But I’m Feeling Anti-Social!
When talking to a friend tonight about how sick I’ve been feeling lately, he asked, “Is there anything more than feeling sick? You are getting me worried–you haven’t even blogged for a while.”
It’s just funny how we become so immersed in the content we create and the communities where we participate, that if we don’t make some noise for a few days, people wonder where we go.
I’ve been feeling really sick for the past few days, and the extra energy I’ve had hasn’t really been going into Social Honeycomb. And isn’t that part of the beauty of blogging? I have no deadlines, no one to report to, no editorial calendar to contend with… If I’m feeling like poo, I have the luxury of just being lazy about producing content.
I’m on my couch, watching the SYTYCD auditions and gagging at food commercials. I’m going to be fine, but that’s what I’m doing while I’m feeling anti-social and sick-like.
Boo the conversation, boo participation, boo anything that requires more focus than just lying here doing nothing.
I’ll be back and nice when I’m healthy, yo.
Congratulations, Class of 2008
As I am scrambling to get my apartment looking like something resembling the word “clean” before my family arrives today, I wanted to take a breather and give a shout out to my fellow BU 2008 grads.
I’ve made some incredible friends over the years I’ve spent at Boston University. So many people have made me laugh, inspired me, challenged me and taught me new things since September 2004 when we all arrived in Boston to start the crazy chapter in life called college.
Congratulations, my friends: Maria Thurrell, Vanessa Gerard, Tiffany Maykel, Pamela Seiple, Rebecca Corliss, Juliana Buendia, Pallavi Joshi, Maanuv Khurana, Shivna Vasavada, Ryen Robinson, Danielle Katz, Anna Rose Roisman, Ashley Haliko, Lauren Fox, Elise Kohen, Lexi Kalil, Liz Sicuso, Monica Derevjanik, Emery Markles, Allison Lavey, Natasha Patel, Cynthia Jorge, Amir Raed, Lara Quest Schmitz and countless others.
I hope the “real world” treats you well and you grab life by the balls every chance you get. W00t 2008!
Ridiculosity: The Philips Smart Handbag
My bud Brian Polensky pointed this techie handbag out to me, and I obviously had to share it here. If this thing ever becomes reality, someday I may be plugging my handbag into my laptop… Sexy.
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Lez Get It Poppin’ at POPSignal
I’ll be at the POPSignal Party tonight at Tequila Rain in Boston with a few hundred tech rock stars. Let it be noted that I may or may not have a Flip and I may or may not get you on video. Looks like there’ll be a huge turn out, so here’s to a great night. See you there, Boston!
Happy Mothers’ Day, Mom
My mom is amazing.
She is a wonderful example of motherhood.
She taught me big lessons about love and friendship.
She encourages me to be my best in everything I do.
She keeps me laughing all the time.
She is beautiful.
She is there as a shoulder for me to cry on whenever I need her.
She reminds me that there are always other ways to look at a problem.
She continually teaches me what true generosity means.
She is absurdly proud of my successes.
She has always stood up for me.
She reminds me that smiling makes all the difference.
She has a silly, infectious laugh.
She made me noodle soup and tuna sandwiches all the time when I was a kid.
She took me to countless dance classes and sports practices and supported all my interests.
She cheered me on in every performance and game.
She is a legend among my friends.
She loves me despite all the billions of times I was (and am) a pain in the ass.
She is a woman I will always look up to and admire.
She’s my mom, and I love her.
Today’s Honey: May 8, 2008
As promised, Today’s Honey is the quilted leather edition. I can’t get enough of this, so I might just have to blog about handbags exclusively from now on. I honestly haven’t decided if that statement is serious or not yet.
Behold my favorite new purchase–the Burberry Montgomery bag in black:
Women dot Alltop dot Com
This isn’t really breaking news, but I wanted to do what I said I’d do: share that Social Honeycomb is part of the Alltop network. Guy Kawasaki is at it again, exciting people on the Web. If you haven’t checked out Alltop yet, you should take a look. There’s some really great content organized into a wide variety of topics (Get it? All topics? All the top stories?) on the site. For some unknown reason, Social Honeycomb made the cut and has a spot on the Women topic page.
So go, poke around, find something new… You know the deal. This is just another great way to find and join invigorating conversations.
Handbags, Brandbags: Louis Vuitton Gets Mugged, Doesn’t Support Darfur
I’ll take any chance I can get to blog about handbags. Sometimes I just make reasons up, but there’s actually an important conversation weaving through the Web right now about a famous French top-handle.
As it’s been discussed here, here, here and here, Louis Vuitton is suing 26 year-old Danish artist Nadia Plesner for using an image very similar to one of their monogram totes in an anti-genocide campaign to support Darfur. This is a tough one, buddies–there’s some cognitive dissonance going on here. I instinctively think first, “Eww, why is LV being so heartless and money-hungry about this? Darfur needs our help, and instead of freaking out, they could be finding a way to meaningfully contribute to the cause, even if they were dragged into it.” But at the same time, my instincts say, “I see where your head’s at, LV. Protect your brand–you go and take her down for clearly exploiting your image.” I admit, I love luxury handbags, but my gut ultimately goes with my first response.
The image on Nadia’s “Simple Living” t-shirt and poster (a jab at Paris Hilton’s reality show The Simple Life), pictured at the right, depicts a naked African child holding a Tinkerbell-like chihuahua and what is very obviously her take on a white/monogram multicolore Louis Vuitton handbag. Her description of the illustration reads (eloquently unedited):
My illustration Simple Living is an idea inspired by the medias constant cover of completely meaningless things. My thought was: Since doing nothing but wearing designerbags and small ugly dogs appearantly is enough to get you on a magasine cover, maybe it is worth a try for people who actually deserves and needs attention.
Without this glaringly negative comment, perhaps Louis Vuitton wouldn’t have gotten so bent out of shape over the image. But, I can see why they did. She’s essentially equating the LV brand (and chihuahuas?) with meaninglessness and media whoredom–not the prettiest epithets.
On Nadia’s site, there are plenty of supporters telling her to keep fighting the lawsuit and to continue standing up for herself because ultimately, her goal is a good one. And, it really is. One hundred percent of the money she makes from t-shirt sales goes to the Divest for Darfur fund.
So, does the end justify the means? Maybe.
I think Louis Vuitton, although perhaps within their rights, should have approached this differently. Yeah, at this point it looks like LV essentially got mugged and someone ran off with their handbag. However, with a different approach this could have been brand sharing instead of brand stealing. Like letting a friend borrow your bag because it went perfectly with her outfit. It’s still yours, but you’ll let her use it because in the end, everyone looks hot.
I wish Louis Vuitton had proactively done something to counter Nadia’s negative picture of the brand. Had they publicly shown where they’ve been a socially responsible company or, even better, struck a deal with her to donate a “meaningful” amount of money to her campaign, they may have avoided some of this media messiness. Given all the legal fees, taking that money and donating it to Darfur would probably have cost the company less and resulted in good press.
Louis Vuitton also could have created a place for people to talk about the situation to engage their various publics in a conversation about luxury brands, genocide, charity and anything in between. Just throwing out a lawsuit in this situation really wasn’t the sexiest choice. I think it’ll be hard for LV to rally support on this one. Either they’ll lose (which seems to be the more likely outcome) and be the brand that wanted to sue the girl trying to save Darfur, or they’ll win and be the brand that sued the girl trying to save Darfur. When the health and integrity of the brand is the important issue here, I think dropping the suit and redirecting their energy in a more helpful way would serve Louis Vuitton better in the long term.
I know this isn’t exactly breaking news, but what do you think? Is Louis Vuitton going overboard? Are they right on target? Should chihuahua breeders sue Nadia Plesner, too? If you have any takeaway thoughts, I’d love to see some reactions, ideas or new solutions in the comments section.
In other news, I got a new handbag today. And no, it’s not a Louis Vuitton. (It’s Burberry, *sigh, so pretty.*) Watch for a Today’s Honey post with a photo or two. You know you can’t wait. And don’t even think about mugging me. You think a lawsuit is bad? I’ll cut you.
