If you don’t like beads, you probably shouldn’t shop here. I happen to be in the minority that does.

The yelp commenters don’t share my taste, I guess:

“I wouldn’t say this is a total hippie store, but there is a definite whiff of patchouli in the air. Don’t let that dissuade you; take a bite of Mango and taste the colors, man.” – S. M.

“If you use the word ‘groovy’ frequently or like to hug trees, you’d certainly consider this place far out.” – Sean S.

“They have lots of long, flowy dresses and skirts and many cozy sweaters and tops that can be described as as ‘relaxed.’ “-Carrie E.

“HIPPIE ALERT!!!!! HIPPIE ALERT!!!!!  THE WINDOW DISPLAY WAS ONLY A LURE TO GET NORMAL PEOPLE, LIKE MYSELF, TO COME INTO THE STORE AND BE CONVERTED!!!!” -Kimberly P.

(Sorry, had to share)

Anyways, found some things I liked and finally purchased a pair of tribaly earrings to wear with my new headdress while I grind maize from the harvest next to my cornhusk doll collection in my buckskin teepee.

If you’re in Philly and decide to shop around Chestnut Hill, stop by and smell the patchouli.

8442 Germantown Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19118
215-248-9299

Caitlin Wylde, Artist

Ballerinas (later used in the Martha Stewart wedding issue this spring)

Arne Jakobsen, Cecilie Manz and Kasper Salto (architects and designers)

Tuscany

Photos by Ditte Isager.

“Inception’s Dileep Rao Answers All Your Questions About Inception” (from Vulture blog via NYmag).

And then, there was  “The Neuroscience of Inception” (from Gizmodo via Jonah Lehrer from Wired) because maybe it’s all a ploy by Nolan to make us FEEL as though we’re in a dream state while we’re watching the dream state(s) fold in on each other.

To which my other brother (psychology major and urban development expert) responds via email:

The critical factor here is active vs. passive participation. And with all cinema, the director has 2.5 hr max to convey a complete (or semi-complete) story (or multiple stories) and develop acceptable and somewhat realistic characters. All cinema  inherently includes shallow/one-dimensional characters and extensive incongruity when broken down to individual and separated elements; it is the way a cinematic experience is conveyed to an audience that has no “active” participation. The writer/director must be able to condense and tell a story to mass audience. We as the audience do not have the privilege of exploring or “understanding” the story on our own terms in real-time, therefore we get the “survey-course” version.

And then my dad (rocket scientist extraordinaire) says:

I still think that the most interesting notion is that of shared dreaming.  If it were possible, what would the experience be like?  How could two subconscious dreaming minds share a dream state?  Who would be in charge of the dream world?  How would logical conflicts be resolved?  Could the two dream avatars interact?  Communicate?  Could both simultaneously experience lucid dreaming? Etc.

Talkin’ World War III Blues, last verse:
Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams.
Everybody sees themselves walkin’ around with no one else.
Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
Some of the people can be all right part of the time,
But all of the people can’t be all right all of the time.
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours.”
I said that.

And after a while my little brother (grammar expert) spelled Dylan like dilyn (on purpose? on accident? to demonstrate how an email thread can parallel a dream in which you aren’t sure how to properly attribute quotes to famed 60s singer-songerwriters/reluctant figureheads of social unrest?).

And then I saw this on facebook and thought it was pretty clever:

Mark Borden/FC defends it like this:

“What the Influence Project aims to do is remove some of the mystery behind the inherent passivity of social network numbers. This experiment will show what happens when an individual takes an audience at rest and applies an unbalanced force–through suggestion, advice or direction–that converts it into an army of action. That’s power that can be quantified and lead to an understanding that can be applied to both the largest and smallest of networks. No doubt it’s profound to address a million followers and get 100,000 of them to respond. But what does it mean when you have one hundred friends on Facebook and 97 of them click through to a site on your recommendation?”

But PSFK says:

“The project reminded us of Don’t Tell Ashton – an interactive social currency project we discussed in May. This project also seemed to depend on human nature – our vanity, egos and need to feel important – to drive participation rates and spread the project’s message.”

And Alexia Tsotsis at the SF Weekly Tech blog puts everyone’s unimpressed comments into her post, most notably, Tamsen McMahon’s (brass tack thinking):

“This isn’t influence. This is an ego trap and a popularity contest, pure and simple. There’s no goal other than click pandering. Already, Twitter is full of people shouting “click on my junk!” and flooding my stream and countless others with nothing more than clamoring for…well…validation.

Influence can be quiet, understated, and wielded with grace. Influence is NOT jumping up and down, begging for people to click on stuff so that they, too, can find the gatekey for their own path to feeling important in the online fishbowl.”

Aw, come oonnn, just let me INFLUENCE YOU. Pay no attention to the endless minutes it takes to load their poorly-designed image well. Click on my photooooo!

Have you clicked yet! Click on my pretty little graphic! Do it! Just look at my influential face, influecning you to!

Or forget this project ever happened and click back to your facebook tab to see if anyone friended you while you were reading my post.

]]> http://naomipiercey.com/?feed=rss2&p=1467 0 http://naomipiercey.com/?p=1455 http://naomipiercey.com/?p=1455#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:35:31 +0000 admin http://naomipiercey.com/?p=1455 How to make filled coconut marshmallow cuppies for your roommate’s birthday:

First, find an extra deep cupcake tin and fill it with their favorite flavor cake. This mega tin happened to be a block away from my house in a friend’s well-equipped kitchen.

Next, mix together a secret delicious WOW factor filling. In this case, coconut Cool Whip (half a can of Coco Lopez pina colada mixture and a whole tub of whipped cream). Yes, the Coco Lopez doesn’t look like something you should be putting in a cupcake, but I promise it’s just sugar and coconut. Actually, I have no idea what it is. Let’s not worry about that.

CAREFULLY drill holes in the top of your massive cupcakes (drill=cut), empty the contents (good for impatient nibblers), and fill with your mixed cocolopezwhip (should be pretty melted by now, so you can just spoon that stuff right in).

Deposit your frosting into a zip-top bag, cut off the corner with some scissors and start piping a hat on your open-wound cuppies. You’ll need quite a bit of frosting to cover the holes, but no worries if you mess up, you can cover all your errors with decorative elements. I stuck with the colorless theme and covered the sides with shredded coconut and the top with a mound of mini marshmallows.

Just don’t press too hard on your embellishments…remember, there’s a secret inside that would love to get out via an any inconvenient cracks or punctures you decide to create. Quickly refrigerate to keep the insides…inside. Then gift, sing, consume and tell the birthday boy how messy these were to make.

FYI: You don’t need more than 5 of these. Please do not make more.

Matter of fact, you don’t need more than one. One is enough.

Also: Coco Lopez Whip is GREAT on strawberries.

**Title of this post inspired by “Aunt Jemima!! (the pancake song),” one of the greatest cooking videos of all time (yes, these cupcakes instructions should have been sung and presented in poor stop motion, but I just can’t compete):

It’s no lie. It’s Warby-Parker.

“Warby Parker was founded with a rebellious spirit and a lofty objective: to create boutique-quality, classically crafted eyewear at a revolutionary price point.“

Rebellious because they make things you want to buy without a middle man mark up. Lofty because they have to handle all the trendy craftmanship themselves. Revolutionary because for every pair you purchase these guys actually donate funds to help other people get vision care around the globe. What the what?!

It’s true. I purchased a pair on Friday and was wearing them the next Wednesday.

The best thing is you–mostly–never have to talk to the inept eyeglasses clerks at your doctor’s office. You will need to send in your PD (pupilary distance), but any nabe eye doc can measure it for you for free in 30 seconds by the front door.

Sadly, due to incredible demand, their try-on-at-home system of sending empty frames isn’t operational at the moment. So yes, you may have to take a leap of faith on your frames, which isn’t easy to do. But come on, for $95, you’d do worse.  I risked it all on the Nedwin and I’m wearing them right now to write this post and have no complaints. Just saying. How can you not love this system they’ve constructed? Especially when they tell the story of how their tongue-twisting name came to be:

“We’ve always been inspired by the master wordsmith and pop culture icon, Mr. Jack Kerouac. Two of his earliest characters, recently uncovered in his personal journals, bore the names Zagg Parker and Warby Pepper. We took the best from each and made it our name.

Kerouac inspired a generation to take a road less traveled and to see the world through a different lens.

We hope your new glasses will provide all the style you need to travel your road with class, and their price will leave you with some extra cash to use on your journey.”

Now, time for a second pair. I’m feeling Zagg. Thoughts?

The very fit and fast L Saldutti (middle) kept my pace up. I figured if I could just keep time with her, I’d run the whole way. After I thanked her for motivating me in the last half mile, she laughed and revealed she has been just trying to keep pace with ME! Guess you never know who you’re pushing along.

Best motivators:
-The fact that I had an obnoxious Mean Girls-esque getup (see matching Brooks running top and shorts) in a sea of quirky sad “see you at the finish line” and “fast is as slow as we go” company mottos T-shirts. You can look lame walking in a T-shirt, but you just look like an A-hole walking in a matching uniform)
-Crowds of walkers (I pass you, I pass you, whoa, don’t trip me!–I pass you, too)
-Crowds of runners (You’re still running? YOURE’ still running, too? Wait, YOU can’t still be running!)
-The dude running with the giant back-to-the-future boombox strapped to his back with truck ties, blasting 80s music, going FASTER than me
-Random confused/excited onlookers and park-goers, cheering us on (gave a surprised few some spontaneous high fives)
-People with asses about four times my size, hauling ass
-Wanting to see the surprised/proud look on the face of a very patient and supportive bf at the finish line tent after being told that his usually lazy and downright slow partner didn’t walk one step.

The final time? 37.20

DON’T STOP WON’T STOP

So how does one Hotel Thrillist? Step one: Arrive, fashionably whenever (also good if your plane is grounded thanks to exploding lavatories), inspect swag, tweetle several ridiculous photos of you plus swag plus the Fontainebleau, send your coordinates to Nick McGlynn (photographer extrodinaire) via ESP and have him take copious amounts of useless photos of you holding said swag: For instance HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Proceed to tropical storm cocktail hour by the pool, gale-force winds free of charge and surprise yourself by not hating your first Bacardi Torched Cherry and Coke of the weekend. It helped to brave the storm.

Step 2: Wipe off the Florida rain, gussy yaself, and mingle with some damnfabulous people at the Bacardi sponsored pre-dinner fete. Have yourself another TC & Coke and taste a sampling of Miami’s finest culinary delights: Gotham Steak, Hakkasan, Solo, and the most mouth-watering how-can-you-exist truffle polenta from Scarpetta. (I need you.)

Step 3: Without a 5-hour enegry retailer near by, Boom Boom instead and try to sip another TC&C at Liv, the sparklyest upon sparklyest of the Klubz on the beach. Convenient for us, since it’s in the hotel. That’s a step step, trip trip down the hall, tap tap in the elevator, and another hop, jump, and a trip right to the line (which we skipped). Sup.

Performance by J. Cole.

Step 4: Spend the next day swimming in a sea of TC&C under the hot firey Florida sun. Your options include the pool, the cabana, the other pool, the bazaar, the water slide, and THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. If you need to recover/adjust your pupils to the light, there’s a Bobby Flay-worthy grill challenge happening poolside. If you can bear it, slip on ya Stunnas and get some custom quickie couture from Krel. She fits, cuts, clips, twists, rips, and sews you into an organic creation in less than five minutes. What’s not to love?

Performance by Kat DeLuna.

Step 5, 6, 7, 8 and beyond: Head to Red Steakhouse, where they may/may not have great steaks, but they sure do have great desserts. Hide your Harry Potter-esque magically-refilling glass of TC&C  from the tornado lightening, watch a capoeira troupe beat their drums, talk to a parrot, beware the fire dancer, befriend a baby gator (get a lil nostalgic about college), and do your best at battling any self-esteem issues you may have as an onslaught of sex-personified Miami Heat dancers surprise everyone with a jig.

Retreat to Fontainebleau for a–suprise!–TC night cap (no longer an informed decision of your now cherry-tinted taste buds, but a good vs. evil-esque battle between common sense and the Bacardi gods, which you are shamelessly losing) , a little star gazing, and a greater admiration for everyone that invited you there (don’t they work hard!).

Post Hotel Thrillist? Go home and follow all your new friends on twitter: @DevonGiddon @BoomBoomBaby @Marv_Carbonado @Bespoken4 @AsherT @Boehmcke @EmilyGannett @sheerling @chumiston Or just THIS WHOLE LIST.

Miss you, Miami!

(photos by Nick McGlynn/Random Night Out and my polaroid camera…or something).

Posed for a photo at the Buzzfeed office-warming party:

Caught a screening of Sex and the City 3, courtesy of HP and their SATC2 collaboration (hence the HP photo lab pic):

Started a link list on Delicious, you know, just for fun:

Saw GLEE Live! at Radio City, where I was surprised with a signed photo from Lea Michele–a gift from a coworker. Simply delightful.

Sipped some alchemist drinks at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic. DElish. Yes, it was THIS kind of party.

Started DIGGing, as per a work-related request. Social media is, like, hot right now…or something?

Compiled all the HOT social media in a Flavors.me account:

And drank endless buckets of Torched Cherry Bacardi at Hotel Thrillist Miami, this past weekend in south Florida. Many thanks to the folks who made THAT happen.

Coming up? REST.