Are you a Serial Dater?

In my post It’s rating men, I promised a description of all those “mankind”… Ladies, feel free to add your comments, gentlemen, feel free to spice-up the debate. Debate is good!

Rating 3 on Little Audrey’s “scale”: the Serial Dater!

A man who claims giving women their chances. A lot of them. Women and chances.

Where to find him: The Serial Dater is a very common specie in the United States. Less common in Europe where serial dating is considered cheating.

How to spot him: He’s hard to spot because he’s blending pretty well in the general male population. You can spot him in his favorite restaurant, several time a week with a different date each time, or hiding at a barbecue because two of his dates happen to be on the guest list.

How to seduce him: Tell him that you’re taking a break from relationships and just want to take things one day at a time.

What’s the catch: After going out with him several times, seeing him fairly regularly and feeling that things are developing into something good, the Serial Dater might surprise you by mentioning that he’s dating other women. He doesn’t see anything wrong with that because he never made any promises and never said that he was looking to settle down.

Something a Serial Dater would say: “You know that I’m seeing other people, right?”

Are you a Player?

In my post It’s rating men, I promised a description of all those “mankind”… Ladies, feel free to add your comments, gentlemen, feel free to spice-up the debate. Debate is good!

Rating 2 on Little Audrey’s “scale”: the Player!

A man who thinks he can have all the women he wants and is on a mission to prove it.

Where to find him: The Player navigates in different seas, but you’ll always find him in crowded places, where the choice of women is the widest: trendy bars on weekends, down the shore during the summer, or in a sports-bar during football / base-ball season.

How to spot him: He generally operates alone, sometime with a wing-man, rarely with a girl on his side. He takes care of himself, is often attractive and knows it. If he’s not trying to close a deal yet, he’s nonchalantly sitting at the bar and his eyes wander around.

How to seduce him: He’s probably the most easily seducable of the men out there. The Player LOVES women in general, especially when they show him some interest. A pretty smile and a cute dress, the job is done!

What’s the catch: Women for the Player are not about quality but about quantity. He often feels that the grass might be greener somewhere else and he won’t know if he doesn’t try. His little seduction game can be a way of dealing with a perpetual insatisfaction or simply an addiction to the ego boost he gets every time a girl surrenders to his charms. Don’t expect him to be available for you when you need him to, his busy dating agenda might get in the way!

Something a Player would never say: “Sorry, I don’t have a condom…” (or at least we hope so!)

Are you a DoucheBag?

In my post It’s rating men, I promised a description of all those “mankind”… Ladies, feel free to add your comments, gentlemen, feel free to spice-up the debate. Debate is good!

Rating 1 (the lowest score) on Little Audrey’s “scale”: the DoucheBag!

A man who thinks he has it all, which he generally limits to money, fame & looks.

Where to find him: Expensive gyms, expensive restaurants, expensive & selective clubs, and celeb cocktail parties.

How to spot him: He generally wears designer clothes, and is followed by his entourage (other DoucheBags and a horde of low-self-esteem girls). He also make sure photographers are following his every moves.

How to seduce him: Lose 20-pounds, get a boob-job, wear a stripper’s costume. Tell him you saw his picture on XYZ Magazine and you want his autograph.

What’s the catch: The DoucheBag is considering women as pretty objects to be photographed with, or names to be associated with. He only cares about himself and his career/status/fame. He rejects everything that he doesn’t consider worth his attention because not sexy enough or not famous enough.

Something a DoucheBag would say: “This girl is worth taking home when drinking, but not dating.”

It’s rating men!

Is that really all that matters?

It was recently brought to my attention that someone in this city is playing the game of rating women. From what I understand, a 10 would be Monica Belluci and a 0 would be Susan Boyle… if you see what I mean. This made me think how women would probably rate men in a totally different manner and I thought the exercise could be fun.

1. The douche-bag (i.e. whoever thinks women should be rated)
2. The player
3. The serial-dater
4. The sport fan
5. The commitment-phobe
6. The workaholic
7. The sugar daddy
8. The starving artist
9. The “good on paper”
10. The one that’s right for you

That would be my order, I’m sure other women would have a different one. I’m actually curious to hear your feedback! As far as definition for each of those categories, that’s material for future posts, stay tuned!

Ugly sign of times…

Times are changing, the way people seek for information is changing and with it the face of the news industry. On June 1, one of Philadelphia’s daily newspaper, The Bulletin, folded.

As mentioned in Robert Moran’s article on Philly.com, The Bulletin “catered to conservative readers”, which would not necessarily match my personal views, nevertheless, The Bulletin offered me, a few month ago, an opportunity to live a childhood dream and write movie critics for their Culture section, and for that, I will always be thankful.

My editor and friend, Lindsay Warner, shared an insider vision in her blog: “Although no one could pretend to be surprised — late checks, unpaid freelancers, minimal advertising and visits from the PNC finance manager portended the eventual closing — the news still came as a shock.”

The face of journalism is changing forever. And even if I’m the first one to root for web-based information: more reactive, allowing multiple point-of-views and conversations on news subjects, I’m still sad to see newspapers slowly disappear. It’s a page of history that is not easy to turn.

Wheels of life

Ray & Melinda

When I started dancing many many years ago, I found a joy that I never experienced before. Dancing helped be through the toughest times and several times gave me a purpose when everythings else in my life was going down. I often wondered what I would do if something happened and I ended-up in a wheelchair. What would life be without dancing.

Meeting Ray Leigh and Melinda Kremer, from American Dance Wheels, not only answered that question: I would keep on dancing; but also shed a new light on the purpose behind the dance. It made me realize that in the most dramatic situations, dancing can be a reason to keep on going.

Through my work at Society Hill Dance Academy, I had the opportunity to get trained in wheelchair dancing, both as an able-bodied and an ambulatory-disabled dancer. It’s been one of the most enlightening experience and I can’t wait to help bring more people on the dance-floor both on their feet or on their wheels.

American Dance Wheels is “the home of the first American style wheelchair ballroom and Latin dance program in the world”, and I’m a firm supporter of that cause. SHDA is hosting a benefit event for the association on June 13, stay tuned for more information.

Call me Simon!

Simon Cowell

I recently joined the Advisory Board for the organization and the promotion of Philadelphia Fashion Week (October 2009, more info to come). When my friend Kristie offered me to help with marketing directions, I jumped on the opportunity.

My first assignment was to attend the presentation of branding proposals from “Fashion Marketing” students from the Art Institute. Students from two classes were invited to participate and submit design proposals for a logo. Kristie, Michael, Charlie & I were there as the client. We looked like the jury from American Idol, and of course, I took Simon Cowell’s role: the bad guy. Even the professor called me the “acid test”.

Not that I particularly enjoy giving constructive critics, but it seemed important to me that those students got out of this experience a feeling of what business life is like. They were asked to design logos. 90% of what was presented were great concepts, but not “logos”. Isn’t it important that they understand what a brand identity is? What constitute a good one? And most of all, isn’t it important that they understand that they need to answer the client’s request first? I’m all for giving more (one student did a full branding with letterhead, tickets, envelop… and received positive feedback from “the acid test”) but before going all over, the key, I believe, is to understand the client’s expectations first.

In the end, between one of the few proposed logos and one of the many proposed concepts (and with a little re-work from Mel, the web-designer, and myself) we’re heading somewhere with Philadelphia Fashion Week brand identity. Final result to be disclosed very soon, stay tuned!

The day I discovered Jasper Johns

Three Flags

The first reaction in front of a piece of art is can be very emotional: “I like!” or “Ewww… I don’t like!” Whether one of the other happens, the artist touched something inside of the viewer that created an emotion. To me, that’s what art is all about.

As I was visiting Cezanne & Beyond at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I experienced one of those rare and exhilarating “I like!” moment that only an artist can give you. Seeing his first piece, exposed in parallel of Cezanne’s work, my heart beat a little faster, and I suddenly found myself browsing through the rest of the expo, looking for more of John’s art and feeling an uncontrollable excitment every time I found one.

What is so special about this artist’s work? I can’t tell. Wikipedia classifies Jasper Johns in Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Dada, Pop-Art movements… Not anything that I usually care so much for. But if I had to reason my liking, I would probably salute the painting that goes beyond its own frame and almost crosses over to sculpting, breaking the borders between different forms of art. And the idea, illustrated in some of John’s work, that you can look at an object and see it one way, and come back later, look at it again and see it another way. Brilliant.

If I had a Gratitude Journal, on April 29, 2009, I would write: “Today, I discovered the art of Jasper Johns. And whether I understand it or not, when I look at it, it makes my heart beat and puts a smile on my face. That’s more than enough to be grateful for.”

Genesis

The blog is back, by popular demand. I am amazed and flattered to see that people are interested in what I have to say and I decided that time had come to bring my words back to life.

Because blogging is becoming more and more structured and done better and better all over the internet, I wondered for a while what my niche would be. There are a lot of excellent blogs out there about marketing, writing, dancing, designing, eating, traveling… and I didn’t want to compete with any of those; I would rather share with you the multiple stories that pop on my Google Reader every morning. So, where is my voice in this stream of information? What makes me different?

I will refer to a chapter of Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, where the author plays around with words and tries to describe a city or a person with only one word. My word is Eclectic, that’s what describes best who I am: “composed of elements drawn from various sources” (Merriam-Webster) and that’s what I want this blog to represent.

Hat tip to Joey DeMalavez, my beloved boxing teacher from Joltin Jabs, who introduced my to Little Audrey (the original one) and inspired the name of that blog. Here’s what Little Audrey was saying, about 50-years ago, to find out what I have to say, keep on reading!