Street Art: North Avenue alphabet art

I found these near each other on side streets off of North Avenue north of Damen.  I'm on the lookout for the rest of the alphabet.  Does anyone who know who the artist is?

Olé! Something to do on a Monday night!

Click here to read the article I wrote for examiner.com about Essay Fiesta, a new monthly charitable reading series.  Here are some photos from the night:

Essay Fiesta co-hosts Alyson Lyon and Keith Ecker

Actor/comedian/author Mike O'Connell

Local comedienne Cameron Esposito

Street Art: little match girl on Elston

Let's not forget that they're appealing to our emotions to sell products

Watch how an entire team of makeup artists, hair stylists, and ultimately, photoshop editors are needed to realize a single billboard-worthy picture for a beauty campaign.  The video is sped up which creates a seemingly seamless series of events that transform a rather normal-looking (not homely, just plain) girl into a face fit for a brand's image.  What this video shows you is that anyone could probably look that fantastic if we all had artists altering our appearance with tools from blush brushes to cut and paste.

I accept that Dove, ironically, is exposing this part of the beauty business, the one that makes it appear as though these women in magazines and on the runway don't wake up looking like million bucks, that it is laborious and time-consuming and takes a TEAM of people to accomplish the task.

Well thanks Dove, for showing me something I kind of already knew.  

The real question is, What is Dove getting out of this? They're targeting the consumer that is tired of the unrealistic beauty ideals that other companies are pushing.  But at the end of the day, they're just trying to sell us their products like any other company.  And instead of appealing to our vanity, they're appealing to our emotions.

What do you think of this video?

Just keep your mouth shut eHawk

You know how when you start a new job, you need to slowly allow your personality to break through, just so people don't feel like, Who the hell are you?  You're new here, so shut up!  Well, maybe that's just me.  I know I can be "intense" for people.  They need to warm up to me before I unleash the fierceness that is my being. :)

So it was with great restraint that I kept my mouth shut after overhearing the following two comments.  Under ordinary circumstances I would have been ALL OVER these people, and probably would have caused them to not like me (I know, unbelievable, huh?). 

1.  Listening to an M.I.A. song, anonymous worker #1 says:  "I love M.I.A.  She's totally badass.  Her rapping is like, totally legit, she's actually had people bomb her town and stuff.  She's like from Columbia or something."

Me:  Ohmygod, just keep folding the shirts that you're working on.  You're not even in the conversation, it would be weird enough that you comment, even worse when you tell her that "No, M.I.A. is totally not from Columbia, she's from Sri Lanka.  Aaaactually, she was born in the U.K., moved back to Sri Lanka with her family so her father could work as an activist for the Tamil military, moved around a bunch and then finally went back to London much later.  And Sri Lanka is on the other side of the world from Columbia, just so you know."

2.  Listening to a cover of David Bowie's Under Pressure, anonymous worker #2 says: "Dude, it's like totally weird that someone sampled that old Vanilla Ice song and put it in this track."

Me:  I cannot BELIEVE that she just said that!  How have you never hear the David Bowie tune before?!  It's so ridiculous, that I don't even WANT to correct you.  I'm just gonna let you be in your own little ignorant world...

It's not Mil-waukee

It's funny how people that aren't from the Midwest say Milwaukee.  I know the letter 'L' is in there, but it's silent.  Here you go: Muh-Wahh-Kee.  (Not that people talk about that city much around here because, why would you?)  I'm mostly referring to discourse regarding Milwaukee Avenue (aka Hipster Highway) which is a main thoroughfare extending from the loop Northwest throughout the city. 

This is what people from New Orleans must feel like when people actually enunciate those words separately.  It's New'awlins or Nor lins, right?

Can you put your hands together for the ???

Not since MGMT made it big two summers ago, have I not known how a band's name is pronounced.  After a few serious beer-induced debates and online confirmation, I eventually conceded that they were indeed M-G-M-T and not Management.

So, it was with great dismay that I misspoke a band's name last night while trying to buy their concert t-shirt.  I made it out to see The xx and Friendly Fires at Bottom Lounge.   Upon requesting to see a shirt for The xx, I referred to them as "The exes."  And boy, was I sorry when the super-hipster behind the counter rolled his eyes, re-tucked his hair behind his ear and sighed, "You mean The  ex ex?"  Yeah pal, that's what I mean.  Glad I didn't go with option number two, calling them dos equis...

So, I have something to say to the band members of The xx: If you're sick of people flubbing your name because you want x and x to be pronounced separately, I think there should be a space between them: The x x.   That's kind of how the English language works.

Or, you could include a little pronunciation guide.  This would have been helpful for me when Radiohead's Kid A came out and I called it Kid Ah for waaay too long.  How was I supposed to know?!  I had only read reviews and never heard the album's title referenced aloud.  (Wow, now that I think about it,  I might actually have a real problem on my hands with these monikers!)

Have you  ever stumbled over a band's name or album title before?  What was it?  Oh, and R.E.M.'s Eponymous doesn't count.  That's a real word.  You can look that word up in the dictionary.