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}
+
+
+
DON’T FORGET XIXIXI GETS YOU 25% OFF IN OUR ETSY SHOP!
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!
“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.
Here’s just a tiny taste of one of our favourite Parisian songstress of all-time. The great Françoise Hardy is known for so much more than just her fantastic voice and smooth 60s style.
According to her wikipedia page her credits reach from singer/actress and notes her as a Astrologist (so you better believe we’d be a fan). Surely claiming a spot as one of our divinities of style based on looks alone, which directly influence fashion house Balenciaga. Today it’s her voice which has us buzzing.
From the 1965 album ‘The Yeh-Yeh Girl from Paris!’ comes this amazing track which some of you may recognize from the recent Wes Anderson flick Moonrise Kingdom. Look for more words on this amazing subject in the ‘coming days‘, until then enjoy this delectable peice of 60s sub culture.
We do love our bold spoken hippie dippy style sister Yoko Ono, but truth be told, the tension between her and the Beatles was apparent. We know she and John we’re all about Bed Peace and Worldly Brotherhood, so it’s funny to see-easy going George Harrison jumping out of his seat when he hears the beatnik vixen’s brash bottom has sunk into the same seat!
Harrison spares no expense as he takes a cute shot at bandmate McCartney’s charismatic nature either. Watch the clip above to see George on a talk-show from the 70s for this retro rewind moment! Brought to you by The Eye of Faith !
This music minute was brought to our attention by one of our friends, and the second we heard Yoko Ono‘s iconic cry, we knew we had a Music Minute on our hands. We love strong artistic women who aren’t afraid to speak their mind. Queen of the Lucid Dream, the track “We’re all water” truly draws the conversation… what do we all have in common? The thread of mankind linking us all together is simple! We are all Water!! (duh.)
An amazing recording with great musicians, Stan Bronstein is the KILLER sax player, Tex Gabriel is the other guitarist, Gary Van Scyoc is the bassist and Adam Ippolito is the keyboardist with Rich Frank as the drummer. Oh, and did we mention it was produced by Phil Spector . Give this melodic jubilee a listen, and tell us what you guys think of The Queen of the Peace Movement and Music Scene, Yoko Ono.
Sharing a similar experimental flavour as B-52’s smash “Rock Lobster“. We have to say this track somehow takes it to the next level with comparisons between iconic pop idols, and political figures. From Chairman Mao to Richard Nixon, not to mention a few name drops of Marilyn Munro, Raquel Welsh, Lenny Bruce, and the Queen of England, this experimental jam really knocks our socks off and get’s our toe’s tappin’ BIG TIME.
{MAILA NURMI & ELVIS PRESLEY GOOFING OFF}
