Youth Is Wasted on the Elderly
According to the old aphorism, adolescents like to rage against conformity by all dressing like everyone else. What is it about costumes? I tell young actors that everyone in life is acting all the time, and it seems like a big part of it is dressing for the role. The stuffy businessman doesn't just head to the golf course on Sunday, he becomes Tiger Wood, or more accurately, Slammin' Sammy Snead in plus fours, because the image has been etched into his consciousness from childhood. Or how about all those doctors and accountants who get into their leathers, boots, chains, and Nazi helmets on the weekend and roar around the Malibu mountains on their "hogs." I call them the Heck's Angels. A lot quieter but no less ridiculous are the obscenely overweight bike riders on their $5000 carbon frame with Shimano components, their mounds of flesh stuffed into racing colors that Lance Armstrong would envy. The idea is to get exercise and lose weight, right? So what's with the tights, the purpose of which is to cut down wind resistance and make it easier? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:12 AM
4 Comments:
love his baggy pants and boxers. My kind of guy. Up to snuff with latest style. No flies on that dude. Great cartoon and terrific commentary, John C.
Just when i thought I was the only crazy kook who pondered things like this...
Maybe we do it to convince OURSELVES that we are serious. As my daughters ballet teacher(in a lecture on grooming) once said... "if you want to be a prima ballerina you have to first dress like one" It was good advice.
Or maybe we do it to convince OTHERS we are serious. In a world where appearances are EVERYTHING...
the battle is all but won if we can at least "look" the part! Dress for success... and all that stuff... you know.
And artists are not immune either... turning up for the workshop in bright red pants... or the quintessential beret... or the paint spattered smock (to prove we really DO paint and not just talk about it!) And then of course... one has to have the requisite e-q-u-i-p-m-e-n-t (a need for which Dick Blick and Cheap Joes are eternally grateful) where one simply cannot paint en plein air unless one has the essential french easel replete with the latest supplies and shaded by the matching umbrella and water can. *sigh*
Whatever happened to sitting in the dirt with a bit of paper... a favourite worn out brush and a couple of squeezed out tubes of paint?
What's that? Yeah... I know... we want to be taken seriously... ;-)
Jean, afraid that I do not have all the latest equipment or attire. I paint in old coveralls from 1992, use brushes that I have had since the 70's and paints that range in age from 1 year to 20 years old, says she grinning. Afraid that I would not fit in with the new world of artists.
me either Lee... that's why I mention it! LOL It's surprising how little one needs... to make an impactful mark...
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