Barbra Streisand Interview (Sep 1968)

Good morning!

First off, again, thank you SO MUCH for all your sweet comments on the wedding week posts! It warmed the cold cockles of my two-sizes too small heart to have so many words of well wishes and encouragement. This "being married" business ain't so bad after all! I finished my thank you notes, I've been practicing my new cursive last name, and if the government shut down ever lifts, I'll be able to start the formal process of changing my social security card, driver's licence, etc, etc. So three cheers for the state of matrimony!

In vintage news, I was looking for information on "Florence Foster Jenkins" (another post for another day), when I found this "Truth Game" article from a 1968 interview with Barbara Streisand. The format is a lot like the ubiquitous LiveJournal and Myspace surveys Kaelah and Rae were talking about on their blogs just the other day! The illustrations from the original spread were a little too 1968 for my taste (there IS such a thing?)... Streisand's strong profile on a trout's body, as a creepy chair, etc etc. I've replaced those with little pictograms of her survey responses, and present to you the full text of the interview with La Streisand below. Let's go through it together!

I love the answer "a crepe black satin slip", and was surprised by just how ugly A Woman Bathing by Rembrandt is. Obviously, all works by Dutch masters of the 17th century are technically amazing feats of light, color, and composition, but I just don't know how I feel about the subject's almost exposing her modesty in the painting at hand. Bartok, on the other hand-- good answer! If I had to respond to those three questions, I would say "a black sequined maxi dress from the seventies'", "something from Picasso's Rose period", and "Serge Gainsbourg", respectively.

"What fish?" "A smoked one." just cracked me up. Is there a better kind of fish? I might be a goldfish. Here's where the Florence Foster Jenkins question came in, which is a hilarious answer-- juxtaposed with Ray Charles, one of the best song interpreters of the 20th century, you've got a woman who was famous for how terrifically, awe-inspiringly bad her voice and singing was. Still, the chutzpah of it is admirable, for sure!

Can you see Streisand just chanting her spiteful little Christmas loving heart out in Yeshiva? Atta girl. Look how cocky and cool she looks in her little grade-school age photo.

See, I'm the opposite of her last answer-- I so would rather be the movie star. And I love the idea of her little water bottle with a pink sweater on it.

Note to Barbra...what are doing wearing a sock around your neck! Stop that! Parents givin' kids all kind of weird advice...we need your vocal chords! Do not puncture them! I love how she goes all "Liza with a Z" on the interviewer for mispronouncing her name. I remember this distinction of the "ei" names came up in Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers as people insisted on pronouncing conductor Leonard Bernstein's last name steen instead of stein. There's a whole article on that ambiguity here, and Streisand's name falls right into the same category! Having had an overwhelmingly mispronounced surname for the last 28 years of my life, here's hoping my new one will be easier on folks (e'er so slightly, anyway).

As I am currently battling the five to ten pounds I put on in release-of-stress related eating, I choose to think I momentarily also look "Victorian" rather than "puffy", haaaaa. How about her real success is having "a husband, children, and antique furniture". These are the things that last! Did you know she was married to a smoking hot, pre-smoking-hot-ness-in-The Long Goodbye Elliot Gould at the time? Ringadingding, girl. Good work!

Well, what do you think of STREIsand's (see! I can do it right!) answers? Which ones do you agree with or disagree with? Are you a fan of La Barbra or could you pass on her brassy persona? I would be in the latter camp, were it not for how much I love the movie The Way We Were, K-k-k-k-k-atie really does put all the rest of her performances under a flattering lense.

That's all for today, I'll catch you guys back here tomorrow! Be good. Til then!