Whoa! Talk about accessorize.  When mom-dukes comes with it, does she ever.  Mrs. Gross looks propper, rocking these old school wu-tang color way killa bee yellow/black nike high tops and Eli, a maltese/poodle aka malty poo you could just eat for dinner.  When Skyler and I bought the Nike jawns for her on Mother’s Day, we were disappointed only to learn they barely saw the light of day, however, they’ve recently made a couple street appearances.
After being dropped off at work, my mom shouted “Hey, call me sometime!”  only to have a dude 20 years younger than her roll up and holler at her, “Hey Miss, I’ll call you if that punk doesn’t!”  WHAT!?!?! THAT’S MY MOM, FOOOOOOOL!!!

As seen at sxsw… debt and the econ crisis has struck a pop culture nerve as being… cool?  I mean, I remember growing up, if you could claim you were poor, like really poor, it was cool.  Either super poor or uber blue chip dynasty rich was what was up.  But I’m happy to see that young’ns can have a sense of humour ’bout it.

When I see this application created for FB, I’ll quit. Oh, and btw, what is this sxsw meltdown a la Burning man “decompression“? Gimme a break, ya’ll were at a music festival.  Life must be so hard.

The ferrari shop across from my spot always comes correct.  Apparently it’s one dude who owns both of these whips, one’s his wife’s and one he keeps for a special lady friend.

I couldn’t help but notice how intuitive Facebook is, it’s creepy.  Nice to see Zuck is responding appropriately to users’ privacy concerns. I took this screen shot of some ads I was served recently, damn me for not getting the title on the top ad, which read “Wanna be a Slumdog Millionare?”  Uh, no thanks… next.  But how did FB know that I was thinking about real Indian slums at that very moment, in addition to entertaingin the thought of  becoming a yoga teaching, of course getting my training in a tropical paradise?!!  Either FB is really reading my mind OR the filter picked up on the fact that I live in SF?  Probably the former since nobody in SF is interested in either of those ads, right?

Two years ago I almost didn’t hire a kid who turned out to be one of the hardest working, sharpest, creative people I have ever worked with to date (the blog he “operates” can be found here) because he left off the last number of his phone number on his resume. I took that to be a gross oversight and character trait reveal to his lack of attention to detail.

Fast forward, and I’m now the laughing stock of a few recruiters and senior level ballers at some not-to-be-named companies.

In retaliation for acquiring brandongross.com early on, the wannabe brandon gross, based in Seattle swooped in on brandongross[at]gmail.com, prompting me to use my middle initial in my gmail account. I failed to publish my accurate address on my CV, now dude in Seattle is getting spammed. My email to the faux BG :

Olivia sent me a link to a movie she swore I had to see.  I like Woody Allen, and I’d never seen this film.  She sent me this link via fb, and now I’m going to buy the dvd or rent it.  fb and youtube are so close to being the walmarts of internets… eyeballs, brand recognition, product?  Anyway, Studio X and maybe Soon Yi will benefit at least from this.

[youtube P5Qdp17rBEw]

I was pretty appalled after reading today’s LA Times Calendar section cover article, “Critic Ben Lyons Gets Many Thumbs Down”, for a few reasons. (Full disclosure: While I am not a celebrity, Ben is a close friend of mine whom I go back with.)

Without delving too deeply into why I think the harsh crit of Ben is so undeserved, I’d like to put forth a couple points that may shed a counter argument to what is clearly a threatened old media guard putting up their dukes to fend off the next gen.

Ben is certainly an every guy/girl’s guy. I think what has truly put off many of his detractors is his ability to represent and connect with a broad audience, unlike the erudite and mostly pretentious film (or any other art) critics of yesteryear.

While my personal taste in film often conflicts with Ben’s, I still respect his opinion as a genuine film nut. He has an acute ability to recognize and relate to a popular product unlike anybody I know. Having studied film and media in one of the more pretentious academic settings, I can certainly understand how the high and mighty opinions of those who view film through a very specific lens and frame their opinions and criticism in terms of New Wave and Neo-Realist movements can easily hate on the dude.

Ben is in many ways not simply a film critic, but an entertainer himself. In a similar way that Perez Hilton is not simply a gossip columnist, but a public personality in his own right, Ben is also that. Whether critics/journalists accept or reject this notion of multimedia personalities extending beyond that of the confines of a singular medium is really the issue here.

Yo fools, get off of Damien Hirsts’ dilznick. Inanimate objects with ice or Svaroski crystals or what not don’t make a statement any more. It’s 09, Obama’s in office, and bedazled tmobile sidekicks are uncool to even 5th graders. Get a clue. Or maybe this is a Hirst piece, I didn’t even check.

This piece gathered a nice little crowd around it and is actually a piece part of my friend, Natasha’s mothers’ gallery, did you follow that? If not, check it. I wanted to take some video, because it’s actually playing James Brown through the tuner. Kinda hot. especially the post it note that says “don’t fucking touch” on it. Natasha, who’s the artist here?

This year, phallic inspired art was out and vaginal themed monstrosities was way in… Check out this felt vagina. It would go perfectly in the atrium.

Ikea decided to release a special edition line of furniture, “Dieter von Buseen Bau never did acid” is the name. Actually, a really up and coming artist created this non functional piece of art.

When it comes to classy shit, you really got to give it up to Miami. Not only does the 4th largest boat in the world, the Sea Fair, sell over priced diamond rings (b/c i know what the going rate for diamonds is) but they’re offering a special on floor 3, port side, to buy a futuristic cyborg trumpet playing statue. Speechless.

Finally somebody gets it…

“Maria, I swear to you… 5 years ago, me and Mortie rolled up in this bitch and basically bought the whole goddamned convention center.”

“Ahh, is that when you got the Basquiat?”

“Indeed.”