Do the Right Thing

Woman 7/2/09

Sometimes the world sends you a signal that says, “Hey! You! Yeah, you! Pay attention for there is much that you don’t know and paths will cross.”

And it was this morning where that sign appeared though it was little more than a wink and a wry smile.

In case some have missed it, and most have. It was the 20th anniversary of the release of the seminal Spike Lee movie, “Do the Right Thing”. 20 years ago when Public Enemy seared through the ears of the wayward youth, Rosie Perez turned boys into men and Ghetto-blaster entered the nation’s vocabulary. So, this very morning, if this wasn’t a sign, then perhaps it was just coincidence.

Have you ever seen a tote bag that resembled the large Ghetto-blaster that Radio Raheem was carrying around the entire movie? This one was black and on the front was a print of a very large, loud and colorful stereo or Ghetto-blaster. It was an exact reproduction on canvas from the knobs and switches right down to the red, yellow and green colors on the equalizer. Of course this being 1989, there was no CD player, just one large mouth of a cassette tape, plus two large speakers that anchored each side. And funny enough, the side panels of this tote bag had AV input and outputs in the standard red and yellow.

So, what sort of person carries this tote bag?

She, yes a she. I’d say mid-thirties to early forties if I had to guess. Her hair was short, curly and purple. Yes, purple. But the dye job might have gone a little awry as the hair was black in the lower back portion of her head. Or perhaps she had only wanted a crown of purple and liked the black below her eyeline.

Black was the predominant color of choice for her. A black sleeveless tank top – cotton crewneck. A black knit skirt that ended at the knee with a slight flare. Not chunky but honestly looked homemade. And the shoes? Black. Black Converse Chuck Taylor lowcuts. No socks though, this was summer after all.

For all the juxtaposition of her old school radio tote bag. She was actually wearing these black wireless headphones. The oval panel connecting each ear bud was had a Motorola logo which was lit up in blue to signal the use of Bluetooth. And when she pulled out her iPod Touch, you could see the adaptor plugged into the player.

In Rainbows

Woman 2/26/09

I’ve barely been at this blog thing for 4 months, and I think I’m getting soft. Either that or I’m seeing beauty in a whole new different way. Seriously. What people mock or find weird, I’m starting to like. It’s really the ones who follow the rules or try to hard to be someone else that I find out-of-place.

This girl is really on the fringes of what most would consider odd dressing. Only for me, it totally made sense.

Where do I start? How about the smallest item? She had on this broach. A spider shaped broach with gold plated spine, limbs and feelers, and a red ruby-esque stone where the body should be. Maybe it was a beetle, and not a spider. Pinned to the right lapel of her brown double-breasted winter coat.

The rest of her was color. The shoes were a pair of Diesel sneakers that were a light blue, with fuschia accents and yellow laces. Her glasses were these oval-ish frames that were multi-color; like a kaleidoscope or patchwork of mis-matched squares. Her gloves were black and pink striped, and fingerless. On her neck was a mutli-color scarf – reminded me of something Kanye West might sport. She must be a Yeezy fan.

There were a couple things I didn’t quite get though. She was wearing these purple sweatpants, which looked a bit loose on her. I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt, but the color was definitely her style. And sticking out from her coat sleeves were the sleeves of this mini-polka dot pattern – black and white. Not sure if that was a sweater but the color totally threw me off. The chocolate winter brown coat is fine, but black and white seems a bit too stark for her. Maybe there was a more interesting pattern beyond the sleeves?

In truth, the entire outfit really only worked for me because of her hair. It was this fierce 60’s style pouf that was equal part The Supremes and Kelis. Seriously, this girl knew that she was rocking something totally different and it was part of her identity. She dressed like she had a point-of-view.

Even her iPod was attached to these magenta-cabled earphones. These wires lead to a pair of over-ear headphones that were a slight metallic blue. You can’t tell me that was a coincidence.

I wonder what she was listening to?