Mitchell, the quote is from a 1951 essay for the New York Times titled, "The Timeless World of a Play" which was then reprinted as a kind of forward to the published version of The Rose Tattoo.
Here's what followed the quote:
"I have always had a particularly keen sense of this at New York cocktail parties, and perhaps that is why I drink the martinis almost as fast as I can snatch them from the fray. This sense is the febrile thing that hangs in the air. Horror of insincerity, of not meaning, overhangs these affairs like the cloud of cigarette smoke and hectic chatter."
Actually, I think I'd like to go to that cocktail party, but that's neither here nor there.
I didn't watch The Grammys. (Heck no, not when Huckleberry Hound is on in the same time slot!) Therefore, I was shocked to see this picture of how The Material Girl looks today. (The material appears to be silly putty.) I found a clip of her doing the presenting on the Grammy program. At first, I thought it was Jackie Coogan!
An article on pagesix.com offers this: Plastic surgeons previously told Page Six they believe she’s had a facelift, nose job and “pulled back” skin — among other work.
I also don't get what she was going for with that braided hair style. She looks like a bighorn sheep.
I thought this fan comment on pagesix.com is cruel but worth sharing: “Madonna looks good for her age … if her age is 2,700 year old vampire who eats babies and small animals alive.”
I usually don't make or share such comments, but you put it out there, and Madonna has been putting herself out there to be scrutinized and picked apart for the last 40 years. I'm sure she is used to it by now and cries all the way to the bank.
Another person who commented on Page Six might have been correct with this conclusion: "She’s gone way too far trying to be relevant when she didn’t need to do anything."
Shady, as far as snark goes, this is pretty low-hanging fruit. Actually, it may not even be fruit but a vegetable like a carrot that you can pluck from the ground. Anyway, if snark was my goal, I would have chosen something snarkier than some esoteric Tennessee Williams quote. As someone who occasionally daydreams about physically transforming myself, I can't be too judgmental about this. I'm just trying to understand it. Is there such a thing as rock star dysphoria? A few years ago she made a speech about the problems a woman faces growing old in the public eye, and some feminists today are defending her new look on those grounds. But isn't having all that plastic surgery giving in to those pressures to look forever young? Unless it's not plastic surgery at all but an extreme make-up job that has everyone fooled. Lady Gaga's face looks similarly odd in some of her videos, but if you've seen her in A Star is Born, you know she doesn't look like that for real.
If Madonna is trying to be provocative, she's certainly succeeding, but my fear is that this may be UNINTENTIONAL provocativation. After all, over the years there's been plenty of celebrities, celebrities not known for being provocative, who have plastic surgerized their faces beyond recognition. More about this in my response to Maddie's comment.
Maddie, it's her eyes that's thrown me for a loop. Why do these celebrities allow their eyes to change so much when they have this plastic surgery? Seen Marlo Thomas recently? She doesn't have the same eyes she had when she was on That Girl. She now has a permanent squint. William Shatner doesn't have the same eyes he had on Star Trek. Jack Lemmon s gone now but in the second Grumpy Old Men movie he didn't have the same eyes he had in, well, forget Some Like It Hot or The Apartment, he doesn't have the same eyes he had in the FIRST Grumpy Old Men movie, and there's only two years difference between the two films! These actors had wonderfully expressive eyes that were part of their appeal, and they've thrown that expressiveness away on something that doesn't even make them look young, just different.
Now you may argue that their eyes would have changed anyway once they grow older. But eyes are often the last things on a face that gets ravaged by age (I'm talking outward appearances here and not how the eyes actually function, what with cataracts and the need for bifocals.) At church this past Sunday I saw a woman who had to be in her eighties, she may have even topped 90. I'm trying not to be mean here, but she was scrawny and wrinkly and what have you, and looked, well, very, old. Except she had these Brooke Shieldsish blue eyes. The contrast was kind of startling. I doubt of any kind of surgery would have improved on those eyes. Just the opposite.
Anyway, getting back to Madonna, unless it's just a very convincing make-up job, she's sacrificed her once-expressive eyes. Oh, well, I hope the cones are still working.
In order to keep the hucksters, humbugs, scoundrels, psychos, morons, and last but not least, artificial intelligentsia at bay, I have decided to turn on comment moderation. On the plus side, I've gotten rid of the word verification.
And, oh yes, a prime example.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, the quote is from a 1951 essay for the New York Times titled, "The Timeless World of a Play" which was then reprinted as a kind of forward to the published version of The Rose Tattoo.
DeleteHere's what followed the quote:
"I have always had a particularly keen sense of this at New York cocktail parties, and perhaps that is why I drink the martinis almost as fast as I can snatch them from the fray. This sense is the febrile thing that hangs in the air. Horror of insincerity, of not meaning, overhangs these affairs like the cloud of cigarette smoke and hectic chatter."
Actually, I think I'd like to go to that cocktail party, but that's neither here nor there.
"Papa Don't Preach!"
ReplyDeleteHi, Kirk!
I didn't watch The Grammys. (Heck no, not when Huckleberry Hound is on in the same time slot!) Therefore, I was shocked to see this picture of how The Material Girl looks today. (The material appears to be silly putty.) I found a clip of her doing the presenting on the Grammy program. At first, I thought it was Jackie Coogan!
An article on pagesix.com offers this: Plastic surgeons previously told Page Six they believe she’s had a facelift, nose job and “pulled back” skin — among other work.
I also don't get what she was going for with that braided hair style. She looks like a bighorn sheep.
I thought this fan comment on pagesix.com is cruel but worth sharing: “Madonna looks good for her age … if her age is 2,700 year old vampire who eats babies and small animals alive.”
I usually don't make or share such comments, but you put it out there, and Madonna has been putting herself out there to be scrutinized and picked apart for the last 40 years. I'm sure she is used to it by now and cries all the way to the bank.
Another person who commented on Page Six might have been correct with this conclusion: "She’s gone way too far trying to be relevant when she didn’t need to do anything."
Enjoy the rest of your week, good buddy Kirk!
Shady, as far as snark goes, this is pretty low-hanging fruit. Actually, it may not even be fruit but a vegetable like a carrot that you can pluck from the ground. Anyway, if snark was my goal, I would have chosen something snarkier than some esoteric Tennessee Williams quote. As someone who occasionally daydreams about physically transforming myself, I can't be too judgmental about this. I'm just trying to understand it. Is there such a thing as rock star dysphoria? A few years ago she made a speech about the problems a woman faces growing old in the public eye, and some feminists today are defending her new look on those grounds. But isn't having all that plastic surgery giving in to those pressures to look forever young? Unless it's not plastic surgery at all but an extreme make-up job that has everyone fooled. Lady Gaga's face looks similarly odd in some of her videos, but if you've seen her in A Star is Born, you know she doesn't look like that for real.
DeleteIf Madonna is trying to be provocative, she's certainly succeeding, but my fear is that this may be UNINTENTIONAL provocativation. After all, over the years there's been plenty of celebrities, celebrities not known for being provocative, who have plastic surgerized their faces beyond recognition. More about this in my response to Maddie's comment.
I can't believe that's Madonna.
ReplyDeleteMaddie, it's her eyes that's thrown me for a loop. Why do these celebrities allow their eyes to change so much when they have this plastic surgery? Seen Marlo Thomas recently? She doesn't have the same eyes she had when she was on That Girl. She now has a permanent squint. William Shatner doesn't have the same eyes he had on Star Trek. Jack Lemmon s gone now but in the second Grumpy Old Men movie he didn't have the same eyes he had in, well, forget Some Like It Hot or The Apartment, he doesn't have the same eyes he had in the FIRST Grumpy Old Men movie, and there's only two years difference between the two films! These actors had wonderfully expressive eyes that were part of their appeal, and they've thrown that expressiveness away on something that doesn't even make them look young, just different.
DeleteNow you may argue that their eyes would have changed anyway once they grow older. But eyes are often the last things on a face that gets ravaged by age (I'm talking outward appearances here and not how the eyes actually function, what with cataracts and the need for bifocals.) At church this past Sunday I saw a woman who had to be in her eighties, she may have even topped 90. I'm trying not to be mean here, but she was scrawny and wrinkly and what have you, and looked, well, very, old. Except she had these Brooke Shieldsish blue eyes. The contrast was kind of startling. I doubt of any kind of surgery would have improved on those eyes. Just the opposite.
Anyway, getting back to Madonna, unless it's just a very convincing make-up job, she's sacrificed her once-expressive eyes. Oh, well, I hope the cones are still working.
That's just the human condition.
ReplyDeleteThat's true, Debra. People cope with that condition in different ways, depending on the depth of their pockets.
DeleteMaybe she's transitioning to Buddhism.
ReplyDeleteMike, there was already a band named Nirvana.
DeleteI don't understand plastic surgery. And I can't imagine she likes how it turned out.
ReplyDeleteJM, it may be that when she looks in the mirror now, all she can see is the wrinkle-free skin, and not anything else.
Delete