From one of my favorite Craigslist “for sale” postings on The Upper East Side:

Click on screenshot below to see entire Craigslist posting.

I forgot about Mr. Peanut but looking at him now I think he’s pretty cool!  Also, his name is Mr. Peanut.  Not some cheesy pun on peanut, but just what he is!  Like if an almond company’s character was called Mr. Almond or if Oreck had Mr. Vacuum Cleaner…Mr. Fan, Mr. Mattress, etc.

(Thanks to Teddy for the screenshot.  My 12″ Powerbook G4 is not big enough!)

Anisette, photo via Vlassis13

Did you or anyone you know ever have the book “Unknown Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll“ by Richie Unterberger?  The book catalogs and describes some of the most influential and original, often insane, musicians from the 1950′s – 1990′s who for one reason or another never attained mainstream success or fame, including Nick Drake (before that Volkwagon commercial came out!)

I bought the book in 2000 at Saint Mark’s Bookshop and so did a lot of my friends, mainly because it came with a kick-ass compilation CD of rare songs.  I listened to it so much that when I accidentally stepped on it and broke it I bought a second copy of the book just to get a new CD.

So I was thrilled to find out that Anisette, the lead-singer of the Danish 60′s rock band The Savage Rose, whose song ‘A Girl I Knew’ is on the Unknown Legends compilation CD, will be performing this Friday at Joe’s Pub.  As Unterberger notes in his introduction, The Savage Rose is one of the exceptions in the book, having achieved great commercial success in their homeland, Denmark, but are barely known in the United States.

I can also vouch for Anisette’s upcoming performance because last night I was lucky enough to see her sing one song as a special guest during her daughter Naja Rosa‘s set at Spike Hill in Williamsburg.  Anisette went up on stage, barefoot like her daughter, dedicated the song to Malcolm X and went on to sing with such a captivating stage presence and strong voice that I felt privileged to experience every moment.

Last night at Spike Hill:

Friday, August 14, 2009
Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St, New York, NY
11:30pm
The Woodstock Celebration
featuring Anisette of The Savage Rose
Buy tickets

The Savage Rose – Official Site

I saw this antique, supposedly German mannequin head for sale on eBay several months ago (the listing is long gone.)  It doesn’t look like any other antique mannequin head I’ve seen. Not that I was looking for one- they just pop up now and then in the categories I like to search.

Images: Top row via eBay. Bottom row, Left via ParkAvenuePeerage, Right, via KenemBijoux.

After a minute of staring at the serene head trying to figure out who it reminded me of, it came to me- it could only be Jessica Joffe- the stunning journalist/model/style expert, who I believe is also German, at least in part.

I’m not saying they look exactly alike- just that there are some uniquely similar qualities about the two- which is a little spooky since unlike in the Seinfeld episode where that weird guy meets Elaine on the subway and then models a mannequin after her, this particular mannequin head came into existence at least half a century before Joffe.

Physically similar features are the red hair curled at the ends, the “dainty” red lips, the straight, slim nose, the uniformly linear eyebrows (although exaggeratedly arched on the mannequin,) and light-colored eyes.

Antique mannequin heads are cool because they record ideals of beauty and style from other time periods.  This one is from around the 1920′s – 1940′s.  Joffe, who modeled in several Banana Republic campaigns, is beautiful in my opinion, but neither in today’s weird-looking model way, or the button-nose jail bait way (to name two of many of today’s visible types.)

Images: Left via Pravda, right via Woohoo
(Actually I find the girl on the left adorable, but I want to see her on an episode of Star Trek.)

Looking at this mannequin head makes me see something of old Hollywood in Joffe- definitely in the hair- and something about her facial expression and oft-seen fancy dress evokes a doomed German aristocrat at the start of WW2 like in Luchino Visconti’s The Damned.

Photo via Cinemorgue.

Photo via Flickr: HillyBlue

Here, at the corner of the mouth, you can almost see Joffe’s smirk.

I saw this for sale on Overstock.com several years ago and thought it was so weird I dragged the images to my desktop. I just came across them again this week.

Yeesh, apparently this post is getting a lot of traffic.
You can get the creepy man’s arm pillow at Amazon!