Who is Lonny, by the way?

In the corner of the blogsphere known as Homedesignland there was a party yesterday.  It was a coming out party for a new on-line magazine called Lonny.  Its been a tough year for print media and an especially tough one in the world of “shelter” magazines.  So the launch of Lonny by several Domino alums had been anxiously anticipated by many.  Design blogs were all a twitter, literally, ewing and awing at every vignette and hyperventilating at the fact you could click on a product and immediately go to the e-commerce website for that item and buy it.  I wasn’t so impressed.  Some of my thoughts:

• I still find reading a design magazine on-line difficult.  I either need a bigger screen or they need to use a different size and proportion for their pages.  Its difficult to read the print without zooming and then you cant see what you are reading about.  I think this will always be a issue when you are digitally reading something that depends on a visual like design mags do.  And besides, I want to get into bed with these types of magazines and have the tactile experience of paging through the magazine with my head on my pillow.
• If you loved the late Domino (as they referred to it several times in the copy) you will love this new mag, its almost exactly the same visually.  It is not a problem, I was just expecting maybe a new spin.  But after Domino folded people were despondent over its end and I guess there are a lot of happy campers now.
• I would suggest they stay away from fashion.  It seemed like an afterthought and the clothes and the model were boring/bored.
• The photography was good, but you know I see great photography on home related blogs from self taught people every single day…good photography has become a commodity
• I am not sure how I feel about the click to buy feature.  I think of interior design mags as inspiration and not as a design by numbers tool.  I understanding its helpful to see sourcing info but again, I think it takes the creative process out of creating a home if you are slapping someone else’s template on your home.
• This is the thing the bugs me the most and I see it on blogs and I saw it yesterday in Lonny; styling rooms within a inch of their lives.  I bet if you looked at design mags from 10 years ago you would see more real spaces with furniture and paintings and objects that actually have meaning and belong to the people who inhabit the space.    Examples: Vintage bowling ball bag under nightstand in bedroom, tall pile of books on the floor (not good for bindings FYI), a frosty drink glass on an end table,  colored juice glasses lined up in the dish dryer on the counter waiting to be put away (the stylist couldn’t do that?)

I asked friend, who is a real life designer why this compulsion to set design for these pictorials? her answer:

… To be a stylist now is to offer your services pro bono and have absolutely no other way to fill out your day. Also–if you are a designer, photographer, or ex hooker sleeping with an ex hedgie, or if you have ever shopped don’t you think you could style your shoot?? It’s like hiring a specialist to bring flavored mouth washes to the dentist…

I am aware this is not a Lonny image but it epitomizes what I am saying, is this an art installation or someone's home?

With all that having been said, if I could get my hands on a glossy version of Lonny, I would gladly climb in bed with it.

UPDATED: The Argentine Mullet

I wrote this post years ago (literally). Its is my most viewed post and just yesterday it got over 40 hits, weird…So I thought I would take a look at it again and I was sorry to see that the link to some great mullet photos was no longer active.  I found a new one that is hysterical here.  I am happy to report that the mullet is on the wane here, unfortunately it has been replaced by the equally unattractive thick heavy bangs with long hair.  Especially not pretty when sported by a 60+ year old, with leather skin, surgically modified features and a cigarette.  Muy elegante y classy!

Not your typical Argentine beauty

the Oprah/Pam Anderson Of Argentina

Original Post from 2004

I am a forty- something year old woman of average build. While in the recent past I have been much smaller and bigger (four kids), now I feel like I am at a good weight for me and while keeping toned is a constant battle, I am pretty happy with my body.

Or was happy, until I moved to Argentina. It didn’t take more than a few days for it to become apparent to me that I was living in a country of women who are genetically predisposed to long thin legs, tight and high butts and concave stomachs. Apparently eating disorders run rampant here, but that cant explain away the fact that the standard deviation of body types is pretty narrow, literally. Woman generally look great in clothes, lots of low slung pants, little t-shirts and almost always a FM heel. This is a Latin country and the pressure on a woman to appear young and sexy is palpable. Between this genetic gift, an active lifestyle, high protein diet and plastic surgery that your medical insurance covers, women manage to hold it together pretty well. It can be frightening though, when at the gym I see women from the back, tanned, skin tight workout clothes and the long blond ponytail but when you get a frontal shot it is a 60-70ish women that has spent A LOT of time tanning. Not a good look, a haircut and a hat would do wonders.

Speaking of long blond ponytails…..Almost all woman here have long hair. I think that is a very Latin thing. Lots of girls have really beautiful thick dark hair. There are also quiet a few that have very thick and fried orange hair and hair extensions are big here. In theory hair extensions would be a great thing. I might even consider them for fun if I wasn’t constantly finding chunks of hair randomly on the ground but most often on the floor of the gym and sometimes stuck to gym equipment, thanks to sweat. It’s truly FOUL!!!!!

While not having the gag factor of hair extensions an equally disturbing hair trend here is the mullet. A mullet is normally reserved for middle-north American (Canada is equally adept at the mullet), blue collar dudes. However the Argentine girls have embraced the look and are calling it their own. For those who have no idea what a mullet is I just don’t think I have the vocabulary or language skills to properly describe it here. Therefore, I am going to suggest a visit to http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9195/mullets.html.

My point is that its really unfortunate that these beautiful girls who derive such societal power from their looks would set themselves back at least the 5 or 6 months it will take to grow out all evidence of this heinous hairdo.

The Sun has set on Twilight

It is not something I am proud of, but I am happy to say I have finish the last installment of the Twilight Quartet, Breaking Dawn.

It should be clear, if you have read any of my other posts, I am not a fifteen year old girl.  I am a 47 year old woman with 4 kids, not the demographic these books are targeted for.  But I am voracious reader living in Argentina where there are no Barnes and Nobles to pop into and pick up the latest best seller or classic.  An afternoon of fondling books and snacking on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the things I miss most about living in the States.

But I am connected to a English reading (not all native speakers, show-offs!) community and we have a book group.  Not the typical book group where we all read a piece of literature during the month and meet to discuss the book with someone burdened as the facilitator of this discussion.  We just simply share books.  Some of the books are beach reads, some are thoughtful and provocative contemporary literature, some are biographical and a little of it is total garbage.  However, we all agree that when confronted with either another Paulo Coehlo translated from Portuguese into Spanish (a smidge of foie gras) or less than great literature in English, we go for the bowl of spaghetti. Well, this teen vampire romance series is a really big bowl.  Clocking in at 2379 pages, there has to be something compelling in these mediocre books.

Swine Flu can make you feel like crap

Obviously.  But apparently, it has made the Mexicans feel bad on the inside too.  In the NYTimes today, an article explores the stigma that this swine flu has inflicted on the collective self confidence of the Mexican people.

Human beings need to evolve a little bit. I understand fear and how it can result in rash, unfortunate actions that are intended to self-defend. It would  be nice that before herding healthy people into quaratine because they are Mexican, you take a minute and think. Maybe some  fact based research, call me crazy.

Its like humans need to take that mental step that one does when they create a family.  Decisions are made for the good of the partners and the kids..not parent centered or kid centered but family centered.  Extrapolate that out and we need to make good community decisions, not individual centered ones.  I guess that is a lot to ask of humans especially when there are people like this that the rest have to some how counter and negate.

Sorry for this link, the video loader wasn’t working.

Happy Anniversary Crappy Blogger

Its actually been a bit more that a year since I started writing this blog in earnest, and its an effort that leaves something to be desired. I guess I am a bit disappointed that I haven’t written more consistently and more creatively. There were times were I really enjoyed the writing, and was happy about what I wrote. I guess inspired would be the word. But more often, it was part of an exercise of writing everyday in order to flex my writing muscles. But I guess those muscles don’t come naturally to me nor am I motivated to build them. That’s disappointing, to me personally, because that was what this was all about. I am doing this for me.

Living here in Argentina, I spend a fair amount of my free time on the Internet. I am addicted to certain mega blogs that are political. I stream a lot of radio (Stephanie Miller and the Young Turks) and get all my news from reading the NYT, WaPo and LAtimes online. I also read a half a dozen personal blogs. Several are friends and it is a way to stay in touch with the daily lives of friends that live far away. But there are two that I came across on the Global Dashboard at WordPress that I have been reading for the last several months. They are both written by women, both well written, and both express ideas and values so diametrically opposed to me and interestingly enough, each other.

One is written by a women who was a passionate Hillary supporter and is among the minority that came out of the primaries a vehement Obama HATER. While, I would argue with her reasoning and the”facts” she provides to validate her perspective, she does present her opinions effectively. I have made comments contrary to what she has to say and the response is pretty ugly. Let just say she is very passionate about hating Obama and she is a bit of a mama bear about anyone who disagrees. She is entitled. Its her blog.

The other blog is written by a young mom who is writing from Texas where I gather her husband is a farmer. She is a committed Catholic who is focused on the pro-life issue of abortion. I tried to engage her a conversation opening the dialog to the other pro-life issues like poverty, war and the death-penalty. She was having none of it. Each time we conversed, she presented me with more and more obscure theological arguments for why abortion was the biggest evil. She has subsequently moved on to the “socialist” tact, which I find extremely naive and not worthy commenting on. I wonder if her husband receives farm subsidies?

The point of all this, is that these women are committed to their blogs. They write daily, if not more, and are consistent in their voice. They know what they want their blog to be and are doing it. And while I couldn’t disagree with them more, I respect them and if I was honest, am a bit envious of their successful blogs. Something to aspire to I guess, or not.

I am very fortunate that my life is full of happy (if not demanding) children, a spouse who has provided us with this amazing and exciting life through travel and adventure ( and who I do love so much) and friends near and far that make me feel whole. So why am I feeling sorry for myself? Because its a luxury I can afford, but I need to get over myself. OK. Done.

My head has exploded

I really need a break from the world and all the bad news.  It would also help if this election was over and won already.  I am feeling confident that it will be won by Obama and the progressives.  If only we could fast forward to November 5th and this never-ending electoral  process would be over (the Founding Fathers werent perfect) and maybe there would be some clarity in the financial situation.  Here is some suggested reading that really hasnt helped my state of mind.  Maybe it will help you.

He might be little but Robert Reich gets the big picture

An interesting, if not paranoid, perspective. 

This is a president I would be proud of.

And finally, some good news.

By the way, if the above image offends you, it could of been a lot worst.  Take a gander at what comes up when you Google exploding heads images.

It’s time for Kitty Cat Porn

Yes, its Tuesday and there are some primaries going on (Kentucky/Clinton and Oregon/Obama). No surprises tonight. Clinton wins the third leg in the Appalachian triple crown (West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania) in another blowout. The hillbillies hard working white people in these states wont vote for Obama. Oregon looks good for Obama but I wont stay up until midnight Buenos Aires time for the mail-in ballots to be counted. But this obvious outcome doesn’t keep me from checking the political blogs, streaming Rachael Maddow, and ignoring the blah blah of CNN’s”best political team on television”. I have a disease. Does my predilection for posting cute animals make me more sympathetic or pathetic?

Detox

 

I have been happily ensconced in Patagonia now for a week.  It has been lovely.   We have had hot weather for so early in the season, but beautiful nonetheless, hot days and cool nights.  Perfect for swimming and sleeping.  There has been the usual chaos around the holidays in combination with setting up the house after an absence of nine months.  But it has been really quiet nice and relaxing and couldn’t be more different than our life in Buenos Aires.

How to have a Merry Christmas

Full disclosure here, I dont know how to have an unadulterated Merry Christmas. I think the last time I had a totally Merry Christmas I was 5. After that, Christmas got complicated . Expectations began to exceed the reality. For many years to come, whether that disappointment came in the form of not getting what I wanted, or familial stresses or with the pressure to create that Christmas when I was 5 for my kids, Christmas took on the quality of an event to be endured, survived, even to a point, dreaded. Well with now 40 or so Christmases, that I remember under my belt, I believe I have some Christmas wisdom to share. Some of it is practical. Some of it is a philosophy of keeping it simple that if you buy into, while no guarantees, I do feel you can eek out a few more moments of Peace and Joy. Because that is what it is all about. Peace and Joy.

• Do your Christmas shopping early, I am not talking about being one of those insane people who do all their shopping in July. Do it in November. Dedicate a few days to it and wrap it up right away. You are done. So now when Thanksgiving is over you can enjoy the parties (dont host them, be a guest), baking opportunities and Christmas related books and videos with the kids.

Coming to and Living and Shopping in Amerika

Haven’t written for awhile because I have been stupid busy. I was in Miami for a week at the beginning of the month, back inBsAs for a week and then company came and then we went to Junin for Thanksgiving break. I have been wanting to write about my trip to Miami but just couldn’t find a chunk of time to relive it with you.

Ironic

When we moved here almost 4 years ago from our home in suburban Connecticut, many friends and family didn’t get it. Because we chose to leave the country and move specifically to Argentina, it was incredulous to them that we were leaving our life in the States for apparently no economic upside and seemingly a lot of inconvenience. And their bewilderment became even more pronounced when we would need to tell them Argentina was on the South American continent. I think most people in the States think South America looks like Mexico and this is what they think Mexico looks like.

Day one and $68p later

Today we opened the store. It was a lot of fun. We had quite a few people walk in and look around, despite the rain. I think there were a fair number of people shocked by the prices (it is expensive) but almost everyone told us how beautiful everything looked and and several neighbors, many of them gay, where very welcoming and complementary and just happy to have us in the neighborhood.

I have to go to work tomorrow..at least it is not at a bowling alley

Its been a long time since I have had a paying job. When I worked, I was reasonably capable at my job and I had pride in what I accomplished and found great pleasure in what having a living wage afforded me. Its been 12 years more or less since I have been involved in a commercial enterprise and tomorrow a friend and I are opening a store in Buenos Aires.

I feel like I have NO FUCKING idea what I am doing. In fact, I am fairly certain that I do not know what I am doing at all. Not a clue. No relevant reference point, no reason to think I will succeed. I have never done anything in the retail world except consume. So as we get closer to our opening (Tomorrow!?!?) I am finding myself in a incredibly uncomfortable yet weirdly exciting place in my life. And I guess that is what living is all about.

Why I am depressed about the state of the world

1. After 6 years we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan
2. After 9 months of a new Congress we don’t seem to be leaving Iraq and Afghanistan
3. Its looking more and more like we are going into Iran
4. Bush can inexplicably say “the Mandela is dead” in the middle of a press conference and no seems to think its odd, a concern, or maybe fucking insane!!!
5. Everyday there is more and more news and studies showing that Al Gore is right about the environment and our policy as a country and citizen of the world is to do NOTHING
6. HSM2 was even worse that HSM1, and you know I will be seeing it over and over again with my 4 year old tone deaf daughter accompanying all the musical and dance numbers
7. Jena6 is less newsworthy than Britney Spears
8. It looking more and more like we are going into Iran..oh yea I said that before but you know what its really getting me down…it would be a disaster. Someone has to stop him………….

I am going to try this again

It has been awhile. I guess I was too ambitious when I originally started this. It wasn’t really a blog but more a series of essays about expat life in Argentina. The burden of making them perfect made me stay away. Also, I think at some point, everyone stops being a self conscious expat and just starts living without looking at each encounter, event and cultural awakening as something worth commenting on. At some point you just start living and inculcate the differences.

That is not to say I dont have moments when it is so painfully obvious that my expectations and the reality of how things do work (especially in business) exist in different worlds. But I have learned to take the good with the bad. While it is maddening sometimes to do business here, the trade off is that my non-professional life here is full of genuine kind people who get it that family and friends are more important than making a buck (and apparently any transparency when doing it).

So what will be blog be like now??? I think more of a rambling stream of consciousness, a journal of thoughts that will allow me to practice my writing. My idea is to make this more political and current. Lets see how this works…

My political exile

It wont be easy for me to put this into one coherent post…so here is an incoherent one….

I am the product of economically progressive and socially liberal parents. I consider myself liberal relative to social issues and fiscally conservative (due to my handbag count, my husband would disagree) but with an emphasis on education and health for all. As far as presidents go, I am still waiting for a leader with conviction that isn’t a personal mess. So it wouldn’t be surprising to you that the Reagan and Bush Part I years where difficult ones for me. While Carter was honorable he was a micro-manager who was politically naive and ultimately weak. Clinton was effective and inspiring but such a horndog that he himself sabotaged and minimized his achievements.

Needless to say, the last four years of You know who has been extremely painful. Where do I begin? I have alternatively believed You know who was stupid, crazy, a puppet of others or could not possibly be elected again, so who cares, just move on(sorry to say I was wrong there). My current theory is that he is a Christian Fundamentalist who thinks he gets his orders from God. Is that crazy? I guess I shouldn’t judge. But he is not the dude cleaning my windshield at the gas station, he is the fucking president. Crazy? maybe not, but dangerous, I think YES!!!! If being inappropriately guided by your religious principles wasn’t enough, he has surrounded himself by an array of men who each have their own frightening and diverse agenda anxiously awaiting implementation.

So while we didn’t come to Argentina to escape You know who, we are happily oblivious to the daily dealings and misdeeds of the current administration. It takes much more effort to get myself worked up about the state of our union than while I had 24/7 access to our fine news media. While the USA may be the center of the universe, the papers and TV here are void of the pathologically compulsive analysis of the news and the equally obsessive analysis of the press coverage itself. The BA paper reports world news with facts and photos. I know that x number people in Afghanistan were assassinated and the French are being French about the EU constitution. I don’t know what everyone and their mother thinks about it. If I want to make myself nuts there is always the the internet and blogs.

Here in Argentina local news and news relating to their own whacked out president is spun in a multitude of ways. I find politics here amusing..it is not my government or I would be mortified by the political bad manners here. Politicians are really bad sports. They(woman are well represented in local and national government surprisingly) like to yell at each other, calling each other Nazis, stupid and ugly. Usually they apologize the next day, but you know they meant it.

I suppose using the words political exile to describe myself is a little bit of an overstatement. I suppose I am in danger of minimizing the struggle of real political refugees and people that leave their homes reluctantly because the quality of their life is changing for the worst. So if I have offended anyone, sorry. It is meant as a dramatic literary device. Its ironic..exiled to Argentina?!?of all places and I am a soccer mom from suburban USA. Not the usual enemy of the state.

I hate the current administration (not individual people, I tell my children, you can hate ideas not people). I am saddened by where they have taken us and and frighten by where we appear to be going.

I have people in my life, who I love, that dont feel the same way I do. Which is OK. Most friends in the states may be be on board with You know who, they may be be a little concerned or they are so cynical about politics and world events they have checked out all together. The point being, hardly ever in the ten years I lived in Connecticut, did I have a satisfying political discussion with anyone. And I don’t mean an argument that I win. I mean talking, conversing, sharing views that challenge the official line from the White House or the pablum that is dished out by the mainstream media. After 9/11 it was all about flags and preserving the “American” way of life. More that once I made the mistake of throwing out the idea of taking a moment before blowing up Afghanistan and Iraq and think about not why Osama Bin Laden is a lunatic, but try to understand why much of the Islamic world mistrusts or hates us. I think there was a real lost opportunity in not trying to understand how come our foreign policy and their economic sub-strata position in the world was pissing them off. (hint:Blindingly Pro-Israel+ hypocrisy and economic opportunism in Saudi Arabia + poverty= Chaos).

I guess when we left I was happy to leave the news, the apparent lack of concern about where You know who was taking us, and the Presidential election. I could never have imagined that You know who would be re-elected. I am certainly in no hurry to get back. But I really do love the idea of the USA……..

I am a lame blogger

Blog entries are suppose to be spontaneous but thoughtful with some frequency to allow a reader a sense of the writer. Well I am going to try this again. Over two months between blog entries is a quarterly periodical and pathetic and can certainly be improved upon. I do have several dissertations on various aspects of Argentine life, which I can share with you after I have edited them ad nausea. This is not the point of this venue. I am ready to serve up some daily doses of my life!

Dogs barking….. There is a lot of it here. Everyone has a dog here, everyone. Dogs are social by nature and apparently they do their best partying in the middle of the night. They are all behind fences and gates so they resort to barking loudly and other howling like techniques for hours at a time. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone except my husband. I would normally sleep through the dog barking but my husband, who curiously was able to sleep through 4 kids worth of late night crying and screaming, is going mad from the dog barking. In the summer we had a air conditioning unit that made a fair amount of noise and between that and the industrial strength iron shutters, we where able to screen out the noise. Now, however it is May and the esposo (husband) had two electric fans going right by the side of the bed. So after a night or two of sleeping in a wind tunnel and waking up with a sore throat and parched lips, I have hidden the fans and am forcing my husband to deal with his irrational sensitivity to noise…

The last word here is on cats…If you are considering a move to Argentina, don’t bring your cat. Cats are less than a pet here. Dogs and horses are the only acceptable pets. There are many vets that don’t even take care of cats. My girlfriend took in a feral kitten and she went to 4 or 5 vets here (they are on every corner) before she could find one that would give shots and neuter it. This same cat went missing after it started exploring beyond its jardin. Chances it was someone’s meal. Unfortunately, there are many people in this city struggling for food and this was simply a meal. If you go into the villas (slums), there are no cats, normally found in healthy numbers in other world slums.

On that happy note…have a great day. Its a spectacular Indian Summer Day here!