interlude: just beautiful image

via Le Love via @andreafjeld
check out Le Love if you want to feel all warm and glowy. or just jealous.

you could give up all your worldly possessions

interlude -- aka that thing i do when i'm not directly talking about advertising/social media/marketing. instead, this post is dedicated to Blog Action Day, inspired when i read Advergirl's response. really, go read it. because she did it well and i'm not going to head in the same direction.

the theme this year is poverty. Advergirl gives examples of hands-on ways you can change poverty in the world around you. i think that's the point of the action, but i want to talk philosophically instead. i want to talk about the word possession. not its roots, but its context. because i think the root of poverty is our concept of possession. i'm not going to tell you to give up all your worldly possessions. we all need stuff. duh. that's kinda the point of poverty actions. to help people who don't have stuff get stuff. so yes, in essence, i'm pro-stuff.

but the concept of ownership--of possession--of items or of people has been tripping me up lately. i've been thinking a lot about infidelity, no small part in thanks to AV Flox [on the person-level] and on the corporate-level [that's just one link, hat tip to Gavin]. and also about ownership literally. like in the beginning of Fight Club where the narrator's apartment, his whole life basically right down to his treasured Ikea furniture, goes up in flames. and he has nothing.

"it's very easy to take more than nothing" -- Mad Hatter [Lewis Carroll]

if we think of ourselves as owning nothing, then everything we have is its own gift, come to us by way of the world, into our laps, and can go just as swiftly. letting go becomes easy. giving becomes easy. after all, what is it to you, who needs nothing, and can always have more than nothing? why do you not give? what are you saving for? what do you think you own? what do you fear to lose? what do you fear?

you get upset when someone leaves you because you thought you owned some part of them. that they for a moment might become a part of you. and that fear encroaches on many relationships. fear of cheating, fear of abandonment, fear of emotional distance, etc. you get upset when an object breaks, when you lose a stock, when hours are cut. i'm not saying any of those are unrealistic fears. i'm saying, comparatively, you would feel less stressed if you were less concerned with your territory, your ownership.

because right now, if you own up to the fact that you own nothing, you still "have stuff." you've changed your thought patterns but not your life, and that's alright. i'm not saying become a recluse and get out of every relationship because you can't have any true security in it. you don't have to go become a monk, but next time you can give, you might think of it as a little easier. easier to give more than nothing. and more thankful for those moments in which others give to you--a new sweater, an hour spent, a moment of intertwined fingers.

[disclosure: in my ugliest state, i am an intensely territorial creature. i am that jungle predator in my head, i like the idea of ownership and i can be incredibly defensive about it. a poem i wrote in college had the line "i would piss on tree bark just to prove it's not yours"; a paraphrase but still true. things belong to me because they have become a part of me. "you are not your fucking khakis" -- palahniuk. i am working through this. i am learning what it means not to own. i am good at giving. i am trying to be better.]

who said advertising was creative?

on a non-Facebook related note, things over here are just silly.

how about a riddle? what's the difference between a pit bull--oh, you've heard that one already. okay. how about what's the difference between a production company and an agency?

...yeah, i don't know either.

i think one's supposed to be smarter or something, or some word like strategic, maybe, but that's another s-word and i may be confused. i do have to say life's been so much easier now that i don't have to think. i just receive... and resend...

it's like a that nightmare where you realize your target market and your client are one in the same. and then you wake up and realize it wasn't a nightmare. and it happens every day.

but i do have quite a lovely little well of creative ideas that will never be used. i like to admire it from across the hall, even stare at it longingly. my CD and i are in mourning.

gone skirtchasing.

if you're reading this, it's after 5 and i'm free; and if by skirtchasing, you mean going to New Jersey to lie on the beach, get in touch with my second favourite cat (maika, shown here), spend quality time with miss am&a of @reverieapparel, trek manhattan, and steal some much needed summer vacation time before the sun wanes.

i will not be blogging until monday because i will not be near a computer. so there. instead, i will be near, in order:

--a lot of alcohol
--loud music
--the numbers 2686

and that's just tonight. i'll let your curiousity get the best of you.
i was going to help you out by leaving you with an inspired muxtape, but we can all see how well that's going over lately. kisses! will think of you while imbibing.

in case you're curious, i will probably imbibe, at some point:
magic hat 9. blue moon. guinness black&tan. white zin. pinot noir. disaronno. soco. sambuca. ketel 1. [i'd say reyka but who knows who'll have it.] any holla backs?

i'm on my feet i'm on the floor i'm good to go.
all i need is just to hear a song i know.
i want to always feel like part of this was mine.

interlude: both sides now.

an interlude having nothing to do with advertising
---

have you ever had that song you were totally addicted to?
it seemed, at first, to make perfect sense in the scenario in your head?
maybe it became a positive, self-affirming theme song for awhile.

no i won't sit nice and be quiet.
[shattered - the trucks - listen on songza.]

and then curiousity gets the best of you. or things decide to be serendipitous.
either way, you come to know the undeniable truth in the song.

it's not at all what you thought it was.

this just happened for me. i tripped across this blog post yesterday.
i have no idea who the girl is. but it brought me back to perspective.

i don't care about what some folks think is over sharing.
at some points, communication, expression, is really what it is all about.

you shattered my image of love.

thank you for writing it. thank you for being brave.
my heart goes out to her and to whomever else has had this happen.

i am so sorry.

so when i bit, it was for blood.

this. is. SPARTA! ...errr.

and by Sparta, i mean Work Overload. sorry for the notsomuch posting that will be going on earlier in this week. you can still find me on twitter intermittently. please do not suffer from too much withdrawal. i will continue with essay-like analytic posts and short ramblings as soon as possible.

PS: i saw 300 for the first time last friday. sad on my part? likely.

deadlines ftw.

some claim ftw means for the win.
my sixteen year old brother has a second meaning.
an inversion of wtf. you do the math.

short posting hiatus while i kick this copy's ass.
should be back to the blogging grind on monday.
sorry for interrupting this week's theme.

turns out this spiffy pic belongs to a band i've never heard of.
go them. deadlines are totally taking over.

1 draft, 3 editing sessions to go...
if anyone is going to SheSays tonight at Razorfish, i'll be there.
wearing a To Write Love on Her Arms necklace
(technically, it says Love is the Movement).
with Am&a, of @reverieapparel (& .com) fame.

big projects

...eat my life.

will catch up with you crazy folks tomorrow.
i had a good weekend, how about you?

if any of these mean anything to you, let me know:
subculture (go see my fave bartender--she's on the left, i didn't take the pic), avenue of the americas street fair, joe (cup o', nuff said), uncle jack's steakhouse (i dare you to find a better filet mignon), fire island, ice palace, robert moses beach, bayard cutting arboretum. oh, and then my couch, with Home Alone II.

tomorrow i return with the full writeup and thoughts around my brand timeline.

save me from this world:

If you like, you may live in a computer created world all day and all night. You will be able to try out a Virtual life with a Virtual lover. You can go into your Virtual house and do Virtual housework, add a baby or two, even find out if you’d rather be gay. Or single. Or straight. Why hesitate when you could simulate.
And sex? Certainly. Teledildonics is the word.
(Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body, p. 97)

interlude: good monday to you, sir!

okay, before i get back in the swing of things, this is entirely unrelated to advertising. feel free to skip if your whole life revolves solely around advertising. there's no shame in that ;)

i am in such a bouncy mood for a monday!
worthy of multiple explanation points!! even. and, moreover, i know why.

summer is knocking down the door and i love it.

i spent part of yesterday making a mix that reminds me of summer for my friend Ell.
i was surprised by how much of it was what i'd deem "mainstream" or popular, especially when i listen to so much underground music. i also had deliberately excluded a lot of my riot grrrl music because i didn't know if she liked it, and, well, if you know that sort of stuff, you know it's a (wonderfully) acquired taste. s-k ftw!

if any of you want to listen to what i'm listening to--
which i'm sure many of you shall roll your eyes at, but hey, i gave fair warning of the candylike nature of this mix. moreover, it's equally able to rot your teeth and make you hyper--but that's the point. try it. you might like it. and if you don't and a coworker overhears, just say a colleague is a secret scene queen and it's not your fault.

SUMMER SHUDDER:
01. We Were Made For Each Other / You Can Breathe Now - Jack's Mannequin
02. Nine in the Afternoon - Panic! at the Disco
03. Of All the Gin Joints in All the World - Fall Out Boy
04. I Want You To Want Me - Letters to Cleo
05. Anyway You Want It - Rise Against!
06. Amphetamine - Everclear
07. Everything is Alright - Motion City Soundtrack
08. Out Here All Night - Damone
09. Shut Up and Let Me Go - The Ting Tings
10. Phenomena - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
11. Faster Kill Pussycat - Paul Oakenfield ft. Brittany Murphy
12. Le Disko - Shiny Toy Guns
13. Twitch - Bif Naked
14. Glow - Alien Ant Farm
15. Set Phasers to Stun - Taking Back Sunday
16. Praise Chorus - Jimmy Eat World
17. Blue Carolina - Alkaline Trio
18. Born For This - Paramore

What songs make you bouncy and happy? Any genre! I want to know. I love to bounce in the summer. Bring it on <3 Please!

interlude: i am a wannabe british type.

[an interlude, not about advertising, but about my psychosis.]

as if you couldn't tell by the way i have what some might consider too many "l"s in my words, or an extraneous "u" here or there, and my infatuation with the word "bloody." blame monty python. i don't care.

it's alright.
the secret's out.

but, dailybiz, this one's for you. a glimpse into just how anal i am.

for an experiment, i have changed my usual date formatting (08.05.08) to another one, wherein the month appears first (05.08.2008).

i do not claim to keep it. there are way too many numbers. it bothers me. not as much as every other format, which is why i'm experimenting at your suggestion. but it's just... so uneven! ideally i'd take 05.08.08, but no suck luck. and yes, i need the "."s. they're authentic to my self-representation. i don't like slashes.

so there it is then.
ridiculous Riot thoughts.
and how much you really didn't need to know that i'd actually thought about it.