MotherPie

Why Magazines Are Mirrors (2008 Best)...

I love the culture to be found in magazine covers -- it is a mirror to ourselves in U.S. society.  And of course, I think the New Yorker and New York Magazine covers capture sophisticated culture, not pop culture, the best.  For our culture of fear and the political year that had moment-after-moment of surprises, twists and turns, my favorite is the New Yorker cover at left. The War on Terror remains in our subconscious, a never ending nightmare.

The culture of hope, as in Obamahope, is Time's #1 magazine cover for the year (below, right).

Mart Pasetsky's 2008 cover awards give a glimpse of some of the year's best.  I leave you with this, the year the internet surpassed everything but tv for national and international news. 

Magazines should stay tangible for the cultural mirror they illustrate and this makes them most medialistically relevant.

Our wrappers, our visual literacy, ourselves, our statements.

Culture of Connection...

When media theorist Marshall McLuhan said media would become extensions of ourselves, I don't think he thought we'd be forever connected.  Apparently, our culture of intangible connections through our cell phones is becoming so significant it has become a burial accountrement, as much as our clothing signifies our self beyond our skin.  We are left naked and bare without this symbolic link to our identity.

This tech appendage makes presence less literal, in life as well as death.

A deceased Manhattan lawyer was buried with his cellphone and his number is inscribed on his headstone under the words Rest in Peace. His family still leaves messages and pays the bill, according to the article in December's New York Post (via textually.org). 

So much for the idea that you can't take it with you.  Hang on to that number. It is you. The mobile you, six feet under even. I never thought when we kept our Atlanta cell number when we moved to NYC then to Santa Fe that I would be forever marked as a Southerner.  My friends know me as 404, still. Sometime after we left Texas cell phone numbers could be kept and are no longer linked to place. I think I need a new permanent number.  I never thought about heavenly connections in quite this way. Death does no have to be the end. If the bill gets paid.

What Newspapers Are Good For...

Hours spent yesterday reading books by the fire which I started with newspapers.  As I wrapped cherished ornaments with old Sunday NYTimes and boxed them oh-so-carefully for storage until next year, the odd thought hit me: what will my children use to pack up their valuables if newspapers are no more?

The American Society of Newspaper Editors is thinking of removing "paper" from the name.  The internet has surpassed all other media except tv for the major source for national and international news, according to Pew (chart at right).

Popular Play...

 Isn't this photo charming?  We see our children at play, but not often do we capture lambs at play. Richard Peters' Spring Lamb became an immediate hit when it was highlighted on Digg this month. The self-taught U.K.photographer, says the year-old image is by far his most popular. It appeared in a U.K. newspaper's "viral e-mail of the week" section and won the BBC's Countryfile 2007 competition.

I can see why so many were enamoured with this photo.

The Art Of Thanks...

Being thankful, a simple attitude that looks for goodness, is a fundamental key to living well.

A handwritten thank-you?   With a pared-back Christmas and a family gift exchange game,  my children were excited, truly thrilled, that this meant the only thank-you's they had to write were to their grandmother.  Woo-hoos galore.  These children were raised not to play until all thank-you's were written.  They don't know what they are missing...

My favorite gift?  Thanks, a book I'd mentioned to my mother, who has been ahead, intuitively, of all the studies in the new field of happiness.  An attitude of gratitude may be one of the true keys to living a good life.  When she came down with breast cancer 24 years ago, she faced it daily in a new journal of thanks, noting each day three things she was most thankful for. 

One take-away as I nestle by the fire reading the book: writing a letter to thank someone for some thing that truly made a difference in your life and then delivering the letter in person can have a residual impact for days and days (and even longer) upon one's feeling of happiness. 

Bergdorf Goodman's windows this Christmas in Manhattan featured one display for stationery, a snippet of which I've posted above at left.  The art of being thankful is an approach to life and living that makes a difference.   I'm stocking up on Thanks, written by one of the leading researchers on gratitude, Robert Emmons.

 

Blessings to All...

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

glitter-graphics.com

'Twas The Night Before Christmas...

My first memory of Santa was the Coke Santa.  Maybe that is why now I stress the historical Santa instead of the commerical one. Our long-held tradition for Christmas Eve is to give recognition to the historical origins of the holiday in two ways: 1) attending a Christmas Eve church service, and 2) the recitation of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. 

An old retablo icon of St. Nicholas is one of my most cherished decorations and nearby is a little collection of Santa Clauses that now, in Santa Fe, are clustered under a collection of New Mexico Spanish Colonial retablos and santos. St. Nicholas was a monk living in Turkey in the 3rd century and his charitable selfless works led to him being named a saint and he became the most popular saint in Europe,  and is known as the saint of children and sailors.

Santa caught on big-time in America when Clement Clarke Moore published a poem December 23, 1932 - now known as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. He had written this for his daughters and it was originally titled “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.”

Trying to tamp down the idea of Santa Claus as the Saint of All Things Commercial is a swim-against-the-tide effort in our culture.  Still, I try.  Winter solstice-turned Catholic Church holiday, the idea of God's gifts and our gifts to one another.... well. The message gets muddled. Sitting out is a Charlie Carillo (Santa Fe's most famous santero) creche scene along with a nativity scene by a Santa Clara potter. It is art, history and religion, culture and traditions, family and friends and a season to celebrate these things as we share them together.  Happy Holidays!

Yellow? Black is Where It's At....

Color me colorless, but black is the new black is the new black.  Besides being practical, which is something needed in these dour times, it is a serious functional color.  When Pantone announced it's new color for 2009, Mimosa - "a warm and engaging yellow" I thought: ugh. 60's redux, next up: shag carpet.  But for a little accent here and there?  ok. maybe. Pantone's reasoning: "Mimosa represents the hopeful and radiant characteristics associated with the color yellow. Mimosa is a versatile shade that coordinates with any other color, has appeal for men and women, and translates to both fashion and interiors."

Black: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau (Princeton University Press, $35) just came out in November and is listed as one of the top art and design books in the NYTimes Critic's picks 2008 Gift Guide.

I think we're a year early for this new day dawning intensity. Or maybe not.  Bold? Color me questioning.

Ramble: Santa Ho Ho Hos and Uh Uh Ohs...

5,000 Santas gathered in NYC just for fun. Not for tummy tucks, not for a meeting, but just to gather.  NYTimes Street Fashion Photographer Bill Cunningham captures the whimsical folly of it all.

Wasn't Bristol Palin supposed to be married to her baby daddy by now?  Before she has that (some say second?) baby, due yesterday?

2008 will be seen as the year when online media surpassed print, tv and radio.

Whoa Whoa Whoahs: YouTube Visionary Award was given to Queen Rania of Jordan who says, when receiving the big honor: "We are stronger when we listen and wiser when we share... breaking down the barriers clip by clip."   She and Obama are the two world leaders exercising new tech communication tools the most.

Four days until Christmas Cheers.  I wonder if I'll see a Santa on the Santa Fe ski slopes today.

Tumblr and Tumblers...

Good ideas?  My mother gave me Tervis Tumblers for Christmas awhile back and we've loved them ever since.  They are guaranteed for life, they don't sweat, go in the dishwasher, don't leave rings, and they have an insulation that keeps the drinks cold.  Custom photos in the glasses - a cute idea. I bet one of their top sellers will be OU glasses for those wanting to serve drinks for the National Championship game watching parties.  You can get all sorts of glasses -- shells for a beach house, deer heads for hunters, college logos, etc.

Recently I played around with a variation of blogging, Tumblr, a tumblelog.   It doesn't have a way to interact as blogs do -- no comments and such.  I set one up and named it Times Intangible.

The plastic tumblers might last for life.  In these hard times, Tumblr is getting financial backing and growing which says something.