WTF foodie moment 11: Orange Burger Patty

I see a sign of Wagyu beef burger patties at a popular butcher place in a popular market. They look a bit orange. I ask a 60+ female attendant:
>Do the patties have any condiment?
>>>>>No
> No? Any spice mixed in it?
>>>>>No
> So why do they look orange?
>>>>>They are not orange! 
> They look very orange to me.
>>>>> It is the lighting.

You know when you are being laid to, don't you? Just for the pleasure of confirming it, I bought a couple of these burgers. The fact is:
> They are orange. :).
> They have spices mixed with the meat, even though they are not hot. The taste of paprika was clear to me.
> They have condiments as the parsley was clearly visible at a distance :). 
>  I doubt there is any Wagyu in there. More a "Fagyu" meat and lie to customers.

One wonders whether there is a food inspector in the city willing to visit this market stall. Give me their number. I feel an urge to call.

Since when lying to customers brings any customer back? Since when being a liar earns the respect of anybody? Why do you believe that any person is going to swallow your lies? Why do you believe that believing your own lies isn't a psychological sign that you need to be treated and medicated adequately?  

I hope she gets a bit of her own medicine. She deserves it. My curse already has it.  WTF!!!!

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WTF Foodie Moment 10: Egg and Ice Latte

(The guy at the café approaches and asks me what I am going to order. I want one of their  breakfasts, but with an added egg. )

An added what? 
> An egg.
A what? 
> An egg.
A what? 
> A-n e-g-g.
Sorry?
> AN EGG.
Ahhh, an egg!

(I feel like a ninja in Kill Bill. First person ever who doesn't understand me when I say 'an egg'.)

(It could have ended there, but he was inspired today...)

Any drinks?
> Yes, the ice latte, but I would like it large if possible.
We don't have it large, but we can certainly make it large for you.

(Mind, I had a large takeaway from here the other day...)

> Oh, and I would like it with skim milk, please.
> Oh, the ice latte doesn't have milk...

(Mind, latte in Italian means milk, so every single latte on Planet Earth has milk in it. And any person working in the food and hospitality industry should know that. Or is it too much to ask?)

> No? Really, So it is iced black coffee, then?
Yes.
> OK, no problem. An ice 'latte' the way you prepare it. 

(Five minutes later the barista appears with my iced latte, with milk of course.)

(The moron approaches and addresses the barista and with surprise says)

Oh, I have told her before that the latte didn't have milk but it does...

(The barista and I, at the same time:)
> But it is a LATTE, so it always has milk in it.


WHO? The manager and/or owner of the café... (Award 'Moron of the Year' granted.)
WHERE? A café close to my place whose name I don't feel like mentioning because the latte was divine.    

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WTF Foodie Moment 8: The Gift

I received this email from one of the community managers of a review site in my city. It sounds good. But is it good? Is it innocent? Below the real, but edited, emails. 

(...) I’m So-and-So, one of the community managers from X site. I just wanted to get in touch to say hey and congrats on being one of our top reviewers in city X!

We would love to send you a little so-and-so gift to thanks for your awesome posting. If you could reply with your full name and postal address that would be fantastic. (...)

My reply:

Hi So-and-So

Thanks a million for the detail.

Unfortunately, I don't give my personal details online, especially to people I don't know and are managing network online sites. I am very conscious about data collection online and no "gift" is going to change that, especially when X site could easily give a voucher for the fortunate to collect the goodies in person or just a gift voucher. I always love those.

Having said that. I appreciate the good will. 

(...)

The question is, how many of the fortunate people who have received this email have said no?

THE FOLLOW UP

After my email the same manager wrote to me saying that she totally understand :O and offering me to go to their office to collect the gift in person, and that the gift is some vouchers from some business they work with. So I am not hurrying to collect anything. A block of French pate would make me happy :D. 

GIFTS THAT ARE NOT GIFTS BUT A WAY OF MANIPULATING

If you want to give me a gift. Great. Send me an email voucher that does not require of me giving my personal details to an stranger and, even worse, to a website partly financed by local businesses, which would be thrilled to get a positive review or just a review. Because you carry the voucher, they would treat you like a queen/king, very differently from the rest of mortals, so that you leave feeling that they have the best customer service ever. 

This sort of free gift policy is very similar to the polices implemented in Yelp. Although Yelp is way more generous and many of the freebies do not come with a suggestion to make a review afterwards (but they would end with one), many of the exclusive invitations to restaurants and the Elite Events are given with an explicit request to write a review, and you letting yourself being photographed no matter you don't want because it is in the Terms & Conditions and by being there "for free" you are selling your image to them for a plate of food.

Nobody forces you to review those places, of course. nobody tells you, I give you this free ticket in exchange for a review, the request is implicit, though, in many of the gifts received. However, most people being invited to an Elite event are explicitly requested to write a review about the business. High ratings are the result. There is no problem with that when the business and the product deserve it, as this benefits both parts. I can count the many times I really enjoyed the event and I was more than happy to give high ratings to a business. The problem arises when you do not like the business/product/service, or you think it is just mediocre, but you feel psychologically obliged to be grateful by rating higher than you would if you were paying for the same. This psychological bias affects us all, even if you aren't aware of, and marketers know how to exploit it. 

In the last two free activities I attended in Yelp most people I talked to thought that the food was OK and the business giving the tickets not really good. In the first one several people told me just that, explicitly, but added: "I feel bad after all the special treatment and food we have received, giving them a low rating and saying what I really think". However, most people wrote four and five-star reviews full of babble. Almost nobody said that the food was amazing or deserving of five stars, just that the evening was great and thanks to the business for organising it. I myself did so with a 4-star review (when I thought 3 would had been fair), and I felt that I was betraying myself. I did not like the feeling. The second time, I was on an outing organised by a new foodie business that gave free tickets to yelpers; as soon as the event started yelpers were explicitly required to write a review. None of the people who attended did so because, talking among ourselves, we thought that the rating would be low and that would be a bit ungrateful. However, this request was enough for me not to write anything and quit Yelp and erase my whole account. There were other important reasons why I quit the site, but the "gift for a review" weighed in my final decision. My quitting did not happen without the resistance of Yelp itself, something that convinced even more that I was doing the right thing.  In fact, Yelp does not have a cancel-your-account button you can press when you want, and you have to request it by email, and the USA and local Yelp managers contact you on this trying to convince you not to quit, as the site is really good for you (BS) and question you about why. Why do I need to give an explanation at all? Isn't my wish reason enough? Am I not a free person? Am I not an adult? Their closing-account policy is similar to that of the data-sucker flock-manipulator Facebook, and I don't like it a bit.

A gift is a gift, give it freely, not as a subtle way of manipulating people to get what you want. 

I don't want to be in that position ever again. Well, ever again is perhaps a too-bold assertion. If I was on the dole or had a low salary, I would be happy to grab restaurant invitations. If I was offered a voucher to visit the best restaurant in town, I would grab it closed eyes, too, but this rarely happens as top restaurants do not need of those tactics to get high ratings. Until then, I am independent in my reviews without the pressure of going against my gut to be grateful. I feel that doing the contrary is betraying myself and I don't like how that tastes after the meal.

NB: A friend told me just today that somebody (i.e. yelpers) could be upset because of my words. Really? I find it puzzling. I am not responsible for other people's feelings, especially when this is a personal blog and what I say is my personal view of how I see things, and how things affect me.  I hate preaching or being preached, in the same way I hate being bllxited and manipulated. This is just my opinion. There are things that annoy me and I don't like. That might not be the case of other people, who really don't mind anything and are happy with the system. Well, I respect that. I really liked my Yelp "friends" and at a personal level I have nothing but praise for them. Yet, if somebody feels upset because of what I've written here, well, don't read me back :). 

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WTF Foodie Moment 6: Tough guys

--> I am having my lunch break.

-->  A bunch of tough-looking long-bearded guys arrive. They look tough. They look like a new wave of breaded bikies with a sprinkle of poshness.
 
--> They order.
 
--> They go outside.
 
(I am sure they are going to order something tough, something macho or at least manly, a long macch, a black coffee without sugar, something acid and caustic, meaty.)

--> Their order arrives... A green coloured organic juice.
 
WTF!

(WHERE? Babooshka Cafe, Northbridge)

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WTF Foodie Moment 5: Morcilla Breaky

--> I am seating on a sunny Sunday, at one of my fav cafes. I have ordered the Morcilla Breaky.

--> A couple arrives and seats next table. Their table is separated five centimetres (literally) from mine.

--> My meal arrives. It looks Yum! I start eating. It tastes yummy.

--> He looks at me (meaning my morcilla breaky) mesmerized. Staring.

> (He tells her) it looks great, isn't it?

< (She tells him) Yes, you should order it.

--> (I keep munching)

--> (He keeps looking at me and/or my morcilla, or both. He does so several times).

--> (The friend they were waiting finally arrives and joins the party, and the waitress approaches their table)

> What are you having, guys?

< What is she having? ("she" is me! at barely 5 cms.)

--> (The whole table plus the confused waitress look at me. The waitress is lost for a moment as my breakfast is almost finished).

>> (I reply) The morcilla breaky....

--> (They ignore me. No Thank yous. They are too, how to put it... rude? obnoxious? What about the constant staring? What about talking about me and my morcilla as if we were mere projections on a screen and I was not there? What about learning to communicate using their vocal cords instead of their eyes and asking me directly from the very beginning?) 

--> What is wrong with you, WTF people?!

(WHERE? Cantina 663, Mt Lawley)

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Beseech Sculpture (Leederville, Perth WA)

T

Town of Vincent's Administrative and Civic Centre
Grounds 
Corner between Loftus & Vicent Sts
Leederville, WA 6007

"Beseech" aka Big Blue Head, is a 3-metre high blue concrete sculpture by Western Australian artist Ken Sealy. The Town of Vincent commissioned Sealy after being selected among the six entries presented. The project was founded using the Town of Vincent’s mandatory Percent for Art Scheme, which is a very cool mandatory concept.

The sculpture was initially planed for a commercial development to be built at 375 Charles Street (North Perth). However, the developers showed concerns about the effect of such a big sculpture on the value of the area, and about the visual impact that it might have. The Town of Vincent was forced to look for a more convenient location for the already in production Beseech. After much deliberation, Beseech found a home on the grounds of the Town of Vincent's Administrative and Civic building. I am convinced that this was a blessing in disguise, because Beseech, being surrounded by trees and in a relatively quiet green area, away from any commercial building, has got a life of its own.  

Beseech's  style is similar to the in-vogue marquetry puzzles, created by putting together flat slices of wood to create a 3D volume. Sealy did a very similar thing, but on a giant scale. He used slices of foam, impregnated them with concrete, linked them by metallic poles, and, once they two halves of the head were dry, they were assembled, and erected on its current location, painted with Epoxy, and was inaugurated on 20 March 2013.

Beseech is a beautifully expressive and New Age creature - a true gentle giant. The delicate but pronounced tilt of the head and the fact that the eyes look open or closed depending on the angle you look at "him", give Beseech a very peaceful and egregious air. It makes you wonder. What is he seeking? Why is he looking at? What has caused him to be so very peacefully enraptured? Is he meditating? Is he praying? Is he looking at the moon? Is he looking at the stars? Is he looking inward? Beseech has a metaphysical aura that makes you stop and look up to see what he is looking up. When you look up, you see the sunlight and moonlight shining  through the leaves of the trees, the tops of the trees framing the sky, and a space that is  beyond what we see, both outward and inward.

Of course, the sculpture is facing the building of the Town of Vincent, but I am sure that Beseech is not interested  in mundane affairs at all. 

I do not like concrete and fashion colours in sculpture because it makes the sculpture fashionable and perishable, degradable, and consumable as well. Of course, this is a very personal opinion. This is an awesome expressive sculpture that would have benefited from those materials that are Sealy's trademark: Aluminium and wood. I suppose, the small budget (which was, nevertheless, 50 grand) did not allow Sealy to create something of that sort. Nothing lasts an eternity, but it would have been great if the Town of Vincent had added a bit of more money from its own pockets, to guarantee a longer cooler life to Beseech.

I love this sculpture, despite its blue concrete, for its concretist blues. 

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Answers to the Liebster Award

Lee from the blog Coffee Couture was kind enough to nominate this blog for a Liebster Award. It requires of the nominees posting 11 random facts about themselves as well as answering the questions posted by any of the other nominees.

The Liebster (favourite in German) is more of a way to get to know bloggers than it is an award. The one rule is that the nominated bloggers must have less than 200 followers. This is very much the case with my blog. I have a few followers, but they do not follow me officially, they watch in silence, which is fine with me. Hello voyeuristic stranger!

Here are a few things about this "bloggeree".

11 Random Facts About Me
1 - Teo Degas is an alias I have been using for years for anything that is not professional. I wanted an alias that wast Artsy but close enough to the phonetics of my real name. Voilà!

2- I have a tendency to buy things I don't need without worrying about the price, but I tend to delay buying those I do need and I  worry about the price.

3- I am a geek. I have always found easy using and teaching myself computers and software. Still, I have difficulties with simple electric things. Ha!

4- I love, with capitals, original unique jewellery, beautiful china tea cups and tea pots, artistic Tarot decks, shoes, handbags, and anything that it is well designed, artistic, delicate and colourful.  

5- I have tried, unsuccessfully, to teach myself Swahili, Finnish, Arabic, and Japanese, but I still speak several languages. 

6- I am a mediocre cook because I don't enjoy cooking. That it is my excuse!

7- I try to improve myself every single day, so I can be a refined soul when I die at the age of 93.

8- My favourite colour is red, but I tend to buy and wear anything purple, orange, blue and black.

9-  When I was a child, I wanted to be an Astronaut. 

10- I cannot live without my laptop. This is my window to the world, my work tool, my communication tool, my artistic tool, my reading tool, my writing tool, an extension of me little robot.

11- I was a coffeeholic until five-six weeks ago. After a nasty long stomach infection, I have switched to tea, and I have discovered that my addiction was mostly a psychological hook. I have killed the "oholic" in me, but now I am obsessed with T2 teas. Oh Dear! 

Questions Asked by Cafecouture

What did you eat today? 
For breakfast I had a milk Monk Pear tea, a mini-bowl of peaches with skim natural yoghurt, and a toast with cream cheese and bacon.
For lunch I had a glorious meal at Must: lamb rump dish, truffle and a coffee.
For dinner I have had half a cake slice I bought yesterday and two cups of tea.
Oh Jeez, I should keep a food diary. Perhaps... not.

Cappuccino, Long Mac or Espresso?
Long Mac.

Your favourite thing to do on the weekend?
Eating out, shopping, reading, watching movies, blogging and anything that is chores free. 

Where do you want to go on your next holiday?
South Korea. Hopefully North Korea doesn't start a war!

What inspires you?
Amazing human beings. 
Talented people.
Eye-opening books that make me grow as a person and expand my view of the world.
The Arts.

What is your favourite blog/website?'
- I contribute and enjoy reviews platforms like Urbaspoon, Yelp and Tripadvisor. 
- I like randomly browsing Tumblr or Flickr for illustration and digital Art posts and artists.
- I cannot live without IMDb and Amazon.

A memorable event in your life? 
Oh, so many! I will share three.
- Being born was memorable. Not that was aware of at that very moment :D!
- Publishing my first academic book.
- My first trip overseas, to Rome, alone, to study Italian, poor and with a big suitcase. I was robbed on the metro in my first hours there. I was lucky enough that the Police caught the guy at the exit with all my money. My second day in Rome was spent in Court, where the guy was taken, just in case my declaration was necessary. The rest of my stay was great! 

Favourite movie?
I have a huge list of favourite movies and I can't choose one.The last two ones I loved were Django Unchained and Mr Nobody (the later on DVD).

What do you buy online and where from? 
OMG (Online My Guilt) I buy online a lot: handbags, cosmetics, books, jewellery and anything in between. Some of the sites I buy from are Nordstrom, Revolve Clothing, OzCosmetics, StrawberryNet, Boticca, Etsy, the Book Depository and Amazon. I do buy regularly from Coles, Officeworks and Undiewarehouse, too. Oh, I buy from so many places online that it is embarrassing, or perhaps exciting.

Do you love Winter or Summer? 
Winter!

What camera or phone do you use to snap pictures?
A touristy cheap compact Coolpix Nikon. You can buy one for about 60 dollars. I have it on automatic settings and I use it mostly for super-fast snaps in restaurants/cafés.

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Stickers in Street Art

The area surrounding the "Fresh Provisions" supermarket in Mount Lawley seems to be, since ever, a heaven for graffiti, stencil and sticker artists. I always pay attention when I walk by this area, and there is always interesting, cute and creative material. However, the examples showcased in the slideshow below are remarkable. Despite its simplicity, the messages in the stickers are poetic, witty, cheeky, thought-provoking, and even philosophical. Fleeting thoughts of a talented artist/writer who can turn a traffic sign pole or a rubbish bin into something interesting to look at.  

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The Gallery of WA's Exhibitions Lighting

Every time I visit one of the paid exhibitions at the Art Gallery of WA, I leave wondering why the Art Gallery people seem oblivious to what I call fatal flaws in an exhibition.

We leave in an isolated part of the world, off the beaten track for most cultural events. Now that our State's economy is booming, there is a demand for Art. More precisely, a demand for conventional traditional classic Art. Masters of the Past. Historical Pieces. Pieces exhibited in big Museums overseas. The problem with some of the paid exhibitions is that, many times, the material we get is the one other galleries want to lend us, not what we would like to see, or what is excellent. Still, this is better than nothing, and a sort of luxury we have to pay for.

Now, we have the flashy exhibition and the masterpieces, and what does the Gallery to exhibit them? Let me think. Hanging the pieces from the wall. Having paid information earphones. Having security people around. Controlling the access to the paid area...  

How many times have you seen the image of a bulb (or two) reflected on a canvas in a way that affected your viewing of it no matter how much you moved around it? This was the case in the last two paid exhibitions I have visited: the Picasso to Warhol exhibition, and the Picturing New York.

Both of them had the same problem. Lighting was bad. What I call bad? 
1/The lighting is not specifically adapted to the pieces exhibited, but the general one of the room with directional lights that are mediocre and work well for large format exhibition or rooms with a better layout. Therefore, the lighting reflects on the masterpiece, and it does not allow you to appreciate the colours, shapes, textures or images on display from a frontal point of view. 
2/ The glass used in the frames is not mate but glossy glass, so it reflects the lights, and the framed piece becomes a mirror where you see yourself (and the rest of the room) reflected. See, as an example, the image that accompanies this entry. Hello, me! Most of the photos hanging from the wall had the same problem, although some of them were less affected than others.

This would not be a problem, if were talking about an independent money-lacking exhibition or institution. However, this is the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and these are paid exhibitions. Our ticket should serve to have the pieces better exhibited, no? However, adjusting lighting and glass panels would cost more money and would take more effort. How is possible that the curators of the Gallery and the original owners of the pieces do not care about this? Perhaps because everybody seems to be content with the poor display, no matter the quality of the piece exhibited. Nobody seems to be complaining in Perth, Art critics, newspapers or the general public. So no one is making an effort to change it. My guess.

If I pay for an exhibition, I expect it to be exhibited in a way that honours the artists and pieces on display. Otherwise, I leave, as I did last time, feeling that I should have paid for the Catalogue; at least there the the pieces are beautifully photographed and can be appreciated properly. This is a bit sad, really. Especially because some of the pieces hanging from the walls are fantastic.

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Yoko Ono

Years ago, a friend of mine passed some of Ono's records on to me. He always thought that I would like her music and her. Since I did not like her public persona, I did not listen to her music until about two years later. When I decided to listen to it, I knew why my friend had insisted - Ono's music is crazy, daring, experimental and very intimate at times. One of those music styles that you like or hate, not for the masses.

I have always thought that Yoko Ono has/had a sharp aura, if that can be said. That is, something that makes the onlooker uneasy and unsettled despite Ono being quite small and, at the moment, an old lady. She seems to have a very strong edge, something that would cut you into tiny pieces if you dared to look at her in the wrong way or asked her a stupid question. Still, if you look at her photos with John, especially the more intimate ones, she looks like another person, a soft gentle happy lady.

I woke up last Tuesday night thinking about Yoko Ono. I am not making this up. My brain does funny things to me sometimes. It just came to my mind, in the middle of the night, how unjust and unfair Mass Media has been with her. Most importantly, how John Lennon's life and artistic creation changed for the best, after they met.

Doesn't Ono come immediately to your mind when you hear the name John Lennon?  This is my case. Lennon is, to me, Lennon plus Ono - them kissing, embracing, naked, their bed-in interviews and anti-Vietnam protests. I cannot imagine Lennon singing "Give Peace a Chance" without Yoko Ono. I did not live the Beetles-mania, so, to me, Lennon is more Ono's than Beetles'.

Do you know anything or remember Lennon's first wife, Cynthia? I do not. I had to look for her photo and biography on the Internet. She looks like a normal pretty lady, still unremarkable. Like a nice human being, who loved and was loved by Lennon, put up with his crap, and had a baby with. I am not saying that she has to be despised for being an average wife married to a famous person. I am saying that she did impact Lennon in a less powerful way than Ono did. 

Ono was a remarkable woman when she met Lennon. She was an avant-garde artist, an intellectual with a vision, and with much clearer ideas than Lennon on what was to be done in the world of Music. She was a woman who had made a living out of her talent, and had an opinion on everything. At a personal level, she  came from a harsh relationship and a missing abducted child, but she never exploited her personal misery to present herself as a victim. As my friend told me, imagine the impact that a woman like that must have had on Lennon, a normal guy with enough talent to take what she had to say on board. It is true. Ono transformed Lennon into the best possible version of himself at a human level, and that without even trying, without forcing anything, without changing who he was, without putting up with his misogynist crap. He did the same to her. It was like a chemical reaction that, once the right elements are mixed, creates magic. This is perhaps the reason why, unlike other artistic couples, they did not end breaking-up due to abuse, envy or clash of the egos. These two were remarkable fitted for each other at every possible level, despite Lennon's cheating later in life.
   
The Mass Media and the general public have always disliked Ono, or at least  talked or portrayed her in a way that shows a macho misogynist attitude towards any woman who is brilliant, has talent and a brain, and is an individual. It is easier to attach her success to Lennon's halo, blame her for the Beetles' break-up and for Lennon's break-up with Cynthia. When she came into the public scene, she was not especially girly or pretty, had too much wild hair, she did not use make up, she was opinionated, she was not a Westerner - therefore, she was unlikeable. If this wasn't enough, she was not singing "la la la" sort of songs, nothing popular that would make her appealing to the general public. She would be yelling at times, literally. She did not give a damn about what the masses or the Media thought or said about her, so this irritated everybody. Most importantly, she has always used the Media when it suits her, mostly for good causes, and not the other way around. When she decided to lead a private secluded life, she did just that, despite the interest of the Press.  

The question we have to ask ourselves is, would have the Public and the Media reacted and judged Yoko Ono the same if the case was the reverse? That is, Ono a man and Lennon a woman? Of course not.
 
Ono has always been, and still is, a reserved woman, an active avant-garde artist and peace activist. The culture of the 21st century owes her as much as it owes John Lennon, perhaps more, because she was "hated" for just being a female intellectual, a daring artist, an activist, and, most importantly, for not conforming, for being just herself and living her life the way she thought/thinks it should be lived.

I cannot but like and admire Yoko Ono, despite her halo of scary edginess. Yoko Ono was way ahead of her time, even if we do not sing her songs. Although her public image and appreciation has been softened and increased in the last two decades, we will have to wait for her death for Ono to be fully recognised as the great woman she is.

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Fashion Magazines' Beauty Advice - 3

Final words, after the first and second entries on this topic.

A confession - I do love some luxury beauty products -especially make-up- advertised in fashion magazines, mostly because of the glamorous packaging and design, and their wonderful scents.

Another confession - My life at University extended longer than for most students. I was poor when I was a student, a postgraduate student and a PhD. student. Too poor, too long. I used to go to stores and use perfume and make-up testers for my beauty purposes. The expensive ones. I can be very cheeky. That is a virtue when you are poor, believe me. I could only afford things like Maybelline or cheaper brands. Being able to have something luxury today is not only a pleasure, it is an indication that I have reached a point in life that I dreamt about when I was poor. Kudos to me. 

This does not change a thing what I have said about beauty products in the previous entries.  

If you like luxury items be clear why you do buy them. Do not full yourself thinking that they will have a bigger impact on your physical beauty, or the state of your skin, hair or nails. Sometimes they do, sometimes they do not.  I would say, most times they do not.

An example of positive difference I find it in the eye shadows by MAC, which are a bit pricey -even if bought online- but they do not smudge, last the whole day and do not irritate my skin.  Way better than any other brand I have tried.

An example of no difference can be found in the Chanel Foundation powder and Revlon Mineral Foundation I use in summer or the Revlon Photoready airbrush mousse and Lancôme Vitalumière foundations that I use in winter. The colouring is the only difference, and they both do a great job.

An example of negative difference. I cannot tolerate most Lancôme moisturisers, which have a burning effect on my skin. However, my skin does not react or have a problem with moisturisers from L'Oreal, Neutrogena, Nivea, Dove, Sukin and other "cheapies".

***

A fact  - Chanel and Bourjois are part of the same brand and produced in the same facilities, but packaged and marketed differently.

A fact - L'Oreal owns not just L'Oreal mainstream products, but also Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Biotherm, Cacharel, Diesel, Kiehl's, Stella McCartney, Garnier, Maybelline, Vichy, La Roche, Kerastase, Redken, among many other luxury, medium quality and natural-beauty brands. Sometimes they are the same thing packaged differently with different colouring, and scent.

This being the case, if you find a medium-quality product from these holdings, there is a high probability that they have been produced in the same facilities, are good quality, and have similar qualities, minus the glamorous packaging and high price.

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Fashion Magazines' Beauty Advice - 2

Despite the ever-growing Beauty sections in fashion magazines and normal newspapers, most of the beauty secrets that work long-term and make you beautiful outside do not need of advertisement. They are free or economical, and they are based on a holistic view of what beauty is. No cream, serum, make-up or fashion item can work if you do not have a healthy (or healthy-ish) lifestyle and your self does not come out from within. Unless you are really deformed, have an obvious birth mark or burnt, you do not need any special beauty product. Do not let the fashion magazines tell you differently.

Here the secrets to any lady's long lasting beauty:

1. Go to the gym regularly, so your skin cleanses itself from inside out and blood is pumped to it fast. If you are not into gyms, jogging or having any other fitness routine should do. The after-workout glow is amazing! No cream or facial has ever done the same for my skin.
2. Walk to most places, and take the steps not the lift. 
3. Eat well, everything you fancy but in moderation. Avoid living on junk food and take-away food. Do not diet unless you are obese. 
4. Drink water, limit the amount of fizzy drinks you have, and drink alcohol in moderation.  
5. Do not smoke and do not take drugs.
6. Sleep soundly and at least 7 hours a day. Do not over-sleep!
7. Clean your skin every day. You need water and a bit of mild soap/cleanser. There are plenty of cheap hypo-allergenic products out there.  
8. Moisturise regularly (any medium brand would do; choose the brand that better suits your skin).
9. Apply make-up to highlight your best features not to turn you into somebody that is difficult to recognise once you remove it. (Any medium brand would do, adjust it to the specific needs of your skin).
10. Use ammonia-free hair colouring, translucent colour-free shampoos and mild masks and conditioners.
11. Avoid baking under the sun in the hottest hours of the day, especially in summer.
12. Use mild +30 sun-block or a sun-smart moisturiser. Most brands are good. Some of them are allergenic, so choose the one that suits you, specifically. Price does nothing to do with their quality.
13. Use beauty products that are low in chemicals.
14. Use Aluminium-free deodorants. There is an increasing number of alternative  cheap plant-based brands that do not irritate your skin.
15. Dress for your body shape and dress age wise.
16. Smile and laugh as much as you can. Those wrinkles make you even more beautiful.
17. Keep your stress levels under control. Do not stress for what is not under your direct control, and learn to cope with those people or circumstances that are making your life stressful. 
18. Learn to relax doing whatever activity relaxes you.
19. Live a life that fulfils you - that gives you a happy beautiful glow that no cream would ever do. 
20. Most importantly, feed your soul and brain, so the beauty you have comes from within, not just from your body, and you still will have it when you are 50, 60, 70 or 80y.o.a.

It sounds obvious. It is! 

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Fashion Magazines' Beauty Advice - 1

If you are into fashion magazines and you purchase or browse them regularly you might have noticed three facts that make of our delight less passionate.
 
FACT NUMBER ONE. Most magazines seem to have the same content, cover celebrities, products, and articles. There is a reason for that. Big corporations hold most women's magazines. Just to use an example, the Hearst Corporation owns, amongst many others, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan,  and Woman's Day; Condé Nast owns the Vogue and Glamour magazines, while Time Inc owns Instyle and Mariclaire UK among others.  

FACT NUMBER TWO. They preach one thing and do another regarding women body issues. They preach and talk about real women, women accepting our bodies no matter the size and the dimples, and about women needing to love ourselves. However, they keep featuring models and celebrities that are extremely thin, women that represent a minuscule percentage of the population. Not only that, those celebrities showcased are airbrushed to remove any sign of imperfection and humanity from their physique, so we feel -in comparison- inadequate, big, fat, and ugly. No wonder why we avidly peruse the beauty section to fix ourselves.

FACT NUMBER THREE AND THE POINT OF THIS ENTRY. The number of explicit, implicit and coveted marketing ads has been multiplying progressively, and the marketing techniques used are every day cleverer at reaching our psyche. Which sort of advertisement do we find in our favourite fashion magazines?

1/ Direct explicit advertisement.  Wonderful stylish, lavish creative photos that not only sell a product, they do reflect the brand's style, philosophy, age group, luxe level and social group to whom the ad is directed.

2/ Promotional paid spaces that clearly state they are. For example, a page devoted to a new cosmetic cream in which the scientific research and testing of the product are specifically mentioned, and comments from celebrities or consumers provided. They are still ads, but masked by a "scientific" coat. They do not lie, just showcase anything good about the product and disregard the rest.  

3/ Promotional spaces that do not say to be so, but they are. A clear example is the article "Art of Happiness" by Eugenie Kelly published in the December 2012 Harper's Bazaar (pages 112-113). The article has a full page with a photo of a bottle of  "La Vie est Belle", the latest perfume by Lancôme, and a page devoted to the creation of the perfume and Julia Roberts' direct involvement in it; there is an interview with her, but her photo cannot be seen anywhere. The article is all about the perfume. No promo sign is to be seen anywhere. I consider this a coveted promotion disguised as journalism, which would make sense in a marketing magazine or a magazine just devoted to perfume, not a fashion magazine directed to the general public. How do we know it is advertisement? Easy! Go go page 205 in the same magazine, to the Bazaar's gift list section, and there you have the same perfume. Your eyes are drawn to this specific perfume immediately because its positioned right in the centre of the page, and there is a read heading over it. 

4/ Editor's Pics section. Who better than a beauty editor to tell us about the virtues of any beauty product, the latest products released, and what's not? We guess a magazine's beauty editor receive tons of samples from gazillion beauty brands. I have not doubt that they know the latest of the latest. However, there is no guarantee that those showcased in a magazine are the best, or that the product has been thoroughly tested by the editor or the magazine team before being recommended. Many times they pass the info package provided by the brand without further addition. Not always, but many times. On the other hand, there is a tendency to recommend luxury (from fashion corporations) items, those that are burden to our wallets.

5/ Products of the Year Awards pages. Many magazines have this sort of awards held yearly or half-yearly. They gather a panel of professional make-up artists. beauticians and fashion experts -most of them with direct links to the beauty industry- to decide on the best products: face make up, hair, nails, body, and perfumes. There is not a clear description of why they are chosen. They are professionals and I trust them; however, the opinion of consumers is rarely asked, and if it is -like in In Style- is just an addenda. 

I am not saying that the products recommended are not good. I am saying, that I have tried plenty of the things you find recommended from big brands, and many of of them are as remarkable as the medium-quality brands we buy from any supermarket or beauty store. To me, my opinion on a beauty product is better than the one of a professional because a) has no commercial interest behind it b) it is based on direct experimentation on me for a certain period of time. 

Recommendations on perfumes and creams are especially silly, as the perfume react to your specific skin's Ph, and smells differently on different people. A moisturiser or serum could be heaven for your skin, but hell for mine whether it is de luxe or not.  

6/ Interviews with celebrities about their beauty's case, beauty routine, or favourite beauty products. Most of these celebrities are openly sponsoring certain brands, which means that they are being paid to be the face of a brand or product, to say that they use it, and to be photographed using it. So, if a  magazine interviews them, which products do you think they are going to recommend? Right, you've got it. 

***

I do love creative advertisement and fashion photography. So much so that I enjoy watching TV and photo ads. However, what most fashion magazines are doing at the moment is not fair dinkum. The consumer and reader psychologically approaches any given advertisement with different levels of trustworthiness and openness regarding the explicitness of the ad. The normal ads, we tell ourselves, are selling things to us, so we decide whether we are interested or not - consciously. The other ones go directly into your subconscious and convince you of the goodness of an ad based on apparently scientific, honest, and sincere reviews and recommendations. They have a bigger impact on your psyche. How do I know? Despite being very aware of this issue, I have found myself frozen in space, my hand holding one of those very beauty products that I have seen showcased and recommended by a fashion magazine. Oh Dear. I am human. I am not alone. thousands of women are doing the same without even realising that what they call choosing is subconsciously induced by publicity.

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Good Service - 3

One of the things I have noticed lately is that, as soon as the staff spot you taking a picture of the food, the staff's behaviour changes dramatically and the service improves remarkably, while the level of "smileness" duplicates. 

It is great, on one hand, and a bit pitiful on the other. 

I have experienced the rudeness of a lady behind a counter being dramatically changed -going from mutant monster to an angora fluffy bird- as soon as my camera was taken out. The lady could change her behaviour while I was there, but the reviews on her restaurant always pinpoint the rudeness of the staff. So you cannot fake what you do not have. 

Angry staff should never be dealing with patrons. 

Any staff member should be genuine and nice to me whether I have a camera or not. Is that too much to ask?

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Good Service - 2

"Was everything OK?" "How was everything?" 

Have you ever been asked this sort of question in a restaurant? 

I find them a bit intimidating, and it is never going to work with customers -or at least with me- unless they really-really loved what they had. If it is mediocre or bad, you, like me, won't probably say so.

For example, say that you had an omelette and you thought that you could have prepared it better at home despite you not being a good cook". Would you tell them just that? Of course not. You have manners, and, even if you are not that enthusiastic, you may say, "It was OK" in a languid tone. In these days, reviewing sites allow patrons to spill the beans on what you really-really think about a place without having to deal with a personal reaction that could not be pleasant. Most people asking for your opinion are really expecting you to replay what they want to hear.

I think that it would be great if some restaurants and cafés did what most hotels do - have feedback forms at hand (to be filled in and deposited in a feedback box or posted), asking about the patron's opinion on the ambience, service, food, pricing, serving portions, things that they did not enjoy, and so on. This would help businesses to improve and would prevent unhappy customers from venting their anger or disappointment online.

What about saying "I hope you enjoyed it"? I think I like this more than other open questions. Then, if the business has feedback forms, they could add "please feel free to leave any feedback in the forms provided". I like this the most. What about you?

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Good Service - 1

hos·pi·tal·i·ty
1. Cordial and generous reception of or disposition toward guests.
2. An instance of cordial and generous treatment of guests.

How many people, business owners and staff working in the Hospitality sector have forgotten which industry they are part of and what does hospitality mean? Many, unfortunately.

Everything is in the service - to me. You could be serving ambrosia on an Versace plate or a coffee so good that it would make me levitate; still, if the service is lacking or bad, I would not return. 

One of my brothers worked at a restaurant and a bar for many years. It is a very stressful job, not always well-paid, long hours, early mornings, late evenings, little time for eating and going to the toilet, and, sometimes, low salaries. People arrive all at the same time (my brother called it "the big sh*t"), while other hours are so empty that you feel like a day has 48 hours. I know there are many struggling students working in the hospitality industry because it is the only option they have, and you see them struggling at doing their job and keeping up with their assignments. Business owners have it tough in a very competitive industry, high taxes and rental leases (especially in Perth CBD), expensive produce suppliers, expensive transport, difficulty in finding nice staff, among many hurdles. 

Still, patrons pay for what they consume, and they have to earn the money for it. The least we can expect is being treated nicely and having a good experience in our time out. 

Good service makes a business prosper and attracts customers and keeps them. It sounds obvious, no? Unfortunately, many businesses do forget a basic rule - a happy customer is the best ad they will ever have. And they forget it for various reasons: they are just focused on making money or surviving, selling an image, starting before they are ready, attending to more customers than they can attend to, taking for granted that customers will put up with any crap if the setting has hype or it is trendy, among many other reasons. 

To me, there are a list of things that any business in the hospitality industry should be doing to guarantee that the service is decent, good or excellent:

1.  Choosing waiters/waitresses who are genuinely friendly and sociable, who are energetic and want to be there. They have to deal with all types of people and personalities, and usually work long hours, so they need to have those innate qualities to deliver.
2. Choosing cooks who can actually cook. I mean, cook something better than the mediocre food that any of us can or could prepare at home. 
3. Organising the staff effectively. A business can have the best staff around, and still offer a terrible service. If the restaurant, café or bar has good food/coffee/drinks and wants to get a reputation, it needs a plan: a set of rules and procedures to follow, a list of must and must-not, a "serving routine" in which details are given on how to take orders, cue people, serve, attend to, receive payments, and welcome and farewell patrons. Not only that, they need to invest some time in informing the staff about the food they are serving: produce origin, taste of the dishes, gluten free options, type of grapes of a foreign wine, and so on, so they can reply to any query. 
4. Organising the layout of the restaurant having into account the needs of the staff, especially in the kitchen and serving areas. In fact, many restaurants' layouts prevent the staff from doing their job properly or make difficult their movements. For example, having enough space between tables, not only benefits patrons, it also allows the staff to move easily and avoid hitting patrons with elbows, dishes they are carrying, etc.
5. A business should never host more patrons than those they can serve at ease and attend to properly with the staff they have. If they do, deficiencies in the service become obvious to visitors and the patron's experience is affected. If the business increases, you need more staff, at least at peak hours.
6. A business should have EFPTOS. The last two times my wallet was empty of cash and EFPTOS was not available, my transaction cost me two dollars, which had to be added as an extra to the price I was paying.

***

As a patron, these are the things I find indicators of a good service, and that make me return to a business and be merry:

1. The staff are friendly and respectful, and smile and greet customers.
2. The staff treat regular customers as individuals, and remember their order preferences and name. This is especially important in cafés and bars where you always order the same. By remembering "the usual" they show their care and appreciation towards you. After all, you could go elsewhere and stop expending your money here.   
   
3. The staff attend first to those people who arrive first.
4. The staff are knowledgeable about their trade. They know their beans, liquors, wines or food. Not only that, they can even advice you if you are not sure about what to order.
5. The staff leave their personal problems at home, so they attend to customers as fellow-humans not as money-making machines or an annoyance they have to put up with. If you cannot make it, fake it. I have plenty of crappy days, and I do not treat anybody badly when ordering my food or drinks. 
6. The staff do not have a pose. They are humble and hospitable, and they treat customers without looking down at them. After all, they do not know who they are. I could be Denmark's Prime Minister, a famous Hungarian painter, a renowned German astrophysicist, a popular online site reviewer, or just a human being who has ordered something with courtesy and expects the same in return.
7. The staff attend arriving customers fast, and serve food, coffee or drinks at a decent speed. Any on-going delays are mentioned upfront.
8. The staff inform of any amendments, changes or missing elements in the printed menu - upfront. 
9. The staff apologise for any mistake and mishap and offer a compensation to an unhappy customer who has a reason to be unhappy. 
10. The staff deal elegantly with customers with foreign accents. They elegantly make you repeat your order if they do not understand, or show you the menu so you point to the item you want, or vocalise what they are saying. This is especially relevant in Perth, where the number of foreign students learning English is considerable and, most importantly, the number of dwellers born overseas is very high. 

***

Good service is what separates a good business from a bad one, and what makes some businesses thrive and others fail. Any business owner and manager wants to have a successful business. However, expecting customers to put up with crap, despite the fact that they pay for what they are consuming, it is not only insulting, it is stupid - like digging up your own grave. 

I am your guest - be hospitable.

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Musing About: Perth Street Art-2 (Perth WA)

1.  It might be because I live close to the CBD and I move in central suburbs, but I rarely find proper graffiti beyond name tagging and stickers. I grew up in a place that hidden corners and empty walls are covered by graffiti, from ejaculating penises in areas where teens meet, to love declarations, unveiling secrets, insults, squatters promotion political anti-system tagging, colourful murals and everything in between - in any semi-hidden corner in the city centre or suburbs. In Perth, I am mostly used to wonderful murals in the lanes of the city or in abandoned empty walls, artistic tagging, and stickers. I am sure there are lot of dirty secrets written somewhere, but they are not around my suburb. Please point us to the dirty secrets.

*** 

2. Graffiti and vandalism are sometimes associated in the mind of our politicians and of many citizens. Some TV shows and a.c.a.s give the same bad name to destroyers of public furniture, buses and trains and those who do artistic tagging, graffiti and/or painting. Still, overall, there is a respect towards wall painting and street art in this city. So much so that the City of Perth and the City of Subiaco are sponsoring educational projects of street art targeting the youth and Perth lanes - Food Chain is an incredible initiative. The City of Subiaco was also behind the painting of the Gold Lane. Of course, if a government or institution promotes something, you are not going to find anything subversive. Still, it is great.

Education Institutions are also acting as sponsors and paying for murals on their campuses. An exhibition at the Central Institute of Technology in Northbridge called Street Art 2012, was held between 23-28th July 2012, sponsored by HepatitisWA with works, street-art style, showcasing "young people's creative interpretation of the key health messages associated with viral hepatitis". The guys were selected from several youth agencies and selected to raise awareness of hepatitis. Well, if that is the case why not doing Street Art properly in the streets where, using abandoned walls, where the message can be seen by hundreds the people and be called street art? Street Art on canvases indoors. Truly Odd!  

3. We do not have guerrillas cleaning up viciously and obsessively in Perth, but mostly people admiring the work of the artists or ignoring it. Yes, there are examples of cleaning guerrillas, like in my attached photos, but I have also seen cleaning of graffiti on murals painted by streets artists! I love oxymorons! I also have seem certain sticker areas being continuously cleaned and repeated in a loop of eternal resistance.

4. One thinks of New York, Tokyo, Berlin, or Manchester as heavens for Street Art painters and aficionados. Still, at least at present, a more more vibrant street art scene, and more in connection with Perth, is happening elsewhere. Just to put an example close to our shores, I am thinking of  the Malay city of Melaka and its wonderful riverside, and the street art  murals covering night clubs and businesses non stop, spreading to the walls of new buildings. I found street art in Kuala Lumpur incredible, too. I thought that Perth and Melaka share the idea and feeling that a city and its public and business spaces can be beautiful canvases of creativity, and that they look much better painted than in blank, grey or bare bricks. Still, Melaka's murals are quintessentially Malay, as they use motifs (traditions, myths, and ways of life) and colours that perfectly represent who they are. Our murals, in that regards, do not reflect a clear Australian or Perthian identity, or they have it in the fact that they are artistically individualistic.

5. I had this conversation with an art gallery owner. I told him, "why don't you call an street artist to paint your [ugly] building with a funky mural?" His answer was that there is no street art in Perth, and those making it in Perth act as if they were the last big thing. Yes, ugliness can be subversive and even provocative, but I disagree with his statement. Yes, we do not see any Banksy here, or subversive street art, although isolated examples do exist (I am thinking on those stencil posters glued on the walls after the death of Osama Bin Laden, quickly removed or sprayed over). 

Perth Street Art do exist and is indeed very artistic. Not as spontaneous, sub-culture, protest, provocative, and subversive as in other societies and countries. However, there is a reason for that. We live in a rich peaceful country with a democracy, where people live their lives as they want, choose their religion, politic and even their sexual orientation. Therefore, their ways of expression are never going to be the same as those of artists and people who live in societies where there are marked class differences, political oppression, racial and sexual extermination or alienation, extreme poverty, widespread corruption, or simply a big economical crisis. Perhaps our city is too bourgeois to have radical street art, or politically or socially mindful street art, but our street art is just artistic.  Is that bad?

On the other hand the sticker street art is quite personal, provocative, cute, daring, and eclectic, a bit funkier. Electric switch boxes, poles, and any type of traffic signs are spread throughout the city. There are a few people who have been doing so in the city and have just opened a collective exhibit in Perth Art Gallery Kurb. The girl behind the bunny stickers is not only a lovely girl, but a talented young artist with nice pieces for sale at ridiculous prices. She is talented and nice. Good start girl! I got my two stickers in my visit. Yoohoo.

 ***

6. Art, by definition, is subversion, reflection, transformation, subconscious approximation, cheekiness, provocation, a comment on the needs, hopes and illusions of the human soul and the society we live in. A window to or tap into the personal and collective subconscious. Not just a way of individual expression. In that regard, I miss from the Perth Art scene alternative conscious oriented street art focusing on our crap, as we have lots of it, too: immigrant alienation, refugee rejection, Aboriginal exclusion, cultural racism and biases, land and real state speculation, uranium sale, the projected pipe from the Kimberly, domestic violence, drunk violence, just to mention a few. I do not see them artistically explored on the walls of the city. It puzzles me that Aborigines and Aboriginal themes and issues are almost absent from our walls. I do not understand either why beautiful cannot be subversive, mindful and socially conscious. I do not expect Government sponsored Street Art to do this sort of thing, but I do expect non-commissioned pieces to do so. It is just a wish.

***

A few useful links for Street Art Lovers Below

A Gallery in Flickr
Another Gallery in Flickr
Perth Street Art Flicker Pool

Perth Graffiti in Facebook

Perth Street Art in Tumblr

Street Artists

Street Art News (World Site, not much info on Perth)

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