Being thrifty isn't just saving money. It's a way of life. It's nonviolent resistance to the blinding crush of consumer pressure. It is looking fly and smiling because you only spent $40 on your whole outfit. It is an extra bounce in your step knowing your money is going to good causes. It is facing the current financial crisis with caution and brains, instead of abject fear. Read and learn my friends.
I came back here to find a writing sample for a job I am applying for and I was perusing my posts (intentional alliteration despite it's lack of popularity these days) and I feel bad for having abandoned this once oft-visited (by me at least) blog. It's funny now to read all that I had to say about the economy 4 years ago.
Now that all seems old hat.
I thought maybe I should find something fresh to say. Everyone is sick of hearing about how to save. So, I have decided to make this into a blog about luxury. I will do an iPhone app about how to spend all your money. Something like Gwynnie's app Goop--as hilariously summarized here on UPROXX. And big ups to The Cajun Boy for helping me to give a name to what I would like to become here at Nifty Thrifty. That's right, I now aspire to be a "possible white affluence performance artist" just like gp!
I mean, you gotta keep ahead in the world. With the "Occupy this and that" movement going on, what better way to rise above the crowd then to buck the trend and ignore all this talk of pay equality and health care. Keep that for yourself! I want luxury!
I had to just post this piece from Huff Post about H&M and Walmart destroying clothing that doesn't sell. Right away. This is really shameful and not at all Thrifty. Don't act like this.
I think I will wear all the clothes I found in the garbage (or at least at the thrift store) today.
So, I have been an angry young lady lately and I blame it on Blue Mountain State.
Lately some ads have been popping up on the subway platform for Spike TV's new show and they look like this:
Now, I don't have a T.V., so I don't know, I thought maybe I was just hypersensitive to the sexism that is rampant all over television and print media, but it turns out I am not the only one who is upset. Bowery Boogie points out that one of these posters on the LES was vandalized with the statement "This is what rape culture looks like."
I was struggling to find the words to say how this poster makes me feel, and that pretty much sums it up. Thanks, stranger with the Sharpie™.
What Bowery Boogie also tells us is that Spike TV got in touch to say that their poster was paying homage to the movie poster for M*A*S*H, the 1970 film about the Korean War.
Alright. M*A*S*H is pretty sexist, but let's linger for a moment on the differences:
M*A*S*H was made in the 1970s and it is about a war that took place in the 1950s. People were mad sexist in the 50s.
(case in point <--) That's right, years before Mad Men, and you see how mad sexist those guys are.
Blue Mountain State, on the other hand, is not a retrospective. And supposedly, we are less sexist than the 50s, or even, say, the 70s.
M*A*S*H is a Robert Altman film. Blue Mountain State is a Spike T.V. show. 'Nough said there.
The guys on M*A*S*H were surgeons who could get away with all those hijinx because they were saving soldiers injured fighting for the U.S.A., and no one else could do what they did.
Um, the guys on Blue Mountain State are college football players. Now, I love football (Steeler Nation, wooty woot), and I know sometimes it can feel like a game saves your life, but, well, you catch my drift.
Just sayin'.
Anyways, I said to myself, let me give this Blue Mountain thing a look-see, maybe it is not that bad.
You can watch the preview yourself, but if you don't have the stomach for it, let me point out some of the highlights:
Where do you come from? YOUR FATHER'S BALLS!!
What will you do with the other team? Crush them and use their VAGISIL AS LIP BALM
What will you do? GO DEEP!
Why is that girl giving you a blow job? Because she hates her father!
What is the worst thing you can be called? GAY!
Where do we draw the line? I'm not sure exactly, but it is hard to see the line when it is yards behind you. Ahem, Spike, you are like at the wrong end zone.
So, this Blue Mountain State business had me so annoyed that I started talking with my husband--my self-identified "feminist" and "queer, but straight" husband with whom I can usually carry on a great conversation about such things. I was unable, however, to talk about it without wanting to repeatedly stab the chicken I was preparing. And no, I don't have my period. ha ha.
We took a breather from the conversation. I had to kick him out of the kitchen so I could cook dinner.
I know, right? How can I solve the world's problems, and look hot, and cook dinner, all while carrying on an intellectually stimulating and important conversation with my husband and preparing my womb for babies?
Well, that, folks, is what we are here to find out.
Lucky for me, when I went to check on the oven temperature for cooking the chicken, I also found guidance on dealing with my plumpy bod and my saggy, saggy eyes.
I am so glad that the internet consolidates these things.
Okay guys, Listen up. I have been busy trying to make money. Yes, trying to make money. Don't worry, I still hate T.V. and advertising, but I am running outta bills and a girl's gotta eat...her Kentucky Fried Chicken. I don't know why, but the other day (in the future) I was (will be) driving through Chicago and I (will, hypothetically) drove (drive) over this very expertly repaired pothole and I (will) got (get) hungry for some KFC.
Where did I hear this little tidbit? Well, Brian Lehrer had Naomi Klein, author of NO LOGO on today. Good show. Worth a listen or two.
So, now I am going to shamelessly plug myself--but isn't that in conflict with your criticism of society Nifty? you say. No, guys, it's not. I don't like the massive brainwashing that is orchestrated by large powerful firms with access to psychological tools they can use to make you want things you really don't need. The SHAMPOO you've always been waiting for. The LOTION that will change your experience of life. The CAR that give you a euphoric happy feeling--you'll want to jump in the air! Nope, sorry, my pet portraits can't do that, but they can hang on your wall and look pretty and they can help me feed my dog (I prefer Catholic Guilt to mass marketing).
So, I got a call yesterday from The Takeaway, and they proposed a citizen "stress test" in which they would have listeners (me being one) talk about their financial situations with a financial advisor. Needless to say, I was really psyched about the opportunity, mostly because I love The Takeaway, and talking with them would be like talking with my friends with whom I spend every morning. (In fact, John Hockenberry, if you are looking for a co-host, I'm totally available.)
I had a great chat with a producer from the show. It did not work out for me alas, but I was happy to chat with some folks who produce a show that I really, really like. They did the segment with a couple other folks and it is worth a listen.
They talk with Gary Belsky, author and expert in Behavioral Economics, which is my favorite branch of the field, combining psychology and economics to get a bigger picture of economics (more on this later from Brian Lehrer too, check here. Oh, NPR, you are endlessly interesting and helpful). The Takeaway clip is quite short, but Mr. Belsky is reasonable and level-headed, so I'm intrigued. I'll bet it's worth it to check out his book with Thomas Gilovich Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them: Lessons From The New Science Of Behavioral Economics.
If you haven't listened to The Takeaway, I highly recommend it for your morning radio show. It's like getting the news from your friends. For me, The Takeaway does the best job I have seen yet, of using our technology to foster community in a big picture way.
Also, I directed my friends at The Takeaway here to the Nifty Thrifty, and I like to think it is not coincidence that they have also used Fantastic Voyage as a reference in another segment (in their case to swine flu, rather than traumatic sexual awakenings).
Next up I would like to do an episode of the Nifty Thrifty on how to budget time, but I suppose, in the interest of getting things done, I will write that later.
xoxo
The Nifty
P.S. In honor of The Takeaway, here's a Fantastic Remix
I don’t remember a lot of TV from when we lived in Ohio.We didn’t watch much.Sometimes at lunch when I ate and my mother folded laundry we would watch All My Children and on Tuesday nights the whole family would watch The Muppet Show.Otherwise most of my childhood memories are sitting in the living room, the fancy room without the TV, in the sun spot on the floor, listening to records, drawing or looking at books, while my mother sewed a dress or a curtain or whatever domestic art she had jotted down in her project book that week.Back then, in Ohio, I got my mother to myself for a bit.Jessica was in school in the afternoons and David took a nap.I wasn’t about to leave my spot by her feet to watch television.
Even if I did want to watch television, there were serious limitations.The Dukes of Hazard was a no-no because Daisy Duke was a bad role model for young women, Fraggle Rock was out because my mother believed it was about drug use somehow, and Emergency was too upsetting to my hypersensitive, over-imaginative mind.My mother saw very early in my life that images stayed with me, and I think she wanted to control them as long as she could.She gave me a very refined aesthetic this way, shielding me from what she called the “garbage,” that would broadcast over what she called “the boob tube.”
It was when we had a babysitter or even better when went to other people’s houses that the real television watching happened.Because I was so infrequently exposed to what could go on on a television, I remember the disturbing things to vividly.Fantastic Voyage gave me one of these psychic bruises.
I was five years old, and my parents had left us, my brother and my sister and me, with some friends of theirs while they travelled to New Jersey to find us a new house.To give you an idea of how spotty my memory is from this time, I have no idea who these people were.I know they were a man and a woman.I think they lived by a major thoroughfare in Troy Ohio, and I remember the sunny laundry room where there was a phone that I would use to talk to my parents every day that they called.I felt very alone there.Television seemed like a nice escape for an anxiety ridden five year old, waiting for the return of her parents, getting ready to do what they called “moving.”
But that afternoon, the movie that they were watching was not at all what I was used to seeing.Everyone was wearing tight suits with zippers, and the lady’s was particularly tight.They were on a ship.They were in outer space, I thought, but then it turned out not to be outer space, but inside a body.Then the girl got attacked by white blood cells and she was silently writhing and they were trying to tear them off of her.My eyes would not move away from the screen, even as my fingers inched to cover my face.
When my father called that day, I remember being particularly happy to hear from him.He sounded far away on the line, but I heard a tone in his voice I hadn’t heard before.I think it was excitement.Pleasure.
“We found a house,” he said, “There’s a big hole in the back yard.”
“Oh,” I said, “Will you have to fix it?”
“No, the big hole has water in it.”
I didn’t understand and in my child’s mind I saw a muddy ditch, brown water.
“Oh,” I said again, really unsure about this whole hole thing, “Well, that’s okay, I guess.”
I didn’t care so much, I was really more interested in us all being in the same house.I was really more interested in this “visit” to these family friends being over.
“It’s a pool!” he said.
I sat silently on the line.My mother was with my father on the phone, and when I didn’t say anything, when I didn’t shout “Yes!” she knew something was wrong.
“What’s the matter honey?”she asked, trying to sooth me and my father, who was likely disappointed not to have pleased me.
“Do I really have all those things inside of me?”I said.
“What things, honey?”
“The white blobs.Are they going to hurt me like they hurt the lady in the movie?”
“What movie honey?”
I didn’t know the name of the movie, I think I called it the Fancy Verge.
My father’s belly laugh, the one that normally brought a giggle up from my belly too, echoed over the phone.
“The Fantastic Voyage?”he asked me.
“Yeah.”
“Oh, that garbage.Raquel Welch?” she sighed heavily and I was relieved immediately.I knew that as soon as we got to our new house, my mother would reinstate all the television rules, and I would never have to watch something that awful again.
But still, to this day that image of Raquel Welch covered in white blood cells, silenced by a scuba suit helmet, eyes wide in terror, writhing on the ground, lingers.Recently, to determine how close my memory is to that movie, I looked it up online.What I found was even more disturbing.I found the offending scene.It was indeed scary, or could at least be considered so by a five year old.She did indeed get covered with white blood cells.Her wetsuit was indeed tight.And then when the men saved her, they threw her on the ground, all knelt above her and groped at her body trying to get the monsters off of her.In the process I think I saw her boobs get grabbed at least twice.The scene is so thick with innuendo that it’s not a surprise to me that I once found it so frightening.I really didn’t know what was going on in that movie at all, and not just because I didn’t understand the inner workings of the human body, but because of the great mystery that it would take me another twenty years to even begin to understand.I guess in that way Fantastic Voyage was all it said it would be.
“Four men and a beautiful girl launch a journey you can never erase from your memory,” he 1966 trailer proclaimed,“When you come out you may never look at yourself in the same way again.”
For a long time I resisted reading any economists for this very reason. Why do I want to read books by guys who tell me I am ruining the economy. Well, since I started writing The Nifty Thrifty, I began to wonder what all the things I was saying meant, and if I didn’t have a better intuitive grasp intuitively on the economy that I thought. Turns out, Paul Krugman addresses my very question in his 1997 essay Vulgar Keynesians. Krugman addresses, among other things, the "paradox of thrift"; an element of econo-god John Maynard Keynes' teachings which states in simple terms that if everyone saves we all lose. Krugman points out though, that this virtue turned vice relationship is not such a straightforward one, especially since we now have a Federal Reserve bank that can raise and lower interest rates to offset the vicious cycle of recession.
But Krugman wrote Vulgar Keynesians in 1997. Who was in recession then? Not us, yet. So now, here we are in 2008, nearly 2009, and we get to see what happens. Krugman's most recent op-ed on the topic, he states that major policy changes and a stimulus package that doesn't put the onus on the already over-committed consumer is what we need. I think the truth is, no one knows what we need, but I think Krugman is moving in the right direction. That was just a little Freshman Economics for you so that you don't have to feel bad if you can't spend money. In fact you will feel bad if you can't spend money and you do.
More on the topic:
Consumers Don't Cause Recessions by Robert P. Murphy. I have commented on this blog post for clarification, as Prof. Murphy seems to state that Krugman erroneously perpetuates the Paradox of Thrift. We await his response.
Well, folks, it looks like thrift is in fashion these days and I am happy to bring you more news about cheap stuff. I heard a story on NPR last weekend about bartering.
It features a company called Barter Business Unlimited, which exchanges goods and services for credit. I think it’s interesting to see our economy start to move toward basics. I know that for years folks like me and my sprawling Irish Catholic family have been in the minority in their spending habits, and for years I have heard economists tell me that if I spend money I am good for the economy, if I encourage others to be cheap like me, to buy second hand, to save their funds, well then I am free market enemy #1 (*see more on the paradox of thrift here).
Well, folks, this is a very creative time for our economy and I think us thrifties should lead the way. Here are a couple of suggestion as to how....
Looking for a New Year's Resolution?
Suggestion #1:
Why don't you buy handmade as often as you can? And if you want you can even sign the nifty pledge. I wish I had gotten this on to you before the holiday shopping rush, but alas, I did not. Nevertheless, anytime is a good time to buy handmade.
Also check out their resources for handmade products, and much information on why it is good for the world!
Suggestion #2:
Why not pledge not just to BUY handmade, but to MAKE handmade? My mother sewed all my dresses for every formal I went to in high school (except one, which was a polyester forest green number that I got at the Salvo), and she stands at the ready to make my wedding dress. So, I am lucky, I grew up with a crafty woman, and this helps take the fear out of crafting things. I have to tell you though, crafts are always easier than you think!
Check out ReadyMade.com, and while you're at it get yourself a subscription to the mag. It comes out six times a year, and it is the perfect addition to the craft room I know you are going to build in 2009!
Finally, I am sure you are all thinking what the heck should I do for New Year's Eve? I'll leave the big parties to our nightlife specialist Nick McGlynn , and I will tell you to chill out. It's just another day. Do take the time and think about what you did, what you didn't, and how you want another year to go by. But, don't stress yourselves much. 2009 promises to be a good year. But every year promises that on New Year's Eve. Can you tell me this though? Will they be there in the morning? That's up to you. Treat your life right and it will get you back. REPOST FROM NEIGHBORBEEBLOG.COM
Next time, I promise to get back into the cheap events, for now enjoy the cozy family time, and don't spend too much on your cousin, she won't wear that sweater anyway.
Promotion here. I read some of my fiction at Freddy's backroom last week. Paul Handler, famous assistant to Brooklyn-based artist Mara Sprafkin, came with Mara, and the event made his blog. Awesomeness.
I'll let you know when the next reading is, in the meantime, if you need to spend money for Christmas, might I recommend buying books, because the publishing industry needs you.
Being that I have been so critical of the media lately, I thought I would read some behind the scenes stuff and see what tactic marketing will take next. I think Mr Scott has a lot of good points and of course he tells the story from the point of view of the consumer as well as the marketing exec.
(Important note: this book was recommended to me by Dropout/Postgrad, who is a genius, and just dropped an A+ in his marketing class at Columbia University. 'Sup Dropout /Postgrad!)
What he is talking about is how the internet and in particular, the blogosphere, is changing the marketing game. I am so glad to hear this, as I think that the normal tactic of marketing is getting so lame. It's too lame even for words. I could write a post a day about the stupid commercials I see. The old ways just aren't working anymore. I am happy to say that while sometimes it seems like we are getting stupider, I think we may actually be getting smarter. The consumer review system is where it's at. The educated consumer has always subscribed to Consumer Reports, but lately these reviews are more accessible than ever. Interested in that new device that lets you forgo the phone bill and make calls through your internet connection (it's called the Ooma, and I am looking at buying one, stay tuned for a review....). Well, just do a google search and find out what other customers think. Obsessables seems like a pretty good place for this, but as always, Consumer Reports is your go to gal.
What's the catch? Marketing has picked up on this trend, as they often do with trends, and frankly should if they want to sell stuff to their new customers. What the consumer would hope this would achieve is a focus on quality, so that a product stands up to the consumer review system, and largely this is the case. However, if you check back with my last post, I mentioned Wyeth and the load of trouble they are in by hiring ghostwriters to write journal articles that paint their products in a favorable light, you'll get an idea of the direction this can lead consumers. My fear is that we will have fake bloggers all over the internet. In fact, I think we already do. In my search for part time work to make money while I work on my MFA, I have come across unlimited opportunities to write for a blog that highlights a particular product. That's right. You can get paid to fake the consumer review. Not to mention that some blog sites are hiring bloggers to write about widely searched material in order to increase their searchability (their googleability if you will), thus increasing their hits, thus increasing their advertising income, or their sales. What this means for the internet surfer is you have to wade your way through a bunch of crap articles to get to the good ones. I actually read a post on how to get freelance writing gigs that takes you through a step by step guide to searching on craigslist (step 1. go to craigslist.org, step 2. pick your city, step 3. click on jobs, step 3...). Now certainly, this post might be helpful to someone who has never used the internet before, but are they likely to be on the internet at all if this is the case, and if they do get on will they even know how to go to google to get this post? And further if they do learn how to use craigslist, isn't it likely to be from their grandchildren?
Now, I have resisted these opportunities, because I am morally opposed to such fakery, and I get more and more annoyed by the tripe you have to wade through to get to the good stuff, but be on the look out for this. Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software and a member of the blogosphere, posted this piece on recognizing the not-so-authentic consumer review.
David Meerman Scott also has some interesting posts on his blog, largely directed towards businesses who are learning the new ropes of marketing, but interesting nonetheless, especially if you want to know how the internet is being used. Particularly disturbing to me is his post on the Air Force using the internet for recruiting and PR.
Now, I want to be clear: I highly respect the Armed Forces and the risks they take for the protection of our country, and there is no doubt that marketing and PR have always been part of the game for the military, but I think the public should be aware of how corporations and institutions are using the internet. Knowing is half the battle.
Meantime, Check out their flowchart.
I guess, in the end, in the spirit of the rest of this blog, I want you to know what marketing is all about. There are companies out there who use the internet for good, and some who use it for bad. You have a say in this market and you should use it. Keep it real, keep it informed, and stay strong.
Next on my reading list. Paul Krugman. He's a baller.
Also, why the heck is it going to take a year to implement a regulation that should have happened 10 years ago?
In other news, have you heard about Wyeth getting busted for Ghostwriting their medical journal entries. As my lawyer roommate states, this seriously violates the "peer review system." Just further proof that we have very little unbiased information available, and that even when we think we are reading "news" or "journalism" we are often reading an advert.
I have a few things to tell you about this week. First off, let me just say for all my snarkiness about Black Friday, I was absolutely horrified to see the news that day and find out about Jdimytai Damour being trampled to death at the pre-dawn opening of a Long Island Walmart. I am not going to vilify Walmart, or the people who did the trampling. That is not my job, but I do want to clarify that being thrifty is an attitude, a lifestyle that values the beautiful and not the expensive. One of the basic tenets of being thrifty is tossing away the idea of keeping up with the Joneses. You live with what you need and if you can get some pretty things and enjoy nourishing food while being good to the world, well that is the best deal in town. Being thrifty is the absolute opposite of stampeding at Walmart.
I love a good deal, but I have been horrified for some time by the society we have created. Don't let anyone tell you that we simply ARE monsters and that we act out of instinct in some sort of survival of the fittest nightmare. We are smart enough to understand what it is we are doing, and we were smart enough to intentionally create the system that is currently breaking our backs, and we should be smart enough to stop our own creation.
I am ALL about the free market, lest anyone mistake me for a commie, but I do want to point you in the direction of a post I wrote almost a year ago which points to a few other smartie pants who inspired me to say hey, what's going on? Why do I want that cashmere sweater so baaaad. And why doesn't that cashmere sweater make me happy once I have it?
Well, I won't rehash all the details here, but suffice to say that marketing was created by Sigmund Freud's nephew Edward Bernays, and Edward knew that the libidinal drives that Freud pointed out in all those books he wrote were, for all intensive purposes, unfulfillable, and could drive people to buy, buy buy. Bernays not only used Freud's theories, but also crowd psychology and Pavlovian theories. So, I won't stay on the soapbox long, but are we surprised when we act like animals for things? No. Should we be shocked and ashamed? Yes. But now you know why you want things so bad, and knowing is half the battle.
Two more things before I get off my soapbox.
Verizon Wireless aired a commercial the weekend after Black Friday in which two women discussed going to get a Verizon phone. One woman says to the other "So, if there is only one phone left, which one of us gets it?" The other woman says, "Me," to which the first woman replies, "Wrong answer," and shoots her in the neck with a poison dart. So, we are surprised that even when we are bombarded with this kind advertising we can't respect life more than products. Are we surprised? Not exactly. Are we shocked and ashamed? We should be.
Next, is this beautiful speech given by Louis CK on Conan:
OK, off the soapbox, here's the thrifty news for the week.
Give a coat, get some gloves!
NY Cares Coat Drive: Giving coats to coat drives can be a lucrative ordeal. I mean, you should give your coat just because you are not wearing it and someone is cold, but New York Cares is giving back to its donors. Check it out here. The best of the bunch? Paragon sports will give you a free Marmot hat and gloves. Nice. There are lots of other deals too, but only until SUNDAY!!!! Check it out
A beer and a shot (in the ear), please
Also, I'd like to call your attention to Earshot's Holiday Fiesta which is taking place THIS FRIDAY in Williamsburg. Now, this reading series is not free, which, I know, makes you think, why are you recommending this one? Well, A) it's good, and B) your $5 admission fee gets you a free drink! Voila! Thrifty!!!
December 12 // 8 PM $5 + one free drink 345 Grand Street (b/w Havemeyer & Marcy) Brooklyn, NY 11211 (718) 599-0069
Nearby Train Stops: L (Lorimer/Bedford), G (Metropolitan/Grand), J/M/Z (Marcy Ave)
Featuring:
The One O'clock Poets (This Full Green Hour) Guillermo Castro, Amy Lemmon, Katrinka Moore, Joan Lauri Poole, Elizabeth Poreba, and Sarah Stern Tennessee Jones (Hunter College) Michelle Brule (Brooklyn College) Marina Kaganova (Columbia University)
You Feelin' Lucky?
Finally, I have a brainchild I'd like to share with you. When I was uptown at a deli near Columbia University, a casting director approached me and asked me if I would like to appear in Lucky Magazine's "My Foolproof Outfit." I, of course, was really flattered. Wearing my $5 skirt, my $10 sweater and my $25 boots, I thought, yeah, a magazine that wants to feature a girl with style and the smarts not to pay big bucks for it. Boy was I wrong. The people at Lucky were fantastic and fun and helped me find all kinds of pretty clothes from their rack to wear in the mag, they put makeup on me, they cut my bangs for free, and they fed me all day. Fun fun fun. However, it wasn't until the magazine printed that I knew how much every thing cost. AWWWOOOGA! I couldn't afford any of the stuff that they had me wearing! Apparently, I am not alone in this experience. Good news is, Glossed Over says Lucky Mag is lowering its standards.
I loved the look that Lucky Mag gave me though, and I am pretty sure I could create it for less. So as part of my dedication to thrift, I am accepting challenges from my audience for (Nearly)FreeStylin'. What does that mean? It means you send me an outfit you like, say from Vogue or Elle, or some other magazine and I will try and recreate it for you at bargain basement prices. If you'd like to participate, send me an email at NearlyFreeStylin@gmail.com with a picture of the outfit. I reserve the right to refuse outfits on the basis of taste.
In the meantime, please try and ignore the message from the media that you are not good enough until you have their stuff. I'm not saying don't buy the stuff, I'm saying don't buy the hype. But, Christine, you ask, how do I know whether I am buying the stuff or the hype? I ask myself a question every time I buy: How is this going to affect the direction of the life I am leading? Is this a direction I want my life to take?
It's a very personal question. Next week, I will touch on the worthy things I like to spend my money on (food, wine, art, clothes, gifts, etc.) and why it's important to think before you buy.
Abundance is possible. Excess should be avoided. Know the difference.
You will have noticed that I have just posted a bunch of entries that I have been doing for a little blog called Neighbor Bee. Being brought up in an Irish Catholic family, I have always been passionate about thrift. It was a principle my parents taught me that was originally about simply saving a dollar. Recently for me it has been a kind of lifestyle, a throw back to the aesthetics, Christ even. Throwing off the temptations of the material world has always been a stylish counter culture, and recently, it has become a necessity, and since I have been living under the radar for very little, and constantly scoffing at TV commercials and the brainwashing that we call life here in America. I will be doing some more posting on the history of commerce (as it relates to human psychology, as I started here
I will also let you in on the secrets of my thrifty life. Well, they aren't secrets, really. As anyone who knows me will attest, if you compliment me on an outfit, I will quickly tell you how cheap it was, and where I got it.
So, on the heals of a very black Black Friday, I have decided to stop keeping my opinions (or my shopping secrets) to myself.
I should make it clear that I like to live ethically and inexpensively, I have a fine taste. I like rich wine, the best food, good style, and fine entertainment. This will not actually be a poor man's life. It will be made of the finest luxuries, with a higher consciousness.
So, as I said, this Black Friday was black indeed. I made cheeky jokes about consumerism in the US in my last post, but I didn't think there would be actual deaths involved. I didn't think that a part-time security guard would get trampled in a stampede in a Long Island Walmart, or that there would be an actual shoot out in Toys R Us in Palm Desert, CA.
I can't even begin to tell you how disturbing and yet how utterly unsurprising these events were. I don't even really feel like I can write about it and draw comparisons about low prices with high costs or something of that nature. In fact, the L A Times treatment of it is somewhat ridiculous. The mention of the man pulling his gun from his baggy pants, the interview with the three-year-old child, and the graphic are all such caricatures of news that I found myself thinking of The Wire's Scott Templeton.
From The Wire website:
The self-promoting Templeton is hungry and willing to go to great lengths for a plum assignment. His prose reflects his ambition: overwrought with a tendency towards exaggeration.
Templeton goes to great lengths to break the great story. First inventing handicap children, then fabricating details of a Vet's story, and finally entangling himself in a fake murder investigation, by faking a phone call from a nonexistent serial killer. If you haven't seen The Wire, please go out now and buy it or rent it. Every season is fantastic, and a fine critique of police, schools, government, journalism, and society in general.
Now, being a writer, my beef is not with the writer of the article in the LA Times. Who can blame her, him, excuse me THEM for this. I'm sure that they didn't choose to make the media this way, but this insistence on sensationalism forces a narrative that is just not necessary. The story itself is the narrative, and I don't think it needs any embellishments. I just can't help but think that a writer on a story like this is pressured in to getting an angle that someone else doesn't have. Thus the poor three-year-old is thrown in there:
Outside Pizza Hut, where witnesses were being interviewed, 3-year-old Landon Stitt sat on the grass munching on his pizza. He spoke matter-of-factly, almost as if he was describing a video game.
"I saw it," he said. "They were fighting. They were shooting." He shaped his fingers into a gun, then fired into the air.
How is the phrase "almost as if describing a video game" relevant? What is that supposed to mean? I get it that we are dealing with the potential desensitization of an entire generation, but doesn't the shoot out itself give us this information? Isn't the witnessing Jingle All the Way meets Grand Theft Auto enough?
I can just hear the response. It's important to "find the the human angle" in every story. But why bother when the story sadly enough is so utterly human?
And don't even get me started on this map.
Oh, thanks, LA Times. If you hadn't drawn that nifty graphic, I would not have know that the shooting took place in Toys R Us, on a highway, next to some roads. That's a very informative map.
Finally, the article couldn't end without throwing in that Toys R Us would not like it if we associated this with Black Friday:
"Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to associate the events of today with Black Friday," the statement said.
Wow, yeah, sure, maybe it didn't have anything to do with Black Friday, but come on really? Must we be so sanctimonious about Black Friday? It is a stupid day that makes people do stupid things. I don't blame Black Friday either, but I also don't feel the need to refute the symbolism inherent in the events of Friday November 28th.
I haven't even touched the more tragic of the two stories. That of the man who was stampeded in the Walmart. Toys R Us may be right about their shoot out, maybe it didn't have anything to do with Black Friday. Walmart's stampede however, had so much to do with Black Friday and the insanity it can breed. Although blame is being thrown left and right, this is a larger problem then some lawyers and a trial can sort out. It's us, everyone. It's us unless we resist.
I will just end by telling you that after the man who died and the pregnant woman who was injured were carted away...people continued to SHOP.
Hello friends. It is a rainy Tuesday before Thanksgiving and we are probably all thinking about how many outfits we need to bring to our parents, and whether it is better to wear the red sweater to dinner or the blue one. Well, at least that is what I am thinking about.
So, is everyone getting ready for Capitalism's biggest holiday? Black Friday?
All the newscasters can talk about is what will happen on Black Friday? Will the fate of the American economy be determined Friday? Will the shopper see his shadow or will we have six more months of recession? Wait, oh, that's a different holiday.
I propose we change our national flag to the following:
My new favorite radio show is the The Takeaway. I love the snappy back and forth between John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji (best name ever!). Sometimes it is the beginning of this show that wakes me up. Sometimes the news sounds like a dream (President-elect Obama). Sometimes it sounds like a nightmare (economy, economy, economy).
So this morning, when I heard John say that the U.S. Treasury Department and The Fed bailed out AIG, I thought I had traveled through time.
And then I heard the word hanging on to the end of that statement. “Again.”
This morning I woke up and in what I thought was a dream state, heard Soterios Johnson say that the winds could be up to 40 miles per hour today.Whatever it is you do, no matter how much money you make, may you stay inside today.Forty miles an hour.That is some WTF news.
So, in light of that news, I don’t plan on going out today, except perhaps for my daily walk.In fact I haven’t been going out much lately, which makes Episode Two of Bee Thrifty less exciting.
Less exciting, it’s true, though abundantly more thrifty.
I think we can all learn from it. So, let us begin.
Hello everyone! My name is Christine Rath and I am new to the Neighborbee hood. My mission: To find you the good life on the cheap. I am a grad student and I pride myself on thrift. In these tough times, who couldn’t use a little cheap fun? Sans risk of VD, of course. I said cheap, not seedy!
This past Friday I wandered into Chelsea for the opening of 'Monitor' an exhibition by artist Noah Fischer at Claire Oliver. Fischer’s lo-tech sculptures made of oh-so-familiar machines may have you scratching your head, but hopefully it's because you're receiving his transmission regarding “calling into question the ultimate function of our entertainment- based culture” as the press release for 'Monitor' suggests. This is a good event for the poor in the wallet and for those who have joined the revolution against consumerism for moral reasons, as Fischer’s refashioning of the icons of our new gods, can help us feel like being poor isn’t a curse, but a virtue. I almost threw my iPhone in the Hudson on my way home.
My friends, it has been a while since I have posted here and a lot has happened to me. I lost my job. Well, sort of. I was fired.
Sort of.
I got laid off from Columbia University, the details of which are so boring that I don't feel like going into them here. The big news is that I have entered the MFA program at Brooklyn College, and I am a bona fide writing student. I quit smoking, and I haven't quite figured out how to spend a day. For example--today.
It is 4:00 p.m. and I have been sitting in the same chair for 7 hours. I have written four pages of a story that is totally unrelated to the one I have due on Sunday, and I have only written 2 pages of the story that is actually due. I have had 3 cups of coffee, some chili, 2 glasses of water, and a ricola. I have surfed around through facebook and found some people I know from high school. I have spent at least an hour perusing subliminal advertisement examples. I got to those because I had to google "coke cock"(research for the story that is not due on Sunday). And coke cock, not only lead me to the urban dictionary definition of a flaccid penis due to cocaine consumption, it also lead me to the image of a woman giving head that is hidden in the ice cubes on a coke poster -- coke cock.
Now, this is all endlessly diverting, and didn't I leave that job behind so that I could follow my creative whimsy wherever it lead me? But, coke cock? Really? It's only a step away from youporn. And yes, I know what youporn is.
The endless array of things I could do to fill my day are completely overwhelming and I am sure that according to one quiz or another I have ADD or ADHD, or something that keeps me from committing to doing the laundry, or going to Target, or ordering postcards for my pet portrait business, or watching Oprah, or WHATEVER, and instead has me making various lists that get lost in piles, that I will one day recover only to chide myself for not having done that! AAAAAHHH!!!! How in the hell did I organize an entire program of writers before this?
So, my friends, forget the how to's on designing your own stencils, or installing wall sconces--both terrifying projects in their own right especially to one who doesn't even know which Trader Joe's trail mix to buy--chocolate chunks, or dried mango, chocolate chunks or dried mango. Once again, AAAAHHHHHH! Forget these DIY manuals, I would like to write the DIY manual on how to pay your bills, maintain your friendships, go grocery shopping, and spend your day.
Would anyone buy that? Do you have anything to say to this? I welcome your comments.
On a lighter note, I did not watch the show "A Haunting" today, so I am less fearful that my house is haunted.
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