Posts tagged fashion
$435 Super Mario Sweater – Would you Rock it?
Aug 30th
There may be an extreme heat alert in place right for Toronto right now, but sweater weather is almost here.
I can feel it. Heck, I can SEE it:
That doggy’s all ready for the fall time with his fuzzy wool coat but are YOU, fleshbot?
I didn’t think so.
Hoomins (and sphynxies) need to cover up when it gets chilly outside.
This Super Mario Sweater will definitely keep you warm, and it’s undeniably sweet – but it’s also $435.For one sweater.
According to JoyStiq, for that price you could have two Nintendo Wiis, a Playstation 3, an Xbox 360, a top of the line netbook or a bunch of knives or something.
If I had an extra 450 bones to throw towards my wardrobe, I’d spend it on a new coat or boots or a shoulder vampire or something. Maybe a deluxe Evil Jester costume…
You know, something I could wear every day.
The irony is that anyone who would drop that much on one item of clothing probably isn’t a gamer to begin with and wouldn’t want to wear something to tragically nerdcore.
I am not one of said snobs. I want this sweater SO EFFING MUCH right now.
Hey Shigesato Itoi – my birthday is in November… wink wink, nudge nudge 
Love,
THE JESTAH
Socks with Sandals – Would You Rock it?
Jul 29th
to besock thy foot or not to besock thy foot… that is today’s sartorial conundrum.
What do you think, friend? Is the socks & sandals trend school girl cute or get the feck oot?
it’s a debate as old as time itself.
… okay maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
It’s actually a debate that’s as old as Fall of 2009ish within the fashion community (give or take a few seasons – I do live in Canada and suck at fashion, after all).
For me, it’s a debate as old as an 8th Grade field trip to Niagara falls when I stood my proud germaphobic ground and refused to take off daddy’s white tube socks – even after the other girls told me I looked like a dork.
Apparently, wearing knee-high mansocks with Nike slides, demin minishorts and an oversized Gap sweatshirt was not looked upon favourably by the 12-year-old fashionistas of Chatham. Little did those betches know, I was just being fashion forward.
Obviously, I’m all for this look. I’m a die-hard lifetime sock fanatic (I hate bare feet) and I’m all about the lolita chic aesthetic.
I’ve been experimenting with this trend a bit this year, pairing dainty nylons with pumps and mary-janes when appropriate – but I’ve yet to go all out and strap someopen-toed espadrilles over a pair of socks. yet.
I think I may just try it out this weekend… I’ve got the perfect pair of Michael Kors Nikis, I just need the right sockies to wear them with! I wonder if my mom kept these puppies?
SHORTBANGS FTW!
<3
Dorkus O’Lorkus.
Timas, Diplo, Monokini: the awesome & hilarious digest for july 25th 2010
Jul 26th
Me: *grumble grumble* Can I add “lame” to the awesomehilarious post today? Just this once?
You: “No you can’t, because the whole darn thing is about maintaining a positive attitude in the face of adverrrsity or something stupid and idealistic like that. Remember?”
*sigh* Frick.
Let’s start with “hilarious” then…
- Getting slapped with a $220 towing fee + a $60 ticket after my car mysteriously disappeared from the street. Apparently, I was partially obstructing some crochety old loosah’s driveway with the nose of my car. This would have been a “c’est la vie! live and learn! at least I still have legs!” moment had I not already been towed 3 times this year and running late for work.It’s not cute, it’s not funny, it’s not blonde - this stuff is expensive and it’s holding me back from doing better things with my hard-earned cash.I normally try not to refrain from using off-colour language on my blog, but my word am I angry! BEIGE Toronto’s lame parking rules, EGGSHELL the surly tow truck driver and TAUPE this overpopulated city’s lack of spaces to park.Adding insult to injury, when I got to work and tried to park in the lot that usually charges me $10, I was asked for THIRTY because there were “lot of special event in city today” – so I drove down the road and paid 20$ instead. *grumble grumble*
From this point on it’s mostly awesome. Outside of parking woes (and some surrious sleep deprivation) life’s been pretty gravy lately:
- Friday’s TIME Festival at Sound Academy. Y’all know I love me some dubstep, right? My week was already jam-booked but I could NOT pass up a chance to see Diplo spin in my backyard so I scored some last minute tix and danced my face off until 5a.m. I made a video, too… one of my buddies grabbed the camera at some point and shot me shaking my thang (thanks MP!). Please don’t mind the falling down shorts or the sweaty blonde mop on my head.
- The Toronto Independent Music Awards were earlier that night, and that was fantastic as well. Got a chance to chat with so many sweet local bands / rappers / singers / rockstars. Still processing videos from the event for work (when I’m not at other work), but I dooo have this picture of yours truly interviewing m’boy Sean Ward – TIMA host / blogger / comic artist / vlogger extraordinaire:
- This article on the top 5 web pranks ever pulled by moot and the 4chan gang = also awesome.
- I ordered my new laptop last night
Did I go Mac or PC? All will be revealed in due time my friend, but I WILL tell you this – my new baby has been custom engineered with an i7 processor, 6 Gigs of RAM and a whole TERABYTE of storage on the HD. She looks dammmmn good too - hilarious: I’ve come close to buying this dress three times now, but after seeing no less than 5 girls rocking it around the city have decided that I just can’t do it.
As much as I adore it (and I do – so, so, so much) I just can’t stomach shelling out for something that everyone else has. I’m not one for uniforms. Jeez, you’d think Douglas Coupland could have designed more than ONE dress for his roots collection.
- awesome: The Cotton Candy T monokini by Zeugari. Actually, EVERYTHING by Zuegari. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll see me rocking one of these masterpieces at WakeStock…
Yummy. - Signing a lease for my shiny sweet apartment – FINALLY! I’ve been living in Toronto now for over 2 months – I figured it was time to put my name on a piece of paper and unpack my bags for good. The big move with all the furniture coming out of my storage locker in London goes down at the end of August. I hate moving (ie; watching my male relatives and friends move my stuff up and down stairs), but it’ll be so nice to have my entire wardrobe up here with me. And like, my bed and computer desk and stuff.
- Annnd finally, I can’t get this song out of my head which is awesome because I’m in love with it at the moment. So sassy!Hate Hate, Hate Hate Hate…
All eyes on me, I took the night…
wise words from the mustachioed man on my hipster rag…
Jul 23rd
HAY HAY HAY!
Last week I picked up a bunch of free magazines at The Drake. (And by ‘magazines’, I mean promotional rags, pamphlets, postcards, flyers, discarded cocktail napkins… anything remotely cool looking and/or colourful that fit into my purse. Yeah, I’m one of those people – and I’ve got four bulletin boards, a computer desk overflowing with bright wacky schtuff and a perpetually sextuple-booked “zawesome events!” Google calendar to show for it.)
One of said magzors had some really cool stuff in it - like this:
annnnnd THIS:
And also, the greatest horoscopes I’ve ever read ever. I know I exaggerate like, a katrillion times a minute, but I’m being serious. In all my human life years, I have never laughed my way from Capricorn to Sagittarius straight (sans-whipits).
Mine (Scorpio) was pretty much bang-on…
You have a beer gut you didn’t have to pay for and your hearing is permanently shot from blasting illegally downloaded Diplo remixes over shitty dive-bar sound systems. If blogs could give out medals, you’d have a Purple Heart. Go get ‘em, tiger.
k, maybe not BANG on, but it was hilarious so things are gravy.
And speaking of gravy, the icing on my meaty cake of hip-to-be-hip gold was ION’s interview with Ukranian-born moustache man musician Eugene Hu?tz, front guy of uber-acclaimed gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello.
I’d heard the good buzzzz about this band, but never really got around to checking them out as I’m not one for weird music that sounds like crap. Gogol’s music SO does not sound like crap, by the way, I just kind of assumed that it would based on all of the other highly buzzzzed about stuff I blindly download.
Plus, one of my Czech friends has a SUPER hate on for gypsies, and that Steven King book ‘Thinner‘ paints them in a terrible light, and Snatch too… so I was sort of like “ew, gypsies”.
Then I learned that hating on gypsies is like TOTALLY RACIST.
Huh.
Anyways, I’m totally going to marry a gypsy punk-rocker if he will have my hand because holysmokes do I less than three my new homeboy-in-my-head for saying this:
“… fashion is basically one of the lower forms of art. I don’t detest fashion. It’s just that the importance is blown out of proportion. Most fashion has become institutionalized elitism. Personally, I don’t give a fuck about fashion. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate if somebody whips some combination out that I’ve never seen before. Fashion is great when it is spontaneous and upbeat, or from somebody whose aesthetic about fashion is very artistic and solid…”
and also, this…
“the idea of nostalgia is very much a part of the Western condition. It’s also been employed as a big business by capitalists milking people’s weaknesses—a form of mental laziness. People are chasing the wrong things. It seems people are either constantly aiming towards some goal that they think will finally free them, or they are taking comfort in things that have already happened. It’s this doomed way of thinking that the best time in their life has either already happened, or that it never will happen, y’know? So, I’m not really a fan of that. It’s not about arriving anywhere, or dwelling on all the places you’ve been. It’s about the cruising.”
*swoon*
Smart and [would be] sexy [without the creepstache].
And yes, by the way, I understand the irony of me loving those statements – the hypocrisy -as I am both a hardcore clotheswhore and a girl who relies heavily on nostalgia for much of the content she produces. I’m trying to change both of those things, bear with me. We all need a little bit of a kick sometimes.
I am just loving all of this found indie and hipster media strewn around Toronto’s cool bars and java joints. Screw Nylon and Vice - I can be irreverently hip without having to spend a dime. *smug hair toss*
Wait… can I still be hip if I don’t blow my paycheque on stuff that makes me look like I’m not trying to be hip?
Meh. It’s okay… I was never hip to begin with.
<3 Lauren`
PS – I also realize that by hipster-bashing I’m being as unoriginal and douchebaggy as the very scenesters I’m making fun of. The blogoverse has been jokesin‘ on those American Apparel kids since like, 2008 or something. Google “stupid hipsters” – trust.
*sigh* we’re so damn insecure, the whole lot of us, aren’t we?
Queen Elizabeth Style Watch, Day 2
Jun 29th
Queen Elizabeth II is one seriously savvy senior, wouldn’t you say?
Homegirl Her Royal Highness is currently on day number two of a nine day Canadian tour, and she’s already dazzling the critics with her fashionable frocks and accessories.
At least, I assume she is.
Is there such thing as a monarchical wardrobe critic?
Whatever. The ever-so-elegant QE2 is in Halifornia right now, just doing her Queenly thing and looking flyer than a flock of foxes.
Is that b&w bow ensemble perfect or what? The hat, the dress, the coat – *muah*!
I’d dare to say she looks rather fierce, but a shoppie at Mendocino told me the other day that that word is SO 2009.
Duly noted.
Behold, Day one of her visit. A butter-yellow hat completes her rainy day ensemble (notice the matching cuffs and umbrella.)
I’ll be keeping an eye on what our (second) favourite celebrity octogenarian is wearing all week. I’m super excited to see what she sports when she comes to Toronto!
Which of her chic chapeaus will Queen Elizabeth II rock at the racetrack? A new one, perhaps… wait – is it un-queenly to wear the same thing twice?
ohhhh coolness be damned – This woman is FIERCE!
<3L
Nerd Merch and MuchMusicMadness
Jun 17th
So much to blog about – so little time to blog! ARGH!
I have exactly 20 minutes, so here goes…
Today, I had my first real article published as a Staff Reporter at The Toronto Star. “It’s hip to be square: Nerd merch brings in the bank” is a piece that’s quite near and dear to my own heart, being a bona fide geekgirl and all.
As I tweeted this morning, opening the paper to see this article dominating the cover of the living section was better than Christmas. I’ll take a front-page(ish) byline over eggnog and tubesocks any ding dong day of the week.
In other excitements, The 2010 MuchMusic Video Awards are now only THREE DAYS AWAY – AHHHH! I still don’t know what the heck I’m going to wear… Any stylista friends in the area want to come shopping with me today? DiStef? Issie? Rachel Zoe?
As you may have already seen, I was not chosen as one of the two “on-the-ground” VVIP bloggers for this year’s MMVAS. I ammmm, however, one of the 4 digital rockstars who will be bringing you exclusive MMVA dirt all weekend long, so stay tuned to all 6 VVIP feeds if you want scizzity scoop from the kids who know what’s up -> The fabulous Ms. Karly Moy (aka hustlegrl) and Andrew Bravener (aka cutie mchottie) on the ground, and The Moose Crew, oneloveTO, Alex Kazemi and yours truly from wherever the heck we happen to be during the show.
I have a feeling that the Moose Crew will be hitting up the red carpet or something wild like that, ’cause that’s how they roll… as for me – well, I’ll be running around the MMVA set all ninja-styles in a headset and heels helping to ensure that the show runs smoothly.
I may not be an on-the-ground VVIP, but I’ll still be on the ground, my homies – tworkin’ away as a talent wrangler!
I can’t even tell you how psyched I am to be part of wrangling team this year. Some of my MuchCronies have done it before and assure me that it’s pretty much the coolest job in the history of jobs.
We’re responsible for ensuring that all presenters, performers and award winners are accounted for and where they need to be when directors need them to be there.
Basically, I’ll be assigned to one celebrity and act as a VIP concierge / production assistant for the duration of the show and rehearsal periods – ushering said celebrity around the event, from limo to stage to greenroom to lounge… looks like I may end up in the VVIP room after all
Unfortunately, I will not be able to partake in any of the glass clinking festivities – but that’s totally okay. I’d rather work than play when it comes to this kind of thing. I’ve gots to keep it profesh, ya know? Which means that NO, I will not be Twitpiccing photos of Katy Perry in her dressing room or anything like that, so don’t even ask (sorry guys).
I will possibly show you a picture of the sick headset I’ll be sporting (cool!) and – get this – we’re encouraged to dress all fancy styles to blend in with the crowd. No ugly crew uniforms for this kid, huzzah!
Which brings me back to my little conundrum… wth do I wear to the most exciting event OF LIFE?
Time for this girl to hit the shops. I need to get some damn comfortable heels and an outfit that’s easy to run around in but cuter than a kitten/fishbowl toilet bowl handle, just in case I happen to show up in the background of some red-carpet pics or something
Ooh and the afterparties! Maybe I’ll bring a change of clothes… help me, Tim Gunn!!!
<3 always,
Lauren O’Lovinglifesohardrightnow
PS – If you’re in the T-dot this evening and don’t already have plans to check out k-os tonight at TIME, you should probably open up your google calendar and mark it in RIGHT MEOW. It’s vuggin k-os, people! One of Toronto’s finest. I’ve seen him live before and lemme telllll you – he’s as dope in person as he is in those fancy schmancy music videos. Anybody else remember jammin’ out down the street on the way to school with Crabbuckit on your discman? So good.
The awesome & hilarious digest – live from Montreal!
Jun 12th
Bonjour mes amis!
Je suis dans un petit cafe en Montreal, Quebec. Non, c’est un grande cafe. Tres grande est TRES belle. La service est bon, est mon cafe, oooh mon cafe… c’est magnifique. Ce la ma premier solo voyage en “French Canada”. Ma Français est pauvre… regardez vous?
If you speak fluent French, I’m sure that sounded just atrocious, non? The last time I had to actually use the language was in France and even then, it was mostly Franglish. I opted out of French class after grade 10 in favour of drama and computer science.
Consequentially, I’m able to lie my way out of sticky situations undetected with relative ease and code in a multitude of obsolete programming languages — but I can’t communicate in both of my country’s official languages without sounding like a total couch tard.
As you can see, my sense of humour hasn’t matured all that much since Grade 9 french class.
I remember getting a detention after my teacher asked a yawning student “Est tu Fatigue?” and I burst out laughing with “HAHAHA – FATTY-GAY! It sounds like you just asked him if he’s FAT AND GAY!”
My parents must have been so proud…
Anyways, here I am in Montreal – just for the day – working. My first legit business trip! I flew in this morning and I fly out tonight. I felt all grown up and profesh riding a plane with makeup on in my bizznass threads next to the fanny-pack toting tourist moms (*cough* Annetski!) and sleepy Lulu clad university clan that I used to be a part of…
Maybe next time, I’ll go all out and rock some Gaga style airline attire…
… or perhaps not.
Anyhoo, a few hours to kill = MAD BLOGGAGE TIME for this kid! I’m tempted to explore the city a little bit, but exploration usually (nay, ALWAYS) leads to shopping and my bank account has been hit hard enough by the city of Toronto this week (scroll down for more on that sitch).
Here’s my not-so-weekly digest of awesomeness and hilarity for June the 12th…
A whole lot of awesome going on these past couple of weeks – and a fair bit of hilarity too… if you consider multiple parking infractions and epic kitchen fails hilarious.
Normally I don’t, but since life can only be one of two things (awesome or hilarious) and said incidents don’t fall into the former category, they must be hilarious… right?
Serenity now… serenity now…
- AWESOME: Starting my new job and realizing that actually working in a newsroom is about a trillion times more fun than pretending to work in a newsroom at J-school – especially when you’re focused exclusively on city news in a bomb ass city like Toronto. No wars, no earthquakes, no foreign politics – just straight up, good ol’ pedestrian fatalities, jewelry store serial robberies and… black bear attacks?
Seriously though, I am absolutely loving my summer job at The Star. Here I am signing my contract -awww…
(photo credit: the fantabulous iPhone of Mr. Roger Gillespie)
- HILARIOUS: A scheduling snafu that messed up my entire week. I happened to jot down my work schedule completely wrong and then entered it into my Google calendar completely wrong and then scheduled my social life and other work around this completely wrong schedule and thennnnnn showed up at work Tuesday morning at 8:00 am like “HI! Oh… I don’t work? Oh, that’s right, I AM an idiot...”
- AWESOME: Getting to witness Ashley Tisdale shoot a scene from an upcoming High School musical spinoff about Sharpay or something…
Pink. Blonde. Disney. Loves it.
- HILARIOUS: Breaking my gracious host/best friend/ruler of all things good’s microwave. Sorry boys… you know I suck at kitchen. I should probably just eat out until I get my own place and place-related kitchen things to break.
- AWESOME: Hitting up my cousin’s wedding last weekend. What a lovely day! Gorgeous venue at the University of Waterloo (whoodathunk?), beautiful ceremony, rockin’ reception and such a sweet couple… they are seriously too precious for words. The love was just bouncing around that room the whole time. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house when Britton and Stephanie said their vows…
(totally jacked that picture from my new cousin-in-law’s facebook, btw. Thanks Steph!)
I now have TWO married cousins – one on my mom’s side, one on my dad’s. Both are vegans, coincidentally – which rulllles for me as a vegematarian wedding guest. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been forced to eat lettuce and potatoes at weddings while the other guests stare at me like an anorexic rabbit. The food at this wedding was, in the words of the honourable Ms. Rachel Ray, “YUM-O!” (and never had a face! huzzah!)
Five years ago, you couldn’t have PAID me to write the following sentence, but I actually had fun hanging out with my little brother on Saturday. Now that he’s stopped stealing the remote control from me and razzing my boyfriends on the telephone, he’s actuall ya pretty cool kid. Sheet… not even a kid anymore I guess. 21! Time… how she flies…
Here are a few photos of us with our dates (SDubz and Laura) on Satty.
Stop making that duckface…
w/ Frikshun…
The O’Nizzles… (um, we’d had some wine…)
- HILARIOUS : Having my car towed away 15 minutes before I was supposed to be at work yesterday. That was AWESOME (If I had purchased the sarcasm mark, I would have put it riiiight here.)
I’m not going to go into a detailed history of my car troubles in this city because I’ve blogged extensively about this issue in the past. I will simply note that I am a F*CKING IDIOT for failing to read the sign and getting myself towed again. Fool me once, shame on you – Fool me twice, shame on WU!
- AWESOME: Covering Strut For a Cure in Toronto.
Not only did I get to party with Toronto’s most fashionable, shake the hand of Miss Jeanne Beker and watch Dragonette perform live (so. fierce.), I got to meet and interview THE Coco Rocha. I know. I still can’t believe it myself.
Check out my interview with coco and blogpost about the event for vitaminwater canada if you so desire.
BANANAHAMMOCK: I don’t know if this is awesome or hilarious… perhaps both. Either way, it’s definitely blawgworthy. Behold, my old friend Mr. H. rolling his shorts up into sexy euro-trunks at the beach. Posing in a creep-lean when families with small children walked by made this all the more golden.
AWESOME: The premier of The Hard Times of RJ Berger was DEFINITELY awesome and hilarious. Some people accused it of being a bit crass , but I loved it nonetheless. It was clever, cute, and very very funny. TWO PIGTAILS AND A PONYTAIL UP!
C’est tout for now!
I’ve got to run off now to do what I’m here to do…
Au Revoir, baurevoirs…
Laurên EauNizzle
Blue Screen of Death Belt Buckle – Would you Rock it?
Apr 9th
So? Would you? Let me know in the comments.
I stumbled upon this little gem (fifteen dollah hollah!) a few weeks ago while doing some research for a feature article about “the big business of nerd merch” for my business reporting class.
Due to the sheer volume of pure unbridled awesomeness available for purchase (and the fact that I interviewed about 8 different equally interesting superhumans) it turned into one Mastiff of a story.
I call it a Mastiff, of course, because it is gargantuan, sloppy and unusual, but delightfully fun to spend time with!
It’s not actually that huge – and after my professor takes care of some minor grooming, it won’t be sloppy anymore either, but I needed a clever way of throwing in a shoutout to Hercules, the world’s biggest dog.
Imagine owning a dog that weighs 282 pounds. I’m imagining it right now, and it’s BLOWING MY MIND!!!
In other blogworthiness…
- The Elle Canada Gala & New Label Competition is taking place the day before I move out of my place in London, and I’m so going anyways.
I wonder if I can get a press pass. Do “recently graduated journalism students with blogs” qualify as press? *sigh*
I need to get a legit journo-job. Fast.
-This crackhead freak talented Amy Winehouse lover is taking “fan art” to a whole new level (and inspiring me to take up the art of Lego Busting. Imagine how good say, Andy Samberg, would look in 8bit?):
(via Geekologie)
- And speaking of 8bit, If you haven’t seen Patrick Jean’s ‘Pixels’ yet, you need to watch it. Right now. I’ll wait.
That’s it for today, folks – I need to go study for my Media Theory Criticism Exam. I will be a happy girl when Monday is over, but until then… you can find me in the library sucking Chomsky and Habermas into my brain through my eyeballs.
Maybe I will sketch a picture to illustrate that later when it’s time for another procrastination break.
Love,
Lego’Nizzle.
OH! before it slips my mind – If you’re in London tonight and looking for something to do, come check out the rejected spring show at Moon Over Marin on Dundas. I’ll be walking for Dilly Daisy. Should be a good time
Proud to be stupid.
Jan 24th
Sometimes, an advertising campaign comes along that is so clever and so well executed, that I just can’t get it out of my head. Who am I kidding, “sometimes” – this happens like, every week… ’tis my cross to bear for being an Ad blog junkie, I suppose.
Anyhoo, one of my favourite brands (in terms of creative marketing, that is – I’m not a huge fan of their overpriced Guido threads), has gone and done WOWED me again with a campaign so smart, it’s downright stupid.
Greatest line = “It’s not smart to take risks – it’s stupid. Stupid knows there are worse things than failure. like not even trying.” Big ups for the typographic love!
Reviews in the Ad world have been mixed, but in this blogging-university-student-nobody’s opinion, Diesel’s silly celebration of stupidity is simply superb! (#alliterationaddictsanonymous)
The Italian clothing company has been known to push the envelope in the past. Anybody remember their fabulously controversial 2007 ‘Global Warming Ready‘ campaign?
Some are calling the ‘Stupid’ campaign controversial as well, but I don’t see how it could be by any stretch. It’s a little hypersexual maybe, but you’d think that people would be used to soft core smut in the fashion world by now. I love the concept, the design, and the brilllllliant execution of this entire campaign. It’s cute and quirky; absent of those notorious ‘bored supermodel pouting about how much it sucks to get paid thousands of dollars to fly around the world and stand around getting your photo taken in gorgeous clothing’ shots. The ads are still rife with Brazillian-bombshell types, of course – they just happen to be having fun in these photos, instead of nonchalantly glancing around like “is it time for a cocaine coffee break yet”?
Kudos to Anomoly UK for a solid job well done. Regardez… mon favorites:
Check out all of the print ads @ YVY – it’s worth the 4 minutes of your time, trust.
I think that I’m drawn towards these ads because they sort of speak to this prevailing ideology that seems to surround the creative industry as a whole. I read a great little editorial in my campus newspaper the other day that laid out the problem pretty well – this line, in particular, inspired me to let out a “HOLLAH!” mid work-out that made the kid on the treadmill beside me look over like “um, wtf Blondie?” ->
It’s part of a sad trend in the design world where creative work is seen as both easy and worthless.”
HOLLAH 2.0!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked to “whip together a simple website” for a friend or to “write up a quick article” for an employer in a matter of hours. It seems as if people outside the creative industries view the work we do as fluffity fun. And it IS fun, sure – I can guarantee that every creative director, copy writer, graphic artist, photographer and editor had a blast creating that Diesel campaign.
I can also guarantee that they worked many a 16-hour day, lost sleep over the pressure of seemingly impossible deadlines and client expectations, and surrendered thousands of great ideas to the cutting room floor. It’s no easier a task to kill your babies than it is to conceive them, believe me.
The world that I’ve been pouring myself into over the past year since I started J-School seems to really hold fast to that “smart is right, stupid is wrong” notion that Diesel not-so-discreetly pokes fun at.
I’ve learned that there’s room for creativity in the news industry – as long as it’s tightly contained within a specific set of boundaries laid out by the higher-ups (many of whom just happen to be UBER SMART close minded dinosaurs that have steered the industry towards financial ruin um… gentlemen.
This is not what I expected when I decided to pursue a masters degree in journalism, but I’m nonetheless glad that I did come to J-School and wouldn’t change that decision for the world. The skills I’m taking away from this program are invaluable, and maybe I did need to smarten up my stupidity just a touch – but I’ll never let them beat it out of me completely.
If ’stupid’ means getting a B on an assignment because I happen to throw an offbeat (but delightfully poignant) limerick into the middle of a feature story that doesn’t follow CP Guidelines, so be it.
My stupid ideas have taken me a lot further this year than I ever thought was possible.
I’m not a robot (yet) and I don’t think that journalists should be. I may never work for The Globe and Mail, but gaaaahdangit, I’m going to have FUN wherever I am and I’m going to make the media, my way.
Maybe I’ll end up at an advertising agency or doing public relations or blogging for an iconic music television station (fingers crossed!) – with any luck, I’ll be hosting my own daily siamese-cat-themed talk show on the WB next year (Tyra’s slot is up for grabs, righ’?) – but I could just as well end up in a newsroom upon graduation, working under a director who GETS IT and creating content that makes people take notice – because you can’t deliver a message unless you grab the audience’s attention first.
As “stupid” as creative work may seem to those in other fields, and as “stupid” as a lot of my ideas may seem to those in my current field (okay, I admit that my story pitch about chasing hookers in East London with a microphone was a little bit on the stupid side), I’d rather do something stupid than something safe.
My name is Lauren O’Neil, and I’m proud to be 100% stark raving stupid – because smart may have the brains…
Nizzzzle, OUT!
<3
(via brandflakesforbreakfast)
