cheesecake goes, um, puppy style
 
i was in a bookstore today and i happened to walk past the (already displayed!!!) boxed holiday cards and i noticed the dog image above.  innocent puppies, often executing cute poses and activities for the camera, are a staple for every season, from mother’s days to 75th birthdays.  
    what can go wrong with puppies?
    shame on me for thinking it, but when i saw the puppy holding the santa hat, only one word came to mind: “cheesecake.”  
    you know, cheesecake.  pinup soft-focus images of mostly buxom women wearing skimpy, theme-ed outfits and staged in situations right from the never-made (but much demanded) documentary “Norman Rockwell: Uncensored!”  the style that was delightfully naughty for the tiki-and-miniskirt-bachelor-pad-mod-cocktail-era persists today.  indeed, the style has seen a tremendous renaissance along with all things Betty Page and Lounge.  as a motif, we see it referenced in magazine cover art, in motorcycle graphics, in stencil graffiti, and all kinds of other places that designers play.  [sorry i don’t have many links here]
    i never imagined finding it in a christmas card image featuring a golden retriever puppy.  fido here is on the steps, looking cute, looking over his/her shoulder at the camera, waving his tail and clutching the santa hat, gently, in his/her mouth.
    i found the other picture online at Bibi’s Box which features a wonderful blog of popculture ephemera (and a link to her video blog Videos with Bibi which has clips of all the bizarre film moments you can imagine).  the one above was the first one that google found on the site, and it mirrors the puppy picture enough to make my point.  thank you Bibi.  
    and thank you, puppy, for making the run-up to the holidays more visually, um, uncomfortable than i anticipated.
Monday, October 22, 2007