Why I Love Pinterest

Dammit…I’m hooked again.

AOG, Madrid

I am weak. I admit it. I wish I weren’t but I am. I caved in. Like Oscar Wilde before me, I too can resist anything, except temptation.

Ever since I wrote a post about it (see here), I have been thinking about going back.

About just sucking it in, ignore their awful customer service, their threatening past behavior, their bullying and short-sightedness, and just, for the love of all that is good and pretty, open a new Pinterest account.

So yesterday, in a moment of weakness, and under a different email address, I did it. 

I typed www.pinterest.com, and created a new account.

The feelings which went with it were similar to those you used to get as a kid when you got away with something you were not supposed to be doing.

At first anyway.

But soon enough they gave way to feelings related to the hoarder in me, the collector in me. 

The curator. 

The aesthete and the lover of art.

I could, again, enjoy ‘playing’ Pinterest.

My first board? Fashion.

The second one? Men.

The third? Automobiles.

Then Ar(t)chitecture, then boards related to Mexico, Spain, Japan, Russia, France, Great Britain. Soon after, I decided to separate one old board into two: iLLUSTRATION and aRT became: Illustration, and a separate board for Art.

I’m taking it easy about the other boards. 

I’ve created some which I have yet to pin anything unto, and some which I’m thinking about, but…

Like, should I have a separate board for the fashions of different decades?

How about 1950s cars?

Should movie posters just be under Illustration, or should I have a board for them? 

How about fashion illustration?

How about men’s shoes?

On their own or just under Men’s fashion (baptised as ‘Suits you, Sir’). 

Perhaps it is early days yet, but I’m glad I’m back –though it doesn’t take the resentment away.

I’m glad I can enjoy the idea that is Pinterest, even if I think its owner/manager, is a prude.

Life…always so contrary…n’est ce pas?

 

I would ask people for the time

AOG, Madrid

A few months ago, maybe as far back as last September, my watch's battery ran out. 

I did nothing for a couple of days thinking, or rather, hoping in the most procrastinating manner, that I would get around to changing the battery in a couple of days.

A couple of days turned into a couple of months, and a couple of months turned into roughly 9 months. 

I have now been without a wristwatch for almost a year and, yes, there have been many times when I have missed it. 

Last November I took it to a local watch shop only to be told that, because of the type of watch it was, they could not do it. 

A couple of months ago, a lady from work told me that a relative of her husband's could change the battery. 

A couple of days later she said she was really sorry, but, "Being an Omega, he doesn't have the proper equipment to open it up". 

When I lived in London, changing the watch's battery had never been a problem. I had a local jeweler who changed it in a couple of days, and it was not very expensive. 

Getting Around

Of course, these people also exist in Madrid, but they are not within walking distance, and my life these days is all about walking distance. 

Having been spoiled as a child and a teenager growing up in America, where I drove everywhere and had a passion for cars, these days I live without the benefit of personal transport and rely on public transportation to get anywhere. Buses and subways are my method of braving long distances.

When I lived in London and I had a car -my much beloved 1988 Volvo station wagon being the last of the crop, I would move about the city using public transport too. 

However, come the weekend, out came the car. 

Drive here, there. 

To the West End or South London, to Windsor's Great Park or the art galleries in Hampstead or Whitechapel.

But in Madrid, I don't own a car. 

I really don't need it, so public transport has become, after walking on foot, my preferred mode of moving about town.

Also, there's the element of fatigue. You, the reader, may be able to relate to this. Why is it that as children we had humongous reserves of energy but, as adults, we can hardly make it through the day?

It is a recurring theme that, when I get out of work, I make it home, and do my best not to fall asleep on the sofa. I have zero energy. 

So, when faced with the task of taking my watch and finding a jeweler who can change the battery, I just can't spare the few 'joules' I may have in my body doing anything other than dinner, and, maybe, doing some reading. 

I also want to add changing the channel to that list. 

Alternative Trinkets

So I live with no watch. 

Oh, but you own only one watch? No, I own five watches. All five have no battery, but it is the Omega -the one my mother bought as a birthday gift years ago- that I use on a daily basis. 

My wrist is now so used to not having a watch, that the pale, white, mark I had on it, has disappeared and now my entire arm is one color.

So, what have I done in the mean time? 

Well, when I was younger and this happened, I would ask people for the time. 

But now that I'm an adult, I ask no one for the time. 

Instead, I use my old mobile/ cell phone when I need to know what time it is. 

I don't have an iPhone or a smart Android phone (other than work's BlackBerry) but I think that my regular, old-fashioned, mobile Samsung mobile phone (which slides open and I love that), is apparently more important a machine than my watch.

Eventually, I'm not sure when, I'll replace the battery and that will have been that.

But after I do I'll continue to carry a mobile/cell phone on me.

 
I'm not sure about when it is that I'll stop, if ever, carrying a phone on me. It has become one of those indispensable machines without which we could not really function very well.

No, I don't think that my life would end if I didn't have a phone -and I have thought about not having a land line at all- but, curiously enough, I am aware of how big a part of our daily lives it has become. 

Just like the iPad.

I wake up and, before I go to work, I turn the radio on and start to quickly peruse the morning news. 

I think our lives these days are 'connected' to something, for better or for worse.

And where will it all lead?

Two days ago I was having dinner with some friends (walking distance from home). 

One of them, an American cartoonist living in Spain, mentioned very casually that people will "eventually grow tired of the internet and will move on to the next thing". 

Yes, it was one of those "excuse me... what?" moments. 

Will the internet change... or disappear?  

Well, yes, it changes all the time. 

The internet in 2013 and in 1993 are two very different beings. 

And, like television, it seems to be here to stay. 

Will people grow tired of it?  If so, what will come next? 

Yes, I'm sure that someone, somewhere, will be thinking of it, but I'm not sure about how successful they will be with their idea in my lifetime. 

After all, Da Vinci thought about submarines in the XVI century (1515 I think), but we didn't really see those until 400 years later...  

Yuri Gagarin

AOG, Madrid

Today it is 50 years since Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin climbed into his space ship and was launched into space, thereby kickstarting the space race between two superpowers which ended with the first man in the moon in 1969. 

It took Gagarin just 108 minutes to orbit Earth and he returned as the World's very first space man. 

I think that the world henceforth, and even during my childhood, looked to a promising future. 

Space travel, colonies on the Moon, terraforming, traveling to Mars and beyond. 

It all looked splendid. 

Problem is, it never happened. 

I rememebr as a child being told about the future I would live in.

About flying cars, hovering craft, day trips to Space, to the bottom of the ocean, supercomputers this and supercomputers that.

And yes, we even had supersonic flight courtesy of the Anglo-French Concorde. 

Until we didn't.

Heck, remember the world of the Jetson's? Now that was futuristic and foreseeable!

Unfortunately, it seems that the future we were being sold does exist, but only in cyberspace. Not in outer space. Or Earth. 

You need only pick up a video game, or watch a Sci-Fi movie to glimpse at that future, where you should be living had all the predictions come true. 

It would appear that we do know how to furnish  and dress that future; we just don't know how to make it happen. 

Yes, I know we've had many advances and technical revolutions lately. 

The Internet towers above most of these, but it was conjured up back in the 1960s. 

What else? Yes, cell phones, personal computers, microwave ovens, DVDs, Plasma, LED, LCD television, 3D everything, but little else.

Granted, we live in a more advanced state of development (though at what cost to the planet!) than we did 30 years ago, or even 20. Or 10. 

But if you take a look around you, nothing much has changed. Cars still don't fly. We won't send a manned aircraft to Mars until 20..who know when (so expensive you see). 

Supersonic flight is but a memory to us (though young people have no memory of it), and there are no colonies on the Moon. At least not Earth colonies. 

So...what does the new future hold? It would appear that we have absolutely no clue. Nor do we know what it will look like. 

Yes, thank you thank you all you futurologists with your massive projections of our current time into our distant future where things look pretty much the same except for their future-looking design cues. 

I'm talking about the great work of people like Syd Mead, but also people like Collani.

But if you really are wondering, here's a link to an article in the British press (The Independent) concerning the year 2020. That's only 8-9 years from now. 

Do you think it will really be like that?

How about these products? Are they part of the future you envision?

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, I was given a copy of a book titled: The World of the Future: Future Cities. 

I loved it. I read it and reread it. It was my personal Bible. 

I even began to draw articles to add on to what was already there. 

I think that is where my love for design started. I wanted to design part of the future.

Today, this book has no equal. 

Nothing is being published to resemble it. I think it is because we have lost our taste for things like that. 

Yes, we like progress, but progress turned out to look like nothing we were shown as kids.

It may still surprise us though!

New York Times Ready To Charge Online Readers

AOG, Madrid

Television pays for itself through advertising, and it is free (unless you have cable). Radio, a medium with a lot of things in common with the internet, also somehow manages to "survive" without charging for content.

The NYT claims that to continue to pay for its "high-cost, ambitious journalism", it must charge online readers. I don't see this as working, especially now that the NYT has gone global and, as it claims, it has 20 million unique readers (I among them).

I think someone has forgotten to remind this paper that online users consult a lot of different sources to get their news, not just one or two.

Especially people under 25. Whilst I know that since we pay for paper, it would make sense to pay for online content, it is also true that there is something in the internet which makes it anathema to even consider this option.

If NYT starts to charge, its 20 million "unique users" will mostly flee.

I don't think I can afford to pay for several papers online. I'm sure that what will happen is that some other paper delivers the same news for free, and that will be the way users will go. Open market means zero fidelity.

NYT, and other who consider going down that road, will soon experience a rude awakening.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Twitter...Part 1

AOG, Madrid

What is the deal with Twitter? I have no idea. It does seem to be the next cool site right after Facebook.

Personally I haven’t bothered with it until today, when I read a newspiece which stated that Ellen DeGeneres had beaten CNN on it. Link here.

So, what did I do? In a moment of insanity, I thought I would sign up. Yes, it’s a slow afternoon here on financial news universe, Madrid sector.

Well, I should have known better. The site was down.



Now, of course, having regained my sanity momentarily, I am thinking about it twice. Thrice even.

Do I really want to be on Twitter? Well, I don’t know. I know very little about it, but these are the impressions I have of it so far:

You type in where you are and what you are doing.

Always.

And then again.

And once more.

Ad infinitum.

And then you die.

So, with this is mind, do I really want to “Twitt”? I don’t really see the point.

But I may change my mind.

This is how Twitter bills itself:

"Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

Still, I am not seduced. All I can say is that while I was ready to join (or at least have a wander) a while back, their technical hiccup has put me off.

The modern world...and Spain...Part 1

AOG, Madrid

When I began coming to Spain regularly in 2005, I remember that the press were slightly miffed at accusations made by an American writer concerning their country’s place in the First World. I cannot remember her name, but I recall she found the state of Spain’s basic services a bit, well, basic.

She even went to say that Spain was a bit of a Third World country in many ways. The Spanish do not like to hear this. Nobody does, unless they are the ones insulting their country.

This week they got a good chance to do so.

A fire in one of Barcelona’s power plants made sure that the city of Barcelona, Spain’s second largest city, and one of the largest urban areas in the Mediterranean, was without power for about 60 hours. Not all of it, and not for 60 hours straight, but the power blackout lasted that long.

Around 350.000 people were affected by the power shortage altogether. And the whole city was a mess.

70% of the stoplights were out, so policemen went on traffic duty. However, there were not enough of them to go around. The, the citizens of Barcelona went on a public protest using pots and pans, emulating Argentina's "cacerolada" protests not too long ago. This is August, and Spain is very hot in August. They all had a point.

Then, the trains that connect Barcelona with its suburbs and adjoining towns, also broke down partially. In a famous case, people were stuck in a train for over 2 hours without air conditioning until the Fire Department allowed them out and they walked to the nearest station.

And then it happened again, and on the same day that the Minister responsible for the country’s infrastructures visited Barcelona with some money under her arm and the usual promises Governments in a pickle tend to dish out when in need.

Then Summer happened

August is sacred in Spain. The entire country lulls to a halt and goes on vacation. Some by plane, some by train, some by boat, and some by car. And in the first week of August, the traffic outside Barcelona was so heavy - creating a 70 kilometer tail back- that the Generalitat, Catalonia’s regional government, was “forced” (here I have to chuckle a bit) to close the toll gate and let the people through.

There has been an ongoing argument between the local and the national government concerning all sorts of infrastructure problems in the region. The Minister, not one to take the blame, said that the chaos in the railways was due to the high speed train link with Madrid being built in and outside the city.

About a month ago Spain’s Prime Minister promised Madrid and Barcelona would be connected by Christmas day, 2007. Originally the date was sometime in 2008.


Never mind that this high speed link is about 10 years late in coming. But, of course, next Spring, Spain will hold a general election. The first since the Socialists came to power 3 days after a terrorist attack by Al Qaeda which many say put them there. And Catalonia, like Andalucia, is a Socialist stronghold. Has been since democracy returned to Spain in 1978. These days, the opposition are calling for the head of Señora Magdalena Álvarez, the Minister in question.

Don't get me started on the Internet

Did the American writer have a point? I think in some ways, yes. She did. Aside from these infrastructure problems, Spain also ranks very low on Internet speed.

Acording to iTWire, Japan, (not the US) is the number one country in the world; it has an average broadband download time of 61 megabits per second. South Korea is second with 45.6 megabits per second. Sweden is third at 18, France, fourth at 17, and Canada fifth at 7 megabits per second. In Spain, at home, I have 2 Mgs. And not all the time, only some of the time. And that is considered fast.

In the North, the Asturian Government is installing an internet speed of 100 Mgs. But only in Asturias. The rest of the country will have to wait. It will be operative by September. However, Asturias is not the country’s most connected area. So it’s a bit like saying everyone in Bandera, Texas, is connected to the Internet. And the rest of Texas? Oh, that’s a different issue. And Bandera only has 3 cowboys who own a PC. Semi ditto for Asturias.

Nowhere is perfect

However, Spain is not alone in this fight with the modern world. I have just left the UK, where, if you read the press on any random day, things are worse off than in Spain. Trains that don't run because of (one of my favorites) "leaves on the tracks", or that are constantly delayed, London tube being outdated, as well as very expensive (one stop in zone one is almost 8 euros- or about $9 USD), Heathrow being a total mess, etcetera etcetera...

When I came to live in Spain, I was told that it was best not to leave appliances and televisions /laptops, on if I was not in the house. A power surge might damage them. Everyone in Spain has a story to tell concerning power surges and the death of a beloved television, or a microwave.

I know eventually Spain will join the rest of First World Europe and install an Internet speed like Korea’s. Or better. It is just that, for some reason, Europeans are always so reluctant to embrace modernity. In that respect, Spain is very First World. It is also refreshing that they complain about things. All the time. Much like the French, only in Spain, they have more of a point. I tend to think French unions are designed to give everyone a week or two off extra every year because of a strike.

In the meantime, the Spanish laugh it off and complain moderately at how their country lags behind a bit, but is catching up.

Shock, fear, and amazement. February 2007

AOG, Madrid

You learn a little bit about your stupid self each day, don't you? I have sat in front of my laptop since about 11pm trying to find something to write about. I have checked emails, signed up my spanish blog on a website which somehow trades with personal blogs (why? well obviously because I was bored!!) checked emails, read various newspaper websites, emails, watched tv, had dinner, spoken to my partner who is in Bucharest tonight and tells me that the 4 star hotel's guestlist is filled with the photographs of various women (prostitutes), spoken to Madame Mère on the phone to London, emails encore, read a couple of blogs, and finally, after hours of uselessness, I turn the TV volume down. Suddenly, I start writing.

What does this say about me? That I am very bad at time management. Did I learn this today? Well, I'm not sure that I've actually learnt anything. There are people in this world who operate best when things stick to a well laid-out plan. Who can work to a deadline because they have worked out what to do at any given moment. I wish I were one of these people. But I am not.

I live and operate in something approaching chaos. Not entirely chaos of course, because I do sometimes manage to amaze myself and can follow an unwritten plan from beginning to end and things turn out well. Somehow. And, I am sure, also in spite of myself.

Last year, during my Master, we had a writer give us a chat about her work and work schedule. Almudena Grandes, told us how manic she was about work outlines. How any novel she wrote had to be outlined and planned out from beginning to end. I listened in complete amazement. It was as if I had been living in a separate planet all my life.

Later on, the "Culture" tutor asked if any of us wrote. A couple of us raised our hands. A guy had actually published a couple of short stories, and this girl had also had some work published. And then there was me. Unpublished, with a dozen or so unfinished short stories. "Do you have an outline?" he asked. "No. In fact the mere thought of writing to an outline fills me with horror". Some thought it was funny. Our tutor replied "then it must all be in your head. Don't start changing it!!" More laughter. But for me, although still in a slight state of shock, a new road had been laid out. One I could choose not to travel on, but one which did show a prize of sorts at the end.

So what has happened since? A couple of weeks ago, on my way to London, I began writing again. I spent about 45 minutes looking for a pad at Barajas airport whilst waiting for my 2 and a half hours late flight to land. And I began to write. A whole page and a half. And it remains unfinished and unworked on. But I have been thinking about it a lot. Which I don't normally do. Has my writing changed? I think so. For the better? I doubt it. I am obviously at the "not finished yet" stage.

I have never welcomed distraction. Nor routine. I know I sound contradictory. I can't help it.

But not all was lost. I did find an interesting thing online when I was surfing the net a few hours ago (it is now 2:26 AM). There is a gay retirement village being built in the US.

A few years ago, having a partner had never entered my mind. Never mind spending your life with another person. Suddenly, retirement beckons. I am in my 30s and this pops up. Is it a message from the future? Whatever it is, it is nice to know that such a place exists. I did wonder what and where I would be when that time comes. Better stop now before this gets too depressing. For me that is.

Finding Prince Charming: 2003

AOG, London

As children of the modern era, gay men are always in tune with whatever fad, vogue, trend and tendency going. That gay men are quick to spot- when not in fact create!- fashions in all aspects of culture is a given. From music to fashion to interior design, gay men are really the muses of western culture.

With this in mind, it is worth investigating the latest addition to the gay universe: the Internet. Yes, many of us have heard the horror stories which are associated with chatting on-line to someone. The first thing to keep in mind is that men, whether gay or straight, lie. “Young 40, my friends say I am attractive” usually translates as: “Aging 50, my Mum thinks I am a peach.” Nothing wrong with him really.

But if this is who you are, then that is who you should say you are. It saves time. In any case, if you lower expectations, chances are that when they meet you they will be pleasantly surprised. But more on that later.

For years, gay men had only the scene and its ‘outdoor’ outlets to help them meet a guy. Whether for the night or for life, the scene was at once maligned and praised as the venue where gay men met. And so it would have continued had it not been for the internet. Aside from free porn (no longer free of course) it quickly became a good source where lonely hearts met. And no heart is as lonely as a gay heart…n’est ce pas?

Instantly, those of us with ‘techhie’ friends began hearing about how great it was to meet people on line. Suddenly the world gay men had spent most of the 80s and 90s visiting was at their bedroom - or cyber-café- door.

Juan from Sitges was talking to John from Sydney. And you lucky sod in London were in on the act. But as with the Bible, soon came tragic revelations. Whereas in a club, the weird-looking chap was the one you avoided, on the net, he was the one seeking you out. This very quickly developed into the ‘no pic, no chat’ protocol still with us. It makes sense.

But this was of course no safeguard. For gay men all have something of Dorian Gray in them, and pics that were… less than recent, were often scanned and pasted as proof of beauty.

Well yes, but faded beauty is no remedy for present tragedy. The net responded by creating interest-specific sites and chat rooms. Do you like older men? There’s a chat room for you. Are bears your thing? Follow this link. What, twinks? Type this URL. And so on and so forth. The bar/club scene suddenly became almost obsolete. Almost but not quite because enough men defied the net and chose instead to opt for human touch as a first point of contact.

Of course that meant that the weird guy you always avoided at the pub was still there. Still cruising, still single. But then again so were you and at least like this you could talk to him without that internet anxiety that accompanies a blind date. If he was strange, you walked away and moved on to the next guy, or the next pint.

So the scene still has its advantages over the net. If you don’t meet anyone, then at least you are out of the house, with some music playing and surrounded by people. Anything may happen under those circumstances. And if not, then you can always place an ad on the net. And boy do they work! Ads are the new thing. Yes it was nice talking to Shawn in Vancouver, but you want Paul in SW2.

The net cannot overcome the immediacy of your local scene, and long-distance love of men you have never met is neither healthy nor productive. That is where personal ads come in. you need a local chap that is X, Z or Y.

Yes, Fred in New Jersey is those things; he is also very far away and not coming to Heathrow anytime soon. Ads are great in that they can be a good tool to give someone a little bio of yourself, and vice versa.

Furthermore, nothing beats the feeling of opening your account in the morning, often at work but that’s another article, and facing a “You Have Mail” notice from a stranger saying those magic words “Hi, I saw your ad.” You can't help but to be excited. And you smile. One email later, you have a date.

So which is better, the net or the scene? Well, being gay, I think we find it hard to choose one over the other and choose both instead. They each have their advantages and their drawbacks. The one for you is the one you feel fulfils your needs better. You can be lonely at home, typing away, and you can be lonely in a Pub, drinking away. Both will help you to be happier if you tailor them to your needs. As all else in life. Now that was deep wasn’t it? And remember, smile!