3.17.25

I'll have a boxty and a Guinness...

Top to bottom: St. Mary's Old Parish graveyard, Cahir, Ireland; Roadside sign, Cahir, Ireland; Ben Bulben mountain from Drumcliffe, Ireland; St. Columba's Church, Drumcliffe, Ireland; grave of W.B. Yeats, St. Columba's Church, Drumcliffe, Ireland; Giant's Causeway sign, County Antrim, Northern Ireland; Giant's Causeway sign, County Antrim, Northern Ireland; Giant's Causeway, County Antrim, Northern Ireland; basalt columns at Giant's Causeway, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

All photos above by JEF


"Belfast Child" by Simple Minds
When my love said to me
Meet me down by the gallow tree
For it's sad news I bring
About this old town and all that it's suffering
Some say troubles abound
Some day soon they're gonna pull the old town down
One day we'll return here
When the Belfast Child sings again

Brothers, sisters, where are you now?
As I look for you right through the crowd
All my life here I've spent
With my faith in God, and Church, and the Government
But there's sadness abound
Some day soon they're gonna pull the old town down

One day we'll return here
When the Belfast Child sings again
When the Belfast Child sings again

So come back Billy, won't you come on home?
Come back Mary, you've been away so long
The streets are empty, and your mother's gone
The girls are crying, it's been oh so long
And your father's calling, come on home
Won't you come on home, won't you come on home?

Come back people, you've been gone a while
And the war is raging through the Emerald Isle
That's flesh and blood man, that's flesh and blood
All the girls are crying but all's not lost

The streets are empty, the streets are cold
Won't you come on home, won't you come on home?

The streets are empty

Life goes on

One day we'll return here
When the Belfast Child sings again
When the Belfast Child sings again

http://www.discoverireland.com/us/

http://www.simpleminds.com

"I'm Lost" and "Wonder" by Dan Black

I am happy to see the return of Dan Black. Last time we saw him here, he was singing for 24 hours about how our hearts never stop beating. And now, here he is with two songs that pluck at the idea of memory and nostalgia. Maybe I am just in a mood, but the words to each of these songs feel personal to me...when I was a boy, I spent a lot of time alone in my room listening to records, imagining a world full of music and performance. And sometimes someone would join me in my room, listening to records, dreaming...and where are they now...

Here is "I'm Lost"... "Everybody is an artist, not only painters."

"Wonder" is, despite its chugging rhythm, wistful. There it all goes, then it's gone.

https://www.dan-black.com/

A New Tartan Memorializes Those Executed Under Scotland’s Witchcraft Act

A new Scottish tartan has been crafted to honor the thousands of individuals—predominantly women—who were executed for witchcraft in Scotland between the 16th and 18th centuries. The Witches of Scotland, a movement advocating for "Justice for people accused and convicted under the Witchcraft Act 1563-1736," spearheaded this effort.

The initiative was driven by Witches of Scotland founders Claire Mitchell KC and Zoe Venditozzi, with the artistic vision brought to life by Clare Campbell, the creative mind behind the Prickly Thistle tartan mill. This meaningful design was formally registered on February 11, 2025, in the Scottish Register of Tartans.

The tartan's color palette is deeply symbolic: black and grey evoke the somberness of the period and the ashes of those who perished, while red stands for the bloodshed, and pink highlights the legal ties that bound the trial documents both then and now. Intricately woven into the fabric, the thread count subtly encodes the years 1563 and 1736 (1+5+6+3 = 15 and 1+7+3+6 = 17), these numbers are carefully included within the black and grey bands, encircling a white check pattern of three threads that symbolize the campaign’s three key goals: achieving a pardon, an apology, and establishing memorials. Additionally, the 173 black threads intricately stitched into the tartan’s squares commemorate the 173 years during which the Witchcraft Act was enforced.

https://www.witchesofscotland.com/
https://www.pricklythistlescotland.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Marni

Francesco Risso has been Creative Director of Marni since 2016 and he has thoroughly dedicated his work to a certain quirky, freewheeling, artistic expression that makes one give pause. So for this Fall Winter  '25-'26 collection shown at Marni headquarters, he incorporated imagery from his collaboration with the Nigerian artists Olaolu Slawn and Soldier Boyfriend. What started as talk over aperitifs in London evolved into The Pink Sun, a month-long residency where the three artists shared a studio, riffing on each other's works, inspiring and encouraging. "It was a moment of such liberation and freedom, we were like a pack of happy wolves. We really dared to dream." The name of the collection is The Pink Sun, and I am showing men's looks here but take a look at the video; the womenswear is quite special too.

Indeed, there is a wolf motif from their collaboration that shows up on a suit. The playfulness of gigantic fur elements (more wolfy-ness) adds a skewed, surreal touch. But there is something else deeper in this eccentric, visceral presentation, with live music by Dev Hynes (Blood Orange, previously here),... and it plays right into my mood and thinking about the state of not only my own country in peril but the world in general. Like the Dadaists who met World War I with a spiritual defiance ("I will see your insanity and raise you..."), these days I am feeling that I need to be more of who I am and what I value and love. I know many might say, well, this Marni collection is just some clothes,... but no, it is more than that. It is a statement. A bold statement. A vital statement. It is saying, "You, right-wing, oppressive elements of the world, can try to destroy a lot of what the world has built, but you can't take away my spirit, my essence. You can't take away what I love and value. Art and poetry will die only with the last human being. So I will continue to be myself with THE VOLLUME TURNED UP. So what are you going to do? Are you going to come for me, round me up, put me in a camp? Do it. I'll make it easy for you to find me...I'll be the one wearing a yellow sweater with a huge fur collar. And by the way...f**k you."

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
--Albert Camus

Francesco Risso with Olaolu Slawn and Soldier Boyfriend

https://www.marni.com/

Once Again...Here Is How Tariffs Work

For anyone who *still* doesn't get it...

Link to original article:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/13/politics/donald-trump-tariffs/index.html

The Ten Happiest Cities in the United States 2025

WalletHub, a personal finance company, has unveiled its latest rankings of the happiest cities in the United States. These rankings were derived from an analysis of 29 distinct happiness metrics, ranging from depression rates to income growth and the average amount of leisure time enjoyed daily. Each of these metrics was evaluated on a scale of 100 points, with a perfect score of 100 indicating the highest level of happiness. I find it fascinating that a full FIVE cities on this list are in California, three of them specifically in Northern California!

10 HAPPIEST CITIES

1. Fremont, Calif.
2. San Jose, Calif.
3. Irvine, Calif.
4. Sioux Falls, S.D.
5. Overland Park, Kans.
6. Lincoln, Neb.
7. Madison, Wis.
8. Scottsdale, Ariz.
9. San Francisco, Calif.
10. Huntington Beach, Calif.

To figure out how each city compared, WalletHub drew upon their own research and data from the U.S. government, as well as several studies on happiness. They then used the following metrics to score the cities:

Emotional and physical well-being

• Life-satisfaction index
• Depression rate
• Suicide rate
• Adequate sleep rate
• Physical health index, which measures the percentage of adults reporting good or better health.
• Sports participation rate
• Share of people aged 12 or older who used marijuana in the past month
• Retail opioid prescriptions dispensed per 100 persons
• Share of adults with mental health not good, which measures the percentage of adults with 14 or more mentally unhealthy days reported in the past month.
• Life expectancy
• Food insecurity rate

Income and employment

• Income-growth rate
• Share of households with annual incomes above $75,000
• Poverty rate
• Job satisfaction
• 4+ star job opportunities per total people in the labor force, which measures the number of job opportunities at 4+ star rated companies on Glasssdoor.com per the total people in the labor force
• Job security, measuring the probability of unemployment
• Unemployment rate
• Underemployment rate
• Bankruptcy rate
• Weekly work hours
• Commute time

Community and environment

• WalletHub’s “Most Caring Cities” Ranking
• Separation and divorce rate
• Hate-crime incidents per capita
• Ideal weather, using data from WalletHub’s “Cities with the Best & Worst Weather” ranking.
• Acres of parkland per 1,000 residents
• Average leisure time spent per day
• Well-being “community” index score (Note: This metric refers to the “Community” section of the Sharecare Well-Being Index, which refers to “liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community.”)

Link to original article in Fortune magazine:
https://fortune.com/well/article/happiest-cities-in-america-2025/

Happy International Women's Day 2025

Today, March 8th, 2025, is the 114th International Women's Day.

IWD is a movement, powered by the collective efforts of all.

The day belongs to all groups, everywhere. That's what makes IWD so inclusive, not exclusive.

Since the first International Women's Day in 1911, the day remains an important opportunity for elevating and amplifying the focus on gender equality.

IWD celebrates women’s achievements, raises awareness about persistent inequities, and mobilizes action.

Visit the International Women's Day website to learn more:
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/

"Perfect Celebrity" by Lady Gaga

From her new album "Mayhem." Loving the rock vibe on "Perfect Celebrity." Fame is ugly.

I'm made of plastic like a human doll
You push and pull me, I don't hurt at all
I talk in circles, 'cause my brain, it aches
You say, "I love you", I disintegrate

I've become a notorious being
Find my clone, she's asleep on the ceiling
Now, can't get me down
You love to hate me
I'm the perfect celebrity

So rip off my face in this photograph (Perfect celebrity)
You make me money, I'll make you laugh (Perfect celebrity)
Show me your pretty, I'll show you mine
You love to hate me
I'm the perfect celebrity

Uh

I look so hungry, but I look so good
Tap on my vein, suck on my diamond blood
Choke on the fame and hope it gets you high
Sit in the front row, watch the princess die

I've become a notorious being
Find my clone, she's asleep on the ceiling
Now, can't get me down
You love to hate me
I'm the perfect celebrity

So rip off my face in this photograph (Perfect celebrity)
You make me money, I'll make you laugh (Perfect celebrity)
Show me your pretty, I'll show you mine
You love to hate me
I'm the perfect celebrity

Na-na, na-na, na (Perfect celebrity)
Na-na, na-na, na (Perfect celebrity)
Ah-ah, na-na, na-na, na (Perfect celebrity)
Na-na, na-na, na

Catch me as I rebound (Let all the stuff)
Save me, I'm underground (I can't be found)
Hollywood's a ghost town
You love to hate me
I'm the perfect celebrity

So rip off my face in this photograph (Perfect celebrity)
You make me money, I'll make you laugh (Perfect celebrity)
Show me your pretty, I'll show you mine
You love to hate me, you love to hate me

(Na-na, na-na, na, perfect celebrity)
You hate me (Na-na, na-na, na, perfect celebrity)
Show me your pretty, I'll show you mine
You love to hate me
I'm the, ah, perfect celebrity
Ah-ah
(I've become a notorious being)

https://www.ladygaga.com/

This Moment Might Be Dark, But It Is Not Our First

Author and organizer Garrett Bucks had this to say after Tuesday night's "speech" to the nation by the convicted felon:

"Last night’s address wasn’t technically a state of the union, but it was one more chance for Trump to lay out a story of a country whose hearts are small and shriveled.

But if he gets to tell his stories, than so do we.

You know damn well that the state of the union isn’t strong.

The state of the union is cruel, which means that we must be more caring than ever.

The state of the union is teetering, which means that we must both block and build at the same time.

The state of the union breaks our hearts, which means that we must love each other even harder.

The state of the union has us questioning our own mettle, which is why we must remember that we are not the first who’ve been asked to be brave.

The state of the union is, as it has always been, unwritten.

The state of the union is, as always, what we make it."

https://thewhitepages.net/p/the-state-of-the-union-is

Corporations Are Not Human Beings

"The limitless destructiveness of this economy comes about precisely because a corporation is not a person. A corporation, essentially, is a pile of money to which a number of persons have sold their moral allegiance. As such, unlike a person, a corporation does not age. It does not arrive, as most persons finally do, at a realization of the shortness and smallness of human lives; it does not come to see the future as the lifetime of the children and grandchildren of anybody in particular. It can experience no personal hope or remorse, no change of heart. It cannot humble itself. It goes about its business as if it were immortal, with the single purpose of becoming a bigger pile of money."
--Wendell Berry, from his essay “The Idea of a Local Economy”

Hero

I stand with Zelensky and Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky by Daniel Berehulak / The New York Times

BEAUTY: Painting--Men of Antiquity, Part Fifteen

In a continuing series (previous entries seen here), here are, yet again, a lot of handsome-ass men from long ago...

Top to bottom: Eliseu Visconti--Self-Portrait (1898); Glyn Warren Philpot, British 1884-1937--Man in a Flying Jacket, 1916; Jacek Malczewski--Portrait of Michala Gorstkina Wywiorski, painted 1892; Jean-Léon Gérôme--Le Comte de la Rochefoucauld et duc de Doudeauville; Lawrence Alma-Tadema--Portrait of Ernest Albert Waterlow; Leo Gestel--self portrait; Luigi Serena--Autoritratto, 1876; McClelland Barclay--LTJG R.F. Lynch, Jr., 1943; Merry-Joseph Blondel--Portrait of Maréchal de Bourdillon

Brian Eno on What Art Does

https://www.brian-eno.net/

Messengers

Once upon a time, a young man who loved synth-based New Romantic music went to a concert at the Kabuki Nightclub in San Francisco to see one of his ultimate favorite bands, Ultravox, fronted by the amazing singer-songwriter Midge Ure, on their 1983 Quartet/Monument Tour. It was a magical night but what remained an enigma for this young man was the opening act whose name he never did get: two men on synths who sounded eerily similar to Midge Ure himself. He really liked all he heard, and the lyric of one song in particular leapt out, a song about a Dancing Bear. After this opening act and before Ultravox took the stage, a friend of this young man said he thought perhaps the song was a metaphor for Russia.

Over the next many decades, the young man aged, but every now and then he would recall this concert and think wistfully of the mysterious opening act. If only he could find some information about them, maybe he could find their music. Eventually, there was an electronic medium that spanned the world and connected people in ways never dreamt of. He decided to cast a net out onto this electronic medium and immediately found what he had been dreaming of all those years.

The band he heard over forty years ago was Messengers, a Scottish duo of drummer Colin King and guitarist Danny Mitchell. Their music was produced by Ure, explaining the resemblance to that unmistakable, heart-stopping tenor and the soaring sound of Ultravox. He found their music on a worldwide electronic video encyclopedia called YouTube. In 2004, twenty years after recording songs for an album, the duo released "It's Been Twenty Years...Let's Try Turning Up The Volume." The now-older man reveled in hearing familiar sounds, in particular, "Art," "Departure," and "T.D.P." He is so grateful for finding these sounds, the sounds of his youth, sounds that inspire him to this day.

Thus, after decades of yearning and searching, the enigmatic melodies that had once filled the Kabuki Nightclub on that fateful night were no longer a mystery. They were brought back to life, rekindling the spirit and passion of a time long past, and adding a melodious chapter to the story of a man and his eternal love for music. And he lived happily ever after. The end.

And here is "The Dancing Bear" that stuck in his mind...

L to R: Colin King, Midge Ure, Danny Mitchell

BEAUTY: Clothing--Paolo Carzana

London Fashion Week is wrapping up and I am so pleased to end on this high note:

Welsh designer Paolo Carzana is still a little new to the industry but has already amassed followers as well as some clout: he is a recipient of the British Fashion Council NewGen award and has BFC support money to put on shows, and is also an artist in residence at the Sarabande Foundation, the arts foundation supported at the bequest of Lee Alexander McQueen.

His vision is fairly singular, much like McQueen. While promoting his Fall Winter '23 collection entitled "Queer Symphony," he said, "It’s mainly related to this idea that everything I was ashamed of as a kid is now my strength. Up until I was 17, I would literally pray every night to wake up straight, and pray to be normal. And every single day, I was bullied in school, when I didn’t even know who I was."

It is a shared story among many of us in the gay community, one I have heard many times...surviving emotional, psychological, and often physical abuse and attacks to emerge on the other side, despite or probably because of it all, with a hunger and drive to create something beautiful, to express a force that could not be taken from us. I can attest to the truth of this from my own personal experience. So I feel great tenderness toward and interest in the creations of Paolo Carzana.

His sartorial vernacular is made of delicate fabrics tied and stitched together that seem like creations from some dream world, as if those wearing his garments should be lounging around on marble terraces in bright Pre-Raphaelite splendor, or in a lush production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The cuts feel like they are memories of historical clothing, like tattered remnants of a far-away homeland after a shipwreck, and his beautiful sheer, ripped, ruched tops and trousers seem like they belong on wood sprites, elves, fairies. There is a hushed beauty to the silhouettes and construction of the garments that casts a spell. The cherry on the cake of his brand is his earnest commitment to sustainability. He uses deadstock, antique, or recycled fabric, and he uses plant dyes and spices to color his fabrics, including black walnut, Himalayan rhubarb, wild cherry bark, turmeric, tea, orange spice, hibiscus, and apple wood

So for this FW '25-'26 collection at London Fashion Week, entitled "DRAGONS UNWINGED AT THE BUTCHERS BLOCK," he showed his dreamy creations in a small pub called The Holy Tavern that could only hold forty people inside while a dozen more sat on bar stools in light rain on the pavement, and a legion of fans inside an adjacent narrow Victorian passage named St John’s Path. The clothing is sublime but the message is dire. Carzana explained, "I wanted to show where we are today--in purgatory. We live in dark times… Because humanity is destroying our planet. And also the way that LGBT rights are being taken away from us, so we cannot be ourselves." The title itself: dragons who are normally fierce creatures, flying about free, have had their wings removed...and they are on the butcher block, to be mutilated and killed. And how could such an image relate to what is going on in the world...hmmm, think think...

https://www.paolocarzana.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Toga

Yasuko Furuta's brand Toga was not on my radar until now. But that's understandable since she has not really shown much since the pandemic...but for this London Fashion Week, she created a rather masterful Fall Winter '25-'26 collection that posed the question: is formalwear even relevant anymore? Of course my personal answer is yes (come on, make an effort), but her answer is a little less definitive. She took the idea of men's suiting and stretched it a bit...using some wonky proportions. I really love the enlarged collars that sort of fold over each other, with nowhere else to go. Backward blazers are topped with waves of thin wool. And the casually draped bow tie is a conscious homage to William Eggleston, the father of modern color photography as an art form. He often wore an untied bow tie around his neck more like a scarf than a tie. She managed to close the show with a black caftan or toga (it's right in the name) as a way to show that formal and casual can mix. So ultimately, her answer to the original question is...it can be if you want it to be.

https://int.toga.jp/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Denzil Patrick

For London Fashion Week, Denzil Patrick designer Daniel Gayle showed a collection only for the second time in his own hometown. Launched three years ago by Gayle along with his husband James Bosley who is also Artistic Director of the brand, Denzil Patrick has carved out a place in the industry. The pair like to play with British elements of fashion (see their British Navy-inspired SS '25 collection here), but also to deconstruct and then reassemble pieces of traditional masculine garments.

So for this Fall-Winter '25-'26 collection, they looked to the world of motocross through a Medieval lens, and the resulting Romantic, swashbuckling presentation ended up looking like a modern staging of Romeo and Juliet, with pieces that evoked padded and slashed Elizabethan jackets. Breastplates and aiguillettes (ornamental braided cord often found on military uniforms) helped this look along. And the motocross reference blended in well too: the pattern of the traditional checkered flag from the racing world felt like it was a leftover from Tudor England--the collection was entitled "Everyday Majesty" after all!

https://www.denzilpatrick.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Central Saint Martins MA Graduate Show

The fashion school of London's Central Saint Martins has produced some astonishingly great talents, including Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Riccardo Tisci, Stella McCartney, Craig Green, Katharine Hamnett, Charles Jeffrey, Zac Posen, and Gareth Pugh. And for London Fashion Week, the MA graduates showed some wonderful, fresh designs for their Fall Winter '25-'26 graduate collections.

A trio of Asian designers stood out for me...

Jake Zhang created a collection based on athleticwear but added odd geometric shapes and foam padding of unknown purpose, making these vaguely unsettling pieces look at once familiar and alien. They seemed like something from a Matthew Barney film...

Then Liu Xueyang showed a simple collection but with such a sense of ease and lyricism, it recalls the original way humans used fabric...as sweeping wraps and covers. Such a primal, elemental way for a wearer to interact with their garment, as not just a garment but as comfort and shelter. It only helps that Xueyang produced it all in what appears to be a soft, supple jersey knit. *sigh* Just lovely.

And finally, Zihan Miracle Liu sent out a collection clearly inspired by his Chinese cultural background, but once again, we see a designer working with fabric in an elemental way, letting it drape, fold, collect, and flow. I particularly love the mono printed images that elevate these pieces into wearable works of art.

https://jakezhang.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/xueyang.l/
https://www.instagram.com/Zihanliuzihan/