shadi ghadirian
I recently learned about Shadi Ghadirian, an Iranian female photographer, and I can’t get her images out of my head:
This is from her series entitled “Like Everyday.” A stark depiction of a traditional Iranian woman, the series is composed of “women-objects” taking the place of a burka-clad woman’s face. You can see more of the series here.
The more you look at the photos, the more the objects begin to take on their own personality, and become more of a face than a domestic object. As a result, the stereotyped domestic object loses its power, and the viewer begins to imagine the woman behind the object’s symbolism.
Also love this image from Ghadirian’s Ghajar series:
Love the juxtaposition of modern and traditional, love the expression on the woman’s face, and love the defiant way she is posing, holding the radio. A lot of contradictions in this photo, making it an interesting statement on Iranian women and their struggle between tradition and modernization/globalization. Very interesting, topical works, and I definitely recommend checking out more of her stuff.
Filed under: So Artsy | Leave a Comment
Tags: burka, globalization, iran, photographs, shadi ghadirian, tradition, women
XOXO turns (mostly male) heads
So, reading The Cut today, I learned that the XOXO store on 38th and Fifth in NYC has become something like the girl at school with low self-esteem who figures that wearing skimpy clothes and exposing herself will make people like her.
Unfortunately, XOXO forgot that while this DOES make the boys like you (for all the “wrong” reasons), it only makes the girls (XOXO’s target demographic) more apt to dislike you, be jealous of you, or talk about you behind your back. Check the video and article here. Oh, and LOL at the CNN correspondent actually getting in the window to interview the models.
While I’m not totally offended by the idea, I do think its a bad business move for XOXO, especially since I don’t always believe that any type of controversy/press = good press. For one, live women undressing in a window automatically evokes the idea of prostitutes, and as a JUNIORS (read: under 18) brand of clothing, something about that doesn’t mesh. Also, I think the crowd of oogling men making lewd comments/gestures will make girls uncomfortable rather than excited to check out the clothing in the window. Unless XOXO is actually trying to target underage exhibitionists.
The report has some funny moments though, and more than just a marketing strategy, the display unintentionally becomes a kind of performance art piece as well. The fact that one dude can’t even comprehend why an attractive model would want to tune him out (assuming that it MUST be because of a one-sided window trick) exposes a lot about how men perceive/objectify women and feel entitled to some kind of a response to their harassment. According to XOXO’s creative director, Carol Powley, the men “can’t conceptualize that the women are ignoring them.” The stunt reminds me vaguely of Couple in the Cage, and while its much less extreme, it definitely brings up some interesting social observations.
Anyways, I’ll be surprised if the display lasts its scheduled 10 days, since it’s wayyy more racy than Eva Mendes’ controversial CK ad in SoHo and its right across the street from holiday-themed displays that are frequented by families. I’m sure conservative old ladies dressed in black (like the dissenter in the video) and Christian groups will find away to get the display replaced with something way more boring and family-friendly.
Filed under: Fashion Forward | Leave a Comment
Tags: eva mendes, models, nyc, performance art, window display, xoxo
what not to read
Ok, so I bought Aravind Adiga’s book The White Tiger because I’m a sucker for the “customers who bought this item also bought…” feature on Amazon. It looked promising: it was a New York Times bestseller, it won the 2008 Man Booker Prize, and there are 8 full pages of praise from reviewers before you even get to the title page. But this book is NOT the ish, and it is definitely no Native Son, like one guy ridiculously claimed. (For a more accurate and balanced opinion, read the NYTimes review here.)
A bunch of reviewers also tried to trick me into thinking that this book was “darkly funny.” It wasn’t.
Instead, I recommend you pick up a copy of Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao,which follows several generations of an unlucky Dominican family and their unfortunate descendent, Oscar, an incredibly nerdy, overweight virgin living in America. This novel is also really grim, but the darkly funny parts are actually darkly funny, and the violent scenes are terrifying. But even the most graphic parts of the novel are often poetic, and Diaz’s style is definitely original. Despite the fact I didn’t understand the Spanish sprinkled in and some of the footnotes were insanely long, and despite the fact that I questioned why almost ALL the female characters needed to have either huge asses, ginormous breasts, or both as a defining feature, this book was one of the best I’ve read recently and I’ll probably re-read it soon.
Filed under: Book Smarts | 1 Comment
Tags: aravind adiga, junot diaz, man booker prize, native son, NYTimes, the brief wonderous life of oscar wao, the white tiger
What is google wave?
Answer: I have no clue. Everyone is talking about it though, so I went to the best research tool ever, Wikipedia, to figure it out.
Apparently it is “a personal communication and collaboration tool,” which means nothing to me because I am not technologically-minded. Layman’s terms please! I scrolled down. It can also be described as a “web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol.” Huh?
Okay, scroll down more.
Hold up. What? According to Wikipedia, the name Google Wave comes from the Joss Whedon, cult-favorite TV show Firefly, because a “wave” is the electronic communication tool used on the show. And the “development of external extensions” (whatever that is) for Wave had the nickname “Serenity” after the show’s spaceship, Serenity, and the 2005 movie version of the show, also titled Serenity. Oh, and an earlier test version of Google Wave was named Dollhouse after another Whedon show, Dollhouse, that was recently cancelled. Ok, forget figuring out what Wave actually is, let’s focus on the fact that the people at Google are wayyyy nerdier than I’d ever imagined! And the fact that a sixty-person agreed on this title makes it that much better. Forget Intel’s whole “Our rockstars aren’t like your rockstars” campaign, cause Joss Whedon makes Ajay Bhatt (co-inventor of the USB) look like the high school quarterback.
I love unabashed nerdiness, however, so props to them. Although I’ve never seen Dollhouse, Firefly, or its movie counterpart, I’m looking forward to the day that Google Buffy the Vampire Slayer is developed, whatever it might be.
Oh, and for anyone who really wants to figure out what Google Wave is, you can check their self-described “loooong” video here.
In other technological news, I learned about Project Natal recently (pronounced NAH-tahl), which is basically Xbox’s somewhat disturbing venture into artificial intelligence and video games without controllers.
Watch a demo in a short video here.
Okay. The whole controller-less thing is cool, and in theory, the AI capabilities of the main character in the game, Milo, are also cool. But watching him react to things and understand the game player is also kinda creepy. Three other questions that I have about this game:
1) Once the novelty wears off, who really wants to play a video game that is, in essence, an exercise in babysitting a pouty ten-year-old kid?
2) If possible, why not just go outside and have mundane interactions with the real world or remind your own kid or sibling to finish his or her homework?
3) And what happens when Milo learns how to love?
I hope that Xbox has the answers to these questions, especially since the name “Project Natal” has a sinister ring to it, don’t you think?
Filed under: Computerz, Kind of Creepy, Don't You Think?, Science-y stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: artificial intelligence, firefly, google wave, joss whedon, milo, project natal, xbox
monday morning wrap-up
Random inconsequential ish from the weekend/this morning that is filling my lunch break:
1) The AMAs were handed out, and Rihanna wore this Marchesa gown that a lot of people are hating on. Sure, it looks kinda like she wrapped a wall stencil around herself, but it is a very cool wall stencil. I actually liked the look, though I can’t say the same about the red eyeliner she wore, making it look like she had just cried vampire tears of blood. Also AMA related: J.Lo’s fall. Her music might suck, but girl knows how to bounce back.
2) The newest Twilight movie just came out, and even if you aren’t down with teen vamps, you can probably still appreciate teen hotties. Unless you are Miley Cyrus, though, who asserted that she didn’t like Twilight because she didn’t “believe in it.” (wtf?) Yeah, Miley, because the writer, director, actors, and crew were trying to fool you…hoping that you would think the struggles of supernatural teenagers as they also deal with relationships and high school were REAL. But they couldn’t trick you! You can still like Harry Potter though. That was a documentary, for reals.
3) Not a huge Seinfeld addict, but the Curb Your Enthusiasm show-within-a-show, reunion-that’s-not-a-reunion aired last night. And even though I have a love/hate relationship with CYE, the show still got a some good laughs out of me. My fave moment? When Larry has the ludicrous idea of playing George and forces the rest of the cast to try it out. The worst moment? Anything “Mocha Joe” related. Pure annoyance every time.
4) Alicia Keys released images of a hideous, sentimental jewelry line. Love her music, and even her acting is tolerable, but is a new jewelry line really necessary? Almost all of these “beautiful, unique pieces” have a short novel written on them. I like that you write your own music and lyrics, Alicia, but you don’t need to write your own jewelry too. (You can check out the hideousness in a slide show here.)
Enough internet, back to work. TTYL guys.
Filed under: Fashion Forward, Rich and Famous | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alicia Keys, AMAs, Curb Your Enthusiasm, J.Lo, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Seinfeld, Twilight
Moss has poor taste in mottos
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about Kate Moss mentioning the infamously pro-anorexic motto “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” during an interview with WWD (Story here). While I don’t think that Moss intended the comment to be serious lifestyle advice for the masses, the truth is that people, particularly the crazed, young women striving to look as starved and anemic as she is, are probably going to take it as such. I mean, a model’s primary professional concern is his or her body, so it’s not that far-fetched to believe that some people would mistake it for expert advice. Anyone with even a slight tendency to eat badly, however, will tell you there are plenty of things that taste better than skinny: bacon, Ben and Jerry’s, pizza, Junior’s cheesecake, bagels, mashed potatoes, fettuccine alfredo, and those gold-wrapped round chocolates from the gods, just to name a few.
Speaking of weight, I heard something about the other end of the eating disorder spectrum recently:
A new study done on rats suggests that unhealthy, but delicious, food can actually be as addictive as (gasp!) heroin or cocaine (side note: Kate, remember when you were in the midst of a highly-publicized coke scandal in 2005? Nothing is better than how being high off coke feels, right?). According to really smart scientists at Scripps Research Institute in Florida, rats who were exposed to “high-fat, high-calorie food” ate increased amounts as “the pleasure pathways in their brains became less and less responsive, forcing them to consume more to get the same amount of pleasure.” Even when the researchers paired the junk food with a mild shock, the rats still chose it over a nutritional alternative. And when the junk food was removed altogether, the rats preferred to not eat at all rather than eat the nutritional alternative, which is pretty indicative of addiction.
In other words, a person addicted to junk food would probably prefer to be tasered and still receive a Big Mac than have to eat a Kashi granola bar and an apple. Smh.
Filed under: Rich and Famous, Science-y stuff | Leave a Comment
Tags: addiction, cocaine, drugs, junk food, Kate Moss, models, rats, skinny
Project mediocrity
So last night was the season finale of one of my favorite shows, Project Runway. And when I say one of my favorite shows, I mean it is a show that has the ability to influence my emotional state, dictating my levels of happiness, anxiety, disappointment, or satisfaction for the remainder of the week. Unfortunately, this sixth season has not provided much satisfaction, instead causing an overwhelming sense of frustration and high blood-pressure.
Quick re-cap of why this season was sub-par: The relocation to L.A. proved detrimental to PR’s very essence, the attempts to make the models a relevant part of the competition was stupid, hot-mess-about-town Lindsay Lohan was a guest judge, many of the challenges were bland (design something blue for Macy’s? Make an outfit based on a prior outfit you created?? Really??), Tim Gunn wore flip-flops during one episode (a jarring image), Michael Kors and Nina Garcia hardly made any appearances on the judging panel, and anyone with an innovative point of view or an interesting personality got voted off early in the show (e.g. Epperson, or hell, even Malvin, awful as he was). Oh, and an annoying, untalented guy named Christopher somehow almost made it into fashion week. He didn’t, but it was definitely too close a call and I questioned the judges’ sanity.
The bane of my existence, Christopher, alongside one of his drab creations
Now let’s explore why the finale proved so disappointing (though I expected as much):
1) Althea’s collection was so boring, and yet she somehow thought it was futuristic. I would say more, but I honestly can’t remember a thing about it.
2) Carol-Hannah’s collection was a little more interesting and cute, but the fact that she had to explain to the judges that one of her more (slightly) daring looks was not really intended for everyday wear (seriously?) was just embarrassing for her and proved that she couldn’t win. Carol-Hannah also wasn’t eligible because she wasn’t actually a person, but a Precious Moments doll.
3) I had already assumed that “Mean-a Irina” would win. I especially knew this to be true when Carol-Hannah was the first eliminated, because a showdown between Irina and Althea has all the excitement and suspense of a Sears catalog. Obviously, the producers wanted to put us out of our misery as soon as possible.
Mean-a Irina
4) Because Irina is so mean-a, I didn’t feel any sense of pay-off at the end of this finale. Even as she cried, I didn’t believe for a second that she had a soft side underneath that “warrior woman” exterior. And when she hugged Althea she was probably still cursing her for stealing her “original,” outside-the-box ideas, such as large knit sweaters (what creativity!) and a smoky eye (never been done before!).
Pretty much the only reason I continued to watch this season was to witness the genius that is Tim Gunn, probably one of the best real-life characters to come out of our reality TV-obsessed era. He’s always funny without trying, he’s genuinely likable, and his exasperated meltdown backstage was epic. I found a candid interview with Gunn (read the whole thing here) that addresses both the meltdown and some of the issues with season 6.
Some highlights:
He refers to the fashion show’s backstage area as “looney kajooney land,” and when the models start undressing when they’re not supposed to, he quotes himself as saying “Halt! What is happening here?” Only Tim Gunn would instinctively cry “halt!”
He reveals that the reason the designers were so painfully awkward when introducing their lines was because they were actually introducing them to an empty room. This was so that no one at Fashion Week would be able to reveal who was in the top three before the episode aired. Oh, the magic (and awkward results) of the editing process.
Gunn also gives us more insight into Irina’s (apparently inherited) bitchiness: “Talk about the nut not falling far from the tree,” he says when describing dinner with Irina’s family. “Her mother was saying things like, ‘If Irina doesn’t win, she better not come home.’” Damn.
And why does Tim Gunn believe season 7 will trump season 6? Because everyone will be wearing man-scarves and it will be what he refers to as the “season of the sashay.” Sadly, these vague revelations are enough to make me believe that season 7 (premieres this January) might truly redeem PR from the fashion transgression that was season 6.
Filed under: Fashion Forward, REALity TV | 2 Comments
Tags: Michael Kors, Nina Garcia, project runway, Tim Gunn
When I first stumbled across this picture of 50 Cent and a bunch of babies I thought, wow, I didn’t know 50 had that many kids. I thought he only had one child, and didn’t he evict that child’s baby momma from a shared home only to have the home mysteriously burn down, and while both mother and child survived, didn’t it result in a bitter legal battle in which the mother actually accused 50 of starting the fire and endangering her life and the life of their child? (Story here) And even though I highly doubt he was to blame, should a man involved in such complicated domestic disputes really be having so many kids???
But then I remembered that Lil Wayne is currently on his fourth child/baby momma, and suddenly Fiddy seemed like father-of-the-year material by mere comparison. Didn’t matter though, because turns out the picture was just a behind-the-scenes shot from an ad for some kind of useless phone app, designed to not only hawk his new single, but also incorporate his highly-lucrative Vitamin Water drinks. Watch the video here.
Okay, there are a few things that bother me about this ad, on several levels:
On the level of slightly annoying, until you figure out that it’s an ad, this just feels like a bad SNL skit. You know the ones, when they feature a non-actor celebrity host who CANNOT act, let alone be funny. I mean, I don’t know how hard it is to portray a recording artist who also happens to be you, but for 50, it’s pretty damn hard (see also: Get Rich or Die Tryin‘).
Meanwhile, the toddler-aged producers jam to 50′s latest single, “Baby By Me” throughout the entire commercial. “Hell yeah,” says 50, when a baby brings in the snare on cue. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like this song, but the hook revolves around the phrase “have a baby by me, baby, be a millionaire” and features phrases like “I’ll perform for ya, like a porno star.” Not exactly baby-appropriate lyrics, but that could just be me.
And this app just looks like something I could do on a Casio keyboard. Not impressed. A better app would maybe be one that calculates how many more additives and sugars are in a Vitamin Water compared to an equivalent amount of regular water while also figuring out how much money you could have saved if you had just purchased regular water instead of water that masquerades as a health supplement.
That said, the babies in his commercial ARE pretty freakin adorable, especially the baby posted with the stunna shades in the baby sling, so I can’t be too hard on him. I usually enjoy me some 50, so long as he’s not in my movies or my water, or starting beef with Rick Ross. So keep hustlin, 50. And just be thankful you don’t give off a creepy vibe when hanging out with small children during an unchaperoned “good time” at your studio.
Filed under: Babies everywhere!, Rich and Famous | Leave a Comment
Tags: 50 Cent, app, babies, commercial, Vitamin Water
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