Wednesday 31 December 2008

Old acquaintance



Lillian Hellman photographed by Bill King for Blackglama.

The past, with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, is there for each of us forever, and it should be. - Lillian Hellman

As the black eyed peas finish cooking, I just wanted to take a moment to wish all of you the best for the coming new year. As I was saying to someone the other day... it hasn't quite turned out the way I had planned, but I have certainly enjoyed the journey. I was originally referring to my life, but it did strike me as rather apt for here as well.

Happy New Year

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Now playing: The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?
via FoxyTunes

18 comments:

Ms. Wis./Each Little World said...

Happy New Year!

I just figured out why the new Blackglama ads seem so blah (beyond the fact that I can't recognize anyone). The models are much younger than Hellman and co. The models in the original campaign were older, intelligent, interesting — they gave the viewer something to aspire to. And something that took time and living to achieve. No longer an attitude most people aspire to...

Pigtown-Design said...

i forgot my black-eyed peas! oh no... maybe a grocery store will be open tomorrow.

i can't tell you how happy i am to have gotten to know you over the past year. it's been simply wonderful!

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Oh really...black-eyed peas??? You could be at my table, you know! Any trace of the Southerner in you?

I'm tickled we "met" this year and I wish you all the best for the year to come.

RJ Gilmour said...

Happy New Year
I miss the old Blackgama ads, they were so beautiful and elegent (I had a wall of them shellacked on one of my studio walls at one point as inspiration)...Such lovely memories...

hello gorgeous said...

Happy New Year. Please reverse your type in the new year so I can read it. xoxo HG

Karena said...

I loved the Blackglama ads and I love elegance. What has happened to so many? You see people out at a great restaurant dressed like they are in their gardening clothes! The hedder is fabulous!

Mimi's Poor Blog said...

How odd that politically correct Lillian would wear fur?!?

HOBAC said...

Mimi - while I have been a great admirer of Ms Hellman's work, I have never been able to reconcile myself with some of her views. While certainly liberal, I don't see how she could have been PC. To the bitter end she was a dyed in the wool Stalinist, and a revisionist in her support of him.

HOBAC said...

Karena - thank you. Unfortunately elegance has been redefined by a generation with little understanding of its essence.

HOBAC said...

HG - And to you. Happy to do it, if you tell me what that means? )

HOBAC said...

Dr. G - I still have some of the posters. Thank goodness for an indulgent grandmother and agreeable salesladies!

HOBAC said...

PT&E - Only in a past life — a remnant of my mother's college days in Georgia.

I too, am delighted!

HOBAC said...

Ms. W. - like Nora Desmond said in Sunset Boulevard,"They took the idols and smashed them, the Fairbankses, the Gilberts, the Valentinos! And who've we got now? Some nobodies!"

Mrs. Blandings said...

HoBaC - Wishing you a healthy and happy new year. I just met a charming gentleman who moved about a bit growing up and had never heard the black eyed pea thing. I was speechless. It was like never having heard of George Washington. Or Billy Baldwin. How could it be possible?

The new header is totally terrific.

Layer Cake said...

Happy New Year darling! I hope you'll come here for a visit this year, or perhaps I just need to get off my lazy bum and get back over there for one. Your blog has been so enjoyable this year...I look forward to being entertained for all of 2009! :)

the errant aesthete said...

The new header is, indeed, smashing!

Warm and aesthetic wishes for a beautiful and cultural new year.

Paul Pincus said...

happy new year, hobac!

ps i love your new header. is it your work? it's amazing.

HOBAC said...

EA - thank you, and all the best!

PP - and to you. Glad you like it — its just the bookcase in our living room.