Writes Lee Siegel, in a NYT op-ed titled "When City Elections Were Fun."
I'm blogging this in part so I can show you (once again) one of my favorite old pictures:
That's the 4th time I've put that picture on the blog. (Previously: "The 51st State," "Norman Mailer died," and "Althouse in 1970.")
IN THE COMMENTS: EDH says: "Althouse looks like a member of the Manson Family in that 1970 photo." And I say "That’s exactly what I thought when I was putting the picture up!" Also, discussion of where I am, what color was may hair, and what was I holding in my hands 43 years ago.
PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen Cohen.
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40 comments:
Althouse looks like a member of the Manson Family in that 1970 photo.
Groovy, man.
Did anyone at the time ever tell you you looked like Grace Slick? (that's a compliment BTW). There is a resemblance - check out this "Welcome to the 60s" pic from Ms. Slick
http://www.icollector.com/Grace-Slick_i12596011
I thought you said you were a strawberry blonde in those days?
"Future Conservative Darling" -- there's your post title when you put it up again!
Black and white pictures always make one's hair appear darker, wasn't your hair red? Your hair was probably the kind of hair that was naturally sleek and straight. I had to work on my wavy/ curly hair to achieve that sleek look. Those beer can rollers were popular and ironing was another option, but not as easy.
What is in your hands in that photo? What were you doing that day?
Unfortunately, NYC's Bad Old Days haven't completely disappeared.
Peter
Time flies when we are having fun!
We had to go there to get here.
Be careful what you wish for, Lee Seigal.
You were one grovy lookin' chick.
You may recall that Mailer's campaign slogan was "No more bullshit." (Should have been Romney's too.)
Wow, it really is you! I notice a similar expression on your face, when you did the Q&A video a while back.
“Althouse looks like a member of the Manson Family in that 1970 photo.”
That’s exactly what I thought when I was putting the picture up!
“Groovy, man. Did anyone at the time ever tell you looked like Grace Slick?”
No, but I liked her a lot.
“I thought you said you were a strawberry blonde in those days?”
No. I had a very unusual color of red hair that there isn’t a standard name for. It was medium (not quite as dark as it looks in that photo) and not really what you’d call auburn, but it also wasn’t at all “carrot-y.” Here’s a color picture of me when I was about 17, with somewhat accurate color.
I wish I still had that color, but the white hairs came in early, and by the time I was 30, it was so diluted that it became mousey, and over the years, I gave up on trying to color it to red, which is very hard to get right, especially with white roots. So I just darken it minimally now. I don’t really want to be blonde. It’s just the easiest to do for me.
“Black and white pictures always make one's hair appear darker, wasn't your hair red?”
Yes and yes.
“Your hair was probably the kind of hair that was naturally sleek and straight. I had to work on my wavy/ curly hair to achieve that sleek look. Those beer can rollers were popular and ironing was another option, but not as easy.”
It was pretty straight, but the super-straight look was something I tried to do and did some of the time in high school. The method I used treated the entire head as the roller. You comb it wet around your whole head and use long clips to hold it until it dries.
“What is in your hands in that photo?”
Yes, what was I holding in my hands 43 years ago?
Good question! Probably something boring, but what would make a good story here?
“What were you doing that day?”
I was hanging out with my future husband (now ex-husband) at his parents’ apartment in Pelham Parkway in the Bronx. This is the bedroom his 2 brothers shared. We were probably listening to music, most likely The Grateful Dead. I believe on that visit we saw a midnight show of The Grateful Dead at The Fillmore East. That was back when Pigpen was in the group and Jerry Garcia had just picked up playing the steel guitar.
“You were one groovy lookin' chick.”
Thanks. I see it that way too… now.
I'd love to see a picture of your ex husband and Meade at that age, that would be fun.
I am confused again! Is the post about the picture or Don Quixote?
I am confused again! Is the post about the picture or Don Quixote?
"I'd love to see a picture of your ex husband and Meade at that age, that would be fun."
I have a great picture of Meade at that age, but he won't let me put it up. Really cute.
Of course I have many pictures of RLC too, but I wouldn't put up pictures of him without permission.
Ok Meade, why dontcha let Ann post your picture!? And if RLC is reading this, hey how about it?
In your hands was a $5 "matchbox" of honkin' Panamanian Red. You guys were twisting up a couple of joints for the Dead show. Or you had a four way blotter hit of Peace acid (peace sign stamped on the paper) that you guys were going to let dissolve your brain. That's what we were all doing in 1970 at Dead concerts. Why would you guys be any different? Addendum: Were you at the Allman Bros show in '71?
Did your dad ever get kind of an expression on his face when he looked at you?
New York City politics got real boring once peope started caring about competence. No color, just a bunch of drab nobodys.
Dang Guilani. Sure, the streets are safe, but where's the graffitti?
What's more interesting, Althouse as a teenager or the future of New York City?
It's Althouse by a mlle, folks.
@Althouse, regarding that picture you linked to in your 2:37 post: Whoa!
I'd have totally asked you out. Of course, my being a math nerd, you'd have said "no way."
Oh, you're not even in Madison? I thought, "Hey, I was in Madison in 1970, though barely in toddler-dom." But, nooooo, you had to be in the Bronx. Rats. :-)
Norman Mailer died? I didn't even know he was sick!
You can see the original hair color fairly accurately in this picture from the summer of 1980.
Old Norm was one hell of a writer.
(Already a fair amount of white then. I was 29.)
Auburn
Madame, one hopes you have learned to sit like a lady since that picture was taken. Tut, Tut. That sort of ill-breeding leads straight to a disreputable future...perhaps as a law professor in a public university.
"You may recall that Mailer's campaign slogan was 'No more bullshit.' (Should have been Romney's too.)"
But that would have been a lie.
I'd call that brick red.
Interesting to note that Gloria Steinem was active in Mailer's campaign. When it comes to hypocrisy, her support of Clinton was no flash in the pan. Hypocrisy has turned out to be her most enduring trait.....The odd blow job or stabbing are no big deal. The way to properly evaluate a man's support of women's rights is how well he gets along with Gloria Steinem.
At the time, I couldn't understand why the ticket wasn't reversed, with Breslin for mayor and Mailer for city council president. Breslin, after all, knew a lot about the city and Mailer was a bleepin' novelist.
I like the 17 yr old picture. Makes me think of frosty lipstick and go-go boots. Good times!
Jimmy Breslin's The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight was one of my favorite books.
"I like the 17 yr old picture. Makes me think of frosty lipstick and go-go boots. Good times!"
Those mod things would have been at least 3 years earlier, before the summer of love. By 1970, it was no makeup and maybe no shoes. Maybe moccasins.
Amazingly, I thought that no makeup and natural hair would be the way women would look for the rest of time, that we'd reached the end of oppressing women (and men) and it wouldn't take long for everyone to recognize and embrace the liberation. Any women still teasing and spraying their hair and putting on makeup were just late getting the message or sadly deluded. If you had shown me then the pictures of what women in TV and movies would be doing to their faces, it would have really shaken my world.
1970 NYU perfect. I was just out of Navy and enjoying (!!!) the wonderful NYU Law Tax program then. The good life.
Amazingly, I thought that no makeup and natural hair would be the way women would look for the rest of time, that we'd reached the end of oppressing women (and men) and it wouldn't take long for everyone to recognize and embrace the liberation.
I thought there would be no more war and that the Republicans would never take the House of Representatives in my lifetime.*
* The irony is that at that time my girlfriend's faculty advisor was Newt Gingrich.
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