Then and Now: William Blake's Satan and the Victoria's Secret Angels

Yesterday I was looking at artistic renderings of the story of Satan's fall from Heaven and the subsequent fall of Adam and Eve in Eden. You know, just a casual Friday afternoon for me. (Actually, it was an art history lecture in my course on Miltonic literature) 

I really fell in love with William Blake's works (I am a sucker for watercolours), especially "Satan in His Original Glory." The ink and watercolor piece depicts Satan as he was originally - a perfect angel of God's creation, you know, before he launched war on God and then was expelled to Hell. And, let me tell you, Satan in his original form is pretty damn majestic. For whatever reason, when I first saw this piece, I thought of the Victoria's Secret Angels and their gorgeous wings.  

It's not too far off, is it? Both Lucifer and Gisele have the most fab wings on their backs - even in similar color schemes. And a pre-Fall Satan was quite feminine looking as well - with some fake tan and hair extensions, he could be up there strutting his stuff alongside the other VS Angels. Though, Gisele wins because I doubt Satan ever had Justin Timberlake crooning "SexyBack" behind him.  

No irony intended by putting Satan, a former arch-angel of heaven, next to Gisele, a former hot 'angel' of fashion

if you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it

I've been toying around with the idea of featuring my personal style on Dolly Rocker Girl for a while now, but I'm such a scaredy cat that I can never build up the nerve to actually do it. (What if you guys don't like me? Or, even worse, what if you guys don't like my shoes?!) 

Luckily, one of my best friends is a fantastic photographer who runs a fab tumblr called Little Prism which features her gorgeous macro photography, and she was kind enough to take some pics of me wearing my favorite rings. 

I have an obscene love for rings - I can never have enough! Charm rings, class rings, statement rings, mood rings ... honestly put any ring on my phalange and I'm as happy as can be. Two is my absolute minimum (unless I'm wearing my heavy Alexander McQueen skull ring, which weighs down my entire hand), but I've been known to wear five or six at any given time. Some have called my penchant for wearing multiple rings at once 'pirate-y,' but I prefer to think of it as a by-product of my good ole Southern upbringing. Hailing from Texas (where everything is in fact bigger there), I am adamant believer that more is more. So, when it comes to something as important as accessorizing, I am definitely a maximalist. 

While at the moment I don't think I'm ready to make the leap into full-fledged style pics of myself, I am dipping my toes (well, actually my fingers) into the pool of fashion photography. 

The top ring is a vintage Art Deco piece, it is white gold with diamonds and sapphires. I absolutely adore  this ring - I am rarely ever seen without this ring on. It was a graduation gift from my parents, who bought it in a vintage shop in Manhattan. 

The rings that have the little cut-outs of a heart, a moon, and a star are by Ariel Gordon Jewelry, a line that I first heard about when I was at the Lucky FABB Conference back in February and am now beyond in love with. I love stacking the rings on top of each other (like featured) or wearing one individually when I am in the mood to have something delicate and petite on my hands. 

The ring that is stacked above the three Ariel Gordon rings is a Low Luv x Erin Wasson creation that I picked up from Nasty Gal a few weeks back. It's an unusual design, which always interests me when it comes to rings, and I'm a sucker for anything Erin Wasson. Also, I have a profound fascination with the 'evil eye' belief, which is subtly incorporated into the design without being too distracting from the rest of the ring.  

I've long had an obsession with snakes (in jewelry form only, though - I really hate snakes). This Betsey Johnson ring perfectly fit the bill for me - not only does the snake wrap around your finger, which I died over, but its a great vibrant green color (not too neon, not too pea soup-y) and it has the most glittery fabulous pink stones all over it. 

I'll add more pictures that were taken as they are uploaded, because this is jut the tip of the iceberg of my ring collection - but what do y'all think? Should I add a personal style section to the site, or would you rather just see pics of the famous gals who we know get it right? 

Title: from "Single Ladies" (Beyonce) 

Happy Easter

When I was little, Easter was one of my favorite holidays. It was an excuse to dress up in fantastic pale pink dresses and white shoes (with those frilly, lacy ankle socks), paint hearts on to hardboiled eggs, and elbow my younger cousins out of the way during our Easter egg hunt in our backyard. (I was a vicious little doll)

Now, all those years later, Easter is a bit different for me. It's still a lovely excuse for me to dress up - maybe not in light pink dresses, but to wear pretty clothes in exchange for my usual Sunday uniform of leggings, a large button down shirt, an even larger jacket, and my favorite scuffed and stained brown leather boots. Even better, Easter is an excuse to be with family and friends, and appreciate each other's company, and celebrate a beautiful day in Spring. 

Here are some of my favorite Easter-related photos- though, fair warning: admittedly this post is a bit on the bunny-heavy side

Chloe Sevigny obviously has the same egg-retrieval tactics as I had back in my glory days

Drew Barrymore does her best Courtney Love impression in a field of bunnies

The beautiful Sharon Tate

Supermodel Julia Stegner

Kate Moss manages to make bunny ears look badass (I think it's the fishnets...) 

Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise

Natalia Vodianova, in sunglasses so miraculous that the bunny ears do not look out-of-place 

(On an unrelated note: I have a pair of sunglasses I purchased at a costume shop that are strikingly similar to those) 

Bunnies!

... Bunnies of a different sort

Raquel Zimmermann

Abbey Lee Kershaw 

Lauren Hutton

pigtails and freckles, braces on your teeth, who would have thought they'd become so sublime? i would have thought, for i thought so all the time

I don't know what's wrong with the world these days - somehow one of the most innocent of hairstyles (pigtails) has turned into one of the 'sexiest'. I use that term loosely because this is according to various mens magazines and action flicks, as I think the cast of Sucker Punch took all of my elementary school yearbooks and mimicked my plaid skirt-and-pigtails look, though I wore comparatively fewer (i.e. none) bustiers than they do. 

That's something best not thought about - I prefer to think of pigtails in the way that I used to wear them, before they were taken over by whorish Catholic schoolgirls (the ones in costumes, not the actual girls!) every Halloween. When the style was sweet and innocent, and the girl wearing them looked like she smelled like daisies and pet kittens all day and drank apple juice on her swing set. 

And yes, I think that all of these things are connected in some vast mutually inclusive phenomenon. 

So here I celebrate the bygone innocence of the pigtails. I hope you all whip your hair back and forth in fond remembrance 

Brooke Shields was quite the 'pretty baby' in pigtails as a young teen model (Was that allusion creepy? My b.)

Pigtails go high fashion

One of the official arbiters of pigtailed cool, Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz

The adorable Natalie Wood gets back into touch with her former child starlet roots when she does the look in the late 60s

Always one to try every trend (and do each look completely over-the-top) Veruschka rocks waist-long locks

A young Brigitte Bardot in braids - it's such a treat to see her so carefree and goofy here!

Zooey Dechanel often pulls her hair into low pigtails for a cute carefree look on the red carpet, though always manages to blow all the other primped girls out of the water

Drew Barrymore is probably the only thirtysomething woman in the world who can still pull off pigtails and a peace sign and still look adorable

Britney Spears (my role model in the late 1990s) first made it big in the video for "... Baby One More Time." While wearing pigtails. Coincidence? I think not

Anna Karina in two different films (Une Femme Est Une Femme and Bande a part) sporting not just similar expressions but also similar hairstyles

Audrey Hepburn got all the men while in her pigtails - George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon

Marianne Faithfull does little to dispel that former convent girl image while holding daisies and sporting pigtails

Brigitte Bardot pairs her pigtails with ribbons and bows - how cute!

A scene from Sedmikrásky (aka Daisies)  

 

Pattie Boyd poses in braids alongside Samantha Juste, and strikes a pigtailed pose by herself

Kate Moss channels a late 90s Lolita in this Ellen von Unwerth photo shoot

Perhaps her penchant for adorable pigtails was among the reasons why Serge Gainsbourg named France Gall the 'French Lolita'

Nastassja Kinski first shot to superstardom as the teenaged love interest of Roman Polanski. Which has nothing to do with her wearing pigtails here

Pigtails were the go-to style for Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits

  

Françoise Hardy makes a rare change from her usual muss-free style, ditching her long hanging locks for them tied back in ribbons

Raquel Welch works the look throughout the sixties

Sucker Punch starlet Emily Browning

She doesn't look old enough to be a 'Mama' - Michelle Philips sings with her band in an innocent look

Sylvie Vartan makes the style look somehow more badass than one would think bright blonde pigtails would allow (I think it's her crossed arms and slight resting bitch face)

Penelope Tree makes the 'do look anything but plain

Both Theodora Richards and Lizzie Jagger are equal parts Rolling Stone and supermodel (Theo by dad Keith and mom Patti Hansen, Lizzie by papa Mick and mama Jerry Hall), so of course they'd look rock'n'roll hot in pigtails and Terry Richardson-style glasses

Title: from "Pigtails and Freckles" (Perry Como)

"the nature of society is to create"

Let me explain the James Baldwin quote I so lazily and pretentiously made to be the title. You see, I was nominated by the lovely Miss Jess from You've Got the Silver for the 'Creative Blogger' Award. This award, in addition to pumping up my ego, entails that I list ten things about myself and then nominate more bloggers that I adore to have the award as well. 

So to get back to Mr. Baldwin, while this sentiment was not the one he was necessarily trying to communicate (the quote continues "...an illusion of safety" - yep, the nature of society is to create an illusion of safety, apparently) but this is the sentiment that I - a twenty-year-old chick who not just passed, but aced, her intro to philosophy class - is making. And we all know that the musings of a self-involved blonde girl are much more interesting than the political insights of a Baldwin not on 30 Rock.

I think that the nature of society - at least the blogosphere society - is to create wonderful works of art, writing, photography, poetry, or (in my case) really fabulous collages, and we share our genius with each other. I think this ability to have a communal use, love and appreciation of each other's work is incredible. Even more incredible is that it's in our very nature. 

Without further ado, here's the main attraction: ten fascinating facts about Barbara Walter's Most Fascinating Person of 2011 

1. I am double jointed. So is my grandmother, but it freaks her out. 

Note: this is not a photograph of me or my grandmother. Neither of us can play the piano. 

2. I am a member of a very eccentric family. We have the type of personalities and dynamics that would only be found on a prime time sitcom (or an E! reality show), in the best possible sense. 

I would be Kim, obvs. 

3. During my brief stint modeling during the ages of 14-16, the agency photographer told me I looked like Christie Brinkley. I was incredibly flattered. Not that I actually knew who that was at the time, though. I have also been told I could be a foot model (And by non-foot fetishists, to boot!)  

4. I love the smell of gasoline. No worries though, apparently so does Kate Moss. 

5. It breaks my heart to eat anything remotely resembling an animal. I can barely bring myself to eat a bunny-shaped chocolate for Easter.

Nor do I encourage the consumption of pug loaf. But this pup is too darn cute to not put up here

6. I think that tuberculosis is a very romantic disease. 

Like Greta Garbo in Camille and Nicole Kidman as Satine in Moulin Rouge. Minus the part where they both die in the end. 

7. I have a not-so-secret desire to be a hip-hop wife. 

I want this to be my life. Just Kidding. Not Really. 

8. I am the biggest wimp when it comes to wearing high heels. With the amount of complaining I do, you'd think that Kathy Bates had gone all Misery on my feet. 

9. When I was much, much younger, I fell into a table that Sidney Poitier was sitting at, and proceeded to cry obnoxiously as Mr. Poitier tried to comfort me. This was at the Brown Derby Restaurant. (Did I mention that this happened in 1954?)

10. One day, I am going to live in Paris. 

In the forthcoming hours, I will include my list of bloggers I would love to nominate for the Creative Blogger Award 

(I know, you're all at the edge of your seats in anticipation)

* I am being entirely sarcastic in the first paragraphs. I love James Baldwin and I know he's not related to Alec. Just throwing that out there. *