kickin off 09: things you didn't know about me.

the fabulous Darryl over at brandflakes for breakfast tagged me for the 7 Things meme a few days ago where you need to share 7 things about yourself, and then ask 7 people to do the same. so. uh. here are 7 things you don't know about me. which is hard, if you follow my twitter stream. where i kind of don't shut up. then again, i've also been called a mystery on 12seconds, so perhaps not...

01. i love acoustic versions of songs. i collect them. i like having both versions. mainly i collect post-punk, pop-emo, and screamo. my favourite kinds are ones where there is still screaming along with the sounds of the acoustic guitars. there's something more raw about the "unproduced" versions in an over-produced genre that i appreciate. lately i've been listening to the acoustic version of Shady Business by theAUDITION on repeat (34x and counting). email if you want the .mp3.

01a. i live in mix tapes. i am addicted to music, like most people. i make soundtracks to my life. i have mix tapes almost as old as i am. including cassettes, but mainly i listen to ones on CD, meaning high school through now. when i make a mix tape for someone else, i will take DAYS. DAYS to make sure that i am happy with the mix and tailor it to the other person. the longest i ever worked on a mix tape was two weeks. "all my favourite singers have stolen all of my best lines" -- Alkaline Trio.

02. my mom came with me to get my first tattoo. it's a story i love to tell and i love that she came. i now have 5 tattoos. the last one i got was 2 weeks ago. i believe that the best tattoos are ones that have meanings that won't change. all of my tattoos are "boring" but incredibly meaningful. ie. my first tattoo is a tiger paw print on my hip. it symbolizes my origins. i was born in the Year of the Tiger and my first sentence was "i wanna meow." some things never change. ;)

03. i am a butterfly graveyard. butterflies come to me to die. i have no idea why. this has been going on since i was very small. over the years i have collected over 7 butterflies who've died in my presence; a small number, but considering i'm just one person, it's a little strange. i don't have all of them any more, sadly. i didn't know how to take care of them and beetles ate some. i preserved 1 (a monarch) and have 2 others left (swallowtails).

04. i have a weird thing with numbers. i'm not OCD in the least (unless you count organized), but there are some numbers i like, and some i just don't. numbers i like include 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 20, 21, and 22. usually the rules are most odd numbers, multiples of 5, and multiples of 11. 17 and 21 are two of my favourite numbers, but my favourite is 7. i was born on the 7th and it is a number of rebirth. however, selecting a volume on the TV is incredibly difficult when i'm with my best friend, who only likes even numbers.

05. for a long time i only wore boys' clothing. about 4 or 5 years. i still only own 4 pairs of "girls'" jeans, 2 of which were purchased just this past year, 1 of which i stole from the girl i'm seeing (she doesn't know she's not getting them back). however, regardless of this, i only own 2 pairs of sneakers--but over 15 pairs of high heels, all of which have heels only 4+ inches. i don't get to wear them very often, but i do have a thing for impressive heels.

06. i prefer phone calls to texts. texting can make me anxious the way phone calls make people anxious. there's too much to misunderstand. and if i'm waiting for a text and it's "not coming fast enough" for me, i actually put the phone away from me. i physically have to move the phone so i'm not constantly staring at it wanting to get a text message. yeah, it's fucked, i know.

07. my first real kiss was in the bathroom of an all-girls Catholic school. i was fifteen. it wasn't my school; it was a co-ed dance thing. i was working at a movie theatre at the time and a bunch of my coworkers went to the school. so a bunch of us went, about 4 or 5 from my own school. it was also the night of my first breakup, with the very person i had kissed (oh teen relationships), the night i met the guy she'd choose over me, and the night i met my next girlfriend whose claim-to-fame quote would become "these slippers are complicated."

NOW I'M TAGGING:
@mtart - blog
@jaredwsmith - blog
@AdeleMcAlear - blog
@faris - blog
@gregverdino - blog
@strawberrycough - blog
@caff - blog
[& @juliaroy - blog if she magically hasn't already done it]

THE RULES:
* Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
* Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
* Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
* Let them know they’ve been tagged

revolution, inc. :: how i do.

i've been getting a number of questions lately from about a dozen folks prying into "the girl Riot" so i figure it's time for another edition of Revolution, Inc. but hey--there hasn't been one in four months. i know, i know. at least i spare you talking about my actual life (short of music and costuming, haha).

today i was highlighted, along with the fabulous Alan Wolk, by David over at The Social Path. you can read that there, which he properly capitalized and punctuated for me, however out of line with my personal branding that may be ;) sacrifices, sacrifices. David has been discussing anonymity avidly with his commenters in the for/against debate.

to round that out, i wanted to share with you, and elaborate, just why i do what it is that i do here on this blog. some of you have met me in person and had that moment where you said, 'so, what's your real name?' and i just gave a crazy half-smile and launched into this whole thing. so, now you know:
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we are constantly asking our brands to be more like "people." brands we can relate to, want to have beers with, brand we could see in the White House (don't laugh). it's kind of like "the consumer isn't a moron--she's your wife" (Ogilvy). how can we make recommendations and bandy words around if we don't understand them personally? see also.

we are having arguments over what "authentic" means and whether something can "be it." i wanted to get at the heart of that in a meta sort of way, to understand more about the unwritten policies being developed like "authenticity" and "transparency," etc. because of that, i wanted to come at this like an art. at heart, i'm an art kid who became a copywriter. plus, i just happen to like (studying) people.

i like conceptual art and post modernism, i'm big on "the medium is the message" across multiple planes, not just advertising. i wanted my brand to express not only myself, but the tensions in branding as we work to 'humanize' brands. so when i decided to write a blog, i wanted to bring that to it--that essence of my own understanding and how i was going to consume advertising as a product.

so for me, becoming the girl Riot™ isn't about anonymity; i don't say anything under Riot that i wouldn't say to your face. i go to lunch with people from many agencies and present myself as Riot. i'll tell you where i work, and if you care or want to recommend me, if you really need my name, i'll give it. i'm not afraid of tying my 'real life' to this one because they're one and the same: it's about craft. the very craft we are supposed to create elsewhere.

craft from what shoes i wear to my punctuation and capitalization usage to my business politics. i just wanted to own my own 'craft,' and i give that impression best in person, so it's not about pure anonymity. it's about the bridge between advertising and real life. "people don't read advertising, they read what interests them... sometimes, that's advertising" (Gossage).

in short, it's the actual meta craft of advertising and our interaction with it that i wanted to draw attention to by creating the girl Riot™.

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previously on revolution, inc. :: in a name.

revolution, inc. :: in a name.

so some folks have already been coaxing me out of anonymity, a leap i'm not quite ready to make yet--but don't let that dissuade you from any fancy invitations you may want to be sending my direction ;) contact information doesn't change. but, in light of this, i've always been, well, a tease. rather than tell you all about me... i'm going to do scattered posts about facets of myself. what i like or don't, what i own or won't, where i come from, what i eat--whatever brings you closer to me.

think of it like a scavenger hunt. or a riddle.
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so like anything else, i'm going to start at the middle, because it's more interesting than the beginning.

we'll start with the name, because someone asked me about it yesterday. naming is an intensely important thing. naming has always held weight. and still does. why call the "me series" revolution, inc? it ties in with the essential question;

why Riot?

i have been called Riot, in real life, since high school. and no--it has nothing to do with Paramore; i predate their second album, thank you very much. i had a guy friend then who introduced himself to me as Tony Rebel. he had me going for a minute, but not for long.

i adopted Riot as my pseudonym surname then, selecting the word because i'm really into riot grrrl music, a female-emphasized development out of punk rock in the early to mid 90s. i love Kathleen Hanna (see image above) who was in most notably Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, and Julie Ruin. she helped/inspired Slim Moon to make Kill Rock Stars, a notable indie label even today. (did you know Nirvana was on it for a hot minute?)

the movement meant a lot to me in high school, and still does. i did research on it in college, actually, surrounding commercialism, capitalism and the consumerism (or lack therof) of riot grrrl music (like how punk rock was appropriated, but not riot grrrl). "revolution grrrl style now" was a mantra used. in college, i used my name with the Riot surname as my DJ name for the radio station, 92WICB.

since switching my focus from band management/PR to English/marketing my freshman year, Riot was recreated in accord with my views on branding. while creating a story character i fell in love with, who was a DJ, i inverted "the riot grrrl" to be "the girl Riot" (i wasn't big on the grrr, personally)--and it stuck. and so, i'm the first to coin the phrase.

oh hey, yeah, you know--that girl, Riot? that girl called Riot. her.

so i became the girl Riot™. i treat myself as a brand, both professionally and often personally; so, in line with that, i go by Riot rather than my given name. if you Googled me, you would find more information searching "thegirlriot" than my actual name. no joke.

...so now you know.

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and besides, it's a friday post. who reads those, anyway?