Barbie

A motion picture

Directed by Greta Gerwig

It has been nearly FOUR YEARS since I’ve seen a movie in a theater*.

What would a film need to have to bring me back?

It would have to have a brilliant script, first-rate direction, thoughtful themes and beautiful and talented actors.

In other words, Barbie.

The biggest movie of the year lured me out of my pine-paneled garret to traverse a pot-holed parking lot at the local multiplex on a rainy Monday morning. I bought two early bird admissions for The Weaver and me ($20, ouch!) The sticker shock of $10 popcorn (not even a bucket!) curbed my appetite for snacks and the fifteen-minute barrage of insanity that previews are made of nowadays caused me to further question my decision. But when the movie started with a 30-foot-tall homage to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 all was forgiven.

Barbie is some kind of masterpiece. I don’t know what kind, but nearly everything I've read about it—for or against— has been true, except for the spittle of knee-jerk reactionaries and short-attention span critics who think that a couple of 60 second monologues go on too long. It is a movie about how ideas shape us, specifically the aspirations embodied by the various Barbie iterations over the years. It is about gender roles, about mother-daughter relations and, ultimately, about being honest with ourselves. Every element of the production is seamlessly integrated and the actors are all fully engaged, you can tell that they were having a blast. Margot Robbie is Barbie and, while Ryan Gosling as Ken shines, it is really Michael Cera as Ken’s friend Allan who steals the show as its moral center. Ariana Greenblatt, who portrays the sulky teen-aged Sasha, is going to be a superstar.

Will I see it again?

Probably.

In a theater?

Probably not. Even with the wide-screen hi-def images (it looks FABULOUS!), the Dolby sound (loud and clear but nothing special and can't be adjusted) and the powered pleather lounge chairs (I kept bumping the adjustment controls with my elbow), it can’t compete with the comforts of home. This is a great movie to watch under the influence of mind-altering drugs or some good wine and hors d'oeuvres or, (gasp) even when stone-cold sober.

*Knives Out, November, 2019

Action Figures

Photo by Nicole Houff, copyright 2008, used with permission.

My sister's Barbie dolls were a vital source of sex-ed information in 1962. I had undressed dolls before, but these were different. This doll had shapes other than chubby cheeks or pudgy baby hands. And what distorions these shapes were, impossible both in anatomy and gravity. Not really so different than the Venus of Willendorf except for a fecund belly and shortened, not lengthened, legs. Still, there was an odd attraction to these sexual talismans, both old and new.

Neither Barbie nor "Venus" were capable of standing unaided.

Ode to Barbie

In a realm of plastic, pale and fair,
There dwells a doll with vacant stare,
Her visage smooth, her form refined,
Yet melancholy veils her mind.

A simulacrum, void of soul,
A vessel crafted to extol,
Perfection's guise, a siren's call,
But hollow depths behind it all.

Those lifeless eyes, a painted guise,
Conceal the truth that darkness lies,
Within her heart, a void so vast,
An echo of a future past.

Oh, Barbie, cursed by thy design,
A captive to a world malign,
Forever trapped in beauty's snare,
The poet’s pen weeps for your despair.

Plastic prison, gilded cage,
A tragic tale of modern age,
A puppet danced by unseen hands,
The poet laments, your fate he understands.

So let us mourn this wretched plight,
A Gothic ode to endless night,
For Barbie fair, a mournful plea,
In the poet’s embrace, finds sympathy.

As imagined by AI in the style of Edgar Allan Poe—Go see the movie, it is infinitely better.

Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts 2016

It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that I posted about the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibit. A whole year has passed, last night was preview night. The Weaver and I joined our friends Nicole and Kip in casting our collective eyes at what we hoped would be a better showing this year. Our expectations were not high; the last couple of years were, to put it mildly, disappointing. Hope springs eternal, however, so here are my impressions as well as some of the highlights:


Country Club Barbie, Nicole Houff

The world's greatest Barbie® photographer returns to the Fair as an artist in residence. She will be there for 12 hours on September 3rd, doing her Barbie magic.

The photography is much improved over last year's debacle. There were many finely printed images, although their subject matter was generally "safe." There were some challenging images, however:


La Muerte del Chauro, Leslie Parker

Sculpture is always strong at the Fair, this year was no exception:


Big Daddy Hum and Mum, Fred Cogelow


Nude in the Key of G, Allen David Christian

Of course, people watching is as much fun as the art:


Renee Lynn Brasuhn and friends pose by her steel and fiber construction.
 
And I just may have captured my image for next year's fair:



Overall, I'd have to give the Exhibit a "B-", the painting was fair to poor, with only a few fine examples. Watercolor and drawing was OK but it has been better. Textiles, ceramics and printmaking, sort of the "poor cousins" of the exhibit had a higher rate of quality work, but were hard pressed to make an impression in the overall cacophony of mediocrity. A big plus for the photographs, however, as there were only a few clinkers (out of more than 100!)

Check out my other Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts reviews.

801 Opening

The Fall Arts scene is well underway.

Last Saturday I attended an opening where my old pal Nicole was showing her "existential modernist" Barbie images:



Serious discussions about art went on throughout the night:



The Batgirl Barbie was an especially popular background for selfies:



Of course, there was wine:



Lots of wine:



Perhaps too much wine:



Stylin’:

I'm In with the Fine Arts Crowd!

Every year my old pal Nicole and I enter the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts competition.

Sometimes she “gets in”, sometimes I do.

This year we both did: Nicole, with another of her fabulous Barbie™ dioramas (she was on the Barbie bandwagon years ago), and this image, my meditation on the unselfconscious beauty of youth:

Edie and Tallulah, 2017

I'll post more about the fair exhibition on August 23rd, right after I attend the preview night:

Uptown Girl

My old pal Nicole had an unveiling of her latest Barbie photograph Tuesday night at the Lyn-Lake Brewery in South Minneapolis:



A lot of the gang from my old workplace were there:


Don and Scott


Sheila and Nicole

As well as some of Nicole’s buddies:

60s Ken, 80s Ken, 60s Barbie

But the highlight was the unveiling:



This image will be on the featured poster for the Uptown Art Fair in Minneapolis, the oldest and most prestigious event of its kind in the upper Midwest.

Way to go Nicole!

Art in the Time of Covid

The Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Preview Night has returned after a one-year hiatus due to Covid quarantine restrictions. I masked up and braved the sultry air and sweaty crowd to get one last dose of culture for the summer.

Painting was extremely strong this year, Summer Goddess by Margo Selski and the surrealistic Untitled by Brandon Anderson were standouts:

It wouldn’t be a proper State Fair with farm animals, Dairy Queen by Patty Voje was another stunning painting:

If the painting was good, the sculpture was superb. Fred Cogelow is a past winner, his Strada Cornelia, Bucarest 2016 was amazing (cross eyes for 3-D effect):

This year also featured some fine examples of textile art, most notable was Kristin Williams’ felted moose:

My old fair-pals Genie Castro and Nicole Houff were there (as well as Nicole’s husband Kip):

Nicole‘s Wonder Woman Barbie was one of the few humorous pieces in the show, there was a lot of George Floyd and Covid imagery in paintings, drawings and photography.

It always warms my heart to see young people who have work in the show; here Julia Loth shows off her Flea Market Bottles painting to a proud parent:

Overall, I’d grade this year’s Fine Arts Exhibit as a strong B+. There was a ton of good stuff in all the categories. If you are cool mingling with a crowd of people in a pandemic, check it out, preferably in the morning when the crowds are small. About 95% if the attendees last night were masked, if that would be a consideration for you.

See all of my Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts posts here.

Signing On

I recently attended a double art lecture: my old pal Nicole Houff (Worlds Greatest Barbie™ Photographer) and J. Wren Supak, abstract expressionist and “cultural exchange educator.” Both presenters were excellent, their talks were augmented by a tag-team of signers that gave the event an added dimension:







Later on I "spoke" with a deaf artist through the interpreters, giving the event yet another, personal dimension.

2019 Fair Fine Arts Preview

My, my, how quickly doth the days fly by.

It seems like only yesterday that I was attending the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Preview Night.

Oh. It was yesterday.

Some rough impressions of this year’s exhibit (click on images to embiggen):

While sculpture is always strong at the fair, Lester Hoikka’s 21st Century Nude Reclining is even better in 3-D (cross eyes for 3-D effect):



My old pal Nicole Houff, Barbie™ photographer, was back—this time with 3 Kens (and a Kip):



Karen Brown’s Foxy is a scary look at pre-adolescence, while Nathan Wagoner’s drawing Asa Nisi Masa looked as if it has been executed in 1918, not 2018:



Of all the photography, I probably enjoyed Tiffany Bolk’s Lost & Found the most:



And Pallavi Sharma (shown with her model Maricella Herrera on the left) was the multi-cultural hit of the show, with the gentleman (evidently a stranger) posing with the two:



Once again, the “no nipples in photographs rule” was in force. The closest it came to being broken was in the image of the 3 topless Kens, who don’t have nipples either!

This rule does not apply to any other medium, of course, and there were plenty in painting and sculpture.

And, as usual, lots of chickens, horses, dogs and images of Iceland.

I think I’ll have to enter one of my “Bubbleworld” photos next year, just to be contrary.

Check out my other Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts reviews.

The Young Girls of Rochefort

A Film by Jacques Demy, 1967

Film musicals have gained a reputation for being purely entertainment, glittering but lacking depth. French director Jacques Demy defies this categorization of musicals as his two masterpieces The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort embrace happiness and sorrow and are works of nuanced emotional complexity.

The Young Girls of Rochefort takes place in a town on the western coast of France. The titular “young girls” are a set of twin sisters, Delphine and Solange Garnier, played by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac (both were in their mid-twenties when the film was shot), living near the center of Rochefort with their mother, a café-owner named Simone, and their younger half-brother, BooBoo. “We’re a pair of carefree young things,” they sing, “waiting for the joys that love brings” as they dance around their music studio in matching pink and yellow outfits. The plot is set into motion with the arrival of a traveling carnival that brings to town many romantic prospects. At the same time Maxence, a sailor who can’t stop painting the face of a woman he sees in his dreams, ponders her existence. Gene Kelly even makes an appearance as a composer looking for love. The Young Girls teases the audience by showing a series of missed opportunities between couples and then, of course, ultimately brings them together.

The entire cast is wonderful, but Dorléac (who died soon after the film was made) is a revelation, especially in her tastefully erotic dance sequence with Kelly. Michel Legrand’s jazzy score is a treat, the dance sequences are great fun, as well as the over-the-top set design. Real life should be so colorful. Barbie and La-la-land are two recent films that were strongly influenced by The Young Girls of Rochefort. In addition to its visual appeal, its balance of tragedy with hopefulness is something that very few films achieve.

This is not a film to miss.

Highest recommendation.

Mothers and Daughters

The picture shown above has been alluded to here on FITK before, it was my entry into the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition. The two young women portrayed were not sullen teens working a fair drudge job but obviously pals vibing on the same wavelength and having a ball. Here’s another look at the two from the same day,  not as mysterious, but seeing the two of them interact gives a truer sense of their simpatica:

Edie’s mother, Amanda, contacted me after she had seen the picture at the fair and so I got to meet both of them last Monday when I delivered copies of the print to their house. They were thrilled with the print and were interested its creation. We talked about photography, blogging, movies (Barbie!) and more. I got the sense that Edie was checking me out very carefully. I found the situation somewhat disconcerting in that it is rare that a young woman even looks at me any more. The male gaze implied in my photo met its comeuppance by the female gaze IRL. As the conversation continued Edie seemed to warm to me; meeting her and her mother (and getting to know them a little) was an absolute delight.

Tallulah’s mother, Sarah, is part owner of the I Like You store, where the picture was taken. Amanda had suggested that I visit her shop so I met up with her at the fair last Wednesday. Two of her customers had seen the picture on the first day of the fair, recognized the subjects, and took pictures of it on their phones to show Sarah, a great way to start the 10 days of the fair. Her enthusiasm and appreciation of the photo (and of me) was genuine: I Like You is more than just a catchy store name: it is Sarah’s credo. She even took a selfie with me and sent it to her daughter who was not working that day.

Sarah (right) in her native habitat

Both mothers emphasized that the daughters’ shared bond remains strong, a bond first established when they had met—in kindergarten! Perhaps my image of a “two-headed” creature isn’t too far off the mark. Both mothers also mentioned what fine young women they had become; Edie attends college in Montreal and Tallulah goes to the U of M. Coming-of-age in these troubled times must be a challenge to any parent.

Two mothers, full of love for their daughters. Two daughters, full of love for life.

A simple photograph that brought joy to four people.

Five, if you count me.

2023 Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Preview

A sure sign of the end of summer is the arrival of the Minnesota State Fair. A prelude to the fair is the Fine Arts Preview where aspiring (and perspiring) artists (heat index: 111°F!) and their friends and families can see the new crop of “fine” artworks by Minnesota residents. This years show is OK, the average quality is up but it didn't seem to have as many exceptional works. LOTS OF DOG ART! I first made it in to the exhibition in 1973—50 years ago—so my inclusion in this year’s exhibit is a special landmark for me.

Some brief impressions from last night’s preview…

Never lose sight of the vulnerable, a lesson from the birds, Blair Treuer:

Projections, Kathryn D’Elia:

Flight, Jack Mader:

Threatened Lady, Denise Mattes:

Monarch Butterfly Scarf, Samantha Haring:

Raise High the Roofbeams, Mark Alan Peterson:

Homage to Seydou Keïta, Betsy Thayer:

Godzilla vs. Barbie, Nicole Houff:

See all the entrants in the catalog.