Lifestyle & Culture
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »WUBA WUBA WUBA
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on November 14, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Friday, November 14th, 2008Go ahead, cry for me, Argentina
 Can you guess which European city this is? |
How come no-one ever told me about Buenos Aires? As a seasonally-distraught, occasionally poverty-stricken but happily self-employed (I’d honestly rather starve than take most jobs for which I’m qualified) person rather unhappily residing in the midwestern U.S., it’s time for my once-every-few-years obsession with a new place to live. Go ahead, cry for me, Argentina. Because I can’t afford to visit right now, and I think it’s about to blizzard where I am. I first got curious about about B.A. when I read about filming that was being done there. The city in the background of the short films shot there kept looking disturbingly familiar, yet strange at the same time. Was that some east-coast city? Somewhere in Europe? No, it was the “Paris of South America”. Check out WUBA (What’s Up Buenos Aires) for the American ex-pat view of hip BA pop culture. That’s where I ran across the amazing performance art troupe Fuerzabruta and the quirky latin techno folk artist Gaby Kerpel. So let’s go. Apparently things are cheap, the transit is literally green, and you get to kiss people all the time.
Are You A Psychopath?
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on November 12, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008Maybe you should go into finance.
  Investment bankers have all the fun… |
No, all my rage has a perfectly rational foundation, thank you very much. For some reason, the recent economic crisis reminded me of the idea floating around back in 2004 that maybe corporate culture was breeding and encouraging actual psychopaths. Thanks to the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, I keep running into articles that suggest that this is indeed the case. What else could explain the audacity of the inclusion of a $140 Billion windfall tax in the Treasury Department’s economic bailout package? Or the aberrant behavior of individuals in the finance industry described in this lengthy but well-written Portfolio.com piece? The election was a nice distraction, but is anyone out there still even slightly angry? If we turned the tables and went all American Psycho
*29 questions, and don’t fall for the checkbox trick at the end.
Fear of Facebook
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on November 8, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, November 8th, 2008It’s not that I don’t love the virtual you, I just prefer the real one…
Someone please absolve me of my FaceGuilt. As an addictive person who works on a computer a lot (am I addicted?) and is very social and very networked (Malcolm Gladwell
Am I Still Hip If I Oppose Gay Marriage?
[ 7 Comments ]Posted on November 1, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, November 1st, 2008And if Obama loses, is it Anthony Romero’s fault?
 Sorry Anthony, your e-mail had unintended consequences. |
Note to self: if you ever go into politics, remember the law of unintended consequences. I recently received an e-mail from the ACLU in which Executive Director Anthony D. Romero shared the sad story of the results of his outing himself with his parents. He then went on to explain why I should be concerned about California’s Proposition 8, and the rights of gay people to get married in general. I was surprised (as I found myself seriously pondering this topic in-depth for the first time) what my more complicated thoughts on the subject really are. First, I want to say that I ADAMANTLY believe in an individual’s right to have whatever kind of relationship they like with whatever gender or species they desire, so long as both are consenting and in agreement. And although none of my friends do the interspecies thing, easily half of my friends are gay, be they men or women (and half of them will want to kill me when we get around to discussing this). What Romero’s plea highlighted for me is that I don’t think I really care if the government sanctions gay marriage, because, once I really pondered my feelings on the topic, I realized I also don’t think people should get tax breaks for being married in the first place, and I don’t think the government has any place putting their stamp of approval on such agreements. For one, what if your spiritual beliefs preclude Read the rest of this entry »
Econopocalypse Tip #1: Living In Your Car
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on October 25, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, October 25th, 2008Mobile Homes: They’re not just for Hillbillies any more.
With global economic collapse descending upon us and people already living in L.A.’s version of Hooverville, learning how to not live in the house you never owned anyway might be a good start for your new lifestyle. Jalopnik offers Ten Cars You Can Live In After Your Home Is Repossessed, but the list isn’t very practical, and is a little weak on humor as well. Wikis to the rescue: This How to Live in Your Car Wiki not only covers the basics, but goes into finer details, like how to “safely defecate outdoors and make a poop tube”. Hmm. Too bad PoopTube.com is already taken. This Motive Mag piece also covers a lot of practical points once you’ve made the “mi casa es mi coche” commitment. And The Onion, so often disturbingly prescient with their satire, was way ahead on this one in the 2003 piece Living Out Of Your Car Is A Dying Art, which lambasts those that claim they’ll have a job and a home soon, pointing out that old pros knew how to keep “our chins up and our hopes down”. If you’re REALLY thinking ahead (and have $70,000+) the N55 Walking House is the perfect solution for those annoying floodwaters caused by all that global warming that doesn’t exist.