I’m very happy that so many of you enjoyed my post yesterday of vintage nail polish ads. 
Also, thank you for all the well-wishes re: my not feeling well. It’s not a cold; I was hit overnight with a killer migraine. Never fear, it’ll go away in a day or two. Fortunately my migraines are much less frequent as I get older, and I always try to stay busy to pass the time, like babbling on this blog.
Ever wonder where the word “migraine” originated? It’s from the Greek “hemikrania,” meaning half of the skull. Migraine pain is typically just on one side. Mine is always, always, always on the right side of my head, just behind my eye. Which is more than you probably wanted to know.
I can’t face polish smells today so once again I bring you trivia. I’ve been thinking about color a lot lately, what I love, how it makes me feel — which does, in fact, relate to nail polish. I can’t stress it enough: wear what you love, not what other people say you should wear.
Most of us have favorite colors that make us happy, cheer us up, remind us of good times. Wear those. Look at those. Surround yourself with those. Similarly, most of us have colors or color combinations that make us unhappy or even sick. My mother could not stand to look at food that was in any way blue. She told me that once when she was a child she overindulged in fresh blueberries and… well, the outcome was not good.
Think about what colors you love. I’m partial to bright yellow or pink, and a recent slideshow on The Weather Channel’s web site caught my eye. I felt happy just looking at all the photos of yellow — mostly nature scenes but the giant rubber duckie was cool too!
Is purple more to your liking? Feast your eyes here. I suspect TWC will be posting more slideshows in other colors.
To digress even more, I’m a big fan of movies and as I get older I’m more interested in symbolism used in films. Often objects are used as symbols but colors are too. Remember “The Sixth Sense”? The color red was used as a signal when anything supernatural was going to happen, in contrast to the rather drab colors used in the rest of the film.
A less well-known film, but one I loved, is “Lars and the Real Girl,” starring Ryan Gosling as an emotionally stunted man who buys a life-sized doll and treats her as his chaste girlfriend (nothing naughty happens). From the trailer, it would appear to be a straight comedy but it’s actually very touching and made me cry. The color pink is used throughout the movie in scenes of intense emotion.
Lately I’ve been on a kick of watching Bollywood musicals. There are two kinds of people, either you hate those and think they’re ridiculous or you love their carefree burst-into-song silliness. I’ve come to love them; seeing one cheers me up for days! Part of the appeal is the brightly colored costumes. The women usually wear neon-bright saris that are hot pink, tangerine orange, lime green, citron yellow, cornflower blue, and so on. Lots of silver and gold too.
Check out this brash movie-within-a-movie dance scene from “Billu,” starring Kareena Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan. For maximum effect, set it to its highest definition (1080p) and full screen.
WOW. Is that fantastic use of color, or what?!? I think these dance numbers are so infectious that my favorite exercise DVDs (OK, my only exercise DVDs) are ones that teach and practice Bollywood-style dancing. I’m terrible at it but it’s so much fun that it makes exercise not seem like work.
Have a wonderful day, and I’ll be feeling better tomorrah!
Hi Susan. Sorry about your migraine. I have more chronic tension type headaches with an occasional migraine. Not fun at all. I agree that colors can effect our moods and emotions. Until recently, all my polish colors were different shades of pink and red, but I am loving all my new colors now. You mentioned that you were partial to yellow, and about a week ago I bought a bright yellow polish at Walmart, Pure Ice called Excuse Me. It’s crazy yellow, and I love it. Some of my new colors take a little bit for me to get used to, maybe a few min, but I have to admit so far I haven’t met a color I don’t like. I do like the cremes, but to be honest, the more shine and glitter, the more I love it. I guess at this point, I don’t have a favorite. I have watched the movie ” Sixth Sense” so many times, and never noticed the connection between the color red being a signal for a supernatural event. That’s interesting. Never heard of “Lars and the Real Girl”, so I might check that one out. And, I love, love, love musicals, but have never seen a Bollywood one. Something else to check out. Well, rest and take care of yourself, and thanks for another fun blog.
Thanks! If you have Netflix, “Lars and the Real Girl” is available on Instant Watch. I just watched it again and was amazed at the number of instances of pink I noticed for the first time. And I cried and cried. It was poorly marketed (IMHO) as a comedy, but it’s actually a very serious drama with a few humorous elements about what people will do for the ones they love.
GREAT post and GREAT vid. Color is so amaaaaaaaaaazing. XD
I too loved Lars and the Real Girl. It is such a sweet, poignant movie. Very different side of Ryan Gosling. Glad you’re better.
I actually knew the origin of the word migraine because I was just looking at it the other day. I have what I *think* is hemicrania continua. Basically I’ve had a permanent headache with zero relief for 23 years. But that’s probably more than you wanted to know
Hope you’re feeling better!
I hope you feel better too!