Sketch: Billy Burke's face

I am always fascinated by the lines and contours of people's faces. One of my English professors had the most amazing lines and bone structure in her face, I remember spending a lot of time in class trying to sketch her face and capture how the different sections of her face fit together in my mind. (She also was a really good professor, it was one of my favorite college classes and she introduced me to Kate Chopin.)

Haha, this is sounding a little weird and kinda serial killery but I promise I like people's faces the way they are!

As an example of what I'm imagining here is a little sketch I did of Billy Burke's face from one of the many times he was being serious on Revolution. It is really hard get the eyes and his awesome frowny eyebows right so I skipped them on this attempt. His hair is also a bit inaccurate and was not as interesting to me. 

P.S. Yes, I watch Revolution.  No, I'm not proud and I am constantly on the verge of quitting it.

A note on gender swapping (in threatre/literature)

I am frequently interested in gender swapping in the arts, especially in story telling.  I can't understate the number of hours I have spent imagining the gender-swapped production of Les Miserables that I will someday produce when I am rich and famous.  And I'm really excited to be going to see an all-female cast of Julius Caesar next month, and I'm exited to hear about a Manchester theatre company's reimagining of Hamlet where Hamlet is a woman.

I think reversing genders, especially in well-known stories, when done seriously, is a great way to open minds to new perspective and maybe expose just how ridiculous our assumptions about people/characters can be just because of the gender stereotypes we believe in.  For example this.

I've been thinking about this lately because I was randomly reading this blog post (pretty photos!) and thinking about the book Stargirl.  I read it a long time ago when my little sister was in middle school I think, because she had to read it for school, and I think the idea was that is was supposed to be inspirational to young girls and get them to talk about bullying or something.

I really really unimpressed with the book.  It's been a while since I've thought about it, and I definitely wasn't the target audience, so maybe I'm being unfair to it, but as far as I can remember I found the themes borderline vapid, and frankly Stargirl was ridiculous.

Maybe that is the point of the book, and I just didn't get it, but I guess what annoyed me the most about Stargirl's 'non-conformity' was that she was just doing extreme gender performance---- EXTREME niceness, singing to people on their birthdays, decorating her desk with a table cloth, integrating sunflowers into everything, donning different (female) costumes.  Through all of this, the male protagonist learn a lot about himself and becomes a better person.  I know it's blasé to cry manic pixie girl, but it's pretty hard not to in this case.

The above mentioned blog post quotes Stargirl.  The book's male protagonist (classmate and briefly boyfriend of Stargirl) describes Stargirl.  But when you take that description and flip the gender, the description becomes pretty silly and really begins to showcase this very thing that bugs me about Stargirl/Stargirl.

"A strange, otherworldly, yet beautiful creature of a boy who doesn’t quite belong in the world, yet here he is on earth. No one knows quite what to think of him because he’s different. He doesn’t walk, he floats, he doesn’t shine, he glows. He possesses a childlike innocence and naivety like no other; perhaps that’s what makes him different." (emphasis mine)

What ridiculous things to say!  If someone described me like that I would be so offended at the shallow, romanticized, infantilized representation.  It really just sounds like the narrator is describing a Disney princess.  How non-conformist is that in the end?

Progress Report: October

1.  Read Lean In, The Beauty Myth, Survival of the Prettiest, A Handmaid's Tale, and Gone Girl

I have definitely made progress in this area, in that I have started reading both The Beauty Myth and Survival of the Prettiest.  However since my Book Update from Oct 1, I haven't made it much further in either of these books (though I'm about a chapter further in Survival).  I need to get back on track.  I have been a bit distracted by magazines I'm trying to finish reading, my new biography of Jim Henson (!!!), and fall television.

2.  Finish reading Anna Karenina and Howards End.
I officially purchased a used copy of Howards End at the Princeton Public Library book sale for $2.

3.  Learn some basic sewing and alteration.
No progress.

4.  Since we are on the subject of sewing  . . . Go to a tailor.
Although I haven't made any real progress on this, I have thought about it a lot recently.  I was hoping a cousin of mine would be interested in doing some alterations for me, but that doesn't look like it is going to work out.  So I will be asking for tailor recommendations soon!

5.  Get new glasses.
No progress, but again, been thinking about it recently.

Super Clyde!

Thanks to a post by Nylon magazine I heard about this show called Super Clyde that starred Rupert Grint as a generous America twenty-something (with awful siblings and a sudden fortune!) and Stephen Fry as his butler.  Apparently, although the pilot is online, the show didn't get picked up by CBS.  But on the internet, there is always hope?

Check out the (~20 min) pilot episode here on CBS's site.  It is like a younger My Name is Earl with maybe a little touch of Bryan Fuller.

Instagram!

Boy, I'm a busy busy bee, but how come I never seem to get anything done?  There are a bunch of blog posts I want to get done but keep forgetting to make time.  It's good to be busy, but I think I'm starting to lose track of things (ok, and maybe I've been watching a little more tv than I need to be).

But in other news:  I decided to join instagram this weekend too!  Here's my first instagram ever (and my new shoes):

Rethinking Pink

I have never owned very many pink clothing items.  I really don't like pink.  This is for two . . . ok, three reasons: 1) I don't generally look very good in pink.  2) All the girly gender-stereotyping absurdity that surrounds, co-opts, and is associated with pink--- maybe that's a bit unfair on pink itself, and I love it when guys wear pink . . . but whatever, pink and I have a complicated relationship, 3) I don't think pink is that great of a color; there are better colors--- like purple, or red, for instance.

HOWEVER, lately I'm been seeing a lot of cute pink items!  It is making me rethink if I want to sneak some pink into my closet!  It I was, I'd consider adding some of these:

Shop My Closet!

I created my first online shop this weekend! You can now shop my closet at PoshMark!  (And have you noticed the Shop My Closet button on the side navigation?)

For a while now I have been culling my closet (a little bit)--- looking to get rid of those good-condition cute things that don't fit or don't match my style anymore or just are not ever getting to see the light of day!  I'm going to be selling some of my unique items and hopefully find them better homes!

I'm still getting a-hang of the site, but so far I'm finding it pretty easy to use.  I really like how similar it is to Etsy in terms of community and following other people whose style/size/pricing matches you.  I'm being a bit of a lurker and watching what other users are doing, and people are doing some pretty creative stuff--- from sharing images of things they are looking for to haggling deals and 'bundles' with each other.  It has a fun and friendly atmosphere.  PoshMark is a pretty new platform, but I quite like it!  I can't wait to see how it develops!

I know the main idea is for me to sell (not buy) things BUT within just an hour of being on the site, I actually found an item that I have been contemplating getting for $20 less than the normal asking price!  That's pretty exciting!

I have a bunch more actual clothing items to upload but since (so far as I can tell right now) listing is done mainly through the phone app (which has been fun to use, especially since I'm a bit of a smart-phone-idiot), and I can't figure out how to take good photos of myself on my phone (or normal camera, for that matter!).  And I feel a bit silly making my Dad do it, although he helped me with a couple shots so far.  I think I'm going to have to get a girlfriend or my sister to help me one afternoon.  Also some of the clothes are too small, so I need someone skinnier to model them!

But it was really fun working on the shop this weekend!  I hope you guys check it out, check back, and share with any of your similarly-sized (to me) friends!

Inspiration Lately: Cinnamon Girl of Maine

I just recently stumbled upon this blog, Cinnamon Girl of Maine, via a blog via another blog, I think.  I am really mesmerized by it!  I want to sit down and read all of it right away.

Photo from Cinnamon Girl of Maine

The blog is written by a woman named Julie, who from what I've gathered so far, has moved to Maine to start farm and live a home-grown, authentic life.

I find her posts very inspiring--- and not just because a huge part of me wants to decamp to the countryside and build a life in nature.  She reflects on her life, questions her attitudes, and recognizes the beauty in her life when she finds it.  I mull over some of her sentences and find they both resonate with me and challenge me.

In her latest post she writes: "Proof that I'm not stagnant fills me with possibility."  She writes about dealing with change, and her sentences reminds me that change can be a source of hope, and not just of fear, ambition, or conquest!  I really enjoy that her writing gets me to look at things with a slightly different perspective than I'm used to.  Her writing is also generally beautiful, reflective, and poetic and is a peaceful joy to read just for those reasons.

She also takes beautiful photos that you can look at for hours, often of her baby son.  This was the first post I saw, and the beauty of the portrait got me hooked immediately.

Photo from Cinnamon Girl of Maine

Please please check it out, especially if you love nature, farming/home crafts, poetry, and introspection.

Book Update

Two of my yearly goals (1 and 2) are about reading.  I've decided I had better post monthly about my progress to keep myself turning the pages!

So far I've made progress into 3 of the 7 books I hope to read this year.

1) Survival of the Prettiest :  I've made it to page 91 (of 245).  So I'm a little more than a fourth of the way done.

The nature of the writing makes this book a little bit of a easier read that some of the others, so I'm expecting to finish it first.  Although I'm definitely coming across some interesting ideas and new information, I'm becoming a little disappointed in the book.  I did pick it up in order to learn a more scientific view on the issue of beauty, but I am finding a little bit of the discussion of beauty--- especially when the author is being more 'scientific'--- a little superficial.  The first two chapters were pretty solid, but the third chapter--- being more about the sexual side of beauty and gender difference is definitions of physical beauty in the opposite sex--- is the one that felt the most disappointing.  Although I appreciate she is trying to provide the evolutionary context for human sexual behavior and physical attractiveness, I find that she really isn't telling me anything I didn't already know and she is not offering much analysis or comment on what the scientific research and evolutionary theory has concluded.  It seems that men value physical beauty slightly more than women (and more now than they used to); the average man finds the physical characteristics of a never-pregnant teenage girl the most attractive; women factor relational and economic (provider) elements into their mate-choosing more than men.  None of this is really surprising, so I wish she would delve into the ways this impacts our modern lives (which have changed somewhat faster than our genetics and evolutionary development).  She also talks a lot about the 'average' man and woman, but I am really more interested in the range of human preferences and behavior, and how both biology and society interact around this range.

She will also say things like: "A man's talent and star power can override concerns about his age, a woman's does not."  but she won't offer any comment.  It doesn't seem like something like this could be explained by pure biology or evolution---- so what does she think could be happening here?