Burger King and Gulf

Saw these two signs next to each other on my way home the other night and thought it was interesting how similar they are. Are gas and fast food worthy of the same advertising campaign? Perhaps.

TO OTA

The way things change. TOYOTA becomes toota and his face turns into a bird. It's a nice thing that we can make changes in our world as banal as these. Yet somehow they become profound - a comment to society. I'm not talking about things that would be deemed 'street art' but about the marks that the 'every day' person makes on their world. The gum they stick under their seat, the bag of chips they throw to the ground, their name they write in sharpie followed by 'was here.' We are all capable of making these comments. So I wonder...how do you comment? What do you leave behind for others to see or feel?

'Frisk Me'

The girl sitting across from me on the bus today had a large necklace she had made and ironed herself out of beads with the text 'Frisk Me' in red letters in a red outlined white rectangle. I will do my best to recreate what it looks like here with marker. She was about 5'7", black, athletic build, delicate features and lightly make-upped face. She couldn't be in higher than 10th grade. She got onto the bus tightly packed amongst her four girlfriends who made their way to the back of the bus slapping each other lightly, giggling and screaming false alarms. Once they sat down they bantered about classes and social stuff at school. I had my headphones on but turned down the volume just enough to keep a vague idea of what they were going on about. About two seats down from Frisk Me sat a reflective and stealthy corn-rowed ebony young man who slowly stood up from his seat revealing his boxer shorts bubbling up out of his jeans while the girls all looked at each other and Frisk Me said, "Where do you think you're going?" To which he said nothing and continued on his way pretending not to hear.

So that is the story of my bus ride...but the phrase "Frisk Me" is lingering on my mind. Why would....anyone....want to be frisked? She so deliberately chose this phrase, as her necklace was handmade and carefully planned out. Does she mean it in a sexual way? It's almost a statement of making her body public property. Why would someone want to be objectified like that? Have her parents or guardians seen her necklace and how do they feel about it?

Just youtube'd "frisk me" and found this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-eFnyGbJME

I'm a little afraid of what it might be like growing up in this sex-crazed media world.

make up makeup

I have worn makeup since the 9th grade. My mother encouraged me to conceal my zits with cover-up and I haven't missed more than a day or two in the last 13 years of my life without putting makeup on. Under eye circles? Cover them up. New freckle on my forehead? Cover it up. Red blotchy skin? Cover it up. Real skin peeking through? Cover it up. Ads for foundations, concealers, cover-up sticks, blemish correctors have all somehow made their way into my psyche and have become my daily routine. Many advertisements pitch themselves as 'showing the real you.' Who am I doing this for? Is it for me? Is it for everyone else? The interesting thing I've noticed is that I put on concealer and a light application of foundation even whether I am going out into the public or not.

Regardless of how wrong I believe these following statements are...they are embedded in me: I feel vulnerable without makeup. I feel ugly without makeup. I feel less desirable without makeup. I feel unworthy without makeup on.

The makeup I'm talking about here is coverup. Makeup made for the intention of concealing one's 'flaws.' In the last year, I have been battling with this struggle due to my boyfriend's insistence that I stop hiding myself from under a veneer of makeup. He claims my glow is gone and my face turns into that of a lackluster baby doll. I can't help but to continue having these crazy thoughts such as, "well maybe he can't see the real me when I'm not wearing makeup" or "He's just saying these things to be nice."

I have battled with a low self-esteem most of my life (who hasn't), and feel that in the last two years I have become stronger; yet makeup remains like a ball and chain to my very self. I used to PANIC when I would spend the night somewhere without my makeup, now I still panic but I am becoming aware of how irrational these thoughts and feelings are - which seems to be the first step to becoming comfortable in my own skin.

Is this only a struggle that women go through? Any men reading out there? How do you feel about makeup? Any women out there who don't wear makeup? Did you used to? What was your decision? Do you feel conflicted about it?

fake organs

My (boy)friend has been working on an architectural solution for a cathedral to fit an organ. It turns out that the pipes you see on an organ are (sometimes) decorational and not where the actual sound is coming from. I just thought that others maybe ought to know this.

From Wikipedia: 

The organ of the Severikirche in Erfurt, Germany, has a highly decorative case with ornate carvings and cherubs.

The visible portion of the case, called the façade, will most often contain pipes, which may be either sounding pipes or dummy pipes solely for decoration. The façade pipes may be plain,burnished, gilded, or painted.^[48]

[edit]

hoodies

Hoods. Hoodies. Hooded sweatshirts. I like them. Plain. Pullover. No logo or design. That's exactly my favorite fashion.

 A hooded sweatshirt feels like protection. It feels like a hug from a lover. I would like to explore this idea of hooded sweatshirts and their place in society. Their place in the fashion world.

 The kind I like:

 The kind I hate:

If I had to wear the 'kind I hate" I think I would be in a bad mood. This is an interesting idea...how can the clothes that you wear affect your cognitive being? Halloween can be very empowering - choosing to wear something new and the abandonment of your dressing routine. Would I be more brave if I dressed daily in a fire-fighter's clothing?

Back to 'wear' I started.
From Wikipedia:

History

The garment's style and form can be traced back to Medieval Europe when the formal wear for monks included a long, decorative hood called cowl worn a tunic or robes.^[1] The hooded sweatshirt was first produced in the United States starting in the 1930s. The modern clothing style was first produced by Champion in the 1930s and marketed to laborers working who endured freezing temperatures while working in upstate New York.^[2] The term hoodie entered popular usage in the 1990s.^[3]

The hoodie took off in the 1970s, with several factors contributing to its success. Hip hop culture developed in New York City around this time, and the hoodie's element of instant anonymity, provided by the accessible hood, appealed to those with criminal intent.^[2] High fashion also contributed during this era, as Norma Kamali and other high-profile designers embraced and glamorized the new clothing.^[1] Most critical to the hoodie's popularity during this time was its iconic appearance in the blockbuster Rocky film.

By the 1990s, the hoodie had evolved into a symbol of isolation, a statement of academic spirit, and several fashion collections.^{[citation needed]} The association with chavs or neds in the UK developed around this time, as their popularity rose with that specific demographic. Young men, often skateboarders or surfers, sported the hoodie and spread the trend across the western United States, most significantly in California.^{[citation needed]} The rise of hoodies with university logos began around this time.^{[citation needed]} Tommy Hilfiger, Giorgio Armani, and Ralph Lauren, for example, used the hoodie as the primary component for many of their collections in the 1990s.^[1][2]

It's fascinating that the hoodie has become a symbol for such things. It does provide its wearer protection from the outside world. A way of hiding or becoming anonymous. Just recently hoodies were on the news in regards to the killing of Trayvon Martin. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/21/trayvon-martin-million-hoodie-march_n_1371403.html

The visual culture of a hoodie was strong enough for this to happen? 

This site is under construction.

As New Yorkers, so I believe I can now also call myself, we see a ton of construction. Whether a building is going up or down or being worked on, there are visible signs denoting the 'construction.' Just today I came across a new kind of 'under construction' sign at my nearest subway stop of the G train at Bedford-Nostrand. On the side of the Brooklyn-bound track large offwhite sheets of fabric closed off the view across the span of the whole platform. There was no heavy sounding machinery or any overt signs informing about the site being under construction. After being used to the MTA preparing an extensive amount of signage and notifications this strikes me as a bizarre sight.