Yes oui Cannes!

26 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in business, music, travel

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By this time tomorrow, I’ll be en route to my first trip to the French riviera! After a short (but packed, as they always feel) history of Apple and retail trade shows, I’m very excited to be going to my first music conference. midem is an annual international event, and this year it’s focused on independent artists – pretty perfect for my indie fashion/indie music interests.

On Sunday I’ll be presenting as part of the midem academy program. My talk, “How to Find, Manage and Motivate Your Superfans,” is all about mobilizing superfans to help you get the word out about your music. Like I said in the Red Magnet Media blog, in my opinion, working with superfans is “The most authentic form of word of mouth marketing available, and also one of the best ways to cultivate a culture around your own brand.”

How to Find, Manage and Motivate Your Superfans
midem academy, Level 01
Sunday January 29, 201211:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

On a personal superfan note, Mark Ronson is a keynote speaker. Record Collection never gets removed from my mobile playlists, so I’m definitely making room for one of my favorite producers on Visionary Monday. Here’s hoping my attempt to unlock my old iPhone will play nicely with my French SIM, so I can overshare all the goings-on.

If you’re going to be in town, send me a Tweet! Restaurant recommendations particularly welcome.

Sleep No More.

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in art

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We spent a whirlwind less-than-24-hours in New York during our East Coast trip over the holidays, setting aside the evening for Sleep No More. It was an amazing show. I feel for it the way I must have felt the very first time I saw Cirque du Soleil (Saltimbanco, ’93), it was that different.

Viva approves of Sleep No More (the program).

For days afterward, Bill and I couldn’t not talk about the show, knowing full well that telling other people about the show is kind of bad. The basics are: It’s a retelling of Macbeth set in a very film noir 1940s – so it’s a very loose, abstract retelling of Macbeth. (I think if you walk in knowing vaguely about witch prophecies and people killing people you’ll be fine.) It’s a production that’s a full-on, interactive experience, so no two people see, hear, or do the same things as the other. Punchdrunk Emursive took over a five-story office building in the Meatpacking District and converted it into the “McKittrick Hotel,” where you don’t buy tickets, you make reservations, and every room is open to your curiosity. You roam at your own pace, meaning you can check out the ballroom, put your head in the tub on the deserted hospital floor, or roll open a drawer in the taxidermist’s office, coming and going as you please. You can follow the actor-dancers throughout the hotel. You can also not follow the actor-dancers throughout the hotel. Not a word is to be spoken between you and the rest of the masked audience (and they’re plastic Italian drama masks – super creepy, so Hell yes we kept ours), though the actor-dancers might utter a sentence or two throughout their entire two-ish hour show. (The most I heard was Lady Macbeth yelling “Are you a man?” at Macbeth.)

Like I alluded to before, every person’s experience is unique. I’ve since heard of friends who have experienced Sleep No More four or five times just to gain more perspectives and come away with more stories. One person had a one-on-one interaction with an actor involving jelly beans injected with black liquid. Bill watched an acrobatic duet with only five other audience members.

Me? I went to the satanic rave orgy twice because I thought it was a good party. (And I saw not one, but two! naked men.) Continue reading »

Accessorize me in this, accessorize me in that.

19 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in accessories

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As the seasons fully transition in climate (not that the Bay would know it) and clothing, I’ve been paying more attention to my accoutrements, and not so much the initial wrappings. In the past year I’ve been trying to become better about matching my bags to my outfits. To that end, I’ve been leaving some extra time in my dressing routine to think “What bag really goes with this and will get me through the day?” The result is that I feel a lot more put together than if I were to match my belt to my shoes, which is a stodgy old fashion rule I never fully understood.

Enter Hansel from Basel, a design group that is as day-friendly as they are wearable, which means increased representation in my weekly rotation.

Once a month, NY legwear makers Hansel from Basel offer one item on their site at the wholesale price. They call it the Sock of the Month Club, which just sounds really cute, and not in an oversaccharine Zooey Deschanel way (It was her birthday yesterday and I don’t understand why anybody cares.) – much more appealing than all those StyleMint/JewelMint/InedibleMint subscription services that keep popping up and sounding the same. January’s Pom Pom Bag makes me think of the basic components of a snowman, except that you can tote Frosty Parts I, II, III, and IV to and from the market during any season you wish:

Hansel from Basel Pom Pom Knit Bag

Even though it's not a sock, the Pom Pom Bag's Sock of the Month price is $20.80.

Continue reading »

Mine Addicted Eyne.

17 Tuesday Jan 2012

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– Sounds like an Elizabethan emo band, doesn’t it? “Mine Addicted Eyne.”

Interventions are good. Last week I was thisclose to bailing on an eye appointment because I realized, too late into my pre-booked destiny, that maybe I shouldn’t have selected that location based solely on the fact that it’s two minutes away from my office door. Seriously, I didn’t even look up Yelp reviews. What kind of overoptioned mobile-tethered Millennial was I? Still, I went to the appointment, and I got a figurative slap in the face for fucking up my eyes for eight or ten years.

Finding No. 1 – My eyes have been addicted to eye drops. If you merely want to clear up redness, stay offa tha anti-histamines! My drug: Naphcon-A. My pusher, the “Recommended by Eye Doctors” seal on the packaging. (I originally took Naphcon-A on the recommendation of my optometrist in high school, who is now retired.) I now have to wean off of the eye drops on a schedule prescribed by my new optometrist. No joke. Otherwise I’ll go into withdrawal and my eyes’ll be ogre-red for multiple days.

Finding No. 2 – Oral acne meds I took in high school decreased up the production of oil in my eyes. ‘Course, when you’re a sixteen-year old late bloomer who’s had it hard enough having no boobs (still the case), you don’t give a fuck about no no-oil-production-in-the-eyes when you’re 28. (I’m 28!)

Finding No. 3 – Acuvue Oasys contacts have the lowest water content on the market (38%, for you number crunchers). All this time I thought the lenses would help the issue I had with dryness that I assumed to be caused by too much air conditioning. Turns out Acuvue just misspelled Oasys because they’re assholes, and my eyes got dry as a result.

Continue reading »

David Guettathesaurus.

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in life, music

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People overuse the word “epic.” In frat pack movies, in gaming, in a Web-worked world oversaturated with memes. They sprinkle it on shit like it’s glitter.

Well I am here to tell you that “epic” is not glitter. (And your shit isn’t “epic.”) Everything is not fucking “epic!” That is the whole point of “epic!” “Epic” is a long-ass poem or the end of an era. “Epic” is not a meal, no matter how delicious. A meal would have to take 2,000 pages to chronicle and end in a peace treaty in order to be epic. The Last Supper might be epic, but I’m Agnostic so I am unqualified to comment on it. In moments of dictive weakness I’ve misused “epic,” but considering how long I’ve been writing in a blog, not that often.

I get that the idea of the joke is to use a hyperbolic word to describe something simple, but…it’s just not that funny of a joke. The people who say “The way Jenna fell flat on her face at the bar? Epic!” are the same people who think “I like long walks on the beach” is an original and funny opening to a personal introduction. “Epic” and “long walks on the beach” are about as funny as coconut water. What? Yeah, exactly, shattup.

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So when Coachella announced its lineup for 2012 yesterday, I was not about to have it. Combinations of “epic” and “Coachella” popped up so many times in my home feeds that I just had to say it – online, on Twitter, where passive-aggressive rhetorical statements are wont to be made.

And then in “Coachella 2012: By the numbers,” The Washington Post picked up on:

  1. The positive correlation between “epic” and “Coachella,” and
  2. The fact that I found it all extremely annoying.

Just look at that classy permalink:

And of course, I only learned about the linkback because of a Tweet from a Twitter friend. Thanks, Albert!

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I am excited about this year’s lineup. “Next Episode” is my jam, so I feel quite compelled to go. (I also had a dream once where I was making out with Snoop Dogg – this makes me feel the opposite of “compelled” to go.)

Anyway, you wanna go? I hear it’s going to be legen-wait for it-AMAZERBALLS.

In the key of Hulk, “N-B-C SMAAASH!”

10 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in musicals, reviews, television

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You’ve seen the posters. You recognize the lightbulb block lettering, traditionally associated with such obvious hits as Chicago and such obvious flops as Burlesque. Or maybe you saw the individual letters on sale at Therapy or other purposefully overdone interior design stores. Whatever your immediate association, NBC wants you to know SMASH IS COMING.

Sammie invited me to a screening of NBC’s new drama, soon to occupy the slot after The Voice on Monday nights. (February 6th! Mark your marketing musical calendars!) We all know about my falling out with Glee, and I was never a follower of American Idol or The Voice or X Factor. But I’m still a musical theater fan, and nothing follows Chevy’s enchiladas better than more cheese, so there I was to see what the Hell Katharine McPhee’s been up to. Continue reading »