I’ve recently decided that I desperately need to alter my relaxation to stress ratio in favor of the more positive of the two aspects. Decisions like “I really need find more ways to relax” tend to change the way you look at things, activities, the cost and complication of acquiring things and of participating in activities. It also can change the places that you LOOK for relaxation and methods for achieving the effect in general.
I personally feel that starting with the easiest, most readily available method of relaxation is the best way to free up thought-space to better enable the “creative” conjuring of relaxing ideas. For me, that means reading or in extreme cases of distress, not even something that mentally involved. There are occasions where if I even have the energy to be conscious (read: anything beyond constant sleeping), I have only enough consciousness at my disposal as to make watching television as challenging of a task as I can handle outside of necessary function. At that point, I can’t even watch movies unless I didn’t have to make the choice of which one to watch in the first place. This is a VERY bad place to find one’s self.
UNLESS…the boob-tube proves to actually be informative for a change. We know that’s rare but even more rare that a commercial — that capitalist trap of eye-candy — is for a product that can legitimately make me drop my jaw in awe, envy and excitement. When suddenly you see the very PRODUCT which could virtually CURE you of all of your stress and tension and woes with just a mere purchase…it’s a day to chock up as an “amazing TV” day.
Enter, THE VIBRACOUSTIC (by Kohler). The currently most BAD ASS bathtub I have ever seen.
After seeing the commercial that made my palms sweat with wondrous anticipation, I immediately thought two things: #1, I bet you have to use JUST the crap they pre-program the thing with like those stupid “white noise”/”spa” sound machines and #2, I bet that thing costs as much as a small car.
Well….as it turns out, it’s a good thing I don’t waste my time in casinos or playing Lotto because I was wrong AND right… The sound system on this awesome tub does come with specific, pre-loaded tracks which are designed to utilize acoustics in a fashion that morphs music into hydro-massage-therapy. Additionally, you CAN load your own music into the system for a customized experience. SCORE!
On the down side, the part I WAS right about sucks pretty badly. According to KOHLER’S pricing on their website, these tubs range from $5, 670.00 to $7,770.00. OUCH.
Can’t they have a heart?!? The common folk are in DIRE need of this sort of relaxation due to added job stress (layoffs: fear of being laid off and/or the added burden of picking up the work that was left behind when OTHERS were laid off), economic stress (even IF someone still has a job these days, almost no one is getting a raise any time soon and that’s given that they didn’t already LOSE money under the guises of “saving jobs” by cutting a percentage of all employees’ salaries). We working folk desperately need some way to avoid the cardiologist!!
After my considerably more adult review of LittleBigPlanet in association with some films that the art design reminds me of, here’s a childish bit of ha-ha for you. Since LBP is by design, customizable and enables every player to become a level developer, that literally opens the door for all SORTS of stuff.
I have a VERY sensitive nose. I can smell that someone smoked a cigarette 2 days ago. I can smell when some no-good man has been whoring about. Thankfully, I’m not limited to nosing out only the stink of this world. Pleasant, subtle scents are also at my olfactoral disposal (even if there is a disproportionate amount of good vs. evil odours in the air). Unfortunately, much like the great tales of this and previous millennia, Evil often poses as Good; in this case, in the candle aisle, at the incense shop and at the perfume counter. In other words, this also means I can’t stand strong fragrances/perfumes/colognes. Only if they’re not too powerful can I stand scents in any embodiment. Even then, I typically favor fruity or natural scents.
Understanding that, it shouldn’t be difficult to guess that I do NOT hang out at perfume counters, in “head shops” or even the oh-so-popular candle stores. I did, however, inadvertently stumble upon a candle line that caught my attention called “Modern Alchemy” by the company, D.L. & Co. Just based on their product naming, design and their scent descriptions, I might have to start saving up my pennies to give a couple of their pretty (and pricey wares) a go.
I’m not very trusting — especially with advertising — but even if these candles and fragrances smelled like putrid garbage on a sweltering July day in Atlanta, GA, I’d probably still have to at LEAST get my hands on the “Seven Deadly Sins” collection…just to say I had it. I mean, what if someone one day ponders aloud in your presence: “I wonder…if ‘sloth’ had a smell, what it would smell like?” If you had this candle collection, you would KNOW!! And if you’re like me, you’ll also find it HIGHLY amusing that it is (among other aromas) a “cannabis” (the plant more commonly known for its intoxicating effects) scented candle. To be honest though, I guess my inner nature-girl/hippie always thought the plant’s sharp, citrus smell refreshingly clean — even if I never understood why anyone would enjoy the effect of sounding like a moron and being a worthless sack of flesh as a result of smoking the stuff.
Most of the fragrances and candles by D.L. & Co. are very sophisticated in their scent base and quite crafty in their themes and artistic presentation. Just upon reading the choices of fragrance combination, I would expect most of these candles (even the ones that DON’T include the cannabis flair) to be pretty heady and dense (i.e. burn in a REALLY large room — maybe with some doors and windows open too for good measure) but also very unique. Some of the others sound incredibly fresh and considerably lighter. I’m fairly sure the lighter scents will be more appealing to my hyper-delicate snout but I have to admit that the other, more complicated varieties still sound intriguing.
In the event that you’re interested in scraping YOUR pennies together to check these fragrances out as well, I’ll let you cheat and start with a couple of places I found that actually sell them (since the company doesn’t sell their Signature line or Modern Alchemy line directly from their website it seems).
Modern Alchemy can be found for purchase at these and other sites:
Sure, I favor some things that people might consider kind of dark but as it should be coming through bit by bit, I like a touch of fun to my darkness too. That inevitably means that there are some instances of “fun” that I find amusing which contain little to no darkness about them whatsoever.
Even more evident should be my tendency towards the artistic in things that I enjoy. I do love movies and music and other forms of “normal” art but I don’t actually play many video games. I am wound quite tight enough without the added stress of trying to “beat” a game or level or find some boon. I can stand to watch more games than I can play and the better done the game artistically and functionally and intellectually, the more I typically enjoy watching it. That said, there are few games I even enjoy watching enough to consider actually playing for myself. Little Big Planet is one of those VERY rare exceptions.
This is SUCH a fun game, visually, functionally, even regarding its soundtrack and storyline. This game is so textural and logical — but in a fantastic way — that even the greatest hardcore “kill em all” gamer has to stare at it and even play a little (even if he talks smack about the ‘gay’ factor the whole time). The 3D feel of the levels, the way the physics engine allows the “sack person” to swing and bounce and grab things, even the expressions that you can control on your customized little-you are fascinatingly fun.
In playing this game, I thought of two films I love for their alarmingly simple, yet unique art design: The Science of Sleep and Coraline (in 3D specifically). These films convey very much the same surreal and child-like qualities that art used to embody back when art meant clay and construction paper, pipe cleaners and cotton balls. The sophistication of this game and these movies steps in with the approach, stories and consequences of actions in each.
In Little Big Planet, you may be having a blast with your one-eyed, polka-dotted, cross-dressing lion(ess?), but the humor you encounter is definitely adult — as are the goals of the game. The Science of Sleep is about a couple of very eccentric, only mildly mature adults who sort of fall in love through the language of imaginative avant-garde art and music. Coraline is really probably the most kid-friendly of the three of these playful examples of fun art (in motion). Coraline is a bit darker but necessarily so since it DOES have a bit of a moral-of-the-story thing going on (be who you are but appreciate what and who you have — summed up).
I like the unique in the world. These movies and this game definitely qualify for this category so if you’ve got some spare change (and time) lying around, go check any or all of them out if you want your lovely little eyeballs to be dazzled and your mind to be entertained and expanded (if only a little depending on how far out there you already are).
Designer, Tithi Kutchamuch is definitely an “outside of the box” thinker as you can see here from his projects. Although innovative, not all of his designs are practical. Hell, his “Virgin” project, I don’t even understand — and I’m not quite sure I WANT to considering the confusion his descriptions and displays instilled. (I’m hinting that he could do with a little ENGLISH assistance to perhaps better his presentation effect.)
Aside from that, it was evident from the overall impression that I got from his designs that he is a very sensitive soul. Sound hippie-like enough for you? He’s very AWARE of his surroundings. He is aware of the spacial relationship that people have to the world around them, to each other and to themselves. Sound better? His creative endeavors that he bares to the world on his website are gentle, artistic and in most cases, useful applications of that awareness.
Of all of Tithi Kutchamuch’s designs, one that I favor over all of the others is also an ironic favorite for me. I may be a woman but I am NOT a chocoholic and tetter on the verge of dare I say, disliking the stuff altogether. That being said, Kutchamuch’s chocolate is designed to encourage people to eat less while focusing on the EXPERIENCE more than the quantity in this day and age of obesity, overeating and market trend toward selling more for a supposed greater value. This really is simply fun in the most literal sense. Check it out.
Not that this wondrous woman really NEEDS more positive press but I respect and envy people — especially women of this caliber.
Tara McPhereson. She’s an artist, a woman obviously, a beauty at that, clearly intelligent, has fascinating taste and from a 2nd-hand account (as well as the impression I’ve received from her interviews) a fabulously down-to-earth, just cool as HELL chick. I love her art, even if it’s sometimes a little relentlessly common to its sibling works. She has a very stark, strick style that is at once fun, dark, simple and yet still exquisitely elaborate.
As if her art wasn’t fun enough on its own, this hot artist (in so many ways) has awesome taste in clientele. She has gained a great deal of exposure for her individual works but an even more expansive viewing crowd by being a hot commodity in addition to her hotness… Bands, baby. This chick has done some MEAN band-poster work. I’m lucky enough to have one from 2006 that was gifted to me by way of a close friend of the band Mastodon. She’s done a couple of posters for them (one poster in 2 designs from last year that I specifically want like MAD but have yet to get my hands on). This same individual who gifted me with her 2006 poster recently had a chance to sit down and talk to her and reinforced my initial impression that she was indeed a cool individual and a lovely lady to boot. I have to admit I am still a bit envious of the opportunity. I’m human after all.
As it turns out, Ms. McPherson doesn’t do JUST posters but sculpture, toys (too cute not to check out), fine art and other interesting things as well. A couple of those that she lists in her bio are references to her work that I REALLY should have just remembered off the top of my head because I have both references (unfortunately not the ORIGINAL works)… She was a contributor to Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall along with another of my favorite artists, James Jean (*tangent alert* Mr. Jean’s work was also showcased in the recent, film adaptation of the “unmakeable graphic-novel movie,” Watchmen). McPherson’s part in Fables is the illustrated, 14-page sub-story, “Diaspora.” Here is a quick write up on the Fables piece. Her other (likely more recognizable) works can be seen hanging on the bedroom walls of Juno in the film by the same name.
This woman has a very distinct style and in a way that is all her own, she brings fun and sophistication with her art. Not until later do you realize you’re looking at a High On Fireposter or staring at a punch-out of a girl’s candy-cane ribcaged chest — including breasts. She is an artist in the truest sense, being capable of once again making something sinster, cute and sweet. As I’ve said before here, I’m incredibly fond of that effect and by golly, darn it if I’m incredibly fond of Tara McPherson as a result!
As I closed my post here about the World Erotic Art Museum with a hurray for tasteful eroticism, I only touched on an argument that I’ve maintained for about as long as I can recall.
Although neither of the titles mentioned in this NYTimes article strike me as impressive enough to seek out, they and the article, revolve around a specific element of my very same argument: whatever you repress will grow and the more taboo, the faster and with the most force.
I find it fascinating that I never really thought too much or too hard about the historic presence of sex and its accompanying industries specifically in relation to New York City. I’ve thought about sex in the South (again, repression galore) a great deal. Although not necessarily a fabulously written book, here is a source on this specific topic too if you’re interested: Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt by Suzi Parker (which contains a whole chapter dedicated to Memphis’ notoriety for raunch and its strip clubs). I’ve even thought about and checked out for myself the sexual scenery of San Francisco; home to an annual Exotic Erotic Ball and such anomalies as The Power Exchange which is one of the only clubs you will find in the U.S. where public sex is okay (in any orientation) as long as it’s done safely. Both of these topics/websites I’m afraid you will have to look up on your own if you’re interested in learning more, however. I’m not going to link to them here. New Orleans, THE Sin City is another I have checked the sexual pulse of in my lifetime and another home of an EEB.
For whatever reason though, I haven’t really contemplated very deeply one of America’s oldest, most fascinating and diverse cities in that regard. It seems quite negligent of me to have not done so up until now. NYC has also played host to an EEB, was partially the inspiration of the show ‘Sex and the City’ and of course it is also an art and fashion mecca, complete with museums as well. Although this Museum of Sex was not as tasteful as the WEAM in Miami, it was still quite interesting.
Really, NYC has been around so damned long and is the city that never sleeps so what exactly do you think everyone is DOING when they’re not sleeping?? Why wouldn’t I have ever put some serious thought into its sexual historic value?? It seems ripe with potentially fascinating tidbits. Even if the books reviewed by the NYTimes weren’t winners, at least they have done their job of piquing interest! Let’s hear it for unstoppable curiosity!
Keep in mind, I hate tourist industries. I hate tourist traps. I freaking hate TOURISTS (enough so that when I travel, I try DESPERATELY HARD to not behave like one). I was born and spent the first several years of my life in a state whose economy was and still is centered around tourism. Although Florida wasn’t the founding foothold for the Disney empire, it was the space where old Walt put his left foot down after planting the right firmly in California… I have gotten a HEARTY dose of theme/amusement park exposure as a result.
Thanks to my youthful trips to good old Disney WORLD (LAND is in CA folks, for the record), I’ve had plenty of time to think about the fantastic elements of the whole thing, the mechanics of the machine that is the Disney brand and seen plenty of the pretty and the dirty media pats and stabs at the expense of that industry. Some of it nauseates me because of the aggressive nature of the marketing and all that jazz. The whole IDEAL of it though, I’ve always kind of had a fondness for (even if the characters make me want to retch most of the time because they’re just SOOO damned SWEET).
You have to wonder though…what on EARTH could have motivated a mind to conjure such a MASSIVE world of surrealism for people to visit year round??? Well, much as this NYTimes article discusses and reminded me, Walt Disney was a man before he was an industry. As we all know, if he was a man, he was also a child.
I am clearly a fan of magical realism, fiction, etc. I also love well written work. Just be patient though. If you’ve been reading my blog since I recently started it, you should know I have a method and it’s about the journey and the interesting bits you learn along the way to the destination.
This brings me to my connection between California and Chicago as odd as that may seem. With the article about then new Walt Disney Family Museum going up in one of my favorite American cities (San Francisco), I recalled what I inadvertently learned about Mr. Disney in reading a book call The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson (one of THE best MOSTLY non-fiction books I’ve read in my LIFE) about The 1893 Wold’s Fair and the serial killer, H.H. Holmes. In this book, Larson manages to work in EXPANSIVE amounts of amazingly random and yet coincidental facts regarding some of America’s most face-changing inventions, facts and inspiration in such a graceful, arresting way…you won’t even know you’re learning anything from reading it.
One of the fascinating facts that I learned reading this book was also one that was like a light bulb of ‘duh’ for me. As it turns out, one of the carpenters and furniture-makers who made the wonder that was the Chicago World’s Fair happen was one Elias Disney — Walt Disney’s father. After seeing the few photos of what that fair looked like, it is evident that the nickname it acquired was apt: The White City. It was a spectacle like nothing I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes. It is the single one thing that has ever made me earnestly wish that I could have been alive during that time — that I feel cheated for not having gotten to experience the splendor and wonder and surrealism for myself.
If Walt Disney saw THAT as a child…is it any WONDER that he felt compelled to create something inspired by the degree of magnificence that was on display in Chicago that year. Who gives a shit if he made an industry off of it, really? The concept and vision were and still are pretty outstanding and my point is…I won’t deny that fact. The man is definitely worthy of some solid credit for his vision and considering the argument that his daughter makes in the NYTimes article about the family’s museum, family influence, creativity and resulting exposure was the inspiration for the empire anyway. Pretty awesome by my standards, even if every family has its flaws.
Also, if you haven’t already read The Devil in the White City… READ IT!
NOTE:
Devil in the White City: Disney references — Page 153 and 373.
I’ve been called an art snob, an art fag, an art whatever a few times. I’ve gotten strange looks for what I drool over in the art world. I really do love art. I wish I could afford my taste for that matter. I seem to have a general fondness for the things in life that an awful lot of people consider luxuries, unnecessary and sometimes even painful wastes of time. For me, these things are absolute necessities because they make life worth living when I’m miserable at the mercy of a lot of the things other people value.
I know that seems a bit vague so let me clarify…
I love art, I love books, I love food, I love traveling and well, I love the other pleasures in life too. The fun thing is that all of these can be combined to intensify the enjoyment they each offer individually. There are books about art, food, sex, travel and even other books. There is art that features food and sex. Food is often presented artistically, used to add sensuality to sex and then there’s “cookbooks;” their own genre of literature. Sex…well…that’s an industry entirely in itself and travel can serve as a vehicle for experiencing all of these as well, but I’m not going to keep going with this. You get the picture.
A while back, I went to Miami to visit a friend but knew it was going to unfortunately be a short trip. We already had plans to go to OzzFest so that knocked out one day straight-away. For my other full day that I would have there, I insisted that we go to an art museum that I read about somewhere a while back (I’d give credit to where I saw it if I could remember but sadly my terrible memory claims another victim). Luckily, my friend was of the open-minded variety and was quite interested in going as well after I told her about it. My initial interest in the place was your average case of curiosity but after doing a little pre-trip researching, I had achieved a growing sense of intrigue at just HOW extensive this art collection might actually be and of what caliber. The museum is called the World Erotic Art Museum.
Erotic art has always interested me a great deal. To some degree, the same kitschiness of it that would draw a 13-year old to it allured me but as I read about the museum and its curator, my fascination became much more complex and mature. As the curator, Naomi Wilzig’s bio and museum release document explain on the museum’s site, she began her collection with a request from her son for some “conversation pieces” of erotic art for his home. Once she started collecting, however, she didn’t feel inclined to stop after fulfilling her son’s request. Her collection spans continents, eras and taste and features every imaginable medium of artistic expression. According to the museum’s website, she has over 4,000 pieces of erotic art on display and much to my glee, also a research library on the subject with over 250 volumes.
This museum is not only interesting for its choice of subject matter but for the tastefulness and tact which its owner/curator presents its contents through carefully organized displays and lighting. Ms. Wilzig, herself, boasts a civics resume to be reckoned with as a prominent member of the Jewish community as well as the associated fame of her late husband’s accomplishments, among which can be found his participation in the founding of the Washington, D.C. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
As a result of the care Ms. Wilzig has put into her passion for erotic art collecting, this is a unique art experience that won’t leave you feeling like you need to have a bath to wash off the filth that a strip club, sex shop or any other seedy joint might leave you with as soon as you walk out. The World Erotic Art Museum is honestly worthy of its classification of being a “museum” as opposed to a ruse to get past the conseravtive crowd. Really, erotic art is quite beautiful, fascinating and reflective of cultural differences. This is one of the rare occasions where it gets to shine without the tinge of red light illuminating it.
