Perfect Wife

As per Sarah's request;

Perfect Wife

This feminine marvel, it can be stated;
Is one who, after having waited
A dragging, smoldering interim
(While supper cooled... and cooled) for him
To show his face from work, hears out
His explanation minus doubt
in what he hopefully has to say --
Then forgives and feeds him anyway.

--S.HY Dewhurst in Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping

I found the best book today. It is "The Good Housekeeping, Housekeeping Book" Published in 1947!
("I love to iron, it's what I dream about")

It looks like after the War, when Rosie the Riveter was shoved back into the domestic life, there was a need to convince women that Housekeeping was so complicated and important that their work required a full 491 page book to help them. This book is simultaneously insulting and interesting. There is a lot of good advice about stain removal, ironing, starching, washing with non-automatic or automatic washers... Things that are actually useful to have in a manual. What's great about it is that this was published before the mass commercialization of the soap industry so a lot of the products suggested are; Borax, baking soda, soap flakes, vinegar... all simple and inexpensive items.

At the same time, every chapter begins with a poem about cleaning, keeping your man happy, being a good wife... the worst is the one about learning how to use tools and perform basic household repairs;

The Chapter is Titled "You can fix it yourself, sometimes"

Enigma
How women today--
Wives, sisters, and nieces --
Can Knit or crochet
Such intracate piece,
Yet be so dumb
With a hammer or pliers,
Leaves me numb
With Amazement, sires!

Well-- ouch! Weren't these women just busy running factories not more than two years ago? How did we ever win that war at all with all of these helpless women running the country?

One of my favorite photos is this one of a housewife fumigating her dress;

The chapter it's attached to continues with the whole useful-yet-disturbing theme. It throughly describes all varieties of household pests that you could deal with. The book even describes how to recognize different varieties of ants and moths. And then... 13 of the 27 pages in "Household Pests" chapter describe all of the various ways to use DDT to kill them all.

I think I may need to share more as I go through this old gem... there's a poem about the "Perfect Wife", There is a large portion of the stain busting chapter dedicated to "vanilla, fruit or chocolate" ice cream... it's all fascinating stuff.

Ah Autumn

Today oddly felt like the first day of Fall. The air smelled of dry leaves, the breeze was crisp and the sky was amazing. Autumn is by far my favorite season so it's strange that today feeling like September should make me so melancholy for the want of summer. There has been no true summer here. Not that there usually is in the bay area, usually there are a few hot dry weeks in August that require skirts, popsicles and the inevitable escape to the lake. Perhaps there will be a surprise Summer before the true Fall hits, but then living by the shore in a mild climate it's hard to tell.

Step away from the Victrola...

Technically speaking this is only a "Victrola" in the way that a copy machine is a "Xerox" or a cola is a "Coke"... but it's a beauty and it's in my next show. I sat quietly back as the props and scenic people discussed the player... and while they discussed how to safely break the box of 78's they bought for the show.

In the script there is a Caruso collection that is supposed to be destroyed and it hurts me. First off I don't think we're actually going to be able to do this safely. If anyone out there isn't familiar with 78rpm records let's just say; they're not vinyl, they're made of shellac and shatter spectacularly when broken.

They are heavy and big and provide one song per side of a ten inch disc. They crackle and hiss and sound is often mumbled a bit... but for some reason I love them. They're artifacts. They're treasure... they're usually songs and artists I've never heard of and are not available on other formats...

Tonight I bit my lip when they discussed converting vinyl into MP3s (a topic I know about but would eat up all of my time to help with) and when everyone left I found myself lured towards the bin of records... I mustn't look... I don't have the storage space... I Do have the record player though... no! step back... but I want to listen to them all!

If anyone would have entered at that point they would have seen me drooling but not touching the pile of music before me. I fear if I get too close I'll find the need to liberate a few. I'll want to save them from the destruction mill of the theater... I'll want to adopt them all.

Step away from the records...

Step away from the turn table...

... but they're all so beautiful!

The 19th Century is scary...

Walking up to the Museum of Natural History in New York, there is a statue of Teddy Roosevelt, our 26th President. He is atop a noble steed and holds a brave daring stance...

Zoom out... and you will see there is a naked er... 'man of the Afric' assisting him.

Walk around his haunches and you will see a leg and some feathers and I thought "oh maybe it's an angel"... my friend who is not quite as hopefully naive as me said "oh no... that's a Native" and sure enough, on the other side; what would have been called at the time; 'a noble savage'... also nearly naked.

I think this is possibly the most offensive statue I have ever seen.

Da big Apple

Some sporadic photos from my weekend trip here... I'm afraid I was too busy having a great time and getting lost on the subway to even think about taking many photos...
Times Square was as overwhealming as ever. They've cut off traffic and installed lawn furniture, it looks like they intend to make this permanent and with all of the foot traffic it seems like a good idea...
I took this one because the friend I was there with lives on a kibbutz in Israel... the juxtaposition was funny to me...
We went to the Museum of Natural Science (I may do a quick additional post about the museums I went to)...

Central Park; Wow it was humid and sticky... but pretty.
"Emergency brake; Pray"


Great weekend... I love New York and I love New Yorkers. It was hot and humid and the weather really takes it all out of me pretty quickly but somehow the pace and the attitude of the place make up for it.

On Sunday it rained and it was delightful warm rain that helped pull a lot of the humidity down. People on the street were selling umbrellas but I just chose to get wet. At a certain point the wetness of rain sure beats the wetness of sweat. I don't know that I'll be posting a lot more from this trip but I thought I'd share the nutshell version... probably posts about the Met and the Natural Science museum to follow. Until then... caio!

A bleary sunset in the East Bay...

For the most part I've been driving Way too much this past month. One day last week I found I was too tired to drive and didn't have a truckload of costumes to haul, so I took BART.

The whole ride looked like an Edward Hopper painting...



... double rainbow...

Ooh ahh.

Surfacing/Opening

This month I've opened three shows, I've got two to strike tomorrow... I've got a corporate design job pending... Today is the first day I can even think about being human again... laundry, CLEANING, blogging, seeing friends... oof! If you're still checking this or my other blogs I've been taking photos but have lacked the time to load or think about them. Blogging to slowly resume ( I promise)

The photo is from the show I opened tonight! Comedy of Errors at SF Shakes. ok, still exhausted, I think I had better go to bed instead of mucking about on the internet.

Check back in a day or two :)

Fog & Doug

Fog;
THE fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
--Carl Sandberg

(photo of Doug on planks)

Really? Recession?

Who's brilliant idea was it to put this up in downtown Idyllwild?
And what were they thinking?!

savings?

My car is the most expensive thing I have in my world... so I thought I'd check out this cool car-share thing that is getting popular in the city... I just filled out how many trips I make and how many hours I use a car and they'll calculate how much I'd be "saving"...

Somehow I don't think it's going to work. I need a lifestyle and a career that requires zero driving.

$200 socks!

I haven't been posting much because I'm up to my eyeballs in theater work... today I was shopping for knee highs and found these;

Ok so my headline was a little misleading, since it's three pair to the order these socks are *only* $80 each... I assume that on top of being regular socks they also cure baldness, make you look ten pounds lighter and emit a soft musk that makes everyone around you like you just a little more. Who buys these things?