Come at me, bro!
Comment with "Come at me, bro," and:
- I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
- Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
- Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
I did this, and my dear and darling mundungus42 asked me 5 excellent questions. Answers beneath the cut!
1. What have been the biggest influences on developing your personal style?
First of all, I LOVE this question. :D
So, my personal style. I do have personal style icons who have influenced, in various ways, the way I've developed my look and style approach over the years. Noel Fielding is probably the most obvious one, not only for what he wears but also because he strongly reminded me of many of the things I loved and considered part of my personal look before I took that mad (and thankfully temporary) detour into conventionality for a few years. (In particular, we share a deep love of accessories, shiny things, eyeliner, high-heeled boots, and Neo-Victorian everything.)
Helena Bonham Carter is another one. I don't love every single thing she wears, obviously, but I adore her interest in unusual details, and I love that she takes a playful approach and doesn't give a damn whether anybody else approves. Tim Burton's creepy, stylized, semi-Goth aesthetic was also a massive influence on me from the very first time I saw Winona Ryder's ghostly face and shadowed eyes in Beetlejuice, and ever since then. I love that his visual palette manages to blend whimsy and darkness and humor and the surreal and a strange kind of... not innocence, perhaps, but most definitely wonder.
But there have been other influences. I always loved drama and dance and music and performing because they offer so many opportunities to wear fantastic costumes, and my involvement there obviously, in turn, colored (and continues to influence) the um... kind of flamboyant style choices I make (*g*) and my confidence in carrying them out. (It probably goes without saying that I never particularly wanted to wear clothes that would make me blend in or look like everybody else.) History and literature have also influenced me, because I adore incorporating different period and vintage details, and I also love having nods to certain favorite fictional universes and characters, a sort of in-joke that will only reveal itself to people who also get the reference because they presumably love the source as much as I do.
But the biggest influences, I think, have been my two Peacocky grandmothers, Grandma T and Grandma B, who were best friends in a way that few mothers-in-law are. Grandma T didn't actually share quite the same flashy aesthetic sensibility that I do, but she LOVED supporting me in my choices. She was overjoyed that we shared a love of clothes and fabrics and fashion, and she never flinched when I wanted to wear socks with sparkly flamingos on, or sunglasses that light up, or glittery red platform sandals, or capes, or a Marie Antoinette robe a la francaise for my prom. She was a seamstress, and she taught me just about everything I know about clothes and fit and notions and design and sewing. She gave me a critical appreciation for well-constructed clothes: what catches the eye, how it should hang, what lines are flattering, what's a staple and what's worth an indulgence. She helped me make so many of my outrageous costumes over the years, and she never once told me I was ridiculous, except for that one time when I tried to wear a plain wool cardigan over a dumpy, high-waisted jumper. (She was right. I don't know what I was thinking with that one. It was like being possessed by a kindergarten teacher.)
Grandma B was an artist and sculptor, and she would not have known what to do with a sewing machine if you gave her one. She was far more likely to mend clothes with staples and safety pins and hot glue, rather than a needle and thread. And yet she did love clothes and hair styling and makeup, and she knew what she liked. More importantly, she loved to constantly experiment with those things in unconventional ways, and she had a spirit of adventure like none other. She lived in a house with lime green shag carpeting and a zebra-print sofa and windchimes hung all over the place like mobiles. She never gave a single shit about what anybody thought of her choices, and she certainly never had any respect for the things people told her were conventionally appropriate for a woman her age. In the time that I knew her, she dyed her hair so many different colors, whenever she felt like a change, and when the chemo made it fall out, she experimented with the wildest headscarves she could find. She wore scarves and strapless dresses, and she mixed prints with mad, stylish abandon. She picked up accessories all around the world, wherever she traveled, and she was very, very prone to picking up and wearing whatever little cool things caught her artist's eye, whether they were intended to be clothing or not.
So really, I like to think that when I took up Project Peacock, it was as much a tribute to my amazing grandmothers as much as it was about personal fulfillment. Which makes it all the more satisfying and meaningful to me. :D
2. If you could go back in your personal timeline and say one thing to one person, what would it be?
This is actually a very tough question for me to consider, as I lean strongly towards the approach of owning responsibility for all my past mistakes, but not being tempted to erase them, since they have shaped the person I've become, for better or worse.
However. When I look back at my life, I of course still feel pangs here or there for the dramatic ironies, for the things that I couldn't have known then, the things that have only become clear with the knowledge of what followed. (I won't claim anything like wisdom here--I think it's always folly to assume that you've got it all figured out, and you can only hope to become a little less foolish with each passing year.) Nowhere is this truer than in the cases where people have passed away suddenly, without the opportunity for reckoning on either side.
So with that in mind, I think that what I would do, given the opportunity, is to go back to the day before a very dear friend of mine died in a freak accident. I'd want to tell him how much his friendship and guidance meant to me, how much I admired him both for his talents and the way he chose to use them to illuminate the lives of others. I'd want to tell him that I'd learned from his joyfulness and his patience in teaching others. Basically, I'd tell him that I loved him and valued his friendship and wanted him to know that what he did mattered more than he could know.
3. What poet or poem is most likely to get into your head?
Oh, so many, depending on my mood and what I'm doing, not to mention the time of year and the state of the weather. But of those many poets, the ones I most frequently find myself quoting (internally or externally) are e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, William Blake, Keats, Tennyson, and--of course--Shakespeare. Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams pop up regularly as well, particularly when I spot a red wheelbarrow. ;-)
Oooh, and Verlaine and Baudelaire, too. Not as often, but they are repeat visitors. Coleridge also pops up with regularity, even though I am not a massive fan of his. I blame grad school for this.
4. What do you consider to be an obscure but useful talent of yours?
Ooh, I love obscure but useful talents! I'd say it's a three-way split between my peculiar resistance to hangovers (regardless of my intemperance the previous night), my bizarre ability to judge quantity and spatial relationships at a glance, and my strange talent for judging matching and complementary color combinations, even when I don't have one of the things I'm supposed to be matching. (As long as I've seen it once, I'm good.)
5. What drew you to the Mighty Boosh fandom?
The first time I encountered the Boosh itself, it was instant love. I could hardly believe it was real, because it seemed to dovetail so well with so much of my outlook and so many of my own quirky references. I loved the magical realism, the sharp attention to detail and the deliberately playful approach to continuity, the combination of silliness and sincerity, the wide-eyed whimsical wonder combined with all the suggestions of darker shadows and corners around the edges. Most of all, I like that, for all the glittery surface and all the oddball appeal of the world they've created, there is surprising depth to be considered, and the focus is really always on the characters and the relationships between them.
These last two things are, I think, what truly make a fandom for me. If there wasn't a lot to explore and analyze, I would quickly become bored, and I didn't genuinely love the characters, I wouldn't want to spend more time with them, you know? And I do feel genuine affection for Howard and Vince and the obvious friendship and love that they have for one another. (Even if you don't see romantic/sexual tension in that relationship, can there be any doubt that Howard and Vince love each other?) Their relationship and their shared, unselfconscious, deeply nerdy joy is a beautiful and frankly inspiring thing to explore.
There are other things that have drawn me into the Boosh fandom as well. It's a joyful, welcoming, supportive place--really, more like a family in certain ways--and the creativity of the source material seems to have in turn inspired a lot of creativity in the people in it. I love that the creators are not only aware of the subtext but obviously revel in it, and I love their unusually keen appreciation for, indulgence of, and openness to their fans.
But beyond that... I think that sometimes we find exactly what we need when we need it most, if we keep our hearts and minds open. I happened to find the Boosh at a time when it was very personally resonant for me, and in many ways, it refocused me and brought me back to a too-long-buried part of myself when I most needed that reminder. It reminded me of things that are essential to me and my outlook on life--joy, optimism, silliness, friendship--and although it probably sounds daft, it also gave me the inspiration and encouragement to engage in last year's extensive life remodeling, including Project Peacock.
So there are a lot of things that drew me to the Boosh fandom, but the thing that's keeping me there is that I love the source material, and it's speaking to where I am in life. That, and my muse clearly likes it, to judge from all the plot bunnies she keeps throwing my way, and I am enjoying to the fullest a kind of happy writing renaissance. It feels so good to be inspired again, and to have faith in my words.
- I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
- Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
- Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
I did this, and my dear and darling mundungus42 asked me 5 excellent questions. Answers beneath the cut!
1. What have been the biggest influences on developing your personal style?
First of all, I LOVE this question. :D
So, my personal style. I do have personal style icons who have influenced, in various ways, the way I've developed my look and style approach over the years. Noel Fielding is probably the most obvious one, not only for what he wears but also because he strongly reminded me of many of the things I loved and considered part of my personal look before I took that mad (and thankfully temporary) detour into conventionality for a few years. (In particular, we share a deep love of accessories, shiny things, eyeliner, high-heeled boots, and Neo-Victorian everything.)
Helena Bonham Carter is another one. I don't love every single thing she wears, obviously, but I adore her interest in unusual details, and I love that she takes a playful approach and doesn't give a damn whether anybody else approves. Tim Burton's creepy, stylized, semi-Goth aesthetic was also a massive influence on me from the very first time I saw Winona Ryder's ghostly face and shadowed eyes in Beetlejuice, and ever since then. I love that his visual palette manages to blend whimsy and darkness and humor and the surreal and a strange kind of... not innocence, perhaps, but most definitely wonder.
But there have been other influences. I always loved drama and dance and music and performing because they offer so many opportunities to wear fantastic costumes, and my involvement there obviously, in turn, colored (and continues to influence) the um... kind of flamboyant style choices I make (*g*) and my confidence in carrying them out. (It probably goes without saying that I never particularly wanted to wear clothes that would make me blend in or look like everybody else.) History and literature have also influenced me, because I adore incorporating different period and vintage details, and I also love having nods to certain favorite fictional universes and characters, a sort of in-joke that will only reveal itself to people who also get the reference because they presumably love the source as much as I do.
But the biggest influences, I think, have been my two Peacocky grandmothers, Grandma T and Grandma B, who were best friends in a way that few mothers-in-law are. Grandma T didn't actually share quite the same flashy aesthetic sensibility that I do, but she LOVED supporting me in my choices. She was overjoyed that we shared a love of clothes and fabrics and fashion, and she never flinched when I wanted to wear socks with sparkly flamingos on, or sunglasses that light up, or glittery red platform sandals, or capes, or a Marie Antoinette robe a la francaise for my prom. She was a seamstress, and she taught me just about everything I know about clothes and fit and notions and design and sewing. She gave me a critical appreciation for well-constructed clothes: what catches the eye, how it should hang, what lines are flattering, what's a staple and what's worth an indulgence. She helped me make so many of my outrageous costumes over the years, and she never once told me I was ridiculous, except for that one time when I tried to wear a plain wool cardigan over a dumpy, high-waisted jumper. (She was right. I don't know what I was thinking with that one. It was like being possessed by a kindergarten teacher.)
Grandma B was an artist and sculptor, and she would not have known what to do with a sewing machine if you gave her one. She was far more likely to mend clothes with staples and safety pins and hot glue, rather than a needle and thread. And yet she did love clothes and hair styling and makeup, and she knew what she liked. More importantly, she loved to constantly experiment with those things in unconventional ways, and she had a spirit of adventure like none other. She lived in a house with lime green shag carpeting and a zebra-print sofa and windchimes hung all over the place like mobiles. She never gave a single shit about what anybody thought of her choices, and she certainly never had any respect for the things people told her were conventionally appropriate for a woman her age. In the time that I knew her, she dyed her hair so many different colors, whenever she felt like a change, and when the chemo made it fall out, she experimented with the wildest headscarves she could find. She wore scarves and strapless dresses, and she mixed prints with mad, stylish abandon. She picked up accessories all around the world, wherever she traveled, and she was very, very prone to picking up and wearing whatever little cool things caught her artist's eye, whether they were intended to be clothing or not.
So really, I like to think that when I took up Project Peacock, it was as much a tribute to my amazing grandmothers as much as it was about personal fulfillment. Which makes it all the more satisfying and meaningful to me. :D
2. If you could go back in your personal timeline and say one thing to one person, what would it be?
This is actually a very tough question for me to consider, as I lean strongly towards the approach of owning responsibility for all my past mistakes, but not being tempted to erase them, since they have shaped the person I've become, for better or worse.
However. When I look back at my life, I of course still feel pangs here or there for the dramatic ironies, for the things that I couldn't have known then, the things that have only become clear with the knowledge of what followed. (I won't claim anything like wisdom here--I think it's always folly to assume that you've got it all figured out, and you can only hope to become a little less foolish with each passing year.) Nowhere is this truer than in the cases where people have passed away suddenly, without the opportunity for reckoning on either side.
So with that in mind, I think that what I would do, given the opportunity, is to go back to the day before a very dear friend of mine died in a freak accident. I'd want to tell him how much his friendship and guidance meant to me, how much I admired him both for his talents and the way he chose to use them to illuminate the lives of others. I'd want to tell him that I'd learned from his joyfulness and his patience in teaching others. Basically, I'd tell him that I loved him and valued his friendship and wanted him to know that what he did mattered more than he could know.
3. What poet or poem is most likely to get into your head?
Oh, so many, depending on my mood and what I'm doing, not to mention the time of year and the state of the weather. But of those many poets, the ones I most frequently find myself quoting (internally or externally) are e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, William Blake, Keats, Tennyson, and--of course--Shakespeare. Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams pop up regularly as well, particularly when I spot a red wheelbarrow. ;-)
Oooh, and Verlaine and Baudelaire, too. Not as often, but they are repeat visitors. Coleridge also pops up with regularity, even though I am not a massive fan of his. I blame grad school for this.
4. What do you consider to be an obscure but useful talent of yours?
Ooh, I love obscure but useful talents! I'd say it's a three-way split between my peculiar resistance to hangovers (regardless of my intemperance the previous night), my bizarre ability to judge quantity and spatial relationships at a glance, and my strange talent for judging matching and complementary color combinations, even when I don't have one of the things I'm supposed to be matching. (As long as I've seen it once, I'm good.)
5. What drew you to the Mighty Boosh fandom?
The first time I encountered the Boosh itself, it was instant love. I could hardly believe it was real, because it seemed to dovetail so well with so much of my outlook and so many of my own quirky references. I loved the magical realism, the sharp attention to detail and the deliberately playful approach to continuity, the combination of silliness and sincerity, the wide-eyed whimsical wonder combined with all the suggestions of darker shadows and corners around the edges. Most of all, I like that, for all the glittery surface and all the oddball appeal of the world they've created, there is surprising depth to be considered, and the focus is really always on the characters and the relationships between them.
These last two things are, I think, what truly make a fandom for me. If there wasn't a lot to explore and analyze, I would quickly become bored, and I didn't genuinely love the characters, I wouldn't want to spend more time with them, you know? And I do feel genuine affection for Howard and Vince and the obvious friendship and love that they have for one another. (Even if you don't see romantic/sexual tension in that relationship, can there be any doubt that Howard and Vince love each other?) Their relationship and their shared, unselfconscious, deeply nerdy joy is a beautiful and frankly inspiring thing to explore.
There are other things that have drawn me into the Boosh fandom as well. It's a joyful, welcoming, supportive place--really, more like a family in certain ways--and the creativity of the source material seems to have in turn inspired a lot of creativity in the people in it. I love that the creators are not only aware of the subtext but obviously revel in it, and I love their unusually keen appreciation for, indulgence of, and openness to their fans.
But beyond that... I think that sometimes we find exactly what we need when we need it most, if we keep our hearts and minds open. I happened to find the Boosh at a time when it was very personally resonant for me, and in many ways, it refocused me and brought me back to a too-long-buried part of myself when I most needed that reminder. It reminded me of things that are essential to me and my outlook on life--joy, optimism, silliness, friendship--and although it probably sounds daft, it also gave me the inspiration and encouragement to engage in last year's extensive life remodeling, including Project Peacock.
So there are a lot of things that drew me to the Boosh fandom, but the thing that's keeping me there is that I love the source material, and it's speaking to where I am in life. That, and my muse clearly likes it, to judge from all the plot bunnies she keeps throwing my way, and I am enjoying to the fullest a kind of happy writing renaissance. It feels so good to be inspired again, and to have faith in my words.