At last night’s Met Gala, Claire Danes dazzled the red carpet in a
show-stopping ensemble, reminiscent of a futuristic Cinderella. Designed
by Zac Posen,
the gown had the glamour of classic couture, but with a glitzy
technological twist: fiber optic fabric that glowed in the dark.
Every year, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art
hosts this black tie fundraising event—often fondly referenced as
“fashion prom"—to benefit its lauded Costume Institute, in coordination
with the opening of a new spring show. Danes’ dress was an apt
representation of this season’s theme: Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.
The 150-piece exhibition invited the exploration of “how fashion
designers are reconciling the handmade and the machine-made in the
creation of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear.”
“Before the countdown to midnight has started, it’s clear this party has already been crashed, and the streets are running red with blood. You’ll enter what looks to be your typical New Year’s Eve bash until it’s too late. As the ball drops, fanged punks and big-haired vamps will start their feeding frenzy.”
Claudia smiled at the compliment, weighing her head to the side slightly. “Merci beacoup, cheri. I wont wear just anything you know.” Thinking to her wardrobe, for a moment she glanced off into space. “My favorite color is royal blue. All those deep colors are really beautiful. Red, purple, even gold although I like gold more for accessorize than a clothing color.”
“Of course I adore lace. You can’t go wrong with floral patterns…..then again it depends on the floral. I don’t like to over do it.” Which was funny because Claudia was the queen of ‘over doing it’, next to Lestat of course. “There are so many crazy prints out there…” She had a look on her face that was a mixture of confusion and disgust as she shook her head. “Je ne sais pas…”
“Satin, silk, cotton, velvet, cashmere.” She listed. “Wool is good for warm but I hate that rough texture.”
“I’d like to think my taste has changed at least a little bit with time. Fashion has changed so much and new things come out all the time. The things people wear now is very different from what we use to wear. Less layers, then more layers again, then less material. I can’t wear my big thick gowns in 2018, I would stand out. You have to adapt and learn to accept change. Childrens clothes are one thing…” Claudia rolled her eyes. “It’s becoming worse and worse in my opinion but I have a personal seamstress, thank god.”
technology related sensory memories from my childhood
sliding the metal cover on floppy disks
the slight resistance of inserting cassette and video tapes
ripping off the strips of holed paper off of dot matrix printer paper
rolling the wheel on a disposable camera to take another photo
The heaviness and rubber texture of the roller ball in a computer mouse, and the little ring of lint
Unkinking the curly cord of a telephone while you talked
The -peww sound and slowly fading image of a crt monitor turning off, and then running your finger through the static on the dusty glass
The crunch of opening or closing a plastic Disney vhs cover
The sound effects in kidpix
Extending and collapsing metal antennas and using them as magic wands
…God, it is so weird these things aren’t around any more. Cause it’s true, the sensations are so distinct. It’s bizarre to think about missing these tiny relics.
The ditditditditdit of a rotary dial phone setting back to zero after you spun up a number
The weird fart smell of non-leaded petrol compared to leaded, back when it was new and unusual
The subtle give under your teeth of the rubber on an Atari joystick as you chewed on it
Personally, I would always recommend reading them in order of publication, bc that’s the order AR explored the characters and their stories. And some things may be mentioned in B&G that would spoil TVA.
TVA has a lot more of the problematic stuff re: Amadeo/Marius as a ship, so if you’re not interested in that, you might want to avoid it entirely.
I admit that I like Armand more as a character than Marius, I enjoy his voice, the framing of that story in terms of what’s happening with the other characters at that point in canon, and TVA obvs has more focus on Armand, and, I think, TVA is a better story overall, so I prefer that book entirely, but that’s just me!
Anyone can add their thoughts on this, too 😀
I’m just gonna hop in here real quick as someone who really enjoyed Blood&Gold, and say that it depends on what you’re looking for.
TVA has a rather contained narrative, and focuses mainly on Venice, everything else gets wrapped up quickly. And that’s totally fine if that’s what you’re interested in. And TVA is definitely written in a more enticing manner than B&G.
B&G does not go into as much detail about the same events as TVA of course so it is a bit like zooming in on one specific detail in a very large picture. B&G offers the picture, and that can get a bit tedious to work through. But it also brings with it a whole array of characters you didn’t see much of until then, or didn’t know anything about before. You learn more about the history of the covens and the druidic cults, about the Talamasca and just “vampire history” in general. It was very satisfying, for me at least.
That being said, I would also suggest reading TVA first because what is hinted or implied in that book, gets explained in B&G, so you get a nice “Ohh!” moment out of it. It gives you the perspective that TVA didn’t get, since it was written from Amadeo’s limited point of view.
Personally, I would always recommend reading them in order of publication, bc that’s the order AR explored the characters and their stories. And some things may be mentioned in B&G that would spoil TVA.
TVA has a lot more of the problematic stuff re: Amadeo/Marius as a ship, so if you’re not interested in that, you might want to avoid it entirely.
I admit that I like Armand more as a character than Marius, I enjoy his voice, the framing of that story in terms of what’s happening with the other characters at that point in canon, and TVA obvs has more focus on Armand, and, I think, TVA is a better story overall, so I prefer that book entirely, but that’s just me!
I-want-my-IWTV 