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Fashion | Another Delicious Dish of Celebrity Denim from Courteney Cox

Today's denim dish is brought to you by Courteney Cox who expressed herself with a cool "Truth" t-shirt and simple peg legged dark blue jeans yesterday in Beverly Hills.  Very cute with silver sandals and cool looking necklace.  Love!

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Fashion | More Celebrity Denim ... Marcia Cross Bucks the Tattered Trend

Yes, it seems as though all I write about lately is denim and Michael Jackson - and here comes another post along the same vein.  Marcia Cross stepped out for some shopping in Los Angeles last week donning some fab blue jeans that are decidedly not tattered or torn.  Just nice good old fashioned denim.  We're on semi - hiatus with this blog right at the moment if you're wondering where all our beauty, interior and health stories have gone - but with the big pop culture happening of MJ's passing a couple weeks ago I had to jump in with my two cents about the subject and will continue to do so as facts develop. 

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Fashion | Brooke Shields and Family Catch Some Rays in LA

Pretty Brooke Shields enjoyed some Southern California sun over the weekend with her daughter Grier and hubbie Chris Henchy ~ their dog came along for the outing.  Love the comfy destroyed denim cutoffs.

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Pop Culture | MJ Takes Over the Planet

If you think Michael Jackson is going away anytime soon I would absolutely think again.  While CNN and the news networks are pouring over his death certificate on air (an element of their coverage that seems particularly ghoulish to me) and combing through his legal documents - the rest of the world is settling in on a pop culture theme that seems far more appealing.

YouTube has been serving up reams and reams of lost and overlooked footage of the pop icon - videos like Michael Jackson's Monster (a short film that he made a few years back that I personally had never heard of until a few days ago) and archived interviews that he did before Thriller in which he states his main goal was to be a film maker are getting millions of views - allowing us fresh and unfettered insight into the man behind the mask.   I've been collecting my favorites on our Bloomacious YouTube Channel and will continue to add the standouts as I find them.  I would love to see a documentary someday that featured Michael solely in his own words, rather than accompanied by interpretative commentary, I think it would reveal much more about him than we ever knew.

As with Elvis, Michael seems to be in a very talkative mood now that he's made it to the Other Side - granting interviews with psychics like Sylvia Brown and James Van Praagh (who BTW I both admire but admid the spectacle of all this seems sort of funny really) - saying that he's happy and at peace - which in truth I'm sure he is.   He also popped up in a tour of Neverland Ranch!  You can bank that these are just the start of the communication highway that will spring up now between Michael and the media.

Much like Jesus and Mary, the image of Michael has been cropping up in trees, clouds, blades of grass - I'm sure he'll be spotted on a potato chip soon.

T-Shirts and accessories featuring Michael's image are a hot item - above are some beautiful creations made by Tarina Tarantino recently of MJ in his various phases (that are unfortunately not for sale) but serve as some fabulous inspiration for the cottage industry that is blossoming.  As Tarina mentions in her comments - there isn't just one man any longer - what remains are a string of impressions and images from across his lifespan.  My favorite MJ is the one below, from around 1988.
 
And now that Jackson's doctors are finally speaking out about the devastating effects that he suffered from Lupus and Vitiligio - perhaps more research and treatments will be available to others suffering from the same diseases.  The notion that Jackson may have died from a disease is far less glamorous and headline grabbing than reporting that he was a drug addict, but it may well turn out to be the case - and if so, perhaps a well funded research foundation will be set up in his name.

Art | Fifi and Divine Take Bergdorf's

In a magnificent irony (to me), this is precisely what I was looking at the moment that I'd heard Michael Jackson had passed away.  "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination," a quote from Einstein.  At that moment, Bergdorf Goodman was setting up a very inspired display of artwork from the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore - an organization that promotes and celebrates the work of self trained artists - certainly Jackson is one of most celebrated of these in history.  Behind the quote is a display of intricate line drawings created by artist Ted Gordon - each face drawn without pen ever leaving paper.

Included in the exhibit are artist Andrew Logan's statue of Divine, the drag diva of so many John Waters films, and a scaled down version of Fifi - a giant pink poodle that normally dons wheels and headlines at many of AVAM's events.  Even the smaller version was too large for the windows and was placed inside the store in the handbag and accessories salon.


The windows are filled with more than 50 pieces from the museum including one with wooden critters sculpted by Clyde Jones (including a pink horse and a turquoise dog), and another with Devon Smith's robot family (below).  There's also a window devoted to the "Aliens vs. Angels" chess set crafted by Lyle Estill.



To see more artwork from AVAM and photos from this exhibit head over to their facebook page which features a good selection of shots from Bergdorf's as well as other events that they have hosted recently.  The windows will be up until mid July.

Fashion | Teri Hatcher Rocks Some Destroyed Denim In NYC

Teri Hatcher stepped out with daughter Emerson Rose last night in New York wearing these cute destroyed black denim jeans with some bandagy sandals and a soft billowy blouse.  Emerson is very cute too in her contrasting pink ensemble.

Music | Madonna and Michael

By now you've probably heard that Madonna saluted Michael Jackson over the weekend by inviting an impersonator onstage and showing some of the Gloved One's photos from his awkward teen years (probably not his favorite era).  I always feel a little sorry for the poor schlubs who try to take on legends like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Lucille Ball and Jackson ~ the comparisons always come up short and serve primarily to remind of the rare magic that these souls possessed.  (Speaking of dressing up like Marilyn, check out the shot of Jackson and Madonna at the Oscars in 1991 here).

Michael Jackson's passing has forced me down memory lane in a way that has been thoroughly surprising to me.  Remembering a personal trauma that I was living through when Thriller came out and how the singer's shy smile and fresh new sound was one of the few things that cheered me at the time.  I think I gently came to regard him as some sort of psychic friend all these years, however much I'd more or less forgotten about him. 

Seeing him impersonated now, so soon after his passing serves to remind how remarkable he really was - how he could move and strut - spellbinding us, the audience as we wondered what on Earth was going to do next.  An impersonator can replicate the dance steps but never the dancer.

Jackson himself has become a mirror of sorts since his death.  When you look at his videos and photos from over the years what reflects back often has much more to do with the viewer than with the man.  Whether you see jagged edges or joy - like a human Rorschach test, the image you see could have far more to do with your interpretation than facts.  I've been looking at a lot of websites over the past few days, watching news reports, and talking to tons of people - I've been heartened by the outpouring of love.  A smaller fraction have reacted lewdly and with dark thoughts - which says far more about the commenter than the subject.

And when it comes to Madonna and Michael Jackson, I always thought they would have made a remarkable couple - both dancers who ruled the 80's, about the same age and often the center of controversy (often intentional, sometimes not) - and both committed to evolving and changing.  But what an endlessly funny pair they would have made too .. could you imagine the children those two would have had?  Ah well.  Found these pictures of the pair from 1991 at The Ivy in Los Angeles - love the way Michael looks giddily nervous as Madonna walks in front and then of course is driving the car as they leave.