they've been on repeat

Davi Moraes - É D'Oxum


Phoenix - Lisztomania


The Bird And The Bee - I Can't Go For That (Hall & Oates cover)


Cults - Go Outside



Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

moshpits

(click on the images to see them larger)

Love the Mosh Pits series of paintings by Dan Witz.

Catarina e o amor

Esta é uma história real. Catarina é filha de uma amiga nossa e tinha 4 ou 5 anos quando se apaixonou pela primeira vez. O escolhido foi um coleguinha do clube, e ela passou a querer se vestir melhor para as aulas de natação, desfilando todo o seu charme quando o garotinho, três anos mais velho, estava por perto. Um dia, Catarina quis levar para seu eleito um presente, e escolheu aquilo que para ela era a prova inegável de amor: um Danoninho. Saiu sorridente, levando nas mãos a apetitosa declaração para o amado. O menino, ainda pouco ciente das sutilezas da sedução e pensando mais com o estômago do que com o coração, recusou o presente sem meias palavras: “Não quero”.
Desiludida e em prantos, Catarina voltou para perto da mãe com o veredicto sobre o ocorrido, que comunicou entre soluços:
– Mamãe, ele não sabe que quer o meu Danoninho!
A história de Catarina nos disse muito sobre o amor.
A mãe dela nos contou isso em uma mesa de bar, sorrindo e sentenciando pras amigas: “Coitada, tão nova e já tão iludida”.
Mas quantas vezes a gente não faz exatamente o mesmo que essa garotinha, preferindo acreditar que o outro não sabe ainda que quer o nosso Danoninho, o nosso telefonema, a nossa companhia, o nosso amor?
Ah, Catarina. Ah, Catarinas todas, essas almas apaixonadas transbordando de vontade de trocar. Às vezes correspondidas, às vezes não. Continuem tentando.
E um feliz Dia dos Namorados para quem encontrou quem queira receber o amor que você tem para dar.

das "Motherns" Juliana Sampaio e Laura Guimarães [roubado da Dri]

on how ducks can teach you a lesson; or on what I should have but did not learn from that duck

I once lived in an apartment building in Indianapolis with a really cute lake view. Everything was absolutely great, except for the fact that a huge duck used to hang around the front entrance. HUGE, with a big tongue and everything. I mean, did you even know ducks have tongues? That just goes to show you how big that thing was. SCARY. That was the kind of duck that starts planning the chase of death once it sees you coming two miles away.

I remember planning my day around that duck's schedule, always making sure I didn't come home with bags of groceries late afternoon, because that was usually when he was standing right by the front door, as you can see from the scheme above. Leaving that building involved a whole exit strategy. I have once cried because of the duck. I lived in that building for 2 long years, timing my life around that bird.

All of a sudden I find myself in a somewhat similar situation.

Except now it's not a duck.

.

soul food

...A mulher tem uma coisa dentro de si, algo grosseiro, primário, estupidamente natural. Algo que é como uma voz. Algo que fica entre o hipotálamo e o cu. Uma voz que diz: esse sim, minha filha. Pode abrir as pernas. Esse não. Por mais pirotecnias financeiras ou existencialistas que um homem faça, quem decide a umidade de uma fêmea é essa voz. E o cacete da voz, dizia, apesar das súplicas da periquita depilada de Sabrina: esse, minha filha, não. Esse nem fodendo.

"Alguma coisa", da Tati Bernardi. [link]

linen + encyclopedia-ish

I've always loved mood boards. They're such a fantastic way to translate visually a combination of aesthetic ideas that you would never be able to explain through words. I just put this one together and like how it turned out. The lovely pencil drawing is by Alicia Lynn.

I was reading old posts from this blog, as I sometimes do, just to remind myself how life changes fast. Then I found this post I wrote about 3 years ago, which also reminded me of how I've become such a professional at forcing myself to get over people and things:

...It's about people who come to your life for a certain period of time but they don't come to stay. And that doesn't mean you shouldn't give them your best, that you shouldn't jump in head first, that you shouldn't hold on to those memories as much as you can. You love them, you build stories together, things go wrong and you see your castles fall. Then you learn to love better, and build stronger castles that will more than likely fall again, and you keep moving on until you have a long list of places that are hard to revisit because all you can think of was how happy you once were there. How much you wish you could put that feeling in a bottle and take it with you wherever you go.

Then one day you bump into that person that at one point meant the world to you, and now he's almost a stranger, and it just so happens that the person you were back then is also long gone.

It might sound sad, but seriously, isn't that a nicer perspective?

It's easier to deal with things that way.

You love, you live it as hard as you can, and you move on.

And it's not the end.

been in love with this for as long as i can remember

“Olha, eu sei que o barco tá furado e sei que você também sabe, mas queria te dizer pra não parar de remar, porque te ver remando me dá vontade de não querer parar também.Tá me entendendo? Eu sei que sim.”

- Caio Fernando Abreu

(Dri, esse sim é autobiográfico.)

to me, she's the definition of cool

"I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane."

- Looking for Alaska, by John Green

look what i got!

She's brazilian. She lives in London. I've never seen her, but I adore her already. Check out the post on her blog to my sister, Dri.



Marina – que coisa linda. Muito, muito obrigada.

i am the switzerland of relationships

"...Switzerland. It's very neutral there and they make very nice watches."

literally live paiting

(Self Portrait)

Amazing work by Alexa Meade, using the human body as her canvas.

there she goes

Just the other day I brushed her hair, left it kinda wavy to the side and styled it with some pomade. She hated it, and kept looking at herself in a little mirror I gave to her a million years ago and that she carried with her everywhere.

As soon as I left the room, she combed her hair the way she always used to, real neatly all to way to the back of her head.

When I went back to confirm what I was absolutely sure she would do she said "I swear I didn't touch it. It's just... THE WIND WAS BLOWING AND MESSED IT ALL UP. I swear I like it!"

I'm gonna miss her. Not quite sure how to exist in a world where she's not part of.

i could listen to her forever

One of my absolute favorites.

kitty, daisy and lewis

sobre a moda da caixa baixa

meninas vamos ao shift

[Texto tirado deste eSTE bLOGUE uSA mAIÚSCULAS]

há imensa gente que agora deu em escrever assim, sem usar maiúsculas. a primeira vez que vi tal coisa foi nos textos de f. no jugular, aquele blogue que tem grandes amigas minhas e também uma cientista radical que suspira em inglês mas que não tem nada a ver com este assunto, foi só um aparte. depois vi a mesma mania aqui e ali na chamada blogosfera. há mesmo um escritor, valter hugo mãe, que até o próprio nome escreve assim, e depois vai por aí fora, em livros inteiros. alega ele que o faz porque "as palavras têm todas a mesma dignidade."

digo eu: ó mãe, arranja outra desculpa. tu queres é ser diferente e dar nas vistas. a dignidade das palavras não está na ortografia, está no uso que lhes deres. e a dignidade da tua escrita está no que ela traduz, não nos sinais gráficos que usas. poupa-me. a bem dizer, poupas-me mesmo, porque até pode ser que escrevas bem, mas nunca li nem me apetece ler nada teu, pelo menos enquanto escreveres assim e os teus textos tiverem o aspecto deste que acabaste de ler . e se não acabaste, isso só prova uma de duas coisas: ou que nem sabes que existo, que é de longe o mais provável, ou que este texto é uma chatice de ler.

para mim é. andou a humanidade durante séculos a apurar formas de tornar a escrita legível, balizando-a, introduzindo marcas que facilitem a leitura e a compreensão do texto, que permitam entrar nele não só pelo princípio e pelo fim mas também por pontos intermédios, tornando-o vivo e digno, com os seus altos e baixos, as suas colinas, vales e planícies como numa jornada em que a paisagem variada nos revela o que lhe está subjacente e nos incita a continuar, e vem esta gente dar cabo de tudo isso e tornar o texto numa seca altamente confusa e chata de ler.

é que nem se vê bem onde começam e onde acabam as frases nem se distingue deus de um deus qualquer, nem a maria dos prazeres dos prazeres da maria, nem se sabe se são os vieiras que comem vieiras ou as vieiras que comem os vieiras ou os lampreias as lampreias, ou vice-versa. e é uma chatice de ver. digam lá se esta porcaria tem alguma piada, esta uniformidade rebarbativa, estas riscas monótonas como bombazina barata, como um batalhão de ss - não, não é uma onomatopeia para serpentes, é a sigla de schutzstaffel, os tropas de choque do hitler, que marchavam alinhadinhos e todos iguais como as tuas palavras, ó mãe.

não, poupem-me a esse igualitarismo ortográfico, a esse ódio plebeu à caixa alta, a esse nivelamento oco, a esse relativismo bacoco. isso não é mais do que uma moda, como as calças à boca de sino, as patilhas em bico ou dizer "basicamente" de duas em duas frases. abaixo a ditadura da caixa baixa. abaixo a preguiça de carregar no shift e desactivar o capslock. shift happens, digo eu que também sei inglês. viva o progresso e as suas grandes conquistas. e, sobretudo, irmãos, deixem-se de tretas. a brincadeira foi gira, a ideia foi curiosa, teve muita graça, ha ha ha. agora escrevam como gente, que é para a gente os ler, que a gente agradece-vos muito o esforço, e à vossa família toda.

Não sei bem o que dizer sobre mim. Não me sinto uma mulher como as outras. Por exemplo, odeio falar sobre crianças, empregadas e liquidações. Tenho vontade de cometer haraquiri quando me convidam para um chá de fraldas e me sinto esquisita à beça usando um lencinho amarrado no pescoço. Mas segui todos os mandamentos de uma boa menina: brinquei de boneca, tive medo do escuro e fiquei nervosa com o primeiro beijo. Quem me vê caminhando na rua, de salto alto e delineador, jura que sou tão feminina quanto as outras: ninguém desconfia do meu anti socialismo interno.

Adoro massas cinzentas, detesto cor-de-rosa. Penso como um homem, mas sinto como mulher. Não me considero vítima de nada. Sou autoritária, teimosa, impulsiva e um verdadeiro desastre na cozinha. Peça para eu arrumar uma cama e estrague meu dia. Vida doméstica é para os gatos.
Tenho um cérebro masculino, como lhe disse, mas isso não interfere na minha sexualidade, que é bem ortodoxa. Já o coração sempre foi gelatinoso, me deixa com as pernas frouxas Faz eu dizer tudo ao contrário do que penso: nessas horas não sei onde vão parar minhas idéias viris. Afino a voz, uso cinta-liga, faço strip-tease. Basta me segurar pela nuca e eu derreto, viro pão com manteiga, sirva-se.

Sou tantas que mal consigo me distinguir. Sou estrategista, batalhadora, porém traída pela comoção. Num piscar de olhos fico terna, delicada. Acho que sou promíscua. São muitas mulheres numa só, e alguns homens também.

-- Marta Medeiros

Pelo o que me diz respeito
Eu sou feita de dúvidas
O que é torto, o que é direito
Diante da vida
O que é tido como certo, duvido
E não minto pra mim
Vou montada no meu medo
E mesmo que eu caia
Sou cobaia de mim mesma
No amor e na raiva
Vira e mexe me complico
Reciclo, tô farta, tô forte, tô viva
E só morro no fim
E pra quem anda nos trilhos cuidado com o trem
Eu por mim já descarrilho
E não atendo a ninguém
Só me rendo pelo brilho de quem vai fundo
E mergulha com tudo
Pra dentro de si
Lá do alto do telhado pula quem quiser
Só o gato que é gaiato
Cai de pé...

-- Marta Medeiros

I'm happy.

Like I hadn't been in a long time.

It turns out that we get used to everything in this life, and that includes bad things; poor treatment; people who don't lift you up. I have the best group of friends one could ask for, and a person who came into my life and brought along what I can only describe as sunshine. A person who challenges me everyday to become the woman I know I can become and who I already see myself turning into. I'm throwing myself at the idea of being cared for, of being vulnerable sometimes. He's dared to push my buttons, he makes me mad, he touches on areas of my life I'm not at all comfortable with. He's making a mess and I'm completely grateful for it.

The lady on the picture is Sophia Loren. But it could totally be me.

Don't want to leave you
don't want to stay here
don't want to spend another day here
you do me wrong
my love is strong


you really got a hold on me.

.

the year my mom was born

Simone de Beauvoir, Chicago 1952. [link]

one of the most beautiful things I've seen in the past few years

The reason I forgive you is because you are not perfect. You are imperfect. And so am I. All humans are imperfect. Even the man outside my apartment who litters. When I was young, I wanted to be anybody but myself. Dr. Bernard Hasselhoff said if I was on a desert island, then I would have to get used to my own company. Just me… and the coconuts. He said I would have to accept myself: my warts and all. And that we don’t get to choose our warts. They are a part of us and we have to live with them. We can however, choose our friends. And I am glad I have chosen you. Dr. Bernard Hasselhoff also said that everyone’s lives are like a very long sidewalk. Some are well paved. Others, like mine, have cracks, banana skins and cigarette butts. Your sidewalk is like mine, but probably not as many cracks. Hopefully, one day our sidewalks will meet and we can share a can of condensed milk. You are my best friend. You are my only friend.

Mary and Max is perfection.

i can appreciate good criticism

One of the very few feminine traits I can admit to having and not be ashamed of is being a humongous Sex and the City addict. Always have been, always will be. The new trailer for SATC 2 almost brings me to tears. Tears of happiness and nostalgia covered with very shiny glitter.

SATC has made me feel very free about wearing pretty absurd outfits on a daily basis. I wear dresses with pants, red high heels which are very contrasting to my very white legs, I even own a huge butterfly which I wear as a necklace feeling absolutely no shame. Seriously, I can look pretty ridiculous to others while feeling amazingly fashion foward to myself. However, I can appreciate (and agree) with a lot of the criticism I read about the series and, especially, about the movie.

To be honest, I was a fan of the TV show when it first aired. A female writer living in New York and dealing with messy relationships? Of course I could relate. Of course I was attracted to the glitter, the nightlife, the search for love and the dating psychodramas. ... But the movie made me want to cut myself. It was a showcase for how hollow and soulless these characters were. Do they have hobbies, aside from shopping? Interests? ... I was seriously offended when Charlotte wouldn't eat anything except packaged chocolate pudding on their trip because "It's Mexico." I was also offended by Miranda's rudeness to her nanny and Samantha's "Honey, we can pay people to do the stuff we don't want to do" attitude. Then it dawned on me: These women are assholes. [link]

phd

Guess who's going to be a doctor in Psychoanalysis soon?

Yup, the smartest girl in the house.

I might be funny and all, but we all know that I'm really just "street smart". Plus I also learn a lot from mistakes.

Parabéns, Dri! Orgulho grandão de você.

suspense

miles aldridge

[link]

Today I made sure I only opened the "Pretty Things" folder of my Google Reader. There are some days when only beauty does it for me.

[via]

he says he isn't as funny as he used to be. About fifty percent as funny, maybe less. He thinks, but doesn't say, no, it's you, you're depressed, you don't find anyone funny anymore. She thinks, but doesn't say, I've always been depressed. I've never found anyone funny — except you, once.

"Anniversary" by Jason Whitmarsh, with Jessica Hische's drop cap.

lines

[link]

biomimicry

I've been absolutely fascinated and obsessed with biomimicry lately. Fred Gelli has been applying the concept here in Brazil under the title "Branding 3.0". Asknature.org is one of my favorites. Absolutely genius.

sobre eles

Ela afundou o corpo nele o mais que pôde, como se assim pudesse aprisionar um instante, como se assim pudesse aprisionar o amor. E ele, querendo as respostas que a vida não lhe entrega e que só uma mulher é capaz de abrigar dentro de si, puxou os seus quadris com a ânsia de escorregar para dentro dela e ali ficar. Só uma fêmea é capaz de dividir-se assim ao meio: a metade de baixo a sobrepor-se forte, desfalecendo as resistências do macho e a de cima a ampará-lo doce, beijando e acarinhando os medos de um filhote.

-- Rita Apoena

lichtenstein

Perfection.

(from here / via)

the 4Es

"Many of us grew up with the Four Ps of Marketing: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Do you know when the Four Ps of Marketing were invented? In 1960, by Jerome McCarthy. They were made leading-edge by Philip Kotler in his book Principles of Marketing in 1967.

The Four Ps thrived in a different world. It was a wonderful fantasy world. Marketers were king. Product differences lasted. Big, obedient audiences could be reached with big, efficient media.

What is the world of marketing today? The consumer has seized control. Audiences have shattered into fragments and slices. Product differences can last minutes, not years. The new ecosystem is millions and billions of unstructured one-to-one and peer-to-peer conversations. (...) We need a new framework. And a new tool kit.

from Product to Experience
from Place to Everyplace
from Price to Exchange
from Promotion to Evangelism."

From this article by Ogilvy & Mather. Worth taking a look at. The overall concept is extremely valid, despite one or two annoying buzzwords.

change by design

Design thinking begins with skills designers have learned over many decades in their quest to match human needs with available technical resources within the practical constraints of business... Design thinking taps into capacities we all have but that are overlooked by more conventional problem-solving practices. It is not only human centered; it is deeply human in and of itself. Design thinking relies in our ability to be intuitive, to recognize patterns, to construct ideas that have emotional meaning as well as functionality, to express ourselves in media other than words or symbols.

-- from the new and very thought-provoking book by Tim Brown, Change by Design.

tim brown

Designers have perhaps been used to the idea that they design something that somebody else consumes. We have to get used to the idea that we're going to help to design something that other people will participate in.

-- Tim Brow (his interview with Debbie Millman is here)

nature as the ideal business environment

And now what we’re doing, 20 years later, through our eco-innovation center here at Tátil, is trying to get inspired again by the ecosystems, understanding how coral colonies and mangroves are sophisticated trading systems, where you see beings which have a symbiotic relationship, where they trade energy and matter in a completely sustainable way. We know it’s possible to be inspired by that environment, which is a business environment because it involves trading, to try and make it work in our reality. This direct comparison to coral colonies is interesting because they only occupy 1% of the planet’s surface, yet 50% of all the life there is in the oceans lives around these colonies. It’s very similar to our reality in the cities. Nowadays, in general, more than 50% of the world’s population lives in a region that amounts to something like 2% of the planet’s surface. So we can certainly have an insight from this complementary relationship between individuals, specially if we think that all natural ecosystems have full circles, with no loose ends. Nothing remains. While our ecosystems, if you consider a city, has all the ends loose, in a sense that all the energy we use, or 95% of it, comes from non-renewable sources.

- also from the brilliant video by Fred Gelli, a man who makes me proud to be in the field that I am.

consumers vs. commensals

O que é Branding 3.0 / What is Branding 3.0 from Tatil Design on Vimeo.

I really like the idea that we’ll no longer be consumers, which is very reductive, almost as if our main condition on the planet was that of consuming. It’s almost like we are termites here. We’ll have a more interesting condition, like “commensals”. We’ll enjoy what objects have to offer, but we won’t need to possess them because owning things creates a huge environmental impact.

Eu gosto muito da idéia de que nós vamos deixar de ser consumidores – que é essa coisa reducionista, quase como se a nossa condição principal no planeta fosse de “consumir”, quase como se fôssemos cupins aqui – por uma condição mais interessante quase de “desfrutadores”, onde a gente usufruiu do que os objetos têm para nos oferecer, mas nós não precisamos possuí-los. Isso faz uma diferença enorme porque possuir coisas gera um impacto ambiental enorme.

missed call

chicago, i love you

ny

Alicia Keys and Jay-Z performing Empire State of Mind at the VMA. Gives me the chills.

30

Saturday was my brother-in-law's 30th birthday party. I had a little too much fun. Cheers to him, who's pretty much an older brother to me, even though he's probably just as immature as I am.

Parabéns, Flor! Você bomba!

design services made accessible

Design 99 is a storefront for new ideas, products, projects, and untapped talent.

Part retail space, part architectural design studio, Design 99 seeks to break the notion of contemporary design as expensive and inaccessible. From tricking out multi-family immigrant homes to posh downtown lofts, we approach each project with the same contemporary mindset- albeit different budgets- making contemporary architecture available to a wider public through over-the-counter design services.

Situated in the heart of Hamtramck’s commercial strip (Michigan), the Design 99 name takes a cue from the well-established 99-cent pricing strategy as well as the numerous dollar stores in the area, which are a constant source for inspiration.

type superwoman

falling in love with the same song all over again

FABULOUS

[link]

the proof

Marty Neumeier. We even rode the same elevator!!

issuu

I've been playing there now. Go see it big.

i think i've just been described by jay-z

Be fluid. Treat each project differently. Be water, man. The best style is no style. Because styles can be figured out. And when you have no style they can’t figure you out.

I think if you're starting early in the process by talking about your ideas for solutions, you're already not listening. I think you need to enter into any design project with that zen learner's mind of 'I don't know what I don't know'.

Kim Goodwin, General Manager and VP of Design at Cooper

a personal jesus

I'm meeting him on Monday. In person.

indie is dead. and it won.

"Indie doesn’t mean anything anymore. It’s dead. Which is OK, because it won. Open source, Twitter. Indie won. Etsy. The irresistible decline of major labels and network TV and corporate publishing. Indie won. We won, but at the cost to many folks personally of suddenly becoming unnecessary. This was most visible in the last few years in the magazines like Punk Planet, Kitchen Sink, Clamor. But it’ll come for us all.

You see, to the extent that indie meant anything, it was as its root word, independent. It was about seizing the means of production. Independently produced. Aesthetics can be imitated, ethics faked, attitudes mimicked, but large bureaucracies could not possibly replicate the indie production process – how could they seize the means of production? They already had it! And now the means of production has devolved yet farther down, past the indie publishers and indie record labels and pirate radio stations of yore.

This is not to say we’ve entered Nirvana. Just because we’d seized the means of production in the 1990’s didn’t mean that poverty had been eradicated, racism ended, and the intellectual property land grab thwarted. We all have to use the tools we’ve been given, find value in, rather than discard, the tools of the past, hold feet to the fire, undermine monopoly, and so on. All things we tried to do with the means of production we seized in the 90’s, we have to continue do with the means of production that technology has handed to us in the 21st century. Moore’s Law is value-neutral, apolitical, amoral, just like Gutenberg’s press. Its how we use it."

[link]

e.e. cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

one art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.


by Elizabeth Bishop

and here is a piece of my day on MSN

Abi might be coming to visit me in Brazil soon. Yay!

abi says: find me a cute guy. or just one of your throw always.
anabarroso: i will!
abi says: i want a tall one tho. is that easy to find?
anabarroso says: yeah, they come in all sizes. all ugly.
abi says: and no big noses. yuke.
anabarroso says: ok, anything else?
abi says: i like good big parts below, but you don't have to check that if you don't want to.
anabarroso says: i'd rather not. unless he's cute. then i'll check.
anabarroso says: i'll tell u this: the average brazilian penis is smaller than the average american penis. fact.
abi says: oh no! damn!
abi says: so i'll need to go with afro-brazilian then?
anabarroso says: yup
anabarroso says: and they are not circumcised, which is gross.
abi says: that is gross
anabarroso says: just being honest.
anabarroso says: I'm putting this conversation on my blog.
abi says: oh no!
anabarroso says: the world needs to see this.

you leave those smudges there so people will understand your pain

jake and grandma talking about his new therapist

From Two and a Half Men:



Grandma Evelyn:
... and then I tried Freudian analysis but with them, you know, it's just sex, sex, sex...

Jake:
My doctor has a cow puppet.

Grandma Evelyn:
Oh, really? ... ... ... M.D or /PhD?

Jake:
C-O-W.

the epitome of design thinking

"Aravind started in 1976 as an 11-bed eye clinic in an old temple-city. Today it is the largest and most productive eye care facility in the world. Taking its compassionate services to the doorstep of rural India, Aravind's stunningly effective strategies vaulted barriers of distance, poverty and ignorance to create a self-sustaining system that now treats over 1.7 million patients each year, two-thirds of them, for free."

1981

I was 3 months old, NYC subway trains were still covered in graffiti and she was more beautiful than ever. From LIFE magazine photo archive on Google images.

[via]

pretty sure they work with advertising

outside the box from joseph Pelling on Vimeo.

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white box

by Makoto Yabuki

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seeing type differently / type factory

Absolutely stunning branding project work done by University College Falmouth student, Huda Abdul Aziz. Type Factory is a fictional typographic museum in South Kensington, London.

"The concept revolves around the theme of deconstruction. The brand values of the Type Factory identity are informative, engaging and dynamic. The brand promise is about seeing type differently. The design solution includes the logo, a booklet to promote the venue, advertising and applications within the museum."

go forth

Just came across these absolutely amazing spots created by Wieden+Kennedy for Levi's. The audio of both of them are actual recordings of Walt Whitman's "O Pioneers!" and "America". It portrays America in a way I hadn't seen any brand do before. It's classic, rebel, young, old, diverse and blue eyed, all at once. Beautifully done.

"Come my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,
Have you your pistol? have you your sharp-edged axes?
Pioneers! O pioneers!

For we cannot tarry here,
We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

O you youths, Western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! O pioneers!

We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world,
Fresh and strong the world we seize, Pioneers! O pioneers"

"America
Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear'd, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love..."

tools vs. behaviors

Some posts come with very insightful comments as a bonus.

We need to be careful when we talk about digital media, that we don't get the tools mixed up with the behaviors. Obsessing over the significance of one site over another, or arguing the importance of participating on a site while not even considering what you're going to do when you get there or if it's even the right place, is a waste of time.

Facebook.com is not important. What's important is that more and more people are actively building and managing a personal network of relationships that can be accessed at any time via digital technology.

YouTube.com is not important. What's important is that more and more people are sharing original videos with other people all over the world at will.

Twitter.com is not important. What's important is that more and more people are developing a habit of broadcasting every experience and piece of information that they think might be of interest to their network.

As these tools evolve (and capabilities and uses merge), let's remember that the tools we use aren't as important as the behaviors they create.

Here are some excerpts of a comment left by Michael Maurillo:

What I have recently found so interesting about this (incredibly) important point is that there's a very large community in our industry that obsesses about user-behavior and how it affects their craft everyday. I'm talking about designers, YET when it comes to marketing it is something we so rarely think about. And if we do, it usually ends up in a tactic or two (if we're lucky), not in the core of the strategy.

Marketing insights have always been part of the process, but they typically only touch the surface of behavior and revolve around things like shopping habits or purchase behavior.

We all give the same reasons why "advertising is broken" based on how the user's behavior is changing, yet so many creative briefs I read still describe the "target" in terms of demographics with a smidge of pyschographics when it's more than likely that the designer down the hall from you has 5 distinct personas hung up on their wall representing the same audience. Strategists must start thinking like designers and leveraging their tools. It's not just about user-centered design, it's about user-centered marketing as well.

polyester princess

This is a post from Sweet Juniper!, one of my favorite blogs for the longest. It's written by Jim, the dad, who he used to be a lawyer and go by the pseudonym "Dutch". Now he's a Gentleman of Elegant Leisure and goes by his real name.

The mother of one of my daughter's friends asks, "Is she not supposed to play princess?"

I have never told my daughter she couldn't play princesses. We may have had a few conversations about how princesses aren't good role models, but I've NEVER said she couldn't pretend to be one. Apparently while playing at her friend's house, my daughter whispered, "My dad doesn't like princesses. He says they're lazy goodfornothings." Then she proceeded to pull one of those prefabricated princess gowns over her torso and said, "I'll just tell him I was being a fairy." This pleases me, because it shows she is beginning to understand that her highly-opinionated father can be quite difficult, though easily appeased by doing whatever it is he doesn't approve of once well out of sight. This will prove a useful skill as the years go on.

When told this happened, I felt a tinge of guilt. Then the other little girl stood up and said to my daughter, "I AM THE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS. You must do my bidding. Go and fetch me the finest flower in the land." My daughter reacted with a look of incredulity that could only be translated as, "Fuck that, dude." Or, perhaps less crudely, "My father was right: princesses are bossy and not very nice." She refused the quest, and the princess sulked.

I looked down at them in their ill-fitting polyester costumes, stained with mulberry juice and globs of yoghurt. I could have delivered the coup de grâce right then: I could have pointed out that their threadbare, shoddily-made dresses of imitation satin and tulle made them look more like Courtney Love at the tail end of an Oxycontin binge than any representative of The Crown. But I didn't. As Benjamin Disraeli once said, Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.

"Worry not, your Highness," I said, winking at my daughter. "I shall fetch my steed and deliver thee the loveliest dandelion in all Detroit."

a piece of advice

You will remember from school other students preventing you from seeing their answers by placing their arm around their exercise book or exam paper. It is the same at work, people are secretive with ideas. "Don’t tell them that, they’ll take credit for it." The problem with hoarding is that you end up living off your reserves. Eventually you’ll become stale. If you give away everything you have, you’re left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish. Somehow, the more you give away, the more comes back to you. Ideas are open knowledge. Don’t claim ownership. They’re not your ideas anyway, they’re someone else’s. They are out there floating by on the ether. You just have to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up.

from "It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be", by Paul Arden, Saatchi & Saatchi Creative Director

i don't give a shit what your stripper name is

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enough said.

we all do, honey...

[via the hilarious Aurea Mediocritas]

lies my mother told me

by Elizabeth Thomas

If you keep eating raw spaghetti
you'll get pinworms,
then I'll have to make
a necklace of garlic for you to wear
each night while you sleep,
until they go away.

If you're mean to your younger brother, I'll know
because I have a special eye
that spies on you when I'm not home.
You cannot hide from it,
so don't try.

If you touch your "down there"
any time other than when using the toilet,
your hand will turn green and fall off.

If you keep crossing your eyes
they will stay that way
until the wind
changes direction.

It is bad luck to kill a moth. Moths are
the souls of our ancestors and it just
might be Papa paying a visit.

If you kiss a boy on the mouth
your lips will stick together
and he'll use the opportunity
to suck out your brains.

If you ever lie to me
God will know
and rat you out.
And sometimes
God exaggerates.
Trust me —
you don't want that
to happen.

foreseeing

by Sharon Bryan

"Middle age refers more
to landscape than to time:
it's as if you'd reached

the top of a hill
and could see all the way
to the end of your life,

so you know without a doubt
that it has an end—
not that it will have,

but that it does have,
if only in outline—
so for the first time

you can see your life whole,
beginning and end not far
from where you stand,

the horizon in the distance—
the view makes you weep,
but it also has the beauty

of symmetry, like the earth
seen from space..."

Good to be bad sometimes.

her: OH, NO, YOU DIDN'T!
me: OH, YES, I DID.

back in Indianapolis

It's been absolutely amazing spending time with my friends again, after one and a half years apart. Abi, I missed you so much, I love you (I told you I'd say that here, didn't I? Surprise!) Ericka, Layla is mean and absolutely beautiful and adorable, just like her mama. I love you both, and I have the feeling that she kinda likes me, which makes me extra proud of myself. Kira, you're my sister, end of story. Jordin, I knew I'd love you. How can such a tiny girl have such a huge personality?

latest purchase

from Urban Outfitters

pop nihilism

"One such campaign, 'Whopper Sacrifice' – in which Facebook users were rewarded a free Whopper for deleting ten friends from their account, has been the most precise incidence of 'pop nihilism' to date. The underlying premise of the campaign was that the majority of one’s relationships are expendable, the Whopper serving as a material excuse to manifest this belief. The Whopper’s presence in the campaign was purely symbolic. The true appeal of the sacrifice was not the faux-nourishment of a hamburger, but for participants to relish in the misanthropic destruction of the social contract.

These campaigns are intentionally polemic – eliciting disgust in many, while others feel compelled to come to their defense. CP+B have torn a page right out of Ballyhoo in the sense that they aren’t selling hamburgers, they are selling the spectacle of advertising’s demise. Agencies who take this route and profit from its fleeting popularity will go down in history as advertising’s robber barons, those who cashed in on the medium’s social capital before it went bankrupt – signifying the moment advertising realized its own mortality and began to eat itself.

from Pop Nihilism: Advertising Eats Itself

this week's top 3

Thanks to the guys from "Massa Cultural" for featuring some of my work on their blog's Top#3 section. That was a nice surprise!

acting like they are seeing the beatles

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