Style Icon: Tori Amos

When I think about Tori Amos' style, I mostly think about her bright-red hair and giant lips. Do these things count as style? Or is that just the way Tori Amos looks? I mean, her lips can't be part of her style, can they? They're, you know, part of her face. So maybe I just like Tori Amos' face. And her music. And actually her style, I'm pretty sure.

The hair is as red as red can be, and she'll put on a heart-printed halter top with purple jeans so cheers to that. 

Tori Amos has always been a bit of a fairy in my mind, and all the sparkles and pretty jewelry she wears helps with that. So does the fact she's quit LA because it smells like fear and lives in Ireland and England. And her wacky lyrics. Love those wacky lyrics. (As a teen, they were it for me. As an adult, I listen to songs like "Mr. Zebra" and wonder "What is going on here?")

I was really into Tori Amos in high school when she was coming out with records like "Boys for Pele" and "From the Choirgirl Hotel," but I've remained a fan of her newer stuff as well. I like how candidly she talks about her miscarriages and how she's remained a fairy creature even as the world seems to get uglier and uglier. She puts on a kick-ass show too, that girl and her piano. If you have a chance to see her live, take it. She'll be rocking her red hair and lipsticked-lips, I'm sure of it and wailing about myths and fairies and love and God. All the good stuff.

Style Icon: Andre 3000

Andre 3000 is so damn dapper I can't stand it.

This man can wear the hell out of a suit/hat/polka-dot bowtie. He is not afraid of prints or pattern mixing.

AND he wrote the most infectious dance tune of all time. Just try listening to it without shaking it like a Polaroid picture.

Beauty

Sometimes beauty is easy.

Sometimes you don't have to try at all.

Sometimes you can hear the wind blow in a handshake.

Sometimes there's poetry written right on the bathroom wall. 

-- Ani DiFranco

Style Icon: Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington was dapper. Now that was a man who could wear a top hat.

He was also a man who could wear a suit and smoke the heck out of a cigarette (Smoking is bad, kids!).

All that said, his best accessory was a piano. (But let us also note the socks! Look at the music legend's awesome socks!)

Have I mentioned how he can wear hats? Also: I usually hate tiny, tiny mustaches, but I make a giant, giant exception in this case. Duke Ellington, you are such a fabulous, stylish man you can even pull off a pencil-thin mustache. That's not easily done. Way to be awesome.

Loving It (A quick list)

This is my end-of-the-year list of my super favs in 2014:

Musician: Lorde

Song: "History Eraser" by Courtney Barnett



Book: "Instructions" by Neil Gaiman (Ostensibly a children's book, 100 percent the best any-kind book I've read in a long time.)



Movie: The Giant Mechanical Man (Not a 2014 movie, but I watched it New Year's Day totally nauseated, not because I was hungover, but because I was pregnant. It was awesome largely because it stars Danny of The Mindy Project.)

Poem: "Dinosaurs in the Hood" by Danez Smith

TV Show: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Happy almost New Year!

When Christmas is sad

I was watching Indina Menzel, whom I love (Um... she was both Elphaba and Elsa) sing Joni Mitchell's "River" and I was like "This is JUST WRONG." Because it was. Indina wasn't sad enough. She just really needed to be sadder.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about my favorite sad Christmas songs. Here are my Top Five (High Fidelity style) in descending order of super sadness:

5. Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" (Obvious choice. Kind of not sad because Elvis's voice makes me happy.)



4. Mariah Carey's (totally sad - she doesn't not have him there! - yet misleadingly upbeat) "All I Want for Christmas is You"



3. Judy Garland's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Is everything she sings sad because of her Judy Garland voice? Maybe.)



2. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" (He's homesick. It's sad to be homesick at Christmas.)



1. Joni Mitchell's "River" (She made her baby say goodbye.)




So much sadness! It's hard not to be a wee bit melancholy at the (literally) darkest time of the year.

Style Icon: Joan Jett

Joan Jett -- loud, sweaty, rock-n-roll tomboy. Her style is rough and messy and there's nothing girly about it.

Well, okay, she always has really great makeup, which is kind of girly, but bold, black eyeliner it's also really tough and hard. That eye makeup shows she is not to be messed with.

Joan Jett was huge in the '80s ("I Love Rock and Roll" anyone?), and she's still awesome today. She wears a lot of black leather these days, and totally works that look the way she used to work a T-shirt, jeans and chucks. And the dark eye makeup? Yeah, that's been consistent since possibly birth. I could totally picture Baby Joan Jett with some kohl liner. Joan Jett: A lifetime of being a style icon.

Style Icon: James Iha

Back in the '90s, I had a crush on James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins. Why? Well, I liked the band, I liked his hair, he was cute, and he seemed quiet and nice -- kind of like the George Harrison of the Smashing Pumpkins.

He had great grunge style. Flannel! Funny hair! Jeans! Cranky music!

But he also looked so great when he went swanky. I think my favorite James Iha is wearing-a-suit James Iha. Very hip! Billy Corgan did all the talking/singing, but James Iha was the one who got my attention!

Style Icon: Kate Bush

I love Kate Bush's atmospheric, dramatic, operatic music. It is so '80s and so is her leotard-heavy style, and that's what makes it so great.

I wore a lot of leotards in the '80s too. I loved, loved, loved me some leotards back in elementary school. Then in the '90s, leotards started being called "body suits," and I loved those too. Kate Bush obviously shared my inclination. She also really loved tall boots, and who can blame her?

Such great boots! This is my favorite Kate Bush style -- lots and lots of hair, jeans, boots and a casual white top. 

Kate Bush wasn't all '80s dancer/sex kitten. She was also mystical, woodland fairy. Hence the ivy head wear.

And the loose, flowy opposite-of-leotards dresses she liked.

The '80s were a time of heavy makeup, and I love Kate Bush' pouty red lips. I discovered her during my Tori-Amos obsessed phase in high school. "You like Tori Amos, well you'll like Kate Bush" I was told, and it was true. The two ladies, while definitely both originals, also had a lot in common -- fairy style, serious lipsticked lips, melodic piano-playing, dramatic lyrics, soaring voices.

Kate Bush just wore way more dance wear. As seen here:

Style Icon: Bjork

My sister was recently in Iceland for a month. That's right: Iceland. Who goes to Iceland? My sister. She was there when I had Thomas, and we skyped so she could see his cute baby face. During the conversation, she told me that she had seen Bjork while swimming in an Icelandic bath, and I was like "NO WAY" all loud and stuff and startled my baby like crazy. Thomas was like "Mom, take it down a notch," but I could not take it down a notch because my sister had seen Bjork -- the only celebrity who lives in Iceland (as far as I know) and a fantastic musician. High school had a pretty Bjork-heavy soundtrack for both myself and my sister. So yes, it was so exciting my sister saw her randomly in real life just going about her bathing business!

Most people probably know Bjork thanks to her Oscar swan dress, but she's so much more than that! She is swirly hair-dos and bright colors and, yes, a whole lot of strange.

Bjork is one of those people who always seems to march to the beat of her own drum. She didn't really seem to "play the game" if you know what I mean. (Case in point: the Oscar swan dress.) Instead, she just made her music and wore her clothes and was an odd, artistic genius -- the best kind of artistic genius there is!

Style Icon: Joni Mitchell

I can thank my father for many things, and one of those things is Joni Mitchell. My dad has great taste in music, and he introduced me to all kinds of groovy '60s and '70s music growing up. One of my favorites? Joni Mitchell. Her album "Blue" is perfection, but I like it all (okay, I like the later jazzy stuff a little less, but I still like it).

You know how there are some style icons you can emulate, and then there are others whose style will never be similar to yours? Joni Mitchell's look is one I admire, but not one I imitate. She is a lanky, blonde hippie folksinger, and she's so good at it. It's not my look, but it's soooo great.

She's a '60s thinker with floaty hippie dresses or little miniskirts. She is always playing her guitar. She is always more than just another pretty face.

She's a musical legend folking-out in her beret with the boys.

Singing about clouds and trees and big yellow taxis and winter and so forth and so on. Wearing crochet with her long hair hanging down. That's the Joni Mitchell we love. (Although, I also love older, alto Joni Mitchell with her self portraits and wine and cats and rediscovered daughter. There really isn't a Joni Mitchell I don't love.)

Style Icon: Pregnant Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani has been on my mind lately largely because that chick who sings on Iggy Azalea's song "Fancy" sounds so much like her. Seriously: Gwen Stefani copy-cat clone. That song is on the radio all the time (and I'm always singing "I'm so pregnant" when the chorus comes around) so I've been thinking about Gwen Stefani more than usual. 

I'm a Gwen Stefani fan. Back in the '90s, she was just a girl, and she was so great. Then she got pink hair and was still great. Then she went solo and I went to her concert and she, you know, continued to be great. Gwen Stefani the Great. 

Back in March, she had her third baby boy. So she's rocked awesome pregnancy fashion three times. Her pregnancy fashion is very different from mine. Gwen wears high-heeled red boots and leopard print. I wear jean shorts and Birkenstocks. 

But we both enjoy a good maxi dress! Hers is just a little more fabulous and fancy than my standard fare. Maxi dresses for the win: Always.

Summertime

"Summertime" is my favorite song in the world. It used to be the song I made my mom sing to me over and over before I went to sleep and then years later when I was 20, I sang it every night for a summer to cabins full of Girl Scout campers. It was the best.

There are a lot of great performances of it -- Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, my mother obviously. 

Next to good ol' mom, I'm going to have to say Doc Watson's is my favorite. As seen here.

P.S. And, yep, I will definitely be singing it to baby boy!

Style Icon: Lauryn Hill

I remember reading a review of "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" when the album first came out, and the reviewer was praising it and saying he hoped it wasn't like Carole King's "Tapestry" where the artist is one and done, and I was like "Why are you even writing that? Why are you putting it in the universe?" And then it came true. Boo. (Rumor has it she's working on new material. I believe in this rumor.)

Lauryn Hill -- great musician with great hair and an awesome ability to accessorize.

 She looked rad at all the awards shows -- very bohemian, very cool, wearing those signature bangles like it was no big thing.

She was beautiful and super glamorous, but also a bit of a tomboy. I'm so impressed with women who can pull that combo off.

I became a fan (like so so many other people) when she was with The Fugees. I remember singing "Killing Me Softly" all the time during high school, and my mother really hating the beat behind it. She liked the classic Roberta Flack version. Me? I like the classic '90s Fugees version the best.

Loving It

Lately I've been loving...

1. All the mirrors. When looking for art at the antique mall, I ended up really loving some mirrors. Sadly, the husband isn't super into mirrors randomly placed in our house, and the mirrors were all pricey, and honestly, I'm not sure where they would belong either, but still -- pretty!
2. Watermelon.
3. Anthony Bourdain's show "Parts Unknown."
4. Pressure washing the house. Unexpectedly fun and satisfying!
5. Courtney Barnett. Especially when she sings this song:

Style Icon: Lisa Loeb

When I was in high school, people sometimes said I looked like Lisa Loeb because we both had brown hair and glasses. I found the comparison incredibly simplistic, but I guess there are worse people to look like.

I had her album "Tails," and I really loved it. I could probably still sing along to every word. "Stay" is the song she's famous for, and rightly so -- what a great song. I love her outfit in the video -- glasses and brown hair (representing, Lisa Loeb!), short skirt, tights, clompy shoes, general '90s perfection.

I actually watched Lisa Loeb's reality show a few years ago where she was looking to get married and have a baby, and it wasn't happening. I must admit, I found the show very stressful (she had been in a previous relationship forever and the dude didn't want to get married and have babies so by time she got out of it the biological clock was ticking).

Luckily, I can stop worrying about her as she both got married and got knocked up just like she wanted. And then she wore a black dress, black tights and clompy shoes while pregnant. I admire your consistency, Lisa Loeb! I admire your consistency.

Style Icon: Liza Minnelli in Cabaret

Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles -- it doesn't get better. She is big eyes. She is rouged lips. She is sassy, sinful, Berlin fun.

She wears her black Fosse outfits and sings about life being a cabaret and money making the world go round  all the while, Nazis are organizing in the city outside. It's light and dark, frivolity mixed with fascism.

It is also amazing eye makeup and one well-applied beauty mark. Look at Liza's face! Look at her nails! Look at her fingerless gloves! I wish I was wearing fingerless gloves right now.

Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles is all about deep-Vs and sparkles. She is all about reclining on a bed in a haze of cigarette smoke. (Even if they did know back then that cigarettes kill you, Sally Bowles didn't care.)

Here she is as a post-flapper, pre-World-War-II cabaret beauty singing her songs, mesmerizing the room with her charismatic personality, killer voice and ridiculous, sparkly style.