Footnotes to the TV series
RORY: We’re competing against the Michelangelo of snow.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known by his first name (1475-1564), Italian Renaissance sculptor and painter of unparalleled influence on Western art, often described as the greatest artist of his age, and sometimes as the greatest of all time. His best-known sculptures are the Pietà, and David, and he is famous for painting the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
EMILY: Well, come on, say a little more than that.
LORELAI: It’s great Mom, it’s fabulous. It’s just a notch below Rembrandt.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Dutch artist, and considered one of the greatest painters in the history of art. He is especially renowned for his portraits, and in particular, his self-portraits [pictured].
RORY: Yikes. What kind of vibe are you giving her?
LANE: Oh, my patented Keith Richards circa 1969 ‘don’t mess with me’ vibe, with a thousand-yard Asian stare thrown in.
The thousand-yard stare is a phrase often used to describe the blank, unfocused gaze of soldiers during wartime who no longer react to the horror they’re living through. More generally, it can apply to any victim of trauma.
The phrase was popularised during World War II after Life magazine published a 1944 painting by Tom Lea, titled The Marines Call It That 2000-Yard Stare [pictured], but became especially known during the Vietnam War, when it decreased to a slimmer, punchier 1000-yard stare.
Lane dramatically compares her life being brought up in a traditional Asian-American household as akin to that of someone with PTSD on a battlefield.
LORELAI: Oh, maybe we could add a little stenciling on the ceiling.
Stenciling is adding a picture or pattern to a design by using a stencil – a thin sheet of material with a pattern cut into it that can be painted over so the paint only goes into the patterned area. Stencil refers to the material itself, and the design it produces. One of the earliest of art techniques, found in prehistoric cave paintings, stenciling is commonly used in home decorating and DIY projects.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 