Saxon Baird

I love this stuff!

2009-06-16T13:05:29.754-04:00

I love this stuff!

i thought deer tick was a providence band? Maybe ...

2009-05-20T23:45:16.495-04:00

i thought deer tick was a providence band? Maybe they've moved from providence to brooklyn since my move west, but I always associated them with rhode island?

i'm happy to see more Taiwanese artist getting rec...

2009-03-04T15:22:00.000-05:00

i'm happy to see more Taiwanese artist getting recognition.

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. She is so refreshing a...

2009-02-15T00:38:00.000-05:00

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. She is so refreshing and often overlooked. Who could forget her Oscar performance in "My Cousin Vinny?" Totally upstaging Joe Pesci and Fred Gwynne, what a surprise she turned out to be. Bet Jonathan Lynn wasn't expecting that! I hope she does it again!

Just wanted to point out that Etro is often promin...

2009-02-04T17:01:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to point out that Etro is often prominently displayed within the pages of Gorsuch.

So they're not soo boring afterall.

This is a funny list, very Anglo, yes. Which acco...

2009-01-25T17:10:00.000-05:00

This is a funny list, very Anglo, yes. Which accounts for my 93: all the Austen and Bronte stuff. I like that there are some rather cheeky ones included. Also, their selctions for Sci Fi and Fantasy were amusing/ interesting. I think I've seen many of the books (esp the Crime) on film.

So of their list, I have read 81 of the selections...

2009-01-25T12:34:00.000-05:00

So of their list, I have read 81 of the selections (mostly in the "Family & Self" and "State of the Nation" categories). I have to say that it did feel awfully British...

Oh yeah.Another reason we love the 80's: classic m...

2009-01-23T13:06:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah.Another reason we love the 80's: classic music videos. (Hey back up singer! I want that yellow dress!)

Was Doogie even out then? I dont think he was whic...

2009-01-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

Was Doogie even out then? I dont think he was which only reiterates my point.

what about doogie as the womanizer on how i met yo...

2009-01-22T18:30:00.000-05:00

what about doogie as the womanizer on how i met your mother???

I don't mind! I had few glasses of wine and got ...

2009-01-14T17:41:00.000-05:00

I don't mind! I had few glasses of wine and got all kinds of worked up before bed and your blog provided me with an outlet to channel my distress.

I struggle to articulate myself, but where is the ...

2009-01-14T01:11:00.000-05:00

I struggle to articulate myself, but where is the media circus every time gang violence occurs, or every time an 8 year old is indoctrinated into a gang and witnesses gang violence? We turn our heads to this and cast blind eyes because, really, what can a collective community or politik do in the moment, without having to leap through legislative and legal loopholes? But a cop! Even a BART cop can be stripped of his badge, berated and shamed; he can act as a vehicle for collective guilt without necessarily addressing violence in communities struggling, getting little assistance... Where is the discussion addressing gang violence, in any major city and it's outlaying suburbs? And don't just placate me with some notion that gangs are families, because while I get that they fulfill a need, I see many and work with many youth for whom were their gang their family, they would be in CPS/ DHS custody for abuse, neglect and other traumas... I get the philosophy. Anyone with working logic does, but then what? When there is no badge to remove?

I think it's unfortunate (poor choice of word, ext...

2009-01-14T00:55:00.000-05:00

I think it's unfortunate (poor choice of word, extreme understatement) that the most media for crimes against black folks generally (and I say generally in terms of the broad, wide sweeping media; not pertaining to those of us who daily view our local media in some form) is in regard to crimes perpetrated on black folks by, all big fancy adjectives aside- white cops. Where is the media about black on black crime, be it gang crime or otherwise? Clearly it exists, and it's morbidity rate is far higher reaching than cops shooting poor folks. Is it the fact that minority crime, black on black, brown on brown, brown on poor white, poor on poor crime involves more scrutinization of policies and practices of social services as well as the means to (somewhat successfully) perform activities of daily living such as rent, food, school, housing. Frankly, I feel that situations such as these, while tragic and utterly avoidable, do not touch on the day to day violence and inequities in the lives of (I must extrapolate and cull from local media, living in Portland- gang violence thrives, including murders in churches (!?) in my neighborhood) Bay Area folks not quite past the marginal means of living. I don't know. I guess I just wonder how many boys need to be killed by cops for folks to sit down and think about the tragedy of boys, girls, men and women killed by people struggling to meet the same needs that they are?

It could also be true that what we use everyday li...

2008-12-13T02:15:00.000-05:00

It could also be true that what we use everyday like the umbrella was something much nobler, that we'll never recognize

Yea! Somewhere to send my granny panties where the...

2008-12-13T01:09:00.000-05:00

Yea! Somewhere to send my granny panties where they will be of good use. Phew! I was worried.

Uh...yeah..I mean really: what's up with that? Ver...

2008-12-13T01:02:00.000-05:00

Uh...yeah..I mean really: what's up with that? Very classy, Saxon.

Last month's W Magazine (W Art Issue)has this coll...

2008-12-05T12:50:00.000-05:00

Last month's W Magazine (W Art Issue)has this collection of photos of Angelina Jolie taken by Brad Pitt. I'm still on the fence about how i feel about the entire body of work. But after reading this i thought of that. And i am just sharing.

i don't know, i think i'm still a 'miss'...

2008-12-05T03:36:00.000-05:00

i don't know, i think i'm still a 'miss'...

Also check out God's Gang.

2008-12-03T17:24:00.000-05:00

Also check out God's Gang.

I love that I am OWNING your blog these days. I f...

2008-12-03T17:23:00.000-05:00

I love that I am OWNING your blog these days. I feel very pretty and special. Thank you.

No, I agree with your assessment. And by "mimicry...

2008-12-02T13:09:00.000-05:00

No, I agree with your assessment. And by "mimicry of identity" I didn't mean cheap or inauthentic, but in the way that mimicry can involve rich ambiguity.

Also, I'm not sure that co-opting and re-contextualizing always implies irony or the kind of mimicry that I'm talking about, like in your examples with Looney Tunes or Timbalands. I think there are ways in which you could see those items as being incorporated into an already existing affect or style. I mean the ways in which fashion, instead of being part of an embodiment of an identity that we more or less see as our own, can sometimes be used as a play with identities that we see as not what we're "all about," and yet still very important to our sense of self. Like the identification of Luis Vuitton with a conflicted former communist. The bag is a richly ambiguous social marker that can ironically shift between an embrace of capitalism and an elite Communist Party identity. I agree with you that it's more of a bleed between "authenticity" and "irony" so that both terms are losing their usefulness.

Damien-I have to say I disagree with you somewhat....

2008-12-02T10:30:00.000-05:00

Damien-

I have to say I disagree with you somewhat. I think there is a greater fluidity in fashion than you allow. I wouldn't consider it so much as a shift but a slow bleed into one another.

This has been going on for quite sometime though. Richard Hell puts pins in his torn shirt to keep together in 1977. Two years later, Malcolm McLaren sells shirts like this at his shop Sex in London. Less than 10 years later this look is appearing on the runways of Paris. You have hip-hop kids in New York co-opting Loony Tune characters by buying cheap white t-shirts and spray painting stencils of them. Or turning Timbaland boots, originally made for construction workers, into a intricate part of the hip-hop kit.

Yet on the other hand, you have high-end fashion house Thakoon doing the latest Target line. Or Comme Des Garcons designs being sold for under 30 bucks at H & M.

Or you have radical designers, like John Galiano, putting taxidermied foxes on hats. Um? What? That certainly isn't a mimicry of identity. Or at least not an immediate, recognizable imitation.

It goes both ways...you can't really mark a period of transition or shift. I think the best way to characterize the last twenty years would be a greater fluidity between fashion being an integral part of how we define our identity and our identity influences fashion. Its a exchange program in my opinion.

You could make a strong case that a good part of b...

2008-12-01T22:41:00.000-05:00

You could make a strong case that a good part of branding in the last twenty years involves some sort of self-conscious irony. Fashion is shifting from a signifier of identity to the mimicry of identity.

yeah..that radiohead shit is pretty cool

2008-11-26T16:42:00.000-05:00

yeah..that radiohead shit is pretty cool

This is what I've been saying all along: Africa is...

2008-11-18T00:37:00.000-05:00

This is what I've been saying all along: Africa is awesome. Did you see those kids!?