Wonton Soup

Feeling Red

 

Skipping through some older entries of my friend Maya's blog, it reminded me of a product sample I recently got around to trying.  A few months or so ago, I received some Shu Uemura Red:juvenus.  I finally tried it out last week and I love it.  It's kind of amazing.  My skin felt clean, clear, not dry - basically vitalized, and we're in the winter months.  Not surprisingly, it's pretty expensive - the "value size" lotion is $80 for 450 ml.  ...Yeah, I know.  Along with great power comes great financial liability.

I don't currently have the luxury to be buying products at that price point regularly, so I haven't re-upped with the normal size bottle, but it is starting to bring back my old penchant for getting into products.  For now, I'm sticking with the Kiehl's and Shiseido that I've been using, though I have to admit those aren't the cheapest of products themselves.  For whatever reason, my skin doesn't react too well to (cheaper) products I used to use regularly only a couple of years ago.  What a luxurious curse to have been afflicted with.

I know it's a little metro-y to even start talking about beauty products, but if you think about it, they kind of represent everything about our society on the whole: they scour nature for plants they can use for bettering our lives, there is an innate focus on looks, products are marketed to appeal to our nature and desires, and the packaging is designed to call on our aesthetic senses and subconscious appreciation.  Most everything that happens out in the world today is reflected in what goes into making and selling beauty products.

Red:juvenus, I miss you.

More Magazines, Less Trees

So my subscription for 'Ing definitely started.  I received these two issues (Jan and Feb) within a week of each other. Surfer's January issue [52.1] had Andy on the cover, but it was only a cover and a few pages because the news came out just when the issue was going to print.  Likewise for Surfing, but it was actually just after they sent February to print - thus no Andy in the January issue (which surprised me, since I hadn't been keeping up).  Here's the classy memorial cover of Surfing folded out:

Behind those two issues, you'll see the latest Esquire with De Niro's mug peekin' out.  Not pictured is my issue of Transworld Business that arrived recently, as well as the Nixon lookbook jumpoff.  That should complete the set for this month...

The TWBiz mag has gotten kind of sad in how skimpy/thin it is, but that's just how the economy dictates things.  What's ironic is that it looks way better after their design/layout overhaul they did a few months ago, starting with that sick motocross cover.  That is seriously one of my fav mag covers in a long time - no joke.  

The Nixon lookbook is pretty sweet conceptually.  They pair their goods with artists and other things they're into.  This doesn't mean just the athletes and artists they sponsor, but other people creating interesting works and they link to their respective websites in case the viewer wants to look further into the work being featured.  It's basically a mini magazine with just a really long spread (duh, I know).  It's mostly mens, but there are a few pages for women towards the end of the lookbook.

On another note, I was tossing the idea to someone recently of drawing little comics just for fun (just myself, not a collab thing).  Seems like a good idea - I just need a more solid/cohesive concept.  I've actually thought about something like this for a while now, but never really talked about it.  I just figured I would write little stupid short stories and then go back later and draw out the action.  Maybe that's better than trying to come up with a cohesive structure/theme.  I do enjoy the random - something quite obvious if you know me.  We'll see how they turn out (given anything comes out of this idea - but I only write about it now to make me commit more to the idea, moreso than if I were to continue keeping it to myself).  I'll post if I make anything.

It's the holidays, but life is pretty normal as always for me.  Hope everyone is enjoying their time and not going too broke.