books. Evidence that Orton honed his satirical skills with scissors, in order to skewer the genteel middle classes, authority and defenders of ‘morality’, several years before the wild successes of the playwright's Entertaining Mr. Sloane, etc.

"Libraries might as well not exist; they’ve got endless shelves for rubbish and hardly any space for good books." Orton wrote in 1967. Thanks for reminding us, Joe, that not so long ago, before the Information Age's embarrassment of riches, nourishing a hungry mind could be tough going.

*The Bodleian Oath is, of course, Oxford University Library's "I hereby undertake not to remove from the Library, or to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document, or other object belonging to it or in its custody; nor to bring into the Library or kindle therein any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the Library; and I promise to obey all rules of the Library.”

OUR LADY OF THE CITY HALL STEPS

I encountered this well dressed creature at a rally on the steps at City Hall. Doesn't she look like an efficient line drawing? Nothing is superfluous about her, despite prominence of stature, masses of flame-colored hair, and a very Plantagenet-looking forehead and nose. In fact, her resemblance to Margaret Pole, (née Plantagenet) 8th Countess of Salisbury is uncanny. The countess, by the way, was the last legitimate member of the Plantagenet dynasty, (1473-1541) niece of King Edward IV and King Richard III and was executed on the chopping block at command of her cousin King Henry VIII.

Ouch!

Our Lady of the City Hall Steps works for an important housing non-profit, and will no doubt contribute a more spiritually uplifting legacy than the aforementioned, and unfortunate, Countess.

BAITULLAH MEHSUD IS FALL 2009!

Sartorially speaking, Taliban toe terrific towel, eh? Although the late Baitullah Mehsud, (1974 – August 2009) was unquestionably a naughty, naughty man let's put politics aside to review dastardly, yet dazzling, desert chic. I'm seriously considering a Baitullah Mehsud-inspired look for Fall 2009. Flak jackets, huge scarves, wild curls arranged in a center-part. Not so keen on the apple-pie hats, though.