Catch a clue, Johnny Weir!

I’ve been a fan of the figure skater, Johnny Weir, since the last winter Olympics and when he crafted a routine to Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” that he performed in competitions overseas. He’s well-known for being out and proud as a gay skater, but he also has quite the arrogant attitude, usually for no good reason. His latest costume snafu proves this point. He decided to have his costume designer add a bit of fox fur to a costume he wore recently, and this drew complaints from some animal rights organizations. His response was not so elegant:

“I totally get the dirtiness of the fur industry and how terrible it is to animals. But it’s not something that’s the No. 1 priority in my life,” Weir said on Tuesday. “There are humans dying everyday. There are thousands if not millions of homeless people in New York City. Look at what just happened in Haiti. I tend to focus my energy, if there is a cause, on humans. While that may be callous and bad of me, it’s my choice.”

This wouldn’t be such a problematic statement if Weir was also known for being an outstanding humanitarian, perhaps, but I’ve never heard of him making any kinds of notable efforts in that arena. Not to mention that his defense argument simply doesn’t stand up. No matter what your feelings on eating or not eating animals are, at least when something is killed to be eaten it serves some kind of purpose. But killing animals just so they can become a coat or adorn the left shoulder of your costume? Come on, Johnny, get with the 21st century! The reality is that there are literally tons of options in fake fur that look just as good as real fur (especially at a distance, which is how most people will see him from the stands). Does it really help your performance as a skater, Mr. Weir, to wear fur? If it does then, by all means, please let us know how you harness that magical, mercurial quality so that we might all be inspired to take up a sport.

He also points out that “every skater is wearing skates made out of cow,” and just that “maybe I’m wearing a cute little fox while everyone else is wearing cow, but we’re all still wearing animals.” This may be true, but it only proves his arrogance further and that he has no way of eloquently defending himself because his ego is his only focus. At least the leather skates get used more than once, unlike the costumes which are usually only worn once. And in that case, if it is your choice, then why would you actively choose to wear fur? It just doesn’t make sense. I guess we’ll see what happens with his performance at this year’s Olympics when it starts next month……

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Helvetica cookies

Ah, Helvetica…..Just recently I watched this fascinating documentary about the origins and uses of the typeface Helvetica. It was so interesting to watch some famous graphic designers talk about whether or not they personally liked Helvetica and the implications of it as a ubiquitous typeface in society. One of the graphic designers in the film wondered aloud if there could be a psychological basis for its commercial popularity and public popularity (look around…see it on the street signs? and maybe even at The Gap or Target?). Coming from an Art History standpoint, I immediately thought, of course there is! Something about those curvatures and the neat push-and-pull between the letters in Helvetica must trigger some sort of comforting feeling or impulse in our brains. Much like looking at a piece of art such as Monet’s “Water-Lilies,” designers have used Helvetica as an advertising tool because it triggers such a mass, pleasant response. Needless to say, I have been thinking about this idea ever since. I’ve also been thinking of making a T-shirt featuring Helvetica, and then today I see that Beverly Hsu made some lovely Helvetica cookie cutters! So have you ever thought about Helvetica and its presence in your life? The comments on the BoingBoing article reflect that lots of people certainly have. Pretty intriguing stuff….

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US Military Vets Working on Archaeological Project

So amazing. It seems we so often hear of veterans with injuries who are being neglected, but here is a project that not only gives them another purpose in their lives after the military but one that could lead to further career/education opportunities. What a truly wonderful project that brings everything full-circle.

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I Heart Chris March

If you’re a fan of Project Runway, then you should probably also read Chrisr March’s blog after each episode. As a former contest (and drag queen), he gets it better than anyone else. He hilariously sums up every episode with witty and catty play-by-play (or thread-by-thread, as the case may be) commentary. It really is a must read. And my copy of his book that’s been back-ordered since Christmas finally arrived, courtesy of my mom. She says he even autographed it, too, on account of the delay (something went wrong with the print run it was on)! So sweet!

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Find something new (or very old) @ Dewey Music

Dewey Music is a fantastic website I read about on BoingBoing. Basically, it is a database interface that collects the public domain music available on the Internet Archive so it can be found more easily in one place. It was developed by Dean Putney who is a student at Carnegie Mellon, and it brings to mind some issues I wrote about previously. I love this website because its goal is to create an easy-to-use database system that can be accessed by a variety of users. Things like Dewey Music are the future of Information Sciences and libraries because they make databases less scary and intimidating. Of course, the work behind the scenes to make it appear as such isn’t always easy, but that’s exactly the point. There are vast amounts of all sorts of information just waiting to be accessed, and projects like Dewey Music represent the amazing efforts of people who are willing to turn a melee into something that people can actually use to find what they’re looking for. And where else can you find music from the 1920s, 16-bit recordings, and Suomi Hip-hop all in one place?

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What Should I Read Next?

What Should I Read Next? is a fascinatingly simple website that attempts to help you answer that question. The recommendations are not based on past purchases like on amazon.com but rather on the books that other users have added to their own lists. So basically, you’ll get search results of anything from closely related titles to ones that seemingly aren’t related at all. The concept of this website interests me on a library science level as well. In my introductory semester last year in library/information organization stuff, I learned quite a bit about indexing which is, in a nutshell, the process that allows you to be able to search any given search engine/system for anything at all. My professor railed against Google many times, saying that it was pretty much the worst way to search for something because it doesn’t provide very detailed results. This may be true, but there is certainly something to be said for the method of Google–bringing up search results in terms of popularity rather than specificity. What Should I Read Next? operates on a similar level, although a bit more surreptitiously because really it’s even simpler than Google. You just type in a title and/or an author, and the site brings up a list of books you might be interested in. Obviously, the more times the book you type in appears in other users’ lists, the more closely related the search results will be. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop short and just say that I am fascinated by the ways that searches are performed in Google and other library database systems and the intersections between them. Maybe I can write a paper on it this semester….

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A Conservative Sees the Light!

Finally! At least one Conservative out there gets it! Ted Olson has written a wonderful, passionate and extremely well-reasoned piece for Newsweek explaining why gay marriage is an American value and should be an American right. Someone should make a flier with an outline of his points that can be handed to anyone who cannot wrap their heads around the idea of gay marriage. It would make things so much easier! But seriously, I think this is a really important piece and has the potential to reach so many people through Newsweek. Olson is also taking his case to court to challenge the validity of California’s Prop 8. Hopefully the idea that gay marriage is an American right will spread beyond California. Wouldn’t it be amazing if 2010 becomes the year where we are all finally EQUAL? I think so.

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The Architect and the Actress

Sometimes you learn new things, even in Harper’s Bazaar. First, there is a piece about the architect, Peter Marino, who I had somehow never heard of before. He’s quite the character–giving even Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano a run for their eccentric money–but architects are, of course, among the world’s brightest minds. Turns out that Marino was a friend of Andy Warhol’s and even re-designed his townhouse as well as later incarnations of The Factory. More currently, he’s designed flagship stores the world over for majors such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton as well as private residences and other things. Beautiful stuff all of it. Oh, and he also collects antique (as in, some are as old as the 16th century) bronze sculptures, many of which will be featured in a show at the Wallace Collection in London. I thought he was gay, but turns out he’s not. But who would know any better considering that he dresses like Rob Halford of Judas Priest!

Also in the same issue is an interview with Gabourey Sidibe, star of the film, Precious. I still haven’t managed to see it, but I’ve really enjoyed reading all the pieces on her in various magazines. She is truly a breath of fresh air not only in film and fashion but just in life in general. Mostly because she says things like this:

“People always ask me, ‘You have so much confidence. Where did that come from?’ It came from me. One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl. I wear colors that I really like, I wear makeup that makes me feel pretty, and it really helps. It doesn’t have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see. Your body is your temple, it’s your home, and…you should decorate it.”

How awesome is that?! Now if only Harper’s had put her on the cover instead of Miley Cyrus. But the fact that she is in magazines like Harper’s and others is a huge step towards opening doors to all things beautiful, no matter the size or color.

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On the “To Read…” List

As if I ever need more books to add to that list or the several piles of books to read in my house…Nevertheless, I always manage to find some! It doesn’t help that I’m a slow reader as well, but I digress.

You Are Not a Gadget appears on the Short List page of this week’s Time magazine. As someone who owns a record player but not an iPhone and doesn’t actively use an iPod or other similar devices the concept of this book is most interesting. There’s also an interview with the author, Jaron Lanier, at the amazon link the gives a little taste of his point of view.

And while looking at BoingBoing today, I saw a reference to Crazy Like Us which is about the “globalization of the American psyche” and how our Western notions of mental health and disability are being disingenuously spread to other cultures around the world. This New York Times article from today, although somewhat dryly written, also explores this topic. It is accompanied by some pretty nifty, re-imagined Rorschach drawings, too.

(Also, it would appear that I have now figured out how to directly link websites in my blog entries! My eyes managed to miss the HTML tab last time….)

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Gaga for Polaroid

In more ways that one! I’ve been a Polaroid collector/amateur enthusiast for quite some time now, and I also love Lady Gaga. So I was very intrigued to read the news of her collaboration with Polaroid today.

For the past year I’ve also been keeping up with The Impossible Project and the amazing work they’ve done with bringing instant film to life again. It appears they’ve done it as the site reports that they turned on one of the presses for New Year’s and rolled out some brand new packs of film! New black and white and color films are coming soon and vintage film in redesigned packaging is available now. I can’t tell you how excited this makes me!

It also seems that Polaroid may be getting something right with the Gaga connection. When they decided to stop production of Polaroid films and discontinue production of their cameras, it was obvious that they were giving up as a company on trying to re-brand themselves in the digital age. But I think they forgot about how much instant photography is truly loved by so many people. Of course, you can go with Fuji and buy an Instax camera, but nothing truly compares to the allure and history of Polaroid. So I hope they’ve got it right this time and that we’ll continue to see amazing things from Polaroid as well as The Impossible Project. And perhaps Lady Gaga will succeed in bringing Polaroid to a new generation–something Polaroid could not quite do by itself.

You can order new and vintage Polaroid films at Polapremium. I’m ready to fire up the SX-70 and some of my other cameras!

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