Part 1: Trophy Wives/Old Lady Style
In those gin-soaked days of yesteryear, a beautiful woman on the arm was an executive’s secret weapon for landing the deal. A young knock-out by your side signaled power, style, and proof that you had it all. Just ask all those Mad Men...That was then.
Tina Cassidy asks in the Boston Globe whether the trophy wife has faded into history. Tina’s a former editor and correspondent at the Globe, and author of a new book out about Jackie O in the year after Aristotle Onassis died.
and…
Not everybody can make white hair and over large glasses look fashionable – but then few carry have the flair of 90-year old socialite and now makeup mogul, Iris Apfel. One of the striking subjects of a new book by Ari Seth Cohen called Advanced Style. The book, like the blog which inspired it, puts New York City’s stylish woman past a certain age on parade.
Isabel Wilkinson is a fashion and arts reporter for the Daily Beast – she sees advanced style as part of a larger trend in a fashion industry no longer hostage to the Waifish Fashionistas in the 16-28 demographic.
Producer's note:
Check this out, even adult diaper maker Depends is on board with their target demographic wearing slightly hipper, more fitted clothing...
Part 2: Cloudland
Between 1978-1988, the murders of seven women in New Hampshire and Vermont were attributed to the Connecticut River Valley serial killer. Investigations of several suspects and one deathbed confession went cold and the killer was never found. Novelist Joseph Olshan makes a bold debut in crime lit with Cloudland, a fictional account of the time.
Part 3: Robot Tropes/Death of a Salesman
Among this summer’s anticipated films is Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s prequel to his groundbreaking sci-fi flick, Alien. The plot centers on a crew of inter-galactic explorers – among the cast of characters is a humanoid robot, or android, who sounds decidedly more ominous than say, the Jetson’s old-model household cleaner, Rosey.
Michael Fassbender as the spooky android “David” in a video released as part of a viral ad campaign for the forthcoming film Prometheus, Fassbender’s uncanny performance led us to wonder how current robotic technology compares to science fiction’s common tropes: for example, the good-robot gone bad, or the android who think he’s human. Dennis Cass is a recovering journalist and now science fiction author. He wrote about androids, real and imaginary, for i09.com
and…
When Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman hit Broadway and swept the Tony’s in 1949, it was a middle-class masterpiece – a transformative play that could bring even stoic-factory workers and tough-love fathers to tears. These days, the price of a ticket for the Broadway revival may be as out of reach for the average American family as a pro sports career was for Biff. Lee Siegel is a cultural critic, author of “Harvard is Burning”, and a contributor to many publications including the New York Times, where he recently wrote the op ed, “Death of a Salesman’s Dreams”.
Part 4: Tech Olympics
Every four years, the world gears up to become rabid, two-week fans of sports we’d never otherwise watch those featured in the Summer Olympics, like swimming, gymnastics, even equestrian eventing. For the elite athletes who compete at the Olympic level, however, the games are anything but a quadrennial concern. They’re the reward for working the hardest, being the best, and increasingly, it seems, having the latest hi-tech gadgetry in your corner.
With us to run down some of the more futuristic advances that may influence the medal count at this summer’s London games is word of mouth producer Taylor Quimby, our regular curator of the quirkier trends bubbling up across pop culture.
