George Carlin on Stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac


... favorite line

"...that's the whole meaning of life, isn't it? Trying to find a place for your stuff."
"have you noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff??"

Have you ever thought about how awesome you might look with Angelina Jolie's lips?

Have you ever thought about how awesome you might look with Angelina Jolie's lips? Or Daniel Craig's chin? Or Alexander Skarsgaard's piercing grey eyes? (They're just like the sky after a storm...)

Well, someone across the pond with way too much time on their hands has taken it one step farther--to developing the "Most Attractive British Man" by combining the best features of the most attractive Brits. I read a post about it a while ago, and when something similar came up in our talks about our obsession with beauty and self-image during "Corpus" rehearsal, I realized I had to share.

So here we have a "composite sketch based on answers to poll questions about the most desirable features of famous British men to create a picture of the 'ultimate British male.' In the end, they utilized Hugh Grant's hair, Daniel Craig's eyes, Orlando Bloom's nose, rugby player Jonny Wilkinson's mouth, racecar driver Lewis Hamilton's skin, and Ewan McGregor's jaw."

And the result?

Well, personally, I am a little disappointed. And slightly TERRIFIED that this plastic creature might somehow find its way to Brooklyn and find me next time I'm walking home from the F-train in the dark.

No, no--I know he's not really that bad, and if he were not clearly synthetic, I would not be so down on him. But it's fascinating to me that this might be something that people aspire to. We try to improve upon the looks of six very attractive men (again, begging the question: WHY?), and end up with a veritable Frankenstein's Monster. Isn't there some saying about liking people for their attractive qualities but loving them for their flaws?

And now I'm just babbling.

(Text and photos from towleroad.com. )

Brazen Beckham

Hello everyone! David Beckham came up in rehearsal for "Corpus" recently, and I'd like to share with you some of my thoughts on the footballer as it relates to our theme. We’ve been exploring the body as both a tool to be used(working in the field, typing on a computer) and an aesthetic to be sculpted(painting your nails, plastic surgery). Working in an exclusively male ensemble, the subject of masculinity has inevitably begun to intersect with our exploration. How we view it, how we deal it, and how we define it have all been touched on in the rehearsal room. This leads me to some thoughts on David Beckham:

Looking at this picture of David Beckham, he seems to inhabit a space both “masculine” and “feminine“.

Beckham brazen and assertive this displays of his body, but there is also something demure and fragile about him in this photo.

The photo is fiercely sexual, but in what way...

Perhaps he is so brazen in his masculinity, so fiercely confident, that he dares to be oiled up, half-dressed, and clutching a massive rope. His masculinity has such force that it can invade and occupy feminine territory.

But more importantly, what do YOU think about Beckham’s fashion spreads?

Frankenstein + Jersey Shore

So I've been thinking about Frankenstein lately.  Or rather, Frankenstein's creation - a monstrous being he created in the search for the secret to life.

 And then I started thinking about Jersey Shore.  (Work with me here).

I don't even watch this show but I've heard about it so much that I know that this guy's nickname is "The Situation."

As we are finding Corpus - one of the three dance plays that makes up For the Love Of..., I have been returning to these two cultural landmarks. 

I'm intruiged by our colletive obsession with the body and with being attractive.  Victor Frankenstein made his monster out of old body parts.  It was only once they were fully assembled and came to life that he was horrified by his creation.  It occurs to me that The Situation is in some way one of those monsters.  He is endowed with physical attributes that our culture typically finds attractive:

1.  Thick hair
2. Tanned or golden skin
3. A muscular, toned body
4. Confidence


However, once combined, they become horrifying (or at least that's my opinion).


Your thoughts?

Speaking of Hoarders....NYTimes reports: Stuffed!

To follow up on Jean's post about the show Hoarders:

Rob Walker wrote about the new reality show, and the mental disorder of hoarding stuff, in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine's Consumed section. Two choice paragraphs:

It’s interesting then that “Hoarders” has found its audience now. In a sense, the show can be read as a metaphor for an entire culture that has lost perspective on the relative importance of things and desperately needs help. Steketee says the disorder is “an age-old problem” but adds, “I do think our consumer culture has probably made it considerably worse.” Then again, it could be read as perversely reassuring, inserting distance between the rest of us and a handful of out-of-control freaks.

Sharenow, however, insists that the show’s subjects are “relatable.” Imagine if strangers tossed your irreplaceable family mementos in a garbage truck; now imagine you had the same attachment to every single object you possess, right down to candy wrappers and crumpled receipts. That is, most everybody’s identity is partly tied up in, or reflected by, their things — and plenty of us have moments of anxiety about that, perhaps in the last year especially. It’s certainly true that after I watch the show, I cast a wary eye on the deposits of object clutter here and there in my home. The scariest reading of “Hoarders” is that these freakish piles of stuff it documents simply reflect what plenty of us consume as a matter of course; our ability to dispose of the evidence properly is what makes us normal. “The line between the people on our show, who have very severe cases of the disorder, and, you know, most of the population,” Sharenow says, “is kind of thin.”

And here's the entire article! Read on!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/magazine/20FOB-consumed-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=hoarders&st=cse

Hoarding

I'm living in a hotel room for this next week and therefore have a TV!!!! very exciting!!!... anyway, I came across a show called 'Hoarders' on A&E which was pretty enlightening and pretty relevant to Excess!

According to Wikipedia Compulsive Hoarding "is the acquisition of and failure to use or discard such a large number of seemingly useless possessions that it causes significant clutter and impairment to basic living activities such as mobility, cooking, cleaning, showering or sleeping.".. .. showering?? sleeping!?!?!?!?!? ack!!

Here is a picture of hoarding I found online at www.anxietyandstress.com/hoarding.html:



I found this fascinating for a few reasons:
the hoarders on this show seemed to know that what they were doing was detrimental to them and those around them, but just really didn't know how to stop...
there are probably many people who have not let their hoarding get so out hand, but are also close to the edge- my dad used to keep a lot of useless things and I have this distinct memory of the family helping him throw things away once a year..
I also relate to hoarding!! I find myself battling with throwing things away that I don't have any use for... part of it is the want of stuff and part of it is hating to feel like something is going to a landfill (and maybe a little genetics??)... I wonder if I could ever get out of hand like the people in the A&E show?!?!?! am I a closet hoarder?!?!?!?!

For the Love Of...Marriage Equality!

This profile was in the NY Times Weddings Section last Sunday, Dec 6th. I loved the story, and just wanted to share; also, The Anthropologists are planning to connect with an organization that supports marriage equality during the performance run of Constellation: For the Love Of... and donate part of our ticket sales to the cause. Love for all!

Read on about the marriage of Stephen Davis and Jeffrey Busch...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/fashion/weddings/06vows.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=vows--busch&st=cse