As the Head is Bent

by JHF on June 30, 2009 · 6 comments

in Not Literature

I suppose you think this is funny. But look closely, if you dare!

Now I know why my glasses always seem to be tilted: one of my eyes is lower than the other, yow! I just took three photos and they all look like this. Pretty horrible, isn’t it? (No, no, no, the EYES, dammit, just the eyes!) This is what it all comes down to after decades of burning the candle at both ends and avoiding adulthood until it all caught up with me: a freaking bent head! Talk about twisted… Note also the unexpurgated candid 11:03 p.m. iSight portrait, no Photoshopping this time. I kind of like it for some reason. (TWISTED!) This won’t get me any dates, though, will it. Jesus Christ, I haven’t had a date in 30 years. Don’t want one, either, so I guess everything worked out okay in the end.

unexpurgated candid 11:03 p.m. iSight portrait of John Hamilton Farr

But wait: “in the END”?!? No, this isn’t the end, I’m just getting started. I may have to get a haircut, though, or just carry around a baseball bat.

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Carmel June 30, 2009 at 11:42 pm

Yes, one eye is a little lower than the other, but it’s not as bad as you think. I just copied the image into Photoshop, took a line from middle of chin to middle of forehead, and found you had the head on a tilt of 1.43 degrees. When I straightened the image, there was noticeably less difference in the eyes. So your problem is not so much that the eyes are at different levels, but that you can’t stand up straight :-)

But I suggest you start studying other faces … I think you’ll find quite a few eyes aren’t quite on the same level.

Re the haircut – yes, perhaps. It would certainly make you look younger, but not so eccentric. Depends what image you want :-)

2 JHF July 1, 2009 at 12:12 am

Oh good, Carmel! Where the hell have you been?

You’re absolutely right about not standing up straight. I’m a mess. I need a massage therapist and a personal trainer, and both of them need to be armed, so I’ll pay attention.

As for the hair, I like it long. I don’t know why, it’s just more interesting, maybe. By the same token, I think it looks boring and stupid when it’s tied up in a ponytail. If I could get away with it, I might just go completely primitive with the hair. What have I got to lose? It’s all falling out, anyway. The end is nigh!

If I did get it cut — which is always possible — I’d probably still look weird. The hair, however, is not the touchstone for geezer edginess. (And there must be edge, because what else have we got?) Unfortunately, I think it’s fitness! All the really cool geezers are skinny bastards. My hipness quotient has taken a beating, in other words.

Dang.

3 KarenK July 1, 2009 at 10:11 am

You know, John, often when I’m killing time, standing in a line at the movie theater for example, I like to examine the faces around me and decide whether I would like to be friends with the owner of each one. I usually think, “No” about most people, but am intrigued by those folks with a more, shall we say, “individual” appearance. If I saw you in one of those movie theater lines, I would think, “Yes — there is an interesting and appealing person. I would like to have a cup of coffee with him.” Not that I’m looking for any dates, either…

4 JHF July 1, 2009 at 11:28 am

Karen, thank you.

It is an unparalled blessing that you would say that after looking at THAT picture. :-) Actually, I usually look a lot more presentable, although in some ways the image accompanying this post does more for me personally than all my previous attempts at a decent header image, including the one that’s there now!

5 Carmel July 1, 2009 at 5:10 pm

I dunno. Karen is right … you would certainly stand out in a crowd as ‘interesting’, but maybe too obviously so. Don’t quite know what I mean by that. Hmm … maybe that there’s a sense that you think you won’t look interesting without the long hair. But you WILL. For me, what makes me think someone looks interesting is the eyes (you have very interesting eyes, but the long hair distracts from them a bit). Mostly, there will also be something at least a little different about the way they dress, and they almost certainly won’t look super-conservative. They might not necessarily stand out in a crowd though. When you stand out in a crowd all eyes are on you. If you don’t stand out, it’s easier for you to observe everyone else.

Many artists look eccentric, outlandish even. But there are others who don’t. I think there’s little relation between the quality of the art and the degree of eccentricity (with regards to appearance).

I remember being amazed by Lord Snowdon’s photographic book of Tasmania. There were some great candid photos taken in a pub. How, I wondered, did someone of Snowdon’s status manage to take candid photos in a public place? I realised it was because he just merged in. Nobody would expect this small, ‘ordinary’ looking man to be a famous photographer, and a member of the British aristocracy, let alone someone who was married to Princess Margaret.

But I digress :-)

What it really comes down to is, you should wear your hair and dress the way you bloody well like … unless it hinders you in your purpose.

PS I quite like your pony tail :-)

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