Unboxing is Porn

Ok. Am I the only one that thinks this whole unboxing phenomenon is a little strange? Think about it. People buy new stuff as soon as it hits the streets, then they meticulously document taking it out of it's packaging and using it for the first time. I remember when reviews were just about how the product worked and whether consumers should fork over money now or wait until something better and cheaper came along. Now, "reviewers" unbox items and talk about the form of the product, the weight, how it feels in their hands and the sexiness of the design. (Yes, I've heard people use the word sexy) Current trends, and cache have begun to precede function and practicality in these matters. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy a litttle 'Gadget Pron' as G4 calls it. I just wonder what this means about our relationship with technology. Are we using technology to get to know each other and ourselves or are we actually beginning to have feelings for objects?

Thank Thick

Well, I think we've finally made it to the next bend on the winding road of body-type preferences. Glamorous A-list stars like Queen Latifah, Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, Salma Hayak and the Kardashian girls have made the media notice the benefits of having voluptuous curves. There was a time that anyone without a wiry thin silhouette was quickly reminded of our obsession with abnormal, ultra-ideal/stylized body types. Now, a little thickness can be regarded as a sign of beauty, substance and empowerment. How did that happen? 

I think it could be a shift in the way that women consume images themselves. For years, there was a sense of shame attached to the growing rates of obesity in America. When reports recently surfaced exposing adolescent obesity rates and prevalence of child diabetes, the American family took notice. More and more people are tuning into shows like The Biggest Loser and other health oriented media offerings that question notions of  body image and eating habits. It's a classic case of media saturation and awareness. Talking about something loud and long enough and people will begin to act on it. Instead of just being body-crazy we're finally body-conscious. Looking at ourselves truthfully and being able to say this is healthier than that because of these reasons is smart and a skill that we're being forced to learn so that we can teach it to our obese, diabetic kids. Lesson learned. Thank you thickness.

Fasianismic

Asian fashion designers are really getting their due. Since Michelle Obama rocked a few Jason Wu numbers and designers like Yohji Yamamoto, Thakoon and Issey Miyake are seeing a boost in interest. They certainly deserve it. In the past ten years or so, fashion capitals like Paris and Milan have had to relinquish power to budding centers of post modern culture like Beijing, Hong Kong, and of course, Tokyo. China's increase in wealth and economic strength brought on by America's steady downturn has opened up the floodgates for new sensibilities and aesthetics to gain in value throughout retail markets. In times gone by, America was the undisputed cultural hero, dispensing hip hop and hollywood to the world, now, America finds itself consuming visions and images of itself born elsewhere. 

American Idol quandry?

Is this show classified as a reality show, televised singing contest, game show? What is it exactly. I was sitting there watching the judges cut people for the top 36 and it seems so subjective and random. Do we really trust Randy, Paula, Simon and that new lady to choose who we should be into? I vote no. I vote no to this mystical, secretive, selection system people!

Feeling the Squeeeeze!!

I can't believe how much this recession is effecting me. Now, it may just be that I've somehow greatly overestimated my own earnings, but even so, the impact on my career alone has been jarring to say the least.  I've been transferred from a consumer pharma agency to a professional one. Although I certainly enjoy the challenge and have benefitted from learning new skills and the biology surrounding a whole new therapeutic category, I can't help but feel like a fish out of water at times. How can I make my mark and build on my past successes if I'm constantly moving from one venue to another, from one profession to another? It's all quite frustrating really.

Money has never been my forte. I've always believed that if you work hard and honestly, you should be able to make ends meet. Now, I'm looking for a second job. I don't know how to explain it.

Surprise Ending

So, I'm on the subway platform, waiting for the train, listening to one of Brandy's unreleased songs, Surprise Ending. A train that I don't want comes and the doors open. A young white woman rushes towards a door just as its closing and it closes in her face, startling her enough to make her drop her cell phone. I gasp, she gasps, and we stare in horror as it falls right into the crack between the train cars and the platform. The train speeds away. She and I stare in horror. She looks around for help, people gather and join us. We look down in horror. There it is, on the ground next to the tracks, but not the third track. So I just hop down, grab the phone, pass it up to her and then hop back onto the platform. She calls me a life-saver and I go back to listening to my music. Surprise. That's the end.

H.R.H.

What if I started a new monarchy? What if I could get people who are interested in a cultural experiment that explores what a modern day monarchy would feel like to meet up and hang out?

IN AWE of OBAMA's INAUGURATION

I've just arrived home from the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States of America.  I spent a few days in our capital, Washington D.C., going to parties and talking to people about this important moment in history. Now that I'm home, I feel very different about the various events that I was fortunate enough to have been able to be a participant. While riding home on the bus, I overheard a young American student say to another passenger, "...It's like America is cool again...". That sentiment, scares me a bit. After analyzing this new precedent from the angles of race, class, civil rights, immigration, age, etc., I wonder if political pundits, cultural theorists, and other academics will ponder the question of why now, and how do people, white and black, American and foreign, really see this moment, experience it and re-tell it?  Are we Americans just getting a "cooler" president, or are we getting this  "new era" that I'm already hearing about on the news? Why can we ask a black president to do things and create changes in a way that we've never demanded from other leaders?

Vendors on the street yell at me "HOPE, 5 dolllars!". I shudder. Blacks and whites over 40 introduced themselves to one another and began civil conversations in public. I smile. Barack gives a speech that nearly moves me to tears. I beam. I read that her considers his white speech writer "his mind-reader". I cringe. There is something here that has me puzzled. I know that I have issues with race. I grew up in a small town in the south, there is no question about how my family's experience of sharing social spaces white people has been. So why can't I just accept that America is finally embracing a person of color for who they are, and not what they imagine them to be?

I have every confidence that Barack's presidency will outperform anyone alive has seen come before it, I just whether or not we're witnessing the seeds of our hopes being sown or the fruits of our labor being harvested.

fabric on a window

I had some scraps of fabric that I was saving to make pillows laying around during the holidays, after I put up a new curtain, I found that it was too sheer and needed some help, so I tied these scraps together to look like drapes and such. Yes, it looks a hot mess, but I think the way that its done is interesting and has a toga kind of feel to it. I'll take it down when I get sick of it.

Another Brandy Tragedy

I have to go ahead and get this off of my chest once and for all. Brandy  has gotten a raw deal. There, I said it. And not just by the entertainment industry, and music fans everywere, but by her own management. In the past year, I have downloaded about 12 or 13 unrealeased Brandy tracks that never made it onto any of her albums that were AMAZING. Some of the best R&B I've ever heard period. Don't believe me, just listen to SWEET NOTHINGS , FOLLOW ME, AFTER THE FLOOD, ESCAPE, FEEL SO GOOD, LIST, etc. 

I know AMAZING. Now, here's the thing, anyone who knows anything about music can tell you what she's done for her genre and how the quality of her work and her instrument have only improved over time. Period. So why is most of her best work not being included on her albums. I'm confused. Who has it in for her? This las song I'm going to post was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I need answers after this. I emplore the interweb to respond to me, and tell me why this is happening. I think we all deserve the honest answer to this artistic tragedy. Now, I'm going shut up and let Brandy talk. Listen to the emotion and skill that puts into yet anothe unreleased, superlative piece simply entitled, FREEDOM.

 

I saw the train comin' for me with the force of a million marching
I felt the eyes of so many, the whispers and shouts about my belief in us
I see the cloaks on the judges, flaws in the judgement, beast in the dungeon that dont scare me
And I'll say it on a mountain, say it all in public, hold a press conference to speak about my freedom

Just us - lookin' upon a city of towers soaring
Just us - standing our ground in a crowd of lions roaring
Just us - I won't be held, I won't back down no more
Just us - Freedom
Just us - Freedom

I flew away this morning, what if I ran away and never came back
And all of the fame means nothing, it's all a game and the gladiator just won't win
And I see cloaks on the judges, flaws in the judgement, beasts in the dungeon, don't look scared to me
And I'll say it on a mountain, say it all in public, hold my head high, I'ma speak about my freedom

Just us - lookin' upon a city of towers soaring
Just us - standing our ground in a crowd of lions roaring
Just us - I won't be held, I won't back down no more
Just us - Freedom
Just us - Freedom

Free to run on the water
Free to believe, free to love
Free to speak their mountain off the ground(?)
I believe in us

Just us - lookin' upon a city of towers soaring
Just us - standing our ground in a crowd of lions roaring
Just us - I won't be held, I won't back down no more
Just us - Freedom
Just us - Freedom

My Freedom
My Freedom
My Freedom
Freedom, Freedom

Holiday Hope

So, '09 is finally here, and all of the promises I made to myself in '08 are either coming back to haunt me or coming to fruition. My multi-pronged consulting agency and design studio, my trip to a foreign land, my improved budgeting skills, my relationship acumen, my this that and the other... What will become of these idioms, these internal insinuationans and assertions? Well, I can't say much about what will happen, that's one thing is certain. However, I can describe the events that have already occured that give me permission to hope for more good to befall me in the near future.

This Christmas, my immediate family came to visit me here at my apt. here in Brooklyn. Not only did they come to visit, they stayed for much of the holiday season. I was ecstatic. My mother and two younger brothers put everything else aside and sacrificed their plans to come to New York, one of them, for the first time. Their visit was a Christmas gift to me that can only be called a blatant act of goodwill. Ever since my brother brought to my attention the strain that distance and lack of communication was playing on my familial relations, I've been determined to interact with them all with much more vigor and sincerity, no matter what the consequences. We all know that certain things about family can be unpleasant, but the benefits of staying close, truly close to your family always outweighs the cost. I'm very grateful to them for putting themselves through difficult and expensive traveling during a recession to help repair old bonds and foster new ones. 

Thanks

Wake up call

My job is hard. I really think that this is the first time in a long time that I've been intellectually challenged by my work. Professional pharma advertising and corporate communication is drastically different from consumer work. I'm reading things and handling information that I would have never been entrusted with at the consumer focused agency. Now, the downside to all of this new responsibility and intellectual stimulation is a glaringly obvious lack of creative writing! Hello! What kind of copywriter, rarely gets a chance to actually write something?

Well, I do get to write here, in my blog.  But that's just not good enough for me anymore. I'm getting back into a grove, I'm finishing up old projects and consolidating some of the really old ideas into the my new ideas. It's just got to work. 

More shameless Brandy fandom!

Check out the amazing vocal riff at the end of this song, It's really subtle, but when you hear it, it will remind of you of Ella and the creative singing of olde.

Kluster Focus

A few months ago, I attended a NextWeb conference in New York and helped present eyebees.com to the Web 2.0 community. I was particular impressed by the kluster.com presentation given by a lively group of young entrepreneurs.  After the event was over I promptly registered on their site and forgot all about it for some time. Now, after trolling the internet, I've once again come across this dynamic group and their unique formulae for collaboration. They're now working on a project with TED to grant a wish. You have to read-up on it to really get what's going on here, but I think that it will be well worth your time. Check out more about this project by clicking on the title of this post or here.

Two events, One cause

So, of course, everyone now knows that Barack Hussein Obama is the 44th president of the United States of America. The son of a white American mother and a Nigerian born father, he is the first American president with African heritage (that we know of). I voted for him and I'm very glad that he won the election.

Now, let's talk about what this means for the millions of Americans that will now be looking to him for leadership in this, our hour of need. After watching the election at a friends house in Queens, NY, myself and two friends walked back to the train station to get home, chatting about the historic event along the way. My two friends, like me, are black men in their late twenties. On our walk, we came across another young man making his way somewhere after the election, a white man. We saw him coming toward us on the side walk just as we were about to reach an area where the path thinned between a fence and a tree. The three of us began to adjust our alignment so that he would be able to pass, but before we could complete the new formation, he swiftly ducked into a gateway in the fence. The three of us then stared in amazement as he ever so slightly nodded, urging us to accept the entire sidewalk and not slow or alter our footsteps. So, we obliged, looking at each other in disbelief.

On the same night, I was making my last connection to the J train at Canal and I overheard and saw another interesting event on the night of Obama's election. Ahead of me on the downtown Q platform there were two young black men, leaning against the wall and two young, white people walking past them. I didn't see what happened, but I'm guess that there was some sort of collision or accidental bump or something. One of the young black men yelled out to the young white guy, "...Oh, why you frontin', Obama '08..." or something of that nature. The young white guy's retort was, "...Oh, excuse me I'm sorry..." or "...I said, excuse me..", I can't remember. The young white woman turned around and asked the young white man, "...What did he say?.." and the white guy began to tell his version of the story. The white man and the white woman never stopped walking.

I've had a little bit of time to think about both of these events and I can't help but come to the conclusion that it's only the tip of the cultural iceberg that America has hit. Now that a minority is at the head of our national government, the social rules and regulations around privilege, respect, authority, communication and power can all be rethought and re-enacted in a very visceral way. No more hypothesizing about what it would be like to have black skin sitting behind the desk in the oval office. No more looking up the ranks of prosperity, and leadership and seeing white faces with a few people of color in the background. Oh No. Now, another type of experiential reference is directing the nation, and we'll all have to look at what change really is and how it's lived day to day.

Will black people in America feel emboldened a prideful now that the president is also black? Will white people feel devalued and unsure of their place in the nation now that someone who looks like a person that many of their ancestors would have owned is telling them what to do and how to do it?

Stay tuned.
I most certainly will be watching. Very, very closely.

QWERTY QUERY

Technology these days can really stack up on a guy if he's not careful. You begin to collect things that you either use rarely or never at all. My cell contract of two years is coming to an end soon and I plan to switch over to another carrier and get the iphone. I think it's a good idea because I'd be knocking out two birds with one stone (i think killing is too strong a word).

But here's the ever present dilema. How do I pay for it? I thought about waiting until my birthday, but that seems so far away even now at the end of October, a month is a long time to string out a contract you don't want anymore. Then I thought, I don't use my DS or PSP much anymore, and there are new versions of both availalble now anyways, so why not sell them to raise the funds? Then I'd still have to save up later to buy the new versions of both, or one of the gaming devices. Now that I think of it, you use a phone everyday and it's helpful in emergencies, but the ds and psp are just for fun, and usually only on long trips. I think I'll sell them both.

All airborne!

Air Art from flip on Vimeo.

Next stop, anime-style gunships and post-apocalyptic society rebuilding!

That's nice, I think?

i found this chair at a yard sale in upstate new york . i re- upholster ed the seat with a thick knit and painted it white to make it younger and less formal. now that i think of it, i should have taken a before pic to make the reveal more dramatic. oh well, next time.

another late pic from my trip to the moma with a friend.

one big guard dog wouldn't be as cute, would it? only in chelsea.