"All Retch, No Vomit"

What do YOU desire?


Alan Watts: What do you desire? from Omer K. F. on Vimeo.

Monday Inspiration: Jim Henson's "Business, Business"

I was turned on to this video via the fantastic site Brain Pickings. Although this skit, first performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1968, was before my time, the message is just as relevant now.

The idea that business and financial interests and concerns are mutually exclusive goals from the more abstract and (arguably) more important pursuits of love and happiness is depressing, but to large extent, our reality.

I'm inspired today to reflect on how I can reconcile my financial interests with my desire to be happy. I think the answer largely lies in determining how much I really need, how much is truly enough, and refusing to allow the propaganda of our corporation-run consumer-centric culture to influence my decision-making process.

Monday Inspiration: Isabel Allende and Passion

Mondays are hard.

What better time to seek inspiration?

Isabel Allende, one of my favorite writers, is my inspiration for today. Witty, worldly, funny, she softens up her audience with humorous tales of her experience as an Olympics torch-bearer with Sophia Loren before passionately stating her case for feminism, and the sadder state in which we would all live without it.

Gregg Barnes' Follies Costumes

I saw the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies last night. What a treat!
The staging, especially the moving "ghost girls" as set pieces, was masterful. The voices and talent were stellar.

Jan Maxwell as Phyllis (from folliesbroadway.com)

However, Gregg Barnes' costuming was easily my favorite aspect of the show.

(from centertheatregroup.org)

(from playbillvault.com)

Each piece was a spectacle, with the pieces de resistance being the astounding showgirl costumes in the Loveland number.

Beautiful Girls (from centertheatregroup.org/follies)

Barnes is a creative genius, having drawn from the best elements of Follies costume history without, believe it or not, going completely overboard.

Completely overboard. (from haremofpeacocks.blogspot.com)

Here's an in-depth article on Gregg Barnes and the costuming for Follies.
Follies costumers in general have been incredibly creative, from those costuming the famous Ziegfeld girls of the early 20th century:

Ziegfeld Girls (from splendidred.typepad.com)

Louise Brooks as a Ziegfeld Girl (from artdecoblog.blogspot.com)

to Erte:

Erte's Twilight (from www.thehipcircle.com)

I know what I'm going to be for Halloween this year... I'd better start doing some crunches!