IT'S SNOWING!!!

It's been really cold in Vancouver for November.

Last night it started to snow and it's now 11 pm sunday and it just stopped. The whole city is
white, the trees are heavy with dusty white powdery snow and it's just beautiful (hard to drive though!)

I love the snow!

LOS PUBERTOS BABOSITOS!!!

Bueno, como en esa respuesta de Ana Laura si me oi un tanto violenta y me han llegado varios mails para contar la historia, hay les va.

Todos los martes hay salsa en un antro de Vancovuer que se llama Atlantis. Como fue Halloween hubo fiesta de disfraces. Y claro que fui. Pero cual fue mi sorpresa de que antro fue secuestrado por bolas y bolas de estudiantes de ingles, en su mayoria mexicanos, aunque habia latinos por todos lados.

Primero, las niñas. Unas muy guapas, otras fellonas, otras normales, pero TODAS con unas boquitas pero que de carretonero gañan. La mayoria vestidas como prostitutas y portandose como tales. Aclaracion, no disfrazadas de prostitutas. Bueno, pense, son jovencitas, se ven bien, es halloween, whatever?

Ya tiene un rato que traigo toz de perro viejo, en una de esas fui al bano y estaba atascado de pubertas fumando. En Vancouver fumar en lugares publicos es ilegal. Yo tociendo y con el humo peor. Cuando hacia pipi, un grupito de taradas que estaban ahi empiezan: hay, si a esa vieja le molesta tanto el humo que se vaya, y una de majaderias ..... Ya que sali de hacer pipi se hecharon otro comentario en espanol (claro que criticaban a quien entrara) y les respondi en ingles que tuvieran cuidado de quien hablan y que para su informacion era ilegal fumar en lugares publicos. Como buenas peladitas se ponen flamencas en espanol, hasta que me hartaron y les dije "go back where you come from" pero ya en espanol. Se les abrio la boca y se callaron. Pero era una bola como de 7, bien que me hubieran podido dar una paliza.

Despues todos los tontitos borrachos hasta las chanclas, las niñas haciendo unos shows que dan pena y lastima; los comentarios que les hacian los "ninos" y como ellos hablaban de las mujeres en la fiesta; aparte de que la mayoria de estos inquilino NO sabe bailar... el caso es que fuchi, fue fiesta de pubertos.
Obviamente me fui temprano.

Realmente no creo que TODOS los padres de estas gentes sean unos irresponsables que no les importen sus hijos/hijas. Pero es dificil no pensar eso viendo la falta de educacion, de clase y de auto respeto. Es una tristesa ver a tanta nina "bien" comportandose como pirujas baratas, con un sentido de que se merecen todo y pueden hacer lo que quieran sin importarles absolutamente nada mas que ellos.

Por un momento me preocupe y me dije: Carolina, ya envejeciste...estas hablando como anciano. Y despues reflexionando creo que no, para nada. A mi toda la vida me ha fascinado el reventon, hasta la fecha (que yo se que varias gentes me dicen a mi la puberta!) pero me vale, me gusta bailar, salir, divertirme, la gente etcetera. Creo que es crucial y muy importante que los jovenes se diviertan y se revienten y que hagan tonterias y necedades (yo las hice, y casi todos los que conozco!). Pero esa falta de respeto, ese "venderse" como bisuteria barata, la groseria y la vulgaridad....bueno, eso me repugno y me molesto muchisimo. Es triste realmente y despesperante. Me imagino si nos padres de estas gentes saben como se comportan sus hijos cuando estan solos. Y que ni me digan...yo y un grupo de 30 pubertos viajamos y estudiambos ingles en Canada, yo hice eso, o sea, no me lo platican. Y esa vulgaridad no habia. Hice tonterias...claro! pero al menos habia respeto y clase.

Los que se aparecieron el martes en el Halloween deberas estuvieron de MIEDO!!!

ABUSE AND WOMEN

In the last few months I have been meeting a ton of people, most of them divorced, separated, etc. Many of these people are women and I have heard stories that I thought were only on TV, or things of the past.

Seems that spousal abuse (whether the women are married, co-habitating or just dating) is common and rampant. It seems that it doesn't matter if the people involved are white, asian, hispanic, educated or not, wealthy or not. It's like, if you are in a relationship where the guy doesn't hit you...you are lucky!!! Well, I NEVER had to deal with that kind of issues, but it really breaks my heart to know that it does exist. In fact, on Friday's newspaper, the headline was: "A-G calls for fight against "cancer' of spousal abuse".

The article talks about a fourm organized by a Surrey based radio station called Radio India, as an emergency community response to the brutal murders of 3 women in the last 3 weeks. About 2,000 women - Indo-Canadian - one by one they stood up to tell tales of being beaten, slapped and thretened with knives and guns, etc. For some of us that might seem like extreme cases by stupid, fucking macho religious fundamentalists that hide behind religion to abuse women. But that 'cancer' is not only in the indo-canadian culture.

I know of plenty of women that are or have been the victims of abuse: physical, mental, emotional and/or financial. One does not have to be beaten to be abused. Cheating is abuse, emotional unavailability is abuse, financial control is abuse. When I hear guys constantly telling their wives, girlfriends or even daughters: you are fat, you are stupid, you are ugly, you are a bad mother, you don't know anything; ect, etc, that is abuse. The effects of abuse on women and children are immense and under studied. There is a lot of data on physical abuse, but how is emotional abused measured: I mean, you can't go to the police and say: my husband calls me fat all the time, can you please arrest him?

Now, of course there are plenty of women abusers, however, female being abused by males is more prevalent.

Do you know anyone being abused? do you care? What are we, as a society supposed to do about it? At the end of the day, the only ones that have the power to stop the abuse are the victims, however, they are the ones that have the least power to do so. The fear, the absolut lack of self-esteem and the little sympahty and support out there makes it incredibly difficult for these women to leave those relationships. I myself have thought many times: well, if she stays, she must like it! but really, that is a very judgemental assesment of the situation as nobody likes to be abused. Thought we have all those sayings like "aunque me pegue, lo quero".

HOw is it that truck loads of intelligent, beautiful and educated women end up in abusive relationships? I think the justice system should be HARD on those men. I think in Canada now the women don't have to press charges if they are beaten, anybody can do it for them. But that will only help the cases of physical abuse. How about emotional abuse? Who are those men anyway? I think mothers have a BIG part of it. I see so many moms spoiling their precious little boys and not teaching them how to be good men, not the intention, but definately the outcome. I've heard mothers telling their daughters: if you were nicer, thinner, not so demanding, etc, etc...: he wouldn't get so angry; he wouldn't drink that much; he would be better with the kids....FOR 2&^%%^^ sakes!! what message does that send to women???

All this came up for 2 reasons: first, a woman had been missing for a while, she was pregnant. They just found her charred remains along some truck route. This woman was a teacher, a wife, a mother, a sister. How can a woman (she was 4 months pregnant) be burned to death in this day of age? Apparently the husband and the brother in law are in custody. second: yesterday BB and I went to a movie (marie antoinette, i didn't like it that much, i really don't like sophia coppola's style), anyway, on the way out, you have to validate the parking ticket at the cashier. I've been going to that theatre for years, that's the system. The guy at the cashier first ignored me for about 5 minutes, then told me something that I didn't hear, and then he yelled at me and told me to bring the car. I go and get the car, get off and go again so he validates my ticket so I can get out. He dismissed me with a hand gesture and told me to go around....i was pissed off (pardon my french!). So I go around, and then I see a Hummer (obviously a guy driving) and he let them out, then another car with 2 guys returned to that till and he let them out, so I got even angrier and went back to that till (there was a loooong line up to get out the other way). The cashier again dismissed me like if I was invisible, or worse, like if I was a nuance of sorts. So I told him, YOU VALIDATE THIS NOW OR ELSE, he looked at me with rage, and ignored me. I started yelling him, and told him I had a pregnatn woman in the car and was trying to get out for over 20 minutes now. He tood the damn ticket and magnetized it and then threw it at me....I yelled at him again and left. The guy was east indian, damn fucking chauvinist bastard. I am PMSing which doesn't help, but if I could I would have just jumped him and given him a good beating....argghhh!! the total disrespect, it's unbelievable. He was letting men out, but he was making me stand in line for almost 25 minutes (AND there are 2 exits, it's 2 different parking lots, so it's not like I was trying to jump the cue).

Learning about the burnt woman made me sick, it made me sad, and it made me wonder how each one of us, as members of the human race living together on this planet can contribute to stop this??? And having to deal with such a bastard at the theatre's exit enraged me. And it is this big feeling of being powerless. All the parking garages in VAncouver are attended by east indians, so, who do I complain to. East Indian women are made by their families to not report domestic abuse "to save face". Gross, gross and disgusting.

by caring, by raising boys and girls with healthy self-esteem, by not blaming the victim, by demanding our governments to really punish these men (and women when necessary), what else.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

NYC halloween

Just came back from New York, one of my favourite places in the world. I love that city!
The neat thing about going back to one place many times is that you start seeing it through different eyes. The first time I was there my mouth was opened 24/7. This last time I noticed things like how crowded it is, and how noisy it is. One day I was walking to the conference at aroun 7:30 am and my ears hurt...the traffic noise!

I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact that I've been high on cold medication for about 2 weeks. I met several New Yorkers and it is amazing to hear their stories about living in the big apple. Salaries there don't seem to be that great -unless you are a high ranking executive - and the cost of living is ridiculous. I met a few MTV designers and a few have to have roomates in order to be able to afford their rent...many live in New Jersey, cheaper and quieter.

My friends, Mette, from Denmark, David from Seattle, and Marc from North Carolina

I went to the bi-annual GAIN conference presented by the AIGA (american institute of graphic arts). I love this conference because it focuses on the business part of design. The theme this year was "Design means business". I wish this kind of conferences were more geared to business people than to designers. It is always refreshing to hear that the perception of the real value of desing is not clear to the buyer of design...even in New York. So, in less sophisticated markets the challenge is even greater.

One presenter, Moira Cullen, design director for Coca-Cola NA, really inspired me. She talked about the evolution of brand collaboration and the strategy behind synthesis of brand and design management. I want to be like her when I grow up, and she was wearing this incredible Prada suit.

Another one that I loved was Michael Conforti, Ph. D. His presentation was on Archetypes, Image and Design from the perspective of the Jungian school of thought. He argues that visually and conceptually, what we know about life we learn from the patterns around us and those we create, that there is a universal and mythic dimension to images, and undestanding these allows us to be much more discerining when working with brand logos and designs. I think this was my most favourite lecture because many things clicke in my head with respect to the validity and importance of the work I do. At the reception that night I had a good conversation with the guy, and bought his book "Field, Form and Fate: Patterns of Mind, Nature and Psyche", dedicated the book. oooohhh, ahhhhh
I also had a short and intersting conversation with the guy that wrote the "Brand Gap" a must read for anyone interested in branding, designer or not.

Ji Lee, "The Bubble Project" was excellent. I love design anarchists that make a brainy statement. A guy with attitude BUT nice, intelligent and articulate. Check this out at: http://www.thebubbleproject.com.

And I thought one of the best presenters was Scott Williams, chief creative officer ( I LOVE that title) of Starwood Hotels and Resorts. He gave a very inspiring talk about "the obvious". His talk made something in my brain click, I love it when my brain clicks with things because it's like opening a door and all these ideas start to flow.

The conference was very good, but it wasn't as great as the one 2 years ago. Some of the presentations were boring or poor and really, for an event like that it's not acceptable.

I stayed at an amazing flat on the 39th floor of a building MidTown. WOW! the view. It is so nice to have very succesfull friends in high places that have access to those perks, and I was so lucky that the place was available. So thank you! I'm scared of heights, I spend the first night thinking how I would escape in case of fire, earthquake or break/entering, and I couldn't come up with anything. The only thing was that I'm glad I'm mobile and could run down the stairs, and in case of eathquake I would be on top of the people in the floors below. 2 nights the wind was HORRIBLE, at some point when I was walking back to the condo, it (the wind) threw me against a wall, now that is freaky!! and I could hear the wind roar and i thought the building would just collapse. then i fell asleep and I woke up and everyhting was just fine.

Awesome place, thanks Alex!

Drank copious amounts of alcohol, ate little and walked a lot. Saw friends that I met at the last conference and made some new ones. But I wasn't at my best at all, so everythink took a ton of effort and I came back more exhausted than when I left. My feet are not hamburgers any more. I hope to be back to the new apple again soon!

Mette and Carolina at some Soho bar