I owe my love of music in part to my father, who fancied himself a singer. His younger brother, my Uncle Phil was a professional in Las Vegas and my dad loved mingling with the headliners and aspired to be in that world. The world of performing. There was often Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole wafting through our house, especially on a Friday night when he’d be searing a juicy steak with red wine and mushrooms. He always looked happiest when he was cookng or singing so naturally for me, music and food became synonymous with happiness.

As a student of piano, I learned those crooner songs for my dad and accompanied him while he sang. He begged me to go to school to study music, but at the time I had other plans. Not too many parents (especially in those days) encouraged their children to pursue a creative life, so kudos to my dad for that. Eventually though, even after having three instruments under my belt, I knew I didn’t possess the proper discipline for music that I had for visual art. For me, music was sheer pleasure, and during my time studying music, practice felt more like drudgery. I wanted to instantly sound like the music on the radio! Didn’t we all?

Singing was infinitely easier and I grew up as a member of G-rated Glee Clubs and the church choir. I even played the pipe organ in church for a while, having to scoot to the front of the bench in order to reach the pedals, marked in black magic marker: C, G, D. These venues helped me appreciate group singing and hone harmonies that my voice still naturally wants to cull out from a melody. On the other hand, what rebellious young Boomer-girl didn’t want to possess the ability to belt it out like Janis or Grace? Or write like Joni? Even as a teenager, I recognized that as power, and as Lebowitz rightly points out, a drug of the best kind.

By the late 1960’s, Motown was a monster in Philadelphia. Even though Motown was Detroit, the “Philly soul” sound emerged with its own flavor, and was a favorite for what we called “slow dancing” and passed for romantic songs in those tender adolescent days. Think Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. Later, I discovered funk. James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone had an effect on my body that previously had been unexplored. I fell in love with bass lines and new rhythms, glued to Soul Train every week on television with the sultry voice of host, Don Cornelius at the helm.

The recent death of singer Mary Wilson prompted me to remember the time my sisters and cousins became the Supremes. First arguing over who got to be Diana, we rehearsed and performed our version of Stop In The Name of Love in the basement of my aunt’s house, making up the dance steps and hand motions from what we’d seen on television and magazine photos, playing the record over and over to learn the lyrics.(A year ago-pre-covid, these same cousins met up for a family wedding in Mexico, and even though we were twice the age of most of the guests, we commanded the dance floor with the frenetic energy of our youth). Founded the year after my birth in 1959, to this day, hearing Motown sends me to some weirdly cellular memory that is pure joy.

In early high school, Springsteen ruled the Northeast and we Philly girls adopted the Jersey boy as our own. We couldn’t get enough of Bruce’s bad boy looks or Clarence’s saxophone. It follows that if your idols in high school are dark, scruffy musicians with poetic sensibilities, it would make sense that you’d be destined to fall for a musician every time. Music as an aphrodisiac is legendary. For this reason, there have always been musicians in my life starting from my first apartment with roommates when I was 18. Nightly, a few people would suddenly appear (without phones!) at our door with guitars and “magical” supplies to enhance our evening. Long term relationships with a couple of guitar players put me squarely in the groupie audience where I got to say, “I’m with the band”.

One of the superpowers that music and musicians have is the ability to make people move. Dancing for me will always be synonymous with celebration and fun. Our bodies thank us for this effort by giving us huge doses of feel-good endorphins and serotonin. Even without dancing, my body simply can not, not move. When music is on, there will always be a head bobbing, a foot tapping or a thigh being drummed. The very first 45 rpm I purchased when I was ten, was the bubble-gummy Build Me Up Buttercup by The Foundations. I must have played it 3000 times, discovering the power of dance in my adolescent bedroom.

I am baffled by anyone who could remain still to songs like, Oye Como Va, (or Smooth!) or Light My Fire—Jose’s version (ok, I’m a sucker for a Latin rhythm), or the never-gets-old electric edge of Gimme Shelter, with Merry Clayton’s primal backup vocals primarily responsible for the song’s iconic status. I’m certainly a product of my generation’s taste in music, but if you are a Boomer parent, there is a good chance that you also love your kid’s music and they love yours. Technology has brought music into our lives like never before and there is more crossover than ever when it comes to listener tastes and genres. On my Spotify favorites, I have everything from Beethoven, to Etta James, to The White Stripes.

While Boomer kids were busy alienating their parents with music they didn’t understand or wanted nothing to do with, by contrast, when my son discovered the popular metal band Green Day, he and I fell in love together. The summer he was eleven, we hosted a wedding on our semi-rural property, and he would not let the DJ rest until his favorite, the politically charged, Holiday was spinning and he and I hit the makeshift dance floor under the trees. Another music lover was born.

We can all be a bit snobbish and sometimes rigid about the music we listen to. We like what we like and shun what we don’t. But we also listen to music for many reasons that have nothing to do with taste. Memory and nostalgia for two. These days, I discriminate less with my head or what’s current and let my body decide what it wants. I was a fervent hater of disco and popular music in the 80’s but now, when I hear the slithery bass line of the Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive, or the popping one in Just Like Heaven, by The Cure, you can bet I will be on the dance floor. Rhythm and groove come in many forms. Similarly, you’d be hard-pressed to get me to love country music, but Patsy Kline’s Crazy gets me every time. Am I a fan of Bon Jovi? No, but I love Livin’ on a Prayer (this, a haunting acoustic version from a 9/11 tribute) because my adult son and I danced wildly to it at a family wedding in Madrid at 3:00 in the morning. And my body holds that memory— with the music as key.

The power that music or a song can have over us is astounding, magical and legendary. Music is one of the most universally moving experiences we can have! If there is something else that comes close, I’d like to know what. Whether it’s love, or nostalgia or the power to make you move, it’s nearly impossible to get through life without music’s influence in some way.

And for some of us, it remains central to daily life and sustenance. Essential as food. I’ve always had awe and envy for musicians to have a platform to connect to the energy of an audience in real time. To feel that you are responsible for all that joy. It’s certainly been responsible for a lot of it in my life. As a painter and writer, I create alone and can’t duplicate the immediate experience that musicians are able to transmit. But I am sure grateful for the transmission. How amazing would it feel to see someone inspired to dance like a maniac in front of a painting?

Photo Credits

Photos courtesy of Linda Laino

First published at Linda Laino Words and Pictures

Guest Author Bio
Linda Laino

Linda Laino is an artist and writer who has been making art in one form or another for over 40 years. Holding an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, she enjoys playing with words as much as form and color. Her poem, Poem at Sixy was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018. Since 2012, she has resided in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where the surreal atmosphere and sensuous colors have wormed their way into her paintings. The last few years have found her making art and writing at residencies around the world, most recently in Spain and France. Finding beautiful things on the ground is a favorite pastime. Her art can be seen at www.lindalaino.com. Some of her essays and poetry can be found on her blog, Linda Laino Words + Pictures.

Half a century ago, wearing a watch was the only way to tell time on the go. Which made them a necessity. And, when something is so vital to you that you wear it every single day, then it has to be fashionable, right?

Fashion is always changing. What was once old-fashioned is again trending today (hello bell bottom trousers) and watches are certainly no exception. So, let’s review exactly what the industry is doing to ensure that these lovely accessories never go out of style.

Necessity Or An Accessory?

Let’s face it; watches are certainly not a necessity in our day and age. Almost all of us have smartphones, which not only allow you to tell time in a few seconds, but also allow you to check out any time zone in the world. Something that older watches certainly never could do.

But even with the ultimate time-teller in your pocket, there is still something attractive about wearing a watch. They’re certainly a faster way to tell time than smartphones – unless you tend to carry your iPhone in your hands all day. And those few seconds that you waste taking your phone out of your pocket (or hours finding it in your purse) add up. So, people who want to be extra-efficient will resort to wearing a watch.

For Some, Still A Necessity

The reason why I started wearing a watch in the first place was to be able to tell time in quizzes and exams in school, and then college. Most educational facilities have strict policies on uses of smartphone in class, and especially during exams, that even taking it out too check out what time it is could result in a fail. And with the rise of smartwatches nowadays, some schools are even banning wristwatches in exams!

So, I got used to wearing a watch. And I’m willing to bet that you did too. Most people do this; they start wearing a watch when they’re young and they just get used to it. If you’re one of those people, then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about – ever feel naked when you leave home without it?

Also A Fashionable Accessory

Now think about it, what’s the one thing that pretty much all teenagers are obsessed with? Being cool and trendy. And so, if they have to wear a watch, then it has to look good. But, not many teenagers can afford a Rolex or a Piaget and that’s something that the fashion industry quickly recognized.

Many fashion brands started including watches in their product range, trying to make them affordable to appeal to a wider customer base. Calvin Klein did it in the late nineties, and Swatch and Fossil have been doing it from the early eighties. What was once a luxury product became affordable to a much wider population, which inevitably impacted the demand in the market. And that wasn’t enough.

Fashion Brands And Affordable Watches

For some, a Swiss watch or even a Fossil watch were still a luxury. Which is where high-street brands come in. Walk into any shopping mall in the world, and you’ll be able to find a decent watch for less than $50.

Brands like H&M, Topshop and Asos all try to appeal to an even wider customer base with the affordability of their products. And they realize that it’s better to sell hundreds of watches for a lower price, than just a few luxurious ones. Even some so called “Swiss Brands” have affordable options these day.

But what that also means is that a single person can afford to have many different watches, and wear a different one every day. They will buy different watches to coordinate them with different outfits, or simply to have new arm-candy to show off to their friends. So yes, even though smartphones are kind of killing the high-end watch industries, affordable and stylish watches will never go out of fashion – even if only for aesthetic reasons.

Watches Of The Future

A sure way to bring something back is to put some tech in it. Like Sheldon Cooper once said, everything’s better with Bluetooth. And he wasn’t wrong.

The fact of the matter is that the watch industry we knew two decades ago doesn’t exist anymore. Everything is changing rapidly, sales of smartwatches are increasing every day. Apple and Android are competing with each other, trying to establish dominance in this market, and seriously hurting the Swiss watch industry in the process.

All of that is understandable. Why get an old-fashioned watch when you can get one that can measure your heart rate read you your emails and tell you how many steps you took that day? Plus, brands like Fossil and Ticwatch have even gone a step further and designed them to look just like regular watches. No one will even know that you have a smart watch until you start going through your messages – how’s that for a wow factor?

And of course, there’s also the ever so popular Fitbit; a must for serious runners and athletes. Additionally, many other sports brands are expanding their product range in this direction, with names like Nike and Adidas coming out with their versions of a smart watch. And that’s just the beginning – BMW has a watch that will park your car for you. There appear to be no limits to what a watch can do.

And The Long Answer

So, the short answer is no, watches are not going out of fashion. The long answer is actually a question; how can something go out of fashion, when there’s so many brands who are just dipping their toes in that particular pool of opportunities?

Who knows what the future will bring? Maybe the watches of the future will allow us to fly planes or completely replace our smartphones? One thing is for sure; with such rapidly developing technologies, everything’s possible.

Photo Credits

Photos are from Pexels

Guest Author Bio
Neil Atkinson

Neil has been obsessed with watches since his 12th birthday and collecting them ever since. You can learn more about him on his blog where he shares his in-depth watch knowledge.

Blog / Website: I Know Watches

Mannequins Matter to Fashion Retailers

GotStyle Distillery puts their mannequins at the center of the in-store and window display areas. The gorgeous Gotsyle fashion outlet in the Distillery depends on these mannequins to set alight their attractive windows and provide a focus for seasonal apparel.

Graham kingsbury adjusts the sleeves on the mannequin in the window at GotStyle Distillery in Toronto.

The overhead spotlights and dynamic architecture of the flagship Gotstyle store reflects in the smooth plastic finish of their shiny black mannequins. These perfect, unblemished human forms wear the latest clothing and the combination epitomizes urban style, and viewing this spectacle celebrates the very act of shopping.

The shiny black mannequin in GotStyle Distillery reflects the lighting in the store.

“Most people don’t think the mannequins in the store communicate with shoppers, but they’re wrong”, says Jack Lin who sells plastic mannequins and glass display cases at Ablelin Store Fixtures Corp. in Toronto. “The mannequins in the window, and what they’re wearing practically shouts to people, especially ladies on the street,’ Jack rants, “and the mannequins in the shop can make or break the sale at the store counter.” And when I asked how, he said simply, “people either trust your mannequins or they don’t buy”, and then he related to me a story whereby the mannequins in a sophisticated retail store were simply not nice enough for the merchandise being sold at the prices being charged; the upscale boutique’s sales suffered from consumer skepticism. The other side of the equation is when retailers naively employ exquisite mannequins in low-end shopping malls; this can also send the wrong signal to bargain hunters who shop for value and may not enter what they perceive as being too luxurious.

Jack Lin demonstrates mannequin gesticulations at Store Fixture Showcase.

Thus, the human forms modeling clothing in commercial shops can both attract or repel consumers, and can make or break retail concepts.

Brief History of Mannequins

Shop mannequins are derived from dress forms used by fashion houses for dressmaking. During the reign of Louis XIV, it was common in Parisian dress shops to leave garments on the form for a day or two after being completed, but full-scale wickerwork mannequins didn’t come into use until the mid-18th century, and extruded steel wirework mannequins were not manufactured in Paris until 1835.

The first fashion mannequins, made of papier-mâché, were also made in France in the mid-19th century. Mannequins were later made of wax to produce a more lifelike appearance. In the 1920s, wax was supplanted by a more durable composite made with plaster.

More interesting is to trace the evolution of mannequin fashion. The different shaped dummies mirror our cultural trends and echo our ‘body’ values and reveal society’s attitudes about sex roles, beauty and propriety.

Lingerie mannequins used to look away, or look down , but now – lingerie mannequins are quite direct. They look right at you. They’re not shy. Their eyes are even inviting sometimes.

This author remembers when the Eaton Center in Toronto had extremely lifelike mannequins with eyes that would follow you in the store. But they’ve all been replaced now with burnished wooden bodies which are actually not wood at all but plastic with a terrific faux wooden finish.

Desigual and Espirit Dstyle fashion clothing retailer in Toronto sells mostly women’s clothing, but has a male mannequin in the shop.

Toby Brown at Desigual dresses the male mannequin in the doorway.

Toby from DStyle puts their store’s single mannequin, a man, right in the front door of the shop. He stands there in the doorway as though he’s the proprietor calling people into the venue. “It makes the place look busier’ was all Toby would say about the placement and the style is “whatever’s best for men in season.’ And although Toby makes light of the arrangement, there’s an art and science to picking and presenting this dummy’s clothes. He wears the nicest merchandise in the colours that best contrast the rest of the shop as seen from the sidewalk beyond the front doors. The colour combination and curious juxtaposition becomes an irresistible attraction to would be consumers.

The Future of Mannequins

Smart mannequins are already becoming available to retailers. Certain models are intelligent enough today to tell staff which clothes most need merchandising (based on store volume), and through interactive smart phone apps can have more personalized interactions with consumers.

Having the right mannequins really matters to bricks and mortar fashion retailers struggling to rescue plunging profits.

Photo Credits

Photos by Rob Campbell – All Rights Reserved

Although Hawking isn’t listed among the leadership of the Breakthrough Listen project, it’s likely that his role will be hands-off and will largely entail liaising with the public. His colleagues, Frank Drake (an early pioneer in SETI), and Martin Rees (the current Astronomer Royal in the United Kingdom), along with other astronomy professors and scientists, will be directing the endeavor’s operations.

Previous attempts at detecting messages from extraterrestrials, loosely grouped under the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, have been funded at a much lower rate through government programs and independent visionaries. Many attempts to actually send a message to ETs have been one-off events, with almost zero chance of success, including the golden phonograph records launched aboard NASA’s Voyager spacecraft, and the three-minute-long Arecibo Message. Not to mention the highly-publicized Wow! signal, a strong, narrowband radio signal detected in August 1977, which just recently garnered a response from humanity in the form of Twitter messages beamed out in the direction of the message origin.

Efforts to find extraterrestrial life began as early as 1896, when the use of radio waves to detect foreign signals was proposed. From scanning the cosmos for natural radio signals, to searches with omnidirectional antennas, the utilization of various radio telescopes and satellites to monitor for signals from outer space has continued to this day. While this technology is most commonly thought of in reference to weather satellites, satellite TV and mobile wireless communication, there are a number of powerful telescopes around the world that are capable of listening for such signals.

With the funds bestowed by Milner, Breakthrough Listen will be able to buy time on two such telescopes to conduct the search, with an additional third telescope used to try to identify signals sent via optical laser transmission. Unlike the kind of telescope that you take outside with you to stargaze, which is of the optical variety, this project will be utilizing radio telescopes consisting of a large dish—much like a satellite TV dish—that can detect radio waves coming from the far reaches of the cosmos.

Previous SETI projects have used similar methods, but the extent to which they could successfully function was limited by their funding. Breakthrough Listen will have the resources to observe ten times more of the sky and to scan at least five times more of the radio spectrum than ever before. After making their observations, astronomers will then be able to sift through the data to try to separate natural phenomena from those that may have been created by alien life.

Even with this new funding commitment, searching for the transmissions of extraterrestrial beings is like finding a needle in a haystack. We have no idea what their languages might be like, on what frequencies they would broadcast or the purposes for which they might use radio or laser communications. Whistle-blower Edward Snowden recently made the point that encryption processes have a goal of making messages seem indistinguishable from random noise, and so, if ‘aliens’ are using sufficiently advanced cryptography, we may have no way of differentiating their communications from radio static.

In 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi did some calculations and realized that, given the age of the universe and the number of stars that it contains, we should see signs of alien life all around us. The fact that we don’t observe any reliable indications of life outside the earth has been called “The Fermi Paradox.” Over the years, a number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain this paradox, with Snowden’s being the latest, but the simplest explanation might just be the correct one: perhaps there exists no intelligent life in star systems besides our own.

Even if we are able to find and decode a message from an alien civilization, we might not be able to communicate effectively. The vastness of interstellar space means that a message sent to even the closest stars would take years to be received. Milner is funding a related scheme, called Breakthrough Message, which will hold a contest with $1 million in prizes for composing the best message to send into space, but there are no plans to actually send them.

If, despite the odds, we actually do encounter and converse with an extraterrestrial species, it would probably be the biggest news in the history of humankind. People would have to revisit their religious beliefs, ideas about the significance of homo sapiens in the universe and views on morality and ethics. When we consider what has happened here on earth whenever two hitherto distant civilizations have encountered each other, perhaps extraterrestrial contact may be more trouble than it’s worth.

Photo Credits

Stars hatching in Orion – Wikimedia Public Domain

Golden Record – NASA Public Domain

The Arecibo Radio Telescope  – Wikimedia Public Domain

Guest Author Bio
Kate Voss

Kate Voss is a writer and blogger based in the Windy City. Fuelled by coffee and chocolate, she’s an MSU alum with a passion for recycling and refurbishing old furniture. Her favorite Girl Scout Cookie is the trefoil.

July 7, 1999 – Off the coast of Pusan, South Korea

An F/A-18 Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron One Five One (VFA-151) breaks the sound barrier in the skies over the Pacific Ocean.  ~ Wikipedia

The cloud you see is called a vapor cone. These are typically observed as an aircraft approaches transonic velocity. Water in the atmosphere then condenses becoming visible.

You can read much more about vapor cones at wikipedia.

Image Credit

Photo by Ensign John Gay, U.S. Navy is Wikimedia Public Domain

Kentrosaurus aethiopicus

The dinosaur above sports something known as a Thagomizer! A distinctive arrangement of four to ten spikes found on the tails of stegosaurid dinosaurs. These spikes are believed to have been a defensive measure against predators.

Glad we don’t run into these today!

The name Thagomizer was coined by cartoonist and creator of The Far Side, Gary Larson in a 1982 comic strip. It has been used in research and education ever since.

The caption under this image is hard to read. The original caption that went with the cartoon was:

“Now this end is called the thagomizer … after the late Thag Simmons.”

Well done Mr. Larson!

Photo Credits

Kentrosaurus aethiopicus – Wikimedia Creative Commons

Thagomizer – Wikimedia Creative Commons

Farside By Gary Larson – Wikipedia Fair Use

Be sure to check out Gary Larson’s The Far Side site!

A few weeks ago, I posted a mask which resides in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here is another amazing mask that resides not far away, in the Brooklyn Museum. My Congolese roots were most intrigued when I found this gem on Wikimedia.

The Kuba Kingdom (also Kuba, Bakuba or Bushongo) is a pre-colonial Central African state bordered by the Sankuru, Lulua, and Kasai rivers in the southeast of what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). ~ Wikipedia

“Kuba mythology revolves around three figures, each represented by a masquerade character: Woot, the creator and founder of the ruling dynasty; Woot’s spouse; and Bwoom. Bwoom’s specific identity varies according to different versions of the myth. He may represent the king’s younger brother, a person of Twa descent, or a commoner. Embodying a subversive force within the royal court, the Bwoom masquerade is often performed in conflict with the masked figure representing Woot.” ~ Wikimedia

Think of this the next time someone says … WOOT!

Image Credit

Brooklyn Museum – Wikmedia Creative Commons

“In the old times, art was thought to symbolize a common underlying element in which all species shared. Kwakwaka’wakw art consist of a diverse range of crafts, including totems, masks, textiles, jewellery and a multitude of carved objects.” ~ Wikipedia

The Crooked Beak Of Heaven Mask now resides in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art … far far away from where it was crafted in the 19th century … pity!

I am going to reach out to the Met and see if they can provide us with more information about this amazing mask.

Image Credit

Photographed By PierreSelim – Wikimedia Creative Commons

Pigmy Dartlet (Agriocnemis pygmaea) male, a very small apple green damselfly with black stripes and orange colored abdominal segments. Common in marshes, ponds, and along the seashore, you’ll find them throughout the Oriental, Australian regions and Pacific islands. This little guy lives at Burdwan, West Bengal, India.

Image credit:

Agriocnemis pygmaea male by Joydeep via Wikimedia Commons

Zombie-ant fungus (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) is a pathogenic fungi that enters the body of an ant and begins to consume the non-vital soft tissues. It then spreads and produces compounds that affects the ant’s brain, changing it’s behavior. It causes the ant to climb up the stem of a plant then lock it’s mandibles using ‘abnormal force’ to secure itself to the plant.

The fungus then kills the ant but continues to grow and sprout mycelia out of the ant to anchor it to the plant substrate. Finally, the fungus consumes the ant’s brain, ruptures it’s head and releases it’s spores.

This behavior has been going on for 48 million years!

I am not making this up. I first read about this many years ago, I believe it was in Discover magazine. You can find all the details here at wikipedia.

Also, apparently, there is a parasite that fights the zombie-ant fungus saving some ants. Read about it here.

Image Credit

Image by pennstatelive on flickr – Some Rights Reserved