Bbucko
Cherished Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
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- 90% Gay, 10% Straight
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- Male
retro bingo chic
That's actually where I was headed before I opened this topic/thread
I was raised by a woman of extremely distinct taste; some of it I thought was marvelous but most I found atrocious. My sister mimics it, but poorly as she doesn't have my mother's creative gifts. I, on the other hand, do. My entire career was spent, to one degree or another, in expressing and selling my version of taste as a furniture designer/design consultant.
There are things that are tasteful but exceedingly bland, ordinary: banal; just think of anything Jennifer Aniston's been photographed wearing these past ten years. GaGa and Manaj push rather light-weight envelopes compared to how much it took to truly shock and appall people in decades past.
I remember turning heads simply by spiking my hair, and I remember being denied a job promotion after dying it (by a woman with obviously dyed hair herself); hell, I remember when wearing red shoes was "outrageous".
My own personal style has always been part kitsch and part glam, whether in my clothes or in the environments I've helped create. It comes from equal parts creativity, enthusiasm, education and opportunity in obtaining the correct pieces. My mind is always open to the new, but ever-mindful of precedent and quotation; some things I love, some things I don't so much but almost nothing confounds me, let alone shock me.
I'll close by saying that the most frequently-heard comment regarding my writing is that it's porn, and therefore debases my talents as an author and is of dubious taste. I reject this on many levels, but mostly because it shows a clear lack of understanding my influences, aspirations and, occasionally, quotations. Metaphor simply doesn't work on those incapable of understanding symbolism and its value in a creative endeavor, and in our post-modern age, symbolism and irony are our chief weapons against the ordinary.