intellectual properties

the whole damn yay

for your friday amusement, two awesome youtube videos about bay area culture:

new: A lyrical guide to Bay Area slang. i’ve never hit pause so many times.

older: Vacation in Oak Land! (still funny.)

quarterlife crisis aka the last 7 years of my life

http://www.eyeweekly.com/print/article/55882

He bikes to work at an advertising agency, where he uses his master’s in English to proofread ad copy, and spends several hours reading music blogs and watching movie trailers, periodically Twittering updates about his workday to his 74 followers. He doesn’t really hate his job, but feels as if his skin is crawling with vermin most of the time that he’s there, so he has a plan to move to Thailand, or to maybe write a book. Or go to law school.

At her government job, she instant messages her friends and mostly ignores the report she’s drafting because she’s planning on quitting anyway — and has been planning to quit for about a year now. She spends her lunch hour buying boots that cost slightly more than her rent, then immediately regrets it.

He listlessly works through lunch, then goes to the bar after work to meet up with some university friends, where they talk about their jobs and make ironic jokes about other people. Back at home, he wonders why he feels so gross and empty after spending time with them, but it’s mostly better than being alone.

She walks to the house that she shares with three friends and spends a few more hours on celebrity gossip websites, then clicking through the Facebook photos of girls she knew in high school posing with their husbands and babies, simultaneously judging them and feeling a deep pit of jealousy, and a strange kind of loss. “When did this happen for them?” she wonders.

They both eventually fall asleep, late and alone, each of them wondering what it is that’s wrong with them that they can’t quite seem to understand.

This phenomenon, known as the “Quarterlife Crisis,” is as ubiquitous as it is intangible. Unrelenting indecision, isolation, confusion and anxiety about working, relationships and direction is reported by people in their mid-twenties to early thirties who are usually urban, middle class and well-educated; those who should be able to capitalize on their youth, unparalleled freedom and free-for-all individuation. They can’t make any decisions, because they don’t know what they want, and they don’t know what they want because they don’t know who they are, and they don’t know who they are because they’re allowed to be anyone they want.

When a contemporary 25-year-old’s parents were 25, they weren’t concerned with keeping their options open: they were purposefully buying houses, making babies and making partner. Now, who we are and what we do is up to us, unbound to existing communities, families and class structures that offer leisure and self-determination to just a few. Boomer and post-boom parents with more money and autonomy than their predecessors has resulted in benignly self-indulgent children who were sold on their own uniqueness, place in the world and right to fulfillment in a way no previous generation has felt entitled to, and an increasingly entrepreneurial, self-driven creation myth based on personal branding, social networking and untethered lifestyle spending is now responsible for our identities.

file under: 1st world problem #1. and i’ve been suffering from it for years.

the article goes on, and it’s interesting.

who am i? what am i doing? WHY?

why so bored, jaded, listless when the world is in the palm of your hand?

the article suggests a number of things but none of them seem particularly relevant to me. i’m not in debt. i have plenty of friends. i don’t have a drug or alcohol problem. i am not looking for a career. being grateful is the only thing that relieves, but it feels like a meditative medicine i have to remember take every day to fight a persistent disease. what is my cure?

this weekend, i’m going camping.  that always seems to help.  maybe it’s urbanity that’s the problem?

To go walking down a country road at sunset
And see colors I could almost touch right over head
To hear the gentle breeze a blowing at the treetops
No out in the country there is no talk that God is dead

At Lake Scugog

1.

Where what I see comes to rest,
at the edge of the lake,
against what I think I see

and, up on the bank, who I am
maintains an uneasy truce
with who I fear I am,

while in the cabin’s shade the gap between
the words I said
and those I remember saying

is just wide enough to contain
the remains that remain
of what I assumed I knew.

2.

Out in the canoe, the person I thought you were
gingerly trades spots
with the person you are

and what I believe I believe
sits uncomfortably next to
what I believe.

When I promised I will always give you
what I want you to want,
you heard, or desired to hear,

something else. As, over and in the lake,
the cormorant and its image
traced paths through the sky.

–Troy Jollimore

~in the new yorker

QOTD

“The difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.”

–Snepsheut(?)

stellar: full of stars

especially now that this thing publishes to facebook i’m finding it extremely difficult to say anything more personal about the SF Fashion Awards.  part of the problem with proliferating your blog is that people read it.

i do not want to detract from the fact that i fully appreciate and respect what Del Geronimo is doing with this now-annual event: giving props and recognition to designers who create amazing things and get little in return in the way of media or coverage.  and let’s face it:  fashion is a business, and getting public recognition is IMPORTANT — if you want to run it as a business. anyway, please consider everything here constructive criticism. i have a whole mind full of other caveats but i’ll just get on with it:

my personal conflicts around the event, and the award i was nominated for (which i somewhat discussed here), were more or less two-fold:  1. the name of the event implies that all of SF fashion is represented, and 2. because it is done by popular vote, it feels like somewhat of a popularity contest amongst those who do end up represented, instead of some sort of independent panel giving awards based on merit.

the first thing:  to call it “THE SAN FRANCISCO FASHION AWARDS” suggests that the event producer has gone to some length to create an inclusive event that pulls from all the fashion scenes in SF.  it is true that during the nomination phase, ANYONE can be nominated (i think). the problem is that the circles in which the nomination forms and such are distributed are overlapping and insular – i don’t think this is by design, just by lack of coordination and effort. for this event to REALLY encompass all of SF fashion, there would need to be a huge push and a team dedicated to reaching out as far as possible, spreading the word, getting people “on board”. i honestly have no idea how hard Del tries to do this – maybe he does as much as he can, but i’m sorry to say that if that’s true it’s not getting very far.

so what emerges is a list of people nominated of which i pretty much personally know almost everyone (except the models, although i’ve been in shows with most of them too).   even if this were called the “The San Francisco INDEPENDENT Fashion Awards”, this wouldn’t be representative. i read SFINDIEFASHION.COM daily (which is awesome and you should too if you love SF indie fashion), and there are tons and tons of independent fashion designers in SF.  most of designers in the events and fashion shows listed on that site i’ve never heard of.  so the question is are people just not interested, or are they not getting reached? i have no idea. (btw, remember last year? i was in the running for things that made no sense, and said pretty much these same things then.)

on a more personal level:  i am deeply honored and humbled by receiving the award for Best Blogger (especially since i STUDIED WRITING in college and have never had a job as a writer so getting an award for writing somehow makes me feel like that degree in English wasn’t a complete waste of 4 years), but honestly: this blog isn’t about fashion. this is a lifestyle blog. this blog is about my life. fashion has, in recent years, played a larger role in my life, MANY THANKS to all of the people who’ve encouraged me to develop my participation and roles in the fashion scene. if it weren’t for the likes of Danielle@Missing Piece and Miranda Caroligne and Scatha@Miss Velvet Cream and Staz@BadUnklSista encouraging me to push my love of dressing up into something more, a huge part of my life would be so much different than it is, and i am extremely and eternally grateful for that. and while i could argue, if i wanted to, that “fashion” IS a lifestyle, and therefore it makes sense for a lifestyle blog to win a fashion award, still: there are bloggers/writers out there who focus all of their content on fashion, and even some who focus specifically on SF fashion, like sfindiefashion.COM or Fashion Smashion, a snarky blog who thinks they should’ve been nominated for best blog.

so while i am totally humbled and fully appreciate the recognition, i find it a little uncomfortable to stand up proud and say “YES! ME! I’M THE BEST FASHION BLOGGER IN SAN FRANCISCO!” because i honestly don’t believe it’s true. (reagan insists that the award i REALLY won was “most fashionable blogger”, and that i would gladly accept an award for. :=)

on the second point, during the voting period, one of the nominees wrote that she wasn’t going to participate because she felt it was all just a popularity contest. she is an ARTIST (in the truest sense i have ever met in human form) and was not into the idea of “winners” and “losers” in art, or having to “promote yourself” in order to win, instead of just winning on merit. still, she was nominated, and so many of us voted for her because if anyone was going to “WIN” she deserved to win.

i empathized with her feeling, but at the same time – it is what it is and so why not run with it? and so i decided to try to shelve these conflicts and just promote and support what the INTENTION of the event is, despite all the caveats and misgivings. but then when we were there, the day of, i did not see her and felt some guilt/shame that she was standing her ground as an artist and not a player in the scene and to be honest i felt a lot of weirdness around her not being there because i agreed with her, but there i was all dressed up in my fancy dress participating like i didn’t have any conflict. (it turns out, she was there too, i just didn’t see her).

i am not a huge fan of competition myself – it brings out the worst, not the best in me – and i can totally see how as an artist to get into the realm of “winning” – who can “win” art? – feels like a violation of principles. but fine line here was at what point are you being too much of an art snob to accept an award from people who love you as an artist? at what point are you “too cool” to promote yourself, say thank you, open up and accept appreciation, and instead snub those trying to lift you up? i felt like it would be totally and utterly disrespectful to not show up to receive an award given to you out of love, no matter how many issues the implementation might have had.  the intention is about RESPECT, and getting the nominations and votes of your peers is a sign of respect, a sign of love, a sign of recognition, and i think respect is deserved going both directions.

hopefully, as the SF Fashion Awards evolves, the net will be wider cast, the participants will be representative, and maybe the voting system won’t be as janky (or non-existent) and people will respect it more and more cred will be given to the event and the scene and the artists, which is the whole point to begin with. SF fashion gets put down a lot and there’s not a lot of attention for designers who are brilliant and hard working in this city, so i think the event should continue because i think it’s important. it just needs to grow, and there needs to be a diligent effort on the part of the producers and organizers to make it grow in a direction that reaches further than it currently does.

as for the actual fashion SHOW at the fashion awards, the only thing i have to say is: KITTINHAWK: i want you in my closet.

2009 SF Fashion Awards: the winners are:

BEST FASHION DESIGNER: Alexandria Von Bromssen – maker of things sexy and chic

BEST COSTUME DESIGNER: Bad Unkl Sista – you cannot get better costumes than this, and she will also push your buttons and make you laugh.

BEST ACCESSORY / JEWELRY DESIGNER: Jasmin Zorlu Millinery. if you need a fantastic hat (wedding-church-fashion show-stage-costume), contact this woman.

BEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Kyle Hailey – has taken more amazing photos of us and them and he deserves a million awards for all the capturing of beauty he has done. everything and everyone in the world looks so wonderful through his lens.

.::.SEE HIS FASHION AWARDS flickr photos HERE.::.

VISIONARY AWARD: FASHION DESIGNER: Miss Velvet Cream, who dresses you up in her love

HONORARY AWARD: Bad Unkl Sista. honorary for what? everything.

BEST HAIR OR MAKEUP ARTIST: San Francisco Institute Of Esthetics And Cosmotology

Best RUNWAY MALE MODEL: Tyler Wood Birestrand

BEST RUNWAY FEMALE MODEL: Lauren Fletcher

BEST MODEL: Kara Krauss

BEST FASHION SHOW EVENT: Lovesick 2

BEST SYLIST: Owen Buenaventura

BEST EVENT PRODUCER: Irene Hernandez Feiks @ Chillin’ Productions – supporting and promoting Bay Area fashion for the last 7 years

BEST STORE FRONT: Upper Playground

BEST FASHIONABLE DJ: Commodore 69

and yes: BEST BLOGGER / AUTHOR: Amy Leblanc / Intellectual Properties

photo by Kyle H Hailey

SEE ALSO: excellent “photobooth” photos of winners and models and guests by Moja Ma’at HERE!

i don’t think i need to repeat that i love the SF fashion scene, and am constantly inspired by all of these people, but i will. repeat.

fashion is expression, of us and our world.

fashion art, and should be treated as such.

models are performers and artists.  if you think it doesn’t take work and talent, you’re wrong.

designers are artists who create and fulfill and reflect and inspire.

san francisco has mad talent, expressed in a san francisco way.  it is not new york or milan.  it is independent, it is san francisco, and deserves this recognition that Del Geronimo has poured his heart into creating for us.  if you know a talented SF fashion designer/model/MUA/producer and wonder why they weren’t represented here, next year: NOMINATE. support. show us what you got.

more personal thoughts/words sold separately in the future.

unique but thematic

me & mz tamara ja in miss velvet cream (from our own collections) @ the SF Fashion Awards 7.26.09

photos by Moja Ma’at

one more of me below: Continue reading »

no strings attached

i want to walk naked through the streets with you, barefoot, our bodies and minds worn clean.

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.::.
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i don’t know what i was dreaming, but those are the words that were running through my head when i woke up this morning.

what’s in my bag – monday morning procrastination edition

i was JUST THINKING about doing one of these this morning for some odd reason (old phish memes in mind?), and then i clicked over to this fashion blog because i saw THIS and see that the last post on the page is a what’s-in-my-bag. i think that means i have to do it.

what’s in my bag:
-one STELLAR award (am i just going to carry this thing around with me? where should i put it?)
-sunglasses, held together with safety pin (thx roland)
-sunglasses case
-copy of the July 27 New Yorker
-July 20 New Yorker
-bill for New Yorker subscription
-a copy of NOVO magazine
-yoga pants
-a pack of Big Red
-cell phone (old skool)
-wallet
-house/office keys
-black pen
-Aveda lipgloss in Poppy
-Aveda eyeliner in Midnight
-Neutrogena lip gloss in Ruby Bliss
-a naturally anti-bacterial, super absorbent, reusable, biodegradable, 100% bamboo fiber go!towel, still in the package the size of a poker chip. incredibly handy to have in bag just-in-case. you can get 10 for $15.95 with free shipping.
-spoon.

in the bag within a bag (lunch):
sprouted mung beans – sprouted myself!
container of organic vegetable soup i made myself!
pasta jar full of carrot juice
organic fuji apple
organic avocado

anyone want to read these tea leaves for me?

stellar

a full and proper thank you and other extended thoughts coming, but for now…..