Radical Looks and Gayrods. Happy Friday!

These pictures are all from a Hummer forum (say no more), and I like to think exhibit my point about Item 1. The two guys are Mario Lopez and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (who? Zack!) from Saved by the Bell as well as photoshopped Estrada and Hasselhoff.

I comb through so many blogs and articles for the flotsam that composes my aesthetic collage. I do it to spare you having to wade through all the dreck that I subject myself to just to harvest the juicy, squirming bits. My blogging cycle is accumulate, coagulate, disseminate, do it again.
And here it is. Happy Friday!

1) I suppose I should admit now that I read more than a bit of children's/young adult fiction when I think it follows a conceit I'll enjoy. And I think there's a lot of creativity happening in that realm of fiction right now as many "adult" authors put their noses to it. I like the anything-goes looseness of plot movements in younger-targeted fiction and the operating basis of optimism, especially when I need a break from the dark and bleak stuff I read as well.

Anyhoo, getting the bookish item out of the way, G.P. Taylor is an Anglican priest who wrote the children's book Shadowmancer, which I didn't mind, although I didn't adore it as I'd hoped. I learned via mediabistro that Taylor got himself tossed from a school appearance for saying Harry Potter wasn't the only "gay in the village", a reference to Welshman Dafydd, a recurring character on the hilarious comedy show Little Britain which even Yankees can watch on BBCAmerica. I laughed when I read what Taylor said, especially when I thought of the junior-high schoolers reaction to it. He was obviously playing to the crowd, and I thought it sounded more crude and juvenile than judgmental, like calling your friend a "retard". It does, however, bely the image of all Christians as milquetoast vapor queens reaching for their smelling salts as the first four-letter word. Besides, what else do you expect from a former roadie for the Sex Pistols?

2) I don't usually get such items from NRO, but here's the new, for-real, My Scene Bling Bling Barbie. Back in Chicago, I used to frequent a cheap industrial building under the Lake Street El tracks near the Fulton Street Fish Market. It was the kind of place too smelly, decrepit, and dangerous to rent to anyone but bands in need of practice space. In addition to broke and substance-abusing musicians and criminal vagrants, there were usually a few crack whores loitering around, looking to service patrons on their way to and from basketball and hockey games. This toy really takes me back. Now, where's the black Ken doll in the Oldsmobile Calais?

3) In another surprise, I got this fashion tidbit from Michelle Malkin about the new line from French (naturellement) Anticon's new line of Terror Chic. As a person who spent a youthful phase outfitted like a shoplifter as a fashion statement, I can attest that being followed everywhere by security is at the minimum annoying, especially if there's no real threat. I can further say that I believe these outfits will get one noticed on the subway, at the ATM, in the grocery, church, etc. I doubt you'd be ignored anywhere you showed up, and you might get to see a nice array of munitions and baseball bats. However, I would suggest to parents that bankrolling this fashion initiative for your disappointing offspring could end up in a wrongful death lawsuit that will support you in your golden years far better than a no-account loser.

4) It's true, confirms the Straight Dope, the CLOSE DOOR buttons on the majority of elevators don't do anything. Tell your jittery acquaintances.

5) As I first read in Althouse, schoolgirls in Togo may have to get their heads shaved for school. I was ready to go into full snit until I read the comments section. It's not really a cueball situation so much as a short "natural" which I've found an attractive look since the seventies when it was more popular here. And not only is this requirement common in other African countries, the boys must have short hair, too. Then, when I read about girls skipping school to spend the day in the salon, well, they started to win me over. Get thee to the schoolery ye wanton-haired hussies and larn thee some items for deliverance from endemic poverty and underutilization thine vain and short-sighted Jezebels!

6) Thanks to Drawn! for pointing me to the Hotel Fox in Copenhagen where 21 artists have created 61 rooms as part of Volkswagen's launch of the new Fox. I dislike that the home page calls the designs "whacky" not "wacky", but there is a lot to look at and the room pictures are grouped from X-large on down. It's interesting how many of the artists work with white as the core color as it reflects their backgrounds in 2-D on white paper. Many of the rooms don't look uber-restful, like the one whose bed faces a sort of bog troll topped by the command to SLEEP!, but I liked many of them. I thought Harmony's Helm, looking like a tiled Swedish flag with a golden bull head seemed kind of serene.