captivate dietary gap

XL today because it's a poster and a quote all rolled into one. Thank you Buddha.

My life lately can be summed up with this-

Oh lordy, how boring!  Too beige, too gray, too warm, too cold, too light, too dark.

I have to admit I got very little done over the days I was on my own here.  I dropped stuff off at the studio, looked around and got depressed over the mess, and picked up a few things for the dumpster.  I did manage to work on a collage I've been thinking about for a couple of weeks now-  I was flipping through a Sunday magazine and was appalled at how angry all the men were modeling clothes- page after page of scowling guys, so I cut them out and kept them flying around my worktable every time the AC went on.  I added to the pile, edited some guys out, and fussed and fiddled with them.  This is the so-far mock-up.  I plan on some horizontals.  Maybe today.  And then I have to get them all stuck down rather than temporarily tacked.  So, ladies, don't let your sons grow up to be models-  they are a very unhappy bunch.

The other thing I noted was that a huge percentage of them have the top of their scowling heads lopped off, seems to be a prevailing fashion-photographic style but when it happens in 50% of the pictures it becomes as boring as batik fabrics.  And they don't wear socks even with suits that cost in the thousands.  Working title, 'Angry Men of the Cloth'.  They WILL appear in a more complete form soon.  That's D&G there on the bottom.  

Speakin' of Phashion, here comes a Sandy Editorial:  The other day I saw a picture of a 'celebrity' famous for nothing and she was wearing a $800 hoody sweatshirt with expertly ripped jeans and inexplicably high stilettos with (ahem) red soles, so we will 'know' how much she spent on those to hobble down the broken sidewalk with the papaparazzi in tow.   (Well, it was $700+ but the retail didn't include the tax) It was juxtaposed next to her celebrity husband at another photo-op wearing his own version of the sweatshirt for another almost $800.  This is something I just don't get-  If you want to look 'street', then shop where the street people shop!  What in the world makes a ripped up sweatshirt worth that money? 

 I can get the same hoody at Macy's for Orig. $29.50, Now $13.99, EXTRA 20% OFF online!  I just checked. 

After that major sidetrack, I will go back to the studio

 Today I will add on the pom pom balls.  The black rhinestone border that I really liked won't stick-  I tried three different glues.  Swear they have a teflon backing.  I even tried the glue gun but the glop came through the spaces between the stones and looked awful.  Sometimes it pays to just buy a new friggin' lampshade.  

Very exciting shot, no?

While at Joannes trying to buy trimming for the lampshades, I found this little guy in the dump-it basket.  (be still my heart) A squirrel tape measure/pin cushion.  He was marked down to less than a dollar so I rescued him.  Meanwhile spent a bundle on the useless black rhinestone trim.

And now the 'TAIL' of the cross dressing squirrel-  I've featured Tommy before as my SOTD (squirrel of the day) but now he has a real show and is an art piece!  These were taken on a live costumed squirrel, no taxidermy was done, though I have to say that Tommy doesn't look too thrilled.

The Nutty Squirrel That Dressed in Drag
“You can’t be friends with a squirrel — a squirrel is just a rat with a cuter outfit,” Sarah Jessica Parker once quipped. Obviously she had never encountered Tommy Tucker, a friendly gender-bending squirrel from the 1940s who took cute outfits to a whole new level.

Despite Tommy’s male anatomy, photographer Nina Leen and his owner, Zaidee Bullis, styled the squirrel in drag for a LIFE magazine feature in 1944. Prints of those photos are now on view at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in Chelsea. Although the word “unique” has been overused nearly to the point of meaninglessness, it deserves a comeback for this fusion of mid-century doll outfits, LIFE‘s quintessential photojournalistic style, and sciurid drag.

What is “sciurid”? It wouldn’t be unique if it involved a word you recognize. “Sciurid” is that niche adjective for rodents in the Sciuridae family, which includes squirrels, chipmunks, and marmots. Tommy Tucker was an orphaned squirrel in Washington, DC, when Zaidee Bullis adopted him. For some reason the squirrel inspired Bullis to sew custom-made doll dresses for him to flaunt. (There were weird people in the 1940s too, and Bullis didn’t have to deal with PETA, which didn’t exist until 1980.) Although Tommy occasionally bit his adopted mother, he otherwise went along with the shenanigans and donned the outfits. He had a free place to stay.

Nina Leen’s photographs of Tommy Tucker are on view in the exhibition Lenslady at Daniel Cooney Fine Art (508–526 W 26th Street, #9C, Chelsea, Manhattan) through May 16.

                                                                                                                                                    bye.