Style Icons: Male »Patrick Marber

Patrick MarberIf you have heeded my advice then you may recognize Mr. Marber from The Day Today with Christopher Morris and Paul and Pauline Calf's Video Diaries with Steve Coogan. He was once a phenomenal sketch comedian who grew to be one of Hollywood's most revered new screenwriters.

He garnered his first Oscar nomination for his screenplay Closer, based on his own play and this year he's nominated again for Notes on a Scandal. He is one of the few people I will be cheering for, even if I haven't seen the movie yet.

Now if he can get back to his roots and write one of Hollywood's rarest creations (a smart, well written comedy), we'd all have something to cheer about.

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Posted on February 19, 2007

Style Icons: Male »Fabio

FabioMy family and I actually met Fabio at a strip mall book signing tour he was on to promote his self written romances “Pirate”, “Viking”, and “Rogue”. And yes, I have a singed copy of each along with a photograph of me with the hunk.

I have to say, I saw Fabio in a whole new light that day as he stayed extra hours to make sure that every lady got a signature and a hug or kiss. Since then he's earned even more of my respect with his phenomenal album, Fabio After Dark, and his part in the sadly defunct oxygen show Mr. Romance.

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Posted on February 12, 2007

Style Icons: Male »Keith Moon

Keith MoonMoon is practically the poster child for “live fast, die young”. Starting as a chaotic seventeen year old drummer for The Who and becoming an even more chaotic wildman about town, Moon is remembered for such antics as setting his drums up with explosives during a performance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, driving a lilac colored Rolls Royce (possibly into a pool according to legend), numerous equipment and hotel destructions, and the accidental running over of his chauffeur.

The latter indecent, I want to make clear, is not why he is on my list, nor is he on my list for his rumored temper and awful treatment of his family and wife. So many people we admire for their talent and apparent charisma would disappoint if we only knew who they really were. Moon is certainly one of those. But his impact on music with his double drum sets and flashy rock and roll attitude live on along with his darker side. He died in 1978 of a drug overdose.

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Posted on February 5, 2007

Style Icons: Male »Ray Harryhausen

Ray HarryhausenWhat child has not been amazed by Harryhausen's work? What current special effects artist has not been inspired? He's most well known for his remarkable work with stop action animation (or, as he called it “kinetic sculpture”) for such films as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Clash of the Titans, and his masterwork Jason and the Argonauts. I used to watch these films with my dad, and if you haven't seen them, you owe it to yourself to take a look – especially Argonauts.

Harryhausen single handedly kept the art of stop motion alive in the industry for years until it regained favor with artists like Tim Burton and Aardman Animations. Clash of the Titans figurines are available from Gentle Giant and a new collection of his early work is out now on DVD.

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Posted on January 29, 2007

Style Icons: Male »Chuck Chambers

Chuck Chambers, PIAfter watching Jackie Brown, you may be excited to meet a real life tough guy PI that seems like he walked right off the pages of an Elmore Leonard novel.

Chuck Chambers spends most of his time (when he's not behind his big desk, complete with Maltese falcon statuette) chasing down philandering husbands and wives, but every so often he becomes embroiled in a more sinister case–a case of murder.

Such a case, documented recently on Court TV's The Investigators, was how I was introduced to this man, a man part James Caan, part Hunter S. Thompson, part stern grandpa. In one scene, he rips his motorcycle helmet off, aggressively lights a cigarette and vrooms off into the sunset, helmet be damned, left by the side of the road.

Plus, he always gets his man. In one case, that truly haunts him still: his aptitude led to murder. If you ever find yourself with a case in Sarasota, Florida that needs some investigating, Chuck Chambers is your man.

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Posted on January 22, 2007

Style Icons: Male »MC5

MC5 This very political Detroit-based band is renowned as a raucous live act that influenced puck, rock, and heavy metal music. Controversial in their lyrics “Kick out the jams, motherfucker!” and in their politics (as supporters of the Black Panthers), it's no wonder that modern rock 'n rollers including Henry Rollins and the angsty, perpetual teenagers, Rage Against the Machine have been inspired by the band.

The power of their influence was bright and strong but, like so many young and famous people, it was also fairly brief. Even though MC5 was “committed to the revolution”, the revolution may have been frailer than the band.

Here is a great article about them written in 1969 when they were touring San Francisco, in it the author says “The MC5 are almost like an acid test. From the several times we have observed their masterful performances out there, it has become apparent that their music appeals to the lowest on the social strata. The blacks dig it, the really wigged out revolutionaries dig it; while the genteel hip, the intelligentsia, and older people in general can't relate. There is nothing to hang on to; it bespeaks more anarchy, more destruction… Their music does lead to fucking, and it does lead to anarchy, and violent opposition to institutionalized repression.”

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Posted on January 15, 2007

Style Icons: Male »Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Beardsley Decadence! Controversy! Aesthetics! Oscar Wilde! Aubrey Beardsley's life had them all. A self proclaimed “grotesque”, he once stated, “I have one aim — the grotesque. If I am not grotesque I am nothing.” His other inspirations for the illustrations in The Yellow Book (which he helped published, wrote in, and illustrated), along with his other works, were as varied as pre-Raphaelite painting and Japanese prints. The result we all know and love: the contrasting and decorative art that graced not only works of his good friend Oscar Wilde, but the tales of King Arthur, and posters hung on the college dorm room walls of those so over Klimt's “The Kiss“.

Picasso, Matisse, and Damien Hirst have all sited his importance. A great gift was lost when he died, possibly of tuberculosis (possibly of suicide), at the young age of 25.

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Posted on January 8, 2007

Style Icons: Male »John Peel

John Peel(First to Introduce Many Bands to the Public on His Radio Shows)
The number of bands whose careers British DJ for Radio One, John Peel, impacted is amazing. The list includes some of my favorites: Fairport Convention, David Bowie, T-Rex, Pink Floyd, Joy Division, The Smiths, Billy Bragg, and PJ Harvey, just to name a very few. His Peel Sessions, which are largely available, feature some raw and fantastic live recordings done at the BBC studios. Peel himself came from a rather depressing personal life, one of failed marriages and abuse, but brought to the airwaves a gentleness and an enthusiasm for anything new and exciting. He died in 2004 and will be greatly missed.

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Posted on January 1, 2007

Style Icons: Male »Joseph Barbera

josef barberaJoseph Barbera, who spent his life bringing joy to people, died at age 95 last week. He and partner William Hanna created over 300 cartoons, among them: Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones. Yogi Bear, Space Ghost, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, Snorks, and The Jetsons.

He will be missed, but his legacy lives on Cartoon Network and, more importantly in the hearts if us kids that used to (and still) watch. I am particularly fond of the Wacky Races.

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Posted on December 25, 2006

Style Icons: Male »Spalding Gray

spalding grayEveryone was saddened when we has found two years ago after taking his life but sadly, no one was terribly surprised. Spalding Gray had a history of suicide attempts, but more importantly he left a legacy of brilliant performances and writings.

I was first introduced to his unique style of monologue in the Talking Heads movie True Stories. He will be remembered for the wit and humor he brought to his deeply personal stories. And the man loved New York, he was quoted as saying “I knew I couldn't live in America and I wasn't ready to move to Europe so I moved to an island off the coast of America – New York City.” So we love him for that too.

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Posted on December 18, 2006