Art for Arts Sake

I blog for a variety of reasons.

First & foremost: it gives me purpose. That purpose if often changing, evolving & rotating depending on my mood or my needs. Sometimes I think I have something really important or enlightening to share (this is actually rarely seen thru because as I start typing the "profound" characteristic of such thoughts slowly dissipate). Other times I want to make people laugh (people meaning the 3 person maximum I actually know check this thing). Most frequently, I need to get something off my chest. By typing it, I make it feel real - I engrave it somewhere. I've tried & failed to keep a diary so in a way, this operates as that without feeling forced.

When I scan the blogger world for other readable rants, I see similar (although more static) goals driving my fellow writers. Mommy Blogs - providing humor & community in the microcosm of motherhood. Working Girl Blogs - sarcastic wit to help alleviate the daily hardships of 9-5 grinds. Free Flow Blogs - most similar to my camp these writers just try to create culture awareness or stimulate thought. Then there are the less obvious & slightly more irritating brand of "blogs." I call them the blogarazzi. They act just like the paparazzi without the cameras, car-chases or ACTUAL celebrity sightings. They use the internet to toss around ideas, angry vents or offer praises based on E! News, OK magazine, US Weekly, Page 6 or whatever other means I'm not privy to regarding Hollywood & its offspring.

Why do they irritate me? Well, mostly because there are enough mediums to gab, comment, rape & pillage celebrities or their lives without adding the blogging world. I mean, a blog here or there on the Oscars or cheating as inspired by Sandra Bullock/Jesse James's newest mishap is one thing. But were talking about people who thrive on this shit. Honestly, don't you have anything better to talk about? Think about? WORRY about?

...... don't you WANT anything better to do?

I know, I know, I know. Blogger world is large & it's easy to avoid any type of blog you may not be in favor of. I not trying to vi for blog sanctity in some holy crusade against the trash that is Perez Hilton or what-not. But I'd just like to remind the general public that there are much MUCH much more interesting things going on in the world that have nothing to do with politics or war (because on the other end of the spectrum these topics are equally exhausting). Movies, music, new video games, etc ....

At the very least, combine talk of cheating, drug abuse or celebrity gab into larger scale conversations. Take it out of Hollywood & globalize it so you at least sound intelligent.

Sorry, "culturally aware" was probably a better choice of words. But I digress....

I blog because it matters. It matters that people communicate & talk, even if they make enemies from it or piss people off. It matters. It's a forum for thought & even when those thoughts are considered dumb, extreme & otherwise (yes, this includes blogs' entitled "Why Heidi Montage/Pratt should be president" - which wasn't being sarcastic). Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

There is nothing I hate more than "art for art's sake." So speak & write with purpose. Not only for shear enjoyment. Not for shock factor (although sometimes this pays off). Don't just play up culture for your own benefit. Do what YOU do best ... as long as it doesn't purely involve following celebrity gossip. Push yourself a bit more than that. Please.

All The Small Things

It was my dream for a few years to move to NYC. Even before I visited, I knew I would fall in love with this city. Sure enough, summer of 2008, I did. I didn't have big plans to "make it." I didn't really have any plans at all. I can't really explain why but I knew this was just where I needed to be.

Everyone always said I was a city girl but I think it has to do with my need to be surrounded & yet entirely alone at the same time. I'm a people person but I'm also unabashedly deep & reflective. I have a need to make statements & have opinions without judging or living in fear of being mis-perceived. I love living life at a fast pace while still taking everything in. I found those qualities here. People who know me know I'm hard to characterize. I have values, for sure. Those are quite clear. But my personality is quite the melting pot of qualities. I rarely exhibit any sort of pattern of predictability in my day to day interactions. Honestly, I'm the personification of the NYC in a sense. I have a little bit of everything to offer & I like to think I do it quite well.

However, I'm well aware for many people, they don't share any of my warm sentiments for this over-populated city. Quite the opposite they think NYC is too much, too little, too fast, too over the top or what not. I find it to be exactly the perfect balance of, well, everything. I'm partial because I was not happy where I was. I wasn't myself but I couldn't exactly figure out why. Sometimes I still have a hard time pin-pointing but I do know that I found myself here. There's not much you CAN'T find here. So, for the New Yorker who may have fallen out of love with the NYC vibe or the visitor who left in a bit of hurry because this city just didn't "do it" for them - I'd like to show you what it is that makes me fall in love with this place over & over again.

For one, I know flowers exist everywhere. And some people are fortunate enough to have FIELDS of flowers to smell. But I, for one, look forward to warming weather which means I can smell the flowers are the corner stores from a block away. And guess what, ours don't die in the winter like yours do : )

I also love the subway. Yes, it gets crowded. Yes, trains run late. But traffic happens when you're a car-driving commuter too. What you won't see in your car (unless you're being hijacked which actually is not a pleasant surprise) are the singing, dancing, preaching random artists of the city. Mariachi bands, gospel singers, old ladies with accordions.... No I don't make eye-contact with most of them and sometimes, I do wish they would shut up (especially the mariachi band because I swear they're everywhere) but 9 times out of 10 - they put a smile on my face.

Free exercise. It's almost impossible to fat in this city. It happens but that fact that you can & usually have to walk everywhere was a welcomed change in my life.

I'm also pretty sure you would have to eat out every meal -breakfast, lunch, dinner- for the rest of your life to even have a chance at trying every restaurant in the city. And many of the best restaurants in the world are HERE!! Where I live!!

There's also the fact that you are close to everything. Brooklyn. Boston. New Jersey. A plethora of sports teams & venues, theatres, museums .... more food... a beach. If I want to "get out of town for awhile," I barely have to travel an hour to escape. And I definitely don't have to pack the car, board the dog, turn of the electricity for a week or find a sitter for the kids. Granted, I don't have kids but you get my point.

One word: subcultures. Whatever your hobby, interest, or passion - you can find it here. And no matter how weird it is, you will not be judged because there are at least 3 other people in your borough with the same idea of fun.

I have not exhausted all the reasons why I choose to live here. I don't want to because some of them are precious to me & sometimes, once you've shared something, it looses its dearness. But I ask, no implore you to give this city a chance. It's beautiful. It will always have something to offer you & it will always challenge.

Who doesn't like a good challenge?

Oh Leo...

I have a pretty standard rotation of magazines I read monthly. Vanity Fair & Rolling Stone are always first. In Style is quick to follow. Sometimes I’ll grab a copy of Lucky or Nylon if I’m feeling especially girly or Men’s Health & Vogue if the cover intrigues me. However, Esquire has yet to make it in the repertoire of my glossy-page turning past time… until my last visit to Barnes & Noble.

Walking to a table in the café, magazines in hand, I saw a rather loud & eye-catching magazine cover consisting of a cardigan-clad, cigar-bearing Leonardo DiCaprio splashing his Bourbon (Whiskey?) towards the supposed reader. All this on a white background with busy tag lines layered between Leo & the white sheet. At first, I kind of half smiled at the effort & artistic talent filling said cover-art. But then, I realized the “effort” was more than just filling the cover, it was kind of spilling on to the floor in an obvious, cliché mess.

My first problem results from what Leo holds in his right & left hand. A cigar & a glass of Bourbon (or really, was it Whiskey?). Now, I don’t know much about Esquire. Like I said, I had never read it so I have no way of knowing the magazine’s style or feel - their perspective & drive is foreign to me. But I do know one thing. Most of the time, their covers are sexy in a often raunchy way that makes you look two & three times because it’s not in the same plastic wrap playboy is.

If they aren’t making you blush, they are making you wonder what’s inside based on their political stance (i.e the Kennedy tri-fecta that was captioned with “The Meaning of Life” as if the Kennedy’s held the key to how to live a fulfilled life). I actually like all of these qualities in Esquire & I am surprised it has never made it into my hands before now. However, this month’s cigar & hard liquor paraphernalia have me uncomfortably bemused. It’s so predictable. But worse, it’s so NOT avant-garde or raunchy or politically moving or socially enthralling. It didn’t make me look twice for the right reason.

The two male social symbols Leo holds in his hands are boring. He isn’t about to entertain guests. He doesn’t look suave, he looks cheesy. And actually for some reason I imagine him either banging his secretary prior to this picture or just delivering the OK to wack some insignificant. (I mean neither of these in gangster, bad-ass way. I mean them in a “little man syndrome way”). He isn’t a heart throb anymore with Titanic over a decade behind him. He IS an accredited actor following Blood Diamond & The Departed not to mention his new Scorsese film, Shutter Island (hence the Esquire spotlight).

But what this cover makes him look like is a hoity, cigar smoking, cashmere-wearing, liquor-tossing socialite. In my opinion, if Leo is wearing a cardigan, he is probably in character. If he's going to be smoking a cigar then its probably celebrating with the boys & if he is drinking, he isn’t wearing that frickin cardigan – he is out at a club or party in a white undershirt & jeans! So what the hell is this cover selling - the American socialite man or Leo’s alter-ego? I mean, his Shutter Island character wouldn’t even dress or act like this confused individual which has left me confused.

I’m sure I’m not doing a great job at explaining why this cover left such a bad taste in my mouth. Hell, maybe I’m just not a Leo-fan. Bu the bottom line for me is disappointment in Esquire for not making me blush or at least ALMOST pick up their magazine to see what interesting snarky article or intriguing political mess waited inside.

Better luck next month.