Talkin Bout My Jeneration

This is Fullerton

2009-11-08T13:16:00.002-05:00

Moving Day!

2009-05-06T13:38:00.000-05:00

I have decided after much consideration of the page theme choices that its time to make the move to wordpress. This blog is slowly evolving into what I imagined it to be. So I’m adjusting to the new interface. Please bare with me, update your bookmark and send feedback!

http://myjeneration.wordpress.com/

I'd like to thank the Internet...

2009-05-06T07:50:00.002-05:00

The 2009 Webby award winners have been announced! What this means for me: One more year that my genius has been overlooked in favor of 1000 favorite things. But on the upside, it means more websites for me to check out and report back on!

Can't get Enough of JJ Abrams

2009-05-05T21:45:00.003-05:00

JJ Abrams is the new black in the geek world with Star Trek out on Friday, Lost 100th episode last week, and the guest editor of Wired this month. He was on the Colbert Report last night with more puzzles.

Zooey is the Fabric of MY Life

2009-05-04T22:13:00.003-05:00

And finally today - because I learned how to embed videos and because I know everyone loved to stalk Zooey Deschanel as much as I do - Zooey's new Cotton commercial!

Iron Chef Microwave

2009-05-04T20:52:00.003-05:00

I'm not a big cook. It's intimidating and too many ingredients. I prefer the pre-made stuff from people that already know the good seasonings and "pairings". My next mission is to check out Urban Fresh, a new grocery store for people like me that choose to leave the cooking to the professionals. But after making my first successful 3-step recipe for salmon, I had to admit it was kind of cool. Perfectly timed as always, Whitney Matheson posted the launch of a new Food Network website for 20-something-friendly cooking tips and recipes, Food2.com.

Re-mix-mix-mix

2009-05-01T20:36:00.003-05:00

Always a fan of the remix culture, this post on the Medium about the fusion of sampling and youtube caught my eye. The ThruYOU project pulls rhythm, sound, harmony, melody, and vocals from amateur youtube musicians. Here's one funky mix:

While we're checking out grassroots music magic, here is another project, Playing for Change, that brings together the dedicated international talent of street musicians across space and time. They recorded various layers of the song "Stand by me" on street corners across the globe to create this goosebump-inducing knitting of music:

And remix can't be complete without mentioning name-your-price recent release of Remix Manifesto. Director Brett Gaylor talked to Wired about the six-year project about copyright laws in music. Between my undying love for Girl Talk and the unavoidable topic of intellectual property in my New Media classes, I can't wait to sit down and watch this documentary (currently downloading).

Texts for Last Night

2009-05-01T14:40:00.005-05:00

"Remember that text you shouldn't have send last night? We do." is the ruthlessly relatible motto of the new site Texts from Last Night. Like FML's cooler older sibling, TFLN (too many acronyms!) is a site that lets you anonymously post the drunken text convo that result from a night of debauchery. Originating from Detroit, when I first came across the site I thought it was just another diluted dream of Oakland County rich kids to become infamously toocool. Except this one seems to have worked... I checked out the site today to see if it was still alive. Not only is it alive, it is thriving. The facebook page for the site already has 20,000 fans. This site is guilty pleasure at its worst. And damn does it feel good.

Friend Request from Obama: Accepted

2009-05-01T07:47:00.005-05:00

The Obama Admin made another historic move to incorporate social networking applications into the relationship between the Prez and his people. The Official White House Photostream on Flickr. Some pictures are presidential and boring, but there are some candid everyday photos of just how many navy suits and red tied walk the halls of the White House everyday. And the puppy of course.

Obama also has a facebook page, youtube channel, myspace account, twitters, and probably others that I'm missing. I applaud the admin's efforts to stay connected and let people follow Obama the way we know how to; the language of social networking. We all speak it. Thanks to Obama for finally acknowledging that you should go to the people inside of the people having to come to you.

Bonnaroo + Daily Show = Love

2009-04-30T08:49:00.002-05:00

It's that soul-searching time of the year - what festivals to go to this summer. Thanks to Justin's reviews and finding out I won't be losing my festival buddy to Fiji this summer, I am in a quandary over which to attend. I've already got my Lollapalooza tickets in hand to celebrate my sister's birthday on another hot and music-filled weekend. My next two choices are Rothbury round 2 or Bonnaroo. Doc was comparing the lineups yesterday and found two little gems hidden among the artists on the Bonnaroo list - Jimmy Fallon and Daily Show correspondents John Oliver and Rob Riggle (plus producers). Sold.

Music from Staten Island

2009-04-29T16:24:00.003-05:00

Children's choirs may be the most fuzzy-feeling-inducing sound in this cold prickly world. I don't know why it's taken me so long to discover the kids of PS22 choir in Staten Island. These kids are singing Coldplay, Tori Amos, and Bjork! They seem so genuinely inspired by singing in the videos. Bravo to their teacher, Mr. B, for turning music into more than just a practice in scales. You can recognize their amazing backup vocals for Passion Pit's "Reeling". I sang choir for four years and never got to sing anything cooler than Handel. I got chills when I first heard "Eye of the Tiger" on Pop Candy.

Tweet-izzle

2009-04-29T12:09:00.005-05:00

I'm not on Twitter (I think because the media got to it before the masses, it never achieved its al-important grassroots initiative, and therefore lost the influence of college students everywhere) but I love a good culture matrix. So here is the Twitter Matrix brought to you by NY Mag, so you can distinguish the Rachel Maddows from the Snoops.

The only tweet I'd follow would be if this Tine Fey character was really her.

Afterlife and the City

2009-04-29T11:46:00.005-05:00

It's official. The Sex and the City cast is complete for a sequel to the supposed-to-be-final-chapter movie of the show. Chris Noth has signed on to play Big in the movie, to be released in Summer 2010. I don't know anyone that is actually excited or even surprised by this "BIG NEWS!!!" of a sequel. But does it even matter anymore? Advertisers are still going to gobble up the gold mine of committed fans that will go see the movie anyways. Its like someone coming back to life. We said our goodbyes, we were at peace with the happy endings, we had moved on. But wait! They're still alive and living in NYC! Its not a happy ending! The wounds are reopened and you must know what will happen now, for final closure. Again.

Also - SJP and Ferris Bueller are having twins this summer from a surrogate mother. Do with this what you may.

Video killed the Radio Starlet

2009-04-27T11:26:00.005-05:00

While I'm still in the swells of podcast love, I have a newfound level of cool for radio personalities. NY Mag did a profile on 16-year-old Keili Hamilton, the youngest radio DJ on WFMU, an indie station broadcasting to NYC and Jersey. She makes me cure my parents for letting me listen to hours of Broadway soundtracks instead of PJ Harvey when I was little.

Advertising Backlash

2009-04-24T09:29:00.003-05:00

Commoners are finally getting smart about how to get corporate attention. $$$$. The show Chuck on NBC is being threatened with cancellation. There is a small but strong band of fans of the show that are petitioning to save the show. But instead of writing letter to the network that will never get read for fear of anthrax or revolution, fans are going to speak in the language of the corporation - advertising dollars. Subway is a major sponsor of the show with product placement sprinkled throughout episodes. On the night of the finale (tonight) fans are encouraged to buy footlong subs to let the advertisers decide if they want to pull out of this gold mine of customers.

I'm wearing it as a joke

2009-04-24T08:29:00.002-05:00

I could watch 30 Rock a hundred times and always find some new quip buried under the plot. That's why I watched last night's episode 3 times (one for every glass of wine I poured). When Liz and Jack google "la viuda negra" to uncover Elisa's dark secret, this is the website they find. Liz: "Blue writing on green...Why??" My web design prof would have been so proud. We spend an hour of class last week looking at the world's worst websites.

Also, per the AV Club, during the montage of Tracey JORDAN'S stomach there is a clip of Tracey MORGAN flashing his stomach during a chicago news broadcast. Trying to hunt down the clip now.

And lots of special guests for the finale!

Fighter of the Night Man

2009-04-23T12:49:00.004-05:00

I'm starting to get shaky with the lack of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in my life. But until the new season premieres (if you find the date PLEASE tell me), I came across the personal blog for one of its writers, Sonny Lee. In the absense of new episodes, this site is a great look at the inside workings (or not working) of the machine that churns out the Seinfeld-on-crack show.

Its a Mad Mad World

2009-04-23T10:17:00.005-05:00

What are we going to tonight, Brain? The same thing we do every night Pinky - Try to take over the world!

A favorite topic of mine is trying to understand the breadth and depth of the Google infiltration of our digital lives. As part of Mad magazine's 500th issue, they give their theories on what goes on behind the primary colors of the Google offices.

At the Palm of your Hand

2009-04-23T08:15:00.005-05:00

Somewhere between the too tiny keys of a blackberry and the 6 lb weight of a laptop, a hybrid laptop has emerged. I saw a girl on the #8 bus this morning with an 8 in mini laptop in her lap, typing away in Word. She had one of the most popular of this emerging product, the Aero Aspire One Netbook. Not only does it go easy on your shoulder at only 2.2lbs, but easy on your wallet as well. Most netbooks cost under $500. I am conversational at best at tech spec language but I believe the money savings comes from the low quality drives and screen.

Per my tech geek dad: "They're designed primarily for web browsing and email, so they have a very basic operating system, like XP or Linux, no CD drive (so you can't load software onto them except via download), a small (like 16 or 32 GB) solid state hard drive (like that used in an ipod Nano or shuffle), and a wireless network interface. You can't open a word document or spreadsheet, or anything like that, unless you're using something like Google Docs."

Doc has been researching buying one before he leaves for Fiji next month per the recommendation of lots of returning Peace Corps volunteers. They are very easy to travel with and if you run it with Linux, there is less of a chance of catching some ravaged computer virus from the South Pacific. They have a battery life of 5-6 hours, which is good if your going to be living a hut for 2 years. Most come with build in webcams so your friends and family back in the US can track the length of your dreadlocks over 2 years. Or to connect with an elementary school in the US to teach the youth about volunteering and the vastness of the world. The possibilities are endless!

Lost in the pages of Wired

2009-04-22T22:26:00.003-05:00

Wired mag, in all its geeky glory, handed over the reins to JJ Abrams for their May issue. And yes, he is just as much of a mindf*ck in print as he is on TV as the creator of Lost. The issue is dedicated to mystery, puzzles, clues, theories, and more. Grab your magnifying glass and basset hound for this one. There is another layer to this editorial. Abrams has created a cerebral riddle hidden within the pages of the magazine. The prize is unclear, aside from true mastery of codes and patterns. Steven Bevacqua was the first to successful solve the riddle; NY Times walked through the tests that he conducted to discover this hidden website.

This issue is interactivity without the use of technology (All of the clues are within the pages, none on the Wired website). A major strain to the magazine industry has been the shift to digital. This excitement and sense of being part of something within the tangible pages of the magazine pulls the read into the pages at a new level, reading between the lines and noticing details they may normally skim over. It may be a novel gasp of fresh air for print magazines, but if its getting people to turn pages and think critically about text, then its fresh air all the same.

Everyone loves a makeover story

2009-04-22T21:22:00.003-05:00

Laura gave me a tutorial on Google Reader and RSS feeds this week, something I should have learned about a year ago. As with most new gadgets, I am overwhelming myself with the opportunities I suddenly have. I already have 11 blogs in my feed. And as I was surfing around looking for blogs to flood my mind with, I realized how sorely neglected and behind my blog has become. Because I always want my posts to burrow deep in your mind and make you think about pop culture in a new way, my posts are a little lengthy. And all the cool kids' blogs are short and snappy.

So its time for a new format. Something less intimidating, quicker, lighter. One or two paragraphs about anything cool I learned that day. Because in the world of media and the blogosphere, there is something new to discover everyday. My main goal is going to be to post something daily. Something. I'm sure I will still find myself ranting about the societal impact of various pop culture artifacts. But to avoid avoiding writing for the sake of the intimidation of writing 5 paragraphs about the value of quarters in a coin-laundry city, I am going to focus more on content and less on length.

Ready. Go!

It's Podcastic!

2009-03-26T15:10:00.011-05:00

Podcasts are a new exploration for me. I know it may seem outdated in this day and age of technology whizzing by and always something new coming up to outdate the old. But after taking a class last quarter about technology and culture, I’m ready to critical analyzes anything digital to come my way. This week it happens to be podcasts.

I starting looking at podcasts in iTunes to find some new music so that Justin doesn’t have to spoon-feed me all my playlists (although his lists are chocolaty delicious!). I discovered that bowtie-and-tweed NPR has taken some advice from Stacey and Clinton and has been putting out fresh-faced podcasts on pop culture and indie music. NPR’s series “All Songs Considered” has a podcast of live shows with great quality and some interviews mixed in. Yesterday I was in DC with the Ting Tings, listened to She & Him at the Newport Folk Festival during a rainstorm, and was at the Santa Barbara Bowl with Radiohead. All without leaving my cubicle! I explored the NPR podcast website a little more and found a pop culture feed with interviews and commentary on all things bohemian. I always put podcasts in the category of radio, with commentary introducing music. But this idea that I can get my news and gossip told to me while I settle into my desk every morning instead of having to scroll through website is awesome! Embrace the laziness! So after enlisting Justin’s help on some recommendations (there is no hope of me ever finding good music without his guidance) I have a preliminary list of podcasts I shuffle through each day

NPR All Songs Considered Live

NPR Pop Culture

USA Today: Pop Candy

Bands under the Radar

Indie Feed: Big Shed Audio Documentaries

PRI: The Sounds of Young America

I'm drunk on the possibilities that these podcasts hold for me. The biggest set back to having a real job in the that I have to hold my blog-surfing until the evening and inevitably my attention is entranced by Toddlers & Tiaras or Planet Earth. But now I can listen to an interview with the cast of Always Sunny while doing my data entry. These niche radio shows are more informal, relaxed, and less forced than the Clear Channel propaganda of regular fm radio. I feel like I'm listening in on a conversation with my ahead-of-the-curve friends with soothing voices and witty repertoire. I feel less alone in my beige world of paper-pushing because I'm paper-pushing while listening to a report on teaching university courses in Second Life and discovering bands like Miss Li. Multi-tasking like it was truly meant to be!

Justin had a similar take on the podcast listening experience "Podcasts don’t have to adhere to record label mandated playlists. In fact, most of the time, they feature album tracks that don’t get pushed by labels as singles. You can listen to them on your own time, they are portable, and you don’t have to deal with commercials. They seem more personal than internet radio. If I don’t listen to then at work, then in my car."

One of the most surprising discoveries I have made while exploring this new art genre are audio collages. I initially found a Big Shed podcast about an audio producer, Zak Rosen, and his audio collage put together during his study abroad in Spain. I'm still trying to fully understand the format but the basic idea is that one goes about their day (preferably somewhere sweet like Rio de Janeiro), recording all the sounds of the streets and citizens of said sweet location, and cutting it and mixing it down into 10 min of beautiful day-to-day sounds and sayings. Although it seems choppy and a nuisance at first, I realized how oddly interesting and engaging it sounds to not have a visual to create a concrete scene. You can develop the scene as you picture it with the sounds. I think there is some soothing element to the buzz of noise pollution (spoken like a true city girl yes?). I sleep in the dead of winter with my window open so I can be rocked to sleep by the sounds of Lincoln ave, the drunken fights of college kids at the Lincoln Park bars, and the ambulance sirens heading to the Children's Hospital. I am comforted by the movement of people and cars outside. So I guess it should follow suite that I am enjoying drowning out the sounds of the menopausal women in my office with the sounds of chatter and horns. And in general the podcasts make me feel more connected and social (in some digitally-isolated way) to the rest of the world when I can listen to these podcasters talk about all things pop culture and awesome and feel like they are talking to me. I realize this seems sad and desperate to reach out to the world via a podcast feed while sitting in my cubicle cell, but we have to use the technology available to stay connected and informed.

I also loved the guilty pleasure that Justin told me about:

"I also listen to an old man’s podcast, NPR’s Writer’s Almanac, hosted by Garrison Keillor. Its on everyday and features history about that particular day and a poetry reading. Its relaxing for some reason...NPR is way cooler than I thought it was"

I wonder what other odd things people listen to on their iPods. God that sounds like a great social experiment waiting to happen...

Gossip Girl for the Soul

2009-02-06T11:32:00.008-05:00

Call it girlie, but I will still make you think….

- Amy Winehouse’s name has started to pop up in the festival lineups for this summer. At first my heart skipped a beat at the chance to hear her seductress voice again but, alas, one must take her track record into consideration. Will she even show up? Will people come just to see her fail in the public spotlight again? I want so badly to believe that her months of gallivanting around the Bahamas topless are going to produce a renewed talent and a new album. I mean, when you think about it, what better therapy is there that returning to your natural state on the beach with ocean and hammocks and pineapples without the threat of social inebriation or conformist clothing? I’m still rooting for you Amy, the state of music needs that refreshingly timeless voice back.

- Elsa Fisher can’t catch a break. With the unfortunately upcoming release of her new movie Confessions of the Shopaholic in the midst of the Recession hurricane, she is being pegged as naïve, ignorant, and uncompassionate to the current fiscal situations of Americans to produce a film that satirizes the excessive spending habits of one NYC chick. But there is so much more to this situation that it doesn’t seem reasonable to boil down the current economic attitude of the country to the gig of one actress. First, perhaps this is actually the PERFECT time for this movie’s release. One prime function of movies is the sense of unreality and escapism that they allow the viewer to fall into. I know that's why I read books and watch movies; to try to feel what the story is giving. So when nobody can afford to buy shoes and purses and things, what is the harm in spend two hours in a dark room, sitting in royally velvet red overstuffed seats and remember what it was like when you could. Most mainstream film genres (romantic comedies in particular) do not claim to be real life, but to use their magic of cinematography to evolve real emotions in viewers. Second, I understand that when an actor signs up for these gigs, they are giving up their image to be the “face of” a project. And unfortunately Isla is feeling the blow of this fact. But we are rational, knowledgeable people and we understand the basics of film. There are hundreds of other people that make a film a reality. Why aren’t the critics looking to Jerry Bruckheimer? To Touchstone Pictures? To Disney? If you’re going to criticize, don’t pinpoint one scapegoat; look at the bigger picture (and everyone that created it). Third, Elsa has been trying to get her big break in US film for years, and much to her credit, she is on her way up. Her breakout roll in Wedding Crashers followed by her marriage to satirist gold Sasha Baron Cohen has picked up her public image as a comedienne. She needed a starring roll to push herself into the category with comedian goddesses like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling. According to Wiki, she has co-written a scrip called “The Groupies” with Amy Poehler. Yes Please! So she got the call from household-name-making Disney to do this silly romcom and took the opportunity to make a solid name for herself. Her intentions did not lie in oblivion to the economic depression, but perhaps to hamper people’s frets of grey skies and empty streets of fifth ave or, hell, just to make people laugh.

- Its official, the love-em-or-hate-em ladies of Sex and the City have all signed on to do a sequel to the epic movie. I won’t hide the fact that I am a S&C fan, but even I have to raise an eyebrow at this move. I always thought the movie was to tie up lose ends and answer long standing questions left at the finale of the show. But really, WHAT is this going to be about? I ask this a current gen Yer. Then I had a thought…what if the audience is shifting. I’m thinking that a story about Samantha’s early retirement at 50 and the other ladies baby-making plans doesn’t quite grab my attention the way their quips of love conquest wins and loses did. But to others, it probably is. What are the thoughts and situations that independent, proven-worthy women work through after their years of gallivanting around the single life? So of course I’m going to go see it at its release in 2010, but will have to take a difference mindset in there with me. And for me, the excitement of a single 20-something’s life and love lies in the premier of He’s just not that into you tonight

Saving the world one globetrotter at a time

2009-01-28T10:13:00.000-05:00

The saying goes that you can only truly understand yourself when you see yourself through someone else’s eyes. The same stands true on a global level. The increase in generation Y’s interest in studying and working abroad is not only a great opportunity to see what life is like outside the subdivision fences but also a chance to shine some light on how the US appears in the global field. Last week, Jeffrey Bartholet and Daniel Stone wrote an article in Newsweek about the number of members of Obama’s administration that have lived and worked abroad, including our Commander-in-Chief himself, his roots deeply seeded in an international family tree.

I had the fortunate opportunity to study abroad in London in 2005. Along with plenty of time touring the pubs of Kensington and Chelsea, and poking around the city with a great group of people, I was able to travel and explore the UK, Ireland, and France. But perhaps due to my naivety to international culture and global relations (I was only 19 when I went, without much interest in politics or world news) I lacked the eye and attitude needed to truly embrace and learn from the experience of living abroad. I also clung to my fear of the uncertain when deciding where to study; choosing a country that spoke my language and who’s culture is in line with American. Now, 4 years later and 4 years wiser and 4 years more aware, I watch everyday for an opportunity to arise for me to live abroad again, with some changes. I think a more life-changing experience for me would be set in a culture far difference from what I am used to everyday. London gave me the confidence to know that I can live comfortably on the other side of the ocean from my family and friends, but to truly see the vast range of cultures and values around the world, something outside my comfort zone would be more beneficial.

I may not have a living abroad options in the near future but I will be able to live vicariously and learn through my friends and family that will have that opportunity. When Doc departs for his grand excursion in the Peace Corp, I will be able to go visit him in the South Pacific, see what work he is doing, and get the tour from an expat. My sister is planning her last two years of college around a semester studying sociology in Ghana. I have always said that my dream is to visit Africa, because I see their culture as the most extreme and most difficult to understand and I want so badly to feel what it feels to live so differently from the comforts of home. I plan on visiting her as well to learn from her chance to study culture in the field. Lucky girl!

It is unquestionably true that when you have an international awareness from first-hand experiences interacting with different people and cultures, you come to understand more thoroughly what differences are evident, what ideas are universal and which are cultural. You also have the opportunity from talking with other people, to see what the view of your own culture looks like from the eyes of an outside. And as you develop relationships with these new friends, you discover that their opinions are worth being compassionate towards, no longer veiled in ignorance. These values are exactly what Americans need to better interact in an increasingly global world. The fact that so many politicians that will be representing America in the global ring have these experiences under their belt and in their minds is a refreshing and progressive aspect to our political system. Hopefully the number of students that are open and able to study abroad will continue to increase so as a new generation fills the white house desks, our views will become more and more open to new ideas from around the world.

Identity Crisis

2009-01-27T21:20:00.004-05:00

I am becoming just like all the Estelle's in the world. Remember Joey's agent on Friends? Box-dyed hair, blue eyeshadow, voice destroyed by years of chain-smoking and talking too much, and can name every man that Erica Kane has married on All My Children. I am on the road to becoming the next person in line at the grocery store to pick up Soap Opera digest (I actually did once...) During my lunch hour at work, me and a few unnamed co-workers sneak into an abandoned corner of the warehouse where we have pitched an old TV among the boxes of inventory to watch All My Children. It started as a way to relax and escape our cubicles for an hour but now I have trouble missing a day. So my secret is out. Next thing you know I'll be drinking Manhattan's and talking about the good old days when phone's were used for talking and there was no such thing as fug.

So one of the current AMC plots is that Annie is locked in a mental institute because she killed her brother, kidnapped her daughter, stabbed Erica Kane, and now believes she is her daughter. But the twist is that we don't know if she is really mental or if she's playing her part to avoid going to jail. This is one of the better plots so far this year. The doctor in charge of "curing" Annie has focused her medical research on felons that do just that, fake being insane to avoid doing time in the big house. I understand this is a soap opera and the situations are exaggerated for the Estelle's the world that need that extra dose of drama in their life to get through the day. But, in reality, I don't doubt that there are criminals that do just this. Mental instability cannot be proved, can be debated endlessly, yet is treated as a medical disease that requires treatment. Perpetrated by the desire to avoid going to jail, felons could very well put themselves into a mental state that appears to require medical attention but in reality is an extreme case of fight or flight.

But the complete focus that must be placed on the brain in order to foul a medical expert with years of experience and research can be tolling on the brain. Could the brain even begin to believe that this mental instability is it's true form? Ironically, Jezebel posted an article about just this. Norah Vincent is an author that voluntarily checked herself into three different types of mental treatment facilities in order to compare and judge the conditions and treatment methods of each one. The experience was so trying on her mentally that she actually began to develop a mental illness from living this experiment. It must also be noted the extent that Norah submerges herself into "research" for her novels. She previously lived as a man for several years for a book she wrote and, as a result, suffered a mental breakdown. This experience was what lead her to this new research. I don't know if I should praise her complete mental devotion to her art or wonder why she would subject herself to such an identity crisis. Twice.

This could be a social trend due the prevalence of mental illness diagnoses today. This is a type of disease that is intangible. There are no x-rays or medical tests (that I know of - understand I am not a thorough or credible source) to prove if a person has a disease of this nature. This gives people a place in a medical environment to hide from the world and the consequences that go with it. I am NOT disproving the importance or existence of mental health issues, only that it is a new and developing science that some below-the-law people are exploiting. It is a side effect of this new diagnosis that was unanticipated; the ability the "fake" medicine. It sounds like the next plot line of Grey's Anatomy.

Back in the saddle

2008-12-04T19:21:00.017-05:00

Oh I try and I try to keep up with this blog. I feel a sense of responsibility to this project because I have no real responsibility to it. By choice I share all the useless but awesome stories I hear and see. So I'M BACK (again and again). I was watching Jon Stewart last night. After a sorrowful moment in memorium of all the material Bush has given Jon over the years and the realization that this show will have to actually start working for satire once Bush retires, Arianna Huffington was the guest. She is the creator and editor of the Huffington Post. The website pulls links from all news sources and blogs into this tidy site, like a "best of" of the day's headlines and features. After there is caffiene running through my veins in the morning, I log onto the site to get my fill of headlines instead of having to click from CNN to NY Times to the Tribune to Jezebel. So there is my plug. The editors and bloggers on the site just published a book about blogging. Arianna and her sexy Greek accent made blogging seem like the most passionate hobby a person can have. "Blogging is not about perfectionism. Blogging is about intimacy, transparency, and sharing your thoughts the way you share them with a friend." My first thought: I want one! Thought #2: Oh yea....I have one! That line reminded me why I have this blog. Primarily so I can pass on all the pop culture nuances to my friends without wasting their anytime minutes, and also with the slight hope in the back of my heart that I can turn a career out of my mining for absured realizations about this cultural haven we live in.

So to begin again I have one word. Obama. It is amazing to really understand and feel what it means to be proud to be an American. It is a term I used to be too young to understand, followed by too ashamed to feel. But being meer miles away from Grant Park the night Obama was declared our 44th president, being able to hear the eruption of cheers from my window, seeing people smile when they talk about a politican, scrolling through my friends' facebook statuses reminding people to vote, to change. Finally it feels like there is a person to symbolize our country that actually encompasses the values and ideas that Americans want projected onto the world. Change is good.

Next, a topic I would be stupid not to write about. On Tuesday I heard Annie Leibovitz speak at the Chicago Public Library downtown about her new book Annie Leibovitz at Work. Photography is an art that can steal my attention for hours. It's almost meditative for me to follow the clean focused lines, calming to see the monocrom black and white, reassuring that the world can still appear so beautiful. To me, the quality of Annie's photos that sets her appart from other photographers is the surrealism that glitters through the realistic nature of her photos. When I met Annie at the book signing after her talk, I told her that her photos make Hollywood still look glamorous. The lighting, the sharp quality, the glow. Her Vanity Fair portraits makes me believe that somewhere there are ladies and gentlemen that still walk around in diamond incrusted gowns and drap themselves in family jewels. That there are still sassy and sophisticated pin up girls in martini bars somewhere. That rock stars are still invincible. That fairy tales can come true. At the same time, her photos of average Americans show natural beauty in their eyes, their wrinkles, their shape, their stature, their clothes, their story.

Every one of her photos have a story that adds another layer to the photo and the subject. She talked about countless backstories to her photos, about different subjects and genres. She is not a good public speaker. She would try to start talking about a photo then relieve herself back into the pages of the book, reading passages about the photos. I found that very comforting, knowing that she was not at easy in front of the crowd. I think people that thrive being on stage, in the spotlight, eyes burning into them to be very unnatural, very forced. Words that you type out and write down, think about, plan, compare, can be easier to trust than split seconds words that come out of your mouth, that you can't delete. It is a more thoughtful and confident form of communicating your voice. Actually, Annie as a photographer has an even better form of communicating her voice through her art. Visual art can evoke emotions within the viewer that go beyond words, written or spoken. On some level I am jealous that I'm not talented enough to bring forth those emotions in my audience. Yet.

McYoga

2008-09-08T21:34:00.011-05:00

Now that I am back in the embracing arms of hatha yoga again, in a room with a view, I can reflect back on the sweaty regiment of bikram yoga.

The stellar reviews on Yelp.com were my only motivation for returning to the studio each week for 90 minutes of perspiring hell. Every time I came home swearing under my breath at the state of my body and mind after class, I wondered what it is that the other hot yogis experience that I don’t. Everyone raved about how energized they felt, how they lost weight, didn't want to each junk food anymore, how it healed old injuries. I felt nothing but dizzy and strung out when I left. The only major difference I noticed was that when I rode my bike home after class my legs were stronger and I could increase the tension on the gears. But when I was expecting a body-altering experience, the bike ride seemed insignificant. I can understand the method to their madness, to sweat out toxins and unclog dirty pores; which is probably more healthy and active that the comparative spa treatment of an $80 facial. But asside from the rebirth of my skin, I didn't feel like the practice knocked my core into an altered state of living.

It’s also disheartening to experience how vastly different the energy of the bikram class is compared to a classic vinyasa or hatha yoga class. One of the building blocks of yoga, as I have learned it, is acceptance. Acceptance of your body’s limitations. Acceptance of your, and others, skill level. Acceptance of an empty mind. Acceptance of calm and quiet running through your body. The bikram yoga classes bring out a person's limits, challenges the body's commitment, brings a competative mindset to the forfront of your practice. The harsh clap that signals a change in pose doesn't allow you to fall into a flow between poses. The monotone, scripted instructions of the instructor doesn't allow for creativity or change from practice to practice. Having attention drawn to you in a negative way when you stop to take a drink of water to prevent yourself from passing out because you did not wait until the point in the class when you are allowed to drink. The demand to push your body past its natural point of resistance, which seems strengthening in theory, is very defeating in actuality when you cannot hold a pose long enough. In traditional yoga classes you are supposed to stay in tune with your body’s needs and pains, to listen and obey your body; not the instructor. There is a stronger feeling of pulling the body into a pose in bikram yoga, as opposed to the feeling of gentle pushing the body into a stronger pose in hatha or vinyasa yoga. The lack of force put on the body and mind of hatha yoga is what lets my mind relax and absorb the practice. I suppose the conclusion of this would be that if you are looking for a different way to push you body physically, a new challenge to face, then bikram yoga is something worth trying, but if you perform yoga for the spirituality of the experience, then bikram is going to be a blast of cold water on your peaceful body. Or hot air.

A brief histroy of bikram shows the conceptual differences between the practice and traditional yoga. Bikram was developed by Bikram Choudhury in LA. It is an exercise of 26 posturses performed in a room heated to 105 degrees guided by a specific dialouge of the bikram certified instructors. The sequence of the 26 postures is copyrighted and the studios are franchised by Bikram. There is intense controversy around the term "yoga" used within the Bikram yoga practice. The acient history of yoga poses, which predated by centuries, the ideas of copyright, franchisment, and capitalist nature of today's society, seems to tarnish the sacred act dedicated to inner growth and awareness, not profit or national acclaim. The documentary "Yoga, Inc." gives more examples and details on how bikram yoga does not follow so many of the teaches and nature of traditional yoga. I have been to my fair share of yoga studios in the last 2 years. I have always admired their low maintenance decor and operation. I envy the teachers that come to class, not because it is their job or because of the money they are making to be there, but because of their love and dedication to the practice, the desire to help other experience what they do in their practice. They are always friendly and happy, calm and open. I would hate to think that if more "McYogas" pop up around the US, the appeal of the profits, of cashing in on people's love for yoga, will overhaul the pure, simple joy that traditional yoga brings.

Ladies No Longer in Waiting

2008-09-04T20:07:00.010-05:00

Try as I might, I cannot avoid the inevitable topic that, every 4 years, becomes the dictator of the media, water cooler conversations, magazine covers, and pillow talk all across the USA! USA! USA! Presidential election season is upon us again. But you can take comfort in the fact that I will try to keep this as objective as an election conversation can be. I’m not here to force my un-groomed and less-than-educated political views upon you; I’ll leave that to the professionals. I couldn’t help but write about the topic because how can I possibly analyze the state of our 9/8/08 culture and ignore the baby-kissing presidential beast that has taken over our culture right now? So I’m going to take a lighter, more superficial, approach to the race. Someone has to. Sometimes we need a distraction from the exhausting debates over baby’s mama’s drama, sexism, patriotism, and the population of Alaska. So I am here to discuss the ladies.

When Michelle Obama burst onto the political field a few months ago, she was an outspoken, successful, frank woman first. She was Barak’s wife second. I knew about her Harvard degree and career progression before I knew that she was the mother of two (beautiful and microphone-loving) daughters. Some people that still believe in the sanctity of politicians were dumbfounded by her forthrightness in discussing Barak’s trail of dirty socks (How can he allow her to reveal such behavior! A presidential nominee would NEVER divulge such character flaws!). But the rest of us could relate to the playful banter with our significant others. I’m no worshipper of the house of Doc when talking about him. I’ll joke with my friends about his scruffy nomad beard for the sake of relatability. The outspoken woman is sexy. The outspoken woman is not a woman to be dismissed as a simple pillow-fluffer at the end of the day. The outspoken woman is the backbone and down to earth character that a politician needs to keep things real and fist-tap for support.

But that was then. Months on the campaign trail. Months of criticism over her “anti-American” style. Months of worried campaign managers hoping to avoid another Hillary, pulling Bill’s puppet strings from inside the White House. Who was really in control here? We don’t want a submissive president. So now, watching her speech at the DNC, I see her subsiding into her Jackie O dresses and supportive smiles. Talks of her daughters, family, and her husband. The candid banter of “Barak – He’s just like us!” gone. So where did she go?

I will be honest in saying that I know less about Cindy McCain, partly because my interest leans towards the Obama’s and partly because the woman is so severe looking I have trouble getting past the tight librarian bun and paycheck. She looks so tightly wound and pursed-lipped that I had trouble see her lack of personality as a threat to the White House. But seeing her at the RNC the night of McCain speech, with her hair down, a small smile on her face, even I saw some semblance of pride in how her life brought her to that moment. But that moment of awareness was gone as soon as it came, blinded by talks of her $300,000 getup and private plane. But where did the librarian bun go?

And now there is Sarah Palin. I can’t seem to stop reading about her background and family. I am drawn to her story and I cannot figure out why. My question for her fresh face is where did she come from?

The trend here is the entrance of the woman into the political playing field. Three women are under the torturous microscope of the media and America (mostly because of the media). Hillary, the trailblazer, was the first sign that it is time Washington gave some attention to the political woman. The importance of the first lady has become almost comparable to the importance of the president himself. Hillary showed that the first lady cannot be overlooked, because she may someday be the one you are voting for. It is a new frontier for women in politics and there must be an appealing image to wrangle in the votes, because lets not forget that this is still a political race and it’s all about the votes. Men have had hundreds of years to evolve their persona into what they know Americans can look up to and are comfortable with and are generally willing to let lose on the world as the face of our nation. Navy blue suit, red tie, good orator, uses words like “change” and “hope”, wears an American flag pin. Now the women are at the beginning of their evolution into what America will trust. Michelle came out of the gate a little too strong, Cindy came out with her bun a little too tight. Both are working towards a middle ground. Because who knows which one of them could be next.

So now the transformation from hockey mom to vice presidential nominee for Sarah Palin will begin. What middle ground will she have to conform to? Only time and debates and Karl Roves growling monologues will tell.

I'm a Mac. I'm a desperate PC

2008-09-04T18:28:00.017-05:00

There are so many things that seem so extraordinary in theory, but the grandeur falls apart at the seams after execution. Like bottled water or Sarah Palin. Like a collaboration between Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates.

Microsoft kicked off their new ad campaign this week. Bringing out the big guns/dollars with their first commercial featuring the sneaker-wearing Seinfeld and the cheapest richest man Gates at a Payless-esque discount shoe store sharing insight on pleather footwear and the future of edible hardware. First thought: ????? Second thought: Thank Lord Elton John for DVR. It took a few viewings to piece together what Microsoft was trying to accomplish with this "commercial about nothing". There were so many levels and angles Microsoft was trying to play in this ad that the end result was a mess of mug shots and wedgies. They are countering the "I'm a mac" commercials with Seinfeld; a cross-generational icon. But Jerry eating a chutto has a tough time proving its hip status up against the oh so cute mac guy, not to mention the "I'm a mac" commercials have been well established for 2 years now. Why start trying now? Trying to a desperate level no less; $300 million on a campaign starring two of the most visible and highest paid members of their industries is no understatement. The approach of the campaign is to show these two moguls as everyday Americans that shop in malls and sign up for retail discount memberships. But two globally discernible faces being normal, like the "Stars; They're Just Like Us!" section of Us Weekly, has a depressing way of making a bike ride seem more fashionable than ordinary.

The official explanation from Microsoft is that this is only a "teaser" for future commercials meant to "engage customers in a conversation and dialogue in a humorous and intriguing way". I believe that exact quote was used on the set of Seinfeld. Other then a flash of the Microsoft logo at the end of the commercial and the presence of Bill Gates, there is no mention of the company, products, or performance. I got a hold of the second commercial (Is there anything Youtube can't give me?) This one gives us a future of fish with blogs, a small explanation of the duet's adventure, and a pretty witty one liner ("You live in a moon house hoovering over Seattle and I have so many cars I get stuck in my own traffic jams") , it still left me wondering when they were going to sell me something.

Remember when commercials used to be for products?

It's Just a Year

2008-08-15T16:46:00.000-05:00

This has become the mantra of Gen Y. It's just a year, it's just a year, it’s just a year. As we map and re map the path of our life, we dip our feet into different jobs and places and experiences, crossing off the bad and starring the good. But the uncertainty of how you will handle a new experience can make the task of stepping into a new pool of responsibility unnerving yet necessary. And there are the entry-level tasks and "resume building" keys we all need to have to open doors down the line. Doors that you don't even know address to yet. But you don’t want to miss any of the necessary grunt work that might lead to your American (or International) Dream. So you bite the bullet. For a year.

It’s all I can say when talking to my friends about their I-don’t-get-no-satisfaction entry level jobs and when they get pink eye for the third time from their students. It’s just a year. Then something else, something better. Grin and bare it and make friends with the local bartender and you will survive. If you have something that you want in your future bad enough, I think patient is a virtue. Kate has been talk and dreaming about moving to Europe for a while now. She talked to her boss and they are situating her in the company in a place that could really make that come true. But before she jets off to Italy, she has to work in the agency’s corporate headquarters, a culture far different from the small boutique agency branch she loves and works in now. But it’s just a year. A year in the conservative ivory tower of corporate life that could lead to her dream job working in an international advertising agency, painting the Paris skyline from a bridge across the Seine, and having passionate and forbidden love affairs with tall, dark, and handsome European soccer players. It’s just a year.

Laura has the same relationship with teaching that I have with accounting. Don’t love it, sometimes hate it, but not ready to throw that bachelor’s degree in the trash just yet. She suffered through one year of student teaching and three bouts of pink eye, because, even though she was uninspired by her years of education courses, because she knows she needs to be a real teacher for at least one year, with her own classroom and her own kids and her own rules for one year, before really thinking about throwing in the towel. It's just a year. Then she can reevaluate where she is and where she wants to be.

Even where we live in our 20's is a hop scotch game from city to city, trying out all different lifestyles before making a commitment to settle down somewhere. Big city, small town, East Coast, West Coast, US or abroad. The possibilities are endless. For as long as I can remember I have known that I wanted to live in a big city. And I'm here and I love it. Living the dream now is making room for another dream to reach for once I've soaked up enough of the city to satisfy. I still take comfort in the fact that the only thing tying me down is my apartment lease.

They call this time in a Gen Yers life the "quarter-life crisis". Where the proverbial midlife crisis is based on regrets of paths not taken in the past, the quarter-life crisis is stress over having too many options and paths to take and fear of taking the wrong path or missing one that could lead to a fulfilled and happy life. I don't think anyone in our position is whining about how many choices we have, but the choices we face are decided by our character, who we are and who we will become. Too bad not enough of us have been out of the structure of academia to really know who we are or who we will become. I think part of the fuel behind the quarter-life crisis, a relatively newly coined phrase in 2001, is the commonality of the term midlife crisis. We've been hearing that term and the negative emotions surrounding it, our whole life (the term was first published in 1965). Instead of accepting our fate of regret when we are 50 years old, we are trying our hardest to leave no regrets in our past, to take every challenge we can, not to miss any passing opportunities, to do what we love every day. But its tough to do what we love every day when we don't know what that is yet. So we want to try it all, we don't want to miss a chance to catch our dreams and live what we love every day. It's just a year, a year closer to that dream.

Hipster Paradise

2008-08-13T17:56:00.004-05:00

It’s been a busy week as I gather back together all the parts of my life that exploded last weekend with the culmination of so many months of planning and anticipating and mix taping. Lollapalooza ’08. It was yet another weekend of living inside my iPod, body surrounded by music at every corner of Grant Park.

The overwhelming feeling that comes with trying to see 130 bands over 3 days was curbed by the accompaniment of my two rock and roll tour guides; Boutit (for a complete band-by-band run down of who we saw, please enjoy Boutit’s blog.) and my alter ego/sister Andrea. Between the three of us, we had a full schedule to tackle over the 3 days. An added challenge was staying cool. Because Mother Nature has a sense of humor, Aug 1-3 happened to be the 3 hottest days of the summer. The sun and sweat was relentless. Hours under the cloudless sky and weaving in and out of the largest crowd to ever hit the park (225,000 people total for the weekend) made for a very uncomfortable few days. Unfortunately, this personally put a damper on the weekend. Constantly whipping the sweat off my face and making sure I always had some cold water to drink, trying to stick together as we made our way from one end of the park to the other along with a hurricane of people moving in all directions and reading the schedule at the same time took away from some of the magic of the festival.

But I’m no Debbie Downer when it comes to music so aside from being a baby wah wah about the weather and crowd conditions it was a weekend of discovering new bands, people watching, and jump jump jumping around jump around. The crowds were the most entertaining part of the weekend for me. The shear number of people that swarmed the city for the music was enough to give me chills even in the heatwave. The carpet of people that covered the mile long park was a picture of a culture of escapism, getting lost in the wave of the music, wanting for even just a weekend to forget the everyday life of responsiblity and boredom. Everyone filled their days with music from every corner of the world and every genre, simple tasks of bathing, eating, and dressing back burnered in exchange for squirt guns and hula hoops. It was hipster mecca with robes of skinny jeans and crowns of sweat bands, neon green and pink sunglasses protecting from the glare of the desert sun over Lake Michigan. The one image that formed in my mind that, even though I never got to fly overhead and see, will always sum up the spectrum of music that was played was an aerial view of the park at 8:30 Sunday night when Kanye West was putting on a flashing lights show at the south end of the park while Nine Inch Nails got closer to god at the north end.

Other high points in the weekend included:

-CSS and their neon costumes

-The crowd cheering during Black Keys when the sun went behind the only cloud in the sky

-Lupe Fiasco’s Rocky-esque entrance, including a back flip on stage.

-Discovering 3 new bands to download and love: Mates of State, Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s, and What Made Milwaukee Famous

-Seeing a star being born when MGMT introduced themselves as Radiohead, and believing them by the size of the turnout for their show.

-Living a fantasy watching DJ Momjeans (more commonly known as Hyde from That 70’s Show). Learning that in order to be in his entourage you must wear a fedora.

-Placing bets on when the lead singer of Steel Train would fall off the stage during his schizophrenic guitar solos.

-Trying not to look away when confronted with the hairy chested P-Thugg of Chromeo

-Turning the stage into an irish pub when Flogging Molly took the stage.

-Seeing Girl Talk for the 3^rd time (one, two, three) this year. GT having to stop the party to let everyone know they had to get off the stage because they were bending it. Seeing my sister crowd surf over my head. GT rafting across the audience at the end of his set.

-Missing the memo that Lollapalooza was a memorial concert for Jounrey. Girl Talk, Gnarls Barkley, and Kayne all paid homage to the band.

-Tearing up when Kanye sang "Homecoming" to the city we all love.

There were a lot of stark contrasts between this festival and Rothbury (the audience, the pace, the heat, the groove, the Sherwood forest), but both left me satisfied and smiling (that’s what she said)

Hot Yogi in the City

2008-07-18T11:08:00.003-05:00

There are such an outstanding number of facets to yoga and the idea of trying to submerge myself in the practice has become increasingly daunting the more I read and learn about it. Laura seconds my stress when she said that when she reads Yoga Journal she feels like she needs flash cards to remember all the new terms that are stuffed into one issue (always thinking like a teacher!). I have come to terms with the fact that there is no crash course in and am taking small steps in understanding the bigger picture of the stretches and poses. I’m confident in my beginner practice and flexibility, so I decided this week to take it to a different level. I took my first bikram yoga class.

Bikram yoga is a specific yoga practice that is done is a room that is headed to 105 degrees. I did it originally because it’s the closest yoga studio to my apartment and the reviews of it rave about when it does to your body and how you sweat out toxins and stretch deeper, etc. Cut to my first class the other night. Sweet baby Shiva, this was like a 90 min tour of the 6th circle of hell (I say hell only because this type of yoga is actually very anti-yoga and goes against a lot of the core principles of the practice. More on that later) I walked in prepared for the heat and sweating but this was no normal sweating. I have run 10 miles in the middle of August through Hell, MI (literally) and I know sweating. But this, this was not normal humane sweating. This was water coming out of every pore in my body. Within 15 min I had stripped off my tank top and my sports bra was soaked through. I actually think the only thought in my brain that got me through the first half of the class was being completely enthralled with the amount of “toxin” coming out of my skin. Unfortunately, after the phenomenon of my secretions had subside, I realized with shock, that I was actually in yoga boot camp. The poses forced you to freeze your muscles for up to a minute, it was fast paced with the instructor clapping every time you had to come out of your position, always changing directions and bending at the waist. Anyone that has woken up hungover on a hot summer day knows that the last thing your body wants to do jerk up and down and side to side. After 60 min of freezing and twisting and stretching, my eyes gave up on focusing and my head went into a fog. I pride myself in all I’ve learned and am able to do in my normal yoga classes after a year of practice, but I couldn’t get through this without stopping for water after every pose and towards the end I had to skip a few, something I am never proud to do. At the end I was ready for Savasana when I can lay flat on my back and let my body unscramble and take in everything it just went through. But no, class was over abruptly. I opened my eyes and looked around as everyone was rolling up their mats and talking to their friends. Nothing like a normal class when it take you 10 min to get up and you want to stay inside your head as long as possible without talking to people. You also don’t normally look drunk as you struggle to stand, roll your mat, and make it across the room into the air conditioned lobby. I felt like I had taken a wrong turn on my way to my happyland afterwards. I wasn’t calm, I hated my body, I was a mess of sweat, I was walking down Clark St in a sports bra, all social norms out the window, and convinced I was going to have my chance run in with Johnny Depp at that moment (It’s inevitably going to happen. Someday.) I was, above all, pissed off. It shock me that something related to yoga, my release, my relaxer, my core, could mess with my emotions and my body so much. Never again, I said.

The unfortunate lesson behind this story is never buy a month-long pass to a yoga class you have never tried before. I spent $30 for an unlimited first month of classes. I had never seen such a deal for yoga classes before so I jumped at it! HA. But I had to make some good come of this experience. Asside from a newly formed try-before-you-buy philosophy, I am now determined to see where all these rave reviews of the class come from, why people are addicted to it. So I am going to continue to go to the class once or twice a week for the next month and see where my experience goes. But I am also going to get myself back into my safe haven asana yoga classes to calm my mind from this military style bikram yoga.

A spoonful of comedy

2008-07-15T18:14:00.006-05:00

After a long weekend of tasting Chicago and dancing to Stevie Wonder and practicing my beach volleyball skills, this rainy Sunday turned into a couch-sitting marathon. And coincidentally an “I Love the New Millennium” marathon. The VH1 “I Love….” series is as addicting as Sudoku, and even more so when the commenters are talking ABOUT Sudoku. Initially I thought it was obviously too soon to roll out this series; the signs are pretty clear when you can’t even make it a clean 10 part series because the new millennium isn’t coming to a close yet! But two hours into the marathon, Kate, Doc, and I had failed to move or attempt to change the channel yet. Four hours into it and we were committed. At the Sixth hour we could predict the next event before the clip even started, yet still we couldn’t fathom changing the channel until the bitter end.

Where “I Love the 70s” was a history class for Gen Yers and hippie wannabes (myself included), and the 80s series was a challenge to see how far back into your toddler years you remember, and the 90s was an embarrassing parade of all the bedazzled memorabilia of our childhood, the 21^st century series is an “in case you forgot” play by play of current events. So what was it that drew us into the pop culture explosion of products and events that we had already lived to see? Not nostalgia, not history. For me it was the underlying truth to the outlandish statements of the commenters. This goes back to my profession of love to John Stewart. The only way to survive this over stimulated, opinionated, babies-laughing-are-controversial 21st century is humor. It may be an avoidance tactic to buy more time before having to think about real issues like an economy slipping silently into a recession or being on the brink of make-or-break-the-state-of-the-union election in a few months, but why is that so bad? I watch and listen to enough vh1 clip shows and stand up and comedy central and last comic standing to see the humor in pop culture and newsmakers today. I don't think it makes the nature of things lose importance, but gives things a spoonful of sugar twist of Mary Poppins, helps it go down easier, puts things in perspective. News is not so end-of-the-world scary and LA starlet aren't so this-is-the-state-of-our-youth when you can laugh at them and be happy that your life does not involve paparazzi or Ann Coulter. If you listen to right comedians, they actually have great brush-your-shoulders-off views of America. Ellen has taught the world that sometimes all you can do is dance. And THAT is the greatest message of all.

Woodstock 08

2008-07-12T23:25:00.000-05:00

I spent the last 5 days trying to wrap my mind around the lack of red, white, and blue of my 4th of July and readjusting to civilized life after getting back from Rothbury, MI for the 1st annual Rothbury music festival. Finally the music gods opened their ears and their hearts to Boutit and my pleas for a Michigan music festival. The only glitch in my almost flawless weekend was that Doc and I spent so much of our time trying to figure out how to put this experience into words when we got back (mostly for that sake of helping Boutit visualize and embrace the hippie music and lifestylez.)

Me and this whole festival thing didn't get off on the right foot Friday morning. After a thunderstorm Thursday, I drove our rented Honda Element right into a deep mud puddle in the middle of the camp grounds Friday. This initial glitch turned out to be my first encounter of the other kind. Hippies. Out of the tents and canopies around the car came 10 or 15 people ready to push and pull the car out of the muck. Refusing to give up and make us pay $60 for a tow truck, they would not give up. Someone drove up with their 4 wheel drive SUV, another took the heavy duty rope from his hammock, and yet another guy brought a shovel over from his fire pit. They pulled us out of the mud and onto the grass hours before the tow truck arrived. We all sat down for a celebratory beer in the hammock. I was in awe of the stereotypes that were destroyed in that one hour before I even had time to put on my tie dye skirt.

Another stereotype that you can throw out with yesterdays cat litter. They aren't lazy. See aforementioned Element of mud tale, as well as the plethora of washboard stomaches of the shirtless dudes (NOT that I was looking Doc. Nope.), and the fact that these people waste no time sleeping in or lying around where there is music and dancing to be had. When the sun shines in the tent at 9am and the car next to you turns up Umphrey's McGee at 9:30 you really have no choice but to escape the sauna that your tent has become and venture out for some clean drinking water. There is yoga every morning at 9 and 11 and the turn out was always larger than any class I've been to. The whole scene was so normal and inspiring that I actually got Doc to join me for a class on Sunday (but I had to promise not to take any photographic evidence of his practice). After a morning of walking the 2,000 acre grounds, swimming in the dangerously murky lake, and shopping amongst the tie dyed vendors, its time for the music to begin and the crowds don't seem to cease or even thin until well into sunrise the next morning. With this schedule, a person has got to be in top physical condition to dance for 12 hours straight. No slacker hippies here. Here's a shot of one of the yoga classes at 9am:

The crowds are broken into a few general groups. There are the people like me and Doc and the boys that will go back to Chicago/Detroit at the end of the weekend to our 9 to 5 jobs and wish the rest of the world could be as carefree and happy as this little commune of music. Then there are the hippies for life, the original Deadheads here to see Phil Lesh at Sunday's headliner show. They are distinguishable by their knee length dreads showing years of care and bees wax and the baby carrier on their backs. They are getting older, starting another generation of flower babies and music lovers as they tot their tots around the grounds. As awesome as it is that they are educating their kids to timeless revolutionary music, it was still a little weird to be drunk dancing around a 4 year old and knowing the kinds of drugs most of the crowds were on. Then there are the groupies that spend the summer festival hopping. You can pick these people out by their cardboard signs looking for a ride to the All Good festival and wearing their Bonnaroo 08 shirt. These are the ones that perplexed me to no end. Their looks fall somewhere between the dread locked hippies and the weekend warriors like myself. But what do they do for a living? What do they do that they can take the summer off and can afford the $200-300 tickets and gas and food money. My best best is temp jobs in the winter and Doc was probably close by saying they make their money working at ski shops at resorts in the Rockies and snowboarding contests. Must be nice. Here is a picture of a next generation Dead head at the Phil Lesh show and a true Deadhead with his Grateful Dead tattoos.

After getting over the lack of showers and required strong stomach to use the pot-o-potties, I started to embrace the camping and generally dirtiness of the experience. When 45% of the population has knots for hair and its acceptable for people to walk around with nothing but body paint on, I stopped putting any effort into what I looked like. Letting myself go like that without a care made me realize just how much of my regular day is dedicated to personal maintenance. I was ready to throw my razor and lotions away when I got back to Chicago until I realized just HOW dirty I was, or more so, how clean everyone else was. I had dirt still caked on my feet from trying to get the car unstuck 3 days ago and Doc's sweat was actually starting to smell like herb...

I actually forgot it was even the 4th of July until the fireworks started going off at the end of the Widespread Panic show Friday night. Other then the odd red, white, and blue bandanna, there was no American Pride. And it was refreshing. Instead of making sure everyone knows your pride by the color of your star spangled shorts, we got together to celebrate our country for the peace, the love, the music. No need for outlandish confederate flags or singing of the national anthem. We not only celebrated America, but also the music from all over the world that shaped the rock revolution of our time and of times before us.

The Roth Lineup

2008-07-11T01:55:00.004-05:00

I didn't want to overwhelm you with one huge post, so I split it between the music and the culture of the festival. Here is my play by play of who I saw over 4 days.

Thursday - After an excruciating 8 hour drive from Chicago, stuck in Indiana traffic for 3 hours, we finally arrived around 8pm. Checked out Disco Biscuits and Railroad Earth after we set up camp in the open 750 acre field of cars and tents.

Friday - After a late start on Friday after the stuck car incident, we checked out the last half of Snoop, who was both totally out of place and at the same time right at home with the pot smoking, life loving people of Rothbury. Snoop was followed by Keller Williams who proudly announced between songs "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULY!", 311, and Modest Mouse who closed their set with "Float On". The Friday night headliner was Widespread Panic, a jam band who's jamming status is only surpassed by the legacy of Phish. We weaved in an out of the crowd to get as close as possible for the show. This was the reason Doc was here, his favorite band that he had yet to see live. We made 2nd row. Another sign of the great positive vibe of the crowd was the lack of pushing and jumping as people push towards the front. We made friends with everyone around us and even the security guy guarding the stage. The band was accompanied by an incredible violist Ann Marie Calhoun. She couldn't have been much older than 30 and was a great contrast to the old rockers of Panic.

Saturday - Saturday was MY day, the day of all the bands I know and love. The day started with a solid set by State Radio, Chad from Dispatch's new band. He's got a great sound, intertwining reggae and rock without losing the tribal bongos sound of Dispatch. We made friends with some fellow frisbee players and threw the disc around in the massive field while Chad played. Good chill start to the day. We needed the relax before the next line of shows. State Radio was followed by Gomez. Anyone that knows me knows that I love this band more than most. They don't have a huge US following and are a slightly older band but none the less they had a great time on stage for their small yet supportive crowd. I swear Ben looked right at me and smiled. I also learned that they are in Chicago for the summer recording their new album. My next mission will be to get into the studio!! Citizen Cope was after Gomez, followed by the much anticipated Black Keys show. Next was Derek Trucks and his wife Susan Tedesechi, who played an awesome version of Hey Jude for us. I fell in love with her voice forever and ever during this song. The Saturday headliner was Dave Matthews. Despite the preppy connotation with the band in Oakland County, I was psyched to see him for the first time. And he does not disappoint. He played classics like Jimi Thing, Gravedigger, and Satellite. He had dance moves to die for. And one of the best encore songs ever. Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You" with more sick dance moves.

After heading back to the camp site to rest and pull myself back together, we headed back into the festival for the late night shows. Little did I know the place transforms into a psychedelic glow in the dark night tripper party after the headliner is done. It was like Girl Talk meets Radiohead on ecstacy. At first I was ready to turn right around and climb into my sleeping bag away from all the crazy drugged out people of the night. But Doc assured me these were all the same people I was dancing with at the Dave show, just more pink and green lights illuminating them. I trusted his word and took his hand into the crowds of the STS9 show. But as I got used to the pulse and skat beats of the music I started to realize these people really were not on a bad trip and going to start licking my hair or anything, they were just still on a high from the music of the day and aren't ready for it to end. My tiredness slipped away as I watch people let the music take over where their bodies left off. We walked through the trees (which went on a trip of their own after dark. Nothing will ever really describe the Sherwood forest, and I don't plan on attempting) to see Crystal Method as well. We walked and sat and listened and watched until 4am when tired finally caught up to me and we called it a night. But the party continued for an uncountable number of hours after.

Sunday - Sunday morning brought bright new shiny things. The first was a new yogi when I took Doc to his first yoga class. The other new was something I was really hoping to take away from this week, a new band! We started our last day in paradise by checking out JJ Grey & Mofro. I fell in love with their head boppin soul tinglin swamp funk rock. You can feel the New Orleans roots and the smoky vocals remind me of The Wood Brothers. I cannot wait for July 26th when they play again block from my apartment at the Taste of Lincoln. God don't you love that feeling when you find a new sound?! ANYways, after JJ and Mofro we stopped by to see a few minutes of Beth Orton, then headed over to see Trey Anastasio on stage for the first time in 2 years, after taking some time to get through rehab after the finale of Phish. With just him and his guitar, you could see a calm in his sound and presence after the epic run of Phish. I left Doc and the boys with Gov't Mule (I sadly missed one of my favorite songs "Soulshine") and headed over for some girlie time with John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston. In between radio acoustic lullabies he played some of his blues jams. I love that John Mayer keeps his blues side a secret even though he was born to play at Kingston Mines with the best of them. After John was the headliner for the night, Phil Lesh from the Grateful Dead. I wish I had more insightful comments about Phil Lesh, but I don't know much about the Grateful Dead. But I do know I danced and moved with the music into the end of the weekend.

The whole experience was like living inside your iPod on shuffle. It's amazing the giddy feeling you get when you realize you are part of something so centered around music. Knowing that 45,000 people traveled to this small town in Michigan for the same goal of soaking themselves in music for 4 days, and seeing that nothing could bring us down off this musical high, makes the butterflies in my stomach start dancing. I now know what music feels like.

Running down a Dream

2008-06-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

After months of enough darkness and snow and ice to make any person turn into a couch potato, I needed something to inspire me to put my running shoes back on and lose the winter blubber that is building around my waist. If running down Lake Shore Dr on the beach towards that beautiful skyline isn’t enough to get me back on the exercising wagon, than this story inspired me to, not only start running again, but to never stop so I can be this amazing and strong at 61 years old. Rosie Swale-Pope just finished her run around the world, which lasted almost 4 years. Induced by the death and grief of her husband’s death, she ran across Europe into Russia, spent two mind freezing winters in Siberia, made it across the Northern Pacific to Alaska, through Canada eh? Across the US, Greenland, Iceland, and back to the Motherland of England.

If that isn’t enough to get you into your running shoes, then maybe some rockin new music will. When I was in middle school we used to warm up for our volleyball and basketball games to the Jock Jams megamix. What better way to get ready to rumble! And ride that train into a victory than with 80s and 90s one hit wonders?! Safe to say the beats and songs that get me into a good workout mindset has improved since 7th grade. My running playlist has grown over the years, but keeps to the same path. Danger Mouse, Jay Z, Gnarls Barkley, Girl Talk, and an assortment of other mixes and mash ups by the Hood Internet thanks to DJ Boutit JL. Well this list has become so overworked and unpaid that it was losing it’s magically ability to make me run 5 miles. But without fail, Girl Talk stepped in to brighten my day and fill my head with new beats and samples. His new album, Feed the Animals, was just what I needed to put some new blood into my ol’ faithful playlist.

Always the innovator, Girl Talk used the same name-your-price pricing as Radiohead for their In Rainbows album. And since Bono says its “courageous and innovative” then it MUST be! But in all seriousness I have mixed feelings about this. The business side of my brain wonders about the economics of the pricing but then again perhaps it shows how little $$ the artist makes off album sales in the first place, if they can let their fans buy the album for free without forcing RIAA intervention. And the music-is-food-for-the-soul-and-the-fans-are-the-meat side of my brain thinks it is awesome to allow the fans to be involved in the process of the success of the band. It seems like a way to show the band allegiance or view of them, through how much money one is will to part with for the sake of the bands music. I paid the $10 partly out of guilt and partly out of the hope that my $10 will go towards Girl Talk’s tour to Chicago again. Where I will still inevitably pay up to $50 for a ticket. Circle of life baby.

Extreme Room Makeover

2008-06-24T14:24:00.003-05:00

In the extreme highs and lows of moving into a new apartment (see “Apartment Search in three parts”) there is always that glimmer of success at the end of the grueling search and move; decorating.

I moved into my apartment almost 2 months ago and still I stare at blank walls at night. Although, thanks to my roommate’s creative talent (you will see her work showcased at the Lincoln Park art fair in September!) our kitchen and living room look put together and cozy with her painting on the wall and color coordinating rugs and furniture. But my room has become somewhat of a burden with its eggshell bare walls and exposed holes in the plaster from the last resident. The task of decorating my room has become so daunting that my brain hurts if I look at paint samples on the Sherwin-Williams website too long and have had to stop myself from surfing the pages and pages of decorating ideas on HGTV.com.

In the past 5 years I have changed rooms so many times, it always seemed like more work then it was worth to paint it any color other then the off white it came with. I found various ways to cover it, with magazine cut outs and posters, but never a permanent stamp of life. After I moved out of my home in RO, one tearful trip home showed me that my bedroom had become a guest room with a splash of my childhood in the pictures and MSU decals scattered around. I have accepted that that will forever be my room and my home, but it was finally time to create my own safe haven. I have loved the fact that my life in the past 5 years has taken me to so many different places that I haven’t had time to settle down with a bedroom long enough to call it my own. I would have it no other way. But now that I am starting to settle my life (as settled as a 23 year old who isn’t ready to settle can be.) I am ready to start this next step in the confines of a room that mirrors myself and my potential.

So with all that said, you can understand the stress of trying to plan a room around such lofty expectations and desires. I want something bright and colorful, I want lots of art and pictures on the walls, I want lamps and pillows. Lamps and pillows are easy when you are a constant fixture in the clearance apartment section of Urban Outfitters. Art.com and the gift shop of the Chicago Museum of Art will be perfect for my Andy Warhol prints and Beatles posters. But the color of the room has become the biggest decision. My favorite color is purple and I would love to finally have that color coat all the walls around me. But unfortunately the confines of practicality limit my limitless dream of the perfect room. What about when I DO have to move in 2 years, how many hundreds of coats of paint is it going to take to cover that lovely deep velvet purple? I have to run my paint choice by my landlord as well. And, although she is a great 30 year old that I know would embrace the boldness, I am still hesitant to ask. My biggest problem with color choices is that I have no idea what I am going to get until the room is done. I might pick some dramatic eggplant purple that I would love if I saw on a dress, but then after I see 6 gallons of it on my wall, might lose myself in the Harlequin brothel of it all (which is debatable whether that is a good or bad thing…..)

I found this handy little application on Behr.com to help people like me that need a visual before I will commit to anything. Its called Color Smart and for $4.95/year (which I will promptly cancel after using) you can upload a picture of your room and preview what colors will look like against your funiture and bedspread. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but when I inevitably do, I will let you know how it goes. It could be just what I need to help me commit to a colorful future. (I should be getting a commission from Behr for this!)

Hot fun, Summer in the City

2008-06-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

This hot fun, summer in the city has become the greatest writer’s block. I moved into a new apartment in a new neighborhood with a new roommate in May. Since then I have been bar crawling to all the new watering holes around my corner, getting the cultural taste of the city with the Rib fest, Blues fest, Belmont Fest, (attempting to) play beach volleyball with the rest of the Chicago Sports and Socialites, settling into the patios of restaurants all over the city, and generally enjoying the lack of wintery freeze coating Chicago. I don’t find much time to relax with my glossy magazines and blogs like I used to. But after catching up with Boutit’s all-things-music blog and a little life changing decision of my own, I’m back (yet again).

Vinyl Revival Revising (Say that 5 times fast)

2008-03-10T21:25:00.003-05:00

As part of the writing workshop I am in right now, I decided to dive a little deeper into a topic I touched on last year.

Its all just a little bit of history repeating.

I fell upon an incense-filled, Marley-shirt stocked, dusty, musty record shop in Wicker Park the other day. I went in and perused the colorful glass-blown display case ornaments, smelled the Lavender Dreams incense, and wondered what my hypothetical child would look like in a Janis Joplin onezie. I ogled over old Beatles live albums. I filed through rows and rows of The Wailers, Floyd, Zeppelin, Clapton, The Stones, and all variations of 1960s nostalgia. Then I came upon The Shins, Radiohead, The White Stripes, and an array of current indie rock bands. After initially pinching myself to ensure that I was not lost in a space/time continuum, I learned from the store owner that many bands today are recording onto vinyl. According to John Sepulvado from NPR, sales of new vinyl records are closing in on $1 million and there has been a spike in used vinyl sales as well. Where is this increased distribution coming from? I initially just thought this was a Wicker Park trend to buy records because retro and hippie chic is so hot right now. But there are a slew of reasons for the sales insurgence in today’s culture, each one varies with music lovers varying lifestyles and passions.

The sale of 7” vinyl singles has gone up in the last few years, due in part to the growing popularity of DJ mixing. The singles are the perfect size and length to mix hip hop beats with indie pop and techno songs. Why not modern up Sly and the Family Stone with Beck and his two turntables and a microphone? There are no anti-piracy laws to stop mix enthusiasts from tweaking a song to create their own sound with the help of Otis Redding. The pops and hisses of the vinyl on the turntable give the sound more character as well.

Another reason for the vinyl revival is the physicality of the product; there are still people out there that want a hard copy of albums. As the media industry becomes increasing digital, people are still looking for something they can hold in they hands, something to show off at a dinner party. Even the act of scratching a record on a turntable can be more fulfilling than sitting in front of your Mac digitally creating a sound. Plus, digital downloads of songs and albums have taken away from the importance of album cover art. The 1”x1” pixels on the iTunes Store screen doesn’t evoke the same emotions that a 12”x12” cardboard canvas does. In the past, the cover art was part of the feel of the album, meant to evoke certain emotions and supplement the story that the music told. The story behind the iconic Abbey Road cover, the Fab Four walking away from the Abbey Road Studio, is symbolic of the end of the Beatles’ pop culture reign. The memories of that era go hand in hand with the album cover.

If the industry continues to support the vinyl medium, and as digital continues to change the future of the industry, the need for CDs may become extinct. Most people download CDs to their computer and lose the CD in piles of old software discs and user manuals. Vinyl records may push CDs into extinction. Records give the user a better sense of the music it holds with the grooves in the vinyl. CDs, with the sterile indestructible material, are less connected to the listener. Even the wear and tear of the vinyl record can bring back memories that CDs can’t. How often do you hear Sympathy for the Devil on 97.9 and sing along, sounding like a broken record because your old album always used to skip at “pleased to meet you meet you meet you”?

New indie bands today are expanding their fan base and distribution by recording their albums on vinyl and selling to specialty record shops. As a classic rock junkie sift through the records, looking for a lost copy of Kansas’ Leftoverture that, last he remembers, was spinning in Chazz’s turntable in 1975. As he looks he comes across Kings of Leon Because of the Times. He had heard the band toured with Dylan once and decides that if Dylan can vouch for them, they must be worth a listen. By sticking current albums in amongst these music legends, new bands are increasing their credibility among the rock gods true critics; their loyal fans.

But how has vinyl kept from falling to the same fate as CDs to digital music? It’s about more than the surface of the material or the industry. It’s the sound, the time, the story, the scene, the act. Its about sitting down in your room after standing in front of your shelves of records trying to decide the perfect one to fit the mood you are in, or the mood you want to be in, because you know the perfect key to your inner self is tucked somewhere amongst these pillars of albums. It’s about sitting down in your overstuffed La-Z-Boy that has made every move with you since college. It’s about pulling the lid off your old turntable. It’s about hearing the pop and spin as needle hits vinyl and the record takes off. It’s about not leaving the room, consciously allowing the music to take over your time and thoughts. You may read, you may write, you may smoke, you make drink while listening. But every action is changed because you are sharing the room with the sound. You can’t leave it. You don’t want to leave it. It’s about the need that the turntable has for you, the help it elicits from you when it needs the record to be flip before it can go on. Neither of you will be satisfied until the music starts again. It’s about not just putting your 10,000 song MP3 player on shuffle and going about your day with a subconscious buzz as songs wiz past you. It’s about not missing a beat. It’s about the experience the artist intended you to have while listening to the sound they created just for you, just for your mood, just for your moment in your room.

Part 3: The Battle

2008-03-10T21:23:00.002-05:00

Now that you have your platform for your search, its time to start looking. Its important to go to war with a battle plan. Determine what you must have in your apartment and what you don’t mind living without. Location, closet space, a spot for the liter box, room sizes, view, patio, elevator, street noise. Roommate and I decided to weigh some parts more heavily than others. We knew we wanted to live in Lincoln Park. It would cut my commute to work in half and you can’t ignore the bar scene. I wanted something close to DePaul as I wrestle with the idea of going back to school in the fall. We avoided the word “vintage” for fear that it would bring us back to those unbuffed floors. We looked for places with some exposed brick or fireplaces to give the place some character. We both like have people over so wanted to have room for all our overstuffed couches so visitors don’t have to sit side by side or on the floor. We decided we could sacrifice bedroom size for living room size. Roommate loves to cook so we needed more than a hot plate and microwave for the kitchen. And for the sanity of my cat, I wanted to have a place where she could look out the window to the street or some trees, not a brick wall. So now we had our stratego.

The actual viewing of potential apartments is a roller coaster ride. Ups and downs as you walk into every apartment. You walk down the street in the perfect location into an apartment the size of your freshman year dorm room and smelling similarly of a certain herbal essence; and nobody wants to go back to that a second time, no matter how close to North Ave Beach it is. Others reel you in with the rustic charm of a fireplace and wood rafters, but when you open the blinds to find you’re sharing in an intimate moment with the couple in the building across from you. My impressionable cat does not need to sit at the window all day long and learn the more complicated Karma Sutra positions. But when you find that place that you can picture yourself cuddle up on your couch in or cooking dinner, pounce. The Chicago rental market is a place comparable to the wilds of the jungle. Only the strong survive. I was thrust into a situation for which I was not prepared when I moved here. I went to see my very first Chicago apartment and it was perfect. Yet at the time I though that since this first place is so awesome, they must all be like this. I sat on the application for a day and looked at other places, which was mistake number one. If you have even a small feeling that you may like the place, splurge on the $25 application fee and fill one out. My second mistake was sending in my application through snail mail. Always take it directly to the management office; whichever application gets into their hands first, wins. This is a sprint, not a marathon.

A closing tale: Roommate and I walked into a building on Clark at Fullerton, followed close by two other interested parties. I can see it now;. The landlord triple booked us and is going to force a “last man standing” cage fight in the apartment. Winner gets the lease. I curse myself for not coming prepared with my brass knuckles. Thank God for pepper spray. We walked through the decrepit halls of the building with a landlord that looked oddly like Crazy Eyes from Mr. Deeds. The dark hall smells like someone made a ramen noodle-and-beer stew and poured it into the carpet fibers. We are both almost ready to bail before even reaching the apartment when Crazy Eyes opens the door into a clean, sunny, open living room with freshly stained wood floors. A kitchen with a dishwasher, two carpeted bedrooms, two marbled bathrooms, two walk in closets, rooftop access with a view of downtown, a fireplace, a goddamn dishwasher! I had to touch the white washed walls to ensure this wasn’t a mirage. Roommate and I gave one knowing look at each other. We had to have it. Who cares that it was a 20 min walk to the El? Who cares that the bar Neo’s was in the basement of the building? Who cares about the pub stew soiled halls? Who cared about Crazy Eyes’ weird eye that’s hovering over us as we excitedly whispered in the corner? The stark contrast from the ramshackled halls to the perfectly manicured apartment made us forget about all the elements we had previously discussed in detail and ranked in importance. In a situation when the other competitors are standing face to face with you in the ring, it’s important to plan surprise attacks. We couldn’t let the other people looking at the place know that we wanted it for fear they may snag the place from under our nose, believing that we saw something they had overlooked. It was a delicate situation. I am no good at delicate situations. In my frenzied excitement I blurted out that we wanted to put in an application as soon as possible. The others quickly followed. The first to have their application in and accepted would get the apartment. It was out of our hands now.

Serendipity hit us on the head when went to see another place while wait to hear back from Crazy Eyes. Emotionally exhausted and determined to sign a lease that day, we went to see one last place. A privately owned condo by a woman that moved to Arizona and has been unable to sell her place with the unspoken recession brimming. We were still delirious over the last apartment and, in a haze, did not realize our ideal location at the intersection of Fullerton, Halsted, and Lincoln. As proud Michigan State alumni, we were only steps from John Barleycorn and O’Malley’s. 2 block from DePaul, my future alma mater, and a quick walk to the Fullerton El stop. We walked into the apartment. Newly remodeled kitchen with marble counters and a breakfast bar, the holy dishwasher, and counter space for Roommate’s next culinary creation. An open living room with a brick fireplace and view out to the street, with room for all our couches. Two bedrooms and two bathrooms with no need to share a bathroom. The largest closets I have ever seen. It was perfect. Location and all. Thoughts of Crazy Eyes drifted from our heads as we heard the rent was cheaper and included utilities. And a bonus we didn’t even know existed in the city. A free parking spot. We proposed a two year lease to seal the deal and we were home.

Some final words of wisdom when you’re losing hope and your eyes hurt from scrolling through Craig’s List posting for 3 hours, from the almighty Steve Perry, don’t stop believe.

Part 2: A Map

2008-03-10T19:54:00.004-05:00

There are two ways to approach the enormous task of narrowing down the bulging real estate market to what you are looking for: 1) Craig’s List 2) Apartment Finders. Here is my evaluation of each:

1) www.chicago.craigslist.org is the cornerstone of free classified ads. I used it when I was trying to find someone to sublease my apartment in Cleveland when I moved. It’s free and well known among the grad students at John Carroll, so after diligently showing my place for about 2 months, I found someone to take over my lease so I could move forward with my glamorous accountant life in Chicago. Subleasing is usually more beneficial for the subleasee. I was so desperate to find someone so I could start my new job in Chicago that I lowered the rent and paid the difference. I got the better end of the deal when I looked on Craig’s List in Chicago and found someone looking to sublease for far less than the going rate a mere hop, skip, and jump away from Wrigley Field.

Craig’s List search filters let you narrow down the hundreds of listing into what you are looking for. How many bedrooms? What neighborhood? Got pets? What’s your price range? And the all important picture included. I never give ads a second look if they don’t have a picture of the place posted. Red flags should go up when a blank screen is more appealing that the apartment itself.

I look to Craig’s List to avoid realtors. I feel better working with condo owners or individuals that own one or two buildings. More flexible, less paperwork. I learned to go through the lease with a fine tooth comb when signing a lease with an individual to watch for loopholes. It can be much smoother and convenient when you and the owner can agree on terms and conditions. Plus you don’t have to listen to realtor’s song of selling.

2) There is a great market for apartment finding services in Chicago. With the abundance of real estate in every shape and size, it’s always less stressful to have a professional on your side, and for free! That what I thought when I walked into the Chicago Apartment Finders and Apartment People offices. But when the agent was the same age as me, I knew I wasn’t going to get much more than an entry-level realtor. I used these companies when I was looking for an apartment for myself and cat only. I told them what I was looking for and saw 10 apartments (5 with each company). Behind all these doors were the same small square rooms with floors that looked they had never seen a buffer. When I said I wanted vintage, something with character, I thought I was eliminating the modern dorm-style high rises; instead I got the city’s equivalent of Annie Wilkes’s cottage in Misery. I felt counter productive when I found myself walking into the same building twice. Once with Apartment Finders and again with Apartment People. Most management companies and landlords will try to rent their apartments through a realtor or themselves (on Craig’s List) and the small apartments that are left, the ones with the view of someone’s bathroom window, they hand off to these apartment finding services to try to sell. It’s the garage sale of the real estate market; one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. I love a good estate sale, but I don’t want to spend 4 hours of my day in a car with a stranger driving around to bottom of the barrel apartments. Again I stress that I know my apartment search could be easy if I settle for practical and livable. But again, I don’t know want livable, I want a lifestyle. So when the roommate and I began our search again, we vowed not to look at 20 bad apartments before we settled on one, which eliminated using the service at all

Part 1: to pack up or not to pack up

2008-03-10T19:53:00.002-05:00

The first step is to weigh the burden of your current apartment. How bad is it? How loud are the neighbors? How often does your landlord ignore your voicemails about the suspiciously large mouse hole in the bathroom? How much longer can you risk waiting to see if the squeaky floorboards in the apartment above you are going to give out under the weight of your neighbors’ waterbed and come falling through your ceiling? Now estimate the manpower required to pack up your stuff (including that couch that you’re not really sure how you got into your apartment in the first place). If the effort of the search and move is worth it to escape your current living situation (or if your just looking for a different view out your window), then its time to start looking. For some, this decision is forced upon them when your roommate and her boyfriend decide to legalize what they’ve been doing under your roof for a year and get married, leaving you with the decision to either pay $2000/month on your own, or find another place to live. For me, the decision came when I got my first winter gas bill. I live alone right now (unless you count my cat) and there was no way I was going to go another winter paying $200 bills on my own. So I reeled in a friend to live with me and now we begin the search.

A real estate adventure in 3 parts

2008-03-10T19:47:00.003-05:00

Apartment rental season is in the air. You can almost smell the U-Haul exhaust; hear the realtors’ Blackberries constant buzzing; see the daily growth of Craig’s List postings.

I have become a self-deemed expert at apartment searching. In the past 12 months I have moved to 3 different cities in 3 different states, rented 2 apartments, have been a subleaser and a subleasee. I have seen every type of apartment and meet every type of realtor and landlord in the Midwest. I am burnt out on the apartment search. This time around, it’s for good. After the lease is up on my Wrigleyville 1 bedroom apartment with its view of the Lakeview post office truck lot and curry-smelling stairwells, I am going to find the perfect apartment and settle in for the long haul. At this point in my life, with everything going for me, the world as my playing field, endless possibilities for the future, reaching for the stars; my only true dream is to renew a lease for another year and never go through this Satanic game of cat and mouse with realtors again.

So let me lead you on this adventure through the Chicago rental real estate labyrinth.

I will preface my lesson by saying that I may get slightly more emotionally involved with my apartment search than is necessary. The eternal optimist that I am, a genetic curse from my overly supportive father, believes that true love is out there, true housing love. As I keep up the string of complaints with the rest of the rental community over having to walk through 15 seedy apartments before finding an acceptable abode and having to pack up all my worldly belongings yet again, I still get a small adrenaline rush over the prospect of what I could find behind each apartment door I come to during this year’s apartment search. Could this be the door that holds my downtown view? My spiral staircase? My fireplace? My exposed brick? My 10 minute commute to work? My 2 block walk to both the beach and the el? My gut-rehab warehouse loft with vaulted ceilings and floor to ceiling windows? My dishwasher?? Anything is possible in the real estate world. I realize that the whole process would be less emotionally draining if I settle for a moderate size and price and neighborhood. But I have trouble accepting defeat against my dream home.

3 for the price of 1!

2008-02-04T19:05:00.001-05:00

Today is a "3-topics-for-the-price-of-one" day.

The best $2.99 I have spent in the last month was to add Tetris to my phone. Because my brain is not awake during the morning commute to read my book and I don't have the hand-eye coordination to wrangling the Red Eye paper into a readable origami shape without giving 4 people around me paper cuts and because during the evening commute my brain is hungover from staring at spreadsheets on the computer all day, I play Tetris to and from work. I thought I was a genius for reintroducing this game back into my life to pass the time on the train. Until one day, as I was ogling over the junior analyst broker next to me's new LG voyager phone, I noticed that he was playing Tetris too! And the advertising chick a row over was playing Pacman. And..... is that Frogger?? We are bringing sexy back into these games. Because of the popular obsession with everything at the palm of our hands, it has created a gateway back into the early 80's when these games ruled the fledging gaming industry. They are convenient to play on the go, easy to win during the half hour commute, and with simple programming they don't take up much space, leaving ample room to fill up our iPhones and Blackberry's with the new

I'm all about small talk. It gets me through many long afternoons at my boss's desk, and sitting at the bar at Jake Melnick's before the happy hour rush. But I always knew that when a conversation was veering towards the weather, you were getting dangerously close to the awkward silence before you start talking about American Idol, which you don't even watch. But lately, the weather has been as exciting as the primaries, and just as yo-yo-esque as well. It has become a serious topic of discussion as we all turn into meteorologists with our theories on why the 10 inches of snow melted before we woke up the next morning and lament a simpler time when winter was distinguishable from spring, when there were no 50 degree days at the beginning of the new year to tease you into believe that global warming had kicked mother earth into early menopause.

And I have to do this just because I have to. My Super Bowl ad picks:

Bridgestone Tire Super Bowl Commercial: Squirrel vs Car

eTrade Super Bowl Commercial: Talking Baby Rents a Clown

Coca Cola Super BOwl Commercial: Parade Balloon

Tide-to-Go Superbowl Commercial, My Talking Stain Ad

Pepsi Stuff Super Bowl Commercial: Justin Timberlake

I was there

2008-02-02T16:59:00.001-05:00

I couldn't help but share this.

Surely They are Witches

2008-01-14T20:41:00.000-05:00

I have a very unhealthy relationship with Jon Stewart, according to any credible news source, because I take everything he says to heart as my own and none of it with a grain of salt. I giggle like a school girl when he laughs at his own jokes and mirror his dumbfounded looks as Bush tells us that Kazakhstan is a threat to world peace. At this new job I have actual work to do (not pleasant, not my first choice, not worth it - I don't want to come across as pretentious.) so I don't have as much time to peruse the NY Times headlines as I used to in OH-IO. I still need to have some idea of current events if I wish to continue to bash them. So I need it quick and I need it to maintain my attention away from Friends reruns and Janice Dickerson's Modeling Agency. So I have become completely obsessed with The Daily Show (A Daily Show until the writers strike ends). I've always tried to catch a bit here and there but now I have to get home by 7pm everyday to see Jon scribbling all over his note cards. This has also made it hard to keep my mad crush on him under wraps when I have a smile slapped on my face for the whole half hour. (I have watched this clip ten times already and still laugh at the idea of CNN broadcasting from Circuit City)

I know in the back of my head that there is controversy around reckless Gen Yers like me getting our news from a self proclaimed "nightly half-hour series unburdened by objectivity, journalistic integrity or even accuracy." But I can't pull myself away from the brutally honest humor in it.

I just started reading The Emperor's Children (Ok that was the first time I've read that review and it pretty much gave away half the book. Awesome.) and within the first 50 pages it mentions a character doing a documentary on "the current wave of satirical press and its role in shaping opinion...the blurring of left and right politics in contrarianism. People who aren't for anything, just against everything."

So I looked deep inside my cynical self to understand why I see Jon Stewart as my generation's Tom Brokaw. Due to the fact that Jon bashes both conservatives and liberals, I see this as a subjective view on the news. And why can't my news have some humor? Doesn't it make fact that we can no longer say we are the "greatest nation in the world" without some ignorance just a little bit more bearable? It does for me. I'm not using any type of official statistics here but it seem that as things spiral downward for G.Bush, the popularity of shows like the Daily Show and the Colbert Report seem to rise. People are looking for the silver lining in the political turmoil that we are becoming accustomed to. The most literal reason I watch his show is because politics are, in reality, one big joke. I can't help but feel more fulfilled by my own life when I listen to politicians rambling on about nonsense world peace and "change". When Jon Stewart is running a spoof on Lobbyist reforms, I feel like me and 1.4 million other viewers are in on a joke that Congress just can't go deep enough to see. Campaigns are more staged than a Britney headline. And more red ties and pant suits than a meeting of the Brooks Brothers board of directors. How can American's relate to whats going on on top of the hill, how The Suits are running things around here, when most politicians are starting to look like Pinocchio. Maybe Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert bring out the real boy in them...

I believe you have my stapler

2008-01-10T12:53:00.000-05:00

There are only so many ways to spice up the benign décor of an office cube. I work for an office furniture dealer. Our business is making offices looks welcoming and trendy and colorful and yet still I stare at sand colored panels and granite colored desk tops all day. I want the people around me to know that I won’t settle for bland; I am not a bland person. I want color, I want humor, I want life. But even though my apartment is straight out of the clearance section of Urban Outfitters apartment dept, I have trouble reconstructing that cozy colorful chic in my corporate cave. While most of the women in the office have no trouble letting everyone know that their children and grand children are the apples of their eye as they use all available thumb tacks to plaster their cubes with baby pictures and wedding announcements and Anne Geddes calendars, I (HAPPILY) cannot use the same theme. So instead I’ve got a tasteful array of pictures. One of the fam, one of Zoey, one of the Ann St conquistadors, one of Doc and I at Lollapalooza (to show that no, I am not a directionless downtown spinster, yet I am still young and carefree and love music festivals more than a ring on my finger). But its just not enough. It still looks like any other employee cube trying to prove that they have a life outside of the office.

But since I am not going to spend $10 on a “Drab to Fab!” DIY office cube decorating book (Who IS buying this book? What office would let an employee decorate their cube in animal fur and bamboo?? I’m going to say probably not PETA) I still have to resort to pieces of me (and Ashlee Simpson) around my area. So I’ve taken to going to great lengths to find an appropriate yet thought provoking and eye catching background for my computer. No standard Windows XP “bliss” rolling green hills for me.

First was a painting made by a 4 year old "prodigy/fraud" named Marla Olmstead. It was only a matter of time before someone tried to exploit the simple, superficial view of abstract art. The idea behind the documentary was that these parents are trying to sell their 4 year old daughter's finger painting as masterpieces from the prodigy of Picasso. I am slightly torn with this argument. On one hand, I have always been a supporter of "everything is art" and anyone can create beauty in their own eyes and who are we to disagree? But this story seems to teeter on parents trying to cash in on the gray area of abstract art. Personally, I love exploring the Contemporary Art Museum, not for the art itself, but for what is behind the art, what the artist saw in it. And something tells me this cute little Marla was not thinking about starting a revolution or a new dimension of the mind with her paintbrush and cute little bob haircut. So even though I have to agree with the skeptics on this one, the art is still colorful and fun and has a cool and controversial story behind it so I used her as the splash of color and creativity my cube needed.

So now its time to mix things up for the next honored piece of art to be showcased in my 8x8 number-crunching platform. Erin showed me this awesome toolbar feature called Stumble Upon. Its a button that gets added to your toolbar that takes to you any thousands of random websites to explore. When you download it, it asks what your interested in and tunes into what you want to read about. I chose art and photography as one of my interests so when i click my little "stumble upon" button during a slow Friday afternoon at work, I usually find myself at photographers websites. I would spend too much of company time staring at photos of commonplace items brought to the forefront of your attention because of the colors and sharp focus of them. And the way photographers can make you want to land in middle of exquisite nature. So when I thought photography might be just the thing my computer needed, who better to look to for a shot than Annie Lebowitz, the legendary photographer in the inner circle of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and Vogue. I love her work for the same reason I love abstract art. The stories behind them. Her book is story after story of photo shoots with celebrities all over the world. I love nothing more than to hear about how the Vanity Fair July cover project came to be and her Alice in Couture feature in Vogue and, of course, the infamous and sobering photo of J. Lennon and Yoko the day of his assassination. Chills.

So after clicking through hundreds of shots that she has done, I found one of Pete Seeger's banjo with a saying that stuck with me. "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender." What more is there to say?

The Product of A Christmas Cookie Sugar Buzz

2007-12-18T10:38:00.000-05:00

I have turned into a sweatpants-wearing, green-and-red-cookie-eating, The Santa Claus-watching, couch-potatoing, christmas-vacationing (with Chevy Chase), cheap-champagne-binge-drinking, ugly-sweater-party-attending, none-yogaing-or-running lazy SoB this month. And I blame every last chocolate truffle on the season of joy and snowflakes that stay on my nose and eye lashes. So once again I have all kinds of stuff that I see and want to write about but have no motivation to tear myself away from my two new lovers; DVR and Tila Tequila's Shot at Love.

1. Just because babies are the new Uggs and your name is Spears does not mean you can be 16, knocked up, and proud. You are not Katherine Heigl.

2. I realized that with finicky consumer desires media has to reach into their bag of tricks and treats to keep an overstimulated society interested. Webisodes, podcast exclusives, and Super-sized primetime dramas that’s running time are longer than a psych course lecture on ADHD (also amazing that most Americans don’t have the brain calm to sit through a 2 hour college lecture yet can plant themselves in front of the TV for 2 hours of McDoctors-are-never-that-hot-in-real-life-trust-me-I’ve-looked.) But I think MTV may have taken that cutting-edge-think-outside-the-TV-box EXCLUSIVE CANNOT MISS EVEN IF YOUR DOG HAS SHIT ON THE COATS a little too far. Last week I was mentally prepared for the finale of The Hills. Would the Spidi wedding fall in a disaster of immaturity and blonde hair? Would Brody and LC stop beating around the bush already? (If for no other reason than so I can stop throwing Famous Amos cookies at the TV) Would Lauren have a chance to go to Paris after her first pass on the visit to be with Jason? (Lowest point in me and LCs fictional relationship…) All the hype during the show and (totally unnecessary) red carpet preshow talked about some BIG announcement Lauren was going to announce during the (also unnecessary) post show. Excellent! She was finally going to admit to brainwashing America into big headbands and tights. So of course I had to tune in (addiction is a disease people, I know.) The big announcement? That this wasn’t REALLY the finale…………………………………All the hype, all the hair, all the glitter, all the leggings, all the viewers ($$$$$) and that was just another episode. There are no words. As excited as I am that I get to follow Lauren and Whitney to Paris and see Heidi come crawling back to Lauren for forgiveness post-Spencer breakup, I am peeved that MTV used us at our most vulnerable (no Hills for 6 months) to wrangle in a few million viewers for NOTHING. Crazy. Yet the business side of me can’t help but be totally impressed…

3. All I want for Christmas is an apartment hallway that doesnt smell like my grandmas house wallpapered in air fresheners.

4. Nothing can put me in the holiday spirit more than Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney singing "Count my blessings" God I just melted a little inside just watching that clip

5. Ok MABYBE white christmas is tied with a made-for-TV Christmas special from 1987 that my parents taped on Beta for me and I have watched every year since. The Muppet Family Christmas. Last year my dad found some guy that hasnt left his electronics store since it opened in 1970 that had a Beta-DVD converter. He burned this for me so I can continue watching it in my little apartment without having to haul the beta player all the way across the midwest just to discover that they no longer make the kind of cables needed to hook it up to anything besides a Zenith B&W 12" tube.

5. On the El last night I was sitting across from a Christmas pie of a little girl bundled up like Randy Parker (“I can't put my arms down!”). She was singing to herself. “Dradle, dradle, dradle, I made it out of clay, Dradle, dradle, dradle, and with it I will play!” Next moment she’s singing “Santa Claus is coming to town” Merry happy Christmas Holidays.

It means no worries, for the rest of your days!

2007-12-05T16:08:00.000-05:00

Every person has that one school subject that they continue to have nightmares about. For some it is Math (obviously not me considering my career choices so far…), for others it is English (Sentence diagramming, anyone?), for me it is science. The only science class I could ever force myself not to doodle my way through was chemistry and that was only because it was mostly math-related chemical equations. So bare with me now as I attempt to write an educated essay on biology.

I’m working hard to open myself up to more educational entertainment outside the realm of Johnny Depps new movie and where I can get a cheap massage (New School for Massage). Since I moved into my new apartment and no longer have to live like a caveman without cable or Internet, I watch more Discovery channel (this is mostly due to Doc’s aggressive claim to the remote most nights to watch Survivorman) and check out the National Geographic’s website (amazing photography). In this month’s Vanity Fair (lots of awesome articles in December’s issue as you can tell by now) I decided to try reading an article about some bamboo plant that plagues an area of India every 50 years (“Waiting for the Plague” by Alex Shoumatoff). When after 15 min my attention had not yet been seduced by the glossy ads for Bottega Venetta and Prada, I knew I was going to have to share this event with you. So lets take a moment to acknowledge the fact that Jen actually has some substance to her beyond her desire to live in a high-rise loft downtown and becoming a close and personal friend of Ashley Olsen…….Thank you. Now back to the bamboo (PS – did you know Big Boi from Outkast named his kid Bamboo? Reason #12,634,757 Outkast is wicked cool)

So there is a region in India called Mizoram where their main material for sustaining their lifestyle is the bamboo that grows in droves in the area. Once ever 48-50 years the bamboo flowers and grows fruit, after the fruit is picked the bamboo dies and regrows over the next few years. But the people of the area are plagued by rats during the time that the bamboo flowers, as the rats feed on the fruit. The people call this plague “mautam”. This puts the people in a battle for food, and consequently life, with rats. It also spawns the population of the rats. This is because normally adult rats eat their young. Sounds traumatic but it’s for survival due to the lack of what it is rats usually eat in the area. This keeps the rat population low and under control. But when the bamboo flowers and produces the fruit, the rats no longer have to have a feast of babies, but of fruit. This leaves the people of Mizoram in a state of desperation, with the bamboo dead and the rats attacking the fruit, they have no food to survive the following years until the new bamboo grows again. The people of Mizoram are in constant contest with the rats. Even when the bamboo is dormant (not producing the fruit), they spend most of their time learning about rats and planning for the next war to rage. Adding to this amazing and unbelievable account of what really happens in the world outside the urban jungle, in the real jungle, is the fact that the area Mizoram is one of the most secluded and hardest to reach corners of the world. They are a group far from the domestication and westernization of most of the world. I’m not exaggerating when I say their lives are sustained on bamboo. The author lists tables, barrels, houses, toys, all created from bamboo. They use the edible part (unscientific and I don’t have the article in front of me right now. Deal with it.) for the main portion of their diets. I feel like there is hope that the modernization and destruction of the environment will not overwhelm the whole planet when I hear about places like this that still survive without all the hoo haa of developed countries and Tyra Banks. The article notes that this circle of destruction that the bamboo goes through is probably to be reborn anew, to start over, start fresh. That maybe the whole planet will be ready to brush off all the oil and gas we create someday and destroy itself to start anew. Circle of Life. Hakuna Matata.

Its far fetched I know, to say the world is going to just dissolve into dust, giving a big “ef you” to humans. But I promise the article said it much more articulately, much more realistically, much more frightening. Like I finished the article and had a sudden need to go to the botanical gardens and give them a “Thanks for everything!” card

…..I should probably make Doc do a fact check on this entry before I make a foul out of myself with this Green Love protest…..

Footnotes

2007-12-04T21:12:00.000-05:00

Ok I have 10,000 things I want to write about but don't know how to start or end them (like any good tortured writer) so I'm just going to jot down what I've got, simply to share what I learn each week with you. I have these little nuggets of info that I absorb throughout the week, reading magazines, websites, newspapers, and I hate having all these fun facts about the world and not sharing them with people. Whether they are intellectual, gossipy, meaningful, helpful, or just something to make you laugh, I go crazy if I can't tell you about it. So instead of trying to piece together an essay of nonsensical catch phrases (like that one) I'm just gunna list. So now I give you: Lessons learned this week, during the first snow fall of the year......

1. Uggs have no traction. Regardless of the style status of the boots, I still believe in the functionality of them. But mine have been wore so many times in the last 6 winters that I might as well have just wrapped my feet in saran wrap and lather some butter on them before stepping out into the Chicago ice storm.

2. CTA buses have no traction.

3. Because my same roommates that couldn’t afford the internet also couldn’t afford cable TV, I didn’t think the writers strike would affect me at all. (Don’t think it hasn’t affected me emotionally, knowing that I have missed half a season of Top Model with Heather and having to watch the Office over a testy streaming video connection is blackening my soul.) But I was having a hard time swallowing the halting season finale of Weeds and have a hunch the Writers Guild of America may be to blame (huge SPOILER ALERT for the show’s ending). The season finale ends with Nancy’s Mexican Muscle torching the rival growers crop, subsequently developing into a wild fire, destroying the entire suburb. Nancy then decides to move her family across the country to start anew. Let me rephrase that for people that don't know the show. The writers dropped every plot twist and character formation in the last 20 min of the finale. They got rid of the main story line by setting the city on fire. They made the main characters run away from any problems or relationships that were forming. Literally run away. To Pittsburg. There were lose ends all over the place. It seemed like a huge cop out. So as I struggled to dissect the meaning of it all, it dawned on me. The writers had to get something down on paper before they grabbed their sign and joined the picket line. For god sake, give the people what they want so more of my shows don't commit network suicide like Weeds did!

4. The 22 Clark bus is more entertaining than an episode of True Life: I have Tourettes. The guy next to me, with his 21-year-old beard, fedora, and trench coat, was finger painting on the steamy window. Apparently my inner freak was dying to know what master piece this prodigy was creating that we were all fortunate enough to be in the presence of, because before I could process my motor skills, I asked this dude what he was drawing. A sheep shaking hands with a monk. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. After he got off, I continued to stare at the window, trying to decipher the thought process that went into this kids drawing, when I was pulled away by some loud dude ranting about drama drama drama. But as I listened (along with 90% of the bus) and he's dropping terms like "She was afraid he was going to murder her personal footprint on the world" or "the bond they shared was insatiable, it was destroying them as they failed to quench each others needs." and something about a Roman emperor that gained the thrown by tricking everyone around him to kill themselves and playing dumb to the power over the empire and that "Ben" uses that technique to gain their friendship and they can't let him take over them. The real life Dawson Leery is standing behind me.

God I just reread my "list" and realize I cannot escape the adjectives that attack everything I write. so much for a quick and to the point list of fun facts.....

Every man wants to be part of a heist

2007-11-21T09:43:00.000-05:00

A wise man once said "There are a few things men want more than sex. Every man wants to be part of a heist." That wise man was Dane Cook.

I always though that parents blaming the media and video games for corrupting their children was a load of psych crap finger-pointing (not directed at you Erin). Take responsibility for your children. And get your pets spayed or neutered. But four college kids from Kentucky are behind bars for basing an artifact heist on tricks of the trade they saw in classic 21st century heist movies like the Oceans and Snatch. My opinion was counteracted. 4 friends blind sided a librarian at the University of Kentucky library and attempted to steal something like $12 million worth of 1st edition breakthrough science textbooks that included Darwin's The Origin of Species. John Falk turned Vanity Fair into a literary Bourne Ultimatum with his article "Majoring in Crime" (The Vanity Fair print was not posted on the website. This is a summary of the feature from the local paper where the heist took place.) He went to the prison where the guys are serving their 7 year sentences. Since the law has already caught up with them, there was no reason to hold back on the plan.

The article goes into detail about how the idea came about (a smoke down in a dorm room), how they planned it (talks with "our guy", watching Snatch, Oceans 11/12/13, Reservoir dogs, jetting over to NYC and Amsterdam to plan the black market sale of the books with characters worthy of villain parts in the next Italian Job), how they tried to execute it the first time (failed because their timing interfered with one of the guys final exams.), how it finally went down (taser the old librarian and stuff as many books as possible into a bedsheet), the loop hole (they didn't know where the emergency exit was), the chase (four 20 year olds vs four librarians and an escape van borrowed from someones mom), and the escape (in time for one dudes tennis final exam). The suspenseful part was post-capture. The guys had to travel to NYC to get the books appraised at Christie's (the black market buyer would only accept the books with a proper appraisal of the value) but the clock was ticking because within a week the news of the stolen books would be public and they would be caught with their hand in the cookie jar if they waltzed into the famous auction house with the books. They made it to NYC but the appraiser hesitated to give them the value because of their age (20 years old) manor (20 years old) and lack of knowledge of the history of the books. The plan came to a halt as they waited to hear back from Christie's. Within that time, investigators in Kentucky pieced together the crime. The guys knew the plan had come unraveled and in the following weeks they went about their business as usual and waited for their arrests, which came shortly after. Gen Y 0 Librarians 1

Sounds like a cop out ending at first, but the articles ends with the big question "WHY?" The guys explained that they basically had nothing to lose. College wasn't for them. Their small town didn't fit them. They didn't want to end up pigeonholed in a dead end job in a dead end city. They wanted more. So when they plans were coming together for the heist, they had to ask "what if?" What if they got away with it? They would each have millions to their name. They would flee the country and live in the Mediterranean with yachts and women and booze, like another James Bond or Max Burdett. And what if they get caught? They go to jail for a few years, and after they come out, they will be forced to start over. They will have to move out of the small town to preserve their dignity and start fresh, start over. Win win.

To imagine the lengths these people went through to rid themselves of their past, to move forward and create a better life for themselves, one they believe they deserve, seemed so out of touch with reality. But the big picture of that, that giant risky move to get what you want out of life, happens every day. Especially to Gen Yer that are now being forced out of school and into real life, force to decide what to make of their life. I made the jump a few months back when I decided to uproot from Cleveland and try out a taste of this big city life (which is working out pretty damn well) I guess we all have our own ways of finding what fits for us. To each his own.

It's too Late to Apologize

2007-11-18T19:48:00.000-05:00

I don't have an apology for my lack of material lately. Only excuses. Excuse #1 www.jezebel.com they have taken any and all topics that I could criticize and criticizes it with double the witty and bitch-slapping humor that I could ever hope to have. Excuse #2 is moving to Chicago, starting a new job, and temporarily having roommates that couldn't afford to pay for the internet. So there. But lucky for both of us, I had a bit of inspiration to start writing again (and we got the internet). This blog is my best effort at showing my talent to the world. Or my friends, who are the only ones who read this. Thanks for making me feel special guys.

So what to write about now? I need a good topic to reinstate my place in the Blog-o-sphere. Living in this city is still a novelty to me so I will share a story, saturated with my editorial.

I was on the train yesterday, heading downtown to watch the lighting of the Christmas lights down Michigan Ave. At some Lincoln Park stop, five mid-50's women clamber on with their fur coats and Botox-inated smiles, smelling like too much hairspray and too many glasses of White Zinfandel. They settled stiffly into seats around me and some Columbia students and a club rep (we all got free passes to some party sponsored by Camel with free boxes of cigarettes. I could almost hear the raspy-voiced hipster next to me singing "I'VE GOT A GOLDEN TICKET") We could tell these women had not been on the Red Line since 1980. Conversation ensued. There was talk of cute servers at the wine bar with a hint of potential mid-life crisis and divorce. One women was harassed shamelessly for putting lipstick on. "Are you planning on making out with someone tonight??" the heckler spat. I couldn't take my mind off their hair. The amount of product used in their hair collectively would give Al Gore no other reason for the break down of the ozone. Stiff and big; proving my theory that they hadn't been out of their suburban boxes since the 80's for a Duran Duran concert. Their conversation veered towards the rumored relationship between Ashley Olsen and Lance Armstrong. "She's a baby!" "Ugh makes me sick. what do they have in common?" "He fought cancer! He is a champion athlete and what has she done? Coke?" The underlying hostility towards Gen Y is hard to miss (I wake up every morning hoping that a higher power has turned me into an Olsen.) After the train hits their stop and they stumble off. The Golden Ticket holder next to me can hold it in no longer "Sweet Jesus I hope I never talk that much when I'm old" "Did you see that woman's face? She looking like a parrot with all the make up" I threw in my observation "Did you see how much shit was in their hair??" We group of random 20 somethings laughed to the next stop over the desperation of those women. I got off the train with yet another reason to love being young and wild and relentless and having no reason to NOT believe that Gen Y is the shit.

I've got a crush on Obama

2007-07-17T19:05:00.000-05:00

Political tendencies aside, there's some girl that vowed her undying love to Barack as only a Gen Y new yorker hottie can - a homemade youtube music video of course!

But that's not the best part. This 3 year old yelling "CRUSH ON OBAMA!" is.

It’s all just a little bit of history repeating

2007-07-17T10:31:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago, Doc and I fell upon an incense-filled, Marley-shirt stocked, dusty, musty record shop in Cleveland. We went in so I could ogle over old Beatles live albums and so he could work on building up his Zeppelin collection. As I perused the colorful glass-blown display case ornaments, smelling the Lavender Dreams incense, and wondering what my hypothetical child would look like in a Janis Joplin onezie, Doc carried around an armful of albums. I helped peruse the rows of vinyl. I filed through The Wailers, lots of Floyd and Zeppelin, Clapton, Stones, and all variations of 1960s nostalgia. Then I came upon Franz Ferdinand, Ben Harper, The White Stripes. What?? I did a double take and showed Doc. He gave a knowing nod and informed me that lots of band record onto vinyl these days.

I initially just thought this was a cool trendy thing to buy records because retro and hippie chic is so hot right now. But the more I thought about this, there are many a reason for this revived industry of rock. One is the hipster pastime of DJ mixing. I've heard some SICK (yes ma'am; sick) mixes of oldies melody lines with techno beats. Why not modern it up with some Beck and his two turntables and a microphone. Another reason for the vinyl revival may be the physicality (I'm pretty sure I'm just making words up now. Two glasses of wine will do that to you). My dad brought this up in an earlier post about people that may actually want a hard copy of albums. And an interesting fact from a business woman's point of view is that new indie bands today are slipping their albums between Deep Purple's 'Stormbringer' and Cat Stevens 'Tea for the Tillerman' (Before he converted to Islam and got that crazy name -Yusuf Islam - which I didn't even know was him last time Rolling Stone reviewed one of the albums. ANYways...) to get their association in there while the gray-haired men sift through the oldies to find something a little new, boosting their credibility among the rock gods true critics, their fans.

I did a little more digging and came across two Brit articles (1) (2) about an upturn in sales numbers for their record industry.

I realize this isn't the retro takeover that in the back of my mind I may be wishing it would be, but the growing variety of uses for the good ol' material (I used to make notebooks out of the cardboard covers of Linda Ronstand albums) is a refreshing little revolution to the digital revolution. Just what music needs - a revolution of the revolution.

And I said noo noo noo

2007-07-03T07:26:00.000-05:00

In the words of Lester Bangs/Philip Seymour Hoffman in Almost Famous "Jim Morrison is a drunken buffoon, posing as a poet. Give me The Guess Who. They've got the courage to be drunken buffoons, which makes them poetic". Reading back on old Rolling Stone articles on Kurt Cobain and the Forever 27 gang, or Hunter S Thompson, I am initially shocked at the open recklessness of these dudes (my parents raised me well in my Midwestern sheltered town) but then I realized that this IS part of rock 'n roll. These crazy acts of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll were at the forefront of the revolution. Rock is more than just a sound, its an existence. An existence that continually pushes the envelop, at the forefront of insanity. because that's what rock does to you. it pushes you, adrenalin-pumping pushes.

But why did it take reading about pre-millennium artists for me to see this? Because post-millennium rock isn't rock at all. Its Clear Channel propaganda. We should have seen it when the Backstreet Boys 2000 album was named "Millennium". This is the album to look to when trying to uncover the culture of Y2K?? Popular music today, the stuff on the radio, is sound that so many people I know work furiously to make known they DO NOT listen to it. That they have no part in promoting that sound. Is that how bigger-than-life bands should be seen?? I'm no hypocrite. I am the first one to deny listening to Akon, Avril Lavigne, Fergie, new age Green Day. I will always claim loyalty to 1960s and 70s bands over today's tween-friendly sounds. A generation should not finger-point who's to blame for music of their time, but be proud of the sound their peers can produce. But that's not so much the case when corporations are pulling the puppet strings of artists that see $$ before music notes.

Enter my chicks. I assumed for months that Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Neko Case, Jenny Lewis were all just ladies that I listened to in the semi-underground indie rock circuit. As soon as I heard Lily on the radio, I was (as usual) totally disappointed in her selling out to the man. That her sound would become like everyone elses and she would fade into the place up above where artists-that-all-sound-the-same float away to. Then Amy followed when Rehab hit the airwaves. I was depressed. But as both these ladies blow up (Amy on the cover of Rolling Stone last month sealed her fate in history) I noticed that neither were cleaning up their act, changing their sound or their attitude. Lily continued her drunken foolery as she performed a concert for some NYC socialites and kept called the queen bee of rich society the wrong name . Amy continues her crazy (and usually drunken) obsession with her husband ("I'm not in this to be a [bleep] role model."). Pink has the right idea with these fellow songbirds. Neither are afraid to be wasted in public. Isn't that what everyone dreams of? Being a rock star so awesome that you can have 5 shots of Jim Bean and sing about refusing to go to rehab? These ladies are living the dream.

Long live rock 'n roll!

Rehab is so hot right now

2007-07-02T19:33:00.000-05:00

Don't worry, this isn't some post on the party like a coke addict era of starlets (couch LiLo cough). I'm all over this badass aura of Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen right now. Way to bring back the party like a ROCK STAR persona of the past in the form of 22 year old chicks who aren't afraid to be drunk on stage AND actually have the sound to back up their i-don't-care-what-you-think-i-am-awesome 'tude. Here is a picture from SNL that just about sums up the trend (Lily Allen as Amy Winehouse) --------^^^^^

I had all these cool dude things to say about the ladies, but I'm all into youtube tonight and got distracted by videos. Numero uno is Amy Winehouse + Charlotte Church (yea that15 year old opera singing prodigy from like 10 years ago. Turns out she's got a hot modern sound too!) doing M.Jackson's 'Beat It'. How could I pass that up?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vfdl7-E80Q # Deux is Charlotte Church and Nelly Furtado doing 'Crazy' just because, i mean come on - how often are you going to see combos like these?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPnYWL-U1Eo And this is where my video ADD (or ADHD - correct me if I'm wrong Erin) kicked in and my Zooey stalkerness joined the party too........She can sing! (Sit tight through the first song - warm up. The second song makes me want to get into the cabaret scene.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXLepw52iFs Fun fact is that in Elf, that's for sure her singing "Baby, its cold outside". Ok shhh I'm watching Zooey. I'll get back to you with more power to the drunk girls later.

Oh, the wonder of it all!

2007-06-21T14:03:00.000-05:00

At the end of that Stonehenge drug-induced solstice love-fest article, it added a little comment about how Stonehenge is a finalist for one of the seven new wonders of the world. Not knowing much about worldly alien rock formations or much about the history of the OLD wonders of the world, up until that point I had assumed it was one of the wonders. A quick peak on Wikipedia informed that clearly I did not do very well in 6th grade social science since, nay, only one of the original seven ancient (not OLD) wonders of the world still exists, the great pyramid of Giza.

Well clearly these are not such wonders of the world if they could not withstand the true test of time (2000 years of time. Lightweights.) So maybe it is good that some Swiss "adventurer" (how do i get a title like that??) decided to take a global poll to see what the new generation of timeless architecture will be.

This guy has a better plan than the first Greek dudes that DECLARED the first seven wonders (Why don't people DECLARE things anymore?? Ohhh democracy. That's right.) based on amazing man-made structures they had seen. Well, in 500 BC Greece, there wasn't a whole lot to see (They didn't travel far for fear of fall off the edge of that blasted flat Earth of ours) so all the ancient wonders were around the Mediterranean Sea. Not a very complete list.

So this new Swiss guy, Bernard Weber, desided to give the people what they want! and let them vote on what they think the new seven wonders should be (There's that damn democracy again). I think this is sweet. But then you see your choices (and that you probably have to pay $1.50 per txt message to cast your vote) and you see that this is going to be a no-brainer:

1. Stonehenge. The aliens win again.
2. Effiel Tower
3. Colosseum
4. Taj Mahal
5. Great Wall of China
6. Statue of Liberty
7. Sydney Opera House

Boring but we all know they will be the winners. Its like voting on prom king and queen. They are the popular ones. Most people have probably never even heard of the other 14 places. But I've always got my heart out there for the underdog so who knows! Prove me wrong you crazy statues of easter island!

You don't have to wait for much longer. The new 7 wonders will be announced on July 7th (07.07.07 CLEVER)

Summer Summer Summer Tiiiiiime

2007-06-21T12:49:00.000-05:00

Anther happy first day of sunny summer in this dark, rainy, cloudy, humid, frizzy-hair-inducing city of Cleveland! I never give much of a though on the official calendar date of the seasons as I believe opening a window or checking weather.com is a much more effective means of understanding the temperature changes. But it seems there is a handful of New Age people that are in tune with the earth and moons and suns and unicorns that celebrate the sacred summer solstice. And while I smile at my smirky unicorn joke, i have to admit that one of these new solstice celebrations is getting added to my "things to do before I die" list.....Time Square + yoga = My urban ashram dream come true (Shout out to Erin for pointing this out to me) I love that idea of trying to find calm in the busiest intersection in the US. Imagine - If you can shut that out, the morning commute should be a cinch! The comments from the testy and trendy New Yorkers about this event are priceless:

"Amazing! I love it! Great message for the whole world: Relaxation, Meditation and Peace…It’s what we need in this times. hugs to everybody!"-Posted by Pachecosita
"The absurdity of the west knows no limits. The west is is a pioneer in distorting traditional wisdom and packaging it into some kind of superficial commercial product." — Posted by Farahnush
"next up: kamasutra at piccadilly circus, london." — Posted by sattu
"Absurd…just another marketing gimmick" — Posted by Manoj
"freaks. "— Posted by weirdo
"yoga forever!" — Posted by julie marlowe-hesterly

I could go all day with these crazy comments! I love it!

And over on the motherland, British hippies came out to Stonehenge with their red bull and vodka and third eyes to ringing in the new season. There are too many batshit crazy awesome parts of that article to pick just one. Ok, the vibe of the living, breathing, rocks is pretty psychedelic, dude.

What can I say? JD Salinger used to get me high

2007-06-12T12:25:00.000-05:00

I spend most of my days mulling over the ideas of generational generalizations (say that 3 times fast) for Gen Yers such as myself and buddies. But I wonder if one way to get to the bottom of differences over the ages is to look beyond Gen Y, back into Gen X and more importantly, into the baby boomers. I was very lucky to have fell upon this idea randomly through my constant Wikipedia-searching.

Last week Kristen sent me a post by the Fug girls on my favorite actress, Zooey Deschanel. I have a not-so embarrassingly huge girl crush on her and her bluest eyes. She strikes me as that friend that you can call up when you cant really decide if you want beer or your comfy jeans more, settling on a dive bar down the street that plays "Sweet Caroline" every hour, so you can drink IN your comfy jeans and discuss that always impending road trip that your really going to do this time! And anyone that ALSO celebrates Champagne Thursday like me (Failure to Launch reference. She was the sole reason I spend $20 on that movie. And SJP. and Matthew. And Matthew without his shirt on. Ok I love that movie.) is worthy of my friendship. Anyway, as most people who have a slight stalker status with their undying love do, I named my pet after her. Zoey (The double oo's seemed a little unnecessary to me) I decided to do a little more research into my little kittys namesake. Wikipedia gave me some fun facts, including the fact that HER namesake is the title character in the JD Salinger short story Franny and Zooey.

JD has never been an author I knew much about, although Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorite books, as it is with any high school student that realizes how awesome it is that a story about sex, drugs, and rock and roll in NYC by an angst 16 year old scalawag can be considered classic literature to be discussed in school. But I was increasingly interested in Salinger after this naming game plus I remembered a Sex and the City episode when Carrie is dating a guy and realizes she might be with him only because she likes his family so much. His two sisters are named Zooey and Franny and the mom makes a comment that "JD Salinger used to get me high". How do I find this man?? This man that has slipped himself into American cultural cross-references? Wikipedia, as always, gave me more fun facts! The fact that suck out for me was that he has an alleged love affair with an 18 year old up and coming writer when he was well into his 50s. Midlife crisis or finding new blood for the next literary revolution after his has passed? Well it clearly wasn't the latter since we aren't exacting in a writing war against conformity right now. Nicole Richie just wrote a memoir for christ sake. So I looked up who this little typewriter vixen was that stole the heart of this progressive mastermind. Joyce Maynard.

Maynard must have been at her peak when she was with Salinger in the 70's, because she hasn't written anything quite as brilliant since her 1972 article, An 18-year-old Looks Back on Life for the New York Times and first published novel, Looking Back. Both of these writings, written when she wasn't even 20 yet (!), are her views on life in the 60s and as her generation, the baby boomers, grew up. I will admit that I haven't read the whole article yet (Its roughly 12 pages) but she does an amazing job at making gentle generalizations while retaining everyones individuality and giving credit where credit is due. She makes great references to how current events of the time helped shape the way they lived. All and all, I wish I could write something like that for our generation. I just need to find a 60 year old writing genius to "mentor" me. I wonder if Steven King is available.....

25 million faces

2007-06-01T13:15:00.001-05:00

(I don't know if it's just a slow week at work or if I am getting lucky finding sweet news these last few days)

You have to believe I have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to shine my praise on all that is Facebook. I search WSJ archives for a blip on the social happyland or a quick interview with the CEO (who is frighteningly only a year older than me). I looked through Time, Newsweek, NYTimes, any credible source of news-making to tell us what we already know is a sweet story parallel to the Google dorm start up. And today, while reading my favorite Fortune girl's blog, there it was. A 3 page article on the new applications that Facebook slide under our noses earlier this week. Facebook is slowly taking over the cyberworld. Then there was the followup article the ran a week after the launch of the new stuff. A week later.....

When I was playing around with the iLike app, posting my favorite songs (K-OS remix on Feist "Mushaboom" Loves it!) and finding out who else is going to the Tegan and Sara concert, I wasn't thinking about the revolution of the internet that I was involved in. The articles do a much more articulate and term-accurate way of explaining these changes so I will leave that to the expert and make you read it.

When I told Elaine about this evolution, she said "so if it crashes it will take down the world is what you are saying. or at least the under 24 world." my response "25 million people worldwide. yup. it will be a spectacular crash if nothing else...."

I think some of the most fascinating parts of this little update is

1) The freedom of anyone being able to create an app to share with us eager Facebook lovers. Within this one awesome week, the apps list has gone from the initial 65 mostly corperate-sponsored applications to 800 applications created by the guy in the apartment next to you. The creative spark of those closet techies will either be a flop (which I'm sure many will be) or the next Yahoo. And as a certified Facebook junkie me and my junkie peers will be at the helm of the success of whatever this next big thing could be. Its like an exclusive club that has access to the hip joints before the rest of the world even knows about it or can get in. An exclusive club of 25 million people and 150,000 new members every day......

#2 sweet thing is the natural Hot or Not of these applications as they find free members. When you eliminate the money and advertising aspect of anything, your going to see the true trend and activity of it with people as a whole. It goes hand in hand with my philosophy on free mp3s for up and coming bands to get a solid fan base (see uofm application essay) The part of the article (I don't know which one) where they say that Facebook didn't even announce the changes, that people found out about the applications was through the Mini Feed. After a week, iLike (which seems to be the most popular app so far) had 1 million members within Facebook. I can attest to that. That's exactly how I found it. I logged on one day and found that the guy that is subleasing my friend's room for the summer "added the iLike application" You put an i in front of anything and you've got me hook line and sinker (pod, phone, mac, tunes) So I clicked and signed up. 1 million and one.

iii) The best and most awesome (I'm running out of awesome adjectives) aspect of this, from a former Marketing major's standpoint, is the idea of friends reviewing products for friends. I haven't come across this app yet so I don't know much about it (or if it even exists yet), but i do know that it could be the demise of advertising-induced hypnotism that companies have over us with commercials and ads and an overabundance of awesome adjectives to use on their own products and less on the actual quality of the products. People are always going to listen to their friends over the 60 year old 3 piece suit CEO's marketing team with $$ in their eyes. So what terribly awesome new ways are they going to have to come up with to get us to buy their product. I say if you can't beat em, join em.

So I just did a once over on my 3 awesome Facebook points and I saw a huge parttern that makes me kind of embared to realize that I am basically talking about the same thing 3 times over. The user is in control. Freedom. God that is a great word.

Battle Royale

2007-05-31T13:52:00.001-05:00

I have spent the last 6 work hours with earbuds on and eyes glued to the WSJ coverage of da D. I don't know much about what seems to be the geek's equivalent to the Detroit Auto Show, except that it brought together a rivalry that looks much like a Michigan State/Unv of Michigan inner-state Big 10 football game. As fierce and loyalty-driven as all the fans become during that weekend in October, when you take a step back, you really can't compare the 2 teams beyond families with split green and white/blue and gold flags flying. I'm talking about Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates. Apple vs Microsoft. Steve and Bill sat down for a joint interview at this gigabyte mecca event, before which they hadn't done since like 1991 for Fortune (aside from sitting at the same dinner table at the same conference in '05). I think a few techies actually died happy right there in their conference room folding chair.

As they politely took turns answering questions, Bill in his Dwight-esque beige uniform and Stevie in his jeans and signature black turtleneck (Tell me; WHO else do you know that can pull off a turtleneck in that sexy way? Tell me. Who? Nobody.), its evident that there will be no taking it out back after the meeting, there will be no dropping of the gloves. These two computer giants, in the last decade, have taken very different approaches to the personal computer and tech specs in general. They have veered in different directions. They were pedalling down a very narrow road next to each other. Their only options were to knock someone down gladiator-style or take different roads at the next fork. And that's what they did. Their answers were very different, they answered in very different styles, you could see the differences in visions and success. Incomparable.

As opposed to the predicted battle royale, these men are decidedly getting older, their punches less fiery, competitive nature calmed. As they both have their billions stashed away, they are riding the wings of success in their prime. This interview found them both simply reminiscing about the good ol' days of 16k modems when they used to work together and pushed each other. Most people ended up calling it a love-fest vs the must anticipated smackdown as both companies are wheeling out their fair share of new products this year (Apple TV, Windows Vista, etc). The only squib came from my husband in a separate interview earlier in the day when he said PC-compatible iTunes was like "handing a glass of ice water to someone in hell". OH SNAP. But other then that, you can tell they are no longer friends nor rivals. They are watching over their respective well-oiled kingdoms from afar and smiling, thinking "...and it was good"

PS - Bill made some comment at the beginning about how he is not the "Fake Steve Jobs" I laughed at this simply thinking that, of course, Bill is just jealous of my husbands success. But after some research, I discovered that he was refering to this Fake Steve blog that take a witty twist on Steve vs Bill issues, which you must imagine, I am in love with.

Masters of Science in Cyber Social Butterflying

2007-05-30T09:10:00.000-05:00

For universities to keep their internet start-up dorm residents from dropping out to go global in Silicon Valley before they can even get into the bar without a fake ID, they are actually bribing them with MySpace. MIT and UofM finally have no choice to but attract the 20 something tech genius grad student by letting them get a degree in the art of legitimate stalking. This is also reason #37,543 Gen Y is proving how hip and social and cyber-savvy we are AND making it legit at the same time. Facebook 201

As off the wall and specialized as it may be, I think its a step in the right direction for tradition-soaked age old universities to keep in step with advancing knowledge and interest. Granted the WSJ article only sites about 4 colleges that have these programs, its a start.

Even though these handful of institutions are working on being up on whats popular and whats in store for "the future corporate leaders of the global marketplace", it's still frustrating that the vast majority of schools, and corporations for that matter, are either a) not putting in the effort to try to understand what we as the brightest and best are looking for in our experiences or b) don't really care because we are older and wiser and you will do what we say because that is how it has been done and that is how it will be done. Forever. Overall, it APPEARS that people actually care about catering to our needs (See Google work culture - sick) but because it is only the companies and colleges with the most facetime with the general public and media (and money) to make it known that they are sweet, dawg. 90% of 20 somethings are not being schmoozed with free on-site massages or pop culture master's degrees. And I realize money blah blah is an issue, but most companies just need to put aside their pride and open a magazine or read a few blogs to see what we as a generation need and want in our future. Get off your high horse because pretty soon we will be running the show and man, karma is a bitch.

{step off soapbox and walk away with head held high}

A Hotel on Broadway

2007-05-22T11:39:00.000-05:00

As a self-proclaimed music enthusiast, I have given up on the tragic state of FM radio and Clear Channel-induced propaganda. Many moons ago, just as another Detroit radio station fell victim to yet another loud-mouthed-with-nothing-to-say DJ playing "hits from the 80s, 90s, and now!", high school shout-outs, and mad moms in minivans winning Disneyworld trips, I threw my white flag in and turned off my car radio. I couldn't buy blank CDs fast enough to keep up with my changing music taste and new band discoveries in constant rotation in my car and bedroom. My dad was falling into the same radio slump as he contemplated re-registering for his 1991 subscription for "2000 CDs for one cent each!!!" (The last thing our house needed was more Steely Dan anthologies and Billy Joel greatest hits. Don't get me wrong, they are legends in their own right and have graced the Waters family airwaves every Sunday - but you need to draw line after something like River of Dreams). When he found himself dusting off his reel-to-reel, he decided it was time to make some changes. Enter satellite radio.

We have not turned back since that day in 2003 that we got our XM radio hook up. Since then, it has taken over our lives. Running wires into every room in the house, car hookups, portable players, streaming on the web. When I found out I could bring "the sounds of Starbucks" into my dorm room, I was on my knees thanking the commercial gods of coffeehouse rock. Dad had every Canadian hockey game that CBS wouldn't pick up. Mom had her news and Martha Stewart. Me and my sister had bona fide new music on 150 channels of broadcast bliss.....commercial free! So when the news hit of a potential XM-Sirius merger earlier this year, you have to believe I was obsessed with the business behind this theoretical ground-breaking proposition. My first instinct was as a loyal customer: "The channels! Imagine the possibilities! 500 channels! Ecstasy!" my next was as a business woman: "The monopoly! Imagine the lawsuits!"

This is the best professional judgement I came across in a WSJ article.

If the FCC somehow turns their head from the possibility of airwave-takeover with this merger, the outcome could be awesome for listeners. Low subscription prices as production costs decrease (if they want to be ethical about things.....HA I am an idealist), larger selection, more celebrities, more Howard Stern (!).

But the essence of monopoly is in the air. It would take us right back to the Pinocchio strings of the media as another consolidation leads to giving us no choice but to listen to what they feed us. And for many satellite listeners, that was the main reason for the switch in the first place. Lest we not also forget the basic ECON 101 lesson behind a monopoly - without competition, where is a corporation's drive to lower prices? They could take the prices up to $1,000 but if you want it badly enough, you will pay. Then it becomes an internal struggle instead of a media luxury; how much is Howard Stern worth to you?

The idea of "competition" is where the fine line will be hyper-analyzed over the next few months as a decision is reached as to whether the FCC will allow the merger to take place. You could argue that XM and Sirius are each other only competitors in the satellite radio ring. But is that all they are fighting with for our listening (and money)? Or is FM/AM broadcast a threat in the radio ring? iPods in the music application ring? old school CDs? Podcasts in the media ring? Wii in the entertainment ring?? If the competition expanded to the entertainment industry as a whole, satellite radio is less than 2% of the market. I never considered this idea of what combination of consumer products are vying for my attention (and money - you get the idea) Its like 6 degrees of separation within all capitalist organizations. Somewhere, there is a poor college student trying to choose between XM radio and TBS reruns.

(logic: listen to XM or Podcast? The Onion podcast or NY Times TimesTalks? TimesTalk with Larry David or Harvey Weinstein on entertaining America? An episode of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm? Vandelay Industries or Junior Mints? TBS rerun or DVD box set?)

The 20-something Takeover!

2007-05-15T10:44:00.000-05:00

This article may be a continuation of some parts of my post on our big-headed generation, but I am mostly just posting it without commentary because I think it is genius. This girl has hit the nail on the head as to how I feel about this post-grad life and times of the 20 something

The Midwestern NY takeover!

2007-05-14T13:48:00.000-05:00

I have une petite guilty pleasure in following the gossip and trendy cat-fights of the New York City socialites - the closest the US will ever come to royalty. The last few weeks, its been the typical bashing of benefit outfits and marital playoffs. A run-down on my not-so-secret way inside the minds of these keys to eternal happiness through valentino are websites like park ave peerage, gawker, socialite rank (now defunct), new york social diary, and the like. i read mostly for the pictures of high fashion and the occational whitty commentary. But the hidden gold in these websites are the comments posted by "readers" who are, in fact, the socialites themselves - chatting back and forth at each other over horrible fashion missteps, calorie counts, engagement party guestlists, and all around bad b*tching. It also does wonders for my self-esteem and work-driven midwestern upbringing - I still find it laughable sad how devoid of actual life these "have it all" girls and gay boys are.

But then, as if the hollywood gods had finally found a way to take over the blaze high rollin' life of these Park Ave {insert clever royalty pun here}, the social "scene" losts its mind over the explosive finale of the online socialite networks, as a NY Magwriter played fashionable hardy boy to the mystery that was the masterminds behind these sites that had New York PYTs wrapped around their judgemental little fingers. In summary of this indepth research project - the uncomfortably questionable lovey russian bro-sis duo on the fringe of NY society had created Socialite Rank as a cyber-hair-pulling-and-nail-scratching fight as revenge for their dismiss from the inner circle (all the cliche metaphores i am using here are making me cringe - all the better for effect). So blah blah that was no surprise, trying to put down those that had kept them down. Ruthless and extreme but {yawn}. But, like any great prime time soap opera writer that keeps their audience yearning for more over the top antics and unconcievable situations, the twist does not come until page 8 of this 8 page headlined news story. After Socialite Rank hung its highlighed and weaved head and went off the web, eyed turned to an equally explosive site, Park Ave Peerage, full of never-before-seen pictures of the Trump Princess out on the town, socialites tanning in the Hamptons, and color-coordinated family photo shoots for seashell-clad frames at the summer house in Nantucket. People (nay, not people, socialites) wondered who was posting these intimate photos that actually make these ladies and queens look....normal?? Are you ready for the twist? an 18 year old freshman boy at the University of Illinois.

Is there really anything left to say? This midwestern Indian immigrant dude sitting in his dorm had infiltrated the glass case of [fake] emotion that surrounds the fortress of New York. He has brought the future leaders of charity balls around world to tears. Just read the comments on his site after the cat was out of the bag. The girls are speechless as well. This dude stole Anna Wintour's show as table after table at the Met Institue Costume Gala cheersed to his brillant research and classy commentary. To keep from crying over the fact that they can no longer continue to ignore the fact that they live among us midwestern homegrown kids and that we are as much real to them as they are to us.

We both know I'm a phenomenal dancer

2007-05-04T13:06:00.000-05:00

I am a student of Gen Y. I strive to see how the US population views my generation and to see if they are right on or smelly stereotypes. I found a WSJ article today about a trend in the twenty-something new professionals that I had never heard before. It struck me as such a sprawling generalization and seemed so self-important I found it hard to accept at first. But its true. Our generation needs more praise.

This issue was too impressive to pass up, but a little touchy for my single voice to try to explain. I've got my ideas behind it, and I asked some friends and my parents to let me know what they thought of this as well.

My dad’s opinion was pure coincidence. He has seen, in the workplace, an increase in praise and positive reinforcement years before my generation entered the workplace. “I don't quite agree. The change in management style actually occurred when the generation targeted by the article was kids, because managers then were parents and started applying the same style of management they used for parenting. The fact that these kids grew up at the same time many companies where going over the top on praise (because it evolved over time like anything else) is coincidental.” So perhaps the US as a whole is stepping up the compliments.

A friend of mine took the upper hand on the issue, looking at it from the management position. She is a pitching couch for the local high school softball team. She said that her girls’ need for praise has turned into their demanding praise and rejecting negative feedback. Have we come to see praise as the norm? Do we get a handful of compliments and become jaded over our failures? Do we think we are without flaws now?

Over the weekend, some friend and I had a girl’s wine-and-chick-flicks night in. We watched The Devil Wears Prada (a personal favorite – Anne Hathaway is right up there with America Ferrara for me - helping us big brown eyed girls embrace our features and size 6 self). There is a scene when Andy is complaining to Nigel that for all the Starbucks she fetches and spa appointments she books and look-sees she has to trail to, she does not receive so much as a glimmering eye of gratitude from Miranda (a character not-so-loosing based on the equally pursed-lipped Vouge editor-in-chief Anna Wintour)

I, personally, agree to the extent that I do feel better about my work and am willing to put forth more effort when I know that it will be recognized. But is that a generational characteristic or a need that all people have? Perhaps because my generation has grown up in a, until recently, peaceful time – we have never had to worry about a war draft, or saving scraps to sustain American lifestyle – we are less aware of our part as a collective, looking more closely at ourselves instead. We do not see that our hard work is propelling a company forward, but that it is not personally satisfying without recognition. Could it also stem from being raised off the Internet? Another view of it is the instant feedback that people get after posting blogs, recording podcasts, uploading YouTube videos, writing facebook or MySpace wall posts, etc. We have become accustom to hearing what people have to say about our work in our personal lives. If most of the feedback you get from friends and family on things like that is positive, then a positive shine our your own work is bound to follow. And without getting that same approval from bosses may discourage us into believe that our work is useless.

I get rare praise for the menial work I do from day to day in the office. But there was one particularly stressful report that gets sent up to some big-wigs that I had spent days going over with a fine-tooth comb ensuring it wasn’t going to get sent back to me by the CEO wondering why a $40 million charge was made to Girl Scout Troop #5555. A few days after I held my breath and pressed “send” on that report, I got an email back from my boss’s boss saying that his boss wanted me to know that I did a great job on the report. I have saved that email, spent about 5 hours beaming over the accomplishment, showing Elaine and forwarding it to my parents to put on the fridge like an A+ report card. I now work harder every month on that one report, waiting for the praise to come again. It never has, but I still bank on the fact that if it happened once, it’s bound to happen again. The ball is now in the manager’s court, though. Does he compliment my excel qualities every month over the fact that it was done without errors – which is the basic description of my job requirements, nothing out of the ordinary – or ignore the fact that I am waiting patiently like one of Pavlov’s dog waiting to get that steak again?

I ask – how much effort does it take to stop by an employee’s office and tell them thanks? Not much. Today, pat someone on the back. If nothing else, there's got to be some good karma in there for you somewhere.

Must See TV!

2007-05-03T08:15:00.000-05:00

It’s Thursday. The best day of the week. Over the hump. And time to hang out with some of your best, most drama-filled with the perfect amount of comic relief, fickle, always-knows-what-to-say, beautiful friends. I'm talking about Michael, Jan, Toby, Kelly, Meredith, Derek, Addison, JD, Elliot, Turk, Betty, Daniel, Wilhelmina, Liz, Jack, Kenneth, and all their buddies. But it can be stressful as well. Because with all these people vying for your time, it’s hard to please everyone. And everyone is so fabulous and funny and diva-esque that you don't want to miss a beat with any of them!

I wrote a frantic email to my parents this morning:

We have a huge emergency. Must See TV thursday has gone into overload. The Office is "supersized" = 45 min long and Greys TWO WHOLE HOURS (blows my mind) but they....sin of all sins......OVERLAP! could we tape the office (8:36-9:19)? Just be sure that everyone is positioned in front of the tv for Greys at 9 therefore nobody will miss the beginning of greys and wont need to be taped. we need all hands on deck to get this going smoothly.

Responses -

Mom: Have you ever heard of "re-runs"?

Me: our generation doesnt have the patience or capacity to wait for re-runs. we need it new and we need it now.

Dad: Sorry, but I'll be in front of my XM Radio LISTENING to the BuffaloSabres-NY Rangers game because its NOT on Canadian TV because of abreach of international etiquette on the part of US TV Networks!! Butthat is another matter all together......However, I will tape the office......

Mom: Maybe you can tape the game on cassette. What can we use the Beta for?

Me: tape ugly betty on beta. i can wait for that one. its second tier, you can put ER on there too. oh but 30 rock is supposed to be really good and laura is trying to convert me. its at the same time as greys, which is another moral dilemma. what are the networks trying to acheive here?? other then send their audience into a ALL NEW EPISODE tailspin.

I live for The Office. My life IS The Office. And Grey's is important simply for the fact that if I miss it, I will be shunned from my flesh and blood friends. And I adore Tina Fey. And who doesn't love the twisted mind of Alec Baldwin? And I think America Ferrera is a diamond in the rough for my generation. And Zach Braff makes movie soundtracks like the best college radio DJ I know (plus he wrote, directed, AND starred in the life-changing movie that was Garden State for me). And....and....I have dreams about McDreamy (so cliché I think Doc actually threw up a little bit in his mouth when I told him that. Then questioned my fidelity.) And I';m only looking at NBC and ABC!

With the upcoming finale season just weeks away, I feel like these extended episodes are a warm up for the big night when we have to use all technology to our advantage in order to not lag behind as the primetime parade marches on without you. TiVo, DVR, iTunes, old fashioned tape recorder. It seems implausible to even CONSIDER missing the Grey's finale (Will George chose Kallie or Izzie? Will Addison's spin off get picked up?) to see what all the fuss is about with 30 Rock (I heard something about someone's boyfriend moving to Cleveland? Now THAT is funny), yet someone is begging you to change the channel. Its Tracey Morgan. So you have to ask yourself: where does your loyalty lie?

The business numbers don't add up to the stress that is the remote control battle that goes down in homes across the US every Thursday night at 8:00. WSJ says viewer numbers are down per show. But they don't take into consideration that fact that there are 3 time as many shows to choose from now. So they essentially are only including those viewers that have 3 TVs next to each other showing The Office, Ugly Betty, and Survivor (If this person does existes; I feel a little better about my clearly NOT out of hand obssession with the shows)

All this torrent babble about one-dimensional drama is just more of a reason for me to ask, again, what are The Networks trying to achieve here?? It’s like the Clear Channel chaos theory. Whatever show you chose will determine your ultimate fate. Jim and Pam forever or Wilhelmina Mode domination?

Peace, Love, and Music

2007-05-01T07:40:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Boutit and his festival obsessions, along with a long line of hippie friends that have attempted to make festival-hopping a true lifestyle, I have spent today furiously reading reviews from the Coachella Festival that was this past weekend in California and hating myself for not realize the mass awesomeness of the lineup and having not thrown responsibilty to the wind and gone to it.

So I pay homage to the Music Festival. Unfortunetaly and embaressingly, I have never been to one. I've been to my fair share of shows, of course, but I look upon the religious ceremony that is the 3-day music festival from afar, sighing and only imagining how overwhelming the atmosphere is. Sometimes I believe that it is best that I don't step into that temple of indie rock and ska, so as to avoid the unavoidable panic attack I would have at the meer sight of 5 stages, hemp booths, DJ set ups, 150 of my closest friends and bandmates, and an entire generation of Woodstock-wannabes. It is my calling, but I'm afraid of what it would do to my logical thinking on life. Because, you know, I can live in a muddy tent. I can shower in the rain. I can wear tapastries. I can eat veggie hot dogs and hummus. I can use port-o-potties. I can do that. If it means I can listen to nonstop music of my favorite bands all in the same place. Please introduce me to the man that thought up these cultural meccas. (Ok, I can't seem to find it on Wikipedia, but we'll just lay the praise on Michael Lang for putting Woodstock in motion). Its like Costco for music-listeners. Wholesale rocking out. And who doesn't love Costco?? One-stop shopping. If you took the 170 bands playing at Bonnaroo this year at an average of probably $20 a ticket if you saw each one on tour = $3,400 if you wanted to catch them all. Tickets to Bonnaroo = $214 at the most. Throw in a road trip and tent and you are still nowhere near the thousands of dollars and time it would take to hit all those guys individually. Look at it another way. 170 bands divided by $214 = $0.74 per band! I'm a numbers person but, seriously, that is amazing.

And what is the best part of this obsession is that its building steam. The festivals are popping up all over the US: Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Coachella, Summerfest, South by Southwest, All Good, 10,000 Lakes, Austin City Limits, and so much more. Event planners are seeing this equation, are hearing the buzz of crazy music people like me and they eyes turn to $$, which is fine with me if it means your going to give me the Arcade Fire, Wilco, Amy Winehouse, My Morning Jacket, Gomez, Ghostfaced Killa, Lily Allen, Artic Monkeys, the Chili Peppers, and Bjork on one stage. Feed off my naive, teenage marketing audience. We love it!

Yooooogalaties

2007-04-25T18:42:00.000-05:00

What I learned in yoga this week:

Ahimsa - the act of non-violence. Our instructor discussed it in the sense of our personal lives. Don't harm your spirit, yourself. Don't push your body into pain. In our poses, we are supposed to think positively about what we are doing to our body, not the pain that comes with it. Remove yourself from the pain. Don't make a face when you go down into chaturanga dandasana, don't bite your nails; that type of concentration on breathing and internal feelings, not external feelings. But its hard not to see the indirect connection in this weeks lesson with the various newmaking attacks in the last week.

Its so genius, even a caveman could do it

2007-04-24T15:34:00.000-05:00

The cavemen. Or, if you spend your days where I do, "Those *&%)!@ cavemen". I need to overcome the fact that those full sized hobbits are putting me out of a job, because they are so fascinating that my group just spent half our team meeting talking about them.

This is advertising spiraling out of control. Yes, they are sassy and oddly attractive in a 4000 BC kind of way, but fictitious corporate mascots should NOT be let out of their 30 second commercial cages! They run wild among the young and beautiful starlets of Hollywood while drilling into our subconscious something as unexciting and standard as car insurance. These menaces to our society have wandering into our watercooler conversations, our award show red carpets, our worktime-wasting internet surfing, even our precious primetime TV!

They have upped the anty in insurance advertising. Remember the good ol' days when you just asked your agent for the cheapest rate and companies just bribed agents to sell their stuff? But now, I'm furiously downloading bands from the Caveman's iPod, making ironic comparisons of the classy Australian gecko to Mr Big, and watching as already infamous Hollywood personalities get their long awaited 15 min of fame.

If you were to theoretically look at these probably genius marketeers from a theoretical competitor's view point, the seemingly awesome 3 ad campaigns that they have going on simultaneously is pretty radical when you take into consideration the fact that this is for INSURANCE. The other competitors are floored that no longer can they get away with the sappy or informative commercials on your rate coverage. They need D list celebs, saucy talking lizards, and primetime heroes of the stone age. Its so beyond anything inusurance has seen that they can't even bother to say" Why didn't we think of that?" And do you what they have to say about that? Its so easy a caveman and a lizard can do it! Smartasses.

Earth Day Everyday

2007-04-23T15:04:00.000-05:00

Always a day late and a dollar short, here are my belated Earth Day thoughts:

Woke up Sunday morning to Doc's phone call -
Him: "Happy Earth Day! Go plant a tree!"
Me: "Go plant one for me."
Him: "I have an enviromental science degree......I'm planting trees of knowledge."

So wise.

When I was little, I used to wear a shirt on Earth Day every year that said "Earth Day Everyday"

Again, so wise.

To all my Graduates

2007-04-20T07:28:00.000-05:00

I have to take a moment to step away from my culture-obsessions and lead into a huge topic for me right now. One that I have been intimidated to attack but really must, for my benefit and for the benefit of everyone my age. I spend countless hours talking to my friends with looming graduation ceremonies about the up and down thought process in the months leading up to the big kick in the behind as schools boot you out into the "real world". I stepped up for my swift kick in the rear last December, a semester before my counter-parts. And let me tell you - it hurts like nothing else. The last 3 months have been a blur as I stand up, rub my behind, get my bearings, reorient myself, and look around to where I ended up. Turns out, I landed in Cleveland. I think this period where you just have to close your eyes and let that painful uncertainty take over for you is completely necessary. I have said this once and I will say a hundred times more. The best advice I have ever gotten about taking these leaps and bounds in my life is "Don't think - Do." As soon as you find yourself trying to answer questions like 'What do I want to do with my life?' you try to place everything on hold until you can answer it. And show me ONE 20 year old that can honestly answer that question! You’d be standing around thinking forever, and all that thinking and no action is bad for your inner balance.

I have discovered that the best way to know what you want is to try (obviously). But I say this because, only after you are in an environment can you really know what you love and hate about it. I had the same epiphany 4 years ago when I was deciding on a college. Everyone pretends, as the wander around campus tours and sit through advisor meetings, that they know what they are looking for. But how can you know what you love about something you have never lived through? The best decision I have ever made was transferring schools. Not until I had been at Univ of Dayton, did I know in general what college was like. Only then could I figure out what parts I like and don’t like. Then as I went through the college search round 2, the decision of Michigan State was so much easier and I felt so much more confident in it. If I ruled the world, everyone would have to look at college again after a year.

Now, I have to apply the same thinking as I go through the job search. I took the leap, ended up somewhere without much thought (they told me they would give me money to crunch their numbers; those were the only requirements I needed) Now that I've got those basic facts down, the hard part begins. What am I doing here? Do I even want to be here? Do I want to settle down here? Do I want to work at this job for the next 50 years? Do I even want to BE an accountant? No.

Whenever that answer would pop into my head over the past few weeks, I broke down in tears. I made the wrong decision. Regret has weighed heavy on me. But then again, its not that I went into this KNOWING it was wrong. I took the unknowing leap. Now that I’m here, I can look around and see what I like and don’t like. There are millions of places you can land after the kick, the odds of landing in the place you love forever and always is one in a million. Not such hot odds are they now?

So I’m not scared or embarrassed to say now that I don’t want to be where I am today for much longer. But I’m out here. And that part, that vast air of choices that I have now, that fact that I am young with nothing to tie me down except my apartment lease, is an amazing feeling.

Spray paint the town red

2007-04-19T11:31:00.000-05:00

When I came across a Times article about a NY graffiti artist's troubles with the law, the inevitable question arose in my mind that the judge is brooding over as well. Where is the line between art and vandalism?

The culture of graffiti art was nothing more than the backdrop to early '90s rap videos to me until I endured my 20 hour cross country road trip to Colorado with Doc and two of his friends. One of the boys had mentioned some random fact about how the rapper Common used to be part of the Chicago graffiti scene while we listened to "Be". You learn something new everyday. This was followed with some minor run-ins with the Crested Butte ski patrol and a tag on a chairlift by the fact-full dude. I was intrigued by this sub culture as I got a sample of it during my trip.

To further probe this underground culture I know nothing about, i looked to two trusted sources: Facebook and Wikipedia (“Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information.” – Michael, The Office). I did some minor stalking of Doc's friend and found a link in his profile to Banksy, a London graffiti artist that I seen in books in Urban Outfitters. Looking more closely at this guy's work, I was repeatedly jutted into shock and awe over the genius of his statements and simple finger pointing at the law of his art. Beyond his middle finger to the law, his art is thought-provoking, peace-desiring, and of course controversial (wouldn't ask for anything less). Even as I look for images to share of this guys awesome graffiti, I am hit with that which the graffiti artist fights - legality. On his site, I try to click the link to his gallery and get that siren on my screen "access denied" as the web at work is restricted. The cause of the sudden message was "Criminal Activity". There you go. I was trying to find a simple way to describe the frustration (or adrenalin rush) those artists get from the fact that what they do is overall considered criminal. But I don't think I need to elaborate.

The line is smudged when it comes to cases such as the Times article up there - when the graffiti artist's underground fame leads him into the bright light of mainstream capitalism. They become artists in the eyes of those that used to believe they should be behind bars as soon as they are sponsored by Vans or paint on a canvas instead of a subway. A graffiti artists turned-entrepreneur, Marc Ecko, recently came out with a PlayStation game that is based around: "an amateur graffiti artist going by the name of 'Trane' who uses graffiti and tagging as a way to protest against the corrupt city of New Radius, in a future world where freedom of expression is suppressed by a tyrannical city government." The Brooklyn Museum has even turned the city graffiti into an exhibit. Where is the line? Should the Brooklyn Museum be under siege for promoting the illegal? Or applauded for thinking outside the box, an idea that in embraced in contemporary art. It calls into question who decides what art is and the ideals behind freedom of speech. These are issues that have the same weight as asking what the meaning of life is. Unanswerable.

Yogi Bear

2007-04-17T13:22:00.000-05:00

In an attempt to outsmart my body from falling into the no-energy-or-motivation-to-do-anything-that-involves-strenuous-activities-or-spandex-give-me-my-sex-and-the-city-reruns-and-frumpy-sweaters winter work out slump, I started doing yoga instead of attempting to pull on my Underarmor and run outside. I've always been one drawn to the trendy spiritual world of incenses and kabala. Who wouldn't want to close their eyes and picture themselves next to a babbling brook or spending their days raking lines through sand, sipping herbal teas next to a waterfall? It all seems so fantastic and calm and deep. So unlike the everyday life of an American Dreamer. But I had never been able to become an active participant; afraid of being dismissed as a bandwagon spiritual explorer. For some reason though, as has happened multiple times since I moved (exactly 3 months ago!), one day I woke up and said “Today is the day, yoga. You and me, we’re going to see what we’ve got goin on together. I won’t be scared of your judgment and dedicated gurus if you don’t make fun of my stretch pants and the fact that I can’t touch my toes.”

So I started going to the beginner’s yoga class offered after work at the fitness center (With the fabulously-cheese name ‘Yoga Flow’). I really do enjoy it. I am surprisingly more flexible than I previously believed (My flexibility ended when I tossed my leotard and quit the YMCA gymnastics classes in 1st grade.) The first couple classes were dedicated to me trying not to giggle every time my instructor said to go into ‘downward-facing dog’ position or rolling my eyes at the gibberish Hindu names of other position that I was convinced she was making up as she went. Officially, the first few weeks were supposed to be for me to understand the general positions and find my body’s limits, which I did in between glances over at Elaine as she tried to fold herself into a pretzel.

But after those first few weeks trying to grasp the edge of this complex and exhausting Indian ritual (and after Elaine had given up on spiritual growth altogther), it started to flow (rightfully named for the class) a little better. I was already inches away from touching my toes again for the first time since before puberty, was learning position names, and could make the transitions without distracting the whole class as I waved my arms around or wiggle my butt trying to move my legs into a knot. My instructor is fabulous. She said I’m doing very well for a beginner and gently helps me correct my moves and gives me advice on breathing and hand placement. I understand now the need to focus on your breathing, how much easier each move comes if you are more aware internally of what you are doing, than what shadow puppet you seem to be making in the mirrored walls of the exercise room.

This is my intro into this little adventure that is yoga to me. There is lots more material where this came from. Until next time.

Virginia Tech

2007-04-17T07:47:00.000-05:00

It would be ignorant of me not to comment on the traumatic shooting at Virginia Tech yesterday. It sends chills through me as I read article after article about the timeline of events. I think it hits close to home because it was on a college campus. I picture it played out at MSU, in the dorm I lived in, in any number of buildings I went to class in every day. To imagine that scene isn't something that is settling to me.

The fact that news like that springs up in the middle of a quiet Monday reminds me of how surprising and unpreprared events like this are, making it all the more frightening and making me all the more aware of what is around me, how easily it can change.

From the sounds of a majority of the articles and news reports on the event, the university has a long road ahead of them as they defend their reactive actions and safety on campus. But, before politicans take this opportunity to blow up the gun control issues and before parents can criticize the influence of video games and being bullied at school, all questions and issues asside, we just need time to take it all in, notice the loss.

The Swiss Family Robinson, Gay Cars, Sex, Special Brownies, and Nelly Furtado

2007-04-12T07:38:00.000-05:00

The world must be having as boring of a week as I am. I couldn't help but notice the random topics of discussion in the NYTimes over the past few days.

- Rich upper class citizens across the world (not just the material girl of America) are finding new and exciting ways to spice up their already flaming lives and "get away from it all" (I know how you feel; sometimes I just feel like my bulging bank account weights heavy on my spirit too) by commissioning treehouse architects to build their childhood dream full scale. I would advise these people's shrinks to discuss childhood trama and their moms not loving them enough.

- Don't judge a book by its cover. Judge a gay man by his car.

- It seems the Health and Science writers have finally gotten laid, because they have spent the last 3 days pulling apart that which is the mystery of love, desire, and sex after 40. Don't get too hot and heavy, they have a very unsexy way of going about this complex path to understanding. Lest we forget that these are still science geeks, which brings up the fact that it has been this long since they last experienced that post-coital cuddle. From desire being in the genes (not trashy romance novels like we previously followed) to the inevitable and strong search party that tries, unrested, to find the female equivalent to those baby blues, and some dating show that goes on in your head called the flaw-o-matic and how dating services are serving to improve this cerebral entertainment and perhaps hiring Sally Fields as the new host. Responses to MLK Jr.'s flirting tactics and turning Menopause: The Musical into your center stage with your mojo as the lead continue to fill my mind with thoughts of how my DNA seems to be getting all the action. Still, it continues to tear apart the beautiful mystery of a gentle caress; a study on if middle aged people can accurately describe those butterflies in their stomach. Even Tom Cruise and his pose of scientologists are getting in on the action.

- A recipe for "Supernatural Brownies" except it seems the writer forgot to include the name of his dealer.....

- This last topic of Nelly Furtado isn't from the Times, but from my own observations. It was a sad moment in Cleveland radio yesterday when I heard N.Furt's old song during her one-hit-wonder times before being pulling into the Timbaland/JT pop-o-sphere. "Turn off the Lights". As I listened, I reminisced about driving home from school senior year of high school with the windows down and music turned up, thinking only of my public school bad boy boyfriend (who now has a 3 year old son. Go figure) and the football game that weekend. The DJ must have been having the same Saved by the Bell flashbacks as me (it was a college station) as he said "how weird it is to hear and oldie like that" Oldie. Sigh. Nelly is at the top of her game, yet she already has a song that is considered, not yesterdays news, but a relic for college students. This is how quickly the pop curcuit moves, whether your on it or not. Nelly, after falling off the train momentarily and reinventing herself (don't get me started on that term) as a promiscuous girl, is now an artist that's talent is celebrated over 5 whole years. Such talent!

What is Community? The after-school special

2007-03-30T10:44:00.000-05:00

Working at the gallery has lead me into the heart of "community", a word that I've always associated with surbanite moms getting together for Tupperware parties or the Friday Lenten fish fry at the church. But after only volunteering there 2 or 3 times, I'm seeing that what I am doing has nothing to do with "making sure nobody steals the art". In the 6 hours I have spent in the gallery, I have gotten 2 visitors. In both cases, the art itself was not the focus of their visit. They would politely stop in front of each sketch and oil painting; from the outside looking very involved and deep in thought over the colors and strokes, but inside I knew they had alternative reasons for come in. I know this because I have done it hundreds of time. (Going into American Eagle or Tower Records, perusing, trying to convey my intense interest in the subjects to the employees, in order to, wordlessly, show them my perfect match to their company, then timidly asking if they need summer help.) So these 2 people did the same, and I gave them their space to enjoy and recollect their thoughts. Then they both hesitantly approached me where I sit reading my Vogue article about the new biography on Denys Finch Hatton, the real life man behind Robert Redford's character in 'Out of Africa'. (1900's European settlers in Africa is slowing becoming my flavor of the week, replacing my love of Andy Warhol as I exhausted his life last month).

One man in his mid 60's started talked to me about how he used to paint back in the day in high school and college, but has redirected his passion to the jazz guitar. He wanted to know if we would be interested in having his jazz band play at opens or events. I excitedly emailed the owner, proud of doing my part to make this from-the-ground-up volunteer-run gallery into a thriving cultural haven.

Last night a woman came in, did the art-love walkabout and approached me about putting out some flyers for a local performing arts center. I told her visitors would probably be very interested in seeing their performances and she left a stack. I thought, with a hint of frustration for the woman's effort that we don't get much foot traffic around here to fill their auditorium. But then I stepped back, thinking about the man from last week. The point of this place isn't simply to look at art. It is using the art as a segway to bringing the artful talent of people together. This place is truly being built by people's passion. Nobody is getting paid, but the desire to see this place grow is enough to keep them coming back. The first day I was there, Kathy, a dedicated volunteer, told me that they hoped that opening this gallery would bring life back into a struggling, rough neighborhood. That they felt that this could be accomplished through art. When I heard it, I gave her a warm smile, thinking that there is nothing more refreshing than an idealist. But I regret ever looking down on her naïvety. She was right. People are coming out to help build this place into a place to visit, to live.

To see how this gallery, and adjoining cafe, is making a small footprint to start:

http://www.freetimes.com/story/4992

http://www.freetimes.com/dining_lead/1449

Like father, not like daughter

2007-03-21T14:58:00.000-05:00

I love that my dad pushes my opinions on the music industry. We have continued a long stream of conversations about CDs, MP3, file sharing. The generation gap is very clear. I have come to a few conclusions based on my intense study of our 2 small voices in a sea of how many millions of Americans involved in the music industry, translating it into the proverbial generation gap between my 21-year-old self and his 53-year-old self. (This is my disclaimer that I may be making sweeping generalizations, but I think it points out some interesting differences)

My family goes through the MP3 player shuffle every few years. I got my first MP3 player at 15, holding an astounding 30 songs! After I advanced to one that held 65 songs (even more amazing, hold one whole playlist!) my dad got the small, less capacity one. For the next 6 years, after including my sister into the tradeshow, we have exchanged 6 different iPods and off brand players. My dad and I were discussing the iPod shuffle vs the new mega huge capacity new iPod video. I told him I wanted to trash my old 6 GB mini for the video; he wanted to get the shuffle. I didn’t understand why he would waste his money on something that only holds 100 songs; he didn’t understand why I would splurge on something so big and bulky. He preferred to look for something more compact, something he can stick in his little key pocket in his running shorts or in his breast pocket for the morning commute to work. I dream of the possibility of having every song in my library with me at all times. Could it be the extent of advancement during our times? Is dad used to the old walkman innovation when people realized they could carry their music around with them. And am I just still loving the novelty of the MP3 format, being able to squish all my music onto a CD or device (This is, in fact, what I picture when I make an MP3 format CD, that all my songs are squished shoulder to shoulder scrambling to keep up with my changing the song ever 30 seconds). We stand on our respective sides of the gap.

Today dad sent me yet another WSJ article where the music industry whines on about people stealing music and iTunes not saving the world one song at a time like they wanted (Look, I realize my husband is the shit, but you have got to give the guy a break sometimes, he is not superhuman. Or is he….) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117444575607043728-email.html? Dads comment on the article:

Music business downward spiral continues!

Business idea: A record shop that only carries OLD stuff. The big stores are not going to carry that and people might actually want to buy classic stuff to have it in hard copy. :-)

love you....dad

My response:

You may be onto something. Maybe they need to shift marketing of CDs to the older generations (no offense) because they are more used to buying a physical CD then download it or get it on iTunes. I bet if they did a poll of the age of most iTunes customers, it would be my generation because we are more adapt to listen to our music on the computer, where you have grown up listening on records, tapes, CDs.

I also think they are just getting scared because there are no instant results. Its going to take time for a whole industry to change medias. its still only been, what, not even 10 years since file sharing because common? They need to chill out and just keep working at selling online for young people and keep up CDs of older artists for older generations.

We should probably just take over the music industry, ok? Ok cool ill get Steve jobs on the phone.

Problem solved. We may still be looking over the edge of oppoiste sides of the gap, but we seem to be building a bridge (Hopefully not like that hideous thing they just built over the Grand Canyon. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/03/21/grand.canyon.skywalk.ap/index.html $75 to look at what it would be like to fall to your death from a national landmark. No thanks!)

Mrs. Steve Jobs

2007-03-21T09:03:00.000-05:00

Today Apple released yet another new product to use exciting little catchphrases like "innovative" "industry-leader" "thinking inside the box" (actually I thought up that last one, kind of catchy....get me Steve on the phone). It’s called the Apple TV (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=4A256D28&nclm=AppleTV). It lets you watch videos you have downloaded (preferably from iTunes of course) on your TV. Great idea for all of us illegal downloaders (That just doesn't strike the gasp of America that it used to. I miss the old days when that was considered so rebellious and I'm-going-to-court-and-fighting-my-cause). But at $300 a pop, I could buy 60 movies from the 4 for $20 bin at Blockbuster. Plus, if they want people to buy from iTunes, who is going to pay for a show then pay for the device to show it on TV when the show was on TV in the first place? It’s full circle! My god he's even a genius when his products don't make sense! I love this man.

How are people this desperate to watch Desperate Housewives in the middle of their busy days that they need to pay more for it to go on their iPod so they can watch it while they are jetsetting to Seattle for a meeting with Starbucks or waiting in the minivan for their kids to get out of school, and then pay more for when they do realize they have an hour to watch it on TV later?? It’s called a tape recorder and its free when you buy a $40 kitchen TV from Costso! My dad still tapes the Office for me on VHS and mails me the tape so I can watch it later.

I am not bashing Jobs. If he can get people to pay up for instant gratification, cash in on it! I just feel that my business knowledge is insync with his plan to take over the world; I'm on to him and his clever ads with cute MAC boys and white earpods. You cannot reel me in you conniving mogul, Jobs! Marry me?

Disclaimer: I am listening to podcasts everyday on my iPod at work, am thinking about upgrading to the Pod video, have convinced my sister to get a Mac for college next year, am pricing out getting an iBook myself, and the iPhone commercials give me butterflies.

Confessions and a new boyfriend

2007-03-20T09:44:00.000-05:00

Blockbuster online, whom I feel like I am in a relationship with, has found this inconspicuous way of revealing the guilty acts of Friday night relaxers. Everyone has those few nights each month where they stay in and enjoy some alone time with their favorite actor, a package of Pepperidge Farm snacks, and a bottle of wine. I covet these nights in which I can, without shame or explanation needed, watch those movies that you will deny your interest in with the fervor of Judas. You know what movies I’m talking about. The new Eddie Murphy fat suit movie, Jackass 2, John Tucker Must Die. I know with confidence that Zoey will not tell my dirty little secret that I watched She’s the Man to anyone except her little pink pompom toys or the monster under the couch that she continuously meows at. There are some movies that are so horrible that you won’t even rent them from the store in fear of the weighing judgment that will rain down on you from the Blockbuster employee as you attempt to avoid eye contact while renting Raise your Voice. Then someone introduces you to BB online, and its love at first sight. All the movie you could want and you don’t even have to leave the house in your oversized Myrtle Beach crew neck sweatshirt.

But as I was filling up my query today with more movies for my new boyfriend (we’ll call him Sam) to mail to me, I discovered that Sam was telling my secrets. American’s secrets. There, right under the new releases; Top 100 online rentals. I click. There are the typical Oscar winners at the top as everyone attempts to gobble up what the Academy says is the best. But as I scroll I see the first of the unknowing victims. Position #8: Click. #13 Fun with Dick and Jane #18 the longest yard #24 RV. There they were, let lose over the blackmail powers of the Internet; America’s guilty pleasures (which, apparently, includes fantasies of Adam Sandler, Jim Carey, and Robin Williams). I have been betrayed by the one I love. But, as all relationships go, there is the grace period. Luck for Sam, we have only been seeing each other for a few weeks and have yet to get serious. I let It slide as a brink in judgment on the part of BB management. Or maybe Sam just wants me to see that I am not alone; there are others with the same mindless interest in bad movies as me. And, with that, I add Just Friends to my query.

Batshit crazy

2007-03-15T12:05:00.000-05:00

I would like to preface this post with a post from my favorite fug girls (from that link Go Fug Yourself, which if you have not already visited, this will show you how ingenious these girls are) http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2006/04/mission_infugga.html Its from last year, but I get so desperately bored at work sometimes that I go into the archives and see what celebs they were bashing a year ago.

With that intro, I would like to touch on craziness. Insanity. I had an epiphany last night. I got home from work, elated that my blockbuster online movie had yet to let me down, being oh so attentive of my need for a new movie each night, waiting patiently for me in my mialbox. Tonight was an independent film called "Secretary" with Maggie Gyllenhaal (whom I adore after seeing Mona Lisa(s) Smile(s) - no idea which one it is- the female version of Dead Poet's Society, aside from her sometimes lack of bra-wearing and being totally unable to spell her last name without looking on imdb). I was excited because I had just seen her in Stranger than Fiction and rediscovered my adoration of her normality and spunk.

This movie fell, I did not realize, into the “crazy person” genre. This, about a girl that enjoys cutting herself and, after she gets out of the loony bin, falls in love with the lawyer she works for because he spanks her and realizes her love of “roughness” (we’ll leave it at that), along with a movie I had seen recently of a retrospect on the woman who shot Andy Warhol who happens to be a crazy feminist who believes she has a tracking device in her no-no and ends up in the loony bin.

After watching both of these movies, I started to question my own sanity. If Valerie (Andy Warhol attempted-murderess) was walk around NYC and hanging out in the Factory for years before being committed, and Lee (S&M secretary) could be any number of receptionists in law offices across the US, how do I know I’m not crazy? Nobody knows what I do in my apartment. Suddenly, the little obsessions I get from fashion magazines, to pasta for dinner every night, from Andy Warhol, to searching for new music, from facebook, to the ever-growing collage on my wall all seemed like these uncontrollable, unexplainable actions in my head. I was driving myself mad. Then I realized that these were obviously very well done movies if they actually convinced their audience that they themselves are insane, relating to the main characters, getting inside their head. After breathing a sigh of relief for not having to call my parents from the psych ward of the Cleveland Clinic, I was in awe over these directors talent. I don’t know whether to love them or hate them.

I Bleed Green

2007-03-14T08:10:00.000-05:00

Green is the new pink this March. Amongst other things, Green grass when the snow finally melted for that always-exciting-and-frustrating mid-winter meltdown before we are hit with the inevitable April snowstorm (God love the Midwest weather), green beer as I finally escape to the sweet atmosphere of the bars at 6am for an East Lansing St Patrick's Day (A city that will forever be green), and green in the papers as Hollywood makes the environment fashionable.

I have heard the monologues given by my pure-intentioned hippie boyfriend (dear God even I'm accessorizing with my green beloved) about how our consumption is going to lead to the complete breakdown of the circle of life, about the money saving and energy saving natural resources that are will NOT run out by 2050, about the ill-intentioned corporations. So this stuff has been shuffling around my brain for a few years, but I woke up one morning and realized that it was everywhere. I wasn't just hearing from him anymore, I was hearing it from the NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/07/business/businessspecial2/07jobs.html?ref=businessspecial2), from Silicon Valley (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/technology/14valley.html?hp), from Al Gore (http://www.aninconvenienttruth.co.uk/).

I think it’s fabulous that issues are becoming trendy. It's the one follower-fueled trend that could be positive, not leading girls into non-carb-sugar-calories-fat-food diets or convincing men to wear pink. Isn't the best way to get people to become more aware of waste and environmental alternatives in their life that to put in the mouth of their fave celeb, or making exaggerated movie commentaries about the meltdown of our ozone (Midwest weather...hmm...). It works for every other stylish lifestyle that people follow when told by Tyra Banks that it is fierce. The AIDS epidemic has been going on for countless years, yet, before Bono and the Gap took hold of the issue, it was helped by a niche group of passionate people. But I'm not going to rip on red Razr phones or Bradgelina when, because of their exploitation of the issue, there are more people aware and helping the cause. More is always better, regardless of by how much. So whoever decided that they would blow up environmental issues over the brainwaves of the public (It was probably Steve Jobs in some twisted path, because he can infiltrate the American lifestyle in a way that I would give my business degree to understand.) is a genius. Because, if small, it may be working. Corporations eager to cash in on this marketing persona are actually working on changing processes to eliminate more pollution, develop 100% natural clothing lines (http://www.americanapparelorganics.com/), rock 'n rollers are reeling in the music elite crowds to recycle(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/fashion/15reverb.html), and party planners creating the au natural wedding (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/fashion/11green.html?ex=1174017600&en=00750a103573dfaf&ei=5070) I am full of useful links today. So I tip my hat to the Hollywood trend-setter that saw the real beauty in their power.

*I do also realize that it could be that the NYTimes is just very into the green thing and, being that it is my main source of news (asside from the occational Wall Street Jouranl article my dad sends me about what amazing thing Steve Jobs is doing in order to fuel my obsession with him), I am simply not expanding beyond their range of worldly coverage. I will attempt to get my hands on some different sources to expand my media library

Spring Break?

2007-03-03T11:54:00.000-05:00

Today, The ann st conquitadors jumped on a plane to add a little more chaos to Acapulco. Today Doc began his 20 hour drive for a bar crawl of the Colorado Rockies (again). Today I woke up in my Apartment in Cleveland. It's going to be a long week.....

To help or not to help, that is the question

2007-02-28T09:50:00.000-05:00

I got a fortune cookie once that said "You will be involved in many humanitarian projects." Now I am no superstitious gypsy, believing that my future can appear within a little deep fried knot I got with my fried rice at a dingy Chinese restaurant called Chopsticks, but I think it was a little inspiration I needed. I have always contemplated running off to an underdeveloped country and getting down and dirty, really helping, seeing a difference. No more of this ivory tower crap. I'm not the only one with this little flame of passion waiting to explode inside me (wow that was kind of more grotesque than I was looking for.) I have plenty of friends that are waiting for the right time to give up on the glamour of their idealized jobs and join Teach for America or the Peace Corp. My sister is currently struggling to decide whether to major in Special Ed when she goes off to college next year, advancing her love of helping autistic children.

I hear plenty of people saying they are going to help, shifting their goals from individual success to success through others. But why are my friends still running off to grad school so they can jump to the tops of their industries and make a 6 digit salary right out of the gate? Why is my sister looking at law school? Why am I sitting in a cubicle? Money. Our parents don't want to see us moving back into our old bedrooms, working for less than we can get by on our own. A valid concern. A catch-22. It's not that our parents don't want to see us help a child learn to read or build a home for a family; it’s that they want us to have a home as well. Apparently, my group of friends are not the only ones with this conundrum.

http://www.collegejournal.com/careerpaths/findcareerpath/20060703-shellenbarger.html

I love seeing positive trends within my generation, instead of the constant nagging of the shallow exterior of today’s young adults that we hear from our older counterparts in the media (which is ironic considering the superficial frame of the media right now, but I'm sure they blame that on us too).

So where is the balance? I do admit that I find my parents pulling me back down to earth when I tell them I'm quitting my job to do something more rewarding, to feel like I'm making a difference, instead of formatting excel spreadsheets and pulling endless numbers from databases. But they continually remind me that I need the money before I can run off to South America to work in a cocoa bean field. Untill then, I have to find fulfillment on a smaller, after-work, scale. Volunteer. So I found a local art center that needs volunteers to work in its gallery during shows. Not only does this get my foot in the door in the art world, something that I have more passion for than queries, but also have something that I am doing where my work is needed, where people love what they are doing. Get involved.

Playing in the Attic

2007-02-27T20:00:00.000-05:00

I was going back through old files on my computer because I save EVERYTHING (even that birthday card for Mom I made in Printshop back when people still made cards with Printshop). I adore reading essay I wrote in high school, and angry letter I would write to people and never send, or song lyrics that I wanted to save, emails people had sent me that I keep to put a smile on my face, and late night AIM conversations with cute boys or girlfriends. I love reading all that. So tonight I feel upon three things I would like to share. My London experience, a college application essay, and a 12th grade creative writing assignment.

1) I decided to post all my emails from the summer of '05 when I studied abroad in London. Enjoy http://jennyslondonlog.blogspot.com/

2) When I applied to U of M (the second time around) I was very determined to get in. I don't understand this now. Looking back, MSU was a perfect fit like a couture red carpet dress, but probably a lot easier to breathe in. Anyway, I wanted to wow them with my progressive ideas and outside-the-box philosophies on the US. So I attacked this question with something that was very near and dear to me. Illegal downloading, which in 2004, was in the midst of randomly prosecuting teens that were furiously downloading Dave Matthews and Jay-Z. We all know in the back of our mind we were afraid the RIAA was going to knock on our dorm door, hand cuff us to our futon, take our computer and throw it out the window. It was the first thing I found myself passionate about. Here we have it.

Discuss an issue of local, national, or international concern. Why is this issue important to you? How would you resolve it? What impact would its resolution have on others?

Internet piracy is an issue whose importance is many times overlooked by people. There are issues, such as terrorism and discrimination, which are clearly more important to the safety of the country. I am not one to downgrade the significance and anxiety of these issues. But to many Americans, no matter their age, ethnicity, or income, music makes just as much of an impact on their life as terrorism or discrimination, but in a positive way. In the past 5 years, the government has found that people all over the world are downloading music and movies free off the internet from peer-to-peer file sharing products. Popular artists saw this as a threat to sales of their CDs, while independent bands saw this as an opportunity to expand their fan base.

How would I resolve this conflict? I wouldn’t. I believe people should be able to download music free. Free peer-to-peer file sharing programs such as Kazaa and LimeWire give independent bands a gateway to the public. I learned about one band in particular, Dispatch, who owes much of their success to these programs. Their popularity did not reach the radio air waves, yet they still had sold out concerts in cities they had never been to before. How? Fans would learn about them through word of mouth, then explore their website, and download their songs from the internet. There have also been polls and surveys taken that show that most people that use peer-to-peer file sharing still buy many CDs. They download songs from the internet of artists they hear about and, if they like what they hear, they will go out and buy the CD. Consumers understand the economics of it. They understand that artist receive a percentage of the profit from album sales. They will buy the CD of artists they want to support. I can attest to doing the same myself.

I think if the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the US government stepped back and allowed peer-to-peer file sharing to control the music industry, they would see a new wave of musical popularity. My theory is as follows. Artists’ concerns over illegal downloading have developed from their concern over their profits. I don’t believe that artists should think about the money, but the success of allowing people that may not be wealthy enough to purchase CDs to listen to their music. If artists saw this, music would not be a job or career, but a passion. This would increase the quality of music to songs that artists write and play from their hearts. Their focus would not be on profits but on having an impact on listeners. The government, RIAA, and other supporters of a ban on peer-to-peer file sharing only see the industrial problems of the programs, but they are looking superficially at the issue, instead of the potential for a shift in the goal of music.

Unfortunately, UofM was too busy accepting 8% Indian teens and Jewish German students to "increase students experiences" to take on my theory. I like to think I was just too advanced for them. And too white.

3) This is the best thing I have ever written. Not the most sophisticated or deep or flowing, but the best. We had to write an exaggerated profile about someone we know. I chose the most exaggerated person I know, one I didn't really need to stretch the truth on. My sister, Andrea.
Caricature of My Sister
If you were a fly on the wall of our house during dinner, you would most likely become very confused, thinking you have flown into a classic Jim Carey movie. It starts out relatively civil. My mom calls us down to dinner. I tear myself away from the computer and walk downstairs. My dad and I wait patiently for my sister to come down, and wait, and wait, and wait. She always has to make an entrance. She waits until her presences will be seen by everyone, irritated or not.

Suddenly we hear the toilet flush and a blood-curling scream. Andrea comes hurdling down the stairs and into the kitchen, soaked and disheveled. Looking like a dog after an unwilling bath she exclaims, “Had I been drinking out of the toilet, I would have been killed!” I, personally, can’t contain myself when she does her impromptu performances and I have tears streaming down my face. After a few minutes, my mom forces a straight face and tells her to march right upstairs and change. Ann responds with an “Allllrighty then!” and walks back up, snickering over her successful little recital. Somehow, my parents lecturing over her crazy behavior never faze her.

By the end of dinner she has effectively made me fall out of my chair… twice, made my dad cry of laughter, and had my mom laughing like Phyllis Diller. It’s always a fun night when a Telemarketer calls. My dad always hands the phone to Ann when they request to speak to the homeowner. Tonight it must be a carpet cleaning companies because I can hear her in the family room terrorizing the poor person on the other end of the receiver, “Can you get out blood? Can you get out GOAT blood? How about HUMAN blood?” Then she does her little victory dance around the table when they hang up on her. For petrifying the Telemarketer, my mom tells her do the dishes. To that Andrea says, “Your request is not unlike that of your lower intestines, stinky and loaded with danger.” After one more stab at getting out of the dishes, we all glare at her and she exits stage left sputtering like Daffy Duck, “Well then, this is nice room of DEATH.” I don’t know anyone else that can fit a line from “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” so casually into her conversations.

You can tell by now that my 13 year old sister, Andrea, is going to be then next big thing to hit Hollywood. Her role model is Jim Carey. She has perfected every line from “Dumb and Dumber”, “Ace Ventura”, and “The Mask”. Every crazy, seemingly non-feasible, facial expression of his comes second nature to her. And if she doesn’t make it to the glitz and glamour of the movies, her second string dream is to be a regular on the primetime comedy skit show “Saturday Night Live”. She has a knack for entertaining people. Sometime she doesn’t even realize she is doing it. For example, one morning I went to wake her up because her alarm had been going off for ten minutes and there was no sign of significant life coming from her room. I walk upstairs and see her standing in front of her dresser staring blankly at her alarm as it blares on. I stumble in, laughing hysterically, and ask what in the world she is doing. The only response I get is, “It just blinked at me.”

She isn’t much of a morning person. She doesn’t fully function until she comes home from school at 3 o’clock and you can’t expect much to come out of her mouth anytime before noon. So she spends the rest of the day catching up and you can’t shut her up until 7 o’clock the next morning. She even talks in her sleep! She talks to anyone who will listen and do anything for an audience. She once had a spirited debate with a mannequin in the women’s department of “Marshall Fields” over fabric softener. She successfully gained the applause of half of the department. Yes, she is still my annoying little sister, but she’s always good for a few laughs.

Minority Report

2007-02-22T08:34:00.000-05:00

I may be going to my first political rally next week for Barak Obama. I could turn this post into a political rant, but seeing as its only 8:30 in the morning and I'm sleep deprived without caffeine in me yet, I'll limit my questioning mind when it comes to the checks and balances of the US. Plus, I used to date an overwhelming Conservative pre-law guy that made politics seem exhausting and attacking with the extent that he talked about it, which has turned me off to the majority of politics aside from the 4 year Pres election (I don't feel that you can criticize the government unless you attempted to change it. So I do it so I can complaint for 4 more years).

I would just like to state my excitement over the 2008 election. Being fresh Democratic meat (having only voted in one other pres election), I am still new and excited about my party. And I must say that the Democratic party being the first to successful promote TWO minority (if you include women as the minority in DC) candidates is something to shine on about. Finally. Years after equal rights for blacks and women, bra-burning, sit-ins, segregation, Remember the Titans, we finally realize that other people actually have some decent ideas for the new direction of America (which is fairly obvious it needs).

I am excited for this election, not simply for this point, but because I am at a political maturity to see the vitality and challenge of the primaries. It's easy for Democrats to bash the Republican views and vice versa, but this is your people against each other. They can't bank on winning votes from their overall views, because they are pretty much the same. You have to look deeper. So maybe this election's Democratic primary is extra heated because of the two progressive candidates and Democrats new spotlight in Congress, or I'm just getting more educated in the ways of Washington. But I LOVE the fact that we have two minorities going head to head. It shows a new front for politics and, hopefully, America's future. Obama is slightly ahead in my book, and the book of most Democrats, due to his end-war campaign and complete anti-war mentality from the start. Hillary has that damn scar of a relationship with her husband, supported the war initially (although she has said it needs to end now), and conservative liberalism, which isn't the way to attack change.

But this also creates some very interesting aspects of minority popularity. I find it interesting that Obama seems to have a leg up on Clinton. Could this mean that the US is ready for a black president before they are ready for some estrogen in the White House? I realize that most of the news-making is from the candidates themselves, but when you take a step back and picture the election in 11th grade history books in 20 years, that is what will be said. Although, in a year, the whole face of the election could change.

Love from across an Ocean

2007-02-21T13:46:00.000-05:00

The NYTtimes never fails me. Today, while surfing through the headlines, not finding much that interests me, I found a section I had not explored yet. Travel. My goal in life is to visit enough of the world to retire as a travel agent, sending people on the same tours I had experienced, giving them advice on the best markets, local music, beaches, wineries, people to get the best out of their break from life. And the place that has forever been at the top of my list is Africa, for multiple reasons that hit areas far outside the simple tourist targets. Of course, there isn't one spot that will satisfy my explorative needs.

I want to go on a safari, stay in luxurious, locally decorated with natural, bare amenities tents set up in the middle of killer game territory, nomads land for miles over miles. I want to see animals in their natural habitant; I want to learn about life outside the zoo, life outside the ozone-destructing developed countries (catch-22 when you think about it). Zambia has yet to be hit with the tourist cameras and Hawaiian shirts, maintaining the chilling serenity of the open land. And then, as I read an article about penthouse safari stays in incredible houses, I imagine a private getaway with your other half, lounging on your hammock overlooking the African sunset, sipping champagne in the pool watching the backyard waterfall run, lying on your outdoor bed watching zebra roam through binoculars. You get the picture. Picture it in one of these suites: http://www.safarihouses.com/ I may want to be one with nature, and will probably only ever be able to afford those canvas tents and outhouses in the desert, but I am still a girl that would give her entire collection of Vanity Fair back issues to be glamorous in this exotic way.

I want to experience the culture. I am a cultural guru wannabe. And Africa has this mysterious, exotic, untouched by American commercialism feel that it is impossible not to imagine what life is like in those tradition soaked, rich community towns in Morocco, Kenya, Zimbabwe. The butterflies in my stomach get excited just thinking about the amount I could learn about life outside capitalists and money-run cultures like the US, Europe, Asia (and at least Europe and Asia can preserve parts of their history and traditions). As involved as I am in corporate America, I am no hypocrite, I just know there’s more out there and cannot wait to find it. A unique culture mix I'm learning about is on the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. Also known for being the last stop on Dr. Livingstone's African exploration (A name near and dear to me). It is situated just close enough to Africa and the Middle East to have established its people as moderate-practicing Muslims while integrating African clans, creating an artful mix of music, color, and people. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/travel/10zanzibar.html?ex=1172206800&en=31925d5e864c2d99&ei=5070

And (Angelina Jolie, Bono, and Oprah would be so proud) I want to help. Because I don’t want to see this patchwork culture covering Africa to fade due to poverty, disease, and political upheaval. I am eternally grateful for being in that 5% of the world with an education, good health, financial and emotional support, comfort. And the least I can do is help. I know I won't change anything single-handedly, but I also know I won't sit back and ignore what I hear in the media about the conditions over there. I not only want to experience their lives, but help them. http://www.i-to-i.com/destinations/ghana/

So maybe eventually I'll have a trip under my belt to tell about.

Mardi 'my pants off' Gras

2007-02-20T11:44:00.000-05:00

There are a handful of music festivals (or along those lines) that I will try until I go deaf to experience. One of those is Mardi Grad in New Orleans. To get in the middle of that hot, crazed, tasty celebration is something i would give my entire iTunes library to take in. Beads, masks, jazz and blues, bourbon, jesters, ancient (in American tersm) chaos. Loves it.

Other festivals I will try until I go deaf to check out are Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. Most Lolla right now since they ahve discovered that rock and rap and jam and hip hop can live in sweet musical harmony. When Justin (Boutit, not Timberlake) finally broke me into the world of rap that doesn't include Eminem or 'Slap that ass up on the floor' and actually has a hot beat and deep lyrics, I have been trying to educate myself in it a little more, opening myself up to more than just indie rock. And then this recent discovery that labels are actually finding that the two genres can, in fact, go hand in hand, with rock melodies and guitar lines to back up the deep hip hop beats that give the music a little more kick than your average bass. Par example (just from flipping through my Ipod):
Jurassic 5 + DMB 'Work it out'
Jay Z + Chris Martin 'Beach Chair'
The genius of Danger Mouse's Grey Album Beatles + Jay Z

So when, last year, Lolla broke some internal barriers by headlining Kanye and Chili Peppers and following that with a 130 band mix of rap and rock, I was hooked on this new relationship.

A festival I never thought would BE on my list, let alone get checked off, was Live 8 - the 20 year anniversary of Live Aid. I grew up hearing about Live Aid, a worldwide festival to support famine relief in Ethiopia in July 1985, three weeks before I was born. My parents love telling (and I love hearing) the story of how, on an 90 degree day in July, my mom sat in an ice bath 9 months pregnant with me while my dad, refusing to go somewhere with proper air conditioning like a movie theater, sat in front of the TV for 12 hours watching the cameras cut from London, Philly, Moscow, Sydney as bigger than life bands played on together, with the likes of the Who, Elton John, The Beach Boys, Elvis Costello, Madonna, Floyd, Dylan, Jagger, Paul McCartney, Run DMC, Sting, Zeppelin, Duran Duran, CSN&Y, Patti Labelle. I could go on. My dad taped the entire concert on his Beta recorder and, every few years, would pull it out for a 12 hour rock 'n roll lesson for me. My mom says that's why I have such a music knack is because, ready to pop in her belly, I listen to 12 hours of incomparable artists trying to change the world one song at a time.

Well, as good as that story is on its own, it gets better. 20 years later, studying abroad in London for the summer, my trip fell right on the date of the reunion concert, as a new generation (and some of the old) tried to get the world's (and the G8's) attention for famine relief in Africa once again. I sat on the lawn of a park in London and watched as Sir Elton, Sir Paul, Madonna, FLOYD, The Who relived history alongside Coldplay, U2, Dido, REM, Annie Lennox, Keane, The Killers, and a list of other new British bands. They would cut on the big screen to Philly, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Moscow, and other cities as they played on too. Ending 12 hours later with "Hey, Jude" I knew it was pretty much fate that I was in this city for something so big to me. And, as you can see, I love bragging about it.

I will not become a crazy cat lady

2007-02-19T16:09:00.000-05:00

And now, on a much lighter note (so I don't start out as this angst, media induced, above-you-all snob) I got a cat over the weekend. I just graduated from college and moved to a new city (the birthplace of rock 'n roll, non-the-less) to start my first (and hopefully not only) career workin for The Man in corporate America. I quickly learned that the amount of me-time and amount of frenzied go-time with friends shifts from college to the ol' 9-to-5 office cubicle job. More me. Too much me. So I desided to get a cat. Something to stop me from thinking about myself all the time. Plus, sitting in front of the TV watching commentary from the Sex and the City season 2 DVD, reading Vogue, and having a loney glass of wine (which your friends left behind accidentally on purpose when they visited the other weekend - thanks ladies) at night seems just a little less sad with a companion, regard of how many legs she has.

So after weeks of searching, trying to find that perfect cat that complimented the charateristics in my old cat (the one I grew up with for the first 20 years of my life) while maintaining her own, new, kitten quirks that I never got from Mitzy because by the time I was old enough to not attempt to dress her in doll clothes or feed her glittery pom-poms she was past that kitten age of adventure and pure catnip-induced madness. I found the most beautiful long haired calico kitten at the rip age of 9 months waiting for my when I went to PetSmart one day and couldn't tear myself away from her. I looked like a kid at the windows of the Marshall Field's Christmas display along Michigan Ave in December. A week later, she was mine. And I got her from a local shelter, which made my animal-loving grandma very happy that I was indirectly saving the world one lost cute kitty at a time.

The naming process was stressful until I let her, terrified, out of her cage after the drive from the pet store to my one-bedroom apartment. I had spent weeks thinking up the best, most unique and stylish names I could come up with. I was so impressed with my finalize list that I was stressing myself out at having to choose only one. I was like a socialite teenager in a Manolo Blanik store, I wanted them all. Edie, Ramona, Baila, Tegan, Carrie, Lady, Sophie, Gracie, Mali, Keaton, Neko. But as soon as she was wandering, excited and causious, around her new home, slowly all the names were crossed off. They instantly fit or did not fit her, like trying on new jeans, an exhausting process, but so worth it when you find the perfect pair. Zoey. After one of my favorite underrated actress, Zooey Deschanel, known mainstream for her 'A Christmas Story' inspired efl costume alongside Will Farrell. The name was just exotic enough to satify my artistic, uncommon, itch yet normal enough that she isn't the kid that gets made fun of for the the crazy name in middle school.

The ever opinion-raging pop culture

2007-02-19T16:04:00.000-05:00

I realize its early and this could be tough for a first post, but I want to take a stab at our current pop culture with a picture that my friend sent me at work this morning.

Ok so I can't seem to get the picture in here but I hope you can visualize it or go to people.com and see for yourself. Britney shaved her head (you can imagine the kind of start my day got when I saw this at 7:30am) after checking into rehab for ONE day. I could say that blah blah she's supposed to be a role model yadda yadda yadda. But what I'm more worried about it the fact that she is scum, yet the media keeps feeding her to us, along with many other wash-up celebrities. Paparazzi create a flip book of young celebs which I have finally passed up in age (which makes me feel older, wiser, and more pulled together) as America widdles them down to nothing with their comments and opinions. I find it fascinating that, somewhere along the way as the US grew up, we turned actors and musicians into our country's equivalent to the Pope, Gandhi, Hitler. We follow their every action, whether it be leggings or botox, and hang on to their guidance of make millions, spend millions, divorce, cheat, look sexy. And the worst part is that I can't sit here and say that glamour and style are dead, because they are very much alive. There are plenty of classy ladies out there. But the bulk of our media-frenzied lives are focused on these superficial beings. The only upturn that I see in Britney's new hair, in the obscene weight-lose of Hollywood teens (see Nicole Richie, MK Olsen, etc.), Anna Nicole's not-so sudden-or-mysterious death is that I believe people are finally seeing the not-so fabulous life that these people lead. They are like us, they mess up. Great. So why are the spotlights still on them and not us? Why are they still held up as being what people want to be? I say we look to the underrated and even non-famous beings that have graced our country if we really want to try for something more than barefoot bathroom trips or drug induced weight lose diets. America Ferrera (whom I cannot say enough about. She is giving my generation a clean slate and a peak at what normal, beautiful women there still are out there), Kate Winslet (Who actually makes being a mom someday seem nice, homely, fun, and puts to shame the myth that actresses are SO overworked and have SUCH a hard job that they have no time for anything but mirror-posing-perfection and sunless tanning. She also shows me that maybe there are some actresses out there that are intelligent and have some worthwhile advice for me.)

My new epiphany, as my jealousy grows for countries that have philosophical leaders with spiritual awareness that they want to share with their community, is that maybe America goes beyond the superstars. There are intelligent people around every corner. Why am I upset that advice Hillary Swank gave to Vogue just isn't good enough for me? Why not see that I can learn from more than just your average pretty face? I mean, they are just like us.

Never in a Million Years

2007-02-19T16:01:00.000-05:00

I never thought I'd start one of these blog things. But seeing as all roads lead to Rome, I've had a few people tell me its good place to start if I actually want people to read what I write, whatever that may be. So we'll see where this leads me.

Ignore this

2007-01-28T11:01:00.000-05:00

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