This is how I take notes, albeit, there's usually more funny looking faces.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Behind the Scenes
I have a love-hate relationship with photo shoots--there's lots and lots of waiting, and shoots often take a whole day to shoot what appears of momentary and little effort. I guess it's that appearance of ease that really shows how epic a good photographer is.
Lots of light testing during the FORMzine shoot and playing with different techniques; I'm in the yellow tank top and green shorts, adjusting light stands and hiding under desks, being a miscreant. For more extra pics by Winnie Jeng, click here; I'll update with the real shoot once post-processing is done.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Some Shameless Plugging
In his first post-Olympic performance, Johnny Weir is skating June 27th at Crème de la Crème with special guest Alissa Czisny and fashion host Jon Jordan. Y'all should go. =)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Prepared
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| ||||
I spent much of high school tutoring in various subjects and test prep. Oh, the memories......
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Look at Me, Look at Me
Dr. Jim Taylor writes:
American popular culture exacerbates our self-esteem problem by sending messages to children that they can find success, wealth, and celebrity without any capabilities, effort, or time ("By gosh, I deserve it right now just for being me").From "America's Self-Esteem Problem."
Saturday, June 12, 2010
3G Fashion
Today, more than ever, it's evident that almost everything around is in a state of flux--technological innovations are coming faster than ever, increasingly avant-garde forms of art are being passed around and probably most significant of all, the way we communicate is transforming: talk, Tweet, type, text, Facebook, sign, blog, Yelp, comment, Skype, IM... the list is almost endless. It's mindboggling.
The medium of communication I'm particularly knowledgeable in is the magazine; I spent more or less all most of my freshman year at the University of Michigan laboring under every division of SHEImagazine, the campus fashion & pop culture publication, culling the knowledge of my classmates and learning how the fashion/media biz works in the Two Hands. It's been quite educational, in a very underfunded, high-aspiring, time-sucking, nerve-wracking and giddy experience (<-- roundabout plug for recruitment & more funding).
I got so involved, I was anointed Marketing Director after a semester. And when some of my friends decided to expand from a collegiate base to the funky, wonky, awesome world of Ann Arbor and start up FORMzine, an online magazine, I decided to tag along and contribute, too.
Being so involved with magazines (to the detriment of the parents, yes), every time I go online or come across a magazine, I'm analyzing and admiring and critiquing. With fashion magazines, especially, there's an evolution that's in progress, which is really, really... cool. (Yes, my thesaurus of a mind decided on "cool").
Let's go take a super-fast, super-short look at the different generations of the modern fashion magazine:
1G} The Print Magazine
Over the last 140 years or so, the fashion magazine has changed quite a while, but the defining feature is that it is a print magazine by a publishing house, with a staff and editors coming up with and executing ideas to bring a stylized view of fashion to the masses. The most input readers get is their dollar--choosing which magazines to purchase--and the occasional publication of a letter to the editor, but the main point is that the magazine is another broadcasting* medium: the transmission of a message to a wide audience.
*Broadcasting is generally applied to television and radio, but in my opinion, the basic definition is applicable to print publishing. I believe in the power of print!
2G} The Online Magazine (1.0)
The Net really came of age in the late '90s, with the masses taking to the new medium in the last fifteen years. With basically infinite space available, fashion publications really found their niche in acting as archives and updating with occasional plugs of "Hey, we've got a new issue out; here's what the cover looks like, please subscribe!!"
Obviously, as you can see by the Teen Vogue screenshot, some sites aren't really subtle at about wanting online visitors to subscribe to the Print Magazine--you've got to close that pop-up before you can start clicking on any of that content-y goodness behind subscription invitation.
The Online Magazine 1.0 is more of a companion to the Print Magazine, providing coverage that would be too expensive to print, giving previews of content included in the magazine, providing a larger forum for reader commentary, and more recently, the introduction of exclusive content, such as editor blogs or behind-the-scenes videos. What it really, really wants, though is for you to still buy the Print Magazine.
For about the last ten years, the online magazine has been basically that--the magazine, put online. Content still run by editors and staff, but much of it much more casual and colloquial in style. And readers can now comment!
3G} The Digital Magazine (Or, The Online Magazine 2.0)
And now, we get to the content that I've been giddy about--the 3G Modern Fashion Magazine! First things first--the 3G MFM is NOT the downloadable, iPad version of <insert favorite magazine>. As one iPad reviewer said of Interview's app, "The App is basically a PDF file/style of a normal print issue."
The awesome-ness of the Internet has not developed so publishers can basically scan a print magazine and pawn off the PDF to the public as revolutionary and mind-blowing; we have bloggers doing the scanning and distributing the contents for free (and illegally) already.
Recently, though, I came across FIASCO Magazine. This may be over-excited on my part, but I find founder & editor-in-chief Vincent Nord's new publication really ushering in the Digital Magazine, or what I like to call the Online Magazine 2.0.
There is no print issue yet, but they're working on it, and in the mean time, the ENTIRE issue (there's only one so far, but it's AWESOME) is available for browsing and download online. But that's only partly why it's awesome, and not what defines it as the third-generational modern fashion magazine.
What makes FIASCO the real Digital Magazine is its interaction with the Internet--right on its front page, there's a call for submissions from readers and visitors. Taking a page from the curating nature of many blogs, not everything submitted is selected or published, but there is content from whom they like to call "young talent" as well as "established creatives." It's up to readers to provide a large portion of the content, with the editorial staff just sifting through selecting what goes in instead of creating it themselves, a new dependency and empowerment of the audience.
There are requirements, of course, so that submissions are at a certain professional-level of quality and fit a selected theme, but it is no requirement that the submitter him/herself be a professional; Google many of the names under the credits of FIASCO and you will not find links to agencies and previously published editorials.
And that's pretty cool.
The medium of communication I'm particularly knowledgeable in is the magazine; I spent more or less all most of my freshman year at the University of Michigan laboring under every division of SHEImagazine, the campus fashion & pop culture publication, culling the knowledge of my classmates and learning how the fashion/media biz works in the Two Hands. It's been quite educational, in a very underfunded, high-aspiring, time-sucking, nerve-wracking and giddy experience (<-- roundabout plug for recruitment & more funding).
The two issues this year I worked on as part of SHEI. Click on each image to flip through the issue!
I got so involved, I was anointed Marketing Director after a semester. And when some of my friends decided to expand from a collegiate base to the funky, wonky, awesome world of Ann Arbor and start up FORMzine, an online magazine, I decided to tag along and contribute, too.
Being so involved with magazines (to the detriment of the parents, yes), every time I go online or come across a magazine, I'm analyzing and admiring and critiquing. With fashion magazines, especially, there's an evolution that's in progress, which is really, really... cool. (Yes, my thesaurus of a mind decided on "cool").
Let's go take a super-fast, super-short look at the different generations of the modern fashion magazine:
1G} The Print Magazine
Over the last 140 years or so, the fashion magazine has changed quite a while, but the defining feature is that it is a print magazine by a publishing house, with a staff and editors coming up with and executing ideas to bring a stylized view of fashion to the masses. The most input readers get is their dollar--choosing which magazines to purchase--and the occasional publication of a letter to the editor, but the main point is that the magazine is another broadcasting* medium: the transmission of a message to a wide audience.
*Broadcasting is generally applied to television and radio, but in my opinion, the basic definition is applicable to print publishing. I believe in the power of print!
2G} The Online Magazine (1.0)
The Net really came of age in the late '90s, with the masses taking to the new medium in the last fifteen years. With basically infinite space available, fashion publications really found their niche in acting as archives and updating with occasional plugs of "Hey, we've got a new issue out; here's what the cover looks like, please subscribe!!"
Obviously, as you can see by the Teen Vogue screenshot, some sites aren't really subtle at about wanting online visitors to subscribe to the Print Magazine--you've got to close that pop-up before you can start clicking on any of that content-y goodness behind subscription invitation.
The Online Magazine 1.0 is more of a companion to the Print Magazine, providing coverage that would be too expensive to print, giving previews of content included in the magazine, providing a larger forum for reader commentary, and more recently, the introduction of exclusive content, such as editor blogs or behind-the-scenes videos. What it really, really wants, though is for you to still buy the Print Magazine.
Screenshot of Style.Com. Browse through fashion shows by season, show, year, designer... it goes on.
3G} The Digital Magazine (Or, The Online Magazine 2.0)
And now, we get to the content that I've been giddy about--the 3G Modern Fashion Magazine! First things first--the 3G MFM is NOT the downloadable, iPad version of <insert favorite magazine>. As one iPad reviewer said of Interview's app, "The App is basically a PDF file/style of a normal print issue."
The awesome-ness of the Internet has not developed so publishers can basically scan a print magazine and pawn off the PDF to the public as revolutionary and mind-blowing; we have bloggers doing the scanning and distributing the contents for free (and illegally) already.
Recently, though, I came across FIASCO Magazine. This may be over-excited on my part, but I find founder & editor-in-chief Vincent Nord's new publication really ushering in the Digital Magazine, or what I like to call the Online Magazine 2.0.
There is no print issue yet, but they're working on it, and in the mean time, the ENTIRE issue (there's only one so far, but it's AWESOME) is available for browsing and download online. But that's only partly why it's awesome, and not what defines it as the third-generational modern fashion magazine.
Screenshot of the table of contents. So snazzy!
What makes FIASCO the real Digital Magazine is its interaction with the Internet--right on its front page, there's a call for submissions from readers and visitors. Taking a page from the curating nature of many blogs, not everything submitted is selected or published, but there is content from whom they like to call "young talent" as well as "established creatives." It's up to readers to provide a large portion of the content, with the editorial staff just sifting through selecting what goes in instead of creating it themselves, a new dependency and empowerment of the audience.
There are requirements, of course, so that submissions are at a certain professional-level of quality and fit a selected theme, but it is no requirement that the submitter him/herself be a professional; Google many of the names under the credits of FIASCO and you will not find links to agencies and previously published editorials.
And that's pretty cool.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Lacking Imagination
This article by Phil Perrier made me laugh; currently working on a case study of FIASCO Magazine (if you love fashion + photography + free content, go read it), but here are two snippets of "If You Don't Like TV, You're a Bad Person" to titillate some neurons:
(On the second excerpt, after twelve years of Chinese school, getting my native culture drummed into my head & missing the network broadcast morning cartoons every Saturday, I have no idea where Perrier got that 'old Chinese proverb.' It must be an American thing, to attribute every random, somewhat educational adage to an 'old Chinese proverb.')
...who needs TV? I mean, when Neil Armstrong stepped off the ladder onto the moon, a charcoal etching was good for me. Who needs to see Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot or Kobe Bryant hitting a three pointer at the buzzer, when a friend can describe it to you? "Yeah, and then this dumpy guy in a suit comes outa' nowhere and shoots Oswald!" Isn't that satisfying?
...In truth, if you don't like TV, you may just lack imagination. Which brings to mind an old Chinese proverb in which a young man moves to a new village and he visits an old wise man (this was when old people were respected for their knowledge and not just medicated and sent to a "home." Weird, huh?) and asks, "Old wise man, what are the people like in this village?" And the old wise man says, "What were the people like in the village you just came from?" And the young guy says, "They were petty and spiteful and dishonest." And the old man said, "The people are the same here." Meaning, that we see what we expect to see. Or, possibly that the old man and the young man both lived in a village fulls of dicks. But I'd rather go with that first thing.In a way, TV makes me sad that people don't invest time the same way they did before the Internet to reading and becoming engrossed in words that can show you something amazing without presenting a picture. But my eyeballs do appreciate TV giving me other people's visual constructions, because it widens my perspective.
(On the second excerpt, after twelve years of Chinese school, getting my native culture drummed into my head & missing the network broadcast morning cartoons every Saturday, I have no idea where Perrier got that 'old Chinese proverb.' It must be an American thing, to attribute every random, somewhat educational adage to an 'old Chinese proverb.')
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Photo Ops
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Slim Fast & Secret Fat
When I think of Slim Fast, I always think back to my fifth grade teacher Mrs. M, who was a rather tall, large woman of impressive stature and intimidating nature; she was a bit like a human-sized bull dog with a propensity for barking out advice and demanding discipline (a bit similar to this lady, but slightly less dominatrix/Nazi-like), and part of her own discipline was downing many a can of Slim Fast everyday (my third-grade teacher Mr. L had a similar addiction to a canned beverage, but he didn't need to lose weight; he drank Coca Cola during the day to stave off cravings for the cocaine he had to wait until school let out to snort).
Coming across these Slim Fast wedding cake ads on Fashion Foie Gras, I was immediately immersed in a nostalgia for those long-gone elementary school days of simple humor:
Coming across these Slim Fast wedding cake ads on Fashion Foie Gras, I was immediately immersed in a nostalgia for those long-gone elementary school days of simple humor:
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