Author: Ginger Stampley

Met Gala 2025 – Superfine

I’m not a real fashion observer but I do enjoy the looks served up at the Met Gala every year. Something I didn’t know for many years is that the Met Gala doesn’t just raise funds for the Met’s Costume Institute, but the institute isn’t funded by the Met. The Institute came to the Met in 1946 but was independently run until 1959. (I also didn’t know the Costume Institute was named after Anna Wintour in 2014.)

This year’s theme was Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. What fascinates me isn’t just the wildness of the costumes, which are often as much high art as wearable fashion, but the complex explanations that go with why the outfits are on theme. This year in particular there were a lot of choices that I didn’t have the background to get, but when I read the explanation or saw the comparison photos, I really got it. One example was Megan Thee Stallion’s hair, which was styled after a well-known Josephine Baker look. I’m very interested in Baker, but this look was from the later part of her career, which I know less about. And I know who Andre Leon Talley was, but I’m not conversant enough with his style to catch all the references to him.

This year’s theme was also interestingly tricky for a lot of white celebrities. Black celebs and other celebrities of color went all out, but even white folks working with Black designers had a needle to thread. Men could go for dandyism, but women, who traditionally show the fanciest clothes at the Met, had to consider whether they might be accused of hijacking the spotlight. As it turned out, most of them, even if they were well-tailored, didn’t hold a candle to the Black celebrities.

It’s been a day since the gala so a lot of pictures and commentary are out there now. I recommend TLo and Lainey Gossip for deep dives into some of the costumes if that’s your thing. I’ve also linked some articles I’ve read that I thought were interesting.

Sources:

May 2025 election aftermath

I waited to write this post until Monday under the assumption that we might get more analysis from Monday morning’s news. A few things were polished up (Frank Strong’s Bluesky thread is now in blog post form) but really there’s not a lot to say.

My takeaways were that first, as always, turnout in May elections is low, so the the side whose folks who are whipped up into the biggest froth win. Unsurprisingly in 2025, that’s Democrats and left-leaning folks. Second, it was a bad year to be a book banner. Frank Strong of Anger and Clarity has the throughline on that, comparing the election results to his Book-Lover’s Guide. LoneStarLeft also notes the trend against book haters. Third, a lot of incumbents in elections outside the school board races held on.

The big changes in Dallas and Fort Worth were in council elections where the incumbent retired or was termed out, or in bond elections. Frisco’s big arts bond went down, which wasn’t a surprise given the current economic situation, but a lot of the school bonds seem to have passed on the grounds that school districts better get their money while the getting is good. With vouchers coming, nobody knows what budgets will look like in a few years. Some of the Metroplex suburbs like Celina and Prosper are growing and will need new facilities. Those bond proposals made sense to voters even if the actual costs of the buildings may be more than anticipated due to tariffs and general inflation.

In Dallas, Mayor Johnson wasn’t on the ballot, and will be termed out the next time his office comes up. Incumbents held most of the seats, though we had three open: D6 in West Dallas, where Omar Narvaez was termed out, which his former staffer Laura Cadena won; D9, where Tennell Atkins was termed out, where we’ll see a runoff; and D11, where Jaynie Schultz retired, and which will also see a runoff. In Fort Worth, Mayor Mattie Parker is back for a third term; in the open D5 seat on the east side, former Tarrant Democratic Party chair Deborah Peoples emerged victorious in a six-person race; and in the open D6 seat on the southwest side, there will be a runoff. As in Dallas, the rest of the council seats were held by incumbents.

Of the school board elections, my favorite has to be Keller ISD, where one of the two board members not involved in the split plans was re-elected and the other was ousted. A third member of the board who was involved in the split chose not to run again. (Other members involved in the split plans weren’t on this year’s ballot.) Keller ISD is currently all at-large seat, but they’re under warning over that and may be sued if the school district doesn’t move to trustee districts.

I also agree with the DMN op-ed writer who thinks there’s no room in the middle any more. The middle in the Metroplex used to be the business Republican. Nobody likes those guys any more. Your choices are generally go MAGA, go left, or go home.

Closing my tabs – 2025 05 04

May 3 Election guides – 2025 05 03

On Election Day, a few more stories. If you didn’t vote early, please get out and vote!

Let’s start with couple of additional relevant voter guides for you: The Dallas Free Press’ Dallas Voter Guide and The Book-Loving Texan’s Guide to the May 2025 School Board Elections, which was being updated with new districts this week.

In other election news:

School District Saturday – 2025 05 03

Back to it after a weekend away.

Book Review: In Open Contempt, by Irvin Weathersby Jr.

In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space, by Irvin Weathersby Jr. Part travel memoir, part political and historical art criticism, and part soul-baring about white supremacy, this debut book by a Black author trying to grasp how to deal with public art and racial trauma. He starts with the easy-to-grasp: Confederate monuments in New Orleans coming down in the wake of the George Floyd protests. But he moves from there through his own life and Black American history to the presentation of history in plantations to the different presentations of Black history and stories in modern Black art.

The sections of the book about the Confederacy were deeply personal to me, a white woman with Confederate slaveholder ancestors who attended a school with a Johnny Reb mascot. Weathersby’s unpacking of the effects of white-centered Confederate and slavery-related public history on Black Americans recontextualized discussions around the mascot change at my school. But the discussion of Wounded Knee, Mount Rushmore, and New York also led me to stories I lacked context for and needed the foundation Weathersby offered.

Weathersby also discussed white myth-making in public art and history with various interested parties of all backgrounds in places he visited. Black, white, and Native Americans all offer insights on white supremacist myths around their sites of interest. Weathersby’s questions elicit thoughtful answers from them that in turn elicit reconsideration of the old civil history of the United States. At the same time, Weathersby’s interviews and commentary demonstrate that there’s no single answer to how to approach America’s racist history. What some minoritized Americans find helpful will harm others.

As with other books I’ve read since January, I find it hard not to reconsider the effect of the second Trump administration on the subjects of interest to Weathersby. Confederate naming is back for military bases; DEI is out and restoring so-called truth to American history is in; white supremacy is federal policy. The lessons of In Open Contempt will show the thoughtful reader the ways art and popular history could support both the Trumpist view of America and the alternatives offered by politicians and commentators with other goals and viewpoints. We don’t need to have suffered racist trauma to understand the messages conveyed in art and public space.

News updates 2025 04

It’s the end of the month, so let’s catch up with some news we’ve looked at:

Review: Tamara de Lempicka at MFAH

Tamara de Lempicka, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. April 27, 2005.

De Lempicka is one of my favorite artists, which I realized after seeing one of her works in the Blanton in Austin. Her Art Deco style is infused with boldness and sexuality. I couldn’t have told you for certain she was queer until I saw this exhibit with all its female nudes lined up, but it was no surprise. I also learned that de Lempicka retired to my hometown. In fact, I knew almost nothing about her history until this exhibit, which explained a lot about her personal and artistic origins.

The exhibit brought together a wide variety of her paintings from her active period and contextualized it with Art Deco furnishings, fashion, and photographs. In addition to the art and artifacts, there was also a short film featuring de Lempicka’s family members explaining some of her history, and an additional slideshow demonstrating her influences from Mannerism to Cubism in individual works. It was the kind of exhibit that makes me appreciate a strong practical grounding in art history.

Overall I was educated and delighted, and as always pleased to see a woman artist getting her due as a major influence in a period where she’s been overlooked. I purchased the exhibition catalog, though I haven’t had time to crack it yet, and am looking forward to further acquainting myself with de Lempicka’s work and life.

The exhibit was on the second floor of the Law Building, which is the Mies van der Rohe addition to the original neoclassical museum; it’s been here since my childhood. The mezzanine exhibit space has the Pavia Tapestry exhibit, which we saw at the Kimbell last year and briefly enjoyed here. We missed the exhibits at the (new) Beck Building and the new(er) Kinder Building though I hope to be back before the British Landscape exhibit closes in July. I was excited enough that I bought a membership to the museum to remind myself to come back to Houston more often.

Closing my tabs – 2025 04 27

Review: Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk at the Majestic Theater. April 22, 2025. Multimedia tour commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Autobahn.

Between Kraftwerk shows, it’s easy to forget how good their live extravaganza really is. For four guys standing at keyboards in front of a screen, it’s big and overwhelming. They’ve been around since 1970 so if they sound a little dated, it’s because they invented a lot of the musical tricks that have since become cliche. But if you know electronic music, you know most of what you’re going to hear at a Kraftwerk show, and more than they have time for because of the sheer depth and breadth of their back catalog.

Only one of the original members is still with the group: Ralf Hütter, after Florian Schneider died in 2020. Hütter is pushing 80 and you have to respect that he’s still out here pleasing the crowds when he could be home relaxing. The music keeps up with the times too: Radioactivity includes Fukushima on its list of disasters along with Three Mile Island (Harrisburg) and Chernobyl.

If you’ve seen Kraftwerk on recent tours, you have a good idea of what you’re getting into: the four band members at the podiums doing the music in the suits with light bands, standing still for the most part and letting the colored light do the work, with the visuals projected on a screen behind. The suits change colors to match what’s on the screen, which is hard to explain but easy to see. The graphics are for the most part computer animations, some of which clearly date back to earlier periods of Kraftwerk’s oeuvre but some of which are also clearly newer. In some cases they’ve put older and newer graphics side by side during the same song, which is interesting to watch. One song where the band used vintage film is The Model, where the fashion puts the film from the 50s or 60s, contrasting the fluid movement of the women and the clothing with the staccato sound of the synths.

The sound crept up on me in this concert. Usually I’m quick to grab my earplugs for hearing protection, but the bass was strong enough that it was rocking the seats in the Majestic before my husband asked for his. I probably lost a little hearing. It was worth it.