THE COOP

Friday, August 30, 2013

Fashion is a Two-Faced Bitch: Mean Clothes

Hi World,

You know what I hate about clothes?  They are nice to your face until you buy them and then they turn on you.

They make your ass look big behind your back.  They pretend to be blue to get you to buy them, but turn purple in the bag on the way home.  When you confront them,  they stare back at you, all innocent-like, "What?  Me?  Blue? Prove it, Bitch."

Clothes also love to mess with your head by changing size.  That blouse looks great on you in the store but the minute you cut off the tags it will start its metamorphosis into the most ill-fitting garment Taiwan ever produced.   "Wait a second", you'll say,  "Why would I purposely buy a a shirt that somehow appears  to be camouflaging a watermelon, while simultaneously showing way too much  cleavage?  How did that happen?"

Because.  Mean Clothes.

Another trick that clothes find hilarious is the invisible stain/tear. At night, while you fall asleep, fantasizing about running into your secret crush while wearing your hot new dress, that same dress is giggling in the closet with its new friends.   Do you know what they are doing?  Drawing on each other with lipstick,   ripping out their threads, and growing sweat stains.   It's true.  Don't expect to catch them at it.  Clothes are sneakier than Santa Claus.

The meanest,  most two-faced  clothes in the universe are made from 100% cotton.  Cotton is the Gywneth Paltrow of fabrics.  Society Darling.  So wholesome looking.  If cotton  had teeth,  you can bet they'd be bigger than a Kennedy's and overly whitened. Cotton seems to have it all, but it has a dark side. Cotton is moody. Seriously, Cotton should be heavily medicated.  One minute, it's all granny panties, sweats, and your favorite t-shirt.  Next minute it's a white dress shirt that gapes at your chest and rides  up your back,  or it's a dress that looked good exactly once before it lost its shape.  Cotton secretly thinks that you are not good enough to wear it and wishes it was only available in Europe.

If Cotton is the alpha fabric, then Silk is her high-maintenance, neurotic best friend.  Silk is great as long as it's getting its way.  Silk is the Glenn Close of  fabrics.  It will not be ignored. Do not think, for one second, that you can wear a silk gown to a gala event, and then throw it back in your closet like a cheap rayon slip. You will pay for that mistake with a whole closet full of clothes that smell like body odor. Compliments of Silk. Silk looks normal on the outside but,never forget, it was raised by worms.

There's probably a new girl in your closet.  She's called Spandex and she's in your jeans.  She's not actually new. She made some unfortunate style decisions in the 80's and people talked bad about her.  She went into hiding for  awhile, but then she ran into Denim on the sale rack at Walmart one day, and they hit it off.  They've been together ever since.  You see them everywhere.  They might look like a classy pair, but give them a few drinks and things  go downhill fast.  They start fighting. Denim says something nasty.  Spandex gets upset and storms out, leaving the seat of your pants hanging somewhere just above your knees.  Call them the Liz Taylor and Richard Burton of clothing.

And that brings us to denim.  Denim is a sadistic a-hole bully most of the time.  Cotton is bad, but cotton is merely vapid.  It doesn't mean to do the things it does,  it just has no filter. Denim knows better. Denim is streetwise, not to mention manipulative.  It enjoys showing off your butt crack, making your waist scream for mercy, and forcing your intestines to take up residence in your rib cage. It invented muffin top. If you ever expect to get along with Denim, you have to show it who's boss.  Keep throwing it in your washing machine until it breaks.  This might seem mean,  but so is camel toe.

It is you or them.  If you take just one thing from this post,  please hear this:  Your clothes are nothing without you. You do not have to take their crap.  I heard about a safe house in NYC.  It's called "What Not To Wear". They can help.  Call their toll free line, and never be bullied by your clothes again.

Chicken out

Nice Girl.  Victim of Mean Clothes.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

I'll Bet You Think This Post is About You. Don't You?

Hi World,

When  we are young, we do stupid things. It starts, maybe, with touching a hot stove and progresses to running with sharp objects, and may even involve some petty theft.  If we are lucky, we don't scar, we don't fall, and we do get caught.

As we get older, and  assimilate all that we've learned, most of us get with the program and commit fewer cringe-worthy acts.  And then we die.  But that's another post.  

The late teens and early twenties are one of those periods of time  when we are particularly at risk of embarrassing ourselves. Maybe it's the hormones still raging, maybe it's the abundance of technology, maybe it's a growing sexual confidence.  Whatever the cause, our twenties can be a minefield of social gaffes.  

I think, in my early twenties, I may as well have walked around 24/7 with my skirt tucked in my pantyhose and toilet paper flowing from the bottom of my teetery, tottery,  too high shoes. I was that witless sometimes.

But this post isn't about me.  Any witnesses to my lapses in judgement have mostly lost their memories by now. Kidding. People I used to know, please do not write me about things you clearly  remember.  No one is interested. Trust me. 

We're lucky, you and I, that we can pretty much count on our skeletons to stay put in their cozy little closets. The famous are not like you and me.  Their regrettable moments are always at risk of making an appearance on some seedy little blog somewhere.  Like this one.

I say ________ you say _________

Monica Lewinsky
Marla Maples
Brittany Spears
Madonna
Anna Nicole Smith
Angelina Jolie
Marilyn Monroe
Paris Hilton

And you know, sometimes, even after you get a little older and wiser, you still mess up.  Do these names bring back any memories:

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Jimmy Swaggart 
Tom Cruise
Bill Clinton
Charlie Sheen
Woody Allen

(Is it me or is there a trend here?)

What I'm saying is this:  If we see a little sister make an ass of herself, maybe we can cut her some slack for being young and foolish. Why should Little Sister be deprived of the opportunities the rest of us had to humiliate ourselves in public? 


Chicken  out
probably regrets this photo


















Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Don't You Know Who I Am???

Hi World:

I've decided to be famous. What the heck, it's Wednesday.

No, I haven't suddenly become skilled, good looking or intelligent.  There's nothing about me that screams "A Star is Born".  Not gonna let it hold me back.  It didn't hold back those toothless guys from Duck Dynasty, or Honey Boo Boo's entire family, or any number of bored housewives.

I'm  pretty sure fame is attainable with the right PR agent.  In my case, it's going to have to be a super talented one because I really don't have a lot of time  to invest.  Some people know people who know the right people.  Others network and go to casting calls.  I don't know anyone and I'm way too lazy to network.

I've thought of a few different angles my PR agent should consider in developing my new, more interesting persona. First,  I enjoy interacting with the world via these Chicken files. That could be useful  My agent could spin me into some uber-cool, mysterious recluse blogger who in real life is talented, famous, wealthy and possibly the secret love child of Bob Dylan and an associate professor of romance languages from the University of Oklahoma..

The second card up my sleeve is that I'm nocturnal.   I know!  Nocturnal is so trending right now.  These days, I cover up my nocturnal behavior by never posting anything before dawn.  There are people out there who want to do bad things to me.  I try to throw them off my trail.  Can you picture it?  Nocturnal supernatural blogger living in exile.  That is so me.  You know, I may be from Prague.  That's a spicy  place to be from.

Finally, I am descended from a long line of farmers.  I'm not sure if you have noticed, but farmers will soon be replacing chefs as the new blue collar celebrities.  Right behind Red Necks.   I can't, personally, grow a dandelion, but it doesn't really matter.  The blood doesn't lie.  Put me in a house dress, give me a basket, and take a close up of my cankles; I wouldn't even need a fucking herb garden to get my own Food Network pilot.

So let's recap.  I want to be famous without leaving my house or engaging in work-like activities.  My three angles are:

1. Reclusive love child of Bob Dylan blogging anonymously
2. Nocturnal supernatural exile with ties to the House of Rosenberg
3. Descended from farming royalty, has the cankles to prove it,  looks damn fine in a house dress.

Yup, I think this is a solid plan.  Thanks for talking me through it.  Could you also get three hundred of your closest friends to follow me on twitter?  While you do that, I'll be busy constructing a more interesting Face Book page, planting mysterious references to Bob Dylan throughout my blog, shopping for a volcanic house dress ensemble and practicing my Czech accent.

Chicken out