JAN
2011
10

The First Kiss of the Manolo

Manolo says, in concert with the soon-to-be-happening unveiling of the new season of the FN Shoe Star, the Manolo is preparing for the interview with the reporter from the Feetwear News. In so doing, he has been reminded of the interviews past, including one with our shoe friend, Miss Meghan Cleary.

This was memorable to the Manolo because it included this exchange

Shoes you were wearing for your first kiss?

First kiss with the human? In this case, the young Manolo was wearing the pair of the light-brown, high-top, side-button ankle boots which he had purchased at the Rastro flea market for very little money, and which he wore with the striped trousers and Edwardian frock coat of his own design and cut. The teenaged Manolo was in his Young Banker phase (not that he was the actual banker, mind you, but that he liked to dress as if he were the Edwardian banker, or perhaps as if he were the young clerk in the Mary Poppins movie). Strangely, this look would occasionally appeal to the very particular and very odd young peoples. It was one such young person who, while strolling in the park one evening, virtually assaulted the Manolo with the most ardent and unexpected kiss. The Manolo broke free of this amorous embrace and raced home to record it immediately in his journal. Needless to say, all further relations with this person were ended.

Sometimes, it is difficult to be the Manolo.

JAN
2011
10

Botkier Francis Sandal on the Sale

Francis Flat Sandals from Botkier

Manolo says, yes it is the darkest and gloomiest part of the year, when you feel like going back to the bed, pulling the cover over the head, and setting the alarm for April.

And because of this, how can one possibly consider buying the colorful, frisky, vernal sandals from Botkier?

But, the Manolo asks, not rhetorically, will the spring not arrive at its appointed time? And will you not then be needing the colorful, frisky, vernal sandals from Botkier?

And so, thus, would it not be the good time to buy such feetwear, when it is out of the season, and the prices are low?

How low?

This low: the reduction of $85 of the American dollars, almost 45% off of the regular price!

Spring: It is not as far away as you think.

JAN
2011
10

Keeping the Resolutions of the New Year is Hard

Manolo says, the Manolo knows how you feel, Mr. Kitteh.

JAN
2011
10

Bertrand Russell or Russell Brand?

Bertrand Russell and Russell Brand, Separated at Birth?

Stand-Up Philosophers

Manolo says, flippant and glib, best selling author and pop philosopher, seemingly profound, but oh so shallow … is it the Russell Brand or the Bertrand Russell?

    1. “It’s difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe.”
    2. “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
    3. “In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. “
    4.”Be led by your talent, not by your self-loathing; those other things you just have to manage.”
    5. “Rebel children, I urge you, fight the turgid slick of conformity with which they seek to smother your glory.”
    6. “Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.”
    7. “The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.”
    8. “Say I feel all sad and self-indulgent, then get stung by a wasp, my misery feels quite abstract and I long just to be in spirtual pain once more – ‘damn you tiny assassin, clad in yellow and black, how I crave my former innocence, where melancholy was my only trial’.”
    9. “The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy – I mean that if you are happy you will be good.”
    10. “People don’t realize that the future is just now, but later.”

Manolo asks, which quote is whose? Russell Brand or Bertrand Russell?

JAN
2011
10

Beauty at the Choice of the Peoples Awards

Manolo says, our friend Glinda has the few observations about the stars at the Choice of the Peoples Awards.

I want to hate Kim Kardashian, really I do. But damn, her makeup is PERFECT.

JAN
2011
10

Alexandre Birman Strappy Suede Wedge Sandals for the Monday

Manolo says, it is Monday and you are back at your desk, the 2011 stretching out in front of you in the bleak progression of workdays, each one floating briefly into the present time, before slipping silently beneath the waves like the drowning swimmer.

This is not what you imagined your life would be like when you were seventeen, all this incessant working.

But, when you consider the alternative, which would likely involve the not working, to be closely followed by the not paying your bills, the not driving your current car, and ultimately, the not not living in your parent’s basement…

Ayyy! The basement!

Oh how you remember the basement, from when you were seventeen, and you and Tommy Grebbish slipped away with the six pack of the Coors during your parents annual “Welcome the Spring” garden party.

You were so hot for the Tommy that semester, even though now, when you look at the pictures in the yearbook, you realize that he was something of the nerdish pipsqueak, with the buck teeth and the pimples and the wispy mustache. (Although, in his favor, at the time, his mullet was thought quite stylish by all of your friends.)

And so, you were in the basement with Tommy Grebbish, drinking the Coors Banquet Beer, and canoodling on that ugly couch with the wagon wheel arms, and thinking to yourself as Tommy made his move to the second base, “perhaps this was not the good idea, in fact, I don’t really like Tommy Grebbish all that much.”

You were thinking this exact thought when suddenly the door to the basement flings open and your father shouts, “What’s going on down there!”

Apparently, even though there were seventy other peoples at the party, when you disappeared with Tommy and the Coors, your father’s spidey-sense started tingling, and he went to investigate, leaving your brother in charge of the grill.

This, of the course, was bad news for Tommy Grebbish, because at the first note of fatherly bellowing, Tommy leaped to his feets and spilled the Banquet Beer down the front of his pants, causing him to shriek like the little girl, so that when he answered “N-n-n-nothing, sir” it was as if his voice had unchanged, breaking several octaves higher than the carefully practiced imitation of Don Cornelius he usually favored.

Good times, good times.

And then you remember that that same ugly couch is still in your parents’ basement, and you can’t remember if your parents have ever had it steam cleaned.

So you realize that work, while not exactly the perfect way to spend your days, is not really all that bad.

Hey, shoes!

Alexandre Birman Strappy Wedge Sandals

Perhaps the working is not so bad, because not only will it keep you from having to sleep in the parental basement, but it can also give you the moneys to buy the beautiful things such as these strappy suede wedge sandals from the Alexandre Birman