Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 6, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Sunday August 6, 2006 b6 editor Morley Walker / 697-7307 email books celebrity crashers get fully Book Deal the duo behind go fug yourself the deliciously witty blog devoted to celebrities with questionable fashion sense has landed a Book Deal. Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan will produce the fug awards for Simon spotlight entertainment publishers marketplace reports in its publishers lunch newsletter. No publication Date was offered. The publicity machine should have no problem generating a Buzz for the project even if enthusiasm for blog inspired books is waning. Cocks and mor Gan have had mainstream Media mentions aplenty from vanity fair and entertainment weekly to the Wall Street journal and the Chicago Tribune. Their website made list of the top 100 things about 2005. Those who need a daily dose of celebrity mocking can read the pairs vicious but hilarious observations ? and see the photo evidence ? at the website . The Manitoba writers Guild is offer ing a week Long writing Camp for Winnipeg youth. The five Day course conducted by writer and teacher David Elias is offered for kids aged 11 to 14 age Range is flexible the mag says. The Camp takes place aug. 14-18, 1-3 ., in the arts Pace building at 218-100 Arthur St. The $150 registration fee includes a one year student mag membership. For More information about the mugs Pilot project Call 942-6134 or email . The deadline for registration is Friday. Saskatchewan born writer Rudy Wiebes Memoir of this Earth a mennonite boyhood in the boreal Forest will be published in German publishers lunch reports. Wiebes Well received autobiography published by random House Canada earlier this year will be published by Liepman a. Can to get enough books about shake Speare an award winning writer on the Bard has More planned. Columbia University professor James Shapiro a a year in the life of William Shakespeare 1599 published in Canada by Harper Collins won the Samuel John son prize for non fiction earlier this year in the . Hell write two new books on shake Speare for Simon & schuster publish ers weekly reports. In june it was reported that physicist and bestselling author Stephen Hawk ing and his daughter Lucy planned to write a science Book for children. A Sale has been made. The Hawkings will write Georges secret key to the uni verse which follows Georges adventures on a roller coaster ride around the universe publishers lunch reports. The father and daughter landed a three Book Deal with random House us children a division. To Mark the 20th anniversary of the chernobyl nuclear disaster the univer sity of Manitoba will Host a symposium in the fall. Ukrainian writer Yurij Scherbak author of the documentary novel chernobyl will be the keynote speaker. The event takes place oct. 20 at 5 At the u of is fort Garry Campus. A film photo exhibit presentations and reception Are also planned. Scherbak former ambassador of Ukraine to Canada the United states and Israel is the author of More than 20 books. New in paperback not that sort of girl Vintage books is a reprint of British writer Mary Wes Leys 1988 novel about a widow remembering her Boring marriage and the Man she really loved. Walking boy key Porter books by Lydia Kwa is set in eighth Century Tang dynasty China and follows the life of a Young disciple to an aging Hermit Monk who has a secret Only his master knows. Irish born John Doyle the Globe and mails to critic writes about growing up Irish in the television age and the Way the medium transformed Ireland in great feast of Light Anchor Canada. reviewed by Susie Moloney t he Morman Leader Brigham Young called them Fornica Tion Marilyn Monroe wore them in the movies. Neil Young the rolling stones and Bruce Springsteen immortalized them in album cover Art. Charlies Angels wore them. Charlie Manson and his girlfriends wore them. They re your old Blue jeans and everybody wears them. The five jeans a cultural history of an pocket riveted american icon Levis 501 Button by James Sullivan Gotham books 277 Fly Denim Jean is pages $34 widely acknowledge to be the bestselling garment Ever produced. At denims Peak in 1984, it was estimated that 13 pairs of jeans were sold every second. Winnipeg a own Silver jeans has International ? and rumoured Holly Wood ? connections with its High end fashion Denim. Jeans a cultural history of an american icon is san Francisco chronicle pop culture critic James Sullivan a treatise and homage to the single most enduring piece of clothing in North american history. From their beginnings in the historic subculture of the old West from the steel workers Bare chested and sweating into their Sweet orrs jeans were a part of the . Working class. They were outlaw clothing the dressage of labourers and jailbird mostly until the 1950s, when teenagers discovered a new Way to drive their parents crazy. Their kick ass reputation and history meant that they were must have costume pieces for every . President since the 1940s, excluding the patrician first George Bush. But they Are practically a uni form for the current resident of the White House. All goods warranted never to ? and for Sweet Orr Pantaloon overalls. Sullivan a Book traces Back the Mongrel origins of jeans to european overalls worn Over regular clothes to keep dirt and Wear at Bay. The clothes of the working Man Plain service Able and generally of rough Hen fabrics they were not in any Way considered fashionable. Which is exactly according to Sullivan what made them irresistible to a certain kind of fashion Maverick. There Are some interesting historical anecdotes to be found in the Book including a sort of Defini Tive tale on the beginnings of Levi Strauss and co., itself an american icon. In or around 1850, Levi Strauss left the East and set out for the West looking to expand the family dry goods business. The Gold Rush meant there was plenty of Money but Little to buy and within a few years of arriving Strauss established a store in a Large warehouse. As the Story is told the savvy Strauss recognized the shortage of durable pants for the men in the diggings As the Gold mines were called. Continual Wear and the drinking of bad water causing chronic diarrhoea meant the need for new trousers was con Stant. A fellow in the diggings told Strauss that his tent was a poor investment. Should brought pants was the apocryphal statement. And so an Empire was born. Sullivan recounts similar stories for wrangler Lee Sweet Orr Ralph Lauren Gloria Vanderbilt Tommy Hilfiger Marc Jacobs Calvin Klein faded glory revolution Sergio Sasson Bill Blass and so on. In fact its interesting to note that so much space is devoted to personal histories As Well As the history of process that the most compelling part of the Story becomes somewhat buried under the weight of its own details. Whatever their origins a pair of Blue jeans embodies two centuries Worth of the myths and ideals of american culture Sullivan states in his introduction. In fact he says later not Only did jeans serve to identify the working Man from the Toff they were a uniform of bondage of a sort the clothing of the prisoner the picker the invisible Guy with the shovel. You know what comes Between me and my calvins ? Brooke Shields famous line Calvin Klein and circa 1980 it was Hollywood and teenagers who gave Blue jeans their mass Appeal As the trademark of the rebel. But All outlaw myth has its origins in the american West ? which in turn has been stolen and beaten into costumed Homogene by John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Jeans have been called the great social equalizer. Everyone wears them but in fact every time a movement picks up a costume it becomes absorbed by the mass Market and so its Impact As a political and social statement is diluted. Think Only of the baggy drooping pants of the Street hip hop movement worn by suburban White boys everywhere. It is this marketing that twists the much loved american notion of a collective identity. I have no excuses. I just Wear ? Donna Rice purring for no excuses jeans Sullivan touches on those dichotomies with a degree of awareness but seems As interested in the growth of the Denim As fashion idea As he is in the very notable Issue of the out sourcing of the manufacturing of an american icon to sweatshops in third world countries and wherever else cheap labour can be found. He tells us that Levi Strauss and co. Has always used a sense of morality and fair play in their Busi Ness practices and that they were committed to a Domestic labour Force. He then sadly updates that Story with news of the company a closing of . Plants albeit with much anguish and defensiveness simply in order to com Pete. Jeans is not a Book for everyone. Even with end less celebrity names and mildly interesting anecdotal stories about pop cultures inherent idiocy the Book is above All a history of the manufacturing and marketing of Blue jeans. Its a Case of too much for too Little. Some of the most interesting stories Are of the insanity during the ?70s, when everything from lunch boxes to sofas were made of Denim. The american motor company even gave its Gremlin an All Denim Interior including a riveted pocket on the Back of the Drivers seat. That a some dubious Cool. Winnipeg writer Susie Moloney puts on her jeans one leg at a time ;