Noun
Middle English, from Latin, from torpere
1a. a state of mental and motor inactivity with partial or total insensibility
2. APATHY, DULLNESS, LETHARGY
I have a few posts partially complete, but I just can't seem to make myself do anything these days. Maybe tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
I Heart Modcloth: An Investigation
Sometime in the spring of 2007 I happened upon a lovely little online clothing store called ModCloth. They sell funky vintage clothes and cute clothes by young independent designers. I've gotten a lot of my favorite pieces there, the ones I go to when I have to look great. In fact, I just picked out a dress to wear to my boyfriend's brother's wedding. I've been looking for one for weeks. (No, I'm not going to tell you which dress. I don't have the funds at the moment and don't want you, my imaginary readers, to buy them out before I save up.) One of the best things is that if you buy it on ModCloth you're unlikely to see anyone else wearing it.
Unless you buy this dress:
I tried this dress on in Urban Outfitters a couple months ago when I was looking for a dress to wear to The Phantom of the Opera. It was adorable, but the straps needed to be shortened and I thought it was just too young and cutesy for a night out. It wasn't what I needed at the time, but I've secretly been coveting it for awhile. It's near the top of my Things to Buy When I Get a Job list.
And then the other day I headed over to ModCloth and saw it priced almost twenty dollars below Urban. And I got really happy and came over here to write a post entitled "An Ode to ModCloth." But when I went over to Urban to double check their price, I noticed something interesting.
It's not the same dress.
This is the dress Urban Outfitters is selling:
It's very similar. Weirdly similar. Like, beyond coincidence. In fact, I spent awhile clicking back and forth between two browser windows to make sure it wasn't a trick of the lighting. (Yes, I still use IE6, what of it?) But the straps are clearly not the same. And the bodice of the Urban dress is more of a royal purple than ModCloth's violet. And if you look at the back, the bows appear to be different colors as well.
Urban Outfitters seems to have a long history of plagiarizing young designers' work, so I set out to investigate. It was long and arduous and mostly consisted of emailing Alicia at ModCloth and asking her annoying questions about who designed the dress and how I could contact them and what the style number of the dress is. She was lovely and gracious enough to promptly respond to all of my inquiries. The dress is by Staccato, and they say that although they do sometimes sell to Urban UK, this dress was only sold to boutiques and specialty stores. I was unable to contact Urban Outfitters.
I don't want to accuse Urban Outfitters of stealing the design outright, but they're practically identical. The color changes are the equivalent of the accent and chewed fingernails distinguishing Susan from Sharon in The Parent Trap. This goes beyond the "on the wind" situation in which two comedians tell similar jokes about a current event or two designers make similar pleated skirts in the hot color of the season. These dresses are distinctive and someone spent a long time making sure the cut and colors and proportions were just right, and someone else spent a few minutes copying it. That's a shame.
Whatever happened, check out ModCloth. It's full of sassy clothes that will make you look super stylish, and they don't plagiarize.
Unless you buy this dress:
I tried this dress on in Urban Outfitters a couple months ago when I was looking for a dress to wear to The Phantom of the Opera. It was adorable, but the straps needed to be shortened and I thought it was just too young and cutesy for a night out. It wasn't what I needed at the time, but I've secretly been coveting it for awhile. It's near the top of my Things to Buy When I Get a Job list.And then the other day I headed over to ModCloth and saw it priced almost twenty dollars below Urban. And I got really happy and came over here to write a post entitled "An Ode to ModCloth." But when I went over to Urban to double check their price, I noticed something interesting.
It's not the same dress.
This is the dress Urban Outfitters is selling:
It's very similar. Weirdly similar. Like, beyond coincidence. In fact, I spent awhile clicking back and forth between two browser windows to make sure it wasn't a trick of the lighting. (Yes, I still use IE6, what of it?) But the straps are clearly not the same. And the bodice of the Urban dress is more of a royal purple than ModCloth's violet. And if you look at the back, the bows appear to be different colors as well.Urban Outfitters seems to have a long history of plagiarizing young designers' work, so I set out to investigate. It was long and arduous and mostly consisted of emailing Alicia at ModCloth and asking her annoying questions about who designed the dress and how I could contact them and what the style number of the dress is. She was lovely and gracious enough to promptly respond to all of my inquiries. The dress is by Staccato, and they say that although they do sometimes sell to Urban UK, this dress was only sold to boutiques and specialty stores. I was unable to contact Urban Outfitters.
I don't want to accuse Urban Outfitters of stealing the design outright, but they're practically identical. The color changes are the equivalent of the accent and chewed fingernails distinguishing Susan from Sharon in The Parent Trap. This goes beyond the "on the wind" situation in which two comedians tell similar jokes about a current event or two designers make similar pleated skirts in the hot color of the season. These dresses are distinctive and someone spent a long time making sure the cut and colors and proportions were just right, and someone else spent a few minutes copying it. That's a shame.
Whatever happened, check out ModCloth. It's full of sassy clothes that will make you look super stylish, and they don't plagiarize.
Monday, June 8, 2009
My Geek Tyranny
Okay, so I'm more of a nerd than a geek, but the boys over at Geek Tyrant let me contribute to their lovely site from time to time. Today I reviewed the new Guillermo Del Toro book, The Strain, for them. You can read it here.
Read this book! Scarlett Thomas Edition
I was at a bridal shower on Saturday, trying to be unobtrusive while the bride opened her gifts, when my boyfriend's aunt started grilling me on what I wanted to do with my life and what's wrong with me to make me such a loser, ending with a lecture on how if I just listened to her I could be a Success! Anyway, in the midst of this harangue, she asked me who my favorite writers were, and I started telling her about Scarlett Thomas, whom I adore. I got all excited and happy talking about her, as well as my other favorite authors, and then she suggested her own since mine clearly weren't up to snuff. And yes, Aunty, I did pick up the not so subtle insinuation in your suggestion that I read A Light in August because it's the easiest Faulkner.
Possible future in-laws aside, the whole experience reminded me that I should blog about the awesomeness of Scarlett Thomas. She's a writer from the New Puritan school, which is all about telling a story as simply as possible. I've read two of her books, and I loved them so much I gave them away. That's the highest praise possible from me because I hoard books. I keep them and read them over and over and over again and get mad when people touch them. So for me to give a book away I have to feel strongly that everyone in the world should read it.
The first book I read is Popco. It's about a cryptanalyst/toy designer who solves a seemingly unbreakable code and finds a hidden pirate treasure. The End of Mr. Y, cover adorned with the tantalizing tagline, Would you read this book if you knew it was cursed? is about a graduate student who finds an extremely rare book holding the secret to linking into the consciousness of, well, everyone. Both books are suspenseful and dramatic and funny and touching and chock full of information. Everything I know about homeopathy, cryptanalysis, pirates, toy and puzzle design, and thought experiments I learned from Scarlett Thomas. I read an interview with her on Bookslut, like, a year ago, and she said that when she sets out to write a book she makes a list of everything she wants to learn about and then comes up with a plot that connects them. Luckily, she only wants to learn about really interesting things, and she passes it all on to the reader.
So buy her books if you're too lazy to read encyclopedias and tedious technical manuals but still want to learn cool stuff while engrossed in a compelling plot.
Possible future in-laws aside, the whole experience reminded me that I should blog about the awesomeness of Scarlett Thomas. She's a writer from the New Puritan school, which is all about telling a story as simply as possible. I've read two of her books, and I loved them so much I gave them away. That's the highest praise possible from me because I hoard books. I keep them and read them over and over and over again and get mad when people touch them. So for me to give a book away I have to feel strongly that everyone in the world should read it.
The first book I read is Popco. It's about a cryptanalyst/toy designer who solves a seemingly unbreakable code and finds a hidden pirate treasure. The End of Mr. Y, cover adorned with the tantalizing tagline, Would you read this book if you knew it was cursed? is about a graduate student who finds an extremely rare book holding the secret to linking into the consciousness of, well, everyone. Both books are suspenseful and dramatic and funny and touching and chock full of information. Everything I know about homeopathy, cryptanalysis, pirates, toy and puzzle design, and thought experiments I learned from Scarlett Thomas. I read an interview with her on Bookslut, like, a year ago, and she said that when she sets out to write a book she makes a list of everything she wants to learn about and then comes up with a plot that connects them. Luckily, she only wants to learn about really interesting things, and she passes it all on to the reader.
So buy her books if you're too lazy to read encyclopedias and tedious technical manuals but still want to learn cool stuff while engrossed in a compelling plot.
Friday, June 5, 2009
An Ode to Up
Way back in November I saw Bolt. I wasn't really interested in seeing the movie, but I was very interested in the boy that invited me. It was a sweet, entertaining movie, but what really piqued my interest was the trailer I saw for the movie Up. I thought it seemed like a really fun, creative concept, and it was Pixar, so I knew it would be good. What I didn't know was that it would be among the most beautiful love stories I've seen on film.
The movie opens with an old timey newsreel telling the story of an adventurer exploring South America, while an enthusiastic young boy we'll come to know as Carl bops in his seat. On his way home from the theater, he hears the sound of a fellow adventurer coming from a dilapidated old Victorian house. It's Ellie, the most kickass girl I've seen in a theater this year. They become friends, and Ellie shows Carl her scrapbook, the first few pages filled with her plans to move to South America, the rest of the pages blank, waiting for mementos of adventures to come.
The rest of their story is told quickly and mostly silently. They get married and move into the Victorian house where they met, fixing it up and dreaming of their future. When Ellie is devastated to learn that children aren't possible, Carl cheers her up by reminding her of her childhood dream. They start saving for South America, but life continually intervenes. Ellie dies before they can go.
The bulk of the movie is made up of Carl's decision to fly their house to Paradise Falls to fulfill Ellie's dream and his experiences on the way there, and it's lively and fun and entertaining and full of twists and turns. But the best moment in the movie is when, discouraged, Carl flips through Ellie's scrapbook, and for the first time sees that Ellie didn't leave the pages blank; she's filled them with pictures of her life with Carl. That's the adventure she had.
I get restless in my life. I know there's so much to do and see in this world that I'm unlikely to see and do it all before I die and that fills me with wanderlust. It's nice to go to a children's movie on a Saturday expecting a fun and silly two hours and leave full of hope that if you do it right, everyday is an adventure, even if it's just a picnic with someone you love.
The movie opens with an old timey newsreel telling the story of an adventurer exploring South America, while an enthusiastic young boy we'll come to know as Carl bops in his seat. On his way home from the theater, he hears the sound of a fellow adventurer coming from a dilapidated old Victorian house. It's Ellie, the most kickass girl I've seen in a theater this year. They become friends, and Ellie shows Carl her scrapbook, the first few pages filled with her plans to move to South America, the rest of the pages blank, waiting for mementos of adventures to come.
The rest of their story is told quickly and mostly silently. They get married and move into the Victorian house where they met, fixing it up and dreaming of their future. When Ellie is devastated to learn that children aren't possible, Carl cheers her up by reminding her of her childhood dream. They start saving for South America, but life continually intervenes. Ellie dies before they can go.
The bulk of the movie is made up of Carl's decision to fly their house to Paradise Falls to fulfill Ellie's dream and his experiences on the way there, and it's lively and fun and entertaining and full of twists and turns. But the best moment in the movie is when, discouraged, Carl flips through Ellie's scrapbook, and for the first time sees that Ellie didn't leave the pages blank; she's filled them with pictures of her life with Carl. That's the adventure she had.
I get restless in my life. I know there's so much to do and see in this world that I'm unlikely to see and do it all before I die and that fills me with wanderlust. It's nice to go to a children's movie on a Saturday expecting a fun and silly two hours and leave full of hope that if you do it right, everyday is an adventure, even if it's just a picnic with someone you love.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Herstory: Eleanor of Acquitaine
Awhile ago while I was on a Peter O'Toole kick I watched The Lion in Winter and developed an Eleanor of Acquitaine obsession, which led to some research. She was an amazing and accomplished woman. Here are some highlights:
- Wealthiest and most beautiful woman in Europe in the 12th century
- Educated in the cultural center of Europe
- Duchess of Acquitaine and Countess of Poitiers in her own right
- Married King Louis VII of France
- Went on Crusade and dressed herself and her women as Amazons
- Had several affairs, including with her uncle and her future father-in-law
- Divorced King Louis VII on grounds of consanguinity
- Immediately proposed to Henry, Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, and heir to the throne of England, 12 years her junior and a closer relative than Louis
- Alongside Henry II, built the Angevin empire while bearing 8 children
- Became estranged from Henry and aided her sons in rebellion against him, after which she was imprisoned for 16 years
- Ruled England while her son King Richard the Lionheart was on crusade and in prison
- Implemented the jury system in England
- Travelled to Germany to negotiate his ransom
- Continued to advise her son King John into her old age
- Took the veil at Fountrevault
The really frustrating thing about her is that in the Middle Ages women didn't matter, so there are few surviving records. The chroniclers seldom mention her, although Bernard of Clairvaux did call her a whore a bunch of times. Reading biographies of her there are very clear descriptions of what her husbands or sons were doing, followed by sentences like, It would appear that at this time Eleanor was... or, We can assume that Eleanor... or, Historians believe Eleanor... We know that she was beautiful, but we have no specifics of her appearance. Historians believe she had red hair. They also think that she was tall and thin and not too curvy based on the fact that she was able to disguise herself as a man when she was 51. Meanwhile there are several precise descriptions of Henry II. The Courtly Love tradition began at her court in Poitiers, but Henry and the church destroyed all its records. It is believed the forerunner of the jury system began there, which would be important, but only if she were a man.
This woman was the Queen of France and England and held Acquitaine and Poitiers in her own right. If her life is so undocumented, what about the lives of the women around her, the ladies, nuns, and peasants who led less extraordinary lives? If a queen and crusader deserves so little ink, what did they think those women deserved? And is the intense scrutiny given to powerful women today a step up or just a lateral move? Would you rather have no records of your appearance, or miles of newsprint describing your cankles and pantsuits? And why are anonymity and scrutiny our only options?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Raining Diamonds
My boyfriend just showed me an old Wired story about using manufactured diamonds as semiconductors for computer chips. Basically chip speed is hitting a wall because silicon can't handle any more heat without melting. Diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of any substance known to man. Which means that it would be ideal to replace silicon in computer manufacturing. You may be able to guess the problem with this: A diamond large enough to build a chip on would be massively expensive. So a couple of enterprising companies have developed processes to create synthetic diamonds. Not cubic zirconia, diamonds. Grown in a lab but indistinguishable from natural diamonds produced by massive heat and pressure in the earth's crust.
The diamond industry is controlled by De Beers Diamond Trading Company. They've held this monopoly for 115 years, and they've done a lot of nasty things to keep it. Their favorite trick these days is hoarding diamonds to create artificial scarcity, driving up the price of diamonds. They also coined the phrase A Diamond Is Forever to keep people from passing engagement rings from generation to generation. If your grandmother was buried in hers, you have De Beers to thank. They are terrified of the synthetic stones. De Beers is developing expensive tests to detect synthetic stones and sending the equipment to jewelers around the world, free of charge. The companies that produce the stones are higly secretive and take extensive security measures. They expect De Beers to cause problems.
I hate De Beers. I also love diamonds. One of my greatest dreams is to pull off a heist in the De Beers vaults, steal all the diamonds they're holding in reserve, and flood the market with them. I wouldn't even sell them. I'd just give them away: fling them off rooftops, leave them on car windshields, offer them free with purchase of a Big Mac. Until every man, woman, and child had one of their very own. The bottom would drop out of the diamond market, De Beers would go bankrupt, and several African civil wars might end.
But for all of that, when I get engaged, I want a "real" diamond. There's something almost magical about the natural formation of a diamond, about the fact that nature can accidentally produce these brilliant and indestructible gems. I'll foil De Beers by getting a vintage ring, making sure they don't get a cut of my happiness, but it will still have been mined. It will still have been owned by De Beers at some point. Be better than me. Don't buy into the advertising that I must have bought into. Get your cultured diamond from Gemesis or Apollo. Your stone will be better than mine. Mine will have inclusions. It may not be perfectly white. Your stone will be flawless.
The diamond industry is controlled by De Beers Diamond Trading Company. They've held this monopoly for 115 years, and they've done a lot of nasty things to keep it. Their favorite trick these days is hoarding diamonds to create artificial scarcity, driving up the price of diamonds. They also coined the phrase A Diamond Is Forever to keep people from passing engagement rings from generation to generation. If your grandmother was buried in hers, you have De Beers to thank. They are terrified of the synthetic stones. De Beers is developing expensive tests to detect synthetic stones and sending the equipment to jewelers around the world, free of charge. The companies that produce the stones are higly secretive and take extensive security measures. They expect De Beers to cause problems.
I hate De Beers. I also love diamonds. One of my greatest dreams is to pull off a heist in the De Beers vaults, steal all the diamonds they're holding in reserve, and flood the market with them. I wouldn't even sell them. I'd just give them away: fling them off rooftops, leave them on car windshields, offer them free with purchase of a Big Mac. Until every man, woman, and child had one of their very own. The bottom would drop out of the diamond market, De Beers would go bankrupt, and several African civil wars might end.
But for all of that, when I get engaged, I want a "real" diamond. There's something almost magical about the natural formation of a diamond, about the fact that nature can accidentally produce these brilliant and indestructible gems. I'll foil De Beers by getting a vintage ring, making sure they don't get a cut of my happiness, but it will still have been mined. It will still have been owned by De Beers at some point. Be better than me. Don't buy into the advertising that I must have bought into. Get your cultured diamond from Gemesis or Apollo. Your stone will be better than mine. Mine will have inclusions. It may not be perfectly white. Your stone will be flawless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)