RIP Gerry Ferraro - You Helped Make Me a Feminist

Read this and then come back.  I had to marinate a bit on why Gerry Ferraro resonated with me.  She was the first woman, named to a national ticket in 1984.  I was 1 year out of college and making my way in the business world.  I hadn't made any choices, yet, (except maybe 1 - but that needs to stay under wraps for another decade or so) that might label me a feminist.

It hasn't been until about the last 15 years or so that I've been comfortable with that label.  And, especially when I read another woman that I really like, Gloria Steinem, talk about feminism and what the definition really is, I think - of course I'm a feminist.

To effect change, somebody has to be the first.  I was the first girl to play golf on my high school boy's golf team (thank you, Title IX) because we didn't have a girl's team.  A number of girls followed in my foot steps, although the school was/is so small, that they never had enough girls to field a separate team - but any girl that wanted to play golf could.  (And it was my dad who suggested I ask if I could play on the boy's team - he also wanted me to take auto shop instead of cooking/sewing in jr. high when we went up to the high school for those classes so I would know my way around the insides of a car!)

Hillary could have been the first - but instead Barack is.

I'm probably the first working mom from the suburbs that has ever said that she has more in common with what the Log Cabin Republicans stand for than any other political party.

The NYTimes article at the opening of my post says, "Ms. Ferraro could effectively charm powerful men, but she did not back down on substance."  I was once talking to my dad and felt very strongly about whatever it was we were talking about and he said, "Tocqueville, don't be so strident."  And, of course, with about 30% of his vocabulary, I needed to look up the word.  And then I understand that I wasn't being effective in making my point.

So I hope that I instill in my children how to effect change and, in the case of my daughter, that she's not afraid to embrace her feminism.

The Commuter's Lament

Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo....what's a commuter to do?  Subjected to this and the second-hand smoke of puffers on the platform I'm exposed to toxins galore.   The cacophonous symphony of bronchial distress around me puts me in a tizzy.....which I snap out of as I smell the remnants of your last night's Sloe Gin Fizzy.

Will the parking machine function?  Will I remember my space number?  Do I have $1.50 in bills and/or quarters?  What was my space number?

 Musical chairs ensues - can I find a seat without the imprint of someone else's shoes adorning the bottom or back?  What's the track, what's the track?  Express or local.  Beat the gate.  Don't be late.

Mornings are a polite ballet of workers heading into the big city.  What was my space number?  Evenings feature Mr./Ms. Yackety Yack - shut-up, Cellphone Jack.   Newbie interlopers with their bags strewn about.  Move out of my way - getting home is serious business.  There is commuter train protocol.  Make yourself compact.  Don't invade my physical or earshot space.  Kindles out.  Headphones in.  Luddites clutching - gasp - a newspaper or magazine.

Bibbidi bobbidi boo that's what real commuters do.

PS. The Guru Has More!

P.S.  I also stopped by BCBGMaxAzria earlier this week and they are showing a great red with great neutral pieces and devine, buttery bags that are on sale too.  Also long sweater "wraps-with-sleeves" and Missoni-inspired tops - all on sale.

Zara is also showing seersucker jackets (a la Coldwater Creek below) in both grey/white and beige/white combos.  Great 80's inspired Hermes-printy tailored shirts and Repetto-like flats.  LOVE Zara!

The Good, The Bad and the Really Bad - Guest Blogger The Glam Guru

The Glam Guru is guest-blogging for The Heights Eye this month.  The Eye wants you to know that she is loving summer and agrees with a tequila bar owner's recommendation of Costco's pre-mixed margaritas in a bottle - delicious!

The Glam Guru surveyed the summer goods at many price points at her mega-mall stores and here is the scoop:

  I can personally report that the guys selling the creams made from the Dead Sea in Israel really work - my crow's feet disappear when I use their eye cream.

Forever 21's windows were a sea of pink - the right pink, that pops on everybody and not the wrong pink.

Sears' Lands End department was filled with boring basics.  The Juniors department had some interesting neutrals, but, still that bad peach/pink abounds - stay away!

LUSH always has the best in neck-down skincare and their Flying Fox line is my personal favorite.  I prefer their lotions to Kiehl's, although Kiehl's Creme de la Corps (also available at most Nordstrom's) is a favorite of all New Yorkers and fashionistas from coast to coast.  Both stores are great for gift shopping.

JC Penny buyers continue to surprise as their ana and Worthington lines were on-trend.  Always swing buy their jewelry counters as they have often have great sales on very good costume and silver jewelry.

JCrew disappointed with lots of ruffles and sherbet ice cream colors.   Weird colors, in general.  The tie-dye merchandise was OK and mettalics had their day too.

Ann Taylor was better than JCrew, in the Guru's opinion, but still had slightl 'off' greens and teals.

Note to manufacturers and buyers regarding color:  different isn't always better.

Abercrombie makes my nose itch.

Nordstrom had the best florals and neutrals.  The Guru bought this cashmere scarf during their anniversary sale in a great red-orange (although the link only shows it available online in black?)

Macy's - lots of flowered prints.  More bad, green ruffles (see JCrew).  Juniors was overrun with pink (see Forever 21).  The bridge lines:  DKNY, C Klein, were good.  Their INC line and the Jones NY lines were boring/bad (except INC does have a blue collection that was good).  They are still loving Ralph Lauren and it was a sea of pink too.

Coldwater Creek has a winner in this jacket.  (And it's on sale now!)  Defined waist, great color combo and if you are a style maven, you will love the seersucker fabric (and cut off the rope belt).  In fact most of their jackets give you a waist/define the waist you have.

The Guru asks that you stay strong (ie. stay away from the bad colors/cuts that overrun the racks) and I hope that this store report gives you some ideas of where to shop  (in the malls) if you are adding to your wardrobe this summer!

PS.  Mulberry is the next designer line for Target - comes out in October.

Glamor 'n Judgement and Photoshop Misdirection

There is a substantial reading prerequisite for you, dear readers, in order to fully understand this post.

1 - please read this essay from the NY Times Magazine first.
2 - I think that he's wearing his suit from H&M here (I told you to read the essay first!)
3 - please don't stop reading just because I am admitting that I am not a fan of the movie versions of Sex in the City and yes, I know that there must be something very, very wrong with me because of that fact.
4 - please read the article that I link to in the last line of this post.

When he referenced the ubiquitous-to-all-middle eastern-movie-sets belly dancers, I was reminded of my mom's take on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", which she enjoyed some of....but was concerned that the party scenes reinforced the stereotypes of ouzo drinking, weird-meat-cooking-on-a-spit-in-the-front yard Greeks.  (Mom isn't Greek, but she played one in her marriage to a Greek.)

Personally, the pre-wedding scene with the girls bleaching their moustaches had me internally screaming "Oh my god, that's my mom, me and my sister!!!!"

Moustafa's observation that perhaps his participation in SATC2 had possibly reinforced the stereotypes that he seeks to diminish.

He's right, but he had to control over the director and art director's concept of what is middle eastern....and this isn't 60 Minutes or Charlie Rose.....this is SJP-I-grew-up-listening-to-NPR-my-kids-will-too.....so cultured!

He comes clean and says it was the glamor that drew him in.  Manufactured glamor - photoshopped glamor (have you seen the weird versions of the SATC2 girls on the movie poster??)  I think that the government needs to set some standards on photoshopping because it's out of control in many ways - not just whacking down size 0 models to never-seen-before torso proportions.  I've talked about this before.

It was really the "they go to the grocery store just like us" kind of glamor that US Magazine provides in its front section - yeah I read it in the checkout line.    It's the only way our brain can connect the seemingly fabulous lives the stars live and how we live.

But Adobe Photoshop changed the game.

What you see is not what you get.

This is what Moustafa and all of us are up against.
 

Elvis Redux

I was only peripherally aware of the neon yellow tshirts that said "Vote For Lee."  When conversing with a true Idol fan I could only say "I don't watch American Idol".  Even when The Girl's soccer team was invited to the "Lee Comes Home" event, and got to sit in the VIP section, I was non-plussed and more concerned about how 2-3 moms were going to chaperone 20 girls in a crowd of 40,000.

I can tell you that I am now plussed.  I am very, very plussed. 

Yes, there was massive pandemonium as we made our way through the crush of people holding their tickets above their heads, trying to get the coveted VIP area wristbands.  The crowd consisted of cougars, cubs and cub-ettes....and chaperones.

The Girl is a cub-ette.  

She did things like this:

The cubs held signs up that said "Lee, make a baby with me!"*

American Idol was filming the crowd with a swinging boom camera, and, of course, they focused on the VIP areas which means some cougars, cubs and cub-ettes  will be on TV tonight.  This chaperone will not....she has bad knees and spent the 3 hour wait mostly sitting down and keeping track of the cub-ettes, who were decorating poster boards, dancing around, writing "heart Lee" on their hands with Sharpies and screaming anytime a) the boom camera swooped down and b) they thought Lee was coming out.

He made his way through the Very VIP section, protected by 6 policemen who made a cocoon for him to walk in.
He was crying as he walked up to the stage.
He tried to compose himself while the Idol producer whispered into his ear and told him where the cameras were.

He was humble.

He was overwhelmed.

40,000 people screaming for him.

The newspaper talked about his troubled past.  How the paint store didn't have a job open when he went there to get one, but they hired him anyway and he was the best at getting stain colors just right and how hard it is to mix 'n match stain.
MTV was filming at the paint store when I went there to get The Girl a VOTE FOR LEE tshirt.

And then he sang.

From the heart.

In between crying and composing.  He sang .

Give him a listen.

Buy his music.

VOTE FOR LEE tonight.

On American Idol.

*FSA  (Future Skanks of America)

Fino

I watched Broken Embraces yesterday and it, like almost all of Pedro Almodovar's movies, was beautifully acted, art directed and written.  Following up on my "city giddiness" a few weeks ago, I smiled when I got that I-wish-I-was-in-Europe feeling during a scene where a scooter zooms by the characters.

One of my dear friends taught me the phrase "fino" when we were in college.  It means fine, but she and her family used it to mean fine as in cashmere, not mohair.  Sterling, not stainless.

She is Cuban and for those of you who know me and Him, you know of His theory as to his origins etc.  Pretty much everything about our friend is fino and I thought fino when the gravely ill father in the movie shuffles out of the hospital entrance and his suit is topstiched.  That's fino.  The worried mother, outside, waiting for the taxi had on a smart shirt/skirt combo that looked like a dress, with sensible heels, PEARLS (for you, CR).  She is so fino!

Penelope Cruz's character, the daughter, races over to the hospital in a fitted Balanciaga-ish grey suit and sleeps in a Hanro tanktop.  So, so, so, so fino!

The film's palette was the beige, red, black and orange of Joan Miro. 

I want to go back to Spain...and this movie is in my all-time top 25.

And this movie, The Baader Meinhof Complex, was stunning and it's in my all-time top 10!

OK, now it's time for "church", which, in my family, means CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood.

Happy Mother's Day.