Oscar Wilde, A Night In Bangkok and A Letter To My Younger Self

I was Banana Republic a few weeks ago. I was bored, looking at the sale stuff. The sale stuff was boring. As I was about to leave, a song I loved in late high school came on. I actually said, out loud, "You have got to be kidding me." I 'm sure the woman browsing next to me assumed I meant the "sale" prices. Now one thing BR does consistently well, is their music mix (do they sell it on iTunes? I need to check). The song was "One Night In Bangkok" from the play Chess. The music is by the guys from Abba. It's sung/rapped by a British actor, Murray Head,  pretending to be an American grandmaster. It's catchy. It's about as cheesy as Velveeta. But along with Hungry Like the Wolf (Duran Duran) it was right up there with my favorites. So of course I downloaded it. I even found the video on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnqj31VPNoE
The song got some heavy rotation on my iPod. And the more I listened to it, I had to wonder-what, exactly was the appeal of it? Why did I like this song so much?  These are the things I think of while on the Precor (along with will this ever pay off? can I have a rice crispy treat at Starbucks? why don't French women get fat? but I digress, as I often do) Murray Head looks like 80s Don Henley, true, but I never actually cared too much for solo Don Henley.

In the video, Murray Head wears a white suit like Simon Le Bon in "Hungry Like the Wolf" video.

But that wasn't it.

It's the women.

The videos all featured "exotic" women. Hungry Like The Wolf was even filmed in Sri Lanka.

It's hard to imagine now, but being Indian back then was being a total anomoly. Maybe some kind of a Star Trek creature made out of silica. Well maybe not in India. But it was here. (And come to think of it, wasn't my other high school favorite, Captain James T. Kirk, sometimes enamored of green aliens?) I really didn't fit in, and that's bad enough in high school.  And different certainly is *not* a trait that gets too many dances in high school.
But these guys, in these videos, appeared to like different! (And I know you didn't have to be Indian to feel this way in high school...now; it could be Italian (Mystic Pizza) or red-headed (Molly Ringwald)...

You know those exercises where you're supposed to write your younger self a letter? I never got it. I always thought it was kinda stupid- since what would it change? 

Yet,this belated, possibly Precor induced delerium insight makes me think: if I could send high school me a message, it would be this Oscar Wilde quote:

My play was a complete sucess.

The audience, a total failure.

And like Oscar's audiences, mine have caught up too.

;)

September 21, A Red Letter Day

Why, you may ask? Well for one, we went to see Don Henley at Mountain Winery. I won't belabor my feelings for the DH. But more importantly, I had set that date to also get rid of some clothes in the closet if they didn't fit. I was very nervous. I am going to the gym, but the last time I weighed myself, the scale took up permanent residence in the garage (it's still useful for weighing luggage, after all).
And the clothes fit!!!!
It's actually even better than watching DH so close you didn't need a monitor!
DH concert summary: Dude misses the 80s. He even sang Tears For Fears. He talked about hitting on Michelle Pfieffer. He held his left back (L4-5) as he got tired. He didn't play drums.
But he's still DH, and my shires fit!


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Missoni For Target: A Near Miss

Target's website crashed earlier this week, when crazed fashionistas all over the United States tried to get their paws on the limited items Missoni made for Target. There were also pushing, shoving, aggressive shoppers in line outside of the stores' opening at 8AM. I missed all that.
But only because I arrived at Target at 8:02. I also missed all the "good stuff" - the adult sweaters, the luggage, etc... I grabbed stuff randomly- a tote, an umbrella, acrylic tumblers, a baby outfit, Post-Its (designer temporary Post-Its!) a nightie... I did scoop up some sweaters for Papoose. As I stood looking at my cart filled with random Missoni leftovers (and overhearing conversations of those smug early aweners or grumpy late arrivals), I started to think. This stuff was nice for Target, but nowhere near Missoni quality. It was cheaper than Missoni, but expensive for Target. I was caught up in the hype, the experience of being cool enough to own Missoni from Target, because that had an extra cachet of just plain old fancy Missoni.  I put a good chunk of it back. I kept the sweaters for Papoose, the baby stuff (for a gift, for someone who is due in October and loves fashion) and the umbrella... because really if I want to own Missoni, I want the real thing. And for that, I can wait. Meanwhile, if it's raining, I'm that woman with that really fashionable umbrella, which will hopefully actually keep out the rain...

Let Me Try Again: Carole Middletton, A Style Crush

Carole and Kate: Horse Show inspiration, though I'm not sure either of them ride.

 

Love the dark skinny jeans and jacket

With her daughters

Maybe Pippa is a clone?

Diana's revenge: Carole just has a better stylist- if Camilla's coat was straight and accents on the waist, not at the hip,if she flat ironed her hair like Carole- she may look...more like Carole. I know Diana is somewhere, laughing in glee.

I Have A New Style Crush

But blogger won't let me share the awesomeness of Carole Middleton- Kate's mom. Yes she's had Botox and a face lift (look at older pictures of her) but look at how sartorially clever she is- if Camilla had a coat that had the detail at her waist (like Carole) and straight instead of flared, and hemmed at just above the knee...she'd look like Carole. Instead of frumpy.
Come to think of it, Carole may be Diana's revenge on Camilla.