[Photo by YanivG]
The photographer calls this shot “The Fashion Police.” Let’s hope she doesn’t have a taser, or a fashion schnook like me would be dead meat. Taser, by the way, has a new line of leopard-skin stun guns for Fashionista Street. It’s all the buzz (no pun intended) at this week’s CES in Las Vegas. The marketing campaign features two branding jingles: “Fashion with a Bite” and “Who says safety can’t be stylish!” Maybe it’s time to bring back Bob Dylan and the pill-box hat.
Thanks to YanivG for sharing this image in the Creative Commons.
![Gustave Caillebotte. Paris Street, Rainy Day (La Place de l’Europe, temps de pluie). 1877. Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago. [Source: Wikimedia Commons]](../../../../wp-content/uploads/2009/02/gustave_caillebotte_paris_street_rainy_day_1877_wiki.jpg "gustave_caillebotte_paris_street_rainy_day")
The legendary Kiki of Montparnasse posed for Man Ray’s 
![Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]](../../../../wp-content/uploads/2008/04/isle_royale_fog.jpg "Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]")
If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in 
![Grant Wood. Parson Weem’s’ Fable. 1939. Amon Carter Museum, Forth Worth.. Steven Biel describes the painting: “Parson Weems, imitating Charles Willson Peale’s pose in The Artist in His Museum (1822), opens a red velvet curtain on the legendary scene: Augustine Washington, elegant in crimson coat, white ruffle, tan breeches, silver-buckled pumps, and green tricornered hat, grasps in his right hand the slim trunk of the bent cherry tree. A row of cherries dangles from the perfectly rounded treetop, mirroring the very cherry-like fringe of the Parson’s curtain. Augustine’s outstretched left palm and furrowed brow signal a serious inquiry. His son George, boyish in stature and dress—coatless, with sky-blue breeches and petite buckled pumps—is manly in his expression. In fact, his white-wigged head is that of Gilbert Stuart’s portrait and the dollar bill. He points with his right hand to the hatchet in his left. Wood chips lie in the circle of soil at the base of the tree, its lower trunk smoothly incised and poised to split off. In the background, a well-dressed slave couple harvests the fruit of a second tree.” [Alt Text Source: Common-Place/ http://www.common-place.org/vol-06/no-04/biel/ ]](../../../../wp-content/uploads/2011/08/grant_wood_parson_weems_fable_200px.jpg "grant_wood_parson_weems_fable_200px")
All joking aside, you should see Don’t Tase Me, Bro on YouTube. Where is free speech safe in America? Taser, John Kerry, and the University of Florida — not to mention all the complacent witnesses in the audience — should be ashamed.
Wandering through your website this morning, I checked out the “Don’t Tase Me, Bro” video on Youtube. I’d heard about the event, but had never actually seen it. Now, my blood pressure is elevated. I became enraged with John Kerry’s arrogance, insensitivity and totally bored, flip attitude, and lack of compassion.
I’m glad your website doesn’t stray toward politics very often. It’s a big mood-changer.
On another note, Kimberly and I are heading down to Atlanta today to view the exhibit, “Inspiring Impressionism” at the High Museum of Art. It includes old masters’ works side-by-side with impressionistic works supposedly “inspired” by those works. Whether or not the historians are accurate in their theories, I’ll as always, enjoy seeing Monets, Cezannes, Renoirs with a few Titians and El Grecos thrown in.
Tom, I know what you mean about political mood-changers. I think a lot about starting another blog for media criticism and political commentary. I’ve got plenty to say on those fronts, but I just don’t know whether I have time enough to do another blog. I think the burgeoning growth of political blogs all across the ideological spectrum is an affirmation of free speech that can counter crap like what happened at the University of Florida. Free speech belongs to all of us — we use it or lose it.