A Lucky Year

Lucky says that she is my backbone, crooked as she may be. She called with a statement memorializing herself in third person:

Lucky Torres states that her ink and expression will not end ‘til her life ends. When her life ends, that’s when the pain ends. The fans will know that it’s a final goodbye and a long-lasting memory of she. Many memories and not just for a day.

Lucky, does it have to be about death?

Somebody gotta die. People gotta go someday. You will too. When it’s your time, do you want to be some magazine editor? Or someone who makes stories about passionate people that have to do with real life and reality?! You want people to open they eyes! Open they eyes and keep them open.

“Fuck You down my thighs stands as a sign for the whole world. Fuck you if you like it, fuck you if you don’t. People ask me, Hey does that ‘Fuck You’ go for everyone? And I say yes.” Lucky

“This is my life map. I can look at each one of my tattoos and remember what was going on around that time.” Gotti

“The Good Die Young…people that didn’t get to live out their full life.” Siya

“The only visible one is Family First on my chest… my family accepting me made me into who I am without having to follow this straight path.” Dennett

Beginning words by Laura Checkoway. Photos and interviews from Urban Ink magazine.

Lucky, Gotti, Siya and Dennett are the stars of the upcoming documentary by Laura Checkoway.

“I decided to commit $1 billion to the Peter G. Peterson foundation—the vast majority of my net proceeds from Blackstone. Why so much? Kurt Vonnegut once told a story about seeing Joseph Heller at a wealthy hedge-fund manager’s party at a beach house in the Hamptons. Casting his eye around the luxurious setting, Vonnegut said, ‘Joe, doesn’t it bother you that this guy makes more in a day than you ever made from Catch-22?’ ‘No, not really,’ Heller said. ‘I have something that he doesn’t have: I know the meaning of enough.’” -Peter G. Peterson on donating $1 billion, via Newsweek

And if cupid’s got a gun, then he’s shooting.

ESQUIRE: Listening to your lyrics, there’s definitely a sensitivity there. What’s that album about? Have you grown since then?

LYKKE LI: It’s about heartbreak. It’s about being 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 — that’s the hardest part, maybe, in my life at least. You have so many visions of life. And then, one at a time, they all burst, and you have to deal with the disappointment. And for me, now the feeling is like what I was experiencing when I first started: Back then I was like, “I’m so lost. Where do I belong?” And now I’m just like, “Okay, where do I belong?”via esquire

A Thank-You Note to Men

To you, whom it may concern:

Manly creature, who smells good even when you don’t, you wake up too slowly, with fuzzy, vertical hair and a slightly lost look on your face as though you are seven or seventy-five; you can fix my front door, my sink, and open most jars; you, who lose a cuff link and have to settle for a safety pin, you have promised to slay unfortunate interlopers and dragons with your Phillips head or Montblanc; to you, because you will notice a woman with a healthy chunk of years or pounds on her and let out a wolf whistle under your breath and mean it; because you think either rug will be fine, really it will; you seem to walk down the street a little taller than me, a little more aware but with a purpose still; to you who codifies, conjugates, slams a puck, baits a hook, builds a decent cabinet or the perfect sandwich; you who gives a twenty to the kids selling Hershey’s bars and waits at baggage claim for three hours in your flannel shirt; you, sir, you take my order, my pulse, my bullshit; you who soaps me in the shower, soaks with me in the tub; to you, boy grown-up, the gentleman, soldier, professor, or caveman, the fancy man with initials on your towels and salt on your chocolates, to you and to that guy at the concession stand; thank you for the tour of the vineyard, the fire station, the sound booth, thank you for the kaleidoscope, the Horsehead Nebula, the painting, the truth; to you who carries me across the parking lot, up the stairs, to the ER, to roll-away or rice mat; to you who shows up every so often only to confuse and torment, and you who stays in orbit, always, to my left and steady, you stood up for me, I won’t forget that; to you, the one who can’t figure it out and never will, and you who lost the remote, the dog, or your way altogether; to you, wizard, you sang in my ear and brought me back from the dead, you tell me things, make me shiver; to the ones who destroyed me, even if for a minute, and to the ones who grew me, consumed me, gave me my heart back times ten; to most everything that deserves to call itself a man: How I do love thee, with your skill to light fires that keep me warm, light me up.

by Mary Louise Parker, via Checks, via Esquire

Morality

“The one thing I remember saying,” she told Chad, “and probably only because he mentioned it today, was that we weren’t living in abject poverty or even discomfort. It was the fear of those things that got us down.” -from Stephen King’s short story, Morality via Esquire

George Lois: The Esquire Covers

Went to the MoMA last week and really enjoyed George Lois: The Esquire Covers exhibit. Defines a time in magazine culture where creative freedom existed.

From 1962 to 1972, George Lois changed the face of magazine design with his ninety-two covers for Esquire magazine. He stripped the cover down to a graphically concise yet conceptually potent image that ventured beyond the mere illustration of a feature article. Lois exploited the communicative power of the mass-circulated front page to stimulate and provoke the public into debate, pressing Americans to confront controversial issues like racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War. Viewed as a collection, the covers serve as a visual timeline and a window onto the turbulent events of the 1960s. Initially received as jarring and prescient statements of their time, the covers have since become essential to the iconography of American culture.

“A good magazine cover, like a strong package design, should memorably dramatize what’s inside.” – George Lois

MoMA Info

“What sells, as always has been the case, are little acts of inspiration that turn into enthusiasm and then passion. Congress could not have designed the iPod or the iPhone; it couldn’t have mandated the algorithm that led to Google. And at a time when what the autos and much of American industry need is the thing that nobody thought of yet, some quirky idea that turns into a movement.” – from David Granger’s Editor’s Letter in Esquire

“I’m not into casual anything.”

ESQUIRE: What do you want to achieve? Do you want to be as big as Gwen Stefani? As big as Madonna? Bigger?

KATY PERRY: I’d like to say I’d like to be as big as a Gwen or a Madonna, but I think those days of achieving that level are over. The media is bringing everybody down.

ESQUIRE: Sorry about that.

via esq.

women writing in esquire over the years

January 1950

I have always thought there is a secret basis of pity in the friendship of most women, and that is a crumbling rock to build on.

Martha Gellhorn, “About Shorty”

March 1976

Before going further, I should define what I mean by porn in this context: It’s anything people are ashamed of getting a kick out of.

Nora Ephron, “That Hard-to-Swallow $4,000 Dinner”

May 1977

Las Vegas hotels all smell alike. . . . I have never smelled it in the hotels of other cities, nor can I duplicate it. The nearest I came was once when I threw a perfume box on a fire that would not catch, but that smell went away, and the Vegas smell does not.

Joan Didion, “Getting the Vegas Willies”

style in the Dominican Republic

via fader

You are de meesing ingredient.

via Vanity Fair

Animal Behavior and I reference Vicky Cristina Barcelona – maybe, everyday.

your job. el recession.

How to Keep Your Job
Self-Improve – Use the new year as an excuse to ask your boss for feedback. Hit up your colleagues, too. Then follow their advice: Whether it’s to learn a new programming language or learn Mandarin, you (literally) can’t afford not to.

Get Noticed – Now is not time to keep your head down. Find ways to make yourself appreciated. “In these times, companies need risk takers and innovators,” Kenny says. Show initiative by pitching new projects.

Don’t Get Noticed – Resist the temptation to post your resume online (unless the site offers airtight privacy). If your employer gets word that you’re browsing, you’ll be kicked up to the top of the boot list.

Make A Backup Plan – Update your skill set. Network. Research potential employers. If you’re in a dying industry like, say, print magazines (huh?), brainstorm how you can apply your experience to a new field.
– via Wired Magazine

de ye.

photos by Tony Duran