The Duality Of Clothing

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)  has become one of my favorite movies. It can be seen as a satire or sendup of the fashion industry, which is regarded by many outsiders as silly and trivia. That attitude comes about because there are those in the industry who are obsessed with beauty, extravagance, social climbing, status, and who are not above backstabbing and badmouthing others to achieve their career goals. 

But no matter how much people sneer at and ridicule the over-the-top activities and mindset of those in the fashion industry, we can't ignore two facts: one, we all wear clothes and two, each day, for better or worse, we must decide what we are going to wear in public as well as in private. There's nothing silly or trivial about that. We may think we only dress for ourselves, which is partly true but we also dress to impress. Otherwise we would put on anything that came to hand; we would wear a lampshade in place of a hat, for instance. Even homeless people are mindful of what they wear. 

I recall reading something the 19th-century writer Henry David Thoreau wrote about why we wear clothes. It might have been in his book Walden. Thoreau wrote that we wear clothing for two reasons: to protect ourselves from the weather and as ornamentation. The latter reason tells others something about us, beyond words and body language.

Note: I originally published this blog post on my Facebook page on February 11, 2023. I've made a few minor changes to the text.

The Life And Murder Of A Gay Actor

Scott Simon, the host of NPR's Weekend Edition, recently did a fifteen-minute segment in which he interviewed the novelist Thomas Mallon about his latest book, Up With the Sun (Knopf, 2023).

The book is a biographical novel about Dick Kallman, a closeted gay former TV and movie actor-turned-antiques dealer, who was murdered along with his life partner Stephen Szladek in February 1980 in their Manhattan apartment by three burglars. (Both men were gunshot victims.) The trio stole paintings, jewelry, and other items from the apartment. They were later caught and convicted but the stolen items were never recovered.

When Mallon mentioned that Kallman was the star of the short-lived sit-com called Hank (1965-1966), it didn't ring any bells for me until I read a description of the show on Wikipedia and IMDb.com. Kallman played Hank Dearborn, a young man thirsting for higher education, who illegally audits college classes by assuming the identity of absent students, with the help of a professor, played by Lloyd Corrigan.

In 2010, an anonymous commenter on the website datalounge.com, which ran a brief mention of the murders and theft, asked, "Was there ever a book written on the crime?" The answer now is an emphatic yes, although the book is a fictionalized story. Maybe Up With the Sun will inspire someone to do a true-crime retelling. In the meantime, I'm hoping the book, described by the publisher as "part crime story, part showbiz history, and part love story," will be as enjoyable as other fictional Hollywood books such as When the Stars Come Out by Rob Byrnes (Kensington, 2006) and Father of Frankenstein (later renamed Gods and Monsters when it became a film) by Christopher Bram (Dutton, 1995).

The Only Bookstore In The Bronx

I am always looking for new bookstores to visit. I recently learned of one via the Internet called The Lit.Bar. For now, it is the only bookstore in the Bronx, in New York City. The proprietor, a young Afro-Latina named Noelle Santos,  opened the bookstore in April 2019. It is located at 131 Alexander Avenue, near the Third Avenue Bridge, in the Mott Haven section.

I definitely want to support this bookstore and I hope to visit it very soon.

We Should Consider Building An Interurban Trolley System

I recently joined a Facebook group of transportation buffs called "New York's Railroads, Subways & Trolleys, Past & Present" (85,000 members). The site's profile photo of trolleys crossing the Brooklyn Bridge brought to mind E. L. Doctorow's historical novel, Ragtime (Random House, 1975).

There's a scene in which a character travels from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to, I think, Springfield, Massachusetts, by transferring from one trolley line to another. That's one of the most memorable scenes in the book. It would be wonderful if a trolley system like that existed today. Such a system, an interurban one, would help reduce traffic jams and air pollution from automobile emissions.

A Black History Month Reminder

Today is the first day of Black History Month. Be sure to read a few black history books and learn of the contributions black people have made to world history, not just to American history.