Monday, July 31, 2023

"he doesn't seem to belong to the world - the world that I live in"

 


They seem like such clean-cut lads!

The clothes are squarer and fustier looking than what I think of as Teddy Boy clothes.

Also - the dad that makes that worried complaint about his son ("he doesn't seem to belong to the world - the world that I live in") at around 6.15 minutes in - he is dressed rather like the son. The differences are quite subtle - overall they both seem encased within much the same idea of smartness and respectability and formality.

 (The Edwardian look was originally a gentlemen's fashion - if I remember right, it started post-WW2 among Guardsmen and posh military types, then was picked up, aspirationally, by working class youths). *

Both father and son are a long, long way from shell suits and tracksuit bottoms and spaceship trainers. 

The only bit of real excess is in the boy's hair and it's very mild by subsequent standards.

Striking also the sense of fatalism in the young men - the knowledge that even this flourish of self-expression and deviance will be short-lived, that they'll succumb to marriage and conventionality enough.

Yet these tiny differences were enough to strike alarm in everyday folk (like the women who says she'd given them what-for, a clip around the ear-holes) or the kind of bans and exclusions as below 





* Ah I remembered right - a quote from a detailed breakdown of the Edwardian revival

"The Edwardian look became most popular amongst Guardsmen, bankers and other members of the financial elite, and London's gay establishment."

From which detailed breakdown I have filched these pictures - the first is some Guardsmen off duty, the second is a gang of Teddy Boys








Monday, July 24, 2023

worth taking seriously




I know these websites that list the personal worth of stars and entertainers are making up the figures out of thin air. (I even stumbled on one that listed my supposed fortune - a wildly unrealistic conception of how much money there is to be made in music journalism). 

Still, this entry on Keith Jarrett really tickled me.  Some kind of madcap spirit of whimsical fabulism seems to have possessed whoever it was that wrote this entry.

"The American pianist has an estimated net worth of $245 million. He owes his fortune to smart stock investments, substantial property holdings, lucrative endorsement deals with CoverGirl cosmetics. He also owns several restaurants (the “Fat Jarrett Burger” chain) in Washington, a Football Team (the “Allentown Angels”), has launched his own brand of Vodka (Pure Wonderjarrett - US), and is tackling the juniors market with a top-selling perfume (With Love from Keith) and a fashion line called “Keith Jarrett Seduction”.













 


vinyl mysticism

At Washington Post , an interesting video-illustrated feature on how vinyl records are made today  Interesting, even though I have almost n...