Potpourri Smells

I’m not really into perfumed smells.

But I thought these bowls and batches of potpourri were pretty attractive. 

The fruits and petals mixed with spices looked good. 

I guess anything that can improve on room odors is a positive thing. 

I sort of imagine the scent of the potpourri battling the odors in the room and pushing and pulling back and forth until one smell wins out.  

Better keep that potpourri new and fresh–the nose knows. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

A Matter Of Hair

I saw these ladies crossing the street in downtown DC.

The standout here was obviously the hair!

The girl on the left had Barbie pink hair. 

The one on the right had blond dyed hair with the roots showing. 

And the lady in the middle had two-tone hair, with brown on one side and blond on the other (now that was really different). 

This reminded me of the hippies’ hairstyle in terms of the perhaps rebellious nature of the style. 

In Judaism, I remember learning that hair is like the crown on a person’s head, and for modesty, the custom is for married women to cover their beautiful hair–it is only something that gets shown/shared with her husband as part of their intimacy. 

Hair can say a lot, especially if you are fortunate enough to still have some (lol). 

It can be uncombed and messy like a mad professor’s, finely brushed and cared for like Trump’s, or even transplanted to cover the onset of unwanted bald spots.

Like a horse’s or lion’s mane, hair frame’s a person and can make the plain or even unsightly, more attractive and desirable; at the same time, if not properly cared for and groomed, it can make a person look disheveled and even crazy.

Of course, hair is just what tops off the person and is only skin deep, so looks (including hair) can be defining or oh, so deceiving.

Hair or hairless, groomed or gross–it’s a reflection and a statement of how we’re looking to each other. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

10 Keys To Influencing And Selling Anything

Brilliant video by Kendra Eash for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

It is made entirely with stock footage from Dissolve.

What is amazing is how with some great video, nice background music, and a soothing confidant voiceover–we can sell, or be sold on, just about anything.

The 10 Keys to influencing and selling anything, including B.S.:

1. Vague words that show progress (innovation, hope, motherhod, and apple pie–I’ll have some of that)
2. Beautiful footage and sounds (who wouldn’t want to be there type?)
3. High-technology and science (we can solve the world’s problems and make money, yippee)
4. Research and development (we’re investing in the future and you should invest in us)
5. Global and U.S. (we’re beyond borders, but still “made in…”, headquartered, or otherwise a U.S. entity)
6. Environmentally conscious (clean water, breathable, air, lush forests, who can argue with that?)
7. High-speed (movers and shakers, we don’t stand still, join us or be left behind)
8. Attractive people (this is for real human beings, human kind, we care about you!)
9. Diversity and equality (we love and help everyone–including you and your family)
10. Inspiring (we’re thinking big and bringing positive change–buy from us, support our cause)

Throw/superimpose any company, product, country, person, or cause on this video–and poof, you’ve got an awesome brand–whether you deserve it or not!

This is how we’re manipulated one brand at a time, hundreds of brands a day. 😉

WATERgate

These were pictures of some water sculptures that I took at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.The waterfalls remind me more of the landscaping around Floridian high-rises or the water flumes at Walt Disney parks than of what you normally see around town, here.I liked these aesthetically and think we generally need more integration of nature and art into our urban (and often sterile) environment.

A little more green, a little more clean, and a lot little less crime and congestion–and don’t forget a decent climate–those were some of the things that I look for in attractive places to live and to work.

While no place is perfect, having grown up on the upper west side in Manhattan and then Riverdale (in the Bronx) and now in the D.C. area, let’s just say that there are differences all around us. 😉

Then again, as my father always taught me, you can live anywhere–if you have your health, family, and a good job.
He’s right, a place is just a place–and it’s the people and love between them that makes it great.

So water sculptures aside, give me a real home, and that’s the best place in the world that I want to be.

(Source photos: Andy Blumenthal)