website stats

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Fruit!

That's what people kept yelling at me today. Think they meant my tie? It's from Beans McGee, a funny name which is the key signifier of a novelty tie company. While I generally don't wear novelty ties, I couldn't pass up this exuberant melange of fruit. I also couldn't keep the phrase, "Carmen Miranda's ghost is haunting Space Station Three" out of my head today. That's the title and premise of a 1990 science fiction anthology edited by Don Sakers. I've never read it, but I love the title. Delving deeper, the title actually comes from a 1985 filk song by Leslie Fish ("filk" being the sci-fi/fantasy/techie subgenre of folk music, based on a misspelling of "folk" in an essay by Lee Jacobs fifty-odd years ago), the lyrics of which are online here. Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) was born in Portugal but grew up in Brazil; while singing in nightclubs she developed her trademark fruit hat, based on the headdresses of Brazilian market fruit vendors. She quickly became a national superstar, and moved to the United States in 1939, where she captivated Broadway audiences, leading to starring roles in a series of films beginning in 1940. She died after suffering a heart attack during a performance on the Jimmy Durante Show, but left behind the legacy of the fruit hat, one of the most enduring pop icons of the twentieth century.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome tie. If your into fun ties like this, I would check out Peter-Blair.com. They have some really cool designs, and the quality of the ties are amazing. Definately worth a buy.

Burl Veneer said...

Hey, those are pretty cool ties! Clever variants on the classic Hermes style.

BV