Un-broke: You don't know how to manage your money, so rich people are going to tell you how.

Un-Broke: The Seth Green Cribs Edition

Friday night, I had just finished eating leftover stirfry and was looking forward to watching Super Nanny before going out for drinks. But Jo was nowhere to be found. Instead, like a public service announcement, Un-Broke interrupted regular Friday night broadcasting (and all of the pleasure I derive from seeing Jo's healthy discipline technique) to tell me that I need to be frugal.

The show is right. Americans have been dwelling in an increasingly borrowed reality that we do not own. We have way too many credit cards, debt up the ass, and all we have to show for it are heaping piles of junk we don't need. It's toxic on every level, from the damage to our psyches, to our growing fat asses.

Seth Green's Cribs parody (above) was perhaps the gem of the show. As a common man, he gives us a tour of his extremely modest dwelling (a 1 bedroom ranch style) while still employing the rich gangster vernacular. Case in point: " Keep yer spending tight, and your money on your mind." We are shown a "state-of-the-art play station", which amounts to a pile of a boardgames; "bubbly," or bubble bath soap that he uses to clean his feet, and a luxurious plastic kiddy pool that is filled with "hose"... you get the picture.


This is what we should all be doing... living within our means. And that's great. This is what Americans need to hear. Too often, like the Cribs show Green was parodying, we are given rich celebrities to emulate, glamorizing consumerism and luxury. Green says:

"We're in a culture that emphasizes a lot of importance on financial wealth... so I'm concerned for all of America's youth who grew up watching [MTV's] My Super Sweet 16 and Cribs. They have such different goals and aspirations. You can't fault kids for their influences. Kids only learn what you tell them."

My only caveat is I sensed an underlying tongue-in-cheekness not just toward the Cribs show, but to the commonman austerity the clip was ostensibly idolizing. While it was extremely amusing to see juxtaposed a hood language of the rapping rich with modest living arrangements, it perhaps overemphasized the gap between the two. That is to say, seeing a kiddy pool might not make us think of poverty straightaway, but when you say "Staying cool by the pool" which elicits images of relaxing near a fancy pool, but then shoot to the kiddy pool, disappointing our expections, it simply exacerbates the jealousy we feel toward the wealthy.

It certainly does not help that during the course of the show, it is the super wealthy that are telling us how to manage our money, Green included. It is quite patronizing. Green, Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, the Jonas Brothers (perhaps most insulting of all), none of them have to deal with the realities of money management or austerity. They can continue to enjoy all of the luxury they desire, including multimillion dollar mansions. But it is they who are telling us to behave with our money, to only buy a shitty 1-bedroom ranch style home so as to keep housing costs at less than 1/3 of our total income. Easy for them to say.

In sum, the show was good. It attempted to inculcate values that have long since vanished from the US, first and foremost frugality and austerity. But the message might have resonated a little better with lesser known actors (whom we don't recognize for their lavish spending.) Although, I suppose then there might be less incentive to watch. You just can't win :)

Work it girl! Or Lady Gaga's recipe for success

She's all the rage. I have heard Poker Face, but don't hear anything particularly unique. For all the hype, Lady Gaga sounds like generic dance pop.

But to see Gaga is anything but generic. While critics say she's simply stealing David Bowie's style, she is a unique sight to behold. And I have to admit that I am jealous of the no pants thing... in my dreams, I am a pop star who rocks leotards and freak'em dresses as a quotidian. It is refreshing to see a female artist subverting traditional images of feminine sexiness. (Although I would be interested to read a feminist take on her... it could be argued she is simply playing into those images.)

In the new RS, she says

"I operate from a place of delusion... I used to walk down the street like a fucking star... I want ppl to walk around delusional about how great they can be - and then to fight so hard for it every day that the lie becomes the truth."

On one level, it's super exciting to subscribe to this - to strut around the streets like you own them (I confess :) and perhaps play into the illusion of one day becoming rich and famous. But this idea is uniquely American, isn't it? To believe that the key to success is placed soley on the shoulders of the individual, that by working or fighting hard enough, wealth and fame will come.

But we know that fame and wealth are matters of chance, of being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people. There are also powerful social forces, especially poverty, in play that would prevent the majority of would be divas from stardom. (Yes, believe it or not, America, there are social classes in the United States.) Simply believing you'll be wealthy (delusion) will not make you wealthy, no matter how many times Oprah or Lady Gaga tells you otherwise. I can keep strutting my little ass around the streets of Columbus, but I am not gonna be picked up by a modeling agency and catapulted into success, now am I?

Any thoughts, my precious (few) readers?

Regarding my decision to go to graduate school at OSU as opposed to Columbia

It has been a long long time since I last blogged. I was distracted by another blog (sorry for this infidelity, my dear Painting) and an issue of grave importance. All of my work at applying to graduate school culminated in my being accepted to Columbia's MA program in Sociology. A dream come true no? Casey and I had been struggling with the idea of staying in Columbus for two more years, and we both wanted to move to NYC.

Well no actually. Below is the email I received from Columbia in regards to admittance. Note that I only received this email of admittance after having emailed the school in the middle of April to get the status of my application. In other words, they had simply forgotten to notify me.

Dear Mr. Adams,

I am sorry that you have not received notification of your admission status... The faculty admissions committee in Sociology, unfortunately, was unable to offer you admission to the PhD program. However, you and a select few other applicants were offered admission to the Master of Arts degree program. The department could enroll only 7 new PhD students this year and thus many fine applicants could not be offered admission to the PhD. And this year, because of the financial situation, we has to cut back the number of offers of admission. But since your application showed promise, the faculty offered admission to the MA program.

Great, I thought! I cannot tell you the sheer joy I experienced upon receiving this email. This was it. It was perfect. I was going to Columbia, an Ivy League school. No one could refuse me admittance into a PhD program with the brandname of Columbia on my CV. And Casey and I would move and all would be glorious.

Then, reality sunk in. First, the program I was admitted to was the free standing masters program, and it was designed for business people (gag) and public policy makers. Why was I admitted to this program in the first place? I have absolutely no experience whatsoever in anything practical or applied. I only know theory.

Further, the program was unfunded. The tuition for the one year was lower than expected... only $17K, which I feel is a manageable and even reasonable amount of debt for a masters degree. However, combined with the exorbitant cost of living in NYC and the fact that I later discovered that my bf would not be able to move with me right away, so I would have to find roommates or pay for a closet on my own, makes this choice less glamorous. In fact, I might be committing financial suicide by going there.

The job situation is tenuous enough right now. To move to NY without any prospect for a job is frankly foolish for me. And even if I were to get a job or two, (which I would have to do!!) most of my time then would be spent on making money to keep afloat in the city, not on graduate work, which should be my number 1 focus right now. All of these difficulties are exacerbated by the fact that the Columbia program is one year... simply not enough time to produce a glorious, publishable thesis that could guarantee admittance into a FUNDED PhD program.

Then there is good old OSU. I received their admittance letter the day I returned from Africa. OSU is relatively cheap, Columbus is so so so cheap, and the geography program here is top 5 in the nation. Also, the MA here is research and theory oriented, so I don't have to worry about all that practical applicaiton bs. I'll have two comfortable years in which I can apply to PhD programs and produce a kick ass thesis. Also, I was recently rehired by WOSU to answer phones and do research for Open Line. This is such a great job!! :) I get paid next to nothing, but it is 20 hours a week, M-F (so weekends off.. yay to cheap beer at Bodega happy hour) and I love it. What more can you ask for honey?? (As my gma would say.)

I still get sick to my stomach when I think about throwing away the opportunity at Columbia. Was this my chance to make the transition to New York and get my foot in the door of a top ranked school/program? Maybe. Am I throwing it away? I look at it as putting into a treasure chest and locking it up for a couple of years, and then getting it out and seizing the opportunity when I have funding and can actually afford NYC (and by afford, I still mean struggle to survive on a stipend of 23k when at least half of it will go to rent.)

And I am in such a zen place right now. I am happy here in Columbus. I have a lovely apartment, I can comfotably afford to splurge every now and then. And I have my bf as a partner crime. I think this is a much more conducive environment to academic/intellectual stimulation than waiting tables 12 hours a day to just make rent.

So there's my explanation and justification for not accepting Columbia's offer. You may call me a fool. Maybe even complacent (please don't call me that, it's my biggest fear in the world.) But in the end, Columbus and OSU just feel right right now.

"When you get the blanket thing, you can relax, because everything you could ever want or be, you already have and are." - Bernard Jaffe, I Heart Huckabees

Happy Earth Day... brought to you by Wal Mart!!

I was enjoying a lovely pb&j for breakfast and watching Daytime Columbus when an "environmentalist" came on to tell me about ways I can make a difference without causing any inconvenience for myself. His prescription: buy buy buy!! You can buy these awesome organic t-shirts... after you wear them, you'll need to wash them, so buy Tide's new cold water detergent so you don't waste energy using warm water. And to hang them up, buy these recycled hangers...

It's great that he is encouraging everyone to use cold water, but why should we buy a specific brand of detergent? You can just as well wash your clothes in cold water with any detergent that you can buy anywhere. But can you get the items he is advertising just anywhere? Nope.

Where is all this great stuff available? Wal Mart!! Where else? The fact that an environmentalist is encouraging me to buy stuff in order to save the environment is dubious because as we all know, buying means that we waste tons of energy. But the fact that this guy is touting Wal Mart as an environmentally friendly company is outrageous.

So I researched this "environmentalist" named Bob Lilienfeld only to find that he is as much an environmentalist as George Bush was an honest man. Robert M. Lilienfeld is President of The Cygnus Group, where he " has 30 years of marketing, strategic planning, public relations and advertising experience in both the consumer and business-to-business fields." This is completely fucked up.

That he is duping everyone into spending their way out of global warming makes sense knowing that he is a business man, not a genuine environmentalist. It also shows that corporate America will stop at nothing to keep consumers spending, no matter how dire the economic or environmental situation becomes. How irresponsible of all the news channel to affirm this man's lies... but I guess everything is just goddamn peachy so long as you shop at Wal Mart.

On Making Over the Blog: From Notebook to City Painting

It was time. The blog had been bland and theme-less for long enough... I mean, TYLER'S NOTEBOOK??? Come on! It was time to make the blog fabulous - give it some color and some direction!

And so here it is. Painting the City Red. The title captures my primary interests in a neat old-fashioned expression. Significance? First of all, every queer dreams of himself as a star. When I go out, the city turns red. Beyond that superficiality, I often write about cities and my prerogative is one of progressive/socialist (communist=red) politics... what better way to combine the two? That it also touches on OSU colors is not intentional, and frankly if there were a way to associate cities and socialism in such a catchy phrase without invoking that color, believe me I would. Alas, there isn't. Consider it a tribute to the city of Columbus (but not its famed sports team.)

A Floridian Vacation

Casey and I returned from a lovely trip to Florida to visit his parents. Going to Florida is always pleasant, but it often leaves a bitter taste behind. I've figured out why that is. I have identified the three features that contribute to the quintessential Floridian vacation.

1.) The first is the pleasant weather - plenty of sun, warm temperatures, and beaches!! The climate and geography of Florida makes us all want to be nude, or close to it. What else would possess or excuse a 70 year old man in a speedo to frolic on the beach with his granddaughter?

It is sexy to be on the beach bathing in sunlight and the waves of the ocean, being immersed in nature, and feeling largely unrestrained except for a thin layer of bathing suit that separates your most prized body parts from the outside world.

The climate makes us happy and allows us to overlook the two other not-so-peachy features of the quintessential Floridian vacation....

2.) The first bitterness we overlook until after we leave is the indigenous people of Florida. That is, all of the rednecks and white trash that inhabit that peninsular paradise. Yes, Florida is the haven of the wife beater wearing, Key Stone Light drinking, ignorant gay bashing redneck.

Last year when we were visiting, I was rocking my favorite bathing suit, a khaki green boy short. Case and I were walking toward the beach when a mother, who was accompanying her two young daughters mind you, yelled "FAGS!" at Casey and I!!! As if she were not a bad enough example for her daughters, she had a Marborlo sticking out of her mouth, and her skin was the color of an orange that I had consumed earlier that day. EW!

It's a problem especially for gay people because I don't feel safe going out unless it is a gay club or I am in a big city like Miami. It's hard to feel comfortable in my own skin there, and there is little worse than that feeling.

If that demographic didn't make me worry for the welfare of the State of Florida, the vast numbers of old crusty retirees that flock there to live permanently or for the Winter are largely tasteless and spend their money on all the most gaudy gold jewelry (men and women alike). Further, Mom jeans are simply unacceptable, yet even the wealthier residents of Florida have somehow managed to get their hands on them. UNACCEPTABLE!! If you have the money, you had better be stylish... it's insulting and offensive otherwise. Insulting because I have very little money and I manage to make myself fabulous; offensive because it is painful for the eyes.

Another example of this tastelessness is the Floridian concept of dressing up. To dress up, wear khaki fabric in some form and a polo... it's as simple as that! The khaki can be shorts, trousers, or skirt (as long as it is covers the ankles.) Your shoes cannot be anything other than flip flops or sandals, although bare feet seem to be appropriate for any social situation as well. Can any culture that lends itself to such trash get any worse? Yes it can...

3.) Perhaps the worst feature of the Floridian vacation and the Floridian lifestyle in general is its lack of environmental concern. Living or visiting Florida is unsustainable... there is sprawl up the ass, people water their lawns and fill their swimming pools (and even the poorest redneck owns a pool in Florida) despite a fresh water supply shortage, and how does one survive the hot Floridian sun? AIR CONDITIONING. All of this leads to a barren cultural wasteland that is consuming resources that it simply doesn't have. So with all of the money that tourism and old people bring with them, the State imports water and all of the other resources of which it can't produce enough. And the cycle of degradation continues.

Wow. I just bitched a great deal about a place where I always have a great time. Casey's parents show us a great time, and they are wonderful people. But Florida does have some serious issues it should address to become an ecofriendly place. And it already has a headstart with its lovely climate :)

Stuff I looked at/ate today

Read:
An Anthropological History of Drums in the Americas
A Natural History of Latin
Nietzsche in 90 minutes
Deer Hunting with Jesus

Ate:
oatmeal with blueberries, agave-maple syrup blend
glass of milk (WHOLE, not skim)
chocolate filled milanos
cream cheese covered whole wheat bagel
spinach salad w/ cranberries, goat cheese, and vinaigrette
more milanos
two slices of bread w/ butter
starbucks tall coffee (thanks daddy!)
and on my way to eat a chipotle veggie burrito!

**DISCLAIMER**
I am extremely bored, which is why I am telling you everything I put in my mouth and head today.

I also browsed an ungodly number of websites, including the table of condiments periodically expire. I contemplated many different haircuts that might look good on me, as well. Yes a productive day it has indeed been! And I can't forget the hours of NPR I listened to...

Gray Skies

I am feeling very blah today.

Blah indeed.

I have no job. I have gotten the first in what is likely to be a chain of rejection letters from grad schools. Proof that a ticket into elite financial security is not as easy as spending countless hours and $100 each on grad school applications.

To boot, I cannot find a professor who is willing to take on my research project that would be my senior thesis. Namely, I want to study gay space in the context of Kampala, Uganda. But the most explicative response I got was that such a project requires a strong background in sexuality studies, which I don't have. So there is not enough time to do justice to such a project apparently. Oh well... perhaps a project for graduate school...

The icing on the cake is finding casey's and my bike in the basement commons of my apartment building with the lock forcibly removed by pliers... Maintenance was painting and the bikes were in at the end of the hallway. Instead of sending an email to us to remove the bikes, they just cut the locks off. That's $40 down the drain. Thanks David Day.

I am not too entirely downtrodden. I did get into OSU's geography program. I don't know what kind of stipend I'll be getting, if any at all, but at least there is some peace of mind in that knowledge. Also, not working is kind of nice. I like waking up and not having anything to do but surf the internet ceaselessly.

Unfortunately, I can't afford to not have a job. Not that job searching would be fruitful in anyway given the increasingly piss poor shape of the economy. Oh well, I am going to Florida next week to bask in the sun on a lovely beach far away from the cold. I can at least be thankful that I will have spent 7 of the 12 coldest Ohio weeks in the warmth of equatorial Africa/Florida. On that note, I am off to pack my sunscreen and towel. Yes you have permission to hate me.

Neotraditional Kinship Structure: Making NYC Affordable

I was washing myself in the shower this morning when I finally discovered a way to reconcile my immense love for NYC and my belief in frugality and living within one's means. Living with other people!!

It's quite obvious, isn't it? If the average cost of a studio apartment is $2500 per month, then you can just split it among four or five people to be able to afford it. Of course, then no one has much space, and you'll always be up in everyone else's grill. And this has always been a major turn off to me, especially since I've been with my boyfriend, because who wants to share such a small space with others? It's annoying and uncomfortable.

I do appreciate the values of the Bohemian lifestyle, of living simply and small, but in New York, unless you make more than 100k per year, you really are POOR. But the great thing about living with other people in a small space is that it replaces, in some small way, the vast kinship structures that humans have been accustomed to living in for thousands of years. This is what dawned on me this morning in my rushed shower.

Granted, you must become close to your roommates. They can not be anonymous people who simply come and go from a common dwelling. They have to be or become people you care about, and who take care of each other. Sort of like Friends, but less romantic and more poverty stricken. That way, if you lose your job at the local coffee shop, they can pay for rent themselves until you are able to repay them, with the understanding that you would do the same for them. Not only would this neotraditional kinship structure provide you with a financial safety net in these hard economic times, but it would also provide you with a handful of close fulfilling relationships that could be had in no other circumstances.

It is with this justification that I plan to move to New York, especially if I get into NYU or Columbia. I may look back ten years from now, and realize how wrong I was to be so naive and believe that big city anonymity and hardship could be overcome in such a simple way. But at least I will have tried... and it's much easier when you give yourself an ideological foundation on which to move.

Or if your rich, you can just buy this $50 million loft with a breathtaking view of Central Park... bastards!

Detroit v. New York

Like everyone else, I was royally pissed to hear about the Big Three Execs flying to DC on private jets to beg for money for their failing companies. I am personally vested in GM because my mother, Mama T, works for the company as a laborer. Seeing these rich ass holes flaunting their wealth just proved to me the disgusting degree of the disconnect between the welfare of a company and that of the capitalists who own and run it. It almost seems as though they don't give a shit if their companies fail, because they will still be walking away with hundreds of millions in severance pay.

My mom has seen drastic cuts in insurance coverage, and her pension is now largely her own responsibility (without contribution from the company.) For instance, as a family (of two kids under 6, herself, and me) we are allowed three doctor appointments per year. I went to the doctor recently, thinking that it would be covered by insurance, and later received a bill for $150. The prescription I had was not covered either, and I had to pay $40 per refill.

Thus it feels criminal that GM CEO is enjoying unprecedented (in GM's history) compensation. Shouldn't he be taking cuts like our family has? No one would question his or his family's right to unlimited access to medical care. Hell, no one would question his right to at least five luxury homes, located across the globe in the most beautiful locales. I guess it's too much to ask for him to cut back, sell a couple of those mansions, for the sake of the whole. Instead, the poor folk that break their backs day after day will have to internalize the costs.

That being said, I was listening to NPR today when a story compared this scenario to that of the financial institutions. The reporter pointed out that the latter, New York companies, didn't have to do much work to receive bailout packages. Indeed, they were throwing lavish parties the day after with government monies. The Detroit companies are asking for fractions of the amount received by the New York companies, but the government has been reluctant to grant these funds. While it was outrageous that the CEOs flew in on private jets, and that they were unprepared for the meeting in Congress, why isn't the government rushing to their aid, as it did for the New York financial companies?

It should be said that the financial companies play a perhaps more important role in the functioning of the economy, by providing credit for other sectors. But can we really afford to let the Big Three go broke, especially when we consider the extent to which the Midwest relies on them for employment directly and via complimentary companies? I don't know what the solution is, but I am telling Mama T to start looking for some other employment options, because I definitely don't have room for everyone here in my little Columbus apartment :)