Hefner and Kerouac

As I’ve worked on my blog over the last seven months or so, I have had in the back of my mind that I must take another look at Hugh Hefner. Boys like me who grew up in the fifties and sixties cut their teeth (and some beat their meat) on his magazine.

My dad, a very modest and conscientious man, had a subscription to Playboy through the sixties. With two teenage sons, he did not work too hard to hide the incoming, brown-paper-wrapped magazines, and my brother—five years older than me—and I had such wonderful, monthly opportunities to spend several hours poring over the latest issue.

Playboy in the sixties had among the highest subscription bases in the USA. It peaked in about 1971. As a proof of its mainstream-ness, consider this ad in a 1968 Christmas edition from Sears & Roebuck.

And consider the literary quality of contributors listed on its cover.
[Click on the picture to make it larger]

Hugh Hefner and the Playboy phenomenon is a complex topic that deserves many book-length studies. Not that Hefner intellectually was and is a very complex man. Rather, he rose to celebrity status and became wealthy at a particular point in American cultural history. By the late sixties, his only work duty was to edit incoming cartoons—of incredible adolescent and misogynist acceptability—and 18-year-old tits. His early authority figure was that celebrated and possibly clinically perverted, scientific expert Alfred Kinsey http://www.leaderu.com/jhs/reisman.html, and as a post-WWII GI early on Hefner entered into a failed marriage with a woman who cheated on him. He was an angry man, and most commentators agree that his magazine was not so much erotic as a sophisticated marketing medium that promoted a bachelor, hedonist lifestyle—not the True magazine image of the man on the hunt in the woods--but the cultivator (consumer) of the bachelor pad, jazz high-fi, culinary arts, European sports car, businessman but not organization man, lover of slam, bam, thank you, ma’am, with complexion color-corrected, young, next-door-innocent females, and with a big payoff from Madison Avenue.

As is my habit, when studying a new subject, I write relatively few words and study the smartest researchers, present and past, two of whom are

Entertainment for Men: Playboy, Masculinity, and Postwar American Culture, by Elizabeth Fraterrigo, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Loyola University, Chicago, April, 2004

and

The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment, Barbara Ehrenreich: Anchor Books, 1983.

Ehrenreich draws this interesting connection between the influences of Hugh Hefner and Jack Kerouac in the 1950s:

Playboy’s assault on the Beats was complicated by an ill-concealed sense of rivalry. Hefner grudgingly acknowledged the Beats as fellow rebels against conformity. He implied, however, that they were faint-hearted allies: “. . . modern-day nihilists for whom it was enough, apparently, to flout and deny.” While the beats dropped wearily from the line of the march, the playboys had gone tearing ahead. The difference, he argued, was that the playboys were ambitious; they wanted clothes, cars, fancy girls and they had the energy to find them. . . .

The Beats, whether celebrating [the working class and disenfranchised] like Kerouac or demanding an “affirmation of the barbarian” in all of us, as the briefly Beat Norman Mailer did, were an unwanted reminder of the invisible class outside and the repressed masculine self within. If they had been political in a conventional sense, offering themselves as champions of the proletariat, they would have been less, not more, subversive in an America that knew how to label, file and dismiss its pinko’s and Communists.

I'm Feeling the Christmas Spirit

And the retailers are drawing me to the buy-hole.

Consider Christmas Giving—though it can hardly be called giving in any traditional sense of the word—is the essence of this secularized festival of consumption. What is given is usually of low utility. In fact, economists call such objects deadweight gifts. “Deadweight” is short for “deadweight loss,” which is the difference between what a gift giver has spent and the value the recipient places on it. Joel Waldfogel, a Yale economist, has estimated that up to a third of the gifts given during Christmas are in this category. Billions of dollars are “wasted” each Christmas as Uncle Louie receives an unwearable Countess Mara necktie from his niece to whom he has sent an unusable Fendi purse. Both parties would be better off giving cash. But they don’t and that is what makes the transaction so interesting to economists and students of luxury.

Living It Up : America's Love Affair with Luxury
by James B. Twitchell

North Dallas Special

In 1952, my parents bought the home I grew up in for about $12,500. As a WWII veteran, my dad was eligible for a no-down-payment, low-interest, fixed-rate loan, and buying the Fox & Jacob's "cookie cutter" suburban house was just as cheap as renting. It had 945 sq. ft., three bedrooms, one bath, a one-car garage, and no air conditioning.

In 1953, my dad bought his first new car, a 1953 Mercury sedan. We were a one-car family, and he joined a carpool with other downtown workers in the neighborhood so that my stay-at-home mom could have a car for her activities during several days of the week.

Today, young parents of comparable economic footing to my parents would shop for a "North Dallas Special." Cynical homebuilders and realtors know they only have 20 minutes to establish curb appeal and other warm status fuzzies to potential buyers. Gaudy McMansion architecture, with complex, ornamental roof structures, "grand" entrances, and cheapness hidden in sides, rear, and general home engineering are what will make the sale to the three-SUV families.
$207,990, 3,277 sq. ft. Fox & Jacob (Centex) home in Rowlett, TX.

Available with no-down-payment, no principal payment, adjustable, Wall Street "guaranteed" mortgage

The crosses indicate a family moved by the Holy Spirit lives in this home

North Dallas Special
A type of house laden with the architectural symbology of upper class inhabitation, displayed in grossly exaggerated form for the purposes of marketing. The term refers to the particular concentration of this mutation in the suburbs north of Dallas, although the phenomenon is by no means confined to this region. The manifestation consists of a very complex roof form, a great deal of articulation in the plan ("breaking the box"), the use of a great variety of window shapes with arches in abundance; a double height portico ("entry feature"), a more expensive material on the front facade (brick, stone) with cheaper cladding (vinyl) to the sides and rear, and a thin veil of classicism (coins, entablatures, pediments, columns) following no known canon. Certain compositional flaws are the consequence of the attempt to incorporate the variety of a large mansion into a house of middling size. The marketing is referenced as "Curb Appeal" which thrives on first impressions projected onto the approach of the customer. The negative consequences of curb appeal are first, that the spatial enclosure is dissolved by the excessive articulation of the facade, and second, that the construction budget is exhausted by the semantics with scarce resources remaining for articulation at the rear yard where it might create some privacy by deploying a back building.

http://parole.aporee.org/work/print.php?words_id=515
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=North+Dallas+special

The North Dallas Special: a single home attempts to create the skyline of an entire village. It is meant to stand alone.

Homebuilders at the upper end of the market appear to be equally misguided in their approach to building design. Pictured here is what has come to be known as the “North Dallas Special,” or, less affectionately, as a “house on steroids.” Despite all its cartoonish qualities—its variety of window types, it overwrought trim—this house represents the industry standard for luxury. The design technique is straightforward: concentrate the budget on extra corners and exaggerated historical references, all in the name of “curb appeal.” Never mind that one practically needs a Ph.D. in physics to assemble this roof; this technique is what developers learn at homebuilding conventions, and what realtors have come to call the “twenty-minute house,” . . . refers to the fact that a house has only twenty minutes to win the affection of a potential buyer, since that is the average length of a realtor visit. The building industry is at its best for the first twenty minutes that one is in it. Specifically, the house is usually organized around a tall “great room” from which, immediately upon entering, the potential buyer is astounded by partial views of almost every room in the house. The disadvantage of this organization is that there is no acoustical privacy for the individual rooms, something that is not discovered until after moving day. Similarly, because so much of the budget is spent on the front of the house (much to the detriment of the street space), the back of the house ends up being a few sliding glass doors in a dead-flat wall, such that the backyard offers no privacy either. You exit the rear door to find yourself completely exposed in a windswept lot, directly visible to the occupants of the five other houses identical to your own.
Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck

Through the fifties and sixties, white flight to the suburbs laid waste to our inner urban centers, creating a "white noose." Dallas has fared better than many due to Texas laws allowing municipalities to aggressively annex outlying suburbs.

Anybody who travels back and forth across the Atlantic has to be impressed with the differences between European cities and ours, which make it appear as if World War Two actually took place in Detroit and Washington rather than Berlin and Rotterdam
James Howard Kunstler, Home from Nowhere (1996)

Why I Am a Drug Addict

I need relief from headache, tension. depression, irratibility, neuralgia and/or neuritis, without stomach distress, like I get from taking peyote.

Rosser Reeves of the Ted Bates Agency claims credit for this series,

which increased sales from $18 million to $54 million in just 18 weeks, so he bragged to The New Yorker that just the spot with the skull bangers "made more money for the producers of Anacin in seven years than Gone with the Wind did for David O. Selznick and MGM in a quarter of a century." Twenty Ads That Shook the World, James B. Twitchell

Maybe I should just take a Bufferin and go to Starbucks.

I’m Trying To Decide What Parts To Botox

Wow, some of these are issues that Botox won’t fix. I might have to go directly to a surgical face lift for those dropped jowls and neck bands. I’ve lost so much fatty tissue under my cheeks that they might have to insert or inject something big to push them back out.

But I don’t have enough money for all of that so I think I will just work on some of the wrinkle areas.

I really hate those horizontal forehead wrinkles--worry lines. They're there all the time and make me look like I'm anxious, interrogative or frightened.



Dang, the wrinkles in my forehead are also going up and down. That frown furrow makes me look mean, but I want to look nice.

Those eyes look narrow and suspicious. The crow's feet are looking more like ostrich feet. Those cholesterol deposits on my eye bags look like zits.

Man, that nose looks like it's been used as a punching bag. That will be an operation in itself.

Those nasolabial folds really make me look old and gaunt. I don't think I'm a particularly bitter person but looking at my mouth would make one think so.

Sucking on those cigarettes also is hurting my facial appearance. If I don't stop soon, my lips may look like this, with vertical smokers lines around the mouth:


Here's my shopping choices. I think I will sleep on it.

Frown Line Fader – The area at the top of the nose and between the eyes is known as the glabellar area. Vertical lines here make one appear angry or worried. Frown Line Fader gives one a more peaceful and pleasant appearance. $280 & up.

Crows Feet Clean Up – Lines at the outer edges of the eye caused by squinting can make one appear mean, exhausted or skeptical. Crows Feet Clean Up restores a young, rested and kind persona. $336 & up.

Forehead Finisher – Horizontal creases on the forehead may cause an aged, questioning or scared expression. Forehead Finisher relaxes these lines, resulting in a serene, youthful and smooth finish. $224 & up.

Lip Line Eliminator – Vertical lines around the lip make one appear harsh and bitter. Lip Line Eliminator eases these lines and makes the person look as though they have a sweet, gentle demeanor. $112 & up

Choice Chin – Uneven muscle tone in the chin area may cause asymmetry and unwanted dimpling. Choice Chin will relax the muscles, resulting in a smoother and better-proportioned chin. $56 & up.

Botox Brow Lift-A small amount of Botox can block the depressor muscles of the eye and give a slight lift to the eye. $168 & up.

http://www.bodyperfectusa.com/menuofservices.html

A Reinhardt of the Mind Poetry Corner

Pied Beauty:


More of this reader's work can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqiU2i2No-8

This one is worth further study:



One of the Beatles' later recordings, from Magical Mystery Tour:

Time and Gravity Weigh Down on Reinhardt Kids

I've had several acquaintances say to me in recent years that the best time of their lives was when they were seniors in high school. At the time, I thought this was odd--that my life has been getting better since high school, that age 17 and 18 was not my best time.

But in retrospect, it makes sense. We are at our prime in high school physically and mentally. It is a fun and adventurous time for most.

And this cold, cruel world can be hard on us as time goes by.

Gravity too takes its toll.

In a previous post, I have examined how physiognomy had some influence on our adolescent social competence. Here, I explore how aging and gravity affects our faces.

In the subject below, we see the effects of age from age 18 to age 58. Note some specific changes:
















The nose continues to grow and flatten as we age. (Thus having delicate feature when young can be an advantage toward older attractiveness). Eyebrows tend to thin and turn grey in color. Ears lengthen too. Elasticity of the skin weakens, and cheeks drop into jowls. For most adults, eyes tend to narrow as we age, due to brow dropping and flattening, but in this subject, the youth picture shows a certain look of "bedroom eyes" not apparent in the older photo. I learned the term "bedroom eyes" from a high school girl friend; it denotes a placement of the pupil high in the eye socket and covered slightly by the eyelid.

Generally, eyes tend to narrow with aging and also drop somewhat into skull, as brows fall and fatty tissue declines. Chins tend to broaden.

Here's another subject:















In this case we again see the broadening and flattening of the nose. Smile lines become accentuated and cheeks fall with loss of elasticity. Brows drop somewhat, become depressed, and crow's feet wrinkles become apparent at outside edges of eyes. Upper and lower eyelids show some drooping, and development of eye bags is apparent. Dropping cheeks create appearance of broader face. Lips lose some prominance due to decline in fatty tissue.

Many of our facial features are tied to our faces' underlying musculature. Our intricate muscles pull facial skin as we age. Botox treatments are a popular method of disconnecting our brains, muscles, and facial skin. To understand better facial changes in the above two subjects, it is helpful to study the muscles of the human face.




















Each of the labeled muscle zones can create dynamic wrinkle areas to cause crow's feet, bunny lines on nose, frown lines, horizontal forehead wrinkles, vertical wrinkle on the upper lip, etc. More about types of wrinkles in a future blog.

Here's another subject showing more pronounced effects of aging:













Nose growth and flattening in this subject are apparent. Smile lines show lack of symmetry due to plastic surgery on right side of face to remove malignant skin cancer on nose. Thinning and flattening of lips can be detected. Upper front teeth show deterioriation (bruxism)from years of nightly grinding while dreams help work through daytime work and home stress. Neck tissue weakens and falls with gravity, creating a double chin. In the upper half of the face, marked assymmetry and aging effects are prominent. Drooping lower eyelids and eye bags are accentuated from deposits of cholesterol due to creeping arteriosclerosis and from emergent liver spots. Crow's feet wrinkles grow at outside edges of eyes.

This subject, though obviously a whole brained person, has had accelerated activity in the left brain executive function of the cerebral cortex, due to job and family stress, which is projected in the enlargened right eye and the upsloping of worry lines in the right side of forehead Inherited pattern baldness led to this poor man's loss of head hair by age 30.

Ears and nose exhibit growth of strong black hairs. Ear wax has less liquidity and requires regular physician extraction. Spots of forehead (actinic keratosis) may at any time turn malignant.

Wrinkling of facial features can follow emotions, and this face shows some indication of continuous feelings of repugnance and horror.

As mentioned in previous blogs, females of the species typically control pair bonds, wavering between potential mates with strong testosterone markers vs. potential mates with willingness/ability to invest in progeny cultivation. Another factor is heterozygosity--that young adults have an ingrained inclination to selecting potential mates that mix up the genes--that diversity of gene stock leads to stronger offspring.

Check out these offspring:














Isn't it marvelous that as humans we have such acuity in discerning the features of fellows of our species?

Praise God for heterozygosity.