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.