#marvel nikel

[marvelnikel]

This is where I might do a film analysis or review. I definitely watch enough of them to post everyday, but I don't have time for that.

[marvelnikelstyles]

Where's Marvel?

Can you spot me in the background of this picture of Raye 6 at the Fort Greene Festival found on The Fashion Bomb Blog?

LoL, i'm the speck of a person on the bench sitting closest to Raye 6's shoulder. Hahaha... I feel like they took my picture that day too (i could be wrong though, but someone from a fashion blog definitely took my picture that day!), like a real up close one, but apparently I got lost on the cutting room floor... Or so they thought!

(Looking at the blog post, maybe i only had this small unintentional cameo because when they asked if i was in fashion i said no. all but one of the people featured are some sort of artist: sartorial, visual, musical. Darnit, shoulda plugged the blog! Gosh i'm new to this).

[marvelnikelstyles]

Intellectual Stylist: Addendum 1

The initial post definitely needs some elaboration. Therefore I am creating addendum that expand upon certain topics.

Continuing on the topic of me representing the black woman as forgotten laborer:

Black women in these roles are not really seen as being "laborers" but as doing something natural... raising babies, cleaning house (ours and theirs). What is also forgotten in that formulation of the black woman is the black man and therefore so is black female sexuality. I, not only as an actual lesbian, but as sartorially performing black lesbianism through my donning of male clothes bring to the forefront the sexuality of the black laboring woman. A sexuality sans reproduction, though not without family or the need to provide for others. Therefore I am not the welfare queen "using reproductive sexuality" to deplete the system of its endowment (that our labor created in the first place) and I am not the asexual caregiver. I am the laborer, lover, caregiver, and fop that turns western society on its head.

[marvelnikelthinks]

Sartorial Performance Pt. 1 Continued

Take a look at my latest post in my other blog MarvelNikelStyles, where I attempt to intellectualize the art form of styling through my thinking of sartorial performance.

[marvelnikelstyles]

Intellectual Stylist: Variations on a Theme

I had worn a cummerbund with regular clothes years ago... first as a high-waist belt over an over-sized men's dress shirt (with tight jeans and heels of course). I loved that. Then if you look at the first post on this blog, you can see me with the same cummerbund over some front pleat tweed mens pants, with a regular long sleeve t-shirt and a vest. 

This time I'm trying out different ties and shoes on the same base: Acknowledge jeans and button down  Acknowledge chambray shirt, suede Hermes vest, thrift store cummerbund, and fedora from target.

The first picture has my black with white polka dot Good Wood wooden bow tie, and casual shoes from Donald J. Pliner

The second picture has the same wooden bow tie, but I switched the shoes out for my pointy toe, white patent leather gucci wingtips.

The third picture has my only self tie bow tie (I always wanted one so I can tie it my self and so I can wear it untied!) and my casual shoes.

 The looks I'm going for mash up the traditional and contemporary, the formal and the casual. Chambray, as a fabric, is thought of as work shirt material, (think blue collar). Denim jeans were also seen as pants for laboring in. Mix that with the cummerbund, a clothing item that military officers got from the waist bands worn in india. It was used to replace a waistcoat (vest) in military and formal attire, and of course in traditional formal wear it is matched with a bow tie. Once the cummerbund became more popular and aesthetic, they began making it in non-traditional colors and patterns.  my outfit over loads on non-traditional formal accessories (vest AND cummerbund when it should be either, patterned cummerbund, wooden bow tie/untied non-traditional bow tie) all to dress up work mens clothing. let's not forget the white patent leather shoes instead of black ones. 

And i would of course be remiss if i failed to mention ME, the wearer... the black female body complicating the whole damn thing. As a black female in workmens clothes I represent black females traditionally, the enslaved women working alongside the men, the forgotten female laborers when white women were fighting for spaces within the workforce, the women who provided financially and took care of the home and still found time to go to church. The overdone, not quite proper formal accessories is a riff on the zip coon, but the look combats that caricature because the accessories adorn workers clothes worn on a black woman, undermining the lazy stereotype of the zip coon.

[marvelnikelthinks]

Working Through Intellectualizing the Sartorial Pt. 1

Sartorial relates to tailoring. While this definition commonly refers to the profession of altering clothes, I employ the meaning of to tailor as “using a style to make suitable for something specific,” (The Free Dictionary). This can mean that one dresses a certain way to achieve a specific look that conjures meaning beyond the utility of getting dressed. There are many definitions of performance. I am particularly interested in several definitions: using knowledge as distinguished from merely possessing it; behaving in a particular way for an audience; representation by action; a mode of conduct especially when distasteful or irregular, (Google Dictionary). In an effort to make a more succinct definition of performance for the purposes of this paper I offer this: Performance is the using of knowledge of representation to behave for an audience in an irregular way.

When combined, sartorial performance is the using of knowledge of representation to adapt ones clothing/style in particular and irregular way for an audience. In this case, irregular refers to non-status quo. In larger society the status quo is taken from white, middle class, heterosexual mores, values, and modes of conduct (speech, dress, etc.). The status quo for dressing is dependent on space, place, and time. The wearer and the gazer gauge the regularness of dress.

Specific sartorial aesthetics are linked to different communities and can connote belonging, which means that certain communities can have their own sartorial status quos. One may use sartorial performance to fit into a community, to be read as a community insider, or to stand out from communities one traverses, (communities the wearer might see themselves as belonging to or not).

When one enacts sartorial performance it can be seen as  intellectual work, where the performer (the wearer) uses clothes in a thoughtful, not merely aesthetic way. If "art" as a visual mode of representation can be seen as intellectual, then there is no doubt to me that how one wears clothes, what clothes one chooses to wear, and where one chooses to wear certain clothes can have an intellectual motivation, and can prompt others to (re)consider what personal representation really means within society.

-Marvel Nikel

(These are my original ideas)

[marvelnikeleats-blog]

What's on the menu?

Welcome to the first installment of what's on the menu? where I basically make stuff and take pictures of it and post them on this blog. 

Despite the fact that it is not very warm and that it is currently raining, I idecided to make a nice summery pasta salad with red, yellow, orange, and green bell peppers, green squash, sweet peas, grape tomatoes, parmesan cheese, "garden" radiatore, and a balsamic vinegarette with salt, fresh cracked pepper, olive oil, sugar, basil, and oregano.... I would have loved to have some asparagus in here too, but that wasn't in the budget.

I love pasta salads like this because it incorporates lots of fresh raw vegetables, which helps you get more balanced nutrition within one meal. 

*(My mom is more of a carnivore than I am so she's cooking some hot italian turkey sausage on the side to add to her pasta salad).

[marvelnikeleats-blog]

Delicious Drinks in NYC

I love to drink.

Yes. I love to drink. I am a bit of a picky drinker though. My usual is a whiskey and ginger ale, or as I like to put it "Makers and Ginger" (please don’t forget the lime). If I want to switch it up I’ll have a Jack Daniels---and Jack Daniels only, (other whiskeys just don’t seem to work right)---and cranberry juice. I also like sour cocktails… tequila sour, whiskey sour, daiquiri (traditional, never of the frozen or strawberry variety). I have an occasional margarita or mojito. And on rarer occasions I’ll partake in a frozen margarita or, if I’m at BBQs, a Hennessey Colada. I dislike super sweet and/or super fruity drinks. I am not a huge fan of gin. I only want to drink a vodka cocktail with premium liquor. Vodka should not have a taste. Usually to me if it does have a taste, it tastes like cough medicine when mixed with cranberry juice, but goes surprisingly well with some tonic and a lime.

The best cocktails I’ve ever had in NYC:

1. Coconut mojito at Market Café- 496 Ninth Ave. nr. 38th St

- Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever had anything else at this place. If I am in the neighborhood, I always stop by for it. I’ve tried coconut mojitos elsewhere, and they fall way short of this one. The last time I went, my bartender and I had a good 3 minute long conversation on the deliciousness of this cocktail. He told me “I fall in love with this drink all over again every time I make it.” YES! It’s that good! The bartender attributes the supremacy of the drink to the fresh squeezed lime juice used in it. Simply delicious!

2. Tennessee Tea at 5 Napkin Burger- 630 9th Ave @ 45th Street; 2315 Broadway @ 84th Street (as well as a location in Astoria, Queens).

-As a whiskey lover, I get bored with just having a whiskey ginger all the time. I want to expand my whiskey horizons. The bitters in Manhattans and Old Fashions don’t do it for me. Straight, on the rocks, with soda---all a nice change of pace, but when I want something with a mixologist’s hand at work I like this Tennessee Tea, which is basically a variation on my usual: whiskey (in this case, Jack), Sweet Vermouth, Ginger Ale, and Fresh Mint. Awesome!

3. Apple Jack

-I'm sorry, i really can't remember where I had this one. I know I was somewhere after the NYC Pride parade. But anyway. This was a nice change a pace. Like i said, I already like jack and cranberry.... this drink is that with apple puckers and a splash ginger ale. A little sweet, but it has sourness and whiskey, so I'm with it!