The Balance of Cool and Uncool: Staying Hip When You're Really Not

I was admiring Chanel Iman as many girls my age (which is also her age) do, and I shared her name with my older -and thusly less hip- brother Paul. He hadn't heard of her. But he had "seen of her"? One short amorous stop on Google Images later and he came upon this:

*image cropped to suit argument

-On the left, is the picture of elegance: Alien-like supermodel proportions, flawless skin, 100% H.A.U.T.
-On the right is what Paul declared to be one of his biggest pet peeves - beautiful people, who know they're beautiful "tryna to do that geek chic shit".

Paul and I relate to Ms. Chanel Iman on the level that the three of us happen to be half Black and half Asian, Blasian, if you will. But we're *not* supermodels. We have distinct and ever-so-slightly fond memories of growing up geeky and nerdy and fairly uncool. So it should come as no surprise that we marvel at how this:

has become this....

And it got me thinking about the ways in which "cool" is ever so elusive. As soon as something is trendy it withers in the opinion of coolmongerers everywhere. But as soon as a trend dies it then has the potential to come back again with 10 times more ferocity. Did Bill Gates up there know he and a whole league of geeks just like him would be lionized and plagiarized for their (lack of?) vision? How did being unfashionable become the waterbear of couture. When their dowdy plaids and button down shirts, unseemly tight jeans, ironic hair, and complete lack of style and polish became the epitome of poshness... what is the nerd to do?

Because no matter how trendy or on point he or she is, no matter how "in" the look becomes, the geek is still on the fringe. Not uncool enough to be cool - just the nerds they were meant to be. In my opinion its like white people adopting black culture and dress, it doesn't change anything for the other side. White people stay white, black people stay black. And the beauties and geeks, at the day's end are immutable.

Dalliance in New York

I did have a bit of fun in NYC this past weekend.
We toured the MoMA and argued the artistic merit of "Modern" (yet not Contemporary) artists:

of course, I had a mongoose mackerel of a time looking at my favorite works in the flesh... or canvas as it were.
For instance .. there was Miro...

...odilon redon.... rousseau...

...picasso.....klimt...

And as we came to the Rothkos I forced my brothers to split themselves Freud-style --- id, ego, superego and all that jazz...

goofed around, like a naked Matisse.

"oofed" around a bit too.

and one outfit pic to round it off:
theres no lioncoveringcamera so its not proper, but you know I had to:

August Sawdust

Sometimes I like to take an extremely basic concept and overcomplicate it. It's fun. But that's not for today. But lets suppose I added these, which I did:


Suddenly you've got that 1930's steel driver Americana thing going on. Plus, I'm still struggling with how that ultra-short romper is just so hard to integrate into an outfit but Zow! Those D&G jeans were just un-blue enough to pull it together. What I mean to say is, that it was hot and humid today but I still found a way to layer. Mother nature be damned, I will get to wear scarves this week.

childhoodflames was right - summer clothes definitely lack the impact and multi-dimensionality that fall clothing has in excess. Still, it didn't stop Mr. Creepy from brushing past me at the metro with his uber-lecherous "How you doin'..." Wish I had my steel-drivin' hammer to crush his toes, alas I was dressed for the occasion but ill-equipped.

He's lucky I didn't have my carpenter's* pants on.




*just kidding, I'd never own one of those godawful excuses for legcoverings.

Yoga at Dawn/Morning Benders/And Where My Asians At?

What makes my ears bend more? I dunno - maybe its finding out that the lead singer of a very very good band happens to be Asian? Maybe its just knowing how effing awesome The Morning Benders are. Maybe its a combo of the two.

I'm not trying to make a big deal out of the race thing, after all I am only half descendant of the Orient. However, I can not tell you how rare it is that talented Asian people make it to the front of anything. And no I'm not talking about the former guitarist for the Smashing Pumpkins - James Iha, or that guy Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park (ick), or that Filipino fella who now fronts Journey, (I'd talk about Rain or Yo-Yo Ma but y'all just ain't classy enough for that). Anyway, these are not good examples.

All I'm trying to say is that Chris Chu and all of his bandmates in the Morning Benders are 31 flavors of awesome. Yes, like ice cream. And yes, I dug them before I knew this righteous racial brownie point... Ice cream, brownies. What a delicious band.

Granted, I know linesthroughlines reported about The Morning Benders already. But I must stress the point. We can draw all the comparisons we want, whether to The Shins or Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin or Aaron Neville* but the fact remains that they currently dominate the first spot on my muxtape and their Daytrotter recordings still haven't been removed from their heavy iTunes rotation in my library. The fact also remains that - Chris Chu** is the Asian indie ambassadorial counterpart to my dear, dear Thao Nguyen.

Anyone else think that Chu looks a little bit like Mitsumura Tatsuya (光村龍哉) of NICO Touches the Walls?

*Aaron Neville and the Benders probably have a 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon type connection.
**Mad props to the other asian dude in Benders too, Tim Or, of course who plays a sweet Rickenbacker bass.

Hopefully when my band gets our proverbial sh*t together, we'll have some nice happy tunes likes these fellas to offer.

Tatoo-Redux

Well I've had some more time to mull it over... mull ... that's one of those words we use a lot that I don't really understand the origin of:

mull- v.- To heat and add spices to wine or ale.

Right, so I mulled over this whole tattoo business and came up with the same idea but different approach: here goes: and one more colon just for fun:

It's supposed to look like openwork lace and I think its rather pretty and beautiful, I havent seen any lace-like tattoos apart from henna and though this would be a pricey bet for sure - i'm getting kind of attached to it. And in case you're curious about the shape, its suppose to look like a conch shell:


and heres the original idea with a few slight color/design modifications especially in the center of the sampaguita blossom:




well, we'll see then - more ideas to come.

One, Two, Tat-usucaption

Tattoos, tattoos. Oh, what you do to me...

I want one so badly, and since I've designed both my brother's tattoos - I s'pose they owe me one (or two). But tattoos are a tricky, tricky business. Especially for a female. It's surprisingly acceptable for a man to get chest, arm, and certain back tattoos. Even calf tats pass muster. But for the ladies... we have "ass-antlers", "tramp stamps" and all sorts of other locations on the body that equate with butch/les or *ahem* ladies-of-the-night.

But - tattoos can be ridiculously beautiful and I'm dying to be inked. So heres my initial idea plus slightly more palatable placement:


The images here being the sampaguita (national flower of my mother's country, the Philippines), the fish scales which mimic the tattoo I designed for my oldest brother, and the third being a stylized Haitian conch (after the other half of my family and a nod to my other brother's tattoo).

But its not enough is it? I do want it to be in that sort of yakuza-esque (more Hokusai and Hiroshige, actually) heavy block lines and gradient format, but I don't think I've yet succeeded.

Back to the drawing board? Yes, I think so. But with time I should have it through tat-usucaption soon.

The Modern Mixtape

click first song to begin.

It's a mixtape without the timeworn hassle of magnetic tape. I realize now that my love of making mixes for people must be in part related to my love of lists.

Here's a link to my Muxtape, seethetree.muxtape.com, and if for whatever reason you get to it and I've re-organized it here's a textual copy of my current mix for the record:

The Morning Benders - Patient Patient
Jason Mraz - A Beautiful Mess
Ben Sollee - A Change is Gonna Come
Dr. Dog - Heart it Races
OGRE YOU ASSHOLE - マスク(MASK)
NICO Touches the Walls - Broken Youth
Prince - Darling Nikki
N*E*R*D - Yeah You
The Physics of Meaning - Aeroplanes & Hurricanes
NICO Touches the Walls - The Bungy
Devendra Banhart - Carmensita
Carla Bruni- Le Plus Beau Du Quartier

Theres a few covers in there what with Heart it Races and A Change is Gonna Come, and despite the awesomeness of the originals, they're pretty standout tracks. Repeat offenders like Devendra Banhart and NICO Touches the Walls are easily explained. For one, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon* is a wildebeest of an album and you can't not love him being fleshed out by a full band - its more live and magnetic that way. For two, NICO's new singles are like amazing, getting signed to a totally legit label has really allowed them to shine the way I knew they could back when they were just a blip on the Japanese radar.

*edit, removed Devendra Banhart's "Lover" to make room for マスク by OGRE YOU ASSHOLE. The name is abrasive, but the band is actually much less so.

I've been fooling around with Illustrator and came up with an updated lion logo:

Isn't he just so effete and darling?