September. Sepian. Septimenal. Saccadic. Sapphism. Salinger. Sequela. Saccular. Secular. Secund. Sideral. Sidewalks. Silenus. Silly.
I’d read somewhere a while back, a thought that often crosses my mind on the virtues of silliness, but more eloquently written by this lady: “Too often we give up our wonderful childhood dreams and silliness that is an inherent aspect of the true self because we believe that it serves little purpose or is at odds with the role modeling and indoctrination we experienced as we matured. We might play, yet we fail to lose ourselves in the process. Our imaginations no longer has free reign because we regard the product of carefree creativity as being of no value.” Dr. Neddermeyer goes on to add : “Unabashed silliness is nourishment to our vitality and youthfulness. We take in this nourishment by giving ourselves permission to lighten up and embrace silliness for silliness’ sake. Silliness constitutes a vital aspect of human existence on a myriad of levels. Ethereal bliss is often a consequence of our willingness to dabble in what some might deem outrageous, nonsensical, or absurd.” So true….er, I’d simply summarise it as ‘ Silliness is Sublime.’
Do you remember the time when we’d skip and carouse or pirouette on a sidewalk for no apparant reason? Don’t know about you – I certainly did. Even as a grown-up along with two of my best girl friends from architecture school when for no reason all three of us would break out into a silly jig and shuffle sideways on a snowy sidewalk ‘stead of walking straight and proper; or swing from a tree for no other reason than the fact that it exists. and therefore must be climbed; or whistle a silly ditty in a midst of a dead-serious meeting; or randomly let out barnyard animal noises – a bleat or a quack – in the midst of a rabid crowd….(ok – I confess, I have done all this and then some. And still do. Silly, silly stuff, but oh-so-liberating!)
Perhaps that’s why I’ve always loved the genius of Monty Python so much. Or The Little Prince. Or comedians and artists who dare to be ridiculously silly on the surface yet are so profoundly clever and insightful underneath.
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(CLICK TWICE TO ENLARGE) The FACT behind FUR somewhere in China which lands on the glamorous catwalk in that fur coat in NYC. “One by land & two by sea” -indeed – as the trapper would say. http://www.furkills.org/
As I trot along the sidewalks of this sultry, ‘sexy’ city, the saliferous air of September’s Fashion Week that has turned parts of the city’s sidewalks into an ultra-chic-conscious catwalk, as Vogue magazine’s senescent Anna Wintour gushes about why her cause of Fashion’s Night Out should be supported, as she hosts her dinner at ‘the most happening romantic resto of town’ named One if by land, two if by sea an event for which, I end up getting a facebook invite and choose not to attend (mostly out of laziness, my quasi-schizoid-crowd-free-joys and the fact that classic-narc Wintour supports and glamorizes fur in fashion indirectly means endorsing the skinning alive of mammals), as a stream of stanchion and super-gorgeous superlicious supermodels with steely uber-serious stoic Zoolandress expressions catwalk around the city (the poor girls are told how to pose, mind you, it’s not their choosing and often times they are too young to oppose the anti-smile look) – all I can think of, for the silliest of reasons, is the giraffe-legged John Cleese in the Ministry of Silly Walks. Why bother for exorbitantly priced outfits where fur is seen as ‘fun’ in the name of some sinister ‘sexy’ silliness when I have me good ‘ol legs to entertain in silly joy?
Masters of the stream-of-consciousness style narratives, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness_writing) Monty Python is timeless. This is the second MP sketch I’ve placed on this blog. The first is ‘The Architect Sketch‘ – with John Cleese once more. Some claimed to see in this sketch a satire of government projects. But in the book The Pythons, members of the troupe indicated that they considered the whole scene nothing more than pure silliness. There is a certain type of people who get the genius of Python. Mostly these are the ones who barely watched the series Friends and found it rather witless, but enjoy Seinfield and Curb your enthusiasm. And I must admit too that I’m in that second group. My cup of tea has always been Pythonesque.
The only complete version of this sketch available on youtube is with Spanish subtitles….hopefully that’s not too distracting.
Sidetracked Alert: Hey, did you know there is actually a word –squatterarchy? It means : ‘government by squatters; squattocracy.’ Sounds more like the beauracracy joke to me. I am also suddenly gripped by the alarming thought that perhaps my reluctance to party comes from the following condition: ‘ scopophobia‘ or ‘scoptophobia‘ = a fear of being looked at.
Not to be confused with scopophilia which means ‘obtaining sexual pleasure from seeing’ ;-)
(Go ahead, ogle below. I’m not judging you….I’m rather for those who can appreciate the sensuousness of a genuinely real gorgeous woman in all her beauty than those who think that wearing fur of animals skinned alive is a source of pleasure or status. *shudder*)
Perhaps, SHOWING SKIN IS BETTER THAN WEARING SKIN. One does not need clothes made of animal products, and especially fur, to feel sexy or secure or even silly. One doesn’t need fur to appreciate the stunning beauty of a woman. Support cruelty-free clothing as fall and winter approaches. Boycott stores and brand names that sell fur and boycott cruel unempathetic women and men who wear fur or think it’s sexy. Endorsement of farmed-fur-for-fashion is akin to endorsing murder in the most brutal way. We live in the 21st century for goodness’ sake and there are tons of options available for winter clothes!! We do not need to endorse these barbarian practices! Support REAL beauty and the beautiful beasts of the wild not the bestiality of humans who skin innocents alive for wearing their skins in voguish vanity. Don’t endorse cruelty. Don’t endorse psychopaths be they male or female. There is NO excuse; no rationalization for these heinous acts of torture.
“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness or despair but manifestations of strength and resolution.” Kahlil Gibran
or in my words: “I’d rather be ridiculously silly and kind, than remarkably ‘happening’ and cruel. And I’d rather strut around in a metallic home-made bikini than flaunt ‘fall-fashion fur.” [Okay – I may not look like Yamila Diaz-Rahi (who also studied Economics – and is no dumb beauty but a smart, classy woman in real life), featured above in her metal straps, but a metallic bikini sure fulfills my inner geek Star Wars Princess Leia fantasy ;-) ]
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P.S. A dose of Blunt Truth: I think that shit-brown and yellow huge Louis Vuitton logo handbag that I see many women tout because it was so in vogue is absolutely hideous. I’ve never bought one, even when I made a six figure salary and I will never buy one. I’m a designer myself, who had her own firm in my very early 20s and then as a consultant with the man who recently won the Order of Canada (among 50 other awards) for his artistic sensibilities and architecture – so I do know what I’m talking of, should you question my aesthetics. I also designed an entire 16 sq. mile eco-city a few years back in West Palm Beach and many other design works, so I do have some wisdom of the world to say the following, sensitivities be damned : That LV/ YSL bag is awfully ugly – there I said it – had to get that out of my call-a-spade-a-spade truth-serum system. The ONLY reason women spend hundreds and thousands to buy it blindly is because those who endorse the skinning alive of animals endorse it and like herds it is bought without questioning because ‘everyone has it!’. It’s ordinary. Ugly. Extremely inelegant. Frumpy. HUGE. Same for those leather and skin Gucci bags. UGLY. There I said it! (And what a relief after years of politically correct silence.) Yes – that bag emperor has no clothes – only blood and the skin of deer, crocs, foxes, rabbits, dogs, cats and many other inncocent animals. And marketed to insecure women to make them feel ‘special’ like clueless accomplices to murder.
Give me Cleese’s silly walk any day. I’ll take that over that bag any day. I’d rather laugh than carry that massive elephantine bag and look as though I’m a depressive in an anti-smile mode. (Actually the price and the weight of that bag is bound to lead to depression – so it figures.)
Not murder? Check this out (warning – not for the squeamish…disturbing reality) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rhFj2NfBsI
The 2010 Gucci bag. Disguised murder.
2010 new YSL bag. More murder.
Fur from an animal skinned alive is ‘sexy’, no? The pinnacle of monstrosity disguised as ‘chic’.
I have no idea why or how this shit-coloured monstrosity of a Louis Vuitton bag and its variations became so popular and ubiquitous. Were they testing to see how a brand name could be used to market this visual and ethical garbage? There I’ve said it – as a say-it-as-it-is-emperor-has-no-clothes pointer can. This by far is the most popular yet the ugliest bag. ever. I’d prefer buying a lifetime supply of toilet paper than buy this piece of overblown kitsch. If you want to feel ‘French’ bellas, don’t buy this shit-brown bag; learn about Rene Magritte or read Rene Descartes. Or even Blaise Pascal if you know some math
Is there an alernative? Yes. Buy purses and handbags made by your LOCAL artists, small business owners, that kind girl in the farmers’ market who makes her own handicrafts – purses made of man-made materials, tie-and-dye fabrics. Or even those spectacularly beautiful handbags of spangles and ethnic cloth that are self-sustaining, women-empowering handicrafts made by resident women in the villages of Kutch and Rajasthan – a centuries-old tradition which was revived in the past century after the colonists had crushed the trade to sell their factory-mill-made cloth. Now supporting, buying and endorsing those products is really cool. And truly beautful. And above all, far more ethical. Or else, buy from the discount store, a smart no-nonsense man-made-material purse. But DO NOT endorse this skin-and-fur cruelty.
It’s a simple equation : Not succumbing to intoxicating glossy adverstising + No demand = No supply = No slaughtering. Show kindness and love to the REAL furry animals instead of gushing over fake soft toys, often made out of the fur of the real ones skinned alive.
Beauty is found in many things – in the sunset, in flowers, the magnificence of a forest, an act of kindness, genuine love, moving music, a baby’s smile, a puppy’s eyes, the blowing seeds of a dandelion in the wind, the pleasure of eating delicious fruit, the endorphins generated from a good run……why do you need a handbag made of a tortured, abused animal’s skin and fur to feel ‘beautiful’? That’s not beauty – that’s cruelty and ugliness, no? The sad eyes of the fox and raccoon that is skinned alive is not much different than the eyes of your own dog or cat. It’s so logical, so obvious – why is it so hard to see? The halogen lamp above a glass shelf on which that bag rests in a chic boutique on 5th Avenue is just an illusion to hide the gut-wrenching truth of its making. Does omission of facts take away reality? No it doesn’t. Truth remains truth. Objective. Hard. Real.
Do you know what carrying a $900 – 3500+( goes up to ridiculous prices of $10,000 ++) hideous oversized brand name handbag really tells about you? It says – “Look at me! I’m an insecure girl/woman whose sense of self-worth is derived not by who I am but by the stamp of approval needed by what some brand name gives me! Even if I may become a ‘celebrity’ or just another party girl, I am a nobody without endorsing what is considered ‘cool’ by the Hiltons and Lohans of the world! I am so crazy about looking ‘cool’ and ‘hot’ before my friends and strangers that I don’t care if I’m carrying the skin and fur of animals cuter and gentler than my teeny lap dog! No, boys and girls, all I care for is your approval, your validation because on my own I am nothing without my brand name items. And I’m willing to let millions of animals die for me. So that impressed by my status symbol my girlfriends will adore me and some equally clueless guys will fuck me!” That’s what it reads as before objective Truth. And the truth is more than 32 million mammals are killed for fur alone each year.
Go ahead – watch Stella McCartney give the inside story of where or rather how that fur trimming that you hold in your hands comes from :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rhFj2NfBsI Or this: http://www.freewebs.com/shawtyxli/furisdead.htm. Really. Do your life this favour.
The following video shows Unfathomable cruelty (actually showing a skinned animal alive with his eyes looking on in pain and trying to lick his blood, and how the animals are hit on the head to knock them out before the skinning). This video has been removed from youtube and many other places due to extreme pressure from very high authorities of the design world. They do not want you to see this. I’ve managed to track one of the very few places that still has a copy, though it might be soon removed.
Here is the video, and a link to an article containing it https://features.peta.org/ChineseFurFarms/
Any men reading this post, next time you think buying a fur coat/hat/bag for your wife or girlfriend is a sign of ‘love’ please show this video to her first. Good luck and good night.
Excuse me, for I have to go for a silly walk now. To clear my head from the remarkable ridiculousness of the world we live in. To find solace in unabashed silliness. Where a ministry of silly walks makes far more sense than the mega-mall-endorsed senseless slaughter of innocents.
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If you want to see what ten years of unbridled shallowness does to you, look no further. Here’s the end result of a decade of purse-crazy ‘fabulousness’: https://gipsygeek.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/sweatshops-for-your-sex-the-city-too/
Next.
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The Gipsy Geek 
This is an amazing post, GG.
I don’t mean it in a funny way – but just the fact you could combine so many themes and expose the senselessness of injustices that take place.
It was hard for me to watch the fur video and the hilarious Monty Python one before it in context as you say – did seem more sensible than the reality of what goes on. How truly vicious can people be!!! both those who kill this way and the ones who endorse and wear these products! It is truly unbelievable.
I have been reading your posts for months now. What I like best is the tying of diff. themes and the ability to show moments of beauty and love even amidst the truth of the world. I lilke that the writing is not mushy, yet very profound. It’s a stream-of-consciousness style in itself. You have given me the courage to speak up more in life, to show that the connections in the world we are taught in architecture school translate into a balanced view of reality as well.
I shall pass this around – the message is too important. People should not covet fur products. So senseless….it really makes a silly walk look far more sensible.
Best.
Thanks for that thoughtful comment, Archi_Girl.
Good that you speak up more now and are not cowed down by those who go around screaming vacuous messages of frivolity, or see their worth tied to brand labels, and yet make certain that the voices of rationality and ethics are drowned.
The quieter, introspective ones are usually bullied early on into silence, and should they find their voices later, are then accused of speaking up. I think much of the mess in the world regarding ethics has happened because the voices of the kind, the ethical and the rational were silenced early on, even though their brains were used to build the infrastructures the rest take for granted.
I always wish that more women in architecture, or those who can balance aesthetics, technology, and art with science without losing ethics should speak up more instead of the voices of the idiotic ‘reality tv stars’ that we see around – those who sashay into the limelight through affairs, sex tapes, scandal etc. Not surprisingly these are also the ones who are surgically enhanced (instead of the natural beauties like Elin Nordegren or even naturally beautiful yet grounded actresses like Charlize Theron etc. who face incomprehensible jealousy for their natural beauty), and it is the fake, scandal-before-talent ones who are also the ones that endorse cruelty-based animal products disguised under brand names *shudders again* And on the other extreme are the other fanatics led by Glenn Beck et al. Either way the voices of rational ethics and sensibility are drowned……which is perhaps why the genius of MP’s silly walks is even far more sensible.
Thank you for your continued support and for spreading the message against animal cruelty.
GG
What an excellent and important post, GG!
Your gift for getting right to the point, telling it like it is, is unsurpassed, truly. I love how you expressed the disconnect many fur wearers seem to sustain between their “lap-dog-as-accessory” and “matching fur from tortured animal.” How could one look into the eyes of the first and not think about the eyes of the second?
It seems so obvious. Yet, the cruelty goes on.
thank you thank you thank you!!!!
Thank you so much, dj (as always!)
You know well how this kind of senselessness saddens me, and I just hope that increasing awareness will lessen such heinous acts.
Initially I was going to write a post just with the Monty Python silly walks, but then that Fashion Week Vogue invitation, mixed with my thoughts about the dour faced catwalk walks that Ms. Wintour’s ice-cold ways and who openly endorses fur, got me thinking the reality behind what is considered ‘silly’ and ‘chic’ in this world.
That pic of the animals in the cage – any person who looks at those eyes or sees the Stella McCartney awareness video and STILL endorses these products – is no less than a psychopath. Really. A complete lack of empathy or remorse = psychopath. It is amazing how our media has elevated these narc-queens and kings. https://gipsygeek.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/truth-or-dare/ (for the excerpt of Barbara Oakley’s Evil Genes.)
-GG
As dj has written : Thank you Thank you thank you!!!
What a brilliant, gut wrenching post! GG – you’re a genius – you know that? Exposing the hypocrisies we live in without losing your Pythonesque style of writng.
This is such a horrible crime that goes on!! Unbelievable. The facebook video was like watching psychopaths in action! I had to shut my eyes. There is so much fake fur available, so many cloth, vinyl alternatives. Why? Why then this torture? And how the hell can that ‘devil wear prada’ dame Wintour and all her followers and cheap celebrities actually endorse this?!! Women who dream to be on the cover of Vogue as the epitome of success are endorsing a psychopath! As are those buying these products.
Thank you GG again for another blunt unique post! I’ll pass this on.
Miss K-S,
Your words of praise are undeserved (blush), for I am certainly no genius – just an ordinary person who has a knack of seeing the truth of the world for what it is and making the connections. I simply do not get fogged by illusion and see reality for what it is – blunt and brutal. Thank you immensely though for your continued support.
So true what you say about the Vogue aspiration of many women and in truth what type of ethics they are indirectly supporting. I really do hope you spread the animal cruelty facts around. It has to, has to be known. This has continued for decades and decades and nothing is done. Now with the pressure of big groups the video was drowned as saying the person who actually made the expose was doing something ‘wrong’. Mind blowing, eh?!! Murder like this is enhanced, and sneaking to capture the truth is considered wrong! What a sick world indeed!
I keep remembering the ‘Truth or Dare’ post I had written where the whistleblower is attacked in the world instead of criminals who make, endorse and flaunt fur products.
Thanks again and spread the truth around!
[…] (5) I’d rather go for the Monty Pythonesque Silly Walk than endorse the hideous YSL/Gucci/Prada Vogue-endorsed deigner purses made out of skinned alive animals for their fur : Saltationism of Silliness […]
[…] writing my last post, and since the time I’d seen the videos of the truth behind fur (Saltationism of Silliness), I’d been saddened and horrified for days and nights on end. […]
u fucking asshole, its not YSL its LV, u r a shit colourder moron, and u dont know anything…
yet i think u should be banned from all the fashion websites…….BITCH YOU MADE MY FRIEND CRY GO DIE IN A HOLE OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE NO TASTE IN FASHION OR YOUR JUST TOO POOR TP AFFORD ANY THING BUT LIKE C&A SO SHUT THE FUCK UP
NOW U CAN GO FUCK URSELF HAHAHAHA (EVIL LAUGH)
P.S. DONT LOOK AT WHAT U CANT AFFORD
DAYMMMM
YOU CAN ALL SUCK MY VIGINA
LOVE OLGA XXX
Hello Olga,
1. For your first comment : You certainly have an ‘eloquent’ way of expressing yourself that exhibits remarkable taste and class.
2. For your second comment : Sorry, I don’t do fur.
p.s. it is spelled ‘vAgina’
Next.
The only thing that saddens me more than knowing that animals are senselessly abused in support of the fur trade is to know that their suffering is in service of warming the “vigina’s” of obtuse cretins like the above poster…
thanks again, gg, for putting the message out there!
Thanks dj. Well said!
That poster sent me 10 other moronic mails with unfathomable expletives and rather looney rants varying between different actions of his?/her? “vigina” and “pinis” and actions she would like to see me perform. (I have taken the liberty to not place that filth here.)
All I can say: it is even more saddening that innocent animals of the wild are put through such horrendous torture to cater to the fashion ‘sense’ of buyers like these. Her comments serve as proof of the type of people this unfathomable cruelty ultimately caters to. And the true inner hollowness that users of these so-called ‘status symbols’ think they can conceal by buying such products caked in the blood of innocents.
What a great post!
What i do not understand is how you’re not actually much more well-liked than you might be now. You are so intelligent! You made me personally consider your message against fur here from numerous angles. Its like women and men aren’t fascinated with anything these days unless it’s something to do with Lady gaga! Your own stuff’s great. Keep it up!
Thank you Tory.
I’m glad you think about how horrible the ways of procuring fur are and what an unnecessary show of vanity that it is used even in this age – at the expense of the senseless torture of animals.
Lady Gaga certainly has her own talents and is an artist. (I’d seen an older video of hers before her gaga days and she certainly sang and composed well. Wish she hadn’t worn that ‘meat’ dress!) But true that most people spend far too much time obsessing about the more forefront celebrities rather than question so many very real and awful truths of the world we live in.
[…] in the Monty Python sketch “Ministry of Silly Walks” which I had featured in a post from a while back. The past month has been difficult, for various reasons – so naming it “March […]
This is the full comment I wrote under an NYT article – due to its length/word count or whatever reason, it doesn’t show up in full – so this is written here just so I could have a link to the full comment.
“Monica – I don’t disagree at all with your comment other than its last two lines. As I mentioned (regarding my race), I’ve had ancestors myself who were brutally treated, enslaved, colonized, killed and so on.
Empathy for animals does NOT take away empathy for the people who have suffered. It is not an either/or issue.
So yes, I will feel incredibly sad for the treatment of ALL oppressed/tortured people be they Black, the Jewish who were killed in the Holocaust, the Brown South Asians who were ruled and killed during colonialism, the Nanking massacre in China, those who suffered from the atom bomb on Hiroshima, the soldiers of the Allies who died in the World War, the Middle-Easterns killed by US bombings, ALL the people who died thanks to infighting, the Native Americans killed by Spanish conquistadors and by European colonists, those who died in the genocide in Rwanda & Sudan, and those who died under the oppression of psychopath-leaders such as Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Franco et al, tortured children the world over AND all the animals of the world.
HOWEVER, regardless of race, the ones who have been mistreated by ALL races throughout human history, are animals – who do not have a voice. No one is speaking up for them.
And yes, the article does talk in length about fur. I wonder if you read my complete comment fully, where I mention where I’m coming from, even regarding my own relatives.
But I will absolutely reiterate that there is nothing glamorous about the skinning alive (and yes, look up “The truth in Chinese fur farms exposed in 60 seconds), anal electrocution and starvation (look up Olivia Munn exposes fur) and plenty of evidence out there.
I don’t even read Vogue magazine neither do I adore Ana Wintour one bit b/c of the way she revived back fur in fashion. And I am disgusted by celebrities who claim they are pro-environment while hypocritically wearing the skins of heinously killed innocents. And no, I don’t give a hoot how “famous” they are.
If nostalgia had to be the barometer of being close to our ancestors, then people should be holding on to ivory, tiger skins, rhino horns etc. as they still do in so many other places in the world. Our wildlife is being killed in irreplaceable numbers…I could go on and on about facts, but I’ll stop.
Fur was heinous and cruel, regardless of which race wore it. Just as many other utterly reprehensible “customs” brought on by colonists. In fact, the sadder reality is that those who were oppressed or colonized began to regard the “status symbols” of their oppressors itself as desirable traits. Such as buying a much coveted fur coat by African-Americans as elegantly explained in this article (as well as by immigrants who came from poverty) or considering dark skin as “undesirable” and the entire “fair-is-beautiful” + plus skin-lightening creams one sees aplenty in formerly colonized parts of Asia/South Asia.
My fear is – that this article is only unwittingly helping Wintour’s agenda. And quite frankly, justifying a “fashion” tend which is truly psychopathic based on how it is made.
The article itself is poignantly and elegantly written.
My justified fear is (having seen how the glamorization of fur has been justified by many fashion houses in the past, who were, yes, by and large White) – is that those who do not fully comprehend the context of her article, will instead see it as a blessing to continue to wear/promote fur and that it gets racially politicized.
Once again, I reiterate that I am tri-racial and kindness to animals has nothing to do with race. And empathy for suffering includes all those who are suffering. I say this gently – please refrain from cherry-picking because someone’s comment did not completely please you.
Also, I won’t have time to reply, as instead of spending time in a tiny comment box in the vast void of FB cyberspace, I’d rather go out in the world and prevent that suffering. Thank you.And especially for your line that you “don’t agree with wearing fur.” Happy Sunday.”