consuming consumptual consumption.
at work today… i mean, since i work for a fashion website… we were talking about this blog, things i’ve bought that i love, which is — i guess — run by the indian chick on “the office.” it’s amusingly written and well-written, and definitely highlights some interesting products. i read through a bunch of posts, no fucking problem.
but then, after stepping back and studying the whole premise of the blog, which is consumption, i cannot help to be a little bit disgusted.
as a chick, i guess it’s a constant battle to try and fight off that ridiculous desire to buy things (some dudes also have this problem, but it is more prevalent in women, i’d say). but… i don’t know? i feel like it’s a desire that SHOULD be fought off.
we had a 20 person beta test a month ago or something, and we put up a survey for those 20 people to tell us what they thought about the site. well, only 7 (or maybe 
took the time to respond. and when asked how much money they spent last year on clothing, there were acceptable answers like, “IDK!!” and “$350″… there were also two that said, “$5,000 - $7,000″ and “$7,000″.
i mean, holy shit!!!!!!!!!! THAT’S SO MUCH MONEY. all in the name of looking good? and for what? and for whom?
i mean, i can’t go as far as saying i don’t care how i look. and perhaps i have it lucky because things i like to buy, clothing-wise, are cheaper… and other things i like to buy are at least useful (ie: films, art supplies, etc.) luckily, i don’t need to buy music anymore (or rarely, i should say) because i get so much of it for free.
nonetheless i feel bad even when i see how many books and art supplies i DO have. it’s hard to buy that stuff and not feel guilty about it. but running a blog dedicated to consumption and consumerism? i don’t know. it just feels so………… ethnocentric. i mean people are dealing around the world with starvation and eating mud cakes and shit and here in america we are buying up storms of shit we don’t need. sigh.
in similar news, people in the indie magazine world are scrambling. evidently magazines stocked at border’s get like a 60% sell-through rate whereas those at barnes n noble are more like 40%. yet, crisis looms on the book consumption front. click here to see more!!!
there’s a good chance border’s will be purchased by barnes n noble and as a result, even more conglomeration. in the day to day, people don’t see how big of a problem all this is. but it’s a huge fucking problem. not cool.
oh and this past weekend rachel, castro, and i were supposed to go to the georgetown art attack. rachel got dropped off at work by castro because the dalai lama was in town and there was nowhere for her to park. he was going to pick her up and was speeding on the way to pick her up. got pulled over. went to jail for not having a license. got fined for having weed on him (for us). owned. :X