To what do you attribute bad taste?

[Bbucko]

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.

 

[rbkwp]

cucumbers



always leaves a gurgling in me guts
them Mc Ds gherkin things ( woops - gerbil) are also pretty nasty..

 

[dude_007]

In terms of style, there is no bad taste. It is subjective.
And one might reject the meat dress, but that one dress catapulted her into superstar status, which is more than I would say about her actual talent as a singer.

 

[Drifterwood]

Funny Pictures at WalMart Photos

The world is full of individuals

 

[earllogjam]

I simply don't buy the idea that some people don't have bad taste and that their taste is just "different". Oy, what a bunch of horse shit.

eg...

look at some of these places these guys have decorated and live...

www.luriddigs.com


Now tell me that most of these rooms don't reek of bad taste...

Just shows you that some gay men weren't born with a good taste gene, contrary to everyone's expectations.

 

[D_Tim McGnaw]

I simply don't buy the idea that some people don't have bad taste and that their taste is just "different". Oy, what a bunch of horse shit.

eg...

look at some of these places these guys have decorated and live...

www.luriddigs.com


Now tell me that most of these rooms don't reek of bad taste...

Just shows you that some gay men weren't born with a good taste gene, contrary to everyone's expectations.

You see the problem is plenty of people can seem to agree on what "bad" taste is, some of the descriptions above and your link contain things which many people will think of as "bad" taste.

But defining what "good" taste is in contrast to "bad" taste is more complicated.

I mean is anything which isn't "bad" taste "good" taste? Or is "good" taste a finer distinction completely?


I have to say that in the vast majority of cases things which are widely regarded as being in "good" taste I find anodyne, characterless, imitative and bourgeois (in the pejorative sense of that word).


I admire anything which has character, is authentically unusual, says something about the person who sports it, and which does not thoroughly mark them out as aspiring to be regarded as having "good" taste.

But that would be an entirely personal criteria by which I assess whether I admire the taste of others. I don't make the distinction on that basis between "good" and "bad" taste, merely between taste I admire and taste I find unappealing.

 

[OhWiseOne]

A shower seems to help. Use plenty of soap.

 

[joyboytoy79]

butanoic acid

 

[D_Johnson Withernads]

To what do I attribute bad taste? Mostly my poor eyesight or alcohol.

 

[hockeysweat]

My sig line expresses all I have to say on this subject.

 

[D_Millard Fillermore]

Bad food?

 

[B_Hickboy]

Television.

 

[D_Millard Fillermore]

The schools?

 

[D_Bob_Crotchitch]

Too much salt.

 

[vince]

Just restrain your enthusiasm and you'll be fine.

 

[petite]

I can't stop looking at the pretty long enough to look at the room!

http://www.luriddigs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/lurid_digs_gay_interiors.jpg

 

[crescendo69]

My taste is clothes is lacking. So I ask others to help me shop, or give me clothes for gifts.

Invitations to my apartment are preceded with a warning. It looked its best when I housed a homeless guy who cleaned it up in lieu of rent. Only a few of my friends have seen it recently.

I attribute this "bad taste" to laziness, depression, and low self-esteem.

So there! Who wants to hook up?:wink:

 

[midlifebear]

Last decade's velvet Elvis with tears running down his cheek is this decade's highly sought after nostalgic kitsch. I own three of them. They serve as a litmus test for guests who use the down stairs half-bath in my home as do the university degrees I've acquired over the years, had framed and hung above the toilet paper dispenser. The placement of those certificates REALLY turn guests pink or blue. It's always good to know who your friends are. :smile:

 

[nudeyorker]

My taste is clothes is lacking. So I ask others to help me shop, or give me clothes for gifts.

Invitations to my apartment are preceded with a warning. It looked its best when I housed a homeless guy who cleaned it up in lieu of rent. Only a few of my friends have seen it recently.

I attribute this "bad taste" to laziness, depression, and low self-esteem.

So there! Who wants to hook up?:wink:

Can we have a three way with the homeless guy?

Last decade's velvet Elvis with tears running down his cheek is this decade's highly sought after nostalgic kitsch. I own three of them. They serve as a litmus test for guests who use the down stairs half-bath in my home as do the university degrees I've acquired over the years, had framed and hung above the toilet paper dispenser. The placement of those certificates REALLY turn guests pink or blue. It's always good to know who your friends are. :smile:

Do you really have Elvis velvet paintings? I remember seeing those in Tijuana and wondered who bought them.

 

[B_jeepguy2]

I think it is a product of someone's upbringing more than anything else. I grew up in a centuries old home on a large estate. As a child I was surrounded by priceless antiques that had been passed down from my ancestors who were members of the planter class aristocracy that existed in the South before the Civil War. Much of this stuff was imported from Great Britain in the 19th century by my Great Great Grandfather who was a wealthy planter and merchant.

Although my folks were not particularly wealthy I think growing up in that environment gave me a completely different perspective than someone who grew up in a modern suberban home or high rise apartment building furnished with modern furnishings. To this day I find modern architecture tacky, modern furnishings distasteful, and modern art completely hideous. Had I grown up in a different environment I suspect that my tastes in art, architecture, and interior design would be completely different.