In an item titled “An Eye for an Eye and a Truth for a Truth,” Dandyism.net’s Christian Chensvold replies/retorts to my mention of his L.A.Times work in this space yesterday with the following blog:
Dandyism.net’s longtime comrade Daedalus Howell has honored/embarrassed us with an entry about us on his blog. As a riposte, we offer the following anecdote: Howell was never one for sartorial display, but when he left San Francisco to make short films in Hollywood, such as the mock-’50s educational flick “What to do with Your Dead Hooker,” his inner thespian emerged. His films made the festival round and ended up on Showtime, and when he returned to SF (where we were still living at the time), he looked every bit the budding show-biz mogul — just several decades out of date. He was clad in a dark suit, shirt unbuttoned to reveal a tuft of chest hair, large Michael Caine sunglasses, and a silk scarf draped conspicuously around his neck. We weren’t sure if he should be barking direction to Clark Gable or boffing a Bond girl in her trailer. And given that it was the middle of summer, the scarf was worn purely for effect, perfectly illustrating the axiom that the sublime and the ridiculous are indeed miles apart. “It doesn’t look swishy, does it?” he asked us. Howell soon abandoned this outlandish outfit for the more quotidian garb of the ersatz movie mogul of today, and seeing him in person has been a disappointment ever since.
— Christian M. Chensvold, http://dandyism.net
Is that the sting of a lambskin glove?
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In unrelated business, DaedalusHowell.com just received this notice from the San Francisco International Film Festival:
“Dear Journalist, Welcome to the 48th San Francisco International Film Festival, April 21 – May 5, 2005. We are thrilled to introduce this year’s exciting program and to extend press accreditation to you.”
As you well know, the term “press accreditation” tentpoles my trousers like the goddamn circus. More on the fest when it comes…