Taxidermy: Objet d’Art or Makes-Me-Wanna-Barf?

A new shop has opened in my suburb. It’s this sort of wine/fine foods/scented body lotion/gifts for epicureans kind of joint, where everyone runs around in aprons describing things variously as ‘gorgeous’  and ‘naughty’. And recently, they’ve decorated their space by sticking a giant taxidermied ram in the window. This means that if you’re walking one way, you get a view of the Majestic Horns etc, but if you’re coming from the other direction you get a good look at the dun, matted wool of its immediate ass-area. Not ideal, I would have thought. 

Any way, the point is – are vintage taxidermied animals some kind of cool postmodern  design accent that you would happily stick in your living room? Or are they still to reminiscent of the room full of stuffed birds of prey in Psycho?

Aunty Detective: Elegant 1950s Clothing and Clothes For the Juniors

A veritable flood of questions has come pouring in of late…well, at least two, which I shall now attempt to answer despite my shambolic haze of phd work/teaching (oh yes, I’m teaching first years now…and they expect me to Know Things, and not about napoleon dynamite/costume jewellery/garfield/dessert/the video game Civilization III, which are pretty much my only Mastermind topics) either. 

Here’s the first one. It’s from KD…

Hello

I am a kiwi vintage fashionista about to hit Melbourne for the first time in May

Never having been to Melbourne –where can you recommend to buy good vintage attire – especially the elegant numbers from the 50s?

 
Good question…as I seem to mostly spend my time rummaging around on the floor in grubby op shops (i say this with love – the grubbier the better, as far as i’m concerned), what does a lady do when she’s ready to step the class factor up a notch?

Community Service Announcement: Less Stuff Needed

Well, as you all probably know, I live in Victoria, where the bushfires have left a trail of devastation and there has been an amazing outpouring of community support from Everyday People , who’ve been donating their time, money, and second hand goods to help people affected by the fires.

I’m also a vollie at the RSPCA, where we got so many pooch/kittie/barnyard-animal-related donations that we filled over seven shipping containers with the booty and had to put signs up all over the place thanking people for their support but letting them know that we were now inundated (!) and to try to donate the goods to another charity. There are still calls going out to find additional volunteers to sort through everything. The generosity has been unbelievable. The problem for the organisation, now, is that there are a lot of logistical difficulties involved in sorting everything and getting it out to those who need it, pronto.  

And apparently, the same thing has been happening to op shops near bushfire affected areas.