i am still in the swirl of assimilation -- this past weekend, i saw boy george on broadway. boy george: the most influential role model i have ever had. it's been twenty years with him; i've managed to include him in both the eighties tarot and the trinity doughnuts tarot decks. i can't think of a reason to put him in the knitting tarot, but he is definitely present in my knitting.
boy george is present in my knitting because he demonstrated to me, at a precious young age -- when i yet had a hint of neuroplasticity -- that the best reason to do a thing is to please yourself; and that something one-of-a-kind is worth far more than something off the rack. sure, george was not the only or the first person demonstrating this. he was, in part, a product of the DIY/punk ethic, which is a very admirable one. i've not grown up to be much of a clotheshorse, or even very interested in my clothes -- although i can put on the dog when i choose to -- but without a doubt, george helped form me, and the way that i knit, and i dare say, write.
i think i was very, very lucky to be a teenager in the early 80's. it was an excellent time to be forming a character. among the other distractions enjoyed in that time, people made their outfits. i know i did. even if it was just a lot of intricate pinning and fastening -- i've never been a seamstress -- i was just as happy in my bedroom listening to kajagoogoo and doctoring old clothes as i was doing anything else.
in george's musical, taboo, the character that george plays -- artist and demi-icon leigh bowery -- responds to a friend's plea that he get more organized with his "career" by saying that he designs for only one client -- himself. what a relief this kind of thinking is, particularly after a weekend in new york where every female between the ages of five and sixty is sporting an angora bucket hat purchased from a street vendor. i say today's look is nothing: does that make me "dated"? what's this obsession with time and the idea that what comes later in it is somehow advanced? it seems rather like saying, "the best thing at the salad bar is always whatever's in the last chafing dish." but we all know that could be anything. don't we?
the nice thing about inspiration is that it's very slippery to attack, and unnecessary to defend. consider yourself lucky enough to be inspired by anything, if you are. this past weekend in new york, seeing boy george on broadway, carrying my trash bag bag, i felt quite sure that if the fourteen year-old me could have looked twenty years into the future at the thirty four year-old me, she'd have been very satisfied. and so am i.