submerging from your world and back into my bliss, a day rolled into one is burning on my lips

I can’t believe I never put two and two together – but the model of one of my all-time favorite Esquire covers (under the art director of George Lois) was none other than Warhol superstar Susan Bottomly. Susan was featured as “The New American Woman: through at 21” in the February 1967 issue as the glammy girl sticking out of a rusty trash can. Of the infamous image, Lois said “So I had her with her tush in the garbage can. I gotta tell you, some women hated it, but plenty of them were laughing their asses off. My wife said that she went to a beauty parlor that week, the month when it came out, and they hung it in the beauty parlor and the women were laughing their heads off.”

The cover article for which Bottomly posed for was heavily revised to fit the statement-making image – “The article described a pseudotypical Los Angeles woman, prone to suicide, sexually jaded, hooked on pills and astrologically obsessed, who was supposed to be the wave of the future for all American women coming into their early 20s,” explained a Time article from 1967.

The image comes from a 1966 photo session that Susan (who was by then Andy Warhol's partying partner-in-crime and dubbed "International Velvet") posed for with Warhol, by legendary photographer Carl Fischer. 

Title: from " As If By Magic" (La Roux)

Joker

Title: Joker
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Art Work: Lee Bermejo and Mick Gray
Publisher: DC Comics
A while back I went to my local comic shop to check out what they had. While I was there I started talking with the guy that worked in the store. He told me he was a huge fan of the Joker, and even showed me a tattoo he had of him. I was surprised to see someone that loved the Joker that much. I also have to agree, the Joker is a pretty awesome character. In the Batman movies he is always the character that most people like as well because he stands out from the rest of the evil villains. Later that week I went to my local library to check out what they had in stock. To my surprise they had a graphic novel of the Joker, simply called Joker. I just had to get it and once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop. This graphic novel blew my mind away. The artwork is so amazing; it mixes between regular comic book drawings and paintings. The Joker is drawn similar to the version Heath Ledger created in the movie The Dark Knight, with a Glasgow smile and his iconic green hair. You can almost feel the emotions of characters from how they are drawn.

What complements these drawings is the darkly written story line. It simply brings the Joker character to a whole darker and scarier level. The story is written from the perspective of an up-and-coming criminal named, Jonny Frost. Jonny is so ambitious to make his name be known that he is willing to join the Joker and follow him where ever he goes. At first the Joker is shown to be the regular villain that everyone knows, creating the type of havoc that everyone loves. As the story progresses and Jonny starts to get to know more about the man he idolizes, he soon starts to regret this decision. The Joker goes from sinister to psychopathic to a beast that no one would envy, and would actually fear.

However for Jonny it is too late by the time he realizes what he has gotten himself into and this is what I found brilliant about the book. Everyone always finds the good guy (Superman or Batman) boring and instead likes to cheer for the bad guy. But in Joker, you come to realize that the bad guy is someone you don’t ever want to meet, and that when you do feel helpless the only person you can call is the good guy, Batman. When the Dark Knight finally does appear, you really start to appreciate what he does; he fights evil. As simplistic as that may sound, one will only understand how great this is until you have been through hell and see someone at the end of the tunnel willing to help. I have to say this is by far my favorite graphic novel of all time.

Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joker_(graphic_novel)
DC Comics link:
http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/graphic_novels/?gn=10157

The Lovin' Linkful

I'm such an internet vulture - I roam around on the web for hours and hours looking for ... well, I'm never actually sure what I'm looking for. As a result of my dedicated "research," I come across websites, articles, links galore that I usually just bookmark and go back and creep on at a later date. Well, in an effort to be less shady, I decided to share the e-wealth that I've garnered. Hopefully this can be a weekly thing, but here is "The Lovin' Linkful." And yes, I am ripping off the Lovin' Spoonful - because I am that pop culturally relevant.

Check out this funny website about the most bangable dudes throughout history, complete with mathematical reasoning (PIE CHARTS!) behind their hotness - the website's creator is obviously a girl after my own heart. (Bangable Dudes in History)

I already am in love with the Christian Lacroix-inspired reimagining of Sleeping Beauty. Buy this book and then squee about all the future fashion fairy tales that Camilla Morton is writing. (Harper Collins)

As part of her tour de force attempt to make herself seem more down-to-earth, Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that she buys a lot her of beauty products at pharmacies. Exclusive Parisian pharmacies stocked with expensive oils, naturally. What, did you think homegirl shopped at CVS? (Goop)

Jenna Lyons. Love her. Want to be her. Get to meet her on Tuesday at the FABB Conference. Eeek! (Huffington Post)

Check out the "Mark by Mark Zuckerberg" collection. Make your parents feel super groovy and in-the-know and send it to them. But make sure they realize it's a joke. (Mark by Mark Zuckerberg)

Apparently, I'm on a dead person kick today, because I am really diggin' this tumblr. (letters to dead people)

"Supermarket?! I don't go to the supermarket! I'd rather buy clothes." Reason #362 why Anna Dello Russo and I are soulmates. (Vogue UK)

Seven easy resolutions that you can actually keep. No excuses. (Glamour)

Excuse the fact that I never thought Jane Eyre was the best book ever. If I was Jane, I would never have stuck with Rochester and his one-armed douchebaggery. (The Hairpin)

Do yourself a favor and become as obsessed with this website (and its super lovely creator, Michelle) as I am. (Beauty Editor)

It's no secret my desire to live inside of a Sofia Coppola movie. Until that time comes, Meaghan Antoinette's très chic tumblr gets me through. (Let Them Eat Cake)

My good friend Emilie sent this to me - fill out your very own Proust Questionnaire and see which famous figures from years past share your same fears and vices. (Vanity Fair)

Okay - what do you guys think? Hope you enjoyed it / did not already know all of these sites before.

A million x's and o's,
Alexis

she’s well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane

The troubling thing about writing a retro-themed blog at times is that many of the actors and actresses that I admire are either dead, or even worse, still have that inevitable fate in front of them. For many of us, death comes much too soon; our lives are cut short before we can do all the things we wanted to do. All we can hope for is that we have experienced enough and truly lived enough in our lives to have no regrets when the final bell rings.
Such is the case with Maria Schneider, who passed away in Paris today at the age of 58. The actress is best-known for her role in Bernardo Bertolucci's film Last Tango in Paris.
Cast at the tender age of nineteen, Maria played opposite Marlon Brando as two steamy lovers about to part. The role in Tango brought her a lot of attention, but her acting merits warranted it - she does a terrific job in the film, balancing the emotional extremes of the film's narrative. Schneider struggled with the aftermath of her role in the controversial film, once saying, "I was too young to know better. Marlon later said that he felt manipulated, and he was Marlon Brando, so you can imagine how I felt. People thought I was like the girl in the movie, but that wasn't me."
As she looks down upon all of us this wintry night, I hope Maria doesn't mind my paying tribute to her great life, as the star of Last Tango in Paris.

Title: from "Happiness is a Warm Gun" (The Beatles)

to be loyal i'd even let love pass by, i'm a drifter, the man from tokyo

Tonight, I watched Tokyo Drifter (no relation to Tokyo Drift) - an interesting film from 1966 by Seijun Suzuki. Drifter is centered around young gangster Tetsu who decides to quit his criminal lifestyle. But in typical gangster film fashion, fellow mobsters won't let that happen - either Tetsu plays the game, or he's dead. The biggest mobster in Tokyo, Otsuka, threatens the honest business venture of Tetsu's reformed boss Kurata in order to pressure the duo back into their criminal ways. As a result, Tetsu decides to become a drifter - leaving Tokyo, Kurata, and his girlfriend, a nightclub singer named Chiharu, behind him. He is finally drawn back to Tokyo when he is betrayed someone who he trusted the most - and a true-to-form gangster ending plays out. He also inexplicably sings a lot throughout the movie. 
I love the highly stylized world that Tokyo Drifter exists in. Suzuki's production was a 'B' picture - and he fully relishes in this, indulging in the catchy, kitschy universe within the B-movie culture. Similar to 'Nevers' claim in Hiroshima mon amour of a city that never shuts off, Tokyo is presented as a frenzied, vibrant city chock full of gangsters and their girlfriends. Suzuki creates a Japan that belongs in a comic book of crime, similar to that of Godard's Made in USA. The opening scene of the film is a deeply contrasting black-and-white. And when I say contrast, I do mean contrast - the faces of the various gangsters are black as night, and the sky is so white it looks overexposed and is absent of any gradients. The opening scene provides an interesting association (or disassociation) with the vibrant colors of the rest of the film.
I loved the play of color in the film, as the color outfit or color setting that the scene was placed in took symbolic meaning to the storyline. The main character Tetsu wears suits that are light suit, light khaki, and white; as a man who has lived a lucky life (as he is referred to as "Tetsu of the charmed life"), his clothes remain pristine no matter the brutally violent situations he so often finds himself in. The final scene of the film - the emptied nightclub that turns from black to white once Tetsu enters the room - is an instance of such color symbolism. Surrounded by other gangsters wearing black suits, it is only Tetsu and Chiharu who are wearing clean white outfits to match the perfectly white nightclub (and the white donut-looking thing hanging above the piano), and it is no coincidence that they are the only ones who make it out alive, and they are the final characters (and dialogue exchange) that the viewer sees.
The violence is typical both of B movie features, as well as of the sixties. In a word, its unbelievable. But Tokyo Drifter uses that to its advantage. If Suzuki was able to achieve Tarantino-levels of blood and gore, we would feel sick to our stomachs at the number of people that Tetsu has killed. But since the kookiness of the film is so stressed, we are never quite sure when someone is dead (characters assumed to be dead later turn up alive, vice versa; Tetsu 'dies' in a scene but then begins to whistle casually on the floor). Because of that, the film is able to retain its lighthearted tone. 

Title: from "Tokyo Drifter" theme song

pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name

Hello everyone, I don't think we've ever been formally introduced. My name is Alexis, and I am the Dolly Rocker Girl.
Over the last two years that I've had this site, I've played around with different noms de plume - Jane, Queen Jane (I got a wee bit more creative there), I think I was Astrid for a time, the list goes on and on - until I finally just went back to Dolly Rocker Girl as my profile name.
It seemed simple enough - I wanted to be anonymous and to keep the site unattached from my own life, and having the nameless DRG at the helm of these posts seemed like the best option. It was not for the sake of mystery or interest à la Banksy, but there has been a bit of interest in the past about who I was (more often and not, the question was whether or not I was truly a Dolly Rocker Boy). 
But with the appearance in Lucky (after which I did the Facebook equivalent of screaming from the top of a mountaintop about) and the recent influx of emails that I've been getting, it seemed a bit ridiculous to still think I had a 'secret' to keep. All of my friends and family now know that I have a blog, and I felt a bit shady that the great dialogue I was having in these email correspondences was then made awkward when I would sign, "xxo DRG"
Not cool, former shady self.
Because each and every one of you have been so open and lovely and candid with me, I feel like the very least I can do is own up to my own name. While I don't think I'm at the point where I'm comfortable enough to post pictures that I myself take (I'm such a little worry-wart!), I do think that this is a step in a positive direction for DRG. The great thing about this site and so many others like it is that it inspires conversations to be had - on line, in emails, or in person. Knocking down that unnecessary, extra wall that separated us retro-groupies was a healthy, natural progression for the site. I hope that this step is just the start of many more to come - and I hope that you aren't too disappointed that I've destroyed any remaining allure of mystique in the site!

Title: from "Sympathy for the Devil" (The Rolling Stones)

Mommy Sandwich

There's a blizzard here in Chicago. That means daddy is off of work tonight and tomorrow. We're having F-U-N!