Small rant about fashion cycles, plus some spring flowers

Posted On April 3, 2021

Well, I missed last Saturday’s life update post for reasons I mentioned on this week’s Under My Skin.

Which is to say, stupid reasons, because I inadvertently gave myself insomnia Friday night after binging on chocolate when my tolerance for caffeine is gone and even my sugar tolerance is lower. And then felt like crap for the better part of a week.

Oops.

Of course, this is Easter Weekend, let’s see if I repeat that mistake. LOL…

So, I guess I have two weeks to cover.

Well, I’ve been watching U2’s Virtual Road series of temporarily-free-to-watch-on-YouTube old concert DVDs.

Not much to say about that other than Bono in the 80s with the same hair as Simon Le Bon was rather adorable.

(In some alternative reality, that sentence is being shown to an alternative me who still despises U2 and alternative me is dry heaving at the mere thought of liking Bono.)

Also, supposedly “The Real Thing” is claimed to be a criticism of mass consumerism, but then why was Bono air humping when singing it in the 90s? Hmm… I still say that song’s about getting blown.

What else… I popped into a local Winners for some retail therapy. It’s funny to see a ton of flimsy white woven cotton tanks with lace trim and a row of buttons… exactly like the couple I had maybe 5 or 7 years ago that I got rid of because they were no longer fashionable. (Well, more because I gained weight and was purging my wardrobe before moving a few years back…)

The cyclical nature of the fashion biz is so obvious, yet so many fashion blogs insist when an item is out, it’s out for good this time.

Like I saw one place saying platform heels are totally gone for good and terrible and will never come back in, so dump them and just have regular stilettos.

Which, OK, but I like both, and I’ve seen this particular cycle repeat enough times to know that platform stilettos will indeed be back in sooner rather than later. So… I ain’t disposing of mine if they’re comfortable and I still like them.

I’m actually thinking of starting some sort of video thing mocking the fashion bullshit. Might even post a few times a week (read: I’ll do one longer video once a week with a few topics and chop it up to look like I’m doing it daily). We’ll see, though, as the podcast I’m doing with my friend that we’ve been planning for a month or so is now going to start for real and should launch on Tuesday, and it seems to me I shouldn’t launch more than one new project a month.

All I can say is looking at the footage of Louis Vuitton’s Autumn/Winter 2021 Paris Fashion Week show made me understand why models scowl so damn much. You’d scowl too if you had to wear this in public:

The blue skirt is probably cute on its own. Everything else sucks from what I can see.

Get your retail therapy in early this year, girls. Gonna be a hideous winter.

In other “news,” we’ve been working on INXS’ “Elegantly Wasted” at my drum lessons, but I think I’ve had it. They butchered the mix on that one to the point where you can’t hear the drums in the last half.

Basically, they threw in layer upon layer upon layer of shit, and it crowded everything to the point where it’s just a wash of guitar distortion and backing vocals.

I still like the song, but trying to play along to it is an exercise in frustration.

I think next we’ll try the song before that on the same album, “Show Me (Cherry Baby)”, which has a bit more stripped down arrangement, meaning it has a huge and entirely audible drum sound.

Might also pick something by the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies to get my swing on and because I’ve been listening to a ton of their stuff.

Apart from those vital updates, I guess it’s time for some obligatory garden pics. Clematis armandii ‘Apple Blossom’ is in pretty much full bloom now: