Designing a Personal Style With Help From Belisi

Fashion guy Peter Belisi has a healthy respect for the traditions of Old World fashion but he also had a flair for adapting those styles to today's hip urban trends. One thing that I have noticed about the stuff that Belisi sends out into the World is that he always chooses great materials and patterns for his products, whether its the leather used for a handbag or the silk used for a tie, his accessories are just good quality.

In a shocking coincidence, the top post in Belisi's blog is about the shaved head look, and I just shaved my head. And no, I don't think that it hides the fact that I am balding. Here is something I didn't know until I read his blog, bald guys are using products. All I use is sunscreen.

My Spanish Lessons

I really regret that I am forgetting most of my Spanish vocabulary. I took a short course almost three years ago. Most of the students were retired couples that were planning on taking long vacations in Spanish speaking countries.

I only remember the funny parts. Our Argentina born teacher warned the class that it would not be considered commenting on the weather to say the following:

Yo Soy Muy Caliente

After I stuck that term in my google toolbar to check the spelling...I did an image search...I am scarred for life...but in a good way. Time to change the filter back.

Ethical Banking

I spent a couple of years working for a Fair Trade Coffee roastery and it is there that I picked up a lot of ideas about business ethics. There is a key group of consumers, especially in Western Europe and North America, who try to make responsible choices that help rather than hurt society and the environment.

Most of those choices have to do with consumer goods, but increasingly the ethical priority is being extended to investments and even financial services. The company that I was working for was a worker co-op. I am still indirectly involved as an investor.

Co-operativeBank.co.uk offers people the chance to have an ethical bank account. I would say that the question of ethics is most important for a savings account because when you have a large balance in an account a bank is making investments with that money. Some banks could be involved in awful things like blood diamonds.

Shakira Has Ten Grammy's

These are not her awards. In fact it is not even her studio. I am just using the MAGIC of MS Paint to illustrate how cluttered things can be when you don't have an awards case. I was reading a story recently about the artist who makes the handblown statuettes for a Canadian music awards show. She puts the flawed ones out in her garden like gnomes. Grammys must make great paperweights.

Crystal Chandeliers

I moved from Canada to Europe in recent years and one of the things that really struck me was how opulent fittings and furniture are in people's homes. As an outsider the chances to step into someones home have been relatively infrequent, but when we have the chance to step into that world, it is always amazing. The chandeliers are especially beautiful.

The D'Legne Chandelier pictured here can be ordered direct from the manufacturer, they are not a retail item. As a man of above average height, I have some painful memories of poorly located cheap lighting fixtures. If you dream of having something timelessly beautiful like this for your home, make sure you have sufficiently high ceilings first. I love the high ceilings here.

The Difficulty in Writing About Love

Many of Shakira's songs and many of the pop songs in general are written about love. Love is a very personal thing. As undeniably pleasant as sex may be, I think that much of the time it is an expression of love. Jewelry is also an expression of love. Expressing love in the form of words, whether they are written, spoken or sung, is a very hard thing to do. It is such a difficult task that I am always respectful and generous even to people who fail to accomplish their objectives musically.

Gangta Rap, Death Metal, Punk, these genres of music are filled with wek minded people who lack the confidence to write a heartfelt love song.

Hot Random Facts

The human mind is constantly trying to create order out of the various sensory stimuli that are constantly arriving. I think trivia is a relaxing form of entertainment because the Random Facts like the ones you can get at HotFact.com are little encapsulated bits of information. You can just say Hmmm, or Oh yeah, or Wow and then move on to the next one without trying to fit them into a bigger reality.

Unfortunately, my brain doesn't work the same as most brains. I can see a randomized list of facts and my brain tries to find a logical connection between them.

I like the facts, and I like the fact that there is a rating system for them.

The total weight of plasticine used to make the movie Chicken Run was impressive. I appreciate the artists. I can't imagine sitting there watching a 2,380 kg lump of clay for 90 minutes, that would be almost as bad as watching Gigli.

Fan Generated Videos

I did not know that Shakira was at the forefront of the phenomenon of getting fans to make videos for record company sponsored contests. I guess the Bajillion Hips Don't Lie videos should have clued me in.

Anyway, Shakira and the viral aspects of Hips gets a lot of attention in this great article about the trend.

I have a strict rule of thumb that a trend is no longer cool when the Bare Naked Ladies take part in it. Here is a thing they had their fans do. I will warn you that there is brief nudity that is pretty much made PG by using sheets of paper with stuff written on it. The reasonable cute young fan is doing her best to spoil the charming irony of the bad's name.



shakirabare naked ladies

Eric Schiffer: Action Hero

Celebrity is not the same commodity that it used to be. People like lonelygirl15 can become famous for pretending to be a regular person on YouTube. People like Paris Hilton can be famous for being rich and sleazy and being recorded on video having sex.

A talented, handsome, hard working actor like Eric Schiffer has a tough job if he wants to stand out despite the fickleness of fame.

The movie project that he is set to start work on might be just the thing to cast some of that lime colored light on this dude. “Death Wish Returns”. Filming of “Death Wish Returns” will begin in December 2007 in Scotland and the release date is expected for sometime in 2008.

Somethin Funny

Directions for funnyness: Start both videos. Pause to let them fully load. Turn the sound down on the left video. Play them both simultaneously. Repeat as necessary.

Online Investment Strategies

Short term, moderately risky investments in things like global futures are not part of my investment strategy. Actually, my investment strategy is non-existent.

Day trading is for people with more nerve than me. I had thought that it was for people with more money, but Global Futures Exchange & Trading Co., Inc. can apparently help you start out with only $250.

They also ask that I put this disclaimer in my post:

"There is risk of loss trading Futures, options and forex"

Do your homework about forex before you invest. The term is short for Foreign Exchange. I deal with currencies from several different countries just in my everyday life. I used to work for a coffee roastery and I made $70,000 purchases in USD that were to be resold after roasting in CAD. Shifts in the exchange rate could dramatically affect out profit margin.

Actress Shakira

I often forget that Shakira was a somewhat successful child actress. Her IMDb page is not very impressive, but it certainly better than some of the nobodies who enter their own credits.

The trivia section has a few fresh nuggets. I don't remember seeing Shakira's IQ listed anywhere else. It is 140.

She has a cousin who is a beauty queen. Here is a big picture of Valerie Dominguez Tarud

Look at Thewhole9.com

I have talked about the advantages of Niche dating sites before. Now I have found one that prefers to be called a hip, upscale boutique dating site.

Thewhole9.com is geared towards urbane artist types who live in places that have scenes. These cities of import include NY, LA and SF. I like the compartmentalizing of the site; users are encouraged to create something of themselves in People, Profile and Places.

I thing the Places part of the site is ingenious, you can tell a lot about a potential friend or partner from where they choose to hang out. And if you are a transplant from one scene to another, you can browse the site and figure out where YOUR PEOPLE like to spend time.

The Profiles section allows a member to display work or solicit jobs, that kind of thing.

What A Coincidence...

I mentioned Alanis Morissette the other day and now she goes viral on YouTube with a funny cover of My Humps.

I think a sense of humor might be something else that she has in common with Shakira. Shakira has not been very inclined to work humor into her product. I think the trouble that pretty girls have with humor is that people will laugh insincerely at their efforts thus preventing them from figuring out what is actually funny.

Lingerie that I Like

I have seen a surprising number of Lingerie websites given the fact that I am a man who doesn't tend to shop for such things. AngelBodyWear.com has a collection that is way more tasteful than some sites that I have visited, but still very sexy.

I am not psychic about fashion by any means, but predict that wearing bustiers as tops will be a recurring trend. This site has some items that would work well in this way.

I can make one more prediction. This site has sexy halloween costumes and two of them are for PIRATES. This halloween will be remembered as the one with too many pirates. That would be OK if they were all sexy pirates.

Shakira Wanted to be a Scientist

It's true. Shakira did have a childhood ambition to be a scientist. She also wanted to be a writer and a dancer.

One out of three ain't bad.

The woman who played Blossom on television in the early 90's has a PhD in Neuro Science.

A Social Site For Scientific Minds

I have a degree in a science that I do not apply. The body of knowledge that I accumulated during my years at university is used for the purposes of sounding smart. A social networking site that is geared towards people with an interest in science sounds like a perfect place for me. Usually I just go to regular forums and try to confuse people with complex ideas. This is an unhealthy anti-social behavior and I am trying to stop.

One of my fields of expertise is animal behavior. Actually I am not an expert, I only took one course. I think I could go on a forum and role play that I am an expert. Sci-edge.me.com just launched, so I could achieve tenure pretty easily...awesome.

Alanis Morissette ???

I was reading through the uncited Wikipedia hodgepodge of Shakira stuff and I saw that Shakira's fledgeling pop music career being compared to Alanis Morissette. I grew up in Canada and I am quite familiar with Alanis Morissette.

I think the basis for comparison is that they both did two albums in their late childhood that were not very successful and then broke through with very personal singer songwriter type stuff.

There really isn't much else to compare. Oh yeah, they both play guitar and harmonica. Alanis' harmonica technique is basically breathing in and out with the thing in her mouth.

Optimizing For Search Engines

Bear with me while I talk about search engine optimization. If you arrived at this site because you are looking for Shakira shaking her posterior, I have that somewhere, check the archives. The fact that I rank high on search engines for Shakira shaking her posterior would be quite an accomplishment...that is IF anybody still said posterior anymore, or more importantly typed it into a search query.

ETrafficJams.com is a company that can help your site rank high for searches that actually matter. After an initial setup fee, clients only pay them based on results , specifically you pay according to how many top 10 organic rankings they get for you in Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Shakira YouTube Videos Become Endangered Species

This blog post is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Viacom International, Inc.

Not really, I have generally chosen to use videos which are fair use, fan edited works. I really should go back through my archives and see if I have a few posts that feature removed videos.

I am actually begrudgingly in favor of musicians and their publishing companies protecting their product. In an unrelated story, Borat is now out on DVD-R, High Five!!!