Noccalula Falls with a rainbow in its spray. Photo by me, March 2011.
Noccalula Falls is located in a park in the city of Gadsden, Alabama. It is said to be named after a Native American Indian princess but there is no historical evidence for such a person. It is a stunning waterfall to behold as the water plunges 90 feet over the rock edge. If you go at the right time you might capture a rainbow in the water spray at the base.
Photo by me, March 2011.
Black Creek is the source of the water for Noccalula Falls. As with any waterfall rainfall is going to be the determining factor as to how dramatic the water flow is going to be. I find that in the south the best times to go are in the winter and early spring when rainfall is more abundant.
Photo by me, March 2011.
This park is nicely done with a bridge over Black Creek right at the edge of the waterfall so you get a nice view and feel the intensity of the water rushing underneath you.
Photo by me, March 2011.
This is looking right over the precipice of the falls. There are massive boulders below and quite of bit of spray as Black Creek continues on through the hills of northeast Alabama.
In addition to the waterfall this park offers camping, hiking trails and a fort. Parking is free.
This is the prettiest waterfall in Alabama in my mind and it is easily accessible too. Little River Falls is located in the northeastern part of the state in the Little River Canyon National Preserve on Highway 35 between Gaylesville and Fort Payne. Out of the many natural wonders in the northern part of the state this is one I place at the top of the list.
Grace's High Falls, Alabama. Photo by me, February 2008.
Fortunately for me when I visited in the dead of winter it had been a very wet start to the year. If it hadn't been so wet then I might not have seen this waterfall as it only flows over the cliff into Little River Canyon during times when there has been recent and steady rainfall.
If you grew up in North Georgia in the 1980s and watched any local news then you knew Leroy Powell. He was the only reporter on channel 5 or any station for that matter in Atlanta that had an authentic southern accent. His beat was that of a humorist and to produce human interest stories that reflected what we might not have realized then was the vanishing south. He had weekly segments and the occasional special that shared the common theme of life and the peculiarities associated with living in the south.
The towns in this video still have the same names from Arab to Tallapoosa but the people have changed in the past thirty years. Leroy mentions people in the south being gracious and it struck me how that's gone now. The Greatest Generation was a living embodiment of that graciousness be they black or white it was a natural disposition like a hereditary trait. The Boomers still carried some of this graciousness but it was a weakened characteristic, by the time Generation X came there were only scant traces and now Millennials would have to ask Siri what graciousness meant.
Today some people want to claim that the southern heritage is that ratty old Confederate flag but our heritage is in our grits our red eye gravy, RC Cola, the Claxton Fruitcake, our way of speaking, the stories we share like my grandfather that ran moonshine, the rotting home places that dot the back roads, the sap in the pine trees and in Georgia that iron-rich red dirt.
The evolution of our regional identity is now viewed through the frames of politics, the names on our subdivisions and served to us at Cracker Barrel on plates from Thailand. If you are lucky you might still have a living grandparent that can cook genuine southern food. The southern identity has become as faded as a washed out Drink Coca Cola mural on a falling down gas station at the crossroads in towns like Bucksnort and Enigma (yeah, I've been both places).
I won't pretend that the story of the south is all sweet tea, barbecue, and see Rock City signs along the roadways. Our story includes the Trail of Tears, the slave markets in Charleston, the blood soaked soil of Chickamauga, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi, Lester Maddox's axe handle, the nail bombs of Eric Rudolph and numerous other tragedies. We can't forget the terrible parts of the past but I do miss the graciousness that sewed the south together like that quilt that had been passed down from generation to generation.
Leroy died in 1999 at the age of 55 from cancer. In the modern landscape of local television news Leroy wouldn't have a career and that's a shame. There is not a news department budget in this city for this type of work and there's not an audience with the interest or attention span either. Leroy's work in the present is like that quaint old Zebco 33 reel hanging in the boathouse.
It’s the Oscars tonight and here’s what I loved and hated on screen in 2015.
I don’t watch television but I do watch a lot of movies. I consider myself a film snob and some might think that’s elitist sounding, however it’s not intended that way. It just means I didn’t waste my time watching Star Wars Episode 5,631 because I was too interested in trying to watch every movie made by John Cassavetes - seriously go watch Love Streams and tell me it isn’t simultaneously the oddest and greatest film.
2015 wasn’t the greatest year for movies. There were only a few that were memorable and great and the rest were just good enough or awful. So 2015 was the year of ‘just good enough’ in regard to my favorites list. As far as the worst movies list of the year, well I enjoyed writing about them more than I did watching those movies .
If you like movies maybe you will see one listed here that you didn’t know about.
My 16 Favorite Movies of 2015
Carol - Even in a year when there weren’t many great movies if you were to take Carol and put it in a year with better competition it might still be the best movie that year as it was in 2015. The women (Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara & Sarah Paulson) in this cast had the best roles and performances of the year. Like The Danish Girl this film was beautifully shot from costumes to locations. That wasn’t 1950s New York you were seeing it was the architecturally underrated Cincinnati where it was filmed. This was easily the best movie of 2015.
45 Years - This movie hurts you and that’s a great thing.
Clouds of Sils Maria - Juliette Binoche can be in any film and I would watch it because she is that great of an actor. Her role is so rich in this movie and her performance is like peeling the layers of an onion only to discover it keeps going. Who knew Kristen Stewart could act? I certainly didn’t think she could until her role as Binoche’s assistant. Aside from a couple of odd and minor editing sequences that were sloppy, this movie is outstanding. Like a good movie should do, not every plot point is spelled out and you have to interpret a few things on your own and come to your own understanding of what happened.
The Danish Girl - If awards were given for prettiest movie this would be the winner. It’s beautifully shot in a technical sense, the locations are stunning and the costumes are exquisite. The story has a few weak points but Eddie Redmayne is too good in his role just like Patrick Swayze was too good in To Wong Fu. Redmayne should win the Oscar but he probably won’t.
The Lobster -This had to have been the most original concept for a movie I had seen in some time. I expected to hate it but I loved every second. The director of this movie, Yorgos Lanthimos, is the same director that brought you Dogtooth in 2009.Dogtoothwas waaaaay out there but The Lobster is much more accessible.
Hateful 8 - You either get Quentin Tarantino or you don’t. This movie was the funniest thing I saw in 2015. This movie isn’t politically correct and in the context of the film it is done to make a statement on stupidity and isn’t for comedic effect. There’s probably a large segment of the population that unfortunately laughed for the wrong reasons though.
The Big Short- Brad Pitt in a smaller role actually makes him better. The idea behind this movie is take a complicated topic relating to finance and turn it into a comedy, of sorts. This movie is theAmerican Hustle of 2015 which strangely enough stars Christian Bale too. It’s not great but it’s good enough in 2015 and then it will be largely forgotten by everyone.
The Revenant - Shot only using natural light, now think about that for a second. It’s an epic journey in film making but a little weak in plot. After watching it you feel like you went on a journey. The landscape is a greater character than Leo Dicaprio and deserves an award more than he does. Grunting for an entire film reminds me that he hasn’t played a good role since he was a teenager. Sure, he’s a blockbuster name but he’s a modern cardboard cutout actor that directors paint their palette on and he brings nothing to his roles from within. It’s a big, grand experience of a movie and despite the flaws it has I enjoyed it.
Boulevard- This is the last movie of Robin Williams. Oh, it’s a depressing film. It was overlooked by everyone.
Spotlight - It has the quality of a made for tv movie, but hey there’s the talented Mark Ruffalo and the suddenly resurrected Michael Keaton.
Nasty Baby - A movie with a unique name and a dramatic and dark plot twist.
Goodnight Mommy - A German film that was the talk of indie and foreign film circles last fall and deservedly so. If you pay attention closely you will figure it out.
Ex Machina- Artificial intelligence movies are becoming a trend again but this one is good enough. Under The Skinwas a darker, more subversive AI movie that came out in 2014 and I liked it better. Still, 2015 was a poor year for movies so Ex Machina makes the cut this year.
Brooklyn Bizarre - A very indie film set in the hipster Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. It’s a low-budget production but the acting and character’s arcs pull it off.
Mistress America - I’m a sucker for Noah Baumbach movies and yes, this was basically a sequel in disguise for the dearly loved Frances Ha - it just wasn’t quite as good and was in color. The movie is funny, not as lighthearted as it appears and does kind of go raging over a cliff once it leaves Manhattan for Connecticut but that appears to be on purpose. Baumbach reminds me of Woody Allen in a good way.
Life- This movie made no year-end lists for 2015 but it should have. The life of James Dean has been explored over and over but this movie focuses on the true story of a photographer trying to do a photo spread with Dean for Life Magazine. The movie is largely set in New York and Indiana (thankfully very little of Hollywood) and portrays Dean in a way you might not expect just before his fatal car crash.
These movies are insults to movies and the audiences that watch them.
Crimson Peak - I was more disappointed in this movie than any movie of the year. I had such high expectations going into it and then within the first few minutes I knew exactly where it was going and it wasn’t going to end well. This movie was The Babadook of 2015 (but worse) in how you wanted to love it but you just couldn’t lie to yourself like that. I figured out the plot in the first ten minutes so that removed any mystery for me and then I kept hoping it would give me some sense of horror or suspense or even creepiness but it couldn’t even manage those things either. This was so bad compared to director Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth which he wrote and directed in 2006. Pan’s Labyrinth doesn’t even seem like it was by the same person because it was so good compared to Crimson Peak, it had everything that Crimson Peak was missing.
Bridge Of Spies - It’s a Spielberg movie so that automatically qualifies it for this list. Spielberg never leaves anything to the imagination of the audience. He feels like you are too dumb to think for yourself so he directs in a heavy-handed, patronizing, manipulative way where he must spell everything out for you in big bold letters. Where the touch of a feather would be better for making a point he always reaches for the hammer to smash it into your head. Spielberg has never possessed any subtlety. Director Terry Gilliam says it best about how stupid Spielberg movies are. Bridge of Spies stars Tom Hanks and there isn’t a more safe and banal actor in the world than Tom Hanks (see everything he’s ever acted in except maybe Philadelphia) so he is perfect casting for this movie. It was nice however to see Alan Alda get a role in a movie.
Irrational Man - Woody Allen hasn’t made a good film in a very, very, very long long time. Match Point in 2005 was his last decent movie and Midnight In Pariswas a complete waste. His last movie that was very good was Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993. Before he gets too old to make movies I keep hoping he will make something worthy of his best work like Manhattan,Annie Hall, Interiors, Husbands and Wives, or Hannah and Her Sisters. New York used to be a central character in his movies and without the city he just makes average films that are lacking. Irrational Man could have been a good movie but it was shallow and once again featured an older man becoming inappropriately involved with a much younger female; a theme that has become all too common in Woody Allen movies and given his own personal life this seems creepy. The male lead is played by Joaquin Phoenix who displays the only two methods he has in his acting repertoire: being asleep or being crazy (see the strangeThe Master or the bad Her ). The only highlight in this movie was Parker Posey who’s character and her acting make this movie worth watching, sadly her character isn’t developed enough. Posey deserves to be in more movies and she does have more films in production including another Allen movie in 2016. Finally some of the dialogue was as poorly written as a 1980s after school special, I was cringing at the scene in the diner.
Concussion- While this was an important film for its subject matter it couldn’t seem to simply stay focused on that. It instead went meandering off on a love story and couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. It was a mess of a script with science, football, love and real life footage of games tossed into a blender. Yet, none of those topics were presented well enough in this film to make it interesting.
The Intern - Robert De Niro was once a fine actor that chose roles wisely. Now he is a man that thinks comedic roles are his forte and he’s wrong about that. These are roles that even Tony Danza would turn down if he could. He’s become stuck in a rut of playing in movies that have cheesy, brain-dead scripts and are as fluffy as cotton candy. This was the most condescending movie of 2015. It was so trite, cliche and had such stereotypical characters I felt insulted by it.
A Walk In The Woods - This movie was mostly filmed in Atlanta and North Georgia. It was nice seeing Burkharts and The Colonnade make cameos but this movie was complete dreck. The casting was terrible as Robert Redford and Nick Nolte were way too senior to play these roles based on the book. Casting these two changed what the plot was about and the jokes centering around these two being too old to hike the Appalachian Trail were so cornball it was ridiculous. Nick Nolte is in such bad health that you thought he was going to die on screen and you need subtitles to understand a word he says. The greatest laugh I had was when they were supposed to be trapped on a ledge at the old quarry in NW Atlanta and the set was so fake and poorly done it looked like a high school play production. This movie didn’t even try to be mediocre.
The Walk - Let’s take a fascinating true story, hire a decent leading actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and make a huge joke of a movie. From the opening scene of Gordon-Levitt standing atop a cartoonish Statue of Liberty, director Robert Zemeckis decides that he isn’t going to take this subject seriously and wants to throw every cent of his special-effects budget at this. Having a different director with a different vision would have made this into an okay movie and Gordon-Levitt tries his best to save it but he can’t overcome all the bad directing decisions. The movie is based on Philippe Petit, a French tight rope walker that dreams to walk a high wire spanning the two original World Trade Center towers just before they are opened to the public in 1974. The movie begins with the preparations and planning in Paris and follows it through to the execution of that plan. It could have been an exciting drama as the material was there but Zemeckis ruined it.
Knight Of Cups - Even Cate Blanchett in her prime couldn’t save this existential, self-indulgent movie about a man in a mid-life crisis. I’m a fan of long and sweeping camera shots but not constantly for two hours. What the plot consists of is Christian Bale either having sex or jumping into a body of water (pools and the ocean) repeatedly with a comatose stare on his face. Maybe that stare was his reaction to agreeing to be in this movie. Knight Of Cups directed and written by Terrence Malick is what you get when Hollywood tries to do a film that wants to edgy and arty. I am assuming people must have owed Malick favors as to the only reason they would be in this as the amount of irrelevant cameos is amazing - even Fabio is seen walking around in the background of one scene... Fabio. The humor in this movie would be in how much the studio lost in making it. Sometimes really awful movies will years later become cult favorites, well this is so bad it won’t even achieve that.
Love- Well this French movie was controversial I can say it had that going for it. The controversy was that all of the sex in the movie was real and not simulated and that’s true. This movie was all about sex from beginning to end with the three main characters and the plot was a thin wrapper of a contraceptive that mainly served as a device to film as many sex scenes as you could into a two hour and fifteen minute movie. That much real sex or even simulated sex gets boring quickly if there’s no story. The trailer makes the movie seem more interesting than it really is.
Stonewall - This is the absolute worst movie in many, many, many, many years. One of the first lines spoken in this movie is, “I got you all figured out.” Yep, that says all you need to know about this All-American blonde haired cliche. How someone could take the historic Stonewall Riot and reduce it to this pep rally is unforgivable. I hope everyone involved in this tragedy of epic failure never makes another movie.
ike most every teenager in the 1980s I had a copy of the INXS album Kick. It was released in 1987 from the Australian band and it had hit after hit on the radio and MTV. The album went to number three on the U.S. charts and sold over six million copies - it was a big album.
As for me, I liked them at the time, but I didn't fall in love with them. Almost 30 years later, I love their music. The music has aged very well from the 1980s and the band continued on after the death of Michael Hutchence as they released albums up until 2010. The last album he was on was Elegantly Wasted that was released in 1997.
What I remember most about INXS was the beautiful video for Never Tear Us Apart filmed in Prague. Prague is one of those places, like Berlin, that fascinates me.
The video for the song is one of my all-time favorite videos. It's beautiful and it fits the song perfectly. The video was shot by Australian film director Richard Lowenstein. He was a friend of Hutchence and had worked with him before on his 1986 film Dogs In Space starring Hutchence. It is a visually stunning movie about the late 1970s punk scene in Melbourne and you if can find a copy somewhere you should definitely watch it.
Lowenstein likes to use long shots and have the camera move about the scene and you can see that in several places in this video. The scene at 2:34 in the video where the camera pans the sidewalk below and then sweeps up to the cemetery above and back down to take in the view in the distance is just incredible. I love how we see Hutchence walk into the frame from the right and we follow him across the cemetery for a few moments and then he goes on about his way.
The song was released in August 1988 so one can assume that the video was filmed earlier that year in the winter or early spring. The entire video was shot on location in Prague, one year before the Velvet Revolution would take place in 1989 and the Communist party was overthrown. Czechoslovakia in the late 1980s was still greatly behind in terms of modern development as was much of Eastern Europe as compared to their western counterparts. Prague was a time capsule filled with grand and decaying beauty covered in gray frosting. The timing of this video captures well what it was like just before the end of a long and depressing Communist reign. Back then Prague and the now Czech Republic wasn't on the tourist circuit as it is today, now everyone talks of visiting the city and being amazed at the beautifully preserved architecture.
I was so enamored by the video I decided to spend the time to try and locate the filming locations in the video and see what might have changed in nearly thirty years. It took me about three hours scouring Google Earth to find all of the locations.
This is the location of the opening scene in the video. The camera descends behind the lamp post on the left and a soldier is seen walking on a deserted street in front of the red tiled roof building in the distance.
Next we see Michael Hutchence singing as he walks along some water. This was filmed on an island in the middle of the Vltava River. You can see the bridge and the steeples of the buildings behind him in both photos.
Then there is a brief night shot from the same island. The buildings in the distance were filmed tighter than was it shown in the Google Earth photo.
Then we have the Charles Bridge used as a location. Hutchence is sitting on the same stone wall in the right of the Google Earth photo underneath that lamp post. The wrought iron fences in the right of the photo are still the same as they were in 1988.
Next is the first of two scenes shot at the Prague Castle. You can see the same red tiled roof of the building on the left though it is more covered by trees now. Also there is the same grassy area below and the domed buildings in the distance to the left. This location was the most difficult for me to find as it is across the river in another part of the city from the other locations.
This is the location of the scene that takes place below on the street then sweeps up to the cemetery above and back down to the street again. Reflecting the greatest change is this street where it was once a dark barren place it now features booths selling tourist souvenirs. The cemetery in this scene that Hutchence walks through is now a tourist attraction and is known as the Old Jewish Cemetery.
Then we are back at the Prague Castle for a scene showing these steps.
As the video begins to end Hutchence walks past the astronomical clock. It still looks exactly the same. The clock dates back to 1410, is the third oldest of its kind and the oldest one still in operation today.
The final scene is shot in the Old Town Square of Prague. It is still the same except for the people.
Click to enlarge.
An overview of the locations used for filming the video.
s a kid I was addicted to Take It Away, I had to even buy the single on 45 vinyl. I played a lot of vinyl or what we called records back in the 1980s. Hipsters had not come along then with their retro turntables, making some kind of poseur statement yet to sneer at calling vinyl a record.
The funny thing is, I've never been a McCartney fan, he's okay, but I was more of a John Lennon fan and still am today. After Lennon was murdered, McCartney was still relevant and popping out hits on pop radio. I can imagine that Lennon might have been just as successful if he had not been murdered.
The video is interesting as it features the famous actor John Hurt. Hurt is one of my all-time favorite actors. In the video, he plays his role with as much effort as he would a movie and appears to have taken it just as serious. He tosses out a few smirks which I adore.
Maybe it's the saxophones or the trumpets or the smooth as velvet backing vocals, but this song is still a favorite of mine from the 80s. Hell, maybe I thought McCartney was cute when I was a child. I realize it is possibly strange now, but I definitely had a crush on John Hurt.
Anyway, it's the last day of 2015 and tomorrow we change the number to 2016. I guess it wasn't so bad a year. I walked the streets of several cities, saw some new beaches, climbed a few mountains, watched a lot of damn good movies, read some good books and didn't add too many wrinkles.
The view from the second floor rear door of my childhood home. Photo early 1990s, by me.
W
ith the passage of time and years of music that has passed my ears you forget about bands and songs. Some of them you really enjoyed at the time, but like names of temporary acquaintances you forget them. Until one day their music pops up as a suggestion on YouTube, a music streaming service or maybe on the radio.
What I Am by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians went as high as number seven on the charts and was a constant on MTV in 1988. I was in high school at the time and this was the time I was in love with Tracy Chapman's megahit Fast Car. There was a folk/earthy sound emerging that was a niche in the rock landscape that was dominated by hair bands. This period was to be brief, but memorable.
Chapman had more hits but Edie Brickell & New Bohemians did not. The band never followed up What I Am with another hit song. It was not for a lack of talent, but maybe more that when their next album was released in 1990 the musical landscape was shifting to the Seattle sound. The tides of taste had swept in something else that did not leave much room for their sound.
After the next album (Ghost Of A Dog) flopped I managed to get a copy of it for free. I worked at the distribution center that supplied all the music for Turtles, Record Bar and Tracks. Remember those record stores? I worked for the parent company that was called Super Club Music Corporation.
When we had an oversupply of CDs and cassettes in the warehouse of albums that did not sell, we gave them to the staff as a way to clear shelf space. Sugar was another band that I had liked and got some of their music for free.
The title track from Ghost Of A Dog was my favorite from the 1990 album. It was a simple and short song, but it was the most memorable one for me with its story about a ghost dog.
Ghost Of A Dog was an album that reminds me of staring out the backdoor of my childhood home in the early 1990s, into the sun in the winter pines and being lost in my thoughts. I probably sat down and wrote a few lines of bad poetry immediately afterwards.
Life was simple for me then, not necessarily happy, but it was simple. Sometimes I hear the ghosts of the 90s barking like that dog.
It was the 2007 release of Boxerthat introduced me to The National. All of the elements were there for me to fall in love with this band : incredibly smart lyrics, good musicians and the solid dark voice of the lead singer. They were like a combination of dark chocolate, black coffee and cigarettes.
I'll be honest these aren't happy songs but they aren't depressing either. They are emotionally brutal and simultaneously beautiful with lyrics that I have lived to some degree. It's smart music and when I feel like I need to indulge in some sadness I can always listen to them while emotionally falling backwards. The music goes well with putting my feet up on my desk at home and staring out the window.
Pink Rabbits - I love a storm but I don't love lightning, the water is coming up so fast it's frightening.
Lucky You - You're putting on a shirt, a shirt I'll never see. The letters in your coat but no one's in your head. Cos' you're too smart to remember that you're too smart. Lucky you.
Other favorites of mine are Racing Like A Pro and Fake Empire.
Racing Like A Pro has one of my favorite lines in a song ever and I find it so truthfully funny: Sometimes you get up and bake a cake or something, sometimes you stay in bed, sometimes you go la-de-da la-de-da la-de-da-da until your eyes roll back into your head.
The National sets a mood you don't want to stay in for too long like being in a cave with a candle that is slowing burning down and you need to retreat to daylight or risk being engulfed in darkness.
o see how people reacted to the Paris attacks I looked around the web.
Smiling vacation selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower, mindless slogans repeated over and over and nifty graphics incorporating the French flag seem to be the standard internet response.
Nothing changed with these weak gestures of solidarity as one hundred plus people are unfortunately still dead and blood still stains the streets.
All I see are people trying to make this tragedy about themselves in some twisted narcissistic way. It's like saying I like croissants or I had French food one time at this place, I sat next to a French person one day on the train or had a French pen pal in grade school. It's very silly and self-centered .
I'm sorry I'm a cynical crank I know. On with the show and I'll go sip my coffee and read my copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking while listening to Serge Gainsbourg.
When the Savannah College of Art & Design opened a campus here in Atlanta a few years ago I would never have dreamed they would open a museum dedicated to fashion and photography and then they did this year. I made my first visit a few days ago and found it to be a great addition to the Midtown arts scene. This new museum with rotating exhibitions filled a void that the High Museum was not serving.
A dramatic dress and pose. Photo by me, October 2015.
This was the inaugural exhibition for the museum and it was such a magnificent way to throw open the doors and let the public become better acquainted with the school. Rather than go opening week I decided to let the initial excitement wain just a little and put seeing this show off until two weeks after opening.
Photo by me, October 2015
Photo by me, October 2015
The clothes were exquisite. There were 84 outfits from the Oscar de la Renta line many designed by Oscar himself. The clothes belonged to or were worn by a who's who in fashion including a sable-collared coat from Anna Wintour and a gown of Sarah Jessica Parker's among others. You were able to get up close to them, not touch them mind you, and see the real craftsmanship that goes into one of a kind expensive clothing that isn't the ready to wear stuff of every day life. The quality of the fabric and the details were extraordinary. The outfits were styled with jewelry from Vogue and Kenneth Jay Lane. The entire exhibition was an impeccable collection of fashion and seeing them presented this way in a museum makes you understand that clothes can indeed be art.
Photo by me, October 2015.
Photo by me, October 2015.
Photo by me, October 2015.
Oscar de la Renta was originally born in the Dominican Republic and came to fame designing for First Lady Jackie Kennedy in the 1960s. He designed for Lanvin and Balmain before launching his own line and opening his fashion house. His style was classic beauty with very clean lines that complimented the natural beauty of the women that wore his clothes. He remained active until his death at the age of 82 in late 2014.
Photo by me, October 2015.
Photo by me, October 2015.
Photo by me, October 2015.
Photo by me, October 2015.
Getting up close with the gowns. Photo by me, October 2015.
The outdoor seating area overlooking the city. Photo by me, October 2015.
Now the gallery/museum space itself is interesting in its own right. The space is built into a parking garage on the rear of the SCAD campus. Basically, parking spaces were reclaimed, walled-in and this space was built. It doesn't sound too fashionable, glamorous or trendy but the space is actually very chic. It sits overlooking the Brookwood Split of interstates 75 and 85 in Midtown. From the front of the museum you get one of the better views of the city skyline. There is a patio area with seating outside the front door so one can sit and admire the view before or after seeing the show inside. Inside the gallery space is a comfortable lounge area showing films related to the exhibition and art books (mainly fashion designers) and SCAD related items. Students act as docents and are typically friendly and helpful. They are also there to answer questions and provide you with background information of what you are viewing.
