fantasy
Today one cable TV channel showed reruns of American Idol. While I don’t religiously follow the show, I like it enough to keep it on while reading TC Boyle’s “Drop City” (more on this in later posts). The finale of Season 6 was on, where Gwen Stefani performed “4 in the Morning.”
My thoughts while watching: 1) I love this song and 2) Man, if I can temporarily trade lives with anyone, it would have to be Gwen Stefani. I mean, come on. Vocalist of one of the coolest rock bands in the 90s, successful solo career, amazing cross-over into fashion–I want to wear every single piece from her L.A.M.B. line’s Spring 2008 Ready-to-Wear collection. She also has a a hot musician husband, and two kids named Kingston and Zuma! How cool is that?
Aside from Gwen Stefani, I’d also like to know what it’s like to be Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, daughter of French Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld. I adore her style, and the way she can wear an all-black outfit without looking like she’s going to a funeral (it’s the varying textures, the minimalist but bright makeup, and the smile).
Now, if I can temporarily trade lives with someone and go back in time, I’d like to be Lori Maddox at the peak of her affair with Jimmy Page. Hihihi.
According to Stephen Davis’s “Hammer of the Gods,” Jimmy, who was then in his late 20s or early 30s, chased then 14-year-old Lori all over town. She kept avoiding him because she was afraid of the older groupies who she said would surely beat her up if they found out she was with Jimmy, but he was Jimmy Page man, founder and lead guitarist of Led Zeppelin, so he had her…kidnapped, sort of.
According to Lori, this is how it went (from “Hammer of the Gods”):
Next thing you know, we’re all back at the Riot House. We’re walking down the corridor of one of Zeppelin’s floors and suddenly I got snatched–kidnapped–into the room. It was dimly lit with candles and at first I couldn’t really see. And then I saw Jimmy, just sitting there in the corner, wearing this hat slouched over his eyes and holding a cane…he looked just like a gangster. It was magnificent!
And then she goes on to describe him as the most romantic guy in the world, how he’d fly back to her after concerts and how they’d cry once they reach the hotel because they were so happy to see each other. Of course, this was all just from Lori’s point of view, but man, win.
Jimmy of course later turned out to be an ass by ditching Lori to be with Bebe Buell (rock star muse, Liv Tyler’s mom, part of the inspiration for the character Penny Lane in Almost Famous). Ah, well.
cultured
I had to skip work today because I woke up with a fever; my throat felt like someone rubbed sandpaper on it and sprinkled salt on the wounds afterwards. This is what I hate most of all about having the flu: for me it’s always coupled with a really nasty case of sore throat. Sometimes I lose my voice for days, and when I do get it back it sounds gravelly.
I therefore conclude that working through the holidays does not do the body good. I suspect that I got the flu when I joined the network’s roving team on New Year’s Eve–I was the (pseudo) TV reporter for the day. It was raining a bit but we had to interview fireworks vendors, most of whom were more than willing to get in front of the camera. It was an interesting day, actually.
Anyway, I’m gonna use the weekend to get some much-needed rest and catch up on my pop culture–and 70s counterculture–fix. For this day alone I saw for the nth time a couple of movies and a couple of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. episodes, and also read a few chapters of Tom Wolfe’s “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”
That reminds me, here’s a shot of the latest acquisitions:
"read me!," they scream
Two of these were gifts, the rest BookSale finds. Love ‘em. And the dog, too.
