Sunday, July 08, 2007

Addressing The New Header

Most of you have noticed the new image overlooking the blog. Some of you have been unsettled by this image. One of you has gone so far as to label it 'creepy.' With you, and all others, I agree, and will now issue an overlong story about the history of the face in this image.
I've been making this face since high school, ever since I realized that not everyone's eyebrows operate independently. It eventually earned itself a name; in scholarly texts, it's the 'Bill The Cat' Face, and in casual conversation it's the 'Ack Phht' (what you can't see in the header is my tongue lolling down to my sternum). There were always a few people I knew who could approximate this face, but friends were always drawn to mine, I guess, because it was the most disturbing. And people's fascination with this particular face followed me from high school through the military into college, where my platoon sergeant, who was a photographer of some renown, said, "Hey, that's a fascinating face. Lemme take some pictures of it for an art project." I don't know how the project turned out, but I used that photo as my acting headshot for a few years. I'm surprised anyone ever cast me.
And so when it occurred to me to put up a header image, that's the one that sprung to mind. I had delusions of an image of me in uniform, standing at attention in front of a rippling US flag and throwing a snappy salute at a plane flying overhead, but that would have been way too much work. Maybe for the book cover when I publish all this.
Nah. Again, too much work. I'll just use the crash face.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know which eye is scarier... L.M.

6:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i like the new header. it's got eyes like a header should (as opposed to a footer)

10:22 PM  
Blogger Indigeaux said...

Yes, I believe every single pic I have from high school features THAT face.

10:03 PM  

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