A very cool Shabbat Shalom to you!
Congratulations on another week of hard work and accomplishment.
Now it’s time for a day of spirituality, mindfulness, thanksgiving, and much needed rest and relaxation.
Heal and rejuvenate your body, mind, and soul.
A time for Hashem, self, family, and community.
Shabbat is a true gift from G-d. 😉
(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)
Thought this was a pretty scary mannequin.
Aside from the disheveled hair covering her head and half her face.
You can see that her mouth and nose is taped over with clear masking tape!
Clearly she looks like she has been abused or worse, and the image is that she can’t even scream for help.
Why anyone would advertise women’s fashion in this misogynist way should be beyond all of us.
There are a lot of crazy nuts out there.
This photo is a small reminder of what we face in terms of ugliness in this world.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So this was the entranceway to a store in Florida.
As you can see, the center mannequin is set up sitting in not a very modest way for a lady.
And worse, there is a little boy mannequin situated right next to her.
It was funny to see people stop to look at this fake sexual scene.
But no amount of sexuality could sell the junk that the store was pushing.
So strutting your stuff or showing a little skin–or in this case hard plastic–may get the customer’s attention or even in the store.
However, it certainly doesn’t close the deal, although something else here would be better off shut or as my mother-in-law says, “close your yap!” 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I took this photo yesterday of a mannequin that shows off her hair.
It’s amazing what hair does for a person.
I remember learning in Yeshiva that hair is considered the crown on a person’s head.
People go through all sorts of time and expense to keep their hair, grow it out, clean it, and style it.
Often not having hair means that person is sick and on heavy doses of medication or chemotherapy that makes their hair fall out.
People put on wigs or other head coverings for religious piety, modesty, and to consecrate themselves to G-d and/or their beloved–so that only they should see it–as something special between them.
Sometimes, a person’s hair is cut off to dehumanize them like the Nazi’s did to the Jews and as happens to other prisoners.
Also, when people go to the military, they are given a crew cut to take away their hair and individuality while they learn to conform and be obedient to their chain of command.
Often in fights, people grab and pull a person by their hair to control and hurt them.
But mostly, hair is soft, sensual and looks good on a person (except when it doesn’t)–generally, it evokes youth, vibrance, freedom, and sexuality.
Of course beauty is only skin deep, but the hair is truly the majestic crown that G-d gave us. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I thought I’d end the year with this photo that I took yesterday at the Hair Cuttery.
There is this mannequin’s head just laying on top of the washing machine.
Is that what happens to customers’ heads who don’t cooperate with their haircuts or perhaps if they don’t tip enough?
More seriously though…
Maybe this is a good picture to summarize 2015–heads are down and the hair is all messed up, but it won’t stop us from trying to wash the darn clothes going out there. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
My friend used to joke when someone had a bad hairdo by calling it a “hairdon’t.”
I took this photo in the mall on Sunday of this mannequin head with hair in multicolors sticking up out of her head in all directions.
Uh, you gotta be kidding–is this actually going to sell anybody on a new hairdo (unless of course maybe you count it’s shock value)?
See the mirror lying next to it too, so you can actually see how you would look in one of these get ups–if, of course, you really want to.
When the nice young Asian attendant lady saw me looking at this monstrosity, she runs over like can I help you, seriously.
Yeah, I’m doing some holiday shopping (Chanukah’s right around the corner you know), and I’d like to get a new look JUST LIKE THIS!
Not today, but thank you. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I remember as a child, the nursery rhyme that went something like–“How much is that doggie in the window? The one with the waggly tail.”
Now, it’s not dogs or even mannequins in storefront windows, but people–looking for work.
The job market and people’s self-esteem has gotten so miserably low that they are resorting to displaying their jobs skills or just sitting and looking pretty in storefront windows in an attempt to get attention and get offered a job–or as my mother-in-law says in this humorous way, spelling out each letter, a J-O-B.
In the picture at the top of this post, you can see one guy in the storefront window of the art studio bending wire–presumably for that long artistic piece behind him.
However, it’s not even just starving artists anymore taking this up as a marketing opportunity, as the Wall Street Journal (8 May 2013) reports–regular jobless folks in professions from lawyers, to tax experts, and even former CEOs are having to bare themselves in public displays to try and land a job offer.
Those who have been unemployed for months and years are becoming desperate for work as one unemployed political scientist states, “I’m willing to try anything.”
Despite it being so degrading that he “feels like a monkey…in a cage as people walk by and just stare at me.”
Assuredly, it is a sad commentary on society when people looking for jobs and to earn a basic income are treated literally like animals in cages to be examined, made fun of, or even marveled at in a strange sort of way.
Historically, in red light districts, scantily clad women have been exhibited behind glass enclosures to lure customers and money, but as most people would say “That’s the sex industry!”–however, what starts off as okay for the such social vices ends up by extension as the new normal for our educated, white collar workers.
Never-the-less, some employers are taking notice–they see these window displays of professionals, not as loafers or weirdoes, but as go-getters and even sometimes highly creative based on the sophistication of their window displays–with them in it.
In the picture, the guy in the window with his feet up, glasses off, and soda bottle on the floor behind him is making a marketing statement about himself, but I’m not sure I would hire someone based solely on the callouses, corns, and bunions on their feet. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Almax, the Italian maker of mannequins has a new high-tech version that does more than stand around and look pretty.
The EyeSee Mannequin has a camera built into its eye that watches you while you shop.
According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek (6 December 2012), the EyeSee Mannequin sells for about $5,130 and it conducts consumer profiling–using technology to identify criminals–it determines your age, gender, and race and tracks your shopping patterns.
Newer versions of EyeSee will likely have a sensor for hearing you as well, so it can “eavesdrop on what shoppers say about the mannequin’s attire.”
Next to these mannequins, you have to consider who are the real dummies, when everything you do and say can be monitored.
Next time, you’re peering at that mannequin, be careful, it may be peering right back at you–and when it says something be ready to jump. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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