VV Brown - Shark in the Water. My new favorite song.

dannyha:

Alex Wang’s Fall 2010 campaign video.

Computer studies of ocean floors around the world, particularly the area known as The Bermuda Triangle, reveal evidence of massive methane explosions in the past. For years, believers in the paranormal, aliens, and other outlandish theories pointed to the the disappearance of ships and aircraft as an indicator of mysterious forces at work in the “Devil’s triangle.” Scientists have finally pointed the rest of us to a more plausible cause.

The presence of methane hydrates indicates enormous eruptions of methane bubbles that would swamp a ship, and projected high into the air- take out flying airplanes, as well. Any ships caught within the methane mega-bubble immediately lose all buoyancy and sink to the bottom of the ocean. If the bubbles are big enough and possess a high enough density they can also knock aircraft out of the sky with little or no warning. Aircraft falling victim to these methane bubbles will lose their engines-perhaps igniting the methane surrounding them-and immediately lose their lift as well, ending their flights by diving into the ocean and swiftly plummeting.

Can a person yawn and barf at the same time if that person is me and I’m not tired or nauseous, just so sick of seeing this over and over and over and over and over and over again? (All of those links will take you to the amazing ladies of Threadbared, who are always on the ball when it comes to fashion’s enduring predilection for using people of color as background and/or props.)

And 2) Doesn’t this creepily remind of you when Gwen Stefani was in her Harajuku Girls phase, after she decided to get over Indian culture and appropriate Japanese street culture instead?

During her Harajuku phase, Gwen physically outfitted herself with four Japanese women, who were, of course, a good two feet shorter than her (making the visual image of a very familiar Orientalist narrative of domination and subordination all but undeniable,) and were all dressed the exact same in contrast to Stefani’s wildly differentiated and individualized outfit (to visually reinforce the same tired trope of the simultaneous conformity and weirdness of Japanese culture, even though Ms. Stefani was the one who picked their outfits!) For more than a year, Gwen paraded herself around in public with these four Japanese women serving as the background to her fashion statement, with virtually no public outcry or criticism, except for the incandescent and brave Margaret Cho. How much more obvious can objectification look? Just look at this photo. Gwen’s Harajuku girls are meant to look like objects, while Gwen stands out as the clear subject. She gets to be an actual person who can articulate and exert her personality, which is defined against the backdrop of undifferentiated small, Asian, female bodies. Dior’s Shanghai Dreamers campaign is no different.

Going back through some of the wonderful archives over at Threadbared under the category of ‘Fashioning Race,’ I revisited Mimi’s essay, “Background Color, Redux II,” where she quotes from art historian James Smalls’ essay, “Slavery is a Woman,”:

A recognized example of the standard representation of blacks in European art is provided by Jean-Marc Nattier’s 1733 Mademoiselle de Clermont at Her Bath Attended by Slaves. (Fig. 2) There, black women are shown in their expected roles as servants and exoticized complements to the white mistress. […] The portrait constitutes a visual record of white woman’s construction and affirmation of self through the racial and cultural Other. […] The black woman’s headwrap and partial nudity are signs that mark her as different from white womanhood. As well, they constitute visible markers of white woman’s command over black woman’s labor.

In the case of Dior’s ‘Shanghai Dreamers,’ the conformity and the old-fashioned appearance of the rows and rows of repeated Chinese faces and bodies only serve to constitute a visual record of the Western world’s construction and affirmation of self through the racial and cultural other. If Chinese people from a certain era (and to be quite uncharitable, I don’t believe Christian Dior knows what era of Chinese photography and life he is referencing when he says, “My inspiration came from a certain Chinese style of group photography but these ceremonial photographs marks a departure from a certain historical period and herald the future,”) represent how oppressive Chinese society is and how indistinguishable Chinese people are, then it must mean that European and American societies are so free and liberated and individualized!

I’m so tired of hearing about how scary and conformist China used to be (and might I mention, always hearing about it from people who AREN’T ACTUALLY CHINESE AND DIDN’T LIVE THROUGH SAID SCARY TIMES.) Can someone, for once, actually ask a Chinese person who lived through the scary sixties and seventies what it was like and how they see themselves? To all future fashion designers and artists who want to capitalize on the current cultural fascination with China (aka Yellow Peril Redux), I can give you my mom and my dad and my entire extended family’s phone numbers, and Mister Christian Dior (and Karl Lagerfield and the folks over at Chanel who were behind that awful video about Shanghai,) you can call them up and ask them what it felt like to live through the Cultural Revolution in China. Because I promise you, they won’t mince words about how difficult of a time it was to live through, they won’t forget to mention all of the loved ones that disappeared or died or were imprisoned or went crazy, but I don’t think for a moment that my mom or my dad or my aunts or my uncles would recognize themselves in your stupid fucking photos.

And on the subject of conformity and democracy, we seriously need to talk about our own scary and conformist ideals of beauty and feminity and fashionability, and thank goodness for Natalie for starting the conversation with her posts, “The best argument against the evidence of democracy in fashion is a conversation with a fat woman,”and “Rejecting the notion of the flattering outfit.” And I’m not even going to get into the plenitude of other arenas of oppression and conformity and inequality in American and European societies.

I keep thinking of David Foster Wallace’s speech/essay on why Kafka is funny (you can listen to it here) and the moment when he asks us to take a cliche literally. For example, what does it mean if someone is actually ‘creepy?’ (Hi Gregor Samsa.) What about the uneasy and repugnant relationship of the photos in Dior’s Shanghai Dreamers campaign to the fairly commonly trotted out comment in reference to Asian people, “You all look the same?” Has any Asian person in America been spared of this comment? I certainly haven’t, and neither have my friends and family. If a random dude says that to me in a gas station, is it any less innocent or sinister than if Christian Dior decides to say the very same thing at his Dior storefront on Huaihai Lu in Shanghai?

By the way, I know a lot of people have defended this campaign by pointing out that a Chinese photographer, Quentin Shih, shot these photos, but that argument doesn’t make any sense. Just because there are people of color working in the police force and in the courts, that doesn’t negate and invalidate the structures of racism that exist in the criminal justice system? When Margaret Cho spoke out against Gwen Stefani’s use of her Harajuku girls, one of the girls, Nakasone-Razalan, responded by defending Gwen and her own choice to be part of Gwen’s posse. Well, yes, racism is very complicated, isn’t it? How many white people are okay with the statement, “Every single white person is a vehement and vicious racist?” Find me five and I’ll buy them lunch. Well, the flip side of that argument is also not okay. The fact that these photos were shot by a Chinese photographer does little to change or erase the entire history and tradition and institution of Orientalism and imperialism and racism, which is also why any argument that starts with, “My best friend/fiance/wife/husband/stepbrother/cousin/blah blah is [insert X race/ethnicity] so I’m definitely not racist, and he/she doesn’t find it racist either!” is so profoundly pitiful.

I’m not presuming to know anything about the photographer for Shanghai Dreamers, but let me tell you that some of the saddest moments I’ve experienced were ones when I or someone I know tried to express frustration or anger at an instance of bigotry/racism/sexism/homophobia etc and a fellow woman/person of color/gay person/etc joins the conversation to say, “Actually, I wasn’t offended at all,” which is just as valid as someone saying that they did feel it was racist/sexist/homophobic/whatever, but when there’s someone who doesn’t want to feel like he/she is a racist/sexist/privileged ignoramus, inevitably such a comment leads to a complete discredit of the original spirit of the conversation, and it comforts the person who is terrified of seeing himself/herself as complicit in an unjust world–it allows that person to take a deep sigh of relief and think, “Ah, good. See? This woman, this person of color didn’t find the situation racist or sexist at all. That other woman/person of color was just being overly sensitive. I knew it. I knew I wasn’t a bad person.”

Maybe if we stop worrying about being bad people, we can actually begin to see what’s right in front of us– in this case, another instance of just how little the fashion world wants some of us to be seen.

Read more: http://jezebel.com/5603639/dear-christian-dior-your-orientalist-campaign-is-lame?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jezebel%2Ffull+%28Jezebel%29#ixzz0vepWbBZi

The Warriors are close to landing a player who is turning out to be a cult figure.

Guard Jeremy Lin, a Bay Area native who played at Harvard, is on the verge of signing a two-year deal with the Warriors.

Lin, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound combo guard who was undrafted out of Harvard, played for the Dallas Mavericks summer league and piqued the interest of several teams with his play. But the former Palo Alto High School star is signing with the Warriors, his favorite team growing up.

Lin’s deal is partially guaranteed this year, and the Warriors hold a team option for the second season.

The Warriors need a point guard after trading C.J. Watson to the Chicago Bulls. Lin is going to get his chance to fill that void. The Warriors could still go out and get a veteran point guard. That would allow time for Lin — who has the game of a shooting guard but needs to play point at the pro level — to develop without pressure.

Lin would become the first Asian born in the United States to play in the NBA first since San Jose’s Rex Walters, the current University of San Francisco coach.

Golden State also has guard Monta Ellis and Charlie Bell as options at point guard to spell starter Stephen Curry.

When will my insomnia end? Just an old song to sleep to.

Andy Lau & Kelly Chen - I Don’t Love You Enough.

Enrique Iglesias Provides Customized Crotch Shots for His Fans

“Enrique Iglesias pointed a fan’s camera down his pants and took a picture of his junk while performing in Vegas this weekend — but the craziest part … he gave the camera back to the fan!!!”

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Baby-faced teen singer Charice says she prepared for her debut on the hit Fox TV show “Glee” by getting Botox and an anti-aging procedure “to look fresh on camera,” but her publicist said the Botox was for muscle pain, not for cosmetic reasons.

The 18-year-old Filipino singer with a booming voice, who recently released her self-titled debut album, saw her career skyrocket after appearing on Ellen DeGeneres’ and Oprah Winfrey’s talk shows. She underwent a 30-minute Thermage skin-tightening procedure and Botox injections to make her “naturally round face” more narrow, celebrity cosmetic surgeon Vicki Belo told ABS-CBN television.

However, Charice’s publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said in an e-mail Monday the Botox was “absolutely not cosmetic,” and added said the treatment was for muscle pain in her jaw.

Belo did the Botox procedure in front of the cameras.

“You chew gum and it turns out to be a favorite super-exercise for these muscles, your chewing muscles. So we will show you, this muscle here it’s a bit protruding,” Belo said as she touched Charice’s face. “It’s like a ball, so we are going to Botox that in order to get it flat so she will have a cuter face … we want to give you the apple cheek look because it’s cute, right?”

Charice, in the same interview, said last week’s face makeover was part of her big preparations for her appearance on the hit show’s second season. She starts filming at the end of this month.

“All people will be anticipating how will Charice look? Is she good enough to pit against Rachel Berry? So of course there is tremendous pressure,” Charice said. Berry is portrayed by Lea Michele, who is 23.

In an earlier TV interview, Charice said she auditioned for “Glee” in mid-June in Los Angeles and was thankful to have been accepted.

“It’s really a blessing,” she said, adding she was “very proud to be an Asian, very proud to be Filipino.”

On the streets of Manila on Monday, some residents who follow Charice had mixed feelings about what she did with her face.

“I think it’s OK for women to have procedures done, but Charice is too young. Does she need it?” said Patricia Carpio, a 21-year-old student.

For Myrna Lumanao, a 23-year-old seller in a doughnut stall, looking natural is better. “I guess she can afford to have those procedures done because she has the money, but I wish she did not change her looks.”

Dr. Malcolm Roth, president of New York’s Society of Plastic Surgeons and director of plastic surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in New York, said he wasn’t sure how someone so young could benefit from Botox.

“You would think that the makeup people could take care of (any wrinkles she might have) or that they could take care of it in post-production,” he said.

But Roth said there might be some benefits for on-camera teens in Hollywood. “Some people do have hyperactive muscles and muscles are what create the wrinkles in certain types of expressions. … It may be of some benefit for the camera, but I would be reticent to consider Botox for a normal 18-year-old.”

Thermage is a non-surgical procedure that uses radio frequency technology, but Roth said evidence was inconclusive on whether skin can be tightened without surgery.

Born Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco and raised with her brother by a single mother, she sang in local contests and appeared on TV talent shows in the Philippines and South Korea before she got a big break on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” at age 15.

She later appeared several times on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and credits Winfrey for helping push her career.