I think it was Goethe who said: "He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds trust in his hairstylist".
Wait, there's no such quote? Damn. That would have made such a great opener. All right, let's start all over again.
New England 1, Midwest 0. In the ongoing battle for cultural superiority, that is the latest score.
The reason, of course, is "The Artistic Edge" hair salon's recent relocation from Chicagoland, Illinois to Framingham, Massachusetts (79 Main St, Suite 103).
An exquisite skill with the blade
It has been my pleasure—and that of the entire Brumpelstiltskin blogging troupe—to be a confident client of The Artistic Edge for seven gloriously stylish years. Never had MC Gallagher let someone trim his unibrow, nor Greenspanke his neck hair, until we met Jen, the salon's founder and ace stylist, whose skill with the blade makes Sweeney Todd look like the Dabbling Barber of Geek Street.
Those who knew her as a young prodigy agreed that Jen was born to do hair—that it was in her blood—and many questioned if formal training would even be necessary. But the finest education she would receive: first under the tutelage of her grandma (herself an accomplished hair stylist); and later through the 1500-hour program of world-renowned cosmetology academy, Pivot Point International. Thus equipped with a first-rate fusion of nature and nurture, Jen graduated from Pivot Point in 2001. Soon after, the Artistic Edge was born.
While the salon offers a range of advanced services (e.g., color, highlights, lowlights), personally I’ve always received the traditional men’s cut. That said, there’s nothing traditional about Jen’s approach even to this basic service, which creatively combines a firm grasp of current popular trends with an instinctive awareness of individual wants and needs. Click here for an exclusive Mic’s Tape-sponsored coupon offering first-time clients a 20% discount off any of Jen’s services—which also include updo’s for special occasions (sample updo, above right).
Chairside manner par excellence
But besides being a master of her craft, Jen’s personality and demeanor—not to mention the salon itself (pictured above and below)—place The Artistic Edge among the most comfortable and inviting of salon atmospheres. Indeed, she’s the kind of stylist you suspect could have won the friendliest superlative in her high school yearbook.
I did not fully appreciate this latter point until Jen’s relocation left me in need of a replacement, and forced me down the street to the neighborhood Cost Cutters. "God, how many cowlicks do you have?" the stylist inquired as I sat down, thus launching a steady barrage of insults and barbs far sharper than the shears she would use to massacre my once-magnificent mane. “Do you even use conditioner?” she continued, a look of disgust on her face, before exclaiming: "Ugh, your hair is getting all over me"!
The contrast could not have been more profound. Like Shakespeare's Lear, cast overnight from kingly castle to forbidding tempest, I entered Cost Cutters expecting the royal treatment, but left feeling (and looking) like a Pumpkin Pie Haircutted Fool.
In the wake of such experience, it is with great zeal that I call upon New Englanders everywhere to capitalize on the glamorous gift that has landed in your midst. Trust one who knows: a salon combining a time-tested, hair-designing prowess with client-focused personality is a rare commodity to be cherished. So get thee with haste to The Artistic Edge, my friends, for a planeload of chic-deprived Midwesterners will be right behind you!
Mike-Michael (pictured left, before his first visit to The Artistic Edge) will look like this once more if he doesn't book himself a ticket to Boston ASAP.
When asked if I'm on Facebook, my standard response of "No, but I am on Rate Your Music" is usually met by a blank stare that seems to say this.
So, what is Rate Your Music (RYM)? To put it verbosely, it's a delightfully handy online wonderland of user-driven musical minutiae in which ratings yield recommendations, like-minded pop/rock/soul mates are unearthed, and “critics” (i.e., paid music nerds) take a backseat to "normal people” (i.e., unpaid music nerds) like me (visit my profile here).
Or, to put it simply, it’s a great way to discover new music. Here’s how:
First, if you invest a little time and “catalog” (aka make a list of) and rate (on a scale of 0.5-5.0 stars) your music collection, RYM will (much like Netflix’ website) generate custom recommendations based on your input. It will also create a “compatibility list” of other RYM users whose tastes most closely resemble your own, and then allow you to peruse their collections. More recently, they’ve implemented a “predicted rating” feature which “represents how strongly RYM thinks you will like” any given album. Using this tool, I can tell, for example, that I should heed a friend's recent advice that I check out Ágætis Byrjun by Sigur Rós (predicted rating: 4.46).
Second, it’s also interesting—and this doesn’t require making any ratings—to simply look and see what “average” people think is best. For instance, this list of the RYM users' top albums of all-time has led me to many a gem (such as Odessey & Oracle by The Zombies). This can also prove useful in deciding where to begin with a certain band (like when a glance at The Cure's discography led me to start with Disintegration). And then there are the inevitable surprises, like when I learned that—shockingly—the top-rated single of 1985 is not Eddie Murphy's immortal classic, "Party All The Time" (video here).
It once seemed inevitable that the dominant sports story for Spring 2008 would be the May 12 return of American Gladiators. That was the way it was supposed to go down, anyway.
But as the last few weeks have shown, life is full of surprises. Just ask Ronaldo.
Ronaldo, age 31, is a Brazilian football (aka soccer) superstar, a three-time former World Player of the Year (1996, 1997, 2002), and the most prolific goalscorer in FIFA World Cup history. However, it's an off-the-field "hat trick" that's earned him headlines as of late. Cue the video:
Our non-Portuguese-speaking readers may be a bit confused by this clip, but perhaps caught the words "prostituta" and "travesti"? These words were used because on April 28, Ronaldo (to quote the BBC's Jane Hadden): "left a nightclub with what he thought were three female prostitutes and took them to a motel. It was only after he got there that he discovered the women were actually men".
Ohh...
For the full details (including an excellent video clip in English), I'd recommend this story by BBC News.
To put it briefly, though, once Ronaldo realized there were "too many balls on the field", he promptly signaled his disinterest and offered the prostitutes $600 for their time. While two accepted, the third, Albertino, threatened to leak the incident to the Internet unless Ronaldo paid him $30,000.
In response, Ronaldo went to the Rio police and fessed up, and now Albertino is being investigated for attempted extortion. In his testimony to police, Ronaldo said: "I'm not going to pay [this money]. I may be publicly condemned, but I did nothing wrong".
While Ronaldo is indeed blameless from a legal standpoint (prostitution is not against the law in Brazil), many still question whether he, in fact, "did nothing wrong". Nonetheless, it's strangely refreshing to see a superstar athlete just come clean for once. In the era of Steroids and Co., it's hard to imagine many US athletes following suit.
In the wake of last night's Indiana and North Carolina Democratic primaries—the latter won decisively by Barack Obama—a slew of leading political pundits (led by NBC's Tim Russert) have declared the race all but over.
They point to the popular vote. They point to states won. They point to funds raised, and pledged delegates, and superdelegates. But for all their pointing, the pundits have missed the point.
Namely, the factors they mention—"the math"—mean nothing. No, all that matters is which campaign, Clinton's or Obama's, has what it takes to go "coast to coast". With the game on the line, which candidate has the skills to grab the proverbial defensive board and take that mofo the length of the court for a "game-changing" (nay, game-winning) slam dunk?
In other words, it all boils down to who can win Kentucky. That's right, KY. Cue the map:
As you can see, each candidate is but one state away from an electoral Connect Four (i.e., winning contiguous states from the Atlantic to the Pacific). In their respective quests, Clinton (dark blue) need only bridge Indiana and Tennessee while Obama must fuse Virginia and Illinois. For each, Kentucky is the coveted tie that binds.
Note, too, how crucial Oklahoma turned out to be. Thanks to the clearly biased cartographer's decision to assign Obama the northern half of Texas, this whole issue would already be decided if Clinton hadn't "panhandled" Obama (55% to 31%) in the Feb 5 Oklahoma primary—a victory historians have already dubbed the "Barack Block".
But again, it is the May 20th Kentucky contest that should ultimately decide this thing once and for all. For afterwards, in his or her victory speech, the winner will finally be able to claim:
East coast? West coast? It don't matta. Come November I'll get you to the White House lickity split. No sh*t!!
A lot of people say Mic's Tape will never offset the carbon emissions it creates (by virtue of the sheer number of energy-wasting computers our fan base has to use in order to access us). One critic even told us to go piss up a flagpole (as opposed to our current policy?).
In response, we wish to underscore our environmental commitment by promoting a few websites—here, here and here—that offer everyday tips on how we as individuals can collectively fight global warming.
A few of the suggestions we'd heard before, such as replacing traditional incandescent light bulbs with more cost- and energy-effective compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs); and using public transportation or carpooling (instead of driving alone).
But most of these tips presented new, previously unconsidered challenges; of these, we've recently begun to practice: (a) letting hot leftovers cool before putting them into the fridge; (b) using reusable containers for drinking water (instead of disposable plastic); (c) unplugging electronics, such as cell phone charges, when not in use; and (d) bagging groceries with cloth bags such as these instead of paper or plastic.
Please take a look at these suggestions, and challenge yourself to put at least one into practice. Also, feel free to share any other tips that you feel are especially important.
New England 1, Midwest 0. In the ongoing battle for cultural superiority, that is the latest score.
While the salon offers a range of advanced services (e.g., color, highlights, lowlights), personally I’ve always received the traditional men’s cut. That said, there’s nothing traditional about Jen’s approach even to this basic service, which creatively combines a firm grasp of current popular trends with an instinctive awareness of individual wants and needs. Click here for an exclusive Mic’s Tape-sponsored coupon offering first-time clients a 20% discount off any of Jen’s services—which also include updo’s for special occasions (sample updo, above right).
I did not fully appreciate this latter point until Jen’s relocation left me in need of a replacement, and forced me down the street to the neighborhood Cost Cutters. "God, how many cowlicks do you have?" the stylist inquired as I sat down, thus launching a steady barrage of insults and barbs far sharper than the shears she would use to massacre my once-magnificent mane. “Do you even use conditioner?” she continued, a look of disgust on her face, before exclaiming: "Ugh, your hair is getting all over me"!
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