Sponsored


Sunday, July 5, 2015

Fads of the 1920s

It's Camp time again -- Camp NaNoWriMo, that is.  I'm doing something a little different for Camp this time, though.  Instead of working on a novel, or even trying to finish past projects as I've done before (e.g., my failed attempt at April's Camp NaNoWriMo), I'm going to blog every day.  I have quite a few blogs and I've been slipping on all of them, so my goal will be to write a couple of blog posts a day for all of July.

Which brings me to an article about the 1920s that I've been meaning to blog about for a couple weeks:

4 Forgotten Fads Of The Past

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Shaping the body in the 1920s

Recently NPR ran this story, about how we've shaped the human body to fit cultural norms throughout history:

Shake What Your Mama Didn't Give You: Shapewear Through The Ages

The article is about how we as a species have always shaped the human body, particularly the female body.  We think we've come so far by rejecting corsets and things like that, but today we still have Spanx, and of course, plastic surgery, liposuction, and entire buildings (gyms) devoted to changing people's bodies.

The temptation is to say, "But the 20s weren't like that!  That's when women rebelled against any expectation for their figures!"  But that's not really quite true.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Catch HBO's 'Bessie' about the life of Bessie Smith

NPR ran a story yesterday about the new HBO movie Bessie, about the life of Bessie Smith, one of the top blues singers during the 1920s.  Queen Latifah plays Bessie, and it's clear from the article that this movie about the blues singer is primarily Latifah's doing.  It sounds like she's been working toward this for more than 20 years.

Queen Latifah — who plays the title role in the HBO movie Bessie, which premieres tonight — has been working for more than 20 years to bring Bessie Smith's life to the screen and finally pulled it together with writer-director Dee Rees.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

The 1920s and the KKK

Sorry for not posting for a long time.  Truth is I've fallen out of the habit of working on my novels and other personal projects every day -- or rather, that habit has been replaced with freelancing endeavors.  I'm devoting April to getting back into the habit, though.  My goal is to write 500 words a day during April for Camp NaNoWriMo.  I have several old projects I want to finish so that I can move on to the next one, so getting back to work again is important.

Anyway, today's topic is the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.  Most people don't realize that the hate group was hugely popular in the 20s.  Not only was it considered culturally acceptable, but it was also a thriving part of the community much of the time.

When The KKK Was Mainstream

Friday, January 16, 2015

A great compilation of 20s music... from Starbucks!

Strictly speaking, this CD isn't all 20s music, but it's a great compilation nonetheless: Fascinating Gershwin, available at Starbucks (or at least, available at the Starbucks I was at yesterday -- I don't know about all of them).

It was the packaging that caught my eye initially, as it looks extremely Art Deco:


And of course as soon as I noticed the names on the sticker, I was sold.

Sponsored


Popular Posts