When we say the name Maila Nurmi, you might not know who the fuck we are talking about. What if we were to say, Vampira? Of course!
Our current climate is so influenced and inspired by her delightful darkness, gothic glamour, and overall irreverence to almost everything! Oh, and did we mention she was friends with James Dean and Elvis??!
You might have even read our STYLE {DIVINITY} tribute to the goddess of creepy chic. Somehow in the 1950s at the height of conservative moral values, this daring Finnish actress rose to stardom with a status-quo bashing gig as television’s first last night horror show host of The Vampira Show which officially premiered on May 1, 1954!
As Vampira she retold the story of women in the media – not just prim and proper and ready to serve; the only thing Vampira was ready to serve was a bloody head on a platter for brunch. Its still hard for me to wrap my head around how she was able to get away with her gruesome take on House & Home living. All the more reason to worship this divine creature for everything she stood for.
Now, while Maila found popularity playing Vampira, she was an actress in Hollywood playing many roles. This next clip we found, we fell in love with – showcasing her talents in another rebel archetype that was taking hold in America in the 50s: the lousy beatnik.
A precursor to the hipster of today, a gateway to the free love hippie movement of the 60s and 70s. The beatnik was every conservative’s biggest pain in the ass. Like millennials of the atomic era- they were often viewed as aimless, pretentious, and overall whacky.
This clip taken from the iconic Beat-era classic “The Beatnik Generation” features Maila Nurmi pissing off a couple of squares with her off beat poem sporting a short blonde haircut and a rat on the shoulder; she completely oozes this infamous generation’s vibe to the max! Its very comical…and tell me she doesn’t look a bit like Katya Zamolodchikova ?!
Anyways, we thought is was all too fitting for The Eye of Faith and had to share! Lets keep empowering the brave, and blessing the bold, and letting people be the best they can be inside and out!
Let us all be a bit more like Ms. Nurmi, shall we?
From the cusp of 1960’s culture came a film documenting wild teen tomfoolery and squaller. Daughter of local divorced architect father, was born Jenny; an impressionably sexy young woman who falls into the towns scene of beatnik culture and electric youth.
When Jenny’s divorced father Paul marries a Parisian woman named Nichole, Jenny’s distaste for the new woman in her life is immediate. Her now ‘mother’ is not much older than vibrant Jenny which infuriates the teased haired beauty. In a tit for tat attempt to expose Nichole’s seedy past, Jenny begins a journey into the dark side that is deeper than she could ever have planned for. Discovering Nichole’s root’s in the unsavoury night scene abound with strippers and rock’n roll, Jenny is determined to undermine and manipulate Nichole to get whatever the fuck she wants. Bad girl antics ensue while attracting the attention of Kenny, owner of the dance hall.
Full of cheese-ball rebels and hot girls this flick from 1960 delivers action and vulgarity. We surely recommend this one if you are in the mood for a badass black and white. We know we can never get enough of greaser culture and faster kill pussycats, this flick may just get you to buy a leather jacket and bleach your hair platinum blonde… but we suggest avoiding games of ‘chicken’ despite the peer pressure.
Until next time,
{theEye}
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We gave a mention to this seminal 1990s David Lynch classic in one our latest posts, a reblog from The Selvedge Yard regarding the September 1991 photo spread in American Vogue entitled “Wild at Heart”.
For me, it was easy to see the title as a reference to Lynch’s film of the same name, released just a year prior to the shoot, and winner of accolades that included the Palm D’Or (an equivalent to Best Picture at the Academy Awards) at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990.
The film stars Nicolas Cage as Sailor Ripley and a radiant Laura Dern at her sexiest as the dangerous bombshell Lula Pace Fortune. The film plays out like a rebel fantasy, with plenty of allusion to The Wizard of Oz (this has been admitted by Lynch himself who idolized the film as a child), as well as Elvis Presley, 50s youth culture, and the American Dream.
It’s nothing and everything it promises to be, and is perhaps my ultimate favorite film of the American auteur. And as for style savvy, the film has got it in spades. Check out those shades on Nic Cage in the top photograph (I used to have a pair exactly like those that had been given to me by a friend) – classic rebel style, shaking it up by ditching the frames altogether and letting that gold bar along the brow do all the hard work.
And, of course there is the rebel snake skin jacket donned by Sailor, which is seen in the film’s most iconic moments. It seems the sssss-seductive look could have taken inspiration from one of cinema’s most famous bad boys – Marlon Brando, who wore a similar snake skin jacket in the forgotten 1960 classic “The Fugitive Kind” directed by Sidney Lumet.
Brando plays Val Xavier, a sexy, down on his luck convenience store clerk who finds temptation in both his boss (the talented Ana Magnani), and the town’s local wild child, played by a young and ravishing Joanne Woodward. The film is being discovered again for it’s crushing performances, moody black and white photography, and brash, bold direction.
It goes to show that everything has its precedence, and discovering the links make for a richer understanding of the landscape we visit.
We pulled this track from the film’s soundtrack to share with you all in a music minute that promises to mill about deep within you, and scatter your thoughts to the darkest and most beautiful corners of your subconscious…
Don’t be scared, though; It’s just a little music to keep you going throughout the long and arduous days and nights…As Lula says:
“This whole world’s wild at heart and weird on top.”
Sometimes you can just wake up in the mood for some Beatnik poetry.
We want to hear that wa-dee-ya cry from that broken saxophone on the dusty radio . . .the wisha-wish-washish from the pipe in my basement sink . . . that shining reverie from that crusty Madonna posing as some telephone operator on the other end of this plastic cup. . .
Something like that, right? But even better (though I’m gonna give it up for myself on that one)!
Check out this clip from the classic not to be forgotten 1958 film “High School Confidential” starring Russ Tamblyn, John Drew Barrymore and Mamie Van Doren (to name a few). The film was meant to be an expose on the horrifying beat generation and their libertine ways infiltrating every dark corner of the American Dream! And GASP! Your children ! ! ! EEK!
{Mamie Van Doren Gets A Visit From
A Young & Shirtless Russ Tamblyn}
You’d think most parents would be proud to see their daughter schmoozing it up at some artsy bar, and rattling out some rhythmic articulation of her soul, but amidst the repression of the era, this film was just another hot potato of controversy tampering with societal morals and hardcore stepping on accepted standards of decency.
Today it’s fun to revisit, and imagine life the way it was in the movies . . . Phillipa Fallon, the lovely brunette in the clip, totally attacks the scene and will make you want to watch it over and over again . . .Not much is known about the actress, but there is a site dedicated to her which I have included the link above! Interestingly, she was signed to the same agency as the notorious Frances Farmer . . .
So take me to the Beatnik Bar, Daddy! I have a ringing in my brain that needs to be let free!
Tomorrow is a drag, Man! Tomorrow is a King-sized bust!
So, a few weeks ago we are lucky enough to hold our first ever style procession for The Eye of Faith (I say “style procession” because I feel like our offerings are much more than just fashion, and really are an invocation of our truest style daemons who elevate us from the rest) which was a hit!
We had a lot of fun amidst the chaos of life, and managed to pull together our vision of bad ass teens and rebels mixed up in a dangerous game of “chicken” that may or may not have been provoked by witchcraft….you just had to be there!
And I know that many of you weren’t able to be there (purely because of geography), but I promised you wouldn’t be kept out of the loop if this was the case! So here’s a {MUSIC MINUTE} featuring our good friend Gabrielle & Architect who we opened up the show for, and got the pleasure of seeing perform live. She’s got great style, and above all- she’s got one killer voice.
Her music brings a cool, evocative, and seductive edge to classic jazz with a pulsating electronic fusion that will keep you grooving through the days and nights. Audience members were privileged with a world premiere of her first music video, and we’re gonna follow it up here with hopes of spreading her word ever further.
Hope you enjoy!
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Composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, and fiirst released in 1972 on the “Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters” documentary; the song was ispired by a visit to London, where Richard saw an old Bing Crosby 1940 film called Rhythm on the River, where he noticed that they kept referring to the struggling songwriter’s greatest composition, “Goodbye to Love”.
He says `You never hear it in the movie, they just keep referring to it,’ and he immediately envisioned the tune, and lyrics starting with:
I’ll say goodbye to love No one ever cared if I should live or die. Time and time again the chance for Love has passed me by…
He said that while the melody in his head kept going, the lyrics stopped “because I’m not a lyricist“, and he completed the rest of his arrangement upon his return to the US.
Karen Carpenter called guitarist Tony Peluso herself to get him to play on the track. Tony remembers: “At first I didn’t believe that it was actually Karen Carpenter on the phone but she repeated her name again. … It was at this point that I realized it was really her and that I was speaking to one of my idols.” She told him that she and Richard were working on a song called “Goodbye To Love” and they were both familiar with his work with another band (called Instant Joy), and that he’d be perfect for the sound they were looking for.
Peluso first played something soft and sweet, but then Richard Carpenter said
“No, no, no! Play the melody for five bars and then burn it up! Soar off into the stratosphere! Go ahead! It’ll be great!“
Peluso insists this was one of the first, if not THE first, love ballads to have a fuzz guitar solo.
Funny enough, The Carpenters did receive hate mail; claiming that The Carpenters had sold out and gone hard-rock because of Richard’s idea for a fuzz guitar solo in a love ballad! And even some Adult Contemporary oriented radio stations refused to play the song because of it.
Regardless of the controversy, many Carpenters fans today still admire the song for its unique power.
“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”
-Jack Kerouac
Every time style blogs or fashion mags bring up Jack Kerouac, they can’t seem to go past exploring his style choices with completely superficial mindsets. What would Jack Kerouac wear today? Where would he shop? Here’s where, and how?! Ta DA! NOTHING. OUTFIT.
“I went one afternoon to the church of my childhood and had a vision of what I must have really meant with “Beat”… the vision of the word Beat as being to mean beatific… People began to call themselves beatniks, beats, jazzniks, bopniks, bugniks and finally I was called the “avatar” of all this.”
Granted, Kerouac can be seen in the simple, utilitarian, work wear looks they attempt to recreate. The only thing is, Kerouac wasn’t going for a certain kind of anything. He just was. That’s kind of the first rule about him.
Completing his draft ofOn the Road in April 1951 on a single 36 metre (120-foot) role of paper, this autobiographical tale of Kerouac’s journeys across America with his friends is considered the defining work of the ‘Beat Generation‘, and includes hundreds of references to the stories of his adventures on the road.
II.
“John Clellon Holmes … and I were sitting around trying to think up the meaning of the Lost Generation and the subsequent Existentialism and I said, ‘You know, this is really a beat generation’ and he lept up and said ‘That’s it, that’s right!'”
The book wasn’t published until September 5, 1957 but would quickly garner cult status , with it’s wide array of colorful characters, as well as it’s wonderfully liberated prose inspired by the jazz, drug, and poetry that would define the Beat movement.
It was a movement towards freedom, however, it wouldn’t be easily received by the mainstream critics who’s conservatism would lead them to question Kerouac’s anti-establishment philosophies and writing style. In an era of conformity, stuck in the politics of McCarthyism in America, Kerouac would keep doing it his way all the way to the end.
“If critics say your work stinks it’s because they want it to stink and they can make it stink by scaring you into conformity with their comfortable little standards. Standards so low that they can no longer be considered “dangerous” but set in place in their compartmental understandings.”
-Jack Kerouac
Is it all just a great strange dream? Jack Kerouac thought so. He also believed in the meditating powers of Buddha, not to mention having encountered God himself at his first Sacrament of Confession in 1928. He was told he he would suffer in life great pain and horrors but experience salvation in the end of it all.
[Kerouac’s parents were of French-Canadian descent, making Jack an honorary Canadian!]
Funny enough, Kerouac wasn’t exactly the artsy intellectual type in high school, that you might imagine. No doubt he was deep but Kerouac found his tall brooding frame and superior athletic skills leading him to running back for the high school football team, and eventually a scholarship to Columbia University. Who says jocks don’t write poetry?!
Just as his football career began soaring, Kerouac dropped out from school, and continued life in New York City with his girlfriend, Edie Parker. It was there on the Upper East Side he would meet such influential figures as Allen Ginsberg, Neal Casaday, William S. Burroughs who would turn up in many of Kerouac’s works.
Together, this group of misfits, along with others who shared similar views on life contrary to the devastating conservatism of America would band together to foster a movement towards artistic and sexual liberation; freedom free from censorship. Kerouac knew his greatest power would ultimately be his honesty, integrity, and commitment to the truth of the world.
The truth, you ask? It’s the same truth we all are looking for today. The meaning of life, and the truths of existence. Driving the highway searching for the faces of God. In fact, Jack insists:
” ‘On the Road’ was really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And we found him. I found him in the sky, in Market Street San Francisco (those 2 visions), and Dean (Neal) had God sweating out of his forehead all the way. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY OUT FOR THE HOLY MAN: HE MUST SWEAT FOR GOD. And once he has found Him, the Godhood of God is forever Established and really must not be spoken about.”
Though, Kerouac would most likely protest the fancy and folly of the fashion industry of 2012, there is definitely a regard to the poet and free-thinker for his laid-back and casual sensibilities. It’s easy to see the appeal – Kerouac is a very charismatic and handsome guy. Not only that, he always seems to have something on the mind- a sense of mystery.
And while polo shirts, trousers, and denim button-ups are easy to find, Kerouac’s one-of-a-kind rebel attitude and poetic insight make for most of Kerouac’s {anti}-style style. This is where style goes far beyond the clothes on one’s back, and reaches deep into the darkest depths of one’s very soul .
There aren’t too many public figures like Jack Kerouac these days, sadly. He died relatively young. On October 20, 1969 Kerouac experienced a violent attack on his body. While sitting in his living room, drinking whiskey and malt liquor, scribbling on a notepad, the writer felt sick, and began throwing up large amounts of blood (“Stella, I’m bleeding!”).
“Ah, life is a gate, a way, a path to Paradise anyway, why not live for fun and joy and love or some sort of girl by a fireside, why not go to your desire and LAUGH…”
-Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac was raw and untamed, but this we could not fault him for. Like a pilgrim searching for deliverance from evil, Kerouac wandered the land. He kept his eyes open wide, and with his account, a brilliant and timeless perspective of life as an outsider continues to inspire us to this day.
What works most about Jack Kerouac’s style sense is that every man feels they could dress like that. It is not an intimidating look, but really falls on comfort and confidence. There is a mix of his athletic roots, kind-of-academic, and streetwise to boot. Having the latter two is of the dire essence.
“the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”
Jack Kerouac “On the Road”
Sam Riley as “Sal Paradise” in ‘On the Road’ (2012)
Walter Salles’ long awaited screen adaptation of the Kerouac classic premiered on May 23 at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Sam Riley stars as Kerouac’s alter-ego, Sam Paradise, in the film. Click here to visit the film’s website.
Take a listen to this fantastic instrumental from the 1960s. We did, and ever since, we sure haven’t been the same…
From France, comes this cool retro beat that will get you on your feet! It’s hard not to dance once you hit play. Your Mojo will be bubbling and you will not be able to sit your ass down!
We had to share this one with you guys! We haven’t found TOO much information about this great instrumental, so we reckon’ maybe one of our readers will be enlightened and can enlighten US. In the meantime, enjoy this tune and some great pictures that danced their way into this post!
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{MAILA NURMI & ELVIS PRESLEY GOOFING OFF}
