Vampires, Superstitions, and Gangs...Oh My!

October 31st marks the day known as All Hallows Eve or Halloween, where children go door-knocking in innovative costumes, dental visits become more frequent due to excessive candy consumption, and fresh eggs and toilet paper litter the streets of cities all across the United States. However, there is a little more to worry about than creepy costumes, mischievous children, and cavities.

Vampires, Superstition or Truth:
With today's books, movies, and television shows romanticizing blood-sucking, pale faces, and crucifixes, its not surprising that vampires are slowly incorporating themselves into pop culture.

It is believed that vampires are as old as man himself and have existed alongside werewolves, demons, and extraterrestrials in the superstitious mythologies of all cultures worldwide. In 1897, Bram Stoker's novel Dracula officially introduced the fictional and mythological creatures to print mediums. After a vampire victim's escape in 1985, people have become very aware of the fact that vampires really do exist, and Don Henry is living proof.





Suicide Forest, Superstition or Truth:
Following San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Aokigahara is the second most popular suicide site in the world. Aokigahara, also known as the Sea of trees, is a forest found at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. It is littered with an average of 30 dead bodies per year, with over 70 bodies in the late 1990's to present. Since the 1950's over 500 people have lost their lives in the forest. After two lovers in Seicho Matsumoto's novel, Kuroi Jukai, killed themselves in the forest, Aokigahara increased in its popularity for suicides. Japanese officials have placed signs in the forest to discourage further suicide attempts. Aokigahara is now a popular site for thrill seekers and scavengers.

Gang Initiations, Superstition or Truth:
Every year, for the past 20 years, Halloween has had a special significance among the Black and Hispanic gang circuit nationwide, that plagues major metropolitan areas with fear. As early as the late 1980's gangs have spread word that initiation begins the week of Halloween, reaching its climax on Halloween day, when several brutal killings are to occur. These murders target women, and prompt city departments, fire departments and law officials to be on guard on Halloween night. The general public has also fed into this scare by sending mass texts and emails warning their family and friends to be extremely cautious.

Examples of the texts, emails and fliers:
http://www.thefolklorist.com/criminal/gang2.htm

Best advice: Whatever you decide to do, or wherever you decide to go please be cautious on Halloween night.


Images and content background courtesy of:
New York Times
Youtube National Geographic
Must Love Japan
The Folklorist
Google Search

L2E CNN.com: Balloon Boy Continues

Letter to the Editor CNN.com/US : Balloon Boy Saga Continues
Read the Original Article

Bizarre hoax, class 3 misdemeanor, possible felony charges, and flying balloon children are all synonymous with the name of mad scientist Richard Heene. (And that is the nice way of putting it). I mean when I first heard of this whole ordeal I was enraged. Who in the world would "accidentally" let there 6 year old get caught up in a weather balloon? I mean for goodness sakes when I was tutoring a 6 year old, I'd practically yank his arm right out of the socket so he wouldn't cross the street on his own, let alone mistakenly allow him to climb into my flying aircraft experiment and fly halfway across Colorado.

The parents, who met a few years ago at a Hollywood acting class, have appeared on a number of shows over the years, including "Wife Swap". Authorities and law officials strongly believe that the whole thing was staged and that the couple wanted to gain media attention and their own television show. Well it looks like they succeeded at that endeavor. Funny thing is, when the couple's son Falcon, aka the balloon boy, was asked why he would pretend to be in the balloon and later go hide in a box in the attic, he innocently told the media officials that his parents "wanted a show." After 2 or 3 interviews with that same response, Falcon mysteriously became sick and his father had to answer the questions for him.

In my unsolicited opinion, I think that if this was indeed a deliberate act for attention, the couple should suffer the consequences of their actions, maybe not to the fullest extent of the law because I do believe in mercy, but imagine what real emergencies the Air Force and police departments could have been tending to.

Overall, I think its a shame when your own son gives you up. But then again, some people know no shame. I'm just glad the boy is safe.



More on the Balloon Boy

Mary J Blige & Drake -->The One

I think I really like this song...but in application to my life I wonder if me liking it is b/c its on the border of confident or conceited? Prideful or positive? Arrogant or ....ok I can't figure out any more rhyming or alliterative words to illustrate my point. But I'm feeling it. Listen/Watch Now:



Anyhow, after several decades and pushing 40, Mary J. Blige still looks fresh! I love love love the short blond cut.


Image courtesy of You Tube and Interscope Records.

Image of the Week

Alexander McQueen is a monster!!!!!!!!!!!! A brute beast!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean who comes up with such phenomenal shoes that the average person most definitely cannot afford AND most positively cannot walk in....unless you're trying to lose your life.







I'll be looking forward to the editorial spreads with these baby's in them! Til then..."I'll be dreaming..."

See the entire Spring 2010 Collection and highlights

Flooded Faith

In a world where so many worries can consume us on a daily basis, I find that its easy to become overwhelmed, resentful, angered and apathetic. You can question your role in society and your ability to successfully contribute to social change and reform. And after exhausting days where your own personal problems and tribulations have completely taken you out, you come to your own self-evident truth: I cannot change the state of the world. People will do as they please, misfortune will overtake some, and bad decisions will overtake others. Therefore, I can and will only look out for me. I am my greatest responsibility. I am my only responsibility.

The problem with this is that it creates a society of self-absorbed, prideful, and narcissistic individuals, which ends up leaving the world in worse state than it began. Can you be responsible for the whole world? Maybe not, but you can be responsible for what you pour into the world. The reason we don't is because we have completely lost faith in faith.

I think that we've come to believe that it is impossible to do anything. Our own strength is not sufficient to change the world and we can't carry burdens that are not our own. The truth is: that's right. As long as this world exists, we

"will always have the poor among us*," and on our own strength, we will be "weary and burdened."

Typhoon Ondoy, also known as Hurricane Ketsana, hit the Philippines 9/26/09. Thousands of acres of crops and produce had been wiped out, 10,000+ homes and businesses were destroyed, children had to be carried on the shoulder of adults who were barely able to keep their heads above water, and 240+ were killed by the typhoon.


Now imagine this: You are 1 of 70 people missing. No one knows where you are, or whether you are dead or alive, no one can account for you. Would you lose faith in faith then....or would you fight and hold on for dear life?

One of my church's sister congregations in Manila, Philippines had over 70 Christians missing and un-accounted for after the typhoon. All that ran through my mind was, "what are they running on? What's keeping them above water?" Our own worries are minute and simplistic, in comparison, yet we have of such little faith.

My question to you is "where has your faith gone and what are you putting your hope in? While you may not be able to conquer the world, you can increase your faith...one mustard seed at a time.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

* John12:8

For more on Typhoon Ondoy click here.


"Faith" image from www.virtueradionetwork.com

Image of the Week

I love splashes of color, electromagnetic art, and phenomenal fashion photography. And I absolutely adore Jed Root's line-up of fantabulous fashion industry professionals. So of course I always go back there!

This is a peek at the portfolio of the fantastic Argentinian photog Diego Uchitel. Enjoy!







View more Diego at Jed Root

Feature: Love...a Chemical Imbalance?

Sometimes I wonder what is the point of endless wooing musical pieces that capture the heart of a woman? Why would one want to hear romantic poems and declarations of love until their ears bleed scarlet valentine hearts and crimson red roses? Why would any woman desire to be swept off her feet and whisked away into some wonderful "paradise" ? But most importantly what woman would want a man who would dare to love her enough to lay down his life for her? Beats me, but so many women seem to desire it! (I hope by now you've sensed the incredulous amounts of sarcasm oozing out of the past few statements). The truth is that every woman wants to feel important. Every woman desires to be desired, to be needed, to be loved.

But as much as love is emotional, physiological, and physical, science has proven that it is also chemical. Surprised? Come on, what hasn't science proven? (They have an answer for even the unexplainable, but that's another topic entirely.) Helen Fisher, an anthropologist who studies love at Rutgers University, has categorized love into 3 stages: lust, attraction, and attachment. Each stage has its own chemical breakdown:

• Lust responds to testosterone in both men and women. Yes, women have testosterone too, generally much less than men, but some women have more than others.
• Attraction is marked by high levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine, and low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin.
  
• Attachment is associated to varying levels of the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin.

Testosterone is the "male" hormone, an instantaneous hormone that responds best to physical properties such as looks. Dopamine works in the pleasure pathways of the brain and is activated by things that make us feel good. But funny enough dopamine is also activated by nicotine, cocaine, and chocolate. Norepinephrine, also known as adrenaline, is activated by heart-pumping emotions, like fear, and helps us respond immediately in emergency situations. Vasopressin, in high levels, can increase pressure in certain blood vessels. And lastly, oxytocin, which is released during childbirth and nursing, affects social behaviors such as bonding, love, and trust.

Someone once said, "dopamine brings people together and oxytocin keeps them together." And at the end of the day every woman and man-- don't be fooled, men need love too--want to know that their chemicals are in balance...not imbalanced.

*Images from
www.conversationsforabetterworld.com
http://dryicons.com/free-icons/preview/valentine-love/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Serotonin-3D-vdW.png

Bloggher Love....

Personal Post:

I've come to realize that is a daunting task to view all your favorite blogs because you like them. To see each bloggherlicious post pop-up on your news feed every hour on the hour of every day is taxing. To click on each and every single blog you follow and read every single post you've bookmarked and make comments on every itsy bitsy thingy that you likey is tiring. To multi-task and toggle between facebook and blogspots, wordpress and typepad, myspaces and yahoos, qwerty phone pads and emails....its all daunting, darling but daunting.

So I am here to say to all my blogging blogosphere icons, my bloggher-loving readers, my photo-hawking internet galacticons, my back-breaking mini-upcoming blogger children...it is a tough job to be on the edge of fashion and lifestyle and all things "interesting". It is a tough job to always have something to post that's so refined that no one can find fault. Its a tough job to find your favorite blog-subjects ridiculed and mocked by your readers. Its a tough job to try to make a living out of this thing called blogging....its a small world after all.

So please, I ask that you understand just how hard we have it. That you give us time to gather our thoughts, and be gracious with us when we write run-on sentences, and massive typos...please spare us, and just read.

Thank you.
-signed, a citizen for the advancement of dialogue between strangers. :)

Blog-roll and Mad Love:

Click each banner/image to go to the blog site!

Fashion: Kiddie Couture

Designers and their "fabulous" children's lines. Gotta love it...I mean who wouldn't want their children wearing couture Dior and Baby Chanel? Lol, not quite. But here are some affordable (yes, the term is relative) contemporary designers to dress your kiddies in.

If I had children, I may consider it.

Aren't the kiddie models just cutie patooties! yes they are! ;) Enjoy:








Top to Bottom: Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Alice+Olivia, Juicy Couture, and Diesel

Find more at Bergdorf Goodman

L2E USA Today: Montblanc's $25,000 Gandhi pen

Letter to the Editors: Erika Kinetz and Anna Mathews
Original article here

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born today, 140 years ago.

And today, the popular German luxury pen-maker, Montblanc, commemorates his legacy with a handmade fountain pen. The pen comes complete with Gandhi’s signature, a saffron-colored opal, a book of Gandhi quotes, and a 26-foot golden thread. The cost is $25,000. Well, $24,763 to be exact. The controversy: Gandhi was a minimalist and a nationalist, who only promoted Indian-made goods, and to make him a “brand-ambassador and poster boy” for something he’d never support, is blasphemous to his legacy and to the nation of India.

Associated Press writers Erika Kinetz and Anna Mathews cover the controversy surrounding the $25,000 pen.

Kinetz interviewed Oliver Goessler, Montblanc’s regional director for India, Africa and the Middle East, who says that “Whatever brings Gandhi and his ideas back to mind can only be good.” He also said, “the idea to commemorate Bapu ("Father"), as Gandhi is affectionately known here, in a swish pen was born in India, not Europe. It's not an opulent pen. It's a writing instrument that's very pure.” Goessler also tells Kinetz that on Tuesday, Montblanc chief executive Lutz Bethge handed over a check for $145,666 to Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, for his foundation. The foundation will get an additional 10,000 to 50,000 rupees ($210 to $1,050) for each pen sold.

Gandhi’s great grandson and owner of the foundation says his foundation would use the money to build a school and hostel for rescued child laborers. Tushar further adds that his great grandfather “would have been amused that such a lavish and ostentatious pen was being dedicated to him. He wouldn't have possessed it.”

Well of course he wouldn’t. I mean picture a thin Gandhi wrapped in white sackcloth, with a $25,000 pen worth more than his entire ensemble and possibly all that he owned. Interesting.

Read the article here

Gandhi in a nutshell:

• October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948
• Assassinated by Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse (who was executed in 1949)
• Principles: Truth, Nonviolence, Vegetarianism, Bramacharya (celibacy and purity of mind and body), Simplicity and Faith.
• Considered a minimalist, pacifist, nationalist, and self-described philosophical anarchist
  
• Most controversial issue: Possible racist. In 1908 he wrote on South African prisons and made what were considered to be extremely "racist remarks."
• Claimed that nothing in society should be done without the consent of everyone, down to the individual.

Quotes:

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians."

Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew."

Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth". He would later change this statement to "Truth is God".

Read more about Gandhi on Wikipedia

Image of the Week

The Virgin Mary....Iconic, Idolatrous, Indifferent? What do you think?





"Their [the models] faces were painted like plaster statues, their garb inspired by the vernacular devotional art found in local churches throughout the Catholic world..." - Sarah Mower of Jean Paul Gaultier Couture. Spring 2007, Paris.

As far as I know Gaultier isn't Catholic, and while the Virgin Mary is not Jesus Christ, aren't there some things that are just a tad bit out of line?
They all remind me of the "Jesus is my homeboy" t-shirts.





Images courtesy of Style.com Jean Paul Gaultier Spring 2007 runway show

L2E Vanity Fair: The Rich Have Feelings, Too

Letter to the Editor: Tom Wolfe
Original Vanity Fair Article

Tom Wolfe wrote an article in the September issue of Vanity Fair, which I am just now getting to. (Yes, I know a tad late). Wolfe does an excellent dramatization (with truth to it) that parodies the rise and fall of those overly wealthy motor execs at the height of the recession, when resulting to begging for government bailouts forced them to downgrade from private jets to commercial aircrafts—like we, the taxpayers, that they were requesting the government strip of our money. Do I sound bitter? I’m not bitter.

So in the first person narrative of an imaginary motor company exec, Wolfe rants and raves about the beauty of flying out of general aviation airports in the company’s private jet, from New York to Washington D.C. Washington for goodness sakes! Wait, do I sound bitter again? I mean this imaginary exec boasts of the in-air chauffeurs and servants who are basically string puppets bowing at the feet of the CEOs and top level employees.

What killed me was the reference to female flight attendants as “Geisha girls in the sky,” prepared to succumb to any and every passenger’s flights of fancy. Disgusting...umm ya. But above all, I almost fell out of my chair when the climax was building, and Wolfe’s imaginary exec was forced to take his first flight aboard a “commercial aircraft.” He spoke of the porters as zookeepers and the security checkpoints were the detestable innards of a colon, each line reminiscent of the dark abysses of hell. Hello! Dramatic enough?! In fact, this imaginary pompous exec even termed them as blobs, folding over like fat rolls, one on top of the other! And if that weren’t enough, the crash and burn of the whole experience was when his company’s CEO , Corky McCorkle (fake name of course), was degraded in the airport lines because he was treated like us “regular folk,” and eventually asked to resign from the company, without putting up so much as a fight. The moral of the story: “Rich people have feelings too.” Ha! Now that’s classic.

Kudos to Tom Wolfe…I enjoyed it.

Favorite Quote: “It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in a high hat and a tuxedo. Couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled or something to get here?” Said by congressman Gary Ackerman when CEOs from GM, Ford, and Chrysler showed up in Washington with hands out for bailouts.

Favorite New Definition: “Tarantula,” a term from 19^th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used for people who are consumed by resentment. Nietzsche called it one of the human’s deepest and darkest motivations, cultivating a grade of people who are unable to be great men themselves and so burn with a feverish fervor to destroy the reputations of those who are.

Read the original article here

Barracuda "Run this Town" Shades

Mad props to Kerin Rose, couture designer of the Barracuda shades that Rhianna had on in the Jay-Z video (Run this town). I ran into her site, saw the $350 shades and then read the fact that each pyramid stud is put on by hand! Imagineer that!





Check out the shades Katy Perry wore and Mariah Carey's special order: http://amorir.bigcartel.com/

L2E Marie Claire: Stiletto Stoners

Letter to the Editor: Yael Kohen
Original Mare Claire article

What is a stiletto stoner you ask? Well from reading Yael Kohen's article I think its safe to assume that its a woman in her mid 20's to 30's, who's at the peak of her career and smokes pot to unwind, in oppose to the nightly cosmopolitans and apple martinis. When I ran across this article in Marie Claire, I was like "what is this news?! Everybody knows that pot- smokers come in all shapes, sizes, and bank accounts." But the truth of the matter is that as people we don't like to feel any discomfort, we don't like to suffer. So of course we're always looking for some quick fix, some microwave solution. And be it the age of high income potheads or $100 bill coke addicts, the fear of actually "dealing" with our lives still exists.

What I thought most interesting about Kohen's article was the 28 yr old reality tv production manager who said there's no need to hide her habit because everyone at her job uses the same pot dealer. Classic! I read this and was thinking to myself, isn't weed still considered a drug? A depressant to be more exact. Aren't people still subject to charges if caught? Kohen did make note of the fact that pot is becoming widely accepted all over the country. First time offenders who sell in "small increments" are getting off easy, the medicinal properties of the drug allow some people to be licensed to grow it in their backyards, and in some places its as accesible as milk at the grocery store. But what happened to the fact that in high doses over time brain cells are actually terminated, or the fact that each drag is equivalent to 6 pulls on a cigarette and hence can lead to lung cancer? I guess the answer is that as long people still have lives in need of escaping, and weed toking remains a non-felony offense, dealers will still exist in the workplace and stiletto stoners will always have a cheaper habit to drown their sorrows in. Sad, but such is life.

Read the original article here

Yael Kohen's site

L2E MetroNY: Jay-Z, Hip- Hop Saved My Life

Letter to the Editor: Talia Soghomonian

Original Metro NY article

So I read the free paper and I’m not ashamed to say it. And in my plight to write letters to editors of some of the most interesting, controversial, and amusing articles in every newspaper and magazine that I enjoy reading, I decided to write letters to the editors of my favorite free papers as well. So shoot me. (Not literally).

Talia Soghomonian did an excellent interview on Hip Hop mogul Jay-Z , who is a self-proclaimed “quiet guy”. I once heard that if you see Jay-Z on the streets of NY, your best bet is to throw up your deuces-- aka a peace sign as some non-rap enthusiasts prefer to call it-- and keep it moving. Now that’s one hard dude. His new album Blueprint 3 is his 11^th No.1, he did a blow-out 9/11 concert last week (no pun intended), and he intends to keep revolutionizing hip-hop as long as the fans let him do it.

Best statement:

Talia: You’re also a businessman. You’re like the Donald Trump of hip-hop!
Jay-Z: You just made up a new phrase! I’ve never heard that one!

Best question:

Talia: Will [Chris] Brown’s legacy be left intact?
Jay-Z: It was a tragic mistake. But young kids make mistakes and hopefully get past it. I think he’s feeling the repercussions of his actions. Some­­times when you make a mistake, you gotta deal with it. There’ll be a day when this is behind him, but for now he has to deal with it.

Most thoughtful:

Talia: Your songs often read like journals — they’re very introspective at times. Is it therapeutic for you?
Jay-Z: Yeah, because as a person I’m not really talkative. My whole family’s like that. We keep a lot of things in. So for me, music is like therapy. It allows me to say what I want to say.

Kudos Talia!

Read the original interview here

Images from Jay-Z 's website