Wednesday, May 2, 2007

“Time to bring the runway to the beach”: Bathroom Modeling Gone Reality TV

Since I don't shop and do bathroom modeling here (the clothes in Korea just aren't doing it for me) I have somehow attracted this program called Project Runway from Bravo, a reality show something like America's Top Model but intelligent focusing on fashion designers.

When I watched Uli’s collection an image unfolded of a woman, ultimately the dream of every hard-working woman I know, lounging on a tropical beach daydreaming. She looked out at her surroundings and wondered what it would be like to be on an African jungle safari. She gazed at the vast sand around her, whose color and texture is embodied in these nude color garments.


Glimpses of tiger teeth or claw-like shells peered out of the sand.She studied the ridges of the palm trees and saw the stripes of a white tiger. She looked out at the sea and sky and imagined it were an African sky. (Notice this is the first African American model she uses.) Then comes the sun and like a woman proudly radiating her beauty we see the first swimsuit whose rays vibrate into animal stripes. The sun begins to set and there is a violet sky as smooth and dark as a cougar. (Again, her model chose is perfect.) Back to a tiger-like bark dress (It is this erratic color jump that most annoyed the judges)
for a final transition to the green leaves of a palm tree where the woman dives into the lush jungle, swallowing both her and our imagination. It was a dream within a dream within a dream, the metaphor of our existence.

And the winner is…

I have watched the entire 3rd season now and though my heart feels heavy, I understand why the judges chose Jeffery instead of Uli, for the same reason that co-host Tim Gunn and Harvard professors use SAT words, because the rest of "us" don't. What makes the elite of any community, art, intellectual or otherwise is their ability to separate themselves from the masses. When the message seems too clear, too commercial the elite apparently feel less special and potentially obsolete—the masses themselves trusting their own opinion, not the elite’s means someone’s out of a job or at least perceives themselves to be.

This is an intellectual attitude that I do not really agree with, especially when the message the masses are embracing is that of such beauty and positive uplift. The peace movement and the record-breaking numbers of people choosing peace over war despite its rejection by government regimes is an emblem for which I speak.

Jeffery had a perspective that only he really understood. I know a thing or two about the Japanese esthetic from which Jeffery was inspired. It has lot to do with pathology (perfect for his roller-coaster drug past). In literature they even have a special word for it, 物の哀れ mono no aware or "the pathos of things." But based on PR’s judge comments, Jeffery could have talked about the aesthetic of concrete for all they knew.


It was this that the judges respected; it was this—dark, complicated, perplexing—that qualified him for elite fashion design status. It’s the emperor has no clothes meets high fashion.


Uli, on the other hand, appeared too humble for the judges, too transparently easy. Her simple but evocative message was so obvious that it irritated the judges who constantly mocked her. They mocked her for being inspired by nature. She lived in Miami and designed what she saw, a story far too juvenile, and for her to be an uneducated immigrant from East Germany, also a story that had already been told. Certainly the New York bias, where the fashion industry is based, influenced the judges’ decision. Attitude over ease; conflict over carefree(dom). Why be inspired by trees and sand when there are sky scrapers and other people’s art to model your stuff after.

Ultimately, what I have learned from Project Runway is that high fashion feels as much for a woman as an artist feels for a canvas—she is nothing more than a tool for expressing his perspective, or more crudely, his existentialist angst (Jeffery ’s collection). Because I appreciate art I can understand these clothes as illustrations of the extent to which we “humans” fool ourselves into believing we are disjointed and broken. It makes my choice, the celebration of creation’s connective cord through a woman, for a woman, by a woman (Uli’s collection), all the more clear.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Good Manifestations I: The "Height" of Awareness

We manifest what we think about. And what we think about most regularly involves what we see. So all the television watching, and Americans watch an average of 28 hours of it, is molding our manifestations in ways we are thoroughly unaware. This, in a nutshell, describes my reality, until fairly recently when the "unawareness" became no longer part of the equation.

In my post-adolescent years, Ally McBeal was the show. It’s what I watched most regularly after college. Even when homeless, every Monday night I laughed hysterically in the library media center where I watched Ally and gang under enclosed headsets. While working in Japan, not only had I the latest episodes sent to me, I taped and studied the older episodes being broadcast in Japanese. Then, when studying in Korea, after four years of hardly any television watching at all, I downloaded the entire third and fourth season, this time out of curiosity. There was something going on and I was going to get to the bottom of it.

The meaning, the intention?--The lightning bolts would not flash until viewing these photos I snapped yesterday.


















From the tall heights of a family friend’s hotel bedroom window, I had finally manifested the aerial sequence shots of Boston that characterize every episode of Ally McBeal! Was it not enough that I lived in Boston (more like Cambridge) and was surrounded every day by lawyers (more like law students)? Was I recreating the show visually, too? This Ally McBeal/law theme was getting out of hand, now starting to look like a giant billboard for the theatrical release of "The Law of Attraction" soon to be played at a human consciousness near you. But more to the tangible point, I was becoming more and more aware of the power to intentionally manifest my reality. See, I had asked "the gods" for the experience of seeing these aerial views of Boston (which are quite beautiful) and that I had no idea how I was going on to see. A. I do not have a helicopter and, B. hot air balloon riding still seems unrealistic. Naturally, I had forgotten about this desire until looking at these pictures. Presto-changeo. Wish granted. I’m satisfied, for now…

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Bathroom Etiquette 101: Ch. 1 Sané Steps

It may have become evident by now that I enjoy bathrooms. Besides being a great place to do bathroom modeling, it is also a fine spot to do some meditating. Just pick a note and harmonize with the electric noise buzzing from the walls. However, what I do not like is trying to put the sanitary seats on toilets while doing the pee-pee dance. I clumsily rip the upside-down head from the tissue and place it carefully on the seat. The head falls into the bowl and by the time I get my bloomers down the entire sani* has sunk into the bowl. Hopefully I have caught myself before my bare cheeks reach the cold porcelain. But you can never be too sure while doing the pee-pee dance. One day I decided to rip only the top piece from the sani. And it worked perfectly. Why haven't I been told this before? Of all my years of existence, never was I taught the appropriate way to cover my seat! So today I will give a step-by-step instruction on how to cover a public toilet.

1. Locate the sanitary seats usually affixed to the adjacent wall.














2. Grasp one sani.














3. Gently pull the tissue upwards. CAUTION: Excessively eager pulling (generally done during the pee-dance) may cause tissue paper to tear.














4. Locate the bottom of the upside-down-head cut-out.



















5. Carefully tear the connecting tissue ONLY at the bottom.















6. Place the sani on top of the toilet seat.















7. Repeat steps 1 through 6 until the desired level of seat protection is reached.

8. Sit on the seat and proceed as normal.

Lessons for future blogs: "alternative bathrooms" and "stocking up on supplies".

*Sani hygienic toilet seat cover made of tissue; also called sanitary seat or sani-seat

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Sac o' Potatoes




How conflicted I am. I have wanted this dress from Victoria Secrets for over a year. It was originally $88. And I got it for far less than that. But I think that I look like a potato sack.



Saturday, February 10, 2007

Bathroom Modeling

Now that I have a digital camera, taking pictures just 'cause I got the urge is a little too easy. So I took up a new hobby called "bathroom modeling". There are no full length mirrors in my dormroom, so I have to scurry into the bathroom, check to see if there is anyone in the shower or stalls, and snap some pictures in the mirror. It's actually harder than it looks. The combination of balancing the camera at the right angle, lighting and posing takes coordination and patience. This should become a recognized art form years to come.

Christmas 2006 (Before going out to see Dreamgirls)

Returning from Dreamgirls

I was quite proud of the level of focus the morning after

December 28, 2006 Balancing my MEIZU MP3 PLAYER. (Unfortunately it broke and I had to take that bad boy back.)