I've also started to read, yes, to all my dear close friends...Wendy has started to read...and it's not a book with only pictures, but yes, a "real" book. The Da Vinci Code as a matter of fact...Dan Brown's new thriller abt Opus Dei, "corporal mortification", and my favourite, my idol, an architectural, artistic talent, and one of the most controversial and political Renaissance man...Leonardo da Vinci...I went to nearly all the exhibitions on the private drawings of Da Vinci...in London, Paris, New York etc...The book is also half based in Paris and half based in New York...which makes me miss the good old French city even more...Kristina, I'm starting to think of you now too...*sigh* girl, if we were still there, we can call up Pascal and drive to Amsterdam again...oh the fun...I'm only on the 11th Chapter, so I haven't really got "into" the book, since it's over 100 chapters long...but it's an easy read, one that keeps you reading...and I have plenty of time...so, well, the book continues. [Thank you Lydia, I'm going to get my own copy soon...and when I do, I'll return your book, along with the other books I've borrowed.]

For Chloe: the trip to Paris was amazing, thank you for the dessert last night, it was great, it was also great to have seen you. I don't know if I told you this already, but sometimes, trips and travelling just makes you realise things you will never realise if you were in one place for a long time. Paris made me more aware of what I wanted in life, the "quality of life", rather than the "quantity of life" that occupied me for the longest time. I think living in NYC for so long has finally made me jaded...the Europe trip has most definitely "refreshed" my views. So Chloe, I hope that was a better answer than the one I gave you yesterday.

September 2003
092903: Man...never again am I going to pull together a gathering, well at least never at SAGE~!! Am I soooo pissed or what. Drama once again, when least needed. Lydia got her $400 mobile, a Prada Mobile strap [ouch], & $80 stolen~! If anyone would like to donate to her funds let me know, and I'll give you her email LOL b/c she is currently using my old mobile, and I must say, that thing is a piece of crap and really ghetto. Anyhow, I made sure the thief and her cheap J.LO wannabe butt didn't get away w/ this as fast and easy as she wanted. These people weren't even supposed to be sitting at our Reserved area...by the time Lydia looked over from the dance floor, she saw this cheap Latino chick stealing from her purse! Nothing against Latinos, cool? Just to make it clear, Milly if you read this, Milly you are my best PR girl and I love you, but this one at the club is mad cheap and I'm not going to be PC abt this~! [Okay, I get it, I'm just diggin myself all the way to China, aren't I?] Just really pissed, so apologies...also [no surpirse btw] MEN are sooooooo useless~! Six 6" feet tall guys and nothing done, men, why are you so guys so useless? Other than for holding our bags when in need, I really don't see the point...Ended up calling the cops and making sure that these kids didn't get away by myself and with assistance by Tanya. Well I guess I can give a little credit for Derek who held our mobile, and Darin for looking after my umbrella and Tom, well Tom, what should I say? lol, I don't know, maybe you should get some booty shaking classes from Chris...back to story...ended up sitting in the back seat of the cops car while documenting the case--signed as being Lydia's witness...but before that, I made sure that before that cheap chick and her accomplice left I was able to grab the accomplices info. So basically, Tanya and I grabbed the wallet off his hands and wrote down his NYS ID and SSN on Tanya's book [don't ask me why Tanya had a book at a club, but maybe she thought she might get bored?~] Tanya, thanks girl, you really made it a lot easier.

On lighter note, some scout from the Wilhelmina modeling Agency asked me to make an appt, which I thought was just pure hilarious~! Personally, I don't think I'm anorexic nor good looking enough to be a model...Overall, I guess my weekend wasn't all that interesting other than that, but went to watch the Magdelene Sisters, that Irish Movie that was really hard to swallow...for a non Holocaust or Nanjing Massacre movie... Well at least I guess I was able to show my loyalty when my friends needed me the most...Just don't mess with me when I'm pissed *sigh* Lydia, sweetie, again, I'm sorry that this happened...

092203: Sorry Kiran, but I have finally put up the Pictures that you've requested. Hope that everything is going well for everyone. Been out of touch with New York for so long~ Been in Paris for the past three months, traveled all over France--a little to Barcelona [Gretel "it's theeze big~!"], Berlin, Geneve [Geneva]. Loved it there [Europe], think I'll move there sometday...
This is for you Ellen, "Sorry abt not going to Ireland, it was on my plan...*grin* it really was...anyhow, you can bring me there when you go home ~.^"
Shout outs for my dearest Kristina: we are definitely planning a trip there soon! Love you girl, you've been my partner in crime/clubs/everything throughout my Paris trip, you're beautiful and love you~! Gretel, hope you and your dramas are done with, and I still can't believe you made me go to that piercing shop with you...I hope you didn't get infected after your return. Thank you thank you thank you soooo much Brian and Jason, you two are the best, thanks for taking care of Campbell for me, you two are such awesome guys~! Agnes [les deux] and Delphine, tu me manque~! Delphine, tu est tres mignone~! I will def come visit you again in Cannes/Grasse, maybe next summer? The bikini tans are worth it!
Now that I'm back in reality, working...kind of, and well, a little party here and there I guess.

For people who are interested, me hosting a Party at SAGE this:
Saturday: September 27, 2003
SAGE w/ DJ Marshall
[he used to work for MTV...Hip Hop, Old School Mixes, House, a little here and there]
331 Park Ave South
[Between 23rd and 24th ... I think]
Email me for Guestlist/VIP
Bring your friends~!

For those who I know who are still studying...Wish you all the best of luck~! [Yes, your life does suck, doesn't it? j/k]
Life's been treating me well these days, I guess, having a fun, yes a just a little, went to see the Dahli Lama this Sunday at Central Park, that was a fun...many many people...too many... :

May 2003
052303: Wow! It has nearly been a month since I've updated this site. I've not even put up any of my Birthday Pictures on yet! [Sorry Milly, I'll get to it, I promise...I'll also come to your place to pick up the cans...I promise..really!] Now I'm even graduated!!

Anyhow, I think the only reason I'm updating it now, is b/c I am firstly mad sick from this month's hectic and life threatening senior projects, models, commencement etc. I just completed my new half-FLASH based site for my Senior Project. Feel free to take a look. It's a project based on Brand Marketing, and Brand Identitiy in General [a little on Brand Harmonization, a little on Marketing, a little on Advertising and a little on what I think the MTV Culture is really about] Basically, the project is an accompliation of Media/Brands/Gen X & Y etc. Hope you find it interesting, b/c I sure found the topic interesting.
Please click here to be redirected. Thanks for looking!! I'll be updating the site soon with more stuff, I have a month full of pictures to post up!

PS: Cynthia, Happy 21st Bday, you're the best, only a best friend like you would fly all the way here for my Commencement, not to mention missing your flight back home!!! LOL Anyhow, miss you already. Look at what I finally did after you're gone...click here

**Be Warned: The following are two commentaries that I wrote with regards to Hookway and Rushkoff that I wrote in March. Interesting contrast on Branding, Marketing, Advertising and the relation to Architecture.**

This is also a comment blog for Hookway's article about Perspective Mapping and cultural mapping [just thought it might be interesting to read]:
Perspective mapping or cultural mapping. For me the difference is architecture and society. Figure one, looked very similar to the many strategic marketing diagrams, or tertiary etc. systems. It's impressive how Hookway analyses the system of mediation and how he views that "mapping is a form of control in that it determines what is seen and how it is seen." B/c I feel that many culture formats and trends are set upon this basis.

The visual power of mapping is an instrument used to enhance experience and in many ways creates a direction. And when he speaks of "captured material feeding backwards to affect the source material itself...thereby altering it," it kind of reminds me of beaming, how people nowadays beam each other information whether through the cellular system or through using their Palms. It's also interesting how he thinks that "the game is ultimately active," and I totally agree that most of the time, "social production has come to rely almost completely on an economy of decision making." In some ways, the social nature of the society is who makes the final decision, if not the lum-sum of all decisions. The "socio-techincal system" that encompasses the "forms of technology mediation" really does turn the tables and make decisions made by the individual or the whole affect the general environment--everything becomes interrelated and the lines become blurred.

Hence it seems, there isn't a limit in the cultural phenomena, and the culture "space" b/c everyone and everything is mapped according to each other. The game environment is as Hookway puts it, "both spatial and temporal" whether it be a video PSII game or the game of culture and life--decision making determines who runs the game. Therefore, with a strong economic force, the game is more exciting, yet more volatile. However, this risk is what makes the decision flux. Interesting little article. Content wise, it really makes one think how consumption and relation intermingle through the game economy.

My comment on Rushkoff's theories on Branding and Marketing:
Interesting little article on marketing and consumer advertising. However one must realise that marketing and advertising has been in the industry for years, and without marketing or advertising any profitable art culture would cease to exist [ie the fashion industry].

Look at the Murakami LV bag for instance, ever since it's debut in late November of 2002 for the Spring/Summer 2003 show in Paris, the bag has been a sudden wonder for Vuitton. Not that people would know, since it's a retro blast from the past anyway, b/c Murakami Takashi has been designing for years, but since it's on a LV bag now, it's a new thing.

The LV label and Marc Jacobs has now reused Murakami's ancient Japanese in NYC talents and just brought it to life and profit through a good sense of taste. Industries of all sorts look towards these trends. Ever since the debut of the bag, the Murakami LV has been on waiting lists for ages, celebs like EVE [singer/rapper/actress/designer/anything you can market] has carried different variations of the bag to even the Mercedes-Benz 2003 Fasion week last Feb during the snow storm. People don't care what's happening the in world as long as marketing continues. And according to the marketing and advertising industry, if there was war, the job stats for marketing and ad firms will up 4%.

An amazing 4%, can you believe it? Marketing and Advertising will never die, and the day it dies, so will pop culture, trends, fads, and everything else that goes with it. Without marketing there's nothing.
The label and branding will live on, firms like Landor, Y&R and more will also live on. People know that no matter what the condition of the world, people want to see things advertised, I mean, come on, even if there was war, don't you think propaganda itself isn't marketing?

As architects, we should know that building a building or designing a store front is just as marketable as branding and designing for a Fall collection for Prada. It's out there, it's trying to state something, and it's forming a trend-- whether someone likes it or not.

In two of the three articles, I don't get why people are always talking about the 'new generation' in relation to 'rave' music. I mean, yeah, we know what raves are, and yeah, it's out there, and yeah it's been out there for its underground years and now onto tabloids, but what kind of statement is the author really trying to state? Was there a point in putting that in? Techno has, and will always have a cult following with or without the marketing, b/c 'without marketing' is marketing itself for something like raves.
And, for Rushkoff to even mention 'looking to yourself' is ironic, b/c I sometimes feel that architects themselves don't 'look into' themselves, since a majority of them wear the Prada Black leather boots and the black outfits, anyway. I mean, what is looking into yourself for a trend, when he even mentions that when you do, people end up taking it away and commercializing it anyway? What is that guy trying to say, other than the fact that he doesn't like marketing and advertising? When have you thought of something without referencing it back to a commercial or ad or anything you saw [period]?
The success of people like Ralph Lauren, Versace, DKNY, Prada, A&F, Gucci, etc, and new comers like Zac Posen in the fashion world, or infact any branding world from Gillette Razors to Lean Cuisines, is that they have enough advertising involved through the right networking...don't tell me this Rushkoff guy doesn't own a pair of Hanes or Fruit of the Loom underwear, b/c I bet you if he's so afraid, or be anti-marketing/branding enough to not buy anything from them, he might as well just grow his own food in a farm and be Amish!

And for those who have never seen the Murakami Spring 2003 Collection for LV, one must go see, b/c the cute Flash site will just make you wanna know more about Vuitton: http://www.vuitton.com/en/index.jhtml

PS: if this guy is able to graduate from Princeton with a magna cum laude for an MFA, I really don't understand why he's writing such contradicting and ironic articles about topics he's done and said in his "eight best-selling books on new media and popular culture.

For December 2003 to Present Entries: Please Click Here

For January 2002 to April 2003 Entries: Please Click Here

Old Thoughts and Adventures 2002:

Want to Crash at My Place? [Choose One] + E90's [& Lexington] New York, NY USA + Vancouver, Canada [Yes, Canada]