Mixing It Up
In A Code of the Herdsman (1914), Wyndham Lewis wrote:
“Cherish and develop, side by side, your six most constant indications of different personalities. You will acquire the potentiality of six men…A variety of clothes, hats especially, are of help in this wider dramatization of yourself. Never fall into the vulgarity of being or assuming yourself to be one ego.”
Hats are very good for mixing things up, as are scarves, bohemian and avant garde ties, cufflinks and footwear. Not long ago my friend Ricky Clifton purchased Marlon Brando’s entire hat collection and it was easy to observe how wearing a different hat might have assisted him in developing numerous intriguing personae.
I believe that wearing many hats and changing my socks, scarves and ties frequently has enabled me to “wear many hats” careerwise and avoid becoming typecast.
I realize that many people spend their entire lives in an effort to be typecast, but such a life is boring and predictable.
Inspired in the direction of multiple personalities as a useful orientation, I have cultivated what might be seen as extreme eclecticism in diet, reading and music. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging a little monstrosity in yourself, as long as it bears a certain nobility. Remember it was Baron Frankenstein and Count Dracula. The word monster itself derives from the Latin, monstrum, an aberrant occurrence, usually biological. My favorite song of the moment is “Save the Earth” from the film Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster. It has a good boogaloo beat and you can’t argue with the lyrics.
Too many humans limit themselves to one category of music, such as House, Drum and Bass, Disco or Hip Hop.
Consider the other categories that are available. Remember to change hats and shoes frequently.
• Deliberate Compromise Country
• Hairstyle Pop
• Skatecore
• Gender threnody
• Pro-Nuke and Coal Country
• Consumer Lubrizac
• Shiite All-Male Grind
• Surf and Turf Music
• Vicarious Flytrap
• Accounting Oriented Solo Project
• Loophole Jam
• Electro-Castrati
• Ready-to-Wear Western
• Easy Listening Heavy Metal
• Collapsing New Loophole
• Vegetarian Acoustic
• Ad Roc
• Military Metal (recruiting Ad Roc)
• Taboo Cliché Burlesque
• Taboo Cliché Burlesque Metallic
• Cream Core Rock
• Venus Flyguy Trap Rap
• Conspicuous Consumption Hip Hop
• Conspicuous Waste ‘em Hip Hop
• Chutney and Western
• MMDA House
• Happy Hour Bop
• Eco Time Bomb
• Male Impersonatronic
• Auto da Fe Metal
• 12 Step C & W
• Christian Whinge
• Nubilexploitation
• Catamite Soul
• Divorce-Oriented Rock
• Disgestive Digital New Age
• Mall Rock
• Aerobic Blues
• Pest Control
• Eight Track Revival
• Hasidic Dub
• Dixieland