Meet me tonight in Atlantic City

♡

"Atlantic City, that granddaddy of all shore resorts, is a place of warmth and whimsy, of sun-bleached boardwalks and grand if slightly tatty architecture, where hotels may take the shape of an elephant, and the ghosts of vacationers past--Diamond Jim Brady was one--stalk the verandas. Atlantic City is also the natural setting for this season's nostalgic fashions. Updatings by designers, ranging from Elder Master Norman Norrell to the off-beat young, recall a time when every lady bore a parasol. And though unabashedly romantic, the styles are fresh as the salt breeze, saved from being saccharine by a sense of simplicity and, occasionally, humor."

-- Nostalgia by the Seaside, Life Magazine, 1968

♡

{This blue frock is an early Betsey Johnson number!!}

Pictures by William Christenberry

untitled; 1979

Often I find buildings can be as fascinating and engaging to look at as any human face, and William Christenberry's photographs are a fine example of this. Growing up in a post-agricultural-boom hamlet, I was peculiarly fixated on the abandoned farms and houses near my home; as a girl, my sketchbooks and journals were just filled with stories, poems, and drawings of these vacant buildings out in the hills, imagining up all the stories that could be within their walls. His portraits of dilapidated buildings bring me back to those feelings of summertime wonder and exploration, tinged with the strangeness of decay. Christenberry also has a wonderful eye for folk advertising signs, and his manner of capturing vestiges of local color is reminiscent of F.S.A. photographers like my beloved Walker Evans.

Now, a major pet peeve of mine is the recent trend for "ruin porn", or senseless romanticization of abandoned buildings (like the pictures of abandoned Detroit which make us go "oh, how tragic!"). I find this a problematic way to look at these modern ruins, as it reduces them to glorified "has-beens" and doesn't take any heed of the larger cultural and social implications of urban decay. I think Christenberry's work nicely shows a way of documenting faded structures without lapsing into that trite and reductive sea, however. His buildings may be weathered and derelict, but they are also bursting with the vitality of a past culture. Looking at them doesn't make me feel melancholic or nostalgic, but rather I see the potential for art and beauty in these otherwise overlooked old buildings.

South End of Palmist Building--Havana, Alabama; 1979

Cotton Warehouse Door with Cart--Selma, Alabama; 1979

House and Car, near Akron, Alabama; 1981.

untitled; 1979

Union Gas Station, Near Greensboro, Alabama; 1977

Child's Grave w/Roses, Hale County, Alabama; 1975

Have a fine weekend now!

♥♥♥

krazy kismet

Greetings earthlings! Would you believe, so soon after this post, I stumbled upon this jewel of a 1950s Egyptian-themed dress?! 'Twas $10 at a sale at my favorite antiques store, and though I need another summer dress like a hole in my head, I couldn't turn down this stroke of good fortune.

I don't believe I have done a proper outfit post to this site since the autumn... and here it is, almost Spring! Well, I've spent most of the winter in California where I didn't have a digital camera, and then the California Casual bug bit me hard! Now I'm back in the 802; time to get back in the game!! I'll confess I'd rather wear this dress with bare arms and sandals, but in spite of all my daydreaming it is winter. (Hence the funny turtleneck ;)

Such a great print, and in hot pink no less!

For my American friends, I hope you've got President's Day off and are having a grand weekend. I'm visiting my family, and reveling in a spot of sunny Spring-like weather ♥