Story Line

Once upon a time, the United States stood victorious after the end of the Cold War, having defeated vile communist dictatorship and liberated the world for freedom and free market ideas to take root, becoming the most dominant force on the planet in the 20th century. Now its the 21st century and my has karma come back to humble us in a big way. The great democratic ideology that swept the world at one point has taken quite a few lumps now, a growing number of countries have grown disillusioned with our values and principles, largely because we did not respect any of theirs in turn.

Take Russia after the Cold War as an example, eager to shed the old baggage of the Soviet Union they eagerly embraced democratic institutions and market values only to have it blow up in their faces. This in turn gave rise to one Vladimir Putin who largely control over political and economic matters, though leading to a surprisingly successful resurgence in the Russian economy and global influence, for the time being at least. It remains to be seen however, if Russia can avoid many of the mistakes more autocratic regimes have fallen in too, the extreme example being North Korea or Cuba on the one hand, which fell into the rut of stale ideology and the egoism of surrounding power around one central figure for all eternity it seems, or the pragmatic deliberation of power like in modern China which has risen to new heights with its developing economy despite maintaining a tight grip on political control.

We can say what we will about their abysmal human rights records, and there is a lot to say, of that there is no doubt, but at the same time the results should speak for themselves and more then just our scorn, disbelief, or envy, it deserves what places like China and Russia have been pressing for a long time now, respect. While we laud democratic values, the ideological arrogance and belief of our superiority has in the end caught up with us. These days it seems one can’t even pass the most basic of laws or necessities without getting mired in political fundamentalist rhetoric, even if one should be so lucky as to win their elections and receive broad public support for their agenda. What can take months to sort out in debate and political haggling  here can get passed in a matter of days over there, thanks in part to their built in concentration of power and their pragmatic rather then ideological perspective on things, if it needs doing then it should be done, period, exclamation point even!

As I mentioned before though, these things have their share of problems alongside those of democratic institution, mainly on the matter of accountability and lack of diversity in perceptions on how to tackle a problem in order to afford the best range of options. Corruption is rife in the rank and file of China, while Russia struggles to reform its economy away from the initial steps taken by Putin in order to grow beyond what it already has in this new era. But in all, their success could serve to teach us a few things in terms of our own limits and provide us with a comparison as we reexamine ourselves and our role in the new world order.

So I wouldn’t call myself a shopaholic, but this is definitely beyond crazy. When I found out that Jimmy Choo was collaborating with H&M, I immediately started planning. I would pick up my friend, who’s coming from Boston, go home, change, put food, chairs and blankets together, and then camp outside of H&M. And so we did.

We waited outside of H&M on 5th Ave this Saturday for 9 hours in the freezing cold and rain, just for shoes. I think it may have been the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’m glad we weren’t the only people waiting in line though. There were quite a few in front of last, and a LOT more behind us.

The funniest part about this is that, when we entered the store, there was such a rush of excitement, that we just grabbed what we could and ran towards the cashier. Basically making our 9 hour wait over in just under 10 minutes.

I can say this much; I am never doing that again!

The new signs assuring Baruch students that the escalators will be fixed by 2011 are not providing any relief. I mean, 2011? Really?

I’m not just complaining about the fact that the escalators don’t work, because it’s too easy and too many people are already whining about them. What I am complaining about is the design of the vertical campus.  The Architectural firm of Kohn, Pedersen, Fox and Associates obviously didn’t put any thought into what might happen if the escalators were to break.

Other than the elevators–which is another story–the only way to get to the third floor is by walking up the dormant escalators. The design seems much more efficient once you reach the third floor where you can walk up a large stairwell without having your face in somebody’s book bag. So I ask, why aren’t there a normal set of stairs going from the second floor lobby to the third floor? Another grand stairwell like the one from the first floor to the second floor lobby would do wonders.

So, getting back to my point about the signs that tell me to be patient. By 2011, there will be new escalators, hooray. They’ll break, and I’ll write another blog. Let me design a stairwell please.

This past weekend while flicking through the boring weekend shows I came across a show entitled “Extreme Fast Food” on the Travel channel. This show basically featured some of the most outrageous and creative marketing fast food restaurants across the country. The goods ranged from sandwiches that were over stuffed with ingredients galore; a drive-thru coffee shop with girls that serve in costumes–Bikini Wednesdays or Cowgirl Thursday;  and even featured the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlor in Vermont who serve a sundae called the “Vermonster” which contains 20 scoops of ice cream, 10 spoonfuls of walnuts, bananas, brownies and a whole bunch of other toppings then they topped it with a mile-high serving of fresh whipped cream–they said it had over 14,000 calories!!

The most interesting and disgusting of them all was a burger joint owned by an ex-nutritionist. It was made to look like an emergency room, the servers were nurses and the owner dressed up and called himself “Doc.” You were able to receive unlimited servings of french fries and if you took on the challenge of eating one of their biggest burgers you qualified to eat for FREE FOR LIFE! Also, if you weigh over 300 lbs you eat for FREE.

The most shocking of it all was the fact that the burgers served at this restaurant were slathered with lard!! OH EM GEE! I was definitely shocked.

To continue with their emergency room theme the customers are treated like patients and are pushed in wheel chairs to their cars if they drove.

The owner claimed that during his years as a practicing nutritionist he realized that none of his patients were ever able to keep a diet and would always end up going back to their old eating habits. He took advantage of this and is now helping people die faster but happier?

I guess. =\

I recently had the great pleasure of acquiring a vinyl edition of Southern Comfort by The Crusaders, which has grown quickly into one of my favorite albums. While I was lucky to get a pretty clean record, the minimal scratching doesn’t really hurt the funky tunes that blast out from this masterpiece. Among the many hits on the record are Greasy Spoon, Super Stuff, and Southern Comfort, each encapsulating its own soulful mood and production.

What I enjoy is the jazziness of the production, as well as the band’s employment of trombone and tenor sax in their front line, which gives that extra glitter and punch to the composition. This fusion of funk, hard bop, and soul is highly under the radar, so if you haven’t heard this group, I’d encourage you to get any of their many albums.

I’ve been producing music for nearly 3 years, much of which has been created through the art of remixing, which involves the “sampling” and resequencing/arrangement of the material into a new song. The Crusaders album, with its tight production and blistering drum breaks, offers the opportunity for a lot of creative interpretation, and I’ll definitely reincorporate their awesome drum sounds and gutterfunk bass/guitar grooves in the future.

The Crusaders - Southern Comfort

Alright, so has this ever happened to you: You see a small creature (like a bee) and just want to go all paparazzi on it? No? Well you’re really missing out! This is something you have to do, even if you only have a point-and-shoot camera, like I do, go out there and take a picture of anything, big or small. I prefer pictures of small things because they look so intriguing when you can see all the details that we wouldn’t normally see right away.

Like I said, right now I am only using a point-and-shoot camera. My camera is a Canon PowerShot SD790 IS Digital Elph and I LOVE it. It has definitely helped me capture some GREAT macro shots (those are the really up close, detailed pictures) of bugs, insects, arachnids, flowers and my little Domo figurines, just to name a few.

Anyway, back to paparazzi! So yeah, with my trusty camera, I really get into taking macro shots. I absolutely love it. And sometimes my targets stay put and model for me. Maybe they’re just trying the whole “If I stay still, he won’t notice me” method or maybe the “I’m not doing anything interesting, leave” method; they don’t work on me, I’ll still snap pictures of you until I am satisfied. I can do this all day baby! And I have to admit that I have really gotten some great shots, pictures that I can be proud of (as proud as any amateur photographer can get). And right now, I just want to share one of those shots with you.

Like it? 🙂 I encourage you to try it now.

I’ve been itching to draw for a while now— well, since March 1st, to be exact.  That’s a little more than eight months. Time and time again, I’ve tried picking up my tablet to draw even simple sketches on my computer. In my head, I always have these ideas floating about, but never, do they come out the way I want them to. The people never are those people in my head, the colors never satisfy me, and in general, they fail to get my messages across. That’s the thing about my imagination– it runs wild in a frenzy, while I can only chase after it futilely.

I’ve always supposed that it’s my lack of talent that never lets me draw the way I want to draw. Despite all the compliments I’ve received, my own dissatisfaction overshadows all else. Critiques, while immensely helpful, contribute further to my disappointment in my own artworks. Now, mind you, I’m not ungrateful towards them; I have made drastic improvements since the day I first picked up my tablet. But in the back of my mind, I also hear myself say something like this: “You see, you are a bad artist— so and so said that this should get changed.” Critiques, in a sense, are proof that I will never be as good as other artists.

When I first heard online art instructors stress the importance of practice over inborn talent, I could only scoff and shake my head. It was a ridiculous notion to me, that talent wasn’t the only element for artistic success. Instructors who said this, I believed, were clearly only comforting people like me with lesser skills than them. In a way, I felt ridiculed and mocked by these artists. I left my computer with an angry huff, annoyed and resentful towards the instructors, and most importantly, myself. Why couldn’t I be as good as them?

As time went on, however, I did improve, slowly but surely. Now, I’ve learned my lesson. The importance of practice is stressed because of people like me. Inborn talent that some possess quicken improvement, but even for those born without it, we can achieve the same results from constant practice. I know, it’s clichéd to say, “Practice makes perfect,” but that’s exactly what this is all about. Even more essential to this is confidence in yourself, and motivation to succeed. So for all of you aspiring artists out there who don’t think you’re good enough, think again. Because some talented artists who have made it big learned it the hard way just like the rest of us must do.

*As a sidenote (or footnote, rather) the thrift stores are pretty good, despite being pricey compared to what I’m used to (thrift stores in Ohio where they practically give the junk away for free). Check out the Housing Works thrift store. It is the most expensive, but it seems like they’re semi-selective with their goods, so you can easily find treasures.

When I have nothing else to do, I draw entertainment from two main sources.  I’m a self-admittant TV junkie, and I love listening to music.  But recently, I’ve noticed that for me, the two just don’t mix.  One of my favorite TV shows, Supernatural, airs right after this new show The Vampire Diaries.  So when I go to watch “my show” – we all have one, right? – I usually catch the last couple minutes of the latter show.  Right from the beginning, I knew I wasn’t going to watch it, simply because of what I heard.  Every week, I can barely hear the dialogue due to the incessant alt-rock music playing in the background.

Threading music through TV scenes is far from a new concept, especially for the CW.  But according to www.tvshowmusic.com, a website that lists all the songs used on various programs every week, The Vampire Diaries used nine different songs in last week’s episode.  In the pilot, it used THIRTEEN.  This is an hour-long program – with commercials, it averages to be about 40 minutes.  Even if the show only uses snippets of each song, this means that there can hardly be any air time without lyrics blaring in the background.

Using music in TV is a fine art – there are some shows that do it extremely well.  Another of my favorites, Friday Night Lights, is perhaps the best example I can come up with.  And oddly enough, TV Show Music’s website lists an average of about eight songs per episode for them, as well.  Maybe I’m biased – after all, I actually watch this show, not the vampire one.  Maybe it’s simply the quality of the show itself.  (I can’t help but plug FNL as one of the most well-acted and art-directed shows on TV).

I feel as if shows are trying so hard to get in with the younger generation these days by filling their shows with (in all but a few cases) god-awful music.  I’m not trying to sound like a music snob, but I kind of hate it when I hear a song I love on a show I hate.  Bright Eyes on Melrose Place?  Bloc Party on THE HILLS?!  Phoenix on pretty much everything lately?  Ugh.

I would love it if more television programs only relied on musical scores.  Take my hands-down favorite show, Lost.  Michael Giacchino’s score for each show fits the suspense perfectly, and during the more emotional scenes, is downright beautiful.  I even have some of the pieces on my iPod.  It’s much more worthwhile to focus on the show itself – isn’t that why they were made in the first place?

So this is my first blog for the Baruch blogs website, and honestly I have no idea what to write. I write another blog on Tumblr, but somehow I don’t think any of you guys will be interested in reading that, nor am I sure if anyone is really even reading this blog.

I guess I’ll write about something that’s currently occupying my attention, and that would be the topic of vinyls, otherwise known as records or LP’s

Most people, when approached with the word records, are like what? Those big floppy black discs? Didn’t they die out with the 80’s? Well, the answer is yes, and a resounding No.  Most of the population stopped buying, looking for or taking care of their records after the invention of compact discs, or cassettes, as they were seen as more convenient, and can hold more music.

Even though I was born too late to really appreciate and live through the time of mass production of records, it’s still a huge part of my life. Something about the sound of the record, and a relic from the past really draws me in.  I have upwards of 300 records that range in everything from early Jazz to Rock ‘n Roll to folk and more recently, some of my favourite bands have been releasing their albums in vinyl form, as somewhat of a tribute to the past.  It’s mostly Indie, or unknown bands that still release on vinyl, but I happen to think it’s pretty cool that someone out there still cares about vinyl.  Not that I don’t purchase mp3’s or CD’s; I mean obviously it’s so much more convenient to buy a few tracks off of iTunes than it is to find a good record player, but nevertheless, LP’s will always be my favourite.

Currently, I’m listening to an old Arctic Monkeys‘ record, the vinyl version of Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, and actually storing and rediscovering some of my other vinyls.  Though nothing can replace the sound of the Houses of The Holy (Led Zeppelin) record that I have in my storage box, newer presses, such as Conor Oberst‘s Souled Out!!! have impressively tried to recreate the grainy sound that older records possess.

Most often, vinyls are repressed, or recreated, as clear, marbleized or colourful versions to attract new audiences to an old sound (and a dying business).  While the idea is creative, the lack of carbon in the colurful versions often creates a lack of magnetism in the record, which distorts the sound and unfortunately takes away from the beauty and sound of a record made 25 years ago.  Another flaw with the revival in vinyls, is the lack of attention to detail.  25 years ago, vinyl was pretty much the only source of music that was able to be carried around.  Now that we have other alternatives, less care is put into production, and the grooves in the record (which allow it to play), and the molded weight (the grams in the record) are flawed, and often not of the greatest materials, or with the best equipment.  I love that the world is somewhat reverting back to vinyl, but I wish that more attention to detail and the proper and necessary care were employed.