Dildohair

« A mannequin with a seriously phallic hairdo. »

I am almost always entertained by the window dressing in shops around Helsinki. Besides the gravity defying breasts and implausibly perky nipples, the variety of mannequin styles and creative displays which rotate at least weekly make them the most interesting free show you can find. There is a mannequin in the window of UFF who has no arms and bears an expression that makes him seem as though he is being painfully savaged from behind while enjoying it thoroughly. I have dubbed him 'the agony and the ecstasy.' Every time I pass the window I giggle as the person in charge of doing the window displays has quite a lot of fun giving him a new look from the hodgepodge of recycled clothes every few days. I've been wanting to do a series of photos of him since it's pure comedy. The model with the dildo hair was pretty hilarious as wouldn't it be a bitch to wear in high winds or through low doorways? Perhaps it's easier than wearing high heeled shoes to give the illusion that you're taller than you really are. Then again, like hairstyles, nothing ever looks as good on you as it does in the catalogues or on the models.

The news continues to be rather grim and sad in spite of my giddy glee over the puppies. I have been watching the red state v. blue state, north v. south sniping grow. It just seems like the country is totally distracted with utterly meaningless shit while the stuff they should be paying attention to is going by mostly unnoticed. The Dems should be really concerned about the most important and most potentially lasting damage this president will do in the next four years; kooky ultra-neocon appointments to the Supreme Court. Instead, everyone is hissing at each other and not really doing much good. Gonzales, the new AG nominee, the guy who justified Gitmo, will likely sail on through the confirmation because of this. There is but one hope I have now after all others have failed and that is knowing that history is on our side as every radical right-wing regime in the past has managed to hang itself and be met with rejection and rebellion. An opportunity will come and we can only hope people have their act together when it does.

The NYT had an article yesterday, Even Digital Memories Can Fade, about the impending crisis with the woefully inadequate archival properties of digital media and formats. Digital fanatics scoff at me when I mention one of the primary reasons I went back to film was precisely because of film having proven archival qualities whereas digital media has a very poor record and decreases steadily over time. The digiheads try to say that film only lasts 100 years but they'll be lucky to get 10 with their digital files if they aren't vigilant. I could put my negatives in a shoe box on a closet shelf and find them 50 years from now in a still usable format. Prints on acid-free paper when stored properly could last possibly 200 years. I can use a database to help me catalogue each roll of film, assign it a number and note which binder they are in, but if that vanishes, I still have hard copy. Perhaps it is something about our attitude towards everything being disposable anymore, that living in the moment or 20 minutes into the future is hip and modern and the past is nothing more than a quaint notion, but pictures that exist only in 1's and 0's have a really good chance of being unavailable in a relatively short amount of time. Print the photos you want to keep.