Take a look at the attached photo at the foot of this post...


It's from THE CLUB, a website detailing the events of a a very swanky and upscale set of stores in San Antonio.

At the top of the webpage, is a lady shown partaking of some of the many wares these chi-chi stores offer.

But this photo looks funny to me, somehow. This lady doesn't look very relaxed somehow, and they've gone out of their way to telegraph to us that she is a "discerning" shopper.

But the strangest thing is her hairstyle. I haven't been seeing this style around during the Millenium, have you?

I've been trying to place it in my memory... and now I remember: it reminds me of Madeline Kahn's hairstyle as "Mis Trixie Delight" in PAPER MOON. Or Bette Midler's from around her DIVINE MISS M days. Or Karen Black's hair during that period. Both these two artworks were released in 1973--74. And of course, Kahn and Midler were doing impersonations of very funny, ditzy "whores" (Midler's backup singers were "The Harlettes"?). So that was my first impression as I glanced at this shopping store lady photo...

The model's 1970's style shades only accentuate the effect...



Why are we celebrating the Seventies in fashion, I wonder? Anyway... i just thought I'd show this to you. It drips with a certain kind of haute bourgeois Texas snob appeal...

I think headbands are in style right now, but she does not look relaxed at all. That little bag that she is squeezing between her elbow and boobs. The giant beads just kind of lay across her projecting boobs. Actually I like this look but she doesn't look comfortable.

Is she a cast member of the show, "Swingtown"?

LOL!

How bizarre.... I just watched Burnt Offerings last Saturday and was thinking about Karen Black and wondering whatever happened to her.

Dawn, I was terrified by that movie as a kid, don't know if I could watch it now.

Ooo, I loved Karen Black in that film she did Trilogy of Terror. The last story in that movie has her being hounded by a voodoo doll!! That episode scared the heck out of me as child!! I so want to see that movie again. I haven't seen in EONS!!!

I love Karen Black, she was kooky but I thought she was so different. Remember that other film she did, The Day of the Locusts! That film was so depressing but she was good in that too!

Yep me too! I was somewhere between 8 & 10 years old when I saw it and like you, it scared the you know what out of me. I hadn't thought of this movie in probably 20 years and found it while I was channel surfing last Saturday. It's still scary but I can handle it now. ;0 Kind of.

OK RTF, you have me itchin' to see Trilogy of Terror now. I have never seen it. Did this one come out in the late 70's also?

That model looks like Princess Leia's cinnamon rolls lost their "roll".

Karen Black is fantastic. I loved her in Nashville and Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean as well as Burnt Offerings (scary mom). And Trilogy of Terror - that little doll Eeek!

The hair is awful, combining the worst of all worlds -- flat to the skull on top, and frizzy at the sides. Not a good luck for any human female.

But I am truly impressed at your recall and associations.

Karen Black struck me as someone who, if she hadn't made a living at acting, would be wandering the streets with a shopping cart talking to herself. Maybe it was her slightly crossed eyes. I read an interview where she talked about her son, who may have been around ten at the time, and thought she was severely disturbed. She practically said she was planning to initiate him into sex! I thought maybe I was misinterpreting her words so I had two friends read the story and they said the same thing. I wonder whatever happened to her son... She had been married to writer Kit Carson at the time, but they divorced.

Another strange person of that same era was Susan Anspach. Didn't she recently come out with the news that her son was the result of an affair with Jack Nicholson or some other big star? She never seemed quite with it.

Sandy Dennis rounds out the Crazy Actress trilogy.

Which is probably why you almost never saw them on talk shows promoting their films.

Did the voodoo doll jump out of the oven at her? Was the Trilogy part of a series from the Twilight Zone?

My brother managed to unearth a copy of TRILOGY OF TERROR on VHS not too long ago.

I was wondering if it'd stand up to my memnory of it..... the doll segment had scared the wits out of my sister and me when we were small kids in 1971 or '72 when it came out...

I was surprised; THE DOLL still is very scary indeed. More than anything it is beautiful tour-de-force movie editing, linked together expertly to create maximum suspense and maxiumum jolts.

and whaddya know?

You can see the whole thing on YouTube:

PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE

The Doll truly is scary, isnt it? I saw it when it first came out, and then again a few years ago, and it was just as scary the second time around.

Oh hell yeah, The Doll was spooky.


As for that 70's hair - ear-muffs!

But regarding my OP and that LA CANTERA photo. The more I examine the photo, the more preposterous it looks.

We're to understand that this immaculately-groomed and jewelry-bedecked lady drove up in her (what, Lamborghini?) in front of, what? Notre Dame Cathedral? To buy two green mangoes and one Delicious apple from an outdoor, European-style greengrocers?

The whole scene is just preposterous to me. No Texans really shop this way, not really.

The whole fantasy being sold is, I suppose, a European one. But Texas is not Europe. That this woman looks so stiff and harried--- in spite of all her pleasures and treasures-- is another strange quirk.

Rather than look appealing, the scenario looks slightly sinister to me. As though she is dreaming, in a dream. No other human is evident. There is no wink of charm, no fashionable hijinks here: the viewer is intended to take and believe this scenario LITERALLY.

The picture reminds me of the haute-glamor images for banal household products-- Die Sachplakaten--- served up to the middle-class by the advertising art of Weimar Germany. [See attachments: Toothpaste Ad (1925), Lux Laundry Soap Ad (1925) ]

You're forgetting to read the caption.

"IT'S WHAT'S NEXT".

See, these are next year's fashions you're looking at.

I for one can hardly wait...

Haha, Blue... When Texas is always about 5--10 years behind NYC/London/LA/Paris on just about every score.


Also, if this woman is so fabulously priveleged-- why does she bother weighing this fruit so delicately? She cares about the cost? Why not have the (invisible) greengrocer "weigh them" and fill her sack?

And of course the photograph is carefully arranged to highlight the big rock on her left hand. It's implied that she is probably not the source of this priveleged lifestyle... "A rich man desired me! I was wanted!" it shouts... Is this still every woman's deepest seductive fantasy?

It's clearly a fashion stylist who has absolutely no idea of the image they are trying to project....a low budget effort with a bad art director and an amateur in charge. It's the sort of thing my 20 year old fashion styling studens would come up with.
MB

This lady and her look are among the clientel of my local Whole Foods market. Shopping is more an act of being seen at the correct stores in the "correct" duds. This, as well as extremes of this, are everywhere in Lexington. Makes for colorful and interesting shopping. Truly.

I could see a young Sophia Loren rocking that hairstyle. Looks like the ad is trying to appeal to the nouveau riche Texan who fantasizes about going to Europe but is terrified to fly after 9/11.

[quote name='rasputin' post='396456' date='Aug 15 2008, 09:14 PM']My brother managed to unearth a copy of TRILOGY Okay had to pull that one, that RuPaul one was WAY TOO.... Ahem

You nailed it, Dem. Perhaps she and hubby stayed at the Bellagio-Vegas last year...

What this ad neglects to show you is that her husband is a lager-lout who worships the San Antonio SPURS..

I'm the odd person out, again, but I love the model's "look", especially her hair. I've missed real (real or set) curls and I'm so tired of seeing chopped up hair (razor cuts) and contrived wind-blown and bed-head styles.
I like solid hairstyles and curls -- the still popular Vampira look, especially with the uber-shiny, stringy hair is sooooo uninspired.
The model may not be the best at conveying emotions, but her "look" is cool, imho.

I think in our heart of hearts, most women would say yes.

Who wants to be poor?

Who wants to be unwanted?

As to the woman in the photo "not being the source of this priveleged lifestyle": Who wants to give your heart and soul to a career, only to lose your children, or even your marriage? (Or be so devoted to a career that you never even get married or have children at all.) I realize that there are women who do make these choices and they are very happy. Good for them, but from what I can see, they are definitely a minority. Most women who do combine paid work and motherhood are engaged in the most high-stakes juggling act that I can imagine. Not my idea of fun, and certainly not my dream. I'm not a feminist, so just chalk me up as loony if you feel so inclined.

All of the women that I know who have high-powered, high-salary careers have sacrificed A LOT to get where they are. Their choices are not attractive to me. Farming their babies out to nannies and child-care centers ranks poorly, IMHO.

All of the women that I know who have regular or low-paying jobs make the same terrible sacrifices that the fancy career-ladies do, but don't get the big-buck benefits. Not what I dream of.

I think that the ad plays towards what many women do want: a husband who provides amply for her and the children, beauty, grace, elegance, and time to leisurely experience life. I'll admit it. I do want that.

Nothing wrong with wanting to be rich and to be wanted. But if you're not providing the riches yourself, you better hope you have the world's most trustworthy man otherwise you never know when you can be traded in for a younger model. And hopefully, the provider of riches doesn't use that power to bully.

As far as her hair, it looks good from the angle and if her face is the right shape, she might carry it off.

[quote name='Isabella' date='Aug 19 2008, 03:30 AM' post='397104']
I think in our heart of hearts, most women would say yes.

Who wants to be poor?

Who wants to be unwanted?

As to the woman in the photo "not being the source of this priveleged lifestyle": Who wants to give your heart and soul to a career, only to lose your children, or even your marriage? (Or be so devoted to a career that you never even get married or have children at all.) I realize that there are women who do make these choices and they are very happy. Good for them, but from what I can see, they are definitely a minority. Most women who do combine paid work and motherhood are engaged in the most high-stakes juggling act that I can imagine. Not my idea of fun, and certainly not my dream. I'm not a feminist, so just chalk me up as loony if you feel so inclined.

All of the women that I know who have high-powered, high-salary careers have sacrificed A LOT to get where they are. Their choices are not attractive to me. Farming their babies out to nannies and child-care centers ranks poorly, IMHO.

All of the women that I know who have regular or low-paying jobs make the same terrible sacrifices that the fancy career-ladies do, but don't get the big-buck benefits. Not what I dream of.

I think that the ad plays towards what many women do want: a husband who provides amply for her and the children, beauty, grace, elegance, and time to leisurely experience life. I'll admit it. I do want that.
[/uote]


Isabella, just a few days ago I 've read an article that started like that: "So what has a feminist revolution really given women? Sisterhood, empowerment and eight hours in a cubicle."


I'll give a link to it later. I remember from that article , something alone the lines, that in the zeigeist t of the media and tv shows it is only the housewives who are desperate, and that work is fun. They give an example of a woman, who after finishing Harvard decided to stay home to be with her children. She says I sing, I paint, I write letters to to my representatives in congress, play, with my children, read to them....

That hideous bead necklace needs to go.