My take home message from all those pics...Dam, so only old people hang out on the beach?
And then you had to go and pick the one to emphasize why I don't want to go to the beach anymore...{{{{shudder}}}} somethings were just not meant to be seen.
Regarding the Photo with the Puerto Rican couple: When oh when are those threads become fashionable again? I missed this movement the first time around. That duo rules....J-Low, You are through!
Holy shit, Batman! A whole lot different than the California beaches I grew up on.
You know, I think a lot of these folks—or their descendants—moved to Hilton Head, where they're still enjoying the sun and surf. More Noo Yawk accents here than Southern drawls.
Even indig Southerners would be way different from your California dreamin' memories. People are just more fit on the West Coast -- certainly the beach denizens.
No so much here in FLA. The locals tend to be "punier," and what constitutes haute couture is a world away from CA.
"These pictures illustrate precisely my question re. humans' fitness to their environment. So many seem so ungainly, so unhappy or drab or afflicted."
Lisa: Part of my childhood I recall spending the summers "down da Shore", as people in the Philadelphia refer to the South Jersey resort towns like Stone Harbor and the Eggs. These gnarled ancients were part of the landscape, the beach towns their summer escape before the casinos of Atlantic City swept them up in their glittery traps.
The thing is that they were only a part of the summer life there. I think our photographer has selected these people just FOR their grotesquerie, leaving out the "regular" people, couples and families that would have made these scenes less fun-house freakish.
That said, I was noticing the other day while working in SE Portland, our "blue collar/white trashy" part of town, how many really unhappy, lumpish people seemed to populate the street around me. One thing I think we tend to try and ignore (helped by our entertainment, which directs our eyes to the young, sleek and pretty) is just exactly how grim and churlish life is for a lot of people, and how joylessly that seem to meet it.
Granted the photographer was accentuating the fun house grotesque atmosphere. But as you say, Hollywood does not often depict the grim and churlish lot of so many of our fellows.
When we are privileged to sit in a Starbucks and actually be able to afford the designer drinks, vs. just seeking respite from the heat, we can forget the joyless grind that is daily life for many people.
Hence the obesity, the violence, the many miseries of a life. These cannot always be blamed on deprivation, ignorance or defectiveness, but they often can be.
For more, here.
#10 will be me in a few years!
ReplyDelete8-)
On a more somber note, catch the video on Alaska eskimos and their church?
My take home message from all those pics...Dam, so only old people hang out on the beach?
ReplyDeleteAnd then you had to go and pick the one to emphasize why I don't want to go to the beach anymore...{{{{shudder}}}} somethings were just not meant to be seen.
Regarding the Photo with the Puerto Rican couple: When oh when are those threads become fashionable again? I missed this movement the first time around. That duo rules....J-Low, You are through!
ReplyDeletefasteddiez,
ReplyDeleteThat is J-Lo, before Revlon Anglicized her. Now she is our Latina princess.
Chief,
These pictures illustrate precisely my question re. humans' fitness to their environment. So many seem so ungainly, so unhappy or drab or afflicted.
Holy shit, Batman! A whole lot different than the California beaches I grew up on.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I think a lot of these folks—or their descendants—moved to Hilton Head, where they're still enjoying the sun and surf. More Noo Yawk accents here than Southern drawls.
They're on the golf courses, too.
Publius,
ReplyDeleteEven indig Southerners would be way different from your California dreamin' memories. People are just more fit on the West Coast -- certainly the beach denizens.
No so much here in FLA. The locals tend to be "punier," and what constitutes haute couture is a world away from CA.
"These pictures illustrate precisely my question re. humans' fitness to their environment. So many seem so ungainly, so unhappy or drab or afflicted."
ReplyDeleteLisa: Part of my childhood I recall spending the summers "down da Shore", as people in the Philadelphia refer to the South Jersey resort towns like Stone Harbor and the Eggs. These gnarled ancients were part of the landscape, the beach towns their summer escape before the casinos of Atlantic City swept them up in their glittery traps.
The thing is that they were only a part of the summer life there. I think our photographer has selected these people just FOR their grotesquerie, leaving out the "regular" people, couples and families that would have made these scenes less fun-house freakish.
That said, I was noticing the other day while working in SE Portland, our "blue collar/white trashy" part of town, how many really unhappy, lumpish people seemed to populate the street around me. One thing I think we tend to try and ignore (helped by our entertainment, which directs our eyes to the young, sleek and pretty) is just exactly how grim and churlish life is for a lot of people, and how joylessly that seem to meet it.
Granted the photographer was accentuating the fun house grotesque atmosphere. But as you say, Hollywood does not often depict the grim and churlish lot of so many of our fellows.
ReplyDeleteWhen we are privileged to sit in a Starbucks and actually be able to afford the designer drinks, vs. just seeking respite from the heat, we can forget the joyless grind that is daily life for many people.
Hence the obesity, the violence, the many miseries of a life. These cannot always be blamed on deprivation, ignorance or defectiveness, but they often can be.