Photo Friday: Dresspiration Edition

Good morning! And what a morning-- the Zombies official page shared a link to yesterday's blog post on Facebook! It was like hearing my name on the news. If you're a fan and you're not an OFFICIAL fan on FB, pop over and see my 15 minutes of fame over at their real-live page. I am tickled pink!

So sorry to be late at posting-- I spent most of my waking hours today trying to wrestle a piece of patio furniture from a Michael Taylor estate sale into my car with Eartha. Exciting, right? The poor girl innocently came estate sale shopping with me, not knowing that she would be pressed into furniture moving service, made to stand in the cold for some time as we negotiated the piece into one and then the other of our cars, and accidentally forced to drive on the interstate...but I have to say, it looks great in its new home on my patio! Thank you for being a friend, Eartha Kitsch! No, seriously, I won't make you drive on the interstate again. :)

At any rate, we had fun, but what kind of a week would it be at She Was a Bird if I didn't show you somebody-else's-family-photos to get you forties' clothes inspired for the weekend? A lousy one, that's what! Let's get to it:

The above photo was the immediate draw to this user's Flickr account...because OH MY GOODNESS, LOOK AT THOSE COATS. I want them. I want them bad. The entire ensembles are really something, actually-- from the girl on the left's sunglasses and gloves, to the girl on the right's ankle strap heels and beribboned hair, these women look adorable. Do you see their escort's saddle shoes? The anklestrap wearer is Enez, the user's mother. I dug through the set a little further to find out what else we could about this dark haired beauty.

Pearls! How understated and pretty. Do you see how perfect her hair curls? If it wasn't for my lilly-livered constitution, I would cut off my elbow-length hair right now and go in for a permanent or at least a clever vintage rolling pattern. When I did have hair this short, however, it never looked this well-maintained.

These two are red-blooded Americans (from NYC, I think), but don't they look like British royalty of the time in these photos? I think it's the ties and the button down jackets, and the man's pale sports-jacket/dark vest combo, but whatever it is, I love it. The gent on the right is Enez's husband, Bud. Whatever happened to good, strong nicknames like Bud, by the way? I'm a big fan of naming your kid Henry or William or Lawrence or what have you, and then calling him whatever you want-- Link, Chet, Cash...something else that would look better on a 45 label than a business card. But it seems more of the reverse is done nowadays, where the poor kid's birth certificate actually reads "Skip". What is with that?

We do appreciate a man in uniform, and here's Bud in just his dress uniform shirt and then again in his jacket, on the right. See the oversized buttons on Enez's red coat, and the American flag in the background? I wonder what the occasion was that they had their photo taken in color. Maybe the baby in that awesome, Cadillac of a perambulator is the reason for it. At any rate, this side by side shows they look good as a couple in both color AND black and white.

THIS LAST ONE IS MY FAVORITE. Does it not look like something straight out of Fried Green Tomatoes (one of the highest compliments I can pay a vintage photo, as I have been absolutely obsessed with that movie since childhood)? Look at Enez's print dress, red lipstick, and short cropped hair! See her mother's ribbon-tied brooch and stylish, drop waisted dress! See her dad's straw boater and proud expression as he poses with his "girls"! I seriously love this.

I really loved a comment I got the other day from Jessica Cangiano over at Chronically Vintage about pulling inspiration from vintage photos of everyday forties' and vintage wear for contemporary every day vintage wear today-- if I may quote, "I am constantly inspired by the fashions sported in real world vintage photos. In fact, I'd say that's long been where I gain more of my yesteryear outfit inspiration from than any other source." I couldn't agree more if I'd said it myself!

What do you think? Which Enez outfit leaves you with the most "dresspiration"? How often do you look at vintage photos to see the REAL version of what people in the forties' and beyond wore on an every day basis? Let's talk!

Thanks everybody for reading and giving me a reason to keep committing all these heggledy peggledy thoughts to the blog. I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll see you all back here Monday! Til then!

The Zombies (1962-1969)

Good morning!

GUYS. I AM SO EXCITED. THE ZOMBIES ARE COMING TO TOWN. Whatever I said about live concerts, dude, forget it. I have become a believer. In one calendar year, 365 days, I will have seen Roky Erickson, Lindsey Buckingham, and Rod Argent/Colin Blunstone on stage. If we could just get Bowie back on the touring circuit, I can't think of another living group I still need to see. This is big, guys! HUGE!

Why do all their single covers look like bad high school yearbook photos? NEVERMIND, I LOVE THEM.

From 1999-2003, whoever was in charge of buying cds for the Madison branch of the public library had a unknowingly large musical influence on what is still to this day queued up on my iPod. Just off the top of my head, Joni Mitchell's Blue, The Cure's Boys Don't Cry, Talking Heads '77, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Bill Withers's Still Bill, the Rolling Stones compilation Hot Rocks, and the White Stripes White Blood Cells were all "Hm, this looks good, let's grab this," selections from the Pop/Rock section of their A/V collection that literally changed my life. Odessey [sic] and Oracle, by the Zombies, was one of those albums where I got it from the library, I put in the cd player, I made a cassette copy of it (there were no cd copying capabilities on our shared family computer at the time-- isn't that hard to even wrap your head around?), and WORE. THAT. THING. OUT.

SO. GOOD. SO VERY GOOD.

You might remember the Zombies from the oldies station staple (and huge at-the-time hit) "She's Not There", and if not from that, definitely you've heard the Diet-Coke-can-as-percussion late sixties' single "Time of the Season", somewhere, at some time, in your life. "The Way I Feel Inside" was in The Life Aquatic. They're really one of those bands where it doesn't make good sense that they didn't turn chrysalis-to-butterfly in the way some early sixties' British bands (the Beatles, the Stones, the Who) blossomed from being a popular teen beat, blues-and-R&B-influenced kind of musical draw to being real artists. I wonder if the Zombies could have made it to the seventies', what their musical output would have sounded like.

In trawling the internet for info, I found this Google Books excerpt from Rough Guide to Rock, edited by Peter Buckley, which sheds a little more light on the background of the group:

 See? Even the rock critic writing this survey of their work doesn't understand why they weren't bigger than they were at the time. The music is AMAZING. I've listened to some of the Blunstone solo stuff but will have to check out Argent ASAP. The wonder of the internet, putting all these things at my fingertips.

                          

Their version of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, love for Janis Joplin aside, is the best one besides Billie Holiday's (to me) definitive version...all spooky, murky electric organ (that's Rod Argent) and singular vocals (that's Colin Blunstone). Listening to their albums, and all these unexpected little compositional twists and turns, takes me instantly back to a summer I was reading everything I could get my hands on by and about William Faulkner-- the gothic South has very little to do with this British band, but something about the arrangements always reminds of that sinister feeling you get reading about old maid virginal aunts in crumbling antebellum mansions, shrouded in frayed lace and secrets. Am I crazy? I might be crazy. But the Zombies do have a song called "A Rose for Emily", and if any of you remember that story from AP American Literature or a college American lit survey course...well, the Faulkner connection stands!! If I ever start a band, I am following the footsteps of the Zombies and the Doors (another favorite) and employing an electric keyboardist somewhere in that lineup (it's lucky I happen to live with a professional piano player, but even if I didn't I think the electric keyboard is essential!).

My concern, when seeing the listing for the show and giving a high squeal, and calling Matthew to buy us tickets, was that Blunstone or Argent weren't going to be in the line up-- don't you hate it when it SAYS "The Temptations" on the marquee, but no original living member of the Temptations is actually in attendance? Or it's some eighties' band, but just the original bassist and a "tribute singer" in some seminal lead singer's shoes? Well, not to fear-- both of the main creative talents behind that band will be in attendance (Chris White is out, but Argent and Blunstone are really what you should come for), and honestly, they still sound freaking GREAT if this Youtube video from 2012 is any indicator. SO EXCITED.

                       

Anyway! Are you a fan of the Zombies?  Do you have any off-the-beaten-path sixties' artists whose music just takes you up and away? Do you have any concerts you're super excited about coming up? Do tell!

If you're in Nashville and want to grab tickets for the March 10th show, they're still available! Check it out here. That's all for today, but I'll see you tomorrow for Photo Friday!

Color in the Home (Nov 1942)

Good morning!

I was looking for something bright and cheery to share with you guys today, but also along the lines of home decoration, as I still have visions of window treatments and new and improved linoleum tile flooring dancing through my head from the great den makeover of 2013. Well, what do you know-- Popular Mechanics had just the cure for what ails!

This 1942 article from the pages of that magazine was penned by Dr. Matthew Luckiesh, the director of the "Lighting Research Laboratory, General Electric Company". Who would know more about light and its effective use than General Electric! The article details how to harmoniously combine your interior designing color palette with the available light sources in your home. The fact that we get to see all these fabulous wartime era color combination is not hurting my feelings, either. Wanna see?

Sometimes I find myself a little taken aback by the color "things really were" in an era predominated by black and white photography. This several page spread, designated in the table of contents as a special "coloroto section", starts out with a showroom of living room furniture from Marshall Field's that looks exactly like a box of marzipan. UM! And YUM! The salmon-y pink of the chair rail and the wall paneling and the disused fireplace's border are all leather (!!) as are the yellow and blue chairs. I about had a fit. Who would have thought of this? Unexpected of no, the club car ambiance the buttery texture lends to the room is making my little heart flutter. Also, the wavy decorative window frame in the bedroom from the header, and the wavy mirror frame above the fireplace, are about fifty shades of Dorothy Draper. I'm in love!

At left, the Murphy bed of breakfast nooks-- the panel that forms the table and single leg folds back into the wall to maximize space. I always marvel at teeny tiny luxury apartments and how ingenious some of the space saving solutions are. I don't live in a palatial estate, but when I see someone with an eighth of the space I have doing twice as much with it, goldurnit, I am secretly jealous (and confused as to where they put their eight sofas...what do you mean not everyone has eight sofas?). At right, the "Plan-a-Room" decorating kit is KILLING ME with its minute, miniature little furnishings. Look at those red drapes! The credenza behind the  sofa! The cluttered and froufrou nature of this set up has a mile of appeal to me.

More from Marshall Fields, this time honing in on the color decisions that new furniture necessitates. I'm telling you, if I pulled the trigger on easter-egg-yellow furniture like this, I would also be in a world of indecision about what to match with what. Do you see the purple carpet? I'm on board with this, but I think that indigo blue wall is too dark. I wonder what the green hatted mystery woman finally decided on as best for her own formal dining room.

A clever thought on wartime blackout curtains below-- I know we don't need them for fear of air raids anymore, but sometimes six AM sunshine just comes too early, and wouldn't it be nice to have light cancelling curtains that don't look quite so draconian. I also love the model's hair and purplish blue dress. That must have been 1942's most popular color!

In reference to these two panels, the good director from GE explains a little about light diffusion, refraction through glass, and how different kinds of lighting affect different subjects. I just want an art print of either one of them. Wouldn't it be pretty to have a glass divider like this cordoning off a dining area in one of those open-plan house layouts where the living room and kitchen are mostly continuous? The caption says it's tinted, but not what color...the possibilities!

More about different colors and their affect on different patterns in different lights. Can you see yourself lugging an armchair in Marshall Fields' from one department to the next, to make sure it's 100 proof in terms of color and light suitability? I can. Which color do you think goes best with the rose print panel in back?

I don't know who has one of these in their apartment or home (maybe Carole Lombard in the thirties'?), but WOW. A lit panel with draperies and a "Chinese screen" behind it all. I love this kind of house decoration, whose sole purpose is JUST decoration. And doesn't it make this lovely effect of looking out your window, and seeing some Asiatic fantasy instead of your next door neighbor's driveway?

This illustration was about the use of fabric around the mirror and the trim of the vanity table to add some pop and pizazz to the setup, but the model's dress, collar, and brooch are of the most importance to me, here. YES! More dresspiration.

Have any of you retro-redecorating enthusiasts tried anything with transfers like this? I am always reminded of a cousin's adventures in paint stencil, tagging my cousins' bedrooms in garish, pastel tulips and the kids' names in huge letters, but THESE tulips look really lovely and art deco. I don't know that I would go as far as putting stencils on the floor, but I wonder if a few little guys like this wouldn't look pretty on an otherwise blank refrigerator front? Something to think about.

More concern for blackout-options-with-style, and this I love. "Applying floral panels cut from a roll of wallpaper" to spruce up a boring old rolling shade like this....I WANT TO DO THIS. I like the venetian blinds with patterns and those large black bands to either side, too. Anything would be an upgrade from what I have now, though, so take all my daydreams with a grain of salt.

How do you use color in your home? Which of these palettes or interior design ideas appeal the most to you? Which color would you rather be shot than include in your wall color scheme? Let's talk!

If you're interested in the whole article, I posted the pages in thumbnails below; have at! That's all I've got for you today; see you back here tomorrow! :)

X-Files -ophilia (1995-1998)

Good morning!

                   

First of all, thanks SO MUCH for all your comments on my video blog yesterday! Since no one ran screaming to the hills from the simple sound of my voice (that I know of), I think I'll try and do another one some time soon on something else that defies the usual scanning/photographing/sharing set up of the regular blog format (you'll have to wait and see just what!). Exciting! You guys were so nice to leave such positive feedback! Maybe my Hollywood closeup IS just around the corner... :)

Today's business at hand? Junk. And The X-Files. Above, you can see a true life photo of me in the green room of my house, which is a kind of office slash place to watch tv on the internet, earnestly going through a pile of junk in an attempt to restore order to my bookshelf. Matthew and I have been experimenting with the novel idea that every nook and cranny of our house doesn't have to be stuffed with things that belong to me, and the resulting trips to Goodwill have actually been to take things there rather than to bring things back (I can change! I CAN CHANGE).

Why do I have so many? Why do I STILL LOVE THEM SO MUCH?

Cognizant of a time in my grandmother's life in which she literally had an entire camper truck in her backyard filled with seventies' issues of Redbook and Better Homes and Gardens, which, tangentially, would have been a goldmine to teenage me if they weren't too musty and mildewed to read, I am really good about not hoarding magazines. Books, yes, but magazines usually go dutifully to either my dad or the recycle bin when the next month's issue turns up. These are special though-- a secret cache of nineties' X-Files cover stories ranging from 1995 to 1998. How could I get rid of these? 

I was a huuuuuge fan of the show right around the time the movie was about to come out and the FX network began re-running episodes from earlier seasons every night. Remember when VHS tapes of tv series were prohibitively expensive, and if you wanted to watch a show again and again you had to tape it off tv? Those pre-Tivo days! How will I explain them to my grandchildren? At any rate, I used to tape the episodes every night and meticulously label the cassettes with the episode name and number, with a library copy of  The Unofficial X-files Companion : an X-phile's guide to the mysteries, conspiracies, and really strange truths behind the show by Ngaire Genge (which is sadly no longer in NPL's collection, but is available starting at $0.01 on Amazon) in hand to make sure my notations were accurate. Do you ever think about the amount of time you had as a kid to invest in the things you were interested in? The mind marvels.

Years later in college, I found all five of these magazines, obviously someone's intact collection of X-Files memorabilia, in the free bin at McKays, and of course I took the bait. How could you pass up such a time capsule?

I love looking back at these mid-nineties' photo layouts and remembering how risqué or "out there" some of the concepts were-- look! Scully and Mulder are in a morgue, but in some weird suggesting-post-coitus mostly naked pose! Scully's licking Mulder's head! Mulder's wearing a dress! What will they think of next?! In the post-Kardashian era, I have to say, it gives me a quaint little feeling of nostalgia for a time when any of these pictures would raise an eyebrow. Or cause my parents to prevent me, their pre-teen daughter, from spending lunch money on "racy" publications for love of a tv show.

I don't know what it is about vintage People magazine, but they seem to have a KNACK for taking horrible cover photos of people. Reference this picture of Fleetwood Mac I dug up a few months ago...I didn't know it was possible to make my patron saint Stevie Nicks look so unlike her usual gorgeous self, but somehow, they did it. Their camera must have a "de-glamourizing" setting. What is with Gillian Anderson's hair and Duchovny's dad sweater in this one?

Also, they lo-o-o-ove to share pictures of the stars as children.  Duchovny in those two tiny sweaters is possibly worth the price of admission for this whole magazine. Cutester!

I got back into watching the show when it was available on Netflix, and I really think the appeal of it has held up...at least enough for me to, over the course of a few weeks, watch the entire series over again!!  I'm sick to death, now as I was then, of the reoccuring alien plotline, but I think that's a personal failing on my part. I know, I know-- I'm supposed to be really into the whole conspiracy thing, that's the point of the show, etc, etc-- but wouldn't it have been more fun overall, as a series, if they kept doing those one-off, non-arcing, "let's go see about this weird thing in this weird place" episodes rather than all that hand wringing over the Smoking Man and Mulder's sister and Scully's alien baby and whatever else the writers threw at us that week? Kind of like a paranormal version of Law and Order, where the characters do have certain stories come back to remind us that it's a continuous show, but each episode is its own thing. I guess that's why they don't pay me the big bucks to create and implement highly watched television shows. Le sigh.

The "South Park Rules!" header is cracking me up. Also, "Spice World". Think about it. It's been fifteen years!

This cover was really neat because, as you see, the little holographic sticker flips between being a traditional alien head and a traditional David Duchovny head. I wish I could order up about a hundred of these and use them as the seals on my wedding invitations. Seriously, someone get on this, I need them.

Look how much has changed in three years, from that godawful People cover! This is actually, with the possible exception of Duchovny's hair, something you could see on the news-stands today!

Oh, wait. Nevermind. Look at this weird, late nineties', semi-symbolic inside the magazine shot. I take back what I said.

The kicker to all this? As a bookmark, lodged in one of these magazines, I found a business card to a now defunct Hot Topic location at Hickory Hollow Mall. Question: what did Hot Topic managers need business cards for?

How about you? Were you a crazy "x-phile" back in the day? Do you have whole episodes committed to memory? Do you remember taping that "David Duchovny, why won't you love me?" novelty single off the radio? God, I am now feeling old.

That's all for today! See you guys back here tomorrow for slightly older vintage ephemera. Til then!

Video Tour of the Den (My first Vlog!)

Good morning!

So last night, I got home from work, still puzzling over how I was going to best show off the den and its fine appointments, now that everything's settled with the furniture and knickknacks and what not. It's been bugging me! And it occurred to me, after reading a comment on my Facebook from an international friend demanding a video tour--why not make a video on Matthew's iPhone? Now, I haven't made an on-camera appearance outside of security footage since high school, so you'll have to bear with me in terms of my mile a minute off the cuff ramblings, but when haven't you done that in the past, in terms of my print output? It turned out to be pretty fun , and minus the freakin' thirty minutes it took to upload the twelve minute clip to Vimeo, it was all and all not a bad experience!

Here are some screen shots from the finished product-- while the lighting wasn't perfect, it was WAAAY better than the quality of the photos I usually am forced to take in similar lack-of-light situations (all the best camera light parts of the day are when I'm at work!). And you get to hear my squeaky-yet-low voice blithering on about whatever came to the top of my head regarding these pieces. Which may or may not be factually accurate!

Like:

The sectional, which I incorrectly refer to as having hairpin legs...turns out, there is no good name for what these are called. "Angled, tapered mid century legs" was the best I could find online, and still it doesn't have the panache of the wrong term I was using. Le sigh. Can you see Jingle from my Christmas post making a cameo appearance? I didn't have the heart to put him back up in the attic, so he can hang out in my Jungle Room set up for the time being. Red and green go surprising well with leopard print! (Make a Christmas note to yourself about that for future holiday parties).

Excepting the skinny, painted Thai wooden figurine, the brass Mayan guy, and the big straw hat, every other piece on that wall came from Goodwill! Including the giant wooden head. I'm telling you, there's gold in those hills if you're willing to dig. I'm particularly attached to that hat, as it makes this weird, sculpture-like statement coming out of the wall to a point like it does. And as much "wall clutter" as you more minimalist decorators might see this layout as being...you SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT BEFORE. Yeeks! Give me a hammer and a nail and I will make a wall disappear. But I'm learning editing, slowly but surely.

One of my favorite video moments-- when I straight up Alzheimer's blank on what this kind of textile is called. It is a buggy blanket, or carriage blanket, and I bought not only this one but one more at a Family Tree sale out in Franklin because a) they were ten and fifteen dollars apiece, respectively, on the second day of the sale, and b) I had driven all that way mainly to see if they were still there. The other has this design of a 1920's cartoon puppy looking at two kittens playing in flowers...oh, I am still so happy I have these.

Some other highlights from the wall decorations, which for some reason, I keep calling "accessories" (I was nervous!):

Anyway! If you'd like to see (and hear) more, please click on the video below. And after you do, tell me what you think! Do you think it's too soon in my nascent video career to audition for the local weather girl spot? How do you like all the doo dads and gew gaws I've assembled under one roof? Do you have any style tips on possibly what to do with the (hopelessly "blah", and in need of a vacuum) carpet? Let me know!

                 

 The Den is FINISHED! from Lisa on Vimeo.

That's all for today! If you're not scared away by my frenetic speech patterns, I'll see you back here tomorrow!

Photo Friday: Mother Knows Best Edition

Good morning!

For Photo Friday, I thought today I would show you just a couple pictures from a Flickr account I was looking through the other day. The user's mother was a Betty Draper style gorgeous, elegant blonde newlywed in the sixties', and I was initially drawn in by a picture of her in a vacation dress. However! When I looked back into photos from that lovely lady's childhood, I have to tell you, I was most struck by the mother's mother, labelled "Grandma Birdie" in the photos:

This is part of a set of photos taken in 1937, in the couple's backyard with the new baby, all chubby cheeked and sweet, probably to send to relatives, I guess? Do you see Birdie's perfectly marcelled hair? And the pattern on the coat caught my eye....with good reason!

Oh my GOODNESS, look at that coat! And the hounds-tooth check skirt underneath. What a wonder! I think, upon further inspection, the figures in the lower third of the pattern are peacocks or cranes. Can you imagine what colors this must have been in real life? About 90% of the people I see in 1930's pictures are either wearing a plain dress with one kind-of-neat-to-the-period bow or fancy trim, but not this gal. I don't care if that's her housecoat, it's THE NEATEST HOUSECOAT EVER. Plus the skirt! In all the heart palpitations I was going over because of the tapestry looking garment on Birdie, I almost forgot to mention how handsome the grandfather looks-- with bassinet in background, his pant's crease sharp as a knife, white sweater blindingly white, and hat tilted just so-- doesn't he look like he could be Bing Crosby's stand-in?

And if you didn't think that was enough:

A year or two later, we can see a) that the tiny baby has grown, and had an older sister left out of the earlier pictures who is now included in this group shot; b) that the Birdie picture above is not a fashion fluke, she actually looks like she's been dressed by Schiaparelli in all her pictures (the hat! the brooch! the string-and-ball embellishment on the coat!); and c) of course she dresses well, she must get that from her ma! Birdie's mother, Rose, is pictured with her daughter and her daughter's daughters in this photo, and look how the hat, and the coat, and the no-doubt matching dress underneath, and the t-strap shoes. It's no wonder the blonde gal grew up to have so much style-- she apparently comes from a line of snazzy dressers! I was so bummed I couldn't find any other pictures in the same set of Birdie, except in the background of one or two. Bummer. At least I got to see these, which I'm telling you, are going to influence the course of my fashion choices for at least the next week.

Speaking of, I want to run home and throw on one of my string ties that I like to wear and a big floppy hat right now. Or at least some fabulous brooch. Is that wrong?

Do you have any pictures of your relatives where you're just "wow'd" by a particular article of clothing? Which one of Birdie's two ensembles would you like to recreate in 2013? Did you mother inherit a sense of style from her mother, or you from her? Let's talk!

That's all for this week, kiddos! I will see you right back here on Monday with more vintage snips and snaps. Have a great weekend!