Manolo says, over at the Ayyyy! blog our friend Raincoaster has put together what the Manolo considers to be the greatest gallery of famous people wearing fishing hats ever!. If you have ever wondered what would Ava Gardner would wear with her hip waders, or what the late Queen Mum wore on vacation, this is the post for you.
Manolo says, it is Tuesday, time to see what the Manolo is…
It is almost time to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Chopin!
Manolo says, here are the few links which may perhaps amuse…
Manolo says, Ice skating, it is so poetic, like Shelley!
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“As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.”
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“Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!”
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“I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!”
Manolo says, it is Monday and you are back at your desk doing that thing that you do to earn your panem cotidianum. Unfortunately, the computer on your desk is not pulling its own weight in this relationship. Indeed, it is actively hindering you, by making weird clicking noises, flickering its screen menacingly, and frequently crashing. (If it were the strange cat acting this way, you would throw the stones at it.)
And, although you have tried everything in your bag of techo-tricks, to include repeatedly pushing the On button, jiggling the power cord, shouting imprecations, and banging the console with both fists, nothing has worked.
Which means you must now call the IT guys.
And as you dial the phone you whisper the short prayer. “Nice Greg. Nice Greg. Nice Greg. Nice Greg.”
And when the voice on the other end of the line answers, “Information Technology” you realize that it is neither Nice Greg, nor Creepy Greg but someone much worse. It is Angry Anna, the recent hire who replaced Pranav, who went back to India to get married and never returned. (You remember him because he loved the movie Spaceballs so intensely that he showed up to three Holloween parties in the row dressed in the remarkably realistic Darth Helmet costume.)
Anyway, you are not happy to hear the voice of Angry Anna, because from the moment she was hired it was evident that she came with the elaborate routine of shoulder shrugs, eye rolls, theatrical sighs, and muttered asides pre-installed. And every interaction with her over the past two months has been like the trip to the particularly stern dentist, one who is always shaking his head and tsk-tsking loudly and saying strange things under his breath.
And so you explain the problem to Angry Anna.
“Um, my computer is like not working and stuff,” said with the sharply rising inflection, which is not what you intended to say, and certainly not how, but Angry Anna has flustered you.
There is the heavy sigh on the other end, followed by the lengthy silence, and then, finally,
“Alright,” heavy sigh,”I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
And five minutes later she stomps into your workspace, her black hair all askew, and her eye makeup five shades too dark and three layers too heavy, muttering like the street person.
She taps the few keys sharply, and then bends down under your desk and fiddles with the back of your machine. When she emerges you are expecting that she will give you the usual withering look of disdain, but instead she says something completely unexpected.
“Are those the Nike Cole Haan Veronas?”
“Yes,” you answer, shocked that Angry Anna has made reference to your shoes, rather than disparaged your technical abilities.
“I have a pair of those,” and here she launches into the spirited, mostly one-sided conversation about how she was wearing her Nike Cole Haan Veronas two weeks ago when she met this really great guy who, like her, was “into LARPing the H.P. Lovecraft universe”, and how they totally hit it off over the technical discussion of how best to build the Elder Ones costume using foam inserts and denim. And now this is her new boyfriend, and it’s all because of these shoes.
“Yes.” You reply, realizing you have now bonded with Angry Anna the IT nut.
Manolo says, ayyyy! The Manolo loves this site, Dos Mujeres y Un Vestido.
Manolo says, what is one of the hottest and most surprising trends of this season?
The studded ballet flat!
The Memphis Ballet from Be + D.
The Dotsalot by Stuart Weitzman
One of these too cute flats, paired with the skinny jeans, and the right attitude (think: vulnerable tough girl out on the town, fresh from yoga with the chai latte, kick-starting her 1946 Indian motorcycle) and you will rock.
Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.
Dear Manolo,
I’m working in a job that pays me far too little with far too little personal satisfaction, and while I know that in this economy I should be thankful to even have a job, I’m still dissatisfied. I’m especially unhappy that I can’t afford to wear better shoes to work. Please help me find something that’s both good-looking and affordable.
Megan
Manolo says, oh how the Manolo empathizes with his friend’s situation, for the Manolo himself has been more than once stuck in the menial job, laboring like the monkey for the handful of peanuts.
As the Manolo always recommends, you should save up your moneys so as to afford the truly super fantastic shoes, as few things feel as good as wearing amazing shoes.
But the Manolo also knows exactly what it is like to be poor, so poor that you must fashion your own super fantastic shoes out of dented hubcaps and pieces of rubber tire that you have gathered from along the verge of the highway and glued together with your own salty bitter tears.
Look, here is the Temptation from Circa Joan and David, the kitten-heeled pointy-toed pump that would look very smart at work for not too much moneys.
Manolo says, this season, dingly-dangly, jingly-jangly chains are the rage, although, some designers may have perhaps taken this one step too far.
Behold! The Pandora from Rock and Republic, for people who think Roberto Cavalli is too restrained.
