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.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
It's too Late to Apologize
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
I've got a crush on Obama
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.
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
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
And I said noo noo noo
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!
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!
Monday, July 2, 2007
Rehab is so hot right now
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.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Oh, the wonder of it all!
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)
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
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.
"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.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
What can I say? JD Salinger used to get me high
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.....
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.....
Friday, June 1, 2007
25 million faces
(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.
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.
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