Curtains for Caribou Barbie

In a long drawn out email with friends the topic came up as to whether we should tear Palin down after the fact. My vote is " yes". I was accused of not following the "Obama way". Whatever.

I think the woman is dangerous and the policies that put her into office are dangerous. I think a message should be put out that it's no longer acceptable for people to this country based off of shiny smiles and good looks. So when you find out " Palin doesnt' know Africa is a continent not a country" or " she throws temper tantrums and makes her interns cry" or that 'her spending at Saks was abusive and shocking to the donor whose pocket it raped'. Its important to talk about it and bury her with it, so we never see such an arrogant, careless, and ridiculous candidate in our midst again.

They needed to stop comparing her to Hillary and start comparing her to George Bush.

Bye-bye Barbie.

The Corporate Edge ( What Are they Smoking Over At Kenneth Cole?)

Aparently the Wild Stuff: Their latest Ad Campaign, We All Walk In Different Shoes shows variety in American Life. A Punjabi Playboy, A double Amputee, An Albino, A Cancer Survivor, A Hasidic Reggae Artist, A Transexual and her boyfriend...

Make up your own mind. All I want to know is who is the new creative director?

Change the Thought Posters

This is Just Cool-Now go Vote.

Emergency Blog:Slant Eyed Spaniards

First off, I want to say this whole thing has caused me a great deal off pain. Three [count 'em] THREE of my friends cursed me raw via email over this. They were up all late at like 2:15 in the morning giving me the digital business. { Drink some damn cocoa and get to bed!} There were exclamation points, curse words, and even other languages. Then after taking me emotionally hostage they demanded that I include this in a blog. So I'm going to say the thing that got me into trouble with them: I DON"T Think the Spaniards were purposefully being racist with this incredibly stupid move. I don't think they meant to insult or even to tease their asian hosts. I think they misguidedly were trying to give the Chinese a shout out, that just went really wrong. I mean why would they intentionally be clowning them? They should just fire the PR guy and call it a day.

Yeah! So what Tish, Chris and Mark...what you got to say about it now? For real though< i'm not putting out a new challenge. Y'all play rough! But I'm loving the passion, as always. Lol!

Kh.

Son of a...

This is in from my new  design "mentee" Karelia Jo Moore.   See? mentoring is a two way street. Webster's dictionary is evolving to fit today's world. If you click the link, there are two voice references for the phrase "Son of a Bitch":

You have the traditional "Son-of-a-Bitch", and then if you click on version number two it sounds like "S'um Bitch!". Do this when you're up late and overworked. Very Special.

This prompts the second discussion. Is this mess "hoodrat" or "red-neck"?

CLICK HERE FOR THE SON OF A....

Eddie Murphy's Golden Child is the DALAI LAMA?

"I-I-I-I-I-I want the kniiiife...."

I'm talking to my ( buddhist?) homegirl and she is describing the selection process of the Dalai Lama:

Friend: " The soul of each dalai lama is reincarnated over and over again in the body of an infant"

Me: You mean like The Golden Child?

Friend: The child posseses wisdom way beyond his years. He understands things without anyone telling him, he is wise

Me: Like the Golden Child Right?

Friend: They search all over Tibet to find the reincarnated child. Then they take him away to protect him from people who want to hurt him and so he can fulfill his destiny.

Me: ( Getting Really Excited) Gasp! Like the Golden Child!

Friend: (Laughing) Yes....Like the Golden Child

See that's what I love about media, you can entertain people and still pass on a really cool message...that unfortunately takes 16 or so years to sink in. But this revelation comes right at the moment that the current Dalai Lama is fighting with the Chinese government as they are trying to find their own Dalai ( The anti-Lama, I guess). 

The Dalai Lama is on his way out of this world. But even though he may be dying, until things get right, he is refusing to be reborn.  You hear me?: He is going to stop his own reincarnation. 

Now that's gansta. Just stay away from that bloody porridge.

Athletes Wanted to Save Tibet

Last week an ad designed by Ad House Manifest Communications was posted by FREETIBET2008.org. The ad reminds us all that we can speak against injustice. I don't think i have any athletes on my blog roll, but tell a friend.

(For my friend Mark Bierschbach)

Jay-Z has his own Pantone Color!

Pantone has registered a color in 2007 called Jay-Z blue. The color was created during his deal with General Motors. The newest Denali is painted in the color. Damn the car! Do you know who you have to stab in the leg to get a PANTONE COLOR in your name?? Let me know and tell me their address. I'm thinking of putting out a Khia-Quality Pink....what do you think? I'm strictly speaking as a designer, but this is bigger to me than co-owing the Nets I'm sorry. They didn't even give a color to Milton Glaser.

Can you say " Beautiful" in Arabic?

I'm getting personally offended and hurt by the depictions of Arabs in Media, then of course one of my friends send me to the FBI site, where EVERYONE on the most wanted list is Muslim. I guess that now that the arabs are in town everyone else stopped committing crimes. So my other friend D. hipped me to this. It's my reminder of the beautiful things that come from our Muslim brothers...This from artist Hassan Mussa; the artwork is calligraphy made up of the characters in Arabic language. Beautiful!
( Of course they are probrably instructions on rigging cellular bombs....kidding!)

Vogue To Launch Black Girl Issue

Continued from Around The Way Girls.Net.

Inspired by the onset of a possible Black President and his (black as all get out wife). Italian Vogue is publishing a Vogue with 100 pages dedicated to black models and black women entertainment/political figures. The mag drops in itally next week. I'm getting mine to make sure the message is sent to the WORLD...Diversify. Next I want an all Indian girl Issue. lol!

The photographer Steven Meisel has been working in the industry for so long and with so much sucess that he can do pretty much whatever he wants...well,he want to do something different. Different in this case is to underline black women who as of late have been getting less ( positive ) media attention than even in the 70s and 80s. But the shanene's and the big mama's of the world are still doing it big. How is this even possible? As I said in my ATWG post, It's a shame that such a statement has to be made, but if it needs to be done-Lets do it! And props to Vogue and Meisel for taking that step. Lets hope it doesn't end like black history month. lol.
Editor Franca Sozzani, is saying that her inclusion of this project is due to her interest in the presidential race, and not a response to recent criticism that she under uses black women...yeah whatever. Photographer Meisel has a theory as to why Black women have been disappearing from runways etc.: It's linked to money. To sum it up Black ( girls) don't sell. Even though designers have open minds and diverse interests the readers do not. It is so odd that this comes up right after the debacle not to long ago about Lebron James being protrayed as King Kong on the Vogue Cover. You get a little you give a little.

Says Meisel of underworked ( soon to be featured model ) Sessilee Lopez :. " Here is this exquisite girl...what don't you get?".
I mean really! A good season is predicted for Lopez next year!
Shout to Jazz-Phae for reminding me to get on this article...Looks like everyone is getting excited.


Kh.

TV da Gente ( Brazil's Young TV network)

I just heard about this even though the Network has been around since 2005.  TV da Gente is is Brazil's answer to B.E.T.  ( well, let hope not).  When I was a kid the only reason I even KNEW that blacks existed in South America is because I was back in the Caribbean for high school and there I studied the slave trade beyond Abraham Lincoln.  Even still I didn't have an Idea of what a huge concentration of blacks there was ( the 2nd largest besides Africa) until the release of the movie The City of God.  Wow I can't believe how ignorant I was! We are ignorant because we identify the rest of the world through the images seen on TV-and on tv everyone latin is a nice roasted peanut shade ( smile ).  

The network has gotten praise and hate.  As I have heard, Brazilians are taught that inequality is due to poverty and not race and by creating a network geared to a certain race, founder Netinho de Paula is stirring up a lot of strong conversation.  I think conversation is always good. In the end I believe we will iron all of the nonsense out ( even though the end may be another 300 yrs lol), so Kudos to Brazil for taking that first long step!

Kenneth Cole and it's Global Image

I was walking down 45th? ave..who knows, i was on the phone so it stands to reason that by the time i was finished with the convo I had no idea where I had been or where I was going to. It was a few weeks ago, and came across this fashionable image of a young punjabi Indian for a Kenneth Cole ad. It's very cool that Kenneth Cole will use an image like this do redefine what is fashionable...so big props to the the marketing team over on Broadway!