Librari[d]an

The travel section of The New York Times just published a really odious article entitled “36 Hours in Pittsburgh” by Jeff Schlegel. The first line is laughable: “PITTSBURGH has undergone a striking renaissance from a down-and-out smokestack to a gleaming cultural oasis.” (Schlegel)

All right, stop right there, buddy. I know you’re a liar, because I would never trust any New Yorker who calls the ‘burgh a “gleaming cultural oasis” without scoffing and rolling their eyes. That is a lie, no matter how many times you drop proper nouns like The Andy Warhol Museum, Mexican War Streets, BrilloBox, or Mattress Factory. Pittsburgh does have a lot to offer and it is a sort of a cultural center for the region, but cultural oasis? No, ‘fraid not Mr. Schlegel, unless you’re using that term and “renaissance” in a very loose manner.

Downtown Pittsburgh as seen from the banks of the Allegheny on the city’s NorthSide.

Most livable city? Oh really?

So you’ve heard time and again that Pittsburgh is amazingly livable; the most livable for 2007, in fact, according to the Places Rated Almanac. (Majors) Crime rates that aren’t too bad, it’s a cheap city to live in, it has excellent hospital systems, several prestigious universities, etc. Well did you know that our city has 768 million dollars in debt? (Blazina) That the police have to use tanks - yes… TANKS - to patrol Homewood (a very urban, very ethnically black neighborhood) and a few other impoverished neighborhoods in the city? (Deitch) That our public transit system, once one of the best and most extensive in the nation (at number 15), is falling into shambles? (Grata) That the casino our citizens fought tooth and nail to oppose will still be built on the NorthSide? That the popular “Waterfront” shopping “district” has become nothing more than a glorified strip mall?

Pittsburgh is a great city to live in if you’ve money, if you’re white, and if you’re willing to wink at a whole boatload of problems (social, economic, and so on) that a city this size just shouldn’t have. I don’t think tourism or gentrification is going to solve these problems. There are reasons why Uptown is a ghost town, why the Urban Redevelopment Authority has a dozen main streets to revitalize. (Is your memory so short that you don’t remember East Carson Street as the boarded-up wasteland it once was?)

Don’t get me wrong, Pittsburgh is wonderful despite these and other problems. But it isn’t because of a handful of art galleries, restaurants, and tourist traps. It’s something a lot more substantial, less transient and ephemeral, than the cultural tourism Schlegel suggests. Although they are hokey and rather Romanticized, I would suggest watching Rick Sebak’s documentaries on Pittsburgh - and not reading something like Michael Chabon’s Mysteries of Pittsburgh - to begin to understand exactly what that is. (You can get these suckers for free on public access television or through interlibrary loan.)

:: Bibliography ::

• Blazina, Ed. “Ravenstahl endorses Pittsburgh-Allegheny County merger.” The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 3 April 2008. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08094/870250-100.stm (5 July 2008).

• Deitch, Charlie. “Military Police.” Pittsburgh City Paper, 27 March 2007. http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=24549 (5 July 2008).

• Grata, Joe. “Port Authority transit cutbacks are biggest in history.” The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 4 January 2007. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07004/751189-147.stm (5 July 2008).

• Majors, Dan. “Pittsburgh rated ‘most livable’ once again.” The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 26 April 2007. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07116/781162-53.stm (5 July 2008).

• Schlegel, Jeff. “36 Hours in Pittsburgh.” The New York Times, 6 July 2008. http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/travel/06hours.html (5 July 2008).

:: Further reading ::

• “How now brown town?” The Economist, 14 September 2006. http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7914950 (5 July 2008). (Note: No author listed.)

You probably haven’t heard of the recent controversy spurred by the new Collector’s Edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The color palette of the film has been drastically changed, darkness greatly increased, desaturated, etc. in comparison to earlier mass market releases. According to the motion picture archivist Robert Harris, this is because American Zoetrope has digitally matched the colors to those of the Francis Ford Coppola-approved answer print. According to fans it’s an unpardonable, deliberate revision of their favorite film incarnation of the Dracula story. I honestly don’t care about any of that… as long as consumers have a choice between the two.

My only lingering concern with the Collector’s Edition is that it has been accused of totally altering Eiko Ishioka’s Academy Award-winning costume designs. From very early on in Dracula’s pre-production, Coppola “decided that the costumes would be the set.” (Dworkin 17) When Eiko Ishioka realized “that the costumes would be the key factor in determining the quality of the film itself, I accepted the job.” (Dworkin 21) So that is what this post is actually about. Not the concern for color fidelity in film archiving, but those beautiful costumes - inspired by everything from the Symbolist movement to the Australian frilled lizard - that were conceived of and created by Ishioka. (Dworkin 19, 70)

One of the most memorable garments from the film is Dracula’s “red Oriental-Turkish robe”, which was created to “emphasize the androgynous quality in his character”, “a haunting aura of transsexuality.” (Dworkin 41) In the thematic color of red, Eiko had Dracula’s golden coat-of-arms embroidered on the breast.

This emblem is Dracula’s “identity, similar to the Japanese family crest. I designed a motif of various animals intertwined into a single form.” (Dworkin 42) These included a dragon, wolf, snakes, and birds, as well as fire. (Landau 37) The robe’s voluminous train was constructed to “undulate like a sea of blood.” (Dworkin 41) Not all of Dracula’s planned costumes made it into the film. Check out this sketch of a brocaded vest with red detailing/piping and handkerchief:

The designs for women are the cornerstone of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. And why is that? It’s because the original, decentralized story found in Stoker’s novel - told through every character’s point of view except Dracula’s - has been appropriated for Mina. Screenwriter Jim Hart felt that “The key to writing Dracula was to make it Mina’s story.” (Landau 80) Instead of a fragmented narrative, Mina gives it unity and continuity. While it may seem that Mina’s story is framed by Dracula’s historic prologue, the truth is in fact the opposite. Dracula lacks agency. He can merely react as Elisabeta kills herself, as Mina abandons him to marry Harker, as she makes the decision to become a vampire, as she exploits their psychic rapport to assist her friends, and finally as she delivers them both from the unholy covenant Dracula forged with “darkness”.

Throughout the film, Mina’s costumes convey just as much of the story as the actress beneath all that silk. For example, the dress Mina wears in Rule’s Cafe (the absinthe scene) was colored red - Dracula’s color - to convey that Mina would soon be tainted by vampirism. (Landau 127)

Ishioka “carefully considered Mina’s role in the drama” before she chose green as Mina’s thematic color. (Dworkin 61) The color needed to compass the character’s intelligence, sexual naïveté, stoicism, sense, and strong will. Many of these attributes can be seen in the dress she wears on the streets of London and in the cinematograph. The pert hat represents her vivacity and fortitude, the manly lapels her status as a New Woman with a “man’s brain [...] and a woman’s heart“, etc. (Stoker 266)

Winona Ryder wearing the town dress. Photo by Ralph Nelson II. (Landau 80)

Sketch of the town dress by Eiko Ishioka. Photo by Keith Sherins. (Dworkin 60)

Most of Mina’s dresses - including her typing gown - also sport high collars to reflect her modesty and chastity:

Mina’s typing dress. Photo by David Seidner. (Dworkin63)

The high collar can also be seen on Mina’s three-quarter sleeve dress. This dress is rather domestic-looking because of the contrast between the apron and the skirt and wrap. It also lacks leaf embroidery (whose importance will be discussed later) and is almost always worn while in the presence or under the protection of Van Helsing.

Mina’s three-quarter sleeve dress. Photos by Ralph Nelson II. (Landau 129, 125, 141)

As you can see, Ishioka took a predominantly historical, orthodox approach to Mina’s costumes, only pushing boundaries with her creative embellishments. (Dworkin 94) However, “Costumes should be more than just items that explain the role of the actors who wear them”, she stresses. (Dworkin 27) A costume should challenge the actor, filmmakers, and audience. (Dworkin 27) An example of this type of costume is Mina’s wedding dress, which is featured only briefly in the movie. Rather than a virginal white, it is instead a sombre gray-green:

This type of implicit message can also be seen in the final act of the film, in which Mina wears a historically outmoded style. “I designed her cape in the last scene with a strong Renaissance flavor, a Pre-Raphaelite look.” (Dworkin 91) This costume foreshadows Mina’s realization that she is truly the reincarnation of Elisabeta, Dracula’s 15th century bride.

Mina’s Renaissance cape. Photo by David Seidner. (Dworkin 91)

Elisabeta’s gown, seen at the beginning of the film and later in flashbacks, contains the elements that draw the two (three?) central characters together: Emblazoned on the torso is Dracula’s crest. Elisabeta and Mina’s designs are relatively consistent: On the sleeves and skirt - and even her crown of laurel - is the foliage motif that is often also found on Mina’s dresses. Both have the theme color of green. While Elisabeta wears a farthingale, Mina wears a bustle.

Elisabeta’s gown. First photo by David Seidner, second by Ralph Nelson II. (Dworkin 79, Landau 14)

Ishioka’s desire to design museum-quality costumes and her overall perfectionism meant that making multiple copies of her garments for filming was financially impractical. Richard Shissler, the associate costume designer, said that “We probably should have had duplicates of everything, but we just didn’t have the budget [...] Eiko didn’t want to compromise, so we had multiples only when we really needed them.” (Landau 127) Mina’s costumes were constructed with silk taffeta, imported from France and Italy, by Dale Wibben, a freelance dressmaker from San Francisco. (Dworkin 94) Sally Ann Parsons from Parsons-Meares, Ltd. in New York did the more theatrical costumes for Dracula, Lucy, and Renfield while Vincent Costume, Inc. made the men’s clothing. (Dworkin 94) The elaborate embroidery on many of the costumes was done by Penn and Fletcher and Monogram West. (Dworkin 94)

In retrospect, upon seeing her handiwork, it’s no wonder that Coppola chose Ishioka. However, at the time it was a gamble; she had never worked on the costumes for a film before, only television. Coppola’s “strategy in hiring someone like her - an independent, a weirdo outsider with no roots in the business - it worked in the end. Because I could look at the screen and say, well, these costumes are truly irrational and artistic and absolutely unique.” (Dworkin 93)

If I revisit Bram Stoker’s Dracula again, it will be to talk about the one thing in in the film that is more beautiful than the costumes: Wojciech Kilar’s glissando filled love theme, “Mina/Dracula”. (You can hear it over at YouTube, in this video from 2:00 to the end.)

:: Bibliography ::

• Dworkin, Susan, ed. Coppola and Eiko on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. By Francis Ford Coppola and Eiko Ishioka. San Francisco: Collins Publishers San Francisco, 1992. ISBN: 0002551675.
• Landau, Diana, ed. Bram Stoker’s Dracula: The Film and the Legend. By Francis Ford Coppola. New York: Newmarket Press, 1992. ISBN: 1557041393.
• Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1989. ISBN: 0812523016.

…but instead I’m watching installment after installment of Herping with Dylan (while staying toasty under my electric blanket).

For the uninitiated, herping is a slang term derived from herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. Dylan, unlike yours truly, is willing to go all out when scouting for specimens. Rain, midnight, mud–none of it seems to phase him. I was like that back in the day, when I would go herping in the creeks near Armstrong Park and near my grandparents’ house in Upstate New York. However, now you’ll find me inching around Panther Hollow Lake with a face warped by disgust.

So my interaction with creepy crawlies is now mediated by a computer monitor. Goodbye nature, hello House of Slime.

What is this!? Pace yourself, man! Not too many recipes at once! Actually, I plan on adding recipes as I make them. Just makes the most sense. So. What is obscene about this pizza dough? Well, it never turns out the same twice. Not ever! That makes it obscenely dynamic and interesting. But the results are always scrumptious, even when I put so many spices on that it tanks my sisters’ stomaches.

:: Jen and Kate’s Mystery Pizza Dough ::

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (or just a package, if you don’t feel like measuring)
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar (or cane sugar)
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon salt (I use less)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/3 cups flour

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes. (If the water it too hot or too cold the yeast won’t metabolize the sugar, so be careful.)

2. Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour. (Use any type of flour you want. I have had excellent results with all-purpose, unbleached, whole-wheat, and even graham flour.) Add spices to the dough if you’re feeling bold and forward!

3. Turn the dough out onto a clean, well floured surface and knead in a bit more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a bowl sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise approximately one hour. (A warm and humid place is best. Try putting it on top of the stove as the oven preheats.)

4. Top with your favorite pizza sauce and fixings. This recipe should make two substantial pizzas. (I like to use meatless spaghetti sauce that’s low in sodium. As for fixings, experiment. One of my favorite combinations is white onion and chick peas!)

4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit/220 degrees Celsius. If you are using a pan/baking sheet rather than a pizza stone, be sure to spray it with non-stick cooking spray. Bake the pizza until the cheese and crust are done to your liking (about 15 to 20 minutes).

I have cut a lot of the useless, time-wasting steps out of this recipe. (I like to keep things simple, but not in a reductive way–like Bush’s State of the Union a few hours ago. Although, I did like the way he spit out the second part of this sentence: “If we fail to pass this agreement, we will embolden the purveyors of false populism in our hemisphere.”)

But yeah, that hour for the dough to rise still turns some people’s screws. I find it easy to deal with, especially if you have the foresight to plan your evening. (“Company at the door? Why, I just happen to have pizza dough ready to be garnished and consumed!”) Also, if your friends are over, enlist their help in making the dough first, then socialize, then complete the recipe and feast.

:: Bibliography ::

Jen probably got this sucker from the internet. Everyone’s taking credit for it, look.

Not necessarily a particularly telling portrait of my everyday life or the year itself. Had to work with what I had:

Mintwood Christmas 2006. February 2007 ice storm. Rooftop photo op: 1 and 2 (March). Documentation of magnetic poetry / quiz night names. Chanelling Bowie. Maytide picnic. Conservation de la Cathédrale. Top roping at Saw Mill Run. June Pirates game. Paul’s pride and joy (July). August: Settler’s Cabin wave pool, Pirates, Fireworks over the Roberto Clemente Bridge, Kennywood, Critical Mass (with Miss Intensity). Susan’s birthday potluck (Nov). Christmas Eve 2007 salad. Somewhere to be in NYC, or, in search of the Dumont Burger. Delicious pizza. Underground man, New Year’s Day 2008.

If you were horrified to find a picture of yourself here, let me know so I can put a big X over your visage!

I was there: Regarde. We moved significantly closer to the centennial ball as the night progressed. Also, it looked much bigger when it wasn’t viewed through a camera lens.

It was fun; I don’t know why people say it’s tedious. All you need is some chums, something to keep warm, and a bit of endurance.

Good times. (Yep, those are purple, glittery 2008 glasses. Scored for two bones!)

Note: You have to view the complete post to be able to click the links to my photos. Goddamn theme! >:^<

Yinzers take note: your beloved sports team is being appropriated by hip-hop pop culture! That’s right, Pittsburgh Pirates paraphernalia is totally en vogue in New York City. I can’t walk even a few blocks - whether it’s in Harlem or on Madison Ave - without seeing some cool African American guy sporting a pirates hat or shirt.

Apparently they do not know or care that the Pirates bungle what they’re supposed to do best (baseball). Instead, it seems the decision to purchase and adorn the self with these officially emblazoned textiles is aesthetically motivated. This tickles me pink, but I can see why they choose my hometown team; pirates gear is simple gold text on a black background, occasionally with red details/piping. It looks snappy. In fact, these are the selfsame reasons why I purchased my Pirates jersey at the thrift shop. Happily I brought it with, and when I wore it to the Met I certainly got some covetous looks.

The Met was amazing. I particularly enjoyed an exhibit called blog.mode, which had historical and contemporary couture. Among them I saw this dress which I saw about a year ago on the Met’s sweet Timeline of Art History. (Great reference tool, that.) That dress is pretty freaking weird, no? And it doesn’t hold a candle to some of the Japanese designs I got to see, one of which was reminiscent of the character design for Vanessa from P.N.03 with a bustle.

Back on topic, it’s pretty interesting to see something that for so long I’ve associated with blue collar group-think removed from its native context and transmogrified into a fashion fad in the city that never sleeps. Haha!