'Tis the Yeare's Midnight and 'Tis the Daye's....

Happy Saint Lucy's Day!!!! May it bring you saffron buns and hot coffee in bed and a crown of candles!!!

And a good seat for the shindig tonight in Siracusa! Which is too old and beautiful for saffron buns and even more pagan than Scandanavia. I think this may actually be the reliquary with her actual 8th century braciol' in it. The green hats, me want. The traditional cuccia, not so much.

A Nocturnal upon Saint Lucy's Day

'TIS the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks ;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays ;
The world's whole sap is sunk ;
The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the bed's-feet, life is shrunk,
Dead and interr'd ; yet all these seem to laugh,
Compared with me, who am their epitaph.

Study me then, you who shall lovers be
At the next world, that is, at the next spring ;
For I am every dead thing,
In whom Love wrought new alchemy.
For his art did express
A quintessence even from nothingness,
From dull privations, and lean emptiness ;
He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death—things which are not.

All others, from all things, draw all that's good,
Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have ;
I, by Love's limbec, am the grave
Of all, that's nothing. Oft a flood
Have we two wept, and so
Drown'd the whole world, us two ; oft did we grow,
To be two chaoses, when we did show
Care to aught else ; and often absences
Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.

But I am by her death—which word wrongs her—
Of the first nothing the elixir grown ;
Were I a man, that I were one
I needs must know ; I should prefer,
If I were any beast,
Some ends, some means ; yea plants, yea stones detest,
And love ; all, all some properties invest.
If I an ordinary nothing were,
As shadow, a light, and body must be here.

But I am none ; nor will my sun renew.
You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun
At this time to the Goat is run
To fetch new lust, and give it you,
Enjoy your summer all,
Since she enjoys her long night's festival.
Let me prepare towards her, and let me call
This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this
Both the year's and the day's deep midnight is.

-- John Donne

Old Babes

Is that a leather top you’re wearing in this photograph?
Yes. I wore it when I went to speak at the first meeting of our University of Chicago lesbian and gay alumni association, and I thought it was so sweet for them to invite somebody who wasn’t gay to be their keynote speaker. But I wore this outfit, and they said, “We want to thank you for wearing leather.”

-- Martha Nussbaum, who goes on to scrupulize about marrying again or eating in restaurants when others cannot.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/magazine/13FOB-Q4-t.html

I know that people I worship around here worship Martha but I think the booties in this pic, or maybe its the ninja jacket, not to mention that it is leather, or maybe the sum of the parts, is too much.

I can't gank the pic as is the usual practice of the fashion police. I have accused Martha of dressing like a transsexual, not that there's anything wrong with that, but there is something both cluelessly butch and over-fastidious in the way the goddess dresses. Is she channeling Judith Butler or cruising her? One could begin with the too-tan decolletee and the ca. 1988 anchorbitch necklace, going for the Andree Putman PIB look. I think Putman pulls it off. I think. Jury still out on Putman, though Putman definitely has the Old Babe hair problem licked. I think there is a not so very fine line, of which Nussbaum and Putman may be beyond the pale, between Old Babe and what we call in Spanish, a vieja verde. Which is nasty, and the antidote for which is watching the shipboard scene -- the midget doppelganger with the makeup -- in Death in Venice annually. Compare and contrast with the Italian Old Babes of a previous post. Or the adorable Princess Lilian.


Andree Putman

What I'm saying is Martha is not following the Old Babe accessories rule. If you wear the red lipstick, you have to eliminate almost everything else you're wearing, the ca. 1995 Vamp nail polish at the top of the list. If you wear the ninja leather jacket, you do not wear the red lipstick, the Happy Rockefeller Hair Done, the low cut wifebeater, the necklace, the mini skirt, the opaque black stockings and the booties.


Happy Rockefeller

If you wear the jacket, you wear it, I think, with pants. Actually, the mini is good. If you wear the booties, you wear them with pants and not that jacket. Oh Jeez, the wifebeater again. She's got a thing about her bicepses. As I do not. Please. Martha. Dude. Put your shirt on.


Nussbaum in what I have called her Jan Morris outfit, with the wifebeater, anchorbitch necklace, Happy Rockefeller hair and biceps, but without the ninja leather jacket she sports in today's NYT.

And I have to say, viewing the most recent Tina Turner concert, while she certainly is old and certainly is a babe, Tina, grrrl, it's time to pack it up when you can hardly walk across the stage and the backup dancers (BUDs) have to do the heavy lifting. Yikes. Love the Lurex pedal pushers tho. And I'm, uh, relieved you didn't wear the booty short version your BUDs rock. Oh jeezus. I'm not sure that's enough of a credential to award you Old Babe status. Like Putman, however, you do have what is possibly the very best Old Babe hair.

Old Babes: Gender Bender Academic Trailblazers

I'm way beyond criticizing Martha Nussbaum for showing her fanny. Or whatever it is. That's not at all what I'm objecting to. Here are some of her betters in the pansexual pantheon of really well-dressed academic Old Babes.

( Camille Paglia )

( Judith Butler )

( Susan Sontag )