fledge capable of flying, from Middle English flegge, from Old English -flycge; akin to Old High German flucki capable of flying,
Old English flEogan to fly -- more at FLY
intransitive verb, of a young bird : to acquire the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Good Kitsch, Bad Kitsch


Another thing I will explore is Kitsch. Occasionally, I will post Good Kitsch, Bad Kitsch examples. Good Kitsch is lowbrow stuff you love. Bad Kitsch is lowbrow stuff you love to hate. In other words, Bad Kitsch is what your five year-old daughter likes and Good Kitsch is what you would like your five year-old daughter to like. Bad Kitsch automatically becomes Good Kitsch when removed from its native homeland, for example, Japanese graphic novels and animé, Christmas pyramids
or anything made in the Black Forest, Hong Kong action films, and Rocky Maricano posters. Good Kitsch automatically becomes Bad Kitsch, when it shows up at in the set design of a Pottery Barn catalogue. Bad Kitsch, with few exceptions, becomes Good Kitsch when you acquire it at the same or younger age than your mother did when she was hip. That's tricky, but it works sometimes.

Extremely rare are the things, which are both Bad and Good Kitsch. Those things are very special. Most things Hello Kitty fall into this category (look at that, citizens of Blogland! I've already photographed the toaster. I should make a No Cupcakes pledge right here and now). As do 1970s bathrooms. Or anything manufactured, worn, watched on television and/or listened to in that decade. As soon as the clock strikes 1980, however, most anything
manufactured, worn, watched on television and/or listened to is just Bad Kitsch (except Preppy: Preppy is always Good and Bad Kitsch). Fear not, we see signs that the 1980s are approaching irony and that will certainly help that decade in its Kitsch grading. Rubik's cubes are white hot. The t-shirt is Ground Zero for irony. If "tubular" and "867-5309" can make it past the t-shirt, you might be able to keep anything with silk flowers and the color dusty rose out of the yard sale.

Bad Kitsch is that "C A P A B L E O F F L Y I N G" in this blog's header. All caps and extra leading: Just so last Millenium. I can't figure out how to get around that. But I will. We live with so much Bad Kitsch. Please bear with that for a few more days.

Determining what constitutes Good Kitsch and Bad Kitsch may seem subjective, however, please be comforted in the knowledge that I'm right. I just am. Watch:

Good Kitsch: Henry Mancini
Bad Kitsch: David Sanborn

See? I can do this.

5 comments:

Sabine said...

Braucht die Welt noch einen Blog?
Ja,Nancy, deine Theorien über guten und schlechten Kitsch sind ein MUST HAVE !!!! Und werden nach und nach dazu beitragen, mein mageres Englisch zu verbessern:-)
Liebe Grüße
Sabine

nic [luzia pimpinella] said...

As always you get straight to the point, Nancy! *lol*

And I really do agree with Sabine... yes, the world definately needs a Nancy-Blog! WELCOME! :o)

Nic
(who knows that sometimes nad kitsch can turn into good kitsch very easily... ;o)

*Sweet*Caroline* said...

Nancy!
How wonderful to have you in the neighbourhood!!

Welcome!

It was about time to share your wonderful pictures and thoughts! ;o)

Love your thoughts about Kitsch - don't we all need a little ( or a lot ) Kitsch in our lives?

Have a wonderful day!
Sabine

Chris said...

Kitsch, Kitsch, Kitsch .. now my head spins *LOL*

It´s nice to have you in the blogger-neighborhood !!! I´m sure you´ll be very successful !!!

See you soon, Chris

Unknown said...

good kitsch you will find here;

http://www.erzgebirge-palace.com

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